"Hearts will be prophets still."
The week succeeding the logging bee was an extremely busy one with the
Elwoods, who still had a heavy task to perform on their new field, before
it could be considered properly cleared or fitted for seeding and
harrowing. Sixty days before, that field was covered with a heavy growth of
primitive forest, standing in its native majesty, a mountain mass of green
vigor and sturdy life, and as seemingly invincible against the assaults of
man as it had been against those of the elements whose fury it had so long
withstood. But the busy and fatal axe had done its work. That towering
forest had been laid prostrate with the earth, and the first process of the
Herculean task of converting the forest into the field had been completed.
The second and third process, also, in the burning of the slash and the
gathering the trunks of the trees into log-heaps, as we have seen, had been
in turn successfully accomplished. But the fourth and last process still
remained to be performed. Those unseemly log-heaps, cumbering no
inconsiderable portion of the field, must be disposed of, to complete the
work. This was now the first task of the Elwoods, and time pressed for its
speedy execution. Accordingly, the next morning after the bee, they sallied
out, each with a blazing brand in his hand, and commenced the work of
firing the piles,--a work which, unlike that of firing a combustible and
readily catching slash, required not only considerable time, but often the
exercise of much skill and patience. But they steadily persevered, and,
before sunset, had the gratification of beholding every one of those many
scores of huge log-piles, that thickly dotted the ground, clearly within
the grasp of the devouring element; and afterwards of seeing that grasp
grow stronger and stronger on the solid material on which it had securely
fastened, till, to the eye of fancy, the dark old forest seemed by day to
be reproduced in the numerous, thickly-set columns of smoke that shot
upward and spread out into over-arching canopies above, while, with the
gathering darkness of the night, that forest seemed gradually to take the
form of a distant burning city in the manifold tapering pillars of fire
which everywhere rose from the field, fiercely illuminating the dark and
sombre wood-wall of the surrounding forest, and dimly glimmering over the
sleeping waters of river and lake beyond.
They had now made the fire their servant, and got it safely at work for
them; but that servant, to insure its continued and profitable action, must
be constantly fed and fostered. The logs, becoming by the action of the
fire partially consumed, and, by thus losing their contact with each other,
ceasing to burn, required, every few hours, to be rolled together,
adjusted, and repacked; when, being already thoroughly heated and still
partly on fire, they would soon burst out again into a brisk blaze. This
tending and re-packing of the piles demanded, for many of the succeeding
days, the constant attention of the Elwoods; who, going out early each
morning, and keeping up their rounds at short intervals through the day and
to a late hour at night, assiduously pursued their object, till they had
seen every log-heap disappear from the field, and the last step of their
severe task fully accomplished.
Few of those who live in cities, villages, or other places than those where
agricultural pursuits prevail; few of those, indeed, who have been tillers
only of the subdued and time-mellowed soils of the old States and
countries, have any adequate conception of the immense amount of hard labor
required to clear off the primitive forest, and prepare the land for the
first crop; nor have they, consequently, any just appreciation of the
degree of resolution, energy, and endurance necessary to insure continued
perseverance in subduing one piece of forest-land after another, till a
considerable opening is effected. It is the labor of one man's life to
clear up a new farm; and few there be, among the multitudes found making
the attempt, who have the sustaining will and resolution--even if the
pecuniary ability is not wanting--to accomplish that formidable
achievement. Probably not one in five of all the first pioneer settlers of
a new country ever remain to become its permanent settlers. The first set
of emigrants, or pioneers, are seen beginning with great resolution and
energy, and persevering unfalteringly till the usual ten-acre lot is
cleared, the log-house thrown up, and the settlement of the family
effected. Another piece of forest is the next year attacked, but with a far
less determined will, and the clearing prosecuted with a proportionate lack
of energy and resolution; and the job, after being suffered to linger along
for months beyond the usual period for completion, is finally finished.
