t?"

His sister did not scream nor jump at this sudden interruption. She
seized her brother's hand and pressed it gently.

"It was such a beautiful night, Nautauquas," she replied, "that I could
not lie sleeping in the lodge. I come often here."

"And hast thou no fear, little sister?" he asked affectionately; "no
fear of wild animals or of our enemies?"

"Wild animals will not hurt me. I patted a mother bear with cubs one
night, and she did not even growl."

Nautauquas did not doubt her word. He knew that there were certain human
beings whom beasts will not hurt.

"And enemies," she continued, "would not venture so near the village of
the mighty Powhatan."

"I heard thee singing, little White Feather; what was thy song?"

"I made it many moons ago," she answered, "and I sing it always when I
dance here at night. Listen then, thou shalt hear the song Matoaka,
daughter of Powhatan, made to sing in the woods by Werowocomoco."

And she danced slowly, imitating with head and hands, body and feet, the
words of her song.

I am the sister of the Morning Wind,
And he and I awake the lazy Sun.
We ruffle up the down of sleeping birds,
And blow our laughter in the rabbits' ears,
And bend the saplings till they kiss my feet,
And the long grass till it obeisance makes.

I am the sister of the wan Moonbeam
Who calls to me when I have fallen asleep:
Come, see how I have witched the world in white.--
So faint his voice no other ear can hear.
And I steal forth from out my father's lodge,
And of the world there only waketh I
And bears and wildcats and the sly raccoon
And deer from out whose eyes there look the souls
Of maidens who have died ere they knew love.
And then the world we shorten with our feet
That wake no echoes, but the horned owl
Sigheth to think that thus our wingless speed
All but outdoes that of the tree-dwellers.

When she had finished she threw herself down at his feet, asking:

"Dost thou like my song, my brother?"

"Yes, it is a new song, Matoaka, and some day thou must sing it for our
father. But it seemeth to me that thou art different from other maids.
They do not care to rise from their sleeping mats and go forth alone
into the forest."

"Perhaps they have not an arrow inside of them as have I."

Nautauquas had seated himself in the crotch of a dogwood-tree and looked
with interest at his sister below him.

"An a