Wolf-hunter told them to be seated near the fire and they would bring them some; the three Indians sat down their rifles and came near the fire. As the young bride came out of the cottage with a large piece of bear's meat in a long handled pan, and placed it over the fire, the three Indians stared at her in amazement, and then turned and looked at each other. One of the Indians said: "She looks just as her mother did before she was murdered. She is a Wan-nut-ha."[2]
[2] A beauty.
They paused a while, and one of the Indians called her Dora, to which she made no reply. He then called her Dora in a louder tone. To which the maiden replied:
"My name is Blanche."
"Well," said the Indian, "your name was Dora. Twelve years have passed away since I saw your sunny face, and looked upon your silky flaxen hair; you have changed to a graceful young lady squaw, and when I now look upon you—
"Your sparkling eyes and glossy flaxen hair
Seem the same your mother used to wear
When the lake lay calm with silver breast
Beneath pale Luna's beams at rest.
And when the lurid morn arose,
And flashed her light on land and sea,
The silvery foam beat on the lonely shore
Where Dora and her mother used to roam.
Death had hushed the voice of her fond mother,
The Indian's war-axe parted her fair locks,
The bloody tide ran down her snowy neck,
Her ivory bosom dyed with crimson gore,
Then fled with Dora to the forest wild.
There a captive in the chieftain's tent,
Whilst twelve successive years went by;
But now a hunter's young and lovely bride,
And cooks the savory venison, night and morn,
Upon the streamlet's flow'ry banks,
Where the woodland choir with melody of song
Chant the praise of God that watch'd o'er all,
And saw the sparrow in his lonely fall.
When spring, with balmy air, bids vegetation rise,
And all the flowers put on their bloom;
The emerald reeds, along the sandy bay
Washed by the blue waves, beat upon the shore,
Then Dora, with her loving mate,
Will walk in summer's golden days,
By Cynthia's evening silver light,
And call to mind those infant days
When her fond mother led her by the hand,
And her little feet made impress on the sand;
And plant a flower beside the monumental stone
In yonder church-yard, o'er her mother's tomb,
Then ramble o'er the green and flow'ry lawn,
Leaning fondly on her lover's buoyant arm,
The valiant, happy man, who Fate ordained
To write his name, in love, upon her heart
And fondly claim her for his own."
Dora was delighted with her new name, believing it to be the name given her by her parents, whom she had so often seen in her dreams, whilst sleeping in the Indian's tent. And then it seemed so familiar to her—it seemed like the voice of her mother floating in music-tones upon the morning air. And the Indians seemed to her sent by the Great Spirit to inform her of the place of her birth, of the Eden of her childhood, and the path that would conduct her to her once-loved home, which now came up in grand review before her youthful mind, as the Indians related the sad story of the death of her mother, the capture of her lovely child, and the curling flames that consumed their earthly home.
The picture set forth by the Indians was forcibly impressed upon the mind of Dora, and she persuaded her husband to accompany her on foot through a dense forest, for more than a hundred miles, following a blind Indian war-path which she had been trained to follow through other forests by her tutors, in other days. This war-path led them to the lake shore, where they obtained a boat, with a skillful oarsman, to land them on the shore of that lovely bay which Dora had so often seen in her dreams, whilst sleeping in the Indian chief's wigwam. When they arrived at the birthplace and youthful home of Dora, she could only find the place by the remains of part of the burnt and cracked walls of the foundation, and a few trees that had escaped the fury of the flames.
Here Dora called to mind the scene that occurred when the Indian's war-axe parted the fair forehead of her mother. She seemed to see the crimson tide run down her neck, her ivory bosom stained, as her parental life-blood ebbed away. She wept long and loud for her fond mother. She lingered round the fatal spot until the sinking sun began to cast her last rays in lengthened shade over the waters of the lake below. She then hurried to the nearest house with her husband, where her neighbor recognized her and called her Dora. Like the Indian, he said he knew her by the hair her mother used to wear, and her being the exact likeness of her mother.
Here she first learned of the death of her father, who, feeling the heavy loss of his wife and the unknown fate of his darling child, grieved so immoderately over their loss that Disease laid her fatal hands upon him, and in one short year they laid him down gently to sleep by her mother, until Gabriel's trump shall awake them again at the resurrection morn. Here they tarried for the night—but the night appeared long and sleepless to Dora—and in the early morn was accompanied by their friend and neighbor to the church-yard where lay the remains of her father and mother, unmarked, except by a rude stone, to guide them to the place where their kind neighbors had gently laid them down to rest from the turmoil of life's uneven ways. The summer months were spent among strangers and the scenes of her early childhood, and visiting the burial-place of her parents weekly, to water the moss-rose and the eglantine she had planted on their graves, and scatter the most beautiful flowers that bloomed in that region upon their graves at the hour of falling dews, to wanton and perfume the surrounding air.