"She must have been very homesick," said Lucy, when Uncle Sam reached this part of the story. "I shouldn't wonder if she cried herself to sleep every night."
"It is not Indian fashion to cry," replied Uncle Sam. "The Red Men are ashamed to let tears come to their eyes. Even the little children are taught not to show in their faces what they feel.
"This little girl may have been very unhappy at first. I really don't know about that. At any rate, she lived among the white people till she grew up. Then she married a white man, just as Pocahontas did."
Uncle Sam stopped for a moment and began to stroke his chin. That was the sign that he was thinking.
Lucy began to pet Buzz, who had just waked up from a nap at her feet. She was thinking, too. It seemed as though she could see that little Indian girl of long ago. The child was in a birch canoe and gliding down the river. Her bright black eyes were turned longingly toward her home in the forest. Those eyes seemed to say:
"Good-bye, dear, happy days of freedom. Good-bye."
Joe sat thinking, too. He was wondering if the Indian girl went back to her people with her white husband, and if she was a good ruler after her father died.
"A penny for your thoughts!" said Uncle Sam suddenly. He spoke to Joe.
"I can't imagine that Indian princess ruling her people after the white man's fashion. I do not believe it would have suited the Indians." The boy spoke slowly.
"I think you are right, Joe," Uncle Sam answered. "But I believe she did not have a chance to try. The Indians were not willing to let a woman take the old chief's place. They chose his brother, I believe.