Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant

by Mathew Joseph Holt

  CHAPTER IV.--John Calvin Campbell and Dorothy Fairfax.

  John Calvin Campbell was a beautiful child, with strangely clear, deepblue eyes, close clinging golden curls, a complexion fair to paleness,though tinted to a delicate ruddiness by exposure. He was thoroughlyself-reliant and independent.

  The neighbors spoke of him as a strange boy; not that he was mentally orphysically weak; but his manner and thoughts and method of expressionwere unnatural in one so young.

  His mother looked after him with such solicitude that his father, halfvexed, said: "You are spoiling that boy; give him a chance to live hisown life; I want him to find interest and pleasure in the same thingsother boys do."

  "If you do, you are going to be disappointed; he is not like other boys.He is more like his grandfather than little David Clark. He is notcontentious, yet without apparent effort, for the mere asking, he seemsto have his way with other children. Though he is just seven and wandersabout the mountain side alone, I am not worried. When I remonstrated, hereplied with calm assurance: 'Mother, you need not worry, I will not gethurt, I am learning things;' I have come to believe that what he said istrue. I asked why he climbed out upon the Pinnacle Rock and he answered:'When on the big rock, I think and learn and see things I cannot here. Isee earth and heaven as one great whole.' The boy seems not to mind inthe least being alone; though he often acts as guide for one of theolder boys to the rock, any one of whom will quit his games to go.Several times when he went off alone, I followed and unseen watched himclimb carefully to the Pinnacle, where, finding a seat not too near theedge, he sat looking out over the Valley and seemed to dream inwide-eyed wonder. The birds flew about as though he were not there; andthe little ground squirrels that burrow in the rocks came out and sat upand rubbed their faces and combed their bushy tails within a foot of hishand. When he rose up to come home he held out his little hands towardsthe valley as though he would take all that he saw within his tiny armssaying: 'O the joy of it! the joy of it!' What are we to do with a boylike that? Let us watch over him carefully and let us follow the way Godleads. Sometime have him tell you what he sees."

  He began making his little journeys to the rocks when he was five yearsold; first with his mother or Ruth, then alone. Each day from the springof 1773 until the following May, his little feet wore a distinct andnarrow path from the kitchen door to his aerie. The people of the Valleyseeing the little boy on the big rock, called it John Calvin's Rock; andit is so called to this day, though very few know the reason. A localhistorian writing of the early Presbyterian settlements of the Valley,making fact fit theory, refers to the rock as having in some unknown waybeen called after the father of Calvinism.

  Mr. Campbell first made the acquaintance of Thomas Fairfax and his wifeon the trip to Winchester in 1771, stopping at their plantation on hisway from the Hite settlement. This acquaintance, renewed at the meetinghouse, had ripened into a warm friendship mainly through Dorothy'sinstrumentality; who, beginning with the peep hole conversation threeyears before, insisted on talking with John Calvin every time she sawhim.

  The two families occasionally lunched together in the church grove; orif it rained, the Fairfaxes spent the night with the Campbells, as thedistance to Greenaway Court was great.

  The two men for more than a year had planned a bear hunt in the Kanawhacliffs and at last Mr. Fairfax had come to the plantation for thatpurpose, bringing his wife and little Dorothy, who were to remain withMrs. Campbell.

  He and Mr. Campbell, accompanied by two servants and half a dozen dogs,crossing over the mountains, camped on the benches overlooking thewilderness of the Kanawha.

  One day, Mr. Campbell with his servant, John Mason, went down into theriver meadows hunting for deer, and while quietly stalking, themselvesunperceived, saw three Indians traveling the path towards thesettlement. As small parties occasionally visited them or hunted in thevalley of the Kanawha, it never occurred to him that it was a war party;nor were they decorated with pigments and root stain as a war party.

  When he got back to camp he told of seeing the Indians; whereupon Mr.Fairfax suggested they better return home as he had heard just beforeleaving Winchester of trouble between the whites and Indians, growingout of the recent killing of the Logan family by Captain Cresap and hismen at the mouth of Yellow Creek.

  ----

  The morning after Dorothy's arrival, John Calvin started for school,nearly two miles away. Dorothy, who, since the day she had commanded himto peep through the hole, had continued issuing her commands, demandedto accompany him and had her way as usual. She insisted on sitting withhim in the boys' room. There they sat together and studied and recitedfrom the same primer. Dorothy could read almost as well as the boy; buthe knew all the Shorter Catechism, while she knew only the first threepages.

