WINTER AND SPRING
Snow came as it comes to us in the Northland--a blinding fall, heavy and
monotonous--and in forty-eight hours the Johnstown Road was blocked.
Followed a day of dazzling sunshine and intense cold, which set our
timbers cracking; and the snow, like finest flour, creaked under our
snow-shoes.
All the universe had turned to blue and silver; and the Vlaie Water ran
fathomless purple between its unstained snows. But that night the clouds
returned and winds grew warmer, and soon the skies opened with feathery
white volleys, and the big, thick flakes stormed down again,
obliterating alike the work of nature and of man.
Summer House was covered to the veranda eaves. We made shovels and
cleared the roofs and broke paths to stable and well.
Here, between dazzling ramparts, we lived and moved and had our being,
week after week; and every new snow-storm piled higher our palisades and
buried the whole land under one vast white pall.
Vlaie Water froze three feet solid; fierce winds piled the ice with
gigantic drifts so that no man could mark the course of the creeks any
more; and a vast white desolation stretched away to the mountains,
broken only by naked hard-wood forests or by the interminable ocean of
the pines weighted deep with snow.
Only when a crust came were we at any pains to set a watch against a war
party from the Canadas. But none arrived; no signal smoke stained the
peaks; nothing living stirred on that dead white waste save those little
grey and whining birds which creep all day up and down tree-trunks, or a
sudden gusty flight of snow-birds, which suddenly arrive from nowhere
and are gone as suddenly.
Once a white owl with yellow eyes sat upon the ridge-pole of our barn;
but our pullets were safe within, and Penelope drove him away with
snowballs.
The deer yarded on Maxon; lynx-tracks circled our house and barn, and
we sometimes heard old tassel-ears a-miauling on the Stacking Ridge.
And, toward the end of February, there were two panthers that left huge
cat-prints across the drifts on the Johnstown Road; but they took no
toll of our sheep, which were safe in a stone fold, though the oaken
door to it bore marks of teeth and claws, where the pumas had striven
hard to break in and do murder.
Save when a crust formed and we took our turns on guard, my Indian
rolled himself in bear-furs by the kitchen oven, and like a bear he
slept there until hunger awoke him long enough to gorge for another
stretch of sleep.
Nick and I took axes to the woods and drew logs on a sledge to split for
fire use. Our tasks, too, kept us busy feeding our live creatures,
fetching water, keeping paths open, and fishing through the ice.
In idler intervals we carved devices upon our powder-horns, cured
deer-skins in the Oneida fashion, boiled pitch and mended our canoe,
fashioned paddles, poles, and shafts for fish-spears, strung snow-shoes,
built a fine sledge out of ash and hickory, and made Kaya draw us on the
crust.
So, all day, each was busy with tasks and duties, and had little leisure
left for that dull restlessness which, in idle people, is the root of
all the mischief they devise to do.
Penelope mended our clothing and knitted mittens and jerkins. All
house-work and cooking she accomplished, and milked and churned and
cared for the pullets. Also, she dipped candles and moulded bullets from
the lead bars I found in the gun-room. And when our deer-skins were
cured and softened, she made for us soft wallets, sacks, and pouches,
and sewed upon them bright beads in the Oneida fashion, from the pack of
trade beads in Sir William's gun-room. She sewed upon every accoutrement
a design done in scarlet beads, showing a picture of a little red foot.
Lord, but we meant to emerge from our snows in brave fashion, come
spring-tide; for now our deer-skin garments were splendid with beads,
and our fringes were green and purple. Also, Nick had trapped it some
when opportunity offered, setting his line from Summer House along Vlaie
Water to Howell's house, thence across the frozen Drowned Lands to the
Stacking Ridge, and from there back over the Spring Pool, and thence
down-creek to the Sacandaga, where Fish House stood with its glazed
windows empty as a blind man's eyes.
He had, by March, a fine pack of peltry; and of these we cured and used
sufficient muskrat to sew us blankets, and made a mantle of otter for
Penelope and a hood and muff to match.
For ourselves we made us caps out of black mink, and sewed all together
by our dip-lights in the red firelight, where apples slowly sizzled with
the rich, sweet perfume I love to smell.
Sometimes Nick played upon his fife; and sometimes we all told stories
and roasted chestnuts. Nick had more stories and more imagination than
had I, and a livelier wit in the telling of tales. But chiefly I was
willing to hear Penelope when she told us of her childhood in France,
and how folk lived in that warm and sweet country, and what were their
daily customs.
