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 THE STORYTHE KEG TOLD M£ 
 MAN WHODIDNT KNOW MUCH 
 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/adirondacktaleswOOmurriala 
 
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SHOOK HIS GIGANTIC FIST AT THE JUDGE." Pace 277. 
 
ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 BY 
 
 W. H. H. MURRAY, 
 
 AUTHOR OF "ADVENTURES IN THE WILDERNESS," " MUSIC-HALL 
 SERMONS," "THE PERFECT HORSE," ETC. 
 
 SEDtfe #oD-f age Illustrations. 
 
 DESIGNED BY DARLEY AND MERRILL. 
 ENGRAVED BY JAMES S. CONANT. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 THE GOLDEN RULE PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 1877. 
 
Copyright, 
 W. H. H. MURRAY, 
 
 1877. 
 
 BOSTON! 
 
 Stereotyped by c. J. Peters & Son, 
 
 73 FEDERAL STREET. 
 
 Franklin Press: Rand, Avery, &■ Co., Bos/on. 
 
 

 IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 TO THE 
 MEMORY OF 
 HIM WHO "WAS MY 
 FRIEND, WISE IK COUNSEL 
 AND CONSTANT : TO WHOM THE EAR- 
 LIER PAGES OF THIS VOLUME WERE READ, 
 AND WHOSE APPRECIATION REMAINS CHIEFEST 
 AMONG THE PLEASANT ASSOCIATIONS CONNECTED 
 WITH ITS AUTHORSHIP : WHOSE SUDDEN AND, AS IT SEEMS 
 TO US WHO MOURN, UNTIMELY DEPARTURE FROM THE EARTH 
 STANDS AS ONE OF THE GREAT GRIEFS AND LOSSES OF MY LIFE, 
 
 I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 The Story that the Keg Told Me, ----- 7 
 
 The Story of the Man Who Didn't Know Much. 
 
 Part I. Ill 
 
 Part II 241 
 
 Part III. 337 
 
 Sketches. ______„---- 
 
 I. En Boute : " Jet and the Cat." 435 
 
 II. Crossing a Carry in the Dark. ----- 443 
 
 III. Climbing White Face. 451 
 

 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Designed by D ablet and Mebbill. 
 Engbaved by J as. S. Conant. 
 
 "He Shook Himself" -_-.._ Frontispiece. 
 
 " I Onkivebed My Head "------_ 13 
 
 " And Count it All veb and Oveb Again " 34 
 
 " It Opened its Diminutive Mouth and Began to Speak " 131 
 
 " Shoot the Buck "------.-- 171 
 
 " Go it, Lad " 221 
 
 "Shook His Gigantic Fist at the Judge" ... 277 
 
 "It was the veby Climax of High Tbagedy" 441 
 

 
/ 
 
 THE STORY THE KEG TOLD ME. 
 

 THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE KEG. 
 
 " There is society where none intrudes." — Byron. 
 
 TT was near the close of a hot, sultry day in midsummer, 
 which I had spent in exploring a part of the shore line of 
 the lake where I was camping, and the tortuous inlet which 
 led into the same ; and wearied with the trip I had made I 
 was returning toward the camp. There was no motive for 
 haste, and I was taking it easily. Indeed, I was in that 
 quiet, contented state of mind, into which one easily falls 
 in the woods, where his labors are dictated by his amuse- 
 ments and his physical necessities, and not by the duties 
 which carry with them obligation; and I had done little 
 more than drift with the lazily-moving current. The quiet 
 inaction, slow as it was, corresponded with my mood ; and 
 I felt almost a regret when my boat floated out from be- 
 tween the shrubby banks into the open waters of the little 
 lake. 
 
 It was a very secluded sheet of water, hidden away be- 
 tween the mountains, not marked on the map, and whose 
 existence was entirely unsuspected by me until in my aim- 
 less wanderings I had a few days before accidentally stum- 
 

 8 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 bled upon it. Indeed, I doubt if in all the woods there is 
 another sheet of water so shut in from observation and so 
 likely to escape the eye, I will not say of the tourist and 
 sportsman^but even of the hunter and trapper. It was be- 
 cause of this fact that I had fallen in love with it. Here 
 was silence undisturbed by any noise of man's making. 
 Here I could escape the prying eyes of idle and provoking 
 curiosity. Here I could watch the habits of animated na- 
 ture and study the mystery of her charm without interrup- 
 tion. And here the wisdom which man learns independent 
 of utterance — the wisdom of the unspoken and the un- 
 known — might, so far as I was fit, be received by me. 
 
 The first day on the little lake I spent in paddling around 
 its shores, in close scrutiny of them. In every bay into 
 which I successively paddled I expected to find a hunter's 
 cabin. On every point I doubled I looked for a sportsman's 
 lodge. I circled every island in my sharp quest. But in 
 vain. There was not a cabin nor lodge, a charred coal nor 
 mark of a guide's axo or trapper's knife in the entire cir- 
 cuit. Astonished and incredulous, I devoted another day 
 to the examination. I even landed at every spot where 
 Nature had suggested a camp-ground, and searched, with 
 trained eye, for the evidence of man's visitation, but found 
 none ; not even the least trace. Springs I found, cool as 
 iced water and clear as crystal ; but neither mark of axe, 
 nor knife, nor fire. 
 
 Convinced at last, I paddled out to the middle of the lake, 
 feeling, as I watched the sun go down, the shadows deepen 
 and the stars come out, that I beheld what no human eye 
 

 THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 9 
 
 had ever looked upon : a place unvisited by man from the 
 foundation of the world. In such a place the sense of time 
 passes from you, and the sense of eternity is experienced. 
 The years you have lived, the years of the world, are as if 
 they were not, and you seem to be co-existent with the 
 birth of material things. Tor are not the mountains around 
 you. as they were when God called them up out of the 
 depths ? And is not the sky above them the same ? And 
 the great round sun, what has changed it ? Yea, and the 
 water, is it not as it was when its parent springs first poured 
 it forth ? In such a place one realizes that it is toil and 
 worry and the grief of living, and not years, which make 
 us grow old ; for behold, the years rest lightly on whatever 
 is free of these. For that which does not work nor weep 
 is forever young. 
 
 And so it came about that the feeling that I was the only 
 man who had ever 'Visited this lake was so forced upon me 
 by what seemed indisputable evidence, that I accepted it as 
 a fixed fact. The idea took utter possession of me, and 
 became a part of my consciousness. There was not a sign 
 of man nor of man's coming or going, on the shores, and 
 therefore I knew man had never visited it To me this was 
 an absolute fact, as sure as life itself. Well, as I was say- 
 ing, it was near sunset when my boat drifted on the current 
 that flowed with easy motion from the little inlet, out upon 
 the quiet bosom of the lake. The sun was already sinking 
 in the west, and the peculiar silence which attends the close 
 of a summer's day in solitary places possessed the atmos- 
 phere. The heat was fast leaving the air and the coolness 
 

 10 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 of the coming night was growing perceptible to the senses. 
 My camp was only a short mile down the late, and toward 
 it, with easy stroke of the paddle, I urged my homeward 
 course. " To-morrow," I said to myself, as I paddled along, 
 " I will leave the lake. It is too lonely even for me, and its 
 steady, unbroken silence day after day is getting oppress- 
 ive. I am undoubtedly the only man that was ever on this 
 sheet of water ; even the deer here do not know what sort 
 of an animal I am, and the rats will scarcely get out of the 
 way of my boat. I will move out of this to-morrow, nor 
 will I stop until I find some traces of my kind." 
 
 Thus muttering to myself I paddled along, watching the 
 reflections of sky and clouds in the clear unruffled depths 
 beneath, and thinking of the centuries in which they had 
 received and reflected back the changes in the firmament 
 suspended above them. I had already come to the point 
 on the other side of which my camp lay, when my paddle, 
 as it moved forward for another stroke, struck against some- 
 thing floating in the water. I might not have noticed it, 
 perhaps, but for the fact that it sounded hollow as my pad- 
 dle struck against it. Curious, because of the peculiarity 
 of the sound, to know what it was, with a quick turn of 
 my wrist I reversed my paddle, checked the boat in its 
 course, and. with a sharp stroke sent it backward along the 
 line of its wake. As I repassed the object I reached down, 
 and finding I could raise it, lifted it into the boat. I will 
 confess I started as if an electric current had been shot un- 
 expectedly into me. It was a KEG ! 
 
 Now, finding a keg in some places would not be very sur- 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 11 
 
 prising : in a ship yard for instance, or in a cooper's shop a 
 farmer's cellar, or in a liquor saloon ; for in such places 
 kegs are plenty and you expect to see them. Nor would it 
 have astonished me had I met it on a frequented river, or 
 in any place where men come and go j but to find a keg on 
 this lonely lake, where I felt man had never been — where 
 no living soul had ever existed — was, as you will admit, 
 reader, a startling experience. Nevertheless, there it was 
 — a real keg, with oaken staves and iron bands, with a bot- 
 tom intact, and perfect in all respects save that the head 
 was missing. As I recall it now it is really laughable the 
 way I sat and stared at it. I rubbed my eyes to make sure 
 of my sight. I tapped it with the blade of my paddle and 
 rolled it half over and then back again, to make sure that 
 it was what it seemed. 
 
 Convinced at last, I sat and looked at it, questioning. 
 Where did it come from? How did it get there? "Who 
 brought it, and when, and for what purpose ? Where is' he 
 who brought it,? Is he living or dead, and where is his 
 camp ? These and like interrogations I put to myself as I 
 sat in my boat on that lonely lake, in the growing darkness, 
 looking at that keg. "Well," I said at last, speaking aloud, 
 as one quickly forms the habit of doing, when alone, "well, 
 sitting here and staring at it don't answer such questions, 
 nor satisfy my hunger, either j and I had better shove in to 
 camp and get supper." 
 
 When supper was over and the necessary wood for my 
 fire laid in for the night, I went out for a while, as was my 
 wont, upon the point, for a quiet smoke, and to observe the 
 appearance of the night. 
 

 12 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 Of the beauty of such a place aud hour those who never 
 journeyed beyond the haunts of men know nothing. The 
 sky was without a cloud. The air was breathless. Even 
 the pines had forgotten in slumber their mournful plaint, 
 and stood like so many shadows, dense, motionless and 
 dumb. The water was as moveless as the^ atmosphere. It 
 received the heaven as a mirror receives a face. It stole 
 and appropriated the lustre of the firmament, and borrowed 
 from the bespangled sky an ornamentation for its blank 
 spaces as glorious as the heaven's own. The sky was blue- 
 black, and out of its cerulean gloom the pointed stars shot 
 gleams of many-colored fire. The mountains, sombre and 
 vast, rested on their broad bases as if their foundations 
 were laid in everlasting silence. The odors of the forest 
 filled the damp air like incense. A loon far down the lake, 
 as if oppressed by the all-pervading silence, poured into 
 the still air the prolonged sound of its mournful call. It 
 entered into, and lingered sadly for a moment in the air, 
 then passed away, making the silence that followed even 
 more profound. Deeply affected by the spell of the lonely 
 place and the hour, I rose from the stone on which I had 
 been sitting, crossed the point, and returned to my little 
 camp. 
 
 I busied myself for a moment or two in starting my fire, 
 and when the flames of it rose clear and strong I seated 
 myself with my back against a pine, and half reclining 
 gazed off upon the lake. As I thus sat watching the reflec- 
 tion of the fire-light in the water, my eyes fell upon the 
 Keg. It seemed, in some sort, a kind of companion to me, 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 13 
 
 alone as I was ; a visible bond binding me to my kind ; a 
 reminder of the life that men were living in the great, roar- 
 ing, busy world outside and beyond the lonely lake on 
 whose silent shore I then was lying. It reminded one of 
 life, — or what men call life, — the getting and the giving; 
 the saving and the spending; the loving and the hating; of 
 the thousands far away. I fell again to wondering where 
 it came from, and by whom it was brought over the moun- 
 tains, and for what purpose ; — wondering what its history 
 was, and what had become of him who once handled it ; — 
 whether ho were living or dead, and a hundred other things 
 such as one might fancy in such a spot, in such an hour, 
 looking at such an object so strangely found. It may be I 
 was awake ; it may be I was asleep ; but as I was thus 
 looking steadily and curiously at it, and wondering strange 
 things about it, it seemed to change its appearance, and be 
 come different from a keg ; even a MAN ; a little man ; a 
 very little man, — a man not more than eighteen inches 
 high, with the queerest little legs, and the funniest little 
 body, and the tiniest face one ever saw, — but still a man. 
 And, then, standing bolt upright and looking straight at me 
 with its little gleaming eyes, that glowed like glistening 
 beads, — wonder of wonders ! it opened its diminutive 
 mouth, and began to talk ! 
 
 THE STORY OP THE KEG. 
 
 u I suppose," it said — and as it began to speak it leaned 
 slightly toward me as a man might in lifting himself upon 
 bis toes — and its ludicrous-looking face took to itself a 
 
14 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 grave expression, funny to see, — " I suppose," it said, " that 
 you are very much astonished to hear me talk, as a man 
 can, and to know that I even have a mouth at all ; but I 
 have, sir, a very good mouth indeed, and a tongue inside of 
 it, too, as you will learn before I have done telling my story. 
 For I have seen and heard strange things, both before and 
 since I came into these woods, and had many queer experi- 
 ences, of which I propose to tell you if you will only sit 
 still and hear me, and not go clean off to sleep as you seem 
 inclined to do. yes," it continued, u I desire to tell you 
 my story ; the story of the man who brought me here ; why 
 he did it, and what came of it ; and how he lived and died. 
 And it is a very sad story indeed ; and it pains me even to 
 recall it." And here the Keg lifted one of its little thin 
 hands, and placed it with great emphasis upon its heart, 
 " but it contains a lesson which it were well that all men, 
 who strive to be rich and are growing to love money, should 
 hear, and I trust that what I tell to you to-night, you will 
 some day tell to them ; and I trust it will do them good, 
 and be a warning to them, and make them wiser than was 
 the poor man who once owned me, and who died right here 
 on the point off which you found me, — peace be to his 
 soul ! and, indeed, I think he did find peace in the end, 
 although he found it by a weary way, and a steep one, and 
 one which lead him nigh into hell. But I will go back to 
 the beginning and tell you all just as it happened, and the 
 reason of things as I saw and felt them long years ago. 
 
 " The earliest remembrance I have of myself is of the 
 cooper's shop where I was made j and a nice looking keg I 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 15 
 
 was then, too, although you may not believe it judging by 
 my present appearance. But that was many years ago, 
 and you must remember that years wear the life and beauty 
 out of kegs as much as they do out of men ; and although 
 I look so worn and weakly now, yet I can recall the time 
 that my staves were all smooth and clean, so that the oak 
 grain showed clearly from top to bottom of me, and my 
 steel hoops were as bright and shiny as steel can be. I 
 have had many hard knocks since then, and seen hard 
 usage enough to drive the very staves out of me time and 
 again j but the cooper that made me, made me on his 
 honor, and took a deal of honest pride in putting me to- 
 gether, as every workman should in doing his work. And 
 I remember as if it were but yesterday — fori have laughed 
 over it many a time when I had poor reason to laugh at 
 anything — that when I was finished, and the cooper had 
 sanded me off and oiled me so that my side fairly, shone, 
 he set me up on his bench and said to his apprentice boy : 
 ' There, that keg will last till the Judgment Day, and well 
 on toward night at that.' 
 
"W 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MISER. 
 
 " Some lone miser visiting his store 
 Bends at his treasure, counts, recounts it o'er." 
 
 Goldsmith. 
 
 ELL, one day, a few weeks after, a man came into the 
 shop and asked the master: 'Have you a good strong 
 keg for sale ? ' And he put the question in such an earnest, 
 half spiteful and half suspicious way, that I fairly started 
 within my hoops, and opened my eyes wide to take a good 
 look at him ; and a very peculiar man I saw, too, I assure 
 you. He was quite a young looking man, not more than 
 forty years of age ; of good height and strongly built. He 
 was a gentleman evidently, although his face was darkly 
 tanned and his clothes were old and thread-bare. His mouth 
 was rather small than large. His lips were thin and had a 
 look of being tightly drawn over the teetb — at least it 
 seemed so to me. His chin was very long, and was joined 
 at the base to large, strong jaws. His hair was brownish- 
 black, and not over-abundant ; indeed, I am not sure that 
 he had not even then begun to grow slightly bald. But the 
 remarkable feature of his face was his eyes. They were 
 blue-grey in color, smallish in size, and set in deep under 
 the arch of the eyebrows. How hard and steel-like thev 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 17 
 
 ■were, and restless as a rat's ! And what an intense look of 
 suspicion there was in them, — a half-scared, defiant look, 
 as if their owner felt every one to be his enemy, against 
 whom he must stand on his guard, and whom he might at 
 any instant have to fight and kill. Ah, what eyes they were ! 
 and how they came and went to and from your face, and 
 shot their glances at you and into you — aye, and through 
 you, too. I grew to know them well afterward, and to 
 know what the strange, wild light in them meant j but of 
 that by and by. 
 
 •"Have you got a good, strong keg to sell, I say?' he 
 shouted to my master, who was hammering away at a bar- 
 rel so that he had not heard the man enter, much less his 
 question. 'A good stout keg?' said my master, as he 
 turned around and looked squarely at the questioner. { I 
 should say that I had, Mr. Roberts ; do you want one?' 
 1 Yes/ returned the other, ' I do, but I want a strong one, — 
 strong, do you hear?' — and he took a step toward my 
 master as if he meant to strike him. ' Strong enough to 
 hold the devil himself if he were in it, or a sinner's hope 
 of heaven, either, if you like that better,' and he sneered 
 the sentence out as if the blessed hope of Paradise were fit 
 only to point a fool's joke. 'Well, I don't know much about 
 the devil, Mr. Roberts/ rejoined my master, — ' not so much 
 as you do, it may be ; and as to one's hope of heaven, I 
 don't build kegs to keep that in ; but there's a keg,' — and 
 my master tapped me with his mallet until I rang clear as 
 a bell — ' that I made with my own hands, from the best of 
 stuff, and I said to the boys when I finished it that it would 
 
18 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 last till the Day of Judgment ; and I verily believe it will, 
 if white oak staves and steel hoops can last that long.' ' I 
 didn't ask you anything about the Day of Judgment, or any- 
 thing else the long-winded parsons talk about and frighten 
 their cowardly followers with,' snarled the other. ! All I 
 want is a good strong keg — strong as can be made of wood 
 and iron — and if that keg is what you say it is, I want it 
 and will take it, if you won't cheat me at the bargain, as I 
 dare say you would like to do ; what is your price, eh ? ' 
 "Well, the price was set, the money paid with a muttered 
 protest, and Mr. Koberts hoisted me up under his arm and 
 hastened with me out of the shop. 
 
 " Well, you can imagine that I felt very anxious about 
 myself, and wondered as I was being hurried along, where 
 I was being taken, and what use 1 was to be put to ; but I 
 made up my mind to do my duty and hold whatever my 
 new «master should give to my trust so that my maker 
 might not hear ill of me; but I little thought what was to 
 befall me, or what I should have to bear as the years went 
 round. For I have seen dreadful sights in my time, and 
 beheld things too awful to declare. For I have seen the 
 undoing of a man, and the wreck of a human soul ! 
 
 " Well, as I was saying, my new master hurried me along 
 without stopping to speak to any one, although we passed 
 many, and I noticed that no one of all we passed spoke to 
 him, but looked at him coldly or wonderingly, and that he, 
 whenever we were about to meet any one, whether man, 
 woman or child, only clutched me the more tightly and 
 hurried on the faster. At last we came to a common look- 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 19 
 
 ing sort of a house, set back from the road, with a very 
 high fence built clear around it, and a heavy padlock on the 
 gate, and great, strong, wooden shutters at every window. 
 Into this my master entered and set me down carefully 
 upon the floor. This done, he went back to the door and 
 locked it, and drew two large iron bolts or bars across it, 
 securing them most carefully in the sockets. He then went 
 to every window and examined them to see if each was 
 fastened. He carefully examined every room and closet, 
 even looking into the ash-hole and the oven in the chimney. 
 Then lighting a candle he went down into the cellar, and 
 after that up into the attic, carrying the candle in one hand 
 and a great club or bludgeon in the other. 
 
 " By this time I had made up my mind that I had fallen 
 into the hands of a maniac, and that my new master was 
 insane. Leastwise I did not know what to make of him, or 
 what was to be the upshot of his strange ways. After a 
 while he came back to the room where he had left me, and 
 took me up and set me on the table; and starting the upper 
 hoop proceeded to take out one of my heads. At this I 
 was thoroughly frightened, and kept my eyes on hira wher- 
 ever he went, as I wanted to see what his strange conduct 
 meant, and what he would do next. When he had taken 
 one of my heads out, he went to an old drawer under the 
 cupboard and got a large sheepskin, with the wool closely 
 clipped; and with a pair of large shears proceeded to fit 
 me with a lining of it. I must say that he did it with re- 
 markable cleverness, and that when he was done with me 
 I was lined as well as any tailor could line me. But what 
 
20 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 it all meant I couldn't guess j and so I watched and waited. 
 For you will admit that no keg was ever treated as he was 
 treating me, and that I had good reason to be surprised. 
 
 "After he had done lining me with the soft skin he 
 seemed more easy, and less nervous, and he put his hands 
 inside of me and felt of his work and was evidently pleased 
 at it; for he rubbed his hands together, and his eyes glis- 
 tened, and he said to himself: ' There ! I call that a pretty 
 good lit ; I don't think old Tim, the tailor, would have done 
 it better.' And then he laughed to himself and rubbed his 
 hands together again as if he had said a very funny thing. 
 By this time it was well on toward night, and he kindled a 
 fire in the fire-place — a very small fire it was, only a little 
 thin blaze made of three or four short sticks which looked 
 as if they had been picked up in the roadway, and a hand- 
 ful or two of chips. But small as the blaze was he mau- 
 aged to heat a little kettle of water by it and cook a cup of 
 tea, which ho placed upon an old board-table alongside of 
 a loaf of bread, and then he sat down by the table and be- 
 gan to eat the bread and drink the tea. And this was all 
 the supper ho had, and I thought it very strange that so 
 large a man should be content with such a supper ; but I 
 grew used to the sight afterward, and ceased to wonder, as 
 you will when you know the cause of his frugality. 
 
 After he had done eating, he wrapped the remainder of 
 the bread carefully in a piece of paper, and put it away 
 with the little tea-kettle in the cupboard. And then he went 
 to the door and re-examined the bolts, and looked closely 
 at all the shutters, while I stood and wondered what his 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 21 
 
 strange actions meant, and why he was so anxious that the 
 doors and windows should all be fastened so tightly ; for 
 the neighborhood was a good one, and the people law-abid- 
 ing, so much so that the doors of half the houses in the 
 village were never locked of nights, even from one year's 
 end to another. 
 
 When he had done all this, he brought the club or blud- 
 geon that I had seen him carry up stairs with him when he 
 went up into the attic, and laid it on the table beside me, 
 and also a large thick knife, with a strong horn handle, 
 which he had taken from the mantle -piece where it had 
 been lying ; and then he went to the ash-hole in the chim- 
 ney, and brought the ash-pail, which was full of ashes ; and 
 he went to the cupboard, and brought an old earthen jar ; 
 and from under the bed he fetched a bag; and from a 
 chamber overhead he brought a small box j and from the 
 cellar he returned with a sack, all damp with earth. All 
 the while I kept my eyes well open, you may believe, won- 
 dering what it all meant, and what there was in the pail 
 and the jar and the box and the bag and the sack. Well, 
 when he had these all side by side near the table, he sat 
 down and out of the ash-pail he took a small pot, and hav- 
 ing blown the ashes off it with great care, he turned it bot- 
 tom upward on the table, and — merciful heaven ! what do 
 you think was in it? 
 
 Dollars ! Gold Dollars ! 
 
 Then he took the bag and untied the cord that held the 
 mouth, and emptied it upon the table, and it, too, was full 
 of dollars — gold dollars ! And then one after the other, 
 
22 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 he opened the jar and the box and the sack, and out of 
 each and all he poured a great stream of bright golden dol- 
 lars ? Oh, what a pile of them there was ! "What a heap 
 they made ! How they gleamed and glistened ! How they 
 jingled and rang! How they rattled and clinked as ho 
 poured them down upon the dark boards ! And how his 
 eyes gleamed in their deep sockets as they saw the golden 
 stream, and how the thin lips drew apart as the dollars 
 flowed out, until his teeth showed their line of white back 
 of them, and his hands shook and trembled as if the palsy 
 was in them ! 
 
 It was a dreadful sight to see him sit down, and leaning 
 over the table, run his hands under the yellow heap and lift 
 the pieces up so that the bright bits flowed over and out of 
 his hollow palms and ran down through his parted fingers 
 in shining streams. And then to hear him laugh as he 
 played with the glistening coin ! How mirthless his laugh- 
 ter was — hard and sharp and ringing like the metallic ring 
 of the dollars itself. Oh, it was dreadful to think that a 
 human soul could love money so. And he did love it — 
 wildly, madly love it, — love it with all the strength of his 
 strong nature. And this he did not disguise nor deny to 
 himself ; but admitted it, and gloried in it, too, with a most 
 wicked and blasphemous glorying, as the Arch Fiend him- 
 self is said to glory in his own sin. 
 
 He would take a dollar up and look at it as a father 
 might at the face of his favorite child, and pat it with his 
 palm, and smooth the surface of it with a finger tip as if it- 
 could feel a caress. Ah me, 'twas dreadful ! And then he 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 23 
 
 would take a piece up aud talk to it and say, coaxingly, 
 " Thou art better than a wife," and to another, " Thou art 
 sweeter than a child," and to another yet, "Thou art dearer 
 than father or mother." And to the great pile of shining 
 gold, he would say, as he leaned over it, a O my beauties, 
 the parsons may say what they please, but you are better 
 than a far-off heaven." Ah, such blasphemy as I heard 
 that night ! How the sweet and blessed things of human 
 life were derided, and the things that are divine and holy 
 sneered at ! 
 
 At last he fell to counting them, and by the way he did it 
 I knew he had done it often ; done it so many times that 
 ho counted as men do things by habit, — mechanically. He 
 would say : " One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, 
 Eight, Nine, Ten, — GOOD ! One, Two, Three, Four, Five, 
 Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, — GOOD ! " And so go on, 
 faster and faster, until his breath was gone ; and then he 
 would catch it again, and start anew. " One, Two, Three, 
 Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, — GOOD !" Oh, 
 it was awful to think of an immortal being loving MONEY 
 so ! 
 
 For a long time he counted on j counted until his hands 
 shook, and the sweat stood thick on his forehead, and his 
 eyes gleamed and glowed as if he were mad. And perhaps 
 he was mad, — as all men are who live for gain, and whose 
 hearts are fired with the awful lust for gold. So he counted 
 on. And when he had counted all, — even to the very last, 
 — the old dark boarded table was covered thick with little 
 piles of tens ; and he arose with a jump like a maniac, 
 
24 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 and stood above the table and shouted until the old house 
 rang again : 
 
 " Sixteen Thousand, Six Hundred and Sixty-six DOL- 
 LAES ! Sixteen Thousand, Six Hundred and Sixty-six 
 DOLLAES ! " 
 
 Well, after a while he sobered down and became quiet, 
 and began to pick the dollars up and pack them away in- 
 side of me, — carefully, one by one, as a mother might lay 
 her children in their beds to sleep, — and this he kept od 
 doing until the last shining coin had been taken from the 
 table, and I was full to the very brim. Then he put my 
 head in its place, and drove the upper hoop on snug, and 
 put me in the bed, and the great knife under his pillow ; 
 and, blowing out the light, lay down beside me and putting 
 one arm across me as if I were a child, fell asleep. And 
 over the old house in which the miser lay clasping me to 
 his heart, I knew the stars were shining ; and beyond the 
 stars, with eyes that never slept, I knew that the great God 
 was looking down upon him and me. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MISER'S FEAE. 
 
 "I greatly fear my money is not safe." — Shakespeare. 
 
 " Increase his riches and his peace destroy, 
 Now fears in dire vicissitude invade, 
 The rustling brake alarms, and quivering shade, 
 Nor light nor darkness brings his pain relief; 
 One shows the plunder and one hides the thief." — 
 
 Johnson. 
 
 "TTTELL, things went on in the same fashion day after 
 day, and night after night ; but getting worse all the 
 time. My master did little work, and of course earned lit- 
 tle money, — only enough to buy his bread and tea, with 
 now and then a little piece of meat. He seemed to have 
 no desire to get more, but was only anxious to keep what 
 he had. And about this he was so anxious that it kept him 
 in a fever of excitement all the time. For days he would 
 scarcely go beyond the doorway, and if he saw a man 
 coming along the road he would come in with great haste, 
 close the shutters and bar the door as if he feared the man 
 was a robber and was coming to rob him. And indeed this 
 was his feeling. He was never for an instant free of the 
 fear of losing his money. He would mutter about it in the 
 day time, and he would mutter about it in the night when 
 he was asleep. Many a time have I heard him, in the dead 
 
26 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 of the night when the old house was as still as a tomb, sud- 
 denly break out and say, " Oh, you don't want my money, 
 eh ? You came for it, you know you did, and you hope by 
 crying to get it out of me ; but you shan't have a dollar of 
 it; no not a dollar! D'ye hear? — if it would save your 
 soul!" And then he would put out his arms and wrap 
 them around me and strain me to him, muttering and mur- 
 muring about his " Beautiful dollars. My own, own DOL- 
 LAES, they want to get you from me. I know them ; but 
 they shall never do it, for I would kill them if they tried." 
 And he would grind and grit his teeth and hoarsely repeat 
 the word, " lull, — kill," as he sunk again into a heavy 
 sleep. 
 
 It was bad enough to hear his muttering when all was 
 quiet and peaceful, and his sleep was undisturbed; but 
 when the night was stormy and wild, and the wind made 
 the old house shake, and the rain was slashed in great 
 sheets against the windows, and the timbers in the frame- 
 work creaked and groaned ; — at such times, he would toss 
 and moan in his bed, shriek and clutch me with his fingers, 
 leap up and strain and tug and strike as if he were wrest- 
 ling with an unseen person, who was striving to carry me 
 away. Indeed, waking or sleeping, he was tormented with 
 a deadly fear ; and the fear was born of the suspicion that 
 some one would succeed in stealing me, and the treasure 
 in me. 
 
 And this suspicion it was that had poisoned his whole 
 life, and made him hate his kind, and driven him into the 
 wretched strait he was in, when I came to him. And a 
 
TIIE STORY TIIAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 27 
 
 more wretched strait no mortal was ever in ; for what is 
 worse than the suspecting of one's kind, even of one's 
 wife and child ; yea, and of the man of God himself, whose 
 love for you is as God's, — the deep, steady, ministering 
 love of the soul. And this was just his case, as I found out 
 one day. And this was the way it came about : — 
 
 It was summer ; and for the sake of comfort — for the 
 old house was damp and close — he had left the door wide 
 open, and, seating himself in his chair, had fallen asleep. 
 Indeed, I was rather drowsy myself, and was fast dropping 
 off into a nap, when I heard my master give a horrible yell, 
 and leap with a frightful oath to his feet. My eyes, as you 
 can imagine, came open with a snap; and the sight I beheld 
 nearly upset me. In the doorway stood a man and woman ; 
 and by his dress I knew the man to be the old village pas- 
 tor, and the woman I soon learned was my master's wife. 
 For a minute my master stood looking at them, and then 
 he said abruptly, " What in the Devil's name did you come 
 here for I " 
 
 " John," said the woman, " your child, Mary, is dying ; 
 and I thought you, who are her father, might want to see 
 her before she passed away ; " and her voice choked, and I 
 saw her breast under her dress heave with suppressed sobs. 
 
 "Dyiug, is she? " said my master brutally. " I don't be- 
 lieve it: it's a trumped-up story of yours to get me away 
 from here, that you may steal my gold ; but you can't fool 
 me with your lying, and you might as well get away from 
 here, both of you." 
 
 " John," returned the woman, — and as she spoke the 
 
28 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 great tears came into her eyes, and her hands twitched con- 
 vulsively, — M John, I never lied to you, nor to any one, in 
 my life, and you know it. Mary is dying, as the parson 
 here can tell you ; and I dare not let her die, and not give 
 you a chance to see her ; for she was the last one born to 
 us, and you did love her before the cursed love of gold in 
 you drove from your heart all other loving. And I said tho 
 father should see the child before she dies : it is his light; 
 and so I have come and told you. And besides, Mary her- 
 self last night spoke your name in her sleep, and talked in 
 her wanderings of you; and this morning she said sud- 
 denly, ' I wish I could see father before I die. I dreamed 
 of him last night : it was an awful dream ; and I wish I 
 might tell it to him before I go. It might be it would do 
 him good, and win his heart from his dreadful gold.' And 
 so, John, I got this man of God to come along with me, 
 that he might bear witness to my truth, and perhaps speak 
 a word of wisdom to you." 
 
 While the woman had been speaking, my master had 
 stood looking at her with the same scowl on his face, and 
 the same hard, suspicious expression in his eyes. Not a 
 muscle changed, nor a line softened. So he stood a mo- 
 ment, glaring at them ; and then he said to the minister, 
 who was leaniug on his cane, — for he was old and weak, 
 and his head was white as snow, — " Well, what have you 
 got to say ¥ n 
 
 " John Roberts," said the old man solemnly, " I have 
 much to say ; for I bring a message, not from your dying 
 child, but from your living Lord. I remember when I bap- 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 29 
 
 tized you as a child at the altar, on the day your pious par- 
 ents gave you in holy covenant to God. And I remember 
 when I married you to this woman here, your wife ; and I 
 remember your early promise, and the happiness you had 
 yourself and made for others, until the lust of gold pos- 
 sessed you. And I have known your downward path, and 
 how that which God meant for good, became by your per- 
 version of its use, an evil to you, — yea, an evil which poi- 
 soned all your life, and changed the course of it ; turned 
 you against your friends, made you brutal to your wife and 
 child, and brought you to the gate of hell, where you now 
 stand, — a miserable miser ! All this I have watched and 
 seen and known ; and all this I have warned you against 
 time and again in past years, and in the name of Him who 
 was sold to death by a miser like yourself. And now I call 
 upon you to repent, and by true repentance and deep con- 
 trition find mercy in Him whom you have sold out of your 
 heart and life, and in whose eyes you are another Judas, 
 yet lacking repentance. Kepent, therefore, and return to 
 your right mind, lest a worse thing fall upon you, and the 
 curse of your life be doubled upon you in your death, even 
 that as you are now deserted of man you may in that 
 dreadful hour find yourself deserted of God. And as for 
 your child, as your wife has said, she is dying, and she has 
 asked for you. She bids you come to her before she dies. 
 For God has spoken to her in a vision, as he did to some of 
 old, and revealed to her what shall be if you repent not, — 
 a dreadful death, iu a wild spot, with no one nigh, and a 
 darkness round about you in your death-hour like the dark- 
 
'SO ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 ness that surrounds the damned, — all this she has seen 
 with eyes prepared by the mystery of the Unknown to see 
 it ; and I pray you, therefore, as one standing between the 
 living and the dead, that you come right speedily and see 
 your child, and hear her message, lest she die, and leave 
 it unspoken, and what she has seen in vision be realized 
 in fact, and you be lost iu death even as you ire already 
 lost in life." 
 
 He paused, and his face shone as one whu speaks beyond 
 the measure of the spirit of man — even by the measure of 
 the Spirit of God, — and his aged hands shook ; and when 
 he had ended, his lips continued to move, as with one who 
 follows an exhortation with an inaudible prayer. 
 
 But my master remained unmoved. He heard the words 
 of his old Pastor, as he had the words of his wife, with the 
 same scowling, sinister look in his eyes ; the same set, dog- 
 gedness of face, the same sneering expression on his lips. 
 He stared at them a moment, and then shouted: "You LIE! 
 both of you, — you want my money, you mean to steal it 
 from me. Everybody wants it ; there isn't an honest man 
 in the world. All are thieves. All love gold. You do. I 
 know by your looks you love it. You can't fool me by your 
 tears and your preaching. You get out of this house or I 
 will kill you," and he swore a horrible oath, and stepping 
 back a step he seized the bludgeon and swung it round his 
 head, and stamped his foot upon the floor and swore at 
 them again ; his eyes glowed like hot coals, and the froth 
 hung on his lips. The woman ran screaming from the 
 house, but the old pastor stood his ground, and faced him, 
 and said: — 
 
TIIE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 31 
 
 "John Roberts, thou art a doomed man. Thou hast 
 denied the truth and resisted the Spirit, aDd Satan hath 
 thee in full possession. The lust of gold that destroys 
 many is in thee strong and mighty, and only God can save 
 thee, nor he against thy will. Repent, or thou shalt perish 
 in a lonely spot, on a dark night, with none to help nor 
 hear thy cries ; and thy gold shall perish with thee." And 
 so saying, he turned and slowly left the house. 
 
 For a moment my master stood, and then he rushed for 
 the door and locked it, and slid the great strong bars into 
 their sockets; and then he came and lifted me upon the 
 table, and patted me with his hand, and laughed and said : 
 " My gold ! my gold ! " And when night came he took my 
 head out and poured the shining pieces upon the table, and 
 played with them for hours, and then, as was his fashion, 
 he fell to counting them by tens in the same manner as was 
 his custom, saying : " One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, 
 Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten. GOOD ! " until he had counted 
 them to the very last one. A3 he counted the frenzy grew 
 on him, and when his task was over, and the old dark- 
 wood table was all yellow with the gold pieces lying in stacks 
 of ten, he was wild in the joy of his terrible lust. He 
 leaped and danced around the glistening coins, and shouted 
 till the old house rang : " Sixteen Thousand Six Hundred 
 and Sixty-Six ! " 
 
 And then he put them all back within me, fastened my 
 head in tightly, laid me in his bed, laid himself beside mo, 
 and, putting an arm around me, he fell asleep. And I knew 
 that over the old house the stars were shiuing brightly, and 
 
32 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 that above the stars the Great God, with eyes that never 
 slept, was looking calmly down on him and me. 
 
 But when he woke in the morning he was not as he had 
 been, but more nervous and savage-like. He did not unbar 
 the door during the whole day, nor open the heavy shutters 
 an inch, but kept all closed and dark. And he was mutter- 
 ing and talking to himself all day. He had the look of one 
 who was planning some deep plot, nor could I make out 
 what it was ; but I caught enough of his talk to know that 
 he was more suspicious of losing his money than ever, and 
 trusted no one, but was afraid of all men, known and un- 
 known, and was thinking and planning how to make his 
 money safe and get me to some spot where no one could 
 steal me. Once I heard him say : " All men are thieves. I 
 suspect them all. No one with money is safe among them. 
 They will get it yet, unless I go where they cannot find 
 me." And then he would curse his kind and swear. 
 
 At last he suddenly stopped in his tramping up and down 
 the room, and shouted : " I'll go, go where they cannot find 
 me. Go where I can be alone and can count my money as 
 much as I wish, in the broad day, under the bright sun or 
 stars, and see it glint and glisten in the bright light. Won't 
 that be glorious ! — to be alone with my money, where I 
 can spread it all out in broad day and see it shine, and 
 count it over and play with it, with no one nigh to scare 
 me nor make me hide it away, for fear of its being seen 
 and stolen. Men, curse them, are what I dread. I will go 
 where there is not a man ! " 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE MISER IN THE WOODS. 
 
 " Gold, gold, gold, gold, 
 Bright and yellow hard and cold." — Hood. 
 
 A FTEE this he said no more, but packed up the few 
 things he had, and rolled me up in a blanket and put 
 me in a sack, so I could neither see nor hear a single thing 
 that was done or said, and that is all I know of what hap- 
 pened for many a day, only I knew by my feeling that I was 
 being carried, carried, CAEEIED, over rivers and moun- 
 tains, and through forests that were wide and deep, until 
 one day I felt myself put in a boat ; and on we went, day 
 after day, night after night, until one afternoon, I knew not 
 when, neither the year nor the day, the boat stopped, the 
 bag in which I was, was carried ashore, and, for the first 
 time for many a day, I was taken out of it, and I saw the 
 sunlight once more, and behold ! I was on the very point 
 off which you this evening found me." 
 
 And here the keg paused a moment, as one who is tired 
 of rapid talking, or oppressed by mournful memories j and 
 it made a motion as if it would sit down, but did not. But 
 it put one little hand up to its chin and rested for a moment 
 so, and I thought it fetched a little sigh, but of that I am 
 not sure, for it might have been a puff of wind playing with 
 
84 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 the uppermost tuft of some neighboring pine, or the sput- 
 tering of the fire, for that matter; but in a moment it began 
 again. 
 
 "You must pardon my stopping a moment, but I have 
 not done much talking for inauy a year aud it really takes 
 the breath out of me ; moreover one of my heads is gone, 
 and that makes a great difference with a keg I assure you ; 
 for we are like a great many men who manage to get along 
 with one head, but no one sees how they do it, and all 
 heartily wish they had another in addition to the one they 
 have, and a better one too. And besides I am getting 
 rather old, and I doubt if I live much longer, for ever since 
 I have been standing here, by the fire, I have felt that I 
 might fall to pieces at any moment," and the keg cast an 
 anxious look down over itself and then as if partially 
 strengthened, at least, went on : — 
 
 " Well, things continued very much as they were at the 
 old house for several weeks, and my master seemed happy 
 in the thought that he had got beyond the reach of men 
 and the danger of their stealing me, and what I had in me. 
 Every day when the sun shone brightly he would take me 
 down to the point yonder, from beneath the shadow of the 
 pines, where the sun shines clearly, and pour the treasure 
 out in one great pile and play with it by the hour. It 
 seemed to please him greatly to see the yellow coins shine 
 and shimmer in the bright light, and he would lie in the 
 sand and watch the sparkling heap by the honr, and count 
 it all over aud over again, and laugh and shout while doing 
 it as he used to do around the old table when we were in 
 
AND COUNT IT ALL OVER AND OYER AGAIN." Pago 34. 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 35 
 
 the house. And it seemed more dreadful to me than ever 
 before, for here every thing was so still and solemn, aud the 
 sky seemed so grave, the sun so strong and bright, and the 
 mountains so vast and majestic, and all things so suggestive 
 of God and Eternity, that it seemed blasphemy for a human 
 being to be thinking so much of his money. Indeed, the 
 sky and water and mountains, and even the trees, seemed 
 to have eyes and to be looking straight down at him as ho 
 sat there in the sand counting his money, as if wondering 
 what use it could all be to him. 
 
 But after a time I could see that a change was coming 
 over my master. He grew grave and quiet, and moved 
 about in a noiseless way, very unlike his old fashion of act- 
 ing and talking. So, gradually, a change came over him 
 until he was not at all as he had been. He left off count- 
 ing his money for days at a time, and when he did count it, 
 it was in a listless manner, just the reverse of his old-time 
 fashion. He would even go away and leave the yellow 
 heap on the sand unwatched, and uncared for, while he sat 
 looking at the shadow of the mountain in the water, or lay 
 stretched at full length on his back, a stone for his pillow, 
 his hands crossed on his breast and his eyes gazing fixedly 
 up at the heavens. You may imagine that I was very much 
 puzzled at all this, and wondered what it all meant, for I 
 could see that something was preying on his mind, and that 
 a great change was coming over him. 
 
 One day he came, and packing the gold within me, put 
 the head in with the greatest care; and when it was done 
 he stood looking at me a moment and then said, " I think I 
 
36 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 will never open you again," and he said it in such a sad 
 sort of a way that I was vastly puzzled. Indeed, I did not 
 believe him, but fancied that he was not feeling over- well, 
 and was low spirited like because of it, and that when he 
 came to himself he would come around and count what 
 was in me as happily as ever. But a greater surprise was 
 in store for me ; for when he went to the camp, which was 
 in this very place you have here to-night, he did not take 
 me with him, but left me there alone on the beach. I did 
 not think much of it at first, for I said to myself, he will be 
 back by and by and carry me in with him to the camp as 
 he always does; but the minutes passed and kept passing 
 and still he did not come, and at last I gave him up and 
 decided that I must pass the night where I was, alone. 
 Well, as you can fancy, I felt very strangely in view of it, 
 and rather nervously, too, for I had never spent a night 
 alone by myself since my master owned me, nor outside a 
 house or tent either, for that matter ; so as I have said I 
 felt a little nervous about it. But I made up my mind to 
 be as brave as I might and put as good a face on the mat- 
 ter as I could. But it was a very strange experience I had 
 that night, and one I have never forgotten. You see it was 
 the first night I ever spent alone in the wilderness, and it 
 made an impression on me I shall never forget, and al- 
 though I have passed many nights since alone iu this soli- 
 tary spot, yet never has there been one to me like that first 
 one. The shadows of the mountains were so dark and 
 heavy that they appeared to burden the lake as with a pon- 
 derous bulk, and the very water that reflected their vast 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 37 
 
 sides seemed oppressed by their presence. The sky was 
 blue-black ; a grave and sombre sky it was. In it only a 
 few stars shone, and those with shortened beams. The 
 silence was like an atmosphere. It rested upon the moun- 
 tains, brooded on the water, and slept amid the shadows of 
 the still trees. And yet, dark as it was, I felt that in it was 
 an eye, and, silent as it was, I felt that out of it would come 
 a voice — an Eye that looked in steady but un wrathful con- 
 demnation upon me, and a Voice that spoke in solemn 
 judgment, although with inaudible tones. 
 
 It seemed as if the sin of my master was being charged 
 upon me, and that the whole universe was visiting upon me 
 its contempt. ! sir, I saw strange sights that night, and 
 heard sounds that made me shrink within my hoops in fear. 
 Bands of angels all robed in white, and flying on white 
 wings, came and stood poised in the air above me, and 
 pointed at me with their white hands, and as they gazed, 
 their sweet faces dilated with horror. Devils, too, great 
 black beings and shapes that were shapeless, whose faces 
 were those of hell, and eyes bloodshot with torture, came, 
 and poising above me, would point with their black fingers 
 ins iltingly downward, and laugh with horrid mirth; then 
 saL away until their black wings faded in the farther gloom. 
 And I heard moans in the air as of a woman moaning for 
 bread ; and prayers as of a dying child, dying with a dread 
 at her heart for some one whose sin lay on her soul ; and 
 sounds as of many noises mixed in one : prayers and curses, 
 oaths and snatches of hymns. And out of the stillness of 
 the outward space — the stillness of the far-off and the far- 
 
38 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 up and the beyond, I seemed to hear a great voice contin- 
 ually saying ; " The man that loyeth money overmuch 
 IS DOOMED. The man that loveth money overmuch is 
 
 DOOMED." 
 
 " At last the sun rose, and right glad was I to see it, but 
 little did I dream when I saw it come up over the mountain 
 yonder, what would happen before it rose again. For of all 
 days in my life that was the most eventful, and I do not 
 expect you to believe me when I tell you what took place 
 in it ; but I shall tell you the truth, nevertheless, and of 
 things just as they happened. 
 
 About ten o'clock in the morning my master came to the 
 point where I was, and his face was as I had never seen it 
 before. It was the face of a man who had suffered much, 
 and was suffering. His hair lay matted on his damp fore- 
 head; his eyes were blood-shot; his teeth set, and his mouth 
 white at the corners, while his hands were clinched as the 
 hands of one in a spasm. He came and stood directly over 
 me, and in a voice hard and strained said : — 
 
 " For thee, thou cursed gold, I have wasted my life and 
 ruined my soul." 
 
 This he said many times. Then he walked away and 
 stood and talked to himself; and I heard him say: "He 
 said, ' Unless you repent, you shall die on a dark night, in a 
 lonely spot, with do one nigh.' " And he kept repeating, 
 * On a dark night, in a lonely spot, with no one nigh." And 
 then he would look around him at the trees and the moun- 
 tains and the solitary shores. 
 
 After a while he began to walk up and down the point, 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 39 
 
 and wring his hands and smite them on his breast, and cry 
 out : " Oh ! if I could do it ! Oh ! if I could do it ! Per- 
 haps thore would be hope for me : perhaps there would be 
 hope for ME ! " And he would emphasize- the ME in such a 
 plaintive, pitiful tone as was never done, I think, by man 
 before. Once he got down on his knees, and clasped his 
 hands together, and I wondered what he was going to do, 
 for I had never seen a man in that position before, and it 
 looked so queer ; but in an instant he leaped to his feet and 
 cried : "NO, NO ! It is no use. Forgiveness is not for me: 
 forgiveness is not fur me." 
 
 And so the day passed, and a line day it -was, too, for 
 though my master was in such trouble, and the grip of a 
 dire distress was on him, yet the sun took no note of it, 
 but shone as brightly in the sky, and the trees swung as 
 merrily to and fro as the breeze blew through them, and 
 the ripples ran laughing along the curved beach as if there 
 were never such a thing as human trouble in the world. 
 
 Toward night, just before the sun went dowu, my master 
 came, and taking my head out, stood for a while looking at 
 the gold within me; then he said slowly to himself: " Per- 
 haps I may have strength to do it : perhaps I may have 
 strength to do it." And then he sat down on the sand and 
 gazed far off, as one whose thoughts are not in his eyes. 
 And there in the one spot, without moving, he sat, while 
 the sun went down, the shadows of evening settled slowly 
 and darkly on shore and lake and mountain range, until at 
 last night like a mantle lay darkly on the world. There, in 
 the stillness, my master sat, his face hidden by the gloom, 
 
40 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 thinking — I knew not what. At last he moved ; and, as if 
 too weak to rise, crawled along on the sand to my side, and 
 steadying himself on his knees, he placed his hand3 to- 
 gether, and lifting his face to the dark blue heaven above, 
 found speech, and began to talk to One I could not see : — 
 
 " Thou, who art the Lord of this great world ; whose 
 eyes see every creature thou hast made ; and whose ear is 
 open to their cry, see me to-night, and hear my prayer. 
 Bound have I been, and bound I am, to sin. My soul, pur- 
 sued by evil, knows not where to flee. My life has been a 
 hell, and out of hell I seek deliverance here and now. Come 
 to my aid or I am lost ! Save me in mercy or I am doomed ! 
 Give thou me strength, for I am weak, and may not do what 
 I would do, without thy aid. Out of this stillness speak to 
 me. Hero where no man may hear, hear thou my cry. 
 Thou Lord of heavenly mercy, lend me thine aid ! " 
 
 He paused, and rising to his feet, lifted me, and started 
 toward the bushes where he kept his boat, and placing me 
 in it shoved out upon the lake, and paddled toward the 
 center, saying slowly and solemnly to himself: "Lend me 
 thine aid, Lord! Lend me thine aid!" At last we reached 
 the center of the lake, and having checked the boat, he sat 
 for a moment without saying a word ; then lifting his face 
 upward he said in a low, sweet voice : " Dear Lord, thou 
 hast given of thy strength. I thank thee," — then raised 
 me in his arms and " 
 
 A rattle and a crash, as ot pieces of wood lading sud- 
 denly in a heap, and my eyes came open with a snap. My 
 lire had smouldered down, and a thin column of blue smoke 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 41 
 
 was rising, unattended by flame, in a wavy spiral through 
 the air. The moon had found an opening iu the pines over- 
 head, aud was pouring its white beams upon the whiter 
 ashes. The keg I had picked from the lake, heated by the 
 iire, had shrunken in its staves until tho rusty iron oands 
 afforded them no support ; and shaken by the slight jar of 
 a crumbling brand, or falling pine-cone, perhaps, had tum- 
 bled inward and lay in a confused heap. I rubbed my eyes, 
 stretched out my chilled legs, and said to myself: "What a 
 queer dream ! I really thought that keg was talking to me. 
 If it had kept on much longer it would have persuaded me 
 that the old fellow, its master, or his ghost, is actually on 
 this lake now. Egad ! I think it would start even my pulse 
 a little to see a man in a boat on this lake to-night." 
 
 Half laughing to myself at the silly suggestion that my 
 fancy had made, I rose to my feet, stretched myself, yawned, 
 and stepping down to the edge of the water looked off upon 
 the lake. I am not ashamed to say that I started, and the 
 blood chilled a little in my veins at what I saw. There, off 
 the point, ivithin twenty feet of ichere I found the heg, was 
 a boat and a man sitting in it — motionless as if carved 
 from the air I 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 JOHN NORTON THE TRAPPEE. 
 
 " Nature's Nobleman." — Thompson. 
 
 "TTTELL, I will admit that I was surprised, greatly sur- 
 prised, for I knew that there was not a living being 
 on that lake at sunset — nor had there been for days, or 
 years for that matter : for there is no place in all the world, 
 save cities, where man can go and stay even a night aud 
 not leavo marks of his presence, and on all this lake shore 
 there was not a trace of any human being. Yet in spite of 
 all thi3 evidence forbidding the supposition, there sat a 
 man, paddle in hand, in a boat, not forty rods from where I 
 stood. I knew that I was well concealed from view, for 
 the shadows in which I stood was as dark as the matted 
 branches of the rich cedars that lined the lake-shore and 
 projected outward over the water, could make it; and so I 
 kept my station without moving an inch, and watched. 
 
 For a full minute the boat lay on the level water as if it 
 had grown up out of it, and was a part of the lake itself, 
 so steadfastly did it hold its place - f and I could well guess 
 what was passing in the mind of him whose form was as 
 motionless as the boat, but whose eyes I knew were search- 
 ing every inch of the shore line, and whose thoughts were 
 as busy as his eyes. He had evidently come round the 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 43 
 
 point as little expecting the presence of man as I had an- 
 ticipated his, and some flitting spark, or the gleam of some 
 coal, — or likelier yet the thin filament of blue smoke rising 
 from the smouldering and ash-covered embers, — had caught 
 his eye and brought his boat to a stand as quickly as a re- 
 versed paddle could do it. In a moment the boat began to 
 move 5 so slowly, so easily, so steadily, that the eye could 
 scarcely detect the movement. I laughed silently to my- 
 self to see the familiar motion of ambushing a camp from 
 the water side, done so skilfully. For whoever he was, or 
 whatever his errand, the man in that boat knew how to 
 handle a paddle as only a few ever learn the art, — to per- 
 fection. His body never moved. The bent posture of it 
 never changed. His head kept its fixed position. The 
 arms worked from the shoulder-sockets, and were lifted 
 with a movement so slow and gradual that the eye that 
 could measure their extension and return must needs be 
 keen of sight, nor lose its observation by a wink. The boat 
 did not start — it simply ceased to stand still; but that 
 fraction of an instant at which it ceased to stand still and 
 began to move, no human eye could tell. Slowly, slowly, 
 so slowly that at times I doubted if it did move at all, the 
 boat came floating on. For ten minutes had it been mov- 
 ing, and yet it had barely covered as many rods. Then the 
 motion of the arms died out in the air, and the boat again 
 stood still. But the body of the boatman still kept its fixed 
 position, and the arms still hung suspended in the atmos- 
 phere, where they were when the will of the paddler had 
 checked them. 
 
44 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 " By Jove ! " I said to myself, " that man acts as if he 
 wants to murder some one, or fears some one will murder 
 him : but he understands how to do a job like the one he 
 is at, and I would like to know how long it has taken him 
 to learn that use of the paddle." 
 
 A few minutes passed, then the arms began to rise and 
 fall again, and the boat stole slowly into motion. Again 
 ten rods were covered; again the little boat came to a 
 pause. It was now barely fifty yards away, and the full 
 moon made it an easy matter to study quite closely both 
 the boat and boatman. The boat was of the common build, 
 sharp at either end, low-sided and light. In the bow was a 
 pack-basket, while a hound lay crouched in the middle. A 
 rifle was resting across the paddler's knees. Of his face I 
 could discern little, because the moon was at his back. In 
 a moment he laid the paddle softly across the boat; lifted 
 his rifle as noiselessly from his knees, and rose slowly to 
 his feet. All this had been done as only a skilled boatman 
 and woodman could do it : not a jerk nor awkward motion 
 in the process, but coolly, deliberately, and without the least 
 suggestion of a sound. 
 
 " Few men could have lifted themselves from their seat 
 in a boat like that in tho style he has done it," I said to 
 myself, u and few dogs would lie as that dog lies, in a boat 
 manoeuvred as that has been for the past twenty minutes, 
 without stirring nose or foot. I wonder he has not scented 
 me." 
 
 That very instant, even as the thought was passing in my 
 mind, my ear caught the sound of the lowest possible whine 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 45 
 
 from the hound j but his body never stirred, and his nose, 
 active as it must have been, never lifted itself a hand's 
 width from its resting place on the bottom of the boat. 
 
 " Hollo, the camp there ! " said the man in the boat sud- 
 denly. " Be ye sleeping or dead, man or ghost, whom I 
 find in this lonely spot to-night ? " 
 
 " Not dead, nor asleep," said I, speaking from the dense 
 gloom of the overhanging cedar ; " but wide awake and 
 watchful as it behooves a man to be, in a place like this, 
 with a man ambushing his camp in the dead of night. Put 
 down your rifle and come into camp if you want to. The 
 sound of a human voice coming out of your throat makes 
 me feel friendly, whoever you are. Come in, and I will stir 
 up the fire and we can see how we like each other's looks." 
 
 So saying, I stepped back to where my wood was piled, 
 and proceeded to thrust a dozen pitchy knots and a huge 
 roll of white birch-bark into the embers. The few remain- 
 ing coals beneath the ashes caught eagerly at the pitch thus 
 thrust against them, and after an instant's sputtering the 
 inflammable material leaped suddenly into a roaring flame. 
 As the blaze shot upward, I rose from my knees on which I 
 had dropped to give the embers an encouraging puff, and 
 the man, leaning on his paddle-staff, with the hound 
 crouched at his feet, stood before me. 
 
 For a moment we stood and looked at each other, as two 
 men might, meeting for the first time, at such an hour, in 
 such a place, — looked each other over thoroughly, from 
 head to foot, and then satisfied, at least on my part, I 
 said : — 
 
46 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 " Old man, you are welcome." 
 
 " Thank ye ; thank ye," replied my visitor. " I shouldn't 
 have dropped in upon ye in this onseemly way, and at 
 sech an onseemly hour, but the line of yer smoke took me 
 onawares like as I turned the pint yender, for I didn't ex- 
 pect to find a human bein' on these shores, and I half 
 doubted if a mortal man was here, till my hound got yer 
 scent in his nose and signalled me that flesh and blood was 
 nigh. And so I ax yer pardin for coniin' in on ye as I 
 did, more like a thief than an honest man; but I have mem- 
 ories of this spot that made me think strange things, and 
 fear that all was not right. Young man, what may yer 
 name be ? " 
 
 " I am called, when at home, Henry Herbert," I said, "but 
 you can split it in the middle if it would fit your mouth 
 better in that way, and take it half at a time, and call mo 
 Henry or Herbert as you please ; for I know one about as 
 well as I do the other, and answer to either pretty readily ; 
 and since you are getting on in years, and are old enough 
 to be my father, with a good liberal margin at that, you 
 had better take the first half of it ; and so, if you please, 
 you may call me Henry for short." 
 
 " Well, Henry," said the old man, and there came a beam- 
 ing look of good nature into his eyes as he spoke, with the 
 least twinkle of humor playing in and penetrating the be- 
 nevolence of it, "I am gittin pritty well on in years, and 
 ye don't seem much more than a youngster to me, al- 
 though ye have managed to git a pritty good growth in 
 the time ye have been at it; and perhaps the comin' and 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 47 
 
 goin' of years has put some things inside my head that boys 
 can't be expected to git, while they have been whitenin' 
 the outside of it; so, mayhaps, it is well enough that I 
 should call ye by yer Christian name, as if I was yer 
 own father ; although I have never had a boy of my own, 
 or a wife or home either, for that matter; onless ye can call 
 jhese woods a home ; for I have seen sixty year come and 
 go sence I came into them, and the Lord has cared for me 
 in summer's heat and winter's cold through them all, — so 
 well that I haven't had a wish for other company than I 
 have found with the animils and things He has made, or for 
 any other home than He has builded for me by His own 
 hands." And the old man paused a moment, and looked 
 lovingly down at the hound which lay stretched at his feet, 
 with his muzzle resting on his paws, as if, in the dog, I 
 could see one of the companions which had supplied with 
 affection a heart that had missed the love of wife and chil- 
 dren. 
 
 " Yis," he continued, " the woods have been a home for 
 me for the number of years that measure the life of mortal 
 man, and there is leetle in them I haven't seen, and few are 
 the noises that natur' makes that my ears haven't heerd ; 
 and I know all their paths and their ways as well as a man 
 in the settlements knows his door-yard. But that ain't 
 neither here nor there," — as if he was conscious of having 
 fallen into a musing mood, and would check himself — 
 " that's neither here nor there," he continued, " and I am 
 glad to have run agin ye here to-night, although the seem- 
 in' of things was agin me. For I did ambush yer camp as 
 
48 ADIKONDACK TALES. 
 
 a thief of a half-breed might; but I was taken onawares by 
 yer camp smoke, and startled, as ye would well understand 
 to be reasonable in me, did ye know what I know of this 
 spot, and the strange goin's on that has been here years 
 agone, as I know them ; and it seems queer to me to find 
 a livin' bein' to-night, where I thought there was only a 
 dead man's grave. But I am glad to have run agin ye, 
 Henry Herbert, for I have heerd of ye many times in the 
 last ten years, as one who loved the woods and the way 
 men live in them, and knowed the proper use of a rifle, and 
 how to handle the paddle as some born to the use of it 
 never lam it ; and I have heerd that yer eye was keen and 
 finger sure, as a hunter's should be, and that ye let no buck 
 run off with yer lead, but dropped him dead in his tracks 
 where he stood — which is marciful and decent in a man 
 who handles a rifle. And I have heerd, mor'over, that ye 
 loved to be alone, and to find things out that natur' never 
 tells to a company; and that ye boated up and down through 
 the woods all by yerself, sleepin' where night overtook ye 
 like an honest man, and I know'd that I should some day 
 cross yer trail and jine ye; but I leetle thought to run agin' 
 ye here to-night, for I'd no idee that mortal man know'd 
 this lake, save me and him whose body I buried here eleven 
 years gone this fall." And the old man paused, seated him- 
 self on the butt of a log, and gazed with a solemn look in 
 his face into the fire. 
 
 I did not feel quite like breaking in on his meditations, 
 whatever they might be; and so I stood and looked at him. 
 In a few moments he began : — 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 49 
 
 " I ax yer pardin if it be axin' too much of ye, but I've 
 fetched my boat through fifty miles to-day, and it's nigh on 
 twenty hoars sence I've tasted food : not but that I could 
 have had enough — for I run agin a buck on Salmon Lake 
 this arternoon jest as the sun was goin' down, that was 
 big enough to keep a Dutch parson in venison for a week, 
 and that sizes him pritty big, as ye know, if ye ever camped 
 with one of 'em" — and the old man opened his mouth and 
 laughed a peculiar, good-natured laugh, that showed more on 
 the face than it gave forth noise — "but I was in a hurry to git 
 through here and couldn't stop to dry him, and I never set- 
 tle lead into any cretur I can't use for meat, onless it be a 
 fur-bearin' animil or a wicked panther. So I jest paddled 
 up to him ontil I could flirt some water onto his shoulders, 
 and I landed about two quarts on his back, and the way 
 the cretur jumped sot my eyes swimmin'." And here the 
 old man laughed again in his own peculiar fashion. " But, 
 as I was sayin', I haven't tasted food sence the last day 
 dawn, and feel sort of empty like ; and somehow latterly 
 the night mists seem to git into me more'n they used to 
 when I was younger, for age thins the blood, and cools it, 
 too, for that matter ; an' if ye feel like botherin' yerself 
 that much ye may cook me a pot of tea and give me a cold 
 cake, if one be lyin' round ; and if ye happen to have a bit 
 of buck ye fear won't keep till mornin' I guess I could keep 
 it for ye in a spot where I've put a good deal of that kiud 
 of meat in the last sixty year j" and the old man laughed 
 again, in his hearty, noiseless manner, as if greatly pleased 
 at his own homely and innocent wit. 
 
50 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 " Old man," said I, " you just sit on that log a few min- 
 utes, and I will give you a drink of tea that will warm your 
 blood as if forty years had been taken from your record ; 
 and as for cold cakes, I don't keep that article, but here is 
 some batter" — and I uncovered a pan standing a little 
 back from the fire — "that will make cakes so light that 
 you will have to hold them down with your fork ; and lock 
 at that" — and I swung out of my birch bark cupboard a 
 roll of tenderloin steak twelve or fourteen inches long — 
 " I'll spit that for you so that it will dissolve in your mouth, 
 and go down your throat like honey ; and you and I will 
 have a feast that will make us feel as full as a doe in the 
 lily-pads, — for I know whom I have for my guest to-night 
 as well as if you had told me your name, and right glad am 
 I to have the best shot that ever drew bead, and the best 
 boatman that ever feathered a paddle, and as honest a guide 
 as ever drew breath, in my camp, and there's my hand, and 
 you are welcome to all I have in my pack, and to all I can 
 do for you, John Norton " — and I stretched my hand out 
 to the old man, who met its palm with his own in a hearty, 
 hunter-like grip. 
 
 " Well, well," laughed the old man, as he re-seated him- 
 self on the log, while I bestirred myself with preparations 
 for the meal, " I sorter suspicioned that ye knowed who I 
 was, but I didn't know for sartin ; for ye carry a mighty 
 steady face, and ye didn't let ou with yer eyes what ye was 
 thinkin' about, as most youngsters do ; but I take yer tvel- 
 come in the same way ye give it, and if old John Norton 
 can do anything to make yer stay in the woods more pleas- 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 51 
 
 ant-like to ye, or lam ye any trick of beast or bird, or tell 
 ye any thing of naturis ways that ye haven't larnt as yit — 
 ye may depend on it, young man, that he will larn it to ye;" 
 
 — and so saying he relapsed into silence, but watched me 
 steadily as 1 kept on with my work. 
 
 In a few minutes the bark that served for a table was put 
 in front of him, with the plates and cups, the pepper, salt, 
 sugar, and such other luxuries as my pack afforded, and I 
 poured the old man a cup of the best that ever came from 
 Formosa, while I kept on turning the cakes and the steak. 
 
 " Well, now, that's the best tea I ever tasted, for sartin," 
 said the old man, as he sipped the stimulating beverage 
 
 — u it's as smooth as spring water, and goes down a man's 
 throat as easy as an otter goes into a crick. I never tasted 
 drink that the Lord hadn't made, for sixty year of my life, 
 but latterly, 'specially at night, or when over-tired, it does 
 seem to me that a few leaves of tea, judiciously steeped as 
 ye have done it, sort of strengthens the water and makes 
 a kind of improvement on the Lord's own work, if it be 
 right for a mortal to say so ; leastwise," he added, as he 
 took a deeper quaff, " this is mighty pleasant warmin' to 
 the ribs, and sort of makes a man feel inhabited-like inside, 
 and not empty as a shanty with nobody in it;" and the look 
 of placid contentment that came to the old man's face was 
 a picture to see. 
 
 By this time, the meal was ready, and we sat down on 
 either side of the bark table, in the glow of the fire-light, 
 to eat. 
 
 " Henry," said the old man, as he drew his hunting knife 
 
52 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 through the tenderloin roll, and marked the ruddy juices 
 that oozed out, and the puff of odorous steam which as- 
 cended as the blade clove it, " this meat is cooked hunter- 
 like, and sort of encourages the teeth to git into the center 
 of it. I have often noted that cookin' was a kind of gift, 
 and couldn't be larnt out of books no more than holdin' a 
 rifle or featherin' a paddle properly can be larnt in the set- 
 tlements. The Lord gives one man one set of gifts and 
 another another, and cookin' and huntin' are things of 
 natur', and not of readin', and they don't often go all of 
 them to one man, although in yer case, Henry, the Lord has 
 been very marciful and gracious-like in his treatment of ye, 
 — for I have heerd ye are a great scholar, and love the 
 knowledge that the schools give ; and I have many things 
 I want to ax ye of — things I have heerd, but that seem 
 onreasonable to me ; but, depend on it, Henry, the best gift 
 the Lord has given ye is yer love of natur' and the things 
 that go with it — a keen eye, a quick finger, a strong back, 
 and a conscience that can meet him in the solitude of these 
 waters and hills and not be afeared; for a wicked man can't 
 bear the presence of the Maker of these solitudes, as I have 
 good reason to know" — and here the old man paused a 
 moment and gazed steadily into the fire — "yis,"he re- 
 sumed, "it is wonderful that he should have gin ye the love 
 of books and of natur' both, but I dare to say, he has his 
 favorites, as I have often noted mothers have among their 
 children, and I can see jest how it may be with him; but 
 how he came to give ye the gift of cookin' with all the 
 other ones, is wonderful, and I can't understand it, but" — 
 
THE STORY TIIAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 53 
 
 A long, loud cry, beginning with a thin whine and* swell* 
 ing up into a terrific yell, arose into the still air, from the 
 other side of the lake, held possession of the atmosphere 
 for a full minute, then died away in successive echoes, 
 leaving the stillness deeper than before the terrible sound 
 disturbed it and broke suddenly in upon the old man's 
 speech. For a full minute he sat motionless, with his fork 
 half way between the plate and his mouth, and his mouth 
 half opened to receive it, and not till the last mimic imita- 
 tion of the frightful scream had died away along the hills 
 that bordered the head of the lake, did a muscle of his 
 figure move. 
 
 " Yis, I know the varmint, and an ugly one he is, too. I 
 heerd him iu the balsam thickets as I come down the inlet, 
 and he trailed me for a full mile, as they will when hungry ; 
 but the cretur" was too cowardly to show himself in the 
 mash where the moon would tech him, for a panther has a 
 keen nose for the smell of powder, and he scented the muz- 
 zle of my rifle and knowed I had a wepon. I hoped he 
 would show himself a minit, or that the swish of the mash 
 grass as he tramped through it would make a line for me, 
 for I thought I knowed his whine, and I said to myself, if 
 he gives me half a chance I'll let light into him, and sort of 
 square accounts with the cretur that's been some time 
 standin' — but he is a cowardly chap and " — 
 
 Again the terrible scream leaped into the air, — this time 
 wild and savagely fierce at the start, and so harsh that it 
 seemed to tear the silence into shreds in very fury; and 
 the last hoarse aspiration of it was so terrible in its wrath- 
 
54 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 ful strength that the trees, water and air seemed to shrink 
 back and shiver in terror at its injection into the peaceful 
 atmosphere. 
 
 "Aye, ay 3 ! I know ye now," continued the old man, "and 
 a truer hound than ye murdered for me eleven year ago, 
 come next month, never nosed a track or guarded a hunt- 
 er's camp. Ye can yell till ye are hoarse, but if the Lord 
 spares this old body, and my eyes don't get dim for another 
 month, I'll look ye up some day and give ye the contents 
 of a grooved barrel that carries a half-ounce bullet, and 
 chambers eighty grains of powder, and ye shall larn the 
 difference between a hunter used to the sights and a poor 
 hound that has nothin' but his teeth and his courage to fight 
 ye with. I guess," continued the old man, as he rose to his 
 feet, " I had better bring up my pack and my rifle, for I 
 noted by the direction the echoes took that the brute yen- 
 der is trailin' down the lake, and he may cross the outlet at 
 the foot and scout up this side, for his cry shows he is hun- 
 gry, and he has seen our fire and may think that he can 
 play his capers on us ; but he will find the two liveliest 
 morsels he ever tried to put his teeth into, the varmint ! " 
 and laughing to himself at his own thought he started for 
 the beach. 
 
 " Henry," said he, as he stood leaning over the end of 
 his boat, " come here and we will hist this boat into camp. 
 I dare say I am foolish, but somehow I sorter feel that this 
 lake shore isn't quite the spot to leave an honest man's 
 boat on. I can remember when to have done it would have 
 cost a man his boat and scalp, too, onless the Lord marci- 
 fuly kept his eyes open by dreams." 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 55 
 
 In a moment the boat was placed where the old man 
 wished it ; and setting his back against its side for a sup- 
 port, he unlaced his moccasins, and thrust his smoking feet 
 out toward the fire. Taking a pipe from my pocket, I filled 
 it with a choice brand of tobacco I had in my pouch, and 
 proffered it to him. 
 
 " Thank ye, thank ye, Henry," said he, as he made a mo- 
 tion of rejection of the offer with his hand, "I thank ye for 
 the kindness ye mean in yer heart, but if it be all the 
 sair .e to ye I won't take it. I know it is a comfort to ye, 
 and I am glad to see ye enjoy it, but I have never used the 
 weed ; not for the reason that I had a conscience in the 
 matter, but because the Lord gave me a nose like a hound's, 
 and better too, I dare say, for I doubt if a hound knows 
 the sweetness of things, or can take pleasure from the 
 scent that goes into his nostrils. But he has been more 
 marciful to man — as it was proper he should be — and gin 
 him the power to know good and evil in the air; and smell- 
 in' has always been one of my gifts, and I couldn't make 
 ye understand, I dare say, the pleasure I've had in the 
 right exercise of it. For ye know that natur' is no more 
 bright to the eye than it is sweet to the nose ; and I've 
 never found a root or shrub or leaf that hadn't its own 
 scent. Even the dry moss on the rocks, dead and juiceless 
 as it seems, has a smell to it, and as for the 'arth I love to 
 put my nose into the fresh sile, as a city woman loves the 
 nozzle of her smellin'-bottle. Many and many a time when 
 alone here in the woods have I taken my boat and gone up 
 into the inlet when the wild roses was in blossom, or down 
 
56 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 into some bay where the white lily cups was all open, and 
 sot in my boat and smelt them by the hour, and wondered 
 if heaven smelt so. Yis, I have been sartinly gifted in my 
 nose, for I've always noted that I smelt things that the 
 men and women I was guidin' didn't, and fouud things in 
 the air that they never suspicioned of, and I feered that 
 smokin' might take away my gift, and that if I got the 
 strong smell of tobacco in my nose once I should never 
 scent any other smell that was lesser and finer than it. — 
 So I have never used the weed, bein' sort of naterally 
 afeerd of it ; but what is medicine for one man may be 
 pisen for another, as I have noted in animils, for the bark 
 that fattens the beaver will kill the rat; and so ye must 
 take no offence at what I've said, but smoke as much as 
 ye feel moved to, and I will scent the edges of the smell as 
 it comes over my side of the fire, and so we'll sort of jine 
 works — as they say in the settlements — ye do the smok- 
 in' and I'll do the smellin', and I think I've got the light- 
 est end of the stick at that." And the old man laughed in 
 every line of his time-wrinkled fare, at the smartness of 
 his saying. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE OLD TRAPPER'S AMBUSH. 
 
 " I am out of humanity's reach; 
 
 I must finish my journey alone, 
 
 Never hear the sweet music of speech — 
 
 I start at the sound of my own." — Cowper. 
 
 GO we sat on either side of the fire, filled with that con- 
 tentment which pervades the mind when the body has 
 eaten its fill of hearty food, and the process of digestion 
 is going forward under the conditions of perfect health and 
 agreeable surroundings. For several minutes we sat in 
 silence, too physically happy on my part to think ; and the 
 old trapper seemed to have undergone a change of mood, 
 for the play of humor had left his features, and his coun- 
 tenance had settled into a solemn repose. 
 
 " I was thinkin'," he said at length — "I was thinkin' of 
 things that happened here long years ago, when I fust come 
 through this lake. I can tell ye, Henry, strange doin's have 
 been done here, and my thoughts have been on the back 
 trail for several days now, and I had a feelin' come to me 
 that I oughter visit this lake, and sorter see how things 
 looked ; for there's a grave over there on the pint, that I 
 made with my own hands, and I buried the body of a man 
 in it that had no mourner at his funeral, oniess mo and my 
 hound, there, might be counted as sech. And I thought I 
 
58 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 would come through here and see if the grave wanted 
 mendin', although I dare say it lies quiet enough, and on- 
 distarbed, for I built it up in good shape, and sodded it 
 over as the man gave me word to do; — not that he ordered 
 it, but because I knowed it was his wish, for he said the 
 day he died : ' I wish when I am gone my grave might be 
 sodded as they sod them down on the coast where I was 
 born.' And I said to him, f Don't worry on that score, for I 
 will make it as ye tell me, so far as me and the hound can 
 do it;' and then he told me how he wanted it done, and I 
 will say he talked rational-like from the way he looked at 
 it, and I did it jest as he told me, as the hound there would 
 bear witness if he could speak ; and somehow, latterly I 
 got the feelin' into me that I oughter come through here, 
 and sort of see to it, and that's the reason that I am here, 
 although sence meetin' you I have wondered if I warnt 
 brought here to meet the livin' and not the dead ; for the 
 Lord don't always tell what he starts us on a journey for, 
 or what we are to find at the other end of it, for the tar- 
 miuation of things is marcifully hidden from the beginuin', 
 and the two ends of a trail never look alike." 
 
 While the Old Trapper had been thus moralizing, he had 
 risen to his feet, and turning round with his back to the 
 fire he stretched a hand out toward the lake, saying : — 
 
 " It is not often, Henry, that ye see so bright a moon as 
 that, even here in the woods where the air is as pure as the 
 Lord can make it ; and it calls up memories. It is eleven 
 year this very night that me and the houud slept here, and 
 a solemn night it was, too, for the man had died at sunset, 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 59 
 
 and his body lay right there where the moon whitens the 
 'arth by that dead root. — God of heaven, Henry, what is 
 that ! " 
 
 The old man's startled ejaculation brought me to my feet 
 as if the panther were on me, and glancing at the spot he 
 had indicated by his looks and gesture, as the exclamation 
 tore out of his mouth, I beheld only the scattered portions 
 of the Keg. Not knowing what to make of the old man's 
 excited action, I said : — 
 
 " That ? that is only a keg I picked ur/in the lake this 
 evening." 
 
 For a full minute the Old Trapper stood gazing stead- 
 fastly at it, and then he stepped to the spot where the rem- 
 nants of the keg lay, and picking up a stave he contem- 
 plated it a minute or two in grave and solemn silence, and 
 then returning to the fire he re-seated himself on the log, 
 and still holding the piece of wood in his hand, said : — 
 
 " The ways of the Lord is mysterious, and his orderiu's 
 past findin' out ; and some of his creturs are born tor good 
 and some for evil, and how he ontangles the strands in the 
 end is beyend our knowin'. But perhaps in the long run, 
 he brings the wrong to the right, and so makes the evil in 
 the world to praise him. Ah me ! ah me ! what a load the 
 man carried while off the trail, like a blind moose walkin' 
 in a circle; but before he tired I reckon he struck the 
 blazed line that led him to the Great Clearin'. Leastwise, it 
 looked so." And the old man paused, gazing fixedly at the 
 bit of the keg that he held in his hand. In a moment he 
 resumed : " I have a mind, Henry, to tell ye the story of 
 
60 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 the man who owned that keg once, as far as I know it, and 
 onless ye feel sleepy-like I will tell ye what happened here 
 years ago, and what I know of the man whose body lies 
 buried there on yender pint — for a strange tale it is, and a 
 true one, and the teachin's of it is solemn." 
 
 I was thoroughly awake, by this time, and urged the old 
 man to proceed. After a moment's silence, he began : — 
 
 ** Well, it's now eleven years gone, that I was drawin' a 
 trail through the woods from east to west, and I did a good 
 deal of my boatin' in the night, for the moon was full, aud 
 I always had a sort of hankerin' for the night work ever 
 sence I slept on the boughs ; for natur' looks one way in 
 the day-time, and another way in the night-time, and no 
 one knows how sweet she can be to the nose, and how 
 pleasant to the ears, and how han'some to the eyes, onless 
 he has seen her face, and heerd her voices, and smelt her 
 sweet smells, in the night season. I've always noted 
 that those who knowed natur' only by day-light, knowed 
 only half her ways, and less than half, too, for that matter. 
 For in the evenin' she gits familiar and confidential-like 
 with one, and talks to him of herself and her ways as 
 she never does in the day-time. For natur' has a great 
 mauy secrets, and she's timid as a young faau, and ye've 
 got to creep into thickets, and lay yer boat up under the 
 banks of streams, and lie down in the mash grass when all 
 is dark and still, if ye want to hear her whisper to ye of 
 her innermost feelin's. The Lord only knows how many 
 times I have ambushed her in her hidin' places as a Huron 
 Would a camp, and caught her at her pranks. Ah, Henry, 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 61 
 
 ye have no idee how many things I have larnt of her in 
 the night-time, or how frisky and solemn, both, natur' can 
 be betwixt the settin' and risin' of the sun. 
 
 Well, as I was sayin', I'd been over to the east bound- 
 aries of the woods, nigh on to the Horricon waters, where 
 I did a good deal of my early scoutin', to sorter see how 
 the brooks and wood-ways looked agin, but it was a sorry 
 time I had on it, for the settlers had pushed in, and their 
 mills was on every stream, and their paiuted housen stood 
 under the very trees where I used to cook my venison with 
 no sights or sounds around save those that natur' herself 
 m?de. And ye can well believe, Henry, that I was glad to 
 git away from what I went to see and be back here where 
 my ears couldn't hear the sound of axes and the fallin' of 
 trees — yis, I was mighty glad to git back where things was 
 quiet and peaceful-like, and the cruelties and devilments of 
 men that have no respect for things the Lord has made 
 hadn't come to distarb the habits of natur'. 
 
