Chapter Summary Part 1

The story started on a Christmas day of 1908 when the narrator, Dunny Stanton was 10 years old. He was having argument with his “life long friend and enemy” Percy. Percy was stewed because his sled was slower than Dunny’s. He threw a snow ball at Dunny and Dunny was able to dodge it by instinct. The snowball hit Mrs. Dempster, the wife of the Reverend who was pregnant and was going to give birth very soon. She was badly hurt on her head and had to give an early labour.

The whole story was the narrator’s memoir written at the time when he was already a retiring teacher in the school. Since childhood, he lived in a village in Canada which was dominated by several different religions, in which residents had conservative traditions.

In the early stage of Paul Dempster’s life, Dunny’s mother and the village doctor spent a lot time taking care of him for he was very weak. Dunny felt guilty and one day he was thinking about confessing the fault, but Percy told him it was no good for him to tell the truth.

As time passed, Dunny was relieved to see that Mrs. Dempster was much the same as before. The village people considered her as a weak woman because as a Reverend’s wife, she was too nice to people. Dunny’s mother sent him over everyday to help Mrs. Dempster taking care of the baby. As he stayed with her, he felt responsible for the trouble he made to her. He had defended for her honour when people made fun of her.

Dunny started to get interested in magic when he was working in the town library. He practiced with the materials he could get, usually the eggs at his house. When he performed his newly learned tricks, Paul Dempster was his audience and student.

Mr. Dempster prohibited Dunny from contacting with members of Dempster family because he had taught Paul magic tricks and stories of saints, which were against the religion of Dempster family. Mrs. Dempster still acted friendly to Dunny’s mother. Dunny felt guilty to leave them.

Several months later, Mrs. Dempster was reported gone missing. Dunny joined the party to search for her. They found Mrs. Dempster in a bush conjugating with a tramp. Soon after that, Mr Dempster resigned his position of Reverend. Mrs. Dempster was tied up in the house with a rope so she wasn’t able to move around. Dunny went to see her secretly and found she had positive attitude even she was in bad situations.

Dunny’s life went on as usual. He became to know many things and was called the “polymath” at school. Percy was dating Leola, the prettiest girl in the village, however, he was then found to have relationship with another girl.

Dunny’s older brother, Willie, became very sick. Dunny had to look after him while other family members were away. Willie died as Dunny watched. Dunny ran to Mrs. Dempster and bought her to Willie’s side. She prayed beside Willie’s bed. Willie was backing to alive. Mrs. Dempster was not surprised with the result of her pray. Willie fully recovered instantly and being very healthy as if he could go to the war at once. Dunny told the miracle about Willie’s death to the doctor, but the doctor did not take it seriously.

Dunny still visited Mrs. Dempster quite often; however, his mother was angry about his close relationship because of Mrs. Dempster’s infamous incident. His mother told him to make a choice between her and Mrs. Dempster. Dunny chose to get enlist in the Canadian army.