The Prairie

by James Fenimore Cooper

  CHAPTER VII

  What! fifty of my followers, at a clap! --Lear.

  The day had now fairly opened on the seemingly interminable waste ofthe prairie. The entrance of Obed at such a moment into the camp,accompanied as it was by vociferous lamentations over his anticipatedloss, did not fail to rouse the drowsy family of the squatter. Ishmaeland his sons, together with the forbidding looking brother of his wife,were all speedily afoot; and then, as the sun began to shed his light onthe place, they became gradually apprised of the extent of their loss.

  Ishmael looked round upon the motionless and heavily loaded vehicleswith his teeth firmly compressed, cast a glance at the amazed andhelpless group of children, which clustered around their sullen butdesponding mother, and walked out upon the open land, as if he found theair of the encampment too confined. He was followed by several of themen, who were attentive observers, watching the dark expression of hiseye as the index of their own future movements. The whole proceeded inprofound and moody silence to the summit of the nearest swell, whencethey could command an almost boundless view of the naked plains. Herenothing was visible but a solitary buffaloe, that gleaned a meagresubsistence from the decaying herbage, at no great distance, and theass of the physician, who profited by his freedom to enjoy a meal richerthan common.

  "Yonder is one of the creatures left by the villains to mock us," saidIshmael, glancing his eye towards the latter, "and that the meanest ofthe stock. This is a hard country to make a crop in, boys; and yet foodmust be found to fill many hungry mouths!"

  "The rifle is better than the hoe, in such a place as this," returnedthe eldest of his sons, kicking the hard and thirsty soil on which hestood, with an air of contempt. "It is good for such as they who maketheir dinner better on beggars' beans than on homminy. A crow would shedtears if obliged by its errand to fly across the district."

  "What say you, trapper?" returned the father, showing the slightimpression his powerful heel had made on the compact earth, and laughingwith frightful ferocity. "Is this the quality of land a man would choosewho never troubles the county clerk with title deeds?"

  "There is richer soil in the bottoms," returned the old man calmly, "andyou have passed millions of acres to get to this dreary spot, where hewho loves to till the 'arth might have received bushels in return forpints, and that too at the cost of no very grievous labour. If you havecome in search of land, you have journeyed hundreds of miles too far, oras many leagues too little."

  "There is then a better choice towards the other Ocean?" demanded thesquatter, pointing in the direction of the Pacific.

  "There is, and I have seen it all," was the answer of the other, whodropped his rifle to the earth, and stood leaning on its barrel, likeone who recalled the scenes he had witnessed with melancholy pleasure."I have seen the waters of the two seas! On one of them was I born, andraised to be a lad like yonder tumbling boy. America has grown, mymen, since the days of my youth, to be a country larger than I oncehad thought the world itself to be. Near seventy years I dwelt in York,province and state together:--you've been in York, 'tis like?"

  "Not I--not I; I never visited the towns; but often have heard the placeyou speak of named. 'Tis a wide clearing there, I reckon."

  "Too wide! too wide! They scourge the very 'arth with their axes. Suchhills and hunting-grounds as I have seen stripped of the gifts of theLord, without remorse or shame! I tarried till the mouths of my houndswere deafened by the blows of the chopper, and then I came west insearch of quiet. It was a grievous journey that I made; a grievous toilto pass through falling timber and to breathe the thick air of smokyclearings, week after week, as I did! 'Tis a far country too, that stateof York from this!"

  "It lies ag'in the outer edge of old Kentuck, I reckon; though what thedistance may be I never knew."

  "A gull would have to fan a thousand miles of air to find the easternsea. And yet it is no mighty reach to hunt across, when shade and gameare plenty! The time has been when I followed the deer in the mountainsof the Delaware and Hudson, and took the beaver on the streams of theupper lakes in the same season, but my eye was quick and certain at thatday, and my limbs were like the legs of a moose! The dam of Hector,"dropping his look kindly to the aged hound that crouched at his feet,"was then a pup, and apt to open on the game the moment she struck thescent. She gave me a deal of trouble, that slut, she did!"

  "Your hound is old, stranger, and a rap on the head would prove a mercyto the beast."

