 Chapter 7 of The Pioneers, or The Sources of the Susquehanna by James Fenimore Cooper This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Chapter 7 Quote From Susquehanna's utmost springs, where savage tribes pursue their game, his blanket tied with yellow strings, the shepherd of the forest came. Unquote By Fenimore. Before the Europeans, or to use a more significant term, the Christians, this possessed the original owners of the soil, all that section of the country which contains the New England states, and those of the middle, which lie east of the mountains, was occupied by two great nations of Indians, from whom had descended numberless tribes. But as the original distinctions between these nations were marked by a difference in language, as well as by repeated and bloody wars, they were never known to amalgamate, until after the power in inroads of the whites had reduced some of the tribes to a state of dependence that rendered not only their political, but considering the once in habits of a savage, their animal existence also extremely precarious. These two great divisions consisted on the one side of the five, or as they were afterward called, the six nations and their allies, and on the other, the Lenin-Lenipi or Delaware's, with the numerous and powerful tribes that owned that nation as their grandfather. The former was generally called by the Anglo-Americans, Iroquois, or the six nations, or sometimes Mingos. Their appellation among their rivals seems generally have been the Mengui or Mogwa. They consisted of the tribes, or as their allies were fond of asserting, in order to raise their consequence of the several nations of the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onidogas, Cayugas, and Seneca's, who ranked in the confederation in the order in which they are named. The Tuscaroras were admitted to this union near a century after its foundation, and thus completed the number of six. Of the Lenin-Lenipi, or as they were called by the Whites from the circumstances of their holding their great council fire on the banks of that river, the Delaware Nation, the principal tribes besides that which bore the generic name were Mahikani, Mohicans, or Mohigans, and the Nanticoaks, or Nintigos. Of these, the latter held the country along the waters of the Chesapeake and the Seashore, while the Mohigans occupied the district between the Hudson and the ocean, including much of New England. Of course, these two tribes were the first who were dispossessed of their lands by the Europeans. The wars of a portion of the latter are celebrated among us as the wars of King Philip, but the peaceful policy of William Penn, or Mingwong, as he was turned by the natives, affected its object with less difficulty, though not with less certainty. As the natives gradually disappeared from the country of the Mahigans, some scattering families sought a refuge around the council fire of the mother tribe, or the Delaware's. This people had been induced to suffer themselves to be called women by their old enemies, the Mingos, or Iroquois. After the latter having in vain tried the effects of hostility, had recourse in artifice in order to prevail over their rivals. According to this declaration, the Delaware's were to cultivate the arts of peace and to entrust their defenses entirely to the men or warlike tribes of the six nations. This state of things continued until the War of the Revolution, when the Lenny Lennipied formally asserted their independence and fearlessly declared that they were, again, men. But in a government so peculiarly Republican as the Indian polity, it was not at all times an easy task to restrain its members within the rules of the nation. Several fierce and renowned warriors of the Mahigans, finding the conflict with the whites to be in vain, sought a refuge with their grandfather and brought with them the feelings and principles that had so long distinguished them in their own tribe. These chieftains kept alive in some measure the martial spirit of the Delaware's and would, at times, lead small parties against their ancient enemies, or such other foes as incurred their resentment. Among these warriors was one race particularly famous for their prowess and for those qualities that render an Indian hero celebrated. But war, time, disease, and want had conspired to thin their number and the sole representative of this once renowned family now stood in the Hall of Marmaduke Temple. He had for a long time been an associate of the white men, particularly in their wars, and having been at the season when his services were of importance much noticed and flattered, he turned Christian and was baptized by the name of John. He had suffered severely in his family during the recent war, having had every soul to whom he was allied cut off by an inroad of the enemy, and when the last lingering remnant of his nation extinguished their fires among the hills of the Delaware, he alone had remained with the determination of laying his bones in that country where his fathers had so long lived and governed. It was only, however, within a few months that he had appeared among the mountains that surrounded Templeton. To the hut of the old hunter, he seemed peculiarly welcome, and as the habits of the leather stocking were so nearly assimilated to those of the savages, the conjunction of their interest excited no surprise. They resided in the same cabin, ate of the same food, and were chiefly occupied in the same pursuits. We have already mentioned the baptismal name of this ancient chief, but in his conversation with Natty, held in the language of the Delaware's, he was heard uniformly to call himself Chinchgochkoch, which interpreted means the Great Snake. This name he had acquired in his youth by his skill and prowess in war, but when his brows began to wrinkle with time and he stood alone, the last of his family and his particular tribe, the few Delaware's who yet continued about the headwaters of their river gave him the mournful appellation of Mohegan. Perhaps there was something of deep feeling excited in the bosom of this inhabitant of the forest by the sound of a name that recalled the idea of his nation in ruins. For he seldom used it himself. Never. Indeed, accepting on the most solemn occasions, but the settlers had united according to the Christian custom, his baptismal with his national name, and to him he was generally known as John Mohegan, or more familiarly as Indian John. From his long association with the white men, the habits of Mohegan were a mixture of the civilized and savage states, though there was certainly a strong preponderance in favor of the latter. In common with all his people who dwelt within the influence of the Anglo-Americans, he had acquired new ones, and his dress was a mixture of his native and European fashions, notwithstanding the intense cold without. His head was uncovered, but a profusion of long black coarse hair concealed his forehead, his crown, and even hung about his cheeks, so as to convey the idea to one who knew his present amid former conditions, that he encouraged its abundance as a willing veil to hide the shame of a noble soul, mourning for glory once known. His forehead, when it could be seen, appeared lofty, broad, and noble. His nose was high, and of the kind called Roman, with nostrils that expanded. In his 70th year, with the freedom that had distinguished them in youth, his mouth was large but compressed, and possessing a great share of expression and character, and when opened, it discovered a perfect set of short, strong, and regular teeth. His chin was full, though not prominent, and his face bore the infallible mark of his people in its square, high cheekbones. The eyes were not large, but their black orbs glittered in the rays of the candles, as he gazed intently down the hall, like two balls of fire. The instant that Mohegan observed himself to be noticed by the group around the young stranger, he dropped the blanket which covered the upper part of his frame from his shoulders, suffering it to fall over his leggings of untanned deerskin, where it was retained by a belt of bark that confined it to his waist. As he walked slowly down the long hall, the dignified and deliberate tread of the Indian surprised the spectators. His shoulders and body to his waist were entirely bare, with the exception of a silver medallion of Washington that was suspended from his neck by a thong of buckskin and rested on his high chest amid many scars. His shoulders were rather broad and full, but the arms, though straight and graceful, wanted the muscular appearance that labor gives to a race of men. The medallion was the only ornament he wore, although enormous slits in the rim of either ear, which suffered the cartilages to fall two inches below the members, had evidently been used for the purpose of decoration in other days. In his hand he held a small basket of the ash wood slips covered in diverse fantastical conceits with red and black paints mingled with the white of the wood. As this child of the forest approached them, the whole party stood aside and allowed him to confront the object of his visit. He did not speak, however, but stood fixing his glowing eyes on the shoulder of the young hunter and then turning them intently on the continents of the judge. The latter was a good deal astonished at this unusual departure from the ordinarily subdued and quiet manner of the Indian, but he extended his hand and said, Thou art welcome, John. This youth entertains a high opinion of thy skill, it seems, for he prefers thee to dress his womb even to our good friend, Dr. Todd. Mohican now spoke intolerable English, but in a low monotonous guttural tone. The children of Minghorn do not love the sight of blood, and yet young Eagle has been struck by the hand that should do no evil. Mohican, O John, exclaimed the judge, thinkest thou that my hand was ever drawn human blood willingly? For shame, for shame, O John, thy religion should have taught thee better. The evil spirit sometimes lives in the best heart, returned John, but my brother speaks the truth. His hand has never taken life when awake. No, not even when the children of the great English father were making the waters red with the blood of his people. Surely, John, said Mr. Grant, with much earnestness, you remember the divine command of our