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The distressed girl turned her abashed look from the countenance of one of the young men to that of another, until her eye met the troubled and working features of Paul. Then nature got the better of forms. She threw herself into the arms of the bee-hunter, and sufficiently proclaimed her choice by sobbing aloud.
It was this reserve, and this respect for a recognized principle, that enabled the bee-hunter to purchase a great deal of popularity, by giving away liberally an article so much prized. None, indeed, was reserved; Boden seeing the impossibility of carrying it away.
Among other things, he had been a bee-hunter, and seemed to possess a great knowledge of those wonderful insects. He boasted also of his skill as a fisherman. Constantly listening to us as we talked, he soon began to pick up a great many words of English. He was thus able to understand things said to him, though he could not make any very clear reply.
Let me pass, Dolly; I must look after the barrels this instant." While the wife gently detained her eager husband, the bee-hunter quietly asked to what barrels he alluded. "The whiskey casks," was the answer. "There's two on 'em in the shed behind the hut, and whiskey enough to set a whole tribe in commotion. I wonder I should have overlooked the whiskey!"
There was no mistaking all this; Chippewa, led by his own peculiar sense of honor, risking everything to obtain the usual trophy of victory. By this time, a dozen of the savages stood on the brow of the hill, seemingly at a loss to understand what had become of the combatants. Perceiving this, the bee-hunter profited by the delay and reloaded his rifle.
"Well, then, what is your business, here?" "Go to Chicago, for gen'ral." "Do you mean that you bear a message from some American general to the commandant at Chicago?" "Just so dat my business. Guess him, right off; he, he, he!" It is so seldom that an Indian laughs that the bee-hunter was startled. "Where is the general who has sent you on this errand?" he demanded.
"The tick of the lock is as well known to the knaves, as the blast of a trumpet to a soldier! lay down the piece lay down the piece should the moon touch the barrel, it could not fail to be seen by the devils, whose eyes are keener than the blackest snake's! The smallest motion, now, would be sure to bring an arrow among us." The bee-hunter so far obeyed as to continue immovable and silent.
All the movements, gestures, and genuflections of the savages were plainly seen by the bee-hunter. We say the genuflections, for nearly all of the Indians got on their knees and applied their noses to the earth, in order to scent the fragrance of the beloved whiskey; some out of curiosity, but more because they loved even this tantalizing indulgence, when no better could be had.
The unfortunate bee-hunter and his companions had become the captives of a people, who might, without exaggeration, be called the Ishmaelites of the American deserts.
It wanted a few minutes of sunset as the travellers landed, and the parting rays of the great luminary of our system were glancing through the various glades of the openings, imparting a mellow softness to the herbage and flowers. So far as the bee-hunter could perceive, not even a bear had visited the place in his absence.
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