SHASTA'S HUMOR.
The camp-fire was kept burning unremittingly until morning, and the
wolverines as unceasingly continued their clamor, so that none of the
parties secured a moment's sleep. The boys were signaled several times
by Shasta to lie down, but they were too unaccustomed to such sights and
sounds to permit them to do so with anything like peace; so they used
their rifles upon the savage animals until prudence advised them to
husband their ammunition until they had better use for it.
Tim O'Rooney was fully as restless as they. He was in continual dread
that some of the treacherous animals would steal up behind him and
fasten their teeth so securely in him that they could not be shaken off.
This uneasiness caused him ever to be shifting his position, now on one
side the fire, now on the other--springing suddenly upward as though he
already felt the nip of their fangs.
The Pah Utah, at this time, displayed a grim humor, so exceptional with
his people, as to be almost incredible, except to the boys who were
witnesses to it. Believing such traits should be encouraged among all
aborigines as an antidote for their melancholy dispositions, it gives us
great pleasure to record it, and it will afford us far greater enjoyment
to testify regarding any other such performances that may come under our
notice.
Tim was standing with his back toward the fire, and his hands,
carelessly crossed behind him. He was intently watching the quarrelsome
animals, and all thoughts of attack in the rear had for the time
departed. Shasta leaned silently forward and lifted a small brand to
relight his pipe, which had gone out some time before. As he was passing
it back to the embers the red coal just grazed one of Tim's fingers,
while at the same instant the Indian imitated the snarl of the wolverine
so exactly that the follow was sure he was seized, and he made the most
agile leap of his life.
"Murther! murther! pull him off, Mr. Shasta, catch hold of him!"
exclaimed the affrighted Irishman, springing wildly on every side of the
fire, and striking with blind fierceness at the imaginary brute in his
rear.
Howard and Elwood laughed till the tears rolled down their cheeks. They
had seen Shasta's trick and they could therefore appreciate it. Never a
smile lit up the grim face of the Pah Utah. He continued leisurely
smoking, his keen black eyes looking dreamily into the fire, as if lost
in some pleasant reverie.
But what of that? Who can doubt, that he laughed internally full as
heartily as the youngsters? Who can tell what surges, and waves, and
ripples of laughter went through and through him, until his whole being
was absorbed in merriment?
Finally Tim's terror passed away and he became comparatively quiet.
"Worrah! worrah!" he exclaimed, panting from his severe exertions. "What
a narra 'scape I had."
"Did he really bite you?"
"Bite me! Didn't ye see him fasten his teeth in me and hang on till I
shuk him off?"
"No; I didn't observe him."
"Git out wid ye nonsense. But I felt him sure and it was meself that
thought once he'd pull me off into the darkness and make me a prey to
the beasts there--that I did think, did I."
"No danger," remarked Howard, as he and his cousin were unable to
restrain their laughter.
"What be ye spalpeens laughing at?" indignantly demanded the Irishman.
"But, Tim, are you sure you were not mistaken? We saw nothing of the
kind," pursued Howard.
The fellow looked too full of indignation to speak.
"What is getting into your heads? Ye saam to be losing your sinses
intirely."
"And I can say I saw none of them touch you."
"Then you was blind," was the indignant retort. "Ye harrd him sing out
at me heels, didn't you?"
"Of course, we heard them all the time, as we do now; but the one you
imagined so close may have been a dozen feet distant."
"_But he bit me!_" was the triumphant reply to this.
"Where?"
"On the hand."
"Let us see the mark!"
The boys arose and walked up to their friend, who bent over the fire,
held his hand close to his face, turning it over and over and
scrutinizing it with the closest attention. Concluding he was mistaken,
he exchanged it for its fellow, which was subjected to an equally severe
cross-examination. Still nothing confirmatory of his words could be
found.
The amazed Irishman now held up both his hands, turning them over and
over and pressing them close to his face.
"Do yees saa anything?" he abruptly asked, thrusting them toward the
boys.
They went through the form of a search for a scratch or a bite, but
declared themselves unable to discover any.
"Don't you feel any pain?" asked Howard.
"I thought I did," replied Tim, with a serious, puzzled look upon his
countenance.
"In what part of your body?"
"Whisht!"
He motioned to them to maintain silence, while he closed his eyes and
waited for some evidence of the pain he had so sharply felt a few
minutes before. As he stood thus, he stealthily brought each hand around
in front of his face and subjected them to the same examination.
Suddenly his eye sparkled, and he held out his left:
"That's the hand!" he exclaimed exultingly.
"Let's see?" asked the boys, stepping up to him.
"Yees'll find it somewhere there, if yees'll take the throuble to
examine it closely."
They did so, but declared themselves unable to find the wound.
Tim finally showed a small red spot upon one of the fingers, which he
affirmed was where the cruel tooth did bite him.
"That cannot be, for the skin is not broken."
"But it faals as if the same had been bit off."
"It looks more like a burn," added Elwood.
Tim now turned around and looked at the Pah Utah. The latter was smoking
his pipe, as if unconscious of the presence of any being or animal near
him. Perhaps they were mistaken, but Howard and Elwood always affirmed
that they detected a twitching at the corners of his mouth, as if he
were ready to explode with laughter.
But if it was that, it was nothing more, and it manifested itself in no
other manner. Tim gazed fixedly at him a moment, and then turning to the
boys, asked in a whisper:
_"But didn't ye hear it snarrl at meself?"_