The Pioneers; Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna

by James Fenimore Cooper

  CHAPTER XIV.

  "There's quart-pot, pint-pot. Mit-pint, Gill-pot, half-gill, nipperkin. And the brown bowl-- Here's a health to the barley mow, My brave boys, Here's a health to the barley mow." --Drinking Song.

  Some little commotion was produced by the appearance of the new guests,during which the lawyer slunk from the room. Most of the men approachedMarmaduke, and shook his offered hand, hoping "that the Judge was well;"while Major Hartmann having laid aside his hat and wig, and substitutedfor the latter a warm, peaked woollen nightcap, took his seat veryquietly on one end of the settee, which was relinquished by its formeroccupant. His tobacco-box was next produced, and a clean pipe was handedhim by the landlord. When he had succeeded in raising a smoke, the Majorgave a long whiff, and, turning his head toward the bar, he said:

  "Petty, pring in ter toddy."

  In the mean time the Judge had exchanged his salutations with most ofthe company, and taken a place by the side of the Major, and Richard hadbustled himself into the most comfortable seat in the room. Mr. Le Quoiwas the last seated, nor did he venture to place his chair finally,until by frequent removals he had ascertained that he could not possiblyintercept a ray of heat front any individual present. Mohegan found aplace on an end of one of the benches, and somewhat approximated to thebar.

  When these movements had subsided, the Judge remarked pleasantly: "Well,Betty, I find you retain your popularity through all weathers, againstall rivals, and among all religions. How liked you the sermon?"

  "Is it the sarmon?" exclaimed the landlady. "I can't say but it wasrasonable; but the prayers is mighty unasy. It's no small a matter for abody in their fifty-nint' year to be moving so much in church. Mr. Grantsames a godly man, any way, and his garrel a hommble on; and a devout.Here, John, is a mug of cider, laced with whiskey. An Indian will drinkcider, though he niver be athirst."

  "I must say," observed Hiram, with due deliberation, "that it was atongney thing; and I rather guess that it gave considerablesatisfaction, There was one part, though, which might have been leftout, or something else put in; but then I s'pose that, as it was awritten discourse, it is not so easily altered as where a ministerpreaches without notes."

  "Ay! there's the rub, Joodge," cried the landlady. "How can a man standup and be preaching his word, when all that he is saying is writtendown, and he is as much tied to it as iver a thaving dragoon was to thepickets?"

  "Well, well," cried Marmaduke, waving his hand for silence, "there isenough said; as Mr. Grant told us, there are different sentiments onsuch subjects, and in my opinion he spoke most sensibly. So, Jotham, Iam told you have sold your betterments to a new settler, and have movedinto the village and opened a school. Was it cash or dicker?"

  The man who was thus addressed occupied a seat immediately behindMarmaduke, and one who was ignorant of the extent of the Judge'sobservation might have thought he would have escaped notice. He was ofa thin, shapeless figure, with a discontented expression of countenance,and with something extremely shiftless in his whole air, Thus spoken to,after turning and twisting a little, by way of preparation, he made areply:

  "Why part cash and part dicker. I sold out to a Pumfietman who wasso'thin' forehanded. He was to give me ten dollar an acre for theclearin', and one dollar an acre over the first cost on the woodland,and we agreed to leave the buildin's to men. So I tuck Asa Montagu, andhe tuck Absalom Bement, and they two tuck old Squire Napthali Green. Andso they had a meetin', and made out a vardict of eighty dollars forthe buildin's. There was twelve acres of clearin' at ten dollars, andeighty-eight at one, and the whole came to two hundred and eighty-sixdollars and a half, after paying the men."

  "Hum," said Marmaduke, "what did you give for the place?"

  "Why, besides what's comin' to the Judge, I gi'n my brother Tim ahundred dollars for his bargain; but then there's a new house on't, thatcost me sixty more, and I paid Moses a hundred dollars for choppin', andloggin', and sowin', so that the whole stood to me in about two hundredand sixty dollars. But then I had a great crop oft on't, and as I gottwenty-six dollars and a half more than it cost, I conclude I made apretty good trade on't."

  "Yes, but you forgot that the crop was yours without the trade, and youhave turned yourself out of doors for twenty-six dollars."

