the wigwams. But she was not alone now in solitary grandeur. She was
accustomed to surround herself, when she desired company, with a number
of younger girls of the tribe who obeyed her, less because she was the
daughter of the feared werowance, than because she had a way with her
that made it pleasant to do as she willed and difficult to oppose her.
Cleopatra, her youngest sister, sat beside her, trying to coax a
squirrel on the branch above them to come down and eat some parched corn
from her hands.

Over Pocahontas's knees was spread a robe of raccoon skin, smooth,
painted in a wide border. Along the edge of this she was embroidering a
deep pattern of white beads made from sea shells. A basket of reeds
beside her was full of other beads, large and small, white, red, yellow
and blue.

"What doth thy pattern mean, Pocahontas?" asked the girl nearest her.
"As it is not one any of our mothers hath ever wrought before, thou must
have a meaning for it in thy mind." "Yes," assented the worker, "it
differeth from all other patterns because my father differeth from all
other werowances. It meaneth this that I sing:

"Powhatan is a mighty chief,
As long as the river floweth,
As long as the sky upholdeth,
As long as the oak tree groweth,
So long shall his name be known.

"See, this line is for the river, this one that goeth up straight is the
oak tree and this long line all wavy is the heavens. I make this for my
father because I am so proud of him."