ly people on the lake," said the hunter and
scout, David Willet, "and I'm glad of it, lads. It's not a time, just
when the spring has come and the woods are so fine, to be shot at by
Huron warriors and their like down from Canada."

"I don't want 'em to send their bullets at me in the spring or any other
time," said the white lad, Robert Lennox. "Hurons are not good marksmen,
but if they kept on firing they'd be likely to hit at last. I don't
think, though, that we'll find any of 'em here. What do you say,
Tayoga?"

The Indian youth flashed a swift look along the green wall of forest,
and replied in pure Onondaga, which both Lennox and Willet understood:

"I think they do not come. Nothing stirs in the woods on the high banks.
Yet Onontio (the Governor General of Canada) would send the Hurons and
the other nations allied with the French against the people of Corlear
(the Governor of the Province of New York). But they fear the
Hodenosaunee."

"Well they may!" said Willet. "The Iroquois have stopped many a foray
of the French. More than one little settlement has thriven in the shade
of the Long House."

The young warrior smiled and lifted his head a little. Nobody had more
pride of birth and race than an Onondaga or a Mohawk. The home of the
Hodenosaunee was in New York, but their hunting grounds and real domain,
over which they were lords, extended from the Hudson to the Ohio and
from the St. Lawrence to the Cumberland and the Tennessee, where the
land of the Cherokees began. No truer kings of the forest ever lived,
and for generations their warlike spirit fed upon the fact.

"It is true," said Tayoga gravely, "but a shadow gathers in the north.
The children of Corlear wish to plow the land and raise corn, but the
sons of Onontio go into the forest and become hunters and warriors with
the Hurons. It is easy for the man in the woods to shoot down the man in
the field."

"You put it well, Tayoga," exclaimed Willet. "That's the kernel in the
nut. The English settle upon the land, but the French take to the wild
life and would rather be rovers. When it comes to fighting it puts our
people at a great disadvantage. I know that some sort of a wicked broth
is brewing at Quebec, but none of us can tell just when it will boil
over."

"Have you ever been to Quebec, Dave?" asked Robert.

"Twice. It's a fortress on a rock high above the St. Lawrence, and it's
the seat of the French power in North America. We English in th