24 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 5, 1885. 



larkttimt ^onri^t 



UNCLE LISHA'S SHOP. 



VII. 



AFTER the soft snowfall the grip of winter tightened 

 with sharper weather, and it was a nipping night when 

 Lisha's friends, the creaking; of whose coming footsteps he 

 heard twenty rods away, again entered the shop. Each as 

 he came in made his way quickly to the ruddy, roaring 

 stove, and hardly one failed to shrug his shoulders with a 

 shivering "booh!" rub his hands, stamp his feet, and pro- 

 claim in some form or words that the night was cold, as if 

 that was something which needed every man's testimony to 

 establish as a fact- 

 Joseph Hill remarked, as he rubbed his ears, that "the 

 skeeters bit." The inquirer stared at him and asked, 

 "Bit who?" and said he hadn't "seen no skeeters sen Sep- 

 tember." 



Another said, "Tell ye what, it's pretty cold, " as if he was 

 the original discoverer of this condition of the atmosphere. 



Pelatiah asked Sam Lovel, "'s this col' 'nough for ye, 

 Sainwel?" and Sam answered as he fanned himself with his 

 fur cap, "Cold 'nough? No. Iwant.it cold 'nough to freeze 

 the blaze of a match tew a pipe. I'm most melted, 'n' wish 

 't I could set top o ; Tater Hill 'n hour er tew V cool off." 

 Pelatiah said "Sho!" and "guessed he was a jokinV 



Solon Briggs's opinion was that it was "congeal ous, and 

 that the tnucuery would prawberbly condescend to twenty- 

 four below jehu, I wou' say, below zeno, afore mornin'." 

 And Antoine, hugging himself, declared that it was "bien 

 froid," which, after Canuck fashion, he pronounced "ban 

 fret," and then translated. "Col' lak a dev, bah gpsh; more 

 he was Canada, yas, sab." And so encouraging one another, 

 they "became firmly settled m tne belief that the night was 

 indeed a cold one, and Lisha, as he opened the stove door, 

 using the corner of his apron for a holder, and fed the little 

 demon a bellyful of white birch, gave it as his opinion, that 

 "if the wind riz it would be a reg'iar rip snorter," 



"And naow," said Solon, when Lisha had established 

 himself in the polished leathern seat of his bench, "arfter 

 the preluminary remarks 'at yew made at aour prevarious 

 meetiu'. it is confidentially espected 'at yew will perceed to 

 dilate your narrowly ve." 



"Ya's," Antoine urgefl, "you goin' fill up you promise, 

 don't it, Onc'Lasha, hcin?" 



" Wal, boys, 'f I must 1 must, I s'pose," said Lisha, pulling 

 hard at his pipe between words, "but I hain't no gret at 

 tellin' stories. Ye see" — after some silent back tracking of 

 memory — ' 'twas 'baout Noer Chase; he was the fust one in 

 taown 't hod a pleasure waggin, 'a' they uster call it Noer's 

 Ark. He'd ben sellick man" three lb' years, 'n' sot in the 

 leegislatur' onct— cousin t' Jerushy, tew — 'n' orter ben in 

 better business 'n' goin' crustin', but he went, V more 'n 

 onct. So one March the' was the alfiredest crust 'n' he hedn't 

 nothin' to dew much, 'n' s* he, 'I guess I'll hassotnefun, s'he. 

 So he got him a club, an' put on his snowshoes an' put 'er 

 fer a basin up in the maouutain where he knowed the' was 

 some deer a yardin'. I know the ezack spot, an' so do you, 

 Samwill. Right up where the east branch o' Stuuny brook 

 heads. He got Amos Jones to go 'long with him, 'n' they 

 got there an' faound the deer, twenty on 'em or more, a yardin' 

 'raound in the little spruces, 'u' all poorer 'n wood. Wal, 

 they scahtered 'em aout an' went at 'em. Amos he seen 

 Noer knock down ten on 'em and cut the' thruts, 'n' then be 

 telled 'im for to stop, V that was 'nough. But Noer he 

 laughed V said he was jis' beginnin' to hassome fun; 'n J 

 then he put arter a doe that was heavy with fa'n, V as he 

 run up 'longside on her, she stumbled in the crust, her iaigs 

 alia bleedin', an' rolled up 'er eyes tumble pitiful tow wards 

 him, an' gin a beseechin' kind of a blaat. A.n' Amos he hol- 

 lered aout to Noer f let 'er 'lone, but Noer he on'y laughed 

 'n' said haow 't he was goin' ter kill tew to one shot, V he 

 gin 'er a lick on the head with his club 'fore Amos co'ld git 

 tew him." 



