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23 - Murray's Adirondack Tales by William Henry Harrison Murray · Murrays Adirondack Tales

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Speaker 1: Chapter two. It is sixty years next March since a babe,
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Speaker 1: last to a broken spar was washed ashore on the
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Speaker 1: eastern coast. That babe was myself. I came out of
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Speaker 1: the storm, John Norton, and I came out of the depths.
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Speaker 1: A ship was wrecked that night, and not a man
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Speaker 1: was saved, nor a woman either, only a babe. What
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Speaker 1: was the ship's name, What was the name of her commander?
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Speaker 1: Who owned her? Or from what port she sailed? None
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Speaker 1: ever knew whether she came from the east or the west.
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Speaker 1: None might tell. In the midst of the ocean, in
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Speaker 1: the midst of darkness, in the midst of storm, she
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Speaker 1: went down, and I alone was saved. Do you know
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Speaker 1: anything of the sea? John Norton? The old man kept
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Speaker 1: his silence a moment before answering, and without lifting his eyes,
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Speaker 1: he said, solemnly, yees, friend, I know something of the sea.
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Speaker 1: Do you hate it? John Norton asked the man, with
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Speaker 1: explosive earnestness. The creator made it, replied the trapper, and
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Speaker 1: the reverence of the tone more than the words, constituted
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Speaker 1: the answer. I care not who made it, almost shouted
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Speaker 1: the man. I care not who made it. I hate it.
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Speaker 1: It is wild and wrathful and savage. It thirsts for
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Speaker 1: man's life, and reaches up the hands of its power
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Speaker 1: only to grasp and destroy. Its smoothness is a deceit.
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Speaker 1: And when it stretches out in its calmness, it stretches
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Speaker 1: out as a lie. It entices man from the shore,
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Speaker 1: It calls him from the bay, It beckons him with
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Speaker 1: its breezes, from the safety of the harbor. But when
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Speaker 1: once it has got him out upon its great surface,
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Speaker 1: out from the harbor and the bay and the land
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Speaker 1: where he was safe, then it rises up in its anger,
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Speaker 1: dashes at him in his hate, clutches him with its billows,
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Speaker 1: and drags him down, down, down into its hideous depths.
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Speaker 1: Think of the men, John Norton, who have gone down
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Speaker 1: into it. Think of the brave ships that it is
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Speaker 1: swallowed up. Think of the women and children, mothers with
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Speaker 1: their babes, the strong and the tender alike, the wealth
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Speaker 1: and the beauty and the glory of man it has engulfed.
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Speaker 1: Who can look at the surface of a sea and
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Speaker 1: not think of its bottom, of the wrecks that are there,
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Speaker 1: the bones of the dead, and the hideous things that
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Speaker 1: dreadful children of its depths that live in sport among them. Oh,
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Speaker 1: I hate the sea, John Norton, as a man hates
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Speaker 1: the murderer of his father and the destroyer of his mother.
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Speaker 1: For in its depths my mother and father lie, And
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Speaker 1: there they have lain for sixty years, lain in the
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Speaker 1: graveless grave, in that tomb, without spot and without name.
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Speaker 1: And I have borne the burden of their untimely loss,
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Speaker 1: with all the misery it entailed, till my head is whitening.
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Speaker 1: Here the man paused a moment, The flash of excitement
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Speaker 1: died out of his face, and the fingers, which had
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Speaker 1: been nervously twitching, became still. In a moment, he asked,
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Speaker 1: speaking in a low and gentle tone, is it not pleasant,
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Speaker 1: John Norton, to know where your parents are laid after death? Certainly,
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Speaker 1: said the trapper. Even the Urons make their graves with
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Speaker 1: some sign. And I've seen many a young chief go
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Speaker 1: to the grave of his father and lament ardor his fashion.