Saviour. Judge not, lest ye be judged. What motive would Judge Temple have for injuring a youth like this, one to whom he is unknown, and from whom he can receive neither injury nor favour? John listened respectfully to the divine, and when he had concluded, he stretched out his arm and said with energy, He is innocent. My brother has not done this. Marmaduke received the offered hand of the other with a smile that showed, however he might be astonished at his suspicion, he had ceased to resent it, while the wounded youth stood gazing from his red friend to his host, with interest powerfully delineated in his countenance. No sooner was this act of pacification exchanged, then John proceeded to discharge the duty on which he had come. Dr. Todd was far from manifesting any displeasure at this invasion of his rights, but made way for the new leech with an air that expressed a willingness to gratify the humours of his patient, now that the all-important part of the business was so successfully performed, and nothing remained to be done, but that what any child might effect, indeed he whispered as much to Monserle Coy when he said, It was fortunate that the ball was extracted before this Indian came in, but any old woman can dress the wound. The young man I hear lives with John and Nanti Bumple, and it's always best to humor a patient when it can be done discreetly, I say discreetly, Monserle. Settlement, returned the Frenchman. You seem very happy, Mr. Todd, in your practice. I think the other lady might very, very finish what you so skiffully begin. But Richard had at the bottom a great deal of veneration for the knowledge of Mahican, especially in external wounds, and retaining all his desire for a participation in glory. He advanced nigh the Indians and said, Sago, Sago, Mohican, Sago, my good fellow, I am glad you have come. Give me a regular physician like Dr. Todd to cut into flesh and a native to heal the wound. Do you remember, John, the time when I and you set the bone of Nanti Bumple's little finger after he broke it by falling from the rock when he was trying to get the partridge that fell on the cliffs? I never could tell yet whether it was an I or Nanti who killed that bird. He fired first and the bird stooped, and then it was rising again as I pulled trigger. I should have claimed it for a certainty, but Nanti said the hole was too big for shot and he fired a single ball from his rifle. But the piece I carried then didn't scatter and I have known it to bore a hole through a board when I've been shooting at a mark, very much like rifle bullets. Shall I help you, John? You know I have a knack at these things. Mohican heard this disquisition quite patiently and when Richard concluded he held out the basket which contained his specifics, indicating by a gesture that he might hold it. Mr. Jones was quite satisfied with this commission and ever after, in speaking of the event, was used to say that Dr. Todd and I cut out the bullet and I and Indian John dressed the wound. The patient was much more deserving of that epithet while under the hands of Mohican than while suffering under the practice of the physician. Indeed, the Indian gave him but little opportunity for the exercise of a forbearing temper as he had come prepared for the occasion. His dressings were soon applied and consisted only of some pounded bark moistened with the fluid that he had expressed from some of the symbols of the woods. Among the native tribes of the forest there are always two kinds of leeches to be met with. The one placed its whole dependence on the exercise of supernatural power and was held in greater veneration than their practice could at all justify. But the other was really endowed with great skill in the ordinary complaints of the human body and was more particularly, as Natty had intimated, cures in cuts and bruises. While John and Richard were placing the dressings on the wound, Elnathan was acutely eyeing the contents of Mohican's basket which Mr. Jones in his physical ardor had transferred to the doctor in order to hold himself one end of the bandages. Here he was soon enabled to detect sundry fragments of wood and bark, of which he quite coolly took possession, very possibly without any intention of speaking at all upon the subject. But when he beheld the full-blue eye of Marmaduke watching his movements, he whispered to the judge, It is not to be denied, Judge Temple, but what the savages are knowing in small matters of physics. They hand these things down in their traditions. Now, in cancers and hydrophobia, they are quite ingenious. I will just take this bark home and analyze it for though it can't be worth six pence to the young man's shoulder, it may be good for the toothache or rheumatism or some of them complaints. A man should never be above learning, even if it be from an Indian. It was fortunate for Dr. Todd that his principles were so liberal. As coupled with his practice, they were the means by which he acquired all his knowledge, and by which he was gradually qualifying himself for the duties of his profession. The process to which he subjected the specific differed, however, was greatly from the ordinary rules of chemistry. For, instead of separating, he afterward united the component parts of Mohegan's remedy, and thus was able to discover the tree whence the Indian had taken it. Some ten years after this event, when civilization and its refinements had crept or rather rushed into the settlements among these wild hills, an affair of honor occurred, and Elnithon was seen to apply a sav to the wound received by one of the parties, which had the flavor that was peculiar to the tree or root that Mohegan had used. Ten years later still, when England and the United States were again engaged in war, and the hordes of the western parts of the state of New York were rushing to the field, Elnithon presuming on the reputation gained by these two operations followed in the rear of a brigade or militia as its surgeon. When Mohegan had applied the bark, he freely relinquished to Richard the needle and thread that were used in sewing the bandages, for these were implements of which the native but little understood the use, and stepping back with decent gravity awaited the completion of the business by the other. Reach me the scissors," said Mr. Jones when he had finished, and finished for the second time after tying the linen in every shape and form that it could be placed. Reach me the scissors, for here is a thread that must be cut off, or it might get under the dressing and inflame the wound. See, John, I have put the lint I scraped between the two layers of linen, for though the bark is certainly best for the flesh, yet the lint will serve to keep the cold air from the wound. If any lint will do it good, it is this lint. I scraped it myself, and I will not turn my back at scraping lint to any man on the patent. I ought to know how, if anybody ought. For my grandfather was a doctor and my father was a natural turn that way. Here, Squire, is the scissors," said Remarkable, producing from beneath her petticoat of green morine a pair of doll-looking shears. Well, upon my say so. You've sewn that rags, as well as a woman. As well as a woman! echoed Richard with indignation. What do women know of such matters? And you are proof of the truth of what I say. Whoever saw such a pair of shears was used about a wound. Dr. Todd, I will thank you for the scissors from the case. Now, young man, I think you'll do. The shot has been neatly taken out. Although perhaps, seeing I had a hand in it, I ought not to say so, and the wound is admirably dressed. You will soon be well again. Though the jerk you gave my leaders must have a tendency to inflame the shoulder, yet you will do, you will do. You were rather flurried, I suppose, and not used to horses, but I forgive the accident for the motive. No doubt you had the best of motives. Yes, now you will do. Then, gentlemen, said the wounded stranger rising, and resuming his clothes, it will be unnecessary for me to trespass longer on your time and patience. There remains but one thing more to be settled, and that is our respectful rights to the deer. Judge Temple. I acknowledge it to be thine, said Marmaduke, and much more deeply am I indebted to thee than for this piece of venison. But in the morning that will call here, and we can adjust this as well as more important matters. Elizabeth, for the young lady being apprised that the wound was dressed, had re-entered the hall. Thou would order a repass for this youth before we proceed to the church, and Aggie will have a slave prepared to convey him to his friend. But, sir, I cannot go without a part of the deer, returned the youth, seemingly struggling with his own feelings. I have already told you that I needed the venison for myself. Oh, we will not be particular, exclaimed Richard. The judge will pay you in the morning for the whole deer, and remarkable, give the lad all the animal excepting the saddle, so on the whole I think you may consider yourself as a very lucky young man. You have been shot without being disabled, have had the wound dressed in the best possible manner here in the woods, as well as it would have been done in the Philadelphia hospital, if not better. Have sold your deer at a high price, and yet can keep most of the carcass with the skin in the bargain. Markey, tell Tom to give him the skin too, and in the morning bring the skin to me, and I will give you half a dollar for it, or at least three and six pence. I want just the skin to cover the pillion that I am making for cousin Bess. I thank you, sir, for your liberality, and I trust and also thankful for my escape, returned the stranger, but you reserve the very part of the animal that I wished for my own use. I must have the saddle myself. Must, echoed Richard, must is harder to be swallowed than the horns of the buck. Yes, must, repeated the youth. When turning his head proudly around him, as if to see who would dare to controvert his rights, he met the astonished gaze of Elizabeth, and proceeded more mildly. That is, if a man is allowed the possession of that which his hand hath killed, and the law will protect him in the enjoyment of his own. The law will do so, said Judge Temple, with an air of mortification mingled with surprise. Benjamin, see that the whole deer is placed in the sleigh, and