The Unseen Hand; or, James Renfew and His Boy Helpers

by Elijah Kellogg

James reluctantly promised, and they parted. He set forth, mounted on Frank. Bertie took Dick and accompanied him to the foot of the North Mountain. He then took his pack and rifle, and proceeded on foot, while Bertie went back with the horses.

Starting much earlier in the season than before, they abandoned the Big Beaver and went on the Little Beaver, and far up that stream. They met with fewer beavers, but more otters, and took in log traps and in one large steel trap which they possessed, and by killing with the rifle, more bears than ever before, so that although they went farther and came out of the woods much earlier (as James wanted to go on his land), they obtained furs to the amount of five hundred and twenty-five dollars. When they were at the mouth of the Little Beaver, on their return, they met some Delaware Indians on their way to Pittsburg, encamped on the bank of the main river, their canoes turned up on the grass.

“I want a birch as I am going to live on a stream. I wonder if I can buy one, of these Indians?” said James.

“You can buy anything of an Indian, but his rifle or tomahawk, but if you buy one take that dark-colored one, even if they ask more for it, because the bark of which it is made was peeled in the winter and it is worth, double.”

“I thought bark wouldn’t run in the winter?”

“It will if you pour hot water on it or hold a torch to the tree.”

James, after considerable talk with the Indians, who wanted him to take another one, bought the dark-colored birch. It was twenty-eight feet in length, twenty inches deep, and four feet six inches wide. It required a person possessed of the strength of James to carry it, as it was a load for two Indians, but James, much to the astonishment of the savages, turned the birch over his head and took it to the water. He now took all his traps and some tools that he had carried to make dead-falls, and parted with William and Mary, much to their regret, as they had cherished the hope that he would settle near them.

Jonathan Whitman had told him before he left home if he could find a good young horse that would weigh twelve hundred, and was used to team work, to buy him, for Frank was failing somewhat, and he wanted to favor his faithful servant and should not work him much more. He hired a wagoner to haul the traps and canoe and other articles to the Susquehannah at Harristown, bought a horse, pack-saddle, and some tools; an axe, auger, trowel, chain, and handsaw, irons made at a blacksmith’s to peel bark, irons for a whiffletree. He also bought some white paper and oiled it, and a window sash with six squares of glass in it, put his traps and other matters into the birch, and managed at a small expense to send his horse to Mr. Creech his former landlord. He then got into the birch and, having a fair wind to start with, made a sail of his blanket, and by alternate sailing and paddling landed at length in the early twilight before his own camp. At the gray dawn and while it was still dark in the forest, he took his way to the brook with his rifle on his arm, and returned with two wood-ducks, one of which together with the provisions in his pack, furnished him with a substantial breakfast.

His nearest neighbor, Prescott, had been ten years on his clearing and kept a large stock of cattle. His family consisted of three strong, active boys, Dan, the eldest, being nineteen, which enabled him to work for others when disposed. James had engaged with Prescott the previous spring to cut all the grass to be found in the field pasture and openings in the woods, and to fell in the course of the summer an acre of trees; upon looking around he found the work all done, and the felled trees in just the right state to burn.

James now sat down under the shadow of the great maple to reflect, and lay his plans for a summer’s work, and to make the most of his means. He had left in Bertie’s care at Swatara, when he went into the woods, two hundred and fifteen dollars, after paying for his land. This money was the result of the sale of the colt, his summer’s work with Mr. Whitman, the proceeds of his potato crop, and the money he had earned on his way home by surveying. He could not expect however to obtain two dollars and three quarters a day in future for surveying, two dollars was the customary price, but in the former case he was delayed on his journey, and kept on expense, and his employer had not the time to go for another surveyor at a great distance.