Produced by Gary Rezny and David Widger
THE PIONEERS
Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna
A Descriptive Tale
By J. Fenimore Cooper
INTRODUCTION
As this work professes, in its title-page, to be a descriptive tale,
they who will take the trouble to read it may be glad to know how much
of its contents is literal fact, and how much is intended to represent
a general picture. The author is very sensible that, had he confined
himself to the latter, always the most effective, as it is the most
valuable, mode of conveying knowledge of this nature, he would have made
a far better book. But in commencing to describe scenes, and perhaps he
may add characters, that were so familiar to his own youth, there was
a constant temptation to delineate that which he had known, rather than
that which he might have imagined. This rigid adhesion to truth, an
indispensable requisite in history and travels, destroys the charm of
fiction; for all that is necessary to be conveyed to the mind by
the latter had better be done by delineations of principles, and of
characters in their classes, than by a too fastidious attention to
originals.
New York having but one county of Otsego, and the Susquehanna but one
proper source, there can be no mistake as to the site of the tale. The
history of this district of country, so far as it is connected with
civilized men, is soon told.
Otsego, in common with most of the interior of the province of New
York, was included in the county of Albany previously to the war of the
separation. It then became, in a subsequent division of territory, a
part of Montgomery; and finally, having obtained a sufficient population
of its own, it was set apart as a county by itself shortly after the
peace of 1783. It lies among those low spurs of the Alleghanies which
cover the midland counties of New York, and it is a little east of a
meridional line drawn through the centre of the State. As the waters
of New York flow either southerly into the Atlantic or northerly
into Ontario and its outlet, Otsego Lake, being the source of the
Susquehanna, is of necessity among its highest lands. The face of the
country, the climate as it was found by the whites, and the manners of
the settlers, are described with a minuteness for which the author has
no other apology than the force of his own recollections.
Otsego is said to be a word compounded of Ot, a place of meeting, and
Sego, or Sago, the ordinary term of salutation used by the Indians of
this region. There is a tradition which says that the neighboring tribes
were accustomed to meet on the banks of the lake to make their treaties,
and otherwise to strengthen their alliances, and which refers the name
to this practice. As the Indian agent of New York had a log dwelling at
the foot of the lake, however, it is not impossible that the appellation
grew out of the meetings that were held at his council fires; the war
drove off the agent, in common with the other officers of the crown;
and his rude dwelling was soon abandoned. The author remembers it, a few
years later, reduced to the humble office of a smoke-house.
In 1779 an expedition was sent against the hostile Indians, who dwelt
about a hundred miles west of Otsego, on the banks of the Cayuga. The
whole country was then a wilderness, and it was necessary to transport
the baggage of the troops by means of the rivers--a devious but
practicable route. One brigade ascended the Mohawk until it reached the
point nearest to the sources of the Susquehanna, whence it cut a lane
through the forest to the head of the Otsego. The boats and baggage
were carried over this “portage,” and the troops proceeded to the
other extremity of the lake, where they disembarked and encamped. The
Susquehanna, a narrow though rapid stream at its source, was much filled
with “flood wood,” or fallen trees; and the troops adopted a novel
expedient to facilitate their passage. The Otsego is about nine miles
in length, varying in breadth from half a mile to a mile and a half. The
water is of great depth, limpid, and supplied from a thousand springs.
At its foot the banks are rather less than thirty feet high the
remainder of its margin being in mountains, intervals, and points. The
outlet, or the Susquehanna, flows through a gorge in the low banks just
mentioned, which may have a width of two hundred feet. This gorge
was dammed and the waters of the lake collected: the Susquehanna was
converted into a rill.
When all was ready the troops embarked, the damn was knocked away, the
Otsego poured out its torrent, and the boats went merrily down with the
current.
General James Clinton, the brother of George Clinton, then governor of
New York, and the father of De Witt Clinton, who died governor of the
same State in 1827, commanded the brigade employed on this duty. During
the stay of the troops at the foot of the Otsego a soldier was shot
for desertion. The grave of this unfortunate man was the first place of
human interment that the author ever beheld, as the smoke-house was the
first ruin! The swivel alluded to in this work was buried and abandoned
by the troops on this occasion, and it was subsequently found in digging
the cellars of the authors paternal residence.
Soon after the close of the war, Washington, accompanied by many
distinguished men, visited the scene of this tale, it is said with a
view to examine the facilities for opening a communication by water with
other points of the country. He stayed but a few hours.
