Page:Nattie Nesmith (1870).pdf/96

 not find the way. So you'll have to stay here as long as we want you."

"Why, how far is it?" asked Nattie, beginning to be alarmed by the boy's words, for she had not supposed that she was a very long distance from her native village. Having slept during all her journey, she was not aware of its length.

"Oh, it is farther than I can tell," he answered. "We traveled six days and nights to get here, but you was asleep, and rode on pa's back, or else on our little sled, so you didn't know what a ways it was."

"Oh, dear!" said Nattie, feeling hopeless; "I wish I could see my own father."

"He would think you was an Indian Squaw," said the boy, "if he should see you, with your dark brown face, long gown, and leather moccasins."

As Nattie viewed herself, she felt a misgiving lest it would be even as the Indian boy said. She turned her head and went on with her crying, resolving, in her old spirit of desperation, that