usual, and it was feared that he had been
overwhelmed by the tempest, or had met with some other mischance,
Leelinau offered up her prayers for safety at the Manitowok. It was
there that she fasted, mused, and strolled.

She at length became so engrossed by the fairy pines that her parents
began to suspect that some evil spirit had enticed her to its haunts,
and had cast upon her a charm which she had not the power to resist.

This belief was confirmed when, one day, her mother, who had secretly
followed her, overheard her murmuring to some unknown and invisible
companion, appeals like these:

"Spirit of the dancing leaves!" whispered Leelinau, "hear a throbbing
heart in its sadness. Spirit of the foaming stream! visit thou my
nightly pillow, shedding over it silver dreams of mountain brook and
pebbly rivulet. Spirit of the starry night! lead my foot-prints to the
blushing mis-kodeed, or where the burning passion-flower shines with
carmine hue. Spirit of the greenwood plume!" she concluded, turning with
passionate gaze to the beautiful young pines which stood waving their
green beauty over her head, "shed on me, on Leelinau the sad, thy leafy
fragrance, such as spring unfolds from sweetest flowers, or hearts that
to each other show their inmost grief. Spirits! hear, O hear a maiden's
prayer!"

Day by day, these strange communings with unseen beings drew away the
heart of Leelinau more and more from the simple duties of the lodge,
and she walked among her people, melancholy and silent, like a spirit
who had visited them from another land.

The pastimes which engaged the frolic moments of her young companions,
passed by her as little trivial pageants in which she had no concern.

When the girls of the neighboring lodges assembled to play at the
favorite female game of pappus-e-ko-waun, or the block and string,
before the lodge-door, Leelinau would sit vacantly by, or enter so
feebly into the spirit of the play as to show that it was irksome to
her.

Again, in the evening, when the young people formed a ring around the
lodge, and the piepeend-jigun, or leather and bone, passed rapidly from
one to the other, she either handed it along without attempting to play,
or if she took a part, it was with no effort to succeed.

The time of the corn-gathering had come, and the young people of the
tribe were assembled in the field, busy in plucking the ripened maize.
One of the girls, noted for her beauty, had found a red ear