BRIAN, THE STILL-HUNTER
“O'er memory's glass I see his shadow flit,
Though he was gathered to the silent dust
Long years ago. A strange and wayward man,
That shunn'd companionship, and lived apart;
The leafy covert of the dark brown woods,
The gleamy lakes, hid in their gloomy depths,
Whose still, deep waters never knew the stroke
Of cleaving oar, or echoed to the sound
Of social life, contained for him the sum
Of human happiness. With dog and gun,
Day after day he track'd the nimble deer
Through all the tangled mazes of the forest.”
It was early day. I was alone in the old shanty, preparing
breakfast, and now and then stirring the cradle with my foot, when
a tall, thin, middle-aged man walked into the house, followed by two
large, strong dogs.
Placing the rifle he had carried on his shoulder, in a corner of the
room, he advanced to the hearth, and without speaking, or seemingly
looking at me, lighted his pipe and commenced smoking. The dogs,
after growling and snapping at the cat, who had not given the
strangers a very courteous reception, sat down on the hearth-stone
on either side of their taciturn master, eyeing him from time to
time, as if long habit had made them understand all his motions.
There was a great contrast between the dogs. The one was a brindled
bulldog of the largest size, a most formidable and powerful brute;
the other a staghound, tawny, deep-chested, and strong-limbed. I
regarded the man and his hairy companions with silent curiosity.
He was between forty and fifty years of age; his head, nearly bald,
was studded at the sides with strong, coarse, black curling hair.
His features were high, his complexion brightly dark, and his eyes,
in size, shape, and colour, greatly resembled the eyes of a hawk.
The face itself was sorrowful and taciturn; and his thin, compressed
lips looked as if they were not much accustomed to smile, or often
to unclose to hold social communion with any one. He stood at the
side of the huge hearth, silently smoking, his eyes bent on the
fire, and now and then he patted the heads of his dogs, reproving
their exuberant expression of attachment, with--“Down, Music; down,
Chance!”
“A cold, clear morning,” said I, in order to attract his attention
and draw him into conversation.
A nod, without raising his head, or withdrawing his eyes from the
fire, was his only answer; and, turning from my unsociable guest,
I took up the baby, who just then awoke, sat down on a low stool by
the table, and began feeding her. During this operation, I once or
twice caught the stranger's hawk-eye fixed upon me and the child,
but word spoke he none; and presently, after whistling to his dogs,
he resumed his gun, and strode out.
When Moodie and Monaghan came in to breakfast, I told them what a
strange visitor I had had; and Moodie laughed at my vain attempt to
induce him to talk.
“He is a strange being,” I said; “I must find out who and what he is.”
In the afternoon an old soldier, called Layton, who had served
during the American war, and got a grant of land about a mile in
the rear of our location, came in to trade for a cow. Now, this
Layton was a perfect ruffian; a man whom no one liked, and whom all
feared. He was a deep drinker, a great swearer, in short, a perfect
reprobate; who never cultivated his land, but went jobbing about
from farm to farm, trading horses and cattle, and cheating in a
pettifogging way. Uncle Joe had employed him to sell Moodie a young
heifer, and he had brought her over for him to look at. When he
came in to be paid, I described the stranger of the morning; and
as I knew that he was familiar with every one in the neighbourhood,
I asked if he knew him.
“No one should know him better than myself,” he said; “'tis old
Brian B----, the still-hunter, and a near neighbour of your'n. A
sour, morose, queer chap he is, and as mad as a March hare! He's
from Lancashire, in England, and came to this country some twenty
years ago, with his wife, who was a pretty young lass in those days,
and slim enough then, though she's so awful fleshy now. He had lots
of money, too, and he bought four hundred acres of land, just at the
corner of the concession line, where it meets the main road. And
excellent land it is; and a better farmer, while he stuck to his
business, never went into the bush, for it was all bush here then.
