This page needs to be proofread.

quartz



rock back of this, as barren and hard as flint. A common thing is this, and the most disappointing of all things. Years ago, before the miners began to learn this, many a fortune was squandered in erecting mills on ledges that never offered any further re ward than the one little pocket.

We went to the feast rode through the forest in a sort of dream. How lovely ! The deer were going in long bands down their worn paths to the plains below, away from the approaching winter. The black bears were fat and indolent, and fairly shone in their rich oily coats, as they crossed the trail before us.

Hundreds were at the feast, and we were more than welcome. The Chief came first, his warriors by his side, to give us the pipe of peace and welcome, and then a great circle gathered around the fire, seated on their robes and the leaves ; and as the pipe went round, the brown girls danced gay and beautiful^ half-nude, in their rich black hair, and flowing robes.

But Paquita was shy. She would not dance, for somehow she seemed to consider that this was a kind of savage entertainment, and out of place for her. She had seen just enough of civilized life . to deprive her of the pleasures of the wild and free.

There had grown a cast of care upon her lovely face of late. She was in the secret of all the Indians plans. At least she was a true Indian true to the rights of her race, and fully awake to a sense of their