Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 19, 2025
Before he himself hardly knew it the sharp crack of his rifle rang out, the aim was almost instinctive. And it was as true as instinct, a large black wolf, his pelt glossy and fresh with the renewal of the season, lay stretched dead in an instant upon the slope. Emsden sprang from his horse, tossed the reins to "X," and, drawing his knife, ran up the steep ascent to secure the animal's skin.
Emsden, having served in the provincial regiment, eagerly coveted a commission, of which Richard Mivane had feigned to speak.
Emsden told no one, not even Peninnah Penelope Anne, of his discomfiture; but alack, there were youngsters in the family of unaffected minds and unimpaired hearing. This was made amply manifest a day or so afterward, when he chanced to pause at the door of the log cabin and glance in, hoping that, perhaps, the queen of his dreams might materialize in this humble domicile.
There was one wild taunting threat that she did not repeat, as if she thought it of no consequence, the threat of personal violence against Ralph Emsden. They had found out his name patly enough from their own messenger to Blue Lick Station. They would take out their grudge against him on his hide, they averred, if they had to go all the way to Blue Lick to get it!
"Look out now for a flash in the pan!" Peninnah Penelope Anne merely admonished him. Being susceptible to superstition and a ponderer on omens, Ralph Emsden often thought fretfully afterward on the double meaning of these words, and sought to displace them in their possible evil influence on his future by some assurance more cheerful and confident.
For Peninnah Penelope Anne Mivane spent much of her time in the moulding of bullets. Perhaps it was appropriate, since both she and her young pioneer lover dealt so largely in missiles, that it was thus the sentimental dart was sped. Lead was precious in those days, but sundry bullets, that she had moulded, Ralph Emsden never rammed down into the long barrel of his flintlock rifle.
I have nothing more to urge upon the question of the details which brought me hither, but of one thing be certain, if Emsden does not go upon this mission I shall be the ambassador. I apprehend no danger whatever to myself, and I wish you a very good day."
One day Peninnah Penelope Anne Mivane, watching from the "port-hole" of the blockhouse, where the muzzle of that dog of war the little swivel gun had once been wont to look forth, beheld Ralph Emsden ride out from the stockade gate for a week's absence with a party of hunters; with bluff but tender assurance he waved his hat and hand to her in farewell.
She only answered definitely and very indifferently that they could easily get Ralph Emsden if they would go now to Blue Lick, and take his hide, that is, if the French and their Choctaw Indians had not already possessed themselves of that valuable integument, as if this were their primal object.
He sez, 'Somebody that won't be missed somebody not genteel enough to play loo with him after supper, sez X. 'Or too religious, sez I. 'Or can't sing a good song or tell a rousing tale, sez X. 'Or listen an' laugh in the right places at the gentleman's old cracks about the great world, sez I. 'He'll never let Ralph Emsden go, sez X. 'Jus' some poor body will do, sez I. 'Jus' man enough to be scalped by the Injuns if the red sticks take after him, sez X. 'Or have his throat cut if the cow-drivers feel rough yet, sez I. 'Jus' such a one ez me, sez X. 'Or me, sez I."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking