Out on the Pampas: or, The Young Settlers

The boys entered enthusiastically into the scheme, and the party went at once to inspect the spot which Mr. Hardy had fixed upon for the dam. This, it was agreed, should be commenced the very next day; and Mr. Hardy said that he had no doubt, if the earth was properly puddled, or stamped when wet, that it would keep the water from coming through.

In the afternoon Mrs. Hardy, Maud, and Ethel were taken a ride round the property, and were fortunate enough to see some ostriches, to the great delight of the girls.

At tea Mr. Hardy said: ‘There is one very important point connected with our place which has hitherto been unaccountably neglected. Do any of you know what it is?’

The boys and their sisters looked at each other in great perplexity, and in vain endeavoured to think of any important omission.

‘I mean,’ their father said at last, ‘the place has no name. I suggest that we fix upon one at once. It is only marked in the Government plan as Lot 473. Now, what name shall it be?’

Innumerable were the suggestions made, but none met with universal approbation. At last Mrs. Hardy said: ‘I have heard in England of a place called Mount Pleasant, though I confess I do not know where it is. Now, what do you say to Mount Pleasant? It is a mount, and we mean it to be a very pleasant place before we have done with it.’

The approval of the suggestion was general, and amid great applause it was settled that the house and estate should hereafter go by the name of ‘Mount Pleasant.’

In the morning the boys were at work at two wheelbarrows, for which Mr. Hardy had brought out wheels and iron-work; and Mr. Hardy and the men went down to the stream, and began to strip off the turf and to dig out a strip of land five-and-twenty feet wide along the line where the dam was to come. The earth was then wetted and puddled. When the barrows were completed they were brought into work; and in ten days a dam was raised eight feet high, three feet wide at the top, and twenty-five feet wide at the bottom. In the middle a space of two feet wide was left, through which the little stream at present ran. Two posts, with grooves in them, were driven in, one upon either side of this; and thus the work was left for a few days, for the sun to bake its surface, while the men were cutting a trench for the water to run down to the ground to be irrigated.

A small sluice was put at the entrance to this, to regulate the quantity of water to be allowed to flow, and all was now in readiness to complete the final operation of closing up the dam. A quantity of earth was first collected and puddled, and piled on the top of the dam and on the slopes by its side, so as to be in readiness, and Mrs. Hardy and the girls came down to watch the operation.

First a number of boards two feet long, and cut to fit the grooves, were slipped down into them, forming a solid wall, and then upon the upper side of these the puddled earth was thrown down into the water, Terence standing below in the stream and pounding down the earth with a rammer. The success was complete: in a couple of hours’ time the gap in the dam was filled up, and they had the satisfaction of seeing the little stream overflowing its banks and widening out above, while not a drop of water made its escape by the old channel.

While this work had been going on, the boys had been engaged up at the house. The first thing was to make a churn, then to put up some large closets and some more shelves, and the bullock-carts had to be sent to Rosario for a fresh supply of planks. This occupied them until the dam was finished. The girls had tried their first experiment at butter, and the result had been most satisfactory. The dinners, too, were pronounced to be an immense improvement upon the old state of things.

Soon after the dam was finished, Hans, who had been too long a rover to settle down, expressed his desire to leave; and as Mr. Hardy had determined to lessen his establishment, – as, now that the heavy work was over, it was no longer necessary to keep so many hands, – he offered no objection to his leaving without the notice he had agreed to give. Wages were high, and Mr. Hardy was desirous of keeping his remaining capital in hand, in case of his sheep and cattle being driven off by the Indians. One of the peons was also discharged, and there remained only Lopez, Seth, Terence, and two peons.

CHAPTER VI.

A TALE OF THE MEXICAN WAR

MR. HARDY was rather surprised at Seth Harper, the Yankee, having remained so long in his service, as the man had plainly stated, when first engaged, that he thought it likely that he should not fix himself, as he expressed it, for many weeks. However, he stayed on, and had evidently taken a fancy to the boys; and was still more interested in the girls, whose talk and ways must have been strange and very pleasant to him after so many years’ wandering as a solitary man. He was generally a man of few words, using signs where signs would suffice, and making his answers, when obliged to speak, as brief as possible. This habit of taciturnity was no doubt acquired from a long life passed either alone, or amid dangers where an unnecessary sound might have cost him his life. To the young people, however, he would relax from his habitual rule of silence. Of an evening, when work was over, they would go down to the bench he had erected outside his hut, and would ask him to tell them tales of his Indian experiences. Upon one of these occasions Charley said to him: ‘But of all the near escapes that you have had, which was the most hazardous you ever had? which do you consider was the narrowest touch you ever had of being killed?’

