University of Virginia Library

13. CHAPTER XIII.

On one of the corners, where the two principal
streets of Templeton intersected each other, stood,
as we have already mentioned, the inn, that was
called the “Bold Dragoon.” In the original plan,
it was ordained, that the village should stretch
along the little stream, that rushed down the valley,
and the street which led from the lake to the
academy, was intended to be its western boundary.
But convenience frequently frustrates the
best regulated plans. The house of Mr., or as,
in consequence of commanding the militia of that
vicinity, he was called Captain Hollister, had, at
an early day, been erected directly facing the
main street, and ostensibly interposed a barrier to
its further progress. Horsemen, and subsequently
teamsters, however, availed themselves of an opening,
at the end of the building, to shorten their
passage westward, until, in time, the regular highway
was laid out along this course, and houses
were gradually built, on either side, so as effectually

to prevent any subsequent correction of the
evil.

There were two material consequences which
followed this insidious change in the regular plans
of Marmaduke. The one, that the main street,
after running about half its length, was suddenly
reduced to precisely that difference in its width;
and the other, that the “Bold Dragoon” became,
next to the Mansion-house, by far the most conspicuous
edifice in the place.

This conspicuousness, aided by the characters
of the host and hostess, gave the tavern an advantage
over all its future competitors, that no circumstances
could conquer. An effort was, however,
made to do so; and, at the corner diagonally
opposite, stood a new building, that was intended,
by its occupants, to look down all opposition.
It was a house of wood, ornamented in the prevailing
style of architecture, and about the roof
and ballustrades, was one of the three imitators of
the Mansion-house. The upper windows were
filled with rough boards, secured by nails, to keep
out the cold air; for the edifice was far from
finished, although glass was to be seen in the
lower apartments, and the light of the powerful
fires, within, denoted that it was already inhabited.
The exterior was painted white, on the front, and
on the end which was exposed to the street; but
in the rear, and on the side which was intended
to join the neighbouring house, it was coarsely
smeared with Spanish brown. Before the door
stood two lofty posts, connected at the top by a
beam, from which was suspended an enormous
sign, ornamented around its edges, with certain
curious carvings, in pine boards, and on its faces,
loaded with masonic emblems. Over these mysterious
figures, was written, in large letters, “The
Templetown Coffee-House, and Traveller's Hotel,”

and beneath them, “By Habakkuk Foote
and Joshua Knapp.” This was a fearful rival to
the “Bold Dragoon,” as our readers will the more
readily perceive, when we add, that the same sonorous
names were to be seen over the door of a
newly-erected store in the village, a hatter's shop,
and the gates of a tan-yard. But, either because
too much was attempted to be well executed, or
that the “Bold Dragoon” had established a repution
which could not be easily shaken, not only
Judge Temple and his friends, but most of the
villagers also, who were not in debt to the powerful
firm we have named, frequented the inn of
Captain Hollister, on all occasions where such a
house was necessary.

On the present evening, the limping veteran,
and his consort, were hardly housed, after their
return from the academy, when the sounds of
stamping feet at their threshold announced the
approach of visiters, who were probably assembling,
with a view to compare opinions, on the
subject of the ceremonies they had witnessed.

The public, or, as it was called, the “bar-room,”
of the “Bold Dragoon,” was a spacious
apartment, lined on three sides with benches, and
on the fourth by fire-places. Of the latter, there
were two, of such size as to occupy, with their
enormous jambs, the whole of that side of the
apartment where they were placed, excepting
room enough for a door or two, and a little apartment
in one corner, which was protected by miniature
pallisadoes, and profusely garnished with bottles
and glasses. In the entrance to this sanctuary,
Mrs. Hollister was seated, with great gravity
in her air, while her husband occupied himself
with stirring the fires; moving the logs with a
large stake, burnt to a point at one end.

