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TIRED OF THE Woops. 49
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and knecling down before him, kissed his fect, his hanJs, and the
folds of his tunic, smoothing his hair and his garments wih yataetioc
fondness, :
‘When shall we go home, Malaeska?’? cried the la, o little anx-
ionsly. ** Grandfather will want us? — ;
**‘fhis is the home for.a young chief,” replied the mother, locking
Around upon the pleasant sky and the forest-turf, enameled with
wild-flowers. ‘* What white man has a tent like this?’
The boy looked up and saw a world of golden tulip-blossoms: star-
4 ving the branches above him. :
“It lets in the cold and the rain,’? he said, shaking the dew from
his glossy hair. ‘*I don’t like the woods, Malaeska.?? c
** But you will—oh yes, you will,’? answered the mother, with ND
anxious cheerfulness; ‘* sce, I have shot a bird for your breakfast.”’
** A bird; and I am so hungry.” x
** And see here, what I have brought from the shore.”?
She took a little leaf-basket from a recess in the rocks, and held it
up full of black raspberries with the dew glittering upon them. -
The boy clapped his hands, laughing merrily.
**Give me the raspberries —I will eat them all. Grandfather
isn’t here to stop me, so I will eat and eat till the basket is empty.
After all, Malacska, it is pleasant being in the woods — come, pour
Y the berries on the moss, just here, and get another basketful while I
eat. these; but don’t go far—Iam afraid when you are out of sight.
‘No, no, let me build the fire — see how I can make the sparks fly.”?
Down he came from the rock, forgetting his berries, and eager to
distinguish himself among the brushwood, while Malaeska withdrew
a little distance and prepared her game for roasting...
The boy was quick and full of intelligence; he had a fire blazing
at once, and shouted ‘back a challenge to the birds as its flames rose
in the air, sending up wreaths of delicate blue smoke into the pop-
lar branches, and curtaining the rocks with mist. |
Directly the Indian woman came forward with her game, nicely -
~ dressed and pierced with a wooden skewer; to this she attached a
- piece of twine, which, being ticd to a branch overhead, swung its
‘burden to and fro before the fire. :
While this rustic breakfast was in preparation, the boy went off in
search of flowers or berries —any thing that he could find. He
came back with a quantity of green wild cherries in his tunic, and
a bird’s nest, with three speckled eggs in it, which he had found un-
‘der a tuft of fern leaves. ‘A striped squirrel, that ran down a
chestnut-limb, looked at him with such quecr earnestness, that he
shouted lustily to Malacska, saying that he loved the beautiful woods .
and all the pretty things init. |
When he came back, Malaeska had thrown off her cloak, and
crowned herself with a coronal of scarlet and green feathers, which
rendered her savage dress complete, and made her an object of won-
dering admiration to the boy, as she moved in and out through the
trees, with her face all aglow with proud love. .