They enjoyed the hour, I believe, as much as we.
The house where we lived belonged to the widow of a French trader, an Indian by birth, and wearing the dress of her country She spoke French fluently, and was very ladylike in her manners.

She is a great character among them.

They were all the time coming to pay her homage, or to get her aid and advice; for she is, I am told, a shrewd woman of business.

My companion carried about her sketch-book with her, and the Indians were interested when they saw her using her pencil, though less so than about the sun-shade.

This lady of the tribe wanted to borrow the sketches of the beach, with its lodges and wild groups, "to show to the _savages_" she said.
Of the practical ability of the Indian women, a good specimen is given by McKenney, in an amusing story of one who went to Washington, and acted her part there in the "first circles," with a tact and sustained dissimulation worthy of Cagliostro.