“There, Sargeant dear,” said the landlady, after
she thought the veteran had got the logs arranged
in the most judicious manner, “give over
poking the fires, for it's no good yee'll be doing,
now that they burn so convaniently. There's the
glasses on the table there, and the mug that the
Doctor was taking his cider and ginger in, before
the fire here,—jist put them in the bar, will ye?
for we'll be having the Joodge, and the Major, and
Mr. Jones, down the night, widout reckoning Benjamin
Poomp, and the Lawyers: so ye'll be fixing
the room tidy; and put both flip-irons in the
coals; and tell Jude, the lazy, black baste, that if
she's no be claneing up the kitchen, I'll jist turn
her out of the house, and she may live wid the
jontlemen that kape the `Coffee-house,' good
luck to 'em. Och! Sargeant, sure it's a great
privilege to go to a mateing, where a body can sit
asy, widout joomping up and down so often, as
this Mr. Grant is doing the same.”

“It's a privilege at all times, Mistress Hollister,
whether we stand or be seated; or, as good Mr.
Whitefield used to do, after he had made a wearisome
day's march, get on our knees and pray,
like Moses of old, with a flanker to the right and
left, to lift his hands to heaven,” returned her husband,
who composedly performed what she had
directed to be done. “It was a very pretty fight,
Betty, that the Israelites had, on that day, with
the Amalekites. It seems that they fout on a
plain, for Moses is mentioned, as having gone on
to the heights, to overlook the battle, and wrestle
in prayer; and if I should judge, with my little
larning, the Israelites depended mainly on their
horse, for it is written, that Joshua cut up the enemy
with the edge of the sword: from which I infer,
not only that they were horse, but well disciplyn'd
troops. Indeed, it says as much, as that

they were chosen men; quite likely volunteers;
but raw dragoons seldom strike with the edge of
their swords, particularly if the weapon be any
way crooked.”

“Pshaw! why do ye bother yourself wid taxts,
man, about so small a matter,” interrupted the
landlady; “sure it was the Lord who was wid
'em; for he always sided with the Jews, at first,
before they fell away; and it's but little matter
what kind of men Joshua commanded, so that he
was doing the right bidding. Aven them cursed
millaishy, the Lord forgi'e me for swearing, that
was the death of him, wid their cowardice, would
have carried the day in old times. There's no
rason to be thinking that the soldiers was used to
the drill.”

“I must say, Mrs. Hollister,” rejoined her husband,
“that I have not often seen raw troops fight
better than the left flank of the militia, at the time
you mention. They rallied very handsomely,
and that without beat of drum, which is no easy
thing to do under fire, and were very steady till
he fell. But the scriptures contain no unnecessary
words; and I will maintain, that horse, who know
how to strike with the edge of the sword, must be
well disciplyn'd. Many a good sarmon has been
preached about smaller matters than that one
word! If the text was not meant to be particular,
why wasn't it written, with the sword, and not
with the edge? Now, a back-handed stroke, on
the edge, takes long practice. Goodness! what
an argument would Mr. Whitefield make of that
word edge! As to the Captain, if he had only called
up the guard of dragoons, when he rallied the
foot, they would have shown the inimy what the
edge of a sword was; for, although there was no
commissioned officer with them, yet I think I may
say,”—the veteran continued, stiffening his cravat

about the throat, and raising himself up, with the
air of a drill-sergeant,—“they were led by a man,
who know'd how to bring them on, in spite of the
ravine.”

“Is it lade on ye would?” cried the landlady,
“when ye know yourself, Mr. Hollister, that the
baste he rode was but little able to joomp from
one rock to another, and the animal was as spry
as a squirrel? Och! but it's useless to talk, for
he's gone this many a long year. I would that he
had lived to see the true light; but there's mercy
for a brave sowl, that died in the saddle, fighting
for the liberty. It's a poor tomb-stone they have
given him, any way, and many a good one that died
like himself: but the sign is very like, and I will
be kapeing it up, while the blacksmith can make
a hook for it to swing on, for all the `coffee-houses'
betwane this and Albany.”

