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

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Speaker 1: Chapter four. It was nigh on to a month before
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Speaker 1: the man who missed it again alluded to his experiences. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: he had not been physically well. The labors, and above all,
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Speaker 1: the repeated misfortunes of his life had beyond doubt materially
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Speaker 1: affected his vital powers. And it was evident that previous
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Speaker 1: to his finding the Trapper's cabin, he had passed through
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Speaker 1: a period of perhaps aimless wandering, during which, without positive design,
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Speaker 1: he had passed beyond the region of the settlements which
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Speaker 1: fringed the wilderness and penetrated into its steps. Utterly unprovided
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Speaker 1: for such a serious journey. Exposure by day and night
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Speaker 1: to the storms that beat upon him, and the winds
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Speaker 1: whose chilling blast pierced his thin and scanty garments, in
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Speaker 1: connection with lack of sleep and lack of food, had
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Speaker 1: served a lesson still more the little strength which the
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Speaker 1: adverse struggle of his life had left him. Indeed, he
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Speaker 1: might well be likened to some ship which for half
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Speaker 1: a century had been put to the hardest service, and
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Speaker 1: which had not only borne for years the buffeting of
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Speaker 1: many tempests, but had been weakened through all its structure
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Speaker 1: by the insidious influence of a climate that had sapped
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Speaker 1: the strength of its timbers. And while it had indeed
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Speaker 1: been blown by the gale which threatened its destruction to
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Speaker 1: a tranquil harbor, it had nevertheless entered in such a
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Speaker 1: condition that those who knew it best felt doubtful that
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Speaker 1: it would ever again leave the harbor between whose headlands
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Speaker 1: it had found the sorely needed refuge. The day following
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Speaker 1: the conversation which we have narrated in the preceding chapters,
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Speaker 1: found the trapper's guests not only indisposed to talk, but
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Speaker 1: even indisposed to move. He rose from his slumber with
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Speaker 1: the looks of a man who rises unrefreshed. He ate
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Speaker 1: but little at breakfast, and after the meal was finished
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Speaker 1: he took his seat in the easy chair at the
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Speaker 1: one end of the great hearthstone, as if his weakness,
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Speaker 1: long resisted by effort of his will, had overpowered him
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Speaker 1: at length and compelled him to quiet. He even dozed
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Speaker 1: as he sat in a chair, sleeping for a few moments,
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Speaker 1: and then rousing himself with a sudden start. At last,
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Speaker 1: he said, turning toward the trapper, in an apologetic and
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Speaker 1: deprecating tone, I trust John Norton. You will excuse my
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Speaker 1: inattention to the duties and what might be the pleasures
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Speaker 1: of the day. But I am very tired. I have
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Speaker 1: not slept much lately, and that probably accounts for the
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Speaker 1: feeling which possesses me. I feel as if I would
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Speaker 1: like to sleep forever. If it wasn't for Lucky here, Lucky,
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Speaker 1: said he speaking to his dog. If it wasn't for you, Lucky,
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Speaker 1: I would like to go to sleep and sleep forever.
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Speaker 1: The dog, whom the night's sleep had fully refreshed, rubbed
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Speaker 1: his head against the knee of his master, and then,
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Speaker 1: putting his paws on his lap, stretched his mouth to
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Speaker 1: his master's cheek and corrus it with his tongue. The
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Speaker 1: man put both arms round the neck of his dog,
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Speaker 1: laid his face against his shoulder, and when he lifted
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Speaker 1: his head, the trapper noticed that tears had fallen into
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Speaker 1: the shaggy coat. I tell you what I think you'd
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Speaker 1: better do, friend, said the trapper, You had better go
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Speaker 1: to sleep. You look to me like a man that
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Speaker 1: has been on a long trail which has led principally
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Speaker 1: up hill, and the tramp has been a little too
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Speaker 1: much for you, and Nader is sort of given out. Yes,
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Speaker 1: what you want is sleep, And my advice to you
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Speaker 1: is just take to the skins again and sleep it out.
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Speaker 1: If it takes a week, you won't be disturbed for
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Speaker 1: the pups and me be quiet, folks, and the neighbors
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Speaker 1: ain't plenty. Yes, you'd better turn in and sleep it out.
