Sketches From Oldest America 



comrade had died suddenly from heart failure, in- 

 duced by a cold in the nose and aggravated by too 

 much sneezing. 



The raven soon began to suspect that all was not 

 quite right. The big red object did not work any 

 longer, while everything remained so still. After 

 a while, the breaking of the surf on the beach 

 greeted his ears. Then people's voices were heard 

 shouting, " Here comes some new meat and black 

 skin floating on the ocean." 



The whale drifted on shore and the inhabitants 

 were soon cutting off the meat and blubber. One 

 man, working on the ribs, quickly had a hole made 

 and light began streaming through. The raven said 

 to himself, "Here I have grown quite corpulent 

 during the lazy life I have been leading; I must not 

 let the men see me." So, crouching down and hid- 

 ing, he waited until the hole was made large 

 enough, then suddenly opening his wings flew 

 out. Everybody was much surprised to see the 

 raven come out of the whale. But they heard him 

 say before he disappeared toward his home on the 

 cliffs, that in the future he would stick by his own 

 people and avoid those frivolous young ladies of 

 the Barnacle Goose family. 

 147 



