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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oak Openings, by James Fenimore Cooper
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Oak Openings
+
+Author: James Fenimore Cooper
+
+
+Release Date: July, 2003 [Etext# 4215]
+This file was first posted on December 11, 2001
+Last Updated: October 21, 2016
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OAK OPENINGS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+OAK OPENINGS
+
+
+By James Fennimore Cooper
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+It ought to be matter of surprise how men live in the midst of marvels,
+without taking heed of their existence. The slightest derangement of
+their accustomed walks in political or social life shall excite all
+their wonder, and furnish themes for their discussions, for months;
+while the prodigies that come from above are presented daily to their
+eyes, and are received without surprise, as things of course. In a
+certain sense, this may be well enough, inasmuch as all which comes
+directly from the hands of the Creator may be said so far to exceed the
+power of human comprehension, as to be beyond comment; but the truth
+would show us that the cause of this neglect is rather a propensity to
+dwell on such interests as those over which we have a fancied control,
+than on those which confessedly transcend our understanding. Thus is it
+ever with men. The wonders of creation meet them at every turn, without
+awakening reflection, while their minds labor on subjects that are not
+only ephemeral and illusory, but which never attain an elevation higher
+than that the most sordid interests can bestow.
+
+For ourselves, we firmly believe that the finger of Providence is
+pointing the way to all races, and colors, and nations, along the path
+that is to lead the east and the west alike to the great goal of
+human wants. Demons infest that path, and numerous and unhappy are
+the wanderings of millions who stray from its course; sometimes in
+reluctance to proceed; sometimes in an indiscreet haste to move faster
+than their fellows, and always in a forgetfulness of the great rules of
+conduct that have been handed down from above. Nevertheless, the main
+course is onward; and the day, in the sense of time, is not distant,
+when the whole earth is to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, “as
+the waters cover the sea.”
+
+One of the great stumbling-blocks with a large class of well-meaning,
+but narrow-judging moralists, are the seeming wrongs that are permitted
+by Providence, in its control of human events. Such persons take a
+one-sided view of things, and reduce all principles to the level of
+their own understandings. If we could comprehend the relations which the
+Deity bears to us, as well as we can comprehend the relations we bear
+to him, there might be a little seeming reason in these doubts; but when
+one of the parties in this mighty scheme of action is a profound mystery
+to the other, it is worse than idle, it is profane, to attempt to
+explain those things which our minds are not yet sufficiently cleared
+from the dross of earth to understand. Look at Italy, at this very
+moment. The darkness and depression from which that glorious peninsula
+is about to emerge are the fruits of long-continued dissensions and an
+iron despotism, which is at length broken by the impulses left behind
+him by a ruthless conqueror, who, under the appearance and the phrases
+of Liberty, contended only for himself. A more concentrated egotism than
+that of Napoleon probably never existed; yet has it left behind it seeds
+of personal rights that have sprung up by the wayside, and which are
+likely to take root with a force that will bid defiance to eradication.
+Thus is it ever, with the progress of society. Good appears to arise
+out of evil, and the inscrutable ways of Providence are vindicated by
+general results, rather than by instances of particular care. We leave
+the application of these remarks to the intelligence of such of our
+readers as may have patience to peruse the work that will be found in
+the succeeding pages.
+
+We have a few words of explanation to say, in connection with the
+machinery of our tale. In the first place, we would remark, that the
+spelling of “burr-oak,” as given in this book, is less our own than
+an office spelling. We think it should be “bur-oak,” and this for the
+simple reason, that the name is derived from the fact that the acorn
+borne by this tree is partially covered with a bur. Old Sam Johnson,
+however, says that “burr” means the lobe, or lap of the ear; and those
+who can fancy such a resemblance between this and the covering of our
+acorn, are at liberty to use the two final consonants. Having commenced
+stereotyping with this supernumerary, for the sake of uniformity that
+mode of spelling, wrong as we think it, has been continued through-out
+the book.
+
+There is nothing imaginary in the fertility of the West. Personal
+observation has satisfied us that it much surpasses anything that exists
+in the Atlantic States, unless in exceptions, through the agency of
+great care and high manuring, or in instances of peculiar natural soil.
+In these times, men almost fly. We have passed over a thousand miles of
+territory within the last few days, and have brought the pictures at the
+two extremes of this journey in close proximity in our mind's eye. Time
+may lessen that wonderful fertility, and bring the whole country more
+on a level; but there it now is, a glorious gift from God, which it
+is devoutly to be wished may be accepted with due gratitude and with
+a constant recollection of his unwavering rules of right and wrong, by
+those who have been selected to enjoy it.
+
+June, 1848.
+
+
+
+
+THE OAK OPENINGS.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+       How doth the little busy bee
+       Improve each shining hour,
+       And gather honey all the day,
+       From every opening flower.
+                     WATTS' HYMNS FOR CHILDREN.
+
+We have heard of those who fancied that they beheld a signal instance
+of the hand of the Creator in the celebrated cataract of Niagara. Such
+instances of the power of sensible and near objects to influence certain
+minds, only prove how much easier it is to impress the imaginations
+of the dull with images that are novel, than with those that are less
+apparent, though of infinitely greater magnitude. Thus it would seem to
+be strange indeed, that any human being should find more to wonder at
+in any one of the phenomena of the earth, than in the earth itself; or
+should especially stand astonished at the might of Him who created the
+world, when each night brings into view a firmament studded with other
+worlds, each equally the work of His hands!
+
+Nevertheless, there is (at bottom) a motive for adoration, in the study
+of the lowest fruits of the wisdom and power of God. The leaf is as
+much beyond our comprehension of remote causes, as much a subject of
+intelligent admiration, as the tree which bears it: the single tree
+confounds our knowledge and researches the same as the entire forest;
+and, though a variety that appears to be endless pervades the world,
+the same admirable adaptation of means to ends, the same bountiful
+forethought, and the same benevolent wisdom, are to be found in the
+acorn, as in the gnarled branch on which it grew.
+
+The American forest has so often been described, as to cause one
+to hesitate about reviving scenes that might possibly pall, and in
+retouching pictures that have been so frequently painted as to be
+familiar to every mind. But God created the woods, and the themes
+bestowed by his bounty are inexhaustible. Even the ocean, with its
+boundless waste of water, has been found to be rich in its various
+beauties and marvels; and he who shall bury himself with us, once more,
+in the virgin forests of this widespread land, may possibly discover new
+subjects of admiration, new causes to adore the Being that has brought
+all into existence, from the universe to its most minute particle.
+
+The precise period of our legend was in the year 1812, and the season
+of the year the pleasant month of July, which had now drawn near to its
+close. The sun was already approaching the western limits of a wooded
+view, when the actors in its opening scene must appear on a stage that
+is worthy of a more particular description.
+
+The region was, in one sense, wild, though it offered a picture that
+was not without some of the strongest and most pleasing features of
+civilization. The country was what is termed “rolling,” from some
+fancied resemblance to the surface of the ocean, when it is just
+undulating with a long “ground-swell.”
+
+Although wooded, it was not, as the American forest is wont to grow,
+with tail straight trees towering toward the light, but with intervals
+between the low oaks that were scattered profusely over the view, and
+with much of that air of negligence that one is apt to see in grounds
+where art is made to assume the character of nature. The trees, with
+very few exceptions, were what is called the “burr-oak,” a small
+variety of a very extensive genus; and the spaces between them, always
+irregular, and often of singular beauty, have obtained the name of
+“openings”; the two terms combined giving their appellation to this
+particular species of native forest, under the name of “Oak Openings.”
+
+These woods, so peculiar to certain districts of country, are not
+altogether without some variety, though possessing a general character
+of sameness. The trees were of very uniform size, being little taller
+than pear-trees, which they resemble a good deal in form; and having
+trunks that rarely attain two feet in diameter. The variety is produced
+by their distribution. In places they stand with a regularity resembling
+that of an orchard; then, again, they are more scattered and less
+formal, while wide breadths of the land are occasionally seen in which
+they stand in copses, with vacant spaces, that bear no small affinity to
+artificial lawns, being covered with verdure. The grasses are supposed
+to be owing to the fires lighted periodically by the Indians in order to
+clear their hunting-grounds.
+
+Toward one of these grassy glades, which was spread on an almost
+imperceptible acclivity, and which might have contained some fifty or
+sixty acres of land, the reader is now requested to turn his eyes. Far
+in the wilderness as was the spot, four men were there, and two of them
+had even some of the appliances of civilization about them. The woods
+around were the then unpeopled forest of Michigan; and the small winding
+reach of placid water that was just visible in the distance, was an
+elbow of the Kalamazoo, a beautiful little river that flows westward,
+emptying its tribute into the vast expanse of Lake Michigan. Now, this
+river has already become known, by its villages and farms, and railroads
+and mills; but then, not a dwelling of more pretension than the wigwam
+of the Indian, or an occasional shanty of some white adventurer,
+had ever been seen on its banks. In that day, the whole of that fine
+peninsula, with the exception of a narrow belt of country along the
+Detroit River, which was settled by the French as far back as near the
+close of the seventeenth century, was literally a wilderness. If a white
+man found his way into it, it was as an Indian trader, a hunter, or an
+adventurer in some other of the pursuits connected with border life and
+the habits of the savages.
+
+Of this last character were two of the men on the open glade just
+mentioned, while their companions were of the race of the aborigines.
+What is much more remarkable, the four were absolutely strangers to each
+other's faces, having met for the first time in their lives, only an
+hour previously to the commencement of our tale. By saying that they
+were strangers to each other, we do not mean that the white men were
+acquaintances, and the Indians strangers, but that neither of the four
+had ever seen either of the party until they met on that grassy glade,
+though fame had made them somewhat acquainted through their reputations.
+At the moment when we desire to present this group to the imagination of
+the reader, three of its number were grave and silent observers of
+the movements of the fourth. The fourth individual was of middle size,
+young, active, exceedingly well formed, and with a certain open
+and frank expression of countenance, that rendered him at least
+well-looking, though slightly marked with the small-pox. His real name
+was Benjamin Boden, though he was extensively known throughout the
+northwestern territories by the sobriquet of Ben Buzz--extensively as
+to distances, if not as to people. By the voyageurs, and other French
+of that region, he was almost universally styled le Bourdon or the
+“Drone”; not, however, from his idleness or inactivity, but from the
+circumstances that he was notorious for laying his hands on the
+products of labor that proceeded from others. In a word, Ben Boden was
+a “bee-hunter,” and as he was one of the first to exercise his craft in
+that portion of the country, so was he infinitely the most skilful and
+prosperous. The honey of le Bourdon was not only thought to be purer and
+of higher flavor than that of any other trader in the article, but it
+was much the most abundant. There were a score of respectable families
+on the two banks of the Detroit, who never purchased of any one else,
+but who patiently waited for the arrival of the capacious bark canoe of
+Buzz, in the autumn, to lay in their supplies of this savory nutriment
+for the approaching winter. The whole family of griddle cakes, including
+those of buckwheat, Indian rice, and wheaten flour, were more or less
+dependent on the safe arrival of le Bourdon, for their popularity and
+welcome. Honey was eaten with all; and wild honey had a reputation,
+rightfully or not obtained, that even rendered it more welcome than that
+which was formed by the labor and art of the domesticated bee.
+
+The dress of le Bourdon was well adapted to his pursuits and life. He
+wore a hunting-shirt and trousers, made of thin stuff, which was dyed
+green, and trimmed with yellow fringe. This was the ordinary forest
+attire of the American rifleman; being of a character, as it was
+thought, to conceal the person in the woods, by blending its hues with
+those of the forest. On his head Ben wore a skin cap, somewhat smartly
+made, but without the fur; the weather being warm. His moccasins were
+a good deal wrought, but seemed to be fading under the exposure of many
+marches. His arms were excellent; but all his martial accoutrements,
+even to a keen long-bladed knife, were suspended from the rammer of his
+rifle; the weapon itself being allowed to lean, in careless confidence,
+against the trunk of the nearest oak, as if their master felt there was
+no immediate use for them.
+
+Not so with the other three. Not only was each man well armed, but each
+man kept his trusty rifle hugged to his person, in a sort of jealous
+watchfulness; while the other white man, from time to time, secretly,
+but with great minuteness, examined the flint and priming of his own
+piece.
+
+This second pale-face was a very different person from him just
+described. He was still young, tall, sinewy, gaunt, yet springy and
+strong, stooping and round-shouldered, with a face that carried a very
+decided top-light in it, like that of the notorious Bardolph. In short,
+whiskey had dyed the countenance of Gershom Waring with a tell-tale
+hue, that did not less infallibly betray his destination than his speech
+denoted his origin, which was clearly from one of the States of New
+England. But Gershom had been so long at the Northwest as to have
+lost many of his peculiar habits and opinions, and to have obtained
+substitutes.
+
+Of the Indians, one, an elderly, wary, experienced warrior, was
+a Pottawattamie, named Elksfoot, who was well known at all the
+trading-houses and “garrisons” of the northwestern territory, including
+Michigan as low down as Detroit itself. The other red man was a young
+Chippewa, or O-jeb-way, as the civilized natives of that nation now tell
+us the word should be spelled. His ordinary appellation among his own
+people was that of Pigeonswing; a name obtained from the rapidity
+and length of his flights. This young man, who was scarcely turned
+of five-and-twenty, had already obtained a high reputation among the
+numerous tribes of his nation, as a messenger, or “runner.”
+
+Accident had brought these four persons, each and all strangers to one
+another, in communication in the glade of the Oak Openings, which has
+already been mentioned, within half an hour of the scene we are about
+to present to the reader. Although the rencontre had been accompanied
+by the usual precautions of those who meet in a wilderness, it had been
+friendly so far; a circumstance that was in some measure owing to the
+interest they all took in the occupation of the bee-hunter. The three
+others, indeed, had come in on different trails, and surprised le
+Bourdon in the midst of one of the most exciting exhibitions of his
+art--an exhibition that awoke so much and so common an interest in the
+spectators, as at once to place its continuance for the moment above all
+other considerations. After brief salutations, and wary examinations of
+the spot and its tenants, each individual had, in succession, given his
+grave attention to what was going on, and all had united in begging
+Ben Buzz to pursue his occupation, without regard to his visitors. The
+conversation that took place was partly in English, and partly in one
+of the Indian dialects, which luckily all the parties appeared to
+understand. As a matter of course, with a sole view to oblige the
+reader, we shall render what was said, freely, into the vernacular.
+
+“Let's see, let's see, STRANger,” cried Gershom, emphasizing the
+syllable we have put in italics, as if especially to betray his origin,
+“what you can do with your tools. I've heer'n tell of such doin's, but
+never see'd a bee lined in all my life, and have a desp'rate fancy for
+larnin' of all sorts, from 'rithmetic to preachin'.”
+
+“That comes from your Puritan blood,” answered le Bourdon, with a quiet
+smile, using surprisingly pure English for one in his class of life.
+“They tell me you Puritans preach by instinct.”
+
+“I don't know how that is,” answered Gershom, “though I can turn my hand
+to anything. I heer'n tell, across at Bob Ruly (Bois Brulk [Footnote:
+This unfortunate name, which it may be necessary to tell a portion of
+our readers means “burnt wood,” seems condemned to all sorts of abuses
+among the linguists of the West. Among other pronunciations is that of
+“Bob Ruly”; while an island near Detroit, the proper name of which is
+“Bois Blanc,” is familiarly known to the lake mariners by the name of
+“Bobolo.”]) of sich doin's, and would give a week's keep at Whiskey
+Centre, to know how 'twas done.”
+
+“Whiskey Centre” was a sobriquet bestowed by the fresh-water sailors
+of that region, and the few other white adventurers of Saxon origin who
+found their way into that trackless region, firstly on Gershom himself,
+and secondly on his residence. These names were obtained from the
+intensity of their respective characters, in favor of the beverage
+named. L'eau de mort was the place termed by the voyagers, in a sort
+of pleasant travesty on the eau de vie of their distant, but still
+well-remembered manufactures on the banks of the Garonne. Ben Boden,
+however, paid but little attention to the drawling remarks of Gershom
+Waring. This was not the first time he had heard of “Whiskey Centre,”
+ though the first time he had ever seen the man himself. His attention
+was on his own trade, or present occupation; and when it wandered at
+all, it was principally bestowed on the Indians; more especially on the
+runner. Of Elk's foot, or Elksfoot, as we prefer to spell it, he had
+some knowledge by means of rumor; and the little he knew rendered him
+somewhat more indifferent to his proceedings than he felt toward those
+of the Pigeonswing. Of this young redskin he had never heard; and, while
+he managed to suppress all exhibition of the feeling, a lively curiosity
+to learn the Chippewa's business was uppermost in his mind. As for
+Gershom, he had taken HIS measure at a glance, and had instantly set
+him down to be, what in truth he was, a wandering, drinking, reckless
+adventurer, who had a multitude of vices and bad qualities, mixed up
+with a few that, if not absolutely redeeming, served to diminish the
+disgust in which he might otherwise have been held by all decent people.
+In the meanwhile, the bee-hunting, in which all the spectators took
+so much interest, went on. As this is a process with which most of our
+readers are probably unacquainted, it may be necessary to explain the
+modus operandi, as well as the appliances used.
+
+The tools of Ben Buzz, as Gershom had termed these implements of his
+trade, were neither very numerous nor very complex. They were all
+contained in a small covered wooden pail like those that artisans and
+laborers are accustomed to carry for the purpose of conveying their
+food from place to place. Uncovering this, le Bourdon had brought his
+implements to view, previously to the moment when he was first seen by
+the reader. There was a small covered cup of tin; a wooden box; a sort
+of plate, or platter, made also of wood; and a common tumbler, of a very
+inferior, greenish glass. In the year 1812, there was not a pane, nor a
+vessel, of clear, transparent glass, made in all America! Now, some of
+the most beautiful manufactures of that sort, known to civilization, are
+abundantly produced among us, in common with a thousand other articles
+that are used in domestic economy. The tumbler of Ben Buzz, however, was
+his countryman in more senses than one. It was not only American, but
+it came from the part of Pennsylvania of which he was himself a native.
+Blurred, and of a greenish hue, the glass was the best that Pittsburg
+could then fabricate, and Ben had bought it only the year before, on the
+very spot where it had been made.
+
+An oak, of more size than usual, had stood a little remote from its
+fellows, or more within the open ground of the glade than the rest of
+the “orchard.” Lightning had struck this tree that very summer, twisting
+off its trunk at a height of about four feet from the ground. Several
+fragments of the body and branches lay near, and on these the spectators
+now took their seats, watching attentively the movements of the
+bee-hunter. Of the stump Ben had made a sort of table, first levelling
+its splinters with an axe, and on it he placed the several implements of
+his craft, as he had need of each in succession.
+
+The wooden platter was first placed on this rude table. Then le Bourdon
+opened his small box, and took out of it a piece of honeycomb, that was
+circular in shape, and about an inch and a half in diameter. The little
+covered tin vessel was next brought into use. Some pure and beautifully
+clear honey was poured from its spout into the cells of the piece of
+comb, until each of them was about half filled. The tumbler was next
+taken in hand, carefully wiped, and examined, by holding it up before
+the eyes of the bee-hunter. Certainly, there was little to admire in it,
+but it was sufficiently transparent to answer his purposes. All he asked
+was to be able to look through the glass in order to see what was going
+on in its interior.
+
+Having made these preliminary arrangements, Buzzing Ben--for the
+sobriquet was applied to him in this form quite as often as in the
+other--next turned his attention to the velvet-like covering of the
+grassy glade. Fire had run over the whole region late that spring, and
+the grass was now as fresh, and sweet and short, as if the place were
+pastured. The white clover, in particular, abounded, and was then
+just bursting forth into the blossom. Various other flowers had
+also appeared, and around them were buzzing thousands of bees. These
+industrious little animals were hard at work, loading themselves with
+sweets; little foreseeing the robbery contemplated by the craft of
+man. As le Bourdon moved stealthily among the flowers and their humming
+visitors, the eyes of the two red men followed his smallest movement, as
+the cat watches the mouse; but Gershom was less attentive, thinking the
+whole curious enough, but preferring whiskey to all the honey on earth.
+
+At length le Bourdon found a bee to his mind, and watching the moment
+when the animal was sipping sweets from a head of white clover, he
+cautiously placed his blurred and green-looking tumbler over it, and
+made it his prisoner. The moment the bee found itself encircled with the
+glass, it took wing and attempted to rise. This carried it to the upper
+part of its prison, when Ben carefully introduced the unoccupied hand
+beneath the glass, and returned to the stump. Here he set the tumbler
+down on the platter in a way to bring the piece of honeycomb within its
+circle.
+
+So much done successfully, and with very little trouble, Buzzing Ben
+examined his captive for a moment, to make sure that all was right. Then
+he took off his cap and placed it over tumbler, platter, honeycomb, and
+bee. He now waited half a minute, when cautiously raising the cap again,
+it was seen that the bee, the moment a darkness like that of its hive
+came over it, had lighted on the comb, and commenced filling itself with
+the honey. When Ben took away the cap altogether, the head and half of
+the body of the bee was in one of the cells, its whole attention being
+bestowed on this unlooked-for hoard of treasure. As this was just what
+its captor wished, he considered that part of his work accomplished. It
+now became apparent why a glass was used to take the bee, instead of a
+vessel of wood or of bark. Transparency was necessary in order to watch
+the movements of the captive, as darkness was necessary in order to
+induce it to cease its efforts to escape, and to settle on the comb.
+
+As the bee was now intently occupied in filling itself, Buzzing Ben, or
+le Bourdon, did not hesitate about removing the glass. He even ventured
+to look around him, and to make another captive, which he placed over
+the comb, and managed as he had done with the first. In a minute, the
+second bee was also buried in a cell, and the glass was again removed.
+Le Bourdon now signed for his companions to draw near.
+
+“There they are, hard at work with the honey,” he said, speaking in
+English, and pointing at the bees. “Little do they think, as they
+undermine that comb, how near they are to the undermining of their own
+hive! But so it is with us all! When we think we are in the highest
+prosperity we may be nearest to a fall, and when we are poorest and
+hum-blest, we may be about to be exalted. I often think of these things,
+out here in the wilderness, when I'm alone, and my thoughts are acTYVE.”
+
+Ben used a very pure English, when his condition in life is remembered;
+but now and then, he encountered a word which pretty plainly proved he
+was not exactly a scholar. A false emphasis has sometimes an influence
+on a man's fortune, when one lives in the world; but it mattered little
+to one like Buzzing Ben, who seldom saw more than half a dozen human
+faces in the course of a whole summer's hunting. We remember an
+Englishman, however, who would never concede talents to Burr, because
+the latter said, a L'AmEricaine, EurOpean, instead of EuropEan.
+
+“How hive in danger?” demanded Elksfoot, who was very much of a
+matter-of-fact person. “No see him, no hear him--else get some honey.”
+
+“Honey you can have for asking, for I've plenty of it already in my
+cabin, though it's somewhat 'arly in the season to begin to break in
+upon the store. In general, the bee-hunters keep back till August, for
+they think it better to commence work when the creatures”--this word
+Ben pronounced as accurately as if brought up at St. James's, making it
+neither “creatur'” nor “creatOOre”--“to commence work when the creatures
+have had time to fill up, after winter's feed. But I like the old stock,
+and, what is more, I feel satisfied this is not to be a common summer,
+and so I thought I would make an early start.”
+
+As Ben said this, he glanced his eyes at Pigeonswing, who returned the
+look in a way to prove there was already a secret intelligence between
+them, though neither had ever seen the other an hour before.
+
+“Waal!” exclaimed Gershom, “this is cur'ous, I'll allow THAT; yes, it's
+cur'ous--but we've got an article at Whiskey Centre that'll put the
+sweetest honey bee ever suck'd, altogether out o' countenance!”
+
+“An article of which you suck your share, I'll answer for it, judging
+by the sign you carry between the windows of your face,” returned Ben,
+laughing; “but hush, men, hush. That first bee is filled, and begins to
+think of home. He'll soon be off for HONEY Centre, and I must keep my
+eye on him. Now, stand a little aside, friends, and give me room for my
+craft.”
+
+The men complied, and le Bourdon was now all intense attention to his
+business. The bee first taken had, indeed, filled itself to satiety, and
+at first seemed to be too heavy to rise on the wing. After a few moments
+of preparation, however, up it went, circling around the spot, as if
+uncertain what course to take. The eye of Ben never left it, and when
+the insect darted off, as it soon did, in an air-line, he saw it for
+fifty yards after the others had lost sight of it. Ben took the range,
+and was silent fully a minute while he did so.
+
+“That bee may have lighted in the corner of yonder swamp,” he said,
+pointing, as he spoke, to a bit of low land that sustained a growth of
+much larger trees than those which grew in the “opening,” “or it has
+crossed the point of the wood, and struck across the prairie beyond,
+and made for a bit of thick forest that is to be found about three miles
+further. In the last case, I shall have my trouble for nothing.”
+
+“What t'other do?” demanded Elksfoot, with very obvious curiosity.
+
+“Sure enough; the other gentleman must be nearly ready for a start,
+and we'll see what road HE travels. 'Tis always an assistance to a
+bee-hunter to get one creature fairly off, as it helps him to line the
+next with greater sartainty.”
+
+Ben WOULD say acTYVE, and SARtain, though he was above saying creatoore,
+or creatur'. This is the difference between a Pennsylvanian and
+a Yankee. We shall not stop, however, to note all these little
+peculiarities in these individuals, but use the proper or the peculiar
+dialect, as may happen to be most convenient to ourselves.
+
+But there was no time for disquisition, the second bee being now ready
+for a start. Like his companion, this insect rose and encircled the
+stump several times, ere it darted away toward its hive, in an air-line.
+So small was the object, and so rapid its movement, that no one but the
+bee-hunter saw the animal after it had begun its journey in earnest. To
+HIS disappointment, instead of flying in the same direction as the
+bee first taken, this little fellow went buzzing off fairly at a right
+angle! It was consequently clear that there were two hives, and that
+they lay in very different directions.
+
+Without wasting his time in useless talk, le Bourdon now caught another
+bee, which was subjected to the same process as those first taken. When
+this creature had filled it-self, it rose, circled the stump as usual,
+as if to note the spot for a second visit, and darted away, directly in
+a line with the bee first taken. Ben noted its flight most accurately,
+and had his eye on it, until it was quite a hundred yards from the
+stump. This he was enabled to do, by means of a quick sight and long
+practice.
+
+“We'll move our quarters, friends,” said Buzzing Ben, good-humoredly, as
+soon as satisfied with this last observation, and gathering together his
+traps for a start. “I must angle for that hive, and I fear it will turn
+out to be across the prairie, and quite beyond my reach for to-day.”
+
+The prairie alluded to was one of those small natural meadows, or
+pastures, that are to be found in Michigan, and may have contained
+four or five thousand acres of open land. The heavy timber of the
+swamp mentioned, jutted into it, and the point to be determined was, to
+ascertain whether the bees had flown OVER these trees, toward which they
+had certainly gone in an air-line, or whether they had found their hive
+among them. In order to settle this material question, a new process was
+necessary.
+
+“I must 'angle' for them chaps,” repeated le Bourdon; “and if you
+will go with me, strangers, you shall soon see the nicest part of the
+business of bee-hunting. Many a man who can 'line' a bee, can do nothing
+at an 'angle'.”
+
+As this was only gibberish to the listeners, no answer was made, but
+all prepared to follow Ben, who was soon ready to change his ground.
+The bee-hunter took his way across the open ground to a point fully a
+hundred rods distant from his first position, where he found another
+stump of a fallen tree, which he converted into a stand. The same
+process was gone through with as before, and le Bourdon was soon
+watching two bees that had plunged their heads down into the cells of
+the comb. Nothing could exceed the gravity and attention of the Indians,
+all this time. They had fully comprehended the business of “lining” the
+insects toward their hives, but they could not understand the virtue of
+the “angle.” The first bore so strong an affinity to their own pursuit
+of game, as to be very obvious to their senses; but the last included a
+species of information to which they were total strangers. Nor were they
+much the wiser after le Bourdon had taken his “angle”; it requiring a
+sort of induction to which they were not accustomed, in order to put the
+several parts of his proceedings together, and to draw the inference.
+As for Gershom, he affected to be familiar with all that was going on,
+though he was just as ignorant as the Indians themselves. This little
+bit of hypocrisy was the homage he paid to his white blood: it being
+very unseemly, according to his view of the matter, for a pale-face not
+to know more than a redskin.
+
+The bees were some little time in filling themselves. At length one
+of them came out of his cell, and was evidently getting ready for his
+flight. Ben beckoned to the spectators to stand farther back, in order
+to give him a fair chance, and, just as he had done so, the bee rose.
+After humming around the stump for an instant, away the insect flew,
+taking a course almost at right angles to that in which le Bourdon had
+expected to see it fly. It required half a minute for him to recollect
+that this little creature had gone off in a line nearly parallel to that
+which had been taken by the second of the bees, which he had seen quit
+his original position. The line led across the neighboring prairie, and
+any attempt to follow these bees was hopeless.
+
+But the second creature was also soon ready, and when it darted away, le
+Bourdon, to his manifest delight, saw that it held its flight toward
+the point of the swamp INTO, or OVER which two of his first captives had
+gone. This settled the doubtful matter. Had the hive of these bees been
+BEYOND that wood, the angle of intersection would not have been there,
+but at the hive across the prairie. The reader will understand that
+creatures which obey an instinct, or such a reason as bees possess,
+would never make a curvature in their flights without some strong motive
+for it. Thus, two bees taken from flowers that stood half a mile apart
+would be certain not to cross each other's tracks, in returning home,
+until they met at the common hive: and wherever the intersecting angle
+in their respective flights may be, there would that hive be also. As
+this repository of sweets was the game le Bourdon had in view, it is
+easy to see how much he was pleased when the direction taken by the
+last of his bees gave him the necessary assurance that its home would
+certainly be found in that very point of dense wood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+       How skilfully it builds its cell,
+       How neat it spreads the wax,
+       And labors hard to store it well,
+       With the sweet food it makes.
+                  WATTS' HYMNS FOR CHILDREN.