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Speaker 1: That's my advice. May I sleep as long as I
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Speaker 1: want to, said the man, and he spoke as a
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Speaker 1: boy speaks when asking the greatest of favors. May I
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Speaker 1: sleep as long as I want to, he repeated, looking
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Speaker 1: the old trapper in the face and rising feebly from
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Speaker 1: his chair. Certain certain answered the trapper. There's four good
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Speaker 1: months afore the trop be movin in the rapids, or
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Speaker 1: the biggin's will strike a hook in the lake. Yes,
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Speaker 1: I've certainly got time enough, that is, if you don't
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Speaker 1: lose any time in gittin at it. So jest bunk
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Speaker 1: down in the skins with your dog an me an
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Speaker 1: the pups'll run the shanty. Well, you sort of enjoyin yourself.
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Speaker 1: The man needed no second bidding. He made him a
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Speaker 1: bed of skins at one end of the cabin, and
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Speaker 1: throwing himself upon them in less than a minute. His
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Speaker 1: senses were locked and profound repose. The dog went to
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Speaker 1: the old trapper, looked into his face, wagged his tail happily,
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Speaker 1: gave a gleeful jump and twist of his body, and
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Speaker 1: then trotting to the couch of skins, he curled himself
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Speaker 1: up beside his master and went to sleep himself. But
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Speaker 1: if his master moved even to the least degree, the
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Speaker 1: dog's eyes came open, and with a snap he would
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Speaker 1: lift himself on his forward legs and look attentively into
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Speaker 1: his master's face for a moment, and then curled down
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Speaker 1: and closed his eyes again. That's a know one dog,
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Speaker 1: said the trapper. If his bristles be stiff. It was
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Speaker 1: a most unrational cross, for certain, and no sensible hunter
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Speaker 1: would risk it, for the dog of blood is the
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Speaker 1: only one to depend on when the ground be dry,
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Speaker 1: the chase long, and the meat scarce. Yes, the cross
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Speaker 1: was certainly unreasonable, but the dog is a good un
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Speaker 1: if he does look like thunder. The object of these
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Speaker 1: critical and humorous remarks knew beyond doubt that he was
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Speaker 1: alluded to, for as the old trapper closed, he opened
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Speaker 1: one eye and fastened the bright orb on the old
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Speaker 1: trapper's face, while the other remained shut, and he gave
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Speaker 1: the floor two or three inquisitive thumps with his tail.
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Speaker 1: A more quizzical look was certainly never seen on a
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Speaker 1: dog's face, nor taken in connection with the look a
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Speaker 1: more humorous wag of the tail. The trapper stood and
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Speaker 1: gazed steadily for several seconds at the guest's queer companion,
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Speaker 1: even closed one eye himself, as if he could return
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Speaker 1: the humor he received. And then his great face began
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Speaker 1: to wrinkle, and the smile, beginning at the corners of
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Speaker 1: his mouth, clumb up the deepening lines, as a boy
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Speaker 1: laughing as he goes, climbs the rounds of a ladder,
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Speaker 1: until it found the lodgement in his eyes, whence it
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Speaker 1: remained looking quizzically and gleefully out. The longer he looked
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Speaker 1: at the dog, the more the smile deepened, until it
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Speaker 1: burst into a laugh. His mouth opened to its widest stretch,
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Speaker 1: and placing a hand on either knee, he indulged his
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Speaker 1: silent mirth to the utmost. A strange spectacle, truly, to
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Speaker 1: see a man and a dog thus exchanging humor, but
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Speaker 1: that the animal enjoyed. The passage of fun was evident,
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Speaker 1: for the oar, which was fastened on the trapper's face,
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Speaker 1: grew brighter and brighter as the pantomime proceeded, and the
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Speaker 1: stumpy tail wagged its sympathetic appreciation. With the increasing heartiness,
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Speaker 1: it was evident that trapper doubted his ability to longer
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Speaker 1: restrain his mirth, and, fearful lest he should disturb his guest,
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Speaker 1: who was still asleep, he slid out of the door, saying,
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Speaker 1: in mirthful gasps, the cross is certainly unreasonable, but the
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Speaker 1: dog is a good'un, and once outside the door, indulged
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Speaker 1: his pent up feelings to the fullest extent. Thus several
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Speaker 1: weeks passed, and the exhausted frame of his guests ministered
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Speaker 1: unto by nourishing food, and perhaps by what was better,
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Speaker 1: abundant sleep, recovered to a great degree its strength, and
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Speaker 1: with the improvement to his physical health was observable also
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Speaker 1: an equal improvement in the tone of his feelings and
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Speaker 1: the hopefulness of his spirit. He had, in the meantime
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Speaker 1: talked with the trapper on many themes, and showed himself
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Speaker 1: and his conversations to be a scholar of profound attainments.
