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Half-Breed A Tale of the Western Frontier-Walt Whitman · Army Letters from an Officers Wife, 1871-1888

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one of The Half Breed, A Tale of the
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  Speaker 1: Western Frontier by Walt Whitman. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by Chuck Williamson. The Half Breed, A Tale of the
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  Speaker 1: Western Frontier by Walt Whitman. Chapter one loudly rang merry
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  Speaker 1: peals of laughter from a group of children of almost
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  Speaker 1: every age and size, as they emerged one afternoon through
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  Speaker 1: the door of the rude Log school house in the
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  Speaker 1: little town of Warren, a place situated on one of
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  Speaker 1: the upper branches of the Mississippi. Less than seven years previously,
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  Speaker 1: the sight on which the dwellings of the Warren Knights
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  Speaker 1: now stood had been a tangled forest roamed by the
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  Speaker 1: savage in pursuit of game. An adventurous settler purchased a
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  Speaker 1: few hundred acres there, and with some companions, took up
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  Speaker 1: his abode and gave it the name I have mentioned.
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  Speaker 1: The place numbered nearly three hundred inhabitants. Loudly rang the
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  Speaker 1: laugh of the liberated children. Master Caleb, the teacher, stood
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  Speaker 1: in the door of his schoolhouse and gazed with a
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  Speaker 1: cheerful smile upon their noisy merriment. He was a pale
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  Speaker 1: young man from the east, and because that his strength
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  Speaker 1: did not allow him to engage in the heavy labors
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  Speaker 1: of his comrades, for in the west all men are comrades,
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  Speaker 1: he gladly accepted an offer from the fathers of the
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  Speaker 1: village to take charge of the education of the small people. Hurrah,
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  Speaker 1: said one Harum Scarum, youngelf, who was running and tearing
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  Speaker 1: like a mad tiger. Hurrah, the master has given us
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  Speaker 1: a holiday next Thursday because he is going to Peter
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  Speaker 1: Brown's wedding. Hey, hurrah, but Bill, said a larger and
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  Speaker 1: more sedate looking youth, addressing the elf, Bill, be quiet
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  Speaker 1: and don't act so foolish. Can't you see mister Caleb
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  Speaker 1: is looking at you. Well, rejoined the other, what if
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  Speaker 1: he The sentence which the exuberant child was about to utter,
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  Speaker 1: was cut short suddenly by a loud shout from seven
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  Speaker 1: or eight of his companions. Bodo, Bodo, They cried, Bodo
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  Speaker 1: is calming, and they pointed with their mischievous fingers to
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  Speaker 1: a turn in the road at about ten rods distance,
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  Speaker 1: where a figure was seen slowly walking, or rather limping,
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  Speaker 1: towards them. More than half the party had started off
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  Speaker 1: on a gallop, and in a few moments they were
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  Speaker 1: at the side of him who had attracted their attention. Bodo,
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  Speaker 1: as the youngsters called him, and that was the name
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  Speaker 1: he went by all over the settlement, appeared to be
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  Speaker 1: a man of about seven and twenty years of age.
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  Speaker 1: He was deformed in body, his back being mounted with
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  Speaker 1: a mighty hunch, and his long neck bent forward in
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  Speaker 1: a peculiar and disagreeable manner. In height, he was hardly
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  Speaker 1: taller than the smallest of the children who clustered tormentingly
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  Speaker 1: around him. His face was the index of many bad passions,
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  Speaker 1: which were only limited to the degree of their evil,
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  Speaker 1: because his intellect itself was not very bright, though the
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  Speaker 1: sedulous care of someone had taught him even more than
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  Speaker 1: the ordinary branches of education. Among the most powerful of
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  Speaker 1: his bad points was a malignant peevishness, dwelling on every
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  Speaker 1: feature of his countenance. Perhaps it was this latter trait
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  Speaker 1: which caused the wild boys of the place, ever, to
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  Speaker 1: take great comfort in making him the subject of their vagaries.
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  Speaker 1: The gazer would have been at some doubt whether to
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  Speaker 1: class this strange and hideous creature with the race of
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  Speaker 1: red men or white, for he was a half breed,
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  Speaker 1: his mother an Indian squaw, and his father some unknown
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  Speaker 1: member of the race of the settlers. Why, Bodo, said
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  Speaker 1: the elf bill, How do you do, you, lovely creature?
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  Speaker 1: I haven't seen you for a week. And the provoking
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  Speaker 1: boy took the hunchback's hand and shook it as heartily
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  Speaker 1: as if they had been old friends forever. Bodo scowled,
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  Speaker 1: but it was of no avail. He was in the
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  Speaker 1: power of the lawless ones and could not escape. What's
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  Speaker 1: the price of soap, Bodo, said another urchin, pointing to
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  Speaker 1: the filthy hands in face of the Indian, and they
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  Speaker 1: all laughed merrily. Devils, exclaimed the passionate half breed, making
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  Speaker 1: an impotent attempt at blows which they easily foiled. Why
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  Speaker 1: do you pester me? Go go away? Or shall I
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  Speaker 1: turn upon you, o Bodo? Dear Bodo, do not let
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  Speaker 1: your sweet temper rise, said little Bell, and he patted
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  Speaker 1: the Indian on his head as a man would do
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  Speaker 1: to a child. Bodo glanced up to him with an
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  Speaker 1: expression of hate which might have appalled any but the
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  Speaker 1: heedless one on whom he gazed. He turned round and
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  Speaker 1: round like a wild beast in the toils, But wherever
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  Speaker 1: he cast his look he saw nothing but the villainous
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  Speaker 1: little fingers extended and roguish eyes flashing. The poor fellow
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  Speaker 1: was indeed sadly beset, and was rapidly working himself up
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  Speaker 1: to a pitch of rage, which might have caused some
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  Speaker 1: of the thoughtless crew a broken head. At this moment,
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  Speaker 1: the tall boy, who had reproved bill in front of
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  Speaker 1: the schoolhouse, came up, and, beholding the plight of the
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  Speaker 1: tormented one, offered his gentle interference. Boys, boys, He cried,
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  Speaker 1: don't let us bother this poor friend of ours any more.
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  Speaker 1: Come now, are you not willing that he should go?
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  Speaker 1: He paused, and it was plainly a doubtful case whether
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  Speaker 1: his mediation would be successful. The boys had just come
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  Speaker 1: from a three hours confinement to their lessons, and they
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  Speaker 1: felt disposed for anything in the shape of mirth. So,
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  Speaker 1: like a prudent arbiter quincy Thorn, the tall lad offered
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  Speaker 1: a kind of compromise between both difficulties. I'll tell you
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  Speaker 1: what said he Bodo, shall say all about where he
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  Speaker 1: has been this afternoon and what after, For I see
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  Speaker 1: he is just returned from a long tramp, and then
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  Speaker 1: we'll let him go. Hey, boys, agreed, said the band,
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  Speaker 1: and the hunchback, garrulous by nature, and glad no doubt
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  Speaker 1: to be let off thus easily at once commenced his recital,
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  Speaker 1: which we shall take the liberty, however, for our reader's
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  Speaker 1: sake of giving in our own style, you know, said
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  Speaker 1: he of Peter Brown, the Blacksmith's marriage, which is to
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  Speaker 1: take place soon. Well, even this could not be managed,
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  Speaker 1: it seems, without the help of Bodo. A marriage needs
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  Speaker 1: a priest, and hereabouts one of that kind is not
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  Speaker 1: often met with. Now, I, who so loved to see
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  Speaker 1: my neighbors happy, The hunchback grinned, could not bear that
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  Speaker 1: the pretty sport should all be spoiled for want of priest,
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  Speaker 1: And so rather say, interrupted the elf bill, you feared
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  Speaker 1: the loss of some drinks of rum and mules of
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  Speaker 1: pork you had set your heart upon getting at the wedding.
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  Speaker 1: Bodo snarled at the saucy boy and continued. And so
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  Speaker 1: I said to Brown that my worthy teacher and friend,
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  Speaker 1: father Luke, the lonesome man of Oak Creek, might be
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  Speaker 1: brought hither, They say, is a priest when not exactly
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  Speaker 1: of the right sort to suit the people here? Perhaps,
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  Speaker 1: But when the nearest town is distant three days journey,
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  Speaker 1: we are not apt to stand on trifles. The priest,
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  Speaker 1: then this Catholic monk, I think he calls himself, being
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  Speaker 1: the only one near at hand, and even the place
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  Speaker 1: where he lives not known to many of the people.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Peter bid me to go and see him out
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  Speaker 1: and deliver him a message written on paper. More than
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  Speaker 1: ten hours have I been wandering up and down the
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  Speaker 1: banks of the river and through the wood to discover
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  Speaker 1: the house of the lonesome man I bodo, to whom
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  Speaker 1: every tree in the forest I thought was known, and
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  Speaker 1: every dent in the shore, and every swamp and thicket
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  Speaker 1: could hardly find the place, not that I have ever
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  Speaker 1: taken pains in search of it before. For I defy
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  Speaker 1: any of you, the cunningest boy of all, to hide
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  Speaker 1: a dead squirrel within five miles where I shall not
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  Speaker 1: ferret it out. So well do I know every spot well?
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  Speaker 1: After a long time, and when I had more than
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  Speaker 1: once thought of giving up the search and coming back,
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  Speaker 1: which I might have done, had I not reflected on
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  Speaker 1: the disappointment of mister Peter and the rest, what should
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  Speaker 1: don't lie? Bodo interrupted the elf again, you can't deny
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  Speaker 1: it was fear of the trouncing you might get, and
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  Speaker 1: nothing else that made you keep on. The group did
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  Speaker 1: not laugh at this sally as at the former ones,
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  Speaker 1: for they were anxious to hear the end of the story.
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  Speaker 1: What should I see? As I came out of a
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  Speaker 1: thicket about two hours walk from here, but Father Luke
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  Speaker 1: himself standing at the bank, at a high place and
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  Speaker 1: looking down into the stream, quiet as one of the
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  Speaker 1: trees back of us. I approached him and told him
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  Speaker 1: of my Errand though I knew not his residence, we
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  Speaker 1: were old acquaintances and times by gone, so I thought
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  Speaker 1: it strange that he should start and tremble like a
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  Speaker 1: frightened girl. Before I spoke a word, he took my
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  Speaker 1: letter and then asked me into his hut, for it
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  Speaker 1: was near at hand. He led the way, and I
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  Speaker 1: followed a few rods before us to the side of
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  Speaker 1: a crag, all covered with bushes and hanging trees. He
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  Speaker 1: parted them at a place were not one eye out
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  Speaker 1: of a thousand would have suspected aught else than the
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  Speaker 1: brown ground to lie underneath. And we were in a
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  Speaker 1: room dimly lighted in some way from above, whose sides
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  Speaker 1: were stone and dirt, half hidden by some domestic utensils.
