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 live? and have all your friends perished in the flames? How dreadful, Robert," she added, turning to her husband, "that, while we have been sitting here so comfortable, some of our neighbors' houses have been destroyed and their lives, perhaps, lost!"

"No house in the settlement can have been burned to-night," he said; "for we should have heard the alarm."

The old unsteadiness now returned to Nattie's brain, and she said, looking about the room:

"I've I see white beads everywhere."

"White beads!" repeated the wife; "there are none in the house. She is wandering."

"Bowls of white beads, and moccasins, and pin-cushions, and red willow baskets."

The couple exchanged glances, and whispered:

"Indian."

"Indian; not Frenchman," said Nattie, in a faint whisper, and with a visible shudder at the name last uttered.