heir camp-fire on the
banks, awaiting as it were the course of events. The dark green
crystalline lustre of the shady reaches of the river, where the gigantic
trees hung over the current, contrasted with the silver glister of the
ripples far out, shimmering in the full glare of the sun. The breeze,
exquisitely fragrant, would blow fresh and free from the dense forests.
The mockingbird, a feathered miracle to the Highlander, would sway on a
twig above them and sing jubilantly the whole day through and deep into
the night. The distant mountains would show-softly blue on the horizon
till the sun was going down, when they would assume a translucent
jewel-like lustre, amethystine and splendid. And at night all the stars
were in the dark sky, for the moon was new.

So idle they were they must needs talk and talk. But this was an
exercise requiring some skill and patience on the part of each, for the
Scotchman could only by the closest attention gather the meaning of the
Cherokee language as it was spoken, and the magic of the ada-wehi
compassed but scanty English. Attusah was further hampered by the
necessity of pausing now and then to spit out the words of the tongue he
abhorred as if of an evil taste. Nevertheless it was by means of this
imperfect linguistic communication that Kenneth MacVintie, keenly alive
to aught of significance in this strange new world, surrounded with
unknown unmeasured dangers, was enabled to note how the thoughts of his
companion ran upon the half king Atta-Kulla-Kulla. Yet whenever a
question was asked or curiosity suggested, the wary Attusah diverted the
topic. This fact focused the observation of the shrewd, pertinacious
Scotchman. At first he deemed the special interest lay in a jealousy of
artistic handicraft.

Atta-Kulla-Kulla's name implied the superlative of a skillful carver in
wood, Attusah told him one day.

"An' isna he a skilly man?" MacVintie asked.

"Look at that!" cried the braggart, holding aloft his own work. He was
carving a pipe from the soft stone of the region, which so lends itself
to the purpose, hardening when heated. "_Tsida-wei-yu!_"

There was a long pause while the mockingbird sang with an exuberant
magic which might baffle the emulation of any ada-wehi of them all.
MacVintie had almost forgotten the episode when Attusah said suddenly
that the colonists translated the name of Atta-Kulla-Kulla as the
"Little Carpenter."

"Hegh! they hae a ship named for his honor!