l tell you why," said the young man. "You have an excellent girl
for a daughter--Heaven bless her!--and she and that angel, Rosa, were
like sisters to me. I would gladly have remained longer, had not the
voice of duty called me away. But when your daughter left me upon the
other side of the river, something escaped her that made it my first
duty to return to your wigwam."

The chief had listened with much attention. "What did my daughter
whisper in the ear of my young brother?" said he.

"Few words," was the reply, "but weighty ones. I understood that the
poor girls would suffer for their goodness to me; and that, suspecting
they had brought a Yankee spy into your wigwam, you would perhaps kill
them."

"And my brother?" said the Miko.

"Held himself bound to return, to avert the danger from their innocent
heads."

The Indian stood for a while in silent reflection. Then his countenance
brightened, and once more he stretched out his hand to the Englishman,
to whom this sign of good-will was rendered the more welcome by the
appearance of a long line of savages who just then glided out of the
thicket, and ranged themselves behind their leader.

"Does my brother wish to go to the village of the whites?" said Tokeah
after a pause.

"I do wish," said Hodges, "to rejoin my ship as soon as possible. I am a
British officer, and must not be wanting at my post."

The Indian shook his head. "The Miko," said he, "knows the sons of the
great father of the Canadas; he has lifted the war-hatchet with them
against the Yankees. Great warriors are they, but in our forests blind
as the night-owl. My brother would never reach his people; he would
perish of hunger in the wide wilderness. See," continued he, pointing to
a group of trees that appeared like a black speck on the distant
horizon, "my brother will go to those trees, but when he gets there, his
head will dance and turn round, and he will wander in a circle, like a
dog pursuing his own tail. In a hundred suns he will not find his way
out of the meadows."

The comparison was not a very elegant one; but a single glance at the
vast plain before him, convinced the young man that the Indian spoke the
truth.

"Answer me one question," said he. "Have the maidens nothing to fear,
and will the Miko generously forgive them for having brought a stranger
into his wigwam?"

"The Miko will look upon his daughters with a well-pleased eye."

"Then I have nothing to do but to be off a