The Prairie (40 page)

"Have we not done enough," Middleton demanded, in tenderness to the
inability of Inez and Ellen to endure so much fatigue, at the end of
some hours; "we have ridden hard, and have crossed a wide tract of
plain. It is time to seek a place of rest."

"You must seek it then in Heaven, if you find yourselves unequal to
a longer march," murmured the old trapper. "Had the Tetons and the
squatter come to blows, as any one might see in the natur' of things
they were bound to do, there would be time to look about us, and to
calculate not only the chances but the comforts of the journey; but as
the case actually is, I should consider it certain death, or endless
captivity, to trust our eyes with sleep, until our heads are fairly hid
in some uncommon cover."

"I know not," returned the youth, who reflected more on the sufferings
of the fragile being he supported, than on the experience of his
companion; "I know not; we have ridden leagues, and I can see no
extraordinary signs of danger:—if you fear for yourself, my good
friend, believe me you are wrong, for—"

"Your grand'ther, were he living and here," interrupted the old man,
stretching forth a hand, and laying a finger impressively on the arm of
Middleton, "would have spared those words. He had some reason to think
that, in the prime of my days, when my eye was quicker than the hawk's,
and my limbs were as active as the legs of the fallow-deer, I never
clung too eagerly and fondly to life: then why should I now feel such a
childish affection for a thing that I know to be vain, and the companion
of pain and sorrow. Let the Tetons do their worst; they will not find
a miserable and worn out trapper the loudest in his complaints, or his
prayers."

"Pardon me, my worthy, my inestimable friend," exclaimed the repentant
young man, warmly grasping the hand, which the other was in the act of
withdrawing; "I knew not what I said—or rather I thought only of those
whose tenderness we are most bound to consider."

"Enough. It is natur', and it is right. Therein your grand'ther would
have done the very same. Ah's me! what a number of seasons, hot and
cold, wet and dry, have rolled over my poor head, since the time we
worried it out together, among the Red Hurons of the Lakes, back in
those rugged mountains of Old York! and many a noble buck has since that
day fallen by my hand; ay, and many a thieving Mingo, too! Tell me, lad,
did the general, for general I know he got to be, did he ever tell you
of the deer we took, that night the outlyers of the accursed tribe
drove us to the caves, on the island, and how we feasted and drunk in
security?"

"I have often heard him mention the smallest circumstance of the night
you mean; but—"

"And the singer; and his open throat; and his shoutings in the fights!"
continued the old man, laughing joyously at the strength of his own
recollections.

"All—all—he forgot nothing, even to the most trifling incident. Do you
not—"

"What! did he tell you of the imp behind the log and of the miserable
devil who went over the fall—or of the wretch in the tree?"

"Of each and all, with every thing that concerned them.
[16]
I should
think—"

"Ay," continued the old man, in a voice, which betrayed how powerfully
his own faculties retained the impression of the spectacle, "I have
been a dweller in forests, and in the wilderness for three-score and ten
years, and if any can pretend to know the world, or to have seen scary
sights, it is myself! But never, before nor since, have I seen human
man in such a state of mortal despair as that very savage; and yet he
scorned to speak, or to cry out, or to own his forlorn condition! It is
their gift, and nobly did he maintain it!"

"Harkee, old trapper," interrupted Paul, who, content with the knowledge
that his waist was grasped by one of the arms of Ellen, had hitherto
ridden in unusual silence; "my eyes are as true and as delicate as a
humming-bird's in the day; but they are nothing worth boasting of by
starlight. Is that a sick buffaloe, crawling along in the bottom, there,
or is it one of the stray cattle of the savages?"

The whole party drew up, in order to examine the object, which Paul
had pointed out. During most of the time, they had ridden in the little
vales in order to seek the protection of the shadows, but just at that
moment, they had ascended a roll of the prairie in order to cross into
the very bottom where this unknown animal was now seen.

"Let us descend," said Middleton; "be it beast or man, we are too strong
to have any cause of fear."

