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inching PEE eS
.to the summer wind, was thri
‘by the sunlight to a thousa
-bright spring gushed from a swell of
-the inclogure, and the whole: surfa
down from the mountains to feed on its
glowed like the w
like the gush of waters leaping from their fount.
e too bad,’? muttered the. Englishman, fingering»
his gun-lock.
12 MALAESKA. :
‘morning. It -presented a lovely contrast to the dense wilderness
from which the hunters emerged, and they halted for a momcnt bes
- neath the boughs of a tall hickory to enjoy its delicious freshness.
‘The surface of the inclosure was not exactly level, but down the
' whole length it curved gently up frem the middle, on either side, to
the magnificent trees that hedged it in with a bes#@iful and leafy
-vampart, ‘The margin was irregular; here’ and’ there a clump of
trees shot down into the inclosure, and the clearing oocasicnally Ya
up into the forest in tiny glades and little grassy nooks, in whi
the sunlight slumbered like smiles on the face of 2 dreaming infant. —
On every side the trunks of huge trees shot up along the margin
beneath their magnificent canopy of leaves, like the ivied columns
of a’ruin, or fell back in the misty perspective of the forest, scarcely
discernible in its gloom of shadow. The heavy piles of foliage,
which fell amid: the boughs like a wealth of: drapery flung in masses
August. No s
pirit of decay had as yet shed a gorgeous breath
over its deep,
rich green, but all was wet with dew, and kindled up
nd varying tints of the same color. A
ground in the upper: part of
ce of the beautiful spot was cov-
ered with a vigorous growth of tall meadow-grass, which rose thick-
er and brighter: and of a more delicate green down the middle,
where the spring curved onward in a graceful rivulet, musical as
the laugh of a child.
As if called to life by the chime of a little
‘brook, a host of white wild flowers unfolded ‘the
along the margin,
and clumps of swamp lilies
along the grass. . ie : a!
Until that day, our hunters had ever found «« the Straka” silent
and untenanted, save by singing-birds, and wild deer which came
rich verdure; but now a doz-
en wreaths of smoke curled up from t
he trees at the northern ex-
teemity, and a camp of -newly-erected “Wigwams ight be seen
through a vista in the wood. One or two were built éven on the
edge of the clearing;. the grass was much trampled around them,
and ‘three or four half-naked Indian children lay rolling upon it,
laughing, shouting, and flinging up their limbs in the pleasant
morning air... One young Indian woman was also frolicking among
them, tossing an infant in her arms, caroling and playing with it.
Her laugh was musical as a bird song, and as she darted to and fro,
now into the forest and then out into the sunshine, her long hair
ing of a raven, ‘and her motion was graceful as an
_ ‘They could sce that the child, too, was very beau-
om the distance at which they stood, and occasionally,
swept toward them, his shout came ringing upon it
shed an azure hue
untamed gazelle.
tiful, even fr
as the wind
“© This is a littl
“Can they find no spot to burrow in but the
fty and ripe with the warm breath of -
ir starry blossoms:
f