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Speaker 1: Is there any grave that it would be pleasant for
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Speaker 1: you to visit, old Trapper? There be a grave under
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Speaker 1: a pine tree on the shore of the Sound, in
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Speaker 1: the state of Connecticut, that it would be sort of
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Speaker 1: cheerful like to look at again. And I have conceded
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Speaker 1: that the pups of me might make a journey in
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Speaker 1: that direction next time, unless the boy that be livin
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Speaker 1: comes into the woods. Still, it's no great matter, continued
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Speaker 1: the trapper. I often tell sport there that it's no
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Speaker 1: great matter, for I know that the boy sees that
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Speaker 1: it's well kept. Yes, it is pleasant, said the man,
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Speaker 1: for the children to visit the graves of their parents.
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Speaker 1: In the cities, the living take great pains with their
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Speaker 1: grave yards, and lavish their money to make them beautiful.
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Speaker 1: And many a time I have been when I was
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Speaker 1: weary and hungry, and stood at the entrance and seen
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Speaker 1: those who were left come to visit the graves of
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Speaker 1: those who were gone. Many of them brought flowers, and
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Speaker 1: I have followed on after them and seen them go
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Speaker 1: to the graves of their parents and lay the flowers
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Speaker 1: on the mounds. I forgot my weariness as I looked,
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Speaker 1: and my hunger too, John Norton, It was a blessed sight.
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Speaker 1: I could imagine the comfort and a consolation they found
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Speaker 1: in doing it. And more Once have I leaned my
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Speaker 1: head on some marble slab and wept that I myself
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Speaker 1: might never see my parents graves, never see where my
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Speaker 1: father was laid, nor let fall the tribute of my
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Speaker 1: tears on the mound beneath which my mother slept. It
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Speaker 1: is a dreadful thing, John Norton, Not to have even
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Speaker 1: a grave to love on the earth. It is a
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Speaker 1: worse thing yet, not to know what your father's name was,
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Speaker 1: old man. But I have never had a grave to love,
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Speaker 1: and I have never known my father's name, nor do
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Speaker 1: I know my race or the country where they lived.
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Speaker 1: Here the man paused again, long and earnestly. He gazed
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Speaker 1: into the fire while his mind wandered back to the
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Speaker 1: time of his earliest recollections, even allowed to pass unnoticed
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Speaker 1: the mute caress of his dog that twice rubbed his
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Speaker 1: heat against his knee twice, lapped his hand with his
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Speaker 1: tongue twice looked into his face, but, receiving no notice
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Speaker 1: from his preoccupied master, turned his own face sorrowfully away,
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Speaker 1: as if he felt his inability to relieve his master's
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Speaker 1: spirit from the burden that was on it. You said
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Speaker 1: you was washed ashore when you was but a little babe,
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Speaker 1: said the trapper, at last, breaking the silence, Yes, said
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Speaker 1: the man. I was washed ashore, washed ashore. At the
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Speaker 1: break of day, the sea that had swallowed up my
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Speaker 1: parents rejected me. The waves that had murdered them cast
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Speaker 1: me as if in mockery. Upon the beach, unhurt. A
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Speaker 1: fisherman found me, took me to his hut, and there
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Speaker 1: I was reared. They gave me a name, No matter
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Speaker 1: what the name was. They had no right to give
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Speaker 1: me a name. Those who could name me were dead.
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Speaker 1: Do you think any one but a parent has a
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Speaker 1: right to name a child, John Norton. I suppose they
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Speaker 1: did the best they could, replied the trapper. They'd got
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Speaker 1: to call you something, and I suppose they did the
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Speaker 1: best they could. Perhaps they did, said the man. Did
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Speaker 1: they treat you well, queried the trapper. No, they beat
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Speaker 1: me and kicked me and cursed me, he replied, in
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Speaker 1: a tone that bordered on bitterness. Why did they beat you,
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Speaker 1: asked the trapper. They beat me, answered the man, because
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Speaker 1: I was not theirs, because I came to them unsought,
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Speaker 1: came to be a burden to them. I was their
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Speaker 1: plague and torment because they did not love me. All
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Speaker 1: children that are not loved are plagues and torments. Only
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Speaker 1: love can find happiness and the wants of a child.