But, in view of the hard labors and prolonged struggles they have
experienced in their two former trials for conquering the wilderness, they
too often now falter and hesitate at a third attempt. Perhaps the lack of
means to hire that help, which would make the toil more endurable, comes
also into the case; and the result is that no new clearing is begun. They
live along a while as they are; but, for want of the first crops of the
newly-cleared land and the usual accessions to their older fields, they
soon find themselves on the retrograde, and finally sell out to a new set
of incoming settlers, who in their turn begin with fresh vigor, and with
more means generally for prosecuting advantageously the work which had
discouraged or worn out their predecessors. But even of this second set a
large proportion fail to succeed, and, like the former, eventually yield
their places to more enterprising and able men, who, with those of the two
former sets of settlers that had succeeded in overcoming the difficulties
and retaining their places, now join in making up the permanent settlers of
the country.
Such is generally the history of the early settlement of every new country.
Those who have endured the most hardship, encountered the greatest
difficulties, and performed the hardest labor, do not generally reap the
reward which might eventually crown their toils, but leave that reward to
be enjoyed by those to whom such hardships and toils are comparatively
unknown. This seems hard and unjust; but, from the unequal conditions and
characters of men, it is doubtless a necessary state of things, and one
which, though it may occasionally be somewhat modified, will never,
probably, as a general thing, be very essentially altered.
The Elwoods, having now thus brought the labors of clearing to a successful
close, next proceeded to the lighter and more cleanly task of taking the
incipient step towards securing the ever-important first crop which was to
reward them, in a good part, for their arduous toils. Accordingly, the
previously engaged supply of winter wheat intended for seed was brought
home, the requisite help and ox-work enlisted, the seed sown, and the
harrows and hoes put in motion to insure its lodgment beneath the surface
of the broken soil. And, by the end of the second day from its
commencement, this task was also completed, leaving our two persevering
settlers only the work of gathering in the small crops of grain and
potatoes they had succeeded in raising on their older grounds, to be
performed before leaving home on the contemplated trapping and hunting
expedition; the appointed day for which was still sufficiently distant to
allow them abundant time to do this, and also to make all other of the
necessary arrangements and preparations for that, to them, novel and
interesting event.
But how, in the meanwhile, stood that domestic drama of love and its
entanglements, which was destined to be deeply interwoven with the other
principal incidents of this singular story? All on the surface seemed as
bright and unruffled as the halcyon waters of the sleeping ocean before the
days of storm have come to move and vex it. But how was it within the vail
of the heart and teeming mind, where the currents and counter-currents of
that subtle but powerful passion flow and clash unseen, often gaining their
full height and unmasterable strength before any event shall occur to
betray their existence to the public. How was it there? We shall see.
While the events we have described in the last foregoing chapters were
transpiring, Mrs. Elwood held her peace, studiously avoiding all allusion
to what still constituted the burden of her mind,--the thickening intimacy
between her family and the Gurleys; but, though she was silent on the
subject, yet her heart was not any the less sad, nor her thoughts any the
less busy. She had been made aware that a reconciliation had taken place
between her husband and Gaut Gurley; and she had seen how artfully the
latter had brought it about, and regained his old fatal influence over the
former. She believed she fully understood the motives which actuated Gaut
in all these movements. And she now looked on in helpless anguish of heart
to see the toils thus drawn tighter and tighter around the unconscious
victims, and those victims, too, her husband and son, with whose happiness
and welfare her own was indissolubly connected. She saw it with anguish,
because her feelings never for once were permitted even the alleviation of
a doubt that it could result in aught else than evil to her family. She
could not reason herself into any belief of Gaut's reformation. She felt
his black heart constantly throwing its shadow on to her own; she _felt_
this, but could not give to others, nor perhaps even to herself, what might
be deemed a satisfactory reason for her impressions and forebodings; for in
her was exemplified the words of the poet:
"The mind is capable to show
Thoughts of so dim a feature,
That consciousness can only know
Their presence and their nature."
