The treaty being thus concluded, the gratified young Indian dismounted, with his rifle and pack, containing his blanket, hunting-suit, etc., which he carried before him, laid across the shoulder of his novel steed; and, under the guidance of Gaut, he led the animal into the cow-yard, where he was tied and fed, and the fence, already made high to exclude the wolves, as usual among first settlers, was topped out by laying on a few additional poles, so as to prevent the possibility of his escape. This being done, Gaut conducted his new-found friend into the house, and introduced him, to his wife and also to his daughter, who had by this time returned, as the young Indian that had been to college, but still had a liking for the woods. “I have often thought I should feel interested in seeing an educated native of the forest,” remarked Avis, after the civilities of the introduction had been exchanged. “Books, when you became able to read and understand them,” she continued, turning to the Indian, “books must have opened a new world to you, and the many new and curious things you found in them must have been exceedingly gratifying to you, Mr. Tomah.” “Yes, many curious things in books,” replied Tomah, indifferently. “And also much valuable knowledge?” rejoined Avis, interrogatively. “Valuable enough to some folks, suppose,” replied the other, with the air of one speaking on a subject in which he felt no particular interest. “Lawyers make money; preachers get good pay for talking what they learn in books; so doctors.” “But surely,” persisted the former, who, though disappointed in his replies, yet still expected to see, if she could draw him out, the naturally shrewd mind of the native made brilliant by the light of science, “surely you consider an education a good thing for all, giving those who receive it a great advantage over those who do not?” “Yes, education good thing,” responded Tomah, his stolid countenance beginning to lighten up at the idea which now struck him as involving the chief if not the sole benefit of his scientific acquirements; “yes, education good, very good, sometime. Instance: I go to Boston with my moose next winter; show him for pay, one, two days; then reckon up money--add; then reckon up expenses--subtract; tell how much I make. Make much, stay; make little, go to other place. Yes, education good thing.” “But I should think you might do better with your education than you could by following the usual employments of your kind of people,” resumed the other, still unwilling to see the subject of her scrutiny fall so much below her preconception of an educated Indian. “You say, lawyers, preachers, and doctors make money from the superiority which their education has given them; now, why don’t you profit by _your_ education, and go into a profession like one of theirs, and obtain by it the same wealth and position which you see them enjoying?”