Beadle's Dime Novels No. 120: The Hunchback — page 7: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

a“ > <a THE HUNCHBACK. CHAPTER I. THE HUNCHBACK. Ir was summer, and such pleasant weather as we have only in a northern climate ; not sultry, for a soft breeze was coming over a little lake embosomed among the hills, just stirring the forest leaves. It was a scene of rare beauty. The lake itself was placid, and hemmed in by swaying trees, the birch, the maple, and the oak, in short all the giant growths indigenous to our climate. It was situated in North-western New York. The time was that period in the American Revolution when Johnson, Claus and Brangh were playing havoc with the frontier towns, and the settlers were fleeing for life from ex- posed stations. The forest was still, but looking out upon the lake a canoe might have been seen coming swiftly toward the Shore. It had a single occupant, an Indian of majestic hight, wearing above his left ear the eagle-feathers denoting a chief of the Oneidas. He was dressed in a shirt of tanned leather, soft and pliable, ornamented cunningly with beads, and bound at the waist by a wampum belt. His feet were cased in moc- Casins. His arms were a long rifle, and a knife and toma- hawk at his girdle. As the prow of the canoe grated on the sand he sprung lightly ashore, drew the boat out of harm’s way and looked sharply about him. Evidently satisfied with his survey, he sat down on a hummock, drew his pipe from his pouch and filled it with leaf tobacco. Striking fire with a flint and steel he lighted the pipe and began to smoke. Half an hour passed and he still sat there; butat the end of that time he rose, just as the sun was sinking behind the western hills, and looked out across the stream, saying to himself, in the Indian tongue, “It istime.’ Just as he spoke the bushes cracked and bent- behind him, and @ man came Qut into the open place near the shore. A strange man, indeed! Nature connicloooks. conn