40 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



was " some," he said, with the rifle, and always had a 

 hankering for the West ; particularly when, on accompany- 

 ing his father to Saint Louis every spring, he saw the dif- 

 ferent bands of traders and hunters start upon their annual 

 expeditions to the mountains. Greatly did he envy the 

 independent insouciant trappers, as, in all the glory of 

 beads and buckskin, they shouldered their rifles at Jake 

 Hawkin's door (the rifle-maker of Saint Louis), and bade 

 adieu to the cares and trammels of civilised life. 



However, like a thoughtless beaver-kitten, he put his 

 foot into a trap one fine day, set by Mary Brand, a neigh- 

 bour's daughter, and esteemed " some punkins " or, in 

 other words, toasted as the beauty of Memphis county by 

 the susceptible Mississippians. From that moment he 

 was " gone beaver ; " " he felt queer," he said, " all over, 

 like a buffalo shot in the lights ; he had no relish for mush 

 and molasses ; homininy and johnny cakes failed to excite 

 his appetite. Deer and turkeys ran by him unscathed ; he 

 didn't know, he said, whether his rifle had hind-sights or 

 not. He felt bad, that was a fact ; but what ailed him he 

 didn't know." 



Mary Brand Mary Brand Mary Brand ! the old Dutch 

 clock ticked it. Mary Brand ! his head throbbed it when 

 he lay down to sleep. Mary Brand ! his riflelock spoke it 

 plainly when he cocked it, to raise a shaking sight at a 

 deer. Mary Brand, Mary Brand ! the whip-poor-will sang 

 it instead of her own well-known note ; the bull-frogs 

 croaked it in the swamp, and mosquitoes droned it in his 

 ear as he tossed about his bed at night, wakeful, and striv- 

 ing to think what ailed him. 



Who could that strapping young fellow who passed the 

 door just now be going to see ? Mary Brand : Mary Brand. 

 And who can big Pete Herring be dressing that silver-fox 

 skin so carefully for ? For whom but Mary Brand ? And 

 \vho is it that jokes and laughs and dances with all the 

 " boys " but him ; and why ? 



Who but Mary Brand : and because the lovesick booby 

 carefully avoids her. 



" And Marv Brand herself what is she like ? " 