Such thoughts were hers,--dim and flitting, indeed; but she felt conscious
of their continued presence, of their general character, and deeply
conscious what they portended. They took one shape, moved in one course,
and all pointed one way, and that was to evil,--some great impending evil
to the two objects of her love and solicitude.
"But is there no hope?" she murmured aloud, in the fullness of her heart,
while deeply pondering the matter, one day, as she sat alone at her open
window, looking out on her husband and son engaged in their harvest, which
she knew they were hurrying on to a close, before leaving her on the
contemplated long, and perhaps perilous, expedition into the wilderness,--a
circumstance that doubtless caused the subject, in the thus awakened state
of her anxieties, to weigh at this time peculiarly heavy on her mind. "Is
there no hope," she repeated, with a sigh, "that this impending calamity
may in some part be averted? Must they both be sacrificed? Must the faults
of the erring father be visited on the innocent son, who had become the
last hope of the mother's heart? Kind Heaven! may not that son, _at least_,
be delivered from the web of toils into which he has so strangely fallen,
and yet be saved? Grant, O grant that hope--that one ray of hope--in this
my hour of darkness!"
But what sound was that which now fell upon her ear, as if responsive to
her ejaculation? It was a light tap or two on the door, which, after the
customary bidding of _walk in_ had been pronounced, was gently opened, when
a young female of extreme beauty and loveliness entered. Mrs. Elwood
involuntarily rose, and stood a moment, mute with surprise, in the
unexpected presence. Soon recovering, however, she invited the fair
stranger to a seat, still deeply wondering who she could be and what had
occasioned her visit.
"You are the good woman of the house?--the wife of the new settler?--the
mother of Mr. Claud Elwood?" asked the stranger girl, pausing between each
interrogatory, till she had received an affirmative nod from Mrs. Elwood.
"Yes," replied the latter kindly, but with an air of increasing curiosity,
"yes, I am Mrs. Elwood. Would you like to see my son, Claud?"
"No," rejoined the girl, in the same subdued and musical accents. "No, it
was not him, but you, I came to see and speak with," she added, carefully,
withdrawing a screening handkerchief from a light parcel she bore in her
hand, and displaying a small work-basket of exquisite make, which,
advancing with hesitating steps, she presented to the other, as she
resumed:
"I came with this, good lady, to see if you would be suited to have such an
article?"
"It is very pretty," said Mrs. Elwood, examining the workmanship with
admiration, "beautiful, indeed. Did you make it?"
"I did, lady," said the other modestly.
"Well, it certainly does great credit to your skill and taste," rejoined
the other. "I should, of course, be pleased to own it, but I have little
money to pay for such things. You ought to sell it for quite a sum."
"But I do not wish to sell it," responded the girl, looking up to Mrs.
Elwood with an expostulating and wounded expression. "I do not wish to take
money for it; but hoped you would like it well enough to accept it for a
gift,--a small token."
"O, I should," said Mrs. Elwood, "if I was entitled to any such present;
but what have I ever done to deserve it of you? I do not even know who you
are, kind stranger."
"They, call me Fluella," responded the other, the blood slightly suffusing
her fair, rounded cheek. "_You_ have not seen me, I know. You have not done
me the great favor that brings my gratitude. It is your brave son that has
done both."
"O, I understand now," exclaimed Mrs. Elwood. "You are the chief's
daughter, whom Claud and Mr. Phillips helped out of a difficulty and danger
on the rapids, some time since. But your token should be given to Claud,
should it not?"
"It would be unsuitable, too much," quickly replied the maiden, in a low,
hurried tone. "I could not do a thing like that. But if you would accept
such a small thing?"
"I cannot but appreciate and honor your delicacy," returned Mrs. Elwood,
with a look of mingled admiration and respect. "I think you must be an
excellent girl; and I will accept your present,--yes, thankfully,--and
never forget the manner in which it was bestowed."
