The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1915-02-12
RonanceVe rsus
Matter of T act
By OSCAR cox

Hudson bay who has never been out
of her native woods. She speaks poet
ically, as All aborignes do. Her yO-
cabulary is small, but she makes up
for the deficiency of words in i'm
agery. One summer Miss Susan Jones,
matter of fact young woman as
ever trod the soil, took it into her head
to spend her vacation in upper Canada.
These two met in the Indian girls
home on the banks of the Little Whale
river. Miss Jones said she had heard
much of Indian legends and asked
| didn't get the girls name; Miss Jones
said it was Minne-SOmething-or-O
to tell her one Thereupon the Indian
told the following story:
"Abasca was the daughter of Il great
chief. who lived long, long ago when
the first white man came to this coun
| try. She had never seen any man ex
cept a.
Indian suggested Miss Jones.
"She had only seen the dusky men
! of the forest like herself. The first
| man to come was tall as the young
! pine, straight as the arrow and his.
| eye was that of the eagle. Abasca
saw him, and her heart flew to him
like the bird"
"a case of love at first sight, you
meanT'
"Abasca was loved by Stormwind,
the son of chief. Stormwind was
brave as the water that leaps from the
| rock. and his arrow could pierce the
| leaf that trembleS at the top of the
tree
"A regular William Tell" Miss Jones
interrupted.
''He had not the heart to give way
to another He was not born to know
that to love Abasca truly he should
| give her to the man she loved. The
| white man might do that, not the In
dian. Stormwind learned that she had
given her heart to the white man, and
he resolved that the white man should
die.
"Stormwind made this VOW at the
season when in this country the lamp
never goes out at night"
did they use kerosene or oil?"
"For the winter had passed when
the sun at midday is small and cold in
the south The white man was in the
wood where he hunted the fox and
the mink and the otter. Stormwind
followed the trail and came to his
| enemy when the sun stood high above
their heads.
"'Trapper.' said Stormwind.'
what funny name! | like Storm
wind much better"
1.-The white man may come; the
white man may hunt the fox and the
mink and the otter; he may ride in his
boat over the waves of the great bay.
but he shall not take the maiden from
the Indian
when he said this Stormwind fitted
an arrow to his bow. It may be he
had never seen the white mans rifle;
it may be he had never seen the white
man raise the rifle quickly to his Shout
der and the deer far away drop dead.
Before he had fitted his arrow to his
bow and pointed it at his enemy the
white mans eye ran along the barrel
of his weapon"
''Trapper had the drop on him, hadn't
ne? How thrilling! Go on
'Stormwind,' he said. put back
your arrow into your CULVER before
send the lead into your heart. Abasca
is yours. do not wed here in the for
est. The white man loves the white
| AZ
From the woods came a piercing
shrek The white man lowered his
rifle and the red man his bow. 1t was
a woman's voice they heard. From a
cliff near by it came again. fainter
but more despairing than before. 1t
: was the echo
For heavens sake, what was it? A
spook?''
: 1T was the wall Of Abasca She had
| seen Stormwind go away with the
look of an angry Manitou on his brow
and she knew that he was going to
fight the man she loved Selling a ri
7 fle from the tepee. she followed her
dusky lover and saw him when be
, spoke to-
Ifapper
"She held her rife to her shoulder
ready when Stormwind was about tC
send his arrow to his rivals heart Oh
when the white man raised his rife
to kill the man she did not love-
'She must have been awfully rat
e ted
: when she heard the white man say
g he did not love her she dropped heI
4 rife, giving cry that caused the white
r cloud sailing in the heavens above tC
tremble."
: 81 wonder she hadn't shot the brute
s "Then the white man and the Indian
e went in the direction from whence the
\ sound came and saw on a high rock
:. the form of Abasca. She was on the
: edge of deep gulf beneath her. sway
sroc homo on1 +bopo fhn I,ra mol, Is