The Pioneers; Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna

by James Fenimore Cooper

  CHAPTER XIII.

  "And I'll drink out of the quart pot-- Here's a health to the barley mow. "--Drinking Song.

  On one of the corners, where the two principal streets of Templetonintersected each other, stood, as we have already mentioned, the inncalled the "Bold Dragoon". In the original plan it was ordained thatthe village should stretch along the little stream that rushed downthe valley; and the street which led from the lake to the academywas intended to be its western boundary. But convenience frequentlyfrustrates the best-regulated plans. The house of Mr., or as, inconsequence of commanding the militia of that vicinity, he was called,Captain Hollister, had, at an early day, been erected directly facingthe main street, and ostensibly interposed a barrier to its furtherprogress. Horsemen, and subsequently teamsters, however, availedthemselves of an opening, at the end of the building, to shorten theirpassage westward, until in time the regular highway was laid out alongthis course, and houses were gradually built on either side, so aseffectually to prevent any subsequent correction of the evil.

  Two material consequences followed this change in the regular plans ofMarmaduke. The main street, after running about half its length, wassuddenly reduced for precisely that difference in its width; and "BoldDragoon" became, next to the mansion-house, by far the most conspicuousedifice in the place.

  This conspicuousness, aided by the characters of the host and hostess,gave the tavern an advantage over all its future competitors that nocircumstances could conquer. An effort was, however, made to do so;and at the corner diagonally opposite, stood a new building that was intended, by its occupants, to look down all opposition. It was a house ofwood, ornamented in the prevailing style of architecture, and aboutthe roof and balustrades was one of the three imitators of themansion-house. The upper windows were filled with rough boards securedby nails, to keep out the cold air--for the edifice was far fromfinished, although glass was to be seen in the lower apartments, andthe light of the powerful fires within de noted that it was alreadyinhabited. The exterior was painted white on the front and on the endwhich was exposed to the street; but in the rear, and on the side whichwas intended to join the neighboring house, it was coarsely smeared withSpanish brown. Before the door stood two lofty posts, connected at thetop by a beam, from which was suspended an enormous sign, ornamentedaround its edges with certain curious carvings in pine boards, and onits faces loaded with Masonic emblems. Over these mysterious figures waswritten, in large letters, "The Templeton Coffee-house, and Traveller'sHotel," and beneath them, "By Habakkuk Foote and Joshua Knapp." Thiswas a fearful rival to the "Bold Dragoon," as our readers will the morereadily perceive when we add that the same sonorous names were to beseen over a newly erected store in the village, a hatter's shop, and thegates of a tan-yard. But, either because too much was attempted to beexecuted well, or that the "Bold Dragoon" had established a reputationwhich could not be easily shaken, not only Judge Temple and his friends,but most of the villagers also, who were not in debt to the powerfulfirm we have named, frequented the inn of Captain Hollister on alloccasions where such a house was necessary.

  On the present evening the limping veteran and his consort were hardlyhoused after their return from the academy, when the sounds of stampingfeet at their threshold announced the approach of visitors, who wereprobably assembling with a view to compare opinions on the subject ofthe ceremonies they had witnessed.

  The public, or as it was called, the "bar-room," of the "Bold Dragoon,"was a spacious apartment, lined on three sides with benches and on thefourth by fireplaces. Of the latter there were two of such size asto occupy, with their enormous jambs, the whole of that side of theapartment where they were placed, excepting room enough for a dooror two, and a little apartment in one corner, which was protected byminiature palisades, and profusely garnished with bottles and glasses.In the entrance to this sanctuary Mrs. Hollister was seated, with greatgravity in her air, while her husband occupied himself with stirring thefires, moving the logs with a large stake burnt to a point at one end.

  "There, sargeant, dear," said the landlady, after she thought theveteran had got the logs arranged in the most judicious manner, "giveover poking, for it's no good ye'll be doing, now that they burn soconvaniently. There's the glasses on the table there, and the mugthat the doctor was taking his cider and ginger in, before the firehere--just put them in the bar, will ye? for we'll be having the jooge,and the Major, and Mr. Jones down the night, without reckoning BenjaminPoomp, and the lawyers; so yell be fixing the room tidy; and put bothflip irons in the coals; and tell Jude, the lazy black baste, that ifshe's no be cleaning up the kitchen I'll turn her out of the house, andshe may live wid the jontlemen that kape the 'Coffee house,' good luckto 'em. Och! sargeant, sure it's a great privilege to go to a mateingwhere a body can sit asy, without joomping up and down so often, as thisMr. Grant is doing that same."

