d you ever see as handsome a chap as that young Indian sitting over
there in the corner? Look how modest he is, as if he didn't wish to be
noticed. Didn't you remember, when I told you his name is Deerfoot,
that he's the chap that made me throw away my flask of whiskey and was
the cause of my becoming a _man_?"

"No," replied the astonished parent, "I didn't recall it. I must have a
talk with him before he leaves us."

It was arranged after supper that George and Victor should go to the
home of Dick Burley to sleep. Room could have been made for them in the
cabin of Jack Halloway by letting the three rest on the floor, and he
and his mother would have been pleased; but the brothers showed good
taste by accepting the invitation of Burley, at whose house, for the
first time in many months, they slept in a bed. There was happy content
in that home also, for what loving, devoted wife is not thankful when
her husband is restored to her and is in his right mind?

That humble home where Jack Halloway smoked his pipe, with his mother
knitting beside him and Deerfoot a little way off in his chair, was the
picture of serene, grateful pleasure on the cool summer night, long
ago, when the three sat in converse.

The youth was so drawn to the pure, sweet-faced, motherly lady that he
could not refuse her request to tell her about himself. He talked more
freely than was his wont, and said many things he would not have said
in the presence of others. She penetrated the nobility of the youth,
who could read and write well, whose mind was stored with considerable
knowledge, whose woodcraft approached as near perfection as mortal man
can attain, and whose strength, skill and prowess (as she gathered from
incidents brought out in the course of the evening) were the superior
of any person's whom she had ever seen. In addition, as she said to her
son the next day, anyone would be tempted to talk to Deerfoot, because
it was such a pleasure to look upon the handsome countenance and to
make him smile and show his beautiful teeth.

So it was that Deerfoot was compelled to tell the whole story of his
encounter with Taggarak, with its remarkable sequel; of his fight with
the grizzly bear, and his conquest of Whirlwind, the peerless stallion.
He never would have done this but for the persistent questioning of
Mrs. Halloway. The boys had told Jack enough on the long ride from the
mountains to St. Louis for him to give his mother the necessary
p