landed.

The Indians silently took the proffered hand of the trader and shook it,
replying in a low voice, "Wachee," as the nearest point they could
attain to the pronunciation of "What cheer?"

There was something so unusually solemn in the air and manner of the
savages, that Jack glanced at the canoe in which the woman sat. There
he saw what explained the mystery. In the bottom lay an object wrapped
up in pieces of old cloth and birchbark, which, from its form, was
evidently a human body. A few words with the Indians soon drew from
them the information that this was one of their wives who had been
ailing for a long time, and at length had died. They were Roman
Catholic converts, and had come to bury the body in the graveyard of the
fort which had been "consecrated" by a priest.

To whatever pitch of excitement Jack and his man had risen at the
unexpected appearance of the Indians, their spirits fell to an
immeasurably profounder depth than before when their errand was made
known.

Everything connected with this burial was sad and repulsive, yet Jack
and his man felt constrained, out of mere sympathy, to witness it all.

The Indians were shabby and squalid in the extreme, and, being destitute
of the means of making a coffin, had rolled the corpse up in such
wretched materials as they happened to possess. One consequence of this
was, that it was quite supple. On being lifted out of the canoe, the
joints bent, and a sort of noise was emitted from the mouth, which was
exceedingly horrible. Had the dead face been visible, the effect would
not have been so powerful, but its being covered tended to set the
imagination free to conceive things still more dreadful.

The grave was soon dug in the sand inside the graveyard, which was not
more than a hundred yards on one side of the fort. Here, without
ceremony of any kind, the poor form was laid and covered over. While
being lowered into the grave, the same doubling-up of the frame and the
same noise were observed. After all was over, the Indians returned to
their canoe and paddled away, silently, as they had come; not before
Jack, however, had gone to the store for a large piece of tobacco, which
he threw to them as they were pushing off.

During the remainder of that day, Jack Robinson and his man went about
their vocations with hearts heavy as lead. But it was not till night
that this depression of spirits culminated. For the first time in his
life Jack Ro