In The Boyhood of Lincoln Part 38

"Give him water," said Jasper.

A boy brought a cup of water and offered it to the Indian. The latter started up, and cried:

"Away! I am here to die among you. My tongue burns, but I did not come here to drink. I came here to die. The white man killed my father, and I have come back with the avengers, and we have brought with us the Judgment Day." He stood and listened to the cries of distress.

"Hear the trees cry for help--all the birds of the prairie--but they cry for naught. My father hears them cry. The cry is sweet to his ears. He is waiting for me. We are all about to die. When the wheat-fields blaze and the stacks take fire, and the houses crackle, then we shall all die.

So says Waubeno." He listened again.

"Hear the earth cry--all the animals. My father hears--his soul hears.

This is the day that I have carried in my soul. My spirit is in the fire."

He listened again. The prairie roared with the hot air, the flames, and the clouds of smoke. There fell another rain of fire, and women shrieked for mercy, and children cried on their mothers' b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"Hear the people cry! I have waited for that cry for a hundred moons. I have paid my vow. We have kindled the fire of the anger of the heavens--it is coming. I will die with you like the son of a warrior.

The souls of the warriors are gathering to see me die. I am Waubeno."

The people pressed upon him, and glared at him.

"He set the fire!" they cried. "The Indian fiend!"

"I set the fire," he said; "I and Black Hawk's men. _They_ have escaped.

I have done my work, and I want to die."

Jasper lifted his hat, and with bared head stood forth in the view of the Indian.

"Waubeno, do you want to see _me_ die?"

He started with a cry of pain. His eyes burned.

"My father--I did not know that you were here. Heaven pity Waubeno now!"

"Waubeno, this is cruel!"

"Cruel? This country was once called the Red Man's Paradise. Cruel? The white man made the red man drunk with fire-water, and made him sign a false treaty, and then drove him away. Cruel? Think of the women the whites shot in the river for coming back to their own corn-fields starving to gather their own corn. Cruel? Why is the Red Man's Paradise no longer ours? Cruel? The Rock River flows for us no more; the spring brings the flowers to these prairies for us no more; the bluff rises in the summer sky, but the red man may no longer sit upon it. Cruel? Think how your people murdered my father. Is it more cruel for the Indian to do these things than for the white man to do them? You have emptied the Red Man's Paradise, and Waubeno has fulfilled the vow that he made to his father. The clouds are on fire. I would have saved you had I known, but you must perish with your people. I shall die with you. I am Waubeno. I am proud to be Waubeno. I am the avenger of my race.

"But, white brother, listen. I tried to prevent it. I remembered your teaching, and I tried to prevent it by our council-fires over the Mississippi. Main-Pogue tried to prevent it. I thought of the man who saved him in the war, and I wondered who he was, and tried to prevent it for _his_ sake.

"Then said they to me: 'We go to avenge the loss of our country, the Red Man's Paradise. The gra.s.s is feathers. We go to burn. Waubeno, remember your father's death. You are the son of Alknomook!'

"White brother, I have come. I tried to prevent it, but this hand has obeyed the voice of my people. I have kindled the fires of the woe. The world is on fire. I tried to prevent it, but it has come."

"Waubeno, do you remember _Lincoln_?"

"Lincoln? The Indians killed his father's father. I have often thought of that. He said that he would do right by an Indian. I have thought of that. I love that man. I would die for such a man."

"Waubeno, who saved the life of Main-Pogue?"

"I don't know, father. I would die for _that man_."

"Did Main-Pogue not tell you?"

"He told me 'twas a white captain saved him. Is the white captain here?"

"No. Waubeno, listen. That white captain was Lincoln."

"Lincoln? Whose father's father the red man killed? Was it he who saved Main-Pogue? Lincoln? He forced his men to do right. He did himself harm."

"Yes, he did himself harm to do right. Waubeno, do you remember your promise that you made to me? You said that you would never avenge the death of your father, if you could find one white man who would do himself harm for the sake of an Indian."

Waubeno leaped upon his feet, and his black eye swept the clouds, and the circle of fire, and the distressed people on every hand.

"Father, I can save you now. I know how. I will do it _for Lincoln's sake_.

"Ho! ho!" he cried. "Kill me an ox, and Waubeno will save you. Kill me six oxen, and Waubeno will save you. Give me raw hides, and do as I do, and Waubeno will save you. Ho! ho! The G.o.ds have spoken to Waubeno. A voice comes from the sky to Waubeno. It has spoken here. Ho! ho!"

He put his hand upon his heart, then rushed in among the oxen. A company of men followed him.

He slew an ox with his knife, and quickly removed the hide. The people looked upon him with horror; they thought him demented. What was he doing? What was he going to do?

He tied the great hide to his horse's neck, so that the raw side of it would drag flat upon the ground, and, turning to Jasper, he said:

"That will smother fire. Ho! ho! How?"

The fire was fast approaching some stacks of wheat on the edge of the settlement. Waubeno saw the peril, and leaped upon his horse.

"Kill more cattle. Get more hides for Waubeno," he said.

He rode away toward the stacks, guiding the horse in such a way that the raw hide swept the ground. The people watched him. He seemed to ride into the fire.

"He is riding to death!" said the people. "He is mad!"

But as he rode the fire was stayed, and a rim of black smoke rose in its stead. Near the stacks the fire stopped.

"He is the Evil One himself," said the old Millerite. "That Indian boy is no human form."

Out of the black came the horse plunging, bearing the boy, who waved his hands to the people. Then the horse plunged away, as though wild, toward the outer edge of the great sea of fire.

The horse and rider rushed into the flames, and the same strange effects followed. The running flame and white cloud changed into black smoke, and the destruction was arrested.

The people watched the boy as he rode half hidden in rolling smoke, his red plumes waving above the verge of the flaming sea. What a scene it was as he rode there, round and round, like the enchanted form of a more than human deliverer! But the effect of his movements at last ceased.

"He is coming back," said the people.

Out of the fire rushed the horse and rider toward the island grove again.

"Give me new hides!" he cried, as, singed and blackened, he swept into the trees. "The hide is dead and shriveled. Give me new hides. Ho! ho!"

New hides were provided by killing oxen. He tied two together like a carpet, with the raw side upon the earth. He attached them by a long rope to the horse's neck, and dashed forth again, crying: