Erema; Or, My Father's Sin

by R. D. Blackmore

  CHAPTER XIV

  NOT FAR TO SEEK

  In the present state of controversies most profoundly religious, theLord alone can decide (though thousands of men would hurry to pronounce)for or against the orthodoxy of the ancient Sawyer's prayer. But ifsound doctrine can be established by success (as it always is), UncleSam's theology must have been unusually sound; for it pleased a graciousPower to know what he wanted, and to grant it.

  Brave as Mr. Gundry was, and much-enduring and resigned, the latteryears of his life on earth must have dragged on very heavily, withabstract resignation only, and none of his blood to care for him.Being so obstinate a man, he might have never admitted this, but provedagainst every one's voice, except his own, his special blessedness. Butthis must have been a trial to him, and happily he was spared from it.

  For although Firm had been very badly shot, and kept us for weeks inanxiety about him, his strong young constitution and well-nourishedframe got over it. A truly good and learned doctor came from Sacramento,and we hung upon his words, and found that there he left us hanging. Andthis was the wisest thing perhaps that he could do, because in Americamedical men are not absurdly expected, as they are in England, to do anygood, but are valued chiefly upon their power of predicting what theycan not help. And this man of science perceived that he might do harm tohimself and his family by predicting amiss, whereas he could do no goodto his patient by predicting rightly. And so he foretold both good andevil, to meet the intentions of Providence.

  He had not been sent for in vain, however; and to give him his due, hesaved Ephraim's life, for he drew from the wound a large bullet, which,if left, must have poisoned all his circulation, although it was madeof pure silver. The Sawyer wished to keep this silver bullet as a token,but the doctor said that it belonged to him according to miners' law;and so it came to a moderate argument. Each was a thoroughly stubbornman, according to the bent of all good men, and reasoning increasedtheir unreason. But the doctor won--as indeed he deserved, for theextraction had been delicate--because, when reason had been exhausted,he just said this:

  "Colonel Gundry, let us have no more words. The true owner is yourgrandson. I will put it back where I took it from."

  Upon this, the Sawyer being tickled, as men very often are in sadmoments, took the doctor by the hand, and gave him the bullet heartily.And the medical man had a loop made to it, and wore it upon his watchchain. And he told the story so often (saying that another man perhapsmight have got it out, but no other man could have kept it), that amonga great race who judge by facts it doubled his practice immediately.

  The leader of the robbers, known far and wide as "Captain Pedro," wasburied where he fell; and the whole so raised Uncle Sam's reputationthat his house was never attacked again; and if any bad characters wereforced by circumstances to come near him, they never asked for any thingstronger than ginger-beer or lemonade, and departed very promptly. Foras soon as Ephraim Gundry could give account of his disaster, it wasclear that Don Pedro owed his fate to a bottle of the Sawyer's whiskey.Firm had only intended to give him a lesson for misbehavior, being firedby his grandfather's words about swinging me on the saddle. This ideahad justly appeared to him to demand a protest; to deliver which he atonce set forth with a valuable cowhide whip. Coming thus to the Rovers'camp, and finding their captain sitting in the shade to digest hisdinner, Firm laid hold of him by the neck, and gave way to feelings ofseverity. Don Pedro regretted his misconduct, and being lifted up forthe moment above his ordinary view, perceived that he might have donebetter, and shaped the pattern of his tongue to it. Firm, hearing this,had good hopes of him; yet knowing how volatile repentance is, he stroveto form a well-marked track for it. And when the captain ceased toreceive cowhide, he must have had it long enough to miss it.

  Now this might have ended honorably and amicably for all concerned, ifthe captain had known when he was well off. Unluckily he had purloineda bottle of Mr. Gundry's whiskey, and he drew the cork now to rub hisstripes, and the smell of it moved him to try it inside. And before verylong his ideas of honor, which he had sense enough to drop when sober,began to come into his eyes again, and to stir him up to mischief. Henceit was that he followed Firm, who was riding home well satisfied, andappeased his honor by shooting in cold blood, and justice by being shotanyhow.

