The Prairie

by James Fenimore Cooper

  CHAPTER X

  Go apart, Adam, and thou shalt hear How he will shake me up. --As you like it.

  It is well known, that even long before the immense regions of Louisianachanged their masters for the second, and, as it is to be hoped, for thelast time, its unguarded territory was by no means safe from the inroadsof white adventurers. The semi-barbarous hunters from the Canadas, thesame description of population, a little more enlightened, from theStates, and the metiffs or half-breeds, who claimed to be ranked in theclass of white men, were scattered among the different Indian tribes, orgleaned a scanty livelihood in solitude, amid the haunts of the beaverand the bison; or, to adopt the popular nomenclature of the country ofthe buffaloe.[*]

  [*] In addition to the scientific distinctions which mark the two species, it may be added, with due deference to Dr. Battius, that a much more important particular is the fact, that while the former of these animals is delicious and nourishing food, the latter is scarcely edible.

  It was, therefore, no unusual thing for strangers to encounter eachother in the endless wastes of the west. By signs, which an unpractisedeye would pass unobserved, these borderers knew when one of his fellowswas in his vicinity, and he avoided or approached the intruder asbest comported with his feelings or his interests. Generally, theseinterviews were pacific; for the whites had a common enemy to dread,in the ancient and perhaps more lawful occupants of the country; butinstances were not rare, in which jealousy and cupidity had caused themto terminate in scenes of the most violent and ruthless treachery. Themeeting of two hunters on the American desert, as we find it convenientsometimes to call this region, was consequently somewhat in thesuspicious and wary manner in which two vessels draw together in asea that is known to be infested with pirates. While neither partyis willing to betray its weakness, by exhibiting distrust, neither isdisposed to commit itself by any acts of confidence, from which it maybe difficult to recede.

  Such was, in some degree, the character of the present interview. Thestranger drew nigh deliberately; keeping his eyes steadily fastenedon the movements of the other party, while he purposely created littledifficulties to impede an approach which might prove too hasty. On theother hand, Paul stood playing with the lock of his rifle, too proudto let it appear that three men could manifest any apprehension ofa solitary individual, and yet too prudent to omit, entirely, thecustomary precautions. The principal reason of the marked differencewhich the two legitimate proprietors of the banquet made in thereceptions of their guests, was to be explained by the entire differencewhich existed in their respective appearances.

  While the exterior of the naturalist was decidedly pacific, not to sayabstracted, that of the new comer was distinguished by an air of vigour,and a front and step which it would not have been difficult to have atonce pronounced to be military.

  He wore a forage-cap of fine blue cloth, from which depended a soiledtassel in gold, and which was nearly buried in a mass of exuberant,curling, jet-black hair. Around his throat he had negligently fasteneda stock of black silk. His body was enveloped in a hunting-shirt of darkgreen, trimmed with the yellow fringes and ornaments that were sometimesseen among the border-troops of the Confederacy. Beneath this, however,were visible the collar and lapels of a jacket, similar in colour andcloth to the cap. His lower limbs were protected by buckskin leggings,and his feet by the ordinary Indian moccasins. A richly ornamented,and exceedingly dangerous straight dirk was stuck in a sash of redsilk net-work; another girdle, or rather belt, of uncoloured leathercontained a pair of the smallest sized pistols, in holsters nicely madeto fit, and across his shoulder was thrown a short, heavy, militaryrifle; its horn and pouch occupying the usual places beneath his arms.At his back he bore a knapsack, marked by the well known initialsthat have since gained for the government of the United States thegood-humoured and quaint appellation of Uncle Sam.

  "I come in amity," the stranger said, like one too much accustomed tothe sight of arms to be startled at the ludicrously belligerent attitudewhich Dr. Battius had seen fit to assume. "I come as a friend; and amone whose pursuits and wishes will not at all interfere with your own."

  "Harkee, stranger," said Paul Hover, bluntly; "do you understand lininga bee from this open place into a wood, distant, perhaps, a dozenmiles?"

  "The bee is a bird I have never been compelled to seek," returned theother, laughing; "though I have, too, been something of a fowler in mytime."

  "I thought as much," exclaimed Paul, thrusting forth his hand frankly,and with the true freedom of manner that marks an American borderer."Let us cross fingers. You and I will never quarrel about the comb,since you set so little store by the honey. And now, if your stomach hasan empty corner, and you know how to relish a genuine dew-drop when itfalls into your very mouth, there lies the exact morsel to put into it.Try it, stranger; and having tried it, if you don't call it as snuga fit as you have made since--How long ar' you from the settlements,pray?"