In 1785 the author's father, who had an interest in extensive tracts of
land in this wilderness, arrived with a party of surveyors. The manner
in which the scene met his eye is described by Judge Temple. At the
commencement of the following year the settlement began; and from that
time to this the country has continued to flourish. It is a singular
feature in American life that at the beginning of this century, when the
proprietor of the estate had occasion for settlers on a new settlement
and in a remote county, he was enabled to draw them from among the
increase of the former colony.
Although the settlement of this part of Otsego a little preceded the
birth of the author, it was not sufficiently advanced to render it
desirable that an event so important to himself should take place in the
wilderness. Perhaps his mother had a reasonable distrust of the practice
of Dr Todd, who must then have been in the novitiate of his experimental
acquirements. Be that as it may, the author was brought an infant into
this valley, and all his first impressions were here obtained. He has
inhabited it ever since, at intervals; and he thinks he can answer for
the faithfulness of the picture he has drawn. Otsego has now become one
of the most populous districts of New York. It sends forth its emigrants
like any other old region, and it is pregnant with industry and
enterprise. Its manufacturers are prosperous, and it is worthy of remark
that one of the most ingenious machines known in European art is derived
from the keen ingenuity which is exercised in this remote region.
In order to prevent mistake, it may be well to say that the incidents of
this tale are purely a fiction. The literal facts are chiefly connected
with the natural and artificial objects and the customs of the
inhabitants. Thus the academy, and court-house, and jail, and inn, and
most similar things, are tolerably exact. They have all, long since,
given place to other buildings of a more pretending character. There
is also some liberty taken with the truth in the description of the
principal dwelling; the real building had no “firstly” and “lastly.”
It was of bricks, and not of stone; and its roof exhibited none of the
peculiar beauties of the “composite order.” It was erected in an age
too primitive for that ambitious school of architecture. But the author
indulged his recollections freely when he had fairly entered the door.
Here all is literal, even to the severed arm of Wolfe, and the urn which
held the ashes of Queen Dido.*
* Though forests still crown the mountains of Otsego, the bear, the
wolf, and the panther are nearly strangers to them. Even the innocent
deer is rarely seen bounding beneath their arches; for the rifle and
the activity of the settlers have driven them to other haunts. To
this change (which in some particulars is melancholy to one who knew
the country in its infancy), it may be added that the Otsego is
beginning to be a niggard of its treasures.
The author has elsewhere said that the character of Leather-Stocking is
a creation, rendered probable by such auxiliaries as were necessary to
produce that effect. Had he drawn still more upon fancy, the lovers of
fiction would not have so much cause for their objections to his work.
Still, the picture would not have been in the least true without some
substitutes for most of the other personages. The great proprietor
resident on his lands, and giving his name to instead of receiving it
from his estates as in Europe, is common over the whole of New York.
The physician with his theory, rather obtained from than corrected
by experiments on the human constitution; the pious, self-denying,
laborious, and ill-paid missionary; the half-educated, litigious,
envious, and disreputable lawyer, with his counterpoise, a brother of
the profession, of better origin and of better character; the shiftless,
bargaining, discontented seller of his “betterments;” the plausible
carpenter, and most of the others, are more familiar to all who have
ever dwelt in a new country.
It may be well to say here, a little more explicitly, that there was no
real intention to describe with particular accuracy any real characters
in this book. It has been often said, and in published statements, that
the heroine of this book was drawn after the sister of the writer, who
was killed by a fall from a horse now near half a century since. So
ingenious is conjecture that a personal resemblance has been discovered
between the fictitious character and the deceased relative! It is
scarcely possible to describe two females of the same class in life who
would be less alike, personally, than Elizabeth Temple and the sister of
the author who met with the deplorable fate mentioned. In a word, they
were as unlike in this respect as in history, character, and fortunes.
Circumstances rendered this sister singularly dear to the author. After
a lapse of half a century, he is writing this paragraph with a pain that
would induce him to cancel it, were it not still more painful to have it
believed that one whom he regarded with a reverence that surpassed the
love of a brother was converted by him into the heroine of a work of
fiction.
From circumstances which, after this Introduction, will be obvious to
all, the author has had more pleasure in writing “The Pioneers” than the
book will probably ever give any of its readers. He is quite aware of
its numerous faults, some of which he has endeavored to repair in this
edition; but as he has--in intention, at least--done his full share in
amusing the world, he trusts to its good-nature for overlooking this
attempt to please himself.
CHAPTER I.
“See, Winter comes, to rule the varied years,
Sullen and sad, with all his rising train;
Vapors, and clouds, and storms.”--Thomson.
