A Man for the Ages | Page 7

trout would
be dressed and sizzling, with a piece of salt pork, in the pan, or it was a
bad day for fishing," he writes.
After supper the wagon was partly unloaded, the feather bed laid upon
the planks under the wagon roof and spread with blankets. Then
Samson sang songs and told stories or played upon the violin to amuse
the family. The violin invariably woke the birds in the tree-tops, and
some, probably thrushes or warblers or white throated sparrows, began
twittering. Now and then one would express his view of the disturbance
with a little phrase of song. Often the player paused to hear these
musical whispers "up in the gallery," as he was wont to call it.
Often if the others were weary and depressed he would dance merrily
around the fire, playing a lively tune, with Sambo glad to lend a
helping foot and much noise to the program. If mosquitos and flies
were troublesome Samson built smudges, filling their camp with the
smoky incense of dead leaves, in which often the flavor of pine and
balsam was mingled. By and by the violin was put away and all knelt
by the fire while Sarah prayed aloud for protection through the night.
So it will be seen that they carried with them their own little theater,
church and hotel.

Soon after darkness fell, Sarah and the children lay down for the night,
while Samson stretched out with his blankets by the fire in good
weather, the loaded musket and the dog Sambo lying beside him. Often
the howling of wolves in the distant forest kept them awake, and the
dog muttering and barking for hours.
Samson woke the camp at daylight and a merry song was his reveille
while he led the horses to their drink.
"Have a good night?" Sarah would ask.
"Perfect!" he was wont to answer. "But when the smudges went out the
mosquiters got to peckin' my face."
"Mine feels like a pincushion," Sarah would often answer. "Will you
heat up a little water for us to wash with?"
"You better believe I will. Two more hedge hogs last night, but Samba
let 'em alone."
Sambo had got his mouth sored by hedge hogs some time before and
had learned better than to have any fuss with them.
When they set out in the morning Samson was wont to say to the little
lad, who generally sat beside him: "Well, my boy, what's the good
word this morning?" Whereupon Joe would say, parrot like:
"God help us all and make His face to shine upon us."
"Well said!" his father would answer, and so the day's journey began.
Often, near its end, they came to some lonely farmhouse. Always
Samson would stop and go to the door to ask about the roads, followed
by little Joe and Betsey with secret hopes. One of these hopes was
related to cookies and maple sugar and buttered bread and had been
cherished since an hour of good fortune early in the trip and
encouraged by sundry good-hearted women along the road. Another
was the hope of seeing a baby--mainly, it should be said, the hope of

Betsey. Joe's interest was merely an echo of hers. He regarded babies
with an open mind, as it were, for the opinions of his sister still had
some weight with him, she being a year and a half older than he, but
babies invariably disappointed him, their capabilities being so restricted.
To be sure, they could make quite a noise, and the painter was said to
imitate it, but since Joe had learned that they couldn't bite he had begun
to lose respect for them. Still, not knowing what might happen, he
always took a look at every baby.
The children were lifted out of the wagon to stretch their legs at
sloughs and houses. They were sure to be close behind the legs of their
father when he stood at a stranger's door. Then, the night being near,
they were always invited to put their horses in the barn and tarry until
next morning. This was due in part to the kindly look and voice of
Samson, but mostly to the wistful faces of the little children--a fact
unsuspected by their parents. What motherly heart could resist the
silent appeal of children's faces or fail to understand it? Those were
memorable nights for Sarah and Joe and Betsey. In a letter to her
brother the woman said:
"You don't know how good it seemed to see a woman and talk to her,
and we talked and talked until midnight, after all the rest were asleep.
She let me hold the baby in my lap until it was put to bed. How good it
felt to have a little warm