50 A FRIENDLY INDIAN. 



upon her feelings with electric quickness. She 

 told me that there was plenty of venison and 

 jerked buffalo meat, and that, on removing the 

 ashes, I should find a cake. I helped nay dog to a 

 good supper of venison, and was not long in satis- 

 fying the demands of my own appetite. 



" The Indian rose from his seat, as if in extreme 

 suffering. He passed and repassed me several 

 times, and once pinched me on the side so violently 

 that the pain nearly brought forth an exclamation 

 of anger. I looked at him ; his eye met mine, but 

 his look was so forbidding that it struck a chill 

 into the more nervous part of my system. He 

 again seated himself, drew his butcher-knife from 

 its greasy scabbard, examined its edge as I would 

 do that of a razor suspected dull, replaced it, and 

 again taking his tomahawk from Jris back, filled 

 the pipe of it with tobacco, and sent me expressive 

 glances whenever our hostess chanced to have her 

 back towards us. 



" Never until that moment had my senses been 

 awakened to the danger which I now suspected to 

 be about me. I returned glance for glance to my 

 companion, and rested well assured that, whatever 

 enemies I might have, he was not of the number. 

 Under the pretence of wishing to see how the wea- 

 ther was, I took up my gun and walked out of the 

 cabin. I slipped a ball into each barrel, scraped 



