ts from Government. They seemed miserably depressed and stolid;
but the schools are well attended, and we may indulge some hope about
the rising generation.'

'They seem too apathetic to improve,' said Robert.

'Still, it is our duty to work, however unpromising the material. I was
pleased with a service which I attended in one of their log-schoolhouses.
Nothing could be more devout than the demeanour of the Indians; the
women's sweet plaintive hymns haunted me for a long while.'

'That's curious; for in their wild state I can't make out that they
sing at all,' remarked Robert. 'The noise they call music is far more
like the growling of beasts; and their only instruments, that I have
ever seen, is a sort of drum with one head.'

'Hush, here are some of them,' said Linda.

In a glade of the forest two young girls were cutting wood, wielding
hatchets as though well accustomed to their use, and displaying finely
formed arms at every movement. For, as a general rule, the hardworking
Indian woman is more strongly developed in proportion than her lazy
lord. Lounging against a pine close by, was a tall, slender young man,
attired in a buffalo skin cloak, of which the head and fore-legs portion
hung down with a ragged effect; from under his arm projected an
ornamented pipe.

'I think he might work, and the ladies look on,' observed Linda.

She could hardly repress an exclamation as he turned his face towards
her. Round his eyes were traced two yellow circles, and his mouth was
enclosed by a parenthesis of vermilion; an arabesque pattern adorned
each dusky cheek.

'Isn't he a brilliant fellow?' whispered Robert. 'A lover, you may be
certain, who has attired himself thus to come out here and display his
painted face to these girls.'

'But he does not appear to speak a single word to them.'

'Oh, they do a good deal with the eyes,' he answered, laughing. 'Now
that I look at the girls, one of them is quite pretty, and I fancy I
can detect a blush through the olive of her cheek.'

'What a hideous custom that painting the face is!'

'I can't agree with you; that young fellow would look much worse if he
washed the paint off, and he knows it. You'd regret the change yourself,
when you saw him look mean, dirty, and insignificant, as at ordinary
times; for rarely he decorates himself thus.'

'Well, I beg you won't carry your liking so far as to practise it, nor
Mr. Holt either.' Sam bowed obediently.

Perhaps nothing in