A DOUBTFUL ENTERPRISE.
One of the commendable habits of the early settlers and old-fashioned
folks was that of retiring and rising early. They were ardent believers
in the saying of Poor Richard that "early to bed, and early to rise,
makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."
It was not yet nine o'clock, when Jack and Otto, despite the deep
interest they felt in their projected campaign, voluntarily withdrew to
the other room, where they fell asleep within five minutes after their
heads touched the pillow. The mother remained by the fire some time
after the boys withdrew. Her small white fingers flitted hither back and
forth, while her mild brown eyes seemed to look beyond the flashing
needles, and into the glowing coals on the hearth. Her thoughts were sad
and sorrowful, as they always were when she sat thus alone. They
wandered back to that awful time when her loved husband was stricken
down in defence of her and their little boy.
But to-night she was thinking more of that boy than of the father. She
saw how much like the latter he was growing, and she trembled when she
recalled that he was soon to start on another excursion into the
wilderness, to be gone for days, and likely for weeks, and with no
certainty of ever returning again.
As the night advanced, the fury of the storm diminished. At "low twelve"
the fall of rain ceased altogether. The wind blew strongly, sometimes
with a power which caused the strongest trees to bow their heads to the
blast. As the morning approached, it died out altogether, and the sun
rose on one of the fairest days that ever was seen.
Early as was the orb, the inmates of the cabin were waiting to greet it
when it appeared above the horizon. The boys were in high spirits over
the beautiful morning, and both felt that it promised well for the
venture before them.
"I tell you _we're going to win_!" said Jack, compressing his lips and
shaking his head. "I feel it in my bones, as your father says, just
before a storm comes."
"Dot's vot I dinks," assented Otto, whose only discomfort was his
exceeding hunger: "Vot you dinks, Mrs. Carleton?"
"I hope you will not be disappointed; that is the most I can say. Jack's
feeling that you are going to succeed is simply his pleasure over the
prospect of a ramble in the woods. We will eat breakfast, after which
you can go home and make your preparations for the journey."
When they were seated at the table and Otto's hunger was nearly
satisfied, he told his friends with a grin, that it was the first food
he had tasted in twenty-four hours. They were shocked, and both took him
to task for his failure to make known the truth the evening before. He
made the philosophic reply that if he had done so he would have missed
the boundless enjoyment of such a meal as that of which he was then
partaking.
Mrs. Carleton on rising in the morning felt that Otto ought not to be
allowed to go on the expedition until after a further talk with his
parents, who, despite what they had said, might be unwilling for him to
engage in such an undertaking; but when she learned how the poor fellow
had been made to suffer with hunger her feelings changed. It was hard to
repress her indignation, and she made up her mind to talk to the cruel
folks as they had never been talked to before; but she allowed no
impatient word to escape her in the presence of their son. She simply
advised him to depart as soon as he could upon the hunt for the horse,
and not to return, if possible, until it was recovered or another
obtained.
"Dot is vot I does," replied Otto with a shake of his head and a
determined expression; "Otto doesn't comes back till he brings some kind
of animal--if it's only a 'coon or 'possum."
When he walked over to his own home (the building for which was
precisely the same as that of widow Carleton), his father and mother
were eating their breakfast. They looked surlily at him as he entered,
and the mother showed her incredible heartlessness by asking her only
child in German:
"Where is Toby that you lost?"
"How can I tell, mother, except that he is in the woods? I tried hard to
find him again, and had it not been for Deerfoot I would have lost my
life; but he is gone."
"Did I not tell you to go and not come back until you brought him with
you?" demanded the father, glaring at his boy as though he was ready to
throttle him.
"So you did--so you did; but I couldn't do much last night, when it was
so dark and stormy. I have come over to get my gun and ammunition."
The father and mother looked in each other's faces, as though in doubt
whether they would let the lad have the property, but before the
question could be debated Otto had flung the powder-horn over his
shoulders, adjusted the bullet-pouch, shoved the hunting-knife in the
girdle at his waist, and walked to the front door, where he halted and
looked back.
"Can't I have breakfast before I go?"
"No!" fairly shouted the father; "begone; you shall not have a mouthful
under my roof till you bring back the colt you have lost."
"Nobody wants anything you've got on _that_ table," the lad was
indignant enough to reply: "I've had one meal that was worth more than a
dozen like that. Good-by!"
And before the dumfounded parents could rally from the unparalleled
impudence of the youth he was gone.
When he reached the home of Jack Carleton, the latter was waiting and
impatient to start. Jack had already kissed his mother good-by several
times and he repeated the fond embrace. Tears were in the eyes of both,
and the mother stood in the door of her cabin shading her eyes with her
hand until the two passed from sight in the forest beyond the clearing.
Several of the pioneers who were busy about the settlement greeted the
boys and inquired their errand. Colonel Martin shook hands with them,
and asked all the particulars of the business on which they were
engaged. His age and position authorized him to ask such searching
questions, had the couple been full-grown men instead of boys.
Otto answered truthfully, and the colonel smiled grimly and shook his
head.
"It's mighty little chance you have of ever finding _that_ horse again,
but you may come upon another. Take my advice, however," added the
colonel with a wink of his left eye, "make certain the owner isn't in
sight when you walk off with the animal."
"Why, colonel, you don't think we mean to steal a horse!" exclaimed the
horrified Jack.
"Certainly not--certainly not," the principal man of the settlement
hastened to say, "I don't believe you could be persuaded to do such a
thing--that is if the owner was looking."
"We couldn't be persuaded to do such a thing _under any circumstances_,"
exclaimed Jack, his face flushing over the idea that any one who knew
him should suspect him capable of such a crime.
"See here," said the colonel, dropping his voice and stepping in front
of them, "you tell me you are going after a horse. Have you the money
with you to buy one?"
"No; we cannot get one _that_ way."
"I judged not; how then do you propose to obtain him?"
"Toby, the colt belonging to Otto's father, is wandering in the woods
not very far away----"
"How do you know he is?" interrupted the colonel.
"Why, he was doing so only a few days ago."
"That is no proof that he is keeping it up; in fact it is scarcely
possible that such is the case. Recollect, my boy, that several tribes
of Indians hunt through this portion of Louisiana, and they would be
much quicker than you to observe the trail of a horse wearing an iron
shoe; they would be inquiring enough also to investigate for themselves,
and, when they came upon the colt, they would snap him up quicker than
lightning."
The boys felt that somehow or other the wonderful young Shawanoe would
appear at the right moment and lend them the help which they were
certain to need. Should he fail to do so, they could no more recapture
and take the colt to his owner than they could penetrate into the Dark
and Bloody Ground and bring back the great war chief Tecumseh as a
prisoner.
But neither Colonel Martin nor any one in the village knew anything
about the extraordinary Indian youth, and, while Jack was asking himself
whether he should linger long enough to explain the situation, the
gentleman relieved them from the embarrassment by a hearty slap on the
shoulder of Jack, and the exclamations:
"I was once a boy myself! I haven't forgotten that jolly time: we
always liked to have some sort of excuse when we went off on a frolic.
You see what a lot of work there is to do in clearing the ground and
getting it ready for cultivation; you would much rather be hunting and
rambling through the woods; I can't say I blame you, so off with you,
and when you come back with word that the horse was mean enough to keep
out of your way, why we won't be too hard on you."
And with another resounding slap, the hearty colonel gave the boys a
vigorous shove which sent them forward among the trees, near which they
had halted.