The eye of the warrior, as he looked upon the ingenuous and confiding face of the speaker, was kind to fondness. The firmness had passed away and in its place was left the winning softness of affection, which, as it belongs to nature, is seen, at times, in the expression of an Indian's eye, as strongly as it is ever known to sweeten the intercourse of a more polished condition of life.
"Girl," he said with emphasis, after a moment of thought, as if he would recall her and himself to more important duties, "this is a war-path; all on it are men. Thou wast like the pigeon before its wing opens, when I brought thee from the nest; still the winds of many winters had blown upon thee. Dost never think of the warmth and of the food of the lodge in which thou hast past so many seasons?"
"The wigwam of Conanchet is warm; no woman of the tribe hath as many furs as Narra-mattah."
"He is a great hunter! when they hear his moccason, the beavers lie down to be killed! But the men of the Pale-faces hold the plow. Does not 'the driven snow' think of those who fenced the wigwam of her father from the cold, or of the manner in which the Yengeese live?"
His youthful and attentive wife seemed to reflect; but raising her face, with an expression of content that could not be counterfeited, she shook her head in the negative.
"Does she never see a fire kindled among the lodges, or hear the whoops of warriors as they break into a settlement?"
"Many fires have been kindled before her eyes. The ashes of the Narragansett town are not yet cold."
"Does not Narra-mattah hear her father speaking to the God of the Yengeese? Listen--he is asking favor for his child!"
"The Great Spirit of the Narragansett has ears for his people."
"But I hear a softer voice! 'Tis a woman of the Pale-faces among her children: cannot the daughter hear?"