“No, no,” answered Mary. “One so grand—so like a queen, could not feel as I do; I never expect it. In the wide world there is not another girl like me. I sometimes feel as if the angels would only give me pity-love after I am dead, and then there would be no heaven for me either.”
“And are you so lonely of heart?” inquired Catharine, seating herself on the stone before Mary, and taking both her pale little hands with a kindly clasp. “You and I should feel for each other; for the same rugged path lies before you that I have trod.”
“The same—oh no, lady! You are straight and proud as a poplar. You don’t know what it is to go through life with your face bent to the ground, and the heart in your bosom warm and full of love, like other people’s.”
“Poor soul, and does this thought trouble you so? Are you indeed worse off than I have been, and so patient, too? Has the wilderness no hiding-place for human suffering?”
“I don’t know,” said Mary, filled with her own thoughts. “It seems as if I never could hide away; people are sure to find me out and stare at me. I think there is no place but the grave where one would be sure.”
Catharine could not speak; tears overmastered her and fell down her face like rain.
“Poor soul,” she said, “how can I comfort you?”
“I don’t know,” said Mary. “The minister sometimes tries to comfort me, but I’m afraid he has gone away for a long time; when he tells me that I can be useful, and make others happy just as I am, this trouble goes off a little. Oh! ma’am, I wish you could know the minister; or if you really care about making a poor girl like me feel better, talk as he does.”
“Alas!” said Catharine, “I am not humble and good, like him; but I can pity these feelings, and be your friend—a more powerful friend, perhaps, than he is, for I can protect you and yours from the hatred of the Indians.”
“Oh, but the Indians are my friends now; they love me a little, I am sure, for they smile when I speak to them, and call me pet names, as if I were a bird; perhaps it is because the minister likes me so much.”