sten, woman," said he, "to the words of a great warrior, whose hand
is open, and who will fill his brother's wigwam with many deer skins. In
return he asks but little of his sister, and that little she may easily
give. Has my sister," continued he, raising his voice and glancing at
the woman, "milk for a little daughter?"

The backwoodsman's wife stared at her interlocutor in great
astonishment.

"Will she," continued the redskin, "give a share of her milk to a little
daughter, who must else die of hunger?"

The countenance of the woman brightened as she discerned that the Indian
wanted something of her, and that it was in her power to grant or refuse
a favour. She took a step towards him, and impatiently awaited further
explanation of his singular demand. The Indian, without deigning to look
at her, opened the ample folds of his blanket, and drew forth a lovely
infant, wrapped in a pelisse of costly furs. For a few seconds the woman
stood in mute surprise; but curiosity to obtain a nearer view of the
beautiful child, and perhaps also a feeling of compassion and motherly
tenderness, speedily restored to her the use of her tongue.

"Good God!" cried she, stretching out her hands to take the infant;
"what a sweet little darling; and come of good parents too, I'll be
sworn. Only look at the fur, and the fine lace! Did you ever see such a
thing! Where did you get the child? Poor little thing! Feed it? To be
sure I will. This is no red-man's child."

The worthy lady seemed disposed to run on in this way for some time
longer, had not a significant sign from her husband stopped her mouth.
The chief, without vouchsafing her the smallest attention, unfastened
the pelisse of grey fox skin, stripped it off, and then proceeded to
divest the infant of the first of the coats in which it was enveloped,
like a silkworm in its cocoon. But when, after having with some
difficulty accomplished this, a third, fourth, and fifth wrapper
appeared, he seemed suddenly to lose patience, and drawing his knife,
he, with one cut, ripped the whole of the child's clothes from its body,
and handed it over stark naked to the tavern-keeper's wife.

"Incarnate fiend!" screamed the shuddering woman, as she snatched the
infant from his hands.

"Stop!" cried the Indian, his cold and imperturbable gaze fixed upon the
infant's neck, from which a small medal was suspended by a gold chain.
Without uttering a word, the woman stripped the chain over the chi