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Speaker 1: Only love can bear with patience the toils by day
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Speaker 1: and night that the coming of a child brings to
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Speaker 1: a house. They did not love me because I was
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Speaker 1: not theirs and had no right to be where I was.
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Speaker 1: I did not blame them. What right had I to be?
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Speaker 1: They were poor? What right had I to eat their bread?
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Speaker 1: They owed me nothing, and yet they had to give.
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Speaker 1: But I certainly could help em. Ard you were growed,
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Speaker 1: said the trapper. It don't take long for a boy
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Speaker 1: to get big enough to earn the little he eats
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Speaker 1: and the lily wares. I never earned a cent for them,
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Speaker 1: retorted the man. Not a cent that I earned for them.
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Speaker 1: I wasn't right, said the trapper. Why didn't you make
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Speaker 1: the best you could of your lot and work for
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Speaker 1: your living' as other boys has to because, replied the man.
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Speaker 1: Their work was on the sea, and I would not
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Speaker 1: put my foot in a boat. And when they used
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Speaker 1: to drag me aboard, I used to scream and cry
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Speaker 1: and crouch down in the bottom. I was so frightened
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Speaker 1: to go out upon the sea. Why was yourself frightened
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Speaker 1: to go out upon the sea, queried the trapper, because
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Speaker 1: almost shouted the man. I saw dreadful things in the sea.
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Speaker 1: I saw ships going down, sinking, sinking mile after mile
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Speaker 1: into its depths, with their masts all standing, and sails
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Speaker 1: all set, and men and women on their decks. And
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Speaker 1: I used to see great and horrid creatures swimming about
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Speaker 1: in the depths, things with mouths bigger than their bodies,
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Speaker 1: things to eat, nothing but men and women and children
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Speaker 1: that the sea sends down to them. Things with great
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Speaker 1: eyes that leered at me and winked at me. Things
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Speaker 1: with claws that kept reaching up after me, claws that
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Speaker 1: opened and shut, as if eager to get hold of
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Speaker 1: me and pull me down, that they might eat me up.
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Speaker 1: And I never went out upon the sea that I
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Speaker 1: didn't see a man and a woman lying at the bottom,
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Speaker 1: lying side by side, with their hands clasped tightly together,
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Speaker 1: while the great, hideous creatures of the sea were swimming
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Speaker 1: around them and over them. And I knew that the
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Speaker 1: man was my father and the woman was my mother,
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Speaker 1: A father without a name, and a mother that I
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Speaker 1: knew not what to call. And I used to shriek
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Speaker 1: and scream and crawl under the sparts of the boat,
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Speaker 1: crazy with fear, and when I got ashore, I would
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Speaker 1: run into the woods and keep running till I fell
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Speaker 1: down for weariness. That is why I didn't work for them,
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Speaker 1: because their work was on the sea, and I could
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Speaker 1: not go upon the sea because I saw such dreadful
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Speaker 1: things in it and was so frightened. What did you do, finally,
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Speaker 1: asked the trapper, do, said the man. I ran away.
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Speaker 1: I ran away from the house that was never a
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Speaker 1: home to me, from the house that had no father
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Speaker 1: and mother in it, from a house where I had
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Speaker 1: no right to be a boy without a home, without
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Speaker 1: father or mother, without a country, without a name, and
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Speaker 1: without a friend. Where'd you spend your childhood? Asked the trapper.
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Speaker 1: Childhood God in heaven almost screamed the man. I never
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Speaker 1: had a childhood. How could a boy without father or mother,
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Speaker 1: without a home, without any one to love him have
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Speaker 1: a childhood? I was old when I was young. I
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Speaker 1: had no mind as a boy, no heart as a boy,
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Speaker 1: because I had no surroundings to draw a boy's mind
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Speaker 1: out or make a boy's heart feel. Where did you
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Speaker 1: get your victuals, interrogated the trapper. Food I never had
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Speaker 1: much food. I ate roots and nuts, and berries and apples.
