Her boat is on the river,
With the boy by her side;
With her bow and her quiver
She stands in her pride.
The next afternoon old Mr. Danforth was absent from home. A municipal
meeting, or something of that kind, was to be attended, and he was
always prompt in the performance of public duties. The good housewife
had not been well for some days. Malaeska, always a gentle nurse,
attended her with unusual assiduity. There was something evidently
at work in the Indian woman's heart. Her lips were pale, her eyes
full of pathetic trouble. After a time, when weariness made the old
lady sleepy, Malaeska stole to the bedside, and kneeling down, kissed
the withered hand that fell over the bed, with strange humility.
This action was so light that the good lady did not heed it, but
afterward it came to her like a dream, and as such she remembered this
leave-taking of the poor mother.
William--for the lad was named after his father--was in a moody state
that afternoon. He had no playfellows, for the indisposition of his
grandmother had shut all strangers from the house, so he went into the
garden, and began to draw the outlines of a rude fortification from the
white pebbles that paved the principal walk. He was interrupted in the
work by a pair of orioles, that came dashing through the leaves of an
old apple-tree in a far end of the garden, in full chase and pursuit,
making the very air vibrate with their rapid motion.
After chasing each other up and down, to and fro in the clear sunshine,
they were attracted by something in the distance, and darted off like a
couple of golden arrows, sending back wild gushes of music in the start.
The boy had been watching them with his great eyes full of envious
delight. Their riotous freedom charmed him; he felt chained and caged
even in that spacious garden, full of golden fruit and bright flowers
as it was. The native fire kindled in his frame.
"Oh, if I were only a bird, that could fly home when I pleased and away
to the woods again--the bright, beautiful woods that can see across the
river, but never must play in. How the bird must love it though!"
The boy stopped speaking, for, like any other child kept to himself he
was talking over his thoughts aloud. But a shadow fell across the white
pebbles on which he sat, and this it was which disturbed him.
It was the Indian woman, Malaeska, with a forced smile on her face and
looking wildly strange. She seemed larger and more stately than when he
had seen her last. In her hand she held a light bow tufted with yellow
and crimson feathers. When she saw his eyes brighten at the sight of
the bow, Malaeska took an arrow from the sheaf which she carried under
her cloak, and fitted it to the string.
"See, this is what we learn in the woods."
The two birds were wheeling to and fro across the garden and out into
the open space; their plumage flashed in the sunshine and gushes of
musical triumph floated back as one shot ahead of the other. Malaeska
lifted her bow with something of her old forest gracefulness--a faint
twang of the bowstring--a sharp whiz of the arrow, and one of the birds
fluttered downward, with a sad little cry, and fell upon the ground,
trembling like a broken poplar flower.
The boy started up--his eye brightened and his thin nostrils dilated,
the savage instincts of his nature broke out in all his features.
"And you learned to do this in the woods, Malaeska?" he said, eagerly.
"Yes; will you learn too?"
"Oh, yes--give hold here--quick--quick!"
"Not here; we learn these things in the woods; come with me, and I will
show you all about it."
Malaeska grew pale as she spoke, and trembled in all her limbs. What if
the boy refused to go with her?
"What! over the river to the woods that look so bright and so brown
when the nuts fall? Will you take me there, Malaeska?"
"Yes, over the river where it shines like silver."
"You will? oh my!--but how?"
"Hush! not so loud. In a beautiful little boat."
"With white sails, Malaeska?"
"No--with paddles."
"Ah, me!--but I can't make them go in the water; once grandfather let
me try, but I had to give it up."
"But I can make them go."
"You! why, that isn't a woman's work."
"No, but everybody learns it in the woods."
"Can I?"
"Yes!"
"Then come along before grandfather comes to say we shan't; come along,
I say; I want to shoot and run and live in the woods--come along
Malaeska. Quick, or somebody will shut the gate."