He was a dashing, handsome fellow, too, and did not hoard the money,
either; he loved his pipe and his pot too well; and at last he left
off farming, and gave himself to them altogether. Many a jolly booze
he and I have had, I can tell you. Brian was an awful passionate
man, and, when the liquor was in, and the wit was out, as savage and
as quarrelsome as a bear. At such times there was no one but Ned
Layton dared go near him. We once had a pitched battle, in which I
was conqueror; and ever arter he yielded a sort of sulky obedience
to all I said to him. Arter being on the spree for a week or two, he
would take fits of remorse, and return home to his wife; would fall
down at her knees, and ask her forgiveness, and cry like a child. At
other times he would hide himself up in the woods, and steal home at
night, and get what he wanted out of the pantry, without speaking a
word to any one. He went on with these pranks for some years, till
he took a fit of the blue devils.
“'Come away, Ned, to the ---- lake, with me,' said he; 'I am weary of
my life, and I want a change.'
“'Shall we take the fishing-tackle?' says I. 'The black bass are in
prime season, and F---- will lend us the old canoe. He's got some
capital rum up from Kingston. We'll fish all day, and have a spree
at night.'
“'It's not to fish I'm going,' says he.
“'To shoot, then? I've bought Rockwood's new rifle.'
“'It's neither to fish nor to shoot, Ned: it's a new game I'm going
to try; so come along.'
“Well, to the ---- lake we went. The day was very hot, and our path
lay through the woods, and over those scorching plains, for eight
long miles. I thought I should have dropped by the way; but during
our long walk my companion never opened his lips. He strode on
before me, at a half-run, never once turning his head.
“'The man must be the devil!' says I, 'and accustomed to a warmer
place, or he must feel this. Hollo, Brian! Stop there! Do you mean
to kill me?'
“'Take it easy,' says he; 'you'll see another day arter this--I've
business on hand, and cannot wait.'
“Well, on we went, at the same awful rate, and it was mid-day when
we got to the little tavern on the lake shore, kept by one F----, who
had a boat for the convenience of strangers who came to visit the
place. Here we got our dinner, and a glass of rum to wash it down.
But Brian was moody, and to all my jokes he only returned a sort of
grunt; and while I was talking with F----, he steps out, and a few
minutes arter we saw him crossing the lake in the old canoe.
“'What's the matter with Brian?' says F----; 'all does not seem right
with him, Ned. You had better take the boat, and look arter him.'
“'Pooh!' says I; 'he's often so, and grows so glum nowadays that I
will cut his acquaintance altogether if he does not improve.'
“'He drinks awful hard,' says F----; 'may be he's got a fit of the
delirium-tremulous. There is no telling what he may be up to at this
minute.'
“My mind misgave me, too, so I e'en takes the oars, and pushes out,
right upon Brian's track; and, by the Lord Harry! if I did not find
him, upon my landing on the opposite shore, lying wallowing in his
blood with his throat cut. 'Is that you, Brian?' says I, giving him
a kick with my foot, to see if he was alive or dead. 'What on earth
tempted you to play me and F---- such a dirty, mean trick, as to go
and stick yourself like a pig, bringing such a discredit upon the
house?--and you so far from home and those who should nurse you?'
“I was so mad with him, that (saving your presence, ma'am) I swore
awfully, and called him names that would be ondacent to repeat here;
but he only answered with groans and a horrid gurgling in his
throat. 'It's a choking you are,' said I, 'but you shan't have your
own way, and die so easily, either, if I can punish you by keeping
you alive.' So I just turned him upon his stomach, with his head
down the steep bank; but he still kept choking and growing black in
the face.”
Layton then detailed some particulars of his surgical practice which
it is not necessary to repeat. He continued--
“I bound up his throat with my handkerchief, and took him neck and
heels, and threw him into the bottom of the boat. Presently he came
to himself a little, and sat up in the boat; and--would you believe
it?--made several attempts to throw himself in the water. 'This will
not do,' says I; 'you've done mischief enough already by cutting
your weasand! If you dare to try that again, I will kill you with
the oar.' I held it up to threaten him; he was scared, and lay down
as quiet as a lamb. I put my foot upon his breast. 'Lie still, now!
or you'll catch it.' He looked piteously at me; he could not speak,
but his eyes seemed to say, 'Have pity upon me, Ned; don't kill me.'