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  Speaker 1: There stood a table in the middle of the room,
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  Speaker 1: covered with books, and covered with books and paper. He
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  Speaker 1: sat down there, and, taking a pen, told me he
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  Speaker 1: would write an answer to the request. I brought in
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  Speaker 1: a few minutes it was ready. He put before me
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  Speaker 1: some drink and meat. And then, though he spoke not
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  Speaker 1: I saw, he wished my departure, carefully noting the place
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  Speaker 1: as I emerged, in order that I might tell it
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  Speaker 1: again if occasion required. I bent my steps homeward. And
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  Speaker 1: now you have all of my story, and I must go,
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  Speaker 1: for it is time. Peter Brown received his answer. The
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  Speaker 1: children made no opposition to his departure, with the exception
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  Speaker 1: of little Bill, who gave Bodo an extra pinch and
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  Speaker 1: stout pull of the hair ere he scrambled off to
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  Speaker 1: engage in some new mischief. The house of Peter Brown
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  Speaker 1: was situated at one end of the village, a pleasant
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  Speaker 1: place where the beams of the sun of a clear
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  Speaker 1: day dazzled the gazer's eye as they were reflected from
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  Speaker 1: the stream. Peter, contrary to the advice of his neighbors, had,
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  Speaker 1: in clearing up his land, left a number of the
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  Speaker 1: finest trees standing close to his dwelling, which divested it
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  Speaker 1: of that rather disagreeable aspect of newness which a lately
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  Speaker 1: settled town almost invariably possesses. The house, too, was of
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  Speaker 1: better build and material than most of its fellows. It
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  Speaker 1: was of logs, to be sure, but it had a
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  Speaker 1: number of good glass windows, and two tall chimneys, and
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  Speaker 1: doors which swing on hinges and fitted tightly. The blacksmith
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  Speaker 1: lived in it now alone. A day or two more
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  Speaker 1: was to see him with a companion, however, and that
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  Speaker 1: companion a wife, the daughter of a respectable man of
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  Speaker 1: his own grade in life. Some three or four rods
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  Speaker 1: distant on the other side of the road was the
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  Speaker 1: shop of the blacksmith, with its smoky fire and bellows,
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  Speaker 1: and the anvil, which every morning was heard to clink
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  Speaker 1: with rapid and ponderous blows. Leaning idly on the handle
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  Speaker 1: of the bellows stood the master of the establishment himself.
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  Speaker 1: He was a stout, well made, strongly jointed young man,
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  Speaker 1: with light hair and clear gray eyes. Though not what
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  Speaker 1: is called handsome, he was far from being ill looking.
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  Speaker 1: His lips were beautifully cut, and his neck might have
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  Speaker 1: been taken by the most fastidious sculptor as a model
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  Speaker 1: of that part of the human form in some fine
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  Speaker 1: work of art. What were Peter's thoughts about? Nothing more
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  Speaker 1: less than love? He had despatched Bodo many hours previous,
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  Speaker 1: and he feared the malicious creature had forgotten or disregarded
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  Speaker 1: the duty, and would not perform his bidding. A dozen
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  Speaker 1: times during the half hour would he step to the
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  Speaker 1: door of his smithy and strain his gaze to catch
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  Speaker 1: any glimpse of the returning hunchback, and in vain, when
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  Speaker 1: at last he beheld the messenger, and looking into his face,
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  Speaker 1: saw the expression of one who returns to a master
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  Speaker 1: with news he is sure will be pleasant, he forgot
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  Speaker 1: his determinations to wring Bodo's neck and beat him with
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  Speaker 1: a bar of iron, and so on, and eagerly demanded
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  Speaker 1: the result of his mission. The hunchback told the story
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  Speaker 1: which the reader has already heard, as related to the
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  Speaker 1: school children, and then gave to Peter the note which
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  Speaker 1: had been sent to him from the monk impatiently breaking
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  Speaker 1: the seal and opening it. The hunchback read as follows,
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  Speaker 1: and answer to Peter Brown, the blacksmith, A wretched man
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  Speaker 1: has come to me with a demand that I should
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  Speaker 1: perform the ceremonials of marriage between yourself and a maiden
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  Speaker 1: of your town. The messenger explains that no holy minister
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  Speaker 1: of your faith is at hand, and entreats me in
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  Speaker 1: your name to refuse him. Not. I am a Catholic monk,
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  Speaker 1: for reasons of piety and choice, hiding myself aloof from
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  Speaker 1: any communion with my kind. But in this matter, though
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  Speaker 1: a strict interpretation of my priestly allegiance might keep me
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  Speaker 1: from granting what you ask uniting two members of a
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  Speaker 1: church we condemn in bonds of marriage, I have thought fit,
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  Speaker 1: taking all things into consideration, to do as you desire.
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  Speaker 1: On the morrow I shall visit the village and will
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  Speaker 1: hold further conference with you on the subject. The monk
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  Speaker 1: a plague on the roundabout way of his saying yes,
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  Speaker 1: exclaimed the blacksmith with a laugh, as if it made
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  Speaker 1: any difference whether our father sat in a meeting house
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  Speaker 1: or heard mass before papal altars. In such a case,
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  Speaker 1: as this, the briefly informing Bodo that as he had
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  Speaker 1: been faithful and successful, he should be rewarded. Still farther,
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  Speaker 1: the happy Peter gave him a small coin and prepared
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  Speaker 1: to shut up his shop for the purpose of looking
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  Speaker 1: over and telling the news to the family of his
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  Speaker 1: intended bride. End of chapter one, chapter two of The
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  Speaker 1: Half Breed, A Tale of the Western Frontier by Walt Whitman.
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  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
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  Speaker 1: Chuck Williamson. Chapter two. Master Caleb, the teacher, as usually
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  Speaker 1: happens in schools, had his favorites and his most especial
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  Speaker 1: likings among the young flock, whose education he controlled. Of
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  Speaker 1: all the rest, Quincy Thorne, the tall gentle boy, was
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  Speaker 1: the one whom he loved and whose company he preferred.
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  Speaker 1: The other choice would have created some envy and jealousy,
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  Speaker 1: but all the children themselves were attached to the teacher's favorite,
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  Speaker 1: and gladly yielded to his good fortune without demurror. It
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  Speaker 1: happened on the Thursday when Peter Brown's wedding took place,
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  Speaker 1: that Master Caleb and Quincey stole away from the revelers
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  Speaker 1: in the middle of the afternoon, and took a quiet
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: roundabout stroll, bringing up at last at the dwelling of
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  Speaker 1: Quincy's father. The whole family had gone to the wedding,
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  Speaker 1: as in fact had all the inhabitants of the village,
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  Speaker 1: old and young, for the generous hearted Blacksmith would have
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  Speaker 1: it so, and the house was therefore quite deserted. The
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  Speaker 1: boy and the teacher took a seat on the door
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  Speaker 1: step in front and gazed at the pleasant prospect before them.
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  Speaker 1: A little invertant grass patch only intervened between them and
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  Speaker 1: the river which the dwelling frontage ward. They amused themselves
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  Speaker 1: by watching the gambols of the water fowl wild but
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  Speaker 1: with their wings clipped and thus partly domesticated, and by
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  Speaker 1: counting the various objects that glided along the stream logs
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  Speaker 1: and torn up trees, and now and then a fish
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  Speaker 1: leaping above the surface. Master Caleb said the boy suddenly,
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  Speaker 1: is not that the figure of an Indian yonder on
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  Speaker 1: the hill? He pointed as he spoke to a spot
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  Speaker 1: forty or fifty rods distant on the same side of
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  Speaker 1: the river where they were seated. Oh it is, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: answered the teacher, and he is coming this way, poor fellow.
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  Speaker 1: He seems to be worn and sick. As the figure advanced,
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  Speaker 1: they had full leisure to survey him. He was one
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  Speaker 1: of the finest specimens of the Red people, or rather
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: had the evidence of having once been so, for his
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: gait was now slow and uneven, his eyes dim and
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: without brightness or glitter, and his cheeks sunken. It is
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  Speaker 1: erow Tip, said Master Caleb and the boys simultaneously, as
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: they had a review of the Savage. It is our
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  Speaker 1: dear friend, erow Tip. Quincey rose from his seat and
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: stepped toward the newcomer with words of welcome. He led
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  Speaker 1: him to the door and into the house, and bade
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  Speaker 1: him rest himself. The Indian took these little kindnesses with
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: the apathetic method of his race. It was plain, however,
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  Speaker 1: that they could but be acceptable to him, for he
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: gasped with pain and exhaustion. We have not seen you
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  Speaker 1: herein worn for many weeks, said Caleb, after a pause,
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  Speaker 1: and you are ill, it seems, i am, replied the savage.
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  Speaker 1: A dull heat, like the air of your iron warmed
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: rooms in the settlement, fills me from head to foot.
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  Speaker 1: Strength is gone, and arrow Tip might be beaten by
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  Speaker 1: a young boy. How long has this been, inquired Caleb.
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  Speaker 1: It first came, was the answer, when the buds started
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  Speaker 1: on the trees. Now the forest is all green and
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: dark with leaves. You have a fever, said Master Caleb,
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  Speaker 1: which I dare say some trifling medicine from our common
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  Speaker 1: physic chest in the land agent's room would cure at once.
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  Speaker 1: Arrow Tip made no reply. Surely, said the young Thorn,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: looking at the worn moccasins upon the feet of his guest.
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  Speaker 1: Surely you have not made this journey from your dwelling alone.
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  Speaker 1: Where was your brother, whoever came with you on your
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: former visits. The dull eyes of the Indian glanced devoutly upwards.
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  Speaker 1: He who is your great spirit and ours, said, he
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  Speaker 1: lives in the forest and was with the sick chief.
