“That man, Van Sice,” Tree called him. “That man, Van Sice, has never pursued real beauty in his whole life and if he had he would have thought only of how to bed it and never of how it could change him forever.” Then she paused for a moment.

“Are you tempted now,” she continued, “to deliver yourself to him? Whites are to be taken to Fort Niagara to be redeemed. Then they are to be set at liberty.”

Mary lifted her eyes from Tree’s face and looked just above her mother’s head.

And the next day Mary spoke. “I do not want to be redeemed.” She paused and spoke again: “For now.”

In this manner Tree was given to understand that her daughter, steady as she might be, would always inspire anxiety in those who sought to know, who sought to claim Mary as one whose thoughts and actions were mere traits.

ON THE margin of a pond Mary and her son were still as they watched a small heron catch a lizard, and as they gazed, Black Coals, one of Mary’s adopted brothers, stalked across a clearing and entered the family house. She did not see him arrive, but when he left again she saw him.

The lizard struggled in the heron’s mouth and tried to wrap its exposed parts about the upper beak so as to tear itself free, but just as Branch appeared at Mary’s side, the heron tipped its head back and forth, gained more leverage on the lizard, and swallowed the rear legs, the torso, and finally the head. Thomas jerked his own head back in astonishment at this.

Mary turned to her sister. “What is the matter with our brother? He did not stop to talk to us.”

“He has come from the council. The old chief wishes to take you to Niagara and obtain the bounty. And— your brother has spoken out. He would rather see you dead.”

“Our brother is upset.”

“He is more than upset. He cried out in public that if the chief should try to take you against your will, he himself, your brother, would kill you.”

“He is very angry. Full of bluff and threats.”