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Volume 3 (1858-1859) (592 pages)
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Page: of 592
EARLY DAYS OF THE BUCKEYES. 315
astonishment. They could as easily have
believed that a hungry cat would refuse
a basin of sweet milk, or a hungry dog
refuse a juicy mutton chop, as that Yawkub Freyberger would wilfully absent
himself from the glorious amusement of
a wolf hunt. In vain they coaxed, implored, and even taunted him; he was as
as fixed in his resolution as Ixion on his
wheel. He was determined to be sick,
and to stay where he was, in spite of all
that could be said to him; and, with
many expressions of regret and astonishment, his comrades mounted and proceeded to the scene of the anticipated
wolf hunt without him.
Now, Barney Malone was not a fool—
though some people chose to regard him
as not the wisest man in the world—and
he saw at once, his mental optics being
sharpened by a lover’s jealousy, that
Lieutenant Freyberger’s sickness was
all a sham, put on for the purpose of
enabling that gallant soldier to make an
attack upon Leenie’s heart. This gave
him yast uneasiness, and he took a deep
oath, away down in his bosom—no less
an oath than that which every earnest
Irishman swears, “by the Hill o’ Howth”
—that the Lieutenant’s trick should not
avail him, He could not, however, bring
his counteracting scheme into play immediately; for, as soon as the eleven
wolf hunters were out of sight, the
Lieutenant made a bolt into the presence
of the maiden who had, so suddenly and
so efficiently, enslaved him. It is useless
to give the dialogue between the pair. It
is enough to say, that it was characteristic of the parties concerned. He came
to the point at once. Told her that she
was the most beautiful and most fascinating girl he had ever beheld, and that
he loved her beyond all his powers of
language to say how much, Leenie was
a bit of a coquet—as what beautiful girl
is not ?—and she affected to treat his
flatteries and protestations with goodhumored indifference, though, in her
secret soul, they made her supremely
happy. But, she was determined not to
surrender her heart at once—who would?
—and while she did not absolutely bid
him hope, she was just as far from consigning him to despair. To be brief, matters were progressing almost as smoothly
as Yawkub could have wished, when a
message came that Barney wished to see
him about his horse. With no misgivings,
no presentiment of trouble, and in rather
a happy frame of mind, for he knew
enough of the female heart to feel tolerably well assured that Leenie, notwithstanding her assumed indifference, was
not insensible to his merits, he sought
Barney at the stables.
“Mister Freyberger,”’ said that worthy,
as soon as he got the Lieutenant inside
of a stable, and out of sight and hearing
of the house, “I’ve only one thing to tell
ye, and that is, that if ye’re goin’ to coort
Miss Leenie, ye may look oot for as bad a
thrashin’ as iver a poor divil got sin’ the
day that David thrashed the big Goliah
o’ Gath !”
“T’m much obliged to you, I’m sure,”
replied tho Lieutenant, very politely,
“and, perhaps, you’d better give me
the thrashing now, if it’s all the same
to you.”
“0, bedad, that’s jist the game I’m after wantin’ to play, and so here’s at ye !”
Before the Lieutenant could exactly
guess what was coming, he received a
left-hander on the right side of his face,
instantly followed by a right-hander on
the region of the left eye, which shook
him up considerably and made him see
an infinitude of shooting stars, though
he still maintained himself on his feet.
He was not long in making the discovery
that Barney’s pugilistic tactics were not
to be despised, and he instantly acted on
the hint, thus painfully received, by rushing within his adversary’s guard and
grasping him round the waist.