The Prairie

by James Fenimore Cooper

  CHAPTER XI

  So foul a sky clears not without a storm. --King John.

  In the mean time the industrious and irreclaimable hours continuedtheir labours. The sun, which had been struggling through such massesof vapour throughout the day, fell slowly in a streak of clear sky, andthence sunk gloriously into the gloomy wastes, as he is wont to settleinto the waters of the ocean. The vast herds which had been grazingamong the wild pastures of the prairies, gradually disappeared, andthe endless flocks of aquatic birds, that were pursuing their customaryannual journey from the virgin lakes of the north towards the gulf ofMexico, ceased to fan that air, which had now become loaded with dew andvapour. In short, the shadows of night fell upon the rock, adding themantle of darkness to the other dreary accompaniments of the place.

  As the light began to fail, Esther collected her younger children ather side, and placing herself on a projecting point of her insulatedfortress, she sat patiently awaiting the return of the hunters. EllenWade was at no great distance, seeming to keep a little aloof from theanxious circle, as if willing to mark the distinction which existed intheir characters.

  "Your uncle is, and always will be, a dull calculator, Nell," observedthe mother, after a long pause in a conversation that had turned on thelabours of the day; "a lazy hand at figures and foreknowledge is thatsaid Ishmael Bush! Here he sat lolloping about the rock from light tillnoon, doing nothing but scheme--scheme--scheme--with seven as noble boysat his elbows as woman ever gave to man; and what's the upshot? why,night is setting in, and his needful work not yet ended."

  "It is not prudent, certainly, aunt," Ellen replied, with a vacancy inher air, that proved how little she knew what she was saying; "and it issetting a very bad example to his sons."

  "Hoity, toity, girl! who has reared you up as a judge over your elders,ay, and your betters, too! I should like to see the man on the wholefrontier, who sets a more honest example to his children than thissame Ishmael Bush! Show me, if you can, Miss Fault-finder, but notfault-mender, a set of boys who will, on occasion, sooner chop a pieceof logging and dress it for the crop, than my own children; though Isay it myself, who, perhaps, should be silent; or a cradler that knowsbetter how to lead a gang of hands through a field of wheat, leaving acleaner stubble in his track, than my own good man! Then, as a father,he is as generous as a lord; for his sons have only to name thespot where they would like to pitch, and he gives 'em a deed of theplantation, and no charge for papers is ever made!"

  As the wife of the squatter concluded, she raised a hollow, tauntinglaugh, that was echoed from the mouths of several juvenile imitators,whom she was training to a life as shiftless and lawless as her own;but which, notwithstanding its uncertainty, was not without its secretcharms.

  "Holloa! old Eester;" shouted the well-known voice of her husband, fromthe plain beneath; "ar' you keeping your junkets, while we are findingyou in venison and buffaloe beef? Come down--come down, old girl, withall your young; and lend us a hand to carry up the meat;--why, whata frolic you ar' in, woman! Come down, come down, for the boys are athand, and we have work here for double your number."

  Ishmael might have spared his lungs more than a moiety of the effortthey were compelled to make in order that he should be heard. He hadhardly uttered the name of his wife, before the whole of the crouchingcircle rose in a body, and tumbling over each other, they precipitatedthemselves down the dangerous passes of the rock with ungovernableimpatience. Esther followed the young fry with a more measured gait;nor did Ellen deem it wise, or rather discreet, to remain behind.Consequently, the whole were soon assembled at the base of the citadel,on the open plain.

  Here the squatter was found, staggering under the weight of a finefat buck, attended by one or two of his younger sons. Abiram quicklyappeared, and before many minutes had elapsed, most of the huntersdropped in, singly and in pairs, each man bringing with him some fruitsof his prowess in the field.

  "The plain is free from red-skins, to-night at least," said Ishmael,after the bustle of reception had a little subsided; "for I have scouredthe prairie for many long miles, on my own feet, and I call myself ajudge of the print of an Indian moccasin. So, old woman, you can give usa few steaks of the venison, and then we will sleep on the day's work."

