The Golden Dream: Adventures in the Far West by R. M. Ballantyne (book recommendations for teens .TXT) đ
- Author: R. M. Ballantyne
Book online «The Golden Dream: Adventures in the Far West by R. M. Ballantyne (book recommendations for teens .TXT) đ». Author R. M. Ballantyne
âEaten!â exclaimed the hunter, in surprise, âin coorse they is. Theyâre uncommon good eatinâ too, I guess. Many a one Iâve killed anâ eaten myself; anâ I like âem better than beefâI do. I shot one up in the hills there two days agone, anâ supped off him; but beinâ in a hurry, I left the carcase to the coyotes.â (Coyotes are small wolves.)
The men assembled round the rude table dâhĂŽte were fifteen in number, including our adventurers, and represented at least six different nationsâEnglish, Scotch, Irish, German, Yankee, and Chinese. Most of them, however, were Yankees, and all were gold-diggers; even the hunter just referred to, although he had not altogether forsaken his former calling, devoted much of his time to searching for gold. Some, like our friends, were on their way to the diggings for the first time; others were returning with provisions, which they had travelled to Sacramento city to purchase; and one or two were successful diggers who had made their âpiles,ââin other words, their fortunesâand were returning home with heavy purses of gold-dust and nuggets.
Good humour was the prevailing characteristic of the party, for each man was either successful or sanguinely hopeful, and all seemed to be affected by a sort of undercurrent of excitement, as they listened to, or related, their adventures at the mines. There was only one serious drawback to the scene, and that was, the perpetual and terrible swearing that mingled with the conversation. The Americans excelled in this wicked practice. They seemed to labour to invent oaths, not for the purpose of venting angry feelings, but apparently with the view of giving emphasis to their statements and assertions. The others swore from habit. They had evidently ceased to be aware that they were using oathsâso terribly had familiarity with sinful practices blunted the consciences of men who, in early life, would probably have trembled in this way to break the law of God.
Yes, by the way, there was one other drawback to the otherwise picturesque and interesting group, and this was the spitting propensity of the Yankees. All over the floorâthat floor, too, on which other men besides themselves were to reposeâthey discharged tobacco-juice and spittle. The nation cannot be too severely blamed and pitied for this disgusting practice, yet we feel a tendency, not to excuse, but to deal gently with individuals, most of whom, having been trained to spitting from their infancy, cannot be expected even to understand the abhorrence with which the practice is regarded by men of other nations.
Nevertheless, brother Jonathan, it is not too much to expect that you ought to respect the universal condemnation of your spitting propensitiesâby travellers from all landsâand endeavour to believe that ejecting saliva promiscuously is a dirty practice, even although you cannot feel it. We think that if you had the moral courage to pass a law in Congress to render spitting on floors and carpets a capital offence, you would fill the world with admiration and your own bosoms with self-respect, not to mention the benefit that would accrue to your digestive powers in consequence thereof!
All of the supper party were clad and armed in the rough-and-ready style already referred to, and most of them were men of the lower ranks, but there were one or two who, like Ned Sinton, had left a more polished class of mortals to mingle in the promiscuous crowd. These, in some cases, carried their manners with them, and exerted a modifying influence on all around. One young American, in particular, named Maxton, soon attracted general attention by the immense fund of information he possessed, and the urbane, gentlemanly manner in which he conveyed it to those around him. He possessed in an eminent degree those qualities which attract men at once, and irresistibly good nature, frankness, manliness, considerable knowledge of almost every subject that can be broached in general conversation, united with genuine modesty. When he sat down to table he did not grasp everything within his reach; he began by offering to carve and help others, and when at length he did begin to eat, he did not gobble. He âguessedâ a little, it is true, and âcalculatedâ occasionally, but when he did so, it was in a tone that fell almost as pleasantly on the ear as the brogue of old Ireland.
Ned happened to be seated beside Maxton, and held a good deal of conversation with him.
âForgive me, if I appear inquisitive,â said the former, helping himself to a handful of broken biscuit, âbut I cannot help expressing a hope that our routes may lie in the same directionâare you travelling towards Sacramento city or the mines?â
âTowards the mines; and, as I observed that your party came from the southward, I suppose you are going in the same direction. If so, I shall be delighted to join you.â
âThatâs capital,â replied Ned, âwe shall be the better of having our party strengthened, and I am quite certain we could not have a more agreeable addition to it.â
âThank you for the compliment. As to the advantage of a strong party, I feel it a safeguard as well as a privilege to join yours, for, to say truth, the roads are not safe just now. Several lawless scoundrels have been roving about in this part of the country committing robberies and even murder. The Indians, too, are not so friendly as one could wish. They have been treated badly by some of the unprincipled miners; and their custom is to kill two whites for every red-man that falls. They are not particular as to whom they kill, consequently the innocent are frequently punished for the guilty.â
âThis is sad,â replied Ned. âAre, then, all the Indian tribes at enmity with the white men?â
âBy no means. Many tribes are friendly, but some have been so severely handled, that they have vowed revenge, and take it whenever they can with safety. Their only weapons, however, are bows and arrows, so that a few resolute white men, with rifles, can stand against a hundred of them, and they know this well. I spent the whole of last winter on the Yuba River; and, although large bands were in my neighbourhood, they never ventured to attack us openly, but they succeeded in murdering one or two miners who strayed into the woods alone.â
âAnd are these murders passed over without any attempt to bring the murderers to justice?â
âI guess they are not,â replied Maxton, smiling; âbut justice is strangely administered in these parts. Judge Lynch usually presides, and he is a stern fellow to deal with. If you listen to what the hunter, there, is saying just now, you will hear a case in point, if I mistake not.â
As Maxton spoke, a loud laugh burst from the men at the other end of the table.
