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

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  Speaker 1: In the public Domain, Chapter seven. For a full moment,
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  Speaker 1: no one spoke. The three looked at the man who
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  Speaker 1: missed it with eyes which expressed the sympathy of their hearts,
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  Speaker 1: but no word escaped them. Indeed, they knew not what
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  Speaker 1: to say. The death of his benefactor, falling so swiftly
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  Speaker 1: as it did the death of his bride, put such
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  Speaker 1: a climax to precedent misfortunes that the hearers felt themselves
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  Speaker 1: unable to express in words an adequate sense of his
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  Speaker 1: overwhelming loss. For several minutes, the silence continued when the
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  Speaker 1: man who missed it interrupted it by resuming his narrative.
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  Speaker 1: He is my benefactor died, died as suddenly as his
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  Speaker 1: daughter had died before him. He was standing by my
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  Speaker 1: side in the laboratory, conducting with me a system of experiments.
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  Speaker 1: He was stating a proposition and looking directly in my face,
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  Speaker 1: when a change, swift as a flash, came to his countenance.
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  Speaker 1: The very word he was speaking halted in a throat.
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  Speaker 1: He threw his hands into the air, and dropped, without
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  Speaker 1: a moan or a struggle, dead at my feet. The
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  Speaker 1: double misfortune literally broke the heart of the mother and
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  Speaker 1: the wife, and she too died that night, and we
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  Speaker 1: buried them both at the same time, one coffin on
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  Speaker 1: either side of my bride's coffin, three coffins in one grave,
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  Speaker 1: John Norton. And when the mound was rounded over the three,
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  Speaker 1: I stood beside it once more, without a home and
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  Speaker 1: without a friend. All that I had won I had
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  Speaker 1: lost all that I had hoped for I had suddenly missed. No,
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  Speaker 1: you had not lost all, said the girl, and her
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  Speaker 1: face brightened. You had not lost all, for you had
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  Speaker 1: your mind and your learning left, and all the wisdom
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  Speaker 1: and cunning that learning had brought to your natural abilities
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  Speaker 1: were with you, were they not, John Norton, And the
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  Speaker 1: girl flashed a glance into the old man's face. Certainly, certainly, Magne,
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  Speaker 1: it responded the trapper. Knowledge be a thing you can't
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  Speaker 1: take from a man nor hound unless you kill him.
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  Speaker 1: And a man with learning can do hilmost anything if
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  Speaker 1: he has the right spirit with him. I admit the
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  Speaker 1: force of what you say, said the man. It is
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  Speaker 1: true that no calamity which leaves the reason untouched in
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  Speaker 1: the spirit unsubdued, can rob man of the powers and
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  Speaker 1: pleasures of intelligence. And this thought it was which strengthened
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  Speaker 1: me in my affliction. And when I left the neighborhood
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  Speaker 1: where I had spent so many happy years, I carried
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  Speaker 1: with me a great grief, indeed, but with it also
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  Speaker 1: a great hope. And I faced the uncertainties of the
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  Speaker 1: future with a spirit brace to overcome its obstacles and
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  Speaker 1: to remove whatever impediment there might be in my path.
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  Speaker 1: You was wise in that, said the trapper. I've been
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  Speaker 1: in some type place as myself off and on in
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  Speaker 1: my life. But I was never in a place yet
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  Speaker 1: I didn't get out of and in pretty good shape too,
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  Speaker 1: considering all the circumstances, I don't doubt. But what you
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  Speaker 1: got along pretty well? Friend? Or do you got to work?
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  Speaker 1: And if you don't mind telling us, I would like
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  Speaker 1: to know what trail you stuck to? Or do you
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  Speaker 1: left the three graves I have told you, said the
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  Speaker 1: man that I was by nature ingenius. I was born
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  Speaker 1: with the faculty of invention. With my benefactor, I had
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  Speaker 1: been a student of nature. With him, I had discovered
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  Speaker 1: many of the forces which are in the earth and
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  Speaker 1: the air. I discovered the law which governs the movement
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  Speaker 1: of storms. I made myself acquainted with the scientists of
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  Speaker 1: the age. I showed them my data. I unfolded the
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  Speaker 1: principle in my enthusiasm. I gave them all the facts
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  Speaker 1: which years of patient investigation had brought to my knowledge.
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  Speaker 1: I did it in the enthusiasm born of my success.
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  Speaker 1: I had no doubt of my reward. You got your reward,
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  Speaker 1: said the girl interrogatively. I got no reward, said the man.
