In The Boyhood of Lincoln: A Tale of the Tunker Schoolmaster and the Times of Black HawkButterworth, Hezekiah
General
In The Boyhood of Lincoln: A Tale of the Tunker Schoolmaster and the Times of Black Hawk
Butterworth, Hezekiah
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Fiction
An awful scene followed. Horses, cattle, animals of many kinds came
panting to the island. Many of them had been fleeing for miles, and sank
down under the trees as if ready to perish. There was one enormous bison
among them. The tops of the trees were filled with birds, cawing and
uttering a chaos of cries. The air seemed to rain birds, and the earth
to pour forth animals. The sky above turned to inky blackness. Men,
women, and children came rushing into the trees from every direction,
some crying on Heaven for mercy, some begging for water, all of them
exhausted and seemingly ready to die. The island grove was like a great
funeral pyre.
Jasper lifted his hands and called the school and the people around him,
knelt down, and prayed for help amid the cries of distress that rose on
every hand. He then looked for the black horse and the plumed rider
again.
They were drawing near in the darkening air. The figure of the rider was
more distinct. The people saw it, and cried, "An Indian!" Some said, "It
is a scout!" and others, "It is he who set the fire!"
The wind rose and changed, caused by the heated air in the distance. The
currents ran hither and thither like drafts in a room of open doors. One
of these unnatural drafts caused a new terror to spread among the people
and animals and birds. It drew up into the air a great column of sparks
and, scattered them through the open space, and a rain of fire filled
the sky and descended upon the grove.
[Illustration: THE APPROACH OF THE MYSTERIOUS INDIAN.]
It was a splendid but terrible sight.
"The end of all things is at hand," said the old Millerite. "The stars
are beginning to fall."
But the rain of fire lost its force as it neared the earth, and it fell
in cinders and ashes.
"An Indian! an Indian!" cried many voices.
The black horse came plunging into near view, and rushed for the trees
and sank down with foaming sides and mouth. The people shouted. There
rolled from his side the lithe and supple form of a young Indian,
plumed, and dressed in yellow buckskin. What did it mean? The Indian lay
on the ground like one dead. The people gathered around him, and Jasper
came to him and bent over him, and parted the black hair from his face.
Suddenly Jasper started back and uttered a cry.
"What is it?" asked the people.
"It is my old Indian guide--it is Waubeno. Bring him water, and we will
revive him, and he will tell us what to do.--Waubeno! Waubeno!"
The Indian seemed to know that voice. He revived, and looked around him,
and stared at the people.
"Give him water," said Jasper.
A boy brought a cup of water and offered it to the Indian. The latter
started up, and cried:
"Away! I am here to die among you. My tongue burns, but I did not come
here to drink. I came here to die. The white man killed my father, and I
have come back with the avengers, and we have brought with us the
Judgment Day." He stood and listened to the cries of distress.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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