tedly hungry; see, he is pale, his eye has no fire, and his
step is like that of a moose."

Without replying to him, for it was a sulky day with her, she called
aloud, and a dirty-looking beaver entered. "Go," said she, "and fetch
the stranger something to eat."

With that the beaver-girl passed through a small door into another room,
from which she soon returned, bringing some large pieces of willow-bark,
which she laid at the feet of the warrior and his guest. While the
warrior-beaver was chewing the willow, and the Osage was pretending to
do so, they fell to talking over many matters, particularly the wars of
the Beavers with the Otters, and their frequent victories over them. He
told our father by what means the beavers felled large trees, and moved
them to the places where they wished to make dams; how they raised to an
erect position the poles for their lodges, and how they plastered them
so as to keep out rain. Then he spoke of their employments when they had
buried the hatchet; of the peace, and happiness, and tranquillity, they
enjoyed when, gathered into companies, they rested from their labours,
and passed their time in talking, and feasting, and bathing, and playing
the game of bones, and making love. All the while the young
beaver-maiden sat with her eyes fixed upon the son of the snail, at
every pause moving a little nearer, till at length she was at his side
with her fore-paw upon his arm; a minute more and she had placed it
around his neck, and was rubbing her soft furry cheek against his. Our
ancestor, on his part, betrayed no disinclination to receive her
caresses, but returned them with equal ardour. The old beaver, seeing
what was going on, turned his back upon them, and suffered them to be as
kind to each other as they pleased.

At last, turning quickly round, while the maiden, suspecting what was
coming and pretending to be abashed, ran behind her mother, said he,
"To end the foolery, what say you, son of the snail, to marrying my
daughter? She is well brought up, and is the moat industrious girl in
the village. She will flap more wall with her tail in a day than any
maiden in the nation; she will gnaw down a larger tree betwixt the
rising of the sun and the coming of the shadows than many a smart beaver
of the other sex. As for her wit, try her at the game of the dish, and
see who gets up master; and for cleanliness, look at her petticoat."

Our father answered that he did not doubt that she wa