At length the encampment of the tribe was reached, and Nelly was handed
over to Hawk's wife to be her slave. Soon after that, the tents were
struck, and the whole tribe went deeper into the northern wilds.
Several gales arose and passed away, completely covering their
footprints, so that no tracks were left behind them.

CHAPTER SIX.

THE CAMP, THE ATTACK, AND THE ESCAPE.

It were vain to attempt a description of the varied condition of mind
into which the brother and sister fell when they found themselves
actually reduced to a state of slavery in an Indian camp, and separated
from their parents, as they firmly believed, for ever.

Nelly wept her eyes almost out of their sockets at first. Then she fell
into a sort of apathetic state, in which, for several days, she went
about her duties almost mechanically, feeling as if it were all a
horrible dream, out of which she would soon awake, and find herself at
home with her "darling mother" beside her. This passed, however, and
she had another fit of heart-breaking sorrow, from which she found
relief by recalling some of the passages in God's Word, which her mother
had taught her to repeat by heart; especially that verse in which it is
said, "that Jesus is a friend who sticketh closer than a brother." And
this came to the poor child's mind with peculiar power, because her own
brother Roy was so kind, and took such pains to comfort her, and to
enter into all her girlish feelings and sympathies, that she could
scarcely imagine it possible for anyone to stick closer to her in all
her distress than he did.

As for Roy, he was not given to the melting mood. His nature was bold
and manly. Whatever he felt, he kept it to himself, and he forgot more
than half his own sorrow in his brotherly efforts to assuage that of
Nelly.

Both of them were active and willing to oblige, so that they did not
allow their grief to interfere with their work, a circumstance which
induced their captors to treat them with forbearance, and even kindness.
Nelly sobbed and worked; gradually, the sobbing decreased, and the work
was carried on with vigour, so that she soon became quite expert at
skinning rabbits, boiling meat, embroidering mocassins, smoking
deerskins, chopping firewood into small pieces, and many other details
of Indian household economy; while Roy went out with the hunters, and
became a very Nimrod, insomuch that he soon excelled all the lads of his
own age, and many of th