“Well, now tell her that we shall always be happy to see her, and that we are going home again! and ask her name, and tell her our own.”
As Captain Sinclair interpreted, the Indian girl pronounced after him the names of Mary and Emma very distinctly.
“She has your names you perceive; her own, translated into English, is the Strawberry-plant.”
They then nodded farewell to the young Indian, and
returned home. On the second evening after their visit, as they were at supper, the conversation turned upon the hunter and his young Indian wife, when John, who had, as usual, been silent, suddenly broke out with “Goes away to-morrow!”
“They go away to-morrow, John; where do they go to?” said Mr Campbell.
“Woods,” replied John.
John was correct in his statement. Early the next morning, Malachi Bone, with his rifle on his shoulder and an axe in his hand, was seen crossing the prairie belonging to Mr Campbell, followed by his wife, who was bent double under her burden, which was composed of all the property which the old hunter possessed, tied up in blankets. He had left word the night before with Martin that he would come back in a few days, as soon as he had squatted, to settle the bargain for his allotment of land made over to Mr Campbell. This was just before they had sat down to breakfast, and then they observed that John was missing.
“He was here just before prayers,” said Mrs Campbell. “He must have slipped away after the old hunter.”