  "'Tis many weeks, and I fear it may be as many more before I can return.I will, however, gladly profit by your invitation, for I have fastedsince the rising of yesterday's sun, and I know too well the merits of abison's bump to reject the food."

  "Ah! you ar' acquainted with the dish! Well, therein you have theadvantage of me, in setting out, though I think I may say we could nowstart on equal ground. I should be the happiest fellow between Kentuckyand the Rocky Mountains, if I had a snug cabin, near some old wood thatwas filled with hollow trees, just such a hump every day as that fordinner, a load of fresh straw for hives, and little El--"

  "Little what?" demanded the stranger, evidently amused with thecommunicative and frank disposition of the bee-hunter.

  "Something that I shall have one day, and which concerns nobody so muchas myself," returned Paul, picking the flint of his rifle, and beginningvery cavalierly to whistle an air well known on the waters of theMississippi.

  During this preliminary discourse the stranger had taken his seat by theside of the hump, and was already making a serious inroad on its relics.Dr. Battius, however, watched his movements with a jealousy, still morestriking than the cordial reception which the open-hearted Paul had justexhibited.

  But the doubts, or rather apprehensions, of the naturalist were of acharacter altogether different from the confidence of the bee-hunter. Hehad been struck with the stranger's using the legitimate, instead of theperverted name of the animal off which he was making his repast; and ashe had been among the foremost himself to profit by the removal ofthe impediments which the policy of Spain had placed in the way of allexplorers of her trans-Atlantic dominions, whether bent on the purposesof commerce, or, like himself, on the more laudable pursuits of science,he had a sufficiency of every-day philosophy to feel that thesame motives, which had so powerfully urged himself to his presentundertaking, might produce a like result on the mind of some otherstudent of nature. Here, then, was the prospect of an alarming rivalry,which bade fair to strip him of at least a moiety of the just rewardsof all his labours, privations, and dangers. Under these views ofhis character, therefore, it is not at all surprising that the nativemeekness of the naturalist's disposition was a little disturbed, andthat he watched the proceedings of the other with such a degree ofvigilance as he believed best suited to detect his sinister designs.

  "This is truly a delicious repast," observed the unconscious youngstranger, for both young and handsome he was fairly entitled to beconsidered; "either hunger has given a peculiar relish to the viand, orthe bison may lay claim to be the finest of the ox family!"

  "Naturalists, sir, are apt, when they speak familiarly, to give thecow the credit of the genus," said Dr. Battius, swelling with secretdistrust, and clearing his throat, before speaking, much in the mannerthat a duellist examines the point of the weapon he is about to plungeinto the body of his foe. "The figure is more perfect; as the bos,meaning the ox, is unable to perpetuate his kind; and the bos, in itsmost exten
ded meaning, or vacca, is altogether the nobler animal of thetwo."

  The Doctor uttered this opinion with a certain air, that he intendedshould express his readiness to come at once, to any of the numerouspoints of difference which he doubted not existed between them; and henow awaited the blow of his antagonist, intending that his next thrustshould be still more vigorous. But the young stranger appeared muchbetter disposed to partake of the good cheer, with which he had beenso providentially provided, than to take up the cudgels of argument onthis, or on any other of the knotty points which are so apt to furnishthe lovers of science with the materials of a mental joust.

  "I dare say you are very right, sir," he replied, with a most provokingindifference to the importance of the points he conceded. "I dare sayyou are quite right; and that vacca would have been the better word."

  "Pardon me, sir; you are giving a very wrong construction to mylanguage, if you suppose I include, without many and particularqualifications, the bibulus Americanus, in the family of the vacca. For,as you well know, sir--or, as I presume I should say, Doctor; you havethe medical diploma, no doubt?"

  "You give me credit for an honour I cannot claim," interrupted theother.

  "An under-graduate!--or perhaps your degrees have been taken in someother of the liberal sciences?"

  "Still wrong, I do assure you."

  "Surely, young man, you have not entered on this important--I may say,this awful service, without some evidence of your fitness for the task!Some commission by which you can assert an authority to proceed, or bywhich you may claim an affinity and a communion with your fellow-workersin the same beneficent pursuits!"

