Part 10 (1/2)
Poor infatuated George Gray--the Inhabitant of the Lone Cabin, the Trapper of Pleasant Brook, the Hoosier Poet from the Wawbosh country--poor infatuated George Gray found his cabin untenable after little Katy had come and gone. He came up to Metropolisville, improved his dress by buying some ready-made clothing, and haunted the streets where he could catch a glimpse now and then of Katy.
One night, Charlton, coming home from an evening with Miss Minorkey at the hotel, found a man standing in front of the fence.
”What do you want here?” he asked sharply.
”Didn' mean no harm, stranger, to n.o.body.”
”Oh! it's you!” exclaimed Charlton, recognizing his friend the Poet.
”Come in, come in.”
”Come in? Couldn' do it no way, stranger. Ef I was to go in thar amongst all them air ladies, my knees would gin out. I was jist a-lookin' at that purty creetur. But I 'druther die'n do her any harm. I mos' wish I was dead. But 'ta'n't no harm to look at her ef she don' know it. I shan't disturb her; and ef she marries a gentleman, I shan't disturb him nuther.
On'y, ef he don' mind it, you know, I'll write po'try about her now and then. I got some va.r.s.es now that I wish you'd show to her, ef you think they won't do her no harm, you know, and I don't 'low they will. Good-by, Mr. Charlton. Comin' down to sleep on your claim? Land's a-comin' into market down thar.”
After the Poet left him, Albert took the verses into the house and read them, and gave them to Katy. The first stanza was, if I remember it rightly, something of this sort:
”A angel come inter the poar trapper's door, The purty feet tromped on the rough puncheon floor, Her lovely head slep' on his prairie-gra.s.s piller-- The cabin is lonesome and the trapper is poar, He hears little shoes a-pattin' the floor; He can't sleep at night on that piller no more; His Hoosier harp hangs on the wild water-willer!”
CHAPTER XVII.
SAWNEY AND HIS OLD LOVE.
Self-conceit is a great source of happiness, a buffer that softens all the jolts of life. After David Sawney's failure to capture Perritaut's half-breed Atlantis and her golden apples at one dash, one would have expected him to be a little modest in approaching his old love again; but forty-eight hours after her return from Glenfield, he was paying his ”devours,” as he called them, to little Katy Charlton. He felt confident of winning--he was one of that cla.s.s of men who believe themselves able to carry off anybody they choose. He inventoried his own attractions with great complacency; he had good health, a good claim, and, as he often boasted, had been ”raised rich,” or, as he otherwise stated it, ”cradled in the lap of luxury.” His father was one of those rich Illinois farmers who are none the less coa.r.s.e for all their money and farms. Owing to reverses of fortune, Dave had inherited none of the wealth, but all of the coa.r.s.eness of grain. So he walked into Squire Plausaby's with his usual a.s.surance, on the second evening after Katy's return.
”Howdy, Miss Charlton,” he said, ”howdy! I'm glad to see you lookin' so smart. Howdy, Mrs. Ferret!” to the widow, who was present. ”Howdy do, Mr. Charlton--back again?” And then he took his seat alongside Katy, not without a little trepidation, for he felt a very slight anxiety lest his flirtation With Perritaut's ten thousand dollars ”mout've made his chances juberous,” as he stated it to his friends. But then, he reflected, ”she'll think I'm worth more'n ever when she knows I _de_-clined ten thousand dollars, in five annooal payments.”
”Mr. Sawney,” said the widow Ferret, beaming on him with one of her sudden, precise, pickled smiles, ”Mr. Sawney, I'm delighted to hear that you made a brave stand against Romanism. It is the bane of this country.
I respect you for the stand you made. It shows the influence of schripcheral training by a praying mother, I've no doubt, Mr. Sawney.”
Dave was flattered and annoyed at this mention, and he looked at little Katy, but she didn't seem to feel any interest in the matter, and so he took heart.
”I felt it my dooty, Mrs. Ferret, indeed I did.”
”I respect you for it, Mr. Sawney.”
”For what?” said Albert irascibly. ”For selling himself into a mercenary marriage, and then higgling on a point of religious prejudice?”
Mrs. Ferret now focused her round eyes at Mr. Charlton, smiled her deprecating smile, and replied: ”I do think, Mr. Charlton, that in this day of lax views on one side and priestcraft on the other, I respect a man who thinks enough of ee-vangelical truth to make a stand against any enemy of the holy religion of--”
”Well,” said Charlton rudely, ”I must say that I respect Perritaut's prejudices just as much as I do Dave's. Both of them were engaged in a contemptible transaction, and both of them showed an utter lack of conscience, except in matters of opinion. Religion is--”
[Ill.u.s.tration: MRS. FERRET]
But the company did not get the benefit of Mr. Albert's views on the subject of religion, for at that moment entered Mr. Smith Westcott.
”How do, Katy? Lookin' solemn, eh? How do, Brother Albert? Mrs. Ferret, how do? Ho! ho! Dave, is this you? I congratulate you on your escape from the savages. Scalp all sound, eh? Didn' lose your back-hair? By George!
he! he! he!” And he began to show symptoms of dancing, as he sang:
”John Brown, he had a little Injun; John Brown, he had a little Injun; Dave Sawney had a little Injun; One little Injun gal!
”Yah! yah! Well, well, Mr. Shawnee, glad to see you back.”
”Looky hyer. Mister Wes'cott,” said Dave, growing red, ”you're a-makin'