Part 17 (1/2)
Simon drew his brows together over his mild eyes, with a mighty effort at thinking.
”How do you spell squirrel?” he repeated. ”How do you spell it? Well; you begin with an _sk_, of course--and then there's a _w_.--I don't know, Tim, but that's too hard a word to spell until you're growed up.
But I'll learn you to spell woodchuck! We used to go after woodchucks when I was a youngster.”
What boy could insist upon the spelling of a paltry little ground squirrel, with beady eyes and nervous, inconsequent motions, when there was talk of a woodchuck, lowering in his black hole, ready to fix his sharp teeth in the nose of the first intruding terrier? If they learned in after years that the spelling-books knew nought of a _k_ or a _w_ in squirrel,--and some of them never did!--we may be very sure that it was not Simon Amberley that fell in their estimation!
Sometimes Simon Jr. came to school, and there was a sudden, exhilarating scramble in pursuit of his tail; now and then a hard-worked mother would bring her baby and sit as guest of honor in Simon's solitary ”cane-bottom,” where she would inadvertently learn items of interest with regard to ”yon Ca.s.sius,” or ”bluff Harry,” or a certain young lady who was described as being ”little” but ”fierce,”--a good deal like Molly Tinker whose ”man” kept the ”Golden Glory Saloon.” On one occasion a rattlesnake lifted its head drowzily from behind a rock near by, and was despatched offhand by Simon. It was this exploit which filled the measure of Simon's fame.
”Any fool kin learn readin' an' writin',” said Patsy Linders, the eldest of the band, who, by the way, had yet to prove himself fool enough to do so. ”But I'll be durned if I ever seen a _stun_ fired as neat as that!”
”Simon's smarter 'n anybody,” little Eliza declared in reply. ”He's smarter 'n you nor me, 'n he's smarter 'n David an' Goliath, 'n he's my Simon!”
No one was disposed to question Eliza's prior claim to Simon. She always sat beside him on the original settle against the lean-to. She would not abdicate the seat even when the ground grew hot and pleasant and she saw half her mates lying on the short spa.r.s.e gra.s.s with their heels in the air, conning their books, or falling asleep over them, as the case might be. She felt it her prerogative to sit right there, with her chubby legs sticking out in front of her; there, where she could pull at Simon's sleeve and interrupt his discourse as often as she pleased.
And so it came about, that by the time spring had pa.s.sed into summer, sumptuous wildflowers succeeding the first little scrubby daisy, a blessed idyl of quaint child life, dear to Simon's heart, had grown out of the chance meeting on the hillside. It was as if Simon's clearing were a charmed circle into which no evil could enter, to which no echo of the greed and brutality of the mining-camp could make its way. When his permission was respectfully asked to sink a few prospect holes on his land, Simon unhesitatingly rejected the proposal, with all its glittering possibilities. As soon would the President and Fellows of Harvard College permit the sinking of prospect holes in the sacred ”yard” itself, as the Lame Gulch Professor allow his ”school” to be molested.
But, alas! it is written in the books that no earthly circle shall be forever charmed, no human enterprise exempt from evil. And it was little Eliza herself, Simon's champion and dictator, faithful, plucky little Eliza, by whom the evil entered in.
She came, one hot July day, and planted herself quite unconcernedly beside the professor, and he, looking down into the funny little round face, beheld a great black-and-blue b.u.mp on the forehead. The sight grieved him to the soul, even before he knew its tragic meaning.
”Did you tumble down, Eliza?” he asked with great concern.
”No,” said Eliza.
”Did you b.u.mp your head agin something?”
”No.”
”Did anybody hurt you?” and already the professor was casting wrathful glances from boy to boy, well calculated to strike terror to the heart of the culprit.
”Not much;” said the matter-of-fact little voice.
”I guess 't was her pa done it,” spoke up Patsy Linders. ”He's a bloomin' terror when he's drunk.”
Without a word, Simon rose and led the little creature into the lean-to, where he tenderly bathed the bruise in cold water, giving no voice to the swelling indignation that tore through him. His tone and touch were but the gentler for that, as he sought to soothe the self-contained little victim, who, truth to tell, seemed not much in need of his ministrations.
”My lamb!” he murmured. ”My little lamb!”
”Ma said to never mind,” the plucky little lamb remarked. ”He ain't often so.”
”Do you love your father?” asked Simon, seeking to fathom the blue eyes for the truth.
The blue eyes were, for the moment, intent upon a swarm of flies disporting themselves upon the window-pane.
”Do you love your father?” Simon asked again.
”No;” quoth Eliza, ”I wish he was dead.”
Now Simon Amberley was slow to anger; indeed it may be doubted whether he had ever in all his life before been thoroughly roused; and perhaps for that very reason, the surging flood of indignation, so new to his experience, seemed to him like a call from heaven. All day he fed his wrath on the deeds of Scripture warriors, reading aloud from the sacred records, till Patsy Linders exclaimed, enraptured, that ”the Bible was a durned good book, by Jiminy!”