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Speaker 1: But not once had he ever alluded to his past life,
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Speaker 1: and the trapper forebore from a sense of native delicacy
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Speaker 1: to question him concerning himself. He had not only shown
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Speaker 1: himself a good talker, but a good listener also. And
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Speaker 1: many were the tales connected alike with war and peace
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Speaker 1: with which the traver had entertained him in the long evenings,
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Speaker 1: as they sat by the fire together. It is doubtful
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Speaker 1: if two men were ever before brought together who could
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Speaker 1: give each unto the other such instruction and entertainment, For
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Speaker 1: the worlds in which they had lived and whose lessons
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Speaker 1: they had learned, were entirely unlike, and the knowledge and
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Speaker 1: experience of each were equally novel and interesting to the other.
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Speaker 1: Thus the two men, both ripened with years, and both
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Speaker 1: wise in their way, wrought strangely together, became intimate companions.
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Speaker 1: Their mutual respect deepened into friendship as they sat in
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Speaker 1: the long evenings, exchanging their opinions and their experiences. And
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Speaker 1: by Christmas time it would not be too much to
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Speaker 1: say that each seemed to the other like a lifelong acquaintance,
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Speaker 1: and not his men, who one short month before saw
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Speaker 1: each other's face for the first time. It was Christmas Eve.
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Speaker 1: The trapper and his guest were sitting in front of
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Speaker 1: the great roaring fire. The hounds were on the hearth,
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Speaker 1: and a stranger's dog by his knee. The trapper had
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Speaker 1: noticed that his guests had been in an unusual mood
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Speaker 1: during the day. Now he had been restless, walking about
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Speaker 1: the cabin, going to the narrow window, looking out as
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Speaker 1: if he expected to seize someone approach, And then he
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Speaker 1: would seat himself in his chair and resting his chin
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Speaker 1: on his hand, gazed fixedly upon the floor, lost in
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Speaker 1: profound abstraction. But as the day declined an evening came on,
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Speaker 1: a more gentle and solemn mood took possession of his spirit,
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Speaker 1: causing the prevalent expression of his countenance to be one
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Speaker 1: of sadness. The old trapper had refrained from noticing the
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Speaker 1: peculiar disquietude of his guest, and even now continued to
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Speaker 1: forego the customary conversation he should disturb the musings of
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Speaker 1: his friend. Thus the two men sat on Christmas Eve
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Speaker 1: in front of a great fire, silently gazing into it.
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Speaker 1: It's thirty years ago to night, the stranger said, speaking
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Speaker 1: at last, and as he said it as if speaking
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Speaker 1: more to himself than his companion, it's thirty years ago tonight,
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Speaker 1: since she passed away. And then he said, turning to
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Speaker 1: the trapper and repeating the same words, changing the tone
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Speaker 1: of his voice to one of address. It is thirty
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Speaker 1: years ago tonight, John Norton, since an event occurred which
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Speaker 1: has influenced my life up to this day. Did you
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Speaker 1: ever see one that you love die? John Norton asked
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Speaker 1: the man, looking the trapper steadily in the face. I
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Speaker 1: have fought on many fields, said the old man. And
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Speaker 1: I have been many a scrimmage where men fell round
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Speaker 1: me like autumn leaves. I have seen the general and
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Speaker 1: the private struck down, and I seed the young man
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Speaker 1: and the old lie side by side, and many a
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Speaker 1: comrade have I buried out of the fight was over
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Speaker 1: or the scrimmage ended. Yes, I have seen many that
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Speaker 1: I love die. I know you have been in many battles,
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Speaker 1: John Norton replied the man, And I can well imagine
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Speaker 1: that you have lost many friends. But did you ever
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Speaker 1: lose one who was more than a friend, one whom
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Speaker 1: you loved with all the power of your being, and
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Speaker 1: whom In losing, you lost all that made life valuable.