  It was beautiful, through all this trying time, to watch Uncle Sam'sproceedings: he appeared so delightfully calm and almost carelesswhenever he was looked at. And then he was ashamed of himselfperpetually, if any one went on with it. Nobody tried to observe him, ofcourse, or remark upon any of his doings, and for this he would becomeso grateful that he would long to tell all his thoughts, and then stop.This must have been a great worry to him, seeing how open his mannerwas; and whenever he wanted to hide any thing, he informed us of thatintention. So that we exhorted Firm every day to come round and restoreus to our usual state. This was the poor fellow's special desire;and often he was angry with himself, and made himself worse again bydeclaring that he must be a milksop to lie there so long. Whereas, itwas much more near the truth that few other men, even in the WesternStates, would ever have got over such a wound. I am not learned enoughto say exactly where the damage was, but the doctor called it, I think,the sternum, and pronounced that "a building-up process" was required,and must take a long time, if it ever could be done.

  It was done at last, thanks to Suan Isco, who scarcely ever left himby day or night, and treated him skillfully with healing herbs. But he,without meaning it, vexed her often by calling for me--a mere ignorantchild. Suan was dreadfully jealous of this, and perhaps I was proud ofthat sentiment of hers, and tried to justify it, instead of laboringto remove it, as would have been the more proper course. And Firm mostungratefully said that my hand was lighter than poor Suan's, and everything I did was better done, according to him, which was shameful on hispart, and as untrue as any thing could be. However, we yielded to himin all things while he was so delicate; and it often made us poor weakthings cry to be the masters of a tall strong man.

  Firm Gundry received that shot in May, about ten days before thetwelvemonth was completed from my father's death. The brightness ofsummer and beauty of autumn went by without his feeling them, and whilehis system was working hard to fortify itself by walling up, as thelearned man had called it. There had been some difficulties in thisprocess, caused partly, perhaps, by our too lavish supply of the rawmaterial; and before Firm's gap in his "sternum" was stopped, themountains were coming down upon us, as we always used to say when thesnow-line stooped. In some seasons this is a sharp time of hurry, brokenwith storms, and capricious, while men have to slur in the drivingweather tasks that should have been matured long since. But in otheryears the long descent into the depth of winter is taken not with ajump like that, but gently and softly and windingly, with a great manyglimpses back at the summer, and a good deal of leaning on the arm ofthe sun.

  And so it was this time. The autumn and the winter for a fortnight stoodlooking quietly at each other. They had quite agreed to share the hours,to suit the arrangements of the sun. The nights were starry and freshand brisk, without any touch of tartness; and the days were sunnyand soft and gentle, without any sense of languor. It was a lovelyscene--blue shadows gliding among golden light.

  The Sawyer came forth, and cried, "What a shame! This makes me feelquite young again. And yet I have done not a stroke of work. No excuse;make no excuse. I can do that pretty well for myself. Praise God for allHis mercies. I might do worse, perhaps, than have a pipe."

  Then Firm came out to surprise him, and to please us all with the sightof himself. He steadied his steps with one great white hand upon hisgrandfather's Sunday staff, and his clear blue eyes were trembling witha sense of gratitude and a fear of tears. And I stepped behind a redstrawberry-tree, for my sense of respect for him almost made me sob.

  Then Jowler thought it high time to appear upon the scene, and convinceus that he was not a dead dog yet. He had known tribulation, as hismaster had, and had found it a
difficult thing to keep from the shadowyhunting ground of dogs who have lived a conscientious life. I hadwondered at first what his reason could have been for not comingforward, according to his custom, to meet that troop of robbers. Buthis reason, alas! was too cogent to himself, though nobody else in thatdreadful time could pay any attention to him. The Rovers, well knowingpoor Jowler's repute, and declining the fair mode of testing it, hadsent in advance a very crafty scout, a half-bred Indian, who knew asmuch about dogs as they could ever hope to know about themselves. Thisrogue approached faithful Jowler--so we were told long afterward--not inan upright way, but as if he had been a brother quadruped. And he tookadvantage of the dog's unfeigned surprise and interest to accost himwith a piece of kidney containing a powerful poison. According toall sound analogy, this should have stopped the dear fellow's earthlytracks; but his spirit was such that he simply went away to nursehimself up in retirement. Neither man nor dog can tell what agonies hesuffered; and doubtless his tortures of mind about duty unperformed werethe worst of all. These things are out of human knowledge in its presentunsympathetic state. Enough that poor Jowler came home at last, with hisribs all up and his tail very low.

  Like friends who have come together again, almost from the jaws ofdeath, we sat in the sunny noon, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Thetrees above us looked proud and cheerful, laying aside the mere fripperyof leaves with a good grace and contented arms, and a surety of havingquite enough next spring. Much of the fruity wealth of autumn stillwas clustering in our sight, heavily fetching the arched bough down tolessen the fall, when fall they must. And against the golden leaves ofmaple behind the unpretending roof a special wreath of blue shone like aclimbing Ipomaea. But coming to examine this, one found it to be nothingmore nor less than the smoke of the kitchen chimney, busy with a quietroasting job.