  "The dog is like his master," returned the trapper, without appearing toheed the brutal advice the other gave, "and will number his days, whenhis work amongst the game is over, and not before. To my eye thingsseem ordered to meet each other in this creation. 'Tis not the swiftestrunning deer that always throws off the hounds, nor the biggest armthat holds the truest rifle. Look around you, men; what will the YankeeChoppers say, when they have cut their path from the eastern to thewestern waters, and find that a hand, which can lay the 'arth bare ata blow, has been here and swept the country, in very mockery of theirwickedness. They will turn on their tracks like a fox that doubles, andthen the rank smell of their own footsteps will show them the madness oftheir waste. Howsomever, these are thoughts that are more likely to risein him who has seen the folly of eighty seasons, than to teach wisdom tomen still bent on the pleasures of their kind! You have need, yet, ofa stirring time, if you think to escape the craft and hatred of theburnt-wood Indians. They claim to be the lawful owners of this country,and seldom leave a white more than the skin he boasts of, when once theyget the power, as they always have the will, to do him harm."

  "Old man," said Ishmael sternly, "to which people do you belong? Youhave the colour and speech of a Christian, while it seems that yourheart is with the redskins."

  "To me there is little difference in nations. The people I loved mostare scattered as the sands of the dry river-beds fly before the fallhurricanes, and life is too short to make use and custom with strangers,as one can do with such as he has dwelt amongst for years. Still am I aman without the cross of Indian blood; and what is due from a warriorto his nation, is owing by me to the people of the States; though littleneed have they, with their militia and their armed boats, of help from asingle arm of fourscore."

  "Since you own your kin, I may ask a simple question. Where are theSiouxes who have stolen my cattle?"

  "Where is the herd of buffaloes, which was chased by the panther acrossthis plain, no later than the morning of yesterday? It is as hard--"

  "Friend," said Dr. Battius, who had hitherto been an attentive listener,but who now felt a sudden impulse to mingle in the discourse, "Iam grieved when I find a venator or hunter, of your experience andobservation, following the current of vulgar error. The animal youdescribe is in truth a species of the bos ferus, (or bos sylvestris, ashe has been happily called by the poets,) but, though of close affinity,it is altogether distinct from the common bubulus. Bison is the betterword; and I would suggest the necessity of adopting it in future, whenyou shall have occasion to allude to the species."

  "Bison or buffaloe, it makes but little matter. The creatur' is thesame, call it by what name you will, and--"

  "Pardon me, venerable venator; as classification is the very soul ofthe natural sciences, the animal or vegetable must, of necessity, becharacterised by the peculiarities of its species, which is alwaysindicated by the name--"

  "Friend," said the trapper, a little positively, "would the tail of abeaver make the worse dinner for calling it a mink; or could you eat ofthe wolf, with relish, because some bookish man had given it the name ofvenison?"

  As these questions were put with no little earnestness and some spirit,there was every probability that a hot discussion would have succeededbetween two men, of whom one was so purely practical and the other somuch given to theory, had not Ishmael seen fit to terminate the dispute,by bringing into view a subject that was much more important to his ownimmediate interests.

/>   "Beavers' tails and minks' flesh may do to talk about before a maplefire and a quiet hearth," interrupted the squatter, without the smallestdeference to the interested feelings of the disputants; "but somethingmore than foreign words, or words of any sort, is now needed. Tell me,trapper, where are your Siouxes skulking?"

  "It would be as easy to tell you the colours of the hawk that isfloating beneath yonder white cloud! When a red-skin strikes his blow,he is not apt to wait until he is paid for the evil deed in lead."

  "Will the beggarly savages believe they have enough, when they findthemselves master of all the stock?"

  "Natur' is much the same, let it be covered by what skin it may. Doyou ever find your longings after riches less when you have made a goodcrop, than before you were master of a kernel of corn? If you do, youdiffer from what the experience of a long life tells me is the commoncravings of man."

  "Speak plainly, old stranger," said the squatter, striking the butt ofhis rifle heavily on the earth, his dull capacity finding no pleasure ina discourse that was conducted in so obscure allusions; "I have asked asimple question, and one I know well that you can answer."

  "You are right, you are right. I can answer, for I have too often seenthe disposition of my kind to mistake it, when evil is stirring. Whenthe Siouxes have gathered in the beasts, and have made sure that you arenot upon their heels, they will be back nibbling like hungry wolves totake the bait they have left or it may be, they'll show the temper ofthe great bears, that are found at the falls of the Long River, andstrike at once with the paw, without stopping to nose their prey."

  "You have then seen the animals you mention!" exclaimed Dr. Battius,who had now been thrown out of the conversation quite as long as hisimpatience could well brook, and who approached the subject with histablets ready opened, as a book of reference. "Can you tell me if whatyou encountered was of the species, ursus horribilis--with the ears,rounded--front, arquated--eyes--destitute of the remarkable supplementallid--with six incisores, one false, and four perfect molares--"

  "Trapper, go on, for we are engaged in reasonable discourse,"interrupted Ishmael; "you believe we shall see more of the robbers."

