“And carry it two or three leagues across the country? For I cannot paddle up the Ste. Anne[7] current. But if we could get one here it would draw suspicion on us and we might be followed. I see but one way. We must depend upon that walking woman above Carillon; and if she be dead, and they camp on the other side, we must raft across the Ottawa. But if we must first make a raft to cross at the mouth, how much time will be lost!” “Massawippa, we have vowed to follow this expedition, and with such good hap as Heaven sends us we shall follow it. May we not start to-morrow?” “Madame, before we start there are things to prepare. We must eat on the way.” “What food shall we carry?” “Bread and smoked eels would keep us alive. I can perhaps buy these with my wampum girdle,” suggested Massawippa, who held the noble young dame beside her to be as dowerless as a Huron princess, and thought it no shame so to be. “Why need you do that?” inquired Claire. “I have two or three gold louis left of the few I brought from France.” “Gold, madame! Gold is so scarce in this land we might attract too much attention by paying for our supplies with it.” “I have nothing else, so we must hazard it. And what must we take beside food and raiment?” “Madame, we cannot carry any garments.” “But, Massawippa, I cannot go to Dollard all travel-stained and ragged!” “If we find him, madame, he will not think of your dress. Is he wedded to you?” Claire’s head sunk down in replying. “He is wedded to glory. Men care more for glory than they care for us, Massawippa.” “Madame,” said the younger, her mouth settling to wistfulness, “the more they care for glory the more we love them. My father is great. If he was a common Indian little could I honor him, whatever penance the priest laid upon me.” “Yes, Dollard is my husband. He is my Dollard,” said Claire. “The nuns call you mademoiselle.” “I have not told them.” “They might see!” asserted Massawippa, slightingly. “Do women lie in deadly anguish before the altar for brothers?” she demanded, speaking as decidedly from her inexperience as any young person of a later century, “or for detestable young men who wish to be accepted as lovers?” “Assuredly not,” said Claire, smiling. “But fathers, they are a different matter. And in your case, madame, husbands. We shall need other things besides bread and eels. For example, two knives.” “To cut our bread with?” inquired Claire. “No; to cut our enemies with!” Massawippa replied, with preoccupied eye which noted little the shudder of the European. “O Massawippa! they may be engaged with the Iroquois even now. Dollard has been gone two days.” “Have no fear of that, madame. There will be no fighting until Annahotaha reaches the expedition,” assumed the chief’s daughter with a high air most laughable to her superior. And after keen meditation she added: “We might start to-morrow daybreak if we but had our supplies ready.”