  "It's a privilege at all times, Mrs. Hollister, whether we stand orbe seated; or, as good Mr. Whitefleld used to do after he had made awearisome day's march, get on our knees and pray, like Moses of old,with a flanker to the right and left to lift his hands to heaven,"returned her husband, who composedly performed what she had directed tobe done. "It was a very pretty fight, Betty, that the Israelites had onthat day with the Amalekites, It seams that they fout on a plain, forMoses is mentioned as having gone on the heights to overlook the battle,and wrestle in prayer; and if I should judge, with my little larning,the Israelites depended mainly on their horse, for it was written 'thatJoshua cut up the enemy with the edge of the sword; from which I infer,not only that they were horse, but well diseiplyned troops. Indeed, itsays as much as that they were chosen men; quite likely volunteers; forraw dragoons seldom strike with the edge of their swords, particularlyif the weapon be any way crooked."

  "Pshaw! why do ye bother yourself wid texts, man, about so small amatter?" interrupted the landlady; "sure, it was the Lord who was with'em; for he always sided with the Jews, before they fell away; and it'sbut little matter what kind of men Joshua commanded, so that he wasdoing the right bidding. Aven them cursed millaishy, the Lord forgive mefor swearing, that was the death of him, wid their cowardice, would havecarried the day in old times. There's no rason to be thinking that thesoldiers were used to the drill."

  "I must say, Mrs. Hollister, that I have not often seen raw troops fightbetter than the left flank of the militia, at the time you mention.They rallied handsomely, and that without beat of drum, which is noeasy thing to do under fire, and were very steady till he fell. But theScriptures contain no unnecessary words; and I will maintain thathorse, who know how to strike with the edge of the sword, must be welldisoiplyned. Many a good sarmon has been preached about smaller mattersthan that one word! If the text was not meant to be particular,why wasn't it written with the sword, and not with the edge? Now, aback-handed stroke, on the edge, takes long practice. Goodness! what anargument would Mr. Whitefield make of that word edge! As to the captain,if he had only called up the guard of dragoons when he rallied thefoot, they would have shown the inimy what the edge of a sword was; for,although there was no commissioned officer with them, yet I think I mustsay," the veteran continued, stiffening his cravat about his throat, andraising himself up with the air of a drill-sergeant, "they were led bya man who knowed how to bring them on, in spite of the ravine."

  "Is it lade on ye would," cried the landlady, "when ye know yourself,Mr. Hollister, that the baste he rode was but little able to joomp fromone rock to another, and the animal was as spry as a squirrel? Och! butit's useless to talk, for he's gone this many a year. I would that hehad lived to see the true light; but there's mercy for a brave sowl,that died in the saddle, fighting for the liberty. It is a poortombstone they have given him, anyway, and many a good one that diedlike himself; but the sign is very like, and I will be kapeing it up,while the blacksmith can make a hook for it to swing on, for all the'coffee-houses' betwane this and Albany."

  There is no saying where this desultory conversation would h
ave led theworthy couple, had not the men, who were stamping the snow off theirfeet on the little plat form before the door, suddenly ceased theiroccupation, and entered the bar-room.

  For ten or fifteen minutes the different individuals, who intendedeither to bestow or receive edification before the fires of the "BoldDragoon" on that evening, were collecting, until the benches werenearly filled with men of different occupations. Dr. Todd and aslovenly-looking, shabby-genteel young man, who took tobacco profusely,wore a coat of imported cloth cut with something like a fashionable air,frequently exhibited a large French silver watch, with a chain of wovenhair and a silver key, and who, altogether, seemed as much above theartisans around him as he was himself inferior to the real gentle man,occupied a high-back wooden settee, in the most comfortable corner inthe apartment.

  Sundry brown mugs, containing cider or beer, were placed betweenthe heavy andirons, and little groups were found among the guests assubjects arose or the liquor was passed from one to the other. No manwas seen to drink by himself, nor in any instance was more than onevessel considered necessary for the same beverage; but the glass or themug was passed from hand to hand until a chasm in the line or a regardto the rights of ownership would regularly restore the dregs of thepotation to him who de frayed the cost.

