Men and boys had rushed from the fortress together, to greet the new
comers, and few remained save the women; of whom not a few, particularly
of the younger individuals, were as eager to satisfy their curiosity as
their fathers and brothers. The disorderly spirit had spread even among
the daughters of the commandant, to the great concern of his spouse; who,
although originally of a degree somewhat humbler even than his own, had a
much more elevated sense of the dignity of his commission as a colonel of
militia, and a due consciousness of the necessity of adapting her manners
to her rank. She stood on the porch of her cabin, which had the merit of
being larger than any other in the fort, maintaining order among some
half dozen or more lasses, the eldest scarce exceeding seventeen, whom
she endeavoured to range in a row, to receive the expected guests in
state, though every moment some one or other might be seen edging away
from her side, as if in the act of deserting her altogether.
"Out on you, you flirting critturs!" said she, her indignation provoked,
and her sense of propriety shocked by such unworthy behaviour:--"Stop
thar, you Nell! whar you going? You Sally, you Phoebe, you Jane, and
the rest of you! ha'nt you no better idea of what's manners for a
Cunnel's daughters? I'm ashamed of you,--to run ramping and tearing
after the strange men thar, like tom-boys, or any common person's
daughters! Laws! _do_ remember your father's a Cunnel in the milishy,
and set down in the porch here on the bench, like genteel young ladies;
or stand up, if you like that better, and wait till your father, Cunnel
Bruce that is, brings up the captains: one of 'em's a rale army captain,
with epaulets and broad-sword, with a chance of money, and an uncommon
handsome sister,--rale genteel people from old Virginnee: and I'm glad of
it,--it's so seldom you sees any body but common persons come to
Kentucky. Do behave yourselves: thar's Telie Doe thar at the loom don't
think so much as turning her eyes around; she's a pattern for you."
"Law, mother!" said the eldest of the daughters, bridling with disdain,
"I reckon I know how to behave myself as well as Telie Doe, or any other
girl in the settlement;"--a declaration echoed and re-echoed by her
sisters, all of whom bent their eyes towards a corner of the ample porch,
where, busied with a rude loom, fashioned perhaps by the axe and knife of
the militia colonel himself, on which she was weaving a coarse cloth from
the fibres of the flax-nettle, sat a female somewhat younger than the
eldest of the sisters, and doubtless of a more humble degree, as was
shown by the labour in which she was engaged, while the others seemed to
enjoy a holiday, and by her coarse brown garments, worn at a moment when
the fair Bruces were flaunting in their best bibs and tuckers, the same
having been put on not more in honour of the exiles, whose coming had
been announced the day before, than out of compliment to the young men of
the settlement, who were wont to assemble on such occasions to gather the
latest news from the States.
The pattern of good manners thus referred to, was as unconscious of the
compliment bestowed upon her by the worthy Mrs. Bruce as of the glances
of disdain it drew from the daughters, being apparently at that moment
too much occupied with her work to think of anything else; nor did she
lift up her eyes until, the conversation having been resumed between the
mother and daughters, one of the latter demanded "what was the name of
that army captain, that was so rich and great, of whom her mother had
been talking?"
"Captain Roland Forrester," replied the latter; at the sound of which
name the maiden at the loom started and looked up with an air of fright,
that caused exceeding diversion among the others. "Look at Telie Doe!"
they cried, laughing: "you can't speak above your breath but she thinks
you are speaking to her; and, sure, you can't speak to her, but she looks
as if she would jump out of her skin, and run away for her dear life!"
And so, indeed, the girl did appear for a moment, looking as wild and
terrified as the animal whose name she bore, when the first bay of the
deer-hound startles her in the deep woodland pastures, rolling her eyes,
catching her breath convulsively, shivering, and, in short, betraying a
degree of agitation; that would have appeared unaccountable to a
stranger; though, as it caused more amusement than surprise among the
merry Bruces, it was but fair to suppose that it sprung from
constitutional nervousness, or the sudden interruption of her
meditations. As she started up in her confusion, rolling her eyes from
one laughing maiden to another, her very trepidation imparted an interest
to her features, which were in themselves pretty enough, though not so
much as to attract observation, when in a state of rest. Then it was that
the observer might see, or fancy he saw, a world of latent expression in
her wild dark eyes, and trace the workings of a quick and sensitive
spirit, whose existence would have been otherwise unsuspected, in the
tremulous movement of her lips. And then, too, one might have been struck
with the exquisite contour of a slight figure, which even the coarse
garments, spun, and perhaps shaped, by her own hands, could not entirely
conceal. At such times of excitement, there was something in her
appearance both striking and singular--Indian-like, one might almost have
said. Such an epithet might have been borne out by the wildness of her
looks, the darkness of her eyes, the simple arrangement of her coal-black
hair--which instead of being confined by comb or fillet, was twisted
round a thorn cut from the nearest locust-tree--and by the smallness of
her stature, though the lightness and European tinge of her complexion
must have instantly disproved the idea.