  After they had returned home and had dinner John Calvin started for hisaccustomed aerie overlooking the valley and Dorothy waited to be called;then seeing she was forgotten, followed slowly after, up the narrowpath; too hurt to call out and too anxious to follow to be piqued intoremaining.

  The little girl of the valley, half way up and nearly out of breath,stumbled, and slightly hurt, cried out with pain. The boy looked round,saw and ran back, saying: "O Dorothy! I did not know you would care tocome. Let me have your hand and help you. I will show you the big valleyand tell you what I see beyond."

  Hand in hand they finished the ascent; and on the top in the very centerof the great rock he made a heap of pine straw, where they sat side byside; the boy blue eyed and golden haired, birth-marked by hisAnglo-Saxon ancestry, and the girl carrying from the centuries past herNorman birthright of brown eyes and dark tresses. As they sat, lookingdown upon the valley, her dark curls, tousled by the wind, played tagwith his golden locks.

  How different the two children were. Dorothy's eyes and thoughts were ofthe valley, which the distance transformed into toyland. The housessuited the people, who were tiny dolls. The cattle as they came from thebarns looked like the tiny creatures of a toy ark. These she talkedabout in a chirpy, rambling way; but the boy, mind-marked by hisforebears, did not hear. He sat and gazed into the May-blue sky, blottedat intervals with fluffy, half transparent clouds, wind rolled from theBlue Ridge towards the Alleghanies.

  He began to talk of them: "The clouds are the chariots of the angels andif you watch closely you may see them driving with reins of gold. Abovethe clouds, if you look hard and pray the while, you may see the face ofGod. The angels watch over us; and if we do something we should not theydrop a tear to wipe out the deed. Sometimes the tears miss their markand fall into the sea, and they become pearls. The little shell fishwhich live upon the bottom where it is dark gather and store thesetreasures in their homes, because in passing from sky to sea they havetaken into their hearts the colors of the rainbow and the sun. When theSon of God was nailed upon the cross, the angels hiding their faces losttrack of earth and drove their chariots far out to sea, where, in thedark, undisturbed depths the sad old shell fish dwell; and as theytraveled most of them were too sad even for tears; but a few great tearswere shed and fell great, perfect pearls into the sea. These the oldshell fish found and gathered up. Once in many years one of these oldfellows is torn from his moorings in the darkness of the deep and washedtowards the shore. A fisherman gathers in and opens the old moss grownshell and, finding the pearl, is very glad--'Wherefore, do ye spendmoney for that which is not bread and your labor for that whichsatisfieth not. Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which isgood, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear andcome unto me; hear and you shall live.'"

  The boy turned towards the girl; and saw an Indian with upliftedtomahawk standing over her ready to strike. The girl looking up, sawtoo, and cowering in terror, crept close to the boy. He, without fear orhesitancy, rose and on tiptoe reached up and took him by the arm. Sothey stood for several moments; then the Indian, strangely moved by theface of the boy, in which there with neither fear nor anger but calm
confidence that he would not strike, lowered his arm and smiled; and theboy smiled back.

  The Indian, a Mingo chief, who spoke a little English said: "No hurtlittle boy and girl but they must come with Logan." He called the twobraves who stood guard at the foot of the rock and ordered them to takeup the children. The boy uttered no sound, but the little girl whimperedfor her mother.

  They were carried hastily over the mountain and by the time the starscame out were on the head waters of the Kanawha. Resting for an hour ormore, until the moon rose over the tree tops, they traveled an old trailfar into the night and, camping, slept until the first light of day;then on again until they reached the mouth of Meadow Creek, where theybreakfasted on venison and parched corn. Then while Logan destroyed allevidences of the camp the other two dragged a canoe from the willows andpaddled to a projecting rock, from which the party embarked.

  As they were leaving a small black dog with a bark of joy ran up andjumped into the canoe. It was Jerry, christened Jeremiah when a puppy byMr. Campbell, because he was given to much lamentation; later the namehad been changed to Jerry at the suggestion of the boy's grandfather.