Seth considered for some time in silence, turned his plug of tobacco in his mouth, expectorated two or three times, as was his custom when thinking, and then said, ‘That’s not altogether an easy question to answer. I’ve been so near wiped out such scores of times, that it ain’t no easy job to say which was the downright nearest. In thinking it over, I conclude sometimes that one go was the nearest, sometimes that another; it ain’t no ways easy to say now. But I think that, at the time, I never so much felt that Seth Harper’s time for going down had come, as I did in an affair near San Louis.’

‘And how was that, Seth? Do tell us about it,’ Maud said.

‘It’s rather a long story, that is,’ the Yankee said.

‘All the better, Seth,’ Charley said; ‘at least all the better as far as we are concerned, if you don’t mind telling it.’

‘No, I don’t mind, no how,’ Seth answered. ‘I’ll just think it over, and see where to begin.’

There was a silence for a few minutes, and the young Hardys composed themselves comfortably for a good long sitting, and then Seth Harper began his story.

‘Better than five years back, in ’47, I were fighting in Mexico. It wasn’t much regular up and down fighting we had, though we had some toughish battles too, but it were skirmishing here, skirmishing there, keeping one eye always open, for man, woman, and child hated us like pison, and it was little mercy that a straggler might expect if he got caught away from his friends. Their partisan chiefs, half-soldier half-robber, did us more harm than the regulars, and mercy was never given or asked between them and us. Me and Rube Pearson worked mostly together. We had “fit” the Indians out on the prairies for years side by side, and when Uncle Sam wanted men to lick the Mexicans, we concluded to go in together. We ’listed as scouts to the “Rangers,” that is, we agreed to fight as much as we were wanted to fight, and to go on in front as scouts, in which way we had many a little skrimmage on our own account; but we didn’t wear any uniform, or do drill, which couldn’t have been expected of us. We shouldn’t have been no good as regulars, and every one knew that there were no better scouts in the army than Rube Pearson and Seth Harper. Lor’, what a fellow Rube was, to be sure! I ain’t a chicken,’ and the Yankee looked down at his own bony limbs, ‘but I was a baby by the side of Rube. He were six feet four if he were an inch, and so broad that he looked short unless you saw him by the side of another man. I do believe Rube Pearson were the strongest man in the world. I have heard,’ Seth went on, meditating, ‘of a chap called Samson: folks say he were a strong fellow. I never came across any one who had rightly met him, but a good many have heard speak of him. I should like to have seen him and Rube in the grips. I expect Rube would have astonished him. Rube came from Missouri, – most of them very big chaps do. I shouldn’t wonder if Samson did, though I never heard for certain.’

The young Hardys had great difficulty to prevent themselves from laughing aloud at Seth’s idea on the subject of Samson. Charley, however, with a great effort, steadied himself to say, ‘Samson died a great many years ago, Seth. His history is in the Bible.’

‘Is it though?’ Seth said, much interested. ‘Well now, what did he do?’

‘He carried away the gates of Gaza on his back, Seth.’

Seth remained thoughtful for some time. ‘It all depends on how big the gates were,’ he said at last. ‘That gate down there is a pretty heavyish one, but Rube Pearson could have carried away two sich as that, and me sitting on the top of them. What else did he do?’

‘He was bound in new cords, and he broke them asunder, Seth.’

Seth did not appear to attach much importance to this, and inquired, ‘Did he do anything else?’

‘He killed three hundred men with the jawbone of an ass.’

‘He killed – ’ Seth began, and then paused in sheer astonishment. Then he looked sharply round: ‘You’re making fun of me, lad.’

‘No, indeed, Seth,’ Charley said; ‘it is quite true.’

‘What! that a man killed three hundred men with the jawbone of an ass? It couldn’t have been; it was sheer impossible, – unless they were all asleep, and even then it would be an awful job.’

