THE SINS OF THE FATHERS
73
of the straight path in which he desired her to walk.
There is not on record in Oregon history a single case of an unfaithful Indian wife of a decent white man, and in view of this one cannot recall some particulars of the history of those early times without a shudder or without taking a firmer hold upon a belief in a future life in which the crooked ways of this world may be made straight, for God seemed to deal harshly with the Indian woman.
The spectre of the Eve of St. John when he spoke to "Smaylho'mes lady gay," spoke to understanding ears, and when he laid his burning fingers on her fair arm with the declaration:
"That lawless love is guilt above,
This awful sign receive"
This awful sign receive"
and left there the scorched brand of guilt he
