In her short story “North of Fifty-Three,” Mary Woodbury Caswell explores the amazing power of courage, which seeks to recall a sense of justice in an unjust and disordered situation. Caswell inspects courage through the story of a young woman who is abducted and must find a way to escape captivity.
Alaskan Winter
Gertrude lives in Alaska with her brother, Bob, and her fiancé, Keith, whom she came to help nurse after he shattered his shoulder. And, on this particularly fine, wintry Alaskan morning, she decides to take her habitual walk through the snowKeith immediately grows anxious when he hears of her plan: “Since Jacques told us of that outlaw who threatened to kidnap a white girl for his wife, I don’t like to have Gertrude get out of sight.” Gertrude reassures her fiancé that she doesn’t believe Jaques’s drunken tale, then sets off, laughing to herself about Keith’s worry.