  "Nay--nay--I do not call them robbers, for it is the usage of theirpeople, and what may be called the prairie law."

  "I have come five hundred miles to find a place where no man can dingthe words of the law in my ears," said Ishmael, fiercely, "and I amnot in a humour to stand quietly at a bar, while a red-skin sits injudgment. I tell you, trapper, if another Sioux is seen prowling aroundmy camp, wherever it may be, he shall feel the contents of old Kentuck,"slapping his rifle, in a manner that could not be easily misconstrued,"though he wore the medal of Washington,[*] himself. I call the man arobber who takes that which is not his own."

  [*] The American government creates chiefs among the western tribes, and decorates them with silver medals bearing the impression of the different presidents. That of Washington is the most prized.

  "The Teton, and the Pawnee, and the Konza, and men of a dozen othertribes, claim to own these naked fields."

  "Natur' gives them the lie in their teeth. The air, the water, and theground, are free gifts to man, and no one has the power to portion themout in parcels. Man must drink, and breathe, and walk,--and thereforeeach has a right to his share of 'arth. Why do not the surveyors of theStates set their compasses and run their lines over our heads as well asbeneath our feet? Why do they not cover their shining sheep-skins withbig words, giving to the landholder, or perhaps he should be calledair holder, so many rods of heaven, with the use of such a star for aboundary-mark, and such a cloud to turn a mill?"

  As the squatter uttered his wild conceit, he laughed from the verybottom of his chest, in scorn. The deriding but frightful merrimentpassed from the mouth of one of his ponderous sons to that of the other,until it had made the circuit of the whole family.

  "Come, trapper," continued Ishmael, in a tone of better humour, like aman who feels that he has triumphed, "neither of us, I reckon, has everhad much to do with title-deeds, or county clerks, or blazed trees;therefore we will not waste words on fooleries. You ar' a man that hastarried long in this clearing, and now I ask your opinion, face to face,without fear or favour, if you had the lead in my business, what wouldyou do?"

  The old man hesitated, and seemed to give the required advice with deepreluctance. As every eye, however, was fastened on him, and whicheverway he turned his face, he encountered a look riveted on the lineamentsof his own working countenance, he answered in a low, melancholy, tone--

  "I have seen too much mortal blood poured out in empty quarrels, towish ever to hear an angry rifle again. Ten weary years have I sojournedalone on these naked plains, waiting for my hour, and not a blow have Istruck ag'in an enemy more humanised than the grizzly bear."

  "Ursus horribilis," muttered the Doctor.

  The speaker paused at the sound of the other's voice, but perceiving itwas no more than a sort of mental ejaculation, he continued in the samestrain--

  "More humanised than the grizzly hear, or the panther of the RockyMountains; unless the beaver, which is a wise and knowing animal, maybe so reckoned. What would I advise? Even the female buffaloe will fightfor her young!"

  "It never then shall be said, that Ishmael Bush has less kindness forhis children than the bear for her cubs!"

  "And yet this is but a naked spot for a dozen men to make head in, ag'infive hundred."

  "Ay, it is so," returned the squatter, glancing his eye towards hishumble camp; "but something might be done, with the wagons and thecotton-wood."

  The trapper shook his head incredulously, and pointed across the rollingplain in the direction of the west, as he answered--

  "A rifle would send a bullet from these hills into your verysleeping-cabins; nay, arrows from the thicket in your rear would keepyou all burrowed, like so many prairie dogs: it wouldn't do, it wouldn'tdo. Three long miles from this spot is a place, where as I have oftenthought in passing across the desert, a stand might be made for days andweeks together, if there were hearts and hands ready to engage in thebloody work."

  Another low, deriding laugh passed among the young men, announcing, ina manner sufficiently intelligible, their readiness to undertake a taskeven more arduous. The squatter himself eagerly seized the hint whichhad been so reluctantly extorted from the trapper, who by some singularprocess of reasoning had evidently persuaded himself that it was hisduty to be strictly neutral. A few direct and pertinent enquiries servedto obtain the little additional information that was necessary, inorder to make the contemplated movement, and then Ishmael, who was, onemergencies, as terrifically energetic, as he was sluggish in common,set about effecting his object without delay.

