The Silver Maple

by Marian Keith (Pseudonym), Mary MacGregor

The storm was over, the snow had ceased falling, and under its muffling mantle, white and spent with the day's struggle, lay the great swamp of the Oro. It seemed to hold in its motionless bosom the very spirit of silence and death. The delicately traced pattern of a rabbit or weasel track, and a narrow human pathway that wound tortuously into the sepulchral depths, were the only signs of life in all the white stillness. Away down the dim, cathedral-like aisles, that fainted into softest grey in the distance, the crackling of an overburdened twig rang startlingly clear in the awesome hush. The tall firs and pines swept the white earth with their snow-laden branches, the drooping limbs looking like throngs of cowled heads, bent to worship in the sacred stillness of a vast temple. For the forest was, indeed, a place in which to wonder and to pray, a place all white and holy, filled with the mystery and awe of death.

357 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

The penname of Mary Esther Miller MacGregor

Reviews

[Gregory Klages · Rating 4 out of 5]

An early 20th-century Canadian tale of a central Ontario (Simcoe County) man coming to age during the second half of the 19th-century. Quaint, enjoyable, and nice to read a story concerned with the rural Canadian experience of the period. The themes of redemption, faith, and morality are wrapped up awfully handily, but this is a charming period piece for connoisseurs of Canadian literature.

I came to this story to better understand a man who was reading it in 1908, who was raised and lived in the region the book describes. It's hard to believe in that period that a rural Canadian could find a book set in the area and reflecting experiences he was intimately familiar with.

What most struck me from the 21st-century perspective was the rather surprising wartime adventure of the protagonist with the British Empire troops sent to rescue besieged Khartoum; this seemed so exotic and 'safe' compared to the mechanized destruction of the global 20th-century wars.

[Emily-Jane Orford · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is definitely a timeless classic. Like her friend, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Marian Keith writes about early Canadian life and its simple beauty. The descriptive passages are outstanding and I feel like I'm standing with the main character overlooking Lake Oro or Lake Simcoe or his beloved silver maple tree, strong and true. Very Canadian indeed. Well done! This author needs to be re-instated; her books should be reprinted for all to enjoy. She makes rural Ontario sound as quaint and endearing as Montgomery did with Prince Edward Island. Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford, the award-winning author of "The Whistling Bishop".