Page:Recollections of My Boyhood.djvu/47

Rh face of a precipice a thousand feet high, with a crack in it extending from top to bottom, without being struck dumb with awe and admiration, or pass by a lousy Indian and never realize that he had met one of Fennimore Cooper's noble red men.

Now of nights we encamped on the bank of the river, sometimes on the north, and sometimes on the south side. I remember especially a camp we made on the south shore. There was a very narrow strip of sand and rock almost level, between the river and a high bluff, with a high mountain rising above it. Here we were, I well remember, with this precipitous bluff and lofty mountain at our back, and the broad river before us. We must have landed here quite early in the afternoon, for the unusual occurrence which underscored this camping place on memory's tablet took place before the sun was low; for it may have been a nooning place. Now at a venture I will say that our people, for frontiersmen and women of those days, were unusually free from superstitious whims. I had never seen a horse shoe over the door; they never spoke of looking at a hog's melt for a forecast of the weather, did not believe in lucky or unlucky days, nor that dropping the dishrag was a sign that the family would have company at the house. But mother, meaning to make sport of superstitious notions, no doubt, sometimes spoke of a belief among the people that seeing the new moon over the right shoulder was an omen of good luck, and to be candid I must admit that when I know the new moon is out, I sometimes put myself to a little trouble to get first sight of it over my right shoulder. That indicates a trace of superstition. Ghost stories, stories of haunted houses, of goblins, of witches and fairies, were current among the people in those days, but were not told as truths by our folks.

The unusual occurrence referred to was this. Although we had now been several days on our voyage down the river, I had not heard any one complain of hardships or express fear of hardships or dangers to be encountered, and for my part I had come to feel as safe on the water as on land. But at this camp I heard remarks that renewed my apprehensions of danger. There was a drift wood camp fire burning and the women folks were about it doing the kitchen work (quite a