Latest / Murrays Adirondack Tales / 27 - Murray's Adirondack Tales by William Henry Harrison Murray

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

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Speaker 1: Chapter six, the trapper flung open the door, and, lifting
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Speaker 1: the man bodily from the sledge as if he had
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Speaker 1: been but a child, carried him into the cabin and
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Speaker 1: placed him down in the great arm chair that stood
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Speaker 1: in front of the fire, while his sister removed his cap,
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Speaker 1: overcoat and wrappings. With a quickness and dexterity which only
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Speaker 1: a woman brings to the performance of such homely ministries.
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Speaker 1: It took but a few moments of time for the
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Speaker 1: trapper to examine the young man's ankle, which, when he
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Speaker 1: had done, he proceeded to dress with its proper wrappings,
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Speaker 1: For in his checkered an eventful life on march, in
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Speaker 1: battle and in hospital, he had no little practice in
0:39
Speaker 1: practical surgery. You certainly had a pretty sudden slip, and
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Speaker 1: you've got a pretty bad strain in the ankle. Here,
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Speaker 1: said the old trapper, as he was preparing to wind
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Speaker 1: the bandage on to the extended limb. And a strain
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Speaker 1: in the ankle is eenamos as bad as a crick
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Speaker 1: in the back. Neither one of em is enough to
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Speaker 1: learn a man's mortality. As I can sit, it's certainly strain,
1:00
Speaker 1: and show they giving out of some little joint or
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Speaker 1: cord or bone in a man's body will kink him
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Speaker 1: up as much as it does the old hymn, says,
1:08
Speaker 1: said the girl, speaking in a bright, cheerful tone. Strange
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Speaker 1: that a harp of a thousand strains should keep its
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Speaker 1: tunes so long. It's a goodly number of strings, said
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Speaker 1: the trapper, answering her bright look, with a face that
1:21
Speaker 1: broadened and beamed in its good nature. It's a goodly
1:25
Speaker 1: number of strings magnet for an ordinary sized instrument to have.
1:29
Speaker 1: I was up in the Fur country nine to ten
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Speaker 1: years ago, where the injuns and half breeds hunt for
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Speaker 1: the company, And I don't concede that a meaner set
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Speaker 1: of human being's beyond earth, For between their thieving and
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Speaker 1: their drinkin' and they're murdering, they keep an honest man
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Speaker 1: pretty active, you see. I went up there to sort
1:48
Speaker 1: of see the country and have a good taste of
1:50
Speaker 1: trappin' as I used to know it. For I'd heard
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Speaker 1: that fur was plenty in them parts, and a country
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Speaker 1: not overcrowded, So I just went up there, and picking
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Speaker 1: out a couple of good streams, I went to work
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Speaker 1: in an honest sort of way. I hadn't been there
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Speaker 1: more than a week before half a dozen of the
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Speaker 1: half breeds with two or three frenchers dropped into my
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Speaker 1: cabin one night to warn me off. There was a
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Speaker 1: pretty noisy set of chaps, an arter, a good deal
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Speaker 1: of blusterin'. They said they'd give me just two days
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Speaker 1: to get out of the country. Did you go, John
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Speaker 1: Norton asked the girl, with her bright eyes fixed on
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Speaker 1: the old trapper's animated countenance as he continued to wind
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Speaker 1: on the bandage. Not exactly in the two days, Magnet, said,
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Speaker 1: the old trapper, looking up with a gleam in his
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Speaker 1: eye that chilled the humor of their expression. I sort
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Speaker 1: of argued with him for a while. I told em
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Speaker 1: I'd come up to see the country and get acquainted
2:42
Speaker 1: with their way of doing things, and have a sort
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Speaker 1: of breathing spell that I didn't mean to do anything
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Speaker 1: wrong or make any enemies. If they had any streams
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Speaker 1: they especially liked, seem as how they was natives, I'd
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Speaker 1: stand aside and take some poorer ones, you see, Magnet,
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Speaker 1: I talked sort of easy to him, for if there
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Speaker 1: was to be a fight, I wanted to be on
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Speaker 1: the right side, and I concede that the man who
3:06
Speaker 1: tries to get along without a fight is on the
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Speaker 1: right side of it if he has to go into
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Speaker 1: it outer all. I hope you didn't have to fight,
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Speaker 1: did you, John Norton asked the girl. It got pretty
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Speaker 1: near it, said the trapper. Yes, they got pretty near it,
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Speaker 1: repeated he as he held up the coarse needle that
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Speaker 1: he was trying to thread between the fire and his eye.
3:27
Speaker 1: For I burnt considerable powder off and on afore I
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Speaker 1: got rid of the critters. You see, it was sort
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Speaker 1: or unreasonable, and they wouldn't listen the sense and arter
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Speaker 1: I found. They hadn't any judgment. I left off talkin,
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Speaker 1: would you do, John Norton, said the young man, whose
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Speaker 1: face showed that he was falling the trapper's experience with
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Speaker 1: intense interest. After you left off talking, well, you see,
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Speaker 1: answered the trapper. They was unreasonable, and there wasn't but
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Speaker 1: one thing to do. I certainly think this needle hasn't
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Speaker 1: got an eye to it. Wish I could get a
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Speaker 1: needle that a man could get a decent size string
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Speaker 1: through in less than half an hour's punching. There wasn't
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Speaker 1: but one thing to do. Continued the trapper, having at last,
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Speaker 1: by the sheerest luck, found the eye of the needle.
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Speaker 1: You see, they got to talkin louder and louder, and
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Speaker 1: then they went to sort of handlin their knives and
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Speaker 1: edging round me till I conceded the thing had gone
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Speaker 1: about fair enough, And so I reached from a rifle,
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Speaker 1: loosened my knife a trifle, and spoke to the pupps,
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Speaker 1: who certainly seemed to understand their lingo, for their bristles
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Speaker 1: was up and their teeth was looking sassy. So I
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Speaker 1: just reached for the rifle and spoke to the pupps,
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Speaker 1: and we educated them half breeds for about five minutes
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Speaker 1: and give em our ideas of the matter. I shouldn't
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Speaker 1: have thought, said the young man, that you could have
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Speaker 1: held your own against them all. There was considerable doubt
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Speaker 1: about who owned the cabin for a minute or two,
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Speaker 1: answered the trapper, For though there wasn't any of them
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Speaker 1: very big size, yet they belonged to a newmb'll breed
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Speaker 1: and a nimble fellow, and a scrimmage is a man
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Speaker 1: you have to look out for. But the pups was
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Speaker 1: a good deal of help, for they didn't like the
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Speaker 1: smell of the critters from the first, and they showed
5:11
Speaker 1: considerable earnestness, and I got rather round myself in the talking,
5:15
Speaker 1: for they was mighty sassy, I can tell you. And
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Speaker 1: so when I let loose on him, I did it
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Speaker 1: with a feeling of a man who got worse than
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Speaker 1: a talkin and got to make it up in the doin'. Yes,
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Speaker 1: it was a lively time, for certain, said the trapper,
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Speaker 1: laughing to himself. For though I didn't burn any powder,
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Speaker 1: for you see, magnet, I didn't want to do any violence.
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Speaker 1: I only wanted to sort of educate him a little
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Speaker 1: and given the main points to the case. As I
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Speaker 1: understood the rights of the matter, I did use the
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Speaker 1: rifle stock a little loose, and when that broke a
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Speaker 1: reason with him or the small bench was in the
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Speaker 1: cabin till the cabin got too small to hold anything
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Speaker 1: more than a bench in the pups, For the bench
5:55
Speaker 1: can fill up a good deal of room if you
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Speaker 1: handle it a little loosely, and ain't two per tenicular
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Speaker 1: what it hits. Did they let you alone after that?
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Speaker 1: Said the young man. No they didn't, said the trapper.
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Speaker 1: They pasted me all they could, but I stood my
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Speaker 1: own for nigh on a month, and they had been
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Speaker 1: playing their devilments on me more in a week before
6:15
Speaker 1: it got to be a good deal like old fashioned times,
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Speaker 1: and the man that could send lead straightest and get
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Speaker 1: the cover quickest had the best of it. I stood
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Speaker 1: my own as long as I conceded it was safe,
6:26
Speaker 1: and then I gathered at my traps and took the
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Speaker 1: back trail, for the whole country was actually swarming, and
6:32
Speaker 1: they followed me nigh on to fifty mile, and we
6:35
Speaker 1: had a good deal of dodging and shooting along the way. Well,
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Speaker 1: I got out of it alive, and it brought back
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Speaker 1: one whole skin anyway, and that's more than a dozen
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Speaker 1: or more of them could say. I don't see why
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Speaker 1: you should run risks, John Norton, said the girl, merely
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Speaker 1: for the sake of a few skins risk, answered the trapper.