"Now, if the thing was not morally impossible," cried the trapper, who
the reader must have already discovered was not always exact in the use
of qualifying words, "if the thing was not morally impossible, I should
say, that was the man, who journeys in search of reptiles and insects:
our fellow-traveller the Doctor."

"Why impossible? did you not direct him to pursue this course, in order
to rejoin us?"

"Ay, but I did not tell him to make an ass outdo the speed of a
horse:—you are right—you are right," said the trapper, interrupting
himself, as by gradually lessening the distance between them, his eyes
assured him it was Obed and Asinus, whom he saw; "you are right, as
certainly as the thing is a miracle. Lord, what a thing is fear! How
now, friend; you have been industrious to have got so far ahead in so
short a time. I marvel at the speed of the ass!"

"Asinus is overcome," returned the naturalist, mournfully. "The animal
has certainly not been idle since we separated, but he declines all my
admonitions and invitations to proceed. I hope there is no instant fear
from the savages?"

"I cannot say that; I cannot say that; matters are not as they should
be, atween the squatter and the Tetons, nor will I answer as yet for the
safety of any scalp among us. The beast is broken down! you have urged
him beyond his natural gifts, and he is like a worried hound. There is
pity and discretion in all things, even though a man be riding for his
life."

"You indicated the star," returned the Doctor, "and I deemed it
expedient to use great diligence in pursuing the direction."

"Did you expect to reach it, by such haste? Go, go; you talk boldly of
the creatur's of the Lord, though I plainly see you are but a child in
matters that concern their gifts and instincts. What a plight would
you now be in, if there was need for a long and a quick push with our
heels?"

"The fault exists in the formation of the quadruped," said Obed, whose
placid temper began to revolt under so many scandalous imputations. "Had
there been rotary levers for two of the members, a moiety of the fatigue
would have been saved, for one item—"

"That, for your moiety's and rotaries, and items, man; a jaded ass is
a jaded ass, and he who denies it is but a brother of the beast itself.
Now, captain, are we driven to choose one of two evils. We must either
abandon this man, who has been too much with us through good and bad to
be easily cast away, or we must seek a cover to let the animal rest."

"Venerable venator!" exclaimed the alarmed Obed; "I conjure you by all
the secret sympathies of our common nature, by all the hidden—"

"Ah, fear has brought him to talk a little rational sense! It is not
natur', truly, to abandon a brother in distress; and the Lord He knows
that I have never yet done the shameful deed. You are right, friend, you
are right; we must all be hidden, and that speedily. But what to do with
the ass! Friend Doctor, do you truly value the life of the creatur'?"

"He is an ancient and faithful servant," returned the disconsolate
Obed, "and with pain should I see him come to any harm. Fetter his lower
limbs, and leave him to repose in this bed of herbage. I will engage he
shall be found where he is left, in the morning."

"And the Siouxes? What would become of the beast should any of the
red imps catch a peep at his ears, growing up out of the grass like to
mullein-tops?" cried the bee-hunter. "They would stick him as full of
arrows, as a woman's cushion is full of pins, and then believe they
had done the job for the father of all rabbits! My word for it out they
would find out their blunder at the first mouthful!"

Middleton, who began to grow impatient under the protracted discussion,
interposed, and, as a good deal of deference was paid to his rank, he
quickly prevailed in his efforts to effect a sort of compromise. The
humble Asinus, too meek and too weary to make any resistance, was soon
tethered and deposited in his bed of dying grass, where he was left with
a perfect confidence on the part of his master of finding him, again, at
the expiration of a few hours. The old man strongly remonstrated against
this arrangement, and more than once hinted that the knife was much more
certain than the tether, but the petitions of Obed, aided perhaps by the
secret reluctance of the trapper to destroy the beast, were the means
of saving its life. When Asinus was thus secured, and as his master
believed secreted, the whole party proceeded to find some place where
they might rest themselves, during the time required for the repose of
the animal.

