The Pioneers; Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna

by James Fenimore Cooper

  CHAPTER XX.

  "Away! nor let me loiter in my song, For we have many a mountain-path to tread." --Byron.

  As the spring gradually approached, the immense piles of snow that, byalternate thaws and frosts, and repeated storms, had obtained a firmnesswhich threatened a tiresome durability, began to yield to the influenceof milder breezes and a warmer sun. The gates of heaven at times seemedto open, and a bland air diffused itself over the earth, when animateand inanimate nature would awaken, and, for a few hours, the gayety ofspring shone in every eye and smiled on every field. But the shiveringblasts from the north would carry their chill influence over the sceneagain, and the dark and gloomy clouds that intercepted the rays of thesun were not more cold and dreary than the reaction. These strugglesbetween the seasons became daily more frequent, while the earth, likea victim to contention, slowly lost the animated brilliancy of winter,without obtaining the aspect of spring.

  Several weeks were consumed in this cheerless manner, during which theinhabitants of the country gradually changed their pursuits from thesocial and bustling movements of the time of snow to the laborious anddomestic engagements of the coming season, The village was no longerthronged with visitors; the trade that had enlivened the shops forseveral months, began to disappear; the highways lost their shiningcoats of beaten snow in impassable sloughs, and were deserted by thegay and noisy travellers who, in sleighs, had, during the winter, glidedalong their windings; and, in short, everything seemed indicative ofa mighty change, not only in the earth, but in those who derived theirsources of comfort and happiness from its bosom.

  The younger members of the family in the mansion house, of which LouisaGrant was now habitually one, were by no means indifferent observers ofthese fluctuating and tardy changes. While the snow rendered the roadspassable, they had partaken largely in the amusements of the winter,which included not only daily rides over the mountains, and throughevery valley within twenty miles of them, but divers ingenious andvaried sources of pleasure on the bosom of their frozen lake. There hadbeen excursions in the equipage of Richard, when with his four horseshe had outstripped the winds, as it flew over the glassy ice whichinvariably succeeded a thaw. Then the exciting and dangerous "whirligig"would be suffered to possess its moment of notice. Cutters, drawn by asingle horse, and handsleds, impelled by the gentlemen on skates, wouldeach in turn be used; and, in short, every source of relief against thetediousness of a winter in the mountains was resorted to by the family,Elizabeth was compelled to acknowledge to her father, that the season,with the aid of his library, was much less irksome than she hadanticipated.

  As exercise in the open air was in some degree necessary to the habitsof the family, when the constant recurrence of frosts and thaws renderedthe roads, which were dangerous at the most favorable times, utterlyimpassable for wheels, saddle-horses were used as substitutes for otherconveyances. Mounted on small and sure-footed beasts, the ladies wouldagain attempt the passages of the mountains and penetrate into everyretired glen where the enterprise of a settler had induced him toestablish himself. In these excursions they were attended by some oneor all of the gentlemen of the family, as their different pursuitsadmitted. Young Edwards was hourly becoming more familiarized to hissituation, and not infrequently mingled in the parties with anunconcern and gayety that for a short time would expel all unpleasantrecollections from his mind. Habit, and the buoyancy of youth, seemedto be getting the ascendency over the secret causes of his uneasiness;though there were moments when the same remarkable expression of disgustwould cross his intercourse with Marmaduke, that had distinguished theirconversations in the first days of their acquaintance.

  It was at the close of the month of March, that the sheriff succeeded inpersuading his cousin and her young friend to accompany him in a rideto a hill that was said to overhang the lake in a manner peculiar toitself.

  "Besides, Cousin Bess," continued the indefatigable Richard, "we willstop and see the 'sugar bush' of Billy Kirby; he is on the east end ofthe Ransom lot, making sugar for Jared Ransom. There is not a betterhand over a kettle in the county than that same Kirby. You remember,'Duke, that I had him his first season in our camp; and it is not awonder that he knows something of his trade."

