With deer-skin leggings, and a fur jacket, they should be
comfortably clad. Indiana thought the canoe the most precious, and was
charmed with the good jar and the store of rice: nor did she despise the
packing rope, which she soon showed was of use in carrying burdens from
place to place, Indian fashion: by placing a pad of soft fur in front of
the head, she could carry heavy loads with great ease. The mat, she said,
was useful for drying the rice she meant to store. The very next day after
this adventure, the two girls set to work, and with the help of Louis's
large knife, which was called into requisition as a substitute for
scissors, they cut out the blanket dresses, and in a short time made two
comfortable and not very unsightly garments: the full, short, plaited
skirts reached a little below the knee; light vests bordered with fur
completed the upper part, and leggings, terminated at the ankles by knotted
fringes of the doe-skin, with mocassins turned over with a band of squirrel
fur, completed the novel but not very unbecoming costume; and many a glance
of innocent satisfaction did our young damsels cast upon each other, when
they walked forth in the pride of girlish vanity to display their dresses
to Hector and Louis, who, for their parts, regarded them as most skilful
dress-makers, and were never tired of admiring and commending their
ingenuity in the cutting, making and fitting, considering what rude
implements they were obliged to use in the cutting out and sewing of the
garments.
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