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Speaker 1: For years, I never ate at a table unless by
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Speaker 1: chance I had none to provide for me, and so
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Speaker 1: I provided for myself. I found what I could, and
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Speaker 1: I stole what I couldn't find, stole to satisfy my hunger.
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Speaker 1: Do you think that was stealing, John Norton, I concede, not,
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Speaker 1: said the trapper. Leastwise, I concede that the Lord keeps
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Speaker 1: a kind of private reckoning in such cases, and sort
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Speaker 1: of eases up on it in a judgment. If there
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Speaker 1: be justice in heaven, it is so said the man.
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Speaker 1: For no man can sin without knowledge. And I had
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Speaker 1: no knowledge of right and wrong, and my acts were
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Speaker 1: acts of necessity. Did you ever see a dog steal
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Speaker 1: a piece of meat? Old trapper? Certain responded the trapper
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Speaker 1: rover had a great appetite as a pup, and I
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Speaker 1: had to learn him the commandments with earnestness. I didn't
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Speaker 1: mind his little thievans, for a pup is a pup,
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Speaker 1: and he will have his pranks. When I came into
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Speaker 1: the cabin one day, and he had not only cleaned
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Speaker 1: the kittle of the soup, but he had a roll
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Speaker 1: of tunderline, and his mouth nigh as big as his body.
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Speaker 1: And I tended his education on the spot and give
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Speaker 1: him the ideas of right and wrong as clear as
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Speaker 1: I could, with the help of a moccasin, I meant,
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Speaker 1: said the man, in earnestness of whose expression the humor
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Speaker 1: of the trapper had not lightened a shade. I meant
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Speaker 1: to ask you if you ever saw a starving dog
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Speaker 1: steal a piece of meat? Certain certain, answered the trap
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Speaker 1: The dogs of the Injuns are always starving. And I
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Speaker 1: have consorted with the redskins enough to note their habits,
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Speaker 1: and few be the movements of life about their villages
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Speaker 1: that my eye hasn't seen. Then you know how I
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Speaker 1: used to steal, John Norton. I used to creep up
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Speaker 1: on things. I used to crawl in the grass after things,
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Speaker 1: like a thieving curve, driven by starvation, but frightened at
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Speaker 1: every motion I made lest I should be detected. Yes,
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Speaker 1: I used to steal because I was gaunt with hunger,
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Speaker 1: and the wants of my stomach made me a thief.
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Speaker 1: Your lot was a hardened that's a fact, said the trapper.
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Speaker 1: Did they ever catch you, Yes, they caught me, answered
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Speaker 1: the man, he said no more, but his eyes darkened
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Speaker 1: and his brows lowered over them in wrath. What did
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Speaker 1: he do with you? Asked the trapper. For a moment,
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Speaker 1: the man made no reply. His fingers worked convulsively, and
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Speaker 1: his body actually trembled, and then he said, suddenly, a
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Speaker 1: most fiercely John Norton, do you know what a poor
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Speaker 1: house is? I have known a great many cabins scant
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Speaker 1: of meat, said the trapper, when the hunt was poor,
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Speaker 1: And I've seen the redskins starving in their tents. And
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Speaker 1: I don't mean that, said the man. I don't mean that.
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Speaker 1: Do you know what the poor houses are that the
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Speaker 1: towns and the cities build for those who are too unfortunate,
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Speaker 1: or too weak, or too aged to earn their living.
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Speaker 1: I don't understand you, said the trapper. I will tell you,
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Speaker 1: said the man, what a poor house is. It is
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Speaker 1: a house which the rich of a town build to
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Speaker 1: put their beggars in. Old men and old women, and
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Speaker 1: children born in poverty are born without knowledge of their parents.
