Page:Cathlamet On the Columbia.djvu/174



1cougar moved back before her, and gliding into the brush, disappeared.

An Indian woman would have stood in her place, and, gathering her children under her blanket, would have waited the issue in patience, and if forced into a fight, would have made a better one than the white woman; but steadily moving up into the face of the enemy was the English blood, and for cold-blooded courage when courage was necessary, the white woman was the superior of her red sister.

This was only one of many anxieties and perils.With so many burdens the children had largely to take care of themselves, and one day a two -year -old boy being missing, a search was instituted and the youngster was found floating in an eddy of the Columbia River, quietly clinging to a little piece of driftwood. He had fallen