The Pioneers (17 page)

All the guests, as well as the Judge himself, seemed perfectly familiar with this description of fare, for each one commenced eating with an appetite that promised to do great honor to Remarkable's taste and skill. What rendered this attention to the repast a little surprising was the fact that both the German and Richard had been summoned from another table to meet the Judge; but Major Hartmann both ate and drank without any rule, when on his excursions; and Mr. Jones invariably made it a point to participate in the business in hand, let it be what it would. The host seemed to think some apology necessary for the warmth he had betrayed on the subject of the firewood, and when the party were comfortably seated, and engaged with their knives and forks, he observed:

“The wastefulness of the settlers, with the noble trees of this country, is shocking, Monsieur Le Quoi, as doubtless you have noticed. I have seen a man fell a pine, when he has been in want of fencing stuff, and roll his first cuts into the gap, where he left it to rot, though its top would have made rails enough to answer his purpose, and its butt would have sold in the Philadelphia market for twenty dollars.”

“And how the devil—I beg your pardon, Mr. Grant,” interrupted Richard; “but how is the poor devil to get his logs to the Philadelphia market, pray? Put them in his pocket, ha! As you would a handful of chestnuts, or a bunch of chickaberries? I should like to see you walking up High Street, with a pine log in each pocket!—Poh! poh! cousin 'duke, there are trees enough for us all, and some to spare. Why, I can hardly tell which way the wind blows, when I'm out in the clearings, they are so thick, and so tall—I couldn't at all, if it wasn't for the clouds, and I happen to know all the points of the compass, as it were, by heart.”

“Ay! ay! Squire,” cried Benjamin, who had now entered and taken his place behind the Judge's chair, a little aside withal, in order to be ready for any observation like the present. “Look aloft, sir, look aloft. The old seamen say, ‘that the devil wouldn't make a sailor, unless he look'd aloft.' As for the compass, why, there is no such thing as steering without one. I'm sure I never lose sight of the maintop, as I call the Squire's lookout on the roof, but I set my compass, d'ye see, and take the bearings and distance of things, in order to work out my course, if so be that it should cloud up, or the tops of the trees should shut out the light of heaven. The steeple of St. Paul's, now that we have got it on end, is a great help to the navigation of the woods, for, by the Lord Harry, as I was—”

“It is well, Benjamin,” interrupted Marmaduke, observing that his daughter manifested displeasure at the major-domo's familiarity; “but you forget there is a lady in company, and the women love to do most of the talking themselves.”

“The Judge says the true word,” cried Benjamin, with one of his discordant laughs. “Now here is Mistress Remarkable Prettybones; just take the stopper off her tongue, and you'll hear a gabbling, worse like than if you should happen to fall to leeward in crossing a French privateer, or some such thing, mayhap, as a dozen monkeys stowed in one bag.”

It were impossible to say how perfect an illustration of the truth of Benjamin's assertion the housekeeper would have furnished, if she had dared; but the Judge looked sternly at her, and, unwilling to incur his resentment, yet unable to contain her anger, she threw herself out of the room, with a toss of the body, that nearly separated her frail form in the center.

“Richard,” said Marmaduke, observing that his displeasure had produced the desired effect, “can you inform me of anything concerning the youth whom I so unfortunately wounded? I found him on the mountain, hunting in company with the Leatherstocking, as if they were of the same family; but there is a manifest difference in their manners. The youth delivers himself in chosen language; such as is seldom heard in these hills, and such as occasions great surprise to me, how one so meanly clad, and following so lowly a pursuit, could attain. Mohegan also knew him. Doubtless he is a tenant of Natty's hut. Did you remark the language of the lad, Monsieur Le Quoi?”

“Certainement, Monsieur Templ',” returned the Frenchman. “He deed conovairse in de excellent Anglaise.”

“The boy is no miracle,” exclaimed Richard; “I've known children that were sent to school early, talk much better, before they were twelve years old. There was Zared Coe, old Nehemiah's son, who first settled on the beaver-dam meadow, he could write almost as good a hand as myself, when he was fourteen; though it's true, I helped to teach him a little, in the evenings. But this shooting gentleman ought to be put in the stocks if he ever takes a rein in his hand again. He is the most awkward fellow about a horse I ever met with. I dare say he never drove anything but oxen in his life.”