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Speaker 1: They build a house, and they hire a man to
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Speaker 1: keep that house, and they pay so much money to
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Speaker 1: the man for keeping it. If the man is a
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Speaker 1: good man and they pay him enough. The poor are
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Speaker 1: well fed, they have beds to sleep in, they have
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Speaker 1: warm clothes and are comfortable. But if the man is
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Speaker 1: a bad man, he takes the money the town gives
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Speaker 1: him for his own use. And the paupers are starved,
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Speaker 1: and they have straw for beds, and they have rags
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Speaker 1: for clothing. I lived two years in a poor house,
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Speaker 1: and for months at a time, neither old nor young
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Speaker 1: had a mouthful of meat, only coarse bread and potatoes.
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Speaker 1: John Norton, and we slept on straw, and the straw
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Speaker 1: wasn't clean at that and we had nothing but rags
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Speaker 1: to cover us. We had no medicine if we were sick,
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Speaker 1: and if one of us died, they put him in
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Speaker 1: a pine coffin and buried him in the pauper's corner
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Speaker 1: in the graveyard, without even a prayer. And many a
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Speaker 1: Sunday have I sat shivering in my rags, crouched under
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Speaker 1: the south side of the poor house, that I might
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Speaker 1: get the little warmth of the winter sun, and hear
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Speaker 1: the church bells bring three miles away. And I knew
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Speaker 1: the rich, in their silks and their warm garments, were
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Speaker 1: walking up the carpeted aisle and seating themselves in their
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Speaker 1: cushioned pews and thanking God for their blessings, while the
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Speaker 1: minister told them of his love for man. But three
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Speaker 1: miles away, we paupers were starving and freezing. What did
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Speaker 1: you do in the poorhouse, said the trapper. We made
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Speaker 1: baskets and brooms and whiplashes, answered the man. And the
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Speaker 1: man who kept us sold what we made and kept
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Speaker 1: the money while we starved. Friend, said the trapper, upon
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Speaker 1: whose mind the vivid description of his strange guest was
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Speaker 1: making a profound impression. The man who kept you was
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Speaker 1: a thief. The Lord will get into him in the judgment.
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Speaker 1: I certainly hope I may be there when he takes
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Speaker 1: the vagabond in hand. Perhaps I can get a lick
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Speaker 1: at him off and on in the scrimmage. He was
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Speaker 1: a church member, John Norton said the man a quiet
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Speaker 1: and intense bitterness and sarcasm with which the simple words
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Speaker 1: were said, were lost on the apprehension of the trapper,
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Speaker 1: for his mind did not understand a relationship and the
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Speaker 1: obligations of charity. Affirmed in the statement. He looked at
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Speaker 1: his guest a moment with a puzzled expression on his face,
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Speaker 1: and said, I don't understand you. Friend. The man was
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Speaker 1: not slow to perceive the confusion in the trapper's mind
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Speaker 1: or his total ignorance of the church as an institution
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Speaker 1: in civilized communities from whence it sprang, But fearing that
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Speaker 1: he might be mistaken should he assume the trapper's entire
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Speaker 1: ignorance of such a relation, he asked, do you know
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Speaker 1: what a church is? John Norton. There's a preaching station
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Speaker 1: down in the valley of the Mohawk, at the south
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Speaker 1: end of the woods, where I heard a missioner preach
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Speaker 1: four year agone. But I didn't concede he knowed just
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Speaker 1: what he was saying, For he yelled like an engine
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Speaker 1: in an ambushment, an acted sort or unnatural like in
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Speaker 1: his talking. Me and the pups did the best we
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Speaker 1: could to follow the trail of his arguing, but we
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Speaker 1: couldn't exactly tell where he fetched up, nor the idea
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Speaker 1: the council had when it broke up. No, I don't concede.
