Page:McLoughlin and Old Oregon.djvu/145

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

"Stop! She 's a brave woman! Let her go," cried the captain, as Princess Julia and her baby galloped out of camp.

As long as she lived Mrs. Ogden retained her influence over the Flatheads, and her services secured her husband's rapid promotion among the fur-traders. On both father and mother's side she was related to all the great chiefs of the Northwest, making it safe for them to travel where no one else would dare to go Once at Salt Lake the trappers were away. The faithful Julia, mistress of the lodge, heard the dreadful war-whoop and ran out to secure the horses. Like a Scythian horde the enemy came dashing down upon the defenceless camp. Gathering up the halter straps, Princess Julia turned and faced the hawk's eye and the Roman nose of a Crow. The war-bonnet of eagle plumes trailed in his hair.

"Ah! "said the feathered chief, leaping from his horse, "is that you, my sister, that is camped here? Let your horses eat; we will not trouble them; "and the rascals of the mountain, deadly as the Blackfeet, passed like the whirlwind.

Many a time she kept the Indians from going to trade with the Americans. "Bring the furs to me," she said.

Never was the wife of the chief factor idle. Into her husband's work she threw the full ardor of her nature. When the strong, swift Snake was at its highest notch and no horse could cross it, she tied a rope about her waist and towed to the other shore a raft of priceless furs. Once in March she swam the Snake for a goose for her sick child. When she returned to camp, there was a necklace of ice around her neck where she held her head above the water. What the Hudson's