The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quadroon, by Mayne Reid

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Title: The Quadroon
Adventures in the Far West

Author: Mayne Reid

Release Date: January 27, 2009 [EBook #27913]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUADROON ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The Quadroon, by Captain Mayne Reid.

CHAPTER ONE.

THE FATHER OF WATERS.

Father of Waters! I worship thy mighty stream! As the Hindoo by the
shores of his sacred river, I kneel upon thy banks, and pour forth my
soul in wild adoration!

Far different are the springs of our devotion. To him, the waters of
his yellow Ganges are the symbols of a superstitious awe, commingled
with dark fears for the mystic future; to me, thy golden wares are the
souvenirs of joy, binding the present to the known and happy past. Yes,
mighty river! I worship thee in the past. My heart fills with joy at
the very mention of thy name!

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Father of Waters! I know thee well. In the land of a thousand lakes,
on the summit of the "_Hauteur de terre_," I have leaped thy tiny
stream. Upon the bosom of the blue lakelet, the fountain of thy life, I
have launched my birchen boat; and yielding to thy current, have floated
softly southward. I have passed the meadows where the wild rice ripens
on thy banks, where the white birch mirrors its silvery stem, and tall
_coniferae_ fling their pyramid shapes, on thy surface. I have seen the
red Chippewa cleave thy crystal waters in his bark canoe--the giant
moose lave his flanks in thy cooling flood--and the stately wapiti bound
gracefully along thy banks. I have listened to the music of thy
shores--the call of the cacawee, the laugh of the wa-wa goose, and the
trumpet-note of the great northern swan. Yes, mighty river! Even in
that far northern land, thy wilderness home, have I worshipped thee!

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Onward through many parallels of latitude--through many degrees of the
thermal line!

I stand upon thy banks where thou leapest the rocks of Saint