The Prairie (3 page)

The sun had fallen below the crest of the nearest wave of the prairie,
leaving the usual rich and glowing train on its track. In the centre
of this flood of fiery light, a human form appeared, drawn against the
gilded background, as distinctly, and seemingly as palpable, as though
it would come within the grasp of any extended hand. The figure was
colossal; the attitude musing and melancholy, and the situation directly
in the route of the travellers. But imbedded, as it was, in its setting
of garish light, it was impossible to distinguish its just proportions
or true character.

The effect of such a spectacle was instantaneous and powerful. The man
in front of the emigrants came to a stand, and remained gazing at
the mysterious object, with a dull interest, that soon quickened into
superstitious awe. His sons, so soon as the first emotions of surprise
had a little abated, drew slowly around him, and, as they who governed
the teams gradually followed their example, the whole party was soon
condensed in one, silent, and wondering group. Notwithstanding
the impression of a supernatural agency was very general among the
travellers, the ticking of gun-locks was heard, and one or two of the
bolder youths cast their rifles forward, in readiness for service.

"Send the boys off to the right," exclaimed the resolute wife and
mother, in a sharp, dissonant voice; "I warrant me, Asa, or Abner will
give some account of the creature!"

"It may be well enough, to try the rifle," muttered a dull looking
man, whose features, both in outline and expression, bore no small
resemblance to the first speaker, and who loosened the stock of his
piece and brought it dexterously to the front, while delivering this
opinion; "the Pawnee Loups are said to be hunting by hundreds in the
plains; if so, they'll never miss a single man from their tribe."

"Stay!" exclaimed a soft toned, but alarmed female voice, which was
easily to be traced to the trembling lips of the younger of the two
women; "we are not altogether; it may be a friend!"

"Who is scouting, now?" demanded the father, scanning, at the same time,
the cluster of his stout sons, with a displeased and sullen eye. "Put by
the piece, put by the piece;" he continued, diverting the other's
aim, with the finger of a giant, and with the air of one it might be
dangerous to deny. "My job is not yet ended; let us finish the little
that remains, in peace."

The man, who had manifested so hostile an intention, appeared to
understand the other's allusion, and suffered himself to be diverted
from his object. The sons turned their inquiring looks on the girl, who
had so eagerly spoken, to require an explanation; but, as if content
with the respite she had obtained for the stranger, she sunk back, in
her seat, and chose to affect a maidenly silence.

In the mean time, the hues of the heavens had often changed. In place of
the brightness, which had dazzled the eye, a gray and more sober light
had succeeded, and as the setting lost its brilliancy, the proportions
of the fanciful form became less exaggerated, and finally distinct.
Ashamed to hesitate, now that the truth was no longer doubtful, the
leader of the party resumed his journey, using the precaution, as he
ascended the slight acclivity, to release his own rifle from the strap,
and to cast it into a situation more convenient for sudden use.

There was little apparent necessity, however, for such watchfulness.
From the moment when it had thus unaccountably appeared, as it were,
between the heavens and the earth, the stranger's figure had neither
moved nor given the smallest evidence of hostility. Had he harboured
any such evil intention, the individual who now came plainly into view,
seemed but little qualified to execute them.

A frame that had endured the hardships of more than eighty seasons, was
not qualified to awaken apprehension, in the breast of one as powerful
as the emigrant. Notwithstanding his years, and his look of emaciation,
if not of suffering, there was that about this solitary being, however,
which said that time, and not disease, had laid his hand heavily on him.
His form had withered, but it was not wasted. The sinews and muscles,
which had once denoted great strength, though shrunken, were still
visible; and his whole figure had attained an appearance of induration,
which, if it were not for the well known frailty of humanity, would have
seemed to bid defiance to the further approaches of decay. His dress was
chiefly of skins, worn with the hair to the weather; a pouch and horn
were suspended from his shoulders; and he leaned on a rifle of uncommon
length, but which, like its owner, exhibited the wear of long and hard
service.

