“Yes, sir; I spent a week or two with him last fall I found him stayin’ with his tribe, and we started to come down here together.”
“Ah, that is the very point,” exclaimed the pastor, “that I wish to inquire about. I firmly believe that God has opened that Indian’s eyes to see the truth; and I fully expected from what he said when we last met, that he would have made up his mind to come and stay here.”
“As to what the Almighty has done to him,” said Jacques, in a reverential tone of voice, “I don’t pretend to know; he did for sartin speak, and act too, in a way that I never seed an Injin do before. But about his comin’ here, sir, you were quite right: he did mean to come, and I’ve no doubt will come yet.”
“What prevented him coming with you, as you tell me he intended?” inquired the pastor.
“Well, you see, sir, he and I and his squaw, as I said, set off to come here together: but when we got the length o’ Edmonton House, we heerd that you were comin’ up to pay a visit to the tribe to which Redfeather belongs; and so seem’ that it was o’ no use to come down hereaway just to turn about an’ go up agin, he stopped there to wait for you, for he knew you would want him to interpret—”
“Ay,” interrupted the pastor, “that’s true. I have two reasons for wishing to have him here. The primary one is, that he may get good to his immortal soul; and then he understands English so well that I want him to become my interpreter; for although I understand the Cree language pretty well now, I find it exceedingly difficult to explain the doctrines of the Bible to my people in it. But pardon me, I interrupted you.”
“I was only going to say,” resumed Jacques, “that I made up my mind to stay with him; but they wanted a man to bring the winter packet here, so, as they pressed me very hard, an’ I had nothin’ particular to do, I ’greed and came, though I would rather ha’ stopped; for Redfeather an’ I ha’ struck up a friendship togither—a thing that I would never ha’ thought it poss’ble for me to do with a red Injin.”
“And why not with a red Indian, friend?” inquired the pastor, while a shade of sadness passed over his mild features, as if unpleasant thoughts had been roused by the hunter’s speech.