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Doing Good.
t LITTLE girl I am indeed.
And little do I know ;
Much help and care I yet shall need,
That I may wiser grow,
If I would ever hope to do
\Jpsy> Things good and great, and useful too.
T But even now I ought to try
To do what good I may;
God never meant that such as I
Should only live to play,
And talk and laugh, and eat and drink,
And sleep and wake, and never think.
I may, if I have but a mind,
Do good in many ways;
Plenty to do the young may find
In these our busy days;
Sad would it be, tho’ young and small,
If I were of no use at all.
One gentle word that I may speak,
Or one kind, loving deed,
May, though a trifle poor and weak,
Prove like a tiny seed :
And who can tell what good may spring
Prom such a little thing ?
Then let me try, each day and hour,
To act upon this plan—
What little good is in my power,
To do it while I can.
If to be useful thus I try,
I may do better by-and-by.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
MAROONER’S ISLAND;
OR,
Dr. Gordon in Search of his Children.
BY REV. F. R. GOGLDING,
Author of the “ Young MaroonersY
CHAPTER XXI —continued.
EXTRACTING A BALL FROM A WOUND
NEWS OF THE MISSING ONES INDIAN RE
VENGE —SIMPLE HAND-BARROW FOR CAR
RYING A WOUNDED PERSON —CONFESSION
OF CRIME.
BWO fine-looking young
men, sons of the elder,
arose from their con
cealment, within half
gunshot of the place,
fearlessly forward. The
operation was explained
and they were asked to
ot a word was exchanged
between them and their father, only a
look of inquiry and a smile of approval,
when they knelt affectionately, one on
each side of him, and watched with eager
interest the entrance of the knife and the
expulsion of the ball. The only instru
ments at command were Dr. Gordon’s
pocket-knife, and his silver pencil-case.
Os course the incision through the skin
and an inch into the flesh, with so dull an
instrument, must have been painful, but
the old man gave not the least indication
of pain. He talked with his sons as se
renely as if the operation were performing
on someone else; and when it was over,
and the wound wrnshed with water and
bound up, he turned to Dr. Gordon with
a look of gratitude, and said :
BURKE’S WEEKLY.
“ Enk-lis-chay !* Chinnobee will not
forget.”
Dr. Gordon then delivered him to his
sons, with a few simple instructions, the
substance of which was to depend mainly
on cold water and cleanliness until the
ninth or tenth day, which is the usual
crisis with gun-shot wounds. The young
men, as well as their father, seemed per
fectly to understand the character and
treatment of such wounds, and with
grateful looks expressed their thanks in
broken English, which was pleasant to
the ear, not only for the novelty of its
tones and combinations, but as a token
that the tomahawk was buried, although
Dr. Gordon could scarcely maintain his
gravity when one ot the young men,
wishing to express his sense ot obligation
in a more civilized way than the others,
perpetrated a most awkward bow and
accompanied it with the words, “W el
come, thankum !”
The Doctor then prroposed to visit
Simpson in person, and suggested that
while he was gone Tomkins should in
quire of these new acquaintances the best
route to Tampa, and “ What,” said he,
“ you will excuse me for being ever up
permost in my mind, whether they have
any tidings of my missing ones.”
Tomkins promised to do as he was de
sired, but Dr. Gordon paused before leav
ing, and asked in an undertone :
“Do you think they can be trusted ?
You will bear in mind that they are In
dians, and that the little we know of them
is in their consummating an act of deadly
revenge.”
“Trust them!” echoed Tomkins. “Yes,
certainly. Chinnobee is a chief, not very
high, it is true, only a Tustanuggee, still
he is a man of character, and he and his
sons have been on Simpson’s trail for
nearly three years, dogging every step,
and watching their chance to kill him.”
“And you give this as your reason for
trusting them?” Dr. Gordon musingly in
quired.
“I do,” the other replied, “for I have
always observed that Indians who are
most faithful to avenge a wrong, accord
ing to their law 7 , are also most faithful to
remember a favor.”
Dr. Gordon pondered this last remark.
There was a deep philosophy in it, and it
coincided with his own observation of In
dian character. Still he hesitated to en
trust the precious interests of his children
to the partial keeping of Indians of whom
he knew so little, and that little an act of
deadly feud. But would it not, after all,
be best to inquire of them ? lie drew a
* Good! very good!
long breath, ottered a short unobserved
prayer for guidance, then said to Tomkins.
“Yes, go on!” and went to look after
Simpson.
To these inquiries Chinnobee replied
that he and his sons knew little of the
country, being themselves not residents,
but only visitors from the Creek nation
in Alabama; that there was an inland
route to Tampa, -which they might travel
with safety, since the most hostile Indians
lived farther south, and the minds of all
had been much mollified by the news of a
proposed council at Payne’s Landing;
still, that the route was so greatly inter
rupted by creeks and swamps that it
would be much more easy and desirable
to return by water, if canoes could be ob
tained. He said, too, that about ten days
previous a sail boat, containing several
persons, had been seen upon the coast
near an island which the Indians never
visited, and which they called The Island
of the Great Spirit, but where they landed,
if they landed at all, or where they went,
he never learned. He also stated that,
two days after the recent gale, a half
breed Indian, answering to the descrip
tion of Rile}", had been picked up in a
marsh near that island so nearly dead
from cold and starvation that he could
(jive no account of himself; but that he
O
was now doing well. Os the negro man,
Sam, he had heard nothing.
On being asked whether canoes could
be obtained from the natives in the neigh
borhood, he replied that he did not know,
for the people there were not Creeks, as
most of the Seminoles were, but a colony
of Choctaws, with whom he did not feel
so free, but that he would cause inquiry
to be made, and report the result two
days from that time.
Dr. Gordon, returning now 7 from his
visit to the wounded man on the beach,
authorized Tomkins to say, in his name,
that he v T as ready 7 to pay any 7 reasonable
price for canoes, and also to say 7 to Chin
nobee and his sons that if they would
bring back to Tampa his children, and
Riley 7 , and Sam, he would give them his
hatful of silver money.
When Tomkins made this last offer the
old man’s eyes glistened with pleasuie,
but he raised himself with dignity into a
more erect position, and said, with an an
of nobleness:
“Tell the medicine man that his words
are good, and I have no doubt his mono}
is bright. Tell him, too, that Chinnobee
and his sons v T ill do all that they can b' l
him, but that they can take no
from the man who saved Chinnobee sli <- •
In making their preparations to depart,
the young men cut two light still P ot ’’