As the party drew nigher to this solitary being, and came within a
distance to be heard, a low growl issued from the grass at his feet, and
then, a tall, gaunt, toothless, hound, arose lazily from his lair, and
shaking himself, made some show of resisting the nearer approach of the
travellers.

"Down, Hector, down," said his master, in a voice, that was a little
tremulous and hollow with age. "What have ye to do, pup, with men who
journey on their lawful callings?"

"Stranger, if you ar' much acquainted in this country," said the
leader of the emigrants, "can you tell a traveller where he may find
necessaries for the night?"

"Is the land filled on the other side of the Big River?" demanded the
old man, solemnly, and without appearing to hearken to the other's
question; "or why do I see a sight, I had never thought to behold
again?"

"Why, there is country left, it is true, for such as have money, and ar'
not particular in the choice," returned the emigrant; "but to my taste,
it is getting crowdy. What may a man call the distance, from this place
to the nighest point on the main river?"

"A hunted deer could not cool his sides, in the Mississippi, without
travelling a weary five hundred miles."

"And what may you name the district, hereaway?"

"By what name," returned the old man, pointing significantly upward,
"would you call the spot, where you see yonder cloud?"

The emigrant looked at the other, like one who did not comprehend his
meaning, and who half suspected he was trifled with, but he contented
himself by saying—

"You ar' but a new inhabitant, like myself, I reckon, stranger,
otherwise you would not be backward in helping a traveller to some
advice; words cost but little, and sometimes lead to friendships."

"Advice is not a gift, but a debt that the old owe to the young. What
would you wish to know?"

"Where I may camp for the night. I'm no great difficulty maker, as to
bed and board; but, all old journeyers, like myself, know the virtue of
sweet water, and a good browse for the cattle."

"Come then with me, and you shall be master of both; and little more is
it that I can offer on this hungry prairie."

As the old man was speaking, he raised his heavy rifle to his shoulder,
with a facility a little remarkable for his years and appearance, and
without further words led the way over the acclivity to the adjacent
bottom.

Up with my tent: here will I lie to-night,
But where, to-morrow?—Well, all's one for that
—Richard the Third.

The travellers soon discovered the usual and unerring evidences that the
several articles necessary to their situation were not far distant. A
clear and gurgling spring burst out of the side of the declivity, and
joining its waters to those of other similar little fountains in its
vicinity, their united contributions formed a run, which was easily to
be traced, for miles along the prairie, by the scattering foliage and
verdure which occasionally grew within the influence of its moisture.
Hither, then, the stranger held his way, eagerly followed by the willing
teams, whose instinct gave them a prescience of refreshment and rest.

On reaching what he deemed a suitable spot, the old man halted, and
with an enquiring look, he seemed to demand if it possessed the
needed conveniences. The leader of the emigrants cast his eyes,
understandingly, about him, and examined the place with the keenness of
one competent to judge of so nice a question, though in that dilatory
and heavy manner, which rarely permitted him to betray precipitation.

"Ay, this may do," he said, satisfied with his scrutiny; "boys, you have
seen the last of the sun; be stirring."

The young men manifested a characteristic obedience. The order, for such
in tone and manner it was, in truth, was received with respect; but the
utmost movement was the falling of an axe or two from the shoulder
to the ground, while their owners continued to regard the place with
listless and incurious eyes. In the mean time, the elder traveller, as
if familiar with the nature of the impulses by which his children were
governed, disencumbered himself of his pack and rifle, and, assisted
by the man already mentioned as disposed to appeal so promptly to the
rifle, he quietly proceeded to release the cattle from the gears.

