Sevier

“ The Doctor tossed his head in impatient disdain.
“Pshaw! You’ll never bring what you’re worth any more than some men are worth what they bring. You don’t know how. You never will know.”
“Well, Doctor, I do know that I’m worth more than I ever was before. I’ve learned a thousand things in the last twelvemonth. If I can only get a chance to prove it!” Richling turned red and struck his knee with his fist.
“Oh, yes,” said Dr. Sevier; “that’s your sense, on top. And then you go—in a fit of the merest impatience, as I do suspect—and offer yourself as a deck-hand and as a carriage-driver. ”

“ Sevier was often left alone to manage domestic affairs, not only within doors, but without. The life of Colonel Sevier was one of incessant action, adventure and contest. The calls of his fellow-citizens, and the necessities of the times, withdrew him frequently from home. No commander was more frequently engaged in conflicts with the Indians, with equal success and such small loss of men. ”

“ I’m only trying to say something, I don’t know what.”
“Neither do I,” was the mock-rueful answer.
“I only know,” replied Mary, the vision of Dr. Sevier’s carriage passing before her abstracted eyes, and of the Doctor’s pale face bowing austerely within it, “that if you don’t take any part or interest in the outside world it’ll take none in you; do you think it will?”
“And who cares if it doesn’t?” cried John, clasping her to his bosom.
“I do,” she replied. “Yes, I do. I’ve no right to steal you from the rest of the world, or from the place in it that you ought to fill. ”

“ FROM the brow of the cedared hill south of Munroe a splendid view is obtained, and Piute County opens with fair promises; for a superb-looking valley, all natural meadow, lies spread out on either side of the Sevier, while from a gulch in the mountains on the right, a stream of vegetation seems to have poured down across the level, carrying along with its flood of cotton-wood and willow a few stately old pine-trees. From among the vegetation peeps out a cluster of miners' houses—for there are the Sevier mines up beyond that pine gulch—and a ranch or two. ”

“ A physician’s carriage had driven briskly up to it, ground its wheels against the curb-stone, and halted. If any fresh crumbs of horror were about to be dropped, the children must be there to feast on them. Dr. Sevier stepped out, gave Mary his hand and then his arm, and went in with her. A question or two in the prison office, a reference to the rolls, and a turnkey led the way through a dark gallery lighted with dimly burning gas. ”

“ Richling saw, and they parted.
Thus everybody hoped. Dr. Sevier, wifeless, childless, had his hopes too, nevertheless. Hopes for the hospital and his many patients in it and out of it; hopes for his town and his State; hopes for Richling and Mary; and hopes with fears, and fears with hopes, for the great sisterhood of States. Richling had one hope more. After some weeks had passed Dr. Sevier ventured once more to say:—
“Richling, go home. Go to your wife. I must tell you you’re no ordinary sick man. Your life is in danger.” ”

“ Sevier's enthusiasm was contagious; he imparted it to his men. He was the idol of the soldiery; and his orders were obeyed cheerfully, and executed with precision. In a military service of twenty years, one instance is not known of insubordination, on the part of the soldier, or of discipline by the commander.
Sevier's troops were generally his neighbors, and the members of his own family. Often no public provision was made for their pay, equipments, or subsistence. These were furnished by himself, being at once commander, commissary, and paymaster. ”

“ Sevier determined to try one of his swift, sudden strokes against these new foes. Early in March he rode off at the head of a hundred and fifty picked horsemen, resolute to penetrate the hitherto untrodden wilds that shielded the far-off fastnesses where dwelt the Erati. Nothing shows his daring, adventurous nature more clearly than his starting on such an expedition; and only a man of strong will and much power could have carried it to a successful conclusion. For a hundred and fifty miles he led his horsemen through a mountainous wilderness where there was not so much as a hunter's trail. ”

“ Laura has put two more leaves into her dining-table. Children fill three seats. Alice has another. It is she, now, not her chair, that is tall—and fair. Mary, too, has a seat at the same board. This is their home now. Her hair is turning all to silver. So early? Yes; but she is—she never was—so beautiful! They all see it—feel it; Dr. Sevier—the gentle, kind, straight old Doctor—most of all. And oh! when they two, who have never joined hands on this earth, go to meet John and Alice,—which God grant may be at one and the same time,—what weeping there will be among God’s poor! ”

