Lachlan extended to him. She was a fat,
dusky-skinned woman, apparently regarding Thompson with a feeling akin
to awe. The entire family, which numbered at least nine souls, spoke in
the broad dialect of their paternal ancestors from the heather country
overseas.
Thompson spent an hour there, an hour which was far from conducive to a
cheerful survey of the field wherein his spiritual labors would lie.
Aside from Sam Carr, who appeared to be looked upon as the Nestor of the
village, the Lachlans were the only persons who either spoke or
understood a word of English. And Thompson found himself more or less
tongue-tied with them, unable to find any common ground of intercourse.
They were wholly illiterate. As a natural consequence the world beyond
the Athabasca region was as much of an unknown quantity to them as the
North had been to Thompson before he set foot in it--as much of its
needs and customs were yet, for that matter. The Lachlan virtues of
simplicity and kindliness were overcast by obvious dirt and a general
slackness. In so far as religion went if they were--as Breyette had
stated--fond of preachers, it was manifestly because they looked upon a
preacher as a very superior sort of person, and not because of his
gospel message.
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