+
+
+The next thing was to ascertain which was the particular tree in which
+the bees had found a shelter. Collecting his implements, le Bourdon was
+soon ready, and, with a light elastic tread, he moved off toward the
+point of the wood, followed by the whole party. The distance was about
+half a mile, and men so much accustomed to use their limbs made light
+of it. In a few minutes all were there, and the bee-hunter was busy in
+looking for his tree. This was the consummation of the whole process,
+and Ben was not only provided for the necessities of the case, but he
+was well skilled in all the signs that betokened the abodes of bees.
+
+An uninstructed person might have passed that point of wood a thousand
+times, without the least consciousness of the presence of a single
+insect of the sort now searched for. In general, the bees flew too high
+to be easily perceptible from the ground, though a practised eye can
+discern them at distances that would almost seem to be marvellous. But
+Ben had other assistants than his eyes. He knew that the tree he sought
+must be hollow, and such trees usually give outward signs of the defect
+that exists within. Then, some species of wood are more frequented
+by the bees than others, while the instinct of the industrious little
+creatures generally enables them to select such homes as will not be
+very likely to destroy all the fruits of their industry by an untimely
+fall. In all these particulars, both bees and bee-hunter were well
+versed, and Ben made his search accordingly.
+
+Among the other implements of his calling, le Bourdon had a small
+spy-glass; one scarcely larger than those that are used in theatres,
+but which was powerful and every way suited to its purposes. Ben was
+not long in selecting a tree, a half-decayed elm, as the one likely to
+contain the hive; and by the aid of his glass he soon saw bees flying
+among its dying branches, at a height of not less than seventy feet
+from the ground. A little further search directed his attention to a
+knot-hole, in and out of which the glass enabled him to see bees passing
+in streams. This decided the point; and putting aside all his implements
+but the axe, Buzzing Ben now set about the task of felling the tree.
+
+“STRANger,” said Gershom, when le Bourdon had taken out the first chip,
+“perhaps you'd better let ME do that part of the job. I shall expect to
+come in for a share of the honey, and I'm willing to 'arn all I take. I
+was brought up on axes, and jack-knives, and sich sort of food, and can
+cut OR whittle with the best chopper, or the neatest whittler, in or out
+of New England.”
+
+“You can try your hand, if you wish it,” said Ben, relinquishing the
+axe. “I can fell a tree as well as yourself, but have no such love for
+the business as to wish to keep it all to myself.”
+
+“Waal, I can say, I LIKE it,” answered Gershom, first passing his
+thumb along the edge of the axe, in order to ascertain its state; then
+swinging the tool, with a view to try its “hang.”
+
+“I can't say much for your axe, STRANGER, for this helve has no tarve
+to't, to my mind; but, sich as it is, down must come this elm, though
+ten millions of bees should set upon me for my pains.”
+
+This was no idle boast of Waring's. Worthless as he was in so many
+respects, he was remarkably skilful with the axe, as he now proved by
+the rapid manner in which he severed the trunk of the large elm on which
+he was at work. He inquired of Ben where he should “lay the tree,” and
+when it came clattering down, it fell on the precise spot indicated.
+Great was the confusion among the bees at this sudden downfall of their
+long-cherished home. The fact was not known to their enemy, but they had
+inhabited that tree for a long time; and the prize now obtained was the
+richest he had ever made in his calling. As for the insects, they filled
+the air in clouds, and all the invaders deemed it prudent to withdraw
+to some little distance for a time, lest the irritated and wronged bees
+should set upon them and take an ample revenge. Had they known their
+power, this might easily have been done, no ingenuity of man being
+able to protect him against the assaults of this insignificant-looking
+animal, when unable to cover himself, and the angry little heroes are in
+earnest. On the present occasion, however, no harm befell the marauders.
+So suddenly had the hive tumbled that its late occupants appeared to be
+astounded, and they submitted to their fate as men yield to the power of
+tempests and earthquakes. In half an hour most of them were collected on
+an adjacent tree, where doubtless a consultation on the mode of future
+proceedings was held, after their fashion.
+
+The Indians were more delighted with le Bourdon's ingenious mode of
+discovering the hive than with the richness of the prize; while Ben
+himself, and Gershom, manifested most satisfaction at the amount of the
+earnings. When the tree was cut in pieces, and split, it was ascertained
+that years of sweets were contained within its capacious cavities, and
+Ben estimated the portion that fell to his share at more than three
+hundred pounds of good honey--comb included--after deducting the
+portions that were given to the Indians, and which were abstracted by
+Gershom. The three last, however, could carry but little, as they had no
+other means of bearing it away than their own backs.
+
+The honey was not collected that night. The day was too far advanced for
+that; and le Bourdon--certainly never was name less merited than this
+sobriquet as applied to the active young bee-hunter--but le Bourdon, to
+give him his quaint appellation, offered the hospitalities of his own
+cabin to the strangers, promising to put them on their several paths the
+succeeding day, with a good store of honey in each knapsack.
+
+“They do say there ar' likely to be troublesome times.” he continued,
+with simple earnestness, after having given the invitation to partake
+of his homely fare; “and I should like to hear what is going on in the
+world. From Whiskey Centre I do not expect to learn much, I will own;
+but I am mistaken if the Pigeonswing, here, has not a message that will
+make us all open our ears.”
+
+The Indians ejaculated their assent; but Gershom was a man who could not
+express anything sententiously. As the bee-hunter led the way toward
+his cabin, or shanty, he made his comments with his customary freedom.
+Before recording what he communicated, however, we shall digress for one
+moment in order to say a word ourselves concerning this term “shanty.”
+ It is now in general use throughout the whole of the United States,
+meaning a cabin that has been constructed in haste, and for temporary
+purposes. By a license of speech, it is occasionally applied to more
+permanent residences, as men are known to apply familiar epithets
+to familiar objects. The derivation of the word has caused some
+speculation. The term certainly came from the West-perhaps from the
+Northwest-and the best explanation we have ever heard of its derivation
+is to sup-pose “shanty,” as we now spell it, a corruption of “chiente,”
+ which it is thought may have been a word in Canadian French phrase to
+express a “dog-kennel.” “Chenil,” we believe, is the true French
+term for such a thing, and our own word is said to be derived from
+it--“meute” meaning “a kennel of dogs,” or “a pack of hounds,” rather
+than their dwelling. At any rate, “chiente” is so plausible a solution
+of the difficulty, that one may hope it is the true one, even though
+he has no better authority for it than a very vague rumor. Curious
+discoveries are sometimes made by these rude analogies, however, though
+they are generally thought not to be very near akin to learning. For
+ourselves, now, we do not entertain a doubt that the sobriquet of
+“Yankees” which is in every man's mouth, and of which the derivation
+appears to puzzle all our philologists, is nothing but a slight
+corruption of the word “Yengeese,” the term applied to the “English,” by
+the tribes to whom they first became known. We have no other authority
+for this derivation than conjecture, and conjectures that are purely
+our own; but it is so very plausible as almost to carry conviction of
+itself. [Footnote: Since writing the above, the author has met with an
+allusion that has induced him to think he may not have been the first
+to suggest this derivation of the word “Yankee.” With himself, the
+suggestion is perfectly original, and has long since been published by
+him; but nothing is more probable than the fact that a solution so very
+natural, of this long-disputed question in language, may have suggested
+itself to various minds.]
+
+The “chiente'” or shanty of le Bourdon stood quite near to the banks of
+the Kalamazoo, and in a most beautiful grove of the burr-oak. Ben had
+selected the site with much taste, though the proximity of a spring of
+delicious water had probably its full share in influencing his decision.
+It was necessary, moreover, that he should be near the river, as
+his great movements were all made by water, for the convenience of
+transporting his tools, furniture, etc., as well as his honey. A famous
+bark canoe lay in a little bay, out of the current of the stream,
+securely moored, head and stern, in order to prevent her beating against
+any object harder than herself.
+
+The dwelling had been constructed with some attention to security. This
+was rendered necessary, in some measure, as Ben had found by experience,
+on account of two classes of enemies--men and bears. From the first, it
+is true, the bee-hunter had hitherto apprehended but little. There were
+few human beings in that region. The northern portions of the noble
+peninsula of Michigan are some-what low and swampy, or are too broken
+and savage to tempt the native hunters from the openings and prairies
+that then lay, in such rich profusion, further south and west. With the
+exception of the shores, or coasts, it was seldom that the northern
+half of the peninsula felt the footstep of man. With the southern
+half, however, it was very different; the “openings,” and glades, and
+watercourses, offering almost as many temptations to the savage as they
+have since done to the civilized man. Nevertheless, the bison, or
+the buffalo, as the animal is erroneously, but very generally, termed
+throughout the country, was not often found in the vast herds of which
+we read, until one reached the great prairies west of the Mississippi.
+There it was that the red men most loved to congregate; though always
+bearing, in numbers, but a trifling proportion to the surface they
+occupied. In that day, however, near as to the date, but distant as to
+the events, the Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawattamies, kindred tribes, we
+believe, had still a footing in Michigan proper, and were to be found
+in considerable numbers in what was called the St. Joseph's country, or
+along the banks of the stream of that name; a region that almost merits
+the lofty appellation of the garden of America. Le Bourdon knew many of
+their warriors, and was much esteemed among them; though he had never
+met with either of those whom chance now had thrown in his way. In
+general, he suffered little wrong from the red men, who wondered at his
+occupation, while they liked his character; but he had sustained losses,
+and even ill-treatment, from certain outcasts of the tribes, as well as
+from vagrant whites, who occasionally found their way to his temporary
+dwellings. On the present occasion, le Bourdon felt far more uneasiness
+from the circumstance of having his abode known to Gershom Waring, a
+countryman and fellow-Christian, in one sense at least, than from its
+being known to the Chippewa and the Pottawattamie.
+
+The bears were constant and dangerous sources of annoyance to the
+bee-hunter. It was not often that an armed man--and le Bourdon seldom
+moved without his rifle--has much to apprehend from the common brown
+bear of America. Though a formidable-looking animal, especially when
+full grown, it is seldom bold enough to attack a human being, nothing
+but hunger, or care for its young, ever inducing it to go so much out
+of the ordinary track of its habits. But the love of the bear for honey
+amounts to a passion. Not only will it devise all sorts of bearish
+expedients to get at the sweet morsels, but it will scent them from
+afar. On one occasion, a family of Bruins had looked into a shanty of
+Ben's, that was not constructed with sufficient care, and consummated
+their burglary by demolishing the last comb. That disaster almost ruined
+the adventurer, then quite young in his calling; and ever since its
+occurrence he had taken the precaution to build such a citadel as should
+at least set teeth and paws at defiance. To one who had an axe, with
+access to young pines, this was not a difficult task, as was proved by
+the present habitation of our hero.
+
+This was the second season that le Bourdon had occupied “Castle Meal,”
+ as he himself called the shanty. This appellation was a corruption of
+“chateau au Mtel” a name given to it by a wag of a voyageur who had
+aided Ben in ascending the Kalamazoo the previous summer, and had
+remained long enough with him to help him put up his habitation. The
+building was just twelve feet square, in the interior, and somewhat less
+than fourteen on its exterior. It was made of pine logs, in the usual
+mode, with the additional security of possessing a roof of squared
+timbers of which the several parts were so nicely fitted together as to
+shed rain. This unusual precaution was rendered necessary to protect the
+honey, since the bears would have unroofed the common bark coverings
+of the shanties, with the readiness of human beings, in order to get at
+stores as ample as those which the bee-hunter had soon collected beneath
+his roof. There was one window of glass, which le Bourdon had brought in
+his canoe; though it was a single sash of six small lights, that opened
+on hinges; the exterior being protected by stout bars of riven oak,
+securely let into the logs. The door was made of three thicknesses of
+oaken plank, pinned well together, and swinging on stout iron hinges, so
+secured as not to be easily removed. Its outside fastening was made by
+means of two stout staples, a short piece of ox-chain, and an unusually
+heavy padlock. Nothing short of an iron bar, and that cleverly applied,
+could force this fastening. On the inside, three bars of oak rendered
+all secure, when the master was at home.
+
+“You set consid'rable store by your honey, I guess, STRANger,” said
+Gershom, as le Bourdon unlocked the fastenings and removed the chain,
+“if a body may judge by the kear (care) you take on't! Now, down our way
+we ain't half so partic'lar; Dolly and Blossom never so much as putting
+up a bar to the door, even when I sleep out, which is about half the
+time, now the summer is fairly set in.”
+
+“And whereabouts is 'down our way,' if one may be so bold as to ask the
+question?” returned le Bourdon, holding the door half-opened, while he
+turned his face toward the other, in expectation of the answer.
+
+“Why, down at Whiskey Centre, to be sure, as the v'y'gerers and other
+boatmen call the place.”
+
+“And where is Whiskey Centre?” demanded Ben, a little pertinaciously.
+
+“Why, I thought everybody would 'a' known that,” answered Greshom; “sin'
+whiskey is as drawin' as a blister. Whiskey Centre is just where _I_
+happen to live; bein' what a body may call a travellin' name. As I'm now
+down at the mouth of the Kalamazoo, why Whiskey Centre's there, too.”
+
+“I understand the matter, now,” answered le Bourdon, composing his
+well-formed mouth in a sort of contemptuous smile. “You and whiskey,
+being sworn friends, are always to be found in company. When I came into
+the river, which was the last week in April, I saw nothing like whiskey,
+nor anything like a Centre at the mouth.”
+
+“If you'd 'a' be'n a fortnight later, STRANger, you'd 'a' found both.
+Travellin' Centres, and stationary, differs somewhat, I guess; one is
+always to be found, while t'other must be s'arched a'ter.”
+
+“And pray who are Dolly and Blossom; I hope the last is not a WHISKEY
+blossom?”
+
+“Not she--she never touches a spoonful, though I tell her it never hurt
+mortal! She tries hard to reason me into it that it hurts ME--but that's
+all a mistake, as anybody can see that jest looks at me.”
+
+Ben DID look at him; and, to say truth, came to a somewhat different
+conclusion.
+
+“Is she so blooming that you call her 'Blossom'?” demanded the
+bee-hunter, “or is she so young?”
+
+“The gal's a little of both. Dolly is my wife, and Blossom is my sister.
+The real name of Blossom is Margery Waring, but everybody calls her
+Blossom; and so I gi'n into it, with the rest on 'em.”
+
+It is probable that le Bourdon lost a good deal of his interest in
+this flower of the wilderness, as soon as he learned she was so nearly
+related to the Whiskey Centre. Gershom was so very uninviting an object,
+and had so many palpable marks, that he had fairly earned the nickname
+which, as it afterward appeared, the western adventurers had given
+HIM, as well as his ABODE, wherever the last might be, that no one of
+decently sober habits could readily fancy anything belonging to him. At
+any rate, the bee-hunter now led the way into his cabin, whither he was
+followed without unnecessary ceremony, by all three of his guests.
+
+The interior of the “chiente,” to use the most poetical, if not the most
+accurate word, was singularly clean for an establishment set up by
+a bachelor, in so remote a part of the world. The honey, in neat,
+well-constructed kegs, was carefully piled along one side of the
+apartment, in a way to occupy the minimum of room, and to be rather
+ornamental than unsightly. These kegs were made by le Bourdon himself,
+who had acquired as much of the art as was necessary to that object.
+The woods always furnished the materials; and a pile of staves that was
+placed beneath a neighboring tree sufficiently denoted that he did not
+yet deem that portion of his task completed.
+
+In one corner of the hut was a pile of well-dressed bearskins, three
+in number, each and all of which had been taken from the carcasses of
+fallen foes, within the last two months. Three more were stretched on
+saplings, near by, in the process of curing. It was a material part
+of the bee-hunter's craft to kill this animal, in particular; and the
+trophies of his conflicts with them were proportionably numerous. On the
+pile already prepared, he usually slept.
+
+There was a very rude table, a single board set up on sticks; and a
+bench or two, together with a wooden chest of some size, completed the
+furniture. Tools were suspended from the walls, it is true; and no
+less than three rifles, in addition to a very neat double-barrelled
+“shot-gun,” or fowling-piece, were standing in a corner. These were arms
+collected by our hero in his different trips, and retained quite as much
+from affection as from necessity, or caution. Of ammunition, there was
+no very great amount visible; only three or four horns and a couple of
+pouches being suspended from pegs: but Ben had a secret store, as well
+as another rifle, carefully secured, in a natural magazine and arsenal,
+at a distance sufficiently great from the chiente to remove it from all
+danger of sharing in the fortunes of his citadel, should disaster befall
+the last.
+
+The cooking was done altogether out of doors. For this essential
+comfort, le Bourdon had made very liberal provision. He had a small
+oven, a sufficiently convenient fire-place, and a storehouse, at hand;
+all placed near the spring, and beneath the shade of a magnificent elm.
+In the storehouse he kept his barrel of flour, his barrel of salt,
+a stock of smoked or dried meat, and that which the woodsman, if
+accustomed in early life to the settlements, prizes most highly, a
+half-barrel of pickled pork. The bark canoe had sufficed to transport
+all these stores, merely ballasting handsomely that ticklish craft; and
+its owner relied on the honey to perform the same office on the return
+voyage, when trade or consumption should have disposed of the various
+articles just named.
+
+The reader may smile at the word “trade,” and ask where were those to
+be found who could be parties to the traffic. The vast lakes and
+innumerable rivers of that region, however, remote as it then was
+from the ordinary abodes of civilized man, offered facilities for
+communication that the active spirit of trade would be certain not to
+neglect. In the first place, there were always the Indians to barter
+skins and furs against powder, lead, rifles, blankets, and unhappily
+“fire-water.” Then, the white men who penetrated to those semi-wilds
+were always ready to “dicker” and to “swap,” and to “trade” rifles, and
+watches, and whatever else they might happen to possess, almost to their
+wives and Children.
+
+But we should be doing injustice to le Bourdon, were we in any manner
+to confound him with the “dickering” race. He was a bee-hunter quite as
+much through love of the wilderness and love of adventure, as through
+love of gain. Profitable he had certainly found the employment, or he
+probably would not have pursued it; but there was many a man who--nay,
+most men, even in his own humble class in life-would have deemed his
+liberal earnings too hardly obtained, when gained at the expense of all
+intercourse with their own kind. But Buzzing Ben loved the solitude of
+his situation, its hazards, its quietude, relieved by passing moments
+of high excitement; and, most of all, the self-reliance that was
+indispensable equally to his success and his happiness. Woman, as yet,
+had never exercised her witchery over him, and every day was his passion
+for dwelling alone, and for enjoying the strange, but certainly most
+alluring, pleasures of the woods, increasing and gaining strength in his
+bosom. It was seldom, now, that he held intercourse even with the Indian
+tribes that dwelt near his occasional places of hunting; and frequently
+had he shifted his ground in order to avoid collision, however friendly,
+with whites who, like himself, were pushing their humble fortunes along
+the shores of those inland seas, which, as yet, were rarely indeed
+whitened by a sail. In this respect, Boden and Waring were the very
+antipodes of each other; Gershom being an inveterate gossip, in despite
+of his attachment to a vagrant and border life.
+
+The duties of hospitality are rarely forgotten among border men. The
+inhabitant of a town may lose his natural disposition to receive all
+who offer at his board, under the pressure of society; but it is only in
+most extraordinary exceptions that the frontier man is ever known to
+be inhospitable. He has little to offer, but that little is seldom
+withheld, either through prudence or niggardliness. Under this
+feeling--we might call it habit also--le Bourdon now set himself at work
+to place on the table such food as he had at command and ready cooked.
+The meal which he soon pressed his guests to share with him was composed
+of a good piece of cold boiled pork, which Ben had luckily cooked the
+day previously, some bear's meat roasted, a fragment of venison steak,
+both lean and cold, and the remains of a duck that had been shot the
+day before, in the Kalamazoo, with bread, salt, and, what was somewhat
+unusual in the wilderness, two or three onions, raw. The last dish was
+highly relished by Gershom, and was slightly honored by Ben; but the
+Indians passed it over with cold indifference. The dessert consisted of
+bread and honey, which were liberally partaken of by all at table.
+
+Little was said by either host or guests, until the supper was finished,
+when the whole party left the chiente, to enjoy their pipes in the cool
+evening air, beneath the oaks of the grove in which the dwelling stood.
+Their conversation began to let the parties know something of each
+other's movements and characters.
+
+“YOU are a Pottawattamie, and YOU a Chippewa,” said le Bourdon, as he
+courteously handed to his two red guests pipes of theirs, that he had
+just stuffed with some of his own tobacco--“I believe you are a sort of
+cousins, though your tribes are called by different names.”
+
+“Nation, Ojebway,” returned the elder Indian, holding up a finger, by
+way of enforcing attention.
+
+“Tribe, Pottawattamie,” added the runner, in the same sententious
+manner.
+
+“Baccy, good”--put in the senior, by way of showing he was well
+contented with his comforts.
+
+“Have you nothin' to drink?” demanded Whiskey Centre, who saw no great
+merit in anything but “firewater.”
+
+“There is the spring,” returned le Bourdon, gravely; “a gourd hangs
+against the tree.”
+
+Gershom made a wry face, but he did not move.
+
+“Is there any news stirring among the tribes?” asked the bee-hunter,
+waiting, however, a decent interval, lest he might be supposed to betray
+a womanly curiosity.
+
+Elksfoot puffed away some time before he saw fit to answer, reserving a
+salvo in behalf of his own dignity. Then he removed the pipe, shook off
+the ashes, pressed down the fire a little, gave a reviving draught or
+two, and quietly replied:
+
+“Ask my young brother--he runner--he know.”
+
+But Pigeonswing seemed to be little more communicative than the
+Pottawattamie. He smoked on in quiet dignity, while the bee-hunter
+patiently waited for the moment when it might suit his younger guest to
+speak. That moment did not arrive for some time, though it came at last.
+Almost five minutes after Elksfoot had made the allusion mentioned, the
+Ojebway, or Chippewa, removed his pipe also, and looking courteously
+round at his host, he said with emphasis:
+
+“Bad summer come soon. Pale-faces call young men togedder, and dig up
+hatchet.”
+
+“I had heard something of this,” answered le Bourdon, with a saddened
+countenance, “and was afraid it might happen.”
+
+“My brother dig up hatchet too, eh?” demanded Pigeonswing.
+
+“Why should I? I am alone here, on the Openings, and it would seem
+foolish in me to wish to fight.”
+
+“Got no tribe--no Ojebway--no Pottawattamie, eh?”
+
+“I have my tribe, as well as another, Chippewa, but can see no use I can
+be to it, here. If the English and Americans fight, it must be a long
+way from this wilderness, and on or near the great salt lake.”
+
+“Don't know--nebber know, 'till see. English warrior plenty in Canada.”
+
+“That may be; but American warriors are not plenty here. This country is
+a wilderness, and there are no soldiers hereabouts, to cut each other's
+throats.”
+
+“What you t'ink him?” asked Pigeonswing, glancing at Gershom; who,
+unable to forbear any longer, had gone to the spring to mix a cup from
+a small supply that still remained of the liquor with which he had left
+home. “Got pretty good scalp?”
+
+“I suppose it is as good as another's--but he and I are countrymen, and
+we cannot raise the tomahawk on one another.”
+
+“Don't t'ink so. Plenty Yankee, him!”
+
+Le Bourdon smiled at this proof of Pigeonswings sagacity, though he felt
+a good deal of uneasiness at the purport of his discourse.
+
+“You are right enough in THAT” he answered, “but I'm plenty of Yankee,
+too.”
+
+“No, don't say so,” returned the Chippewa--“no, mustn't say DAT.
+English; no Yankee. HIM not a bit like you.”
+
+“Why, we are unlike each other, in some respects, it is true, though we
+are countrymen, notwithstanding. My great father lives at Washington, as
+well as his.”
+
+The Chippewa appeared to be disappointed; perhaps he appeared sorry,
+too; for le Bourdon's frank and manly hospitality had disposed him to
+friendship instead of hostilities, while his admissions would rather put
+him in an antagonist position. It was probably with a kind motive that
+he pursued the discourse in a way to give his host some insight into the
+true condition of matters in that part of the world.
+
+“Plenty Breetish in woods,” he said, with marked deliberation and point.
+“Yankee no come yet.”
+
+“Let me know the truth, at once, Chippewa,” exclaimed le Bourdon. “I am
+but a peaceable bee-hunter, as you see, and wish no man's scalp, or any
+man's honey but my own. Is there to be a war between America and Canada,
+or not?”
+
+“Some say, yes; some say, no,” returned Pigeonswing, evasively, “My
+part, don't know. Go, now, to see. But plenty Montreal belt among
+redskins; plenty rifle; plenty powder, too.”
+
+“I heard something of this as I came up the lakes,” rejoined Ben; “and
+fell in with a trader, an old acquaintance, from Canada, and a good
+friend, too, though he is to be my enemy, according to law, who gave me
+to understand that the summer would not go over without blows. Still,
+they all seemed to be asleep at Mackinaw (Michilimackinac) as I passed
+there.”
+
+“Wake up pretty soon. Canada warrior take fort.”
+
+“If I thought that, Chippewa, I would be off this blessed night to give
+the alarm.”
+
+“No--t'ink better of dat.”
+
+“Go I would, if I died for it the next hour!”
+
+“T'ink better--be no such fool, I tell you.”
+
+“And I tell you, Pigeonswing, that go I would, if the whole Ojebway
+nation was on my trail. I am an American, and mean to stand by my own
+people, come what will.”
+
+“T'ought you only peaceable bee-hunter, just now,” retorted the
+Chippewa, a little sarcastically.
+
+By this time le Bourdon had somewhat cooled, and he became conscious of
+his indiscretion. He knew enough of the history of the past, to be fully
+aware that, in all periods of American history, the English, and, for
+that matter, the French too, so long as they had possessions on
+this continent, never scrupled about employing the savages in their
+conflicts. It is true, that these highly polished, and, we may justly
+add, humane nations--(for each is, out of all question, entitled to that
+character in the scale of comparative humanity as between communities,
+and each if you will take its own account of the matter, stands at the
+head of civilization in this respect)--would, notwithstanding these high
+claims, carry on their AMERICAN wars by the agency of the tomahawk, the
+scalping-knife, and the brand. Eulogies, though pronounced by ourselves
+on ourselves, cannot erase the stains of blood. Even down to the present
+hour, a cloud does not obscure the political atmosphere between England
+and America, that its existence may not be discovered on the prairies,
+by a movement among the In-dians. The pulse that is to be felt there
+is a sure indication of the state of the relations between the parties.
+Every one knows that the savage, in his warfare, slays both sexes and
+all ages; that the door-post of the frontier cabin is defiled by the
+blood of the infant, whose brains have been dashed against it; and that
+the smouldering ruins of log-houses oftener than not cover the remains
+of their tenants. But what of all that? Brutus is still “an honorable
+man,” and the American, who has not this sin to answer for among his
+numberless transgressions, is reviled as a semi-barbarian! The time is
+at hand, when the Lion of the West will draw his own picture, too; and
+fortunate will it be for the characters of some who will gather around
+the easel, if they do not discover traces of their own lineaments among
+his labors.
+
+The feeling engendered by the character of such a warfare is the secret
+of the deeply seated hostility which pervades the breast of the WESTERN
+American against the land of his ancestors. He never sees the Times, and
+cares not a rush for the mystifications of the Quarterly Review; but
+he remembers where his mother was brained, and his father or brother
+tortured; aye, and by whose instrumentality the foul deeds were mainly
+done. The man of the world can understand that such atrocities may be
+committed, and the people of the offending nation remain ignorant of
+their existence, and, in a measure, innocent of the guilt; but the
+sufferer, in his provincial practice, makes no such distinction,
+confounding all alike in his resentments, and including all that bear
+the hated name in his maledictions. It is a fearful thing to awaken the
+anger of a nation; to excite in it a desire for revenge; and thrice
+is that danger magnified, when the people thus aroused possess
+the activity, the resources, the spirit, and the enterprise of the
+Americans. We have been openly derided, and that recently, because,
+in the fulness of our sense of power and sense of right, language that
+exceeds any direct exhibition of the national strength has escaped
+the lips of legislators, and, perhaps justly, has exposed them to the
+imputation of boastfulness. That derision, however, will not soon be
+repeated. The scenes enacting in Mexico, faint as they are in comparison
+with what would have been seen, had hostilities taken an other
+direction, place a perpetual gag in the mouths of all scoffers. The
+child is passing from the gristle into the bone, and the next generation
+will not even laugh, as does the present, at any idle and ill-considered
+menaces to coerce this republic; strong in the consciousness of its own
+power, it will eat all such fanfaronades, if any future statesman should
+be so ill-advised as to renew them, with silent indifference.
+
+Now, le Bourdon was fully aware that one of the surest pulses of
+approaching hostilities between England and America was to be felt in
+the far West. If the Indians were in movement, some power was probably
+behind the scenes to set them in motion. Pigeonswing was well known to
+him by reputation; and there was that about the man which awakened the
+most unpleasant apprehensions, and he felt an itching desire to learn
+all he could from him, without betraying any more of his own feelings,
+if that were possible.
+
+“I do not think the British will attempt Mackinaw,” Ben remarked, after
+a long pause and a good deal of smoking had enabled him to assume an air
+of safe indifference.
+
+“Got him, I tell you,” answered Pigeonswing, pointedly.
+
+“Got what, Chippewa?”
+
+“Him--Mac-naw--got fort--got so'gers--got whole island. Know dat, for
+been dere.”
+
+This was astounding news, indeed! The commanding officer of that
+ill-starred garrison could not himself have been more astonished, when
+he was unexpectedly summoned to surrender by an enemy who appeared
+to start out of the earth, than was le Bourdon, at hearing this
+intelligence. To western notions, Michilimackinac was another Gibraltar,
+although really a place of very little strength, and garrisoned by only
+one small company of regulars. Still, habit had given the fortress a
+sort of sanctity among the adventurers of that region; and its fall,
+even in the settled parts of the country, sounded like the loss of
+a province. It is now known that, anticipating the movements of the
+Americans, some three hundred whites, sustained by more than twice that
+number of Indians, including warriors from nearly every adjacent tribe,
+had surprised the post on the 17th of July, and compelled the subaltern
+in command, with some fifty odd men, to surrender. This rapid and highly
+military measure, on the part of the British, completely cut off the
+post of Chicago, at the head of Lake Michigan, leaving it isolated, on
+what was then a very remote wilderness. Chicago, Mackinac, and Detroit,
+were the three grand stations of the Americans on the upper lakes, and
+here were two of them virtually gone at a blow!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+              --Ho! who's here?
