t
repulsive, and she pretended to be displeased, and to frown upon the
confident Apaumax, he could perceive that she had not suffered his
words to fall to the ground. At first her face was averted, presently
he caught a view of her mouth, and at last her face was actually
turned towards him, and she was smiling bashfully upon the bold lover.
Before the moon had advanced to the highest part of the heavens, they
had given each other the kiss of love, and she had promised the
Nanticoke to leave the cold regions of the mountain, and to go with
him to his own sunny clime.

Brothers, I am that Nanticoke, and the tall, beautiful woman is she
that sits at my side, and the child that is playing at my feet is the
child of our love.

* * * * *

When Apaumax had finished his story, the fifth Nanticoke, whose name
dwells not in my memory, rose and said:

When I left my five brothers, I went according to my agreement with
them to the land of the warm sun, the smiling south. I travelled many
days, and became hungry, faint, and weary. I saw no beasts upon which
I could exercise my bow, no fish gliding about the waters, provoking
the thrust of my spear. Here and there were scattered a few birds, but
they were those upon which none can afford to feed, but a very patient
man, or one that has nothing to do but eat. So, finding a pleasant
resting-place, I lay down, and tried to call to my aid the Good Spirit,
that refreshes the soul of man with pleasant dreams. He came and bade
me arise with the morning sun, and travel further on, following the
bend of the little river, at whose source I stood. I should come, he
said, to a little hill upon the banks of a lake, filled with shining
fish, and not far from the Great River. And, so saying, he left me to
the sleep of night.

I rose refreshed by my slumbers, and pursued the route pointed out by
the Spirit. Travelling in this path, I came on the morning of the next
day to a little hill on the backs of a lake, and saw in its clear
current the shining fish which had been spoken of by the spirit of
dreams, and by this I knew that I had travelled right. The hill was a
very little hill, and the lake was a very little lake, and the fish
were very little fish. The hill was scarce half so high as the flight
of an arrow; the lake was not broader than twice the flight of the
same, when impelled by a vigorous arm; and the fishes were minnows
indeed. Upon either side of th