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  Speaker 1: My people knew not of my coming, none but my
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  Speaker 1: brother's wife, to whom I confided my purpose, lest they
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  Speaker 1: might think some evil had befallen me. I had heard
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: that the white man knew a hundred remedies for ills
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  Speaker 1: of which we were ignorant. Ignorant both of the ills
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  Speaker 1: and remedies, the love of life was strong in my soul,
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  Speaker 1: I could not bear to pine away as a tree
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  Speaker 1: whose trunk has been girdled by the hatchet. I felt
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  Speaker 1: my arm and said to myself, perhaps in the village
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  Speaker 1: of the pale faces, there may be something that will
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: bring back its thickness and its nerve. In the night,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: when all were sleeping, I came out from my lodging
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: and bent my steps towards your town. The sun is
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: now on his third journey over our heads since I started.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Both Quincy and the teacher felt their sympathies strongly enlisted
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: for the unfortunate savage. The boy assured him that he
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: might no doubt be welcome to stop with them as
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: at home for a season during which all should be
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: done for his recovery. And Master Caleb averred that Ezekiel Barrett,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: the store keeper of Warren, had and his youth spent
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: half of an apprenticeship with a New England apothecary, and
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: would probably be able to tell all about arrow Tip's
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: ailing and what would affect his recovery. Toward nightfall, when
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: mister Thorn and the members of his family returned from
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: the wedding, it was readily arranged that arrow Tip should
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: remain with them, as Quincey had suggested. Shame were it
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: to me? And my wife said Thorn, did we let
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: one who saved a life so dear to us ask
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: shelter here and be refused? And he looked to his
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: son Quincy. While he spoke. Master Caleb saw that something
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: which had taken place in former years now served as
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: a memento of good will between the settler and the chief.
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: He made inquiry by a glos glance toward Thorn. Yes,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: said the latter, We have indeed reason to be grateful
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: to this sick man, for many years ago he saved
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Quincy's life, And he told the teacher how it happened.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: It was before they came to live in Warren. For
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: their acquaintance with arrow Tip dated many years back. The child,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: then small, was swept away by a freshet in a river,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: and arrow Tip had dashed into the foaming waters and
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: brought him safe back again. As may readily be supposed,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Thorn and his family were unbounded in their expressions of gratitude,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: and through all the future years of their existence never
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: lost an opportunity of showing that gratitude. Arrow Tip, as
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: he was called in the figurative style of his people,
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: though possessing now but little of the power of a chief,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: was descended from the sachems of his tribe. He and
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: a younger brother, named for his swiftness, the deer frequently
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: had intercourse with the white settlers of that region in
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: the way of trade. They brought the furs and skins
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: collected by their people and exchanged them for powder, blankets, hardware,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: and other things which habit made necessary to them. The
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: deer generally accompanied his brother on these excursions. The two
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: loved each other, for they were the remnants of their family,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: and had none else to distract their affection. Bodo the
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: hunchback had a claim also to be considered as indirectly
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: of the same tribe with arrow Tip and the deer,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: but no one knew exactly his relationship, and few thought
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: it worth investigation. End of chapter two, Chapter three of
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: The Half Breed, A Tale of the Western Frontier by
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Walt Whitman. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: recording by Chuck Williamson. Chapter three. A week must have
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: passed away since the events of the last chapter. In
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: the course of that time, another personage had arrived upon
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: the stage where our little drama is being enacted the
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: village of Warren. This personage was arrow Tip's brother, the deer,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Informed by his wife of the course intended to be
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: taken by the sick chief a few days after the
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: departure of the latter, and thinking of a thousand mishaps
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: that might possibly befall him on the road, the deer
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: filled a pouch with food, strapped his bow and quiver
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: on his back, and commenced a rapid progress toward the settlement.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: He arrived in time to witness the favorable change in
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: arrow Tip's illness, which was but the precursor of still
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: more improvement. It needed, indeed, but that he should continue
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: a few days longer in the hospitable house of Thorn,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: and under the medical auspices of Master Caleb and the
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: store keeper, bare It to have his health and strength
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: wholly restored. One morning, when mister Thorn came in to
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: partake with his family of their early meal, he looked
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: disturbed and somewhat agitated. To the inquiries of his wife,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: he for a time returned no answer. Ah, but I
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: don't know, said he at length, why I may not
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: as well inform you of the cause of what moves me.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: For two or three mornings passed on, going as I
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: usually do at daylight to take care of my cattle
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: and feed them. I have missed something from the storehouse,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: where I keep my grain and farming utensils. Occasionally I
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: find merely that matter not very valuable is taken away,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: But then again an article of great use to me
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: is stolen. I certainly have no idea who is the thief,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: but it becomes us all to be on the lookout
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: and see if we cannot discover him. It was a
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: painful thing for arrow Tip, who sat in the chimney
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: room while mister Thorn was speaking, that the eyes of
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: nearly everyone in the room, with the exception of Thorn
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: himself and his eldest son, were turned upon him. He
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: was too proud to answer any suspicions, and he moved
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: not or spoke under their gaze. This morning, continued mister Thorn,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: A large piece of bear meat, which I purchased yesterday
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: of a man sent here by Bodo, and which I
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: intended to be our dinner to day, is taken off
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: where and by whom, it is impossible to say again,
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: were the eyes of the group directed toward Ero Tip.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: The savage was deeply pained, but as before, he evinced
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: it by no sign in truth. The suspicion if any
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: such were harbored was unjust and in no small degree unreasonable.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: From the nature of the articles purloined, they could have
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: been of no value to an Indian unless he sold them,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: and that were a difficult undertaking without risk of discovery.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Arrow Tip rose and left the room, uttering not a word.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: For the first time. Mister Thorn reflected upon the grief
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: he must have inflicted by his remarks with true good taste. However,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: he forbade to make the matter worse by attempting an apology.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: He bade his children abstain in future from any allusion
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: to the subject, and particularly any signed that they looked
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: upon Arrow Tip himself as an object of doubt. In
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: course of the afternoon, Peter Brown, the lately married blacksmith,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: came over to Thorns to speak of a contemplated hunting
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: party the next day in the forest. I am told,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: said Peter, that there is a fine herd of deer
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: which some of our folks have several times seen in
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: the neighborhood of oak creek. What say you, if the
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: day be fair, will you join us? Certainly, was Thorn's answer.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: And our friend arrow Tip here shall make another of
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: the party if he will, The chief rejoined. The one
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: last spoken to will be glad to go. Quincy stood
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: near while this conversation was taking place. Father, He said,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: do you not remember your promise that I might hunt
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: with the next party. Thorn smiled upon the eager boy
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: and assented. So it was arranged that soon after sunrise
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: they should all start together, a number of the men
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: from neighboring houses having agreed to join them. As arrow
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: Tip retired that evening to a kind of outhouse where
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: he slept, Thorn would have had him, on his first arrival,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: pose in the main dwelling, but the savage pertinaciously refused.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Quincey tapped him on the arm and bade him, with
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: a smile, to be up in time. And lest I
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: should oversleep myself, said the boy, come to my window,
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: which opens on the river, and knock upon it to
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: wake me. It were hardly amiss to guess that the
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: dreams of the young hunter that night were interwoven with
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: huge buffaloes and springing deer, and mighty bears, and most
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: admired confusion. Arrow tip rose some time before daylight. He
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: pushed open a small swinging door and stood a few
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: minutes gazing over the river in the direction of his
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: distant tribe. His thoughts were with them, with his brother,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: whom he expected to visit him that day. The deer
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: had his abode at a dismantled hut in the neighborhood
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: of the village, and with his far off friends. Of
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: a sudden, while his gaze was thus fixed, he saw
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: a figure stealthily stepping, or rather crawling, through the farm
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: yard toward the building used by Thorn for a granary.
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: His sight convinced him that it was none of the
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: host's family. The figure was smaller than Quincy or his father,
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: and much stouter than any of the younger children. The
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: savage immediately remembered what had been said respecting the thefts
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: the preceding day, and he felt that he should now
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: be able to clear up the mystery, and also remove
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: any doubts that it might have been held respecting his
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: own integrity, the Indian silently drew back into the shadow
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: and watched the figure like a thief. Indeed, did it move,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: and directly toward the door of the granary, which it
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: opened and passed. Arrow Tip cautiously emerged from where he
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: had been standing, and favored by the shadow of a
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: huge tree, he stood near the door which the figure
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: had entered, and waited his coming forth. He had not
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: to wait long. With the same halting and stealthy gait,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: the thief appeared directly, staggering under a bag borne upon
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: his shoulder and evidently containing grain. When he had got
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: a couple of rods forward, arrow Tip sprang upon him
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: as a cat would span bring on a mouse. Now,
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: said he who comes forth like an owl in the
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: night to take his brother's goods, I have him. A
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: dismal howl sounded out from the startled thief, and he
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: struggled to get free, but his struggles were useless. Arrow
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: Tip held him with a grasp of iron and dragged
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: him to the dwelling of the family, where he knocked loudly.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: Not many moments elapsed before thorn In His people, disturbed
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: by the racket, came rushing together into the porch in
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: front arrow Tip, and brief terms explained the matter to them,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: and shoved his prisoner toward them, as I hope I
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: may shoot a deer to day, said Quincy, with a
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: loud burst of laughter. It is none other than Bodo.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: The boy spoke truth. Indeed, the mischievous and now detected
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: hunchback stood before them. He hung his head in stupid
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: obstinacy and spoke not a word an excuse for his crime.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: It is very wicked, said arrow Tip, as he stood
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: with folded arms, and a flush of shame passed over
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: his face. And it sickens the chief soul that one
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: who owns blood of an honest tribe should be cut.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Thus Bodo looked up and scowled on the Indian with
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: a furious expression of deviltry and hate that plainly said
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: he would lose no convenient opportunity for revenge if such occurred. Come, Come,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: said mister Thorn. Though I did not expect such conduct,
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: even from Bodo, I am willing to let it pass.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: We all know the infirmity of the poor fellow, and
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: I dare say this will be a salutary lesson to him. Come,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: we forget that to day we hunt the deer, and
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: our breakfast is to be prepared, and a dozen matters
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: attended to yet which we best set about. Immediately, as
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: the hunchback turned from the spot to walk away, he
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: cast another glance at arrow tip. It was full of
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: malice and hate, but the chief did not deign to
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: heed it. By the slightest notice. He calmly set himself
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: about the necessary business of the hour. End of chapter three,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: chapter four of The Half Breed, A Tale of the
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: Western Frontier by Walt Whitman. This LibriVox recording is in
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: the public domain recording by Chuck Williamson, Chapter four. Who
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: could be more happy than Peter Brown's bride? She was
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: a young and handsome woman, possessed of much good sense
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: and a strong faculty of making people become attached to her.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: On no occasion was this latter trait illustrated more pleasantly
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: than in the intercourse in friendliness between her husband and
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: herself on the one part, and him, who has been
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: spoken of in a preceding page as the lonesome man
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: on the other. Ever, since the hour when the Monk
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: or father Luke, as he was also sometimes called, united
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: them in marriage, he had apparently found a new impulse
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: to be sociable. By visiting the house of the blacksmith.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: There was a considerable of mystery about the character of
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: the Holy Man. No one knew his life. Sometimes he
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: would be absent for months, and then would suddenly appear
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: in his rude dwelling once more, as if returned from
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: a distant journey. It was generally supposed that in these
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: intervals he went away to the convents of his brethren
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: in Canada. No one sought to pry into his designs
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: or wishes. Yet he was by no means of an
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: austere disposition, and might probably have answered their qui questions,
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: had they seen fit to proffer any. But in the West,
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: where everyone is, in some degree or other an adventurer,
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: few wish to investigate the former history of their neighbors.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: Inquisitiveness does not prevail there, as in some other sections
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: of our Republic, much more frequently than before. As has
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: been intimated, the monk now sought communion with villagers, and
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: most of all the Browns. On the day of the
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: hunting party he came there, and though Peter himself was absent,
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: he was invited by the young wife to rest himself
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: and remain in chat with her. So kindly were her
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: requests proposed, and so yearning, if the truth be told,
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: were the lonesome man's wishes for some kind of comradeship
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: that he made little demure to accepting the invitation. The
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: hours passed on quite pleasantly, each mutually entertained with the
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: presence and cheerfulness of the other. Father Luke, said the hostess,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: after a long pause in her conversation. I know you
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: will not be offended if I tell you I have
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: wondered how you can be comfortable in that cold cave
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: of yours where they say you reside. The monk smiled quietly. Humph,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: I have long learned, said he to be content with
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: coarse fare and coarse accommodation. It is part of the
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: duty of such as I. And were you always content?
