Welcome to PhiloLogic  
   home |  the ARTFL project |  download |  documentation |  sample databases |   
Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851 [1823], The pioneers, volume 2 (Charles Wiley, New York) [word count] [eaf054v2].
To look up a word in a dictionary, select the word with your mouse and press 'd' on your keyboard.

Previous section

Next section

CHAPTER IV.

“Help, masters, help; here's a fish hangs in the net, like a poor
man's right in the law.”

Pericles of Tyre.

[figure description] Page 051.[end figure description]

The advance of the season now became as rapid,
as its first approach had been tedious and
lingering. The days were uniformly mild, and
genial to vegetation, while the nights, though
cool, were no longer chilled by frosts. The
whip-poor-will was heard whistling his melancholy
notes along the margin of the lake, and the
ponds and meadows were sending forth the music
of their thousand tenants. The leaf of the native
poplar was seen quivering in the woods; the sides
of the mountains began to lose their hue of brown,
as the lively green of the different members of the
forest blended their shades with the permanent
colours of the pine and hemlock; and even the
buds of the tardy oak were swelling with the promise
of the coming summer. The gay and fluttering
blue-bird, the social robin, and the industrious
little wren, were all to be seen, enlivening
the fields with their presence and their songs;
while the soaring fish-hawk was already hovering
over the waters of the Otsego, watching, with his
native voracity, for the appearance of his prey.

-- 052 --

[figure description] Page 052.[end figure description]

The tenants of the lake were far-famed for both
their quantities and their quality, and the ice
had hardly disappeared, before numberless little
boats were launched from the shores, and the lines
of the fishermen were dropped into the inmost
recesses of its deepest caverns, tempting the unwary
animals with every variety of bait that the ingenuity
or the art of man had invented. But the
slow, though certain adventures with a hook and
line were ill-suited to the profusion and impatience
of the settlers. More destructive means were resorted
to; and, as the season had now arrived
when the bass-fisheries were allowed by the provisions
of the law, that Judge Temple had procured,
the Sheriff declared his intention by availing himself
of the first dark night, to enjoy the sport in
person—

“And you shall be present, cousin Bess,” he
added, when he announced this intention, “and
Miss Grant, and Mr. Edwards; and I will show
you what I call fishing—not nibble, nibble, nibble,
as 'duke does, when he goes after the salmontrout.
There he will sit, for hours, in a broiling
sun, or, perhaps, over a hole in the ice, in the
coldest days in winter, under the lee of a few
bushes, and not a fish will he catch, after all this
mortification of the flesh. No, no—give me a
good seine, that's fifty or sixty fathoms in length,
with a jolly parcel of boatmen to crack their
jokes, the while, and with Benjamin to steer, and
let us haul them in by thousands, and I shall call
that fishing.”

“Ah! Dickon,” cried Marmaduke, “thou
knowest but little of the pleasure there is in playing
with the hook and line, or thou wouldst be
more saving of the game. I have known thee to
leave fragments enough behind thee, when thou

-- 053 --

[figure description] Page 053.[end figure description]

hast headed a night-party on the lake, to feed
a half-dozen famishing families.”

“I shall not dispute the matter with you, Judge
Temple,” said the Sheriff, with much dignity;
“this night will I go; and I invite the company
to attend, and then let them decide between us.”

Richard was busy, during most of the afternoon,
making his preparations for the important
occasion. Just as the light of the setting sun had
disappeared, and a new moon had begun to cause
faint shadows to be seen on the earth, the fishermen
took their departure in a boat, for a point
that was situated on the western shore of the lake,
at the distance of rather more than half a mile from
the village. The ground had become settled, and
the walking was good and dry. Marmaduke,
with his daughter, her friend, and young Edwards,
continued on the high grassy banks, at the
outlet of the placid sheet of water, watching the
dark object that was moving with great rapidity
across the lake, until it entered the shade of the
western hills, and was lost to the eye. The distance
round by land, to the point of their destination,
was a mile, and he observed—

“It is time for us to be moving; the moon will
be down ere we reach the point, and then the miraculous
hauls of Dickon will commence.”

The evening was warm, and, after the long and
dreary winter from which they had just escaped,
delightfully invigorating, both to the mind and
body. Inspirited by the scene, and their anticipated
amusement, the youthful companions of the
Judge followed his steps, as he led them along the
shores of the Otsego, and through the skirts of
the little village.

“See!” said young Edwards; “they are
building their fire already; it glimmers for a

-- 054 --

[figure description] Page 054.[end figure description]

moment, and then dies again, like the light of a firefly.”

“Now it blazes like a bonfire!” cried Elizabeth;
“you can see the figures moving around
the light. Oh! I would bet my jewels against the
gold beads of Remarkable, that my impatient
cousin Dickon had an agency in raising that
bright flame;—and see; it begins to fade again,
like most of his brilliant schemes.”

“Thou hast guessed the truth, Bess,” said her
father; “he has thrown an armfull of brush on
the pile, which has burnt out as soon as lighted.
But it has enabled them to find a better fuel, for
their fire begins to blaze with a more steady flame.
It is the true fisherman's beacon now; observe
how beautifully it throws its little circle of light
on the water!”

The appearance of the fire urged the pedestrians
on, for even the ladies had become eager
to witness the draught of the seine. By the time
they reached, the bank which rose above the low
point where the fishermen had landed, the moon
had sunk behind the tops of the western pines,
and, as most of the stars were obscured by the
clouds, there was but little other light, by which
to view the scene, than that which proceeded
from the large piles of brush, branches, and
roots, that had been collected, under the superintendence
of Richard. At the suggestion of Marmaduke,
his companions paused to listen to the
conversation of those below them, and examine
the party, for a moment, before they descended to
the shore.

The whole group were seated around the fire,
on the ground, with the exception of Richard and
Benjamin; the former of whom occupied the root
of a decayed stump, that had been drawn to the
spot as part of their fuel, and the latter was

-- 055 --

[figure description] Page 055.[end figure description]

standing, with his arms a-kimbo, so near to the flame,
that the smoke occasionally obscured his solemn
visage, as it waved around the pile, in obedience
to the light night-airs, that swept gently over the
surface of the water.

“Why, look you, Squire,” said the Major-domo,
“you may call a lake-fish that will weigh twenty
or thirty pounds, a serious matter; but to a man
who has hauled in a shovel-nosed shirk, d'ye see,
it's but a poor kind of fishing, after all.”

“I don't know, Benjamin,” returned the Sheriff;
“a haul of one thousand Otsego bass, without
counting pike, pickerel, perch, bull-pouts, salmontrouts,
and suckers, is no bad fishing, let me tell
you. There may be sport in sticking a shark,
but what is he good for after you have got him?
Now any one of the fish that I have named is fit to
set before a king.”

“Well, Squire,” returned Benjamin, “just listen
to the philosophy of the thing. Would it stand
to reason, that such fish should live and be catched
in this here little pond of water, where it's
hardly deep enough to drown a man, as you'll
find in the wide ocean, where, as every body knows,
that is, every body that has followed the seas,
whales and grampuses are to be seen, that are as
long as one of them pine trees on yonder mountain?”

“Softly, softly, Benjamin,” said the Sheriff,
using a soothing manner, as if he wished to save
the credit of his favourite; “why some of the
pines will measure full two hundred feet, and even
more.”

“Two hundred or two thousand, it's all the
same thing,” cried Benjamin, with an air which
manifested that he was not easily to be bullied out
of his opinion, on a subject like the present—
“Haven't I been there, and haven't I seen? I

-- 056 --

[figure description] Page 056.[end figure description]

have said that you fall in with whales as long as
one of them there pines; and I'll stand to what I
have once said.”

During this dialogue, which was evidently but
the close of a much longer discussion, the huge
frame of Billy Kirby was seen extended on one
side of the fire, where he was picking his teeth
with the splinters of the chips that were near him,
and occasionally shaking his head, with the distrust
that was engendered by the marvellous qualities
of Benjamin's assertions. It seems that he
now thought it time to advance his sentiments on
the subject.

“I've a notion,” said the wood-chopper, “that
there's water in this lake to swim the biggest
whale that ever was invented; and, as to the pines,
I think I ought to know so'thing consarning them;
and I have chopped many a one that was sixty
times the length of my helve, without counting the
eyes; and I b'lieve, Benny, that if the old pine
that stands in the hollow of the Vision Mountain,
just over the village, and you may see the tree
itself by looking up, for the moon is on its top
yet;—well, now I b'lieve, that if that same tree
was planted out in the deepest part of the lake,
there would be water enough for the biggest ship
that ever was built to float over it, without touching
its upper branches, I do.”

“Did'ee ever see a ship, Master Kirby?” roared
the steward—“did'ee ever see a ship, man? or
any craft bigger than a lime-scow, or a wood-boat,
on this here small bit of fresh water?”

“Yes, I have,” said the wood-chopper, stoutly;
“I can say that I have, and tell no lie.”

