John Bonyton waved his hand and turned away, while the treacherous girl stood watching his tall, receding form, till the trees concealed it; then, dashing the bird to the ground, she placed her foot upon its beautiful breast, exclaiming:
“This, and this, be the fate of Hope Vines!” and she ground its innocent blood into the moss-grown soil.
The sagamore plunged into the recesses of the forest, and at length emerged upon the river-bank, where, as boy and youth, he had idled his days in that ecstatic dream of love and youth, which so fills up the soul that the past is forgotten, the future hung with rainbow clouds, pavilioned with golden vaults and silvery sheen, thus exalting the glow of the present by an onward gorgeous perspective.
“Lost! lost! all is lost!” he exclaimed.
Unconsciously he had cast himself down by the wigwam of the prophet of the tribe. It was the custom of the Indians to build the tent or wigwam of those whose duty it was to watch all omens bearing upon the welfare of the people, in some secluded spot within the sound of great falls, or in proximity to some natural cave or grotto, where they might, undisturbed, exercise their spells and incantations. A hand, cold, and wasted by fastings nearly to the bone, was laid upon the shoulder of the sagamore.
“Listen, my son! Turn thy steps to the east. Go!”
Before the sagamore could reply, he was gone. He entered the wigwam; it was empty. He searched upon every side; no one was visible; and he began to doubt if his senses might not have deceived him, when he observed a clear crystal glittering in the moonlight. It was one of those peculiar stones which the common people believed came from the top of the vast White Mountains lying a hundred miles to the north, and hence popularly called the “White Mountain Carbuncle.”
He knew this was a part of the paraphernalia of the wizard’s wigwam, and that on momentous occasions the chiefs called upon their oracle to look into this crystal stone and announce the augury. Remembering this, he raised it to his eyes, looked and started back with surprise. What did he behold?
One look more! There, throned in the center of the crystal, was a miniature image of Hope!