and brought us to his home to know a noble and a brave woman.

"I shall never forget your many favors shown to us. But I must go. I
belong to my tribe and I shall return to them. I will endeavor to be a
true woman also, and to teach my boys to be generous warriors like your
son."

Her sister chose to remain among the Sioux all her life, and she married
one of our young men.

"I shall make the Sioux and the Ojibways," she said, "to be as
brothers."

There are many other instances of intermarriage with captive women.
The mother of the well-known Sioux chieftain, Wabashaw, was an Ojibway
woman. I once knew a woman who was said to be a white captive. She was
married to a noted warrior, and had a fine family of five boys. She was
well accustomed to the Indian ways, and as a child I should not have
suspected that she was white. The skins of these people became so
sunburned and full of paint that it required a keen eye to distinguish
them from the real Indians.

IV. An Indian Sugar Camp

WITH the first March thaw the thoughts of the Indian women of my
childhood days turned promptly to the annual sugarmaking. This industry
was chiefly followed by the old men and women and the children. The rest
of the tribe went out upon the spring fur-hunt at this season, leaving
us at home to make the sugar.

The first and most important of the necessary utensils were the huge
iron and brass kettles for boiling. Everything else could be made, but
these must be bought, begged or borrowed. A maple tree was felled and
a log canoe hollowed out, into which the sap was to be gathered. Little
troughs of basswood and birchen basins were also made to receive the
sweet drops as they trickled from the tree.

As soon as these labors were accomplished, we all proceeded to the bark
sugar house, which stood in the midst of a fine grove of maples on the
bank of the Minnesota river. We found this hut partially filled with the
snows of winter and the withered leaves of the preceding autumn, and it
must be cleared for our use. In the meantime a tent was pitched outside
for a few days' occupancy. The snow was still deep in the woods, with a
solid crust upon which we could easily walk; for we usually moved to the
sugar house before the sap had actually started, the better to complete
our preparations.

My grandmother worked like a beaver in these days (or rather like
a muskrat, as the Indians say; for this industrious little animal
sometimes col