“How very young she is,” said Emma; “why she cannot be more than eighteen years old.”
“I doubt if she is so much,” replied Captain Sinclair.
“She has a very modest, unaffected look, has she not, Alfred?” said Mary.
“Yes, I think there is something very prepossessing in her countenance.”
“She is too young a wife for the old hunter, at all events,” observed Alfred.
“That is not unusual among the Indians,” said Captain Sinclair; “a very old chief will often have three or four young wives; they are to be considered more in the light of his servants than anything else.”
“But she must think us very rude to talk and stare at her in this manner; I suppose she cannot speak English.”
“I will speak to her in her own language, if she is a Chippeway or any of the tribes about here, for they all have the same dialect,” said Captain Sinclair.
Captain Sinclair addressed her in the Indian language, and the Indian girl replied in a very soft voice.
“She says her husband is gone to bring home venison.”