‘I don’t know how it was, Seth, but the Bible tells us, and so it must be true. I think it was a sort of miracle.’

‘Oh it was a miracle!’ Seth said thoughtfully, and then remained silent, evidently pondering in his own mind as to what a miracle was, but not liking to ask.

‘It was a very long time ago, Seth, and they were no doubt a different people then.’

‘Was it a very, very long time back?’ Seth asked.

‘Yes, Seth; a very, very, very long time.’

‘Ah!’ Seth said in a thoughtful but more satisfied tone, ‘I understand now. I expect it’s that. It’s the same thing among the Indians: they have got stories of chiefs who died ever so long ago, who used to be tremendous fellows, – traditions they call ’em. I don’t expect they were any braver than they are now; but a thing grows, you see, like a tree, with age. Lor’ bless ’em! if they tell such tales now about a Jew, what will they do some day about Rube Pearson?’

The young Hardys could stand it no longer, but went off into a scream of laughter, which even the surprised and offended looks of the ignorant and simple-minded, but shrewd, Yankee could not check. So offended was he, indeed, that no entreaties or explanations were sufficient to mollify him, and the story was abruptly broken off. It was not for two or three days that the boys’ explanation and assurance sufficed; and then, when Charley had explained the whole history of Samson to him, he said:

‘I have no doubt that it is all true, and I wish I could read it for myself. I can just remember that my mother put a great store on her Bible, and called it the good book. I can’t read myself, and shouldn’t have time to do it if I could; so it’s all one as far as that goes. I am just a hunter and Indian fighter, and I don’t know that for years I have ever stopped so long under a roof as I have here. My religion is the religion of most of us out on the prairies. Be honest and true to your word. Stick to a friend to death, and never kill a man except in fair fight. That’s about all, and I hope it will do; at any rate, it’s too late for me to try and learn a new one now. I listen on a Sunday to your father’s reading, and I wish sometimes I had been taught; and yet it’s better as it is. A man who acted like that wouldn’t be much good for a rough life on the prairies, though I have no doubt it could be done in the settlements. Now I must go on with my work. If you and the others will come over to the hut this evening, I will go on with that yarn I was just beginning.’

After tea the young Hardys went down to the hut, outside which they found Seth awaiting their arrival. They were now comfortably seated, and Seth, without further introduction, went on.

‘One day our captain sent for Rube and me, and says, “I’ve got a job for you two scouts. It’s a dangerous one, but you won’t like it any the worse for that, I know.”

‘“Not a bit,” said Rube with a laugh. He was the lightest-hearted fellow, was Rube; always gay and jolly, and wouldn’t have hurt a squirrel, except in stand-up fight and as a matter of business.

‘“What is it, Cap?” said I; “you’ve only got to give us the word, and we’re off.”

‘“I’ve had a message,” he said, “from Colonel Cabra of their service, that he is ready to turn traitor, and hand us over some correspondence of Santa Anna, of which he has somehow got possessed. Being a traitor, he won’t trust any one, and the only plan we can hit upon is, that he shall make a journey to San Miguel, thirty miles north of this, as if on business. I am to make an expedition in that direction, and am to take him prisoner. He will then hand over the papers. We shall bring him here, and, after keeping him for a time, let him go on parole. No suspicion will therefore at any future time arise against him, which there might be if we met in any other way. The papers are very important, and the affair must not be suffered to slip through. The country between this and San Miguel is peaceful enough, but we hear that El Zeres’ band is out somewhere in that direction. He has something like two hundred cut-throats with him of his own, and there is a rumour that other bands have joined him. Now I want you to go on to-morrow to San Miguel. Go in there after dusk, and take up your quarters at this address: it is a small wine-shop in a street off the market. Get up as Mexicans; it only requires a big cloak and a sombrero. You can both speak Spanish well enough to pass muster. Stay all next day, and till daybreak on the morning afterwards, and then ride back on this road. You will find out in the first place whether Cabra has arrived, and in the next place whether El Zeres is in the neighbourhood. I shall only bring forty men, as I do not wish it to be supposed that I am going on more than a mere scouting expedition. You understand?”

