Page:Life Amongst the Modocs.djvu/163



"A MAN FOR BREAKFAST." 149

-and salmon berries, and fretted by overhanging ferns under the great firs that shut out the sun save in little spars and bars of light that fell through upon a bench of the hills ; a sort of lily pond, only half a pistol shot across, at the bottom of a waterfall, and clear as sunshine itself. Here Paquita would go often and alone to pass her idle hours. I chanced to see her there on the rim, walking against the sun and looking into the water as she moved forward, now and then back, across her shoulder, as a maiden in a glass preparing for a ball. She had first been made glad with her first new dress red, and decorated with ribbons, made gay and of many colours. The poor child was studying herself in the waters.

This was not vanity ; no doubt there was a deal of satisfaction, a sort of quiet pride, in this, but it was something higher, also. A desire to study grace, to criticize her movements in this strange and to her lovely dress, and learn to move with the most perfect propriety. She practised this often. The finger lifted sometimes, the head bowed, then the hands in rest and the head thrown back, she would walk back and forth for hours, contemplating herself and catching the most graceful motion from the water.

What a rich, full, and generous mouth was hers frank as the noon-day ! Beware of people with small mouths, they are not generous. A full, rich mouth, impulsive and passionate, is the kind of