"Your words are in my heart, lady. I came, feeling much doubtful; I return,
much happy," said the maiden, rising to depart.
"Do not go yet," interposed the matron, who was beginning to feel a lively
interest in the other; "do not go yet. Claud should know you are here. I
will call him," she added, starting for the door.
"O no, no,--do not, do not. He would not wish to be troubled by one like
me," hurriedly entreated the maiden, with a look of alarmed delicacy.
"O, you are mistaken. He would be pleased to see you, and expect to be
called," said Mrs. Elwood, in a tone of gentle remonstrance, while pausing
at the unexpected objection. "But it is unnecessary; for I see that he is
already coming, and in a moment will be here," she added, glancing out of
the window.
Having made the announcement, she turned encouragingly to the maiden, to
reassure her, believing her request that Claud should not be called in
proceeded entirely from over-diffidence. But one glance of her quick and
searching eye was sufficient to apprise the former that there was a deeper
cause for those tender alarms. The cheeks of the beautiful girl were deeply
suffused with crimson, her bosom was heaving wildly, and her whole frame
was trembling like an aspen. As her eyes met the surprised gaze of the
matron, she became conscious that her looks had betrayed the secret she was
the most anxious to conceal; and she cast an imploring look on the face of
the other, as if to entreat the mercy of shielding the weakness.
Mrs. Elwood understood the silent appeal; and, approaching and laying her
hand gently on the shoulder of the other, said, in a low, kindly tone:
"Have no fears. You have made a friend of me."
The girl silently removed the hand, brought it to her lips, and, as a
bright tear-drop fell upon it, kissed it eagerly. The two then separated,
and resumed their respective seats, to compose themselves before the
expected entrance should be made.
In a few moments Claud carelessly entered the house; but stopped short in
surprise, at the threshold, on so unexpectedly seeing the well-remembered
face and form of the heroine of his late romantic adventure on the rapids,
in the room with his mother. But, almost instantly recovering his usual
manner, he gallantly advanced to the trembling maiden, took her by the
hand, and respectfully inquired about her welfare, and pleasantly adverted
to the singular circumstances under which they had become acquainted. Soon
becoming in a good measure assured, by a reception so much more
condescending and cordial than she had dared hope for, from one whose image
she had been cherishing as that of some superior being, the grateful and
happy girl, now forgetful of her wish to depart, gradually regained her
natural ease and vivacity, and sustained her part in the general
conversation that now ensued, with an intelligence and instinctive
refinement of thought and expression that equally charmed and surprised her
listeners. She at length, however, rose to depart, observing that her
father, who was in waiting for her at the landing, would chide her for her
long delay; when Claud offered to attend her to the lake. To this she at
first objected; but, on Claud's assurance that he should be pleased with
the walk, and that it would afford him the opportunity of meeting her
father, whom he had a curiosity to see, she blushingly assented, and the
couple sociably took their way to the lake together, leaving Mrs. Elwood
deeply revolving in her mind the new train of thoughts that had been
awakened by the remarkable personal beauty and evident rare qualities of
her fair visitor, and the discovery of the state of her feelings,--thoughts
which the matron laid up in her heart, but forbade her tongue to utter.
On reaching the landing, Fluella drew a bone whistle from her pocket, and
blew a blast so loud and shrill that the sound seemed to penetrate the
inmost depths of the surrounding forest. The next moment a similar sound
rose in response from the woods, apparently about half a mile distant, on
the right.
"He has heard me; that was my father's whistle. He has been taking a short
bout in the woods with his rifle, but will now soon be here. And Mr. Elwood
will wait, I know, for the chief wishes to thank the brave that rescued his
daughter," said the maiden, looking inquiringly at Claud.
"Yes," replied Claud, "yes, certainly; for, even without company, I am
never tired of standing on this commanding point, and looking out on this
beautiful lake and its surrounding scenery."
