lazy hunters,
had come to beseech food from the great storehouse at Powhata. But she
herself had never before seen any one faint for food, and it hurt her
when she thought of the abundance at Werowocomoco, where not even the
dogs went hungry, to know that there were men not far away who must go
without. Her father made no objection when a day or two later she told
him that she wished to take another supply of provisions to the white
men.

"So be it," nodded Powhatan. "Thy captive shall be fed until the big
canoe he said was on its way shall arrive. He saith--though this be
great foolishness, since he cannot see so far--that at the end of this
moon it will come safe over the waters. But until the day of its
arrival, whenever that may be, thou canst send or carry of our surplus
to them. And hearken, Matoaka," he whispered that the squaws might not
hear, "thou hast wits beyond thy years, therefore do thou seek to learn
some of the white man's magic. There be times when the cunning of the
fox is worth more than the claws of the bear."

So every three or four days Pocahontas brought food to Smith, for his
own need and for that of his fellows. Sometimes, accompanied by her
sister or her maidens, she would go by night to Jamestown, and half
laughing, half frightened, they would set down the baskets before the
fort and run like timorous deer back to the forest before the sentinel
had opened the gate in the palisade in answer to their call. Sometimes,
with Claw-of-the-Eagle as her companion, she would walk through the
street of Jamestown, greeting, now with girlish dignity, now with
smiles, its inhabitants whose thin faces lighted up at sight of her.
She came to symbolize to them the hope in the new world they had all but
lost; they rejoiced to see her, not only for her gifts, but for herself.

They taught her to say after them a few words such as "Good-day,"
"food," and "the Captain," meaning Smith; and the possession of this new
and strange accomplishment was almost as dear to her as beads or
bracelet. The island for her was a place of enchantment. The sunset gun
from the fort awoke more thrills of marvel in her than the rages of a
thunderstorm; and the strangest medicine of all was the power the white
men had of communicating their wishes to others at a distance by means
of little marks upon scraps of paper.

One afternoon when she had come, accompanied by Cleopatra, she found the
streets and houses of Jamestown deserted.