Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/187

 Lake Winnipiscogce in October.

��177

��their wooing, but still claucecl 00 in her maidenhood, free as the birds that twittered in the boughs above her father's lodge by the lake shore.

One day, however, there came sail- ing across the lake in his birchen canoe a young chief whom Ellacoya had never seen before. At the first glance she knew she loved him, for the warrior was young and brave and handsome, and wore on his head the eagle plumes of a great sagamore.

"My name is Kona," said the stranger chief, "and I have come from the midst of yonder blue hills to woo Ellacoya, the Light of the Beau- tiful "Water. Will she go with me? "Will she leave her father's wigwam, and be the wife of Kona, the Eagle ?"

He had advanced and taken the hand of the princess ere he spoke, and now bending till his eagle plumes touched her dark cheek, he waited for his answer. Looking up into his with her dusky eyes, at last she said, —

"Ellacova loves the vouno; chief. The words of Kona have stolen into her heart. She will go with him if her father will but consent."

"Then Kona will ask no more," said the sagamore. "Let him see the sachem. He has been an enemy, but he will be his foeman no longer if he will give him Ellacoya for his wife."

At that very moment Ahanton, re- turning from a foray, his face flushed with victory, his falcon plumes danc- ing in the breeze, advanced to where they stood. Darkly lowered the chieftain's brow as his fierce eyes fell on the form of his enemy. He grasped his tomahawk, and half raised it in his hand, when his daugh- ter sprang before him. Wildly she

��raised her pleading eyes to his, and with clasped hands, said, —

"Oh! spare him! spare Kona the Eagle, for Ellacoya loves him. Slay him, and Ellacoya dies too. She cannot live without him."

Ahanton's half raised arm fell pow- erless, the vindictive fury vanished from his face. A soft glow succeeded the fiery burning in his eyes. He stood a moment silent, then, leading his daughter by the hand, he went to where the young chief stood with folded arms waiting for his time to speak.

"Kona the Young Eagle is a great chief," said the sachem, "and he is brave. He has come into the villasfe of his enemies like a noble warrior, and not like a dog or a creeping snake. The heart of Ahanton has gone forth to meet him. Would he take the fair flower from her father's wigwam to be his wife? If he would, Ellacoya shall go with him, and here- after between Ahanton and the Young Eagle there shall be peace."

"Then let the chief swear it," cried the young warrior, "for Kona loves the Light of the Beautiful Water, and she shall sit in his lodge and sing to his children among the murmuring pines, beyond the dark blue hills to the northward."

"By the Great Manitou I swear it!" said Ahanton, "and may his lightning scathe the one who breaks the bond between us."

Thus was Ellacoya wooed and won. Two nights and days they feasted in the village by the lake. There were hunts and mimic battles among the warriors, and dances strange and fantastic among the Indian maids.

On the third day the young chief

�� �