HOW THE BEAR DISGRACED HIMSELF
At last the long winter came to an end. By the middle of March the
warm sun and soft south winds began to thaw the February snows. On
such a day, when the afternoon sun beat with unusual warmth on the
northern face of the mountain, the three soldiers stood together in
front of the house, noting everywhere the joyful signs of the approach
of spring. The snow, where it lay thickest in the hollows of the
plateau, was soft and porous and grimy with dirt. There were bare
spaces here and there on the ground, and where a stick or a stone
showed through the thin crust the snow had retired around it as if it
gave out a heat of its own. The melting icicles pendent from the eaves
glittered in the sun and dripped into the channels alongside the walls.
They had a great longing to see the grass and the leaves again and
welcome the early birds of spring. As they looked about on these
hopeful signs in the midst of the great stillness to which they had
become used, a sudden deafening crash rang in their startled ears. The
sound was like the explosion of a mine or the dull roar of a
siege-mortar at a little distance away. It came from the Cove to the
north, and the first crash was followed by lesser reports, and each
sound was echoed back from the mountains beyond.
The first thought of the three soldiers was of the opening of a battle.
Their first fear was that a great mass of earth and rock had fallen
from the edge of the plateau to the base of the mountain. They made
their way cautiously in the direction of the sound, almost distrusting
the ground under their feet. The gnarled chestnuts on the edge of the
cliff were as firmly rooted as ever. When they had advanced to where
Philip's sharp eyes caught the first view of the postmaster's cabin
through the twisted tree-trunks, he remembered the words of Andy, the
guide, on the night when they had waited for the moon to go down. He
quickly caught the arms of his companions.
"It's the avalanche," he said--"the icicles and the ice falling into
the Cove from the face of the great boulder."
They could see tiny figures standing about the cabin, and they shrank
back lest they, too, might be seen by the people, who were evidently
gazing with all their eyes at the top of the mountain.
Just then there was another deafening crash, and at intervals all day
long they heard the falling of the ice.
"They are the opening guns of spring," said Lieutenant Coleman; and now
that they knew what the sound was, they listened eagerly for each
report.
Late on that very afternoon, as they sat together outside the house,
they saw Tumbler, the bear, shambling down the hillside in front of the
house, and they had no doubt he had been awakened from his winter's nap
by the roar of the avalanche. He was thin of flesh and ragged of fur,
and so weak on his clumsy legs that he sat down at short intervals to
rest. He made his way first to the branch, where he refreshed himself
with a drink, and then came on with renewed vigor toward the house. He
was such a very disreputable-looking bear, and had been gone so long,
and must be so dangerously hungry, that the men stood up doubtfully at
his approach until they saw a weak movement of his stumpy tail and the
mild look in his brown eyes as he seated himself on the chips and
lolled out his red tongue.
Philip brought him a handful of roast potatoes, which he devoured with
a relish, and then stood up so handsomely to ask for more that they
rolled him raw ones until his hunger was satisfied, after which he
waddled through the open door, and lay down for another nap in his old
place by the fire, just as if he had gone out but yesterday, which was
probably just what he thought he had done.
By this time the last page of the station journal had been used, and
Lieutenant Coleman had added to it the five fly-leaves of the precious
Blue Book, which he had cut out neatly with his knife. Paper was so
scarce at last that on this March 16, which was the day the bear woke
up, the circumstance of the avalanche alone was recorded, and that was
entered after the date in the most wonderfully small and cramped
letters you can imagine. Now, Philip was of the opinion that the
return of the bear was of quite as much importance as the falling of
the ice. It happened that he had in his breast pocket a letter which
had been written to him by his uncle. It was postmarked, "Piqua,
Ohio," and addressed, "Philip Welton, Co. C, 2d Ohio Infy., Camp near
Resaca, Ga." Philip had been looking over Coleman's shoulder as he
made the cramped entry in the diary.
"Now look here," said he, taking up the quill as it was laid down; "if
you don't choose to make a record of the bear, I will." So taking from
his pocket the letter, he wrote across the top of the envelop:
"WHITESIDE MOUNTAIN, March 16, 1865.
"Tumbler, the bear, woke up to-day.
"(Signed) PHILIP WELTON,
"GEORGE BROMLEY,
"FREDERICK HENRY COLEMAN."
"Well," said Coleman, "what are you going to do with that? Drop it
over into the Cove?"
"Not a bit of it," said Philip. "I am just going to keep the record
out of respect to the bear"; and with that, as it happened, he put the
envelop back in one pocket and the letter in another. But a few weeks
later, when the snow had quite gone and the buds were beginning to
swell on the trees, Philip was chopping on the hill where the boulder
side of the mountain joined the cliff above the spring; and as he grew
warm with his work he cast off his cavalry jacket, and it happened in
some way that the envelop on which he had written fell out into the
grass. Philip did not notice this loss at the time, and it was a week
before he missed the envelop. He kept his loss to himself at first,
but as he became alarmed lest it should blow over into the Cove and
disclose their hiding-place, he confessed to Lieutenant Coleman what
had happened.
