Bennett, Emerson - Prairie Flower 01

by The Prairie Flower (lit)

  Now it was, as if the whole wilderness were full of demons, that the most terrific yells resounded on all sides, and some fif teen or twenty savages, naked all but the breech-clout, hideously painted, were seen dodinn«» - among the scattering trees, making

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  toward us, and discharging their muskets

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  and bows at random. A bullet striking the stock of my rifle just above where my hand grasped it, splintering it, and sending some of the pieces into my face, maddened me not a little ; and I vowed revenge upon the first savage I could lay eyes on.

  "Give the skunks h 1!" shouted a roice ; and ere the words were fairly ut tered, some three or four rifles belched forth tncir deadly contents, and three more savages rolled howling in the dust.

  At this moment I discovered a powerfuj Indian making toward me, not ten feet distant, his basilisk eyes fairly shining like two coals of tire ; and raising my rifle quick as lightning to my face, without pausing even to sight it, I lodged- the con tents in his body. He staggered back, partly turned to fly, reeled, and then with a howl of rage fell to the earth a corpse.

  The Indians of the Far West, of the present day, are not the Indians of former times, whose wigwams once rose where now stand our cities and hamlets, and whose daring in war, when led by a Phil lip, a Pontiac, or a Tecumseh, could only be excelled by their cunning and ferocity. No ! far from it. The present tribes have degenerated wonderfully. They axe, take them as a whole, a dirty, cowardly, despi cable set, without one noble trait, and not worth the powder it takes to kill them. They will attack you, it is true ; but then they must treble you in numbers ; and if they fail in killing or completely overpow ering you at the onset, ten to one but they will beat a hasty retreat, and leave you master of the field.

  Of such dastardly wretches was com posed the party which had assailed us. Although vastly superior to us in num bers, they now seemed completely thun derstruck at the result of an attack, which, doubtless, they had counted on as certain victory. Five of their party had already bitten the dust, and yet not one of us had been touched. Notwithstanding this, even had they possessed one half the cour age and daring of their eastern forefathers, they might to all appearance have annihi lated us. But no ! they dared not longer fight for victory. Like frightened pol troons, as they were, they wavered for a | moment, and then, as their last hope, made !a "break" for our animals, with the in tention of seizing and making oft" with them, and thus leaving us to foot our long jour ney. But even in this they failed, through their own cowardice ; foi* comprehending their intent, the trappers, with yells as sar- age as their own, sprang from their trees, and rushing toward them, they instantly abandoned their design, and again most ingloriously fled.

  Two of our party, however, Fiery Ned and Rash Will, were far from being satisfied

  ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST.

  45

  trith even this victory. Maddened with rage, and a desire of farther revenge, they actually leaped onward after the fugitives, and quickly disappt ired from our view. For a lime we could hear them shouting and yelling ; but gradually the sounds grew fainter and more faint, until at last nothing whatever could be heard.

  " The infernal skunks ! " said Black George, stepping out from behind his tree, and giving vent to a quiet, inward laugh, peculiar to men of his profession. " Reck on they'll stay put a few, and not trouble as agin in a hurry ; " and again he laughed as before. " But what fools Ned and Will is ? They're never content with a fair whip, but must al'ays be tryin to do a heap more ; and some day they'll git thar hair raised, and go under with a vengeance, or I'm no sinner. But I say, Tom ? "

  ' Well, boss ? "

  ' Didn't we throw 'em purty ? "

  ' Well we did, old coon."

  ' I'll be dog-gone if we didn't. Come,

  let

  s lift thar hair auo-h !

  With this, both trappers drew their knives, and taking from a little bag at tached to their garments a small sand stone, commenced sharpening them Avith as much indifference as if they were about to slice a buffalo, instead of dipping them in the blood of human beings. When done, their whetstones were carefully re placed, and then turning to me, who with Huntly and Teddy had meantime gathered around the two, the old mountaineer said :

  " Boy, you've done somethin for the fust time, and needn't be ashamed on't. Throwed him cold in his tracks, I'll be dog-gone ef you didn't ! " and he nodded toward the Indian I had slain. "Well, he's your meat ; and so at him and raise his top-knot afore he gits cold."

