United States or South Africa ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Ye young men will talk as women doe, & ye Elders will grow content to watch a snow-bird hopp. Mahongui says itt is time." Again att ye council fyre ye spirit dogg strode from ye darkness & said itt was time. Ye tobacco was bourned by ye Priests. In ye smoke ye Elders beheld ye Spirit of Mahongui. "Panugaga Warre." Soe my father saw ye ghost of ye departed one. He smoked long bye our cabbin fyre.
There was no particle of it that he did not recognize, all stolen by Labiskwee from Labiskwee bread-fragments saved far back in the days ere McCan lost the flour; strips and strings of caribou-meat, partly gnawed; crumbles of suet; the hind-leg of the snowshoe rabbit, untouched; the hind-leg and part of the fore-leg of the white weasel; the wing dented still by her reluctant teeth, and the leg of the snow-bird pitiful remnants, tragic renunciations, crucifixions of life, morsels stolen from her terrible hunger by her incredible love.
Yet, for all its pallor, you saw at once that this face was still young, had been lovely, a true New-England beauty, quaint and trim and delicate as the slaty-gray snow-bird, with its white breast, and soft, bright eyes, that haunts the dusky fir-trees and dazzling hill-side slopes when no other bird dare show itself, a quiet, shy creature, full of innocent trust and endurance, its chirp and low repetition dearer than the gay song of lark or robin, because a wintry song.
But his most interesting statement, to my fancy, was, that, during a stay of ten weeks on Monadnock, he found that the Snow-Bird built its nest on the top of the mountain, and probably never came down through the season. That was its Arctic; and it would probably yet be found, he predicted, on Wachusett and other Massachusetts peaks.
K had some difficulty in coaxing the picture from the old chief; so pleased was he with this rude representation of himself. He pointed to every particular article of his dress, and dwelt with peculiar glee on the cap and blue deer's tail. A few days after this, I was painting a beautiful little snow-bird, that our man had shot out of a large flock that alighted near the door.
At sun-rise the old man led his young charges to the lodge of the Bald Eagle, who took a kindly farewell of them. "The Snow-bird" was sorrowful, and her bright laughing eyes were dimmed with tears at parting with Catharine; she was a gentle loving thing, as soft and playful as the tame fawn that nestled its velvet head against her arm.
Elfreda Briggs called attention to a dark object at the top of a great pine. It was Henry Henry in disgrace Henry who had stolen a turkey from the cook-house and felt the sting of his master's club across his sensitive nose. June and July disturbed the serenity of the night with two long-drawn, throaty brays. A snow-bird chirped in the foliage somewhere above the Overlanders.
And though the air was clear and the sun shone brightly, he felt there was a cheerless wind blowing on him; a wind that chilled him; and he hummed to himself bitterly a song of the voyageurs: "O, O, the winter wind, the North wind, My snow-bird, where art thou gone? O, O, the wailing wind the night wind, The cold nest; I am alone. O, O, my snow-bird!
The officer stood out and smiled quizzically. Jeers came from behind the soldiers' bushes "Go it, Otto! Go it, Johnson! Your feet are loaded! If a snow-bird flies, you will drop dead! Do you need any help? You'd make a hell of a sailor!" and other gibes. The gray clouds stretched away monotonously over the waste of snow, and it was cold.
"When the winter is done I will come back home, To the nest swinging under and over, Swinging under and over and waiting for me, Your rover, my snow-bird, your rover Your lover and rover, don, don! . . . don, don!" It was all very well in the mouth of the sprightly, sentimental Benoit; it was hateful foolishness in Farette.
Word Of The Day