Rolf in the Woods

They had ample work for several hours now, to skin the game and save the meat. It was fortunate they were so near home. A marvellous change there was in the atmosphere of the camp. Twice Quonab spoke to Van Cortlandt, as the latter laboured with them to save and store the meat of his moose. He was rubbed, doped, soiled, and anointed with its flesh, hair, and blood, and that night, as they sat by their camp fire, Skookum arose, stretched, yawned, walked around deliberately, put his nose in the lawyer’s hand, gave it a lick, then lay down by his feet. Van Cortlandt glanced at Rolf, a merry twinkle was in the eyes of both. “It’s all right. You can pat Skookum now, without risk of being crippled. He’s sized you up. You are one of us at last;” and Quonab looked on with two long ivory rows a-gleaming in his smile.

Chapter 64. Dinner at the Governor’s

Was ever there a brighter blazing sunrise after such a night of gloom? Not only a deer, but the biggest of all deer, and Van himself the only one of the party that had ever killed a moose. The skin was removed and afterward made into a hunting coat for the victor. The head and horns were carefully preserved to be carried back to Albany, where they were mounted and still hang in the hall of a later generation of the name. The final days at the camp were days of happy feeling; they passed too soon, and the long-legged lawyer, bronzed and healthy looking, took his place in their canoe for the flying trip to Albany. With an empty canoe and three paddles (two and one half, Van said), they flew down the open stretch of Jesup’s River in something over two hours and camped that night fully thirty-five miles from their cabin. The next day they nearly reached the Schroon and in a week they rounded the great bend, and Albany hove in view.

How Van’s heart did beat! How he did exult to come in triumph home, reestablished in health and strengthened in every way. They were sighted and recognized. Messengers were seen running; a heavy gun was fired, the flag run up on the Capitol, bells set a-ringing, many people came running, and more flags ran up on vessels.

A great crowd gathered by the dock.

“There’s father, and mother too!” shouted Van, waving his hat.

“Hurrah,” and the crowd took it up, while the bells went jingle, jangle, and Skookum in the bow sent back his best in answer.

The canoe was dragged ashore. Van seized his mother in his arms, as she cried: “My boy, my boy, my darling boy! how well you look. Oh, why didn’t you write? But, thank God, you are back again, and looking so healthy and strong. I know you took your squills and opodeldoc. Thank God for that! Oh, I’m so happy! my boy, my boy! There’s nothing like squills and God’s blessing.”

Rolf and Quonab were made to feel that they had a part in it all. The governor shook them warmly by the hand, and then a friendly voice was heard: “Wall, boy, here ye air agin; growed a little, settin’ up and sassin’ back, same as ever.” Rolf turned to see the gigantic, angular form and kindly face of grizzly old Si Sylvanne and was still more surprised to hear him addressed “senator.”

“Yes,” said the senator, “one o’ them freak elections that sometimes hits right; great luck for Albany, wa’nt it?”

“Ho,” said Quonab, shaking the senator’s hand, while Skookum looked puzzled and depressed.

“Now, remember,” said the governor, addressing the Indian, the lad, and the senator, “we expect you to dine tonight at the mansion; seven o’clock.”

Then the terror of the dragon conventionality, that guards the gate and hovers over the feast, loomed up in Rolf’s imagination. He sought a private word with Van. “I’m afraid I have no fit clothes; I shan’t know how to behave,” he said.

“Then I’ll show you. The first thing is to be perfectly clean and get a shave; put on the best clothes you have, and be sure they’re clean; then you come at exactly seven o’clock, knowing that every one is going to be kind to you and you’re bound to have a good time. As to any other ’funny-do’ you watch me, and you’ll have no trouble.”

So when the seven o’clock assemblage came, and guests were ascending the steps of the governor’s mansion, there also mounted a tall, slim youth, an easy-pacing Indian, and a prick-eared, yellow dog. Young Van Cortlandt was near the door, on watch to save them any embarrassment. But what a swell he looked, cleanshaven, ruddy, tall, and handsome in the uniform of an American captain, surrounded by friends and immensely popular. How different it all was from that lonely cabin by the lake.

A butler who tried to remove Skookum was saved from mutilation by the intervention first of Quonab and next of Van; and when they sat down, this uncompromising four-legged child of the forest ensconced himself under Quonab’s chair and growled whenever the silk stockings of the footman seemed to approach beyond the line of true respect.