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: Not always? Was the subdued answer. The monk saw that
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: his companion would probably have spoken further had she not
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: feared intruding on his wish for concealment. Daughter said he,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: perhaps I have been looked upon by the good people
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: hereabout too much as being of mystery. I have little
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: that I wished to conceal. I will, if you have
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: patience to bear it, tell you my story. Some few
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: items your good sense will inform you it were better
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: to pass no further. The young woman was certainly not
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: so far superior to the foibles of her sex as
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: to turn away from anything in shape as a secret.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: She made a gesture of assent, and the monk proceeded.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: I was born in a country town in Ireland. My
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: parents were in the humbler walks of life, and of
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: all their children, I alone received what might be called
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: a respectable education. Even in my early boyhood, I was
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: destined for the church. When I was about eighteen years old,
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: my mother died, a sad loss to us. All. A
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: year passed away before the end of which my father,
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: finding the cares and troubles of his family to press
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: heavily upon him, took unto himself another wife. I had
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: a sister, a lovely girl, some two years younger than myself.
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: My sister possessed in her character some of the most
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: excellent as well as some of the weakest propensities of
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: her sex. She was capricious and headstrong, but tender and
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: very affectionate. Her beauty gained her many suitors, whom her
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: whim induced her to discard, as they were generally of
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: our own lowly condition. One summer there came to reside
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: for a few days in our village, a citizen named Arnold.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: It was a dark hour for poor Mary when he
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: made his entrance there. He was handsome, fascinating, and a
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: confirmed rake. They met this man, and my sister Arnold
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: saw what a prize the place had hitherto unconsciously contained,
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: and determined to win it if she would have but
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: taken warning, For she was warned to make the tale short. Mary,
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: refusing to hear the advice of her well wishers, received
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: Arnold to her love. He protracted his visit to many weeks.
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: Before he returned to the city. He added another to
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: his triumphs My sister fell, Oh, when will the false
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: tone which pervade society make it needful to hold beyond
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: the pale of its promiscuous communion the man who acts
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: as Arnold acted? But what am I saying? From whom
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: could such sentiments come with a more ill grace than me, me,
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: who have been guilty of a similar, an even worse
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: course of conduct. A few months passed on, and my
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: sister's frailty could no longer be concealed. Our stepmother was
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: a severe woman. Her cold and haughty looks and her
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: sharp taunts drove poor Mary almost insane. My father, too,
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: when he knew his daughter's disgrace, expressed a determination to
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: cast her off forever. Had her own mother been alive,
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: the case would no doubt have resulted differently. She might
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: have stormed for a time, but at least the fatal termination, which,
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: as things were came to pass, would have been prevented.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: One day, my sister was missing. She was decamped in
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: the night, and no doubt was wandering about, homeless and shelterless.
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: We caused search to be made, which, at the end
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: of a couple of days ended in the discovery of
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: the lost one. She was completely deranged, and when found,
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: was seated upon the bank in a wide forest. She
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: died within a week. From that time, death, they say,
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: blots out all misdoings. We were all grieved and agonized
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: at the fate of our hapless Mary, but none with
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: that passion which filled my own bosom. I pondered night
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: and day upon the wickedness of her seducer Arnold. A
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: hundred schemes for revenge were fixed upon in my mind,
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: and then abandoned happening to go about this period upon
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: business in a neighboring city, I was accidentally called upon
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: at my lodgings by an itinerant teacher of sword fencing. Suddenly,
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: a new method of vengeance struck me. Upon the instant
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: I engaged the man to give me lessons. I applied
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: myself diligently to my new study, and within a short
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: time had the satisfaction of hearing my teacher pronounced me
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: one of the most proficient pupils he ever had. I
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: challenged Arnold to combat. He accepted my challenge. Perhaps you
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: may wonder that, in view of the profession I intended
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: to follow, I should have thought fit to act. Thus,
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: I was blinded by my hate for my sister's betrayer.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: I was engrossed by no other thought than that of revenge.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: Arnold met me as I demanded. Whether it was that
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: a just cause nerved my arm, or that his was
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: powerless with conscious guilt, I know not, But he fell.
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: When I left the place of the fight, he lay
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: there a stiff and senseless corpse. My antagonist had relatives
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: and friends of Frank, and it was plainly dangerous for
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: me to remain in Ireland. I gathered together what funds
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: I could raise on so sudden an emergency, and fled.
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: I directed my course to this general country of refuge
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: for the oppressed and the unfortunate, America. Good daughter, I
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: am now coming to a part of my fortunes which
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: I must fain hurry over with a rapid and casual narration.
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: My desire for adventure led me west, even to this region,
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: which at the time I speak of nearly thirty years since,
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: was far more wild and uncultivated than at present. A
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: party of hunters and traitors with whom I traveled, encamped
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: on this very spot during one entire winter. We were
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: in the neighborhood of a tribe of Indians, whom they
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: wished an opportunity of extended intercourse with. In the way
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: of traffic, there was a young maiden of the tribe
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: of bah. Why does the tell tale color rush up
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: into my face and mantle it with a hue of shame?
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: An Indian girl who visited our camp now and then
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: saw something in the young irishman that awoke in her
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: breast the flame which burns as brightly in the midst
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: of the great New World force as in the populous
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: places of the old hemisphere. She loved me and I
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: I had nothing to interrupt the tedium of our long stay.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: We were both with the hot blood of young veins.
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: At the coming of the spring, I left the place.
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: Some four or five seasons afterward, I came hither again.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: They showed the child of the Indian girl, my son.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: I almost shrieked with horror at the monstrous abortion. The
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: mother herself had died in giving it birth. No wonder,
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: never had my eyes been blasted with so much ugliness
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: as that hunchback boy daughter. That child even now moves
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: among you, an object of pity and disgust. Can you
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: wonder when I tell you it is no other than
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: the half idiot, half devil Bodo My wild and wayward
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: course of life. For the next few years, I shall
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: not pause to dwell upon. In the course of time,
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: a poignant sense of my ill deeds and a sickening
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: feeling of the vanity of all human enjoyments led me
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: to take the vows of the order I now form
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: a humble member of. One of the rules of our
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: rigorous piety is that a full and open confession of
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: any sins that lie upon the breast shall be given
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: ere a man can become one of our community, by
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: the advice of my superior and prompted too by my
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: own conscience, I have been aware that the least return
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: I can make the wretched Bodo, for having been the
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: author of his existence, is to do my best toward
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: opening his mind to the blessing of the true faith.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: For this purpose I come every few months. Hither I
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: have labored diligently to educate and imbue with devout feelings
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: the unfortunate young man. But his besotted nature and wilful
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: peevishness lead me to believe that my labors will too,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: probably be in vain. Your look seems to ask me
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: why I do not take him to a more congenial region,
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: for giving him the benefits of religion. Of what use
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: would it be? Now? No one knows the degree of
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: relationship that exists between us, except yourself and my holy intimates.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: Bodo himself is of course totally ignorant of it, leaving
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: the matter in the hands of Providence, and painfully conscious
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: that not which I could do would benefit the condition
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: of the poor creature. I have made up my mind
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: that when I leave this place, as I shall shortly do,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: to return to my convent and my brethren. It will
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: be to spend the rest of my days there, and
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: to see this spot and my miserable offspring no more chore.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: The latter part of Father Luke's narration, he had been
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: somewhat interrupted by sundry, distant shouts and sounds of tumult.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: Missus Brown, deeply interested in the story, had paid but
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: little attention to them. But now the clang came nearer
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: and nearer, and loud and agitated voices sounded out in
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: the road near the door. A moment longer, and the
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: door opened quickly, and a man, the elder brother of
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: the young wife, rushed toward her, with his face very
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: pale and every sign of horror and agitation. Oh, sister,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: he cried, Peter Brown is murdered in the forest by
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: the Indian arrow tip. The startled woman looked a moment
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: in his face, as if to assure herself that she
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: had heard aright. She saw crowding in at the door,
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: and out upon the road. The forms of many of
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: the neighbors then all swam before her eyes, and she
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: fainted in her brother's arms. End of chapter four chapter
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: five of The Half Breed, A Tale of the Western
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: Frontier by Walt Whitman. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: public domain recording by Chuck Williamson. Chapter five. Just out
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: from the village. When the hunting party started that morning,
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: they had been joined by arrow Tip's brother. The deer,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: he accompanied by a favorite dog, was watching the evolutions
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: of a large bird that lazily skimmed near the surface
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: of a cascade near by, a charming spot that, were
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: it in the neighborhood of our eastern cities, would be
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: visited by thousands for its beauty. Call the dog from me, brother,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: said the deer. He frightens the bird. Arrow Tip did
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: as he was desired. The party had passed on, bidding
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: the two Indians to follow, and the chief sat himself
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: down a moment at the foot of a large tree
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: and waited till the successful aim of the deer should
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: bring the bird to the ground. One hand grasped his
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: hunting bow, and with the other he caressed the dog.