 Well, as I was sayin', it was eleven years back, and in 
 this very month, and well on in the night, that I came down 
 the inlet yender into this lake. And the moon was nigh on 
 to her full, and everything looked solemn and white jest as 
 they do to us now, and the Lord knows I leetle thought to 
 meet mortal man in these solitudes when I run agin what I 
 am. to tell ye of. 
 
 I was p iddlin' down this side of the lake, keepin' well 
 under the shore, list'nin' and thinkin', and happy in my 
 heart as a rat in the water, when I heerd the strangest 
 sounds I ever heerd come out of bird or beast. It was a 
 
62 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 kind of murmurin' noise that run out into the stillness an' 
 sorter capered round a minit, an' then run back where it 
 started from. Ye better believe, Henry, I sot and listened 
 as a man listens scoutin' alone in the night time in these 
 woods, when he gits a sound in his ears that he can't make 
 out. Yis, I sot and listened ontil I was nothin' but ears, 
 and the very stillness beat on the narves of my head as I 
 have heerd the roll of the waves on the lakes beat on the 
 beach. But for the life of me I couldn't make it sound 
 nateral, nor tell what animil it belonged to, and it took the 
 conceit out o' me to larn that there was a cretur in the 
 woods whose mouth didn't tell me its name and habits. 
 
 Arter a while I got the true direction of it, for a sound 
 goes as straight from its startin' to the ear as a bee from a 
 wind-fall or burnt clearin' goes to its hole in the beech, 
 and I said to myself as I lifted my rifle to my knee, that I 
 would ambush the cretur and find out what mouth had a 
 language in it that old John Norton couldn't tell the mean- 
 in' of. So I laid my boat up in the direction of the sound 
 as if my life depended on the proper use of the paddle. I 
 hadn't gone more than ten rods afore the noise stopped, 
 but I'd fixed it in the line of a dead Norway and I knowed 
 I could put my boat inside of fifty feet of where the cretur 
 lay. I never acted more sarcumspectly nor fetched an am- 
 bushment more easy and sartin', and in a shorter time than 
 it takes me to tell ye I had my boat under the pint of that 
 bank there within ten feet of the shrubs, with my finger 
 on the trigger of a rifle that goes easy in an onsartin am- 
 bushment. There I sot a full minit knowin' I was inside 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 63 
 
 of fifty feet of the cretur, with my eyes and ears as open 
 as they should be in such sarcumstances. Then I heerd a 
 a kind of crawlin' sound as if the brute or reptile was trail- 
 in' himself along the sand ; and I knowed if the wiggle of 
 a bush would give me the line I could open a hole through 
 him. It might have been ten feet that the cretur crawled 
 and than he stopped, but I had fixed him well in mind and 
 felt sartin I could drive the lead where it ought to go. I 
 had got the breech of my rifle half way to my face, and my 
 cheek was settling to the stock, when the cretur opened 
 his mouth, and by the Lord of Marcy, Henry, I diskivered I 
 had ambushed no animil at all, but a mortal man 1 " 
 
 Long before the Old Trapper had got to this point of his 
 narrative I had become profoundly interested in his recital. 
 For he told the story as men born to the woods tell their 
 tales of personal adventure — with a natural eloquence of 
 tone, feature and gesture which only those have whose ex- 
 periences have been narrow but intense, and who speak 
 from the simple earnestness of untutored and therefore 
 unfettered power. His narrative had been told from the 
 beginning in two languages ; one verbal and the other pan- 
 tomimic, and he had carried me along with his story as it 
 advanced as much by that which addressed the eye as by 
 that which entered the ear. He had gathered warmth and 
 energy of expression as he had gone on, until I found my- 
 self moving in sympathy with the visible action of his fea- 
 tures, body and hand3; and when he reached the climax of 
 his discovery, I shared to the full in the excitement of his 
 pantomimic action, and doubt if the shock of surprise 
 
64 ADIKONDACK TALES. 
 
 which he had experienced eleven years before in his boat 
 under the bank, on the point which lay in the moonlight full 
 in view, was much greater at the startling discovery he had 
 made, than was mine. So we sat looking full at eacl other 
 across the camp-fire, our faces tense with mutual excite- 
 ment, as if we were actual sharers in the astonishing dis- 
 covery. 
 
 " Yis, Henry, a man was there, a man on that pint where 
 I expected to find only an animil ; and his words, as they 
 came out of his mouth into the still air of the night, strong 
 and clear as a man in the rapids calling for help, were words 
 of prayer. I've been, Henry, in many ambushments in the 
 seventy years I've lived, and I've been in peril from inimies 
 behind and afore ; and more than once have I met the rage 
 of man and beast and been brought lace to face with death 
 onexpectedly ; but never since my eyes knowed the sights, 
 so my life depended on the proper use of my faculties, was 
 I ever so taken onawares or onbalanced as I was under the 
 bushes, there on yender pint eleven years gone, when I 
 heerd the voice of that man I had mistook for an animil, 
 break out in prayer. It was of the Lord's own marcy, 
 Henry, that I was not a murderer of my kind, for my finger 
 was on the trigger as I told ye, and my eye was getting onto 
 as trusty a barrel as man ever hefted, when He opened the 
 cretur's mouth with the sound of His own name. For a 
 minute the blood stopped in my heart, and my hair moved 
 in my scalp ; and then I shook like a man with the chills, 
 ontil I drew from the guard of my rifle a finger that had 
 never quivered before, for fear I should explode the piece 
 and distarb the man in his worship. 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 65 
 
 I sot and heerd the man from beginnin' to end, and I 
 larned, under the bushes that night, how hard-put a mortal 
 may be by reason of his sin. For the man prayed for help as 
 one calls to a comrade when his boat has gone down under 
 him in the rapids, and he knows he must have help or die. 
 ['ve been a prayin' man, Henry, as one should be who lives 
 here in the woods where the Spirit of the Lord is every- 
 where and in all things j but I never prayed as that man 
 prayed, and it larned me that what is prayin' to one man 
 isn't prayin' to another, for the natur' of our wants settle 
 the natur' of our prayin', and the habits of our life makes 
 the trail to His marcy level or steep. And this man was 
 climbin' a steep trail, and his soul was strugglin' on a hard 
 carry, I tell ye ; and the words of his cry came out of his 
 mouth like the words of one who is lost onless somebody 
 .saves him. It's dreadful for a man to live in sech a way 
 (hat he has to pray in that fashion j for we ought to live, 
 Henry, so that it is cheerful-like to meet the Lord, and 
 "Dleasant to hold convarse with him. 
 
 So I sot in my boat ontil he was done, and then I hugged 
 myself close in under the bushes, for I heerd him coming 
 down toward the shore, for I knowed he must pass nigh 
 where I lay in the ambushment. And he did, — aye, so 
 nigh that I could have teched him with my paddle, and he 
 had something heavy in his arms, for he staggered as he 
 went by, as if put to it for strength. In a minit I heerd him 
 shove a boat out of the bushes onto the water, and gettin' 
 in, he pushed off onto the lake. He led straight off into 
 the center of it, and I trailed him in his wake, for the moon 
 
66 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 had got back of the mountain here to the right, and I was 
 determined to see what his queer goin's-on meant. Well, 
 when he had come nigh to the middle of the lake he laid 
 his paddle down, and lifted somethin' into the air, and 
 turned it up endwise and poured what was in it out. I 
 larnt, afterwards, what it was he lifted into the air, and 
 what it was he poured out of it, for he told me with his 
 own lips, and under sech sarcumstances, and at a time, 
 when mortals are apt to tell the truth ; for he told me on 
 his death-day, when he lay dyin', and I never knowed a 
 man, white or redskin, that didn't talk straight as an honest 
 trapper countin' his pelts, when he had come to the last 
 blaze on the trail, and -his feet stood on the edge of the 
 Great Clearin'. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FINDING THE MISER. 
 
 "Sagacious hound."— Virgil. 
 
 "TTTELL, I didn't make myself known to him that night, 
 for I felt onsartin' as to the naturi of the man ; and 
 beside, I conceited I had no right to step in suddenly upon 
 a man in the midst of his troubles, of whatever sort they 
 might be ; — for it always seemed to me that a mortal had 
 a right to have ownership of his own grief, and to shet the 
 door of it agin' the whole world, as much as a hunter in his 
 own camp has a right to shet the door of his lodge. So I 
 shied off farther into the lake and made camp for the night, 
 or what there was left of it, on the island yender. 
 
 Well, in the mornin' I bestirred myself, and started my 
 fire ostentatious-like on the side of the island next the 
 p'int, and it made as much smoke as if it had been built by 
 a boy from the settlements, or a college lad in his first trip 
 to the woods, whose tongues run to words, and whose fires 
 are all smoke, — for I wanted to call his eyes over my way 
 and let him know that there was a human on the lake, and 
 one that didn't seek concealment like a thievin' half-breed 
 on an honest trapper's line ; for a fire here in the woods is 
 'ike the little keerds that the gals in the settlements, I have 
 been told, send round to their friends to ax them to drink 
 
68 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 tea with them, or jine in a jig : a gineral invite to come in 
 and feel at home. So I piled on the timber in a wasteful 
 way, and dropped on a bit of punk now and then, until, 
 'twixt the blaze and the smoke, I warrant a hunter's eye, 
 even in peace time, not to say a scout's when the redskins 
 are loose, could have seen it ten miles away. But the man 
 on the p'int never took the hint, and well enough he 
 mightn't, for I afterwards larned that he never saw either 
 blaze or smoke, for he was lyin' in his lodge back there in 
 the swale, with his thoughts far away, and his eyes on other 
 lights than such as the hands of man build. 
 
 Well, I cooked my breakfast for the hound there and me, 
 and while we were eatin' it we both kept thinkin' of the 
 man on the p'int ; for a dog of breedin' knows what his 
 master's thinkin' about, and I could tell by the movements 
 of the hound's nose that the Lord was blowin' knowledge 
 to him from the other side of the lake, and that his 
 thoughts were not on the meat he was eatin', but over 
 there where him and me had fetched our ambushment the 
 night before. So arter we had finished eatin', and cleaned 
 things up, we stood around awhile and kept our eyes on the 
 p'int for some friendly sign, and both me and the hound felt 
 sort of disappinted-like, and the least bit oneasy in mind 
 as to what it all meant ; for it seemed mighty queer that 
 the man should make no sign, not to say show himself, 
 when he must have knowed that we wanted to be neigh- 
 borly. So arter a while I put off toward the p'int, deter- 
 mined to see for ourselves what sort of a cretur' he was, 
 Whose behavior had been so mighty onusual the night afore; 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 69 
 
 And I paddled over straight for the bushes where I knowed 
 his boat was, and, sure enough, there it was plain in sight, 
 where I felt it must be. 
 
 Then I went ashore and began to poke around, and the 
 trail was plain enough for a man from the settlements to 
 follow with his eyes half shet; for it led from the boat 
 straight up the hill, under the pines and down into the 
 swale back of it. So I pushed along, keeping an eye open 
 for the shanty that I knowed must be nigh, and soon sot 
 my eyes on it, sure enough ; but it was no shanty at all, 
 only a mis'rable old tent. I will confess, Henry, that it 
 rather sot me agin the man, whoever he was, when I saw 
 him livin' shet up in an ouventilated canvass bag, like a rat 
 in his hole in the spring freshets, when he might have 
 housed himself in a bark lodge, dry and airy, with one side 
 open as a house always should be, arter my way of thinking 
 for it's a great blessin' to be able to see the bigness of the 
 world in which you are livin', and breathe the air as the 
 Lord blows it to ye fresh and strong from the slope of 
 mountains and the cool water level. And I conceit that 
 whoever lives in a canvas shed, that's damp and swashy as 
 last year's mash-grass, must be a very senseless or wicked 
 bein', who don't know how handsome the world is, or else 
 wants to hide himself from the eyes of man, and of the 
 Lord, too, for that matter ; for an honest man in the woods 
 builds his lodge so he can see and be seen by day and by 
 night, because he loves the sun and sky by day and the 
 .stars by night, and has no reason to hide himself or his 
 traps from the Lord, or from his own kind, — which is open 
 
70 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 and noble-like, as I understand it. So when I seed the mis'- 
 rable and nasty old tent, where the bark was plenty and 
 willin' to be peeled, I felt suspicious of the man, and 
 conceited that his morals wasn't what they should be. 
 But in spite of my suspicionin' I detarmined to go on and 
 nose the man out ; and I said to myself: ' What right have 
 ye, Old John Norton, to sit in jedgment on a fellow mortal, 
 and before even ye have seed him. It may be the man is 
 ignorant of the ways of the woods, and knows no better 
 nor a babe how to care for himself; or perhaps he has been 
 onfortunit and needs help more than jedgment.' 
 
 So I pushed ahead and laid my hand on the rag of a door 
 and drew it aside in a frank sort of a way, and, by the 
 Lord, Henry, the man lay dead before me ! Leastwise I 
 thought he was dead, for his eyes was half shet and half 
 open, as a dead man's should be who has died onattended, 
 and his face was as white as the moss on the rock when 
 the moonshine is on it. Well, Henry, it was a solemn sight 
 I can tell ye, and one that made me ashamed of my sus- 
 picionin' of the man, and I trust the Lord forgave me the 
 wicked thought I had had of a fellow mortal because he 
 hadn't showed himself on the p'int, or called on me at my 
 camp, when all the time the hand of death was heavy on 
 him, and his legs were as strengthless as the reeds on the 
 mash when the frost has smitten them. 
 
 Well, I stood at the door of the tent and I onkivered my 
 head, as a mortal should in sech solemn sarcumstances, lor 
 I verily thought the man was dead ; but the hound, there, 
 knowed better, for the Lord has given a sense in sech things 
 
T ONKTVERED MY HEAD." FA GE 70. 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 71 
 
 to a dog that he withholds from the master, for the hound 
 arter standin' respectful-like behind me a minit, as if he 
 would nbt he too forrud, or shame me by his better knowl- 
 edge, pushed in to the side of the body and put his nose to 
 the cheek and then just turned his eyes up to me and 
 wagged his tail. Ah me, it's wonderful what larnin' the 
 Lord has given to the creturs he has made, and how often 
 they know more than their masters ; and here was a dog 
 who knowed the livin' and the dead better than I did, 
 though the body was the body of a mortal, and not of his 
 kind. 
 
 Well, when I seed the hound move his tail, happy-like, I 
 knowed the man was not dead, however nigh he might be 
 on to it ; and so I stepped in quick as powder ever burnt 
 and histed the man up, and took him in my arms, and car- 
 ried him out of the miserable tent into the fresh, cool air, 
 and laid him down in the warm sunshine on the p'int, and 
 fell to chafin' his legs and his wrists, and pressin' on his 
 chest, and sprinklin' water in his face j and I blowed in his 
 nostrils, and did as a man should in such sarcumstances to 
 one of his kind. 
 
 But he was mighty weak, and aU the strength he had was 
 in his eyes, for he couldn't move hand or foot, more than a 
 buck with a bullet through his spine the mornin' arter he 
 is shot. And it was a very solemn sight to see a full-grown 
 man lyin' on the sand with all natur' lively around him, and 
 he onable to move a leg, or lift a finger ; and it showed 
 that the body of a mortal has no more life in it than a las*- 
 year's beaver's hide, when his sperit has left it; and it was 
 
72 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 awful-like to see a fellow bein' dead in every member of his 
 mortal frame but his eyes, and all there was of himself 
 lookin' steadily out of them at ye. But I felt he would 
 fetch around arter awhile, for the sun was warm and the 
 wind fresh, and I bolstered him up so it would blow straight 
 into his mouth and nostrils, and I said to myself, if natur' 
 can't bring him to, nothin' can. And so I felt cheerful-like, 
 and pretty sartin that between the sun and warm sand and 
 wind we would get his members warmed up and agoin' agin 
 afore long ; and the hound thought so too, for when the 
 man fust opened his eyes the animil knowed it was a good 
 sign as well as I did, for the cretur no sooner saw them 
 open naterally, than he scooted a circle round the body in 
 the sand lively as a young pup at play, and then he stopped 
 in his foolishness and let a roar out of his mouth that might 
 have been heerd over to Salmon Lake ; and then he came 
 back and sot down on his hanches close by the man, and 
 watched him as arnestly as I did. Every few minits he 
 would look up at me with a happy sort of look in his eyes 
 and fetch a wag or two, with his tail ; and it was mighty 
 cheerful and encouragin to see the animil act so, and made 
 me feel sort of chirpy myself, as I sot in the sand watchin' 
 the man, for I knowed the hound was a truthful dog, and 
 was wise in his gifts, and wouldn't lie agin the vardict of 
 them, and I conceited that the man would pick up and be 
 able to talk, if the dog said so. 
 
 " Well, arter a while the man begun to pick up for sar- 
 tin, for the blood come back into his skin, and his fingers 
 begun to open and shet easy-like, and he put his tongue 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 73 
 
 out and wet his lips naterally as a man does artei sleep in 
 a hot lodge. I sarched my pack and found some tea a city 
 woman gave me the summer afore for a sarvice I done her 
 on the Bacquette, which was no more than any man would 
 do for a woman, but which she said she should never forgit 
 till her dyin' day, — and I guess she never will, for T found 
 somethin' she had lost that lay near her heart, and I never 
 kuowed a white woman, or squaw, neither, for that matter, 
 forgit a man who done them a sarvice in that direction ; — 
 well, as I was sayin', I sarched for the tea the city woman 
 had given me, and steeped a cup of it for the man on the 
 sand, and I made it strong as the leaf would make it, for I 
 knowed it would help natur' to rally, aud make him strong 
 enough to take nourishment, and set his tongue goin', if 
 such a thing could be by the Lord's appintment. 
 
 So I gave him the drink, and it took hold on him at once. 
 It was really amazin' Henry, how the yarb put life into him 
 as if it had the Lord's own power to call the soul back into 
 the mortal frame and set the members of it workin'. Tis, 
 it was a marvel to see the power that natur' had put into a 
 few withered leaves — for the more he drank the better he 
 felt, and by the time he had come to the bottom of the cup 
 I could see that the man was nigh himself agin, and likely 
 enough to begin to talk ; and sure enough, in a minit he 
 made a effort to speak, and arter one or two trials he got 
 his tongue used to the motions, and said : — 
 
 " Old man, who be ye, that has called me back from the 
 gates of death and summoned me from the borders of the 
 grave ? " 
 
74 ADIKONDACK TALES. 
 
 li My name," I said, " is John Norton, and I be nobody 
 but a hunter and trapper who has done nothin' but live in 
 a nateral way and sarve his kind when the Lord gave him 
 a chance ; and as for bringin' ye back from the border of 
 the grave, I think ye was pritty nigh onto it, and me and 
 the hound yender, and the tea I steeped for ye, did may- 
 haps give ye a lift in the right direction — though It musn't 
 be overlooked, if ye are cur'us in the matter ; that the sun 
 and wind done their part to bring ye to ; and I dare say the 
 Lord in his marcy has done more than us all, for ye sartinly 
 would have died if he hadn't given the hound the sense to 
 know the dead from the livin' and helped us iu our endiv- 
 ers. And now, friend, what may yer name be, and what 
 game did ye have in mind when ye pushed yer trail from 
 the settlements into this lonely lake ; for I see from the 
 signs, that ye know nothin' of the woods, and I marvel why 
 a man of yer ignorance should leave the hants of yer 
 kind, and I dare say kindred, and risk yerself in these out- 
 of-the-way places, which be pleasant to those who know 
 them, but risky to them that doesn't ; so I ax ye yer name, 
 and why I find ye here alone and unprotected as if ye 
 hadn't a friend on the arth." 
 
 " John Norton," said the man, " my name is Eoberts, 
 John Roberts ; and I have not a friend on the earth, nor do 
 I deserve one, for I have forfeited the love of all that ever 
 loved me, by my evil acts, and the Lord has visited upon 
 me the punishment I deserved by separating me from them. 
 Yea, out of my sins has come judgment, and my evil 
 thought has been the pit into which I have stumbled. But 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 75 
 
 the marcy I bad forfeited has been shown me, in my guilt, 
 and the peace of the Spirit that made and lives in the uni- 
 verse has been breathed into me from these mountains and 
 tbe sky and the majesties of nature in the presence of 
 which, glad that my mortal life is eDded, I lie dying ; ' and 
 the man turned his eyes on the objects he named, with the 
 look of a hound in them when he meets the pleased face of 
 his master. 
 
 " John Boberts," I said, " I do not understand ye, for the 
 beauty of natur' is sech as to make men wish to live and 
 not to die, and though I trust I may be willin' to go when 
 He calls, still I can't conceit of any place pleasanter or more 
 cheerful-like for a human bein' to live in than these woods, 
 and I hope He will let me stay here, scoutin' round, as long 
 as His plans techin' me allow of ; and, as for that matter, if 
 He should forgit us altogether I don't conceit that me and 
 the hound would be very onhappy or feel cheated-like, but 
 would hold it as a kind of a marcy, and keep on enjoyin' 
 ourselves and sarvin' Him in the way of natur's app'int- 
 ment ; and as for friends, I haven't an inimy in the world 
 but a thievin' Huron I caught on the line of my traps, last 
 winter, and shortened his left ear half an inch with a bul- 
 let, and a mis'rable half-breed or two I've larnt the com- 
 mandments in a similar manner. But outside of these, me 
 and the hound there are in peace with all the 'arth, and feel 
 cheerful and pleasant-like toward every livin' bein', except 
 the panthers, — yis, always exceptin' the panthers, that we 
 keep a kind of runnin' account with, as the pedlars say in 
 the settlements, and square up whenever we git a chance." 
 
76 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 a Ye see, Henry ," continued the old man u I wanted to 
 chirk him up as much as I could, because he was mighty 
 weak still, and I thought that low sperits would sot him 
 back agin, so even the hound and me couldn't bring him 
 to ; and so I talked the least bit frisky-like, and took on as 
 if I felt ondistarbed. But he knowed better all the ame ; 
 for he looked at me with his eyes fixed solemnly on my 
 face and said : — 
 
 'Old man, I know you can't understand, because you 
 have lived an innocent life, and according to the light you 
 had you have walked in the path of righteousness, and the 
 peace of the upright is in your heart, and the light of it is 
 over all the world, and makes it desirable to your eyes. 
 And I can well understand that you need no other life than 
 the one you lead, or other heaven than the lovely scenes 
 which your gifts and your manner of life have taught you 
 so well to enjoy ; and I can understand, too, how you can- 
 not grasp the meaning of a guilt as those who sin against 
 light feel it : the guilt of a man who has resisted God and 
 hardened his nature by a cursed passion, and hated what 
 he should have loved, and loved with lusting what he should 
 have hated — for you have been as a child, and the King- 
 dom of Heaven has come to you with the years, because 
 your aging took not the simple innocency of childhood from 
 you. But I have lived so that memory is only fuel to re- 
 morse, and the earth a constant reminder of my guilt ; and 
 hence I would seek my heaven in the forgetfulness of death, 
 and anticipate another land beyond the grave, in hopes of 
 finding escape from what torments me here, and having 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 77 
 
 ministered unto my life the boon of a new start. And you 
 must know that there are those in the world beyond the 
 grave whom I have wronged, and the load of their wrong- 
 ing lies heavy on my soul. I would had them, and on my 
 knees ask their pardon ; for, old man, even God himself 
 cannot undo the structure of our minds, nor perform duty 
 for us, and I feel that the forgiveness of Heaven cannot 
 make me happy until I have the forgiveness of my wife 
 whom I deserted, and of my child whom I, with curses, re- 
 fused to see in her dying hour. 
 
 And you should know, old man, that I am dying, and I 
 long to die ; nor do I ask aught save that I may have 
 strength to tell you my story, and give you a few direc- 
 tions ; for it will ease my soul to talk while dying, and I 
 know it will delight you to hear of the goodness of that 
 God whom you, in simple reverence, worship, and to learn 
 from the lips of a dying sinner that the woods you so love 
 have been to him the means of his salvation. So sit you 
 down, old man, and listen closely, for I am weak, and I will 
 tell you the story of my life ; — why I am here, and what 
 you are to do with what is left of me and mine when I am 
 gone from here, as I soon shall be, forever.' 
 
 "Well, Henry, I saw that the man was in solemn arnest, 
 and I knowed the Lord was apt to give a mortal nigh death 
 a foreknowin' of the time and order of things techin' his 
 departur', and I conceited the man was right in his idees, 
 and that it would be onreasonable to resist him ; so I sot 
 down on the sand by his side and said, 'Well, friend, I allow 
 there's reason in your words, and John Norton is not the 
 
78 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 one to arger agin a dyin' man nor distarb his thoughts with 
 foolish talkin'. And it may be ye have come nigh the end 
 of the trail, as ye say, and if so I sartinly advise ye to on- 
 load yerself of whatever bears heavy on ye ; for a man 
 should enter the Great Clearm' with nothin' heavier than 
 his rifle about him, and ready for whatever sarvice the Lord 
 app'ints. And as to the directions, ye may give me as many 
 as ye have to tell, and if it be within range of mortal power 
 it shall all be done as ye tell me; fori have sot beside 
 many a dyin' man arter the scrimmage was over, and heerd 
 his words, and not one, white or redskin, friend or iuimy, 
 can rise in the jedgment and say John Norton didn't do 
 jest as he was told to do. So ye jest go ahead and ease 
 yer mind, John Eoberts, and me and the hound will listen, 
 and as we lam yer wishes so will we do, even if the traps 
 aint sot on the line next winter, or the trail of your errand 
 takes us into the onnateral noise and diviltry of the settle- 
 ments.' 
 
 So I promised the man, Henry, and kept my word, as the 
 hound, there, knows, for he heerd it all and seed it all 
 arterwards, and it was done jest as the man appinted. 
 And this is what he told me as he lay on the sand, with me 
 and the hound listenin'. 
 
CHAPTER Yin. 
 
 THE MISER'S CONFESSION. 
 
 " One impulse from a vernal wood 
 May teach you more of man, 
 Of moral evil and of good, 
 Than all the sages can." — Wordsworth. 
 
 66 "jV/TY father, John Norton, was a miser, although the 
 world never knew it ; but he loved money, and all 
 his life was spent in getting it. He lived to be an old man, 
 and when he died he was buried from the meeting-house — 
 for he was a deacon in the church — and the minister 
 preached the sermon, and told the people of his thrift and 
 economy, of his industry and sobriety, and held him up as an 
 example, when I knew, and all his friends knew, that he was 
 sober when others drank, simply because he was too stingy 
 to drink, and that his industry was all selfish, and that his 
 economy was miserly. I only tell you this to let you know 
 whence I got my love of money, and how the lust of gain 
 came in me. It was born in me, John Norton, as much as 
 the power of scenting was bora in your hound ; yea, given 
 me at birth from the miserly nature and habits of a lather 
 who was a church member, and whose character and mode 
 of life were praised by the minister when they buried his 
 body. 
 
80 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 He left me all his property, for I was his only chik/; and 
 nc one save me ever knew how much it was, for it was 
 largely in gold coin that he had hidden away, and which he 
 told me of, and where to find it, by whispering it in my ear 
 when he was dying. I was thirty years of age before he 
 died, and the property fell to me ; and until I had the gold 
 myself, and had seen it and counted it, I had lived a happy 
 life; for I was married to an angel, and had three children, 
 and a happier family never lived than we were before the 
 gold came to me. But no sooner had I gotten it into my 
 possession than I began to love it. Yea, the sight of the 
 coin started the lust for it in me, and woke to full life the 
 awful appetite for it which was in him and which he had 
 transmitted to me. And the love for that gold grew on me 
 as I handled it ; — and handle it I did, until it became a 
 passion with me. I used to get up nights when my wife 
 was sleeping and go down cellar where I kept it in a large 
 pot, and count it over, and push my hands into it, and laugh 
 to hear it rattle, and to see it shine in the candle light. 
 And the love of it grew and grew and grew, until I loved 
 nothing else. And with the growth of the dreadful lust in 
 me there grew a suspicion of men and women, because I 
 had got it into my head that they would steal it, until at 
 last I grew suspicious of my own wife and children, even 
 to such a degree that I drove them out of the house and 
 forbade them ever to cross its threshold again. You say I 
 was mad. Yes, I was mad — mad with the awful madness 
 of one in whose heart is a terrible and wicked love ; a love 
 that entices him and seduces him from good uuto evil, and 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 81 
 
 finally becomes stronger than conscience — stronger than 
 affection for wife and children — yea, stronger than his fear 
 of God. Yes, I was mad in that way, and the madness 
 grew in its fury until it became a continuous frenzy, and 
 my life one hell of raging fear, suspicion and hatred of my 
 kind. I need not tell you all, for you would not under- 
 stand it ; you could not understand it, for you have never 
 handled money nor known the love of it, and are as a child 
 in your knowledge of such an experience. At last I came 
 to these woods ; came driven by the frenzy of fear lest 
 men should steal my money ; came, not from the love of 
 nature, or the longing for a peaceful, quiet, innocent life ; 
 but in order to be where my money would be safe, for my 
 money was my God, my life, my heaven, and I feared some 
 one would steal it, and so I brought it here because no man 
 was here. How did I bring it ? I brought it in a keg ; a 
 keg stout and large, and lined with my own hands ; and 
 that keg was my altar, my shrine, my God. John Norton, 
 remember it's a dying man that is talking to you, when I 
 tell you that here, on this very beach where I now lie, and 
 you sit, I have sat in the bright sunlight and in the solemn 
 moonlight, too, and counted my money by the hour, and 
 laughed and danced around it as a devil might j yea, I, a 
 mortal man, have danced around a pile of money like a 
 heathen round his idol, with the great blue sky overhead, 
 and beyond the sky, the greater God looking solemnly down 
 with his all-seeing eyes upon me and my gold.' 
 
 And here the man paused, Henry, a minit, and he panted 
 like a young faan in her fust race with the hounds, for he 
 
82 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 was overtaskin' his strength, and I feered he would die for 
 sartin if he didn't fetch up a bit and git rested ; so I thought 
 I had better give him a lift in the right direction by talkin' 
 a leetle myself, and I drawed at a ventur', like a man who 
 sends the lead by his notions of the sound, when it's too 
 dusky to get his eye into the sights, and said : — 
 
 " If I was in your place, Mr. Eoberts, I would set down 
 and rest a bit, for ye are travelin' with a big load over a 
 rough carry, if I am any jedge, and ye are gittin' sort of 
 shaky-like in yer legs, and ye will come down in a heap 
 pritty soon if ye don't steady up a bit and take it a leetle 
 easier ; for me and the hound mean to fetch ye round yit 
 that is, if the tea don't gin out, and the Lord's app'intments 
 be not agin it. So ye jest hold up a minit or two, and rest 
 while we stir in a few more leaves of the yarb, and steep it 
 for ye easy-like, for tea can't be hurried no more than a 
 slow hound in the beginnin' of a race, before he's got the 
 scent warm in his nose, and his faculties workin'. No, the 
 yarb is spunky and knows its own importance, and won't 
 stand rough treatment ; and if ye bile it a bit, its vartu' is 
 gone, for a wallopin' pot spiles the tea ; so ye give me and 
 the hound time to do the thing up accordin' to the rules 
 and practices of correct obsarvation, and we will give ye a 
 lift that'll make ye grateful to us both. 
 
 I don't catch the pith of yer last sayin' about the eyes of the 
 Lord bein' terrible as he was lookin' at ye j and I can't conceit 
 of it, nohow. Now, the eyes of a panther are terrible, sure 
 enough, and I have lined the sights by them when they 
 barnt a hole in the darkness ; and I have had many a clinch 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 83 
 
 with a Huron in a scrimmage, when I was younger, when 
 the blood of his savagery was up, and his eyes was as red 
 as an adder's j but the eyes of the Lord, as I have seed 
 them in the works of his hand, have always been strong, 
 for sartin, but gentle and mild as a mother doe when her 
 faan is friskin' around her ; and I can't conceit of the face 
 of the Lord as bein' terrible, nor understand how a mortal 
 could be afeerd to have them on him." 
 
 And all the while, Henry, I kept kindlin' the fire for the 
 tea. But the man broke in on me, and said : — 
 
 " Old man, leave off preparing that tea and hear me ; for 
 naught that you can do will prevent my dying, for it is 
 written that I die this day, and I feel within my soul that 
 my hour is drawing nigh. Leave off your preparations, 
 therefore, for your efforts cannot save me from death, nor 
 would I have it otherwise if I could. I want you to listen 
 and hear my words, nor move again until I am done." 
 
 So I sot down agin, and the hound came and sot down 
 on the other side of the man, and then he began to talk : — 
 
 " John Norton, I came to these woods a miserable miser. 
 There was in all my life but one love, and that was for 
 money. Money I loved, loved it with all the strength of 
 my nature. For years I had thought of nothing else, and 
 cared for nothing else. For years I had no joy but the 
 fierce joy of seeing it and counting it. To me my money 
 was all there was in the whole universe worth loving, — the 
 one idol of my soul. Well, I brought it here because no 
 man was here, and hence knew it could not be stolen. 
 With it safe, T was happy. With it secure, I asked no higher 
 
84 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 boon. I was not only a miser, but I was hardened in all 
 my nature. The lust of gold had eaten out all other crav 
 ings. All noble affections, all tender sympathies, all truth- 
 ful qualities, all charities and fine emotions had been by 
 this all-absorbing passion, banished from my bosom. I was 
 only a shell of a man inhabited by one great devil. This 
 devil in me had his fierce joy, his tormenting suspicions, 
 his rending rage, his agonies and his pangs ; but no trace 
 of humanity, no fiber of charity, no possibility of peace. 
 Thus possessed, I came to this lake. You must not think I 
 had not been entreated; for man and women had alike 
 been faithful to me, and with prayers, with tears, with 
 warnings and exhortations had they striven to deliver me 
 from the devil within, and bring me to my right mind. But 
 neither man nor woman, neither wife nor child, nor the 
 Spirit of God acting in and through these could make me 
 see the sinfulness of my sin, nor the emptiness of my pas- 
 sion, nor the vanity of my life. These I could resist and 
 had resisted. Man could not master the devil in me nor 
 drive him out "of my soul." 
 
 " But here the demon was met by other agents and agen- 
 cies he could not resist, and here the devil in mo was mas- 
 tered. By whom and what? By Nature, I reply, and by 
 the irresistible majesties of God in Nature. Here the great- 
 ness of my surroundings made me small, and the immeas- 
 urable splendors above me at night, and the glories around 
 me by day, made my gold seem contemptible. Not that 
 these influences came to be felt at once ; not that the con- 
 viction produced by them was sudden, for it was not ; but 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 85 
 
 slowly, subtly, and in a way I could not fight ; with a power 
 I could not resist, out of the silence of space, out of the 
 blue sky and the uplifted mountains, out of sunrise and 
 sunset, out of the water and the air, out of the solemn 
 nights and the succession of splendid days there came re- 
 generation to my soul. Within me was born in this mysti- 
 cal way a sense of larger and holier things, and moods of 
 worship, and generous thoughts, and longings for what was 
 fine and far ahead ; so that, involuntarily, and before I was 
 aware, a change came to me in my likes and feelings, and I 
 beheld as with eyes newly opened the significance of things, 
 the use of life and the true application of its lessons. I 
 said that my eyes were opened ; and they were, so that I who 
 had never thought of the beyond and the coming, but had 
 lived in the here and the now, was compelled by a force 
 within me to look constantly up and ahead into the great 
 unseen and unknown. And this force within me I could 
 not resist. It was stronger than my will and mightier than 
 habit, and, forced by its energy, I yielded. And then out 
 of the unknown and the unseen there came forth, as the 
 blaze of a beacon from darkness and distance, a vision, and 
 it scared me at first to face it, but at last I was able ; and 
 the vision that blazed out upon me from the darkness and 
 the distance, terrible in its brightness, was the Idea of Im- 
 mortality." 
 
 " John Norton, this idea haunted me. The idea of life 
 beyond, stretching on forever and forever, unintermittent 
 and endless, lay like a mountain on my guilty soul. And 
 out of the conception came interrogations that searched me 
 
86 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 through and through like a knife. And out of this search- 
 ing, amid agony and pangs, was born a Conscience : a Con- 
 science which pinched me like a vice, and wrung groans 
 and cries of remorse out of my mouth, until, at times, the 
 silence of the night was filled with my moaning. It was 
 the silence that did it, old man ; for the silence was more 
 than silence : it was GOD. I could not fly from it; I could 
 not escape its rebukes; I could not hide myself from its 
 solemn upbraidings. .It condemned me for the life I had 
 lived; it upbraided me for the passion I had nursed; it 
 threatened me with the censure of a just and holy verdict. 
 Here, on this point, in the midst of the all-surrounding 
 silence, I found my Judgment Day. Here my mind lost 
 the petty measurement of time, and took to itself in per- 
 fect sensing the realization of eternity. Here I wrestled 
 with the Spirit that has not form, and strove with the 
 energy that can never be incarnate : the Spirit of Justice 
 and Love commingled with the energy of God. Here, old 
 man, I strove ; here I was overcome ; and here I yielded ; 
 aye, yielded to a test. And the test was this : that I should 
 deliberately, with my own hands, empty into the waters of 
 this lake the gold I had loved like a devil ; and to keep 
 which, without fear of losing it, I had been self-banished 
 from my kindred and kind and had come to this lonely lake. 
 Yes, I yielded ; yielded to the power I could not resist; the 
 power of the Lord who made and inhabits these woods, 
 and whose presence I saw and felt in their beauty, and 
 majesty, and silence. And I cried unto Him to whom I 
 had yielded, for strength to do the test ; cried unto Him on 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 87 
 
 my knees, with my hands on the keg that held the gold, 
 for strength to deliver my soul from its horrible spell, and 
 pour it — yea, every dollar of it, — into the waters of the 
 lake. And he gave me strength, old man, — even in an. 
 swer to my prayer did he strengthen me to do the deed, 
 which, being done, delivered me from the spell of the 
 •power that had held me, and from the bondage to the ter- 
 rible lust. And last night the battle was fought, and the 
 victory won, and I was delivered from Hell. For I prayed 
 unto Him, and he listened and heard ; and I lifted the keg 
 and carried it to my boat, and paddled to the middle of the 
 lake. And there, with hell and heaven to see, I lifted the 
 keg in my arms and held it out over the water, and poured 
 the gold I had worshipped into its depths. And there and 
 then, when the deed was done, the blessing of the Lord 
 came on me, and His marvelous peace stole into my soul. 
 It came to me from the air, and the water, and the sky ; 
 from the bosom of the white moon-lighted stillness 5 from 
 the motionless woods aud the shores ; came to me from 
 the nigh and the far ; from the air around me and the infi- 
 nite spaces above and beyond ; came to me, Old Trapper, 
 from the outbreathings of that God who is Spirit, and in 
 whom the innocent and the forgiven live, and move, and 
 have being." 
 
 Here the man came to a halt, Henry, and he looked into 
 my eyes as if he wanted to see if I understood, and arter a 
 minit or two he said, — - 
 
 " Old Man, do you understand me ? " 
 
 " Well," said I to him, " I can't say that the trail of your 
 
88 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 talk is altogether plain to me, Mr. Koberts, bat mo and the 
 hound has kept our eyes on ye as ye blazed along on the 
 line, and I guess we have got the gineral direction of it. I 
 can see for sartin that ye had a rough trip, and a heavy 
 pack to carry, and ye must have found it hard backin' at 
 times. It seems to me if ye had onloaded earlier ye would 
 have fetched through in better shape and saved valable 
 time, for ye look to me like a man who hasn't got over the 
 carry 'til dusk, and can't be of much sarvice to the camp 
 'til another sunrise ; but I think ye have got across for sar- 
 tin and are out of the woods, and that's a good deal to say 
 of a man who has been lost and fooled away half his day 
 by walking in circles, and I rejice that ye are where ye are, 
 aud know which way the trail leads arter this and if ye are 
 sartin of the lay of the land ahead and know where the 
 line ye are on leads to, ye oughter feel contented and hap- 
 py like, as I dare say ye do, Mr. Eoberts." 
 
 " Yes I do feel contented and happy," said he, ' happier 
 than words may tell. My sin has been great, but the mercy 
 of God is greater, and I feel I can trust Him here and be- 
 yond. I have lived as no man should live, but here, on this 
 beach to-day, my life will end, and when I am gone you 
 may think of me, as a sinner whose sin was forgiven and 
 whose soul had found peace." 
 
 Arter this he didn't say much for some time but lay with 
 his eyes lookin' up to the sky and a quiet sort of a look on 
 his face. I conceited the man was thinkin' of things, and 
 it may be of people, a good ways off, and that it wouldn't be 
 right to distarb him in his meditations. But arter a while 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 89 
 
 I said to him, for I felt a little oneasy on the subject, for I 
 leered he would forgit it, — " Mr. Eoberts, ye spoke about 
 some directions ye wanted to give me, and perhaps ye had 
 better say what ye have in mind on the matter, so me and 
 the hound may know jest what ye want done by and by; 
 for we shall mind and do jest as ye tell us, if it be within 
 the range of our gifts, and death don't overtake us on the 
 arrand." 
 
 "Well, arter a little while he turned his eyes on me and 
 said : — 
 
 " I suppose it don't make much difference where or how 
 my body is buried, after I am gone; do, you, Old Trapper V 
 
 "Well, no, I don't thiDk it does, Mr. Eoberts, when ye git 
 right down to the gist of the matter ; but every cretur' is 
 born with his prejudices, and has his own idees of what is 
 right and proper teaching things to be done ; and I conceit 
 the Lord allows a man to fetch his line about where he 
 pleases in pints of parsonal jedgment : and if I was in yer 
 place I should have my own way about my burial, and have 
 every thin' did straight and systematic-like, accordin' to my 
 own idees of the thing. Now, me and the hound there, has 
 our own notions about the treatment the mortal frame 
 should receive arter the speerit has left it, and we conceit 
 that it should be treated as a Huron treats his lodge when 
 he is about to move out of it forever. But we can guess 
 our notions wouldn't suit ye nor seem reasonable-like, be- 
 cause ye was edicated another way, and I have always 
 noted that a man sticks to his arly edication as a moose 
 sticks to his gait. So we won't distarb ye with our idees ; 
 
90 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 but do jest as ye tell us to, even if it be agiu reason, as me 
 and the hound understand it ? " 
 
 Well, the man seemed to be sort of encouraged to say 
 his mind out arter what I had said, and arter looking at 
 the sky awhile, with his eyes half shet, he said : — 
 
 " Do you know, John Norton, for days I have been 
 haunted with the fear of dying alone. I dare say it is 
 foolish of me, but I can't help it, nevertheless, and I praise 
 the Lord that He has sent you to me in the hour of my 
 need. The sight of your face helps me beyond what I can 
 tell, and the sound of your voice has banished the terrible 
 loneliness from my soul. Yes, I shall die happy, now that 
 the companionship of my kind is given me in death. When 
 I am gone I want you to give me a decent burial, as they 
 do down on the coast where I was born. And the way of 
 it is this : They dress the body in good clothes, and put it 
 in a coffin, and they read a chapter or two from the Bible 
 at the house where the man lived, and the minister prays 
 and the choir sings. Then they take the coffin to the grave 
 and bury it, and they generally have a prayer at the grave ; 
 and they sod the grave, and put a slab of stone at the head, 
 and plant flowers on the mound. I know, old man, that 
 you can't do all this, and you needn't try. Only do the best 
 you can, that is all ; especially bury me so the wolves can't 
 get my bones, and say a few pious words above the grave." 
 
 Well, arter this he said nothin' for a full hour, and I said 
 nothin' neither, for it was plain that his feet was on the 
 very edge of the Great Clearin', and I felt it was nateral for 
 a man standin't at the very end of the trail to want to look 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 91 
 
 around him in silence awhile ; and so I said nothin 7 , for I 
 feared to distarb his mind as he stood lookin' into the etar 
 nal world. By and by he said : — 
 
 " Old man, the hour is almost come when I must go, and 
 the way ahead is dark. I see no light and no helper. What 
 can I do ? » 
 
 " John Koberts," I said j for I could see by the look of 
 his face and the fear in his voice, that he was in trouble, 
 like a boy lost in the woods, H stick to the trail and keep 
 your eye on the blazed line of His marcy. Don't hurry, but 
 take it slow and sarcumspectly and trust to the rnarkin's. 
 I have heerd said that the carry ye are on led through a 
 valley, dim and dusky as a stretch of pine land by night, 
 but that the man who stuck to the line would fetch through 
 all right And remember, that me and the hound isn't far 
 behind, and sartinly the Lord aint far ahead ; so stick to 
 the line, and don't swing a foot from the trail, and ye will 
 strike risin' land afore long and see light." And I moved 
 close up to his side and lifted his head into my lap, so he 
 could catch his breath easier ; for he was laborin' heavily, 
 and I know'd he couldn't stand it much longer. 
 
 So I sot in the sand holdin' his head, and the hound sot 
 at his feet, and we both kept our eyes on the face; and ar- 
 ter our fashion I prayed for the man, and put the case be- 
 fore the Lord in a strong sort of a way, I can tell ye. 
 
 Well, arter a while a great change came over his featurs. 
 He opened his eyes and looked into my face in a happy way 
 as if he had seen a new sight, and a smile crept over his 
 lips, and his countenance softened like the clouds arter 
 storm, and he said : — 
 
92 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 " Old man, old man, I see light ahead ! " And then he 
 drawed a long contented sort of a breath, moved his legs 
 out easily in the sand, rolled his head gently over in my 
 lap as if goin' to sleep, closed his eyes; and his sperit, with- 
 out groan or struggle, stole out of the body in which it had 
 lodged so long in trouble, and passed through the clear 
 light and the air up to its Maker. And that is the way, 
 Henry, he came to the eend of the trail, and I reckon he 
 found the Lord of marcy waitin' for him at the edge of the 
 Clearin'. 
 
 So I sot in the sand, with the head in my lap, closin' his 
 eyes, and the hound, accordin' to his gifts, came and put 
 his nose agin the cheek, and then walked down to the end 
 of the pint, and sot down on his hanches, and lifted hia 
 nose into the air and lamented." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE DEATH WATCH. 
 
 " In vain the she- wolf stands at bay ; 
 The blinded catamount that lies 
 High in the boughs to watch his prey, 
 Even in the act of springing, dies." — Bryant. 
 
 "TTTELL, Henry, I didn't do nothin' about the burial until 
 next day, for I thought it looked more decent-like 
 not to hurry the matter of the entarment, and, moreover, I 
 conceited it was no more than reasonable that me and the 
 hound should hold a council over the matter ; for there's 
 nothin' helps a man's jedgment more on any pint, whether 
 it be a funeral or a scrimmage, than to set down and talk it 
 over with a companion, and me and the hound has con- 
 sorted so much together that we understand each other and 
 never differ on the main pints of a case — although I do 
 thiuk that he lost a panther last fall by gittin' the scent 
 wrong eend to in his nose, and leading off like an unlarned 
 pup on the heel of the track; but the hound thought other- 
 wise, and mayhaps I was mistaken. So I went down, on 
 the eend of the pint where he was lamentin' accordin' to his 
 gifts, and put it to him that we had better camp just where 
 we was, on the trail, and lay over till another day, and I 
 give him the reasons for it systematic-like from beginnin' 
 to eend, and made the pints plain accordin' to the natur' of 
 
94 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 the case, and we both agreed to it. And we jined judg- 
 ment, furthermore, in this, that the body oughter be car- 
 ried to a camp and watched and not left on the pint, for 
 fear the varmints would git to it over night and spile the 
 corpse. So we went back to the body, and carried it to my 
 boat and laid it down on some boughs I had cut for it, and 
 the hound followed on careful-like and sot down at the feet 
 of the body, and I got in at the other eend and shoved off, 
 and so we fetched the dead over the water till we come to 
 this pine knoll, and here me and the hound come ashore 
 with the body, and sot about preparin' for the death-watch 
 we know'd we must hold over night. 
 
 Well, Henry, it was sorter new work, ye see, for me and 
 the hound ; for though I have buried many a man in the 
 trenches arter the fight, and though I have kivered up a 
 good many redskins off and on in my life, yit I wasn't very 
 handy at the mournin' equipments of the settlements. But 
 I have seed many a gineral laid out on his bier, in the old 
 wars, with his uniform on and his sword by his side, and 
 the death sentries on duty, and the muffled drums all bea- 
 tin' ; and I conceited that though Mr. Roberts wasn't a gin- 
 eral, nor even a privit in the ranks for that matter, that he 
 should be treated in an honorable way now he was dead. 
 
 So I cut some crotches and drove 'em into the ground, 
 and made a frame of small white birches, about the size of 
 a bier, and on these I put a layer of balsam and cedar 
 boughs, and over these I scattered pine tufts ontil I had a 
 bed fit for the dead or livin', gineral or privit, and I laid in 
 plenty of hard wood for my fire, and some pitch knots, for 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 95 
 
 I said to myself, ' if the animils come round I will have to 
 shine up on 'em, and defend the corpse ' j for I feared the 
 panthers — for this lake is a great spot for the varmints, 
 and 'leven years ago there was sartinly as many as there is 
 now. And arter I had got the bier ready I laid the body on 
 ifc, and bolstered th head up nateral-like, and then me and 
 the hound sot down to supper with a dead man at the table. 
 We didn't waste time in the eatin', for the sun was already 
 down, and by the time we had cleaned things up night had 
 come. 
 
 Well, Henry, I took my stand at the foot of the bier, and 
 kept my death-watch, rifle in hand, steady as a sentry on 
 duty, save when I stirred the fire or lighted a pine knot. 
 For the animils was oneasy, as they always is when a corpse 
 is round, and I needed the pine knots more than once, and 
 some of the varmints got the tech of lead and the smell of 
 powder that night, I tell ye, for they was full of their dev- 
 ilments, and made me and the hound as wakeful as if we 
 was surrounded by inimies." 
 
 " Did you really have to kill any thing ? " I asked, speak- 
 ing for the first time in an hour j for the Old Trapper had 
 told his story with such naturalness of intonation and ges- 
 ture that he had held me spell-bound by his narrative — 
 for no one could hear him tell the strange tale he was tell- 
 ing and not be carried along by the movement of it, — and 
 now that he was evidently reaching the climax, I feared I 
 should miss some detail of his experience which being 
 omitted would mar the narration, so, hoping to hold his 
 utterance to the line of actual occurrence, I said, " Did you 
 have to kill any thing, that night? " 
 
96 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 " Well, yis, I did," he replied. " I bored a hole through 
 a dog -wolf over there on the beach, arter I had borne his 
 onnateral howlin' as long as a mortal could ; and I dropped 
 a cat from that dead cedar there, arter me and the hound 
 had stood the stare of her eyes for ten minutes or more, 
 and about two in the mornin', a litter of panthers crawled 
 in on us ontil the bush seemed alive with 'em, and I lifted 
 the scalp of the biggest of the drove, arter he had got 
 within forty feet of the corpse and paid no more attention 
 to the brands I pitched at him than if they was tufts of 
 sod ; so with a pine knot all afire, in one hand, to show me 
 the sights, I drove the lead in between his infarnal eyes in 
 a style that taught 'em all manners for the rest of the 
 watch. Yis, Henry, we had a solemn and lively time of it, 
 for sartin, that night, and at times it looked as if there 
 would be no funeral the next day ; leastways, none that me 
 and the hound would attend, onless we made one for our- 
 selves ; but we stood to our post, and between the brands 
 and the lead and the help of the Lord we brought the body 
 through safe 'til sunrise. 
 
 But it was mighty solemn watchin' by the body all by 
 myself on the shores of this lake, here that night; for at 
 times the animils would make the air roar and scream, and 
 the mountains to yelp as if the upper world was inhabited 
 with cats and wolves and panthers, and then they would 
 suddenly become quiet, and the world round about was 
 nothin' but silence with the moon shinin' through it : and 
 the dead man's face was white as the moon and still as the 
 air, for his troubles was over and the marks of them passed 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 97 
 
 from his featur's when his breath went away. And so me 
 and the hound kept our watch by the dead, 'til the sun riz 
 in the east, and the hour had come for the funeral." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE FUNERAL. 
 
 " And let there be prepared a chariot-bier 
 To take me to the river, and a barge 
 Be ready on the river." — Tennyson. 
 
 rpHE first thing to do was to fix on the spot for the grave, 
 which took leetle time to settle, for it seemed natur'l 
 that the body should lie nigh where it had lived ; and natur* 
 sartinly had made a fit spot for it jest up on the bluff, off 
 the p'int ; for it was clean and sweet there, and the pines 
 was always singin' overhead. And if a man is to be buried 
 underground, arter he is dead, which me and the hound 
 hold to be onreasonable and heathenish-like, I conceit he 
 should be laid in a sightly spot, with a good outlook to it, 
 and not stuck away in a swale or mash as if he was no bet- 
 ter nor a cat, or a root-eatin r hedge-hog. So I shaped me a 
 spade from a slab I rived from a pine the lightnin' had 
 leveled, and digged the grave deep in the dry sand under 
 the pines, and filled it half full of pine stems, and cedar- 
 twigs, and other sweet srnellin* things that grow around ; 
 and on the green stuff I flung in an armful of white lilies I 
 plucked in the bay, to make the bed look cheerful and fit- 
 tin' for a mortal to lie in. When this was done I come back 
 to this spot and did to my boat what I had done to the 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 99 
 
 grave : made it green, and sweet, and handsome, with the 
 growths of natur' that had pleasant scents in them, until 
 the boat was nigh on to bein' full. And then I lifted the 
 body and laid it at length, and put the hands alongside each 
 other on his breast, and, with the hound iu the bow of the 
 boat and me in the starn, I swung out into the lake, and 
 with easy stroke, lined a course straight as an arrow could 
 go toward the p'int. And so, without the presence of wife 
 or child, or kin of any kind to attend him ; without bell, or 
 drum, or priest, the man who had desarted his home and 
 fellow-bein's went toward his grave. 
 
 Well, arter a while the boat tetched the sand, and the 
 hound got out ; and I shoved it up a leetle further and I 
 got out, and liftin' the body in my arms I carried it up the 
 p'int, and climbed the knoll till I come to the grave, and I 
 laid the corpse down on the pine tufts and the lilies. And 
 I recalled all the man had told me about the singin' and 
 the prayer and the Book, and I did the best I could under 
 the sarcunj stances, to follow the trail of his directions, and 
 I knowed if I did the best I could accordin' to my gifts, the 
 sperit of the man would overlook the rest ; but I felt sar- 
 tin that somethin' oughter be said out of the .ordinary run 
 of human talkin', or the man wouldn't be more than half 
 buried arter 'twas all ended. And the hound seemed to 
 jine with me in the idee, for he looked up in my face in a 
 questionin' way, as if askin' when the sarvice was to begin. 
 So arter a minit I got down on my knees and told the Lord 
 what I thought was jedicious. I think I can recall jest 
 about what I said word for word, for my mem'ry is good, 
 
100 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 and a man don't talk overfast, Henry, in sech sarcum stan- 
 ces, and it has all come back to mo sence I sot here to-night 
 as if it was but yesterday sence I buried the man, and I 
 can give ye the words pretty nigh. Yis, I got down on my 
 knees by the edge of the grave and said : — 
 
 " Great Sperit, here lies the body of one of thy creturs. 
 His arthly ways was known to thee, and the wrong of his 
 wickedness was not hidden. He seems to have straight- 
 ened the trail of his misdoin's in the eend, and fetched 
 through to the Great Clearin' as a mortal should. But me 
 and the hound know'd leetle about him, and jest how he 
 came to thy presence we couldn't see, but it sartiuly looked 
 hopeful. Here me and the hound has brought his corpse 
 for entarment accordin' to orders, and the trail at this p'int 
 is onsartin', but we mean to fetch through to the eend 
 of this job with thy help. So jest give us a lift at this 
 talkin', that the corpse may have a sarvice as is becomin'. 
 Bless us in our endivers, and let thy peace, which is one, as 
 I understand it, with Natur's, come on this grave I am 
 buildin', and here rest until the Jedgment Day. Then 
 squar* accounts with the man, not by the line of give and 
 take, so much for so much, but by the line of marcy and of 
 overlookin' of scant skins in the man's count; and don't 
 forgit to reckon easily with me and the hound, for we aro 
 rather onsartin' consarnin' the blazes on this line, and sus- 
 picion we may git wrong eend to before we fetch through. 
 So be marciful to us three ; — to the man because of what 
 he did, and to me and the hound for what we didn't know 
 how to do. Keep all varmints from this grave, — sech as 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 101 
 
 cats and wolves, — especially panthers : onless I am here 
 to attend to them, in which case ye may let them come 
 rampin' round as much as the creturs' please, and I'll agree 
 to keep them orderly. Amen.' 
 
 " Well, Henry," said the Old Trapper, after a pause, " do 
 you think I did the square thing by the man ? I did the 
 best I could accordin' to my gifts and I sartinly trust the 
 corpse was satisfied." 
 
 I could see that the Old Trapper was troubled in regard 
 to the matter more than he chose to confess, and knowing 
 how impossible it is for one totally unaccustomed to forms 
 of any kind to fall into the grooves of formal utterance, I 
 could fully understand how profound must have been his 
 embarrassment in attempting to conduct a funeral service 
 according to the rules and methods which prevail in civi- 
 lized, not to say fashionable communities, and as I looked 
 into the simple, guileless face of the Old Trapper, which 
 showed doubt, perplexity, and pain in its every wrinkle and 
 furrow, I felt that I was authorized to go as far as I could 
 truthfully in the way of comfort, so I said : — 
 
 " I think you did excellently, John Norton ; and I doubt 
 not the spirit of the man was well satisfied with what you 
 did to honor his body at its burial, and I know that the 
 Lord understood your circumstances and gave you full 
 credit for the beautiful spirit of obedience to the dead 
 man's wishes you showed in following his instruction." 
 
 " Well, I am mighty glad ye think so, Henry. I have felt 
 oneasy on the matter for eleven years, for I feerd I had got 
 off the track altogether in the sarvice, for I had a dim line 
 
102 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 to trail by, as the man's talk wasn't very plain to me to 
 start with, and the hound was no more help in the matter 
 than an unlarnt pup is to a hunter on a dry track. Yis, I 
 sartinly feel easier in the matter arter what ye have said, 
 and the Lord knows I meant only good to the man, and 
 tried to be respectful to the corpse. 
 
 " Well, there isn't much more to tell ye. Arter the sarvice 
 I put some green boughs over the body, so that the dirt 
 wouldn't tetch it, and filled it up easy-like and as gentle as 
 I could. And when the fillin' was all in I went and cut 
 some sod with my huntin' knife, with the flowers all grow- 
 in' in them, and made the grave as green and pritty as 
 natur could be and than I took position soldier-like and 
 let off my piece as a kind of farewell and the hound lifted 
 up his voice and gave one lament ; and the sarvice was 
 over." 
 
 Here the old man paused, and as I stirred the fire the 
 flame leaped up and brought the features of his time- beaten 
 face in clear relief. And a remarkable face it was, and such 
 as is seldom given to man save when nature produces her 
 noblest work. It may interest some who have been in- 
 troduced to him in these pages and who will meet him fur- 
 ther on in many scenes, both of peace and war, and who 
 will grow to love him for the purity of his nature, and the 
 courage of his conduct when exposed to temptation on the 
 ?ne hand and peril and death on the other, to have a pen 
 portrait of one of the most noted characters that the latter 
 part of the last century and the early half of the present 
 one produced. 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 103 
 
 John Norton was, even in his seventieth year over six feet 
 in height, but so symmetrical was his proportion in his 
 physical stature that great as it was, it was neither awk- 
 ward nor ungainly. Temperate in his habits, and coustant 
 in the exercises which develop and retain muscular power, 
 he was even at the time of our story a marvel of physical 
 streugth. But for the fact that his eye may have lost a 
 trifle of its earlier brightness, and that his hair once black 
 as a raven's wing was now sprinkled with threads of gray, 
 it would have been impossible to believe he had reached 
 the period of threescore years and ten, for his form was 
 still erect, his step elastic and his voice clear and strong. 
 His face was of that square, strong shape, such as you see 
 in a few of the older men still living in New England but 
 who are fast passing away, and with them we fear the typo 
 of self-reliant and indomitable character they represent. 
 His eyebrows were large and abundant, and projected oyer 
 the eyes. The eyes themselves were gray and changeful 
 in color according to the method of the speaker. His nose 
 was large, and straight and full at the nostrils and broad at 
 the base. His mouth was firm and in a marked manner 
 suggestive of power. His chin was round and handsome. 
 Into this noble and remarkable countenance time had chan- 
 neled many a line, and the years had spread the repose of 
 age without weakening the aspect of determined strength. 
 In color the skin was of course bronzed, but of so pure a 
 tan that the blood showed almost as plainly as in an un- 
 tanned countenance. And, as he sat at the close of his 
 narrative gazing into the fire with his face almost solemn 
 
104 ADIKONDACK TALES. 
 
 in the gravity of its expression I said to myself as I gazed 
 steadily at it, revealed in its every line and wrinkle as it 
 was by the clear blaze, " I have never seen so noble and re- 
 markable a countenance among men." I grew to love it in 
 subsequent years as a son loves the face of a father in 
 whom is no guile. 
 
 At last he started from his revery and said, " Henry, the 
 morn is comin', for I feel the changes in the air that tell 
 the beginnin' of day. Let us heave the rest of the logs on 
 the fire and stretch ourselves for a nap, for natui has her 
 rights and must be dealt reasonably with. We will sleep 
 now, and by and by I will show you the man's grave." 
 
 I did as he requested and then, stretched at full length 
 on either side of the fire, we fell asleep. 
 
 The sun was high in the heaven before I awoke. I 
 rubbed my eyes to make sure of my sight as I started up, 
 for breakfast was ready, and the Old Trapper sat on the log 
 patiently waiting my waking. The old man divined my 
 thought, for he said : " Nay, nay, Henry, you need not feel 
 hurt because I got the start of ye ; for sleep to the young 
 is sweet, and I could not wake ye till natur' was satisfied. 
 But the eyelids of the old rest lightly on their balls, and 
 the rays of the sun wakes me quicker nor a bugler's note 
 rouses a soger. So me and the hound have been stirrin' 
 about, and between your pack and mine we have got a 
 meal lit for a king. So jest take a dip in the lake off that 
 rock there, and we will try the vartue of the victals." 
 
 After breakfast was over, the Old Trapper said, " Come, 
 Henry, we will go to the grave, and I will show ye where 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 105 
 
 the body of an unhappy man lies buried. I warrant the 
 hound remembers the spot as well as I do." 
 
 A few minutes brought us to the point where we landed. 
 The hound being in the bow of the boat, had touched the 
 shore first, and mounted the bank. No sooner had he 
 reached the top than he lifted his nose into the air, turned 
 around once in his tracks as a hound will when searching 
 for knowledge, then started in a straight line for the bluff. 
 
 " Aye, aye, I know'd the dog would recollect the spot," 
 said the Trapper, " and there he goes on a trail that's been 
 whitened by the snows of 'leven winters as if he was arter 
 a buck jest started from his nest in the moss. It's sartinly 
 wonderful what sense the Lord has given to his creturs, 
 sech as the beaver and the dog, and even a wolf in the 
 darkest night can tell the toe from the heel of a track, and 
 I have seen the wild hosses on the prairies act as sarcum- 
 spect as if they was reasouin' mortals." 
 
 At this point the long, solemn cry of the hound rose into 
 the air and rolled in mournful cadence over the lake. The 
 Old Trapper halted a moment, and then as he turned to- 
 ward me, he said : — 
 
 " You see Henry, the heart of the dog is true to his mem- 
 ory of the spot. I have heerd many a dog give vent to his 
 grief over the grave of his master, long years arter it was 
 made, and it should larn us mortals to be true to what we 
 have promised the dead, and keep their graves green and 
 sweet arter they have gone. Henry, I feel a leetle oneasy 
 lest somethin' of ill has happened to the corpse on the 
 bluff. Come, let us go and see." 
 
106 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 So saying, he started for the knoll, and I followed on. 
 We soon reached the upper edge, and the grave, with the 
 hound sitting on his haunches at the foot of it, was before 
 us. The Old Trapper's face brightened as he saw it had not 
 been disturbed, for, except that the mound had shrunken 
 somewhat, and that the green growths of nature were more 
 luxuriant, it was evidently the same as when it had been 
 fashioned eleven years before. 
 
 The Old Trapper paused as he reached the head of the 
 mound, and leaning on the muzzle of his rifle, said, "Henry, 
 the Lord has sartinly been marciful, and kept the grave on- 
 distarbed, and natur' has made it handsomer than it was 
 when me and the hound left it ; and a sightly spot it is, and 
 a cheerful one for a grave to be in, for the view up the lake 
 is a good un, as ye see, Henry, and the pines overhead 
 keep up a pleasant sort of a darge. Yis, it sartinly is a 
 cheerful spot for a grave, and if me and the hound could 
 make it seem reasonable to us we would sartinly pick some 
 sech spot as this to lie in arter we are dead ; but it don't 
 square with our notions of right and wrong, and we can't 
 make it nohow, though we have held many a council over 
 it. Still, a grave makes solemn and instructive company 
 for a mortal, especially for one as old as me and the hound ; 
 and it may be, a leetle overhaulin' the pack, and goin' over 
 the count of the years we have lived sence we left this 
 grave, wouldn't do either of us any hurt; and as it is a 
 matter that the young and them that has long life ahead of 
 them aint much interested in, perhaps it may be as well 
 that ye go back to the camp and pack things up for a start, 
 
THE STORY THAT THE KEG TOLD ME. 107 
 
 Henry, for we will take to the boats when me and the 
 hound has done with our meditations. 
 
 Appreciating the wish of the Old Trapper to be for a 
 brief time alone, I retired down the knoll, and entering the 
 boat was soon at the camp. As I stepped ashore, I cast 
 my eyes across the bay to the bluff, and then I uncovered 
 my head. The Old Trapper, with the hound looking stead- 
 ily into his upturned face, was kneeling at the head of the 
 grave, engaged in prayer. 
 
THE STORY OF 
 
 THE MAN WHO DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 
 
 Part I. 
 
THE MAN WHO DIM'T KNOW MUCH. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BEATER'S LODGE. 
 
 " For men like these on earth he shall not find 
 In all the miscreant race of human kind." 
 
 Homer, Pope's Translation. 
 
 TT was early autumn, and the woods were only just be- 
 ginning to take to themselves the variegated colors 
 which make our northern forests a wonder to foreigners 
 and an annual delight to those who live within sight of 
 their glorious changes, that two men might have been seen 
 forcing their way through the underbrush of a tamarack 
 swamp, which divided two small lakes near the centre of 
 the wilderness. On the shoulders and head of one was 
 balanced a birch canoe, larger than the average make, 
 while the other was literally loaded down beneath a mon- 
 strous pack-basket, which was not only full of camp and 
 trapping materials, but had tied to it a dozen and one arti- 
 cles for culinary and camp use. In a few moments the 
 man under the canoe came to a halt, and laying it gently 
 on the ground, he turned to his companion and said : — 
 
 " Come, Henry, let's halt a minit and git breath. This 
 is sartinly a tough carry, and ye are loaded like a sinner 
 
112 ADIKONDACK TALES. 
 
 at the Day of Jedgment, when as I have heerd the mis- 
 sioners say mortals will be summoned into court with all 
 their devilments on top of 'em. And while ye have nothin' 
 that an honest man need be ashamed of, even in front of 
 the Lord, yit I will say that ye are mighty heavily cum- 
 bered with the fixin's, for sartin, and yer legs must feel in 
 a rebellious state agin sech treatment as ye've been givin 
 'em for the last mile ; for if there's any thing that will set 
 the sinews in a man's thighs twitchin' and sort of knottin'- 
 up like, its fetchin' a carry through a tamarack swamp like 
 this, with a whole camp on his back, and no bottom worth 
 speakin' on under him. That's right, — settle down there 
 on that bog and squirm out of the straps and ease yerself 
 awhile. I'll bet the wales on yer shoulders are red as a 
 rat's hide when the meat has peeled with it ; and as for yer 
 neck, the infarnal basket, Henry, has rasped it like a file. 
 How do ye feel inwardly, for I know ye smart outwardly T " 
 
 " 0, 1 feel all right," replied his companion. " Of course 
 the straps have cut into me a little, and the basket has 
 worn through the skin somewhat, I guess, by the feeling 
 on my neck ; but I am good for the distance between here 
 and the lake, wherever it is ; and when we get through, if 
 it is a decent place to look at, we will take a rest and a 
 good strong meal too, for I am as empty as a last year's 
 gourd." 
 
 " I like the sound of yer talk, Henry," said the old man, 
 whom our readers will have easily recognized as John Nor- 
 ton, the Trapper, and his companion as Henry Herbert, "I 
 like the sound of yer talk," continued the old man, laugh- 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 113 
 
 ing ; " and I can well believe ye; for ye have the look -of a 
 man whose loadin' is all on the outside and none of it in, 
 and I should ventur' the opinion that a pound or two of 
 that steak ye have in the basket there, jediciously spitted 
 and eaten slowly, 'twixt proper allowances of corn cakes 
 and spring water, re-inforced with a few leaves of the tea, 
 would round ye out and make ye look sort of enhabited- 
 like ; for I have always noted that a man with no victals 
 in him looks like a desarted settlement, — kinder lonesome, 
 and a good deal as if a funeral was goin' on inside of him. 
 But another good lift will bring us out of this snarl of tam- 
 arack and put our feet onto the beach of as handsome a 
 lake as the Lord ever made, even here in these woods, 
 where he does seem to have did his best, and kept at it a 
 long while, too ; for I think, 'twixt trappin' and boatin', I've 
 been on a thousand of 'em off and on in the last forty 
 year; but a prittier one than lies ahead of us never had 
 its springs set runnin', if I am "any jedge. So crawl into 
 yer straps, Henry, and I will give yer pack a hist, and we 
 will see how soon we can fetch out of this devilment of 
 bushes ; for a tamarack swamp is the devil's own work in 
 natur' for sartin ; and if a man who is nothin' but ordinary, 
 and hasn't been favored in pious edication, can bring a boat 
 or a pack through one of 'em and not get sort of strong 
 and arnest-like in his speech, it is because the Lord is on- 
 usually marciful to him, anyhow." 
 
 So saying, the Old Trapper lifted the canoe on to his 
 shoulders, and pushed determinedly on through the dense 
 thicket, whose dried, thorny branches scraped and rattled 
 
114 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 against the bottom and sides of the canoe, until the noise 
 might have been heard miles away. * 
 
 At last, after twenty minutes or so of desperate strug- 
 gling, in which the strength and temper of both must have 
 been severely taxed, the Old Trapper burst out of the op- 
 posing brush, and cast the canoe upon the yellow sands of 
 a beach which curved its line of gold around the northern 
 shore of a lake. In an instant, Herbert tore his way out of 
 the swamp, and without saying a word, settled, with the 
 pack still on his back, into the soft sand. His pantaloons 
 were seriously torn, his hair full of moss-dust, and bits of 
 dried twigs, while his face was fairly white with weariness. 
 
 "Well, Henry," said the Old Trapper, as he looked at 
 him, after having unbuckled the straps which bound the 
 pack to his companion's shoulders, " ye look as if ye had 
 been in a tussle that taxed ye, and yer breeches seem as if 
 they had got the wust of it lor sartiu. I have never liked 
 the tailoiin' of the settlements, for I have never seed any 
 of their work that would hold when a man was in the cen- 
 ter of a tamarack thicket, or a windfall, and got sort of 
 arnest-like in his feelin's. Summer afore the last, a man 
 from the coast, that I run agin in a mighty weak condition, 
 aud sort of nussed back to life, sent me a box of stuff, aud 
 it had for sartin a great many useful things in it, sech as 
 traps, powder and lead, not to speak of tea and other yarbs 
 for medicine. Yis, he sartinly put in a good many things 
 accordiu' to reason, and useful to a man of my gifts; but 
 he missed the trail entirely in one thing, for he sent me, all 
 done up as pritty as could be, and tied with red string, a 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 115 
 
 whole suit of garments that he called black cloth, or wide 
 cloth, or some sech name, not to speak of hat like the 
 cliapeau the militia wore fifty years agone, and which I 
 could no more keep on my head in this bush than a beaver 
 could keep his fur in spring-time. But I felt sartin the 
 man meant it for good, and to sort of please his mem'ry, 
 and show proper feelin' in the matter, I sot apart a day to 
 celebrate the man's good-heartedness ; and I got into the 
 things, hat and all, and if ye b'lieve me, Henry, when I 
 looked in the glass I didn't know myself. And I said, 
 'John Norton, be this you! " And I marveled, Henry, that 
 a mortal could so change himself by a few clothes that he 
 should be strange in his own eyes. But the thing that 
 seemed queerest of all was that the hound there, that ye 
 know is a knowin' dog, and a obsarvin' one, too, who had 
 been foolin' around with a young faan in the thickets for 
 exercise, come in, and seem' me settin' in a cheer, hat and 
 all on, whirled his tail round and let a threatnin' roar out 
 of his mouth that made the cabin ring, and he showed his 
 teeth in a way to make flesh of a cowardly half-breed creep. 
 Yis, Henry, to think that a few city garments could change 
 a man so even his own hound wouldn't know him ontil he 
 heerd his voice, and actally got his scent in his nose. I 
 have spent a good many hours wonderin' about it, I tell ye. 
 Well, Henry, I never tried on the coat and vest and hat 
 agin, ye may believe, for they was useless to one of my 
 gifts, and made the hound onhappy ; but I did think the 
 breeches would sarve me awhile, for they was roomy and 
 looked as fine and tough as a doeskin j and so I detar- 
 
116 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 mined to give them a try. I put them on one mornin' 
 when startin' on a still hunt, and by the Lord, Henry, when 
 I got back at night there wasn't any breeches on me, least- 
 wise nothin' to make a fair show on a man in the settle- 
 ments. It was amazin' how they went to pieces. The 
 briers went through them as if they was paper. I left 
 them all along the line of my trail as a bear leaves the fur 
 in the beginnin' of summer. And it lamed me a lesson 
 tetchin' the tailorin' of the settlements which I shall never 
 forgit. And ever sence we started on the trip I have felt 
 onsartin about yer garments, and though they have held 
 on agin all expectation, yit, sooner or later, I knowed they 
 would play a prank on ye and gin out sudden-like. And if 
 ye will take my advice ye will let me make ye a good pair 
 of buckskin I've tanned with my own hands, and I warrant 
 ye will never get a brier through them or feel oneasy about 
 yer appearance in company." 
 
 "While the old man had been talking, Herbert had re- 
 mained stretched at length upon the sand with his head 
 bolstered against the pack basket, recovering his breath 
 and gaziug with eyes which drank in the loveliness of the 
 scene around him. It is doubtful if he had even heard half 
 the Old Trapper had been sayiDg, so absorbed was he in 
 contemplation of what would seem to one unaccustomed to 
 such scenes, more like a picture from Fairy Land than an 
 actual landscape of the earth. The lake was perhaps a 
 short mile in length, and bordered with high hills both on 
 the eastern and western shores. The whole northern end 
 was in the form of a sickle, and ornamented with a beach 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 117 
 
 of sand of brightest yellow. The southern and eastern 
 shores were bordered with a marsh whoso deep green grass, 
 brightened here and there with various colored flowers, 
 stretched far out into the shallow waters of the lake. The 
 shores were thickly wooded with evergreens, while here 
 and there a maple, far up the hillside, flung out its flame of 
 color as a royal banner, planted in some ivied recess of an 
 ancient castle, might wave its rich blazonry forth to the 
 passing breeze. At last, as if his soul had drunk its fill of 
 the surrounding beauty, Herbert rose to his feet, and still 
 gazing off upon the water, said: "John Norton, this is lovely ; 
 by what name is this lake called, or has it no name ? I 
 have never seen a sweeter sheet of water." 
 
 "I am glad ye think so, Henry," rejoined the Trapper; 
 " for I have always thought it was about the best the Lord 
 could do in this line, and many be the days and nights I 
 have spent on its quiet shores, for I have know'd it off and 
 on for fifty year ; and the first time I ever sot eyes on it 
 was under sarcum stances kalkerlated to make a man re- 
 member it, I tell ye ; for I was hard pressed by a pack of 
 redskins, and me and a comrade held our own agin 'em for 
 two days and two nights, and we put our marks onto the 
 biggest part of them in a way the Lord will remember in 
 the Jedgment, for they did awful murder here ; and I sunk 
 in the water there, off that p'infc, as handsome a body as 
 the Lord of Life ever made, if her skin was red and her 
 father the chief of the thievin' Hurons. And as for the 
 name, it is a name which the Indians gin it, arter what hap- 
 pened here in the scrimmage I've told ye of; for they say, 
 
118 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 and there be white men who swear to the same, that in the 
 month of July, on the twenty -fifth day, jest afore dawn, a 
 white figger can be seen comin' up out of the water, and 
 that it walks over to this beach and then across to where 
 yon stream comes in, through the alders there, and then 
 floats back abreast the p'int and sinks out of sight; and 
 they call it the ' Lake of the Lovely Spirit.' And I can well 
 believe the spirit is lovely ; for she was lovely in life, and I 
 don't see why dyin' should mar the beauty of the Lord's 
 cretur's. Yis, it sartinly is a handsome lake, and its shores 
 are thick with mem'ries to me. And right on this very 
 beach, aye, jest here where we stand, I had a tussle with 
 half a dozen redskins which came near being my last, and 
 a life was given for mine, and another met the death that 
 was meant for me, here. But I squared accounts with the 
 last of the scamps thirty year ago, and that's sartinly con- 
 solin' to one who remembers, as I do, the cruelty of the 
 devils, and how they did murder without cause and agin 
 reason." 
 
 " Well," Herbert responded, " the lake is certainly beauti- 
 ful and appropriately named, too, if what men say occurs 
 here, and I will make you tell me the history of your fight 
 on this lake fifty years ago, some day, and all about the 
 death of the beautiful Indian girl, if the memory is not un- 
 pleasant for you to recall. But now I am hungry and feel 
 as if the sooner we get»a fire started and some meat cook- 
 ing the better it will be for my feelings." 
 
 " Sartinly, sartinly," rejoined the Trapper promptly, " but 
 not here lad. Toss your pack into the canoe and I will pad- 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 119 
 
 die yer over there to where yon stream comes in through 
 the balsam grove, and we'll find a camp all ready for us 
 there onless the snows has broken down the lodge poles, or 
 some onlarnt city man has stolen the bark off the roof for 
 kindlin's." 
 
 In a few moments the two were in the canoe which the 
 Old Trapper was urging with an easy stroke across the 
 glassy surface of the unruffled water, and shortly the canoe 
 was run ashore in the green grass at the mouth of the lit- 
 tle rivulet which with a faint musical gurgle flowed through 
 the balsam grove under the alders into the lake. 
 
 " There, Henry," exclaimed the old man, as he stepped 
 ashore and cast his gaze around him, u This looks home- 
 like for sartin. Many be the days and many be the nights 
 I have lodged here, both in winter and summer, and I have 
 never seed the time when the mouth of this little brook 
 didn't give me fish, or the shores of this lake didn't keep 
 me in ven'son. And as for ducks, and geese, and wild fowl 
 in their season, Lord-a-massy, Henry, the water used to be 
 black with 'emj and I've taken the head of many a duck 
 off with my bullets, sittin' right here in the door of the 
 lodge ; and if ye noted the ledge back of here as I paddled 
 ye in, ye saw the home of more panthers than any other 
 spot in the wilderness. Many a night have I laid here in 
 my lodge and heered their cries and screams as they scrim- 
 maged with each other, or held their ugly feasting over the 
 body of a buck. Yis," continued the Old Trapper, as he 
 lighted a match and applied it to a bunch of dried twigs he 
 had piled in the fire-place, " I have kindled my fires here 
 
120 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 by flint and steel instead of lucifer matches, and started a 
 blaze under different sarcumstances than we be in to-day. 
 Come, Henry, do ye fetch some water from the brook and I 
 warrant ye will find it cold as the iced drinks of the settle- 
 ments, and we will have the pot bilin' and the steak cookin' 
 in no time." 
 
 Both men now applied themselves to their respective 
 tasks and in a brief space of time they were sittin' cross- 
 legged on the ground with a bark between them covered 
 with food smoking hot. Without delay Herbert addressed 
 himself to the eating with the quick, earnest motions of 
 hand and teeth, of a man who is desperately hungry and in 
 the enjoyment of perfect health. 
 
