n who are framed to follow rather than to look
ahead.

For twenty-four hours we held little more intercourse than dumb people,
but the second day she came to me.

"Monsieur, would you teach me?" she asked. "Would you explain to me
about the Indian dialects?"

I agreed. I threw her a blanket, which she wrapped around her, and we
cowered close to the bole of a pine. I took birch bark and a crayon
and turned schoolmaster, explaining that the Huron and Iroquois nations
came of the same stock, but that most of the western tribes were
Algonquin in blood, and that, though they had tribal differences in
speech, Algonquin was the basic language, as Latin is the root of all
our tongues at home. I took the damp bark, and wrote some phrases of
Algonquin, showing her the syntax as well as I had been able to reduce
it to rule myself. She had a quick ear and the power of attention, but
after an hour of it I tore the bark in pieces.

"We will not try this again," I told her roughly, and we scarcely met
or spoke for the next day.

The fourth morning came without rain, and the sun struggled out. We
built great fires, dried our clothing, repacked the canoes, and were
afloat by noon. By contrast it was pleasant, but it still was cold,
and we stood to our paddling. I wrapped the woman in extra blankets,
and made her swallow some brandy. I hoped that she would sleep, but
she did not, for it was she who called to us that there were three
canoes ahead.

It showed how clogged I was by sombre thought that I had not seen them,
for in a moment they swept in full sight. I crowded the woman down in
the canoe, and covered her with sailcloth. Then I hailed the canoes
with a long cry, "Tanipi endayenk?" which means, "Whence come you?" and
added "Peca," that they might know I called in peace.

The canoes wheeled and soon hung like water birds at our side. They
were filled with a hunting party of Pottawatamies, and the young braves
grunted and chaffered at me in high good humor. I gave them knives and
vermilion, and they talked freely. I saw them look at the draped shape
in the canoe, but I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Ouskouebi!" which
might mean either "drunken" or a "fool," and they grinned and seemed
satisfied. They promised to report to me at La Baye des Puants, and I
saw by their complaisance that the French star was at the zenith. I
should have stretched my legs in comfort as I went on my way.

CHAPTER XII

A