"Where have you seen Snoqualmie? " asked Mult- nomah. "Not in your father s lodge, surely, for when strange chiefs came to him you always fled like a frightened bird."
"Once only have I seen him," she replied, flushing and confused. "He had come here alone to tell you that some of the tribes were plotting against you. I saw him as he went back through the wood to the place where his canoe was drawn up on the bank of the river. He was tall; his black hair fell below his shoulders; and his look was very proud and strong. His back was to the setting sun, and it shone around him robing him with fire, and I thought he looked like the Indian sun-god."
"I am glad it is pleasant for you to obey me. Now, listen while I tell you what you must do as the wife of Snoqualmie."
Stilling the sweet tumult in her breast, she tried hard to listen while he told her of the plans, the treaties, the friendships, and the enmities she must urge on her husband, when he became war-chief and was car rying on her father s work; and in part she under stood, for her imagination was captivated by the splendid though barbarian dream of empire he set before her.
At length, as the sun was setting, one came to tell Multnomah that a runner from a tribe beyond the mountains had come to see him. Then her father left her; but Wallulah still sat on the mossy log, while all the woodland was golden in the glory of sunset.
Her beloved flute was pressed close to her cheek, and her face was bright and joyous; she was think ing of Snoqualmie, the handsome stately chief whom