According to the calculations of the trapper, they had ridden twenty
miles since the commencement of their flight. The delicate frame of Inez
began to droop under the excessive fatigue, nor was the more robust, but
still feminine person of Ellen, insensible to the extraordinary effort
she had made. Middleton himself was not sorry to repose, nor did the
vigorous and high-spirited Paul hesitate to confess that he should be
all the better for a little rest. The old man alone seemed indifferent
to the usual claims of nature. Although but little accustomed to the
unusual description of exercise he had just been taking, he appeared
to bid defiance to all the usual attacks of human infirmities. Though
evidently so near its dissolution, his attenuated frame still stood like
the shaft of seasoned oak, dry, naked, and tempest-driven, but unbending
and apparently indurated to the consistency of stone. On the present
occasion he conducted the search for a resting-place, which was
immediately commenced, with all the energy of youth, tempered by the
discretion and experience of his great age.

The bed of grass, in which the Doctor had been met, and in which his ass
had just been left, was followed a little distance until it was found
that the rolling swells of the prairie were melting away into one vast
level plain, that was covered, for miles on miles, with the same species
of herbage.

"Ah, this may do, this may do," said the old man, when they arrived on
the borders of this sea of withered grass. "I know the spot, and often
have I lain in its secret holes, for days at a time, while the savages
have been hunting the buffaloes on the open ground. We must enter it
with great care, for a broad trail might be seen, and Indian curiosity
is a dangerous neighbour."

Leading the way himself, he selected a spot where the tall coarse
herbage stood most erect, growing not unlike a bed of reeds, both in
height and density. Here he entered, singly, directing the others to
follow as nearly as possible in his own footsteps. When they had paused
for some hundred or two feet into the wilderness of weeds, he gave his
directions to Paul and Middleton, who continued a direct route deeper
into the place, while he dismounted and returned on his tracks to the
margin of the meadow. Here he passed many minutes in replacing the
trodden grass, and in effacing, as far as possible, every evidence of
their passage.

In the mean time the rest of the party continued their progress, not
without toil, and consequently at a very moderate gait, until they had
penetrated a mile into the place. Here they found a spot suited to their
circumstances, and, dismounting, they began to make their dispositions
to pass the remainder of the night. By this time the trapper
had rejoined the party, and again resumed the direction of their
proceedings.

The weeds and grass were soon plucked and cut from an area of sufficient
extent, and a bed for Inez and Ellen was speedily made, a little apart,
which for sweetness and ease might have rivalled one of down. The
exhausted females, after receiving some light refreshments from the
provident stores of Paul and the old man, now sought their repose,
leaving their more stout companions at liberty to provide for their own
necessities. Middleton and Paul were not long in following the example
of their betrothed, leaving the trapper and the naturalist still seated
around a savoury dish of bison's meat, which had been cooked at a
previous halt, and which was, as usual, eaten cold.

A certain lingering sensation, which had so long been uppermost in the
mind of Obed, temporarily banished sleep; and as for the old man, his
wants were rendered, by habit and necessity, as seemingly subject to his
will as if they altogether depended on the pleasure of the moment. Like
his companion he chose therefore to watch, instead of sleeping.

"If the children of ease and security knew the hardships and dangers the
students of nature encounter in their behalf," said Obed, after a moment
of silence, when Middleton took his leave for the night, "pillars
of silver, and statues of brass would be reared as the everlasting
monuments of their glory!"

"I know not, I know not," returned his companion; "silver is far from
plenty, at least in the wilderness, and your brazen idols are forbidden
in the commandments of the Lord."

"Such indeed was the opinion of the great lawgiver of the Jews, but the
Egyptians, and the Chaldeans, the Greeks, and the Romans, were wont to
manifest their gratitude, in these types of the human form. Indeed many
of the illustrious masters of antiquity, have by the aid of science
and skill, even outdone the works of nature, and exhibited a beauty
and perfection in the human form that are difficult to be found in the
rarest living specimens of any of the species; genus, homo."