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Speaker 1: I have seen many die, both young and old, said
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Speaker 1: the trapper evasively. And there be graves I shall never forget.
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Speaker 1: But they died in the Lord's appointment. And the Lord
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Speaker 1: gave me strength to bear the a man the loneliness
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Speaker 1: that they are going made. How did he strengthen you
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Speaker 1: to bear your loneliness? John Norton, queried the man. The
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Speaker 1: ways of the Lord be many, answered the trapper, And
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Speaker 1: he comes and goes on trails A man cannot see.
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Speaker 1: He is as the wind among the trees. You feel
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Speaker 1: the motion, but you see not the power. The lad
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Speaker 1: used to say that thoughts come at his bidden, And
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Speaker 1: I concede that the lad, in his simpleness, was wiser
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Speaker 1: than many that be known. For more'n once, when standing
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Speaker 1: above graves, I've had thoughts come that strengthen my heart.
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Speaker 1: What thought, old man has strengthened you most, interrogated his companion.
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Speaker 1: The thought of meeting when the earth is ended? Was
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Speaker 1: the response. Do you think said the man, that beyond
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Speaker 1: the grave we shall meet the friends gone on? Before?
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Speaker 1: I certainly concede we shall, said the trapper. Do you
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Speaker 1: think persisted the man, and his eyes shone brightly, and
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Speaker 1: he made a gesture like the gesture of appeals to
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Speaker 1: the trapper. Do you think the spirits of the departed
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Speaker 1: can revisit the earth and are conscious of what we
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Speaker 1: do and say? And think it may be that they can,
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Speaker 1: answered the old man, I know they can, exclaimed his companion.
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Speaker 1: I know they can. I know a spirit can return,
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Speaker 1: either comfort or condemn the living. For a moment, the
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Speaker 1: old trapper made no reply. He looked with a steady
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Speaker 1: gaze into the glowing eyes of his companion, as if
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Speaker 1: inwardly debating whether the misfortunes of his life had not,
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Speaker 1: to a certain extent, unsettled his intellect, And after a
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Speaker 1: moment's inspection, he asked, in a respectful tone, how do
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Speaker 1: you know, friend, that a spirit can return? Because said
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Speaker 1: the man, once each year for thirty years, has the
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Speaker 1: evidence been given me thirty times since she passed from
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Speaker 1: this earth? Has her bright spirit returned and made me
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Speaker 1: aware of her presence thirty times on the same night,
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Speaker 1: and at the same hour, and in the same manner.
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Speaker 1: She has made me aware that the ties which bound
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Speaker 1: us together are not broken, and the love that she
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Speaker 1: gave me has not cooled for several minutes. Nothing further
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Speaker 1: was said. The trapper rose and placed a couple of
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Speaker 1: fresh logs on the fire, and reseated himself. He had
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Speaker 1: scarcely done so before his guest moved his own seat
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Speaker 1: as to bring himself face to face with the trapper,
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Speaker 1: and said, old man. For a month, I have eaten
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Speaker 1: at your board and slept in your cabin. I have
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Speaker 1: listened to your words and observed your manner of life.
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Speaker 1: I know you are wise, with the wisdom that years give,
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Speaker 1: and that you are good, with a goodness that only
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Speaker 1: comes to one who has lived honestly in the world.
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Speaker 1: I have found in you what for years I have
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Speaker 1: looked for in vain, an honest man. I told you
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Speaker 1: the first evening that we met a portion of my life.
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Speaker 1: I will resume the narration. Listen, you know what I
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Speaker 1: lost in my infancy, in childhood, that as a child
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Speaker 1: I was without father or mother, or name, or country
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Speaker 1: or home. I will now tell you what I missed
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Speaker 1: in my youth. So saying, the man again resumed the
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Speaker 1: story of his life. In the house of my benefactor,
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Speaker 1: as I told you, I found a home for in
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Speaker 1: It was love, the love of husband and wife, the
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Speaker 1: love of parent, and the love of a child. It
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Speaker 1: was a home also of finest mood and temper. Kindness
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Speaker 1: and courtesy were the habit of the household. In the
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Speaker 1: ten years that I lived in that house, I never
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Speaker 1: heard an unkind word or saw an exhibition of bad temper.
