Gaut Gurley; Or, the Trappers of Umbagog: A Tale of Border LifeThompson, Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce)
General
Gaut Gurley; Or, the Trappers of Umbagog: A Tale of Border Life
Thompson, Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Fiction; Maine -- Fiction; Trappers -- Fiction
The treaty being thus concluded, the gratified young Indian dismounted,
with his rifle and pack, containing his blanket, hunting-suit, etc., which
he carried before him, laid across the shoulder of his novel steed; and,
under the guidance of Gaut, he led the animal into the cow-yard, where he
was tied and fed, and the fence, already made high to exclude the wolves,
as usual among first settlers, was topped out by laying on a few additional
poles, so as to prevent the possibility of his escape. This being done,
Gaut conducted his new-found friend into the house, and introduced him, to
his wife and also to his daughter, who had by this time returned, as the
young Indian that had been to college, but still had a liking for the
woods.
"I have often thought I should feel interested in seeing an educated native
of the forest," remarked Avis, after the civilities of the introduction had
been exchanged. "Books, when you became able to read and understand them,"
she continued, turning to the Indian, "books must have opened a new world
to you, and the many new and curious things you found in them must have
been exceedingly gratifying to you, Mr. Tomah."
"Yes, many curious things in books," replied Tomah, indifferently.
"And also much valuable knowledge?" rejoined Avis, interrogatively.
"Valuable enough to some folks, suppose," replied the other, with the air
of one speaking on a subject in which he felt no particular interest.
"Lawyers make money; preachers get good pay for talking what they learn in
books; so doctors."
"But surely," persisted the former, who, though disappointed in his
replies, yet still expected to see, if she could draw him out, the
naturally shrewd mind of the native made brilliant by the light of science,
"surely you consider an education a good thing for all, giving those who
receive it a great advantage over those who do not?"
"Yes, education good thing," responded Tomah, his stolid countenance
beginning to lighten up at the idea which now struck him as involving the
chief if not the sole benefit of his scientific acquirements; "yes,
education good, very good, sometime. Instance: I go to Boston with my moose
next winter; show him for pay, one, two days; then reckon up money--add;
then reckon up expenses--subtract; tell how much I make. Make much, stay;
make little, go to other place. Yes, education good thing."
"But I should think you might do better with your education than you could
by following the usual employments of your kind of people," resumed the
other, still unwilling to see the subject of her scrutiny fall so much
below her preconception of an educated Indian. "You say, lawyers,
preachers, and doctors make money from the superiority which their
education has given them; now, why don't you profit by _your_ education,
and go into a profession like one of theirs, and obtain by it the same
wealth and position which you see them enjoying?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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