“Yes, ma'am; this man, who had just cut his throat, and twice arter
that tried to drown himself, was afraid that I should knock him on
the head and kill him. Ha! ha! I shall never forget the work that
F---- and I had with him arter I got him up to the house.
“The doctor came, and sewed up his throat; and his wife--poor
crittur!--came to nurse him. Bad as he was, she was mortal fond of
him! He lay there, sick and unable to leave his bed, for three
months, and did nothing but pray to God to forgive him, for he
thought the devil would surely have him for cutting his own throat;
and when he got about again, which is now twelve years ago, he left
off drinking entirely, and wanders about the woods with his dogs,
hunting. He seldom speaks to any one, and his wife's brother carries
on the farm for the family. He is so shy of strangers that 'tis a
wonder he came in here. The old wives are afraid of him; but you
need not heed him--his troubles are to himself, he harms no one.”
Layton departed, and left me brooding over the sad tale which he had
told in such an absurd and jesting manner. It was evident from the
account he had given of Brian's attempt at suicide, that the hapless
hunter was not wholly answerable for his conduct--that he was a
harmless maniac.
The next morning, at the very same hour, Brian again made his
appearance; but instead of the rifle across his shoulder, a large
stone jar occupied the place, suspended by a stout leather thong.
Without saying a word, but with a truly benevolent smile, that
flitted slowly over his stern features, and lighted them up, like
a sunbeam breaking from beneath a stormy cloud, he advanced to the
table, and unslinging the jar, set it down before me, and in a low
and gruff, but by no means an unfriendly voice, said, “Milk, for
the child,” and vanished.
“How good it was of him! How kind!” I exclaimed, as I poured the
precious gift of four quarts of pure new milk out into a deep pan.
I had not asked him--had never said that the poor weanling wanted
milk. It was the courtesy of a gentleman--of a man of benevolence
and refinement.
For weeks did my strange, silent friend steal in, take up the empty
jar, and supply its place with another replenished with milk. The
baby knew his step, and would hold out her hands to him and cry,
“Milk!” and Brian would stoop down and kiss her, and his two great
dogs lick her face.
“Have you any children, Mr. B----?”
“Yes, five; but none like this.”
“My little girl is greatly indebted to you for your kindness.”
“She's welcome, or she would not get it. You are strangers; but I
like you all. You look kind, and I would like to know more about
you.”
Moodie shook hands with the old hunter, and assured him that we
should always be glad to see him. After this invitation, Brian
became a frequent guest. He would sit and listen with delight to
Moodie while he described to him elephant-hunting at the Cape;
grasping his rifle in a determined manner, and whistling an
encouraging air to his dogs. I asked him one evening what made
him so fond of hunting.
“'Tis the excitement,” he said; “it drowns thought, and I love to
be alone. I am sorry for the creatures, too, for they are free and
happy; yet I am led by an instinct I cannot restrain to kill them.
Sometimes the sight of their dying agonies recalls painful feelings;
and then I lay aside the gun, and do not hunt for days. But 'tis
fine to be alone with God in the great woods--to watch the sunbeams
stealing through the thick branches, the blue sky breaking in upon
you in patches, and to know that all is bright and shiny above you,
in spite of the gloom that surrounds you.”
After a long pause, he continued, with much solemn feeling in his
look and tone--
“I lived a life of folly for years, for I was respectably born and
educated, and had seen something of the world, perhaps more than was
good, before I left home for the woods; and from the teaching I had
received from kind relatives and parents I should have known how to
have conducted myself better. But, madam, if we associate long with
the depraved and ignorant, we learn to become even worse than they
are. I felt deeply my degradation--felt that I had become the slave
to low vice; and in order to emancipate myself from the hateful
tyranny of evil passions, I did a very rash and foolish thing. I
need not mention the manner in which I transgressed God's holy laws;
all the neighbours know it, and must have told you long ago. I could
have borne reproof, but they turned my sorrow into indecent jests,
and, unable to bear their coarse ridicule, I made companions of my
dogs and gun, and went forth into the wilderness. Hunting became a
habit. I could no longer live without it, and it supplies the
stimulant which I lost when I renounced the cursed whiskey bottle.