âHow did it happen?â cried several.
âOut wiâ the yarn, old boy.â
âAy, anâ donât spin it too tight, or, faix, yeâll burst the strands,â cried Larry OâNeil, who, during the last half-hour, had been listening, open-mouthed, to the marvellous anecdotes of grizzlies and red-skins, with which the hunter entertained his audience.
âWall, boys, it happened this ways,â began the man, tossing off a gin-sling, and setting down the glass with a violence that nearly smashed it. âYe see I wos up in the mountains, near the head waters oâ the Sacramento, lookinâ out for deer, and gittinâ a bit oâ gold now anâ again, when, one day, as I was a-cominâ down a gully in the hills, I comes all of a suddint on two men. One wos an Injun, as ugly a sinner as iver I seed; tâother wos a Yankee lad, in a hole digginâ gold. Before my two eyes were well on them, the red villain lets fly an arrow, and the man fell down with a loud yell into the hole. Up goes my rifle like wink, and the red-skin would haâ gone onder in another second, but my piece snappedâcause why? the priminâ had got damp; anâ afore I could prime agin, he was gone.
âI went up to the poor critter, and sure enough it wos all up with him. The arrow went in at the back oâ his neck. He niver spoke again. So I laid him in the grave he had dug for himself, and sot off to tell the camp. Anâ a most tremendous row the news made. They got fifty volunteers in no time, and went off, hot-fut, to scalp the whole nation. As I had other business to look after, and there seemed more than enough oâ fightinâ men, I left them, and went my way. Two days after, I had occasion to go back to the same place, anâ when I comed in sight oâ the camp, I guess there was a mighty stir.
ââWotâs to do?â says I to a miner in a hole, who wos digginâ away for gold, and carinâ nothinâ about it.
ââOnly scragginâ an Injun,â he said, lookinâ up.
ââOh,â says I, âIâll go and see.â
âSo off I sot, and there wos a crowd oâ about two hundred miners round a tree; and, jest as I come up, they wos puttinâ the rope round the neck of a poor wretch of an old grey-haired red-skin, whose limbs trembled so that they wos scarce able to hold him up.
ââHeave away now, Bill,â cried the man as tied the noose.
âBut somethinâ was wrong with the hitch oâ the rope round the branch oâ the tree, anâ it wouldnât draw, and some time wos spent in puttinâ it right. I felt sorter sorry for the old man, for his grave face was bold enough, and age more than fear had to do with the tremblinâ oâ his legs. Before they got it right again, my eye fell on a small band oâ red-skins, who were lookinâ quietly on; and foremost among them the very blackguard as shot the man in the galley. I knew him at once by his ugly face. Without sayinâ a word, I steps forâard to the old Injun, and takes the noose off his neck.
ââHalloo!â cried a dozen men, jumpinâ at me. âWotâs that for?â âScrag the hunter,â cries one. âHowld yer long tongues, anâ hear what heâs got to say,â shouts an Irishman.
ââKeep your minds easy,â says I, mountinâ a stump, âanâ seize that Injun, or Iâll have to put a ball into him before he gits offââfor, ye see, I obsarved the black villain took fright, and was sneakinâ away through the crowd. They had no doubt who I meant, for I pinted straight at him; and, before ye could wink, he was gripped, and led under the tree, with a face paler than ever I saw the face oâ a red-skin before.
ââNow,â says I, âwot for are ye scragginâ this old man?â So they told me how the party that went off to git the murderer met a band oâ injuns cominâ to deliver him up to be killed, they said, for murderinâ the white man. Anâ they gave up this old Injun, sayinâ he wos the murderer. The diggers believed it, and returned with the old boy and two or three others that came to see him fixed off.
ââVery good,â says I, âye donât seem to remimber that Iâm the man what saw the murder, and told ye of it. By good luck, Iâve come in time to point him outâanâ this is him.â Anâ with that I put the noose round the villainâs neck and drawed it tight. At that he made a great start to shake it off, and clear away; but before you could wink, he was swinginâ at the branch oâ the tree, twinty feet in the air.
âSarved him right,â cried several of the men, emphatically, as the hunter concluded his anecdote.
âAy,â he continued, âanâ they strung up his six friends beside him.â
âSarved âem right too,â remarked the tall
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