There is no saying where this desultory conversation
would have led the worthy couple, had not
the men who were stamping the snow off their
feet, on the little platform before the door, suddenly
ceased their occupation, and entered the
bar-room.

For ten or fifteen minutes, the different individuals,
who intended either to bestow or receive
edification, before the fires of the “Bold Dragoon,”
on that evening, were collecting, until the
benches were nearly filled with men of different
occupations. Dr. Todd, and a slovenly-looking,
half-genteel young man, who took tobacco profusely,
wore a coat of imported cloth, cut with
something like a fashionable air, frequently exhibited
a large, French silver watch, with a chain
of woven hair, and who, altogether, seemed as
much above the artisans around him, as he was
inferior to the real gentleman, occupied a highback,

wooden settee, in the most comfortable corner
in the apartment.

Sundry brown mugs, containing cider or beer,
were placed between the heavy andirons, and little
groups were formed among the guests, as subjects
arose, or the liquor was passed from one to
the other. No man was seen to drink by himself,
nor in any instance was more than one vessel
considered necessary, for the same beverage; but
the glass, or the mug, was passed from hand to
hand, until a chasm in the line, or a regard to the
rights of ownership, would restore the dregs of the
potation to him who defrayed the cost.

Toasts were uniformly drank; and occasionally,
some one, who conceived himself peculiarly
endowed by nature to shine in the way of wit,
would attempt some such sentiment as “hoping
that he” who treated “might make a better man
than his father;” or “live till all his friends wished
him dead;” while the more humble pot-companion
contented himself by saying, with a most
imposing gravity in his air, “come, here's luck,”
or by expressing some other equally comprehensive
desire. In every instance, the veteran landlord
was requested to imitate the custom of the
cup-bearers to kings, and taste the liquor he presented,
by the significant invitation of “after you
is manners;” with which request he ordinarily
complied, by wetting his lips, first expressing the
wish of “here's hoping,” leaving it to the imagination
of the hearers to fill the vacuum by whatever
good each thought most desirable. During
these movements, the landlady was busily occupied
with mixing the various compounds required
by her customers, with her own hands, and occasionally
exchanging greetings and inquiries concerning
the conditions of their respective families,
with such of the villagers as approached “the bar.”

At length, the common thirst being in some
measure assuaged, conversation of a more general
nature became the order of the hour. The physician,
and his companion, who was one of the two
lawyers of the village, being considered the best
qualified to maintain a public discourse with credit,
were the principal speakers, though a remark
was hazarded, now and then, by Mr. Doolittle,
who was thought to be their inferior, only in the
enviable point of education. A general silence
was produced on all but the two speakers, by
the following observation from the practitioner of
the law:—

“So, Doctor Todd, I understand that you have
been performing an important operation, this
evening, by cutting a charge of buck-shot from
the shoulder of the son of Leather-stocking?”

“Yes, sir,” returned the other, elevating his
little head, with an air of great importance, “I
had a small job, up at the Judge's, in that way:
it was, however, but a trifle to what it might have
been, had it gone through the body. The shoulder
is not a very vital part; and I think the young
man will soon be well. But I did not know that
the patient was a son of Leather-stocking: it is
news to me, to hear that Natty had a wife.”

“It is by no means a necessary consequence,”
returned the other, winking, with a shrewd look
around the bar-room; “there is such a thing. I
suppose you know, in law, as a `filius nullius.”'

“Spake it out, man,” exclaimed the landlady;
“spake it out in king's English; what for should
ye be talking Indian, in a room full of christian
folks, though it is about a poor hunter, who is but
a little better in his ways than the wild savages
themselves? Och! it's to be hoped that the missionaries
will, in his own time, make a convarsion
of the poor divils; and then it will matter but little,

of what colour is the skin, or wedder there be
wool or hair on the head.”

