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In: Children & Young Adult Reading·Adventure·Novels
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The opening · free to read
INSTINCT TRIUMPHANT.
We took leave of our young friends at the close of the previous volume as they separated, John to return to the blacksmith’s shop at Portland, Charlie to the ship-yard at Stroudwater, while Fred Williams remained in his store, which was in one part of his father’s mill.
On Elm Island, Lion Ben was recovering from a severe sickness, through which he had passed without any other attendance than that of his wife, or medicine save those simple remedies which nature and experience had taught our mothers, or had been learned from the red man.
As Ben was not reduced by bleeding or purgatives,--the mode of medical practice prevalent in those days,--he gained strength rapidly after the first few weeks, soon being able to go about the house, and at length to extend his excursions to the workshop and barn.
He soon discovered that the partridges were missing; and upon asking Sally, she told him she remembered having seen them a week before, but had been so much occupied since that she had not given any attention to them.
“Then they are gone,” replied Ben; “some owl or hawk has carried them off.”
“I don’t believe they would go of their own accord,” said Sally; “they seemed just as tame and contented as the rest. Perhaps the coons have got them. There are no skunks or foxes on the island.”
“That’s it. I’m sorry, because Charlie will feel bad about it.”
A few days after, Ben went out quite early in the morning to the barn, and instantly returning, called Sally to the door, and told her to stand still and listen.
Soon a sound was heard in the woods, like that of distant thunder.
“Do you hear that noise, Sally?”
“Yes; what is it?”
“It is one of Charlie’s partridges drumming. They have taken to the woods. Uncle Isaac said they would, but I didn’t believe it. It’s all the better; they will breed, and fill the island full in a few years, and get their own living. Charlie will be glad of it, for he will have them to shoot.”
“But won’t they fly away?”
“No; it’s too far from the main land. They can’t fly but a little way before they have to light. Thus we shall have coons, partridges, and gray squirrels grow at our own door.”
“How nice it will be for Charlie to have all these things right on the island! He loves dearly, after supper, when he has done a good day’s work, to go shooting. How much better it would be, when he was tired and had not much time, to be able to find game here, instead of pulling three or four miles to some ledge or island!”
“Yes, this island is so large, we might have almost anything, except wolves, bears, and foxes; we shouldn’t want them.”
“Ben, what are you going to do with the corn-house that Charlie made? You don’t want two corn-houses.”
“I thought, when I was able, I would cut off the legs, and make a pigsty of it. ’Twould make a capital one. He needn’t have set it up on posts. There are no mice here; but I suppose he thought he must make it just like Uncle Isaac’s.”
“I never would make a pigsty of it in this world, it is so handsome. Charlie took so much pains with it, and was so proud of it when he got it done. Give it to me.”
“What do you want of it?”
“O, I want to keep flax and yarn there in the summer, and perhaps put the loom there.”
“Well, I’ll stop up the openings left to air the corn, and you may have it.”
The partial reformation in James Welch, to which his father referred in the conversation with Captain Rhines, already narrated, proved to be, like too many of those delusive hopes to which fond parents cling as drowning men to straws, void of foundation; and the father, driven to extremity, and perceiving at length that much of the criminal conduct of the son lay at the door of his own indulgence, determined to use sharper measures.
He informed James that he must go to Elm Island for the summer, there struggle with his habits, in the absence of outward temptation, or leave his house forever; that his mother, utterly discouraged, had come to the same conclusion.
James Welch, who, on the 15th of June, came to Elm Island, and became an inmate of Ben’s family, was a young man of superior general ability, remarkable business talent, fine appearance, affectionate, generous disposition, although of hasty temper, and exceedingly attractive in his manners.
He was passionately fond of all out-door recreations; but a drunkard at two-and-twenty. He proved a great accession to the society on Elm Island, being an excellent singer, fond of children, and rare company for Bennie, who was lonely enough without Charlie. They all enjoyed themselves finely, sitting on the door-stone at twilight, and singing together.
It was difficult even for Ben, but especially for Sally, to credit the stories they had heard of him.
As his father had predicted, the first time he came in contact with Uncle Isaac, he conceived a liking for him, which continually increased.
He soon learned to manage a boat; and Captain Rhines let him take his, and keep her at the island, although he took the precaution, unknown to Welch, to cut her sails down.
He would take this boat, and go over to Uncle Isaac’s Point; if he was working, off coat, and help him, in order that Uncle Isaac might be able to fish or hunt with him.
He was naturally of a mechanical turn, and would amuse himself in the shop with the tools. Indeed, he was, with one exception, universally liked. He could not make friends with Tige, and never dared to go to Captain Rhines’s in the evening. With Sailor and Uncle Isaac’s Watch he was a sworn friend; but Tige would have nothing to do with him, and it was by no means safe to force attentions upon Tige.
His attenuated limbs became round and plump with muscle; his haggard cheeks began to crimson; his step regained the elasticity, and his eye the fire, of youth, which seemed forever to have departed.
Uncle Isaac said he was as fine-looking and good-hearted a fellow as ever the sun shone upon.
He learned, after upsetting several times, to manage the birch. Uncle Isaac permitted him to keep her at the island. Thus he had two boats, and when it was calm, would take her, paddle over to the main, and up the river, following all its windings. In one of these excursions, he discovered Pleasant Cove. Enraptured with the beauty of the spot, he carried his canoe around the fall, and paddled up the brook into the pond.
“Ben,” said he, on his return, “I have known people spend thousands of dollars to make a beautiful place, and not obtain anything half so fine as the place I have seen to-day. I mean to ask father to buy it. Would Charlie sell it?”
“When he sells himself,” replied Sally. “Besides, there’s another party as much attached to it as he is.”
“Well, I mean to sketch it, at any rate.”
Matters went on thus pleasantly for some time. James would often start off, taking a luncheon, fishing-lines, cooking utensils, and be gone a day or two, sometimes longer, camping in the woods, sleeping at Captain Rhines’s or Uncle Isaac’s, just as it happened. Sometimes the first thing they would know of him, he would make his appearance at the breakfast-table, having come across in the night.
His parents, who were informed of his good doings by Captain Rhines, and especially of his friendship with Uncle Isaac, with that parental credulity ever prone to catch at the shadow of a hope, were greatly encouraged.
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