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Page 5
"Why, if truth must be told, I confess it does," answered the other.
"Don't doubt it, stranger; but you'll do it yourself afore you've
wintered here two seasons."
"I must beg leave to differ with you on that point."
"Well, well, we'll not quarrel about it--it arn't worth while; but ef
you stay here two year, without scalping a red-skin and perhaps skinning
one, I'll agree to pay you for your time in bar-skins at your own
valuation."
"I am much obliged to you for the offer," answered the young man--a
faint smile lighting his pale features; "but I think it hardly probable
I shall remain in the country that length of time."
"Not unless you have good care, I reckon," returned the other; "for that
thar wound o' yourn arn't none o' the slightest; though I don't want you
to be skeered, for I've seen many a worse one cured. But come, I'll
assist you down to yon cabin, and then I must be off--for I've got a
good distance to travel afore daylight to-morrow;" and bending down as
he spoke, the veteran hunter placed his arms under the arms of the
wounded man, and gently raised him upon his feet.
Although extremely weak from loss of blood, the latter, by this means of
support, was enabled to walk, at a slow pace; and the two descended the
hill--the elder, the while, talking much, and endeavoring by his
discourse to amuse and cheer up his companion.
"Why," he continued, "you think your case a hard one, no doubt,
stranger; but it's nothing compared to what some of us old settlers have
seen and been through with, without even winking, as one may say. Within
the last few year, I've seen a brother and a son shot by the infernal
red-skins--have lost I don't know how many companions in the same
way--been shot at fifty times myself, and captured several; and yet you
see here I am, hale and hearty, and just as eager, with Betsey's
permission, to talk to the varmints now as I war ten year ago."
"But do you not weary of this fatiguing and dangerous mode of life?"
inquired the other.
"Weary, stranger? Lord bless ye! you're but a young hunter to ax such a
question as that. Weary, friend? Why I war born to it--nursed to it--had
a rifle for a plaything; and the first thing I can remember
particularly, war shooting a painter;[2] and it's become as nateral and
necessary as breathing; and when I get so I can't follow the one, I want
to quit the other. Weary on't, indeed! Why, thar's more real
satisfaction in sarcumventing and scalping one o' there red heathen,
than in all the amusement you could scare up in a thick-peopled,
peaceable settlement in a life time."
"By the way," said the other, "pray tell me how you chanced to be so
opportune in saving my life?"
"Why, you must know, I war just crossing through the wood back here
about a mile, on my way home from the Licks, when I came across the
trail of two Indians, whom I 'spected war arter no good; and as Betsey
war itching for something to do, I kind o' kept on the same way, and
happened round on the other side o' this ridge, just as the red varmints
fired. I saw you fall, but could'nt see them, on account o' the hill;
but as I knowed they'd be for showing themselves soon, I got Betsey into
a comfortable position, and waited as patiently as I could, until the
ugly face of that rascal yonder showed clar; when I told her to speak to
him, which she did in rale backwood's dialect, and he died a answering
her. I then hurried round on the skirt of the wood, loading Betsey as I
went; but finding the other varmint had got off, I hastened to you and
found you senseless: the rest you know."
By this time the two had reached nearly to the foot of the hill, and
within a hundred yards of the cabin. Here they were joined by a tall,
lank, lantern-jawed, awkward young man, some twenty years of age, with
small, dark eyes, a long, peaked nose, and flaxen hair that floated down
over his ungainly shoulders, like weeping willows over a scrub oak, and
who carried in his hand a rifle nearly as long and ugly as himself.
"Why, colonel, how are ye? good even' to ye, stranger," was his
salutation, as he came up. "I war down by the tangle yonder, when I
heerd some firing, and some yelling, and I legged it home, ahead o' the
old man, just to keep the women folks in sperets, in case they war
attacked, and get a pop or so at an Injen myself; but thank the Lord,
they warn't thar; and so I ventered on, with long Nance here, to see
whar they mought be."
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