The Buffalo Runners, Robert Michael Ballantyne [best fiction novels of all time .txt] 📗

Okematan and Archie occupied their old places in the stern and bow of the chief's canoe, with Little Bill in the middle--this time using a paddle, for his strength had greatly increased. The other canoe was steered by Dan; Fergus acted bowman, and Jenkins sat between them, also wielding a paddle.

That night they encamped on the banks of the river, for their progress had been slow, owing to sundry visits which had to be paid to settlers on the way down.

"Well, now," observed the sailor, as he stood by the camp-fire smoking his pipe contemplatively, "I find that as circumstances change about in this world men's minds are apt to go 'bout-ship along wi' them."

"That sounds a terribly profound speech, Fred," said Archie, who was busy at his very usual occupation of whittling an arrow for his brother. "Did your father teach it you, or did you crib it from a copy-book?"

"No, I raither think," retorted the seaman quietly, "that I got it from your grandmother by the father's side."

"What may be the circumstance that has caused your mind to go about-ship just now?" asked Dan, stirring the fire under the robbiboo-kettle.

"Well, it's in regard to them there canoe-paddles. Although they do seem small, compared with oars, I find they're quite big enough to do the work, and although I've bin trained from a youngster to handle the oar, an' go like a crab with my back the way I'm pullin', it do seem more sensible-like to sit wi' one's face to the front and drive ahead;-- anyhow, it's more comfortable and satisfactory."

"Look out, Jenkins!" exclaimed Little Bill, "else your duck won't be satisfactory--it's burnin' now."

"O, never mind," remarked Fergus, lighting his pipe. "It iss havin' it well done he would be fond of."

"Ay, but not over-done," cried the seaman, snatching the duck in question from before the blaze and turning its other side--for they used no spits in the Nor'-West in those days, but cooked one side at a time-- nay, even carved off and ate part of the cooked side while the other side was roasting.

Next day they came out on the ocean-like expanse of the great lake, and steered along its western shores until they reached the fishery, where numbers of rudely-constructed wigwams and a few tents sheltered the fishing community.

They had just returned from a successful visit to the nets when the visitors arrived, and all was animation and rejoicing at the successful take. Jacques Bourassin was the first man they met on landing, and he was enthusiastic about the prospects before them. Slowfoot was the first woman, and she was quite satisfied--in that amiable state of mental and physical felicity in which it is so easy to believe that "all is for the best." Her husband soon after appeared. He, of course, was also greatly pleased. He had joined the fishers because he believed that plenty of food, tea, and tobacco would be going amongst them. He was not mistaken.

"You will come to my tent," he said, in the wealth of his hospitality; "we have plenty of good fish, a very little meat, some tobacco, and oceans of tea!"

The six visitors accepted the invitation, and were soon made acquainted with all the gossip of the community.

"Does it always smoke?" whispered Little Bill to his brother.

The "it" referred to was Baby La Certe, which had, as usual, possessed itself of its father's pipe when the mother was not watching.

"I'm not sure, Little Bill, but I think that it does its best."

It was observed, especially by Fred Jenkins, that the tea-drinking which went on at this place was something marvellous.

"There's that squaw sittin' there," he said, "she's bin an' swigged three pannikins o' tea while I've bin looking at her--an' it's as black as ink. What's that brown stuff they put into it, does any one know?"

"That? Why, it is maple sugar," answered Archie, "an' capital stuff it is to eat too."

"Ah, I know that, for I've ate it in lump, but it can't be so good in tea, I fancy, as or'nary brown or white sugar; but it's better than fat, anyhow."

"Fat!" exclaimed Little Bill, "surely you never heard of any one taking fat in tea, did you?"

"Ay, that I did. Men that move about the world see strange things. Far stranger things than people invent out o' their own brains. Why, there was one tribe that I saw in the East who putt fat in the tea, an' another putt salt, and after they'd swallowed this queer kind of tea-soup, they divided the leaves among themselves an' chawed 'em up like baccy."

The evident delight with which these half-breeds and more than half-Indians swallowed cup after cup of the blackest and bitterest tea, proved beyond question their appreciation of the article, and afforded presumptive evidence at least that tea is not in their case as poisonous as we are taught to believe.

But it was not, as Jenkins remarked, all fair weather, fun, and tea at the fishery. After the six visitors had been there for a week, shooting and assisting in the canoes, and at the nets, there came a night when the forces of Nature declared war against the half-breeds and those settlers who had cast in their lot with them at that time.

Jenkins, Okematan, and Archie had been out with their guns that day--the last having been promoted to the use of the dangerous weapon--and in their wanderings had about nightfall come upon a family of half-breeds named Dobelle, a good-natured set, who lived, like La Certe, on the _laissez faire_ principle; who dwelt in a little log-hut of their own construction within the margin of the forest, not far from the shore of the great lake.

