Blazing the Way; Or, True Stories, Songs and Sketches of Puget SoundDenny, Emily Inez
History
Blazing the Way; Or, True Stories, Songs and Sketches of Puget Sound
Denny, Emily Inez
Indians of North America -- Northwestern States; Oregon Territory -- History; Washington (State) -- History
They came flying up the lane to the house (the homestead on Lake Union)
in a succession of leaps that would have made Pegasus envious had he
been "thar or tharabouts." Their riders stuck on like cockleburrs until
they reached the gate, when a sudden stop threw Anna to the ground, but
she escaped injury, the only damage being a wrecked riding habit.
Anna made no pretension to great learning, yet possessed a well-balanced
and cultivated mind. With no ado of great effort she stood first in her
class.
At a notable celebration of Decoration Day in Seattle, she was chosen to
walk beside the teacher at the head of the school procession; both were
tall, handsome young women, carrying the school banner bearing the
motto, "Right, then Onward."
It was to this school, which bore his own name, that her father
presented a beautiful piano as a memorial of her; it bears the words,
from her own lips, "I believe in Jesus," in gold letters across the
front.
In 1888 she accompanied her family across the continent to the eastern
coast, where she expected to be reunited with a friend, a young girl to
whom she was much attached, but it was otherwise ordered; after a brief
illness in New York City, she passed away and was brought back to her
own loved native land, by the sun-down-seas. Afar in a forest nook she
rests, where wildwood creatures pass by, the pine trees wave and the
stars sweep over, waiting, watching for the Day toward which the whole
creation moves.
* * * * *
They wandered through the wonderful forest, by lake, fern-embroidered
stream and pebble seashore, gazed on the glistening mountains, the
sparkling waves, the burning sunsets, shining with such jewel colors as
to make them think of the land of hope, the New Jerusalem. And the
majestic snow-dome of Mountain Rainier which at the first sight thereof
caused a noted man to leap up and shout aloud the joy that filled his
soul; they lived in sight of it for years.
* * * * *
It might be asked, "Does the environment affect the character and mental
development, even the physical configuration?" We answer, "Yes, we
believe it does." The fine physique, the bright intellectuality, the
lovely character of these daughters of the West were certainly in part
produced and developed by the wonderful world about them. Simple, pure,
exalted natures ought to be, and we believe are, the rule among the
children of the pioneers of Puget Sound and many of their successors.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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