 Chapter 4—Quote—How Now?—Whose Mayor's Dead? A large lumber sleigh, drawn by four horses, was soon seen dashing through the leafless bushes at which fringed the road. The leaders were of gray and the pole horses of a jet black. Bells innumerable were suspended from every part of the harness, where one of the tinkling balls could be placed, while the rapid movement of the equipage, in defiance of the steep ascent, announced the desire of the driver to ring them to the utmost. The first glance of this singular arrangement acquainted the judge with the character of those in the sleigh. It contained four male figures. On one of those stools that are used at writing-desk, lashed firmly to the sides of the vehicle, was seated a little man, enveloped in a great coat fringed with fur, in such a manner that no part of him was visible except the face of an unvarying red-collar. There was a habitual upward look about the head of this gentleman, as if dissatisfied with its natural proximity to the earth. And the expression of his countenance was that of busy care. He was the charioteer, and he guided the meddled animals along the precipice, with a fearless eye and a steady hand. Immediately behind him, with his face toward the other two, was a tall figure, to whose appearance not even the duplicate overcoats which he wore, aided by the corner of a horse-blanket, to give the appearance of strength. His face was protruding from beneath a woollen night-cap, and when he turned to the vehicle of Marmaduke, as the sleighs approached each other, it seemed formed by nature to cut the atmosphere with the least possible resistance. The eyes alone appeared to create any obstacle, for from either side of his forehead there light blue glassy balls projected. The sallow of his countenance was too permanent to be affected even by the intense cold of the evening. Opposite of this personage sat a solid, short, and square figure. No part of his form was to be discovered through his overdress, but a face that was illuminated by a pair of black eyes that gave the lie to every demure feature of his countenance. A fair jolly wig furnished a neat and rounded outline to his visage, and he, well as the other two, wore martinskin caps. The fourth was a meek-looking, long-visaged man, without any other protection from the cold than that which was furnished by a black surcoat, made with some little formality, but which was rather threadbare and rusty. He wore a hat of extremely decent proportions, though frequent brushing had quite destroyed its nap. His face was pale and with all a little melancholy, or what might be termed of a studious complexion. The air had given it just now a light and somewhat feverish flush. The character of his whole appearance, especially contrasted to the air of humor in his next companion, was that of habitual mental care. No sooner had the two slays approached within speaking distance than the driver of this fantastic equippage shouted aloud, Draw into the quarry, agamamnon, or I shall never be able to pass you. Welcome home, cousin doke. Welcome, welcome, black-eyed vests. They'll cease marina doke that I have taken the field with an assorted cargo to do the honor. Monserlecoy has come with only one cap. O' Fritz would not stay to finish the bottle, and Mr. Grant has got to put the lastly to his sermon yet. Even all the horses would come by the by, judge. I must sell the blacks for you immediately. They interfere, and on the high one is a bad goer in double harness. I can get rid of them, too. Sell what thou wilt, Dickon, interrupted the cheerful voice of the judge, so that thou leavest my daughter and my lands. And Fritz, my old friend, this is a kind compliment, indeed for seventy to pay to five and forty. Monserlecoy, I am your servant. Mr. Grant —lifting his cap—I feel indebted to your attention. Gentlemen, I make you acquainted with my child. Yours are names with which she is very familiar. Welcome, welcome, Tushy! said the outer of the party with a strong German accent. Miss Petsy, with thou only a kiss! And cheerfully I will pay it, my good sir! cried the soft voice of Elizabeth, which sounded in the clear air of the hills like tones of silver amid the loud cries of Richard. I always have a kiss for my old friend, Major Hartman. By this time the gentleman in the front seat, who had been addressed as Monserlecoy, had risen with some difficulty owing to the impediment of his overcoats, and steadying himself by placing one hand on the stool the charioteer. With the other he removed his cap, and bowing politely to the judge and profoundly to Elizabeth, he paid his compliments. Cover my pole, gall! Cover my pole! cried the driver, who was Mr. Richard Jones. Cover thy pole, or the forest will pluck out the remnant of thy locks. Have the hairs on the head of Absalom been as scarce as thine he might have been living to this day! The jokes of Richard never failed of exciting visibility, for he uniformly did honor to his own wit, and he enjoyed a hearty laugh on the present occasion while Mr. Lacoy resumed his seat with a polite reciprocation in his mirth. The clergyman, for such was the office of Mr. Grant, modestly, though quite affectionately, exchanged his greetings with the travelers also, when Richard prepared to turn the heads of the horses homeward. It was in the quarry alone that he could affect this object without ascending to the summit of the mountain. A very considerable excavation had been made in the side of the hill at the point where Richard had succeeded in stopping the slays, from which the stones used for building the village were ordinarily quarried, and in which he now attempted to turn his team. Passing itself was a task of difficulty and frequently of danger in that narrow road, but Richard had to meet the additional risk of turning his fore in hand. The black civilly volunteered his services to take off the leaders, and the judge very earnestly seconded the measure with his advice. Richard treated both proposals with great disdain. Why, and wherefore, cousin Tooke, he exclaimed, a little angrily, the horses are as gentle as lambs. You know that I broke the leaders myself, and the pole horses are too near my whip to be restive. Here is Mr. Lecoy now, who must know something about driving, because he has rode out so often with me. I will leave it to Mr. Lecoy whether there is any danger. It was not in the nature of the Frenchman to disappoint expectations so confidently formed. Although he sat looking down the precipice which fronted him, as Richard turned his leaders into the quarry with a pair of eyes that stood out like those of lobsters, the Germans' muscles were unmoved, but his quick sight scanned each movement. Mr. Grant placed his hands on the side of the sleigh in preparation for a spring, but moral timidity deterred him from taking the leap that bodily apprehension strongly urged him to attempt. Richard, by a sudden application of the whip, succeeded in forcing the leaders into the snowbank that covered the quarry, but the instant that the impatient animals suffered by the crust through which they broke at each step, they positively refused to move an inch further in that direction. On the contrary, finding that the cries and blows of their driver were redoubled at this juncture, the leaders backed upon the pole horses who in turn backed the sleigh. Only a single log lay above the pile which upheld the road on the side toward the valley, and this was now buried in snow. The sleigh was easily bred across so slight an impediment, and before Richard became conscious of his danger, one half of the vehicle was projected over a precipice, which fell perpendicularly more than a hundred feet. The Frenchman, who by his position had a full view of their threatened flight, instinctively threw his body as far forward as possible and cried, O mon cher, mon chadique, mon doule, il qu'faits voil, d'un d'un blitz en l'ricotte, exclaimed the veteran German, looking over the side of the sleigh with unusual emotion. Put you well speak, de sleigh, in curt de herses. Good Mr. Jones, said the clergyman, be prudent, good sir, be careful. Get up, obstinate devils, cried Richard, catching a bird's-eye view of his situation, and in his eagerness to move forward kicking the stool on which he sat. Get up, I say, duke, I shall have to sell the graze, too. They are the worst broken horses. Mr. Lecoy? Richard was too much agitated to regard his pronunciation, of which he was commonly a little vain. But sir Lecoy, pray get off my leg. You hold my leg so tight that it's no wonder the horse is back. Mercyful Providence, exclaimed the judge. They will all be killed. Elizabeth gave a piercing shriek, and the black of a gammonon's face changed to a muddy white. At this critical moment the young hunter, who during the salutations of the parties had set in rather sullen silence, sprang from the sleigh of Marmaduke to the heads of the refractory leaders. The horses which were yet suffering under the injudicious and somewhat random blows of Richard were dancing up and down with that ominous movement that threatens a sudden and uncontrollable start, still pressing backward. The youth gave the leaders a powerful jerk, and they plunged aside, and re-entered the road in the position in which they were first halted. The sleigh was whirled from its dangerous position and upset with the runners outward. The German and the divine were thrown, rather unceremoniously, into the highway but without danger to their bones. Richard appeared in the air describing the segment of a circle of which the reins were the radii, and landed at the distance of some fifteen feet in that snow-bank which the horses had dreaded, right in Upper Moose. Here, as he instinctively grasped the reins as a drowning man sees its straws, he admirably served the purpose of an anchor. The Frenchman, who was on his legs in the act of springing from the sleigh, took an aerial flight also, much in the attitude which boys assume when they play leapfrog, and lying off in a tangent to the curvature of