they speedily gained, and then pursued their course in
silence, until they at length arrived at the log where
the exchange of mocassins had been made.

"Here the Saganaw may take breath," she observed, as she
seated herself on the fallen tree; "the sleep of the red
skin is sound, and there is no one upon the path but
Oucanasta."

Anxious as he felt to secure his return to the fort,
there was an implied solicitation in the tones of her to
whom he owed so much, that prevented Captain de Haldimar
from offering an objection, which he feared might be
construed into slight.

For a moment or two the Indian remained with her arms
folded, and her head bent over her chest; and then, in
a low, deep, but tremulous voice, observed,--

"When the Saganaw saved Oucanasta from perishing in the
angry waters, there was a girl of the pale faces with
him, whose skin was like the snows of the Canadian winter,
and whose hair was black like the fur of the squirrel.
Oucanasta saw," she pursued, dropping her voice yet lower,
"that the Saganaw was loved by the pale girl, and her
own heart was very sick, for the Saganaw had saved her
life, and she loved him too. But she knew she was very
foolish, and that an Indian girl could never be the wife
of a handsome chief of the Saganaw; and she prayed to
the Great Spirit of the red skins to give her strength