Page:Leaves of Grass (1860).djvu/441

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Sleep-Chasings.
433

The chief encircles their necks with his arm, and
kisses them on the cheek,
He kisses lightly the wet cheeks one after another—
he shakes hands, and bids good-by to the army.

40.Now I tell what my mother told me to-day as we sat
at dinner together,
Of when she was a nearly grown girl, living home
with her parents on the old homestead.

41.A red squaw came one breakfast-time to the old
homestead,
On her back she carried a bundle of rushes for
rush-bottoming chairs,
Her hair, straight, shiny, coarse, black, profuse, half-
enveloped her face.
Her step was free and elastic, and her voice sounded
exquisitely as she spoke.

42.My mother looked in delight and amazement at the
stranger,
She looked at the freshness of her tall-borne face, and
full and pliant limbs,
The more she looked upon her she loved her,
Never before had she seen such wonderful beauty and
purity,
She made her sit on a bench by the jamb of the fire-
place—she cooked food for her,
She had no work to give her, but she gave her
remembrance and fondness.

43.The red squaw staid all the forenoon, and toward
the middle of the afternoon she went away.