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  Speaker 1: The men in whom I had confided betrayed me. They
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  Speaker 1: were rich, they were titled, they were men known throughout
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  Speaker 1: the world. They examined my data. They took from me
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  Speaker 1: all the knowledge with which I was possessed. They mastered
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  Speaker 1: the principles that, by years of patient investigation I had discovered.
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  Speaker 1: And then what did they do, then, said the girl.
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  Speaker 1: They published them as their own discoveries, said the man.
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  Speaker 1: They stole my knowledge and gave me no credit. They
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  Speaker 1: appropriated the honor that belonged to me. They never even
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  Speaker 1: gave me an honorable mention in their reports. He said
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  Speaker 1: this with a vibration of bitterness in his voice, with
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  Speaker 1: the emphasis of a man who feels that he has
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  Speaker 1: been greatly wronged, and yet with the sadness too, of
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  Speaker 1: one who feels that the wrong will never be righted,
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  Speaker 1: and that the injury done him is irreparable. They were vagabonds,
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  Speaker 1: said the trapper. Yes, they were natural thieves. It was
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  Speaker 1: no better than the half breeds to steal the skins
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  Speaker 1: from another man's trap, though his name be cut into
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  Speaker 1: the iron, as plain as a file can do it.
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  Speaker 1: I trusty ambushed them and their thieve and friend, and
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  Speaker 1: squared accounts with them. Afore you took up the line
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  Speaker 1: and left the country. John Norton responded the man. It
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  Speaker 1: is little that a poor man can do against a
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  Speaker 1: rich man, or that a lowly one can do against
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  Speaker 1: them that are in high places. It was a theft
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  Speaker 1: that I could not indict at the law. The property
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  Speaker 1: they stole from me was not that of money and lands,
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  Speaker 1: but of honor, of reputation, and of credit for having
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  Speaker 1: served the age and advanced it in intelligence and power.
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  Speaker 1: If I applied for membership to their society, they would
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  Speaker 1: not admit me. If I called at their studies, I
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  Speaker 1: would get no audience. I went to the editors of
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  Speaker 1: the great journals, and they looked upon me as crazy.
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  Speaker 1: I was poor, and they who had stolen my knowledge
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  Speaker 1: were rich. I was unknown and they were honored. I
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  Speaker 1: was alone, and they were a part of a system.
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  Speaker 1: What could I do one against the many? They had
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  Speaker 1: the best on ya, for certain, said the trapper. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: the sneak said, the best on ya. But I'd have
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  Speaker 1: warmed em in some way if I'd been in your place.
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  Speaker 1: Afore I was done with the rogues. It was not
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  Speaker 1: a case, John Norton, in which physical force or human
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  Speaker 1: courage could win the fight. I had ascertained scientific facts
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  Speaker 1: of the utmost import but they had been stolen from
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  Speaker 1: me by those whom the people honored. And why should
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  Speaker 1: the people believe a man without money, without title, without friends,
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  Speaker 1: when over against him are the honored and the great.
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  Speaker 1: But it makes little difference, said the man, Sadly, I
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  Speaker 1: shall get my reward by and by perhaps, friend. The
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  Speaker 1: scripture says that the Lord will appoint a day in
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  Speaker 1: which the vagabonds and them that have done evil on
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  Speaker 1: the earth will get a general overhauling. And the idea
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  Speaker 1: is certainly a reasonable one. Now when that day comes,
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  Speaker 1: don't you fail, friend, and do ye put in your
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  Speaker 1: case as strongly as you can. When the matter of
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  Speaker 1: the cheating comes up, you'll find me somewhere in the crowd,
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  Speaker 1: for I've got one or two things will have to
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  Speaker 1: be attended to myself, not matters of any great weight,
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  Speaker 1: for I have generally kept the account pretty well squared
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  Speaker 1: as I went along. There is a sneak of a
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  Speaker 1: half breed up on the Canada Line, neither headwaters of
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  Speaker 1: the Saint Regis. It's got two good pelts that belong
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  Speaker 1: to me if there is any ownership in trapping, and
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  Speaker 1: his case will certainly come up in the judgment unless
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  Speaker 1: I can manage to get time to take a journey
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  Speaker 1: to the north end of the woods once more. And
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  Speaker 1: if I do, the Lord needn't pay any special attention
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  Speaker 1: to him, for I know the points of the case,
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  Speaker 1: and I have a pretty good idea of such matters.
