Gaut Gurley

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"Yes; and surely enough it resembles a human hand, with only three
fingers."

"That is it; and you may yet, in your experiences in these rough and
sometimes dangerous wilds, know the value of that gift."

"At any rate, I feel gratified at this mark of the chiefs good will; the
more because I was so little expecting it, especially at this time. How
could they have possibly made out who I, or indeed either of us, was, at
such a distance?"

"A very natural inquiry, but answered when I tell you that Fluella has a
good spy-glass, that a year or two ago she brought, among other curious
trinkets, from her other home in the old settlement. And she makes it often
serve a good purpose, too. She has spied out, for her father's killing,
many a moose or deer that had come down to the edge or into the water of
the lake round the shores to drink, eat wild-grass, or cool themselves, as
well as many a flock of wild geese, lighting here on their fall or spring
passages. She knew, I think, about the day we were to start, and, being on
the lookout, saw the rest of our company passing off here to the west, an
hour or two ago, and, not seeing us among them, expected us to be along
somewhere in this direction. Now, is all explained?"

"Yes, curiously but satisfactorily."

"Then, only one word more on the subject: let me advise you not to show
that hunting-pouch when we join the company, nor wear it till we are off on
our separate ranges. I have my reasons, but mustn't be asked to give them."

"All this is odd, Mr. Phillips; but, taking it for granted that your
reasons are good ones, I will comply with your advice."

"Very well. The whole matter being now disposed of, let us move on round
the point, and into the large cove we shall find round there. We mustn't
give up about game so. No knowing what may yet be done in that line."

Having risen to his feet, raised his hunting-cap, and bowed his adieu to
the still lingering maiden on shore, Claud now joined his companion at the
oars; when they rapidly passed round the headland, and soon entered the
bay-like recess of water, which, sweeping round in a large wood-fringed
circle, opened upon the view immediately beyond. After skirting along the
sometimes bold and rocky, and sometimes low and swampy, thickly-wooded
shore, with a sharp lookout for whatever might come within range of the
eye, but without stopping for any special examination till they had reached
the most secluded part of the cove, the hunter suspended his oar, and
signified his intention of landing. Accordingly, running in their canoe by
the side of an old treetop extending into the water, and, throwing their
mooring-line around one of its bare limbs, they stepped noiselessly ashore,
and ascended the bank, when the hunter, pausing and pointing inward, said,
in a low, suppressed tone:

"There, within a short distance from us, commences one of the thickest
windfall jungles in these parts, and extends up nearly to the chiefs
outermost cornfield, about half a mile off. I have been threatening to come
here some time; and if, as I will propose, we go into the tangle, and get
through, or half through, without encounter of some kind, I confess I shall
be uncommonly disappointed. But, before entering, let us sit down on this
old log a few minutes, and, while looking to our flints and priming, keep
our ears open for such sounds as may reach them."

And, bending low his head, with closed eyes, and an ear turned towards the
thicket, the hunter listened long and intently in motionless silence, after
which he quickly rose, and, while glancing at his gun-flint and priming,
said:

"There are no distinct sounds, but the air is disturbed in the kind of way
that I have frequently noticed when animals of some size were in the
vicinity. Let us forward into the thicket, spreading out some ten rods
apart, and worming ourselves among the windfalls, with a stop and a
thorough look every few rods of our progress. Should you start up a
panther, which ain't very likely, you had better whistle for me, before
firing; but, if any thing else, blaze away at it."