  "He's a good chopper, is Billy," observed Benjamin, who held the bridleof the horse while the sheriff mounted; "and he handles an axe much thesame as a forecastleman does his marling-spike, or a tailor his goose.They say he'll lift a potash-kettle off the arch alone, though I can'tsay that I've ever seen him do it with my own eyes; but that is the say.And I've seen sugar of his making, which, maybe, wasn't as white as anold topgallant sail, but which my friend, Mistress Pettibones, withinthere, said had the true molasses smack to it; and you are not the one,Squire Dickens, to be told that Mistress Remarkable has a remarkabletooth for sweet things in her nut-grinder."

  The loud laugh that succeeded the wit of Benjamin, and in whichhe participated with no very harmonious sounds himself, very fullyillustrated the congenial temper which existed between the pair. Most ofits point was, however, lost on the rest of the party, who were eithermounting their horses or assisting the ladies at the moment. When allwere safely in their saddles, they moved through the village in greatorder. They paused for a moment before the door of Monsieur Le Quoi,until he could bestride his steed, and then, issuing from the littlecluster of houses, they took one of the principal of those highways thatcentred in the village.

  As each night brought with it a severe frost, which the heat of thesucceeding day served to dissipate, the equestrians were compelledto proceed singly along the margin of the road, where the turf, andfirmness of the ground, gave the horses a secure footing. Very triflingindications of vegetation were to be seen, the surface of the earthpresenting a cold, wet, and cheerless aspect that chilled the blood. Thesnow yet lay scattered over most of those distant clearings that werevisible in different parts of the mountains; though here and therean opening might be seen where, as the white covering yielded to theseason, the bright and lively green of the wheat served to enkindle thehopes of the husbandman. Nothing could be more marked than the contrastbetween the earth and the heavens; for, while the former presented thedreary view that we have described, a warm and invigorating sun wasdispensing his heats from a sky that contained but a solitary cloud, andthrough an atmosphere that softened the colors of the sensible horizonuntil it shone like a sea of blue.

  Richard led the way on this, as on all other occasions that did notrequire the exercise of unusual abilities; and as he moved along, heessayed to enliven the party with the sounds of his experienced voice.

  "This is your true sugar weather, 'Duke," he cried; "a frosty night anda sunshiny day. I warrant me that the sap runs like a mill-tail up themaples this warm morning. It is a pity, Judge, that you do not introducea little more science into the manufactory of sugar among your tenants.It might be done, sir, without knowing as much as Dr. Franklin--it mightbe done, Judge Temple."

  "The first object of my solicitude, friend Jones," returned Marmaduke,"is to protect the sources of this great mine of comfort and wealth fromthe extravagance of the people themselves. When this important pointshall be achieved, it will be in season to turn our attention toan improvement in the manufacture of the article, But thou knowest,Richard, that I have already subjected our sugar to the process of therefiner, and that the result has produced loaves as white as the snow onyon fields, and possessing the saccharine quality in its utmost purity."

  "Saccharine, or turpentine, or any other 'ine, Judge Temple, you havenever made a loaf larger than a good-sized sugar-plum," returned thesheriff. "Now, sir, I assert that no experiment is fairly tried, untilit be reduced to practical purposes. If, sir, I owned a hundred, or,for that matter, two hundred thousand acres of land, as you do. I wouldbuild a sugar house in the village; I would invite learned men to aninvestigation of the subject--and such are easily to be found, sir; yes,sir, they are not difficult to find--men who unite theory with practice;and I would sele
ct a wood of young and thrifty trees; and, instead ofmaking loaves of the size of a lump of candy, dam'me, 'Duke, but I'dhave them as big as a haycock."

  "And purchase the cargo of one of those ships that they say are goingto China," cried Elizabeth; "turn your pot ash-kettles into teacups, thescows on the lake into saucers, bake your cake in yonder lime-kiln,and invite the county to a tea-party. How wonderful are the projects ofgenius! Really, sir, the world is of opinion that Judge Temple has triedthe experiment fairly, though he did not cause his loaves to be cast inmoulds of the magnitude that would suit your magnificent conceptions."