  "I know not by what means, or for what purposes, you have made yourselfmaster of my objects!" exclaimed the youth, reddening and rising with aquickness which manifested how little he regarded the grosser appetites,when a subject nearer his heart was approached. "Still, sir, yourlanguage is incomprehensible. That pursuit, which in another mightperhaps be justly called beneficent, is, in me, a dear and cherishedduty; though why a commission should be demanded or needed is, Iconfess, no less a subject of surprise."

  "It is customary to be provided with such a document," returned theDoctor, gravely; "and, on all suitable occasions to produce it, inorder that congenial and friendly minds may, at once, reject unworthysuspicions, and stepping over, what may be called the elements ofdiscourse, come at once to those points which are desiderata to both."

  "It is a strange request!" the youth muttered, turning his frowning eyefrom one to the other, as if examining the characters of his companions,with a view to weigh their physical powers. Then, putting his hand intohis bosom, he drew forth a small box, and extending it with an air ofdignity towards the Doctor, he continued--"You will find by this, sir,that I have some right to travel in a country which is now the propertyof the American States."

  "What have we here!" exclaimed the naturalist, opening the folds ofa large parchment. "Why, this is the sign-manual of the philosopher,Jefferson! The seal of state! Countersigned by the minister of war!Why this is a commission creating Duncan Uncas Middleton a captain ofartillery!"

  "Of whom? of whom?" repeated the trapper, who had sat regarding thestranger, during the whole discourse, with eyes that seemed greedily todevour each lineament. "How is the name? did you call him Uncas?--Uncas!Was it Uncas?"

  "Such is my name," returned the youth, a little haughtily. "It is theappellation of a native chief, that both my uncle and myself bear withpride; for it is the memorial of an important service done my family bya warrior in the old wars of the provinces."

  "Uncas! did ye call him Uncas?" repeated the trapper, approaching theyouth and parting the dark curls which clustered over his brow, withoutthe slightest resistance on the part of their wondering owner. "Ah myeyes are old, and not so keen as when I was a warrior myself; but I cansee the look of the father in the son! I saw it when he first came nigh,but so many things have since passed before my failing sight, that Icould not name the place where I had met his likeness! Tell me, lad, bywhat name is your father known?"

  "He was an officer of the States in the war of the revolution, of my ownname of course; my mother's brother was called Duncan Uncas Heyward."

  "Still Uncas! still Uncas!" echoed the other, trembling with eagerness."And his father?"

  "Was called the same, without the appellation of the native chief. Itwas to him, and to my grandmother, that the service of which I have justspoken was rendered."

  "I know'd it! I know'd it!" shouted the old man, in his tremulousvoice, his rigid features working powerfully, as if the names the othermentioned awakened some long dormant emotions, connected with the eventsof an anterior age. "I know'd it! son or grandson, it is all the same;it is the blood, and 'tis the look! Tell me, is he they call'd Duncan,without the Uncas--is he living?"

  The young man shook his head sorrowfully, as he replied in the negative.

  "He died full of days and of honours. Beloved, happy, and bestowinghappiness!"

  "Full of days!" repeated the trapper, looking down at his own meagre,but still muscular hands. "Ah! he liv'd in the settlements, and was wiseonly after their fashions. But you have often seen him; and you haveheard him discourse of Uncas, and of the wilderness?"

  "Often! he was then an officer of the king; but when the war took placebetween the crown and her colonies, my grandfather did not forget hisbirthplace, but threw off the empty allegiance of names, and was true tohis proper country; he fought on the side of liberty."

  "There was reason in it; and what is better, there was natur'! Come, sitye down beside me, lad; sit ye down, and tell me of what your grand'therused to speak, when his mind dwelt on the wonders of the wilderness."

  The youth smiled, no less at the importunity than at the interestmanifested by the old man; but as he found there was no longer theleast appearance of any violence being contemplated, he unhesitatinglycomplied.

  "Give it all to the trapper by rule, and by figures of speech," saidPaul, very coolly taking his seat on the other side of the youngsoldier. "It is the fashion of old age to relish these ancienttraditions, and, for that matter, I can say that I don't dislike tolisten to them myself."

  Middleton smiled again, and perhaps with a slight air of derision; but,good-naturedly turning to the trapper, he continued--

  "It is a long, and might prove a painful story. Bloodshed and all thehorrors of Indian cruelty and of Indian warfare are fearfully mingled inthe narrative."

  "Ay, give it all to us, stranger," continued Paul; "we are used to thesematters in Kentuck, and, I must say, I think a story none the worse forhaving a few scalps in it!"