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: The plot of the narrative makes it preferable not to
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: detail minutely here all the events that took place during
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: the day. One of those events, a startling and bloody
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: one has already been intimated to the at the conclusion
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: of the last chapter. Soon after, arrow Tip and the
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: deer came up with the rest of the party, whom
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: they found. Proceeding onward with light and buoyant steps, they
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: all arrived at the destined point of their enterprise. It
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: is unusual in such cases for a band to be
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: subdivided into smaller groups, each having its section or lookout spot.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: The animals to be hunted are thus encompassed and met
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: at every turn, and seldom fail of becoming sooner or
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: later a prey to the sportsman. I think, said mister Thorn,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: it will be best for Quincy to come with my party, Aerotip.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: Suppose you and Peter Brown take the bend at Oak
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: Creek for your safe. That will suit me, answered the blacksmith.
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: Arrow Tip also expressed his consent to the arrangement. Four
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: or five other groups of two or three in each
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: were dispatched to their various posts, and the business of
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: the day soon commenced in good earnest. It was fine sport,
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: and the young villagers of Warren in this case found
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: their labors attended with that alternate good and ill fortune,
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: which make such amusements more agreeable even than the continued
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 1: current of success. A hunt in the western forests, to
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: those who have tasted of the fun and know its pleasures,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: we need say but little, With the great woods all about,
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: and no sign of man's neighborhood except the cheerful voices
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: of your companions, with the wide, solemnly wide stretching of
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: unpeopled territory to a distance it would take the journey
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: of months to compass, with the blue sky overhead, clear
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: and not murky, from the smoke of a million chimneys,
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: with that strange and exhilarating and pervading sense of freedom,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: which strikes into all your sense and body, as it were,
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: from the illimitable and untrammeled the boundless nature of everything
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: about you. Is it not a right manly and glorious sport.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: There are no appearances of the artificial about such a hunt,
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: no park walls, and no cultivated and regularly laid out
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: grounds to be crossed. It is all nature, all wide,
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: beautiful and inspiriting business, which no systematic chasing of a
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: poor deer within fences and by trained packs can equal
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: one week of such fine and wholesome recreation would do
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: more good to our enervated city gentry than a hundred
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: gymnasiums or all the medicines of a drug shop. During
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: the morning and the early half of the afternoon, the
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: various groups of the parties saw each other at intervals,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: and those who had been most successful threw out married
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: jibes against their less fortunate companions. The day advanced, and
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: the sun wanted but a couple of hours to his setting.
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: Mister Thorn and one or two others, who, being the
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: elder and more experienced, had by general consent, been called
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: upon to act as leaders of the party, began to
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 1: think of collecting their scattered forces and returning homeward. It
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: was at this period that the following incident happened, casting
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: a gloom over the occasion and throwing the whole of
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: the village when it became known, in a paroxysm of
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: agitation and horror. Two of the hunters, young men who
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: had come out with the rest of the party, had
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: to pass on their return to the general rendezvous near
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: the station assigned to Peter Brown and the Indian. The
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: young men made themselves a rude raft and were floating
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: down the river toward their destination, for this was an
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: easier and more agreeable method of traveling than breaking their
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: way through the thicket of the forest. As they came
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: off against the mouth of Oak Creek, they heard sounds
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: of human voices in the wood in loud and angry talk.
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: They paused and listened. They soon distinguished the voices to
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: be those of the blacksmith an arrow tip from where
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: they were situated. The hunters could not distinctly see the quarrelers,
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: but the latter were within a few rods, and their
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: voices and much of what they said might easily be heard.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: Brown was plainly wrought up to a high pitch of
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: passion and swore most terribly. Not many moments elapsed before
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: the two men upon the raft were convinced that the
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: dispute had ended in a scuffle. Fearful that some more
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: than ordinary harm might be the consequence, they seized their
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: poles and rapidly pushed the raft to the shore. Upon
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: landing there, to penetrate the wood and reach the place
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: of the combatants took them but a few moments. They
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: started in alarm as they came in close view of
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: the spot. No scuffling or angry words were there. Now,
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: Brown the blacksmith, lay upon the ground with a heavy
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: gash on the side of his head. An arrow Tip
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: stood leaning calmly and sullenly against a tree. Good God,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: exclaimed one of the intruders. He has murdered him. They
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 1: stepped quickly to Brown's prostrate form and raised him up
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: in a sitting posture. But it was too late. All
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: sense was gone, and they saw that what they could
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: do to restore him would be of little avail. Horror
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: struck the terrible nature of the whole affair. The impulse
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: of both the men was first to fly the place
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: and bring some of their companions. Then a very natural
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: sentiment of indignation arose in their bosom toward the murderer,
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: who stood there with so much apathy. They feared that
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: if they left the spot, he would escape. Chief, said
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: he who had first spoken, you have done a damned action,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: and must go with us to answer for it. Arrow
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: Tip made no sign of repugnance. Had he done so, indeed,
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: the result might have been somewhat unfavorable to the others.
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: He was a strong and agile man, and held in
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: his grasp the gun, which they recognized as belonging to Brown.
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: Once only as a remark was passed between them about
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: the propriety of binding his arms, the savage looked towards
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: them with a face which caused them to desist from
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: their intention. Arrow Tip, then, as they signed him to follow,
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: walked after them. He spoke not a word and offered
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: nothing in the shape of remonstrance, excuse, or justification. Ere
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: they left the ground, one of the hunters took a
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: blanket which he happened to have with them, and threw
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: it over the senseless body. It was to be there
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: but a few minutes, when they would return and bear
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: it to the village, in company with the criminal, whom
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 1: they desired first to place in security. End of chapter five,
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: chapter six of The Half Breed, A Tale of the
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: Western Frontier by Walt Whitman. This LibriVox recording is in
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: the public domain recording by Chuck Williamson. Chapter six return
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: we to the scene of the conflict and to the
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: senseless body. The hunters were mistaken in supposing it dead.
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: Though severely injured, Brown was not deprived of life. The
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: blow had stunned him, and the loss of blood had
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: made him faint. Some fifteen minutes elapsed, and the flickering
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: consciousness of existence came back to the wounded man. It
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: came at first painful and dream like, then fuller and
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: with more distinctness. When he awoke to a knowledge of
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: his situation and realized why it was that he lay
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: there with a bloody gash upon his temple, and his
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: hair clotted, and his limbs quite nerveless, he remembered the
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: altercation and the blows passed between himself and the Indian
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: cooler in temper. Now he thought of twenty little things
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: wherein he had been in the wrong, and he determined
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 1: to make up the quarrel. The first time he and
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: the chief met, he shut his eyes a moment, conscious
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: of a drowsy and disagreeable sensation. What impish creature was that?
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: Who met Brown's gaze? As he looked again, the leaves
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: and the twigs crackled, and a form which mocked the
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: outlines of humanity bent over him. It was bodo Ah,
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: said the half breed, an expression of dissatisfaction settling upon
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: his face. Is he alive? I thought? The blow? It
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: killed him? Outright, and a second time, and more plainly,
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: disappointment was evinced upon his features. How came you here,
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: said Brown, in a weak voice. I saw it all,
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: answered the hunchback, chuckling. Oh, I saw it all. I
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: have followed him, cursed him forever since the morning, and
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 1: I thought he had killed you. Don't you call that murder?
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: The wounded man made a sign of assent, and then
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: he would have been hung, Oh that it might. Bodo paused,
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: for he saw that he was going too far. He
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: had a species of cunning, notwithstanding his natural dullness, and
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: that taught him, on the present occasion, to repress the remarks.
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: He was going to make nothing more or less than sorrow,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: because the savage had not, indeed made himself amenable to
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: the severest punishment of the law. I am as weak
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: as a baby, said, Oh, what would I give for
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: a drink of cool water and a quiet rest of
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: an hour or two? And a spasm of agony passed
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: over the countenance of the speaker. He was evidently under
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: much suffering. There is a place, rejoined Bodo, nearer at hand,
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: perhaps than you imagine, where you might get what you wish.
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: The blacksmith looked up with a mute glance of inquiry
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: in the other's face. Yonder continued, Bodo, where you see
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: the crooked oak is the cave of Father Luke. I
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: have been there and know the spot. Help me thither,
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: said Brown, And when I am taken home, I will
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: remember your kindness. He slightly raised his body and waited
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: for the hunchback's further assistance. See, said the malicious personage, grinning,
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: How important is your Bodo in cases of extremity? All long?
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 2: No people care for him except to mock him until
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 2: they are harmed, and then they ask his aid. Brown,
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 2: that he possessed his strength, would have found a summary
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 2: way of replying to the provoking speech, but he was
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 2: now fain to submit and silently wait his pleasure. The
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 2: hunchback bent at the side of the blacksmith and assisted
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 2: him to rise. It was hardly until that moment that
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 2: Brown felt how much injured he had really been. He
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 2: could hardly hold himself up, and he shivered with a
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 2: chill and felt deadly sick. So, with slow and unsteady pace,
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 2: leaning upon Bodo, and often stopping to rest against a
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 2: trunk of a friendly tree, he traversed the few rods
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 2: which intervene between the place of the quarrel and the
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 2: rude dwelling of the lonesome man. Bodo parted the shrubs
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 2: around its entrance and showed his companion the method of
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 2: the safest ingress. For either by accident or from its
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 2: occupant's labor, there were certain thorny plants in various twistings
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 2: and darkness turns, which required some heed to read uninjured.
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 2: When they came into the room of the monk, they
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 2: found it untenanted, without life or noise. They saw from
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 2: the appearance of things that its dweller had probably left
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 2: it that morning, and no doubt would be back.
