Now, therefore, for the first time, did Koree appreciate the heroism of Sosee; and the sacrifice of her lover seemed magnanimous when it was clear that it was not for another lover.
They retraced their steps, therefore, and before night were again with the main body of the Ammi, to whom they related what they had seen.
“Where is Sosee,” asked one.
“We have not seen her,” replied Koree, “but we found her true, which is more important;” for Koree before his search had begun to doubt the faithfulness of his beloved, which he was now glad to establish, even at the expense of her possession.
As night settled down on the Ammi in the Swamp a great light appeared in the north, an object of beauty and terror to them. The sky was illumined with brilliant and changing rays, like a sunrise at midnight. The heavens seemed to be on fire, and the conflagration to be approaching the earth. It was one of those gigantic electric storms which swept over the ancient world and vied with the earthquakes, mountain upheavals, and deluges of the period, when the Earth still acted as a whole. Night and Day were apparently in conflict, mixing great fields of light with alternate streaks of darkness, and chasing each other over the whole heavens.
“What can this mean?” asked several at once.
“The Fire-monster is sweeping down upon us, as well as the Monkeys,” answered one; “he has already seized the heavens.”
“It don’t mean any good,” said Gimbo; “Shoozoo is angry, and has sent his winged Alligator to destroy us. I will get the dragon-fly which cured us of the colic.”
Wearied, however, they soon sank to rest, and lying under an open sky, which seemed all on fire, they slept, and their dreams that night were disturbed equally by fears of the Aurora and of monkeys.