Her discomposure dispelled from the bosoms of her companions all the
little resentment produced by the matron's invidious comparison; and each
now did her best to increase it by cries of "Jump, Telie, the Indians
will catch you!" "Take care, Telie, Tom Bruce will kiss you!" "Run,
Telie, the dog will bite you!" and other expressions, of a like alarming
nature, which, if they did not augment her terror, divided and distracted
her attention, till quite bewildered, she stared now on one, now on the
other, and at each mischievous assault, started, and trembled, and gasped
for breath, in inexpressible confusion. It was fortunate for her that
this species of baiting, which from the spirit and skill with which her
youthful tormentors pursued it, seemed no uncommon infliction, the
reforming mother considered to be, at least at that particular moment,
unworthy the daughters of a colonel in the militia.
"Do behave yourselves, you ungenteel critturs," said she; "Phoebe Bruce,
you're old enough to know better; don't expose yourself before
stranngers. Thar they come now; thar's Cunnel Bruce that is, talking to
Captain Forrester that is, and a right-down soldier-looking captain he
is, too. I wonder whar's his cocked hat, and feather, and goold epaulets?
Thar's his big broad-sword, and--but, Lord above us, ar'nt his sister a
beauty! Any man in Kentucky will be proud of her; but, I warrant me,
she'll take to nothing under a cunnel!"
The young misses ceased their sport to stare at the strangers, and even
Telie Doe, pattern of propriety as she was, had no sooner recovered her
equanimity than she turned her eyes from the loom and bent them eagerly
upon the train now entering through the main gate, gazing long and
earnestly upon the young captain and the fair Edith, who with the colonel
of militia, and a fourth individual, parted from it, and rode up to the
porch. The fourth person, a sober, and substantial-looking borderer, in a
huge blanket-coat and slouched hat, the latter stuck round with buck's
tails, was the nominal captain of the party. He conversed a moment with
Forrester and the commandant, and then, being given in charge by the
latter to his son Tom, who was hallooed from the crowd for this purpose,
he rode away, leaving the colonel to do the honours to his second in
command. These the colonel executed with much courtesy and gallantry, if
not with grace, leaping from his horse with unexpected activity, and
assisting Edith to dismount, which he effected by taking her in his arms
and whisking her from the saddle with as little apparent effort as though
he were handling an infant.
"Welcome, my beautiful young lady," said he, giving her another hearty
shake of the hand: "H'yar's a house that shall shelter you; though thar's
not much can be said of it, except that it is safe and wholesome. H'yar's
my old lady too, and my daughters, that will make much of you; and as for
my sons, thar's not a brute of 'em that won't fight for you; but th' ar'
all busy stowing away the stranngers; and, I reckon, they think it ar'nt
manners to show themselves to a young lady, while she's making
acquaintance with the women."
With that the gallant colonel presented the fair stranger to his wife and
daughters, the latter of whom, a little daunted at first by her
appearance, as a being superior in degree to the ordinary race of
mortals, but quickly re-assured by her frank and easy deportment, loaded
her with caresses, and carried her into the house, to improve the few
hours allowed to make her acquaintance, and to assist her in changing her
apparel, for which the means were furnished from sundry bags and
packages, that the elder of the two negromen, the only immediate
followers of her kinsmen, took from the back of a pack-horse. The mother
of the Bruces thought it advisable to follow them, to see, perhaps, in
person, that they conducted themselves towards their guest as a colonel's
daughter should.
None of the females remained on the porch save Telie, the girl of the
loom, who, too humble or too timid to seek the acquaintance of the
stranger lady, like the others, had been overlooked in the bustle, and
now pursued her labour with but little notice from those who remained.
"And now, Colonel," said the young officer, declining the offer of
refreshments made by his host, "allow me, like a true soldier, to proceed
to the business with which you heard our commander, Major Johnson, charge
me. To-morrow we resume our journey to the Falls. I should gladly myself,
for Miss Forrester's sake, consent to remain with you a few days, to
recruit our strength a little. But that cannot be. Our men are resolved
to push on without delay; and as I have no authority to restrain them, I
must e'en accompany them."
"Well," said Colonel Bruce, "if it must be, it must, and I'm not the
brute to say 'No' to you. But lord, Captain, I should be glad to have you
stay a month or two, war it only to have a long talk about my old friend,
the brave old major. And thar's your sister, Captain,--lord, sir, she
would be the pet of the family, and would help my wife teach the girls
manners. Lord!" he continued, laughing, "you've no idea what grand
notions have got into the old woman's head about the way of behaving,
ever since it war that the Governor of Virginnie sent me a cunnel's
commission. She thinks I ought to w'ar a cocked hat and goold swabs,
and put on a blue coat instead of a leather shirt; but I wonder how soon
I'd see the end of it, out h'yar in the bushes? And then, as for the
girls, why thar's no end of the lessons she gives them;--and thar's
my Jenny,--that's the youngest,--came blubbering up the other day,
saying, 'she believed mother intended even to stop their licking at
the sugar-troughs, she was getting so great and so proud!' Howsomever,
women will be women, and thar's the end of it."
To this philosophic remark the officer of inferior degree bowed
acquiescence, and recalling his host's attention to the subject of most
interest to himself, requested to be informed what difficulties or
dangers might be apprehended on the further route to the Falls of Ohio.
"Why, none on 'arth that I know of," said Bruce; "you've as cl'ar
and broad a trace before you as man and beast could make--a
buffalo-street,[2] through the canes; and, when thar's open woods, blazes
as thick as stars, and horse-tracks still thicker: thar war more than a
thousand settlers have travelled it this year already. As for danngers,
Captain, why I reckon thar's none to think on. Thar war a good chance of
whooping and howling about Bear's Grass, last year, and some hard
fighting; but I h'ar nothing of Injuns thar this y'ar. But you leave
some of your people h'yar: what force do you tote down to the Falls
to-morrow?"
[Footnote 2: The bison-paths when very broad, were often thus called.]
"Twenty-seven guns in all: but several quite too young to face an enemy."
"Thar's no trusting to years in a matter of fighting!" said the
Kentuckian. "Thar's my son Tom, that killed his brute at fourteen; but, I
remember, I told you that story. Howsomever, I hold thar's no Injuns on
the road; and if you should meet any, why, it will be down about Bear's
Grass, or the Forks of Salt, whar you can keep your eyes open, and whar
the settlements are so thick, it is easy taking cover. No, no, Captain,
the fighting this year is all on the north side of Kentucky."
"Yet, I believe," said Roland, "there have been no troubles there since
the defeat of Captain Estill on Little Mountain, and of Holder at that
place,--what do you call it?"
"Upper Blue Licks of Licking," said Bruce; "and war'nt they troubles
enough for a season? Two Kentucky captains (and one of them a south-side
man, too,) whipped in fa'r fight, and by nothing better than brutish
Injuns!"
"They were sad affairs, indeed; and the numbers of white men murdered
made them still more shocking."
"The murdering," said the gallant Colonel Bruce, "is nothing, sir: it is
the shame of the thumping that makes one feel vicious; thar's the thing
no Kentuckian can stand, sir. To be murdered, whar thar's ten Injuns to
one white man, is nothing; but whar it comes to being trounced by equal
numbers, why thar's the thing not to be tolerated. Howsomever, Captain,
we're no worse off in Kentucky than our neighbours. Thar's them five
hundred Pennsylvanians that went out in June, under old Cunnel Crawford
from Pittsburg, agin the brutes of Sandusky, war more ridiculously
whipped by old Captain Pipe, the Delaware, thar's no denying."
"What!" said Roland, "was Crawford's company beaten?"
"Beaten!" said the Kentuckian, opening his eyes; "cut off the _b_, and
say the savages made a dinner of 'em, and you'll be nearer the true
history of the matter. It's but two months ago; and so I suppose the news
of the affa'r hadn't got into East Virginnie when you started. Well,
Captain, the long and short of it is,--the cunnel _war_ beaten and
exterminated, and that on a hard run from the fight he had hunted hard
after. How many ever got back safe agin to Pittsburg, I never could
rightly h'ar, but what I know is, that thar war dozens of prisoners
beaten to death by the squaws and children, and that old Cunnel Crawford
himself war put to the double torture and roasted alive; and, I reckon,
if he war'nt eaten, it war only because he war too old to be tender."
