CHAPTER XIV
NORMAN WORKS IN A STUMP-FIELD

N

ORMAN made a wiser choice than he realised at the time in seeking Mr. Archibald Stark, or " Old Archie," as he was generally called, though he was then only forty-seven years old. This Mr. Stark, the father of Johnny, who figured in our hero's adventure with the wildcats, was a native of Glasgow, Scotland. When a young man he had emigrated to this country, settling first in Nutfield, but afterward moving to Old Harrytown, upon a lot he had bought of a grantee of the Massachusetts province. The Stark homestead contained about five hundred acres of land, of better quality than the land below it, and extended for about half a mile along the east bank of the river above the falls. Mr. Stark was an educated man, and his wife a beautiful, kind-hearted woman. They had seven children, four boys and three girls, and as there were no schools in the vicinity at that time, these were taught at home. It was under that kindly and unselfish instruction John Stark got the education which was so much help to him in the important part he was to act in the coming wars against Indians and foreign enemies.

Imbued with the true spirit of progress and a hard worker, Mr. Stark was the best farmer in Harrytown. He had chosen his location with happier results than many of the Tyng men, who had been obliged to get theirs by lot, and he bent his whole attention to improving his land, and gave but little time to fishing and hunting.

" The abundance of fish in the river and game in the woods," he used to say, "is both a blessing and a curse to the settlers. It is a blessing, as it affords a means of sustenance to some who might go hungry ; a curse, as many spend their time on the hunt when they should be improving the soil and their homes. The spade and the hoe are the staffs of life, not the fishing-pole and the gun. Living by the hunt is well enough for the savages, but it is not the true way for civilised people. I am sorry that my boys have such an inclination for living in the woods. I do believe that Johnny had rather tramp all day through the wilderness in pursuit of a deer than to eat a good meal of victuals when he is hungry."

Norman found Mr. Stark at work, with his two older boys, William and Johnny, on a new lot he was clearing off. Johnny was driving a yoke of oxen, " twitching off " some fallen trees, which had to be drawn together to be burned.

Archie Stark and Mr. MacDonald had been on intimate terms ever since the latter had come to Harrytown, and he was perfectly familiar with the old Highlander's sorrows and anxieties. He knew the sad story of the massacre of Glencoe, as well as the siege of Londonderry, and even of the mistaken course of Archie McNiel, though he never hinted of the latter to Norman, whom he respected none the less for the mistakes of his parent. His greeting, on this August afternoon, was in keeping with his genial nature:

" Ho, me lad ! come to give an old man a lift ? I was thinking of you this morning and wondering where I could find a likelier lad to help me clear away these stumps and trees, so as to get this into fit mowage. I tell you, my lad, it has got to be done, let them fish who will. Civilised men and women need bread and butter, and oxen and cows must have hay these long, cold winters. I'll give you three shillings a day. Is it a bargain ?"

Three shillings is equal to seventy-five cents, as we reckon it, but colonial money of those days was of less value than the pound sterling of Great Britain, which would reduce that amount to about fifty cents a day.

Though this offer had come most unexpectedly to Norman, it instantly appealed to his judgment as an opportunity too good to be lost.

" I thank you, Mr. Stark ; I think I will accept. But I must free my mind of another matter before I can begin work. I am sorry to — "

"Tut—tut, lad! don't let any excuses trouble you. Take a seat on this fallen tree and tell me all about it. It is always best to have a free mind. It is too hot this weather to keep at it all the time. Let the oxen rest, Johnny. Billy, you run down to the spring and get a gourd of cool water. Now, go ahead, my lad, and mind you make a clean breast of it."

Encouraged with these kindly words, Norman at once began his account of the shooting of the deer, and of Gunwad's subsequent coitrse of action, the other listening without interruption until he had finished.

" Well, lad," said Mr. Stark, " I can see why you worry ; but cast that off. I am willing to allow that this Gunwad has it in his power to work you evil, if his plans succeed. You, or your grandfather, which amounts to the same, got your lot of a New Hampshire grantee, while I got mine of a Massachusetts party, one of which had just about as good a title as the other. But you are in the way of these Tyng colonists. This Gunwad has bought the right or title, or whatever you may call it, of the Tyng man who drew that lot. Now he, Gunwad, claims it, and warns you off. Several others have done the same, and cases are in the court unsettled. In fact, they cannot be settled until this boundary line has been settled. If the lower province (Massachusetts) makes good her claim, you will have to lose your home, always supposing you will get a little for improvements."

" So you advise grandfather and me to move away ?"