Malaeska looked warily around--on the windows of the house, through the
thickets, and along the gravel walks. No one was in sight. She and her
boy were all alone. She breathed heavily and lingered, thinking of the
poor lady within.
"Come!" cried the boy, eagerly; "I want to go--come along to the
woods."
"Yes, yes," whispered Malaeska, "to the woods--it is our home. There I
shall be a mother once more."
With the steps of a young deer, starting for its covert, she left the
garden. The boy kept bravely on with her, bounding forward with a
laugh when her step was too rapid for him to keep up with it. Thus, in
breathless haste, they passed through the town into the open country
and along the rough banks of the river.
A little inlet, worn by the constant action of the water, ran up into
the shore, which is now broken with wharves and bristling with masts. A
clump of old forest-hemlocks bent over the waters, casting cool, green
shadows upon it till the sun was far in the west.
In these shadows, rocking sleepily on the ripples, lay the pretty boat
which Malaeska had purchased. A painted basket, such as the peaceful
Indians sometimes sent to market, stood in the stern stored with bread;
a tiger skin edged with crimson cloth, according to the Indian woman's
fancy, lay along the bottom of the boat, and cushions of scarlet cloth,
edged with an embroidery of beads, lay on the seat.
William Danforth broke into a shout when he saw the boat and its
appointments.
"Are we going in this? May I learn to row, now--now?" With a leap he
sprang into the little craft, and seizing the oars, called out for her
to come on, for he was in a hurry to begin.
Malaeska loosened the cable, and holding the end in her hand, sprang to
the side of her child.
"Not yet, my chief, not yet; give the oars to me a little while; when
we can no longer see the steeples, you shall pull them," she said.
The boy gave up his place with an impatient toss of his head, which
sent the black curls flying over his temples. But the boat shot out
into the river with a velocity that took away his breath, and he sat
down in the bow, laughing as the silver spray rained over him. With her
face to the north, and her eyes flashing with the eager joy of escape,
Malaeska dashed up the river; every plunge of the oars was a step
toward freedom--every gleam of the sun struck her as a smile from the
Great Spirit to whom her husband and father had gone.
When the sun went down, and the twilight came on, the little boat was
far up the river. It had glided under the shadows of Weehawken, and was
skirting the western shore toward the Highlands, at that time crowned
by an unbroken forest, and savage in the grandeur of wild nature.
Now Malaeska listened to the entreaties of her boy, and gave the oars
into his small hands. No matter though the boat receded under his brave
but imperfect efforts; once out of sight of the town, Malaeska had less
fear, and smiled securely at the energy with which the little fellow
beat the waters. He was indignant if she attempted to help him, and the
next moment was sure to send a storm of rain over her in some more
desperate effort to prove how capable he was of taking the labor from
her hands.
Thus the night came on, soft and calm, wrapping the mother and child
in a world of silvery moonbeams. The shadows which lay along the hills
bounded their watery path with gloom. This made the boy sad, and he
began to feel mournfully weary; but scenes like this were familiar with
Malaeska, and her old nature rose high and free in this solitude which
included all that she had in the living world--her freedom and the son
of her white husband.
"Malaeska," said the boy, creeping to her side, and laying his head on
her lap, "Malaeska, I am tired--I want to go home."
"Home! but you have not seen the woods. Courage, my chief, and we will
go on ashore."
"But it is black--so black, and something is crying there--something
that is sick or wants to get home like me."
"No, no,--it is only a whippowil singing to the night."
"A whippowil? Is that a little boy, Malaeska? Let us bring him into the
boat."
"No, my child, it is only a bird."
"Poor bird!" sighed the boy; "how it wants to get home."
"No, it loves the woods. The bird would die if you took it from the
shade of the trees," said Malaeska, striving to pacify the boy, who
crept upward into her lap and laid his cheek against hers. She felt
that he trembled, and that tears lay cold on his cheeks. "Don't, my
William, but look up and see how many stars hang over us--the river is
full of them."
