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34 : MALAESKA.
s
shady nook by the river side, while the canoe swung at its mooring,
and her child played on the fresh grass, shouting at the cloud of
summer ‘insects that flashed by, and clapping his tiny hands at the
humming-birds that came to rifle hohéy from the flowers that sur-
rounded him. . ae
- ‘fhe voyage was one of strange happiness to the widowed Indian.
Never did Christian believe in the pages of Divine Writ with more
of trust, than she placed in the dying promise of her husband, that
she should meet him again in another world. His spirit seemed for- *
ever about her, and to her wild, free imagination, the passage down
the magnificent stream sceméd a material and glorious path to the
white man’s heaven. Filled with strange, swect thoughts, she
looked abroad on the mountains looming up from the banks of the
river —on the forest-trees so various in their tints and so-richly
clothed, till she was inspired almost to forgetfulness of her affliction.
She was young and healthy, and everything about her was so lovely,
so grand and changing, that her heart expanded to the sunshine like
a flower which has been bowed down, but not crushed bencath.the
foree of astorm. Part of each day she spent in a_wild, dreamy
state of imagination. Jer mind was lulled to sweet musings by the
gentle sounds that hovered in the air from morning till evening, and
through the long night, when all was hushed save the deep flow of
the river. Birds came out with their cheerful. voices at dawn, and
at midday she floated in the cool shadow of the hills, or shot into
some cove for a few hours’ rest. When the sunset shed its gorgeous
dyes over the river —and the mountain ramparts, on either side,
were crimson as with the track of contending armies— when the
boy was asleep, and the silent stars came out to kindle up her night
path, then a clear, bold melody gushed from the mother’s lips like a
song from the heart of a nightingale.. Her eye kindled, her cheek
grew warm, the dip of her paddle kept a liquid accompaniment to
her rich, wild voice, as the canoe floated downward on waves that.
seemed rippling over a world of crushed blossoms, and were misty
_ with the approach of evening.
Malaeska had been out many days, when the sharp gables and_the
_ tall chimneys of Manhattan broke upon her view, surrounded’ by
the sheen of its broad bay, and by the forest whiclt covered the un-
inhabited part of the island. The poor Indian gazed upon it with an
unstable but troublesome fear. She urged her canoe into a little
cove on the Hoboken shore, and her heart grew heavy as the grave,
as she pondered on the means of fulfilling her charge. She took the
letter from her bosom; the tears started to her eyes, and she kissed
- it with a regretful sorrow, as if a friend were about to be rendered
up from her affections forever. ‘She took the child to her heart, and
held him there till its throbbings grew audible, and the strength of
her misgivings could not be restrained. _After a time she became
more calm. She lifted the child from her bosom, Javed his hands
ond face in the stream, and brushed his black hair with her palm
a”
Clee we
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