+      If anything that's civil, speak; if savage,
+      Take, or lend--
+
+                               Cymbeline
+
+
+Not another syllable did le Bourdon utter to the Chippewa, or the
+Chippewa to him, in that sitting, touching the important event just
+communicated. Each carefully avoided manifesting any further interest in
+the subject, but the smoking continued for some time after the sun had
+set. As the shades of evening began to gather, the Pottawattamie arose,
+shook the ashes from his pipe, gave a grunt, and uttered a word or two,
+by way of announcing his disposition to retire. On this hint, Ben went
+into the cabin, spread his skins, and intimated to his guests that their
+beds were ready for them. Few compliments pass among border men on such
+occasions, and one after another dropped off, until all were stretched
+on the skins but the master of the place. He remained up two hours
+later, ruminating on the state of things; when, perceiving that the
+night was wearing on, he also found a nest, and sought his repose.
+
+Nothing occurred to disturb the occupants of “Castle Meal,” as le
+Bourdon laughingly called his cabin, until the return of day. If there
+were any bears scenting around the place, as often occurred at night,
+their instinct must have apprised them that a large reinforcement was
+present, and caused them to defer their attack to a more favorable
+opportunity. The first afoot next morning was the bee-hunter himself,
+who arose and left his cabin just as the earliest streaks of day were
+appearing in the east. Although dwelling in a wilderness, the “openings”
+ had not the character of ordinary forests. The air circulates freely
+beneath their oaks, the sun penetrates in a thousand places, and grass
+grows, wild but verdant. There was little of the dampness of the virgin
+woods; and the morning air, though cool, as is ever the case, even in
+midsummer, in regions still covered with trees, was balmy; and, at that
+particular spot, it came to the senses of le Bourdon loaded with the
+sweets of many a wide glade of his favorite white clover. Of course, he
+had placed his cabin near those spots where the insect he sought most
+abounded; and a fragrant site it proved to be, in favorable conditions
+of the atmosphere. Ben had a taste for all the natural advantages of his
+abode, and was standing in enjoyment of its placid beauties when some
+one touched his elbow. Turning, quick as thought, he perceived the
+Chippewa at his side. That young Indian had approached with the
+noiseless tread of his people, and was now anxious to hold a private
+communication with him.
+
+“Pottawattamie got long ear--come fudder--” said Pigeonswing; “go
+cook-house--t'ink we want breakfast.”
+
+Ben did as desired; and the two were soon side by side at the spring, in
+the outlet of which they made their ablutions--the redskin being totally
+without paint. When this agreeable office was performed, each felt in
+better condition for a conference.
+
+“Elkfoot got belt from Canada fadder,” commenced the Chippewa, with a
+sententious allusion to the British propensity to keep the savages in
+pay. “KNOW he got him KNOW he keep him.”
+
+“And you, Pigeonswing--by your manner of talking I had set you down for
+a king's Injin, too.”
+
+“TALK so--no FEEL bit so. MY heart Yankee.”
+
+“And have you not had a belt of wampum sent you, as well as the rest of
+them?”
+
+“Dat true--got him--don't keep him.”
+
+“What! did you dare to send it back?”
+
+“Ain't fool, dough young. Keep him; no keep him. Keep him for Canada
+fadder; no keep him for Chippewa brave.”
+
+“What have you then done with your belt?”
+
+“Bury him where nobody find him dis war. No--Waubkenewh no hole in heart
+to let king in.”
+
+Pigeonswing, as this young Indian was commonly called in his tribe, in
+consequence of the rapidity of his movement when employed as a runner,
+had a much more respectable name, and one that he had fairly earned in
+some of the forays of his people, but which the commonalty had just the
+same indisposition to use as the French have to call Marshal Soult the
+Duc de Dalmatie. The last may be the most honorable title, but it is not
+that by which he is the best known to his countrymen. Waubkenewh was
+an appellation, notwithstanding, of which the young Chippewa was justly
+proud; and he often asserted his right to use it, as sternly as the old
+hero of Toulouse asserted his right to his duchy, when the Austrians
+wished to style him “le Marechal DUC Soult.”
+
+“And you are friendly to the Yankees, and an enemy to the red-coats?”
+
+Waubkenewh grasped the hand of le Bourdon, and squeezed it firmly. Then
+he said, warily:
+
+“Take care--Elkfoot friend of Blackbird; like to look at Canada belt.
+Got medal of king, too. Have Yankee scalp, bye'm by. Take care--must
+speak low, when Elkfoot near.”
+
+“I begin to understand you, Chippewa; you wish me to believe that YOU
+are a friend to America, and that the Pottawatamie is not. If this be
+so, why have you held the speech that you did last night, and seemed to
+be on a war-path AGAINST my countrymen?”
+
+“Dat good way, eh? Elkfoot den t'ink me HIS friend dat very good in
+war-time.”
+
+“But is it true, or false, that Mackinaw is taken by the British?”
+
+“Dat true too--gone, and warrior all prisoner. Plenty Winnebago, plenty
+Pottawatamie, plenty Ottowa, plenty redskin, dere.”
+
+“And the Chippewas?”
+
+“Some Ojebway, too”--answered Pigeonswing, after a reluctant pause.
+“Can't all go on same path this war. Hatchets, somehow, got two
+handle--one strike Yankee; one strike King George.”
+
+“But what is your business here, and where are you now going if you are
+friendly to the Americans? I make no secret of my feelings--I am for my
+own people, and I wish proof that you are a friend, and not an enemy.”
+
+“Too many question, one time,” returned the Chippewa, a little
+distastefully. “No good have so long tongue. Ask one question, answer
+him--ask anoder, answer HIM, too.”
+
+“Well, then, what is your business, here?”
+
+“Go to Chicago, for gen'ral.”
+
+“Do you mean that you bear a message from some American general to the
+commandant at Chicago?”
+
+“Just so--dat my business. Guess him, right off; he, he, he!”
+
+It is so seldom that an Indian laughs that the bee-hunter was startled.
+
+“Where is the general who has sent you on this errand?” he demanded.
+
+“He at Detroit--got whole army dere--warrior plenty as oak in opening.”
+
+All this was news to the bee-hunter, and it caused him to muse a moment,
+ere he proceeded.
+
+“What is the name of the American general who has sent you on this
+path?” he then demanded.
+
+“Hell,” answered the Ojebway, quietly.
+
+“Hell! You mean to give his Indian title, I suppose, to show that he
+will prove dangerous to the wicked. But how is he called in our own
+tongue?”
+
+“Hell--dat he name--good name for so'ger, eh?”
+
+“I believe I understand you, Chippewa--Hull is the name of the governor
+of the territory, and you must have mistaken the sound--'is it not so?”
+
+“Hull--Hell--don't know--just same--one good as t'other.”
+
+“Yes, one will do as well as the other, if a body only understands you.
+So Governor Hull sent you here?”
+
+“No gubbernor--general, tell you. Got big army--plenty warrior--eat
+Breesh up!”
+
+“Now, Chippewa, answer me one thing to my likin', or I shall set you
+down as a man with a forked tongue, though you do call yourself a friend
+of the Yankees. If you have been sent from Detroit to Chicago, why
+are you so far north as this? Why are you here, on the banks of
+the Kalamazoo, when your path ought to lead you more toward the St.
+Joseph's?”
+
+“Been to Mackinaw. Gen'ral says, first go to Mackinaw and see wid own
+eye how garrison do--den go to Chicago, and tell warrior dere what
+happen, and how he best manage. Understan' dat, Bourdon?”
+
+“Aye, it all sounds well enough, I will acknowledge. You have been to
+Mackinaw to look about you, there, and having seen things with your own
+eyes, have started for Chicago to give your knowledge to the commandant
+at that place. Now, redskin, have you any proof of what you say?”
+
+For some reason that the bee-hunter could not yet fathom, the Chippewa
+was particularly anxious either to obtain his confidence, or to deceive
+him. Which he was attempting, was not yet quite apparent; but that one
+or other was uppermost in his mind, Ben thought was beyond dispute.
+As soon as the question last named was put, however, the Indian looked
+cautiously around him, as if to be certain there were no spectators.
+Then he carefully opened his tobacco-pouch, and extricated from the
+centre of the cut weed a letter that was rolled into the smallest
+compass to admit of this mode of concealment, and which was encircled
+by a thread. The last removed, the letter was unrolled, and its
+superscription exposed. The address was to “Captain--Heald, U. S. Army,
+commanding at Chicago.” In one corner were the words “On public service,
+by Pigeonswing.” All this was submitted to the bee-hunter, who read it
+with his own eyes.
+
+“Dat good”--asked the Chippewa, pointedly--“dat tell trut'-b'lieve HIM?”
+
+Le Bourdon grasped the hand of the Indian, and gave it a hearty squeeze.
+Then he said frankly, and like a man who no longer entertained any
+doubts:
+
+“I put faith in all you say, Chippewa. That is an officer's letter, and
+I now see that you are on the right side. You play'd so deep a game, at
+first, hows'ever, that I didn't know exactly what to make of you. Now,
+as for the Pottawattamie--do you set him down as friend or foe, in
+reality?”
+
+“Enemy--take your scalp--take my scalp, in minute only can't catch him.
+He got belt from Montreal, and it look handsome in his eye.”
+
+“Which way d'ye think he's travelling? As I understood you, he and you
+fell into the same path within a mile of this very spot. Was the meeting
+altogether friendly?”
+
+“Yes; friendly--but ask too many question--too much squaw--ask one
+question, den stop for answer.”
+
+“Very true--I will remember that an Indian likes to do one thing at a
+time. Which way, then, do you think he's travelling?”
+
+“Don't know--on'y guess--guess he on path to Blackbird.”
+
+“And where is Blackbird, and what is he about?”
+
+“Two question, dat!” returned the Chippewa, smiling, and holding up
+two of his fingers, at the same time, by way of rebuke. “Blackbird on
+war-path;--when warrior on dat path, he take scalp if can get him.”
+
+“But where is his enemy? There are no whites in this part of the
+country, but here and there a trader, or a trapper, or a bee-hunter, or
+a VOYAGEUR.”
+
+“Take HIS scalp--all scalp good, in war time. An't partic'lar, down at
+Montreal. What you call garrison at Chicago?”
+
+“Blackbird, you then think, may be moving upon Chicago. In that case,
+Chippewa, you should outrun this Pottawatamie, and reach the post in
+time to let its men know the danger.”
+
+“Start, as soon as eat breakfast. Can't go straight, nudder, or
+Pottawatamie see print of moccasin. Must t'row him off trail.”
+
+“Very true; but I'll engage you're cunning enough to do that twice over,
+should it be necessary.”
+
+Just then Gershom Waring came out of the cabin, gaping like a hound, and
+stretching his arms, as if fairly wearied with sleep. At the sight of
+this man the Indian made a gesture of caution, saying, however, in an
+undertone:
+
+“How is heart--Yankee or Breesh--love Montreal, eh? Pretty good scalp!
+Love King George, eh?”
+
+“I rather think not, but am not certain. He is a poor pale-face,
+however, and it's of no great account how he stands. His scalp would
+hardly be worth the taking, whether by English or American.”
+
+“Sell, down at Montreal--better look out for Pottawatamie. Don't like
+that Injin.”
+
+“We'll be on our guard against him; and there he comes, looking as if
+his breakfast would be welcome, and as if he was already thinking of a
+start.”
+
+Le Bourdon had been busy with his pots, during the whole time this
+discourse was going on, and had warmed up a sufficiency of food to
+supply the wants of all his guests. In a few minutes each was busy
+quietly eating his morning's meal, Gershom having taken his bitters
+aside, and, as he fancied, unobserved. This was not so much owing to
+niggardliness, as to a distrust of his having a sufficient supply of the
+liquor, that long indulgence had made, in a measure, necessary to him,
+to last until he could get back to the barrels that were still to be
+found in his cabin, down on the shore of the lake.
+
+During the breakfast little was said, conversation forming no material
+part of the entertainment, at the meals of any but the cultivated. When
+each had risen, however, and by certain preliminary arrangements it
+was obvious that the two Indians intended to depart, the Pottawatamie
+advanced to le Bourdon, and thrust out a hand.
+
+“Thankee”--he said, in the brief way in which he clipped his
+English--“good supper--good sleep--good breakfast. Now go. Thankee--when
+any friend come to Pottawatamie village, good wigwam dere, and no door.”
+
+“I thank you, Elksfoot--and should you pass this way, ag'in, soon, I
+hope you'll just step into this chiente and help yourself it I should
+happen to be off on a hunt. Good luck to you, and a happy sight of
+home.”
+
+The Pottawatamie then turned and thrust out a hand to each of the
+others, who met his offered leave-taking with apparent friendship. The
+bee-hunter observed that neither of the Indians said anything to the
+other touching the path he was about to travel, but that each seemed
+ready to pursue his own way as if entirely independent, and without the
+expectation of having a companion.
+
+Elksfoot left the spot the first. After completing his adieus, the
+Pottawattamie threw his rifle into the hollow of his arm, felt at his
+belt, as if to settle it into its place, made some little disposition of
+his light summer covering, and moved off in a southwesterly direction,
+passing through the open glades, and almost equally unobstructed groves,
+as steady in his movements as if led by an instinct.
+
+“There he goes, on a bee-line,” said le Bourdon, as the straight form of
+the old savage disappeared at length, behind a thicket of trees. “On
+a bee-line for the St. Joseph's river, where he will shortly be, among
+friends and neighbors, I do not doubt. What, Chippewa! are you in motion
+too?”
+
+“Must go, now,” returned Pigeonswing, in a friendly way. “Bye'm by come
+back and eat more honey-bring sweet news, hope-no Canada here,” placing
+a finger on his heart-“all Yankee.”
+
+“God be with you, Chippewa-God be with you. We shall have a stirring
+summer of it, and I expect to hear of your name in the wars, as of a
+chief who knows no fear.”
+
+Pigeonswing waved his hand, cast a glance, half friendly half
+contemptuously, at Whiskey Centre, and glided away. The two who remained
+standing near the smouldering fire remarked that the direction taken
+by the Chippewa was toward the lake, and nearly at right angles to that
+taken by the Pottawattamie. They also fancied that the movement of the
+former was about half as fast again as that of the latter. In less than
+three minutes the young Indian was concealed in the “openings,” though
+he had to cross a glade of considerable width in order to reach them.
+
+The bee-hunter was now alone with the only one of his guests who was of
+the color and race to which he himself belonged. Of the three, he was
+the visitor he least respected; but the dues of hospitality are usually
+sacred in a wilderness, and among savages, so that he could do nothing
+to get rid of him. As Gershom manifested no intention to quit the place,
+le Bourdon set about the business of the hour, with as much method and
+coolness as if the other had not been present. The first thing was to
+bring home the honey discovered on the previous day; a task of no light
+labor, the distance it was to be transported being so considerable, and
+the quantity so large. But our bee-hunter was not without the means
+of accomplishing such an object, and he now busied himself in getting
+ready. As Gershom volunteered his assistance, together they toiled in
+apparent amity and confidence.
+
+The Kalamazoo is a crooked stream; and it wound from the spot where le
+Bourdon had built his cabin, to a point within a hundred yards of the
+fallen tree in which the bees had constructed their hive. As a matter
+of course, Ben profited by this circumstance to carry his canoe to the
+latter place, with a view to render it serviceable in transporting
+the honey. First securing everything in and around the chiente, he
+and Gershom embarked, taking with them no less than four pieces
+of fire-arms; one of which was, to use the language of the west, a
+double-barrelled “shot-gun.” Before quitting the place, however, the
+bee-hunter went to a large kennel made of logs, and let out a mastiff
+of great power and size. Between this dog and himself there existed the
+best possible intelligence; the master having paid many visits to the
+prisoner since his return, feeding and caressing him. Glad, indeed, was
+this fine animal to be released, bounding back and forth, and leaping
+about le Bourdon in a way to manifest his delight. He had been cared for
+in his kennel, and well cared for, too; but there is no substitute for
+liberty, whether in man or beast, individuals or communities.
+
+When all Was ready, le Bourdon and Gershom got into the canoe, whither
+the former now called his dog, using the name of “Hive,” an appellation
+that was doubtless derived from his own pursuit. As soon as the mastiff
+leaped into the canoe, Ben shoved off, and the light craft was pushed
+up the stream by himself and Gershom without much difficulty, and with
+considerable rapidity. But little driftwood choked the channel; and,
+after fifteen minutes of moderate labor, the two men came near to the
+point of low wooded land in which the bee-tree had stood. As they drew
+nigh, certain signs of uneasiness in the dog attracted his master's
+attention, and he pointed them out to Gershom.
+
+“There's game in the wind,” answered Whiskey Centre, who had a good
+knowledge of most of the craft of border life, notwithstanding his
+ungovernable propensity to drink, and who, by nature, was both shrewd
+and resolute. “I shouldn't wonder”--a common expression of his class--“if
+we found bears prowling about that honey!”
+
+“Such things have happened in my time,” answered the bee-hunter, “and
+twice in my experience I've been driven from the field, and forced to
+let the devils get my 'arnin's.”
+
+“That was when you had no comrade, stranger” returned Gershom, raising a
+rifle, and carefully examining its flint and its priming. “It will be a
+large family on 'em that drives us from that tree; for my mind is made
+up to give Doll and Blossom a taste of the sweets.”
+
+If this was said imprudently, as respects ownership in the prize, it
+was said heartily, so far as spirit and determination were concerned. It
+proved that Whiskey Centre had points about him which, if not absolutely
+redeeming, served in some measure to lessen the disgust which one might
+other-wise have felt for his character. The bee-hunter knew that there
+was a species of hardihood that belonged to border men as the fruits
+of their habits, and, apparently, he had all necessary confidence in
+Gershom's disposition to sustain him, should there be occasion for a
+conflict with his old enemies.
+
+The first measure of the bee-hunter, after landing and securing his
+boat, was to quiet Hive. The animal being under excellent command, this
+was soon done; the mastiff maintaining the position assigned him in the
+rear, though evidently impatient to be let loose. Had not le Bourdon
+known the precise position of the fallen tree, and through that the
+probable position of his enemies, he would have placed the mastiff in
+advance, as a pioneer or scout; but he deemed it necessary, under
+the actual circumstances, to hold him as a reserve, or a force to be
+directed whither occasion might require. With this arrangement, then,
+le Bourdon and Whiskey Centre advanced, side by side, each carrying two
+pieces, from the margin of the river toward the open land that commanded
+a view of the tree. On reaching the desired point, a halt was called, in
+order to reconnoitre.
+
+The reader will remember that the bee-elm had stood on the edge of a
+dense thicket, or swamp, in which the trees grew to a size several times
+exceeding those of the oaks in the openings; and le Bourdon had caused
+it to fall upon the open ground, in order to work at the honey with
+greater ease to himself. Consequently, the fragments lay in full view
+of the spot where the halt was made. A little to Gershom's surprise,
+Ben now produced his spy-glass, which he levelled with much earnestness
+toward the tree. The bee-hunter, however, well knew his business, and
+was examining into the state of the insects whom he had so violently
+invaded the night before. The air was filled with them, flying above
+and around the tree; a perfect cloud of the little creatures hovering
+directly over the hole, as if to guard its treasure.
+
+“Waal,” said Gershom, in his drawling way, when le Bourdon had taken a
+long look with the glass, “I don't see much use in spy-glassin' in that
+fashion. Spy-glassin' may do out on the lake, if a body has only the
+tools to do it with; but here, in the openin's, nature's eyes is about
+as good as them a body buys in the stores.”
+
+“Take a look at them bees, and see what a fret they're in,” returned
+Ben, handing the glass to his companion. “As long as I've been in the
+business, I've never seen a colony in such a fever. Commonly, a few
+hours after the bees find that their tree is down, and their plans
+broken into, they give it up, and swarm; looking for a new hive, and
+setting about the making more food for the next winter; but here are all
+the bees yet, buzzing above the hole, as if they meant to hold out for a
+siege.”
+
+“There's an onaccountable grist on 'em”--Gershom was never very
+particular in his figures of speech, usually terming anything
+in quantities a'grist”; and meaning in the present instance by
+“onaccountable,” a number not to be counted--“an onaccountable grist on
+'em, I can tell you, and if you mean to charge upon sich enemies, you
+must look out for somebody besides Whiskey Centre for your vanguard.
+What in natur' has got into the critters! They can't expect to set that
+tree on its legs ag'in!”
+
+“Do you see a flight of them just in the edge of the for-est--here, more
+to the southward?” demanded le Bourdon.
+
+“Sure enough! There is a lot on 'em there, too, and they seem to be
+comin' and goin' to the tree, like folks”--Gershom WOULD put his noun
+of multitude into the plural, Nova-Anglice--“comin' and goin' like folks
+carryin' water to a fire. A body would think, by the stir among 'em,
+them critters' barrel was empty!”
+
+“The bears are there,” coolly returned the bee-hunter; “I've seen such
+movements before, and know how to account for them. The bears are in the
+thicket, but don't like to come out in the face of such a colony. I have
+heard of bears being chased miles by bees, when their anger was up!”
+
+“Mortality! They have a good deal of dander (dandruff) for sich little
+vipers! But what are WE to do, Bourdon? for Doll and Blossom MUST taste
+that honey! Half's mine, you know, and I don't like to give it up.”
+
+The bee-hunter smiled at the coolness with which Gershom assigned to
+himself so large a portion of his property; though he did not think
+it worth his while, just then, to “demur to his declaration,” as the
+lawyers might have it. There was a sort of border rule, which gave all
+present equal shares in any forest captures; just as vessels in sight
+come in for prize-money, taken in time of war by public cruisers. At any
+rate, the honey of a single tree was not of sufficient value to induce a
+serious quarrel about it. If there should be any extra trouble or danger
+in securing the present prize, every craft in view might, fairly enough,
+come in for its share.
+
+“Doll shall not be forgotten, if we can only house our honey,” answered
+the bee-hunter; “nor Blossom, neither. I've a fancy, already, for
+that blossom of the wilderness, and shall do all I can to make myself
+agreeable to her. A man cannot approach a maiden with anything sweeter
+than honey.”
+
+“Some gals like sugar'd words better; but, let me tell you one thing,
+STRANger-”
+
+“You have eaten bread and salt with me, Whiskey, and both are scarce
+articles in a wilderness; and you've slept under my roof: is it not
+almost time to call me something else than stranger?”
+
+“Well, Bourdon, if you prefer that name; though STRANger is a name I
+like, it has sich an up and off sound to it. When a man calls all he
+sees STRANgers, it's a sign he don't let the grass grow in the road
+for want of movin'; and a movin' man for me, any day, before your
+stationaries. I was born on the sea-shore, in the Bay State; and here
+I am, up among the fresh-water lakes, as much nat'ralized as any
+muskelunge that was ever cotch'd in Huron, or about Mackinaw. If I can
+believe my eyes, Bourdon, there is the muzzle of a bear to be seen, jist
+under that heavy hemlock--here, where the bees seem thickest!”
+
+“No doubt in the world,” answered le Bourdon, coolly; though he had
+taken the precaution to look to the priming of each of his pieces, as if
+he expected there would soon be occasion to use them. “But what was that
+you were about to say concernin' Blossom? It would not be civil to the
+young woman to overlook her, on account of a bear or two.”
+
+“You take it easy, STRANger--Bourdon, I should say--you take it easy!
+What I was about to say was this: that the whull lake country, and
+that's a wide stretch to foot it over, I know; but, big as it is, the
+whull lake country don't contain Blossom's equal. I'm her brother, and
+perhaps ought to be a little modest in sich matters; but I an't a bit,
+and let out jist what I think. Blossom's a di'mond, if there be di'monds
+on 'arth.”
+
+“And yonder is a bear, if there be bears on earth!” exclaimed le
+Bourdon, who was not a little amused with Gershom's account of his
+family, but who saw that the moment was now arrived when it would be
+necessary to substitute deeds for words. “There they come, in a drove,
+and they seem in earnest.”
+
+This was true enough. No less than eight bears, half of which, however,
+were quite young, came tumbling over the logs, and bounding up toward
+the fallen tree, as if charging the citadel of the bees by preconcert.
+Their appearance was the signal for a general rally of the insects, and
+by the time the foremost of the clumsy animals had reached the tree, the
+air above and around him was absolutely darkened by the cloud of bees
+that was collected to defend their treasures. Bruin trusted too much to
+the thickness of his hide and to the defences with which he was provided
+by nature, besides being too much incited by the love of honey, to
+regard the little heroes, but thrust his nose in at the hole, doubtless
+hoping to plunge it at once into the midst of a mass of the sweets. A
+growl, a start backward, and a flourishing of the fore-paws, with
+sundry bites in the air, at once announced that he had met with greater
+resistance than he had anticipated. In a minute, all the bears were on
+their hind-legs, beating the air with their fore-paws, and nipping right
+and left with their jaws, in vigorous combat with their almost invisible
+foes. Instinct supplied the place of science, and spite of the hides
+and the long hair that covered them, the bees found the means of darting
+their stings into unprotected places, until the quadrupeds were fairly
+driven to rolling about on the grass in order to crush their assailants.
+This last process had some effect, a great many bees being destroyed by
+the energetic rollings and tumblings of the bears; but, as in the tide
+of battle, the places of those who fell were immediately supplied by
+fresh assailants, until numbers seemed likely to prevail over power,
+if not over discipline. At this critical instant, when the bears seemed
+fatigued with their nearly frantic saltations, and violent blows upon
+nothing, le Bourdon deemed it wise to bring his forces into the combat.
+Gershom having been apprised of the plan, both fired at the same
+instant. Each ball took effect; one killing the largest of all the
+bears, dead on the spot, while the other inflicted a grievous wound on
+a second. This success was immediately followed by a second discharge,
+wounding two more of the enemy, while Ben held the second barrel of his
+“shot-gun” in reserve. While the hurt animals were hobbling off, the men
+reloaded their pieces; and by the time the last were ready to advance on
+the enemy, the ground was cleared of bears and bees alike, only two of
+the former remaining, of which one was already dead and the other dying.
+As for the bees, they followed their retreating enemies in a body,
+making a mistake that sometimes happens to still more intelligent
+beings; that of attributing to themselves, and their own prowess, a
+success that had been gained by others.
+
+The bee-hunter and his friend now set themselves at work to provide
+a reception for the insects, the return of which might shortly be
+expected. The former lighted a fire, being always provided with the
+means, while Gershom brought dry wood. In less than five minutes a
+bright blaze was gleaming upward, and when the bees returned, as most
+of them soon did, they found this new enemy intrenched, as it might be,
+behind walls of flame. Thousands of the little creatures perished by
+means of this new invention of man, and the rest soon after were led
+away by their chiefs to seek some new deposit for the fruits of their
+industry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+             The sad butterfly,
+        Waving his lackered wings, darts quickly on,
+        And, by his free flight, counsels us to speed
+        For better lodgings, and a scene more sweet,
+        Than these dear borders offer us to-night.
+                                    SIMMS.
+
+
+It was noon before Ben and Gershom dared to commence the process of
+cutting and splitting the tree, in order to obtain the honey. Until
+then, the bees lingered around their fallen hive, and it would have been
+dangerous to venture beyond the smoke and heat, in order to accomplish
+the task. It is true, le Bourdon possessed several secrets, of more or
+less virtue, to drive off the bees when disposed to assault him, but
+no one that was as certain as a good fire, backed by a dense column of
+vapor. Various plants are thought to be so offensive to the insects,
+that they avoid even their odor; and the bee-hunter had faith in one or
+two of them; but none of the right sort happened now to be near, and he
+was obliged to trust, first to a powerful heat, and next to the vapor of
+damp wood.
+
+As there were axes, and wedges, and a beetle in the canoe, and Gershom
+was as expert with these implements as a master of fencing is with his
+foil, to say nothing of the skill of le Bourdon, the tree was soon
+laid open, and its ample stores of sweets exposed. In the course of the
+afternoon the honey was deposited in kegs, the kegs were transferred to
+the canoe, and the whole deposited in the chiente. The day had been one
+of toil, and when our two bordermen sat down near the spring, to take
+their evening meal, each felt glad that his work was done.
+
+“I believe this must be the last hive I line, this summer,” said le
+Bourdon, while eating his supper. “My luck has been good so far, but
+in troublesome times one had better not be too far from home. I am
+surprised, Waring, that you have ventured so far from your family, while
+the tidings are so gloomy.”
+
+“That's partly because you don't know ME, and partly because you don't
+know DOLLY. As for leaving hum, with anybody to kear for it, I should
+like to know who is more to the purpose than Dolly Waring? I haven't no
+idee that even bees would dare get upon HER! If they did, they'd soon
+get the worst on't Her tongue is all-powerful, to say nawthin' of her
+arms; and if the so'gers can only handle their muskets as she can handle
+a broom, there is no need of new regiments to carry on this war.”
+
+Now, nothing could be more false than this character; but a drunkard has
+little regard to what he says.
+
+“I am glad your garrison is so strong,” answered the beehunter,
+thoughtfully; “but mine is too weak to stay any longer, out here in
+the openings. Whiskey Centre, I intend to break up, and return to the
+settlement, before the red-skins break loose in earnest. If you will
+stay and lend me a hand to embark the honey and stores, and help
+to carry the canoe down the river, you shall be well paid for your
+trouble.”
+
+“Waal, I'd about as lief do that, as do anything else. Good jobs is
+scarce, out here in the wilderness, and when a body lights of one, he
+ought to profit by it. I come up here thinkin' to meet you, for I heer'n
+tell from a voyager that you was a-beeing it, out in the openin's, and
+there's nawthin' in natur' that Dolly takes to with a greater relish
+than good wild honey. 'Try whiskey,' I've told her a thousand times,
+'and you'll soon get to like THAT better than all the rest of creation';
+but not a drop could I ever get her, or Blossom, to swallow. It's true,
+that leaves so much the more for me; but I'm a companionable crittur,
+and don't think I've drunk as much as I want, unless I take it
+society-like. That's one reason I've taken so mightily to you, Bourdon;
+you're not much at a pull, but you an't downright afeared of a jug,
+neither.”
