My head was so light that it appeared to spin like a star, and
my feet were so heavy that I dragged the whole earth after me. My
Indians seldom spoke. I never let them drop behind me, for I did not
trust their treacherous natures. But in the end, as it would seem, they
also had but one thought, and that to reach Fort Ungava; for there was no
food left, none at all. We saw no tribes of Indians and no Esquimaux,
for we had not passed in their line of travel or settlement.
"At last I used to dream that birds were singing near me,--a soft,
delicate whirlwind of sound; and then bells all like muffled silver rang
through the aching, sweet air. Bits of prayer and poetry I learned when
a boy flashed through my mind; equations in algebra; the tingling scream
of a great buzz-saw; the breath of a racer as he nears the post under the
crying whip; my own voice dropping loud profanity, heard as a lad from
a blind ferryman; the boom! boom! of a mass of logs as they struck a
house on a flooding river and carried it away.
Pages:
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106