Sustained honor: The Age of Liberty Established Read online

  SUSTAINED HONOR.

  CHAPTER I.

  THE YOUNG EMIGRANT.

  The first recollections of Fernando Stevens, the hero of this romance,were of "moving." He was sitting on his mother's knee. How long he hadbeen sitting there he did not know, nor did he know how he came there;but he knew that it was his mother and that they were in a great coveredwagon, and that he had a sister and brother, older than himself, in thewagon. The wagon was filled with household effects, which he seemed toknow belonged to that mother on whose knee he sat and that father whowas sitting on the box driving the horses which pulled the wagon.Fernando Stevens was never exactly certain as to his age at the time ofthis experience; but he could not have been past three, and perhaps notmore than two years old, when he thus found himself with his father'sfamily and all their effects in a wagon going somewhere.

  He knew not from whence they came, nor did he know whither they weregoing. It was pleasant to sit on his mother's knee and with his greatblue eyes watch those monster horses jogging along dragging after themthe great world, which in his limited comprehension was all the world heknew,--the covered wagon. Suddenly some bright, revolving objectattracted his attention, and he fixed his eyes on it. It was the wagontire, and he saw it crushing and killing the grass at the side of theroad, or rolling and flattening down the dust in long streaks.

  Then they descended a hill. It was not a long hill, but seemed rathersteep. There was water at the bottom. He remembered seeing the bright,sparkling wavelets and never forgot the impression they produced. Therewas a boat at the bottom of the hill, and the wagon and horses weredriven into the boat. A man and boy began propelling the long sweeps oroars. He watched the proceeding in infantile wonder and especiallyremembered how the water dropped in sparkling crystals from the oarblades. The boy had on a red cap or fez with a tassel. That boy, thatcap and that oar with the sparkling dripping water from the blade wereto him the brightest pictures and greatest wonders he had ever known.

  He had not the least idea why the man and boy dipped those oars into thewater and pulled them out all dripping and pretty, unless it was toamuse him. The oars were painted blue. He did not know where they weregoing, or when this journey would end, or that it was a journey.

  Thus Fernando Stevens began life. This was the first page in hisexistence that he could recollect. In after years he knew he wasFernando Stevens, that his father was Albert Stevens, a soldier in theWar of the Revolution, that his kind, sweet-faced mother was EstellaStevens, and that the very first experience he could remember was thatof the family emigrating to the great Ohio valley.

  Albert Stevens was married shortly after the close of the RevolutionaryWar, and he tried hard to succeed in New England; but he had no tradeand no profession, and the best lands in the country were bought. Sevenyears of his early life, with all his dawning manhood had been spent inthe army, and now with his family of three children he found himselfpoor. Congress had made a treaty with the Indians by which the vastterritory of the Ohio valley was thrown open to white settlers, and heresolved to emigrate to where land was cheap, purchase a home and growup with the country.

  Resolved to emigrate, the father collected his little property andprovided himself with a wagon and four horses, some cows, a rifle, ashot-gun and an axe. His trusty dog became the companion of his journey.In his wagon he placed his bedding, his provisions and such cookingutensils as were indispensable. Everything being ready, his wife and thethree children took their seats, Fernando, the youngest, on his mother'sknee; while the father of the family mounted the box. The horses werestarted and the great vehicle began to move. As they passed through thevillage which had been to them the scene of many happy hours, they tooka last look at the spots which were hallowed by association--the churchwith its lowly spire, an emblem of that humility which befits aChristian, and the burial-ground, where the weeping willow bentmournfully over the head-stone which marked the graves of their parents.The children, who were old enough to remember, never forgot theirplayground, nor the white schoolhouse where the rudiments of aneducation were instilled into their minds.

  Their road was at first, comparatively smooth and their journeypleasant. Their progress was interrupted by divers little incidents;while the continual changes in the appearance of the country aroundthem, and the anticipation of what was to come, prevented those feelingsof despondency, which might otherwise have arisen on leaving a muchloved home. When the roads became bad or hilly, the family quit thewagon and trudged along on foot, the mother carrying the baby Fernandoin her arms. At sunset, their day's journey finished, they halted in theforest by the roadside to prepare their supper and pass the night. Thehorses were unharnessed, watered and secured with their heads to thetrough until they had eaten their meagre allowance of corn and oats, andthen were hobbled out to grass. Over the camp fire the mother preparedthe frugal supper, which being over, the emigrants arranged themselvesfor the night, while the faithful dog kept watch. Amid all theprivations and vicissitudes in their journey, they were cheered by theconsciousness that each day lessened the distance between them and theland of promise, whose fertile soil was to recompense them for all theirtrials and hardships.

