"To-morrow at noon," came the impulsive reply. "In my cave there back
of that cypress; no one is allowed to enter but me; there I say my
prayers, and my father says it is sacred to me alone. Good-bye,
Henry," and she sped like a deer into the shades of the forest.
The youth was sincere, for it had flashed upon him like an inspiration
when their eyes first met, that she was born for him, and he for her.
They were married in heaven, ages ago. It came like a word from the
Infinite to these kindred souls. A sudden rent in the veil of darkness
which surrounds us manifests things unseen. Such visions sometimes
effect a transformation in those whom they visit, converting a poor
camel driver into a Mohammed, a peasant girl tending goats, into a
Joan of Arc.
This love-flash from the invisible blent these two hitherto widely
separated souls into one, even as the positive electricity leaps
through the spaces to find the negative, and when met, dissolves the
separateness into a harmonious oneness which can never be sundered.
The unsophisticated Indian maiden went her way, thrilling with the
thought that her heart is in his bosom, and his in hers, useless one
without the other.
The white youth was suddenly changed from an idle, wandering,
purposeless dreamer, into a fearless lover, ready to face death itself
to secure the object of his worship, and he sauntered back to his hut
with no flinching from the many dangers which surrounded him.
There a black slave met him, bearing an abundant feast. "Eat," said
the negro, "and then go to the lodge of Tiger-tail, the largest in the
village, with the skin of a tiger stretched on the door."
As soon as Henry had assuaged his hunger, he hastened to obey the
summons. As before, no human being noticed him, and he walked to
the wigwam, knocked on the door-post, and answering the "come" from
within, entered. To his astonishment, the giant leader was evidently
trying to read a newspaper, but took no notice of his entrance for
some minutes, when he suddenly said:
"What is this?" pointing to a line of what Henry saw was the message
to Congress of the President of the United States. The chief watched
closely as his captive slowly read:
"The Seminole Indians have been driven by our troops to their
fastnesses in the swamps of the Everglades, and it is for Congress to
decide whether they shall be further punished for their outbreak."
The chief slowly rose to his frill height, and walked in silence for a
long time, when he turned to our hero, and fastened upon him his eagle
eyes. "Humph," at length he muttered, "the pale-face rob Seminole of
everything else, now he follow us here:--no, the great father must
know the truth, you teach me to write him, no white man ever come here
and go away to tell, you stay here always; you no speak to any one
here but me, you set down, teach me."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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