have this youth conveyed to the hut of leather stalking. But young man, thou hast a name, and shall I see you again in order to compensate thee for the wrong I have done thee? I am called Edwards, returned the hunter, Oliver Edwards. I am easily to be seen, sir, for I live nigh by, and am not afraid to show my face, having never injured any man. It is we who have injured you, sir, said Elizabeth, and the knowledge that you decline our assistance would give my father great pain. He would gladly see you in the morning. The young hunter gazed at the fair speaker until his earnest look brought blood to her temples. When, recollecting himself, he bent his head, dropping his eyes to the carpet and replied, In the morning, then, will I return and see Judge Temple, and I will accept his offer of the sleigh in token of amity. Amity! repeated Marmaduke. There was no malice in the act that injured the young man. There should be none in the feelings which it may engender. Forgive our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, observed Mr. Grant. It is the language used by our Divine Master himself, and it should be the golden rule with us, his humble followers. The stranger stood a moment, lost in thought, and then, glancing his dark eyes rather wildly around the hall, he bowed low to the Divine and moved from the apartment with an air that would not admit of detention. It is strange that one so young should harbor such feeling of resentment, said Marmaduke, when the door closed behind the stranger, but while the pain is recent and the sense of the injury so fresh, he must feel more strongly than in cooler moments. I doubt not we shall see him in the morning more tractable. Elizabeth, to whom this speech was addressed, did not reply, but moved slowly up the hall by herself, fixing her eyes on the little figure of the English ingrained carpet that covered the floor, while on the other hand Richard gave a loud crack with his whip as the stranger disappeared and cried, Well, Duke, you are your own master, but I would have tried law for the saddle before I would have given it to the fellow. Do you not own the mountains as well as the valleys? Are not the woods your own? What right has this chap, or the leather stocking, to shoot in your woods without your permission? Now I have known a farmer in Pennsylvania who had a large apartment off his farm with as little ceremony as I would order Benjamin to put a log in the stove by the by. Benjamin, see how the thermometer stands? Now, if a man has a right to do this on a farm of 100 acres, what power must the landlord have who owns 60,000 I? For the matter of that, including the lake, purchases 100,000. To be sure, he may have some right being a native, but it's little the poor fellow can do now with his rifle. How is this managed in France, Monsour Lacoy? Do you let everybody run over your land in that country, Helter Skelter, as they do here, shooting the game so that a gentleman has but little or no chance with his gun? Bord d'heuble, no! Mestutique replied the Frenchman, we give in France no liberty except through the laddie. Yes, yes, to the woman I know, said Richard. That is your salient law. I read Sir All Kinds of Books of France, as well as England of Greece, as well as Rome. But if I were in Duke's place, I would stick up advertisements to mar-morning forbidding all persons to shoot or trespass in any manner on my woods. I could write such an advertisement myself in an hour, as would put a stop to the thing at once. Richard, said Major Hartman, very coolly knocking the ashes from his pipe into the spinning-box by his side. Now listen, I have lived seventy-five years on to Marrahoch and interwoots. You had better meadow as meet the devil, as meet their hunters. They leave meet their gun, and a rifle is better as to law. Ain't Marmaduke a judge? said Richard indignantly. Where is the use of being a judge or having a judge if there is no law? Damn the fellow! I have a great mind to assume in the morning myself before Squire Doolittle for meddling with my leaders. I am not afraid of his rifle. I can shoot, too. I have hit a dollar many a time at fifty rods. Thou hast missed more dollars than ever thou hast hit, Dickon, exclaimed the cheerful voice of the judge. But we will now take our evenings repast, which I perceive by remarkable physiognomy, is ready. Monserlecoy, Miss Temple, has a hand at your service. Will you lead the way, my child? Ah, Monserlecoy comes to soire enchanté, said the Frenchman. Il n'est man qu'elle est dame de faire un pardis de Templeton. Mr. Grant and Heakin continued in the hall, while the remainder of the party withdrew to an eating parlor. If we exempt Benjamin, who civilly remained to close the rear after the clergyman, and to open the front door for the exit of the Indian. John, said the Divine, when the figure of Judge Temple disappeared the last of the group, tomorrow is the festival of the nativity of our blessed Redeemer. When the Church has appointed prayers and thanksgiving to be offered by her children, and when all are invited to partake of the mystical elements, as you have taken up the cross and become a follower of good and an executor of evil, I trust I shall see you before the altar, with a contrite heart and a meek spirit. John will come, said the Indian, betraying no surprise, though he did not understand all the terms used by the other. Yes, continued Mr. Grant, laying his hand gently on the tawny shoulder of the aged chief, but it is not enough to be there in the body. You must come in the spirit and in truth. The Redeemer died for all, for the poor Indian as well as for the white man. Heaven knows no difference in color, nor must earth witness a separation of the Church. It is good and profitable, John, to freshen the understanding and support the wavering above the observance of our holy festivals. But all form is but stench in the nostrils of the Holy One, unless it be accompanied by a devout and humble spirit. The Indian stepped back a little, and raising his body to its utmost powers of erection. He stretched his right arm on high and dropped his forefinger downward as if pointing from the heavens. Then striking his other hand on his naked breast, he said with energy, the eye of the great spirit can see from the clouds. The bosom of Mohican is bare. It is well, John, and I hope you will receive profit and consolation from the performance of this duty. The great spirit overlooks none of his children, and the man of the woods is as much an object of his care as he who dwells in a palace. I wish you a good night, and pray God bless you. The Indian bent his head, and they separated, the one to seek his hut, and the other to join his party at the supper table. While Benjamin was opening the door for the passage of the chief, he cried in a tone that was meant to be encouraging. The parson says the word that is true, John, if he be that that they took of the color of the skin in heaven, why they might refuse to matter of their books a Christian born like myself, just for the matter of a little tan from cruising in warm latitudes. Though for the matter of that, this damn norwester is enough to whiten the skin of a blackamore. Let the reef out of your blanket, man, or your red hide will hardly weather the night without a touch from the frost. End of Chapter 7 This reading by Gary W. Sherwin of Yukon, Pennsylvania in January of 2009. Chapter 8 of The Pioneers The Sources of the Susquehanna A Descriptive Tale by James Fenimore Cooper This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Chapter 8 Quote, We have made our readers acquainted with some variety in character and nations in introducing the most important personages of this legend to their notice. But, in order to establish the fidelity of our narrative, we shall briefly attempt to explain the reason why we have been obliged to present the most important personages of this legend. To explain the reason why we have been obliged to present so motley a Dramatis personae. Europe, at the period of our tale, was in the commencement of that commotion which, afterward, shook our political institutions to the center. Louis XVI had been beheaded, and a nation once esteemed the most refined among the civilized people of the world was changing its character and substituting cruelty for mercy and subtlety and ferocity for magnanimity and courage. Thousands of Frenchmen were compelled to seek protection in distant lands. Among the crowds who fled from France and her islands to the United States of America was the gentleman whom we have already mentioned as Monsour Lecoy. He had been recommended to the favor of Judge Temple by the head of an eminent mercantile house in New York with whom Marmaduke was in habits of intimacy and accustomed to exchange good offices. At his first interview with the Frenchmen our judge had discovered him to be a man of breeding and one who had seen much more prosperous days in his own country. From certain hints that had escaped him Monsour Lecoy was suspected of having been a West India planter great numbers of whom had fled from St. Domingo and the other islands and were now living in the Union in a state of comparative poverty and some in absolute want. The latter was not, however, the lot of Monsour Lecoy. He had but little he acknowledged but that little was enough to furnish in the language of the country an assortment for a store. The knowledge of Marmaduke was eminently practical and there was no part of a settler's life with which he was not familiar. Under his direction, Monsour Lecoy made some purchases consisting of a few cloths, some groceries with a good deal of gunpowder and tobacco a quantity of ironware among which was a large portion of Barlow's jackknives potash kettles and spiders a very formidable collection of crockery of the course's quality and most uncouth forms together with every other common article that the art of man has devised for his once not forgetting the luxuries of looking glasses and juice harps. With this collection of valuables Monsour Lecoy had stepped behind a counter with a wonderful pliability of temperament and dropped into his assumed character as gracefully and ever moved in any other. The gentleness and suavity of his manners rendered him extremely popular. Besides this, women soon discover that he had taste. His calicoes were