Hiawatha and Minnehaha, 1898

Pleasant was the journey homeward,
Through interminable forests,
Over meadow, over mountain,
Over river, hill and hollow.
Short it seemed to Hiawatha,
though they journeyed very slowly,
Though his pace he checked and slackened
To the steps of Laughing Water.

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"The Song of Hiawatha"

The figure of Hiawatha here is one of the only known instances in which Taylor used a professional model.