Rowland Evans Robinson

“ Lifting the canoe, they set her afloat, stepped lightly on board, and, kneeling in the bottom, sent her flying down the creek. They skirted the lake almost beneath the spreading branches of the maples, now already dappled with the tender green of budding leaves. A little back from the naked, western shore, with its crumbling ruins of the old French water battery, uprose the gray battlements and barracks of Ticonderoga, and the blazoned cross of England floating lazily in the breeze. ”

“ Silas, entering the woods, could neither see nor hear his intended victim. Listening between spasms of rushing and raging, he heard a slight rustling among the branches of a great hemlock that reared its huge, russet-gray trunk close beside him. Looking up, he saw a pair of dusty legs dangling twenty feet above him.
“Come down, you little devil, or I’ll shoot you.”
“I won’t,” said Nathan, half surprised at his own daring; “you can’t shoot with an axe.” ”

“ Many an adventure on lake or in forest spiced the half wild life, and the loving trust of the old man so sweetened it that time glided swiftly past. Many a lesson of woodcraft the boy also learned, as well as the priceless one of love and charity to all created things, if Indians and Toombs were excepted. Perhaps, in time, their turn for forbearance would come.
One day late in the fall Nathan ventured to the Fort, as much to visit the garrison boys, for whose companionship he often longed in his isolation, as to carry some fine partridges to the commandant’s lady. ”

“ Job was squatting before the fireplace engaged in frying meat, and a great, gaunt, blue-mottled hound sat close beside him, intently watching the progress of the cooking. Presently his keen nose caught a scent of the intruder, and he uttered a low, threatening growl that attracted his master’s attention.
“Be quiet, Gabriel; what is’t troubles you?” Then seeing his visitor hesitating at the threshold, “Why, Nathan, come in my boy, come in, the hound won’t hurt you. Ain’t he a pictur’? Did you ever see such ears? Did you ever see such a chest and such legs? And he’s as good as he is harnsome. ”

“ The soft air was full of its sounds and odors, the medley of harsh and liquid notes of the myriad blackbirds that swarmed in the trees along the creek, the crackling croak of the frogs, the whimpering call of the muskrats, the booming of bitterns, the splashing and quacking of wild ducks, and the murmur of running waters. There were the spicy fragrance of pine and hemlock, and the fresh smell of warming mould and bursting buds, while the perfume of wild flowers added a moiety to the spring time odor. ”

“ But this was the preferable stroke, and in the next instant the axe-blade fell with a downright blow, so strong and well aimed that it severed the spinal column just forward of the shoulders. The great brute went down, paralyzed beyond all motion, to fall in a helpless heap and yield up his life with a few feeble gasps.
“Oh, father,” cried Nathan, the first to break the sudden silence, with a voice tremulous in exultation, “to think we’ve got a bear. Won’t mother and Marthy be proud? and won’t Job think we’re real hunters?” ”

“ The men ate their meat and bread with the appetite of those whom no emotion can cheat of a meal, but Felton and Graves would have none of it. The Green Mountain Boys sat apart, chatting in low tones, till the smokers were filling their pipes after their meal, when Allen rapped the table with the butt of his pistol, and his clear, deep voice broke the silence that ensued. ”

“ Where once stood the pioneer’s log house, spacious farm buildings now stretch their comfortable quarters. From it, away to the southwest, across meadows, thrifty homesteads, low woodlands, and the narrowed waters of Lake Champlain can be seen rising against the foothills of the Adirondacks the hoary ruins of Ticonderoga. ”

“ CHAPTER III—A VISIT TO THE FORT The summer brought more settlers to these inviting lands of level, fertile soil, and when the woods were again bright with autumnal hues, their broad expanse of variegated color was blotched with many a square of unsightly new clearing. Job Carpenter looked with disfavor upon such infringement of the hunter’s domain, but it was welcomed by the Beemans. Though Seth’s active out-door employment and the constant companionship of nature made him less lonely than his wife, yet he was of a social nature and glad of human companionship ”

