ness and pleasure were finished. They did not need much
talk about what they intended to do.

As they were bidding Mistress Lettice farewell, with many compliments on
her housewifery and her zeal for the settlement, Pocahontas appeared at
the door. She had been, as Mistress Lettice well knew, away with Rolfe,
showing him how her people planted tobacco, since he had become much
interested in this weed--being the first in the Colony to grow it--and
had expressed what seemed to his neighbors ridiculous hopes of future
wealth to be derived from the sale of tobacco in England.

Pocahontas looked about her with eagerness, and while the men doffed
their hats, she asked:

"What hath happened, sirs, that so many come to visit us at one time? It
is like our councils when the old chiefs debate about the council
fires."

No one was anxious to be the first to answer, but since some reply was
necessary, the councilor who had testified to Mistress Lettice's insight
said slowly and solemnly:

"We have come. Princess, to condole with thee at the death of thy
friend, Captain John Smith."

"Dead!" cried Pocahontas. "He is dead?"

And the men, who wished not to burden their consciences with a spoken
lie, all nodded assent. They thought to see the girl burst into tears or
run away, as they had more than once seen her do when she was
displeased; but instead she stood still, her face as motionless as a
statue's. They were glad to slip away with muttered words of sympathy.

Nor when they were gone did Mistress Lettice's curious and affectionate
eyes witness any sign of sorrow.

"I own myself wrong," she said that night to her husband; "she careth
naught for the Captain. I wept all day last Michaelmas when my old dog
died."

But Mistress Lettice did not hear the door unlatched that night, nor the
moccasined feet of Pocahontas as they sped through the street down to a
quiet spot on the river bank whither she often went. The maiden's heart
was so full that under a roof she felt it would burst. And until dawn
she stood on the shore, her face turned eastward towards the sea across
which he had sailed away, bewailing her "Brother" in the manner of her
people, now calling to Okee to guide him to the happy hunting grounds,
and now praying God to bear his soul to the Christian heaven.

* * * * *

John Rolfe found nothing amiss with Pocahontas when he saw her next day,
nor did any of the conspirators tell hi