 The Old Trapper sat looking at his young companion a 
 moment with a look of broad, but benevolent humor on his 
 wrinkled features, and then picking up a corn cake he 
 placed a bit of the brown luxury leisurely in his mouth and 
 said : — 
 
 " It does my old jaws good, Henry, to see ye so familiar 
 and off hand like with the victals. A parson I guided last 
 summer used to think it ongrateful not to say grace afore 
 he fetched a morsel, and he lived up to his idees of right 
 and wrong, for sartin, for he never failed to say grace over 
 his plate afore he tasted it ; but he had a powerful strong 
 hold on language, and I used to conceit many a time that 
 he overdid the thing a leetle. Ye see, Henry," said the Old 
 Trapper in a low, confidential tone, as if half talking to 
 himself, "the man was chock full of words, and gave tongue 
 like a young hound on his fust track, and he sort of spilled 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 121 
 
 over because he was so full of 'em. The least chance to 
 say something religious joggled him, and I do think I've 
 heerd the man say his prayers so long over his plate that 
 his victals actally cooled before he got to 'em, and that's 
 what I call darned foolishness, put it any way ye mind to. 
 
 Now, Henry, I never cook a steak or bile a tater or brown 
 a flapjack that I don't sort of have a pleasant feelin' inardly 
 to the Lord for his marcy to me ; and sartiu, 1 never sot my 
 teeth into the crumpy edge of a brown corn cake like this 
 and didn't feel how pleasant and cheerful a thing it is to 
 live ; for a cake like this is toothsome eatin', and if the 
 meal isn't too fine, there are chunks of the karnals lyin' 
 around in it that the teeth git into, and the tongue intar- 
 prets the real vartue of the corn, in a way that sartinly 
 ought to make a man grateful for the faculties the Lord has 
 gin him, and the sweet growths of natur.' 
 
 But as for a man stoppin' to ontangle a string of pious 
 words when his stomach is empty, and he feels like a cel- 
 lar with no house over it, and the steam of the hot victals 
 is strong in his nostrils, why, Henry, I must say that it 
 seems to me to be agin natur' and reason. My idee is that 
 the Lord knows all about our feelin's and can see the grace 
 of the man's heart goin' up, as the victals go down, and 
 that he loves to see us dip in hearty-like, and as if we en- 
 joyed the smell and taste of the things He has made to 
 grow for us ; and if words must be said, I conceit that they 
 should be said arter the man is full, and is ready to sit back 
 and feel religious-like ; but as to wastin' time in lay in' hold 
 of the Lord's marcies when they are all smokin' hot and 
 
122 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 afore ye, and the 'wind is coolin' 'em, I don't conceit that 
 the Lord expects any such foolishness from men of sense 
 and jedgment." 
 
 So the two men sat eating and talking in the wise, hu- 
 morous fashion of American back-woodsmen, until thoy jad 
 satisfied the demands of nature. They then washed the 
 dishes, and having re-packed the basket restored it to the 
 "canoe, and stood one at either end of it ready to launch it 
 forth on the level water and resume their journey. This 
 they did in a moment, and were soon on the bosom of the 
 lake, whose unruffled surface reflected like a perfect mirror 
 the blue sky and white clouds above, and the autumnal 
 glories of the hills on either side. 
 
 " I tell ye for sartin, Henry," said the Old Trapper, as he 
 lifted his paddle from the bottom of the canoe, and passed 
 it with the easy motion of long habit into the water, "I tell 
 ye, for sartin, Henry, that we shall have some fun afore we 
 git through this trip ; I feel the comin' of it in my bones as 
 a hound gits the fust stray whiffs of the true scent in his 
 nose, and opens on it musical-like. I'm mighty glad ye are 
 with me and can stay in, this year till the snow drives ye 
 out, and later, too, if ye have a mind, for I must confess 
 that I take to ye mightily, and the trail will be lonely and 
 the old lodge empty-like, when ye are gone. Now, I nave 
 an idee that we had best swing across to the Saranacs and 
 see what's goin' on there, for ye remember we heerd them 
 talkin' in the camp we ambushed on the Cranberry waters, 
 of a boat race that the city folks was gittin' up on the Sar- 
 anacs. Ye see, Henry, ye pull a mighty clean stroke and a 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 123 
 
 strong one too j and though I have held the paddle back of 
 a good many men who was handy with the ash, I never felt 
 a boat git away from under me as fast as ye make it when 
 ye fairly put your strength onto the blades, and I would 
 give the best furred beaver's hide I shall trap this winter 
 to see ye cut out a stroke for two miles and return, with 
 them cocky Saranac chaps; for they think they can out- 
 shoot and outrow all creation, and it would be doin' the 
 Lord's sarvice to take a leetle of their foolishness out of 
 'em, as I feel ye can do ; and if they would only let me in, 
 too, I tell ye, Henry, twixt you at the oars and me at the 
 paddle we'd e'enamost drive the bottom-board out of the 
 boat and show 'em what an old man and a young one used 
 to the woods, when they jine works, can do," and the old 
 Trapper gave a flourish with his paddle, and passed it into 
 the water with an energy that fairly lifted the canoe half 
 off the water. 
 
 "Well," rejoined Herbert, I like your plan, and we will 
 push through as you say, for one spot is as good as another 
 to me, and I would like to see the races and take a hand in 
 them, too, if you wished ; but I would like to see a beaver 
 lodge before we go out, and you know you said I could see 
 one almost any day." 
 
 "Sartin, sartin, I did," returned the Trapper, "and ye 
 shall see one inside of thirty minits if the vagabonds have 
 done their summer wanderin' and got back to their homes ; 
 for there's a lettle pond here, away to the right of the carry, 
 twixt this and Mud Lake, from which I have taken many a 
 hide, and I never skeerd one of 'em by careless trappiu' 
 
124 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 and so they keep comin' back every year, as they will if ye 
 don't distarb them by any foolishness, and I warrant a dozen 
 of the brown backed rogues are playin' in the water this 
 very minit. Aye, here we be at the carry, and we will 
 leave the canoe and see if we can ambush the pond." 
 
 A swift walk of twenty minutes brought the Trapper and 
 his companion to a point where the old man paused, and 
 turning to his comrade, he said in a whisper : — 
 
 " There, Henry, jest over that pine knoll is a bit of mash 
 with a pond in the center of it, and the grass grows tall, 
 but there's not a bush on the whole lot, and we must crawl 
 for it; and if there's any way ye can make yourself flatter 
 than another, I sartinly advise ye to try it, and if ye break 
 a stick as big as the stem of ye pipe, Henry, ye will see 
 no beaver to-day, for they be mighty timerous animils, and 
 their ears and eyes are as open as a Huron's in the midst 
 of an ambushment. So be keerful, lad, and if yer gifts be 
 as good at crawlin' as they be at shootin', ye shall be lookin' 
 into the eyes of a beaver within forty feet of ye inside of 
 ten minits. Now down to the arth, Henry, for we sartinly 
 have got to snake it." 
 
 So saying the Old Trapper sank to the earth, and being 
 followed in the action by his companion, the two began to 
 work their way noiselessly over the knoll and into the tall 
 grass of the meadow. 
 
 It would have been an interesting spectacle to one un- 
 accustomed to exhibitions of woodcraft, to have stood on 
 that knoll and have seen with what patience and skill the 
 two men woxked their way onward through the tall grass 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 125 
 
 toward the pond. Not a twig snapped, not a rustle came 
 from the withered grass, and scarce a movement of the 
 pendent blades revealed that two human bodies were pass- 
 ing onward toward the edge of the pond. Two-thirds the 
 distance had been covered, when the Old Trapper paused in 
 his course and noiselessly passing his hand backward along 
 his side beckoned with his fingers for his companion, who 
 had been trailing in his wake, to move up to his right. This 
 he did, and the two men lay stretched side by side, motion- 
 less as logs, in the tall grass. The Trapper put his lips to 
 the ear of his companion, and breathed, rather than whis- 
 pered into it : — 
 
 " Yis, Henry, ye are a nateral woodsman, for sartin, and 
 ye can crawl like a Huron, and I rejice in yer gifts. Ye 
 remind me of a lad I had as a comrade in the old war, and 
 a truer hearted boy, though a redskin, never drove a bullet 
 into a grooved barrel. Many a time has he and me crawled 
 our way out of danger when the inimy was round us on all 
 sides, and athirst for our blood : but the boy himself couldn't 
 have fetched this trail stiller than ye have done. By the 
 Lord, Henry, I wish we had men and not beavers to crawl 
 onto, for this sort of business stirs memory and blood both 
 in me, and my hand has actally slid toward my knife han- 
 dle more than once sence I started, as if there was a inimy 
 somewhere, lyin' close in the grass, when I know a human 
 bein' isn't within forty mile of us ; and there's nothiu' more 
 harmful than innocent beaver in front. Now, Henry, let 
 your very breath go down into the sod, for the edge of the 
 pond isn't fifty feet away." 
 
126 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 To these whispered reflections the young man made no 
 reply save with his eyes, and in an instant the two bodies 
 slowly, and without noise, began to move on through the 
 grass. 
 
 Five minutes may have passed when two human heads 
 moved slowly and partially out of the grass that grew with 
 rank luxuriance on the edge of the pond, and hung pen- 
 dant over and drooped its points into the water. Several 
 beavers were swimming hither and thither in the water, 
 while several others were busily engaged in mending the 
 dome of their home. 
 
 The Old Trapper put his lips to the ear of his companion 
 again, and said, " Ye see the activity of the creturs, Henry, 
 and how they work wisely accordin' to the sense the Crea- 
 tor has given 'em. Do ye see the old fellow with the white 
 patches on his sides and the light spot atween his ears. If 
 he would only turn round, ye would see he had no tail, for 
 he left it in my trap two years ago, and how he steers him- 
 self in swimmin' the Lord only knows. I would give the 
 best horn of powder in the cabin to see him try to circle 
 this pond once. I doubt, lad, if there be another man in 
 the wood that could fetch himself through the grass to the 
 edge of this pond, and not distarb the watchful creturs. I 
 would like to see the man that could do it, for sartin. Jest 
 stay where ye are, Henry, while I move a foot or two to the 
 left to git a glimpse back of the lodge." 
 
 So saying, the Old Trapper rolled slowly over till his back 
 was turned to his companion. He rolled over, but moved 
 not an inch beyond. His face suddenly sharpened with ex- 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 127 
 
 citement, his nostrils dilated, and his hand sought the han- 
 dle of his knife in earnest, for there, not three feet from 
 his face, was the face of another man, and a pair of 
 
 BRIGHT EYES WERE GAZING FIXEDLY INTO HIS I 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 AN ANIMATED BUSH. 
 
 " Dressed in living green." — Watts. 
 
 " Thou comest in such a questionable shape 
 That I will speak to thee." — Shakespeare. 
 
 A FLASH of lightning is not quicker than was the mo- 
 tion with which the Old Trapper sprang to his feet, 
 knife in hand, and, as he struck the perpendicular, he ex- 
 claimed: "Henry, lad, up with ye, and set yer eye into the 
 grass here and see as fine an ambushment as a Huron ever 
 made. Look at his eyes, boy, and tell me if ye can the 
 name of the cretur', and what be the purpose of his devil- 
 ments." 
 
 The motion of the Trapper was not quicker than that of 
 his companion, as he rose from the grass to the old man's 
 side ; and certainly no astonishment could be greater than 
 his, as following the direction of the old man's finger, he 
 saw the gleam of eyes gazing, as it were, from the very 
 roots of the marsh-grass into his face. 
 
 For a minute the -two stood gazing downward into the 
 grass where lay the body of the man, into whose very reach 
 they had crept without the least suspicion of his presence. 
 The countenance of Herbert showed only blank astonish- 
 ment and surprise too great for speech, with such a startled 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 129 
 
 expression as nature will bring to the face of one unac- 
 customed to such a sudden summons as the cry of his com- 
 panion had been to him. The look of the Trapper's face 
 showed neither astonishment nor alarm. If, on the instant 
 of discovery, he had felt either, its expression had passed 
 from his countenance, and in its place there had come to 
 his features the look of profound curiosity. He was evi- 
 dently studying, with the full force of his faculties, the trick 
 or arrangement by which the man, whose eyes alone were 
 visible, had been able to so conceal himself that even by 
 those who were then looking downward upon him, not a 
 square inch of his garments could be seen. In a moment 
 the Old Trapper opened his mouth and began to laugh in 
 his silent but hearty fashion. For several seconds he in- 
 dulged himself in his peculiar, self-satisfying merriment, 
 and then, turning to his companion, he exclaimed : — 
 
 " By the Lord, Henry, the cretur', whoever he be, has the 
 gift of concealment, for sartin; and he has larnt a man, 
 whose head has whitened on the trail, a trick the Hurons 
 never dreamed of ; and it might well take the conceit out 
 of me if age had not larnt me the wisdom to know my 
 ignorance. For here be I, a man who has never lived in 
 the settlements, but lived accordin' to my gifts in the woods, 
 and has seen a thousand ambushments, and knows all the 
 tricks and devilments of the redskins, and the cretur' at 
 our feet here has larnt me a lesson in hidin' whose vartue 
 sets my eyes swimmin'. See, Henry, the cunnin' of the 
 cretur'. Bless me, boy, if he hasn't woven the very grass 
 into his breeches ; aye, and into his shirt, and the hair of 
 
130 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 his head, too ; ontil the very mash is not greener nor more 
 like the arth than he. It's marvelous that a human bein' 
 could so convart himself into a bog, that a man with my 
 gifts and my trainin' might e'enamost have crawled over 
 him and not felt the shape and warmin' of his body." 
 
 " Come, friend," exclaimed the Trapper, as he drew back 
 a step and motioned toward the man at his feet, with a 
 hand that still kept its hold on the knife, " Come, friend or 
 inimy, whichever ye be, suppose ye hist yerself from the 
 bog and show yerself in yer nateral form, as the Lord made 
 ye, that we may see what sort of an animil ye be that has 
 crawled to the edge of this pond with the whole marsh on 
 yer back, and deceived the eyes of one born in the woods." 
 
 As the Old Trapper uttered this exclamation, the grass 
 upon which they were gazing, with eyes that lost not a mo- 
 tion, became agitated. A quiver ran through a section of 
 the turf at their feet, and then the body of a man, covered 
 from head to foot with grass and bits of sod, deftly woven 
 together in the semblance of a mantle, rose into the air and 
 stood upright before them ; but the strange covering with 
 which he had clothed himself still clung to his garments, so 
 that it was impossible to discover the size and shape of the 
 man, or what might be his actual appearance when entirely 
 rid of his strange metamorphosis. But it was plainly seen 
 by the two men who stood staring at the astonishing figure 
 before them, that the man was of extraordinary height, and 
 that his arms, at least, were unusually long j but beyond 
 this, little could be guessed of his proportions or real ap- 
 pearance. 
 
HE SHOOK HIMSELF." Page 131. 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 131 
 
 " And dow, friend," continued the Trapper, as he stood 
 eying the wonderful figure before him, " if the grass isn't 
 nat'ral to ye, and hasn't growed into yer skin so it would 
 hurt ye to part with yer heathenish raiment, and especially 
 if ye have got any breeches on, and yer ribs are kivered 
 with a waistcoat, suppose for our knowledge and yer own 
 comfort, ye sort of shake yerself free from what don't nat'- 
 rally belong to ye, and show yerself to us jest as ye was 
 afore ye stole the kiverin of the arth to sarve ye in yer 
 cunnin', — that the boy here, and me, may know what sort 
 of a man ye be; for though I have lived in the woods sence 
 I was born, and have consorted with whites and redskins 
 alike, nigh on to eighty year, and have seen all the tricks 
 and devilments of Injin cunnin', yit I be ready to confess I 
 never seed a man look as ye do, or onkivered, afore to-day, 
 sech an ambushment as ye made for the beavers here on 
 the edge of this pond. So shake yerself out of yer kiverin 
 and show us yer nat'ral figur, or I shall sartinly lay hold of 
 ye and see what's the color of yer hide myself." 
 
 In obedience to this exhortation of the Trapper, the 
 strange being, who had not yet opened his mouth, but had 
 remained staring at the two in front of him, began to 
 quiver from head to foot. He shook himself as a dog 
 shakes himself from extremity to extremity ; the vibra- 
 tions began at his head, from which, as the agitations grew, 
 the grass spires and bits of sod began to fall in a shower, 
 and as the motion worked its way down the body on its 
 way to his feet, so did the strange covering fall away from 
 him, until with a kick and flourish of his feet the last ad- 
 
132 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 hering tufts and pieces of bogs and patches of swamp- 
 moss flew from his limbs, and a creature of astonishing 
 height, clothed in buckskin from toe to neck, stood forth in 
 plain view. 
 
 As the strange process of freeing himself from his un- 
 natural, but cunningly wrought covering, had gone on, and 
 while the agitation was at its height, and the air around 
 the man was literally full of the grass and sods and moss 
 he was shaking from himself, the Old Trapper yielded to 
 the sense of the humorous that was natural to him, and 
 beginning with a smile and a twinkle of the eyes, the ex- 
 pression of mirthfulness deepened and spread until it pos- 
 sessed his broad face and convulsed his stalwart frame. 
 He drove his knife into its sheath, and putting his hands on 
 his knees laughed a laugh that brimmed his eyes with irre- 
 pressible tears. In this laughter — from the very conta- 
 giousness of it perhaps — his companion joined, and had 
 there been a spectator to the scene, he would have per- 
 ceived the strange spectacle of two men, standing on a 
 marsh, on the edge of a beaver pond, bent and swaying 
 with mirth, while in front of them stood a man, of immense 
 height and length of limb, but unusually lank in his pro- 
 portions, and with a countenance that moved not a line, 
 nor changed a shade in its look of simple and almost solemn 
 gravity. 
 
 " By the Lord, Henry," exclaimed the Trapper, " if the 
 man isn't made up of grass and roots and yarbs ! He is 
 nothin' more nor less than a section of the mash on legs, 
 and where there's depth of sile enough in him to support 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 133 
 
 scch a crop is rnoro than I can see, for he isn't thicker than 
 a rived shingle, and another shake would send him into 
 etarnity." And the Old Trapper fairly surrendered himself 
 to the merriment of his mood, and laughed and roared 
 until the woods that bordered the marsh rang hollow to the 
 sound. 
 
 Indeed, there was much in the appearance of the man, 
 whoever or whatever he might be, in front of them, to pro- 
 voke the mirth to which Herbert and the Trapper were so 
 freely surrendering themselves, especially when taken in 
 connection with the attendant circumstances of the scene. 
 In height he was at least six feet and a half, but of such 
 spare and extremely slim proportions that he appeared of 
 even greater height. As for flesh, it could not with truth 
 be said that ho had much of any on him, for he seemed to 
 bo altogether made up of bones, skin, and sinews. His legs 
 were of extraordinary length, even as contrasted with his 
 immense height, and his arms fairly matched his legs. His 
 hands were flat, with long, slim fingers and enormous joints 
 and knuckles. His chest was narrow and his shoulders 
 decidedly stooping. His face was beardless, and strange to 
 say, well and regularly formed in its features. His mouth 
 was rather small, chin pleasantly rounded, his eyes a light 
 grey in color, his head fairly shaped and covered scantily 
 with fine, light-colored hair. On his upper lip was a 
 downy growth, scarcely discernible against the blonde skin 
 that seemed incapable of taking tan or of receiving those 
 characteristic lines which life and exposure bring to the 
 average countenance. The dominant expression of his faco 
 
134 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 — and it spread its soft mildness over every feature, — was 
 a look of profound simplicity — the simplicity of one utter- 
 ly guileless, and whose innocence is the result of passions 
 unexcited, and possibly of capacity too limited to receive 
 the temptations and seductions which are supposed to assail 
 and be received by the majority of mankind. Whether it 
 was the normal expression, a natural constituent of the 
 youth's countenance — for he could not have seen thirty 
 years — or whether it was because he did not understand, 
 and was pained at the somewhat boisterous mirth of the 
 two men in front of him, was uncertain j but over his face, 
 especially in the unsteady light of his eyes and around the 
 corners of his mouth, was visible the slightest possible ex- 
 pression of plaintive deprecation, as if he suffered in being 
 laughed at, and yet knew not why he was the object of 
 their mirth, and had not the strength of self-assertion to 
 resent it, even if he did know. It was the hurt, deprecat- 
 ing look of a loving animal, intelligent enough to receive 
 the pain inflicted by the ridicule, but unable or unwilling to 
 defend itself from the infliction. 
 
 The Old Trapper perceived what seemed to be passing in 
 the mind of the singular being in front of him; he checked 
 his laughter and his face settled into its accustomed grav- 
 ity. He even made a motion that had in it the grave 
 significance of an apology, and, after gazing closely but 
 respectfully at him for a moment said, in the direct fashion 
 of a hunter's speech, and in a tone that had in it the vibra- 
 tion of astonishment, " Who be ye ? " 
 
 For a moment the man made no reply, but stood looking 
 
THE MAN TIIAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 135 
 
 first at the one and then at the other. At last his eyes 
 fixed themselves mildly but steadily upon the honest "coun- 
 tenance of the Trapper and he replied : — 
 
 "I BE THE MAN WHO DON'T KNOW MUCH." 
 
 " Well," returned the Trapper, " ye are singularly named 
 for sartin, and I dare say honestly, but ye are the fust man 
 I've ever met on the arth, whether he was born in the 
 woods or the settlements, that would own up to his lackins, 
 or confess to his foolishness. And as to yer not knowin' 
 much ye sartinly know enough to ambush a beaver pond 
 when the water is alive with the rogues, and the top of 
 their lodge sentinelled by the father of the tribe, who larnt 
 the folly of carelessness in a way a beaver isn't apt to forgit, 
 when he left his tail in my trap two year agone j and that's 
 givin' ye credit for larnin' that few men in the woods have 
 to-day, not to speak of the parsons and other great men of 
 the settlements, who could no more fetch a trail across this 
 mash to the edge of this pond here and not skeer the crit- 
 ters than they could stop a wild pigeon in its flight with a 
 single bullet, with all the larnin' of their books to- help 
 them. And let me tell ye, lad, for it may comfort ye if ye 
 are short of larnin' and feel the lack of it powerful-like, 
 there isn't another man twixt the Horicon and the great 
 plains, that could so sink his body into this mash and kiver 
 it with grasses that old John Norton, when fetchin' an on- 
 sartin' ambushment, would crawl within reach of his knife, 
 if he was hostile, and lie within a yard of him for three 
 minutes and not know of his presence. And was it not for 
 the cunnin' of yer trick and the fact that years has larut 
 
136 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 me that the gifts and the larnin' of mortal man is imparfect, 
 I should be kivered with shame at the thought that I actally 
 rolled over agin ye afore I knowed the grass within reach 
 of my arm was inhabited. So, comfort yerself, lad, for ye 
 are sartinly gifted as few be in crawlin' and hidin', for ye 
 have done what was never done afore by white or redskin, 
 in peace or war, sence my eyes knowed the trail, or my 
 nose larnt the difference twixt the smell of dead grass and 
 the body of a mortal. And why are ye here, lad, and where 
 are ye bound ? " 
 
 But the youth made no reply, but stood and stared at the 
 old man, with mouth half open and eyes filled with sur- 
 prise. At last, without answering the interrogation of the 
 Trapper, he said : — 
 
 " Be you John Norton, the Trapper ! I've heard of you 
 since I was a boy on the farm, by the great sea, aud men 
 told great tales of you, and one man said you saved his life 
 way off in the West, where the land is all flat and the In- 
 dians are thick as the grass. ADd partly because they 
 laughed at me at home after mother died, and partly be- 
 cause I wanted to find you and live with you, I ran away 
 and came to the woods here, where I've been these twelve 
 years trying to find you. And now I have found you, and 
 you said I did well in crawling onto the beaver here, I'm 
 so happy." And the poor fellow paused as if overcome 
 with very delight. And then he looked wistfully at the old 
 Trapper, as if he would ask a favor, which he feared would 
 not be granted, took a half step toward him and said 
 timidly, "John Norton! Please, may I take one of your 
 bauds ?" 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 137 
 
 " Lord bless ye lad, of course ye may. And ye needn't 
 think its any great honor cither, and if I can do yo any 
 good, or give yo a lift in any way, I will do it for sartin, 
 and there's my hand on it," and tho Trapper stretched out 
 his broad palm to tho youth, who took it in one of his long 
 bony hands and clasped his lingers round it with a close- 
 ness of grip that would have crowded tho bones out of 
 place in a weaker structure, while his face was absolutely 
 radiant with delight. 
 
 " Aye, aye, shako away," exclaimed the old man, laugh- 
 ing as he saw the pleasure on the young man's face and felt 
 tho power of his grip, " ye've got a grip like a bear-trap, 
 and if ye was as strong in yer back as ye are in yer fingers 
 ye'd be a tough one to meet in a scrimmage when yer blood 
 was up and the whoop of yer inimies was sharp in yer cars, 
 and yo warmed to tho work. And now, what can yo do 
 and what can I do for ye, my boy? for tall as ye be ye seem 
 no more than a boy to one who has seen seventy years 
 come and go, and whose head is whitnin' with tho snows of 
 the winters he has lived." • 
 
 " I can't do much," responded the other, " for I am not 
 smart, but slow, and I never could learn at school like my 
 brothers, although I got through my letters ; and mother, 
 who never scolded me because I was dull, learnt me to spell 
 a good many verses in the Bible, and I haven't forgot ono 
 if them either. But I can work at almost anything you 
 may put mo at, and if you will only let me live with you I 
 will do anything you tell me. And I had great luck at trap- 
 ping last year, and I have as nice a boat as was ever built, 
 
138 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 and a very good rifle, and traps enough to set a twenty mile 
 line ; and I love the woods and I love you, for I have heard 
 of your goodness, and if you won't laugh at me because I 
 am dull, nor blame me when I make mistakes, I will work 
 for you as long as I live." 
 
 While the poor fellow had thus been running on in his 
 entreaty, the Old Trapper had stood looking steadily at him; 
 and over the calm gravity of his features there came, as the 
 youth proceeded, a look of supreme tenderness, as if the 
 spirit of the mother, to which the speaker alluded, had ac- 
 tually taken possession of the Trapper's heart, and was 
 pleading within his bosom in behalf of her unfortunate boy. 
 For a moment after the youth had done speaking, the Trap- 
 per stood gazing at him in silence ; then he said : 
 
 " Boy, ye may come with me, and whether ye know little* 
 or much, be quick or slow in larnin' and doin', I will be yer 
 friend. Ye may not be knowin', and I honestly doubt if the 
 Lord has favored ye in that respect, for sartin ; but His gifts 
 are not all in one direction, and the cuuningest beaver hasn't 
 always the deepest fur$ and He has sartinly gin ye an 
 honest face and a sperit as innocent as a faan's, and that 
 goes furder in His sight, both here and in the world to 
 come, than a knowin' head and a cunnin' tongue, as I jedge. 
 So ye may go to yer boat, which I conceit to be in the out- 
 let, and we will fetch our'n over the carry and jine ye as 
 soon as we may. And Henry," continued the Old Trapper, 
 as he turned toward his companion, " do ye take the hand 
 of the lad, for the Lord alone knows the parpose He has 
 had in bringin' us together in this ambushment, nor where 
 the trail that leads us from this mash will tarminato." 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 139 
 
 At the word of the Trapper, Herbert had advanced and 
 took in a frank, hearty way the hand of the youth, who 
 seemed greatly embarrassed at the friendly overture, but 
 who nevertheless extended his hand to Herbert's grasp, but 
 in a timid way that characterizes the act of a bashful and 
 shrinking spirit. " Ye sartinly don't look much alike," re- 
 marked the Trapper, as he stood looking from one to the 
 other of the young men, so nearly the same in age, and so 
 totally unlike in other respects. "No, ye sartinly don't 
 look alike, and yer gifts are wider apart than yer looks, 
 and I marvel that the Lord should give to one of his cre- 
 tur's so much and so little to another ; but I dare say he 
 has bis reasons and acts with jedgment in the matter, 
 though to a mortal who knows only what he sees, it looks 
 unfair and agin reason. But the Missioners say — and I 
 conceit there may be truth in it, — that things on the arth 
 got twisted by some devilment or other in the beginnin' ; 
 but that afore long the Almighty will straighten things out, 
 and he who has leetle shall have much, and the last shall 
 be fust ; but it will take a good deal of overhauling as I 
 jedge, and I don't see jest how it is to be fetched about 
 though it ought to be, for sartin. Come, lad, ye go yer way 
 to yer boat, and we will jine ye as soon as we can fetch the 
 canoe and the pack over the carry." 
 
 Thirty minutes later, Herbert and the Trapper had crossed 
 the carry and stood on the bank of the stream where they 
 had expected to find their new acquaintance, but no one 
 was in sight. They had traversed the carry in that noise- 
 less fashion which a life of caution, natural to those who 
 
140 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 depend for their food and safety on the stillness of their 
 movements, quickly makes habitual, and now they were 
 standing, the Trapper leaning on his paddle at the eud of 
 the canoe ready to launch it forth on the stream, and Her- 
 bert, rifle in hand, on the extreme edge of the bank wait- 
 ing for the word to embark wben the old man should shove 
 off. For several minutes they stood listening for some 
 sound that should reveal the coming of their comrade ; but 
 no sound could be heard, save the rustle of the beech leaves 
 overhead, and the squeaking of some mold-mice in a bog 
 near at hand. 
 
 " I say, Henry," said the Trapper at length, in a low tone 
 of voice and scarcely above a whisper, " where do ye think 
 the lad is ? Here we be on the outlet where we told him 
 to meet us, but I see no signs of the boy. What shall wo 
 do, — Hoot ! here ho comes ! The lad has his gifts, but ho 
 isn't parfect at the paddle yit, for I sartinly caught the 
 sound of it in the sand, where the stream shallows into the 
 lake. You will see him round the bend in a minit, or tho 
 hole in my ears has growed up." 
 
 Sure enough, in a moment the boat came round the 
 curve, and was laid along side the bank where they stood. 
 In the boat was a pile of traps of various makes and sizes, 
 and just from the maker's hand ; for they had the new, 
 fresh look about them which even one season's uso would 
 take away. A pair of oars of uncommon length and admir- 
 ably modeled, trailed from their row-locks. A vifle of unu- 
 sual size and weight, with horn and bullet pouch, was lashed 
 with buckskin thongs to a resting place evidently made 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 141 
 
 for it, along the right side of the boat, which was itself 
 extraordinarily long and narrow, being fully seventeen feet 
 in length, and not more than three feet in its widest section 
 at the center, and the lines on which it was built was per- 
 fection itself, for fast running. A hound, of great- size and 
 beauty, evidently a cross between the Irish and German 
 breed, sat upright on its haunches on the forward thwart. 
 As the boat moved easily up to the bank at his feet, the 
 Trapper said : — 
 
 " Well, lad, ye are well furnished for sartin, though yer 
 boat is too long to work easy in the cricks, and would make 
 a good many backs ache on the carry. Yer traps is all 
 right although a leetle too newish for ra'al sarvice, but a 
 few months' usin' will limber them up mightily. The dog 
 is a good un and I marvel where ye found him, for next to 
 Eover here, he is the biggest dog of his cross 1 ever seed 
 in the woods. I think if they consort well together and 
 are friendly we will let them drive one buck this fall in 
 company for the sake of their music, for a hound's mouth 
 has a great many tunes in it that are wurth listenin' to on a 
 frosty mornin', if I am any jedge. Yer rifle looks biggish 
 to one who has larnt that a heavy barrel don't make the 
 lead go any furder, but it has, as I see, a big bore, and 
 chambers a handful of powder, and that's in it's favor when 
 ye want to do long work on a windy day, or ye are on the 
 pint of squarin' accounts with a panther. Ye needn't git 
 out lad," but shove down the crick and we will follow. We 
 are pushin' through to the Saranacs to see the boat race 
 there, and take a hand in it too it may be, and we must 
 
142 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 camp to-night thirty mile from here, and the sun is on the 
 west side of the pines already. We shall have time to be- 
 come better acquainted afore we git through." So saying 
 the Trapper launched his canoe and the two boats disap- 
 peared down the crooked stream. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 CAMP LIFE. 
 
 " In Nature taere is nothing melancholy." — Coleridge. 
 
 TT was nigh sunset when a boat, followed closely by a 
 canoe with a paddler at either end of it, shot out of a 
 bay that indents the western shore line of Big Tupper, near 
 its southern extremity, and headed toward the falls made 
 by the water that comes tumbling out of Bog Eiver, over 
 the ledge of rocks which impedes its easy entrance into 
 the lake below. Both boat and canoe were being propelled 
 at a rate which showed that the man who bent to the oars, 
 of the boat, and those who wielded the paddles in the canoe 
 behind him, were accustomed to the work they were at and 
 were not disposed to loiter. The lake was as smooth as if no 
 ripple had ever stirred upon its surface, and the clouds which 
 lay in rolls and patches overhead, crimsoned on their western 
 sides by the red rays of the declining sun, and dark on the 
 other with the gloom of the coming night, were perfectly 
 reflected in the still depths. The bay out of which they 
 had come was speckled with the highly colored autumnal 
 leaves which the winds of the day had blown from the 
 maples that lined the upper end of the cove, and lay like 
 great flakes of crimson snow that could not sink nor melt, 
 on the blue-green surface. Through the still air came the 
 
144 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 roar of the falls in solemn murmurs, now swelling with full 
 volume of sustained sound, and anon sinkiDg and dyiDg 
 away until the ear almost lost the direction of the smoth- 
 ered swell. The mountains to the east stood forth in all 
 their grand proportions, their vast sides from base to sum- 
 mit red with solar flame, and their peaks showing sharply 
 in outline against the dusky blue of the remoter sky. The 
 mountains to the west were already dark with the growing 
 gloom, and their ponderous shadows stretched half across 
 the lake. 
 
 " I tell ye, Henry," said the man, who, kneeling in the 
 bow of the canoe, was wielding his paddle with the precise 
 and leisurely but powerful stroke of strength and consum- 
 mate skill, and who was none other than our old friend, the 
 Trapper, — "I tell ye, Henry," said he addressing, without 
 turning his head or varying his stroke, his companion in 
 the stern, "the lad pulls a strong stroke, if it be rather 
 slow and not so snappy as is jedicious in a light boat. His 
 gather isn't very handsome, for sartin, and his head sort of 
 lops down on his chest, but his boat runs on an even keel 
 and he reaches for a good deal of water. I conceit we had 
 better flirt this birch up to him a leetle and let him know 
 that we mean to git to the pint soon enough to take supper 
 with him any way. Do ye lengthen yer stroke a foot or so, 
 Henry, and give me the beat of a leetle livelier tune, back 
 there, as the fiddlers say, for the paddle in the bow must 
 take its hint from the paddle in. the starn, onless ye would 
 have yer boat rockin' like a cradle in the settlements." 
 
 To this injunction Herbert yielded a ready assent, and set 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 145 
 
 the Trapper a stroke that gave him a chance to put his 
 enormous strength into his paddle. For half a minute not 
 a sound was heard, save the dip of the paddle-blades as 
 their thin edges were whipped in and out of the water, and 
 the hiss of its parted surface as the sharp canoe flew 
 through it. Up and down the paddles flashed. They rose 
 and fell with the precision of machinery, and driven by 
 their powerful pressure the canoe fairly flashed through the 
 dusky air. For a moment it gained rapidly on the boat — 
 so rapidly that in an instant its beak was within a dozen 
 feet of the boat's stern, and the Trapper called good natured- 
 ly to the man who was working soberly at the oars ahead : — 
 
 " Look out, lad, we are comin' for ye. Henry has sar- 
 tinly tuck the floor in arnest, with his moccasins off, and 
 has sot my paddle agoin' to the motions of a jig that the 
 parsons in the settlements never danced to. We don't want 
 to run ye down, lad, and spill yer traps and yer dog into 
 the water ; but ye sartinly will have to lengthen yer stroke, 
 and put a little more snap into yer gather, or we shall bunt 
 ye in a minit." 
 
 " I don't care if you and Henry do bunt me," returned 
 the man at the oars, " for I know you are only in fun ; but 
 I'd just as soon run faster as not, for the sooner we get in 
 the sooner we will have something to eat — and I am real 
 hungry ; — but I don't think you can catch me, for I've got 
 a first-rate boat to run, and my oars are very long, and I'll 
 lengthen out a bit if you say so." 
 
 While he had been saying this, in a simple, quiet tone of 
 voice, with not the least vibration of excitement in it, he 
 
146 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 had been lengthening his stroke and quickening his gather, 
 until by the time he had done speaking he was pulling with 
 a sweep and finish that no one could have believed possible 
 to one so spare of frame and so awkward in his habitual 
 motions. 
 
 By this time the two boats were fairly flying, for The Man 
 Who Didn't Know Much had set himself a stroke which 
 an English coach would have called nearly perfect, — long 
 and strong, and evenly pulled from beginning to end. The 
 immense length of his body and arms, taken in connection 
 with the size of his oars, enabled him to get and keep a 
 hold on the water a full yard ahead of where an ordinary 
 stroke would begin, while the blades remained in the water 
 until they had passed nearly to the stern of the boat and 
 were ready to trail. His recovery was certainly not quick, 
 but it did not linger at any point, and was made with the 
 precision of machinery, while the blades dropped into the 
 water of the lake as if it was oil, for not a drop was dis- 
 turbed on the surface, and the grip they got on the water 
 was as strong as pressure could make it from the start. It 
 was a stroke such as no one that had not the Lad's enor- 
 mous length could deliver, and which would require far 
 greater strength than his, probably, to sustain ; but if it 
 could be kept up, no mortal man of shorter build could live 
 a race out with him. 
 
 " I tell ye, lad," said the Trapper, as he put the strength 
 of his powerful frame into the paddle, until the polished 
 staff bent to the strain, as a foil bends when the fencer sud- 
 denly drops his weight on to it, — "I tell ye, lad, I have seed 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 147 
 
 many men pull oars on these lakes and on the great rivers 
 of the West, too, when death was in full chase astarn and 
 they had good reason to do their best ; but I never seed a 
 man pull sech a stroke as ye are pullin'. And if ye had a 
 leetle more thickness across the chest and around the small 
 of yer back, I don't believe a man on the arth could 
 hold even with ye for a mile, onless the devil was arter him, 
 and the Lord of Marcy gave him a lift. Now, here be Henry 
 and me, who have our gifts, and among them I sartinly 
 reckon the jedicious use of the paddle aint the least ; and 
 onless he has forgot himself, I dare say he is doin' his share. 
 And I know that if 1 should put another ounce into my 
 stroke I should break as tough a paddle as second-growth 
 ash ever made ; and that would be a bit of foolishness, as I 
 jedge. And yit ye hold yer own agin us handsomely, and 
 it sartinly looks, as I see the swing of yer stroke, and git 
 the reason of it, that ye might let out another link or two 
 if sarcumstances raally called on ye for it. I tell ye, Hen- 
 ry," continued the Trapper, as he turned his face a trifle 
 toward his companion and lowered his voice, " I've always 
 held that two paddles, used with reason, could beat any 
 two oars in the univarse. But the lad, here, is sartinly 
 holdin' us even, and, I do believe, he has actally gained six 
 good inches in the last twenty strokes ; and if yer paddle 
 will bear it, I sartinly advise ye to put a leetle more force 
 into yer stroke, as I shall into mine, if the staff in my hands 
 goes to pieces ; for I'll never own up that one man at the 
 oars can beat two men at the paddle, if I be one of 'era, 
 and the ash holds together. So, Henry, quicken yer stroke 
 
148 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 agin, and drive the stick ye have in yer hands into pieces, 
 as I sartinly will mine, onless we bunt the lad fair and 
 square, so as to start the paint on his starn-board, within 
 the next fifty rods." 
 
 The Old Trapper was evidently warming to the work, at 
 the thought that one of his favorite notions was in peril, 
 and the manner in which he flashed his paddle-blade far 
 out ahead, as he finished his summons to Herbert, showed 
 that his next stroke would test the strength of his paddle 
 beyond what ordinary wood could stand; but the stroke 
 was never delivered, for as his body rose into the air and 
 extended itself forward for the full exercise of his immense 
 powers, a sharp, quick quiver ran through the canoe from 
 stem to stern, and, yielding to the tremendous sweep which 
 Herbert gave to his guiding blade, it swooped so suddenly 
 aside from the line of its previous course that any one less 
 accustomed that the old man to the frail thing would have 
 lost his balance and beeu pitched headlong into the lake. 
 
 " What is it, boy, what is it ? " exclaimed the Trapper in a 
 hoarse whisper, as he felt the signal ruu through the canoe, 
 " and where away is he ? By the Lord, Henry," continued 
 he, as his eyes caught sight of an object standing out in 
 bold relief on the shore a hundred rods, perhaps, to his 
 right, " a bigger buck never wet his hoofs in the water or 
 made his bed in the moss. Ye have done this thing sar- 
 cumspectly, lad, and larut an old man the foolishness of 
 talkin' and actin' like a person without eyes when his belt 
 is slack from emptiness, and there's no ven'son in the pack. 
 That's right, Henry, git round into place and take yer rifle 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 149 
 
 and leave the paddlin' to me, for yer eye is keen and yer 
 
 i 
 hands steady, and the buck, there, is an old 'un and has 
 
 seed man afore, and ye will have to shoot a far shot and 
 
 put yer bullet where it ought to go, or we'll sup without 
 
 meat to-Dight, that's sartin." 
 
 The actions of the two men thus suddenly and unex- 
 pectedly interrupted in their race, were characteristic, and 
 perfectly illustrated the habits of those who depend on the 
 alertness of their senses for their profits and their food in 
 the woods. 
 
 The eyes of Herbert, even amid the excitement of the 
 race, acting in harmony with a law of habit which had in 
 it from constant practice, the force of nature, had never 
 shortened the range of their observation, but searched with 
 occasional glances the gathering gloom of the western 
 shore for some such presence as they had at last — in the 
 extreme end of a little cove heavily bordered with cedar 
 and balsam — discovered. With instinctive sagacity he had 
 shied the canoe to the left, out into the lake and away from 
 the buck, and in such a manner that when it came to a 
 stand, the end in which he was sitting would be pointed 
 toward the game. Thought is scarcely quicker than the 
 motion with which the Old Trapper, the instant his eyes 
 caught sight of the buck, had slid from his kneeling pos- 
 ture into the bottom of the canoe where, now sitting, he 
 was ready for the advance. Herbert had no sooner deliv- 
 ered the stroke with which the canoe had been turned from 
 its course and checked in its career, than, sliding his paddle 
 intr it, he changed his position to the reverse of what it 
 
150 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 had been, and with a motion of his hand unlashed his rifle 
 from its fastenings and lifted it to his knees. Thus, in an 
 instant, the change had been affected, and the difficult job 
 of paddling up to a wild deer in daylight, was about to be 
 attempted. 
 
 Thus they sat, ready for the start, but before they started 
 the Trapper delivered himself, thus characteristically : — 
 
 " Henry, we have made forty mile sence we've tasted food, 
 and the meal is scant in the bag, and the pork no bigger 
 than the text of a parson's sermon ; and the pack of the 
 lad yender — who hasn't larnt what we are up to yit, for 
 he's pullin' the same stroke he was when we quit, as if he 
 had no eyes in his head, and etarnity was before him — has 
 more traps in it than biscuit, and though traps be good 
 enough in their way, yit they can neither be briled nor 
 spitted, and I'm as empty as a horn with not a karnal in it. 
 I sartinly hope ye may be able to sink the lead into him in 
 a spot where it will weigh most. Now, boy, I will git ye 
 as nigh as I can, and give ye the favor of all the light there 
 is, and I have strong hopes of yer gittin' him, for yer gifts 
 at shootin' are sartinly wonderful. I know ye be jedicious 
 in kalculatin' distance, and I've never seen ye miss a cretur 
 ye drawed on yit, but it's mighty dusky for close work, and 
 I sartinly wont blame ye if ye miss him. Don't lift yer 
 piece till I signal, for I know the habits -of the cretur' and 
 will keep my eyes on him. I shan't give ye the sign till 
 he's about to jump. So when ye git it, boy, don't be long 
 in findin' the bottom of yer sights, and remember to allow 
 for the darkness. I hope, with the feelin' of a hungry man, 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 151 
 
 that ye'll hit him, Henry, for I am sartinly empty end tho 
 cravin' of natur' is strong within me. Now do accordin' to 
 the gifts the Lord has gin ye, or three men will go supper- 
 less to bed." 
 
 As the Trapper concluded his speech the canoe began to 
 move toward the buck, but with a motion so easy and true 
 to the line of its progress that, to one looking at it in the 
 direction of its movement, the movement itself could not 
 be perceived. The arms of the Trapper were sunk well 
 over the sides of the canoe, and his paddle played in the 
 water, without revealing its motions, as noiselessly and al- 
 most as invisibly as do the webbed feet of the Northern 
 Diver. His body was so held as to place Herbert's form 
 exactly between the buck and himself, so that neither the 
 motion of the canoe, as it slowly floated forward, nor the 
 body and motions of the paddler, could be seen. Herbert 
 sat in plain view, with his rifle across his knees, and his 
 finger within the guard ; but his body was as motionless as 
 if carved out of the air, and the features of his face, even, 
 were stiffened into the rigidity of marble. Thus the canoe 
 glided into the deepening shadows of the western shore and 
 the mouth of the little cove, directly towards the game. 
 
 At the farther end of the bay stood the buck, his feet 
 deep in the brown sands, and his antlered head lifted, as if 
 in proud challenge, into the air. His posture was one of 
 haughty interrogation as to what the dim object gliding in 
 upon him might be, and superb defiance of it. Twice he 
 lifted a fore leg and drove his pointed hoof into the sand, 
 with the expression of lordly impatience at the ignorance 
 
152 .ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 or audacity of those who dared disturb, by their bold pres- 
 ence, his royal privacy. And as the canoe floated still 
 nearer, twice he lifted his brown muzzle into the air and 
 blew a blast from his resounding nostrils, that tore fiercely 
 through the stillness, and made the woods behind him ring 
 again, while the mountain across the lake received the 
 wrathful sound, and passed it back in diminutive modula- 
 tions to the spot from whence it came. Once he started, 
 as if some terrible suspicion had for an instant broken over 
 the ramparts of his courage and stormed into the very 
 pavilion of his kingly spirit; but it was only a passing 
 weakness. He gave one jump, then stopped, planted him- 
 self as if incapable of fear ; lifted his nose high up, and 
 blew again a wrathful challenge to the rude intruders, while 
 the hair on the line of his back ridged in wrath, and his 
 feet smote the beach like hammers. 
 
 In the meanwhile the canoe floated as noiselessly onward 
 as a feather, and with a steadiness of motion that never 
 varied a hair's width. Even when the buck jumped, not 
 a muscle of Herbert's face moved, and the finger which lay 
 lightly on the trigger, could not have been steadier had the 
 hand to which it belonged been incapable of feeling. Thus 
 the man in the bow held his position with rigid fixedness 
 and the man in the stern worked his paddle with the same 
 even and steady play of the wrist. But when the buck 
 blew his second challenge, after he made his bound, and 
 the progress of the canoe was fast bringing him ia lino 
 with a beech, whose silvery white leaves furnished a back- 
 ground that would serve to bring out his head in partial re- 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 153 
 
 lief, at least, the paddle of the Trapper stopped its move- 
 ment, and settled to a trail, and when the onward progress 
 had lifted the antlers to the level of the silver leaves, the 
 least possible quiver ran along the sides of the canoe. 
 
 For a second after the signal was given, Herbert moved 
 not a muscle, and then the rifle jumped to his cheek, and 
 before it seemed possible for his eye to have found the line 
 of the sight, the fiery flame leapt into the dusky air and 
 the mountain rang with the rattling echoes of the sharp 
 explosion. The buck never jumped, but dropped in his 
 tracks as if his legs had been cut from under him, and lay 
 in a limp heap ; for the bullet had entered between the 
 eyes and torn its passage through the spinal column as it 
 passed out. The Trapper never said a word until he had 
 reached the spot where the dead deer lay, and had exam- 
 ined both the entrance and exit of the bullet ; but after he 
 had bled the game and had wiped his knife free of stain, 
 he turned to his comrade and said : — 
 
 " I knowed ye could shoot well afore to-day, for I've seed 
 ye do shootin' that would put to shame many who boast of 
 their exploits with the rifle, but what ye have did here on 
 the buck shows the parfection of the wepon ye carry, and 
 that yer gifts lie in the direction of a grooved barrel. I 
 sartinly thought ye was waitin' a leetle too long on the cre- 
 tur' arter I gin ye the signal, and my inards sort of shriv- 
 elled with disappintment at the idee of losin him, but I 
 conceit the reason of yer waitin' now I've seed where ye've 
 drove the bullet, and I confess ye mixed yer brains with yer 
 powder and shot with reason and jedgment, for the body 
 
J 64 ADIRONDACK TALEiJ, 
 
 showed dim agin the bank and the white leaves of the 
 beech here made his head yer best chance ; but the chance 
 was none of the best and I honestly question if there's 
 another man in the woods that could have did as ye have 
 considerin' the darkness and the distance. Yis, yer gifts in 
 shootin' are sartinly oncotnmon, and I trust ye feel grateful 
 to the Giver of them. This buck is as big as natur' allows, 
 Henry," continued the Trapper, as he laid hold of his legs 
 to roll him into the canoe, " and his antlers will make the 
 eyes of the folks in the settlements stick out." 
 
 In ten minutes they were off the point on which a rousing 
 tire was burning, while the Lad, for so the Old Trapper had 
 Darned him, was plying his axe vigorously, preparing wood 
 for the night. 
 
 " Well, Lad," called the Trapper from the canoe, as it 
 swung in toward the shore where a stretch of sand made 
 the landing safe for the frail and heavily-laden vessel, " so 
 ye stopped rowin' arter awhile did ye ? The last I saw of 
 ye, ye was goin' it as if ye had taken the job for the winter, 
 and was puttin' yer best licks into the beginnin'. The sight 
 of yer arnestness sort of warmed me up, and made my eyes 
 see nothin' but the eend of yer boat. And if it hadn't been 
 for Henry here we should have run by as big a buck as ever 
 wore antlers, and gone supperless to bed. Come down, 
 Lad, and take a look at the cre'tur, for he is as big as an 
 ox, and the fat lies as thick on his ribs as if he had fed in 
 the cornfields of the settlements. There will be some 
 strong and arnest movements of teeth on this pint to-night 
 arter the meat has cooled a trifle, or else you and Henry 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 155 
 
 has had better eatin' than I have, sence wo left the pond of 
 beavers." 
 
 Two hours later three men might have been seen reclin- 
 in' around a huge camp-fire, whose flame rose directly up- 
 ward in a steady column, illuminating the branches of the 
 great pines overhead and around, and casting its bright 
 reflections far out over the surface of the lake. 
 
 " "X is, this is Tomahawk Pint, Henry, of which ye have 
 heerd me speak afore ; and right back here in the swale is 
 'Bloody Spring.' And it is well named, too; for, though 
 its waters are cool and pure as natur' ever brewed, yit I re- 
 member the day when its depths was red with mortal blood ; 
 for a dreadful scrimmage was fought here years ago, and 
 the dead lay thick around it, as the cones on the ground to- 
 night. Yis, I was young then ; but I did my part accordin' 
 to my gifts, and I was one of the few that came out alive; 
 for 'twas a close thing, hand to hand, and the powder gin 
 out on both sides afore 'twas ended. And we took to the 
 knife and the clubbed rifle, for blood was hot that day, and 
 marcy was little thought of by redskin or white, and few of 
 us came out with full veins, I tell ye." 
 
 " What did you fight each other for? " said the Lad. " I 
 think it wrong to fight, don't you, John Norton ? " 
 
 "Sartinly, Lad, sartinly, under ordinary sarcumstances, 
 and in peace time; but there be times when it's necessary 
 to draw blood, especially in self defence; and war, if it be a 
 righteous one, is self defence in a large sort of a way, as 
 1 understand it. But it's a dreadful thing to take a mortal 
 life, I'll allow, and I never lined the sights on a man when 
 
156 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 it didn't seem to me, all thiDgs consdered, that he had lived 
 long enough, and should git a taste of the Jedgmont ; but 
 I will confess that when things git close, and ye have to 
 take to yer knife, and there is two to one agin ye, a man 
 hasn't much time to arger the question of right and wrong, 
 and I dare say in sech sarcumstances I have used the rifle- 
 stock and the knife a leetle loose and careless-like ; and I 
 recollect the awful scrimmage we had here sixty year agone 
 as if it was but yesterday, and it was a most onreasonable 
 and bloody battle, for sartin, for when 'twas ended, I was 
 the only man who could keep his feet, and I had three bul- 
 lets inside of me, and a knife blade driven into my shoul- 
 der here, with the handle broke square off in front, and the 
 p'int stickin' out of my back. But it wasn't our fault, for 
 when their powder gin out, the Huron's came at us with 
 their tomahawks, and they outnumbered us four to one, 
 and we had to show the scamps the borderers' grit, and we 
 did, for I sent the last of the vagabonds into etarnity with 
 marks on his throat and a hole in his side, which told the 
 Lord as plain as writin', I reckon, that John Norton was 
 sarvin' him in arnest on the arth. But, Lad, yer sperit is 
 right, and it is better to live in peace with yer fellow-men, 
 if ye can." 
 
 " That's what mother used to say to me," replied the Lad, 
 and the good Book says : 'If - thy - enemy - smite - you - 
 on - the - one - cheek, - turn - to - him - the - other, - 
 also ; and - if - a - man - take - away - thy - cloak, - give 
 - him - thy - coat, - also.' Haven't I said it right Hen- 
 ry?" 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH.' 157 
 
 " Tes, you have said it right, word for word," replied the 
 other. 
 
 * I knew I hadn't forgot it," continued the Lad, with the 
 least possible inflection of pride in his voice, " and I know 
 it is a wise saying, for last fall a bad man got on the line of 
 my traps, and stole my skins as fast as I could trap them. 
 And one day I caught him stealing a mink, and I went up 
 to him so still he never knew I was nigh until I touched 
 him, and he jumped as if he had been shot, and drew his 
 knife on me ; but I didn't fear him, for I knew I was right, 
 and he was wrong, and I told him 'twas wicked to steal and 
 that if he wanted skins I would give him some, rather than 
 he should steal them, if he would go to the cabin. And he 
 went, and I made him up a roll of good nice ones, and in 
 the morning, when he was about to go away, I gave the roll 
 to him ; but he wouldn't touch it, but said he would never 
 steal another skin as long as he lived j and I don't believe 
 he will, do you, John Norton ? " 
 
 " I shouldn't think he would, Lad, if he has any inards to 
 him," returned the Trapper, as he looked steadily into the 
 guileless face before him, " it sartiuly worked well in your 
 case, but I don't conceit the rod would fit every bore. Now, 
 I've read the Bible off and on for sixty year, and take it 
 all in all, its a pritty reasonable book, although there be por- 
 tions of it that I can't make sense of, and now and then ye 
 run agin a sayin' that's sartinly onreasonable, and the varse 
 the Lad has quoted, Henry, is one of 'em. I've thought a 
 good deal over those varses, and I've ruther settled down 
 to the opinion that either the words have got into the book 
 
158 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 by mistake, or else that the Lord didn't know much about 
 the cost of jackets, and sech like garments. For it's sar- 
 tinly agin reason to tell a man who has had his westcott 
 stole, to give the vagabond that stole it, his shirt also ; 
 especially if it be late in the fall, and thread is scant in the 
 cabin. Now I run agin a half-breed on the line of my traps 
 last winter, and he had a fisher in his thievin' fingers, and I 
 told him to drop it or there would be trouble. I reasoned 
 with him about the onrighteousness of the act, not exactly 
 as the Lad would, perhaps, but I gin him a bit of my mind 
 which I dare say was equal to Scriptur', under the sarcum- 
 stances. Well, two weeks later — and I had lost a dozen 
 good pelts in the meanwhile, — I caught the scamp fishin' 
 around for a beaver that had run out into the pond with 
 one of my chains to him, and I conceited the thing had 
 gone fur enough, and I put my mark on him so the Lord 
 shouldn't have any doubts who he was, or who he stole 
 from when he should come sneakin' into the jedgment, even 
 if I shouldn't be round to testify in the case. The Lad's 
 way is a good un' for sartin, if it will work ; but bullets is 
 cheaper than pelts, and I shouldn't offer a roll of good skins 
 to any thief I catched at my traps, Scriptur 5 or no Scriptur 7 . 
 I tell ye, powder makes a louder sound than pious words, 
 in the ears of a sneak when fingerin' pelts that don't belong 
 to him. What say ye, Henry 1 " 
 
 " I say we had better go to sleep, now, and talk some 
 other time. But before we turn in, what think you of a 
 hunt in the morning. The hounds take kindly together, 
 and would run a buck to water iu an hour. We could take 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 159 
 
 bis body out and sell it at the Saranacs, or jerk it here be- 
 fore we start; for there's two days yet before the races. 
 What say you both ? " 
 
 The idea was a pleasing one both to the Lad and the 
 Trapper, and after a few moments further canvassing the 
 matter, they wrapped themselves in their blankets, and 
 with their feet almost in the warm ashes, and with no cov- 
 ering but the sky above their heads, fell asleep. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 TEE HUNT. 
 
 ' * The bounding elk, whose antlers tear 
 The branches, falls before my aim." — Bryant. 
 
 ~\ /TOENHsTGr in the wilderness. The east was rosy red, 
 save where a layer of clouds lying athwart the rising 
 light cut it from north to south with its black plane. The 
 raouDtain summits to the east were crested with reflected 
 fire, while the snow which crowned them with its cold 
 beauty blushed at the kiss of the ardent morning. The 
 lake was one vast valley filled with fog. The impenetrable 
 fleece possessed the intervening space from shore to shore, 
 and even masked the lower mountains from sight. The 
 trees dripped .lazily. The gayly tinted leaves of the maples 
 in the coves, without cause, let go their hold upon the stems 
 and floated in indolent, zigzag motions downward. The 
 squirrels in the thickets were waking the tiny echoes with 
 their noisy chatterings. At intervals the harsh shriek of 
 the king-fisher disturbed the air, while now and then a loon 
 sent forth its weird call from amidst the feathery fleece. 
 Soon the sun let loose its energies; the red beams mar- 
 shalled themselves upon the eastern crests and then charged 
 downward in fiery squadrons upon the fog. Into it and 
 through it they dashed. They trampled it under foot, 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 161 
 
 opened broad lanes from shore to shore, cut into it right 
 and left and sent it flying. The warm, vibrant life was too 
 much for the cold, inert deadness, and in a brief space the 
 mighty orb of day stood forth in the blue sky in all his 
 glory. The lake lay plain to the view, but its surface still 
 smoked. Soon the dead air became a current, and waves 
 of thinnest vapor rolled along the smooth surface. Here 
 and there a shortened column of denser mist rose from the 
 water. In the bays and around the shores of the coves 
 where were the inlets, a few vagrant patches might be seen 
 stealing like detected guilt from the sight of day. Thus 
 morning, bright and clear, with all it brings of light, and 
 warmth, and renewed life, had triumphed over its gloomy 
 foe. 
 
 Just as the fog began to lift from the surface of the water, 
 a boat with the Lad in it, shoved out from Tomahawk Point 
 and started down the lake. As it glided forward the old 
 Trapper, who was in the act of charging his rifle, paused a 
 moment with his palm on the top of his ramrod, and 
 said : — 
 
 u Now, Lad, don't ye forgit where ye are to watch; Henry 
 will lie off the big rock, and ye are to place yerself inside 
 the island, so ye can see well down the lake. I shan't start 
 the dogs 'till I find a big un, and he won't run fur if he's 
 fat, aud ' Sport' is as ye say he is in a race ; and I warrant 
 ' Eover ' won't fool away time, for I can see by the look in 
 his eye that he's hungry for the scent, and will be crazy 
 when he gits it warm and strong. Keep yer eyes open, 
 Lad, for I shall drive in a big un, an' if ye are as good at 
 
162 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 shootin' as ye be at rowin' ye'll kill him afore he gits within 
 a half a mile of the lake ; " and the Trapper laughed at his 
 own conceit. " I tell ye, Henry," he continued, as he drove 
 the bullet home, still keeping his eye on the receding boat, 
 "The Lad has his gifts, but it's wonderful that the Lord 
 should do them up in that sort of a fashion ; for he's uu- 
 naterally lengthy to begin with, an' looks as if he was built 
 in sections, an' as if the sections was not half put together 
 at that; but his sperit is right, an' he sartinly pulled a 
 stroke last night that was amazin'. There, Henry," he con- 
 tinued, as he carefully capped the tubes, " I didn't like the 
 way the bullet in the left barrel felt as I sent it down, for it 
 went onsteady ; but the one I have put into the right was a 
 beauty, an' it drove even and true from muzzle to chamber 
 as a bullet should drive. So now if ye are ready, take yer 
 
 rifle and the dogs, an' we will start the canoe. The sun 
 
 » 
 has eat up the mist an' it's high time the pups was out." 
 
 In a moment the canoe, containing the Trapper, Herbert, 
 •» and the hounds, left the point and in five minutes was 
 across the bay. The Trapper stood holding the dogs in the 
 leash on the rock for an instant, and said : — 
 
 " If I was in yer place, Henry, I would lie well off here 
 abreast of the rock, for the runway comes out by that ledge 
 there, an' more than one deer have I seen take the jump 
 fiyiu' ; an' if the dogs play fast, as I think they will, — for I 
 shan't start 'em 'bntil I start a buck from his nest, — an' if 
 he should take water here ye will see as pritty a sight as a 
 hunter over saw, an' one to make yer eyes brighten, an' the 
 blood in yer veins to tingle." So saying the Trapper disap- 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 163 
 
 peared with the dogs in the thicket, and Herbert, acting on 
 the old man's suggestions, paddled sixty rods out into the 
 lake, and lifting his rifle to his knees, waited. 
 
 Thus Herbert sat listening. The morning had brought 
 no wind, and the lake stretched in level expanse, unruffled, 
 from shore to shore. Objects were not wanting to amuse 
 the eye. A partridge strutted out on the trunk of a huge 
 pine that projected outward from the shore, ruffed its neck, 
 clucked, spread out its fan-like tail, and raising itself to its 
 highest stretch, drummed with nervous strokes of its wings, 
 loud and long, with evident pride at its brave performance. 
 A family of wood ducks, a mother and six younglings, of 
 full size but lacking the beauty of older birds, led by the 
 lordly drake in full plumage — his crest of purple and 
 bronze alive with color, and his whole body, as the warm 
 rays of the sun smote upon his back, ablaze with brilliance, 
 fairly converting him into a bunch of floating radiance — 
 swam in Indian file around the outer rock and continued 
 on their course, until their tiny wake faded from sight in 
 the inner cove. 
 
 A great northern diver, that had dived from some un- 
 known point, rose for air within six rods of Herbert's sta- 
 tion, shook the water from its eyes, flattened itself an in- 
 stant in suspicion as it caught sight of the canoe, and the 
 motionless man sitting in it ; then, reassured, rose on its 
 webbed feet, shook its narrow wings, showing the rounded 
 fulness of its snow-white breast, and the spotted beauty of 
 its back ; then settled back upon the water, thrust its head 
 playfully beneath the surface, withdrew it, lifted its black 
 
164 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 bill into the air and laughed its weird, witch-like laughter, 
 till the honest hills mocked wickedly in reply. So Herbert 
 sat, observant of nature's doings, with eyes that lost not a 
 motion on lake or shore, and with ears open to receive the 
 slightest sound. At last it came. One instant) and the hills 
 embodied silence ; not a vibration stirred above their mo- 
 tionless pines. The next, and the hollow air rang as if with 
 the notes of a dozen bugles suddenly blown by practiced 
 lips, clear, strong and full, from the signal. 
 
 No initial yelp, no whimpering and doubtful prelude, pre- 
 pared the listener's feelings for the coming peal ; but loud, 
 and long, and full, as voice of hound could make it, when 
 the game starts from his nest in close and maddeuing view, 
 did the clarion peal ascend. It rose above' the pines, and 
 filled the upper air, rolled down the ravines an avalanche 
 of softening sound, swelled up above the peaks, and ran in 
 minor ripples of noise along the ridges, and even sent its 
 waves of melody across the level lake, breaking at last, and 
 dying away in melting reverberations on the farther shore. 
 The cheek of Herbert flushed, his eyes lighted, and the 
 blood within him tingled in its every vein, as he heard the 
 glorious cry. Again and again did the sounds swell up- 
 ward, and roll down the mountain. Peal on peal, torrent, 
 eddies, and cataracts of tuneful noise, did the hounds send 
 rushing and rolling out into the resounding air. Onward in 
 swift career they tore. Now flying along a ridge, now 
 plunging into a deep ravine, where the thick balsam 
 branches half-smothered their clarion cry; now streaming 
 in swiftest race down a steep slope, while above, the air 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 165 
 
 fairly quivered, torn apart and sniveled into tuneful frag- 
 ments by the imperious summons of the dogs' hot throats, 
 beneath. 
 
 Thus went the race. And with feelings which only a 
 hunter knows, did Herbert sit and mark its changeful 
 course, — holding his very breath to listen, when the sounds 
 made serial angles, and expecting that each turn would 
 bring the dogs' mouths toward the lake. At last, the buck, 
 pressed by the hounds, doubled short upon his course, — 
 which had been upward, as if he would climb the crest, 
 and seek refuge in the western lakes. He turned, and shot 
 with all his speed along the very runway the Old Trapper 
 had mentioned, straight for the lake and the ledge; abreast 
 of which Herbert, intense and ready for his appearance, 
 sat. Down, down he came, and after him the hounds. It 
 was plain to Herbert that the dogs had held their own from 
 the start, and were running in full sight of their game. 
 Onward and downward came the race. Buck aud dogs and 
 noise came on together. The mountain flowed with sounds. 
 The steep declivity resounded with the rush of the vocal 
 torrent. To north and south the echoes barked and roared. 
 The owls flew up into the dazzling sun, affrighted by the 
 tempest of noises that swept and eddied underneath their 
 gloomy roosts. The ravens, with wavering wings, fluttered 
 above the trees, harshly croaking. The white gulls, sailing 
 on circling pinions far overhead, screamed their shrill inter- 
 rogations to each other, and soared yet higher. 
 
 Thus, with bay of hounds, with scream and croak of bird, 
 and volleying echoes pouring down straight toward the 
 
166 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 shore, like a tornado's flight, came on the hurrying race. 
 Soon the sound of parting brush was heard, of crackliDg 
 stems, of dead wood crashed wildly through, of vault, and 
 plunge, and all the noises which an impetuous race down a 
 steep mountain side, on a still morning, makes. Nearer 
 and nearer the uproar came ; until it reached the very limit 
 of the brush, and breaking through the interlacing shrub- 
 bery, with antlers laid well back, eyes on tire, tongue hang- 
 ing out, froth flying from his open mouth, the buck, with a 
 hound at either flank, burst out upon the rock, and with a 
 mighty leap flung himself with all the momentum of his 
 flight to help, full thirty feet into the waters of the lake : 
 not unaccompanied; for the two dogs — strong in struc- 
 ture, and brave in their breeding, with courage hot as their 
 heated blood, — took water as boldly, if not with such 
 length of leap as had the game, and whimpering as they 
 swam, still held their swift pursuit. 
 
 In the canoe Herbert sat motionless, until the buck, with 
 plunging and nervous leaps through the level water, had 
 covered two-thirds the distance that lay betwixt the ledge 
 and boat. Then the rifle jumped to his cheek, and the 
 quick explosion ripped the air asunder with its fierce con- 
 cussion. 
 
 The head of the buck dropped, as the hammer fell, and 
 lay motionless ; while the hounds, giving each a sharp, 
 quick bark, turned back, and swam contentedly towards 
 the shore. 
 
 The race was over, and a brave one had it been. Her- 
 bert, having lashed his rifle to its fastenings, paddled to the 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 167 
 
 game, feeling that the evening and the morning had given 
 him the two best shots he had ever made, and the two 
 largest sets of antlers he had ever seen. 
 
 It was a difficult job. to ship his game ; but the lake was 
 as smooth as glass, and the canoe of large size, and Herbert 
 had taken too many deer from the water not to know the 
 method of proceeding. He careened the canoe well over 
 on its side, and laying hold of the buck by the tail and 
 haunches, lifted him, with a skillful motion, upward. The 
 hams of the buck were already above the surface, and level 
 with the edge of the canoe, when, with a quick and nervous 
 energy that only a deer can exhibit, he delivered a kick 
 with his hoofs against the side, which stove it through, as if 
 it were but paper, and sent Herbert head-foremost over the 
 horns of the animal into the water. 
 
 The position of Herbert was now one of extreme peril. 
 The bullet had struck the skull of the deer, but at such an 
 angle that it had not penetrated it, but glanced upward into 
 the air, only stunning the creature for a moment. The in- 
 stant that the head of Herbert rose to the surface, which it 
 did almost within reach of his horns, and worse yet, of his 
 sharp-edged hoofs, the buck, with a snort of pain and rage, 
 his back curved and bristling, plunged at him. Sudden as 
 had been the catastrophe, and startling as was the peril, 
 the self-possession of Herbert had not left him ; for he came 
 to the surface, knife in hand, and ready for the rush he 
 knew would come. As the creature lunged at him, by a 
 dexterous movement he flung himself aside, and lifting him- 
 self in the water, drove, with all the strength of his arm, 
 
168 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 the blade downward, aiming at the root of the neck. But 
 the motion of the buck was swifter than he had calculated 
 for, and the blow falling a foot behind the point aimed at, 
 the knife struck against the shoulder-blade with a direct- 
 ness and force which parted the handle from the hilt and 
 snapped the blade short off at the middle. A sound almost 
 like a groan escaped the young man, as he dashed his 
 wounded hand, lacerated by the broken fragments of the 
 horn-handle, into the water. But no time was left him to 
 consider, for, quick as a flash, the deer turned and again 
 plunged at him. For several minutes, the unequal contest 
 raged. The garments of Herbert were pierced and torn in 
 a dozen places ; the flesh of his cheek was opened by the 
 sharp-pointed prong of the buck's antlers ; and before he 
 could lay hold of his neck, or get along side of him, one of 
 his sharp-edged hoofs had lanced across his chest and torn 
 the flesh to the very bone. The young man hesitated no 
 longer, but lifted his voice with all the force given him by 
 the thought of his peril, and shouted till the startled air 
 rang to the cry : — 
 
 " John Norton ! — John Norton ! — help ! " 
 The call of Henry was sent forth with all the power of a 
 man from whom it is wrung by the emergency of extreme 
 peril. The cry rose into the air with a volume and energy 
 that filled the hollow atmosphere with waves of sound, 
 rolled far down the lake, and smote against the mountain 
 side with such directness and force, that twenty echoes gave 
 it back with startling distinctness. The Trapper was well 
 down the mountain and within fifty rods of the shore, when 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 16S 
 
 the terrible call of his young companion, — whom he had 
 grown to love as if he were his own son — smote upon his 
 ear. Well did he kuow that nothing but the direst extrem- 
 ity could have extorted a call for assistance from Herbert 
 — much less such a cry as that. Not knowing what was 
 the cause of it, nor hesitating an instant, he dashed for the 
 lake with a recklessness aud velocity which would have 
 been perilous to one of less vigor and agility. Over pros- 
 trate trees and boulders he leapt, tore his way through a 
 wind-fall, as if he embodied the violence which years be- 
 fore had caused it, burst through opposing thickets, and 
 with a mighty leap over a monstrous pine that blocked his 
 way, with bared head, and hair streaming behind him, and 
 with his rifle at a trail, but ready for action, stood upon the 
 rock. The scene which met his gaze blanched his cheek to 
 the whiteness of coming death ; for there, forty rods from 
 the rock on which he stood, was Herbert struggling with 
 the buck in the water, while the canoe was rods away and 
 full to the brim ; and to make it more startling, the Lad, 
 who was pulling with all his might toward the spot, was a 
 half mile down the lake. 
 
 A single glance revealed to the Trapper the true state of 
 things, and showed to him the extreme peril of his com- 
 panion ; for well he knew the desperate strength that Her- 
 bert was putting forth to avoid the horns and sharp-pointed 
 hoofs of the wounded and frenzied creature with which, 
 with desperate efforts, he was contending ; and the blood 
 which streamed down his face, plainly visible from where 
 the Trapper stood, bore witness that he was not altogether 
 
170 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 unhurt. He hesitated not an instant, but lifted his voice 
 into the air with an energy of utterance which sent each 
 word with the momentum of a cannon ball across the level 
 water, to the fast-coming boat. 
 
 " Pull, Lad, for the love of God ! " shouted the Trapper, 
 u lengthen yer stroke and quicken yer gather, or yer com- 
 rade will die afore yer very eyes ! Pull, Lad ! and put yer 
 soul into yer oars, and may God give ye strength for the 
 deed ye must do." 
 
 The stentorian voice of the Trapper reached the ears of 
 the Lad, as if he had been but a few rods away. The en- 
 ergy of the appeal, as truly as the revelation of peril to 
 Herbert that it made, broke into his habitual indifference, 
 as a bomb exploding unexpectedly in the inner court of a 
 secluded palace startles those within. For, although he had 
 been pulling a stroke such as the Trapper had never seen 
 pulled, even before the cry had reached him, yet no sooner 
 had the call of the old man sounded, than, as if power had 
 indeed been given him of God for the moment's need, the 
 boat actually jumped into the air as he bent to his stroke ; 
 and fairly flew over the water as he swept it along. The 
 Trapper's eyes glowed, as he saw the tremendous stroke of 
 the Lad, for he knew that two minutes would bring his boat 
 to Herbert's side. And after an instant, with a heart full of 
 hope, he turned his gaze from the on-coming boat toward 
 his companion in the water ; but a look of agony swept 
 into his face, as he saw that Herbert was weakening, and 
 that he was even then barely able to keep his hold on the 
 horns of the buck. 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 171 
 
 " Hold on, Henry, and hold up a leetle longer, for the 
 love of God," the old man shouted, " the Lad is sartinly 
 pullin' with the strength of Heaven in his stroke, and will 
 be at yer side in a minit. Lie close to the cretur's ribs : 
 keep one hand over his shoulder, and hang to his horns 
 with the other, and the Lad will save ye yit." 
 
 For an instant there was no reply. Then feebly and 
 faintly, so unlike the ordinary tone of Herbert's voice that 
 the Trapper started as if an electric current had entered 
 him, as his ears received the thin, wavering sound, — feebly 
 and faintly over the water came the words, steady and even 
 in tone, but low, as if spoken in mortal weakness : — 
 
 " John Norton, shoot the buck ! " 
 
 " Aye, aye, Henry, I've thought of it ; but ye are full 
 forty rods from where I stand, and the lead must pass 
 within si£ inches of yer head. No, no, boy, it isn't best, 
 onless yer blood is oozin' fast, and yer strength eenamost 
 gone. It's a picked bullet I've got in the right barrel of my 
 rifle, — praise the Lord — and I might perhaps do it, but 
 my eyes aint what they was forty years ago, and the odds 
 are agin me ; but if ye can't hold on, and yer jedgment says 
 it's yer only chance — as it sartinly is if ye can't, for the 
 buck would kill ye with a single thrust of his foot if ye let 
 go — I say, Henry," repeated the Trapper, as he drew back 
 the hammer of his rifle, and pressed the trigger to the set, 
 * if ye can't hold on, and yer jedgment says it's yer only 
 chance, I'll do my best, and may the Lord in his marcy 
 steady me for the deed. So if ye can't hold on, say the 
 word, and John Norton will shoot for yer life : and his own 
 
172 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 too," continued the old man, in a lower tone, speaking to 
 himself, " for I wouldn't be a mi nit behind the boy, if he 
 goes to the jedgment with my bullet in his brain." 
 
 A moment the Trapper waited for Herbert's final reply. 
 His face was white as ashes, and the sweat stood in beads 
 on his forehead, while the rifle in his hand trembled like a 
 tamarack in the wind ; and then, from over the water, feeb- 
 ler and fainter even than before, came the same calm, steady 
 tone ; and out of the air as it passed, the old man's listen- 
 ing ear could catch only the words : — 
 
 " Shoot the buck ! " 
 
 The Trapper hesitated not an instant. He drew himself 
 to his full height, advanced his left foot, lifted with an easy 
 sweep of his arm his rifle into the air, and as the barrels 
 dropped into his extended palm his cheek settled to the 
 stock, and his eye without a quiver in the lid ranged along 
 the sights. For an instant the rifle lay on his palm as mo- 
 tionless as if fastened in an invisible vise, and then a fiery 
 stream spurted from the muzzle, and the sharp crack rang 
 out on the morning air. He had shot for a life, and so far 
 as skill could do, had saved it , for the bullet, passing so 
 near the head of Herbert as to lift a lock of his hair, buried 
 itself in the buck's brain under the root of the horns. 
 
 The Trapper saw Herbert fall away from the deer — saw 
 that he still had strength enough to make the needed mo- 
 tions to keep himself afloat, and then he turned his eyes in 
 the direction of the coming boat. It was within twenty 
 rods, and the Lad was pulling a stroke which seemed to the 
 Trapper to have in it the energy of more than mortal power 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 173 
 
 but miraculous as it was in its length, sweep, and quickness 
 of recovery, the body of the oarsman rose and sank to the 
 motions as if no excitement had stirred his ordinary simple 
 composure, and the long blades entered and left the level 
 water with a precision and finish that tossed not a drop of 
 spray into the air, while the line of the eddying wake astern, 
 led as straight from the spot from which he had started 
 far down the lake, to the body of Herbert, as a line could 
 have been drawn on a level floor by skilled direction. The 
 Lad gave three more strokes and then dropping his oars to 
 a trail he lifted himself, in all his ungainly height, in his 
 boat and turned his eyes forward, searching for the head 
 and body of his friend ; but above the level water was nei- 
 ther body nor head in sight, for Herbert had disap- 
 peared. 
 
 " Where is Henry ? " asked the Lad of the Trapper. 
 
 The Trapper made no reply ; indeed, it is doubtful if he 
 could, for his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth, and 
 his rifle dropped from his hands on to the rock at his feet 
 as if it had been only useless iron. 
 
 "Where is Henry V repeated the Lad, as his boat glided 
 on ; but before the words had fairly left his lips a gleam 
 came into his face, and with a motion quick as an otter 
 when he lifts for the dive in the midst of the hounds, he 
 launched his body into the depths of the lake. 
 
 The feet of the Lad had scarcely disappeared beneath 
 the surface, before the Trapper, with a mighty leap from 
 the rock on which he stood, had also taken the water and 
 was swimming with tremendous strokes toward the now 
 empty boat. 
 
CHAPTEE V. 
 
 THE RESCUE. 
 
 "One that I saved from drowning." — Shakespeare. 
 
 rpHE Trapper had covered half the distance between the 
 shore and the boat, and was swimming with the 
 strength and swiftness of one swimming for a life, when 
 the head and shoulders of the Lad came to the surface as a 
 diver emerges from the depths when struggling with a 
 weight. As the old man saw the face of Herbert, as his 
 head lay lifeless on the bosom of the Lad, he jumped half 
 his length out of the water in the eagerness of his joy, and 
 shouted : " Ye have saved him, Lad ! Ye have saved him ! 
 The Lord of marcy has helped ye, and ye have saved yer 
 comrade ! Can ye hold him up a minit, — can ye hold him, 
 I say, till I can reach the boat and bring it to yer side ? " 
 
 " Of course I can hold Henry up," replied the Lad, in a 
 simple, quiet tone, as if he were only doing an ordinary ser- 
 vice. " He had got a good ways down before I caught up 
 with him, but I got hold of him finally and fetched him up. 
 I'm a little short of breath, for you called so loud to me 
 that I knew you wanted me to come right along, and so I 
 pulled real hard ; but you needn't worry about my letting 
 Henry go, for I'm a first-rate swimmer, and don't feel tired 
 a bit." 
 
THE MAN TIIAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 175 
 
 " Pulled hard ? " quoted the Trapper, as he laid hold of 
 the stern of the boat, which he had reached, and with a 
 strong skillful movement lifted himself astride of it, when 
 he instantly seized the paddle and started it toward the 
 Lad, " I think ye did pull hard. Ye have did what no other 
 man John Norton ever seed could do ; and the Lord, whose 
 eyes has been on this lake this morn, will remember ye, 
 Lad, when he gives his rewards to them who did well on 
 the arth ; and I sartinly hope I may be there to give my 
 idees of yer conduct, and put a few words in as to yer 
 stroke. I don't believe the Lord would refuse to hear the 
 jedgment of an old man who seed the thing from begin nin' 
 to eend, either. There, Lad," continued the Trapper, as he 
 swept the boat alongside and checked it with a reverse 
 stroke of his paddle, " give the boy to me, and do ye swim 
 to the other side and steady the boat while I lift him in." 
 So saying, the old man passed his strong arms under the 
 shoulders of Herbert as tenderly as a mother might prepare 
 to lift a sleeping child, while his eyes fixed themselves on 
 the pallid face with an intensity as if they would penetrate 
 the mortal frame to see if the soul still hovered within. 
 
 The Lad promptly obeyed the old man's directions, and 
 in an instant the body of Herbert lay stretched in the bot- 
 tom of the boat, while his head was supported by the lap 
 of the Trapper. In another instant the Lad, with surpris- 
 ing agility, climbed over the bow of the boat, and, sliding 
 into his seat, laid hold of the oars, and with a long, strong 
 stroke, started toward the point which they had left scarcely 
 an hour before, and above which a thin volume of blue 
 
176 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 smoke from their mouldering camp-fire .was still ascending. 
 
