CHAPTER XIX.
THE CROOKED LOG.
"I tell you what, Chicago's a-growing. First _we_ come; then Gaspar;then Kitty and him get married; and I go to keeping tavern in theparson's house; and his son, One, goes up north to take a place inGaspar's business; and Gaspar sends Two and Three east to study lawand medicine; and Four and his pa come to board in our tavern; andOsceolo----"
"For the land's sake, Abel Smith, do hold your tongue. Here you've gotto be as big a talker as old Deacon Slim, that I used to hear about,who begun the minute he woke up and never stopped till his wife tiedhis mouth shut at night. Even then----"
"Mercy, Mercy! Take care. Set me a good example, if you can; but don'tgo to denying that this is a growin' village."
"I've no call to deny it. Why should I? But, say, Abel, just stepround to the store, won't you, an' buy me some of that turkey redcalico was brought in on the last team from the East. I'd admire tomake Kitty a rising sun quilt for her bedroom. 'Twould be so'propriate, too."
"Fiddlesticks! Not a yard of stuff will I ever buy for you to set an'snip, snip, like you used to in the woods. We've got something else todo now. As for Kit, between the Fort folks and the Indians, she's hadso many things give her a'ready, she won't have room to put 'em. Theidee! Them two children gettin' married. Seems just like play makebelieve."
"Well, there ain't no make believe. It's the best thing 't everhappened to Chicago. Wonderful how they both 'pear to love the oldhole in the mud," answered Mercy.
"Yes, ain't it? To hear Gaspar talk, you'd think he'd been toCongress, let alone bein' President. All about the 'possibilities ofthe location,' the 'fertility of the soil,' the 'big canawl,' and thewhole endurin' business; why, I tell you, it badgers my wits to follerhim."
"Wouldn't try, then, if I was you. Poor old wits 'most wore out, anyhow, and better save what's left for this tavern business. Between youand your fiddle, thinkin' you've got to amuse your guests, I'm aboutbeat out. All the drudgery comes on _me_, same's it always did."
"Drudgery, Mercy? Now, come. Take it easy. Hain't Kitty fetched you acouple of squaws to do your steps and dish washin'? All you have todo is to cook and----"
"Oh! go along, Abel, and get me that calico. Don't set there till youtake root. I ain't a-complainin', an' I 'low I'm as much looked up tohere in Chicago without my bedstead as I was in the woods with it."
"Looked up to? I should say so. There ain't a woman in the settlementholds her head as top-lofty as you do. And with good reason, I 'low. Idon't praise you often, ma, but when I do, I mean it. If you hadn'tbeen smarter 'n the average, and had more gumption to boot, you'dnever been asked in to help them army women cook Kitty's weddin'supper. By the way, where are the youngsters now? I hain't seen 'emto-day."
"Off over the prairie on their horses, just as they used to be whenthey were little tackers. I never saw bridal folks like them; from thevery first not hangin' round by themselves, but mixing with everybody,same's usual, and beginning right away to do all the good they canwith Gaspar's money. Off now to see some folks burned their own barnup----"
"W-H-A-T?" demanded Abel, with paling face.
"What ails you? A fool of a woman took a lighted candle into her hayloft and ruined herself. That happened the night Gaspar found Kitty;and they call it part of their weddin' tower to go there and lend thefarmer the money to replace it. Gaspar was for giving it outright,though he's a shrewd feller too, but Kit wouldn't. 'They aren'tpaupers, and it would hurt their pride,' she said. 'Lend it to them onvery easy terms, and they'll respect themselves and you.'"
"Well, of course he done it."
"Sure. When a man gets a wife as wise as Kitty he'd ought to hark toher."
"I'll go and get the calico now, Mercy," said Abel, and left rathersuddenly.
At nightfall the young couple rode homeward once more, facing themoonlight that whitened the great lake and touched the homely hamletbeside it with an idealizing beauty; and looking upon it, the Sun Maidrecalled her vision concerning it and repeated it to her husband.
"Ever since then, my Gaspar, the dream comes back to me in some formor shape. But it is always here, right here, that the crowds gatherand the great roar of life sounds in my ears. In some strange way weare to be part of it; part of it all. In the dream I see the tallspires of churches, thick and shouldering one another like the treesin the forest behind us."
"But, my darling, you have never seen a church of any sort. How,then, can you dream of them?"
"That I don't know, unless it is from the pictures in the goodDoctor's books. I have learned so much from the pictures always. But,oh! I wish I could make you know some of the delight I felt when firstI could read!"
