Bennett, Emerson - Prairie Flower 01

by The Prairie Flower (lit)

  " Charley, you are in love."

  ' It may be," he answered with a sigh ;

  " but, alas ! if so, I love one whom 1 shall never behold again ; " and he dropped his head upon his .bosom in a musing mood.

  "Nay, nay, old friend," I said gaily; " it will not do for you to be getting senti mentally love-sick, away out here upon the prairies. Who knows but some day she you are thinking of, may, in spite of your now doleful looks, become your wife ! "

  " Frank," said Huntly, in quick reply, with a look of reproach, " if you knew my feelings, you would not wound them, I am sure, by untimely jests."

  " Good heavens ! Charley," I exclaimed, in surprise, at once grasping his hand with a hearty pressure ; "I wound your feel ings ? Why such a thought never entered my head. I spoke jestingly, it is true ; but I was not aware that the affair had become so serious. I was thinking at the time that one ailing youth in our camp was sufficient."

  " To whom do you allude ? "

  "Myself."

  " How so ? I ws not aware that you were ailing, as you call it."

  " Why, do you not know that I am in love, like yourself? "

  " Heavens ! not with her, Frank not with her ? " cried my friend, grasping my arm nervously, and peering into my face with a searching glance.

  " Ay, Charles, and I thought* you knew it. I acted wrongly, I know, and have deeply repented since."

  " But then, you you love her still, Frank ? "

  " Devotedly, as God is my judge ! " Huntly released my arm with a groan, and turned away his head.

  " What is the meaning of this, Charles? '* I inquired, in a tone of alarm.

  " Why did you not tell it me before ? " he said, with a long, deep sigh.

  " First, because it is a delicate subject, and I did not like to mention it. Second ly, because you have never before alluded to it yourself."

  " True ; but I did not dream it was so* God ! why, then, did you not let me perish in the flames ?"

  " Perish, Charles ? how strangely you talk ! Why should I have let you pensh? "

  " To end my misery."

  " Misery ? You alarm me, Charles

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  THE PRAIRIE FLOWER; OR,

  you are not well you have bad news or something has happened which you have kept from me?"

  "You love her, you say is not that enough ? But go on ! I will yield all to you. 1 will not stand in your way. No! sooner would I die than mar your happi ness. But I regret I did not know of it before."

  " Charles," I exclaimed, in real alarm, " what mean you by these strange words ? y'ou stand in my way ? I do not under stand you ; you have some hidden mean- ing!"

  " Have you, then, not divined that I love her?"

  "Ay."

  " And can two love the same, and both be happy ? "

  "Why not? I would not rob you of your love. True, I love her deeply, de votedly, I swear to you ; and I know you love her also ; but then our love is different. You love her as a brother but I, as some thing more than brother."

  "I see you are mistaken, Frank; and to show you how much I sacrifice to. your happiness, I will say, once for all, I love her as deeply, as devotedly, as passion ately as yourself; but not as a brother, my friend ; no, not as a brother."

  " Indeed* Charles ! " I cried, with a ter rible suspicion of something I dared not ex press : " Indeed, Charles !'" and I grasped his arm, and sought his eye with mine : " Indeed, Huntly ! No ! no ! gracious heavens ! you cannot mean what you have said ! Take it back, I beg of you, and avow you love her as a brother, and noth ing more for more would be criminal."

  " I do not see the criminality you speak of," he answered coldly. "Is it not enough that I have offered to sacrifice my own happiness, without being charged with rime ?*"

  "But Charles, my friend, consider! you have no right to an attachment warmer than a brother's."

  "Rigfit!" echoed Huntly, turning pale with excitement : " Right, say you ! By heavens ! when it comes to that, I know not why my right to love her is not as rood as yours."

  "Shall I tell you?"

  " Ay, do ! Quote me the law that makes

  it criminal for me to love and not your self," answered Charles, bitterly.

  " The law of consanguinity ? "

  " Heavens ! what do you mean ? "

  " Does not the same blood flow in the veins of both of you ? "

  " Good God ! you chill my blood with horror ! you do not mean this ? " and my friend turned deadly pale, reeled like on intoxicated, and grasped my aim for sup port. " I was not aware of this, Frank."