"Oh, but grandfather will be missing me," pleaded the boy. Malaeska
felt herself chilled; she had taken the boy but not his memory; that
went back to the opulent home he had left. With her at his side, and
the beautiful universe around, he thought of the old man who had made
her worse than a serf in his household--who had stolen away the human
soul that God had given into her charge. The Indian woman grew sad to
the very depths of her soul when the boy spoke of his grandfather.
"Come," she said with mournful pathos, "now we will find an open place
in the woods. You shall have a bed like the pretty flowers. I will
build a fire, and you shall see it grow red among the branches."
The boy smiled in the moonlight.
"A fire out of doors! Yes, yes, let's go into the woods. Will the birds
talk to us there?"
"The birds talk to us always when we get into the deep of the woods."
Malaeska urged her boat into a little inlet that ran up between two
great rocks upon the shore, where it was sheltered and safe; then she
took the tiger-skin and the cushions in her arms, and, cautioning the
boy to hold on to her dress, began to mount a little elevation where
the trees were thin and the grass abundant, as she could tell from
the odor of wild-flowers that came with the wind. A rock lay embedded
in this rich forest-grass, and over it a huge white poplar spread its
branches like a tent.
Upon this rock Malaeska enthroned the boy, talking to him all the time,
as she struck sparks from a flint which she took from her basket,
and began to kindle a fire from the dry sticks which lay around
in abundance. When William saw the flames rise up high and clear,
illuminating the beautiful space around, and shooting gleams of gold
through the poplar's branches, he grew brave again, and coming down
from his eminence, began to gather brushwood that the fire might keep
bright. Then Malaeska took a bottle of water and some bread, with
fragments of dried beef, from her basket, and the boy came smiling from
his work. He was no longer depressed by the dark, and the sight of food
made him hungry.
How proudly the Indian mother broke the food and surrendered it to his
eager appetite. The bright beauty of her face was something wonderful
to look upon as she watched him by the firelight. For the first time,
since he was a little infant, he really seemed to belong to her.
When he was satisfied with food, and she saw that his eyelids began to
droop, Malaeska went to some rocks a little distance, and tearing up
the moss in great green fleeces, brought it to the place she had chosen
under the poplar-tree, and heaped a soft couch for the child. Over this
she spread the tiger-skin with its red border, and laid the crimson
pillows whose fringes glittered in the firelight like gems around the
couch of a prince.
To this picturesque bed Malaeska took the boy, and seating herself by
his side, began to sing as she had done years ago under the roof of her
wigwam. The lad was very weary, and fell asleep while her plaintive
voice filled the air and was answered mournfully back by a night-bird
deep in the blackness of the forest.
When certain that the lad was asleep, Malaeska lay down on the hard
rock by his side, softly stealing one arm over him and sighing out her
troubled joy as she pressed his lips with her timid kisses.
Thus the poor Indian sunk to a broken rest, as she had done all her
life, piling up soft couches for those she loved, and taking the cold
stone for herself. It was her woman's destiny, not the more certain
because of her savage origin. Civilization does not always reverse this
mournful picture of womanly self-abnegation.
When the morning came, the boy was aroused by a full chorus of
singing-birds that fairly made the air vibrate with their melody.
In and out through the branches ran their wild minstrelsy, till the
sunshine laughing through the greenness, giving warmth and pleasant
light to the music. William sat up, rubbing his eyes, and wondering at
the strange noises. Then he remembered where he was, called aloud for
Malaeska. She came from behind a clump of trees, carrying a patridge in
her hand, pierced through the heart with her arrow. She flung the bird
on the rock at William's feet, and kneeling down before him, kissed
his feet, his hands, and the folds of his tunic, smoothing his hair and
his garments with pathetic fondness.
"When shall we go home, Malaeska?" cried the lad, a little anxiously.
"Grandfather will want us."
"This is the home for a young chief," replied the mother, looking
around upon the pleasant sky and the forest-turf, enameled with
wild-flowers. "What white man has a tent like this?"