“Did'ee ever see a British ship, Master Kirby?
an English line-of-battle ship, boy? Where away
did'ee ever fall in with a regular-built vessel, with
starn-post and cut-water, garboard streak and

-- 057 --

[figure description] Page 057.[end figure description]

plank-shear, gangways and hatchways, and waterways,
quarter-deck and forecastle, ay, and flushdeck?—
tell me that, man, if you can; where
away did'ee ever fall in with such a hooker; a
full-rigged, regular-built, decked vessel?”

The whole company were a good deal astounded
with this overwhelming question, and even
Richard afterwards remarked, that it “was a thousand
pities that Benjamin could not read, or he
must have made a valuable officer to the British
marine. It was no wonder that they overcome
the French so easily on the water, when even the
lowest sailor so well understood the different parts
of a vessel.” But Billy Kirby was a fearless
wight, and had great jealousy of foreign dictation;
he had arisen on his feet, and turned his back to
the fire, during the voluble delivery of this interrogatory;
and when the steward ended, contrary
to all expectation, he gave the following spirited
reply:—

“Where! why on the North River, and maybe
on Champlain. There's sloops on the river, boy,
that would give a hard time on't to the stoutest
vessel King George owns. They carry masts of
ninety feet in the clear, of good, solid pine, for
I've been at the chopping of many a one in Varmount
state. I wish I was captain of one of them,
and you was in that Board-dish that you tell so
much about, and we'd soon see what good Yankee
stuff is made on, and whether a Varmounter's
hide an't as thick as an Englishman's.”

The echoes from the opposite hills, which were
more than half a mile from the fishing point, sent
back the discordant laugh that Benjamin gave
forth at this challenge; and the woods that covered
their sides, seemed, by the noise that issued
from their shades, to be full of mocking demons.

-- 058 --

[figure description] Page 058.[end figure description]

“Let us descend to the shore,” whispered Marmaduke,
“or there will soon be ill blood between
them. Benjamin is a fearless boaster, and Kirby,
though good-natured, is a careless son of the
forest, who thinks one American more than a
match for six Englishmen. I marvel that Dickon
is silent, where there is such a trial of skill in the
superlative!”

The appearance of Judge Temple and the ladies
produced, if not a pacification, at least a cessation
of hostilities. Obedient to the directions of Mr.
Jones, the fishermen prepared to launch their boat,
which had been seen in the back-ground of the
view, with the net carefully disposed on a little
platform in its stern, ready for instant service.
Richard gave vent to his reproaches at the tardiness
of the pedestrians, when all the turbulent passions
of the party were succeeded by a calm, as
mild and as placid as that which prevailed over
the beautiful sheet of water, that they were about
to rifle of its best treasures.

The night had now become so dark as to render
objects, without the reach of the light from
their fire, not only indistinct, but, in most cases,
invisible. For a little distance the water was discernible,
glistening, as the glare from the fire
danced over its surface, touching it, here and
there, with red, quivering streaks; but at a hundred
feet from the shore, a boundary of impenetrable
gloom opposed itself to the vision. One or
two stars were shining through the openings of the
clouds, and the lights were seen in the village,
glimmering faintly, as if at an immeasurable distance.
At times, as their fire lowered, or as the
horizon cleared, the outline of the mountain, on
the other side of the lake, might be traced, by its
undulations; but its shadow was cast, wide and

-- 059 --

[figure description] Page 059.[end figure description]

dense, on the bosom of the waters, rendering the
darkness, in that direction, trebly deep.

Benjamin Pump was invariably the cockswain
and net-caster of Richard's boat, unless the Sheriff
saw fit to preside in person; and, on the present
occasion, Billy Kirby, and a youth of about half
his strength, were assigned to the duty at the oars.
The remainder of the assistants were stationed at
the ropes, for the laborious service of hauling the
net to land. The arrangements were speedily
made, and Richard gave the signal to “shove
off.”

Elizabeth watched the motion of the batteau,
as it pulled from the shore, letting loose its rope
as it went, but it very soon disappeared in the
darkness, when her ear was her only guide to its
evolutions. There was a great affectation of stillness,
during all these manœuvres, in order, as Richard
assured them, “not to frighten the bass,
who were running into the shoal waters, and who
would approach the light, if not disturbed by the
sounds from the fishermen.”

