Up with my tent: here will I lie to-night,
But where, to-morrow?—Well, all’s one for that
—Richard the Third.
The travellers soon discovered the usual and unerring evidences that
the several articles necessary to their situation were not far distant.
A clear and gurgling spring burst out of the side of the declivity, and
joining its waters to those of other similar little fountains in its
vicinity, their united contributions formed a run, which was easily to
be traced, for miles along the prairie, by the scattering foliage and
verdure which occasionally grew within the influence of its moisture.
Hither, then, the stranger held his way, eagerly followed by the
willing teams, whose instinct gave them a prescience of refreshment and
rest.
On reaching what he deemed a suitable spot, the old man halted, and
with an enquiring look, he seemed to demand if it possessed the needed
conveniences. The leader of the emigrants cast his eyes,
understandingly, about him, and examined the place with the keenness of
one competent to judge of so nice a question, though in that dilatory
and heavy manner, which rarely permitted him to betray precipitation.
“Ay, this may do,” he said, satisfied with his scrutiny; “boys, you
have seen the last of the sun; be stirring.”
The young men manifested a characteristic obedience. The order, for
such in tone and manner it was, in truth, was received with respect;
but the utmost movement was the falling of an axe or two from the
shoulder to the ground, while their owners continued to regard the
place with listless and incurious eyes. In the mean time, the elder
traveller, as if familiar with the nature of the impulses by which his
children were governed, disencumbered himself of his pack and rifle,
and, assisted by the man already mentioned as disposed to appeal so
promptly to the rifle, he quietly proceeded to release the cattle from
the gears.
At length the eldest of the sons stepped heavily forward, and, without
any apparent effort, he buried his axe to the eye, in the soft body of
a cotton-wood tree. He stood, a moment, regarding the effect of the
blow, with that sort of contempt with which a giant might be supposed
to contemplate the puny resistance of a dwarf, and then flourishing the
implement above his head, with the grace and dexterity with which a
master of the art of offence would wield his nobler though less useful
weapon, he quickly severed the trunk of the tree, bringing its tall top
crashing to the earth in submission to his prowess. His companions
regarded the operation with indolent curiosity, until they saw the
prostrate trunk stretched on the ground, when, as if a signal for a
general attack had been given, they advanced in a body to the work, and
in a space of time, and with a neatness of execution that would have
astonished an ignorant spectator, they stripped a small but suitable
spot of its burden of forest, as effectually, and almost as promptly,
as if a whirlwind had passed along the place.
The stranger had been a silent but attentive observer of their
progress. As tree after tree came whistling down, he cast his eyes
upward at the vacancies they left in the heavens, with a melancholy
gaze, and finally turned away, muttering to himself with a bitter
smile, like one who disdained giving a more audible utterance to his
discontent. Pressing through the group of active and busy children, who
had already lighted a cheerful fire, the attention of the old man
became next fixed on the movements of the leader of the emigrants and
of his savage looking assistant.
These two had, already, liberated the cattle, which were eagerly
browsing the grateful and nutritious extremities of the fallen trees,
and were now employed about the wagon, which has been described as
having its contents concealed with so much apparent care.
Notwithstanding this particular conveyance appeared to be as silent,
and as tenantless as the rest of the vehicles, the men applied their
strength to its wheels, and rolled it apart from the others, to a dry
and elevated spot, near the edge of the thicket. Here they brought
certain poles, which had, seemingly, been long employed in such a
service, and fastening their larger ends firmly in the ground, the
smaller were attached to the hoops that supported the covering of the
wagon. Large folds of cloth were next drawn out of the vehicle, and
after being spread around the whole, were pegged to the earth in such a
manner as to form a tolerably capacious and an exceedingly convenient
tent. After surveying their work with inquisitive, and perhaps jealous
eyes, arranging a fold here, and driving a peg more firmly there, the
men once more applied their strength to the wagon, pulling it, by its
projecting tongue, from the centre of the canopy, until it appeared in
the open air, deprived of its covering, and destitute of any other
freight, than a few light articles of furniture. The latter were
immediately removed, by the traveller, into the tent with his own
hands, as though to enter it, were a privilege, to which even his bosom
companion was not entitled.
