“Well, always one woman or another,” said the Panther in a tone of resignation:  “always squaw git her own way.  You see that little girl, mamma?  Could squeeze her up just like a rabbit.  Always she order me round since she so high, and I just big fool enough let her;” and he went into the next room, and presently came out arrayed in dry garments, as to his upper man at least.  I set the table with the best I had in the house, and Minny and I sat down to get a cup of coffee with our guest.

At any other time the old gentleman would have purred and talked over this little feast like an amiable old cat, but now he was rather silent; and I noticed that in the pauses of the wind he would stop as though listening for some expected sound.  I began to think he was concealing from me some misfortune or danger, and the same thought was evidently in Minny’s mind, for she watched him anxiously.

When we went back into the parlor the Panther walked to the baby’s crib, and stood for a moment looking at the sleeping child with a tenderness which softened his whole aspect.  Then he asked for the little boys.

“They are fast asleep in the next room,” I said.  “Go and look at them, and you will be sure.”

The Panther smiled, but he went into my room, which opened from the parlor, and bending down softly kissed the two little faces resting on the same pillow.

I drew a large chair to the fire for him, and Minny filled his pipe, for I had “followed the drum” too long to object to smoking.  The giant stretched his length of limb before the fire, but he did not seem quite at ease, even under the influence of the tobacco.  He looked a little troubled and anxious, and lifted his head once or twice with a sudden motion, like a dog who has misgivings that something is wrong out-doors.

The baby stirred in her sleep, and the chief began gently to rock the cradle. “’Spose she order me about too, by and by,” he said, “like her mother.”

“Oh, you like to make that out,” said Minny, “because you are such a great big, strong man.  If you were a little bit of a creature, you would always be standing on your dignity to make yourself look tall.  The last time Wyn and I were at Detroit we went to church, and I heard the very smallest man I ever saw preach a tremendous sermon about the man being the head of the woman, insisting mightily on the respect we all owe to the other sex.  When we came out I asked Wyn what he thought, and he said he thought it was exactly such a sermon as such a very tiny man might be expected to preach.”

“Ah! and he heard you both, my dear,” said I; “and he says Mr. Moore has no element of reverence in his character!”

Here the Panther dropped his pipe, and starting from his chair looked like his namesake just ready for a spring, as the sharp, quick bark of a little dog was heard from the nearest house.

“Only dog,” he said in a tone of relief, and resumed his smoking.