" Hold right on, lad! I advise nothing of the kind. These Tyng grantees have shouldered a burden they little thought of at the outset. Though they are carrying matters with a high hand now, it is by no means certain they are going to win in the end. Candidly, I do not think Gunwad's warning will amount to much at this time. At the next Proprietors' Meeting a vote may be passed to sustain such action, for he will have the township behind him. But even then, with the boundary line settled to their satisfaction, there is something concerned with their success here which few seem to have taken into serious consideration. In getting these grants the colonists have certain conditions to carry out, in order to hold their title. They have got to build a house of seven foot stud, that is wall, and eighteen feet square ; have got to clear four acres of ground and help build a church within four years. Now none of these conditions were complied with by the grantee of the lot you occupy. Neither has Tyng Township yet built any meeting-house or settled a minister, though they can be excused for this on account of the failure of any one to raise a mill, as was expected. The mill is now nearly done, and I expect the lumber will be sawed in season to build the meeting-house this fall. I mention these facts that you may understand the exact situation. Within a year I believe this boundary dispute will be settled for ever. If Massachusetts loses, these grants of Harrytown will not be worth a fig to these Tyng men."

" What will happen then ? " asked Norman.

" The Scotch-Irish grant from New Hampshire will hold the territory, all except the reserve about Namaske. Your homestead comes in that territory, but I think you will have no trouble. I have been studying the situation considerably, and these are my honest convictions. Wait and see what Gunwad's next move will be. Now I come back to my question. Are you going to help me this month, beginning to-morrow ?"

" I shall be glad to do so, as there is not more at home than grandfather can do."

" I am glad of it, as I want to get this lot cleared before the fall rains. I mean to sow a piece of winter rye. And while you are coming here to work, and after, I want Rilma to attend our studies. She can go home with you, if she comes up in the afternoon."

Norman thanked Mr. Stark for his kindness, and returned home in better spirits than when he had left. His report, too, awakened the hopes of Mr. MacDonald.

The following morning he began work in Mr. Stark's stump-field, beginning by driving the oxen to draw off the fallen trees and uproot the stumps, learning a lesson of patience and fortitude from those useful creatures he never forgot.

Mr. Stark worked busily in the new clearing with his help, always willing to take hold of the butt end of the log if it happened to come nearest to him. Nothing seemed to fret him, except a shirk. He despised a lazy person.

On the second day that Norman worked for him Zack Bitlock came shambling into the lot, to begin work. He was still barefooted, his lank figure clothed in earth-coloured shirt and trousers. He was accompanied by a youth of fifteen, the exact counterpart of the father, even to the bare feet, the sunburned face, the shirt and trousers. He led, by a piece of deer thong, a lean, lank dog, clay-coloured, like the clothes of its master. Its most remarkable feature was its ears, which were of such enormous size as to flop up and down with a sort of "gushy" noise as the creature jogged along at the heels of its human companions.

" Gol dang yit, 'squire ! " greeted the new arrival, Goodman Bitlock, senior, " seen the cur'usist sight an' heerd the cur'usist noise down yander on th' sand piles ye ever sot eyes an' ears on. Me an' Lige an' th' tarnal dorg—Lige w'u'd take ther critter erlong — wuz comin' erlong when th' dolefulest sound yc ever sot hearin' on come frum th' side o' th' road. Sez I to Lige, sez I: ' Wot in creation mought thet be ?' An' th' dorg pricked up his ears, an' when thet dorg pricks up his ears set yit down fer good an' all there's sumthin' round!

" Wul, Lige an' me looked, but all I c'u'd see was a leetle albiner squirrel a-sottin' on th' sand pile, but I c'u'd see th' leetle runt wuz cryin' so yit had los' yit's pa an' ma an' other 'lations. I wuz natcherly struck by yits 'pearance, an' I says, says I :

" ' Whut's th' tarnal trubble, leetle feller ?'

" Then th' poo' thing rubbed th' tears erway with one fore paw, an' yit says, says yit:

"' Mister, ye air kind, but ye can't hel' me.'

"' But I can show ye my good-will,' says I, I says, 'so pipe erhead, my eetle fri'nd."

" Then yit give yits big, sorrerful eyes anuther dab with yits paw, an' says, says yit:

"' Ye can't hel' me, mister. Me pa died yesterday an' he willed me th' hull o' Ol" Harrytown, but yit wuz with th' perwision thet I live in yit, an' I,' givin' ernuther dab fer yits eye with yits paw, ' I hev got to starve to death !'

" Gol dang ef I don't think thet poo' albiner wuz erbout right. Ef we don't all starve to death on these sand heaps yit'll be becos we hev got so dried up thet th' wind will blow us erway."

"That's a pretty good story, Zack," declared Mr. Stark. " If you were as good in breaking in stump-land as you are at story-telling, you would be worth your wages."

