replied the girl, breaking
into one of her old merry laughs at the trouble they both experienced in
communicating through such a "lunguish."

"Would the skipping one," said Eaglenose, with a sharp look, "like to
have a hubsind?"

The skipping one looked at her companion with a startled air, blushed,
cast down her eyes, and said nothing.

"Come, sit down here," said the Indian, suddenly reverting to his native
tongue, as he pointed to the trunk of a fallen tree.

The girl suffered herself to be led to the tree, and sat down beside the
youth, who retained one of her hands.

"Does not the skipping one know," he said earnestly, "that for many
moons she has been as the sun in the sky to Eaglenose? When she was a
little one, and played with the jumping-jack, her eyes seemed to
Eaglenose like the stars, and her voice sounded like the rippling water
after it has reached the flowering prairie. When the skipping one
laughed, did not the heart of Eaglenose jump? and when she let drops
fall from her stars, was not his heart heavy? Afterwards, when she
began to think and talk of the Great Manitou, did not the Indian's ears
tingle and his heart burn? It is true," continued the youth, with a
touch of pathos in his tone which went straight to the girl's heart, "it
is true that Eaglenose dwells far below the skipping one. He creeps
like the beetle on the ground. She flies like the wild swan among the
clouds. Eaglenose is not worthy of her; but love is a strong horse that
scorns to stop at difficulties. Skipping Rabbit and Eaglenose have the
same thoughts, the same God, the same hopes and desires. They have one
heart--why should they not have one wigwam?"

Reader, we do not ask you to accept the above declaration as a specimen
of Indian love-making. You are probably aware that the red men have a
very different and much more prosaic manner of doing things than this.
But we have already said that Eaglenose was an eccentric youth;
moreover, he was a Christian, and we do not feel bound to account for
the conduct or sentiments of people who act under the combined influence
of Christianity and eccentricity.

When Skipping Rabbit heard the above declaration, she did indeed blush a
little. She could not help that, we suppose, but she did not look
awkward, or wait for the gentleman to say more, but quietly putting her
arm round his neck, she raised her little head and kissed that part of
his manly face which lay immediately und