+
+The bee-hunter was glad to hear that all the family had not this man's
+vice, for he now plainly foresaw that the accidents of his position must
+bring him and these strangers much in contact, for some weeks, at least.
+Le Bourdon, though not absolutely “afraid of a jug,” as Whiskey Centre
+had expressed it, was decidedly a temperate man; drinking but seldom,
+and never to excess. He too well knew the hazards by which he was
+surrounded, to indulge in this way, even had he the taste for it; but he
+had no taste that way, one small jug of brandy forming his supply for a
+whole season. In these days of exaggeration in all things, exaggeration
+in politics, in religion, in temperance, in virtue, and even in
+education, by putting “new wine into old bottles,” that one little jug
+might have sufficed to give him a bad name; but five-and-thirty years
+ago men had more real independence than they now possess, and were
+not as much afraid of that croquemitaine, public opinion, as they
+are to-day. To be sure, it was little to le Bourdon's taste to make a
+companion of such a person as Whiskey Centre; but there was no choice.
+The man was an utter stranger to him; and the only means he possessed of
+making sure that he did not carry off the property that lay so much at
+his mercy, was by keeping near him. With many men, the bee-hunter would
+have been uneasy at being compelled to remain alone with them in the
+woods; for cases in which one had murdered another, in order to get
+possession of the goods, in these remote regions, were talked of, among
+the other rumors of the borders; but Gershom had that in his air and
+manner that rendered Ben confident his delinquencies, at the most, would
+scarcely reach bloodshed. Pilfer he might; but murder was a crime which
+he did not appear at all likely to commit.
+
+After supping in company, our two adventurers secured everything; and,
+retiring to the chiente, they went to sleep. No material disturbance
+occurred, but the night passed in tranquillity; the bee-hunter merely
+experiencing some slight interruption to his slumbers, from the unusual
+circumstance of having a companion. One as long accustomed to be alone
+as himself would naturally submit to some such sensation, our habits
+getting so completely the mastery as often to supplant even nature.
+
+The following morning the bee-hunter commenced his preparations for a
+change of residence. Had he not been discovered, it is probable that the
+news received from the Chippewa would not have induced him to abandon
+his present position, so early in the season; but he thought the risk of
+remaining was too great under all the circumstances. The Pottawattamie,
+in particular, was a subject of great distrust to him, and he believed
+it highly possible some of that old chief's tribe might be after his
+scalp ere many suns had risen. Gershom acquiesced in these opinions,
+and, as soon as his brain was less under the influence of liquor than
+was common with him, he appeared to be quite happy in having it in his
+power to form a species of alliance, offensive and defensive, with a
+man of his own color and origin. Great harmony now prevailed between the
+two, Gershom improving vastly in all the better qualities, the instant
+his intellect and feelings got to be a little released from the thraldom
+of the jug. His own immediate store of whiskey was quite exhausted, and
+le Bourdon kept the place in which his own small stock of brandy was
+secured a profound secret. These glimmerings of returning intellect,
+and of reviving principles, are by no means unusual with the sot, thus
+proving that “so long as there is life, there is hope,” for the moral,
+as well as for the physical being. What was a little remarkable, Gershom
+grew less vulgar, even in his dialect, as he grew more sober, showing
+that in all respects he was becoming a greatly improved person.
+
+The men were several hours in loading the canoe, not only all the
+stores and ammunition, but all the honey being transferred to it. The
+bee-hunter had managed to conceal his jug of brandy, reduced by this
+time to little more than a quart, within an empty powder-keg, into which
+he had crammed a beaver-skin or two, that he had taken, as it might be
+incidentally, in the course of his rambles. At length everything was
+removed and stowed in its proper place, on board the capacious canoe,
+and Gershom expected an announcement on the part of Ben of his readiness
+to embark. But there still remained one duty to perform. The beehunter
+had killed a buck only the day before the opening of our narrative, and
+shouldering a quarter, he had left the remainder of the animal suspended
+from the branches of a tree, near the place where it had been shot and
+cleaned. As venison might be needed before they could reach the mouth
+of the river, Ben deemed it advisable that he and Gershom should go
+and bring in the remainder of the carcass. The men started on this
+undertaking accordingly, leaving the canoe about two in the afternoon.
+
+The distance between the spot where the deer had been killed, and the
+chiente, was about three miles; which was the reason why the bee-hunter
+had not brought home the entire animal the day he killed it; the
+American woodsman often carrying his game great distances in preference
+to leaving it any length of time in the forest. In the latter case there
+is always danger from beasts of prey, which are drawn from afar by the
+scent of blood. Le Bourdon thought it possible they might now encounter
+wolves; though he had left the carcass of the deer so suspended as to
+place it beyond the reach of most of the animals of the wilderness. Each
+of the men, however, carried a rifle: and Hive was allowed to accompany
+them, by an act of grace on the part of his master.
+
+For the first half-hour, nothing occurred out of the usual course of
+events. The bee-hunter had been conversing freely with his companion,
+who, he rejoiced to find, manifested far more common sense, not to say
+good sense, than he had previously shown; and from whom he was deriving
+information touching the number of vessels, and the other movements on
+the lakes, that he fancied might be of use to himself when he started
+for Detroit. While thus engaged, and when distant only a hundred rods
+from the place where he had left the venison, le Bourdon was suddenly
+struck with the movements of the dog. Instead of doubling on his own
+tracks, and scenting right and left, as was the animal's wont, he was
+now advancing cautiously, with his head low, seemingly feeling his way
+with his nose, as if there was a strong taint in the wind.
+
+“Sartain as my name is Gershom,” exclaimed Waring, just after he and Ben
+had come to a halt, in order to look around them--“yonder is an Injin!
+The crittur' is seated at the foot of the large oak--hereaway, more
+to the right of the dog, and Hive has struck his scent. The fellow is
+asleep, with his rifle across his lap, and can't have much dread of
+wolves or bears!”
+
+“I see him,” answered le Bourdon, “and am as much surprised as grieved
+to find him there. It is a little remarkable that I should have so many
+visitors, just at this time, on my hunting-ground, when I never had
+any at all before yesterday. It gives a body an uncomfortable feeling,
+Waring, to live so much in a crowd! Well, well--I'm about to move, and
+it will matter little twenty-four hours hence.”
+
+“The chap's a Winnebago by his paint,” added Gershom--“but let's go up
+and give him a call.”
+
+The bee-hunter assented to this proposal, remarking, as they moved
+forward, that he did not think the stranger of the tribe just named;
+though he admitted that the use of paint was so general and loose among
+these warriors, as to render it difficult to decide.
+
+“The crittur' sleeps soundly!” exclaimed Gershom, stopping within ten
+yards of the Indian, to take another look at him.
+
+“He'll never awake,” put in the bee-hunter, solemnly--“the man is dead.
+See; there is blood on the side of his head, and a rifle-bullet has left
+its hole there.”
+
+Even while speaking, the bee-hunter advanced, and raising a sort of
+shawl, that once had been used as an ornament, and which had last
+been thrown carelessly over the head of its late owner, he exposed the
+well-known features of Elks-foot, the Pottawattamie, who had left them
+little more than twenty-four hours before! The warrior had been shot by
+a rifle-bullet directly through the temple, and had been scalped. The
+powder had been taken from his horn, and the bullets from his pouch;
+but, beyond this, he had not been plundered. The body was carefully
+placed against a tree, in a sitting attitude, the rifle was laid across
+its legs, and there it had been left, in the centre of the openings, to
+become food for beasts of prey, and to have its bones bleached by the
+snows and the rains!
+
+The bee-hunter shuddered, as he gazed at this fearful memorial of the
+violence against which even a wilderness could afford no sufficient
+protection. That Pigeonswing had slain his late fellow-guest, le Bourdon
+had no doubt, and he sickened at the thought. Although he had himself
+dreaded a good deal from the hostility of the Pottawattamie, he could
+have wished this deed undone. That there was a jealous distrust of each
+other between the two Indians had been sufficiently apparent; but the
+bee-hunter could not have imagined that it would so soon lead to results
+as terrible as these!
+
+After examining the body, and noting the state of things around it, the
+men proceeded, deeply impressed with the necessity, not only of their
+speedy removal, but of their standing by each other in that remote
+region, now that violence had so clearly broken out among the tribes.
+The bee-hunter had taken a strong liking to the Chippewa, and he
+regretted so much the more to think that he had done this deed. It was
+true, that such a state of things might exist as to justify an Indian
+warrior, agreeably to his own notions, in taking the life of any one of
+a hostile tribe; but le Bourdon wished it had been otherwise. A man
+of gentle and peaceable disposition himself, though of a profoundly
+enthusiastic temperament in his own peculiar way, he had ever avoided
+those scenes of disorder and bloodshed, which are of so frequent
+occurrence in the forest and on the prairies; and this was actually the
+first instance in which he had ever beheld a human body that had fallen
+by human hands. Gershom had seen more of the peculiar life of the
+frontiers than his companion, in consequence of having lived so closely
+in contact with the “fire-water”; but even HE was greatly shocked with
+the suddenness and nature of the Pottawattamie's end.
+
+No attempt was made to bury the remains of Elksfoot, inasmuch as
+our adventurers had no tools fit for such a purpose, and any merely
+superficial interment would have been a sort of invitation to the wolves
+to dig the body up again.
+
+“Let him lean ag'in' the tree,” said Waring, as they moved on toward the
+spot where the carcass of the deer was left, “and I'll engage nothin'
+touches him. There's that about the face of man, Bourdon, that skears
+the beasts; and if a body can only muster courage to stare them full in
+the eye, one single human can drive before him a whull pack of wolves.”
+
+“I've heard as much,” returned the bee-hunter, “but should not like
+to be the 'human' to try the experiment That the face of man may have
+terrors for a beast, I think likely; but hunger would prove more than
+a match for such fear. Yonder is our venison, Waring; safe where I left
+it.”
+
+The carcass of the deer was divided, and each man shouldering his
+burden, the two returned to the river, taking care to avoid the path
+that led by the body of the dead Indian. As both labored with much
+earnestness, everything was soon ready, and the canoe speedily left the
+shore. The Kalamazoo is not in general a swift and turbulent stream,
+though it has a sufficient current to carry away its waters without any
+appearance of sluggishness. Of course, this character is not uniform,
+reaches occurring in which the placid water is barely seen to move;
+and others, again, are found, in which something like rapids, and even
+falls, appear. But on the whole, and more especially in the part of the
+stream where it was, the canoe had little to disturb it, as it glided
+easily down, impelled by a light stroke of the paddle.
+
+The bee-hunter did not abandon his station without regret. He had chosen
+a most agreeable site for his chiente, consulting air, shade, water,
+verdure, and groves, as well as the chances of obtaining honey. In his
+regular pursuit he had been unusually fortunate; and the little pile of
+kegs in the centre of his canoe was certainly a grateful sight to his
+eyes. The honey gathered this season, moreover, had proved to be of an
+unusually delicious flavor, affording the promise of high prices and
+ready sales. Still, the bee-hunter left the place with profound regret.
+He loved his calling; he loved solitude to a morbid degree, perhaps; and
+he loved the gentle excitement that naturally attended his “bee-lining,”
+ his discoveries, and his gains. Of all the pursuits that are more or
+less dependent on the chances of the hunt and the field, that of
+the bee-hunter is of the most quiet and placid enjoyment. He has the
+stirring motives of uncertainty and doubt, without the disturbing
+qualities of bustle and fatigue; and, while his exercise is sufficient
+for health, and for the pleasures of the open air, it is seldom of a
+nature to weary or unnerve. Then the study of the little animal that
+is to be watched, and, if the reader will, plundered, is not without
+a charm for those who delight in looking into the wonderful arcana of
+nature. So great was the interest that le Bourdon sometimes felt in his
+little companions, that, on three several occasions that very summer,
+he had spared hives after having found them, because he had ascertained
+that they were composed of young bees, and had not yet got sufficiently
+colonized to render a new swarming more than a passing accident. With
+all this kindness of feeling toward his victims, Boden had nothing of
+the transcendental folly that usually accompanies the sentimentalism of
+the exaggerated, but his feelings and impulses were simple and direct,
+though so often gentle and humane. He knew that the bee, like all the
+other inferior animals of creation, was placed at the disposition
+of man, and did not scruple to profit by the power thus beneficently
+bestowed, though he exercised it gently, and with a proper
+discrimination between its use and its abuse.
+
+Neither of the men toiled much, as the canoe floated down the stream.
+Very slight impulses served to give their buoyant craft a reasonably
+swift motion, and the current itself was a material assistant. These
+circumstances gave an opportunity for conversation, as the canoe glided
+onward.
+
+“A'ter all,” suddenly exclaimed Waring, who had been examining the pile
+of kegs for some time in silence--“a'ter all, Bourdon, your trade is an
+oncommon one! A most extr'ornary and oncommon callin'!”
+
+“More so, think you, Gershom, than swallowing whiskey, morning, noon,
+and night?” answered the bee-hunter, with a quiet smile.
+
+“Aye, but that's not a reg'lar callin'; only a likin'! Now a man may
+have a likin' to a hundred things in which he don't deal. I set nothin'
+down as a business, which a man don't live by.”
+
+“Perhaps you're right, Waring. More die by whiskey than live by
+whiskey.”
+
+Whiskey Centre seemed struck with this remark, which was introduced so
+aptly, and was uttered so quietly. He gazed earnestly at his companion
+for near a minute, ere he attempted to resume the discourse.
+
+“Blossom has often said as much as this,” he then slowly rejoined; “and
+even Dolly has prophesized the same.”
+
+The bee-hunter observed that an impression had been made, and he thought
+it wisest to let the reproof already administered produce its effect,
+without endeavoring to add to its power. Waring sat with his chin on his
+breast, in deep thought, while his companion, for the first time since
+they had met, examined the features and aspect of the man. At first
+sight, Whiskey Centre certainly offered little that was inviting; but
+a closer study of his countenance showed that he had the remains of a
+singularly handsome man. Vulgar as were his forms of speech, coarse and
+forbidding as his face had become, through the indulgence which was his
+bane, there were still traces of this truth. His complexion had once
+been fair almost to effeminacy, his cheeks ruddy with health, and his
+blue eye bright and full of hope. His hair was light; and all these
+peculiarities strongly denoted his Saxon origin. It was not so much
+Anglo-Saxon as Americo-Saxon, that was to be seen in the physical
+outlines and hues of this nearly self-destroyed being. The heaviness
+of feature, the ponderousness of limb and movement, had all long
+disappeared from his race, most probably under the influence of climate,
+and his nose was prominent and graceful in outline, while his mouth
+and chin might have passed for having been under the chisel of some
+distinguished sculptor. It was, in truth, painful to examine that face,
+steeped as it was in liquor, and fast losing the impress left by
+nature. As yet, the body retained most of its power, the enemy having
+insidiously entered the citadel, rather than having actually subdued it.
+The bee-hunter sighed as he gazed at his moody companion, and wondered
+whether Blossom had aught of this marvellous comeliness of countenance,
+without its revolting accompaniments.
+
+All that afternoon, and the whole of the night that succeeded, did
+the canoe float downward with the current. Occasionally, some slight
+obstacle to its progress would present itself; but, on the whole, its
+advance was steady and certain. As the river necessarily followed the
+formation of the land, it was tortuous and irregular in its course,
+though its general direction was toward the northwest, or west a little
+northerly. The river-bottoms being much more heavily “timbered”--to
+use a woodsman term--than the higher grounds, there was little of the
+park-like “openings” on its immediate banks, though distant glimpses
+were had of many a glade and of many a charming grove.
+
+As the canoe moved toward its point of destination, the conversation did
+not lag between the bee-hunter and his companion. Each gave the other
+a sort of history of his life; for, now that the jug was exhausted,
+Gershom could talk not only rationally, but with clearness and force.
+Vulgar he was, and, as such, uninviting and often repulsive; still his
+early education partook of that peculiarity of New England which, if
+it do not make her children absolutely all they are apt to believe
+themselves to be, seldom leaves them in the darkness of a besotted
+ignorance. As usually happens with this particular race, Gershom
+had acquired a good deal for a man of his class in life; and this
+information, added to native shrewdness, enabled him to maintain his
+place in the dialogue with a certain degree of credit. He had a very
+lively perception--fancied or real--of all the advantages of being born
+in the land of the Puritans, deeming everything that came of the
+great “Blarney Stone” superior to everything else of the same nature
+elsewhere; and, while much disposed to sneer and rail at all other
+parts of the country, just as much indisposed to “take,” as disposed
+to “give.” Ben Boden soon detected this weakness in his companion's
+character, a weakness so very general as scarce to need being pointed
+out to any observant man, and which is almost inseparable from half-way
+intelligence and provincial self-admiration; and Ben was rather inclined
+to play on it, whenever Gershom laid himself a little more open than
+common on the subject. On the whole, however, the communications were
+amicable; and the dangers of the wilderness rendering the parties
+allies, they went their way with an increasing confidence in each
+other's support. Gershom, now that he was thoroughly sober, could impart
+much to Ben that was useful; while Ben knew a great deal that even his
+companion, coming as he did from the chosen people, was not sorry to
+learn. As has been, already intimated, each communicated to the other,
+in the course of this long journey on the river, an outline of his past
+life.
+
+The history of Gershom Waring was one of every-day occurrence. He was
+born of a family in humble circumstances in Massachusetts, a community
+in which, however, none are so very humble as to be beneath the paternal
+watchfulness of the State. The common schools had done their duty by
+him; while, according to his account of the matter, his only sister had
+fallen into the hands of a female relative, who was enabled to impart
+an instruction slightly superior to that which is to be had from the
+servants of the public. After a time, the death of this relative, and
+the marriage of Gershom, brought the brother and sister together again,
+the last still quite young. From this period the migratory life of
+the family commenced. Previously to the establishment of manufactories
+within her limits, New England systematically gave forth her increase
+to the States west and south of her own territories. A portion of this
+increase still migrates, and will probably long continue so to do; but
+the tide of young women, which once flowed so steadily from that
+region, would now seem to have turned, and is setting back in a flood
+of “factory girls.” But the Warings lived at too early a day to feel
+the influence of such a pass of civilization, and went west, almost as
+a matter of course. With the commencement of his migratory life, Gershom
+began to “dissipate,” as it has got to be matter of convention to term
+“drinking.” Fortunately, Mrs. Waring had no children, thus lessening in
+a measure the privations to which those unlucky females were obliged to
+submit. When Gershom left his birthplace he had a sum of money exceeding
+a thousand dollars in amount, the united means of himself and sister;
+but, by the time he had reached Detroit, it was reduced to less than
+a hundred. Several years, however, had been consumed by the way, the
+habits growing worse and the money vanishing, as the family went further
+and further toward the skirts of society. At length Gershom attached
+himself to a sutler, who was going up to Michilimackinac, with a party
+of troops; and finally he left that place to proceed, in a canoe of his
+own, to the head of Lake Michigan, where was a post on the present site
+of Chicago, which was then known as Fort Dearborn.
+
+In quitting Mackinac for Chicago, Waring had no very settled plan. His
+habits had completely put him out of favor at the former place; and
+a certain restlessness urged him to penetrate still farther into the
+wilderness. In all his migrations and wanderings the two devoted females
+followed his fortunes; the one because she was his wife, the other
+because she was his sister. When the canoe reached the mouth of the
+Kalamazoo, a gale of wind drove it into the river; and finding a
+deserted cabin, ready built, to receive him, Gershom landed, and had
+been busy with the rifle for the last fortnight, the time he had been
+on shore. Hearing from some voyageurs who had gone down the lake that a
+bee-hunter was up the river, he had followed the stream in its windings
+until he fell in with le Bourdon.
+
+Such is an outline of the account which Whiskey Centre gave of himself.
+It is true, he said very little of his propensity to drink, but this his
+companion was enabled to conjecture from the context of his narrative,
+as well as from what he had seen. It was very evident to the bee-hunter,
+that the plans of both parties for the summer were about to be seriously
+deranged by the impending hostilities, and that some decided movement
+might be rendered necessary, even for the protection of their lives.
+This much he communicated to Gershom, who heard his opinions with
+interest, and a concern in behalf of his wife and sister that at least
+did some credit to his heart. For the first time in many months, indeed,
+Gershom was now PERFECTLY sober, a circumstance that was solely owing to
+his having had no access to liquor for eight-and-forty hours. With
+the return of a clear head, came juster notions of the dangers and
+difficulties in which he had involved the two self-devoted women who
+had accompanied him so far, and who really seemed ready to follow him in
+making the circuit of the earth.
+
+“It's troublesome times,” exclaimed Whiskey Centre, when his
+companion had just ended one of his strong and lucid statements of the
+embarrassments that might environ them, ere they could get back to the
+settled portions of the country--“it's troublesome times, truly! I see
+all you would say, Bourdon, and wonder I ever got my foot so deep
+into it, without thinkin' of all, beforehand! The best on us will make
+mistakes, hows'ever, and I suppose I've been called on to make mine, as
+well as another.”
+
+“My trade speaks for itself,” returned the bee-hunter, “and any man can
+see why one who looks for bees must come where they're to be found;
+but I will own, Gershom, that your speculation lies a little beyond my
+understanding. Now, you tell me you have two full barrels of whiskey--”
+
+“Had, Bourdon--HAD--one of them is pretty nearly half used, I am
+afeared.”
+
+“Well, HAD, until you began to be your own customer. But here you are,
+squatted at the mouth of the Kalamazoo, with a barrel and a half of
+liquor, and nobody but yourself to drink it! Where the profits are to
+come from, exceeds Pennsylvany calculations; perhaps a Yankee can tell.”
+
+“You forget the Injins. I met a man at Mackinaw, who only took out
+in his canoe ONE barrel, and he brought in skins enough to set up a
+grocery, at Detroit. But I was on the trail of the soldiers, and meant
+to make a business on't, at Fort Dearborn. What between the soldiers and
+the redskins, a man might sell gallons a day, and at fair prices.”
+
+“It's a sorry business at the best, Whiskey; and now you're fairly
+sober, if you'll take my advice you'll remain so. Why not make up your
+mind, like a man, and vow you'll never touch another drop.”
+
+“Maybe I will, when these two barrels is emptied--I've often thought
+of doin' some sich matter; and, ag'in and ag'in, has Dolly and Blossom
+advised me to fall into the plan; but it's hard to give up old habits,
+all at once. If I could only taper off on a pint a day, for a year
+or so, I think I might come round in time. I know as well as you do,
+Bourdon, that sobriety is a good thing, and dissipation a bad thing; but
+it's hard to give up all at once.”
+
+Lest the instructed reader should wonder at a man's using the term
+“dissipation” in a wilderness, it may be well to explain that, in common
+American parlance, “dissipation” has got to mean “drunkenness.” Perhaps
+half of the whole country, if told that a man, or a woman, might be
+exceedingly dissipated and never swallow anything stronger than water,
+would stoutly deny the justice of applying the word to such a person.
+This perversion of the meaning of a very common term has probably arisen
+from the circumstance that there is very little dissipation in the
+country that is not connected with hard drinking. A dissipated woman
+is a person almost unknown in America; or when the word is applied, it
+means a very different degree of misspending of time, from that which
+is understood by the use of the same reproach in older and more
+sophisticated states of society. The majority rules in this country,
+and with the majority excess usually takes this particular aspect;
+refinement having very little connection with the dissipation of the
+masses, anywhere.
+
+The excuses of his companion, however, caused le Bourdon to muse, more
+than might otherwise have been the case, on Whiskey Centre's condition.
+Apart from all considerations connected with the man's own welfare, and
+the happiness of his family, there were those which were inseparable
+from the common safety, in the present state of the country. Boden was a
+man of much decision and firmness of character, and he was clear-headed
+as to causes and consequences. The practice of living alone had induced
+in him the habits of reflection; and the self-reliance produced by his
+solitary life, a life of which he was fond almost to a passion, caused
+him to decide warily, but to act promptly. As they descended the river
+together, therefore, he went over the whole of Gershom Waring's case and
+prospects, with great impartiality and care, and settled in his own mind
+what ought to be done, as well as the mode of doing it. He kept his own
+counsel, however, discussing all sorts of subjects that were of interest
+to men in their situation, as they floated down the stream, avoiding any
+recurrence to this theme, which was possibly of more importance to them
+both, just then, than any other that could be presented.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+      He was a wight of high renown,
+        And thou art but of low degree;
+     'Tis pride that pulls the country down--
+        Then take thine auld cloak about thee.
+                                     SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+The canoe did not reach the mouth of the river until near evening of
+the third day of its navigation. It was not so much the distance, though
+that was considerable, as it was the obstacles that lay in the way,
+which brought the travellers to the end of their journey at so late a
+period. As they drew nearer and nearer to the place where Gershom had
+left his wife and sister, le Bourdon detected in his companion signs
+of an interest in the welfare of the two last, as well as a certain
+feverish uneasiness lest all might not be well with them, that said
+something in favor of his heart, whatever might be urged against his
+prudence and care in leaving them alone in so exposed a situation.
+
+“I'm afeard a body don't think as much as he ought to do, when liquor is
+in him,” said Whiskey Centre, just as the canoe doubled the last point,
+and the hut came into view; “else I never could have left two women by
+them-selves in so lonesome a place. God be praised! there is the chiente
+at any rate; and there's a smoke comin' out of it, if my eyes don't
+deceive me! Look, Bourdon, for I can scarcely see at all.”
+
+“There is the house; and, as you say, there is certainly a smoke rising
+from it.”
+
+“There's comfort in that!” exclaimed the truant husband and brother,
+with a sigh that seemed to relieve a very loaded breast. “Yes, there's
+comfort in that! If there's a fire, there must be them that lighted it;
+and a fire at this season, too, says that there's somethin' to eat,
+I should be sorry, Bourdon, to think I'd left the women folks without
+food; though, to own the truth, I don't remember whether I did or not.”
+
+“The man who drinks, Gershom, has commonly but a very poor memory.”
+
+“That's true--yes, I'll own that; and I wish it warn't as true as it is;
+but reason and strong drink do NOT travel far in company--”
+
+Gershom suddenly ceased speaking; dropping his paddle like one beset by
+a powerless weakness. The bee-hunter saw that he was overcome by some
+unexpected occurrence, and that the man's feelings were keenly connected
+with the cause, whatever that might be. Looking eagerly around in quest
+of the explanation, le Bourdon saw a female standing on a point of land
+that commanded a view of the river and its banks for a considerable
+distance, unequivocally watching the approach of the canoe.
+
+“There she is,” said Gershom, in a subdued tone--“that's Dolly; and
+there she has been, I'll engage, half the time of my absence, waitin' to
+get the first glimpse of my miserable body, as it came back to her. Sich
+is woman, Bourdon; and God forgive me, if I have ever forgotten their
+natur', when I was bound to remember it. But we all have our weak
+moments, at times, and I trust mine will not be accounted ag'in' me more
+than them of other men.”
+
+“This is a beautiful sight, Gershom, and it almost makes me your friend!
+The man for whom a woman can feel so much concern--that a woman--nay,
+women; for you tell me your sister is one of the family--but the man
+whom DECENT women can follow to a place like this, must have some good
+p'ints about him. That woman is a-weepin'; and it must be for joy at
+your return.”
+
+“'Twould be jist like Dolly to do so--she's done it before, and would be
+likely to do so ag'in,” answered Gershom, nearly choked by the effort he
+made to speak without betraying his own emotion. “Put the canoe into the
+p'int, and let me land there. I must go up and say a kind word to poor
+Dolly; while you can paddle on, and let Blossom know I'm near at hand.”
+
+The bee-hunter complied in silence, casting curious glances upward at
+the woman while doing so, in order to ascertain what sort of a female
+Whiskey Centre could possibly have for a wife. To his surprise, Dorothy
+Waring was not only decently, but she was neatly clad, appearing as if
+she had studiously attended to her personal appearance, in the hope of
+welcoming her wayward and unfortunate husband back to his forest home.
+This much le Bourdon saw by a hasty glance as his companion landed, for
+a feeling of delicacy prevented him from taking a longer look at the
+woman. As Gershom ascended the bank to meet his wife, le Bourdon paddled
+on, and landed just below the grove in which was the chiente. It
+might have been his long exclusion from all of the other sex, and most
+especially from that portion of it which retains its better looks, but
+the being which now met the bee-hunter appeared to him to belong to
+another world, rather than to that in which he habitually dwelt. As
+this was Margery Waring, who was almost uniformly called Blossom by
+her acquaintances, and who is destined to act an important part in this
+legend of the “openings,” it may be well to give a brief description
+of her age, attire, and personal appearance, at the moment when she was
+first seen by le Bourdon.
+
+In complexion, color of the hair, and outline of face, Margery Waring
+bore a strong family resemblance to her brother. In spite of exposure,
+and the reflection of the sun's rays from the water of the lake,
+however, HER skin was of a clear, transparent white, such as one might
+look for in a drawing-room, but hardly expect to find in a wilderness;
+while the tint of her lips, cheeks, and, in a diminished degree, of her
+chin and ears, were such as one who wielded a pencil might long endeavor
+to catch without succeeding. Her features had the chiselled outline
+which was so remarkable in her brother; while in HER countenance, in
+addition to the softened expression of her sex and years, there was
+nothing to denote any physical or moral infirmity, to form a drawback
+to its witchery and regularity. Her eyes were blue, and her hair as near
+golden as human tresses well could be. Exercise, a life of change, and
+of dwelling much in the open air, had given to this unusually charming
+girl not only health, but its appearance. Still, she was in no respect
+coarse, or had anything in the least about her that indicated her being
+accustomed to toil, with some slight exception in her hands, perhaps,
+which were those of a girl who did not spare herself, when there was an
+opportunity to be of use. In this particular, the vagrant life of her
+brother had possibly been of some advantage to her, as it had prevented
+her being much employed in the ordinary toil of her condition in life.
