his children, like little birds
in the nest, open their mouths for food; but Pieskaret comes not to
fill them. His feet were like those of a deer, and his voice like the
shouting of the great salt lake on the rocks. Woe is me, for I shall
see my brother no more. But he is glad on the happy hunting grounds of
brave warriors. It is well with him: we know where he is, but we know
not where are our brothers who were with Pieskaret. We know that the
English love slaves, and we fear that they have made slaves of our
brothers. We will turn away our eyes from the widow of Pieskaret and
his little children, and will stop our ears so that we cannot hear
their crying, and forget the fate of Pieskaret, if the white chief
will return our brothers."

"Alas! unhappy that I am," said Winthrop, "that this new suspicion
should fill the minds of the savages. Assure him, upon my faith as a
Christian--upon my honor as a gentleman--make the asseveration as
solemn as thou canst--that he suspects us falsely."

But the grave chief abandoned not the idea. With eyes searching the
countenance of the Governor, he said:

"The Taranteens will give many belts of wampompeag and will heap up
their canoes with skins for Owanux, as a ransom for their tribes-men."

"Tell him," said Winthrop, "that, overlooking the insult of doubting
my word, if they were to give me belts of wampompeag extending from
here to the sun, and skins to cover the ground from Shawmut to his
country, I could not restore his tribes-men, for I know nought of
them."

"When my brothers came to visit the white chief, they placed
themselves in his keeping and feared not the darkness, for they knew
that he was very powerful. They slept like a pappoose on its mother's
bosom."

"I understand," replied Winthrop, "thou wouldst make me responsible in
particular for the misfortune of thy friends; but my conscience
reproaches me not If they are dead, it is probably in consequence of
their own default; and, I repeat, I believe not that an Englishman had
a hand in their destruction."

Here the Taranteen, who acted as spokesman, turning to his companion,
uttered a sentence; whereupon the other, feeling in the folds of his
deer skin robe, produced a pipe, the bowl of which was made of a
reddish clay, into which was inserted, for a stem, a reed beautifully
ornamented with black and white shells, and bright colored feathers of
various birds. This the orator received from the hands of his
foll