第18章

R.was a well-formed and rather good-looking man, some thirty years old; considerably younger than the captain.He wore a beard and mustache of the oakum complexion, and his attire was altogether more elegant than one ordinarily sees on the prairie.He wore his cap on one side of his head; his checked shirt, open in front, was in very neat order, considering the circumstances, and his blue pantaloons, of the John Bull cut, might once have figured in Bond Street.

"Turn over that cake, man! turn it over, quick! Don't you see it burning?""It ain't half done," growled Sorel, in the amiable tone of a whipped bull-dog.

"It is.Turn it over, I tell you!"

Sorel, a strong, sullen-looking Canadian, who from having spent his life among the wildest and most remote of the Indian tribes, had imbibed much of their dark, vindictive spirit, looked ferociously up, as if he longed to leap upon his bourgeois and throttle him; but he obeyed the order, coming from so experienced an artist.

"It was a good idea of yours," said I, seating myself on the tongue of a wagon, "to bring Indian meal with you.""Yes, yes" said R."It's good bread for the prairie--good bread for the prairie.I tell you that's burning again."Here he stooped down, and unsheathing the silver-mounted hunting-knife in his belt, began to perform the part of cook himself; at the same time requesting me to hold for a moment the book under his arm, which interfered with the exercise of these important functions.Iopened it; it was "Macaulay's Lays"; and I made some remark, expressing my admiration of the work.

"Yes, yes; a pretty good thing.Macaulay can do better than that though.I know him very well.I have traveled with him.Where was it we first met--at Damascus? No, no; it was in Italy.""So," said I, "you have been over the same ground with your countryman, the author of 'Eothen'? There has been some discussion in America as to who he is.I have heard Milne's name mentioned.""Milne's? Oh, no, no, no; not at all.It was Kinglake; Kinglake's the man.I know him very well; that is, I have seen him."Here Jack C., who stood by, interposed a remark (a thing not common with him), observing that he thought the weather would become fair before twelve o'clock.

"It's going to rain all day," said R., "and clear up in the middle of the night."Just then the clouds began to dissipate in a very unequivocal manner;but Jack, not caring to defend his point against so authoritative a declaration, walked away whistling, and we resumed our conversation.

"Borrow, the author of 'The Bible in Spain,' I presume you know him too?""Oh, certainly; I know all those men.By the way, they told me that one of your American writers, Judge Story, had died lately.I edited some of his works in London; not without faults, though."Here followed an erudite commentary on certain points of law, in which he particularly animadverted on the errors into which he considered that the judge had been betrayed.At length, having touched successively on an infinite variety of topics, I found that Ihad the happiness of discovering a man equally competent to enlighten me upon them all, equally an authority on matters of science or literature, philosphy or fashion.The part I bore in the conversation was by no means a prominent one; it was only necessary to set him going, and when he had run long enough upon one topic, to divert him to another and lead him on to pour out his heaps of treasure in succession.

"What has that fellow been saying to you?" said Shaw, as I returned to the tent."I have heard nothing but his talking for the last half-hour."R.had none of the peculiar traits of the ordinary "British snob";his absurdities were all his own, belonging to no particular nation or clime.He was possessed with an active devil that had driven him over land and sea, to no great purpose, as it seemed; for although he had the usual complement of eyes and ears, the avenues between these organs and his brain appeared remarkably narrow and untrodden.His energy was much more conspicuous than his wisdom; but his predominant characteristic was a magnanimous ambition to exercise on all occasions an awful rule and supremacy, and this propensity equally displayed itself, as the reader will have observed, whether the matter in question was the baking of a hoe-cake or a point of international law.When such diverse elements as he and the easy-tempered captain came in contact, no wonder some commotion ensued; R.

rode roughshod, from morning till night, over his military ally.

At noon the sky was clear and we set out, trailing through mud and slime six inches deep.That night we were spared the customary infliction of the shower bath.

On the next afternoon we were moving slowly along, not far from a patch of woods which lay on the right.Jack C.rode a little in advance;The livelong day he had not spoke;

when suddenly he faced about, pointed to the woods, and roared out to his brother:

"O Bill! here's a cow!"