“ His heart grew lighter when he saw the sunshine showing golden green through the leafy screen that bordered the hunter’s little clearing. He found Job leaning on his hoe in his patch of corn, looking wistfully on the creek, where the fish were breaking the surface among the weeds that marked the expanse of marsh with tender green, and where the sinuous course of the channel was defined by purple lines of lily pads. The message was received with a show of vexation, and the old man exclaimed:
“Plague on ’em all with their pitches and surveyin’ and squabblin’. Why can’t folks let the woods alone? ”

“ With deliberate celerity Allen drew his hands from the skirts of his coat, a cocked pistol in each, and, with one of them, he covered the man skulking towards the guns.
“The first man that draws a pistol or raises a gun gets a bullet through his carcass,” he said with authority.
At Allen’s first words Seth had mounted the ladder and as quickly reappeared with his gun. The movement was seen in the dancing shadows, and he was covered by the other pistol, which was lowered as he was distinguished to be helping a woman and child to mount to the chamber. ”

“ There was a murmur of universal assent, and Allen commanded:
“Fall in, in three ranks!”
Instantly the men formed in the order of the ranger service. “I want no man to go against his will. You that wish to go with me, poise arms.” Every gun was brought to the position.
“Shoulder arms! Right face! Forward, march!”
Before the last word was fairly given, Arnold stepped in front of the speaker.
“I swear,” he cried, shaken with his passion, “I will not yield my right. I planned this enterprise. My money set it on foot. I swear I will command, and not yield my right to Ethan Allen or the devil.” ”

“ Sometimes Job joined them and told of his lonely scouts in the Ranger service, and of bush fights with Indians and their French allies, and of encounters with wild beasts, tales made more impressive in their relation by the loneliness of the campfire, with the circle of wild lights and shadows leaping around it in the edge of the surrounding darkness, out of which came, perhaps from far away, the howl of a wolf or the nearer hoot of the great horned owl. ”

“ The flesh made a welcome addition to the settler’s scanty store of meat, the fat furnished a medium for frying the hitherto impossible doughnut, and Job promised to bring them a handsome price for the skin, when he should sell it with his own peltry to the fur traders. But the praise he bestowed upon Seth’s coolness in the strange encounter was sweeter to Nathan than all else. ”

“ The bitterness of Nathan’s life was made almost unbearable presently. His mother, of a weak and clinging nature, inevitably drifted to a fate a more self-reliant woman would have avoided. Worried with uncomprehended business, and assured by Toombs that this was the only way to retain a home for herself and children, yet unmoved by the kindly advice of Seth’s honest friends and neighbors, as well as the anger and entreaties of her son, she went with Toombs over to the Fort, where they were married by the chaplain stationed there. ”

“ Surveyors, acting under the authority of New York, were especially obnoxious to settlers of the other party, and rough encounters of the opposing claimants were not infrequent. Seth Beeman and his neighbors had all taken up land under a New Hampshire charter, without a thought of its validity being questioned.
One bright June morning, Nathan was watching the corn that, pushing its tender blades above the black mould in a corner of the clearing, offered sweet and tempting morsels to the thieving crows. ”

“ A solitary hunter, clad in buckskin and gray homespun, thridded his way among the gray trunks of the giant trees, now blended with them and their shadows, now briefly touched by a glint of sunlight, now casting up the powdery snow from the toes of his snowshoes in a pearly mist, now in a golden shower, yet moving as silently as the trees stood, or shadows brooded, or sunlight gleamed athwart them. ”

“ After the supper of fried venison and johnny-cake was eaten, they sat in the twilight and firelight talking over the past and plans for the future, till the boy, worn out with the events of the day, was given a nest of furs in the loft, where he would be safe from detection by any chance visitor, and Job, after barring the door and carefully covering the fire, betook himself with the hound to their accustomed couch on the floor. ”

“ Here Ruth and little Martha thawed away their cramps and chilliness by the big fireplace, while Seth and his son Nathan, with the hunter’s help, unhitched the oxen from the sled. From this they brought the rations of hay and corn, and made the oxen and their comrade, the cow, contented with their roofless lodging behind the cabin.
Then the pork and Indian meal were taken inside. Ruth mixed a johnny-cake with hot water and salt, and set it to bake on its board, tilted before the fire. The frying-pan was filled with pork, and slices of moose meat contributed from Job’s larder. ”

