Tom and Drake at the Lifting Rocks.
I now take my readers to Hawk’s Nest. There sets, or rather lay, two young
men, not yet out of their teens, under one of the Lifting Rocks. The wind
blew a gale from the northwest and the rain fell in torrents. They were
dressed in hunter style. Both were strong and vigorous. One had a rifle
laying by his side and the other an Indian bow and arrows. Under the rock
lay a deer that they had killed just before the storm commenced. They
seemed to be very much attached to each other, but it was plain to be
seen that they were not brothers. Both had grown to the stature of men.
The elder, whose name was Charles Drake, weighed about one hundred and
fifty pounds, with light eyes and hair. The other was called Tom Quick.
He was of dark features, black hair and brown eyes. And as they lay under
the rock waiting for the rain to cease, they engaged in the following
conversation:
I say, Tom, how do you think these large rocks got on the top of these
large stones?
I don’t know! replied Drake. I have often thought about that a great many
times. I suppose the Great Spirit placed them there. If the Great Spirit
piled up these mountains and dug out the great rivers, He could easily
lift one of these rocks.
Oh! replied Tom, that is a very easy way of building rocks, rivers and
mountains, to say the Great Spirit done it; but who made the Great Spirit
you are always talking about? Who has ever seen or heard him?
I can’t answer that, replied Drake; I only know what my squaw mother told
me; that the Great Spirit made all these things, and the Indian thinks he
sees the Great Spirit in the lofty mountain, foaming streams and rustling
leaves. He thinks he hears Him in the whistling wind, the roaring
cataract and the belching thunder. He thinks he feels Him here, (laying
his hand on his heart.) He believes that when he dies he will meet this
Great Spirit in the happy hunting grounds, never to part again. But Tom,
what does your own good mother tell you about these things?
Tom seemed to awake from a dream. He had listened attentively to what his
companion had said, and it seemed to have awakened new ideas in his mind.
My mother, replied Tom, talks about these things in a different way. She
hates the Indian and the Indian’s Great Spirit. She says God done all
these wonderful things, and she reads to us from an old leather book,
held together by iron straps; that God made the mountains and rivers;
the trees and flowers; the birds and the fish; the thunder and the
lightning; and last of all he made man; and that if we are good, when we
die we will go to God and live with him forever.
Did your mother or any of you ever see God? asked Drake.
No, replied Tom, mother says God is a Spirit and can’t be seen, but is in
everything and is everywhere; that he is now looking at us and hears what
we say.
It was now Drake’s turn to be astonished. The white man’s God saw all
that was said and done: He even heard what he and Tom was talking about.
Throwing himself on the other side, he remained silent for a few moments,
and then said:
Tom, I guess there ain’t much difference between the white man’s God and
the Indian’s Great Spirit. Neither of them have been seen, but both of
them have done all these wonderous works. It looks to me that they are
the same certain something that we don’t know—can’t know much about until
we arrive at the Great Hunting Grounds.
Thus, these untutored youths speculated upon what has racked the brains
of philosophers of all ages, and with about the same results.
I say, Tom, do you think that the Great God, or Great Spirit, (I don’t
think it makes much difference which you call them,) works as we do? That
he has hands, feet, eyes and ears? That he smooths these rocks as we do
the stones that we grind corn with? That it was in this way he made the
Bottle Rocks that stick up in the Neversink river?
I don’t know, replied Tom, scratching his head as if in search of an
idea. I only know what the missionary says about it. He says the Bottle
Rocks were once large, ragged rocks that broke loose from the mountain
and fell into a pool of water, and for ages were whirled about until they
were made into the shape of a bottle. But on the Steneykill there are
two other funny made stones—large white ones—as large as the rock we lie
under—in the shape of a heart. They are just alike, yet they are hundreds
of feet apart. The missionary says they were once in one stone and were
frozen in the ice. That when the warm weather came, the ice brought them
down here. That the ice struck a mountain of stone and split the rock
into two parts and dropped one half and carried the other half a little
further and then dropped that.
Who and what is this missionary that knows so much? asked Drake.
Oh, said Tom, he is a man; only a man, and looks just as we do.
Oh! I am glad of that, replied Drake; I thought he might be the God your
mother’s book tells about.
Drake, you often speak about your squaw mother. Where is your real mother?
That I don’t know, replied Drake. I have no recollections of any mother,
except the old Indian woman that I lived with, until your father captured
me on the Mongaup. From my earliest recollection, I remained in the
Indian camp until the time I came to your house, and since that time,
your mother has been my mother. From what I could learn whilst I was
among the Indians, my father and mother lived on a big boat that had big
guns that made a noise as loud as thunder, and would carry a thousand
Indian canoes on deck. And it was whilst father and mother were on shore
that the Indians stole me and carried me off, for the purpose of getting
big money. And this was about all they would tell me. The first that I
can remember, we lived in a big rock house (cave.) It is not a great way
from the place the Indians call Stockbridge. It was with the Stockbridge
Indians I lived. My old Indian mother used me as well as other Indian
children were used. When they went on their war or hunting expeditions,
the women and children were generally left at home. Our living was wild
game and Indian corn. Every year, a party was formed to go on a hunt
for beaver and otter, for the purpose of getting their furs to sell to
the traders, for which they got in return beads, knives, tomahawks and
fire-water. It was on one of these hunting expeditions after otter, at
the head-waters of the Mongaup, that your father captured me.