At length the eldest of the sons stepped heavily forward, and, without
any apparent effort, he buried his axe to the eye, in the soft body of a
cotton-wood tree. He stood, a moment, regarding the effect of the blow,
with that sort of contempt with which a giant might be supposed to
contemplate the puny resistance of a dwarf, and then flourishing the
implement above his head, with the grace and dexterity with which a
master of the art of offence would wield his nobler though less useful
weapon, he quickly severed the trunk of the tree, bringing its tall
top crashing to the earth in submission to his prowess. His companions
regarded the operation with indolent curiosity, until they saw the
prostrate trunk stretched on the ground, when, as if a signal for a
general attack had been given, they advanced in a body to the work, and
in a space of time, and with a neatness of execution that would have
astonished an ignorant spectator, they stripped a small but suitable
spot of its burden of forest, as effectually, and almost as promptly, as
if a whirlwind had passed along the place.

The stranger had been a silent but attentive observer of their progress.
As tree after tree came whistling down, he cast his eyes upward at the
vacancies they left in the heavens, with a melancholy gaze, and finally
turned away, muttering to himself with a bitter smile, like one who
disdained giving a more audible utterance to his discontent. Pressing
through the group of active and busy children, who had already lighted
a cheerful fire, the attention of the old man became next fixed on
the movements of the leader of the emigrants and of his savage looking
assistant.

These two had, already, liberated the cattle, which were eagerly
browsing the grateful and nutritious extremities of the fallen trees,
and were now employed about the wagon, which has been described
as having its contents concealed with so much apparent care.
Notwithstanding this particular conveyance appeared to be as silent,
and as tenantless as the rest of the vehicles, the men applied their
strength to its wheels, and rolled it apart from the others, to a dry
and elevated spot, near the edge of the thicket. Here they brought
certain poles, which had, seemingly, been long employed in such a
service, and fastening their larger ends firmly in the ground, the
smaller were attached to the hoops that supported the covering of the
wagon. Large folds of cloth were next drawn out of the vehicle, and
after being spread around the whole, were pegged to the earth in such
a manner as to form a tolerably capacious and an exceedingly convenient
tent. After surveying their work with inquisitive, and perhaps jealous
eyes, arranging a fold here, and driving a peg more firmly there, the
men once more applied their strength to the wagon, pulling it, by its
projecting tongue, from the centre of the canopy, until it appeared
in the open air, deprived of its covering, and destitute of any other
freight, than a few light articles of furniture. The latter were
immediately removed, by the traveller, into the tent with his own
hands, as though to enter it, were a privilege, to which even his bosom
companion was not entitled.

Curiosity is a passion that is rather quickened than destroyed by
seclusion, and the old inhabitant of the prairies did not view these
precautionary and mysterious movements, without experiencing some of
its impulses. He approached the tent, and was about to sever two of its
folds, with the very obvious intention of examining, more closely, into
the nature of its contents, when the man who had once already placed his
life in jeopardy, seized him by the arm, and with a rude exercise of
his strength threw him from the spot he had selected as the one most
convenient for his object.

"It's an honest regulation, friend," the fellow, drily observed, though
with an eye that threatened volumes, "and sometimes it is a safe one,
which says, mind your own business."

"Men seldom bring any thing to be concealed into these deserts,"
returned the old man, as if willing, and yet a little ignorant how to
apologize for the liberty he had been about to take, "and I had hoped no
offence, in examining your comforts."

"They seldom bring themselves, I reckon; though this has the look of an
old country, to my eye it seems not to be overly peopled."

"The land is as aged as the rest of the works of the Lord, I believe;
but you say true, concerning its inhabitants. Many months have passed
since I have laid eyes on a face of my own colour, before your own.
I say again, friend, I meant no harm; I did not know, but there was
something behind the cloth, that might bring former days to my mind."

As the stranger ended his simple explanation, he walked meekly away,
like one who felt the deepest sense of the right which every man has to
the quiet enjoyment of his own, without any troublesome interference on
the part of his neighbour; a wholesome and just principle that he had,
also, most probably imbibed from the habits of his secluded life. As
he passed towards the little encampment of the emigrants, for such the
place had now become, he heard the voice of the leader calling aloud, in
its hoarse tones, the name of—