“Now all admire, in each high-flavored dish
The capabilities of flesh--fowl--fish;
In order due each guest assumes his station,
Throbs high his breast with fond anticipation,
And prelibates the joys of mastication.”
--Heliogabaliad.
The apartment to which Monsieur Le Quoi handed Elizabeth communicated
with the hall, through the door that led under the urn which was
supposed to contain the ashes of Dido. The room was spacious, and of
very just proportions; but in its ornaments and furniture the same
diversity of taste and imperfection of execution were to be observed
as existed in the hall. Of furniture, there were a dozen green, wooden
arm-chairs, with cushions of moreen, taken from the same piece as the
petticoat of Remarkable. The tables were spread, and their materials and
workmanship could not be seen; but they were heavy and of great size, An
enormous mirror, in a gilt frame, hung against the wall, and a cheerful
fire, of the hard or sugar maple, was burning on the hearth. The latter
was the first object that struck the attention of the Judge, who on
beholding it exclaimed, rather angrily, to Richard:
“How often have I forbidden the use of the sugar maple in my dwelling!
The sight of that sap, as it exudes with the heat, is painful to me,
Richard, Really, it behooves the owner of woods so extensive as mine, to
be cautious what example he sets his people, who are already felling the
forests as if no end could be found to their treasures, nor any limits
to their extent. If we go on in this way, twenty years hence we shall
want fuel.”
“Fuel in these hills, Cousin 'Duke!” exclaimed Richard, in
derision--“fuel! why, you might as well predict that the fish will die
for the want of water in the lake, because I intend, when the frost gets
out of the ground, to lead one or two of the spring; through logs, into
the village. But you are always a little wild on such subject;
Marmaduke.”
“Is it wildness,” returned the Judge earnestly, “to condemn a practice
which devotes these jewels of the forest, these precious gifts of
nature, these mines of corn, forest and wealth, to the common uses of a
fireplace? But I must, and will, the instant the snow is off the earth,
send out a party into the mountains to explore for coal.”
“Coal!” echoed Richard. “Who the devil do you think will dig for coal
when, in hunting for a bushel he would have to rip up more of trees
than would keep him in fuel for a twelvemonth? Poh! poh! Marmaduke: you
should leave the management of these things to me, who have a natural
turn that way. It was I that ordered this fire, and a noble one it is,
to warm the blood of my pretty Cousin Bess.”
“The motive, then, must be your apology, Dick,” said the
Judge.--“But, gentlemen, we are waiting.--Elizabeth, my child, take the
head of the table; Richard, I see, means to spare me the trouble of
carving, by sitting opposite to you.”
“To be sure I do,” cried Richard. “Here is a turkey to carve; and I
flatter myself that I understand carving a turkey, or, for that matter,
a goose, as well as any man alive.--Mr. Grant! Where's Mr. Grant? Will
you please to say grace, sir? Everything in getting cold. Take a thing
from the fire this cold weather, and it will freeze in five minutes. Mr.
Grant, we want you to say grace. 'For what we are about to receive,
the Lord make, us thankful Come, sit down, sit down. Do you eat wing or
breast, Cousin Bess?”
But Elizabeth had not taken her seat, nor Was she in readiness to
receive either the wing or breast. Her Laughing eyes were glancing at
the arrangements of the table, and the quality and selection of the
food. The eyes of the father soon met the wondering looks of his
daughter, and he said, with a smile:
“You perceive, my child, how much we are indebted to Remarkable for her
skill in housewifery. She has indeed provided a noble repast--such as
well might stop the cravings of hunger.”
“Law!” said Remarkable, “I'm glad if the Judge is pleased; but I'm
notional that you'll find the sa'ce over done. I thought, as Elizabeth
was coming home, that a body could do no less than make things
agreeable.”
“My daughter has now grown to woman's estate, and is from this moment
mistress of my house,” said the Judge; “it is proper that all who live
with me address her as Miss Temple.
