Otoe

“ The following trait in the character of a distinguished warrior is worthy of being recorded. During the residence of the Pawnees on the Platte at the cedar hills, about fifteen or eighteen years since, the Otoes were frequently at war with them, notwithstanding their own great numerical inferiority. On one occasion, during a pacific interval, some Otoes followed the Pawnees, who had just left their village on a national hunt, and stole two horses from them. ”

“ He is esteemed the bravest and most intelligent of the Ioways, and amongst the Otoes he was associated with many equally brave with himself. But as there are national prejudices amongst the Indians as well as amongst the whites, he has not escaped from many a keen allusion to his nation. In a quarrel, which arose from some expressions of this nature, Ietan knocked him down with a war-club. ”

“ And so passed Otoo, who saved me and made me a man, and who saved me in the end. We met in the maw of a hurricane, and parted in the maw of a shark, with seventeen intervening years of comradeship, the like of which I dare to assert has never befallen two men, the one brown and the other white. If Jehovah be from His high place watching every sparrow fall, not least in His kingdom shall be Otoo, the one heathen of Bora Bora. ”

“ For three days and nights, spell and spell, on the cover and in the water, we drifted over the ocean. Toward the last I was delirious most of the time, and there were times, too, when I heard Otoo babbling and raving in his native tongue. Our continuous immersion prevented us from dying of thirst, though the sea water and the sunshine gave us the prettiest imaginable combination of salt pickle and sunburn. In the end, Otoo saved my life; for I came to, lying on the beach twenty feet from the water, sheltered from the sun by a couple of cocoanut leaves. ”

“ But I shall think Otoo always. Whenever I think of myself I shall think of you. Whenever men call me by name I shall think of you. And beyond the sky and beyond the stars always and forever you shall be Otoo to me. ”

“ While Otto was still a little baby, he had been given into Brother John’s care. Thereafter, and until Otto had grown old enough to care for himself, poor Brother John never left his little charge, night or day. Oftentimes the good Father Abbot, coming into the garden, where he loved to walk alone in his meditations, would find the poor, simple Brother sitting under the shade of the pear-tree, close to the bee-hives, rocking the little baby in his arms, singing strange, crazy songs to it, and gazing far away into the blue, empty sky with his curious, pale eyes. ”

“ How long will you (like the serpent creeping through the grass) continue to disturb the unsuspecting stranger passing through your country? Be cautious how you disturb the red skins of Missouri; or your women and children shall mourn the loss of husbands and fathers—husbands and fathers shall mourn the loss of wives and children.
"Yes, Saukees, the Otoes, Missouries, and Omawhaws, are unwilling to be disturbed any longer. They will no longer suffer you to make slaves of their children, and dance their scalps in your villages. ”

“ Strange men were running here and there with flaming torches, and the now continuous shrieking of women pierced the air.
Just beneath the window lay the figure of a man half naked and face downward upon the stones. Then suddenly Otto cried out in fear and horror, for, as he looked with dazed and bewildered eyes down into the lurid court-yard beneath, a savage man, in a shining breast-plate and steel cap, came dragging the dark, silent figure of a woman across the stones; but whether she was dead or in a swoon, Otto could not tell. ”

“ And should you follow the story to the end, I hope you may find it a pleasure, as I have done, to ramble through those dark ancient castles, to lie with little Otto and Brother John in the high belfry-tower, or to sit with them in the peaceful quiet of the sunny old monastery garden, for, of all the story, I love best those early peaceful years that little Otto spent in the dear old White Cross on the Hill.
Poor little Otto’s life was a stony and a thorny pathway, and it is well for all of us nowadays that we walk it in fancy and not in truth. ”

“ The chiefs of districts at Otaheite are powerful princes, who have not more respect for Otoo than the Greek heroes had for the "king of men;" and the common people are so little noticed in the Iliad, that they appear to have had no greater consequence, than the towtows in the South Seas. ”