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Speaker 1: I know what a church member is. Leastwise, a missionar
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Speaker 1: didn't make it clear to me down on the Mohawk,
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Speaker 1: a church member, John Norton is a man who professes
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Speaker 1: to love God, who professes to love men. And the
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Speaker 1: man continued bitterly. The keeper of the poorhouse, who starved
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Speaker 1: us and stole our earnings was a church member. The
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Speaker 1: man was a vagabond, exclaimed the trapper. I get the
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Speaker 1: id now. I caught a church member, as you call him,
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Speaker 1: on the line of my traps over there under white face,
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Speaker 1: only a month ago. I had seen his tracks off
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Speaker 1: and on ever since. I blazed the line through, and
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Speaker 1: I knowed he was a church member by the way
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Speaker 1: he walked, For he didn't walk straight and honest, like
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Speaker 1: like a man who made the line and had a
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Speaker 1: right to be on it. But he sort of sneaked
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Speaker 1: along and stopped behind stumps and trees, as if he
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Speaker 1: knowed he was doing the devil's arnt and was a
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Speaker 1: feared an honest man might catch him at it. I
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Speaker 1: bore the thievans of the scamp until it got unreasonable,
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Speaker 1: and I made an ambush for him by an otter slide.
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Speaker 1: I sought a big bear trap at the bottom of
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Speaker 1: the slide, and I burrowed into the ground at the top,
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Speaker 1: and I put the leaves and the mosses and some
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Speaker 1: dried sticks over my head in a judicious manner. So
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Speaker 1: I doubt if even a uron could have seed the
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Speaker 1: trick of the thing. I knowed he'd come to the
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Speaker 1: top of the slide and his thievehns searched for an
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Speaker 1: honest man's skins, And sure enough he did. Yes, he
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Speaker 1: come to the top of the slide, so I could
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Speaker 1: touch him with the muzzle of my rifle, and he
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Speaker 1: bent over to look at the trap in the water,
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Speaker 1: and he found it, Yes, he found it. For I
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Speaker 1: just reached out the muzzle of my rifle and give
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Speaker 1: him a punch in the back that sent him down
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Speaker 1: the slide as if the devil were outter him, and
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Speaker 1: the trap took good hold at the bottom. And I
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Speaker 1: had the vagam on in the judgment. For sure, What
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Speaker 1: did you do to him? Said the man, whose face
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Speaker 1: showed that he scents both the humor of the old
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Speaker 1: man's blunder as to what constituted a church member, and
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Speaker 1: also the predicament of the thief. I preached to him,
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Speaker 1: said the trapper. Yes, I preached to the scamp. I
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Speaker 1: made him say the commandments with the muzzle of my
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Speaker 1: rifle to quicken his memory. And the vagabond showed good memory,
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Speaker 1: for certain, for he started to begin fair and square,
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Speaker 1: and he went through to the end without a slip,
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Speaker 1: which I certainly doubt I could do, although I'd be
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Speaker 1: an honest man, and he didn't lose any time and
20:29
Speaker 1: putting the words in either. But I can see that
20:32
Speaker 1: the water and the rifle helped the vagabond, not the
20:35
Speaker 1: speak of the trap harder he had said the commandments.
20:39
Speaker 1: I helped him out and eased off the trap, and
20:41
Speaker 1: we had a little more talking, not to speak of
20:44
Speaker 1: a little acting. I throwed in without any charge. What
20:47
Speaker 1: did you do to him? Said the man, whose face
20:50
Speaker 1: was now thoroughly relaxed in evident enjoyment of the old
20:53
Speaker 1: trapper's experience. I cut a wife, said the trapper, and
20:58
Speaker 1: I learned him what the commandments meant and what a
21:00
Speaker 1: vagabond can expect when he breaks him. I educated him
21:04
Speaker 1: a few minutes better than any missioner could, for he
21:07
Speaker 1: owned up before the wife got limber, that he knowed
21:10
Speaker 1: the wickedness of stealing, and he swore he'd never touch
21:13
Speaker 1: another man's skins while he lived on the earth. But
21:16
Speaker 1: I don't concede he kept his word, for you could
21:19
Speaker 1: see by the look in his eyes that he was
21:21
Speaker 1: a natural liar as well as a thief. And I
21:25
Speaker 1: dare say he's selling skins today in the settlements that
21:28
Speaker 1: he never trapped. But he never put a stephen foot
21:31
Speaker 1: on that line again. And I doubt if he'll ever
21:33
Speaker 1: touch another fur and a trap that has John Norton
21:36
Speaker 1: on it. This episode had evidently been a relief to
21:39
Speaker 1: the feelings of the stranger, for his face had lost
21:42
Speaker 1: its set expression, and the gloom on his brow had
21:45
Speaker 1: given place to a peaceful light. He could evidently recall
21:49
Speaker 1: his pass without pain, dire as it had been, and
21:53
Speaker 1: speak of it without bitterness. For in a moment he
21:55
Speaker 1: turned brightly to the old trapper and asked, would you
21:58
Speaker 1: like to know how I came to leave the poor house?
