Page 59 - A Hero of Ticonderoga

CHAPTER XIII

--FOREBODINGS OF STORM

After many days of fair promises tardily fulfilled, spring had come. The
soft air was full of its sounds and odors, the medley of harsh and liquid

notes of the myriad blackbirds that swarmed in the trees along the creek,
the crackling croak of the frogs, the whimpering call of the muskrats, the

booming of bitterns, the splashing and quacking of wild ducks, and the
murmur of running waters. There were the spicy fragrance of pine and
hemlock, and the fresh smell of warming mould and bursting buds, while

the perfume of wild flowers added a moiety to the spring time odor. The
shad trees shone like snowdrifts in the gray woods, and the yellow catkins

were alive with humming bees.

Amid the pleasant sights of nature’s progress, Nathan and his friend sat near

the door, taking off and stretching on pliant bows the skins of the last catch
of muskrats.

"It’s about time to quit trappin’ for this year," said Job, as he slipped a skin
onto the bow that he held between his knees. "They’re gettin’ a leetle off

prime, though better’n they be in the fall an’ no kits as there is then," and he
fastened the skin in place, with a cut near its edge, into each horn of the

bow. "Good land! What’s Gabe hullabalooin’ at now, I wonder?"

Nathan peered cautiously around the corner and whispered:

"It’s neighbor Newton. I’ll go up loft." Accordingly he climbed the ladder

and crept softly to the side of the loft above the door. Through the wide
cracks of the loose flooring he could see a patch of the chip strewn, sunlit
earth outside, with Job’s long legs stretching across it and his hands idle a

moment as he called in the hound, who presently appeared, and behind him
the stout stockinged legs of neighbor Newton.

"Job, have you heard the news?" Newton asked excitedly.