 The Trapper had, in the meantime, unbuttoned the collar 
 of Herbert's shirt, and laid his hand over the heart, search- 
 ing for evidence that life still held her uncertain residence 
 within. 
 
 " You don't think Henry is going to die, do you ? " said 
 the Lad, as he laid to his stroke till the long blades of his 
 oars bent to the pressure. 
 
 " No, Lad, no ; not if the Lord is mindful of the livin'. 
 The boy is too young to die, and the arth needs him ; for 
 his gifts is wonderful, and I have heerd said that thousands 
 love him in the settlements. And I know," he continued, 
 " that there's an Old Trapper here in the woods who loves 
 him, as he hasn't loved man for forty year, and never 
 thought to love agin this side the great Clearin'. No, no; 
 he mustn't die. I've reckoned on the boy's company for 
 many a year yit when he comes to the woods, and conceited 
 that perhaps the Lord of Marcy would let him be nigh when 
 me and the hound start on the trail that leads into the Val- 
 ley. Take him by the feet, Lad, lift easy, and we will bear 
 him to camp. Yis, yis, I know now, why the Lord brought 
 us three together at the pond of the beavers." 
 
 While the Trapper had been thus half talking to himself, 
 the boat had run in on to the beach off the point, and the 
 two men, by a common movement, had lifted Herbert in 
 their arms and borne him to the fire. 
 
 For nearly half an hour the two worked over their inan- 
 imate companion, striving to bring the departed breath 
 back to his motionless nostrils, and to start the sluggish 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 177 
 
 current of his chilled blood to its accustomed movement ; 
 but his limbs still remained limp, his eyes closed, his nos- 
 trils inactive, and the features set in the quiet, rigid smooth- 
 ness which marks the countenance of one who has passed 
 forever from the mortal tenement which his presence had 
 once made animate and lovely. Still above the heart the 
 skin was warm, and the palm lightly placed over it could 
 interpret the faintest of movements within. It was as if 
 the spirit, called suddenly away, still lingered with one foot 
 on the threshold to take one more last and tender look at 
 the loved home it was compelled to leave forever. The 
 face of the Old Trapper was grave with the gravity of one 
 who, while determined to hope on, nevertheless feels that 
 one by one the evidences which warrant hope are failing 
 him, and that he will soon be standing in the presence of 
 an overwhelming calamity ; while the countenance of the 
 Lad, as he came and went on his hurried errands, as di- 
 rected by the Trapper, who, naturally from his age and ex- 
 perience had assumed the management of the case, showed 
 the agitation of one through whose dull senses the sharp 
 edge of a dreadful fear was slowly but surely making its 
 way. 
 
 " Lad," said the Trapper, in a voice so hollow and solemn 
 that the one he addressed started, while his hand that was 
 holding a cup of warming water over the fire, shook and 
 trembled ; u Lad, I fear that the boy is goin', and that you 
 and me will be here with the dead afore the shadows of the 
 mornin' are shortened." 
 
 " John Norton," said the Lad, " God won't let Henry die 
 
178 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 if we ask him not to ; for the Bible says : l Ask, - and - it - 
 shall - be - given — seek, - and - ye - shall - find — knock, - 
 and - it - shall - be - opened ; ' and, if you say so, I will go 
 back of the lodge and ask Him to make Henry live. I 
 know I'm not wise and don't know much, and I suppose a 
 great many folks would laugh at me if I should try to pray, 
 but I know what I want God to do to Henry, and I guess 
 he can understand me, even if I do spell out the words, 
 and get stuck sometimes on the big ones. Shall I go and 
 try, John Norton ? " 
 
 " Yis, yis, Lad," replied the Trapper, while his voice shook, 
 and the great tears came into his eyes and rolled down his 
 weather-beaten cheek, " pass me the cup with the brandy 
 in it, and then do ye go back of the lodge and tell the Lord 
 the best ye can of yer troubles, and ask him to give us a 
 lift in our endeavors ; and put the case before Him as strong 
 as ye can, Lad, and don't forgit to spell in all the Scriptur' 
 ye remember, especially those varses where he has prom- 
 ised to help the children of arth when peril is nigh. An' 
 while ye pray I will keep rubbin' and pourin' the hot drink 
 into him, an' it may be, betwixt us both, with the help of 
 the Lord, an' the drink, an' the rubbin', we'll fetch Henry 
 back to the land o' the livin'." 
 
 The Lad did as the old Trapper had directed. He poured 
 the last drop of brandy in the flask into the heated water, 
 passed the cup to the old man and then, with a face to 
 which absolute trust and undoubted hope lent illumination, 
 he retired behind the lodge and kneeling down on the stem- 
 matted sod, he linked his awkward fingers together, and 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 179 
 
 lifting his guileless face upward he closed his eyes and with 
 many a stammer, but with directness of entreaty and earn- 
 estness of faith which kept his speech straight to the line 
 of his wish, prayed : — 
 
 " Father - in - heaven, - mother - told - me - to - always - 
 call - you - Father, - 1 - want - you - to - hear - me - while - 1 
 
 - tell - you - what - 1 - want. Henry - is - dying - and - we-both 
 
 - love - Henry, - and - you - can - save - him - as - well - a3 
 
 - not, - for - you - art - able - to - do - anything. The - Saviour 
 
 - told - us - that - whatsoever - ye - ask - of - the - Father - 
 in - my - name - that - will - he - do - unto - you. I - and - 
 John - Norton - ask - you - to - bring - Henry - back - to - 
 life, - now, - right - off. It - is - written, - according - to - 
 thy - faith - be - it - unto - you - and - I - have - faith, • I 
 don't - doubt - a - bit, - 1 - know - you - will - bring - Henry 
 to. - Lord, - thou - hast - been - our - dwelling - place -in 
 
 - all generations. Thou - art - a - present- help - in - times 
 
 - of - trouble. Establish - thou - the - works - of - our - hands 
 
 - establish - thou - it. Help, - Lord - for - our - strength - 
 faileth. Deliver - us - from - evil - and - thine - shall - be - 
 the - glory - forever." 
 
 The Lad had got so far, and as he had gone on in his sim- 
 ple, laborious, but accurate and direct way of petition, his 
 face had changed by reason of a glow, and sweet, fine light 
 that had come into it and spread in softest radiance over 
 his upturned countenance until his poor, simple face actually 
 shone as those of old who talked with God. The Spirit 
 which is not of man, and which finds its home in the hum- 
 blest breast and can give wisdom to the feeble minded, had 
 
180 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 entered and filled his soul with its Own fine fervors ; and to 
 what passion of entreaty it might have lifted him can be 
 known only to him who knows to the full its exalted and 
 sublime energies, which out of the mouth of babes aud 
 sucklings have perfected praise ; but at this point the voice 
 of the Trapper interrupted him. 
 
 " Lad, Lad, hold on and come here ! The Lord has heerd 
 ye, for the blood is sartinly stirriu' and the sperit of the 
 boy has come back to the body, an' life is movin' in his 
 members. Hurry, Lad, an' see the answer to yer prayer. 
 Be quick or the Lord will be here ahead of ye." 
 
 The words were barely out of the Trapper's mouth before 
 the Lad, with the beautiful light still shiuing in his face, was 
 kneeling at the feet of Herbert and gazing with steady yet 
 glowing eyes into the pale face, into which the slightest 
 possible flush had already come. 
 
 Thus Herbert, with the Trapper still holding with sup- 
 porting hands his head, with the Lad kneeling at his feet 
 and the hounds standing on either side of him in grave at- 
 tention, lay, while the warmth of renewed life grew within 
 his breast and sent its reviving fervor through the chilled 
 currents of his veins. 
 
 In a moment a quiver ran through his frame, his chest 
 rose to a full inspiration, his eyes slowly opened, and fixing 
 them first on the Lad, and then on the face of the Trapper, 
 his lips moved slightly and he said in a tone barely above a 
 whisper : — 
 
 " Old man, where am If" 
 
 " In the land of the livin', boy, in the land of the livin' 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 181 
 
 praise God ! n responded the Trapper. " In the land of the 
 livin' and here on Tomahawk Pint, with the Lad at yer feet 
 and the pups on either side, and myself here at yer head,; , 
 and now take a swallow more of the drink and then we'll 
 tuck ye away in the blankets and pile the hot stuns round 
 ye, for ye have had an onmarciful soakin', and been in a 
 scrimmage which taxed ye like a clinch with a Huron, and 
 ye need rest and warmth, for sleep and heat is the best doc- 
 tor in the world to one who has been in a tussle and come 
 out weak and sore as ye are. I warrant ye will be frisky 
 as a young pup arter ye have had a good, long sleep." 
 
 It was past midday when Herbert awoke, and rolling 
 himself out of the blankets in which he was swathed from 
 head to foot, and shoving aside several of the heated stones 
 which had been placed in a row on either side of his body, 
 rose to a sitting posture, and looked about him as a man 
 just awaking from a vivid dream. His sleep had been such 
 as the strong and healthy experience after complete ex- 
 haustion — an oblivious slumber, which had blotted so many 
 hours from his life, — a chasm stretched across the plain of 
 consciousness, deep and wide, whose either side was uncon- 
 nected with the other by even the filament of a dream. On 
 the other side of the fire, some distance away, the Trapper 
 and the Lad were seated talking in subdued tones and cast- 
 ing an occasional glance toward the spot where their com- 
 rade was slumbering. The hounds lay stretched side by 
 side in the sound sleep of dogs resting after a race. The 
 three rifles were leaning against a small pole a few feet 
 from the fire in such a position that the heat might best 
 
182 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 penetrate the barrels. In a moment Herbert took in the 
 position of things and with a light laugh said : — 
 
 " You didn't mean to bake me, did you, friends ? " 
 
 " Not egsactly," returned the Trapper, " but we did mean 
 to heat ye up pritty well, Henry; leastwise, we sartinly 
 meant to dry ye out and season ye a bit, for ye was mighty 
 well soaked, I tell ye, and we thought a good sweatin' 
 would open the seams and let the dampness out of ye, for 
 ye was eenamost waterlogged when the Lad fished ye up 
 from the lake, and so we fenced ye in with the heated stuns, 
 and between them and the fire and the warmth of yer body 
 the blankets have been smokiu' like a dish-cloth in the sun. 
 Now, boy, how do ye feel, and what more shall we do for 
 ye?" 
 
 "I feel first-rate," Herbert replied, "save that my chest 
 smarts as if a hot gridiron was tied across it, and my right 
 hand here is puffed up like a toad-stool. Have you got the 
 buck from the water, and where is my rifle ? " 
 
 " The buck is in the boat, and he's a big un too, and there 
 is yer rifle clean, and dry from muzzle to breech-pin, ready 
 for the powder ; fori said to the Lad that I knowed the 
 fust thing ye would ax us about would be the leetle gun, 
 for I know yer love for the piece, and it desarves all the 
 care ye give it, for two truer barrels was never spliced to- 
 gether. My ears could tell the crack of it among a thou- 
 sand ; and now what shall we do, for ye are captain of this 
 squad, and me and the Lad wait for yer orders ? " 
 
 " I think," Herbert replied, " you had better skin the 
 buck, and save his hide and head, but the body burn or 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 183 
 
 bury, for I never wish to see it, much less taste a morsel of 
 it. Then cook us a rousing dinner, for I am as hungry as a 
 shark ; and after we have eaten our fill, I propose that you 
 fix me up some kind of a bed in the bottom of the boat, 
 and we will go on toward the Saranacs, for day after to- 
 morrow is the boat race, and although I don't think, by the 
 way I feel that I shall pull an oar in a month, yet you and 
 the Lad can enter, and I can see the fun as an outsider." 
 
 " I thiuk ye talk like a gineral," said the Trapper, as Her- 
 bert ended. " I had sot my heart on seeing you and the 
 Lad pull agin those Saranacers, but ye are in no condition 
 to handle the ash, for sartin, but the Lad is, and he can 
 larn them a lesson they wont forgit, or I'm mistaken ; and 
 if I can find a good boat — though my gifts lie more in the 
 direction of the paddle than the row-locks, — yet, if the 
 Lad wont pull onless I do — and he says he wont, — I will 
 try the boastin' chaps a lick, and if I can only git the kink 
 of the Lad's swing, and the length of his sweep, I will show 
 'em what an old man can do, who boated in these waters 
 afore their fathers was born." So saying, the Trapper, with 
 the Lad, rose from the log, and addressed himself to the 
 preparation of the meal. 
 
 The sun had passed the meridian when the boat, with the 
 Lad at the oars, the Trapper at the paddle, and Herbert 
 lying at length on a soft couch of balsam and cedar boughs, 
 with the two hounds at his feet, shoved out from Tomahawk 
 Point, and started down the lake. It was such a day as 
 can be seen nowhere in the world save amid this forest of 
 the North, and from no point of view to such advantage as 
 
184 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 from a boat as it glides easily along on its course through 
 the middle of one of its larger lakes. 
 
 The water was as smooth as if no wave had ever rolled 
 across its tranquil surface, save where a loon in diving, or 
 in rising from his dive, sent from himself, as the living cen- 
 ter, an undulating circumference outward. On either side 
 the shores lay in deep repose, as if the very trees were 
 sleeping in delicious trance. Over them the mellow haze 
 of autumn was spread wide-cast as the peace of heaven. 
 Above, the mountains rose, with their peaks cutting the 
 cooler air, bathed in the blue atmosphere. The islands 
 looked, from the distance, as if they were floating on the 
 water — huge rafts of invisible timber freighted with moss- 
 covered rocks, evergreen shrubbery, and near their centers 
 with great pines. Around the edges of several, the white 
 birches, with their yellow leaves, stood out in bold relief 
 against the surrounding green. The air was mellow and 
 soft, and scented with the odors of ripened leaves and dying 
 grasses, while now and then the quickened nostril caught 
 the smell of odorous smoke blown from some distant camp- 
 fire. Overhead, the white gulls wheeled in snowy circles 
 lazily. In the upper sky the falcons soared on even wing. 
 And now and then, higher yet, the watchful eye would catch 
 the sight of darker and lengthier pinions, and follow the 
 majestic movement of the bald eagle, as, on stately and 
 motionless vans, he swung around in his serial circles. 
 
 Through such an enchanting scene, and as the living, 
 watchful center of it, our three friends moved along, the 
 Lad pulling a long, easy stroke, and the Trapper keeping 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 185 
 
 time with his paddle. They had proceeded on their course 
 a full mile before either spoke a word and then the Old 
 Trapper in a low tone said : — 
 
 " Many he the seasons I have passed in the woods sence 
 I struck the eastern shore of the Horicon, more than three- 
 score year agone, and many be the men I have seen fall by 
 my side, and many be the narrer escapes I have had from 
 death by bullet and water both, but I tell ye, Henry, I never 
 seed a man delivered from greater peril than you was in 
 this mom, and the Lad's rowin' and divin' saved ye for 
 sartin', onless, as it seems reasonable to do, ye set a share 
 down to his prayin', for arter he had fished ye from the lake 
 yer sperit was as near gone as it could be and not be actally 
 in the jedgment. Yis, the Lad sartinly saved ye." 
 
 " I hope I did help," said the Lad, " for it would be awful 
 to have Henry drown with both of us in sight. I don't 
 know what we could have done had he died ; but I don't 
 think my rowing or diving would have done any good had 
 it not been for your shooting the buck, John Norton ; I 
 think your shooting saved Henry, and I don't see how you 
 could have shot so well. I am sure my hand would have 
 shook dreadfully." 
 
 "The sarcumstances was agin me, for sartin, Lad," re- 
 sponded the Trapper, for the distance was too fur for close 
 work, and the buck was mighty lively, but the bullet was a 
 good one and the air so clear that I could actally see the 
 curl in the cretur's hair at the roots of the horns when I 
 sot my eye into the sights ; and Henry, weak as he was, 
 knowed enough to lop his head aside a leetle to make a 
 
186 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 path for the lead, and the Lord used my gifts, and the habit 
 of sixty year of shootin' in cloud and shine, in deadly 
 scrimmage and playful practice when the horn was full and 
 lead plenty, to furder his parposes of marcy, jest as he used 
 my rubbin' and the brandy to help the Lad out in his prayin' 
 and Scriptur sayin', back of the lodge." 
 
 " Don't you believe," interrupted the Lad — " Don't you 
 believe, John Norton, that God can do anything he wants to 
 without our helping him a bit ? " 
 
 " Sartinly, Lad, sartinly, if he only had a mind to, for I 
 have seed enough of his power when he put out his strength 
 amid the scenes of natur' to conceit he can do anything. 
 For I have seen the wind cut a swath through the woods as 
 a man in the settlements cuts a path through the grass 
 with his scythe ; and I have seed the frost pry up acres of 
 rocks and sile with the trees all standin' in them and slide 
 em down a mountain as if they were on greased skids ; 
 and I heerd a man, who was a furiner, say once, that in his 
 country at times the very arth under one's feet got onsteady 
 and shook like a half-breed with the ager, ontil a man 
 couldn't keep his legs ; but I have my doubts on that pint, 
 and I told him so to his face, for it don't seem reasonable 
 that the arth, which hasn't any bowels or narves, should 
 have any sech kind of spasms, or git coliky like. Still, if 
 the Lord raaly set about it in earnest it may be he could 
 make the very arth quiver like a human bein' in pain ; but 
 the arth is a big thing, and can't be handled round careless 
 by anybody, as I conceit." 
 
 " But," again interrupted the Lad, " don't you think that 
 God can do anything without our helping ? " 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 187 
 
 " Well, no, Lad, if ye want my raal idee on the matter, I 
 don't," returned the Trapper. " Leastwise, he seems willin' 
 to jine works with his creturs, I notice, when he has any 
 special job on hand, that needs raal arnest and lively work 
 to git it done in time to answer his purpose. Now, Henry's 
 scrimmage with the buck is a case in p'int. For Henry had 
 sartinly got into a pritty tight fix, if I am any jedge, and 
 if he was to be saved it had got to be done in a jedicious 
 and lively manner. So the Lord jined works with ye and 
 ye gifts, and ye sartinly did yer full share, for ye pulled 
 like all possessed ; and how ye got yer feet into the air so 
 quick considerin' the length of yer legs, is wonderful, and 
 can be accounted for only on the ground that divin' is one 
 of yer gifts — and ye yerself has said that the bullet I druv 
 in under the buck's horns, helped matters considerably." 
 
 " But, but," exclaimed the Lad, feeling he was being out- 
 reasoned, but none the less steadfast in his simple faith, 
 " don't you think the prayer did any good ? " 
 
 "Yis, sartinly, Lad," promptly replied the Trapper, "I 
 think ye are gifted in that way, and that the Lord heerd ye, 
 but," continued the old man, as if he feared he had made a 
 fatal concession, and in common with all theologians was 
 inclined to maintain his point, right or wrong — " but ye 
 must remember that yer prayer was well mixed in with my 
 rubbin', not to speak of the stimulant and hot stuns. No, 
 no, Lad, the Lord' couldn't have got along without yer pullin' 
 and divin', and the bullet and the rubbin', anyhow. Could 
 he, Henry ? " 
 
 The only reply Herbert made was to move his hand 
 
188 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 slightly under his cheek ; for, lulled by the easy dip of the 
 oars as they came and went in their measured stroke, and 
 perhaps by the murmur of the low, earnest voices above 
 him, yielding to some subtle but unknown law of reception 
 and impartment by which the slumberous peace of sur- 
 rounding nature entered into and possessed his senses, the 
 young man had sunk into a restful sleep. 
 
 And thus past the anchored islands, with their walled 
 rocks ; past the mouth of sleeping bays j past beaches of 
 golden sand ;. through the yellow autumnal haze, the boat 
 moved on, until it entered the easy flowing stream of the 
 beautiful Eacquette, then with all its loveliness unmarred 
 by the devastating hand of human selfishness. Thence up- 
 ward against the easy current the boat sailed on. Up long 
 stretches of level water, whose surface was strewn thick 
 with leaves that flamed with color, while underneath the 
 depths reflected the fiery hues of the overhanging maples, 
 — up over the glancing rifts whose first noisy ripples awoke 
 the sleeper, and sailing in easy curve around the great 
 bends the boat went forward on its course, until, as the 
 shadows began to darken on wood and stream, it reached a 
 spot where the pines came to the water's edge, and stood 
 like great sentinels, with arms at rest along the bank, as if 
 within their dark recesses the Genii of the woods had their 
 pine-guarded home. Here the three men landed, and with 
 rapid movements made ready for the night whose dark 
 wings were fast drawing their gloom-bringing flight be- 
 tween the earth and sky. 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 THE OVATION. 
 
 " His life was gentle, and the elements 
 So mixed in him, that Nature might s^and up 
 And say to all the world, This was a man." 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 TTWENING in the woods, on a still September night. In 
 front a river, which sends its current deep and dark, 
 with steady pressure, against the base of a hill, as if it 
 would undermine its broad foundation and float it off. A 
 beach of sand where the bend in the bank curves sharpest. 
 Ten feet above, a narrow, level stretch of land — a natural 
 terrace — with great pines growiDg thereon, whose trunks 
 rise clean of limbs, and straight as the masts of a ship, full 
 eighty feet, then tuft themselves in heaviest foliage. From 
 the inner edge of the level space the hill lifts, steep and 
 far, a thousand feet ; but even to the ridge the pines grow 
 thick and strong. On the level bank a camp-fire burning 
 brightly, and with an energy that lifts the flame in a fiery 
 pillar, ten feet upward. The light and shade play ghostly 
 hide-and-seek amid the distant trees and neighboring thick- 
 ets. Above the river, through the opening in the trees 
 made by its width from shore to shore, a space of sky, 
 dusky and dim, in which large stars bum and glow as dia- 
 monds set in jet against a swarthy forehead. Around the 
 
190 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 fire, our three friends, engaged in conversation, their voices 
 pitched to a low key, but animated and earnest in tone. 
 
 " I tell ye, lad," said the Trapper, " ye oughter pull with- 
 out me j rowin' comes nateral to ye, and yer stroke is sar- 
 tinly wonderful. I never seed anything like it. Ye can 
 walk a boat along for half a mile, quicker than any other 
 man livin', if I am any jedge ; but ye don't look to me as if 
 ye was put together for a long race, and I conceit a four- 
 mile stretch would blow ye, for ye are mighty light in the 
 middle, and yer chest is too thin by half. If ye had the 
 shoulders of Henry, here, I would wager my last horn of 
 powder, and my bullet-mould into the bargain, that ye could 
 beat 'em at any distance ; for I have seed Henry fetch his 
 boat, loaded deep at that, for three miles agin a wind that 
 whitened the lake from shore to shore, and never weaken 
 on a stroke. What do ye say, lad, — can ye pull a long 
 course if the rogues set us one ? " 
 
 " I don't want to pull at all, John Norton, nor go nigh 
 them, for I know they will laugh at me and call me names, 
 because I aint handsome and smart. The last time I went 
 out with my skins, they bothered me dreadfully about my 
 legs and hands, and hadn't it been for Sport, I don't know 
 but they would have hurt me ; but if they touched me even 
 so much as with a fish-pole, Sport showed his teeth at 
 them. He bit one of them badly because he tried to push 
 me into the water. It hurts me to be laughed at, and called 
 names, and besides — " 
 
 " Lad," interrupted the Trapper, " ye are with John Nor- 
 ton this trip, an' though I hope I can take a joke in good 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 191 
 
 natur', as a reasonable man should, and hold that the bullet 
 an' knife should be used carefully, and only agin inimies ; 
 yit a noisy mouth and a loose tongue need to be larnt man- 
 ners occasionally, and if they start any of their foolishness 
 at ye, there'll be a scrimmage, for sartiu, that they won't 
 forgit for the tarm of their nateral lives, even if the mark- 
 ins' of the knife has to be put on to some of 'em. No, Lad, 
 ye aint goin' to be imposed on, this trip, I can tell ye. 
 Come, Henry, what do ye think, for yer jedgment is good 
 on sech a p'int, can a man, with the build of the Lad, pull a 
 long course ? m 
 
 u I don't think his ' build,' as you call it," responded Her- 
 bert, " is especially against his chances ; it is not bulk of 
 frame, but sinews, and stroke, and pluck that win in a long 
 race ; and, as you say, the Lad is a natural oarsman and his 
 stroke is simply perfect. You see, it's a saving stroke, as 
 we call it, for he doesn't waste an ounce of strength in pull- 
 ing it, and however long and sharp it is, I notice he pulls it 
 even from dip to finish, and his boat moves on a level keel 
 and cuts the water like a knife. I dare say there will be 
 several fine oarsmen in the race, but I am confident the Lad 
 can beat them, if he will only try. And, moreover, I doubt 
 if there will be a man of them, old John Norton, who can 
 beat you, either, especially if the course is a long one j for 
 although you don't think much of the oars, yet you pull a 
 very strong stroke indeed, and are cool, and that counts in 
 such matters ; for a level head and a stout heart wins many 
 a race, and especially when the course is long and the race 
 a hot one. I think, therefore, -the Lad is right, when he 
 
192 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 says he wont pull unless you do ; for I know that a man 
 pulls better with a friend by his side, especially if he be 
 timid and is in a strange and perhaps hostile crowd ; and 
 I think a word from you would be worth the race to him if 
 the finish should be close and the shores noisy. You under- 
 stand, John Norton." 
 
 " Yis, yis, Henry," returned the Trapper, while a glance 
 of mutual intelligence passed between them, " Yis, I under- 
 stand what ye mean, and yer idees are sound, and jedg- 
 matically spoken, too, for in my young days I used the oar 
 myself, an' pulled in a good many races, an' I never pulled 
 a race 1 didn't win, either. But the paddle is the raal in- 
 strument for the hunter an' scout, an' my gifts sartinly lie 
 that way ; but yer words has reason in 'em," said the old 
 man, as he looked into the face of the Lad, the features of 
 which were entirely lacking in shrewdness and the positive- 
 ness of a resolute will. " Yis, yer words sartinly has rea- 
 son in 'em, an' if ye can find a boat for me with row-locks 
 and oars that will hold, I'll keep the Lad company. — Yis, 
 yis, Henry I heerd 'em afore they reached the bend ; it's 
 some boat comin' up the river. We'll hear their hail iu a 
 minit — I'll keep the Lad company, I say, an' I'll do my 
 best to beat him, too." 
 
 " Hallo, the camp there ! " shouted a voice from the mid- 
 dle of the river. 
 
 " Hallo it is," returned the Trapper, without moving an 
 inch from his recumbent posture, or scarcely lifting his eyes. 
 " What do ye want, and what can we do for ye ? " 
 
 For a minute or more there was no reply to the question 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 193 
 
 of the Trapper, but a confused murmur of several voices in 
 quick and whispered conversation, and the noise as of sev- 
 eral boats huddling together was audible to those on the 
 bank, and then an interrogation came out of the dark- 
 ness : — 
 
 " Aint you John Norton, the Trapper? " 
 
 " Well, it may be I am, and it may be I aint ; but the 
 chances favor the idee that I am John Norton," returned 
 the Trapper, " leastwise tSe signs p'int in that direction, 
 and now let me ax you, who be ye that travel at night — 
 and a chilly one at that, — and where ye are going as if the 
 day wasn't long enough for yer business." 
 
 " "We are bound for the Saranacs," replied the voice, " to 
 see the boat race, and it may be take a hand in it ourselves. 
 Shall you be there yourself?" 
 
 "Yis, I shall be there," returned the Trapper; "and ye 
 may tell 'em. so; and ye may say that I mean to pull, my- 
 self, if they don't bar a man because he haint pulled a race 
 for forty year, an' has as many white hairs as black in his 
 scalp." 
 
 " All right, John Norton, we'll tell them so ; but you'll be 
 wiped out, sure; for there's to be some New York pro- 
 fessionals there, they say, and a mighty slim chance any of 
 us chaps stand beside them I reckon." And with this dis- 
 couraging prediction the boat started on up the stream." 
 
 Not 'till the last murmuring sound of their rather noisy 
 progress died away did the Trapper speak ; then he said : 
 " Ye see, Henry, what's in the wind. There'll be buzzin' in 
 the hive when they hear I am coming out and mean to pull, 
 
194 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 too. I thought I'd poke 'em up a leetle, anyhow, aud I 
 warrant I've did it; for there be some old men livin' jit who 
 remember the times we had on the Horicon waters fifty 
 year agone, and they'll tell 'em what John Norton was, at 
 the ash afore these waters was knowed by them in the set- 
 tlements. I tell ye, Henry, it seems foolish for a man of 
 my years to say it, but if ye can find a boat for me that 
 suits yer jeclgment, I'll have a lick at them perfessionals, hit 
 or miss. It'll be an etarnal shame if them city boasters 
 beat the men born in the woods, and on their own waters 
 too. "What do ye think of it, Henry ; is there a chance for 
 me and the Lad?" 
 
 " I certainly think there is a chance for you both, John 
 Norton," replied Herbert, "and a good one too. In the 
 first place, you are both in good condition and used to the 
 boats, which the professionals are not, and that's in your 
 favor. Then again a four-mile course is a long one to pull 
 in these Adirondack boats, and wind and grit and sheer 
 strength count favorably against any extra skill the pro- 
 fessionals may have. If the Lad only had your muscular 
 power and grit, or you had his stroke, I would bet my last 
 dollar on either of you." 
 
 " Aye, aye, Henry, that's jest it. Ye have sartinly struck 
 the trail right eend to and gin your opinion like a jedge in 
 a school house. I tell ye what, Lad, I must git yer stroke. 
 Leastwise, I'll study the reason of it to-morrer as we go up, 
 if ye'll put in a lick or two occasionally. And if ye see the 
 perfessionals beatin me, Lad, and- them that was born in 
 the woods about to be shamed afore the men, aye, and the 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 195 
 
 wimin folks too, and I give ye the word, will ye pull ac- 
 cordin' to the gifts that the Lord has gi'n ye, boy ? " 
 
 " I don't want to pull at all, John Norton," responded the 
 Lad, u and I don't know how I shall feel, for I never pulled 
 a race, and I know that they will all laugh at me ; but I 
 won't see you beat by anybody, and I'll pull as hard as I 
 can, if they seem likely to do it. But I guess you can beat 
 them, and I would rather have you beat than to beat my- 
 self." 
 
 " No doubt, no doubt," returned the Trapper, in a tone 
 that plainly showed the great relief he felt at the promise 
 he had succeeded in getting from the Lad. " I tell ye, 
 Henry, the thing is settled. The perfessionals shant take 
 the prize out of the woods, if the Lad and me can help it. 
 Come, let's to bed. What a marcy it is to sleep in sech a 
 chamber as this, where ye can breathe all the air ye want 
 to without robbin' anybody, and there's no danger that the 
 roof will fall in onto ye." 
 
 So saying, the Old Trapper stretched himself on the 
 ground strewn thick with the fragrant pine stems, and 
 with a small bag of meal for his pillow, sank quickly into a 
 slumber which many a king on his soldier-guarded couch 
 would envy. His friends followed his example, and in a few 
 moments the three were resting in soundest sleep. But 
 the river still flowed on, incapable of weariness. The stars 
 stiL. burned with undiminished fervor, and over the sleepers' 
 heads the pines continued to make their soothing plaint. 
 In the cities, men were cursing and fighting, but Nature, 
 strong and safe in her innocence, rested in holy peace. 
 
196 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 It was well on to noon of the next clay when our friends 
 entered the waters of the Lower Saranac. The Trapper 
 was at the paddle and the Lad at the oars, and the long, 
 sharp boat, loaded as it was, passed through the water at a 
 rate few boats ever keep for any distance. 
 
 " I tell ye, Lad," remarked the Trapper, "ye had the right 
 idee of a boat for straight runnin' in yer head when ye 
 shaped the bottom board for the one we are in ; for it sar- 
 tinly gits through the water in a way that's surprisin'. In a 
 crooked creek it must be a mighty onreasonable thing to 
 handle, and I conceit that none but a prayin' man, and one 
 careful in the use of his tongue, could manage it for any 
 length of time and not git arnest in his speech ; but for open 
 waters and a strait run it's parfection itself. I'd give a 
 dozen of my best pelts for another jest like it for to-uiorrer.'' 
 
 " You are right," said Herbert ; " it's just the boat for 
 straightaway work, and I mean to get one as near like it as 
 I can for you to pull in to-morrow. It looks heavy, and 
 most would pick a lighter one ; but a long boat is the thing 
 for a long race, and long oars, too, with wide blades, if one 
 has power and grit enough to pull them strongly. Where 
 shall we stay to-night — at the hotel ? " 
 
 " The Lord forbid ! " exclaimed the Trapper, " It's nigh on 
 to fifty year sence I've slept under a shingled roof and 
 smothered within the walls of men's buildin', and natur' 
 and reason are both agin the doin' of sech foolishness ; for 
 there be good camps nigh the upper eend of the Lake, 
 where we can eat and sleep in peace, and where the hound 
 and the Lad cau have contentment j for the dog is a knowin' 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 197 
 
 in' dog and understands his rights, for his blood is without 
 a cross of low stuff in it, and he can't bear the mongrels 
 and half-breed curs of the settlements, nohow, and the 
 tramp of feet and the buzz of voices distarbs him as much 
 as it does me. And a man who isn't an Indian should think 
 of the comfort of his dog and plan for his happiness, as I 
 conceit. Yis, we'll go into camp, and arter we've eaten our 
 fill and made ready for the night, we will go down to the 
 hive and hear the senseless things buzz awhile. Mayhaps I 
 shall find a few yit livin' who have slept on the trail with 
 me and heerd the crack of my piece in a scrimmage, when 
 powder was powder and every bullet was worth its weight 
 in gold." 
 
 It was well on toward the close of the afternoon when 
 the Lad's boat, containing our three friends, came out from 
 behind the "Three Sisters" on its way toward the rendez- 
 vous. At the hotel all was expectation. For a great crowd 
 had gathered in anticipation of the morrow's races, and the 
 thought that they were to see the celebrated Trapper and 
 Scout of whom they had read and heard so much, but 
 whom they had never seen, stirred them with the feeling of 
 intense curiosity. The three guides that had hailed the 
 camp on the Racquette the evening before had brought the 
 word that " Old John Norton " was not only coming, but 
 that he was going to enter the free-for-all race, and pull 
 against the professionals. This raised the excitement to 
 fever heat, and the feeling became intense. Indeed, two 
 parties had already sprung up. In the crowd were several 
 aged men who remembered the great fame which the Trap- 
 
198 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 per had as an oarsinan fifty years before, when they and he 
 were young ; and, to interested groups during the day, they 
 had been narrating the stories of his skill, enormous 
 strengtb and unrivalled agility, exhibitions of which they, 
 with their own eyes, had seen, as called forth by the su- 
 preme exigencies of deadly conflicts in hand to hand fights, 
 or in the playful but manly games of peace. And the con- 
 viction of these old men — some of whom had not only 
 been overtaken by age, but also by the vicious habits of 
 civilized life — was well expressed in the strong assertion 
 of one of their number, who closed a heated verbal contest 
 with a gentleman from the cities, with " I tell ye, sir, there 
 is'nt a man on God's arth can beat John Norton at the 
 oars." 
 
 On the other hand the professionals had their advocates. 
 Fine, spruce college boys "doing the woods" in jaunty 
 straw hats with broad bands of blue ribbon round them, 
 and twirling little rattan canes in their dapper thin fingers ; 
 English tourists, strong-built and burly, in checked suits of 
 woolen stuffs, several of whom affecting the heavy sports- 
 man's style, lugged about their double English-made rifles, 
 " such as Gerard used in the jungles, you know, sir ; " while 
 their cartridge belts sagged, heavy with lead, as they 
 tramped back and forth along the piazza in broad-soled, 
 broad-toed, gaiter-boots, with spotless leggins reaching from 
 ankle to knee ; quiet city gentlemen, lawyers, bankers, cler- 
 gymen, whose knowledge of boating extended no further 
 than seeing or reading a newspaper account of the annual 
 race between Yale and Harvard in their long, pencil-like 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 199 
 
 shells. These, with here and there a single exception, all 
 discussed the race as if lying between three professionals 
 that were already entered to pull. Even the guides, over- 
 awed by the high-sounding word, "professional," and by the 
 marvelous stories of their ability at the oars which were 
 passed from group to group, were intimidated to such an 
 extent that of all their number, representing as it did nearly 
 every boat in the wilderness, two brothers alone had en- 
 tered. And hence, although their sympathies were strongly 
 with the Trapper, they readily admitted that the " profes- 
 sionals n would win. But though his party was in the 
 minority as to numbers, its spirit was self-asserting in tho 
 extreme, and not a few sportsmen and guides, who had 
 seen him pull his boat against a wind that scooped the 
 water into the air, as steadily as if the lake lay level to his 
 stroke, or thrust it up a stretch of rapids where the water 
 quivered with the swiftness of its descending flight, took 
 stock in his chances and endorsed the saying of the old 
 chap who in his excitement, born of argument or liquor — 
 perhaps it would not be kind to inquire too closely which 
 — had declared that there wasn't "a man on God's arth 
 could beat Old John Norton at the oars." 
 
 Thus stood the feeling and the crowd when the boat, with 
 the Lad at the oars and the Trapper at the paddle and Her- 
 bert amidship, came out from behind the " Three Sisters " 
 into plain view of the hundreds that were watching for their 
 appearance. 
 
 Nothing could excel the fineness of the tribute which 
 the crowd, composed of several hundreds, were uncon- 
 
200 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 sciously paying to the fame of the Old Trapper ; fur as tbe 
 boat came on, the talking ceased ; even the giggling of a 
 knot of young misses who had been flirting with shameful 
 ostentation with a couple of undergraduates from Harvard, 
 was checked before they were aware of it, by the sudden 
 silence which had fallen on the densely packed throng, and 
 amid a stillness more impressive by far, when associated 
 with a popular assembly, than the loudest cheering, the 
 Lad's boat drew on. The Lad was pulling the same non- 
 chalant stroke as was his custom, his head lopped as usual 
 on one side, and his body doubled up as if shrinking to get 
 away from its own enormous hight and ungainly appearance. 
 But the professionals, who, with observant eyes, were watch- 
 ing the approach, noted that the oars were of unusual 
 length, that the blades were nearly twice the customary 
 width, and that they entered and left the water with a pre- 
 cision which nothing but long experience can give, while in 
 their recovery they passed along the level water with an 
 evenness which bore witness that the wrists that guided 
 their return were educated by years of practice. As the 
 boat came on so that the several forms could be recognized, 
 one of them drew a long breath, nudged his companions 
 and whispered : " I'm glad it isn't the Trapper that's hand- 
 ling those oars." 
 
 The old man was seated in the stern of the boat, and 
 using his paddle with an unconscious grace ; but it is cer- 
 tain that, beyond a slight sense of the ludicrous at the 
 peculiar reception that he and his companions were meet- 
 ing, he did not appropriate the fineness of the compliment 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 201 
 
 that in it was being tendered him. For in his own eyes he 
 seemed but an ordinary person, and one to whom belonged 
 the least possible amount of popular applause. He was 
 bare-headed as usual, and the full exposure of his counte- 
 nance and forehead, as the bright sun fell on him, made it 
 possible for the gazer's eye to take in the noble majesty of 
 a face to which years had brought no weakness, and unto 
 which they had given a characterization and dignity truly 
 imposing. 
 
 " Aye, aye, the bees have swarmed for sartin, this time, 
 Henry, and the whole hive is empty. By the Lord, Lad, 
 they look like a bunch of frightened Hurons huddlin' to- 
 gether in the midst of a sudden ambushment afore they 
 have had time to think or get to shelter. Hoot ! There's 
 more colors in their garments than the squaw of a chief 
 would have at the feast of the Succotash, and the toggery 
 that some of them chaps has on would make a dead moose 
 bellow, — but why be they so aruest-like in their looks, boy, 
 and what be the sense of their silence ! " 
 
 To this interrogation Herbert made no reply, for he under- 
 stood the pent-up excitement of the crowd they were ap- 
 proaching, and knew that the explosion was sure to come 
 at the proper moment; and he would not for the world 
 have robbed himself of the pleasure of seeing the Old Trap- 
 per's surprise. He therefore made no reply. The boat by 
 this was within twenty rods of the landing, and was gliding 
 rapidly in. The Lad, affected by the silence, and surprised 
 at it, suddenly trailed his oars, and half turning in his seat 
 lifted his simple face upward to see what was the cause of 
 
202 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 it. The Old Trapper, surprised at the extraordinary con- 
 duct of the crowd, and not dreamiug of the real reason of 
 it, also intermitted his stroke and brought his paddle to a 
 trail, while his eyes went and came from object to object 
 as if in the presence of an enemy. 
 
 Thus the boat slowed its progress and came nearly to a 
 pause within fifty feet of the landing, when suddenly an old 
 white-headed man, dressed in humble garb and leaning 
 heavily on a stout stick, who stood near the outermost 
 angle of the pier, and who had been shading his eyes for a 
 moment from the western sun that he might assist his tail- 
 ing sight, and gazing fixedly at the countenance of the 
 Trapper, whose features he had not seen for thirty years, 
 flourished his stick in the air, and exclaimed with a voice 
 that shook with the intensity of his emotion : — 
 
 " John Norton ! He saved my life at the battle of the 
 Salt Licks forty year ago. Three cheers for John Norton ! " 
 
 And then, as if the cord which held the crowd to silence 
 had suddenly snapped and yielded to the pressure of the 
 pent-up excitement, or as if the edged words of the old 
 veteran had cut it like a knife, a cheer arose which burst 
 the stillness into fragments, and, thrice repeated, rolled its 
 roar across the lake and against the distant hills, until their 
 hollow caverns resounded again, while on the instant a hun- 
 dred white handkerchiefs, waved by whiter hands, sprung 
 into sight snd filled the air with their snowy fiutterings. 
 
 It was then, when the mighty .cheer broke forth, and 
 while the roar of it was around him, that the Old Trapper 
 realized the honor which by silence and voice alike, was 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 203 
 
 being shown him. Herbert's eyes were on him with the glad 
 watchfulness of one who knew what was coming, and knew 
 also how totally unprepared the old man was for the recep- 
 tion, and was curious to note his bearing of it. For one 
 instant the color came and went in the Trapper's face as in 
 the face of a girl whoso beauty, at her entrance to the par- 
 lor, has brought every eye in admiration upon her. The 
 least possible quiver played on the edges of his lips, and a 
 gleam as of a fine light shining from within came into his 
 eyes. And then he rose and stood at his utmost height in 
 the boat, erect as a pine which has come to its fullest girth, 
 ripened its fiber to toughness, but has not as yet felt the 
 weakening of coming decay. So the old man rose and 
 stood for a moment, in acknowledgment of the greeting, 
 with a grace and dignity that a trained courtier might envy, 
 but could not assume, while the eyes of the multitude had 
 time to take in the size of his splendid proportions, and the 
 grave majesty of his countenance ; and then he settled to 
 his seat and the boat moved to the landing. 
 
 " By heaven ! " exclaimed the professional to his com- 
 panions again, " if the Trapper can handle the oars like that 
 3hap in the bow, we are beaten ! " 
 
 And this was John Norton's reception. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE RACE. ' 
 
 " A larger scene of action is displayed." 
 
 Virgil, Dryden'8 Translation. 
 
 *TT was high noon at the Saranac, and a brighter day was 
 never seen. The sky was so intensely blue that it fairly 
 gleamed, as if, like woods of compact fiber, it was capable 
 of taking polish. In it the sun stood and shone with self- 
 asserting brilliancy. It glistened, it scintillated, it sparkled, 
 as if its rays were actually frosty. The sky above was 
 wintry. The cold of the North was journeying southward, 
 like her feathered couriers on lofty wings. The upper at- 
 mosphere was chilly, but on the earth summer still tarried 
 with its hazy warmth and slumberous airs. The heat came 
 from the earth rather than from the sun, and lingered like 
 a happy child near the mother that gave it birth, and from 
 whose bosom it would not fly. The lake had not stirred a 
 ripple. It took its mood from the atmosphere, and matched 
 it perfectly. Perhaps it had said to the wind : " Oh, let me 
 rest to-day ! You have blown me about and kept me mov- 
 ing until I am weary. Do give me a little peace. Come, 
 dear, sweet wind, if you love me so, do let me have one day 
 of rest ! " And the wind, thus coaxed by the sleepy beauty, 
 had humored her luxurious whim, and stood all day holding 
 his very breath. The air was thickened as with golden- 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 205 
 
 colored smoke. It was not common air ; it was incensed, 
 aromatic, pungent. The nose found strauge, spicy scents in 
 it, and breathed it in slowly, as a delicate mouth receives 
 cream, not to swallow, but to taste. No one could breathe 
 such an air simply for the purpose of ordinary life, — mere 
 respiration, — but as one breathes perfume; receiving its 
 delicious sensation as a luxury, and drawing each breath, 
 not for life's, but for joy's sake. In front of "Martin's," 
 across the lake, the hillside fairly flamed. The leaves had a 
 ripened glory, rich as that which the old painters, with their 
 ardent colors, painted into the faces and around the heads 
 of their saints. Along the shores, blown by previous winds 
 the bright-colored leaves lay thick; some lying limp and 
 flat, — patches of crimson on the dull water, — some half 
 immersed, while others, curled and curved, floated jauntily 
 on the surface, as if they could scarcely bear to touch the 
 element on which they rested. Nature, on tree and water, 
 and in the air, was lavish of her highest tints ; until the 
 gray moss on the rocks, and the gray rocks themselves, 
 looked, with the golden colors on them, almost gorgeous. 
 
 On some the beauty of the day was not lost. But the 
 noise and excitement of the sport had shut the eyes of 
 most to its extraordinary charms, or caused them to look 
 upon it from the purely utilitarian standpoint of a tin ped- 
 dler from New Hampshire, who, hearing of the great gath- 
 ering, and having an eye for business, had made a forced 
 drive of fifty miles in the hope of finding a market for his 
 wares, and having sold his last kettle, was now giving his 
 undivided attention to the cause of his good fortune, and 
 
206 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 who, after a profound inspection of the surroundings, pro- 
 nounced it a " blamed good day for a race." Nor was he 
 wrong in his estimate. It was a good day for a race, and a 
 long race at that. For of wind there was none. The water 
 was level as water might be, and the air was of that genial 
 quality that one could breathe under the necessities of vio- 
 lent exertion, even with gasps, and not have it " cut" wind- 
 pipe or lungs. 
 
 It was nigh noon, and the " free for all " was to be pulled 
 at one o'clock. The entries were closed the evening before 
 and stood seven»in all j the three professionals ; the brother 
 guides, known as Fred and Charlie, respectively ; the Old 
 Trapper, and the Lad. When the names were announced 
 from the front piazza to a highly interested crowd, which 
 numbered every man and boy, guide and gentleman on the 
 place, the other names were received with cheers, but the 
 greeting given to the Lad was peculiar. When the chair- 
 man of the committee of arrangements announced it, it was 
 heard by the throng in dead silence, none knowing to whom 
 it applied ; but when the chairman in response to a ques- 
 tion from the crowd explained that " it belongs to the tall 
 young man that came in with Mr. Herbert and John Norton 
 yesterday," the most extraordinary explosion, and one char- 
 acteristic of an American audience, followed. It was not a 
 cheer, nor a groan, but a monstrous roar of good nature, 
 astonishment, contempt, and mirthfulness all combined in 
 equal measure. 
 
 Interrogations crossed and re-crossed each other in the 
 air. The old chap who had started the cheer for John Nor- 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 207 
 
 ton the previo is day, wanted to know " which section of 
 the boy was to pull, the upper or lower half, for no Saranac 
 boat would hold both halves of him at once." Remarks 
 more or less witty were made as to the length of his legs 
 and arms, the enormous size of his hands, and the lathe- 
 like shape of his build. Many of these remarks were di- 
 rectly or indirectly addressed to the Trapper, as the only 
 one who could give information who and what the Lad was. 
 
 The old man bore the badinage of the crowd for several 
 minutes with immovable good nature ; and it was not until 
 the hilarity passing downward from the better class to the 
 coarser and half-drunken hangers-on that can always be 
 found in a crowd at a country hotel — began to be tinctured 
 with vulgarity, if not with abuse, and the questions put 
 with offensive directness to the Lad himself, who was stand- 
 ing timidly behind him, that he made any reply. But then 
 he stepped suddenly aside, bringing by the motion the Lad 
 into full view, and laying one hand lightly on his shoulder 
 and stretching the broad palm of the other out, he said : — 
 
 u I sartinly hope I can take a joke, either on my own ac- 
 count or on account of a friend ; but there's a pint beyend 
 which it's onreasonable to go, and beyend which it's axin a 
 good deal of human natur' to stand. And a few of ye noisy 
 chaps in this matter of the Lad's rowin' to-morrer, has gone 
 about fur enough, and I'd advise ye to fetch up, or ye'll sar- 
 tinly gifc yerselves into trouble. And sence I've got a chance 
 I might as well stop a leetle nonsense that the Lad has told 
 me ye practised on him when he come out with his pelts 
 last spring j and so I'll jest say — and there be a few here 
 
208 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 who will tell ye that John Norton is apt to keep his word — 
 that if this boy by my side, which I call the Lad, but who 
 calls himself, ' The Man Who Don't Know Much/ ever comes 
 here agin, and any of ye git careless in yer speech toward 
 bim, I'll come out and settle the matter with them that 
 does it, and in a way they won't forgit while they live on 
 the arth." 
 
 It was five minutes of one o'clock, and the seven boats 
 were already in position and the seven oarsmen, excepting 
 the Trapper and the Lad, had their oars at a rest. The 
 course ran straight down the lake to a line of seven buoys, 
 so that each boat had its own buoy to turn, and thence 
 back again to the line at which they were now stationed for 
 the start. The length of the course was, therefore, "just 
 fouc miles; two out and return. A straight-away race it 
 was to be, and longer by half than was ever before pulled 
 on those waters. The fact alone increased the interest of 
 the spectators, and provoked a deal of discussion. Since 
 the previous evening, divisions had taken place in the opin- 
 ions of the crowd, and every competitor but the Lad had 
 his backers. The professionals, of course, had the majority 
 still, but the Old Trapper was well backed, especially by the 
 older men among the natives, and by the ladies of the hotel, 
 upon whom the simplicity of his manners, and perhaps 
 even more, the greatness of his fame, had made a profound 
 and most favorable impression. But the two young guides 
 Fred and Charlie did not lack supporters either, — the 
 former because of his enormous strength, which had already 
 given him a brilliant local reputation, and because although 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 209 
 
 he had never pulled in a public race, he was nevertheless 
 known to have such command at the oars as few attaiD, 
 and uone unless they have a natural aptitude for the work. 
 Herbert believed that Fred, would win the race if any 
 accident should happen to the Trapper, and if the Lad 
 should, through timidity, fail to exert himself; for the young 
 man had been his guide several seasons and he had assisted 
 him with suggestions in mastering a stroke which allowed 
 his enormous strength to expend itself to the best advan- 
 tage. Indeed, many of the spectators were aware of this 
 and in default of Herbert's pulling, himself, which was the 
 subject of keen and universal regret, Fred, was looked 
 upon as in a certain sense his representative, and was 
 backed accordingly. His brother, although of lighter pro- 
 portions, had already won in many races, and was known 
 as one of the best, if not the best oarsman among the 
 guides, and his party was strong in numbers and equally 
 strong in hope, including as it did nearly every visitor from 
 an adjoining hotel, and every guide in the St. Eegis region. 
 Indeed, as between the two brothers, Fred, and Charlie, and 
 the Trapper ; the guides and dwellers in the woods were 
 well represented, and they felt that the chance of their 
 champions winning the prizes over the professionals was as 
 good as it could possibly be, and they backed their men 
 with all the earnestness of their earnest natures and the 
 talkative confidence of local pride now thoroughly aroused. 
 The Lad had not a single backer with the exception, strange 
 to say, of the professionals themselves : for even Herbert 
 did not feel persuaded that he would pull with energy,, and 
 
210 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 therefore said nothing openly of his chances. But the pro- 
 fessionals, who had watched his stroke as ho came down 
 the lake the day before, and knew nothing of his timid 
 temperament, inwardly feared him more than all the others, 
 and decided among themselves that he was their real an- 
 tagonist, though of this they said nothing to others, but 
 through a " silent partner " they " hedged " on him in the 
 betting which quietly and without the least publicity had 
 been indulged in to a considerable extent, especially among 
 tbe guests of the hotel and the city visitors from the ad- 
 joining houses. The boats in which the several contestants 
 were to pull were by no means of the same length or shape, 
 for the conditions of the race allowed them to " take their 
 pick," and each had followed his own inclinations. The 
 three professionals had picked the lightest boats they could 
 find, and those in which they sat averaged about sixty 
 pounds and were some thirteen feet long. Charlie selected 
 a light one belonging to a lady, one of the guests of the 
 house, of lapstreak build but narrow and low, made of 
 Spanish cedar, polished till it shone like glass, twelve feet 
 in length and weighing only forty-six pounds. The other 
 guide, Fred, pulled his own boat, over fifteen feet in length, 
 and which weighed eighty pounds and more. For the Trap- 
 per, Herbert had selected one of precisely the same length 
 and weight, while the Lad sat in his own that measured 
 seventeen feet and upward and weighed over ninety pounds. 
 The Trapper had with him his rifle, from which no argu- 
 ment of Ilerbert — because of the extra weight it added, — 
 could separate him j and in the stern of the Lad's boat sat 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 211 
 
 Sport, the hound, with an expression of such gravity as 
 only a hound's counteuance, when in repose, can show ; as 
 if he had been elected to preside as judge over the race, 
 and felt to the full the grave responsibility of the position 
 and its accompanying dignity. 
 
 The number of the spectators was a wonder to all, and 
 entirely unanticipated. For although it was expected that 
 a large crowd would be present, yet the gathering had 
 grown into unprecedented and enormous proportions. 
 Where the people came from was a mystery. It seemed as 
 if not only had the wilderness sent out every guide and 
 party camping in it, but as if every hotel in the whole region 
 had emptied its guests upon the waters and shores of the 
 Lower Saranac, and that even the outlying villages had 
 poured their entire population into the same receptacle. 
 The long, wide piazzas of the hotel, the wharf, even the 
 roof of the boat-house, swarmed with human beings. The 
 shore on either side of the lake was also lined with specta- 
 tors for the distance of half a mile, while on the waters of 
 the lake itself, stretched on either side of the course which 
 was duly protected from infringement by guard boats sta- 
 tioned at suitable distances by the committee of arrange- 
 ments, at least five hundred boats lay loaded deep with 
 eager spectators. From a flag-staff in front of the hotel 
 the stars and stripes hung pendent in the still air, a drapery 
 of glorious color in the bright sunshine, while numberless 
 smaller flags and showy streamers flecked the air with their 
 rich shades everywhere. Nature and man seemed in rivalry 
 and striving to outdo each other in contributing most to the 
 spectacular glory of the scene. 
 
212 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 Such was the position of things at live minutes of one 
 o'clock, — the seven boats in line, and the seven contest- 
 ants waiting fur the word, with every eye among the thou- 
 sands fastened upon them amid a silence as profound as if 
 by some supernatural power every man and trace of man 
 had been suddenly banished from the spot, and nature had 
 returned to the uninterrupted silence of her primeval soli- 
 tude. 
 
 "Now, boys," said the Trapper, speaking to the two 
 brothers on his right, " ye must remember that a four-mile 
 race is a good deal of a pull, and the go-oft isn't half as 
 decidin' as the come-in. I don't conceit we can afford to 
 fool away any time even in the fust half mile, for them 
 three perfessionals have come up here to row, and they look 
 to me as if they had a good deal of that sort of fun in 'em ; 
 but it won't do to git flustered at the start, and if ye see fit 
 to follow it, I will set ye a jedgmatical sort of a stroke 
 which will send us out to the bys yender without any raw- 
 ness in the windpipe or kinks in the legs. Still, if ye don't 
 think ye are pulling fast enough take yer own lick, — for in 
 sech matters the best jedgment may prove like a hound off 
 the scent, and I wouldn't spile yer chances of walloping 
 them perfessionals, to-day, for all the money on the arth. 
 And in sech a race as this is likely to be, it's only just and 
 reasonable that every man should foller his own notions, 
 and act accordin' to his gifts." 
 
 " Do you think we shall win, Old Trapper ? " said Fred. :n 
 a low tone. 
 
 " I duuno, I dunno, boy ; I sartinly dunno,' ; returned the 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 213 
 
 Trapper in a tone scarcely above a whisper. " I like yer 
 build, for ye are broad in yer chest and thick in yer loins, 
 and yer jaw bone is a big un, and that means ye have got 
 plenty of grit, as I have obsarved natur' ; but I don't like 
 yer oars. No, I can't say I like yer oars, specially that left 
 one, for there's a knerl in the shank of it that oughtn' to 
 be there, and I fear the pesky thing will play a trick on ye 
 at the finish. But, Henry has great confidence in ye and 
 Henry knows what rowin' and oars is, for sartin'. I'd give 
 every skin in the cabin if the boy was atween me and the 
 Lad here, aye, and throw in a dozen or two of my best traps 
 to boot." 
 
 u Your oars are big enough to hold, any way," rejoined 
 the young man, " and I hope to heaven you will win." 
 
 " Thank ye, boy, thank ye. It is well spoken in ye. Yis, 
 I sartainly shall try, for it would be a mortal shame to have 
 the prize go out of the woods, for the piece is a likely one 
 to look at, and they say it has a long range. And if noth- 
 ing gives way I'll give 'em a touch of the stuff that's in me, 
 for the last half mile that will make them git down to their 
 work in arnest, ye may depend on it. But if anything hap- 
 pens to us, or we can't do it, I have great hopes of the Lad, 
 here, for his gifts be wonderful at the oars, and if he will 
 only pull as I seed him day afore yesterday he'll — " 
 
 "Ready, there!" said the sharp, clear voice of the Starter. 
 il Beady there, for the ivord ! " 
 
 " Aye, aye, ready it is," replied the Trapper, as he ad- 
 vanced his blades well ahead ready for the signal. " Now, 
 Lad," whispered the Trapper hoarsely, " don't ye forgit yer 
 
214 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 promise, and if anything happens, or ye see I can't win, 
 and I give ye the word, John Norton will never forgive ye 
 if ye don't pull like a sinner running from the jedgment." 
 " Ready there all of you. One, two, THREE. GO ! " 
 At the word, " Go ! " the seven boats started ; but not to- 
 gether. The oars of the three professionals dropped into 
 the water as if their blades were controlled by one man, 
 and their stroke was so tense and quick that the light boats 
 fairly jumped ahead like three arrows shot from one quiver- 
 ing string. But lightning-like as was their stroke, it was 
 no quicker than the one that Charlie, the guide, had deliv- 
 ered, nor had they thrown an ounce of vigor into theirs 
 which he had not also put into his ; and the little boat in 
 which he sat had the best of the send-off by at least a foot. 
 The other guide and the Trapper had been slower to get 
 away — as in reason they must, being in heavier boats, — 
 and were at least a full length behind, before they had 
 fairly got^into motion. Nor even then did the Trapper 
 seem to be anxious to make up the lost ground, nor to care 
 if he lost more ; for his stroke was long, steady, and to the 
 lookers-on it seemed leisurely pulled. The Lad was the last 
 to get off, and his stroke was even longer, easier, and more 
 deliberately delivered than the Trapper's ; and so careless 
 and ungainly was his appearance, and so little snap did he 
 evince, that the crowd, who cheered the passage of the 
 others as they swept past, laughed and groaned aud roared 
 their fun out at him as he swung nonchalantly along. For 
 forty rods the race continued, without change in the rela- 
 tive positions of the seven boats. The professionals pulled 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 215 
 
 a quick, sharp stroke of forty-odd to the minute, which was 
 precisely matched by the young guide, and the gain of a 
 foot he had at the send-off he still held almost to an inch. 
 A prettier sight than the four leading boats presented never 
 gladdeued a boatman's eye, nor stirred the gazer's blood. 
 The eight oars flashed, dropped, and flashed again as the 
 oarsmen swept their blades ahead, as if their motions were 
 regulated by machinery, while their heads and bodies rose 
 and sank with automatic precision. Some rods behind, the 
 Trapper and Fred, were pulling side by side and stroke for 
 stroke, — long, strong and steady. 
 
 " I tell ye, boy," said the old man to the young guide by 
 his side, as he half turned his head and threw a glance for- 
 ward, " them perfessionals have got their match for quick- 
 ness in yer brother, if I am any jedge, and if he's got wind 
 and grit they'll like him as leetle as a half-breed likes the 
 pill of the doctor ; for the more they chew him the bitterer 
 he'll taste. It does me good to see the boy hang to 'em. 
 Lord-a-massy ! how the folks are yellin', and the wimmin' 
 themselves are screechin' like squaws at the maize dance. 
 Yis, yis, boy, I understand ye ; but don't ye worry ; four 
 miles is fom miles; and it's a long oar and strong back 
 that's goin' to win this race, and no clipper-clapper work 
 that's makin' the folks screech so ahead ; but if ye are nar- 
 vous we'll lengthen out a leetle jest to show 'em that we 
 aint more than half asleep." " Come, Lad ! " called the 
 Trapper, to his comrade astern, " don't ye mind the foolish- 
 ness they are saying to ye and the dog, but hist along a lee- 
 tle faster, for we are goin' to let out a link or two, and I 
 
216 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 feel a leetle easier to have ye nigh enough to catch the rea- 
 son of yer stroke and feel the ease of it in my elbows." 
 
 So saying, the old man set his comrade a stroke so long 
 and sharply pulled that the two boats fairly doubled their 
 rate of speed, and in a minute were end and end with the 
 boats ahead, while the exhibition of strength thus made, 
 taking the spectators, who had begun to look upon the race 
 as lying between the four contestants in front, by surprise, 
 brought a roar of astonishment and wild delight from their 
 mouths that fairly lifted the air as with an explosion. But 
 here and there a watchful eye, and pre-eminently that of 
 the " silent " partner of the professionals, noted that, rapid 
 as had been the movement of the two boats forward, as 
 impelled by the tremendous spurt of the Trapper and Fred., 
 and although the Lad still swung aloug in his nonchalant 
 manner, yet when the spurt had ended and six instead of 
 four boats were now in line, the boat of the Lad was in the 
 precise position as regards its nearness to the Trapper that 
 it had been from the beginning of the race. Aud seeing 
 this, — a very instructive fact to one of his profession — he 
 proceeded to " hedge " yet more. 
 
 "There !" said the Trapper to the young guide at his side, 
 as the two boats came up even with the other four, and he 
 had breathed himself a moment, " I guess we'll ease up a 
 leetle, for the time to raally pull hasn't come yit. I tell ye, 
 boy, ye needn't be afeared about the race. That rifle is 
 goin' to stay here in the woods, and I sartinly hope ye may 
 git it, too; for ye have got the raal grit in ye, and yer stroke 
 is so much like Henry's, that when ye let out back there I 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 217 
 
 almost conceited the boy himself was pullin' yer boat. No, 
 no, boy ; don't say a word, but keep yer breath to yerself, 
 for je'Il need it all at the finish. No, no," continued the 
 Trapper, as if talking to himself, " I don't need the piece, 
 and Henry has as good a one already as man ever handled, 
 and a good rifle aint got every day and is better than a for- 
 tin' to one of yer years. Yis, boy, you let me set ye the 
 stroke, and I'll bring ye in ahead of them chaps, and of yer 
 brother, too ; for it's agin reason that a light boat and a 
 quick stroke should win agin a long boat and a long oar, 
 with sech a back and sech grit as ye have. So save yer 
 breath as much as ye can for the finish, and the rifle shall 
 be in yer cabin to-night, or my name ain't John Norton." 
 
 "Now," resumed the Trapper after a moment's pause, 
 " there's the Lad back there that can beat us both, but his 
 sperit is agin it, for he thinks it would tickle an old man 
 like me to win the prize, and so he won't pull. Jest watch 
 his stroke, boy, and obsarve the reason of it. Did ye ever 
 see a boat run like that with sech leetle effort ? Lord bless 
 the Lad ! its a marvel, how the Creatur can put so much 
 power into sech an onreasonable body. — Easy, boy, easy, 
 -et 'em git ahead if they want to. The comin' in is what 
 decides a race, and I'll give ye a stroke on the last half mile 
 that'll make 'em feel like an over-fed hound in a hot chase." 
 
 Thus the boats rushed on their way, each running as 
 straight towards its appointed buoy as a bullet could fly ; 
 while the multitude, now far astern, watched with eager 
 eyes and bated breath the receding race. As the boats 
 passed farther and farther down the lake the murmur of 
 
218 ' ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 renewed conversation arose ; while speculation, guesses, and 
 strong assertions as to who would win were heard on all 
 sides. It was evident that the party of the Trapper was 
 already in the ascendant ; for the spurt he had made, and 
 which had carried his boat with such a rush up even to the 
 front, had revealed the tremendous power of the man, and 
 shown that age had not weakened, to any extent, his enor- 
 mous strength. The old men in the crowd, whose sympa- 
 thies were naturally enlisted in behalf of their former com- 
 rade, were nearly beside themselves with delight, as they 
 saw him rush his boat forward. They swung their hats j 
 they shook each other's hands; they cheered with their 
 thin, tremulous voices ; they actually wept, while the old 
 fellow who had repeated it at least twenty times before, 
 again asserted : " I tell ye, there isn't a man on God's arth 
 can beat John Norton at the oars." 
 
 At last, a man with stentorian lungs, who stood on the 
 ridge of the boat house, shouted with all the power of his 
 voice : " They have turned the buoys ! They have turned 
 the buoys ! The professionals and Charlie are ahead ! " At 
 this announcement a silence fell on the multitude for a mo- 
 ment, and then the buzz and murmur of mingling voices 
 again arose. 
 
 " How far behind is John Norton ? " said the old chap on 
 the wharf. 
 
 " He and Fred, are four rods astern, at least," bellowed 
 the man in reply. 
 
 "Where's the Lad?" asked the "silent" partner, in a 
 clear tenor voice. 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 219 
 
 " Oh, he's out of the race," said the man on the roof. 
 " He's full tea rods behind the Trapper and Fred." 
 
 At this the " silent " man with the tenor voice looked 
 puzzled. He took a cigar from his pocket, and, as he coolly 
 struck a match on his boot heel, those standiug near him 
 mutter: " Ten rods astern! His stroke is a winning stroke. 
 What's the matter with the fool ? " 
 
 By this time the boats were plain to the view, and the 
 stillness which had settled on the crowd which, with eager 
 eyes and shortened breath watched their coming, was so 
 profound as to be absolutely oppressive j for the contest- 
 ants were barely a mile away, and every boat, and even the 
 action of the several boatmen, was clearly visible. 
 
 " There, boy," said the Trapper to the young man at his 
 side, " ye have trusted to an old man's jedgment, who 
 played the game we are at afore ye was born, and I told ye 
 comin' down, the piece should be in yer cabin to-night. The 
 time has sartinly come for us to show the grit that's in us. 
 Are ye ready for the stroke, boy ? " 
 
 The guide made no reply, save a quick, sharp nod of his 
 head and a slight tightening of his lips, while his heavy 
 brows fairly lowered over his eyes. 
 
 " All right," said the Trapper; " ready for the word; long 
 and quick ; now ! " 
 
 The swoop of a hawk into the thicket after its prey is 
 scarcely swifter or straighter than was the rush of the two 
 boats, in which the old man and the young guide sat, to the 
 front, until their bows lined exactly with those of the other 
 four. 
 
220 ADIRONDACK TALES. « 
 
 " Easy, easy now," said the Trapper. " Git yer breath, 
 boy. Yis, Heury was right ; ye are grit from yer head to 
 yer toes. The rifle is yours or John Norton is a — " 
 
 4 groan of pain and rage interrupted the Trapper He 
 threw a glance to the left and the cause was apparent, -.he 
 oars of Charlie were trailing, while the white shirt that he 
 wore was spattered all over with blood. His tremendous 
 exertions had been too much. He had broken a blood ves- 
 sel, and from mouth and nose alike jetted with every gasp 
 the sanguine tide. 
 
 " Never mind the boy," hoarsely whispered the Trapper ; 
 " they'll pick him up. The piece must stay in the woods if 
 yer whole family dies. These chaps pull well. Now, boy, 
 put yer soul onto yer oars, and pull yer arms out of their 
 sockets, or win. Eeady for the word ? Now ! " 
 
 The young man obeyed the Trapper to a fraction. He 
 threw the full force of the enormous strength, for which he 
 was noted, on to his oars. The cords of his neck swelled 
 and stood out like ropes ; his nostrils dilated: his face fairly 
 sharpened to the effort ; but the sudden vigor of his stroke 
 was too much for the wood. The miserable oar, to which 
 the Trapper had alluded, parted with a crash. The guide 
 was thrown upon his side on the edge of the boat; the boat 
 careened, swayed, swooped suddenly aside, and the young 
 man, unable to recover his balance, rolled headlong into the 
 lake. 
 
 The Trapper was now thoroughly aroused. The boats 
 were within a hundred rods of the home line, and the Lad 
 was fully fifteen astern. The roar of the crowd was deaf- 
 
GO IT LAD!" Page 221. 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 221 
 
 ening. The professionals pulled like mad. The old man's 
 eyes fairly glowed j through the roar of the multitude who 
 were literally frantic with excitement, his ear caught the 
 voice of Herbert calling clear and strong : — 
 
 " John Norton, now is your chance ! PULL ! " 
 
 The old man gathered himself for a supreme effort. His 
 blood was up and the lion in him fairly aroused. Never be- 
 fore was such a stroke pulled, and never before was such a 
 ca tastrophe. The blades were too broad to yield ; the boat 
 too heavy to get away quick enough j the oars too strong 
 to part at the stroke ; his tremendous effort tore the row- 
 locks from the gunwales as if they had been paper, and the 
 Trapper measured his length in the bottom of the boat. 
 
 The catastrophe was of such an unexpected and over- 
 whelming character that it hushed the roar of the crowd as 
 if an awful visitation had terrified them to silence. Even 
 the professionals intermitted a stroke and the Lad turned 
 his face ahead. The old man had risen and was standing 
 erect in his boat, still holding the oars in his mighty hands. 
 His eyes flamed ; his face was bloodless in the whiteness of 
 an unutterable rage ; he shook the heavy oars in the air as 
 if they had been reeds, and shouted with a voice that 
 sounded awful in its intensity : — 
 
 " Lad, now pull for the sake of John Norton and save his 
 grey hairs from shame ! Pull with every ounce of strength 
 the Almighty has given ye, or my curse shall follow ye to 
 yer grave ! " 
 
 It were worth a thousand miles of travel and a year of 
 life to see what followed. It seemed as if the strength of 
 
222 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 the Trapper, by the medium of the awful appeal, had ac- 
 tually been imparted to the Lad and put at the disposal of 
 his skill. His head suddenly sat erect on his shoulders. 
 His body straightened as if fashioned in perfect symmetry. 
 His stroke lengthened to the full reach of oar and arm. 
 The oars bent like whip-sticks. The flash of the blades on 
 the recovery was so quick that the eye caught only the 
 gleam. His boat sprang, flew, flashed, and as it jumped 
 past the Trapper, the old man again wildly shook the oars 
 he clutched in his hands, and shouted : — 
 
 " Go it, Lad ! The honor of the woods be on ye ! Give it 
 to 'em ! Ye'll beat 'em yet, sure as Jedgment Day ! " 
 
 Except the voice of the Trapper not a sound was heard. 
 The feeling was too intense. Men clinched their fists until 
 their nails cut the skin of their palms. They never felt the 
 pain. Women fainted where they stood or sat. No one 
 noticed them. One of the professionals threw up his oars, 
 crazed by the excitement. The other two pulled in grim 
 desperation, their faces white as chalk, but grit to the last. 
 They pulled, but pulled in vain. The boat of the lad caught 
 them within fifty feet of the line, and shot across it half a 
 length to the front. 
 
 The race was over and the rifle would stay in the 
 
 WOODS ! 
 
 For an instant not a sound was heard. Then such a shout 
 went up as was never heard before from human throats. 
 The noise tore and stormed through the still air, rolled and 
 reeled this way and that ; exploded again and again, until 
 the very heavens quivered and shook j while amid the up- 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 223 
 
 roar the sonorous voice of the Lad's hound sent forth its 
 gladsome challenge as if he shared the joy of the crowd 
 and appreciated the honor it was paying to his simple- 
 minded master. 
 
 The " silent partner " on the wharf spat out of his mouth 
 the stump of the cigar which, without knowing it, he had 
 bitten in two in his excitement, took a fresh one from his 
 pocket, lighted it, and muttered to himself, — 
 
 " I'M GLAD I HEDGED ! " 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 THE LAD'S TRIUMPH. 
 
 "Your grace has laid the odds on the weaker side." 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 rpHE scene which followed is indescribable. Hats and 
 caps went into the air in clouds, handkerchiefs fairly 
 whitened the shores, the wharf, and the front of the hotel, 
 men yelled and women clapped their hands, dogs barked 
 and guns exploded, while amid the uproar, confusion and 
 babel of indistinguishable noises, in some way — no one 
 could tell precisely how — the boats of the contestants 
 reached the landing, and the oarsmen, every one of them 
 save the Old Trapper, white and tremulous from their tre- 
 mendous effort, stepped or were helped ashore. 
 
 The crowd, like all American crowds, when greatly and 
 happily excited, was generous to an excess, and gave to 
 each a reception whose warmth and enthusiasm were suffi- 
 cient to have broken down the barrier of professional pride, 
 and remove from vanity itself the sting of defeat. Even 
 the professional who had lost his head in the awful excite- 
 ment of the last moment, and thrown up his oars in mental 
 bewilderment, was not excluded from the ovation, for it 
 was felt that the circumstances had been so extraordinary 
 that it furnished an ample excuse for his aberration. In- 
 deed, the crowd felt that every man had done his best, and 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 225 
 
 given an exhibition of skill and pluck seldom witnessed, 
 and were determined to slight no one in the award of their 
 praise. 
 
 But it was evident that if the Lad had won the prize the 
 Trapper, in the latent thought of the spectators, still car- 
 ried the honors of the race ; for the ease with which he 
 had pulled the race up to the moment of the catastrophe, 
 and the astonishing exhibition of strength which had caused 
 it, had made such an impression on every one, that all were 
 unanimous in the feeling that but for the mishap, the old 
 man would surely have won the prize himself. As to the 
 exhibition of the skill and energy of the Lad, there was but 
 one opinion ; nothing like it had ever been seen. The dis- 
 tance he was behind when the Trapper yelled for him to 
 pull ; the weight of his boat, increased as it was by the 
 weight of his hound ; the vim and grit with which the two 
 professionals fought it out; all these points and others 
 were mentioned by the crowd in swift succession, and tbe 
 more they thought of it the more astonishing did the per- 
 formance seem. Had they not seen it, they would not ha> e 
 believed it. The professionals themselves said that they 
 did not understand it. That he came in ahead they ad- 
 mitted, but how he did it they could not tell. The " silent" 
 partner, when questioned by his panting companions them- 
 selves, took the " Victoria " he was coolly smoking, from 
 his mouth, drew them quietly aside, and while a gleam 
 came into his eyes, said : — 
 
 " The fool has the champion stroke of the world. I saw 
 it as he went down the Lake." And then he looked steadily 
 
226 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 for a moment into the anxious faces of his friends, knocked 
 the ashes from his cigar and said in the calmest of tones : 
 " Don't worry. I hedged ! " 
 
 At the landing the tumult was uproarious. Above the 
 heads of the jam the countenance and shoulders of the 
 Trapper could be seen, while his arm was stretched to its 
 fullest length to reach the extended hand of Herbert, who 
 was vainly struggling to get to his side. 
 
 " Yis, yis, boy ! " shouted the Trapper, " I know what ye 
 would say, but luck was agin me. It was the Lad's day for 
 sartin. Did ye see him pull, Henry, arter I yelled at him ? 
 Was there ever sech a stroke and sech a gather on the arth 
 afore ! Didn't I tell ye we'd have some fun on this trip f 
 And the pond of the beavers, do you remember the pond of 
 the beavers, boy ? " And the old man laughed with ex- 
 tended mouth, while, in the ecstasy of his happiness, he 
 continued to wring the hand of his companion, whose face 
 was as radiant as his own, and whose grasp was nearly as 
 strong. 
 
 In the meanwhile the Lad was sitting in his boat, witn 
 his face still white from the effects of his recent effort, and 
 shrinking timidly back from the extended hands that would 
 fain have lifted him bodily upon their shoulders and borne 
 him into the hotel in triumph. 
 
 " Stand aside, stand aside ! " shouted the Trapper, as he 
 pushed his way through the jam as if they who composed 
 it had been only reeds on a marsh, "stand aside for a minit 
 and let the arms of the man he saved from bitter thoughts, 
 lift the boy from the boat. Come, boy," continued the Trap- 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 227 
 
 per, "let the man who lost the prize by his foolishness, 
 carry ye ashore, and bear ye to the jedges, who are waitin' 
 to give ye the prize." 
 
 So saying, the old man with no more effort than if he had 
 been lifting a babe, swung the Lad up to his shoulders, and 
 facing the crowd he shouted : — 
 
 " Here be the one who calls himself ' The Man Who Don't 
 Know Much,' but that he knows enough to pull a four mile 
 race is mortally sartin. And when he comes out agin with 
 his pelts I know ye will remember bis deed tbis day, and 
 treat him as he desarves ; for he has made good the honor 
 of the woods agin strangers, and kept us who be of the 
 wilderness, whether trappers or guides, from shame." 
 
 The answering cheer of the men who were around him, 
 rising loud and long, satisfied the Trapper, and as he started 
 up the bank and pushed on to the front of the hotel where 
 the judges were he said, " Ye bear 'em, Lad, ye hear 'em ! 
 There'll be no more laughin' at ye when ye bring out yer 
 pelts, fur ye be a man among men arter this, for mortals git 
 fame by an act, and a single deed can keep their memory 
 better than the hewed stuns in the grave-yards of the set- 
 tlements. Here I be, and here's the Lad," said the old 
 Trapper as he planted the boy by his side in front of tbe 
 judges. " Here's the Lad who won the race, and it may be 
 ye have somethin' to say to him." 
 
 "Young man," said the chairman, who stood holding a 
 beautiful rifle in his hand, of the breech-loading pattern 
 whose fame for accuracy and range had just begun to chal- 
 lenge the admiration of tbe world, as it has since retained 
 it, " young man, who are you ? " 
 
228 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 The Lad lifted his eyes from the ground on which they 
 had been steadfastly fixed, and looking timidly into the face 
 of the speaker, said in a deprecating voice, "I be The Man 
 Who Don't Know Much." 
 
 The gentleman regarded him for a moment amid a still- 
 ness which enabled each word to be plainly heard by every 
 person in the immense throng, and then said : — 
 
 "Where were you born, my boy, and where are your 
 parents ? " 
 
 " I was born by the sea in the state of Connecticut," re- 
 sponded the Lad in his peculiar, quiet, halting manner of 
 speech, " where father lives still, I guess, but mother has 
 gone away to heaven." 
 
 A slight tremble of agitation rustled through the crowd 
 at the answer of the Lad, and one old chap standing in the 
 inner circle, and whose highly colored visage gave unmis- 
 takable evidence of his habits, jammed his thumb and fore- 
 finger into his eyes, and, passing them downward, blew a 
 clarion blast from his nose muttering somethiug about 
 the " blasted sun shining inter a feller's eyes so he can't see 
 anything." 
 
 " Where did you learn to row, and who taught you your 
 stroke ? " said the gentleman. 
 
 " I never learnt to row, as I know of," replied the Lad ; 
 " and no one ever told me anything about a stroke ; but I 
 always loved to be on the water, for the water never laughs 
 at me, nor calls me names, and I guess it come sort of nat- 
 ural for me to pull a boat." 
 
 " That's it, jedge, that's it," interrupted the Trapper. " It 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 229 
 
 comes nateral for the Lad to pull, and the Lord has sartinlj* 
 gin him gifts at rowin', as he has the otter at divin', and a 
 beaver in steerin' ; for there's an old dog beaver on a leetle 
 pond, nigh the Dreary Lake, that manages to steer himself 
 without a tail, for he left it in my trap two year ago ; and 
 a beaver must sartinly be gifted in steerin' if he can navi- 
 gate himself, especially in a current, without his tail. Yis, 
 specially in a current," reiterated the Trapper, and he 
 laughed to himself in his own noiseless fashion. 
 
 " Well, young man," continued the gentleman, " you have 
 certainly won the race, and in a most wonderful manner ; 
 for you have won it against men who make the art of row- 
 ing a study, and follow it as a profession. And you are en- 
 titled to this beautiful rifle which was offered as the prize 
 to him who should win the race. Can you shoot any, young 
 man ? " 
 
 " I can't shoot as well as Henry, or John Norton," said 
 the Lad ; " and I suppose there are many men here who 
 can shoot better than I can ; but I like to shoot, and I shoot 
 a great deal better than I did a year ago." 
 