“Do tell!” exclaimed Remarkable, a little aghast; “well, who ever heerd
of a young woman's being called Miss? If the Judge had a wife now, I
shouldn't think of calling her anything but Miss Temple; but--”
“Having nothing but a daughter you will observe that style to her, if
you please, in future,” interrupted Marmaduke.
As the Judge looked seriously displeased, and, at such moments, carried
a particularly commanding air with him, the wary housekeeper made no
reply; and, Mr. Grant entering the room, the whole party were seated
at the table. As the arrangements of this repast were much in the
prevailing taste of that period and country, we shall endeavor to give a
short description of the appearance of the banquet.
The table-linen was of the most beautiful damask, and the plates and
dishes of real china, an article of great luxury at this early period
of American commerce. The knives and forks were of exquisitely polished
steel, and were set in unclouded ivory. So much, being furnished by
the wealth of Marmaduke, was not only comfortable but even elegant. The
contents of the several dishes, and their positions, however, were the
result of the sole judgment of Remarkable. Before Elizabeth was placed
an enormous roasted turkey, and before Richard one boiled, in the centre
of the table stood a pair of heavy silver casters, surrounded by four
dishes: one a fricassee that consisted of gray squirrels; another
of fish fried; a third of fish boiled; the last was a venison steak.
Between these dishes and the turkeys stood, on the one side, a
prodigious chine of roasted bear's meat, and on the other a boiled leg
of delicious mutton. Interspersed among this load of meats was every
species of vegetables that the season and country afforded. The four
corners were garnished with plates of cake. On one was piled certain
curiously twisted and complicated figures, called “nut-cakes,” On
another were heaps of a black-looking substance, which, receiving
its hue from molasses, was properly termed “sweet-cake;” a wonderful
favorite in the coterie of Remarkable, A third was filled, to use the
language of the housekeeper, with “cards of gingerbread;” and the last
held a “plum-cake,” so called from the number of large raisins that were
showing their black heads in a substance of suspiciously similar color.
At each corner of the table stood saucers, filled with a thick fluid of
some what equivocal color and consistence, variegated with small dark
lumps of a substance that resembled nothing but itself, which Remarkable
termed her “sweetmeats.” At the side of each plate, which was placed
bottom upward, with its knife and fork most accurately crossed above
it, stood another, of smaller size, containing a motley-looking pie,
composed of triangular slices of apple, mince, pump kin, cranberry, and
custard so arranged as to form an entire whole, Decanters of brandy,
rum, gin, and wine, with sundry pitchers of cider, beer, and one hissing
vessel of “flip,” were put wherever an opening would admit of their
introduction. Notwithstanding the size of the tables, there was scarcely
a spot where the rich damask could be seen, so crowded were the dishes,
with their associated bottles, plates, and saucers. The object seemed to
be profusion, and it was obtained entirely at the expense of order and
elegance.
All the guests, as well as the Judge himself, seemed perfectly familiar
with this description of fare, for each one commenced eating, with
an appetite that promised to do great honor to Remarkable's taste and
skill. What rendered this attention to the repast a little surprising,
was the fact that both the German and Richard had been summoned from
another table to meet the Judge; but Major Hartmann both ate and drank
without any rule, when on his excursions; and Mr. Jones invariably made
it a point to participate in the business in hand, let it be what it
would. The host seemed to think some apology necessary for the warmth
he had betrayed on the subject of the firewood, and when the party
were comfortably seated, and engaged with their knives and forks, he
observed:
“The wastefulness of the settlers with the noble trees of this country
is shocking, Monsieur Le Quoi, as doubt less you have noticed. I have
seen a man fell a pine, when he has been in want of fencing stuff, and
roll his first cuts into the gap, where he left it to rot, though its
top would have made rails enough to answer his purpose, and its butt
would have sold in the Philadelphia market for twenty dollars.”
“And how the devil--I beg your pardon, Mr. Grant,” interrupted Richard:
“but how is the poor devil to get his logs to the Philadelphia market,
pray? put them in his pocket, ha! as you would a handful of chestnuts,
or a bunch of chicker-berries? I should like to see you walking up High
Street, with a pine log in each pocket!--Poh! poh! Cousin 'Duke, there
are trees enough for us all, and some to spare. Why, I can hardly tell
which way the wind blows, when I'm out in the clearings, they are so
thick and so tall; I couldn't at all, if it wasn't for the clouds, and I
happen to know all the points of the compass, as it were, by heart.”