The boy looked up and saw a world of golden tulip-blossoms starring the
branches above him.
"It lets in the cold and the rain," he said, shaking the dew from his
glossy hair. "I don't like the woods, Malaeska."
"But you will--oh yes, you will," answered the mother, with anxious
cheerfulness; "see, I have shot a bird for your breakfast."
"A bird; and I am so hungry."
"And see here, what I have brought from the shore."
She took a little leaf-basket from a recess in the rocks, and held it
up full of black raspberries with the dew glittering upon them.
The boy clapped his hands, laughing merrily.
"Give me the raspberries--I will eat them all. Grandfather isn't here
to stop me, so I will eat and eat till the basket is empty. After all,
Malaeska, it is pleasant being in the woods--come, pour the berries on
the moss, just here, and get another basketful while I eat these; but
don't go far--I am afraid when you are out of sight. No, no, let me
build the fire--see how I can make the sparks fly."
Down he came from the rock, forgetting his berries, and eager to
distinguish himself among the brushwood, while Malaeska withdrew a
little distance and prepared her game for roasting.
The boy was quick and full of intelligence; he had a fire blazing at
once, and shouted back a challenge to the birds as its flames rose in
the air, sending up wreaths of delicate blue smoke into the poplar
branches, and curtaining the rocks with mist.
Directly the Indian woman came forward with her game, nicely dressed
and pierced with a wooden skewer; to this she attached a piece of
twine, which, being tied to a branch overhead, swung its burden to and
fro before the fire.
While this rustic breakfast was in preparation, the boy went off in
search of flowers or berries--any thing that he could find. He came
back with a quantity of green wild cherries in his tunic, and a bird's
nest, with three speckled eggs in it, which he had found under a tuft
of fern leaves. A striped squirrel, that ran down a chestnut-limb,
looked at him with such queer earnestness, that he shouted lustily to
Malaeska, saying that he loved the beautiful woods and all the pretty
things in it.
When he came back, Malaeska had thrown off her cloak, and crowned
herself with a coronal of scarlet and green feathers, which rendered
her savage dress complete, and made her an object of wondering
admiration to the boy, as she moved in and out through the trees, with
her face all aglow with proud love.
While the patridge was swaying to and fro before the fire, Malaeska
gathered a handful of chestnut-leaves and wove them together in a
sort of mat; upon this cool nest she laid the bird, and carved it
with a pretty poniard which William's father had given her in his
first wooing; then she made a leaf-cup, and, going to a little spring
which she had discovered, filled it with crystal water. So, upon the
flowering turf, with wild birds serenading them, and the winds floating
softly by, the mother and boy took their first regular meal in the
forest. William was delighted; every thing was fresh and beautiful
to him. He could scarcely contain his eagerness to be in action long
enough to eat the delicate repast which Malaeska diversified with
smiles and caresses. He wanted to shoot the birds that sang so sweetly
in the branches, all unconscious that the act would inflict pain on the
poor little songsters, he could not satisfy himself with gazing on the
gorgeous raiment of his mother--it was something wonderful in his eyes.
At last the rustic meal was ended, and, with his lips reddened by the
juicy fruit, he started up, pleading for the bow and arrow.
Proud as a queen and fond as a woman, Malaeska taught him how to place
the arrow on the bowstring, and when to lift it gradually toward his
face. He took to it naturally, the young rogue, and absolutely danced
for joy when his first arrow leaped from his bow and went rifling
through the poplar leaves. How Malaeska loved this practice! how she
triumphed in each graceful lift of his arm! how her heart leaped to
the rich tumult of his shouts! He wanted to go off alone and try his
skill among the squirrels, but Malaeska was afraid, and followed him
step by step, happy and watchful. Every moment increased his skill; he
would have exhausted the sheaf of arrows, but that Malaeska patiently
searched for them after each shot, and thus secured constant amusement
till he grew tired even of that rare sport.