  "You may laugh, Cousin Elizabeth--you may laugh, madam," retortedRichard, turning himself so much in his saddle as to face the party, andmaking dignified gestures with his whip; "but I appeal to common sense,good sense, or, what is of more importance than either, to the sense oftaste, which is one of the five natural senses, whether a big loaf ofsugar is not likely to contain a better illustration of a propositionthan such a lump as one of your Dutch women puts under her tongue whenshe drinks her tea. There are two ways of doing everything, the rightway and the wrong way. You make sugar now, I will admit, and you may,possibly, make loaf-sugar; but I take the question to be, whether youmake the best possible sugar, and in the best possible loaves."

  "Thou art very right, Richard," observed Marmaduke, with a gravity inhis air that proved how much he was interested in the subject. "It isvery true that we manufacture sugar, and the inquiry is quite useful,how much? and in what manner? I hope to live to see the day when farmsand plantations shall be devoted to this branch of business. Little isknown concerning the properties of the tree itself, the source of allthis wealth; how much it may be improved by cultivation, by the use ofthe hoe and plough."

  "Hoe and plough!" roared the sheriff; "would you set a man hoeing roundthe root of a maple like this?" pointing to one of the noble trees thatoccur so frequently in that part of the country. "Hoeing trees! are youmad, 'Duke? This is next to hunting for coal! Poh! poh! my dear cousin,hear reason, and leave the management of the sugar-bush to me. Here isMr. Le Quoi--he has been in the West Indies, and has seen sugar made.Let him give an account of how it is made there, and you will hear thephilosophy of the thing. Well, monsieur, how is it that you make sugarin the West Indies; anything in Judge Temples fashion?"

  The gentleman to whom this query was put was mounted on a small horse,of no very fiery temperament, and was riding with his stirrups so shortas to bring his knees, while the animal rose a small ascent in thewood-path they were now travelling, into a somewhat hazardous vicinityto his chin. There was no room for gesticulation or grace in thedelivery of his reply, for the mountain was steep and slippery; and,although the Frenchman had an eye of uncommon magnitude on either sideof his face, they did not seem to be half competent to forewarn himof the impediments of bushes, twigs, and fallen trees, that weremomentarily crossing his path. With one hand employed in averting thesedangers, and the other grasping his bridle to check an untoward speedthat his horse was assuming, the native of France responded as follows:

  "Sucre! dey do make sucre in Martinique; mais--mais ce n'est pas onetree--ah--ah--vat you call--je voudrois que ces chemins fussent audiable--vat you call--steeck pour la promenade?"

  "Cane," said Elizabeth, smiling at the imprecation which the waryFrenchman supposed was understood only by himself. "Oui, mam'selle,cane."

  "Yes, yes," cried Richard, "cane is the vulgar name for it, but the realterm is saccharum officinarum; and what we call the sugar, or hardmaple, is acer saccharinum. These are the learned names, monsieur, andare such as, doubtless, you well understand."

  "Is this Greek or Latin, Mr. Edwards?" whispered Elizabeth to the youth,who was opening a passage for herself and her companions throughthe bushes, "or per haps it is a still more learned language, for aninterpretation of which we must look to you."

  The dark eye of the young man glanced toward the speaker, but itsresentful expression changed in a moment.

  "I shall remember your doubts, Miss Temple, when next I visit my oldfriend Mohegan, and either his skill, or that of Leather-Stocking, shallsolve them."

  "And are you, then, really ignorant of their language?"

  "Not absolutely; but the deep learning of Mr. Jones is more familiar tome, or even the polite masquerade of Monsieur Le Quoi."

  "Do you speak French?" said the lady, with quickness.

  "It is a common language with the Iroquois, and through the Canadas," heanswered, smiling.

  "Ah! but they are Mingoes, and your enemies."

  "It will be well for me if I have no worse," said the youth, dashingahead with his horse, and putting an end to the evasive dialogue.