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Speaker 1: There wasn't any special risk, as I know on for
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Speaker 1: there wasn't any of their tricks that I hadn't seen.
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Speaker 1: And I could just tell about what the Sneakin critters
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Speaker 1: would do. If I had only had Henry with me,
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Speaker 1: and the lad and the boy had liked the fun,
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Speaker 1: we would have stayed and trapped the season through. And
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Speaker 1: we'd picked our streams too, for with one good rifle
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Speaker 1: in the cabin and two trusty pieces on the trail,
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Speaker 1: there ain't half breeds enough in the north country to
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Speaker 1: drive him out if they made up their minds to
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Speaker 1: stay there, said he, as he finished sewing the bandage
7:29
Speaker 1: and stuck the needle into the pel of his coat. There,
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Speaker 1: young man, you needn't worry about your ankle. The pain
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Speaker 1: is about out of it now, and you'll be using
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Speaker 1: it as well as the other in a day or two.
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Speaker 1: And now, said he, rising to his feet. What shall
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Speaker 1: I call you, young man? And what can I do
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Speaker 1: for you? You were to call him Tom, said the girl,
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Speaker 1: And you were to call me Magnet. We've got other names,
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Speaker 1: of course, by which we are known in the city.
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Speaker 1: But we've come up here to be children. Tom to
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Speaker 1: get well, and I to help him get well. So
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Speaker 1: call him Tom and call me magnet. Won't that do?
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Speaker 1: And the girl looked brightly up into the old trapper's face. Certainly, certainly,
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Speaker 1: said the old trapper, laughing. One name is as good
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Speaker 1: as another if the man that owns it is contented
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Speaker 1: with it. If you want to be children. You shall
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Speaker 1: be children, and I'll call you by the names you
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Speaker 1: have said. But you asked us what you could do
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Speaker 1: for us, John Norton, she replied, certainly, Magnet, that's what
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Speaker 1: I said, responded the trapper. We want you to build
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Speaker 1: a house for us, said the girl, A little log
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Speaker 1: house just like this right beside yours, here somewhere, and
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Speaker 1: we've brought everything in to furnish it. It's all down
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Speaker 1: on the load with the teamster bedding and chairs and
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Speaker 1: provisions and everything we need. And if you'll only build
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Speaker 1: us a house right here by yours and let us
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Speaker 1: live with you till Tom gets well, I shall be
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Speaker 1: the happiest girl in the world. Will you do it,
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Speaker 1: John Norton, certainly, Magnet, certainly. I've built a great many
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Speaker 1: housin as you call him, in my day with nothing
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Speaker 1: but an axe, and I can throw you up a
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Speaker 1: cabin in a couple of days, and snuggin too. You
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Speaker 1: can live as comfortable as it as a squirrel in
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Speaker 1: his hole. But we want a board with you, John Norton,
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Speaker 1: continued the girl. We want to come over and eat
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Speaker 1: at your table and stay with you all the time
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Speaker 1: while we are not asleep. May we do it? Of
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Speaker 1: course you may, said the trapper, And ye shall have
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Speaker 1: enough to eat, for venison is plenty and fat this winter.
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Speaker 1: The girl stooped and whispered to her brother for a moment,
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Speaker 1: and then she looked up to the trapper, and hesitating,
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Speaker 1: said how much will you let us pay you a
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Speaker 1: week for our board? John Norton, I don't understand you,
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Speaker 1: said the trapper, And he looked from the face of
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Speaker 1: the girl to the brother, and then from the brother's
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Speaker 1: face to hers, and again he said, I don't understand you.