+Still, Margery Waring had that happy admixture of delicacy and physical
+energy, which is, perhaps, oftener to be met in the American girl of her
+class, than in the girl of almost any other nation; and far oftener than
+in the young American of her sex, who is placed above the necessity of
+labor.
+
+As a stranger approached her, the countenance of this fair creature
+expressed both surprise and satisfaction; surprise that any one should
+have been met by Gershom, in such a wilderness, and satisfaction that
+the stranger proved to be a white man, and seemingly one who did not
+drink.
+
+“You are Blossom,” said the bee-hunter, taking the hand of the
+half-reluctant girl, in a way so respectful and friendly that she could
+not refuse it, even while she doubted the propriety of thus receiving an
+utter stranger--“the Blossom of whom Gershom Waring speaks so often, and
+so affectionately?”
+
+“You are, then, my brother's friend,” answered Margery, smiling so
+sweetly, that le Bourdon gazed on her with delight. “We are SO glad
+that he has come back! Five terrible nights have sister and I been here
+alone, and we have believed every bush was a red man!”
+
+“That danger is over, now, Blossom; but there is still an enemy near you
+that must be overcome.”
+
+“An enemy! There is no one here, but Dolly and myself. No one has been
+near us, since Gershom went after the bee-hunter, whom we heard was out
+in the openings. Are you that bee-bunter?”
+
+“I am, beautiful Blossom; and I tell you there is an enemy here, in your
+cabin, that must be looked to.”
+
+“We fear no enemies but the red men, and we have seen none of them since
+we reached this river. What is the name of the enemy you so dread, and
+where is he to be found?”
+
+“His name is Whiskey, and he is kept somewhere in this hut, in casks.
+Show me the place, that I may destroy him, before his friend comes to
+his assistance.”
+
+A gleam of bright intelligence flashed into the face of the beautiful
+young creature. First she reddened almost to scarlet; then her face
+became pale as death. Compressing her lips intensely, she stood
+irresolute--now gazing at the pleasing and seemingly well-disposed
+stranger before her, now looking earnestly toward the still distant
+forms of her brother and sister, which were slowly advancing in the
+direction of the cabin.
+
+“Dare you?” Margery at length asked, pointing toward her brother.
+
+“I dare: he is now quite sober, and may be reasoned with. For the sake
+of us all, let us profit by this advantage.”
+
+“He keeps the liquor in two casks that you will find under the shed,
+behind the hut.”
+
+This said, the girl covered her face with both her hands, and sunk on a
+stool, as if afraid to be a witness of that which was to follow. As for
+le Bourdon, he did not delay a moment, but passed out of the cabin by a
+second door, that opened in its rear. There were the two barrels, and
+by their side an axe. His first impulse was to dash in the heads of
+the casks where they stood; but a moment's reflection told him that the
+odor, so near the cabin, would be unpleasant to every one, and might
+have a tendency to exasperate the owner of the liquor. He cast about
+him, therefore, for the means of removing the casks, in order to stave
+them, at a distance from the dwelling.
+
+Fortunately, the cabin of Whiskey Centre stood on the brow of a sharp
+descent, at the bottom of which ran a brawling brook. At another moment,
+le Bourdon would have thought of saving the barrels; but time pressed,
+and he could not delay. Seizing the barrel next to him, he rolled it
+without difficulty to the brow of the declivity, and set it off with
+a powerful shove of his foot. It was the half-empty cask, and away it
+went, the liquor it contained washing about as it rolled over and over,
+until hitting a rock about half-way down the declivity, the hoops gave
+way, when the staves went over the little precipice, and the water of
+the stream was tumbling through all that remained of the cask, at the
+next instant. A slight exclamation of delight behind him caused the
+bee-hunter to look round, and he saw Margery watching his movement
+with an absorbed interest. Her smile was one of joy, not unmingled
+with terror; and she rather whispered than said aloud--“The other--the
+other--THAT is full--be quick; there is no time to lose.” The bee-hunter
+seized the second cask and rolled it toward the brow of the rocks. It
+was not quite as easily handled as the other barrel, but his strength
+sufficed, and it was soon bounding down the declivity after its
+companion. The second cask hit the same rock as the first, whence it
+leaped off the precipice, and, aided by its greater momentum, it was
+literally dashed in pieces at its base.
+
+Not only was this barrel broken into fragments, but its hoops and staves
+were carried down the torrent, driving before them those of the sister
+cask, until the whole were swept into the lake, which was some distance
+from the cabin.
+
+“That job is well done!” exclaimed le Bourdon, when the last fragment of
+the wreck was taken out of sight. “No man will ever turn himself into a
+beast by means of that liquor.”
+
+“God be praised!” murmured Margery. “He is SO different, stranger, when
+he has been drinking, from what he is when he has not! You have been
+sent by Providence to do us this good.”
+
+“I can easily believe that, for it is so with us all. But you must
+not call me stranger, sweet Margery; for, now that you and I have this
+secret between us, I am a stranger no longer.”
+
+The girl smiled and blushed; then she seemed anxious to ask a question.
+In the mean time they left the shed, and took seats, in waiting for the
+arrival of Gershom and his wife. It was not long ere the last entered;
+the countenance of the wife beaming with a satisfaction she made no
+effort to conceal. Dolly was not as beautiful as her sister-in-law;
+still, she was a comely woman, though one who had been stricken by
+sorrow. She was still young, and might have been in the pride of her
+good looks, had it not been for the manner in which she had grieved over
+the fall of Gershom. The joy that gladdens a woman's heart, however,
+was now illuminating her countenance, and she welcomed le Bourdon most
+cordially, as if aware that he had been of service to her husband. For
+months she had not seen Gershom quite himself, until that evening.
+
+“I have told Dolly all our adventur's, Bourdon,” cried Gershom, as
+soon as the brief greetings were over, “and she tells me all's right,
+hereabouts. Three canoe-loads of Injins passed along shore, goin' up the
+lake, she tells me, this very a'ternoon; but they didn't see the smoke,
+the fire bein' out, and must have thought the hut empty; if indeed, they
+knew anythin' of it, at all.”
+
+“The last is the most likely,” remarked Margery; “for I watched them
+narrowly from the beeches on the shore, and there was no pointing, or
+looking up, as would have happened had there been any one among them who
+could show the others a cabin. Houses an't so plenty, in this part of
+the country, that travellers pass without turning round to look at them.
+An Injin has curiosity as well as a white man, though he manages so
+often to conceal it.”
+
+“Didn't you say, Blossom, that one of the canoes was much behind the
+others, and that a warrior in that canoe DID look up toward this grove,
+as if searching for the cabin?” asked Dorothy.
+
+“Either it was so, or my fears made it SEEM so. The two canoes that
+passed first were well filled with Injins, each having eight in it;
+while the one that came last held but four warriors. They were a mile
+apart, and the last canoe seemed to be trying to overtake the others.
+I did think that nothing but their haste prevented the men in the last
+canoe from landing; but my fears may have made that seem so that was not
+so.”
+
+As the cheek of the charming girl flushed with excitement, and her race
+became animated, Margery appeared marvellously handsome; more so, the
+bee-hunter fancied, than any other female he had ever before seen. But
+her words impressed him quite as much as her looks; for he at once saw
+the importance of such an event, to persons in their situation. The
+wind was rising on the lake, and it was ahead for the canoes; should the
+savages feel the necessity of making a harbor, they might return to the
+mouth of the Kalamazoo; a step that would endanger all their lives, in
+the event of these Indians proving to belong to those, whom there
+was now reason to believe were in British pay. In times of peace, the
+intercourse between the whites and the red men was usually amicable,
+and seldom led to violence, unless through the effects of liquor; but, a
+price being placed on scalps, a very different state of things might be
+anticipated, as a consequence of the hostilities. This was then a matter
+to be looked to; and, as evening was approaching, no time was to be
+lost.
+
+The shores of Michigan are generally low, nor are harbors either
+numerous, or very easy of access. It would be difficult, indeed, to
+find in any other part of the world, so great an extent of coast that
+possesses so little protection for the navigator, as that of this very
+lake. There are a good many rivers, it is true, but usually they have
+bars, and are not easy of entrance. This is the reason why that very
+convenient glove, the Constitution, which can be made to fit any hand,
+has been discovered to have an extra finger in it, which points out a
+mode by which the federal government can create ports wherever nature
+has forgotten to perform this beneficent office. It is a little
+extraordinary that the fingers of so many of the great “expounders” turn
+out to be “thumbs,” however, exhibiting clumsiness, rather than that
+adroit lightness which usually characterizes the dexterity of men who
+are in the habit of rummaging other people's pockets, for their own
+especial purposes. It must be somewhat up-hill work to persuade any
+disinterested and clear-headed man, that a political power to “regulate
+commerce” goes the length of making harbors; the one being in a great
+measure a moral, while the other is exclusively a physical agency; any
+more than it goes the length of making ware-houses, and cranes, and
+carts, and all the other physical implements for carrying on trade. Now,
+what renders all this “thumbing” of the Constitution so much the more
+absurd, is the fact, that the very generous compact interested does
+furnish a means, by which the poverty of ports on the great lakes may
+be remedied, without making any more unnecessary rents in the great
+national glove. Congress clearly possesses the power to create and
+maintain a navy, which includes the power to create all sorts of
+necessary physical appliances; and, among others, places of refuge for
+that navy, should they be actually needed. As a vessel of war requires
+a harbor, and usually a better harbor than a merchant-vessel, it strikes
+us the “expounders” would do well to give this thought a moment's
+attention. Behind it will be found the most unanswerable argument in
+favor of the light-houses, too.
+
+But, to return to the narrative: the Kalamazoo could be entered by
+canoes, though it offered no very available shelter for a vessel of any
+size. There was no other shelter for the savages for several miles to
+the southward; and, should the wind increase, of which there were strong
+indications, it was not only possible, but highly probable, that the
+canoes would return. According to the account of the females, they
+had passed only two hours before, and the breeze had been gradually
+gathering strength ever since. It was not unlikely, indeed, that the
+attention paid to the river by the warrior in the last canoe may have
+had reference to this very state of the weather; and his haste to
+overtake his companions been connected with a desire to induce them to
+seek a shelter. All this presented itself to the beehunter's mind, at
+once; and it was discussed between the members of the party, freely, and
+not without some grave apprehensions.
+
+There was one elevated point--elevated comparatively, if not in a very
+positive sense--whence the eye could command a considerable distance
+along the lake shore. Thither Margery now hastened to look after the
+canoes. Boden accompanied her; and together they proceeded, side by
+side, with a new-born but lively and increasing confidence, that was all
+the greater, in consequence of their possessing a common secret.
+
+“Brother must be much better than he was,” the girl observed, as they
+hurried on, “for he has not once been into the shed to look at the
+barrels! Before he went into the openings, he never entered the house
+without drinking; and sometimes he would raise the cup to his mouth as
+often as three times in the first half-hour. Now, he does not seem even
+to think of it!”
+
+“It may be well that he can find nothing to put into his cup, should he
+fall into his old ways. One is never sure of a man of such habits, until
+he is placed entirely out of harm's way.”
+
+“Gershom is such a different being when he has not been drinking!”
+ rejoined the sister, in a touching manner. “We love him, and strive to
+do all we can to keep him up, but it IS hard.”
+
+“I am surprised that YOU should have come into this wilderness with any
+one of bad habits.”
+
+“Why not? He is my brother, and I have no parents--he is all to me: and
+what would become of Dorothy if I were to quit her, too! She has lost
+most of her friends, since Gershom fell into these ways, and it would
+quite break her heart, did I desert her.”
+
+“All this speaks well for you, pretty Margery, but it is not the less
+surprising--ah, there is my canoe, in plain sight of all who enter the
+river; THAT must be concealed, Injins or no Injins.”
+
+“It is only a step further to the place where we can get a lookout. Just
+there, beneath the burr-oak. Hours and hours have I sat on that spot,
+with my sewing, while Gershom was gone into the openings.”
+
+“And Dolly--where was she while you were here?”
+
+“Poor Dolly!--I do think she passed quite half her time up at the
+beech-tree, where you first saw her, looking if brother was not coming
+home. It is a cruel thing to a wife to have a truant husband!”
+
+“Which I hope may never be your case, pretty Margery, and which I think
+never CAN.”
+
+Margery did not answer: but the speech must have been heard, uttered
+as it was in a much lower tone of voice than the young man had hitherto
+used; for the charming maiden looked down and blushed. Fortunately,
+the two now soon arrived at the tree, and their conversation naturally
+reverted to the subject which had brought them there. Three canoes were
+in sight, close in with the land, but so distant as to render it for
+some time doubtful which way they were moving. At first, the bee-hunter
+said that they were still going slowly to the southward; but he
+habitually carried his little glass, and, on levelling that, it was
+quite apparent that the savages were paddling before the wind, and
+making for the mouth of the river. This was a very grave fact; and, as
+Blossom flew to communicate it to her brother and his wife, le Bourdon
+moved toward his own canoe, and looked about for a place of concealment.
+
+Several considerations had to be borne in mind, in disposing of the
+canoes; for that of Gershom was to be secreted, as well as that of the
+bee-hunter. A tall aquatic plant, that is termed wild rice, and which
+we suppose to be the ordinary rice-plant, unimproved by tillage, grows
+spontaneously about the mouths and on the flats of most of the rivers
+of the part of Michigan of which we are writing; as, indeed, it is to
+be found in nearly all the shallow waters of those regions. There was
+a good deal of this rice at hand; and the bee-hunter, paddling his own
+canoe and towing the other, entered this vegetable thicket, choosing a
+channel that had been formed by some accident of nature, and which wound
+through the herbage in a way soon to conceal all that came within its
+limits. These channels were not only numerous, but exceedingly winding;
+and the bee-hunter had no sooner brought his canoes to the firm ground
+and fastened them there, than he ascended a tree, and studied the
+windings of these narrow passages, until he had got a general idea of
+their direction and characters. This precaution taken, he hurried back
+to the hut.
+
+“Well, Gershom, have you settled on the course to be taken?” were the
+first words uttered by the bee-hunter when he rejoined the family of
+Whiskey Centre.
+
+“We haven't,” answered the husband. “Sister begs us to quit the chiente,
+for the Indians must soon be here; but wife seems to think that she MUST
+be safe, now I'm at home ag'in.”
+
+“Then wife is wrong, and sister is right. If you will take my advice,
+you will hide all your effects in the woods, and quit the cabin as soon
+as possible. The Injins cannot fail to see this habitation, and will be
+certain to destroy all they find in it, and that they do not carry off.
+Besides, the discovery of the least article belonging to a white
+man will set them on our trail; for scalps will soon bear a price at
+Montreal. In half an hour, all that is here can be removed into the
+thicket that is luckily so near; and by putting out the fire with care,
+and using proper caution, we may give the place such a deserted look,
+that the savages will suspect nothing.”
+
+“If they enter the river, Bourdon, they will not camp out with a wigwam
+so near by, and should they come here, what is to prevent their seein'
+the footprints we shall leave behind us?”
+
+“The night, and that only. Before morning their own footsteps will be
+so plenty as to deceive them. Luckily we all wear moccasins, which is a
+great advantage just now. But every moment is precious, and we should
+be stirring. Let the women take the beds and bedding, while you and I
+shoulder this chest. Up it goes, and away with it!”
+
+Gershom had got to be so much under his companion's influence, that he
+complied, though his mind suggested various objections to the course
+taken, to which his tongue gave utterance as they busied themselves in
+this task. The effects of Whiskey Centre had been gradually diminishing
+in quantity, as well as in value, for the last three years, and were
+now of no great amount, in any sense. Still there were two chests, one
+large, and one small. The last contained all that a generous regard for
+the growing wants of the family had left to Margery; while the first
+held the joint wardrobes of the husband and wife, with a few other
+articles that were considered as valuable. Among other things were half
+a dozen of very thin silver tea-spoons, which had fallen to Gershom on
+a division of family plate. The other six were carefully wrapped up in
+paper and put in the till of Margery's chest, being her portion of this
+species of property. The Americans, generally, have very little plate;
+though here and there marked exceptions do exist; nor do the humbler
+classes lay out much of their earnings in jewelry, while they commonly
+dress far beyond their means in all other ways. In this respect, the
+European female of the same class in life frequently possesses as much
+in massive golden personal ornaments as would make an humble little
+fortune, while her attire is as homely as cumbrous petticoats, coarse
+cloth, and a vile taste can render it. On the other hand, the American
+matron that has not a set--one half-dozen--of silver tea-spoons must
+be poor indeed, and can hardly be said to belong to the order of
+housekeepers at all. By means of a careful mother, both Gershom and his
+sister had the half-dozen mentioned; and they were kept more as sacred
+memorials of past and better days than as articles of any use. The
+household goods of Waring would have been limited by his means of
+transportation, if not by his poverty. Two common low-post maple
+bedsteads were soon uncorded and carried off, as were the beds and
+bedding. There was scarcely any crockery, pewter and tin being its
+substitutes; and as for chairs there was only one, and that had rockers:
+a practice of New England that has gradually diffused itself over the
+whole country, looking down ridicule, the drilling of boarding-schools,
+the comments of elderly ladies of the old school, the sneers of nurses,
+and, in a word, all that venerable ideas of decorum could suggest, until
+this appliance of domestic ease has not only fairly planted itself in
+nearly every American dwelling, but in a good many of Europe also!
+
+It required about twenty minutes for the party to clear the cabin of
+every article that might induce an Indian to suspect the presence of
+white men. The furniture was carried to a sufficient distance to be
+safe from everything but a search; and care was had to avoid as much as
+possible making a trail, to lead the savages to the place selected for
+the temporary storeroom. This was merely a close thicket, into which
+there was a narrow but practicable entrance on the side the least likely
+to be visited. When all was accomplished the four went to the lookout to
+ascertain how far the canoes had come. It was soon ascertained that they
+were within a mile, driving down before a strong breeze and following
+sea, and impelled by as many paddles as there were living beings in
+them. Ten minutes would certainly bring them up with the bar, and five
+more fairly within the river. The question now arose, where the party
+was to be concealed during the stay of the savages. Dolly, as was
+perhaps natural for the housewife, wished to remain by her worldly
+goods, and pretty Margery had a strong feminine leaning to do the same.
+But neither of the men approved of the plan. It was risking too much in
+one spot; and a suggestion that the bee-hunter was not long in making
+prevailed.
+
+It will be remembered that le Bourdon had carried the canoes within
+the field of wild rice, and bestowed them there with a good deal of
+attention to security. Now these canoes offered, in many respects,
+better places of temporary refuge, under all the circumstances, than
+any other that could readily be found on shore. They were dry; and by
+spreading skins, of which Boden had so many, comfortable beds might be
+made for the females, which would be easily protected from the night air
+and dews by throwing a rug over the gunwales. Then, each canoe contained
+many articles that would probably be wanted; that of the bee-hunter in
+particular furnishing food in abundance, as well as diverse other things
+that would be exceedingly useful to persons in their situation. The
+great advantage of the canoes, however, in the mind of le Bourdon, was
+the facilities they offered for flight. He hardly hoped that Indian
+sagacity would be so far blinded as to prevent the discovery of the
+many footsteps they must have left in their hurried movements, and he
+anticipated that with the return of day something would occur to render
+it necessary for them to seek safety by a stealthy removal from the
+spot. This might be done, he both hoped and believed, under cover of the
+rice, should sufficient care be taken to avoid exposure. In placing the
+canoes, he had used the precaution to leave them where they could not
+be seen from the cabin or its vicinity, or, indeed, from any spot in the
+vicinity of the ground that the savages would be likely to visit during
+their stay. All these reasons le Bourdon now rapidly laid before his
+companions, and to the canoes the whole party retired as fast as they
+could walk.
+
+There was great judgment displayed on the part of the bee-hunter in
+selecting the wild rice as a place of shelter. At that season it was
+sufficiently grown to afford a complete screen to everything within it
+that did not exceed the height of a man, or which was not seen from some
+adjacent elevation. Most of the land near the mouth of the river was
+low, and the few spots which formed exceptions had been borne in mind
+when the canoes were taken into the field. But just as Gershom was on
+the point of putting a foot into his own canoe, with a view to arrange
+it for the reception of his wife, he drew back, and exclaimed after the
+manner of one to whom a most important idea suddenly occurs:
+
+“Land's sake! I've forgotten all about them barrels! They'll fall into
+the hands of the savages, and an awful time they'll make with them! Let
+me pass, Dolly; I must look after the barrels this instant.”
+
+While the wife gently detained her eager husband, the bee-hunter quietly
+asked to what barrels he alluded.
+
+“The whiskey casks,” was the answer. “There's two on 'em in the shed
+behind the hut, and whiskey enough to set a whole tribe in commotion. I
+wonder I should have overlooked the whiskey!”
+
+“It is a sign of great improvement, friend Waring, and will lead to no
+bad consequences,” returned le Bourdon, coolly. “I foresaw the danger,
+and rolled the casks down the hill, where they were dashed to pieces in
+the brook, and the liquor has long since been carried into the lake in
+the shape of grog.”
+
+Waring seemed astounded; but was so completely mystified as not to
+suspect the truth. That his liquor should be hopelessly lost was bad
+enough; but even that was better than to have it drunk by savages
+without receiving any re-turns. After groaning and lamenting over the
+loss for a few minutes, he joined the rest of the party in making some
+further dispositions, which le Bourdon deemed prudent, if not necessary.
+
+It had occurred to the bee-hunter to divide his own cargo between the
+two canoes, which was the task that the whole party was now engaged in.
+The object was to lighten his own canoe in the event of flight, and, by
+placing his effects in two parcels, give a chance to those in the
+boat which might escape, of having wherewithal to comfort and console
+themselves. As soon as this new arrangement was completed, le Bourdon
+ran up to a tree that offered the desired facilities, and springing
+into its branches, was soon high enough to get a view of the bar and the
+mouth of the river. By the parting light of day, he distinctly saw FOUR
+canoes coming up the stream; which was one more than those reported to
+him by Margery as having passed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+      And long shall timorous fancy see
+      The painted chief and pointed spear;
+      And reason's self shall bow the knee
+      To shadows and delusions here.
+                                 FRENEAU.
+
+
+A bright moon reflected on the earth for about an hour the light of the
+sun, as the latter luminary disappeared. By its aid the bee-hunter, who
+still continued in the tree, was enabled to watch the movements of the
+canoes of the Indians, though the persons they contained soon got to
+be so indistinct as to render it impossible to do more than count their
+numbers. The last he made out to be five each in three of the canoes,
+and six in the other, making twenty-one individuals in all. This was
+too great an odds to think of resisting, in the event of the strangers
+turning out to be hostile; and the knowledge of this disparity in force
+admonished all the fugitives of the necessity of being wary and prudent.
+
+The strangers landed just beneath the hut, or at the precise spot where
+Whiskey Centre was in the habit of keeping his canoe, and whence Boden
+had removed it only an hour or two before. The savages had probably
+selected the place on account of its shores being clear of the wild
+rice, and because the high ground near it promised both a lookout
+and comfortable lodgings. Several of the party strolled upward, as if
+searching for an eligible spot to light their fire, and one of them soon
+discovered the cabin. The warrior announced his success by a whoop, and
+a dozen of the Indians were shortly collected in and about the chiente.
+All this proved the prudence of the course taken by the fugitives.
+
+Blossom stood beneath the tree, and the bee-hunter told her, as each
+incident occurred, all that passed among the strangers, when the girl
+communicated the same to her brother and his wife, who were quite near
+at hand in one of the canoes. As there was no danger of being overheard,
+conversation in an ordinary tone passed between the parties, two of whom
+at least were now fond of holding this sort of communion.
+
+“Do they seem to suspect the neighborhood of the occupants of the
+cabin?” asked Margery, when the bee-hunter had let her know the manner
+in which the savages had taken possession of her late dwelling.
+
+“One cannot tell. Savages are always distrustful and cautious when on a
+war-path; and these seem to be scenting about like so many hounds which
+are nosing for a trail. They are now gathering sticks to light a fire,
+which is better than burning the chiente.”
+
+“THAT they will not be likely to do until they have no further need of
+it. Tell me, Bourdon, do any go near the thicket of alders where we have
+hidden our goods?”
+
+“Not as yet; though there is a sudden movement and many loud yells among
+them!”
+
+“Heaven send that it may not be at having discovered anything we
+have forgotten. The sight of even a lost dipper or cup would set them
+blood-hounds on our path, as sure as we are white and they are savages!”
+
+“As I live, they scent the whiskey! There is a rush toward, and a
+pow-wow in and about the shed--yes, of a certainty they smell the
+liquor! Some of it has escaped in rolling down the hill, and their noses
+are too keen to pass over a fragrance that to them equals that of roses.
+Well, let them SCENT as they may--even an Injin does not get drunk
+through his NOSE.”
+
+“You are quite right, Bourdon: but is not this a most unhappy scent for
+us, since the smell of whiskey can hardly be there without their seeing
+it did not grow in the woods of itself, like an oak or a beech?”
+
+“I understand you, Margery, and there is good sense in what you say.
+They will never think the liquor grew there, like a blackberry or a
+chestnut, though the place IS called Whiskey Centre!”
+
+“It is hard enough to know that a family has deserved such a name,
+without being reminded of it by those that call themselves friends,”
+ answered the girl pointedly, after a pause of near a minute, though she
+spoke in sorrow rather than in anger.
+
+In an instant the bee-hunter was at pretty Margery's side, making his
+peace by zealous apologies and winning protestations of respect and
+concern. The mortified girl was soon appeased; and, after consulting
+together for a minute, they went to the canoe to communicate to the
+husband and wife what they had seen.
+
+“The whiskey after all is likely to prove our worst enemy,” said the
+bee-hunter as he approached. “It would seem that in moving the barrels
+some of the liquor has escaped, and the nose of an Injin is too quick
+for the odor it leaves, not to scent it.”
+
+“Much good may it do them,” growled Gershom--“they've lost me that
+whiskey, and let them long for it without gettin' any, as a punishment
+for the same. My fortun' would have been made could I only have got them
+two barrels as far as Fort Dearborn before the troops moved!”
+
+“The BARRELS might have been got there, certainly,” answered le Bourdon,
+so much provoked at the man's regrets for the destroyer which had
+already come so near to bringing want and ruin on himself and family, as
+momentarily to forget his recent scene with pretty Margery; “but whether
+anything would have been IN them is another question. One of those I
+rolled to the brow of the hill was half empty as it was.”
+
+“Gershom is so troubled with the ague, if he don't take stimulant in
+this new country,” put in the wife, in the apologetic manner in which
+woman struggles to conceal the failings of him she loves. “As for
+the whiskey, I don't grudge THAT in the least; for it's a poor way
+of getting rich to be selling it to soldiers, who want all the reason
+liquor has left 'em, and more too. Still, Gershom needs bitters; and
+ought not to have every drop he has taken thrown into his face.”
+
+By this time le Bourdon was again sensible of his mistake, and he beat
+a retreat in the best manner he could, secretly resolving not to place
+himself any more between two fires, in consequence of further blunders
+on this delicate subject. He now found that it was a very different
+thing to joke Whiskey Centre himself on the subject of his great
+failing, from making even the most distant allusion to it in the
+presence of those who felt for a husband's and a brother's weakness,
+with a liveliness of feeling that brutal indulgence had long since
+destroyed in the object of their solicitude. He accordingly pointed out
+the risk there was that the Indians should make the obvious inference,
+that human beings must have recently been in the hut, to leave the fresh
+scent of the liquor in question behind them. This truth was so apparent
+that all felt its force, though to no one else did the danger seem so
+great as to the bee-hunter. He had greater familiarity with the Indian
+character than any of his companions, and dreaded the sagacity of the
+savages in a just proportion to his greater knowledge. He did not fail,
+therefore, to admonish his new friends of the necessity for vigilance.
+
+“I will return to the tree and take another look at the movements of the
+savages,” le Bourdon concluded by saying. “By this time their fire must
+be lighted; and by the aid of my glass a better insight may be had into
+their plans and feelings.”
+
+The bee-hunter now went back to his tree, whither he was slowly followed
+by Margery; the girl yielding to a feverish desire to accompany him,
+at the very time she was half restrained by maiden bashfulness; though
+anxiety and the wish to learn the worst as speedily as possible,
+prevailed.
+
+“They have kindled a blazing fire, and the whole of the inside of the
+house is as bright as if illuminated,” said le Bourdon, who was now
+carefully bestowed among the branches of his small tree. “There are lots
+of the red devils moving about the chiente, inside and out; and they
+seem to have fish as well as venison to cook. Aye, there goes more dry
+brush on the fire to brighten up the picture, and daylight is almost
+eclipsed. As I live, they have a prisoner among 'em!”
+
+“A prisoner!” exclaimed Margery, in the gentle tones of female pity.
+“Not a white person, surely?”
+
+“No--he is a red-skin like all of them--but--wait a minute till I
+can get the glass a little more steady. Yes--it is so--I was right at
+first!”
+
+“What is so, Bourdon--and in what are you right?”
+
+“You may remember, Blossom, that your brother and I spoke of the two
+Injins who visited me in the Openings. One was a Pottawattamie and the
+other a Chippewa. The first we found dead and scalped, after he had
+left us; and the last is now in yonder hut, bound and a prisoner. He
+has taken to the lake on his way to Fort Dearborn, and has, with all his
+craft and resolution, fallen into enemies' hands. Well will it be for
+him if his captors do not learn what befell the warrior who was slain
+near my cabin, and left seated against a tree!”
+
+“Do you think these savages mean to revenge the death of their brother
+on this unfortunate wretch?”
+
+“I know that he is in the pay of our general at Detroit, while the
+Pottawattamies are in the pay of the English. This of itself would make
+them enemies, and has no doubt been the cause of his being taken; but
+I do not well see how Injins on the lake here can know anything of what
+happened some fifty miles or so up in the Openings.”
+
+“Perhaps the savages in the canoes belong to the same party as the
+warrior you call Elksfoot, and that they have had the means of learning
+his death, and by whose hand he fell.”