"I do know it, sweetheart. I, too, craved knowledge and dug it out formyself, up there in the northern forests, from the few books that camemy way and the rare visit of a man who could teach. The first dollar Ihad that was all my own I put aside for you. That was the beginning ofour fortune. The second I invested in a spelling-book. The study,dear, was all that helped me bear the pain of your death. But you arenot dead! Rather the most alive of any human being whom I ever saw."
"That is true, Gaspar. I _am_ alive. I just quiver with the force thatdrives me on from one task to another, from one point reached to onebeyond. And now, with you beside me, there is no limit, it seems, tothe help we can be to every single person who will come within ourreach. Wasn't the woman glad and grateful; and don't you see, laddie,that it is better as I planned? You say you have been penurious,saving every cent not expended for your books and necessaries: andyet, now that you are happy again, you are ready to rush to the otherextreme and throw your money away in thoughtless charity."
She looked so young, so childlike, in the glimmering moonlight thatthe tall woodsman laughed.
"To hear my little Kit teaching her elders!"
"The elders must listen. It is for our home. You must spend everydollar you have, but you must do it in such a way that somebody willbe helped. We don't want money, just money, for itself. To hold itthat way would make us ignoble. It's the wealth we spend that willmake us rich."
"Kit, there's some dark scheme afloat in that fair head of yours. Outwith it!"
"Just for a beginning of things--this: There was a family came to theFort to-day. The father is a skilled wood-carver. He is not overstrong and his wife is frailer than he. They have a lot of littlechildren and he must earn money. It has cost them more than theyexpected to get as far as this, even, and they should not go farther.Yet he is a man, a master workman. It would be an insult to offer himmoney. But give him work and you feed his soul as well as his body."
"How, my love? Who that dwells in a log cabin needs fine carvings orwould appreciate them if they had them?"
"Educate them to want and appreciate them. Open a school for just thatbranch. I myself will be his pupil. I remember with what delight Iused to mould Mercy's butter. Well, I've been moulding something eversince."
"Your husband, for instance."
"He's a little difficult material; but time will improve him! Thenthere are the Doctor's botanical treatises and specimens. Open aschool. If you have to begin with a few only, still _begin_. Lay theseed. From our little workroom and classroom may grow one of thosemighty colleges that have made Englishmen great and are makingAmericans their equals."
"Hello there, child! Hold on a bit. Their equals? And you a soldier'sdaughter!"
"Since I am a soldier's daughter, I can afford to be just, and evengenerous. It is all nonsense, because we have gained our independence,to say we are better than our fathers were. For they were our fathers,surely; and they had had time in their rich country, with their agesof instruction, to grow learned and great. But we Americans are theirchildren, and, just as is already proving, each generation is wiserthan the one which went before. So presently we shall be able to doeven better than they----"
"Give them another dose of Yankee Doodle?"
"If they require it, yes. But come back to just right here in thislitt
le town. Besides the schools for white children, can't we havethose for the Indians?"
"No, dear; not here. Not anywhere, I fear, that will ever result inpermanent good. At least, the time is not yet ripe for that part ofyour dreaming to come true."
"But think of Wahneenah. She is teachable and there is none morenoble. Yet she is an Indian."
"She is one, herself. In all her race I have seen none other like her.There is Black Partridge, too, and Gomo, and old Winnemeg. They areexceptions. But, my love, there are, also, the Black Hawk and theProphet."
He did not add his opinion, which agreed with that of the wisest menhe knew, that Illinois would know no real prosperity till the savages,which disturbed its peace, were removed from its borders. For sheloved them, hoped for them, believed in them; even though her owncommon sense forced her to agree with him that the time was not ripethen, if it ever would be, for their civilization. So he held hispeace and soon they were at home.
"Heigho! There are lights in our cabin. Hear me prophesy: Mother Mercyhas come over with a roast for our supper and Mother Wahneenah hasquietly set it aside to wait until her own is eaten. Ho there within!"he called merrily. "Who breaches our castle when its lord is absent?"
Mercy promptly appeared in the doorway. She was greatly excited andhastily led them to the rear of the house, pointing with both hands toan animal fastened behind it.
"There's your fine Indian for you! See that?"
"Indeed I do!" laughed Kitty. "An ox, Jim, isn't it? with the Doctor'ssaddle on his back and his botanizing box, and--What does it mean? Iknew he was absent-minded, but not like this."
