One wild hand, pale as death and weak as straw,

Clutch at the ripple in the pool; while shrill

Sprang through the dreaming hamlet on the hill,

The war-cry of the triumphant Iroquois.

Now clothed with many an ancient flap and fold,

And wrinkled like an apple kept till May,

She weighs the interest-money in her palm,

And, when the Agent calls her valiant name,

Hears, like the war-whoops of her perished day,

The lads playing snow-snake in the stinging cold.