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: Ere. Long take that vessel, said Peter faintly, pointing to
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: a large tin cup which hung on the wall, and
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: bring me some water from the nearest spring. I am
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: dizzy and thirsty. Bodo did as he was desired, and
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: the sick man threw himself on a heap of bear
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: skin that lay in one corner. He felt strangely and miserably.
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: Perhaps even now the death arrow tip had failed of inflicting,
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: might not be far distant. He would have given half
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: his little estate had he been at home and with
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: his wife to soothe his sickness. The indolent half breed,
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: loitering on his way to the spring, notwithstanding the emergency
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: of the time, heard a step along a path near by,
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: and turning saw father Luke winding his way with hasty
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: strides and agitated features. No you ought of this terrible business,
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: my son, said, he addressing Bodo with a title which
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: the poor wretch little knew his right to in a
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: worldly sense as well from the usage of the church.
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: They tell me in the village that Peter Brown is
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: murdered by arrow tip. What they say in the village
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: is often false, is true, replied Bodo with a sneer.
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: The monks saw that the hunchback could relate more of
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: the business, and a hope sprung in his mind that
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: he should perhaps hear a refutation of the fearful rumor.
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: Good Son said, he do not tamper with me. Describe
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: what you may of the matter at once. Well, then
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: continued the other. The plain truth is that the Indian
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: would have killed Peter, and did so try. But Peter,
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: having a very thick skull, his life was saved. I
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: saw it myself. They came and took arrow tip away
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: and probably have him at the village at this moment
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: where I know that, interrupted the Holy Father impatiently. I
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: am just from war and myself and know all about that.
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: Tell me where is Brown now? Seeing the poor fellow
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: in such distress, Bodo went on, though to tell the fact,
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: he did not know it himself. For quite a long while, I,
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: with my usual good kindness, walked round him and round
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: him and prayed for his recovery. The hunchback leered blaspheme not,
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: said the monk, sharply hasten with your narration, and use
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: no more such wicked ridicule. Shortly he came to himself,
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: and I have taken the liberty of showing him the
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: way to your luxurious dwelling, where he is at this
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: moment reposing, being dry, he wished a cup of water,
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: which I am now to bring. God in Heaven be blessed.
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: Was the fervent ejaculation of the monk as he heard
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: Bodo's recital. The curse of the avenger of blood will
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: not fall on the Chief's head, and the misery and
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 1: crime be saved. Then, bidding Bodo make speed, he turned
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: toward the cave with a lighter heart. End of chapter
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: six chapter seven of The Half Breed, A Tale of
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: the Western Frontier by Walt Whitman. This LibriVox recording is
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: in the public domain recording by Chuck Williamson. Chapter seven.
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: Peter Brown was indeed much injured. When the monk looked
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: upon him, he saw that it would be dangerous to
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: have him carried the distance between the cave and the village.
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: Father Luke, as is frequently the case with those of
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: his profession, had considerable knowledge of surgery and medicine, and
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: he determined to tax that knowledge to its utmost for
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: the benefit of his guest. He prepared a simple plaster,
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: and washing the wound, bound it round the blacksmith's head.
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 1: Some cooling drinks were then given him, and he felt
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: less faint. Tell me, said he to the monk, what
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: was done in the village where you say you heard
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: of this silly matter? Father Luke thought the talk might
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: twile away his patient's thoughts from his suffering, and he
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: readily acceded to his request. You may imagine, said he,
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: with what horror we first heard the story of your death,
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: and in such a manner Your poor wife, with whom
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: I had been for a couple of hours, was like
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: one distracted and wished at once to start forth for
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: the scene of the calamity. We of course prevented her,
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: for that would have done no good, even had the
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: case been as bad as was stated. Shortly on going
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: into the heart of the village, I saw the hunting
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 1: party themselves. Arrow Tip was there in custody between two
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: of your neighbors, of whom I inquired more, particularly with
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: respect to your death. They stated that it was too
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: true that they had themselves seen your corpse. From what
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: Bodo there has told me, it must have been while
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: you were lying senseless after the blow. Bitterly grieving that
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: such sad thoughts should disturb the happiness of our peaceful settlement,
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: I questioned the men over and over again with regard
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: to the details of their story, But they told that
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: story with evident truth, and I could not but believe them.
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: It was hastily arranged that a party should be immediately
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: dispatched for your dead body, and in the meantime arrow
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: Tip was to be strictly guarded and prevented from any
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: chance of escape until proper measures could be taken for
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: his punishment. Judging from the fierce glances of your neighbors
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: towards him and their strongly uttered sentiments of revenge, the
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: poor Indian's fate, had you indeed been killed, would have
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 1: proved quite as painful as yours. And indeed he would
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: have followed you before many hours a band of six,
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: or to keep watch day and night in the strong
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: room where he is confined. Painful as was the situation
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: of the blacksmith, he could not help feeling some sympathy
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: for arrow Tip, to whose proud nature he knew the
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: scoffs and threats of the villagers would be scathing agony. Confinement, too,
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: even for a few hours, was a terrible infliction to
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: such a being as the Indian chief, apart from the disgrace,
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: which in itself was no small matter. Let Bodo go
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: at once to the village, said the blacksmith, and tell
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: the truth of the story. And I would not have
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: my wife come hither at least at present, for I
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: think of no good she can do. Now. Let us
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: talk no more, for I feel a strange drowsiness all
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 1: over me, and would sleep. Tell me, father, how long
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 1: do you think will be the duration of my illness.
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: That answered the monk is in the hands of God.
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: But judging from the best of my knowledge, I may
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: be able to recover you in three days, so that
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: you can travel to your own house. At present, you
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: are not fit to walk a rod. At this very moment,
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: you are falling into a fever which will require all
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: of my watchfulness. Now, my son, compose yourself to sleep.
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: Drawing down a rude curtain that served the double office
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: of door and of shade, if the latter were needed,
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: and so of obscure an apartment, the monk took Bodo
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: by the hand, and, stepping into the outer part of
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 1: the hut, gave him his directions and his message, and
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: bade him hasten to the village. The hunchback sullenly listened
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: and made no rejoinder as he started forth on his
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 1: errand then softly, stepping in again, the lonesome man took
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: his seat beside the blacksmith, who already slumbered. He saw
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 1: that his patient would indeed need his closest and most
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: unremitting care. Let us go with Bodo toward the village.
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: Why as this hapless creature arrived beyond sight of the
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: entrance to Father Luke's dwelling. Why did he stop and
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: gaze cautiously around a moment, said himself down upon a bank,
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: and remain there a long hour, apparently buried in the
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: profoundest meditation. What thoughts passed through the miserable young man's
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: brain as he rested there? What strange wishes or petty
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: resolves of evil or hopes for revenge? In the early
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: light of that very day, it will be remembered the
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: hunchback had been detected by arrow tip and the theft,
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: and exposed before all of mister Thorn's family. Bodo, used
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: as he was to all kinds of scorn and insult,
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: had times when the bestowal of such an insult would
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: plant itself so deeply within his breast that it could
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: never be blotted out, but by signal revenge. Once he
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: was known to have kept for nearly two years the
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 1: memory of a blow given him by a boy, and
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 1: taken vengeance for it at last by destroying a pet
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: dog of his young injurer. Another time, when refused by
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: an irritable dame a drink of water, he ten months
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: afterwards frightened the woman half to death by wrapping a
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: white garment around him and starting out before her as
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: she returned home alone one evening from a tea party
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 1: with some of her gossips. Numerous were the instances in
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: which he would suddenly verge from his sometime patient endurance
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: of contempt, such as that related at the opening of
• 1:34:48
  Speaker 1: this tale, and resolve upon a signal scheme of retaliation.
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: The present case, as he turned it over in his mind,
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: might afford him an opportunity of repaying arrow Tip for
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: the shame of the event of the morning. The chief
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: was now in custody in the village, and, according to
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: Father Luke's account, surrounded by those who had little good
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: will toward him. Bodo felt sure that the course of
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: justice were the people allowed to remain with the unquestionable
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: belief of Peter Brown's death, would neither be very lenient
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: nor wait very long to be carried to its consummation.
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: Suppose he should not do his errand as enjoined upon
• 1:35:40
  Speaker 1: him by Brown in the monk, the monk himself, in
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: all probability, would be unable to leave the cave to
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 1: visit the village, and they had desired him to request
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 1: the absence of the immediate friends of the blacksmith would
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 1: not his revenge then triumph, The malignant hunchback laughed in
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: his heart as he determined upon carrying out his plan.
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: He rose, and with the swiftness of a deer more
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: than that of a man, he soon gained the neighborhood
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: of the village. Within a hundred rods or thereabout of
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: the outermost house, Bodo beheld a party of eight or
• 1:36:27
  Speaker 1: ten men approaching with sedate and gloomy demeanor. Among them
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: was Quincy Thorn. They paid no attention to the hunchback,
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: although he was directly in their path, But that personage,
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: suspecting their errand determined on accompanying them, He attached himself
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: to Quincy, entered into conversation with him, and walked on
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: with the rest. You have seen the body, you say,
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 1: asked the boy, and rejoinder as something the hunchback was
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: telling him, and you are sure it was quite dead
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: without design. Quincy looked full into the other's eyes. Bodo,
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: resolute and impudent as he was, could not stand that gaze.
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: His countenance expressed something from which young Thorn strongly judged
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: he knew more of the matter. Than he felt disposed
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: to tell. It was cold and stiff as a nail,
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: answered Bodo, and I was frightened and ran away from
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: the place. Less than an hour brought them to the
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 1: limits of the spot. The two hunters who had heard
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: the conflict and carried arrow Tip to the rendezvous. A
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 1: prisoner were with them and pointed out the way. How
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: were they amazed upon coming to the exact place to
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: find the blacksmith's body missing. There were tracks and signs
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 1: of a struggle, and the blood lay thick upon the
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: leaves where the hunter's told Brown's body had been, but
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: the corpse itself was nowhere to be seen. For a
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 1: minute or two, they gazed on one another, without knowing
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: what to do or say. Comrades, said one of them.
