and he did so, and hoed for some
time with the women. They were delighted and praised his skill, but when
he came back to the village, the old chiefs rebuked him, telling him
that he was adopted in the place of a great man, and it was unworthy of
him to hoe corn like a squaw.

Smith owns that he never gave them a chance to chide him a second time
for such unseemly behavior. After that he left all the hard work to the
squaws like a true Indian, and guarded his dignity as a hunter. He was
never trusted, or at least he was never asked, to take part in any of
the forays against the white frontier, when from time to time parties
were sent to the Pennsylvania borders to take scalps and steal horses.
It was a sorrowful thing for him when his savage brethren set forth on
these errands of theft and murder among his kindred by race, and it was
long before he could make the least show of returning their affection.

It was not until they gave him back some books which they had brought
him from other prisoners, but had then taken from him for some caprice,
that he says he felt his heart warm towards them. They pretended that
the books had been lost, but declared that they were glad they had been
found, for they knew that he was grieved at the loss of them. "Though
they had been exceedingly kind to me," he says, "I still as before
detested them, on account of the barbarity I beheld after Braddock's
defeat. Neither had I ever before pretended kindness, or expressed
myself in a friendly manner; but now I began to excuse the Indians on
account of their want of information."

The family which Smith had been taken into did not stay long in the
Muskingum country, but began the wandering life of the hunters and
trappers, working northward mostly, and visiting the shores and waters
of Lake Erie. It was all very pleasant and full of a wild charm while
the fine weather lasted, especially for the men, who had nothing to do
but to bring in the game and fish for the squaws to cook and care for.
The squaws made the sugar in the spring; they felled the trees and
fashioned from the barks the troughs to catch the maple sap, which they
boiled down into sugar; they planted and tended the fields of corn and
beans; they did everything that was like work, indoors and out, and
the men did nothing that was not like play or war. While their plenty
lasted, it was for all; when the dearth came, every one shared it.
But in this free, sylvan life there was the