All the
upper mountain was white like a tent of deerskin, but where we were
there was only thin ice on the edges of the streams.
"We stayed there for one moon. I wished to get my strength back, and
besides, we wished to get married, Nukewis and I."
"But how could you, without any party?" Dorcas wished to know. She had
never seen anybody get married, but she knew it was always spoken of as
a Wedding Party.
"We had the party four months later when we got back to my own village,"
explained the Onondaga. "For that time I built a hut, and when I had led
her across the door, as our custom was, I scattered seeds upon
her--seeds of the pine tree. Then we sat in our places on either side
the fire, and she made me cake of acorn meal, and we made a vow as we
ate it that we would love one another always.
"We were very happy. I hunted and fished, and the old moose fed in our
meadow. Nukewis used to gather armfuls of grass for him. When we went
back to my wife's village he trotted along in the trail behind us like a
dog. Nukewis wished to go back after her father's Medicine bag, and
being a woman she did not wish to go to my mother without her dower.
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