Page 183 (1/1)
When the dawn broke, it found us traveling through a narrow valley, beside a strearew trees of extraordinary height and girth; cypress and oak and walnut, they towered into the air, their topainst the roseate heavens Below that iron tracery glowed the firebrands of the reen cloud above the stream Mist closed the distances; we could hear, but not see, the deer where they stood to drink in the shallow places, or couched in the gray and dreamlike recesses of the forest
Spectral, unreal, and hollow seems the world at dawn Then, if ever, the heart sickens and the will flags, and life becoh thethat bound e who stalked beforehow stale and unprofitable were all things under the sun
Diccon, walking behinddoith him the Indian to whoravated by the jeers hich his fellows greeted his e turned upon his prisoner and would have stuck a knife into him, bound and helpless as he was, had not the ance interfered The momentary altercation over, and the knife restored to its owner's belt, the Indians relapsed into their usualsilence, and the sullen march was resumed Presently the stream made a sharp bend across our path, and we forded it as best we ht It ran dark and swift, and the water was of icy coldness Beyond, the woods had been burnt, the trees rising frohostlike mist between We left this dis well apart, and with the earth below carpeted with moss and early wild flowers The sun rose, the mist vanished, and there set in the March day of keen wind and brilliant sunshine
Farther on, an Indian bent his bow against a bear shalade The arrow did its errand, and where the creature fell, there we sat down and feasted beside a fire kindled by rubbing two sticks together According to their wont the Indians ate ravenously, and when theinto the air, as thank-offering to Kiwassa, a pinch of tobacco They all stared at the fire around which we sat, and the silence was unbroken One by one, as the pipes were smoked, they laid themselves down upon the brown leaves and went to sleep, only our two guardians and a third Indian over against us re wide-eyed and watchful