The Riflemen of the Ohio: A Story of the Early Days along "The Beautiful River" — John Shaqi
The Riflemen of the Ohio: A Story of the Early Days along "The Beautiful River"Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
General
The Riflemen of the Ohio: A Story of the Early Days along "The Beautiful River"
Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Juvenile fiction; Ohio River -- Juvenile fiction
He felt an immense peace. Nothing was wrong. The day was just right,
neither too hot nor too cool. The blaze of the brilliant skies and of
the great golden sun was pleasantly shaded from his eyes by the green
veil of the leaves. Those surely were the finest deer steaks that he had
ever eaten! There could not be such another wilderness as this on the
face of the earth! And he, Henry Ware, was one of the luckiest of human
beings!
He lay a full two hours wrapped in content. He did not move arm or leg.
Nothing but his long, deep breathing and his bright blue eyes, shaded by
half-fallen lashes, told that he lived. Every muscle was relaxed. There
was absolutely no effort, either physical or mental.
Yet the word passed by the forest creatures to one another was entirely
different from the word that had been passed the night before. The
slackened human figure that never moved was dangerous, it was once more
the king of the wilderness, and the four-footed kind, after looking once
and fearfully upon it, must steal in terror away.
The wolf felt it. Slinking through the thicket, he measured the great
length of the recumbent shape, observed the half-opened eye, and
departed in speed and silence; a yellow puma smelt the human odor,
thought at first that the youth was dead, but, after a single look,
followed the wolf, his heart quaking within him. A foolish bear, also,
shambled into the thicket, but he was not too foolish, after he saw
Henry, to shamble quickly away.
When Henry rose he was as thoroughly refreshed and restored as if he had
never run a gantlet, made a flight of a night and a day, and fought with
a Wyandot for his life. The very completeness of it had made him rest as
much in two hours as another would have rested in six. He resumed his
flight, taking with him venison steaks that he had cooked before he put
out his fire, and he did not stop until the night was well advanced and
the stars had sprung out in a dusky sky. Then he chose another dense
thicket and, lying down in it, was quickly asleep.
He awoke about midnight and saw a faint light shining through the woods.
He judged that it was a long distance away, but he resolved to see what
made it, being sure in advance that it was the glow of an Indian camp
fire.
He approached cautiously, looked from the crest of a low hill into a
snug little valley, and saw that his surmise was true.
About fifty warriors sat or lay around a smouldering fire, and he
inferred from their dress and paint that they were Shawnees. Four who
sat together were talking earnestly, and he knew them to be chiefs. It
was impossible to hear what they said, but he believed this to be a
party on the way to the great meeting at the mouth of Licking. It was
evident that he had not escaped too soon, and he withdrew as cautiously
as he had approached.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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