m he departed;
"Let him die in his lodge," muttered he,
"but Winona shall kindle my lodge-fire."

Then forth went Winona. The bow
of Ta-te-psin she took and his arrows,
And afar o'er the deep, drifted snow
through the forest she sped on her snow shoes.
Over meadow and ice-covered mere,
through the thickets of red-oak and hazel,
She followed the tracks of the deer,
but like phantoms they fled from her vision.
From sunrise to sunset she sped;
half famished she camped in the thicket;
In the cold snow she made her lone bed;
on the buds of the birch[BN] made her supper.
To the dim moon the gray owl preferred,
from the tree-top, his shrill lamentation,
And around her at midnight she heard
the dread famine-cries of the gray wolves.
In the gloam of the morning again
on the trail of the red-deer she followed--
All day long through the thickets in vain,
for the gray wolves were chasing the roebucks;
And the cold, hungry winds from the plain
chased the wolves and the deer and Winona.

[BJ] Wild-goose

[BK] Medicine-men.

[BL] January.

[BM] February.

[BN] The pheasant feeds on birch-buds in winter. Indians eat them when
very hungry.

In the twilight of sundown she sat
in the forest, all weak and despairing;
Ta-te-psin's bow lay at her feet,
and his otter-skin quiver of arrows
"He promised,--he promised," she said,--
half-dreamily uttered and mournful,--
"And why comes he not? Is he dead?
Was he slain by the crafty Tamdoka?
Must Winona, alas, make her choice--
make her choice between death and Tamdoka?
She will die, but her soul will rejoice
in the far Summer-land of the spirits.
Hark! I hear his low, musical voice!
he is coming! My White Chief is coming!
Ah, no, I am half in a dream!--
'twas the memory of days long departed;
But the birds of the green Summer seem
to be singing above in the branches."
Then forth from her bosom she drew
the crucified Jesus in silver.
In her dark hair the cold north-wind blew,
as meekly she bent o'er the image.
"O Christ of the Whiteman," she prayed,
"lead the feet of my brave to Kathaga;
Send a good spirit down to my aid,
or the friend of the White Chief will perish."
Then a smile on her wan features played,
and she