  Toasts were uniformly drunk; and occasionally some one who conceivedhimself peculiarly endowed by Nature to shine in the way of wit wouldattempt some such sentiment as "hoping that he" who treated "might makea better man than his father;" or "live till all his friends wished himdead;" while the more humble pot-companion contented himself by saying,with a most composing gravity in his air, "Come, here's luck," or byexpressing some other equally comprehensive desire. In every instancethe veteran landlord was requested to imitate the custom of thecupbearers to kings, and taste the liquor he presented, by theinvitation of "After you is manners," with which request he ordinarilycomplied by wetting his lips, first expressing the wish of "Here'shoping," leaving it to the imagination of the hearers to fill the vacuumby whatever good each thought most desirable. During these movements thelandlady was busily occupied with mixing the various compounds requiredby her customers, with her own hands, and occasionally exchanginggreetings and inquiries concerning the conditions of their respectivefamilies, with such of the villagers as approached the bar.

  At length the common thirst being in some measure assuaged, conversationof a more general nature became the order of the hour. The physicianand his companion, who was one of the two lawyers of the village,being considered the best qualified to maintain a public discourse withcredit, were the principal speakers, though a remark was hazarded, nowand then, by Mr. Doolittle, who was thought to be their inferior only inthe enviable point of education. A general silence was produced on allbut the two speakers, by the following observation from the practitionerof the law:

  "So, Dr. Todd, I understand that you have been per forming an importantoperation this evening by cutting a charge of buckshot from the shoulderof the son of Leather-Stocking?"

  "Yes, sir," returned other, elevating his little head with an air ofimportance. "I had a small job up at the Judge's in that way; it was,however, but a trifle to what it might have been, had it gone throughthe body. The shoulder is not a very vital part; and I think the youngman will soon be well. But I did not know that the patient was a son ofLeather-Stocking; it is news to me to hear that Natty had a wife."

  "It is by no means a necessary consequence," returned the other, winking,with a shrewd look around the bar room; "there is such a thing, Isuppose you know, in law as a filius nullius."

  "Spake it out, man," exclaimed the landlady; "spake it out in king'sEnglish; what for should ye be talking Indian in a room full ofChristian folks, though it is about a poor hunter, who is but littlebetter in his ways than the wild savages themselves? Och! it's to behoped that the missionaries will, in his own time, make a conversionof the poor devils; and then it will matter little of what color is theskin, or wedder there be wool or hair on the head."

  "Oh! it is Latin, not Indian, Miss Hollister!" returned the lawyer,repeating his winks and shrewd looks; "and Dr. Todd understands Latin,or how would he read the labels on his gailipots and drawers? No, no,Miss Hollis ter, the doctor understands me; don't you, doctor?"

  "Hem--why, I guess I am not far out of the way," returned Elnathan,endeavoring to imitate the expression of the other's countenance, bylooking jocular. "Latin is a queer language, gentlemen; now I ratherguess there is no one in the room, except Squire Lippet, who can believethat 'Far. Av.' means oatmeal, in English."

  The lawyer in his turn was a good deal embarrassed by this display oflearning; for, although he actually had taken his first degree at one ofthe eastern universities, he was somewhat puzzled with the terms usedby his companion. It was dangerous, however, to appear to be out donein learning in a public bar-room, and before so many of his clients; hetherefore put the best face on the matter, and laughed knowingly as ifthere were a good joke concealed under it, that was understood onlyby the physician and himself. All this was attentively observed by thelisteners, who exchanged looks of approbation; and the expressions of"tonguey mati," and "I guess Squire Lippet knows if anybody does," wereheard in different parts of the room, as vouchers for the admirationof his auditors. Thus encouraged, the lawyer rose from his chair, andturning his back to the fire, and facing the company, he continued:

  "The son of Natty, or the son of nobody, I hope the young man is notgoing to let the matter drop. This is a country of law; and I shouldlike to see it fairly tried, whether a man who owns, or says he owns, ahundred thousand acres of land, has any more right to shoot a body thananother. What do you think of it, Dr. Todd?"

  "Oh, sir, I am of opinion that the gentleman will soon be well, as I saidbefore; the wound isn't in a vital part; and as the ball was extractedso soon, and the shoulder was what I call well attended to, I do notthink there is as much danger as there might have been."

  "I say, Squire Doolittle," continued the attorney, raising his voice,"you are a magistrate, and know what is law and what is not law. I askyou, sir, if shooting a man is a thing that is to be settled so veryeasily? Suppose, sir, that the young man had a wife and family; andsuppose that he was a mechanic like yourself, sir; and sup pose that hisfamily depended on him for bread; and suppose that the ball, instead ofmerely going through the flesh, had broken the shoulder-blade, andcrippled him forever; I ask you all, gentlemen, supposing this to be thecase, whether a jury wouldn't give what I call handsome damages?"

