The main themes of the story are a boy’s initiation into life and death and growing up, as the main character, Nick, experiences a lot of new things, he has never seen before.
It all starts at the lake shore, where 2 Indians have come to row Nick, his father and Uncle George over to the Indian camp, because there’s a woman who’s very sick, because she’s in labor. Before getting to the camp they need to walk over a meadow, into the woods and up in the hills accompanied by an Indian. They then arrive to the Indian camp, where the woman is lying in a shanty on the lower wooden bunk and her husband is lying in the upper bunk. She’s screaming and she’s in big pain as it has been going on for 2 days now. His father orders some water to be put on the stove, as he needs to wash his hands and sterilise different things.
He tells Nick what’s going to happen and that he might need to operate without any anaesthetic as he didn’t bring it with him. Nick helps his father as an intern. While Nick’s father is operating, Uncle George and 2 two Indians hold down the lady as he starts cutting her open with his jack-knife. He’s very happy after the operation until they see that the Indian lying in the upper bunk has committed suicide and cut his throat, because he couldn’t stand the screaming. His father tells Uncle George to take Nick out of the shanty, but Nick has a good view from the door opening, so he can easily see what’s going on.
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