INDIAN GRASS. 223 



your purchase a tiny canoe, a basket of birch bark, or 

 some other trifle, and when money is offered in return 

 she says, " No, no, no — for love of kindness to me." 



There is something kindly in the Indian's nature. I 

 like the words they close their letters with, 



" I kiss you in my heart, 



From your Indian friend." 



The Indian women outlive the men. Their quiet, 

 peaceful temper, sobriety and industrious habits may 

 account for this fact ; but the men have not the same 

 resources and are not in their natural state. Their 

 spirit seems broken, and they become slow and inactive, 

 and pine away early. Change of habit from the old 

 out-of-door life of the hunter and trapper preying upon 

 them, they die under the restrictive laws of civilization, 

 and in another century it will be asked where is the 

 remnant of the native race ? and but that the dark eye, 

 black hair and dusky skin may be traced in a few 

 scattered individuals, it may be doubted if they ever 

 existed or had left any descendants in the land. 



