ondered deeply in the
evenings that winter over his wigwam fire. His slightly enlightened
mind had been busy with those difficult problems about good and evil,
God and man, which seem to exercise all earnest souls more or less in
every land, savage as well as civilised. The revenge which he had taken
on Mr Ravenshaw was sweet--very sweet, for his indignation against that
irascible old gentleman was very bitter; justifiably so, he thought.
But the clergyman at Red River had enlightened the red man's conscience,
and conscience being once aroused cannot easily be put to sleep again.
His reasoning powers told him that the revenge which he had taken was
far in excess of the injury which he had received. This was unjust, and
conscience told him that injustice was wrong. The great Manitou Himself
could not be unjust. Had He not taken the guilt of man on Himself in
the person of Jesus, in order that, without injustice, He might be the
justifier of sinners? Injustice is wrong, reiterated conscience again
and again; but revenge is sweet, thought the Indian.

Now this visit of the missionary had cleared the mind of Petawanaquat to
some extent. It was a new idea to him that returning good for evil was
sweeter than revenge. He coupled this thought with the fact that the
Saviour had laid down His life for His _enemies_, and the result was
that a change, gradual but decided, was wrought in the red man's
sentiments. The seed thus sown by the wayside fell into good ground.
Unlike ordinary seed, it bore fruit during the winter, and that fruit
ripened into action in the spring.

"Tonyquat," said the red man one morning, after much of the snow had
left the ground, "your Indian father intends to start on a long journey
to-morrow."

"Petawanaquat," replied Tony, "your white-faced son is ready to follow."

It must be understood that Tony's language was figurative, for at the
time he was speaking his "white" face was changed so much by paint and
smoke that it quite equalled that of his adopted father in dirty
brownness.

"Meekeye will get ready," continued the Indian. "Our journey shall be
towards the rising sun."

The result of this order was that on the following day the Indian's
leather tent was taken down, wrapped up into a bundle, and fastened to a
couple of poles along with the rest of the family property. One end of
each of these poles was fastened to a horse like shafts; the other ends
were left to trail on the ground