Page:Nattie Nesmith (1870).pdf/200

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have come from this region, and perhaps our young friend may have been of their number sometimes."

"No," answered Augustus Reid, again resuming his chair by the stove; "my father did not go onsuch journeys while my mother lived. It was only after he had an Indian wife and some young papooses, that he took up these roaming habits."

"Then you have never been far into the land of the whites," the contractor said.

"Much of my life has been passed with my father's uncle, who lives on the western boundary of the forest, near a large town. I have worked in the shops of white people for two years past. My inclinations lead me as much to such employments as to the use of the bow and arrow. The wild and the civilized parts of my nature are, perhaps, about equal."

He said the last with a half smile in which was some bitterness, and at once added, as the moan