“ Otto met them; he had a basket in his hand and said: 'Look, here is something that an old man has just left for you.'
When the girls looked into the basket they saw a pair of most beautiful bracelets of precious stones, dark red, and made in the shape of a ripe raspberry and with an inscription: 'To Lisa and Aina'; beside them there was a diamond breast pin in the shape of a raspberry worm: on it was inscribed 'Otto, never destroy the helpless!'
Otto felt rather ashamed: he quite understood what it meant, but he thought that the old man's revenge was a noble one. ”

“ But poor little Otto, with his face hidden in his father’s robe, cried as though his heart would break. “Oh, father!” he said, again and again, “it cannot be—it cannot be that thou who art so kind to me should have killed a man with thine own hands.” Then: “I wish that I were back in the monastery again; I am afraid out here in the great wide world; perhaps somebody may kill me, for I am only a weak little boy and could not save my own life if they chose to take it from me.” ”

“ Soon the sun struck through the screen of branches and thin early leaves that made a hanging bower above the fall; and the golden lights and flitting shadows fell upon and marbled the surface of that so seething pot; and rays plunged deep among the turning waters; and a spark, as bright as a diamond, lit upon the swaying eddy. It began to grow warm where Otto lingered, warm and heady; the lights swam, weaving their maze across the shaken pool; on the impending rock, reflections danced like butterflies; and the air was fanned by the waterfall as by a swinging curtain. ”

“ The very thought of the effort to swim over was nauseating. So I called to the kanaka to come to me, and proceeded to share the hatch cover with him. Otoo, he told me his name was (pronounced ō-tō-ō ) ; also, he told me that he was a native of Bora Bora, the most westerly of the Society Group. As I learned afterward, he had got the hatch cover first, and, after some time, encountering Captain Oudouse, had offered to share it with him, and had been kicked off for his pains.
And that was how Otoo and I first came together. He was no fighter. ”

“ It was Otto who left flowers for her in the most unexpected places—a rose fresh and nodding from a keyhole, a bunch of violets on the bayonet of a tin soldier, the cart of the little gray donkey heaped high with crocuses, a spray of hyacinths adorning the brow of the white elephant.
And no one but Otto took her adventuring. No one but Otto knew how to play.
And she should miss her playmate!
In the midst of her doleful reflections, she was aware that there had come suddenly within the line of her vision a big umbrella. Beneath the umbrella she could see little feet and a held-up black skirt. ”

“ When I was last here, I conceived but an unfavourable opinion of Otoo's talents. The improvements since made in the island convinced me of my mistake; and that he must have been a man of good parts. He had indeed some judicious sensible men about him, who, I believe, had a great share in the government. In truth, we know not how far his power extended as king, nor how far he could command the assistance of the other chiefs, or was controulable by them. It should seem, however, that all had contributed towards bringing the isle to its present flourishing state. ”

“ Among these were Otow, the father of Otoo, and Oreepyah, his brother; also another chief of Matavai called Poeeno: and to these men I made presents. Two messengers likewise arrived from Otoo to acquaint me of his being on his way to the ship; each of whom brought me as a present from Otoo a small pig and a young plantain-tree as a token of friendship. The ship was now plentifully supplied with provisions; every person having as much as he could consume. As soon as the ship was secured I went on shore with the chief Poeeno, and accompanied by a multitude of the natives. ”

“ So Ottilia skipped up the bank, and disappeared into the thicket, stopping once for a single blushing bob—blushing, because she had in the interval once more forgotten and remembered the stranger’s quality.
Otto returned to his rock promontory; but his humour had in the meantime changed. The sun now shone more fairly on the pool; and over its brown, welling surface, the blue of heaven and the golden green of the spring foliage danced in fleeting arabesque. The eddies laughed and brightened with essential colour. And the beauty of the dell began to rankle in the Prince’s mind ”

“ Yes, good! This is it—‘Nothing that has lived,’ said he, ‘shall ever die, and nothing that has died shall ever live.’”
Otto drew a deep breath. “I would that I might see the beautiful Angel Gabriel sometime,” said he; but Brother John was singing again and did not seem to hear what he said.
Next to Brother John, the nearest one to the little child was the good Abbot Otto, for though he had never seen wonderful things with the eyes of his soul, such as Brother John’s had beheld, and so could not tell of them, he was yet able to give little Otto another pleasure that no one else could give. ”

