n,
and placing her arm under the old squaw's neck, gently raised her head a
few inches. The poor old squaw tried to speak but was too weak to do so.
Margaret took the withered hand of the Indian woman and placed it in her
own. On one of the bony fingers of the squaw was a ring which fell off
into Margaret's hand. Margaret recognized it as a ring she had often
seen. She asked Paul who the sick woman was. "She is my poor old
mother," he replied, "she has been sick long time, since last winter,
got bad fall and almost stiffened with cold." "She fast going away from
her Paul." Margaret noticed the old woman's lips moving, she put her ear
close to the squaw's mouth and heard her say in a whisper, "Me Mag!"
Mrs. Godfrey, completely surprised, laid her head upon the dying woman's
bed. The shawl, a red and black plaid, she had given old Mag at
Grimross. Now it was used for her dying pillow. The old Indian woman
fairly worshipped it in her days of health and strength. And the ring
was also presented to old Mag while a prisoner at Grimross. The
afternoon that old Mag was given the ring was one never to be forgotten
by Mrs. Godfrey. The old Iroquois squaw on that occasion danced the war
dance on the kitchen floor, so great was her joy in receiving the
precious gem.

Margaret asked Paul where he had found his mother on his return from the
setting sun. He then related to her in broken English the following
story:--

He had returned from his hunting expedition on the evening of the day
the house at Grimross had been consumed by the flames. He had been
detained with the officers one month longer than he expected to be when
he left home. On his arrival home he found that his mother was missing.
He made inquiries as to her whereabouts, and was told that she had gone
off with three Indians named Nick Thoma, Pete Paul, and Christopher
Cope, to trade furs for some pork, blankets and powder at Grimross. That
white woman had killed the three Indians; that white man's house was
burnt, and white woman had put his mother into the flames and burnt her
up. Early in the morning after his arrival home he set out for Grimross
Neck, crossing the lake where the sloop lay. When he arrived at Grimross
he saw nothing but blackened ruins, and was convinced the Indian's story
was true. He saw also the dead bodies of the three Indians, he could not
recognize them, they were so cooked by the fire. He walked about the
ruins, almost bewildered, and swearing