Indian healers used it for treating tuberculosis.īurr the prickly outer shell of the chestnut.īuttonwood the sycamore or planetree, which produces a button-shaped blossom.ĭugout the world's first boat, a heavy wooden canoe made by peeling bark from a stout tree trunk, flattening the bottom with a plane, and then burning out the heartwood. It is steeped into a strong, aromatic, antiseptic tea similar to rubbing alcohol for bathing scratches, sores, and sprains. Hazel a valuable shrub whose bark has curative powers. Spice bush the Caroline allspice or sweet bubby bush, a healing plant used as a stimulant. Hemlock an evergreen whose stem ends herbalists boiled as a tea to treat itch, diarrhea, and kidney disease. Now I go light and free." But from some of his ways on the trail, we can sense that his expectations of his Indian homecoming may not be fulfilled completely. True Son rejoices in the sight of Fort Pitt and comments, "The last time I saw it, I was heavy and a prisoner. True Son's hesitation at stealing the trader's boat will be expanded in the disastrous water scene in Chapter 14, when his actions are viewed by the Indians as disloyal to the tribe. Half Arrow's decision to leave unharmed the "cutters down of the Indian forest" is but one example of how, in the forest and away from white civilization, he acts logically and unemotionally, in direct contrast to his rashness while briefly in Paxton. The chapter's action discloses mature thoughts and behaviors in both boys. The atmosphere in this chapter remains somber because of True Son and Half Arrow's infrequent encounters with white traders, who are a threat to the boys. True Son rejoices in "this path, this westward, ever westward path, deep in their Indian forest." He exults in the names of eastern forest tribes who share trails along the Tuscarawas River, yet he must acknowledge that white intruders have driven many tribes far to the west. Richter's tone is uplifting as he details the westward passage of True Son and Half Arrow. His violent departure from Paxton means that the Butler family can never reclaim him, for by striking Uncle Wilse, he would be imprisoned, hanged, or tortured by the Paxton militia should he ever return there. Richter begins the chapter with a religious rebirth as True Son revels in sleeping outdoors among "his father, the Sun," "his sisters, the birds," "his brother, the Black Squirrel," and "his mother, the Earth." At this point in the story, the boy assumes that he has cut all ties with the white world. He and True Son float down river past Fort Pitt and on to the Ohio River. To elude the trader's guard dog, Half Arrow waits until night and then nabs the boat that is tied with a rope. In his typical good spirits, he ridicules his cousin's resorting to white morality. He resolves to take only one boat because the owner is half-Indian. True Son hesitates about stealing from the trader, but Half Arrow argues that they would only be stealing from those who steal from Indians. When the two boys discover the log buildings of a half-breed trader on a river they identify as the Alleghi Sipu, Half Arrow wants to steal one of the trader's two dugout boats. At a point between Indian land and white, the two boys express different regrets: True Son dislikes having to abandon his white brother, Gordie Half Arrow wishes that he could have killed Wilse while he had him down on the ground. For three days, he and Half Arrow travel northwest across three more mountains.
Awakening on First Mountain, True Son rejoices that he is finally separated from the hated white settlement.
0 kommentar(er)
