United States or Ethiopia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
A few minutes later, the party, bearing among them the bodies of Oonomoo and Fluellina, set out for the settlement, which was reached just as the sun was disappearing in the west. The lifeless forms were placed in the block-house for the night. The next morning a large and deep grave was dug in a cool grove just back of the village, into which the two bodies, suitably inclosed, were lowered.
The good man was pained beyond description to find that the pocket-Bible, which he always carried with him, had been lost during his hurried approach to this spot. But Fluellina, who had caught the words, said: "It is in my bosom."
Its use was understood, and it was regularly wound and attended to with great care. Fluellina, the wife of Oonomoo, was also a Huron, who had been educated at one of the Moravian missionary stations in the West, and was a professing Christian.
We saw them through the trees, and hid in the bushes until they had passed, and they searched until night for us." "Where is Fluellina hid?" "Close by the side of the stream which floats by the island, but many miles from it." "How long will it take Niniotan to guide Oonomoo there?" "Four or five hours. The wood is open and clear from briers." "And are the Shawnees upon Fluellina's trail?"
"I will teach him to emulate what Oonomoo will do, not what he has done." "He counts the scalps that hang in our lodge, and wonders why they do not increase. He gazes long and often upon those which you tore years ago from the heads of the two chiefs, and I know he burns to gain a trophy for himself." "Has Fluellina the choicest food these forests can afford?"
The Huron was about to plunge into the thicket, when a sound caught his ear, and the next moment his wife was before him. Neither spoke a word, until they had stood a few seconds in a fervent embrace, when Fluellina stepped back, and looking up in her husband's face, said: "The Shawnees have found our home and are now following me." The husband became the warrior on the instant.
In reaching the creek, he had bent down the bushes, and broken the branches on the way so that his trail could be followed without difficulty. He now sped back to his canoe, which, when reached, he shoved into deep water, and ran a considerable distance before he deemed it best to enter. Lifting Fluellina in his arms, he deposited her carefully in it.
The handsome, symmetrical arms of Fluellina were bare to the shoulder, and Oonomoo held one in his broad palm, closing and opening upon the plump flesh and delicate muscle, with as much admiration as though he were still her young and ardent lover. They sat thus, gazing into each other's face for several moments without speaking, so full seemed their hearts.
By this means, her regular visits were rendered safe and free from the annoyance of being watched an exemption she never could have had, had any one else suspected the truth. Fluellina succeeded in inducing her husband to visit this missionary on several occasions, when he proved an attentive listener to the aged disciple of God.
It was his intention to conduct his friends as far as possible during the night, that they might be beyond all danger, when, accompanied by his son, he would make all haste to his Fluellina, and carry her to some place beyond the reach of his inhuman foes. For fully eight hours, the little party hurried through the woods. Miss Prescott bore the fatigue much better than she expected.
Word Of The Day