  As the close of this supposititious case was addressed to the companygenerally, Hiram did not at first consider himself called on for areply; but finding the eyes of the listeners bent on him in expectation,he remembered his character for judicial discrimination, and spoke,observing a due degree of deliberation and dignity.

  "Why, if a man should shoot another," he said, "and if he should do iton purpose and if the law took notice on't, and if a jury should findhim guilty, it would be likely to turn out a state-prison matter."

  "It would so, sir," returned the attorney. "The law, gentlemen, is norespecter of persons in a free country. It is one of the great blessingsthat has been handed down to us from our ancestors, that all men areequal in the eye of the laws, as they are by nater. Though some may getproperty, no one knows how, yet they are not privileged to transgressthe laws any more than the poorest citizen in the State. This is mynotion, gentlemen: and I think that it a man had a mind to bring thismatter up, something might be made out of it that would help pay for thesalve--ha! doctor!"

  "Why, sir," returned the physician, who appeared a little uneasy at theturn the conversation was taking, "I have the promise of Judge Templebefore men--not but what I would take his word as soon as his note ofhand--but it was before men. Let me see--there was Mounshier Ler Quow,and Squire Jones, and Major Hartmann, and Miss Pettibone, and one or twoof the blacks by, when he said that his pocket would amply reward me forwhat I did."

  "Was the promise made before o
r after the service was performed?" askedthe attorney.

  "It might have been both," returned the discreet physician; "though I'mcertain he said so before I undertook the dressing."

  "But it seems that he said his pocket should reward you, doctor,"observed Hiram. "Now I don't know that the law will hold a man to sucha promise; he might give you his pocket with sixpence in't, and tell youto take your pay out on't."

  "That would not be a reward in the eye of the law," interrupted theattorney--"not what is called a 'quid pro quo;' nor is the pocket to beconsidered as an agent, but as part of a man's own person, that is,in this particular. I am of opinion that an action would lie on thatpromise, and I will undertake to bear him out, free of costs, if hedon't recover."

  To this proposition the physician made no reply; but he was observed tocast his eyes around him, as if to enumerate the witnesses, in orderto substantiate this promise also, at a future day, should it provenecessary. A subject so momentous as that of suing Judge Temple was notvery palatable to the present company in so public a place; and a shortsilence ensued, that was only interrupted by the opening of the door,and the entrance of Natty himself.

  The old hunter carried in his hand his never-failing companion, therifle; and although all of the company were uncovered excepting thelawyer, who wore his hat on one side, with a certain dam'me air, Nattymoved to the front of one of the fires without in the least alteringany part of his dress or appearance. Several questions were addressedto him, on the subject of the game he had killed, which he answeredreadily, and with some little interest; and the landlord, between whomand Natty there existed much cordiality, on account of their both havingbeen soldiers in youth, offered him a glass of a liquid which, ifwe might judge from its reception, was no unwelcome guest. When theforester had got his potation also, he quietly took his seat on the endof one of the logs that lay nigh the fires, and the slight interruptionproduced by his entrance seemed to be forgotten.

  "The testimony of the blacks could not be taken, sir," continued thelawyer, "for they are all the property of Mr. Jones, who owns theirtime. But there is a way by which Judge Temple, or any other man, mightbe made to pay for shooting another, and for the cure in the bargain.There is a way, I say, and that without going into the 'court oferrors,' too."

  "And a mighty big error ye would make of it, Mister Todd," cried thelandlady, "should ye be putting the mat ter into the law at all, withJoodge Temple, who has a purse as long as one of them pines on the hill,and who is an asy man to dale wid, if yees but mind the humor of him.He's a good man is Joodge Temple, and a kind one, and one who will be nothe likelier to do the pratty thing, becase ye would wish to tarrifyhim wid the law. I know of but one objaction to the same, which isan over-careless ness about his sowl. It's neither a Methodie, nor aPapish, nor Parsbetyrian, that he is, but just nothing at all; and it'shard to think that he, 'who will not fight the good fight, under thebanners of a rig'lar church, in this world, will be mustered among thechosen in heaven,' as my husband, the captain there, as ye call him,says--though there is but one captain that I know, who desarves thename. I hopes, Lather-Stocking, ye'll no be foolish, and putting the boyup to try the law in the matter; for 'twill be an evil day to ye both,when ye first turn the skin of so paceable an animal as a sheep into abone of contention, The lad is wilcome to his drink for nothing, untilhis shoulther will bear the rifle agin."