"Horrible!" said the young soldier, muttering half to himself, though not
in tones so low but that the Kentuckian caught their import; "and I must
expose my poor Edith to fall into the power of such fiends and monsters!"
"Ay, Captain," said Bruce, "thar's the thing that sticks most in
the heart of them that live in the wilderness and have wives and
daughters;--to think of _their_ falling into the hands of the brutes, who
murder and scalp a woman just as readily as a man. As to their torturing
them, that's not so certain, but the brutes arn't a bit too good for it;
and I did h'ar of their burning one poor woman at Sandusky. But now,
Captain, if you are anxious to have the young lady, your sister, in
safety, h'yar's the place to stick up your tent-poles, h'yar, in this
very settlement, whar the Injuns never trouble us, never coming within
ten miles of us. Thar's as good land here as on Bear's Grass; and we
shall be glad of your company. It is not often we have a rich man to take
luck among us. Howsomever, I won't deceive you, if you will go to the
Ohio; I hold, thar's no danger on the trace for either man or woman."
"My good friend," said Roland, "you seem to labour under two errors in
respect to me which it is fitting I should correct. In the first place,
the lady whom you have several times called, I know not why, my sister,
claims no such near relationship, being only my cousin."
"Why, sure!" said the colonel, "someone told me so, and thar's a strong
family likeness."
"There should be," said the youth, "since our fathers were twin brothers,
and resembled each other in all particulars, in body, in mind, and, as I
may say, in fortune. They were alike in their lives, alike also in their
deaths: they fell together, struck down by the same cannon-ball, at the
bombardment of Norfolk, seven years ago."
"May I never see a scalp," said the Kentuckian, warmly grasping the young
man's hand, "if I don't honour you the more for boasting such a father
and such uncles! You come of the true stock, captain, thar's no denying;
and my brave old major's estates have fallen into the right hands; for,
if thar's any believing the news the last band of emigrants brought of
you h'yar, thar war no braver officer in Lee's corps, nor in the whole
Virginnee line, than young Captain Forrester."
"Here," said Roland, looking as if what he said cost him a painful
effort, "lies the second error,--your considering me, as you manifestly
do, the heir of your old major, my uncle Roland,--which I am not."
"Lord!" said the worthy Bruce, "he was the richest man in
Prince-George, and he had thousands of fat acres in the Valley, the
best in all Fincastle, as I know very well, for I war a Fincastle man
myself; and thar war my old friend Braxley,--he war a lieutenant under
the major at Braddock's, and afterwards his steward, and manager, and
lawyer-like,--who used to come over the Ridge to see after them. But I
see how it is; he left all to the young lady?"
"Not an acre," said Roland.
"What!" said the Kentuckian: "he left no children of his own. Who then is
the heir?"
"Your old friend, as you call him, Richard Braxley. And hence you see,"
continued the youth, as if desirous to change the conversation, "that I
come to Kentucky, an adventurer and fortune-hunter, like other emigrants,
to locate lands under proclamation-warrants and bounty-grants, to fell
trees, raise corn, shoot bisons and Indians, and, in general, do any
thing else that can be required of a good Virginian or good Kentuckian."
It was evidently the captain's wish now to leave altogether the subject
on which he had thought it incumbent to acquaint his host with so much;
but the worthy Bruce was not so easily satisfied; and not conceiving
there was any peculiar impropriety in indulging curiosity in matters
relating to his old major, however distasteful that curiosity might prove
to his guest, he succeeded in drawing from the reluctant young man many
more particulars of his story; which, as they have an important
connection with the events it is our object to narrate, we must be
pardoned for briefly noticing.
