"Parables of a Province" is a collection of Gilbert Parker's short stories that raise the northern pioneer's life into the realms of myth and fable. It features "The Tent of the Purple Mat," a simple yet heartfelt story, "The Forge in the Valley," in which a man reanimates after a dozen years of illness and forgetfulness to find his loving wife struggling at the forge, "There Was a Little City" where an old man is summoned to help, again and again until he has reason to decline.