THE The Backwoodsman, Czar, and Trusty. HOME AGAIN.-CONCLUSION. HE next morning we followed the stream to the river, and about noon reached the principal Indian path that led from these valleys over the San Saba Mountains, and greatly facilitated our passage over them. On the third morning we looked down on the hills near our home, on which we camped the same evening. The next day we reached Turkey Creek at sunset, and would assuredly not have camped, but ridden home without resting, had not our cattle been so fatigued. It was very late ere we thought of lying down to rest, and even then the conversation was carried on for a long time. After the old fashion the turkeys announced to us that day was breaking. On this occasion, however, we did not shoot any, but each breakfasted quickly, and got ready for going home. A little more attention was paid this day to our costume: although we could not make much of it with the greatest skill, still we looked altogether tidier when we left camp, and each galloped on to be the first. I was obliged to hint that we still had a long way to go, and ought not to begin with galloping. The journey to-day seemed very long to us, although our horses advanced sturdily, as if they too noticed that we were going home. At about ten o'clock we made a half-way halt and let our cattle rest for a few hours, while we lit a fire at the same spot where we had made coffee at the beginning of our journey, and drank it again at about two o'clock, however, we saddled and spread over the baggage of the mules the finest jaguar skins, above which the two splendid stags' heads were displayed. We were still busy with our horses, when suddenly Jack kicked up behind, gave a few springs, and then trotted along the path that led to the Leone. He would not be deprived of the pleasure of being first, for so soon as we approached him he doubled his pace, and even galloped when it appeared necessary. All our cattle now plainly showed that they knew they were near home, and could not be held in. Long before sunset we passed through the wood on the Leone, and entered the prairie below the Fort, where we fired all our shots. We were greeted from the Fort in the same way, and its inhabitants ran out to meet us and overwhelm us with congratulations. Everything was as before, except that another good harvest had been got in, that horses, cattle, pigs, and dogs had multiplied, and that numerous settlers had arrived both north and south. John was impatient to get home, and left me no time to change my clothes, as I wished to accompany him. I therefore saddled Fancy, left Königstein to look after Czar and Trusty, and rode with my companion towards Mustang River. From a distance we could see that the Lasars had built a large new house, with glass windows and galleries, whose whitewashed walls glistened through the gloom. We had reloaded, and announced our return to our friends some distance off. Soon after, we saw white handkerchiefs waving, light dresses hurrying out of the garden gate, and old and young, black and white, hurried to meet us, and welcomed us with expressions of joy and congratulations. I had to apologize for my dress and retire, but I was obliged to stay to supper, which meal we took under the verandah, and after it we sat in the garden before the house, where the perfumes of splendid flowers surrounded us, which, illumined by the moonbeams, formed graceful groups around us. The bottles went so rapidly the while, that I thought it advisable to seek my homeward road before I had any difficulty in finding it. It was about midnight when I reached the Fort, where I found everybody up and also cheered by wine, for I had ordered Königstein, when I rode away, to give them a treat. I, however, soon sought my bed-room with Trusty, and slept with open doors and windows till the sun stood high in the heavens. I hastened down to the river, and after a bathe the old trunks were opened and the garb of olden times was taken out. as Shortly after our return arrived a Mr. White, from Virginia, with his wife, two sons of twelve and fourteen years of age, and two younger daughters. He applied to Lasar and myself to show him a good bit of land on which he could settle. The people pleased us, they were friendly and honest, lived on good terms together, we noticed on our frequent visits to their camp on the Leone, and were the right sort to defy such a mode of life. Lasar and I resolved to take them under our wing, and induced them to settle at our old camping place on Turkey Creek, for which purpose we set out early one morning with them, Lasar ordering twenty negroes to come with us and prepare an abode for the new-comers. We built for them there in a few days a neat double block-house, that is to say, two houses about twenty yards apart, over which and the space between one long roof was thrown. Then we surrounded the house with a palisade, in which they could lock their cattle at night, and fitted for them a lot of wood, with which they could fence in a garden. Lasar gave them a handsome cow, and I gave them a breeding sow, some fowls, and maize to eat and to sow for the coming spring. White was one of those resolute, unswerving men, who, after struggling for a long time with misfortune in the civilized world, turn their attention to the western stores of every description. In a week everything was in order at White's-the garden was laid out, and a field of five acres prepared for planting with maize, beans, gourds, and potatoes. The best varieties of vegetables were sown in the garden, and seeds of all sorts given to the widow. The woman had for the present only to keep the garden in order, while the sons procured game, which they could shoot at times from their own door, for all her other wants were amply supplied. Thus peace and contentment soon returned to this house, and the love of her children restored Mrs. White the activity and determination