"Absent-minded. Absent shucks! That's Osceolo--_that_ is!" in a toneof fiercest indignation. "He's such a crooked log he can't lie still."
"Is that his work? He dared not play his tricks on the dear Doctor!"
"Yes, it's his'n. The idee! There was Abel went and gave old Dobbin tothe parson, to save his long legs some of their trampin' after weedsand stuff and 'cause he was afraid to ride ary other horse in thesettlement. And there was Osceolo, that for a feller's hired out to aregular tavern-keeper like us, to be a hostler and such, he don't earnhis salt. All the time prankin' round on some tomfoolery. And Abel'sjust as bad. A man with only two or three little weeny tufts o' hairleft on his head and mighty little sense on the inside, at his time oflife, a-fiddlin' and cuttin' up jokes, I declare--I declare, I'm beat,and I wish----"
"But what is it?" demanded Kitty, bringing her old friend back tofacts.
"Why, nothing. Only when the dominie came home and stopped here, as healways does after he's been a-prairieing, to show you his truck anddicker, Osceolo happens along and is took smart! The simpleton! Justset old Dobbin scamperin' off back into the grass again and clappedthe saddle and tin box and what not on to the ox's back. Spected he'dsee the parson come out and mount and never notice. 'Stead of that,along comes Abel--strange how constant he has to visit to yourhouse!--and sees the whole business. Well, he'd caught some sort of awild animal, and--say, Kitty Briscoe, I mean Keith!--_that Indian'ddrink whiskey, if he got a chance_, just as quick as one raised in thewoods, instead of one privileged to set under such a saint as theDoctor all his days. I tell you--Well, what you laughing at, GasparKeith? Ain't I tellin' the truth?"
"Yes, Mother Mercy, doubtless you are. But it isn't so long back, asAbel says, that you objected to 'setting under' the Doctor yourself."
"Suppose it wasn't? I didn't know him then, not as I do now. He'sorthodox, I found out, and that's all I wanted. But I know what I'mtalkin' about. Osceolo, he's always beggin' for Abel to keep liquor:an' we teetotallers! An' he's teased so much that the other day Abelthought he'd satisfy him. So he got an old bottle, looked as if sometipsy Indian had thrown it away, and filled it with a dose of bonesettea. He made a terrible mystery of the whole matter, pretendin' to besly of me, and took it out from under his coat and gave it to Ossy outbehind in the stable, like it was a wonderful secret. Do you know,that Indian hain't never let on a single word about that business yet?Oh! he's a master hand for bein' close-mouthed. They all be. They just_do_--but don't talk."
"Mercy, if _you_ were only a little more talkative, you'd be bettercompany!" teased Gaspar, who was eager for the finish of the story andhis supper.
"Now--you! Well, laugh away. I don't mind. All is, when Abel saw thetrick Ossy had played on the Doctor, he plays one on Ossy. He'd caughta queer sort of animal, as I said, and he was fetchin' it to Kit.Everybody brings her everything, from rattlesnakes up. But when he sawthat ox, he just opens the tin box and claps the creature inside andthen hunts up Ossy. He says: 'There's something in that box prettysuspicious, boy. You might look an' see what 'tis but don't let on.'He's that curiosity, Osceolo has, that he forgot everything else andstuck his hand in sly. I expect he thought it was something to eat, orlikely to drink, and he got bit. Hand's all tore and sore, and nowAbel's scared and gone off with him to the surgeon at the Fort, andthere'll be trouble. Ossy was muttering something about the 'BlackHawk coming and that he'd had enough of the white folks. He was bornan Indian, and an Indian he'd die'; and to the land! I hope he will!He makes more mischief in this settlement than you can shake a stickat!"
"'It's hard for a bird to get away from its tail,'" quoted Gaspar,lightly. "Osceolo began life wrong and his reputation clings to him.I'll take the saddle off Jim, and let's go in to supper. None of mySun Maid's tribe is to be feared, I think, no matter how direly theymay threaten."
Yet the young husband glanced toward his wife with an anxiety that hewould not have liked her to see. During the weeks since his return tothe village he had learned much more than he had told her of amovement far beyond the Indian encampments she was accustomed tovisit, which would bring serious trouble, if not complete disaster,upon their beloved home. Osceolo was the Sun Maid's devoted follower;yet the prank he had played upon the old Doctor, whom she soreverenced, showed that he was already throwing aside the restraintsof his enforced civilization; and the sign was ominous.