e.

They stood upon a high hill and looked over the great, beautiful valley
full of orchards and fields and far to the north they caught a slight
glimpse of the lake bearing the name of the Keepers of the Council Fire.
Smoke rose from the chimneys of the solid log houses built by this most
enlightened tribe, flecking the blue of the sky, and the whole scene
was one of peace and beauty. The eyes of Tayoga, the Onondaga, and of
Daganoweda, the Mohawk, glistened as they looked, and their hearts
throbbed with fervent admiration. It was more than a village of the
Onondagas that lay before them, it was the temple and shrine of the
great league, the Hodenosaunee. The Onondagas kept the council fire, and
ranked first in piety, but the Mohawks, the Keepers of the Eastern Gate,
were renowned even to the Great Plains for their valor, and they stood
with the Onondagas, their equals man for man, while the Senecas, known
to themselves and their brother nations as the Nundawaono, were more
numerous than either.

"We shall be in time for the great festival, the Maple Dance," said
Tayoga to the young Mohawk.

"Yes, my brother, we have come before the beginning," said Daganoweda,
"and I am glad that it is so. We may not have the Maple Dance again for
many seasons. The shadow of the mighty war creeps upon the Hodenosaunee,
and when the spring returns who knows where the warriors of the great
League will be? We are but little children and we know nothing of the
future, which Manitou alone holds in his keeping."

"You speak truth, Daganoweda. The Ganeagaono are both valiant and wise.
It is a time for the fifty sachems to use all the knowledge they have
gathered in their long lives, but we will hear what the Frenchman, St.
Luc, has to say, even though he belongs to the nation that sent
Frontenac against us."

"The Hodenosaunee can do no less," said the Mohawk, tersely.

Robert could not keep from hearing and he was glad of the little affair
with the two hostile bands, knitting as it did their friendship with the
Mohawks. But he too, since he had penetrated the Iroquois spirit and saw
as they did, felt the great and momentous nature of the crisis. While
the nations of the Hodenosaunee might decide whether English or French
were to win in the coming war they might, at the same time, decide the
fate of the great League which had endured for centuries.

They descended into the vale of Onondaga, but at its edge, in a great
forest, the ent