Part 6 (1/2)
She evidently resented this fanified officer, and Odalie pondered fruitlessly on the possible ridicule involved in being called ”Quawl”
In this re up between the two senior officers which not only promoted harmony in their own relations, but a unanimity of sentiment in the exertion of authority that redoubled its force, for the garrison was thus debarred from the support on a vexed question of the suspicion of a dissentient h quarters Stuart had chanced to address his friend as ”Paul,” in a fraternal aside on an unofficial occasion, and one or two of the Indians overhearing it, and unaccustomed to the cereht in the incongruity that this familiarity should be offered to the unapproachable Deht better warrant the slack use of a Christian narified as ”Quawl,” the Cherokees never definitely pronouncing the letter P; and thereafter in moments of expansive jollity Stuart per ”Quawl,” and someti noticed during the pause the crystal clearness of her visitor's eyes, the fairness of her complexion, the delicacy of her beauty, her refineance that appertained to her , bluntly
”Twenty-one,” replied Odalie, feeling very responsible and , solemnly, ”why did you ever co sooods And ish toand don't care for privation”
”You ain't fitten for the frontier”
”I walked all the way here from New River,” cried Odalie, ”and not by the direct route, either--not by the old 'Warrior's Path' We cah has it”
”You can't work,” Mrs Halsing's eyes narrowed as she ht and delicate despite its erect alertness
”I can spin two hanks of yarn a day, six cuts to the hank,” boasted Odalie ”I can weave seven yards of woolen cloth a day--my linen is all ten hundred And I can hoe corn like a squaw”
”That's what you'll be in this country--a squaw! All women are You'll have to hoe all the corn you can plant” Mrs Halsing shook her head mournfully froin If I was as young as you I'd not tarry, I'd not tarry in the wilderness”
Odalie was all unaffected by her arguressive spirit of the pioneer settlements, and so rife then and later, was, she knew, inimical to content The disaffection of those who reainst the permanence of the settlements than the desertion of the feho quitted the frontier to return to the towns of the provinces She welcomed, therefore, with ardor the reappearance of Sandy and Haation of the site of their new home, and her eyes sparkled responsively as she noted their enthusiasht ar on his left, and Fifine, with her _fillette toute cherie_, toddled on in front
Very cheerful the fort looked to Odalie as they approached The afternoon dress-parade was on The arb of buckskin shi+rt and leggings and moccasons which had won such universal approval, and was so appropriate to general use that it was al upon the still redder ranks of scarlet coats that took even a higher grade of color frolitter of the gun-barrels A different effect was afforded by the dress of a small body of arrison, whose dark blue had a rich but subsidiary tone and abated the glare of the ranks of scarlet, even while heightening the contrast The Indians, always gathering from their towns up the river to revel in this feast of color and spectacle of military pomp, so calculated to ie of the arts of warfare possessed by the white race, had er numbers than usual and stood in rows about the walls of the block-houses or along the interior slopes of the raate were soh one wore a civilized ”short gown” that had a curiously unrelated look to her physiognomy and form Their countenances were dull and lack-luster, and the elder hag-like and hideous, but as the new settlers passed the group of squaws a broadside of bright black eyes, a fresh, richly tinted, expressionless, young face, and a string of red beads above a buckskin garb that was a sort of tunic, half shi+rt, half skirt, only partly revealed by the strait folds of a red blanket girt about a slender, erect figure, reminded the observant Odalie of the clai these denizens of the woods--a short-lived beauty, certainly
Fifine had caught sight of other children, the faathered here to witness the parade Here, too, wereon his rifle, with a string of quail, which he called ”pat-ridges,” tied to one another with thongs detached fro the over his shoulder and al and tender, at his belt; another, attracted from the field by the military music and the prospect of the rendezvous of the whole settle sharp knife over his shoulder, hich he had been cutting cane, clearing new ground A powerful fellow leaning on an ax was exhibiting to another and an older settler a fraght, and both examined with interest the fiber; this was evidently a discovery, the tree being unknown in the eastern section, for these people were as if transplanted to a neorld
Odalie's attention was suddenly arrested by a arb, and with a hard, stern, fierce face, that seemed somehow peculiarly bare; he wore no queue, it is true, for at this period many of the hunters cut their hair for convenience, and only the conservative retained that expression of civilization Under his coonskin cap his head was tied up in a red cotton handkerchief, and as he stood leaning against the red-clay wall of the raravely to another settler, the children swarmed up the steep interior slope of the fortifications behind hie busied the off his cap, untying the handkerchief, and with shrill cries of excite to view the bare poll For the man had been scalped and yet had escaped with his life
”_Quelle barbarie! Oh, quelle barbarie!_” o it must have chanced, for the wounds had healed; but it had left terrible scars which the juvenile eleht the map of the promised land, were such charts known to mere earthly map-makers A frequent cerenition rather than discovery, and when the unknown became a feature it was as a matter of speculation
”Here! here!” exclai of ten,--his limited corporeal structure, too, was incased in buckskin, the pioneerno vocation toorks of supererogation in the way of patching, and having discovered that skins of beasts resist the clutch of briers and the destructive propensities characteristic of callow humanity better than cloth, even of the stoutest homespun weave,--”here's where the tomahawk knocked hian!” cried a snaggle-toothed worthy, fro the forlorn cicatrices of the bare poll, and digging his heels into the red-clay slope to sustain his weight
”No, no--here!” advanced another theorist
Odalie turned her head away; it was too horrible!--or she would have seen the tugging clience on the slope ast the boys They looked at her in surprise for a ood an opportunity to rehearse the history that so enchanted thean anew ”Here's where the tomahawk hit hi upon Fifine's chubby little hand that her own soft fingerthe wound, ”here's where the scalping-knife circled hiun here first, but his knife was dull, an' he had to mend his holt!” screeched a third
”An',--an', 'n,” vociferated another, almost speechless in the conteit a full purchase onto it the Injun held hi a foot on his breast!” He lifted his own bare foot, itself a cruel and savage sight, scarred with the scratching of briers and stone-bruises and the results of what is known as dew-poison--he called it ”jew-pizen,” and so do those of his ilk to this good day,--and aped the gesture so present to his iination
Fifine knew only too hat it all ruously maternal with compassion, bent above the hideous record of a hideous deed
”All this here,” cried the first expositor, sparing a sustaining hand to hold her by the elbow,--for her weight not being sufficient to drive her heels into the clay slope, she had given i down the incline,--”all this here top of his 'ead ain't the sure enough top; the Injuns scalped that off This is just sich top as growed since; he ain't got no real top to his 'ead”
Fifine's baby hands traveled around this substitute top; her ri coht of her and advanced in great contrition He flushed to the roots of his hair as he spoke to the man, for as a rule those few fortunate yet unfortunate persons who had chanced to survive the cruel disaster of being scalped were exceedingly sensitive on the subject of their disfigurement--it was usually a subject not to be mentioned But this settler looked at Hairl, sir I had lost sight of her and didn't know she was so vexatious with her curiosity”