For he knew the place like his mother's face (or
Since she was a squaw of the roaming race,
Well, I took the Panther into camp, and the
And off with him, on the hunting tramp, next
And I reckon that day and the next we didn't
And only one in the camp looked vext--that
Nothing would please his contrairy ideas! an
He didn't speak, but I saw on his cheek, a kind
And I knew his skin was hatching sin, and I
For the Injin he was too blind to see the dirt
Well, one fine day, we a-resting lay at noon-
The red sun blazed, and we felt half-dazed, too
'Neath the alder trees we stretched at ease, and
For the lian-flowers in bright blue showers
It was like the gleam of a fairy-dream, and I
In an Eden bower with the yellow flower of a
Oranges, peaches, grapes, and figs, cluster'd,
And the cedar scent was pleasant, blent with
The squirrels red ran overhead, and I saw the
And the woodpecker bright with the chest so
I dreamed and dozed, with eyes half-closed,
And, a plantain blade on his brow for a shade,
Well, back, jest then, came our hunting men,
Full of his fun was every one, and the Panther's
And he skipt about with grin and shout, for he'd
And he twisted and twirled, and squeal'd and
To the waist all bare Phil Blood lay there, with
And I saw his bloodshot eye-balls stare, and I
When the Injin dances with grinning glances
With his painted skin and his monkey grin,--
Then before I knew what I should do Phil Blood
And the Injin could trace the hate in his face,
And, "Git out o' the way," he heard them say,
But before he could fly at the warning cry, he
"Run, Panther run!" cried each mother's son,
With a wicked glare, like a wounded bear, Phil
Up the side so steep of the canon deep the poor
And the devil's limb ran after him, till they
Now, the spot of ground where our luck was
found, was a queerish place, you'll mark,
Jest under the jags of the mountain crags and
Far up on high, close to the sky, the two crags
Leaving a gap, like an open trap, with a gleam
A pathway led from the beck's dark bed up to
And along that path the Injin fled, fast as a man
Some shots were fired, for I desired to keep the
But I missed my man, and away he ran on the
Now all below is thick, you know, with 'cacia,
And the bright shrubs deck the side of the