"God hath otherwise decreed," said Content. "He hath led his servants
hither, that the incense of praise may arise from the wilderness."
"Your Spirit is a wicked Spirit. Your ears have been cheated. The counsel
that told your young men to come so far, was not spoken in the voice of
the Manitou. It came from the tongue of one that loves to see game scarce,
and the squaws hungry. Go--you follow the mocker, or your hands would not
be so dark."
"I know not what injury may have been done the Wampanoags, by men of
wicked minds, for some such there are, even in the dwellings of the
well-disposed; but wrong to any hath never come from those that dwell
within my doors. For these lands, a price hath been paid; and what is now
seen of abundance in the valley, hath been wrought by much labor. Thou art
a Wampanoag, and dost know that the hunting-grounds of thy tribe have been
held sacred by my people. Are not the fences standing, which their hands
placed, that not even the hoof of colt should trample the corn? and when
was it known that the Indian came for justice against the trespassing ox,
and did not find it?"
"The moose doth not taste the grass at the root; he liveth on the tree!
He doth not stoop to feed on that which he treadeth under foot! Does the
hawk look for the musketoe? His eye is too big.
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