his course, came into the snow-bank head foremost, where he remained exhibiting two lachy legs on high, like scarecrows waving in a cornfield. Major Hartman, whose self-possession had been admirably preserved during the whole evolution, was the first of the party that gained his feet and his voice. "'De de de, Richard!' he exclaimed in a voice half-serious, half-comical. "'But you unload your sleigh very hotly!' It may be doubtful whether the attitude in which Mr. Grant continued for an instant after his overthrow was the one into which he had been thrown, or was assumed, in humbling himself before the power that he reverenced in thanksgiving at his escape. When he rose from his knees he began to gaze about him with anxious looks after the welfare of his companions, while every joint in his body trembled with nervous agitation. There was some confusion in the facilities of Mr. Jones also, but as the mist gradually cleared from before his eyes, he saw that all was safe, and with an air of great self- satisfaction. He cried, "'Well, that was neatly safe anyhow. It was a lucky thought in me to hold on to the reins of where the fiery devils would have been over the mountain by this time. How well I recovered myself!' Duke, another moment would have been too late, but I knew just the spot where to touch the off-leader. That blow-hunter is right flank, and the sudden jerk I gave the rain brought them round quite in rule. I must own myself!' Footnote. The spectators, from a memorial usage, have a right to laugh at the casualties of a sleigh-ride, and the judge was no sooner certain that no one was done than he made full use of the privilege. In footnote. "'Thou jerk! Thou recover thyself, Dickon,' he said, but for that brave lad yonder, thou and thy horses are rather mine. Would have been dashed to pieces. Where is Monserlecoy?' "'Oh, my chair-judge! More to me!' cried the smothered voice, "'Praise be God! I live! Villu! Mr. Agamon! Be please come down! I see! And help me on my leg!' The divine and the negro seized the incarcerated gall by his legs, and extricated him from a snow-bank of three feet in depth, once his voice had summoned as from the tombs. The thoughts of Mr. Lecoy immediately on his liberation were not extremely collected, and when he reached the light he threw his eyes upward in order to examine the distance he had fallen. His good humor returned, however, with a knowledge of his safety, though it was some little time before he clearly comprehended the case. "'What, Monserlecoy?' said Richard, who was busily assisting the black in taking off the leaders. Are you there? I thought I saw you flying toward the top of the mountain just now. "'Praise be God! I know fly down into the lake!' returned the Frenchman, with a visage that was divided between pain, occasioned by a few large scratches that he had received in forcing his head through the crust, and the look of compliance that seemed natural to his pliable features. "'Ah, Monserlec, Mr. Dick, what you do next? There be nothing you will not try. The next thing I trust will be to learn to drive,' said the judge, who had busied himself in throwing the buck together with several other articles of baggage, from his own sleigh into the snow. "'Here are seats for you all, gentlemen. The evening grows piercingly cold, and the hour approaches for the service of Mr. Grant. We will leave Friend Jones to repair the damages, with the assistance of a Gominon, and hasten to a warm fire. Here, Dickon, are a few articles of best, Trumpery, that you can throw into your sleigh when ready. And there is also a deer of my taking that I will thank you to bring. Aggie, remember that there will be a visit from Santa Claus to-night.' Footnote. The periodic visits of St. Nicholas, or Santa Claus, as he is termed, were never forgotten among the inhabitants of New York, until the immigration from New England brought in the opinions and usages of the Puritans. Like the born-home de Noël, he arrives at each Christmas. End footnote. The black grinned, conscious of the bribe that was offered him for silence on the subject of the deer, while Richard, without in the least waiting for the termination of his cousin-speak, began his reply. Learn to dry says thou, cousin Duke. Is there a man in the country who knows more of horse flesh than myself? Who broke in the filly that no one else dare mount? Though your coachman did pretend that he had tamed her before I took her in hand, anybody could see that he lied. He was a great liar. That John, what's that? A buck? Richard abandoned the horses and ran to the spot where Marmaduke had thrown the deer. It's a buck. I am amazed. Yes, there are two holes in him. He has fired both barrels and hit him each time. E' God! How Marmaduke will brag. He has a prodigious braggart about any small matter like this. Now, well, to think that Duke has killed a buck before Christmas. There will be no such thing as living with him. They are both bad shots, though. Mere chance, mere chance now. I never fired twice at a cloven foot in my life. It is hit or miss with me. Dead or run away. Had it been a bear or a wildcat, a man might have wanted both barrels. Here, you Aggie, how far off was the judge when this buck was shot? Oh, Masa, Richard, maybe a tenorod, cried the black, bending under one of the horses with the pretense of fastening a buckle, but in reality, to conceal the grin that it opened a mouth from ear to ear. Tenorod! echoed the other. Why, Aggie, the deer I killed last winter was at twenty, yes. If anything, it was near thirty than twenty. I wouldn't shoot a deer at tenorod. Besides, you may remember, Aggie. Cry only fired once. Yes, Masa, Richard, I remember him. Nady Bumple fired the other gun. You know, sir, all the folks say Nady killed him. The folks lie, you black devil, exclaimed Richard, in great heat. I have not shot a gray squirrel for these four years to which that old rascal has not laid claim. Or someone else or him. This is a damned envious world that we live in. People are always for dividing the credit out of a thing in order to bring down merit to their own level. Now they have a story about the patent that Hiram Doolittle helped plan the steeple to St. Paul's. When Hiram knows that it is entirely mine, a little taken from a print of his namesake in London I own, but essentially, as to all points of genius, my own. Footnote The grants of land made either by the Crown or the State were but letters patent under the Great Seal, and the term patent is usually applied to any district of extent thus conceited. Though under the Crown, menorial rights being offered granted with the soil, in the older counties the word manor is frequently used. There are many manors in New York, though all political and judicial rights have ceased. I don't know where he came from," said the black, losing every mark of humor in the expression of admiration. But everybody say, he wonderful handsome. And well they may say, so aggy, cried Richard, leaving the buck and walking up to the negro with the air of a man who has new interest awakening in him. I think I may say without bragging that it is the handsomest and the most scientific country church in America. I know that the Connecticut settlers talk about their West Herfield meeting-house, but I never believe more than half what they say. They are such unconscionable braggers. Just as you have got a thing done, if they see it likely to be successful, they are always for interfering, and then it's T to 1, but they lay claim to half, or even all of the credit. You may remember aggy when I painted the sign of the bold dragoon for Captain Hollister. There was that fellow who was about town laying brick dust on the horses. Came one day and offered to mix what I call the streaky black for the tail and mane, and then, because it looks like horsehair, he tells everybody that the sign was painted by himself in Squire Jones. If Marmaduke don't send that fellow off the patent, he may ornament his village with his own hands for me. Here Richard paused a moment and cleared his throat by allowed him, while the negro, who was all this time busily engaged in preparing the sleigh, proceeded with his work in respectful silence. Owing to the religious scruples of the judge, aggy was the servant of Richard, who had his service for a time, and who, of course, commanded a legal claim to the respect of the young negro. Footnote. The manumission of the slaves in New York has been gradual. When public opinion became strong in their favor, they grew up accustomed to buying the services of a slave for six or eight years, with a condition to liberate him at the end of the period. Then the law provided that all born after a certain day should be free, the males of twenty-eight, and the females at twenty-five. After this, the owner was obliged to cause his servants to be taught to read and write before they reached the age of eighteen, and finally that few that remained were all unconditionally liberated in eighteen-twenty-six, or after the publication of this tale. It was quite unusual for men more or less connected with the Quakers, who have never held slaves to adopt the first expedient. And footnote. But when any dispute between his lawful and his real master occurred, the black felt too much deference for both to express any opinion. In the meanwhile, Richard continued watching the negro as he fastened, buckle after buckle, until, stealing a look of consciousness toward the other, he continued, Now, if that young man who was in your sleigh is a real Connecticut settler, he will be telling everybody how he saved my horses. When if he had just let them alone for half a minute longer, I would have brought them in much better, without upsetting with the whip, and the mid rain it spoils a horses to give him his hail. I should not wonder if I had to sell the whole team just for that one jerk he gave him. Richard paused and hemmed, for his conscious smote him a little, for centering a man who had just saved his life. Who is the lad, Aggie? I don't remember to have