 " Well, well, my boy, I'm glad to hear that you love to 
 shoot, for this rifle has been thoroughly tested by the 
 maker, and he says it will shoot a mile and kill. And in 
 presenting it to you, in the name of the donors, allow me, 
 in their name, to express the hope that you will find it a 
 noble piece, and learn to shoot as well as you can row." 
 And the gentleman advanced and placed the rifle in the 
 hands of the Lad, and then stepping back, stood as if ex- 
 pecting some reply. 
 
230 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 The Lad stood a moment holding the prize in his hands 
 as if he could not realize that it was his, and then, as if his 
 mind had slowly taken in the meaning of what had been 
 said to him, and more yet, of the silence, he looked timidly 
 up at the crowd, and then he turned his eyes appealingly to 
 the Trapper. The old man understood the entreaty of the 
 look and said : — 
 
 " Ye see, jedge, the Lad isn't much at talkin', for his gifts 
 don't lie in that direction ; but ye may take the word of 
 an old man that he thanks ye all the same and will sartinly 
 use the piece as a man should who arns his livin' by the use 
 of his wepon and his traps. And now if ye haven't more 
 to say to the Lad we'll go to our camp, for it's too crowded 
 and noisy here to suit one of my gifts, and besides the sun 
 is settin', and the wood for the night must be got in, and 
 supper cooked. Come, Henry ; come, Lad j let's git to the 
 boat." 
 
 So saying, the Trapper and his two companions entered 
 their boat, the Lad at the oars, and the Trapper at the pad- 
 dle, as usual, while Herbert and the hound occupied the 
 middle. The boat turned the angle of the wharf and 
 headed up the Lake, the Trapper wielding his paddle with a 
 natural grace that no art could imitate, and the Lad pulling 
 the same long, leisurely stroke that had drawn the eyes of 
 the professionals to it the day before. Not until the boat 
 had disappeared behind the Three Sisters did the crowd 
 cease to watch its receding form, but when it had passed 
 behind the islands and disappeared from view, the throng 
 broke mp into knots, and until late in the evening continued 
 to canvass the day's proceedings. 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 231 
 
 It was evening, and on an island that lay half way down 
 the Lake our three friends had made their camp and were 
 now seated around their cheerful fire conversing upon the 
 great event of the day. The strong blaze brought out their 
 faces in clear relief, revealing the features of each, and even 
 the changing expressions of their countenances as they came 
 and went, as the conversation proceeded. Now and then 
 the countenance of the sturdy Old Trapper would yield to 
 the pressure of his inward mirth, and his mouth would open 
 to its widest stretch, while his body swayed to and fro, 
 showing that he was fairly convulsed with laughter although 
 his mouth emitted scarcely a sound. His two companions 
 yielded with all the abandon of woodmen to the moods of 
 their companion, and the roars of Herbert and the shorter 
 and quicker cachinnations of the Lad, revealed how entirely 
 they were surrendering themselves to the hilarity of the 
 occasion. 
 
 " I tell ye, Lad," exclaimed the Old Man, " ye gin it to 
 them in a way they'll never forgit till their dyin' day. I 
 sartinly thought etarnity had come when I went into the 
 bottom of the boat, for I'd sot onto them oars in a business 
 sort of a way, and the thump I got riled me tremendously. 
 I was madder nor a hornet punched out of his nest by a 
 pole, when I ris up, and I jest hopped round in that boat 
 and yelled like a Huron at a war dance. They actally say 
 that I flourished them oars as a Dutch woman does her 
 broom-stick when a neighbor's cow is rummaging among 
 the bean-pods in her garden. Did I do it, Henry ? tell me, 
 boy, did I actally do it ? " 
 
232 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 " You did, for certain," answered Herbert, laughing until 
 he fairly choked ; yes, you did flourish them over your head 
 like whip sticks, and you fairly hopped up and down iu the 
 boat as if you were crazy, John Norton, although at the 
 time no one noticed it ; for you see we were all mightily 
 wrought up, and what seems funny to think of now that it 
 is all over, seemed only natural and fitting at the moment 
 it occurred. I never saw such excitement, and doubt if I 
 ever do again. I was cool enough until your rowlocks gave 
 way, but then I became as wild as the rest. My own ribs 
 seemed to crack when you went into the bottom of your 
 boat." 
 
 " Did they ! did they ! " ejaculated the Trapper, " you see, 
 I had reckoned for sartin on yer guide's winnin', Henry, for 
 the boy has a stroke eeuamost as good as yourn, and he's a 
 ripper to pull, and I thought the race was in our own hands. 
 I had detarmined the young man should win, as he sar- 
 tinly would, hadn't it been for that pesky oar ; but when I 
 seed him roll into the Lake, and I heerd the sound of yer 
 voice, Henry, callin' on me to let out, it stirred every drop 
 of blood in my skin, and I pulled an onreasonable stroke. 
 When I called on the Lad my grit was up as if I was in the 
 smoke of a scrimmage, with the odds agin me. Lord-a- 
 massy ! how strange it is that mortal man, and a man whose 
 head is whitenin', too, should git so arnest over sech a play- 
 ful matter." 
 
 "I think," said the Lad, "I ought to give the rifle to 
 Fred. I know he wanted it badly, and he would have won 
 the race if it hadn't been for his oar's breaking. Don't you 
 think I had better give it to him, John Norton ? " 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 233 
 
 " Not by a long shot ! " returned the Trapper, " ye won 
 the race, and won it when Done of the rest of us could win 
 it, and the rifle is yourn by right, and yourn it shall be till 
 yer dyin' day. And may the Lord of marcy keep that day 
 far from ye, Lad, till yer face is as wrinkled and yer head 
 as white as mine." 
 
 " But," responded the Laa, whose face became almost 
 beautiful as the light of the sweet thought within him 
 flashed into it, fairly illuminating its ordinarily simple list- 
 lessness, " the Bible says it's-'more-blessed-to-give-than-to- 
 receive,' and I'm sure it's an easy way to be blessed to give 
 away a gun that only cost me a few strokes to win." 
 
 " I tell ye, Lad," exclaimed the Trapper — " the Lord for- 
 give me for sayin' it, if it be wrong, — but the Bible don't 
 say any thing about boat racin', and yer Scriptur' will be the 
 death of ye yit. No, no, ye don't git the true trail of the 
 varses Lad. It's downright foolishness, and I conceit that 
 it's actally sin for a young man like ye, to give away a rifle 
 that's worth forty mink skins and can send a bullet a mile 
 and kill. I tell ye, Lad, the Scriptur' is all right if ye un- 
 derstand it and be strong headed enough to hold it steady, 
 but if ye aint, it's like a overloaded rifle to a weak shoulder; 
 it hurts the man who uses'it more than it does the feller at 
 the other eend. Good common sense is better than Scriptur' 
 in matters of rifles and rowin'." 
 
 "But," returned the Lad, "it will do Fred, more good than 
 it will me, besides — " 
 
 " How do ye know ? How do ye know ?" interrupted the 
 Trapper, " how do ye know that the boy has any gifts in 
 
234 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 handlin' the piece, and what right has any man with a 
 grooved barrel if the Lord hasn't given him the right idee 
 of the wepon." 
 
 " But how do you know I can shoot any better than Fred, 
 can ? You never saw me shoot." 
 
 " Hoot, hoot," retorted the Trapper, " Didn't you show 
 me a roll of skins ye had hid in the holler pine on Toma 
 hawk Pint, and didn't I note that them which didn't show 
 marks of the trap had three holes in the head, instead of 
 the two the Creatur had put in 'em. A man must have 
 gifts to put his bullet through the head of a mink, in the 
 shade and shine of actual shootin'; and when ye emptied 
 yer piece at Pine Eidge, day afore yesterday, to freshen yer 
 loadin', didn't I see the knot ye shot at, and that ye drove 
 yer bullet into the very hole where the stem once stood. 
 I sartinly don't conceit that ye can shoot as well as Henry 
 here, whose gift is onusual, and whose piece is parfect ; nor 
 as well as myself, whose eye has knowed leetle but the 
 sights for sixty year, and whose narves has been steadied 
 on the scout, and in the scrimmage ; but ye sartinly have 
 the gift in ye, and while I don't expect ye will ever handle 
 the rifle as ye can the oars — still, be governed, Lad, by the 
 jedgment of an old man and don't fool away a promisin' 
 piece for the sake of a few varses of Scriptur'. For al- 
 though it don't load at the right eend to suit my notions, yit 
 Henry says the barrel is a good un, and ye remember that 
 the jedge said it would carry the lead furder than man 
 could see." 
 
 " What about the match to-morrow ? " queried Herbert 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 235 
 
 " Didn't I hear you half promise the judges you would come 
 down and shoot for the purse, and if you do why shouldn't 
 the Lad shoot with the rifle he has won to-day ? " 
 
 " Yis, yis, Henry," replied the old man, " I did sort of 
 promise, — that is, I said we would come down and see the 
 shootin', but I didn't say we would shoot, and I told 'em 
 why. For I didn't think it fair that you and me should 
 shoot agin the boys and the city folks, for ye know they 
 couldn't git a thing if we was onreasonable enough to shoot 
 agin 'em. — Lord-a-massy, how careless they do handle tbeir 
 paddles on the Saranac ! That bungler has grazed the rim 
 of his boat three times in as many minits, or my ears have 
 growed up. A bell on the end of his paddle-staff wouldn't 
 make more noise. Do the fools think we be asleep like a 
 Frencher in a drunken fit, that they must make such a 
 racket comin' into our camp." 
 
 " Camp ahoy ! " cried a voice from the darkness. 
 
 " What of it, what of it 1 " returned the Trapper, f* Don't 
 stay there calliu' with a voice ye might hear to the Upper 
 Carry. We heerd ye comin' afore ye started, and the noise 
 ye made as ye came up the Lake eenamost drowned our 
 talhin'. Come in, come in, and tell us what ye want ! " 
 
 " You don't compliment the paddling of my guide much, 
 John Norton," said a man, as he sprang ashore and joined 
 the group at the fire, " we didn't expect you knew of our 
 appearance until I hailed, for I'm sure we came in very 
 still — " 
 
 " Still ! " interrupted the old man, " I heerd the gratin' of 
 his paddle shaft agin the boat when ye passed the Three 
 
236 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 Sisters, and that's a mile away if it's a rod. And ye've spit a 
 dozen times sence then, if ye have once, not to speak of 
 the noise ye make when ye hitched on yer seat, and the 
 crack of yer match when ye lit yer cigar. I've seed the 
 time on this lake when a dozen Huron canoes would have 
 been hangin' round yer wake had ye so much as rubbed yer 
 hands on the legs of yer breeches or moved yer foot on the 
 bottom of yer boat on a night like this j but what do ye 
 want, and what can we do for ye ? " 
 
 " I have come," said the man, " by the request of the 
 judges of the matches to-morrow, to urge you and your 
 two companions to enter the list and shoot for the prizes. 
 The shooting will be at all distances, from fifty to a thou- 
 sand yards, and there's twenty prizes in all, from a flask of 
 powder to a purse of a hundred dollars in gold, and every- 
 body says you must come or the affair will be a failure. 
 All of us have heard of your skill, old Trapper, and hun- 
 dreds of people, some of them foreigners, have staid over 
 just because you are to shoot, and the judges say you must 
 come." 
 
 For a minute or two the Trapper made no reply, but sat 
 gazing into the fire, then lifting his eyes to the face of the 
 messenger he said, " Now, friend, John Norton never lost a 
 chance to shoot in his life if it was just and reasonable for 
 him to do it, and many be the matches I have shot, and 
 many be the pounds of powder and bars of lead I have 
 won, not to speak of money and other things which stir the 
 pride and vanity of man, but I ax ye, if it would be fair to the 
 rest, for Henry, here, whose piece is parfect and gifts on 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 237 
 
 usual, and me, who have used a rifle for nigh on seventy 
 year, to shoot agin boys and city folks who can't be ex- 
 pected to know how to bring out the fine pints of a rifle, 
 and who have sot their hearts on the prizes ? " 
 
 " But, John Norton," returned the man earnestly, " you 
 mistake — some of the best shots in the woods, and a half 
 a dozen gentlemen from the cities with great reputation for 
 skill, are entered. And better yet, two Englishmen, who 
 have won prizes in their own land and have never been 
 beaten, have entered also. Indeed the betting is two to 
 one in their favor. And the ladies are crazy to see you 
 shoot, and charged me to say that you must come down and 
 contend for their prizes, at least, a hundred golden dollars 
 in a silken purse and a horn of solid silver with a deer and 
 hound in full chase engraved on it. -If you don't come down 
 they declare they will come up in a body and bring you 
 down in the morning." 
 
 "Well, well," returned the Trapper laughing, "if the 
 wimmen folks are raally in arnest in the matter, and if 
 'twill make them happier to see an old man shoot, they 
 shall have their way for sartin ; so tell them that we will 
 come down and jine in the fun, me and Henry and the Lad, 
 all three of us. The gold is nothin', but the Englishers 
 shant git the horn if a man who has spent his life in the 
 woods can win it. But I give ye notice — and ye may tell 
 'em so — that the raal trial will be atween Henry and me." 
 
 " They want the Lad to bring the rifle he won to-day and 
 shoot too," said the messenger as he turned toward his 
 boat. 
 
238 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 11 Aye, aye," said the Trapper. " The Lad will be there, 
 and they'll hear the voice of the piece when the talkin' be- 
 gins." 
 
THE STORY OF 
 
 THE MAN WHO DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 
 
 Part II. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE SHOOTING MATCH. 
 
 " And still as each repeated pleasure tired, 
 Succeeding sports the mirthful band inspired." 
 
 Goldsmith. 
 
 rpHE morning opened bright and clear, and every indica- 
 tion pointed to an eventful day. The best inarksmen 
 of the woods were there, guides and sportsmen alike, and 
 among them not a few were known to be extraordinary 
 shots and good at all distances. The prizes were numerous 
 and so divided among different classes, that nearly every 
 one who had skill in shooting might enter for some one of 
 them, with a fair expectation of success. Local pride and 
 personal favoritism were warmly enlisted in connection with 
 many of the contestants, and each group of heated parti- 
 sans warmly backed their man. The two great prizes were 
 to be shot for after the minor ones had been allotted. The 
 former was named the " Long Eange " prize, because the 
 distances to be shot by the contestants for it, were five 
 hundred and one thousand yards. This was a distance far 
 greater than any of the guides, or sportsmen either, had 
 ever seen shot, and the majority of them unhesitatingly de- 
 clared that " there wasn't a rifle made that could throw a 
 bullet a thousand yards." 
 One old fellow known as " Old Bill," whose reputation for 
 
242 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 close shooting and hard drinking was universal, declared 
 that u a feller would have to climb a tree to see the mark 
 at such a distance." And when pressed by a young man 
 with the assertion that the Englishmen would certainly 
 shoot the distance, admitted that "them darned Englishers 
 might possibly do it, if they had fetched in cannon, but no 
 regular rifle, sech as a decent man wanted to lift, could 
 throw lead any sech distance, nohow." 
 
 Indeed, it was universally understood by the crowd that 
 ths long range prize was especially gotten up for the " fur- 
 riners," as the guides called them, and that no one would 
 enter against them. This had been the feeling up to the 
 time the messenger returned from the Trapper's camp ; but 
 when he had got in, and standing on the front steps of the 
 hotel announced to the hundreds who had been eagerly 
 awaiting his coming, what John Norton had told him to say 
 — which he did, like a true herald, word for word — the 
 state of opinion underwent a sudden change, and a great 
 excitement sprang up. If the announcement had simply 
 been that the Trapper himself was to shoot, it would have 
 entirely changed the aspect of things, but when it was pro- 
 claimed that Herbert was to join in the shooting, and that 
 even the Lad would compete, with his new rifle, it was felt 
 by all that new, unknown, but potent elements had been 
 introduced into the problem. As to the abilities of the Lad, 
 all were in entire ignorance ; but after a thorough canvass- 
 ing of the possibilities the prospects were pronounced as 
 against him : for his physical shape, his youth and timidity 
 were all considered as precluding the possibility of success 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 243 
 
 against such men as he must contend with. Still, every one 
 felt kindly toward him and wished him luck. 
 
 Of Herbert more was known, and what was known was 
 all in his favor. Gentlemen there were who had seen him 
 shoot in target practice on the club ground, and some of 
 them in prize matches, and they declared he had never yet 
 lost a match, and, barring accidents, could not be beaten 
 by anybody at long range shooting, they didn't care who 
 the man might be. Guides there were who had seen him 
 shoot in actual hunting, by day and night, in heat and cold, 
 on land and when tossing about in his light boat on uneven 
 waters ; and with these there was but one opinion, and that 
 was, that shooting his own rifle he was the quickest and 
 surest shot that ever came into the woods, and that old 
 John Norton himself couldn't beat him. These views they 
 backed to the full extent of their means. 
 
 On the other hand, many — and these represented the 
 majority, — believed that the Englishmen would certainly 
 win the long range prize, and that the Trapper would as 
 surely take the silver horn. But whatever might be the 
 views of the individuals that composed the crowd, all were 
 agreed in the opinion that the morrow would prove a great 
 event, and the shooting be the best ever seen in the wilder- 
 ness. 
 
 The professionals who had pulled in the race the day be- 
 fore had, with their companion, remained over to see the 
 shooting, and for the " excitement of the thing," as the im- 
 perturbable gambler affirmed. But, for once in his life, he 
 was actually in doubt how to proceed, and his disgust was 
 
244 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 correspondingly profound ; but his ears were open to every 
 remark made by those who knew anything of the principal 
 parties in the match, and a close observer might have 
 noticed that leisurely as we're his movements, nevertheless, 
 his quiet, placid face could be seen on the edge of every 
 group as soon as it was formed. At last he drew his com- 
 panions aside and said oracularly, but with the quietest of 
 tones : — 
 
 " Herbert wins the Long Eange, but hedge on the Trap- 
 per. The Old Trapper will probably win the horn, but hedge 
 heavy on Herbert." So saying he took the cigar from his 
 mouth, flung it into the grass, and mounted the stairway 
 leading to his room. 
 
 There was one matter which quickened intensely the in- 
 terest of the crowd : for while the conditions of the shoot- 
 ing for every other prize were duly advertised in the pro- 
 grammes which had been posted up by the Committee of 
 Arrangements in every convenient locality, the conditions 
 of the contest for the Silver Horn were not announced, save 
 that it was stated " that the shooting for this prize, given by 
 the fair ladies of the hotel," as the announcement gallantly 
 read, " would be at distances not exceeding forty rods, and 
 must be done off-hand." And then the poster significantly 
 added : " If the shooting be close there will be several con- 
 tests of an unusual character, which will not be announced 
 until the emergencies of the competition elicit them." It is 
 impossible to say whether the extraordinary vagueness of 
 the announcement, or the language in which it was written, 
 caused the most comment among those whose education 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 245 
 
 had been of too limited a character to make their tongues 
 familiar with polysyllabic words. The probability is that 
 the feelings of the largest part of the native population 
 were expressed by a young guide from Brown's Tract, who, 
 after deliberately and rather painfully spelling out the " An- 
 nouncement," turned to a companion, a little less cultured 
 than himself, with the startling interrogation : " I say, Bill, 
 who is this feller they call Emergencies, anyway? I haint 
 never heerd of him, has you ? " 
 
 It was ten o'clock of the morning, and the shooting was 
 to begin at half past ten. The several 'distances had all 
 been measured, the targets prepared, the markers and 
 judges appointed, and everything was ready. The thou- 
 sand-yard range had been measured — approximately, — 
 and it stretched from the lawn in front of the hotel to a 
 large rock on the opposite side of and some distance up 
 the lake. From the wharf to the target-rock, buoys had 
 beeu anchored, at the distance of five rods apart, into which 
 little flag staffs, some five feet high, were set, while to the 
 top of each was attached a crimson colored streamer. This 
 had been done at the request of the Englishmen, who feared 
 the wind might arise and they should need the Hags to show 
 them the direction and force of it. 
 
 It was ten o'clock to the minute, and the crowd, which 
 was only a trifle smaller in point of numbers than on the 
 preceding day, were all grouped in front of the hotel, 
 crowded on the piazzas, clustered on the roof, or located in 
 whatever position offered the best opportunity to watch the 
 firing, and to note the results of it. They were evidently 
 
246 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 waiting the appearance of the Trapper and his companions, 
 for the buzz of conversation was constant but not loud, 
 while nearly every face was turned toward the point at 
 which the coming boat would first show itself. 
 
 All at once from the roof of the hotel a voice sounded 
 sharp and clear : — 
 
 u There they come ! all three of 'em ; there they come ! n 
 
 And on the instant the murmur of conversation ceased, 
 and every eye strained itself to catch the first glimpse of 
 the coming boat. An instant more and it came sweeping 
 out from behind 'the island in full view, the Lad pulling a 
 stroke longer and quicker than was his wont, as if those in 
 the boat knew not the precise time and feared they might 
 be late ; while the Trapper was wielding his paddle with a 
 freedom and energy of motion that matched the earnest- 
 ness of the Lad. Under the combined pressure of the oars 
 and paddle the boat was being driven through the water at 
 an astonishing rate, and came racing onward with a veloc- 
 ity which stirred a hundred exclamations from the mouths 
 of the crowd. 
 
 The three professionals and their companions were stand- 
 ing on the outer angle of the wharf, watching, with eyes 
 that never winked, the approach. For a full minute they 
 said not a word and then the gambler, without taking his 
 eyes from the boat, said : — 
 
 " There ! see the fool row ! Where does he keep, in his 
 slab-sided body, the strength to pull that stroke so easily ? 
 and where did he get the hint of it ? I tell ye, Bill," he ex- 
 claimed, with the least tremor of excitement in his voice, 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 247 
 
 I've seen the best scullers of both countries, and I've never 
 seen a stroke I'd put up so much money on as that one he 
 pulled yesterday, and which you can get the hint of now. 
 What a joke 'twould be if the fool can shoot, too ! Bill, 
 I'll £,0 you two to one he beats the Englishmen for the 
 purse ! " 
 
 "Bob," returned the one he had addressed, "you are 
 crazy. The stroke is a winning stroke, for he proved it yes- 
 terday ; but it doesn't stand to reason that such a lathe-like, 
 long-legged, awkward cuss can shoot ; and so you may re- 
 gard that little matter you propose, of two to one, as done." 
 
 " Done it is ! " retorted the other, and turning away on his 
 heel, carelessly, he glanced at a little blue covered book he 
 held in his hand and muttered : " Well, I can't lose much 
 whoever wins, for I've hedged on them all." And then he 
 laughed at — from his point of view — the extraordinary 
 oddity of the precaution. 
 
 In the meantime our three friends in the boat were hold- 
 ing a very important consultation, and one which decided, 
 as the event proved, one of the two grand results of the 
 day. 
 
 " Easy, Lad, easy," said the Trapper, ye are pullin' as a 
 pigeon flies when he sees the hunter's smoke and hears the 
 whistling of the lead in the air. Ye have got to do yer best 
 to-day, and ye'll need a steady narve and a even pulse when 
 the work begins ; for them Englishers have got guns eena- 
 most as big as cannon, they say, and can hit the size of a 
 man's head furder than they can see. Do ye raally conceit, 
 Henry, that we had better all three shoot for the purse agin 
 the Britishers?" 
 
248 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 " I certainly do," responded Herbert. " The more we are 
 the better our chances ; for it is in shooting as it is in row- 
 ing, accidents will happen, and who knows that there may 
 not be as many to-day as there were yesterday ; and where 
 would the Lad's rifle be now if the two hadn't been made 
 three? Yes, I certainly think we should all enter ; for the 
 English gentlemen are noted shots and have never been 
 beaten, and the messenger said last night that the betting 
 was two to one in their favor." 
 
 " Who cares ! who cares ! " exclaimed the Trapper ; " I 
 tell ye, Henry, there isn't a Britisher livin' can beat a Ameri- 
 can shootin', if the weepon has a grooved barrel; but still I 
 like the jedgmatical way ye talk, for it shows ye are cau- 
 tious, and caution is a good thing afore a scrimmage, and a 
 mighty mean thing in it. But what can we shoot with, 
 boy ? for though the pieces you and me carry be as parfect 
 as man ever made, yit they can't send lead the whole length 
 of the Saranac for sartin, and a thousand yards is a bigger 
 distance than I ever sighted for, onless it be now and then 
 in fun, or on a ventur.' " 
 
 " We will use the Lad's rifle, all three of us," responded 
 Herbert. " The conditions give each contestant his choice 
 in respect to the rifle he uses ; and all we have to do is to 
 name his gun as our choice, when we enter for the thousand 
 yards prize." 
 
 " But do ye think the Lad's gun will hold up to that dis- 
 tance ? It won't weigh an ounce more than ten pounds." 
 
 " It isn't the weight of a rifle, John Norton, that decides 
 its range, but the way it is made, and the quantity of pow- 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 249 
 
 der and amount of lead it can bear. I have a gun of the 
 same make at home that weighs only eight pounds, and I 
 have shot it twelve hundred yards, and put every bullet of 
 the string into the size of a beaver's hide." 
 
 " Well, well," exclaimed the trapper, " I s'pose I must be- 
 lieve ye, Henry, but it sartinly seems wonderful to me that 
 lead can be throwed so fur with any sartinty. But what 
 about the sightin' of the piece, boy ? — for it's no better nor 
 a smooth bore if it beant sighted fust." 
 
 " I thought of that," returned the young man, " but we 
 can manage it. You see, each contestant is allowed three 
 ' sighting shots ' and that gives us nine, all told, and it will 
 go hard with us if we can't know where we are shooting 
 before the ninth shot, especially as the range is across the 
 water." 
 
 " Aye, aye, that it will. I warrant ye will find the center 
 with yer three bullets alone. But look, boy, and tell mo 
 what be the meanin' of them leetle flags fastened to the logs 
 yender ? " 
 
 " Those are what long range shooters call ' wind flags,' " 
 replied Herbert, u and they are very useful, too, when the 
 wind blows. I shot a match last fall when I had to allow 
 five feet for the ' drift ' of my bullet, and I won the match 
 simply because I studied the flags better than the others." 
 
 " It's reasonable, yis, it's sartinly reasonable, what ye say, 
 Henry," said the Trapper after he had pondered the matter 
 for a moment ; " and still as it is now, ye are likely to need 
 them afore the day eends, for yesterday was a weather- 
 breeder for sartin, and the wind will be liftin' by spells by 
 
250 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 and by, or natur forgits her promises over night. But if 
 the wind does rise, Henry, ye must intarpret the motions of 
 the (lags to me and the Lad, for we are ignorant as ba'.ies 
 of their language. Lord-a-massy ! " continued the old man, 
 " it will be strange for John Norton to shoot by the words 
 of another and not by what his own eyes tell him ! n 
 
 By this time the boat had nearly reached the wharf, and 
 amid the cheery and multitudinous greetings of the throng, 
 prominent over all being the greeting which the ladies from 
 window, doorway, and piazza, with fluttering handkerchief 
 and clapping of hands, gave the Old Trapper whom they 
 had, with that enthusiasm tor which, in cases where their 
 feelings are moved by strong preference, their sex are noted, 
 named " Our Champion." 
 
 In the midst of this pleasant recognition the Old Trapper, 
 Herbert and the Lad stepped ashore, and with their rifles in 
 their hands proceeded to the front of the hotel where stood 
 the committee. 
 
 " Well," said the Trapper as he and his companions swung 
 into line in front of the judges, " here be me and the boys, 
 armed and equipped as ye see for sarvice. I didn't mean 
 to burn a karnal of powder to-day, but last night yer mes- 
 senger said that there was to be a puss of money and a sil- 
 ver horn shot for, and that the women folks want to see an 
 old man, whose head has whitened in the woods, use the 
 weepon a leetle, which he's handled for sixty year. And 
 so I said to him that me Henry here and the Lad would 
 come down and jine in the fun, not enough to spile the 
 sport of the others, but jest enough to make things lively a 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MDCH. 251 
 
 leetle — especially for the Britishers, which he told us was 
 goin' to have everything their own way." 
 
 " What do you want to shoot for, John .Norton," said the 
 chairman of the committee of arrangements, " or do you 
 wish to compete for all the prizes ? " 
 
 "Lord bless you, Squire, exclaimed the Trapper, "we 
 wouldn't spile the boys' sport for nothing. No, no ! let the 
 people shoot and git the prizes as they can. Henry and me 
 wouldn't hinder 'em; but the Lad, here, wants a leetle 
 change to support his rifle with ; — for a new rifle in the 
 woods is a good deal like a new wife in the settlements, it 
 takes a good deal of money to keep it goin', and me and 
 Henry sort of thought we'd jest jine in with him to steady 
 his narves a bit and make a sure thing of it. So ye may 
 put us three down for that puss of money. Then, about 
 that silver horn, ye see me and Henry both wants it bad, 
 and its goin' to be nip and tuck atween us which shall git it 
 when the raal shootin' begins, and I sartinly hope ye wont 
 set up any barn door to shoot at like that on the rock there, 
 but give us something small enough to try our gifts, that 
 the ladies, here, may see us bring out the fine pints of the 
 rifle. So ye may put us all three down for the puss and the 
 horn, and ye'll see shootin' worth seein' afore the Englishers 
 tote them both off." 
 
 It was one o'clock, and eighteen of the twenty prizes had 
 been shot for, won, and distributed. The contest in several 
 cases had been sharp, the result close, and not a little ex- 
 traordinary shooting had been done. Indeed, the average 
 had been very high, so high that it won from the Old Trap 
 
252 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 per, who, with Herbert and the Lad had closely watched 
 the several contests, his warmest commendation. 
 
 " I tell ye, Henry," said he as the firing ceased, " I have 
 seed more good shootin' to-day than I ever seed in the set- 
 tlements afore. Some of them pieces must be nigh on to 
 parfect, and some of them city boys need nothin' but edica- 
 tion to make them raally larned and useful men. But, Lord 
 bless me, what can ye expect from a boy born in the city 
 and edicated by the school teachers of the settlements, who 
 know nothin' but letters, and figures, and parsin'. Lord-a- 
 massy, Henry, I've seed them perfessers that couldn't tell a 
 mink from a fisher, or the difference atween a hound's foot 
 and wolfs track. It sartinly seems sinful for a man to live 
 in the world and be so ignorant of its signs and its ways. 
 Ye are the only one, Henry, I have ever met that had the 
 knowledge of books and of natur', too, and I should eena- 
 most doubt " — 
 
 " The contests for the Long Eange prize will now begin. 
 The several contestants will take their places and listen to 
 the rules that govern the shooting," shouted the Chairman 
 of the Committee of Arrangements. 
 
 In a moment the five contestants were standing in front 
 of the Judges, and the rules were read as follows : — 
 
 " 1. The shooting to be at two distances — five hundred 
 and one thousand yards. 
 
 2. Each contestant has his choice of rifles. 
 
 3. Shoot any way they please, except with a table rest. 
 
 4. Order of shooting to be decided by lot. 
 
 5. Three shots allowed at each range for sighting. 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 253 
 
 6. A snap or miss fire to count as a shot. 
 
 7. A string to consist of ten shots, — measurement of 
 each string to be from the inner edge of each bullet hole to 
 the tack. 
 
 8. To miss the target altogether rules the shooter out of 
 the match. 
 
 9. The prize to be awarded to the man with the lowest 
 total in the measurement of the twenty shots." 
 
 Such were the rules as read by the Chairman. After read- 
 ing them amid a profound silence, he proceeded to insert 
 several slips of paper between the leaves of a book, and, 
 holding it out to the five men in front of him, he said : 
 " Gentlemen, you will now draw lots for the order in which 
 you will shoot." 
 
 The slips were drawn, and it was found that the two Eng- 
 lishmen had drawn numbers one and two ; the Lad had 
 drawn three ; Herbert, four j the Old Trapper, five. 
 
 At this point the Judge announced that the " sighting " 
 shots would now be made. The Englishmen fired each one 
 shot, and the white disk of the marker showed them within 
 eight inches of the tack, — seeing which the crowd sent up 
 a roar of astonishment, and the marksmen announced that 
 they didn't care to shoot the other two shots allowed by the 
 rules. The noise had scarcely subsided before Herbert, 
 stretching himself at full length upon the ground, and rest- 
 ing the barrel of the Lad's rifle over a log some eight inches 
 in diameter, on which he had previously laid his hunting 
 jacket, and resting with his elbows braced in the form of a 
 V, exploded the piece. The marker's disk showed the shot 
 directly in line two feet below the tack. 
 
254 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 " Good enough ! " said the Trapper, " put in another cart- 
 ridge, and hist the sight a leetle, Henry. The piece has 
 sartinly got the trail, but is runniu' with her nose a leetle 
 low. Give her a lift, boy, and try her agin." 
 
 While the Old Trapper had been talking, Herbert had 
 been elevating the sight, and the last word was hardly out 
 of the old man's mouth before the piece again exploded, 
 and the "tick" of the striking bullet came sharply back 
 through the still air. The disk again went up, and this time 
 rested exactly over the center of the target. 
 
 " By the Lord, Henry ! " exclaimed the old man, while a 
 smile lit up his wrinkled face, " the gun's a good un, if she 
 does load at the wrong eend. She minds the sights as a 
 canoe does the paddle, and she's got a voice like a Dutch 
 woman when she's angered. Wipe her out, boy, wipe her 
 out ; for a smutty bar'l bothers the bullet, and we'll show 
 the Englishers that a gun in the hands of a woodsman can 
 throw lead as straight as a cannon." 
 
 This was said in reference to the strangers' rifles, that 
 were of heavy English make, weighing sixteen or eighteen 
 pounds. 
 
 "What rifle are you to shoot, John Norton?" said the 
 Judge. 
 
 "Well, squire," said the Trapper, "ye see, although the 
 pieces that Henry and me use are parfect to a certain dis- 
 tance, yit they wasn't made to shoot round the world, and 
 yer ranges hero are beyend the power of their bar'ls to 
 cover j and as ye want to see the Lad's rifle here put into 
 sarvice, we conceited we'd all three use her, and see if she 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 255 
 
 was worth takiu' into the woods. And as Henry, here 
 seems to have got the p'intin' of the piece about right, and 
 there isn't any time to spare, ye may begin to call off as 
 soon as ye please, and let the talkin' begin. I feel as if I'd 
 like to git my eye into the sights pretty soon, myself." 
 
 " The shooting for the five hundred yards range will now 
 begin," said the Judge. " All the spectators are requested 
 not to indulge in loud talking lest they disturb the marks- 
 men. I shall call each in his order, and no one will shoot 
 until I call his number. Number One ! " 
 
 One of the Englishmen, a noble looking man of about 
 forty, deliberately laid himself down on his back, rested the 
 muzzle of his rifle between his feet, that were crossed, 
 passed his left arm under his head, grasped the stock of his 
 rifle with his hand, and taking a deliberate sight fired. His 
 companion, when called, took the same position, and the 
 marker's disk showed that both bullets had been lodged 
 within the eight-inch diameter ring which surrounded the 
 tack. The exhibition of skill was too fine to be received in 
 silence, and the crowd broke into a cheer at the result. 
 
 " The Englishers call that shootin', do they ? " said the 
 Trapper in a low voice. " Yer way of shootin', Henry, is 
 bad enough, for sartin ; although I allow there is reason in 
 yer elbow-rest, as ye call it; but I never expected to see a 
 man shoot in that kinked-up fashion. They look more like 
 a turtle lyin' on its back than human bein's. Why — " 
 
 " Number Three ! " called the Judge. 
 
 Amid a silence as profound as if each spectator had been 
 suddenly turned to stone, the Lad stretched himself beside 
 
256 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 Herbert on the grass, and imitating his position, set his eye 
 to the sights. One instant, and then the explosion came. 
 The next and the marker's disk settled to the target within 
 four inches of the tack. The yell that succeeded was simply 
 tremendous. 
 
 " Well done, Lad ! " shouted the Trapper, as he brought 
 his hand with a mighty slap against his thigh, while his 
 mouth opened to its widest stretch. " Ye'll give them Brit- 
 ishers the cramp in the small of their backs, if ye can stick 
 'em in in that style. Now, Henry, hist her nose a leetle 
 and show 'em the fine pints of the piece." 
 
 " Number Four ! " called the Judge, as soon as his voice 
 could be heard. Herbert had already his eye at the sight 
 when the word was given, and before the sound of the 
 caller's voice had died away, the gun exploded. Again the 
 disk settled to the target, showing that the bullet had 
 divided the distance between the hole made by the Lad's 
 ball and the tack. 
 
 It was a full minute before the Judge could make his 
 voice heard, for the tumult of a thousand open mouths was 
 in the air, and the noise was overwhelming. Amid the up- 
 roar the Old Trapper's voice was the loudest, for he was 
 wise enough to know that the gun was working well and 
 could be relied on, and that his two companions had the 
 match in their hands. Indeed, so strongly was this fact 
 impressed on his mind that he bent down to Herbert, who 
 was still lying on the grass, and said : — 
 
 " I tell ye, boy, ye've got 'em. The bar'l is a true one 
 and ye and the Lad don't need my help. I aint goin' to 
 shoot." 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 257 
 
 " John Norton/' said Herbert, " you talk nonsense. The 
 Lad isn't certain, for he never shot a match in his life, and 
 this is the short range. At the long range the gun may not 
 work so well, and some accident may happen. Remember 
 your own fame. A thousand people are looking to see you 
 prove your skill. Besides, I want to see you shoot, myself. 
 Above all, I want these Englishmen to see what an Ameri- 
 can gun can do." 
 
 "Well, well, Henry," interrupted the Trapper, "ye shall 
 have yer way. Clean the piece and shove in yer cartridge. 
 I never thought John Norton would shoot a rifle that was 
 loaded at the breech pin." 
 
 " Number Five ! " shouted the caller. " Silence. John 
 Norton is to shoot." 
 
 The old man took the piece, and turning to the caller, he 
 said : — 
 
 " Ye see, squire, I've never handled the piece, and if ye 
 have no objection I would like to run my eye through the 
 sights, for new sights to the eye are a good deal like a new 
 knife in the mouth, ye- have to use it awhile afore ye git 
 used to it." 
 
 " No objection ; you can look through the sights as long 
 as you wish." 
 
 The old man lifted the rifle to his cheek and lowered it 
 again. This he did several times; at last he said : — 
 
 " I can't say, squire, that the piece balances jest right, 
 for it's a leetle too heavy at the breech and too straight in 
 the stock, and the bar'l is colored a leetle too high, and it 
 sartinly loads at the wrong eend ; but the sights be right 
 
258 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 and the air is clean as the Lord ever makes it. A man 
 ought to do eenamost anything with a true har'l, to-day. 
 Now a hundred rods is a good range, for sartin, but the 
 board yender is well placed, and the white shows as clear 
 as a white gull in the air. Now Henry says the gun shoots 
 full three inches under, and advises me to hold up, and the 
 boy's jedgment is onusually good in sech things. And I 
 shall be governed by him in the matter, and if he is right 
 the lead ought to be found pretty near the tack, if the pow- 
 der burns quick, and nothin' onnateral happens ; but the 
 credit of the shot will half belong to Henry, if his advice 
 is correct. Now, ye may git yer eyes onto the board as 
 soon as ye please or the bullet will git there ahead of ye." 
 
 In spite of the Trapper's advice not an eye in all the 
 throng turned toward the target, but remained steadfastly 
 fixed on the marksman. Nothing could be finer than the 
 old man's appearance as he straightened his form to its full 
 height, advanced his left foot and lifted the barrel into the 
 air. Slowly and easily it settled down into the broad hand 
 extended to receive it, stood fixed for an instant, as if it 
 was a part of the atmosphere itself, then burst out its ex- 
 plosion. Before an eye in all the crowd had turned to the 
 target, the gun, with its muzzle still smoking, lay resting in 
 the hollow of the old man's arm, while his hand, from long 
 habit, was involuntarily feeling for the powder-horn to re- 
 charge the barrel. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SHOOTING MATCH. 
 
 "On thee the fortunes of our house depend." — Virgil. 
 
 "DUT recollecting themselves in an instant the spectators, 
 as with one movement, turned their gaze at the target. 
 The marker stood in front of it for a moment and then he 
 waved the disk upward and downward, ending with a flour- 
 ish into the air over his head. 
 
 " John Norton ! " exclaimed the Judge, " you have missed 
 the target entirely, and I regret to say you are ruled out 
 from farther shooting." 
 
 " Missed the target ! " said the old man, while the silence 
 of the crowd was absolutely oppressive, and every word 
 could be heard by the listeners. " Missed the target ! " re- 
 peated the Trapper, " that would be a good 'un, and some- 
 thing the Saranacs wouldn't forgit in a day. No, no, jedge ; 
 its a big distance I'll allow, but the air is clear, the sights 
 showed plain, the powder burnt quick ; and the piece, con- 
 siderin' it loads at the wrong eend, is a good 'un. Henry 
 told me to allow three inches, and if the boy was. right, as 
 he 13 likely to be in sech a matter, yer marker there oughter 
 find the lead in the black around the tack." 
 
 At that instant a shout came booming over the water. 
 For a moment the marker was seen swinging his hat over 
 
260 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 his head and then the white disk was placed squarely ovet 
 the center of the target. 
 
 The roar that the crowd sent upward into the air was 
 positively deafening. It lifted the atmosphere like an ex- 
 plosion, and swelled as it rose until the upper air was filled 
 with the enlarging sound. Again and again did the crowd 
 explode. Cheer upon cheer chased each other across the 
 lake, and rolled their serial waves against the distant hills. 
 Amid the tumult the Old Trapper, whose hand Herbert had 
 grasped, and was shaking with unconscious vigor and ener- 
 gy, exclaimed : — 
 
 " Lord ! Henry, did the folks think that a man who has 
 used the weepon all his life, till his head is whitenin', could 
 miss a board as big as a door on a day like this V I tell ye, 
 boy, if the wind wont lift, and the piece works well, I'll 
 drive every bullet of the ten inside the size of a sasser. 
 Lord-a-massy, Henry, what a grip ye have ! The Lad and 
 me has seen ye when yer fingers hadn't pinch enough in 
 them to break an egg-shell." And the Old Man laughed 
 heartily at his own thought. 
 
 Presently the crowd regained their composure, and the 
 shooting proceeded with regularity and precision. In less 
 than an hour the string was shot, the judge had measured 
 the distance of each of the marksmen's bullets from the 
 tack, and announced that he would declare the score : — 
 
 " Ladies and gentlemen," said he, " the score of the shoot- 
 ing at five hundred yards stands as follows : Total distance 
 of the ten shots from the tack for Number One, is 60 inches; 
 Number Two, is 58^ inches; Number Three, is 55 inches; 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 2G.1 
 
 Number Four, is 47 inches ; Number Five, is 47 J inches. 
 Mr. Herbert leads the score at the five hundred yards range, 
 beating Number One, 13 inches ; Number Two, 11£ inches; 
 Number Three, 8 inches; Number Five, £ inch." And then 
 he added : " We will now adjourn the shooting for twenty 
 minutes, at the end of which time the sbooting at one thou- 
 sand yards will begin." 
 
 During the intermission speculation raged, and the dis- 
 cussion as to the chances of the several contestants was 
 warm. All agreed that the Trapper's shooting — firing 
 as he had " off hand" — was never equalled. Such stead- 
 iness of nerve all admitted was never seen before, and that 
 his string would stand forever unrivalled. But still, it was 
 claimed that no human being could shoot one thousand 
 yards " off hand " and stand any chance beside men accus- 
 tomed to the distance, and shooting from a rest. On the 
 other hand the partisans of the Trapper asserted that so 
 clear was his eye, so steady his nerves, and so perfect his 
 control of the piece, that he could shoot, and would shoot 
 at the longer as well as he had at the shorter distance ; 
 and they backed him at any odds against everybody but 
 Herbert. 
 
 In respect to Herbert, the backers of the Trapper ad- 
 mitted that he might win ; indeed, they went so far as to 
 own that he probably would. Like the Trapper, he had 
 shot with great steadiness; his bullets being " bunched" a 
 little under, as the Trapper's were a little over, the center ; 
 and the manner in which the Old Man treated him, as truly 
 as the words of praise he had spoken in his behalf, had 
 
262 ADIRONDACK TALE3. 
 
 made a profound impression on the throng. So that as be 
 tween the two no bets were made, all admitting that it was, 
 as the Trapper said it would be, " nip and tuck " between 
 them. 
 
 The Lad rose in popular favor, with every shot he made. 
 Indeed, his shooting had improved from the start, and his 
 last three bullets had been driven within three inches of 
 the tack and so close together that their edges touched. 
 This had not escaped the notice of our " silent" friend, who 
 had watched the Lad as the contest proceeded and the ex- 
 citement grew, and noticed that whether the crowd was 
 noisy or still the look of placid simplicity never left his face, 
 and when he sighted the last shot, not a muscle in his face 
 even tightened, nor the least particle of stiffness came to 
 the long, awkward finger as it rested on the delicate trig- 
 ger. Profoundly impressed by these facts he was " laying 
 heavy on the fool," as he expressed it. 
 
 Still, the Englishmen had strong backing. They freely 
 admitted that the American gun shot " beyond all prece- 
 dent," but they as stoutly held that "no breech loading 
 arm, and especially of so light a character, could possibly 
 compete at a thousand yards with such guns as they were 
 firing." And this judgment was endorsed by many among 
 the spectators. Indeed, the majority, for the reason above 
 mentioned, still stood with the strangers and confidently 
 asserted that " they would surely and easily win at the thou- 
 sand yard range." 
 
 While the crowd were thus discussing the chances of the 
 several contestants, Nature was busy in introducing new 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 263 
 
 and potential features into the problem. The sky that had 
 been cloudless suddenly darkened, and great black patches 
 began to float through the firmament. The winds were 
 unloosed and gusts began to spin themselves in eddying 
 courses across the level lake. The flags on the staffs, that 
 had hung all the morning pendent, or clung in coils around 
 the slender sticks, began to flap and flutter, one instant 
 streaming free, the next sinking again into utter repose. 
 What made it still worse the winds were changeful. One 
 instant a breeze would blow straight up the lake, the next 
 a gust would spin squarely athwart the range. The Eng- 
 lishmen hailed this with unconcealed delight, thinking that 
 their long experience on windy ranges would tell strongly 
 in their favor. Even the Old Trapper, as he watched the 
 rising wind, got uneasy, and calling his two companions to 
 him said : — 
 
 " Now, Henry, ye see the wind is risin' as I felt sartin it 
 would afore long, and the Englishes are tickled, for they 
 think they can beat us, as they sartinly can me and the Lad, 
 in calculatin' the force of the squalls. What say ye, Henry, 
 can ye match 'em in watchin' the flags ? " 
 
 "You needn't worry, John Norton," replied Herbert, "I've 
 had as much experience with flags and windy ranges as 
 they have, and I doubt if they can beat me at the business. 
 But I warn you both to remember that the wind exercises a 
 great influence on the flight of a bullet at a distance of one 
 thousand yards — greater than one would suppose unless he 
 has had experience of it, and that you must shoot when and 
 where I tell you, no matter how strange the direction may 
 
264 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 seem to you. Of course it's a little awkward, but if you 
 will obey ine I think we cau beat them at their own game, 
 wind or no wind." 
 
 " Don't ye fear about that, Henry," responded the Trap- 
 per, " I'll shoot where ye say if ye tell me to shoot into one 
 of the winders of the tavern here. So ye jest give us the 
 word and the lead shall go where ye say, if I have to send 
 the bullet over to the Upper Saranac." 
 
 " The> shooting at the Long Range will now begin," shouted 
 the Judge. " Each man is allowed three sighting shots and 
 they can shoot them when they please, taking advantage of 
 the lulls between the gusts of the wind." 
 
 The marksmen were already in their places, and in a few 
 moments the Englishmen had made their trial, and with 
 success. Herbert watched his chance and shot each of his 
 three shots when the flags hung unmoved on their staffs. 
 His last two bullets had struck within two inches of each 
 other, eight inches under the center. He was delighted at 
 his good luck, for he kuew that the least trifle of elevation 
 would give the piece the center range, and he announced to 
 the Judge that the Trapper, the Lad and himself were ready. 
 
 In a few moments the firing began. Number One put his 
 bullet within ten inches of the tack, directly to the right, 
 and was cheered. Number Two nearly duplicated the shot 
 only his bullet " drifted " to the left. He, too, was cheered. 
 Iudeed, the crowd was in excellent humor and ready to be 
 pleased with anything. Besides, the range was so much 
 beyond the capacity of ordinary guns that even to hit the 
 target seemed to most of the spectators a wonderful ex- 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 265 
 
 ploit, anc* to plant a bullet within a foot of the tack was 
 enough to set them yelling. It was now the Lad's turn, 
 and the wind was blowing up the lake with decided vio- 
 lence. 
 
 " Hold on, Lad j hold on/' said the Trapper. " Wait till 
 Henry gives ye the word and then fire where he tells ye, if 
 yer bullet has to go round the Three Sisters to git at the 
 target. This shootin' by flags and orders, and with a gun 
 that loads at the wrong eend, is squaw's work anyhow; 
 but the Englishers must be beaten if we have to shoot in 
 platoons — " 
 
 "Keady, Lad!" said Herbert, sharply.' "Aim two feet 
 under — in direct line, — fire." 
 
 The astonishment of the crowd was intense, and their 
 consequent noise deafening, when the marker's disk showed 
 the Lad's bullet but five inches from the tack — directly be- 
 !ow it. 
 
 The Old Trapper said not a word. Indeed, he had no op- 
 portunity ; for Herbert had instantly inserted another car- 
 tridge, and before the marker had fairly sunk from sight, 
 his piece exploded. Quick as a flash the marker lifted his 
 disk and set it to the target in the identical spot he had laid 
 it for the Lad's shot. Indeed the two shots — by one of 
 those strange occurrences which occasionally happen in 
 shooting — had penetrated the target so near the same 
 point that their edges actually cut into each other. 
 
 The exhibition of skill on the part of the inarksmen, and 
 of the extraordinary accuracy of the rifle itself, and the in- 
 telligence which Herbert brought to watching the flags, 
 
266 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 made a profound impression on the throng. The English 
 men themselves came over, and looked curiously at the 
 gun which had proved itself able to project its bullets with 
 such force and precision. It was several minutes before 
 anything like order prevailed, and then the judges called 
 out: — 
 
 " Number Five ! " 
 
 "Now, Henry," said the Old Trapper, as he lifted the 
 piece, " ye give me the true p'ints of the case, as the law- 
 yers say, or I wouldn't give a cent for the vardict. It's a 
 big distance, for sartin," continued he, as he ranged his eyes 
 over the water to* where the target stood. " Yis, it's a big 
 distance, and I marvel that so small a gun can bear the 
 chargin' she does. Didn't ye say, boy, she barnt a hundred 
 grains, and fine karneled at that ? A hundred grains ! Why, 
 Henry, I've toted a piece nigh on to twice the heft of this, 
 that didn't chamber a thimbleful, and carried a bullet no 
 bigger than a pea. Yis, yis, I begin to see the reason of it. 
 A hundred grains ! why it's enough to carry a bullet half 
 way to Tophet, if the muzzle of the piece had the right lift 
 to it. Aye, aye, Henry, I understand. Don't be oneasy, 
 boy; when ye give the word, ye'll find me ready; but when 
 a man has nothing else to do it doesn't hurt him any to talk 
 a leetle, as I conceit, especially if he talks to himself and 
 in a jedicious manner — " 
 
 " Beady ! " said Herbert. " Level with the tack, — three 
 feet to the right, — fire ! " 
 
 The piece exploded with the word. Indeed, the explo- 
 sion actually drowned the voice that pronounced it. It was 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 
 
 26T 
 
 all done so quickly that it seemed incredible that the Trap- 
 per could have sighted. 
 
 " Aye, aye, Henry," said the old man laughing, as Herbert 
 glanced interrogatively up at him ; " level it was, and three 
 feet to the right, jest as ye told me to do it. The piece was 
 held as ye said it should be, though where the bullet has 
 gone the Lord only knows. For the range ye gave sartinly 
 brought the sights full three inches off the board, and I had 
 all of West Bay to sight at." 
 
 What more the Old Trapper would have said, had he not 
 been interrupted, will uever be known ; for he was inter- 
 rupted in the midst of his sentence by a- yell so wild and 
 stroug that it fairly startled him. His eye glanced quick as 
 a lightning flash toward the target, and beheld, as he did 
 so, a perfect explanation of the enthusiasm of the crowd. 
 The bullet, driven with terrible velocity through the air, had 
 traversed its thousand yards of flight, and, so nicely had 
 Herbert calculated the influence of the wind and the result- 
 ant drift, and so exactly had the Trapper obeyed him in his 
 aim, that it had penetrated the target almost at its central 
 point; for the disk of the marker lay directly over the tack. 
 
 It is but truth to say that of all those in the crowd, not 
 one was more astonished than the Old Trapper himself. 
 The idea that so small a barrel should be able to project its 
 bullet the distance of such a range and enter it so accu- 
 rately at the point aimed at, was a revelation to the old 
 rifleman's mind. He looked at the piece, as it lay balanced 
 in his mighty hand, and then measured with observant eye 
 the length of the range, with features whose expression re- 
 vealed the thought that was within. 
 
268 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 "Pd never believed it, Henry. No, boy, I'd never be- 
 lieved it, ouless my own eyes had seed it done. I'd never 
 believed that a bar'l not twice as big as a soldier's ramrod, 
 and but a leetle heavier, could have throwed an ounce of 
 lead across that distance. They say strange things have 
 been fouud out, and many inventions diskivered in the set- 
 tlements sence I fust struck the trail. But among them all, 
 there can't be a greater, no, there can't be a greater, than 
 this leetle gun that has set a man, who has used the rifle 
 for sixty year, and thought he knowed all the strong p'ints 
 of the weepon, to marvelin'. No, I'd never believed it if I 
 hadn't seed it with my own eyes." 
 
 In this manner the match proceeded up to the sixth shot. 
 The shooting had continued in favor of the Old Trapper and 
 his companious as opposed to the Englishmen. The Ameri- 
 can gun was proving its superiority over the English ones 
 with each successive discharge. But as to the three that 
 shot it the closest observer was in doubt as to which was 
 leading his companions. The shooting of the three as di- 
 rected by Herbert had been remarkably even ; for so skilled 
 was he in watching the flags, so exact was his judgment, 
 and so promptly did his companions respond to his direc- 
 tions, that their shooting had been distinguished by all the 
 accuracy that would have attended their practice on a par- 
 fectly calm day. The Englishmen had shot well, but they 
 had been unable to gain any advantage over the Americaus 
 by reason of any superior knowledge touching the atmos- 
 pheric influences on the flight of their projectiles, while in 
 point of skill and capacity of their guns they were evidently 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 269 
 
 inferior to their rivals. The Old Trapper, as the shooting 
 proceeded, was in his element, and appeared to the best 
 possible advantage. Noble and generous as his nature was, 
 there was nevertheless in it that quality of ambition which 
 gives to rivalry the keenish relish, and he enjoyed with in- 
 tense delight the idea that he was " beatin' them English- 
 ers." Indeed, he was full of jokes and comments as the 
 match proceeded, and shot after shot revealed the accuracy 
 of the gun he was using, and the fine discrimination with 
 which Herbert was directing the bullets. 
 
 " I tell ye, Henry," he exclaimed, as the marker's disk 
 revealed the fact that his sixth ball had struck within four 
 inches of the tack, " I tell ye, Henry, ye are sartinly gifted 
 in readin' them flags, and yer jedgment in the matter of 
 squalls is as good as a Dutch woman's with a dozen children. 
 I eenamost think ye have got an understandin' with the 
 dark of the weather techin' the way he is to blow. Now, 
 ye told me to hold a foot over the target, and I obeyed ye 
 like a Hessian privit, that knows nothin' but the orders he 
 gits from his sargeant, but I was mortally sartin that that 
 bullet wouldn't fetch up this side of Upper Saranac ; and 
 there it is, as the boy yender says, stickin' close to the tack. 
 I say, jedge," exclaimed the old man, as he turned to the 
 gentleman who had charge of the match, " suppose ye send 
 down to the barn-door yender, and have a leetle measurin' 
 made that we may have some idee of how the thing is git- 
 tin' along. It aint necessary, ye see, to strain the gun, be- 
 cause enough is enough. And as we can't all three beat, 
 we would like to know how the thing stands, or we may 
 
270 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 all come out alike ; and ye can no more divide a puss of 
 money than ye can a beaver's hide. While it is fust rate 
 for one, it won't split up wuth a cent for three. So I sar- 
 tinly advise that ye let us know where we be, or we may 
 have to shoot this whole thing over again." 
 
 This request met with universal approbation; and in a 
 few moments the several strings had been measured, and 
 the scores put into the hand of the judge, who announced 
 the following results : — 
 
 " Number One, six shots, total, 58 inches ; Number Two, 
 64 inches; Number Three, 50 inches; Number Four, 48£ 
 inches ; Number Five, 49 inches. 
 
 " Ye see, Henry," said the Trapper, laughing, " the Lad 
 has got the raal gift in him, and he is arter us in 'arnest. I 
 conceit we shall beat him if he don't grow any in the next 
 four shots ; but if he gets a leetle more length he'll head us, 
 sartin as fate. It would be the queerest thing I ever seed 
 if we three should go out abreast. It would take consid- 
 erable figurin' — yis, it would sartinly take a good deal 
 countin' of fingers to divide that puss out there, so that all 
 of us could have as much as we want. We shall have to 
 squint a leetle closer, boy, or the Lad will beat us at our 
 own game. 
 
 " I hope he will," said Herbert, " for I never saw a man 
 of his age and inexperience at long-range shooting take to 
 the work so handily. But there .are four more shots to 
 come, and while the Englishmen are a good ways behind 
 us, still it is any one's match as yet. They have shot well, 
 and the least mistake on our part in estimating the force of 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 271 
 
 the wind, or the least unsteadiness in our aim, may give 
 them the prize." 
 
 " The shooting will begin," called the judge, — "Number 
 One ! " 
 
 The rifle of Number One cracked at the word, and the 
 marker's disk showed it a center shot. 
 
 " "Well," said the Trapper, grimly, " he's found the mouth 
 of the tunnel at last, anyway." 
 
 " Yes," replied Herbert, " and he may find it again." 
 
 "Number Two ! " cried the judge. 
 
 And the bullet followed so closely the flight of his com- 
 panion's that the white disk settled again squarely over the 
 center. 
 
 " Good enough," said the Trapper. " Those two augers 
 fit the same hole." 
 
 " Number Three ! " shouted the judge. 
 
 "Wait" said Herbert to the Lad. "A foot to the left} 
 level with the tack. Fire ! " 
 
 The lad obeyed to the letter. The result justified the 
 judgment of Herbert. Again the disk settled over the cen- 
 ter. 
 
 " There'll be a winder through that barn-door," said the 
 Trapper, " afore we're through. Now Henry, make a leetle 
 more room for the daylight atween the sash." 
 
 " Number Four ! " called the judge, somewhat excitedly. 
 
 For a moment Herbert waited. The flaw passed and the 
 long line of crimson flags hung pendent on their staffs. 
 The crowd stood breathless. The Old Trapper bent forward 
 with his eyes on the distant target as if with unassisted 
 
272 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 vision he would fain mark the entrance of the bullet. And 
 then, the sharp, clear click of the hammer as it struck the 
 rim of the cartridge, sounded on the air. 
 
 The gun had failed to explode ! 
 
 The excitement was so intense that a cry that sounded 
 like a groan rose from the throng. 
 
 11 Death and jedgment ! " said the Trapper. It was all 
 he said, but into the expression he had put the emphasis of 
 such disgust that the crowd from a sudden revulsion of feel- 
 ing laughed and roared. 
 
 " There, I am out of the match," said Herbert calmly, as 
 he rose to his feet and extended the rifle to the Trapper. 
 " I trust that you and the Lad will have better luck, but 
 shooting is full of chances, and you never know until the 
 score is counted who has won." 
 
 " Give me the bearin' of the wind, Henry," said the old 
 man grimly. " This is what comes of usin' a piece that 
 loads at the wrong eend. I sartinly expect the breech pin 
 will blow out this lick. Now, an honest gun — " 
 
 "Keady," said Herbert. "Don't fool now, John Norton. 
 Steady — cover the tack — fire." 
 
 At the word the old man pulled the trigger, but no ex- 
 plosion followed, but instead, only a sputtering sound ; for 
 the cartridge was a false one, there not being a grain of 
 powder in it. The percussion alone ignited, and driven by 
 its feeble force the bullet went barely a rod and theu 
 dropped idly into the water. 
 
 The look of disgust which swept into the Trapper's face as 
 he dropped the gun on to the ground perfectly reflected the 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 273 
 
 state of his feelings. The cords of his neck ridged, his 
 countenance flushed with vexation, and the muscles of his 
 face twitched. For a moment he stood glaring down at the 
 gun as if he would stamp upon it in his rage, while the 
 great crowd, hushed to silence at the double misfortune, 
 watched him, half frightened at the exhibition of repressed 
 passion they beheld. At last the humor of the man pre- 
 vailed, his tense muscles relaxed, and an indescribable look 
 of fun softened the rigid lines of his face and beamed in his 
 eyes. 
 
 " Well, Henry," he said, " the pesky thing managed to git 
 the victals out of its mouth without wrenchin' itself, any- 
 how, and» that's a good deal for a gun that is loaded in the 
 settlements and shot in the woods to do." And the Trap- 
 per, who had now regained his habitual balance, laughed in 
 his silent fashion, good naturedly, as he picked up the piece 
 and handed it to Herbert. 
 
 " Yis, jedge," he continued, as he turned his face toward 
 the hotel, " Henry and me be out of the match, ye needn't 
 tell us that. And I am sorry for the sake of the ladies that 
 I couldn't shoot the match out, but I've lived too long amid 
 the unsartanties of life to be soured at disappintment, and 
 if they'll be patient they shall see some shootin' yit atween 
 Henry and me that'll make 'em clap their pritty hands and 
 remember the difference atween a rifle a hunter can trust 
 his life to and a miserable invention that loads at the wrong 
 eend. And I take ye all to witness," continued the old man 
 earnestly, " that the boy and me shot this thing out like 
 men who understand the vartues of a grooved bar'l, ontil 
 
274 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 the gun failed us. But the Lad still has a chance, and I sar- 
 tinly hope the gun will act like a rational piece for the rest 
 of the match, for the boy needs the money." So saying the 
 Trapper folded his arms and turned his face toward the dis- 
 tant target. 
 
 The Lad rose to his feet and coming to his side said : — 
 
 "John Norton, I'm real sorry the rifle has acted so to you 
 and Henry. Shall I shoot the match out or stop now ? I 
 don't feel like shooting when you and Henry can't." 
 
 " Lord bless ye, Lad," said the Trapper, " of course ye 
 must shoot the match out. Ye aint to blame for the gun 
 actin' so. Henry," said the old man, " come here. What 
 do ye think, can the Lad win the puss yit ? " 
 
 For a moment Herbert made no reply. He looked stead- 
 ily at the Lad, and seeing that his face revealed not the 
 slightest trace, either of fear or excitement, he answered: — 
 
 " The thing is likely to be very close, closo enough to try 
 the nerves of the steadiest man living, but the Lad is ahead 
 and if I make no mistake in directing him, and he shoots 
 as I tell him, the chances are certainly good for his win- 
 ning. 
 
 " Lad," said the Trapper, and a gleam of repressed feel- 
 ing shot from his eyes, " I can't bear to have them English- 
 era beat. Can ye shoot as well as ye have been shootin' ? " 
 
 " I don't know why I cant," said the Lad. " I feel well, 
 and if you will only set down beside me, and Henry will tell 
 me where to aim, I think I shall shoot as well as I ever shot 
 in my life." 
 
 " Sit down beside ye?" said the Trapper laughing. " Lord 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 275 
 
 bless ye, Lad, I'll sit on top of ye if ye want me to, and it 
 will help ye any. Come, Henry, git yer eyes onto them 
 flags, for the shootin' must begin." 
 
 " I know," said the judge, "that I express the sentiments 
 of all this large company when I say that I profoundly re- 
 gret the misfortune that has befallen two of the contest- 
 ants, but by the rules of the match they are ruled out, and 
 the three that remain must complete their strings. They 
 will therefore prepare themselves." 
 
 u Number One ! " 
 
 The wind was now blowing almost a gale, and the shot 
 struck fully ten inches from the center. 
 
 " Number Two ! " called the Judge. 
 
 The second Englishman shot with no better result. 
 
 "Number Three!" 
 
 " Wait ! " said Herbert ; " now, ready, — three feet to the 
 right — six inches above the center — fire ! " 
 
 " Well, Henry, ye didn't git that quite right, for sartin," 
 said the Trapper, " but the Lad did as well as the EDglishers, 
 anyway." 
 
 14 The wind was a twisting one," answered Herbert, " and 
 I couldn't tell exactly where the strength of it lay." 
 
 " Was I to blame ? " said the Lad. 
 
 "Not a bit, not a bit," answered the Trapper; "ye shot 
 as well as a mortal could, and ye haven't spil't yer chances 
 a bit. I think the puss will go down to the camp yit if yer 
 gun doesn't bust." 
 
 Again the marksmen were called off in order, and the re- 
 sult was nearly the same. It was still " anybody's match." 
 
276 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 Only one shot remained, and the excitement back of and 
 around the marksmen was intense. 
 
 The Englishmen arose and walked about a minute. They 
 talked a little with their friends. Their faces were a trifle 
 pale. Herbert stopped in swabbing the piece to wipe the 
 sweat from his forehead. The Old Trapper looked steadily 
 at him, and said, in his ordinary tones, while his features 
 tightened, " I'd give twenty beavers' skins if I had the load- 
 in' of the next cartridge." 
 
 The Lad, still stretched in all his awkward length on the 
 ground, fixed his mild eyes on Herbert as he was wiping his 
 face, and said : " What makes you so hot, Henry ? Do you 
 feel sick, anywhere ? " 
 
 "I suspect he does," said the Trapper. " The fact is, Lad, 
 I don't feel quite right myself. Not that I've got any great 
 pain, anywhere, exactly, but I feel sort of hollow-like at the 
 pit of the stomach." 
 
 " Mr. Herbert," said the gambler, as he struck a match 
 and pulled a cigar from his pocket, unconscious that he had 
 one already in his mouth : " I hope you won't make a mis- 
 take about them little flags. I've gone my last dollar on 
 the Lad and I'd like to leave to-morrow." 
 
 " Gentlemen," said the judge, and his voice was far from 
 steady, " Gentlemen, will you please stand back from the . 
 marksmen ? The decisive shots must now be made, and I 
 can see you are greatly excited. The marker reports that 
 the strings are -very close, and a centre shot will decide it. 
 I shall now call : — " 
 
 "Number One!" 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 277 
 
 Even as the call came the wind suddenly died out. The 
 flags clung to their staffs ; and, seizing the opportunity) 
 Number One fired. 
 
 It was signalled as only seven inches from the tack. 
 
 " Number Two ! " shouted the judge. 
 
 Still the flags hung downward; the rifle cracked, and the 
 white disk was set four inches from the center. 
 
 Still the flags were motionless; but the trees on the 
 western shore of the Lake swayed and bent, while the roar 
 of the coming wind was plainly heard by the crowd who, 
 in front of the hotel, stood holding their very breath. The 
 Old Trapper, knowing that the gale would cross the range 
 in an instant, and indignant at the tardiness in giving the 
 call, turned half over on the grass and shook his gigantic 
 fist at the judge, while his face fairly flamed. It is only 
 justice to say that the man was too excited to speak. 
 
 " Why don't he give me the word ? " said the Lad, in his 
 quiet, simple voice. 
 
 " Cover the tack ! " said Herbert, in a steady voice, though 
 the lips that pronounced the words were white as ashes. 
 " Cover the tack — wait for the word — Eeady! " 
 
 " Number Three ! " shouted the judge, with a voice that 
 fairly broke into a scream, from the tremendous effort he 
 was making to articulate. 
 
 The Lad never stirred. His body stretched to its full 
 length was as limp as if it contained not a muscle j his eye 
 was at the sight ; his long finger against the trigger. The 
 gale had struck the Lake and was careering onward toward 
 the flags. The air was full of dried stems and flying leaves. 
 
278 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 The Old Trapper's eyes were fixed on the whirlwind and his 
 fingers hall-buried in the sod. 
 
 " Keady ! " said Herbert. * " Fi — " 
 
 The full sound of the word was never heard. The crash 
 of the rifle drowned it. Not a lip moved until the marker 
 lifted the disk, and after looking a moment placed it exactly 
 on the center. 
 
 " Glory to God ! " yelled the Trapper, as he jumped to his 
 feet, and seizing the gambler, who happened to be standing 
 within reach, lifted him into the air and held him at arm's 
 length with a single hand while he swung the other over 
 his head. " The Man Who Don't Know Much, and the gun 
 that loads at the wrong eend, and the puss of money, will 
 go to John Norton's camp together ! HUERA.H ! " 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 THE MATCH FOR THE SILYER HORN. 
 
 " When Greek joins Greek 
 Then comes the tug of war." 
 
 Nathaniel Lee. 
 
 rpHE tumult which attended the close of the long range 
 match at last subsided. The Lad was pronounced the 
 winner of the ladies' purse, and the poor shrinking fellow 
 was overwhelmed with congratulations. He kept close by 
 the side of the Trapper as a timid boy does by the side of 
 his father on his first experience in a city crowd. And in 
 truth it must be said that the old backwoodsman was an 
 ample protection. Indeed, it was touching to see how ut- 
 terly child-like was the attitude of the Lad toward the Trap- 
 per, and how fatherly was the bearing of the old man toward 
 tbe simple-minded youth. In the one was timidity, entire 
 unacquaintance with men, and the painful sense of his own 
 awkwardness and lack of ability. In the other was the 
 bold front, perfect self-reliance and superb balance of a man 
 of extraordinary physique endowed by nature with shrewd- 
 ness and wit and furnished with the discipline of faculty, 
 which a long life spent in reflection and mingling with men 
 in serious undertakings alone can give. Because of this 
 contrast, perhaps, the evident affection of the younger for 
 
280 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 the older was the more touching, and the crowd was not 
 slow to perceive and be impressed by the unusual and inter 
 esting connection existing between the two. It is hard to 
 say which was the stronger feeling in the bosoms of the 
 spectators who had watched the contest and the two men : 
 admiration for the Trapper, or pity for the youth who, while 
 lacking in all those attributes of body and mind which com- 
 mand applause, had nevertheless given such unmistakable 
 evidence of skill, generosity and genuine power. Even the 
 gambler, who, under the hard, smooth complacency of cun- 
 ning selfisbness, fostered by his professional practice, had a 
 noble, if a cynical nature, came to the Lad and insisted on 
 "dividing the little pile with him,'' as he expressed it; and 
 strove in vain to make the Lad take an enormous roll of 
 greenbacks which he extended to him. 
 
 " Look here, friend," said the Trapper, as he pushed the 
 money back to the gambler, " ye better put that roll of rags 
 into yer own wicked pocket, for, though I don't wish to say 
 anything oncivil to ye or hurt yer feelin's, yit I sartinly con- 
 ceit that ye don't git yer skins by honest trapping but by 
 stealin' 'em out of traps that ye never set ; and though yer 
 practices may be accordin' to the ways of the settlements, 
 yit ye should know that they don't square with the idees 
 that honest men have in the woods. And if ye will take 
 an old man's advice, whose head has whitened in gittin' an 
 honest livin accordin' to his gifts, ye had better quit yer 
 tricky habits and arn yer money in a straighter fashion, or 
 it will be likely to go hard with ye in the Jedgment, when 
 ye are questioned about the way ye got yer pelts and yer 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 281 
 
 profits on the arth. And I hope ye will take the advice in 
 the sperit it's sartinly given ye." 
 
 "Old man," said the gambler, as he coolly stuffed the 
 bills into one of his capacious pockets, " your advice is cer- 
 tainly worthy of consideration, and I have sometimes thought 
 I had better take a new deal and play a straight game ; but 
 there's one or two points to be considered first, and I don't 
 feel that I shall be in quite the right position to go it alone 
 until you and Mr. Herbert have got through with the little 
 business you are coming to; and if you can give me a point 
 or two as to how the thing will come out, you will encour- 
 age me to reach a right conclusion in the matter, and put 
 me in a condition of mind to give due weight to your judg- 
 ment." 
 
 " It strikes me, friend, returned the Trapper, "that ye are 
 haltin' atween two opinions, as the missioners say, and are 
 likely to go to the devil arter all, if ye don't fetch up with 
 a sharp turn afore long. And as to this matter atween 
 Henry and me, I won't tell ye a word, for it's nip and tuck, 
 and neither the boy or me know which will win ; for the 
 pieces be parfect, and all that can be done with grooved 
 bar'ls both of us can do. And whether the horn will go 
 to the settlements, or stay in the woods, no mortal can tell, 
 a id what is better, neither of us care j for I dare say if the 
 boy wins it he will give it to me, and if I win it the Lord 
 knows I'll give it to him." 
 
 " All right," said the gambler, " I'm much obliged to you 
 for your advice, and I guess I'll play cautiously and follow 
 the chances." 
 
282 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 It is hard to say which feehng predominated in the Trap- 
 per's mind, — vexation at the thought that the gambler had 
 outwitted him and actually got the " chances " out of him, 
 or a sense of humor at the shrewdness of the man, for his 
 countenance showed both feelings in equal proportion. He 
 was about to reply, when the call of the judge summoned 
 him to the front of the hotel where the shooting was to be 
 done. The old man left the spot, and, finding Herbert, the 
 two proceeded to the lawn, where the committee of ar- 
 rangements had already roped off a space from which the 
 marksmen were to shoot. 
 
 "Well, Squire," said the Trapper, as he and Herbert 
 reached the judges' stand, " me and Henry have put in our 
 appearance accordin' to orders ; and are ready to do what- 
 ever ye ax us to do if it be in the line of our gifts. And as 
 the sun isn't apt to fetch up when it's fairly got started 
 down hill, ye might as well set us agoin' as soon as ye can ; 
 for the light will be dim afore long and ye can't bring out 
 the fine p'ints of a rifle onless ye have plenty of sunshine ; 
 so if ye've got anything to tell us our ears are open, as the 
 Hurons say, to yer words." 
 
 " Ladies and gentlemen," said the chairman of the com- 
 mittee of arrangements, " we have now come to the last 
 match of the day ; and we think we may safely say, with- 
 out disparagement of tbe shooting which we have already 
 witnessed, the most interesting match of the day. The 
 prize is a horn of pure silver that will hold a pound of pow- 
 der, and is beautifully engraved, as you see, with an elegant 
 sketch of a deer and a hound in full chase. It is the most 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 283 
 
 valuable prize which has been given ; and one of the most 
 beautiful results of artistic skill that I have ever seen. The 
 shooting for this prize must be off-hand and at such distan- 
 ces as the committee shall announce. The contestants, — 
 no one else having entered, — are these gentlemen whose 
 presence has done so much to enliven and make memorable 
 the sports both of yesterday and to-day. The object of the 
 committee in this match is to show to all the spectators, 
 especially to those gentlemen who have visited us from 
 abroad, what the American rifle, in the hands of skilled men, 
 can do. In other words we desire to tax the skill of the 
 contestants, both in respect to accuracy and quickness of 
 aim. We are fortunate in having been able to secure the 
 presence of two men, one of whom has been noted for half" 
 a century as one of the best if not the best rifle shot in 
 America, and the other of whom is known to many of us as 
 being an extraordinary marksman, in reference to whose 
 skill no higher endorsement can be given than his com- 
 panion and rival in the match has freely bestowed. The 
 two contestants, I need not say in this allusion, are Mr. Her- 
 bert and the Old Trapper, John Norton. And it is safe to 
 say that we shall see a very fine and exciting contest, — the 
 strong friendship existing between the competitors making 
 it all the more novel and delightful. The shooting will be 
 of a character that cannot be decided by measurement in 
 inches and fractions of inches, but must be left for decision 
 to the judgment of the committee ; and even of the two 
 marksmen themselves." 
 " That's it, jedge, that's it, — me and Henry knows what 
 
284 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 shootin' is, and either of us be parfectly willin' to own up 
 beat if the p'ints of the case be plain. Ye see he and me 
 understand each other j and though the boy might be too 
 modest to say it, yit in his innermost feelin's he knows jest 
 as well as I do that it's nip and tuck atween us ; and that a 
 slow burnin' cap or a hollow bullet that'll bust in the air or 
 go onsteady, is more likely to decide the matter than any 
 difference atween us as to quickness of eye and touch. And 
 I want ye all to understand that while we shall shoot honest 
 aud true, each doin' his best, and leavin' his chances to for- 
 tin, yit we don't care the tail of a beaver which wins, and 
 look upon it more as a cheerful divarsion or a leetle camp 
 practice on a lazy day, than any tight atween us." 
 
 " Yes, yes," said the judge, " we all understand it, John 
 Norton. We all understand how it is between you and Mr. 
 Herbert, although he will not feel offended if I say that we 
 do not credit him. with such skill as your reputation has 
 secured to you. But whichever way it goes we will look 
 upon it as a bit of friendly sport between you and not as 
 an antagonistic contest. For, whichever wins, we know 
 that we shall have an exhibition that will show us whatever 
 is possible in rifle practice j and it is proper for me to an- 
 nounce to the company, and to say to you, that as the ob- 
 ject is to bring out, in the best light, your skill, we shall feel 
 permitted to consult you as the match proceeds, if circum- 
 stances make it necessary." 
 
 " Sartinly, sartinly," said the Trapper, " ye may ax us any- 
 thin' ye are a mind to, and ye'll fiud our heads as clear as a 
 quill on the p'ints of the case. Only git to work as soon as 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 285 
 
 ye can, for natur' has got the sun goin' down hill, and he's 
 histin' along like a thievin' half-breed with an honest trap- 
 per at his heels." 
 
 " The shooting for the silver horn will now begin," said 
 the judge, " and the first trial will be at fifty yards. Two 
 shots from each marksmen. The target is a four inch diam- 
 eter ring of white, centered by a tack with the head the size 
 of a bullet." And as he spoke the target was placed at the 
 distance mentioned in such a way that the sun lighted it 
 perfectly. The two men stood side by side, each holding in 
 his hands his favorite gun, a double rifle with both "open" 
 and " globe and bead " sights, both made by Lewis, of Troy, 
 and so nearly alike that were it not for the slight difference 
 in the ornamentation of the stocks they could scarcely have 
 been distinguished one from the other. The lock of either 
 could be worked with or without the "set." 
 
 " I hope," said the Trapper, "ye have got more than one 
 tack in that keerd-board, or ye had better start a boy for the 
 carpenter shop." And as he spoke the muzzle of his rifle 
 was lifted into the air, dropped suddenly into the palm of 
 his outstretched hand, and exploded. The target, as the 
 Trapper had predicted, fell at the explosion to the ground. 
 
 A murmur of delight rustled through the crowd. 
 
 " No, no ! " said the Trapper. " No, no, jedge, ye needn't 
 send the boy for the tack, for the hole that the lead made 
 shows daylight through it, and I warrant that Henry has a 
 key that'll fit it." And even as he spoke the rifle of Henry 
 rose to its aim, with a motion but a little less careless appar- 
 ently, than had been the movement of the Trapper's, and 
 
286 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 exploded, and the bullet passed so neatly through the ori- 
 fice made by the former that scarcely a splinter was stirred 
 around the ragged edges of the hole. 
 
 " That's a true piece of your'n," said the Trapper, " and 
 many. a scrimmage with the red skins have I had when its 
 crack would have been better than a psalm tune in my ear. 
 Yis, the two pieces be pitched on one key, as the fiddlers 
 say, when they are tuning for a jig." And while he had 
 been talking, the rifle had again been lifted, settled into his 
 hand, and at the closing word cracked strong and clear. 
 The smoke had not vanished in the air before the piece of 
 Herbert responded, and the first trial was over. 
 
 " There, jedge," said the Trapper, " ye'll find that hole 
 bored by a sharp auger and cut in a business-like way. I 
 shall sartinly be surprised if, when ye put yer eye to the 
 hole and turn it up to the sky, ye can see any shape in it 
 but what three bullets ought to make when they foller each 
 other as straight as young otters swimmin' a crick." 
 
 The board was inspected by the judges, and then it 
 started on its mission among the crowd. And as the Old 
 Trapper had predicted, no eye could detect that more than 
 one bullet had passed through the opening, unless, perhaps, 
 it were slightly enlarged and freer of splinters than would 
 have been the case had but one bullet penetrated it . 
 
 The Trapper and Herbert cleaned their rifles and re- 
 charged them with the painstaking carefulness of men who 
 thoroughly understand how delicate are the causes which 
 command success in such work as they were now being 
 called upon to do ; and how the slightest neglect in the 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 287 
 
 treatment of their guns would endanger success. Indeed, 
 if the two pieces had been animate and sensitive to their 
 touch they could not have handled them with greater care, 
 nor treated them with more tender regard. 
 