"Ah! then you think, Mr. Elwood," exclaimed Fluella, with a countenance
sparkling with animation, "you think of our woods life, like one of your
great writers, whom I have read to remember, and who so prettily says:
'And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.'
One would almost think this wise writer must be one of my people, he
describes our ways of becoming instructed so truly; for we Indians, Mr.
Elwood, read few other books than those we see opened to us on the face of
nature, or hear or read few other sermons than those in the outspread pages
of the bright lake, the green woods, and the grand mountain."
"You Indians!" said Elwood, looking at the other with a playful yet
half-chiding expression. "Why, Fluella, should a stranger look at your fair
skin, hear you conversing so well in our language, and quoting so
appropriately from our books, he would hardly believe you an Indian, I
think, unless you told him."
"Then I would tell him, Mr. Elwood," responded the maiden, with dignity,
and a scarcely perceptible spice of offended pride in her manner. "I
_am_ one,--on my father's side, at least, wholly so; and, for the first ten
or twelve years of my life, was but a child of the woods and the wigwam;
and I will never shame at my origin, so far as that matters."
"But you did not learn to read in the wigwam, Fluella?" said Claud,
inquiringly.
"No," replied the girl; the proud air she had assumed, while speaking of
her origin, quickly subsiding into one of meekness. "No; but I supposed
that Mr. Phillips, who knows, might have told you that, for many years
past, I have lived much with your people, learned their ways, been to their
schools, and read their books. And, in owning my natural red father, may be
I should have also said, I have a good white father, who has done every
thing for the poor, ignorant, Indian girl."
"But where does this good and generous white father live, and what is his
name?" asked Claud.
"He lives near the seaside city," answered she, demurely; "I may say so
far. But I do not name him, ever. We think it not best. But, if he comes
here sometime, as he may, you shall see him, Mr. Elwood."
At this point of the dialogue, the attention of its participants was
arrested by the sound of breaking twigs and other indications of the near
approach of some one from the forest; and, the next moment, emerging
through the thick underbrush, which he parted by the muzzle of his rifle as
he made his way, the expected visitant came into view. Seemingly unmindful
of the presence of others near by, or of the curious and scrutinizing gaze
of Claud, he advanced with a firm, elastic tread, and stately bearing,
exhibiting a strong, erect frame, a large, intellectual head, and
handsomely moulded features, with a countenance of a grave and thoughtful
cast, but now and then enlivened by the keenly-glancing black eyes by which
it was particularly distinguished. With the exception of moccasins and
wampum belt, he was garbed in a good English dress; and, so far as his
exterior was in question, might have easily been mistaken, at a little
distance, for some amateur hunter from the cities; while, from the vigor of
his movements, and other general appearance, he might have equally well
passed for a man of the middle age, had not the frosts of time, which were
profusely sprinkled over his temples, and other visible parts of his head,
betrayed the secret of his advanced age.
"My daughter is not alone," he said, in very fair English utterance, coming
to a stand ten or twelve yards distant from the young couple.
"No" promptly replied the daughter, assuming the dignified tone and
attitude usual among those engaged in the ceremonies of some formal
presentation, or public introduction. "No, but my father will be pleased to
learn that this is the Mr. Claud Elwood, who did your daughter such good
service in her dangers on the rapids, and whom she has now conducted here,
that he might have the opportunity to see the chief, and receive the thanks
which it is more fitting for the father than the daughter to bestow."
"My daughter's words are good," said the chief. "The young brave has our
thanks to last; but the Red Man's thanks are acted, the White Man's spoken.
Does the young man understand the creed of our people?"
Fluella looked at Claud as if he was the one to answer the question, and he
accordingly remarked:
"I have ever heard, chief, that your people always notice a benefit done to
them, and that he who does them one secures their lasting gratitude."
"The young man," rejoined the chief, considerately, "has heard words that
make, sometime, too much; they make true, the good-doer doing no wrong to
us after. But when he takes advantage of our gratitude he wipes out the
debt; he does more,--he stands to be punished like one an enemy always."