  Notwithstanding the industry and zeal of all engaged, the task was oneof great labour and difficulty. The loaded vehicles were to be drawn byhand across a wide distance of plain without track or guide of any sort,except that which the trapper furnished by communicating his knowledgeof the cardinal points of the compass. In accomplishing this object,the gigantic strength of the men was taxed to the utmost, nor were thefemales or the children spared a heavy proportion of the toil. While thesons distributed themselves about the heavily loaded wagons, and drewthem by main strength up the neighbouring swell, their mother and Ellen,surrounded by the amazed group of little ones, followed slowly in therear, bending under the weight of such different articles as were suitedto their several strengths.

  Ishmael himself superintended and directed the whole, occasionallyapplying his colossal shoulder to some lagging vehicle, until he sawthat the chief difficulty, that of gaining the level of their intendedroute, was accomplished. Then he pointed out the required course,cautioning his sons to proceed in such a manner that they should notlose the advantage they had with so much labour obtained, and beckoningto the brother of his wife, they returned together to the empty camp.

  Throughout the whole of this movement, which occupied an hour of time,the trapper had stood apart,
leaning on his rifle, with the aged houndslumbering at his feet, a silent but attentive observer of all thatpassed. Occasionally, a smile lighted his hard, muscular, but wastedfeatures, like a gleam of sunshine flitting across a ragged ruin, andbetrayed the momentary pleasure he found in witnessing from time to timethe vast power the youths discovered. Then, as the train drew slowlyup the ascent, a cloud of thought and sorrow threw all into the shadeagain, leaving the expression of his countenance in its usual stateof quiet melancholy. As vehicle after vehicle left the place of theencampment, he noted the change, with increasing attention; seldomfailing to cast an enquiring look at the little neglected tent, which,with its proper wagon, still remained as before, solitary and apparentlyforgotten. The summons of Ishmael to his gloomy associate had, however,as it would now seem, this hitherto neglected portion of his effects forits object.

  First casting a cautious and suspicious glance on every side of him, thesquatter and his companion advanced to the little wagon, and caused itto enter within the folds of the cloth, much in the manner that it hadbeen extricated the preceding evening. They both then disappeared behindthe drapery, and many moments of suspense succeeded, during which theold man, secretly urged by a burning desire to know the meaning of somuch mystery, insensibly drew nigh to the place, until he stood withina few yards of the proscribed spot. The agitation of the cloth betrayedthe nature of the occupation of those whom it concealed, though theirwork was conducted in rigid silence. It would appear that long practicehad made each of the two acquainted with his particular duty; forneither sign nor direction of any sort was necessary from Ishmael, inorder to apprise his surly associate of the manner in which he was toproceed. In less time than has been consummated in relating it,the interior portion of the arrangement was completed, when the menre-appeared without the tent. Too busy with his occupation to heed thepresence of the trapper, Ishmael began to release the folds of the clothfrom the ground, and to dispose of them in such a manner around thevehicle, as to form a sweeping train to the new form the little pavilionhad now assumed. The arched roof trembled with the occasional movementof the light vehicle which, it was now apparent, once more supported itssecret burden. Just as the work was ended the scowling eye of Ishmael'sassistant caught a glimpse of the figure of the attentive observer oftheir movements. Dropping the shaft, which he had already lifted fromthe ground preparatory to occupying the place that was usually filledby an animal less reasoning and perhaps less dangerous than himself, hebluntly exclaimed--

  "I am a fool, as you often say! But look for yourself: if that man isnot an enemy, I will disgrace father and mother, call myself an Indian,and go hunt with the Siouxes!"

  The cloud, as it is about to discharge the subtle lightning, is notmore dark nor threatening, than the look with which Ishmael greeted theintruder. He turned his head on every side of him, as if seeking someengine sufficiently terrible to annihilate the offending trapper at ablow; and then, possibly recollecting the further occasion he mighthave for his counsel, he forced himself to say, with an appearance ofmoderation that nearly choked him--

  "Stranger, I did believe this prying into the concerns of others was thebusiness of women in the towns and settlements, and not the manner inwhich men, who are used to live where each has room for himself, dealwith the secrets of their neighbours. To what lawyer or sheriff do youcalculate to sell your news?"

  "I hold but little discourse except with one and then chiefly of myown affairs," returned the old man, without the least observableapprehension, and pointing imposingly upward; "a Judge; and Judge ofall. Little does he need knowledge from my hands, and but little willyour wish to keep any thing secret from him profit you, even in thisdesert."

