CHAPTER XVI.
How Big Black Burl Figured on the Peace-path 136
CHAPTER XVII.
How the Glory of his Race Figured in his Rising 147
CHAPTER XVIII.
How the Eagle and the Lion and the Big Bear Figured in the
Great North-west 154
CHAPTER XIX.
How Big Black Burl Figured at the Death-stake 164
CHAPTER XX.
How Kumshakah Figured in The Light of the Setting Sun 174
CHAPTER XXI.
How the Glory of his Race Figured in his Setting 180
BURL.
Chapter I.
HOW BIG BLACK BURL FIGURED IN THE PARADISE.
Six feet six he stood in his moccasins, yet seemed not tall, so broad he
was and ponderously thick. He had an elephantine leg, with a foot like a
black-oak wedge; a chimpanzean arm, with a fist like a black-oak maul;
eyes as large and placid as those of an ox; teeth as large and even as
those of a horse; skin that was not skin, but ebony; a nose that was not
a nose, but gristle; hair that was not hair, but wool; and a grin that
was not a grin, but ivory sunshine. Such was the outward man of Big
Black Burl.
Brave as a lion, deliberate as a bear, patient as an ox, faithful as a
mastiff, affectionate as a Newfoundland dog, sagacious as a crow,
talkative as a magpie, and withal as cheery and full of song as a
sky-lark. Such was the inward man of Big Black Burl.
Built up and limbed as just described, our hero, as you may well
imagine, must have been a man of prodigious bodily strength. To be sure,
a tall, supple, well-knit, athletic white man like Simon Kenton, for
example, might, in a wrestling-match and by some unexpected sleight of
foot, have kicked his heels from under him and brought him flat on his
back with ease. But keeping him there would have been an altogether
different matter. That would have taken Simon Kenton, Daniel Boone, and
Benjamin Logan, all men of uncommon bone and muscle, and all upon him at
once; and even then he would have tumbled and tousled them so lustily as
at last to force them from sheer loss of breath to yield the point and
let him up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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