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 proud, white squaw. Sisters, it is often in my mind that we take our insulted father, and return to our own cabin beyond the wilderness."

"He can not walk," said Brown Wren; "how could we get him there?"

"We could make a small sledge and draw him," said Blue Top; "our brother, the young Cat—head, would help us with his brave arm."

Brown Wren looked toward Pink Ear, who had found a handful of nuts under the leaves, and sat down on a fallen tree to eat them. But the old squaw shook her head, slowly.

"The young white squaw would not suffer us to depart in peace," she said.

"We will go in the night, when she is asleep," said Brown Wren; "and she does not know the way that we go, so she can not follow our path."

"Yes, we will steal away under cover of darkness," said Blue Top, her dark, stupid face brightening at the prospect of escaping from her present life of toil and servitude.