When they were again in their saddles and careening over the flower-strewn sward Nathan explained that the Indian was attempting to bargain for the “white chuppet,� offering for her his three squaws, two ponies, a wagon, some wampum—in fact, all of his possessions.
“And you were really bartering me before my face, and I ignorant of it?� said Lissa. “Well, I like that!�
“Yes, and the fellow was terribly in earnest too. He thought you would make a good wife to hoe his corn and work for him,� laughed Nathan.
“Oh, the horrid creature! How my ideal of the ‘noble redman’ has fallen since coming here.� And she quoted:
“Black and glossy were her ringlets,
As the tresses of the sea;
Gloomy as the starless midnight,
Pretty star-eyed Estollee.�
“O Nate, where are they, those beautiful children of the forest, whom Longfellow and other poets dreamed of? The squaws are positively ugly with their tangled hair, narrow eyes, high cheek bones, nakedness and dirt. The men are not bad. They are at least straight and symmetrical,� she added.
“The women are bowed down and deformed by hard labor and heavy burdens,� Nathan replied. “Be thankful for what civilization has done for women.