In and out among its islands,
Sailed through all its bends and windings1,
Sailed through all its deeps and shallows.
Hiawatha.
The morning came bright and warm as ever.
At the boat Norman was delighted to see his friend, the pilot of the Grey Eagle, who introduced them to Captain Gray, of the Kate Cassel. There he saw too the lady who brought with her memories of the early dawn at St. Anthony. “You like to see everything that is to be seen,” she said to Mrs. Lester; “under that bare spot you see on the bluff2 south of the town is the grave of Dubuque, the Indian chief who once owned all this land.”
“Mother,” said Norman, as their kindly3 139informant left them, “Dubuque is a very strange name for an Indian chief to have; he must have been named by the French when he was a child.”
“Julien Dubuque,” replied his mother, “was not an Indian, but a Frenchman, who bought all this valuable mining region, so rich in fine lead ore, from the Indians, in 1788. They had been discovered two years before by the wife of Peosta, an Indian warrior4. Dubuque died in 1810. The Julien House is named, I suppose, in his honor.”
For a hot and weary hour the deck hands were busy taking on freight: first barrels from a warehouse5 on the Levee at Dubuque; then at Dunleith, a number of reapers6 and mowers, very heavy and cumbersome7 to be moved.
As soon as the boat was in motion Captain Gray asked Mrs. Lester if she would go to the pilot-house, as that was the coolest part of the boat. Very kindly 140he escorted her thither8 across the hurricane-deck. It was a delightful9 change from the heated atmosphere below to the cool refreshing10 breezes above.
“Two eagles at once,” said the captain. “There is something for you to look at, my boy.”
There was the Grey Eagle, her paddles both in motion, and the War Eagle following her in her northward11 course; a great sight for Norman.
The banks are well wooded, and of some elevation12, and there are pretty islands; but the scenery is more monotonous13 and not so grand as that of the Upper Mississippi. The river is much more shallow, and can be navigated14 only by a smaller class of steamboats.
The captain pointed15 out to them, on the banks of the river, the entrance to a lead mine, and a hill-top called Pilot Knob.
At two o’clock they approached Fulton, 141and the captain courteously16 took them on shore.
Fulton, the terminus of an air-line road from Chicago, is rather an uninviting looking place, with a grand hotel, suitable for a great city; a destiny Fulton does not seem likely to achieve.
Seated in the cars, Norman saw the sun set for the last time on the great river that had become to him a familiar friend; saw the Rock River gleam in the moonlight; and soon after the welcome lights of his uncle’s home.
Norman had a great deal to tell his uncle and aunt about the Mississippi, and Minnehaha, and the boats, and the little incidents of their journey, and the week he was to spend at Dixon passed rapidly away.
One day Norman’s aunt took Mrs. Lester to see Father Dixon, the patriarch of the place to which his name is given. The hotel also bears the name given to 142him by the Indians, Nachusah, or the White Haired. His long flowing white hair makes him look very venerable; and there is an expression of gentleness in his delicate features that wins the love of the children of the town, who all call him Grandpapa. He established a ferry over the Rock River thirty years ago, when there were no white people in all the country round, and lived here in his solitary17 dwelling18 by the river side.
He lives there still; and Mrs. Lester was very much interested in her visit to him, and in his accounts of the Indians who formerly19 roamed over these prairies, now the fruitful farms of the white men.
One day a gentleman, who lived on the opposite side of the river, sent his two carriages over for Norman’s uncle and aunt, his mother and himself. As Norman was in the woods with Herbert Waldorf, they went without him. The bridge had been 143carried away by the flood, so they crossed by the rope ferry. A very stout20 wire rope was stretched across the river, and a scow was fastened to this by a rope which slipped by a wheel along the iron cable. When they drove on the scow, the man turned the prow21 of the boat up the current, which at once urged the boat onward22. It is a very pleasant and rapid way of crossing the river, allowing one to have a near look of the swiftly flowing waters.
Mr. Dexter had a pretty cottage and fifty acres of prairie land just on the edge of the town. Mrs. Lester went up stairs to see the extensive view of prairie from Ernest Dexter’s window, and then she looked at a cabinet of fossils, most of which he had collected himself in Illinois. There were some very fine specimens23, and he was kind enough to give Mrs. Lester a number of them.
The music of the piano called forth24 the 144rival notes of the mocking bird, and, accompanied by several canaries, he made the air vocal25 with sweet sounds. Mrs. Lester forgot what she was playing, so charmed was she with these delicious songsters. Strawberries and ice-cream were fully26 appreciated after the music, and the evening’s entertainment concluded with a magnificent sunset on the prairie. Golden clouds were penciled softly on the clear amber27 sky, while rugged28 wild clouds towered up in stern contrast with this calm serenity29. One could imagine the cliffs of Sinai in those gray clouds, so bold and lofty, while through a torn rift30 gleamed the soft blue sky. It was a memorable31 sunset even in the West, where they claim for their sunsets a peculiar32 beauty.
Norman was very sorry when he heard how much he had missed, especially as Mr. Dexter had been kind enough to send over twice for him. So he told 145Harold Dexter, when he saw him at church the next day, that he would walk over with Herbert Waldorf on Monday morning.
