her lodge, but instead of coming in his
direction, she ran towards the wigwams that skirted the forest and was
soon out of sight. He could not see that a young Indian boy, astounded
to catch sight of her in that unaccustomed part of the village, went to
meet her.

"Is Wansutis by her hearth?" asked Pocahontas.

"She is," Claw-of-the-Eagle replied, and walked on beside her with no
further word.

Pocahontas's heart was beating a little faster than usual. Wansutis
still excited a feeling of awe and discomfort in the courageous child;
she could not help experiencing a sort of terror when in her presence.
Nevertheless she had now come of her own accord to ask the old woman for
aid.

Claw-of-the-Eagle, though he would have bitten his tongue off rather
than acknowledge his curiosity, was most eager to learn what had brought
the daughter of Powhatan to his adopted mother's lodge. He entered it
with Pocahontas and pretended to be busying himself with stringing his
bows in order to have an excuse for staying.

"Wansutis," began Pocahontas, standing in the sunshine of the entrance,
to the old woman who sat smoking in the darkest part of the lodge, "thou
hast the knowledge of all the herbs of the fields and of the forests,
those that harm and those that help. Is it not so?"

The wrinkled squaw looked up, a drawn smile upon her lips, and said:

"And so Princess Pocahontas comes to old Wansutis for a love potion."

"Nay," cried the girl angrily, coming closer, "not so; I desire of thee
something quite different--herbs that will make a man forget."

"The same herb for both," snapped the squaw; "for whom wilt thou brew
it, for thine adopted son, thou who art no squaw and too young to have a
son? I have no such herb, maiden, and if I had, thinkest thou I had not
given it to Claw-of-the-Eagle to drink. Speak to her, son, and tell her
if a man ever forgets."

Pocahontas turned a questioning glance on him and the young brave
answered it:

"My thoughts are great and speedy travellers, Pocahontas; they take long
journeys backwards to my father's and mother's people. They wander among
old trails in the forests and they meet old friends by the side of
burned-out campfires. Yet, when like weary hunters who have been seeking
game all day, they return at night to their lodge, so mine return in
gratitude to Wansutis. For she hath not sought to hinder them from
travelling old trails, even as she hath not bound my feet to her lodge
pol