“ Sevier started in his seat. “Richling, I can’t do that. I should ruin you. If you drive my carriage”—
“Just for a time, Doctor, till I find something else.”
“No! no! If you drive my carriage in New Orleans you’ll never do anything else.”
“Why, Doctor, there are men standing in the front ranks to-day, who”—
“Yes, yes,” replied the Doctor, impatiently, “I know,—who began with menial labor; but—I can’t explain it to you, Richling, but you’re not of the same sort; that’s all. I say it without praise or blame; you must have work adapted to your abilities.” ”

“ Here the speaker again singled out Dr. Sevier. “Watch the young man out of one corner of your eye; but make him swim!”
“Ah-h!” said the ladies.
“No, no,” continued the banker; “I don’t say let him drown; but I take it, Doctor, that your alms, for instance, [Pg 191] are no alms if they put the poor fellow into your debt and at your back.”
“To whom do you refer?” asked Dr. Sevier. Whereat there was a burst of laughter, which was renewed when the banker charged the physician with helping so many persons, “on the sly,” that he couldn’t tell which one was alluded to unless the name were given. ”

“ Sevier was active in public interests even to the last years of his long life. When eighty years old, he was at 131the head of a body of men who were marking the border line between Georgia and the lands of the Indians. The labor proved too great for his bodily strength, and the aged man died (1815) , in his tent, with only a few soldiers and Indians around him. ”

“ After King's Mountain, Sevier reached home just in time to fend off a Cherokee attack on Watauga. Again warning had come to the settlements that the Indians were about to descend upon them. Sevier set out at once to meet the red invaders. Learning from his scouts that the Indians were near he went into ambush with his troops disposed in the figure of a half-moon, the favorite Indian formation. He then sent out a small body of men to fire on the Indians and make a scampering retreat, to lure the enemy on. ”

“ Drawing the warrior back as the outlaws advanced, Sevier hurriedly asked:
“Where are the Cherokees? I want warriors.”
“You must travel till sundown to come up with them,” was the discouraging rejoinder.
“That will not do,” muttered Sevier. “Bloody Mouth will do as his brother says?”
“He will. By nightfall his wolf-call will bring many men of his clan. Then we will hunt down and break off the heads of Tsan-usdi’s enemies.”
“I can not wait. There is a white woman I must take north. Take my place and keep falling back. Wear my hat and hunting-shirt but do not let them see you if you can help it. ”

“ A glance told Sevier these truths, and red rage smouldered in his heart as he pictured the man withdrawing before him and planning murder, while the Cherokees formed an implacable barrier to drive him to his slayer. His anger did not blind his woods sense, however; and when the forest promised decent travel for his mount he swung from the path and made wide detours. Once he came upon tracks of a horse in the forest mould and decided his foe was indulging in a similar manœuvre. ”

“ I demanded.
“You have not heard how Sevier got off?” exclaimed Nick. “Egad, that was a crowning stroke of genius! Cozby and Evans, Captains Greene and Gibson, and Sevier's two boys whom you met on the Nollichucky rode over the mountains to Morganton. Greene and Gibson and Sevier's boys hid themselves with the horses in a clump outside the town, while Cozby and Evans, disguised as bumpkins in hunting shirts, jogged into the town with Sevier's racing mare between them. ”

“ Not content with putting the marauders to flight, Sevier pressed on after them, burned several of the upper towns, and took prisoner a number of women and children, thus putting the red warriors to the depth of shame, for the Indians never deserted their women in battle. The chiefs at once sued for peace. But they had made peace often before. Sevier drove down upon the Hiwassee towns, meanwhile proclaiming that those among the tribe who were friendly might send their families to the white settlement, where they would be fed and cared for until a sound peace should be assured. ”

“ At this time Captain Sevier was a married man, his wife and younger children not having arrived from Virginia. In 1779, his wife died, leaving him ten children, and in 1780, he and Miss Sherrill were married. Not long after their marriage, Colonel Sevier was called to the duty of raising troops to meet the invasion of the interior of North Carolina by the British, and Colonel Sevier took part in the battle of King's Mountain. ”