Curiosity is a passion that is rather quickened than destroyed by
seclusion, and the old inhabitant of the prairies did not view these
precautionary and mysterious movements, without experiencing some of
its impulses. He approached the tent, and was about to sever two of its
folds, with the very obvious intention of examining, more closely, into
the nature of its contents, when the man who had once already placed
his life in jeopardy, seized him by the arm, and with a rude exercise
of his strength threw him from the spot he had selected as the one most
convenient for his object.
“It’s an honest regulation, friend,” the fellow, drily observed, though
with an eye that threatened volumes, “and sometimes it is a safe one,
which says, mind your own business.”
“Men seldom bring any thing to be concealed into these deserts,”
returned the old man, as if willing, and yet a little ignorant how to
apologize for the liberty he had been about to take, “and I had hoped
no offence, in examining your comforts.”
“They seldom bring themselves, I reckon; though this has the look of an
old country, to my eye it seems not to be overly peopled.”
“The land is as aged as the rest of the works of the Lord, I believe;
but you say true, concerning its inhabitants. Many months have passed
since I have laid eyes on a face of my own colour, before your own. I
say again, friend, I meant no harm; I did not know, but there was
something behind the cloth, that might bring former days to my mind.”
As the stranger ended his simple explanation, he walked meekly away,
like one who felt the deepest sense of the right which every man has to
the quiet enjoyment of his own, without any troublesome interference on
the part of his neighbour; a wholesome and just principle that he had,
also, most probably imbibed from the habits of his secluded life. As he
passed towards the little encampment of the emigrants, for such the
place had now become, he heard the voice of the leader calling aloud,
in its hoarse tones, the name of—
“Ellen Wade.”
The girl who has been already introduced to the reader, and who was
occupied with the others of her sex around the fires, sprang willingly
forward at this summons; and, passing the stranger with the activity of
a young antelope, she was instantly lost behind the forbidden folds of
the tent. Neither her sudden disappearance, nor any of the arrangements
we have mentioned, seemed, however, to excite the smallest surprise
among the remainder of the party. The young men, who had already
completed their tasks with the axe, were all engaged after their
lounging and listless manner; some in bestowing equitable portions of
the fodder among the different animals; others in plying the heavy
pestle of a moveable homminy-mortar[4]; and one or two in wheeling the
remainder of the wagons aside, and arranging them in such a manner as
to form a sort of outwork for their otherwise defenceless bivouac.
These several duties were soon performed, and, as darkness now began to
conceal the objects on the surrounding prairie, the shrill-toned
termagant, whose voice since the halt had been diligently exercised
among her idle and drowsy offspring, announced, in tones that might
have been heard at a dangerous distance, that the evening meal waited
only for the approach of those who were to consume it. Whatever may be
the other qualities of a border man, he is seldom deficient in the
virtue of hospitality. The emigrant no sooner heard the sharp call of
his wife, than he cast his eyes about him in quest of the stranger, in
order to offer him the place of distinction, in the rude entertainment
to which they were so unceremoniously summoned.
“I thank you, friend,” the old man replied to the rough invitation to
take a seat nigh the smoking kettle; “you have my hearty thanks; but I
have eaten for the day, and am not one of them, who dig their graves
with their teeth. Well; as you wish it, I will take a place, for it is
long sin’ I have seen people of my colour, eating their daily bread.”
“You ar’ an old settler, in these districts, then?” the emigrant rather
remarked than enquired, with a mouth filled nearly to overflowing with
the delicious homminy, prepared by his skilful, though repulsive
spouse. “They told us below, we should find settlers something
thinnish, hereaway, and I must say, the report was mainly true; for,
unless, we count the Canada traders on the big river, you ar’ the first
white face I have met, in a good five hundred miles; that is
calculating according to your own reckoning.”
“Though I have spent some years, in this quarter, I can hardly be
called a settler, seeing that I have no regular abode, and seldom pass
more than a month, at a time, on the same range.”
“A hunter, I reckon?” the other continued, glancing his eyes aside, as
if to examine the equipments of his new acquaintance; “your fixen seem
none of the best, for such a calling.”
