The Prairie (60 page)

"That there did exist a certain compactum, or agreement, between Obed
Batt, M.D., and Ishmael Bush, viator, or erratic husbandman," he
said, endeavouring to avoid all offence in the use of terms, "I am
not disposed to deny. I will admit that it was therein conditioned, or
stipulated, that a certain journey should be performed conjointly, or in
company, until so many days had been numbered. But as the said time has
fully expired, I presume it fair to infer that the bargain may now be
said to be obsolete."

"Ishmael!" interrupted the impatient Esther, "make no words with a man
who can break your bones as easily as set them, and let the poisoning
devil go! He's a cheat, from box to phial. Give him half the prairie,
and take the other half yourself. He an acclimator! I will engage to
get the brats acclimated to a fever-and-ague bottom in a week, and not
a word shall be uttered harder to pronounce than the bark of a
cherry-tree, with perhaps a drop or two of western comfort. One thing
ar' a fact, Ishmael; I like no fellow-travellers who can give a heavy
feel to an honest woman's tongue, I—and that without caring whether her
household is in order, or out of order."

The air of settled gloom, which had taken possession of the squatter's
countenance, lighted for an instant with a look of dull drollery, as he
answered—

"Different people might judge differently, Esther, of the virtue of the
man's art. But sin' it is your wish to let him depart, I will not plough
the prairie to make the walking rough. Friend, you are at liberty to go
into the settlements, and there I would advise you to tarry, as men like
me who make but few contracts, do not relish the custom of breaking them
so easily."

"And now, Ishmael," resumed his conquering wife, "in order to keep a
quiet family and to smother all heart-burnings between us, show yonder
Red-skin and his daughter," pointing to the aged Le Balafre and the
widowed Tachechana, "the way to their village, and let us say to
them—God bless you, and farewell, in the same breath!"

"They are the captives of the Pawnee, according to the rules of Indian
warfare, and I cannot meddle with his rights."

"Beware the devil, my man! He's a cheat and a tempter, and none can
say they ar' safe with his awful delusions before their eyes! Take the
advice of one who has the honour of your name at heart, and send the
tawny Jezebel away."

The squatter laid his broad hand on her shoulder, and looking her
steadily in the eye, he answered, in tones that were both stern and
solemn—

"Woman, we have that before us which calls our thoughts to other matters
than the follies you mean. Remember what is to come, and put your silly
jealousy to sleep."

"It is true, it is true," murmured his wife, moving back among her
daughters; "God forgive me, that I should forget it!"

"And now, young man; you, who have so often come into my clearing, under
the pretence of lining the bee into his hole," resumed Ishmael, after a
momentary pause, as if to recover the equilibrium of his mind, "with you
there is a heavier account to settle. Not satisfied with rummaging
my camp, you have stolen a girl who is akin to my wife, and who I had
calculated to make one day a daughter of my own."

A stronger sensation was produced by this, than by any of the preceding
interrogations. All the young men bent their curious eyes on Paul and
Ellen, the former of whom seemed in no small mental confusion, while the
latter bent her face on her bosom in shame.

"Harkee, friend Ishmael Bush," returned the bee-hunter, who found that
he was expected to answer to the charge of burglary, as well as to that
of abduction; "that I did not give the most civil treatment to your pots
and pails, I am not going to gainsay. If you will name the price you
put upon the articles, it is possible the damage may be quietly settled
between us, and all hard feelings forgotten. I was not in a church-going
humour when we got upon your rock, and it is more than probable there
was quite as much kicking as preaching among your wares; but a hole in
the best man's coat can be mended by money. As to the matter of Ellen
Wade, here, it may not be got over so easily. Different people have
different opinions on the subject of matrimony. Some think it is enough
to say yes and no, to the questions of the magistrate, or of the parson,
if one happens to be handy, in order to make a quiet house; but I think
that where a young woman's mind is fairly bent on going in a certain
direction, it will be quite as prudent to let her body follow. Not
that I mean to say Ellen was not altogether forced to what she did, and
therefore she is just as innocent, in this matter, as yonder jackass,
who was made to carry her, and greatly against his will, too, as I am
ready to swear he would say himself, if he could speak as loud as he can
bray."

