rd Sir William Johnson, a great figure in that region
in her time, and he was eager to see her. He beheld a woman, young,
tall, a face decidedly Iroquois, but handsome and lofty. She wore the
dress of the white people, and it was of fine material. She obviously
had some of the distinguished character that had already set its seal
upon her young brother, then known as Keghneghtada, his famous name of
Thayendanegea to come later. Her husband presented the three, and she
received them in turn in a manner that was quiet and dignified,
although Robert could see her examining them with swift Indian eyes
that missed nothing. And with his knowledge of both white heart and
red heart, of white manner and red manner, he was aware that he stood
in the presence of a great lady, a great lady who fitted into her
setting of the vast New York wilderness. So, with the ornate manner
of the day, he bent over and kissed her hand as he was presented.

"Madam," he said, "it is a great pleasure to us to meet Colonel
Johnson here in the forest, but we have the unexpected and still
greater pleasure of meeting his lady also."

Colonel Johnson laughed, and patted Robert on the shoulder.

"Mr. Willet has been whispering to me something about you," he
said. "He has been telling me of your gift of speech, and by my faith,
he has not told all of it. You do address the ladies in a most
graceful fashion, and Molly likes it. I can see that."

"Assuredly I do, sir," said she who had been Molly Brant, the Mohawk,
but who was now the wife of the greatest man in the north
country. "Tis a goodly youth and he speaks well. I like him, and he
shall have the best our house can offer."

Colonel Johnson's mellow laugh rang out again.

"Spoken like a woman of spirit, Molly," he said. "I expected none the
less of you. It's in the blood of the Ganeagaono and had you answered
otherwise you would have been unworthy of your cousin, Daganoweda,
here."

The young Mohawk chieftain smiled. Johnson, who had married a girl of
their race, could jest with the Mohawks almost as he pleased, and
among themselves and among those whom they trusted the Indians were
fond of joking and laughter.

"The wife of Waraiyageh not only has a great chief for a husband," he
said, "but she is a great chief herself. Among the Wyandots she would
be one of the rulers."

The women were the governing power in the valiant Wyandot nation, and
Daganoweda could pay his cousin no higher complime