“They are old, and nearly ready to be laid aside, like their master,”
said the old man, regarding his rifle, with a look in which affection
and regret were singularly blended; “and I may say they are but little
needed, too. You are mistaken, friend, in calling me a hunter; I am
nothing better than a trapper.”[5]
“If you ar’ much of the one, I’m bold to say you ar’ something of the
other; for the two callings, go mainly together, in these districts.”
“To the shame of the man who is able to follow the first be it so
said!” returned the trapper, whom in future we shall choose to
designate by his pursuit; “for more than fifty years did I carry my
rifle in the wilderness, without so much as setting a snare for even a
bird that flies the heavens;—much less, a beast that has nothing but
legs, for its gifts.”
“I see but little difference whether a man gets his peltry by the rifle
or by the trap,” said the ill-looking companion of the emigrant, in his
rough manner. “The ’arth was made for our comfort; and, for that
matter, so ar’ its creatur’s.”
“You seem to have but little plunder,[6] stranger, for one who is far
abroad,” bluntly interrupted the emigrant, as if he had a reason for
wishing to change the conversation. “I hope you ar’ better off for
skins.”
“I make but little use of either,” the trapper quietly replied. “At my
time of life, food and clothing be all that is needed; and I have
little occasion for what you call plunder, unless it may be, now and
then, to barter for a horn of powder, or a bar of lead.”
“You ar’ not, then, of these parts by natur’, friend,” the emigrant
continued, having in his mind the exception which the other had taken
to the very equivocal word, which he himself, according to the custom
of the country, had used for “baggage,” or “effects.”
“I was born on the sea-shore, though most of my life has been passed in
the woods.”
The whole party now looked up at him, as men are apt to turn their eyes
on some unexpected object of general interest. One or two of the young
men repeated the words “sea-shore” and the woman tendered him one of
those civilities with which, uncouth as they were, she was little
accustomed to grace her hospitality, as if in deference to the
travelled dignity of her guest. After a long, and, seemingly, a
meditating silence, the emigrant, who had, however, seen no apparent
necessity to suspend the functions of his masticating powers, resumed
the discourse.
“It is a long road, as I have heard, from the waters of the west to the
shores of the main sea?”
“It is a weary path, indeed, friend; and much have I seen, and
something have I suffered, in journeying over it.”
“A man would see a good deal of hard travel in going its length!”
“Seventy and five years have I been upon the road; and there are not
half that number of leagues in the whole distance, after you leave the
Hudson, on which I have not tasted venison of my own killing. But this
is vain boasting. Of what use are former deeds, when time draws to an
end?”
“I once met a man that had boated on the river he names,” observed the
eldest son, speaking in a low tone of voice, like one who distrusted
his knowledge, and deemed it prudent to assume a becoming diffidence in
the presence of a man who had seen so much: “from his tell, it must be
a considerable stream, and deep enough for a keel-boat, from top to
bottom.”
“It is a wide and deep water-course, and many sightly towns are there
growing on its banks,” returned the trapper; “and yet it is but a brook
to the waters of the endless river.”
“I call nothing a stream that a man can travel round,” exclaimed the
ill-looking associate of the emigrant: “a real river must be crossed;
not headed, like a bear in a county hunt.”[7]
“Have you been far towards the sun-down, friend?” interrupted the
emigrant, as if he desired to keep his rough companion as much as
possible out of the discourse. “I find it is a wide tract of clearing,
this, into which I have fallen.”
“You may travel weeks, and you will see it the same. I often think the
Lord has placed this barren belt of prairie behind the States, to warn
men to what their folly may yet bring the land! Ay, weeks, if not
months, may you journey in these open fields, in which there is neither
dwelling nor habitation for man or beast. Even the savage animals
travel miles on miles to seek their dens; and yet the wind seldom blows
from the east, but I conceit the sound of axes, and the crash of
falling trees, are in my ears.”
As the old man spoke with the seriousness and dignity that age seldom
fails to communicate even to less striking sentiments, his auditors
were deeply attentive, and as silent as the grave. Indeed, the trapper
was left to renew the dialogue himself, which he soon did by asking a
question, in the indirect manner so much in use by the border
inhabitants.
“You found it no easy matter to ford the water-courses, and to make
your way so deep into the prairies, friend, with teams of horses and
herds of horned beasts?”
