Page:Barbour--Metipoms Hostage.djvu/221

Rh The old squaw came with food ready cooked, and brought, too, a sack of parched corn for  David’s pouch. The food he devoured as he stood, and then, John having returned to his  own family, he made his way to the spring,  somewhat shamefacedly, and, as he scooped  the water from it, saw himself reflected  vaguely in the surface. The first glimpse was startling, for he who looked back from the  rippled mirror might well have been a young  Indian. Even the boy’s features seemed to have changed; as, indeed, they had since his  coming to the village, for lean living had  sharpened the cheek-bones and made thinner  the nose; and now it was a Wachoosett  brave, painted and feathered, who was reflected back from the spring. The vision brought a little thrill to David, for there was  something almost uncanny in the marvels  wrought by the stain and the pigment and  the few gay feathers.

An hour later the exodus had begun. A handful of braves had left the village long  before, and at intervals others had followed,  but the main body of the tribe began to  straggle through the gate an hour after  sun-up. Ahead, pretending no military or-