which the loss of her husband had palsied. Dawn found her busy with domestic duties-cleaning the rooms, dressing her daughters, milking the cows, preparing breakfast, salting and drying game— in short, with all sorts of occupations : after that she was seen sitting in the shadow of the roof between the houses, cleansing and spinning cotton to make clothes for her children, while the two little girls sported around her, and the sons were busy in the garden or hunting close at hand. She could recall them at any moment by sounding an immense cow-horn which hung in the passage between the two houses, near the door of the keeping-room. deserts, where they try to extort from fate | slaves to arrange everything for the widow, what has been refused to them elsewhere. and all the members of the family vied With his peculiar energy and restless exewith each other in displaying their symcution of everything he had once under-pathy by sending articles of clothing and taken, he set to work in his new home, in order, as soon as possible, to lay the foundation of his own and his family's future prosperity; but unfortunately he was only able to see the foundation, for the garden was hardly fenced in and the maize field taken in hand, ere he fell ill, and a violent fever carried him off in a few days. His eldest son, Charles, rode over to me to bring me the melancholy news, and tell me that his mother wished to speak to me. I rode across the next morning with Königstein and a negro. The widow was sitting inconsolably by the side of her dead husband, without any plan for the future; and on my entrance pointed-with sobs, and unable to utter a word-to the dead body. I at once ordered the negro to dig a grave, and buried the poor fellow; after which I sat down by the widow's side, and tried to give her some consolation by offering her my assistance. I proposed to her to settle near me till her sons were old enough to look after their present farm. But she was of opinion that they were able to do so already, although not strong enough to do the heavy field work, such as clearing the land from bushes and trees, as well as felling and clearing the wood itself. If this could be done for her, she would not leave the spot, as her lads could plough and use the pick, while both fired a rifle as well as any frontierman: and she, too, if it came to the point, knew how to use her husband's fowling-piece. I made every possible objection to her plan of her living alone, but promised my help and Lasar's if she insisted on adhering to it. The next morning I said good-bye. to the woman, who was determined to stop here, and promised to send her help to prepare her garden and fence, and bring her a few trifles for her comfort. I got home at an early hour, and rode in the evening to Lasar's to tell him what had happened. The old gentleman at once declared that he would send John off the next morning with the requisite number of Shortly after peace had settled down again on this solitary abode, the widow was seated as usual in the cool passage with her daughters, while her second son, Ben, had gone to the spring to fetch water, and Charles had gone into the neighbouring wood with his rifle. All at once, the very sharp dogs which guarded the family made an unusual disturbance and ran barking across the yard that surrounded the house. Mrs. White jumped up and saw several Indians standing in front of the nearest wood, and then retire into it again directly after. She seized the horn, sounded it with all her might, then ran into the room, and took down her deceased the horn and the shots and yells of the Indians as he hurried home, had come across Kitty, and had driven her home. Everything was quiet, and the Indians did not make the slightest sound. Charles and his mother secured the two fence gates with logs of wood, and then the mother went to her young children, leaving her sons orders to call her if they saw anything of the Indians. The day passed without the savages making a fresh attack on the settlement; but the greater on that account grew the widow's alarm, lest they should take advantage of the night to satiate their vengeance. Towards evening, she bade her sons lie down and sleep, so that they could keep awake during the night, while she kept guard in front of the house. The sun set, and darkness was lying over the country, when Mrs. White and her two sons took their places behind the palisade, and carefully surveyed the open prairie. It was about nine o'clock, when they saw the light of a fire coming through the wood, rapidly grow larger, and presently appear on its outermost edge. Again the fearful yell was raised, with which the savages always accompany their attack, and the light moved from the forest over the grass. A dark object moved across the plain towards the house, and the light shone out on both sides of it. The object slowly drew nearer, and Mrs. White soon saw that it was a framework of bushes behind which the Indians were concealed, and pushing it before them. This leafy wall had advanced within twenty yards, when Charley and Ben fired at it, and the groans of the wounded were distinctly heard amid the yells of the assailants. For all that, the wall moved slowly forward, and in a few minutes husband's fowling-piece that was loaded in front of Charles. The latter had heard with slugs, with a resolution and courage such as has grown almost entirely strange to the feminine sex in civilization, and is only found on rare occasions on its outermost frontier on this continent. In a few minutes Ben ran up and found his mother already behind the palisade, with the gun in her hand. "Quick, Ben, your rifle !" she cried to her twelve-year-old son; "but don't forget your bullet, boy;" and then blew the horn again. The dogs now came in again, and Mrs. White closed the hole in the fence through which they passed. All at once a frightful yell was heard from the wood, and from its