The Indian Fairy Book | Page 3

up to the skies.
Waupee exerted all his skill to please his bride and win her affections.
He wiped the tears from her eyes; he related his adventures in the chase;
he dwelt upon the charms of life on the earth. He was constant in his
attentions, keeping fondly by her side, and picking out the way for her
to walk as he led her gently toward his lodge. He felt his heart glow
with joy as he entered it, and from that moment he was one of the
happiest of men.
Winter and summer passed rapidly away, and as the spring drew near
with its balmy gales and its many-colored flowers, their happiness was
increased by the presence of a beautiful boy in their lodge. What more

of earthly blessing was there for them to enjoy?
Waupee's wife was a daughter of one of the stars; and as the scenes of
earth began to pall upon her sight, she sighed to revisit her father. But
she was obliged to hide these feelings from her husband. She
remembered the charm that would carry her up, and while White Hawk
was engaged in the chase, she took occasion to construct a wicker
basket, which she kept concealed. In the mean time, she collected such
rarities from the earth as she thought would please her father, as well as
the most dainty kinds of food.
One day when Waupee was absent, and all was in readiness, she went
out to the charmed ring, taking with her her little son. As they entered
the car she commenced her magical song, and the basket rose. The song
was sad, and of a lowly and mournful cadence, and as it was wafted far
away by the wind, it caught her husband's ear. It was a voice which he
well knew, and he instantly ran to the prairie Though he made
breathless speed, he could not reach the ring before his wife and child
had ascended beyond his reach. He lifted up his voice in loud appeals,
but they were unavailing. The basket still went up. He watched it till it
became a small speck, and finally it vanished in the sky. He then bent
his head down to the ground, and was miserable.
Through a long winter and a long summer Waupee bewailed his loss,
but he found no relief. The beautiful spirit had come and gone, and he
should see it no more!
He mourned his wife's loss sorely, but his son's still more; for the boy
had both the mother's beauty and the father's strength.
In the mean time his wife had reached her home in the stars, and in the
blissful employments of her father's house she had almost forgotten that
she had left a husband upon the earth. But her son, as he grew up,
resembled more and more his father, and every day he was restless and
anxious to visit the scene of his birth. His grandfather said to his
daughter, one day:
"Go, my child, and take your son down to his father, and ask him to

come up and live with us. But tell him to bring along a specimen of
each kind of bird and animal he kills in the chase."
She accordingly took the boy and descended. The White Hawk, who
was ever near the enchanted spot, heard her voice as she came down
the sky. His heart beat with impatience as he saw her form and that of
his son, and they were soon clasped in his arms.
He heard the message of the Star, and he began to hunt with the
greatest activity, that he might collect the present with all dispatch. He
spent whole nights, as well as days, in searching for every curious and
beautiful animal and bird. He only preserved a foot, a wing, or a tail of
each.
When all was ready, Waupee visited once more each favorite spot--the
hill-top whence he had been used to see the rising sun; the stream
where he had sported as a boy; the old lodge, now looking sad and
solemn, which he was to sit in no more; and last of all, coming to the
magic circle, he gazed widely around him with tearful eyes, and, taking
his wife and child by the hand, they entered the car and were drawn
up--into a country far beyond the flight of birds, or the power of mortal
eye to pierce.
Great joy was manifested upon their arrival at the starry plains. The
Star Chief invited all his people to a feast; and when they had
assembled, he proclaimed aloud that each one might continue as he was,
an inhabitant of his own dominions, or select of the earthly gifts such as
he liked best. A very strange