The hoarse voice of Benjamin was alone heard,
issuing out of the gloom, as he uttered, in authoritative
tones, “pull larboard oar,” “pull starboard,”
“give way together, boys,” and such
other dictative mandates as were necessary for the
right disposition of his seine. A long time was
passed in this necessary part of the process, for
Benjamin prided himself greatly on his skill in
throwing the net, and, in fact, most of the success
of the sport depended on its being done with judgment.
At length a loud splash in the water, as he
threw away the “staff,” or “stretcher,” with a
hoarse call from the steward, of “clear,” announced
that the boat was returning to the shore;
when Richard seized a brand from the fire, and
ran to a point, as far above the centre of the

-- 060 --

[figure description] Page 060.[end figure description]

fishing ground, as the one from which the batteau had
started was below it.

“Stick her in dead for the Squire, boys,” said
the steward, “and we'll have a look at what there
is that grows in this here pond.”

In place of the falling net, were now to be heard
the quick strokes of the oars, and the noise of
the rope, running out of the boat. Presently the
batteau shot into the circle of light, and in an instant
she was pulled to shore. Several eager hands
were extended, to receive the “hauling line,” and,
both ropes being equally well manned, the fishermen
commenced hauling in, with slow and steady
drags, Richard standing in the centre, giving orders,
first to one party and then to the other, to
increase or slacken their efforts, as the occasion
required. The visiters were posted near him, and
enjoyed a fair view of the whole operation, which
was slowly advancing to an end.

Opinions, as to the result of their adventure,
were now freely hazarded by all the men, some
declaring that the net came in as light as a feather,
and others affirming that it seemed to be full of
logs. As the ropes were many hundred feet in
length, these opposing sentiments were thought
to be of little moment by the Sheriff, who would
go first to one line and then to the other, giving
each a small pull, in order to enable him to form
an opinion for himself.

“Why, Benjamin,” he cried, as he made his
first effort in this way, “you did not throw your
net clear. I can move it with my little finger.
The rope slackens in my hand.”

“Did you ever see a whale, Squire?” responded
the steward: “I say that if that there net is
foul, the devil is in the lake in the shape of a
fish, for I cast it as fair as ever rigging was rove
over the quarter-deck of a flag-ship.”

-- 061 --

[figure description] Page 061.[end figure description]

But Richard discovered his mistake, when he
saw Billy Kirby before him, standing with his
feet to the water, at an angle of forty-five degrees,
inclining shorewards, and expending his gigantic
strength in sustaining himself in that posture. He
ceased his remonstrances, and proceeded to the
party at the other line.

“I see the `staff,' ” shouted Mr. Jones;—
“gather in, boys, and away with it; to shore with
her—to shore with her.”

At this cheerful sound, Elizabeth strained her
eyes, and saw the ends of the two sticks on the
seine, emerging from the darkness, while the men
closed near to each other, and formed a deep bag
of their net. The exertions of the fishermen sensibly
increased, and the voice of Richard was
heard, encouraging them to make their greatest
efforts, at the present moment.

“Now's the time, my lads,” he cried; “let us
get the ends to land, and all we have will be our
own—away with her!”

“Away with her it is,” echoed Benjamin—
“hurrah! ho-a-hoy, ho-a-hoy, ho-a!”

“In with her,” shouted Kirby, exerting himself
in a manner that left nothing for those in his rear
to do, but to gather up the slack of the rope which
he passed through his hands.

“Staff, ho!” shouted the steward.

“Staff, ho!” echoed Kirby, from the other
rope.

The men rushed to the water's edge, some
seizing the upper rope, and some the lower, or
lead-rope, and began to haul with great activity
and zeal. A deep semicircular sweep, of the little
balls that supported the seine in its perpendicular
position, was plainly visible to the spectators,
and, as it rapidly lessened in size, the
bag of the net appeared, while an occasional

-- 062 --

[figure description] Page 062.[end figure description]

flutter on the water announced the uneasiness of the
prisoners it contained.

“Haul in, my lads,” shouted Richard—“I can
see the dogs kicking to get free. Haul in, and
here's a cast that will pay you for the labour.”

Fishes of various sorts now were to be seen, entangled
in the meshes of the net, as it was passed
through the hands of the labourers; and the water,
at a little distance from the shore, was alive
with the agitated movements of the alarmed victims.
Hundreds of white sides were glancing up
to the surface of the water, and glistening in the
fire-light, when frightened at the uproar and the
change, the fish would again dart to the bottom,
in fruitless efforts for freedom.

“Hurrah!” shouted Richard again; “one or
two more heavy drags, boys, and we are safe.”

“Cheerily, boys, cheerily!” cried Benjamin;
“I see a salmon-trout that is big enough for a
chowder.”

