THE CHILDREN OF THE FOREST 



" 7e say they all have passed away, 

 That noble race and brave ; 

 That their light canoes have vanished 



From off the crested wave ; 

 That in the forests where they roamed 



There rings no hunter's shout, — 

 But their name is on your waters, 

 Ye may not wash it out. " 



— L. Sigouiney. 



Judging from the natural reticence of the dusky- 

 skinned Indian, one would not suppose him capable of 

 conceiving one poetical idea, yet under the stolid and 

 apparently unimaginative exterior there lies a store of 

 imagery," drawn from the natural objects around him, 

 which he studies more carefully than we do our most 

 interesting books. Nature is the only volume of know- 

 ledge to the child of the forest and plain. He borrows 

 no ideas from written books. His Manito, the Great 

 Spirit, the God of Nature, supplies all he needs. He 