“Ay! ay! squire,” cried Benjamin, who had now entered and taken his
place behind the Judge's chair, a little aside withal, in order to
be ready for any observation like the present; “look aloft, sir, look
aloft. The old seamen say, 'that the devil wouldn't make a sailor,
unless he looked aloft' As for the compass, why, there is no such thing
as steering without one. I'm sure I never lose sight of the main-top, as
I call the squire's lookout on the roof, but I set my compass, d'ye see,
and take the bearings and distance of things, in order to work out
my course, if so be that it should cloud up, or the tops of the trees
should shut out the light of heaven. The steeple of St. Paul's, now that
we have got it on end, is a great help to the navigation of the woods,
for, by the Lord Harry! as was--”
“It is well, Benjamin,” interrupted Marmaduke, observing that his
daughter manifested displeasure at the major-domo's familiarity; “but
you forget there is a lady in company, and the women love to do most of
the talking themselves.”
“The Judge says the true word,” cried Benjamin, with one of his
discordant laughs. “Now here is Mistress Remarkable Pettibones; just
take the stopper off her tongue, and you'll hear a gabbling worse
like than if you should happen to fall to leeward in crossing a French
privateer, or some such thing, mayhap, as a dozen monkeys stowed in one
bag.”
It were impossible to say how perfect an illustration of the truth of
Benjamin's assertion the housekeeper would have furnished, if she had
dared; but the Judge looked sternly at her, and unwilling to incur his
resentment, yet unable to contain her anger, she threw herself out of
the room with a toss of the body that nearly separated her frail form in
the centre.
“Richard,” said Marmaduke, observing that his displeasure had produced
the desired effect, “can you inform me of anything concerning the youth
whom I so unfortunately wounded? I found him on the mountain hunting in
company with the Leather-Stocking, as if they were of the same family;
but there is a manifest difference in their manners. The youth delivers
himself in chosen language, such as is seldom heard in these hills,
and such as occasions great surprise to me, how one so meanly clad,
and following so lowly a pursuit, could attain. Mohegan also knew him.
Doubtless he is a tenant of Natty's hut. Did you remark the language of
the lad. Monsieur Le Quoi?”
“Certainement, Monsieur Temple,” returned the French man, “he deed
convairse in de excellent Anglaise.”
“The boy is no miracle,” exclaimed Richard; “I've known children that
were sent to school early, talk much better before they were twelve
years old. There was Zared Coe, old Nehemiah's son, who first settled
on the beaver-dam meadow, he could write almost as good hand as myself,
when he was fourteen; though it's true, I helped to teach him a little
in the evenings. But this shooting gentleman ought to be put in the
stocks, if he ever takes a rein in his hand again. He is the most
awkward fellow about a horse I ever met with. I dare say he never drove
anything but oxen in his life.”
“There, I think, Dickon, you do the lad injustice,” said the Judge; “he
uses much discretion in critical moments. Dost thou not think so, Bess?”
There was nothing in this question particularly to excite blushes, but
Elizabeth started from the revery into which she had fallen, and colored
to her forehead as she answered:
“To me, dear sir, he appeared extremely skilful, and prompt, and
courageous; but perhaps Cousin Richard will say I am as ignorant as the
gentleman himself.”
“Gentleman!” echoed Richard; “do you call such chaps gentlemen, at
school, Elizabeth?”
“Every man is a gentleman that knows how to treat a woman with respect
and consideration,” returned the young lady promptly, and a little
smartly.
“So much for hesitating to appear before the heiress in his
shirt-sleeves,” cried Richard, winking at Monsieur Le Quoi, who returned
the wink with one eye, while he rolled the other, with an expression of
sympathy, toward the young lady. “Well, well, to me he seemed anything
but a gentleman. I must say, however, for the lad, that he draws a
good trigger, and has a true aim. He's good at shooting a buck, ha!