  "Well, that's gin'rous," was heard from several mouths at once, for thiswas a company in which a liberal offer was not thrown away; while thehunter, instead 'of expressing any of that indignation which he mightbe sup posed to feel, at hearing the hurt of his young companionalluded to, opened his mouth, with the silent laugh for which he was soremarkable; and after he had indulged his humor, made this reply:

  "I knowed the Judge would do nothing with his smooth bore when he gotout of his sleigh. I never saw but one smooth-bore that would carry atall, and that was a French ducking-piece, upon the big lakes; it had abarrel half as long agin as my rifle, and would throw fine shot into agoose at one hundred yards; but it made dreadful work with the game,and you wanted a boat to carry it about in. When I went with Sir Williamagin' the French, at Fort Niagara, all the rangers used the rifle; anda dreadful weapon it is, in the hands of one who knows how to charge it,and keep a steady aim. The captain knows, for he says he was a soldierin Shirley's; and, though they were nothing but baggonet-men, he mustknow how we cut up the French and Iroquois in the skrimmages in thatwar. Chingachgook, which means 'Big Sarpent' in English, old JohnMohegan, who lives up at the hut with me, was a great warrior then, andwas out with us; he can tell all about it, too; though he was overhandfor the tomahawk, never firing more than once or twice, before he wasrunning in for the scalps. Ah! times is dreadfully altered since then.Why, doctor, there was nothing but a foot path, or at the most a trackfor pack-horses, along the Mohawk, from the Jarman Flats up to theforts. Now, they say, they talk of running one of them wide roads withgates on it along the river; first making a road, and then fencingit up! I hunted one season back of the Kaatskills, nigh-hand to thesettlements, and the dogs often lost the scent, when they came to themhighways, there was so much travel on them; though I can't say that thebrutes was of a very good breed. Old Hector will wind a deer, in thefall of the year, across the broadest place in the Otsego, and that isa mile and a half, for I paced it my self on the ice, when the tract wasfirst surveyed, under the Indian grant."

  "It sames to me, Natty, but a sorry compliment to call your comrad afterthe evil one," said the landlady; "and it's no much like a snake thatold John is looking now, Nimrod would be a more becoming name for thelad, and a more Christian, too, seeing that it conies from the Bible.The sargeant read me the chapter about him, the night before mychristening, and a mighty asement it was to listen to anything from thebook."

  "Old John and Chingachgook were very different men to look on," returnedthe hunter, shaking his head at his melancholy recollections. "In the'fifty-eighth war' he was in the middle of manhood, and taller thannow by three inches. If you had seen him, as I did, the morning we beatDieskau, from behind our log walls, you would have called him as comelya redskin as ye ever set eyes on. He was naked all to his breech-clothand leggins; and you never seed a creatur' so handsomely painted. Oneside of his face was red and the other black. His head was shavedclean, all to a few hairs on the crown, where he wore a tuft of eagle'sfeathers, as bright as if they had come from a peacock's tail. He hadcolored his sides so that they looked like anatomy, ribs and all, forChingachgook had a great taste in such things, so that, what with hisbold, fiery countenance, his knife, and his tomahawk, I have never seena fiercer warrior on the ground. He played his part, too, like a man,for I saw him next day with thirteen scalps on his pole. And I will saythis for the 'Big Snake,' that he always dealt fair, and never scalpedany that he didn't kill with his own hands."

  "Well, well!" cried the landlady, "fighting is fighting anyway, andthere is different fashions in the thing; though I can't say that Irelish mangling a body after the breath is out of it; neither do I thinkit can be uphild by doctrine. I hope, sargeant, ye niver was helpingin sich evil worrek."

  "It was my duty to keep my ranks, and to stand or fall by the baggonetor lead," returned the veteran. "I was then in the fort, and seldomleaving my place, saw but little of the savages, who kept on the flanksor in front, skrimmaging. I remember, howsomever, to have heard mentionmade of the 'Great Snake,' as he was called, for he was a chief ofrenown; but little did I ever expect to see him enlisted in the cause ofChristianity, and civilized like old John."

  "Oh! he was Christianized by the Moravians, who were alwaysover-intimate with the Delawares," said Leather-Stocking. "It's myopinion that, had they been left to themselves, there would be no suchdoings now about the head-waters of the two rivers, and that these hillsmought have been kept as good hunting-ground by their right owner,who is not too old to carry a rifle, and whose sight is as true as afish-hawk hovering--"

  He was interrupted by more stampin
g at the door, and presently the partyfrom the mansion-house entered, followed by the Indian himself.