“There I think, Dickon, you do the lad injustice,” said the Judge; “he uses much discretion in critical moments. Dost thou not think so, Bess?”

There was nothing in this question particularly to excite blushes, but Elizabeth started from the reverie into which she had fallen and colored to her forehead, as she answered:

“To me, dear sir, he appeared extremely skillful, and prompt, and courageous; but perhaps cousin Richard will say I am as ignorant as the gentleman himself.”

“Gentleman!” echoed Richard; “Do you call such chaps gentlemen at school, Elizabeth?”

“Every man is a gentleman that knows how to treat a woman with respect and consideration,” returned the young lady, promptly, and a little smartly.

“So much for hesitating to appear before the heiress in his shirt sleeves,” cried Richard, winking at Monsieur Le Quoi, who returned the wink with one eye, while he rolled the other, with an expression of sympathy, towards the young lady. “Well, well, to me he seemed anything but a gentleman. I must say, however, for the lad, that he draws a good trigger and has a true aim. He's good at shooting a buck, ha! Marmaduke?”

“Richart,” said Major Hartmann, turning his grave countenance towards the gentleman he addressed, with much earnestness, “ter poy is goot. He savet your life, and my life, and ter life of Tominie Grant, and ter life of ter Frenchman; and, Richart, he shall never vont a pet to sleep in vile olt Fritz Hartmann has a shingle to cover his het mit.”

“Well, well, as you please, old gentleman,” returned Mr. Jones, endeavoring to look indifferent; “put him into your own stone house, if you will, Major. I dare say the lad never slept in anything better than a bark shanty in his life, unless it was some such hut as the cabin of Leatherstocking. I prophesy you will soon spoil him; anyone could see how proud he grew, in a short time, just because he stood by my horses' heads, while I turned them into the highway.”

“No, no, my old friend,” cried Marmaduke, “it shall be my task to provide in some manner for the youth; I owe him a debt of my own, besides the service he has done me, through my friends. And yet I anticipate some little trouble in inducing him to accept of my services. He showed a marked dislike, I thought, Bess, to my offer of a residence within these walls for life.”

“Really, dear sir,” said Elizabeth, projecting her beautiful underlip, “I have not studied the gentleman so closely as to read his feelings in his countenance. I thought he might very naturally feel pain from his wound, and therefore pitied him; but”—and as she spoke she glanced her eye, with suppressed curiosity, towards the major-domo—“I dare say, sir, that Benjamin can tell you something about him. He cannot have been in the village, and Benjamin not have seen him often.”

“Ay! I have seen the boy before,” said Benjamin, who wanted little encouragement to speak; “he has been backing and filling in the wake of Natty Bumppo, through the mountains, after deer, like a Dutch longboat in tow of an Albany sloop. He carries a good rifle, too. The Leatherstocking said, in my hearing, before Betty Hollister's barroom fire, no later than the Tuesday night, that the younker was certain death to the wild beasts. If so be he can kill the wildcat that has been heard moaning on the lake side since the hard frosts and deep snows have driven the deer to herd, he will be doing the thing that is good. Your wildcat is a bad shipmate, and should be made to cruise out of the track of Christian men.”

“Lives he in the hut of Bumppo?” asked Marmaduke, with some interest.

“Cheek by jowl; the Wednesday will be three weeks since he first hove in sight, in company with Leatherstocking. They had captured a wolf between them and had brought in his scalp for the bounty. That Mister Bump-ho has a handy turn with him, in taking off a scalp; and there's them, in this here village, who say he larnt the trade by working on Christian men. If so be that there is truth in the saying, and I commanded along shore here, as your honor does, why, d'ye see, I'd bring him to the gangway for it, yet. There's a very pretty post rigged alongside of the stocks; and for the matter of a cat, I can fit one with my own hands; ay! and use it, too, for the want of a better.”

“You are not to credit the idle tales you hear of Natty; he has a kind of natural right to gain a livelihood in these mountains; and if the idlers in the village take it into their heads to annoy him, as they sometimes do reputed rogues, they shall find him protected by the strong arm of the law.”

