There was a white man associated with the Delawares.
A scout of the English army, but a native of the provinces.”
“A drunken worthless vagabond, like most of his colour who harbour with the savages, I warrant you!”
“Old man, your grey hairs should caution you against slander.
The man I speak of was of great simplicity of mind, but of sterling worth.
Unlike most of those who live a border life, he united the better, instead of the worst, qualities of the two people.
He was a man endowed with the choicest and perhaps rarest gift of nature; that of distinguishing good from evil.
His virtues were those of simplicity, because such were the fruits of his habits, as were indeed his very prejudices.
In courage he was the equal of his red associates; in warlike skill, being better instructed, their superior.
‘In short, he was a noble shoot from the stock of human nature, which never could attain its proper elevation and importance, for no other reason, than because it grew in the forest:’ such, old hunter, were the very words of my grandfather, when speaking of the man you imagine so worthless!”
The eyes of the trapper had sunk to the earth, as the stranger delivered this character in the ardent tones of generous youth.
He played with the ears of his hound; fingered his own rustic garment, and opened and shut the pan of his rifle, with hands that trembled in a manner that would have implied their total unfitness to wield the weapon.
When the other had concluded, he hoarsely added— “Your grand’ther didn’t then entirely forget the white man!”
“So far from that, there are already three among us, who have also names derived from that scout.”
“A name, did you say?” exclaimed the old man, starting; “what, the name of the solitary, unl’arned hunter?
Do the great, and the rich, and the honoured, and, what is better still, the just, do they bear his very, actual name?”
“It is borne by my brother, and by two of my cousins, whatever may be their titles to be described by the terms you have mentioned.”
“Do you mean the actual name itself; spelt with the very same letters, beginning with an N and ending with an L?”
“Exactly the same,” the youth smilingly replied. “No, no, we have forgotten nothing that was his.
I have at this moment a dog brushing a deer, not far from this, who is come of a hound that very scout sent as a present after his friends, and which was of the stock he always used himself: a truer breed, in nose and foot, is not to be found in the wide Union.”
“Hector!” said the old man, struggling to conquer an emotion that nearly suffocated him, and speaking to his hound in the sort of tones he would have used to a child, “do ye hear that, pup! your kin and blood are in the prairies!
A name—it is wonderful—very wonderful!”
Nature could endure no more.
Overcome by a flood of unusual and extraordinary sensations, and stimulated by tender and long dormant recollections, strangely and unexpectedly revived, the old man had just self-command enough to add, in a voice that was hollow and unnatural, through the efforts he made to command it—
“Boy, I am that scout; a warrior once, a miserable trapper now!” when the tears broke over his wasted cheeks, out of fountains that had long been dried, and, sinking his face between his knees, he covered it decently with his buckskin garment, and sobbed aloud.
The spectacle produced correspondent emotions in his companions.
Paul Hover had actually swallowed each syllable of the discourse as they fell alternately from the different speakers, his feelings keeping equal pace with the increasing interest of the scene.
Unused to such strange sensations, he was turning his face on every side of him, to avoid he knew not what, until he saw the tears and heard the sobs of the old man, when he sprang to his feet, and grappling his guest fiercely by the throat, he demanded by what authority he had made his aged companion weep.
A flash of recollection crossing his brain at the same instant, he released his hold, and stretching forth an arm in the very wantonness of gratification, he seized the Doctor by the hair, which instantly revealed its artificial formation, by cleaving to his hand, leaving the white and shining poll of the naturalist with a covering no warmer than the skin.
“What think you of that, Mr. Bug-gatherer?” he rather shouted than cried: “is not this a strange bee to line into his hole?”
“‘Tis remarkable! wonderful! edifying!” returned the lover of nature, good-humouredly recovering his wig, with twinkling eyes and a husky voice. “‘Tis rare and commendable.
Though I doubt not in the exact order of causes and effects.”
With this sudden outbreaking, however, the commotion instantly subsided; the three spectators clustering around the trapper with a species of awe, at beholding the tears of one so aged.
“It must be so, or how could he be so familiar with a history that is little known beyond my own family,” at length the youth observed, not ashamed to acknowledge how much he had been affected, by unequivocally drying his own eyes.
“True!” echoed Paul; “if you want any more evidence I will swear to it!
I know every word of it myself to be true as the gospel!”
“And yet we had long supposed him dead!” continued the soldier. “My grandfather had filled his days with honour, and he had believed himself the junior of the two.”
“It is not often that youth has an opportunity of thus looking down on the weakness of age!” the trapper observed, raising his head, and looking around him with composure and dignity. “That I am still here, young man, is the pleasure of the Lord, who has spared me until I have seen fourscore long and laborious years, for his own secret ends.
That I am the man I say, you need not doubt; for why should I go to my grave with so cheap a lie in my mouth?”
“I do not hesitate to believe; I only marvel that it should be so!
But why do I find you, venerable and excellent friend of my parents, in these wastes, so far from the comforts and safety of the lower country?”
“I have come into these plains to escape the sound of the axe; for here surely the chopper can never follow!
But I may put the like question to yourself.
Are you of the party which the States have sent into their new purchase, to look after the natur’ of the bargain they have made?”
“I am not.
Lewis is making his way up the river, some hundreds of miles from this.
I come on a private adventure.”
“Though it is no cause of wonder, that a man whose strength and eyes have failed him as a hunter, should be seen nigh the haunts of the beaver, using a trap instead of a rifle, it is strange that one so young and prosperous, and bearing the commission of the Great Father, should be moving among the prairies, without even a camp-colourman to do his biddings!”
“You would think my reasons sufficient did you know them, as know them you shall if you are disposed to listen to my story.
I think you all honest, and men who would rather aid than betray one bent on a worthy object.”