“I remember the first hunting excursion I took alone in the forest.
How sad and gloomy I felt! I thought that there was no creature in
the world so miserable as myself. I was tired and hungry, and I sat
down upon a fallen tree to rest. All was still as death around me,
and I was fast sinking to sleep, when my attention was aroused by
a long, wild cry. My dog, for I had not Chance then, and he's no
hunter, pricked up his ears, but instead of answering with a bark of
defiance, he crouched down, trembling, at my feet. 'What does this
mean?' I cried, and I cocked my rifle and sprang upon the log. The
sound came nearer upon the wind. It was like the deep baying of a
pack of hounds in full cry. Presently a noble deer rushed past me,
and fast upon his trail--I see them now, like so many black
devils--swept by a pack of ten or fifteen large, fierce wolves, with
fiery eyes and bristling hair, and paws that seemed hardly to touch
the ground in their eager haste. I thought not of danger, for, with
their prey in view, I was safe; but I felt every nerve within me
tremble for the fate of the poor deer. The wolves gained upon him
at every bound. A close thicket intercepted his path, and, rendered
desperate, he turned at bay. His nostrils were dilated, and his
eyes seemed to send forth long streams of light. It was wonderful
to witness the courage of the beast. How bravely he repelled the
attacks of his deadly enemies, how gallantly he tossed them to the
right and left, and spurned them from beneath his hoofs; yet all
his struggles were useless, and he was quickly overcome and torn
to pieces by his ravenous foes. At that moment he seemed more
unfortunate than even myself, for I could not see in what manner he
had deserved his fate. All his speed and energy, his courage and
fortitude, had been exerted in vain. I had tried to destroy myself;
but he, with every effort vigorously made for self-preservation, was
doomed to meet the fate he dreaded! Is God just to his creatures?”
With this sentence on his lips, he started abruptly from his seat,
and left the house.
One day he found me painting some wild flowers, and was greatly
interested in watching the progress I made in the group. Late in
the afternoon of the following day he brought me a large bunch
of splendid spring flowers.
“Draw these,” said he; “I have been all the way to the ---- lake
plains to find them for you.”
Little Katie, grasping them one by one, with infantile joy, kissed
every lovely blossom.
“These are God's pictures,” said the hunter, “and the child, who is
all nature, understands them in a minute. Is it not strange that
these beautiful things are hid away in the wilderness, where no eyes
but the birds of the air, and the wild beasts of the wood, and the
insects that live upon them, ever see them? Does God provide, for
the pleasure of such creatures, these flowers? Is His benevolence
gratified by the admiration of animals whom we have been taught to
consider as having neither thought nor reflection? When I am alone
in the forest, these thoughts puzzle me.”
Knowing that to argue with Brian was only to call into action the
slumbering fires of his fatal malady, I turned the conversation by
asking him why he called his favourite dog Chance?
“I found him,” he said, “forty miles back in the bush. He was a mere
skeleton. At first I took him for a wolf, but the shape of his head
undeceived me. I opened my wallet, and called him to me. He came
slowly, stopping and wagging his tail at every step, and looking me
wistfully in the face. I offered him a bit of dried venison, and he
soon became friendly, and followed me home, and has never left me
since. I called him Chance, after the manner I happened with him;
and I would not part with him for twenty dollars.”
Alas, for poor Chance! he had, unknown to his master, contracted a
private liking for fresh mutton, and one night he killed no less
than eight sheep that belonged to Mr. D----, on the front road; the
culprit, who had been long suspected, was caught in the very act,
and this mischance cost him his life. Brian was sad and gloomy for
many weeks after his favourite's death.
“I would have restored the sheep fourfold,” he said, “if he would
but have spared the life of my dog.”
My recollections of Brian seemed more particularly to concentrate in
the adventures of one night, when I happened to be left alone, for
the first time since my arrival in Canada. I cannot now imagine how
I could have been such a fool as to give way for four-and-twenty
hours to such childish fears; but so it was, and I will not disguise
my weakness from my indulgent reader.
