dians go. This was not
quite so pleasant as their coming in, though accomplished with
the same rapidity; a family not taking half an hour to prepare for
departure, and the departing canoe a beautiful object. But they left
behind, on all the shore, the blemishes of their stay,--old rags,
dried boughs, fragments of food, the marks of their fires. Nature
likes to cover up and gloss over spots and scars, but it would take
her some time to restore that beach to the state it was in before they
came.

S. and I had a mind for a canoe excursion, and we asked one of the
traders to engage us two good Indians, that would not only take us
out, but be sure and bring us back, as we could not hold converse
with them. Two others offered their aid, beside the chief's son,
a fine-looking youth of about sixteen, richly dressed in blue
broadcloth, scarlet sash and leggins, with a scarf of brighter red
than the rest, tied around his head, its ends falling gracefully
on one shoulder. They thought it, apparently, fine amusement to
be attending two white women; they carried us into the path of
the steamboat, which was going out, and paddled with all their
force,--rather too fast, indeed, for there was something of a swell on
the lake, and they sometimes threw water into the canoe. However, it
flew over the waves, light as a seagull. They would say, "Pull away,"
and "Ver' warm," and, after these words, would laugh gayly. They
enjoyed the hour, I believe, as much as we.

The house where we lived belonged to the widow of a French trader, an
Indian by birth, and wearing the dress of her country She spoke
French fluently, and was very ladylike in her manners. She is a great
character among them. They were all the time coming to pay her homage,
or to get her aid and advice; for she is, I am told, a shrewd woman of
business. My companion carried about her sketch-book with her, and
the Indians were interested when they saw her using her pencil, though
less so than about the sun-shade. This lady of the tribe wanted to
borrow the sketches of the beach, with its lodges and wild groups, "to
show to the _savages_" she said.

Of the practical ability of the Indian women, a good specimen is given
by McKenney, in an amusing story of one who went to Washington, and
acted her part there in the "first circles," with a tact and sustained
dissimulation worthy of Cagliostro. She seemed to have a thorough
love of intrigue for its own sake, and much dramatic talen