seen him before. The black recollected the hint about Santa Claus, and while he briefly exclaimed how they had taken up the person in question on the top of the mountain, he forebored to add anything concerning the accident or the wound, only saying that he believed the youth was a stranger. It was so usual for men of the first rank to take into their sleighs anyone they found toiling through the snow that Richard was perfectly satisfied with this explanation. He heard Aggie with great attention, and then remarked, Well, if the lad has not been spoiled by the people in Templeton, he may be a modest young man. And he certainly meant well. I shall take some notice of him, perhaps, in his land-hunting. I say, Aggie, maybe he is out hunting. Ah, yes, Massa Richard, said the black, a little confused, for as Richard did all the flogging, he stood in great terror of his master in the main. Yes, sir. I believe he be. He had a pack and an axe? No, sir. Only he rifle. Rifle! exclaimed Richard, observing the confusion of the negro, which now amounted to terror. By Jove, he killed the deer. I knew that Marmaduke couldn't kill a buck. On the jump, how was it? Aggie, tell me all about it, and I'll roast, do quicker than he can roast his saddle. How was it, Aggie? The lad shot the buck, and the judge bought it. Ah! And he was taking the youth down to get the pay? The pleasure of this discovery had put Richard in such a good humor that the negro's fears in some measure vanished, and he remembered the stalking of Santa Claus. After a gulp or two, he made out to reply, You forget it. A two-shot, sir. Don't lie, you black rascal, cried Richard, stepping on the snow bank to measure the distance from his lash to the negro's back. Speak truth or I'll trounce you. While speaking, the stalk was slowly raising in Richard's right hand, and the lash drawing through his left in the scientific manner which drummers apply the cat. And Agamonon, after turning each side of himself toward his master in finding both equal and willing to remain there, fairly gave in. In a very few words he made his master acquainted with the truth, at the same time earnestly conjuring Richard to protect him from the displeasure of the judge. I'll do it, boy. I'll do it, cried the other, rubbing his hands with delight. Say nothing but leave me to Manny Duke. I have a great mind to leave the deer on the hill and to make the fellow send for his own carcass. But no, I will let Marmaduke tell a few bounces about it before I come upon him. Come, hurry in, Aggie. I must help to dress the lad's wound. This Yankee doctor knows nothing of surgery. I had to hold out Milligan's leg for him while he cut it off. In America the term Yankee is of local meaning. It is thought to be derived from the manner in which the Indians of New England pronounced the word English, or Yankees. New York, being originally a Dutch province, the term, of course, was not known there, and farther south different dialects among the natives themselves probably produced a different pronunciation. Marmaduke and his cousin, being Pennsylvanians by birth, were not Yankees in the American sense of the word. Richard was now seated on the stool again, and the black, taking the hind seat, the steeds were put in motion toward home. As they dashed down the hill on a fast trot, the driver occasionally turned his face to Aggie and continued speaking. For notwithstanding their recent rupture, the most perfect cordiality was again existing between them. This goes to prove that I turned the horses with the rain, for no man who is shot in the right shoulder can have strength enough to bring round such obstinate devils. I knew I did it from the first, but I did not want to multiply words with Marmaduke about it. Will you bite, you villain? Hip boys, hip! Oh, Natty, too! That is the best of it. Well, well, Duke will say no more about my dear and the judge fired both barrels, and hit nothing but a poor lad who was behind a pine tree. I must help that quack to take out the buckshot for the poor fellow. In this manner Richard descended the mountain, the bells ringing and his tongue going until they entered the village, when the whole attention of the driver was devoted to a display of his horsemanship, to the admiration of all the gaping women and children who thronged the windows to witness the arrival of their landlord and his daughter. End of Chapter 4 This reading by Gary W. Sherwin of Yukon, Pennsylvania, in December of 2008. Chapter 5 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 5 Quote, Nathaniel's coat, sir, was not fully made, and Gabriel's pumps were all unpinked in the heel. There was no link to Keller Peter's hat, and Walder's dagger was not come from sheathing. There were none fine but Adam, Ralph, and Gregory. Unquote, Shakespeare. After winding along the side of the mountain, the road on reaching the gentle declivity, which lay at the base of the hill, turned at a right angle to its former course, and shot down an inclined plane directly into the village of Templeton. The rapid little stream that we have already mentioned was crossed by a bridge of hewn timber, which manifested by its rude construction and the unnecessary size of its framework both the value of labor and the abundance of materials. This little torrent, whose dark waters gushed over the limestones that lined its bottom, was nothing less than one of the many sources of the Susquehanna, a river to which the Atlantic herself has extended an open arm in welcome. It was at this point that the powerful team of Mr. Jones brought him up to the more sober steeds of our travelers. A small hill was risen, and Elizabeth found herself at once amidst the incongruous dwellings of the village. The street was the ordinary width, notwithstanding the eye might embrace in one view thousands and ten thousands of acres that were yet tenetoned only by the beast of the forest. But such had been the will of her father, and such had also met the wishes of his followers. To them, the road that made the most rapid approaches to the condition of the old, or as they expressed it, the down countries was the most pleasant, and surely nothing could look more like civilization than a city, even if it lay in a wilderness. The width of the street, for so it was called, might have been one hundred feet, but the track of the sleighs was much more limited. On either side of the highway were piled huge heaps of logs that were daily increasing rather than diminishing in size, not withstanding the enormous fires that might be seen through every window. The last object which Elizabeth gazed when they renewed their journey, after their encounter with Richard, was the sun, as it expanded in the refraction of the horizon, and over whose disc the dark umbrage of a pine was stealing, while it slowly sank behind the western hills. But his setting rays darted along the openings of the mountain he was on, and lighted the shining covering of the birches, until their smooth and glossy coats nearly rivaled the mountain sides in color. The outline of each dark pine was delineated, far in the depths of the forest, and the rocks, too smooth and too perpendicular to retain the snow that had fallen, brightened, as if smiling at the leave taking of the luminary. But at each step as they descended, Elizabeth observed that they were leaving the day behind them. Even the heartless but bright rays of a December sun were missed as they glided into the gloom of the valley. Along the summits of the mountains in the eastern range it is true the light still lingered, receding step by step from the earth into the clouds that were gathering with the evening mist above the limited horizon. But the frozen lake lay without a shadow on its bosom. The dwellings were becoming already gloomy and indistinct, and the woodcutters were shouldering their axes and preparing to enjoy throughout the long evening before them the comforts of those exhilarating fires that their labor had been supplying with fuel. They paused only to gaze at the passing slays, to lift their caps to Marmaduke, to exchange familiar nods with Richard, and each disappeared in his dwelling. The paper curtains dropped behind our travelers in every window, shutting from the air even the firelight of the cheerful apartments. And when the horses of her father turned with a rapid whirl into the open gate of the mansion house, and nothing stood before her but the cold, dreary stone walls of the building as she approached them through an avenue of young and leafless paupers. Elizabeth felt as if all the loveliness of the mountain view had vanished like the fancies of a dream. Marmaduke retained so much of his early habits as to reject the use of bells. But the equippage of Mr. Jones came dashing through the gate after them, sending its jingling sounds through every cranny of the building. And in a moment the dwelling was in an uproar. On a stone platform of rather small proportions, considering the size of the building, Richard and Hiram had conjointly reared four little columns of wood, which in their terms supported the shingle roofs of the portico. This was the name that Mr. Jones had thought proper to give to a very plain covered entrance. The descent to the platform was by five or six stone steps, somewhat hastily laid together, and which the frost had already begun to move from their symmetrical positions. But the evils of a cold climate and a superficial construction did not end there. As the steps lowered, the platform necessarily fell also. And the foundations actually left the superstructure suspended in the air, leaving an open space of a foot between the base of the pillars and the stone on which they had originally been placed. It was luckily for the whole fabric that the carpenter who did the manual part of the labor had fastened the canopy of this classic entrance so firmly to the side of the house that when the base deserted the superstructure in the manner we described, the pillars, for one of a foundation, were no longer of service to support the roof. The