en by surprise, for she had never before heard an
Indian--much less a chief--address a squaw in such a tone, or condescend
to such a question. A feeling of self-reproach induced her to reply
with some warmth--

"Yes, Rushing River, Moonlight is sorry to quit the lodges of her
Blackfoot friends. The snow on the mountain-tops is warmed by the
sunshine until it melts and flows down to the flowering plains. The
heart of Moonlight was cold and hard when it entered the Blackfoot camp,
but the sunshine of kindness has melted it, and now that it flows
towards the grassy plains of home, Moonlight thinks with tenderness of
the past, and will _never_ forget."

Rushing River said no more. Perhaps he thought the reply, coupled with
the look and tone, was sufficiently satisfactory. At all events, he
continued thereafter to ride in profound silence, and, checking his
steed almost imperceptibly, allowed his mother to range up on the other
side of him.

Meanwhile Eaglenose and Skipping Rabbit, being influenced by no
considerations of delicacy or anything else, kept up a lively
conversation in rear. For Eaglenose, like his chief, had freed himself
from some of the trammels of savage etiquette.

It would take up too much valuable space to record all the nonsense that
these two talked to each other, but a few passages are worthy of notice.

"Skipping one," said the youth, after a brief pause, "what are your
thoughts doing?"

"Swelled-nosed one," replied the child, with a laugh at her own
inventive genius, "I was thinking what a big hole you must have made in
the ground when you got that fall."

"It was not shallow," returned the youth, with assumed gravity. "It was
big enough to have buried a rabbit in, even a skipping one."

"Would there have been room for a jumping-jack too?" asked the child,
with equal gravity; then, without waiting for an answer, she burst into
a merry laugh, and asked where they were travelling to.

"Has not Moonlight told you?"

"No, when I asked her about it yesterday she said she was not quite
sure, it would be better not to speak till she knew."

"Moonlight is very wise--almost as wise as a man."

"Yes, wiser even than some men with swelled noses."

It was now the youth's turn to laugh, which he did quite heartily, for
an Indian, though with a strong effort to restrain himself.

"We are going, I believe," he said, after a few moments' thought, "to
visit your father, Bounding Bull. At least