Oswego

“ Dearborn, while he watched his fair companion, "are going to Oswego."
"Oh, indeed!" said Nina, unconsciously brightening.
"And the wind is ahead for that trip," said Dearborn.
"Is it?"
Nina had been round Lake Ontario in a yacht, and she had had an English boarding-school finish. She could have told the general course of the Ganges or the Hoang-ho, but she had no idea in what direction she was going on her own lake to Oswego. In English schools Canada is a land not worth learning about, and where hardly any person would live voluntarily. ”

“ That their "great father over the water," was rich in money and men; that the colonists were poor, and their numbers small, and that they could easily be brought into subjection.
At a council of the Iroquois convened at Oswego, by Sir John Johnson and other officers and friends of the crown, they were informed that the king desired them to assist him in subduing the rebels, who had taken up arms against him, and were about to rob him of a part of his great possessions. ”

“ You will go back to Oswego, and become man and wife as soon as you arrive, -- for all that is determined with Master Cap, who hankers after the sea again, and who knows what is to happen, -- while I shall return to the wilderness and my Maker. ”

“ Lighter materials could be transported by land, but the guns, cables, and anchors, &c., destined for two vessels recently built at Sackett's Harbor, could reach there only by water, from Oswego, whither they had been carried by way of the Mohawk river, Woods' creek, Oneida lake, and the Oswego river. Captain Woolsey, a brave, skillful and energetic officer, who had been appointed to take charge of their transportation, caused a rumor to be spread that he designed to effect it through Oneida lake. ”

“ In England the blow followed on that of the capture of Minorca, for which Byng was made a scapegoat. 'Minorca is gone, Oswego gone, the nation is in a ferment,' wrote Horace Walpole; and again, 'Oswego, of ten times more importance even than Minorca, is so annihilated that we cannot learn the particulars.'7 It was in truth a great success for France, the result of a plan boldly conceived and brilliantly executed. The garrison had been taken completely by surprise ”

“ There were men of all sorts among these hapless refugees of the Oswego, and most of them endured their hard lot with the patient courage of the deep-water mariner. The cook, however, was an exasperating rascal of an Irishman called Pat who had smuggled himself aboard at Cork as a ragged stowaway, and he lost no time in starting trouble on the coast of Barbary. In his pack was a bottle of gin, which had passed the skipper's inspection as water, and while on sentry duty at night to watch for prowling Arabs, Pat got uproariously drunk and fought a Danish foremast hand who was tippling with him. ”

“ But one is not likely to love his own calling so well as to cause him to overlook everything else. You say my father wishes me to marry a soldier; and yet there is no soldier at Oswego that he would be likely to give me to. ”

“ Also the British Lieutenant-colonel St. Leger, was sent with a force of seven hundred rangers up the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario to Oswego. He was to gather the Indians, make friends with them, and get them to act as his allies; then to sweep the valley of the Mohawk, with the help of Johnson and his Tories, take Fort Schuyler, and afterward join Burgoyne.
"Colonel Peter Gansevoort was at that time in command of Fort Schuyler. The people of Tryon County, hearing of St. Leger's movement, and that a descent was to be made upon them by the way of Oswego, were greatly alarmed. ”

“ Seldom indeed did these citizens of New Amsterdam become so excited about doctrine as to quarrel over it; they were too well contented with life as it was to contend over the life to be. Mrs. Grant in Memoirs of an American Lady has left us many intimate pictures of the life in the Dutch colony. She and her mother joined her father in New York in 1758, and through her residence at Claverach, Albany, and Oswego gained thorough knowledge of the people, their customs, social life and community ideas and ideals. ”

“ The harbour at the mouth of Oswego River is very bad on account of the sand banks; none but flat bottomed vessels can approach with safety nearer to it than two miles; nor is there any good harbour on the south side of Lake Ontario in the neighbourhood of any large rivers. Sharp built vessels, however, of a considerable size, can approach with safety to the mouth of Oswegatchee River. The Seneca, a British vessel of war of twenty-six guns, used formerly to ply constantly between Fort de la Galette, situated at the mouth of that river, and the fort at Niagara ”

