The Indian

At dusk in a Connecticut tavern, a hungry Native man is turned away—until a settler buys him supper. The stranger repays the hostess with a Bible story sharp enough to make her blush.

John Frost’s mid-19th-century collection gathers accounts of Native American life in the era of English settlement, from the forest trails between Connecticut and Albany to Cherokee country and Virginia plantations. Its opening tale begins with a kindness that seems small: the wanderer promises not to forget the man who helped him. Years later, that settler is alone in the wilderness, far from home and in the power of strangers; the old promise suddenly matters. Other sketches pit friendship against revenge and set courage beside the hardships of frontier life. How far can gratitude—and loyalty—carry across a divide?

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