  "Oh! the Judge is clean out," said the man with a look of sagaciouscalculation; "he turned out a span of horses, that is wuth a hundred andfifty dollars of any man's money, with a bran-new wagon; fifty dollarsin cash, and a good note for eighty more; and a side-saddle that wasvalued at seven and a half--so there was jist twelve shillings betwixtus. I wanted him to turn out a set of harness, and take the cow and thesap troughs. He wouldn't--but I saw through it; he thought I should haveto buy the tacklin' afore I could use the wagon and horses; but I knoweda thing or two myself; I should like to know of what use is the tacklin'to him! I offered him to trade back agin for one hundred and fifty-five.But my woman said she wanted to churn, so I tuck a churn for thechange."

  "And what do you mean to do with your time this winter? You mustremember that time is money."

  "Why, as master has gone down country to see his mother, who, they say,is going to make a die on't, I agreed to take the school in hand till hecomes back, It times doesn't get worse in the spring, I've some notionof going into trade, or maybe I may move off to the Genesee; they saythey are carryin' on a great stroke of business that-a-way. If the wustcomes to the wust, I can but work at my trade, for I was brought up in ashoe manufactory."

  It would seem that Marmaduke did not think his society of sufficientvalue to attempt inducing him to remain where he was, for he addressedno further discourse to the man, but turned his attention to othersubjects. After a short pause, Hiram ventured a question:

  "What news does the Judge bring us from the Legislature? It's not likelythat Congress has done much this session; or maybe the French haven'tfit any more battles lately?"

  "The French, since they have beheaded their king, have done nothing butfight," returned the Judge. "The character of the nation seems changed.I knew many French gentlemen during our war, and they all appeared tome to be men of great humanity and goodness of heart; but these Jacobinsare as blood thirsty as bull-dogs."

  "There was one Roshambow wid us down at Yorrektown," cried the landlady"a mighty pratty man he was too; and their horse was the very same. Itwas there that the sargeant got the hurt in the leg from the Englishbatteries, bad luck to 'em."

  "Oh! mon pauvre roil" muttered Monsieur Le Quoi.

  "The Legislature have been passing laws," continued Marmaduke, "thatthe country much required. Among others, there is an act prohibiting thedrawing of seines, at any other than proper seasons, in certain of ourstreams and small lakes; and another, to prohibit the killing of deerin the teeming months. These are laws that were loudly called for byjudicious men; nor do I despair of getting an act to make the unlawfulfelling of timber a criminal offence."

  The hunter listened to this detail with breathless attention, and, whenthe Judge had ended, he laughed in open derision.

  "You may make your laws, Judge," he cried, "but who will you find towatch the mountains through the long summer days, or the lakes at night?Game is game, and he who finds may kill; that has been the law in thesemountains for forty years to my sartain knowledge; and I think one oldlaw is worth two new ones. None but a green one would wish to kill a doewith a fa'n by its side, unless his moccasins were getting old, or hisleggins ragged, for the flesh is lean and coarse. But a rifle ringsamong the rocks along the lake shore, sometimes, as if fifty pieces werefired at once--it would be hard to tell where the man stood who pulledthe trigger."

  "Armed with the dignity of the law, Mr. Bumppo," returned the Judge,gravely, "a vigilant magistrate can prevent much of the evil that hashitherto prevailed, and which is already rendering the game scarce. Ihope to live to see the day when a man's rights in his game shall be asmuch respected as his title to his farm."

  "Your titles and your farms are
all new together," cried Natty; "butlaws should be equal, and not more for one than another. I shot adeer, last Wednesday was a fort night, and it floundered through thesnow-banks till it got over a brush fence; I catched the lock of myrifle in the twigs in following, and was kept back, until finally thecreature got off. Now I want to know who is to pay me for that deer; anda fine buck it was. If there hadn't been a fence I should have gottenanother shot into it; and I never drawed upon anything that hadn't wingsthree times running, in my born days. No, no, Judge, it's the farmersthat makes the game scarce, and not the hunters."

  "Ter teer is not so plenty as in tee old war, Pumppo," said the Major,who had been an attentive listener, amid clouds of smoke; "put ter lantis not mate as for ter teer to live on, put for Christians."

  "Why, Major, I believe you're a friend to justice and the right, thoughyou go so often to the grand house; but it's a hard case to a man tohave his honest calling for a livelihood stopped by laws, and that, too,when, if right was done, he mought hunt or fish on any day in the week,or on the best flat in the Patent, if he was so minded."