Nodding his assent, and starting off in a course diverging to the right of
the one he perceived his companion to be taking, Claud slowly, and as he
best could, made his way forward, sometimes crawling underhand sometimes
clambering over the tangled masses of fallen trees, which, with a thick
upshooting second growth, lay piled and crossed in all conceivable shapes
and directions before him. After proceeding in this manner thirty or forty
rods, he paused, for the third or fourth time, to look and listen; but
lastly quite as much for his companion as for game, for, with all his
powers, he could detect no sound indicating that the latter could be
anywhere in the vicinity. While thus engaged, he heard a small, shrill,
plaintive sort of cry, as of a little child, coming from somewhere above
him; when, casting up his eyes, he beheld a large raccoon sidling round a
limb, and seemingly winking and nodding down towards him. With the
suppressed exclamation of "Far better than nothing," he brought his piece
to his face and fired; when the glimpse of a straight-falling body, and the
heavy thump on the ground that followed, told him that the object of his
aim was a "_dead coon_." But his half-uttered shout of exultation was cut
short by the startling report of a rifle, a little distance to the rear, on
his left. And the next moment a huge old bear, followed by a smaller one,
came smashing and tearing through the brush and tree-tops directly towards
him. And with such headlong speed did the frightened brutes advance upon
him, that he had scarce time to draw-his clubbed rifle before the old one
had broke into the little open space where he stood, and thrown herself on
her haunches, in an attitude of angry defiance. Recoiling a step in the
only way he could move, and expecting the next moment to find himself
within the fatal grasp of the bear, if he did not disable her, Claud aimed
and struck with all his might a blow at her head. But, before the
swiftly-descending implement reached its mark, it was struck by the fending
paw of the enraged brute, with a force that sent its tightly-grasping owner
spinning and floundering into the entangled brushwood, till he landed
prostrate on the ground. And, ere he had time to turn himself, the
desperate animal had rushed and trampled over him, and disappeared through
a breach effected in one of the treetops that had hemmed him in and
prevented his retreat from such a doubtful, hand-to-hand encounter. As the
discomfited young huntsman was rising to his feet, his eyes fell upon
Phillips, hurrying forward, with looks of lively concern; which, however,
as he leaped into the small open space comprising the battle-ground, and
saw how matters stood, at first gave place to a ludicrous smile, and then
to a merry peal of laughter.

"I can't say I blame you much for your merriment," said Claud, joining,
though rather feebly, in the laugh, as he brushed himself and picked up his
rifle; "for, to be upset and run over by a bear would have been about the
last thing I should have dreamed of myself."

"O well," said the other, checking his risibles, "it had better turn out a
laughing than a crying matter, as it might have done if you had kept your
footing; for, if you had not been overthrown and run over, you would have
probably, in this cramped-up place, stood up to be hugged and scratched in
a way not so very agreeable; and I rather guess, under the circumstances,
you may as well call yourself satisfied to quit so; for the bears have left
you with a whole skin and unbroken ribs, though they have escaped
themselves where, with our time, it will be useless to follow them. But, if
you had not fired just as you did, we would have had all three of them."

"What! have you killed one?" asked Claud, in surprise.

"To be sure I have," answered the hunter. "Then you supposed it was one of
your rough visitors I fired at, and missed? No, no. I had got one of the
black youngsters in range, and was waiting for a chance at the old one,
knowing if I killed her first the young ones would take to the trees, where
they could easily be brought down. Seeing them, however, on the point of
running at the report of your rifle, I let drive at the only one I was sure
of; when the two others, they being nearly between us, tacked about and ran
towards you. But go get your 'coon, and come along this way, to look at my
black beauty."

"How did you know I had killed a 'coon?" inquired the other.

"Heard him squall before you fired, then strike the ground afterwards with
a force that I thought must have killed him, whether your bullet had or
not," replied the hunter, moving off for his bear, with which, tugging it
along by a hind leg, he soon joined Claud, who was threading his way out
with his mottled trophy swung over his shoulder.

"Why, a much larger one than I supposed," exclaimed the latter, turning and
looking at the cub; "really, a fine one!"

"Ain't he, now?" complacently said the hunter. "There, heft him; must weigh
over half a hundred, and as fat as butter,--for which he is doubtless
indebted to the chiefs cornfield. And I presume we may say the same of that
streaked squaller of yours, which I see is an uncommonly large, plump
fellow. Well," continued the speaker, shouldering the cub, "we may now as
well call our hunt over, for to-day,--out of this plaguey hole as soon as
we can, and over the lakes to camp, as fast as strong arms and good oars
can send us."

On, after reaching and pushing off their now well-freighted canoe,
on,--along the extended coast-line of this wild lake, westward to the great
inlet, up the gently inflowing waters of that broad, cypress-lined stream,
to the Maguntic, and then, tacking eastward, around the borders of that
still wilder and more secluded lake,--on, on, they sped for hours, until
the ringing of the axe-fall, and the lively echo of human voices in the
woods, apprised them of their near approach to the spot which their
companions had selected, both for their night's rest and permanent
head-quarters for the season.

CHAPTER XIII.