The maiden here cast an uneasy glance at Claud, and a deprecating one at
her father, at the unnecessary caution, as she believed it, which she
perceived the latter intended to convey by his words to the former. But, to
her relief, Claud did not appear as if he thought the remarks had any
application to himself, for he frankly responded:
"Your distinction is a just one, chief. Your views about these matters are
my own views. Your creed is a good creed, so far as the remembrance of
benefits is concerned; and I wish I could see it observed as generally
among my people as I believe it to be among yours. But, chief, your
daughter makes too much out of my assistance, the other day. I did only a
common duty,--what I should have been a coward not to have done. I have no
claim for any particular gratitude from her or you."
"Our gratitude was strong before; the young man now makes stronger,"
remarked the other, exchanging appreciating glances with his daughter.
"No, chief," resumed Claud, "I did not come here to boast of that small
service, nor claim any thanks for it, but to see a sagamore, who could give
me the knowledge of the Red Man which I would like to possess; to see one
who, in times gone by, was as a king in this lake country. His own history,
and that of his people especially, I would like to hear. They must be full
of interest and instruction to an inquirer like me. Will not the chief
relate it briefly? I have leisure,--my ears are open to his words."
"Would the young man know the history of Wenongonet, alone?" said the
other, with a musing and melancholy air. "It may be told easier than by
words. Does the young man see on yonder hill that tall, green pine, which
stands braced on the rocks, and laughs at the storms, because it is strong
and not afraid?"
"I do."
"That is Wenongonet fifty winters ago. Now, does the young man see that
tall, dry pine, in the quiet valley below, with a slender young tree
shooting up, and tenderly spreading its green branches around that aged
trunk, so it would shield its bare sides in the colds of winter, and fan
its leafless head in the heats of summer?"
"Yes, I see that, also."
"That dry tree, already tottering to its fall, is Wenongonet now."
"But what is the young tree with which you have coupled it?"
"The young man has eyes," said the speaker, glancing affectionately at his
blushing daughter.
"But the young man," he resumed after a thoughtful pause, "would know more
of the history of the Red Men who once held the country as their own? Let
him read it in the history of his own people, turned about to the opposite.
Let him call the white man's increase from a little beginning, the red
man's decrease from a great,--the white man's victories, the red man's
defeats,--the white man's flourishing, the red man's fading; and he will
have the history of the red men, and the reasons of their sad history, in
this country.
"Two hundred year-seasons ago, the Abenaques were the great nation of the
east. From the sea to the mountains they were the lords of Mavoshen.
[Footnote: The name by which the Province of Maine was designated by the
early voyagers, and the Indian word probably from which the present name of
the State of Maine was derived.] They were a nation of warriors and a wise
and active people. But, of all the four tribes--the Sokokis, the
Anasquanticooks, the Kenabas, the Wawenocks--who made up this great nation,
the Sokokis were the wisest and bravest. Wenongonet is proud when he thinks
of them. They were his tribe. All the land that sent its waters through the
Sawocotuc [Footnote: The Indian appellation of the river Saco, which is
doubtless an abbreviation of the Indian name here introduced.] to the sea
was theirs. They stood with their warriors at the outposts against the
crowding white settlers from the west and south. They were pleased to stand
there, because it was the post of danger and of honor in the nation. And
there they bravely kept their stand against that wide front of war, and
took the battle on themselves, till the snows of more than a hundred
winters were made red by their rifles and tomahawks. But those who court
death must often fall into his embrace. So with the Sokokis. They were at
first a great and many people; but they wasted and fell, as time, the
bringer of new and strange things, wore away, before the thick and more
thick coming of their greedy and pushing foes,--by their fire-water in
peace and their bullets in war, till the many became few, the great small.
