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words of her song echoed from the deep woods where the merry little men
had vanished? Or was it the Puk-Wudjies mocking her?
She had lingered later than usual; it was time to go. The new moon swung
low in the western sky, with its points turned upwards to the heavens.
An Indian would say he could hang his powder horn upon it, and that it
meant dry weather, when the leaves crackled under the hunter's feet, and
the animals fled before him, so that he was unable to come
near-enough to shoot. And Neen-i-zu was glad of this. In the Happy Land,
she declared no one would suffer, and no life would be taken.
Yet it was a hunter that her mother wished her to marry, a man who spent
his whole life in slaying the red deer of the forest; who thought and
talked of almost nothing else.
This came into her mind as she rose from her seat in the meadow, and
cast a farewell glance at the pines. The rays of the crescent moon
touched them with a faint light; and again her fancy came into play.
What was it that seemed to move along the edge of the mysterious
woods? Something with the dim likeness of a youth--taller than the
Puk-Wudjies--who glided rather than walked, and whose garments of light
green stood out against the darker green of the pines. Neeni-zu looked
again; but the moon hid behind the hills. All was black to the eye;
to the ear came no sound but the creepy cry of the whip-poor-will. She
hastened home.
That night she heard from her mother's lips what she had long expected
and feared. "Neen-i-zu," said her mother. "I named you 'My dear Life,'
and you are as dear as life to me. That is why I wish you to be safe and
happy. That is why I wish you to marry a good man who will take the best
care of you now, and will protect and comfort you when I am gone. You
know the man I mean."
"Yes, mother," answered Neen-i-zu. "I know him well
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enough--as well as ever I want to know him. He hunts the deer, he kills
the deer, he skins the deer. That is all he does, that is all he thinks,
that is all he talks about. It is perhaps well that someone should do
this, lest we starve for want of meat. Yet there are many other things
in the world, and this hunter of yours is content if he does but kill."
"Poor child!" said her mother. "You are too young to know what is best
for you."
"I am old enough, mother dear," answered Neen-i-zu, "to know what my
heart tells me. Besides, this hunter you would have me marry is as tall
as a young oak, while I am not much taller than one of the Puk-Wudjies.
When I stand up very straight, my head comes little higher than his
waist. A pretty pair we would make!"
What she said was quite true. Neen-i-zu had never grown to be much
larger than a child. She had a graceful, slender body, little hands and
feet, eyes black as midnight, and a mouth like a meadow flower. One who
saw her for the first time, passing upon the hills, her slight figure
sketched against the sky, might have thought that she herself was a
fairy.
For all her gentle, quiet ways, and her love of lonely places, Neen-i-zu
was often merry. But now she seldom laughed; her step was slow; and
she walked with her eyes fixed upon the ground. "When she is married,"
thought her mother, "she will have other things to occupy her mind, and
she will no longer go dreaming among the hills."
But the hills were her one great joy--the hills, and the flowery meadows
where the lark swayed to and fro, bidding her be of good cheer, as he
perched on a mullein stalk. Every afternoon she sat, singing her little
song. Soon she would sing no more. The setting sun would gild the pine
grove, the whip-poor-will would complain to the stars; but the picture
would be incomplete; there would be no Neen-i-zu. For the wedding day
was named; she must be the hunter's wife.
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On this day set for her marriage to the man she so disliked, Neen-i-zu
put on the garments of a bride. Never had she looked so lovely.
Blood-red blossoms flamed in her jet-black hair; in her hand she held a
bunch of meadow flowers mingled with the tassels of the pine.
Thus arrayed, she set out for a farewell visit to the grove. It was a
thing they could not well deny her; but as she went her way, and the
hills hid her from sight, the wedding guests looked uneasily at one
another. It was something they could not explain. At that moment a cloud
blew up from nowhere, across the sun; where light had been there was
now a shadow. Was it a sign? They glanced sidelong at the hunter, but
the bridegroom was sharpening his sheath knife on a stone. Sunshine or
shadow, his thoughts were following the deer.
Time passed; but Neen-i-zu did not return. Then so late was the hour,
that the wedding guests wondered and bestirred themselves. What could be
keeping her so long? At last they searched the hills; she was not there.
They tracked her to the meadow, where the prints of her little moccasins
led on and on--into the grove itself; then the tracks disappeared.
Neen-i-zu had vanished.
They never saw her more. The next day a hunter brought them strange
news. He had climbed a hill, on his way home by a short cut, and had
paused there a moment to look around. Just then his dog ran up to him,
whining, with its tail between its legs. It was a brave dog, he said,
that would not run from a bear, but this one acted as if he had seen
something that was not mortal.
Then the hunter heard a voice, singing. Soon the singing stopped, and he
made out--far off--the figure of Neen-i-zu, walking straight toward the
grove, with her arms held out before her. He called to her, but she did
not hear, and drew nearer and nearer to the Spirit wood.
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"She walked like one who dreams," said the hunter, "and when she had
almost reached the woods, a young man, slender as a reed, came out to
meet her. He was not one of our tribe. No, no! I have never seen his
like. He was dressed in the leaves of the forest, and green plumes
nodded on his head. He took her by the hand. They entered the Sacred
Grove. There is no doubt that he was a fairy--the fairy Evergreen. There
is nothing more; I have finished."
So Neen-i-zu became a bride, after all.
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