Also, she sang sometimes children's songs of France, and other pretty
ballads, mostly concerning love. For the French occupy themselves
chiefly with love and cooking and the fine arts, I judge, and know how
to make an art of eating, also. For there in France every meal is a
ceremony; but in this land we eat not for the pleasurable taste which,
in savory food, delights and tempts, but we eat swiftly and carelessly
and chiefly to stay our hunger.
Yet, at times, food smacks smartly to my tongue; as when at Christmas
tide I shot a great wild turkey on the Stacking Ridge; and when Penelope
basted it in the kitchen my mouth watered as I sniffed the door-crack.
And again, gone stale with soupaan and jerked meat and fish soused or
dried with salt, Nick shot a yearling buck near our barn at daylight;
and the savour of his cooking filled all with pleasure.
Upon the New Year we made a feast and had a bottle of Sir William's
port, another of Madeira, a punch of spirits, and three pewters of
buttery ale.
Lord! there was a New Year. And first, not daring to give drink to my
Saguenay, we fed him till he was gorged, and so rolled him in a pile of
furs till he slept by the oven below. Then we set twenty dips afire by
the chimney, and filled it up with dry logs.... I am sorry we had so
little sense; for I was something fuddled, and sang ballads--which I can
not--and Nick would dance, which he did by himself; and his hornpipes
and pigeon-wings and shuffles and war-dances made my head spin and my
heavy eyes desire to cross.
Penelope's cheeks burned, and she fanned and fanned her with a turkey
wing and laughed to see Nick caper and to hear the piteous squalling
which was my way of singing.
But she complained that the dip-lights danced and that the floor behaved
in strange fashion, running like ripples on Vlaie Water in a west wind.
She had sipped but one glass of Sir William's port, but I think it was a
glass too much; for the wine made her so hot, so she vowed, that her
body was all one ardent coal, and so presently she pulled the hair-pegs
from her hair and let it down and shook it out in the firelight till it
flashed like a golden scarf flung about her.
Her pannier basque of rose silk--gift of Claudia and made in France--she
presently slipped out of, leaving her in her petticoat and folded like a
Quakeress in her crossed foulard, and her white arms as bare as her
neck.
Which innocently concerned her not a whit, nor had she any more thought
of her throat's loveliness than she had of herself in her shift that
morning at Bowman's.
She sat cooling her face with the turkey-wing fan and watching Nick's
contre-dancing--his own candle-cast shadow on the wall dancing
vis-a-vis--and she laughed and laughed, a-fanning there, like a child
delighted by the antics of two older brothers, while Nick whirled on
moccasined feet in his mad career, and I fifed windily to time his
gambolading.
Then we played country games, but she would not kiss us as forfeit,
defending her lips and vowing that no man should ever again take that
toll of her.
Which contented me, though I remonstrated; and I was glad that Nick
should not cheapen her lips though it cost me the same privilege. For we
played "Swallow! Swallow!" and I guessed correctly how many apple pips
she held in her hand when she sang:
"Who can count the swallow's eggs?
Try it, Master Nimble-legs!
Climb and find a swallow's nest,
Count the eggs beneath her breast,
Take an egg and leave the rest
And kiss the maid you love the best!"
But it was her hand only we might kiss, and but one finger at that--the
smallest--for, says she, "John Drogue hath said it, and I am mistress of
Summer House! What I choose to give--or forgive--is of my proper
choice.... And I do not choose to be kissed by any man whether he wears
silk puce or deer-skin shirt!"
But the devil prompted me to remember Steve Watts, and my countenance
changed.
"Do you bar regimentals?" I asked, forcing a wry smile.
She knew what was in my mind, for jealousy grinned at her out of my
every feature; and she came toward me and laid her light hand upon my
arm.
"Or red coat or blue, my lord," she said, her smile fading to a glimmer,
"men have had of me my last complaisance. Are you not content? You
taught me, sir."
"If he taught you that a kiss is folly, he taught you more folly than is
in a thousand kisses!" cries Nick. "Why," said he, turning on me, "you
pitiful, sober-faced, broad-brimmed spoil-sport!" says he, "what are
lips made for, you meddlesome ass, and be damned to you!"
