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Many Flags
Colonial Settler
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
August 13 2002
Status: offline
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 Posted - December 29 2002 : 7:41:04 PM
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Many Flags raised his hand to dismiss the messenger. He turned back to his cabin and sat at the table enjoying the warmth of the fire on his old bones. He opened the parchment and read to himself, “Cousin, it’s time. Bring Three Tales and meet me at my cabin for the January Hunt. Nancy is leaving for several days and it will be like old times. If I do not hear from you within a fortnight, I know that you will be on your way. Pax Aye! Oh, have you had any messages from those Scottish kin of ours from across the big water? Seamus”
Flags looked up at Magdalena. “From Seamus, is it?”, she asked. “Ja”, spoke Flags. “It is the time for the winter hunt.” Magdalena smiled, “Then you must go. We are getting older, liebe Mann. You must go while you can.”
Flags turned back to the message. He walked across the cabin to a pile of old books, journals they were, fingered down to the bottom and took the oldest. He opened to the first page. It was entitled “Morning Dress” and he remembered how it had all started. It was a winter morning in early 1758, right after the Neu Jahr, and several months before the meeting had been made with their Scottish cousins of the 77th Regiment. Flags had traveled to Seamus’s cabin near the Loyalsock to hunt. He read through his first entry. It read as if he were alone, and as he leaned back in the chair, the remembering began. For he was not alone on that first chill morning. Three Tales, Sign Talker and Seamus had already been awake and up hunting and Flags saw them later as he sat quietly in the snow covered woods, waiting for a movement of deer.
“Michael”! Magdalena interrupted Flags’ dreaming. “When you are finished dreaming, bring in some wood, bitte!” Flags’ mind continued in the dream haze. For after the hunt that morning, Sign Talker had decided they should go north and visit with an Oneida friend of his. Later, Flags, Tales and Seamus realized it was not the Oneida warrior Turtlenose which Sign Talker was interested in; but instead Turtlenose’s sister, Shiliqueka; a lovely girl who Sign Talker always called Snow Eyes.
It took the lads a week or so trudging north through the snow to arrive at the Oneida village. They were welcomed into the bachelor longhouse and made comfortable by Turtlenose and other young men of the tribe. But even as they were welcomed, they knew that something was troubling the tribe; all were on edge and upon asking they found that a small band of Huron had been sighted several times lurking near the Oneida village. They had been painted which meant they were on some sort of warrior mission. Watch had been kept and that first evening the lads slept lightly in anticipation of trouble.
It was the third day there that Turtlenose suggested they do some hunting. No fresh meat had been taken for the village in several weeks. Anyway, Many Flags had wanted to get Sign Talker away from the village for a few hours for he had been so moody. When Snow Eyes was not near Sign Talker, he scowled or pouted; when she was near, he almost floated in the air. So the five young men waded through the six or more inches of snow as they quietly moved in a hunting pattern. They had hunted for about an hour when Sign Talker signed for no movement. But, he moved ahead, up a small rise and peered from behind a tree. He turned and signed to the others, “Move slow, no noise, stay low.” The others moved up and almost laying in the snow, they also peered ahead.
There were four men, Huron by their dress and paint. They were gutting a good sized deer. In fact, they had just pulled out the liver and were eating it raw. Turtlenose signed, “Huron. Bad men. Kill our game. They die.”. But Sign Talker signed, “Wait. They are hungry. Men kill game when hungry. We trade for food. I talk with them.”
The others watched, amazed, as Sign Talker stood up and slowly walked toward the four Hurons. Too interested in the liver, then the raw heart, the Hurons did not no
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Seamus
Guardian of Heaven's Gate
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
May 19 2002
Status: offline
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Posted - December 29 2002 : 8:40:33 PM
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| Aaaaahhhhhhh, yessssssss............Flags, I had not thought of that trip for many years! Thank you for remembering it for me. I had forgotten how old Sign Talker, usually so self-assured, went to jelly when Snow Eyes was near..hahaha! And whenever she looked at him, I'd swear he melted! I never saw anyone as tough as he was blush the way that man did! Those Hurons certainly did him a huge favor, eh? Too bad they never knew it......HAH! |
Life's journey is not to
arrive at the grave safely
in a well preserved body,
but rather to skid in sideways,
totally worn out, shouting
'...holy sh*t ...what a ride!'
~~Mavis Leyrer, Seattle
Seamus
~~Aim small, hit the b*****d right between the eyes!~~ |
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Big Duncan MacLaren
Pathfinder
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
November 26 2002
Status: offline
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Posted - February 19 2003 : 12:01:11 AM
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Sjt. MacWilliam:
Six weeks now since we last heard this tale from ye....
Are ye snowed in? Have ye lost yer hair? Shall we hear nae more o' ye?
Your humble and OBEDIENT Servant,
D. MacLaren, Pvt., 77th Foot
In Winter Quarters, to Southward |
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richfed
Sachem
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
May 13 2002
Status: offline
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Remembering - The January Tale of 1758
