She would sit with him on the bluff which hung over
the Mississippi, and envy the very waters which would remain near him,
when she was far away. But her lover loved his nation even more than he
did her; and though he would have died to have saved her from sorrow,
yet he knew she could never be his wife. Even were he to marry her, her
life would ever be in danger. A Chippeway could not long find a home
among the Dahcotahs.
The Track-maker bitterly regretted that they had ever met, when he saw
her grief at the prospect of parting. "Let us go," he said, "to the
Falls, where I will tell you the story you asked me."
The Track-maker entered the canoe first, and the girl followed; and so
pleasant was the task of paddling her lover over the quiet waters, that
it seemed but a moment before they were in sight of the torrent.
"It was there," said the Sioux, "that Wenona and her child found their
graves. Her husband, accompanied by some other Dahcotahs, had gone some
distance above the falls to hunt. While there, he fell in love with a
young girl whom he thought more beautiful than his wife.
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