the finest, or in other words the most showy, of any that were brought into the country and it was impossible to look at the prices asked for his goods by so prettiest spoken man. Through these conjoint means the affairs of Monsour Lecoy were again in a prosperous condition and he was looked up to by the settlers as the second best man on the patent. Footnote. The term patent which we have already used and for which we may have further occasioned meant the district of country that had been originally granted to old Major Effingham by the king's letter's patent and which had now become by purchase under the act of confiscation the property of Marmaduke Temple. It was a term in common use throughout the new parts of the state and was usually annexed to the landlord's name as quote, temples or Effingham's patent unquote and footnote. Major Hartman was a descendant of a man who in company with a number of his countrymen had immigrated with their families from the banks of the Rhine to those of the Mohawk. This migration had occurred as far back as the reign of Queen Anne and their descendants were now living in great peace and plenty on the fertile borders of that beautiful stream. The Germans or high Dutchers as they were called to distinguish them from the original or low Dutch columnist were a very peculiar people. They possessed all the gravity of the latter without any of their phlegm and like them the high Dutchers were industrious, honest and economical. Fritz or Frederick Hartman was an epitome of all the vices and virtues, foibles and excellences of his race. He was passionate, though silent, obstinate and a good deal suspicious of strangers of a movable courage, inflexible honesty and undeviating in his friendships. Indeed there was no change about him unless it were from grave to gay. He was serious by months and jolly by weeks. He had early in their acquaintance formed an attachment for Marmaduke Temple who was the only man that could not speak high Dutch and never gained his entire confidence. Four times in each year at periods equidistant he left his low stone dwelling on the banks of the Mohawk and traveled 30 miles through the hills to the door of the mansion house in Templeton. Here he generally stayed a week and was reputed to spend much of that time in riotous living, greatly countless by Mr. Richard Jones. But everyone loved him, even to remarkable petty bone to whom he occasioned some additional trouble. He was so frank, so sincere and at times so mirthful. He was now on his regular Christmas visit and had not been in the village an hour when Richard summoned him to fill a seat in the sleigh to meet the landlord and his daughter. Before explaining the character and situation of Mr. Grant it will be necessary to recur to times far back in the brief history of the settlement. There seems to be a tendency in human nature to endeavor to provide for the once of this world before our attention is turned to the business of the other. Religion has a quality but little cultivated amid the stumps of Temple's patent for the first few years of its settlement. But as most of its inhabitants were from the moral states of Connecticut and Massachusetts when the once of nature were satisfied they began seriously to turn their attention to the introduction of those customs and observances which had been the principal care of their forefathers. There was certainly a great variety of opinions on the subject of grace and free will among the tenetry of Marmaduke and when we take into consideration the variety of the religious instruction which they received it can easily be seen that it could not well be otherwise. Soon after the village had been formally laid out into the streets and blocks that resemble the city a meeting of its inhabitants had been convened to take into consideration the propriety of establishing an academy. The measure originated with Richard who in truth was much disposed to have the institution designated a university or at least a college. Meeting after meeting was held for this purpose year after year. The resolutions of these symbiages appeared in the most conspicuous columns of a little blue looking newspaper that was already issued weekly from the garret of a dwelling house in the village and which the traveler might as often see stuck into the fissure of a stake erected at the point where the footpath from a log cabin of some settler entered the highway as a post office for an individual. Sometimes the stake supported a small box and a whole neighborhood received a weekly supply of their literary ones at this point where the man who rides post regularly deposited a bundle of the precious commodity. To these flourishing resolutions which briefly recounted the general utility of education the political and geographical rights of the village of Templeton to a participation in the favors of the regions of the university the solubility of the air and the wholesomeness of the water together with the cheapness of food and the superior state of morals in the neighborhood were uniformly annexed in large Roman capitals. The names of Marmaduke Temple as chairman and Richard Jones as secretary. Happily for the success of this undertaking the regents were not accustomed to resist these appeals to their generosity whenever there was the smallest prospect of a donation to second the request. Eventually Judge Temple concluded to bestow the necessary land and to erect the required edifice at his own expense. The skill of Mr. or as he was now called from the circumstance of having received the commission of a justice of the peace Squire Doolittle was again put in requisition and the science of Mr. Jones was once more resorted to. We shall not recount the different devices of the architects on the occasion nor would it be decorous to do so seeing that there was a convocation of the society of the ancient and honorable fraternity and accepted masons at the head of whom was Richard in the capacity of master doubtless to approve or reject such of the plans as in their wisdom they deemed to he for the best. The naughty point was however soon decided and on the appointed day the brotherhood marched in great state displaying sundry banners and mysterious symbols each man with a little mimic apron before him from a most cunningly contrived apartment in the gared of the bold Dragoon and in kept by one captain Hollister to the site of the intended edifice here Richard laid the cornerstone with suitable gravity amidst an assemblage of more than half of the men and all the women within ten miles of Templeton in the course of the succeeding week there was another meeting of the people not omitting swarms of the gentler sex when the abilities of Hiram at the square rule were put to the test of experiment the frame fitted well and the skeleton of the fabric was reared without a single accident if we accept a few falls from horses while the laborers were returning home in the evening from this time the work advanced with great rapidity and in the course of the season the work was completed the edifice manding in its heatedty and proportions the boast of the village the study of young aspirants of forearchitectural fame and the admiration of every settler on the patent it was a long narrow house of wood painted white and more than half windows and when the observer stood at the western side of the building the edifice offered by a small obstacle to a full view of the rising sun it was in truth a very comfortless open place through which the daylight shone with natural facility on its front were diverse ornaments in wood designed by Richard and executed by Hiram but a window in the center of the second story immediately over the door or grand entrance and the steeple were the pride of the building the former was we believe of the composite order for it included in its composition a multitude of ornaments and a great variety of proportions it consisted of an arched compartment in the centers with a square and small division on either side the hole encased in heavy frames deeply and laboriously molded in pine wood and lighted with a vast number of blurred and green looking glass of those dimension which are commonly called 8 by 10 blinds that were intended to be painted green kept the window in a state of preservation and probably might have contributed to the effect of the hole had not the failure in the public funds which seems always to be incidental to any undertaking of this kind left them in the somber coat of lead color with which they had been originally clothed the steeple was a little copula reared on the very center of the roof on four tall pillars of pine that were fluted with a gouge and loaded with moldings on the tops of the columns was reared a dome or copula resembling in shape an inverted teacup without its bottom from the center of which projected a spire or shaft of wood transfixed with two iron rods that bore on their ends the letters N, S, E, and W in the same metal the hole was surmounted by an imitation of one of the Finney tribe carved in wood by the hands of Richard and painted what he called a scale color this animal Mr. Jones affirmed to be an admirable resemblance of a great favorite of the epicures of that country which bore the title of Lake Fish and doubtless the assertion was true for although intended to answer the purposes of a weather cock the fish was observed invariably to look with a longing eye in the direction of the beautiful sheet of water that lay embedded in the mountains of Templeton for a short time after the charter of the regents was received the trustees of this institution employed a graduate of one of the eastern colleges to instruct such youth as aspired to knowledge within the walls of the edifice which we have described the upper part of the building was in one apartment and was intended for gala days and exhibitions and the lower contained two rooms that were intended for the great divisions of education Visa, the Latin, and the English scholars the former were never very numerous though the sounds of nominative, penia, genitive, penny were soon heard to issue from the windows of the room to the great delight and manifest edification of the passenger only one labor in this temple of Minerva however was known to get so far as to attempt the translation of Virgil he indeed appeared at the annual