dicrous
travesty of the favorite catch, for sometimes the two Britons, so
incongruous in point of age, education, sentiment, and occupation,
cemented their bond as compatriots by carousing together in a mild way.

But this ebullition of temper had naught of the ludicrous in Jan
Queetlee's estimation. He was pierced to the heart.

"_Aketohta!"_ (Father!) he cried reproachfully. He had sprung to his
feet, and stood looking down at the old chief, who would not look at
him, but kept his eyes on the landscape without, now and then drawing a
long, lingering whiff from his pipe.

"_Aketohta_! I have no thought for _you_!--who alone have taken thought
for me! I have words for the trader and silence for _you_! You say keen
things, and you know they are not true! You know that I had rather drink
water with you than wine with him. I am not thirsty; but since it is you
who offer it"--His expression changed; he broke into sudden pleasant
laughter, and with a rollicking stave of the song, "Drink with me a cup
of wine," he caught the bowl from the girl's hand and drained it at a
draught.

"_Seohsta-quo_!" (Good!) cried Colannah, visibly refreshed, as if his
own thirst were vicariously slaked. But Otasite stood blankly staring,
the bowl motionless in his hand. "It is well for wine to be old," he
said wonderingly, "but not water."

For his palate was accustomed to the exquisite sparkle and freshness of
the mountain fountains, and this had come from far.

The crafty Colannah stolidly repressed his delight, save for the glitter
in his eyes fixed on the azure and crimson and silver landscape
glimmering beyond the dusky portals of the terra-cotta walls. "_Nawohti!
nawohti_!" (Rum!) he said, with an affectation of severity. "You drink
too much of the trader's strong physic! You have no love now for the
sweet, clear water." And he shook his head with the uncompromising
reproof of a mentor of present times as he growled disjointedly,
"_Nawohti! nawohti_!"

Otasite nothing questioned the genuineness of this demonstration, for
the Cherokee rulers, in common with those of other tribes, had long
waged a vigorous opposition to the importation of strong drink into
their country; indeed, as far back as 1704, when holding a solemn
conference with Governor Daniel of North Carolina to form a general
treaty of friendship, the chiefs of several tribes petitioned the
government of the Lords Proprietors for a law, which was afterward
enacted (and d