“ At Oswego a counsel had been held a few weeks before, in order to enlist in British service the other "nations" of the Iroquois, who were assured that the King was a man of great power and that they should never want for food and clothing if they adhered to him. Rum, it was said, would be "as plentiful as water in Lake Ontario." Presents were made, and a bounty offered on every white man's scalp that they might take. The Senecas notably, and to some extent the Onondagas and Cayugas, thus became fired with ambition to see something of the war. ”

“ And worse was still to come, disaster followed on disaster. To a nation freshly smarting with the fall of Minorca there came tidings of catastrophe from the East457 and the West. In June Calcutta had been captured by Surajah Dowlah, followed by the horrors of the Black Hole, which still linger in the proverbial dialect of this country. Then in August fell Oswego, the most important British fortress in North America. Situated on Lake Ontario it was a permanent menace to the French, for British command of that lake would mean the separation of Canada from Louisiana. ”

“ I don't know just what Ozma will do to you, because this is the first time one of us has broken a Law; but you may be sure she will be just and merciful. Here in the Emerald City people are too happy and contented ever to do wrong; but perhaps you came from some faraway corner of our land, and having no love for Ozma carelessly broke one of her Laws."
"Yes," said Ojo, "I've lived all my life in the heart of a lonely forest, where I saw no one but dear Unc Nunkie." ”

“ When the poison light-arrow struck Osseo he became like an Indian who had seen a hundred winters.
Nothing old or evil can live on the Woman’s Star. Osseo could not return to his mother. He was brave. He made no mourning. He made many friends among the Ojibways.
Oweenee was the daughter of a chief. She was like the red lily that grows on the prairies. She had nine sisters. They were like a field of lilies. Her sisters had each married a great warrior.
Oweenee loved the old and wrinkled Osseo. There was none to cook the deer meat his trembling feet [182] brought to his wigwam. ”

“ Today the city of Owosso has 15,000 residents, and is more beautiful than it was in the days of old. Looking out of the studio windows of a wonderful writing castle which lies along the banks of the waters of the Shiawassee river, there can be seen one place that shall never be shed of the willows that wave so gently in the breeze. It is the little island in the very center of the river which flows through Owosso in a great sweeping bend. ”

“ Osseo heard them one day. He took courage and asked her to help him bear his sorrows. She became his wife, for she knew his heart was as kind as it was brave.
The chief of the Ojibways made a great feast. The sacred dance was to be danced by all the young braves. Oweenee’s sisters mocked at her again. This is what they said:
“See Oweenee. She is like the young vine that clings to the pine that is black with burning. Osseo is like the pine that the lightning has torn and burned. Oweenee would make him like a young pine. She is blind.
“Osseo, go from us. Leave Oweenee. She is not for you.” ”

“ He is now living near the Emerald City and is a great favorite with the Princess Ozma, who rules all the Land of Oz."
"No; I've never heard of him," remarked Ojo. "I'm afraid I don't know much about the Land of Oz. You see, I've lived all my life with Unc Nunkie, the Silent One, and there was no one to tell me anything."
"That is one reason you are Ojo the Unlucky," said the woman, in a sympathetic tone. "The more one knows, the luckier he is, for knowledge is the greatest gift in life." ”

“ After many moons had come and gone there came to Osseo and his wife a little son. As the boy grew he seemed brighter than the starlight, and Osseo and Oweenee loved him dearly; but his grandfather, the Evening Star, loved him best of all.
One day Evening Star said to Osseo, “You must be careful not to let the light beams from the small Star that dwells near by fall upon the cage of singing birds, or upon yourself, or your wife, or your son. The Star is an evil spirit, and the light beams are his enchanted arrows. They change the form of all those upon whom they fall.” ”

“ For what to them was only music, was to Osseo a voice that he understood, a voice from the sky itself, the voice of the Evening Star. These were the words that he heard:
"Suffer no more, my son; for the evil spell is broken, and hereafter no magician shall work you harm. Suffer no more; for the time has come when you shall leave the earth and dwell here with me in the heavens. Before you is a dish on which my light has fallen, blessing it and giving it a magic virtue. Eat of this dish, Osseo, and all will be well." ”