exhibition to the prodigious exaltation of all his relatives a farmer's family in the vicinity and repeated the whole of the first eclog from memory observing the intonations of the dialogue with much judgment and effect the sounds as they proceeded from his mouth of titi ri to pedi li ri gubans subchiti mi fi fe gi sil vestrim tinu numas rom mi di ti aris ave ne were the last that had been heard in that building as probably they were the first that had ever been heard in the same language there or anywhere else by this time the trustees discovered that they had anticipated the age and the instructor or principal was superseded by a master who went on to teach the more humble lesson of the more haste the worse speed in good plain English from this time until the date of our incidents the academy was a common country school and the great room of the building was sometimes used as a courtroom at extraordinary trials sometimes for conferences of the religious and morally disposed in the evening at others for a ball in the afternoon given under the auspices of Richard and on Sundays invariably as a place of public worship when an itinerant priest of the persuasion of the Methodist Baptist Universalist or of the more numerous sector of the Presbyterians was accidentally in the neighborhood he was ordinarily invicted to officiate and was commonly rewarded for his services by a collection in a hat before the congregation separated when no such regular minister offered a kind of colloquial prayer by some of the more gifted members and a sermon was usually read from Stern by Mr. Richard Jones the consequence of this desultory kind of priesthood was as we have already intimated a great diversity of opinion on the more obstruous points of faith each sect had its inheritance though neither was regularly organized and disciplined of the religious education of Marmaduke we have already written nor was the doubtful character of his faith completely removed by his marriage the mother of Elizabeth was an Episcopalian as indeed was the mother of the judge himself and the good taste of Marmaduke re-voted at the familiar colloquies which the leaders of the conferences held with the deity in their nightly meetings in form he was certainly an Episcopalian though not a secretary of that denomination on the other hand Richard was as Richard in the observance of the cannons of his church as he was inflexible in his opinions indeed he had once or twice a say to introduce the Episcopal form of service on the Sundays that the pupil was vacant but Richard was a good deal addicted to carrying things to an excess and then there was something so papal in his air that the greater part of his ears deserted him on the second Sabbath on the third his only auditor was Ben Pump who had all the obstinate enlightened orthodoxy of a high churchman before the war of the revolution the English church was supported in the colonies by much interest by some of its inheritance in the mother country and a few of the congregations amply endowed but for the season after the independence of the states was established this sect of Christians languished for the want of the highest order of its priesthood pious and suitable divines were at length selected and sent to the mother country to receive that authority which it is understood can only be transmitted directly from one to the other and thus obtain in order to reserve that unity in their churches which properly belong to a people of the same nation but unexpected difficulties presented themselves in the oaths with which the policy of England had fettered their establishment and much time was spent before a conscientious sense of duty would permit the prelates of Britain to delegate the authority so earnestly sought time, patience and zeal however removed every impediment and the venerable man who had been set apart by the American churches at length returned to their expecting diocese endowed with the most elevated functions of their earthly church priest and deacons were ordained and missionaries provided to keep alive the expiring flame of devotion in such members as were deprived of the ordinary administrations by dwelling in new and new districts. All this number was Mr. Grant. He had been sent into the county of which Templeton was the capital and had been kindly invited by Marmaduke and officially pressed by Richard to take up his abode in the village. A small and humble dwelling was prepared for his family and the divine had made his appearance in the place but a few days previously as an introduction to the reader. As his forms were entirely new to most of the inhabitants and a clergyman of another denomination had previously occupied the field by engaging the academy, the first Sunday after his arrival was allowed to pass in silence but now that his rival had passed on like a meteor filling the air with the light of his wisdom Richard was empowered to give notice that public leadership after the forms of the Protestant Episcopal Church would be held on the night before Christmas in the long room of the academy in Templeton by the Reverend Mr. Grant. This annunciation excited great commotion among the different sectaries. Some wondered as to the nature of the exhibition others sneered but a far greater part recollecting the essays of Richard in that way and mindful of the liberality or rather laxity of Marmaduke's notions on the subject of sectarianism thought it most prudent to be silent. The expected evening was however the wonder of the hour nor was the curiosity at all diminished when Richard and Benjamin on the morning of the eventful day were seen to issue from the woods in the neighborhood of the village each bearing on his shoulders a large bunch of evergreens. This worthy pair was observed to enter the academy and carefully to fasten the door after which their proceedings remained a profound secret to the rest of the village. Mr. Jones, before he commenced his mysterious business having informed the schoolmaster to the great delight of the white-headed flock he governed that there would be no school that day Marmaduke apprised of all these preparations by letter and it was especially arranged that he and Elizabeth would should arrive in season to participate in the solemnities of the evening. After this digression we shall return to our narrative. End of Chapter 8 This reading by Gary W. Sherwin of Yukon, Pennsylvania in January of 2009 Chapter 9 of The Pioneers or The Sources of the Susquehanna a descriptive tale by James Fenimore Cooper This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Chapter 9 Quote Now all admire in each high-flavored dish the capabilities of flesh foul fish In order do each guest assumes his station throbs high his breast with fond anticipation and pre-libates the joys of mastication Quote The apartment to which Monsur Lecoix handed Elizabeth with the hall through the door that led under the urn which was supposed to contain the ashes of Dito The room was spacious and of very just proportions but in its ornaments and furniture the same delivery of taste and imperfection of execution were to be observed as existed in the hall Of furniture there were a dozen green wooden armchairs and portions of marine taken from the same piece as the petticoat of Remarkable The tables were spread and the materials and workmanship could not be seen but they were heavy and of great size An enormous mirror in a guilt frame hung against the wall and a cheerful fire of the hard or sugar maple was burning on the hearth The latter was the first object who on beholding it exclaimed rather angrily to Richard How often I have forbidden the use of sugar maple in my dwelling The sight of that sap as it exudes with the heat is painful to me Richard Really, it behooves the owner of wood so extensive as mine to be cautious what example he sets his people who are already felling the forest as if no end could be found in their treasures nor any limits to their extent If we go on in this way 20 years hence we shall want fuel Fuel in these hills, cousin Duke exclaimed Richard in derision Fuel why you might as well predict that the fish will die for the one of water in the lake because I intend when the frost gets out of the ground to lead one or two of the spring through logs into the village there is always a little wild on such subject Marmaduke it's a wilderness returned judge earnestly to condemn a practice which devotes these jewels of the forest these precious gifts of nature these minds of corn I fort and wealth to the common uses of a fireplace but I must and will the instant the snow is off the earth send out a party into the mountains call echoed Richard who the devil do you think would dig for coal when hunting for a bushel he would have to rip up more of trees than would keep him in fuel for a 12 month ha ha Marmaduke you should leave the management of these things to me who have a natural turn that way it was I that ordered this fire and a noble one it is to warm the blood of my pretty cousin Bess the motive then must be your apology dick on said the judge but gentlemen we are waiting Elizabeth my child take the head of the table Richard I see means to spare me the trouble of carving by sitting opposite to you to be sure I do cried Richard here is a turkey to carve and I flatter myself that I understand carving a turkey or for that matter a goose as well as any man alive Mr. Grant where's Mr. Grant will you please say grace sir everything in getting cold take a thing from the fire this cold weather and it will freeze in five minutes Mr. Grant we want you to say grace for what we are about to receive the Lord make us thankful come sit down sit down do you eat wing or breast cousin Bess but Elizabeth had not taken her seat nor was she in readiness to receive either the wing or breast her laughing eyes were glancing at the arrangements of the table and the quality and selection of the food the eyes of the father soon met the wondering looks of his daughter and he said with a smile you perceive my child how much we are indebted to remarkable for her skill in housewifery she has indeed provided a noble repost such as well might stop the cravings of hunger law said remarkable I am glad if the judge is pleased but I'm notional that you'll find the sauce overdone I thought Elizabeth was coming home that a body could do no less