Moodie had bought a very fine cow of a black man, named Mollineux,
for which he was to give twenty-seven dollars. The man lived twelve
miles back in the woods; and one fine, frosty spring day--(don't
smile at the term frosty, thus connected with the genial season of
the year; the term is perfectly correct when applied to the Canadian
spring, which, until the middle of May, is the most dismal season of
the year)--he and John Monaghan took a rope, and the dog, and
sallied forth to fetch the cow home. Moodie said that they should be
back by six o'clock in the evening, and charged me to have something
cooked for supper when they returned, as he doubted not their long
walk in the sharp air would give them a good appetite. This was
during the time that I was without a servant, and living in old
Mrs. ----'s shanty.
The day was so bright and clear, and Katie was so full of frolic and
play, rolling upon the floor, or toddling from chair to chair, that
the day passed on without my feeling remarkably lonely. At length
the evening drew nigh, and I began to expect my husband's return,
and to think of the supper that I was to prepare for his reception.
The red heifer that we had bought of Layton, came lowing to the door
to be milked; but I did not know how to milk in those days, and,
besides this, I was terribly afraid of cattle. Yet, as I knew that
milk would be required for the tea, I ran across the meadow to Mrs.
Joe, and begged that one of her girls would be so kind as to milk
for me. My request was greeted with a rude burst of laughter from
the whole set.
“If you can't milk,” said Mrs. Joe, “it's high time you should
learn. My girls are above being helps.”
“I would not ask you but as a great favour; I am afraid of cows.”
“Afraid of cows! Lord bless the woman! A farmer's wife, and afraid
of cows!”
Here followed another laugh at my expense; and, indignant at the
refusal of my first and last request, when they had all borrowed
so much from me, I shut the inhospitable door, and returned home.
After many ineffectual attempts, I succeeded at last, and bore my
half-pail of milk in triumph to the house. Yes! I felt prouder of
that milk than many an author of the best thing he ever wrote,
whether in verse or prose; and it was doubly sweet when I considered
that I had procured it without being under any obligation to my
ill-natured neighbours. I had learned a useful lesson of
independence, to which, in after-years, I had often again to refer.
I fed little Katie and put her to bed, made the hot cakes for tea,
boiled the potatoes, and laid the ham, cut in nice slices, in the
pan, ready to cook the moment I saw the men enter the meadow, and
arranged the little room with scrupulous care and neatness. A
glorious fire was blazing on the hearth, and everything was ready
for their supper; and I began to look out anxiously for their
arrival.
The night had closed in cold and foggy, and I could no longer
distinguish any object at more than a few yards from the door.
Bringing in as much wood as I thought would last me for several
hours, I closed the door; and for the first time in my life I found
myself at night in a house entirely alone. Then I began to ask
myself a thousand torturing questions as to the reason of their
unusual absence. Had they lost their way in the woods? Could they
have fallen in with wolves (one of my early bugbears)? Could any
fatal accident have befallen them? I started up, opened the door,
held my breath, and listened. The little brook lifted up its voice
in loud, hoarse wailing, or mocked, in its babbling to the stones,
the sound of human voices. As it became later, my fears increased in
proportion. I grew too superstitious and nervous to keep the door
open. I not only closed it, but dragged a heavy box in front, for
bolt there was none. Several ill-looking men had, during the day,
asked their way to Toronto. I felt alarmed, lest such rude wayfarers
should come to-night and demand a lodging, and find me alone and
unprotected. Once I thought of running across to Mrs. Joe, and
asking her to let one of the girls stay with me until Moodie
returned; but the way in which I had been repulsed in the evening
prevented me from making a second appeal to their charity.
Hour after hour wore away, and the crowing of the cocks proclaimed
midnight, and yet they came not. I had burnt out all my wood, and I
dared not open the door to fetch in more. The candle was expiring in
the socket, and I had not courage to go up into the loft and procure
another before it went finally out. Cold, heart-weary, and faint,
I sat and cried. Every now and then the furious barking of the dogs
at the neighbouring farms, and the loud cackling of the geese upon
our own, made me hope that they were coming; and then I listened
till the beating of my own heart excluded all other sounds. Oh,
that unwearied brook! how it sobbed and moaned like a fretful
child;--what unreal terrors and fanciful illusions my too active
mind conjured up, whilst listening to its mysterious tones!