  "I unterstant you, Letter-Stockint," returned the Major, fixing hisblack eyes, with a look of peculiar meaning, on the hunter: "put youdidn't use to be so prutent as to look ahet mit so much care."

  "Maybe there wasn't so much occasion," said the hunter, a littlesulkily; when he sank into a silence from which he was not roused forsome time.

  "The Judge was saying so'thin' about the French," Hiram observed whenthe pause in the conversation had continued a decent time.

  "Yes, sir," returned Marmaduke, "the Jacobins of France seem rushingfrom one act of licentiousness to an other, They continue those murderswhich are dignified by the name of executions. You have heard that theyhave added the death of their queen to the long list of their crimes."

  "Les monstres!" again murmured Monsieur Le Quoi, turning himselfsuddenly in his chair, with a convulsive start.

  "The province of La Vendee is laid waste by the troops of the republic,and hundreds of its inhabitants, who are royalists in their sentiments,are shot at a time. La Vendee is a district in the southwest ofFrance, that continues yet much attached to the family of the Bourbons;doubtless Monsieur Le Quoi is acquainted with it, and can describe itmore faithfully."

  "Non, non, non, mon cher ami," returned the Frenchman in a suppressedvoice, but speaking rapidly, and gesticulating with his right hand, asif for mercy, while with his left he concealed his eyes.

  "There have been many battles fought lately," continued Marmaduke,"and the infuriated republicans are too often victorious. I cannotsay, however, that I am sorry that they have captured Toulon from theEnglish, for it is a place to which they have a just right."

  "Ah--ha!" exclaimed Monsieur Le Quoi, springing on his feet andflourishing both arms with great animation; "ces Anglais!"

  The Frenchman continued to move about the room with great alacrity for afew minutes, repeating his exclamations to himself; when overcome by thecontrary nature of his emotions, he suddenly burst out of the house, andwas seen wading through the snow toward his little shop, waving his armson high, as if to pluck down honor from the moon. His departure excitedbut little surprise, for the villagers were used to his manner; butMajor Hartmann laughed outright, for the first during his visit, as helifted the mug, and observed:

  "Ter Frenchman is mat--put he is goot as for noting to trink: he istrunk mit joy."

  "The French are good soldiers," said Captain Hollis ter; "they stoodus in hand a good turn at Yorktown; nor do I think, although I am anignorant man about the great movements of the army, that his excellencywould have been able to march against Cornwallis without theirreinforcements."

  "Ye spake the trot', sargeant," interrupted his wife, "and I would iverhave ye be doing the same. It's varry pratty men is the French; and jistwhen I stopt the cart, the time when ye was pushing on in front it was,to kape the riglers in, a rigiment of the jontlemen marched by, and soI dealt them out to their liking. Was it pay I got? Sure did I, andin good solid crowns; the divil a bit of continental could they musteramong them all, for love nor money. Och! the Lord forgive me forswearing and spakeing of such vanities; but this I will say for theFrench, that they paid in good silver; and one glass would go a greatway wid 'em, for they gin'rally handed it back wid a drop in the cup;and that's a brisk trade, Joodge, where the pay is good, and the men notover-partic'lar."

  "A thriving trade, Mrs. Hollister," said Marmaduke. "But what has becomeof Richard? he jumped up as soon as seated, and has been absent so longthat I am really fearful he has frozen."

  "No fear of that, Cousin 'Duke," cried the gentleman himself; "businesswill sometimes keep a man warm the coldest night that ever snapt in themountains. Betty, your husband told me, as we came out of church, thatyour hogs were getting mangy, and so I have been out to take a look atthem, and found it true. I stepped across, doctor, and got your boy toweigh me out a pound of salts, and have been mixing it with their swill.I'll bet a saddle of venison against a gray squirrel that they arebetter in a week. And now, Mrs. Hollister, I'm ready for a hissing mugof flip."

  "Sure I know'd ye'd be wanting that same," said the landlady; "it's fixtand ready to the boiling. Sargeant, dear, be handing up the iron, willye?--no, the one on the far fire, it's black, ye will see. Ah! you'vethe thing now; look if it's not as red as a cherry." The beverage washeated, and Richard took that kind of draught which men are apt toindulge in who think that they have just executed a clever thing,especially when they like the liquor.

