rtunately,
the room was now bare of furniture, but "alas!" thought I, "for my
pretty carpet, if this is to be the way they pay their respects to me!"
I watched the falling of the ashes from their long pipes, and the other
inconveniences of the use of tobacco, or kin-nee-kin-nick, with absolute
dismay.

The visit of the chiefs was succeeded by one from the interpreter and
his wife, with all the Canadian and half-breed women, whose husbands
found employment at the Agency or at the American Fur Company's
establishment.

By this time my piano had been taken from its case and set up in our
quarters. To our great joy, we found it entirely uninjured. Thanks to
the skill of Nunns and Clark, not a note was out of tune.

The women, to whom it was an entire novelty, were loud in their
exclamations of wonder and delight.

"_Eh-h-h! regardez donc! Quelles inventions! Quelles merveilles!_"[13]

One, observing the play of my fingers reflected in the nameboard, called
in great exultation to her companions. She had discovered, as she
thought, the hidden machinery by which the sounds were produced, and was
not a little mortified when she was undeceived.

CHAPTER IX.

HOUSEKEEPING.

As the boats might be expected in a few days, it was thought best to
begin at once what preparations were in my power towards housekeeping.
These were simply the fitting and sewing of my carpets, in which I was
kindly assisted by Mrs. Twiggs; and, the wife of one of our Frenchmen
having come over from the Agency and made everything tidy and
comfortable, the carpets were soon tacked down, and the rooms were ready
for the reception of the rest of the furniture.

I had made many fruitless attempts, both in Detroit and Green Bay, to
procure a servant-woman to accompany me to my new home. Sometimes one
would present herself, but, before we could come to a final agreement,
the thoughts of the distance, of the savages, the hardships of the
journey, or, perhaps, the objections of friends, would interfere to
break off the negotiation; so that I had at length been obliged to rest
satisfied with the simple hope held out by my husband, that one of his
French employes, with his wife, would be contented to take up their
abode with us.

In this state of things, all difficulties seemed to be obviated by the
proposal of Major Twiggs, that we should take into our service a young
colored girl whom he had brought from Buffalo, in the spring, to wait on
Mrs.