roof was able to uphold the pillars. Here was, indeed, an unfortunate gap left in the ornamental part of Richard's column. But like the widow in Aladdin's palace, it seemed only left in order to prove the fertility of its master's resources. The composite order again offered its advantages, and a second edition of the base was given, as the booksellers say, with additions and improvements. It was necessarily larger, and it was properly ornamented with moldings. Still, the steps continued to yield. And at the moment when Elizabeth turned to her father's door, a few rough wedges were driven under the pillars to keep them steady, and to prevent their weight from separating them from the pediment which they ought to have supported. From the great door which opened into the porch emerged two or three female domestics and one male. The latter was bareheaded, but evidently more dressed than usual, and on the whole was of no singular a formation and attire as they deserve a more minute description. He was about five feet in height of a square and athletic frame with a pair of shoulders that would have fitted a grenadier. His low stature was rendered the more striking by a bent forward that he was in the habit of assuming, for no apparent reason, unless it might be to give greater freedom to his arms in a particularly sweeping swing that they constantly practiced when their master was in motion. His face was long of a fair complexion, burnt to a fiery red, with a snubbed nose, cocked to an inveterate pug, a mouth of enormous dimensions filled with white teeth and a pair of blue eyes that seemed to look about them on surrounding objects with habitual contempt. His head composed full one-fourth of his whole length, and the cue that depended from its rear occupied another. He wore a coat of very light drab cloth with buttons as large as dollars, bearing the impression of a foul anchor. The skirts were extremely long, reaching quite to the calf, and were broad in proportion. Beneath there were a vest and breeches of red plush, somewhat worn and soiled. He had shoes with large buckles and stockings of blue and white stripes. This odd-looking figure reported himself to be a native of the county of Cornwall in the island of Great Britain. His boyhood had passed in the neighborhood of the Tinmines, and his youth as the cabin boy of a smuggler between Fowmalth and Guernsey. From this trade he had been impressed into the service of his king, and for the want of a better had been taken into the cabin first as a servant, and finally as steward to the captain. Here he acquired the art of making chowder, lobster, and one or two other sea dishes, and, as he was fond of saying, had an opportunity of seeing the world. With the exception of one or two outports in France and an occasional visit to Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Diehl, he had, in reality, seen no more a mankind, however, than if he had been riding a donkey in one of his native mines. But being discharged from the Navy at the peace of 83, he declared that, as he had seen all the civilized parts of the earth, he was inclined to make a trip to the wilds of America. We will not trace him in his brief wanderings under influence of that spirit of immigration that sometimes induces a dapper cockney to quit his home and lance him before the sound of cowbells is out of his ears, within the roar of the cataract of Niagara. But Shea only add that, at a very early day, even before Elizabeth had been sent to school, he had found his way into the family of Marmaduke Temple, where, owing to a combination of qualities that will be developed in the course of the tale, he held, under Mr. Jones, the office of Major Domo. The name of this worthy was Benjamin Penguin, according to his own pronunciation, but owing to a marvelous tale that he was in the habit of relating concerning the length of time he had to labor to keep his ship from sinking after Rodney's victory, he had universally acquired the nickname of Ben Pump. By the side of Benjamin and pressing forward, as if a little jealous of her station, stood a middle-aged woman dressed in calico, rather violently contrasted in color with a tall, meagre, shapeless figure, sharp features, and a somewhat acute expression of her physiognomy. Her teeth were mostly gone, and what did remain were of a tight yellow. The skin of her nose was drawn tightly over the member to hang in large wrinkles in her cheeks and about her mouth. She took snuff in such quantities as to create the impression that she owed the saffron of her lips and the adjacent parts to this circumstance, but it was the unvarying color of her whole face. She presided over the female part of the domestic arrangements in the capacity of housekeeping, was a spinster, and bore the name of remarkable Pettibone. To Elizabeth, she was an entire stranger, having been introduced into the family since the death of her mother. In addition to these were three or four subordinate menials, mostly black, some appearing at the principal door, and some running from the end of the building were stood the entrance to the cellar kitchen. Beside these, there was a general rush from Richard's kennel, accompanied with every canine tone from the houth of the wolf dog to the perpetual bark of the terrier. The master received their boisterous salutations, with a variety of imitations from his own throat. When the dogs, probably from shame of being outdone, ceased their outcry. One stately, powerful mastiff, who wore round his neck a brass collar with M.T. engraved in large letters on the rim, alone was silent. He walked majestically amid the confusion to the side of the judge, where, receiving a kind pat or two, he turned to Elizabeth, who even stooped to kiss him, as she called him kindly by the name of Old Brave. The animal seemed to know her as she ascended the steps, supported by Monsour Lacoy and her father, in order to protect her from falling on the ice with which they were covered. He looked wistfully at her figure, and when the door was closed on the whole party, he laid himself in a kennel that was placed nigh by, as if conscious that the house contained something of additional value to guard. Elizabeth followed her father, who paused a moment to whisper a message to one of his domestics, into a large hall that was dimly lighted by two candles placed on high, old-fashioned brass candlesticks. The door closed, and the party were at once removed from an atmosphere that was nearly at zero to one of 60 degrees above. In the center of the hall stood an enormous stoves, the sides of which appeared to be quivering with heat, from which a large straight pipe leading through the ceiling above carried off the smoke. An iron basin containing water was placed on this furnace, for such it only could be called in order to preserve a proper humidity in the apartment. The room was carpeted and furnished with convenient substantial furniture, some of which was brought from the city, the remainder having been manufactured by the mechanics of Templeton. There was a sideboard of mahogany inlaid with ivory and bearing enormous handles of glittering brass and groaning under the piles of silver plate. Near it stood a set of prodigious tables made of the wild cherry to imitate the imported wood of the sideboard, but plain and without ornamentation of any kind. Opposite to these stood a smaller table formed from a lighter colored wood through the grains of which the wavy lines of the curled maple of the mountains were beautifully undulating. Near to this in a corner stood a heavy old fashioned brass face clock encased in a high box of the dark hue of the black walnut from the seashore. An enormous setee or sofa covered with light chints stretched along the walls for nearly 20 feet on one side of the hall and chairs of wood painted a light yellow with black lines that were drawn by no very steady hand were arranged opposite and in the intervals between the other pieces of furniture. A Fahrenheit's thermometer in a mahogany case and with a barometer annexed was hung against the wall at some distance from the stove which Benjamin consulted every half hour with prodigious exactitude. Two small glass chandeliers were suspended at equal distances between the stove and the outer doors, one of which opened at each end of the hall and guilt lusters were fixed to the framework of the numerous side doors that led from the apartment. Some little display in architecture had been made in constructing these frames and casings which were some mallard with pediments that bore each a little pedestal in its center. On these pedestals were small busts in blackened plaster of Paris. The style of the pedestals as well as the selection of the busts were all done to the taste of Mr. Jones. Only one stood Homer. A most striking likeness Richard affirmed as anyone might see for it was blind. Another bore the image of a smooth visage gentleman with a pointed beard whom he called Shakespeare. A third ornament was an urn which from its shape Richard was accustomed to say intended to represent itself as holding the ashes of Dito. A fourth was certainly old Franklin in his cap and spectacles. A fifth as surely bore the dignified composure of the face of Washington. A sixth was a nondescript representing a man with a shirt collar open to use the language of Richard with a laurel on his head. It was Julius Caesar or Dr. Faustus. There were good reasons for believing either. The walls were hung with a dark lead colored English paper that represented Britannia weeping over the tomb of Ulth. The hero himself stood at a little distance from the morning goddess and at the edge of the paper. Each width contained the figure with the slight exception of one arm of the general which ran over on the next piece so that when Richard assayed with his own hands to put together this delicate outline some difficulties occurred that prevented a nice conjunction and Britannia had reason to lament in addition to the loss of her favorite's life, numberless cruel amputations of