American fiction -- 19th century; Historical fiction; Indians of North America -- Fiction
can submit to a gentle regard for woman that shall be totally free from
passion. This sort of regard Peter certainly began to entertain for
Margery; and like begetting like, as money produces money, it is not
surprising that the confidence of the girl herself, as well as her
sympathies, should continue to increase in the favor of this terrible
Indian.
But the changes of feeling, and the various little incidents to which we
have alluded, did not occur in a single moment of time. Day passed after
day, and still the canoes were working their way up the winding channels
of the Kalamazoo, placing at each setting sun longer and longer reaches
of its sinuous stream between the travellers and the broad sheet of
Michigan. As le Bourdon had been up and down the river often, in his
various excursions, he acted as the pilot of the navigation; though all
worked, even to the missionary and the Chippewa. On such an expedition,
toil was not deemed to be discreditable to a warrior, and Pigeonswing
used the paddle and the pole as willingly, and with as much dexterity,
as any of the party.
It was only on the eleventh day after quitting the mouth of the river,
that the canoes came to in the little bay where le Bourdon was in the
habit of securing his light bark, when in the openings. Castle Meal was
in full view, standing peacefully in its sweet solitude; and Hive, who,
as he came within the range of his old hunts, had started off, and got
to the spot the previous evening, now stood on the bank of the river
to welcome his master and his friends to the chiente. It wanted a few
minutes of sunset as the travellers landed, and the parting rays of the
great luminary of our system were glancing through the various glades of
the openings, imparting a mellow softness to the herbage and flowers.
So far as the bee-hunter could perceive, not even a bear had visited
the place in his absence. On ascending to his abode and examining the
fastenings, and on entering the hut, storehouse, etc., le Bourdon became
satisfied that all the property he had left behind was safe, and that
the foot of man--he almost thought of beast too--had not visited the
spot at all during the last fortnight.
CHAPTER XIV.
Hope in your mountains, and hope in your streams,
Bow down in their worship, and loudly pray;
Trust in your strength, and believe in your dreams,
But the wind shall carry them all away.
--BRAINARD.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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