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The Preacher of Cedar Mountain
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Title: The Preacher of Cedar Mountain
A Tale of the Open Country
Author: Ernest Thompson Seton
Illustrator: Clarence Rowe
Release Date: October 22, 2009 [EBook #30313]
Language: English
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* * *
THE PREACHER OF CEDAR MOUNTAIN
A TALE OF THE OPEN COUNTRY
BY ERNEST THOMPSON SETON
FRONTISPIECE BY CLARENCE ROWE
Garden City New York
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1917
Copyright, 1917, by
Ernest Thompson Seton
All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian
* * *
"'You must choose between us. Is it Belle or Blazing Star?'"
* * *
PREFACE
Most of the characters in this tale are from life, and some of the main events are historical, although the actual scenes and names are not given. Many men now living will remember Fighting Bill Kenna and the Horse Preacher, as well as the Fort Ryan races. These horse races are especially well known and have been described in print many times. I did not witness any of them myself, but listened on numerous occasions when they were described to me by eye-witnesses. My first knowledge of the secret try-out in Yellowbank Canyon was given to me years ago by Homer Davenport, the cartoonist, with permission to use the same.
But all of these more or less historic events are secondary to the intent of illustrating the growth of a character, whose many rare gifts were mere destructive force until curbed and harmonized into the big, strong machine that did such noble work in the West during my early days on the Plains.
Ernest Thompson Seton.
* * *
CONTENTS
BOOK ONE The Child of the Stable Yard
CHAPTER I. The Home Land of Little Jim Hartigan
CHAPTER II. The Strains That Were Mingled in Jim
CHAPTER III. How He Lost His Father
CHAPTER IV. The Atmosphere of His Early Days
CHAPTER V. Little Jim's Tutors
CHAPTER VI. Jim Loses Everythin
CHAPTER VII. He Gets a Much-needed Lesson
BOOK II The Conversion
CHAPTER VIII. The Conversion of Jim
CHAPTER IX. Jim Hartigan Goes to College
CHAPTER X. Escape to Cedar Mountain
CHAPTER XI. A New Force Enters His Life
CHAPTER XII. Belle Boyd
CHAPTER XIII. Preacher Jim's First Sermon
CHAPTER XIV. The Lure of the Saddle
CHAPTER XV. Pat Bylow's Spree
CHAPTER XVI. The New Insurance Agents
CHAPTER XVII. Belle Makes a Decision and Jim Evades One
CHAPTER XVIII. The Second Bylow Spree
CHAPTER XIX. The Day of Reckoning
CHAPTER XX. The Memorable Trip to Deadwood
CHAPTER XXI. The Ordeal
CHAPTER XXII. The Three Religions Confront Him
BOOK III The Horse Preacher
CHAPTER XXIII. Blazing Star
CHAPTER XXIV. Red Rover
CHAPTER XXV. The Secret of Yellowbank Canyon
CHAPTER XXVI. Preparing for the Day
CHAPTER XXVII. The Start
CHAPTER XXVIII. The Finish
CHAPTER XXIX. The Riders
CHAPTER XXX. The Fire
CHAPTER XXXI. Love in the Saddle
BOOK IV The Horse Preacher Afoot
CHAPTER XXXII. The Advent of Midnight
CHAPTER XXXIII. The Sociable
CHAPTER XXXIV. Springtime
CHAPTER XXXV. When the Greasewood is in Bloom
CHAPTER XXXVI. Shoeing the Buckskin
CHAPTER XXXVII. The Boom
CHAPTER XXXVIII. When the Craze Struck
CHAPTER XXXIX. Jim's Bet
CHAPTER XL. The Crow Band
CHAPTER XLI. The Pinto
CHAPTER XLII. The Aftertime
CHAPTER XLIII. Finding the Lost One
CHAPTER XLIV. A Fair Rider
CHAPTER XLV. The Life Game
CHAPTER XLVI. What Next?
CHAPTER XLVII. Back to Deadwood
CHAPTER XLVIII. The Fork in the Trail
CHAPTER XLIX. The Power of Personality
CHAPTER L. The Call to Chicago
CHAPTER LI. These Little Ones
CHAPTER LII. The Boss
CHAPTER LIII. The First Meeting
CHAPTER LIV. The Formation of the Club
BOOK V The Call of the Mountain
CHAPTER LV. In the Absence of Belle
CHAPTER LVI. The Defection of Squeaks
CHAPTER LVII. The Trial
CHAPTER LVIII. In the Death House
CHAPTER LIX. The Heart Hunger
CHAPTER LX. The Gateway and the Mountain
CHAPTER LXI. Clear Vision on the Mountain
CHAPTER LXII. When He Walked with the King
BOOKS BY ERNEST THOMPSON SETON
BY MRS. ERNEST THOMPSON SETON
* * *
BOOK ONE
THE CHILD OF THE STABLE YARD
* * *
CHAPTER I
The Home Land of Little Jim Hartigan
A burnt, bare, seared, and wounded spot in the great pine forest of Ontario, some sixty miles northeast of Toronto, was the little town of Links. It lay among the pine ridges, the rich, level bottomlands, and the newborn townships, in a region of blue lakes and black loam that was destined to be a thriving community of prosperous farmer folk. The broad, unrotted stumps of the trees that not so long ago possessed the ground, were thickly interstrewn among the houses of the town and in the little fields that began to show as angular invasions of the woodland, one by every settler's house of logs. Through the woods and through the town there ran the deep, brown flood of the little bog-born river, and streaking its current for the whole length were the huge, fragrant logs of the new-cut pines, in disorderly array, awaiting their turn to be shot through the mill and come forth as piles of lumber, broad waste slabs, and heaps of useless sawdust.
