ir enemies came upon them, and
despoiled them, and drove them from the land. Two of the tribes still
linger near the rising sun, but ten wandered far away into distant
countries, and they are thy fathers."

The Indian listened with great attention, and upon the other pausing,
said:

"Has the Manitou told all these things to my brother?"

"No, Indian; the Great Spirit speaks not now to his people as he did
when the world was young. But," he added, as if struck with the folly
of continuing a conversation of this character, "the path is long that
led me to this truth, and it would weary thy feet to travel it."

"My brother is wise, and cannot lie, and I am a child. My ears drink
in his words. The legs of my brother are long, and he has been a great
traveller. Was it near the rising sun he learned the language of the
red man?"

"Indian, I have never been nearer the rising sun than thou. But tell
me the object of thy visit. Why dost thou seek me now, when but a few
days since thou didst chide the squaw for her willingness to oblige
me?"

"The lips of Ohquamehud spoke folly. He did not then know that this
brother had talked to the Master of Life, who granted to him the life
of Huttamoiden's child. The blood of Huttamoiden runs in these veins."

The explanation was perfectly natural, and whatever suspicion had
arisen in Holden's mind vanished. It seemed not surprising that the
Indian, who also, by uttering his name, had proclaimed himself a
Pequot, should be willing to form the acquaintance of one who had
proved himself a friend to his tribe, and probably was invested in his
imagination with the qualities of a "great medicine." But, though
to Holden's high-wrought fancies, the recovery of the boy had seemed
miraculous, and he could not avoid connecting his prayers with it,
yet he shrank from directly claiming so great a power as the Indian
ascribed to him.

"The issues of life and death are with the Great Spirit," he said. "At
his pleasure he breathes into our nostrils, and we live; or he turns
away his face, and we die. Let not my brother give too much credit to
a worm."

The wily Indian, from the other's altered tone and manner, perceived
his advantage, and was not slow to use it.

"Because my white brother loved his red brethren, he sought them in
their lodges, and there they taught him their language. So when the
boy was departing for the happy hunting grounds, my brother remembered
their kindness, and held t