"Nelly," resumed the squatter, who paid very little attention to what
Paul considered a highly creditable and ingenious vindication, "Nelly,
this is a wide and a wicked world, on which you have been in such a
hurry to cast yourself. You have fed and you have slept in my camp for
a year, and I did hope that you had found the free air of the borders,
enough to your mind to wish to remain among us."

"Let the girl have her will," muttered Esther, from the rear; "he, who
might have persuaded her to stay, is sleeping in the cold and naked
prairie, and little hope is left of changing her humour; besides,
a woman's mind is a wilful thing, and not easily turned from its
waywardness, as you know yourself, my man, or I should not be here the
mother of your sons and daughters."

The squatter seemed reluctant to abandon his views of the abashed girl,
so easily; and before he answered to the suggestion of his wife, he
turned his usual dull look along the line of the curious countenances of
his boys, as if to see whether there was not one among them fit to fill
the place of the deceased. Paul was not slow to observe the expression,
and hitting nigher than usual on the secret thoughts of the other,
he believed he had fallen on an expedient which might remove every
difficulty.

"It is quite plain, friend Bush," he said, "that there are two opinions
in this matter; yours for your sons, and mine for myself. I see but one
amicable way of settling this dispute, which is as follows:—do you make
a choice among your boys of any you will, and let us walk off together
for the matter of a few miles into the prairies; the one who stays
behind, can never trouble any man's house or his fixen, and the one who
comes back may make the best of his way he can, in the good wishes of
the young woman."

"Paul!" exclaimed the reproachful, but smothered voice of Ellen.

"Never fear, Nelly," whispered the literal bee-hunter, whose
straight-going mind suggested no other motive of uneasiness, on the part
of his mistress, than concern for himself; "I have taken the measure of
them all, and you may trust an eye that has seen to line many a bee into
his hole!"

"I am not about to set myself up as a ruler of inclinations," observed
the squatter. "If the heart of the child is truly in the settlements,
let her declare it; she shall have no let or hinderance from me. Speak,
Nelly, and let what you say come from your wishes, without fear or
favour. Would you leave us to go with this young man into the settled
countries, or will you tarry and share the little we have to give, but
which to you we give so freely?"

Thus called upon to decide, Ellen could no longer hesitate. The glance
of her eye was at first timid and furtive. But as the colour flushed her
features, and her breathing became quick and excited, it was apparent
that the native spirit of the girl was gaining the ascendency over the
bashfulness of sex.

"You took me a fatherless, impoverished, and friendless orphan," she
said, struggling to command her voice, "when others, who live in what
may be called affluence compared to your state, chose to forget me; and
may Heaven in its goodness bless you for it! The little I have done,
will never pay you for that one act of kindness. I like not your manner
of life; it is different from the ways of my childhood, and it is
different from my wishes; still, had you not led this sweet and
unoffending lady from her friends, I should never have quitted you,
until you yourself had said, Go, and the blessing of God go with you!'"

"The act was not wise, but it is repented of; and so far as it can
be done, in safety, it shall be repaired. Now, speak freely, will you
tarry, or will you go?"

"I have promised the lady," said Ellen, dropping her eyes again to the
earth, "not to leave her; and after she has received so much wrong from
our hands, she may have a right to claim that I keep my word."

"Take the cords from the young man," said Ishmael. When the order was
obeyed, he motioned for all his sons to advance, and he placed them in
a row before the eyes of Ellen. "Now let there be no trifling, but open
your heart. Here ar' all I have to offer, besides a hearty welcome."

The distressed girl turned her abashed look from the countenance of one
of the young men to that of another, until her eye met the troubled and
working features of Paul. Then nature got the better of forms. She threw
herself into the arms of the bee-hunter, and sufficiently proclaimed her
choice by sobbing aloud. Ishmael signed to his sons to fall back, and
evidently mortified, though perhaps not disappointed by the result, he
no longer hesitated.

"Take her," he said, "and deal honestly and kindly by her. The girl has
that in her which should make her welcome, in any man's house, and I
should be loth to hear she ever came to harm. And now I have settled
with you all, on terms that I hope you will not find hard, but, on the
contrary, just and manly. I have only another question to ask, and that
is of the Captain; do you choose to profit by my teams in going into the
settlements, or not?"