 "All right, Squire," said the Trapper, as he lifted the 
 piece into the hollow of his palm, " Henry and me be ready 
 for any other leetle playfulness ye may p'int out to us." 
 
 " Has any one a pack of cards," said the judge. " Per- 
 haps our friend here, has some," — and he turned to the 
 gambler, who chanced to be standing near him. 
 
 " It is very singular," said our silent friend, as he drew a 
 pack out of his pocket, " that I happen to have such an ar- 
 ticle about me. I don't remember how they happened to 
 get into my pocket. I presume that my wife made a mis- 
 take and put them in instead of something else about the 
 same size, which she has a fondness for advising me to carry 
 around with me. If these aren't colored just right," said 
 he, as he pulled out another pack, " it may be these will 
 suit better. Or, if the Old Trapper, whom I owe something 
 for good advice he has given me to-day, would fancy a more 
 neutral tint, I'll just step «p to my chamber and see what 
 there may be in the bottom of the trunk." 
 
 " Lord, Lord ! " said the Trapper, " ye haven't a cart-load 
 of the pesky pictur's have ye ? Them leetle keerds will sar- 
 tinly bo the death of ye yit j and I dare say this is the only 
 honest use they was ever put to. As for the color, it don't 
 make any difference, jedge, if Henry and me can only see 
 the spots through the sights." 
 
 In a moment the deuce of spades was fastened to the tar- 
 
288 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 get, by a tack driven at an equal distance between the spots, 
 and the crowd stood expectant. 
 
 " I want to have ye understand," said the Trapper, " and 
 I want the wimmen folks to understand, that me and Her- 
 bert don't call this anything more than common shootin', 
 fur the markin' shows plain and the light is good, and the 
 distance is no greater than the eye can manage. But it's 
 good enough, perhaps, to start with, and it may be" — and 
 here his piece exploded — " we'll git down to some raal fine 
 work arter a while. No, no," continued he, as the target 
 tender was about to inspect the target, " ye needn't look at 
 the leetle keerd, for the bullet is in the upper spot, and the 
 reason it don't show is because the patch of ink is bigger 
 than the hole that the lead made. Come, Henry, git the 
 lead out of yer gun, for we don't want to fool away any 
 time in gittin' ready to do some raal shootin'. There, jedge," 
 continued the old man, whose words had been scarcely di- 
 vided in their utterance by the crack of Herbert's piece — 
 "now there is two bullets that is eenamost as big as the 
 markin's on the keerd, and yit ye'll find that ye can't see 
 even the grease stain that the lead made when it passed 
 through, beyend the black. It may be handier for the boy 
 to bring the keerd in if he has that tack drawed for him, 
 and so to save time we'll start it a leetle." And even with 
 the words the smoke burst from the muzzle of his rifle, and 
 the card fluttered downward to the earth. 
 
 It is impossible to describe the feelings of the spectators. 
 The shooting had been so accurate as to astonish them; 
 and yet the aim of the marksmen had been so quick that it 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 289 
 
 bordered apparently on carelessness — the carelessness of 
 studied art, or else of men who, in doing what they had 
 done, had not felt themselves called upon to bring into ex- 
 ercise the resources of that ability which had given to one 
 a fame beyond question, and had made for the other the 
 reputation of being the only man who could compete with 
 him. 
 
 The committee conferred apart for a moment, and then 
 they produced a bottle, and, turning to the Trapper, the 
 judge said : — 
 
 " We have heard, John Norton, that you have been seen 
 to uncork a bottle like this with your bullet at fifty paces." 
 
 "Sartinly, sartinly," said the Trapper. "It is no great 
 thing to do, and I dare say Henry, here, has done the same 
 hundreds of times ; and it is the only way in which a rifle- 
 mau can use the bottle and keep the sartinty of his aim. 
 For there's nothin' that upsets a man's narves more than 
 drinkin', and I never seed a man, who was a rum-drinker, 
 have eyes wuth a cent when ye come down to fine work — 
 'specially on a windy day. But Henry and me will uncork 
 as many bottles, as ye want us to, and we'll never start a 
 flake from the nozzle, and we won't upset a bottle nuther." 
 
 The Englishmen who were standing by, and who were 
 getting intensely interested in the shooting they had already 
 seen, plainly stated to those standing nigh, their utter in- 
 credulity that such a feat could be performed. And in cour- 
 teous phrase they plainly stated the same to the committee, 
 and even to the Trapper himself. 
 
 " Look here, jedge," said the old man, " talkin' about it 
 
290 ADIBONDACK TALES. 
 
 won't do it, and the thing can be done, you can depend on't 
 But if ye want to see Henry and me git right down to the 
 work, and if ye want to see what bar'ls we've got to squint 
 over, ye had better bring out some of them bottles whose 
 corks are wired down ; for while eenamost anybody, who 
 has the gift of handlin' the rifle, can uncork the common 
 bottles, yit it takes an oncommon bai^l, and a sharp 
 eye, and a finger that knows how to work with it, to draw 
 one of them wired kind. But it can be did, and here be the 
 men and here be the guns that can do it." 
 
 The murmurs and ejaculations which rose from the crowd 
 revealed the fact that the incredulity was felt not only by 
 the Englishmen, but by the spectators, also. Indeed, dis- 
 cussions started on the instant. Here and there a voice 
 was heard declaring the certainty of its being done. Here 
 and there a guide positively declared that he had seen Her- 
 bert do it. And the gambler, acting true to the instinct of 
 his profession, boldly declared, with mock seriousness, that 
 he " had no faith in the bottle, and would back the Trapper 
 against it two to one." 
 
 While all this had been going on, the clerk of the hotel 
 had produced four champagne bottles, whose corks were 
 quite prominent, but most thoroughly wired down ; and 
 having been inspected by the Englishman and the Commit- 
 tee, they were placed on the railing that ran round the lake 
 side of the wharf. 
 
 " Now," said the Old Trapper, as he tapped the stock of 
 his rifle, " there aint but two guns in the woods that a man 
 could depend on to do sech a job, and they be twins. And 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 291 
 
 there sartinly aint but two men who can draw them corks 
 in the way the boy and me will sartinly do ; qnless some- 
 thing onusual happens. Henry/' said the Old Trapper, 
 "ye* take the one to the left, and be keerful of the glint of 
 the sun on the nozzle, for its likely to divart the aim. Now, 
 jedge, ye put yer eyes onto that cork, and Fll give ye the 
 silver horn if ye can tell where it goes to." 
 
 If there had been any carelessness in the action of the 
 Trapper and Herbert in their previous efforts, there cer- 
 tainly was none now in the movements of the young man 
 as he prepared to perform the extraordinary feat that he 
 was called upon to do. 
 
 The crowd became breathless. The silence was as pro- 
 found as it could possibly be. He straightened himself to 
 his full height, advanced his left foot, pressed the trigger to 
 the set, and, lifting the rifle to his shoulder, passed his eye 
 into the sight, and, with a motion as true and precise as if 
 the muzzle was being moved in steel grooves, the barrels be- 
 gan to pass from right to left toward the cork. And even 
 when it exploded, the rifle was still in motion, and so little 
 had the discharge disturbed the marksman that the motion, 
 with the same precision, continued an instant after the bul- 
 let had been sped. The bottle waved a trifle on its base, 
 spun half round and stopped, and the eyes of the specta- 
 tors saw, no longer restrained, the froth of the spirited con- 
 tents foaming out of the mouth. 
 
 " I am sorry ye started the bottle, Henry. Yis, I am sar- 
 tinly sorry ye started the bottle ; and I don't understand 
 the reason of it, boy. I should eenamost think that ye 
 
292 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 wasn't quite parfect in yer narves, to-day, onless I had 
 watched ye in yer aim. What was the reason of the jog- 
 gle, Henry ? Did the tumbler creep a leetle, or wasn't the 
 tube quite free ? " 
 
 "The wires over the corks are unusually strong," said 
 Herbert. 
 
 " It may be so," said the Trapper. " If ye say it's so, it 
 must be so, and we'll see if it is so in a minit, for the same 
 thing don't happen twice onless there is reason in it." 
 
 The old man paused. He looked au instant at the minute 
 mark ahead of him, drew himself up, advanced his left foot 
 lightly, and as his huge frame came to its perfect balance — 
 in a pose that an artist would have loved to sketch, — he 
 swept his rifle upward, and dropping it into his extended 
 hand, it rested there for an instant, while his eye settled into 
 the sight, and then burst out its flame. 
 
 So intense was the nervous tension on the part of the 
 spectators, that nearly every individual member of the 
 crowd actually jumped as the rifle cracked. The bottle 
 swayed, spun round, tottled for an instant, then stopped, 
 while the iroth spurted sharply a foot or more into the air. 
 
 " That's enough," said the judge. " That's enough," he 
 repeated; and the Englishmen nodded as he looked at 
 them, " I have seen what I never would have believed had 
 I not seen it." 
 
 " Yis, yis," said the Trapper, " it is enough ; and ye see 
 the boy was right. The wire is strong, as he said, and the 
 corks set deep in and the thing can't be did without jostlin' 
 the bottle. But ye give me a common bottle and a common 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 293 
 
 cork, and Henry and me will snap 'em out for ye without 
 startin' a ripple on the liquor inside." 
 
 "Now," said the judge, "we will give you a flying shot. 
 And the man that stands the test will get the silver horn." 
 
 "Ye'll have to split it, then," said the Trapper; "fori can 
 see that Henry's warmin' to the work, and his piece is work- 
 in' to parfection. What be the trial, jedge ? " 
 
 u It is this," was the reply, and he took a couple of pota- 
 toes from his pocket and handed them to the Lad. 
 
 " All right," said the Trapper. " Yer language is as plain 
 as the pictur' talk of the redskins. Now, Lad, toss 'em 
 straight and toss 'em high. Henry, you take the fust one, 
 and I'll take the second. Now, Lad, wait for the word. 
 Eeady with yer piece, Henry. One, two, three, heaye ! " 
 
 The Lad pitched the potato at the word. It mounted up- 
 ward into the air, and as it came to the apex of its flight, 
 Herbert's rifle cracked, and the potato disappeared. 
 
 " Heave agin ! " said the Trapper, and while the potato 
 which the lad pitched earnestly into the air was still going 
 up, the bullet of the Trapper caught it and drove it into a 
 thousand pieces ! 
 
 " There," said the Trapper to the judge, " Henry showed 
 ye the science of the thing, for he waited as a man should, 
 when life or honor depend on his shot, and took it at the 
 proper p'int. And I showed ye the trick of the thing, and 
 shot as a man who is over- sure of his game, and don't wait till 
 his jedgment tells him to act. Yis, the boy's shot was a 
 jedgmatical one, and shows that he mixes his brains with 
 his powder when he shoots j and that will sartinly win agin 
 
294 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 haste if there be chances enough. I don't think that ye 
 know for sartin, who has got that horn, yit, jedge ! " and the 
 Old Trapper laughed till his great strong face fairly beamed 
 with good nature. 
 
 "Come, jedge, what have ye got next? The pieces be 
 ready, and the horn don't know whether it's goin' to the 
 settlements or stay in the woods yit." 
 
 " We've got but one more," responded the judge, and the 
 committee did not dream that they would have to resort to 
 it. Nor do we suppose now that it will be of any avail, for 
 we firmly believe, as do all to whom we have mentioned it, 
 that it is beyond the possibility of human skill to accom- 
 plish. The target will be a flying one, and it will not be 
 revealed to you until it is in swiftest motion j for we shall 
 place your backs to us and deliver it over your heads. You 
 may take positions ; and we trust you will not blame us if 
 the trial should seem unreasonable. 
 
 " Lord-a-massy, jedge, Henry and me don't care what ye 
 start agoin' over our heads, for there be nothin that goes so 
 fast that a bullet can't overtake it, onless it be another bul- 
 let ; and ye may heave anything ye are a mind to and set it 
 travellin' as fast as ye please, and I warrant that we'll stop 
 it for ye afore it gits a hundred feet from the muzzle of our 
 guns. Come, boy, back up ; the Lord only knows whether 
 it is a stun or a pauther that the jedge has got in his hands, 
 and the sooner the thing gets in motion, the quicker we'll 
 git our eyes onto it." 
 
 The two men stationed themselves in front of the judge 
 with their backs towards him — each in position, and each 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 295 
 
 rifle at a poise. In a moment the crowd actually shook and 
 swayed with tumult. Laughter, and roars, and exclama- 
 tions such as " That isn't fair ! " "Yes, it is too," "Let them 
 try it anyhow. There isn't much danger that they'll hit it." 
 
 " Are you ready, gentlemen ? " said the judge ? 
 
 "Sartinly, sartinly," responded the Trapper, "let her 
 come, jedge j panther or stun, or whatever it is, the pieces 
 will bust if they wait much longer." 
 
 " Keady 'tis," said the judge. " Now \ " 
 
 He opened his hands, stretched over the heads of the 
 two men. A whirr, a buzz, a roar of wings, and a brown 
 object glanced through the air straight from the two men as 
 a bullet could spin. 
 
 A flash of lightning is not quicker than was the motion 
 of the two guns, as they were swept to their level. The 
 explosion of one of the pieces, at least, did not wait. The 
 partridge had not gone a hundred feet before the bullet of 
 Herbert's gun overtook it, and actually blew it into frag- 
 ments ! 
 
 The Trapper had not fired. He had checked himself in 
 the very act of pulling the trigger — his rifle dropped into 
 the hollow of his arm, and turning to Henry he said : — 
 
 " The life that the Maker gives them is sweet to his cree- 
 tur's, Henry, and may the Lord forgive ye for takin', without 
 cause, the life that ye cannot give back to the bird. No, 
 no, boy, I don't blame ye ; ye was taken onawares, and it 
 was quick work, and I come near jinin' in the murder my- 
 self. I tell ye, Squire," said the old man, as he turned to 
 the judge, " ye have did au onwise thing, and in yer mer- 
 
296 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 riment made an innocent man do a deed he would not nat- 
 erally do. No, no, the horn isn't worth a life to John Nor- 
 ton, even if that life be the life of the smallest of God's 
 creeturs ; onless the takin' of it can be of sarvice to man/ 
 
 The Old Trapper had said this with all the solemn gravity 
 of a man who was speaking from the conviction not only of 
 principle, but of a life-long practice, and as one who had 
 forgotten in the larger and graver thought, the smaller and 
 lighter one of the sports around him. And as he closed, 
 he turned to Henry in the act of speaking ; but Herbert — 
 who, while he sympathized with the old man's sentiments, 
 and deeply regretted that, betrayed by the suddenness of 
 the event, he had unnecessarily taken a life — was never- 
 theless anxious, lest, in the mind of some of the crowd, not 
 to say in the mind of the judge himself, the Old Trapper's 
 fame might suffer, checked him by the motion of his hand, 
 and pointed his finger out over the lake. 
 
 The old man's face lighted, for he saw not only what Her- 
 bert had pointed at, — a large fleecy plume, that, torn from 
 the skin of the bird, was still drifting in the golden air, — 
 but also the generous thought of his companion's heart for 
 him. He turned to the judge, and said : — 
 
 " Do ye see, jedge, what the boy means? Do ye see that 
 bit of down floatin' out there across the sun, that came from 
 the back of the bird ? The boy wants me to shoot at it ; 
 for he fears lest the man whose head has whiteued in the 
 woods should lose his fame here, to-day ; and I'm glad he 
 has done what he has done, for while it's nothin' he can't 
 do himself, yit it is enough to show these ladies, here, and 
 
THE TtfAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 297 
 
 yerself, too, that John Norton's finger did not quit the trig- 
 ger when he lined the sights on the bird because he feared 
 his lead would go wild." 
 
 "Now, Henry," he continued, "yer heart is right to- 
 ward an old man, and he'll remember yer thought in 
 his behalf when the miles be atween us, and ye be in the 
 settlements amid many and I be by the fire in the cabin 
 alone. Yis ; boy, it's nothing ye can't do, for ye have mas- 
 tered the weepou, and if I could live my life over, I would 
 ask no better way of spendiu' it than of spendin' it together 
 with ye in the woods, for yer piece and yer heart is both 
 true. Yis, ye sartinly could do it, but ye sartinly couldn't 
 do it quicker than this ! " — and with a motion so quick that 
 those who stood nighest to him started back, the old man 
 jerked his rifle into the air, and before it would seem it were 
 possible for hand and eye to have come into conjunction 
 the smoke belched out from the muzzle, and the golden 
 colored plume that had come from the poor bird's back, 
 lying swathed as it was in the warm red rays of the declin- 
 ing sun, darted forward through the air as if a minute jet 
 of wind had struck it in the center, and when it stopped, 
 the two halves floated off and stood inches apart. 
 
 The shooting was ended. The voice of the judge only ex- 
 pressed the unanimous feeling of the crowd when he pro- 
 claimed "that no further trial could with propriety be made, 
 and that the silver horn would be given to the two contest- 
 ants } leaving it in their hands as their joint property." 
 
 A happier conclusion, or one more gratifying to Herbert 
 and the Trapper, or to the spectators, could not have tor-* 
 
298 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 minated the day's sports. In connection with the announce- 
 ment the committee of arrangements further proclaimed 
 that in honor of the occasion, the proprietor of the hotel 
 would furnish an entertainment to the guests of the house 
 and the visitors from the adjoining houses, who could make 
 it convenient to remain, and that the evening would be 
 spent in merry-making — of which music and dancing would 
 form an attractive and prominent feature. In short, they 
 proposed to have a ball 1 
 
CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 THE BALL. 
 
 "And his the music to whose tone 
 The common pulse of man keeps time, 
 In cot or castle, mirth or moan, 
 • In cold or sunny clime." — Halleck. 
 
 ~TT was evening — dark, cool and starry. The earth and 
 water lay hidden in the dusky gloom. Above, the stars 
 were at their brightest. They gleamed and glowed, flashed 
 and scintillated, like jewels fresh from the case. Their fires 
 were many-colored — orange, yellow and red ; and here and 
 there a great diamond fastened into the zone of night, sent 
 out its intense, colorless brilliancy. Through all the air 
 silence reigned. The winds had died away, and the waters 
 had settled to repose. No gurgle along the shore j no 
 splash against the great logs that made the wharf; no bird 
 of night calling to its mate. Outside all was still. Nature 
 had drawn the curtains around her couch, and, screened 
 from sight, lay in profound repose. 
 
 Within all was light, and bustle, and gayety. From every 
 window lights streamed and flashed. The large parlors 
 were alive with moving forms. The piano, whose white 
 keys were swept by whiter hands, tinkled and rang in live- 
 liest measure. The dance was at its height j and the very 
 
300 ADIRONDACK TALEd. 
 
 floor seemed vibrant with the pressure of lively feet. The 
 daDcers advanced, retired, wheeled and swayed in easy cir- 
 cles, swept up and down, and across the floor in graceful 
 lines. 
 
 Amid the happy scene the Old Trapper stood, his stalwart 
 frame erect as in his prime j while his great strong face 
 fairly beamed in benediction upon the dancers. For his na- 
 ture had within its depths that fine capacity which enabled 
 it to receive the brightness of surrounding happiness and 
 reflect it again. 
 
 It was a study to watch his face, and mark the passage 
 of his changeful moods : surprise, delight, and broad, warm- 
 hearted humor, as they came to and played across the re- 
 sponsive features. The man of the woods, of the lonely 
 shore, and of silence, seemed perfectly at home amid the 
 noise and commotion of human merry-making. 
 
 At last the music died away. The dancers checked their 
 feet. The lady who had been playing the piano rose weari- 
 ly from the instrument and joined a group of friends. The 
 music was not adequate. The notes were too sharp j too 
 isolate ; they did not flow together. There was no sweep 
 and swing, nor suavity of connected progress in the strains. 
 The instrument could not lift the dancers up and swing them 
 onward through the mazy motions. 
 
 " I tell ye, Henry," said the Old Trapper, as he turned to 
 Herbert who was standing by his side, " the pianer isn't the 
 thing to dance by, for sartin. It tinkles and chippers too 
 much ; it rattles and clicks. It don't git hold of the feel- 
 in's, Henry ; — it don't start the blood in yer veins, nor set 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 301 
 
 yer skin tinglin', nor make the feet dance agin yer will. It's 
 good enough in it's way, no doubt ; but it sai tinly isn't the 
 thing to lift the young folks up and swing 'em round. The 
 fiddle is the thing j — yis, the fiddle is sartiuly the thing. I 
 would give a good deal if we had a fiddle here to-night, for 
 I see the boys and girls miss it. Lord-a-massy ! how it 
 would set 'em agoin' if we only had a fiddle here." 
 
 " John Norton," said the Lad, who was sitting on a chair 
 hidden away behind the Trapper, " John Norton," and the 
 Lad took hold of the sleeve of his jacket and gulled the 
 Trapper's head down towards him, " would you like to hear 
 a violin to-night ? " 
 
 "Like to hear a fiddle ? Lord bless ye Lad, I guess I would 
 like to hear a fiddle. I never seed a time I wouldn't give 
 the best beaver hide in the lodge to hear the squeak of the 
 bow on the strings. What's the matter with ye, Lad! 
 What makes ye look so, boy "l " 
 
 Well might he ask the question, for the Lad's face was 
 absolutely radiant. His eyes were glowing and his lips 
 fairly apart as if with suppressed eagerness, the eagerness 
 of restrained excitement. 
 
 " John Norton ! " said the Lad, and he drew the old man's 
 head still closer to him until his ear was within a few inches 
 of his mouth, " I love to play the violin better than I love 
 aLything in the world, and I've got one of the best ones, 
 you ever heard, out there in the bow of the boat." 
 
 " Heavens and 'arth, Lad ! " ejaculated the Trapper, " did 
 ye say ye could play the fiddle, and that ye had a good one 
 out there in the boat ? Lord-a-massy ! how the young folks 
 
302 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 will hop. Scoot out there and git it, boy, and Henry and 
 me will let the folks know what ye've got and what ye can 
 do." 
 
 The Lad fairly flashed out of the room. He was gone io 
 an instant ; and in a few minutes he had returned, beariug 
 in his hands a bundle which he carried as carefully as a 
 mother would carry her babe ; but brief as had been his 
 absence it had allowed sufficient time for Herbert to com- 
 municate with the master of ceremonies and for him to an- 
 nounce to the company present that the great lack of the 
 occasion had fortunately and unexpectedly been supplied ; 
 for the young man who was with Mr. Herbert and John Nor- 
 ton not only knew how to play the violin but actually had 
 one in his boat and had just gone to get it, and would be 
 back in a moment. The announcement was received with 
 applause. White hands clapped, and a hundred ejaculations 
 of wonderment sounded forth the surprise and pleasure of 
 the eager throng. And when the Lad came stealing in, 
 bearing his precious burden, he was received with a posi- 
 tive ovation. 
 
 It was amusing to see the change which had come over 
 the looks and actions of the company at the mention and 
 appearance of the violin. The faces that had shown indif- 
 ference and the look of languid weariness freshened and 
 became tense in all their lines ; and on their heads again 
 animation sat crowned. Those who were seated jumped to 
 their feet. The conversationalists broke their circle and 
 swung suddenly into line. Eyes sparkled. Little happy 
 screams and miniature war-whoops from the boisterous 
 
' THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 303 
 
 youngsters rang through the parlor. In eye, and look, and 
 voice, the popular tribute spoke in honor of the popular 
 instrument, — an instrument whose strings can sound al- 
 most every passion forth : The quip and quirk of merri- 
 ment, the mourner's wail, the measured praise of solemn 
 psalms, the lively beat of joy, the subtle charm of indolent 
 moods, and the sweet ecstasy of youthful pleasure, when 
 with flying feet and in the abandon of delight she swings, 
 circles, and floats through the measures of the voluptuous 
 waltz. 
 
 In one corner of the parlor there was a raised platform, 
 from which charades and private theatricals had been acted 
 on some previous evening, and to this the Lad was escorted; 
 and strange to say his awkwardness had departed from 
 him. His form was straight. His head raised* His shamb- 
 ling gait steadied itself with firmer confidence. His long 
 arms sought no longer feebly to hide themselves, but held 
 the package that he carried in fond authority of gesture, as 
 a proud mother, whose pride had banished bashfulness, 
 might carry a beautiful child — a child that was her own. 
 So the Lad went towards the raised dais, and seating him- 
 self in the chair, proceed with deliberate tenderness to un- 
 cover the instrument. 
 
 An old, dark-looking one it was. The gloom of centuries 
 darkened it. Their dusk had penetrated the very fibres of 
 the wood. Its look suggested ancient times j far climes ; 
 and hands long mouldering in dust. It was an instrument 
 to quicken curiosity and elicit mental interrogation. What 
 was its story ? Where was it made ? By whom, and when ? 
 
304 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 The Lad did not know. It was his mother's gift, he said 
 And an old sea-captain had given it to his mother. The old 
 sea-captain had found it on a wreck in the far-off Indian 
 Ocean. He found it in a trunk — a great sea chest made of 
 scented wood and banded with brazen ribs. And in the 
 chest, with it, it was rumored were silks, and costly fabrics, 
 and gold and eastern gems, — gems that never had been 
 cut ; but lay in all their barbaric beauty, dull and swarth as 
 Cleopatra's face. Thus the violin had been found on the far 
 seas — at the end of the world, as it were, and in compan- 
 ionship of gems and fabrics rich and rare; and in a chest 
 whose mouth breathed odors. This was all the Lad knew. 
 
 " Henry," said the Old Trapper, " the Lad says the fiddle 
 is so old that no one knows how old it is ; and I conceit the 
 boy speaks the truth. It sartinly looks as old as a squaw 
 whose teeth has dropped out and whose eyes are half shet, 
 and her face the color of tanned buckskin. I tell ye, Henry, 
 I believe it will bust if the Lad draws the bow with any 'ar- 
 nestness across it, for there never was a glue made that 
 would hold wood together for a thousand year. And if that 
 fiddle isn't a thousand year old, then John Norton is no 
 jedge of appearances ; and can't count the prongs on the 
 horns of a buck." 
 
 At this instant the Lad dropped the bow on to the strings. 
 Strong and round, mellow and sweet, the note swelled forth; 
 starting with the least filament of sound, it wove itself into 
 a compact chord of sonorous resonance ; filled the great 
 parlors; passed through the doorway into the receptive 
 stillness outside; charged it with throbbings — thus held 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 305 
 
 the air a moment ; reigned in it — then, called its powers 
 back to itself; drew in its vibrating tones; checked its un- 
 dulating force ; and leaving the air by easy retirement came 
 back like a bird to its nest and died away within the re- 
 cesses of the dark, melodious shell from whence it started. 
 
 When the bow first began its course across the strings 
 the Old Trapper's eyes were on it ; and as the note grew 
 and swelled he seemed to grow with it. His great fingers 
 shut into their palms as if an unseen power were pulling at 
 the cords. His breast heaved full. His mouth actually 
 opened. It was as if the rising, swelling, pulsating sounds 
 lifted him from off the floor on which he stood ; and when 
 the magnificent note ebbed and finally died away within the 
 violin, not only he, but all the company stood breathless : 
 charmed, surprised, astonished into silence at the wondrous 
 strain they had heard. 
 
 The Old Trapper was the first to move. He brought his 
 brawny hand down heavily on to Herbert's shoulder and 
 with a face .actually on fire with the fervor stirred within 
 him, exclaimed : — 
 
 " Lord-a-massy ! Henry, did ye ever hear a noise like 
 that ? I say, boy, did ye ever hear a noise like that? Where 
 on 'arth did it all come from ? Why, boy, 'twas as long and 
 as solemn as a funeral, as arnest as the cry of a panther ; 
 and roared like the nest of hornets when ye poke 'em up 
 with a stick. If that's a fiddle I wonder what the other 
 things be that I have heerd the half-breeds and the French- 
 ers play in the clearin's." 
 
 Well might the Old Trapper be astonished. The violin of 
 
306 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 unknown age and make was one among ten thousand. It 
 was a concert to hear the Lad tune it ; which he did with a 
 bold and skillful touch, and the exactness of an ear which 
 nature had made exquisitely true to time and chord. His 
 bashfulness was gone. His timidity had departed. His 
 awkwardness, even, went out of body and arm and fingers, 
 with the initial note. His soul had found its life with his 
 mother's gift ; and he who was so weak and hesitating in 
 ordinary moments, found courage and strength, and the 
 dignity of a master, when he touched the strings. At last 
 the instrument was ready. And with a flourish bold and 
 free he struck into the measures of a waltz that filled the 
 parlor with a circling noise, and made the air throb and 
 beat — swing and swell, as if it were liquid, and unseen 
 hands were moving it with measured undulations. 
 
 There was no resisting an influence so sweet, subtle, and 
 pervasive, as flowed from that easy-going bow, as it came 
 and went over the resounding strings. Couple after couple ' 
 swung off into the open space until the entire company 
 were swinging and floating through the dreamy and be- 
 witching measures. The god of music was actually in the 
 room, and his strong, passionate touch was on the souls of 
 those who were floated hither and thither as if blown by 
 his invisible breath. The music actually took possession of 
 the dancers. It banished the mortal heaviness from their 
 frames, and made them buoyant so that their feet scarce 
 touched the floor. Up and down and across, from side to 
 side and end to end they whirled and floated. They moved 
 as if a power which took the place of wings was in them. 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 307 
 
 They did not seem to know that they were dancing. They 
 did not dance ; they floated ; flowing like a current moved 
 by easy undulations. Their hands were clasped. Their 
 faces nearly touched. Their eyes were closed or glowing. 
 And still the long bow came and went, and still the music 
 rose and sank, and swelled and ebbed as easy waves ad- 
 vance, retreat and flood again, breaking in white and lazy 
 murmurs at twilight on the dusky beach. 
 
 Herbert stood still j but his eyes were lifted, the gaze in 
 them was far away, and one foot beat the measure. Be- 
 side him stood the Trapper. His arms were crossed ; his 
 eyes were on the bow that the Lad was drawing, and his 
 body swayed, lifted and sank in perfect harmony with the 
 motions and the accompanying sound, with a grace which 
 nature only reaches when the will is utterly surrendered to 
 a power that has charmed the stiffness and tension out of 
 the frame and made it yielding and responsive. 
 
 At last the music stopped ; and with it stopped each 
 form. Each foot was arrested at the point to which the 
 sound had carried it when it paused. Each couple stood in 
 perfect pose. The motive power which moved them was 
 withdrawn, and the limbs stood motionless as if the soul 
 that gave them animation had retired. They had been lifted 
 to another world — a world of impulse and movement more 
 airy and spirit-like than the gross earth, — and it took a 
 oment for them to struggle back to ordinary life. But in 
 a moment thought recalled them to themselves, and they 
 realized the mastery of the power that had held them at its 
 will, and the applause broke out in showers of happy tu- 
 
308 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 mult. They crowded around the Lad — strong men and 
 beautiful women, — gazing at him in wonder ; then broke 
 up into knots, talking and marveling. In the Old Trapper's 
 face, as he gazed at the Lad, a strange look came, — the 
 look of a man to whose soul has come a revelation so pure 
 and sweet and clear that he is unable at first to compass it 
 with his understanding. He came close to the Lad, and sit- 
 ting down on the edge of the platform, put his hand on the 
 knee of the youth, and said : — 
 
 " I have heerd most of the sweet and terrible noises that 
 natur' makes, boy j I have heerd the thunder among the 
 hills, when the Lord was knockin' agin the 'arth until it 
 jarred ; and I have heerd the wind in the pines and the 
 waves on the beaches when the darkness of night was on 
 the woods, and Natur' was singin' her evenin' psalm ; and 
 there be no bird or beast the Lord has made whose cry, be 
 it lively or solemn, I have not heerd ; and I have said that 
 man had never made an insterment that could make so 
 sweet a noise as Natur' makes when the Sperit of the uni- 
 varse speaks through the stillness: but ye have made 
 sounds to-night, Lad, sweeter than my ears have ever heerd 
 on hill or lake-shore, at noon or in the night season, and I 
 sartinly believe that the Sperit of the Lord has been with 
 ye, boy, and gi'n ye the power to bring out sech music as 
 the Book says the angels make in their happiness in the 
 world above. I trust ye are grateful, Lad, for the gift the 
 Lord has gi'n ye ; for, though yer tongue knows leetle of 
 speech, yit yer fingers can bring sech sounds out of that 
 fiddle as a man might wish to have in his ears when his 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 309 
 
 body lies in bis cabin, and bis sperit is standiu' on the edge 
 of the Great Clearin'. Yis, Lad, ye must sartinly play for 
 me when my eyes grow dim, and my feet strike tbe trail 
 tbat no man strikes but once, nor travels botb ways." 
 
 Ab tbis point tbe announcement of supper was made; and 
 tbe company streamed towards tbe tables. The repast was 
 of that bounteous character customary to the houses located 
 in the woods, in which the hearty provisions of the forest 
 were brought into conjunction with and reinforced by the 
 more light and fanciful cuisine of the cities. Among the 
 substantia] s fish and venison predominated. There was 
 venison roast and venison spitted and venison broiled, ven- 
 ison steak and venison pie. Trout broiled, and baked, and 
 boiled ; pancakes and rolls ; ices and cream ; pies and pud- 
 dings ; pickles and sauces of every conceivable character 
 and make j ducks and partridges ; coffee and tea whose na- 
 ture, we regret to say, was discernible only to the eye of 
 faith. In the midst of this abundance the Old Trapper was 
 entirely at home. He ate with the relish and heartiness of 
 a man whose appetite was of the highest order j and whose 
 courage mounted to the occasion. 
 
 " I tell ye, Henry," said the old man, as he transferred a 
 duck to his plate, and proceeded to carve it with the apt- 
 ness of one who had practical knowledge of its anatomy, 
 " I tell ye, Henry, the birds are gittin' fat j and I sartinly 
 hope the flight this Fall will be a good 'un. Don't be bash- 
 ful, Lad, in yer eatin'," he continued, as he transferred half 
 of his bird to his companion's plate, " ye haven't got the 
 size of some about the waist, but yer length is in yer favor 
 
310 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 and if ye will only straighten up ; and Henry don't give out, 
 there'll be leetle left on this eend of the table when we have 
 satisfied our hunger. I don't know when the cravin' of na- 
 tur' has been stronger within me than it is this minit ; and 
 if nothin' happens, and ye stand by me, the Saranacers will 
 remember our visit for days arter we are gone. It isn't 
 often that I feed in the settlements, or get a taste of their 
 cookin', but the man who basted these birds knowed what 
 he was doin', and the fire has given them jest the right 
 tech ; for the morsels actally melt in yer mouth." 
 
 The Trapper's feelings were evidently not peculiar to him- 
 self. For the spirit of feasting was abroad, and the eat- 
 ing was such as would astonish the dwellers in cities. Wit 
 flashed across the table in answer to wit. Mirth rippled 
 from end to end of the room. Laughter roared and rol- 
 licked adown the hall. Jokes were cracked. Fun exploded. 
 
 Plates rattled. Cups and glasses touched and rang. Even 
 
 l 
 the waiters as they came and went in their happy service 
 
 caught the infection of the surrounding happiness and their 
 
 laughter mingled with that of the guests. 
 
 The great pine branches and the evergreen nailed against 
 
 the corner posts and wreathed into festoons along the walls 
 
 shook and trembled in the uproar as to the passage of winds 
 
 along their native hills. And the huge bucks' heads, whose 
 
 antlers were tied with rosettes and streaming ribbons, lost 
 
 the staring look of their great artificial eyes and seemed as 
 
 they looked out through the interlacing boughs of cedar and 
 
 balsam as if life had returned to them, and they once more 
 
 were animate. 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 311 
 
 In about an hour the company streamed back into the 
 parlor, with a mood even livelier than that which had char- 
 acterized the early hours of the occasion. Their minds 
 were in the state of highest action, and their bodies needed 
 but the opportunity for rapid motion. Even the Lad had 
 caught the infection of the surrounding liveliness, for his 
 eyes and face glowed with the light of quickened anima- 
 tion. 
 
 " Have ye got any jigs in that fiddle, Lad," said the Trap- 
 per, " can ye twist anything out of yer instrument that will 
 set the feet travelin' ? It seems to me that the young folks 
 here want shakin up a leetle ; and a leetle of the old-fash- 
 ioned dancin' will help 'em settle the victuals. Can ye liven 
 up Lad, and give 'em a tune that will set 'em whirlin'. 
 
 The only reply of the .Lad was a motion of the bow j but 
 the motion was effective ; for it sent a torrent of notes into 
 the air, which thrilled through the body and tingled along 
 the nerves like an electric shock. The Old Trapper fairly 
 bounded into the air ; and when he struck the floor his feet 
 were flying. Nor was he alone ; the jig had started a dozen 
 on the instant ; and the floor rattled and rang with the tap 
 of toe and heel. 
 
 " Henry," said the Old Trapper, " hold on to me or I shall 
 sartinly make a fool of myself. The Lad is ticklin' me from 
 head to foot, and my toes are snappin' inside of the mocca- 
 sins. Lord, who'd a thought that the blood in the veins of 
 a man whose head is whitenin' could be sot leapin' as mine 
 is doin' at this minit' by the scrapin' of a fiddle." 
 
 The Lad was a picture to see. His bow flew like light- 
 
312 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 ning. His long fingers drummed and slid along the strings 
 of the violin with bewildering swiftness. The little instru- 
 ment jetted and effervesced its melody. The continuous 
 and resounding noise poured out of it in tuneful bubbles. 
 The air was full of tinkling fragments of sound. The Lad's 
 body swayed to and fro. His face glowed. His eyes flashed. 
 The sweat stood in drops on his forehead, but still the bow 
 snapped and crinkled, and the instrument continued to burst 
 in musical explosion, while the floor shook ; the windows 
 rattled; the lamps flared and fluttered, as the dancers chased 
 the music on. 
 
 " Heavens and arth ! " said the Trapper. " I can't stand 
 this," and breaking from the hold that Herbert had on him 
 he whirled himself out to the center of the floor, and with 
 his face aflame with excitement, and his white hair flying 
 abroad, he led the jig men off with the lightness of foot 
 and rapidity of stroke that forced the music by half a beat. 
 The effect was electric. The room burst with applause, and 
 the Lad fetched a stroke that seemed to rip the violin asun- 
 der. It was now a race between the violin and the dancers. 
 One after another fell out of the circle as the moments 
 passed, until the Trapper was left alone and was cutting it 
 down in a fashion that both astonished and convulsed the 
 company. More than one of the spectators went on to the 
 floor in paroxysms of laughter. Herbert, bent over with j 
 his hands on his knees, was watchiug the Trapper with 
 mouth stretched to its utmost, and streaming eyes. The 
 gambler was jumping up and down, utterly beside himself, 
 calling for "odds." 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 313 
 
 It is impossible to say which would have triumphed, had 
 not an accident decided the contest and brought the jig to 
 an abrupt termination. For even while the Lad was in the 
 midst of the swiftest execution, the hind legs of the chair 
 in which he was sitting were whipped from their fastenings, 
 his heels went into the air, and he turned half a somersault 
 backward, and the music stopped with a snap. 
 
 It was minutes before a word could be heard. Eoars and 
 irieks, and screams of irrepressible and uncontrolable 
 lerriment shook the house from foundation to garret. The 
 Lad picked himself up, and for the first time since they met 
 Herbert saw his placid countenance wrinkled and seamed 
 with the contortions of uproarous mirth. The sluggishness 
 of his temperament for once was thoroughly agitated, and 
 the manhood which never before had come to the surface 
 found in hilarity a visible and adequate expression. The 
 Trapper had spun to his side and the two had joined their 
 hands, and looking into each other's faces were laughing 
 with a boisterousness that fairly shook their frames and ex- 
 ploded in resounding peals. 
 
 Gradually the uproar subsided, and the company settled 
 by easy transition to a quieter mood. The hours of the 
 night were passing, and the moment drawing nigh when 
 those who had mingled their merriment must part. The 
 Old Trapper had regained his gravity and his countenance 
 had settled to its customary repose. It seemed the general 
 wish that the Lad should favor them with a farewell piece, 
 and, in compliance with the request of many, the old man 
 turned to him and said : — 
 
314 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 " The hours be drawing on, Lad, and it's reasonable that 
 we should break up ; but afore we go the folks wish to hear 
 ye play a quiet sort of a piece that may be cheerful and 
 pleasant-like for them to remember ye by when we be gone. 
 So Lad if ye have got anything in yer head that's soft and 
 teching, somethin' that will sort o' stay in the heart as the 
 seasons come and go, I sartinly hope ye will play it for them. 
 And as ye say ye was born by the sea, and as ye say the in- 
 sterment ye hold in yer hand was gi'n ye by yer mother, 
 it may be ye can play us something out of yer memory that 
 shall tell us of her goodness to ye. Somethin', I mean, that 
 shall tell us of the shore where ye was born and the love 
 that ye had afore ye laid her to rest and came to the woods. 
 Can ye play us somethin' like that, Lad ? " 
 
 " I can play you anything that has mother in it," said he, 
 and a wistful, yearning, hungry look came into his eyes, and 
 the edges of his simple lips quivered. 
 
 The company seated themselves, and the boy drew his 
 bow across the instrument. The brush of a painter could 
 not have made the picture more perfect, than the vision 
 the Lad brought forth as the bow played on the strings. 
 The picture of a sea, sunlighted and level, and stretching 
 far out ; the picture of a curved shore : the shore of a quiet 
 bay, rimmed with its beach of shining sand and noisy with 
 the gurgle and splash of lapsing waves ; the picture of a 
 home quiet and orderly, and filled with the tenderness of a 
 gentle spirit ; and then a heavier chord told of the coming 
 of a darker hour when the mother lay dying. The violin 
 fairly sobbed and groaned and wailed, as if the spirit ot 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 315 
 
 inconsolable grief were tugging heavily at the strings. 
 Anon, a bell tolled solemnly out of it, and its heavy knell 
 clanged through the room. And then the music rested for 
 a minute, and in the silence a grave came into sight as 
 plainly as if the eyes of all were actually looking at its open 
 mouth. Again the music sounded, and the sods, one after 
 another, fell on the coffin dull and heavy, changing to a 
 smothered sound as the grave filled. Once more it paused, 
 and then a clear, sweet strain arose, sad, but pure, and fine, 
 and hopeful, as voice of angels could have sung it, trustful 
 and resigned. The bow stopped again ; for a moment the 
 violin was silent. And then the Lad lifted his face, and, lay- 
 ing the bow softly upon the strings, he began to play what 
 all instinctively felt was a hymn to the spirit of his mother. 
 Slowly, softly, sweetly as the strains which the dying some- 
 times hear, the pure, clear, smooth notes, stole out into the 
 hushed air. It was playing, not such as mortal plays to 
 mortal, but such as spirit might play to spirit, and soul to 
 soul, across the street of heaven. The Lad still used an 
 earthly instrument and touched its strings with mortal fin- 
 gers ; but never, while they live, will those who heard that 
 hymn believe that anything less than the spirit of the boy ; 
 — as it shall be in mood when, in the spirit world, he first 
 beholds his angel mother, — drew from the instrument the 
 notes that filled that room with their divine sweetness. In- 
 deed, the Lad did not act as if lie were conscious of his 
 body, or of bodily presences around him. His face was 
 lifted, and his eyes, from which the tears were streaming, 
 were gazing upward, not as if into vacancy, but as if they 
 
316 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 saw the bright being that had passed within the vail, but. 
 which now, for a moment, stood in all the beauty of her 
 transfiguration before them. For a smile was on the boy's 
 lips, even while the tears were rolling down his cheeks ; 
 and when, at last, the arm suspended its motion ; when the 
 sweet notes ceased to sound, and the last chord had died 
 away, the Lad still kept his uplifted posture and his features 
 held the same rapt expression. 
 
 The company sat motionless, their gaze fastened on the 
 Lad. Not an eye was without its tear. The cheeks of the 
 Old Trapper were wet ; and Herbert, touched by some mem- 
 ory, or overcome by the pathos of the music, was actually 
 sobbing. The old man, with a tread as light as a moccasined 
 foot could make, stepped softly to the side of the Lad and 
 taking him by the arm, while the company rose as one man, 
 he motioned to Henry with his hand, and then, without a 
 word, the Trapper, and Herbert, and " The Man Who Didn't 
 Know Much," passed out of the room, and taking boat, 
 shoved off and glided from sight in the blue darkness of the 
 overhanging night, amid whose eastern gloom the great, 
 luminous mellow-hearted stars of the morning were already 
 aflame. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE PARTING. 
 
 "Once more ye woods, adieu."— Virgil. 
 
 An island : small in size, lifted but a few feet above the 
 water, and wooded heavily with pines. A camp-fire near 
 the centre, whose flames were fed by logs of beech and 
 bircb intermixed with resinous woods. Underneath the logs, 
 a great bed of coals and brands vividly on fire and hot as the 
 mouth of a furnace. Above, flames sent illuminations every- 
 where ; bringing the trunks of the great trees out in bold re- 
 lief and brightening the gloomy foliage so that the withered 
 cones stood out to view. A current of cool air ; the breath 
 of an ice-king which had been blown a thousand leagues, 
 nor lost its chill. Between it and the fire was mutual 
 hate; for when it blew a stronger puff the flame in 
 hot resentment flared hoarsely up and roared wrathfully. 
 Amid the rocks that lined the shores the waves washed 
 noisily. Above the pines a great gloomy dome, whose vault 
 was traversed by a broad belt of snowy appearance, and 
 studded with millions of dazzling stars. ' In front of the 
 coals two giant dogs lay curled, back to back, basking in 
 the heat. Farther away, their faces lighted by the fire, 
 three men sat or reclined in easy posture, their backs sup- 
 ported by a great log. This was the scene. 
 
318 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 "I'm sorry, Henry, that ye must leave us to-morrer/' 
 said the Trapper, breaking the long silence that had pre- 
 ceded the remark, " but ye say ye must go, and I suppose 
 we must give ye up. There be many in the settlements, I 
 dare say, that love ye and long to see ye ; and it's but right 
 for ye to go. But ye won't quite forgit us, boy, when ye're 
 livin' iu the great city, and the han'some and the rich be 
 round ye?" 
 
 "I shall never forget you, John Norton, nor the Lad 
 either," responded the young man ; " I owe my life to both 
 of you, and while I live I shall remember it. My life was 
 saved here in the woods, and here would I live were I not 
 bound to civilization by ties I cannot in conscience break. 
 But I mean to have you both visit me this winter. Do you 
 know it is only two days' travel from this island to my city 
 home ? " 
 
 " It isn't distance, Henry," said the Trapper, after a mo- 
 ment's pause, " that makes a visit likely or onlikely atween 
 friends. I footed it from the shore of the Horicon to the 
 shore of Ontario once, jest .to call on a comrade I heerd was 
 campin' on the Big Water. No, it sartinly isn't distance, 
 Henry, but difference in ways of livin J that keeps friends 
 apart. Lord bless ye, boy, if miles was all that lay atween 
 us, me and the Lad, and the pups there, could make ye a 
 visit eenamost any time arter the snow has crusted ; for the 
 trappin' is onsartin then, and the snow-shoes be famous 
 things to travel on. But ye see ye live one way and we 
 another; and though ye be a nateral woodsman, and take 
 to our way of living as easily as a young otter takes to the 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 319 
 
 crick, yit I conceit it be different with me in the settle- 
 ments, and that yer way of livin' wouldn't suit an old man 
 whose days have been passed in the woods, and whose ears 
 hate the noise of the clearin's." 
 
 f I don't know about that, John Norton," replied the 
 young man, " you should live as you wished to with me, 
 and I would do everything I could to make your stay pleas- 
 ant." 
 
 "Aye, aye, Henry," responded the Trapper; "I under- 
 stand the goodness of yer heart and the openness of yer 
 hand ; and if anythiug could make me contented with the 
 ways of the settlements ye sartinly could do it. But natur' 
 and habits be stronger than wishes ; and my natur, and hab- 
 its be agin it. Why, Henry, I should smother in the city ; 
 for I've heerd that the cabins be made of brick and stun, 
 and stand so nigh together that they actally tech ; and that 
 the smoke of the fires be so thick that ye can't tell when 
 the sun rises or sets ; and that the carries from p'int to p'int 
 be covered with folks ; and that the trails be thicker with 
 people than the trunk of a bee-tree when the bees be 
 swarmin'. Is it raally so, boy ? " 
 
 " Yes, the houses do stand side by side," replied Herbert, 
 " and the streets are full of people from morning till late at 
 night, and the noise and jar of cars and carts are con- 
 tinuous." 
 
 "That's it," interrupted the Trapper, "that's it. The 
 noises would eenamost kill me ; for beyend the crack of a 
 rifle, or the sound of an axe cuttin' wood for the camp, my 
 ears hate noises; onless it be sech as natur' makes. For 
 
320 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 when the ears be full of noise the eyes can't obsarve, noi 
 the heart meditate on the things around. It isn't what 
 folks tells us that makes us knowin' ; but it's what we find 
 out for ourselves. It's the blaze on the tree that the 
 hunter sarches for and finds with his own eyes, that he 
 never forgits ; and I have never seed a city man yit that 
 knowed anything, of his own self; for his edication was 
 what he had been larnt by others, or had read in books. 
 And ye know Henry, that the raal wisdom of Natur' has 
 never been printed in books yit." 
 
 " I think you are right there, John Norton," returned the 
 young man, " the best wisdom has never been printed ; for 
 scholars, as a class, never study for the new, but for the 
 old ; and the present generation only recites the same les- 
 sons that the fathers had recited." 
 
 " Yis Henry, that's it ; and queer enough it seems to a 
 man of the woods. Lord ! I guided a man a year or two 
 ago that knowed everything that books could tell a mortal. 
 He was as full of Aggers and facts as a hedgehog is of quills. 
 And if ye poked him up a leetle with a question or two 
 he'd shed 'em faster than ye could pick 'em up. But when 
 ye got him right down to it he didn't know nothin' Henry. 
 He couldn't tell the p'ints of the compass on a cloudy day ; 
 nor keep the trail on a carry; nor tell a doe's track from a 
 buck's. He didn't even know how to dress out his venison 
 nor cook a pancake. And I do believe, the creetur' would 
 have starved to death when the Lord had made plenty 
 around him. And it made me thankful for my gifts and 
 my larnin' as I obsarved his ignorance." 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 321 
 
 u And yet," replied Herbert, " he was very likely a wise 
 man in his way." 
 
 " Sartinly, sartinly," admitted the trapper. " But the 
 way wasn't a good un, Henry, for what's the use of bein' 
 knowin' if ye can't make it sarve ye. The larnin' that 
 don't help a man find his way when he is fetchin' his trail 
 tb rough the woods, and don't tell him where to find the 
 spring holes or the spawnin' beds or the places on the mash 
 where the bucks feed, or how to cook his venison arter he 
 has got it to his camp, isn't wuth much to a mortal for 
 sartin. For larnin' is given to us, as I conceit, as the 
 scent is given to the nose of the hound, for the parposes of 
 life ; and larnin' that don't tell a man when he is in danger 
 how to git out of it, or when he is hungry how to satisfy 
 the cravin's of his natur', is of no raal use to a man as I 
 jedge." 
 
 "The Bible says," interrupted the Lad " 'Take- no - 
 thought - of - what - ye - shall - eat - or - what - ye - shall 
 - diink, - or - what - ye - shall - put - on - for - after - all - 
 these -things - the - Gentiles -- seek.' " 
 
 "Yis, vis," said the Trapper, "them Gentiles always 
 seemed to me to have the right idees of it. And I never 
 could understand how the Lord could think they was 
 off the trail, if they was honestly sarchin' for victals and 
 clothin' to kiver their nakedness. No, I never could see 
 quite how they was wrong in doin'jest what every man 
 has to do to keep body and soul together. What did he 
 mean, Henry, when he told them not to think about their 
 victals and their garments? He didn't mean to have 
 
322 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 them go naked did he, or trust to luck in the matter? 
 
 "No, by no means," responded Herbert, "the phrase 
 ' take no heed ' means not to be anxious ; not to worry 
 about it." 
 
 " Well, well," said the Trapper, " now I git the direction 
 of the trail. Lord-a-massy ! how different the Scriptur' 
 looks from one p'int than it does from another. It sartinly 
 don't do any good to worry over a thing. Many be the 
 nights when I used to be out scoutin' that I've gone to bed 
 in the leaves hollow as a horn without a karnal in it, won- 
 derin' where I'd find breakfast in the mornin' ; but worryin' 
 never brought a partridge to the snare yit, or a trout to the 
 hook. And there's but one way for a mortal to act when 
 he's in a pinch, and that is to do the best he knows how 
 and trust to the Lord for the rest. But the doin' must be 
 put under the trustin' as the powder is under the bullet, as 
 I conceit." 
 
 It was with such converse that our friends beguiled the 
 evening, as the hours sped along. Now and then the Old 
 Trapper was prevailed upon to tell the story of his life, or 
 narrate passages of it as it had occurred on the trail and in 
 battle, or in times of peace when he lived quietly amid 
 the solitudes of nature. These narrations of experience 
 were told with a vividness of imagery and energy of 
 utterance that made the scenes he described stand out in 
 startling clearness to the miuds of the listeners ; for he 
 told them with the voice and action of one who was not 
 only speaking of deeds, in whose performance he had 
 been the prominent actor, but also with the uncon- 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 823 
 
 scious grace and power of a man whose blood kindles with 
 beat at the reminiscence ; and who, without knowing it, 
 lent to the narration the charm of a superb, because a 
 natural, elocution. To-night Herbert had purposely drawn 
 him out in this direction, for he and his companion liked 
 nothing better than such an entertainment as the stories of 
 the Old Trapper afforded. In this way the hours had come 
 and gone until the evening was far advanced, and the noon 
 of night was actually nigh. But neither of the three had 
 noted the passage of time, nor would they even then had 
 not the Old Trapper's eye caught the gleam of a star above 
 the mountain which revealed to him the fact that he had 
 been talking for hours. 
 
 " Lord-a-massy, Henry ! " ejaculated the old man as he 
 caught the gleam of the distant orb. " It's arter ten o'clock 
 and je've kept me talkin' like a dozen Frenchers when lost 
 in the fog. But it's the last night ye'll be with us, Henry, 
 and mayhaps it's well as it is. Come, Lad, git yer fiddle out. 
 Don't let it be said that the boy went to the settlements 
 without takin' yer music in his ears. Te needn't play any- 
 thing lively to-night for we sartinly don't feel like dancin', 
 but somethin' pleasant and cheerful like, and a leetle easy 
 in its motions, as a friend would say 'good-bye' to friend 
 when standin' at the p'int where their trails parted. 
 
 The Lad did as he was requested j and involuntarily gave 
 m exhibition of his command of the instrument which as- 
 tonished Herbert ; familiar as he was with the playing of 
 the masters of his time. The moment that the Lad's fin- 
 gers touched the strings, and the bow began to move over 
 
324 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 them, the violin seemed no longer a foreign substance but a 
 portion of himself. And of that self, too, within his body 
 which stood not for his personality alone, but for that greater 
 one who, while limiting him in the average human faculties, 
 had endowed him with compensating liberality with a faculty 
 of reception and impartment which could not be called less 
 than divine. There was no mood of nature that the poor boy 
 with the violin in his hand could not reflect. It laughed — 
 it wept — it rollicked — it joked — it sobbed. The flutter- 
 ing leaf — the sighing wind — the roaring hurricane — the 
 laughing splash of happy waters — the loon's weird cry — 
 the robin's flute — all the sounds his ear could catch, his 
 fingers could draw forth. 
 
 It was certainly, a scene that Herbert would not be likely 
 to forget. The great fire flared and flamed upward. The cool, 
 pine-scented air blew steadily across the lake, and the waves 
 fell with measured splash on the beach. The great pines 
 overhead swayed by the wind, sent out their softened mono- 
 tones. The Lad sat with his back to the fire gazing out 
 into the star-lighted darkness. Tho Trapper and Herbert 
 reclined in easy posture, gazing steadily at the upward-go- 
 ing flame ; and all the while the violin sent out its tuneful 
 strain. Not light and airy, nor grave and sad ; but pure, 
 cheerful and sweet, as is the mood of friend parting with 
 friend when love has made the parting tender, but hope 
 forbids it to be sad. 
 
 At last the music ceased, and the Lad turued his simple 
 face toward the fire with a light on it finer than the reflec- 
 tion that an earthly flame could give to human countenauce. 
 
THE MAN T1IAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 325 
 
 ' u Yis, Lad, ye've said it well," said the Trapper, " ye've 
 sartinly said it well ; and Herbert and me have understood it 
 as ye have gone on. Ye sartinly aint over-knowin' with 
 yer tongue but yer sperit is right ; and the Lord has gin ye 
 a gift that the great ones of the 'arth might envy. I sar- 
 tinly wish ye could play to the folks in the settlements} it 
 would set them wonderin'." 
 
 u I don't think I could play in the cities," said the Lad. 
 "I never could play to anyone but mother in the house, and 
 I never played but a few times to her there ; for when she 
 was tired and wanted comforting she used to go down with 
 me to the shore and have me play for her there. And she 
 used to kiss me when I finished playing, and say I was the 
 best boy she had, and a great comfort to her, even if I didn't 
 learn so fast as the other children did." 
 
 "I understand it, Lad," said the Trapper, "yis, I under- 
 stand it, and yer mother was right ; and ye comforted her in 
 the days of her trouble beyend what ye know, and ye'll sar- 
 tinly find her ag'in, and I dare say waitin' for ye when ye 
 come to the Great Clearin'. Come, let's go to bed," contin- 
 ued the old man. The night is passin', and the mornin' is 
 drawin on, and we three shall start on a long trail to-mor- 
 rer, and it's best that we strike it well rested." 
 
 It was morning 5 and the Old Trapper was up with the 
 earliest dawn, busy in preparing the morning meal. It was 
 evident by the amount and variety of the dishes, that he 
 was anxious that it should be more than ordinary ; for it 
 required every plate and dish in the camp to hold the re- 
 sult of his labors. He worked at his self-iinposed task as 
 
326 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 one whose mind is pre-occupied, and who would fain seek 
 in activity, relief from what would otherwise oppress him. 
 An observer would have noticed that as he came and went 
 in his motions around the fire, his eyes frequently turned 
 toward the spot where Herbert was sleeping, and at every 
 look the shadow on his face grew deeper. It would have 
 been evident to such a spectator that the old man had be- 
 come strongly attached to his young companion, and could 
 with difficulty bring himself to think with equanimity of 
 the coming separation. 
 
 At last his preparations were all made. The meal was 
 ready. Then lifting the corner of the blanket beneath which 
 the Lad and Herbert lay stretched, he said : 
 
 " Come Henry ; come Lad ; breakfast is ready, and the 
 sun will soon be on the mountains. The venison is done to 
 a turn, and the trout be ready for the teeth. It be the last 
 meal we shall eat together, for many a day, and it isn't 
 cheerful-like for friends to be hurried in their eatin' when 
 the hour of partin' is nigh. So dip yer heads in the lake a 
 minit, and we'll have a meal that'll be pleasant to remem- 
 ber when the miles be atween us." 
 
 In a tew minutes the young men were ready for the re- 
 past, and the three seated themselves at a table loaded 
 with food of a quality, and cooked with a skill, that the 
 cities cannot provide, and were soon eating with appetites 
 which no ordinary circumstance could affect ; nor was the 
 humor which was wont to enliven their companionship 
 lacking. 
 
 " It strikes me, Henry," said the Trapper, as he shoved a 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 327 
 
 plate loaded heavily with broiled venison from which the 
 red juices were actually dripping toward him, with a mo- 
 tion whose invitation Herbert was not slow to accept ; " it 
 strikes me, Henry, that yer appetite is gittin' dangerous ; 
 and it may be that yer goin' home is providential, as the 
 missioners say. There sartinly has been a good deal of 
 cookin' on this trip ; and considerin' that we be but three, 
 it's puzzlin' to think where the meat has all gone to. Ease 
 out another hole in yer belt, Lad," said the old man, laugh- 
 ing, " and clean the plate. If ye'd had this feedin' when ye 
 was a boy ye'd been bigger waisted than ye be j for its a 
 thin s'ile where the trees grow spindlin'. Ye'll thicken up, 
 afore Henry sees ye agin, or John Norton don't know 
 the habits of natur'."' 
 
 The two young men laughed heartily, and renewed their 
 attack on the edibles in a manner which threatened to 
 speedily clear the table. 
 
 " Now, Henry," said the old man, as he arose, and taking 
 a frying-pan from near the fire", where he had carefully 
 placed it at the beginning of the meal, "if the Lad will 
 bring the honey that he found on the carry the other day, 
 I'll give ye some pancakes that'll make ye hate the cookin' 
 of the settlements when ye be away from us. Lord ! I 
 thought I should die laughin' when I seed the Lad peelin' 
 it through the scrub oak with the bees peltin' him in his 
 back arter the plug come out of the hole, and the leetle 
 chaps had diskivered who was pillaging their winter's store. 
 His legs couldn't have played livelier if they'd beeu keepin' 
 tune to one of his jigs. If there's anything that'll make 
 
. 
 
 328 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 a man nimble, it's when he's emptied a hive round his ears 
 and the water is forty rod away. Did ye feel any oneas- 
 iness Lad as ye struck for the lake ? Ye sartinly wasn't 
 mindful where ye stepped, for ye made a trail as wide as a 
 harrer !" and the old man actually had to pause a moment 
 to wipe the tears from his eyes ; while his two young com- 
 panions roared and screamed in the merriment of the recol- 
 lection. 
 
 " Look here, Henry ! " exclaimed the Trapper, in a mo- 
 ment, " did ye ever see a nicer brown than that ?" and with 
 a skilful upward turn of his wrist he sent the five pancakes 
 into the air in such a way as caused them to turn a com- 
 plete somersault, and skilfully them caught in the pan as 
 they descended. " Did ye ever see a better brown than 
 that, Henry ? " Ye'll find it eenamost the color of the honey 
 itself when it drips from the comb onto it. A strip of 
 pork, good flour, a leetle Indian meal, the right kind of a 
 pan, and a heap of beech coals like these — is sartinly what 
 makes the cakes look right. And then, if the butter be 
 sweet, and the honey pure, and the appetite keen, I can't 
 conceit of any better eatin' in the world. Now, ye eat and 
 I'll cook ; for a cake aint wuth a cent when it's cold. It 
 gits soggy, and lays on the stomach like a lie on the con- 
 science. And though I know ye be lively with yer teeth, 
 yit if the coals hold hot I sartinly think I can keep up with 
 ye." 
 
 It might have been ten minutes that the cooking and the 
 eating continued ; and, to borrow a commercial phrase, " the 
 supply was just equal to the demand." A happier face than 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 329 
 
 the Old Trapper's, as he stood, pan in hand, with the heat 
 of the coals brightening his countenance, was never seen. 
 Benevolence and humor united themselves in its expres- 
 sion. A wise, strong face it was, without a coarse line in 
 it; without a trace of weakness; and on whose front, in- 
 firmity as yet had worn no prophetic mark. The face of 
 a man who had done no evil, had yielded to no vice, but 
 lived in the innocence of a nature to which the exercise of 
 virtue supplied all the stimulation that it craved. The face 
 of a man thus gifted in birth, and thus educated by life, in 
 happy mood : the mood of one who feels that he is minis- 
 tering to the happiness of those whom he loves. 
 
 "Come," said Herbert as he rose from the table and ap- 
 proached the fire, " give me the pan, John Norton, and as 
 you have cooked for me so I will cook for you, and I think 
 I'll give them a brown as rich and warm as you have been 
 doing." 
 
 " I don't doubt it, Henry, I don't doubt it ; for sartinly ye 
 have the gift of cookin'. Ye haven't forgotten the time I 
 met ye, boy, on the lonely lake, have ye, nor the steak and 
 the cakes ye cooked for me, and the tea that ye steeped ? 
 Lord-a-massy ! what tea that was. Do ye think ye could 
 git any more of the yarb like that in the settlement? " 
 
 " I'll send you a chest, John Norton ; and I'll start it the 
 first day I get back." 
 
 "A chest! Lord, boy, what be ye takin' about? What 
 does an old man like me want of a chest of tea ? Ye don't 
 think I'll turn into a Dutch woman, do ye? — that does 
 nothing but drink from mornin' till night! No, no; if ye 
 
330 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 would send me a pound, say, and do it up in strong wrap- 
 pin's, and put my name on it, I warrant it'd come through 
 all right. And it would be a great comfort to me to steep a 
 .leetle of it arter I'd got in from the line of my traps, wet 
 and hungry, some nights. Yis, it would sartinly be cheerful 
 to steep a leetle of yer gift, Henry ; for it would sorter bring 
 ye back into the cabin, and the sound of yer voice and the 
 sight of yer face would brighten up the place a leetle, — 
 especially if the night was stormy and the Lad should chance 
 to be away." 
 
 "Well, never mind about the amount," said Herbert. 
 "You shall have the tea; and enough so you needn't be 
 sparing of it." • 
 
 While they had been talkiDg, Herbert had dipped the bat- 
 ter into his pan, and the first dish of cakes was now ready 
 for the plate. He approached the old man as he sat at the 
 table, and taking a couple up with his fiat turner, he placed 
 them before him. They were amber-colored about the 
 edges, and rich chestnut brown at the center, and so light 
 that the upper scarce seemed to touch the lower one as it 
 lay on it. The old man looked at them critically a moment, 
 and then he took a spoonful of the honey and let the con- 
 tents drip in great golden globules on to the cake beneath ; 
 then taking his knife he spread the transparent liquid 
 smoothly over the cakes. All this was done with the delica- 
 cy of touch ot a true artist in eating ; of one who feeds hear- 
 tily, but not grossly, and eats with his eyes as well as his 
 mouth. 
 
 " Henry," said the old man, " them cakes be jediciously 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 331 
 
 cooked. I actally think that ye've beaten mine in the color, 
 — 'specially in the color round the edges ; but ye'll allow 
 that my cookin' warmed the pan up, and ye can't color a 
 cake jest right onless the pan is properly heated. And now 
 that the iron is jest right, I hope ye'll keep it a-goin' for a 
 few minits till I have eaten my fill." 
 
 The sun had scarcely risen when the three were ready to 
 leave the island. The Lad was already in his seat, holding 
 his oars for the start ; and the Old Trapper was steadying 
 the stern on the beach. The two hounds were standing on 
 the sands, and Herbert had paused on his way to the boat 
 to caress them a moment. Both of them were lifted erect 
 on their hind legs, with their paws on the young man's 
 shoulder, while with either hand he was stroking their 
 heads. 
 
 " That's right, Henry," said the Trapper. "The pups 
 know ye be goin', and in their way they be wishin' ye good- 
 bye. They've been oneasy all the mornin' for they know'd 
 that something onusal was goin' on. It'll be many a year 
 afore they see ye ag'in, perhaps, but they'll not forgit ye ; 
 and when ye come back, if they be livin' ye'll be sure of a 
 welcome that'll make yer face shine. Ah, me ! It seems 
 a long time sence we met at the pond of the beavers ; and 
 it'll mike many a long evenin' shorter to think of the frolics 
 that we have had together." 
 
 While the old man had been speaking Herbert had parted 
 from the dogs, and stepped into the boat. The old man 
 lifted it from the sand, and with a strong shove pushed it 
 suddenly out into the lake, springing with the agility of 
 
332 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 youth into his seat as he did it. The Lad swept his oars 
 into the water, and the Trapper joined the stroke with the 
 motion of his paddle. The two hounds sat down side by 
 side on the sand, and, with the gravity of their species, 
 gazed silently at the receding forms. Nor had they moved 
 from their position when the boat glided round the northern 
 point of the island, and the intervening rocks shut them 
 from view. 
 
 " I'm glad the pups didn't give mouth at yer goin', Hen- 
 ry," said the Trapper ; " for though I know a dog can't shor- 
 ten the days of a man, yit the Maker has given a curious 
 sense to some of his cretur's ; and I never yit know'd a dog 
 to howl at the goin' of his master, and something not hap- 
 pen afore he returned. Yis, I sartinly take it as a cheerful 
 sign that we three shall come together in health and hap- 
 piness ag'in in the day that the Lord app'ints." 
 
 It took but a few minutes for the boat to cover the dis- 
 tance it had to go; for the air was sharp and keen; the 
 water level as a floor, and the Lad pulled a stroke which, 
 assisted as it was by the paddle of the Trapper, shot the 
 sharp vessel along at an astonishing pace. 
 
 At the hotel no one was stirring, save here and there a 
 guide was washing out his boat preparatory for an early 
 start. 
 
 A moment after the boat touched the landing Herbert's 
 pack had been transferred to the. shore, and the three men 
 were standing side by side. Things had occurred since they 
 met which made the parting unusually tender. Herbert was 
 thinking of the death he had narrowly escaped, and. that it 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 333 
 
 was solely owing to the skill and affection of the two men 
 from whom he was now to part, that he was still alive. 
 
 " I shan't forgit the spot nor the hour, Henry ; " said the 
 Trapper, referring to some previous conversation, " and if 
 the Lad and me be livin' ye'll find us at the time app'inted 
 on the big ledge at the mouth of Cold Eiver when the early 
 shadders be darkenin' the stream. And ye needn't worry if 
 ye be late by a day or two, for the boy and me will camp 
 there till ye come, even if ye be a week behind yer time." 
 
 " If I don't come by the second day," returned Herbert, 
 " you may know that something has happened to keep me 
 from coming in, and you needn't wait longer; but if I am 
 alive and well you'll see my boat heading for that rock, when 
 the sun is an hour above its setting on the date I gave you, 
 next summer or the first summer I can come." 
 
 " I have ben thinkin' about the horn, Henry," said the old 
 man, as he took a bundle from under his jacket and handed 
 it to Herbert ; " yis, I've ben thinkin' about the horn, boy, 
 and it'll sartinly make my heart lighter if ye'll take it home 
 with ye, and hang it to the hammers of yer rifle where yer 
 eyes can often see it. For I be older than ye, and though I 
 conceit the Lord will spare me many a year, yit a man 
 whose head is whitenin' can't look with sech sartinty ahead, 
 as the. young ; and if anything should happen it would be 
 better that the horn was with ye. I don't give it to ye, be- 
 cause it's yourn as much as mine, and accordin' to the laws 
 of the shootin' it's yourn altogether ; but it's the only thing 
 I have to give, onless it be the rifle, and if ye'll take the 
 horn and anything happens, the Lad will see that the gun 
 
334 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 gits to ye, also, for ye be the only man I ever seed whoso 
 eye and finger could bring out the vartues of the piece. 
 The two would help ye remember an old man that shot for 
 yer life once, when the chances was agin him, and that loved 
 ye as if ye was his own boy. We shall camp on the head- 
 waters of the Kacquette this winter, and if ye felt like 
 writin' the Lad and me a letter some time, it may be sc me 
 trapper-might fetch it through ; but it's by no means sartiu, 
 and ye needn't trouble yerself with the matter. Now, boy, 
 as the folks will soon be stirrin' it may be jest as well that 
 the Lad and me be off ; for the sun be fairly up, and afore 
 it sets we must be sixty mile to the south. Come, Lad, 
 take the hand of the man ye saved by yer diviu', and then 
 we'll go. The Lord brought us together at the pond of the 
 beavers, and the Lord will bring us together ag'in on the 
 ledge at Cold Kiver if his will shall app'int." 
 
 The lad took the hand of Herbert, looked for a moment 
 into the face of the man he had saved from death, and then 
 without a word, but with a face slightly paler than was its 
 wont, stepped into the boat and seated himself at the oar. 
 The Trapper took the hand that the Lad had dropped, and 
 for a moment the two men gazed into each other's faces. 
 Once the old man essayed to speak; but as if he had 
 checked the rising thought while his tongue was striving to 
 form it into sound, or from some other cause, the sentence 
 remained unspoken. For his hand released its hold on Her- 
 bert's, and without uttering a word he turned, and lifting 
 his paddle he shoved the boat from the landing and leapt 
 lightly to his seat. The boat moved round the angle of the 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 335 
 
 wbarf and headed down the lake. Herbert stepped to the 
 piazza of the hotel, and leaning against a pillar, watched it 
 steadfastly as it receded from view. In a few moments it 
 had reached the first of the islands, and as it swung round, 
 Herbert fancied that he saw the hand of the Trapper lifted 
 into the air ; but in this he might have been mistaken. The 
 next instant it shot beyond the huge bowlder that made the 
 point of the island, and vanished from sight. 
 
 For a moment the young man stood with his eyes fixed 
 upon the spot where the boat had last been seen ; and then 
 he turned, and lifting his pack passed into the house. Many 
 things transpired of which they little dreamed ; and years, 
 bringing their changes, came and went before the three met 
 again. 
 

THE STORY OF 
 
 THE MAN WHO DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 
 
 Part III. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 SOME OLD FRIENDS. 
 " Far from gay cities and the ways of men."— The Odyssey. 
 
 TT was July ; and a hot summer's day was drawing to a 
 close. A torrid wave, born of the intense heat of the 
 tropics, had moved northward ; and the northern mountains 
 had not cooled it a degree. The heated wave had rolled 
 across the lake, and up the valleys, and over the crests of 
 the great hills, until the very atmosphere, ordinarily delic- 
 iously cool, seemed blistered, as if it were being burned 
 through and through by invisible fire. The tall pines, tas- 
 seled with their needle-like stems, fairly glistened in the 
 hot scintillating light. The winds kept their caves, as if 
 afraid to move beyond their dripping mouths. The water 
 stood with a dull gleam on it, like molten metal. The 
 reeds on the marshes drooped and hung their heads, as 
 with fatigue. Even the cool, dark balsams for once looked 
 hot ; and under the intense heat hung damp with gummy 
 sweat. The wild roses shrivelled and disappeared. The 
 white lilies contracted, and hid their beauty and perfumo 
 within the cool protection of their green, almond-shaped 
 
340 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 lobes. Above, the sky was brazen. In it the sun stood red 
 and blood-like ; its orb quivering with intense fervors, and 
 clearly rimmed as if it had lost the power to emit its daz- 
 zling rays. The wilderness was silent. The heat had acted 
 like a drug on bird and beast and fish ; and even on water 
 and air. Only one sound survived : the mouth of Cold 
 Eiver, where it poured its current over the shining sand 
 and the smooth beaming pebbles into the Eacquette, still 
 sang its rippling song. But beside the musical gurgle and 
 tuneful lapse of the easy-flowing current, there was no 
 sound in all the air. 
 
 On the great ledge which thrusts itself sternly out into 
 the Eacquette, just below the mouth of Cold Eiver, two men 
 were standing. It needed but a glance for one to recognize 
 in the two forms the Old Trapper and the Lad. The Lad 
 was leaning on his paddle j and the Old Trapper was stand- 
 ing erect, with his rifle resting in the hollow of his arm, 
 gazing steadfastly down the stream. 
 
 " Three years have come and gone sence he told us to 
 wait for him here. And twice afore this have you and me 
 waited on this rock till the sun darkened the stream ; but 
 the boy did not come. And here we be ag'in accordin' to 
 promise. And the hour has sartinly come for his appearing 
 for he said, ' If I be alive and well ye'll see my boat headin' 
 for that rock when the sun is an hour above its settin', on 
 the date I give ye, next summer, or the fust summer I can 
 come in.' Yis, them be the very words, Lad, he said on the 
 landin' at Lower Saranac, the morn when we parted. And 
 I know if he be livin' he'll keep his promise which he gave 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 341 
 
 to an old man who shot fur his life when the chances was 
 ag'in him. But the hour has sartinly come and the boy is 
 not here. I fear, Lad, yis I sartinly fear that somethin' is 
 wrong ; and that I shall never hear the crack of his piece 
 ag'in, or see his face by the light of the camp-fire." 
 
 " It may be that he has forgotten us, John Norton ; for 
 the folks that live in the city, I have heard, have a great deal 
 to do, and forget things easily." 
 
 "Lad," said the Trapper, "I've lived on the 'arth eighty 
 year, and have knowed many men ; and have seed them 
 that be true and them that be false : and I larnt fifty year 
 ago to know the difference atween Jem. And I tell ye that 
 Henry be one of the kind that never forgits. Ye can see it 
 in his eye and ye can hear it in his voice. The boy is 
 true as the barrels of his rifle, and that is savin' all that can 
 be said in praise of any man ; for the barrels be actally par- 
 feet. No, no, Lad, the boy hasn't forgot, and he'll sartinly 
 come this year or some other year if he's in the land of the 
 livin'." 
 
 At this point the Lad, who was standing within reach, 
 slowly stretched out his moccasined foot and softly touched 
 with his toe the ankle of the trapper. 
 
 " Aye, aye, Lad, I know what ye mean," said the old man, 
 without lowering his voice, " for I see what ye see, and I 
 seed her afore she put her head through the branches of 
 the balsam. But she's a mother doe and her faan is not far 
 away, and she's come down to drink of the water that the 
 Lord has made for her comfort as he has made it for ourn. 
 And never yit did lead of mine tech the life of a creetur 
 
342 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 when Natur' made its life sacred. She may drink of the 
 water to her fill, and go back to her faan and the bed she 
 left in the mosses. I know we be without meat, Lad, and 
 we'll go without meat afore we'll eat the body of a doe 
 when her faan still claims her." 
 
 "But what shall we do for supper, John Norton," re- 
 sponded the Lad; "there is flour enough and pork enough, 
 but we have no meat, and I am pretty hungry to-night." 
 
 " I dare say ye be empty, Lad, and I am not over full my- 
 self ; and it's only right that the flour and pork be used 
 sparin', but when the Lord can't feed a man one way he 
 feeds him another, and I sartinly think there is a trout or 
 two lying round here in this pool that the Lord has appinted 
 for the safety of the faan to-night. Step to the boat, Lad, 
 and untie the rod, for the sun be almost down, and the 
 smoke on the water shows that its coolin', and we'll make a 
 cast or two that mayhaps will fill our emptiness arter the 
 fire be kindled." 
 
 In a moment the rod was unlashed, aud the Lad stood hold- 
 ing it in his hand, ready for a cast. It was plain that it had 
 seen service, for the varnish had been worn from the wood, 
 while the butt and hand-piece had the peculiar, dark ap- 
 pearance which comes to wood only after long handling. 
 The reel was of brass, but through carelessness or design, 
 rust had been allowed to gather on its once polished sur- 
 face, as also on the brass ferrules at the joints. The line 
 was of silk, closely woven, while the nine foot leader to 
 which three flies were attached, looked chafed and ragged, 
 and the flies themselves scarcely retained half their original 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 343 
 
 plumage. The whole appearance of the rod suggested 
 that it was the victor in many a tussle with the finny foe. 
 
 " Will you take the rod, John Norton ? " said the Lad. 
 
 "No, not fust," returned the old man; "ye shall sartinly 
 have the fust cast yerself, for it's wicked for an old man to rob 
 a young man of a chance to larn the right way to do a thing 
 that he needs for his stomach's sake to know how to do 
 well. No, Lad, ye shall have the fust cast, and I'll take the 
 second." 
 
 " But I don't know how to fish as well as you do, and 
 I'm awful hungry, and I should feel dreadfully if I missed a 
 good one." 
 
 " Don't ye worry, Lad, don't ye worry. I don't suppose 
 it's now as it used to be, but I've stood on this rock and 
 skittered a piece of pork across the stream, and seen them 
 go for it like a Frencher for his garlic. Yis, I've stood on 
 this rock and seen the water bile as they riz from the bot- 
 tom and shot this way and that, so crazy was every one to 
 git at the bait fust. But years have come and gone sence 
 then, and many be the fish that have been taken here, for 
 this pool has its fame, and no city man passes it — nor guide 
 neither, — for that matter, without givin' it a try. But they 
 can't catch 'em all, for trouts be like men, some be wise 
 and some foolish ; and the foolish die young and die fast, 
 but the wise shun danger and live out their days. And I 
 shouldn't be surprised if there was a four pound trout some- 
 where in the bottom of this pool yit, and it may be a dozen 
 of 'em, for Cold Eiver is a famous breedin' ground, and 
 Cold Eiver empties all its big fish into this bend - } for a big 
 
344 ADIKONDACK TALES. 
 
 fish hates shaller water j and I shouldn't marvel if ye lifted 
 a big un if ye do the thing jediciously. So try yer skill, 
 and remember ye are fishing for a supper." 
 
 The Lad did as he was directed. With a motion by no 
 means awkward, he swept the point of the rod upward. The 
 leader straightened itself in the air, and then the flies shot 
 forward and fell with gradual inclination upon the water. 
 They had not trailed a foot before a trout broke the surface 
 with such energy, that he shot his body full three feet into 
 the air and fell with a splash into the tide. The size of the 
 fish, the suddenness with which he had appeared, the energy 
 of his rush and the noise of it, had taken the Lad so by 
 surprise, that he fairly jumped from the rock and an ex- 
 clamation escaped him. So startled was he that he actually 
 forgot to strike, and the fish, having held the feather in his 
 mouth and tasted the deceit, ejected it and went to the bot- 
 tom unharmed. The Trapper laughed in hearty amusement 
 at the Lad's expense. 
 