“Away with you, you varmint!” said Billy
Kirby, plucking a bull-pout from the meshes, and
casting the animal back into the lake with great
contempt. “Pull, boys, pull; here's all kinds,
and the Lord condemn me for a liar, if there an't
a thousand bass!”

Inflamed beyond the bounds of discretion at the
sight, and forgetful of the season, the wood-chopper
rushed to his middle in the water, and begun
to drive the reluctant animals before him
from their native element.

“Pull heartily, boys,” cried Marmaduke, yielding
to the excitement of the moment, and laying
his hands to the net, with no trifling addition to
the force. Edwards had preceded him, for the
sight of the immense piles of fish, that were slowly
rolling over on the gravelly beach, had

-- 063 --

[figure description] Page 063.[end figure description]

impelled him also to leave the ladies, and join the
fishermen.

Great care was observed in bringing the net to
land, and, after much toil, the whole shoal of victims
were safely deposited in a hollow of the
bank, where they were left to flutter away their
brief existence, in their new and fatal element.

Even Elizabeth and Louisa were greatly excited
and highly gratified, by seeing two thousand
captives thus drawn from the bosom of the
lake, and laid as prisoners at their feet. But
when the feelings of the moment were passing
away, Marmaduke took in his hands a bass, that
might have weighed two pounds, and, after viewing
it a moment, in melancholy musing, he turned
to his daughter, and observed—

“This is a fearful expenditure of the choicest
gifts of Providence. These fish, Bess, which
thou seest lying in such piles before thee, and
which, by to-morrow evening, will be rejected
food on the meanest table in Templeton, are of
a quality and flavour that, in other countries,
would make them esteemed a luxury on the
tables of princes or epicures. The world has
no better fish than the bass of Otsego: it unites
the richness of the shad to the firmness of the
salmon.”

“But surely, dear sir,” cried Elizabeth, “they
must prove a great blessing to the country, and a
powerful friend to the poor.”

“The poor are always prodigal, my child,
where there is plenty, and seldom think of a
provision against the morrow. But if there can
be any excuse for destroying animals in this manner,
it is in taking the bass. During the winter,
you know, they are entirely protected from our
assaults by the ice, for they ever refuse the hook;
and during the hot months they are not seen.

-- 064 --

[figure description] Page 064.[end figure description]

It is supposed they retreat to the deep and
cool waters of the lake, at that season; and it is
only in the spring and autumn, that, for a few
days, they are to be found, around the points
where they are within the reach of a seine. But,
like all the other treasures of the wilderness, they
already begin to disappear, before the wasteful
extravagance of man.”

“Disappear, 'duke! disappear!” exclaimed the
Sheriff; “if you don't call this appearing, I know
not what you will. Here are a good thousand of
the shiners, some hundreds of suckers, and a
powerful quantity of other fry. But this is always
the way with you, Marmaduke; first it's
the trees, then it's the deer, after that it's the maple
sugar, and so on to the end of the chapter.
One day you talk of canals, through a country
where there's a river or a lake every half-mile,
just because the water won't run the way you wish
it to go; and the next, you say something about
mines of coal, though any man who has good
eyes, like myself—I say with good eyes—can see
more wood than would keep the city of London
in fuel for fifty years;—wouldn't it Benjamin?”

“Why, for that, Squire,” said the steward,
“Lon'on is no small place. If it was stretched
an end, all the same as a town on one side of a
river, it would cover some such matter as this
here lake. Thof I dar'st to say, that the wood in
sight might sarve them a good turn, seeing that the
Lon'oners mainly burn coal.”

“Now we are on the subject of coal, Judge
Temple,” interrupted the Sheriff, “I have a thing
of much importance to communicate to you; but
I will defer it until to-morrow. I know that you
intend riding into the eastern part of the patent,
and I will accompany you, and conduct you to a
spot, where some of your projects may be

-- 065 --

[figure description] Page 065.[end figure description]

realized. We will say no more now, sir, for there
are listeners; but a secret has this evening been
revealed to me, 'duke, that is of more consequence
to your welfare, than all your estates united.”

Marmaduke laughed at this important intelligence,
to which in a variety of shapes he was accustomed,
and the Sheriff, with an air of great
dignity, as if pitying his want of faith, proceeded
in the business more immediately before them.
As the labour of drawing the net had been very
great, he directed one party of his men to commence
throwing the fish into piles, preparatory to
the usual division, while another, under the superintendence
of Benjamin, prepared the seine
for a second haul.

-- 066 --

Previous section

Next section


Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851 [1823], The pioneers, volume 2 (Charles Wiley, New York) [word count] [eaf054v2].
Powered by PhiloLogic