who will kill game for you when you are old? The 'Bear,' has been to the
traders; he has bought many things, which he offers your parents for
you; marry him and then you will make your old grandmother happy."

"I will kill myself," she replied, "if you ask me to marry the Bear.
Have you forgotten the Maiden's rock? I There are more high rocks than
one on the banks of the Mississippi, and my heart is as strong as
Wenona's. If you torment me so, to marry the Bear, I will do as she
did--in the house of spirits I shall have no more trouble."

This threat silenced the grandmother for the time. But a young girl who
had been sitting with them, and listening to the conversation, rose to
go out; and as she passed Sacred Wind, she whispered in her ear, "Tell
her why you will not marry the Bear; tell her that Sacred Wind loves her
cousin; and that last night she promised him she never would marry any
one but him."

Had she been struck to the earth she could not have been paler. She
thought her secret was hid in her own heart. She had tried to cease
thinking of "The Shield;" keeping away from him, dreading to find true
what she only suspected. She did not dare acknowledge even to herself
that she loved a cousin.

But when the Shield gave her his handsomest trinkets; when he followed
her when she left her laughing and noisy companions to sit beside the
still waters--when he told her that she was the most beautiful girl
among the Dahcotahs--when he whispered her that he loved her dearly;
and would marry her in spite of mothers, grandmothers, customs and
religion too--then she found that her cousin was dearer to her than all
the world--that she would gladly die with him--she could never live
without him.

But still, she would not promise to marry him. What would her friends
say? and the spirits of the dead would torment her, for infringing upon
the sacred customs of her tribe. The Shield used many arguments, but all
in vain. She told him she was afraid to marry him, but that she would
never marry any one else. Sooner should the waves cease to beat against
the shores of the spirit lakes, than she forget to think of him.

But this did not satisfy her cousin. He was determined she should be his
wife; he trusted to time and his irresistible person to overcome
her fears.

The Shield's name was given to him by his father's friends. Shields were
formerly used by the Sioux; and the Eyanktons and Sissetons still use
them. They are ma