aid, in their long walk over the prairie, "I wish to
teach you and make you wise, but before I can do you justice you must
make a promise. Will you, Waubeno?"

"I will. You would not ask me to do what is wrong."

"It may be a hard thing, but, Waubeno, I wish you to promise me that
you will never seek to avenge your father. Will you, Waubeno?"

"Parable, I will promise you any right thing but that. I have made
another promise about that thing--it must hold."

"Waubeno, I can not teach you as I would while you carry malice in your
heart. The soul does not see clearly that is dark with evil. Do you see?
I wish it for your good."

"The white man punishes his enemies, does he not? Why should not I
avenge a wrong? The white fathers at Malden" (the trade-post on Lake
Erie) "avenge every wrong that is done them by the Indians, do they
not?"

"Christ died for his enemies. He forgave them, dying. You have heard."

"Then why do his followers not do the same?"

"They do."

"I have never seen one who did."

"Not one?"

"No, not one."

"Then they are false to the cross. Waubeno, I love you. I am seeking
your good. Trust me. I would make you any promise that I could. Make me
this promise, and then we will be brothers. Your vow rises between us
like a cloud."

"Parable, listen. I will promise, on one condition."

"What, Waubeno?"

"You say that right is might, Parable?"

"Yes."

"_When I find a single white man who defends an Indian to his own hurt
because it is right, I will promise._ I have known many white men who
defended the Indian because they thought that it was good for them to
do it--good for their pockets, good for their church, good for their
souls in another world--but never one to his own harm, because it was
right; listen, Parable--never one to his own harm because it was right.
When I meet one--such a one--I will promise you what you ask. Parable,
my folks did right because it was right."

"Waubeno, I once knew a boy who defended a turtle to his own harm,
because it was right. The boys laughed at him, but his soul was true to
the turtle."

"I would like to meet that boy," Waubeno said. "He and I would be
brothers. But I have never seen such a boy, Parable. I have never seen
any man who had the worth of my own father, and, till I do, I shall hold
to my vow to him! God heard that vow, and he shall see that I prove true
to a man who died for the truth!"

The two came in sight of blue Lake Michiga