After breakfast Norman and Herbert walked over to Mr. Dexter’s, where they found the boys waiting for them. After a careful survey of Ernest’s treasury33, and of a smaller cabinet belonging to Harold and his brother, they set off, with baskets and hammers, in search of minerals. They went to a quarry34 and found a very fine fossil, a portion of a petrified35 snake. They hammered at this for a long time, but they broke it all to pieces in endeavoring to get it out. Harold found, however, a large stone filled with petrified shells, which he kindly gave to Norman, who came home in the afternoon with his basket filled with pieces of rock.
One afternoon Norman saw three “prairie schooners” in the street before his 146uncle’s door. These are the emigrant36 wagons38 with their white tops, which look not unlike sails as you see them quietly moving on over the far reaches of the prairie. A number of horses and boys were standing39 near them. The party were hesitating as to their course; wishing to cross the river, and seeing no bridge but the railroad bridge, they were making their way to that, when they found they could not cross it. Hence the halt and the consultation40.
“Norman,” said his mother, “do go and find out where those emigrants41 are going.”
“O mother,” said Norman, “I would not ask them for anything.”
“I will go then,” replied his mother, as she opened the garden gate, and walked up to the last prairie wagon37, in which a woman was seated with her four children.
She seemed pleased to hear the accents 147of a friendly voice, and soon told her simple story.
Eight years before she had been left a widow, with six children. The boys of twelve and fourteen did not wish to learn a trade, and farming was not very profitable in the part of Pennsylvania where she lived; so she had come to seek, in the fertile fields of Iowa, bread for her children. She had worked hard, and days of toil42 were still before her, but there was more hope in that virgin43 soil of securing a competence44. The rich deep black loam45 of these prairies often, at its first sowing, bears a golden harvest, that gives back to the farmer the amount he has paid for the land, and the expense of its cultivation46.
Mrs. Lester asked the emigrant, in whose patient face she had taken much interest, if she had any friends in the new and strange country to which she was going.
148“O yes,” she replied; she had a married daughter there, and a church and Sunday school for her children. She was a Methodist, as were the two families with whom she was journeying; and she would have been unwilling47 to go where her children would be deprived of their religious privileges.
There were fifteen persons in the company. They had driven from Pennsylvania to Cleveland, where they had taken the cars for Chicago. The wagon was lifted on the car, the cover taken off, and the woman said she had had the pleasantest ride she had ever taken in her life, looking over the lake and the prairie from her elevated position. From Chicago they had journeyed on, sometimes sleeping in their wagons, and sometimes on the floor of some house opened for them. There were bright, black-eyed children peeping from the recesses48 of the covered wagon, as their mother was talking to 149Mrs. Lester, and one little girl sat intently reading. Mrs. Lester bade her goodspeed, and the woman, with brightened face, thanked her for her words of kindness and sympathy.
The last day of their stay in Dixon at length arrived, and with it came Aunt Clara, whom Norman had never seen before, but whom he very soon learned to love. She showed him his picture when a baby, which his mother had sent her, and she found it difficult to trace any resemblance to the tall boy before her.
Norman stayed with her and his uncle in the evening, while his mother went out with a gentleman and lady to take a drive on the prairies. The day had been very warm, but there was a cool breeze on those boundless49 meadows that undulated peacefully, in their rounded swells50, to the far horizon. The corn was laughing in rich abundance, the wheat standing thick on the fields, after the sun had set, 150leaving its luminous51 track of light in wavy52 radiance; one huge cloud towered up in solitary grandeur53, its bold outline gilded54 by those parting rays.
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1
windings
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| （道路、河流等）蜿蜒的，弯曲的( winding的名词复数 )； 缠绕( wind的现在分词 )； 卷绕； 转动（把手） | |
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2
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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3
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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warehouse
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| n.仓库；vt.存入仓库 | |
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reapers
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| n.收割者，收获者( reaper的名词复数 )；收割机 | |
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7
cumbersome
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| adj.笨重的，不便携带的 | |
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8
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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9
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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10
refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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11
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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12
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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14
navigated
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| v.给（船舶、飞机等）引航，导航( navigate的过去式和过去分词 )；（从海上、空中等）横越；横渡；飞跃 | |
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15
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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16
courteously
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| adv.有礼貌地，亲切地 | |
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17
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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18
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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19
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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21
prow
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| n.(飞机)机头，船头 | |
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22
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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23
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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24
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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25
vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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26
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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28
rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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29
serenity
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| n.宁静，沉着，晴朗 | |
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30
rift
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| n.裂口，隙缝，切口；v.裂开，割开，渗入 | |
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31
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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32
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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33
treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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34
quarry
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| n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找 | |
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35
petrified
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| adj.惊呆的；目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆，使惊呆；变僵硬；使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词) | |
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36
emigrant
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| adj.移居的，移民的；n.移居外国的人，移民 | |
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37
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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38
wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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39
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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40
consultation
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| n.咨询；商量；商议；会议 | |
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41
emigrants
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| n.（从本国移往他国的）移民( emigrant的名词复数 ) | |
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42
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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43
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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44
competence
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| n.能力，胜任，称职 | |
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45
loam
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| n.沃土 | |
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46
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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47
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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48
recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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49
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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50
swells
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| 增强( swell的第三人称单数 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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51
luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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52
wavy
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| adj.有波浪的，多浪的，波浪状的，波动的，不稳定的 | |
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53
grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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54
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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