Caleb's Crossing

Bethia endures graduation. After Joel’s death, the title of valedictorian falls upon a student named Benjamin Eliot. Eliot must give the speech and clearly has done little preparation. Bethia is upset that Eliot does not mention Joel, but understands the difficulty of his position as an unexpected valedictorian.

After the ceremony, in which the degrees are handed out, Bethia seeks out Caleb. She finds him coughing violently against a tree. He has a handkerchief against his mouth, and Bethia sees blood on it.

While Samuel and Bethia settle into his new medical practice, Caleb’s consumption grows steadily worse. She attends to Caleb as the disease overtakes him, watching him hallucinate from fever.

While Caleb is nearing his end, Bethia goes back to the island in search of Tequamuck. She first goes to see the Merrys, who are thriving on their farm. Noah, happily married with several children, agrees to help Bethia contact the Takemmy sonquem, who can then help them approach the bitter and angry pawaaw, who now lives alone.

When they finally near Tequamuck, he claims that he is fully aware of Caleb’s plight, but that Caleb’s spirit is weak. Still, after ascertaining that Bethia earnestly wants to help his nephew, Tequamuck allows her to witness him perform a highly secret ritual that she does not describe. During it, Tequamuck prophesies that the Christian God is stronger than the Native spirits, and that this God will destroy him and his people. 

Bethia visits Caleb for the last time. She whispers to him the verses that guide the dying spirit that Tequamuck had taught her and gives Caleb a beaded wampum belt that tells the history of his people. In answer, Caleb sings out “his death song, and died like a hero going home” (308).

Overawed by all that Caleb has accomplished in his short life, Bethia contemplates whether he ended up in Heaven with her Christian God or whether he went to Kietan’s resting place in the southwest. 

The Indian College is pulled down, in part due to years of hostility between Indian and white populations. Bethia is not entirely upset, as it seemed that almost every native student who has lived there died an untimely death. Meanwhile, Bethia is herself on her deathbed and reminisces about how importance meeting Caleb proved to her life.