Luke Baldwin's Vow

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, Japan Foundation Fellow 1991-92, and the author of
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home and As Though Life Mattered:
Leo Kennedy’s Story.

Morley Callaghan, one of Canada’s best-loved novelists wrote only one
story for young people, and it has become a classic since it was first
published 50 years ago. Like The Secret Garden, Wild Animals I Have
Known, and Black Beauty, Luke Baldwin’s Vow should be in every school
library. The story concerns a young boy’s search for what really
matters in life.

When Luke’s doctor father dies, the boy is sent to live with Uncle
Henry (his father’s brother) and his wife. Henry and the boy’s
father are polar opposites. Henry is a practical man, a man of common
sense who thinks that imaginative literature is a waste of time and that
a dog too old to “earn his keep” should be drowned.

Luke grows to love old Dan, his uncle’s one-eyed collie and his
partner in things of the spirit. In a dramatic climax, Luke manages to
save Dan from drowning and to make a bargain with his uncle for earning
Dan’s food. Luke’s adviser, a neighboring farmer who serves as a
kind of lay father-confessor, gives him the idea and helps Luke to
better understand how to deal with the Uncle Henrys of the world. Luke
resolves that he will learn how to protect all that is “truly
valuable” from practical people like his uncle. The rural, small-town
setting, near Collingwood’s blue hills north of Toronto, is perfect
for the story. Highly recommended.