"Damn 'im!" growled Sam. 



"Amos didn't hardly never cuss, hut I s'pose he ripped 

 aout then 'n' gin it to Noer hot 'n' heavy, 'n' said he was a 

 good min' to sarvehim 's he'd sarved the doe; V jis then he 

 happened to see that Noer was standin' 'long side o' the doe, 

 right onderneath an onlucky tree, 'n' then he said he 

 knowed suthin' 'ould happen tew him, 'n' toi' 'im so. But 

 Noer on'y laughed at 'im, 'n' called 'im a sup'stitious chiekin- 

 nearted ole granny, an' took aout his knife to cut the doe's 

 thrut. Amos couldn't stan' it to see no more sech murderin', 

 'n' so he cleared aout and went hum. Wal, Noer finished 

 the doe, V then took arter a yullin' buck next. The buck 

 started daown the maountin', 'n' bein' putty light he skinned 

 it 'long putty good jog, so 's 't Noer couldn't ketch up with 

 'im s' easy 's he bed with t'other ones. So Noer 'gin to git 

 mad 'n' doubled his jumps, 'n' went tearin' daown hill Jick- 

 erty split, V hed mos' ketched up to the deer, when the toe 

 of his snowshoe ketched int' thelimb of a blowed doawn tree, 

 an' he fell, kerlummux! 'n' struck his laig on another limb 

 on 't an' broke his laig." 



"Good!" cried Sam. 



"His laig pained him onmassyfully, 'n' like 'nough he hurt 

 his head tew, for he went inter a swound, I s'pose," con- 

 tinued Lisha, after nodding to Sam, "an' he lay quite a 

 spell 'fore he come tew, V 'twas mos' night. Fust thing, he 

 tried to git up; but he couldn't make it aout till he got holt 

 of a saplin' an' pulled hisself up, 'n' then he couldn't take 

 a step. An' while he stood there a considerin', that 'ere doe 

 appeared right afore him, lookin' at him jest as she did when 

 he run her daown! He said, 'Shoo!' but she didn't stir a 

 mite, and then he reached daown an' picked up his club an' 

 hove it at 'er, 'n' he said it went through her jes' 's if she'd ben 

 a puff o' smoke, an' went a scootin' over the crust twenty 

 rods daown the hill, V she never stirred ! He tried to walk 

 agin, but he couldn't step a step, an' then he goddaown on 

 all fours an' crawled 's well 'she could towwards the clearin's, 

 an' that ere doe kepallers jes' so fur ahead on him, allers 

 lookin' at him jest as she did afore he knocked her in the 

 head. An' when it begin to grow duskish. the' was a wolf 

 set up a yowlin' behind him as he snailed along a groaniu' 

 an' a sweatin' like a man a mowin', an' not goin' more 'n a 

 rod in five minutes, 'n' then tew more wolves jined in a 

 yowlin' so clus tew him 't his toes tickled, 'n' when he looked 

 over his shoulder he could see the dum'd critters a shoolin' 'long 

 arter him like black shadders, 'n' every naow 'n'then sittin' 

 up on their rumps an' yowlin' for more to jine 'em. An' all 

 the time that 'ere doe kep' jes' so fur ahead on him, allers a 

 lookin' at him jes' so mournful. Bimebye arter dark, he got 

 to the clearin' 'n' he couldn't go no furder, so he sot his back 

 agin a tree V sot there an' hollered with his club in his hand, 



for he'd picked it up in his crawlin', an' there he sot, 'n' 

 there the wolves sot, an' right betwixt 'em stood the doe, 

 which the wolves n; ver took no more noticte on her V of a 

 sh adder. Arter a while— seemed 's 'ough 't was a week t' 

 Noer— somebody hearn the rumpus, wolves a yowlin' an' 

 man a hollerin', an Aar'n Gove an' Moses Hanson 'n' mongst 

 'era, rallied aout an' went up an' faound him an' fetched him 

 hum. They got a darkter an' sot his laig, but he was sick 

 for three months, 'a' many a time, they said, he seen that 'ere 

 doe a lookin' in 't the winder 'n' hearn the wolves a yowlin' 

 raound the haouse, but the' could none o' the rest on "'em see 

 her nor hear the wolves. Bimebye he got better, an' so 's 't 

 he could git aout raound. An' then his son, the on'y one 't 

 he had, went off f the fur West a trapnin' an' a tradin' for 

 furs an' skins, an' got killed by Injins," an' then his oldest 

 darter run away with a nigger, an' wus yit, his other darter 

 married an Irishmun, an' wust of all, so Noer said, Amos 

 Jones come up to see him, an' said, 'I tole yer' sol' Then 

 Noer got wus an' run int' the consumption, 'n' arter lingerin' 

 an' lingerin', he died." 



"All of which," said Sam Lovel, "sarved him right, and," 

 lifting to his lips the broken handled pitcher of stale water 

 that stood on a shelf in the corner, seldom replenished but 

 never quite empty, "here's a hopesin' that all crusters may 

 forever meet the same late. Amen!" 



"Haow long," put in the inquirer, "haow long did Noer 

 Chase hev the consumption?" 



"Ten year," Lisha replied. 



"Was that all?" said the inquirer. 



"I don't b'lieve," said Pelatiah, wiping his nose with his 

 right hand mitten, " 'at ever I'll crust hunt a deer 'slong 's 

 1 live and breathe." 



"I don't b'lieve ye will nuther," said Sam, "not in 

 these parts, for ye won't hev the chance. But I 

 wanter tell ye one thing, Peltier, the nex' wust thing to 

 crustin' deer is snarin' patridges! One day in the fall 1 was 

 haul in' up through yer father's woods, an J I come acrost a 

 leetle low brush fence with snares sot in the gaps. I tore it 

 all daown, an' one gret cock patridge 't I faound a hangin' 

 by the neck 1 hove off int' the woods for the foxes t' eat. 

 You sot them snares, Peltier, V you hadn't ort t' done it. 

 Every time 1 find any sech contraption, I'll spile it, no 

 matter who sot it. 'Xceptin' ugly and mischevious critters 

 'at won't let ye hunt 'em no ways decent, give all God's 

 creeturs a fair chance. Foller 'em up an' shoot 'em ef ye 

 can, in the times 't they'd ort to he shot, but not no other 

 times. Not no nestin' good birds nor breedin' an' sucklin' 

 beasts that 's wuth a savin'. Then when ye die, 'f you've 

 ben honest an' decent to folks, ye won't hev nothin' to tor- 

 ment ye. Naow, Peltier, you remember what I tell ye, an' 

 don't ye never snare no more patridges, or less ye '11 hav an 

 ole hen patridge a lookin' at ye jest as that 'ere doe did at 

 Noer Chase." 



"As true 's I live, Samwill, I won't never again." 



"Ez for JSoer Chase, which I remember bim well as a 

 consumptuous invalidge in the days of my youthful indoles- 

 ceuse," Solou Briggs remarked; "it is my o-pinion that his 

 fate was a just contribution for his predatorious on- 

 rightiousness." 



"Wal, sah," said Antoine. who had long been waiting to 

 put in a word, "dem Anglish officy in Canada when he go 

 huntin' 'long wid Injin keel moose mos' same like Noel; fin' 

 'em in yard, run it daown, shoot it, carree off horn. litly bit 

 meat, skin, maybe, leave it rest of it for wolf. Show horn, 

 'Horrah! Ah keel it moose!' Ah come portynear keel one of 

 dat officy tam Papineau war, me wish ah have, bah gosh!" 



"I've hear'd on it, Ann Twine. He chased ye an' you run, 

 an' he follored till he putty nigh broke his wind. He run 

 a narrer chance of his life, sartin." 



"Ah, One' Lasha, who tole it you dat lies, hein?" 



"I dunno 's I know, Uncle Lisher; seems 'ogh I did tew, 

 but guess 't I don't," said Joseph Hill, "jes ezackly what 

 an 'onlucky tree' is. Dunno but I did know onct, but I've 

 kinder forgot." 



"Wal," said Lisha, "what some calls an onlucky tree an' 

 thinks is, is a sca'se kind of a tree, half way 'twixt a cat 

 spruce an' a pitch pine. The leaves is longer 'n a spruce 'n' 

 shorter 'n a pine, an' the branches grows scraggider 'n any 

 spruce. They haint no size — never seen one more'n ten 

 iuches 't the butt. They haint no good, V I d' know 's they 

 be any hurl, but some folks thinks tbey be, an' you couldn't 

 git 'em to go a-nigh one for nuthin'. Think if they dew 

 the' '11 suthin' drefful happen to 'em or some o' their folks. 

 I p'sume the' haint nothin' of it. 'N' naow I guess it's 'baout 

 time to shet up shop — an' rnaouths." 



CAMP FLOTSAM. 



Xin.— A SUMMER IDYL. 



THE camp had reached a period in its existence when its 

 inmates were inclined to let the sun beat them daily 

 in rising by several hours, and when fairly aroused and for- 

 tified by a breakfast, nothing seemed further from their 

 thoughts than fishing. One member set about the construc- 

 tion of a hammock, another in devising a sail for the boat; 

 but taken altogether, there was more loafing than working. 

 The dreams of many a winter's night, born amid storm and 

 ice and sleet; dreams of summer isles, with shores of sand, 

 and cliff and far in-running coves, of shimmering waters 

 stretching far away, and vexed by no oar save our own; all 

 these were realized, and we were content 



"to live and lie reclined 



On tne hills, like gods together, careless of mankind." 



The infusion of new blood was necessary to awaken the 

 dormant energies of the camp. While everything was at 

 loose ends the arrival of Truthful James at Baltersea was 

 announced by George late one night, and straightway the 

 camp was in a tremor of excitement. In the early morning 

 the discoverer of Loughborough stood on the bluff before 

 the tents and received the greetings and welcome of the 

 camp. It was on one of the early days of August, and he 

 brought to us the first faint odors from the campaign in the 

 States, the full essence of which saluted the public nostril 

 a few weeks later. But the bundle of rods and the tackle 

 box beside him indicated the hairier which he had placed 

 between himself and principalities and powers, office present 

 or office to come. 



"So Scipio to the soft Oumsean shore 

 Ketiriag, tasted joy he never knew before." 



An angler who had cast over many waters, skilled in all 

 that pertains to the craft, a sharer in all of its enthusiasms, 

 in a few moments he roused the camp from its lethargy and 

 saw the last symptoms of its fever vanish, and thencefor- 

 ward found it ready at aJl rimes to enter the lists with bim 

 in generous rivalry. A short cruise on the morning of his 



arrival was taken and we were rewarded with a dozen small- 

 mouths, after which, while stretched in comfort on the 

 banks, we listened to news a month old and gravely passed 

 judgment on the affairs of two continents. Next the details 

 of a vigorous campaign were perfected, and Sabattis was in- 

 terviewed and himself and boat engaged for the benefit of the 

 newcomer. 



Truthful .lames brought with him much besides the gentle 

 patience and accomplishments of the angler. Through the 

 long noonings were woven webs traced with the pencils, 

 chisels and pens of those who have painted and carved and 

 sung for us of the later time, and with whose colorings and 

 forms he reared a new world, one that could neither be 

 drowned by flood nor destroyed by tire. 



Early after breakfast on the morning succeeding his ar- 

 rival we armed and made ready for the fray. The rays of 

 the sun were scorching, and Truthful James, unused to the 

 fiery exposure, improvised a muslin shield for the protection 

 of his face. When he had finished it, with its two round 

 holes for eyes, and donned it, he was a fearful sight. Across 

 the border he would have been taken for a Ku-Klux, but here, 

 one happening to encounter him and his guide in some lonely 

 cove among the islands, would have fled terror-stricken, be- 

 lieving that he^ had met the infernal boatman of the Styx 

 while transporting Hades-ward one of the damned. 



When we set out Sabattis started to go around the island 

 that his ghost-like master might cast over his favorite 

 grounds of last year, while we turned directly np the lake, 

 intending to work the point opposite Griffin Island until 

 they should join us. When about half a mile from camp 

 we found that the landing net had been left behind, and we 

 turned back to get it. When we rounded the point we found 

 that the other boat had made a circuit of the island and was 

 ahead of us on the way up the lake. We followed and 

 trolled with a gang of flies, with which we took now and _ 

 then a lubberly big-mouth. While trolliDg through a narrow ' 

 channel between a small rocky island and one of the large ones, 

 the rod came near being snatched from our hands by the force 

 of a strike which sent up a sheet of water some forty feet 

 astern. The boat was put broadside on as a rush followed, 

 and another sheet of water suddenly went skyward, when 

 suddenly everything at the other end of the line came to a 

 standstill. The boat was slowly backed and the hue reeled 

 in until we came to a stake which stood with its top a couple 

 of feet below the surface, and around which a single loop 

 had been deftly cast just where the leader was attached to 

 the line, and bejond this there was — nothing. A twelve- 

 foot leader, the flies and fish were each conspicuous by their 

 absence. 



Under such circumstances there are two things which 

 ought always to be done. The first is to settle the weight 

 of the fish; the other is to arrange a new gang. The 

 former was satisfactorily accomplished by fixing the weight 

 at four pounds and a half, but repairing damages was not 

 such an easy matter, for upon setting about it we found that 

 our fly-book had been left at camp. On such occasions 

 there are several things, either of which it is proper to do. 

 One is to criticise the action of the fish and your own 

 stupidity, "according," as Sam Weller said, "to the taste of 

 the speller." The unwritten work of the angler provides a 

 ritual for such emergencies which is usually followed oy the 

 initiated. Fortunately a bucket of perch bait had been put 

 in the boat before setting out, so there was no necessity for 

 turning back. Slowly and sadly we followed the lead of the 

 white mask, which, facing astern, looked like a death's 

 head, grinning derision at our ill luck. Three miles further 

 on we all came to anchor in Cady's Bay, under the shade of 

 the well wooded cliff on its southern shore. 



We were in for an old-fashioned fish, to sit down and 

 watch the floating "bobbers" and to talk and dream between 

 bites. The prospect was by no means unpleasant, and so 

 with Truthful James close alongside on the starboard, we 

 settled down to the enjoyment of our summer idyl. And it 

 was an idyl. Somewhere from beyond the range of hills in 

 front came the mellow tinkle of a cowbell, a few sheep were 

 scrambling among the rocks on the hillside, while on the 

 summit, starkly outlined against the sky, a horse was 

 answering with bis neighs to the call of his owner, a long 

 drawn monotonous "c — o boy, c — o boy." No signs of 

 human dwelling place were visible, but just below us, on 

 the slope within the cove, a stone chimney and the ruins of 

 a log barn told of a life lived here away from its kind. To 

 such dwellers in these byways, wars and rumors of wars are 

 naught, and whether the dominion he a colony, an empire, 

 or a republic is to them a matter of indifference, though in 

 some supreme hour they may help make food for powder in 

 a cause waged by a master whom they know not, nor for 

 what. 



That day we lived over again our youth. The shadows 

 drifted as of old across the water, which mirrored back the 

 ghostly forms of birches and the somber pines; a muskrat 

 was angling along the shore below, and a pair of squirrels 

 were chattering in the trees above. The blue and green 

 dragon fly po'sed in air and settled on our tips and floats 

 with all his olden persistency, the wild bee hummed about 

 us, while now and then the festive mosquito piped his song 

 in our ears. We sat the long afternoon through, and until 

 the croak of the frogs in the coves warned us of the supper 

 hour, called back the memory of the homeward tramp across 

 the pasture, through the swale and the open meadow to the 

 farmhouse, with its cheery light gleaming through the open 

 door, called up the vision of boyish hands holding aloft the 

 string to now sainted mothers; of the welcome kiss, the 

 royal supper, and— we lifted anchor and moved campward, 

 a couple of graybeards, two boys once more. The fountain 

 of vouth is no vagary, though Ponce de Leon found it not. 



The heart of Sabattis, too, was glad, for the day to him 

 was a lucky one. We had taken fifty odd bass, and the 

 household of the guide, the camp and the hamlet were well 

 supplied with brain food. We made the five miles to camp 

 in the red after glow of the Canadian sunset, whicb bathed 

 the granite hillsides, the green islands and the water in the 

 hues of the western sky. We shot into the long shadows at 

 the landing, which were soon lighted up by the blaze of the 

 camp-fire, and then, gathered about the range, we watched 

 the frying of the fish and the bacon, the browning of the 

 sliced potatoes, and the steaming of the coffee, until nature 

 could endure it no longer, and we heaped them all upon the 

 table and fell to. There was considerable dozing over pipes 

 before we sought our blankets, and once within them, we 

 heard not a sound until daylight. 



The anticipated cloud of glory was beginning to gather 

 over the camp. Before the week was out every one was 

 surrounded with a halo, and there were indications of a fight 

 for the front seat, when the sceptre unexpectedly passed into 

 other hands, One morning while Truthful James with his 

 boatman was trolling down the lake, the Madame, taking 



