Page:Nattie Nesmith (1870).pdf/104

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daughter of the white man. But the old chief, North Wind, responded that the Great Spirit had cast this girl into his path on purpose to meet the wish of his heart, which was a wife for his son, from his mother's race.

"Tulip, as I have named her, and as she is henceforth to be called, has a bold, fierce beauty, and when we have trained her to our ways, she will be a daughter worthy of our people," said the old Indian, proudly.

Nattie, or Tulip, as the Indians styled her, was soon set to her tasks. She was made to milk the cow, to help at planting the corn and potatoes, and was sent into the forest with the little Indian boys, to gather fuel. All the rougher kinds of work were put upon her, because her fingers were unskilled in straw-plaiting, willow-weaving, and the ornamental art of bead embroidery. Black-bird and her mother sat on their mats in the wigwam, engaged in such light and pleasing occupations as these, and drove Nattie about to do the