CHAPTER XVIII.
THE LIFTED CLOUD--THE INDIANS COME TO THE SCHOOLMASTER.
The next day witnessed a strange scene at the log school-house on the Columbia.

It was a red October morning.

Mrs.Woods accompanied Gretchen to the school, as she wished to have a talk with Mr.Mann.
As the two came in sight of the house, Mrs.Woods caught Gretchen by the arm and said: "What's _them_ ?" "Where ?" "Sittin' in the school-yard." "They are Indians." "Injuns?
What are they there for ?" "I don't know, mother." "Come for advice, like me, may be." "Perhaps they are come to school.

The old chief told them that I would teach them." "You ?" "They have no father now." "No father ?" "No chief." Mrs.Woods had been so overwhelmed with her own grief that she had given little thought to the death of Benjamin and the chief of the Cascades.

The unhappy condition of the little tribe now came to her as in a picture; and, as she saw before her some fifty Indians seated on the ground, her good heart came back to her, and she said, touched by a sense of her own widowhood, "Gretchen, I pity 'em." Mrs.Woods was right.