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FREE ONCE MORE. 61
‘* Malaeska !?
Hlis voice was softened, his lips quivered as the name once so sweet
to his heart passed through them,
‘* Malaeska, the river is broad and'deep. The keel of your boat
leaves no track. Go! the Great Spirit will light you with his stars.
Here is corn’and dried venison. Go in peace !? .
She looked at him with her wild tender eyes ; her lips began to
tremble, her heart swelled with gentle sweetness, which was the grace
of her civilization. She took the red hand of the savage and kissed
- it reverently.
' ; Farewell,”’ she said ; ‘* Malacska has no words ; her heart is
u 2? .
hi The savage began to tremble ; a glow of the old passion came over
im.
; “*Malaeska, my wigwam is empty ; will you go back ? It is my
right to save or kill.”? Sc .
Malaeska pointed upward to the sky.
“* He is yonder, in the great hunting-ground, waiting for Malaeska
to come. Could she go blushing from another chief’s wigwam ?”’
For one instant those savage features were convulsed ; then they
settled down into the cold gravity of his former expression, and he
pointed to the boat, =. ©
She went down to the edge of. the water, while he took the blanket
from his shoulders and placed it into the boat. . Then he pushed the
little craft from its mooring, and motioned. her to jump in ; he for-
bore to touch her hand, or.even look on her face, but saw her take
up the oars and leaye the shore without a word ;~but when she was
~_ out of sight, his head fell forward on his bosom, and he gradually
sank to an attitude of profound grief. .
_ While he sat upon a fragment of rock, with a rich sunsct crimson-
ing the water at his fect, a canoe came down the river, urged by a
white man, the only one who ever visited his tribe. This man was
a missionary among the Indians, who held him in reverence as a
Great medicine chief, whose power of good was something to marvel
at. sO
The chief beckoned to the missionary, who seemed in haste, but
he drew near the shore. In a few brief but eloquent words the war-
rior spoke of Malaeska, of the terrible fate from which she had just
been rescued, and of the forlorn life to which she must henceforth be
consigned. There was something grand in this compassion that
touched a thousand generous impulsésin the missionary’s heart. He
Was on his course down the river—for his duties lay with the
Indians of many tribes —so he promised to overtake the lonely wo-
" man, tocomfort and protect her from harm till she reached some set-
tlement,
The good man kept his word. An hour after his canoe was attach-
ed to Malaeska’s little craft by its slender cable, and he was conversing
kindly with her of-those things that interested his pure nature most.