than make things agreeable my daughter has now grown to woman's estate and is from this moment mistress of my house said the judge it is proper that all who live with me address her as Miss Temple do tell exclaimed remarkable a little aghast well whoever heard of a young woman's being called Miss if the judge had a wife now I should not think of calling her anything but Miss Temple but having nothing but a daughter you will observe that style to her if you please in the future I will not be corrupted Marmaduke as the judge looked seriously displeased and at such moments carried a particularly commanding air with him the wary housekeeper made no reply and Mr. Grant entering the room the whole party were seated at the table as the arrangements of this were passed were much in the prevailing taste of that period in country we show endeavor to give a short description of the appearance of the banquet the table linen was the most beautiful damask and the plates and dishes of real china an article of great luxury in this early period of American commerce the knives and forks were exquisitely polished steel and were set in unclouded ivory so much being furnished by the wealth of Marmaduke was not only comfortable but even elegant the contents of the several dishes and their positions however, were the result of the sole judgment of remarkable before Elizabeth was placed an enormous roast of turkey and before Richard one boiled in the center of the table stood a pair of heavy silver casters surrounded by four dishes one a fricassee that consisted of gray squirrels another a fish fried a third a fish boiled the last was a venison steak between these dishes and the turkey stood on the one side a prodigious chime of roasted bears meat and on the other a boiled leg of delicious mutton interspersed among this load of meats was every species of vegetable that the season and country afforded the four corners were garnished with plates of cake on one was piled certain curiously twisted and complicated figures called nut cakes on another were heaps of a black looking substance which receiving its hue from molasses was properly termed sweet cake a wonderful favorite in the coterie of remarkable a third was filled to use the language of the housekeeper with cards of gingerbread and the last held a plum cake so called for the number of large raisins that were showing their black heads in a substance of suspiciously similar color at each corner of the table stood saucers filled with a thick fluid of somewhat equivocal color and consistency variegated with small dark lumps of a substance that resembled nothing but itself which remarkable termed her sweet meats at the side of each plate which was placed bottom upward with its knife and fork most accurately crossed over it stood another of smaller size containing a motley looking pie composed of triangular slices of apple mince pumpkin, cranberry and custard so arranged as to form an entire whole the cantors of brandy gum, gin and wine with sundry pictures of cider, beer and one hissing vessel of flip were put wherever an opening would admit their introduction notwithstanding the size of the table there was scarcely a spot where the rich Damasque could be seen so crowded were the dishes with their associated bottles, plates and saucers the object seemed to be profusion and it was retained entirely at the expense of order and elegance all the guest as well as the judge himself seemed perfectly familiar with this description of fare for each one commenced eating with an appetite that promised to do great honor to remarkable taste and skill what rendered this attention to the past a little surprising was the fact that both the German and Richard had been summoned from another table to meet the judge but Major Hartman both ate and drank without any rule went on his excursions and Mr. Jones invariably made it a point to participate in the business in hand let it be what it would the host seemed to think some apology necessary for the warmth he had betrayed on the subject of the firewood and when the party were comfortably seated and engaged with their knives he observed the wastefulness of the settlers and the noble trees of this country is shocking one Sir Lecoy as doubtless you have noticed I have seen a man fell a pine when he has been in want of fencing stuff and roll his first cuts into the gap where he left it wrought though its top would have made rails enough to answer his purpose and its butt would have been sold to Philadelphia market for twenty dollars and how the devil I beg your pardon Mr. Grant interrupted Richard but how is the poor devil to get his logs to the Philadelphia market prey put them in his pockets as you would have a handful of chestnuts or a bunch of chicken berries I should like to see you walking up high street with a pine log in each pocket cousin Duke there are trees enough for us all and some to spare why I can hardly tell which way the wind blows out in the clearings they are so thick and so tall I couldn't hit all if it wasn't for the clouds and I happen to know all the points of the compass as it were by heart I I square cried Benjamin who had now entered and taken his place behind the judge's chair a little aside with all in order to be ready for any observation like the present look aloft Sir look aloft the old seamen say that the devil wouldn't make a sailor unless he looked aloft as for the compass why there is no such thing as steering without one I'm sure I never lose sight of the main top as I call the squires look out on the roof but I set my compass do you see and take the bearings in distance of things in order to work out my course if so be that it should be caught up or the tops of the tree should shut down out of the light of heaven the steeple of St. Paul's they've got it on end is a great help to the navigation of the woods for by the Lord Harry as was it is well Benjamin interrupted Marmaduke observing that his daughter manifested displeasure at the major domo's familiarity but you forget there is a lady in company and the women love to do most of the talking themselves the judge has his true word cried Benjamin with one of his discordant laughs now here is mistress remarkable petty bones just take the stopper off her tongue and you'll hear a gabbling worse like then if you should happen to fall to Leeward in crossing a French privateer or some such thing may have as a dozen monkeys stowed in one bag it were impossible to say how perfect an illustration of the truth of Benjamin's assertion the housekeeper would have furnished if she had dared but the judge looks sternly at her and unwilling to incur his resentment yet unable to contain her anger she threw herself out of the room with a toss of the body that nearly separated her frail form in the center Richard said Marmaduke observing that his displeasure had produced the desired effect can you inform me of anything concerning the youth who I so unfortunately wounded I found him on the mountain hunting in company with the leather stalking as if they were of the same family but there is a manifest difference in their manners the youth delivers himself in chosen language such as seldom heard in these hills and such as occasions great surprise to me house one so meanly clad and following so lowly a pursuit could attain Mohegan also knew him he is a tenant of Nanny's hut did you remark the language of the lad Montsourlaquois Surtainment Montsoutemple returned the Frenchman he did converse in the excellent anglaise the boys know miracle exclaimed Richard I've known children that were sent to school early talk much better before they were 12 years old there was Zaird Coe old Nehemiah's son who first settled in the beaver dam meadow he could write almost as good hand as myself and he was 14 though it's true I helped to teach him a little in the evenings but this shooting gentlemen ought to be put in the stalks if he ever takes a reign in his hand again he is the most awkward fellow about a horse I ever met with I dare say he never drove anything but oxen in his life there I think Dickon you do the lad he justus said the judge he uses much discretion in critical moments does thou not think so best there was nothing in this question particularly to excite blushes but Elizabeth started from the reverie into which she had fallen and colored to our forehead as she answered to me dear sir he appeared extremely skillful and prompt yes but perhaps cousin Richard will say I am as ignorant as the gentleman himself gentlemen echoed Richard do you call such chaps gentlemen at school Elizabeth every man is a gentleman that knows how to treat a woman with respect and consideration returned the young lady promptly and a little smartly so much for to appear before the heiress in his shirt sleeves cried Richard who returned the wink with one eye while he rolled the other with an expression of sympathy toward the young lady well well to me he seemed anything but a gentleman I must say however for the lad that he draws a good trigger and has a true aim he's good at shooting at a buck ha marba duke rika hurt said Major Hartman turning his great countenance toward the gentleman he addressed with much hardness third boy is good he saveth your life and my life and to life of Igomini grant and to life of the Frenchman and Richard he shall never want a pet to sleep in but oh Fritz Hartman has a shingle to cover his head meat well well as you please old gentleman return Mr. Jones endeavoring to look indifferent put him into your own stone house if you will Major I dare say the lad never slept in anything better than a bark shanty in his life unless it was some such hut as the cabin of leather stocking I prophecy you will soon spoil him anyone could see how proud he grew in a short time just because he stood by my horse's heads while I turned them into the highway no no my old friend cried Marmaduke it shall be my task to provide in some manner for the youth I owe him a debt of my own besides the service he has done me through my friends and yet I anticipate some little trouble in inducing him to accept my services he showed a market dislike I thought best to my lover of a residence within these walls for life really dear sir said Elizabeth projecting her beautiful underlip I have not studied the gentleman so closely as to read his feelings in his