Marmaduke?”
“Richart,” said Major Hartmann, turning his grave countenance toward
the gentleman he addressed, with much earnestness, “ter poy is goot. He
savet your life, and my life, and ter life of i'ominie Grant, and ter
life of ter Frenchman; and, Richard, he shall never vant a pet to sleep
in vile olt Fritz Hartmann has a shingle to cover his het mit.”
“Well, well, as you please, old gentleman,” returned Mr. Jones,
endeavoring to look indifferent; “put him into your own stone house, if
you will, Major. I dare say the lad never slept in anything better than
a bark shanty in his life, unless it was some such hut as the cabin of
Leather-Stocking. I prophesy you will soon spoil him; any one could see
how proud he grew, in a short time, just because he stood by my horses'
heads while I turned them into the highway.”
“No, no, my old friend,” cried Marmaduke, “it shall be my task to
provide in some manner for the youth; I owe him a debt of my own,
besides the service he has done me through my friends. And yet I
anticipate some little trouble in inducing him to accept of my services.
He showed a marked dislike, I thought, Bess, to my offer of a residence
within these walls for life.”
“Really, dear sir,” said Elizabeth, projecting her beautiful under-lip,
“I have not studied the gentleman so closely as to read his feelings in
his countenance. I thought he might very naturally feel pain from his
wound, and therefore pitied him; but”--and as she spoke she glanced her
eye, with suppressed curiosity, toward the major-domo--“I dare say,
sir, that Benjamin can tell you something about him, he cannot have been
in the village, and Benjamin not have seen him often.”
“Ay! I have seen the boy before,” said Benjamin, who wanted little
encouragement to speak; “he has been backing and filling in the wake of
Natty Bumppo, through the mountains, after deer, like a Dutch
long-boat in tow of an Albany sloop. He carries a good rifle, too, 'the
Leather-Stocking said, in my hearing, before Betty Hollister's bar-room
fire, no later than the Tuesday night, that the younger was certain
death to the wild beasts. If so be he can kill the wild-cat that has
been heard moaning on the lake-side since the hard frosts and deep snows
have driven the deer to herd, he will be doing the thing that is good.
Your wild-cat is a bad shipmate, and should be made to cruise out of the
track of Christian men.”
“Lives he in the hut of Bumppo?” asked Marmaduke, with some interest.
“Cheek by jowl; the Wednesday will be three weeks since he first hove
in sight, in company with Leather-Stocking. They had captured a wolf
between them, and had brought in his scalp for the bounty. That Mister
Bump-ho has a handy turn with him in taking off a scalp; and there's
them, in this here village, who say he l'arnt the trade by working
on Christian men. If so be that there is truth in the saying, and I
commanded along shore here, as your honor does, why, d'ye see, I'd
bring him to the gangway for it, yet. There's a very pretty post rigged
alongside of the stocks; and for the matter of a cat, I can fit one with
my own hands; ay! and use it too, for the want of a better.”
“You are not to credit the idle tales you hear of Natty; he has a kind
of natural right to gain a livelihood in these mountains; and if the
idlers in the village take it into their heads to annoy him, as they
sometimes do reputed rogues, they shall find him protected by the strong
arm of the law.”
“Ter rifle is petter as ter law,” said the Major sententiously.
“That for his rifle!” exclaimed Richard, snapping his fingers; “Ben is
right, and I--” He was stopped by the sound of a common ship-bell, that
had been elevated to the belfry of the academy, which now announced,
by its incessant ringing, that the hour for the appointed service had
arrived. “'For this and every other instance of his goodness--' I beg
pardon, Mr. Grant, will you please to return thanks, sir? It is time we
should be moving, as we are the only Episcopalians in the neighborhood;
that is, I and Benjamin, and Elizabeth; for I count half--breeds, like
Marmaduke as bad as heretics.”
The divine arose and performed the office meekly and fervently, and the
whole party instantly prepared themselves for the church--or rather
academy.