When Marlowe Mann came to the Northwest he found the Indian tribes unquiet and suspicious of the new settlements.  One of the pioneers had caused a sickness among some thievish Indians by putting emetic poison in watermelons.  The Indians believed these melons to have been conjured by the white doctor, and when other sickness came among them, they attributed it to the same cause.  The massacre at Wauelaptu and the murder of Whitman grew in part out of these events.

Mr. Mann settled near the old Chief of the Cascades.  He sought the Indian friendship of this chief, and asked him for his protection.

“People fulfill the expectation of the trust put in them—­Indians as well as children,” he used to say.  “A boy fulfills the ideals of his mother—­what the mother believes the boy will be, that he will become.  Treat a thief as though he were honest, and he will be honest with you.  We help people to be better by believing in what is good in them.  I am going to trust the friendship of the old Chief of the Cascades, and he will never betray it.”

It was summer, and there was to be a great Indian Potlatch feast under the autumn moon.  The Potlatch is a feast of gifts.  It is usually a peaceful gathering of friendly tribes, with rude music and gay dances; but it bodes war and massacre and danger if it end with the dance of the evil spirits, or the devil dance, as it has been known—­a dance which the English Government has recently forbidden among the Northwestern tribes.

The Indians were demanding that the great fall Potlatch should end with this ominous dance of fire and besmearings of blood.  The white people everywhere were disturbed by these reports, for they feared what might be the secret intent of this wild revel.  The settlers all regarded with apprehension the October moon.

The tall schoolmaster watched the approach of Mrs. Woods and Gretchen with a curious interest.  The coming of a pupil with no books and a violin was something unexpected.  He stepped forward with a courtly grace and greeted them most politely, for wherever Marlowe Mann might be, he never forgot that he was a gentleman.

“This is my gal what I have brought to be educated,” said Mrs. Woods, proudly.  “They think a great deal of education up around Boston where I came from.  Where did you come from?”

“From Boston.”

“So I have been told—­from Harvard College.  Can I speak with you a minute in private?”

“Yes, madam.  Step aside.”

“I suppose you are kinder surprised that I let my gal there, Gretchen, bring her violin with her; but I have a secret to tell ye.  Gretchen is a kind of a poet, makes rhymes, she does; makes fool rhyme with school, and such things as that.  Now, I don’t take any interest in such things.  But she does play the violin beautiful.  Learned of a German teacher.  Now, do you want to know why I let her bring her violin?  Well, I thought it might help you.  You’ve got a hard lot of scholars to deal with out here, and there are Injuns around, too, and one never knows what they may do.