Rejoicings--The feast at the block-house--Grumps andCrusoe come out strong--The closing scene. The day of Dick's arrival with his companions wasa great day in the annals of the Mustang Valley,and Major Hope resolved to celebrate it by an impromptufestival at the old block-house; for many hearts in thevalley had been made glad that day, and he knew fullwell that, under such circumstances, some safety-valvemust be devised for the escape of overflowing excitement.
A messenger was sent round to invite the populationto assemble without delay in front of the block-house.
With backwoods-like celerity the summons was obeyed;men, women, and children hurried towards the centralpoint, wondering, yet more than half suspecting, whatwas the major's object in calling them together.
They were not long in doubt. The first sight thatpresented itself, as they came trooping up the slope infront of the log-hut, was an ox roasting whole beforea gigantic bonfire. Tables were being extemporized onthe broad level plot in front of the gate. Other firesthere were, of smaller dimensions, on which sundrysteaming pots were placed, and various joints of wildhorse, bear, and venison roasted, and sent forth a savouryodour as well as a pleasant hissing noise. Theinhabitants of the block-house were self-taught brewers,and the result of their recent labours now stood displayedin a row of goodly casks of beer--the onlybeverage with which the dwellers in these far-off regionswere wont to regale themselves.
The whole scene, as the cooks moved actively aboutupon the lawn, and children romped round the fires,and settlers came flocking through the forests, mighthave recalled the revelry of merry England in the oldentime, though the costumes of the far west were perhapssomewhat different from those of old England.
No one of all the band assembled there on that dayof rejoicing required to ask what it was all about. Hadany one been in doubt for a moment, a glance at thecentre of the crowd assembled round the gate of thewestern fortress would have quickly enlightened him.
For there stood Dick Varley, and his mild-looking mother,and his loving dog Crusoe. There, too, stood Joe Blunt,like a bronzed warrior returned from the fight, turningfrom one to another as question poured in upon questionalmost too rapidly to permit of a reply. There, too,stood Henri, making enthusiastic speeches to whoeverchose to listen to him--now glaring at the crowd withclenched fists and growling voice, as he told of how Joeand he had been tied hand and foot, and lashed to poles,and buried in leaves, and threatened with a slow deathby torture; at other times bursting into a hilarious laughas he held forth on the predicament of Mahtawa, whenthat wily chief was treed by Crusoe in the prairie.
Young Marston was there, too, hanging about Dick,whom he loved as a brother and regarded as a perfecthero. Grumps, too, was there, and Fan. Do youthink, reader, that Grumps looked at any one butCrusoe? If you do, you are mistaken. Grumps onthat day became a regular, an incorrigible, utter, andperfect nuisance to everybody--not excepting himself,poor beast! Grumps was a dog of one idea, and thatidea was Crusoe. Out of that great idea there grew onelittle secondary idea, and that idea was that the onlyjoy on earth worth mentioning was to sit on his haunches,exactly six inches from Crusoe's nose, and gaze steadfastlyinto his face. Wherever Crusoe went Grumps went.
If Crusoe stopped, Grumps was down before him in aninstant. If Crusoe bounded away, which in the exuberanceof his spirits he often did, Grumps was after himlike a bundle of mad hair. He was in everybody'sway, in Crusoe's way, and being, so to speak, "besidehimself," was also in his own way. If people trod uponhim accidentally, which they often did, Grumps uttereda solitary heart-rending yell proportioned in intensityto the excruciating nature of the torture he endured,then instantly resumed his position and his fascinatedstare. Crusoe generally held his head up, and gazedover his little friend at what was going on around him;but if for a moment he permitted his eye to rest on thecountenance of Grumps, that creature's tai............