“ At last the bolts grated back, there was a pause, and then the door opened a little way, and Otto thought that he could see someone peeping in from without. By and by the door opened further, there was another pause, and then a slender, elfish-looking little girl, with straight black hair and shining black eyes, crept noiselessly into the room.
She stood close by the door with her finger in her mouth, staring at the boy where he lay upon his couch, and Otto upon his part lay, full of wonder, gazing back upon the little elfin creature. ”

“ But there is an end to all things; and at length Otto was walking by the side of Madame von Rosen, along that mountain wall, her servant following with both the horses, and all about them sunlight, and breeze, and flying bird, and the vast regions of the air, and the capacious prospect: wildwood and climbing pinnacle, and the sound and voice of mountain torrents, at their hand: and far below them, green melting into sapphire on the plains. ”

“ Then she came and leaned over me and kissed my forehead, and after that I fell asleep.”
“But where did she come from, Otto?” said the little girl.
“From paradise, I think,” said Otto, with that patient seriousness that he had caught from the monks, and that sat so quaintly upon him.
“So!” said little Pauline; and then, after a pause, “That is why thy mother kissed thee when thy head ached—because she is an angel. When I was sick my mother bade Gretchen carry me to a far part of the house, because I cried and so troubled her. Did thy mother ever strike thee, Otto?”
“Nay,” said Otto. ”

“ Each morning I go to see Otto beside the river in the meadow.
He sits and paints, and I sit with my hands clasped about my knees and talk to him. I tell him all that I think, all that I read, all that I know, all that I feel, all that I do not feel.
He listens to me with that far-away look that I have learned to love and that means that he is thinking deeply; at times he almost seems not to hear.
The intercourse of our minds is wonderful.
We stimulate one another’s thought.
Otto is my master. ”

“ And, O Lord, I declare I hope your Highness will forgive me,’ the girl added. ‘I can’t keep it in my mind.’
‘No more can I,’ cried Otto. ‘That is just what they complain of!’
They made a loverly-looking couple; only the heavy pouring of that horse-tail of water made them raise their voices above lovers’ pitch. But to a jealous onlooker from above, their mirth and close proximity might easily give umbrage; and a rough voice out of a tuft of brambles began calling on Ottilia by name. She changed colour at that. ‘It is Fritz,’ she said. ”

“ Brother Theodore began snuffling through his nose; there was a pause. "Yes," said the old Abbot at last, and his gentle voice trembled as he spoke; "yes, my dear little child, thou art back again in thine own home; thou hast not been long out in the great world, but truly thou hast had a sharp and bitter trial of it."
"But they will not take me away again, will they?" said Otto quickly, unclosing his blue eyes.
"Nay," said the Abbot, gently; "not until thou art healed in body and art ready and willing to go." ”

“ As the Father Abbot and Otto drew near he raised his head and looked at them. It was a plain, homely face that Otto saw, with a wrinkled forehead and a long mouth drawn down at the corners. It was the face of a good, honest burgher burdened with the cares of a prosperous trade. "Who can he be," thought Otto, "and why does the poor man stand there among all the great nobles?" ”

“ Nothing could be more dissimilar than the features and the respective characters of Otho and Warbeck. Otho’s countenance was flushed with the brown hues of health; his eyes were of the brightest hazel: his dark hair wreathed in short curls round his open and fearless brow; the jest ever echoed on his lips, and his step was bounding as the foot of the hunter of the Alps. Bold and light was his spirit; if at times he betrayed the haughty insolence of youth, he felt generously, and though not ever ready to confess sorrow for a fault, he was at least ready to brave peril for a friend. ”

“ She is the wife of Fritz, the swineherd, and she will make him tell thy father; for she will do whatever I ask of her, and Fritz will do whatever she bids him do."
"And for my sake, wilt thou tell him, Pauline?" said Otto.
"But see, Otto," said the little girl, "if I tell him, wilt thou promise to come indeed and marry me when thou art grown a man?"
Yes," said Otto, very seriously, " I will promise."
"Then I will tell thy father where thou art," said she.
"But thou wilt do it without the Baron Henry knowing, wilt thou not, Pauline?" ”