countenance I thought he might very naturally feel pain from his wound and therefore pity him but as she spoke she glanced her eye with suppressed curiosity toward the major little I dare say that Benjamin can tell you something about him he cannot have been in the village and Benjamin not have seen him often I I seen the boy before said Benjamin who wanted little encouragement to speak he has been backing and feeling in the wake of Nanti Bumpo though the mountains after deer like a Dutch longboat and to of an Albany sloop he carries rifle to the leather stocking set in my hearing before Betty Hollister's bar room fire later than the Tuesday night that the younger was certain death to the wild beast if be he can kill the wild cat that has been hurt moaning in the lakeside since the hard frost and deep snows have driven the deer to herd he will be doing the thing that is good your wild cat is a bad shipmate and should be made to cruise out of the track of Christian men live see in the hut of Bumpo asked Marmaduke with some interest cheek by Jow the Wednesday will be three weeks since he first hoeve in sight in company with leather stocking they had captured a wolf between them and brought in his scalp for the bounty that Mr. Bumpo has a handy turn with him in taking off a scalp and there's them in this village who say he aren't the trade by working on Christian men if so be that there is truth in the saying and I am commanded along shore here as your honor does why do you see I bring him into the gang way for it yet there's a very pretty post rigged outside of the stocks and for the matter of a cat I can fit one in my own hands I and use it too for the one of a better you are not to credit the idle tales you hear of Natty he has a kind of natural right to gain a livelihood in these mountains and if the idlers of the village take it into their heads to annoy him as they sometimes do reputed rogues they shall find him protected by the strong arm of the law tonight though is better than till all said the major sententiously that for his rifle exclaimed Richard snapping his fingers Ben is right and I he was stopped by the sound of a common ship bell that had been elevated to the of the academy which now announced by its incessant ringing that the hour for the appointed service had arrived for this and every other instance of this goodness I beg pardon Mr. Grant will you please sir to return thanks sir it is time we should be moving as we are the only Episcopalians in the neighborhood that is Iron Benjamin and Elizabeth for I count half-breeds like murmidooks as bad as heretics the divine arose and formed the office meekly and fervently and the whole party instantly prepared themselves for the church or rather academy end of chapter 9 this reading by Gary W. Sherwin of Yukon, Pennsylvania in January of 2009 chapter 10 of the pioneers or the sources of the Susquehanna a descriptive tale by James Benamore Cooper this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org chapter 10 quote and calling sinful man to pray loud long and deep the bell had told unquote Scott's Burger while Richard and Monsour Lecoy attended by Benjamin proceeded to the academy by a footpath through the snow the judge, his daughter the divine and the major took a more circuitous route to the same place by the streets of the village the moon had risen and its orb was shedding a flood of light over the dark outline of pines which crowned the eastern mountain in many climates the sky would have been thought clear and lucid for a noontide the stars twinkled in the heavens like the last glimmerings of a distant fire so much were they obscured by the overwhelming radiance of the atmosphere the rays from the moon striking upon the smooth white surfaces of the lake and fields reflecting upward a light that was brightened by the spotless color of the immense bodies of snow that covered the earth Elizabeth employed herself with reading the signs one of which appeared over almost every door while the sleigh moved steadily and at an easy gate along the principal street not only new occupations but names that were strangers to her ears met her gaze at every step they proceeded the very houses seemed changed this had been altered by an addition that had been painted another had been erected on the site of an old acquaintance which had been banished from the earth almost as soon as it made its appearance on it all were however pouring forth their inmates who uniformly held their way toward the point where the expected exhibition of the conjoint taste of Richard and Benjamin was to be made after viewing the buildings which really appeared to some advantage under the bright but mellow light of the moon our heroine turned her eyes to a scrutiny of the different figures they passed in search of any form that she knew but all seemed alight as muffled in cloaks, hoods, coats, or tippets they glided along the narrow passes in the snow which led under the houses half hid by the bank that had been thrown up by excavating the deep path in which they trod once or twice she thought there was a statuary gate that she recollected the person who owned it instantly disappeared behind one of those enormous piles of wood that lay before most of the doors it was only as they turned from the main street into another that intersected it at right angles and which led directly to the place of meeting that she recognized a face and a building that she knew the house stood at one with the principal corners in the village and by its well-trailed doorway as well as the sign that was swinging with the kind of doleful sound in the blast that occasionally swept down the lake was clearly one of the most frequent ends in the place the building was only of one story but the dormer windows in the roof the paint, the window shutters and the cheerful fire that shone through the open door gave it an air of comfort that was not possessed by many of its neighbors the sign was suspended from a common ale house post and represented the figure of a horseman armed with saber and pistols and surmounted by a bare skin cap with a fiery animal that he bestowed rampant all these particulars were easily to be seen by the aid of the moon together with a row of somewhat ineligible writing in black paint but in which Elizabeth to whom the whole was familiar read with facility the bold dragoon a man and a woman were issuing from the door of this habitation as the sleigh was passing the former moved with a stiff military step that was a good deal heightened by a limp in one leg but the woman advanced with a measure and an air that seemed not particularly regardful of what she might encounter the light of the moon fell directly upon her full broad and red visage exhibiting her masculine countenance under the mockery of a ruffled cap that was intended to soften the liniments of features that were by no means squeamish a small bonnet of black silk and of a slightly formal cut was placed on the back of her head but so as not to shade her visage in the least the face as an encounter the rays of the moon from the east seemed not unlike sun rising in the west advanced with masculine strides to intercept the sleigh and the judge directing the namesake of the Grecian king who held the lines to check his horse the parties were soon near to each other good luck to ye and welcome home toge cried the female with a strong irish accent and I'm sure it's not to me that you're always welcome sure and there's Miss Lizzie and a fine young woman who is grown what at heartic would she be given a young man now if there was such a thing as a regimen in the town but it's idle to talk in such vanities since the bell is calling us to meeting just as we shall be caught away and expectedly some day when we are the less calectating good evening major will I make the ball of gin toddy likely ye shall stand the big house the Christmas Eve and the very night you're getting here I am glad to see you Miss Hollister returned Elizabeth I have been trying to find a face that I knew since I left the door of the mansion house but none have I seen except your own your house too is unaltered while all the others are so changed and they would be utter strangers I observe you also keep the dear sign that I saw cousin Richard paint and even the name at the bottom which you may remember you had the disagreement it is Bert de Gooniman and that name he would have who never was known by any other as my husband here the captain can testify he was a pleasure to wait upon he was ever the foremost in need oh but he had a sudden end and it's to be hoped that he was justified by the cause and it's not Parson Grant there who gains say that name yes yes the scar were paint and so I thought that he might have his face up there and who had so often shared good and evil with us the eyes is not so large no so fiery as the captain's own and the cap is as to pass well well I'll not keep you in the crowd talking but we'll droop in the morrow after service and ask you how you do it's our bound and duty to make the most of this present and to go to the house which is open to all so God bless you and keep you from evil will I make the gene which the night or no major to this question the German replied very intentionally in the affirmative and after a few words had passed between the husband of the hostess and the judge the slay moved on it's soon reached the door of the academy where the party lighted and entered the building in the meantime Mr. Jones and his two companions having a much shorter distance to journey had arrived before the appointed place some minutes sooner than the party in the slay instead of hastening into the room in order to enjoy the astonishment of the settlers Richard placed a hand in either pocket of his circle and affected to walk about in front of the academy like one to whom the ceremonies were familiar the villagers proceeded uniformly into the building with a decorum and gravity that nothing could move on such occasions but with a haste that was probably a little heightened by curiosity those who came in from the adjacent country spent some little time in placing certain blue and white blankets over their horses before they proceeded to indulge their desire to view the interior of the house most of these men Richard approached and inquired after the health and condition of