gloom sprang a swarm of some thirty redskinned fiends, who dashed over the grass towards the house with an awful war-cry. "Don't fire, Ben, till I have loaded again!" Mrs. White cried, and then rapidly discharged both barrels, sending some forty leaden pellets among the charging horde. The effect of the two shots at hardly fifty yards' distance was so tremendous that the horde darted in all directions as if struck by lightning, and eight remained on the grass while the others ran howling to the wood. "Fire, Ben!" Mrs. White cried to her son, who had thrust his rifle through the palisades, while she poured a handful of slugs down her gun, and placed two cotton wads upon them. Ben fired into the thickest of the fugitives, and one of them fell with his feet in the air, while the yells of the others filled the air. "I have hit, mother," the boy said, as he poured fresh powder down the barrel. "Bravo, Ben! but where is Charles ? He ought to have been here by this time, as he has not been gone long. Run into the house and have a look at Fanny and Bessie, but come back again directly." Thus Mrs. White called to her son while she was hur-leaned against the corner of the palisade, riedly making cotton wads, which she moistened with her lips, and threw back her long raven hair which hung over her shoulders, "Mother, Charles is coming with Kitty!" Ben cried, as he ran out of the house and hurried to the hind part of the fence to open the gate for their cow Kitty, which was trotting over the grass after which flames suddenly darted up and set the fence on fire. The savages had brought a heap of dry wood with them behind the screen, piled it up against the palisade and kindled it, after which they ran back about forty yards and lay down flat in the grass. The space behind the fence round the house was now so brilliantly illumined that Mrs. White feared lest the savages might fire arrows through the palisades at her boys; hence she retired with them into the house, and went up under the roof, whither she took her daughters, too, while the dogs ran furiously along the palisade. Then she raised several of the shingles with which the roof was covered, and placed others under them, so that she could survey the brilliantly-lighted prairie, where she saw the Indians lying in the short grass. At the same instant, however, sparks fell down from the roof, for the savages had fired a number of burning arrows, which set fire to the dry shingle roof of cedar-wood. An inhuman yell of joy from the savages greeted the first flash of the flames, which soon ascended with a crackling sound. Charles, the axe!" Mrs. White shrieked to her son, while she thrust her double-barrel through the roof and fired at a group of savages lying together in the grass, who doubtless fancied themselves safe from the besieged. The unhurt men leaped up with a yell and darted back to the wood, while the second barrel was fired after them,and again brought down several. Charles handed his mother the axe, with which she soon made a hole in the roof and pulled out the blazing shingles, so that the fire was extinguished in a few moments. Then she ran with axe and gun down into the yard, reloaded, and checked the fire at the palisades, which, as there was no wind, spread very slowly and was speedily put out. The corner of the palisade was certainly burnt down, and there was a large opening in it, while outside a large heap of burning coals remained from the fire. Mrs. White, with her sons' help. pulled the small cart which had conveyed their little property hither into the opening, and then filled up all the gaps with logs of firewood. The night was passed under arms, and when dawn lit up the country the heroic woman looked out of the roof at the battle-field in front of her fortress without being able to see a trace of Indians. The savages had carried off the corpses of their comrades in the darkness, and had probably departed with them in the night to let them rest with their fathers; for the Indians take the dead bodies of their friends with them, and carry them hundreds of miles to the burial-place of the tribe. Late on the following night the barking of my dogs awoke me, and when I shouted out of the Fort, asking who was there, Charles White announced himself, and told me what had happened. I had his wearied horse looked after, gave him a bed, and early next morning rode with him to Lasar, to consult with the latter what was to be done. This humane man soon formed a resolution, and told me he would let a faithful old negro, who was not of much use to him, live at Mrs. White's. He could sow a bit of land with cotton, the proceeds of which would be his own, and the family would have a protector in him, as he was an excellent shot, and a fearless, determined man. Within an hour we were mounted, and rode past my fort, in order to fetch Owl and Tiger. We arrived in the evening at White's, where we saw the damage done by the savages, and then heard the story from Mrs. White's own lips, on which occasion she praised Ben's bravery, who during the narration stood by his mother's side with her arm thrown round him. The woman was most grateful for our kindness and sympathy, and said that, with the help of the old negro, Primus, she would withstand a whole Indian tribe. Primus remained there, and this settlement was really never again disquieted by Indians. It was, however, less the presence of the negro that made them refrain from hostilities, than Mrs. White's heroic defence. At a later date, Indians told me that the aggressors were Mescaleros, and Mrs. White fired so many bullets among them all at once, as if the storm-god had been scattering a hail-storm on the earth. Since then an Indian was hardly ever seen there. Such atrocities often happened at the outermost settlements, while possibly the same Indians who committed them came to us as friends, and were dismissed with presents and assurances of amity. |