The test of Donald Norton

"The Test of Donald Norton" by Robert E. Pinkerton is a novel written in the early 20th century. Set in the Canadian North, it follows a boy of hidden origins who is determined to rise in the Hudson’s Bay Company while facing hostility, rivalry, and the question of who he truly is. Centered on Donald Norton, his embittered Ojibwa foster mother Nee-tah-wee-gan, and his white mentors Merton and Evelyn Layard, it explores identity, loyalty, and ambition in a brutal wilderness. Expect fur‑trade intrigue, moral tests, and a fierce coming‑of‑age. The opening of the novel introduces Wen-dah-ban, a child raised by the Ojibwa woman Nee-tah-wee-gan, whose terror at a bear’s visit exposes a buried secret: the boy may be a white baby she saved during a fatal post fire, not her own. After she kills her taunting mate and takes the gentler Pe-tah-bo, the isolated boy grows up longing for the white world, sneaks to Fort Kenogami, and becomes entranced by the Layards—and mocked for his mixed looks—before defiantly claiming he is white. During his fasting rite he dreams he is white-born, prompting Evelyn Layard to take him under her wing, teach him, and give him the name Donald Norton, while Nee‑tah‑wee‑gan haunts him with the daily sting, “You are an Indian.” Donald learns fast, earns charge of the Wabinosh outpost, outmaneuvers a rival free trader through shrewd planning during a rabbit famine, and is promoted to manage Whitefish Lake, where he forges a wary friendship with his cultured adversary Philip Collinge; the section ends as illness fells him and the very woman who tormented him fiercely nurses him back from fever.

The test of Donald Norton, by Robert E. Pinkerton. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #77425.