In this manner things went on for a whole week, and then his parents
begged him not to go back to the woods to sleep, but to stay with them,
which he did gladly. And every day before it was light, he woke his
father and they went off to fish together, and each time the canoe came
back full, so that at length they had great stores of food laid up in
the outhouse.
At first, as we know, he was only a voice; then he would not let them
see his face, but little by little his body grew plain to them and his
features distinct, and they noticed that his hair had grown long and
reached his waist. At first, too, he could only whistle, but now he
could talk freely, and always was ready to help either his father or his
mother, and she used to go with them in the boat whenever she had time,
for she loved the fishing. Very soon, no longer fearing starvation, they
packed up their store of food and placed it in the canoe and pushed off,
for they were going back to Silka where they lived with their tribe. And
as they drew near the landing-place, the woman beheld the shadow of her
son's hands paddling, and wondered to herself, for his hands she could
not see.
'What is the matter with my son?' she asked her husband at last. 'I can
only see his shadow,' and she rose to find out if he was asleep or had
fallen into the water. But he was not in the boat, neither was there any
trace of him. Only the blanket, which had been across his knees,
remained in the bottom.
So they rowed on to Silka.
[From _Tlingit Myths and Texts_, recorded by JOHN R.
SWANTON, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American
Ethnology. Bulletin 39.]
_THE DISINHERITING OF A SON_
Near a large town in England there lived in the last century a gentleman
with his son and daughter. His wife died when her children were quite
young, leaving a large fortune behind her, and in a few years her
husband married again. Now, though the new lady of the manor had seemed
gentle and amiable as long as she was a girl, she soon grew jealous of
her stepson and his sister, and treated them very harshly and unkindly.
She thought that anything was good enough for them, but that the moment
she wished for anything she was to have it--quite forgetting that the
money which bought her horses and diamonds belonged of right to the
children. When she began to have babies of her own, matters grew worse,
and as soon as her husband's eldest son declared that he wished to leave
England and pass some years in foreign countries, the stepmother broke
into a furious rage, and declared that he must stop at home, for there
was no money to waste on him.
The young man saw that no help was to be expected from his father, who
was always afraid of his wife's temper, so he said no more, but wrote at
once to his own mother's brother to beg his assistance. This was at once
given, and thus it came about that very soon Alexander started off to
see the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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