“I kept the left bank of the main river,” the emigrant replied, “until
I found the stream leading too much to the north, when we rafted
ourselves across without any great suffering. The women lost a fleece
or two from the next year’s shearing, and the girls have one cow less
to their dairy. Since then, we have done bravely, by bridging a creek
every day or two.”
“It is likely you will continue west, until you come to land more
suitable for a settlement?”
“Until I see reason to stop, or to turn ag’in,” the emigrant bluntly
answered, rising at the same time, and cutting short the dialogue by
the suddenness of the movement. His example was followed by the
trapper, as well as the rest of the party; and then, without much
deference to the presence of their guest, the travellers proceeded to
make their dispositions to pass the night. Several little bowers, or
rather huts, had already been formed of the tops of trees, blankets of
coarse country manufacture, and the skins of buffaloes, united without
much reference to any other object than temporary comfort. Into these
covers the children, with their mother, soon drew themselves, and
where, it is more than possible, they were all speedily lost in the
oblivion of sleep. Before the men, however, could seek their rest, they
had sundry little duties to perform; such as completing their works of
defence, carefully concealing the fires, replenishing the fodder of
their cattle, and setting the watch that was to protect the party, in
the approaching hours of night.
The former was effected by dragging the trunks of a few trees into the
intervals left by the wagons, and along the open space between the
vehicles and the thicket, on which, in military language, the
encampment would be said to have rested; thus forming a sort of
chevaux-de-frise on three sides of the position. Within these narrow
limits (with the exception of what the tent contained), both man and
beast were now collected; the latter being far too happy in resting
their weary limbs, to give any undue annoyance to their scarcely more
intelligent associates. Two of the young men took their rifles; and,
first renewing the priming, and examining the flints with the utmost
care, they proceeded, the one to the extreme right, and the other to
the left, of the encampment, where they posted themselves within the
shadows of the thicket; but in such positions as enabled each to
overlook a portion of the prairie.
The trapper loitered about the place, declining to share the straw of
the emigrant, until the whole arrangement was completed; and then,
without the ceremony of an adieu, he slowly retired from the spot.
It was now in the first watch of the night; and the pale, quivering,
and deceptive light, from a new moon, was playing over the endless
waves of the prairie, tipping the swells with gleams of brightness, and
leaving the interval land in deep shadow. Accustomed to scenes of
solitude like the present, the old man, as he left the encampment,
proceeded alone into the waste, like a bold vessel leaving its haven to
enter on the trackless field of the ocean. He appeared to move for some
time without object, or, indeed, without any apparent consciousness,
whither his limbs were carrying him. At length, on reaching the rise of
one of the undulations, he came to a stand; and, for the first time
since leaving the band, who had caused such a flood of reflections and
recollections to crowd upon his mind, the old man became aware of his
present situation. Throwing one end of his rifle to the earth, he stood
leaning on the other, again lost in deep contemplation for several
minutes, during which time his hound came and crouched at his feet. A
deep, menacing growl, from the faithful animal, first aroused him from
his musing.
“What now, dog?” he said, looking down at his companion, as if he
addressed a being of an intelligence equal to his own, and speaking in
a voice of great affection. “What is it, pup? ha! Hector; what is it
nosing, now? It won’t do, dog; it won’t do; the very fa’ns play in open
view of us, without minding so worn out curs, as you and I. Instinct is
their gift, Hector and, they have found out how little we are to be
feared, they have!”
The dog stretched his head upward, and responded to the words of his
master by a long and plaintive whine, which he even continued after he
had again buried his head in the grass, as if he held an intelligent
communication with one who so well knew how to interpret dumb
discourse.
“This is a manifest warning, Hector!” the trapper continued, dropping
his voice, to the tones of caution and looking warily about him. “What
is it, pup; speak plainer, dog; what is it?”
The hound had, however, already laid his nose to the earth, and was
silent; appearing to slumber. But the keen quick glances of his master,
soon caught a glimpse of a distant figure, which seemed, through the
deceptive light, floating along the very elevation on which he had
placed himself. Presently its proportions became more distinct, and
then an airy, female form appeared to hesitate, as if considering
whether it would be prudent to advance. Though the eyes of the dog were
now to be seen glancing in the rays of the moon, opening and shutting
lazily, he gave no further signs of displeasure.