‘“All right, Cap; we’ll do it,” I said, and we went off to our quarters.

‘I can’t say I altogether liked the job. It was a long way from headquarters, and, do what they may, two men can’t fight more than, say, ten or a dozen. I was rather surprised to see by Rube’s face that he rather liked it; but I did not find out till late that night what it was pleased him, – then the truth came out.

‘“We had better start early, Seth,” said he; “say at daybreak.”

‘“What for, Rube?” I said; “the Cap said we were to go in after dusk. It’s only thirty miles; we shan’t want to start till three o’clock.”

‘Rube laughed. “I don’t want to get there before dusk, but I want to start at daybreak, and I’ll tell you why. You remember Pepita?”

‘“There,” said I, “if I didn’t think it had something to do with a woman. You are always running after some one, Rube. They will get you into a scrape some day.”

‘Rube laughed. “I am big enough to get out of it if it does, Seth; but you know I did feel uncommon soft towards Pepita, and really thought of marrying and taking her back to Missouri.”

‘“Only she wouldn’t come, Rube?”

‘“Just so, Seth,” said he, laughing. “So we agreed we would be the best friends; and she asked me, if ever I went out to San Miguel, to go and see her. She said her father was generally out, but would be glad to see me if he were in. She lives in a small hacienda, a league this side of the town.”

‘I saw that it was of no use to argue, but I didn’t like it. The Mexican women hated us worse than the men did, and that warn’t easy to do; and many of our fellows had been murdered after being enticed by them to out-of-the-way places. Still, in the present case, I did not see that the girl could have expected that Rube would be there unless the rest of us were near at hand, and I did not attempt to oppose Rube’s wishes.

‘So next morning off we started, and by ten o’clock we rode up to the door of the place which Rube said answered to the description Pepita had given him. It was a pretty place, with trees round it, and might have been the residence of a small proprietor such as Pepita had described her father to be. As we rode up to the door it opened, and I saw at once that Rube were right, for a dark-eyed Mexican girl came out and looked at us inquiringly.

‘“What can I do for you, senors?” she asked.

‘“Don’t you remember me, Donna Pepita?” Rube said, laughing as he lifted the sombrero which had shaded his face.

‘The girl started violently. “Ah, Signor Americano, is it you? I might have known, indeed,” she said, smiling, “by your size, even wrapped up. This, of course, is Signor Seth: you are always together. But come in,” she said.

‘“Who have you got inside, Donna Pepita?” Rube asked. “I know that I can trust you, but I can’t trust others, and I don’t want it known I am here.”

‘“The house is empty,” Pepita said. “My father is out. There is only old Jacinta at home.”

‘At this moment an old woman made her appearance at the door, and at a word from Pepita took our horses, while Pepita signed to us to enter.

‘“Excuse me, signora,” I said. “We will go first and see our horses stabled. It is our custom; one never knows when he may want them.”

‘I thought Pepita looked annoyed, but it was only for a moment, and then she said something in one of the country dialects to the old woman. She nodded her head, and went off round to the back of the house, we leading our horses, and following her. The stables, I observed, were singularly large and well kept for a house of its size; but, to my surprise, instead of going to the long range of buildings, the old woman led the way to a small shed.

‘“Ain’t these stables?” said I.

‘She shook her head, and said in Spanish, “They were once, but we have only two horses. Now they are used as a store for grain; the master has the key.”

‘I could not contradict her, though I believed she was telling me a lie. However, we fastened our horses up in the shed, put the pistols from our holsters into our belts, and, taking our rifles in our hands, entered the house.

‘Pepita received us very warmly, and busied herself assisting the old woman to get us something to eat; after which she and Rube began love-making, and it really seemed as if the girl meant to change her mind, and go back with Rube, after all. There was nothing, in fact, to justify my feeling uneasy, except that, while Pepita had promised me when I entered the house not to tell the old woman who we were, I was convinced that she had done so by the glances of scowling hatred which the old hag threw at us whenever she came into the room. Still I was uneasy, and shortly made some excuse to leave the room and saunter round and about the house, to assure myself that Pepita had spoken truly when she had said that there was no one there except the old woman and herself. I found nothing to excite the smallest suspicion, and was therefore content to return to the room and to throw myself lazily down and go off for a siesta, in the wakeful intervals of which I could hear that Pepita had given way, and that the delighted Rube was arranging with her how she should escape and join him when the army retired; for of course neither had any idea that her father would consent to her marrying one of the hated enemies of his country.