22:01
Speaker 1: John Norton certainly, answered the trapper. Certainly, he was in
22:06
Speaker 1: the devil's own hole for sure, And at ween' the
22:09
Speaker 1: church member and the straw and the starving and the freezin.
22:13
Speaker 1: You had a hard time on it, as I conceit, Yes,
22:16
Speaker 1: you had a hard time on it. And I would
22:19
Speaker 1: certainly like to hear how the Lord of Mercy got
22:22
Speaker 1: you out of the scrape, you may well say, the
22:25
Speaker 1: Lord of mercy, John Norton, answered the man, for he
22:29
Speaker 1: did it. But he did it through my natural gifts,
22:32
Speaker 1: through the powers he has given me, the powers that
22:36
Speaker 1: had come to me from him, through the mother and father.
22:39
Speaker 1: I have never seen whose love and whose name I
22:42
Speaker 1: have a like. Miss. I don't understand you, said the trapper.
22:47
Speaker 1: I will tell you, said the man. I was born
22:49
Speaker 1: with the love of knowledge in me, John Norton, the
22:52
Speaker 1: love to know how things were made and how things
22:55
Speaker 1: could be made. I used to open the nuts that
22:58
Speaker 1: I might know how the shells were construc and from
23:01
Speaker 1: what point the kernel started to grow. I used to
23:05
Speaker 1: split the apples open before I ate them, to find
23:07
Speaker 1: which way their seeds lay, and to learn how they
23:10
Speaker 1: grew round the center. And I used to wonder what
23:14
Speaker 1: colored their skins and made them so red and bright.
23:18
Speaker 1: I used to lie by the antells in the warm
23:21
Speaker 1: sun and see the little busy things come and go.
23:25
Speaker 1: And I noticed how they carried their loads, and longed
23:28
Speaker 1: to get inside their mounds and see what they did,
23:31
Speaker 1: how they made their chambers and kept their archways from falling.
23:36
Speaker 1: I have lain by the hour and the leaves, and
23:39
Speaker 1: seen the great yellow spiders weave their webs and hang
23:42
Speaker 1: their filmy traps in the air that they might catch
23:45
Speaker 1: their food. I climbed a thousand trees and studied a
23:49
Speaker 1: thousand nests, and I found that each bird had his
23:51
Speaker 1: own way in fashion of making his home, and saw
23:55
Speaker 1: that they could do things that men could not do.
23:58
Speaker 1: For I used to work for hours trying to place
24:00
Speaker 1: the hares and the mosses, the bits of bark, and
24:03
Speaker 1: the stolen string as a bird would place them, And
24:06
Speaker 1: I found I could not do it. John Norton, No,
24:10
Speaker 1: said the trapper. The creatures that the Lord has made
24:13
Speaker 1: be wiser than men. Out of their fashion. Man can
24:16
Speaker 1: trap a beaver, but he can't build his mound, and
24:20
Speaker 1: a wolf will find a way when the hunter and
24:22
Speaker 1: the hound both will lose themselves in the woods. Yes,
24:26
Speaker 1: the creatures the Lord has made be wiser than men.
