ar. Then, when your father turned to thank
him, he was gone. He had departed as silently as a shadow."

"That was just like Deerfoot!" exclaimed Jack, with kindling eye; "it
seems to me he is like Washington. Though he has been in any number of
dangers, I don't believe he has so much as a scar on his little finger.
He has been fired upon I don't know how often, but, like Washington, he
carries a charmed life."

The serious mother shook her head, and, looking over her knitting at her
boy, made answer:

"Such a thing is unknown in this world; more than likely he will fall by
the knife or bullet of an enemy."

"I suppose he is liable to be shot, like any one else; but the Indian
that does it has got to be mighty smart to get ahead of him. Plenty of
them have tried it with knife and tomahawk, but they never lived to try
it on any one else. But that ain't the most wonderful part of it," added
Jack, shaking his head and gesticulating in his excitement with both
arms; "Deerfoot knows a good deal more about books than I do."

"That does not imply that he possesses any remarkable education," said
the mother, with a quiet smile.

The boy flushed, and sinking back said:

"I know I ain't the best-educated fellow in the settlement, but who ever
heard of a young Indian knowing how to read and write? Why, that fellow
can write the prettiest hand you ever saw. He carries a little Bible
with him: the print is so fine I can hardly read it, but he will stretch
out in the light of a poor camp-fire, and read it for an hour at a time.
I can't understand where he picked it all up, but he told me about the
Pacific Ocean, which is away beyond our country, and he spoke of the
land where the Saviour lived when he was on earth. I never felt so
ashamed of myself as I did when he sat down and told me such things. He
can repeat verse after verse from the Bible; he pronounced the Lord's
Prayer in Shawanoe, and then told me and Otto that if we would only use
the English a little oftener the Great Spirit would hear us. What do you
think of _that_?"

"It is very good advice."

"Of course it is, but the idea of a young Indian being that sort of
fellow! Well, there's no use of talking," added Jack, as though unable
to do justice to the theme, "he beats anything I ever heard of. If the
truth should be written as to what he has done, and put in a book, I
don't 'spose one person in a hundred would believe it. He promised to
come and see us."

"I