Oh! it is Latin, not Indian, Miss Hollister,”
returned the lawyer, repeating his winks and
shrewd looks; “and Dr. Todd understands Latin,
or how would he read the labels on his gallipots
and drawers? No, Miss Hollister, the
Doctor understands me; don't you, Doctor?”

“Hem—why I guess I am not far out of the
way,” returned Elnathan, endeavouring to imitate
the expression of the other's countenance, by
looking jocular; “Latin is a queer language,
gentlemen;—now, I rather guess there is no one
in the room, except Squire Lippet, who can believe
that `Far.Av.' means oatmeal, in English.”

The lawyer, in his turn, was a good deal embarrassed
by this display of learning; for although
he actually had taken his first degree at one of
the eastern universities, he was somewhat puzzled
with the terms used by his companion. It was
dangerous, however, to appear to be out-done
in learning in a public bar-room, and before so
many of his clients; he therefore put the best face
on the matter, and laughed knowingly, as if there
were a good joke concealed under it, that was
understood only by the physician and himself.
All this was attentively observed by the listeners,
who exchanged looks of approbation; and the
expressions of “tonguey man,” and “I guess
Squire Lippet knows, if any body doos,” were
heard in different parts of the room, as vouchers
for the admiration of his auditors. Thus encouraged,
the lawyer rose from his chair, and, turning
his back to the fire, facing the company, he
continued—

“The son of Natty, or the son of nobody, I
hope the young man is not going to let the matter
drop. This is a country of laws; and I should

like to see it fairly tried, whether a man who
owns, or says he owns, a hundred thousand acres
of land, has any more right to shoot a body, than
another. What do you think of it, Dr. Todd?”

“Oh! sir, I am of opinion that the gentleman
will soon be well, as I said before; the wownd
isn't in a vital part; and as the ball was extracted
so soon, and the shoulder was what I call well attended
to, I do not think there is as much danger
as there might have been.”

“I say, Squire Doolittle,” continued the angry
attorney, “you are a magistrate, and know what
is law, and what is not law. I ask you, sir, if
shooting a man is a thing that is to be settled so
very easily? Suppose, sir, that the young man
had a wife and family; and suppose that he was
a mechanic, like yourself, sir; and suppose that
his family depended on him for bread; and suppose
that the ball, instead of merely going through
the flesh, had broken the shoulder-blade, and
crippled him for ever;—I ask you all, gentlemen,
supposing this to be the case, whether a jury
wouldn't give what I call handsome damages?”

As the close of this supposititious case was addressed
to the company, generally, Hiram did
not, at first, consider himself called on for a reply;
but finding the eyes of the listeners bent on
him in expectation, he remembered his character
for judicial discrimination, and spoke, observing
a due degree of deliberation and dignity in his
manner.

“Why, if a man should shoot another,” he
said, “and if he should do it on purpose, and if
the law took notice on't, and if a jury should find
him guilty, it would be likely to turn out a state-prison
matter.”

“It would so, sir,” returned the attorney.—
“The law, gentlemen, is no respecter of persons,

in a free country. It is one of the great blessings
that has been handed down to us from our ancestors,
that all men are equal in the eye of the law,
as they are by nater. Though some may get property,
no one knows how, yet they are not privileged
to transgress the laws, any more than the
poorest citizen in the state. This is my notion,
gentlemen; and I think that if a man had a mind
to bring this matter up, something might be made
out of it, that would help pay for the salve—ha!
Doctor?”

“Why, sir,” returned the physician, who appeared
a little uneasy at the turn the conversation
was taking, “I have the promise of Judge Temple,
before men—not but what I would take his
word as soon as his note of hand—but it was before
men. Let me see—there was Mounshier Ler
Quow, and Squire Jones, and Major Hartmann,
and Miss Pettibone, and one or two of the blacks
by, when he said that his pocket would amply reward
me for what I did.”

“Was the promise made before or after the service
was performed?” asked the attorney.

“It might have been both,” returned the discreet
physician; “though I'm certain he said so,
before I undertook the dressing.”

“But it seems that he said his pocket should
reward you, Doctor,” observed Hiram; “now I
don't know that the law will hold a man to such a
promise: he might give you his pocket with six-pence
in't, and tell you to take your pay out
on't.”

“That would not be a reward in the eye of the
law,” interrupted the attorney—“not what is
called a `quid pro quo;' nor is the pocket to be
considered as an agent, but as part of a man's
own person, that is, in this particular. I am of
opinion that an action would lie on that promise,

and will undertake to bear him out, free of costs,
if he don't recover.”

To this proposition the physician made no reply,
but he was observed to cast his eyes around
him, as if to enumerate the witnesses, in order to
substantiate this promise also, at a future day,
should it prove necessary. A subject so momentous,
as that of suing Judge Temple, was not very
palatable to the present company, in so public a
place; and a short silence ensued, that was only
interrupted by the opening of the door, and the
entrance of Natty himself,

The old hunter carried in his hand his neverfailing
companion, his rifle; and, although all of
the company were uncovered, excepting the lawyer,
who wore his hat on one side, with a certain
knowing air, Natty moved to the front of one of
the fires, without in the least altering any part of
his dress or appearance. Several questions were
addressed to him, on the subject of the game he had
killed, which he answered readily, and with some
little interest; and the landlord, between whom
and Natty there existed much cordiality, on account
of their both having been soldiers in their
youth, offered him a glass of a liquid, which, if
we might judge from its reception, was no unwelcome
guest. When the forester had gotten his
potation also, he quietly took his scat on the end
of one of the logs, that lay nigh to the fires, and
the slight interruption, produced by his entrance,
seemed to be forgotten.

“The testimony of the blacks could not be taken,
sir,” continued the lawyer, “for they are all
the property of Mr. Jones, who owns their time.
But there is a way by which Judge Temple, or
any other man, might be made to pay for shooting
another, and for the cure in the bargain.—

There is a way, I say, and that without going into
the `court of errors' too.”

“And a mighty big error ye would make of it,
Mister Todd, cried the landlady, “should ye be
putting the matter into the law at all, with Joodge
Temple, who has a purse as long as one of them
pines on the hill, and who is an asy man to dale
wid, if yees but mind the humour of him. He's a
good man is Joodge Temple, and a kind one, and
one who will be no the likelier to do the pratty
thing, bekaase ye would wish to tarrify him with
the law. I know of but one objaction to the same,
which is an over carelessness about his sowl. It's
nather a Methodie, nor a Papish, nor a Prasbetyrian,
that he is, but jist nothing at all: and it's
hard to think that he, `who will not fight the good
fight, under the banners of a rig'lar church, in
this world, will be mustered among the chosen in
heaven,' as my husband, the Captain there, as ye
call him, says—though there is but one captain
that I know, who desaarves the name. I hopes,
Lather-stocking, ye'll no be foolish, and putting
the boy up to try the law in the matter; for 'twill
be an evil day to ye both, when ye first turn the
skin of so paceable an animal as a sheep into a
bone of contention. The lad is wilcome to his
drink for nothing, until his shouther will bear the
rifle ag'in.”

“Well, that's gin'rous,” was heard from several
mouths at once, at this liberal offer of the land-lady;
while the hunter, instead of expressing
any of that indignation which he might be supposed
to feel, at hearing the hurt of his young
companion alluded to, opened his mouth, with the
silent laugh for which he was so remarkable; and
after he had indulged his humour, made this reply—

