’Twas the vision of an old-world village, in a sweet little island that rose out of the main, far-off; and to him ’twas "Home, sweet home" still, though his feet must never tread that land again, for he was an exile, a victim to the cruel game-laws, that had banished him from his country. Here, ’twas true, the whole forest was his, with all it contained. The beaver, the otter, the fish in the streams, and even the red-spotted deer were his for the taking; but still his heart stole back again to that forbidden land.
"Oh, that I might drop a tear and plant a flower on thy grave, Lisbeth! Thou wert all the world to me--a true wife and a friend. And the bairn? Oh, my God! the bairn! Where is he?"
And here this strong man, hardened by nature to all the toils and dangers of the forest, the rapids, the wild beasts, and the scalping parties of red foes, broke down in an agony of tears and wept, for he thought of his little blue-eyed laddie of two years; the poor motherless bairn, as he had last seen him, with his flaxen curls nestling in his arms.
How often he had longed to go home and find his boy, to find even if he were yet alive; but the thought came to him each time--
"How have they taught the lad to regard his father? Perhaps they have told him that I am dead! Well, maybe ’tis better so! Or perhaps they have said, ’He is an exile in a far-off land, and he will return no more, for in the eyes of the law he is a criminal.’ Then so it must remain, lest the father’s curse should blight the lad; but what would I not give to see my child again after all these years."
Then he flung himself down upon a pile of skins and wept again. That night sleep fled from his eyelids, as it had often done before when these longings for the homeland had come over him, but never, never before had his agony been so great. He prayed his God for something he had never dared to ask before. It was that he might be permitted, before he died, to look upon the face of his child again, even though the lad should not know him. And his prayer was answered, for an angel from the stars above came down and kissed him, as he lay beneath the silent pines, and whispered--
And he slept, for his cares had fled, and a deep peace had filled his soul.