Just as the moon rose, the howling of a pack of wolves, from the
great swamp in our rear, filled the whole air. Their yells were
answered by the barking of all the dogs in the vicinity, and the
geese, unwilling to be behind-hand in the general confusion, set
up the most discordant screams. I had often heard, and even been
amused, during the winter, particularly on thaw nights, with hearing
the howls of these formidable wild beasts; but I had never before
heard them alone, and when one dear to me was abroad amid their
haunts. They were directly in the track that Moodie and Monaghan
must have taken; and I now made no doubt that they had been attacked
and killed on their return through the woods with the cow, and I
wept and sobbed until the cold grey dawn peered in upon me through
the small dim window. I have passed many a long cheerless night,
when my dear husband was away from me during the rebellion, and I
was left in my forest home with five little children, and only an
old Irish woman to draw and cut wood for my fire, and attend to the
wants of the family, but that was the saddest and longest night I
ever remember.
Just as the day broke, my friends the wolves set up a parting
benediction, so loud, and wild, and near to the house, that I was
afraid lest they should break through the frail window, or come down
the low wide chimney, and rob me of my child. But their detestable
howls died away in the distance, and the bright sun rose up and
dispersed the wild horrors of the night, and I looked once more
timidly around me. The sight of the table spread, and the uneaten
supper, renewed my grief, for I could not divest myself of the idea
that Moodie was dead. I opened the door, and stepped forth into the
pure air of the early day. A solemn and beautiful repose still hung
like a veil over the face of Nature. The mists of night still rested
upon the majestic woods, and not a sound but the flowing of the
waters went up in the vast stillness. The earth had not yet raised
her matin hymn to the throne of the Creator. Sad at heart, and weary
and worn in spirit, I went down to the spring and washed my face and
head, and drank a deep draught of its icy waters. On returning to
the house I met, near the door, old Brian the hunter, with a large
fox dangling across his shoulder, and the dogs following at his
heels.
“Good God! Mrs. Moodie, what is the matter? You are early abroad
this morning, and look dreadful ill. Is anything wrong at home?
Is the baby or your husband sick?”
“Oh!” I cried, bursting into tears, “I fear he is killed by the
wolves.”
The man stared at me, as if he doubted the evidence of his senses,
and well he might; but this one idea had taken such strong
possession of my mind that I could admit no other. I then told him,
as well as I could find words, the cause of my alarm, to which he
listened very kindly and patiently.
“Set your heart at rest; your husband is safe. It is a long journey
on foot to Mollineux, to one unacquainted with a blazed path in a
bush road. They have stayed all night at the black man's shanty,
and you will see them back at noon.”
I shook my head and continued to weep.
“Well, now, in order to satisfy you, I will saddle my mare, and ride
over to the nigger's, and bring you word as fast as I can.”
I thanked him sincerely for his kindness, and returned, in somewhat
better spirits, to the house. At ten o'clock my good messenger
returned with the glad tidings that all was well.
The day before, when half the journey had been accomplished, John
Monaghan let go the rope by which he led the cow, and she had broken
away through the woods, and returned to her old master; and when
they again reached his place, night had set in, and they were
obliged to wait until the return of day. Moodie laughed heartily at
all my fears; but indeed I found them no joke.
Brian's eldest son, a lad of fourteen, was not exactly an idiot,
but what, in the old country, is very expressively termed by the
poor people a “natural.” He could feed and assist himself, had been
taught imperfectly to read and write, and could go to and from the
town on errands, and carry a message from one farm-house to another;
but he was a strange, wayward creature, and evidently inherited, in
no small degree, his father's malady.
