Queechy Volume I Part 3

CHAPTER II.

Have you seen but a bright lily grow, Before rude hands have touched it?

Ha' you mark'd but the fall o' the snow, Before the soil hath s.m.u.tch'd it?

BEN JONSON.

Where a ray of light can enter the future, a child's hope can find a way ? a way that nothing less airy and spiritual can travel. By the time they reached their own door Fleda's spirits were at par again.

"I am very glad we have got home, aren't you, grandpa?" she said, as she jumped down; "I'm so hungry. I guess we are both of us ready for supper, don't you think so?"

She hurried up stairs to take off her wrappings, and then came down to the kitchen, where, standing on the broad hearth and warming herself at the blaze, with all the old a.s.sociations of comfort settling upon her heart, it occurred to her that foundations so established could not be shaken. The blazing fire seemed to welcome her home, and bid her dismiss fear; the kettle singing on its accustomed hook, looked as if quietly ridiculing the idea that they could be parted company; her grandfather was in his cus.h.i.+oned chair at the corner of the hearth, reading the newspaper, as she had seen him a thousand times; just in the same position, with that collected air of grave enjoyment, one leg crossed over the other, settled back in his chair but upright, and scanning the columns with an intent but most un-careful face. A face it was that always had a rare union of fineness and placidness. The table stood spread in the usual place, warmth and comfort filled every corner of the room, and Fleda began to feel as if she had been in an uncomfortable dream, which was very absurd, but from which she was very glad she had awoke.

"What have you got in this pitcher, Cynthy?" said she.

"m.u.f.fins! ? O let me bake them, will you? I'll bake them."

"Now, Flidda," said Cynthy, "just you be quiet. There ain't no place where you call bake 'em. I'm just going to clap 'em in the reflector ? that's the shortest way I can take to do 'em.

You keep yourself out o' muss."

"They wont be m.u.f.fins if you bake 'em in the reflector, Cynthy; they aren't half so good. Ah, do let me! I wont make a bit of muss."

"Where'll you do 'em? "

"In grandpa's room ? if you'll just clean off the top of the stove for me; now do, Cynthy! I'll do 'em beautifully, and you wont have a bit of trouble. ? Come!"

"It'll make an awful smoke, Flidda; you'll fill your grandpa's room with the smoke, and he wont like that, I guess. "

"O, he wont mind it," said Fleda. "Will you, grandpa?"

"What, dear?" said Mr. Ringgan, looking up at her from his paper, with a relaxing face which indeed promised to take nothing amiss that she might do.

"Will you mind if I fill your room with smoke?"

"No, dear!" said he, the strong heartiness of his acquiescence almost reaching a laugh; "no, dear! ? fill it with anything you like!"

There was nothing more to be said; and while Fleda in triumph put on an ap.r.o.n and made her preparations, Cynthy on her part, and with a very good grace, went to get ready the stove; which, being a wood stove, made of sheet iron, with a smooth, even top, afforded, in Fleda's opinion, the very best possible field for m.u.f.fins to come to their perfection. Now Fleda cared little in comparison for the eating part of the business; her delight was, by the help of her own skill and the stove-top, to bring the m.u.f.fins to this state of perfection; her greatest pleasure in them was over when they were baked.

A little while had pa.s.sed. Mr. Ringgan was still busy with his newspaper, Miss Cynthia Gall going in and out on various errands, Fleda shut up in the distant room with the m.u.f.fins and the smoke; when there came a knock at the door, and Mr.

Ringgan's "Come in!" was followed by the entrance of two strangers, young, welldressed, and comely. They wore the usual badges of seekers after game, but their guns were left outside.

The old gentleman's look of grave expectancy told his want of enlightening.

"I fear you do not remember me, Mr. Ringgan," said the foremost of the two, coming up to him, ?"my name is Rossitur ?

Charlton Rossitur ? a cousin of your little granddaughter. I have only" ?

"O, I know you now!" said Mr. Ringgan, rising and grasping his hand heartily, ? "you are very welcome, Sir. How do you do? I recollect you perfectly, but you took me by surprise. ? How do you do, Sir? Sit down ? sit down."

And the old gentleman had extended his frank welcome to the second of his visitors, almost before the first had time to utter,

"My friend, Mr. Carleton."

"I couldn't imagine what was coming upon me, "said Mr.

Ringgan, cheerfully, "for you weren't anywhere very near my thoughts; and I don't often see much of the gay world that is pa.s.sing by me. You have grown since I saw you last, Mr.

Rossitur. You are studying at West Point, I believe."

"No, Sir; I was studying there, but I had the pleasure of bringing that to an end last June."

"Ah! ? Well, what are you now? not a cadet any longer, I suppose."

"No, Sir; we hatch out of that sh.e.l.l lieutenants."

"Hum; and do you intend to remain in the army?"

"Certainly, Sir, that is my purpose and hope."

"Your mother would not like that, I should judge. I do not understand how she ever made up her mind to let you become that thing which hatches out into a lieutenant. Gentle creatures she and her sister both were; how was it, Mr.

Rossitur? were you a wild young gentleman that wanted training?"

"I have had it, Sir, whether I wanted it or no."

"Hum! How is he, Mr. Carleton? ? sober enough to command men?"

"I have not seen him tried, Sir," said this gentleman, smiling; "but from the inconsistency of the orders he issues to his dogs, I doubt it exceedingly."

"Why, Carleton would have no orders issued to them at all, I believe," said young Rossitur; "he has been saying 'hush' to me all day."

The old gentleman laughed in a way that indicated intelligence with one of the speakers, ? which, appeared not.

"So you've been following the dogs to-day," said he. "Been successful?"

"Not a bit of it," said Rossitur. "Whether we got on the wrong grounds, or didn't get on the right ones, or the dogs didn't mind their business, or there was nothing to fire at, I don't know; but we lost our patience, and got nothing in exchange."

"Speak for yourself," said the other. "I a.s.sure you I was sensible of no ground of impatience while going over such a superb country as this."

"It is a fine country," said Mr. Ringgan ? "all this tract ?

and I ought to know it, for I have hunted every mile of it for many a mile around. There used to be more game than partridges in these hills, when I was a young man; bears and wolves, and deer, and now and then a panther, to say nothing of rattlesnakes."

"That last-mentioned is an irregular sort or game, is it not."

said Mr. Carleton, smiling.

"Well, game is what you choose to make it," said the old gentleman. "I have seen worse days' sport than I saw once when we were out after rattlesnakes, and nothing else. There was a cave, Sir, down under a mountain, a few miles to the south of this, right at the foot of a bluff some four or five hundred feet sheer down; it was known to be a resort of those creatures, and a party of us went out ? it's many years ago, now ? to see if we couldn't destroy the nest; exterminate the whole horde. We had one dog with us, a little dog, a kind of spaniel, a little white and yellow fellow, and he did the work! Well, Sir, how many of those vermin do you guess that little creature made a finish of that day? of large and small, Sir, there were two hundred and twelve."

"He must have been a gallant little fellow."

"You never saw a creature, Sir, take to a sport better; he just dashed in among them, from one to another, he would catch a snake by the neck and give it a shake, and throw it down and rush at another; poor fellow, it was his last day's sport, he died almost as soon as it was over; he must have received a great many bites. The place is known as the rattlesnakes' den to this day, though there are none there now, I believe."

"My little cousin is well, I hope," said Mr. Rossitur.