upside down! I war a copporal then, and now I’m
a k’-yunnel; a greater man in commission than
war ever my old Major; and the Lord, he nows, I thought
my old Major Forrester war the greatest man in all
Virginnee, next to the G’-yovernor and K’-yunnel
George Washington! Well, you must know, we marched
up the g’yully that runs from the river; and
bang went the savages’ g’-yuns, and smash
went their hatchets; and it came to close quarters,
a regular rough-and-tumble, hard scratch! And
so I war a-head of the Major, and the Major war behind,
and the fight had made him as vicious as a wild cat,
and he war hungry for a shot; and so says he to me,
for I war right afore him, ’Git out of my way,
you damned big rascal, till I git a crack at ‘em!’
And so I got out of his way, for I war mad at being
called a damned big rascal, especially as I war doing
my best, and covering him from mischief besides.
Well! as soon as I jumped out of his way, bang went
his piece, and bang went another, let fly by an Injun;—down
went the Major, shot right through the hips, slam-bang.
And so said I, ’Major,’—for
I warn’t well over my passion,—’if
you’d ‘a’ taken things easy, I’d
‘a’ a stopped that slug for you.’
And so says he, ’Bang away you big fool, and
don’t stand talking.’ And so he swounded
away; and that made me vicious, too, and I killed
two of the red niggurs, before you could say Jack
Robinson, just by way of satisfaction for the Major;
and then I helped to carry him off to the tumbrels.
I never see’d my old Major from that day to
this; and it war only a month ago that I h’ard
of his death. I honour his memory; and so, K’-yaptin,
you see, thar’s a sort of claim to old friendship
between us.”
To this characteristic speech, which was delivered
with great earnestness, Captain Forrester made a suitable
response; and intimating his willingness to accept
the proffered hospitality of his uncle’s companion
in arms, he rode forward with his host and kinswoman
towards the Station, of which, when once fairly relieved
of the forest, he had a clear view.
It seemed unusually populous, as indeed it was; but
Roland, as he rode by, remarked, on the skirts of
the village, a dozen or more shooting-targets set
up on the green, and perceived it was a gala-day which
had drawn the young men from a distance to the fort.
This, in fact, he was speedily told by a youth, whom
the worthy Bruce introduced to him as his eldest son
and namesake, “big Tom Bruce,—the
third of that name; the other two Toms,—for
two others he had had,—having been killed
by the Injuns, and he having changed the boy’s
name, that he might have a Tom in the family.”
The youth was worthy of his father, being full six
feet high, though scarcely yet out of his teens, and
presented a visage of such serene gravity and good-humoured
simplicity as won the affections of the soldier in
a moment.