I have said that usually, my Indian mother used me well. But there were
times when she was cruel. When she got mad she was furious, and would
come at me with all vengeance, with knife, club, or anything she could
get hold of. Then I would run in the woods to get away from her, and
sometimes stay three or four days.
It was on one of these occasions that your father found me and brought me
to your house, and you know the rest.
Did the Indians make that black spot on your breast? asked Tom.
I don’t know, replied Drake. It has always been there. The Indians called
it big canoe. Look, Tom, and see what it looks like, said Drake, at the
same time baring his bosom.
Why Drake, that is an anchor! said Tom; and sure enough, there is a big
canoe; yes, and there are letters on it, like the ones in mother’s old
bible. There is C. D. on the top, and E. N. on the bottom. That wan’t
made by the Indians, Drake, maybe your father put that there. It don’t
look like Indian work; they paint themselves, but that rubs off, but this
don’t rub off. Water won’t wash it out.
No, replied Drake, the more I wash it, the plainer it gets. It seems to
be under the skin.
What did they call you when you were among the Indians? asked Tom.
“Swift Foot,” replied Drake.
And why did father name you Drake, when he brought you to our house?
He said that, or something like that was my name; that it was painted on
my breast.
I see, replied Tom. “C. D.,” that means Charles Drake.
The sun was now down. The wind whistled and the rain fell in torrents.
The hawks had hid themselves within the caverns of the rocks. The beasts
of prey had sought refuge from the storm, and the boys concluded to
remain under the rock until morning.
Thus, they slept in unconscious bliss, when suddenly they were aroused by
an unearthly noise that pierced them to their hearts. Such shrieks were
calculated to arouse the slumbering dead. Tom caught his rifle, and Drake
his bow and arrows. The storm had cleared; the rain had ceased, and the
sun was just rising over the Shawangunk Mountains. The shrieks continued.
What does this mean? cried Drake, are the Indians upon us? and is this
their war-whoop?
No, replied Tom, it is the hawks. They are out in full force.
I should think so, replied Drake. They are so thick that they darken the
sun. See them dive down. They think that they see the carcass of a deer
in the river, and want to pick its bones for breakfast, but something
scares them back.
Tom, by this time, was at the top of the pinnacle where he could see
miles up and down the river. The banks were full and the whole river was
strewn with logs, trees and drift-wood. The hawks continued to dive down
towards the water, then suddenly rising and screaming.
I see! I see! cried Tom. See there, Drake; there is a raft just going
through the Cellar Hole! Yes, by Jove! there it goes, and there is
something on it!
That is so, rejoined Drake. It is a bear.
Yes, it is a bear, but what is that it is standing over? It is a woman. I
see her dress.
It must be a tame bear, rejoined Drake. See it lick the woman’s hand.
Stop! said Tom, I see two women there, a big and little one, and the
little one lays across the big one. There is something else there—a cat
or rabbit; yes, and the bear is a dog.
These, said Drake, are some of the up-the-river-folks, that have been
washed away, and got on the raft for safety. I guess they are all dead
but the dog. But we must try and save them. If there is any life in them,
it will be drowned out in going through the rift below the Island.
Then they sprang down the rocks like two antelopes. Reaching the river,
Tom was about to plunge in.
Stop! cried his companion. Nothing but a duck or its mate can live in
that water; I am the mate of the duck; I am the Drake that will venture!
And suiting the action to the word, plunged in. For a moment he
disappeared in the surging foam, and then rose to the surface. The river
was so thick with drift-wood that it was with difficulty he could stem
the current.
At last he reaches the raft.
The cat mews—the dog whines, but the women remain as silent as the grave.
By superhuman efforts, Drake lands the raft at the head of the Island,
at the mouth of the Shinglekill. Tom had run along the bank, swam the
Bennykill, and was at Drake’s side when the raft landed.
Are they dead? exclaimed a rough, stentorian voice that could be heard
above the slash of the water, emanating from a person now for the first
time introduced to our readers.
I guess so father, they don’t move, replied Tom.
The old man jumped into the canoe and bent his head over the prostrate
form of the child. After listening for a moment, he snatched her in his
arms and said:
Her heart beats; as long as that beats, there is life, and as long as
there is life, there is hope. Take her to the house, Drake, and tell
Betsy to put her to bed and cover her with bear skins.
Drake caught her in his arms and waded across the Bennykill, and gently
laid her in bed and covered her with skins.
The old man now made an examination of the mother, during which time
Rolla kept whining. He would jump up to her and bark—as much as to say
“Look up Mary, you are in the hands of friends.” But no signs of life
appeared. Tapping the dog on the head, the old man said:
Faithful animal, more faithful than some that claim to have souls; not
only to death, but faithful after. Yes, dog, you may bark—you have a
right to bark, but you can’t bark her back, she has gone to the Indians’
fair Hunting Ground. But we must respect the dead. Here, Tom, help place
her in the canoe, we will take her ashore and give her Christian burial.
Tom raised her up, and as he did so, large quantities of water came from
her mouth. The dog barked and sprang towards her.
That is a good sign, said the old man, the dog has discovered life.
Brute, as he is, yet instinct tells him more than the wisest men know.
Look! cried Tom excitedly. Her eyes quiver and her lips move. Bend
yourself to the paddle, Tom! Pull for your life! Pull! We may save her
yet!
The shore was soon reached, and the lifeless body of the mother was laid
by the side of her child.