 "Did ye think he was a whale, Lad?" exclaimed the 
 Trapper, " did ye think he was a whale, and he was goin' to 
 swaller ye ? Ye jumped as if ye thought he had come up 
 arter ye. Lord, Lad, what a thing narves be ! Now, here 
 ye be, that can pull the strongest oar I ever seed pulled, 
 and I've seen ye shoot in sarcumstances which would try 
 most men, and ye stood the test, and now ye be jumpin' a 
 foot; yis, ye sartinly jumped a foot, Lad, from that rock, 
 when the fish broke water. What a thing narves be ! " 
 
 u Shall I try again, John Norton ? " said the Lad, who was 
 laughing himself, at his own foolishness, in spite of his evi- 
 dent mortification. " Shall I try again ? " 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 345 
 
 " Sartinly, sartinly," said the old man, " he's a good un, 
 and he'll rise ag'in if ye'll give him a chance. Shall I hold 
 on to ye, Lad ? It sartinly isn't safe for ye to be jumpin' in 
 that way standin' where ye be on the pint of the rock j " 
 and the old man laughed. 
 
 " I don't think I shall jump again, John Norton. I mean 
 to hook him this time, sure." 
 
 " I guess ye will, Lad, I guess ye will. There's nothin' so 
 sudden as a thing we don't expect, and ye didn't expect him 
 and it started ye; but I think ye'll be too quick for him this 
 time if he gives ye a chance. Cast at the same spot, Lad, 
 for a trout is like a man, he resks his life at the same spot 
 and by the same peril, and larns no caution by escapes." - 
 
 Even as he spoke the flies again settled to the water, and 
 true to the prediction of the Trapper the trout rose the 
 second time with the same quickness and energy ; but the 
 eye and the wrist of the Lad were alike ready for him, and 
 the rod doubled up to the strain which the Lad's sudden 
 stroke put upon it. The fish was fairly hooked, and the Lad 
 played him with dexterity, and in a minute he lay within 
 the meshes of the landing-net upon the rock. 
 
 " He's a good un, Lad ; yis, he's sartinly a good un," said 
 the old man. " He'll weigh two pound and a half if he 
 weighs an ounce. He's eenamost enough to make a sup- 
 per ; that is, he would be if he wasn't a fish. But a man 
 can eat jest as much fish as he wants to, for there is no eend 
 to his eatin' till he comes to the eend of the fish. Fish aint 
 solid : they don't brace a man out like venison or bear meat. 
 Now a piece of bear meat as big as that fish would make 
 
346 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 ye feel like a flour bag when it comes from the mill ; yis, as 
 if ye weighed a ton. But one fish aint enough for two 
 men, if they be long and empty. Come, I'll try a cast my- 
 self, and it may be the Lord has a bigger one than this 
 waitin' for us in the bottom of the pool." So saying the 
 Trapper loosened some twenty feet of line from the reel 
 and made ready for the cast. 
 
 " How I wish the boy was here," he said, " how I wish 
 the boy was here," he repeated, " for I never seed a man 
 cast a fly quite as well as he can do it ; and this rod was his 
 favorite. He said he had used it twelve year afore he gin it 
 to me ; and that is three year agone, and I can't see that it's 
 weakened a bit with all the usin' it's had. Many be the time 
 I've seen the tip brought eenamost down to the butt when 
 a big fish sot his heft onto it, but I never seed a fish git the 
 better of it yit. Lord, Lad, what a whirl that was ! I didn't 
 think there was as big a fish in the river. I wish the boy 
 was here to make the cast, but as he isn't, here goes ! " 
 
 As he spoke the Old Trapper lifted his hand into the air 
 and swept the point of the rod upward and back. Thirty 
 feet of line followed the movement and straightened taut, 
 while the flies hung in air far up the stream, midway be- 
 tween the trees. A quick turn of the wrist, and the flies 
 leapt forward, shot through the air past the rock, until the 
 line straightened in the reverse direction, and then the feath- 
 ers floated, wavering, downward until they flecked the tide. 
 They lit upon the water as lightly as if they were not 
 weighted with the hooks, and without pausing an instant 
 began to trail across the .stream. They had not gone a yard 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 347 
 
 before a yellow gleam flashed past the point of the ledge 
 on which the Trapper stood, and a monstrous trout broke, 
 with a headlong rush, out of the water, and shot upward 
 into the air, as if projected by an unseen force. Its very 
 eagerness thwarted his purpose, for he missed the gaudy 
 bait altogether. An instant he hung in air, at the point to 
 which his upward movement had carried him, and then fell, 
 with a splash, into the stream. 
 
 An ejaculation of astonished delight broke from the Lad's 
 mouth as he saw the monstrous fish above the stream. The 
 Old Trapper said not a word, but a light like the flash of a 
 sudden flame came to his countenance, and quick as light- 
 ning he snatched the flies from the water and swept them 
 backward for another cast. Again they darted forward to 
 the full length of the line and again settled slowly upon the 
 tide. They had barely touched the surface before the head 
 of the fish showed itself, and his monstrous jaws closed on 
 the feather. The old man struck so sharp and quick that 
 the rod fairly doubled with the stroke and the line quivered 
 with the tension thus suddenly put upon it, till the water 
 flew from the compressed braids. 
 
 " You've got him, John Norton, you've got him! " cried the 
 Lad, fairly startled out of his ordinary composure in his ex- 
 citement. 
 
 "Yis — I — have — got — him," said the Trapper, "and 
 if the gut don't part, and the old rod holds together, we'll 
 bake the biggest fish to-night I've seen for years." 
 
 The scene which followed was one which only a fisher- 
 man can realize, and which only a fisherman can enjoy a 
 
348 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 dozen times in his life. The fish was the biggest of his 
 species j strong, thoroughly aroused, and game in every 
 bone of his body. The action of the fish and the play of 
 the man who held the rod, made a picture such as is sel- 
 dom seen. No sooner had he felt the sting of the barbed 
 hook than the fish leapt wildly into the air, flinging himself 
 out with the energy of a black bass ; but he fell on r, line 
 slackened to receive him, and when he struck the w <.ter it 
 was as if he had struck it in full motion, for he tore his 
 progress up against the current with a velocity that caused 
 the line to cut the water with an angry hiss. He might 
 have passed the point of the rock by fifty feet, when, with 
 a quickness that only a trout can exhibit, he doubled short 
 upon his course and launched himself down the stream, 
 with an energy which only the largest fish, when thoroughly 
 aroused, can show. So quick was the manoeuvre and so 
 tremendous was the velocity with which he passed the 
 point of the rock, that he was seventy feet below the ledge 
 before the old man could get the needed pressure on him. 
 Only the eye and the finger of an expert could have done 
 it as it was done. The strain was not put suddenly on the 
 rod, but with such steadiness that the pressure on the 
 tackle was gradual. But skillful as was the management, 
 the fish was under such headway, and his momentum was so 
 great, and he fought the tackle with such determination, 
 that for an instant even the Old Trapper doubted if he could 
 stop him. The rod doubled itself up until the tip was al- 
 most even with the butt. It quivered and swayed as a 
 stubborn rod will when tasked to the utmost, and all that 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 349 
 
 the Trapper could do to ease it seemed to bring it no assist- 
 ance. It fairly creaked, as if its fibers were about to part. 
 The Lad was too anxious to say a word. His eyes were 
 fastened on the rod, and his mouth half opened in suspense. 
 The Old Trapper was the picture of determined coolness. 
 His face tightened in its lines, and his teeth set themselves. 
 He had done all he could do. This he knew ; and the rod 
 and fish were fairly pitted against each other. For a few 
 seconds the struggle lasted. The fish tugged and shook 
 himself, determined not to yield, but the wood could not be 
 overcome. The pliancy of perfect nature and of scientific 
 workmanship in its construction, at last prevailed. The 
 trout flung himself into the air, and when he fell the snap 
 was out of him. He sank to the bottom, and began to fin 
 himself easily up against the current. The Trapper im- 
 proved the opportunity, and stowed the line upon the reel 
 with the dexterity of long practice, quickened into swiftest 
 action by the emergency. Like a true fisherman, he gave 
 the fish no rest, but when the line was packed and ready 
 to render, he stirred the trout to action by a sharp upward 
 jerk that sent him flying. Eound and round he went. He 
 circled the pool from bank to bank ; swimming so nigh the 
 surface that his curvatures marked the tide with whirls and 
 eddies. Now and then he left the water, but the eye of 
 one that could not blunder, was on his movements; a hand 
 that could not mistake, governed the action of reel and 
 rod ; and in one-fifth of the time that it would take some 
 club men, who measure the skill of fishing by the length of 
 time to which they can prolong such an exercise, the Old 
 
350 . ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 Trapper had the trout lying on his side, panting with great 
 gasps, and had drawn him into the landing-net that the Lad 
 had scooped beneath him. 
 
 In another minute the great trout lay upon the rock, and 
 the two men were kneeling over him admiring his huge pro- 
 portions and the gorgeous beauty of his tintings ; but even 
 as they thus knelt, and before either had a chance to say a 
 word, the sharp crack of a rifle ripped through the silent 
 air, and frightened a dozen echoes from the neighboring 
 hillsides. 
 
 If the bullet had cut its way through the garments of 
 the Trapper, he could not have leapt to his feet with a 
 quicker motion. He fairly snapped himself into the air, 
 and as he struck the perpendicular he dashed a hand up- 
 ward, and exclaimed : — 
 
 » Henry \ n 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE AMBTJSH. 
 
 "Like guests that meet and come from far, 
 By cordial love invited."— Wordsworth. 
 
 TT was all that he said, but he said it with an intensity 
 that made the exclamation as sharp as the crack of the 
 piece which had caused it. 
 
 " What do you mean, John Norton ? " said the Lad, who 
 still kept the kneeling posture, as he looked up into the 
 face of the old man, that showed white through the dusk of 
 the darkening shadows, "what do you mean, John Nor- 
 ton?" 
 
 " Mean ! " exclaimed the old man, " Lord of marcy, Lad, 
 Henry is within a mile of us ! Didn't ye hear his piece ? " 
 
 " I heard a rifle," said the Lad, in reply, *• but there are a 
 great many rifles in the woods, and I don't know why you 
 should think it was Henry's." 
 
 " Lad," said the old man, " ye are good at rowin' and di- 
 vin', and ye fiddle as naterally as a rabbit runs ; and ye sar- 
 tinly can set a trap that even a fox wouldn't suspect — and 
 that's sayin' a good deal, — for a fox is the cunningest creetur 
 the Lord has made. But ye haven't the hunter's gift, and 
 yer ear is lackin'. I tell ye, Lad, that was the boy's rifle 
 
352 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 that sounded. I should know it if I was dyin', and heerd 
 it amid a hundred, when the ambushment was onkivered 
 and the scrimmage was hot. The boy is within a mile of 
 us. And the trout won't be needed, onless it be to make a 
 show." 
 
 " Why won't we need the trout ? It's all we have got, 
 but the pork and the flour ; and if Henry is coming he must 
 have pulled fifty miles since morning, and be as hungry as 
 I am." 
 
 " Lord ! Lad," said the Trapper laughing, " don't ye sup- 
 pose I know how the boy feels ? He's empty enough, be- 
 yend doubt, and the air of the woods has sharpened his 
 hunger ; but he's sparin' of his lead, and he shoots too well 
 to act like a boy from the settlements, who explodes his 
 piece for the sake of hearin' it's noise. Tis, he's sparin' of 
 his lead, and that bullet didn't go fur afore it found some- 
 thin' to stop it. Lord-a-massy ! how I wish I'd been lyiu' 
 in the mash grass when he sunk his eyes into the sights. 
 It's almost as good to see the boy go through the motions, 
 when the buck stands lookin' at him, as it is to hear ye fid- 
 dle ; for the bow comes nateral to the one and the rifle 
 comes nateral to the other. I tell ye, Lad, there'll be veni- 
 son in the camp when the boat teches this rock. Come, 
 let's draw the boat up into the bush, and let's make an am- 
 bushment. Ah, me ! it's wuth waitin' three years, to come 
 to the time when I can lie down in the grass and watch 
 him paddle his boat up sech a stretch of water as this. 
 How well I remember the night I ambushed him on tbe 
 Lonely Lake ! Yis, yis, let's make an ambushment for the 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 353 
 
 boy, and see how he acts when he thinks that we ve forgot- 
 ten what we pledged him, and that nobody's here." And 
 the old man laughed heartily to himself, out of sheer de- 
 light, and the pleasure that had come to his heart at the 
 thought that he would soon have Herbert by the hand. 
 
 In a moment the boat was carried up the ledge, and suf- 
 ficiently back from the river to be hidden, and then the 
 two men crawled back to the edge of the stream and drew 
 the grass over themselves in such a way that even in broad 
 daylight no eye could have detected them. 
 
 In the mean time night had settled darkly over the 
 woods. The sky was too hazy to reveal its stars, and the 
 lingering sunlight in the far west had been suddenly extin- 
 guished behind a great black bank of clouds that portended 
 storm. The darkness had come with unusual suddenness, 
 and was growing denser with the passing of every minute. 
 The pines seemed to emit gloom ; the balsams to breathe 
 out blackness with their odors. The very water of the 
 river flowed on, as if it were ink. In twenty minutes from 
 the time they had dragged their boat over the bank, and 
 gathered the grasses over their backs and heads, the dark- 
 ness was oppressive. The blackness actually burdened the 
 air. Like the darkness of old, it could be felt. 
 
 " I kalkerlate," whispered the Trapper, as he put his lips 
 to the ear of the Lad, " I kalkerlate the boy must be pritty 
 near the bend ; and if we have made an ambush for him, 
 he'll sartinly try to ambush us, for he's great at the paddle 
 and full of his tricks." 
 
 " Do you think, John Norton, that Henry knows we are 
 here ? " 
 
354 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 " Knows it ! of course he knows it," whispered the old 
 man in reply. " Didn't I tell him we'd be at this pint on 
 the day and the hour ? And aint the day and the hour 
 come ? And don't he know that if I be livin' on the 'arth 
 I'd be here ? Sartinly the boy knows we'd be here, and 
 he'll act on the knowledge. See if he don't." 
 
 " Do you think he can get his boat into this pool without 
 our seeing him ? " 
 
 " Without seem 1 him, Lad ; of course he can. Do you 
 thiDk he'll carry a bonfire on the eend of his nose to tell 
 us he is comin' ? And unless he luminates ye couldn't see 
 him if his boat lay in the pool within length of his paddle 
 from our eyes. No, we won't see him, for it's ag'in natur' ; 
 but I do kalkerlate to hear him ; for the stream shallers 
 below the pool, and he has got to pole his boat up ag'in 
 the current ; and I don't believe a man can sink the eend 
 of his paddle into the sand, on a night as still as this, 
 when my ear is within four feet of the stream, and I not 
 hear the sands move. No, I sartinly don't believe Henry 
 can do it. And if he does git his boat into this pool with- 
 out my hearin' him, he'll do what John Norton don't mean 
 to have him do. Now, Lad, if ye've got any more questions 
 to ask ye'd better put 'em off till arter somethin' has hap- 
 pened ; for Henry has got an ear like a lynx, and we can't 
 be convarsin' here in the grass, much, without the boy hear- 
 in' us; and as he's got to the bend by this time, we'd better 
 let our tongues rest a while and keep our ears and eyes as 
 open as natur' will permit." 
 
 All this had been said in the softest possible of whispers, 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 355 
 
 and with the concluding word the two men became silent 
 and profoundly attentive. 
 
 Forty rods below, in the midst of the impenetrable dark- 
 ness, was a boat. In the bow of the boat was a buck ; at 
 the stern was a man, — his paddle moving in the water as 
 easily as the tail of a fish, when with lazy motion, which 
 yields sufficient force, he holds himself steadily against an 
 easy-going current. His position was such as to command 
 the stretch of water, and the ledge in the pool at the head 
 of the stretch. The absence of any light or signal, did not 
 cause him to doubt for an instant the presence of his 
 friends, He knew them too well to suspect even for a 
 moment that they had either forgotten the date or their 
 pledge, fixed and given years before. He knew that if John 
 Norton was living, the old man was standing in the dark- 
 ness on the ledge, or nigh it. And he more than half sus- 
 pected, in the absence of any signal, the trick that the old 
 woodsman was trying to play on him. He felt that the old 
 scout, whose paddle might be said to have been made from 
 silence itself, so noiseless could he make it when stealing 
 on to game or up to an ambushment, had in this quaint and 
 perfectly natural manner, challenged him to an exercise of 
 his skill. He knew as well as the Trapper how delicate 
 was the undertaking, and how fine would be the exploit if 
 he could accomplish it. For out of the pool the water ran 
 with rippling swiftness, and with barely a foot of depth 
 over a stretch of sand, which, for a dozen rods, forbade 
 paddling, and brought the boatman to the necessity of pole- 
 ing his boat up against the current. To do this on so dark 
 
356 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 a night, in so strong a current, and in such shallow water, 
 in a way that the ripple of the flowing tide against the 
 curved prow of the boat, or the grating of the sand against 
 the paddle blade, as it was sunk into it, should not be de- 
 tected by the skilled ear that he felt lay almost level with 
 the water, listening for the sound, the young man knew 
 would tax his skill to the utmost. But difficult as was the 
 task, he determined to attempt it; and knowing the waters 
 well — having pushed his boat over the same stretch, on 
 many a night, when hunting in years past, — he felt that 
 if he were careful, the chances were in his favor. 
 
 The reader can scarcely appreciate how strongly the 
 young man desired to place his boat, under the cover of 
 intense darkness, within twenty feet of John Norton's eyes 
 before the old man should know of his presence. With a 
 determination not to lose his opportunity by any careless- 
 ness on his part, the young man put a little stronger 
 pressure on his paddle, yielding to which, the boat began 
 to steal its way up against the stream. Slowly he forced it 
 along with a motion that had for its guiding impulse the 
 patience of a man who knows that to do well the thing he 
 intends to do, he must do it slowly. Inch by inch the little 
 vessel glided up, until the young man knew by the increas- 
 ing pressure of the current that the bow had almost if not 
 quite come to the shallows. Easier yet he pressed it for- 
 ward, feeling with his paddle for the sand that he knew he* 
 must soon touch. At last he found it, and the really diffi- 
 cult part of the undertaking was now upon him. With the 
 utmost steadiness of motion and pressure; with a dex 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 357 
 
 terity of wrist that few could equal ; with the sense of feel- 
 iDg performing the office of sight, he gauged the varying 
 pressure of the current as it eddied up, — now against this 
 and now against- that side of the boat, — the strength of 
 the opposing current, and the quality of the sand into which 
 he passed and from which he withdrew his paddle-blade ; 
 slowly, steadily, noiselessly, he thus worked. his way up- 
 ward. 
 
 There is a faith among boatmen that boats have their 
 moods ; that there are days when they mis-behave and days 
 when they do their best. Engineers have the same feeling 
 for their engines. Some days they make steam, some days 
 they won't. One trip they act " beautifully," and the very 
 next trip they act viciously. Whether the theory is true or 
 false, the facts are undeniable, and the faith of boa'tmen and 
 of engineers touching the matter is too firmly established to 
 be shaken. Whatever be the truth of the case, we say, 
 Henry felt this night, as he was working his way against the 
 current through the darkness, that his boat was acting 
 " beautifully." 
 
 Perhaps spirit is superior to matter, and can assert its 
 superiority unconsciously. Perhaps the inert wood can be- 
 come, as it were, partly conscious, and have charged into it 
 something of the vital quality that directs it. Be this as it 
 may, as we have said, Henry felt and said to himself, as he 
 manoevercd in the darkness, that the boat was behaving 
 finely. It faced the current with the calm, easy determina- 
 tion of the man whose strength was pressing it upward. It 
 swayed this way and that in obedience to the slightest 
 
358 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 pressure from behind. If the water shallo tved, it seemed 
 to dread the possibility of touching sand, and eased away, 
 as if in search of deeper water. 
 
 The young man was in his finest mood ; the subtle forces 
 of body and mind seemed to concentrate in union of endeav- 
 or to accomplish the deed. His senses were sublimated. 
 Ear and feeling made good the lack of sight. Aye, more 
 than made it good, for he found a swifter, more accurate 
 interpretation of surrounding conditions in deprivation, than 
 could have been his in supply. The spirit of success was 
 in him. He knew he should accomplish the deed. He did. 
 His boat stole into the still pool so gradually, that had it 
 been in broad daylight, even John Norton's eyes must have 
 looked twice and closely to see that the boat had actual 
 movement, so slowly did it pass its length into the pool. 
 
 It entered the pool ; fairly entered itj on that side of the 
 current which carried it gradually to the right as it passed 
 in ; entered it, and floated idly into the elbow made by the 
 ledge and the bank, so that when it stopped, Henry, with 
 the point of his paddle, could have parted the grass from 
 over the heads of the old man and the Lad, where they lay 
 listening, with every sense alert for his coming. And thus, 
 in the dense murk and the heavy gloom, the three men sat 
 almost within hand's reach ; the two listening for the one, 
 and the one listening for the two. 
 
 How long the position would have remained thus, or 
 what Herbert would have done had there been no interrup- 
 tion, cannot be told ; for an interruption came, and of a char- 
 acter which made the revelation instantaneous. Through 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 359 
 
 the gloom of night the forces of Nature had been martial- 
 ing for display. The great bank of clouds which had en- 
 veloped the sun at its setting, had moved up through the 
 darkness and enlarged its borders until its upper point had 
 been pushed half way to the zenith, and its extremities al- 
 most touched either pole of the horizon. Nature had made 
 her ambush as truly as man, and uncovered it with start- 
 ling energy. For suddenly, out of the invisible clouds a 
 shaft of condensed fire leapt, that lanced through the gloom 
 from west to east — cut it in twain, and set the black halves 
 of the divided atmosphere aflame. If the darkness had 
 been one vast body of percussion, and the god of fire had 
 smote it with his hammer, it could not have exploded in 
 fiercer light. The hazy sky ; the tremendous clouds piled 
 in vast convolutions in the firmament ; the forest, the river, 
 the ledge, the boatman and the boat, all on the instant 
 stood revealed vividly distinct. The prolonged flash and 
 flame had not faded away, when the Old Trapper leapt from 
 the grass on the bank in which he lay hidden. 
 
 " Ye've did it, Henry ! Yis, ye sartinly have did it! Ye 
 have fetched yer boat through the ripples and over the 
 sands, while the ear of a man whose life has been saved 
 more'n once by his hearin', was within four feet of the wa- 
 ter. And ye've drifted yer boat within two yards of his 
 ears and he never knowed ye'd come. Ye was born too 
 late, boy ; for yer gifts pint to the trail and the scrimmage, 
 and the ambushment ; and if ye'd lived in the old war time 
 ye'd had somethin' to bring out the stuff that's in ye. And 
 a good comrade ye would have been to consort with. No, 
 
3G0 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 don't come ashore, boy, but shove up the stream and put 
 yer best licks iuto the paddle, for the storm be eoinin', and 
 we must be gittin' home. I sartiuly long to take ye by the 
 hand, but it's comfort enough to know that ye be in the land 
 of the livin' — which I eenainost doubted, — and that ye 
 be here in the woods ag'in. Ye'll find the lodge on the big 
 bank to the right as ye enter the lake, and the pups will 
 be glad to see ye. So push on, boy, and be lively, and me 
 and the Lad will foller on. I doubt if ye git there much 
 afore us." 
 
 The sound of Henry's stroke showed that his boat was 
 rods away before the Trapper's sentence was concluded, 
 and in a few minutes the Trapper and the Lad had launched 
 their boat ; and lashing the rod to its place, and putting 
 the fish in the bottom, they entered it and started up the 
 stream. 
 
 It took but a few moments for Henry to reach the lake, 
 and in a minute more he ran the boat ashore on the soft 
 sand that made a little beach at the water's edge of the 
 bank, and lifted itself sharply some forty feet upwards. 
 This he mounted, and seizing an armful of brush and dried 
 boughs that lay by the fire-place, in which the coals still 
 glowed, he threw them on to the bed of embers, and in an 
 instant a flame leapt up. 
 
 Even before the flame rose into the air the two hounds 
 were tugging at their chains at the mouth of their kennel 
 in the wildest ecstasy of delight. By eye and nose alike 
 they had recognized the comer ; and as Henry approached 
 them — which he did on the instant, with such hearty 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 361 
 
 words of greeting as a hunter, after long absence, gives on 
 return to his favorites, — the hounds poured into the silent 
 air of night their rejoicing notes. They jumped, they stood 
 erect, they put their paws upon his shoulders, they kissed 
 Ins face and hands, they bayed their gladsome welcome out 
 so luud and strong that the shores resounded with the cry ; 
 and even the mountains, with a hundred imitative echoes, 
 hailed Henry's return. 
 
 Having received the hounds' happy salutation, Henry 
 turned toward the fire ; and as he came to it on one side, 
 the Old Trapper, having clomb the bank from the beach, 
 approached it on the other. Without a word the two men 
 joined their hands, and for a moment each looked into the 
 face of the other, with that affectionate curiosity with which 
 friends that have been parted gaze at each other when they 
 meet, studying the changes which the intervening years 
 have wrought. Nothing is more touching than such a greet- 
 ing. The gaze means so much and suggests so much. The* 
 eyes have their own language then, and many an interroga- 
 tion is asked and answered by their glance. 
 
 Thus the two men stood gazing at each other in the light 
 of the blazing fire, so intently that neither noticed the ap- 
 proach of the Lad. " Henry," at last said the old man, " I 
 be glad to see ye ag'in in the land of the livin'. Twice afore 
 have we waited yer comin' at the rock, and twice have we 
 camped on this bank a week waitin' ye, and ye didn't come. 
 And when the sun went down to-night and ye didn't come, 
 I eenamost thought I should see ye no more ; and the crack 
 of yer piece lifted a heavy load from my feelin's, and made 
 
362 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 my sperits frisky. Yis, the years have changed ye, boy, for 
 they've sartinly added some lines to yer face, and mixed 
 the gray in yer hair, and gin ye a kind of sober look that 
 shows that they were filled with labor, and that the Lord 
 didn't altogether keep smTerin' out of 'em. But ban-in' 
 this ye are the same, onless ye be fatter by a trifle. But 
 the city, I have heerd, is a famous place to make fat, and a 
 mouth at the oars will sweat ye down to the size that natur' 
 ordered for ye." 
 
 " I can truly say," said Herbert, speaking iu reply, " that 
 I am as glad to be with you again as you are to have me. 
 And you, John Norton, have changed next to nothing since 
 we parted. Your eye is as bright, your grip as strong as 
 ever, and I doubt if your head has added a gray hair to it." 
 
 " I dunno about that, Henry ; no I duuno about that," re- 
 turned the old man, while a look of humor smoothed in 
 part the carved lines of his countenance and sharpened the 
 gleam of his eye, " the grip is all right yit, for sartin, and 
 the sights look open and clean as they orter when I put 
 my eye into 'em, with a buck or a bit of fur that I want, or 
 a duck or a partridge for that matter, at the other end of 
 'em. But the white hairs be comin' for sartin, for a man is 
 like a tree, and the frost teches the top of him fust ; and a 
 mortal that's lived as long as I have on the 'arth has lived 
 through the spring and summer of his days, and has come 
 to that season whose days be short, and whose nights be 
 long, and whose frosts be many and cold. But the Lord is 
 sartinly gracious to me, and it looks as if my days would 
 be lengthened out beyend the ordinary life of my kind. 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 363 
 
 But bless my soul ! here stands the Lad, and we haven't 
 given him a chance to greet ye." 
 
 It was with but little less feeling than that which char- 
 acterized the meeting of Herbert and the Trapper, that the 
 two young men greeted each other. Long and heartily they 
 shook each other's hand, and a goodly sight they presented 
 as they stood in their youth and manly vigor facing each 
 other ; their countenances lighted up with friendship and 
 with smiles. 
 
 "Do ye see, Henry," said the Trapper, "how the Lad 
 has thickened up sence ye seed him ? I can't say that he's 
 actally pussy yit, but he's bigger 'n he was round the waist, 
 and, as I tell him, he's only jest begun to grow. He looks 
 a leetle lank to-night, for he and me come through from 
 the Eacquette sence ten in the mornin', and we haven't 
 eaten a morsel sence breakfast. But arter he?s had supper, 
 if the buck down there in yer boat is a good sized un, so 
 he can feel he can eat enough without robbin' us, if ye'* 
 inspect him ye'll see that his feedin' has been of the right 
 sort sence ye left ; and, if nothing happens, I'll have him 
 in good condition in a year or two more." 
 
 " I don't care," said the Lad, " if you do make fun of my 
 eating, for I know you love to see me eat ; and I think the 
 best thing we can do is to get some tenderloin steak out of 
 that buck in Henry's boat, and get supper soon as we can ; 
 for the storm will be here by and by, and I don't like to eat 
 in the storm." 
 
 " I agree with the Lad," said Herbert. " I ate breakfast 
 at seven, and I have taken nothing but a biscuit and a 
 
364 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 lemon since, and I doubt if I was ever hungrier in my life." 
 "Well, well," said the old Trapper, laughing, "you and 
 the Lad tend to the buck, and I'll get the tish and flapjacks 
 ready, and if there be a tater left in the bag we'll have it 
 biled ; for if there ever was a time, Lad, for you and me 
 to celebrate, it's to-night, for Henry is here ; and if there 
 be a tater, he shall have it, for sartin." 
 
 The quickness with which a meal can be prepared i^ the 
 woods by three men, when provisions are plenty, the lire 
 well a-going, especially if the men are hungry, would be a 
 revelation to most of the cooks at our aristocratic hotels. 
 Not more than thirty minutes, at the most, had passed 
 before the three men were seated round their bark table, 
 which was moved up within the circle of the clear firelight, 
 and discussing the viands with appetites whose sharpness 
 forbade, for several minutes at least, conversation. 
 
 " One thing is sartin," said the Trapper, as he put the 
 second steak on Henry's plate, and followed it with the 
 remaining potatoe, " one thing is sartin, ye have changed 
 somethin' in yer looks, but ye haven't changed a bit in yer 
 appetite. If ye do manage to git round that plateful, and 
 then dip into the cakes, hearty like, and fill in the chinks 
 with some of the fish, ye'll have a feelin' of fullness in ye 
 that'll be comfortin'. It'll be nip and tuck atween you and 
 the Lad arter this, and I'm mighty glad ye can run together, 
 as we say of the dogs, for yer mouths are jest alike, and the 
 way they open and shet as the victuals go in is enough to 
 make an old man wish he was younger ; for the years that 
 add to the head take from the stomach, and the aged, 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 365 
 
 whether it be dog or mortal, eats sparin'; " and the old man 
 moved his rude stool back a foot or two from the table, 
 and gazed at his young companions with a look in which 
 gravity and humor were equally mingled, as if the spectacle 
 of their heartiness, while it stirred the sense of the 
 ludicrous in him, called up at the same time reminiscences 
 of bis own earlier days. 
 
 It is only in the interest of accurate statement to say, 
 that when the young men moved their stools back from 
 the board, steak, fish, and cakes had alike disappeared, 
 even to the last scrap. 
 
 "Well," said the Trapper, "I'm raaly thankful that the 
 plates be left, for the dishes be handy, and I don't think 
 they would have set wuth a cent on yer stomachs if 
 ye'd eaten 'em. Lord, what appetites the young have! 
 The sight of yer eaten' takes me back fifty year, and brings 
 up many a feastin' I had in the years that be gone, both 
 alone and with comrades that slept and eat on the trail 
 with me. The comrades be scattered now, and the greater 
 part of them be gone forever, but natur' is the same to-day 
 as it was then, and tho sight of yer eatin' has called up a 
 hundred faces that I knowed when I was a young man 
 myself. Come, let's clear away the table, and pile on the 
 hard wood, for the thunder is rollin' in the mountains, 
 and the rain will be comin' afore long. I never knowed a 
 hotter day than this, and the 'arth will shake under the 
 lodge afore mornin'." 
 
 In a few moments the dishes were washed, the table 
 removed, and the greenwood logs so placed that, while 
 
366 
 
 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 the lower edges lay in contact with the glowing coals 
 underneath, the upper sides made a protection like a roof 
 for the lire. The three men stretched themselves in easy 
 recumbent postures at the entrance of the lodge, and 
 awaited the coming of the storm. The conversation was 
 of a character naturally suggested to the mind by the grand 
 and indeed sublime surroundings. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE THUNDER STORM. 
 
 "I have called forth the mutinous winds, 
 And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault 
 Set roaring war : to the dread rattling thunder 
 Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak, 
 With his own holt." — Shakespeare. 
 
 rpHE forces of the storm were now so far developed as to 
 have fairly come into action. The earth and sky were 
 alike electric, — the air and ground thoroughly charged with 
 the subtle fluids. The atmosphere was ready to ignite at 
 every point, and the explosions followed each other in vol- 
 leys. The lightning was incessant ; it ran in fiery rivers down 
 the declivities of the firmament, emptying itself in the far 
 distance. It cut its fiery zigzags hither and yon, so lurid 
 and fiercely hot that the eyes ached as they beheld. It 
 shot its bolts horizontally through the air, which exploded 
 ever and anon like powerful rockets; the very water burnt 
 with a blue light, as if the electric fluid floated like oil upon 
 its surface. There were flashes of darkness, but the illumi- 
 nation was almost instant, as if the body of the air itself 
 were combustible, and incendiary imps were flinging blazing 
 brands through it. 
 As the old Trapper had predicted, the earth was tremu- 
 
368 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 lous. Its solidity was assaulted with such violence that its 
 subterranean pillars trembled through all their mighty 
 shafts, and shook on their broad basis. The crust of tha 
 globe was jarred in its every particle. Whatever substance, 
 earth, rock, or log, the spectator occupied, he felt the grains 
 and fibers jump as the concussions ripped above him. The 
 cloud, or clouds, for the whole firmament was now pos- 
 sessed, brought out by the lightning's blaze to plainest 
 vision, were awful to look upon. The heaven was in tumult; 
 embodied violences tore through it ; huge convoluted masses 
 of rolling darkness hung overhead ; cumuli were rolled upon 
 cumuli ; white scuds sped, like vapory ghosts in terror, in 
 all directions; the winds chased them at random; the 
 atmosphere was in anarchy; ungovernable forces rioted 
 overhead; the world trembled as with fright, and one 
 might almost imagine that the stars would be shaken from 
 their orbits, and consummate the universal disorder with 
 universal ruin. The mountains bellowed; the ravines 
 belched noises ; reverberations from either side of the lake 
 met in mid career and swallowed each other up ; the minor 
 echoes were struck dumb in their leafy doorways, and now 
 and tben, for a single instant, an awful silence reigned, 
 which, in an instant more, burst at its very center with 
 tremendous explosions. The face of the Lad showed white 
 in the glare of the lightning. Herbert watched the exhibi- 
 tion with an eye educated by science to note cause and 
 effect. The dogs cowered, trembling, in their kennel. 
 They shook with the ague of fright. The countenance of 
 the Trapper was grave, with the gravity of a man devoid 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 369 
 
 of fear, but profoundly impressed with the majesty of the 
 scene. 
 
 Up to this point the storm had been a " dry storm." Not 
 a drop of rain had fallen, nor had the atmospheric convul- 
 sions reached the earth. The winds were " running high," 
 as the Old Trapper said ; they were at war with the clouds, 
 and amid the clouds they rioted. But signs were not lack- 
 ing which revealed to a woodsman's eye that the commo- 
 tion was descending, and that ere long the earth would be 
 the scene of the same confusion which thus far had pre- 
 vailed only overhead. 
 
 " I've lived," said the Old Trapper, u more'n threescore 
 year in the woods, and amid the scenes of Natur', and I 
 have seed aud heerd most of the sights and sounds that 
 lam mortals their weakness, but I've never seed lightnin' 
 that fixed itself on the eyeballs hotter than this does to- 
 night, nor heerd thunder jar the 'arth under me more ar- 
 nest-like than these claps do. I should think, Henry, that 
 the very underpiuin' was givin' out under me, and that the 
 Lord was eenamost shakin' his own buildin' to pieces by 
 the way that the ground quivers as the peals roll over- 
 head." 
 
 " I never heard such thunder myself," said Henry, " but 
 once before, and that was eight years ago on the Eacquette, 
 and I am sure I never saw lightning so fierce and hot, even 
 ;hen." 
 
 " I doubt if ye ever did, boy," returned the Trapper, " for 
 the air seems to burn as if it was tinder. Lord 1 what a 
 flash that was. It made my eyes fairly shrivel; and there's 
 
370 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 sartiuly one pine less on yon hill, for I saw the bolt strike 
 it; and when lightnin' hits a pine it's apt to make kindlin' 
 wood out of it from top to bottom. I've sometimes thought 
 that even the Lord got careless and wasteful-like at times, 
 when I've seed the pines and the spruces that he had ripped 
 open without cause. I never sunk an axe myself into the 
 stump of a tree yit that didn't show signs of dyin', or else 
 was too crooked to have any right to live ; and I've won- 
 dered that the Lord didn't exercise more jedgment in his 
 choppin', for I never seed a dead tree or a crooked un that 
 his lightnin' struck yit, and it sartinly don't seem jedicious 
 to rip open the best trees for sport, when the bad uns do 
 jest as well. But I s'pose he has reason on his side if we 
 mortals could see it, or else he gits playful-like now and 
 then, and thiugs happen that wouldn't happen if he was in 
 sober 'arnest." 
 
 " You don't think that the Lord is really playful, do you, 
 John Norton ? " said the Lad, moving his seat up nearer to 
 the old man, as if he thought a greater degree of safety 
 could be found in close personal contact, than in the edge 
 of the firelight where he had been sitting. 
 
 " I sartinly do, Lad ; yis, I sartinly think there must be a 
 good deal of playfulness in the Maker, for I don't see how 
 he could git the idee of makin' his creeturs so playful and 
 frisky like if there wasn't plenty of fun in him somewhere. 
 Now when I have laid in the grass and watched the beavers 
 and seen the cunnin' of the creeturs, and when I've stretched 
 myself over a ledge and seed the little wolf whelps caper 
 and cut up their antics at the mouth of the den, laughin' 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 371 
 
 till my eyes watered at the tricks of the leetle woolly 
 scamps, aud recollected that the Lord made 'em and put 
 everything in them that is in 'em except their bite — yis, ex- 
 cept their bite — I've sartinly felt that there must be a good 
 deal of playfulness in himself or he never would have 
 thought of makin' sech playful creeturs." 
 
 " What do you think about the panthers ! " said Herbert. 
 
 u Henry," said the old man, as he rose to a sitting pos- 
 ture with deliberate earnestness, " I've thought a good deal 
 about them panthers, and wondered how they come to be 
 made anyway, for they sartinly be the most cowardly, 
 sneakin', savage animils that runs in the woods.. And I 
 never seed a good thing in one of 'em, and I don't believe 
 that the Lord ever made a single one of the pesky things." 
 
 " Why how do you think they were made, then ?" retorted 
 Herbert. 
 
 " Made !" said tthe (bid man, '"I think the devil made 'em ! 
 Yis, they be the devil's own children, them panthers, for. 
 they be jest like him. They won't look ye in the eye and 
 they won't fight ye if ye have a weepon ; and they are al- 
 ways watchin' to take ye onawares ; and there's no marcy 
 in 'em, and they kill for the love of killin'. I was trailin' 
 last year near the head waters of Cold Eiver, yender, and I 
 heerd a great bleatiu', and I scooted up on my snow-shoes 
 toward the sound, till I run acrost a yard with a dozen deer 
 in it, and I found what I thought I should find : an old pan- 
 ther at work there, and he had killed five of the innercent 
 creeturs, and his teeth was in the throat of another — a 
 two year old buck, — and I drawed on him, and I larnt him 
 
372 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 a lesson of marcy quick as powder could burn. Yis, I 
 pulled both triggers at once, and the bullets took him 
 square over the eyes, and they lifted the scalp of the var- 
 mint ; and I never felt better than when I tore the skin off 
 from his carcass and flung it out on the snow for the ravens 
 to pick. No, no, Henry, the Lord never made a panther, 
 I'm sartin on that." 
 
 " What is that 1 " said the Lad, suddenly. 
 
 " Ye'll know what it is afore long, Lad," said the old man, 
 after a moment's listening. " It be the might of the storm 
 on the other side of the mountain. It's nigh on to twenty 
 mile away, but ye can hear it comin' as if the Lord's own 
 feet was tramplin' down the trees. Yis, the winds have 
 settled to the 'arth and the trees are bein' tested as mortals 
 be tested in the jedgment. The rotten hearted uns and 
 them whose roots be weak, must go down when the breath 
 of His power and His wrath blow ag'iu 'em. Hark ! and ye'll 
 hear how small is the strength of the 'arth when the wrath 
 of its Maker be stirred." 
 
 The three men became silent. Their senses turned to- 
 ward and concentrated on the approaching storm. Dull, 
 heavy, monotonous, the dreadful sound came on. The far- 
 off, portentious murmur grew and swelled, until it became 
 a roar. It moved up the western slope of the mountain 
 range until it reached the crest, and without pausing for a 
 moment, came tearing downward with accelerated speed. 
 The lightnings lit its path as if to make more dreadful its 
 approach by the revelation of its power. The eyes of the 
 three men were lifted toward the western ridge. The air, 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 373 
 
 for miles along the front of its advance, was thick with the 
 evidences of its violence. Leaves, moss, tufts of branches, 
 and even great boughs, wrenched from swaying tree-tops 
 and hurled upward, were flying overhead. Soon individual 
 noises broke the monotony of the terrible uproar. The 
 crack "of mighty trunks snapped shortly off, fifty feet from 
 their roots; the crash of rending wood as the fierce suction 
 wrenched giant branches from their fastenings ; the rush of 
 descending tree-tops as they swept through the air in act of 
 tailing ; the heavy thud as they struck the earth with re- 
 verberating thump ; the shriek and fierce whistling of winds 
 tearing onward in mad career — thus came the storm. It 
 was as if the king of tumult himself had harnessed his 
 steeds and mounted his chariot, whose wheels in revolution 
 drowned even the thunder's peal. 
 
 As the storm came on and the evidences of its terrific 
 violence accumulated, the Lad, perhaps unconsciously, had 
 crept nearer and nearer to the Trapper, until his frightened 
 countenance was within a foot of the old man's calm, up- 
 lifted face, and his hands were actually clutching his gar- 
 ments. Henry, iu his excitement, had risen, and unable to 
 restrain himself longer, exclaimed : — 
 
 " John Norton, I never saw anything like that ! " 
 The old man never moved a muscle ; his eyes never wan- 
 dered from the line of the storm's approach. His expres- 
 sion was one in which curiosity, awe and calculation were 
 equally mingled. The terrific violence was within a half 
 mile of the spot where he sat, and the air above his head 
 was already thickeniug with the fragments which the upper 
 
374 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 winds were bearing forward in the advance, when he rose 
 suddenly to his feet. He seized the Lad by the arm, and 
 swinging round he laid the other hand on Herbert's shoul- 
 der and shouted — for the uproar had now fairly reached 
 them, and ordinary utterance could not be heard : — 
 
 " The strength of the storm be beyend mortal measure- 
 ment, and this spot is not safe. We must take to the bank 
 and burrow into the sand under the ledge. Cut the dogs 
 loose, Henry, that the pups may find safety. Git yer fiddle, 
 Lad, while I git the guns and the powder. The lodge may 
 stand, for I built it myself, and the withes round the timbers 
 be strong, but if the wind gits under it, it won't tech the 
 'arth this side the head waters of the Hudson. Be lively, 
 boys, for the Lord is in 'arnest, and it behooves mortals to 
 be active." 
 
 In an instant, as it were, his command had been obeyed, 
 and the three men, with the dogs, the gun, the violin, and 
 the boats — which Henry had seized, one with either hand, 
 and dragged with him, as he struck the beach at the foot of 
 the bank — were collected under the ledge. 
 
 It was well that they had bestirred themselves, for they 
 were barely at the spot which the Trapper had designated 
 as the point of safety, when the line of the storm swept 
 over them. The ledge was of such a nature that it inclined 
 outward from the base at an angle sufficient to protect 
 them both from the plunging rain, which suddenly de- 
 scended in torrents, and from the falling fragments which 
 were hurtling through the air. The huge bank out of which 
 it jutted, gave abundant protection from the tornado itself! 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 375 
 
 And thus kneeling on the sand with the ledge projecting 
 above them, and the huge bank rising behind they were 
 able to observe the movement of the tempest from a point 
 of observation perfectly secure. The violence of the wind 
 was astonishing. It tore its way through the beach grove 
 that nestled in the swale at the foot of the mountain with 
 such fierceness as to virtually destroy it. In the morning 
 half the trees were found prostrate, and the branches of 
 those that remained were sadly wrenched and disfigured. 
 It struck the water with the force of an actual concussion. 
 It cut grooves through it, scooped depressions along its 
 surface, and blew the edges away in flying froth. Whirl- 
 winds darted downward and spun themselves along the 
 water with a revolution so swift that the suction fairly lifted 
 it in spirals. The sands on the beach jumped upward and 
 were sent hissing through the air; the marsh-grass and 
 reeds along the shore flattened and lay prone. The wind 
 was too fierce for waves — the crests of the growing undu- 
 lations were sheered off as if the wind had an edge keen as 
 a knife; the under halves were pressed downward and the 
 upper portions blown upward through the air in mist. For 
 ten minutes, perhaps, the tempest kept the full proportions 
 of its fury, and then the winds sank perceptibly, although 
 they still blew with the velocity of a gale. The lake began 
 to roll in great waves, their crests white as if edged with 
 dry snow ; and the hollow intervals, deep and dark, were 
 streaked with frothy lines. The billows swelled, curved, 
 and roared. They splashed and hissed as they seethed 
 along. They rolled tumultuously one after the other, as if 
 
376 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 in mad pursuit and madder flight, pursuer and pursued. At 
 times the rain fell in torrents. It burst out of the clouds 
 as if the reservoirs of the upper air had broken their bounds 
 and poured their deluge bodily downward. At other times 
 it ceased and for minutes not a drop would fall. The storm 
 was passing eastward. The thunder, though incessant, was 
 less concussive ; and the lightning, though vivid and fierce, 
 flashed on the lake from a farther distance. The uproar 
 had now so far subsided that with a little extra effort con- 
 versation could be carried on. 
 
 " It is a dreadful blow for sartin," said the old man, " and 
 mighty leetle choppin' will me and the Lad have to do for 
 the lodge fire this winter, for I heerd the wind comin' 
 through the beech grove in the swale as I dove down the 
 bank, and I know by the sound that it did a good deal of 
 cuttin'. I sartinly hope the lodge has stood, for it's been 
 my home off and on for twelve year. And a man gits used 
 to a shanty as he does to his garments, and it takes some 
 time afore he can git used to the change. I hope no man is 
 on the lake to-night, for there's nothing but a canoe that 
 could live in that sea, and there aint many paddles in the 
 woods that could manage one jediciously in sech wild water. 
 A man must be a fool or crazy to ventur' out " — 
 
 " What's that ! " screamed the Lad. 
 
 The voice of his exclamation was so sharp and piercing, 
 and so suddenly ejaculated, that Herbert and the Trapper 
 fairly started. 
 
 " Where is it, Lad ? where is it ? " exclaimed the Trapper, 
 as he peered into the darkness. " Wait for a flash and pint 
 it out when it comes." 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 377 
 
 For a moment the three men stood waiting, while through 
 the darkness the white crests of the billows alone* showed 
 themselves, and out of the gloom the thunder of their roar 
 harshly ascended, and then the flash came. 
 
 It needed not the finger -of the Lad to point out the ob- 
 ject, the sight of which had opened his mouth with the 
 startling cry, for there in full view, a mile from the shore, 
 in the midst of the rolling waves, and lifted on the very 
 crest of a billow was a boat, and in it, vividly outlined, was 
 seen standing the form of a man with his arms outstretched 
 and his hands and face lifted to the heavens. 
 
 " Crazy John ! " 
 
 The words were heaved from the very depths of the 
 Trapper's chest, and as he spoke them the flash died away, 
 and the vision disappeared in the darkness, and again 
 through the gloom only the white flash of the waves could 
 be seen, while out of the darkness sounded heavy and 
 solemn the roar of their dirge-like roll. 
 
 " I will save him ! " said the Lad, and he laid hold of the 
 bow of his boat to drag it into the water. 
 
 " Stop where ye be ! " exclaimed the Trapper, as he seized 
 the other side of the boat and held it with so strong a grip 
 that the Lad could not move it an inch. " Stop where ye 
 be, Lad, and leave this job to the plannin' of an older head 
 than yourn. The man must be saved for sartin, if it be with- 
 in mortal power ; for though the fit be on him and he has 
 leetle sense, it musn't be said by a man on the 'arth, or 
 by the Lord in the heaven, when we come to His presence, 
 that three men stood on this beach and seed one of his 
 
378 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 creeturs in peril, even if he sought it in his foolishness, and 
 made no effort to save him. Yis, he must sartinly be saved 
 if it be within mortal power ; but a boat can't live in that 
 sea, and the canoe and the paddle must do it. Henry, I've 
 seed ye fetch a canoe through water wild enough to be fear- 
 ful to most men, and ye have follered me down rapids that 
 even a Huron would falter to shoot ; and ye must take the 
 starn and I will take the bow, and the Lad shall stay on the 
 beach here while you and me make the venturV' 
 
 "But I want to go, too, John Norton. What can I do if 
 I stay here on the beach?" 
 
 "Lad," said the Trapper, as he seized his paddle, and 
 lifted the bow, of the canoe, while Henry lifted the stern, 
 " there be times when one mortal must act while another 
 must wait ; and I know that the waitin' be harder than the 
 doin' ; and I know ye have the harder work, but ye must 
 do it. But ye needn't stand idle, for ye can gather some 
 sticks and start a fire under the ledge here, and make the 
 flame go high, for it will give Henry and me the bearin's, 
 and mayhaps it will help us greatly." 
 
 " I will, I will," said the Lad. " I will make the blaze go 
 high, John Norton, and I will ask God to help you save 
 the poor man, and bring you and Henry safe back to the 
 shore." 
 
 "That's right, Lad, that's right," said the Trapper. I 
 remember yer prayin' on Tomahawk Pint, and I raaly think 
 it was an actaal help, and it may be the Lord will hear ye 
 agin. But be sure and don't forgit to put in some 'arnest 
 words for crazy John, for me and Henry can take care of 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 379 
 
 ourselves. But if the fool keeps standin' up in Lis boat as 
 he was when the flash showed him, he'll need some help to 
 steady him, or he'll lose his balance for sartin." And, even 
 as he spoke, the Trapper waded out into the lake till the 
 propei depth had been reached, and then, with practised 
 .agility, ne leapt upward and lighted on his knees in the bow 
 of the canoe, giving, at the instant he landed, a powerful 
 sweep with his paddle, which, assisted as it was by the push 
 and spring of Herbert, as he jumped to his place in the stern, 
 sent the light vessel far out amid the agitated water. And 
 so the boat disappeared in the gloom. 
 
 It was, indeed, a perilous venture. Even the old Trapper 
 had not realized the height and velocity of the billows until 
 the canoe had fairly entered into them. The water foamed 
 and hissed around the vessel ; it heaved it up as with the 
 power of mighty hands, and then let it down with a splash 
 into the hollow troughs, with a suddenness that made the 
 frail thing quiver through all its slender frame. It flung its 
 spray into the eyes of those struggling at either end until 
 they were almost blinded. It strove to wrench it from its 
 course, and turn it round and roll it over, but the skill and 
 strength of those who knelt at either end still held it to its 
 course, and forced it up against the pressure of the gale 
 and the sweeping force of the waves, at an astonishing 
 speed. Half the distance had been traversed before a flash 
 of lightniug came, and when it came again the boat and the 
 man standing in it flashed into sight. 
 
 " The Lad must be prayin' in'arnest," the Trapper shouted 
 back to Herbert, " and the Lord must be sartinly helpin' 
 
380 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 Crazy John, or he never could keep his footin' in a rollin ; 
 boat, jumping and pitchin' as his is doin'. Heave her staarn 
 up, boy ! quick ! heave her up. There's a big un coinin', 
 and she'd never lift to it if we struck it head on. Heave 
 her up and take her a little sidliu', or the Lad will saitiuly 
 bave three to pray for instead of one." 
 
 Herbert could just make out the words of the Trapper 
 as they were borne to him on the rush of the wind, and he 
 obeyed to the letter. He put every ounce of strength in 
 his frame into his stroke, and the little vessel responded to 
 its pressure. It met the wave a little quartering, and bal- 
 anced at precisely the proper angle as it was by the Trap- 
 per, it clomb up the side of the huge billow laboriously 
 but safely, and shot down into the farther recess with a ve- 
 locity as if it were conscious of the danger from which it was 
 flying. 
 
 " Ye did that well, boy, ye did that well. It was as big a 
 wave as I ever seed a canoe lifted over, and ye did it hand- 
 some. We must be eenamost to the boat and another 
 flash will show us if Crazy John be in the boat or — " 
 
 He was interrupted by a vivid and prolonged blaze. The 
 whole heaven kindled, and the lake stood forth to view as 
 clear as at noonday. The boat in which Crazy John had 
 been so recklessly standing, was not thirty feet away, and 
 was being blown forward by the winds at the speed of an 
 arrow. But no man was in it ; and the quick eye of the 
 Trapper, with lightning glance, was searching the hollow of 
 the waves and running along their crests, seeking the head 
 of a man. He saw it ! For out of the lake, as if rising 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 381 
 
 from a depth, sbot the head and shoulders of crazy John. 
 His face was still upturned and his hands still lifted high. 
 
 11 Sheer to the left ! " yelled the Trapper. " Sharp to the 
 left, and sweep her round ! " 
 
 It was done. The canoe swooped to the left, glancing 
 upward on the swell of the wave and shot into the oppo- 
 site trough with a leap. As it fell, the blaze of the light- 
 ning died out, but tbe eye of the Trapper had measured 
 the distance, and as tbe canoe dropped into the hollow of 
 the sea he bowed himself till his broad breast rested on the 
 prow, and stooping far over, drove his hand into the water. 
 
 The deed was done ! Tbe man was saved ! 
 
 The fingers of the Trapper closed on the long hair of 
 Crazy John, and in an instant his other hand had fastened 
 its grasp on the collar of his coat. 
 
 " Tip her over to the left, boy ! " called the Trapper, " tip 
 her over to the left. He isn't as big as a buck, but it'll take 
 a good deal of purchase to hist him over. Down with her, 
 boy ! for here goes ! " 
 
 The feat was accomplished handsomely. The Old Trap- 
 per, with the exercise of gigantic strength and the dexter- 
 ity of a practiced canoeman, lifted the poor man out of the 
 water and landed him full length at his feet ; and in such a 
 way, too, as to scarcely disturb the proper balance of the 
 light shell, which was now heavily loaded, considering the 
 violence of the water it had to traverse on its way to the 
 shore. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CEAZY JOHN. 
 
 " Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, 
 Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh." 
 
 — Shakespeare. 
 
 "TTTHETHEE the shock with which he struck the bottom of 
 the canoe had stunned him, or whether he had fainted 
 from exhaustion incident to his struggles in the water, our 
 friends could not tell ; but they rejoiced in the fact that the 
 man whom they had saved continued to lie stretched in th* 
 bottom of the canoe perfectly motionless. For, had he in- 
 dulged in any " antics," as the Old Trapper expressed it, it 
 would have made their position one of extreme peril, and 
 as it was, it required all their strength and skill to bring 
 their boat to shore. 
 
 In the direction they were now going the wind was dead 
 astern, and it was necessary to keep the canoe in rapid 
 motion, racing along on the top of a wave even with its 
 own velocity lest it should drop into the trough, and, heavily 
 loaded as it was, be overwhelmed by the succeeding billows 
 before it could lift. The two men, therefore, worked for 
 their lives. The forethought of the Old Trapper in his 
 directions -to the Lad was now fully vindicated. The flame 
 at the foot of the ledge was burning strong and clear 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 383 
 
 and through the spray and the driving mists blown there- 
 from the Trapper could see the Lad now feeding the fire, 
 and anon kneeling on the sands. The poor boy, acting in 
 harmony with, and under the impulse of, his simple but 
 sublime faith and yet obedient to the directions of the 
 Trapper, was thus giving, unconsciously, a practical illus- 
 tration of the true Christian conception of the relation 
 which works and faith mutually hold to each other. And 
 well would it be for many of us, who deem ourselves 
 learned and wise, if we could thus unite in our conduct the 
 two great co-ordinate doctrines of the Christian "scheme. 
 
 " The Lad has the right idee of it," said the Trapper, so- 
 liloquizing, " yis, the Lad may not be overknowin', but he 
 has the right idee of it. The fire alone don't seem quite 
 enough, and the prayin' alone wouldn't help me and Henry 
 a bit, but ye jine the two and make the wood support the 
 prayin' and the prayin' sort o' help out the wood, and it 
 sartinly comes nigh the Lord's idee of it, as I conceit." 
 
 In a moment the canoe had drawn nigh the shore, and 
 the Lad, running out into the water, assisted eagerly to lift 
 it to the beach. 
 
 " We've saved him, Lad ! " said the old man. 
 
 " I knew you would save him, John Norton, for I asked 
 God to save him ; and he has said, ' Ask-and-ye-shall-re- 
 ceive,' and I asked him to give us Crazy John in safety, and 
 I never asked God to do anything yet, that he didn't do." 
 
 " I guess ye be more reasonable in yer askin', then, than 
 some of the missioners be in their prayin', Lad ; for the last 
 time I heerd one in the settlements he spent more'n twenty 
 
384 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 minutes in prayin', and he asked more than a hundred things 
 of the Lord, and half of 'em at least, to my sartin knowl- 
 edge, wasn't any way reasonable, for he didn't confine him- 
 self to the pints of the case. And there's nothin' like stick- 
 in' to the main pints of the case when ye are talkin' to the 
 Lord, as I conceit." 
 
 \i 7 hile he had been saying this he had lifted Crazy John 
 in his arms and borne him to the fire, and at once pro- 
 ceeded with his efforts to restore him to consciousness. In 
 this he was soon successful, and in a short time the unfor- 
 tunate being who had been so nigh death, was sitting with 
 his back propped against the ledge gazing, with eyes in 
 whose look consciousness was revealed, it is true, but whose 
 consciousness was that of one whose reason had been over- 
 turned, and whose faculties were exposed to the deceptions 
 which insanity practices on its wretched victims. 
 
 A strange and remarkable looking being he was, as he 
 sat with his back against the ledge in the bright glow of 
 the firelight. His countenance was cast in a noble mould, 
 and his features were almost faultless, in the clean outline 
 of their nearly classic beauty. Age of course had cut its 
 history in wrinkles and withered the fulluess of his appear- 
 ance, but his forehead was broad aud high, the front ample 
 in its curvature, providing residence for a brain of unusual 
 size, his nose was straight and thin, with round, curved 
 nostrils. His mouth generous but not excessive, while a 
 beard of snowy whiteness covered all the lower part of his 
 face and lay in waving folds upon his breast. His hair was 
 long ; the growth of years ; — none knew how many, — and 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 385 
 
 whiter if possible than his beard. His eyebrows were as 
 white as snow, abundant, and straight in their lines. The 
 brow itself beetled outward. The sockets of the eye were 
 large, and the orbs themselves which glowed within 
 the recess, were deep, black and lustrous. The first im- 
 pression that these strange eyes made upon one was of their 
 mildness ; a mildness born of suffering, perhaps, as if the-sad- 
 ness of years and loss had softened, if it had not utterly 
 extinguished the gleam of their original fire. But a close 
 observer could not fail to note that within and behind their 
 clear, steady gaze was a wavering light that came and 
 flitted, and came again, as if nature would thus express 
 the unsteadiness and insecurity of the disturbed reason, 
 which formerly held fixed possession of her throne. 
 
 "Well, Crazy John," said the Trapper, "how do you 
 feel 1 " 
 
 " I am not crazy," he returned, " you are crazy, and 
 everybody else is crazy. I am the only man that isn't crazy 
 in the world." 
 
 " I shouldn't wonder if ye was about half right in yer 
 idees on that pint," returned the Trapper, " for I sartinly 
 think most men be a leetle cracked -, and it may be I have 
 a kink or two in me somewhere, and if everybody was just 
 like you, I conceit there wouldn't be a crazy man in the 
 world. But what was ye out on the water to-night for ? 
 And why didn't ye stay in yer shanty or find a safe spot as 
 we did when the storm came down ? It was a bit of sheer 
 foolishness, Crazy John, for a mortal man to resk his life as 
 ye did on the lake to-night." 
 
386 ADIKONDACK TALES. 
 
 " She called me," returned the other, while his eyes dark- 
 ened their glow, " she told me to come, and I went, and I 
 found her, too. Found her in the air and the wave and the 
 wind." 
 
 " Found who ? " said the Lad, " whom did you find in the 
 air and the wind and the wave, Crazy John ? " 
 
 " Wliom did I find ! " exclaimed the other, " I found the 
 woman I loved, and the spirit I worship ; the spirit of white- 
 ness and sweetness and beautiful grace that I loved long 
 ago — long ago — long ago. The spirit that's mine, and will 
 be mine when the waves cease to roll and winds cease to 
 blow, and the air is unbreathed by the nostrils of men." 
 
 And as he said this the paleness of his face flushed and 
 his eyes glowed like coals, as if they were indeed but the 
 windows of his soul, and his soul was aglow with the fervor 
 of a deathless hope and ardent desire. 
 
 " Why did she call you out into the lake," said the Lad, 
 " when the waves were so high and the winds so strong ? 
 I don't think she ought to do that." 
 
 " Young man ! " exclaimed the other, " what cares a spirit 
 for wind ,and waves, the movements of air and of water ? 
 Spirits have power in the air, and the sea and the winds do 
 their bidding. I have seen her in the sun when he rose 
 over the mountain, and in the moon when she deepened the 
 blue of the sky with her beams j and the winds have borne 
 me her songs from away, — far away, — far away, and the 
 waves turn to white at the touch of her feet when she walks 
 on their crests. My spirit is queen of the sea, and the waves 
 are her slaves. Old Trapper!" he shouted, as he rose to his 
 
* 
 THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 387 
 
 feet, took a step forward, and stretched out his hand with 
 a gesture as grand as Paul must have used iu his ap- 
 peal to Agrippa, while his face flamed with excitement and 
 his form trembled, " Old Trapper, you have lived till your 
 head is whitening and wisdom abides on your lips, — believ- 
 est thou there are spirits ? " 
 
 " Sartinly, sartinly I do," returned the Old Trapper, " even 
 the Hurons believe that, and it would be a shame for a 
 white man to believe less than an Injun, 'specially a mis- 
 erable dog of a Huron. Yis, I sartinly believe there be 
 sperits." 
 
 " Have you ever seen them, John Norton ? " exclaimed 
 the other. 
 
 " I can't say for sartin I ever did, Crazy John. I can't 
 say for sartin I ever did actally see a sperit, but I'll confess 
 that more'n once, when standin' by the grave of a comrade, 
 or on the mound of the trenches where we buried the dead 
 arter a scrimmage, I have felt that the sperits of the dead 
 was around me." 
 
 " They were there ! they were there ! " exclaimed the 
 other, in a voice lifted almost to a scream. " They were 
 there, but you were blinded. You have eyes and see not, 
 ears and hear not. But my eyes see, and my ears hear, for 
 I am not of the earth. I died when she died, but I am con- 
 demned to stay on the earth for my sins ! — for my sins ! — 
 for my sins ' — condemned to stay till my sins be washed 
 away, and I am made white, then I shall go — then I shall 
 go — then — " 
 
 A clap- of thunder, heavy and prolonged, here suddenly 
 
388 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 broke in on his speech. The beach trembled under their 
 feet as the peal rolled in awful detonations through the sky. 
 The look of wild excitement faded out of the countenance 
 of the singular being. He bowed his head as with solemn 
 reverence, and when the last heavy reverberation died away, 
 he lifted his face, every line of which was settled in awe, 
 toward the cloud, and said : — 
 
 "Thunder aivay, Almighty God! I love to hear thy voice 
 shake the world. Thy power is above all powers, and the 
 spirits themselves veil their faces in front of the glory of 
 thy throne ! Almighty God, I love the roll of thy thunder, 
 for she has told me of thy love and thy power." 
 
 The solemn earnestness with which he pronounced these 
 words; the suggestiveness of his gesture as he stood with out- 
 stretched hands ; and face lifted toward the clouds ; the roar 
 of waves, rising from amid the gloom ; the grand and awful 
 surroundings made by the night and the storm, — combined 
 to produce an impression on the three men, two of whom 
 were looking at him with wonder, and the third with curi- 
 ous interest, that would have been difficult for they them- 
 selves to explain. 
 
 " Come, come, Crazy John," said the Trapper, at leng'h, 
 " Ye are sartinly a good deal stirred up, to-night, and ye'd 
 better sort o' settle down. Ye won't be any wiser for look- 
 in' at that cloud so 'arnestly, for there's nothin' in it for a 
 mortal to see." 
 
 il See ! " he exclaimed, as he wheeled suddenly around, 
 till he stood face to face with the Trapper, " my eyes have 
 the vision of sight that sees the end from the beginning, 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 389 
 
 I see back and ahead, below and above, and far off. I am 
 a prophet of God. I am the angel whose head is as* wool 
 and whose eyes are a flame ; and nothing that has been, and 
 nothing that is, and nothing that shall be, is hidden from 
 me. For I look, and I see, and I know what the years will 
 brmg — will bring — will bring." 
 
 " It may be as ye say, Crazy John," said the Trapper, 
 u but I sartinly doubt if ye know what ye are talkin' about, 
 for ye be but a man, and I've heerd that the ways of the 
 Lord be past nndin" out. But if ye can see ahead, and 
 know, as ye say, what is to come, ye may be able to tell us 
 what is to happen to us 'twixt this and the time when we 
 come to the edge of the great clearin'." 
 
 " John Norton," said the other, " as he turned his blazing 
 orbs upon him with a steadiness and intensity of gaze from 
 which a man of less nerve and coolness would have shrunk, 
 u John Norton, you have lived in the woods and you will 
 die in the woods. I see a grave under the pines, and but 
 one man at the grave, and a dog." 
 
 " I'm glad it's under the pines, Crazy John. Yis, I'm glad 
 it's under the pines, if the grave be for me. Ye may be 
 right as to the dog, for dogs be short lived, and " Rover " is 
 aged, and it's reasonable to think that I'll outlive him ;• but 
 " Sport " be a little more than a pup yit, and it's nateral to 
 think that he'll outlive me, for the days of a mortal be 
 fixed, and I conceit that I've come nigh the eend of my days 
 on the 'arth. But ye are sartinly wrong if ye see but one 
 man," for Henry and the Lad be both young, and I know that 
 both the boys will be at the grave when they make it for 
 me under the pines." 
 
390 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 " The youth you call Henry is the one that stands here," 
 responded the other, as he turned his glowing eyes towards 
 Herbert, " and he it is I see by the grave ; but the Lad is 
 not there, for he has a grave of his own that I see, and his 
 mound will be flat when your mound is fashioned, John 
 Norton." 
 
 " Where is my grave, Crazy John ? " said the Lad, " where 
 is my grave ? " 
 
 " Your grave is by the sea, young man. By the deep, 
 deep sea ; the shining, the rolling, the far-reaching sea. It 
 is a grave among many. It's a grave with a grave : the 
 grave of one gone on before. Young man, I see your grave 
 amid many, and 'tis made with a grave, by the long-reach- 
 ing, far-rolling, deep-sounding sea." 
 
 " Where is my grave, Crazy John ? " asked Herbert, who, 
 leaning on his paddle, had been curiously watching the sin- 
 gular being, " where is my grave ? and who is there by it ? 
 and where is it to be made ? " 
 
 " Your grave is not a grave," was the answer. And in- 
 stead of looking at Herbert he turned himself toward the 
 lake ; and, with his back to the young man, and lifted head 
 gazing steadfastly out into the gloom, he continued j " your 
 grave is not a grave. It is not under pines. It is not amid 
 graves. It is not in the earth. Men will not find it ; women 
 will not weep o'er it. It rises and sinks. It moves and it 
 rolls. It's a grave without stone, without name, without 
 spot — "and the strange being started along the beach, 
 walking ankle-deep in the froth and the water, muttering 
 to himself, u It rises and sinks. It moves and it rolls. A 
 grave without name, without stone, without spot." 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 391 
 
 " Will he come back ? " asked Herbert, speaking to the 
 Trapper. 
 
 " Sartinly, sartinly," returned the - old man, " the fit will 
 leave him pritty soon. I've knowed Crazy John for forty 
 year off and on, and usually he's quiet enough ; but a storm 
 seems to rouse him, and thunder makes him wild ; but the 
 storm is dyin' out, and in half an hour he'll be as calm as 
 the lake. It's no use to foller him, for when the fit is on 
 him ye can't manage him, but when he's cooled down a 
 leetle he'll come back as quiet as a child and be nateral- 
 like." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 A. PROPHECY. 
 " The voice sounds like a prophet's word." — Halleck. 
 
 Portia. " Why, know'st thou any harm's intended ? 
 Soothsayer. None that I know will be, much that I fear may chance." 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 A S the Trapper had predicted, the storm was passing 
 away. The body of it had already got beyond the 
 eastern mountains, and the thunder had sunk away into 
 murmurs. The lightning blazed dimly, and cast only tran- 
 sient illuminations through the farther darkness. Where 
 the clouds had been was now but a thin vapory film, and 
 even this grew thinner and thinner until the great stars 
 broke through it with their luminance, and glowed with 
 ample splendor in a sky which the tempest had washed. 
 The waves sank with the winds. They died together like 
 cause and effect, and in a brief time the lake, which, but so 
 recently had been tossing with violent agitations, stretched 
 from the beach at their feet to its southern extremity with 
 a surface so level that scarcely a ripple stirred its smooth 
 expanse with its motion. In it the sky found a mirror, and 
 the stars overhead multiplied themselves in its depths. 
 
 " It's sartiuly a marvel," said the Trapper, speaking to 
 his two companions, "how quick Natur' can change her 
 look. Her moods be like the moods of a man. Come, Lad," 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 393 
 
 he continued, as he threw some fresh branches into the fire, 
 " the morn will soon be here, and the sands under the ledge 
 be dry ; come, onkiver yer fiddle and play us a tune. I 
 conceit that Crazy John will jine us when he hears ye play- 
 in', for I've heerd him play himself, and the music will calm 
 him." 
 
 So saying, the old man seated himself under the projec- 
 tion of the ledge by the side of Herbert, who had already 
 stretched himself in a reclining attitude. 
 
 The Lad took the violin from its case, and after carefully 
 examining it to see that it had received no injury, he placed 
 the bow upon the strings and began to move it lightly and 
 waveringly, as if feeling for the true initial note. In a mo- 
 ment his mind reached the decision. Perhaps some tune- 
 ful suggestion or melodious memory had been communica- 
 ted to, or stirred within his mind by the stray fugitive 
 chords, for his face suddenly lighted, his hand steadied it- 
 self, and the bow, with the proper pressure upon it, began its 
 progress over the strings, true and even as hand of man 
 might make it. The note rose clear and high. It rose into 
 the air, rolled out above the lake, and stole along the listen- 
 ing shore. It was followed in soft and measured succession 
 by others equally sweet, clear, and fine. The sounds were 
 as pure as the cleansed air into which they rose. The stars, 
 shining with steady, self-contained luminance, were no more 
 mild and soothing to the eye than were the easy, full- 
 rounded notes that the instrument yielded forth, to the ear. 
 
 It was a hymn of peace. A hymn such as angels might 
 sing to a soul that had passed through stormy passages, 
 
394 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 been rudely buffeted, and borne much during its earthly, 
 life, when it had been lifted above the eartb, and with its 
 warfare ended was being ministered unto by those who long 
 had known the infinite peace. No words can describe the 
 exceeding softness of the strains. Limited as the poor boy 
 was in the powers that make the average man potential 
 and efficient, his one great gift stood out resplendent. 
 Within his soul the gift or genius of music found its home. 
 His tongue might falter in its attempt to master the form 
 of verbal speech, but music had bestowed upon him a di- 
 vine expression. No one that heard him play could ever 
 doubt it. In quality it was a revelation of what inarticulate 
 expression might be. To-night his mood was of the finest. 
 Sitting under the projection of the ledge, with the lake, in 
 which the stars were mirrored, before him, the blue vault 
 bright with its golden splendor overhead, the somber woods 
 around, and the great, solemn, and as it were expectant 
 silence soliciting the presence of his pure soul, through the 
 one medium that God had given him to pour forth the inno- 
 cence, the longing and the faith of his beautiful spirit, he 
 played with a delicacy of touch and an evenness of pressure 
 that were marvelous. The Trapper lay leaning against the 
 rock with his eyes closed. Herbert sat watching the Lad's 
 lighted countenance with eyes that searched in vain for 
 some explanation of the boy's wonderful gift. He had 
 heard the masters of the world play, and his own ear did 
 not lack culture} but inwardly he was constrained to 
 confess, that never had he heard an instrument yield forth 
 such melody as his simple minded, awkwardly-formed com- 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 395 
 
 panioD, with long and easy-goiDg motions of the bow, was 
 sending forth into the receptive air. 
 
 He might have been playing five minutes when Herbert's 
 quick ear caught the sound of a slow, soft step stealing 
 along the sand j and in a moment, out of the star-lighted 
 dusk, the form of Crazy John appeared. He stole into the 
 circle of the light so quietly that the Lad did not know of 
 his approach, but Herbert watched him closely and noted 
 the change that had come over him. The wildness had left 
 his countenance, the gleam had faded from his eye, his 
 muscles had relaxed their tension, and his whole face had 
 settled to repose. He sank softly down into the sand, and 
 gazed upon the Lad with a look such as a mortal at his en- 
 trance into heaven, might contemplate the first angelic being 
 he chanced to meet. And as the Lad played on, as the 
 sweet consoling notes flowed forth, they carried peace and 
 consolation to the bosom of the unfortunate creature. His 
 eyes overflowed ; the great tears stole down his cheeks and 
 fell into the white volume of his beard, but his gaze re- 
 mained steadfastly fixed upon the boy's face and the look 
 of worshiping awe remained as steadfastly on his own. At 
 last the Lad paused ; he laid the violin upon his lap with 
 his bow across it. 
 
 " Well, John," said the Trapper, as he opened his eyes, 
 "what do you think of that! " 
 
 " Boy ! " he exclaimed, without answering the question of 
 the Trapper and addressing himself to the Lad, " boy, thou 
 art a spirit ! Thy soul is not of this earth. The gift of God 
 is in vou. Thou art one of the chosen ones sent out to 
 
396 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 minister unto the saints. The Lord hath lent thee to tho 
 earth ; but only for a year, a day, and an hour. Thou shalt 
 not stay among men ; thou shalt go hence, but not till thou 
 hast done a great deed ; and those that laughed at thee 
 shall know that with thy weakness God hath mingled 
 strength, and made thy lacking to be greater than their full- 
 ness. They call me ' Crazy John/ and they call me so be- 
 cause my ways are not their ways, and my thoughts are 
 not their thoughts. I am not crazy save when the body 
 vexes me and the forces of the earth that are demoniacal 
 possess me. But I do not stay in my body always ; I . leave 
 it and come back to it. I have left it for hours ; yes, for a 
 day and a night, and a night aud a day ; left and come back 
 to it. And I see things when my eyes are stony ; I feel 
 when my body is stiff ; I go where there is no time, and 
 all things that have been, and all things that are, and all 
 things that shall be, siand out . And I have seen thee, boy, 
 before we met, and one with thee that is not with thee 
 now." 
 
 "Who was it, Crazy John?" said the Lad, "who was it 
 that was with me ? " and the poor boy actually panted with 
 excitement, as through his comprehension dimly stole a 
 startliug thought. 
 
 " It was one thou hast seen and shalt see ; but not yet. 
 I shall see her first. You shall come after, and I see the 
 way of your coming and the hour ! " 
 
 " Come, come, Crazy John, the storm has gone by, and 
 why don't ye settle back to yer nateral sense ? Te'll skeer 
 the Lad out of his wits with yer nonsensical talkin'." 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 397 
 
 " John Norton ! " exclaimed the other, " thou wast born 
 for the body and the earth. Thou dwellest in the body and 
 art earthy. Thou canst not understand the couverse of 
 spirits." 
 
 " Pin glad to see ye come down to facts, Crazy John ; yis, 
 I'm glad to see ye come down to facts. Of course I dwell 
 in my body, and a mighty pleasant place it's been to dwell 
 in for these three-score year. And I can't say that I ever 
 expect to git into a better one ; for the Lord made it for me, 
 and I must say he put it together jediciously, as the time 
 it has stood and the sarvices it has done, proves. And as 
 for sperits, I don't know nothin' about 'em ; that is, I'm not 
 sartin enough about anything to sight on it. And Henry 
 will tell ye I'm always ready to draw at a ventur' when 
 meat is scarce or there is the least chance of fur. Aud if ye 
 are raaly sot on talkin' any more about sperits, Crazy John, 
 you and me will jest go one side out of hearin' of the boys, 
 and if I can find a comfortable spot where the sand isn't 
 too wet and the seat has a back-piece to it, you and me will 
 have a great time talkin' about sperits. That is, I'll listen 
 and you shall talk, and that is the best way, as I conceit, 
 for a sensible man to talk with another about sperits. For 
 if he don't say anything wise, he sartinly won't say any- 
 thing foolish, and that's a raal vartue in a counsel. But 
 don't skeer the Lad any more with talk of his goin'." 
 
 " Scared ! why should the Lad be scared at thought of 
 his going ? I will not talk more, John Norton, for you are 
 ignorant and unbelieving ; but you are wise in your order, 
 only you belong to another order and are fixed in another 
 
398 • ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 sphere. But the Lad shall go — he shall go ! — he shall go 1 
 on a stormy night and amid lire j and you and Henry shak 
 see him, and many shall see ; — see the fire ! see the flame ! 
 and you shall feel the touch of the fire, John Norton, and 
 Henry shall be scorched with the flame. For you shall be 
 with the Lad 'mid the fire, and you would go with him, but 
 your time is not yet, for you must sleep 'neath the pines — 
 'neath the pines — 'neath the pines, Old Trapper ; and Hen- 
 ry's grave must be a grave without stone, without name, 
 without spot. But why should I tell you these things? 
 Shall not the Lord reveal them in his time ? Let's to sleep ! 
 let's to sleep ! You sleep while I leave my body." 
 
 "That's sartinly good counsel," said the Trapper, "for 
 the morn is comin' and we sartinly have been stirred up a 
 good deal to-night; and nothin' settles a man arter he's 
 been riled, like sleep. Ye'd better not git yer feet quite so 
 near them brands, Crazy John, if yer spirit is raaly goin' out 
 of yer body for a little tantrum in the air 5 if ye do ye aint 
 likely to find more'n half of yerself when ye come back, 
 and the most valuable half at that, for I count that the legs 
 and feet be the best half of a man if he five in the woods. 
 So crook up yer knees a leetle, Crazy John, or ye'll git singed 
 for sartin." 
 
 With this parting admonition the Old Trapper stretched 
 his huge frame upon the sand along-side of his companion 
 and in a few moments the long, heavy breathing of the four 
 gave evidence that sleep had locked their senses in profound 
 repose. 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 399 
 
 The summer was past and autumn had come. The ad- 
 ventures with which our three friends had met we do not 
 purpose to narrate in this volume. It chanced that the 
 man whose story we are telling was not the most prominent 
 actor in the sad and startling experiences the summer 
 brought to them. At another time we may give to our 
 readers the history of an even more singular and unfortunate 
 being than "The Man Who Didn't Know Much" — but of 
 the latter we must write now, and the story that- has de- 
 tained us so long draws to its close. 
 
 Herbert, on the eve of his departure from the woods, had 
 succeeded in persuading the Old Trapper to accompany him 
 to his city home. With high anticipations they had struck 
 eastward from the Kacquette until they came to the upper 
 branches of the Hudson, down which they proceeded until 
 they came to Albany. There they left their light boat and 
 continued their journey in one of the river steamers. Ar- 
 riving at New York they crossed the city without delay, and 
 took passage eastward on one of the steamboats that trav- 
 ersed the Sound. At this critical point of tl eir journey our 
 pen resumes its narration. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CATASTROPHE. 
 
 "With clashing wheel, and lifting keel, 
 And smoking torch on high, 
 When winds are loud, and billows reel, 
 She thunders, foaming, by. 
 
 — Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
 TT was a stormy night. The wind was blowing a gale ; 
 and not a star was visible. The wind came from the 
 south-east; raw and damp with briny dampness. The force 
 of a thousand leagues of unimpeded violence was in it. It 
 was full of lusty strength, of unchecked might, rageful and 
 fierce. The center of the storm movement was in the far 
 Atlantic ; but, as it swept round on its invisible axis in fear- 
 ful revolutions, Long Island split the periphery of its power 
 like a wedge, and sheared off a mighty column, which 
 poured itself into and down the Sound, sweeping it from 
 end to end. The waves ran high ; they rose out of the 
 darkness, vast volumes of on-rolling water, and white- 
 crested with rage, like mad things showing their teeth, they 
 rushed against the steamer's prow, as if they would keel 
 her over and drive her downward to destruction. 
 
