Part 2 (1/2)
In pursuance of this plan, Will Osten and his two staunch followers, soon after the date of the above conversation, crossed the Atlantic, traversed the great Lakes of Canada to the centre of North America, purchased, at the town of Saint Pauls, horses, guns, provisions, powder, shot, etcetera, for a long journey, and found themselves, one beautiful summer evening, galloping gaily over those wide prairies that roll beyond the last of the backwood settlements, away into the wild recesses of the Western Wilderness.
CHAPTER TWO.
DESCRIBES A BURST OVER THE WESTERN PRAIRIE, AND INTRODUCES A NEW CHARACTER, ALSO A HUNT, AND A GREAT FEAST.
Wandering Will and his companions laid the reins on the necks of their half-tamed horses and galloped wildly away over the western prairie.
Perhaps it was the feeling of absolute freedom from human restraints that excited them to the galloping and shouting condition of maniacs; perhaps it was the idea of sweeping over unbounded s.p.a.ce in these interminable plains, or the influence of the fresh air around, the sunny blue sky overhead, and the flower-speckled sward underfoot--perhaps it was all these put together, but, whatever the cause, our three travellers commenced their journey at a pace that would have rendered them incapable of further progress in a few hours had they kept it up.
Their state of mind was aptly expressed, at the end of one of these wild flights, by Larry, who exclaimed, as he reined in--
”Ah, then, it's flyin' I'll be in a minit. Sure av I only had a pair o'
wings no bigger than a sparrow's, I cud do it aisy.”
”Yoo's a goose, Larry,” observed Bunco.
”Faix if I was it's mesilf as would fly away an' lave you to waller on the dirty earth ye belongs to,” retorted the other.
”Dirty earth!” echoed Will Osten, gazing round on the plains of bright green gra.s.s that waved in the soft air with something like the gentle heavings of the sea. ”Come, let's have another!”
They stretched out again at full gallop and swept away like the wind itself.
”Hooroo!” shouted Larry O'Hale, wildly throwing out both arms and rising in his stirrups; ”look here, Bunco, I'm goin' to fly, boy!”
Larry didn't mean to do so, but he _did_ fly! His horse put its foot in a badger-hole at that moment and fell. The rider, flying over its head, alighted on his back, and remained in that position quite motionless, while his alarmed comrades reined up hastily and dismounted.
”Not hurt, I hope,” said Will, anxiously.
”Och! ha! gintly, doctor, take me up tinderly,” gasped the poor man as they raised him to the perpendicular position, in which he stood for nearly a minute making very wry faces and slowly moving his shoulders and limbs to ascertain whether any bones were fractured.
”I do belave I'm all right,” he said at length with a sigh of relief; ”have a care, Bunco, kape yer paws off, but take a squint at the nape o'
me neck an' see if me back-bone is stickin' up through me s.h.i.+rt-collar.”
”Me no can see him,” said the sympathetic Bunco.
”That's a blissin' anyhow. I only wish ye cud _feel_ him, Bunco.
Doctor, dear, did ye iver see stars in the day-time?”
”No, never.”
”Then ye'd better make a scientific note of it in yer book, for I see 'em at this good minit dancin' about like will-o'-the-wisps in a bog of Ould Ireland. There, help me on to the back o' the baste--bad luck to the badgers, say I.”
Thus muttering to himself and his comrades, half exasperated by the stunning effects of his fall, yet rather thankful to find that no real damage was done, Larry remounted, and all three continued their journey with not much less enjoyment, but with abated energy.
Thus much for the beginning. Availing ourselves of an author's privilege to annihilate time and s.p.a.ce at pleasure, we change the scene.
The three travellers are still riding over the same prairie, but at the distance of a hundred miles or so from the spot where the accident above described took place.
It was evening. The sun was gradually sinking in the west--far beyond that ”far west” to which they had penetrated. The wanderers looked travel-stained, and appeared somewhat fatigued, while their horses advanced with slow steps and drooping heads. Two pack-horses, which had been procured by them with an additional supply of necessaries at a solitary fort belonging to the fur-traders of that region, were driven by Larry, whose voice and action seemed to indicate that he and they were actuated by different sentiments and desires.