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  Speaker 1: And if I can get up to the Canada Line
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  Speaker 1: and a vagabond hasn't moved out of the country, I'll
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  Speaker 1: settle the matter in a judicious manner. But I certainly
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  Speaker 1: advise you to be on hand at the judgment and
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  Speaker 1: make them rogues give back what they stole from you.
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  Speaker 1: And if you get into a little discussion over the
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  Speaker 1: matter and you want any help, you see E be
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  Speaker 1: in one and they be in several If they should
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  Speaker 1: get noisy, you might want a little help. And the
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  Speaker 1: old man moved his chair, trifled towards his guests, and
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  Speaker 1: the simple earnestness of his confidential tender of assistance. I
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  Speaker 1: don't see, said the girl. What good a scientific reputation
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  Speaker 1: will do one in heaven wood, said the trapper magnet.
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  Speaker 1: You don't understand these things. A man's reputation is his
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  Speaker 1: reputation wherever he be, as I can set, and it
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  Speaker 1: goes with him as the skin goes with a duck,
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  Speaker 1: whether he dives or flies. Friend, don't you mind what
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  Speaker 1: the girl says? For she be a girl, and you
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  Speaker 1: just stand up for your rights. And if you want
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  Speaker 1: any help, as I saying, any man to swear you're
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  Speaker 1: right in your charges, or to put in a few
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  Speaker 1: licks out of the verdict is given. But John Norton,
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  Speaker 1: said the girl, interrupting him. You don't suppose that we
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  Speaker 1: are going to have bodies in heaven? Do you? Bodies?
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  Speaker 1: Course I do, said the trapper lord magnet. How is
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  Speaker 1: a man gonna get along without a body? Why we
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  Speaker 1: couldn't see each other if we didn't have bodies. But
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  Speaker 1: John Norton said the girl again, in her earnestness, interrupting him.
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  Speaker 1: If we do have bodies, they won't be at all
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  Speaker 1: like these, but a great deal better better, returned the trapper.
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  Speaker 1: It can't be a better body, Magnet than listen. Why,
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  Speaker 1: I've lived nighanuda eighty year, and I've never known a
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  Speaker 1: pain in my life or an ache, save as such
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  Speaker 1: a man as gets on a scrimmage or in a battle,
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  Speaker 1: or such as he has in his stomach when meat
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  Speaker 1: is scarce and he is unnaturally hungry. You see, I
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  Speaker 1: know what I'm talking about, Magnet. A man who talks
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  Speaker 1: from an experience of eighty year isn't guessing it the thing.
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  Speaker 1: Oh no, the Lord can't make a better body than
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  Speaker 1: he give me a berth. Leastwise I'll be perfectly contented
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  Speaker 1: if he'll give me another as good as this has been,
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  Speaker 1: and keep it running forever. The man had listened, apparently
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  Speaker 1: with a good deal of interest to the conversation, for
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  Speaker 1: the girl's animation and the old trapper's earnestness were amusing.
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  Speaker 1: But when the trapper had closed with a sententious opinion
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  Speaker 1: touching the perfection of the mortal body, the man who
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  Speaker 1: missed it joined in the conversation, or rather continued his narrative.
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  Speaker 1: I was a good deal cast down, he said, for
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  Speaker 1: a time after I was cheated of the credit which
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  Speaker 1: belonged to me in the matter of which I was speaking.
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  Speaker 1: But though they could steal the results of past study,
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  Speaker 1: they could not steal the investigating quality of my mind.
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  Speaker 1: Knowledge remained with me, and out of the knowledge I
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  Speaker 1: had gained sprang other knowledge, and the line of my
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  Speaker 1: previous study led me to another and more important discovery.
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  Speaker 1: What was it? Said Tom, speaking for the first time,
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  Speaker 1: but who had listened as one greatly interested. What was
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  Speaker 1: your next discovery? I had discovered the laws which govern
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  Speaker 1: the movement of storms. I next discovered the cause of
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  Speaker 1: storms itself. I beg you to explain it, said the
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  Speaker 1: young man. I have been something of a natural student myself,
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  Speaker 1: and the physical sciences have been my delight. I am
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  Speaker 1: glad to meet you, sir, said the man, speaking with animation.
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  Speaker 1: I am glad to meet one who can enter sympathetically
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  Speaker 1: into the labors of my life, and who can appreciate,
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  Speaker 1: therefore the losses I have met. And the man turned
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  Speaker 1: his chair until he sat facing the young man and
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  Speaker 1: addressed his explanation directly to him. I discovered, as I
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  Speaker 1: have told you, the movement of storms. I found that
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  Speaker 1: it was rotary, and that they moved with various degrees
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  Speaker 1: of rapidity. I knew that if I could command telegraphic communication,
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  Speaker 1: the approach of a storm might be known days before
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  Speaker 1: it would come, and the commerce of the country could
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  Speaker 1: be governed self protectingly by the knowledge. And it took
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  Speaker 1: me years of patient examination before the cause of storms
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  Speaker 1: was revealed to me. But at last I found it.
