Cape Breton's Magazine

The words of a solicitous husband and father! Undoubtedly a week at sea was good for Mary, but surely it was also good for her that Norman was away from his duties at home. There could be no harder position for a sensitive woman than to be married to a man who felt a ruthless responsibility for his entire community. Inevitably there were smouldering antagonisms, which his purposeful strength could ignore, to prey upon her gentle spirit • outbursts of human feeling which neither her re? ligious certainty nor her devotion to Norman could easily brush aside. Cape Breton Auto Radiator co RADIATOR HOSES • REPAIRING • CLEANING • RECORING r..?A* ' COMPLETE CYLINDER HEAD SERVICE _ . 518 Grand auto * truck * industrial Sydney Lake Road Complete Line of Gas Tanks 564-6362 • NOW DOING AUTOMOBILE AIR CONDITIONING • With unfailing regularity his letters report each time after his return from a trip that his "delicate spouse" during his ab? sence enjoyed better health. On another occasion when he had been iU for several months he wrote that "my dear and delicate partner has had the mercy of enjoying better health during my illness than for several years past." Surely natural reactions of a woman who was not usually allowed her rightful measure of authority. More than once it seemed that Mary McLeod's mind was weakening. Norman mentions her "half dreaming notions of venturing along with me to Pictou to see several of her friendly acquaintances...but this fond view has far more of the will than of any appearance of its actual accomplishment." Lat? er, as a sign of her great improvement he reports that "she has been enabled to attend both our public and private meetings for the last two or three Sabbaths, among a throng of people, which we thought a very singular & unlikely privilege...." Imagine this as your office... 'j/fS-'-'r-5'i'.'i''i'>' -y-Af'.''v'i''''-- Imagine a career at sea... becoming an officer in the Canadian Coast Guard. If you are finishing Grade 12 plus 6 OAC's (Ontario), CEGEP 1 (Quebec) or Grade 12 (other provinces) in your university preparatory program this year, if you excel at math and physics, and if you think big... Head for the freedom, the excitement and the challenge of a sea-going career with the Canadian Coast Guard. 1'1 The four-year Canadian (bast Guard officer training plan offers: • Tuition-free trainmg • A monthly allowance • Practical sea training • A modem, attractive campus in Sydney, with private rooms • A guaranteed position as a ship's officer after graduation Apparently, she had for some time found it impossible to en- I dure attendance at church. I But was it only the physi? cal presence of the crowd? There was the day when Norman had named her publicly from the pulpit, for a very little sin • having a soberly ribboned bonnet sent from Sydney! For the first time she must have fuUy reahzed how the spirits of die people shri? velled as they sat and si? lently accepted the shafts they could not retum. She had heard men of the con? gregation singled out and bitterly abused by Nor? man, but for such reproofs she would be able to find some cause. She had al? ways been sorry to see the young girls publicly shamed for a few harmless ribbons. The bonnet seemed an innocent thing • she must have felt old and tired and wanted something pretty. Surely if the minister's wife wore a bonnet, the others, too, could discard without re? proof the simple head scarves which at first they had all worn! In this, too, she failed. Her shame was not only in reproved vani? ty, but in being exposed deliberately and scornfully before a thousand staring people by her husband who had talked so solicitously of his "poor partner" and her delicate health. It helped not at all that she knew many of them to be suffering with her. She could not accept their pity. It was not surprising that the gentie Mary, over? whelmed by such harsh? ness, should have at times lost "the peace of her mind." TH.': ast (mard (k)llege: Canadian Coast Guard College Canada!