“Old White Tail, if you were the last buck in the valley, I would not harm you,” said Jonathan, looking at the panting deer. “You need have no farther fear of that pack of cowards.”
So saying Jonathan called to Tige and wended his way down the hill toward the settlement.
An hour afterward he was sitting in Col. Zane’s comfortable cabin, where all was warmth and cheerfulness. Blazing hickory logs roared and crackled in the stone fireplace.
“Hello, Jack, where did you come from?” said Col. Zane, who had just come in. “Haven’t seen you since we were snowed up. Come over to see about the horses? If I were you I would not undertake that trip to Fort Pitt until the weather breaks. You could go in the sled, of course, but if you care anything for my advice you will stay home. This weather will hold on for some time. Let Lord Dunmore wait.”
“I guess we are in for some stiff weather.”
“Haven’t a doubt of it. I told Bessie last fall we might expect a hard winter. Everything indicated it. Look at the thick corn-husks. The hulls of the nuts from the shell-bark here in the yard were larger and tougher than I ever saw them. Last October Tige killed a raccoon that had the wooliest kind of a fur. I could have given you a dozen signs of a hard winter. We shall still have a month or six weeks of it. In a week will be ground-hog day and you had better wait and decide after that.”
“I tell you, Eb, I get tired chopping wood and hanging round the house.”
“Aha! another moody spell,” said Col. Zane, glancing kindly at his brother. “Jack, if you were married you would outgrow those ‘blue-devils.’ I used to have them. It runs in the family to be moody. I have known our father to take his gun and go into the woods and stay there until he had fought out the spell. I have done that myself, but once I married Bessie I have had no return of the old feeling. Get married, Jack, and then you will settle down and work. You will not have time to roam around alone in the woods.”
“I prefer the spells, as you call them, any day,” answered Jonathan, with a short laugh. “A man with my disposition has no right to get married. This weather is trying, for it keeps me indoors. I cannot hunt because we do not need the meat. And even if I did want to hunt I should not have to go out of sight of the fort. There were three deer in front of the barn this morning. They were nearly starved. They ran off a little at sight of me, but in a few moments came back for the hay I pitched out of the loft. This afternoon Tige and I saved a big buck from a pack of wolves. The buck came right up to me. I could have touched him. This storm is sending the deer down from the hills.”
“You are right. It is too bad. Severe weather like this will kill more deer than an army could. Have you been doing anything with your traps?”
“Yes, I have thirty traps out.”
“If you are going, tell Sam to fetch down another load of fodder before he unhitches.”
“Eb, I have no patience with your brothers,” said Col. Zane’s wife to him after he had closed the door. “They are all alike; forever wanting to be on the go. If it isn’t Indians it is something else. The very idea of going up the river in this weather. If Jonathan doesn’t care for himself he should think of the horses.”
“My dear, I was just as wild and discontented as Jack before I met you,” remarked Col. Zane. “You may not think so, but a home and pretty little woman will do wonders for any man. My brothers have nothing to keep them steady.”
“Perhaps. I do not believe that Jonathan ever will get married. Silas may; he certainly has been keeping company long enough with Mary Bennet. You are the only Zane who has conquered that adventurous spirit and the desire to be always roaming the woods in search of something to kill. Your old boy, Noah, is growing up like all the Zanes. He fights with all the children in the settlement. I cannot break him of it. He is not a bully, for I have never known him to do anything mean or cruel. It is just sheer love of fighting.”
“Ha! Ha! I fear you will not break him of that,” answered Col. Zane. “It is a good joke to say he gets it all from the Zanes. How about the McCollochs? What have you to say of your father and the Major and John McColloch? They are not anything if not the fighting kind. It’s the best trait the youngster could have, out here on the border. He’ll need it all. Don’t worry about him. Where is Betty?”
“I told her to take the children out for a sled ride. Betty needs exercise. She stays indoors too much, and of late she looks pale.”
“What! Betty not looking well! She was never ill in her life. I have noticed no change in her.”
“No, I daresay you have not. You men can’t see anything. But I can, and I tell you, Betty is very different from the girl she used to be. Most of the time she sits and gazes out of her window. She used to be so bright, and when she was not romping with the children she busied herself with her needle. Yesterday as I entered her room she hurriedly picked up a book, and, I think, intentionally hid her face behind it. I saw she had been crying.”
“Come to think of it, I believe I have missed Betty,” said Col. Zane, gravely. “She seems more quiet. Is she unhappy? When did you first see this change?”
“I think it a little while after Mr. Clarke left here last fall.”
“Clarke! What has he to do with Betty? What are you driving at?” exclaimed the Colonel, stopping in front of his wife. His faced had paled slightly. “I had forgotten Clarke. Bess, you can’t mean—”
“Now, Eb, do not get that look on your face. You always frighten me,” answered his wife, as she quietly placed her hand on his arm. “I do not mean anything much, certainly nothing against Mr. Clarke. He was a true gentleman. I really liked him.”
“So did I,” interrupted the Colonel.
“I believe Betty cared for Mr. Clarke. She was always different with him. He has gone away and has forgotten her. That is strange to us, because we cannot imagine any one indifferent to our beautiful Betty. Nevertheless, no matter how attractive a woman may be men sometimes love and ride away. I hear the children coming now. Do not let Betty see that we have been talking about her. She is as quick as a steel trap.”
A peal of childish laughter came from without. The door opened and Betty ran in, followed by the sturdy, rosy-checked youngsters. All three were white with snow.
“We have had great fun,” said Betty. “We went over the bank once and tumbled off the sled into the snow. Then we had a snow-balling contest, and the boys compelled me to strike my colors and fly for the house.”
Col. Zane looked closely at his sister. Her cheeks were flowing with health; her eyes were sparkling with pleasure. Failing to observe any indication of the change in Betty which his wife had spoken, he concluded that women were better qualified to judge their own sex than were men. He had to confess to himself that the only change he could see in his sister was that she grew prettier every day of her life.
“Oh, papa. I hit Sam right in the head with a big snow-ball, and I made Betty run into the house, and I slid down to all by myself. Sam was afraid,” said Noah to his father.
“Noah, if Sammy saw the danger in sliding down the hill he was braver than you. Now both of you run to Annie and have these wet things taken off.”
“I must go get on dry clothes myself,” said Betty. “I am nearly frozen. It is growing colder. I saw Jack come in. Is he going to Fort Pitt?”
“No. He has decided to wait until good weather. I met Mr. Miller over at the garrison this afternoon and he wants you to go on the sled-ride tonight. There is to be a dance down at Watkins’ place. All the young people are going. It is a long ride, but I guess it will be perfectly safe. Silas and Wetzel are going. Dress yourself warmly and go with them. You have never seen old Grandma Watkins.”
“I shall be pleased to go,”