"] In their turn the strangers seemed
equally astonished at Catharine's appearance.
The smiling aspect and good-natured laugh of the female, however, soon
reassured the frightened girl, and she gladly gave her the water which she
had in her birch dish, on her signifying her desire for drink. To this
Catharine added some berries, and dried venison, and a bit of maple sugar,
which was received with grateful looks by the boys; she patted the brown
baby, and was glad when the mother released it from its wooden cradle, and
fed and nursed it. The squaw seemed to notice the difference between the
colour of her young hostess's fair skin and her own swarthy hue; for she
often took her hand, stripped up the sleeve of her dress, and compared her
arm with her own, uttering exclamations of astonishment and curiosity;
possibly Catharine was the first of a fair-skinned race this poor savage
had ever seen. After her meal was finished, she set the birchen dish on the
floor, and restrapping the papoose in its cradle prison, she slipped the
basswood-bark rope over her forehead, and silently signing to her sons to
follow her, she departed.
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