his right arm. The luckless cause of these unnatural divisions now announced his presence in the hall by a loud crack of his whip. Why, Benjamin, you, Ben-Pump, is this the manner in which you receive the heirs? he cried. Excuse him, cousin Elizabeth. The arrangements were too intricate to be trusted to every one. But now I am here. Things will go on better. Come, light up, Mr. Penguin-Lon. Light up, light up, and let us see one another's faces. Well, Duke, I have brought home your dear. What is to be done with that, huh? By the Lord Squire, commenced Benjamin in reply, first giving his mouth a wipe with the back of his hand. If this here thing had been ordered some earlier in the day, I might have got up the seed to your liking. I had mustered all hands and was exercising candles when you shove in sight. But when the woman heard your bells, they started an inn as if they were riding the boat's swings cold. And if so be, there is that man in the house who can bring up a parcel of women when they have got headway on them, until they have run out of the end of the rope. His name is not Benjamin-Pump. But this betsey here must have ordered more than a privateer in disguise, since she has got on her woman's duds. If she will take offense with an old fellow for the small matter of lighting a few candles, Elizabeth and her father continued silent for both experienced the same sensation on entering the hall. The former had resided one year in the building before she left home for school, and the figure of its lamented mistress was missed by both husband and child. But candles had been placed in the chandeliers and lustres, and the attendants were so far recovered from surprise as to recollect their use. The oversight was immediately remedied, and in a minute the apartment was a blaze of light. The slight melancholy of our heroine and her father was banished by this brilliant interruption, and the whole party began to lay aside the numberless garments they had worn in the air. During this operation Richard kept a desultory dialogue with the different domestics, occasionally throwing out a remark to the judge concerning the deer. But as his conversation at such moments was much like an accompaniment on a piano, a thing that is heard without being attended to, we will not undertake the task of recording his diffuse discourse. The instant that remarkable petty bone had executed her portion of the labor of illuminating, she returned to a position near Elizabeth with the apparent motive of receiving the clothes that the other threw aside, but in reality to examine with an air of curiosity, not unmixed with jealousy, the appearance of the lady who was to supplant her in the administration of their domestic economy. The housekeeper felt a little appalled when after cloaks Coach Schull and Socks had been taken off in succession, the large black hood was removed, and dark ringlets, shining like the raven's wing, fell from her head and left the sweet but commanding features of the young lady exposed to view. Nothing could be fairer and more spotless than the forehead of Elizabeth, and preserve the appearance of life and health. Her nose would have been called Grecian, but for a softly rounded swell that gave in character to the feature what it lost in beauty. Her mouth at first sight seemed only made for love, but the instant that its muscles moved, every expression that woman's dignity could utter played around it with the flexibility of female grace. It spoke not only to the ear, but to the eye. So much added to a form of exquisite proportions, rather full and rounded for her years, and of the tallest medium height she inherited from her mother. Even the color of her eye, the arch brows and the long silken lashes came from the same source, but its expression was her father's, inert and composed. It was soft, benevolent, and attractive, but it could be roused, and that without much difficulty. At such moments it was still beautiful, though it was a little severe. As the last shawl fell aside and she stood dressed in a rich blue riding habit that fitted her form with the nicest exactness, her cheeks burning with roses that bloomed the richer for the heat of the hall, and her eyes lightly diffused with moisture that rendered their ordinary beauty more dazzling, and with every feature of her speaking countenance illuminated by the lights that flared around her, remarkable felt that her own power had ended. The business of unrobing had been simultaneous. Marmaduke appeared in a suit of plain neat black, Monsour Lecoy in a coat of snuff color covering a vest of embroidery with breeches and silk stockings, and buckles that were commonly thought to be of paste. Major Hartman wore a coat of sky blue with large brass buttons, a club wig, and boots, and Mr. Richard Jones had set off his dapper little form with a frock of bottle green with bullet buttons by one of which the sides were united over his well rounded waist. Opening above so as to show a jacket of red cloth with an under vest of flannel faced with green velvet, and below so as to exhibit a pair of buckskin breeches with long soiled white top boots and spurs, one of the latter a little bent from its recent attacks on the stool. When the young lady had extricated herself from her garments, she was at liberty to gaze about her, and to examine not only the household over which she was to preside, but also the air and manner in which the domestic arrangements were conducted. Although there was much incongruity in the furniture and appearance of the hall, there was nothing mean. The floor was carpeted, even in its remotest corners. The brass candlesticks, the gilt lusters, and the glass chandeliers, whatever might be their keeping, as to proprietary in taste, were admirably kept, as to all the purposes of use and comfort. They were clean and glittering in the strong light of the apartment. Compared with the chill aspect of the December night without, the warmth and brilliancy of the apartment produced an effect that was not unlike enchantment. Her eye had not timely detect in detail the little errors which in truth existed, but was glancing around her in delight, when an object arrested her view that was in strong contrast to the smiling faces and neatly attired personages who had thus assembled to do honor to the heiress of Templeton. In the corner of the hall, near the grand entrance stood the young hunter, unnoticed, and for the moment apparently forgotten. But even the forgetfulness of the judge, which under the influence of strong emotion had banished the recollection of the wound of his stranger, seemed surpassed by the absence of mind in the youth himself. On entering the apartment he had mechanically lifted his cap and exposed a head covered with hair that rivaled in color and gloss the locks of Elizabeth. Nothing could have wrought a greater transformation than the single act of removing the rough fox skin cap. If there was much that was pre-possessing in the countenance of the young hunter, there was something even noble in the rounded outlines of his head and brow, the very air and manner with which the member haughtily maintained itself over the course and even wild attire in which the rest of his frame was clad bespoke not only familiarity with a splendor that in these new settlements was thought to be unequaled, but something very like contempt also. The hand that held the cap rested lightly on the little ivory-mounted piano of Elizabeth with neither rustic restraint nor obtrusive vulgarity. A little finger touched the instrument as if accustomed to dwell on such places. His other arm was extended to its utmost length and the hand grasped the barrel of his long rifle with something like convulsive energy. The act and the attitude were both involuntary and evidently proceeded from a feeling much deeper than that of vulgar surprise. His appearance, connected as it was with the rough exterior of his dress, rendered him entirely distinct from the busy group who were moving across the other end of the long haul, occupied in receiving the travelers and exchanging their welcomes. And Elizabeth continued to gaze at him in wonder. The contraction of the stranger's brows increased as his eyes moved slowly from one object to another. For moments the expression of his continence was fierce, and then, again, it seemed to pass away in some painful emotion. The arm that was extended bent and brought the hand nigh to his face. When his head dropped upon it and concealed, the wonderfully speaking liniments, We forget there, sir, the strange gentleman. For her life Elizabeth could not call him otherwise, whom we have brought here for assistance, and to whom we owe every attention. All eyes were instantly turned in the direction of those of the speaker, and the youth rather proudly elevated his head again while he answered, My wound is strifeling, and I believe that Judge Temple sent for a physician the moment we arrived. Certainly, said Marmaduke, I have not forgotten the object of thy visit, young man, nor the nature of my debt. Oh! exclaimed Richard, with something of a waggy slayer. Thou o'est the lad for the venison, I suppose, that thou killed Cousin Duke. Marmaduke! Marmaduke! That was a marvellous tale of thine about the buck. Here, young man, are two dollars for the deer, and Judge Temple can do no less than pay the doctor. I shall charge you nothing for my services, but you shall not fare the worst for that. Come, come, Duke, don't be downhearted about it. If you miss the buck, you can try to shoot this poor fellow through a pine-tree. Now, I o'em that you have beat me. I never did such a thing in all my life. And I hope never will, return the Judge, if you are to experience the uneasiness that I have suffered. But be of good cheer, my young friend. The injury must be small. As thou moveest thy arm with apparent freedom. Don't make the matter a worse, Duke, by pretending to talk about surgery. Interrupted, Mr. Jones, with a contemptuous wave of the hand. It's a science that can only be learned by