The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2003, Síða 34

76
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 58 #2
Wolf, and they had no sooner met, than
they fell madly in love. When Big Wolf was
ready to return home to Canada, he asked
his cousin for permission to marry Soley.
His cousin absolutely refused, citing the
reason that they were too closely related to
be able to marry. The young love-smitten
man pretended to take this as just another
misfortune which could not be prevented.
He then said farewell to his relatives and
went on his way. Soon after he had started
off, men noticed that Soley had disap-
peared, along with the best horse that her
father owned. They guessed that she had
run away with Big Wolf and intended to
marry him. Soley had two brothers who
were around thirty years old, very out-
standing men, manly and courageous. And
it did not take long for them to begin to
follow their sister and her lover. They had
two good riding horses each, and rode
north toward the Manitoba plains. Their
trip though was in vain, because as soon as
they arrived, a large group of Big Wolf’s
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men came to his aid, and the brothers had
to return home with heavy hearts. In the
fall however, when Big Wolf and his
friends went on a hunting trip on the plains
to the west, Soley’ s brothers came in the
middle of the night and took her away. The
next night they reached this Hotel, and
Soley was then very sick. She was put to
bed immediately in a small bedroom that is
on the other side of the hallway, and it had
only one window which was so small that a
two year old child could not get out
through it, even though it had been open.
Soley’ s brothers never left her door all
night. They lay on their buffalo skins in the
hall in front of her door and ate their meals
there. And exactly that same night Jesse
and Robert came to the Hotel and fought.
All night long as I told you before. In the
morning Soley’s brothers intended to wake
her and begin the journey home, hoping to
arrive that night. But when they entered
the room, she had vanished.
“And had she gone out through the
window?” I asked.
“No, the window had not been
touched.”
“She would not have gone out the
door” said O’Brian.
“Not that either,” said Madeleine
Vanda.
“She must have gone out through the
roof.” said Mr. Iceland.
“You have guessed correctly” said
Madeleine Vanada and smiled. “Soley had
gone out through the roof of the Hotel—
but the roof is flat as you know.”
“Someone had come to help her,” said
O’Brian.
“Yes, of course.” said Madeleine
Vanda. “It was her sweetheart Big Wolf
who helped her. He had used his ax to chop
a large hole in the roof of the Hotel, and
with that he had helped the girl out, and
when daylight came, they were long gone
out to the plain where the Assiniboine war-
riors were waiting for them. The brothers
never again tried to get their sister from the
hands of Big Wolf.”
“Wasn’t it funny’ I said, “That no one
in the Hotel should be aware that a hole
was being chopped in the roof/”
“That was natural” said Madeleine