  I now became more alarmed than ever. Something had assuredly turned the brain of my friend, and he was now, (how I shuddered as. I thought) he was now a maniac !

  " Why, Charley," I said, in a tone as soothing as I could command, "surely you know her to be your sister ! "

  " Sister!" he fairly shrieked.

  "Ay, sister, Charley. Is not Lilian your sister?"

  " Lilian! " he cried, with a start, and a rapid change of countenance that terrified me. "Lilian ! then you were speaking of my sister Lilian ? "

  " Assuredly ! who else ? "

  Huntly looked at me a moment steadily, and then burst into an uncontrollable fit ol laughter, that made my blood run cold.

  " Great Heaven ! " I cried, " his senses are indeed lost ! " and I was on the poinl of hurrying to camp, to give the alann and get assistance, when, seizing me by the arm with one hand, and giving me a hearty slap on the shoulder with the other, he exclaimed :

  " Frank, if ever there were two fools, then you I and make four."

  " Poor fellow ! " I sighed, and my eyes filled with tears : " What a shock it will be to his family ! "

  "Why, Frank," he cried again, accom panying his words with another slap, "you are dreaming, man ! your senses are wool gathering."

  " Exactly," I said ; "he, of course thinks me insane, poor fellow ! "

  " Nonsense, Frank. It is all a mistake, my dear fellow, and a laughable one truly, as you must know. You were speiking of sister Lilian ; while I, all the time, was alluding to the fair unknown."

  " What ! " cried I, comprehending all at a glance; "then it is no insanity witt

  ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST

  you and we have both made fools of our selves indeed ? "

  " Exactly ; so give me your hand on it, my old chum ! "

  Instantly my hand was locked in that of my friend, and then such another shout of merriment as we both set up, at the ridicu lousness of the whole affair, I venture to say was never heard in that part of the country before nor since.

  "So, then," resumed I, "the secret is out, and we have both acknowledged to being deeply in love. Really, dear Char- t-y. I feel under great obligations to you for that meditated sacrifice more especial- y, as the lady in question is thousands of miles away, is entirely unknown to us, and will probably never be seen again by either Charles Huutly or Francis Leighton."

  " Tut, tut, tut, Frank ! ' No more of that, ? n' thou lovest me/ " returned my friend, good humoredly. " I admit that I have acted the simpleton ; but, at the same time (and he gave me a comical look), I feel proud to say I have had most excellent company Eh ! my dear fellow ? "

  " I acknowledge the corn."

  " But touching my sister, Frank."

  "Well, what of her?" I cried quickly, while I felt the blood rush to my face in a warm current.

  " Did you not act hastily too hastily in that matter, my friend ? "

  " I fear I did, and I have bitterly repent ed since. But I loved her so, Charley ; Knd you knew my passionate nature could not brook a rival."

  " A rival, Frank ! I never knew you had a rival."

  " What ! not know the elegant Mr. VVharton?"

  " Pah ! you did not take him for a rival, I hope."

  " Indeed I did. Does he not visit your house frequently?"

  " Yes, and so do fifty others ; but I as sure you dear Lilian will not marry them all."

  ' But but I thought Wharton a a
/>   " A fashionable gallant. So he is." " No a a special suitor to your sis- ttr's hand," 1 stammered, concluding the entence ray friend had interrupted.

  " Pshaw ! Frank. Why Lilian would

  not look at him other than to treat him respectfully, as she would any visitor much less marry him."

  " Then you think she does not lore him?"

  " Love him ! " echoed Huntly, with a smile of contempt, and an expressive shrug of his shoulders. "No! Lilian Huntly loves but one."

  " And who is he ? "

  " One certain hot-headed youth, ycleped Frank Leighton."

  " Are you sure of this, Charles ? " and 1 caught the hand of my friend, and fastened my eye steadily upon his.

  " I will stake my life on it ; and had you been possessed of your usual good sense that night you must have seen it."

  I released the hand I had clasped in mine, and staggered back as if struck a violent blow. My brain grew dizzy, my hands trembled, and it was with difficulty I could keep myself upon my feet. In stantly the arm of my friend encircled my waist, and he said, hurriedly :

  "Good heavens! what have I done! Frank, Frank, take this not so hard it will all be right in the end. Lilian and you were made for each other, I see ; and this separation will only serve to knit more closely the tie of affection between you when again you meet."

