"No," refused the widow.
"But I don't want him in my bedroom. You are not obliged to keep that thing in your sight all the time."
"Yes," said the widow.
A dialect of mingled French and Chippewa was what they spoke, and
Michel knew enough of both tongues to follow the talk.
"Are they never going to take him from you? If they don't take him from you soon, I shall go to the lodges and speak to his people about it myself."
The Chippewa widow usually passed over this threat in silence; but, threading a lock with the comb, she now said,—
"Best not go to the lodges awhile."
"Why?" inquired Archange. "Have the English already arrived? Is the tribe dissatisfied?"
"Don't know that."
"Then why should I not go to the lodges?"