During the summer months he lived entirely in the woods, near his
father's dwelling, only returning to obtain food, which was
generally left for him in an outhouse. In the winter, driven home
by the severity of the weather, he would sit for days together
moping in the chimney-corner, without taking the least notice of
what was passing around him. Brian never mentioned this boy--who
had a strong, active figure; a handsome, but very inexpressive
face--without a deep sigh; and I feel certain that half his own
dejection was occasioned by the mental aberration of his child.
One day he sent the lad with a note to our house, to know if Moodie
would purchase the half of an ox that he was going to kill. There
happened to stand in the corner of the room an open wood box, into
which several bushels of fine apples had been thrown; and, while
Moodie was writing an answer to the note, the eyes of the idiot were
fastened, as if by some magnetic influence, upon the apples. Knowing
that Brian had a very fine orchard, I did not offer the boy any of
the fruit. When the note was finished, I handed it to him. The lad
grasped it mechanically, without removing his fixed gaze from the
apples.
“Give that to your father, Tom.”
The boy answered not--his ears, his eyes, his whole soul, were
concentrated in the apples. Ten minutes elapsed, but he stood
motionless, like a pointer at dead set.
“My good boy, you can go.”
He did not stir.
“Is there anything you want?”
“I want,” said the lad, without moving his eyes from the objects of
his intense desire, and speaking in a slow, pointed manner, which
ought to have been heard to be fully appreciated, “I want ap-ples!”
“Oh, if that's all, take what you like.”
The permission once obtained, the boy flung himself upon the box
with the rapacity of a hawk upon its prey, after being long poised
in the air, to fix its certain aim; thrusting his hands to the right
and left, in order to secure the finest specimens of the coveted
fruit, scarcely allowing himself time to breathe until he had filled
his old straw hat, and all his pockets, with apples. To help
laughing was impossible; while this new Tom o' Bedlam darted from
the house, and scampered across the field for dear life, as if
afraid that we should pursue him, to rob him of his prize.
It was during this winter that our friend Brian was left a fortune
of three hundred pounds per annum; but it was necessary for him to
return to his native country, in order to take possession of the
property. This he positively refused to do; and when we remonstrated
with him on the apparent imbecility of this resolution, he declared
that he would not risk his life, in crossing the Atlantic twice for
twenty times that sum. What strange inconsistency was this, in a
being who had three times attempted to take away that which he
dreaded so much to lose accidentally!
I was much amused with an account which he gave me, in his quaint
way, of an excursion he went upon with a botanist, to collect
specimens of the plants and flowers of Upper Canada.
“It was a fine spring day, some ten years ago, and I was yoking my
oxen to drag in some oats I had just sown, when a little, fat,
punchy man, with a broad, red, good-natured face, and carrying a
small black leathern wallet across his shoulder, called to me over
the fence, and asked me if my name was Brian B----? I said, 'Yes;
what of that?'
“'Only you are the man I want to see. They tell me that you are
better acquainted with the woods than any person in these parts;
and I will pay you anything in reason if you will be my guide for
a few days.'
“'Where do you want to go?' said I.
“'Nowhere in particular,' says he. 'I want to go here and there, in
all directions, to collect plants and flowers.'
“That is still-hunting with a vengeance, thought I. 'To-day I must
drag in my oats. If to-morrow will suit, we will be off.'
“'And your charge?' said he. 'I like to be certain of that.'
“'A dollar a day. My time and labour upon my farm, at this busy
season, is worth more than that.'
“'True,' said he. 'Well, I'll give you what you ask. At what time
will you be ready to start?'
“'By daybreak, if you wish it.'
“Away he went; and by daylight next morning he was at my door,
mounted upon a stout French pony. 'What are you going to do with
that beast?' said I. 'Horses are of no use on the road that you
and I are to travel. You had better leave him in my stable.'
“'I want him to carry my traps,' said he; 'it may be some days that
we shall be absent.'
“I assured him that he must be his own beast of burthen, and carry
his axe, and blanket, and wallet of food upon his own back. The
little body did not much relish this arrangement; but as there was
no help for it, he very good-naturedly complied. Off we set, and
soon climbed the steep ridge at the back of your farm, and got upon
---- lake plains. The woods were flush with flowers; and the little
man grew into such an ecstacy, that at every fresh specimen he
uttered a yell of joy, cut a caper in the air, and flung himself
down upon them, as if he was drunk with delight. 'Oh, what
treasures! what treasures!' he cried. 'I shall make my fortune!'
