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most familiar stories. Most notably, we find parallels to many Native myths
in the Old Testament itself
.

    Elisha went on to read about the Native story of creation, in which a flood covered the world, drowning every creature except a great sea turtle, or
Mikenok,
upon whose back men stood and were therefore saved. He flipped to the final chapter. Professor Tiffin’s rhetorical style mimicked that of a laborer driving piles.

    In this work I have proven, through logical examination of Native myth and language, that FIRSTLY the Native race shares
undeniable similarity
with Christian forebearers once located in the region of Judea. S ECONDLY I have presented argument that a community of these
ancient Christians
migrated by land and sea to our country’s far northwest, and begat the “savage” Natives that are today so
shamefully persecuted
.

    The connexion of the White and Red races is a significant, though perhaps not quite conclusive, stride toward proving the unity
of all races of Man
. For if the Master Craftsman saw fit to create White and Red men from a single source, then He undoubtedly acted similarly with the Black man! And thus it is inevitably true, and
morally certain,
that all Christian men—White, Red, and Black—are
equal before the Lord,
and deserving of every freedom and right dictated by Natural Law.

    The summary continued for several pages, followed by an appendix detailing the route ancient Christians might have followed during their migration to America: from Judea across the Caspian Sea to Russia, then overland through Bering’s Straits to Canada and down across the territory. Why not? Elisha thought. Odder journeys had surely occurred.
    He ate a biscuit and retraced his own journey, from his father’s house in Newell to Springfield, by rail to Worcester and Lowell then by coach to Manchester. Strangers had regarded him with curious pity. He’d struggled to conceal his fear. And then by sleigh into the snowy forest to the lumber camp. He’d felt anxious and homesick, overwhelmed by dread. He wondered if the ancient Christians had felt the same way.
    He returned to town near noon. Back at the Johnston Hotel, he unlocked his door then paused with a hand on the latch. The neighboring room’s door was ajar. Elisha called, “Professor Tiffin?” He knocked, and the door swung open with a groan.
    A steamer trunk sat open on the floor, its contents strewn about: a folded shirt and rolled felt hat, a heap of small canvas sacks, a rock hammer and ruler and battered writing case. On the bed lay a closed journal: Professor Tiffin’s scientific fieldbook. A tingle crawled through the boy. He called, “Professor Tiffin?
Hello?
” Elisha entered the room and took up the book.
    It was a plain ten-cent journal bound with cheaply tanned calfskin—purchased new for the expedition, Elisha realized. Its pages were empty of observations and measurements, hypotheses and theories. He riffled through the book, and as he did a sheet of onionskin fluttered to the floor. Elisha held it toward the window so that sunlight filled the page.

    June 9, 1844
    My Dearest Dear Heart,
    Now I am gone from the city where you laugh and walk and sleep, and your absence fills this ship the way a thousand men could not. Not even the memory of your smile can lift my heart. My spirits are
laid low
without you.
    Do not forget to deliver thirty
Vegetables
to Mason and Crane, ten
Consumption
to Benjamin Stover (Randolph St.), twelve
Schooling of Children
to L. Thacker. Also be aware of the following debts:

    Thirteen dols. to Soward
    Eleven dols. twenty to Pierce
    Twenty dols. fifty to Isaac Rowland
    Sixteen dols. to Wm. Rowland
    Five dols. to Jos. Rowland

    Please do not overfeed Biddle as you are wont to.
    I will return with wonderful news that will
change our lives
. My dear, my soul—
che-baum,
as the Chippewas say. These days without you stretch forward like an eternity. My only consolation is a dream of return—to your voice,