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Speaker 1: A fine color came into the girl's face, and she
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Speaker 1: looked at her brother and hesitated a moment, as if
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Speaker 1: studying for the best possible way to say what woman
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Speaker 1: likes she was determined to say, and then dashing at
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Speaker 1: it with a charming frankness that became her so well,
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Speaker 1: she burst out, we are not poor, John Norton. We
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Speaker 1: are rich. We have all the money we want and
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Speaker 1: more too, and we don't want to be beggars. We
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Speaker 1: want to pay you for all your trouble, and we
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Speaker 1: shall be of great trouble to you. So do tell
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Speaker 1: us what we shall pay you, magnet, said the trapper.
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Speaker 1: I know little of what you call money, and I
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Speaker 1: need little, for the wants of a man who lives
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Speaker 1: according to nature are few, and his needs be easily met.
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Speaker 1: You and your brother have come to my cabin, and
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Speaker 1: you are welcome to stay. And all that's mine you're
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Speaker 1: welcome to. And as for your money, I have no
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Speaker 1: need of it, and so that is settled. And as
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Speaker 1: you have told me your names, I will tell you
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Speaker 1: the names of them to be here. The dog in
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Speaker 1: your right magnet is Sport. The one on your left
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Speaker 1: is Rover, and they be well bred. You'll find both
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Speaker 1: companionable are their kind. You'll find Rover a little slow
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Speaker 1: and un given to play for the dog is aging,
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Speaker 1: and years make a man and dog alike, grave and steady.
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Speaker 1: And now that you know the pups, i'll introduce you
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Speaker 1: to my friend, children, said the old man, turning toward
11:15
Speaker 1: his guest, who came forward from the corner of the
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Speaker 1: room in which he had been silently sitting. Children. This
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Speaker 1: is a man who came in trouble to my door,
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Speaker 1: and I made him welcome. He has had his griefs
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Speaker 1: and his sorrows, and he calls himself the man who
11:29
Speaker 1: has missed it and I don't gainsay his name, but
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Speaker 1: I call him friend, for that is a shorter name,
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Speaker 1: and as between he and me, it answers the purpose
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Speaker 1: of our companionship. The dog you see by his side,
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Speaker 1: he calls Lucky. I don't conceit the reason of the name,
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Speaker 1: but that doesn't matter. The dog is a knowing dog,
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Speaker 1: and Lucky is his name. And now that we know
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Speaker 1: each other, said the trapper, as if slightly relieved that
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Speaker 1: the introduction was over. Now, friend and children, since we
11:59
Speaker 1: all well know each other, we can all feel that
12:02
Speaker 1: we are at home. And so saying the old trappers
12:05
Speaker 1: seated himself as did the others, around the great fire
12:08
Speaker 1: that roared and crackled and flamed, its flashes and spangles
12:12
Speaker 1: of light and vagrant gleams into the otherwise dark recesses
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Speaker 1: and corners of the great room. So the four were
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Speaker 1: sitting on Christmas Eve in the cabin in a wilderness.
12:22
Speaker 1: In the cities, chimes were being tuned in preparation for
12:25
Speaker 1: joyous Christmas morn. Parents were busy in those secret ministries
12:30
Speaker 1: of love which makes happy the hearts of the children,
12:33
Speaker 1: and children themselves were sleeping, dreaming happily of the morrow.
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Speaker 1: Save here and there a child perhaps that had no parent,
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Speaker 1: had no love to make ready gifts, had no happy
12:44
Speaker 1: Christmas morrow, and into whose uneasy slumber would come that night,
12:48
Speaker 1: no bright vision of gift and happy festival children, said
12:53
Speaker 1: the trapper, after a few moments of silence. My friend
12:57
Speaker 1: here was told the story of his life before you
12:59
Speaker 1: come in mag And though I have knowed a good
13:01
Speaker 1: many folks that had their struggles, and have had some
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Speaker 1: disappointments myself on and on little setback, such as a
13:08
Speaker 1: man is likely to get in a scrimmage or a
13:10
Speaker 1: square stand off fight where a good deal of powder
13:14
Speaker 1: is burnt, and a knife and the rifle stock is
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Speaker 1: used careless. Like Yet I never know the man in
13:19
Speaker 1: all my life that has hat anywhere near as much up.
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Speaker 1: He'll work from the beginning as my friend has, according
13:25
Speaker 1: to his telling, For you see children, to start with
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Speaker 1: his mother and father was lost at sea when he
13:30
Speaker 1: was a little babe, and all on board the ship
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Speaker 1: was lost with him and a little baby as he was.
