sh,
earnest way to tell him that she could not help loving him, and that
if he would take her to be his wife she should work for him as long as
she lived.

As he did not reply, a gleam of hope crept into her heart, and baring
her dark arm, she showed him how strong it was, how it never grew
weary, and how, if he would throw in his lot with her people, he
should never have to work, as the squaws always worked for the braves.
It was no uncommon thing for French-Canadians to marry squaws, neither
was it uncommon for squaws to offer themselves in marriage, and thus
she did not know how strangely unnatural her proposition sounded to
him. It never, in his inexperience, occurred to him to make any
allowance for her on account of her life and environments, and he
judged her as he would have judged a white girl.

As she looked up into his blue eyes and saw the look of dismay and
contempt there, her intuitions told her her words had sounded unseemly
to him, and that he abhorred her for them; and in her keen distress
and anger she turned and fled.

Had he loved no other woman, it might have been the stoicism of her
race would have saved her from further humiliation, but when she saw
him walking with Nellie Shuter, saw the love-light in his eyes when
he looked at her, and noted how flippantly, in return, Nellie treated
him, her love swept away all feelings of pride, and she seized every
opportunity of speaking to him. Naturally such a course only added to
his distaste for her.

Joe had guessed that she had contracted a liking for Harry, but never
until her visit to their tent had he imagined her falling so
helplessly in love with him. And as he stood and looked into her dark,
passionate face, this new complication of Harry's affairs made him
feel more ill at ease than ever. "Well, and if he has gone to Shuter's
tent to see Nellie, what business is that of yours?" he asked sharply.
He would have liked to answer her kindly, and would have done so, had
he not feared fanning into a keener flame her hopeless passion.

The bronzed cheeks of the Indian girl flamed into a still deeper hue
as she heard his words. But conquering her passion, she told him again
how dearly she loved Harry, while she was sure the white girl did not;
and she had come to ask him to tell Harry this.

Joe, who could not trust himself to reply, pointed--with a sorry
attempt at dignity--to the opening in the tent.

For a few moments she stood and looked at h