"
"No," said Tayoga, and his smile was invisible to them in the darkness.
"The time is coming when the sachems of the Onondagas will be glad they
adopted Lennox and the Great Bear into our nation."
Willet's laugh came at once, not loud, but with an inflection of intense
enjoyment.
"You Onondagas are a bit proud, Tayoga," he said.
"Not without cause, Great Bear."
"Oh, I admit it! I admit it! I suppose we're all proud of our race--it's
one of nature's happy ways of keeping us satisfied--and I'm free to
say, Tayoga, that I've no quarrel at having been born white, because I'm
so used to being white that I'd hardly know how to be anything else. But
if I wasn't white--a thing that I had nothing to do with--and your
Manitou who is my God was to say to me, 'Choose what else you'll be,'
I'd say, and I'd say it with all the respect and reverence I could bring
into the words, 'O Lord, All Wise and All Powerful, make me a strong
young warrior of the clan of the Bear, of the nation Onondaga, of the
League of the Hodenosaunee, hunting for my clan and fighting to protect
its women and children, and keeping my word with everybody and trying to
be just to the red races and tribes that are not as good as mine, and
even to be the same to the poor white men around the towns that get
drunk, and steal, and rob one another,' and maybe your Manitou who is my
God would give to me my wish.
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