Lost! Lost!" - Winter
glories - Solitude - Hard times - Intense cold - A pack of
wolves - The beaver dams - Ghastly scenes - Venison steaks - Our
evenings.
ESTES PARK.
I must attempt to put down the trifling events of each day just
as they occur. The second time that I was left alone Mr. Nugent
came in looking very black, and asked me to ride with him to see
the beaver dams on the Black Canyon. No more whistling or
singing, or talking to his beautiful mare, or sparkling repartee.
His mood was as dark as the sky overhead, which was black with
an impending snowstorm. He was quite silent, struck his horse
often, started off on a furious gallop, and then throwing his
mare on her haunches close to me, said, "You're the first man or
woman who's treated me like a human being for many a year." So
he said in this dark mood, but Mr. and Mrs. Dewy, who took a very
deep interest in his welfare, always treated him as a rational,
intelligent gentleman, and in his better moments he spoke of them
with the warmest appreciation. "If you want to know," he
continued, "how nearly a man can become a devil, I'll tell you
now." There was no choice, and we rode up the canyon, and I
listened to one of the darkest tales of ruin I have ever heard or
read.
Its early features were very simple. His father was a British
officer quartered at Montreal, of a good old Irish family.
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