FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58  
59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   >>   >|  
at the wigwam. He appeared to be impressed by some invisible and irresistible power to return at once to the sad camping ground. "Me: Paul!" he said to Margaret, "cannot stay long away from camp and my mother's grave." "Happy mother must be in the woods near wigwam." As far as Mrs. Godfrey could learn from the lone Indian his thoughts were something like the following:-- All the birds that used to sing so sweetly around the little birchen home and gaily fluttered from branch to branch, seemed to sit quietly and pour out their songs in mornful strains, and all about the spot the wind appeared to whistle a requiem for the departed squaw. And in the long and quiet hours of the darkness, he felt certain that old Mag's spirit left the woods, and in never ceasing motion kept watch about the camp, and at regular intervals would pass within and kiss him when asleep. The Indian from his habits of life, skimming in his canoe over the lonely and wooded river, or skipping from rock to rock on the lonely mountain side; in tracing the border of the roaring cataract, in pitching his tent along the edge of the flowing river or the sleeping lake; out on the prairie or in the midst of the dense forest; among the trees on the ocean shore, is most deeply impressed with the belief that the Great Chief is watching his actions from behind trees, out of the surface of the waters, from the tops of the mountains, and out of the bosom of the prairie. He thinks that the lightning is His spear, and the thunder His voice. He feels that a terrible something is all around him, and when death calls any of his tribe away supreme superstition takes firm hold of his very existence. "Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind." The poet, and the highly imaginative person, the wise and the good, seek the hills and the valleys, the dashing cataract, the forest and stream, the mountain range, the rocky coast and roaring ocean, and there drink in the grandeur of creation in those sublime scenes. In such places they feel a nearness to the Creator, and view His power and handiwork in a measure not always attainable in the ordinary scenes of everyday life. Such persons admire with reverential awe the greatness of God and feel His love. The Indian, in superstitious dread, lives in ignorance of His greatness, His ways and His love. Paul Guidon visited the sloop the next morning, and Captain Godf
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58  
59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Indian

 

branch

 

mountain

 

scenes

 

greatness

 

lonely

 

roaring

 

cataract

 

forest

 
prairie

appeared
 

impressed

 

mother

 
wigwam
 

existence

 

watching

 
belief
 

clouds

 
highly
 

untutored


invisible
 

superstition

 

surface

 

thunder

 

lightning

 

thinks

 

waters

 

actions

 

supreme

 

imaginative


terrible

 

mountains

 

persons

 
admire
 

reverential

 

everyday

 

ordinary

 
measure
 

attainable

 
superstitious

morning
 
Captain
 

visited

 

ignorance

 

Guidon

 

handiwork

 

stream

 

dashing

 
valleys
 

deeply