All the earth was sick and famished.
Hungry was the air around them,
Hungry was the sky above them,
And the hungry stars in heaven
Like the eyes of wolves glared at them!
Into Hiawatha's wigwam
Came two other guests, as silent
As the ghosts were, and as gloomy;
Waited not to be invited,
Did not parley at the doorway,
Sat there without word or welcome
In the seat of Laughing Water ;2
Looked with haggard eyes and hollow
At the face of Laughing Water.
And the foremost said-"Behold me!
I am famine, Bukadawin !"
And the other said-" Behold me!
I am fever, Ahkosewin !”4
And the lovely Minnehaha
Shuddered as they looked upon her,
Shuddered at the words they uttered,
Lay down in her bed in silence,
Hid her face, but made no answer;
Lay there trembling, freezing, burning,
At the looks they cast upon her,
At the fearful words they uttered.
Forth into the empty forest
Rushed the maddened Hiawatha;
In his heart was deadly sorrow,
In his face a stony firmness;
1 Hiawatha-The husband of Minnehaha.
2 Laughing Water-Wife of Hiawatha.
3 Bukadawn-Famine.
4 Ahkosewin-Fever.
5 Minnehaha-Laughing Water.
On his brow the sweat of anguish
Started, but it froze and fell not.
Wrapped in furs and armed for hunting,
With his mighty bow of ash-tree,
With his quiver full of arrows,
With his mittens, Minjekahwun,6
In the vast and vacant forest
On his snow-shoes strode he forward.
"Gitche manito,7 the mighty!"
Cried he, with his face uplifted
In that bitter hour of anguish,
66 Give your children food, O father!
Give us food, or we must perish!
Give me food for Minnehaha,
For my dying Minnehaha !"
Through the far resounding forest,
Through the forest vast and vacant,
Rang that cry of desolation.
But there came no other answer
Than the echo of this crying-
Than the echo of the woodlands-
"Minnehaha! Minnehaha!"
All day long roamed Hiawatha
In that melancholy forest,
Through the shadow of whose thickets,
In the pleasant days of summer,
Of that ne'er forgotten summer,
He had brought his young wife homeward
From the land of the Dacotahs;
When the birds sang in the thickets,
And the streamlets laughed and glistened,
And the air was full of fragrance,
6 Minjekahwun-Mittens.
7 Gitche Manito-Great Spirit.
And the lovely Laughing Water
Said, with voice that did not tremble,
"I will follow you my husband!”
In the wigwam with Nokomiss
With those gloomy guests that watched her,
With the famine and the fever
She was lying, the beloved—
She, the dying Minnehaha.
"Hark," she said, “I hear a rushing,
Hear a rustling, and a rushing;
Hear the falls of Minnehaha
Calling to me from a distance!"
"No, my child!" said old Nokomis,
""Tis the night wind in the pine trees!"
"Look!" she said, "I see my father
Standing lonely at his doorway,
Beckoning to me from his wigwam
In the land of the Dacotahs !"
"No, my child," said old Nokomis,
""Tis the smoke that waves and beckons."
"Ah!" she said, "the eyes of Pauguk9
Glare upon me in the darkness.
I can feel his icy fingers
Clasping mine amid the darkness!
"Hiawatha!
And the desolate Hiawatha,
Far away amid the forest,
Miles away among the mountains,
Heard that sudden cry of anguish,
Heard the voice of Minnehaha
Calling to him in the darkness,
66 Hiawatha!
8 Nokomis Grandmother.
9 Pauguk-Death.
Over snow fields waste and pathless,
Under snow-encumbered branches,
Homeward hurried Hiawatha,
Empty-handed, heavy-hearted,
Heard Nokomis moaning, wailing:
"Wahonomin !1 Wahonomin !
Would that I had perished for you,
Would that I were dead as you are,
Wahonomin! Wahonomin!"
And he went into the wigwam,
Saw the old Nokomis slowly
Rocking to and fro and moaning,
Saw his lovely Minnehaha
Lying dead and cold before him,
And his bursting heart within him
Uttered such a cry of anguish.
Then he sat down, still and speechless,
On the bed of Minnehaha,
At the feet of Laughing Water,
At those willing feet that never
More would run to meet him,
Never more would lightly follow.
With both hands his face he covered.
Seven long days and nights he sat there,
As if in a swoon he sat there,
Speechless, motionless, unconscious
Of the daylight or the darkness.
Then they buried Minnehaha;
In the snow a grave they made her,
In the forest deep and darksome,
Underneath the moaning hemlocks;
Clothed her in her richest garments,
Wrapped her in her robes of ermine,
Covered her with snow like ermine;
Thus they buried Minnehaha.
And at night a fire was lighted,
On her grave four times was kindled,
For her soul upon its journey
To the islands of the blessed.
From his doorway Hiawatha
Saw it burning in the forest,
Lighting up the gloomy hemlocks.
From his speechless bed uprising,
From the bed of Minnehaha,
Stood and watched it at the doorway
That it might not be extinguished,
Might not leave her in the darkness.
Farewell," said he, "Minnehaha !
Farewell, O my Laughing Water!
All my heart is buried with you,
All my thoughts go onward with you!
Come not back again to labour;
Come not back again to suffer
Where the famine and the fever
Wear the heart and waste the body.
Soon my task will be completed,
Soon your footsteps I shall follow
To the islands of the blest,
To the kingdom of Ponemah,2
To the land of the hereafter !"
HOME AND CLASS WORK.
Learn the spellings and meanings at the top of the page; and write sentences containing these words.
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