Trail and Camp-Fire 



reputation, he was always obliging enough 

 while with us. 



Peter is a character, an old friend of mine, 

 a tall man of quiet movements. His com- 

 plexion is somewhat ruddier than is usual 

 among his degenerate people, and his features 

 have something of the aquiline which typifies 

 the Indian. His expression is of both dignity 

 and sweetness, his courtesy unfailing, and his 

 industry untiring. He has the keenest sense 

 of humor, and is a most entertaining story- 

 teller; his voice soft and musical. Altogether 

 he has a winning personality, whose only fault 

 is the old one that has been the ruin of his 

 race, and that has led him into serious trouble 

 more than once upon his return to the haunts 

 of men. And yet so ingratiating is this per- 

 sonality that time and again, by sheer virtue 

 of that alone, 1 ^""as restored himself to favor 

 among those who i. I every reason to exhibit 

 only severity. He is a descendant and bears 

 the surname of that captive from the neigh- 

 borhood of Deerfield, Samuel Gill, whose 

 story Parkman tells in "A Half-Century of 

 Conflict." Now, after nearly two centuries, 

 here was I, in part the descendant of that 



nation which, through the ferocity of its 



136 



