our poor
dwelling was already an unrecognizable ruin; even the poles were broken
into splinters.

The Indian women, after reaching middle age, are usually heavy and lack
agility, but my grandmother was in this also an exception. She was fully
sixty when I was born; and when I was seven years old she swam across a
swift and wide stream, carrying me on her back, because she did not wish
to expose me to accident in one of the clumsy round boats of bull-hide
which were rigged up to cross the rivers which impeded our way,
especially in the springtime. Her strength and endurance were
remarkable. Even after she had attained the age of eighty-two, she one
day walked twenty-five miles without appearing much fatigued.

I marvel now at the purity and elevated sentiment possessed by this
woman, when I consider the customs and habits of her people at the time.
When her husband died she was still comparatively a young woman--still
active, clever and industrious. She was descended from a haughty
chieftain of the "Dwellers among the Leaves." Although women of her
age and position were held to be eligible to re-marriage, and she had
several persistent suitors who were men of her own age and chiefs, yet
she preferred to cherish in solitude the memory of her husband.

I was very small when my uncle brought home two Ojibway young women. In
the fight in which they were captured, none of the Sioux war party had
been killed; therefore they were sympathized with and tenderly treated
by the Sioux women. They were apparently happy, although of course they
felt deeply the losses sustained at the time of their capture, and they
did not fail to show their appreciation of the kindnesses received at
our hands.

As I recall now the remarks made by one of them at the time of their
final release, they appear to me quite remarkable. They lived in my
grandmother's family for two years, and were then returned to their
people at a great peace council of the two nations. When they were about
to leave my grandmother, the elder of the two sisters first embraced
her, and then spoke somewhat as follows:

"You are a brave woman and a true mother. I understand now why your son
so bravely conquered our band, and took my sister and myself captive.
I hated him at first, but now I admire him, because he did just what my
father, my brother or my husband would have done had they opportunity.
He did even more. He saved us from the tomahawks of his fellow-warriors,