Page:Nattie Nesmith (1870).pdf/220

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now closed and sightless, beneath these smoking ruins? Are the slender hands, which stirred the succotash and placed a well-filled bowl in mine, charred and shapeless? Ah, Nathalie, had I been a white man's son, how proud and happy I might have been one day to call thee mine! and how did I hope, by hovering near and keeping thee in view, that I might at length be able to restore thee to thy bereaved friends! How have I pictured the look of gratitude which I might see in thine eyes, could I be so fortunate as thus to return thee to thy family! One thought may cheer me even now; thou hast never known me in my true character. As Augustus Reid, I was not disagreeable. Even though a part-blooded Indian, thou wast still friendly and turned not away from me. But as Torch-Eye, the wild Indian boy, thou hast not known me. How wouldst thou have shrunk away, could I have stood thus before thy sight! Have I not seen the loathing with which thou didst hear the