There is only one kind of a man I can't size up; that's the
faller that shets up and says nothing.--Sayings of Si
Sylvanne.
A settler named Hulett had a scow that was borrowed by the neighbours
whenever needed to take a team across the lake. On the morning of their
journey, the Dutchman's team and wagon, the canoe and the men, were
aboard the scow, Skookum took his proper place at the prow, and all
was ready for “Goodbye.” Rolf found it a hard word to say. The good old
Dutch mother had won his heart, and the children were like his brothers
and sisters.
“Coom again, lad; coom and see us kvick.” She kissed him, he kissed
Annette and the three later issues. They boarded the scow to ply the
poles till the deep water was reached, then the oars. An east wind
springing up gave them a chance to profit by a wagon-cover rigged as a
sail, and two hours later the scow was safely landed at West Side,
where was a country store, and the head of the wagon road to the Schroon
River.
As they approached the door, they saw a rough-looking man slouching
against the building, his hands in his pockets, his blear eyes taking in
the new-comers with a look of contemptuous hostility. As they passed, he
spat tobacco juice on the dog and across the feet of the men.
Old Warren who kept the store was not partial to Indians, but he was
a good friend of Hendrik and very keen to trade for fur, so the new
trappers were well received; and now came the settling of accounts.
Flour, oatmeal, pork, potatoes, tea, tobacco, sugar, salt, powder,
ball, shot, clothes, lines, an inch-auger, nails, knives, awls, needles,
files, another axe, some tin plates, and a frying pan were selected and
added to Hendrik's account.
“If I was you, I'd take a windy-sash; you'll find it mighty convenient
in cold weather.” The store keeper led them into an outhouse where was a
pile of six-lighted window-frames all complete. So the awkward thing was
added to their load.
“Can't I sell you a fine rifle?” and he took down a new, elegant small
bore of the latest pattern. “Only twenty-five dollars.” Rolf shook his
head; “part down, and I'll take the rest in fur next spring.” Rolf was
sorely tempted; however, he had an early instilled horror of debt. He
steadfastly said: “No.” But many times he regretted it afterward! The
small balance remaining was settled in cash.
As they were arranging and selecting, they heard a most hideous
yelping outdoors, and a minute later Skookum limped in, crying as if
half-killed. Quonab was out in a moment.
“Did you kick my dog?”
The brutal loafer changed countenance as he caught the red man's eye.
“Naw! never touched him; hurted himself on that rake.”
It was obviously a lie, but better to let it pass, and Quonab came in
again.
Then the rough stranger appeared at the door and growled: “Say, Warren!
ain't you going to let me have that rifle? I guess my word's as good as
the next man's.”
“No,” said Warren; “I told you, no!”
“Then you can go to blazes, and you'll never see a cent's worth of fur
from the stuff I got last year.”
“I don't expect to,” was the reply; “I've learned what your word's
worth.” And the stranger slouched away.
“Who vas he?” asked Hendrik.
“I only know that his name is Jack Hoag; he's a little bit of a trapper
and a big bit of a bum; stuck me last year. He doesn't come out this
way; they say he goes out by the west side of the mountains.”
New light on their course was secured from Warren, and above all, the
important information that the mouth of Jesup's River was marked by an
eagle's nest in a dead pine. “Up to that point keep the main stream, and
don't forget next spring I'm buying fur.”
The drive across Five-mile portage was slow. It took over two hours to
cover it, but late that day they reached the Schroon.
Here the Dutchman said “Good-bye: Coom again some noder time.” Skookum
saluted the farmer with a final growl, then Rolf and Quonab were left
alone in the wilderness.
It was after sundown, so they set about camping for the night. A wise
camper always prepares bed and shelter in daylight, if possible. While
Rolf made a fire and hung the kettle, Quonab selected a level, dry place
between two trees, and covered it with spruce boughs to make the beds,
and last a low tent was made by putting the lodge cover over a pole
between the trees. The ends of the covers were held down by loose
green logs quickly cut for the purpose, and now they were safe against
weather.
Tea, potatoes, and fried pork, with maple syrup and hard-tack, made
their meal of the time, after which there was a long smoke. Quonab took
a stick of red willow, picked up-in the daytime, and began shaving it
toward one end, leaving the curling shreds still on the stick. When
these were bunched in a fuzzy mop, he held them over the fire until they
were roasted brown; then, grinding all up in his palm with some tobacco,
and filling his pipe he soon was enveloped in that odour of woodsy smoke
called the “Indian smell,” by many who do not know whence or how it
comes. Rolf did not smoke. He had promised his mother that he would
not until he was a man, and something brought her back home now with
overwhelming force; that was the beds they had made of fragrant balsam
boughs. “Cho-ko-tung or blister tree” as Quonab called it. His mother
had a little sofa pillow, brought from the North--a “northern pine”
pillow they called it, for it was stuffed with pine needles of a kind
not growing in Connecticut. Many a time had Rolf as a baby pushed his
little round nose into that bag to inhale the delicious odour it gave
forth, and so it became the hallowed smell of all that was dear in his
babyhood, and it never lost its potency. Smell never does. Oh, mighty
aura! that, in marching by the nostrils, can reach and move the soul;
how wise the church that makes this power its handmaid, and through its
incense overwhelms all alien thought when the worshipper, wandering,
doubting, comes again to see if it be true, that here doubt dies. Oh,
queen of memory that is master of the soul! how fearful should we be of
letting evil thought associated grow with some recurrent odour that
we love. Happy, indeed, are they that find some ten times pure and
consecrated fragrance, like the pine, which entering in is master
of their moods, and yet through linking thoughts has all its power,
uplifting, full of sweetness and blessed peace. So came to Rolf his
medicine tree.