"And now their hatchets, with resounding stroke,
Hew'd down the boscage that around them rose,
And the dry pine of brittle branches broke,
To yield them fuel for the night's repose;
The gathered heap an ample store bespoke.
They smite the steel: the tinder brightly glows,
And the fired match the kindled flames awoke,
And light upon night's seated darkness broke.
High branch'd the pines, and far the colonnade
Of tapering trunks stood glimmering through the glen;
So joyed the hunters in their lonely glade."

"Hurra! the stragglers have arrived!" exclaimed Codman, the first to notice
the hunter and Claud as they shot into the mouth of the small, quiet river,
on whose bank was busily progressing the work of the incipient encampment.
"Hurra for the arrival of the good ship Brag, Phillips, master; but where
is his black duck, with a big trout to its foot? Ah, ha! not forthcoming,
hey? Kuk-kuk-ke-oh-o!"

"Don't crow till you see what I have got, Mr. Trapper," replied the hunter,
running in his canoe by the sides of those of his companions on shore.
"Don't crow yet,--especially over the failure of what I didn't undertake:
you or Mr. Carvil was to furnish the big trout, you will recollect."

"That has been attended to by me, to the satisfaction of the company, I
rather think," remarked Carvil, now advancing towards the bank with the
rest. "Not only one big trout, but two more with it, was drawn in by my
method, on the way."

"O, accident, accident!" waggishly rejoined the trapper; "they were hooked
by mere accident. The fact is, the trouts are so thick in these lakes that
a hook and line can't be drawn such a distance through them without getting
into some of their mouths. But, allowing it otherwise, it don't cure but
half of your case, Mr. Hunter. Where is the black duck?"

"_Here_ is the black duck," responded the hunter, stepping ashore and
drawing his cub out from under some screening boughs in the bow of the
boat.

A lively shout of laughter burst from the lips of the company at the
disclosure, showing alike their amusement at the practical way in which the
hunter had turned the jokes of the teasing trapper, and their agreeable
surprise at his luck in the uncertain hunting cruise along the shores, on
which they, without any expectation of his success, had banteringly
dispatched him. "Ah, I think you may as well give up beat, all round, Mr.
Codman," observed Mark Elwood, after the surprise and laughter had
subsided. "But come up here, neighbor Phillips, and see what a nice place
we are going to have for our camp."

Leaving the game in charge of Claud and Carvil, who volunteered to dress
it, the rest of the company walked up with the hunter to the spot where the
new shanty was in progress, wishing to hear his opinion of the location
selected, and the plan on which it had been commenced.

The location to which the company had been guided by the trapper was a
level space, about ten rods back from the stream here falling into the lake
from the east, and at the foot of a rocky acclivity forming a portion of
the southern side of a high ridge that ran down to the lake. The first ten
feet of the rise was formed by the smooth, even face of a perpendicular
rock, which from the narrow shelf at the top fell off into a less
precipitous ascent, extending up as far as the eye could reach among the
stunted evergreens and other low bushes that partially covered it. About a
dozen feet in front of this abutting rock, equidistant from it, and some
fifteen feet apart, stood two spruce trees, six or eight inches in diameter
at the bottom, but tall, and tapering towards the top. These, the company,
who had reached the place about two hours before, had contrived, by rolling
up some old logs to stand on, to cut off, and fell, six or seven feet from
the ground; so that the tall stumps might serve for the two front posts of
the proposed structure. And, having trimmed out the tops of the two fallen
trees, and cut them into the required lengths, they had laid them from the
top of the rock to the tops of the stumps, which had been first grooved
out, so as to receive and securely fasten the ends of the timbers. These,
with the stout poles which they had then cut and laid on transversely, at
short intervals, made a substantial framework for the roof of the shantee.
And, in addition to this, rows of side and front posts had been cut,
sharpened, driven into the ground at the bottom, and securely fastened at
the top to the two rafters at the sides and the principal beam, which had
been notched into them at the lower ends to serve for the front plate.

"Just the spot," said the hunter, after running his eye over and around
the locality a moment, and then going up and inspecting the structure in
progress. "I thought Codman could not miss so remarkable a place. I have
been thinking of building a camp here for several years; but it never
seemed to come just right till this fall. Why, you all must have worked
like beavers to get along with the job so well, and to do it so thoroughly.
The bones of the thing are all now up, as far as I can see, and made strong
enough to withstand all the snows and blows of half a dozen winters. So,
now, nothing remains but to put on the bark covering."

