Far away in the wilderness, shut out from the salutary influences of religious and social cultivation, what wonder that the moral sense sometimes becomes blinded, and that the choice is made, "Evil, be thou my good!" The first step in wrong was followed by one still more aggravated in cruelty.

The young officer left the post, as he said, on furlough, but _he never returned_.

The news came after a time that he was married, and when he again joined his regiment it was at another post.
There was a natural feeling in the strength of the "woe pronounced against him" by more tongues than one.

"He will never," said my informant, "dare show himself in this country again! Not an Indian who knows the Day-kau-rays but would take his life if he should meet him!" Every tie was broken for poor Agathe but that which bound her to her infant.

She never returned to her father's lodge, for she felt that, being deserted, she was dishonored.