  Gradually, as they advanced west, the roads became more and more roughand were only passable in many places by logs having been placed side byside, forming what was termed corduroy roads. The axe and rifle of theemigrant, or mover as he is still termed in the west, were broughtdaily and almost hourly into use. With the former he cut saplings, orsmall trees, to throw across the roads, which, in many places, werealmost impassable; while with his rifle he killed squirrels, wildturkeys, or such game as the forest afforded, for their provisions werein a few days exhausted. If, perchance, a buck crossed his path, and hebrought it down by a lucky shot, it was carefully dressed and hung up inthe forks of the trees; fires were built, and the meat cut into smallstrips and smoked and dried for future subsistence.

  As they advanced, the road through the woods became more difficult totravel, the trees being merely felled and drawn aside, so as to permit awheeled carriage to pass; and the emigrant was often obliged to beguided in his route only by the blaze of the surveyor on the trees, andat every few rods to cut away the branches which obstructed his passage.As the stroke of the axe reverberated through the woods, no answer cameback to assure him of the presence of friend or foe. At night in thesesolitudes, they heard the wolves stealing through the gloom, sniffingthe scent of the intruders; and now and then, then bloodshot eyes of thecatamount glared through the foliage.

  Days, weeks and months passed in this toilsome journey through thewilderness, so indelibly impressing it on the memory of FernandoStevens, that he never, to his dying day, forgot that journey. At lastthey arrived at the landmarks which, to Albert Stevens, indicated theproximity of his possessions. A location for the cabin was selected neara small stream of running water, on the south side of a slightelevation.

  No time was lost. The trees were immediately felled, and in a short timeFernando, looking out from the covered wagon, perceived a clear space ofground of but few rods in circumference. Stakes, forked at the top, weredriven into the ground, on which the father placed logs, and the chinksbetween these were stopped with clay. An enclosure was thus hastilythrown up to protect the family from the weather, and the wife andchildren were removed to this improvised abode. The trunks of the treeswere rolled to the edge of the clearing, and surmounted by stakes drivencrosswise into the ground: the severed tops and branches of trees piledon top of the logs, thus forming a brush fence. By degrees thesurrounding trees were "girdled" and killed. Those that would split werecut down and made into rails, while others were left to rot or logged upand burned.

  A year showed a great improvement in the pioneer's home. Several acreshad been added to the clearing, and the place began to assume theappearance of a farm. The temporary shanty had given place to acomfortable log cabin; and although the chimney was built of smallsticks placed one on the other, and filled in between with clay,occupying
almost one whole end of the cabin, it showed that the inwardman was duly attended to; and the savory fumes of venison, of theprairie hen and other good things went far to prove that even backwoodslife was not without its comforts. [Footnote: The author has often heardhis mother say that the most enjoyable period of her life was in apioneer home similar to the above.]

  In a few months, the retired cabin, once so solitary, became the nucleusof a little settlement. Other sections and quarter sections of land wereentered at the land office by new corners. New portions of ground werecleared, cabins were erected; and in a short time the settlement couldturn out a dozen efficient hands for house raising or log rolling. A sawmill soon after was erected at the falls of the creek; the log hutsreceived a poplar weather boarding, and, as the little settlementincreased, other improvements appeared; a mail line was established, andbefore many years elapsed, a fine road was completed to the nearesttown, and a stage coach, which ran once, then twice a week, connectedthe settlement with the populous country to the east of it.

  This was the life the hero of this story began. It might be said to bean unromantic life; yet such a life was known to many of our Americanancestors. It had its pleasures as well as its pains. It had its poetryas well as its prose, and its joys as well as its sorrows. The vastnessof the forest and depths of the solitude by which he was surrounded,made its impress on his mind. He grew up in ignorance of tyranny andmany of the evils of the great cities.

  The cabin home and the narrow clearing about it formed his playground.His first toy was a half-bushel measure, which he called his "bushee!"This he rolled before him around the log cabin and the paths made in thetall grass, frequently to the dread of his mother, who feared that hemight encounter some of the deadly serpents with which the forestabounded. He remembered on one occasion, when his mother found him goingtoo far, she called:

  "Come back, Fernando; mother is afraid you will step on a snake."

  He looked about him with the confidence of childhood, and answered:

  "No 'nakes here."

  Just at that moment, the mother, to her horror, saw a deadly reptilecoiled in the very path along which the child was rolling his "bushee,"and with true frontier woman's pluck, ran and snatched up thebare-footed Fernando, when only within two feet of the deadly serpent,carried him to the house, and with the stout staff assailed and killedthe rattlesnake.