"But how are we to get the bark covering?" asked Gaut Gurley. "Bark will
not peel well at this season, will it?"

"No, not very well, I suppose," replied the former. "But I will see what I
can do towards hunting up the material, to-morrow. A coat of these spruce
boughs, spread over this framework above, and set up here against the
sides, will answer for to-night. And this rigging up, gathering hemlock
boughs for our beds, building a good fire here in front, and cooking the
supper, are all we had better think of attempting this evening; and, as it
is now about sunset, let us divide off the labor, and go at it."

The encampment of these adventurous woodsmen presented, for the next hour,
a stirring and animated scene. The different duties to be performed having
been apportioned by mutual agreement among the company, they proceeded with
cheerful alacrity to the performance of their respective tasks. Phillips
and Carvil set busily to work in covering, inclosing, and rigging up the
camp,--to adopt the woodsman's use of that word, as we notify the critic we
shall do, as often as we please, albeit that use, contrary to Noah Webster,
indicates the structure in which men lodge in the woods, rather than the
place or company encamping. Mark Elwood, Gaut Gurley, and the young Indian
Tomah, proceeding to a neighboring windfall of different kinds of wood,
went to work in cutting and drawing up a supply of fuel, among which, the
accustomed backlog, forestick, and intermediate kindling-wood, being
adjusted before the entrance of the camp, the fire from the smitten steel
and preserving punkwood was soon crackling and throwing around its ruddy
glow, as it more and more successfully competed with the waning light of
the departing day. Claud and Codman, in fulfilment of their part of the
business on hand, then unpacked the light frying-pans, laid in them the
customary slices of fat salted pork, and shortly had them sharply hissing
over the fire, preparatory to receiving respectively their allotted quotas
of the tender and nutritious bearsteaks, or the broad layers of the rich,
red-meated trout.

In a short time the plentiful contents of the pans were thoroughly cooked,
the pans taken from the fires, the potatoes raked from the glowing embers,
in which they had been roasting under the forestick, the brown bread and
condiments brought forward, and all placed upon the even face of a broad,
thin sheet of cleft rock, which they had luckily found in the adjacent
ledge, and brought forward and elevated on blocks within the camp, to
serve, as it well did, for their sylvan table. Gathering round this, they
proceeded to help themselves, with their camp knives and rude trenchers,
split from blocks of the freely-cleaving basswood, to such kinds and
portions of the savory viands, smoking so invitingly in the pans before
them, as their inclinations severally prompted. Having done this, they drew
back to seats on broad chips, blocks of wood, piles of boughs, or other
objects nearest at hand, and began upon their long anticipated meal with a
gusto which made them for a while too busy for conversation, other than an
occasional brief remark on the quality of the food, or some jocose allusion
to the adventures of the day. After they had finished their repast,
however, and cleared away the relics of the supper, together with the few
utensils they had used in cooking and eating it, they replenished their
fire; and, while the cheerful light of its fagot-fed blaze was flashing up
against the dark forest around, and shooting away through the openings of
the foliage in long glimmering lines over the waters below, they all placed
themselves at their ease,--some sitting on blocks, some leaning against the
posts, and some reclining on piles of boughs,--and commenced the social
confab, or that general conversation, in which woodsmen, if they ever do,
are prone to indulge after the fatigues of the day are over, and the
consequent demands of appetite have been appeased by a satisfactory meal.

"Now, gentlemen, I will make a proposition," said Mark Elwood, in a pause
of the conversation, which, though it had been engaged in with considerable
spirit, yet now began to flag. "I will propose, as we have an hour or two
on hand, to be spent somehow, before we shall think of rolling ourselves up
in our blankets for the night,--I propose that you professional hunters,
like Phillips, Codman, and Carvil, here, each give us a story of one of
your most remarkable adventures in the woods. It would not only while away
the hour pleasantly for us all, but might furnish useful information and
timely hints for us beginners in this new life, upon which we are about to
enter. For my part, I should like to listen to a story, by these old
witnesses, of the strange things they must have encountered in the woods.
What say you, Gurley, Claud, and Tomah? Shall we put them on the stand?"

"Yes, a good idea," replied Gaut, his habitual cold reserve relaxing into
something like cordiality; "I feel just in the humor to listen,--more so
than to talk, on this hearty supper. Yes, by all means let us have the
stories."