The three soldiers searched everywhere for this dangerous paper, except
in the snug place under the tuft of grass where it lay. It was
suspected that Philip was repenting of the agreement he had made to
remain on the mountain, and both Coleman and Bromley lectured him
roundly for his carelessness. While Philip was still chafing under the
suspicions of his comrades, all the more that he was conscious of his
perfect loyalty to the old flag and to the compact they had made
together for its sake, the bear was growing stronger every day and more
mischievous. Although he had the whole plateau to roam over, nothing
seemed to please Tumbler so much as to nose about and dig into the
grave of the old man of the mountain. He was such a wicked bear that
the more they kicked and cuffed him away, the more stubbornly he came
back to his unholy work; and then it appeared that the light soil of
the mound had been taken possession of by a colony of ants. It was a
temptation such as no hungry bear could resist, and the sacrilege was
so offensive to the three soldiers that they resolved to remove the
last remnant of the ant-hill and fill it in with clay in which no
insect could live. It was after supper when they came to this
resolution, and they fell to work at once with the wooden spade and a
piece of tent-cloth, in which Philip carried the dirt a stone's-throw
away and piled it into a new mound. The bear seemed to think this was
all for his benefit, and while the work went merrily on he rooted into
the new heap and wagged his stumpy tail with every evidence of
gratitude and satisfaction.
It was a sufficiently disagreeable task for Coleman and Bromley, whose
legs and bodies were bitten by the ants until they danced with pain.
At the same time the little pests went up Philip's sleeves and came out
on his neck. Bad as the business was, they set their teeth and kept at
work, determined to finish it now they had begun. Of course the colony
was mostly near the surface of the ground; but when they had gone down
three feet into the sandy soil there were still ants burrowing about.
Now, Bromley was a man of great resolution and perseverance, and
although it was growing dark he had no thought of stopping work; so he
called for a pine torch, which Coleman held on the bank above. When
the earth gave way, the oak slab with the peculiar inscription, "One
who wishes to be forgotten," was tenderly removed and leaned against
the hut, to be reverently reset the next day. Annoying as the ants
were, the soldiers continued their work with that feeling of awe which
always attends the disturbing of a grave; and as they dug they spoke
with charity and tenderness of the old man of the mountain. It made
them think of the time when they themselves would be laid to rest in
the same soil; and if they breathed any inward prayer, it was that
their remains might sleep undisturbed. Although they were young, and
death seemed a long way off, the thought came to them of the last
survivor, and how lonely he would be, and how, when he should die,
there would be no one left to bury his poor body in the ground.
"Whatever happens," said Philip, "I don't want to be the last."
The pine torch flared and smoked in the cool night wind, and lighted
the solemn faces of the three soldiers as well as the hole in the
earth, where Bromley still stood to his middle. There was yet a little
loose earth to be thrown out before they left the work for the night,
and Philip had brought some sticks of wood to lay over the grave lest
in the morning the bear should begin to dig where they had left off.
He had, in fact, come up and seated himself in the circle of light, and
was looking on with great interest at their proceedings.
"I declare," said Bromley, just then, straightening himself, "I have
gone too far already. My spade struck on the coffin--that is, I think
it did. Perhaps I had better see what condition it is in. What do you
think, Fred?"
"No," said Philip; "cover it up."
"It will be as well," said Lieutenant Coleman, "now that we have the
opportunity, to see that everything is all right. I can't help feeling
that the old man's remains are in our care."
"Hold the light nearer, then," said Bromley, as he got down on his
knees and commenced to paw away the loose earth with his hands.
Philip was silent, and, soldier though he was, his face blanched in the
neighborhood of one poor coffin.
Both the men outside were staring intently into the open grave. The
torch-light fell broadly on Bromley's back, and cast a black shadow
from his bent body into the space below, where his hands were at work.
"Well, this is queer!" said he, straightening his back and showing a
surprised face to the light. "I've struck the chime of a cask."
"No!" cried Coleman and Philip together.
"Yes, I have," said Bromley. "Hand me the spade."
Now the work of digging was begun in good earnest, and, I am afraid,
with less awe than before of what lay below. Light as the soil was,
the opening had to be enlarged, and it was hard upon midnight when the
small beer-keg was free enough to be moved from its resting-place.
With the first joggle Bromley gave it, there was a sound of chinking
like coin.
"Do you hear that?" exclaimed Bromley. "That's not the sound of bones."
"It's money!" cried Philip.
Lieutenant Coleman said nothing, but jumping down to the aid of
Bromley, they lifted it out on the grass, where it rolled gently down a
little slope, chink-a-ty-chink, chink-a-ty-chink.
"Bring the ax!"
"No; let's roll it into the house!"
"It's money!"
"It's nails!"
"Bring it in to the fire," said Lieutenant Coleman, going ahead with
the torch. So they rolled the tough old cask, chink-a-ty-chink, around
the cabin and up to the house, into the open door and across the
earthen floor, and set it on end on the stone hearth. They were
reeking with perspiration. Coleman threw the torch upon the smoldering
logs, and by the time Bromley had the ax there was a ruddy light
through the room.
"Stand back," he cried as he swung the ax aloft.