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Speaker 1: Was he only being saved. I've read in the scripture
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Speaker 1: that the Lord notes the little sparrows and sort of
13:43
Speaker 1: keeps an eye on the foxes, though I don't see
13:46
Speaker 1: exactly the necessity of that, for a fox be a
13:48
Speaker 1: cunning critter. And I never knowed an old mother fox
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Speaker 1: that couldn't take care of herself and her kittens too.
13:54
Speaker 1: If there was an average run of rabbits, and partridge
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Speaker 1: was ordinarily thick. Still, I don't die out what the
14:00
Speaker 1: scripture says, you understand, And I suppose that the eyes
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Speaker 1: of the Lord be sighted to see everything, and so
14:06
Speaker 1: he couldn't overlook if he wanted to the foxes. I suppose,
14:10
Speaker 1: said Magnet, that in a sentence you have quoted, the
14:14
Speaker 1: Savior was comparing his poverty with the birds and the foxes.
14:18
Speaker 1: I meant to suggests that while the birds had their
14:20
Speaker 1: nests for a home and the foxes had their holes,
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Speaker 1: he had no home on the earth. The old man
14:26
Speaker 1: deliberated a moment, as if the girl had suggested a
14:28
Speaker 1: new idea to him. Then he continued, it may be,
14:31
Speaker 1: as you say, Magnet, it certainly looks sort of reasonable
14:35
Speaker 1: as you think of it, but there is difficulties in
14:38
Speaker 1: accounting for it, unless the camps in his country was
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Speaker 1: a good way of art, or the people unnaturally stingy.
14:45
Speaker 1: For he couldn't have struck any region here in the woods,
14:47
Speaker 1: and fetched a trail through fifty mile, and now found
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Speaker 1: a man to take him in and give him a
14:52
Speaker 1: good welcome and a cabin. If the joints of a
14:55
Speaker 1: login be well made and as well placed as to
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Speaker 1: wood and water and a game is there's anyway plenty.
15:01
Speaker 1: Isn't a bad place to live in, especially if a
15:04
Speaker 1: man happens to be without a home. But it may
15:07
Speaker 1: be as you say, Magnet, only they must have been
15:09
Speaker 1: a mighty mean set take them as they run when
15:12
Speaker 1: the Lord was on the earth. They were, John Norton,
15:15
Speaker 1: said the girl. They were hard hearted and cruel, and
15:18
Speaker 1: they hated him because he was good, and he came
15:21
Speaker 1: to make them better. I heard the missionar say that
15:24
Speaker 1: that was a real gist of the matter, answered the trapper.
15:27
Speaker 1: But they didn't put it as well as you have, Magnet,
15:30
Speaker 1: for they made a good many words about it, and
15:32
Speaker 1: sort of mix things up, so that me and the
15:34
Speaker 1: pups had to do a good deal of counsel in
15:36
Speaker 1: arter words to make out just what they meant. But
15:39
Speaker 1: if he hadn't come, continued the trapper, looking toward his friend,
15:43
Speaker 1: he wasn't any worse off than my friend here, for
15:46
Speaker 1: the only home he had was a poorhouse, and it
15:49
Speaker 1: wasn't a very comfortable spot either for a mortal to
15:52
Speaker 1: enjoy himself in, as he pictures it. And then the
15:55
Speaker 1: worst of it was, you see, he didn't know his name,
15:58
Speaker 1: for his mother and father was drowned when he was
16:00
Speaker 1: a little babe. And a man without any name is
16:03
Speaker 1: as bad off as a dog without any name. Nobody
16:06
Speaker 1: knows who he is, and he doesn't know who he
16:09
Speaker 1: is himself. And my friend here didn't know who he was,
16:12
Speaker 1: and as he says, he hadn't mother, her father, nor country,
16:16
Speaker 1: nor home, nor friend, nor name. And that's a count
16:19
Speaker 1: that brings a man to the last skin in the back,
16:22
Speaker 1: as I can see. But certainly, said the girl, casting
16:26
Speaker 1: a pitying look toward the man who had missed it,
16:28
Speaker 1: who was gazing with a sober expression into the fire,
16:31
Speaker 1: but who, in answer to her look, lifted his eyes
16:34
Speaker 1: to her face, as one who would take the beauty
16:36
Speaker 1: and goodness of it as they who were hungry take food. Certainly,
16:40
Speaker 1: he found friends at last, yes, said the trapper. He did,
16:45
Speaker 1: and good friends too. It took him from the poorhouse
16:48
Speaker 1: and gave him a home with him. How many were
16:50
Speaker 1: there in the family, asked the girl, and she looked
16:53
Speaker 1: not at the trapper, but at the man who had
16:55
Speaker 1: missed it. There were three, answered the man, the father,
16:59
Speaker 1: my benefactor, and he spoke the word with falling inflection
17:04
Speaker 1: of reverence. His wife and one child, a daughter, now
17:09
Speaker 1: said the trapper, you've got nigh to the point where
17:12
Speaker 1: you was at when you're comin broke us off, leastwise
17:15
Speaker 1: pretty near it. You see. My friend, who was a boy,
17:18
Speaker 1: then growed up with the girl, and as was natural,
17:21
Speaker 1: they growed to love each other. The wooden day was
17:24
Speaker 1: set and they were actually in front of the minister
17:26
Speaker 1: who was to marry em, and something happened. What happened, then,
17:30
Speaker 1: asked the girl eagerly, and she and her brother turned
17:33
Speaker 1: their faces quickly toward the man who had missed it.
