The Prairie: A TaleAppleton, 1875 - 485 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
Abiram already animal answered appeared arth Asinus band Battius beast bee-hunter better Big-knives bison brave brother buffalo chief Cloth companion countenance cried Dahcotah danger dark distance Doctor ears earth Ellen encampment enemies Esther exclaimed eyes F. O. C. Darley father girl glance grass grizzly bear hand Hard-Heart head heard heavens Hector horse hound hunter Indian Inez instant interrupted Ishmael Bush Kentucky listened lodge look Lord Loups Mahtoree manner matter Middleton mind naturalist nature never nigh Obed old trapper Pale-face party passed Paul Pawnee plain prairie quadruped reason Red-skin returned the trapper rifle rock savage seen silent Siouxes skin sleep speak spot squatter stood stranger tell Teton thicket thought tion tomahawk tongue tribe turned Uncas venison voice warrior WAVERLEY NOVELS Weucha whole wild woman words yonder young youth
Popular passages
Page 477 - ... took a friendly interest. During the whole of that solemn and anxious period each individual of the tribe kept his place, in the most selfrestrained patience. When the old man spoke, all bent their heads to listen ; and when his words were uttered, they seemed to ponder on their wisdom and usefulness. As the flame drew nigher to the socket his voice was hushed, and there were moments when his attendants doubted whether he still belonged to the living.
Page 14 - The earth was not unlike the ocean, when its restless waters are heaving heavily, after the agitation and fury of the tempest have begun to lessen. There was the same waving and regular surface, the same absence of foreign objects, and the same boundless extent to the view.
Page 476 - Not so, not so, Captain. Let me sleep where I have lived — beyond the din of the settlements ! Still I see no need why the grave of an honest man should be hid, like a Red-skin in his ambushment.
Page 308 - Old trapper," cried Paul, thrusting his fingers through his shaggy locks, "I have lined many a loaded bee into his hole, and know something of the nature of the woods, but this is robbing a hornet of his sting without touching the insect !"
Page 171 - A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade, For and a shrouding sheet: O, a pit of clay for to be made For such a guest is meet.
Page 249 - Levelling his piece at the foremost hull, with an agility that would have done credit to his youth, he fired. The animal received the bullet on the matted hair between his horns, and fell to his knees : but shaking his head he instantly arose, the very shock seeming to increase his exertions. There was now no longer time to hesitate. Throwing down his rifle, the trapper stretched forth his arms, and advanced from the cover with naked hands, directly towards the rushing column of the beasts.
Page 474 - I find it a little painful to give up forever the use of the rifle, and the comforts of the chase. But then the fault has been my own, seeing that it could not have been His. Ay, Hector...
Page 306 - ... bees lie around the straw after the hive has been smoked for its honey. You may hear the fire begin to roar already, and I know by experience, that when the flame once gets fairly into the prairie grass, it is no sloth that can outrun it.
Page 96 - The Teton, and the Pawnee, and the Konza, and men of a dozen other tribes, claim to own these naked fields." "Natur' gives them the lie in their teeth. The air, the water, and the ground, are free gifts to man, and no one has the power to portion them out in parcels. Man must drink, and breathe, and walk,—and therefore each has a right to his share of 'arth.
Page 308 - The experience of the trapper was in the right. As the fire gained strength and heat, it began to spread on three sides, dying of itself on the fourth for want of aliment. As it increased, and the sullen roaring announced its power, it cleared everything before it, leaving the black and smoking soil far more naked than if the scythe had swept the place. The situation of the fugitives. would have still been hazardous had not the area en larged as the flame encircled them.