Near the centre of the State of New York lies an extensive district of
country whose surface is a succession of hills and dales, or, to speak
with greater deference to geographical definitions, of mountains and
valleys. It is among these hills that the Delaware takes its rise; and
flowing from the limpid lakes and thousand springs of this region the
numerous sources of the Susquehanna meander through the valleys until,
uniting their streams, they form one of the proudest rivers of the
United States. The mountains are generally arable to the tops, although
instances are not wanting where the sides are jutted with rocks that aid
greatly in giving to the country that romantic and picturesque character
which it so eminently possesses. The vales are narrow, rich, and
cultivated, with a stream uniformly winding through each. Beautiful and
thriving villages are found interspersed along the margins of the small
lakes, or situated at those points of the streams which are favorable
for manufacturing; and neat and comfortable farms, with every indication
of wealth about them, are scattered profusely through the vales, and
even to the mountain tops. Roads diverge in every direction from
the even and graceful bottoms of the valleys to the most rugged and
intricate passes of the hills. Academies and minor edifices of learning
meet the eye of the stranger at every few miles as he winds his way
through this uneven territory, and places for the worship of God abound
with that frequency which characterize a moral and reflecting people,
and with that variety of exterior and canonical government which flows
from unfettered liberty of conscience. In short, the whole district is
hourly exhibiting how much can be done, in even a rugged country and
with a severe climate, under the dominion of mild laws, and where every
man feels a direct interest in the prosperity of a commonwealth of which
he knows himself to form a part. The expedients of the pioneers who
first broke ground in the settlement of this country are succeeded
by the permanent improvements of the yeoman who intends to leave his
remains to moulder under the sod which he tills, or perhaps of the son,
who, born in the land, piously wishes to linger around the grave of
his father. Only forty years * have passed since this territory was a
wilderness.
* Our tale begins in 1793, about seven years after the commencement of
one of the earliest of those settlements which have conduced to effect
that magical change in the power and condition of the State to which
we have alluded.
Very soon after the establishment of the independence of the States by
the peace of 1783, the enterprise of their citizens was directed to
a development of the natural advantages of their widely extended
dominions. Before the war of the Revolution, the inhabited parts of the
colony of New York were limited to less than a tenth of its possessions,
A narrow belt of country, extending for a short distance on either side
of the Hudson, with a similar occupation of fifty miles on the banks of
the Mohawk, together with the islands of Nassau and Staten, and a few
insulated settlements on chosen land along the margins of streams,
composed the country, which was then inhabited by less than two
hundred thousand souls. Within the short period we have mentioned, the
population has spread itself over five degrees of latitude and seven of
longitude, and has swelled to a million and a half of inhabitants, who
are maintained in abundance, and can look forward to ages before the
evil day must arrive when their possessions shall become unequal to
their wants.
It was near the setting of the sun, on a clear, cold day in December,
when a sleigh was moving slowly up one of the mountains in the district
we have described. The day had been fine for the season, and but two or
three large clouds, whose color seemed brightened by the light reflected
from the mass of snow that covered the earth, floated in a sky of the
purest blue. The road wound along the brow of a precipice, and on one
side was upheld by a foundation of logs piled one upon the other, while
a narrow excavation in the mountain in the opposite direction had made a
passage of sufficient width for the ordinary travelling of that day. But
logs, excavation, and everything that did not reach several feet above
the earth lay alike buried beneath the snow. A single track, barely wide
enough to receive the sleigh, * denoted the route of the highway, and
this was sunk nearly two feet below the surrounding surface.
* Sleigh is the word used in every part of the United States to denote
a traineau. It is of local use in the west of England, whence it is
most probably derived by the Americans. The latter draw a distinction
between a sled, or sledge, and a sleigh, the sleigh being shod with
metal. Sleighs are also subdivided into two-horse and one-horse
sleighs. Of the latter, there are the cutter, with thills so arranged
as to permit the horse to travel in the side track; the “pung,” or
“tow-pung” which is driven with a pole; and the “gumper,” a rude
construction used for temporary purposes in the new countries. Many
of the American sleighs are elegant though the use of this mode of
conveyance is much lessened with the melioration of the climate
consequent to the clearing of the forests.
In the vale, which lay at a distance of several hundred feet lower,
there was what, in the language of the country, was called a clearing,
and all the usual improvements of a new settlement; these even extended
up the hill to the point where the road turned short and ran across
the level land, which lay on the summit of the mountain; but the summit
itself remained in the forest. There was glittering in the atmosphere,
as if it was filled with innumerable shining particles; and the noble
bay horses that drew the sleigh were covered, in many parts with a coat
of hoar-frost. The vapor from their nostrils was seen to issue like
smoke; and every object in the view, as well as every arrangement of the
travellers, denoted the depth of a winter in the mountains. The harness,
which was of a deep, dull black, differing from the glossy varnishing
of the present day, was ornamented with enormous plates and buckles of
brass, that shone like gold in those transient beams of the sun which
found their way obliquely through the tops of the trees. Huge saddles,
studded with nails and fitted with cloth that served as blankets to the
shoulders of the cattle, supported four high, square-topped turrets,
through which the stout reins led from the mouths of the horses to the
hands of the driver, who was a negro, of apparently twenty years of
age. His face, which nature had colored with a glistening black, was now
mottled with the cold, and his large shining eyes filled with tears;
a tribute to its power that the keen frosts of those regions always
extracted from one of his African origin. Still, there was a smiling
expression of good-humor in his happy countenance, that was created
by the thoughts of home and a Christmas fireside, with its Christmas
frolics. The sleigh was one of those large, comfortable, old-fashioned
conveyances, which would admit a whole family within its bosom, but
which now contained only two passengers besides the driver. The color of
its outside was a modest green, and that of its inside a fiery red, The
latter was intended to convey the idea of heat in that cold climate.
Large buffalo-skins trimmed around the edges with red cloth cut into
festoons, covered the back of the sleigh, and were spread over its
bottom and drawn up around the feet of the travellers--one of whom was
a man of middle age and the other a female just entering upon womanhood.
The former was of a large stature; but the precautions he had taken to
guard against the cold left but little of his person exposed to view.
A great-coat, that was abundantly ornamented by a profusion of furs,
enveloped the whole of his figure excepting the head, which was covered
with a cap of marten skins lined with morocco, the sides of which were
made to fall, if necessary, and were now drawn close over the ears and
fastened beneath his chin with a black ribbon. The top of the cap was
surmounted with the tail of the animal whose skin had furnished the rest
of the materials, which fell back, not ungracefully, a few inches
behind the head. From beneath this mask were to be seen part of a fine,
manly face, and particularly a pair of expressive large blue eyes, that
promised extraordinary intellect, covert humor, and great benevolence.
The form of his companion was literally hid beneath the garments she
wore. There were furs and silks peeping from under a large camlet cloak
with a thick flannel lining, that by its cut and size was evidently
intended for a masculine wearer. A huge hood of black silk, that was
quilted with down, concealed the whole of her head, except at a small
opening in front for breath, through which occasionally sparkled a pair
of animated jet-black eyes.
Both the father and daughter (for such was the connection between the
two travellers) were too much occupied with their reflections to break
a stillness that derived little or no interruption from the easy gliding
of the sleigh by the sound of their voices. The former was thinking of
the wife that had held this their only child to her bosom, when, four
years before, she had reluctantly consented to relinquish the society of
her daughter in order that the latter might enjoy the advantages of an
education which the city of New York could only offer at that period. A
few months afterward death had deprived him of the remaining companion
of his solitude; but still he had enough real regard for his child not
to bring her into the comparative wilderness in which he dwelt, until
the full period had expired to which he had limited her juvenile labors.
The reflections of the daughter were less melancholy, and mingled with
a pleased astonishment at the novel scenery she met at every turn in the
road.
The mountain on which they were journeying was covered with pines that
rose without a branch some seventy or eighty feet, and which frequently
doubled that height by the addition of the tops. Through the innumerable
vistas that opened beneath the lofty trees, the eye could penetrate
until it was met by a distant inequality in the ground, or was stopped
by a view of the summit of the mountain which lay on the opposite side
of the valley to which they were hastening. The dark trunks of the trees
rose from the pure white of the snow in regularly formed shafts, until,
at a great height, their branches shot forth horizontal limbs, that were
covered with the meagre foliage of an evergreen, affording a melancholy
contrast to the torpor of nature below. To the travellers there seemed
to be no wind; but these pines waved majestically at their topmost
boughs, sending forth a dull, plaintive sound that was quite in
consonance with the rest of the melancholy scene.
The sleigh had glided for some distance along the even surface, and the
gaze of the female was bent in inquisitive and, perhaps, timid glances
into the recesses of the forest, when a loud and continued howling was
heard, pealing under the long arches of the woods like the cry of a
numerous pack of hounds. The instant the sounds reached the ear of the
gentleman he cried aloud to the black:
“Hol up, Aggy; there is old Hector; I should know his bay among ten
thousand! The Leather-Stocking has put his hounds into the hills this
clear day, and they have started their game. There is a deer-track a few
rods ahead; and now, Bess, if thou canst muster courage enough to stand
fire, I will give thee a saddle for thy Christmas dinner.”