  "I'll not swear there are no savages near us," said Abiram. "I, too,know something of the trail of a red-skin; and, unless my eyes have lostsome of their sight, I would swear, boldly, that there ar' Indians athand. But wait till Asa comes in. He pass'd the spot where I found themarks, and the boy knows something of such matters too."

  "Ay, the boy knows too much of many things," returned Ishmael, gloomily."It will be better for him when he thinks he knows less. But whatmatters it, Hetty, if all the Sioux tribes, west of the big river, arewithin a mile of us; they will find it no easy matter to scale thisrock, in the teeth of ten bold men."

  "Call 'em twelve at once, Ishmael; call 'em twelve!" cried his termagantassistant. "For if your moth-gathering, bug-hunting friend, can becounted a man, I beg you will set me down as two. I will not turn myback to him, with the rifle or the shot-gun; and for courage!--theyearling heifer, that them skulking devils the Tetons stole, was thebiggest coward among us all, and after her came your drivelling Doctor.Ah! Ishmael, you rarely attempt a regular trade but you come out theloser; and this man, I reckon, is the hardest bargain among them all!Would you think it, the fellow ordered me a blister around my mouth,because I complained of a pain in the foot?"

  "It is a pity, Eester," the husband coolly answered, "that you did nottake it; I reckon it would have done considerable good. But, boys, if itshould turn out as Abiram thinks, that there are Indians near us, we mayhave to scamper up the rock, and lose our suppers after all; thereforewe will make sure of the game, and talk over the performances of theDoctor when we have nothing better to do."

  The hint was taken; and in a few minutes, the exposed situation in whichthe family was collected, was exchanged for the more secure elevationof the rock. Here Esther busied herself, working and scolding with equalindustry, until the repast was prepared; when she summoned her husbandto his meal in a voice as sonorous as that with which the Imam remindsthe Faithful of a more important duty.

  When each had assumed his proper and customary place around the smokingviands, the squatter set the example by beginning to partake of adelicious venison steak, prepared like the hump of the bison, with askill that rather increased than concealed its natural properties. Apainter would gladly have seized the moment, to transfer the wild andcharacteristic scene to the canvass.

  The reader will remember that the citadel of Ishmael stood insulated,lofty, ragged, and nearly inaccessible. A bright flashing fire that wasburning on the centre of its summit, and around which the busy groupwas clustered, lent it the appearance of some tall Pharos placed in thecentre of the deserts, to light such adventurers as wandered throughtheir broad wastes. The flashing flame gleamed from one sun-burntcountenance to another, exhibiting every variety of expression, from thejuvenile simplicity of the children, mingled as it was with a shade ofthe wildness peculiar to their semi-barbarous lives, to the dull andimmovable apathy that dwelt on the features of the squatter, whenunexcited. Occasionally a gust of wind would fan the embers; and, asa brighter light shot upwards, the little solitary tent was seen as itwere suspended in the gloom of the upper air. All beyond was enveloped,as usual at that hour, in an impenetrable body of darkness.

  "It is unaccountable that Asa should choose to be out of the way at sucha time as this," Esther pettishly observed. "When all is finished andto rights, we shall have the boy coming up, grumbling for his meal, andhungry as a bear after his winter's nap. His stomach is as true as thebest clock in Kentucky, and seldom wants winding up to tell the time,whether of day or night. A desperate eater is Asa, when a-hungered by alittle work!"

  Ishmael looked sternly around the circle of his silent sons, as if tosee whether any among them would presume to say au
ght in favour of theabsent delinquent. But now, when no exciting causes existed to arousetheir slumbering tempers, it seemed to be too great an effort to enteron the defence of their rebellious brother. Abiram, however, who, sincethe pacification, either felt, or affected to feel, a more generousinterest in his late adversary, saw fit to express an anxiety, to whichthe others were strangers--

  "It will be well if the boy has escaped the Tetons!" he muttered. "Ishould be sorry to have Asa, who is one of the stoutest of our party,both in heart and hand, fall into the power of the red devils."

