 Each
pipe dropped from the lips of its owner, as though all had inhaled an impurity
at the same instant. The smoke wreathed above their heads in little eddies, and
curling in a spiral form, it ascended swiftly through the opening in the roof of
the lodge, leaving the place beneath clear of its fumes, and each dark visage
distinctly visible. The looks of most of the warriors were riveted on the earth;
though a few of the younger and less gifted of the party, suffered their wild
and glaring eye-balls to roll in the direction of a white headed savage, who
sate between two of the most venerated chiefs of the tribe. There was nothing in
the air or attire of this Indian, that would seem to entitle him to such a
distinction. The former was rather depressed, than remarkable for the bearing of
the natives; and the latter was such as was commonly worn by the ordinary men of
the nation. Like most around him, for more than a minute, his look, too, was on
the ground; but trusting his eyes, at length, to steal a glance aside, he
perceived that he was becoming an object of general attention. Then he arose,
and lifted his voice in the general silence.
    »It was a lie,« he said; »I had no son! He who was called by that name is
forgotten; his blood was pale, and it came not from the veins of a Huron; the
wicked Chippewas cheated my squaw! The Great Spirit has said, that the family of
Wiss-en-tush should end - he is happy who knows that the evil of his race dies
with himself! I have done.«
    The speaker, who was the father of the recreant young Indian, looked round
and about him, as if seeking commendation of his stoicism, in the eyes of his
auditors. But the stern customs of his people had made too severe an exaction of
the feeble old man. The expression of his eye contradicted his figurative and
boastful language, while every muscle in his wrinkled visage was working with
anguish. Standing a single minute to enjoy his bitter triumph, he turned away,
as if sickening at the gaze of men, and veiling his face in his blanket, he
walked from the lodge, with the noiseless step of an Indian, and sought, in the
privacy of his own abode, the sympathy of one like himself, aged, forlorn, and
childless.
    The Indians, who believe in the hereditary transmission of virtues and
defects in character, suffered him to depart in silence. Then,
