ht always beat her as much as I liked, if I found her either idle or
disobedient.

I begged Pipestick to explain that, however good the customs of the
red-skins were--a point I did not wish then to dispute--those of the
English differed from them; that there were a few idle, lazy,
good-for-nothing fellows in England, among the chiefs, who looked out
for wives with fortunes, and among the lower classes, who made their
wives work for them, but it was the pride and endeavour of all true
braves to secure the means of supporting their wives, either through
inheriting a fortune from their ancestors, or by the exertion of their
own strength and talents, and that this latter way was considered the
most honourable. This was the method I proposed to follow, and before I
could accept the peerless daughter of the chief, I must procure the
means of supporting her. Pipestick did not exactly understand the
reasons I gave for declining the chief's offer, but he explained them as
well as he could. I was rather thunder-struck when the chief remarked
that, though he approved of them highly, he would waive all such
arrangements in my case, and that he would supply his daughter with
ample goods and chattels for our use. To this I could only reply that I
was highly flattered by his preference, but that it was against my
medicine to avail myself of his offer; that I was an Ottoe at heart;
that I loved the Ottoes, and would fight for the Ottoes, and that the
time might come when I should be an Ottoe indeed; but that, at present,
my medicine did not show me how that was to be accomplished.

The name of the young lady, the subject of this long conversation, was,
I found, the "Firefly"; and certainly, as I watched her light figure,
decked with red feathers and garments with red trimmings, I thought she
was very appropriately so called; at the same time, I did not for one
moment indulge the base idea of accepting the chief's offer. My earnest
desire was to find my way back, as soon as possible, to the society of
civilised men. I was heartily glad, then, when, once more, our tents
were struck, and we continued our journey. As we travelled with women,
children, and a wagon, our progress was very much slower than when we
had gone alone. Often it was hard work getting the wagon through the
snow. Generally the poor women had to drag it; and I rather scandalised
the red warriors by putting my shoulder very frequently to the wheel and
by pushin