The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-09-09
WASHINGTON, D. c.
ICopvright secured according to lat1l
For the National Era
HERMAN;
OR,
yeuNe KNIGHT HOOD. Il
BY 4. FoxToN,
Asithor Of" Premices."
CHAPTER VTII-Continued.


CHAPTER VIII-Coniinued.
II was not the most prudent pastime in the
world; for the plains were riddled everywhere
with the burrows of the prairie.dogs and their
tenants, the rsttle-snakes. Let Little Manitou
once put her little hoof into one of these pit
fills, and down she must 60, with broken leg,
and Mr.. Herman Arden with broken neck, or
if with any slightsr injury, to receive his quie-
tus at the hands he hoofs and horns) of some
attentive and considerable old buffalo. But boys
will be boys; (oh, that they would never be any.
thing worse y and there are two merciful pro-
Visions Of fate with regard to them: one, that
their mothers and sisters can't see all they do !;
and another. that a man laboring under the in.
toxication of youth is like man intoxicated
with Equor-it often takes an uncommon deal
TO kill him. AS for Little Manitou herself, she
liked the fun so well-so much better than life
Judging from the indiscreet and altogether head
strong and headlong manner in which she con.
Quoted herself, that Herman had no scruples
about the humanity of it on her account His
own danger, boy-like, he hardly happened to
recognise. He was sorry for the buffsloes; but
il was consolation to him, and let us hope to
them, to re ect that he never shot any of them,
except when his larder was positively in want
Of beef, and that, as they were doomed to be
hunted at any rate, it could make very little
difference to them whether twenty nine horse
men only we're at their heels, or thirty.
Next best to hunting them, he loved to creep
on his hands and knees among them, when they
fed or lay upon the grass, with their huge, grim
strength mild and at rest, to lie and muse, and
try to forget, in fantastic sympathy with them,
that he had ever known, any more than they, q
regret for the past or an anxiety for the future;
TILL all at once, some unwieldy monster of them
would roll over, toss his hoofs in the air, rub
aud scrspe his leathery back on the sharp stones,
in rapture of uncouth comfort, and then
scrambing up upon his fore legs, and squattipg
on his launches like dog, with his name full
of dust over his browsy forehead, would fix on
bic vister look Of grave, grotesque, compls.
cent inquiry, like an old fop powdering himself,
turning round, and saying, "What do you think
of me now?"
In fact, revealing, as Herman did, like q
genuine lover of nature, in the contemplation
of the harmless, amusing animal life-so in
keeping with the whole scene-sbout him, the
wsnton destruction of it was grievance to
him. 1t was not merely that the Indian pstri-
archs killed rather more beasts and birds than
they wanted for food, dress, and shelter nor
that tl.oi. nauga,y l;..Io beyS we.o, mor n;ns,
noon, and night, straying with their miniature
bows and spears over the plains, and piercing,
pricking, cutting, and crushing every hapless
little creature they could find harmless enough
t. be tortured with impunity, while their pa.
rents admired their exploits, as cat does those
Of her kitten, mumbling, scratching, growing,
AID nosing over its frat mouse. Even the, in
all other respects, best.behsved of the white men
with whom, from time to time, he fell in on the
prsiries, seemed inspired, in the view of the
sublimity and beauty around them, only with
the enthusiasm of the veteran butcher, who 10
reported to have held the following colloquy
with certain appreciative matron:
Miss So-and-so, what splendid night twas,
night afore last Dye mind?"
81 remember, General Beisket, it was a re.
markably beautiful night"
"Oh, twas real heavenly. l see the moon
shine into the winder o one side an out O. the
looking glass O. tother, an I laid an laid, an
tumbled Nm tossed, and at last says i, Miss
Brisket,' says 1, Il can't stand this here no
longer says 1, shall have to get right up,
an go to slarterin.'"
But the chief offender in this slaughter of the
nuocents was Hermsns self constituted partic.
ulsr friend and squire, Whattsraskle, the Good.
Woman's very bad boy. He was an incorrigi.
bic, Or at any rate, uncorrected little varlet of
htteen-handsome, slender, light, and feet as
the celebrated Mercury, blown up bya Zephyr
lie was to the full as lghtfngered and mis-.
chievous as any Mercury whatsoever could be,
and was blown up, so to speak, by everybody,
excepting his mamma, whose credit alone saved
him from wellmerited chsstisement at every
turn
Weahwsshtay regarded him as great medi.
eine,' which he certainly was, if being dose
could make him 30, and would neither punish
him herself nor let any one else; for, on one &C.
easion, when he, an imp of Eve or six years DID,
was alone with her on the prairie, they were
pursued by the Demon of Fire, who probably
wanted to claim his own. Whattaraskle, at the
same time, was pursuing a butterfly, to the right
and left, and forward and backward. Every
time his anxious parent caught him to carry
him off, he kicked and thumped her, and stead.
hy retarded her progress by this ingenious
method, till she set him down again, which she
was at last compelled to do once for ALL not
merely BY physical anguish, but by the hot ap.
PrOach and breath of the rushing flames, and
the recollection of the poor little yearling pa.
poose, who must already be wriggling and cry.
ing Tor her, in its furry cradle ct home. With
TIE tenderness of q lioness, and the presence OF
mind OF princess, she therefore knocked her
offspring down, set her well.knit knee on his
shoulders, tied his feet with one of her flying
iocSs' which she twitched ont BY the roots for
'ne purpose, threw on the ground her mantle
VI ouhalo-skin, rolled him over and over in it,
win the brown outside outwards, till he looked
IKE eAdr'edOnier, II spell it by earl dsrted
On' unencumbered, with the foot of an antelope,
se' none too feety, for her life, and left him to
aAe nls eaance. When the fire had burned
",en 70 death, the young chief was found, sound
''ieep and quite unframed, in the singed hide,
W ~. 'ne only green spot in the black prairie.
us escape was looked upon as miraculous.
Ne sooH a great fancy, not altogether recip.
OeA'ea, to Herman, from the time he first
=. .a''ea his chocolate and biscuits lay across
."e opening OF his tent watched all his move
1-euV' Jumped up and ran after him when he