l, the daughter of a wandering prospector and a Sikanni
squaw, and married her out of hand. The heartbroken father was himself
compelled to perform the ceremony. This was in 1886.

The Imbries were so far cut off from their kind that in time they were
forgotten. The missionary supported himself by farming in a small way
and trading his surplus products with the Indians. John turned out to be
a good farmer and they prospered. Their farm was the last outpost of
agriculture in that direction. From the time he went in with his father
John did not see the outside world again until 1889, when he took his
wife and babies out, with a vain hope, I think, of trying to educate the
woman. Most of these marriages have tragic results, and this was no
exception. During all the years in her husband's house this woman
resisted every civilizing influence, except that she learned to deck
herself out like a white woman.

She bore her husband twin sons, who were christened Ernest and William.
They bore a strong resemblance to each other, but as they began to
develop it appeared, as is so often the case in these mixed families,
that Ernest had a white man's nature, and William a red man's. When the
time came they were sent out to Winnipeg to school, but William, true to
the savage nature, sickened in civilised surroundings, and had to be
sent home. On the other hand, Ernest proved to be a sufficiently apt
scholar, and went on through school and college. During the whole period
between his thirteenth and his twenty-fourth year he was only home two
or three times. William remained at home and grew up in ignorance. John
Imbrie, the father, I gather, was a worthy man, but somewhat weak in his
family relations.

Ernest went on to a medical college with the idea of practising among
the Sikannis, who had no doctor. During his second year his father died,
long before he could reach him, of course. He remained outside until he
got his diploma. Meanwhile his mother and brother quickly relapsed into
a state of savagery. They "pitched around" with the Indians, and the
farm which had been so painstakingly hewn out of the wilderness by the
two preceding generations grew up in weeds.

Ernest had a painful homecoming, I expect. However, he patiently set to
work to restore his father's work. He managed to persuade his mother and
brother to return and live in white man's fashion, but they made his
life a hell for him, according to all accounts. They were i