Two or three low sawmills were there, each booming, humming, busied all the day. And the purr of their saws, or the scream when they struck some harder place in the wood, was the dominant note, the day-long labour-song of Links. At first it seemed that these great, wasteful fragrant, tree-destroying mills were the only industries of the town; and one had to look again before discovering, on the other side of the river, the grist mill, sullenly claiming its share of the water power, and proclaiming itself just as good as any other mill; while radiating from the bridge below the dam, were the streets—or, rather, the rough roads, straight and ugly—along which wooden houses, half hidden by tall sunflowers, had been built for a quarter of a mile, very close together near the bridge, but ever with less of house and sunflower and more of pumpkin field as one travelled on, till the last house with the last pumpkin field was shut in by straggling, much-c
ulled woods, alternating with swamps that were densely grown with odorous cedar and fragrant tamarac, as yet untouched by the inexorable axe of the changing day.
Seen from the road, the country was forest, with about one quarter of the land exposed by clearings, in each of which were a log cabin and the barn of a settler. Seen from the top of the tallest building, the sky line was, as yet, an array of plumy pines, which still stood thick among the hardwood trees and, head and shoulders, overtopped them.
Links was a town of smells. There were two hotels with their complex, unclean livery barns and yards, beside, behind, and around them; and on every side and in every yard there were pigs—and still more pigs—an evidence of thrift rather than of sanitation; but over all, and in the end overpowering all, were the sweet, pervading odour of the new-sawn boards and the exquisite aroma of the different fragrant gums—of pine, cedar, or fir—which memory will acknowledge as the incense to conjure up again in vivid actuality these early days of Links.
* * *
It was on a sunny afternoon late in the summer of 1866 that a little knot of loafers and hangers-on of the hotels gathered in the yard of the town's larger hostelry and watched Bill Kenna show an admiring world how to ride a wild, unbroken three-year-old horse. It was not a very bad horse, and Bill was too big to be a wonderful rider, but still he stayed on, and presently subdued the wild thing to his will, amid the brief, rough, but complimentary remarks of the crowd.
One of the most rapt of the onlookers was a rosy-cheeked, tow-topped boy of attractive appearance—Jim; who though only eight years old, was blessed with all the assurance of twenty-eight. Noisy and forward, offering suggestions and opinions at the pitch of his piping voice, he shrieked orders to every one with all the authority of a young lord; as in some sense he was, for he was the only son of "Widdy" Hartigan, the young and comely owner and manager of the hotel.
"There, now, Jim. Could ye do that?" said one of the bystanders, banteringly.
"I couldn't ride that 'un, cause me legs ain't long enough to lap round; but I bet I could ride that 'un," and he pointed to a little foal gazing at them from beside its dam.
"All right, let him try," said several.
"And have his brains kicked out," said a more temperate onlooker.
"Divil a bit," said big Bill, the owner of the colt. "That's the kindest little thing that ever was born to look through a collar," and he demonstrated the fact by going over and putting his arms around the young thing's gentle neck.
"Here, you; give me a leg up," shouted Jimmy, and in a moment he was astride the four-month colt.
In a yard, under normal kindly conditions, a colt may be the gentlest thing in the world, but when suddenly there descends upon its back a wild animal that clings with exasperating pertinacity, there is usually but one result. The colt plunged wildly, shaking its head and instinctively putting in practice all the ancient tricks that its kind had learned in fighting the leopard or the wolf of the ancestral wild horse ranges.
But Jim stuck on. His legs, it was true, were not long enough to "lap round," but he was a born horseman. He had practised since he was able to talk, never losing a chance to bestride a steed; and now he was in his glory. Round and round went the colt, amid the laughter of the onlookers. They apprehended no danger, for they knew that the youngster could ride like a jackanapes; in any case the yard was soft with litter, and no harm could happen to the boy.
The colt, nearly ridden down, had reached the limit of its young strength, and had just about surrendered. Jim was waving one hand in triumph, while the other clutched the fuzzy mane before him, when a new and striking element was added to the scene. A rustle of petticoats, a white cap over yellow hair, a clear, commanding voice that sent the men all back abashed, and the Widdy Hartigan burst through the little circle.
