"What was that you said?" she asked; "I didn't understand."
"Because you don't know Delaware," said Verty, smiling.
"Was it Indian?"
"Yes, indeed. I said to Cloud—that's his name you know—I told him to crouch; that means, in hunter language, keep still."
"How strange!"
"Is it? But I like the English better, because you don't speak
Delaware, my own tongue; you speak English."
"Oh, yes!" Redbud says.
"I don't complain of your not speaking Delaware," says Verty, "for how could you, unless ma mere had taught you? She is the only Indian about here."
"You say ma mere—that means, 'my mother,' don't it?"
"Yes; oh, she knows French, too. You know the Indian and the French—I wonder who the French are!—used to live and fight together."