I have intended to send
him such a token of my love."

"It shall be so. Is there more that you could wish?"

"Little else have I to bestow. My traps I give to my Indian son; for
honestly and kindly has he kept his faith. Let him stand before me."

Middleton explained to the chief what the trapper had said and
relinquished his own place to the other.

"Pawnee," continued the old man, always changing his language to suit
the person he addressed, and not unfrequently according to the ideas
he expressed, "it is a custom of my people for the father to leave his
blessing with the son, before he shuts his eves for ever. This blessing
I give to you; take it, for the prayers of a Christian man will never
make the path of a just warrior, to the blessed prairies, either longer,
or more tangled. May the God of a white man look on your deeds with
friendly eyes, and may you never commit an act, that shall cause Him to
darken His face. I know not whether we shall ever meet again. There are
many traditions concerning the place of Good Spirits. It is not for one
like me, old and experienced though I am, to set up my opinions against
a nation's. You believe in the blessed prairies, and I have faith in the
sayings of my fathers. If both are true, our parting will be final; but
if it should prove, that the same meaning is hid under different words,
we shall yet stand together, Pawnee, before the face of your Wahcondah,
who will then be no other than my God. There is much to be said in
favour of both religions, for each seems suited to its own people, and
no doubt it was so intended. I fear, I have not altogether followed the
gifts of my colour, inasmuch as I find it a little painful to give up
for ever the use of the rifle, and the comforts of the chase. But then
the fault has been my own, seeing that it could not have been His. Ay,
Hector," he continued, leaning forward a little, and feeling for the
ears of the hound, "our parting has come at last, dog, and it will be
a long hunt. You have been an honest, and a bold, and a faithful hound.
Pawnee, you cannot slay the pup on my grave, for where a Christian dog
falls, there he lies for ever; but you can be kind to him, after I am
gone, for the love you bear his master."

"The words of my father are in my ears," returned the young partisan,
making a grave and respectful gesture of assent.

"Do you hear, what the chief has promised, dog?" demanded the trapper,
making an effort to attrac