“It is too bad he must submit to another operation,” he told Barringford. “I am afraid he will get so he can’t walk at all.”
“It hurt him to travel when the old cabin was burnt down,” answered the frontiersman. “He told me so privately, but he didn’t want to say nuthin’ afore his folks, cause, ye see, it wouldn’t do no good. That was a hard journey.”
“I have always suspected as much,” answered Dave. “Rodney is a good deal of a hero, and I know he won’t let folks know how much he suffers. And it pains him, too, to think that he must sit still or at the most shuffle around a little, while Henry and I can come and go as we please. I can tell you what, Sam, a person’s health is a good deal to him.”
“My lad, health is the greatest blessing ever God give to ye, an’ don’t ye never forgit it, nuther. Wot’s riches, if ye can’t live to enj’y it? Onct, when I was down in the mouth because I hadn’t so much as a farthing in my pocket, I was in Annapolis. There I met a rich old merchant in his lordly coach, with a driver and footman, an’ I don’t know what all. Did he look happy? No, siree! He was bent almost double with gout an’ rheumatism an’ other diseases an’ sufferin’ tortures uncounted. Sez I to myself, sez I: ‘Sam Barringford, you’re a fool to be down in the mouth! You’ve got your health an’ strength, an’ you’re richer ten times over nor thet feller with all his hoard o’ gold. Go back to the woods an’ scratch fer a livin’ an’ bless God you kin walk an’ run, an’ jump, and eat an’ drink as ye please, an’ enj’y life.’ An’ back to the woods I come, an’ been happy ever sence. Yes, Dave, health is the greatest blessin’ a man ever had.”
CHAPTER XIX
LOST IN THE SNOW
About the middle of February news came to the camp that a French soldier and two French traders had been captured at a post on Lake Ontario some twenty miles to the northeast of Fort Oswego. There had been a sharp fight between a detachment of Colonial militia and the French, who had been in the act of removing some stores which they had left hidden in the woods months before, and one of the enemy had been killed and two militiamen badly wounded.
“I wonder if one of the traders can be Jean Bevoir,” said Dave, when he heard of the affair.
“It is not impossible, Dave,” answered Barringford. “He was around these ere diggin’s a long time, when he was holding little Nell a captive, and he must have brung some things with him when he scooted away from your father’s post on the Kinotah.”
“I’m going to try to find out who they are,” went on the young soldier, and lost no time in seeking the officer who had received the report.