Michigan historical collections . in this home,George and Frances, and these three were the first three white childrenborn in Grand Rapids. Later three more were born in Barry county,making a family of six children, but of them all none could take theplace with the Indians of the Little Som-an-o-que. She soon learnedto babble their words in her childish voice. Indeed, to such an extentliad the older children taken up the Indian tongue that they had to be 148 ANNUAL MEETING, 1905. sent to their relatives in the east to be taught to speak their own lan-guage. On the journey they spoke and sang f
Michigan historical collections . in this home,George and Frances, and these three were the first three white childrenborn in Grand Rapids. Later three more were born in Barry county,making a family of six children, but of them all none could take theplace with the Indians of the Little Som-an-o-que. She soon learnedto babble their words in her childish voice. Indeed, to such an extentliad the older children taken up the Indian tongue that they had to be 148 ANNUAL MEETING, 1905. sent to their relatives in the east to be taught to speak their own lan-guage. On the journey they spoke and sang freely in the Indian tongue,much to the entertainment of the people they met in making thejourney. The little Emily was allowed to wander at will and one day tookher way to the river bank with a new tin cup in her hand and beingthirsty thought to help herself from the river. She found the littlecup would float and she let it go. It floated out on the clear waterop to the mission house. The mother, seeing it, called for her child,. OTTAWA INDIAN; NURSE OF EMILY SLATER.(See Hastings Banner, June 15, 1905.) but no childish voice responded. She thought of the river; oh, theriver! the rapids! The mother flew towards the rapids and she sawon the water the little blond head, the curls just beginning to turnwith the stream. One minute more, the flight of the mother one momentdelayed, and the little Emily would have been beyond recall. WhenEmily was but a child she began teaching the younger Indian chil-dren, for a child may teach what it knows as well as an older fast or how much they learned we may not know, but we do knowthat her faithfulness and devotion to the work continued as long asdid the mission. Mrs. Slater found it difficult to manage according to the New Eng- LIFE OF LEONARD SLATER. 149 land customs, as she herself had been taught. She instructed dailyin the mission school and for their own benefit taught the Indian girlsto assist her in the housekeeping, but some
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