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Speaker 1: A house with evil tempers in it, John Norton, can
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Speaker 1: never be a home. You have a judgmentical way of
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Speaker 1: looking at most things, friend, said the trapper. I lived
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Speaker 1: in a squatter's cabin down in the Mohawk nigh on
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Speaker 1: a four year ago, in the most a month, and
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Speaker 1: the woman that kept the shanty made it lively for us,
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Speaker 1: I can tell you you see. She had one of
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Speaker 1: them cross grained tempers that shouldn't stand the least bit
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Speaker 1: of strain and beIN naturally tough in its fiber. It
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Speaker 1: made a good deal of noise when it snapped between
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Speaker 1: the redskins and the whites. I've heard a good deal
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Speaker 1: of rapid talkin off and on in my life. But
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Speaker 1: that woman had natural gifts with her tongue, for certain,
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Speaker 1: And when she fairly got at it, there wasn't room
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Speaker 1: enough in the shanty to hold born one at a time.
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Speaker 1: I camped out nights for the most part, for she
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Speaker 1: used to get wound up days, and a mighty little
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Speaker 1: thing in the evenin' would touch her off. And when
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Speaker 1: she got a goin', the Lord o Mercy himself couldn't
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Speaker 1: stop her. And yet she was pleasant and chirpy enough
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Speaker 1: if she kept on the right side of her. But
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Speaker 1: you couldn't always just tell where the right side was,
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Speaker 1: and the man had to be mighty lively at dodgin'
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Speaker 1: keep on reasonable terms with her. You see, I went
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Speaker 1: down to get a touch of the settlements and become
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Speaker 1: sort of civilized, for I had heered a good deal
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Speaker 1: of the pleasant ways they had in the settlements. But
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Speaker 1: a month was enough, and I came back to my
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Speaker 1: cabin in the woods as contented as a bee in
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Speaker 1: his hive. But the house in which I lived was
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Speaker 1: the house of peace. John Norton continued, the man, and
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Speaker 1: such peace as only springs from affection. My benefactor was
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Speaker 1: the noblest of men, and his wife was the gentlest
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Speaker 1: of women, and the daughter John Norton, do you think
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Speaker 1: that angels are ever born on the earth? It may
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Speaker 1: be said the trapper, Yes, it may be occasionally won
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Speaker 1: off and on, but they don't come often enough to
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Speaker 1: trouble a man with counting em if he is reasonably
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Speaker 1: quick of figures. But it may be you found one
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Speaker 1: friend in the house where you lived. I did, I did, did,
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Speaker 1: exclaimed the man. If ever an angel was born on
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Speaker 1: the earth, The daughter of my benefactor was one in body.
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Speaker 1: She was beautiful, beyond the beauty of most women, a
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Speaker 1: beauty finer than the beauty of form, however perfect or
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Speaker 1: for feature, however regular. For hers was the beauty of
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Speaker 1: mind and of spirit, a mind that ruled the face
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Speaker 1: in its expression, and a spirit that categorized the countenance
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Speaker 1: with its own gentleness. Her eyes were blue as the
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Speaker 1: sky you have seen at noonday, John Norton, of that
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Speaker 1: peculiar blue which darkens in feeling when the life within
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Speaker 1: grows intense. In all shades of expression could come to
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Speaker 1: them save of anger. I knew not but that they
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Speaker 1: were capable of that. I only know I never saw
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Speaker 1: it in them. Perhaps she again her no cause, said
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Speaker 1: the trapper, Perhaps not, said the man. No, none of
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Speaker 1: us gave her any cause to be angry, for we
19:04
Speaker 1: loved her too well for that. Oh, if I could
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Speaker 1: make you see her, old man. Her hair was bright
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Speaker 1: as the sunshine, and almost of the same tint, as
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Speaker 1: if it had the power not merely to attract the rays,
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Speaker 1: but to hold them amid its wavy masses. I have
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Speaker 1: seen such hair in the pictures that the old masters
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Speaker 1: painted of the heavenly ones, but never in womankind, since
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Speaker 1: we laid the golden hair from sight and smothered its sunshine.