Three times the ax rang on the head of the cask, the firelight
glittering in the eyes of the soldiers, before the strong head gave way
on one side, and three golden guineas bounced out on to the hearth.
Bromley dropped the ax, and then all three, without deigning to notice
the gold pieces upon the floor, thrust their hands deep down into the
shining mass of gold coin.
All hustled and pushed one another at the opening. Philip was on the
point of striking out right and left in sheer excitement; and in their
scramble the cask was overturned so that the yellow pieces poured out
upon the floor and the hearth, and some flopped into the fire, while
others rolled here and there into the dark corners of the room. The
golden guineas which first appeared were now covered with gold
double-eagles, and there were a few silver coins in the bottom of the
cask.
[Illustration: "THE CASK WAS OVERTURNED SO THAT THE YELLOW PIECES
POURED OUT UPON THE FLOOR."]
The three soldiers hugged one another with delight.
"We are rich!" cried Philip.
"Let's count our treasure," said Coleman. "The double-eagles
first--fifty to a thousand."
Forgotten was the old man of the mountain, forgotten were their
weariness and the lateness of the hour, as they eagerly fell a-counting.
They piled the shining yellow columns on the mantel-piece; and when
that was full, without stopping to count the thousands, they began
bunches of piles on the hard floor.
They could hardly believe that such a treasure had fallen to their
possession.
In their greedy delight they utterly forgot the old flag of the
thirty-five stars, and the total defeat of the Union armies, as they
toiled and counted.
Philip was the first to yield to the demands of tired nature. With his
hands full of gold, he sank down on his bunk and fell asleep.
Lieutenant Coleman was the next; and as the cock began to crow at
earliest dawn, Bromley bolted the door for the first time since the
house had been built, and crept exhausted into his blankets.
The treasure was found, as shown by the diary, on Friday, April 14, in
the year 1865, on the very night of the murder of the good President
whom the three soldiers believed to be living somewhere, a monument of
failure and incapacity.
The entry was in a few brief words, and by the Sunday which followed,
Lieutenant Coleman would not have exchanged the four blank leaves of
the diary for the whole treasure they had dug up. After the first
excitement of their discovery they began to realize that the yellow
stamped pieces were of no value except as a medium of exchange, and
that, as there was nothing on the mountain for which to exchange them,
they were of no value at all. If they had found a saucepan or a sack
of coffee in the cask, they would have had some reason to rejoice.
So it fell out that within a week's time the gold was looked upon as so
much lumber, and the cask which held it was kicked into a dark corner,
neglected and despised. Some of the coins were even trodden under
foot, and others lay among the chips at the door.
On the evening of the second Sunday after the discovery of the gold,
they sat together outside the door of the house, and tried to think of
some likely thing the cask might have held more useless than the
guineas and double-eagles; and, hard as they tried, they could name
nothing more worthless. The result was that they turned away to their
beds, feeling poor and dissatisfied, and down on their luck.
Now it happened, as the three soldiers lay asleep in their bunks that
night, and while Tumbler slept too, with his nose and his hairy paws in
the light, cool ashes of the fireplace (for the nights were warm now),
there came up a brisk wind which blew across the mountain from the
southwest. This rising wind went whistling on its way, tossing the
tree-tops, up on the hill above the birches, whirling the dry leaves
across the plateau, scattering them on the field below the ledge, and
even dropping some stragglers away down into the Cove far below.
At first this wind only shook the tuft of grass that overhung the lost
envelop, and then, as it grew stronger, whirled it from its snug
hiding-place, and tumbled it over and over among the dry chestnut-burs
and the old, gray, dead limbs.
If the envelop came to a rest, this wind was never content to leave its
plaything alone for long. When it landed the little paper against a
stump and held it fluttering there until that particular gust was out
of breath, the envelop fell to the ground of its own weight, only to be
picked up again and tossed on, little by little, always in the same
direction, until at last it lay exposed on the brow of the hill to a
braver and stronger blast, which lifted it high into the air and sent
it sailing over the roof of the house.
This envelop, with the names of the three soldiers and their
hiding-place written out in a fair, round hand, might have sailed along
on the southwest wind until it fell at the door of the post-office in
the Cove but for the queer way it had of navigating the air. It would
turn over and over on its way, or shoot up, or dart to one side, or
take some unexpected course; and so just as it was sailing smoothly
above the house, its sharp edge turned in the wind, and with a backward
dive it struck hard on the rock below Philip's leach. Just a breath of
wind turned it over and over on the stone, until it fell noiselessly
into the pool of lye.
Now, Lieutenant Coleman chanced to come out first in the morning; and
when he saw the lost envelop floating on the dark-brown pool alongside
a hen's egg, which had been placed there to test the strength of the
liquid, he was glad it had blown no farther. The paper had turned very
yellow in the strong potash, and so he fished it out with a twig, and
carried it across to the branch by the Slow-John, and dipped it into
the water. When he picked it out it was still slimy to the touch, and
the letters had faded a little. He brushed a word with his finger, and
the letters dissolved under his eyes.
He gave a great cry of joy; for in that instant he saw the possibility
of converting into blank paper, for keeping their records, the five
hundred and ninety-four pages of the Revised Army Regulations of 1863.