“My dear, your health is not very good; it is time you should have some rest.  You have worked very hard, and it grieves me that you should have to labor any longer.  Let me get you some nice young squaw to wait upon you, that you may live at ease all the rest of your life.”

The first wife consents; indeed, she has no option.  If she is of a jealous, vindictive disposition, what a life the new-comer leads!  The old one maintains all her rights of dowager and duenna, and the husband’s tenderness is hardly a compensation for all the evils the young rival is made to suffer.

It was on Sunday morning that this visit of the Dandy was made to us.  We were all seated quietly, engaged in reading.  Four-Legs inquired of my mother, why we were so occupied, and why everything around us was so still.

My mother explained to him our observance of the day of rest—­that we devoted it to worshipping and serving the Great Spirit, as he had commanded in his Holy Word.

Four-Legs gave a nod of approbation.  That was very right, he said—­he was glad to see us doing our duty—­he was very religious himself, and he liked to see others so.  He always took care that his squaws attended to their duties,—­not reading, perhaps, but such as the Great Spirit liked, and such as he thought proper and becoming.

He seemed to have no fancy for listening to any explanation of our points of difference.  The impression among the Winnebagoes “that if the Great Spirit had wished them different from what they are, he would have made them so,” seems too strong to yield to either argument or persuasion.

Sometimes those who are desirous of appearing somewhat civilized will listen quietly to all that is advanced on the subject of Christianity, then, coolly saying, “Yes, we believe that too,” will change the conversation to other subjects.

As a general thing, they do not appear to perceive that there is anything to be gained by adopting the religion and the customs of the whites.  “Look at them,” they say, “always toiling and striving—­always wearing a brow of care—­shut up in houses—­afraid of the wind and the rain—­suffering when they are deprived of the comforts of life!  We, on the contrary, live a life of freedom and happiness.  We hunt and fish, and pass our time pleasantly in the open woods and prairies.  If we are hungry, we take some game; or, if we do not find that, we can go without.  If our enemies trouble us, we can kill them, and there is no more said about it.  What should we gain by changing ourselves into white men?"[47]

Christian missionaries, with all their efforts to convert them, had at this day made little progress in enlightening their minds upon the doctrines of the Gospel.  Mr. Mazzuchelli, a Roman Catholic priest, accompanied by Miss Elizabeth Grignon as interpreter, made a missionary visit to the Portage during our residence there, and, after some instruction from him, about forty consented to be baptized.  Christian