"Which is saying as much thet I ain't now. Go erlong, 'squire, ef I weren't so tarnal good-natured I'd git mad."

Norman had now turned the oxen over to Johnny Stark, and with Goodman Bitlock was helping Mr. Stark fell the big trees growing on the edge of the clearing, which the owner wished to make larger. These pines, many of them of huge size, after being felled had to have their branches cut away, so the cattle could pull them together. In some cases they had to be chopped in twain before the stout oxen could draw them. Those best suited to his purpose Mr. Stark was saving to be hewn for the timbers of a sawmill he was intending to build at an early day.

Lige Bitlock, though he was older and bigger than the Stark boys, did not offer to do any work. He spent the most of his time following his dog through the adjacent growth, or fishing from the bank of the river.

"If I had such a shiftless boy as that of yours,

Goodman Bitlock," said Mr. Stark, bluntly, " I'd tie a deer thong around his neck and throw him over the falls."

" Go easy, 'squire, go easy. Thet boy ain't no fool, an' he says, says he, he's goin' to make a big hunter like Woodranger."

" Got a mighty poor showing, then. What would a whole regiment of Woodrangers amount to ? The more we have of such men the less there is done in improvement."

" Woodranger fit with Lovewell," replied Bitlock, in whose mind such a deed made a man a hero fit to worship afar off. " If my Lige c'u'd 'a' fit with Lovewell— "

" He'd been killed long before this, and that would have been a wise dispensation of Providence to get rid of refuse matter. But if he is so smart I want him to go down to Mr. Perham's, and get my long deer rope which he borrowed more than six months ago. I do wish men would return as readily as they borrow. We shall need the line in pulling over the leaning pine up yonder. It will give the oxen more than they can pull if it falls back over the ridge."

" Is th' rope heavy, 'squire ? "

" Weighs about half a ton ! Perhaps you think Johnny had better go along with him. I can't spare him. If I could I would send him alone. The oxen must be kept to work."

" Why can't Archie go ?" asked Bitlock.

Archie was two years younger than Johnny, and, as he was not at work, his father did not object to his going.

" Min' ye, Lige, ye come right back," said his father. "Don't go off inter th' woods, 'cos ye know erbout thet wildcat screech we heerd."

Lige promised to return as quickly as possible, and with his dog at his side, and little Archie Stark following behind, he set out down the road.

"Dunno but I oughter gone with thet boy," muttered Bitlock, as he gazed after his hopeful son, scratching his head with sluggish movements. After standing five minutes looking vacantly at the space where he had last seen Lige, Goodman Bitlock leisurely picked up his axe, and, after spending five minutes more in flicking off an accumulation of dirt with a pine bough, he got to work again.

When it was getting to be time for the boys to return, he began to cast anxious glances down the road, until he was startled by the sight of a well-known figure approaching at a swift run. It was Lige, and he was startled because it was unusual to see him running at that rate, unless he was in pursuit of a squirrel or some frightened denizen of the woods. Lige showed, too, that he was labouring under great excitement, while his dog kept close beside him, uttering quick, short yelps.

" Why ! whut's happened now ? " cried Bitlock, dropping his axe, and standing with extended arms and wide-opened mouth. " Whut's scart ye so, Lige?"

By this time all in the clearing had stopped work, to learn what the trouble was.

"I ain't scart, dad!" replied Lige, as soon as he could get his breath enough to speak. " I ain't a bit scart, dad; and I've come right back, as ye tole me."

Goodman Bitlock drew a breath of relief, while the others resumed work. The proud father said, in a complimentary tone :

" Ye're a smart boy, Lige, an' ye'll ermount to sumthin'. How ye mus' hev run to git hyur so soon."

" I did, dad."

He said nothing of Archie or the rope, and Mr. Stark, thinking his son would soon appear with the deer thong, asked no questions, until five minutes had passed without bringing the missing boy.

"We want that rope," declared Mr. Stark, impatiently. " Why didn't you bring it along, Lige ? "

"I left it with Arch."

" Where is Archie ? "

" With th' rope, mister. I had to run to get hyur right back."

Mr. Stark grumbled a little because of the nonappearance of Archie, but for fifteen minutes more nothing wrong was suspected. Then, upon being questioned more closely, Lige blurted out:

" I don't know but th' b'ar eat him up! I had to run 'way from him to git right back."

Mr. Stark's inquiries grew more pointed, and the frightened youth explained that a big bear had attacked them, and that he had barely escaped by running for his life.

" And what has become of my poor boy ? " cried the distracted father.

Though realising that it was too late to save Archie, if he had fallen into the clutches of the bear, Mr. Stark, Norman, and the others at once started down the road as fast as they could run.