  I shuddered at the bare thought of such barbarity, and involuntarily shrunk back.

  " 0, then you're a leetle squeamish, hey? Well, I've heern tell o' sich things afore : but it won't last long, Bosson, take my word for't. Ef you don't raise hair afore you're a thousand year older, jest call me a liar and stop off' my bacca."

  " No ! " I replied, firmly : " I could never be brought to degrade myself by a custom wtech originated with, and, if it' must still be practiced, should eve" belong to, the

  savage. I may kill an Indian in my defence, but I cannot mutilate him when dead.. I was bred in a very different school."

  "Bread, be !" returned Black

  George, not comprehending any meaning. " This here ain't bread it's meat ; and as to skule, as you calls it, why that ar belongs to the setlements ; and haint got nothin to do out hereaways in the woods. Eh! Tom?"

  " Well it haint."

  " No, I'll be rumfuzzled ef it hev ! And so, stranger, ef you want to show you're smart a heap, you'll jest lift that ar skunk's hair and say no more about it. Eh ! Tom?"

  " Fact ! augh ! "

  " No ! " I rejoined in a decisive tone, " I will have nothing to do with it. If you choose to scalp the Indian, that is no busi ness of mine ; but I will not so degrade myself."

  " Well, ef your mind's made up, in course it's no use o' talkin ; and so, Tom, let's begin to slice."

  At this moment we heard the report of a distant rifle, quickly followed by another.

  " Them boys is eyther throwed now, or else some Injins have got rubbed out," ob served Black George indifferently, "Come, Tom, let's lift."

  Saying this, the old trapper and his companion set about their bloody work, The first Indian they came to was not dead ; and running his knife into his heart, with a barbarous coolness that made me shudder, Black George observed :

  " That's your meat, Tom."

  He then pas.sed on, leaving the latter to finish the bloody task. Bending over the now dead savage, and seizing him by the hair of the head which, instead of a long lock or cue as worn by some tribes, was short and ridged, like the comb of a fowl. Daring Tom ran his knife round the skull bone with a scientific flourish, tore off the scalp, and knocking it on the ground to free it as much as possible from gouts of blood, coolly attached it to his girdle, and proceeded to the next.

  " What a horrid custom ! " I exclaimed, turning to Huntly.

  "It is, truly," he replied. "But then you know, Frank, it is one thai belongs to

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  UK- Indian and mountaineer ; and as we have come among tliem voluntarily, we have no right of course to quarrel with them fur it."

  " Be jabers ! " cried Teddy, " is it mur- llu I'in^- the Injins twice they is, now, your honors ? "

  " Li would seem so," replied Huntly, with a smile.

  ' FMI.II, and your honor, and it's meself as thinks they naad it, sure, the blathering' spalpeens, to be coming- round us pace-able citizens wiJ their nonsense, and entiling our troats. Och ! it' I'd a knowed how to lit oft this bothersome article, (holding up His rifle) I'd a killed a dozen o' the baastly crathurs, I would."

  " Why, Teddy," I rejoined, " I thought you knew how to shoot a rifle? at least you to LI us so."

  Teddy scratched his head, and put on a Very comical look, as he replied :

  " Yes, but ye sae, your honor, it was an Irish rifle I was spaking of, barring that

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  It wasn't
made in Ireland.at all, at all, but in France, jist."

  " But I thought they did not allow you to use rifles in Ireland, Teddy ? "

  " No more they don't ; but thin, ye sae, it isn't sich murJiering thing-s as this now they uses."

  " What then ? "

  "Why, I most forgit meself," returned the Irishman, with a perplexed look, again scratching his head. " Och ! now I come to think on't, I belave it shot wid a long stick, and that it wasn't meself as shot it at all, at all. but me mother's father that knowed sich things pace to his ashes."

  "Teddy," In-joined, assuming a serious tone which I was very far from feeling, " it is evident that this is the first rifle you ever laid hands on, and that the story you told us on the boat, about your exploits in shooting', was without the least foundation whatever."