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Speaker 1: In the grave. Her skin was white as a lily,
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Speaker 1: but through the whiteness the eye could see a hint
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Speaker 1: of pink, which now and then came to the surface,
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Speaker 1: and warmest hue when life within was stirred, in which
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Speaker 1: one might say and feel too. John Norton that he
19:52
Speaker 1: saw the sunrise of a soul, warm and pure as
19:55
Speaker 1: the morning. But why attempt description? The years vanish as
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Speaker 1: I speak, and I see her as she was on
20:03
Speaker 1: the evening she died. He paused a moment. His face
20:07
Speaker 1: was white. The muscles at the corner of his mouth twitched,
20:11
Speaker 1: and he clutched the arms of the chair in which
20:13
Speaker 1: she was sitting with his hands. He was evidently contending
20:17
Speaker 1: with whatever strength he had against the emotion which rolled
20:21
Speaker 1: in waves of feeling over him is lifted and moved
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Speaker 1: onward by the impulsive memories of the past. In a
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Speaker 1: few moments, he continued, with his hands still clutched on
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Speaker 1: the arms of the chair. It was evening, the evening
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Speaker 1: on which she and I were to be married, the
20:40
Speaker 1: evening on which we were to be married, John Norton,
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Speaker 1: do you understand, He looked at the trapper, with eyes
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Speaker 1: already moistened for tears. I understand, you, said the trapper,
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Speaker 1: and he bowed his head unconsciously to his guests, but
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Speaker 1: with a motion of profoundest sympathy. We were to be married,
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Speaker 1: repeated man. The priest had come, The friends were present,
21:04
Speaker 1: the father on my right, the mother on the left,
21:07
Speaker 1: the minister in front. The opening words had already been
21:11
Speaker 1: said when I felt a shiver run through her frame. Startled,
21:15
Speaker 1: I turned, She gasped. She flung her hands on high.
21:20
Speaker 1: She gave one piercing scream, and down at the altar's front,
21:24
Speaker 1: my bride fell dead. Good God, said the trapper. For
21:30
Speaker 1: a full minute, not a word was said. The trapper,
21:34
Speaker 1: with startled look and pitying eyes, gazed fixedly at his guest.
21:38
Speaker 1: The man gazes fixedly into the face of the trapper.
21:43
Speaker 1: What happened then, said the trapper, When the silence had
21:46
Speaker 1: become oppressive, I lifted her in my arms, said the man.
21:51
Speaker 1: I bore her to her chamber, the chamber that was
21:55
Speaker 1: to have been hours. John Norton laid the dead and
21:58
Speaker 1: beautiful body on the bed, drove the friends and parents
22:02
Speaker 1: from the room, locked the door, and watched the night
22:06
Speaker 1: out with my bride. Oh, the talk that we two
22:09
Speaker 1: had that night, John Norton, the pledges we gave, and
22:14
Speaker 1: the vows that we exchanged, none but the God of
22:17
Speaker 1: the quick and the dead ever knew. I certainly at
22:20
Speaker 1: yr forgiveness, said the trapper. If my words hurt your feelin's,
22:25
Speaker 1: but I can't conceit. Although ye who mean to be truthful,
22:28
Speaker 1: I don't doubt tell it to me face to face
22:31
Speaker 1: that the dead ever talked to the livin' John Norton,
22:35
Speaker 1: exclaimed the man, and he flung his hands on high
22:38
Speaker 1: with imperative gesture. I swear by the heavens above, where
22:43
Speaker 1: her spirit has its home, that my bride talked to
22:47
Speaker 1: me that night, and she pledged me a solemn pledge
22:53
Speaker 1: that once each year while I stayed on the earth,
22:56
Speaker 1: if I kept my pledge to her that she would come,
22:59
Speaker 1: if permitted of God, and make her presence known by
23:03
Speaker 1: signs and movements that I could not mistake, and the
23:06
Speaker 1: vow that she made me in death. She has kept
23:09
Speaker 1: hitherto and will keep here and now, for this is
23:12
Speaker 1: the night. And he would have said more, but the
23:16
Speaker 1: hounds on the hearth moved uneasily, woke from their sleep,
23:19
Speaker 1: sat suddenly up on their haunches, and with inquisitive muzzles
23:23
Speaker 1: scent of the air, while Lucky the dog moved, with
23:27
Speaker 1: some strange feeling of love and fear, crept half up
23:30
Speaker 1: to his master's lap. Either the movements of the hounds
23:34
Speaker 1: or some cause to the trapper undiscoverable had checked the
23:37
Speaker 1: man in a sentence, which he finished in a voice
23:41
Speaker 1: scarcely above a whisper, this is the hour. With the words,
23:47
Speaker 1: the man rose suddenly from his chair and stood erect
23:50
Speaker 1: in the attitude of listening. Have you years old, man ejaculated.