their families the readiness with which he mentioned the names of even the children showed how very familiarly acquainted he was with their circumstances and the nature of the answers received proved that he was a general favorite at length one of the pedestrians from the village stopped also and fixed an earnest gaze at a new brick edifice that was throwing a long shadow across the fields of snow as it rose with a beautiful gradation of light and shade under the rays of a full moon in front of the academy was a vacant piece of ground that was intended for a public square on the opposite to Mr. Jones the new and as yet unfinished church of St. Paul's was erected this edifice had been reared during the preceding summer by the aid of what was called a subscription though all or nearly all of the money came from the pockets of the landlord it had been built under a strong conviction of the necessity of a more seemingly place of worship than the long room of the academy and under an implied agreement that after its completion the question should be fairly put to the people that they might decide what the nomination it should belong of course this expectation kept alive a strong excitement in some few of the sectaries who were interested in its decision though but little was said openly on the subject had Judge Temple espoused the cause of any particular sect the question would have been immediately put at rest for his influence too powerful to be opposed but he declined interference in the matter positively refusing to lend even the weight of his name on the side of Richard who had secretly given an assurance to his diocesan that both the building and the congregation would cheerfully come within the pale of the Protestant Episcopal church but when the neutrality of the judge was clearly ascertained Mr. Jones discovered that he had to contend with the stiff-necked people his first measure was to go among them and commence a course of reasoning in order to bring them round to his own way of thinking they all heard impatiently and not a man uttered a word in reply in the way of argument and Richard thought by the time he had gone through the settlement the point was conclusively decided in his favor willing to strike while iron was hot he called a meeting through the newspaper with a view to decide the question by a vote at once not a soul attended and one of the most anxious afternoons that he had ever known was spent by Richard in a vain discussion with Mrs. Hollister who strongly contended that the Methodist, her own church was the best entitled to and most deserving of the possession of the new tabernacle Richard now perceived that he had been too sanguine and had followed into the error of all those who ignorantly deal with that wary and sagacious people he assumed to disguise himself that is as well as he knew how and proceeded step by step to advance his purpose the task of erecting the building had been unanimously transferred to Mr. Jones and hire him do little together they had built the mansion house the academy and the jail and they alone knew how to plan in rear such a structure as was now required early in the days these architects had made an equitable division of their duties to the former was assigned the duty of making all the plans and to the latter the labor of super intending the execution availing himself of this advantage Richard silently determined that the windows should have the Roman arch the first positive step in effecting his wishes as the building was made bricks he was enabled to conceal his design until the moment arrived for placing the frames then indeed it became necessary to act he communicated his wishes to hire him with great caution and without the least averting to the spiritual part of his project he pressed the point a little warmly on the score of architectural beauty hire him patiently and without contradiction but still Richard was unable to discover the views of his co-adjuder on this interesting subject as the right to plan was duly delegated to Mr. Jones no direct objection was made in words but numberless unexpected difficulties arose in the execution at first there was a scarcity of the right kind of material necessary to form the frames but this objection was instantly silenced by Richard running his pencil through two feet their length at one stroke then the expense was mentioned but Richard reminded hire him that his cousin paid and that he was treasure the last intimation had great weight and after a silent and protracted but fruitless opposition the work was suffered to proceed on the original plan the next difficulty was heard in the steeple which Richard had modeled after one of the smaller of those spires that adorn the great London Cathedral the imitation was somewhat lame it is true the proportions being but indifferently observed but after much difficulty Mr. Jones had the satisfaction of seeing an object reared that bore in its outlines a striking resemblance to a vinegar cruet there was less opposition to this model than to the windows for the settlers were fond of novelty and their steeple was without a president here the labor ceased for the season and the difficult question of the interior remained for further deliberation Richard well knew that when he came to propose a reading desk and a chapel he must unmask for these are arrangements known to no church in the country but his own presuming however on the advantages he had already obtained he boldly styled the building St. Paul's and Hyrum prudently acquiesced in this appellation making however the slight addition to calling it new St. Paul's feeling less aversion to a name taken from the English cathedral than from the saint the pedestrian whom we have already mentioned as pausing to contemplate his edifice was no other than the gentleman so frequently named as Mr. or Squire do little he was of a tall gaunt formation with rather sharp features and a face that expressed formal propriety mingled with low cunning Richard approached him followed by Montsour Lecoy and the major domo Good evening Squire said Richard bobbing his head but without moving his hands from his pockets Good evening Squire echoed Hyrum turning his body in order to turn his head also A cold night Mr. do little a cold night sir Coolish a tedious spell haunt what looking at a church ha it looks well by moonlight how the tin of the copula disk listens I warn you the dome of the other St. Paul's never shines so in the smoke of London it's a pretty meeting house to look on return Hyrum and I believe that Montsour Lecoy and Mr. Penquillon will allow it certainty exclaimed the complacent Frenchman it is very fine I thought the Montsour would say so the last molasses that we had was excellent good it isn't likely that you have any more of it on hand oh he sir return Montsour Lecoy with a slight shrug of his shoulder and trifling grimace dear this more I feel very habit that you love it I hope the meat dos it is in good health why so is it be stirring said Hyrum the Squire hasn't finished the plans for the inside of this meeting house yet no no no return Richard speaking quickly but a significant pause between each negative it requires reflection there's a great deal of room to fill up and I am afraid we shall not know how to dispose of it to advantage there will be a large vacant spot around the pulpit which I do not mean to place against the wall like a sentry box stuck up on the side of a fort it's ruleable to put the deacons box under the pulpit said Hyrum and then as if he had ventured too much he added but there's different fashions in different countries that there is cried Benjamin now in running down the coast of Spain and Portugal you may see a nunnery stuck up on every headland with more steeples and outriggers but as dog veins and weather cocks then you'll find a board of three-masted schooners if so be that a well-bid church is wanting old England after all it's a country to go to after your models and fashion pieces as to Paul's though I've never seen it being that it's a long way uptown from Radcliffe highway and the docks yet everybody knows that it's the grandest place in the world now I have no opinion but this here church over there is like one end of its a grumpus is to a whaler and that's a small difference in bulk Montchilure claw here in the foreign parts and though it's not the same as having been at home he must have seen churches in France too and can form a small idea of what a shirt should be now I asked the Montchilure to his face if it is not a clever little thing taking it by and large it is very a proposed circumstance said the Frenchman very judgment but it is the unique country that they build what you call a grand cathedral the big church St. Paul London is very fine, very big, very grand but you call big but Montchilure is not more much as Notre Dame Montchilure what is that you say cry Benjamin St. Paul's church is not so much as a dam may hop you may be thinking too that the royal Billy isn't a good ship as the Billy de Paris but she would have licked two of her any day and in all weathers as Benjamin had assumed a very threatening kind of attitude flourishing an arm with a bunch at the end that was half as big as Montchilure Lecoy's head Richard thought at time to interpose his authority Benjamin Hush he said you both misunderstand Montchilure Lecoy and forget yourself but here comes Mr. Grant and the service will commence let us go in the Frenchman who received Benjamin's reply with a well bred good humor that would not admit any feeling but pity for the others ignorance bowed in acquiescence and followed his companion Hiram and the major domo brought up the latter grumbling as he entered the building if so be that the king of France had so much as a house to live in that would lay alongside of Paul's one might put up with their jaw it's more than flesh and blood can bear to hear a Frenchman run down an English church in this matter while Squire dear little I've been at the whipping of two men in one day clean built snug frigates with standing royals and them new Frenchmen canon aids on their quarters such as if they had only Englishmen aboard them would have fought the devil with this ominous word in his mouth Benjamin entered the church and of chapter 10 this reading by Gary W. Sherwin of Yukon Pennsylvania in January of 2009