practice. You know that my grandfather was a doctor, but you haven't got to drop a medical blood in your veins. These kind of things run in families. All my family by my father's side had a knack at physique. There was only my uncle who was killed— There was my uncle that was killed in brandywine. He died as easy as any other man of the regiment, just from knowing how to hold his breath naturally. You men know how to breathe naturally. I doubt not, Dickon, return the Judge, meeting the bright smile which in spite of itself stole over the stranger's features, that thy family thoroughly understand the art of letting life slip through their fingers. Richard heard him quite coolly, and putting a hand in either pocket of his surcoat, so as to press forward the skirts began to whistle a tune, but the desire to reply overcame his philosophy, and with great heat he exclaimed, You may affect to smile, Judge Temple, at hereditary virtues, if you please, but there is not a man on your patent who don't know better. Here, even this young man who has never seen anything but bears and deer and woodchucks knows better than to believe virtues are not transmitted in families, don't you, friend? I believe that vice is not, said the stranger abruptly, his eyes glancing from the father to the daughter. The squire is right, Judge, observed Benjamin, with a knowing nod of his head toward Richard, that bespoke the peculiarity between them. Now in the old country the king's majesty touches for the evil, and that is a disorder that the greatest doctor in the fleet, or for the matter of that admiral either, can't cure. Only the king's majesty or a man that's been hanged. Yes, the squire's right, if so be, that he wasn't, how is it that the seventh son always is a doctor, whether he ships for the cockpit or not? Now when he fell in with the monsheers, under the gross DC, we hid abroad of us a doctor. Very well, Benjamin, interrupted Elizabeth, glancing her eyes from the hunter to Monser Lecoy, who was most politely attending to what fell from each individual in succession. You shall tell me of that and all your entertaining adventures together. Just now a room must be prepared in which the arm of this gentleman can be dressed. I will attend to that myself, cousin Elizabeth, observed Richard, somewhat haughtily. The young man will not suffer because Marmadoug chooses to be a little obstinate. Follow me, my friend, and I will examine the hurt myself. It will be well to wait for the physician, said the hunter coldly. He cannot be distant. Richard paused and looked at the speaker, a little astonished at the language, and a good deal appalled at the refusal. He construed the ladder into an act of hostility, and placing his hands in the pockets again he walked up to Mr. Gont, and putting his face close to the continents of the divine, said in an undertone, Now mark my words. There will be a story among the settlers that all our necks would have been broken but for that fellow, as if I did not know how to drive. Why, you might have turned the horses yourselves, sir. Nothing was easier. It was only pulling hard to the nigh rain, and touching off the flank of the leader. I hope, my dear sir, you are not at all hurt by the upset the lad gave us. The reply was interrupted by the entrance of the village physician. This recording by Gary W. Sherwin of Yukon, Pennsylvania, in January of 2009, Chapter 6 of The Pioneers, or The Sources of the Sasquahana, 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. And about his shells, a beggarly account of empty boxes, green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds, remnants of pack thread, and old cakes of roses, were thinly scattered to make up a show, unquote, Shakespeare. Dr. Elanthan Todd, for such was the name of the man of physics, was commonly thought to be among the settlers, a gentleman of great mental endowments. And he was assuredly of rare personal proportions. In height, he measured, without his shoes, exactly six feet and four inches. His hands, feet, and knees corresponded in every respect with his formidable stature. But every other part of his frame appeared to have been intended for a man several sizes smaller, if we accept the length of the limbs. His shoulders were square, in one sense at least, being at a right line from one side to the other. But they were so narrow that the long dangling arms they supported seemed to issue out of his back. His neck possessed, in an eminent degree, the property of length to which we have alluded. And it was topped by a small bullet head that exhibited on one side a bush of bristling brown hair and on the other a short twinkling visage that appeared to maintain a constant struggle with itself in order to look wise. He was the youngest son of a farmer in the western part of Massachusetts, who, being in somewhat easy circumstances, had allowed this boy to shoot up to the height we have mentioned without the ordinary interruptions of field labor, wood chopping, and other such toils as were imposed on his brothers. Elnathan was indebted for this exemption from labor in some measure to his extraordinary growth, which leaving him pale, inanimate, and listless, induced his tender mother to pronounce him a sickly boy, and one that was not equal to work, but who might earn a living comfortably enough by taking to pleading law or turning minister or doctoring, or some such like easy calling. Still, there was great uncertainty which of these vocations the youth was best endowed to feel. But having no other employment, the stripling was constantly lounging about the homestead, munching green apples and hunting for sorrel, when the same sagacious eye that had brought to light his latent talents seized upon this circumstance as a clue to his future path through the term oils of the world. Elnathan was cut out for a doctor. She knew, for he was forever digging for herbs and tasting all kinds of things that growed about the lots. Then again he had a natural love for doctor stuff, for when she had left the bilious pills out for her man, all nicely covered with maple sugar. Just ready to take, Elnathan had come in and swallowed them for all the world as if they were nothing, while Ichabod, her husband, could never get one down without making such desperate faces that it was awful to look on. This discovery decided the matter. Elnathan, then about fifteen, was much like a wild colt, caught and trimmed by clipping his bushy locks, dressed in a suit of homespun, died in the butternut bark, furnished with a New Testament and a Webster spelling book, and sent to school. As the boy was by nature quite shrewd enough and had previously at odd times laid foundations of reading, writing, and arithmetic, he was soon conspicuous in the school for his learning. The delighted mother had the gratification of hearing from the lips of the master that her son was a prodigious boy and far above all his class. He also thought that the youth had a natural love for doctoring. As he had known him frequently advised the smaller children against eating too much, and once or twice, when the ignorant little things had persevered in opposition to Elnathan's advice, he had known her son empty the school baskets with his own mouth to prevent the consequences. Soon after this comfortable declaration from his schoolmaster, the lad was removed to the house of the village doctor. A gentleman whose early career had not been unlike that of our hero, where he was to be seen sometimes watering a horse, at others watering medicines, blue, yellow, and red. Then again he might be noticed lolling under an apple tree, with rudiments Latin grammar in his hand, and a corner of Denman's midwifery sticking out of a pocket, for his instructor held it absurd to teach his pupil how to dispatch a patient regularly from this world before he knew how to bring him into it. This kind of life continued for a twelve month, when he suddenly appeared at a meeting in a long coat, and well did it deserve the name, of Black Homespun, with little booties bound with an uncovered calfskin for the wand of red Morocco. Soon after he was seen shaving with a doll-raiser, three or four months had scarcely lapsed before several elderly ladies were observed hastening toward the house of a poor woman in the village, while others were running to and fro in great apparent distress. One or two boys were mounted bareback on horses, and sent off at speed in various directions. Several indirect questions were put concerning the place where the physician was last seen. But all would not do, and at length, Elnithon, was seen issuing from his door with a very grave air preceded by a little white-headed boy out of breath trotting before him. The following day the youth appeared in the street, as the highway was called, and the neighborhood was much edified by the additional gravity of his air. The same week he bought a new razor, and the succeeding Sunday he entered the meeting house with a red silk handkerchief in his hand, and with an extremely demure countenance. In the evening he called upon a young woman of his own class in life, for there were no others to be found, and when he was left alone with the fair, he was called for the first time in his life, Dr. Todd, by her prudent mother. The ice once broken in this manner, Elnithon, was greeted from every mouth with his official appellation. Another year passed under the superintendent's of the same master, during which the young physician had the credit of riding with the old doctor, although they were generally observed to travel different roads. At the end of that period, Dr. Todd attained his legal majority. He then took a jaunt to Boston to purchase medicines and, as some intimated, to walk the hospital. We know not how the latter might have been, but, if true, he soon walked through it, for he returned within a fortnight, bringing with him a suspicious-looking box that smelled powerfully a brimstone. The next Sunday he was married, and the following morning he entered a one-horse sleigh with his bride, having