Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/197

 to remain behind, and maintain possession of the land which her countrymen should impiously abandon.

The village inhabited by this clan was built upon the ground which now constitutes my uncle's barn—yard and orchard. On the departure of her countrymen, this female burned the empty wigwams, and retired into the fastnesses of Norwalk. She selected a spot suitable for an Indian dwelling, and a small plantation of maize, and in which she was seldom liable to interruption and intrusion.

Her only companions were three dogs, of the Indian or wolf species: these animals differed in nothing from their kinsmen of the forest, but in their attachment and obedience to their mistress: she governed them with absolute sway; they were her servants and protectors, and attended her person, or guarded her threshold, agreeable to her directions: she fed them with corn, and they supplied her and themselves with meat, by hunting squirrels, racoons, and rabbits.

To the rest of mankind they were aliens or enemies. They never left the desert but in company with their mistress; and when she entered a farm-house, waited her return at a distance: they would suffer none to approach them; but attacked no one who did not imprudently crave their acquaintance, or who kept at a respectful distance from their Wigwam: that sacred asylum they would not suffer to be violated; and no stranger could enter it but at the imminent hazard of his life, unless accompanied and protected by their dame.

The chief employment of this woman, when at home, besides plucking the weeds from among her corn, bruising the grain between two stones, and setting her snares for rabbits and opossums, was to talk. Though in solitude, her tongue was never at rest but when she was asleep; but her conversation was merely addressed to her dogs. Her voice was sharp and shrill, and her gesticulations were vehement and grotesque. A hearer would naturally imagine that she was scolding; but, in truth, she was merely giving them directions. Having no other object of contemplation or subject of discourse, she always found in their postures and looks occasion for praise, or blame, or command. The