clothed in a garb that combined picturesquely the Indian and the English fashions. Deerskin trousers, a shirt of blue cotton cloth, and a soft leather jacket made his attire. He wore no ornaments, nor was his bare head adorned in any way. A musket lay across his knees and a long-stemmed pipe of red clay was held to his lips. Before him were several bundles. At sight of David he raised a hand and then spoke to his companions, and the canoe left the middle of the stream and floated gently up to the marge. David jumped eagerly from his own craft and made toward the other.
“Pikot!” he called joyfully. “I had begun to think you were lost. ’Tis moons since I saw you last.”
“The heart sees when the eyes cannot,” replied the Indian, smiling, as he leaped to the beach and shook hands. “Often I have said, ‘To-morrow I will take the Long Marsh trail and visit my brother David’; but there has been much work at the village all through the winter, and the to-morrows I sought did not come. Where do you go, my brother?”
“To Boston to buy seeds and food and many things, Straight Arrow. And you?”
“To Natick with some goods for Master
