decent person among the
Indians was pleased with her industrious habits, and often, in their quiet
way, had some cheery words of encouragement for her.

"But there was one exception, and this was a selfish Indian hunter who,
seeing what a fine-looking, strong woman she had become, and so clever in
her work with both nets and traps, resolved that she should be his wife, to
work for him and do his bidding. This man had been married before and, if
the reports were true which had been told, it was likely that his wife had
died because of his cruelties to her. So he resolved, in his selfishness,
to take Waubenoo from caring for her brothers and sisters to be his wife,
and to hunt and fish for him, that he might live a life of idleness.

"Her parents being dead this selfish young Indian did not have to go to her
father to buy her to be his wife. All he thought he had to do was to go and
tell her she had to be his wife and come and do as he commanded her. So
harsh and cold were his words, and so very rough and forbidding his looks,
that, while Waubenoo was frightened, she was grave and high spirited enough
to indignantly refuse his request, and to order him never to trouble her
again.

"This, of course, made him very angry. He refused to go, and continued to
insist on her going with him.

"Fearing that he might revenge himself upon her by doing her or the
children some harm, she told him that it was her duty to stay with the
little ones whom the death of the parents had left in her care; that they
might perish if she now left them.

"But nothing would turn away his anger, and if it had not happened just
then that some friendly Indians came along he would have cruelly beaten
her. Before them he durst not strike her, and so, muttering some threats,
he sulkily strode away into the forest.

"Poor Waubenoo was now sadly troubled. Lighthearted and free, she had
cheerfully worked and toiled for her loved ones, but now here comes this
cruel, fierce-looking man, whom she could only look on with fear and dread,
and threatens to drag her away from them all. Gray Wolf, for that was his
name, had a bad reputation among the Indians. The young men shunned him and
the maidens took good care to be out of the way when he was around. That he
would persist in his attempts to get Waubenoo all were convinced, but that
he should succeed no one desired. Still, while Indian ideas on some of
these things are so peculiar that no one seemed dispose