17:36
Speaker 1: The man who had missed it again lifted his face
17:39
Speaker 1: to the girl's and said, in a calm, steady, but
17:42
Speaker 1: infinitely sad tone, my bride fell dead at the altar.
17:46
Speaker 1: The faces of the two young people were a study
17:49
Speaker 1: to see how full of finest ministry to the sorrow
17:52
Speaker 1: of this world is the expression which the faces of
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Speaker 1: the sympathetic can give us in our trouble. The girl
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Speaker 1: rose quietly from a chair, moved to the side of
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Speaker 1: the man who had missed it, and lifting one of
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Speaker 1: his hands, held it for a moment in both of
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Speaker 1: her own, and then she laid it down on the
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Speaker 1: arm of the chair and quietly reseated herself. The dog Lucky,
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Speaker 1: came round in front of the girl, moved up to
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Speaker 1: her side, and, lifting his muzzle, gently caressed her hand
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Speaker 1: resting on the arm of her chair. The dog's a
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Speaker 1: knowing dog, said the trapper, nodding to the brother. There
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Speaker 1: isn't much going on in this cabin that he don't see.
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Speaker 1: I'm a little uncertain about the cross, but he's got
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Speaker 1: a good breedin' in 'm somewhere. If it is a
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Speaker 1: good deal mixed now, friend, said the trapper. If you
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Speaker 1: feel like it, and the children don't feel sleepy, I
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Speaker 1: would like to have you take up the trail of
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Speaker 1: your story where magnets come and crossed it, and carry
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Speaker 1: it on a little. And I certainly hope there didn't
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Speaker 1: anything else happen of evil after your bride was taken
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Speaker 1: away from you, For if there did, it certainly looks
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Speaker 1: as if the Lord had overlooked you, and the appointments
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Speaker 1: of his mercy with which she tempers the lot of
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Speaker 1: the weak and the unfortunate, and levels the ups and
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Speaker 1: downs of life to some sort of a respectable average.
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Speaker 1: John Norton answered the man, My bride had scarcely been
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Speaker 1: buried before another calamity almost as great as her death
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Speaker 1: befell me, friend, said the trapper. If I didn't know
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Speaker 1: you as a truthful man, I should certainly doubt the
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Speaker 1: story you be tellin me. For of all the men
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Speaker 1: I've ever seed that had woes in the earth, and
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Speaker 1: my eyes have seen human trouble enough to make me
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Speaker 1: a time stoubt. If the Lord is mindful of his creatures,
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Speaker 1: I never seed a man that had gained so little
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Speaker 1: and missed so much as yourself. And now, friend, be
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Speaker 1: careful of your words, and make nothing larger than it was.
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Speaker 1: But tell me plainly what sort of evil happened to you. Next,
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Speaker 1: the man looked into the face of the trapper with
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Speaker 1: clear and steady gaze, and then, as if he would
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Speaker 1: pick the fewest possible words to describe the greatest possible grief,
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Speaker 1: he said, my benefactor died end of chapter six,