  He remembered seeing the wild deer bound past the cabin door, and oneday his father killed one. The big dog called "Bob," on account of theshortness of his caudal appendage, on another occasion leaped on a wildbuck as he was passing the house, and seized the animal, holding ituntil it was slain. Wild turkeys were common; he saw them in greatflocks in the woods, and did not suppose they could ever become extinct.

  Fernando never forgot his first pair of shoes. He had grown to be quitea lad, and his bare feet had trod the paths in the forest, and over theprairies in summer and late in autumn, until they had become hardened.In winter his mother had made him moccasins out of deer skins; but hewas at last informed that he was going to have a pair of shoes, such ashe had seen some children from the eastern States wear. His joy at thisintelligence knew no bounds. He dreamed of those shoes at night, andthey formed the theme of his conversation by day. His sister, who wasthe oldest of the children, had been the happy possessor of three pairsof shoes, and she often discussed knowingly the good qualities of pedalcoverings and of their advantages in travelling through brambles or overstones. Often as he contemplated his scratched, chapped and bruisedfeet, the child had asked himself if it were possible that he shouldever be able to afford such a luxury as a real pair of shoes.

  Money was scarce, luxuries scarcer. The frontier people lived hard,worked hard, slept sound, and enjoyed excellent health.

  Though little Fernando had never owned a real pair of shoes in his life,so far as he could remember, he possessed a strong mind and body, and noprince was his superior. He had, as yet, never been to school a day, butfrom the great book of nature he had imbibed sublimity and loftiness ofthought, which only painters and poets feel.

  Though he was shoeless, he was inspired with lofty ideas of freedom suchas many reared in cities never dream about. The father had to make along journey to some far-away place for the shoes. The day beforestarting all the children were made to put their feet on the floor,while the parents measured them with strings, and tied knots to indicatethe size of shoes to be purchased. At last the measures were obtained,and the father put them in the pocket of his buckskin hunting jacket.Then he harnessed the horses to the wagon and, with, his trusty riflefor his only companion, drove away. Bob, the faithful watch-dog, wasvery anxious to accompany him, and whined and howled for two or threedays; but he was kept at home to defend the family. A faithful protectorwas Bob, and woe to the intruder who dared to annoy the household whilehe was around. Fernando waited patiently and long for the return of hisfather. Every night before retiring to his trundle-bed, he would ask hismother if "father would come next day."

  At last the joyous shout of the older children announced the approach ofthe wagon. They ran down the road to meet it. The horses jogged alongwith the wagon, which rolled and jolted over the ground to the house.The wagon was unloaded. There were bags of meal and flour, coffee andtea, and then came the calico and cotton goods, jugs of molasses and abarrel of sugar. The shoes were in a box and finally brought out.

  A great disappointment was in store for Fernando. His shoes were toosmall. The father had lost the string and purchased the shoes "byguess." Fernando tried hard to squeeze his foot into the little greencoverings; but they were so small and there was danger of bursting them.Father had to go back to the land office in a day or two and wouldexchange them. He rode off on the white mare, "old Betts," and on hisreturn had a pair of shoes large enough for Fernando.

  They were awkward at first and cramped, pinched and galled his feet. Hismother made him a suit of clothes of "blue drilling" and next Sabbaththe whole family got into the wagon and drove off eight miles to BearCreek to "meeting."

  The people of the west were as thorough a combination and mixture of allnations, characters, languages, conditions and opinions as can well beimagined. Scarcely a nation in Europe, or a State in the union, that didnot furnish emigrants for the great west. The greater mass from Europewere of the humble classes, who came from hunger, poverty andoppression. They found themselves here with the joy of shipwreckedmariners cast on the untenanted woods, and instantly became cheered withthe hope of being able to build up a family and a fortune fromnew elements.

  The Puritan and the planter, the German, the Briton, the Frenchman, theIrishman and the Swede, each with his peculiar prejudices and localattachments, and all the complicated and interwoven tissue ofsentiments, feelings and thoughts, that country, kindred and home,indelibly combined with the web of youthful existence, settled downbeside each other. The merchant, mechanic and farmer found themselvesplaced by necessity in the same society. Men must cleave to their kindand must be dependent upon each other. Pride and jealousy give way tothe natural yearnings of the human heart for society. They began to ruboff mutual prejudices. One took a step and then the other. They met halfway and embraced; and the society thus newly organized and constitutedwas more liberal, enlarged, unprejudiced, and of course moreaffectionate and pleasant than a society of people of like birth andcharacter, who would bring all their early prejudices as a common stock,to be transmitted as an inheritance to posterity.