  The mounting tempers of his unnurtured listeners were rebuked bythe simple, solemn manner of the trapper. Ishmael stood sullen andthoughtful; while his companion stole a furtive and involuntary glanceat the placid sky, which spread so wide and blue above his head, as ifhe expected to see the Almighty eye itself beaming from the heavenlyvault. But impressions of a serious character are seldom lasting onminds long indulged in forgetfulness. The hesitation of the squatter wasconsequently of short duration. The language, however, as well as thefirm and collected air of the speaker, were the means of preventing muchsubsequent abuse, if not violence.

  "It would be showing more of the kindness of a friend and comrade,"Ishmael returned, in a tone sufficiently sullen to betray his humour,though it was no longer threatening, "had your shoulder been put to thewheel of one of yonder wagons, instead of edging itself in here, wherenone are wanted but such as are invited."

  "I can put the little strength that is left me," returned the trapper,"to this, as well as to another of your loads."

  "Do you take us for boys!" exclaimed Ishmael, laughing, half in ferocityand half in derision, applying his powerful strength at the same timeto the little vehicle, which rolled over the grass with as much seemingfacility as if it were drawn by its usual team.

  The trapper paused, and followed the departing wagon with his eye,marvelling greatly as to the nature of its concealed contents, until ithad also gained the summit of the eminence, and in its turn disappearedbehind the swell of the land. Then he turned to gaze at the desolationof the scene around him. The absence of human forms would have scarcecreated a sensation in the bosom of one so long accustomed to solitude,had not the site of the deserted camp furnished such strong memorialsof its recent visitors, and as the old man was quick to detect, of theirwaste also. He cast his eye upwards, with a shake of the head, atthe vacant spot in the heavens which had so lately been filled bythe branches of those trees that now lay stripped of their verdure,worthless and deserted logs, at his feet.

  "Ay," he muttered to himself, "I might have know'd it--I might haveknow'd it! Often have I seen the same before; and yet I brought themto the spot myself, and have now sent them to the only neighbourhood oftheir kind within many long leagues of the spot where I stand. This isman's wish, and pride, and waste, and sinfulness! He tames the beasts ofthe field to feed his idle wants; and, having robbed the brutes of theirnatural food, he teaches them to strip the 'arth of its trees to quiettheir hunger."

  A rustling in the low bushes which still grew, for some distance, alongthe swale that formed the thicket on which the camp of Ishmael hadrested, caught his ear, at the moment, and cut short the soliloquy. Thehabits of so many years, spent in the wilderness, caused the old manto bring his rifle to a poise, with something like the activity andpromptitude of his youth; but, suddenly recovering his recollection,he dropped it into the hollow of his arm again, and resumed his air ofmelancholy resignation.

  "Come forth, come forth!" he said aloud: "be ye bird, or be ye beast, yeare safe from these old hands. I have eaten and I have drunk: why shouldI take life, when my wants call for no sacrifice? It will not be longafore the birds will peck at eyes that shall not see them, and perhapslight on my very bones; for if things like these are only made toperish, why am I to expect to live for ever? Come forth, come forth; youare safe from harm at these weak hands."

  "Thank you for the good word, old trapper!" cried Paul Hover, springingactively forward from his place of concealment. "There was an air aboutyou, when you threw forward the muzzle of the piece, that I did notlike; for it seemed to say that you were master of all the rest of themotions."

  "You are right, you are right!" cried the trapper, laughing with inwardself-complacency at the recollection of his former skill. "The day hasbeen when few men knew the virtues of a long rifle, like this I carry,better than myself, old and useless as I now seem. You are right, youngman; and the time was, when it was dangerous to move a leaf withinear-shot of my stand; or," he added, dropping his voice, and lookingserious, "for a Red Mingo to show an eyeball from his ambushment. Youhave heard of the Red Mingos?"

  "I have heard of minks," said Paul, taking the old man by the arm, andgently urging him towards the thicket as he spoke; while, at the sametime, he cast quick and uneasy glances behind him, in order to make surehe was
not observed. "Of your common black minks; but none of any othercolour."

  "Lord! Lord!" continued the trapper, shaking his head, and stilllaughing, in his deep but quiet manner; "the boy mistakes a brute for aman! Though, a Mingo is little better than a beast; or, for that matter,he is worse, when rum and opportunity are placed before his eyes. Therewas that accursed Huron, from the upper lakes, that I knocked from hisperch among the rocks in the hills, back of the Hori--"

  His voice was lost in the thicket, into which he had suffered himself tobe led by Paul while speaking, too much occupied by thoughts which dwelton scenes and acts that had taken place half a century earlier in thehistory of the country, to offer the smallest resistance.