The black drew up, with a cheerful grin upon his chilled features, and
began thrashing his arms together in order to restore the circulation of
his fingers, while the speaker stood erect and, throwing aside his outer
covering, stepped from the sleigh upon a bank of snow which sustained
his weight without yielding.
In a few moments the speaker succeeded in extricating a double-barrelled
fowling-piece from among a multitude of trunks and bandboxes. After
throwing aside the thick mittens which had encased his hands, there
now appeared a pair of leather gloves tipped with fur; he examined his
priming, and was about to move forward, when the light bounding noise of
an animal plunging through the woods was heard, and a fine buck darted
into the path a short distance ahead of him. The appearance of the
animal was sudden, and his flight inconceivably rapid; but the traveller
appeared to be too keen a sportsman to be disconcerted by either. As it
came first into view he raised the fowling-piece to his shoulder and,
with a practised eye and steady hand, drew a trigger. The deer dashed
forward undaunted, and apparently unhurt. Without lowering his piece,
the traveller turned its muzzle toward his victim, and fired again.
Neither discharge, however, seemed to have taken effect,
The whole scene had passed with a rapidity that confused the female,
who was unconsciously rejoicing in the escape of the buck, as he rather
darted like a meteor than ran across the road, when a sharp, quick sound
struck her ear, quite different from the full, round reports of her
father's gun, but still sufficiently distinct to be known as the
concussion produced by firearms. At the same instant that she heard this
unexpected report, the buck sprang from the snow to a great height in
the air, and directly a second discharge, similar in sound to the first,
followed, when the animal came to the earth, failing head long and
rolling over on the crust with its own velocity. A loud shout was given
by the unseen marksman, and a couple of men instantly appeared from
behind the trunks of two of the pines, where they had evidently placed
themselves in expectation of the passage of the deer.
“Ha! Natty, had I known you were in ambush, I should not have fired,”
cried the traveller, moving toward the spot where the deer lay--near to
which he was followed by the delighted black, with his sleigh; “but the
sound of old Hector was too exhilarating to be quiet; though I hardly
think I struck him, either.”
“No--no----Judge,” returned the hunter, with an inward chuckle, and
with that look of exultation that indicates a consciousness of superior
skill, “you burnt your powder only to warm your nose this cold evening.
Did ye think to stop a full-grown buck, with Hector and the slut open
upon him within sound, with that pop-gun in your hand! There's plenty of
pheasants among the swamps; and the snow-birds are flying round your own
door, where you may feed them with crumbs, and shoot them at pleasure,
any day; but if you're for a buck, or a little bear's meat, Judge,
you'll have to take the long rifle, with a greased wadding, or you'll
waste more powder than you'll fill stomachs, I'm thinking.”
As the speaker concluded he drew his bare hand across the bottom of his
nose, and again opened his enormous mouth with a kind of inward laugh.
“The gun scatters well, Natty, And it has killed a deer before now,”
said the traveller, smiling good-humoredly. “One barrel was charged with
buckshot, but the other was loaded for birds only. Here are two hurts;
one through the neck, and the other directly through the heart. It is by
no means certain, Natty, but I gave him one of the two.
“Let who will kill him.” said the hunter, rather surily.
“I suppose the creature is to be eaten.” So saying, he drew a large
knife from a leathern sheath, which was stuck through his girdle, or
sash, and cut the throat of the animal, “If there are two balls through
the deer, I would ask if there weren't two rifles fired--besides, who
ever saw such a ragged hole from a smooth-bore as this through the neck?
And you will own yourself, Judge, that the buck fell at the last shot,
which was sent from a truer and a younger hand than your'n or mine
either; but, for my part, although I am a poor man I can live without
the venison, but I don't love to give up my lawful dues in a free
country. Though, for the matter of that, might often makes right here,
as well as in the old country, for what I can see.”
An air of sullen dissatisfaction pervaded the manner of the hunter
during the whole of his speech; yet he thought it prudent to utter the
close of the sentence in such an undertone as to leave nothing audible
but the grumbling sounds of his voice.
“Nay, Natty,” rejoined the traveller, with undisturbed good-humor, “it
is for the honor that I contend. A few dollars will pay for the venison;
but what will requite me for the lost honor of a buck's tail in my cap?
Think, Natty, how I should triumph over that quizzing dog, Dick Jones,
who has failed seven times already this season, and has only brought in
one woodchuck and a few gray squirrels.”