  Depending only on God and nature, the simple backwoodsman came to regardGod as his only master and, like the Swiss patriot, would bow his kneeto none other. Men were left free to adopt such religious views andtenets as they chose, and the generous laws protected every man alike inhis religious opinions. Ministers of the gospel and priests, beingpresumed to be devoted to humanity, charity and general benevolence,were precluded by many State constitutions from any participation in thelegislative authority, and their compensation depended wholly upon thevoluntary aid of those among whom they labor
ed in charity and love. Inthe wide district where the Stevens lived, the country was too sparselysettled to support a stationed minister, and "preaching" was a luxury.Unsustained by the rigid precepts of law in any privileges, perquisites,fixed revenue, prescribed by reverence or authority, except such as wasvoluntarily acknowledged, the clergy found that success depended uponthe due cultivation of popular talents. Zeal for the great cause mixed,perhaps, with a spice of earthly ambition, the innate sense of emulationand laudable pride, a desire of distinction among their cotemporariesand brethren, prompted them to seek popularity, and to study all thearts and means of winning the popular favor.

  Travelling from month to month through dark forests, with such ampletime for deep thought, as they ambled slowly along the lonesome horsepath or unfrequented roads, they naturally acquired a pensive andromantic turn of thought and expression, which is often favorable toeloquence. Hence their preaching was of the highly popular cast, such asimmortalized Peter Cartwright. The first aim was to excite theministers; hence, too, excitement, or, in religious parlance,"awakenings," or "revivals" became common. Living remote from eachother, and spending much of their time in domestic solitude in vastforests or wide spreading prairies, the "appointment" for preaching waslooked upon as a gala-day, or a pleasing change, which brought togetherthe auditors from remote points, and gratified a feeling of curiosity,which prompted the pioneers to associate and interchange cordialcongratulations.

  As yet no meeting house had been erected in all the region where theStevens lived. The meeting on Bear Creek was at the home of Mr. Moore,who was the happy possessor of a "double log cabin." One cabin or roomwas cleared of furniture, and sawn boards, placed on sticks of wood onend, furnished the seats. These were occupied and the "entry" betweenthe cabins was filled by children. The preacher, who was also chorister,took his position near the door so as to accommodate those without aswell as those within. He opened his saddle-bags and, pushing back hissoiled linen, took out his bible and hymn-book and, proceeding to "linea hymn," "started it" himself, the congregation all joining.

  Fernando Stevens had heard from his sister about these wonderfulmeetings; but he had never dreamed that a score of voices could raisesuch an uproar, and he ceased admiring his new shoes, while he fixed hiseyes in terror on the capacious mouth of a pious old man, who, in hisfervent zeal, was singing with all his might. As he sounded forth eachresonant note, louder than the preceding, his mouth opened wider andwider, until Fernando took alarm and climbed upon his father's knee.

  At this critical moment, there came on the air a cracking sound, and oneof the boards which served the purpose of a pew broke in the centre andcame down with a crash, precipitating nearly half a score of buxom,screaming girls into a promiscuous heap upon the floor. This was toomuch for Fernando. He could not but attribute the disaster to thewide-mouthed singer, and he screamed so lustily in his fright, that hisfather took him from the house to calm his fears.

  Fernando's first experience at "meeting" was not very encouraging; buthe did not despair. Soon after their return home he heard the familybegin to speak of the "camp-meeting," and learned that one was to beheld at the head waters of Bear Creek, not far from the home of Mr.Moore, and that the family was going.

  On the appointed day they took their places in the wagon and started forthe camp ground. Notice of the camp-meeting had been circulated forseveral weeks or months, and all were eager to attend. The country forfifty miles around was excited with the cheerful anticipation of theapproaching festival of religious feeling and social friendship. Whenthe Stevenses arrived on the grounds, wagons and carts, coaches and oldfamily chaises, people on horseback and on foot, in multitudes, withprovision wagons, tents, mattresses, household implements and cookingutensils, were seen hurrying from every direction toward the centralpoint. The camp was in the midst of a grove of beautiful, lofty,umbrageous trees, natural to the western country, clothed in theirdeepest verdure, and near a sparkling stream, which supplied the hostwith fresh water. White tents started up in the grove, and soon a sylvanvillage sprang up as if by magic. The tents and booths were pitched in asemi-circle, or in a four-sided parallelogram, inclosing an area of twoacres or more, for the arrangement of seats and aisles around a rudepulpit and altar for the thronging multitude, all eager to hear theheavenly messenger.

