[Illustration]

And lo—­from afar o’er the level plain—­
As far as the sails of a ship at sea
May be seen as they lift from the rolling main—­
A band of warriors rode rapidly. 
She shadowed her eyes with her sun-browned hand;
All backward streamed on the wind her hair,
And terror spread o’er her visage fair,
As she bent her brow to the far-off band. 
For she thought of the terrible Chippeway—­
The fiends that the babe and the mother slay;
And yonder they came in their war-array!

She hid like a grouse in the meadow-grass,
And moaned—­“I am lost!—­I am lost! alas,
And why did I fly from my native land
To die by the cruel Ojibway’s hand?”
And on rode the braves.  She could hear the steeds
Come galloping on o’er the level meads;
And lowly she crouched in the waving grass,
And hoped against hope that the braves would pass.

They have passed; she is safe—­she is safe! 
Ah no!  They have struck her trail and the hunters halt. 
Like wolves on the track of the bleeding doe,
That grappled breaks from the dread assault,
Dash the warriors wild on Wiwaste’s trail. 
She flies—­but what can her flight avail? 
Her feet are fleet, but the flying feet
Of the steeds of the prairies are fleeter still;
And where can she fly for a safe retreat?

But hark to the shouting—­“Iho!—­Iho!"[22]
Rings over the wide plain sharp and shrill. 
She halts, and the hunters come riding on;
But the horrible fear from her heart is gone,
For it is not the shout of the dreaded foe;
’Tis the welcome shout of her native land!

Up galloped the chief of the band, and lo—­
The clutched knife dropped from her trembling hand;
She uttered a cry and she swooned away;
For there, on his steed in the blaze of day,
On the boundless prairie so far away,
With his polished bow and his feathers gay,
Sat the manly form of her own Chaske!

There’s a mote in my eye or a blot on the page,
And I cannot tell of the joyful greeting;
You may take it for granted, and I will engage,
There were kisses and tears at the strange, glad meeting;
For aye since the birth of the swift-winged years,
In the desert drear, in the field of clover,
In the cot, in the palace, and all the world over—­
Yea, away on the stars to the ultimate spheres,
The greeting of love to the long-sought lover—­
Is tears and kisses and kisses and tears.

But why did the lover so long delay? 
And whitherward rideth the chief to-day? 
As he followed the trail of the buffalo,
From the tees of Kapoza a maiden, lo,
Came running in haste o’er the drifted snow. 
She spoke to the chief of the tall Hohe: 
“Wiwaste requests that the brave Chaske
Will abide with his band and his coming delay
Till the moon when the strawberries are ripe and red,
And then will the chief and Wiwaste wed—­
When the Feast of the Virgins is past,” she said. 
Wiwaste’s wish was her lover’s law;
And so his coming the chief delayed
Till the mid May blossoms should bloom and fade—­
But the lying runner was Harpstina.