Luke Baldwins Vow

Considering Morley Callaghan's children's novel, THE VOW (1948), was written over 65 years ago, it holds up well and the lessons it teaches are, I think, still valid.

So why am I reading this obscure children's book from Canada? Well, a few years back I read and very much enjoyed Callaghan's memoir, THAT SUMMER IN PARIS (1963), about his expatriate year in the 1920s and his friendships with Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein and others, and, since I was a boyhood fan of dog books by Terhune, O'Brien, Curwood and Kjelgaard, I though I would try a Canadian dog book.

And I am glad I did, although THE VOW is probably much more of the realist school than the romantic adventures those other dog book writers wrote. Briefly, eleven year-old orphan, show more Luke Baldwin, is forced to grow up a little faster when he comes to live with his burly and very practical-minded Uncle Henry, a successful small town sawyer, who is nothing at all like Luke's late father, who was a physician. Henry is determined to cure Luke of his 'dreaminess' and make a man out of him. Luke takes comfort in the companionship of their dog, Dan, an aging one-eyed collie who is nearing the end of his usefulness around the house and sawmill. A city boy, Luke also must learn to fit in and assert himself among a new crowd of rough country boys.

Yes, it is a fairly straightforward and simple story. The crux of it, however, is very different from the soft-filtered Victorian tones of Terhune's Sunnybank collie books. Because Uncle Henry determines that it's time to 'get rid' of old Dan, despite the bond between the dog and boy. How Luke responds to this situation is indeed moving and, at the same time, pretty realistic. And, lest you get the wrong idea, Uncle Henry is NOT painted as a villain. He is simply a businessman who evaluates things carefully, and when he decides something - a dog, for example - has outlived its usefulness, well, then it has to go. And I could relate. Perhaps because I was a child of the forties and fifties, back when dogs were pretty disposable and easily replaced, and I can remember my father once had to shoot our dog - a collie, in fact - who had killed some of our neighbor's chickens. And, while my three older brothers and I were certainly upset and saddened by this turn of events, we did not hate our dad. It was simply the way of the world, and we learned. None of this sounds very politically correct now, I know, in an era when chickens might be found in an animal shelter - CHICKENS! - but that's just the way it was. Pets and animals were possessions, to be used or disposed of as owners saw fit.

So I can see how THE VOW served a purpose and taught a lesson in its time. It's also a pretty damn good story, about family, about boys, and most importantly, about a boy and his dog. I will highly recommend it for middle school children, but I would recommend parents read it too, so they can talk about it with the young readers, can explain how things once were with people and pets - and sometimes still are.

P.S. Both this book and the memoir I mentioned, are now available in handsome reprints from Exile Editions, a press founded and run by Morley Callaghan's son.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less