"The white men guessed that he knew where the mother of gold was, and
asked him. But he refused to tell them, and went away.
"The white men followed us for days. One evening I was with my mother,
and heard my father tell her where the yellow metal was on the opposite
side of the river, pointing to a great sycamore tree that grew on the
river bank. 'Beneath that tree lies much of the yellow metal,' he said
to her, and I saw the tree, and knew what he said was true.
"That night the white men came to our camp and had a long talk with my
father, trying to make him tell where the mother gold was, and, when he
would not, suddenly they fell upon the camp, and, after killing some of
the young men, drove my father and the others away. At the first shot my
mother ran away into the woods with me."
"That was horrible," interjected Stella.
"As my mother ran, she was shot in the back, but she kept on running
until she was out of sight before she fell.
"Then the white men went away, and I lay there with my mother until she
breathed no more and was cold.
"I cried for a long time because it was dark and cold, and I could hear
the wild animals in the woods all about me.
"This frightened me, and I began to call 'Ai-i-e!' which is the Indian
way of lamentation, and I cried louder all the time to keep the wild
animals from me.
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