CHAPTER VII
TALES FROM THE FRONTIER--MR. TYTHINGMAN AND HIS SERVICES
This long war was a terrible strain on our Province. Some man fromalmost every family in town was with the army at Lake George. The valueof our currency had fallen, and nearly one-half of what we earned andproduced went to pay the heavy taxes.
The Provinces did not work well together. There were rivalries anddissensions among them. The French were united, and their army was ledby an able commander, the Marquis Montcalm.
Our generals were mostly incompetent men who owed their positions toinfluence at court.
We kept up the bitter struggle, hoping that at last we should have ageneral capable of coping with Montcalm.
[Sidenote: EDMUND ENLISTS]
It was a gloomy time, but we kept pegging away in a resolute manner, forit was a question whether we or the French should be masters of thiscountry; whether we should keep our farms and have a roof over our headsor should be overrun by murderous Indians. And arrangements were made tohave a larger army in the field than ever before.
About the middle of January, Edmund sent me word from Concord thatCaptain Robert Rogers was enlisting men for a new company in his corpsof Rangers. He said: "I have joined the company and have been madesergeant. Rogers will return to Boston by the way of Lexington and willstay over night at Jonathan Raymond's tavern. Come up there sure and seeme."
As father and I were working in the barn, I said to him: "Father, Ithink the time has come when I ought to go to the war. You promised thatI might enlist in the spring. But I'd a good deal rather go with thisman Rogers and do some fighting than sit round doing nothing and die ofcamp disease as the rest of the army have been doing."
He kept on for a while pitching the hay down in front of the cattle, andthen leaned on his pitchfork.
"Well, Ben, I suppose you really ought to go. One man out of every fourin the Province is in the army, and we should do our share. I am tooold. John has just got married, and David is but a boy. You're the rightage and the one to go. I think as you do, that it's better to do somefighting, and take one's chances of being killed by a bullet rather thanby camp fever.
"Those French and Indians killed and scalped my brother John, and sincethis war began I have often wanted to have a hand in it myself, to geteven with them, but I'm too old.
"You can go, Ben. There's lots of miserable wretches and immorality andprofanity among the regulars. I want you to remain a good boy, as youalways have been. I need not tell you to be brave. You will be that.
"Ben, I scolded you about that wrestling match, but I was awful proud ofyou and happy over it."
[Sidenote: THE RAYMOND TAVERN]
"I knew that, father. Do you suppose I didn't notice you chuckling toyourself when you thought no one saw you?"
"Well, I suppose you did, you young rascal; I couldn't help it, I wasthat surprised and delighted. To think of Jonas Parker telling me hedidn't know but that you were a better wrestler than he. And to see youhustle that man about and throw him made me so proud that I felt ashamedand humbled. And when you thought I was scolding you, I was reallyreproving my own sinful vanity and pride."
After supper we went up to the Raymond Tavern. Quite a crowd of men werein the bar-room. They were seated in front of a great fire of logs andpeat. Captain Rogers was in their midst.
Edmund came up, and made us acquainted with the captain. He shook handswith me, and turning to father, said:--
"This is a likely young fellow, Mr. Comee. I wish I could have him withme in my corps."
"It is possible," said father. "We have had some slight talk about it.We will think it over."
Rogers was a big man, over six feet high, well proportioned, andapparently very strong. Later on I learned that his strength waswonderful. His features were prominent, strong, but not agreeable. Hiseyes were not good eyes. At times, a hard, cruel look came into hisface.
He seemed to be a man of great hardihood, of great presence of mind,keen and unscrupulous,--a man I should not wish for a neighbour.
In answer to a remark that he must find his present life quite differentfrom his former life, as a farmer, he said:--
"Not a bit! I never was a farmer. I was brought up in the woods on thefrontier among wild animals and Indians. My father was a hunter andtrapper. One day he went out hunting and toward night started to visitanother hunter at his hut in the woods. His friend mistook him in thetwilight and shot him. All my life has been spent in the woods, eitherhunting or trading with the French and Indians, or else fighting them."
[Sidenote: A BOWL OF FLIP]
Hepzibah Raymond came in with a bowl of flip--the proper mixture of rum,malt beer, and brown sugar.
She set it down on the hearth, and her son John, a cripple, who wasseated in the fireplace, drew one of the iron loggerheads out of thefire, where half a dozen of them were always being heated. He hit itagainst the andiron to knock the ashes off, and plunged it into themixture. A pleasant smell arose from it; he waited till it foamed up,and then drew the loggerhead out. Hepzibah passed the bowl to CaptainRogers.
"Here's to good King George and confusion to his enemies!"
He took a long draught at it, and then the bowl was passed round.
A man of middle age came into the room, with a whip in his hand, and hishat jammed well on his head.
"Good evening, Ephraim."
"Sarvent, sirs!"
"Captain, this is Ephraim Winship. He knows something about Indianfighting. Show him your head, Ephraim."