  Fernando beheld all in a maze of wonder, and half believed this was thatHeaven of which his mother had told him so much. He half expected to seethe skies open and the son of God descend in all his glory. Towardnight, the hour of solemn service approached, and the vast sylvan bowerof the deep umbrageous forest was illuminated by numerous lampssuspended around the line of tents which encircled the public area andbeside the rustic altars distributed over the same, which sent forth aglare of light from the fagot fires upon the worshipping throng, and themajestic forest with an imposing effect, which elevated the soul to fitconverse with its creator, God.

  The scenery of the most brilliant theatre of the world was only apainting for children compared with this. Meantime, the multitude, withthe highest excitement of social feeling, added to the generalenthusiasm of expectation, was passing from tent to tent interchangingapostolic greetings and embraces, while they talked of the approachingsolemnities. A few minutes sufficed to finish the evening's repast, whenthe moon (for they had taken thought to appoint the meeting at the timeof the full moon) began to show its disc above the dark summits of thedistant mountains, while a few stars were seen glimmering in the west.Then the service began. The whole constituted a temple worthy of thegrandeur of God. An old man in a dress of the quaintest simplicityascended a platform, wiped the dust from his spectacles, and, in a voiceof suppressed emotion "lined the hymn," of which that vast multitudecould recite the words, to be sung with an air in which every voicecould join. Every heart capable of feeling thrilled with emotion as thatsong swelled forth, "Like the sound of many waters, echoing among thehills and mountains." The service proceeded. The hoary-haired oratortalked of God, of eternity, of a judgment to come and all that isimpressive beyond. He spoke of his experiences and toils, his travels,his persecutions and triumphs, and how many he had seen in hope, inpeace and triumph gathered to their fathers. When he spoke of the shortspace that remained for him, his only regret was that he could no longerproclaim, in the silence of death, the unsearchable riches and merciesof his crucified Redeemer.

  No wonder, as the speaker paused to dash the gathering moisture from hisown eye, his audience was dissolved in tears, or uttered exclamations ofpenitence. Many who prided themselves on an estimation of a higherintellect and a nobler insensibility than the crowd caught theinfection, and wept, while the others, "who came to mock remainedto pray."

  In due time a schoolhouse was erected on the banks of the creek a mileaway from the house of Albert Stevens. Fernando was sent with the olderchildren. Mrs. Creswell the teacher had no end of trouble with thelittle fellow, whose ideas of liberty were inconsistent with discipline,and who insisted on reclining on the floor instead of sitting on abench. He became hungry and despite the fact that his preceptress hadforbidden "talking out loud" declared that he wanted something to eat.

  "Wait a bit," answered the teacher. "We will have recess by and by."

  "Is recess something to eat?" he asked.

  This question produced a titter, and the insubordinate youngster wasagain told he must not talk. After awhile he became accustomed to schooland liked it. He grew older and learned his letters. It was a tedioustask, the most difficult of which was to distinguish "N" from "U," buthe finally mastered them, and his education, he supposed, was complete.After two or three years, he learned to read. His father on one of hisjourneys to town brought to their forest home some excellent books, withbright, beautiful pictures. He was now nine years old, and could readwith some difficulty. One of his books was a story about a man beingwrecked on an island, and having saved a black man named Friday fromdeath by savages. Fernando never tired of this wonderful book, and, inhis eagerness for the adventures of Robins
on Crusoe, learned to readwell without knowing it.

  From reading one book, he came to read others, and lofty, ambitiousthoughts took possession of his soul. His mind, uncontaminated ordwarfed by the sins of civilization, early began to reach out for highand noble ideas.

  His father had been a captain in the continental army, and had travelledall over the Atlantic States during the war for independence. He toldhis children many stories of those dark days and sought early to instilin their young minds a love for their country, urging them ever tosustain its honor and its flag.

  Fernando Stevens, even early in childhood, became a patriot. He could benothing more nor less than a patriot and lover of freedom with suchtraining, and growing up in such an atmosphere. With the bitter wrongsof George III. rankling in his heart, he came to despise all forms ofmonarchy, and to hate "redcoats." The cruelties of Cornwallis, Tarleton,Rawdon, Tryon and Butler were still in the minds of the people, and theboy, as he gazed on his father's sword hanging on the cabin wall, oftendeclared he would some day take it and avenge the wrongs done inyears gone by.

  Years passed on, and Fernando, in his quiet home in the West, grew to bea strong, healthy lad, with a constantly expanding mind.