Beadle's Dime Library, Vol. II, No. 14 — page 21: what you’re looking at

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

' Thayendanegea, it shows that it is their eamp. And but a little way to the left is a mound of newly- heaped-up ground. Can it be that “ dust re- turned to dust” is reposing there. and that death has laid another of his countless vic- tims there ? “Your eyes, so young and bright, Iona, must surely see a speck far up the river!” said Dyagetto to the maiden at her side, “ His runner said that he would be here when the sun was so high that it cast no shadow from an upright tree, and Thayendanegea never spoke false words !” “ see nothing but a duck upon the river's breast!" said the maiden. “ And it is not yet his time; for, see, our shadows fall yet toward the west!" “‘ Tona does not love, elae she would not be so patient. Time is a snail, it only crawls!” “How ean I love him, whom my eyes bave not looked. upon?” said the maiden, ealmly. " His name—his fame—he is chief of al) the Nations of the North—he is my son!” aid Dyagetto, impetuously. ‘He may rule all the warriors of the North, and yet not hold control of one proud heart !” said the maiden, with a flashing eye, while she pressed her hand over her heart, to indi- cate her meaning. Then she added, more calmly: “When J took upon him, if he is what I have seen in my dreams, I shall love him, and if I love him, he must love me, and I will win him or I will die!” “Surely now I see something far up the river !"’ said Dyagetto. “ Yes!” said Iona; “it is the flash of @ paddle, dipping up water in the sun-rays!” After a short pause, she said : “Tt is a canoe, and there are two in it; and one is a warrior, the other isa woman. He said he would come alone !” And already, though she said she loved not, tie maiden’s eyes flashed, and a fieree look told that. she fancied a rival ere she had found & love. In some hearts jealousy is natural, intuitive, and in such hearts to love is to be forever miserable ! Swiftly down the rapid atream, more swift- ‘y, «8 they drew nearer to the falls, came the sanoe, and both the women watched its mo tions without a word, for though Dyagetto’s face expressed surprise, not. unmixed with anger when the keen eyes of Iona saw, and her lips announced, that there was a woman in the canoe with the warrior, she spoke not the thoughts which gathered in her brain. The canoe, coming down the centre of the stream to take advantage of the current, shot along almost.to the falls; then Thayendanegea, with a powerful arm, turned its prow toward the shore, and in a moment more was there. * A pale-faced woman, perhaps a prisoner!” muttered Dyagetto. “If Thayendanegea is so gentle to a pri- soner, what would -he be to a wife?” said Iona, as she saw him carefully lift the pale- faced maiden up the rocky bank. The sar- casm in the tone of Iona was not lost. on Dy- agetto, who replied : “ Thayendanegea brings no pale-faced wife to my wigwam., One of my children has bead linked with a pale-face; the other never a , Carefully up the rocky height the War- Ragle helped the maiden whom he brought, new clinging to a bush, then passing at a bound some deep ravine, cut in the hill-side by .s rain-torrent, lifting her with a single arm, while he held his trusty rifle in the other hand. And soon he reached the hill-erest, and stood before his mother, who, in the pale-faced gitl, though she was wan and wasted, as if by care or privation, she at once ised Kathleen Johnson. Jold was her lock, and eolder still her words, when she bade her son weleome, and she looked with a fierce and bitter eye upon poor Kathleen, as she led the way to the wig- wan ' Hew my — 1’? muttered Iona, a» she gazed upon the tall and kingly form of Thay- endane he then her eve, flashed: wildly, is she .oked upon Kath and. muitered— reco “ What does she here?—a snake in my bh hd PA Whore is my father?” asked the War- Eagle, as he staod before the wigwam, and saw him not within. “ There !” and Dyagetto pointed to the new- made mound. | ‘Tt is well! He has made a long journey, Bud as wt rest!” wail che sum. enburlyy mete EE ee pu eee —_— -—— — looked at the grave of his father. Then, turning to his mother, he said; * We are hun- gry—get us food!” “Why is that pale-face here?” asked Dya- getto, without heeding his demand. “ Because I, Thayendanegea, chose to bring her! I am not used to answer questions, but to ask them!” he replied, hanghtily ; then, he added: “ You are my mother—I will say no more !”” “In she your wife?” asked Dyagetto. “No—here is my wife!” thundered the War-Eagle, touching his rifle. “ Will you get us food, or shall I seek it elaewhere ?” “Twill get it!” said Dyagetto, now in a moment as calm in comparison as she before had been angry. Thayendanegea said no more to her, but, poms to a couch of skins, said to poor athleen, who, pale and tearful, had stood terrified before the wigwam : ‘You are tired—go rest!” ‘Then, without so much as casting a glance at [ona, who, still asa statue, had been watch- ing this scene, he seated himself upon the ground, and, with bis rifle across pe lap, waited for the coming repast. The Indian girl still stood and looked upon him, as if her eyes were riveted there by some magic spell. Her bosom rose and fell, but her breath seemed almost to sleep below her lips; at last, however, a heavy sigh came from her bosom—she turned away, and, with noiseless pn passed out of sight, among the shadowy cedars. The food—savory fish from the stream be- low, meat and bread from pounded corn— was soon ready, and placed before Kathleen and Thayendanegea, and Dyagetio watched by them in silence while they ate. CHAPTER XXXVI. After Thayendanegea and Kathleen had anished, Dvagetto arose from her sitting pos- sure near them, and then, for the first time, seemed tw notice the absence of Iona. “Where is Iona?” she asked, as if she thought that Thayendanegea knew her. “ ) Bi ! 