  "Oh! you have a hand. Betty, that was formed to mix flip," criedRichard, when he paused for breath. "The very iron has a flavor in it.Here, John, drink, man, drink! I and you and Dr. Todd have done a goodthing with the shoulder of that lad this very night. 'Duke, I made asong while you were gone--one day when I had nothing to do; so I'll singyou a verse or two, though I haven't really determined on the tune yet.

  "What is life but a scene of care, Where each one must toil in his way?Then let us be jolly, and prove that we are A set of good fellows, whoseem very rare, And can laugh and sing all the day. Then let us be jollyAnd cast away folly, For grief turns a black head to gray."

  "There, 'Duke, what do you think of that? There is another verse ofit, all but the last line. I haven't got a rhyme for the last line yet.Well, old John, what do you think of the music? as good as one of yourwar-songs, ha?"

  "Good!" said Mohegan, who had been sharing deeply in the potations ofthe landlady, besides paying a proper respect to the passing mugs of theMajor and Marmaduke.

  "Bravo! pravo! Richart," cried the Major, whose black eyes werebeginning to swim in moisture; "pravisimo his a goot song; put NattyPumppo has a petter. Letter-Stockint, vilt sing? say, olt poy, vilt singter song as apout ter wools?"

  "No, no, Major," returned the hunter, with a melancholy shake of thehead, "I have lived to see what I thought eyes could never behold inthese hills, and I have no heart left for singing. If he that has aright to be master and ruler here is forced to squinch his thirst,when a-dry, with snow-Water, it ill becomes them that have lived byhis bounty to be making merry, as if there was nothing in the world butsunshine and summer."

  When he had spoken, Leather-Stocking again dropped his head on hisknees, and concealed his hard and wrinkled features with his hands.The change from the excessive cold without to the heat of the bar-room,coupled with the depth and frequency of Richard's draughts, had alreadylevelled whatever inequality there might have existed between him andthe other guests, on the score of spirits; and he now held out a pair ofswimming mugs of foaming flip toward the hunter, as he cried:

  "Merry! ay! merry Christmas to you, old boy! Sun shine and summer! no!you are blind, Leather-Stocking, 'tis moonshine and winter--take thesespectacles, and open your eyes--

  So let us be jolly, And cast away folly, For grief turns a black head to gray.

  --Hear how old John turns his quavers. What damned dull music an Indiansong is, after all, Major! I wonder if they ever sing
by note."

  While Richard was singing and talking, Mohegan was uttering dull,monotonous tones, keeping time by a gentle motion of his head and body.He made use of but few words, and such as he did utter were in hisnative language, and consequently only understood by himself and Natty.Without heeding Richard, he continued to sing a kind of wild, melancholyair, that rose, at times, in sudden and quite elevated notes, and thenfell again into the low, quavering sounds that seemed to compose thecharacter of his music.

  The attention of the company was now much divided, the men in the rearhaving formed themselves into little groups, where they were discussingvarious matters; among the principal of which were the treatment ofmangy hogs and Parson Grant's preaching; while Dr. Todd was endeavoringto explain to Marmaduke the nature of the hurt received by the younghunter. Mohegan continued to sing, while his countenance was becomingvacant, though, coupled with his thick, bushy hair, it was assumingan expression very much like brutal ferocity. His notes were graduallygrowing louder, and soon rose to a height that caused a generalcessation in the discourse. The hunter now raised his head again, andaddressed the old warrior warmly in the Delaware language, which, forthe benefit of our readers, we shall render freely into English.

  "Why do you sing of your battles, Chingachgook, and of the warriors youhave slain, when the worst enemy of all is near you, and keeps the YoungEagle from his rights? I have fought in as many battles as any warriorin your tribe, but cannot boast of my deeds at such a time as this."

  "Hawk-eye," said the Indian, tottering with a doubtful step from hisplace, "I am the Great Snake of the Delawares; I can track the Mingoeslike an adder that is stealing on the whip-poor-will's eggs, andstrike them like the rattlesnake dead at a blow. The white man made thetomahawk of Chingachgook bright as the waters of Otsego, when the lastsun is shining; but it is red with the blood of the Maquas."

  "And why have you slain the Mingo warriors? Was it not to keep thesehunting-grounds and lakes to your father's children? and were they notgiven in solemn council to the Fire-eater? and does not the blood of awarrior run in the veins of a young chief, who should speak aloud wherehis voice is now too low to be heard?"

