"Father, dost thou know how hard it is to be a girl? Nautauquas, my brother, is a swift runner, yet I am fleeter than he. I can shoot as straight as he, though not so far. I can go without food and drink as long as he. I can dance without fatigue when he is panting. Yet Nautauquas is to be a great brave and I--thou bidst remember to be a squaw. Is it not hard, my father? Why then didst thou give me strong arms and legs and a spirit that will not be still? Do not blame me. Father, because I must laugh and run and play." As she spoke she slipped to her knees and embraced his feet and when she had ceased speaking, she smiled up fearless into his face. Powhatan tried not to be moved by the child's pleading. Yet he was a chief who always harkened to the excuses made by offenders brought before him and judged them justly, if sometimes harshly. This child of his was as dear to him as a running stream to summer heat. If at times its spray dashed too high, could he be angry? And Pocahontas, seeing that his anger had gone from him, stood up and laid her head against his arm. She did not have to be told that the mighty Powhatan loved no wife nor child of his as he loved her. Then his hand stroked her soft hair and cheek, and she knew that she was forgiven. "Thine uncle is very angry," he said. "If thou couldst but have seen him. Father, when the arrow whizzed," and she laughed gaily in memory of the picture. "I have promised to punish thee." "Yea, as thou wilt." But she did not speak as if afraid. "Hear what I charge thee," he said in mock solemnity. "Thou shalt embroider for me with thine own hands--thou that carest not for squaw's needles--a robe of raccoon skin in quills and bits of precious shells." Pocahontas laughed. "That is no punishment. 'Tis a strange thing, but when I do things I like not for those I love, why, then I pleasure in doing them. I will fashion for thee such a robe as thou hast never seen. Oh! I know how beautiful it will be. I will make new patterns such as no squaw hath ever dreamed of before. But thou wilt never be really angry with me. Father, wilt thou?" she questioned pleadingly. "And if I should at any time do what displeaseth thee, and thou wearest this robe I make thee, then let it be a token between us and when I touch it thou wilt forgive me and grant what I ask of thee?" And Powhatan promised and smiled on her before he set forth for the guest lodge. [Illustration: Decorative] CHAPTER II POCAHONTAS AND THE MEDICINE MAN