“ Owls are turrible knowing creatur’s,” her father said.
The twilight possessing the woods had scarcely invaded the clearing when the surveyor and his party came to the house, bringing in blankets, provisions, guns, tools, and instruments, till the one small room was crowded with them and the uninvited guests. Felton and Graves made themselves offensively and officiously at home. The cook took possession of the fire, and set two frying-pans of pork sputtering grease upon the tidy hearth, to the disgust of the housewife, who sat with her husband and child in a dark corner. ”

“ Ruth stared at him in dumb amazement and horror, while he proceeded, pouring forth his long concealed wrath.
“Well, I’ve got Seth Beeman’s wife, and, what’s wuth more, his farm, an’ his childern right ’nunder my thumb. I hope he knows on’t. And now, ma’am,” lowering his voice from its passionate exultation, “you don’t want to breathe a word o’ this to your nice neighbors or to your young ’uns. It wouldn’t do no good and it might be unpleasant all round. You don’t want folks to know what a fool you be.” ”

“ He’s been dreadful worried about you, Nathan, all along, ever since you went away.”
She did not know the terrible cause of the speechless self-condemnation the wretch had suffered, nor did she ever learn it.
“I wouldn’t tell her,” counselled Job. “She’d feel bad, an’ that wouldn’t pay any more’n it does to nurse a grudge. Vengeance don’t belong to us, poor critters.”
Thenceforth, till Silas Toombs sank from his living death to eternal sleep not long after this, his stepson gave him thoughtful and kindly care. ”

“ When Allen had heard it, he wheeled his horse beside the nearest stump and bade Nathan mount behind him.
“My horse’s feet will help you make your rounds quicker than yours, my man. We’ve no time to lose, for there’s no telling what those scoundrels may be at. Eight Yorkers! Well, we’ll soon raise good men enough to make short work of them.”
Nathan mounted nimbly to his assigned place, and, clasping as far as he could the ample waist of his new friend, was borne along the road at a speed that soon brought them to the log house of the Newtons. ”

“ Then Ethan Allen broke the surveyor’s compass with his own hands and tossed the fragments away.
“Now,” said he, in an awful voice, “depart, and woe be unto you, Marmaduke Felton and Erastus Graves, if you ever set foot in the land of the Green Mountain Boys. You other men, if you come in peace and on honest business, you shall not have a hair of your heads hurt. But if you ever venture to come on such an iniquitous errand as now brought you, by the Great Jehovah, you shall repent in sackcloth and ashes! ”

“ With such a man in the place of his wise and affectionate father, Nathan’s life was filled with misery, nor could he ever comprehend his mother’s course. Though bestowing upon Martha and his mother indifferent notice or none at all, towards the boy the stepfather exercised his recently acquired authority with severity, giving him the hardest and most unpleasant work to do, and treating him always with distrust, often with cruelty.
“I hate him,” he told Ruth. ”

“ The stranger readily said his name was Silas Toombs, that he was from Jersey way, and wished, when he had earned enough, to take up a right of land hereabouts, in a region he had often heard extolled by his father, who had served here in Captain Bergen’s company of Rogers’s Rangers. Seth had previously ascertained that no grown-up son of any of his neighbors could be spared to help him, so he finally hired this man, who proved to be efficient and faithful, although not a genial companion, such as an old-time farmer wished to find in his hired help. ”

“ There will be boats enough to cross us all in good time. Keep quiet. Cook your rations and eat your supper. To-morrow we’ll eat our breakfast in Ticonderoga, or know the reason why.”
As Nathan’s entranced gaze was for a moment withdrawn from the beloved commander, he caught a glimpse of the little unknown man stealing away among the shadows. Being more accustomed to the rigid discipline of the garrison than to the free and easy customs of volunteers, he did not dare to leave the ranks till many of his comrades had straggled away. ”