"O, I should be exceedingly gratified," joined in Claud, in his usual frank
and animated manner.

"I like that, too; like to hear hunting story, always, much," added Tomah,
with a glistening eye.

"Well, no particular objection as far as I am concerned," responded the
trapper, seriously; but adding, with his old waggish gleam of the eye:
"that is, if you will take what I give, and swallow it as easily as you did
Phillips' fish story. But let Carvil, who must be the youngest, go on with
_his_ story first; I will follow; and Phillips shall bring up the rear."

Carvil, after making a few excuses that were not suffered to avail him,
commenced his narration, which we will head

THE AMATEUR WOODSMAN'S STORY.

"I call myself a woodsman, and a pretty good one, now; but, four years ago,
I was almost any thing else but one of _any_ kind. I should have then
thought it would have certainly been the death of me to have lain out one
night in the woods. And I had no more idea of ever becoming a hunter or
trapper, to remain out, as I have since done, for weeks and months in the
depths of the wilderness, with no other protection than my rifle, and no
other shelter than what I could fix up with my hatchet for the night, where
I happened to be, on the approach of darkness, than I now have of
undertaking to swim the Atlantic. And, as the circumstances which led to
this revolution in my opinions and habits, when _out_ of the woods, may as
much interest you, in the account, as any thing that happened to me after I
got into them, I will first briefly tell you how I came to be a woodsman,
and then answer your call by relating a hunting incident which occurred to
me after I became one; which, if not very marvellous, shall, at least, have
the merit of truth and reality.

"I was brought up rather tenderly, as to work; and my parents, absurdly
believing that, with my then slight frame, any employment requiring any
labor or physical exertion would injure me, put me to study, and assisted
me to the means of entering college at eighteen, and of graduating at
twenty-two. Well, I did not misimprove my opportunities for knowledge, I
believe; but, instead of gaining strength and manhood by my exemption from
labor, I grew feebler and feebler. Still, I did not know what was wanting
to give me health and constitution, nor once think that a mind without a
body is a thing not worth having; and so I went on, keeping within doors
and studying a profession, until I found myself a poor, nervous, miserable
dyspeptic, and threatened with consumption. It was now plain enough that,
if I would avoid a speedy death, something must be done; and, by the advice
of the doctors, who were about as ignorant of the philosophy of health as
myself, I concluded to seek a residence and livelihood in one of the
Southern States. Accordingly, I packed up and took stage for Boston, timing
my journey so as to get there the day before the ship, on which I had
previously ascertained I could find a passage, was to sail for Savannah.
But, the morning after I arrived, a severe storm came on, and the sailing
of the ship was deferred till the next day; so, having nothing to do,
knowing nobody to talk with, and the weather being too stormy to go out to
see the city, I took to my solitary room in the hotel, where, fortunately,
there were neither books nor papers to prevent me from thinking. And I
_did_ think, that day, almost for the first time in my life, without the
trammels of fashionable book-theories, and more effectually than I had ever
done before. I had a favorite classmate in college, whose name was Silas
Wright, who had a mind that penetrated, like light, every thing it was
turned upon, and who never failed to see the truth of a matter, though his
towering ambition sometimes prevented him from following the path where it
led. In recalling, as I was pacing the floor that gloomy day, my old
college friends and their conversation, I happened to think of what Wright
once said to me on the subject of health and long life.

"'Carvil,' said he, 'did you know that we students were committing treason
against the great laws of life which God has laid down for us?'

"'No.'

"'Well, we are. Man was made for active life, and in the open air.'

"'But _you_, it seems, are not observing the theory about which you are so
positive?'

"'No, and don't intend to. To observe that, I must relinquish all thought
of mounting the professional and political ladder, even half way to the
mark I _must_ and _will_ reach. I have naturally a strong constitution, and
I calculate it will last, with the rapid mounting I intend, till I reach
the top round, and that is all that I care for. But I shall know, all the
while, that I am going up like a rocket, whose height and brilliancy are
only attained by the certain and rapid wasting of the substance that
composes it. But the case is different with you, Carvil. You have a
constitution yet to make, or your rocket will go out, before you can get
high enough, in these days of jostling and severe competition, to warrant
the attempt of mounting at all.'

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