+
+The bee-hunter was surprised at the quickness of the girl's wit, the
+suggestion being as discreet as it was ingenious. The manner in which
+intelligence flies through the wilderness had often surprised him, and
+certainly it was possible that the party now before him might have heard
+of the fate of the chief whose body he had found in the Openings, short
+as was the time for the news to have gone so far. The circumstance
+that the canoes had come from the northward was against the inference,
+however, and after musing a minute on the facts, le Bourdon mentioned
+this objection to his companion.
+
+“Are we certain these are the same canoes as those which I saw pass
+this afternoon?” asked Margery, who comprehended the difficulty in an
+instant. “Of those I saw, two passed first, and one followed; while here
+are FOUR that have landed.”
+
+“What you say may be true enough. We are not to suppose that the canoes
+you saw pass are all that are on the lake. But let the savages be whom
+they may, prudence tells us to keep clear of them if we can; and this
+more so than ever, now I can see that Pigeonswing, who I know to be an
+American Injin, is treated by them as an enemy.”
+
+“How are the savages employed now, Bourdon? Do they prepare to eat, or
+do they torture their prisoner?”
+
+“No fear of their attempting the last to-night. There is an uneasiness
+about them, as if they still smelt the liquor; but some are busy cooking
+at the fire. I would give all my honey, pretty Margery, to be able to
+save Pigeonswing! He is a good fellow for a savage, and is heart and
+hand with us in this new war, that he tells me has begun between us and
+the English!”
+
+“You surely would not risk your own life to save a savage, who kills and
+scalps at random, as this man has done!”
+
+“In that he has but followed the habits of his color and race. I dare
+say WE do things that are quite as bad, according to Injin ways of
+thinking. I DO believe, Margery, was that man to see ME in the hands of
+the Pottawattamies, as I now see HIM, he would undertake something for
+my relief.”
+
+“But what can you, a single man, do when there are twenty against you?”
+ asked Margery, a little reproachfully as to manner, speaking like one
+who had more interest in the safety of the young bee-hunter than she
+chose very openly to express.
+
+“No one can say what he can do till he tries. I do not like the way
+they are treating that Chippewa, for it looks as if they meant to do him
+harm. He is neither fed, nor suffered to be with his masters; but there
+the poor fellow is, bound hand and foot near the cabin door, and lashed
+to a tree. They do not even give him the relief of suffering him to sit
+down.”
+
+The gentle heart of Margery was touched by this account of the manner in
+which the captive was treated, and she inquired into other particulars
+concerning his situation, with a more marked interest than she had
+previously manifested in his state. The bee-hunter answered her
+questions as they were put; and the result was to place the girl in
+possession of a minute detail of the true manner in which Pigeonswing
+was treated.
+
+Although there was probably no intention on the part of the captors of
+the Chippewa to torture him before his time, tortured he must have been
+by the manner in which his limbs and body were confined. Not only were
+his arms fastened behind his back at the elbows, but the hands were also
+tightly bound together in front. The legs had ligatures in two places,
+just above the knees and just below the ankles. Around the body was
+another fastening; which secured the captive to a beech that stood about
+thirty feet from the door of the cabin, and so nearly in a line with
+the fire within and the lookout of le Bourdon, as to enable the last
+distinctly to note these particulars, aided as he was by his glass.
+Relying on the manner in which they secured their prisoner, the savages
+took little heed of him; but each appeared bent on attending to his own
+comfort, by means of a good supper, and by securing a dry lair in which
+to pass the night. All this le Bourdon saw and noted too, ere he dropped
+lightly on his feet by the side of Margery, at the root of the tree.
+
+Without losing time that was precious, the bee-hunter went at once to
+the canoes and communicated his intention to Waring. The moon had now
+set, and the night was favorable to the purpose of le Bourdon. At the
+first glance it might seem wisest to wait until sleep had fallen upon
+the savages, ere any attempt were made to approach the hut; but Boden
+reasoned differently. A general silence would succeed as soon as the
+savages disposed of themselves to sleep, which would be much more likely
+to allow his footsteps to be overheard, than when tongues and bodies and
+teeth were all in active movement. A man who eats after a long march, or
+a severe paddling, usually concentrates his attention on his food, as le
+Bourdon knew by long experience; and it is a much better moment to steal
+upon the hungry and weary, to do so when they feed, than to do so
+when they sleep, provided anything like a watch be kept. That the
+Pottawattamie would neglect this latter caution le Bourdon did not
+believe; and his mind was made up, not only to attempt the rescue of his
+Chippewa friend, but to attempt it at once.
+
+After explaining his plan in a few words, and requesting Waring's
+assistance, le Bourdon took a solemn leave of the party, and proceeded
+at once toward the hut. In order to understand the movements of the
+bee-hunter, it may be well now briefly to explain the position of
+the chiente, and the nature of the ground on which the adventurer was
+required to act. The hut stood on a low and somewhat abrupt swell, being
+surrounded on all sides by land so low as to be in many places wet and
+swampy. There were a good many trees on the knoll, and several thickets
+of alders and other bushes on the lower ground; but on the whole, the
+swamps were nearly devoid of what is termed “timber.” Two sides of the
+knoll were abrupt; that on which the casks had been rolled into the
+lake, and that opposite, which was next to the tree where Boden had so
+long been watching the proceedings of the savages. The distance between
+the hut and this tree was somewhat less than a mile. The intervening
+ground was low, and most of it was marshy; though it was possible to
+cross the marsh by following a particular course. Fortunately this
+course, which was visible to the eye by daylight, and had been taken by
+the fugitives on quitting the hut, might be dimly traced at night, by
+one who understood the ground, by means of certain trees and bushes,
+that formed so many finger-posts for the traveller. Unless this
+particular route were taken, however, a circuit of three or four miles
+must be made, in order to pass from the chiente to the spot where the
+family had taken refuge. As le Bourdon had crossed this firm ground
+by daylight and had observed it well from his tree, he thought himself
+enough of a guide to find his way through it in the dark, aided by the
+marks just mentioned.
+
+The bee-hunter had got as far as the edge of the marsh on his way toward
+the hut, when, pausing an instant to examine the priming of his rifle,
+he fancied that he heard a light footstep behind him. Turning, quick
+as thought, he perceived that pretty Margery had followed him thus far.
+Although time pressed, he could not part from the girl without showing
+that he appreciated the interest she manifested in his behalf. Taking
+her hand, therefore, he spoke with a simplicity and truth, that imparted
+to his manner a natural grace that one bred in courts might have envied.
+What was more, with a delicacy that few in course would deem necessary
+under the circumstances, he did not in his language so much impute to
+concern on his own account this movement of Margery's, as to that she
+felt for her brother and sister; though in his inmost heart a throbbing
+hope prevailed that he had his share in it.
+
+“Do not be troubled on account of Gershom and his wife, pretty Margery,”
+ said the bee-hunter, “which, as I perceive, is the main reason why you
+have come here; and as for myself, be certain that I shall not forget
+who I have left behind, and how much her safety depends on my prudence.”
+
+Margery was pleased, though a good deal confused. It was new to her
+to hear allusions of this sort, but nature supplied the feeling to
+appreciate them.
+
+“Is it not risking too much, Bourdon?” she said. “Are you sure of being
+able to find the crossing in the marsh, in a night so very dark? I do
+not know but looking so long at the bright light in the cabin may blind
+me, but it DOES seem as if I never saw a darker night!”
+
+“The darkness increases, for the star-light is gone; but I can see where
+I go, and so long as I can do that there is not much fear of losing my
+way. I do not like to expose you to danger, but--”
+
+“Never mind me, Bourdon--set me to do anything in which you think I can
+be of use!” exclaimed the girl, eagerly.
+
+“Well then, Margery, you may do this: come with me to the large tree in
+the centre of the marsh, and I will set you on a duty that may possibly
+save my life. I will tell you my meaning when there.”
+
+Margery followed with a light, impatient step; and, as neither stopped
+to speak or to look around, the two soon stood beneath the tree in
+question. It was a large elm that completely overshadowed a considerable
+extent of firm ground. Here a full and tolerably near view could be had
+of the hut, which was still illuminated by the blazing fire within.
+For a minute both stood silently gazing at the strange scene; then le
+Bourdon explained to his companion the manner in which she might assist
+him.
+
+Once at the elm, it was not so difficult to find the way across the
+marsh, as it was to reach that spot, coming FROM the chiente. As there
+were several elms scattered about in the centre of the marsh, the
+bee-hunter was fearful that he might not reach the right tree; in
+which case he would be compelled to retrace his steps, and that at the
+imminent hazard of being captured. He carried habitually a small dark
+lantern, and had thought of so disposing of it in the lower branches of
+this very elm, as to form a focus of it, but hesitated about doing
+that which might prove a guide to his enemies as well as to himself.
+If Margery would take charge of this lantern, he could hope to reap its
+advantages without incurring the hazard of having a light suspended
+in the tree for any length of time. Margery understood the lessons she
+received, and promised to obey all the injunctions by which they were
+accompanied.
+
+“Now, God bless you, Margery,” added the bee-hunter. “Providence has
+brought me and your brother's family together in troublesome times;
+should I get back safe from this adventure, I shall look upon it as a
+duty to do all I can to help Gershom place his wife and sister beyond
+the reach of harm.”
+
+“God bless you, Bourdon!” half whispered the agitated girl. “I know it
+is worth some risk to save a human life, even though it be that of an
+Injin, and I will not try to persuade you from this undertaking; but
+do not attempt more than is necessary, and rely on my using the lantern
+just as you have told me to use it.”
+
+Those young persons had not yet known each other a single day, yet both
+felt that confidence which years alone, in the crowds of the world, can
+ordinarily create in the human mind. The cause of the sympathy which
+draws heart to heart, which generates friendships, and love, and
+passionate attachments, is not obvious to all who choose to talk of it.
+There is yet a profound mystery in our organization, which has hitherto
+escaped the researches of both classes of philosophers, and which it
+probably was the design of the Creator should not be made known to us
+until we draw nearer to that great end which, sooner or later, is to be
+accomplished in behalf of our race, when “knowledge will abound,” and we
+shall better understand our being and its objects, than is permitted to
+us in this our day of ignorance. But while we cannot trace the causes
+of a thousand things, we know and feel their effects. Among the other
+mysteries of our nature is this of sudden and strong sympathies, which,
+as between men for men, and women for women, awaken confidence and
+friendship; and as between those of different sexes, excite passionate
+attachments that more or less color their future lives. The great
+delineator of our common nature, in no one of the many admirable
+pictures he has drawn of men, manifests a more profound knowledge of
+his subject, than in that in which he portrays the sudden and nearly
+ungovernable inclination which Romeo and Juliet are made to display
+for each other; an inclination that sets reason, habit, prejudice, and
+family enmities at defiance. That such an attachment is to be commended,
+we do not say; that all can feel it, we do not believe; that connections
+formed under its influence can always be desirable, we are far from
+thinking: but that it may exist we believe is just as certain as any of
+the incomprehensible laws of our wayward and yet admirable nature.
+We have no Veronese tale to relate here, however, but simply a homely
+legend, in which human feeling may occasionally be made to bear an
+humble resemblance to that world-renowned picture which had its scenes
+in the beautiful capital of Venetian Lombardy.
+
+When le Bourdon left his companion, now so intensely interested in his
+success, to pick his way in the darkness across the remainder of the
+marsh, Margery retired behind the tree, where the first thing she did
+was to examine her lantern, and to see that its light was ready to
+perform the very important office which might so speedily be required
+of it. Satisfied on this point, she turned her eyes anxiously in the
+direction of the hut. By this time every trace of the bee-hunter was
+lost, the hillock in his front forming too dark a background to admit
+of his being seen. But the fire still blazed in the chiente, the savages
+not having yet finished their cooking, though several had satisfied
+their appetites, and had already sought places where they might stretch
+themselves for the night. Margery was glad to see that these last
+individuals bestowed themselves within the influence of the fire,
+warm as was the night. This was done most probably to escape from the
+annoyance of the mosquitos, more or less of which are usually found in
+the low lands of the new countries, and near the margins of rivers.
+
+Margery could distinctly see the Chippewa, erect and bound to his tree.
+On him she principally kept her looks riveted, for near his person did
+she expect first again to find the bee-hunter. Indeed, there was no
+chance of seeing one who was placed beneath the light of the fire, since
+the brow of the acclivity formed a complete cover, throwing all below it
+into deep shade. This circumstance was of the greatest importance to
+the adventurer, however, enabling him to steal quite near to his friend,
+favored by a darkness that was getting to be intense. Quitting Margery,
+we will now rejoin le Bourdon, who by this time was approaching his
+goal.
+
+The bee-hunter had some difficulty in finding his way across the marsh;
+but floundering through the impediments, and on the whole preserving the
+main direction, he got out on the firm ground quite as soon as he had
+expected to do. It was necessary for him to use extreme caution. The
+Indians according to their custom had dogs, two of which had been in
+sight, lying about half-way between the prisoner and the door of the
+hut. Boden had seen a savage feeding these dogs; and it appeared to him
+at the time as if the Indian had been telling them to be watchful of the
+Chippewa. He well knew the services that the red men expected of these
+animals, which are kept rather as sentinels than for any great use they
+put them to in the hunts. An Indian dog is quick enough to give the
+alarm, and he will keep on a trail for a long run and with considerable
+accuracy, but it is seldom that he closes and has his share in the
+death, unless in the case of very timid and powerless creatures.
+
+Nevertheless, the presence of these dogs exacted extra caution in the
+movements of the bee-hunter. He had ascended the hill a little out of
+the stream of light which still issued from the open door of the hut,
+and was soon high enough to get a good look at the state of things on
+the bit of level land around the cabin. Fully one-half of the savages
+were yet up and in motion; though the processes of cooking and eating
+were by this time nearly ended. These men had senses almost as acute
+as those of their dogs, and it was very necessary to be on his guard
+against them also. By moving with the utmost caution, le Bourdon reached
+the edge of the line of light, where he was within ten yards of the
+captive. Here he placed his rifle against a small tree, and drew his
+knife, in readiness to cut the prisoner's thongs. Three several times,
+while the bee-hunter was making these preparations, did the two dogs
+raise their heads and scent the air; once, the oldest of the two gave
+a deep and most ominous growl. Singular as it may seem, this last
+indication of giving the alarm was of great service to le Bourdon and
+the Chippewa. The latter heard the growl, and saw two of the movements
+of the animals' heads, from all which he inferred that there was some
+creature, or some danger behind him. This naturally enough induced him
+to bestow a keen attention in that direction, and being unable to
+turn body, limbs, or head, the sense of hearing was his only means of
+watchfulness. It was while in this state of profound listening that
+Pigeonswing fancied he heard his own name, in such a whisper as one
+raises when he wishes to call from a short distance with the least
+possible expenditure of voice. Presently the words “Pigeonswing,” and
+“Chippewa,” were succeeded by those of “bee-hunter,” “Bourdon.” This was
+enough: the quick-witted warrior made a low ejaculation, such as might
+be mistaken for a half-suppressed murmur that proceeded from pain, but
+which one keenly on the watch, and who was striving to communicate with
+him, would be apt to understand as a sign of attention. The whispering
+then ceased altogether, and the prisoner waited the result with the
+stoic patience of an American Indian. A minute later the Chippewa felt
+the thongs giving way, and his arms were released at the elbows. An arm
+was next passed round his body, and the fastenings at the wrist were
+cut. At this instant a voice whispered in his ear--“Be of good heart,
+Chippewa--your friend, Bourdon, is here. Can you stand?”
+
+“No stand,” answered the Indian in a low whisper--“too much tie.”
+
+At the next moment the feet of the Chippewa were released, as were also
+his knees. Of all the fastenings none now remained but that which bound
+the captive to the tree. In not cutting this, the bee-hunter manifested
+his coolness and judgment; for were the stout rope of bark severed, the
+Indian would have fallen like a log, from total inability to stand. His
+thongs had impeded the circulation of the blood, and the usual temporary
+paralysis had been the consequence. Pigeonswing understood the reason
+of his friend's forbearance, and managed to rub his hands and wrists
+together, while the bee-hunter himself applied friction to his feet,
+by passing his own arms around the bottom of the tree. The reader may
+imagine the intense anxiety of Margery the while; for she witnessed the
+arrival of le Bourdon at the tree, and could not account for the long
+delay which succeeded.
+
+All this time, the dogs were far from being quiet or satisfied. Their
+masters, accustomed to being surrounded at night by wolves and foxes,
+or other beasts, took little heed, however, of the discontent of these
+creatures, which were in the habit of growling in their lairs. The
+bee-hunter, as he kept rubbing at his friend's legs, felt now but little
+apprehension of the dogs, though a new source of alarm presented itself
+by the time the Chippewa was barely able to sustain his weight on his
+feet, and long before he could use them with anything like his former
+agility. The manner in which the savages came together in the hut, and
+the gestures made by their chief, announced pretty plainly that a watch
+was about to be set for the night. As it was probable that the sentinel
+would take his station near the prisoner, the bee-hunter was at a loss
+to decide whether it were better to commence the flight before or after
+the rest of the savages were in their lairs. Placing his mouth as close
+to the ear of Pigeonswing as could be done without bringing his head
+into the light, the following dialogue passed between le Bourdon and the
+captive.
+
+“Do you see, Chippewa,” the bee-hunter commenced, “the chief is telling
+one of the young men to come and keep guard near you?”
+
+“See him, well 'nough. Make too many sign, no to see.”
+
+“What think you--shall we wait till the warriors are asleep, or try to
+be off before the sentinel comes?”
+
+“Bess wait, if one t'ing. You got rifle--got tomahawk--got knife, eh?”
+
+“I have them all, though my rifle is a short distance behind me, and a
+little down the hill.”
+
+“Dat bad--nebber let go rifle on war-path. Well, YOU tomahawk him--_I_
+scalp him--dat'll do.”
+
+“I shall kill no man, Chippewa, unless there is great occasion for it.
+If there is no other mode of getting you off, I shall choose to cut this
+last thong, and leave you to take care of yourself.”
+
+“Give him tomahawk, den--give him knife, too.”
+
+“Not for such a purpose. I do not like to shed blood without a good
+reason for it.”
+
+“No call war good reason, eh? Bess reason in world Pottawattamie dig up
+hatchet ag'in' Great Fadder at Wash'ton--dat no good reason why take his
+scalp, eh?”
+
+In whispering these last words the Chippewa used so much energy, that
+the dogs again raised their heads from between their forepaws and
+growled. Almost at that instant the chief and his few remaining
+wakeful companions laid themselves down to sleep, and the young warrior
+designated as the sentinel left the hut and came slowly toward the
+prisoner. The circumstances admitted of no delay; le Bourdon pressed
+the keen edge of his knife across the withe that bound the Indian to
+the tree; first giving him notice, in order that he might be prepared to
+sustain his own weight. This done, the bee-hunter dropped on the ground,
+crawling away out of the light; though the brow of the hill almost
+immediately formed a screen to conceal his person from all near the hut.
+In another instant he had regained his rifle, and was descending swiftly
+toward the crossing at the marsh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+      We call them savage--oh, be just!
+        Their outraged feelings scan;
+      A voice comes forth, 'tis from the dust--
+        The savage was a man!
+                                 SPRAGUE.
+
+
+As soon as le Bourdon reached the commencement of that which might be
+called his path across the marsh, he stopped and looked backward. He was
+now sufficiently removed from the low acclivity to see objects on its
+summit, and had no difficulty in discerning all that the waning fire
+illuminated. There stood the Chippewa erect against the tree as if still
+bound with thongs, while the sentinel was slowly approaching him. The
+dogs were on their feet, and gave two or three sharp barks, which had
+the effect to cause five or six of the savages to lift their heads in
+their lairs. One arose even and threw an armful of dried branches on the
+fire, producing a bright blaze, that brought everything around the hut,
+and which the light could touch, into full view.
+
+The bee-hunter was astonished at the immovable calmness with which
+Pigeonswing still stood to his tree, awaiting the approach of the
+sentinel. In a few moments the latter was at his side. At first the
+Pottawattamie did not perceive that the prisoner was unbound. He threw
+him into shadow by his own person, and it required a close look to note
+the circumstance. Boden was too far from the spot to see all the minor
+movements of the parties, but there was soon a struggle that could
+not be mistaken. As the Pottawattamie was examining the prisoner, an
+exclamation that escaped him betrayed the sudden consciousness that the
+Chippewa was unbound. The sound was no sooner uttered than Pigeonswing
+made a grasp at the sentinel's knife, which however he did not obtain,
+when the two closed and fell, rolling down the declivity into the
+darkness. When the Pottawattamie seized the Chippewa, he uttered a
+yell, which instantly brought every man of his party to his feet. As the
+savages now united in the whoops, and the dogs began to bark wildly, an
+infernal clamor was made.
+
+At first, le Bourdon did not know how to act. He greatly feared the
+dogs, and could not but think of Margery, and the probable consequences,
+should those sagacious animals follow him across the marsh. But he did
+not like the idea of abandoning Pigeonswing, when a single blow of his
+arm, or a kick of his foot, might be the cause of his escape. While
+deliberating in painful uncertainty, the sounds of the struggle ceased,
+and he saw the sentinel rising again into the light, limping like one
+who had suffered by a fall. Presently he heard a footstep near him, and,
+calling in a low voice, he was immediately joined by Pigeonswing. Before
+the bee-hunter was aware of his intention, the Chippewa seized his
+rifle, and levelling at the sentinel, who still stood on the brow of the
+hill, drawn in all his savage outlines distinctly in the light of
+the flames, he fired. The cry, the leap into the air, and the fall,
+announced the unerring character of the aim. In coming to the earth,
+the wounded man fell over the brow of the sharp acclivity, and was heard
+rolling toward its base.
+
+Le Bourdon felt the importance of now improving the precious moments,
+and was in the act of urging his companion to follow, when the latter
+passed an arm around his body, whipped his knife from the girdle and
+sheath, and dropping the rifle into his friend's arms, bounded away in
+the darkness, taking the direction of his fallen enemy. There was no
+mistaking all this; Chippewa, led by his own peculiar sense of honor,
+risking everything to obtain the usual trophy of victory. By this time,
+a dozen of the savages stood on the brow of the hill, seemingly at a
+loss to understand what had become of the combatants. Perceiving
+this, the bee-hunter profited by the delay and reloaded his rifle. As
+everything passed almost as swiftly as the electric spark is known
+to travel, it was but a moment after the Pottawattamie fell ere his
+conqueror was through with his bloody task. Just as le Bourdon threw his
+rifle up into the hollow of his arm, he was rejoined by his red
+friend, who bore the reeking scalp of the sentinel at his belt; though
+fortunately the bee-hunter did not see it on account of the obscurity,
+else might he not have been so willing to continue to act with so
+ruthless an ally.
+
+Further stay was out of the question; for the Indians were now collected
+in a body on the brow of the hill, where the chief was rapidly issuing
+his orders. In a minute the band dispersed, every man bounding into the
+darkness, as if aware of the danger of remaining within the influence of
+the bright light thrown from the fire. Then came such a clamor from
+the dogs, as left no doubt in the mind of the bee-hunter that they had
+scented and found the remains of the fallen man. A fierce yell came from
+the same spot, the proof that some of the savages had already discovered
+the body; and le Bourdon told his companion to follow, taking his way
+across the marsh as fast as he could overcome the difficulties of the
+path.
+
+It has already been intimated that it was not easy, if indeed it were
+possible, to cross that piece of low wet land in a direct line. There
+was tolerably firm ground on it, but it lay in an irregular form, its
+presence being generally to be noted by the growth of trees. Le
+Bourdon had been very careful in taking his landmarks, foreseeing the
+probability of a hasty retreat, and he had no difficulty for some time
+in keeping in the right direction. But the dogs soon left the dead
+body, and came bounding across the marsh, disregarding its difficulties;
+though their plunges and yells soon made it apparent that even they did
+not escape altogether with dry feet. As for the savages, they poured
+down the declivity in a stream, taking the dogs as their guides;
+and safe ones they might well be accounted, so far as the SCENT was
+concerned, though they did not happen to be particularly well acquainted
+with all the difficulties of the path.
+
+At length le Bourdon paused, causing his companion to stop also. In the
+hurry and confusion of the flight, the former had lost his landmarks,
+finding himself amidst a copse of small trees, or large bushes, but
+not in the particular copse he sought. Every effort to get out of this
+thicket, except by the way he had entered it, proved abortive, and the
+dogs were barking at no great distance in his rear. It is true that
+these animals no longer approached: for they were floundering in the mud
+and water; but their throats answered every purpose to lead the pursuers
+on, and the low calls that passed from mouth to mouth, let the
+pursued understand that the Pottawattamies were at their heels, if not
+absolutely on their trail.
+
+The crisis demanded both discretion and decision; qualities in which the
+bee-hunter, with his forest training, was not likely to be deficient. He
+looked out for the path by which he had reached the unfortunate thicket,
+and having found it, commenced a retreat by the way he had come. Nerve
+was needed to move almost in a line toward the dogs and their masters;
+but the nerve was forthcoming, and the two advanced like veterans
+expecting the fire of some concealed but well-armed battery. Presently,
+le Bourdon stopped, and examined the ground on which he stood.
+
+“HERE we must turn, Chippewa,” he said, in a guarded voice. “This is the
+spot where I must have missed my way.”
+
+“Good place to turn 'bout,” answered the Indian--“dog too near.”
+
+“We must shoot the dogs if they press us too hard,” returned the
+bee-hunter, leading off rapidly, now secure in the right direction.
+“They seem to be in trouble, just at this time; but animals like them
+will soon find their way across this marsh.”
+
+“Bess shoot Pottawattamie,” coolly returned Pigeonswing. “Pottawattamie
+got capital scalp--dog's ears no good for nutting any more.”
+
+“Yonder, I believe, is the tree I am in search of!” exclaimed le
+Bourdon. “If we can reach that tree, I think all will go well with us.”
+
+The tree was reached, and the bee-hunter proceeded to make sure of
+his course from that point. Removing from his pouch a small piece of
+moistened powder that he had prepared ere he liberated the Chippewa, he
+stuck it on a low branch of the tree he was under, and on the side next
+the spot where he had stationed Margery. When this was done, he made his
+companion stand aside, and lighting some spunk with his flint and steel,
+he fired his powder. Of course, this little preparation burned like the
+fireworks of a boy, making sufficient light, however, to be seen in a
+dark night for a mile or more. No sooner was the wetted powder hissing
+and throwing off its sparks, than the bee-hunter gazed intently into the
+now seemingly tangible obscurity of the marsh. A bright light appeared
+and vanished. It was enough; the bee-hunter threw down his own signal
+and extinguished it with his foot; and, as he wished, the lantern of
+Margery appeared no more. Assured now of the accuracy of his position,
+as well as of the course he was to pursue, le Bourdon bade his companion
+follow, and pressed anew across the marsh. A tree was soon visible, and
+toward that particular object the fugitives steadily pressed, until it
+was reached. At the next instant Margery was joined; and the bee-hunter
+could not refrain from kissing her, in the excess of his pleasure.
+
+“There is a dreadful howling of dogs,” said Margery, feeling no offence
+at the liberty taken, in a moment like that, “and it seems to me that a
+whole tribe is following at their heels. For Heaven's sake, Bourdon, let
+us hasten to the canoes; brother and sister must think us lost!”
+
+The circumstances pressed, and the bee-hunter took Margery's arm,
+passing it through one of his own, with a decided and protecting manner,
+that caused the girl's heart to beat with emotions not in the least
+connected with fear, leaving an impression of pleasure even at that
+perilous moment. As the distance was not great, the three were soon
+on the beach and near to the canoes. Here they met Dorothy, alone, and
+pacing to and fro like a person distressed. She had doubtless heard the
+clamor, and was aware that the savages were out looking for their party.
+As Margery met her sister, she saw that something more than common
+had gone wrong, and in the eagerness of her apprehensions she did not
+scruple about putting her questions.
+
+“What has become of brother? Where is Gershom?” demanded the sensitive
+girl, at once.
+
+The answer was given in a low voice, and in that sort of manner with
+which woman struggles to the last to conceal the delinquencies of him
+she loves.
+
+“Gershom is not himself, just now,” half whispered the wife--“he has
+fallen into one of his old ways, ag'in.”
+
+“Old ways?” slowly repeated the sister, dropping her own voice to
+tones similar to those in which the unpleasant news had just been
+communicated. “How is that possible, now that all the whiskey is
+emptied?”
+
+“It seems that Bourdon had a jug of brandy among his stores, and Gershom
+found it out. I blame no one; for Bourdon, who never abuses the gifts of
+Providence, had a right to his comforts at least; but it IS a pity that
+there was anything of the sort in the canoes!”
+
+The bee-hunter was greatly concerned at this unwelcome intelligence,
+feeling all its importance far more vividly than either of his
+companions. They regretted as women; but he foresaw the danger, as a man
+accustomed to exertion in trying scenes. If Whiskey Centre had really
+fallen into his old ways, so as to render himself an incumbrance,
+instead of being an assistant at such a moment, the fact was to be
+deplored, but it could only be remedied by time. Luckily they had
+the Indian with them, and he could manage one of the canoes, while he
+himself took charge of the other. As no time was to be lost--the barking
+of the dogs and the cries of the savages too plainly letting it be known
+that the enemy was getting through the marsh by some means or other--he
+hurried the party down to the canoes, entering that of Whiskey Centre at
+once.
+
+Le Bourdon found Gershom asleep, but with the heavy slumbers of the
+drunkard. Dolly had removed the jug and concealed it, as soon as
+the state of her husband enabled her to do so without incurring his
+violence. Else might the unfortunate man have destroyed himself, by
+indulging in a liquor so much more palatable than that he was accustomed
+to use, after so long and compelled an abstinence. The jug was now
+produced, however, and le Bourdon emptied it in the river, to the great
+joy of the two females, though not without a sharp remonstrance from the
+Chippewa. The bee-hunter was steady, and the last drop of the liquor of
+Gascony was soon mingling with the waters of the Kalamazoo. This done,
+the bee-hunter desired the women to embark, and called to the Chippewa
+to do the same. By quitting the spot in the canoes, it was evident the
+pursuers would be balked, temporarily at least, since they must recross
+the marsh in order to get into their own boats, without which further
+pursuit would be fruitless.