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: Suddenly a new light breaks upon me. We all know
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: that the brother of this cursed arrow Tip is near
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: at hand. He was with us in the hunt. Without
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: doubt he has concealed the body and the to give
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: the murderer a chance of escape from justice. The glances
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: which from each to his fellow followed this opinion showed
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: that everyone assented to it. End of chapter seven, Chapter
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: eight of The Half Breed a Tale of the Western
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: Frontier by Walt Whitman. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: public domain recording by Chuck Williamson, Chapter eight. In many
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: of the towns of the West and South, it is
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: well known the punishment of crime is without the delays
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: and necessary forms and statutable restrictions of our older cities states.
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: The only law, in fact, to some of the more
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: remote of these places is public will and public feeling,
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: a dangerous state of things in a large and vicious city,
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 1: but far from being attended with the evils which many
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: people imagine when exercised in the places we allude to.
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: At all events, it is better to be under this
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: sovereign and self constituted power than to have no law
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 1: at all. When the men return to Warren that evening,
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 1: with the strange news of the disappearance of the corpse,
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: the same sentiment prevailed among the villagers which has been
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: mentioned in the concluding lines of the last chapter. It
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: served perhaps to deepen their indignation and make them anxious
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: for a more hasty retribution on the head of him
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 1: who was considered as the murderer. Let us said, they
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: let us not wait in this affair, and give the
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 1: savage a chance of escape. But let us act as
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: determined men, and have blood for blood. The watch that
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: night had been arranged for six persons, who were thought
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: to sufficient surety that arrow Tip could not get away.
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: But so sanguinary was the spirit of the inhabitants that
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: half the young men in the place turned out and
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: surrounded the strong room where the prisoner was confined, lest
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: some little opportunity might occur which would lead to a
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 1: failure in the fulfillment of their gloomy purpose. The brother
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: of arrow Tip, the deer, appeared among them. As he approached,
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: they lowered fierce glances upon him, which he returned none.
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: He made a simple request to be permitted to see
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: arrow Tip, which they at once and without parley, refused.
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: He turned and calmly left the place. One or two
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: among them spoke of the propriety of placing the deer
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: also endurance, but this, upon further consideration, was abandoned. No
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: one knew the thoughts of the imprisoned chief that weary night,
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: but his great spirit he spoke not to those about him,
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 1: preserving a calm and lofty aspect, and making no answer
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: to their scoffs and taunts. Day came again. They found
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: him when they went in the room at the first
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: streak of light, impelled by a feverish jealousy, lest he
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: might have still evaded their vigilance and got away. Found
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: him when they went in the room at the first
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 1: streak of light, impelled by a feverish jealousy, lest he
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: might still have evaded their vigilance and got away. They
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: found him standing there, still and silent and haughty. His hair,
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: part of it had fallen down over his forehead in
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: his eyes. He was too abstracted even to lift his
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: hand and push it away. The morning meal, which they
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: gave him he partook of in moderation, And as the
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: people of the place, men, women, and children came during
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 1: the course of the forenoon to gaze in upon him,
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: as upon some strange monster brought from a distant climb,
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: he preserved the same attitude, and even brushed not the
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: hair away from his eye where it had fallen again.
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: About an hour past noon, three of the oldest men
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: in warren. The oldest of the three was but five
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: and forty years, and came in apparently upon important business
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: connected with the prisoner in his crime. Chief, said the
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: leader of the trio. It is needless for us to
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: tell you why you are confined here, and what may
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: be the nature of the punishment for the deed you
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: have committed. Arrow Tip glanced upon them with apathy and
• 1:44:39
  Speaker 1: made no reply. Chief said the first speaker again, it
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: is ill that you act so obstinately and preserve this
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: childish silence. A grown man should not be stubborn like
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: a dumb brute that has no knowledge. It is not ill,
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: said the savage quietly. I am silent because I have
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: seen no fit occasion to speak. What would you have
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: me say? My companions and myself have been sent hither,
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: answered the other, to learn from you what you can
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: tell us of the quarrel and the fight which ended
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: so fatally. Arrow Tip paused a moment in thought, then,
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 1: waving his hand toward the door, he said, I have
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: little to tell, but let it be told to all,
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: not to three. Only. Let me speak to your brothers
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: and kinsmen, also as you desire, was the reply. One
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: of the three opened the door and gave some directions
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: to a person without They then emerged altogether and walked
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: onward to an open green on one side of which
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: was the schoolhouse, and on the other was the church.
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: It was a kind of public assembly ground, and there
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: four fifths of the people were at that moment gathered
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: as arrow Tip and company. With the three approached this
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: what was to be, in some sense his tribunal. There
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: was a silence throughout the whole spot, and all eyes
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: were directed toward him. He told his story. It was
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: a plane tale, and bore not strongly either toward his
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: guilt or innocence. Brown and he, as most of these
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: present knew, had been dispatched together to the Bend station,
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: and the course of the day they were frequently seen
• 1:46:59
  Speaker 1: like the other, and had themselves seen the others when
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: they first arrived at the station. We are giving the
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: substance of the story of arrow Tip himself. The chief
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: made a banter with the blacksmith, that the latter would
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: kill no game in a merry vein. He bt his
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: tobacco pouch against a rude kind of weapon, half hatchet
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 1: and half poiniard, that Brown had made himself and then
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: carried in his girdle. The day passed on, and it
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 1: was plain that the chief would, in all probability gain
• 1:47:39
  Speaker 1: his wager. Brown was a man of considerable heat of temper,
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 1: and his ill success in the sport, and the laughing
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: jibes of arrow Tip, for it is an error to
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: suppose that our American Indians invariably retain their sedateness, caused
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 1: him to become more than ordinarily fretful. At last, the
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 1: signal for their return to the rendezvous was heard, and
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: they prepared to obey it, carrying nothing to the common stock.
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: The chief still continued his provoking raillery, and the blacksmith
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: was rapidly losing all command of his passions. It was
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: at this unfortunate juncture that arrow Tip was heedless enough
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: to attempt seizing the weapon at Peter's girdle, which was
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: now become his prize. The difficulty merged at this point
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: into a scuffle, and in the scuffle the blow was given,
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: which was supposed to have caused the blacksmith's death. Thus
• 1:48:52
  Speaker 1: the Chief concluded his story. He himself entertained no doubt
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: that Brown was dead, but when told that his brother
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 1: had taken away the body, he made no answer but
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: a glance of scorn. Of all those there convened only one,
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: the hunchback Bodo knew the full truth, and could have
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: set the whole matter right, and the prisoner free, and
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: poured joy into the hearts of the wife and Brown's friends,
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 1: had he so chosen, But he did not choose. A
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: short communion took place between the men of Warren. There
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: was no judge and no jury. Each grown man was
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 1: admitted to the conference and listened to with respect for
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 1: each knew that the present case was a matter which
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 1: touched the happiness and interest of his neighbor as much
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 1: as himself. Perhaps the time which was consumed in this
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: deliberation upon the fate of the chief might have been
• 1:50:06
  Speaker 1: an hour, perhaps less, certainly not more. Reader, such deliberations
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: and such methods of administering justice may perhaps appear to
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: you as fictitious, as part of a tale of fiction.
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 1: It is not so. There may be found in the
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 1: region of the scene of these transactions many a place
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 1: where the same course is held in criminal cases. And
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: it may be doubted whether, after all, the result is
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: being at the risk of being more inconsistent with justice
• 1:50:49
  Speaker 1: than in the courts of law in our Atlantic towns.
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: Chief said the one who had acted as messenger to ours. Four.
• 1:51:01
  Speaker 1: We look upon you as guilty of murder. We shall
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: take your life for that of our brother. We shall
• 1:51:10
  Speaker 1: kill you tomorrow, when the sun is at the highest,
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: you will look for the last time on the light arrow.
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: Tip's countenance changed not, nor did his lip quiver one
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 1: passionate wild glance. Only he cast around him, as if
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 1: in quest of his brother, or of some other look
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 1: of sympathy he found neither. End of chapter eight chapter
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: nine of The Half Breed, A Tale of the Western
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: Frontier by Walt Whitman. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 1: public domain recording by Chuck Williamson. Chapter nine, Ha ha
• 1:52:13
  Speaker 1: ha came the children's laughter. It was a simple and
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: yet awful commentary on the dispositions of human hearts. The
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 1: laughter for the merry tones were the same to all appearance,
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: which had been uttered several days previous, when Master Caleb
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: gave his flock a holiday for Peter Brown's wedding. The
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: second laugh, and just as Gleaesum commemorated the bestowal that
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 1: morning of another holiday for the hanging of Peter Brown's murderer.
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: The day was warm and sunny, a languid breath of
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 1: wind now and then fluttered the leaves of the trees,
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: but for the most time the sun shone down as
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: upon a sleeping and lifeless place. Even the laugh of
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 1: the heedless children soon hushed of their own accord. For
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: a somber spirit pervaded the people of Warren, a resolute spirit, however,
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 1: resolute to have the life blood of him who had
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: taken life. Let us open the doors of the strong
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: room and go in there. Arrow tips stood against the
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 1: wall by the window. It was the only one, and
• 1:53:45
  Speaker 1: a little child's body could not have been twisted through,
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 1: so small was it. And gazed forth upon the land
• 1:53:54
  Speaker 1: and the trees, and a small strip of the river beyond.
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: Could see only a small strip, but it was pleasant,
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: and many minutes glided on. As he gazed haply, he
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: pondered upon scenes and people far away in the early years,
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: scenes not to come any more, but which it was
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: a great delight to think of. A smile passed over
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 1: his face. Then the sounds of talking outside, and something
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: like disturbance interrupted the chief's meditation. His brother, the Deer,
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 1: entered and stood before him. They had consented to let
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: him pay this visit. At last, mister Thorn had interceded
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 1: in his behalf. For several minutes, neither spoke. Arrowtip himself
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: was as calm as the most placid lake in the forest,
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: but the features on the other were convulsed in agony. Brother,
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: said the chief with dignity. I see the eyes of
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 1: our parents looking down upon us. Very soon I shall
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 1: talk to them. They will ask me of news about
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: my brother. Let me not say I left him weeping
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 1: like a girl. His remonstrance produced the effect he wished. Shortly,
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: the face of the deer was as calm as his own.
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 1: The Path said, the newcomer will be dark and the
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: white man's taunts hot for the last hour of a
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: warrior's life. I can bear both, was the laconic answer,
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: and my path plaintively countered the younger brother, drawing nigh
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 1: and resting his face on arrow Tip's shoulder. As I
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 1: look forth upon the passing of the moons, it is
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 1: bitter and lonesome. Not for an hour, but for years,
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 1: Oh brother, the great Spirit has frowned upon our race.