Major Roland Forrester, the uncle and godfather of the young soldier, and
the representative of one of the most ancient and affluent families on
James River (for by this trivial name Virginians are content to designate
the noble _Powhatan_), was the eldest of three brothers, of whom the two
younger, as was often the case under the _ancien regime_ in Virginia,
were left, at the death of their parent, to shift for themselves;
while the eldest son inherited the undivided princely estate of his
ancestors. This was at the period when that contest of principle with
power, which finally resulted in the separation of the American Colonies
from the parent State, first began to agitate the minds of the good
planters of Virginia, in common with the people of all the other
colonies. Men had already begun to take sides, in feeling as in argument;
and, as usual, interest had, no doubt, its full share in directing and
confirming the predilections of individuals. These circumstances,--the
regular succession of the eldest-born to the paternal estate, and the
necessity imposed on the others of carving out their own fortunes,--had,
perhaps, their influence in determining the political bias of the
brothers, and preparing them for contention when the increase of party
feeling, and the clash of interests between the government abroad and the
colonies at home, called upon all men to avow their principles and take
their stands. It was as natural that the one should retain affection and
reverence for the institutions which had made him rich and distinguished,
as that the younger brothers, who had suffered under them a deprivation
of their natural rights, should declare for a system of government and
laws more liberal and equitable in their character and operation. At all
events, and be the cause of difference what it might, when the storm of
the Revolution burst over the land, the brothers were found arrayed on
opposite sides--the two younger, the fathers of Roland and Edith,
instantly taking up arms in the popular cause, while nothing, perhaps,
but helpless feebleness and bodily infirmities, the results of wounds
received in Braddock's war, throughout which he had fought at the head of
a battalion of "Buckskins," or Virginia Rangers, prevented the elder
brother from arming as zealously in the cause of his king. Fierce,
uncompromising, and vindictive, however, in his temper, he never forgave
his brothers the bold and active part they both took in the contest; and
it was his resentment, perhaps, more than natural affection for his
neglected offspring, that caused him to defeat his brothers' hopes of
succession to his estates, (he being himself unmarried), by executing a
will in favour of an illegitimate child, an infant daughter, whom he drew
from concealment and acknowledged as his offspring. This child, however,
was soon removed, having being burned to death in the house of its
foster-mother. But its decease effected little or no change in his
feelings towards his brothers, who, pursuing the principles they had so
early avowed, were among the first to take arms among the patriots of
Virginia, and fell, as Roland had said, at Norfolk, leaving each an
orphan child--Roland, then a youth of fifteen, and Edith, a child of ten,
to the mercy of the elder brother. Their death effected what perhaps
their prayers never would have done. The stern loyalist took the orphans
to his bosom, cherished and loved them, or at least appeared to do so,
and often avowed his intention to make them his heirs. But it was
Roland's ill fate to provoke his ire, as Roland's father had done before
him. The death of that father, one of the earliest martyrs to liberty,
had created in his youthful mind a strong abhorrence of everything
British and loyal; and after presuming a dozen times or more to disclose
and defend his hatred, he put the coping-stone to his audacity, by
suddenly leaving his uncle's house, two years after he had been received
into it, and galloping away, a cornet in one of the companies of the
first regiment of horse which Virginia sent to the armies of Congress.
He never more saw his uncle. He cared little for his wrath or its
effects; if disinherited himself, it pleased his imagination to think he
had enriched his gentle cousin. But his uncle carried his resentment
further than he had dreamed, or indeed any one else who had beheld the
show of affection he continued to the orphan Edith up to the last moment
of his existence. He died in October of the preceding year, a week before
the capitulation at York-town, and almost within the sound of the guns
that proclaimed the fall of the cause he had so loyally espoused. From
this place of victory Roland departed to seek his kinswoman. He found her
in the house--not of his fathers, but of a stranger--herself a destitute
and homeless orphan. No will appeared to pronounce her the mistress of
the wealth he had himself rejected; but, in place of it, the original
testament in favour of Major Forrester's own child was produced by
Braxley, his confidential friend and attorney, who, by it, was appointed
both executor of the estate and trustee to the individual in whose favour
it was constructed.
The production of such a testament, so many years after the death of the
girl, caused no little astonishment; but this was still further increased
by what followed, the aforesaid Braxley instantly taking possession of
the whole estate in the name of the heiress, who, he made formal
deposition, was, to the best of his belief, yet alive, and would appear
to claim her inheritance. In support of this extraordinary averment, he
produced, or professed himself ready to produce, evidence to show that
Forrester's child, instead of being burned to death as was believed, had
actually been trepanned and carried away by persons to him unknown, the
burning of the house of her foster-mother having been devised and
executed merely to give colour to the story of her death. Who were the
perpetrators of such an outrage, and for what purpose it had been
devised, he affected to be ignorant; though he threw out many hints and
surmises of a character more painful to Edith and Roland than even the
loss of the property. These hints Roland could not persuade himself to
repeat to the curious Kentuckian, since they went, in fact, to charge his
own father, and Edith's, with the crime of having themselves concealed
the child, for the purpose of removing the only bar to their expectations
of succession.
