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 be wrong," answered the youth, looking at the little girl with a steady gaze.

Nattie was silent. She did not like to ask the young man what it was that his father wished him to do, which he considered so wrong, though she hoped that he would tell her; but he did not seem thus inclined; so, after a while, she said:

"Surely, your father does not wish you to kill or steal?"

"Not exactly," was the response; "though, I believe, he wishes me to receive and retain as my own, stolen goods."

"That would certainly be wrong," said Nattie.

"So I think," said the young man, rising. "But we will not talk more of it now. You seem to be a nice house-keeper. I have not, in all my travels, seen so nice a cabin as this. Is it your work? It seems too much for your small hands."

"I have three squaws," answered Nattie, proudly. "They are in the woods now, gathering