24:29
Speaker 1: It is even so, said the man, And as a
24:32
Speaker 1: boy I grew to know it. I did not know
24:35
Speaker 1: at the time that I was a student, but I
24:37
Speaker 1: studied much before I saw a book. I don't doubt it,
24:41
Speaker 1: said the trapper. Books is good enough in their way,
24:44
Speaker 1: But I never seed. More than two or three men
24:47
Speaker 1: that had studied books that wasn't dreadfully ignorant. I don't
24:50
Speaker 1: know about that returned the man. Books contain the knowledge
24:54
Speaker 1: of the world. Books are the mirrors that reflect the
24:57
Speaker 1: learning of the ages. Bo Sir, treasure houses in which
25:01
Speaker 1: are stored the golden sayings of all times. The first
25:05
Speaker 1: joy that came to my life, John Norton, was when
25:08
Speaker 1: I learned to read. An old pauper woman in the
25:11
Speaker 1: poor house taught me the letters. And the first book
25:14
Speaker 1: that I read was the Bible. It was a good
25:17
Speaker 1: book to begin with, for certain, said the trapper. It's
25:21
Speaker 1: a good book to end with, too, said the man.
25:24
Speaker 1: It may be, said the trapper, But the church member
25:28
Speaker 1: and the trap knew the Commandment's word for word. The
25:31
Speaker 1: illusion of the trapper was unnoticed by his guests. At
25:34
Speaker 1: least he resumed his conversation as if it had not
25:37
Speaker 1: been made. The first book I read was the Bible.
25:41
Speaker 1: It took me a year to read it through, but
25:44
Speaker 1: it made the year happy. I read it not for
25:47
Speaker 1: its wisdom, but for the strange stories that were in it,
25:50
Speaker 1: and the things that delight a boy. But when I
25:53
Speaker 1: was done, I knew how to read, and I had
25:56
Speaker 1: a longing to read, a longing I cannot describe. Did
26:00
Speaker 1: you ever long to know a thing? John Norton certain
26:05
Speaker 1: answered the trapper. I run across a track in the
26:08
Speaker 1: snow last winter that made me uneasy, for the track
26:12
Speaker 1: was a track of a panther, but it walked with
26:14
Speaker 1: the legs of a man leastways. It made but one
26:17
Speaker 1: track where it ought to make two. And the pups
26:20
Speaker 1: was uneasy too, for they wouldn't follow the thing. I
26:24
Speaker 1: trailed it for two days, for I had sought my
26:27
Speaker 1: mind on knowing what the creature was that the pups
26:29
Speaker 1: wouldn't follow, and whose track didn't tell me his name.
26:34
Speaker 1: In the second day, just as it was getting dark,
26:36
Speaker 1: I come upon him, and it was standin up like
26:39
Speaker 1: a man. And I must say it started me a little,
26:42
Speaker 1: for I come on it suddenly, and I met it
26:45
Speaker 1: face to face. But I drawed on it, for I
26:48
Speaker 1: was certain it wasn't anything human, and I lined the
26:52
Speaker 1: sights to send the lead between the eyes. My finger
26:55
Speaker 1: was on the trigger and the pressure was gettin steady,
26:58
Speaker 1: for I'd never seed such afore, and I was determined
27:02
Speaker 1: to know what the creature was and what was it?
27:05
Speaker 1: John Norton exclaimed the man excitedly, for the narration of
27:08
Speaker 1: the old trapper's strange experience had startled him. As well
27:12
Speaker 1: it might, for who could guess what a creature might
27:14
Speaker 1: be whose track was the track of a panther, but
27:17
Speaker 1: then walked with the legs of a man. And at
27:19
Speaker 1: the point at which the trapper was standing face to
27:22
Speaker 1: face with a strange creature, was about to explode his peace.
27:26
Speaker 1: He was unable to restrain his curiosity longer, and had
27:29
Speaker 1: broken in upon the trapper's narration, suddenly with the question
27:33
Speaker 1: what was it? John Norton, end of Chapter two