Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-10-20

| among my elders, but speech nau seemed
of little account to me before this day.
The chief padded ard l sat naked in
our canoe; for we left the lowered robe
with a horse-boy at the stables-the sun
warm upon my skin, the lakes blue CLAM
! or affecting me like enchantment
I Neither love nor aversion was associat-'
ed with my father. I took my head be-
tween my hands and triec to remember
face that was associated with aver
| sion.
Father" I inquired. was anybody
ever very cruel to me?'
He looked startled, but spoke harshly.
What have you got in your head?
These white people have been making
fool of you"
remembered before. l am different. l
was a child; but today manhood has come.
Father, what is a uauphin?'
The chief made no answer.
What is a temple? Is it a church, like
ours at st. Regis?''
ASK the priest"
do you know what Bourbon is, faith
er-particularly a Bourbon carp
Nothing that concerns YOU.
But how could 1 have a Bourbon ear
If it didn't concern me?"~
who said you had such an carp
Madame de Ferrier."
The chief grunted...
AT least she told De Chaumont," re-
peated exactly. II was the boy she saw
I'm London, that her father said had all
the traits of the Bourbons. Where is
London?"
The chief padded without replying.
Finding him so ignorant on all points of
the conversation, or so determined to put
me down, 1 gazed awhile at our shadow
gliding in the water, and then began
again.
Father. do you happen to know who
Bonaparte lisp
This time he answered.
i'tBonaparte is a great soldier"
lis he white man or an Indian?
HE is a Frenchman."
1 meditated on the Frenchmen I dimly
remembered about st. Regis. They were
understood fellows. very apt to weep when
their emotions were stirred could whip
them ALL
did he ever come to st. Regis?"
The chief again grunted.
docs France come to st. Regis?" he
retorted with an impatient question.
what is France, father?"
"A country"
"Shall we ever go there to hunt?"
"Shall we ever go the other side OF the
sunrise to hunt? France is the other side
of the sunrise. Talk to. the squaws."
Though rebuked, 1 determined to do 1t
II any information could be got out of
them. The desire TO know things was
consuming. had the belated feeling or
one who walked to consciousness late In
life and found the world had run away
from him. The camp seemed strange,
as If l had been gone many years, but
every object was so wonderfully distinct.
Ny mother Marianne fed me, and when
1 lay down dizzy--in the bunk, covered
me. The family must have thought it
was natural sleep. But it was a fainting
collapse, which took me more than once
afterwards as a blow on the head, when
my faculties werelnlost needed. Whether
this was caused by the plunge upon the
rock or the dim life from which 1 had
emerged, do not know One moment
1 saw the children, and mothers from the
neighboring lodges more interested than
my own mother; our smoky rafters, and
the fire pit. in thes fcenter of unfloored
ground; my clothes hanging over the
bunk, and even a. dog with his nose in
the kettle And then, as ii had been the
night before walked after many hours
BY that time the family breathing saw
ed the air within the walls, and fine
starlight showed through the open door,
for we had no window. Outside the oak
trees were pattering their leaves like rain,
reminding me of our cool spring in the
woods. My bandaged head was very hot
in that dark lair OF animals where the
lOB DuLhS SlEClCACO anu aACCPCAAC0 ShoN-
ow. s,s
If Shenedonk had been there would
have asked him to bring me water with
confidence In his natural service. The
chiefs family vas a -arge one, but not
one OF my brothers and sisters seemed
as near to me as Shenedonk. The apathy
of fraternal attachment never caused me
any pain. The whole tribe was held dear.
I stripped off Doctor CrGntry's unen-
durable bandages and put on my clothes
for there were brambles along the path.
The lodges and the dogs we're still, and
crept like a hunter after game, to avoid
waking them. our village was an irreg-
ular camp each house standing where
its owner had pleased % build it on the
lake shore Behind IT the blackness of
wooded wilderness seemed to stretc.I to
the end of the world.
The spring made distinct tinkle in the
rush of low SCUM through the forest. A
rank night sweetness of minis and other
lush plants mixed it's spirit with the body
of leaf earth. / felt happy in being a
part OF all Ini3, and the woods were to
me as safe - the bed-chamber of
mother II was to wallow, damming the
span OF escaping wafer with ny fevered
head. Physical relief and delicious shud-
dering coolnes ran through me.
From that wet pillow 1 looked up and
thought again of what had happened that
day, and particularly of the girl whom De
Chaumont had called Madame de Ferrie
and Eagle. Every word that she had
spoken passed again before my mind.
Possibilities that l had never imagined
rayed out from my recumbent body as
from the hub of a vast wheel. / was
white. l was not an Indian. 1 had
Bourbon car. She believed 1 was a dau-
phin. What was a dauphin, that she
should make such deep obeisance to it?
My father the chief. recommending me to
the squaws, had appeared to know moth
ing about 1t.
All that 9he believed De Chaumont de-
MED The rich book which stirred such
torment in me-''you know it was his
mother'sr' she Saddle Chaumont thought
/ merely coveted. / can see now that the
crude half-savage boy wallowing in the
spring stream, set that woman as high
as the highest star above his head. and
made her the hope and symbol of his posi-
sole best.
A woman's long cry, like the appeal of
that one on whom he mediated, echoed
through the woods and startled him out
of his wallow.
III.
1 sat up with the water trickling down
my back
The cry was repeated out of the west.
l knew the woods, but night alters the