‘At three o’clock I roused myself, and soon after the old woman came into the room with some lemonade. I observed that Pepita changed colour, but she said nothing, and a moment after, making some excuse, she left the room. I was about to speak to Rube on the subject, when the window was darkened with men. Five or six shots were fired at us, and with a yell a crowd of Mexicans rushed into the room.

‘As they appeared, Rube sprang up with the exclamation, “Trapped, by thunder!” and then fell flat on his back, shot, I believed, through the head.

‘I rushed to my rifle, seized it, but before I could get it to my shoulder it was knocked from my hand. Half a dozen fellows threw themselves upon me, and I was a prisoner. I didn’t try to resist when they laid hands on me, because I knew I should have a knife in me at once; and though I knew my life was not worth an hour’s purchase – no, nor five minutes’ – after I was caught, still, upon the whole, it was as well to live that five minutes as not.

‘There was such a hubbub and a shouting at first that I couldn’t hear a word, but at last I picked up that they were a party of the band of El Zeres, who was in the neighbourhood, and had been fetched by a boy that traitress Pepita had despatched for them directly we arrived. Pepita herself was wife of one of the other chiefs of the band. Much fun was made of poor Rube and myself about our courting. I felt mad with myself for having been caught so foolishly. I couldn’t feel angry with Rube, with him lying dead there, but I was angry with myself for having listened to him. I oughtn’t to have allowed him to have his own way. I warn’t in love, and I ought to have known that a man’s head, when he’s after a gal, is no more use than a pumpkin. While I was thinking this out in my mind I had my eyes fixed upon poor Rube, whom no one thought of noticing, when all of a sudden I gave quite a start, for I saw him move. I couldn’t see his face, but I saw a hand stealing gradually out towards the leg of a man who stood near. Then there was a pause, and then the other hand began to move. It wasn’t at all like the aimless way that the arms of a badly hit man would move, and I saw at once that Rube had been playing “possum” all along.’

‘Doing what, Seth?’ Ethel asked.

‘Just pretending to be dead. I held my breath, for I saw he had come to the conclusion that he could not be overlooked much longer, and was going to make a move.

‘In another minute there was a crash and a shout as the two men fell to the ground with their legs knocked clean from under them, catching hold of other men and dragging them down with them. From the midst of the confusion Rube leapt to his feet and made a rush for the window; one man he levelled with a blow of his fist; another he caught up as if he had been a baby, and hurling him against two others, brought them on the ground together, and then leaping over their bodies, dashed through the window before the Mexicans had recovered from their astonishment. I could have laughed out loud at the yell of rage and amazement with which they set off in pursuit; but two or three of them remained to guard me, and I might have got a knife in my ribs, so I kept quiet. I did just feel so glad to see Rube was alive, that I hardly remembered that it warn’t likely that either he or I would be so long, for I did not for a moment expect that he would make good his escape. The odds were too great against it, especially in broad daylight. Even on horseback it would be next to impossible. No one but Rube would have attempted such a thing; but he never stopped to think about odds or chances when his dander was up. In less than no time I heard a shot or two, then there was a silence for a time, then a shout of triumph. I knew it was all over, and that Rube was taken again.

‘He told me afterwards that he had made a dash round to the stable, where he had found seven or eight Mexicans looking after the horses; that he had knocked down one or two who were in his way, had leapt upon the nearest animal, and had made off at the top of his speed, but that a dozen others were after him in an instant; and seeing that he would be lassoed and thrown from his horse, he had stopped and thrown up his arms in token of surrender. Rube’s hands were bound tightly behind him, and he was led back into the room.

‘He gave a loud laugh when he saw me: “That was a boy’s trick; wasn’t it, Seth? But I couldn’t have helped it if I had been shot a minute afterwards. There were those fellows’ legs moving about me just as if I was a log of wood. The thoughts came across me, ‘A good sharp rap above the ankle and over you’d go;’ and when I’d once thought of it, I was obliged to do it. It was fun, though, Seth; wasn’t it?”