“ His words sank deeply into men’s hearts. “‘May God have mercy on their souls,’ said Oswald, as he fell to earth,” was a line handed down from generation to generation. From his hermit’s retreat on Farne Island, Aidan beheld the thick clouds of smoke rise from the country round Bamborough, and cried, “Behold, Lord, the evil that Penda doeth!” Still the work of God went on; and when Oswiu came to the throne the prayer of Oswald received its [Pg 8] answer, for a marriage between his house and the house of Penda led to the evangelization of the Mercians and Middle Angles by the monks of Iona. ”

“ There are only a few more mysteries to clear up before we leave for a time the jolly Kingdom of Oz. Ruggedo, much shaken by his terrible experiences with Glegg’s magic, confessed everything to Ozma on her return to the Emerald City. You can imagine the surprise of the little Fairy Ruler on learning how her palace had come to be impaled upon the spikes of the wicked old gnome’s gray head. ”

“ I love thee Oswega, will love thee for aye—
’Twas but for a time that my heart went astray.
I’ll come to thy wigwam, will care for thy home,
And never again from my lover will roam.
Oswega! Oswega! my heart is as true
As thine is for me, and I bitterly rue
That vanity caused my heart to grow cold,
By flattering words and the glamour of gold.
The dream is now o’er, it was but for a day.
My vain heart was flattered, I could not say nay.
My beauty may fade, but I know that thy heart
Will ever be mine, and ne’er more shall we part.
[Pg 18]
AT LAST.
I struggle on blindly ”

“ It is ten weeks since he started for Oswega.”
“Ten weeks, is it?” answered Nat. “He ought to be back, Loïs;” and turning away from her, he looked steadily out of the window.
“Yes, he ought,” she answered; “I understood he had left Oswega a month ago?”
“So he did,” answered Nat; “he went with some other traders to Miamis, you know—the village of Old Britain.”
“He’s safe there,” said Loïs. “I thought you always said Old Britain was a fast friend of the English?”
“So he is, but the French don’t half like it; they are always trying to get him on their side. ”

“ They knew that all of Oz, including their own territory, was ruled by a beautiful Princess named Ozma, who lived in the splendid Emerald City; yet the simple folk of Oogaboo never visited Ozma. They had a royal family of their own—not especially to rule over them, but just as a matter of pride. Ozma permitted the various parts of her country to have their Kings and Queens and Emperors and the like, but all were ruled over by the lovely girl Queen of the Emerald City. ”

“ I only should like, if possible, to have notice of his coming, that we may be prepared."
"You need no preparation, sir, if he should come," replied Oswald.
"Very true," said Edward; "we have nothing to conceal, and if he finds us in a pickle it is of no consequence."
"Rather the better, sir," replied Oswald. "Let your sisters be at the wash-tub, and you and your brother carting manure; he will then be more likely to have no suspicion of your being otherwise than what you assume to be."
"Have you heard any news from London, Oswald?" ”

“ OSWALD (d. 992) , archbishop of York, was a nephew of Oda, archbishop of Canterbury, and at an early age became, by purchase, head of the Old Minster at Winchester. Desiring to become a monk, he went with Oda’s approval to the monastery of Fleury on the Loire—at that time the great centre of reviving Benedictinism. Here he soon distinguished himself by the monastic austerity of his life. In 959 he returned to England at the request of Oda, who, however, died before his arrival. He now went to York to his kinsman the Archbishop Oskytel, who took him with him on a pilgrimage to Rome. ”

“ Unc Nunkie, who might have been King of the Munchkins, had not his people united with all the other countries of Oz in acknowledging Ozma as their sole ruler, had retired into this forgotten forest nook with his baby nephew and they had lived all alone there. Only that the neglected garden had failed to grow food for them, they would always have lived in the solitary Blue Forest; but now they had started out to mingle with other people, and the first place they came to proved so interesting that Ojo could scarcely sleep a wink all night. ”