"What do ye mean letting me bhoy do that fool thing to risk his life and limb? Have ye no sense, the lot of ye? Jimmy, ye brat, do ye want to break yer mother's heart? Come off of that colt this holy minute; or I'll—"
Up till now, Jim had been absolute dominator of the scene; but the powerful personality of his mother shattered his control, dethroned him.
As she swept angrily toward him, his nerve for the time was shaken. The colt gave a last wild plunge; Jim lost his balance and his hold, and went down on the soft litter.
As it sprang free from its tormenter, the frightened beast gave vent to its best instinctive measure of defense and launched out a final kick. The youngster gave a howl of pain, and in a minute more he was sobbing in his mother's arms, while one of the crowd was speeding for the doctor.
Yes, the arm was broken above the elbow, a simple fracture, a matter of a month to mend. The bone was quickly set, and when his wailing had in a measure subsided, Jim showed his horseman soul by jerking out: "I could have rode him, Mother. I'll ride him yet. I'll tame him to a finish, the little divil."
* * *
CHAPTER II
The Strains That Were Mingled in Jim
Clearly one cannot begin the history of the French Revolution with the outbreak of 1789. Most phenomena, physical and spiritual, have their roots, their seeds, their causes—whatever you will—far behind them in point of time. To understand them one must go back to the beginning or they will present no logic or raison d'être. The phenomenon of James Hartigan, the Preacher of Cedar Mountain, which is both a physical and a spiritual fact, is nowise different, and the reader must go back with me to some very significant events which explain him and account for him.
Little Jim's father was James O'Hartigan in Donegal. The change in the patronymic was made, not by himself, but by the Government Emigration Agent at Cork. When James, Sr. came forward to be listed for passage, the official said: "Oh, hang your O's. I have more of them now than the column will hold. I'll have to put you in the H's, where there's lots of room." And so the weight of all the Empire was behind the change.
James Hartigan, Sr. was a typical Irish "bhoy," which is high praise. He was broad and hearty, with a broad and hearty grin. He was loved and lovable, blessed with a comely countenance and the joy of a humorous outlook on life and its vicissitudes. You could not down Jimmy so low that he might not see some bright and funny aspect in the situation. This was not only a happy temperamental trait, but it also had a distinct advantage, for in the moments of deepest self-invited degradation he never forgot that somewhere ahead, his trail would surely lead to the uplands once again.
He was what the doctors called "normal human," muscled far above the average, heart action strong and regular. This combination often produces two well-marked types—a high-class athlete and a low-class drunkard. Often these are united in the same individual; or, rather, the individual appears in the first rôle, until the second comes to overmaster it. Such was Jimmy Hartigan, Sr., whose relation to the Preacher may be labelled Cause Number One.
Those who knew her people said that the forbears of Katherine Muckevay had seen better days; that the ancient royal blood of Ireland ran in her veins; that the family name was really Mach-ne-veagh; and that, if every one had his own, Kitty would be wearing a diamond tiara in the highest walks of London importance. In ancient days, the Kings of Ulster used to steal a bride at times from the fair-haired folk across the sea; maybe that was where Kitty got her shining hair of dusty yellow-red, as well as the calm control in times of stress, something the psychologists call coördination, which is not a Celtic characteristic.
Of book learning Kitty had almost none, but she had native gifts. She had wits, good looks, and a wealth of splendid hair, as well as a certain presence which was her perpetual hedge of safety, even when she took the perilous place of maid in the crude hotel with its bar-room annex, whither the hand of Fate had brought her, an Irish immigrant, to find a new life in the little town of Links. Kitty was Cause Number Two.
Jimmy did not chance to cross on the same ship. But the time had come; and by chance, which is not chance at all, he drifted into the same corner of Canada, and had not half
a day to wait before he was snapped up by a local farmer seeking for just such a build of man to swing the axe and scythe upon his farm.
Farm life is dreary enough, at least it was in those days. It was hard work from dawn to dusk, and even then the feeble, friendly glimmer of a caged candle was invoked to win an extra hour or two of labour from the idleness of gloom—hours for the most part devoted to the chores. The custom of the day gave all the hired ones freedom Saturday night and all day Sunday. Wages were high, and with one broad epidemic impulse all these thriving hirelings walked, drove, or rode on Saturday night to the little town of Links. Man is above all a social animal; only the diseased ones seek solitude. Where, then, could they meet their kind?
The instinct which has led to the building of a million clubs, could find no local focus but the bar-room. John Downey's "hotel" was the social centre of the great majority of the men who lived and moved around the town of Links. Not the drink itself, but the desire of men to meet with men, to talk and swap the news or bandy mannish jokes, was the attracting force. But the drink was there on tap and all the ill-adjusted machinery of our modern ways operated to lead men on, to make abstainers drink, to make the moderate, drunken.
If the life in Downey's stable, house, and bar were expanded in many chapters, the reader would find a pile of worthless rubbish, mixed with filth, but also here and there a thread of gold, a rod of the finest steel, and even precious jewels. But this is not a history of the public house. Downey's enters our list merely as Cause Number Three.