Instantly we were in clinch like two bears; and we wrestled and strained
and swayed there, panting and nigh stifled with our laughter, till we
fell with a crash that shook the house and set the bottles clinking; and
there thrashed like a pair o' pups till I got his shoulders flat.
But it was nothing--he being the younger--and he leaped up and fell to
treading an Oneida battle-dance, while Penelope and I did beat upon the
table, singing:
"Ha-wa-sa-say!
Hah!
Ha-wa-sa-say--"
till the door opened and there stands my Saguenay, bleary-eyed,
sleep-muddled, but his benumbed brain responsive to the thumping cadence
of the old scalp-song.
But I pushed him down stairs ere he had sniffed a lung-full of our
punch, having no mind to face a drink-mad Indian that night or any
other.
So I went below and piled the furs upon him and waited till he snored
before I left him to his hibernation.
Such childishness! Who would believe it of us that were no longer
children! And all alone there in a little house amid a vast and wintry
wilderness, where no living thing stirred abroad save the white hare's
ghost in the starlight, and the shadow of the lean, weird beast that
tracked her.
Well, if we conducted like children we were as light-minded and as
innocent. There was in our behaviour no lesser levity; in our mirth no
grossness; in our jests and stories no license of the times nor any
country coarseness in our speech.
Nor, in me, now remained aught of that sick-heart jealousy nor
sentimental disorder which lately had seized me and upset my sense and
reason.
My sentiments concerning Penelope seemed very clear to me now;--a warm
liking; a chivalrous desire for her well-being and happiness; a pride
that I had been, in some measure, the instrument which had awakened her
to her own prerogatives in a world whose laws are made by men.
And if, on such an occasion as this, she gave us her countenance and
even frolicked with us, there was a new and clearer note in her
laughter, a swifter confidence in her smile, and, in voice and look and
movement, a subtle and shy authority which had not been there in the
inexperienced and candid child whose heart seemed bewildered when
assaulted, and whose lips, undefended, rendered them to the first
marauder.
I said as much, one day, to Nick.
"You've turned the child's head," said he, "with your kingly
benefactions. You have but to woo her if you want her to wife."
"Wife!" said I, scared o' the very word. "What the devil shall I do with
a wife, who am contented as I am? Also, it is not in her mind, nor in
mine, who now are pleasant friends and comrades.... Also," I added,
"love is a disorder and begets a brood of jealousies to plague a man to
death! I am calm and contented. I am enamoured of no woman, and do not
desire to be so.... Although, when I pass thirty, and possess estates,
doubtless I shall desire an heir."
"And go a-hunting a mother for this same heir among the gilt-hats of New
York," said Nick. "Which is your destiny, John Drogue, for like seeks
like, and a yeoman is born, not made;--and wears his rings in his
ears----"
"Have done!" said I impatiently. "I _am_ of the soil! I love it! I love
plowed land and corn and the smell of stables! I love my log house and
my glebe and the smell of English grass!"
"But a servant is a servant, John Drogue, and the mistress of your roof
shall have walked in silk before she ever puts on homespun and pattens
for love of you! Lord, man! I am I, and you are you! And we mate not
with the same breed o' birds. No! For mine shall be a ground-chick of
sober hue and feather; and your sweetheart shall have bright wings and
own the air for a home.
"That is already written: 'each after its kind.' So God send you your
rainbow lady from the clouds, and give you a pretty heir in due event;
and as for me, if I guess right, my mate to be hath never fluttered
higher than her garret nor worn a shred of silk till she sews her
wedding dress!"
* * * * *
On the last day of March maple sap ran.
Nick and I set out that day to seek a sugar-bush for the new mistress of
Summer House.
Snow was soft and our snow-shoes scarce bore us, but we floundered along
the hard woods, and presently discovered a grove of stately maples.
All that day we were busy in the barn making buckets out o' staves
stored there; and on the first day of April we waded the softening snow
to the new sugar-bush, tapped the trees, set our spouts and buckets, and
also drew thither a kettle and dry wood against future need.
I remember that the day was clear and warm, where, in the sun, the barn
doors stood open and the chickens ventured out to scratch about, where
the sun had melted the snow.
All day long our cock was a-crowing and a-courting; the south wind came
warm with spring and fluttered the wash which Penelope was hanging out
to dry and whiten under soft, blue skies.
In pattens she tripped about the slushy yard, her thick, bright hair
pegged loosely, and her child's bosom and arms as white as the snow she
stepped on.
