Peter looked grave; even sad.  He did not answer for fully a minute.  When he did, it was in a low, suppressed voice, such as one is apt to use when there is a weight felt on his mind.

“Nebber know any t’ing ag’in,” returned the chief.  “Both dem pale-face dead.”

“Dead!” echoed all within hearing.

“Juss so; Injin kill him.  Mean to kill you, too—­dat why I run away.  Saw medicine-priest die.  What you t’ink, Blossom?—­What you t’ink, Bourdon?—­Dat man die asking Great Spirit to do good to Injin!”

“I can believe it, Peter, for he was a good man, and such are our Christian laws, though few of us obey them.  I can easily believe that Parson Amen was an exception, however.”

“Yes, Peter, such are our Christian laws,” put in Margery, earnestly.  “When Christ, the Son of God, came on earth to redeem lost men, he commanded his followers to do good to them that did evil to us, and to pray for them that tried to harm us.  We have his very words, written in our bibles.”

“You got him?” said Peter, with interest.  “See you read him, of’en.  Got dat book here?”

“To be sure I have—­it is the last thing I should have forgotten.  Dolly has one, and I have another; we read in them every day, and we hope that, before long, brother and Bourdon will read in them, too.”

“Why, I’m no great scholar, Margery,” returned her husband, scratching his full, curling head of hair, out of pure awkwardness; “to please you, however, I’d undertake even a harder job.  It was so with the bees, when I began; I thought I should never succeed in lining the first bee to his hive; but, since that time, I think I’ve lined a thousand!”

“It’s easy, it’s easy, dear Benjamin, if you will only make a beginning,” returned the much interested young wife.  “When we get to a place of safety, if it be God’s will that we ever shall, I hope to have you join me in reading the good book, daily.  See, Peter, I keep it in this little bag, where it is safe, and always at hand.”

“You read dem word for me, Blossom:  I want to hear him, out of dis book, himself.”

Margery did as he desired.  She was very familiar with the New Testament, and, turning to the well-known and God-like passage, she read several verses, in a steady, earnest voice.  Perhaps the danger they were in, and the recent communication of the death of their late companions, increased her earnestness and solemnity of manner, for the effect produced on Peter was scarcely less than that he had felt when he witnessed a practical obedience to these sublime principles, in the death of the missionary.  Tears actually started to this stern savage’s eyes, and he looked back on his late projects and endeavors to immolate a whole race with a shudder.  Taking Margery’s hand, he courteously thanked her, and prepared to quit the place.  Previously to leaving his friends, however, Peter gave a brief account of the manner of the missionary’s death, and of the state in which he had left the corporal.  Pigeonswing had told him of the fate of the last, as well as of the eagerness with which the band had set out in quest of more white scalps.