The Children's Hour, v 5. Stories From Seven Old FavoritesTappan, Eva March
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The Children's Hour, v 5. Stories From Seven Old Favorites
Tappan, Eva March
Children's stories; Literature -- Adaptations
But that which astonished him most was to know how I had killed the
other Indian so far off; so pointing to him, he made signs to me to
let him go to him; so I bade him go, as well as I could. When he came
to him, he stood like one amazed, looking at him, turned him first on
one side, then on t'other, looked at the wound the bullet had made,
which, it seems, was just in his breast, where it had made a hole, and
no great quantity of blood had followed; but he had bled inwardly, for
he was quite dead. He took up his bow and arrows, and came back; so I
turned to go away, and beckoned to him to follow me, making signs to
him that more might come after them.
Upon this he signed to me that he should bury them with sand, that
they might not be seen by the rest if they followed; and so I made
signs again to him to do so. He fell to work, and in an instant he had
scraped a hole in the sand with his hands big enough to bury the first
in, and then dragged him into it, and covered him, and did so also by
the other. I believe he had buried them both in a quarter of an hour.
Then calling him away, I carried him, not to my castle, but quite away
to my cave, on the farther part of the island; so I did not let my
dream come to pass in that part, viz., that he came into my grove for
shelter.
Here I gave him bread and a bunch of raisins to eat, and a draught of
water, which I found he was indeed in great distress for, by his
running; and having refreshed him, I made signs for him to go lie down
and sleep, pointing to a place where I had laid a great parcel of
rice-straw, and a blanket upon it, which I used to sleep upon myself
sometimes; so the poor creature laid down, and went to sleep.
He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with straight
strong limbs, not too large, tall and well-shaped, and, as I reckon,
about twenty-six years of age. He had a very good countenance, not a
fierce and surly aspect, but seemed to have something very manly in
his face; and yet he had all the sweetness and softness of an European
in his countenance too, especially when he smiled. His hair was long
and black, not curled like wool; his forehead very high and large; and
a great vivacity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes. The color of his
skin was not quite black, but very tawny; and yet not of an ugly,
yellow, nauseous tawny, as the Brazilians and Virginians, and other
natives of America are, but of a bright kind of a dun olive color,
that had in it something very agreeable, though not very easy to
describe. His face was round and plump; his nose small, not flat like
the negroes; a very good mouth, thin lips, and his fine teeth well
set, and white as ivory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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