  "Look to yourself, Abiram; and spare your breath, if you can use it onlyto frighten the woman and her huddling girls. You have whitened the faceof Ellen Wade, already; who looks as pale as if she was staring to-dayat the very Indians you name, when I was forced to speak to her throughthe rifle, because I couldn't reach her ears with my tongue. How was it,Nell! you have never given the reason of your deafness?"

  The colour of Ellen's cheek changed as suddenly as the squatter'spiece had flashed on the occasion to which he alluded, the burning glowsuffusing her features, until it even mantled her throat with its finehealthful tinge. She hung her head abashed, but did not seem to think itnecessary to reply.

  Ishmael, too sluggish to pursue the subject, or content with thepointed allusion he had just made, rose from his seat on the rock,and stretching his heavy frame, like a well-fed and fattened ox, heannounced his intention to sleep. Among a race who lived chiefly for theindulgence of the natural wants, such a declaration could not fail ofmeeting with sympathetic dispositions. One after another disappeared,each seeking his or her rude dormitory; and, before many minutes,Esther, who by this time had scolded the younger fry to sleep, foundherself, if we except the usual watchman below, in solitary possessionof the naked rock.

  Whatever less valuable fruits had been produced in this uneducated womanby her migratory habits, the great principle of female nature was toodeeply rooted ever to be entirely eradicated. Of a powerful, not tosay fierce temperament, her passions were violent and difficult tobe smothered. But, however she might and did abuse the accidentalprerogatives of her situation, love for her offspring, while it oftenslumbered, could never be said to become extinct. She liked not theprotracted absence of Asa. Too fearless herself to have hesitated aninstant on her own account about crossing the dark abyss, into which shenow sat looking with longing eyes, her busy imagination, in obedienceto this inextinguishable sentiment, began to conjure nameless evils onaccount of her son. It might be true, as Abiram had hinted, that he hadbecome a captive to some of the tribes who were hunting the buffaloein that vicinity, or even a still more dreadful calamity might havebefallen. So thought the mother, while silence and darkness lent theiraid to the secret impulses of nature.

  Agitated by these reflections, which put sleep at defiance, Esthercontinued at her post, listening with that sort of acuteness which istermed instinct in the animals a few degrees below her in the scale ofintelligence, for any of those noises which might indicate the approachof footsteps. At length, her wishes had an appearance of being realised,for the long desired sounds were distinctly audible, and presently shedistinguished the dim form of a man at the base of the rock.

  "Now, Asa, richly do you deserve to be left with an earthen bed thisblessed night!" the woman began to mutter, with a revolution in herfeelings, that will not be surprising to those who have made thecontradictions that give variety to the human character a study. "Anda hard one I've a mind it shall be! Why Abner; Abner; you Abner, do yousleep? Let me not see you dare to open the hole, till I get down. I willknow who it is that wishes to disturb a peaceable, ay, and an honestfamily too, at such a time in the night as this!"

  "Woman!" exclaimed a voice, that intended to bluster, while the speakerwas manifestly a little apprehensive of the consequences; "Woman, Iforbid you on pain of the law to project any of your infernal missiles.I am a citizen, and a freeholder, and a graduate of two universities;and I stand upon my rights! Beware of malice prepense, of chance-medley,and of manslaughter. It is I--your amicus; a friend and inmate. I--Dr.Obed Battius."

  "Who?" demanded Esther, in a voice that nearly refused to convey herwords to the ears of the anxious listener beneath. "Did you say it wasnot Asa?"

  "Nay, I am neither Asa, nor Absalom, nor any of the Hebrew princes, butObed, the root and stock of them all. Have I not said, woman, that youkeep one in attendance who is entitled to a peaceable as well asan honourable admission? Do you take me for an animal of the classamphibia, and that I can play with my lungs as a blacksmith does withhis bellows?"

  The naturalist might have expended his breath much longer, withoutproducing any desirable result, had Esther been his only auditor.Disappointed and alarmed, the woman had already sought her pallet, andwas preparing, with a sort of desperate indifference, to compose herselfto sleep. Abner, the sentinel below, however, had been aroused froman exceedingly equivocal situation by the outcry; and as he hadnow regained sufficient consciousness to recognise the voice of thephysician, the latter was admitted with the least possible delay. Dr.Battius bustled through the narrow entrance, with an air of singularimpatience, and was already beginning to mount the difficult ascent,when catching a view of the porter, he paused, to observe with an airthat he intended should be impressively admonitory--

  "Abner, there are dangerous symptoms of somnolency about thee! Itis sufficiently exhibited in the tendency to hiation, and may provedangerous not only to yourself, but to all thy father's family."