  "But he told you of Uncas, did he?" resumed the trapper, withoutregarding the slight interruptions of the bee-hunter, which amounted tono more than a sort of by-play. "And what thought he and said he of thelad, in his parlour, with the comforts and ease of the settlements athis elbow?"

  "I doubt not he used a language similar to that he would have adopted inthe woods, and had he stood face to face, with his friend--"

  "Did he call the savage his friend; the poor, naked, painted warrior? hewas not too proud then to call the Indian his friend?"

  "He even boasted of the connection; and as you have already heard,bestowed a name on his first-born, which is likely to be handed down asan heir-loom among the rest of his descendants."

  "It was well done! like a man: ay! and like a Christian, too! He used tosay the Delaware was swift of foot--did he remember that?"

  "As the antelope! Indeed, he often spoke of him by the appellation of LeCerf Agile, a name he had obtained by his activity."

  "And bold, and fearless, lad!" continued the trapper, looking up intothe eyes of his companion, with a wistfulness that bespoke the delighthe received in listening to the praises of one, whom it was so veryevident, he had once tenderly loved.

  "Brave as a blooded hound! Without fear! He always quoted Uncas and hisfather, who from his wisdom was called the Great Serpent, as models ofheroism and constanc
y."

  "He did them justice! he did them justice! Truer men were not to befound in tribe or nation, be their skins of what colour they might. Isee your grand'ther was just, and did his duty, too, by his offspring!'Twas a perilous time he had of it, among them hills, and nobly didhe play his own part! Tell me, lad, or officer, I should say,--sinceofficer you be,--was this all?"

  "Certainly not; it was, as I have said, a fearful tale, full ofmoving incidents, and the memories both of my grandfather and of mygrandmother--"

  "Ah!" exclaimed the trapper, tossing a hand into the air as his wholecountenance lighted with the recollections the name revived. "Theycalled her Alice! Elsie or Alice; 'tis all the same. A laughing, playfulchild she was, when happy; and tender and weeping in her misery! Herhair was shining and yellow, as the coat of the young fawn, and herskin clearer than the purest water that drips from the rock. Well do Iremember her! I remember her right well!"

  The lip of the youth slightly curled, and he regarded the old man withan expression, which might easily have been construed into a declarationthat such were not his own recollections of his venerable and reveredancestor, though it would seem he did not think it necessary to say asmuch in words. He was content to answer--

  "They both retained impressions of the dangers they had passed, byfar too vivid easily to lose the recollection of any of theirfellow-actors."

  The trapper looked aside, and seemed to struggle with some deeply innatefeeling; then, turning again towards his companion, though his honesteyes no longer dwelt with the same open interest, as before, on thecountenance of the other, he continued--

  "Did he tell you of them all? Were they all red-skins, but himself andthe daughters of Munro?"

  "No. There was a white man associated with the Delawares. A scout of theEnglish army, but a native of the provinces."

  "A drunken worthless vagabond, like most of his colour who harbour withthe savages, I warrant you!"

  "Old man, your grey hairs should caution you against slander. The man Ispeak of was of great simplicity of mind, but of sterling worth. Unlikemost of those who live a border life, he united the better, instead ofthe worst, qualities of the two people. He was a man endowed with thechoicest and perhaps rarest gift of nature; that of distinguishing goodfrom evil. His virtues were those of simplicity, because such were thefruits of his habits, as were indeed his very prejudices. In couragehe was the equal of his red associates; in warlike skill, being betterinstructed, their superior. 'In short, he was a noble shoot from thestock of human nature, which never could attain its proper elevation andimportance, for no other reason, than because it grew in the forest:'such, old hunter, were the very words of my grandfather, when speakingof the man you imagine so worthless!"

  The eyes of the trapper had sunk to the earth, as the stranger deliveredthis character in the ardent tones of generous youth. He played with theears of his hound; fingered his own rustic garment, and opened and shutthe pan of his rifle, with hands that trembled in a manner that wouldhave implied their total unfitness to wield the weapon. When the otherhad concluded, he hoarsely added--

  "Your grand'ther didn't then entirely forget the white man!"

  "So far from that, there are already three among us, who have also namesderived from that scout."

  "A name, did you say?" exclaimed the old man, starting; "what, the nameof the solitary, unl'arned hunter? Do the great, and the rich, and thehonoured, and, what is better still, the just, do they bear his very,actual name?"

  "It is borne by my brother, and by two of my cousins, whatever may betheir titles to be described by the terms you have mentioned."

  "Do you mean the actual name itself; spelt with the very same letters,beginning with an N and ending with an L?"

