"
"Why you stay here, eh?" demanded the Indian, abruptly. "Got plenty
honey--bess go home, now. Always bess go home, when hunt up. Home
good place, when hunter well tired."
"My home is here, in the Openings, Pigeonswing. When I go into the
settlements, I do little but loaf about among the farm-houses on the
Detroit River, having neither squaw nor wigwam of my own to go to. I
like this place well enough, if your red brethren will let me keep
it in peace."
"Dis bad place for pale-face, juss now. Better go home, dan stay in
Openin'. If don't know short path to Detroit, I show you. Bess go,
soon as can; and bess go ALONE. No good to be trouble wid squaw,
when in hurry."
The countenance of le Bourdon changed at this last intimation;
though the Indian might not have observed it in the darkness. After
a brief pause, the first answered in a very determined way.
"I believe I understand you, Chippewa," he said. "I shall do nothing
of the sort, however. If the squaws can't go, too, I shall not quit
them. Would you desert YOUR squaws because you thought them in
trouble?"
"An't your squaw yet. Bess not have squaw at all, when Openin' so
full of Injin.
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