“I know'd the Judge would do nothing with

his smooth-bore, when he got out of his sleigh. I
never see'd but one smooth-bore, that would carry
at all, and that was a French ducking-piece,
upon the big lakes: it had a barrel half as long
ag'in as my rifle, and would throw fine shot into
a goose, at a hundred yards; but it made dreadful
work with the game, and you wanted a boat
to carry it about in. When I went with Sir William
ag'in the French, at Fort Niagara, all the
rangers used the rifle; and a dreadful weapon it
is, in the hands of one who knows how to charge
it, and keeps a steady aim. The Captain knows,
for he says he was a soldier in Shirley's, and
though they were nothing but baggonet-men, he
must know how we cut up the French and Iroquois
in the skrimmages, in that war. Chingach-gook,
which means `Big Sarpent' in English, old
John Mohegan, who lives up at the hut with me,
was a great warrior then, and was out with us; he
can tell all about it, too; though he was an overhand
for the tomahawk, never firing more than
once or twice, before he was running in for the
scalps. Ah! hum! times is dreadfully altered
since then. Why, Doctor, there was nothing but
a foot-path, or at the most a track for pack-horses,
along the Mohawk, from the Garman flats clean
up to the forts. Now, they say, they talk of running
one of them wide roads with gates on't, along
the river; first making a road, and then fencing it
up! I hunted one season back of the Kaatskills,
nigh-hand to the settlements, and the dogs often
lost the scent, when they com'd to them highways,
there was so much travel on them; though I can't
say that the brutes was of a very good breed.—
Old Hector will wind a deer in the fall of the
year, across the broadest place in the Otsego, and
that is a mile and a half, for I paced it myself on
the ice, when the tract was first surveyed under
the Indian grant.”

“It sames to me, Natty, but a sorry compliment,
to call your cumrad after the evil one,” said
the landlady; “and it's no much like a snake that
old John is looking now. Nimrood would be a
more besaming name for the lad, and a more
christian too, seeing that it comes from the Bible.
The Sargeant read me the chapter about him, the
night before my christening, and a mighty asement
it was, to listen to any thing from the book.”

“Old John and Chingachgook were very different
men to look on,” returned the hunter, shaking
his head at his melancholy recollections.—“In
the `fifty-eighth was,' he was in the middle of manhood,
and was taller than now by three inches.
If you had seen him, as I did, the morning we beat
Dieskau, from behind our log walls, you would
have called him as comely a red-skin as ye ever
set eyes on. He was naked, all to his breech-cloth
and leggens; and you never seed a creater
so handsomely painted. One side of his face was
red, and the other black. His head was shaved
clean, all to a few hairs on the crown, where he
wore a tuft of eagle's feathers, as bright as if they
had come from a peacock's tail. He had coloured
his sides, so that they looked just like an atomy,
ribs and all; for Chingachgook had a great notion
in such things: so that, what with his bold, fiery
countenance, his knife, and his tomahawk, I have
never seed a fiercer warrior on the ground. He
played his part, too, like a man; for I seen him
next day, with thirteen scalps on his pole. And
I will say that for the `Big Snake,' that he always
dealt fair, and never scalped any that he didn't kill
with his own hands.”

“Well, well,” cried the landlady; “fighting is
fighting, any way, and there's different fashions

in the thing; though I can't say that I relish mangling
a body after the breath is out of it; neither
do I think it can be uphild by doctrine. I
hopes, Sargeant, ye niver was helping in sitch evil
worrek.”

“It was my duty to keep my ranks, and to
stand or fall by the baggonet or lead,” returned
the veteran. “I was then in the fort, and seldom
leaving my place, saw but little of the savages,
who kept on the flanks, or in front, skrimmaging.
I remember, howsomever, to have heard mention
made of the `Great Snake,' as he was called, for
he was a chief of renown; but little did I ever expect
to see him enlisted in the cause of Christianity,
and civilized like old John.”

“Oh! he was christianized by the Moravians,
who was always over intimate with the Delawares,”
said Leather-stocking. “It's my opinion,
that had they been left to themselves, there would
be no such doings now, about the head-waters of
the two rivers, and that these hills mought have
been kept as good hunting-ground, by their right
owner, who is not too old to carry a rifle, and
whose sight is as true as a fish-hawk, hovering—”

He was interrupted by more stamping at the
door, and presently the party from the Mansion-house
entered, followed by the Indian himself.