  I replied not ; I could not ; but I struck my head with my fist, and gave vent to a groan that seemed to issue from my very soul.

  "Is it there ye is, your honors? " said the voice of Teddy, at this moment. " Faith, now, I've bin lookin for yees wid my two eyes and ears this long while, to ax ye, would ye have your breakfast cooked, or be afther takin it raw ? "

  "Cooked, you fool!" cried Huntly, angrily.

  " Thin all I have to say is, it's waitin, your honors, and done beauthifully, by the chief cook and buthler, Teddy O'Lagherty, barring that he's no cook at all, at all, worth mintion, and divil a bit o' a buthler is in him now. And what's more, I'm to till ye that the Misther Trapphers is jist gitting ready to lave the whereabouts, and they sez be ye going wid them, they'll b axing yees to travel."

  " Sure, enough," said Huntly, looking

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  THE PRAIRIE FLOWER; OR,

  down toward the camp, "they are prepa ring 1 to leave in earnest. So come, Frank," and taking my arm in his, we descended the hill together in silence.

  CHAPTER VIII.

  OUR CAMP RAISED AND JOURNEY RESUMED

  A HALT COTTON'S CHEEK ORIGIN OF

  THE NAME ALARM PREPARATION FOR

  DEFENCE CAMP, ETC.

  BT the time that we had joined the trap pers, the sun was already risen, and stream ing his golden light over the broad prairie with a beautiful effect. Hastily partaking of our breakfast, watering our animals at a small creek which ran bubbling round the base of the little knoll so often men tioned, we prepared to raise our camp, as packing up to leave is termed by the mountaineers. Placing our saddles, pos sibles, etc., on our horses and mules, we mounted and took a northern course over the prairie.

  As we passed along, we saw a few deer away in the distance, and occasionally caught sight of a buffalo, while animals of various kinds and sizes appeared here and there, sporting in the glorious sunbeams and seeking their daily fare, both single and in numbers. However, as we had plenty of "meat" laid in for the present, we did not trouble them, but kept quietly along upon our course Black George taking the lead as pilot, and the rest of us following in his track, Indian file.

  A little past noon we came to a small creek which flows into the Blue Earth river, or "Big Blue," as I heard it called by the mountain men, and here we paused sixain to water our animals, and allow them a few minutes to crop the luxuriant grass beneath their feet.

  " That's time e nough, boys, I'm think- in," said Black George; "so what's the use o' hurryin ? Spect we wouldn't live no longer for't ; and jest to tell the fact, I'm in no particular drive to quit this warm sunshine, for the clouds and snow and ice o' the mountains Eh ! Ned ! augh ! "

  " Don't know's the mountain '11 be any better for our waitin," grumbled Ned ;

  " and as long's we've got to ^o, what's tl'O use o' our throwin away time here ? "

  "Augh!" grunted the old trapper. " You're al'ays in a haste, boy, and some day you'll git rubbed out in a haste, 01 I'm no beaver. Come, what say you, Torn ? you haint opened your face sence you bolted that meat leastwise to my knowin."

  " I don't care a chaw which stay 01 go suit yourselves," answered Daring Tom, sententiously.

  "Well, boys," rejoined the oid moun taineer, " we'll hold our wind here 'bout a quarter, and then travel."

  Saying which, he dismounted his mule, drew his pipe from a little holder suspend ed round his neck, and squatting upon the ground, deliberately filled and ignited it, by means of punk, flint, and steel, and commenced puffing away, as indifferent to everything or person around him, as if he had been paid expressly to pass his lifo in this manner. Fiery Ned, however, waa not pleased ; and ripping out a few oaths, on what he termed the " d d laziness of the other," he jerked up his mules and set forward, followed by Rash Will only Daring Tom and ourselves remaining with Black George. The last mentioned puffed away quietly, until the foremost party had disappeared, when taking hia pipe from his mouth, blowing out a large volume of smoke, and watching it as il curled round and round on its ascent, ere it disappeared, he turned to me with a comical look, and shrugging his shoulders and winking his eye, observed :

  " They'll not live no longer for it, hoss, I'll be dog-gone ef they will ! " Say ing which, he drew his legs a little more under him, and resumed his pipe with the gravity of a Dutchman.