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  Speaker 1: What did you find it to be, asked the young man.
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  Speaker 1: I will explain it to you, responded the man. It
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  Speaker 1: is this. The origin of all storms is found in heat.
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  Speaker 1: Heat comes from the Sun and the planets. When these
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  Speaker 1: sources of heat are broad in conjunction above any special
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  Speaker 1: area of the Earth's surface, that area is subject to
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  Speaker 1: unusual heat. The atmosphere resting above that area becomes exceptionally
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  Speaker 1: rarefied and rises upward and makes an atmospheric vacuum, and
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  Speaker 1: a rapid movement of air occurs, the outward atmosphere rushing
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  Speaker 1: tumultuously in towards the center of the vacuum. Thus, storms, tempests,
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  Speaker 1: and tornadoes are caused. Granted, Therefore, continued the man, speaking
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  Speaker 1: with great rapidity and earnestness, A certain planetary conjunction above
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  Speaker 1: a certain area of territory, at a certain time, and
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  Speaker 1: at that time within that area of territory, a storm
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  Speaker 1: of greater or lesser violence, according to the degree of
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  Speaker 1: heat thus localized, is sure to occur. Do you follow
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  Speaker 1: my explanation, I do, said the young man, speaking with animation.
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  Speaker 1: I follow it perfectly. And it is not only novel,
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  Speaker 1: but it is startling. If storms originate in heat, and
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  Speaker 1: the heat originates in planetary conjunction, and the planetary movements
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  Speaker 1: which result in the conjunction are astronomically known. Why and
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  Speaker 1: the young man hesitated a moment, while his eyes fairly
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  Speaker 1: shone with the intensity of thought which had flashed upon him.
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  Speaker 1: Why cannot storms be predicted as certainly as an eclipse
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: they can be? Said the man who missed it. I
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  Speaker 1: can predict a storm a thousand years before it will come, friends,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: said the trapper. Suppose you fetch up a mended at
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: that point, you're pushing the trail a little too fast
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: to make all the blazes plain, leastwise on both sides
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: of the tree. And if you ain't careful, you'll get
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: further into the swamp. Then you'll find your way out
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  Speaker 1: without a good deal of hollerin'. Now, Magnet and me
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  Speaker 1: have been paying pretty close attention to what you've been saying.
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  Speaker 1: And it may be that storms do go whirling around.
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  Speaker 1: So I've seen the little wind puffs spin themselves across
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  Speaker 1: the lake. And you can't live in the woods a
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  Speaker 1: month in the fall and not see the winds play
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  Speaker 1: their worthy gigs with the leaves. And if it's true
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  Speaker 1: with the little puffs, I can see that it might
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: be true with the biggins. And it may be the
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: storms do move in the way you say, though utter
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  Speaker 1: my way of thinking. They can't be relied on to
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  Speaker 1: move anyway in particular, for storms have their notions and
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: be a good deal Like a woman with too many
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: ideas in her head and little over earnestness in her feelings,
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  Speaker 1: you can't always tell which way you'll find her. I
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  Speaker 1: ax your pardon, Magnet, said the old trapper, speaking to
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  Speaker 1: the girl who had interrupted him with a clear peal
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: of laughter. I AX your pardon, Magi. If what I've
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: said about the uncertainty of women's ways seem unkind to you.
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  Speaker 1: But I've watched them a good deal off and on
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  Speaker 1: my guiding and in my trips to the settlements, and
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: I've come to the opinion that women be a good
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  Speaker 1: deal uncertain. You can't prophesy overnight how they're going to
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  Speaker 1: feel the next day, not that I can see that
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: that's anything again, magnet, for the prettiest things in nature
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: be the things that changed ofteness. But there's nothing prettier
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: than to see a woman change your mind over night,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: especially if she was on the wrong side of the
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: question when she went to bed. But friends, to your
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: prophesying about the coming of a storm a year or
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: two before it comes, I said, a thousand years, John Norton,
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  Speaker 1: I can predict the coming of a storm a thousand
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  Speaker 1: years before it comes a thousand year, exclaimed the trapper.
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  Speaker 1: That's even most as long as eternity. Yes, yes, said
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  Speaker 1: the trapper, while an inexpressibly quizzical look came into his countenance.
