There was a decisiveness about the Major's tones not to be misunderstood. Mr. Miles turned around to get a better view.
"All right, just as you say--hannup, Woman! Baby!"
He kept silent until we reached the creek, when I made a remark about its beauty, then Joshua broke out:
"Fresh from the throne of glory Bright in its crystal stream."
At the first verse the sternness vanished from the Major's face; he could not resist the inclination to laugh; the laugh was contagious; Joshua turned in his seat with a look of inquiry, and halting in his song, joined us.
"How d'you know the name of the creek, Major?"
"Oh! How long you lived in this country, Major?"
"No? Then you're a mossback sure enough----
'Tell me the old, old story, Of unseen things above'".
"Are you a member of the church, Mr. Miles?"
"Why, I ain't never just professed, exactly--what makes you ask that?"
"Your familiarity with the Gospel hymns."
"Quite the contrary, Mr. Miles--I not only like them, but your singing."
"Oh, give us a rest, Major--you can't blame me for takin' you for tenderfeet with them knee-breeches."
"What did you pay for this wagon-seat, Mr. Miles?"
"I think we understand each other, Mr. Miles?"
"George Washington and his hatchet--I've felt for some time's if I wanted to kick myself for bein' a fool."
The footing being established, Joshua drew up in a grassy spot near some scrub oaks.
"Just rest easy, gentlemen, till I git this team unhitched, and I'll look after the supper, and put up the tent while you're eatin' it."
"We have only a fly, and will not need that to night."
"That's an offset to the knee-breeches; if I'd only knowed it! You don't care for a tent, even?
I suggested to the Major that he try the creek,--perhaps he could get a mess of trout for breakfast. He adopted the suggestion, and when we called him, half an hour afterward, he came with five good-sized trout. Not contented with his success, after supper he went to the mouth of the creek and hooked a pound-and-a-half fish, which he brought in with much gratification.
Joshua seemed endowed with new life; he was out of bed next morning and had breakfast prepared before we were fairly awake; by seven o'clock we were on the road. The coach on its way to Meeker passed us shortly after we had started, and would reach its destination by five o'clock. Joshua admitted that he had more than once made the trip in one day from Glenwood with a light wagon and a good team.