If Rolf had been at home with his mother, she would have rubbed his
black and swollen ankle with goose grease. The medical man at Stamford
would have rubbed it with a carefully prepared and secret ointment. His
Indian friend sang a little crooning song and rubbed it with deer's fat.
All different, and all good, because each did something to reassure the
patient, to prove that big things were doing on his behalf, and each
helped the process of nature by frequent massage.
Three times a day, Quonab rubbed that blackened ankle. The grease saved
the skin from injury, and in a week Rolf had thrown his crutches away.
The month of May was nearly gone; June was at hand; that is, the spring
was over.
In all ages, man has had the impulse, if not the habit, of spring
migration. Yielding to it he either migrated or made some radical change
in his life. Most of the Adirondack men who trapped in the winter sought
work on the log drives in spring; some who had families and a permanent
home set about planting potatoes and plying the fish nets. Rolf and
Quonab having neither way open, yet feeling the impulse, decided to go
out to Warren's with the fur.
Quonab wanted tobacco--and a change.
Rolf wanted a rifle, and to see the Van Trumpers--and a change.
So June 1st saw them all aboard, with Quonab steering at the stern, and
Skookum bow-wowing at the bow, bound for the great centre of Warren's
settlement--one store and three houses, very wide apart.
There was a noble flush of water in the streams, and, thanks to their
axe work in September, they passed down Jesup's River without a pause,
and camped on the Hudson that night, fully twenty-five miles from home.
Long, stringing flocks of pigeons going north were the most numerous
forms of life. But a porcupine on the bank and a bear in the water
aroused Skookum to a pitch of frightful enthusiasm and vaulting ambition
that he was forced to restrain.
On the evening of the third day they landed at Warren's and found a
hearty welcome from the trader, who left a group of loafers and came
forward:
“Good day to ye, boy. My, how ye have growed.”
So he had. Neither Rolf nor Quonab had remarked it, but now they
were much of the same height. “Wall, an' how'd ye make out with yer
hunt?--Ah, that's fine!” as each of them dropped a fur pack on the
counter. “Wall, this is fine; we must have a drink on the head of it,”
and the trader was somewhat nonplussed when both the trappers refused.
He was disappointed, too, for that refusal meant that they would get
much better prices for their fun But he concealed his chagrin and
rattled on: “I reckon I'll sell you the finest rifle in the country this
time,” and he knew by Rolf's face that there was business to do in that
line.
Now came the listing of the fur, and naturally the bargaining was
between the shrewd Yankee boy and the trader. The Indian stood shyly
aside, but he did not fail to help with significant grunts and glances.
“There, now,” said Warren, as the row of martens were laid out side
by side, “thirty martens--a leetle pale--worth three dollars and fifty
cents each, or, to be generous, we'll say four dollars.” Rolf glanced
at Quonab, who, unseen by the trader shook his head, held his right hand
out, open hollow up, then raised it with a jerk for two inches.
Quickly Rolf caught the idea and said; “No, I don't reckon them pale.
I call them prime dark, every one of them.” Quonab spread his hand with
all five fingers pointed up, and Rolf continued, “They are worth five
dollars each, if they're worth a copper.”
“Phew!” said the trader. “you forget fur is an awful risky thing; what
with mildew, moth, mice, and markets, we have a lot of risk. But I
want to please you, so let her go; five each. There's a fine black fox;
that's worth forty dollars.”
“I should think it is,” said Rolf, as Quonab, by throwing to his right
an imaginary pinch of sand, made the sign “refuse.”
They had talked over the value of that fox skin and Rolf said, “Why, I
know of a black fox that sold for two hundred dollars.”
“Where?”
“Oh, down at Stamford.”
“Why, that's near New York.”
“Of course; don't you send your fur to New York?”
“Yes, but it costs a lot to get it there.
“Now,” said Warren, “if you'll take it in trade, I'll meet you half-way
and call it one hundred dollars.”
“Make it one hundred and twenty-five dollars and I'll take a rifle,
anyway.”
“Phew!” whistled the trader. “Where do ye get such notions?”
“Nothing wrong about the notion; old Si Sylvanne offered me pretty near
that, if I'd come out his way with the stuff.”
This had the desired effect of showing that there were other traders. At
last the deal was closed. Besides the fox skin, they had three hundred
dollars' worth of fur. The exchange for the fox skin was enough to buy
all the groceries and dry goods they needed. But Rolf had something else
in mind.
He had picked out some packages of candies, some calico prints and
certain bright ribbons, when the trader grasped the idea. “I see; yer
goin' visitin'. Who is it? Must be the Van Trumpers!”
Rolf nodded and now he got some very intelligent guidance. He did not
buy Annette's dress, because part of her joy was to be the expedition
in person to pick it out; but he stocked up with some gorgeous pieces
of jewellery that were ten cents each, and ribbons whose colours were
as far beyond expression as were the joys they could create in the
backwoods female heart.
Proudly clutching his new rlile, and carrying in his wallet a memorandum
of three hundred dollars for their joint credit, Rolf felt himself a
person of no little importance. As he was stepping out of the store, the
trader said, “Ye didn't run across Jack Hoag agin, did ye?”
“Did we? Hmph!” and Rolf told briefly of their experience with that
creature.
“Just like him, just like him; served him right; he was a dirty cuss.
But, say; don't you be led into taking your fur out Lyons Falls way.
They're a mean lot in there, and it stands to reason I can give you
better prices, being a hundred miles nearer New York.”
And that lesson was not forgotten. The nearer New York the better the
price; seventy-five dollars at Lyons Falls; one hundred and twenty-five
dollars at Warren's; two hundred dollars at New York. Rolf pondered long
and the idea was one which grew and bore fruit.