Again he appeared to muse as intently as was
possible, for one of his circumscribed intellects. But shaking his head in
the negative, he silently resumed the grateful office of mastication.
"What! hast come to be a warrior, and never known a scalp taken, or seen
a fire lighted in the roof of a wigwam?"
Whittal laid down the food, and turned to his sister. His face was
teeming with a wild and fierce meaning, and he indulged in a low but
triumphant laugh. When this exhibition of satisfaction was over, he
consented to reply.
"Certain," he said. "We went on a path, in the night, against the lying
Yengeese, and no burning of the woods ever scorched the 'arth as we
blackened their fields! All their proud housen were turned into piles
of coals."
"And where and when did you this act of brave vengeance?"
"They called the place after the bird of night as if an Indian name could
save them from an Indian massacre!"
"Ha! 'Tis of the Wish-Ton-Wish thou speakest But thou wast a sufferer, and
not an actor, brother in that heartless burning."
"Thou liest like a wicked woman of the Pale faces, as thou art! Nipset was
only a boy on that path, but he went with his people.
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