  The discourse, however, was maintained with great vigor by Richard,until they reached an open wood on the summit of the mountain, where thehemlocks and pines totally disappeared, and a grove of the very treesthat formed the subject of debate covered the earth with their tall,straight trunks and spreading branches, in stately pride. The underwoodhad been entirely removed from this grove, or bush, as, in conjunctionwith the simple arrangements for boiling, it was called, and a widespace of many acres was cleared, which might be likened to the dome ofa mighty temple, to which the maples formed the columns, their topscomposing the capitals and the heavens the arch. A deep and carelessincision had been made into each tree, near its root, into which littlespouts, formed of the I bark of the alder, or of the sumach, werefastened; and a trough, roughly dug out of the linden, or basswood, wasI lying at the root of each tree, to catch the sap that flowed from thisextremely wasteful and inartificial arrangement.

  The party paused a moment, on gaining the flat, to breathe their horses,and, as the scene was entirely new to several of their number, to viewthe manner of collecting the fluid. A fine, powerful voice arousedthem from their momentary silence, as it rang under the branches of thetrees, singing the following words of that inimitable doggerel, whoseverses, if extended, would reach from the Caters of the Connecticut tothe shores of Ontario. The tune was, of course, a familiar air which,although it is said to have been first applied to this nation inderision, circumstances have since rendered so glorious that no Americanever hears its jingling cadence without feeling a thrill at his heart:

  "The Eastern States be full of men, The Western Full of woods, sir, Thehill be like a cattle-pen, The roads be full of goods, sir! Then flowaway, my sweety sap, And I will make you boily; Nor catch a wood man'shasty nap, For fear you should get roily. The maple-tree's a preciousone, 'Tis fuel, food, and timber; And when your stiff day's work isdone, Its juice will make you limber, Then flow away, etc.

  "And what's a man without his glass. His wife without her tea, sir? Butneither cup nor mug will pass, Without his honey-bee, sir! Then flowaway," etc.

  During the execution of this sonorous doggerel, Richard kept time withhis whip on the mane of his charger, accompanying the gestures with acorresponding movement of his head and body. Toward the close of thesong, he was overheard humming the chorus, and, at its last repetition,to strike in at "sweety sap," and carry a second through, with aprodigious addition to the "effect" of the noise, if not to that of theharmony.

  "Well done us!" roared the sheriff, on the same key with the tune;"a very good song, Billy Kirby, and very well sung. Where got you thewords, lad? Is there more of it, and can you furnish me with a copy?"The sugar-boiler, who was busy in his "camp," at a short distance fromthe equestrians, turned his head with great indifference, and surveyedthe party, as they approached, with admirable coolness. To eachindividual, as he or she rode close by him, he gave a nod that wasextremely good-natured and affable, but which partook largely of thevirtue of equality, for not even to the ladies did he in the least varyhis mode of salutation, by touching the apology for a hat that he wore,or by any other motion than the one we have mentioned.

  "How goes it, how goes it, sheriff?" said the wood-chopper; "what's thegood word in the village?"

  "Why, much as usual, Billy," returned Richard. "But ho
w is this? whereare your four kettles, and your troughs, and your iron coolers? Do youmake sugar in this slovenly way? I thought you were one of the bestsugar-boilers in the county."

  "I'm all that, Squire Jones," said Kirby, who continued his occupation;"I'll turn my back to no man in the Otsego hills for chopping andlogging, for boiling down the maple sap, for tending brick-kiln,splitting out rails, making potash, and parling too, or hoeing corn;though I keep myself pretty much to the first business, seeing that theaxe comes most natural to me."

  "You be von Jack All-trade, Mister Beel," said Monsieur Le Quoi.

  "How?" said Kirby, looking up with a simplicity which, coupled with hisgigantic frame and manly face, was a little ridiculous, "if you be fortrade, mounsher, here is some as good sugar as you'll find the seasonthrough. It's as clear from dirt as the Jarman Flats is free fromstumps, and it has the raal maple flavor. Such stuff would sell in Yorkfor candy."

  The Frenchman approached the place where Kirby had deposited his cake ofsugar, under the cover of a bark roof, and commenced the examination ofthe article with the eye of one who well understood its value. Marmadukehad dismounted, and was viewing the works and the trees very closely,and not without frequent expressions of dissatisfaction at the carelessmanner in which the manufacture was conducted.

