Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White HunterStephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
General
Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White Hunter
Stephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
Dime novels; Indian women -- Fiction
The interior of the house retains an air of substantial comfort which
answers well to the promise conveyed without. The heavy furniture has
grown old with its occupants; rich it has been in its time, and now it
possesses the rare quality of fitness, and of being in harmony with
surrounding things. Every thing about that house is in perfect keeping
with the character and appearance of its owner. The occupant himself,
is a fine stately farmer of the old class--shrewd, penetrating, and
intelligent--one of those men who contrive to keep the heart green
when the frost of age is chilling the blood and whitening upon the
brow. He has already numbered more than the threescore years and ten
allotted to man. His habits and the fashion of his attire are those of
fifty years ago. He still clings to huge wood-fires, apples, and cider
in the winter season, and allows a bevy of fine cows to pasture on the
rich grass in front of his dwelling in the summer. All the hospitable
feeling of former years remains warm at his heart. He is indeed a fine
specimen of the staunch old republican farmer of the last century,
occupying the house which his father erected, and enjoying a fresh old
age beneath the roof tree which shadowed his infancy.
During a sojourn in this vicinity last season, it was one of our
greatest pleasures to spend an evening with the old gentleman,
listening to legends of the Indians, reminiscences of the Revolution,
and pithy remarks on the present age, with which he loved to entertain
us, while we occasionally interrupted him by comparing knitting-work
with the kind old lady, his wife, or by the praises of a sweet little
grandchild, who would cling about his knees and play with the silver
buckles on his shoes as he talked. That tall, stately old man, and the
sweet child made a beautiful picture of "age at play with infancy,"
when the fire-light flickered over them, to the ancient family
pictures, painted in Holland, hanging on the wall behind us, in the
old-fashioned oval frames, which, with the heavy Dutch Bible, which lay
on the stand, secured with hasps and brass hinges, ponderous as the
fastenings of a prison-door, were family relics precious to the old
gentleman from antiquity and association. Yes, the picture was pleasant
to look upon; but there was pleasure in listening to his legends and
stories. If the one here related is not exactly as he told it, he
will not fail to recognize the beautiful young Indian girl, whom he
described to us, in the character of Malaeska.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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