23:55
Speaker 1: He then, listen, for the steps of my bride are
23:59
Speaker 1: coming to your door. What he would have said further
24:02
Speaker 1: cannot be known, for the two hounds that had continued
24:06
Speaker 1: uneasily lifted their muzzles into the air, and gave in
24:09
Speaker 1: concert a low, mournful and prolonged cry, while Lucky sank
24:14
Speaker 1: suddenly to the floor, his bright eyes moving from his
24:17
Speaker 1: master's face to the door, and back from the door
24:20
Speaker 1: to his master's face. Nor was the old Trapper unmoved.
24:25
Speaker 1: Like all whose lives had been lived in the woods,
24:28
Speaker 1: the superstitious element was strongly developed in him, a child
24:32
Speaker 1: of nature as he was. The marvelous and the mystical
24:35
Speaker 1: found in him, if not a believer, by no means
24:38
Speaker 1: an unsympathetic listener, the unnatural motions of the hounds, whose
24:43
Speaker 1: singular conduct the Trapper had not been slow to notice.
24:47
Speaker 1: The impressive manner of his guest, and that stronger but
24:51
Speaker 1: more subtle and indescribable influence which one person, when powerfully moved,
24:56
Speaker 1: can exert upon another, conspired to produce in him, and
24:59
Speaker 1: a fact which in other circumstances would have been impossible.
25:04
Speaker 1: Be this as it may, he too had risen from
25:06
Speaker 1: his chair with his guest, and thus, amid the profoundest silence,
25:10
Speaker 1: the two men stood in the attitude of listening. Was
25:15
Speaker 1: it the wind? Was it more than a wind? Certainly
25:18
Speaker 1: something moved in the air outside and overhead of the
25:22
Speaker 1: cabin moved as wind might move. And yet it was
25:25
Speaker 1: more of a motion than a sound, a motion that
25:29
Speaker 1: seemed to come on and come down, as from a height,
25:32
Speaker 1: come down and alight. And then what was that? Was
25:38
Speaker 1: it a footstep in the snow, a fox perhaps rushing
25:43
Speaker 1: swiftly by through the drifts, a rabbit bounding lightly round
25:48
Speaker 1: the corner of the cabin. And yet the motion that
25:52
Speaker 1: made the sound, if sound there was, was slower than
25:56
Speaker 1: the quick step of a fox, and heavier than the
25:58
Speaker 1: light motion of a hair hark, said the man, And
26:02
Speaker 1: he said it in a whisper, while his face flamed.
26:06
Speaker 1: She is coming? Was it imagination? Was it fancy? Was
26:11
Speaker 1: it a trick played on the reason by excited nerves?
26:14
Speaker 1: Was it reality? Something was coming? What for? Up the
26:20
Speaker 1: path made in the snow toward the hunter's cabin came
26:22
Speaker 1: a step, a light step, and yet a step that
26:26
Speaker 1: seemed to hurry, as if running on swiftest errand as
26:29
Speaker 1: if fulfilling some mission of need. Came swiftly on, came
26:33
Speaker 1: to the threshold of the cabin door, and stopped for
26:37
Speaker 1: an instant silence, And then a knock sounded plainly and
26:42
Speaker 1: distinctly on the panels. Whether the words came from him
26:46
Speaker 1: as the direct result of the tension which he was under,
26:49
Speaker 1: or whether they were the result of habit and spoken involuntarily,
26:53
Speaker 1: it would be vain to inquire. But no sooner had
26:56
Speaker 1: the rap sounded on the door than the old trapper
26:59
Speaker 1: lifted his head, and, facing the entrance, said, come in
27:03
Speaker 1: for a moment. A hand fumbled with the latch, and
27:06
Speaker 1: then the door suddenly opened, and in the open doorway,
27:09
Speaker 1: playing to sight, stood a woman. The man flung his
27:14
Speaker 1: arms into the air, gave a moan, and fell, as
27:17
Speaker 1: if dead, to the floor. End of Chapter four