  "You have much experience in these things, Kirby," he said; "what coursedo you pursue in making your sugar? I see you have but two kettles."

  "Two is as good as two thousand, Judge. I'm none of your politesugar-makers, that boils for the great folks; but if the raal sweetmaple is wanted, I can answer your turn. First, I choose, and then I tapmy trees; say along about the last of February, or in these mountainsmaybe not afore the middle of March; but anyway, just as the sap beginsto cleverly run--"

  "Well, in this choice," interrupted Marmaduke, "are you governed by anyoutward signs that prove the quality of the tree?"

  "Why, there's judgment in all things," said Kirby, stirring the liquorin his kettles briskly. "There's some thing in knowing when and how tostir the pot. It's a thing that must be larnt. Rome wasn't built in aday, nor for that matter Templeton either, though it may be said to be aquick-growing place. I never put my axe into a stunty tree, or onethat hasn't a good, fresh-looking bark: for trees have disorders, likecreatur's; and where's the policy of taking a tree that's sickly, anymore than you'd choose a foundered horse to ride post, or an over heatedox to do your logging?"

  "All that is true. But what are the signs of illness? how do youdistinguish a tree that is well from one that is diseased?"

  "How does the doctor tell who has fever and who colds?" interruptedRichard. "By examining the skin, and feeling the pulse, to be sure."

  "Sartain," continued Billy; "the squire ain't far out of the way. It'sby the look of the thing, sure enough. Well, when the sap begins toget a free run, I hang over the kettles, and set up the bush. My firstboiling I push pretty smartly, till I get the virtue of the sap; butwhen it begins to grow of a molasses nater, like this in the kettle, onemustn't drive the fires too hard, or you'll burn the sugar; and burnysugar is bad to the taste, let it be never so sweet. So you ladleout from one kettle into the other till it gets so, when you put thestirring-stick into it, that it will draw into a thread--when it takesa kerful hand to manage it. There is a way to drain it off, after it hasgrained, by putting clay into the pans; bitt it isn't always practised;some doos and some doosn't. Well, mounsher, be we likely to make atrade?"

  "I will give you, Mister Etel, for von pound, dix sous."

  "No, I expect cash for it; I never dicker my sugar, But, seeing thatit's you, mounsher," said Billy, with a Coaxing smile, "I'll agree toreceive a gallon of rum, and cloth enough for two shirts if you'll takethe molasses in the bargain. It's raal good. I wouldn't deceive you orany man and to my drinking it's about the best molasses that come out ofa sugar-bush."

  "Mr. Le Quoi has offered you ten pence," said young Edwards.

  The manufacturer stared at the speaker with an air of great freedom, butmade no reply.

  "Oui," said the Frenchman, "ten penny. Jevausraner cie, monsieur: ah!mon Anglois! je l'oublie toujours."

  The wood-chopper looked from one to the other with some displeasure; andevidently imbibed the opinion that they were amusing themselves at hisexpense. He seized the enormous ladle, which was lying on one of hiskettles, and began to stir the boiling liquid with great diligence.After a moment passed in dipping the ladle full, and then raising iton high, as the thick rich fluid fell back into the kettle, he suddenlygave it a whirl, as if to cool what yet remained, and offered the bowlto Mr. Le Quoi, saying:

  "Taste that, mounsher, and you will say it is worth more than you offer.The molasses itself would fetch the money."

  The complaisant Frenchman, after several timid efforts to trust hislips in contact with the howl of the ladle, got a good swallow of thescalding liquid. He clapped his hands on his breast, and looked mostpiteously at the ladies, for a single instant; and then, to use thelanguage of Billy, when he afterward recounted the tale, "no drumsticksever went faster on the skin of a sheep than the Frenchman's legs, fora round or two; and then such swearing and spitting in French you neversaw. But it's a knowing one, from the old countries, that thinks to gethis jokes smoothly over a wood-chopper."

