human
It is hard to say good-by to all that, Father, he said.
gpt
But, if you don't mind, I'd rather not talk about it. I'm not afraid of it. And why be unhappy because one has only a little while to live? Looking back over your life, does it seem so very long ago that you were a boy, a small boy?
human
The time has gone swiftly, very swiftly.
gpt
It seems only yesterday--or so?
human
Yes, only yesterday--or so.
gpt
Well, that's the way I'm looking at it, Father. There is only a yesterday, a today, and a tomorrow in the longest of our lives. Looking back from seventy years isn't much different from looking back from thirty-six WHEN you're looking back and not ahead. Do you think what I have just said will free Sandy McTrigger?
human
There is no doubt. Your statements have been accepted as a death-bed confession.
gpt
There are matters, my son--some few matters--which you will want attended to. Shall we not talk about them?
human
You mean--
gpt
Your people, first. I remember that once you told me there was no one. But surely there is some one somewhere.
human
There is no one now. For ten years those forests out there have been father, mother, and home to me.
gpt
But there must be personal affairs, affairs which you would like to entrust, perhaps, to me?
human
It is funny, he chuckled.
gpt
Since you remind me of it, Father, it is quite in form to make my will. I've bought a few little pieces of land here. Now that the railroad has almost reached us from Edmonton, they've jumped up from the seven or eight hundred dollars I gave for them to about ten thousand. I want you to sell the lots and use the money in your work. Put as much of it on the Indians as you can. They've always been good brothers to me. And I wouldn't waste much time in getting my signature on some sort of paper to that effect.
human
God will bless you for that, Jimmy, he said, using the intimate name by which he had known him.
gpt
And I think He is going to pardon you for something else, if you have the courage to ask Him.
human
I am pardoned, replied Kent, looking out through the window.
gpt
I feel it. I know it, Father.