hat before long she became really
attached to them. As she reflected that with her own father and
brother dead, her former life had no longer a claim on her, she grew
reconciled to that of the forest, and determined to make the best of
her situation. So she devoted herself to learning the language of her
new people, and before long, by her fearlessness and strength of
character, coupled with many acts of kindness, gained a decided
influence over them.

She was always a friend of the white captives among the Shawnees and
succeeded in lightening many of their burdens. At length, while on a
journey with her adopted mother and youngest brother, she heard of the
terrible tragedy even then being enacted in a Shawnee village only a
few miles from where they were encamped. Fired with horror and pity,
she impulsively sprang on her pony and dashed away in the direction of
the village, which she reached just in time to save the life of James
Christie.

Ere she left the village, she obtained a pledge from the warriors of
that band that his life should not again be endangered at their hands,
and that in the future he should be well treated. Then, promising to
see him again when they should come back that way, Edith bade the young
soldier farewell and returned to the lodge that was now her home. From
that moment she was conscious of a change in her feelings, and of a
longing for the life of her own people which was already beginning to
seem strange and remote.

It so happened that Edith and Christie did not meet again until at the
great gathering of the Ohio valley Indians and their captives, held on
the banks of the beautiful Muskingum by order of Colonel Bouquet.
Edith was brought in first, and though she protested that she had no
desire to leave her adopted parents, she was so warmly welcomed by the
commander and his officers, many of whom had known both her father and
brother, that she gradually allowed herself to be persuaded to a
renewed trial of civilization. So strange seemed the dress with which
she was provided by the matrons, who accompanied the expedition for the
express purpose of caring for the female captives, that for days she
would only consent to wear it for an hour or so at a time.

All this while there was daily witnessed in Bouquet's camp some of the
most pathetic scenes of that strange war, the bringing in of hundreds
of captives of both sexes and all ages, and the eager search among them
of husbands