706 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
; [May 5, 1900. 

a common sight. We had finished supper, Nat- 
ah’-ki had cleared the table and lighted the lamp. 
Ashton had not yet returned to the lodge, but 
was standing by the light repairing his pipe stem. 
There was a sound of swishing of silk and then 
a tail and graceful woman crossed the threshold, 
raising her veil with an impatient gesture, and 
almost ran up to him, holding out her hands ap- 
pealingly. We recognized her instantly. It was 
Diana. 
“My chief,” she cried, “forgive me. I could not 
help it. I so longed to see my country before I 
went back to school, that I left Alice and came. 
Oh, don’t be angry, forgive me.” 
Ashton had grasped her hands when she held 
them out to him, and almost drew her to him, and 
I had never thought to see his face brighten so. 
It fairly beamed with love and pride, and joy, I 
thought. 
“My dear! my dear!” he said, almost falter- 
ingly. ‘“‘Angry? Forgive? Your desires are al- 
ways mine. God knows I always wish you to be 
happy. Why didn’t you tell me? We could have 
come out together?” 
But the girl was crying now, and Nat-ah’-ki, 
almost afraid of this tall and stately girl, dressed 
in a manner unknown to her, walked up and 
said: “My daughter—you are my daughter, aren’t 
you?” 
“Oh, yes!” she faltered, and the two embraced. 
We men filed out and left them together. Ash- 
ton went to the lodge, Berry and I strolled up the 
trail a way. 
“Good God!” Berry exclaimed, “I never thought 
that one of our blood could be like that. Why, 
she plumb knocks the spots off of any white wo- 
man I ever saw, in some way. I can’t explain the 
difference between her and them, but it’s there 
sure. What is it?” 
“Well,” I said to him, “it’s a matter of educa- 
tion, and of association with refined people 
mainly, I guess; and, well, some women are that 
way. I can’t exactly explain it myself.” 
“And did you notice how she’s dressed!’’ Berry 
added. “Plain like, yet somehow you know that 
' those clothes cost a heap of money, and were 
made by somebody who sure knew how. And 
that locket hanging down on her breast; all pearls 
and a big diamond in the center. My, my!” 
She was beautiful, as we imagine Diana, her 
namesake must have been. But where the god- 
dess was cold and calm and all disdainful, our 
Diana was gracious, and, as we had seen, she had 
a heart. 
We went back. The tears were gone; the wo- 
men, Berry’s wife, Nat-ah’-ki, old Mrs. Berry and 
the Crow Woman were sitting around her breath- 
lessly listening to some of her experiences. She 
had not forgotten her mother’s language. She 
arose and shook hands with us, and said how 
pleased she was to meet us again; that she had 
never forgotten our kindness. 
After a little she went over to the lodge with 
Nat-ah’-ki and I, daintily holding up her skirts, 
carefully circling the little fire and sitting down 
opposite Ashton, who looked well pleased that we 
had come in. 
“Oh,” she cried, clapping her hands, “How 
well I remember it all, even to the coals of dif- 
ferent fuel. You are burning cottonwood.” And 
so she talked on, sometimes to Ashton and me, 
sometimes to Nat-ah’-ki, and we passed a pleasant 
evening. Berry and his wife gave up their room 
to her, and came also to live in the lodge. Some- 
how we could not ask her if she would like to 
live in it, she seemed to be above the old life en- 
tirely, out of place in it. 
I must say that the girl created a sensation in 
the Fort or town, as it was beginning to be 
called. The bull-whackers and mule-skinners and 
the wolfers stared at her open mouthed when she 
passed. The gamblers did their best to get an 
introduction. The real men, to whom she was 
introduced, treated her with profound considera- 
tion. We daily had visitors from the Piegan 
camp, the women regarded her with awe, and 
timidly shook hands with her. The chiefs even 
shook her hand and talked to her; the young gal- 
lants came and stood at a little distance, posing, 
and watching her out of the corner of their eyes. 
One morning Ashton proposed that we should 
pack up and go somewhere for a month or two 
with the Piegan camp, or, if it was safe, by our- 
selves out to the Belt, or the foot of the Rockies. 
Diana objected. “I would rather not go,” she 
said. “You know I must soon return to school.” 
Ashton seemed to be surprised at her objection, 
and so were we. 
“My dear,” he said, “I hoped you would 
enjoy such a trip, There is ample time for you to 

make it and return east for the school opening.” 
But stil! she made excuses, and the subject was 
dropped. She told Nat-ah’-ki, however, that she 
longed to go out on the plains and roam about 
once more, but that she was in duty bound to go 
back soon. “You can’t understand how good my 
chief is to me,” she said. “Always I have money, 
more than any of the other girls, more than I 
can use. And I have the finest clothes, lovely 
jewelry. Oh, he is so good and kind to me, and 
seems so pleased that I learn things, I have seen 
you all and my country once more, and he was 
not angry that I came. Now, I am going back to 
study hard.” 
“Tsn’t she good,’ Nat-ah’-ki exclaimed, after 
she told me this, “And isn’t she beautiful! I 
wish she was my real daughter. 
“You simple thing!” I said. “She might be 
your sister; you are but little older, you know.” 
“T don’t care,” she concluded, “she is my 
daughter ina way. Didn’t I take care of her, and 
wipe away her tears, and do all I could when 
Never Laughs brought her home that bad day?” 
WALTER B. ANDERSON. 
[To BE CONTINUED. ] 
ROUND TOP—HICKORY NUT GAP. 
