ew from my kindred and my tribe, to spend my days in this
lonely spot. I have contented myself with the company of your mother
and yourselves during seasons of very frequent scarcity and want, while
your kindred, feasting in a scene where food is plenty, have caused the
forests to echo with the shouts of successful war. I gave up these
things for the enjoyment of peace. I wished to shield you from the bad
examples you would inevitably have followed. I have seen you, thus far,
grow up in innocence. If we have sometimes suffered bodily want, we
have escaped pain of mind.[61] We have been kept from scenes of rioting
and bloodshed.

"My career is now at its close. I will shut my eyes in peace, if you,
my children, will promise me to cherish each other. Let not your mother
suffer during the few days that are left to her; and I charge you, on
no account, to forsake your youngest brother. Of him I give you both my
dying charge to take a tender care." He sank exhausted on his pallet.
The family waited a moment, as if expecting to hear something further;
but, when they came to his side, the spirit had taken its flight.

The mother and daughter gave vent to their feelings in lamentations.
The elder son witnessed the scene in silence. He soon exerted himself
to supply, with the bow and net, his father's place. Time, however,
wore away heavily. Five moons had filled and waned, and the sixth was
near its full, when the mother also died. In her last moments she
pressed the fulfilment of their promise to their father, which the
children readily renewed, because they were yet free from selfish
motives.

The winter passed; and the spring, with its enlivening effects in a
northern hemisphere, cheered the drooping spirits of the bereft little
family. The girl, being the eldest, dictated to her brothers, and
seemed to feel a tender and sisterly affection for the youngest, who
was rather sickly and delicate. The other boy soon showed symptoms of
restlessness and ambition, and addressed the sister as follows: "My
sister, are we always to live as if there were no other human beings in
the world? Must I deprive myself of the pleasure of associating with my
own kind? I have determined this question for myself. I shall seek the
villages of men, and you cannot prevent me."

The sister replied: "I do not say no, my brother, to what you desire.
We are not prohibited the society of our fellow-mortals; but we are
told to cherish each other, and t