“Ah! The game is becoming hard to find, indeed, Judge, with your
clearings and betterments,” said the old hunter, with a kind of
compelled resignation. “The time has been when I have shot thirteen deer
without counting the fa'ns standing in the door of my own hut; and for
bear's meat, if one wanted a ham or so, he had only to watch a-nights,
and he could shoot one by moonlight, through the cracks of the logs, no
fear of his oversleeping himself neither, for the howling of the wolves
was sartin to keep his eyes open. There's old Hector”--patting with
affection a tall hound of black and yellow spots, with white belly and
legs, that just then came in on the scent, accompanied by the slut he
had mentioned; “see where the wolves bit his throat, the night I druv
them from the venison that was smoking on the chimney top--that dog is
more to be trusted than many a Christian man; for he never forgets a
friend, and loves the hand that gives him bread.”
There was a peculiarity in the manner of the hunter that attracted the
notice of the young female, who had been a close and interested observer
of his appearance and equipments, from the moment he came into view. He
was tall, and so meagre as to make him seem above even the six feet
that he actually stood in his stockings. On his head, which was
thinly covered with lank, sandy hair, he wore a cap made of fox-skin,
resembling in shape the one we have already described, although much
inferior in finish and ornaments. His face was skinny and thin al most
to emaciation; but yet it bore no signs of disease--on the contrary, it
had every indication of the most robust and enduring health. The cold
and exposure had, together, given it a color of uniform red. His gray
eyes were glancing under a pair of shaggy brows, that over hung them in
long hairs of gray mingled with their natural hue; his scraggy neck was
bare, and burnt to the same tint with his face; though a small part of
a shirt-collar, made of the country check, was to be seen above the
overdress he wore. A kind of coat, made of dressed deer-skin, with
the hair on, was belted close to his lank body by a girdle of colored
worsted. On his feet were deer-skin moccasins, ornamented with
porcupines' quills, after the manner of the Indians, and his limbs were
guarded with long leggings of the same material as the moccasins,
which, gartering over the knees of his tarnished buckskin breeches, had
obtained for him among the settlers the nickname of Leather-Stocking.
Over his left shoulder was slung a belt of deer-skin, from which
depended an enormous ox-horn, so thinly scraped as to discover the
powder it contained. The larger end was fitted ingeniously and securely
with a wooden bottom, and the other was stopped tight by a little plug.
A leathern pouch hung before him, from which, as he concluded his last
speech, he took a small measure, and, filling it accurately with powder,
he commenced reloading the rifle, which as its butt rested on the snow
before him reached nearly to the top of his fox-skin cap.
The traveller had been closely examining the wounds during these
movements, and now, without heeding the ill-humor of the hunter's
manner, he exclaimed:
“I would fain establish a right, Natty, to the honor of this death; and
surely if the hit in the neck be mine it is enough; for the shot in
the heart was unnecessary--what we call an act of supererogation,
Leather-Stocking.”
“You may call it by what larned name you please, Judge,” said the
hunter, throwing his rifle across his left arm, and knocking up a brass
lid in the breech, from which he took a small piece of greased leather
and, wrapping a bail in it, forced them down by main strength on the
powder, where he continued to pound them while speaking. “It's far
easier to call names than to shoot a buck on the spring; but the creatur
came by his end from a younger hand than either your'n or mine, as I
said before.”
“What say you, my friend,” cried the traveller, turning pleasantly to
Natty's companion; “shall we toss up this dollar for the honor, and you
keep the silver if you lose; what say you, friend?”
“That I killed the deer,” answered the young man, with a little
haughtiness, as he leaned on another long rifle similar to that of
Natty.
“Here are two to one, indeed,” replied the Judge with a smile; “I am
outvoted--overruled, as we say on the bench. There is Aggy, he can't
vote, being a slave; and Bess is a minor--so I must even make the best
of it. But you'll send me the venison; and the deuce is in it, but I
make a good story about its death.”
“The meat is none of mine to sell,” said Leather-Stocking, adopting a
little of his companion's hauteur; “for my part, I have known animals
travel days with shots in the neck, and I'm none of them who'll rob a
man of his rightful dues.”
“You are tenacious of your rights, this cold evening, Natty,” returned
the Judge with unconquerable good-nature; “but what say you, young man;
will three dollars pay you for the buck?”
“First let us determine the question of right to the satisfaction of us
both,” said the youth firmly but respect fully, and with a pronunciation
and language vastly superior to his appearance: “with how many shot did
you load your gun?”
“With five, sir,” said the Judge, a little struck with the other's
manner; “are they not enough to slay a buck like this?”