before him the box we have mentioned. With another filled with homemade household linen, a paper-covered trunk, with a red umbrella lashed to it, a pair of quite new saddle bags, and a handbox. The next intelligence that his friends received of the bride and bridegroom was that the latter was settled in the new countries, and well to do as a doctor in Templeton, in New York State. If Templar would smile at the qualifications of Marmaduke to fill the judicial seat he occupied, we were certain that a graduate of Leiden, or Edinburgh, would be extremely amused with this true narration of the servitude of Elnethon, in the Temple of Escalapius. But the same consolation was afforded to both the jurist and the leech, for Dr. Todd was quite as much on a level with his own peers of the profession in that country as was Marmaduke with his brethren on the bench. Time and practice did wonders for the physician. He was naturally humane, but possessed no small share of moral courage, or in other words he was cherry of the lives of his patients, and never tried uncertain experiments on such members of society as were considered useful. But once or twice when a luckless vagrant had come under his care he was a little addicted to trying the effects of every file in his saddlebag on the stranger's condition. Happily their number was small, and in most cases their nature's innocent. By these means Elnethon had acquired a certain degree of knowledge in fevers and aches, and could talk with judgment concerning intermittence, remittance, tertians, quotidians, etc. In certain cutaneous disorders, very prevalent in the new settlements, he was considered to be infallible, and there was no woman on the patent, but would as soon think of becoming a mother without a husband, as without the assistance of Dr. Todd. In short, he was rearing on this foundation of sand, a superstructure cemented by practice, though composed of somewhat brittle materials. He however occasionally renewed his elementary studies, and with the observation of a shrewd mind, was comfortably applying his practice to his theory. In surgery, having the least experience, and it being a business that spoke directly to the senses, he was most apt to distrust his own powers. But he had applied oils to several burns, cut around the roots of sundry defective teeth, and sewed up the wounds of numberless woodchoppers, with considerable eclot. When an unfortunate jobber suffered a fracture of his leg by the tree that he had been falling, it was on this occasion that our hero encountered the greatest trial his nerves and moral feeling had ever sustained. In the hour of need, however, he was not found wanting. Most of the amputations in the new settlements, and they were quite frequent, were performed by someone practitioner who, possessing originally a reputation, was enabled by his circumstances to acquire an experience that rendered him deserving of it, and Elnathon had been present at one or two of these operations. But on the present occasion the man of practice was not to be obtained, and the duty fell, as a matter of course, to the share of Mr. Todd. He went to work with a kind of blind desperation, observing at the same time all the externals of decent gravity and great skill. The sufferer's name was Milligan, and it was to his event that Richard alluded when he spoke of assisting the doctor at an amputation by holding the leg. The limb was certainly cut off, and the patient survived the operation. It was, however, two years before Milligan ceased to complain that they had buried the leg in so narrow a box that it was straightened for room. He could feel the pain shooting up from the inhumed fragment into the living members. Marmaduke suggested that the fault might lie in the arteries and nerves, but Richard, considering the amputation as a part of his own handiwork, strongly repelled the insinuation, at the same time declaring that he had often heard of men who would tell when it was about to rain by the toes of amputated limbs. After two or three years not withstanding, Milligan's complaints gradually diminished. The leg was dug up and a larger box furnished, and from that hour no one had heard the sufferer utter another complaint on the subject. This gave the public great confidence in Dr. Todd, whose reputation was hourly increasing. And, luckily, for his patients, his information also. Not withstanding Dr. Todd's practice and his success with the leg, he was not a little appalled on entering the hall of the mansion house. It was glaring with the light of day. It looked so imposing, compared with the hastily built and scantily furnished apartments which he frequented in his ordinary practice, and contained so many well-dressed persons and anxious faces that his usually firm nerves were a good deal discomposed. He had heard from the messenger who summoned him that it was a gunshot wound, and had come from his own home wading through the snow with his saddlebags thrown over his arm. While separated arteries, penetrated lungs, and injured vitals were whirling through his brain, as if he were stalking over a field of battle, instead of judge temples, peaceable in closure. The first object that met his eye as he moved into the room was Elizabeth in her writing habit, richly laced with gold cord, her fine form bending toward him, and her face expressing deep anxiety in every one of its beautiful features. The enormous knees of the physician struck each other with a noise that was audible, for in the abstinent state of his mind he mistook her for a general officer, perforated with bullets, hastening from the field of battle to implore assistance. The delusion, however, was but momentary, and his eye glanced rapidly from the daughter to the earnest dignity of the father's countenance. Thence to the busy strut of Richard, who was cooling his impatience at the hunter's indifference to his assistance by pacing the hall and cracking his whip. From him to the Frenchman, who had stood for several minutes unheeded with a chair for the lady, thence to Major Hartman, who was coolly lighting a pipe three feet long by a candle in one of the chandeliers, thence to Mr. Grant, who was turning over a manuscript with much earnestness at one of the lusters, thence to Remarkable, who stood with her arms demurely folded before her, surveying with a look of admiration and envy the dress and beauty of the young lady, and from her to Benjamin, who with his feet standing wide apart and his arms a Kimbo, was balancing his square little body with the indifference of one who is accustomed to wounds and bloodshed. All of these seemed to be unhurt, and the operator began to breathe more frequently. But before he had time to take a second look, the judge, advancing, shook him kindly by the hand and spoke, Thou art welcome, my good sir, quite welcome indeed. Here is a youth whom I have unfortunately wounded in shooting a deer this evening, and requires some of thy assistance. Shooting a deer, dude, interrupted Richard, shooting at a deer. Who do you think can prescribe unless he knows the truth of the case? It is always so with some people. They think a doctor can be deceived with the same impunity as another man. Shooting at a deer, truly, returned the judge smiling. Although it is by no means certain that I did not aid in destroying the buck, but the youth is injured by my hand, be that as it may, and it is thy skill that must cure him, and my pocket shall amply reward thee for it. Ti vu, good things to depend on, observed Monsur Likoi, bowing politely with a sweep of his head to the judge and to the practitioner. I thank you, Monsur, returned the judge. But we keep the young man in pain. Remarkable, thou wilt please to provide linen for lint and bandages. This remark caused the cessation of the compliments, and induced the physician to turn an inquiring eye in the direction of his patient. During the dialogue the young hunter had thrown aside his overcoat, and now stood clad in a plain suit of the common light-colored homespun of the country. That was evidently, but recently made. His hand was on the lapels of his coat in the attitude of removing the garment, when he suddenly suspended the movement and looked toward the commiserating Elizabeth, who was standing in an unchanged posture, too much observed with her anxious feelings to heed his actions. A slight color appeared on the brow of the youth. Possibly the sight of blood may alarm the lady. I will retire to another room, while the wound is dressing. By no means, said Dr. Todd, who having discovered that his patient was far from being a man of importance, felt much emboldened to perform the duty. The strong light of these candles is favorable to the operation, and it is seldom that we hard students enjoy good eyesight. While speaking, Elizabeth placed a pair of large iron rim spectacles on his face, where they drooped, as it were, by long practice, to the extremity of his slim pugnose. And if they were of no service's assistance to his eyes, neither were they any impediment to his vision, for his little gray organs were twinkling above them like two stars, emerging from the envious cover of a cloud. The action was unheeded by all but remarkable, who observed to Benjamin, Dr. Todd is a calmly man to look on, and despite pretty. How well he seems in spectacles, I declare, they give a grand look to a body's face. I have quite a mind to try them myself. The speech of the stranger recalled the recollection of Miss Temple, who started as if from deep abstraction, and coloring excessively, she motioned to a young woman who served in the capacity of maid, and retired with an air of womanly reserve. The field was now left to the physician and his patient, while the different personages who remained gathered around the latter, with faces expressing the various degrees of interest that each one felt in his condition. Major Hartman alone retained his seat, where he continued to throw out vast quantities of smoke, now rolling his eyes up to the ceiling as if musing on the uncertainty