rried to your
father; but when he died, he asked me to take care of his only child,
and that is why you and I have lived together all these years."

The old woman paused, and several minutes passed silently in the
gathering dusk, while the little girl waited wonderingly, afraid to
speak. Presently the Indian stirred, as if waking from a slumber, and,
after a slight shiver, resumed her tale:

"And thus I lived for many years, prophesying as the Great Spirit
revealed the future to me, and my prophecies always came true. I
foretold poor harvests, and the issues of our wars. Only once before the
last prophecy I made was my word doubted, and then unbelief was born in
the minds of many of the men. I spoke the words of truth then, but when
I said we should, in time, vanish from this country, I was treated with
scorn. But I was right. Are we greater in numbers than our traditions
tell us were our fathers many generations ago? Is it not more difficult
to live now than it was in former days? Where are the quail, the
rabbits, that our ancestors used to kill so plentifully? Are not they
growing less all the time? And the water! Look--" and the old woman,
with arm extended, pointed with her forefinger toward the three dry
lakes in the distance, only one of which showed any signs of moisture,
a small spot in the centre, covered with, perhaps, a foot of
water--"look," she repeated, "what were those lakes years ago? Our
fathers tell us that long, long ages past, those three lakes were
one large body of water. Where is it now? Have not I seen, in my own
lifetime, the last one slowly drying up? Where will our game go when it
has quite disappeared? And they laughed at me for telling them. It needs
no gift of prophecy to see that. But they heeded me not. What cared they
for anything so far in the future as that?

"But," continued the woman, after a pause, dropping her arm in her lap,
and speaking in a low, sad voice, "the last time came, and I prophesied,
and this time I told wrongly, for Ouiot did not speak through me. We
were at war with the southern tribe, and it was revealed to me that our
men should conquer. When I told them, a shout went up, and at once they
set off for our enemies. It was four days before they came back, but I
felt no foreboding, for never before had I been deceived, and why should
I be this time? So I waited, confident of the result. Alas! On the
fourth day came a messenger with news of the defeat of our army, an