"Thus it is our daughters leave us,
Those we love, and those who love us!
Just when they have learned to help us,
When we are old and lean upon them,
Comes a youth with flaunting feathers,
With his flute of reeds, a stranger
Wanders piping through the village,
Beckons to the fairest maiden,

And she follows where he leads her,
Leaving all things for the stranger!"
Pleasant was the journey homeward,

Through interminable forests,
Over meadow, over mountain,

Over river, hill, and hollow.

Short it seemed to Hiawatha,

Though they journeyed very slowly,

Though his pace he checked and slackened

To the steps of Laughing Water.

Over wide and rushing rivers

In his arms he bore the maiden;

Light he thought her as a feather,
As the plume upon his head-gear;
Cleared the tangled pathway for her,
Bent aside the swaying branches,
Made at night a lodge of branches,
And a bed with boughs of hemlock,
And a fire before the doorway

With the dry cones of the pine-tree.

All the travelling winds went with them, O'er the meadow, through the forest; All the stars of night looked at them, Watched with sleepless eyes their slumber;

From his ambush in the oak-tree

Peeped the squirrel, Adjidaumo,

Watched with eager eyes the lovers;

And the rabbit, the Wabasso,

Scampered from the path before them,

Peering, peeping from his burrow,

Sat erect upon his haunches,

Watched with curious eyes the lovers.

Pleasant was the journey homeward!
All the birds sang loud and sweetly
Songs of happiness and heart's-ease;
Sang the blue-bird, the Owaissa,
"Happy are you, Hiawatha,

Having such a wife to love you!"
Sang the Opechee, the robin,

66 Happy are you, Laughing Water,
Having such a noble husband!"

From the sky the sun benignant Looked upon them through the branches, Saying to them, "O my children,

Love is sunshine, hate is shadow,

Life is checkered shade and sunshine,
Rule by love, O Hiawatha !'

From the sky the moon looked at them, Filled the lodge with mystic splendors, Whispered to them, " O my children,

Day is restless, night is quiet,
Man imperious, woman feeble;

Half is mine, although I follow;

Rule by patience, Laughing Water!" Thus it was they journeyed homeward; Thus it was that Hiawatha

To the lodge of old Nokomis

Brought the moonlight, starlight, firelight,

Brought the sunshine of his people,

Minnehaha, Laughing Water,

Handsomest of all the women

In the land of the Dacotahs,

In the land of handsome women.

142

XI.

HIAWATHA'S WEDDING-FEAST.

You shall hear how Pau-Puk-Keewis,

How the handsome Yenadizze

Danced at Hiawatha's wedding;

How the gentle Chibiabos,

He the sweetest of musicians,

Sang his songs of love and longing;

How Iagoo, the great boaster,

He the marvellous story-teller,

Told his tales of strange adventure,

That the feast might be more joyous, That the time might pass more gayly, And the guests be more contented.