  " Ah ! troth, it's like it may be," an swered the Hibernian, penitently, with a sigh. " It's like it may be, your honor ; for tlivil a thing else can me make out of it. But ye sae, ye questioned me close now, and I's afeared that didn't I have the qualifications ye axed, I'd not be naaded ; and as I saan ye was raal gintlemen, and DO blathers of spalpeens, it was going wfti

  yoursel's Teddy O'Lagherty was afthn doing, if he told a story, jist for which howly Mary forgive me!"

  " Well, well, Teddy, never mind," 1 said, smiling. "I will show you the USP of the rifle the first convenient opportunity ; and so let what is past be forgotten."

  "Ah!" cried the grateful Irishman, doffing his beaver and making a l ow bow " I knowed ye was gintlemen, yoiir honors, every inch of yees, and wouldn t be hard upon a poor forlorner like meself."

  "Ha!" exclaimed Huntly, "listen!** and at the moment we heard the gloomy howl of a pack of wolves.

  " They already smell the feast prepared for them, " I rejoined.

  " Well, Frank, let us return to our camp fire ; for I see the trappers have nearly completed their unenviable task."

  Acting upon his suggestion, we set for ward, and gaining the fire, were soon joined by Black George and Daring Tom, who came up with five bloody scalps dan- p-lincr at their girdles bringing- with them

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  also some two or three rifles, a fresh supply of powder and ball, and various other trifles which they had taken from the dead Indians,

  " I think we can count a coup this heat,'* observed the old mountaineer, with hia peculiar, quiet lau^'h : " Eh ! Tom ?"

  "We can't do nothin else," was the satisfactory response.

  " I say, Tom, them wolves smell blood."

  " Well they does."

  " Thar's plenty o' meat for 'em, any how; and ef they'll jest foller us, and them skunks of Pawnees want to try this here over a«nn, we'll make 'em fat. Eh ! Tom ?"

  " Will so-o."

  " Yes, I'll be dog--gone ef we don't ! But I say, Tom, ain't it most time for Rash and Fire to be in ? "

  " I reckon."

  " Hope they didn't git throwed. It 'ud be a pity to hev them go under jest now and would spile all our sport."

  " Well it would, hoss."

  " Hark ! thar goes a whistle ! That'* them, or I'm a nigger."

  "'Taint nobody else," responded Dar ing Tom.

  "" All right. Augh ! Let's smoke."

  Squatting themselves upon the ground, cross-leg'g'ed, the trappers tilled their pipea,

  ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST.

  and commenced puffing away as though not] ling had happened to disturb their equanimity. Such perfect recklessness of life, such indifference to danger, I had never seen displayed before ; and though I abhorred some of their customs, I could not but admire their coolness and valor. Their sense of hearing I soon discovered was far more acute than mine ; for when the old trapper spoke of the whistle of his comrades, I could not, for the life of me, detect a distant sound proceeding from human lips. But that he was right, was soon evident ; for in less than five minutes after. Fiery Ned and Rash Will made their appearance, and quietly stealing up to the aircle, threw themselves upon the ground without a remark. At the belt of each hun 1 -' 1 a fresh scalp, showing that two more

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  of the enemy had been their victims.

  For some time the two smoked away in silence, and then suggesting to the others the propriety of joining them, all four were soon in full blast. After a little, they began to -talk over their exploits ; and amusing themselves in this way for an hour or more, one after another straight-

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  ened himself out on the earth, an example which Teddy soon imitated, and in h've minutes all were lost in sleep.

  As for Huntly and myself, slumber had fled our eyelids ; and stirring the fire, we

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  seated ourselves at a little distance and talked till daylight I narrating my singu lar dream, and both commercing upon it. All night long we heard the howling of the ravenous wolves, as they tore the flesh from the bones of our dead foes, and oc casionally caught a gleam of their fiery eye- balls, when they ventured nearer than asxial to our camp.

  CHAPTER X.

