XXXVII.—THE SAME, CONCLUDED.
STRAIGHT the ancient arrow maker
Looked up gravely from his labor,
Laid aside the unfinished arrow,
Bade him enter at the doorway,
Saying, as he rose to meet him,
“Hiawatha, you are welcome."
At the feet of Laughing Water
Hiawatha laid his burden,
Threw the red deer from his shoulders;
And the maiden looked up at him,
Looked up from her mat of rushes,
Said with gentle look and accent, "You are welcome, Hiawatha."
Very spacious was the wigwam,
Made of deer skin dressed and whitened,
With the gods of the Dacotahs
Drawn and painted on its curtains ;
And so tall the doorway, hardly
Hiawatha stooped to enter,
Hardly touched his eagle feathers,
As he entered at the doorway.
Then uprose the Laughing Water
From the ground, fair Minnehaha,
Laid aside her mat unfinished,
Brought forth food and set before them,
Water brought them from the brooklet,
Gave them food in earthen vessels,
Gave them drink in bowls of bass-wood,
Listened while the guest was speaking,
Listened while her father answered,
But not once her lips she opened,
Not a single word she uttered.
Yes, as in a dream she listened
To the words of Hiawatha,
As he talked of old Nokomis,
Who had nursed him in his childhood,
As he told of his companions,
And of happiness and plenty,
In the land of the Ojibways,
In the pleasant land and peaceful.
"After many years of warfare,
Many years of strife and bloodshed,
There is peace between the Ojibways
And the tribe of the Dacotahs."
Thus continued Hiawatha,
And then added, speaking slowly,
"That this peace may last forever,
And our hands be clasped more closely,
And our hearts be more united,
Give me as my wife this maiden,
Minnehaha, Laughing Water,
Loveliest of Dacotah women."
And the ancient arrow maker
Paused a moment ere he answered,
Smoked a little while in silence,
Looked at Hiawatha proudly,
Fondly looked at Laughing Water,
And made answer very gravely,
"Yes, if Minnehaha wishes;
Of the ancient arrow maker,
In the land of the Dacotahs.
From the wigwam he departed,
Leading with him Laughing Water;
Hand in hand they went together,
Through the woodland and the meadow,
Left the old man standing lonely
At the doorway of his wigwam,
Heard the Falls of Minnehaha
Calling to them from the distance,
Crying to them from afar off,
"Fare thee well, O Minnehaha."
And the ancient arrow maker,
Turned again unto his labor,
Sat down by his sunny doorway,
Murmuring to himself, and saying,
"Thus it is our daughters leave us;
Those we love, and those who love us,
Just when they have learned to help us,
When we are old and lean upon them,
Comes a youth with flaunting feathers.
With his flute of reeds, a stranger
Wanders piping through the village,
Beckons to the fairest maiden,
And she follows where he leads her,
Leaving all things for the stranger."
Pleasant was the journey homeward,
Through interminable forests,
Over meadow, over mountain,
Over river, hill, and hollow.
Short it seemed to Hiawatha,
Though they journeyed very slowly,
Though his pace he checked and slackened
To the steps of Laughing Water.
Over wide and rushing rivers
In his arms he bore the maiden;
Light he thought her as a feather,
As the plume upon his head-gear;
Cleared the tangled pathway for her,
Bent aside the swaying branches,
Made at night a lodge of branches,
And a bed with boughs of hemlock,
And a fire before the doorway
With the dry cones of the pine tree.
All the travelling winds went with them,
O'er the meadows, through the forest;
All the stars of night looked at them,
Watched with sleepless eyes the lovers;
All the birds sang loud and sweetly,
Songs of happiness and heart's ease;
Sang the bluebird, sang the robin,
"Happy are you, Hiawatha,
Having such a wife to love you ;
Happy are you, Laughing Water,
Having such a noble husband."
From the sky the sun, benignant,
Looked upon them through the branches,
Saying to them, "O my children,
Love is sunshine, hate is shadow;
Life is checkered shade and sunshine;
Rule by love, O Hiawatha."
From the sky the moon looked at them,
Filled the lodge with mystic splendors,
Whispered to them, "O my children,
Day is restless, night is quiet,
Man imperious, woman feeble;
Half is mine, although I follow:
Rule by patience, Laughing Water."
Thus it was they journeyed homeward,
Thus it was that Hiawatha
To the lodge of old Nokomis
Brought the moonlight, starlight, firelight,
Brought the sunlight of his people,
Minnehaha, Laughing Water,
Handsomest of all the women
In the land of the Dacotahs,
In the land of handsome women.
XXXVIII. —ACCOUNT OF ALEXANDER SELKIRK.
THIS singular man, whose solitary residence in the Island of Juan Fernandez suggested the matchless fiction of Robinson Crusoe, was born in 1676, at Largo, a village in Scotland. He was a restless and troublesome youth, of a quarrelsome temper, and almost always engaged in mischief. His faults of character were aggravated by the injudicious severity of his father, whose iron strictness of rule produced upon the rebellious nature of his son an effect different from what was intended. The boy's own wish was to go to sea; but his father desired to keep him at home as an assistant in his own trade, which was that of a shoemaker. But when the lad grew up, and he became his own master, he followed the profession which he preferred. Having been for some years at sea, he was at length employed as a sailing master on board one of two armed vessels sent out by England to annoy the Spanish possessions on the coast of South America; the two countries being then
Selkirk's residence on his solitary island was not in consequence of shipwreck, as might naturally be supposed, but was the act of his own deliberate choice, in order to escape from the intolerable tyranny and brutality of his commanding officer, a man named Stradling. After cruising for some time along the coast of Chili, Selkirk's vessel went to the Island of Juan Fernandez to refit. While there, Selkirk formed the resolution to remain upon the island. Accordingly, when the vessel
|