What the bloody Church, with his swarm of picked warriors, had left after
his four terrible comings with fire and slaughter, the bold Lovewell
finished, on that black day when the great Paugus and all the flower of the
tribe found red graves round their ancient stronghold and home,--their
beloved Pegwacket. [Footnote: The name of a once populous Indian village,
which occupied the present beautiful site of the village of Fryeburg, Me.,
near Lovewell's Pond, where the sanguinary conflict here alluded to
occurred in 1725.] This was the last time the tribe was ever assembled as a
separate people. The name of the Sokokis, at which so many pale faces had
been made paler, was buried in the graves of the brave warriors who had
here died to defend its glory. The feeble remnant, panic-struck and
heart-broken, fled northward, and, like the withered leaves of the forest
flying before the strong east wind, were scattered and swept over the
mountains into Canada; all but the family of Paugus, who took their stand
on these lakes, where his son, Waurumba, took the empty title of chief and,
dying, left it still more empty to Wenongonet, the last of the long line of
sagamores,--the last ever to stand here to tell the young white man the
story of their greatness, and the fate of their tribe."
On concluding his story, the chief turned to his daughter and significantly
pointed to the lengthening shadows of the trees on the water, with a motion
of his head towards their home up the lakes.
"The chief thinks," said Fluella, arousing herself from the thoughtful
attitude in which she had been silently listening to the
conversation,--"the chief thinks it time we were on the water, on our way
home. We shall have now to bid Mr. Elwood a good-evening."
So saying, she stepped lightly into the canoe and took her seat. She was
immediately followed by the chief, who, quickly handling his oar, sent the
light craft, with a single stroke, some rods into the lake, when, partially
turning its bow towards the spot where Claud was standing on the shore, he
said:
"Should the young man ever stray from his companions in the hunt, or find
himself weary, or wet, or cold, or in want of food, when out on the borders
of the Molechunk-a-munk, let him feel, and doubt not, that he will be
welcome to the lodge of Wenongonet."
"And, if Mr. Elwood should be in the vicinity of our lake this fall, and
_not_ happen to be in a so very sad condition, he might, perhaps, find a
good welcome on calling,--so, especially, if he come before the time of the
first snows," added Fluella, playfully at first, but with a slight
suffusion of the cheek as she proceeded to the close.
"I thank the chief," responded Claud with a respectful bow. "And I thank
you, my fair friend," he continued, turning more familiarly to Fluella. "I
hope to come, some time. But why do you speak of the first snows?"
"O, the birds take wing for a warmer country about that time, and perhaps
some who have not wings may be off with them," replied Fluella, in the same
tone of playfulness and emotion.
A stately bow from the father, and another with a sweetly eloquent smile
from the daughter, completed, on their part, the ceremonies of the adieu;
when the canoe was headed round, and, by the easy and powerful
paddle-strokes of the still vigorous old man, sent bounding over the waters
of the glassy lake.
Slowly and thoughtfully Claud turned and took his way homeward. "Who could
have expected," he soliloquized, "to witness such an exhibition of
intellect and exalted tone of feeling in one of that despised race, as that
proud old man displayed, in his eloquently-told story? And that daughter!
Well, what is she to me? My faith is given to another. But why feel this
strange interest? Yet, after all, it is probably nothing but what any one
would naturally feel in the surprise occasioned on beholding such qualities
in such a place and person. No, no, it can be nothing more; and I will
whistle it to the winds."
And he accordingly quickened his steps, and literally began to whistle a
lively tune, by way of silencing the unbidden sensation which he felt
conscious had often, since he first met this fair daughter of the wilds,
been lurking within. But, though he thus resolved and reasoned the
intruding feeling into nothing, yet he felt he would not like to have Avis
Gurley know how often the sparkling countenance and witching smile of this
new and beautiful face had been found mingling themselves with the
previously exclusive images of his dreams. But, if they did so before this
second interview, would they do it less now? His head resolutely answered,
"Yes, less, till they are banished." His heart softly whispered, "No." And
we will not anticipate by disclosing whether head or heart was to prove the
better prophet.