Lazarre by Mary Hartwell Catherwood
page 32 of 444 (07%)
page 32 of 444 (07%)
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put out of countenance by my behavior, and the stubbornness of the
chief, looked ready to lay his hand upon his mouth in sign of being confounded before white men; for his learning had altered none of his inherited instincts. But as for me, I was as De Chaumont had said, Chief Williams' boy, faint from blood letting and twenty-four hours' fasting; and the father's command reminded me of the mother's dinner pot. I stood up erect and drew the flowered silk robe around me. It would have been easier to walk on burning coals, but I felt obliged to return the book to Madame de Ferrier. She would not take it. I closed her grasp upon it, and stooping, saluted her hand with courtesy as De Chaumont had done. If he had roared I must have done this devoir. But all he did was to widen his eyes and strike his leg with his riding whip. My father and I seldom talked. An Indian boy who lives in water and forest all summer and on snowshoes all winter, finds talk enough in the natural world without falling back upon his family. Dignified manners were not lacking among my elders, but speech had seemed of little account to me before this day. The chief paddled and I sat naked in our canoe;--for we left the flowered robe with a horse-boy at the stables;--the sun warm upon my skin, the lake's blue glamour affecting me like enchantment. Neither love nor aversion was associated with my father. I took my head between my hands and tried to remember a face that was associated with aversion. "Father," I inquired, "was anybody ever very cruel to me?" |
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