Save only for my Saguenay, who stood on the veranda roof, resting upon
his rifle, the scene was sweet and peaceful. Sheep bleated in yard and
fold; cattle lowed in their manger; our cock's full-throated challenge
rang out under sunny skies; and everywhere the blue air was murmurous
with the voice of rills running from the melting snows like mountain
brooks.
On Vlaie Water the ice rotted awash; and already black crows were
walking there, and I could see them busily searching the dead and yellow
sedge, from where I sat hooping my sap-buckets and softly whistling to
myself.
Nick made a snowball and flung it at me, but I dodged it. Then Penelope
made another and aimed it at me so truly that the soft lump covered my
cap and shoulders with snow.
But her quick peal of laughter was checked when I sprang up to chasten
her, and she fled on her pattens, but I caught her around the corner of
the house under the lilacs.
"You should be trussed up and trounced like any child," said I, holding
her with one hand whilst I scraped out snow from my neck with t'other.
At that she bent and flung a handful of snow over me; and I seized her,
bent her back, and scrubbed her face till it was pink.
Choked with snow and laughter, we swayed together, breathless, she still
defiant and snatching up snow to fling over me.
"_You_ truss _me_ up!" she panted. "Do you think you are more than a boy
to use me as a father or a husband only has the right?"
"You little minx!" said I, when I had spat out a mouthful of snow, "is
not anyone free to trounce a child!----"
At that I slipped, or she tripped me; into a drift I went, and she
pounced on me and sat astride with a cry of triumph.
"Now," says she, "I shall take your scalp, my fine friend"; and twisted
one hand in my hair.
"Hiu-u! Kou-ee!" she cried, "a scalp taken means war to the end! Do you
cry me mercy, John Drogue?"
I struggled, but the snow was soft and I sank the deeper, and could not
unseat her.
"I drown in snow," said I. "Get up, you jade!"
"Jade!" cries she, and stopped my mouth with snow.
I struggled in vain; under her clinging weight the soft snow engulfed
and held me like a very quicksand. I looked up at her and she laughed
down at me.
"Do you yield you, John Drogue?"
"It seems I must. But wait!----"
"You threaten!"
"No! Do you mean to drown me, you vixen!"
"You engage not to seek revenge?"
"I do so."
"Why? Because you love me tenderly?"
"Yes," said I, half choked. "Let me up, you plague of Egypt!"
"That is not a loving speech, John Drogue. Do you love me or no?"
"Yes, I do,--you little,----"
"Little what?"
"Object of my heart's desire!" I fairly yelled. "I am like to smother
here!----"
"This is All Fools' Day," says she, sick with laughter to see me mad and
at her mercy. "Therefore, you must tell me lies, not truths. Tell me a
pretty lie,--quickly!--else I scrub your features!"
After a helpless heave or two I lay still.
"You say you love me tenderly. That is a lie, John Drogue--it being All
Fools' Day. So you shall vow, instead, that you hate me. Come, then!"
"I hate you!" said I, licking the snow from my lips.
"Passionately?"
I looked up at her where deep in the snow, under the lilacs, I lay, my
arms spread and her two hands pinning my wrists. She was flushed with
laughter and I saw the devils o' mischief watching me deep in her dark
eyes.
"It was under these lilacs," said I, "that I had my first hurt of you.
You should heal that hurt now."
That confused her, and she blushed and swore to punish me for that
fling; but I grinned at her.
"Come," said I, "heal me of my ancient wound as you dealt it me--with
your lips!"
"I did not kiss Steve Watts!"
"But he kissed you. So do the like by me and I forgive you all."
"All?"
"Everything."
"Even what I have now done?"
"Even that."
"And you will not truss me up to chasten me when you go free? For it
would shame me and I could not endure it."
"I promise."
She looked down at me, smiling, uncertain.
"What will you do to me if I do not?" she asked.
"Drown you in snow three times every day."
"And I needs must kiss you to buy my safety?"
"Yes, and with hearty good will, too."
She glanced hastily around, perhaps to seek an avenue for escape,
perhaps to see who might spy us.
Then, looking down at me, a-blush now, yet laughing, she bent her head
slowly, very slowly to mine, and rested her lips on mine.
Then she was up and off like a young tree-lynx, fleeing, stumbling on
her pattens; but, like a white hare, I lay very still in my form,
unstirring, gazing up into the bluest, softest sky that my dazzled eyes
ever had unclosed upon.