  The spot where we were now halted was one of rare .beauty. It was a little valley, nearly surrounded by hills in the shape of a horse-shoe, along the base of which, like a silver wire, wound the little murmuring rivulet, its waters sparkling in the sunshine, becoming glassy in the shade, and mirroring the steeps above it as it gaily took its way to unite with the larger waters of the Blue. Above us, on three sides, rose the horse-shoe ridge, par tially bare with frowning rocks, and par tially covered with a dwarfish growch d/

  ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST.

  .39

  rarious kinds of wood.. The valley or bot tom was a rich alluvion, carpeted with fresh sweet grass which our animals cropped eagerly and with various kinds of wild flowers ; while hundreds of gay- plumed birds were hovering over our heads, or skimming along the surface, and thus checkering and enlivening the scene with their presence, and filling the air and our ears with the melody of their voices. The point of the valley not belted with the hills, looked out upon a prairie, which stretched away to the west, ani south, its half-grown grass waving in the breeze and resembling che light ripples of some beautiful lake.

  "What a lovely scene ! " .said Huntly. turning to me, as, dismounted, we, both

  o

  stood gazing upon it.

  " x. little Paradise that I have never seen surpassed," was my answer.

  " Yes, but everything Beautiful here abouts gits sp'iit to them as knows it a few," chimed in the old hunter, blowing the smoke deliberately from his mouth. " Now, I've no doubt this here place looks purty to you, but I've seen blood run hereaways a ugh ! "

  " Indeed ! " I exclaimed, advancing to the old trapper, as did each of the others, with the exception of Tom, who, having Sijuattecl himself some little distance off and lit his pipe, seemed wholly absorbed with thoughts of his own. "Then there has been lighting here in days gone by ?" I pursued.

  " Well, thar has, hoss," was the res ponse. " Ye see that ar creek, don't ye ? " pointing to it with the stem of his pipe.

  "Ay."

  "Well, it looks purty enough to one as don't know, but this coon's seen them wa ters red afore now.

  " Tell us the tale," said Huntly.

  Why it's long, Bosson, and we haint got time k) throw away so I'll hev to let it slide, I'm thinkin. Howsomever, I'll gin ye the gist on't, and I spose that'll do us well.
That creek you see yonder's bin called Cotton's Creek ever sence that time, and the reason ou't is. case a powerful good chap culled Jim Cotton, or "Snake- Eye," gnt nibbed out lhar bv the cussed Pawnees. Me and him, and Jake Strader, and Sigh Davis, had bin down to St. Lou- flT, a^id sold our oeavers to the Nor-Wes-

  ters,* (and them was the days when thcv fetched sonaethin five dollar a plew,| old or youDg uns, instead o' a dollar a pound augh !) and coming out to Independence with the ' rocks ' in our pockets, we got on a regular spree, and spent a few but not all and a infernal Greaser^ somehow git tin wind on't, and findin out jest which way we's a-goin, put out ahead, and got some five or six Pawnees to jine him, and come down here to cache for us.

  "Well, in course we w r asn't thinkin o' nothin dangerous, case our bottles warn't all emptied, and we felt h^ppy enough. Jest down here we stopped to water and rest like we're doin now, when all at once that ar bush you see yonder near the bank, let out seven bullets right among us. Jim Cotton was throwed cold, and never kick ed artcr, poor feller ! Jake Strader got arm broke, Sigh Davis a ball through his shoulder, and me one right into my calf. Then thinkin they throwed the majority, the oudacious skunks come tearin and yel- lin like sin, old, Greaser on the lead. A part broke for us, and the rest for our an imals, so as ef they didn't ' count a ccup ' they could put us 'afoot.'

  " ' Heyars hair, and a chance for dry powder gin 'em h ! ' sez I ; and I ups with old Sweetlove, and throwed old Grea ser cold, right in his tracks so cold ho never knowed what made meat of him, Greaser didn't.

  " Well, jest as mine went I heerd two more pops, and blow me for a liar ef two