“Come nigher; we are friends,” said the trapper, associating himself
with his companion by long use, and, probably, through the strength of
the secret tie that connected them together; “we are your friends; none
will harm you.”
Encouraged by the mild tones of his voice, and perhaps led on by the
earnestness of her purpose, the female approached, until she stood at
his side; when the old man perceived his visitor to be the young woman,
with whom the reader, has already become acquainted by the name of
“Ellen Wade.”
“I had thought you were gone,” she said, looking timidly and anxiously
around. “They said you were gone; and that we should never see you
again. I did not think it was you!”
“Men are no common objects in these empty fields,” returned the
trapper, “and I humbly hope, though I have so long consorted with the
beasts of the wilderness, that I have not yet lost the look of my
kind.”
“Oh! I knew you to be a man, and I thought I knew the whine of the
hound, too,” she answered hastily, as if willing to explain she knew
not what, and then checking herself, like one fearful of having already
said too much.
“I saw no dogs, among the teams of your father,” the trapper remarked.
“Father!” exclaimed the girl, feelingly, “I have no father! I had
nearly said no friend.”
The old man turned towards her, with a look of kindness and interest,
that was even more conciliating than the ordinary, upright, and
benevolent expression of his weather-beaten countenance.
“Why then do you venture in a place where none but the strong should
come?” he demanded. “Did you not know that, when you crossed the big
river, you left a friend behind you that is always bound to look to the
young and feeble, like yourself.”
“Of whom do you speak?”
“The law—’tis bad to have it, but, I sometimes think, it is worse to be
entirely without it. Age and weakness have brought me to feel such
weakness, at times. Yes—yes, the law is needed, when such as have not
the gifts of strength and wisdom are to be taken care of. I hope, young
woman, if you have no father, you have at least a brother.”
The maiden felt the tacit reproach conveyed in this covert question,
and for a moment she remained in an embarrassed silence. But catching a
glimpse of the mild and serious features of her companion, as he
continued to gaze on her with a look of interest, she replied, firmly,
and in a manner that left no doubt she comprehended his meaning:
“Heaven forbid that any such as you have seen, should be a brother of
mine, or any thing else near or dear to me! But, tell me, do you then
actually live alone, in this desert district, old man; is there really
none here besides yourself?”
“There are hundreds, nay, thousands of the rightful owners of the
country, roving about the plains; but few of our own colour.”
“And have you then met none who are white, but us?” interrupted the
girl, like one too impatient to await the tardy explanations of age and
deliberation.
“Not in many days—Hush, Hector, hush,” he added in reply to a low, and
nearly inaudible, growl from his hound. “The dog scents mischief in the
wind! The black bears from the mountains sometimes make their way, even
lower than this. The pup is not apt to complain of the harmless game. I
am not so ready and true with the piece as I used-to-could-be, yet I
have struck even the fiercest animals of the prairie in my time; so,
you have little reason for fear, young woman.”
The girl raised her eyes, in that peculiar manner which is so often
practised by her sex, when they commence their glances, by examining
the earth at their feet, and terminate them by noting every thing
within the power of human vision; but she rather manifested the quality
of impatience, than any feeling of alarm.
A short bark from the dog, however, soon gave a new direction to the
looks of both, and then the real object of his second warning became
dimly visible.
[4] Homminy, is a dish composed chiefly of cracked corn, or maize.
[5] It is scarcely necessary to say, that this American word means one
who takes his game in a trap. It is of general use on the frontiers.
The beaver, an animal too sagacious to be easily killed, is oftener
taken in this way than in any other.
[6] The cant word for luggage in the western states of America is
“plunder.” The term might easily mislead one as to the character of
the people, who, notwithstanding their pleasant use of so expressive a
word, are, like the inhabitants of all new settlements, hospitable and
honest. Knavery of the description conveyed by “plunder,” is chiefly
found in regions more civilised.
[7] There is a practice, in the new countries, to assemble the men of
a large district, sometimes of an entire county, to exterminate the
beasts of prey. They form themselves into a circle of several miles in
extent, and gradually draw nearer, killing all before them. The
allusion is to this custom, in which the hunted beast is turned from
one to another.