  This shows how clear the air was; but a thousand times as much couldnever tell how clear our spirits were. Nobody made any "demonstration,"or cut any frolicsome capers, or even said any thing exuberant. Thesteadfast brooding breed of England, which despises antics, was presentin us all, and strengthened by a soil whose native growth is peril,chance, and marvel. And so we nodded at one another, and I ran over andcourtesied to Uncle Sam, and he took me to him.

  "You have been a dear good child," he said, as he rose, and looked overmy head at Firm. "My own granddarter, if such there had been, could nothave done more to comfort me, nor half so much, for aught I know. Thereis no picking and choosing among the females, as God gives them. But hehas given you for a blessing and saving to my old age, my dearie."

  "Oh, Uncle Sam, now the nugget!" I cried, desiring like a child toescape deep feeling, and fearing any strong words from Firm. "You havepromised me ever so long that I should be the first to show Firm thenugget."

  "And so you shall, my dear, and Firm shall see it before he is an hourolder, and Jowler shall come down to show us where it is."

  Firm, who had little faith in the nugget, but took it for a dream ofmine, and had proved conclusively from his pillow that it could notexist in earnest, now with a gentle, satirical smile declared hisanxiety to see it; and I led him along by his better arm, faster,perhaps, than he ought to have walked.

  In a very few minutes we were at the place, and I ran eagerly to pointit; but behold, where the nugget had been, there was nothing except thewhite bed of the river! The blue water flowed very softly on its way,without a gleam of gold to corrupt it.

  "Oh, nobody will ever believe me again!" I exclaimed, in the saddestof sad dismay. "I dreamed about it first, but it never can have beena dream throughout. You know that I told you about it, Uncle Sam, evenwhen you were very busy, and that shows that it never could have been adream."

  "You told me about it, I remember now," Mr. Gundry answered, dryly; "butit does not follow that there was such a thing. My dear, you may haveimagined it; because it was the proper time for it to come, when my goodfriends had no money to lend. Your heart was so good that it got intoyour brain, and you must not be vexed, my dear child; it has done yougood to dream of it."

  "I said so all along," Firm observed. "Miss Rema felt that it ought tobe, and so she believed that it must be, there. She is always so warmand trustful."

  "Is that all you are good for?" I cried, with no gratitude for hiscompliment. "As sure as I stand here, I saw a great bowlder of gold, andso did Jowler, and I gave you the piece that he brought up. Did you takethem all in a dream, Uncle Sam? Come, can you get over that?"

  I assure you that for the moment I knew not whether I stood upon my feetor head, until I perceived an extraordinary grin on the Sawyer's amplecountenance; but Firm was not in the secret yet, for he gazed at me withcompassion, and Uncle Sam looked at us both as if he were balancing ourabilities.

  "Send your dog in, missy," at last he said. "He is more your dog thanmine, I believe, and he obeys you like a Christian. Let him go and findit if he can."

  At a sign from me, the great dog dashed in, and scratched with all fourfeet at once, and made the valley echo with the ring of mighty barkings;and in less than two minutes there shone the nugget, as yellow and asbig as ever.

  "Ha! ha! I never saw a finer thing," shouted Uncle Sam, like aschool-boy. "I were too many for you, missy dear; but the old dogwollops the whole of us. I just shot a barrow-load of gravel on yournugget, to keep it all snug till Firm should come round; and if the boyhad never come round, there the gold might have waited the will of theAlmighty. It is a big spot, anyhow."

  It certainly was not a little spot, though they all seemed to make solight of it--which vexed me, because I had found it, and was as proud asif I had made it. Not by any means that the Sawyer was half as carelessas he seemed to be; he put on much of this for my sake, having verylofty principles, especially concerning the duty of the young. Youngpeople were never to have small ideas, so far as he could help it,particularly upon such matters as Mammon, or the world, or fashion; andnot so very seldom he was obliged to catch himself up in his talking,when he chanced to be going on and forgetting that I, who required ahigher vein of thought for my youth, was taking his words downright; andI think that all this had a great deal to do with his treating all thatgold in such an exemplary manner; for if it had really mattered nothing,what made him go in the dark and shoot a great barrow-load of gravelover it?