of life, and now bending them on the wounded man, with an expression that bespoke some consciousness of his situation. In the meantime, El Nathan, to whom the sight of a gunshot wound was a perfect novelty, commenced his preparations with a solemnity and care that were worthy of the occasion. An old shirt was procured by Benjamin, and placed in the hand of the other, who tore diverse bandages from it, with an exactitude that marked both his own skill and the importance of the operation. When this preparatory measure was taken, Dr. Todd selected a piece of the shirt with great care, and handing to Mr. Jones, without moving a muscle, said, Here, Squire Jones, you are well acquainted with these things. Will you please to scrape the lint? It should be fine and soft, you know, my dear sir, and be cautious that no cotton gets in, or it may peasant the wound. The shirt has been made with cotton thread, but you can easily pick it out. Richard assumed the office with a nod at his cousin, and said quite plainly, You see, this fellow can't get along without me, and began to scrape the linen on his knee with great diligence. A table was now spread with vials, boxes of sav and verse surgical instruments. As the latter appeared in succession from a case of Red Morocco, their owner held up each implement to the strong light of the chandelier near to which he stood, and examined it with the nicest care. A red silk handkerchief was frequently applied to the glittering steel, as if to remove from the polished surfaces the last impediment which might exist, to the most delicate operation. After the rather scantily furnished pocket case, which contained these instruments was exhausted, the physician turned to his saddlebags, and produced various vials filled with liquids of the most radiant colors. These were arranged in due order by the side of the murderous saws, knives, and scissors. When Elmathan stretched his long body to its utmost elevation, placing his hand on the small of his back as if for support, and looked about him to discover what effect this display of professional skill was likely to produce on the spectators. Upon my word, talk there! observed Major Hartman with a roguish roll of his little black eyes, but with every other feature of his face, a state of perfect rest. Put you have a very pretty pocketbook of tools there, and your talk to stuff glitters, as if was prettier for the eyes as purred to belly. Elmathan gave one that one might have equally taken for that kind of noise which Cargers said to make in order to awaken their dormant courage, or for a natural effort to clear the throat. If for the latter it was successful, for turning his face to the veteran German, he said, Very true, Major Hartman, very true, sir. A prudent man will always strive to make his remedies agreeable to the eyes, though they may not altogether suit the stomach. It is no small part of our art, sir, and he now spoke with the confidence of a man who understood his subject to reconcile the patient to what is for his own good. Though at the same time it may be unpalatable. Certain Dr. Todd is right, said remarkable, and has scripted for what he says. The Bible tells us how things may be sweet to the mouth and bitter to the innards. True, true, interrupted the judge a little impatiently, but here is a youth who needs no deception to lure him to his own benefit. I see by his eye that he fears nothing more than delay. The stranger had, without assistance, bared his own shoulder when the slight perforation produced by the passage of the buckshot was plainly visible. The intense cold of the evening had stopped the bleeding, and Dr. Todd, casting a furtive glance at the wound, thought it by no means so formidable of fear as he had anticipated. Thus encouraged, he approached his patient and made some indication of an intention to trace the route that had been taken by the lead. Remarkable, often found occasions in after days to recount the minutiae of that celebrated operation, and when she arrived at this point she commonly proceeded as follows. And then the doctor took out of the pocketbook a long thing like a knitting needle, with a button fastened to the end of it, and then he pushed it into the wound and then the young man looked awful. And then I thought I should have swayed away. I felt and stitched a dispute taken, and then the doctor run it through his shoulder and shoved the bullet out on the other side. And so Dr. Todd cured the young man of a ball that the judge had shot into him. For all the world as easy as I could pick out a splinter with my darning needle. Such were the impressions of Remarkable on the subject, and such doubtless were the opinions of most of those who felt it necessary to entertain a species of religious veneration for the skill of Alnothon. But such was far from the truth. When the physician attempted to introduce the instrument described by Remarkable, he was repulsed by the stranger, with a good deal of decision and some little contempt in his manner. I believe, sir, he said, that a probe is not necessary. The shot has missed the bone and has passed directly through the arm to the opposite side. Where it remains but skin deep. And whence, I should think, it might be easily extracted. The gentleman knows best, said Dr. Todd, laying down the probe with the air of a man who had assumed it merely in compliance with forms. And turning to Richard, he fingered the lint with the appearance of great care and foresight. Admireably, well scraped, Squire Jones, it is about the best lint I have ever seen. I want your assistance, my good sir, to hold the patient's arm while I make an incision for the ball. Now I rather guess there is not another gentleman present who could scrape the lint so well as Squire Jones. Such things run in families, observed Richard, rising with alacrity to render the desired assistance. My father and my grandfather before him were both celebrated for their knowledge of surgery. They were not, like Marmaduke here, puffed up with an accidental thing, such as the time he drew in the hip joint of the man who was thrown from his horse. That was the fall before you came into the settlement, doctor. But they were men who were taught the thing regularly, spending half their lives in learning those little nice cities, though. For the matter of that, my grandfather was a college-bred physician. And the rest of the colony, too, that is in his neighborhood. So it is with the word, Squire, cried Benjamin. If so be that man wants to walk the quarter-deck with credit, do you see? And with regular-built swabs on his shoulder, he mustn't think to do it by getting in at the cabin windows. There are two ways to get into a top besides the rubber holes. The true way to walk aft is to begin forward, though if he only be a humble way like myself, do you see, which was from being only a handler of top-gallant sails, and a stower of the flying jib, to keeping the key of the captain's locker. Benjamin speaks quite to the purpose, continue Richard. I daresay he has often seen shot extracted in the different ships in which he has served. Suppose we get him to hold the basin. He must be used to the sight of blood. That he is, Squire, that he is, interrupted the sivitant steward. Many is the good shot round double-headed and grape that I have seen the doctors at work on. For the matter of what, I was in a boat alongside the ship, when they cut out the twelve-pound shot from the thigh of the captain of the footy-rong. One on one sure liquefies countrymen. Footnote. It is possible that the reader may start at this declaration of Benjamin, but those who have lived in the new settlements of America are too much accustomed to hear these European exploits. To doubt it. And footnote. A twelve-pound ball from the thigh of a human being? Examine Mr. Grant with great simplicity. Dropping the sermon he was again reading and raising his spectacles to the top of his forehead. A twelve-pounder! Echoed Benjamin, stirring around him with much confidence. A twelve-pounder! I, a twenty-four pound shot, can easily be taken from a man's body, if so be a doctor, only knows how. There's Squire Jones now. Ask him, sir. He reads all the books. Ask him if he never fell in with a page that keeps the reckoning of such things. Certainly more important operations than that have been performed, observed Richard. The Encyclopedia mentions much more incredible circumstances than that, as I dare say, you know, Dr. Todd. Certainly. There are incredible tales told in the Encyclopedias, returned Elnathan. Though I cannot say I have ever seen myself, anything larger than a musket-ball extracted. During this discourse an incision had been made through the skin of the young hunter's soldier, and the lead was laid bare. Elnathan took a pair of glittering forceps and was in the act of applying them to the wound, when the sudden motion of the patient caused the shot to fall out of itself. The long arm and broad hand of the operator were now of singular service. For the latter expanded itself and caught the lead, while at the same time an extremely ambiguous motion was made by its brother as to leave it doubtful to the spectators, how great was its agency in releasing the shot. Richard, however, put the matter at rest by exclaiming, Very neatly done, Dr. I have never seen a shot more neatly extracted, and I dare say Benjamin will say the same. Why, considering, returned Benjamin, I must say that it was ship-shape and brister fashion. Now all that the doctor has to do is to clap a couple of plugs in the holes, and the lad will float in any gale that blows in these here hills. I thank you, sir, for what you have done, said the youth, with a little distance. But here is a man who will take me under his care and spare you, all gentlemen, any further trouble on my account. The whole group turned their heads in surprise and be held standing at one of the distant doors of the hall. The person of Indian John. End of Chapter 6 This recording by Gary W. Sherwin of Yukon, Pennsylvania in January of 2009