est serenity; bright blue and gold, rich shadows. Every
moment the sunlight fell more mellow. The Indians were grouped and
scattered among the lodges; the women preparing food, in the kettle or
frying-pan, over the many small fires; the children, half-naked, wild as
little goblins, were playing both in and out of the water. Here and
there lounged a young girl, with a baby at her back, whose bright eyes
glanced, as if born into a world of courage and of joy, instead of
ignominious servitude and slow decay. Some girls were cutting wood, a
little way from me, talking and laughing, in the low musical tone, so
charming in the Indian women. Many bark canoes were upturned upon the
beach, and, by that light, of almost the same amber as the lodges.
Others, coming in, their square sails set, and with almost arrowy speed,
though heavily laden with dusky forms, and all the apparatus of their
household. Here and there a sail-boat glided by, with a different, but
scarce less pleasing motion.

It was a scene of ideal loveliness, and these wild forms adorned it, as
looking so at home in it. All seemed happy, and they were happy that
day, for they had no firewater to madden them, as it was Sunday, and the
shops were shut.

From my window, at the boarding house, my eye was constantly attracted
by these picturesque groups. I was never tired of seeing the canoes come
in, and the new arrivals set up their temporary dwellings. The women ran
to set up the tent-poles, and spread the mats on the ground. The men
brought the chests, kettles, &c.; the mats were then laid on the
outside, the cedar boughs strewed on the ground, the blanket hung up for
a door, and all was completed in less than twenty minutes. Then they
began to prepare the night meal, and to learn of their neighbors the
news of the day.

The habit of preparing food out of doors, gave all the gipsy charm and
variety to their conduct. Continually I wanted Sir. Walter Scott to have
been there. If such romantic sketches were suggested to him, by the
sight of a few gipsies, not a group near one of these fires but would
have furnished him material for a separate canvass. I was so taken up
with the spirit of the scene, that I could not follow out the stories
suggested by these weather-beaten, sullen, but eloquent figures.

They talked a great deal, and with much variety of gesture, so that I
often had a good guess at the meaning of their discourse. I saw that,
whatever the Indian may b