Mass George | Page 6

as he called it, had been in the night, pointing out its track right up to the rough fence of the garden.
"You and I'll have a treat one of these days, my lad."
"Yes," I used to say; "but when?"
"Oh, one of these days when I'm not busy."
"Ah, Morgan," I used to say, impatiently, "when you're not busy: when will that be?"
"Be? One o' these days when we've cut down all the wood, and turned all that low flat swamp into plantation. You see I'm so busy just now."
"Oh, very well," I said, "I shall go by myself."
"That you won't, look you," he cried. "I heard you promise your father you wouldn't go alone. You're not much of a boy, but you're too good to feed alligators with, or let the rattlesnakes and 'cassins try their pyson on."
"But they wouldn't, I should take care."
"Take care? Do you know, there's 'gators big as trees in these swamp-holes. I shouldn't wonder if there's some of the old open-countenanced beauties big round as houses. Why, Master George, I believe there's fellows out there as old as the river, and as could take you as easy as I do a pill."
"Don't believe it."
"Ve-ry well then; only mind, if one does take you across the middle, give you a pitch up in the air, and then catch you head-first and swallow you, don't you blame me."
"Why, how could I, if he swallowed me?" I said.
"Oh, I don't know. You might holler or knock, if you had a stick in your hand."
"What stuff!"
"Oh, is it! There's plenty of room in 'em, and they're as hard as horn. But you take my advice, and don't try."
"Well, then, come with me; I know several holes where I think they live."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I've seen the footmarks leading down to them all plain in the mud."
"Then you've been going too far, and don't you run no risks again."
I walked away discontentedly, as I'd often walked away before, wishing that I had a companion of my own age.
Some of the gentlemen settled out there had sons; but they were away, and at times the place seemed very lonely; but I fancy now that was only just before a storm, or when everything felt strange and depressing. At other times I was happy enough. Every morning I had three hours' good study with my father, who very rarely let me neglect that. Then in the afternoon there was always something to do or something to see and help over. For, as far as my father's means would allow, he planned and contrived endless things to make our home more attractive and convenient.
One week it would be the contriving of rough tree-trunk steps down from the bank to the water's edge, so that the boat was easily reached, and ringbolts were driven into cut-down trees, which became natural posts for mooring the boat.
Another time during one of our walks, he stopped by a lovely pool out toward the swamp--a spot of about an acre and a half in extent, where the trees kept off the wind, and where the morning sun seemed to light up the bottom, showing every pebble and every fish as if seen through crystal glass.
"There," he said, "that will be ten times better than bathing in the river. I always feel a little nervous about you there. This shall be your own private bathing-pool, where you can learn to swim to your heart's content. That old fallen hickory will do for your dressing-room, and there are places to hang up your clothes. I don't think you can come to harm here."
Of course I was delighted, and at the same time a little disappointed; for the fact that the pool was perfectly safe took away somewhat from its attractiveness, and I began to think that there was no stream to carry one along; no very deep places to swim over and feel a thrill at the danger; no holes in the banks where an alligator might be smiling pleasantly as he thought how good a boy would be to eat.
CHAPTER FOUR.
I am obliged to run quickly through my early unadventurous days, skipping, as it were, from memory to memory of things which happened before life became serious and terrible for us all at the plantation, and storms and peril followed rapidly after the first pleasant calm. For it seems to me now, as I sit and think, that nothing could have been happier than the life on the river during the first days of the settlement. Of course, everybody had to work hard, but it was in a land of constant sunshine, of endless spring and summer days--cold weather was hardly known--and when a storm came, though the thunder and lightning were terrible and the rain tremendous, everything