set
the birchen dish on the floor, and restrapping the papoose in its
cradle prison, she slipped the basswood-bark rope over her forehead, and
silently signing to her sons to follow her, she departed. That evening
a pair of ducks were found fastened to the wooden latch of the door, a
silent offering of gratitude for the refreshment that had been afforded
to this Indian woman and her children.

Indiana thought, from Catharine's description, that these were Indians
with whom she was acquainted she spent some days in watching the lake
and the ravine, lest a larger and more formidable party should be
near. The squaw, she said, was a widow, and went by the name of Mother
Snow-storm, from having been lost in the woods, when a little child,
during a heavy storm of snow, and nearly starved to death. She was a
gentle, kind woman, and, she believed, would not do any of them hurt.
Her sons were good hunters; and though so young, helped to support their
mother, and were very good to her and the little one.

I must now pass over a considerable interval of time, with merely a
brief notice that the crop of corn was carefully harvested, and proved
abundant, and a source of great comfort. The rice was gathered and
stored, and plenty of game and fish laid by, with an additional store of
honey.

The Indians, for some reason, did not pay their accustomed visit to the
lake this season. Indiana said they might be engaged with war among some
hostile tribes, or had gone to other hunting grounds. The winter
was unusually mild, and it was long before it set in. Yet the spring
following was tardy, and later than usual. It was the latter end of May
before vegetation had made any very decided progress.

The little loghouse presented a neat and comfortable appearance, both
within and without. Indiana had woven a handsome mat of bass bark for
the floor; Louis and Hector had furnished it with very decent seats
and a table, rough, but still very respectably constructed, considering
their only tools were a tomahawk, a knife, and wooden wedges for
splitting the wood into slabs. These Louis afterwards smoothed with
great care and patience. Their bedsteads were furnished with thick, soft
mate, woven by Indiana and Catharine, from rushes which they cut
and dried; but the little squaw herself preferred lying on a mat or
deer-skin on the floor before the fire, as she had been accustomed.

A new field had been enclosed, and a fresh crop of corn planted,