is ran gaily off to fetch
Catharine to share his joy, and come and admire the canoe, and the
blanket, and the tripod, and the corn, and the tomahawk. Indiana
accompanied them to the lake shore, and long and carefully she examined
the canoe and its contents, and many were the plaintive exclamations she
uttered as she surveyed the things piece by piece, till she took notice
of the broken handle of an Indian paddle which lay at the bottom of the
vessel; this seemed to afford some solution to her of the mystery, and
by broken words and signs she intimated that the paddle had possibly
broken in the hand of the Indian, and that in endeavouring to regain the
other part, he had lost his balance and been drowned. She showed Hector
a rude figure of a bird engraved with some sharp instrument, and rubbed
in with a blue colour. This, she said, was the totem or crest of the
chief of the tribe, and was meant to represent a _crow_. The canoe had
belonged to a chief of that name. While they were dividing the contents
of the canoe among them to be carried to the shanty, Indiana, taking up
the bass-rope and the blanket, bundled up the most of the things, and
adjusting the broad thick part of the rope to the front of her head, she
bore off the burden with great apparent ease, as a London or Edinburgh
porter would his trunks and packages, turning round with a merry glance
and repeating some Indian words with a lively air as she climbed with
apparent ease the steep bank, and soon distanced her companions, to her
great enjoyment. That night, Indiana cooked some of the parched rice,
Indian fashion, with venison, and they enjoyed the novelty very much--it
made an excellent substitute for bread, of which they had been so long
deprived.

Indiana gave them to understand that the rice harvest would soon be
ready on the lake, and that now they had got a canoe, they would go out
and gather it, and so lay by a store to last them for many months.

This little incident furnished the inhabitants of the shanty with
frequent themes for discussion. Hector declared that the Indian corn was
the most valuable of their acquisitions. "It will insure us a crop, and
bread and seed-corn for many years," he said; he also highly valued the
tomahawk, as his axe was worn and blunt.

Louis was divided between the iron pot and the canoe. Hector seemed
to think the raft, after all, might have formed a substitute for the
latter; besides, Indiana had signified her intenti