  "You never made a greater mistake, Doctor," returned the youth, gapinglike an indolent lion; "I haven't a symptom, as you call it, about anypart of me; and as to father and the children, I reckon the small-poxand the measles have been thoroughly through the breed these many monthsago."

  Content with his brief admonition, the naturalist had surmounted halfthe difficulties of the ascent before the deliberate Abner ended hisjustification. On the summit, Obed fully expected to encounter Esther,of whose linguacious powers he had too often been furnished with themost sinister reproofs, and of which he stood in an awe too salutary tocovet a repetition of the attacks. The reader can foresee that he wasto be agreeably disappointed. Treading lightly, and looking timidlyover his shoulder, as if he apprehended a shower of something, even moreformidable than words, the Doctor proceeded to the place which had beenallotted to himself in the general disposition of the dormitories.

  Instead of sleeping, the worthy naturalist sat ruminating over what hehad both seen and heard that day, until the tossing and mutteringswhich proceeded from the cabin of Esther, who was his nearest neighbour,advertised him of the wakeful situation of its inmate. Perceiving thenecessity of doing something to disarm this female Cerberus, before hisown purpose could be accomplished, the Doctor, reluctant as he was toencounter her tongue, found himself compelled to invite a colloquialcommunication.

  "You appear not to sleep, my very kind and worthy Mrs. Bush," he said,determined to commence his applications with a plaster that was usuallyfound to adhere; "you appear to rest badly, my excellent hostess; can Iadminister to your ailings?"

  "What would you give me, man?" grumbled Esther; "a blister to make mesleep?"

  "Say rather a cataplasm. But if you are in pain, here are some cordialdrops, which, taken in a glass of my own cogniac, will give you rest, ifI know aught of the materia medica."

  The Doctor, as he very well knew, had assailed Esther on her weak side;and, as he doubted not of the acceptable quality of his prescription, hesat himself at work, without unnecessary delay, to prepare it. When hemade his offering, it was received in a snappish and threatening manner,but swallowed with a facility that sufficiently proclaimed how much itwas relished. The woman muttered her thanks, and her leech reseatedhimself in silence, to await the operation of the dose. In less thanhalf an hour the breathing of Esther became so profound, and, as theDoctor himself might have termed it, so very abstracted, that had he notknown how easy it was to ascribe this new instance of somnolency to thepowerful dose of
opium with which he had garnished the brandy, he mighthave seen reason to distrust his own prescription. With the sleep of therestless woman, the stillness became profound and general.

  Then Dr. Battius saw fit to arise, with the silence and caution of themidnight robber, and to steal out of his own cabin, or rather kennel,for it deserved no better name, towards the adjoining dormitories. Herehe took time to assure himself that all his neighbours were buried indeep sleep. Once advised of this important fact, he hesitated no longer,but commenced the difficult ascent which led to the upper pinnacleof the rock. His advance, though abundantly guarded, was not entirelynoiseless; but while he was felicitating himself on having successfullyeffected his object, and he was in the very act of placing his foot onthe highest ledge a hand was laid upon the skirts of his coat, which aseffectually put an end to his advance, as if the gigantic strength ofIshmael himself had pinned him to the earth.

  "Is there sickness in the tent," whispered a soft voice in his very ear,"that Dr. Battius is called to visit it at such an hour?"

  So soon as the heart of the naturalist had returned from its hastyexpedition into his throat, as one less skilled than Dr. Battius in theformation of the animal would have been apt to have accounted forthe extraordinary sensation with which he received this unlooked-forinterruption, he found resolution to reply; using, as much in terror asin prudence, the same precaution in the indulgence of his voice.

