So he resolved, in his selfishness,
to take Waubenoo from caring for her brothers and sisters to be his wife,
and to hunt and fish for him, that he might live a life of idleness.
"Her parents being dead this selfish young Indian did not have to go to her
father to buy her to be his wife. All he thought he had to do was to go and
tell her she had to be his wife and come and do as he commanded her. So
harsh and cold were his words, and so very rough and forbidding his looks,
that, while Waubenoo was frightened, she was grave and high spirited enough
to indignantly refuse his request, and to order him never to trouble her
again.
"This, of course, made him very angry. He refused to go, and continued to
insist on her going with him.
"Fearing that he might revenge himself upon her by doing her or the
children some harm, she told him that it was her duty to stay with the
little ones whom the death of the parents had left in her care; that they
might perish if she now left them.
"But nothing would turn away his anger, and if it had not happened just
then that some friendly Indians came along he would have cruelly beaten
her. Before them he durst not strike her, and so, muttering some threats,
he sulkily strode away into the forest.
"Poor Waubenoo was now sadly troubled. Lighthearted and free, she had
cheerfully worked and toiled for her loved ones, but now here comes this
cruel, fierce-looking man, whom she could only look on with fear and dread,
and threatens to drag her away from them all.
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