 Only a few of her full complement of passengers were on 
 deck. Some were in the main saloon, gathered in knots 
 for comfort. Others sat moodily apart, communing with 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 401 
 
 their fears j while not a few were in their state-rooms, or 
 down below in their berths, sick, or thoroughly frightened. 
 The air was full of foreboding. The prevalent feeling was 
 that of alarm. The plunge of the vessel as she dived down- 
 ward into the hollow of the sea ; the tremendous shocks 
 that shook her from stem to stern ; the quivering that con- 
 vulsed her huge frame, and tried her timbers in all their 
 joints as the great sea struck her ; the groaning of the 
 machinery, and now and then the rush of waters overhead 
 as some sea swept over her bulwarks, — revealed to those 
 that were within the saloon, or lay stretched in their berths, 
 that the gale was at its height. 
 
 A few of the passengers were on deck ; some were sailors, 
 and from habit kept an exposed position ; others, while not 
 seamen, were sufficiently familiar with voyaging, and of 
 such a temperament, that a position on deck and the sight 
 of a storm were more congenial to them than the protected 
 parlors. Among these latter our three friends could be 
 numbered. It was not in accordance with the tempera- 
 ments or habits of Herbert and the Trapper to stay be- 
 tween decks when such a storm was raging, and the Lad 
 could not remain separate from his companions. Indeed, 
 his behavior and remarks revealed the fact that he was 
 familiar with the different portions of the vessel, and with 
 the proper management of such a craft in a storm. He 
 evidently had knowledge of the machinery, knew the name 
 and use of all the equipments, and showed no inconsiderable 
 acquaintance with the force and action of wind and waves, 
 and even with the reefs and islands of the coast along 
 which the course of the vessel was now directed. 
 
402 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 Herbert, surprised at this knowledge, had questioned him 
 in conversation, concerning the origin of it, and elicited 
 from him many facts of his early life ; among others, that 
 he was born on the shore of the Sound, and had often sailed 
 the very waters through which the steamer was plungiDg. 
 He knew the name and position of the beacon lights they 
 passed, of the various headlands ; and, with his finger pointed 
 out the location and the name of this or that island which 
 was hidden in the gloom; estimating in a manner that 
 showed the accuracy of his memory and his familiarity with 
 the coast, the probable distance these islands were from 
 them, as the boat careered along. 
 
 " I tell ye," said the Trapper, as the three stood close to 
 the starboard rail, holding on to an iron rod for support, 
 " I tell ye, Henry," he shouted, " this is a wild un. I was 
 on a government transport in the center of old Ontario 
 once, when it looked mighty squally for all of us ; but it 
 sartinly didn't blow harder than it does to-night. I remem- 
 ber how the skipper looked and acted, and what he did, as 
 if it was but yisterday." 
 
 " What did he do V asked the Lad. 
 
 " He put his ship about, Lad," responded the Trapper, 
 11 afore the waves got half as high as this, or the wind half 
 as strong. He put his ship about, and I remember the 
 drenchin' we all got while she was swingin' round j but 
 when he got her starn on how she did go ! " 
 
 " Where did she fetch up ? " asked Herbert. 
 
 " Fetch up ? " replied the old man. " We didn't fetch up. 
 There was no fetch up to her that night. She went like a 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 403 
 
 young buck in his fust chase ; and when the sun riz and 
 the winds settled a leetle he scooted her in atween two big 
 islands ; and the skipper said, — I conceit he may have 
 stretched it a leetle, — the skipper said that the old tub had 
 gone. two hundred mile that night. And I was jest thinkin' 
 that if I was skipper of this craft I'd 'bout ship, shut off 
 steam as you call it, and let her drive to'ard York." 
 
 " It's not a very easy thing to 'bout ship in a sea like 
 this, John Norton," said Herbert. " Could it be done, Lad ? " 
 
 " I think perhaps it might be done," said the Lad ; " for 
 the engines work well, and she is a good boat to mind her 
 helm ; but it don't blow hard enough yet for the captain to 
 risk running on to the coast this side of New London. 
 That's a famous harbor, and if it blows any harder I guess 
 the captain will run in there." 
 
 " Lord-o'-massy, Lad ! " exclaimed the Old Trapper, ex- 
 citedly, " ye talk downright foolishness. It can't blow any 
 harder. The air would bust if it did." 
 
 "Yes, it can blow harder, John Norton," returned the 
 Lad. " I have seen it blow harder than this ; and I don't 
 think it blows as hard as it will by and by." 
 
 " If it blows any harder," screamed the Trapper, " we'll 
 all go to the bottom, for any man knows that them leetle 
 boats strung up there couldn't live out in them waves a 
 minute. Lord ! What a thump that was ! It shook her 
 up as a maul does a wedge. I don't marvel that the wim- 
 men folks be a leetle screechy. I hope the poor creeturs 
 will git safe to shore." 
 
 " I have had a feeling," said the Lad, half speaking to 
 
404 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 himself, " ever since we got aboard that something was go- 
 ing to happen to-night. I don't know why it should be so ; 
 but I keep seeing the face of Crazy John out there in the 
 darkness." 
 
 " Come, come, Lad, don't ye git skeery," said the Old 
 Trapper, " Crazy John's face isn't anywhere nigh us ; for 
 Henry and you know jest where it lies ; and you know that 
 we put five good feet of sile on top of him, to say nothin' of 
 the boughs and grasses, and the wild rose-bushes ye 
 throwed in." 
 
 For several minutes nothing was said, then Herbert con- 
 tinued : — 
 
 "I don't see how anything can happen, although it is a 
 very severe gale ; for the ship is a strong one and she is be- 
 ing well handled ; and the Lad says that there's a good har- 
 bor twenty miles ahead, into which the captain can run if 
 he is compelled to. I don't see how anything can happen, 
 — do you, John Norton ? " 
 
 " Not as I can see," returned the Trapper, " but I can't 
 say that I'm used to jest this kind of boatin', and I conceit 
 my jedgment isn't wuth much. Now if I was on the Rac- 
 quette in a squall with a good birch under me, and a good 
 paddle, and wasn't too heavily loaded, I could tell ye jest 
 about what the prospect was j but this kind of boatin' 
 makes a man of my natur' and habits but leetle better than 
 a squaw, for all there is to do is to jest hang on. No, I sar- 
 tinly don't know much about this kind of boatin', and my 
 jedgment isn't wuth a cent." 
 
 " I don't know what we should do if anything should 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 405 
 
 happen/' said Herbert. " The clerk told me there were six 
 hundred passengers aboard, and at the tables to-riight I 
 thought I never had seen so many women and children in 
 one boat at a time. I don't know what would become ot 
 them, or any of us for that matter, in a sea like this if any- 
 thing " — 
 
 "Fire!" 
 
 No one could say whence the cry came, nor, at the mo- 
 ment, whether it was the voice of man or woman that sent 
 it out ; but from whatever throat it came, it came projected 
 with all the energy of terror. It filled the great saloon, — 
 sank to the lower deck, — penetrated the state-rooms and 
 berths, — rose into the pilot-house, — and was blown by the 
 gusts into the farther darkness in quivering fragments as if 
 the winds in their fierce gladness had seized it, torn it in 
 pieces, and flung it aside to be ready for its successor. Nor 
 had they long to wait : it came upon the instant, rising wild 
 and high — piercingly shrill as mortal fear could make it : 
 
 " Fire ! Fire ! F-i-e-e ! " 
 
 The effect of such a cry on shipboard at night, in the 
 midst of such a gale, on a crowded steamer, can never be 
 known to those who have not heard it ; nor communicated 
 to those who quietly sit in safety and at ease reading its de- 
 scription on the printed page. In the great saloon, when 
 the awful sound swept through it, men engaged in conver- 
 sation stopped — looked with startled interrogation into 
 each other's eyes, with faces that on the instant turned 
 white as ashes. Women, with a sudden gesture, placed 
 their hands above their hearts as if they had received an 
 
406 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 unseen stab. Some continued sitting as they had been as if 
 stiffened to the position. Others, with their hands still on 
 their hearts, sank back in a dead swoon. Children stopped 
 their play and stood staring at their elders. The sick in 
 their berths stilled their groans and lay straight on their 
 cots as if dead, listening with pent breath. 
 
 On deck the effect was the same. The sound had the 
 power in it to drown all other sounds. Those that heard it 
 rise, heard nothing else. It captured their senses and held 
 them concentrated to itself. The roar and splash of the 
 mighty waves — the whistling, screaming wind — made for an 
 instant no impression on the senses. The one terrible sound 
 dominated all other noises ; and those who heard the dread- 
 ful scream were, for the moment, conscious of nothing else. 
 
 This was the first effect ; but when the cry was repeated, 
 when the awful scream rose the second time, was reiterated 
 and prolonged as mortal fear only can prolong a* cry, fright 
 took possession of all. Men tumbled from their berths, 
 striking the floor with a bound, shouting. The state-room 
 doors burst open and women ran out screaming. Those 
 who were below rushed wildly into the main saloon, tramp- 
 ling on each other in their headlong course. The uproar 
 was fearful. Men called for their wives. Women sci earned 
 for their husbands. Mothers clutched their children to their 
 breasts. Calls and shouts, the rush of hurrying feet, and 
 shrieks, filled the air. 
 
 On deck all was hurry and confusion incident to such an 
 emergency. Hose were being fitted, pumps got in motion, 
 the crew was being told off into companies, and the proper 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 407 
 
 officers put over them. The captain was a brave man, and 
 skillful ; the officers supported him nobly, and most of the 
 crew obeyed the voice of discipline. The places of those 
 who faltered were more than made good by volunteers, 
 amid whom the Trapper, Herbert, and the Lad were ef- 
 ficiently promiuent. Brave men and braver women were 
 ainor.g the passengers, who exerted themselves to still the 
 tumult. The captain himself went into the main saloon on 
 bis way to the engineer's room, and addressed the passen- 
 gers in brave and hopeful words. 
 
 He said they were in danger, — that he did not deny; but 
 that he had been in great danger before, and came out all 
 right ; that the ship was on fire he admitted ; but he stated 
 that the pumps were working well, and if they could not 
 subdue the flames, he hoped to keep them under until he 
 could make harbor. 
 
 He told them much depended on themselves. He said, 
 " If you people will only remain quiet ; if you will only 
 keep order ; if you will only stay where you are, and not 
 risk your lives and overwhelm the crew by rushing on 
 deck; T sincerely believe that with the help of God we 
 shall bring you through ; and land every man woman and 
 child in safety." 
 
 These words had great effect. The uproar subsided. A 
 remarkable calmness fell on the great throng. Most re- 
 mained standing, but kept their places. Some seated 
 themselves, and assumed a calmness they did not inwardly 
 feel. Many knelt in prayer, and breathed in silence their 
 petition to the great Being whose hand controls wave and 
 flame alike. 
 
408 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 The captain passed on, and entered the engineer's room ; 
 counseled a moment with the chief, and then, with three 
 carpenters, began to explore the forward hold of the vessel, 
 to find the location and the extent of the fire. It took but 
 a brief search to discover that the whole forward part of 
 the ship beneath was a mass of flames. The freight was 
 of combustible material, and thoroughly ignited. The cap- 
 tain looked at the dreadful spectacle for an instant, while 
 the lines of his face grew absolutely rigid, and said : — 
 
 " My God ! The ship is a furnace !" 
 
 He stood another instant in profound thought, during 
 which his quick and fearless mind had considered all the 
 contingencies, and without a word to the three men that 
 were with him, he started for the deck and the pilot-house. 
 He summoned the chief engineer and his officers around 
 him, and stated what he had discovered, — laid the whole 
 subject in a few terse words before them, and said : — 
 
 " Gentlemen, in five minutes the saloons will be like an 
 oven, and the windows of this pilot-house will be cracking. 
 Have you anything to suggest ? " 
 
 The first officer, a sailor from boyhood, whose head and 
 beard were already gray, said promptly : — 
 
 " Captain, we must beach her." The others looked their 
 assent. 
 
 " It's our only course," said the captain. " Pilot," said 
 he, turning to the man whose eye was on the look-out, 
 " can you beach her ? " The other deliberated a moment, 
 and said : — 
 
 " Captain, I am ready to take any responsibility that a 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 409 
 
 man in my position should take. I am ready to execute 
 any order you give , but I will not take the responsibility 
 of running this steamer, with six hundred passengers 
 aboard, on to a coast that I know nothing of beyond the 
 knowledge 1 have of the lights, the reefs, and the harbors. 
 It would be mere chance if I got her within half a mile of 
 the shore." 
 
 The captain actually groaned. He saw and admitted the 
 force of the pilot's assertion. For a moment not a word 
 was spoken, while the ship went tearing on through the 
 water, and the premonitions of risiDg tumult came to tjieir 
 ears from below, showing that the passengers were already 
 on the move. He looked an instant into each face before 
 him, lifted his hand and wiped the great drops of sweat 
 from his forehead, and said : — 
 
 " Gentlemen, what shall we do ? I feel the floor under 
 my feet heating ! The passengers are moving out of the 
 saloon ! What we do must be done quickly ! We are over- 
 loaded ! Our boats wouldn't accommodate half, and besides 
 a boat couldn't live in that sea. Wliat shall we do f " 
 
 Not a man spoke. They felt as if the horror of death 
 were shutting down around them. They were brave, they 
 were calm. They showed no evidence of fear. They could 
 meet death as men should meet it ; but they could not tell 
 how to escape it. Suddenly the captain's face lighted, with 
 a light which was the reflection of a hope, of a conjecture, 
 of a possibility. He darted out of the pilot-house, swung 
 himself down among the crew, who were busy with the 
 pumps and the hose, and shouted, with a concentration of 
 
410 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 voice that penetrated the roar of the storm like a knife : — 
 " Is there a man here who knows this coast ? " 
 When the captain dropped among them the men stopped 
 their work and stood stariDg at him. Only the Old Trapper 
 and Herbert, each of whom stood above the forward hatch, 
 hose in hand, directing the streams that the pumps sent 
 through the swelling tubes downward, kept their position. 
 The captain waited a moment, while the light faded from 
 his countenance as no response came, and then, as if in very 
 despair, he shouted : — 
 
 " Is there a man here who knows this coast ? " 
 Again no reply came, and he was upon the point of turn- 
 ing away, when the Lad, who had been kneeling under the 
 protection of the bulwark, trying to stop a rent which the 
 pressure had made in the hose that the Old Trapper was 
 tending, rose out of the shadow and approaching the cap- 
 tain, said : — 
 " Yes sir. I know the coast." 
 
 " Who are you," said the captain, " that claim such 
 knowledge ? Are you not the youth I saw with the old 
 hunter at the table to-night? How should you, born in the 
 interior, know anything about this coast ? " 
 
 " I was not born in the woods," responded the Lad, " I 
 was born within ten miles of where we are, and I know 
 every rock and reef and point, for I have fished on them 
 all ; and I know every beach, for I used to play on them 
 when a boy." 
 
 The captain looked incredulous. He had associated him 
 with the hunter and the wilderness, and it seemed incredi- 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 411 
 
 ble that he should have been born where he said he was 
 bora, and that he should be on that boat that night, and be 
 discovered by the merest accident at the very instant of 
 supreme peril. 
 
 " Cap'n," said the Old Trapper, who had drawn nigh, 
 " cap'n, whatever the Lad says ye can sartinly take for gos- 
 pel truth. And if he says he was born here, he was born 
 here ; and if he says he knows this shore, he does know it; 
 and ye can rely on him to do what he says he can do ; for 
 his words be truth, and his acts be like his words." 
 
 "Young man," said the captain, "have you any other 
 friend on board beside this hunter ? " 
 
 " Sartiu he has," said the old man, answering the ques- 
 tion for the Lad, " there be Henry there, who has boated 
 with him and camped with him off and on, and the Lad 
 saved his life once, and that's a sarvice that a man isn't apt 
 to forgit. Yis, you may set it down, cap'n, that Henry and 
 me be the Lad's friends." 
 
 " Call him here," said the captain, hoarsely, " and then fol- 
 low mo to the pilot-house." 
 
 It was with the greatest effort that the four were able to 
 reach the point designated, for the gale was blowing with 
 increased violence, and the iron rod, and the ropes they 
 grasped to steady themselves, were already hot ; and even 
 as they reached the upper deck the flames broke fiercely 
 out from the hatchways and the fire began to run in waver- 
 ing lines along the inner timbers of the bulwarks and the 
 ornamental edgings of the upper deck. 
 
 " I have called you here," said the captain, " to ask you 
 
412 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 in the presence of my officers if there is any safe spot, any 
 cove or bay into which the steamer can be run along the 
 coast abreast of us." 
 
 " Do you mean to beach her, captain ? " asked the Lad. 
 
 " Yes," he responded, " it is our only chance. We must 
 beach her. Can you do it ? " 
 
 " I can," said the Lad, simply. 
 
 " You can ! " exclaimed the captain, "do you mean to say, 
 young man, that you can beach this steamer? Gentlemen," 
 he continued, as he turned to his officers, " if this young 
 man can do what he says, every soul can be saved." 
 
 " I can do just what I tell you I can do," said the Lad, 
 " that is if the engines work, and we can fetch her around 
 in this sea, and the flames don't get ahead of us ; for there is 
 a little bay, nearly abreast of us, and the water is deep in 
 it, and the beach is free from rocks and stones, and I can 
 tell the pilot just where to steer to get into it." 
 
 " But," said the captain, and he spoke with hurried utter- 
 ance, as one who feels there isn't a moment to lose, " you 
 ought to know, and your friends here ought to know, the 
 danger you run, for the flames will break out in a few mo- 
 ments. You can hear them roaring under deck already. 
 The flames will break out in a moment, I say ; this pilot- 
 house will be on fire, and he who stands beside it will stand 
 in the center of flames, and it will be through God's mercy 
 if ho comes out with his life. I feel it to be my solemn 
 duty to state these things to you, young man, and in the 
 presence of your friends who are interested in your life. 
 Now, knowing your danger, knowing that you will probably 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 413 
 
 lose your life, I ask you again, will you pilot this steamer to 
 that beach ? There are six hundred souls on board, and if 
 you do it you will be their saviour. Will you do it? " 
 
 The Lad's face never changed a muscle. The light in his 
 eyes may possibly have darkened a little, and the Old Trap- 
 per noted that his long, awkward fingers shut into their 
 palms with a slightly tightened grip, but his voice was quiet 
 as ever, as he said : — 
 
 " I will help you beach her, captain." 
 
 The captain hesitated yet a moment. He knew himself 
 that the Lad was going to his death, — going with a quiet- 
 ness that could have only ignorance or finest heroism for 
 its cause. It was not to be wondered at, that, accepting as 
 he was the sacrifice of a life, he was touched. He gazed at 
 the singular being before him, observed the simple guile- 
 lessness of hi's countenance, and, dashing a tear from his 
 eye, he turned to the Trapper and said : — 
 
 " Old man, this boy is your companion, and you love 
 him?" 
 
 " Yis, the Lad and me have slept together, and we've eat- 
 en from the same bark, and he and me has done leetle sar- 
 vices for each other that men in the woods don't forgit, and 
 I guess ye're about right, cap'n, when ye say that I love the 
 Lad." 
 
 " God forbid ! " exclaimed the captain, " God forbid that 
 I take the responsibility of the sacrifice, — for that's just 
 what it is, old man. Oiight the boy to stay ? " 
 
 " Sartin, sartin," said the Trapper ; " if the Lad can save 
 the wimmen-folks and the leetle uus, not to speak of the 
 
414 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 men, by stayiii' here, then he sartinly ought to stay even if 
 he starts on his last trail from the deck of a vessel instead 
 of fiom the shadow of the pine ; for death never comes too 
 quick to one who meets it at the post of duty, and it never 
 comes slow enough to one who shirks. Yis, let the lad stay 
 where he is, and an old man who has faced death on many 
 a field where bullets was thick, will stand by his side, and 
 the Lord of Marcy shall do with us as he will. I should 
 liked to have seed the pups agin ; but the Lord will take 
 care of the dogs." 
 
 While this conversation had been carried on, the officers 
 of the steamer had made the arrangements necessary to 
 steer the craft from the stern ; for the pilot-house was al- 
 ready so hot as to make it unsafe for the four men stationed 
 at the wheel to remain in it longer. The ropes and blocks 
 had been adjusted, the purchase tested, and the steamer 
 was already being directed from behind. The captain still 
 stood by the side of the Lad, trumpet in hand, ready to give 
 the orders to veer her round. 
 
 "Young man," said the captain, "you are pilot now. 
 When shall we swing her about ? It's a rough sea ; but the 
 flames give us no choice." 
 
 The Lad looked steadfastly a moment at the beacon they 
 had passed, asked the captain a question as to her course, 
 and then said : — 
 
 11 We are passing the cove ! We mustn't go a rod farther ! 
 Quick ! Swing her round ! " 
 
 The captain lifted the trumpet to his lips, and in tones 
 that rang strong and clear above the roar of the storm and 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 415 
 
 of the flame, shouted, " Hard a-port with your helm ! Hard 
 a-port, I tell you ! Jam her down for your lives ! " 
 
 The men in control of the helm obeyed with an energy 
 bom of the peril of the moment. The mighty fabric swayed 
 for a moment, but tore on as if unwilling to yield. But the 
 next instant the immense pressure of the helm hard a-port 
 began to tell, and the monstrous bulk swung slowly about, 
 rolled downward into the trough of the sea as if she would 
 never rise, reeled over as she met the mighty wave square 
 amid-ship till her larboard rail lay deep in the hissing wa- 
 ter, struggled up, righted herself laboriously j and as she 
 straightened her course with the gale square astern, and 
 with her steam gauge standing at seventy-five, shot toward 
 the shore like an arrow from the bow. 
 
 "Cap'n," said the Trapper, as he lowered the trumpet 
 from his lips, "give ustheinstrerment, and do ye run back 
 there and keep the poor creeturs from throwin' themselves 
 overboard, — for they be gittin' wild. I can talk through 
 the horn as well as ye can, — and the Lad will tell me the 
 words." 
 
 "I can't leave you, old man; it shall never be said that 
 Charles Stearns left two brave men to die while he saved his 
 own life." 
 
 " Cap'n," returned the Trapper, " I know yer feelin's ; for 
 I see the stuff ye be made of; but the Lord appiuts duty 
 unto man, and it's not of his choosin' ; and it's yer duty to go, 
 and ourn to stay. Don't ye worry about us, for I be old and 
 a few days more or less on the arth don't matter, and I can 
 see by the look in the Lad's face that he be ready. So give 
 
416 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 me the horn and you go where you oughter go, and we'll 
 stay where we oughter stay." 
 
 The old man had uttered these words with such solemn 
 majesty, and the truth they expressed was so evident, that 
 the captain did as commanded. He passed the trumpet to 
 the Trapper and started aft, where his presence and words 
 soon communicated new hope to the terrified throng. In a 
 few moments the shouting and screaming ceased, and not a 
 sound was heard save the roar of the wind and the waves 
 and the flames. 
 
 " Henry," said the Trapper, " it's time ye be goin', for the 
 fire is gittin' hot. It's not likely that me and the Lad will 
 come out of this ; and there sartinly isn't much time for 
 leave-takiu'. Ye'll go, I know, and get the pups, and the 
 rifle, aud the fiddle. Ye know where they be. And if there 
 be any other things in the shanty ye would like, remember 
 they are yourn. This sartinly isn't the way I thought things 
 would eend ; but the Lord know*s when to call, and I daresay 
 it's best as it is. So, boy, jest take my hand a minit'. Ye 
 needn't distarb the Lad, for he is busy. No, jest give me 
 yer hand for a minit', and then go. Ye be faithful and true, 
 and may yer days be happy and yer life long on the 'arth. 
 
 " I am not going, John Norton," said the young man. 
 
 " It be well said, boy," returned the Trapper. " Yis, it be 
 well said ; or would be if things was different. But things 
 bo as they be, and ye must go." 
 
 " I shall not go," said Herbert. 
 
 " Henry I " exclaimed the old man earnestly, " this is 
 downright foolishness. Ye can't help us by stayin' ; and 
 two'll be enough if wust comes to wust." 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 417 
 
 " John Norton," returned the young man solemnly, "say 
 no more. I shall stay with you and the Lad. If ws live, 
 all will live. If we die, we will die together, for I will not 
 leave you." 
 
 " Be it as ye say then, boy ; yis, let it be as ye say. This 
 is i\3 time for words ; and I can understand yer feelin's ; 
 and it may be ye be right. The Lad and we met at the 
 pond of the beavers, and it may be best we both go with 
 him to the eend of the trail." 
 
 In a moment the old man said, suddenly : " Henry, if ye 
 could git one of them water-pipes, and the pumps are still 
 a-goin', it may be ye could save our lives. But be careful 
 where ye go, boy, for it's hot there ahead." 
 
 Lightning is scarce quicker than, was the motion of Her- 
 bert, as he darted forward into the smoke, which was rolling 
 up in great volumes from the front part of the boat. 
 
 By this time the forward half of the vessel was almost 
 one sheet of flame. 
 
 A column of lire rose out of the forward hatch fifty feet 
 into the air, but was mercifully blown onward by the force 
 of the gale. From this the Trapper and the Lad were at 
 least safe, but the flames were now breaking over all re- 
 straint. The deck itself was being burnt through and sec- 
 tions were falling into the hold. The stanchions and timbers 
 of the bulwarks were already in full blaze. The outer 
 edges of the upper deck were girdled with fire. The roof 
 of the pilot-house had begun to kindle. The flames were 
 already eating their way toward the stern and would soon 
 be in the rear of the two men who were standing half hid- 
 
418 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 den in smoke at a point which would then be the very cen- 
 ter of the conflagration. But they never flinched. They 
 stood in the exact position where they were when Henry 
 left them ; the Trapper still holding the trumpet in his hand, 
 and the Lad still gazing steadfastly ahead. 
 
 " Tell them to port two points," said the Lad quietly. 
 The old man placed the trumpet to his lips and thiough 
 the brazen tube his voice poured steady and strong : — 
 " The boy says ' Tell 'em to port two p'ints. " 
 The vessel swayed suddenly to port; and as she leapt 
 away the Lad said : — 
 " Tell them to hold her steady as she is." 
 Again the old man lifted the trumpet and called : — 
 " The boy says ' tell them to hold her steady as she is.' " 
 For a minute not a word was spoken. The steamer tore 
 on through the gloom, lighting her path with her flames. 
 The roof of the pilot-house dropped in, and the smoke aDd 
 cinders hid the two men from the sight of those who, with 
 prayers on their lips and agonized faces, were gazing at them 
 from behind. 
 
 Suddenly out of the smoke and the fire came the tones 
 of the trumpet : — 
 
 " The Lad says ' tell 'em I hear the surf on the beach? " 
 Then the smoke suddenly lifted, split by a gust that tore 
 through the air, and those behind saw three men instead oi 
 two standing on the deck. The Trapper and the Lad still 
 at their station, and thirty feet farther aft, Herbert, hose in 
 hand flooding with water the blazing deck on which they 
 stood. But what could the power of man do against the , 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 419 
 
 rush of such flames ? The young man did his best. With 
 hands blistered by the awful heat he stood heroically at his 
 post; but the garments of the Lad were on fire, and the 
 hair o f the Trapper was burnt to the scalp. 
 
 Suddenly the starboard half of the upper deck fell with 
 a crash. As it fell those behind saw the Lad turn to the 
 Trapper, — saw him totter — saw him steady himself — saw 
 his companion catch him by the arm — saw the old hero, 
 with the sleeve of his coat, that was itself smoking, wipe 
 the cinders from his lips as he lifted the trumpet to his 
 mouth ; and out of the black, eddying smoke as it swept 
 over the three and hid them from sight, bellowed the words 
 strong as trumpet could send them : — 
 
 " The Lad says ' tell them I see the surf on the beach ! 
 Hold her steady as she is ! God " — 
 
 The sentence was never completed. The flat bottom ot 
 the vessel touched the sand — slid along it — and was 
 driven by the momentum of her movement half her length 
 up the beach. Then she rolled over with a great lurch ; her 
 smoke-stacks went down with a crash, carrying the upper 
 deck on which they stood with them, and the three men 
 sank from sight in the smoke and fire. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 THE LAD GOES HOME. 
 
 " With mast, and helm, and pennon fair, 
 
 That well had borne their part — 
 But the noblest thing that perished there 
 
 Was that young, faithful heart I " 
 
 — Mrs. Hemans. 
 
 TT was evening of the second day after the catastrophe. 
 Only a few of - the passengers had been lost, and the 
 majority of those who were saved had gone on their sev- 
 eral ways ; hut nearly a hundred still tarried, finding accom- 
 modation in the farm houses along the shore and in the ad- 
 joining village. The noblest of motives held them to the 
 neighborhood, for he who had saved them was dying. 
 
 In a house that stood fifty rods from the wreck, lay the 
 Lad stretched on a bed. His body was in a pitiable condi- 
 tion ; for the flesh of it in spots was burnt to the bone. 
 With him was the Trapper and Herbert. The head of the 
 former was bandaged, and the hands of the latter were 
 packed. They had been saved by the merest accident j if 
 that which gives or takes life can be so called. As the 
 smoke-stacks fell when the vessel struck the beach, the 
 section of the upper deck on which they were standing 
 had been thrown upward and outward ; and the three had 
 been actually cast with the burning fragments upon the 
 Band. 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 421 
 
 The Trapper and Herbert, although at first stunned, had 
 been able to drag themselves and the Lad, who was insen- 
 sible, from the neighborhood of the flames. They speedily- 
 recovered their strength ; but the Lad did not revive. He 
 still breathed ; but the life within his poor body held but a 
 feeble hold, and at every breath it drew seemed on the 
 point of taking i ts final departure. His senses wandered, 
 as if the faculties of his mind shared the misfortune of his 
 mortal frame. All that skill could do had been done. But 
 human skill was powerless to arrest the flight of his spirit 
 from a tenement which had been so rudely assaulted that 
 it could no longer furnish the life that had tabernacled in 
 it with the accommodation it needed. The most that the 
 attendant physician could offer in the way of comfort to 
 the two men, who with stricken hearts watched by the 
 bedside, was contained in the assurance that he was wholly 
 free from suffering ; and would probably revive, and enjoy 
 the use of his senses for a brief period before he passed 
 away. In hope of this, rather than from any expectation 
 that he would recover, his two companions kept their 
 steady vigil by his bed. 
 
 It was evening, and outside the house nature displayed 
 the quiet and solemn splendor of an autumnal night. The 
 full-orbed moon hung in the eastern sky, and her mellow 
 radiance bathed the rippling surface of the shining sea in 
 floods of glistening sheen. The light waves broke in meas- 
 ured murmurs on the silent shore. In the blue sky were 
 the pale stars, and the moon's splendor lay softly on the 
 white sands, and the rocks, the trees, the fences, and the 
 
422 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 aftermath of the frosty fields. Surely nature is unconscious 
 of human suffering ; or else has in her frame something of 
 tbat universal consciousness which knows that out of the 
 troubles of life the anxious and the suffering pass at length 
 into eternal peace. 
 
 Inside the house lay the Lad, — his head, which fortu- 
 nately had not been touched by the fire, supported by a 
 pillow scarce whiter than his face, his limbs straightened 
 as if in repose, and his long, awkward-looking hands crossed 
 restfully on his breast, in which the pulse of life beat faintly. 
 Herbert stood at the foot of the bed, and the Trapper sat 
 at its side. Farther away stood the physician, and the 
 captain of the steamer, who had shared with an equal con- 
 stancy the watch of those whose eyes scarcely wandered 
 from the face of the unfortunate boy. Thus in silence the 
 four stood, waiting for the change which they hoped and 
 prayed might come ; that out of it they might receive 
 strength to speak with calmness the last farewell. 
 
 Suddenly the Lad's lips opened, though his eyes still 
 remained closed, and he murmured, " Crazy John said my 
 grave should be with a grave." And a look almost like 
 that of smiles came to his features as he -repeated, " My 
 grave should be with a grave." 
 
 It was the first time he had spoken, even in his wander- 
 ings, for hours ; and the Old Trapper and Herbert exchang- 
 ed glances, while the physician and the captain drew nearer 
 to the bed. In a moment his lips parted again, and he said 
 — while the smile on his features gave place to a look of 
 pain : — 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 423 
 
 " Why do they all laugh at me ? Everybody laughs at me 
 but mother and John Norton and Herbert. Father used to 
 laugh at me ; but John Norton never laughed at me. He 
 and Herbert only laughed at me once. They laughed at me 
 at the pond of the beavers. Where is the pond of the bea- 
 vers? Let me see, — let me see, — it is so thick with 
 smoke that I can't see the pond of the beavers. Mother, 
 did you tell them, when they laughed at me at the pond of 
 the beavers, that they musn't laugh any more at me ! " 
 
 Here he stopped, while the men looking on held their 
 breath, and not a sound was heard but the tick, tick, tick 
 of the little clock that stood on the mantle. It may have 
 been five minutes that the silence lasted ; and then he mur- 
 mured again : — 
 
 " The captain said that there are six hundred souls to be 
 saved. Let me see — -how many are six hundred souls ? — 
 Mother, can't you tell me how many six hundred souls are? 
 
 — Are they so many as that ! — I think I ought to be will- 
 ing to die if I can save six hundred souls, — don't you, 
 mother ? " And then his speech sank until it became inar- 
 ticulate, only now and then as they watched his moving 
 lips they caught the words, " six hundred — six hundred — 
 souls." 
 
 Again a long silence ensued ; but after a while he said, 
 while a look of firmness came mto his face, " How hot it is ! 
 
 — I didn't think fire could burn so ; — but I musn't show 
 it — no, I mustn't show it." And his fingers tightened on 
 the coverlid as if he were making an heroic effort at self 
 control. 
 
424 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 And so his mind wandered, — wandered back to his boy- 
 hood ; wandered back to the life he lived with his mother. 
 And then he talked of the woods ; talked about his traps ; 
 talked of the life he had lived with the Trapper ; talked 
 about Herbert, and wondered if he would ever come. And 
 so in a wild, senseless, touching way his mind wandered 
 over the past, and his tongue, unconscious of its speech, re- 
 hearsed the fragments of his experiences. Then he fell 
 into a sleep deep and heavy. His breathings were regular 
 and strong. He slept for an hour as a weary man sleeps 
 after toil. And the physician said : — 
 
 " When he wakes he will wake with his senses, if he 
 wake at all." 
 
 And thus they stood and watched him with faces that 
 showed their anxiety. Watched and waited ; — watched 
 and had their reward. For suddenly he moved uueasily ; 
 drew a long breath ; opened his eyes ; looked at the Trap- 
 per and at Herbert. And as his eyes came back to the 
 countenance of the old man who sat by his side, he smiled, 
 and said : — 
 
 " John Norton ! Henry ! " 
 
 " Yis," said the Trapper ; " yis, Lad, me and Henry be 
 here." He said no more, for as he said it he choked ; and 
 the sentence ended with a sob. 
 
 For a minute the Lad made no reply. Ho gazed into the 
 faces of the Trapper and Henry with a look of unutterable 
 love, — a look that took the place of speecb, and did what 
 words could not do ; for it expressed to the two men that 
 saw it the depth of his affection for them. 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 425 
 
 u How many were saved ? ' ' said the Lad. 
 
 The captain took a step forward, and said : "Nearly all, 
 boy j nearly all. You saved them nearly all." And the fea- 
 tures of the great, strong man convulsed, and the tears 
 broke from his eyes. 
 
 " Lad," said the Trapper, after a moment's pause, during 
 which he had regained his composure, " there be something 
 that must be said, and it may be best that I say it now, for 
 the minits be passin' and perhaps ye may have somthin' to 
 tell us. Lad," and here he faltered a moment, " Lad, ye 
 have come to the eend of the trail and yer feet be on the 
 edge of the Great ClearinV 
 
 " Do you mean I am dying, John Norton ? " said the Lad. 
 
 " That's what men call it, boy, — that's sartinly what men 
 call it. Yis, the doctor here says ye be dyin'." 
 
 For a moment the youth fixed his gaze on the ceiling as 
 one might who is lost in reflection, and then his eyes fell 
 until they rested on the countenance of the Trapper, and he 
 said, in his own simple manner : — 
 
 " I am not afraid to die, John Norton." 
 
 " I know no reason why ye should be, Lad. I've thought 
 the matter over from beginnin' to eend sence I sot by the 
 bed here, and I sartinly know no reason why ye should be, 
 for ye have done no evil on the 'arth and yer sperit is inno- 
 cent ; and if ye had been faulty the Lord would remember 
 the deed ye have did and jedge ye in marcy." 
 
 Again he paused a moment and then the old man said, 
 tenderly : — 
 
 " Is there anythin' ye would tell us, Lad ? — anything ye 
 
426 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 would like done, ye know, for it be the duty of the livin' to 
 sarve the dead, and Henry and me be here, and our ears be 
 open to yer words." 
 
 " Are any of my folks living here now, John Norton ? " 
 asked the Lad. 
 
 " No, yer folks be not here, boy ; they moved away years 
 ago, and no one knows where they went. No, boy, not one 
 of yer kindred be here." 
 
 " 'Tis well," said the Lad, " mother's grave is here, that is 
 enough. You will find it to the left of the big pine that 
 stands in the south-east comer of the graveyard. I told you 
 the name, you know. You will lay my body there, John 
 Norton." 
 
 " It shall be done as ye say," returned the Trapper. 
 
 The Lad remained silent a moment, engaged in thought, 
 and then he said, " I want you to take the rifle, John Nor- 
 ton, and Sport, for they will be of some service to you." 
 
 " Yis, the dog will be of sarvice, for sartin, for he's stanch 
 and his nose is a good 'un, and Eover is gittin' on in years, 
 and can't, in the natur' of things, hold out much longer. 
 I've noted that he lagged this fall in the races. Yis, I would 
 like the dog, and he will be a great comfort to me, boy, 
 after ye are gone, for the cabin will seem empty next win- 
 ter. The. thoughts of the old be apt to be lonely, and the 
 presence of the dog will shorten the evenings and make 
 the shanty more homelike. But as for the rifle, which is 
 but leetle better than a miser'ble gun, sence it loads at the 
 wrong eend, and has a mind of its own about goin' off, — so 
 that while I'll allow it has a long range and shoots where 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 427 
 
 ye hold it, yit it can't be depended on, as ye know, boy, and 
 is of no use to a hunter like me whose ranges be short and 
 and will git shorter as my eyes grow dim. But on the tar- 
 get ground of the settlements, which Henry has told us 
 about, where they shoot furder than a man can see, the gun 
 is a good un ; Henry thinks one of the best, if not the best, 
 ever made. And so, Lad, while I don't want to argue agin 
 yer wishes or seem ongrateful, yit in the natur' of things it 
 sartinly looks as if I had better have the dog and Henry 
 the gun." 
 
 " I think you are right, John Norton," said the Lad, in a 
 feeble but pleased tone, "you are always right. Yes, Henry, 
 you take the rifle I won at the match, and I know you will 
 win many prizes with it, and when you use it on the match- 
 ground, and the people are all standing round, and the rich 
 and the great looking on, as you told us, you must think of 
 me, for you will never know how much I love you. Mother 
 first, John Norton next, and then you. Yes, that's the way 
 it has been. Mother first, John Norton next, and then 
 you." 
 
 " I will take the rifle and keep it, Lad, as your gift to 
 me," Herbert said ; " the gift of a man who saved my life, 
 and who has taught me the beauty of innocence and the 
 wisdom of a pure mind, as man never taught me before." 
 And he looked at the Lad's sweet face with eyes blinded 
 with tears. 
 
 " I don't think that you could ever have learned anything 
 from me, Henry," responded the Lad ; " for you are learned 
 and I am ignorant. John Norton is wise and I am foolish. 
 
428 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 And they all used to tell me I didn't know much ; and I 
 know they were right, for I never was cunning as the other 
 boys ; and I had a hard time to learn even to read. But 
 mother told me I could Jearn if I tried hard enough, and I 
 did try real hard. And in two years I could read the Tes- 
 tament through without making a siugle mistake ; and I 
 remember how pleased mother was when I did it." 
 
 " Lad," said the Trapper, gravely, " I've lived beyend the 
 limits of man's days, and I've seed many of the wise and 
 the great of the 'arth, and many that was foolish, and my 
 eyes have been open to what they have seed ; and I've noted 
 that some lam from books, and some laru from natur', and 
 some know without larnin'. Yis, some make themselves 
 wise by readiu' and seein' and thinkin'. And others 
 be born wise ; for they know good from evil, and they strike 
 the trail right every time, and from cradle to grave never 
 lose the line of the blazin'. But there aint many of this 
 kind j no, there be but few that are born wise ; but ye was 
 oue of 'em. Yis, Lad, ye was sartinly one of 'em ; for the 
 Lord gin ye somethin' better than the knowin' head and the 
 cunnin' tongue ; for he gave ye a heart to love right and 
 to hate wrong, and he made ye marciful to them that do 
 evil and treated ye onkindly ; and he gin ye courage to 
 die like a chief without tremblin' or talkin' when the time 
 he had sot for yer death-hour had come. And more than all 
 of the wise and the great I have known, Lad, I think ye 
 was favored by yer Maker." 
 
 The Old Trapper had said this with the decision and maj- 
 esty of a man who speaks from deliberation, and is express- 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 429 
 
 ing the judgment of a mind which, naturally able, had re- 
 ceived and been profited by the lessons of a long and varied 
 experience. A moment after he had paused the Lad said : 
 
 "There is something else I want to speak about, John 
 Norton." 
 
 " Yis," returned the Trapper, " I know there be somethin' 
 else. What do you wish done with it? Speak the word 
 boy, and it shall be done as ye say, whatever be the orders 
 or however fur yer arrand takes me." 
 
 The Lad looked at the Trapper and made a slight motion 
 of his wrist toward him ; aud then he looked at Henry and 
 made the same motion. 
 
 " Which ? " said the Trapper. 
 
 " Both," replied the Lad, softly. 
 
 Both knew what he meant. Both knew how he loved it. 
 Both knew what a testimony he was giving them of the 
 depth of his affection, in thus making them joint heirs and 
 custodians of that which had been to him what the harp 
 was to the dumb angel : the source of joy inexpressible, 
 the one precious medium through which that in him in 
 which he was superior to others might pour itself forth 
 with such volume of evidence that none could dispute, and 
 which being admitted gave him at once rank and prece- 
 dence among men. 
 
 " It is well settled, Lad," slowly and solemnly answered 
 the Trapper, after his mind had canvassed the matter a 
 moment. "Yis, it is well settled. It shall stay in the 
 cabin till I go ; then Henry shall take it j and when he 
 comes on and jines us, he shall do with it what seems best 
 
430 - ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 in his jedgment. Is that as it should be, Lad? Is that 
 what ye mean ? " 
 
 " Yes," said the Lad, feebly j " that is the way I wish it to 
 be. That is what I mean." 
 
 Here the conversation ended, for the Lad had grown fee- 
 bler as it progressed, and the last words had been spoken 
 scarcely above a whisper. He had disposed of his earthly 
 possessions. The things that he loved he had given to the 
 two men he loved, and as if he was conscious that he had 
 done with the earth his mind retired within itself, and he 
 lay with a look on his face that showed he still had the use 
 of his faculties but through them was communing only with 
 the invisible. 
 
 The medical attendant looked significantly at Herbert, 
 and moving within reach of the Trapper, touched him softly 
 on the arm. The old man, whose eyes had not moved from 
 the countenance of the Lad, nodded his head as evidence 
 that he understood the communication. The life that had 
 been peaceful — that had been filled with the peace of inno- 
 cence — was drawing to a peaceful close. The departure of 
 so simple a spirit from its mortal frame, the rising of so 
 sweet a soul as it left the earth to appear in the presence 
 of its Maker, could not be attended with any sudden or start- 
 ling manifestation. He opened his eyes only once more; 
 looked for a moment into the face of Herbert, turned them 
 upon the countenance of the Trapper, held them there for 
 an instant as if taking in every feature of the face he had 
 loved so well, — as though he would fix the loved lineaments 
 indelibly on his memory for the long parting, and then he 
 
THE MAN THAT DIDN'T KNOW MUCH. 431 
 
 lifted them upward, and while the light of a deep joy dark- 
 ened in their depths, — the joy of a recognition of some 
 one he had expected to see with too sincere a faith to be 
 surprised at meeting, said, as naturally as a child might 
 say it on the earth : — 
 
 " Mother ! " 
 
 And then the gray film that gathers sooner or later over 
 all mortal orbs formed suddenly over his. And thus with- 
 out pang or motion his spirit passed away. And there in 
 the farm-house by the sea, near the beach where he played 
 when a boy, and the grave of his mother, " The Man "Who 
 Didn't Know Much " lay dead. 
 
SKETCHES. 
 
ADIRONDACK LETTERS. 
 I. 
 
 EN ROUTE. 
 
 " Let Hercules himself do what he may, 
 The cat will mew, and dog will have his day." 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 TZTEKE I am at the half-way house, between Keesville and 
 Martin's, on Lake Saranac, waiting for dinner. You can 
 imagine my feelings, for I am all emptiness, and don't know 
 what has become of myself. Indeed, I feel as if I am only 
 the case in which I once was, but am no more, — I myself 
 having slipped out like a razor from his shell, and been left 
 along the road in little bits at a time for the last fifteen or 
 twenty miles. I am actually hollow. I am like a tin canis- 
 ter with nothing in it, or a pepper box from which the pep- 
 per has all been sifted. Outwardly I look just as I did after 
 breakfast at the Van Ness House, in Burlington, at six 
 o'clock this morning ; but inwardly I am not the same. I 
 know that I should look as I feel, but I can't. If I did — . 
 Dinner ! Hurrah ! 
 
 It 's done. I have eaten! I am full! I feel natural-like 
 I am actually heavier on my legs, perceptibly so, than I was 
 twenty minutes ago. I can turn round and keep my bal- 
 
436 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 ance like a top that isn't all point and shank. I can put my 
 hands on either side of my body and press myself without 
 fear that they will meet in the middle of me. What a glo- 
 rious thing corporosity is ! I understand now what Hamlet 
 had in mind when he said to his Father's shade : " Poor 
 ghost." He pitied it because it hadn't any body. It was 
 thin, unsubstantial, hollow, as a man who has ridden in a 
 stage-coach twenty miles over a plank road before dinner. 
 I know how a ghost feels when he is floating about, light as 
 a feather, and I feel the fine discrimination shown in Ham- 
 let's remark. 
 
 But how glorious is man's estate after he has eaten a good 
 dinner ! What solid dignity he has attained ; what a satis- 
 factory sense of substantialness is his ; how the blessed feel- 
 ing of fulness adds to his self-respect ; and with what an 
 unctuous complacency he can regard his fellow men. A full 
 stomach is the very mother of sweetest charity. 
 
 But the dinner, — let me tell you about that ; for there is 
 a great difference in dinners. Some are lean, others are tat. 
 Some are only tormenting suggestions of what a meal should 
 be, while others are real, solid, satisfactory. Now, this din- 
 ner was a dinner that was a dinner. It was not a prophetic 
 affair, but an actual realization — a fruition of the appetite 
 — heaven to the stomach. The bell rung, not with a little, 
 thin, dyspeptic tintillation, but with a hearty, full-toned 
 sound, as if it appreciated our hunger and was gladly con- 
 scious of the benevolence of its summons. It was not a 
 mere ring. It had a language in its call, and said : " Come 
 on and eat your fill ! come on and eat your fill ! " in a deep, 
 
LETTERS FROM THE WILDERNESS. 437 
 
 jovial tone, that made you feel that the house was full of 
 food from cellar to attic. Such a summons always starts 
 me. To me it sounds like the voice of duty, which admits 
 of no refusal. I was at the table in an instant. 
 
 I slid into my chair as quick as an otter slides into a 
 creek. The serving girl was at my elbow in a wink. She 
 said : — 
 
 u Eoast-beef-roast-mutton-ham-and-eggs and-trout ! " 
 
 I looked at her with my face all beaming, and said : — 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 She stared at me. I beamed again, and she vanished to- 
 ward the kitchen with a strange look on her face. But she 
 understood, that girl did. She felt the emphasis of my ex- 
 pression, and began to bring on the food. The roast beef 
 was good, the roast mutton better, the ham and eggs simply 
 delicious. The trout looked a little suspicious — they seemed 
 rather thin and old, as if they had been kept a long time 
 for company, like the politicians' reform principles ; — but I 
 took them in — the trout I mean. Then she said : — 
 
 " Coffee or tea ? " 
 
 I said : — 
 
 " Both." 
 
 Two cups were brought full of — something. The color 
 of the liquids was identical. It didn't taste like coffee. I 
 tasted the other. It didn't taste like tea or coffee either. I 
 did not like to show my ignorance, but I was compelled to 
 do it. I was for once fairly cornered, and said, looking her 
 mildly in the face : — 
 
 " My dear girl, can you tell me which is the tea and which 
 is the cofffee ? " 
 
438 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 She looked at the two cups. She lifted one to her nose 
 and smelt of it. Then she lifted the other and smelt of 
 that. Then she lifted both and inspected them critically. 
 Then she put them both down on the table and started to 
 call her mother. She was evidently puzzled. She had prob- 
 ably never had such a question propounded to her before. 
 I felt as T looked at her that it was a question beyond her 
 years. I said : — 
 
 "Never mind, don't feel badly over it. When you get 
 older you will know more, or perhaps you can have the cups 
 marked, so there can be no mistake." She smiled — a smile 
 that began at the corner of her mouth, crept round the 
 curve of her lips, clomb up a stairway of laughing lines 
 into her eyes, and finally broke in light all over her face. 
 She was happy again, and coming close up to my chair, said 
 interrogatively : — 
 
 "Pies?" 
 
 I fairly jumped. She had touched an hereditary weak- 
 ness. "When was there ever a time when one of my name 
 would not eat pie ? I turned around in my chair and ex- 
 claimed : — 
 
 " Have you pies in this house ? " 
 
 Her answer electrified me. It came out of her mouth 
 like walnuts out of their shells, when the bough is shak- 
 en: — 
 
 " Easpberry, blackberry, apple, custard and mince pie." ! 
 
 I looked at her as at one who should bring news of the 
 millennium, — 
 
 " Bring them on ! " I shouted, " bring them all on ! " 
 
LETTERS FROM THE WILDERNESS. 439 
 
 Five kinds of pie all before me at once, and each better 
 than the other — when have I seen such a sigbt ? Those 
 pies came but they never returned. Oh ! the pleasure of 
 eating one piece and tben seeing four more pieces left un- 
 touched! Never have I had such a feast since, when a 
 youugster, I used to steal a whole mince pie from mother's 
 cupboard and go out back of the barn and eat it alone, 
 washing it down with plenty of watermelon. Things taste 
 differently now-a-days. 
 
 At the close of the meal there was a novel entertainment 
 introduced, gratis. I had finished the fourth piece of pie, 
 and was just engaged with the fifth, when I heard a hoarse 
 rasping noise, as if a heavy bag was being drawn across the 
 floor, and looking up discovered the cause. In the middle 
 of the doorway stood a cat, — a maternal cat, — who had 
 spied my black pointer, "Jet,"- who stood at my elbow 
 watching me eat and expectantly awaiting her turn, with no 
 murderous designs on cat or kittens at all. But the feline 
 temperament is suspicious and wrathful ; and this cat was a 
 termagent anyhow, born under some evil star, and bent on 
 haviug a row. Now, to my mind there is always a terrible 
 fascination in the process of preparation which a cat goes 
 through preliminary to a combat. There is such a delibei- 
 ate spitefulness about it j such a murderous malignity of 
 design as it passes from one phase of expression to another, 
 that it is impossible to withdraw your eyes from the crea- 
 ture as she passes through her spasms. Now, this cat was 
 no exception to 7 ier tribe. Her mannerism was perfect after 
 its kind. Wbvn I first looked up she stood in the doorway 
 
440 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 with a suggestive curve in her back and a slightly swollen 
 appearance about her tail. She stood and swelled. The 
 curve in her back grew and grew. Her tail bulged until it 
 was enormous. Her eyes blazed hotter and hotter. Her 
 mouth opened wider and wider, and out of it came a sac- 
 cession of noises that were simply frightful. How that cat 
 could keep anything inside of her and spit in that way was 
 a Fiarvel. 
 
 Of course Jet had not been an unmindful spectator of the 
 scene. She had been interviewed before in this style, and 
 knew what was coming. Her hair ridged up on her back ; 
 her tail stiffened straight as an iron ramrod ; and her lips 
 tightened over her white teeth. Any cat that was at all 
 sensible would have left such a dog alone. But this feline 
 had no caution at all. And when she left the doorway, and 
 began to sidle across the floor toward Jet, I knew if things 
 kept on much longer, the " peace of Europe would be dis- 
 turbed." I was just lifting myself from my chair, or get- 
 ting my legs out from under the table so I could lift myself 
 from the chair, when that cat went into the air like a flash, 
 and exploded in a series of the most unearthly noises over 
 Jet's back. Of course, no decent dog would stand any such 
 conduct as that, and Jet didn't. Now you understand this 
 was a suddenly improvised affair ; I had no programme to 
 go by, and didn't understand at all where the different parts 
 came in ; and besides the actors did not seem to require any 
 special prompting, and evidently needed all the room to 
 themselves. So, feeling that I wasn't needed, and might 
 actually be in the way if I remained, I retired out through 
 
LETTERS FROM THE WILDERNESS. 441 
 
 the window to the piazza, where I could contemplate the 
 development of the action from a back seat, as it were. Of 
 one thing I am certain : I have never, in city or country, 
 seen a more intense performance. It was the very climax 
 of high tragedy. The actors were up to their best key, and 
 going it strong. I saw that the thing was drawing to a fine 
 point. Either I shouldn't have any dog in a few minutes, 
 or the man wouldn't have any cat to speak of. One of the 
 two things was certain. At that instant the door burst 
 open, and the man himself, with a broom in his hand, burst 
 into the room, and began to lay about him right and left. 
 But this only stirred Jet up tremendously. The cat and the 
 broom together brought out her best points. The way she 
 went after that cat, under the table, between the man's legs, 
 back of the stove, was indescribable. But the actors were 
 not all on the stage yet. For again the door burst open, 
 and a woman, without hoops on, and with a washboard in 
 her hand, shot into the apartment with a look of interroga- 
 tion on her countenance frightful to see. She didn't stand 
 still more than a second, for Jet came against her in a way 
 that sent her spinning. This was too much. I dropped 
 on the piazza, rolled off upon the ground, dug my fingers 
 into the turf, and laughed ! 
 
 In less than four seconds, I saw a cat come out through 
 the front door, about half way up from the door-sill to the 
 ceiling, followed by a dog in full bolt, with a big broom and 
 a washboard close behind. The cat lit on her feet, of 
 course, and went up a tree in the door-yard faster than any 
 cat has ever done that thing since the beginning of the 
 
442 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 world. I clucked to Jet, and sloped around the corner of 
 the house, and streaked it through the garden down back 
 of the bam, where I laid myself down on the grass again, 
 and rolled over and over, wiping the tears from my eyes. 
 
 This is all, this time. My pencil is worn down to the last 
 inch, and I must stop. If I ever get to " Martin's," I will 
 tell you what I see. But I think I shall spend this vacation 
 traveling round with Jet, and stopping at country hotels, 
 where there are plenty of cats. I have an idea that such a 
 course would yield me a great deal of innocent fun such as 
 even a deacon couldn't object to. 
 
IT WAS THE VERY CLIMAX OF HIGH TRAGEDY." Page 442, 
 
II. 
 
 CROSSING A CARRY IN THE DARK. 
 
 "Sport, that wrinkled care derides, 
 And laughter, holding both his sides." — Milton. 
 
 a VlTELL," said I to my companion, "shall we go up or 
 * go down ! " 
 We were at the mouth of Bog Eiver, where it pours nois- 
 ily into the outlet of Little Tupper, — wet, hungry, and 
 tired. The sun had disappeared behind the pines that 
 crested the mountains to the west, and a bluish dusk was 
 darkening in the air. The rapids back of us were fretting 
 hoarsely in the growing gloom of balsam-bearing banks, 
 while below the water lay level and motionless, save where 
 some tiny fish broke the smooth surface, or a king-fisher 
 stilled his harsh chattering by a noisy plunge after his prey. 
 If we went " down," two miles of easy boating would bring 
 us to Big Tupper, and to the delightful camp-ground on 
 Breezy Point, where we had slept the night before, and 
 where we knew the droning pines would give our weary 
 bodies drowsy welcome. If we went "up," there were 
 eight miles of river and lake boating, and two miles of " car- 
 rying," before we could reach " Bobbins," on Little Tupper. 
 The one camp-ground was within thirty minutes of us, the 
 other four hours of good sharp work away, and it was sun- 
 set, and we were dripping ; but, in spite of this, the vote 
 
444 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 was unanimous to go " up." The work would keep us warm, 
 and tbe moon was at the full, and Little Tupper for quiet, 
 peaceful beauty and happy memories, to us is next door to 
 heaven. And so we started " up." 
 
 We reached the first " carry " before the daylight had 
 wholly faded out ; crossed it with hurrying steps, and 
 launched again upon the easy flowing stream. By this time 
 the red in the west had faded into gray. Tbe sky above was 
 a dusky blue, lit into splendor here and there by a small, 
 diamond-like star, that shone with quick, pointed brilliancy. 
 A wavy fleece lay on the still stretches of the river, and the 
 drip of the balsam thickets as their gummy stems yielded 
 forth their liquid odors, could be heard on either bank. To 
 say that it was still, is no description. Even the silence 
 seemed to listen. Night, robed only in thinnest darkness, 
 stood on the mountains, — shy, timid, breathless, as if she 
 feared the Day would suddenly rush back and devour her 
 with his fierce rays. The air was sweet with her breathings. 
 Cedar and pine, balsam and meadow-grass, lily and wild 
 rose, mingled their fragrance in the damp air. 
 
 Up through that paradise of odor we slowly passed. Up 
 through the fragrant darkness, with careful paddles at bow 
 and stern, we felt our way, until, half by sight and half by 
 instinct, we recognized the second carry, and ran our boat 
 with easy motion shoreward. The carry is a mile and a 
 half wide, and heavily timbered, but well cut out, and al- 
 though very uneven, not difficult to traverse in the day. 
 
 Now, crossing a carry by daylight is one thing, and cross- 
 ing it in the night-time altogether another. We had some 
 
LETTERS FROM THE WILDERNESS. 445 
 
 fun in crossing this carry that night of which the world will 
 never know, — fan all to ourselves, and of such a kind as 
 makes a man sit down and laugh three or four minutes in 
 one spot. We walked up against two or three trees that 
 night, and put our arms around them in the most affection- 
 ate manner. We found that our nose was in front of our 
 face twice, — an unnecessary distance in front of our face, 
 as it seemed to us. We stepped into several holes that 
 made us cross our legs with a snap, and lurch backward 
 and forward, as if we had been cut half in two above the 
 hips, and had lost all our " connections." Once we stopped 
 suddenly on a slippery stick, in a mudhole, and began to 
 bow to an imaginary person in the most silly fashion. The 
 salutations we gave that invisible presence were as profound 
 as the salaams of a desert Arab. We bowed with emphasis. 
 We bowed with determination. We bowed with a snap in 
 the recovery that nearly broke our neck. Oh, we had fun 
 on the carry that night ! — fun that converted our eyes into 
 springs of happy water, and made our very ribs ache in 
 laughter. The fact is, the funniest laughter is the laughter 
 that one has alone. It is very well to laugh in company, 
 for custom and benevolence alike demand it ; but, for the 
 most part, company laughter is forced. It is a made-up, 
 artificial thing, or else too slight and decorous to be hearty 
 and adequate. But when the spirit of fun gets into one 
 when all alone by himself to such an extent as to fairly pos- 
 sess him, and he sits down and puts his hands against his 
 sides, and opens his mouth, and begins to sway backward 
 and forward, until his eyes rain with mirth, and he fairly 
 
446 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 wrestles inwardly with his hilarity, then his laughter is the 
 genuine thing. Well, we laughed after this Adamite fashion 
 several times on that carry j laughed so that the solemn old 
 pines fairly danced before us ; and Silence, tickled out of 
 her gravity, shouted, " Ha-ha ! " and roared, " Ho-ho-o-o-oh !" 
 The fairies, that the legend says sleep in the pines, and from 
 amid their sombre branches moan in sympathy for human 
 woe, must have puckered their tiny faces for once, and 
 screwed their little lips into decorum only by the greatest 
 effort, as they saw the great big human underneath laugh- 
 ing the great, roaring, rollicking laughter of the " natural 
 man." 
 
 At last we reached the farther end of the carry, and pass- 
 ing from under the dark archway of the gloomy trees, 
 emerged into the glorious light of the newly risen moon. 
 Upon the white beach of Eound Lake we stood a moment 
 to contemplate the scene. The winds were asleep. Not a 
 stray puff skirted the shore, or put the imprint of its tran 
 sient pressure on the water ; the lake lay level and smooth, 
 while the moon poured its beams in even radiance upon its 
 surface, which glinted them back as if it were a great glass 
 mirror. Along the shores, and in the recesses of the bays, 
 Night lay in ambush, watching with lowering brow and 
 gloomy eyes the triumph of the skies. The very firmament 
 seemed to be endued with sense, and to be tranquilly happy 
 as it beheld the peacefulness of the earth. From out its 
 lofty and unvexed composure it looked with sweet compla- 
 cence down at the heaven of peace which lay defined by its 
 own light tranquilly beneath it. Whatever severance may 
 
LETTERS FROM THE WILDERNESS. 447 
 
 have come between God and man, I said to myself, the har- 
 mony of the old connection between Heaven and Nature, at 
 least, has never been lost. 
 
 We pushed our boat out into the yielding water and easily, 
 as those who would not hurry from what is rarely found, 
 passed, with a motion that opened a wedge-like wake 
 through the smooth water into the white light, heading 
 straight toward the field of snow-white lilies, which, by 
 their fragrance, bar the entrance of evil spirits into Little 
 Tupper. In the city, we buy a single lily and rejoice, or if 
 in strolling on a lake shore we find a dozen grouped, we cry 
 out with delight. But here, before me, as I floated through 
 the moonlight, were acres of lilies, in full bloom : yea, miles 
 of them, making the white moonlight still whiter, and yield- 
 ing forth their perfume to the air, as love yields to love, 
 lavishly. In a few moments we came to them and our boat 
 cleft its way through the clustering globes, that grew only 
 the sweeter at the disturbance. We did not hurry — who 
 would, in such a place and at such an hour ? Many a time, 
 in passed years, had we floated across that perfumed field, 
 and as between the fragrance of the lilies to the senses, and 
 the memories of the years to the soul, it was hard to say 
 which were the sweeter. For there is nothing finer in na- 
 ture than men can make to their souls, if they but love 
 right things and do right deeds. Love is more fragrant and 
 innocence whiter than even the lily may be. 
 
 As we swung around the sharp curve that marks the 
 entrance into Little Tupper, a breeze, that had been startled 
 out of its slumber by some vagrant echo, wandering care- 
 
448 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 lessly in the air, came bustling down the lake, and striking 
 coldly against our wet garments, chilled us to the bone. It 
 is astonishing how loose a man's teeth will get on these 
 northern lakes, when a current of cold air strikes against 
 him when his clothes are as wet as his paddle staff, and the 
 vital force has been drained out of him by fourteen hours 
 of backing and boating. I had not been two minutes in 
 that cold current before I had more teeth in my mouth, and 
 more mouth around the teeth, too, than I knew what to do 
 with. My upper jaw lost its permanency and my lower jaw 
 its steadfastness of adjustment, and they hammered against 
 each other in the most alarming fashion, while the poor 
 teeth rattled and shook like dried peas in a pod. 
 
 There was " Music in the air," and of such a sort as angels 
 never heard, as we hurried along into that rising current of 
 cold air ; and when we crawled out of the boat at " Bob- 
 bins," and shook the kinks out of our chilled legs, their stif- 
 fened joints fairly snapped, and the cords ridged out as if 
 the imps of rheumatism had put their fiendish leverage upon 
 them. We had no "change" with us — we didn't take a 
 very large wardrobe along on this trip — and when we had 
 aroused our host our first and most emphatic request was 
 for " old clothes." Now the resources of the house in this 
 direction were abundant in quantity, but terribly deficient 
 in proportion. The garments which fell to my share were 
 good enough for their proprietor, probably, but they were 
 evidently cut for a man several years younger than I am. 
 The pantaloons were two or three stories too short, and the 
 shirt would have made the Egyptians bow down and wor- 
 
LETTERS FROM THE WILDERNESS. 449 
 
 ship. But perseverance conquers all obstacles ; and having 
 got myself into the top of those trousers, with the help of 
 my companion, I shook myself down to the bottom of them, 
 and some ways below the bottom of them, too. Indeed, 
 when I fairly got through those breeches I found they were 
 of a Continental cut, and precisely of the fashion our fathers 
 wore a century ago. But the shirt was a mystery. Off from 
 me it looked as a shirt should look, but when I had got it 
 on it looked as no shirt has ever looked for six thousand 
 years. My arms went into and went through the sleeves as 
 a tin peddler goes through a toll-gate, when he is too much 
 hurried by pressure of business to stop and pay the assess- 
 ment. I never knew what long arms I had until I got into 
 that shirt. There was room for a dozen bracelets below the 
 cuff-buttons, and when I got to bed I felt as if I wanted 
 one bed for my body and another for my arms. But the 
 warmth of those dry, coarse garments! How. the chilled 
 skin glowed under them, and how the shrunken veins 
 swelled again and the cold current flowed with a genial 
 glow. Ah, me ! no wonder the old poets sang that " Death 
 is cold but life is warm; " or, that the fire worshippers, amid 
 the Persian roses, dreamed that life came out of the sun, 
 and that the spirit of man was but a spark from a mighty 
 flame, for true it is that the dead are cold and the warm 
 alone are alive. It was after midnight, when, warm and 
 happy, we stretched six feet of comfortable weariness on 
 an easy bed, and with visions of Bog River rapids, dark car- 
 ries, a moon-lit lake, and a field of white lilies floating 
 dreamingly in our mind, we passed from the world of sense 
 
450 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 and feeling into that dim land of which we know nothing 
 save that we enter it weary, stay awhile, and come forth re- 
 freshed. 
 
m. 
 
 CLIMBING WHITE FACE. 
 
 "That's a perilous shot." — Shakespeare. 
 
 'Night's candles are burnt out, and jocund day 
 Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops." 
 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 ' \ \7"H0 ever ascended a mountain, worthy of the name, 
 and did not meet with some laughable experiences ? 
 Above all, who ever attempted to cheat nature out of her 
 just dues by riding up a mountain on horseback and was 
 not made to feel her revenge ? Now this was precisely what, 
 as a party, we purposed to do. It was five miles from the 
 hotel to the summit of White Face, up two of which the 
 the path or trail, — for it was then a mere trail — was so 
 steep as to compel the pedestrian to crawl at times literally 
 on his hands and knees. The man who cut the trail out 
 had evidently never heard of the beauty of a curved line, 
 for he turned neither to the right hand nor to the left, but 
 having set his nose in a mathematically straight line with 
 the top, conscientiously followed it. Across gulches and 
 over bowlders j down the sides of chasms arid up precipi- 
 tous ledges, steep as a French roof — wherever that inflexi- 
 ble nose pointed, he " went for it." I have often thought 
 what an invaluable piece of property that nose would be- 
 
452 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 come should the owner chance to be lost on a western prai- 
 rie. No danger of his walking in circles with that wonder- 
 ful projection in front of him. Now, tramping is something 
 I never admired. I can get along very well tramping down 
 hill, but when the path begins to run upward, I always get 
 in and ride. This peculiarity runs all through our family. 
 When I married I fortunately found a wife of the same dis- 
 position, only a little more so. The other lady of the party 
 shared our feelings. So when we were asked whether we 
 preferred to ride or walk, the decision was charmingly unan- 
 imous, — as all family decisions should be. We all voted 
 one way — to ride. 
 
 So we mounted : one lady on a side-saddle, the other a la 
 common sense, which is the way I always ride. I cannot 
 describe the horses. Mine was not large enough to des- 
 cribe. It might have been different with a shorter man, 
 but it took me some time after I was mounted to discover 
 that I was mounted. I finally concluded, on the whole, that 
 I was, at least as much as I should ever be on that horse. 
 It was the only time in my life that I could ride or walk at 
 the same time. I asked the landlord, as I started off, which 
 pair of legs I was expected to attend to. He pointed out a 
 very likely pair, and I used them. I got on so well with 
 them that I brought them home with me, and have kept 
 them ever since. 
 
 For the firet half mile I ran. Then I rested, and the 
 horse ran. Then I let down and took another turn at it. 
 Then the horse tried it again, and so we kept it up between 
 us, until we came to a ravine from which the mountain 
 
LETTERS FROM THE WILDERNESS. 453 
 
 sloped upward like a roof. By this time I was in good 
 practice, and ready for almost anything. "Up, up we went ; 
 the ladies ahead and nearly out of sight. It was impossible 
 for the horse and me to spell each other here and so we 
 both walked — holding each other up by turns. At last we 
 came to a long, sloping ledge, that rose at a fearful inclina- 
 tion. Directly over this the trail led. A wall of rock, like 
 the sides of a water-spout, on either hand, made turning 
 aside impossible. I summoned up all my energies, got the 
 six feet under me in as good position as I could, and with a 
 yell calculated to start the carcass of death itself, dashed at 
 it. TJp, up we scrambled. We were twenty feet from the 
 bottom when the pony, either from exhaustion or pure wil- 
 fulness, stopped. Of course I stopped too. It was an awk- 
 ward position. I realized it. Safety lay in the pony's pluck 
 and power. Never did my affection go out so strongly to- 
 ward any animal. Never before did I know how much I 
 could love a horse. I embraced him — putting my arms 
 entirely around his neck. I exhorted him energetically 
 with my voice, -and a little otherwise. But no argument, no 
 entreaty, could prevail on that animal to go ahead. On the 
 other hand, he began to go behind. First one foot gave 
 way, then another. When he slipped, I slipped. At last 
 the movement backward began to get lively. If he kept 
 improving his gait he would land me, as nearly as I could 
 calculate, at the foot of the mountain in about ten minutes. 
 The motion had already become so considerable that the 
 tails of my coat began to stream the wrong way j when, by 
 a slight deviation Irom the true line of descent, we came in 
 
454 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 contact with a tree. It was a large hemlock of twelve 
 inches in diameter, with a ledge of about ten tons weight 
 back of it. We struck it fair. It held. I involuntarily put 
 my hand to my neck to ascertain if my head had been 
 snapped off. My head was still there. The discovery re- 
 lieved me. I do not, it is true, know how a man would feel 
 with his head off, but I do know how he feels when he un- 
 expectedly discovers that it is still on. 
 
 As I sat meditating on what I should do next, I heard the 
 sound as of some heavy body coming rapidly down the 
 mountain. The next instant it came in sight. It was a 
 horse ! Its manner of descent was identical with mine, only 
 considerably more rapid. Being higher up when it started 
 it had had a chance to improve on its gait, and was now 
 making, as I judged, pretty nearly its best time. I can 
 never describe my feelings as I sat and saw that horse com- 
 ing toward me. It is possible for a brave man to stand and 
 face rifle bullets and cannon balls. There is glory in it if 
 you should get killed, and that thought helps some ; but to 
 have a whole horse shot at you at short range is absolutely 
 appalling. But fortune favored me. The animal kept the 
 straight line of descent, and went past without hitting me. 
 
 Thankful for my deliverance, and inwardly vowing that I 
 would never attempt to ride up a mountain again, I walked 
 off my horse and toiled my way upward until I reached the 
 Lodge just under the crest, where, in the gathering dark- 
 ness, I found the ladies safe and sound, and where we 
 passed the night. 
 
 Now, if there is a person who has any intention of writ- 
 
LETTERS FROM THE WILDERNESS. 455 
 
 ing rue a letter, begging me to tell him if this is a literal, 
 truthful, and orthodox account of our ascent up White Face, 
 I assure him now beforehand that I shall never answer that 
 note, but advise him to go and " ask John ! " 
 
 Morning dawned. Our feet were on the summit while yet 
 the eastern sky was gray and cold. Anon a warmer hue 
 spread over it. Three gleams of purple shot upward, 
 wavered and waved an instant, then stood in fixed forma- 
 tion. Around their bases a line of carnation appeared, and 
 widened, until it became an arc of rose. The stars above 
 us paled. As if stricken with envy, they sickeued and 
 died. Venus alone resisted, and gave up her hold on life as 
 a dolphin, whose colors deepen in death. The fog beneath 
 lay heavy on the valleys, covering with its white folds the 
 lesser mountains. At length the uppermost point of the 
 red orb appeared. A shaft of yellow light ploughed through 
 the upper stratum of the fog as a cannon-ball ploughs 
 through a swarded field, and rent it in twain. It was only 
 the first shaft from a bow that in an instant shot forth a 
 score of flaming arrows. The fog was thick and stubborn ; 
 but what might resist the orb appointed of God to lighten 
 the world ! The fleece relaxed its hold upon the hills. It 
 surrendered its empire over the valleys. It fled from the 
 still waters of a thousand lakes. It untwined its fingers 
 from the misty pine tops ; and, ushered in with glory, God's 
 sweetest gift to man — the holy day of rest came to the 
 world. 
 
 To us it was indeed a sabbath in the heavens. The sky 
 was cloudless. Not a scud or patch of fleece in the entire 
 
456 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 firmament, — a perfect vault of deepest blue, filled with a 
 pure, white light. The air was cool, moviDg in steady cur- 
 rent past us. Not a sound was heard, save when an eagle, 
 swooping upward on his dark pinions, startled at the sight 
 of human faces a thousand feet above his eyrie, challenged 
 us with his wild cry, then sailed away. And there for hours 
 we three sat on the gray rocks, in the deep silence and the 
 white light, worshiping. Near midday a change occurred. 
 Beneath us clouds began to form. Over Big Tupper's Lake, 
 fifty miles to the west, a dark bank gathered. We watched 
 it rise. We saw a flash cleave it from top to bottom ; and, 
 after a long interval, a heavy boom shook the thin air around 
 us into vibrations, aDd the huge bulk beneath us trembled 
 to the deep jar. It was the signal-gun, ordering an ad- 
 vance. Straight on the cloud came. It marched across the 
 wilderness as a battery sweeps to the front, in some pinch 
 of battle, halting ever and anon to deliver a volley. We 
 saw the shadow on the forest. We saw the flash and blaze. 
 We heard each successive boom, and felt beneath us the 
 answering jar. Near and more near it came. It swept 
 against the mountain on whose crest we stood, as an army 
 charges a citadel, struck it, and recoiled. But the wild 
 forces of the wind urged it from behind, seeming to cheer 
 it on. It pressed to the attack, swept over the outlyiug 
 spurs, and wrapped the mountains about on all sides. It 
 had triumphed. Then did our eyes behold a spectacle rarely 
 witnessed, even by mountaineers. Five hundred feet below 
 us hung the cloud. We cOuld look into its black center, 
 and see the lightnings play. We could hear the crash of 
 
LETTERS FROM THE "WILDERNESS. 457 
 
 thunder in the gorges far beneath, the dull roar of the 
 gathering torrents, the crush of falling trees as they went 
 down with thump and boom, while above us the sun was 
 shining brightly, and the heavens were cloudless. At last 
 the cloud broke ; half swayed to the north, and half to the 
 south : but a black fragment torn off from the main body, 
 and lifted by some rising column of air, rose slowly up, fol- 
 lowing the gorge on whose brink we stood, until it folded 
 us in its dark vapor. Still rising, until it stood some hun- 
 dred feet above our heads, the rarefied current died out be- 
 neath it, and pausing a moment in the still air, it poured out 
 its myriad drops. The sun smote against the crystal globes, 
 until they gleamed and glowed, and a gorgeous arc grew in 
 the air so nigh that we could put our hands into the crimson 
 tints. " See, see ! " said one, " we hold the rainbow in our 
 hands, and we will call this Eainbow Gorge." And the old 
 guide said, " Let it be so called forever." 
 
 The hours rolled on ; and a Sabbath such as we had never 
 before passed, drew to its close. The sun stooped to its 
 setting ; and, standing on the topmost pinnacle, we watched 
 to see the day die out. Never before had our eyes seen, 
 and never again, doubtless, will they behold such a sight. 
 The old guide, whose axe had first blazed a path up its steep 
 side ; who, thirty years before, had built him a stone lodge 
 upon its crest, ,that he might pass his nights upon this 
 mountain, so dearly did he love the charm of its solitude ; 
 whose face was as rough and seamed as the gray granite 
 on which he stood, said, as he crouched at our feet, wrapped 
 in his blanket, that never but thrice before had he seen 
 
458 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 such a sunset. The air was cool and crisp, bearing against 
 us with a steady current from the west. It did not vary. 
 There was no eddy, nor ripple, nor undulation in it. It 
 seemed as if the whole atmosphere had become loosened, 
 and was moving bodily eastward. With what words shall I 
 be able to make you see what we saw ? The air was pure 
 and clear as a newly-cut diamond, white and colorless as 
 mountain air always is, — a perfect lens through which with 
 unimpeded eye we saw the marvelous transfiguration from 
 day to night go on. Five thousand feet beneath us, Lake 
 Placid slept, verifying its name. In the south, a hundred 
 mountain peaks were ablaze with the peculiar red sunset 
 light. For a hundred miles the wilderness stretched away, 
 — a deep green sea, across whose surface the sun was cast- 
 ing great fields of crimson. Amid the darker portions 
 eighty patches of gold flashed, representing as many lakes. 
 Eastward the valley of Champlain lay in deep shadow. To 
 the north, bounding the vision like a thread of silver, 
 gleamed the St. Lawrence. In the valley to the south, lay 
 the martyred dust of him who died on a Virginia gallows, 
 that American manhood and American liberty might not 
 perish. The closing moment now had come. The heavens 
 to the west were swathed in the richest tints of scarlet and 
 orange. A thousand colors lay on forest and lake. The 
 mountain summits flamed. The sun, like a globe of liquid 
 fire, quivering in the intensity of its heat, stood as if bal- 
 anced on the western pines. Down into them it burnt its 
 way. Pausing for a moment, and only for a moment, it 
 poured its warm benediction upon the forest, sent a crimson 
 
LETTERS FROM THE WILDERNESS. 459 
 
 farewell to each mountain-top, kissed the clouds around its 
 couch, shook, quivered, dropped from sight ! And there in 
 the crisp air we three stood, and gazed iu silence westward, 
 until the shadows deepened along the sky, the fog crept in 
 and filled once more the valleys at our feet ; and the wil- 
 derness which had been to me and mine a nurse and home, 
 and which we feared we should never see or enter together 
 again, lay wrapped in silence and in gloom. 
 
THE ADIRONDACK SERIES, 
 
 OF WHICH THIS VOLUME IS THE FIRST, 
 
 WILL BE CONTINUED IN 
 
 THE GOLDEN RULE, 
 
 OF WHICH 
 
 Rev. W. H. H. MURRAY is Editor-in-Chief. 
 Beginning Sept. 1. 
 
 The first story will be " CRAZY JOHN, or The Hermit of Long 
 Lake," who is briefly introduced in this volume, and the history of 
 Avhose life, founded on facts, and worked up in connection with Mr. 
 Murray's imagination, will make one of the most vivid bits of story 
 writing ever published. 
 
 The Golden Rule has already won an unprecedented success; and 
 this success has been won on its merits. Its high character and low 
 price have pushed it in the face of hard times, until its circulation is 
 among the largest of any like ptaper in the country. 
 
 It is without a rival in its special field as a family journal, maintain- 
 ing first-class departments in 
 
 Literature, Keligion, Agriculture, and News. 
 
 In addition to the Adirondack Series, its Literary Department con- 
 tains short Stories, Sketches, Reviews, Poems, Book Notices, and con- 
 tributions and selections from the choicest current literature. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC 
 Reading for the Farm and Fireside. During the past year, the articles 
 in this department have been quoted far and wide in the press of the 
 country. 
 
 A CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT 
 
 Is added to the second volume, and contains stories, instruction, fun, 
 and entertainment for the young folks. 
 
 A REVIEW OF THE WEEK, 
 Embracing an editorial summary of all the news, except crimes, scan- 
 dals, and sensations. 
 
 N.B. — Of course it is understood that no pressure of literary matter, 
 will ever be allowed to crowd out Mr. Murray's Sermons and Bible- 
 Class Talks, to whose publication in our columns The Golden Rule 
 largely owes its quick and unprecedented success. 
 
 Price $2.50 a year; $1.25 for six months. Sample copies free. 
 Address 
 
 The Golden Mule Publishing Company, 
 
 146 Tkemont St., Boston. 
 
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