"I hear, that some soldiers of my party are looking for me near the
villages of the Pawnees," said Middleton, "and I intend to accompany
this chief, in order to join my men."

"Then the sooner we part the better. Horses are plenty on the bottom.
Go; make your choice, and leave us in peace."

"That is impossible, while the old man, who has been a friend of my
family near half a century, is left a prisoner. What has he done, that
he too is not released?

"Ask no questions that may lead to deceitful answers," sullenly returned
the squatter; "I have dealings of my own with that trapper, that it may
not befit an officer of the States to meddle with. Go, while your road
is open."

"The man may be giving you honest counsel, and that which it concerns
you all to hearken to," observed the old captive, who seemed in no
uneasiness at the extraordinary condition in which he found himself.
"The Siouxes are a numberless and bloody-minded race, and no one can
say how long it may be, afore they will be out again on the scent of
revenge. Therefore I say to you, go, also; and take especial heed, in
crossing the bottoms, that you get not entangled again in the fires, for
the honest hunters often burn the grass at this season, in order that
the buffaloes may find a sweeter and a greener pasturage in the spring."

"I should forget not only my gratitude, but my duty to the laws, were I
to leave this prisoner in your hands, even by his own consent, without
knowing the nature of his crime, in which we may have all been his
innocent accessaries."

"Will it satisfy you to know, that he merits all he will receive?"

"It will at least change my opinion of his character."

"Look then at this," said Ishmael, placing before the eyes of the
Captain the bullet that had been found about the person of the dead Asa;
"with this morsel of lead did he lay low as fine a boy as ever gave joy
to a parent's eyes!"

"I cannot believe that he has done this deed, unless in self-defence, or
on some justifiable provocation. That he knew of the death of your son,
I confess, for he pointed out the brake in which the body lay, but that
he has wrongfully taken his life, nothing but his own acknowledgment
shall persuade me to believe."

"I have lived long," commenced the trapper, who found, by the general
pause, that he was expected to vindicate himself from the heavy
imputation, "and much evil have I seen in my day. Many are the prowling
bears and leaping panthers that I have met, fighting for the morsel
which has been thrown in their way; and many are the reasoning men, that
I have looked on striving against each other unto death, in order that
human madness might also have its hour. For myself, I hope, there is no
boasting in saying, that though my hand has been needed in putting down
wickedness and oppression, it has never struck a blow of which its owner
will be ashamed to hear, at a reckoning that shall be far mightier than
this."

"If my father has taken life from one of his tribe," said the young
Pawnee, whose quick eye had read the meaning of what was passing, in the
bullet and in the countenances of the others, "let him give himself
up to the friends of the dead, like a warrior. He is too just to need
thongs to lead him to judgment."

"Boy, I hope you do me justice. If I had done the foul deed, with which
they charge me, I should have manhood enough to come and offer my head
to the blow of punishment, as all good and honest Red-men do the same."
Then giving his anxious Indian friend a look, to re-assure him of
his innocence, he turned to the rest of his attentive and interested
listeners, as he continued in English, "I have a short story to tell,
and he that believes it will believe the truth, and he that disbelieves
it will only lead himself astray, and perhaps his neighbour too. We were
all out-lying about your camp, friend squatter, as by this time you
may begin to suspect, when we found that it contained a wronged and
imprisoned lady, with intentions neither more honest nor dishonest than
to set her free, as in nature and justice she had a right to be. Seeing
that I was more skilled in scouting than the others, while they lay
back in the cover, I was sent upon the plain, on the business of the
reconnoitrings. You little thought that one was so nigh, who saw into
all the circumventions of your hunt; but there was I, sometimes flat
behind a bush or a tuft of grass, sometimes rolling down a hill into a
bottom, and little did you dream that your motions were watched, as the
panther watches the drinking deer. Lord, squatter, when I was a man in
the pride and strength of my days, I have looked in at the tent door of
the enemy, and they sleeping, ay, and dreaming too, of being at home and
in peace! I wish there was time to give you the partic—"