before her
in their grotesque finery, apparently as much to her childish excited
amusement as their own. She was even answering their gesticulations with
equivalent gestures in her attempt to understand them, and trying amidst
shouts of laughter to respond to the monotonous chant of the old women
who were zigzagging a dance before her. With the gayly striped blankets
lying on the ground, the strings of beads, wampum, and highly colored
feathers hanging from the trees, and the flickering lights and shadows,
it was an innocent and even idyllic picture, but the more experienced
Peter saw in the performances only the uncertain temper and want of
consecutive idea of playing animals, and the stolid unwinking papoose in
his sister's lap gave his sentiment a momentary shock.

Seeing him approach she ran to meet him, the squaws and children
slinking away from his grave face. "I have had such a funny time, Peter!
Only to think of it, I believe they've never seen men or women with
decent clothes before,--of course the settlers' wives don't dress
much,--and I believe they'd have had everything I possess if you hadn't
come. But they're TOO funny for anything. It was killing to see them put
on my hat wrong side before, and try to make one out of my parasol. But
I like them a great deal better than those gloomy chiefs, and I think I
understand them almost. And do you know, Peter, somehow I seem to have
known them all before. And those dear little papooses, aren't they
ridiculously lovely. I only wish"--she stopped, for Peter had somewhat
hurriedly taken the Indian boy from her arms and restored it to the
frightened mother. A singular change came over her face, and she glanced
at him quickly. But she resumed, with a heightened color, "I like it
ever so much better here than down at the fort. And ever so much better
than New York. I don't wonder that you like them so much, Peter, and
are so devoted to them. Don't be angry, dear, because I let them have
my things; I'm sure I never cared particularly for them, and I think
it would be such fun to dress as they do." Peter remembered keenly his
sudden shock at her precipitate change to bright colors after leaving
her novitiate at the Sacred Heart. "I do hope," she went on eagerly,
"that we are going to stay a long time here."

"We are leaving to-morrow," he said curtly. "I find I have urgent
business at the fort."

And they did leave. None too soon, thought Peter and the Indian agent,
as