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Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851

"The Prairie"

Weucha
relinquished his grasp, and uttered a cry of exultation.
"Now!" shouted Paul, unable to control his impatience any longer,
"now, old Ishmael, is the time to show the native blood of Kentucky!
Fire low, boys--level into the swales, for the red skins are settling
to the very earth!"
His voice was, however, lost, or rather unheeded, in the midst of the
shrieks, shouts, and yells that were, by this time, bursting from
fifty mouths on every side of him. The guards still maintained their
posts at the side of the captives, but it was with that sort of
difficulty with which steeds are restrained at the starting-post, when
expecting the signal to commence the trial of speed. They tossed their
arms wildly in the air, leaping up and down more like exulting
children than sober men, and continued to utter the most frantic
cries.
In the midst of this tumultuous disorder a rushing sound was heard,
similar to that which might be expected to precede the passage of a
flight of buffaloes, and then came the flocks and cattle of Ishmael in
one confused and frightened drove.


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