The balsam fir was his tree of hallowed memory. Its odour never failed,
and he slept that night with its influence all about him.
Starting in the morning was no easy matter. There was so much to be
adjusted that first day. Packs divided in two, new combinations to trim
the canoe, or to raise such and such a package above a possible leak.
The heavy things, like axes and pans, had to be fastened to the canoe or
to packages that would float in case of an upset. The canoe itself had
to be gummed in one or two places; but they got away after three hours,
and began the voyage down the Schroon.
This was Rolf's first water journey. He had indeed essayed the canoe on
the Pipestave Pond, but that was a mere ferry. This was real travel. He
marvelled at the sensitiveness of the frail craft; the delicacy of its
balance; its quick response to the paddle; the way it seemed to shrink
from the rocks; and the unpleasantly suggestive bend-up of the ribs
when the bottom grounded upon a log. It was a new world for him. Quonab
taught him never to enter the canoe except when she was afloat; never to
rise in her or move along without hold of the gunwale; never to make a
sudden move; and he also learned that it was easier to paddle when there
were six feet of water underneath than when only six inches.
In an hour they had covered the five miles that brought them to the
Hudson, and here the real labour began, paddling up stream. Before long
they came to a shallow stretch with barely enough water to float the
canoe. Here they jumped out and waded in the stream, occasionally
lifting a stone to one side, till they reached the upper stretch of deep
water and again went merrily paddling. Soon they came to an impassable
rapid, and Rolf had his first taste of a real carry or portage. Quonab's
eye was watching the bank as soon as the fierce waters appeared; for
the first question was, where shall we land? and the next, how far do we
carry? There are no rapids on important rivers in temperate America
that have not been portaged more or less for ages. No canoe man portages
without considering most carefully when, where, and how to land. His
selection of the place, then, is the result of careful study. He cannot
help leaving some mark at the place, slight though it be, and the next
man looks for that mark to save himself time and trouble.
“Ugh” was the only sound that Rolf heard from his companion, and
the canoe headed for a flat rock in the pool below the rapids. After
landing, they found traces of an old camp fire. It was near noon now,
so Rolf prepared the meal while Quonab took a light pack and went on to
learn the trail. It was not well marked; had not been used for a year
or two, evidently, but there are certain rules that guide one. The trail
keeps near the water, unless there is some great natural barrier, and it
is usually the easiest way in sight. Quonab kept one eye on the river,
for navigable water was the main thing, and in about one hundred yards
he was again on the stream's edge, at a good landing above the rapid.
After the meal was finished and the Indian had smoked, they set to work.
In a few loads each, the stuff was portaged across, and the canoe was
carried over and moored to the bank.
The cargo replaced, they went on again, but in half an hour after
passing more shoal water, saw another rapid, not steep, but too shallow
to float the canoe, even with both men wading. Here Quonab made what
the Frenchmen call a demi-charge. He carried half the stuff to the bank;
then, wading, one at each end, they hauled the canoe up the portage and
reloaded her above. Another strip of good going was succeeded by a long
stretch of very swift water that was two or three feet deep and between
shores that were densely grown with alders. The Indian landed, cut two
light, strong poles, and now, one at the bow, the other at the stern,
they worked their way foot by foot up the fierce current until safely on
the upper level.
Yet one more style of canoe propulsion was forced on them. They came to
a long stretch of smooth, deep, very swift water, almost a rapid-one of
the kind that is a joy when you are coming down stream. It differed from
the last in having shores that were not alder-hidden, but open gravel
banks. Now did Quonab take a long, strong line from his war sack. One
end he fastened, not to the bow, but to the forward part of the canoe,
the other to a buckskin band which he put across his breast. Then, with
Rolf in the stern to steer and the Indian hauling on the bank, the canoe
was safely “tracked” up the “strong waters.”
Thus they fought their way up the hard river, day after day, making
sometimes only five miles after twelve hours' toilsome travel. Rapids,
shoals, portages, strong waters, abounded, and before they had covered
the fifty miles to the forks of Jesup's River, they knew right well why
the region was so little entered.
It made a hardened canoe man of Rolf, and when, on the evening of the
fifth day, they saw a huge eagle's nest in a dead pine tree that stood
on the edge of a long swamp, both felt they had reached their own
country, and were glad.