  The appeal of the hunter seemed in some measure to recall the confusedfaculties of the Indian, who turned his face toward the listeners andgazed intently on the Judge. He shook his head, throwing his hairback from his countenance, and exposed eyes that were glaring with anexpression of wild resentment. But the man was not himself. His handseemed to make a fruitless effort to release his tomahawk, which wasconfined by its handle to his belt, while his eyes gradually becamevacant. Richard at that instant thrusting a mug before him, his featureschanged to the grin of idiocy, and seizing the vessel with both hands,he sank backward on the bench and drank until satiated, when he made aneffort to lay aside the mug with the helplessness of total inebriety.

  "Shed not blood!" exclaimed the hunter, as he watched the countenanceof the Indian in its moment of ferocity; "but he is drunk and can do noharm. This is the way with all the savages; give them liquor, and theymake dogs of themselves. Well, well--the day will come when right willbe done; and we must have patience."

  Natty still spoke in the Delaware language, and of course was notunderstood. He had hardly concluded before Richard cried:

  "Well, old John is soon sewed up. Give him a berth, captain, in thebarn, and I will pay for it. I am rich to night, ten times richer than'Duke, with all his lands, and military lots, and funded debts, andbonds, and mortgages,

  'Come, let us be jolly, And cast away folly, For grief---'

  "Drink, King Hiram--drink, Mr. Doo-nothing---drink, sir, I say. This is aChristmas eve, which comes, you know, but once a year."

  "He! he! he! the squire is quite moosical to-night," said Hiram, whosevisage began to give marvellous signs of relaxation. "I rather guess weshall make a church on't yet, squire?"

  "A church, Mr. Doolittle! we will make a cathedral of it! bishops,priests, deacons, wardens, vestry, and choir; organ, organist, amidbellows! By the Lord Harry, as Benjamin says, we will clap a steeple onthe other end of it, and make two churches of it. What say you, 'Duke,will you pay? ha! my cousin Judge, wilt pay?"

  "Thou makest such a noise, Dickon," returned Marmaduke, "it isimpossible that I can hear what Dr. Todd is saying. I think thouobservedst, it is probable the wound will fester, so as to occasiondanger to the limb in this cold weather?"

  "Out of nater, sir, quite out of nater," said Elnathan, attempting toexpectorate, but succeeding only in throwing a light, frothy substance,like a flake of snow, into the fire--"quite out of nater that a woundso well dressed, and with the ball in my pocket, should fester. Is'pose, as the Judge talks of taking the young man into his house, itwill be most convenient if I make but one charge on't."

  "I should think one would do," returned Marmaduke, with that arch smilethat so often beamed on his face; leaving the beholder in doubt whetherhe most enjoyed the character of his companion or his own covert humor.The landlord had succeeded in placing the Indian on some straw in oneof his outbuildings, where, covered with his own blanket, John continuedfor the remainder of the night.

  In the mean time, Major Hartmann began to grow noisy and jocular; glasssucceeded glass, and mug after mug was introduced, until the carousalhad run deep into the night, or rather morning; when the veteran Germanexpressed an inclination to return to the mansion-house. Most of theparty had already retired, but Marmaduke knew the habits of his friendtoo well to suggest an earlier adjournment. So soon, however, as theproposal was made, the Judge eagerly availed himself of it, and the trioprepared to depart. Mrs. Hollister attended them to the door in person,cautioning her guests as to the safest manner of leaving her premises.

  "Lane on Mister Jones, Major," said she "he's young and will be asupport to ye. Well, it's a charming sight to see ye, anyway, at theBould Dragoon; and sure it's no harm to be kaping a Christmas eve wid alight heart, for it's no telling when we may have sorrow come uponus. So good-night, Joodge, and a merry Christmas to ye all tomorrowmorning."

  The gentlemen made their adieus as well as they could, and taking themiddle of the road, which was a fine, wide, and well-beaten path, theydid tolerably well until they reached the gate of the mansion-house:but on entering the Judge's domains they encountered some slightdifficulties. We shall not stop to relate them, but will just mentionthat in the morning sundry diverging paths were to be seen in the snow;and that once during their progress to the door, Marmaduke, missing hiscompanions, was enabled to trace them by one of these paths to a spotwhere he discovered them with nothing visible but their heads, Richardsinging in a most vivacious strain:

  "Come, let us be jolly, And cast away folly, For grief turns a blackhead to gray."