Gaut Gurley; Or, the Trappers of Umbagog: A Tale of Border LifeThompson, Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce)
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Gaut Gurley; Or, the Trappers of Umbagog: A Tale of Border Life
Thompson, Daniel P. (Daniel Pierce)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Fiction; Maine -- Fiction; Trappers -- Fiction
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."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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