be construed into slight.

For a moment or two the Indian remained with her arms folded, and her
head bent over her chest; and then, in a low, deep, but tremulous
voice, observed,--

"When the Saganaw saved Oucanasta from perishing in the angry waters,
there was a girl of the pale faces with him, whose skin was like the
snows of the Canadian winter, and whose hair was black like the fur of
the squirrel. Oucanasta saw," she pursued, dropping her voice yet
lower, "that the Saganaw was loved by the pale girl, and her own heart
was very sick, for the Saganaw had saved her life, and she loved him
too. But she knew she was very foolish, and that an Indian girl could
never be the wife of a handsome chief of the Saganaw; and she prayed to
the Great Spirit of the red skins to give her strength to overcome her
feelings; but the Great Spirit was angry with her, and would not hear
her." She paused a moment, and then abruptly demanded, "Where is that
pale girl now?"

Captain de Haldimar had often been rallied, not only by his
brother-officers, but even by his sister and Madeline de Haldimar
herself, on the conquest he had evidently made of the heart of this
Indian girl. The event to which she had alluded had taken place several
months previous to the breaking out of hostilities. Oucanasta was
directing her frail bark, one evening, along the shores of the Detroit,
when one of those sudden gusts of wind, so frequent in these countries,
upset the canoe, and left its pilot struggling amid the waves. Captain
de Haldimar, who happened to be on the bank at the moment with his
sister and cousin, was an eye-witness of her danger, and instantly flew
down the steep to her assistance. Being an excellent swimmer, he was
not long in gaining the spot, where, exhausted with the exertion she
had made, and encumbered with her awkward machecoti, the poor girl was
already on the point of perishing. But for his timely assistance,
indeed, she must have sunk to the bottom; and, since that period, the
grateful being had been remarked for the strong but unexpressed
attachment she felt for her deliverer. This, however, was the first
moment Captain de Haldimar became acquainted with the extent of
feelings, the avowal of which not a little startled and surprised, and
even annoyed him. The last question, however, suggested a thought that
kindled every fibre of his being into expectancy,--Oucanasta might be
the saviour of those he loved; and he felt that, if