The Boy Trapper eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 240 pages of information about The Boy Trapper.

The Boy Trapper eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 240 pages of information about The Boy Trapper.
time, and Godfrey told him a most astounding piece of news.  It wasn’t old Jordan at all whom they had captured the night before, it was Don Gordon.  Godfrey was sure of it, for he had heard him whistle as nobody in the world except Don Gordon could whistle.  As soon as Clarence recovered from his amazement and terror, he mounted Don’s pony and set out for the potato-cellar to see for himself.  When he reached it, he found that the prisoner had already been liberated by somebody (it was Bert, who was guided to his place of confinement by Don’s loud and continued whistling) and was no doubt on the way home by that time.  What was Clarence to do?  Of course he could not go back to the plantation and face his relatives after what he had done, and there was no other house in the settlement open to him.  Just then he heard the whistle of a steamer coming up the river, and that settled the matter for him.  He would go home.  He jumped on the pony and was riding post haste toward the landing when he was waylaid by Godfrey Evans, who robbed him of twenty dollars, all the money he had in the world.  As soon as he was released, Clarence made his way to the landing on foot, reaching it just in time to secure passage on the Emma Deane, pawned his watch for money enough to pay his way home, and finally reached his father’s house in safety, only to be packed off to sea on the school-ship, where he remains to this day.

Don Gordon reached home with his brother’s assistance, and has been a close prisoner there ever since, not yet having recovered from the effects of his night in the potato-cellar.  Godfrey Evans is hiding in the swamp somewhere, fearing that if he comes home he will be arrested for three offences—­robbing Clarence, assaulting Don, and trying to steal the eighty thousand dollars, which he still firmly believes to be hidden in the potato-patch.  A week has passed since the occurrence of the events which we have so rapidly reviewed, and now that you are acquainted with them, we are prepared to resume our story.

“And if your father doesn’t come back, how are we to live this winter?” asked Mrs. Evans, continuing the conversation which we have so long interrupted.  “How is he to live?”

“His living will trouble him more than ours will trouble us,” replied David, who, knowing that he was his mother’s main dependence now, tried hard to keep up a brave heart.  “It will be cold out there in the swamp pretty soon.  I saw a flock of wild geese in the lake this morning, and that is a sure sign that winter is close at hand.  Father had no coat on when he went away, and he was barefooted, too.  And as for our living, mother, who’s kept you in clothes and coffee, sugar and tea, for the last year?”

“You have, David.  I don’t know what I should do without you.  You are a great comfort to me.”

“And I’m never going to be anything else, mother.  I never made you cry, did I?  I ain’t going to, either.  I can take care of you, and I will, too.  If I can’t get work to do, I can hunt and trap small game, you know; and if I only had a rifle, I am sure I could kill at least one deer every week.  That, reckoning venison worth six cents a pound, would bring us in about thirty dollars a month.  Who says we couldn’t live and save money on that?”

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Project Gutenberg
The Boy Trapper from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.