There was a faint fragrance in the air. It may have been arbutus--or the
trace of her lips on mine.
In my ears trilled the pretty melody of a million little snow rills
running in the sunshine. I heard the gay cock-crow from the yard, the
restless lowing of cattle, the distant caw of a crow flying high over
the Drowned Lands.
When at last I got to my feet a strange, new soberness had come over me,
stilling exhilaration, quieting the rough and boyish spirits which had
possessed me.
Penelope, hanging out linen to sweeten, looked at me over her shoulder,
plainly uncertain concerning me. But I kept my word and did not offer to
molest her, and so went about my cooper's work again, where Nick also
squatted, matching bucket staves, whilst I fell to shaping sap-pans.
It was very still there in the sunshine. And, as I sat there, it seemed
to me that I was putting more behind me than the icy and unsullied
months of winter,--and that I should never be a boy any more, with a
boy's passionless and untroubled soul.
* * * * *
And so came spring upon us in the Northland that fateful year of '77,
with blue skies and melting snow and the cock's clarion sounding clear.
But it was mid-April before the first Forest Runner, with pelts, passed
through the Sacandaga, twelve days out from Ty, and the woods nigh
impassable, he gave account, what with soft drifts choking the hills and
all streams over their banks.
And then, for the first, we learned something concerning the great war
that was waging everywhere around our outer borders,--how His Excellency
had surprised the Hessians at Trenton, and had tricked Cornwallis and
beat up the enemy at Princeton. It was amazing to realize that His
Excellency, with only the frozen fragments of a meagre and defeated
army, had recovered all the Jerseys. But this was so, thank God; and we
wondered to hear of it.
All this the Forest Runner told us as he ate and drank in the
kitchen,--and how Lord Stirling had been made a major-general, and that
we had now enlisted four fine regiments of horse to curb DeLancy's bold
riders; and how that great Tory, John Penn, who was lately Governor of
Pennsylvania, Thomas Wharton, and Benjamin Chew, had been packed off
with other villains as prisoners into Virginia. Which pleased me,
because of all that Quaker treachery in the proprietary; and I deemed
them mean and selfish and self-righteous dogs who whined all day of
peace and brotherhood and non-resistance, and did conduct most cruelly
by night for greed and sordid gain.
Not that I liked the New Englanders the better; but, of the two,
preferred them and had rather they settled the Pennsylvania wilds than
that the sly, smug proprietaries multiplied there and nursed treason at
the breast.
Well, our Coureur-du-Bois, in his greasy leather, quills, and scarlet
braid, had other news for us less palatable.
For it seemed that we had lost two thousand men and all their artillery
when Fort Washington fell; that we had lost a hundred more men and
eleven vessels to Sir Guy Carleton on Lake Champlain; that the garrison
at Ty was a slim one and sick for the most, and the relief regiments
were so slow in filling that three New England states were drafting
their soldiery by force.
There were rumours rife concerning the summer campaign, and how the
British had a plan to behead our new United States by lopping off all
New England.
It was to be done in this manner: Guy Carleton's army was to come down
from the North through the lakes, driving Gates, descend the Hudson to
Albany and there join Clinton and his British, who were to force the
Highlands, march up the river, and so hold all the Hudson, which would
cut the head--New England--from the body of the new nation.
And to make this more certain, there was now gathering in the West an
army under Butler and Brant, to strike the Mohawk Valley, sweep through
it to Schenectady, and there come in touch with Burgoyne.
To oppose this terrible invasion from three directions we had forts on
the Hudson and a few troops; but His Excellency was engaged south of
these points and must remain there.
We had, at Ty, a skeleton army, and Gates to lead it, with which to face
Burgoyne. We had, in the Mohawk Valley, to block the west and show a
bold front to Brant and Butler, only fragments of Van Schaick's and
Livingston's Continental line, now digging breastworks at Stanwix, a
company at Johnstown, and at a crisis, our Tryon County militia, now
drilling under Herkimer.
And, save for a handful of Rangers and Oneidas, these were all we had in
Tryon to resist the hordes that were gathering to march on us from
north, west and south,--British regulars with horse, foot, and
magnificent artillery; partizans and loyalists numbering 1200; a
thousand savages in their paint; Highlanders, Canadians, Hessians; Sir
John Johnson's regiment of Royal Greens; Colonel John Butler's regiment
of Rangers; McDonald's renegades and painted Tories--God! what a
murderous horde; and all to make their common tryst here in County
Tryon!
