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قراءة كتاب Burl
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class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">Chapter IV.
How Somebody was Lost in the Paradise
Chapter V.
How Grumbo Figured in the Paradise
Chapter VI.
How Big Black Burl Figured on the War-path by Day
Chapter VII.
How Big Black Burl Figured on the War-path by Night
Chapter VIII.
How Big Black Burl Figured in a Quandary
Chapter IX.
How Big Black Burl Figured in Ambush
Chapter X.
How Big Black Burl Figured in the Fight
Chapter XI.
How Little Bushie Figured in the Fight
Chapter XII.
How Big Black Burl and Grumbo Figured After the Fight
Chapter XIII.
How Big Black Burl Figured in his Triumph
Chapter XIV.
How Big Black Burl Figured in Oratory
Chapter XV.
How Big Black Burl Sewed it Up in his War-cap
Chapter XVI.
How Big Black Burl Figured on the Peace-path
Chapter XVII.
How the Glory of his Race Figured in his Rising
Chapter XVIII.
How the Eagle and the Lion and the Big Bear Figured in the Great North-west
Chapter XIX.
How Big Black Burl Figured at the Death-stake
Chapter XX.
How Kumshakah Figured in The Light of the Setting Sun
Chapter XXI.
How the Glory of his Race Figured in his Setting
BURL.
Chapter I.
How Big Black Burl Figured in the Paradise.
Six feet six he stood in his moccasins, yet seemed not tall, so broad he was and ponderously thick. He had an elephantine leg, with a foot like a black-oak wedge; a chimpanzean arm, with a fist like a black-oak maul; eyes as large and placid as those of an ox; teeth as large and even as those of a horse; skin that was not skin, but ebony; a nose that was not a nose, but gristle; hair that was not hair, but wool; and a grin that was not a grin, but ivory sunshine. Such was the outward man of Big Black Burl.
Brave as a lion, deliberate as a bear, patient as an ox, faithful as a mastiff, affectionate as a Newfoundland dog, sagacious as a crow, talkative as a magpie, and withal as cheery and full of song as a sky-lark. Such was the inward man of Big Black Burl.
Built up and limbed as just described, our hero, as you may well imagine, must have been a man of prodigious bodily strength. To be sure, a tall, supple, well-knit, athletic white man like Simon Kenton, for example, might, in a wrestling-match and by some unexpected sleight of foot, have kicked his heels from under him and brought him flat on his back with ease. But keeping him there would have been an altogether different matter. That would have taken Simon Kenton, Daniel Boone, and Benjamin Logan, all men of uncommon bone and muscle, and all upon him at once; and even then he would have tumbled and tousled them so lustily as at last to force them from sheer loss of breath to yield the point and let him up.
The station, in and around which our colored hero was wont to figure, was one of the most exposed points along the northern border, and, being the rendezvous of many of Kentucky's boldest hunters, was looked upon by the more interior settlements as their bulwark of defense against incursions of the Indians. Now, be it known that in the numerous skirmishes which took place in that quarter between the Reds and the Whites, Big Black Burl played a rather conspicuous part; proving himself for deeds of warlike prowess a signal illustration of African valor—a worthy representative, indeed, of his great countryman Mumbo Jumbo, the far-famed giant-king of Congo. In testimony whereof, there were the scalps of his enemies taken by his own hand in secret ambush and in open fight, and which, strung together like pods of red pepper, or cuttings of dried pumpkin, hung blackening in the smoke of his cabin.
Scalps! Your pardon, Christian reader; but the truth must be confessed, bald as it is, and worse than bald. It was the fashion of the day: the Reds took scalps and the Whites took scalps. It were, then, hardly fair in us to find fault with the Blacks for doing the same, especially as they could neither read nor write nor cipher, nor had been taught the