There were many threats of vengeance made against We-har-ka in the present instance, for the trouble which her longings for vengeance had occasioned; but she was not afraid: she had taken care of herself for nearly a hundred years, and would be apt to do so during the short remnant of her life.
Indian women will talk of their wrongs as long as they feel them, and that will be until the heart has ceased to beat, and the tongue is silent for ever.
We-har-ka lives on the memory of her sorrows. She holds them to her heart, as does the mother her child of a day old. They are dear to her as would be the hope of vengeance.
I say she lives, but I know not. Seasons have gone since I bade adieu to her home, and it may be, she is all unconscious that winter is gone, and that summer's breath is waving the green boughs of the forest trees as they lift up their branches to the heavens.
It must be soon, if not now, that her form, covered with garments of poverty and misery, and perhaps shielded from the gaze of passers-by by the tattered blanket of some friend poor as she, reposes quietly near the river bank.
Would you not like to have heard her talk of her amusements as a child, and her happiness when a maiden—of the scenes of pleasure she remembers, and of terror from which she has fled—of the pains, the hunger, the watchings she has endured—of the storms and sunshine of a life passed away?
[17] An Okendokenda is a part of an Indian woman's dress, somewhat resembling the sack worn by ladies at the present time, more open, displaying the throat and chest. It is generally made of bright-coloured calico.