Our grim, lank Forest Runner sprawled on the settle by the kitchen
table, smoking his bitter Indian tobacco and drinking rum and water,
well sugared; and Penelope and Nick and I sat around him to listen, and
look gravely at one another as we learned more and more of what it
seemed that Fate had in storage for us.
The hot spiced rum loosened the Runner's tongue. His name was Dick
Jessup; and he was a hard, grim man whose business, from youth--which
was peltry--had led him through perilous ways.
He told us of wild and horrid doings, where solitary settlers and lone
trappers had been murdered by Guy Carleton's outlying Iroquois, from
Quebec to Crown Point.
Scores and scores of scalps had been taken; wretched prisoners had
suffered at the Iroquois stake under tortures indescribable--the mere
mention of which made Penelope turn sickly white and set Nick gnawing
his knuckles.
But what most infuriated me was the thought that in the regiments of old
John Butler and Sir John Johnson were scores of my old neighbors who now
boasted that they were coming back to cut our throats on our own
thresholds,--coming back with a thousand savages to murder women and
children and ravage all with fire so that only a blackened desert should
remain of the valleys and the humble homes we had made and loved.
Jessup said, puffing the acrid willow smoke from his clay: "Where I lay
hidden near Oneida Lake, I saw a Seneca war party pass on the crust; and
they had fresh scalps which dripped on the snow.
"And, near Niagara, I saw Butler's Rangers manoeuvring on snow-shoes,
with drums and curly bugle-horns."
"Did you know any among them?" I asked sombrely.
"Why, yes. There was Michael Reed, kin to Henry Stoner."
"My cousin, damn him!" quoth Nick, calmly.
"He was a drummer in the Rangers of John Butler," nodded Jessup. "And I
saw Philip Helmer there in a green uniform, and Charles Cady, too, of
Fonda's Bush."
"All I ask," says Nick, "is to get these two hands on them. I demand no
weapons; I want only to feel my fingers closing on them." He sat staring
into space with the blank glare of a panther. Then, "Were they painted?"
he demanded.
"No," said Jessup, "but Simon Girty was and Newberry, too. There were a
dozen painted Tories or blue-eyed Indians,--whatever you call 'em,--and
they sat at a Seneca fire where the red post stood, and all eating
half-raw venison, guts and all----"
Penelope averted her pallid face and leaned her head on her hand.
Jessup took no notice: "They burned a prisoner that day. I was sick,
where I lay hidden, to hear his shrieks. And the British in their
cantonments could hear as plainly as I, yet nobody interfered."
"There could have been no British officer there," said Penelope, in the
ghost of a voice.
"Well, there were, then," said Jessup bluntly. Turning to me he added:
"There's a gin'rall there at Niagara, called St. Leger, and he's a
drunken son of a slut! We should not be afeard of that puffed up
bladder, and I hope he comes against us. But Butler has some smart
officers, like his son Walter, and Lieutenant Hare, and young Stephen
Watts----"
"You saw _him_ there!" exclaimed Penelope.
"Yes, I saw him in a green uniform; and, with him also, a-horse, rode
Sir John Johnson, all in red, and Walter Butler in black and green, and
his long cloak a-trail to his spurs. By God, there is a motley crew for
you--what with Brant in the saddle, in paint and buckskins and fur robe,
and shaved like any dirty Mohawk; and Hiakatoo, like a blackened devil
out o' hell, all barred with scarlet and wearing the head of a great
wolf for a cap, as well as the pelt to cover his war-paint!--and
McDonald, with his kilt and dirk, and the damned black eyes of him and
the two buck-teeth shining on his lips!--God!" he breathed; and took a
long pull at his pannikin of spiced rum.
* * * * *
That evening Jessup left for Johnstown on his way to Albany with his
peltry; and took with him a letter which I wrote to the Commandant at
Johnstown fort.
But it was past the first of May before I had any notice taken of my
letter; and on a Sunday came an Oneida runner, bearing two letters for
me; one from the Commandant, acquainting me that it was not his
intention to garrison Fish House or Summer House, that Nick and I were
sufficient to stand watch on the Mohawk Trail and Drowned Lands and
report any movement threatening the Valley from the North, and that what
few men he had must go to Stanwix, where the fort had not yet been
completed.
