in case of any difficulty. His family was small,--only
his daughter, a widow, and her only child, a fine boy, five years old.
So, one day he went to pay the chief a visit, taking the widow and her
son along with him. He found him seated at the door of his tent,
enjoying a nice breeze of a fine summer's morning, and was welcomed by
the old chief with kind manners and the word "Sago," meaning, "How do
you do?" Judge W---- presented his daughter and her little boy to the
old chief, and said they had come to live in his country; they were
anxious to live in peace with them, and introduce among them the arts
of civilization. Listening to these words, the chief said,--

"Brother, you ask much and promise much; what pledge can you give of
your good faith?"

_Judge._--"The honor of a man who never knew deceit."

_Sachem._--"The white man's word may be good to the white man, yet
it is but wind when spoken to the Indian."

_Judge._--"I have put my life into your hands by coming hither; is
not this a proof of my good intentions? I have trusted the Indian, and
I will not believe that he will abuse or betray my trust."

"So much is well," said the chief; "the Indian repays trust with trust:
if you will hurt him, he will hurt you. But I must have a pledge. Leave
this boy with me in my wigwam, and I will bring him back to you in
three days with my answer."

If an arrow had pierced the bosom of the young mother, she could not
have felt a sharper pang than that which the Indian's proposal had
caused her.

She flew towards her boy, who stood beside the chief looking into his
face with pleased and innocent wonder, and, snatching him to her arms,
would have rushed away with him.

A gloomy frown came over the sachem's brow, and he remained silent.

The judge knew that all their lives depended upon a right action at
once; and following his daughter, who was retreating with her child
into the woods, he said to her, "Stay, stay, my daughter; bring back
the child, I beg of you! I would not risk a hair of his head, for he is
as dear to me as to you,--but, my child, he must remain with the chief!
God will watch over him, and he will be as safe in the sachem's wigwam
as in your arms beneath your own roof." She yielded, and her darling
boy was left; but who can tell the agony of the mother's heart during
the following days?

Every night she awoke from her sleep, seeming to hear the screams of
her child calling upon its mother for help.