To most of them, however,
the history of the incarnation of the Son of God was entirely new;
and it struck THEM as a most extraordinary thing altogether that any
man should have injured such a being! It was, perhaps, singular that
no one of them all doubted the truth of the tradition itself. This
they supposed to have been transmitted with the usual care, and they
received it as a fact not to be disputed. The construction that was
put on its circumstances will best appear in the remarks that
followed.
"If the pale-faces killed the Son of the Great Spirit," said Bough
of the Oak, pointedly, "we can see why they wish to drive the red
men from their lands. Evil spirits dwell in such men, and they do
nothing but what is bad. I am glad that our great chief has told us
to put the foot on this worm and crush it, while yet the Indian foot
is large enough to do it. In a few winters they would kill us, as
they killed the Spirit that did them nothing but good!"
"I am afraid that this mighty tradition hath a mystery in it that
your Indian minds will scarcely be willing to receive," resumed the
missionary, earnestly. "I would not, for a thousand worlds, or to
save ten thousand lives as worthless as my own, place a straw in the
way of the faith of any; yet must I tell the thing as it happened.
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