When distinguished guests were to grace the home of the Greydons frequently Miss Mollie was busy for days providing the table with all the delicacies of the season, and leaving nothing undone for the comfort of her father’s friends.
Two girls were seeking wild strawberries on the banks
of the Wingohocking.
For the purpose of gathering a goodly supply of wild strawberries, she went to the lodge of Kaubequa, the mother of her favorite companion, Segwuna, to enlist the Indian woman and her daughter in her task. The three worked tirelessly on the day before Sunday, as the distinguished statesmen were to be present for supper, and she knew that wild strawberries would be such a treat for her father’s guests.
Ever since the killing of Kaubequa’s brave by the whites, when Segwuna was a small child, this lone Indian family had made their home on Dr. Greydon’s estate, Dorminghurst. The child had been nurtured and educated as his own, since she was the grandchild of Altamaha, the great friend of James Greydon, his father.
The Greydons had cherished these children of the forest as a heritage of the soil. The family of Altamaha had always been privileged Indians at Dorminghurst. After the death of Altamaha, and the killing of his son in the valley of the Monongahela, Kaubequa, her infant daughter and boy made the long journey to Dr. Greydon’s estate alone.
The white settlers had killed her brave, and had driven her tribe from the beautiful valley in the mountains, and the mother had wearied of war. She knew that if she could once get to the old friends of Altamaha she could rest in safety and rear her two children in peace. She oft murmured to herself in the plaintive language of her race as she gazed upon her two fatherless children:
“I care not again to hear the eagle scream on high. The war manitou has left me alone, alone and destitute. Every day, thou, star of my destiny, I gaze at thee. Whither shall I fly?
“He was still standing on a fallen tree that had fallen into the water,—my sweetheart!
“Alas, when I think of him! when I think of him! It is when I think of him!—Oh, disquagummee!”