The black, snaky orbs of the boys twinkled like stars through their overhanging hair.  Glancing first at their mother, who did not deign to notice them, the eldest picked up his younger brother, who was grinning from ear to ear with delight, and, summoning all his strength, he poised him over the prostrate form of his father for a moment, and then dropped him!  The prolonged snore which was steadily issuing from the throat of the sleeping parent, terminated in a sharp, explosive grunt.  As his eyes opened, the boys scrambled away like frogs to the opposite side of the lodge, under the protecting care of their mother.

“Dunder and blixen!  You dunderin’ Dutch Indians, dishturbin’ your poor old dad dat is wearing his life out for you!  I’ll pound both of you till you’re dead!”

Hans Vanderbum’s system had suffered too great a shock for further slumber.  He rose to the sitting position, and, digging both hands into his head, glared at his offspring a moment, and then began his regular lecture.

“Quanonshet, you little Dutchman, and Madokawandock, you little bigger Dutchman, vot does you t’ink of yourselves?  Vot does you t’ink will become of you, disgracing your parents in this manner?  You oughter be pounded to death to treat your poor old fader in this manner, who is working of himself away to bring you up in the way you ought for to go.  Eh? vot do you t’ink of yourself, eh?  Vot do you t’ink of yourself?” demanded Hans, furiously shaking his head toward the boys at each word.

Quanonshet and Madokawandock were too confounded for reply.

“Shposing your poor old fader should go crazy!!  Here he is working himself to skin and bone—­Keewaygooshturkumkankangewock, ain’t you got dat cooked?”

[Illustration:  “Keewaygooshturkumkankangewock, ain’t you got dat cooked?”]

“No!” screamed the wife.  “You big, lazy man, get up and stir yourself!  You don’t do anything but sleep and smoke, while I’m working all the flesh off my bones for you!”

These forcible remarks were made in the pure Shawnee tongue, and were accompanied by gesticulation too pointed and significant for Hans to mistake the spirit in which they were given.  Although it is the invariable custom among the North American Indians for the husband to rule the wife, and impose all burdens upon her, except those of the hunt, and fight, such, by no means, was the case with the present couple.  Hans Vanderbum’s body was too unwieldy for him to accompany the young men (or even the old men) upon their hunting expeditions; in short, he contributed nothing toward the support of his interesting family.  The first husband of Keewaygooshturkumkankangewock had been an Indian, with all the characteristics of his race—­indolent, selfish and savage; and her life with him had been that of the usual servitude and drudgery.  Accordingly, when she ventured a second time upon the sea of matrimony, she naturally