“One would do it; but,” moving to the tree from be hind which he had
appeared, “you know, sir, you fired in this direction--here are four of
the bullets in the tree.”
The Judge examined the fresh marks in the bark of the pine, and, shaking
his head, said with a laugh:
“You are making out the case against yourself, my young advocate; where
is the fifth?”
“Here,” said the youth, throwing aside the rough overcoat that he wore,
and exhibiting a hole in his under-garment, through which large drops of
blood were oozing.
“Good God!” exclaimed the Judge, with horror; “have I been trifling
here about an empty distinction, and a fellow-creature suffering from my
hands without a murmur? But hasten--quick--get into my sleigh--it is but
a mile to the village, where surgical aid can be obtained--all shall
be done at my expense, and thou shalt live with me until thy wound is
healed, ay, and forever afterward.”
“I thank you for your good intention, but I must decline your offer.
I have a friend who would be uneasy were he to hear that I am hurt and
away from him. The injury is but slight, and the bullet has missed the
bones; but I believe, sir, you will now admit me title to the venison.”
“Admit it!” repeated the agitated Judge; “I here give thee a right to
shoot deer, or bears, or anything thou pleasest in my woods, forever.
Leather-Stocking is the only other man that I have granted the same
privilege to; and the time is coming when it will be of value. But I buy
your deer--here, this bill will pay thee, both for thy shot and my own.”
The old hunter gathered his tall person up into an air of pride during
this dialogue, but he waited until the other had done speaking.
“There's them living who say that Nathaniel Bumppo's right to shoot on
these hills is of older date than Marmaduke Temple's right to forbid
him,” he said. “But if there's a law about it at all, though who ever
heard of a law that a man shouldn't kill deer where he pleased!--but
if there is a law at all, it should be to keep people from the use of
smooth-bores. A body never knows where his lead will fly, when he pulls
the trigger of one of them uncertain firearms.”
Without attending to the soliloquy of Natty, the youth bowed his head
silently to the offer of the bank-note, and replied:
“Excuse me: I have need of the venison.”
“But this will buy you many deer,” said the Judge; “take it, I entreat
you;” and, lowering his voice to a whisper, he added, “It is for a
hundred dollars.”
For an instant only the youth seemed to hesitate, and then, blushing
even through the high color that the cold had given to his cheeks, as if
with inward shame at his own weakness, he again declined the offer.
During this scene the female arose, and regardless of the cold air, she
threw back the hood which concealed her features, and now spoke, with
great earnestness.
“Surely, surely--young man--sir--you would not pain my father so much
as to have him think that he leaves a fellow-creature in this wilderness
whom his own hand has injured. I entreat you will go with us, and
receive medical aid.”
Whether his wound became more painful, or there was something
irresistible in the voice and manner of the fair pleader for her
father's feelings, we know not; but the distance of the young man's
manner was sensibly softened by this appeal, and he stood in apparent
doubt, as if reluctant to comply with and yet unwilling to refuse her
request. The Judge, for such being his office must in future be his
title, watched with no little interest the display of this singular
contention in the feelings of the youth; and, advancing, kindly took his
hand, and, as he pulled him gently toward the sleigh, urged him to enter
it.
“There is no human aid nearer than Templeton,” he said, “and the hut
of Natty is full three miles from this--come, come, my young friend, go
with us, and let the new doctor look to this shoulder of thine. Here is
Natty will take the tidings of thy welfare to thy friend; and shouldst
thou require it, thou shalt return home in the morning.” The young man
succeeded in extricating his hand from the warm grasp of the Judge, but
he continued to gaze on the face of the female, who, regardless of the
cold, was still standing with her fine features exposed, which
expressed feeling that eloquently seconded the request of her father.
Leather-Stocking stood, in the meantime, leaning upon his long rifle,
with his head turned a little to one side, as if engaged in sagacious
musing; when, having apparently satisfied his doubts, by revolving the
subject in his mind, he broke silence. “It may be best to go, lad, after
all; for, if the shot hangs under the skin, my hand is getting too old
to be cutting into human flesh, as I once used to, Though some thirty
years agone, in the old war, when I was out under Sir William, I
travelled seventy miles alone in the howling wilderness, with a rifle
bullet in my thigh, and then cut it out with my own jack-knife.