“ Richling looked down askance, pushed his fingers through his hair perplexedly, drew a deep breath, lifted his eyes to the Doctor’s again, smiled incredulously, and rubbed his brow.
“You don’t see it?” asked the physician, in a tone of surprise.
“O Doctor,”—throwing up a despairing hand,—“we’re miles apart. I don’t see how any work could be nobler. It looks to me”— But Dr. Sevier interrupted.
“—From an emotional stand-point, Richling. Richling,”—he changed his attitude again,—“if you want to be a philanthropist, be cold-blooded.” ”

“ And legend says further that when, after Sevier's brief widowerhood, she became his wife, four years later, Bonnie Kate was wont to say that she would be willing to run another such race any day to have another such introduction!
There were no casualties within the fort and, 183 after three hours, the foe withdrew, leaving several of their warriors slain.
In the excursions against the Indians which followed this opening of hostilities Sevier won his first fame as an “Indian fighter”—the fame later crystallized in the phrase “thirty-five battles, thirty-five victories.” ”

“ Its presence west of the regular ford told Sevier the man was hastening to the lower towns, where the Chickamaugas under Watts and Dragging Canoe would respond promptly to his urging for immediate war.
It revealed the cunning of the man, for, had he paused to win over Old Tassel’s people in the eastern villages, he would have lost valuable time and laid himself open to discovery by a pursuing posse of settlers.
“He strikes for headquarters of the war faction,” Sevier told himself. “Let him go. They can do nothing without the aid of the Creeks. ”

“ Thatch if you interrupt these proceedings with another word!” roared Sevier, covering the tavern-keeper with his pistol. Then to the startled witness, “Go on, Twill.”
“Th’ ax wa’n’t a common trade ax. It was made for real work, extry strong an’ the handle showed hard wear,” faltered the witness, feeling Polcher’s gaze boring into the back of his head but not daring to look back.
“Excellent!” heartily approved Sevier. “Give me a thousand men with your eyes and memory and I’d ask help of neither State nor Congress. ”

“ Richling had, in a moment of gloom, tipped the bowl a little too high, as her dear lost husband, the best man that ever walked, had often done, and had been locked up at night to be let out in the morning, why, give him a chance! Let him invent his own little fault-hiding romance and come home with it. Mary was frantic. She could not be kept in; but Mrs. Riley, by prolonged effort, convinced her it was best not to call upon Dr. Sevier until she could be sure some disaster had actually occurred, and sent her among the fruiterers and oystermen in vain search for Raphael Ristofalo. ”

“ Narcisse was sorry.
“I have been doing what I could for you, downstairs,—running up the prices of things. I wish I could stay to do more, for the sake of old times. I came to see Mr. Richling, Madame Zénobie; is he in? Dr. Sevier wants him.”
Richling? Why, the Richlings did not live there! The Doctor must know it. Why should she be made responsible for this mistake? It was his oversight. They had moved long ago. Dr. Sevier had seen them looking for apartments. Where did they live now? Ah, me! she could not tell. Did Mr. Richling owe the Doctor something? ”

“ The two knives in Sevier’s belt hung just back of the hips to be out of the way while riding. They were long, terrible weapons. Hester believed Sevier could have used these at the beginning of the fray and had refrained for the greater joy of blinding his foe. He could not know that Sevier had fought with his hands in order to take a prisoner, and that once the borderer was committed to this style of battle he had all he could do to protect his eyesight and dared not leave his face unprotected while he fished for a knife. ”

“ He craved and got the little man’s release on parole. A fortnight later, as Dr. Sevier was sitting at the breakfast table, with the little rector at its opposite end, he all at once rose to his full attenuated height, with a frown and then a smile, and, tumbling the chair backward behind him, exclaimed:—
“Why, Laura!”—for it was that one of his two gay young nieces who stood in the door-way. The banker’s wife followed in just behind, and was presently saying, with the prettiest heartiness, that Dr. Sevier looked no older than the day they met the Florida general at dinner years before. ”