5O A FRIENDLY INDIAN.

upon her feelings with electric quickness. She
told me that there was plenty of venison and
jerked buffalo meat, and that, on removing the
ashes, I should find a cake. I helped my dog to a
good supper of venison, and was not long in satis-
fying the demands of my own appetite.

“The Indian rose from his seat, as if in extreme
suffering. He passed and repassed me several
times, and once pinched me on the side so violently
that the pain nearly brought forth an exclamation
of anger. I looked at him; his eye met mine, but
his look was so forbidding that it struck a chill
into the more nervous part of my system. He
again seated himself, drew his butcher-knife from
its greasy scabbard, examined its edge as I would
do that of a razor suspected dull, replaced it, and
again taking his tomahawk from his back, filled
the pipe of it with tobacco, and sent me expressive
glances whenever our hostess chanced to have her
back towards us.

‘ Never until that moment had my senses been
awakened to the danger which I now suspected to
be about me. I returned glance for glance to my
companion, and rested well assured that, whatever
enemies I might have, he was not of the number.
Under the pretence of wishing to see how the wea-
ther was, I took up my gun and walked out of the
cabin. I shipped a ball into each barrel, scraped