  The dog as the canoe left the bank gave a couple of sharp barks whichwere answered by some one from the woods. One of the Indians, liftingthe dog out of the canoe, silently placed it in the water; knowing thatif he killed it the children would cry out. They paddled hastily alongthe shore screened by the willows. The dog for a moment swam after them,then turned and swam back to the rock.

  As they circled a bend some distance below, a man stepped out on therock and stooped and helped Jerry out of the river. It was RichardCameron.

  School had been out some time; even the older boys and girls who werekept an hour longer than the little ones, had all gone home; yet themaster sat by the window thinking of his dead wife. Glancing towards thegrove of cedars on the mountain he barely made out the two smallchildren on John Calvin Rock and beside them he saw three men whom hesupposed were the returned hunters.

  When he reached home he learned that the two children were lost and thata searching party had been sent out into the mountains.

  Mrs. Campbell and Mrs. Fairfax becoming uneasy at the long absence ofthe children climbed to the rock and not finding them, sent RuthCrawford, the servant, to the settlement asking for help. They thencalled Richard Cameron and after he had gotten his rifle the three,followed by Jerry, began the search.

  It was not long before Jerry picked up the trail which Richard followeda weary way to the river landing. On the way, in the moist earth at thespring he had found a few tracks of the Indians and the foot prints ofthe children; searching the willows he had found where the canoe hadbeen cached.

  Realizing that the children were prisoners and that unaided he could noteffect their rescue, he hastened back towards the settlement.

  Several hours travel back the trail, he came upon the hunters who hadbeen joined by Mr. Clark and who, having spent the day in search for thechildren, were making camp for the night.

  He told what he had learned; and after piecing this with theschoolmaster's story and what they had discovered, they were satisfiedthe children were captives of the three Indians they had seen two daysbefore and who now were making for the Ohio River country.

  Resting several hours, they traveled that night to the mouth of MeadowCreek and in the morning followed down the river bank; finding on everyportage around the rapids traces of the Indians and the children. At theIndian lead mines they found a canoe and in that paddled down the riverto Point Pleasant.

  Here they found the station of Caleb Smith in ashes; saw a large warparty of Indians and felt assured that from its leader they could getdefinite information of the children. Richard Cameron offered to walk tothe camp and surrender as a prisoner to be with the children; but Mr.Campbell would not hear of it believing that he would be tortured todeath, as it was evident the Indians were on the war path. The wholeIndian country was in arms and the Ohio, about the mouth of the Kanawha,literally swarmed with war canoes.

  For two weeks they sought the children and each day were exposed to thegravest danger. Even if found, they recognized, that their rescue wasnext to impossible; and, disappointed, they decided to return home,feeling satisfied the children were alive and in no immediate danger,and hoping when the present trouble blew over to return and rescue them.

  The morning after their return to the Campbell plantation, Mr. Fairfaxand his wife left for home. Then he went to Williamsburg, where he madeapplication for assistance to Lord Dunmore, governor of Virginia, hopingthrough his influence with the Indians to procure the release of thechildren; as Dunmore was said to be on intimate terms with the tribes ofthe Kanawha and Scioto country and was then engaged in buying pelts fromthem; from which trade he derived a considerable private revenue.

  The Governor gave him very little satisfaction, saying: "I would be gladto do it if we had the time, but as you know, my whole time is taken upby pending political troubles."

  Governor Dunmore was extremely unpopular. It was charged that throughConnelley and other agents he was then inciting the Mingoes, who hadalways been allies of the British to attack the frontier settlements andthus keep the attention of the western portion of the colony from thepolitical troubles that exercised and oppressed the people of Tidewater,Virginia.

  Revolution was in the air, England was determined to collect directimpost duties from the colonies and insist upon an enforcement of therecently enacted law that any colonist charged with treason or incitingrebellion should be transported to England for trial. British troopswere quartered in Boston and the Port Bill had been passed, closingBoston Harbor. Nevertheless, in the Valley and throughout Virginia, thefirst of June, 1774, was observed as a day of fasting and prayer becauseall recognized that war was impending with the mother country.

  In the meanwhile Mr. Campbell began organizing the settlers, looking toa forcible rescue of the children. This activity was reported to theGovernor, by him construed as treasonable conduct and his arrest wasordered.

  Mrs. Campbell was not greatly depressed by the abduction of her littleson. She felt that he would be restored to her unharmed.