1 know her not!” said the chief. “Was she not the lovely Indian maiden whom I saw when we came here?” aeked Kathleen, timidly, of Dyagetto. ‘Yes. I will go seek her,” said Dyagetto, speaking more kindly, wom x for the uncon scious compliment paid to her favorite by the poor girl. The woman departed, taking the path which Iona had chosen. She soon returned with the Indian maiden, whose eyes indicated. by their looks that she, proud as she was, had been his “ This is Yona, the daughter of a chief of the Seneeas, who fell in battle by the side of the brave Hendrick!” said Dyagetto, aa she proudly led her protegee forward. “ And,” she added, “ I have taken her as my daughter, for I have lost Onalova, who chose a pale- face, and took herself out from her mother’s heart!” And Dyagetto, as she uttered these words, 80 full of meaning, looked at Thayendanegea, to see the effect of them. | But his eyes were fixed upon Jona, who stood with eyes downcast before him. “ She is too big for a woman—she should have been a warrior, like her father!” said Thayendanegea. “Tf I am a woman, I have a warrior’s heart in my bosom!" said Iona, and now her raised eyes flashed back a light as pread as that of his own. “Good! Youshall be my sister, like this r lily of the pale-faces, whom I found far rom the wigwains of her friends, and have taken to be my sister!” said Thayendanecea, and he took Kathleen by the hand and led her forward. “ Be sisters,” he added, “and I will see that neither of you go hungry or meet with harm !” Iona drew u beughs , and would have refused the y hand of KathJeen, had she not caught the warning look of the craft Dyagetto, which told her not to do so, an she took it, and said: . “What the great War-Eagle of the Mo- hawks speaks must. be good. I will be his sister, and, for Ais sake, will try to love the lily of the pale-faces !” . “1 am far from all other sistera, and will love yon very dearly!" aid Katileen, as ake the Scourge. 21 took the hand of Iona; but she almost shud- dered at its icy coldness. Dyagetto, who seemed to wish to avoid @ formal recognition of Kathleen as a daughter in the Indian form, now found sudden occasion to busy herself elsewhere. Thayendanegea, now leaving the two maid- ens together, went to converse with his mo- ther. “The War-Eagle is a great. brave!” said Iona, looking Kathleen keenly in the face, for she meant then and there to search the, maid- en's heart. “ Yes,” said Kathleen, with a sigh. * flas my sister known him long?” con anued [ona. - eee * Oh, yes, ong—for years!" sai : leen, culgntiven “He lived in my father's house, and once he saved my life!” “Then my sister loves the War-Eagle ?” “Why should I not? He is good, he is brave, and I owe him a life!’ continued Kath- leen, artlessly. “And does the War-Eagle love the lily of the pale-faces in return ?” continued the artful oross-questioner, now preserving a calmness almost unnatural to one of her passionate nature. * Alas! no—he has no love but for war!” sighed poor Kathleen. * Why, then, did my sister leave the o wam of her friends to seek the War-Kagle ?” “T could not live away from him!” said Kathleen; while a tear stole down her pale cheek. “I came weary miles to seek him, and now he leaves me again to go to the bat- tle-field !’’ ‘Then my sister will stay here with us until he returns ?” * Yes—he so wills it! I prayed him to let me live near him in the camp, but he would “ge let me. I am to stay here !" sighed Kath- en, “My heart is glad to hear your words, You shall be taken good care of!” said Tona Had Kathleen's eyes been keenly looking ir those of Iona then, she would have shuddered at their expression, But she was looking to ward the spot where Thayendanegea was talk ing with his mother, and only replied: “T will be of no trouble to you, and wil: to make you and his mother love me very much !”’ The return of Thayendanegea with his mo- ther putan end to this conversation, Taking up his rifle, the chief said : “T must now go baek to my men for a battle is at and. No one will harm you here, and you w./l not be hungry, for vou have stores, and my hunters are vear. The signal of my mother will call help when it is needed.” Without another word of farewell, he moved away and descended the hill, Tears rolled down the cheeks of Kathleen, as she watched him spring into his canoe and go’ up the river; but Iona, who stood calmly by her side, only said : “He is a great brave—he is my dream! We meet soon again!” What a difference of character, what a differ- ence in the expression of the feelings of each ; yet both felt the same passion—that passion, which, with its opposite, Hate, rules the world woe yi 8 bag ak ' other picture. It is a murky mo n August. The air is close, and ihre wilting on branch and stem. Who do we see thering in almost utter silence in thes dark orest, which borders, wivh its semi-ecirculas hedge, a road passing through a deep ravine —a road causewayed over 4 swam road narrow, and darkened by the shadows of the forest on either hand ? Stealing on in silence, one by one, the red men come, those who know no leadership but him with the eagle plume, the tall, stern chief who points to every man his station, but utters not a word—the dreaded hatomiee of the Mohawks. He has come from the siege of Fort Schuy- ler, to intercept his old friend and nei hbor, the gallant Herkimer, who,with the brave boys of Tryon county, is hastening to the relief ‘of Colonel Gansevoort, in the for who is environ- ed by the tory “Greens” of Sir Jolin Johnson, — the mercenaries of Barry St. Le of the savage allies of merciful Ki t Behind each d tree-trunk they stand ; they crouch beneath every bush; they lay be hind every rook; yet all w done thout a word, all still as soon will be those who are { coin (e adie th _— 4 .