and as
Henrich galloped across the green meadow, and alighted, full of
animation, to tell her of his success in his first essay at hunting the
elk, he wondered why she greeted him so coldly.

The fact was that Oriana was beginning to find that the blue-eyed
stranger possessed even more interest in her eyes than she had ever
felt for her own dark brother, Tekon; and when Mailah had openly
alluded to this sentiment--which she thought unknown to all but
herself--her natural and instinctive delicacy was wounded. But the
feeling quickly wore away; and as Henrich and Jyanough detailed the
exciting sports of the day, she forgot all but the pleasure of
listening to his voice, and gazing at his fine countenance and bright
sweet smile. She was happy; and she though not of the future.

And Henrich was happy, too. He had now found companions whom he could
love; and the life of the Indian hunters was all that he had ever
pictured to himself of freedom and adventure. The beauty of the
scenery--the clearness of the sky--and the glow of health and
excitement that animated his whole frame when he joined in the chase
with his savage friends, were all so entirely different to the life he
had led in damp and foggy Holland, that it was no wonder he enjoyed it,
and that his youthful spirits enabled him to subdue the oft-recurring
grief that he felt at each remembrance of his family and his home. Hope
was strong in his breast; and he trusted once again to meet all whom he
loved so dearly: and the present was so bright and inspiring that he
could not desire to change it yet.

For many weeks the camp remained pitched in the same lovely situation;
and the time of the hunters was fully occupied in the discovery and
pursuit of the various wild animals that abounded in the uncultivated,
but richly verdant, prairie. Of these, the elk and the buffalo were the
most common victims to the spears and arrows of the Indians; and every
evening large quantities of meat were brought into the camp, and given
to the care of the squaws to dry and cure for winter consumption. These
larger animals were too heavy to be transported whole to the huts; end
therefore the hunters always skinned them and cut off the flesh where
they fell, and left the carcasses to the wolves and the birds of prey
that were ever ready at hand. But the smaller animals, and the wild
turkeys and other birds, that were killed in great numbers, were
brought in and thrown down by the blazi