Perhaps it is because
the pale-faced tribes suffer so much in childhood that they are weak
and cowardly in manhood. They shrink and cry like a wounded panther at
the touch of pain."
The girl who had not dwelt upon it except in her thoughts was
nevertheless filled with a gently uplifting sense of race superiority.
Her admiration of Rose was tinged with pity. Poor garden flower,
confined for life to the dull walks and prim parterres of a fixed
enclosure, when she might roam the wild paths of the forest; condemned
to sleep in a close room, on stifling feathers, and bathe in an
elongated tub, when she might feel the elasticity of hemlock boughs
beneath her, inhale the perfumed breath of myriad trees, and plunge at
sunrise into the gleaming waters of the lake. It was indeed a pitiable
life.
They entered the wigwam, and seated themselves on the rush mats that
lay upon the ground. About them were carelessly disposed some dressed
skins of the beaver and otter, a brace of wild duck, fishing tackle,
and the accoutrements of the chase, a rifle, powder-horn and shot
pouch. The chief himself, in his buckskin garment, tightened by a
wampum belt, his deer-skin moccasins, scarlet cloth leggings and
blanket, was not the least picturesque object of the interior.
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