“Now I remember,” said Tante, “your mother’s family was very proud of being descended from Captain Smith’s dusky friend, Beverly. So are many of the old Virginian families. Pocahontas was a king’s daughter. Better still, she was a generous, noble, loyal woman.”
“She married an Englishman named Rolfe, and went to live in London,” added Cicely Vane. “I have seen her grave in a church in Gravesend.”
“She ought to have married Captain Smith,” said Norma, who was romantic. “That would have been beautiful!”
“I reckon he was too old for her,” said Beverly. “She called him her foster-father. I don’t know what those first Virginians would have done without Pocahontas to keep the Indians friendly.”
“Say, isn’t it great to have a real Indian here!” cried Dick. “I believe Beverly does look a little red, doesn’t she?”
Beverly certainly turned red as they all stared at her black hair and eyes, her fine nose and high cheek-bones.
“I’d be proud to,” she said with dignity. “I always liked the Indians. I think they were treated mighty meanly by the white folks, North and South. You talk about the slaves!”
“Didn’t Indians scalp the white settlers?” “And burn them and torture them?” The Twins had been hearing tales from Cooper told by Dick.
“Yes, they did,” admitted Beverly. “They didn’t know any better. The white men cheated them; and they knew better!”
“I’ve seen Indians around the Harbor sometimes,” volunteered Nelly Sackett. “I didn’t think much of them; shiftless-looking people, with baskets to sell.”