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  Speaker 1: I daresay you can prophesy it, but I don't concede
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  Speaker 1: the storm will come any more for your prophesying. Did
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: you ever see an eclipse? John Norton asked the man,
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  Speaker 1: certain replied the trapper. There was one a yearfore last.
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  Speaker 1: Me and the boys was camping on the raquet that summer,
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  Speaker 1: and a biggin was too for the sun was blackened
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  Speaker 1: a noonday, and the stars came out eight hours before
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  Speaker 1: the otter, and the earth looked as if it had
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: gone to a funeral, and everything was dreadfully solemn. I
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  Speaker 1: didn't mind much about it, for I'd seed the same
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  Speaker 1: thing afore, and I'd be a Christian man, and I
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  Speaker 1: know the Lord wouldn't wind things up in such a
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: sudden way. But there was a half breed in the
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: camp that conceded at the end of the world had come,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: and as I knowed, he hadn't lived as the otter
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: have lived. I didn't discourage the idea. The sort of
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: helped it on a little with some judicious talk that
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: pointed in that direction, for I conceded that a good
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: scare might make him a little more honest. And I
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  Speaker 1: suspected he handled one or two of my traps a
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  Speaker 1: little loosely in the fall before, and might do it
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: again if he wasn't educated out of his thieven notions.
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  Speaker 1: So I called the boys round me and whistled up
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: the pupps, who was a good deal, scared themselves, and
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: just told the boys that we'd better throw the powder
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  Speaker 1: into the lake, for the fire would burst out pretty
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: soon and everything would be blazing. And then I told
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  Speaker 1: the pupps they'd better take to the water before they
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  Speaker 1: got singed. You see, the boys took the hint of
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the thing, and Henry helped me out a good deal,
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  Speaker 1: for he said that there wasn't much use to move
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: the horns or the pups, for the flames wouldn't come
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: little by little, but the island would be blowed up
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: a thousand feet into the air all at once, but
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: that the good would be carried away by the angels.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: But if a man had been a thief and had
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  Speaker 1: stolen anything, if it wasn't anything more than an empty
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  Speaker 1: horn or a musket skin, the angels wouldn't touch him
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: with their little finger, but he'd have to stay and
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  Speaker 1: take it unless he owned up. And the boy put
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: a good deal of earnestness into the words owned up,
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  Speaker 1: and the old man, thoroughly tickled at the memory of
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: the ruse that they had played on the half breed,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: stopped in his narration and laughed with a heartiness that
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: watered his eyes. It was one of those exhibitions of
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: laughter that is contagious, and even the man who had
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: missed it moved by the hilarity of it, joined with
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: the two younger people and the explosions that followed. What
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: effect did it have on the half breed, asked the
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: girl when the laughter had partially subsided. Well, you see,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: said the trapper, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: his coat. The vagabond was ignorant and wicked, both, and
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: he certainly thought the judgment had come. And he owned
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: up the string of pilfer, and a good deal worse
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: than I had suspected him of. For to start with,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: he had taken six mink skins from him. I asked
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: him if he hadn't forgot one or two, but he
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: swore that the six was every blessed one he'd taken.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Then he'd pilfered a sack of salt from a trapper
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: on Deadwood, and a box of sugar from a party
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: on Little Wolf. But I told him I didn't think
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: the Lord would make any special count of the sugar
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: unless it was better than most of the peddlers brought
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: in from the settlements, But Henry said it was just
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: as bad to steal sand as it was to steal sugar,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: and as it helped the man towards righteousness. I didn't
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: gainsay it at the time, but I argue the point
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: with Henry Arterwards, and I made him own up that
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: it wasn't reasonable to hold even a vagabond to quite
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: so close to reckoning for sand as it was for real,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: first class sugar. What effect did it have on him
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: the next day, asked the man who missed it. Just
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: about as much effect, answered the trapper, as your prophesying
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: a storm a thousand year ahead would have found the storm,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: as I can see, for nature has her ways, and
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: you can't prophesy her into doing what you want her
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: to do. And you can't frighten a half breed in honesty,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: for out of the darkness had gone the vagabond was
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: as chipper and chirp as i'd ever seed him. And
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: I lost more skins the next fall in the line
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: that led past his clearing than I had I ever
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: lost a four in any one line of my life.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: For though a scare will make a thief shake for
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: a minute, you can't make an honest man of him,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: And when the fright is over, if he was a
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: thief at the start, he shall be a thief still.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter seven