  The air of innocence with which Kirby resumed the occupation ofstirring the contents of his kettles would have completely deceived thespectators as to his agency in the temporary sufferings of Mr. Le Quoi,had not the reckless fellow thrust his tongue into his cheek, and casthis eyes over the party, with a simplicity of expression that was tooexquisite to be natural. Mr. Le Quoi soon recovered his presence of mindand his decorum; and he briefly apologized to the ladies for one ortwo very intemperate expressions that had escaped him in a moment ofextraordinary excitement, and, remounting his horse, he continued in thebackground during the remainder of the visit, the wit of Kirby puttinga violent termination, at once, to all negotiations on the subject oftrade. During all this time, Marmaduke had been wandering about thegrove, making observations on his favorite trees, and the wastefulmanner in which the wood-chopper conducted his manufacture.

  "It grieves me to witness the extravagance that pervades this country,"said the Judge, "where the settlers trifle with the blessings theymight enjoy, with the prodigality of successful adventurers. You are notexempt from the censure yourself, Kirby, for you make dreadful woundsin these trees where a small incision would effect the same object. Iearnestly beg you will remember that they are the growth of centuries,and when once gone none living will see their loss remedied."

  "Why, I don't know, Judge," returned the man he ad dressed; "it seems tome, if there's plenty of anything in this mountaynious country, it's thetrees. If there's any sin in chopping them, I've a pretty heavy accountto settle; for I've chopped over the best half of a thousand acres, withmy own hands, counting both Varmount and York States; and I hope tolive to finish the whull, before I lay up my axe. Chopping comes quitenatural to me, and I wish no other employment; but Jared Ransom saidthat he thought the sugar was likely to be source this season, seeingthat so many folks was coming into the settlement, and so I concludedto take the 'bush' on sheares for this one spring. What's the best news,Judge, consarning ashes? do pots hold so that a man can live by themstill? I s'pose they will, if they keep on fighting across the water."

  "Thou reasonest with judgment, William," returned Marmaduke. "So long asthe Old Worm is to be convulsed with wars, so long will the harvest ofAmerica continue."

  "Well, it's an ill wind, Judge, that blows nobody any good. I'm sure thecountry is in a thriving way; and though I know you calkilate greatlyon the trees, setting as much store by them as some men would by theirchildren, yet to my eyes they are a sore sight any time, unless I'mprivileged to work my will on them: in which case I can't say but theyare more to my liking. I have heard the settlers from the old countriessay that their rich men keep great oaks and elms, that would make abarrel of pots to the tree, standing round the
ir doors and humsteds andscattered over their farms, just to look at. Now, I call no country muchimproved that is pretty well covered with trees. Stumps are a differentthing, for they don't shade the land; and, besides, you dig them--theymake a fence that will turn anything bigger than a hog, being grand forbreachy cattle."

  "Opinions on such subjects vary much in different countries," saidMarmaduke; "but it is not as ornaments that I value the noble trees ofthis country; it is for their usefulness We are stripping the forests,as if a single year would replace what we destroy. But the hourapproaches when the laws will take notice of not only the woods, but thegame they contain also."

  With this consoling reflection, Marmaduke remounted, and the equestrianspassed the sugar-camp, on their way to the promised landscape ofRichard. The wood-chop-per was left alone, in the bosom of the forest,to pursue his labors. Elizabeth turned her head, when they reached thepoint where they were to descend the mountain, and thought that the slowfires that were glimmering under his enormous kettles, his little brushshelter, covered with pieces of hemlock bark, his gigantic size, ashe wielded his ladle with a steady and knowing air, aided by theback-ground of stately trees, with their spouts and troughs, formed,altogether, no unreal picture of human life in its first stages ofcivilization. Perhaps whatever the scene possessed of a romanticcharacter was not injured by the powerful tones of Kirby's voice ringingthrough the woods as he again awoke his strains to another tune, whichwas but little more scientific than the former. All that she understoodof the words were:

  "And when the proud forest is falling, To my oxen cheerfully calling,From morn until night I am bawling, Whoa, back there, and haw and gee;Till our labor is mutually ended, By my strength and cattle befriended,And against the mosquitoes defended By the bark of the walnut-trees.Away! then, you lads who would buy land; Choose the oak that growson the high land, or the silvery pine on the dry land, it matters butlittle to me."