The other letter was writ me from Fonda's Bush by honest John Putman:
"Friend Jack" (says he), "this Bush is a desert indeed and all run
off,--the Tories to Canady,--such as the Helmers, Cadys, Bowmans,
Reeds, and the likes,--save Adam Helmer, who is of our
complexion,--and our own people who are friends to liberty have
fled to Johnstown excepting me,--all the women and children,--Jean
De Silver's family, De Luysnes' people, the Salisburys, Scotts,
Barbara Stoner, who married Conrad Reed and has gone to New York
now; and all the Putmans save myself, who shall go presently in
fear of the savages and Sir John.
"Sir, it is sad to see our housen empty and our fields fallow, and
weeds growing in plowed land. There remain no longer any cattle or
fowls or any beasts at all, only the wild poultry of the woods come
to the deserted doorsteps, and the red fox runs along the fence.
"Your house stands empty as it was when you marched away. Only
squirrels inhabit it now, and porcupines gnaw the corn-crib.
"Well, friend Jack, this is all I have to say. I shall drive my
oxen to Johnstown Fort tomorrow, and give this letter to the first
runner or express.
"I learn that you have bought the Summer House of the Commission. I
wish you joy of it, but it seems a perilous purchase, and I fear
that you shall soon be obliged to leave it.
"So, wishing you health, and beholden to you for many
kindnesses--as are we all who come from Fonda's Bush--I close, sir,
with respect and my obedience and duty to my brave young friend who
serves liberty that we old folk and our women and children shall
not perish or survive as British slaves.
"Sir, awaiting the dread onset of Sir John with that firmness which
becomes a good American, I am,
"Your obliged and humble servant,
"JOHN PUTMAN.
The Oneida left in an hour for Ty.
And it was, I think, an hour later when Nick comes a-running to find me.
"A fire at Fish House," he cries, "and a dense smoke mounting to the
sky!"
I flung aside my letter, ran to the kitchen, and called Penelope.
"Pack up and be ready to leave!" said I. And, to Nick: "Saddle Kaya and
be ready to take Penelope a-horse to Mayfield block-house. Call my
Indian!"
As I belted my shirt and stood ready, my Saguenay came swiftly, trailing
his rifle.
"Come," said I, "we must learn why that smoke towers yonder to the
sky."
Penelope took me by the sleeve:
"Do nothing rash, John Drogue," she said in a breathless way.
"Get you ready for flight," said I, fixing a fresh flint. "Nick shall
run at your stirrup if it comes to that pinch----"
"But _you_!"
"Why, I am well enough; and if the Iroquois are at Fish House then I
retreat through Varick's, and so by Fonda's Bush to Mayfield Fort."
She clasped her hands.
"I do not wish to leave Summer House," she said pitifully. "What is to
happen to our sheep and cattle--and to our fowls and all our stores--and
to Summer House itself?"
"God knows," said I impatiently. "Why do you stand there idle when you
must make ready for flight!"
"I--I can not bear to have you go to Fish House--all alone----"
"I have the Yellow Leaf, and can keep clear o' trouble. Come,
Penelope!----"
"When you move toward trouble I do not desire to flee the other way,
toward safety!----"
"Pack up, Penelope!" shouted Nick, leading Kaya into the orchard, all
saddled; and fell to making up his pack on the grass.
"At Mayfield Fort!" I called across to Nick. "And if I be not there by
night, then take Penelope to Johnstown, for it means that the Iroquois
are on the Sacandaga!"
"I mark you, Jack!" he replied. I turned to the girl:
"Farewell, Penelope," I said. "You shall be safe with Nick."
"But you, John Drogue?"
"Safe in the forest, always, and the devil himself could not catch me,"
said I cheerily.
She stretched out her hand. I took it, looked at her, then kissed her
fingers. And so went away swiftly, to where our canoe lay, troubled
because of this young girl whom I had no desire to fall truly in love
with, and yet knew I had been near to it many times that spring.
I got into the canoe and took the stern paddle; my Saguenay kneeled down
in the bow; and we shot out across the Vlaie Water.
Once I turned and looked back over my shoulder; and I saw Penelope
standing there on the grass, and Nick awaiting her with Kaya.
But I did not wish to feel as I felt at that moment. I did not desire to
fall in love. No!
"Au large!" I said to my Indian, and swept the birchen craft out into
the deep and steady current.