+
+It might have been by means of a secret sympathy, or it was possibly the
+result of accident, but certain it is, that the Chippewa was placed
+in that of le Bourdon. As for Whiskey Centre, he lay like a log in the
+bottom of his own light bark, cared for only by his affectionate wife,
+who had made a pillow for his head; but, fortunately, if no assistance
+just then, not any material hindrance to the movements of his friends.
+By the time le Bourdon and the Chippewa had got their stations, and the
+canoes were free of the bottom, it was evident by the sounds, that not
+only the dogs, but divers of their masters, had floundered through the
+swamp, and were already on the firm ground east of it. As the dogs ran
+by scent, little doubt remained of their soon leading the savages to
+the place of embarkation. Aware of this, the bee-hunter directed
+the Chippewa to follow, and urged his own canoe away from the shore,
+following one of three of the natural channels that united just at that
+point.
+
+The clamor now sensibly increased, and the approach of the pursuers
+was much faster than it had previously been, in consequence of there no
+longer being wet land beneath their feet. At the distance of fifty
+yards from the shore, however, the channel, or open avenue among
+the rice-plants that the canoes had taken, made a short turn to the
+northward; for all the events we have just been recording occurred on
+the northern, or leeward side of the river. Once around this bend in the
+channel, the canoes would have been effectually concealed from those on
+the beach, had it even been broad daylight, and, of course, were so
+much more hidden from view under the obscurity of a very dark night.
+Perceiving this, and fearful that the dip of the paddles might be heard,
+le Bourdon ceased to urge his canoe through the water, telling the
+Chippewa to imitate his example, and let the boats drift. In consequence
+of this precaution the fugitives were still quite near the shore when,
+first, the dogs, then a party of their masters, came rushing down to the
+very spot whence the canoes had departed scarcely two minutes before.
+As no precautions were taken to conceal the advance of the pursuers, the
+pursued, or the individuals among them who alone understood the common
+language of the great Ojebway nation well, had an opportunity of hearing
+and understanding all that was said. Le Bourdon had brought the two
+canoes together; and the Chippewa, at his request, now translated
+such parts of the discourse of their enemies as he deemed worthy of
+communicating to the females.
+
+“Say, now, nobody dere!” commenced the Indian, coolly. “T'ink he no
+great way off--mean to look for him--t'ink dog uneasy--won'er why dog so
+uneasy.”
+
+“Them dogs are very likely to scent us here in the canoes, we are so
+near them,” whispered le Bourdon.
+
+“S'pose he do, can't catch us,” coolly answered the Chippewa--“beside,
+shoot him, don't take care--bad for dog to chase warrior too much.”
+
+“There is one speaking now, who seems to have authority.”
+
+“Yes--he chief--know he voice--hear him too often--he mean to put
+Pigeonswing to torture. Well, let him catch Pigeonswing fust--swift bird
+do that, eh?”
+
+“But what says he?--it may be of importance to learn what the chief
+says, just now.”
+
+“Who care what he say--can't do nuttin'--if get good chance, take HIS
+scalp, too.”
+
+“Aye, that I dare say--but he is speaking earnestly and in a low voice;
+listen, and let us know what he says. I do not well understand at this
+distance.”
+
+The Chippewa complied, and maintained an attentive silence until the
+chief ceased to speak. Then he rendered what had been said into such
+English as he could command, accompanying the translation by the
+explanations that naturally suggested themselves to one like himself.
+
+“Chief talk to young men,” said the Chippewa--“all chief talk to young
+men--tell him dat Pigeonswing must get off in canoe--don't see canoe,
+nudder--but, muss be canoe, else he swim. T'ink more than one Injin
+here--don't know, dough--maybe, maybe not--can't tell, till see trail,
+morrow morning--”
+
+“Well, well; but what does he tell his young men to DO?” demanded the
+bee-hunter, impatiently.
+
+“Don't be squaw, Bourdon--tell all by'em bye. Tell young men s'pose he
+get canoe, den he may get OUR canoe, and carry 'em off--s'pose he swim;
+dat Chippewa devil swim down stream and get OUR canoe dat fashion--bess
+go back, some of you, and see arter OUR canoe--dat what he tell young
+men most.”
+
+“That is a lucky thought!” exclaimed le Bourdon--“let us paddle down, at
+once, and seize all their canoes before they can get there. The distance
+by water, owing to this bend in the river, is not half as great as that
+by land, and the marsh will double the distance to them.”
+
+“Dat good counsel,” said Pigeonswing--“you go--I follow.”
+
+This was no sooner said, than the canoes again got in motion. The
+darkness might now have been a sufficient protection had there been no
+rice, but the plant would have concealed the movement, even at noon-day.
+The fire in the hut served as a beacon, and enabled le Bourdon to find
+the canoes. When he reached the landing, he could still hear the dogs
+barking on the marsh, and the voices of those with them, calling in loud
+tones to two of the savages who had remained at the chiente, as a sort
+of camp-guard.
+
+“What do them chaps say?” asked le Bourdon of the Chippewa. “They yell
+as if striving to make the two men at the door of the hut hear them. Can
+you make out what they are bawling so loud?”
+
+“Tell two warrior to come down and take care of canoe--dat all--let 'em
+come--find two here to take care of DEM--got good scalp, them two rascal
+Pottawattamie!”
+
+“No--no--Pigeonswing--we must have no more of that work to-night, but
+must set about towing these four canoes off the shore as fast as we can.
+Have you got hitches on your two?”
+
+“Fast 'nough--so fast, he follow,” answered the Indian, who,
+notwithstanding his preparations to help to remove the canoes, was
+manifestly reluctant to depart without striking another blow at his
+enemies. “Now good time for dem rascal to lose scalp!”
+
+“Them rascals, as you call them, begin to understand their friends in
+the marsh, and are looking to the priming of their rifles. We must be
+moving, or they may see us, and give us a shot. Shove off, Chippewa, and
+paddle at once for the middle of the bay.”
+
+As le Bourdon was much in earnest, Pigeonswing was fain to comply. Had
+the last possessed a rifle of his own, or even a knife, it is highly
+probable he would have leaped ashore, and found the means of stealing on
+some of his enemies unawares, and thus secured another trophy. But the
+bee-hunter was determined, and the Chippewa, however reluctant, was
+compelled to obey; for not only had le Bourdon kept his rifle at his
+side, but he had used the precaution of securing his knife and tomahawk,
+both of which he carried habitually, the same as a red man.
+
+The canoes had now a somewhat difficult task. The wind still blew fresh,
+and it was necessary for one of these light craft, pretty well loaded
+with its proper freight, and paddled by only a single person, to tow two
+other craft of equal size dead to the windward. The weight in the towing
+craft, and the lightness of those that were towed, rendered this task,
+however, easier than it might otherwise have proved. In the course of
+a couple of minutes all the canoes were far enough from the shore to be
+out of sight of the two Indians, who, by that time, had got down to the
+beach to look after their own craft. The yell these savages raised on
+finding themselves too late, not only announced their disappointment,
+but communicated the extent of the disaster to their friends, who were
+still floundering through the marsh.
+
+The great advantage that the party of the bee-hunter had now obtained
+must be very apparent to all. In possession of ALL the canoes, their
+enemies were, or would be for some time at least, confined to the
+northern side of the river, which was so wide near its mouth as to
+present an effectual barrier between them and those who occupied the
+opposite bank. The canoes, also, enabled the weaker party to change
+their position at will, carrying with them as many effects as were on
+board, and which included the whole of the property of le Bourdon; while
+their loss deprived their enemies of all extra means of motion, and
+would be very likely to induce them to proceed on their expedition by
+land. The objects of that expedition could only be conjectured by the
+bee-hunter, until he had questioned the Chippewa; a thing he did not
+fail to do, so soon as he believed the party quite safe under the south
+shore. Here the fugitives landed, proceeding up a natural channel in the
+wild rice in order to do so, and selecting a bit of dry beach for
+their purpose. Margery set about lighting a fire, in order to keep the
+mosquitos at a distance, selecting a spot to kindle it, behind a swell
+on the land, that concealed the light from all on the other shore. In
+the morning, it would be necessary to extinguish that fire, lest its
+smoke should betray their position. It was while these things were in
+progress, and after le Bourdon had himself procured the fuel necessary
+to feed pretty Margery's fire, that he questioned the Chippewa touching
+his captivity.
+
+“Yes, tell all 'bout him,” answered the Indian, as soon as
+interrogated--“no good to hide trail from friend. 'Member when say
+good-by up in openin' to Bourdon?”
+
+“Certainly--I remember the very instant when you left me. The
+Pottawattamie went on one path, and you went on another. I was glad of
+that, as you seemed to think he was not your friend.”
+
+“Yes; good not to travel on same path as inimy, 'cause he quarrel
+sometime,” coolly returned the Indian. “Dis time, path come together,
+somehow; and Pottawattamie lose he scalp.”
+
+“I am aware of all that, Pigeonswing, and wish it had not been so. I
+found the body of Elksfoot sitting up against a tree soon after you left
+me, and knew by whose hands he had fallen.”
+
+“Didn't find scalp, eh?”
+
+“No, the scalp had been taken; though I accounted that but for little,
+since the man's life was gone. There is little gained by carrying on war
+in this manner, making the woods, and the openings, and the prairies,
+alike unsafe. You see, to what distress this family is reduced by your
+Injin manner of making war.”
+
+“How you make him, den--want, to hear. Go kiss, and give venison to
+inimy, or go get his scalp, eh? Which bess fashion to make him afeard,
+and own you master?”
+
+“All that may be done without killing single travellers, or murdering
+women and children. The peace will be made none the sooner between
+England and America, because you have got the scalp of Elksfoot.”
+
+“No haben't got him any longer; wish had--Pottawattamie take him away,
+and say he bury him. Well, let him hide him in a hole deep as white
+man's well, can't hide Pigeonswing honor dere, too. Dat is safe as notch
+cut on stick can make him!”
+
+This notch on a stick was the Indian mode of gazetting a warrior; and a
+certain number of these notches was pretty certain to procure for him a
+sort of savage brevet, which answered his purpose quite as well as the
+modern mode of brevetting at Washington answers our purpose. Neither
+brings any pay, we believe, nor any command, except in such cases as
+rarely occur, and then only to the advantage of government. There are
+varieties in honor, as in any other human interest: so are there many
+moral degrees in warfare. Thus, the very individual who admires the
+occupation of Algiers, or that of Tahiti, or the attack on Canton,
+together with the long train of Indian events which have dyed the
+peninsulas of the East in the blood of their people, sees an alarming
+enormity in the knocking down of the walls of Vera Cruz, though the
+breach opened a direct road into San Juan de Ulloa. In the eyes of
+the same profound moralists, the garitas of Mexico ought to have been
+respected, as so many doors opening into the boudoirs of the beautiful
+dames of that fine capital; it being a monstrous thing to fire a shot
+into the streets of a town, no matter how many came out of them. We
+are happy, therefore, to have it in our power to add these touches of
+philosophy that came from Pigeonswing to those of the sages of the
+old world, by way of completing a code of international morals on this
+interesting subject, in which the student shall be at a loss to say
+which he most admires--that which comes from the schools, or that which
+comes direct from the wilderness.
+
+“So best,” answered the bee-hunter. “I wish I could persuade you to
+throw away that disgusting thing at your belt. Remember, Chippewa, you
+are now among Christians, and ought to do as Christians wish.”
+
+“What Christians DO, eh?” returned the Indian, with a sneer, “get drunk
+like Whiskey Centre, dere? Cheat poor red man; den get down on knee and
+look up at Manitou? DAT what Christian do, eh?”
+
+“They who do such things are Christian but in name--you must think
+better of such as are Christians in fact.”
+
+“Ebberybody call himself Christian, tell you--all pale-face
+Christian, dey say. Now, listen to Chippewa. Once talk long talk wit'
+missionary--tell all about Christian--what Christian do--what Christian
+say--how he eat, how he sleep, HOW he drink!--all good--wish Pigeonwing
+Christian--den 'member so'ger at garrison--no eat, no sleep, no drink
+Christian fashion--do ebbery t'ing so'ger fashion--swear, fight, cheat,
+get drunk--wuss dan Injin--dat Christian, eh?”
+
+“No, that is not acting like a Christian; and I fear very few of us who
+call ourselves by that name, act as if we were Christians, in truth,”
+ said le Bourdon, conscious of the justice of the Chippewa's accusation.
+
+“Just dat--now, I get him--ask missionary, one day, where all Christian
+go to, so dat Injin can't find him--none in woods--none on prairie--none
+in garrison--none in Mack'naw--none at Detroit--where all go to, den, so
+Injin can't find him, on'y in missionary talk?”
+
+“I am curious to know what answer your missionary made to that
+question.”
+
+“Well, tell you--say, on'y one in ten t'ousant RAAL Christians 'mong
+pale-face, dough all call himself Christian! DAT what Injin t'ink queer,
+eh?”
+
+“It is not easy to make a red man understand all the ways of the
+pale-faces, Pigeonswing; but we will talk of these things another time,
+when we are more at our ease. Just now, I wish to learn all I can of the
+manner in which you fell into the hands of the Pottawattamies.”
+
+“Dat plain 'nough--wish Christian talk half as plain. You see, Bourdon,
+dat Elksfoot on scout, when we meet in openin', up river. I know'd his
+ar'nd, and so took scalp. Dem Pottawattamie his friend--when dey come to
+meet ole chief, no find him; but find Pigeonwing; got me when tired
+and 'sleep; got Elkfoot scalp wid me--sorry for dat--know scalp by
+scalp-lock, which had gray hair, and some mark. So put me in canoe, and
+meant to take Chippewa to Chicago to torture him--but too much wind. So,
+when meet friend in t'odder canoe, come back here to wait little while.”
+
+This was the simple explanation of the manner in which Pigeonswing had
+fallen into the hands of his enemies. It would seem that Elksfoot had
+come in a canoe from the mouth of the St. Joseph's to a point about
+half-way between that river and the mouth of the Kalamazoo, and there
+landed. What the object of the party was, does not exactly appear,
+though it is far from being certain that it was not to seize the
+bee-hunter, and confiscate his effects. Although le Bourdon was
+personally a stranger to Elksfoot, news flies through the wilderness in
+an extraordinary manner; and it was not at all unlikely that the fact of
+a white American's being in the openings should soon spread, along with
+the tidings that the hatchet was dug up, and that a party should go out
+in quest of his scalp and the plunder. It would seem that the savage
+tact of the Chippewa detected that in the manner of the Pottawattamie
+chief, which assured him the intentions of the old warrior were not
+amicable; and that he took the very summary process which has been
+related, not only to secure HIS scalp, but effectually to put it out
+of his power to do any mischief to one who was an ally, and by means of
+recent confidence, now a friend. All this the Indian explained to his
+companion, in his usual clipped English, but with a clearness sufficient
+to make it perfectly intelligible to his listener. The bee-hunter
+listened with the most profound attention, for he was fully aware of the
+importance of comprehending all the hazards of his own situation.
+
+While this dialogue was going on, Margery had succeeded in lighting her
+fire, and was busy in preparing some warm compound, which she knew would
+be required by her unhappy brother after his debauch, Dorothy passed
+often between the fire and the canoe, feeling a wife's anxiety in the
+fate of her husband. As for the Chippewa, intoxication was a very venial
+offence in his eyes; though he had a contempt for a man who would thus
+indulge while on a warpath. The American Indian does possess this merit
+of adapting his deportment to his circumstances. When engaged in war he
+usually prepares himself, in the coolest and wisest manner, to meet
+its struggles, indulging only in moments of leisure, and of comparative
+security. It is true that the march of what is called civilization is
+fast changing the red man's character, and he is very apt now to do that
+which he sees done by the “Christians” around him.
+
+Le Bourdon, when his dialogue with the Chippewa was over, and after a
+few words of explanation with Margery, took his own canoe, and
+paddled through the rice-plants into the open water of the river, to
+reconnoitre. The breadth of the stream induced him to float down before
+the wind, until he reached a point where he could again command a view
+of the hut. What he there saw, and what he next did, must be reserved
+for a succeeding chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     The elfin cast a glance around,
+     As he lighted down from his courser toad,
+     Then round his breast his wings he wound,
+     And close to the river's brink he strode;
+     He sprang on a rock, he breathed a prayer,
+     Above his head his arm he threw,
+     Then tossed a tiny curve in air,
+     And headlong plunged in the water blue.
+                                           DRAKE.
+
+
+An hour had intervened between the time when le Bourdon had removed the
+canoes of the Pottawattamies, and the time when he returned alone to the
+northern side of the river. In the course of that hour the chief of the
+savages had time to ascertain all the leading circumstances that have
+just been related, and to collect his people in and around the hut, for
+a passing council. The moment was one of action, and not of ceremonies.
+No pipe was smoked, nor any of the observances of the great councils
+of the tribe attended to; the object was merely to glean facts and
+to collect opinions. In all the tribes of this part of North America,
+something very like a principle of democracy is the predominant feature
+of their politics. It is not, however, that bastard democracy which
+is coming so much in fashion among ourselves, and which looks into the
+gutters solely for the “people,” forgetting that the landlord has just
+as much right to protection as the tenant, the master as the servant,
+the rich as the poor, the gentleman as the blackguard. The Indians
+know better than all this. They understand, fully, that the chiefs are
+entitled to more respect than the loafers in their villages, and listen
+to the former, while their ears are shut to the latter. They appear
+to have a common sense, which teaches them to avoid equally the
+exaggerations of those who believe in blood, and of those who believe
+in blackguardism. With them the doctrines of “new men” would sound as
+an absurdity, for they never submit to change for change's sake. On
+the contrary, while there is no positive hereditary rank, there is much
+hereditary consideration; and we doubt if a red man could be found
+in all America, who is so much of a simpleton as to cite among the
+qualifications of any man for a situation of trust and responsibility,
+that he had never been TAUGHT how to perform its duties. They are
+not guilty of the contradiction of elevating men BECAUSE they are
+self-taught, while they expend millions on schools. Doubtless they
+have, after a fashion of their own, demagogues and Caesars, but they are
+usually kept within moderate limits; and in rare instances, indeed,
+do either ever seriously trespass on the rights of the tribe. As human
+nature is everywhere the same, it is not to be supposed that pure
+justice prevails even among savages; but one thing would seem to be
+certain, that, all over the world, man in his simplest and wildest state
+is more apt to respect his own ordinances, than when living in what is
+deemed a condition of high civilization.
+
+When le Bourdon reached the point whence he could get a good view of
+the door of the hut, which was still illuminated by the fire within, he
+ceased using the paddle beyond the slight effort necessary to keep the
+canoe nearly stationary. He was quite within the range of a rifle, but
+trusted to the darkness of the night for his protection. That scouts
+were out, watching the approaches to the hut, he felt satisfied; and he
+did not doubt that some were prowling along the margin of the Kalamazoo,
+either looking for the lost boats, or for those who had taken them away.
+This made him cautious, and he took good care not to place his canoe in
+a position of danger.
+
+It was very apparent that the savages were in great uncertainty as to
+the number of their enemies. Had not the rifle been fired, and their
+warrior killed and scalped, they might have supposed that their prisoner
+had found the means of releasing his limbs himself, and thus effected
+his escape; but they knew that the Chippewa had neither gun nor knife,
+and as all their own arms, even to those of the dead man, were still in
+their possession, it was clear that he had been succored from without.
+Now, the Pottawattamies had heard of both the bee-hunter and Whiskey
+Centre, and it was natural enough for them to ascribe some of these
+unlooked-for feats to one or the other of these agents. It is true,
+the hut was known to have been built three or four years earlier, by an
+Indian trader, and no one of the party had ever actually seen Gershom
+and his family in possession; but the conjectures on this head were as
+near the fact, as if the savages had passed and repassed daily. There
+was only one point on which these close calculators of events were at
+fault. So thoroughly had everything been removed from the chiente, and
+so carefully the traces of its recent occupation concealed, that no one
+among them suspected that the family had left the place only an hour
+before their own arrival. The bee-hunter, moreover, was well assured
+that the savages had not yet blundered on the hiding-place of the
+furniture. Had this been discovered, its contents would have been
+dragged to light, and seen around the fire; for there is usually little
+self-restraint among the red men, when they make a prize of this sort.
+
+Nevertheless, there was one point about which even those keen-scented
+children of the forest were much puzzled, and which the bee-hunter
+perfectly comprehended, notwithstanding the distance at which he was
+compelled to keep himself. The odor of the whiskey was so strong, in and
+about the chiente, that the Pottawattamies did not know what to make
+of it. That there should be the remains of this peculiar smell--one
+so fragrant and tempting to those who are accustomed to indulge in the
+liquor--in the hut itself, was natural enough; but the savages were
+perplexed at finding it so strong on the declivity down which the
+barrels had been rolled. On this subject were they conversing, when
+le Bourdon first got near enough to observe their proceedings. After
+discussing the matter for some time, torches were lighted, and most of
+the party followed a grim old warrior, who had an exceedingly true nose
+for the scent of whiskey, and who led them to the very spot where the
+half-barrel had been first stove by rolling off a rock, and where its
+contents had been mainly spilled. Here the earth was yet wet in places,
+and the scent was so strong as to leave no doubt of the recent nature of
+the accident which had wasted so much of a liquor that was very precious
+in Pottawattamie eyes; for accident they thought it must be, since no
+sane man could think of destroying the liquor intentionally.
+
+All the movements, gestures, and genuflections of the savages were
+plainly seen by the bee-hunter. We say the genuflections, for nearly all
+of the Indians got on their knees and applied their noses to the earth,
+in order to scent the fragrance of the beloved whiskey; some out of
+curiosity, but more because they loved even this tantalizing
+indulgence, when no better could be had. But le Bourdon was right in his
+conjectures, that the matter was not to end here. Although most of the
+Indians scented the remains of the whiskey out of love for the liquor, a
+few of their number reasoned on the whole transaction with quite as much
+acuteness as could have been done by the shrewdest natural philosopher
+living. To them it was very apparent that no great length of time, a few
+hours at most, could have elapsed since that whiskey was spilled; and
+human hands must have brought it there, in the first place, and poured
+it on the ground, in the second. There must have been a strong reason
+for such an act, and that reason presented itself to their minds with
+unerring accuracy. Their own approach must have been seen, and the
+liquor was destroyed because it could not be removed in time to prevent
+its falling into their hands. Even the precise manner in which the
+whiskey had been disposed of was pretty nearly conjectured by a few of
+the chiefs, acute and practised as they were; who, accustomed to this
+species of exercise of their wits, had some such dexterity in examining
+facts of this nature, and in arriving at just results, as the men of the
+schools manifest in the inquiries that more especially belong to their
+habits and training. But their conclusions were confined to themselves;
+and they were also sufficiently enveloped in doubts, to leave those who
+made them ready enough to receive new impressions on the same subject.
+
+All this, moreover, le Bourdon both saw and understood; or, if not
+absolutely all, so much of it as to let him comprehend the main
+conclusions of the savages, as well as the process by which they were
+reached. To obtain light, the Indians made a fire near the charmed spot,
+which brought themselves and their movements into plain view from the
+canoe of the bee-hunter. Curiosity now became strongly awakened in the
+latter, and he ventured in nearer to the shore, in order to get the
+best possible view of what was going on. In a manner, he was solving
+an enigma; and he experienced the sort of pleasure we all feel at
+exercising our wits on difficulties of that nature. The interest he felt
+rendered the young man careless as respected the position of his canoe,
+which drifted down before the strong breeze, until le Bourdon found
+himself in the very edge of the wild rice, which at this point formed
+but a very narrow belt along the beach. It was this plant, indeed, that
+contributed to make the young man so regardless of his drift, for he
+looked upon the belt of rice as a species of landmark to warn him when
+to turn. But, at no other spot along that whole shore, where the plant
+was to be found at all, was its belt so narrow as at this, immediately
+opposite to the new fire of the savages, and almost within the
+influence of its rays. To le Bourdon's surprise, and somewhat to his
+consternation, just as his little craft touched the rice, the forms of
+two stout warriors passed along the beach, between him and the light,
+their feet almost dipping in the water. So near were these two warriors
+to him, that, on listening intently, he heard not only their voices,
+as they communicated their thoughts to each other in low tones, but
+the tread of their moccasined feet on the ground. Retreat, under the
+circumstances, would not be safe, for it must have been made under
+the muzzles of the rifles; and but one resource presented itself. By
+grasping in his hand two or three stalks of the rice-plant, and holding
+them firmly, the drift of the canoe was arrested.
+
+After a moment's reflection, le Bourdon was better satisfied with this
+new station than he had been on first gaining it. To have ventured on
+such a near approach to his enemies, he would have regarded as madness;
+but now he was there, well concealed among the rice, he enjoyed the
+advantages of observation it gave him, and looked upon the chance that
+brought him there as lucky. He found a thong of buckskin, and fastened
+his canoe to the stalks of the plant, thus anchoring or mooring his
+little bark, and leaving himself at liberty to move about in it. The
+rice was high enough to conceal him, even when erect, and he had some
+difficulty in finding places favorable to making his observations
+through it. When the bee-hunter made his way into the bow of his canoe,
+however, which he did with a moccasined and noiseless foot, he was
+startled at perceiving how small was his cover. In point of fact, he was
+now within three feet of the inner edge of the rice-plant, which grew
+within ten feet of the shore, where the two warriors already mentioned
+were still standing, in close communication with each other. Their faces
+were turned toward the fire, the bright light from which, at times,
+streamed over the canoe itself, in a way to illumine all it contained.
+The first impulse of le Bourdon, on ascertaining how closely he had
+drifted to the shore, was to seize a paddle and make off, but a second
+thought again told him it would be far safer to remain where he was.
+Taking his seat, therefore, on a bit of board laid athwart, from gunwale
+to gunwale, if such a craft can be said to have gunwales at all, he
+patiently waited the course of events.
+
+By this time, all or nearly all of the Pottawattamies had collected on
+this spot, on the side of the hill. The hut was deserted, its fire got
+to be low, and darkness reigned around the place. On the other hand,
+the Indians kept piling brush on their new fire, until the whole of
+that hill-side, the stream at its foot, and the ravine through which the
+latter ran, were fairly illuminated. Of course, all within the influence
+of this light was to be distinctly seen, and the bee-hunter was
+soon absorbed in gazing at the movements of savage enemies, under
+circumstances so peculiar.
+
+The savages seemed to be entranced by the singular, and to most of them
+unaccountable circumstance of the earth's giving forth the scent of
+fresh whiskey, in a place so retired and unknown. While two or three of
+their number had certain inklings of the truth, as has been stated,
+to much the greater portion of their body it appeared to be a profound
+mystery; and one that, in some inexplicable manner, was connected with
+the recent digging up of the hatchet. Ignorance and superstition ever
+go hand in hand, and it was natural that many, perhaps most of these
+uninstructed beings should thus consider so unusual a fragrance, on such
+a spot. Whiskey has unfortunately obtained a power over the red man of
+this continent that it would require many Fathers Matthew to suppress,
+and which can only be likened to that which is supposed to belong to the
+influence of witchcraft. The Indian is quite as sensible as the white
+man of the mischief that the “fire-water” produces; but, like the white
+man, he finds how hard it is to get rid of a master passion, when we
+have once submitted ourselves to its sway. The portion of the band that
+could not account for the fact of the scent of their beloved beverage's
+being found in such a place, and it was all but three of their whole
+party, were quite animated in their discussions on the subject, and
+many and crude were the suggestions that fell from their lips. The
+two warriors on the beach were more deeply impressed than any of their
+companions, with the notion that some “medicine charm” was connected
+with this extraordinary affair.
+
+The reader will not be surprised to hear that le Bourdon gazed on the
+scene before him with the most profound attention. So near did he seem
+to be, and so near was he, in fact, to the savages who were grouped
+around the fire, that he fancied he could comprehend what they were
+saying, by the expressions of their grim and swarthy countenances.
+His conjectures were in part just, and occasionally the bee-hunter was
+absolutely accurate in his notions of what was said. The frequency with
+which different individuals knelt on the ground, to scent an odor that
+is always so pleasant to the red man, would of itself have given a
+clew to the general character of the discourse; but the significant and
+expressive gestures, the rapid enunciation, and the manner in which the
+eyes of the speakers glanced from the faces near themselves to the spot
+consecrated by whiskey, pretty plainly told the story. It was while thus
+intently occupied in endeavoring to read the singular impression made
+on the minds of most of those wild beings, by an incident so much out of
+the usual track of their experience, that le Bourdon suddenly found the
+bow of his canoe thrusting itself beyond the inner margin of the rice,
+and issuing into open water, within ten feet of the very spot where the
+two nearest of the savages were still conferring together, apart. The
+buckskin thong which served as a fastening had got loosened, and the
+light craft was again drifting down before the strong southerly wind,
+which still continued to blow a little gale.
+
+Had there been an opportunity for such a thing, the bee-hunter would
+have made an effort to escape. But so sudden and unexpected was this
+exposure, that he found himself almost within reach of a rifle, before
+he was aware of his approaching the two warriors on the shore, at all.
+His paddle was in the stern of the canoe, and had he used the utmost
+activity, the boat would have grounded on the beach, ere he could have
+obtained it. In this situation, therefore, he was absolutely without any
+other means than his hands of stopping the canoe, had there even been
+time.
+
+Le Bourdon understood his real situation without stopping to reflect;
+and, though his heart made one violent leap as soon as he perceived he
+was out of cover, he immediately bethought him of the course he ought to
+pursue. It would have been fatal to betray alarm, or to attempt flight.
+As accident had thus brought him, as it might be on a visit, to the
+spot, he at once determined to give his arrival the character of a
+friendly call, and the better to support the pretension, to blend with
+it, if possible, a little of the oracular, or “medicine” manner, in
+order to impose on the imaginations of the superstitious beings into
+whose power he had so unwittingly fallen.
