The Panther thanked him courteously, but he clung to
the simple creed of his fathers and his belief that "Ingin religion was
good for Ingin;" and Mr. Lawrence had the sense and feeling not to disturb
him by argument.
"Want your Charley to have my rifle," he said to me. "Nobody left of our
people but my cousin's son, and he most a mizzable Ingin. You 'member
that, please," he said to Mr. Lawrence, who sat quietly at the head of the
sofa. "Do you think," he asked wistfully of the clergyman, "that I ever
see these two again where I go?" The minister--Heaven bless him!--answered
stoutly that he had not a doubt of it. "All right, then," said the
Panther, quietly. "Now, mamma, you see red fox know, after all."
Minny brought her baby for him to kiss. Little Carry's dark eyes were full
of tears, for, like most babies, she felt the influence of sorrow she
could not understand. She did not scream, as another child would, but hid
her face on her mother's bosom and sobbed quietly, like a grown-up woman.
My two little boys, understanding all at once that their old friend was
going away, burst out crying.
"Hush! hush!" he said, gently. "You be good boys to your mother. Say
'good-bye.'"
We kissed him, keeping back the lamentations which we knew would trouble
him.
"Good-bye," he said, softly, and then he spoke some few words in his own
tongue, as Minny told me afterward, about going to his lost children.
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