“Ter rifle is petter as ter law,” said the Major, sententiously.

“That for his rifle!” exclaimed Richard, snapping his fingers; “Ben is right, and I——” He was stopped by the sounds of a common ship bell that had been elevated to the belfry of the academy, which now announced, by its incessant ringing, that the hour for the appointed service had arrived. “ ‘For this, and every other instance of his goodness'—I beg pardon, Mr. Grant, will you please to return thanks, sir? It is time we should be moving, as we are the only Episcopalians in the neighborhood; that is I, and Benjamin, and Elizabeth; for I count half-breeds, like Marmaduke, as bad as heretics.”

The divine arose and performed the office meekly and fervently, and the whole party instantly prepared themselves for the church—or rather academy.

SCOTT'S BURGHER

 

WHILE Richard and Monsieur Le Quoi, attended by Benjamin, proceeded to the academy by a footpath through the snow, the Judge, his daughter, the divine, and the Major took a more circuitous route to the same place by the streets of the village.

The moon had risen, and its orb was shedding a flood of light over the dark outline of pines which crowned the eastern mountain. In many climates the sky would have been thought clear and lucid for a noontide. The stars twinkled in the heavens, like the last glimmerings of distant fire, so much were they obscured by the overwhelming radiance of the atmosphere; the rays from the moon striking upon the smooth white surfaces of the lake and fields, reflecting upwards a light that was brightened by the spotless color of the immense bodies of snow which covered the earth.

Elizabeth employed herself with reading the signs, one of which appeared over almost every door; while the sleigh moved steadily, and at an easy gait, along the principal street. Not only new occupations, but names that were strangers to her ears, met her gaze at every step they proceeded. The very houses seemed changed. This had been altered by an addition; that had been painted; another had been erected on the site of an old acquaintance, which had been banished from the earth almost as soon as it made its appearance on it. All were, however, pouring forth their inmates, who uniformly held their way towards the point where the expected exhibition of the conjoint taste of Richard and Benjamin was to be made.

After viewing the buildings, which really appeared to some advantage, under the bright but mellow light of the moon, our heroine turned her eyes to a scrutiny of the different figures that they passed, in search of any form that she knew. But all seemed alike as, muffled in cloaks, hoods, coats, or tippets, they glided along the narrow passages in the snow which led under the houses, half hid by the bank that had been thrown up in excavating the deep path in which they trod. Once or twice she thought there was a stature or a gait that she recollected; but the person who owned it instantly disappeared behind one of those enormous piles of wood that lay before most of the doors. It was only as they turned from the main street into another that intersected it at right angles, and which led directly to the place of meeting, that she recognized a face and building that she knew.

The house stood at one of the principal corners in the village; and, by its well-trodden doorway, as well as the sign that was swinging with a kind of doleful sound in the blasts that occasionally swept down the lake, was clearly one of the most frequented inns in the place. The building was only of one story; but the dormer windows in the roof, the paint, the window shutters, and the cheerful fire that shone through the open door gave it an air of comfort that was not possessed by many of its neighbors. The sign was suspended from a common alehouse post and represented the figure of a horseman, armed with saber and pistols and surmounted by a bearskin cap, with a fiery animal that he bestrode “rampant.” All these particulars were easily to be seen by the aid of the moon, together with a row of somewhat illegible writing in black paint, but in which Elizabeth, to whom the whole was familiar, read with facility, “The Bold Dragoon.”

A man and a woman were issuing from the door of this habitation as the sleigh was passing. The former moved with a stiff, military step that was a good deal heightened by a limp in one leg; but the woman advanced with a measure and an air that seemed not particularly regardful of what she might encounter. The light of the moon fell directly upon her full, broad, and red visage, exhibiting her masculine countenance, under the mockery of a ruffled cap that was intended to soften the lineaments of features that were by no means squeamish. A small bonnet of black silk, and of a slightly formal cut, was placed on the back of her head, but so as not to shade her visage in the least. Her face, as it encountered the rays of the moon from the east, seemed not unlike a sun rising in the west. She advanced, with masculine strides, to intercept the sleigh; and the Judge, directing the namesake of the Grecian king, who held the lines, to check his horses, the parties were soon near to each other.