t she slip in the brook."

"This is a funny place. It is an island, isn't it? Like the pictures
in my geography; and there is a little creek through it, and another
in a cave, and--I think it is beautiful. But you're funny, too,
Wahneenah. You say my Kitty is a 'spirit,' and 'nothing can harm
her,' yet you watch out for her getting hurt closer than the other
mothers did."

"You see too much, Dark-Eye. But--well, she is a spirit in a girl's
body. If you let evil happen her it will be the worse for you. Hear
me?"

"I wouldn't let her get into trouble any sooner than you would,
Wahneenah. I love her, too. She hasn't any folks, and I haven't any,
except you, of course. She belongs to me."

"Oh! she does? Well. Enough. We all belong to each other. We have made
the bond."

When the woman returned from her search in the cavern her face was
very grave. Yet it should have been delighted, for she had found not
only the corn and the other things she remembered, but a goodly store
of articles, quite too fresh and modern to have remained there since
she last visited the spot. There were dried beans, salted beef, cakes
of sugar from her old maple trees--she knew her own mark upon them;
and, besides these, were flour and tea in packages, such as had been
distributed from Fort Dearborn among as many Indians as were entitled
to receive them. It was both puzzling and disappointing to find her
retreat discovered and appropriated by somebody else.

"It must be that Shut-Hand has, in some way, found this cavern out.
All the other people would have eaten and enjoyed their good things,
and not stored them up, like this. But he is crafty and secretive, and
his name is his character."

Had Wahneenah hunted further she would have found, in addition to the
provisions, a considerable quantity of broadcloth, calico, and paint;
which articles, also, had been among those recently secured from the
garrison. But she neither examined very closely nor touched anything
except that for which she had come to the recess; and she even forced
herself to put the matter out of mind, for the time being.

"I have brought my children here to make a holiday for them. I will
not, therefore, darken it by my forebodings. The young live only in
the present or the future. I, too, will again become young. I will
forget all that is past."

From that wonderful pocket of his, Gaspar took a decent hook and
line, and easily proved his skill among fish that were too