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Transcriber's Note:
- Illustration captions in {brackets} have been added by the transcriber
for reader convenience.
- The position of some illustrations has been changed to better fit with
the context.
- Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. In all
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- Page 108, "re-loaded" changed to "reloaded", consistent with
other instances (As Hawk Eye reloaded his gun).
* * * * *
[Illustration: {Cover.}]
[Illustration: {Left inside cover. Family sitting outside tepee.}]
[Illustration: THE SHAFTS SPED TO THEIR MARKS AND TWO BIRDS FLUTTERED
AND FELL TO EARTH.]
HAWK EYE
BY
DAVID CORY
_Author of_
"LITTLE INDIAN," and others
[Illustration: {Hawk Eye with rabbit.}]
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1938, BY
GROSSET & DUNLAP, INC.
_All Rights Reserved_
_Printed in the United States of America_
FOREWORD
There is a secure immortality and a depth of intuition in the utterance
of Wordsworth, the peer of nature's poets, when from his pastoral reed
he strikes the notes:
"The child is father of the man."
Nothing could be more insistently and persistently true of the Indian
child--the girl to be the mother of warriors, the boy to become a hero
and the father of future "braves."
It goes back, all of it, to a heredity born of three vital and
vitalizing forces. The Indian holds with steadfastness and devotion to
his many and weird ceremonies, but these all lead him back to the
supreme, piloting force of his life, his unfailing faith in the Great
Mystery.
The altar stairs to the spirit world are hills, buttressed by granite;
trees that talk with the winds--whispers from the spirit world; the
thunder of the waterfall--the voice of the Great Mystery; stars--the
footprints of warriors treading the highways of the Happy Hunting
Ground. In all of these he sees God.
Falling into communion with this happy philosophy of life, the glory of
Indian motherhood crosses our path--and there are few things more
beautiful. When the day of expectation dawns upon her, she seeks the
solitude of all the majesty in which from childhood she has seen the
footprints of God--revels, communes, rehearses to herself the heroism of
the greatest hero of her tribe, and all that the impress of it may be
felt upon the master man, the miracle of whose life has been entrusted
to her to work out.
For the first two full years of his life, a spiritual hand guides his
steps. There, in struggle and patience and self-denial, he must learn
all of nature's glad story.
His grandparents then take him into their school. He learns to ride
before he can walk; he is taught the use of the bow and arrow, which
means hitting the mark, keenness of vision, a steady aim, precision, so
that when the crisis comes he is ready--an ample reason for the brave,
effective and self-reliant conduct of the Indian soldier on the fields
of France in the World War.
Deep breathing in the open air, giving full lung power; self-denial,
giving strength of limb and endurance in the race; fellowship with all
of nature's winsome and wild moods; a discerning will power; a steadfast
reliance upon the guiding hand of the Great Spirit, empower the Indian
boy to stand on all the high hills of history and challenge any militant
force that may confront him.
The sphere is complete; Boy: Mother: God.
[Illustration: Signature, Joseph K Dixon]
Leader of the Rodman Wanamaker Historical
Expeditions to the North American Indian
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Any writer who adds to the number of books on that ever fascinating
subject, the American Indian, must owe thanks to many authors who have
written about the Indians. My special thanks, for information concerning
the customs and legends of the Sioux, are given to:
Joseph Kossuth Dixon, author of _The Vanishing Race_,
George Bird Grinnell, author of _When Buffalo Ran_,
Charles A. Eastman, author of _Indian Boyhood_,
Lewis Spence, author of _The Myths of the North American Indians_.
Grateful acknowledgment is made, also, of valuable information found in
the _Thirty-Second Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology_.
DAVID CORY
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I WILD GEESE 13
II PLANS AND PELTS 20
III LOADING THE CANOES 28
IV JEALOUS SLOW DOG 34
V HAWK EYE'S OFFERING 40
VI THE BEAR 47
VII THE KILL 51
VIII THE PELT IS REMOVED 57
IX THE RAPIDS 61
X THE BEAVER DAM 67
XI TOEPRINTS IN THE SAND 76
XII ACROSS THE PRAIRIE 83
XIII THE BOYS ARE TAKEN PRISONERS 89
XIV HAWK EYE'S REVENGE 96
XV TWO GOOD SHOTS 102
XVI OHITIKA IS WOUNDED 108
XVII THE TRADING POST 113
XVIII JOURNEY'S END 120
HAWK EYE
CHAPTER I
WILD GEESE
Slow Dog, Medicine Man, looked out of his lodge. Wild geese were honking
overhead. To the Indian it meant the return of spring.