Ephraim took off his hat, and lifted his wig from his head. He had butone eye. There were two bare red spots on top of his head, and betweenthem a fringe of hair ran back from his forehead. It gave him a weirdappearance.
"Hello!" said Rogers. "You've been among the Indians, haven't you? Howdid you lose your scalp or scalps? For I see you have lost two."
The men made room for Ephraim. He put on his wig and sat down.
"I have to keep those spots pretty well covered up these winter nights,or I have all sorts of trouble with my head.
"I had been living down on the Eastern Frontier for some years at aplace called New Marblehead. We had plenty of scares, but no realtrouble with the Indians, till this war broke out. It was in May, twoyears ago. I went out with Ezra Brown, to do some work on his farm,which was a mile from the garrison house where we lived. We had a guardof four men and four lads. Ezra and I were ahead. As we were walkingthrough some woods, the Indians--there were fifteen to twenty ofthem--fired at us. I felt a twinge in my shoulder and a terrible pain inmy eye. Then came a thump on my head. When I came to, I was in bed atthe garrison house, with my scalp, or rather scalps, gone, for I havetwo bumps on top of my head, and they took a scalp from each bump. Myright eye was gone, and I had a bullet in the shoulder.
[Sidenote: EPHRAIM'S ADVENTURE]
"Poor Ezra was killed at the first volley and scalped. An Indian hit meon the head with his tomahawk; but I have a good thick skull, and theblow glanced, and only stunned me.
"Some of our men ran to the fort, but my boy Gershom rallied the rest,and they fought the Indians, who were double their number. Both partiesgot behind trees, and tried to pick each other off.
"Old Poland, their chief, fired, and in reloading exposed himself, andwas shot. Then the Indians gave an infernal screech and ran over tohim.
"As they did so, our men shot two more of them, and they picked up theirdead and carried them off."
"You had a narrow squeak of it, that time," said Rogers. "I never wasscalped, but I've been near it times enough."
Hepzibah brought in more bowls of flip, and we watched John plunge thered-hot loggerheads in, till the foam arose, and the bitter-sweet smellfilled the room.
We were passing the bowls round, and drinking the flip, when MatthewMead, the tythingman, came in. He sat down and watched us. Then he wentover to John Perry, and said: "Don't drink any more, John. You have hadenough."
John let the bowl go by, for if he had disobe
yed the warning of thetythingman, he would have been punished by the magistrate, or would havebeen reprimanded publicly in meeting.
"Oh, come now, Mr. Tythingman," said Rogers. "Don't spoil the sport. Alittle flip does no one any harm. Sit down and join us."
[Sidenote: THE TYTHINGMAN]
"There's no doubt," said Matthew, as they passed him the bowl, and hetook a long swig at it, "that flip is a good drink. I like it, and sodoes neighbour John Perry. But it must be allowed that it's a mostinsinuating drink, sweet and treacherous. And neighbour John has hadenough. But the rest of the company can drink a little longer. We haveheard great stories of your adventures, captain, and would like to haveyou tell us some of them."
Then Rogers told us tales of hair-breadth escapes, and of encounterswith the enemy, that made our hearts beat quick, as we listened to him.Of scouts through the woods, in which they inspect the enemy's forts andmake plans of them. How they crept up close to the fort and captured avedette within two gun-shots of the gate. How they hauled whaleboatsover a mountain, embarked at the lower end of Lake Champlain, rowed downthe lake at night, and after hiding in the daytime, attacked the enemy'sboats, and sunk them.
He told of an expedition he made the previous January, with CaptainSpikeman, Lieutenant John Stark and seventy-four men.
"We went down Lake George on skates, and then through the woods back ofFort Ticonderoga on snowshoes. When we got to Lake Champlain, we lay inwait for the enemy's sleds, which were coming up the lake loaded withprovisions. We captured three sleds and seven prisoners, but some of theFrench escaped. We learned that the fort had been reenforced, and knewthat they would have notice of our presence. Our guns were wet, for ithad been raining, and we went back to our fires and dried them. Then wemarched hastily toward Fort William Henry. About noon we were waylaid bya large party of the enemy. We fought all the afternoon, till nightfall,when we separated and escaped through the woods to Lake George. Ireceived two wounds in the fight. I sent messengers to the fort forhelp, for many could go no further. Forty-eight of us out ofseventy-four got back with our prisoners. You may think, friends, thatthis was a bad defeat, but we learned afterward that we fought againsttwo hundred and fifty men, and killed one hundred and sixteen of them.Your old friend Captain Spikeman was killed in the fight."
[Sidenote: A SUCCESSFUL DEFEAT]
The bowls of flip had been going round while Rogers was talking, andfinally Matthew Mead said:--
"Well, neighbours, I think we are getting toward the state whereneighbour John was when I came, and we'd better all go home."
As we rose, Rogers said: "I want some of you fellows with me this comingcampaign, and we'll make things lively for the French up around Fort Tiand have some fun. I count on you, Comee."