dge betwixt her nose and
chin when she drinks, and has forgotten she ever had teeth. She does not
expect much; but there is one right she contends for, and that is the
right of ironing her cap by stretching it over her knee. When I have
lived in this settlement long enough, my nose and chin may come
together, and I shall forget my teeth. But this much I will exact of
fate. My cap shall be ironed. I will not--I will not iron it by
stretching it over my knee!

Count du Chaumont would be angry if he saw me learning to weave, for
instance. You would not be angry. That makes a difference between you
as men which I feel but cannot explain.

We speak English with our neighbors. Paul, who is to be an American,
must learn his language well. I have taught him to read and write. I
have taught him the history of his family and of his father's country.
His head is as high as my breast. When will my head be as high as his
breast?

Skenedonk loves you as a young superior brother. I have often wondered
what he thought about when he went quietly around at your heels. You
told me he had killed and scalped, and in spite of education, was as
ready to kill and scalp again as any white man is for war.

I dread him like a toad, and wish him to keep on his side of the walk.
He is always with you, and no doubt silently urges, "Come back to the
wigwams that nourished you!"

Am I mistaken? Are we moving farther and farther apart instead of
approaching each other? Oh, Louis, does this road lead to nothing?

I am glad I gave you that key. It was given thoughtlessly, when I was in
a bubble of joy. But if you have kept it, it speaks to you every day.

Sophie Saint-Michel told me man sometimes piles all his tokens in a
retrospective heap, and says, "Who the deuce gave me this or that?"

Sophie's father used to be so enraged at his wife and daughter because
he could not restore their lost comforts. But this is really a better
disposition than a mean subservience to misfortune.

The children love to have me dance gavottes for them. Some of their
mothers consider it levity. Still they feel the need of a little levity
themselves.

We had a great festival when the wild roses were fully in bloom. The
prairie is called a mile square, and wherever a plow has not struck,
acres of wild roses grow. They hedge us from the woods like a parapet
edging a court. These volunteers are very thorny, bearing tender claws
to protect themselves with. But I am ni