“Wal; I woke up afore it kim to thet. But ef’t hed been the gurl as I seed in my dreem, an’ it war all true, I reck’n she’d ’a hed a good chance.”
“And pray what girl did you see in your dream?”
“Maybe you’d like to purnounce the name; ef ye do, I’d say Clar’ Blackedder. She war the very gurl as war a draggin’ at ye.”
At the mention of the name “Ned” heaved a deep sigh, though the sizzling of the hump-ribs hindered his companion from hearing it. But, by the brighter light caused by the fat falling among the cinders, a shadow could be seen suddenly overspreading his countenance, his features at the same assuming a cast, half-sad, half-angry.
“Not much danger of that dream coming true,” he said, with an effort at composing them. “Clara Blackadder has no doubt long ago changed her name; and forgotten mine too.”
“I don’t think she’s dud eyther one or the tother. Weemen air a kewrous kind o’ varmint; an’ cling on to thar affecshuns a deal harder’n we do. Beside; that gurl wa’n’t one o’ the changin’ sort. I knowed her since she war knee high to a duck. She war the only one o’ the hul family o’ Blackedders worth knowin’; for a bigger cuss than the brother wa’n’t nowhar to be foun’ in Massissippi, ’ceptin’ ’twar the ole squire hisself. That gurl loved you, Ned; an’ ef you’d tuk the right way wi’ her, you mout yourself ’a had the changin’ o’ her name.”
“What way?”
“Whipped her off on the crupper o’ yur seddle—jest es these hyar purairia Injuns sometimes does. Ye shed a dud thet an’ said no more about it, eyther to her father, or to anybody else. It’s the way I dud myself wi’ Sal Slocum, down thar in Tennersee bottom, nigh on thirty yeern ago, ’fore I went down to the Choctaw Purchiss. Dick, her ole dad, war all agin me havin’ his gurl, ’cause he hed a spite at me, for beatin’ him at a shootin’ match. ’Twa’n’t no use his oppersishun. I got my critter seddled up, one night when Dick war soun’ asleep in his shanty, an’ I toated Sal off, an’ took her afore a Methody preecher, who coupled us thegither in the shakin’ o’ a goat’s tail. An’ I niver hed reezun to rue it. Sal made me a good wife, as long as she lived. I hain’t hed a better ’un since.”
The young man smiled sadly at the strange ideas of his trapper companion; but the subject being a painful one to him, he made no rejoinder.
“Thet’s what you oughter dud wi’ Clar’ Blackedder,” persisted the trapper, without noticing his companion’s chagrin, “cut cl’ar away wi’ her. Ef ye’d a hed her for yur wife, it ’ud a been diff’rent for ye now. Instead o’ bein’ hyar in the mountains, mopin’ yer innards out—for I kin see ye’re doin’ thet, Ned—ye mout now been settled in the State o’ Massissippi workin’ a cotton plantashun wi’ a smart chance o’ niggers on’t. Not as I myself shed care ’bout eyther; for arter twenty yeern o’ ramblin’ over these hyar reejuns, I ain’t fit to live in the settlements. It’s diff’rent wi’ you, however, who ain’t noways shooted for a trapper’s life—though I will say thar ain’t a better shot nor hunter in all these purairias. Anybody kin see ye’re only hyar for a diff’rent purpiss; tho I reck’n ’Lije Orton air the only ’un to which ye’ve confided yur secret. Wal; you know I like ye, Ned; an’ that’s why I don’t like to see ye so down in the dumps. They’ve been on yur ever since yur left the Massissippi; and I reck’n yur’ll find no cure for ’em out hyar.”