Side by side, conversing in a few sentences, the trader and the chief
entered the post, followed by the headmen and proceeded to the factory,
where McElroy stood to welcome them in the open door.
They entered, to the ceremony of the pipe, the speech, and the bargain,
while those without made a great camp two hundred strong all along the
bank of the stream, beached the canoes, stacked the beaver packs, set
up the tepees of the seventeen sticks, and built the little fires
without which no camp is a camp.
In a little space the quiet shore was all a-bustle and activity reigned
where the silence of the spring morning had lain, dew-heavy.
Among those most eager who peered at the gate, and who presently
ventured forth to the better view the bustling concourse of braves and
squaws, was Maren Le Moyne, her dark eyes wide, soft lips apart, and
face all a-quiver with keen enjoyment of the scene.
These were the first she had ever seen of those Indians who came from
the west. Who knew? Perhaps those moccasined feet had trod the virgin
forest of her dreams, those sombre eyes looked upon the Whispering
Hills, those grave faces been lifted to the sweet wind that sang from
the west and whose caress she felt even now upon her cheeks.
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