CHAPTER XII--A FREE LIFE
The borders of the clearing were dimly defined in the dusk of the nextevening, and Nathan was beginning to feel lonely, though he had thehound for company, when Job came in with his gun on his shoulder.
"Well, what news?" Nathan asked, after a little impatient waiting forJob's account of his trip abroad.
"Well, I happened in just arter noon. Your nice stepfather sot by thefireplace a smokin'. 'Where's Nate,' says I, an' he up an' answeredmighty quick, 'Run away, but he'll be back quick enough.' Your motherwas lookin' turrible worrited, an' it was quite a spell afore I couldgit a chance to do my arrant with Toombs right in the room. Bimeby Imade out to have a turrible pesterin' sliver in my right hand an' gotyour mother to pick it out wi' a needle. I'd ruther have a leg took off'an to have a woman jabbin' at a sliver. Whilst she was at it, me wi' myback towards Toombs, I whispered you was at my house and all right, an'you'd ortu seen her face light up. Then we played the sliver was out,an' arter I'd wished you was to home to go fishin' with me an' wonderedwhat on airth you'd run away f'm such a good home for, I come off. An' Itell you, boy, that ere ol' scoundrel thinks he's killed you. When Icome off towards where he chopped that tree, he follered along to see ifI went nigh it, an' all the time I could see he was scairter'n he wasmad."
"I don't care, I can't go back if you'll let me stay with you."
"Sartainly, an' glad to have you."
Nathan readily adapted himself to the ranger's way of living, helpinghim in the cabin work and that of the clearing. At intervals, throughhis friend, he sent his mother tidings of his welfare and learned of herown. Through the same way, and his mother's ready assistance, he gainedpossession of his other clothes--a tow shirt, a blue frock, a pair ofgray breeches, and two pairs of thick woolen stockings, as large awardrobe as most backwoods dwellers could boast of.
"Your mother stuck this out of the loft winder as I come away," said Jobone day, handing him his father's cherished gun.
"Oh, I am glad to get this, and see, it is longer'n I be yet. But I'mgrowing, for I measured when Toombs put this up loft so't he could hanghis gun on the hooks over the fireplace. See, I can hold it at arm'slength long enough to see to shoot," and he stretched out thelong-barrelled gun with pride.
"Toombs was out a burnin' log heaps," Job went on. "She says he'sdretful narvous an' jumps at every sound. I ruther guess he's gittin'his pay as he goes along, my boy."
In preparation for the fall trapping, which was the ranger's chiefdependence, the two, accompanied by Gabriel, made long ranges throughthe forest, marking their line by blazed trees, to build deadfalls formartens on the upland and for mink along the brook and larger streams,and larger traps for martens, otters, fisher, and beaver, and when theleaves began to fall they daily gathered their furry harvest. Day afterday, too, the woods rang with Gabe's deep, melodious voice as he drovethe deer to water. Many an adventure on lake or in forest spiced thehalf wild life, and the loving trust of the old man so sweetened it thattime glided swiftly past. Many a lesson of woodcraft the boy alsolearned, as well as the priceless one of love and charity to all createdthings, if Indians and Toombs were excepted. Perhaps, in time, theirturn for forbearance would come.
One day late in the fall Nathan ventured to the Fort, as much to visitthe garrison boys, for whose companionship he often longed in hisisolation, as to carry some fine partridges to the commandant's lady. Hehad shot them himself with his father's gun, in the use of which he wasbecoming expert.
"Whativer has coom o' your redheaded stepfather? He didn't coom here sinhe coom marryin' your mother," said one of the English boys.
After this information, visits to the Fort were more frequent, sincethere was no fear of meeting Toombs. The sentinel, who, with his musketshouldered high above his left hip and his clubbed queue bobbing inunison to his slow, measured steps, always paced before the gate, madebut a show of challenging him, and Nathan was almost as free as theinmates to every part of the Fort, excepting the officers' quarters andthe vigilantly guarded magazine. The drill and parade of the soldiers,in their spotless scarlet uniforms and shining arms, though there wereless than fifty, rank and file, seemed a grand martial display, and hewas always thrilled with the stirring notes of drum and fife.Occasionally he met the commandant's wife walking on the parapet, sorefined and different from the toil-worn women he had been accustomed tosee, that she seemed a being of another world.
Once that fall Job and his young companion went far back into thesolitude of the primeval forest to hunt moose. Even the thunder ofTiconderoga's guns was never echoed there, and from morning till nightthey heard the sound of no human life but their own. At night the dismalchorus of the wolves was heard far and near, and now and then, what wasa pleasanter sound, the call of a moose, soft and mellow, in thedistance. With a birch bark horn Job simulated this call, and lured amoose into an ambuscade, where, within short range, the huge creaturewas killed. When with much labor the meat was transported and safelystored in the cabin, they were in no danger of a winter famine. Soonwinter came, with days of snowbound isolation, and its days of out-doorwork and pleasant, healthful pastime.
The gloom of a blustering, snowy February day was thickening into thegloom of night, when a traveller and his jaded horse appeared at thedoor of the little log house.
"I've somehow missed my way on the lake," said he to Job, when the doorwas opened. "I'm bound for Bennington. Can you give me and my poor beastshelter till morning and then set me on the right road?"
"Sartainly, come in, come in," was answered, heartily. "You're welcometo such as I've got of bed an' board, an' your hoss'll be better off inthe shed wi' corn fodder'n he'd be a browsin' in the woods."
When the stranger had seen his jaded horse cared for and had come in,the firelight revealed a man in the prime of life, of fine face andfigure and of military bearing, though he was clad in the plain dress ofa civilian. He proved a genial guest, and amused his companions withstories of his recent journey to Canada, and of his home in Connecticut,and with relations of the stirring events in that and the other coloniesthat portended a revolt against the mother country. In turn he wasinterested in everything pertaining to the New Hampshire Grants, theprogress of the quarrel with New York claimants, the temper of theinhabitants toward England, but, particularly, was he curious about thecondition of the adjacent fortress. Concerning its garrison and theplans of the fortification he found Nathan well informed.
"I like to remember such things about a place that has been so famous,"the stranger observed, as he made notes in a memorandum book.
"I would like to visit the fort sometime. How many men did you count thelast time you saw them parade, did you say?"
It was well into the night when the precious embers were covered and thethree betook themselves to sleep, with the wind roaring in the woods andthe snow driving gustily against the oiled-paper windows of the cabin.When they awoke the storm was spent. Beneath the cloudless morning skythe forest stood silent as the army of spectres that its snow-powderedtrunks resembled. After breakfast Job put on his snowshoes and led hisguest to the desired road to the southward settlements. This break inthe winter monotony was often dwelt upon by the fireside in the littlelog house. A chance visit, if aught occurs by chance, yet it proved ofvast importance.
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