ARBOR DA Y MAX UAL. 



221 



THE NORTH WIND. 



But the fierce Kabibonokka 

 Had his dwelling among icebergs. 

 In the everlasting snow-drifts, 

 In the kingdom of Wabasso, 

 In the land of the White Rabbit. 

 He it was whose hand in autumn 

 Painted all the trees with scarlet, 

 Stained the leaves with red and yellow; 

 He it was who sent the snow-flakes, 

 Sifting, hissing through the forest. 

 Froze the ponds, the lakes, the rivers, 

 Drove the loon and sea-gull southward, 

 Drove the cormorant and curlew 

 To their nests of sedge and sea-tang 

 In the realms of Shawondasee. 



HIAWATHA'S CHILDHOOD. 

 By the shores of Gitchie Gumee 

 By the shining Big-Sea-Water, 

 Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, 

 Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis. 

 Dark behind it rose the forest, 

 Rose the black and gloomy pine trees, 

 Rose the firs with cones upon them: 

 Bright before it beat the water, 

 Beat the clear and sunny water, 



Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water. 



* * * * * 



At the door on summer evenings 

 Sat the little Hiawatha; 

 Heard the whispering of the pine trecj. 

 Heard the lapping of the water, 

 Sounds of music, words of wonder; 

 " Minne-wawa ! " said the pine trees, 

 ' Mudway-aushka! " said the water. 

 ***** 



Then lagoo the great boaster, 

 He the marvelous story-teller, 

 He the traveler and the talker 

 He the friend of old Nokomis, 

 Made a bow for Hiawatha; 

 From a branch of ash he made it, 

 From an oak bough made the 

 Tipped with flint, and winged with 

 And the chord he made of deer-skin. 



Then he said to Hiawatha: 

 " Go my son, into the forest, 

 Where the red deer herd together, 

 Kill for us a famous roe buck, 



Kill for us a deer with antlers '. " 



Forth into the forest straightway 

 All alone walked Hiawatha 

 Proudly, with his bow and arrows; 

 And the birds sang round him, o'er him, 

 " Do not shoot us, Hiawatha ! " 

 Sang the robin, the Opeechee, 

 Sang the bluebird the Owaissa, 

 " Do not shoot us, Hiawatha ! " 



Up the oak tree, close beside him, 

 Sprang the squirrel, Adjidaumo, 

 In and out among the branches, 

 Coughed and chattered from the oak irte. 

 Laughed, and said between his laughing, 

 " Do not shoot me, Hiawatha !" 



And the raboit from his pathway 

 Leaped aside, and at a distance 

 Sat erect u^oii his haunches, 

 Half ir, f^ai and half in frolic, 

 Saj-i;,g to the little hunter, 

 " Do not shoot me, Hiawatha ! " 



But he heeded not, nor heard them, 

 f ^>r his thoughts were with the red deer. 



AFTER THE BATTLE WITH MUDJEKEEWIS. 

 The fleeting with " Laughing-Water* 



Homeward now went Hiawatha; 

 Measant was the landscape round him, 

 Pleasant was the air above him, 

 For the bitterness of anger 

 Hid departed wholly from him, 

 From his brain the thought of vengeance, 

 From his heart the burning fever. 



Only once his pace he slackened, 

 Only once he paused or halted, 

 Paused to purchase heads of arrows, 

 Of the ancient arrow-maker, 

 in the land of the Dacotahs, 

 vVhere the Falls of Minnehaha 

 Flash and gleam among the oak trees 



Laugh and leap into the valley. 



***** 



With him dwelt his dark-eyed daughter, 

 Wayward as the Minnehaha, 

 With her moods of shade and sunshine, 

 Eyes that smiled and frowned alternate, 

 Feet as rapid as the river, 

 Tresses flowing like the water, 

 And as musical a laughter; 



