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38 MALAESKA.
man’s face, a smile broke through them, and the little fellow lifted
both his arms and clasped them oyer the bowed neck of his grand-
father. There was a momentary struggle, and then the merchant
folded the boy to his heart with a burst of strong feeling such as his
iron nature had seldom known.
** He is like his father. Let the woman go back to her tribe; we
will keep the boy.’
Malaeska sprang forward, clasped her hands, and turned with an
air of wild, heart-thrilling appeal to the lady.
**You will not send Malaeska from her child. No— no, white
woman, . Your boy has slept against your heart, and you have felt
his voice in your ear, like the song of a young mocking-bird. You
would not send the poor Indian back to the woods without her child.
She has come to you froth the forest, that she may learn the path to
the white man’s heaven, and sce her husband again, and you will
not show it her. Give the Indian woman her boy; her heart is-
growing very strong; she will not go back to the woods alone !’?_
As she spoke these words, with an air more energetic even than
her speech, she snatched the child from his grandfather’s arms, and
stood like a lioness guarding her young, her lips writhing and her
“black eyes flashing fire, for the savage blood kindled in her veins at
the thought of being separated from her son.
“Be quict, girl, be quiet. If you go, the child shall go with
you,”’ said the gentle Mrs.Danforth. ** Do not give way to this
fiery spirit; no one will wrong you.”?
Malaeska dropped her air of defiance, and placing the child hum-
bly at his grandfather’s feet, drew back, and - stood with her eyes
cast down, and her hands clasped deprecatingly together, a posture
of supplication in strong contrast with her late wild demeanor.
‘Let them stay. Do not separate the mother and the child {”?
entreated the kind lady, anxious to soothe away the effect of her hus-
band’s violence. ‘* ‘the thoughts of a separation drives her wild,
poor thing. He loved her;—why should we send her back to her
savage haunts? Read this letter once more, my husband... You can
4
-not refuse the dying request of our first-born.??
With gentle and persuasive words like these, the kind lady pre-
vailed. _Malaeska was allowed to remain in the houce of her hus-
band’s father,-but it was. only as.the nurse of her own gon. ° She
-was not permitted to acknowledge herself as his mother; and it was
given out that young Danforth had married in one of the new settle
ments—that the young couple had fallea victims to the savages,
and that their infant son had been rescued by an Indian girl, who
brought him to his grandfather. The story easily’ gained credit,
and it was no matter of wonder that the old fur merchant soon be-.
came fondly attached to the little orphan, or that the preserver of
his grandchild was made an object of grateful attention in his house-
hold. oe oy