in the meantime, to act as interpreter
for him. Through Mary and her husband, Henry Wanita, I knew he would
hear of me and be sure to seek me out. I was right; he came one day when
I was, as usual, alone, and before he left I had told him as much of my
story as I could tell to any one, except to you. I expected that he
would pity me, and that his pity would have a little contempt mixed with
it, and I had made up my mind to endure the bitterness of this, for the
sake of establishing that claim upon his advice and aid, which I was
certain, after the first shock of such a confession, my wretchedness
would give me. But he had not one word of reproof to say; either he had
heard, or he guessed that my fault had brought its full measure of
punishment, and that what I needed was rather consolation than reproach.
He went away and left me, as he often left me afterwards, with courage
and patience renewed for the hard struggle of my life.

"My husband had lately been more than ever away; and though in his
absence I had often the greatest difficulty to obtain food, or any kind
of necessaries, yet I was thankful for the peace in which I could then
live. I learned to embroider in the Indian fashion, and was able to
repay the kindness I received from Mary, and some of the other squaws,
by drawing patterns for them, and by teaching them how to make more
comfortable clothes for themselves and their children. After Mr.
Strafford had been a little while on the island, he proposed to
establish a school for this kind of work, and I became the mistress. The
women and girls came to me more readily than they would have done to a
stranger, and I soon had a good number of pupils.

"Several months passed, after Mr. Strafford's coming, without anything
new occurring. Then Christian returned from the States, where he had
been for a longer time than usual. He came late at night, and so
intoxicated that I was obliged to go myself and fasten the canoe, which
would have floated away before morning. When I followed him into the
house he was already fast asleep, and it was not till the next day that
I knew what had brought him home. Then he told me. What I
understood--for he said as little as possible on the subject--was, that
he had been for the last few weeks in the company of a party of
gamblers, to whom he had lost everything he possessed, and, finally,
that having found means of raising money upon the security of the whole
fortune to which I was en