No Great Mischief

In the summer, the mining work advances rapidly. The ethnic groups retreat again to their isolated corners of the camp, and gradually, rumors begin to circle that the death of Alex’s cousin was not an accident. Clann Chalum Ruaidh grow suspicious of the French Canadians. Alex wonders what his life would have been like had he spent the summer in Halifax, where he’d been offered a research grant. He feels a certain guilt might have compelled him to help his family members after the death of his cousin. 

Between mining shifts, Alex and his brothers reminisce about their youth. They swam in the sea and drank from a freshwater pool, and they recall a time when their Grandpa ventured across the ice to bring them hay for their horses. It was during a storm, and their Grandpa, drunk on rum, sang Gaelic songs to the horses as they moved the heavy load. On the return journey, the old man falls asleep and trusts the horses to guide him home in his sleigh. He wakes to find himself still on the ice, facing dark churning water. He scrambles back to the home on the island, badly frostbitten.