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Updated: May 24, 2025
We lost no time in getting ready; I was as fresh as a lark; we travelled fast, and came in time `to do the happy deed which gilds my humble name, quoth Dick. "`No, no, exclaimed several of the party simultaneously, `honest Obed Ragget never finished a sentence with a quotation from a play, though it was writ by a minister.
I have often thought that if people who are living in the midst of all sorts luxuries and advantages would but follow the example of Obed Ragget and me, they would be very much the happier. Our first care was to get the kegs of powder and shot, for our stock was almost exhausted; and with those, and a bundle of blankets, we returned to our tent.
We had not been a minute at work, when a shout reached our ears, and on our looking up, there appeared the very man we were in search of, standing on a ledge of rocks, high above our heads. He seemed unhurt, and he was shouting to us to ask how we were. We thought, therefore, that we must have been mistaken as to the groan, when some one asked, "Where is Obed Ragget?"
The women and children were already seated in the lighter wagon, and Obed Ragget and I were lifting the last load into the other, and looking round to see that nothing was left behind, when our ears were saluted with the wildest and most unearthly shrieks and shouts, and a shower of arrows came whistling about our ears.
"For the very reason, friend Leary, because we have taken proper precautions to prevent an accident," observed Mr Ragget, who had adopted a peculiarly sententious tone in speaking to Pat, a great contrast to the other's rapid style of utterance. Pat was not to be convinced. One of the longest and steepest of the descents lay before us.
After supper, all the party sang a hymn, led by Laban Ragget, and very sweet and solemn were the notes as they burst through the night air, and echoed among those rocks, never before, too probably, awakened to sounds of praise and thanksgiving. "It's an old custom of mine," said Laban to me, "when I cannot expound to my family, or hold forth in prayer as usual.
I heard footsteps approaching slowly and watchfully I thought: I peered down out of my leafy cover; the branches of the surrounding shrubs were pushed aside, and there, instead of the feathers and red face of an Indian, I saw the honest countenance of young Obed Ragget, looking cautiously about him on every side. "Obed! Obed! I am here," I sung out; "come and help me, lad."
A savage had seized one of the children and was dragging it off, when Mrs Ragget struck with all her might at the red-skin's arm, and cut it clean through; the savage drew back howling with pain and rage.
We dug and dug away round the bear, till at length a man's leg appeared, and then his body, and in a few seconds the snow was cleared away, and my friend Obed Ragget was drawn up out of the snow. But we gazed at him with sorrow, for not a spark of life appeared in him. The rest were going to give him up as dead, but I entreated them not to despair.
One night, however, a piece of salt tongue had stuck somewhere on its downward passages or Mrs Ragget had given me too strong a bowl of green tea, as a special mark of her favour, or from some other unaccountable cause, I could not for some time get to sleep.
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