Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 6.djvu/401

Rh And then, when I looked into his clear blue eye, took note of his steady nerve, mirrored his calm features, and recalled his cheerful words and merry song, my better judgment, my sober second-thought, failed to convict him of any of these grave charges and accused me of harboring mean and unwarrantable suspicions. I was adrift!

"He landed on our shores on a bright May day. He produced, as though by magic, carpenters' tools, cooking utensils, fishing tackle, a rifle, some powder and bullets, and a large package of books. Somehow we became friends almost from the first day of his arrival in the mountains, and remained so until I broke with him for his good. He never divulged his name. He built a log cabin close upon my bank; he flirted with me as a coy maiden plays with her lover, and he seemed at all times perfectly contented and happy. The more I saw of him the more the wonder grew as to whom he was and why he had deserted society.

"But I must tell you more of 'P. P.'s' settlement. It was attractive in many particulars, and had it been the summer resort of a party of two or three mutual friends, I could have readily understood that a good degree of happiness and novelty might have surrounded it. As it was I did not understand how it could be otherwise than a pretty lonesome place. To be sure he took the greatest of pains in making a cozy and comfortable place of shelter. Nothing was slighted or left undone that could in any particular afford comfort. He knew his business like an old campaigner, and while he showed that he was not an educated mechanic, he yet displayed that he was what men call a genius, or a 'handy man at any trade.'

"As time passed on there were many surprises in connection with this new settler, and it is, I suppose, because of these surprises that I remember so clearly the minutest details and have so clear a recollection of nearly all his transactions. Among the surprises which I shall mention, and with which I was fascinated, was his exquisite taste for things that are in themselves beautiful, and which he had a wonderful faculty of fashioning. He carved pieces of furniture from oak logs, and wrought elegant floral and humorous pictures from birch-bark, mosses, and ferns. Why! his cabin was an old curiosity shop, or, rather, a new curiosity shop, in things useful and ornamental, and he was to all appearances as happy and contented as a 'king in his castle.'

"I have not, however, told you all of this rare man's rare qualities. He was a great lover of animals, and beside the black, nasty dog which he brought with him, and which I have forgotten to mention till now, he soon had a tame fox, several rabbits, a score of birds, and a domestic cat which he obtained somewhere on one of his excursions to the farming districts. These were his companions and play-fellows, and he was as happy—unless I am misinformed about the affairs of the world, and I have learned a good deal while tarrying near mountain hotels where men and women of fashion congregate—as do those who spend their time in the gilded saloons and reception-rooms of the gay metropolis.

"Nor was this all;—you will note that I am giving a complete narrative of the life and adventures of my strange visitor—if it were I should not have been so deeply interested in him. He would frequently absent himself for a day and night, and on his return bring with him sundry articles of purchase from some country store and also a good supply of newspapers and magazines with which, including his scientific books, of which I have made mention, he employed all his leisure time. He was a very busy man, and yet he found time to clear a patch of interval land, cultivate a large variety of flowers, and raise such vegetables as he desired for use as food for himself and the tame animals which he kept about him.