“It is seldom I laugh,” quoth Brian, “but I could not help laughing
at this odd little man; for it was not the beautiful blossoms, such
as you delight to paint, that drew forth these exclamations, but the
queer little plants, which he had rummaged for at the roots of old
trees, among the moss and long grass. He sat upon a decayed trunk,
which lay in our path, I do believe for a long hour, making an
oration over some greyish things, spotted with red, that grew upon
it, which looked more like mould than plants, declaring himself
repaid for all the trouble and expense he had been at, if it were
only to obtain a sight of them. I gathered him a beautiful blossom
of the lady's slipper; but he pushed it back when I presented it to
him, saying, 'Yes, yes; 'tis very fine. I have seen that often
before; but these lichens are splendid.'
“The man had so little taste that I thought him a fool, and so I
left him to talk to his dear plants, while I shot partridges for our
supper. We spent six days in the woods, and the little man filled
his black wallet with all sorts of rubbish, as if he wilfully shut
his eyes to the beautiful flowers, and chose only to admire ugly,
insignificant plants that everybody else passes by without noticing,
and which, often as I had been in the woods, I never had observed
before. I never pursued a deer with such earnestness as he continued
his hunt for what he called 'specimens.'
“When we came to the Cold Creek, which is pretty deep in places, he
was in such a hurry to get at some plants that grew under the water,
that in reaching after them he lost his balance and fell head over
heels into the stream. He got a thorough ducking, and was in a
terrible fright; but he held on to the flowers which had caused the
trouble, and thanked his stars that he had saved them as well as his
life. Well, he was an innocent man,” continued Brian; “a very little
made him happy, and at night he would sing and amuse himself like a
child. He gave me ten dollars for my trouble, and I never saw him
again; but I often think of him, when hunting in the woods that we
wandered through together, and I pluck the wee plants that he used
to admire, and wonder why he preferred them to the fine flowers.”
When our resolution was formed to sell our farm, and take up our
grant of land in the backwoods, no one was so earnest in trying to
persuade us to give up this ruinous scheme as our friend Brian B----,
who became quite eloquent in his description of the trials and
sorrows that awaited us. During the last week of our stay in the
township of H----, he visited us every evening, and never bade us
good-night without a tear moistening his cheek. We parted with the
hunter as with an old friend; and we never met again. His fate was a
sad one. After we left that part of the country, he fell into a
moping melancholy, which ended in self-destruction. But a kinder,
warmer-hearted man, while he enjoyed the light of reason, has seldom
crossed our path.
THE DYING HUNTER TO HIS DOG
Lie down, lie down, my noble hound!
That joyful bark give o'er;
It wakes the lonely echoes round,
But rouses me no more.
Thy lifted ears, thy swelling chest,
Thine eye so keenly bright,
No longer kindle in my breast
The thrill of fierce delight;
As following thee, on foaming steed,
My eager soul outstripp'd thy speed.
Lie down, lie down, my faithful hound!
And watch this night with me.
For thee again the horn shall sound,
By mountain, stream, and tree;
And thou, along the forest glade,
Shall track the flying deer
When, cold and silent, I am laid
In chill oblivion here.
Another voice shall cheer thee on,
And glory when the chase is won.
Lie down, lie down, my gallant hound!
Thy master's life is sped;
And, couch'd upon the dewy ground,
'Tis thine to watch the dead.
But when the blush of early day
Is kindling in the sky,
Then speed thee, faithful friend, away,
And to my Agnes hie;
And guide her to this lonely spot,
Though my closed eyes behold her not.
Lie down, lie down, my trusty hound!
Death comes, and now we part.
In my dull ear strange murmurs sound--
More faintly throbs my heart;
The many twinkling lights of Heaven
Scarce glimmer in the blue--
Chill round me falls the breath of even,
Cold on my brow the dew;
Earth, stars, and heavens are lost to sight--
The chase is o'er!--brave friend, good-night!