Whatever might be thought of this singular story, it gained some
believers, and was enough in the hands of Braxley, a man of great address
and resolution, and withal, a lawyer, to enable him to laugh to scorn the
feeble efforts made by the impoverished Roland to bring it to the test of
legal arbitrament. Despairing, in fact, of his cause, after a few trials
had convinced him of his impotence, and perhaps himself almost believing
the tale to be true, the young man gave up the contest, and directed his
thoughts to the condition of his cousin Edith; who, upon the above
circumstances being made known, had received a warm invitation to the
house and protection of her only female relative, a married lady, whose
husband had, two years before, emigrated to the Falls of Ohio, where he
was now a person of considerable importance. This invitation determined
the course to be pursued. The young man instantly resigned his
commission, and converting the little property that remained into
articles necessary to the emigrant, turned his face to the boundless
West, and with his helpless kinswoman at his side, plunged at once into
the forest. A home for Edith in the house of a relative was the first
object of his desires; his second, as he had already mentioned, was to
lay the foundation for the fortunes of both.
There was something in the condition of the young and almost friendless
adventurers to interest the feelings of the hardy Kentuckian; but they
were affected still more strongly by the generous self-sacrifice, as it
might be called, which the young soldier was evidently making for his
kinswoman, for whom he had given up an honourable profession and his
hopes of fame and distinction, to live a life of inglorious toil in the
desert. He gave the youth another energetic grasp of hand, and said, with
uncommon emphasis,--
"Hark'ee, Captain, my lad, I love and honour ye; and I could say no more,
if you war my own natteral born father! As to that 'ar' Richard Braxley,
whom I call'd my old friend, you must know, it war an old custom I have
of calling a man a friend who war only an acquaintance; for I am for
being friendly to all men that ar' white and honest, and no Injuns. Now,
I do hold that Braxley to be a rascal,--a precocious rascal, sir! and, I
rather reckon, thar war lying and villiany at the bottom of that will;
and I hope you'll live to see the truth of it."
The sympathy felt by the Kentuckian in the story was experienced in a
still stronger degree by Telie Doe, the girl of the loom, who, little
noticed, if at all, by the two, sat apparently occupied with her work,
yet drinking in every word uttered by the young soldier with a deep and
eager interest, until Roland by chance looking round, beheld her large
eyes fastened upon him, with a wild, sorrowful look, of which, however,
she herself seemed quite unconscious, that greatly surprised him. The
Kentuckian observing her at the same time, called to her,--"What, Telie,
my girl, are you working upon a holiday? You should be dressed like the
others, and making friends with the stranger lady. And so git away with
you now, and make yourself handsome, and don't stand thar looking as if
the gentleman would eat you."
"A qu'ar crittur she, poor thing!" said Bruce, looking after her
commiseratingly; "and a stranger might think her no more nor half-witted.
But she has sense enough, poor crittur! and, I reckon, is just as smart,
if she war not so humble and skittish, as any of my own daughters."
"What," said Roland, "is she not then your child?"
"No, no," replied Bruce, shaking his head; "a poor crittur, of no manner
of kin whatever. Her father war an old friend, or acquaintance-like; for,
rat it, I won't own friendship for any such apostatised villians, no
how:--but the man war taken by the Shawnees; and so as thar war none to
befriend her, and she war but a little chit no bigger nor my hand, I took
to her myself and raised her. But the worst of it is, and that's what
makes her so wild and skeary, her father, Abel Doe, turned Injun himself,
like Girty, Elliot, and the rest of them refugee scoundrels you've h'ard
of. Now _that's_ enough, you see, to make the poor thing sad and
frightful; for Abel Doe is a rogue, thar's no denying, and everybody
hates and cusses him, as is but his due; and it's natteral, now she's
growing old enough to be ashamed of him, she should be ashamed of herself
too,--though thar's nothing but her father to charge against her, poor
creatur'. A bad thing for her to have an Injunised father; for if it
war'nt for him, I reckon, my son Tom, the brute, would take to her, and
marry her."
"Poor creature, indeed!" muttered Roland to himself, contrasting in
thought the condition of this helpless and deserted girl with that of his
own unfortunate kinswoman, and sighing to acknowledge that it was still
more forlorn and pitiable.
His sympathy was, however, but short-lived, being interrupted on the
instant by a loud uproar of voices from the gate of the stockade,
sounding half in mirth, half in triumph; while the junior Bruce was seen
approaching the porch, looking the very messenger of good news.