mysterious dimness of death was in his features. His eyes
gleamed, and his bronze lips were turning pale.

"My nation, listen; 'tis my last voice. I am a Umatilla. In my youth the
birds in the free lakes of the air were not more free. I spoke, and you
obeyed. I have but one more command to give. Will you obey me?

"You bow, and I am glad.

"Listen!

"My fathers were men of war. They rolled the battle-drums. I taught my
warriors to play the pipes of peace, and sixty years have they played them
under the great moons of the maize-fields. We were happy. I was happy.

"I had seven sons. The white man's plague came; the shadow fell on six of
them, and they went away with the storm-birds. They entered the new canoe,
and sailed beyond us on the sea of life. They came back no more at the
sunrisings and sun settings, at the leaf-gatherings of the spring, or the
leaf-fallings of the autumn. They are beyond.

"One son was left me--Benjamin. He was no common youth; the high spirits
were with him, and he came to be like them, and he has gone to them now. I
loved him. He was my eyes; he was my ears; he was my heart. When I saw his
eyes in death, my eyes were dead; when he could hear me call his name no
longer, my ears lost their hearing; when his young heart ceased to beat,
my own heart was dead. All that I am lies in that grave, beside my dead
boy.

"My nation, you have always obeyed me. I have but one more command to
make. Will you obey me?

"You bow again. My life-blood is growing cold. I am about to go down into
that grave.

"One step! The clouds fly and darken, and you will see them return again,
but not I.

"Two steps! Farewell, sun and light of day. I shall see thee again, but
not as now.

"Three steps! Downward to the grave I descend to meet thee, my own dear
boy. Adieu, my people. Adieu, hearts of faith. Farewell, ye birds of the
air, ye mighty forests, ye sun of night, and ye marches of stars. I am
dying.

"Two steps more I will take. There he lies before me in the unfolded
earth, the life of my life, the heart of my heart.

"You have promised to obey me. I repeat it--you have promised to obey me.
You have always done so. You must do so now. My hands are cold, my feet
are cold, and my heart beats very slow. Three steps more, and I shall lay
myself on the body of my boy. Hear, then, my last command; you have
promised to obey it like brave men.

"When I have taken my last three steps of life, and laid down be