They said that he had been made a member of an Indian family in place of a great man who had been killed.  And then they gave him a wooden bowl and a spoon, and took him to a feast, where Indian politeness required that he should eat all the food given to him.

After James Smith was adopted by the Indians, he learned to live in their way.  He learned how to make little bowls out of elm bark to catch maple-sugar sap, and how to make great casks out of the bark to hold the sap till it could be boiled.  He learned how to make a bearskin into a pouch to hold bear’s oil, of which the Indians were very fond.  They mixed their hominy with bear’s oil and maple sugar, and they cooked their venison in oil and sugar also.

The Indians gave James an Indian name.  They called him Scouwa.  The Indians gave him a gun.  Once when they trusted him to go into the woods alone, he got lost, and staid out all night.  Then they took away his gun, and gave him a bow and arrow, such as boys carried.  For nearly two years he had to carry a bow and arrows like a boy.

He was once left behind when there was a great snowstorm.  He could not find the footsteps of the others, on account of the driving snow.  But after a while he found a hollow tree.  There was a little room three feet wide in the inside of the tree.  He chopped a great many sticks with his tomahawk to close up the opening in the side of the tree.  He left only a hole big enough for him to crawl in through.  He fixed a block for a kind of door, so as to close this hole by drawing the door shut when he was inside.  When the hole was shut, it was dark in the tree.

But James, or Scouwa as he was called, could stand up in the tree.  He broke up rotten wood to make a bed like a large goose nest.  He danced up and down on his bed till he was warm.  Then he wrapped his blanket about him and lay down to sleep, first putting his damp moccasins under his head to keep them from freezing.  When he awoke, it was dark.  The hole in the tree was so well closed that he could not tell whether it was daylight or not, but he waited a long time to be sure that day had come.

Then he felt for the opening.  At last he found it.  He pushed on the block that he had used for a door, but three feet of snow had fallen during the night.  All his strength would not move the block.  He was a prisoner under the snow.  Not one ray of light could get into this dark hole.

Scouwa was now frightened.  Not knowing what to do, he lay down again and wrapped his blanket round him, and tried to think of a way to get out.  He said a little prayer to God.  Then he felt for the block again.  This time he pushed and pushed with all his might.  The block moved a few inches, and snow came tumbling through the hole.  This let a little daylight in, and Scouwa was happy.

After a while he pulled his blanket tight about him, stuck his tomahawk in his belt, and took his bow in hand.  Then he dug his way out through the snow into the daylight.