  "My worthy Nelly! I am greatly rejoiced to find it is no other thanthee. Hist! child, hist! Should Ishmael gain a knowledge of our plans,he would not hesitate to cast us both from this rock, upon the plainbeneath. Hist! Nelly, hist!"

  As the Doctor delivered his injunctions between the intervals of hisascent, by the time they were concluded, both he and his auditor hadgained the upper level.

  "And now, Dr. Battius," the girl gravely demanded, "may I know thereason why you have run so great a risk of flying from this place,without wings, and at the certain expense of your neck?"

  "Nothing shall be concealed from thee, worthy and trusty Nelly--but areyou certain that Ishmael will not awake?"

  "No fear of him; he will sleep until the sun scorches his eyelids. Thedanger is from my aunt."

  "Esther sleepeth!" the Doctor sententiously replied. "Ellen, you havebeen watching on this rock, to-day?"

  "I was ordered to do so."

  "And you have seen the bison, and the antelope, and the wolf, and thedeer, as usual; animals of the orders, pecora, belluae, and ferae."

  "I have seen the creatures you named in English, but I know nothing ofthe Indian languages."

  "There is still an order that I have not named, which you have alsoseen. The primates--is it not true?"

  "I cannot say. I know no animal by that name."

  "Nay, Ellen, you confer with a friend. Of the genus, homo, child?"

  "Whatever else I may have had in view, I have not seen the vespertiliohorribi--"

  "Hush, Nelly, thy vivacity will betray us! Tell me, girl, have you notseen certain bipeds, called men, wandering about the prairies?"

  "Surely. My uncle and his sons have been hunting the buffaloe, since thesun began to fall."

  "I must speak in the vernacular, to be comprehended. Ellen, I would sayof the species, Kentucky."

  Though Ellen reddened like the rose, her blushes were concealed by thedarkness. She hesitated an instant, and then summoned sufficient spiritto say, decidedly--

  "If you wish to speak in parables, Doctor Battius, you must find anotherlistener. Put your questions plainly in English, and I will answer themhonestly in the same tongue."

  "I have been journeying in this desert, as thou knowest, Nelly, in questof animals that have been hidden from the eyes of science, until now.Among others, I have discovered a primates, of the genus, homo; species,Kentucky; which I term, Paul--"

  "Hist, for the sake of mercy!" said Ellen; "speak lower, Doctor, or weshall be ruined."

  "Hover; by profession a collector of the apes, or bee," continued theother. "Do I use the vernacular now,--am I understood?"

  "Perfectly, perfectly," returned the girl, breathing with difficulty, inher surprise. "But what of him? did he tell you to mount this rock?--heknows nothing, himself; for the oath I gave my uncle has shut my mouth."

  "Ay, but there is one that has taken no oath, who has revealed all. Iwould that the mantle which is wrapped around the mysteries of nature,were as effectually withdrawn from its hidden treasures! Ellen! Ellen!the man with whom I have unwittingly formed a compactum, or agreement,is sadly forgetful of the obligations of honesty! Thy uncle, child."

  "You mean Ishmael Bush, my father's brother's widow's husband," returnedthe offended girl, a little proudly.--"Indeed, indeed, it is cruel toreproach me with a tie that chance has formed, and which I would rejoiceso much to break for ever!"

  The humbled Ellen could utter no more, but sinking on a projection ofthe rock, she began to sob in a manner that rendered their situationdoubly critical. The Doctor muttered a few words, which he intendedas an apologetic explanation, but before he had time to complete hislaboured vindication, she arose and said with decision--

  "I did not come here to pass my time in foolish tears, nor you to try tostop them. What then has brought you hither?"

  "I must see the inmate of that tent."

  "You know what it contains?"

  "I am taught to believe I do; and I bear a letter, which I must deliverwith my own hands. If the animal prove a quadruped, Ishmael is a trueman--if a biped, fledged or unfledged, I care not, he is false, and ourcompactum at an end!"

  Ellen made a sign for the Doctor to remain where he was, and to besilent. She then glided into the tent, where she continued many minutes,that proved exceedingly weary and anxious to the expectant without, butthe instant she returned, she took him by the arm, and together theyentered beneath the folds of the mysterious cloth.