"I must be the first to kill one," muttered Slow Dog. Entering his
lodge, he presently came out with bow and arrows. Hastening toward a
bend in the river which formed a sheltered cove, he hid among a clump of
willow bushes and waited in the hope that the birds might come down to
feed.
Slow Dog was not the only one to notice the geese, however. Two boys,
one about fifteen years of age, the other, close to thirteen, had also
heard the honking.
"Get your bow and arrows," cried Hawk Eye, the elder, darting into his
tepee. The younger boy, Raven Wing, ran to his lodge for his weapons. In
a few minutes both were hurrying to the river.
"There's Slow Dog hiding in the bushes," whispered Raven Wing. "He
wishes to be the first to bring one to earth."
"Leave him there," answered Hawk Eye, noticing that the flock, headed by
an old gander, had slightly altered its course. "The geese are making
for the lake." Breaking into a run, the boys headed for Big Stone Lake,
from whose southern boundary issued the "sky-tinted waters" of the
Minnesota River.
As they hurried through the timber belt that bordered the river's edge,
Raven Wing remarked, "they may come down in the marsh."
Ice still lay thick upon the lake, but on the shallower waters it had
begun to melt under the increasing warmth of the sun.
"Can they see us?" asked Hawk Eye as Raven Wing, who was in the lead,
stopped at the further end of the grove.
"No. We have yet time to run across this open space," answered the
younger boy.
On reaching a thicket of willows, the boys halted; then crept in to
almost the edge of a frozen stretch of swamp.
"Here they come!" whispered Raven Wing. As the flock settled on the
marshland, Hawk Eye fitted an arrow to his bow. "I'll take the one close
to the leader," he said. Almost simultaneously Raven Wing let fly his
arrow. The feathered ash wood shafts sped to their marks and two birds
fluttered and fell to earth. Alarmed at the fall of their comrades, the
flock rose in the air, but before they could get beyond arrow range, two
more birds dropped to earth.
"We've outwitted Slow Dog," chuckled Hawk Eye, as he made his way over
the half-frozen ground to pick up his birds.
"He must return empty-handed," laughed Raven Wing, retrieving his
arrows from the birds he had slain. "What do you intend to do with your
first kill?" he asked.
"Give it to Old Smoky Wolf," answered Hawk Eye. "The goose first slain
in the Spring is always made the occasion for a feast."
"I will give mine to my stepfather, Black Eagle," said Raven Wing. "He
will be our chief when Old Smoky Wolf takes the trail of departed
warriors."
"Because you have outwitted him, Slow Dog will now bear another grudge
against you," went on Hawk Eye.
"Perhaps it were better had I not seen the geese," sighed Raven Wing. "I
would not be the cause for further trouble between him and my
stepfather."
"Slow Dog would find one if it suited his fancy," said Hawk Eye. "He has
a tongue with two ends, like a serpent's. But he has no need to look for
an excuse. He has not forgotten that it was you who discovered the
buffalo herd during the great blizzard and so saved us all from
starvation. Had you not done so, he would have succeeded in convincing
many that the famine had been sent by the gods to punish us all for
allowing your mother to hunt with the men. You, he hates. But for you,
he might have persuaded the tribe to elect him chief in place of Old
Smoky Wolf."
"He hates Black Eagle," said Raven Wing, sadly.
"Because he knows our warriors will choose Black Eagle to succeed Old
Smoky Wolf," added Hawk Eye.
As the boys neared camp, Slow Dog came out of the bushes by the river
bank. A scowl spread over his face on seeing the dead geese. "He is a
great hunter when the birds fly down to be killed," he sneered.
[Illustration: SLOW DOG CAME OUT OF THE BUSHES BY THE RIVER BANK.]
"Had they not changed their course, your arrow would have slain one,"
answered Raven Wing, quietly.
Slow Dog turned on his heel and walked to his tepee. The two boys
continued on their way. Presently they halted beside Old Smoky Wolf's
lodge. At the sound of approaching footsteps, the aged chief had bade
his wife go out to greet whoever the visitors might be.
Hawk Eye handed her one of the birds he had slain. "'Tis the first goose
brought to earth. Hawk Eye would present it to our chief," explained the
boy. As he and Raven Wing were about to turn away, Old Smoky Wolf
appeared in the doorway of the lodge. He gravely thanked Hawk Eye on
learning of the gift.
"You both shall come to the feast," he added kindly. The boys thanked
him and as they turned away, a smile spread over Old Smoky Wolf's
wrinkled face.
"My tribe are not women. A brave is no stranger in my village. These
boys will become great hunters. At the sound of their moccasins the
beaver will lie down to be killed," grunted the old chief.
[Illustration: {Hunter and buffalo.}]