Ruth smiled and shook her head.
"Got friend, then," asked Singing-Bird, "who like to look at you—who give you his heart?"
Ruth blushed, and this time she did not smile.
Singing-Bird continued, "If you got lover, then, why don't marry?"
"Perhaps I may, sometime," answered Ruth, still blushing; "but I cannot, you know, until these troubles are all over."
"It's pleasant to live in wigwam with husband. When he gone on war-path, or gone hunting, then you work in field—that good way to live."
"We pale-face women do not work in the field. We make the men do that."
"That squaw's business; men hunt deer, catch fish, take scalp—that warrior's business. I don't want to stay in wigwam and do not'ing, Eagle's-Wing wouldn't like that."
"You do not mean to say that Eagle's-Wing would make you do labor in the field?" asked Ruth, in astonishment.
"No—Eagle's-Wing wouldn't make me do that; but if I didn't, he t'ink me lazy, good for not'ing squaw—then he get another squaw, p'raps. I shouldn't like that."