This family, though claiming to be Christian and civilised, was little better than vagrant and savage. They were to some extent as independent as the brute creation around them--though of course they betrayed the inherent weakness of mankind in being unable to exist happily without tea, sugar, and tobacco. For the rest, their wants were few and easily satisfied. Snares provided willow-grouse and rabbits; traps gave them furs and the means of purchasing guns and powder. Their log-hut was only an occasional residence. Wherever night overtook them they were at home. They camped on the open plains, in the woods, among the rocks, and on the margins of rivers and lakes. Healthy, happy, and heedless, the Dobelle family cared for nothing apparently, but the comfort of the passing hour; regarded the past as a convenient magazine from which to draw subjects for gossip and amusement, and left the future to look after itself.

There were in the hut, when the three visitors entered, old Dobelle, his wife, a daughter of eighteen, another of four, and two sons of twenty and twenty-two respectively.

"It looks like dirty weather," said Jenkins on entering; "will you let us come to an anchor here for a bit?"

"Give us shelter?" explained Archie, who doubted old Dobelle's ability to understand nautical language.

"You are welcome," said the half-breed, making way politely, and pointing to places on the floor where the visitors were expected to squat. For there was no furniture in that mansion; the fire was kindled in the middle of its one room; the family sat around it on deer and buffalo skins, and the smoke alike of pipe and fire found egress at the crevices in the roof.

With kind hospitality Madame Dobelle poured some black tea into cups of birch-bark, and, on plates of the same material, spread before them the remains of a feast of roasted fish.

While eating this, various questions were put as to the success of the fishery.

"Yes--we have been very successful," said old Dobelle. "No bad weather to speak of, and plenty of fish. Our good fortune is great."

"But it won't last long," said the eldest son, who seemed to be the only growler in the family.

"_N'importe_--we will enjoy it while it lasts," said the younger son.

"Yes, truly we will," remarked Madame Dobelle. Whereupon the daughter of eighteen smiled, and the daughter of four giggled.

"What does Okematan think?" asked the host.

Thus appealed to, the chief gave it as his opinion that something was going to happen, for the sky in the nor'-west looked uncommonly black. Having given utterance to this cautious remark he relapsed into silence.

As if to justify his opinion, a tremendous clap of thunder seemed to rend the heavens at that moment, and, a few minutes later, a heavy shower of rain fell.

"Well that we got inside before that came on," said Archie. "I hope it won't come on to blow, else we shall be storm-stayed here."

The weather seemed to be in a lively mood that night, for as the thunder had promptly answered to Okematan's observation, so now the wind replied to Archie's remark, by rushing up the natural avenue which extended from the hut to the lake and almost bursting in the door.

"See to the ropes, boys," said old Dobelle, glancing uneasily at the roof.

The young men arose, went out, regardless of weather, and secured with additional care a couple of stout ropes with which the tendency of the roof to fly away was restrained.

"Did it ever come off?" asked Archie with some curiosity, as the young men returned and resumed their pipes.

"Yes--twice, and both times it was night," answered Madame Dobelle, "and we were flooded out and had to camp under the trees."

"Which was not comfortable," added the old man. Another clap of thunder seemed to corroborate what he said, and a blast of wind followed, which caused the whole fabric of the hut to shudder. Jenkins looked inquiringly at the roof.

"No fear of it," said old Dobelle; "the ropes are strong."

Thus assured, the visitors continued their meal with equanimity, regardless of the storm that soon began to rage with great fury, insomuch that the door required a prop to keep it up and rain began to trickle in through crevices in the roof and drop here and there upon the party. When one such drop chanced to fall on old Dobelle's nose, his younger son arose, and, fastening a piece of birch-bark to the rafters, caught the drop and trained it with its followers to flow towards an unoccupied place in one corner, which, being accidentally lower than the rest of the floor, formed a convenient receptacle for superfluous water.

At the same time Madame Dobelle made a shakedown of pine-branches in another corner for her visitors, for it was obvious that they would have to spend the night there, even although their own tent was not far-distant.

By that time the storm was raging with unwonted violence. Nevertheless the Dobelle family smoked on in placid contentment. When the time for repose arrived, Madame Dobelle and her eldest girl retired to a box-bed in a corner of the hut which was screened off--not very effectually--by a curtain of birch-bark. The two brothers lay down in another corner. The three visitors disposed themselves in the third, and, as the fourth was monopolised by the rain-rivulet, old Dobelle lay down on one side of the fire in the centre of the room, while the four-year-old girl reposed on the other.

During the night the accumulation