while you make signs
to the fisher."

They accordingly crept along behind some thick bushes which effectually
concealed them from the person in the canoe. At length they reached the
spot, whence Vaughan could see the fisher. "Why," he whispered to
Oliver, "that is a young girl; but though hot dress is that of an
Indian, she appears to me, at this distance fairer than even the
Princess Pocahontas--a graceful young damsel, too. See, she has struck
another fish, and is hauling it in. Do you, Oliver, go and show
yourself on the bank; sing as you have been wont to do on board, and
beckon to her; it will calm any alarm she might be inclined to feel, and
she will come more readily than were she to see me."

Oliver did as he was bid. The girl just then caught sight of him, and
as she did so, she laid down her lance and seizing a paddle, with a
couple of strokes sent her canoe out of the rapids into the smoother
water below them; then, lifting a bow with an arrow, drew it to the
head. Just then Oliver, having found his voice, began to sing the first
air which came into his head. The maiden stood balancing herself in her
frail bark, motionless as a statue, listening with eager ears to the
notes which reached her, then, slowly withdrawing her arrow, let it fall
with her bow into the canoe. Oliver sang on, observing the effect of
his music, and beckoned as he had been directed. She quickly understood
him and sinking into her seat, with rapid strokes she urged the canoe
towards the bank, her countenance turned with an eager and wondering
gaze at his face. She came on till the bow of the canoe almost touched
the shore; then, standing up, she beckoned him to come down to her from
the top of the bank, when with another stroke of her paddle she brought
the canoe close to him.

"Who are you? whence do you come?" she asked eagerly. Oliver knew
enough of the Indian language to understand her, though scarcely enough
to reply. He pointed therefore down the river, intimating that he came
thus far in a big ship, though he said nothing of his companions. She
appeared to comprehend him, looking up all the time eagerly as before in
his face; then she put out her hand close to his as if comparing the
colour; hers indeed was the lightest of the two. Next she pointed to
her face, which though sunburnt, was not so dark as his. Her
countenance showed the thoughts which were passing rapidly through her
mind. At last she inquired his