Without turning his head, he continued to listen to all the directions they were giving him about the repairing of their guns, traps, &c., which they wished to leave with the blacksmith. As they went on, he cautiously turned his head towards the parlor door, and replied to the one speaking to him from there. When he again addressed me, it was to say,
“You are right, but it is no affair of ours. We are none of us to look so as to give him notice that we suspect anything. They are undoubtedly innocent, and have suffered enough already.”
Contrary to his usual custom, their father did not ask their names, but wrote their directions, which he tied to their different implements, and then bade them go and deliver them themselves to M. Morrin.
The rest of our circle were greatly pleased at the young fellow’s audacity, and we quite longed to tell the officers that we could have caught one of their fugitives for them, if we had had a mind.
The time had now come when we began to think seriously of leaving our pleasant home, and taking up our residence at Detroit, while making arrangements for a permanent settlement at Chicago.
The intelligence, when communicated to our Winnebago children, brought forth great lamentations and demonstrations of regret. From the surrounding country they came flocking in, to inquire into the truth of the tidings they had heard, and to petition earnestly that we would continue to live and die among them.
Among them all no one seemed so overwhelmed with affliction as Elizabeth, our poor Cut-nose. When we first told her of our intention, she sat for hours in the same spot, wiping away the tears that would find their way down her cheeks, with the corner of the chintz shawl she wore pinned across her bosom.
“No! never, never, never shall I find such friends again,” she would exclaim. “You will go away, and I shall be left here all alone.”