The flatboat continued its course, and some slight signs of civilization
began to appear at long intervals. Towards the end of a beautiful day in
June, six weeks after our departure from New Orleans, the flatboat stopped
at the pass of Lake Chicot.[13] The sun was setting in a belt of gray
clouds. Our men fastened their vessel securely and then cast their eyes
about them.
"Ah!" cried Mario, "I do not like this place; it is inhabited." He pointed
to a wretched hut half hidden by the forest. Except two or three little
cabins seen in the distance, this was the first habitation that had met
our eyes since leaving the Mississippi.[14]
A woman showed herself at the door. She was scarcely dressed at all. Her
feet were naked, and her tousled hair escaped from a wretched handkerchief
that she had thrown upon her head. Hidden in the bushes and behind the
trees half a dozen half-nude children gazed at us, ready to fly at the
slightest sound. Suddenly two men with guns came out of the woods, but at
the sight of the flatboat stood petrified. Mario shook his head.
"If it were not so late I would take the boat farther on."
[Yet he went hunting with 'Tino and Gordon along the shore, leaving the
father of Françoise and Suzanne lying on the deck with sick headache,
Joseph fishing in the flatboat's little skiff, and the women and children
on the bank, gazed at from a little distance by the sitting figures of the
two strange men and the woman. Then the hunters returned, supper was
prepared, and both messes ate on shore. Gordon and Mario joining freely in
the conversation of the more cultivated group, and making altogether a
strange Babel of English, French, Spanish, and Italian.]
After supper Joseph and Alix, followed by my sister and me, plunged into
the denser part of the woods.
"Take care, comrade," we heard Mario say; "don't go far."
The last rays of the sun were in the treetops. There were flowers
everywhere. Alix ran here and there, all enthusiasm. Presently Suzanne
uttered a cry and recoiled with affright from a thicket of blackberries.
In an instant Joseph was at her side; but she laughed aloud, returned to
the assault, and drew by force from the bushes a little girl of three or
four years. The child fought and cried; but Suzanne held on, drew her to
the trunk of a tree, sat down, and held her on her lap by force. The poor
little thing was horribly dirty, but under its rags there were pretty
features and a sweetness that inspired pity. Alix sat down by my sister
and stroked the child's hair, and, like Suzanne, spite of the dirt, kissed
her several times; but the little creature still fought, and yelled [in
English]:
"Let me alone! I want to go home! I want to go home!"
Joseph advised my sister to let the child go, and Suzanne was about to do
so when she remembered having at supper filled her pocket with pecans. She
quickly filled the child's hands with them and the Rubicon was passed....
She said that her name was Annie; that her father, mother, and brothers
lived in the hut. That was all she could say. She did not know her
parents' name. When Suzanne put her down she ran with all her legs towards
the cabin to show Alix's gift, her pretty ribbon.
Before the sun went down the wind rose. Great clouds covered the horizon;
large rain-drops began to fall. Joseph covered the head of his young wife
with her mantle, and we hastened back to the camp.
"Do you fear a storm, Joseph?" asked Alix.
"I do not know too much," he replied; "but when you are near, all dangers
seem great."
We found the camp deserted; all our companions were on board the flatboat.
The wind rose to fury, and now the rain fell in torrents. We descended to
our rooms. Papa was asleep. We did not disturb him, though we were greatly
frightened.... Joseph and Gordon went below to sleep. Mario and his son
loosed the three bull-dogs, but first removed the planks that joined the
boat to the shore. Then he hoisted a great lantern upon a mast in the bow,
lighted his pipe, and sat down to keep his son awake with stories of
voyages and hunts.
The storm seemed to increase in violence every minute. The rain redoubled
its fury. Frightful thunders echoed each other's roars. The flatboat,
tossed by the wind and waves, seemed to writhe in agony, while now and
then the trunks of uprooted trees, lifted by the waves, smote it as they
passed. Without a thought of the people in the hut, I made every effort to
keep awake in the face of these menaces of Nature. Suzanne held my hand
tightly in hers, and several times spoke to me in a low voice, fearing to
wake papa, whom we could hear breathing regularly, sleeping without a
suspicion of the surrounding dangers. Yet an hour had not passed ere I was
sleeping profoundly. A knock on the partition awoke us and made us run to
the door. Mario was waiting there.
"Quick, monsieur! Get the young ladies ready. The flatboat has probably
but ten minutes to live. We must take the women and children ashore. And
please, signorina,"--to my sister,--"call M. and Mme. Carpentier." But
Joseph had heard all, and showed himself at the door of our room.
"Ashore? At such a time?"
"We have no choice. We must go or perish."
"But where?"
"To the hut. We have no time to talk. My family is ready"....
It took but a few minutes to obey papa's orders. We were already nearly
dressed; and as sabots were worn at that time to protect the shoes from
the mud and wet, we had them on in a moment. A thick shawl and a woolen
hood completed our outfits. Alix was ready in a few moments.
"Save your jewels,--those you prize most,--my love," cried Carpentier,
"while I dress."
Alix ran to her dressing-case, threw its combs, brushes, etc., pell-mell
into the bureau, opened a lower part of the case and took out four or five
jewel-boxes that glided into her pockets, and two lockets that she hid
carefully in her corsage. Joseph always kept their little fortune in a
leathern belt beneath his shirt. He put on his vest and over it a sort of
great-coat, slung his gun by its shoulder-belt, secured his pistols, and
then taking from one of his trunks a large woolen cloak he wrapped Alix in
it, and lifted her like a child of eight, while she crossed her little
arms about his neck and rested her head on his bosom. Then he followed us
into Mario's room, where his two associates were waiting. At another time
we might have laughed at Maggie, but not now. She had slipped into her
belt two horse-pistols. In one hand she held in leash her bull-dog Tom,
and in the other a short carbine, her own property.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] That is, "Lake full of snags."--TRANSLATOR.
[14] The Indian village having the Mississippi probably but a few miles in
its rear.--TRANSLATOR.