  JOURNEY RESUMED UNPLEASANT FEELINGS

  UAMf 1 RESTLESSNESS A HALF FORM ED HESOLTTION THE LONELY WATCH

  TERRIFIC THUNDERSTORM PAINFUL SE PARATION JOYFUL MEETING LOSS OF

  ANIMALS SECOND CAMP.

  AT an early hour in the morning we re sumed our journey. As we moved along, I be.l'cld the bones of two of oxir late foes,

  basking white and ghastly in the sunlight, their clean-licked, shiny skulls, hollow sockets, and "Tinning teeth and iaws, fair-

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  ly making my flesh to creep And the more so, perhaps, as I took into considera tion that only a few hours before, these same bones belonged to animated human beings ; and that a mere turn of the whee* of fate might have placed me in their po sition, they in mine. Death is a solemn thing to contemplate at any time, and I was now in a mood to feel its terrors in more than their wonted force. My dream, although I tried to dispel it as only a dream, still made a deep impression upon my i mind ; and this, together with what oc curred afterward, and the remembrance of the conversation I had held with my friend the morning previous, touching Lil ian, all tended to depress my spirits and make me melancholy.

  At length, to rouse me from my sinking stupor, I turned my eyes upon Huntly ; but perceiving that he too was deep in thought, I did not disturb his revery ; while my own mind, settling back ihto itself, if I may be permitted the expression, wandered far away to the past, recalled a thousand old scenes, and then leaped forward to the fu ture, and became perplexed in conjectures regarding my final fate.

  About noon we reached the banks of the Blue river, and, as on the preceding day, halted a few minutes to rest and refresh ourselves and animals. Here I noticed trees of oak, ash, walnut and hickory, with occasionally one of cottonwood and willow. The bottoms of this stream are often wide and fertile, on which the wild pea vine grows in abundance. The pea itself is somewhat smaller than that grown in the settlements, and can be used; as vegetable, its flavor being agreeable.

  As our meat was now running slx*'^ Daring Tom observed that he would ' .nake somethin come ;" and setting forth with his rifle, soon returned heavily laden with wild turkeys. Hastily dressing, we threw them into our possible sacks, and again set for ward.

  Traveling some fifteen miles through woodland and over prairie, we encamped at last in a beautiful little grove of ash and hickory, on the margin of a creek that flow ed into the Blue. The day had been

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  excessively hot and sultry,and all of us were much fatigued. Starting a fire as usual we « ooked some of our turkey meat, and found it very delicious. As no Indian sign had been discovered through the day, it was i bought unnecessary to set a guard, and accordingly we stretched ourselves upon the earth around the fire, and in a few minutes, with the exception of myself, all were sound asleep.

  I 'ould not rest. I tried to, but in vain. The air was tilled with musquitoes, and variciis other insects, attracted hither by the fie-light, and they annoyed me ex
ceed ingly. This was not all. My mind, as in fact it had been throughout the day, was sorely depressed. A thousand thoughts, that I vainly strove to banish, obtruded themselves upon me. In spite of myself, I thought of my dream. Pshaw ! why should that trouble me ? It could not be true, I knew ; and was only caused by the previous remarks of Huntly, my excited feelings, and surrounding circumstances. Still it came up in my mind, as startlingly as I had dreamed it ; and, in spite of my scoffings, with every appearance of reality. I was not naturally superstitious, and did not believe in dreams but this one haunt ed me as a foreboding of evil to her Hoved; and as I lay and meditated, I half formed the resolution to set out in the morning upon my return, already sick of my under taking.

  It is one thing to read of adventures in others, and another to experience them ourself ; and this I felt, oh ! how keenly ! To strengthen my resolution, 1 pictured the home of my parents, the sadness which I knew must be preying upon them on ac count of my absence, and the flash of joy that would light their faces and warm their hearts on beholding their only son once more seated at their fireside, never to de part again while he or they were blessed with life. I thought over all this, and grew stronger in my new resolve ; and had it not been for the whimsical fear of ridi cule the idle jest of some coxcomb fool, for whose opinion or regard in any other way I cared not a straw it is more than probable this narrative had not been written.