The Snow Child

The next day when Jack does not return from working the fields, Mabel begins to worry. When yet another day passes, Mabel heads out to search for him. She finds him flat on his back—a bear had spooked his horse and he had been thrown. He can barely move. He fears his back may be broken. Mabel struggles to get Jack back to their cabin. A prolonged recuperation could doom the farm. She rides into Alpine for help. With the nearest doctor 800 miles away in Anchorage, a distraught Mabel is given only homemade whiskey and laudanum to help Jack.

Weeks into spring, Mabel is scared. No crops have been planted. Her husband is bedridden. When George Benson stops by, he surmises the gravity of the situation. That afternoon George, Esther, and Garrett arrive with bedrolls in tow. The men will take care the spring planting while Esther will help Mabel nurse Jack. Mabel is overwhelmed by their generosity.

The next day, Mabel resolutely plants potatoes while Esther stays with Jack. The work is backbreaking. Digging into the rich earth, Mabel recalls a visit to her child’s fresh gravesite. She now cries, and Garrett awkwardly comforts her. The planting moves forward until, the fields finished, Mabel struggles to find a way to thank the Bensons. She gifts Garrett with a volume of Jack London’s work. After the Bensons depart, she cradles Jack and assures him they will be fine.

The summer is a welcome respite—the crops flourish, Jack slowly recovers, and with regular visits from the Bensons, the farm maintains operations. Mabel relishes running the farm. She is no longer a “lost soul” (196). One afternoon while walking in the fields with Garrett, Jack spies a red fox; Garrett of course wants to kill it, but Jack tells him not to, that the wild fox “belongs” to someone. Garrett is irritated, believing any fox is a nuisance. Jack explains how their wild child raised a red fox from a pup, an idea Garrett rejects as preposterous. We only learn much later that Garrett returns and kills the fox.

Winter approaches. Mabel works steadily on a winter coat for Faina, embroidering it with snowflakes. She believes the child will return, asserting that “[y]ou did not have to understand miracles to believe in them” (204). As the potato crop is gathered, Mabel regrets that Garrett will return to his own farm for the winter. She has enjoyed the boy’s company.

In a letter to her sister, Mabel describes how she has worked the farm. She sends her sister sketches of the wilderness and her drawing of the single snowflake. Mabel closes the letter with an odd remark about how much she anticipates winter.