Old Indian John knows the time well. I met him with a party of the
Delawares, on the trail of the Iroquois, who had been down and taken
five scalps on the Schoharie. But I made a mark on the red-skin that
I'll warrant he'll carry to his grave! I took him on the posteerum,
saving the lady's presence, as he got up from the ambushment, and
rattled three buckshot into his naked hide, so close that you might have
laid a broad joe upon them all”--here Natty stretched out his long
neck, and straightened his body, as he opened his mouth, which exposed
a single tusk of yellow bone, while his eyes, his face, even his whole
frame seemed to laugh, although no sound was emitted except a kind
of thick hissing, as he inhaled his breath in quavers. “I had lost my
bullet-mould in crossing the Oneida outlet, and had to make shift with
the buckshot; but the rifle was true, and didn't scatter like your
two-legged thing there, Judge, which don't do, I find, to hunt in
company with.”
Natty's apology to the delicacy of the young lady was unnecessary, for,
while he was speaking, she was too much employed in helping her father
to remove certain articles of baggage to hear him. Unable to resist the
kind urgency of the travellers any longer, the youth, though still with
an unaccountable reluctance, suffered himself to be persuaded to enter
the sleigh. The black, with the aid of his master, threw the buck across
the baggage and entering the vehicle themselves, the Judge invited the
hunter to do so likewise.
“No, no,” said the old roan, shaking his head; “I have work to do at
home this Christmas eve--drive on with the boy, and let your doctor look
to the shoulder; though if he will only cut out the shot, I have yarbs
that will heal the wound quicker than all his foreign 'intments.” He
turned, and was about to move off, when, suddenly recollecting himself,
he again faced the party, and added: “If you see anything of Indian
John, about the foot of the lake, you had better take him with you, and
let him lend the doctor a hand; for, old as he is, he is curious at cuts
and bruises, and it's likelier than not he'll be in with brooms to sweep
your Christmas ha'arths.”
“Stop, stop,” cried the youth, catching the arm of the black as he
prepared to urge his horses forward; “Natty--you need say nothing of the
shot, nor of where I am going--remember, Natty, as you love me.”
“Trust old Leather-Stocking,” returned the hunter significantly; “he
hasn't lived fifty years in the wilderness, and not larnt from the
savages how to hold his tongue--trust to me, lad; and remember old
Indian John.”
“And, Natty,” said the youth eagerly, still holding the black by the
arm. “I will just get the shot extracted, and bring you up to-night a
quarter of the buck for the Christmas dinner.”
He was interrupted by the hunter, who held up his finger with an
expressive gesture for silence. He then moved softly along the margin of
the road, keeping his eyes steadfastly fixed on the branches of a pine.
When he had obtained such a position as he wished, he stopped, and,
cocking his rifle, threw one leg far behind him, and stretching his left
arm to its utmost extent along the barrel of his piece, he began slowly
to raise its muzzle in a line with the straight trunk of the tree. The
eyes of the group in the sleigh naturally preceded the movement of the
rifle, and they soon discovered the object of Natty's aim. On a small
dead branch of the pine, which, at the distance of seventy feet from the
ground, shot out horizontally, immediately beneath the living members
of the tree, sat a bird, that in the vulgar language of the country was
indiscriminately called a pheasant or a partridge. In size, it was but
little smaller than a common barn-yard fowl. The baying of the dogs, and
the conversation that had passed near the root of the tree on which it
was perched, had alarmed the bird, which was now drawn up near the body
of the pine, with a head and neck so erect as to form nearly a straight
line with its legs. As soon as the rifle bore on the victim, Natty drew
his trigger, and the partridge fell from its height with a force that
buried it in the snow.
“Lie down, you old villain,” exclaimed Leather-Stocking, shaking his
ramrod at Hector as he bounded toward the foot of the tree, “lie down,
I say.” The dog obeyed, and Natty proceeded with great rapidity, though
with the nicest accuracy, to reload his piece. When this was ended, he
took up his game, and, showing it to the party without a head, he cried:
“Here is a tidbit for an old man's Christmas--never mind the venison,
boy, and remember Indian John; his yarbs are better than all the foreign
'intments. Here, Judge,” holding up the bird again, “do you think a
smooth-bore would pick game off their roost, and not ruffle a feather?”
The old man gave another of his remarkable laughs, which partook so
largely of exultation, mirth, and irony, and, shaking his head, he
turned, with his rifle at a trail, and moved into the forest with steps
that were between a walk and a trot. At each movement he made his body
lowered several inches, his knees yielding with an inclination inward;
but, as the sleigh turned at a bend in the road, the youth cast his eyes
in quest of his old companion, and he saw that he was already nearly
concealed by the trunks of the tree; while his dogs were following
quietly in his footsteps, occasionally scenting the deer track, that
they seemed to know instinctively was now of no further use to them.
Another jerk was given to the sleigh, and Leather-Stocking was hid from
view.