Toward noon, Malaeska left him at rest on the tiger-skin, and went
herself in search of game for the noonday meal; never had she breathed
so freely; never had the woods seemed so like her home. A sense of
profound peace stole over her. These groves were her world, and on the
rock near by lay her other life--all that she had on earth to love.
She was in no haste to find her tribe. What care had she for any thing
while the boy was with her, and the forest so pleasant! What did she
care for but his happiness?
It required but few efforts of her woodcraft to obtain game enough
for another pleasant meal; so, with a light step, she returned to her
fairy-like encampment. Tired with his play, the boy had fallen asleep
on the rock. She saw the graceful repose of his limbs, and the sunshine
shimmering softly through his black hair. Her step grew lighter; she
was afraid of rustling a leaf, lest the noise might disturb him. Thus,
softly and almost holding her breath, she drew nearer and nearer to
the rock. All at once a faint gasping breath bespoke some terrible
emotion--she stood motionless, rooted to the earth. A low rattle
checked her first, and then she saw the shimmer of a serpent, coiled
upon the very rock where her boy was lying. Her approach had aroused
the reptile, and she could see him preparing to lance out. His first
fling would be at the sleeping boy. The mother was frozen into marble;
she dared not move--she could only stare at the snake with a wild
glitter of the eye.
The stillness seemed to appease the creature. The noise of his rattle
grew fainter, and his eyes sank like waning fire-sparks into the
writhing folds that settled on the moss. But the child was disturbed
by a sunbeam that slanted through the leaves overhead, and turned upon
the tiger-skin. Instantly the rattle sounded sharp and clear, and out
from the writhing folds shot the venomous head with its vicious eyes
fixed on the boy. Malaeska had, even in her frozen state, some thought
of saving her boy. With her cold hands she had fitted the arrow and
lifted the bow, but as the serpent grew passive, the weapon dropped
again; for he lay on the other side of the child, and to kill him she
was obliged to shoot over that sleeping form. But the reptile crested
himself again, and now with a quiver of horrible dread at her heart,
but nerves strained like steel, she drew the bowstring, and, aiming at
the head which glittered like a jewel, just beyond her child, let the
arrow fly. She went blind on the instant--the darkness of death fell
upon her brain; the coldness of death lay upon her heart; she listened
for some cry--nothing but a sharp rustling of leaves and then profound
stillness met her strained senses.
The time in which Malaeska was struck with darkness seemed an eternity
to her, but it lasted only an instant, in fact; then her eyes opened
wide in the agonized search, and terrible thrills shot through her
frame. A laugh rang up through the trees, and then she saw her boy
sitting up on the tiger-skin, his cheeks all rosy with sleep and
dimpled with surprise, gazing down upon the headless rattlesnake that
had uncoiled convulsively in its death-spasms, and lay quivering across
his feet.
"Ha! ha!" he shouted, clapping his hands, "this is a famous
fellow--prettier than the birds, prettier than the squirrels. Malaeska!
Malaeska! see what this checkered thing is with no head, and rings on
its tail."
Malaeska was so weak she could hardly stand, but, trembling in every
limb, she staggered toward the rock, and seizing upon the still
quivering snake, hurled it with a shuddering cry into the undergrowth.
Then she fell upon her knees, and clasped the boy close, close to her
bosom till he struggled and cried out that she was hurting him. But she
could not let him go; it seemed as if the serpent would coil around
him the moment her arms were loosened; she clung to his garments--she
kissed his hands, his hair, and his flushed forehead with passionate
energy.
He could not understand all this. Why did Malaeska breathe so hard,
and shake so much? He wished she had not flung away the pretty creature
which had crept to his bed while he slept, and looked so beautiful. But
when she told how dangerous the reptile was, he began to be afraid and
questioned her with vague terror about the way she had killed him.
Some yards from the rock, Malaeska found her arrow on which the
serpent's head was impaled, and she carried it with trembling
exultation to the boy, who shrank away with new-born dread, and began
to know what fear was.