  "Exactly the same," the youth smilingly replied. "No, no, we haveforgotten nothing that was his. I have at this moment a dog brushing adeer, not far from this, who is come of a hound that very scout sent asa present after his friends, and which was of the stock he always usedhimself: a truer breed, in nose and foot, is not to be found in the wideUnion."

  "Hector!" said the old man, struggling to conquer an emotion that nearlysuffocated him, and speaking to his hound in the sort of tones he wouldhave used to a child, "do ye hear that, pup! your kin and blood are inthe prairies! A name--it is wonderful--very wonderful!"

  Nature could endure no more. Overcome by a flood of unusual andextraordinary sensations, and stimulated by tender and long dormantrecollections, strangely and unexpectedly revived, the old man had justself-command enough to add, in a voice that was hollow and unnatural,through the efforts he made to command it--

  "Boy, I am that scout; a warrior once, a miserable trapper now!" whenthe tears broke over his wasted cheeks, out of fountains that had longbeen dried, and, sinking his face between his knees, he covered itdecently with his buckskin garment, and sobbed aloud.

  The spectacle produced correspondent emotions in his companions. PaulHover had actually swallowed each syllable of the discourse as they fellalternately from the different speakers, his feelings keeping equalpace with the increasing interest of the scene. Unused to such strangesensations, he was turning his face on every side of him, to avoid heknew not what, until he saw the tears and heard the sobs of the oldman, when he sprang to his feet, and grappling his guest fiercely bythe throat, he demanded by what authority he had made his aged companionweep. A flash of recollection crossing his brain at the same instant, hereleased his hold, and stretching forth an arm in the very wantonnessof gratification, he seized the Doctor by the hair, which instantlyrevealed its artificial formation, by cleaving to his hand, leaving thewhite and shining poll of the naturalist with a covering no warmer thanthe skin.

  "What think you of that, Mr. Bug-gatherer?" he rather shouted thancried: "is not this a strange bee to line into his hole?"

  "'Tis remarkable! wonderful! edifying!" returned the lover of nature,good-humouredly recovering his wig, with twinkling eyes and a huskyvoice. "'Tis rare and commendable. Though I doubt not in the exact orderof causes and effects."

  With this sudden outbreaking, however, the commotion instantly subsided;the three spectators clustering around the trapper with a species ofawe, at beholding the tears of one so aged.

  "It must be so, or how could he be so familiar with a history that islittle known beyond my own family," at length the youth observed, notashamed to acknowledge how much he had been affected, by unequivocallydrying his own eyes.

  "True!" echoed Paul; "if you want any more evidence I will swear to it!I know every word of it myself to be true as the gospel!"

  "And yet we had long supposed him dead!" continued the soldier. "Mygrandfather had filled his days with honour, and he had believed himselfthe junior of the two."

  "It is not often that youth has an opportunity of thus looking downon the weakness of age!" the trapper observed, raising his head, andlooking around him with composure and dignity. "That I am still here,young man, is the pleasure of the Lord, who has spared me until I haveseen fourscore long and laborious years, for his own secret ends. ThatI am the man I say, you need not doubt; for why should I go to my gravewith so cheap a lie in my mouth?"

  "I do not hesitate to believe; I only marvel that it should be so! Butwhy do I find you, venerable and excellent friend of my parents, inthese wastes, so far from the comforts and safety of the lower country?"

  "I have come into these plains to escape the sound of the axe; for heresurely the chopper can never follow! But I may put the like question toyourself. Are you of the party which the States have sent into their newpurchase, to look after the natur' of the bargain they have made?"

  "I am not. Lewis is making his way up the river, some hundreds of milesfrom this. I come on a private adventure."

  "Though it is no cause of wonder, that a man whose strength and eyeshave failed him as a hunter, should be seen nigh the haunts of thebeaver, using a trap instead of a rifle, it is strange that one so youngand prosperous, and bearing the commission of the Great Fathe
r, shouldbe moving among the prairies, without even a camp-colourman to do hisbiddings!"

  "You would think my reasons sufficient did you know them, as know themyou shall if you are disposed to listen to my story. I think you allhonest, and men who would rather aid than betray one bent on a worthyobject."

  "Come, then, and tell us at your leisure," said the trapper, seatinghimself, and beckoning to the youth to follow his example. The latterwillingly complied; and after Paul and the Doctor had disposed ofthemselves to their several likings, the new comer entered into anarrative of the singular reasons which had led him so far into thedeserts.