n eminent
degree as a hunter, having met with unrivaled success in the pursuit
and capture of the wild denizens of the forest. This circumstance
contributed to raise him high in the estimation of his fellow savages
and drew a crowd of admiring friends around. This operated as a spur to
his ambitions.

At length some of his newly acquired friends suggested to him the
propriety of taking another wife, as it would be impossible for one
woman to manage the affairs of his household and properly wait upon the
many guests his rising importance would call to visit him. They
intimated to him that in all probability he would soon be elevated to
the chieftainship. His vanity was fired by the suggestion. He yielded
readily and accepted a wife they had already selected for him.

After his second marriage, he sought to take his new wife home and
reconcile his first wife to the match in the most delicate manner
possible. To this end he returned to his first wife, as yet ignorant of
what had occurred, and endeavored, by dissimulation, to secure her
approval.

"You know," said he, "I can love no one as I love you; yet I see your
labors are too great for your powers of endurance. Your duties are
daily becoming more and more numerous and burdensome. This grieves me
sorely. But I know of only one remedy by which you can be relieved.
These considerations constrain me to take another wife. This wife shall
be under your control in every respect and ever second to you in my
affections." She listened to his narrative in painful anxiety and
endeavored to reclaim him from his wicked purpose, refuting all his
sophistry by expressions of her unaffected conjugal affection. He left
her to meditate. She became more industrious and treated him more
tenderly than before. She tried every means in her power to dissuade
him from the execution of his vile purpose. She pleaded all the
endearments of their former happy life, the regard he had for her
happiness and that of the offspring of their mutual love to prevail on
him to relinquish the idea of marrying another wife. He then informed
her of the fact of his marriage and stated that compliance on her part
would be actually necessary. She must receive the new wife into their
home. She was determined, however, not to be the passive dupe of his
duplicity. With her two children she returned to her parental teepee.
In the autumn she joined her friends and kinsmen in an expedition up
the Mississippi and spen