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 1: We melt away like the snows and spring. It is
• 1:56:42
  Speaker 1: the will of the spirit. Yet I am glad, continued
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 1: the dear true to the instincts of his people. I
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 1: am glad that you will die like an old brave
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 1: we will in the very faces of the whites arrow
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 1: tips smiled quietly. He too had been bred in the
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: school of those sturdy stoics. Death is but a puff
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 1: of air, said he. And in the distance lie the
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 1: great hunting grounds of the honest Indian. They are fair,
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 1: our kinsmen. Beckon me to them with smiles and friendly gestures.
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: Why should I fear to go, but the tidings will
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 1: cloud the faces of our tribe and darkness. Tell them,
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 1: rejoined the chief that I met my punishment as a
• 1:57:49
  Speaker 1: hunter grasps the hands of those he loves. Tell them
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 1: of the customs of those white people. Our own are
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: the same which require of him who destroys one of
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: their number his own life as a sacrifice. When I
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 1: came hither, not many days, since I was near to
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: death even then, and my fate would have happened to
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 1: me but for the medicine knowledge of two or three
• 1:58:23
  Speaker 1: kind men of the settlement. Brother, wait till the last
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 1: is over, and then carry me away a little distance
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 1: from the sight of these people's dwellings, and bury me
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: with my face toward the pleasant hunting grounds. Let us
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: talk no more. The courage of the younger Indian failed
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 1: him at this speech. Again. The piteous sight of a
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: man abandoned the excess of sorrow is fearful at any time.
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: It could not but be doubly so in the present case,
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 1: from the general apathy and haughtiness of the savage character.
• 1:59:12
  Speaker 1: It was now ten o'clock and the sun stood high
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 1: in the heavens on the green where Arrow Tip had
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 1: received judgment the day before. The people of Warren were
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: assembled again to witness the performance of that judgment. While
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 1: they were waiting thus, some of them chatting in groups,
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: and others vacantly gazing at the rude scaffold in rope,
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 1: quincy Thorn came hurriedly in among them and inquired for
• 1:59:47
  Speaker 1: Master Caleb, the teacher. Finding him, the two drew aside
• 1:59:54
  Speaker 1: from the mass, the boy leading his companion. They conferred
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: together a few minutes with much animation and many gestures
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 1: of wonder, and then both hurried away toward a path
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 1: which led from the village along the river's edge. We
• 2:00:15
  Speaker 1: will pause here a moment to explain two of the
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: schoolboys who had received their permission of a holiday that morning,
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 1: determining to enjoy it to the utmost, agreed to take
• 2:00:30
  Speaker 1: a ramble in the forest on some juvenile project or
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: other which they might do, and return in time to
• 2:00:39
  Speaker 1: behold the sight, as they termed the event. That day,
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: Unconsciously in their wanderings they came upon the very opening
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: where Brown and the chief had fought. The sudden recollections
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 1: brought up by seeing the place and the blood, which
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 1: was even yet visible on the ground, frightened one of
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 1: the children, and in their hasty retreat from the spot,
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 1: how much more were they alarmed on gaining the banks
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 1: of the stream to see, reclining there in the sunshine,
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 1: the shape of the now wan and pallid faced Peter
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 1: Brown himself. To their horrified imaginations, it was the specter
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: of a murdered corpse. They ran, pale and breathless toward
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 1: the village, and, meeting Quincy there, told him with gasping
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: voices what they had witnessed. The youth lost not a
• 2:01:46
  Speaker 1: moment in seeking out his friend Master Caleb, and in
• 2:01:50
  Speaker 1: conveying the information to him, joined with the strange manner
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: of Bodo, and with Quincey's previous strongly entertain suspicions, The
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: teacher and his young intimate had no doubt that the case,
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 1: as as it in truth was, and as it has
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: been related to the reader, they immediately determined on their
• 2:02:17
  Speaker 1: plan of action. Meanwhile, Brown, wondering that some of his
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 1: neighbors had not at least called at the cave to
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 1: see him, was importunate with the monk that he might
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: be allowed to walk home. Solitude had few charms for
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: the blacksmith. Whatever Father Luke thought upon the subject. As
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 1: he returned to the cave from the idle lounge in
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 1: the sun, where he had unconsciously so alarmed the two schoolboys,
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 1: he again asked the monk when he could safely walk
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 1: the distance of the village, Though, judging by the cold
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 1: kindness of my friend friends, said he peevishly. It will
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 1: make little difference if I remain away for months. Patience,
• 2:03:09
  Speaker 1: my son, said the Holy Father. Tomorrow, I will myself
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 1: accompany you thither, as yet your strength is hardly equal
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 1: to the task. And the invalid, though ill satisfied, was
• 2:03:27
  Speaker 1: forced to be content. But see exclaimed the monk, as
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 1: if to reprove you of your ungrateful vexation, yonder come
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 1: two of your townsmen, and with a pace which speaks
• 2:03:44
  Speaker 1: little of indifference for your company. The two were Master
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 1: Caleb and quincy Thorn. It would be superfluous here were
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 1: we to dwell on the rapid and graphic narration of
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: the visitors. To Brown and Father Luke. With a flushed cheek,
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 1: and without speaking, the blacksmith snatched up a blanket, the
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 1: blanket the two hunters had thrown over his senseless form
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 1: in the forest, and strode forth from the cave. At
• 2:04:19
  Speaker 1: about the same period when the teacher and his companion
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 1: first appeared to the sight of the monk, the self
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 1: appointed guards opened the doors of the room where arrow
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 1: Tip was confined, and bade him come forth. He did so,
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 1: and his brother with him. What wondrous power those rude
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: savages have over the expression of their features. The condemned Indian,
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: you might have thought, was starting upon a hunt instead
• 2:04:53
  Speaker 1: of marching to an ignominious death. The other also had
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: mastered his agony. Once more, they passed through the multitude,
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 1: and the chief stood upon the scaffold, O God of
• 2:05:10
  Speaker 1: the innocent, throw strength amid the sinews of that sweaty
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 1: faced man in the forest, who with strained eyes and
• 2:05:19
  Speaker 1: unsteady steps, is dashing through the tangled shrubs and the
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 1: thick underwood, whose thorny and jagged branches have wounded him
• 2:05:31
  Speaker 1: in many places, though he sees not the trickling blood,
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: nor feels the smart All around the scaffold were the
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: dogged and lowering countenances of men, telling of an unrelenting
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: purpose and of no hope. It was a strange spectacle
• 2:05:54
  Speaker 1: those hewers of the forest, and even the women and
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: children had gathered there, And the lofty bearing of the chief,
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: and that still more difficult to uphold calm aspect of
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 1: his brother, And all this in the bright glare of
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 1: a noonday sun, and the spot far far away from
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 1: the bound of the cities. May it not well be
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: called a strange spectacle? They arranged the last dread and
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: sickening preparations immediately preceding the death of criminals by that
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 1: awful method. Could it be that High Heaven should look
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 1: down and see this unjust doom consummated, and not interpose.
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: No sound disturbed that horrible silence, except the shuffling movements
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 1: of two men to whose lot it had fallen to
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: act in the execution the men started at the noise
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: they themselves made, for it seemed unnatural, and struck upon
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 1: the ear with a strange vibration. Oh, what a quiver
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 1: was that which ran through the limbs, and as it were,
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: the very souls of all those assembled thereabout. It was
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: followed by perfect silence. Whoa, whoa, came a faint and
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 1: hoarse shout from a bend in the road, at some
• 2:07:37
  Speaker 1: thirty rods distant, very faint and very hoarse. It came.
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: It was too late, then, with wild and ghastly visage,
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: and with the frenzied contortions of a madman in his
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: worst paroxysm, Peter Brown dashed along the path and among them.
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 1: His bloodshot eyes were fixed upon the hideous object dangling
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 1: in the air. He rushed up to the scaffold, but
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: his limbs failed him, and he could not ascend the ladder.
• 2:08:16
  Speaker 1: His head vibrated to and fro like the pendulum of
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: a clock, and he beckoned and tried to speak, though
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 1: for several moments they could not hear what he said,
• 2:08:30
  Speaker 1: or rather tried to say. Quick, Quick, came at last
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: from his throat in a gasping whisper. Cut the rope.
• 2:08:42
  Speaker 1: He may not yet be dead. It was all too late.
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 1: Three days after these events, a pilgrim traveler might have
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 1: been seen wending his way through the region of the
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 1: west toward the north northeast. He was not unaccompanied an
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 1: Indian who seldom spoke, and over whose face a gloom
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 1: and wildness were spread trod at his side. They were
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 1: the monk called in this narration father Luke, and the
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 1: miserable brother of arrow Tip, an aged and gentle hearted friar,
• 2:09:27
  Speaker 1: some few years after was laid away to his last repose,
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 1: beloved of his fellows, and at the same time, many
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 1: hundred miles distant, an Indian leader, the remnant of his family,
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 1: let his tribe still farther into the west, to grounds
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: where they never would be annoyed in their generation, at
• 2:09:54
  Speaker 1: least by the presence of the white intruders. Scorned and
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: aboord by man, woman and child. The half breed through
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: whose malicious disposition the fatal termination took place, which has
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: been narrated, fled the settlement of Warren. Whether he perished
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 1: in the wilds or even now lives a degraded and
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 1: groveling life in some other town, no one can tell
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: Master Caleb has risen in his fortunes. As the extent
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 1: and population of the town wherein we have introduced him increased,
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 1: it was thought fit to have an incorporated academy. Master
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 1: Caleb is at the head of it. Quincy Thorne, a
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 1: popular and intelligent young man whom they think of holding
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 1: up as a candidate for a respectable legislative office, still
• 2:11:00
  Speaker 1: keeps communion of friendship with his early and excellent teacher,
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 1: Peter Brown. Although he has quite a family of little children,
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 1: finds time now and then to utter eloquent homilies and
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 1: praise of the young political aspirant than whom he thinks
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 1: no one is more worthy. End of chapter nine, End
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 1: of the Half Breed, A Tale of the Western Frontier
• 2:11:36
  Speaker 1: by Walt Whitman, Recording by Chuck Williamson, Columbus, Ohio, twenty nineteen.