Page:Cathlamet On the Columbia.djvu/166

 one-man canoe loaded with wild fowl, which he would sell for anything the white people would give for them.

The family grew larger, and as children were born to Mrs. Birnie and the young white wife, the white woman and the red would minister at each other's bedsides like sisters, and the friendships so formed never failed or changed so long as the two women lived.

Occasionally some relief came to the monotony. In 1853 a visit was made to Fort Vancouver, nearly a hundred miles away. To save expense the traveling was done in a canoe, with an Indian crew, and as a baby six months old was a necessary passenger on the journey, it will be seen how anxious this white woman was to see and talk with her own people again.

During all of this time at Cathlamet the In-