+
+The instant the canoe touched the shore, and it was only a moment after
+it broke through the cover, le Bourdon arose, and extending his hand
+to the nearest Indian, saluted him with the mongrel term of “Sago.” A
+slight exclamation from this warrior communicated to his companion an
+arrival that was quite as much a matter of surprise to the Indians as to
+their guest, and through this second warrior to the whole party on the
+hill-side. A little clamor succeeded, and presently the bee-hunter was
+surrounded with savages.
+
+The meeting was marked by the self-command and dignified quiet that are
+so apt to distinguish the deportment of Indian warriors, when they are
+on the war-path, and alive to the duties of manhood. The bee-hunter
+shook hands with several, who received his salutations with perfect
+calmness, if not with absolute confidence and amity. This little
+ceremony gave our hero an opportunity to observe the swarthy
+countenances by which he was surrounded, most of which were fierce in
+their paint, as well as to reflect a little on his own course. By a
+fortunate inspiration he now determined to assume the character of a
+“medicine man,” and to connect his prophecies and juggleries with this
+lucky accident of the whiskey. Accordingly, he inquired if any one spoke
+English, not wishing to trust his explanations to his own imperfect
+knowledge of the Ojebway tongue, which is spoken by all the numerous
+tribes of that widely-extended nation. Several could render
+themselves intelligible in English, and one was so expert as to render
+communication with him easy, if not very agreeable. As the savages,
+however, soon insisted on examining the canoe, and taking a look at its
+contents, previously to listening to their visitor's explanations,
+le Bourdon was fain to submit, and to let the young men satisfy their
+curiosity.
+
+The bee-hunter had come on his hazardous expedition in his own canoe.
+Previously to quitting the south shore, however, he had lightened
+the little craft, by landing everything that was not essential to his
+present purpose. As nearly half of his effects were in the canoe of
+Whiskey Centre, the task was soon performed, and lucky it was for our
+hero that he had bethought him of the prudence of the measure. His sole
+object had been to render the canoe swifter and lighter, in the event
+of a chase; but, as things turned out, he saved no small portion of
+his property by using the precaution. The Indians found nothing in
+the canoe, but one rifle, with a horn and pouch, a few light articles
+belonging to the bee-hunter's domestic economy, and which he had not
+thought it necessary to remove, and the paddles. All the honey, and the
+skins and stores, and spare powder, and lead, and, in short, everything
+else that belonged to le Bourdon, was still safe on the other side of
+the river. The greatest advantage gained by the Pottawattamies was in
+the possession of the canoe itself, by means of which they would now be
+enabled to cross the Kalamazoo, or make any other similar expedition, by
+water.
+
+But, as yet, not a sign of hostility was betrayed by either party. The
+bee-hunter seemed to pay no attention to his rifle and ammunition, or
+even to his canoe, while the savages, after having warily examined
+the last, together with its contents, returned to their visitor, to
+re-examine him, with a curiosity as lively as it was full of distrust.
+At this stage in the proceeding, something like a connected and
+intelligible conversation commenced between the chief who spoke
+English, and who was known in most of the north-western garrisons of the
+Americans by the name of Thundercloud, or Cloud, by way of abbreviation,
+on account of his sinister looks, though the man actually sustained a
+tolerably fair reputation for one of those who, having been wronged, was
+so certain to be calumniated. No man was ever yet injured, that he has
+not been slandered.
+
+“Who kill and scalp my young man?” asked Cloud, a little abruptly.
+
+“Has my brother lost a warrior?” was the calm reply. “Yes, I see that he
+has. A medicine-man can see that, though it is dark.”
+
+“Who kill him, if can see?-who scalp him, too?”
+
+“An enemy did both,” answered le Bourdon, oracularly. “Yes; 'twas an
+enemy that killed him; and an enemy that took his scalp.”
+
+“Why do it, eh? Why come here to take Pottawattamia scalp, when no
+war-path open, eh?”
+
+“Pottawattamie, the truth must always be said to a medicine-man. There
+is no use in trying to hide truth from HIM. There IS a war-path open;
+and a long and a tangled path it is. My Great Father at Washington has
+dug up the hatchet against my Great Father at Quebec. Enemies always
+take scalps when they can get them.”
+
+“Dat true--dat right, too--nobody grumble at DAT--but who enemy?
+pale-face or red-skin?”
+
+“This time it was a red-skin--a Chippewa--one of your own nation, though
+not of your own tribe. A warrior called Pigeonswing, whom you had in
+thongs, intending to torture him in the morning. He cut his thongs, and
+shot your young man--after which he took his scalp.”
+
+“How know dat?” demanded the Cloud, a little fiercely. “You 'long, and
+help kill Pottawattamie, eh?”
+
+“I know it,” answered le Bourdon, coolly, “because medicine-men know
+most of what happens. Do not be so hasty, chief, for this is a medicine
+spot--whiskey GROWS here.”
+
+A common exclamation escaped all of the red men, who comprehended
+the clear, distinct, and oracular-like language and manner of the
+bee-hunter. He intended to make an impression on his listeners, and he
+succeeded admirably; perhaps as much by means of manner as of matter.
+As has been said, all who understood his words--some four or five of the
+party--grunted forth their surprise at this evidence of their guest's
+acquaintance with the secrets of the place, in which they were joined by
+the rest of their companions, as soon as the words of the pale-face had
+been translated. Even the experienced and wary old chiefs, who had more
+than half conjectured the truth, in connection with this mysterious odor
+of whiskey, were much unsettled in their opinions concerning the wonder,
+and got to be in that condition of mind when a man does not know what
+to think of any particular event. The bee-hunter, quick-witted, and
+managing for his life, was not slow to perceive the advantage he had
+gained, and he proceeded at once to clinch the nail he had so skilfully
+driven. Turning from Cloud to the head-chief of the party, a warrior
+whom he had no difficulty in recognizing, after having so long watched
+his movements in the earlier part of the night, he pushed the same
+subject a little further.
+
+“Yes; this place is called by the whites Whiskey Centre,” he
+added--“which means that it is the centre of all the whiskey of the
+country round about.”
+
+“Dat true,” said Cloud, quickly--“I hear so'ger at Fort Dearborn call
+him Whiskey Centre!”
+
+This little circumstance greatly complicated the mystery, and le Bourdon
+perceived that he had hit on a lucky explanation.
+
+“Soldiers far and near--soldiers drunk or sober--soldiers with scalps,
+and soldiers without scalps--all know the place by that name. But you
+need not believe with your eyes shut and noses stopped, chief, since you
+have the means of learning for yourselves the truth of what I tell you.
+Come with me, and I will tell you where to dig in the morning for a
+whiskey spring.”
+
+This communication excited a tremendous feeling among the savages, when
+its purport came to be explained to the whole party. Apart from the
+extraordinary, miraculous nature of such a spring, which in itself was
+sufficient to keep alive expectation and gratify curiosity, it was so
+comfortable to have an inexhaustible supply of the liquor running out of
+the bowels of the earth, that it is no wonder the news spread infinite
+delight among the listeners. Even the two or three of the chiefs who
+had so shrewdly divined the manner in which the liquor had been spilled,
+were staggered by the solemnity and steadiness of the bee-hunter's
+manner, and perhaps a little carried away by sympathy with those around
+them. This yielding of the human mind to the influence of numbers is
+so common an occurrence as scarcely to require explanation, and is
+the source of half the evils that popular associations inflict on
+themselves. It is not that men capable of SEEING the truth are ever
+wanting; but men capable of MAINTAINING it, in the face of clamor and
+collected power.
+
+It will be readily conceived that a medicine-man who is supposed to
+possess the means of discovering a spring that should overflow with pure
+whiskey, would not be left without urgent demands for a speedy exercise
+of this art. This was now the case with le Bourdon, who was called on
+from all sides to point out the precise spot where the young men were
+to commence digging in order to open on the treasure. Our hero knew that
+his only hope of escape was connected with his steadily maintaining his
+assumed character; or of maintaining this assumed character, with
+his going on, at once, to do something that might have the effect,
+temporarily at least, of satisfying the impatience of his now attentive
+listeners. Accordingly, when the demand was made on him to give some
+evidence of his power, he set about the task, not only with composure,
+but with a good deal of ingenuity.
+
+Le Bourdon, it will be remembered, had, with his own hands, rolled the
+two barrels of whiskey down the declivity. Feeling the great importance
+of effectually destroying them, he had watched their descent, from
+the top to the bottom of the hill, and the final disappearance of the
+staves, etc., into the torrent which brawled at its foot. It had so
+happened that the half-filled cask broke and let out its liquor at a
+point much more remote from the stream, than the filled. The latter
+had held together until it went over the low rocky precipice, already
+mentioned, and was stove at its base, within two yards of the torrent,
+which received all its fragments and swept them away, including most
+of the liquor itself; but not until the last had been spilled. Now,
+the odorous spot which had attracted the noses of the savages, and near
+which they had built their fire, was that where the smallest quantity
+of the whiskey had fallen. Le Bourdon reasoned on these circumstances
+in this wise:--if half a barrel of the liquor can produce so strong a
+scent, a barrel filled ought to produce one still stronger; and I will
+manifest my medicine-character, by disregarding for the present moment
+the spot on the hill-side, and proceed at once to that at the foot
+of the rocks. To this latter point, therefore, did he direct all
+the ceremony, as well as his own footsteps, when he yielded to the
+solicitations of the Pottawattamies, and undertook to point out the
+position of the whiskey spring.
+
+The bee-hunter understood the Indian character too well to forget to
+embellish his work with a proper amount of jugglery and acting. Luckily,
+he had left in the canoe a sort of frock of mottled colors that he had
+made himself, to wear in the woods in the autumn as a hunting-dress,
+under the notion that such a covering would conceal his approach from
+his game, by blending its hues with those of the autumn leaf. This dress
+he now assumed, extorting a good deal of half-suppressed admiration from
+the younger warriors, by the gay appearance he made. Then he drew out
+his spy-glass to its greatest length, making various mysterious signs
+and gestures as he did so. This glass proved to be a great auxiliary,
+and possibly alone kept the doubters in awe. Le Bourdon saw at once that
+it was entirely new, even to the oldest chief, and he felt how much
+it might be made to assist him. Beckoning to Cloud, and adjusting the
+focus, he directed the small end of his glass to the fire, and placed
+the large end to that Indian's eye. A solitary savage, who loved the
+scent of whiskey too much to tear himself away from the spot, was
+lingering within the influence of the rays, and of course was seen by
+the chief, with his person diminished to that of a dwarf, and his form
+thrown to a seeming distance.
+
+An eloquent exclamation followed this exhibition of the medicine-man's
+power; and each of the chiefs, and most of the other warriors, were
+gratified with looks through the glass.
+
+“What dat mean?” demanded Cloud, earnestly. “See Wolfeye well
+'nough--why he so little?--why he so far off, he?”
+
+“That is to show you what a medicine-man of the pale-faces can do, when
+he is so minded. That Indian is named Wolfseye, and he loves whiskey too
+well. That I know, as well as I know his name.”
+
+Each of these exhibitions of intelligence extorted exclamations of
+wonder. It is true, that one or two of the higher chiefs understood that
+the name might possibly have been obtained from Cloud; but how was the
+medicine-man to know that Wolfseye was a drunkard? This last had not
+been said in terms; but enough had been said, to let those who
+were aware of the propensity feel that more was meant than had been
+expressed. Before there was time, however, to deliberate on, or to
+dissect this specimen of mysterious knowledge, le Bourdon reversed the
+glass, and applied the small end to the eye of Cloud, after having given
+it its former direction. The Indian fairly yelled, partly with dread,
+and partly with delight, when he saw Wolfseye, large as life, brought so
+near him that he fancied he might be touched with his own hand.
+
+“What dat mean?” exclaimed Cloud, as soon as surprise and awe enabled
+him to find his voice. “Fuss he little, den he big--fuss he great way,
+den he close by--what dat mean, eh?”
+
+“It means that I am a medicine-man, and this is a medicine-glass, and
+that I can see with it into the earth, deeper than the wells, or higher
+than the mountains!”
+
+These words were translated, and explained to all three. They extorted
+many ejaculations of wonder, and divers grunts of admiration and
+contentment. Cloud conferred a moment with the two principal chiefs;
+then he turned eagerly to the bee-hunter, saying--
+
+“All good, but want to hear more--want to l'arn more--want to SEE more.”
+
+“Name your wants freely, Pottawattamie,” answered le Bourdon, with
+dignity, “they shall be satisfied.”
+
+“Want to see--want to TASTE whiskey spring--see won't do--want to TASTE”
+
+“Good--you shall smell first; then you shall see; after that you shall
+taste. Give me room, and be silent; a great medicine is near.”
+
+Thus delivering himself, le Bourdon proceeded with his necromancy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+  He turned him round, and fled amain With hurry and dash to the beach
+  again; He twisted over from side to side, And laid his cheek to the
+  cleaving tide; The strokes of his plunging arms are fleet, And with all
+  his might he flings his feet, But the water-sprites are round him still,
+  To cross his path and work him ill.
+                                        --The Culprit Fay.
+
+
+The first step in the conjuration of the bee-hunter was, to produce an
+impression on the minds of his untutored observers, by resorting to a
+proper amount of mummery and mystical action. This he was enabled to do
+with some effect, in consequence of having practised as a lad in similar
+mimicry, by way of pastime. The Germans, and the descendants of Germans
+in America, are not of a very high class, as respects education,
+taken as a body, and they retain many of the most inveterate of the
+superstitions of their Teutonic ancestors. Although the bee-hunter
+himself was of purely English descent, he came from a State that was in
+part peopled by these Germans and their descendants; and, by intercourse
+with them, he had acquired a certain knowledge of their notions on the
+subject of necromancy, that he now found was of use. So far as gravity
+of mien, solemn grimaces, and unintelligible mutterings were concerned,
+le Bourdon played his part to admiration; and by the time he had led
+the party half the distance he intended to go, our necromancer, or
+“medicine-man,” had complete possession of the imaginations of all the
+savages, the two or three chiefs already mentioned alone excepted. At
+this stage of the proceedings occurred a little incident, which goes
+to prove the disposition of the common mind to contribute in deceiving
+itself, and which was of considerable assistance to le Bourdon, in
+maintaining his assumed character.
+
+It will be remembered that the place where the Indians had found their
+strongest scent was on the hill-side, or the spot where the half-filled
+barrel had let out most of its contents. Near this spot their new fire
+was still brightly blazing, and there Wolfseye remained, regaling one of
+his senses, at least, with an odor that he found so agreeable. But
+the bee-hunter knew that he should greatly increase the wonder of the
+savages by leading them to a NEW scent-spot, one to which there was no
+visible clew, and where the odor was probably much stronger than on the
+hill-side. Accordingly he did not approach the fire, but kept around the
+base of the hill, just enough within the influence of the light to pick
+his way readily, and yet so distant from it as to render his countenance
+indistinct and mysterious. No sooner, however, had he got abreast of the
+scent-spot known to the savages, than the crowd endeavored to lead him
+toward it, by gestures and hints, and, finally, by direct intimations
+that he was going astray. All this our “medicine-man” disregarded; he
+held his way steadily and solemnly toward that place at the foot of the
+hill where he knew that the filled barrel had let out its contents, and
+where he, reasonably enough, expected to find sufficient traces of the
+whiskey to answer his purposes. At first, this pertinacity provoked
+the crowd, which believed he was going wrong; but a few words from
+Crowsfeather, the principal chief, caused the commotion to cease. In a
+few more minutes le Bourdon stopped, near the place of his destination.
+As a fresh scent of whiskey was very perceptible here, a murmur of
+admiration, not unmixed with delight, passed among the attendants.
+
+“Now, let the young men build a fire for ME” said the bee-hunter,
+solemnly--“not such a fire as that which is burning on the hill, but a
+medicine-fire. I SMELL the whiskey spring, and want a medicine-light to
+SEE it.”
+
+A dozen young men began to collect the brush; in a minute a pile of some
+size had been accumulated on a flat rock, within twenty feet of the spot
+where le Bourdon knew that the cask had been dashed to pieces. When he
+thought the pile sufficiently large, he told Crowsfeather that it might
+be lighted by bringing a brand from the other fire.
+
+“This will not be a medicine-light, for that can come only from
+'medicine-matches,'” he added; “but I want a fire to see the shape of
+the ground. Put in the brand, brothers; let us have a flame.”
+
+The desire of the bee-hunter was gratified, and the whole of the base
+of the hill around the spot where the filled cask had broken, was
+illuminated.
+
+“Now, let all the Pottawattamies stand back,” added le Bourdon,
+earnestly. “It might cost a warrior his life to come forward too
+soon--or, if not his life, it might give a rheumatism that can never be
+cured, which is worse. When it is time for my red brothers to advance,
+they will be called.”
+
+As the bee-hunter accompanied this announcement by suitable gestures,
+he succeeded in ranging all of the silent, but excited savages on three
+sides of his fire, leaving that next his mysterious spring to
+himself, alone. When all was arranged, le Bourdon moved slowly, but
+unaccompanied, to the precise spot where the cask had broken. Here he
+found the odor of the whiskey so strong, as to convince him that some
+of the liquor must yet remain. On examining more closely, he ascertained
+that several shallow cavities of the flat rock, on which the cask had
+been dashed, still contained a good deal of the liquor; enough to prove
+of great assistance to his medicine character.
+
+All this while the bee-hunter kept one portion of his faculties on the
+alert, in order to effect his escape. That he might deceive for a time,
+aided as he was by so many favorable circumstances, he did not doubt;
+but he dreaded the morning and the results of a night of reflection and
+rest. Crowsfeather, in particular, troubled him; and he foresaw that
+his fate would be terrible, did the savages once get an inkling of the
+deception he was practising. As he stood there, bending over the little
+pools of whiskey, he glanced his eyes toward the gloom which pervaded
+the northern side of the hill, and calculated the chances of escape by
+trusting to his speed. All of the Pottawattamies were on the opposite
+side, and there was a thicket favorably placed for a cover, so near that
+the rifle would scarce have time to perform its fatal office, ere
+he might hope to bury himself within its leaves. So tempting did the
+occasion appear, that, for a single instant, le Bourdon forgot his
+caution, and his mummeries, and had actually advanced a step or two in
+the direction toward which he contemplated flight, when, on glancing an
+uneasy look behind him, he perceived Crowsfeather and his two intimate
+counsellors stealthily preparing their rifles, as if they distrusted
+his intentions. This at once induced a change of plan, and brought
+the bee-hunter back to a sense of his critical position, and of the
+indispensable necessity of caution to a man in his situation.
+
+Le Bourdon now seemingly gave all his attention to the rocks where he
+stood, and out of which the much-coveted liquor was expected to flow;
+though his thoughts were still busily employed in considering the means
+of escape, the whole time. While stooping over the different pools, and
+laying his plans for continuing his medicine-charms, the bee-hunter saw
+how near he had been to committing a great mistake. It was almost as
+indispensable to carry off the canoe, as it was to carry off himself;
+since, with the canoe, not only would all his own property, but
+pretty Margery, and Gershom and his wife, be at the mercy of the
+Pottawattamies; whereas, by securing the boat, the wide Kalamazoo would
+serve as a nearly impassable barrier, until time was given to the whites
+to escape. His whole plan was changed by this suggestion, and he no
+longer thought of the thicket and of flight inland. At the same time
+that the bee hunter was laying up in his mind ideas so important to his
+future movements, he did not neglect the necessary examination of the
+means that might be required to extend and prolong his influence over
+the minds of the superstitious children of the forest on whom he was
+required to practise his arts. His thoughts reverted to the canoe, and
+he concocted a plan by which he believed it possible to get possession
+of his little craft again. Once on board it, by one vigorous shove he
+fancied he might push it within the cover of the rice-plants, where he
+would be in reasonable safety against the bullets of the savages. Could
+he only get the canoe on the outer side of the narrow belt of the plant,
+he should deem himself safe!
+
+Having arranged his course in his own mind, le Bourdon now beckoned to
+Crowsfeather to draw near, at the same time inviting the whole party
+to approach within a few feet of the spot where he himself stood. The
+bee-hunter had brought with him from the boat a fragment of the larger
+end of a cane fishing-rod, which he used as a sort of wand. Its size was
+respectable, and its length about eight feet. With this wand he pointed
+out the different objects he named, and it answered the very important
+purpose of enabling him to make certain small changes in the formation
+of the ground, that were of the greatest service to him, without
+permitting curious eyes to come so near as to detect his artifices.
+
+“Now open your ears, Crowsfeather; and you, Cloud; and all of you, young
+braves,” commenced the bee-hunter, solemnly, and with a steadiness that
+was admirable; “yes, open wide your ears. The Great Spirit has given
+the red man a nose that he might smell--does the Cloud smell more than
+common?”
+
+“Sartain--smell whiskey--this Whiskey Centre dey say--nat'ral dat such
+smell be here.”
+
+“Do all the chiefs and warriors of the Pottawattamies who are present,
+also smell the same?”
+
+“S'pose so--why he don't, eh? Got nose--can smell whiskey good way, tell
+you.”
+
+“It is right they should smell the liquor here, for out of this rock a
+whiskey spring will soon begin to run. It will begin with a very small
+stream, but soon will there be enough to satisfy everybody. The
+Great Manitou knows that his red children are dry; he has sent a
+'medicine-man' of the pale-faces to find a spring for them. Now, look
+at this piece of rock--it is dry--not even the dew has yet moistened it.
+See--it is made like a wooden bowl, that it may hold the liquor of the
+spring. Let Crowsfeather smell it--smell it, Cloud--let all my young men
+smell it, too, that they may be certain that there is nothing there.”
+
+On this invitation, accompanied as it was by divers flourishes of the
+wand, and uttered in a deep, solemn tone of voice, the whole party of
+the Indians gathered around the small hollow basin-like cavity pointed
+out by the bee-hunter, in order both to see and to smell. Most knelt,
+and each and all applied their noses to the rock, as near the bowl as
+they could thrust them. Even the dignified and distrustful Crowsfeather
+could not refrain from bending in the crowd. This was the moment for
+which le Bourdon wished, and he instantly prepared to carry out his
+design.
+
+Previously, however, to completing the project originally conceived,
+a momentary impulse prevailed which urged him to adopt a new mode of
+effecting his escape. Now, that most of the savages were on their hands
+and knees, struggling to get their noses as near as possible to the
+bowl, and all were intent on the same object, it occurred to the
+bee-hunter, who was almost as active as the panther of the American
+forest, that he might dash on toward the canoe, and make his escape
+without further mummery. Had it been only a question of human speed
+perhaps such would have been the wisest thing he could do; but a
+moment's reflection told him how much swifter than any foot of man was
+the bullet of a rifle. The distance exceeded a hundred yards, and it
+was altogether in bright light, by means of the two fires, Wolfseye
+continuing to pile brush on that near which he still maintained
+his post, as if afraid the precious liquor would start out of the
+scent-spot, and be wasted should he abandon his ward. Happily,
+therefore, le Bourdon relinquished his dangerous project almost as
+soon as it was entertained, turning his attention immediately to the
+completion of the plan originally laid.
+
+It has been said that the bee-hunter made sundry flourishes with his
+wand. While the savages were most eager in endeavoring to smell the
+rock, he lightly touched the earth that confined the whiskey in the
+largest pool, and opened a passage by which the liquor could trickle
+down the side of the rock, selecting a path for itself, until it
+actually came into the bowl, by a sinuous but certain channel.
+
+Here was a wonder! Liquor could not only be smelled, but it could be
+actually seen! As for Cloud, not satisfied with gratifying the two
+senses connected with the discoveries named, he began to lap with his
+tongue, like a dog, to try the effect of taste.
+
+“The Manitou does not hide his face from the Pottawattamie!” exclaimed
+this savage, rising to his feet in astonishment; “this is the
+fire-water, and such as the pale-faces bring us for skins!”
+
+Others imitated his example, and the exclamations of wonder and delight
+flew from mouth to mouth, in a torrent of vehement assertions and
+ejaculations. So great a “medicine” charm had never before been
+witnessed in that tribe, or in that region, and a hundred more might
+succeed, before another should equal this in its welcome character.
+There was whiskey, of a certainty, not much in quantity, to be sure, but
+of excellent quality, as several affirmed, and coming in a current that
+was slowly increasing! This last sign was owing to the circumstance
+that le Bourdon had deepened the outlet of the pool, permitting a larger
+quantity to flow down the little channel.
+
+The moment had now come for a decisive step. The bee-hunter knew that
+his precious rivulet would soon cease to run, and that he must carry out
+his design under the first impressions of his charm, or that he probably
+would not be permitted to carry it out, at all. At this moment even
+Crowsfeather appeared to be awed by what he had seen; but a chief so
+sagacious might detect the truth, and disappointment would then be
+certain to increase the penalties he would incur.
+
+Making many sweeps of his wand, and touching various points of the rock,
+both to occupy the attention of the savages, and to divert it from his
+pool, the bee-hunter next felt in his pocket and drew out a small piece
+of resin that he knew was there; the remains of a store with which
+he resined the bow of his fiddle; for our hero had a violin among his
+effects, and often used it in his solitary abodes in the openings.
+Breaking this resin on a coal, he made it flash and blaze; but the
+quantity was too small to produce the “medicine-fire” he wanted.
+
+“I have more in my canoe,” he said, addressing himself to the
+interpreter; “while I go for it, the red men must not stir, lest they
+destroy a pale-face's doings. Least of all they must go near the spring.
+It would be better for the chiefs to lead away their young men, and
+make them stand under the oak, where nothing can be done to hurt the
+'medicine-charm.'”
+
+The bee-hunter pointed to a tree that stood in the direction of the
+canoe, in order to prevent distrust, though he had taken care to select
+a spot whence the little craft could not be seen, on account of an
+intervening swell in the land, Crowsfeather led his warriors to the
+indicated place, where they took their stations, in silent and grave
+attention.
+
+In the mean while, le Bourdon continued his incantations aloud;
+walking toward his canoe, waving his hand, and uttering a great deal of
+gibberish as he slowly proceeded. In passing the tree, our hero, though
+he did not turn his head, was sensible that he was followed by the
+chiefs, a movement against which he did not dare to remonstrate, though
+it sadly disappointed him. Neither hastening nor retarding his steps,
+however, in consequence of this unpleasant circumstance, the young man
+continued on; once or twice sweeping the wand behind him, in order to
+ascertain if he could reach his followers. But Crowsfeather and his
+companions stopped when they reached the swell of land which concealed
+the canoe, suffering the “medicine-man” to move on alone. Of this
+fact le Bourdon became aware, by turning three times in a circle, and
+pointing upward at the heavens with his wand, as he did so.
+
+It was a nervous moment when the bee-hunter reached the canoe. He did
+not like to look behind him again, lest the chiefs should suspect his
+motive, and, in shoving off from the shore, he might do so within a
+few yards of the muzzle of a hostile rifle. There was no time to lose,
+however, for any protracted delay on his part would certainly cause the
+savages to approach, through curiosity, if not through distrust of his
+motives. He stepped into his light craft, therefore, without any delay,
+still flourishing his wand, and muttering his incantations. The first
+thing was to walk to the stern of the canoe, that his weight might
+raise the bow from the shore, and also that he might have an excuse for
+turning round, and thus get another look at the Indians. So critical was
+his situation, and so nervous did it make our young hero, that he took
+no heed of the state of matters in the canoe, until the last moment.
+When he had turned, however, he ascertained that the two principal
+chiefs had drawn so near as to be within twenty yards of him, though
+neither held his rifle at “ready,” but each leaned on it in a careless
+manner, as if in no anticipation of any necessity to make a speedy
+use of the weapon. This state of things could not last, and le Bourdon
+braced his nerves for the final trial. On looking for his paddle,
+however, he found that of three which the canoe had contained when he
+left it, not even one was to be seen! These wily savages had, out of all
+question, taken their opportunity to remove and secrete these simple,
+but almost indispensable, means of motion.
+
+At the instant when first apprised of the loss just mentioned, the
+bee-hunter's heart sunk within him, and he fell into the seat in the
+stern of the canoe, nearly with the weight of so much lead. Then a
+species of desperation came over him, and putting an end of his cane
+wand upon the bottom, with a vigorous shove he forced the canoe swiftly
+astern and to windward. Sudden as was this attempt, and rapid as was
+the movement, the jealous eyes and ready hands of the chiefs seemed to
+anticipate it. Two shots were fired within a few seconds after the canoe
+had quitted the shore. The reports of the rifles were a declaration of
+hostilities, and a general yell, accompanied by a common rush toward the
+river, announced that the whole band now understood that some deception
+had been practised at their expense.
+
+Although the two chiefs in advance had been so very prompt, they were
+not quick enough for the rapid movement of the canoe. The distance
+between the stern of the boat and the rice-plants was so small, that
+the single desperate shove given by the bee-hunter sufficed to bury
+his person in the cover, before the leaden messengers reached him.
+Anticipating this very attempt, and knowing that the savages might
+get their range from the part of the canoe that was still in sight, le
+Bourdon bent his body far over the gunwale, grasping the rice-plants
+at the same time, and hauling his little craft through them, in the way
+that sailors call “hand over hand.” This expedient most probably saved
+his life. While bending over the gunwale, he heard the crack of the
+rifles, and the whizzing of two bullets that appeared to pass just
+behind him. By this time the whole of the canoe was within the cover.
+
+In a moment like that we are describing, incidents pass so rapidly as
+almost to defy description. It was not twenty seconds from the instant
+when le Bourdon first put his wand down to push the canoe from the land,
+ere he found his person emerging from the cover, on its weather side.
+Here he was effectually concealed from his enemies, not only on account
+of the cover made by the rice-plants, but by reason of the darkness; the
+light not extending far enough from the fire to illumine objects on the
+river. Nevertheless, new difficulties presented themselves. When clear
+of the rice, the wind, which still blew strong, pressed upon his canoe
+to such a degree as not only to stop its further movement from the
+shore, but so as to turn it broadside to, to its power. Trying with
+his wand, the bee-hunter ascertained that it would no longer reach the
+bottom. Then he attempted to use the cane as a paddle, but soon found
+it had not sufficient hold of the water to answer for such an implement.
+The most he could effect with it, in that way, was to keep the canoe for
+a short distance along the outer edge of the rice, until it reached a
+spot where the plant extended a considerable distance farther toward the
+middle of the river. Once within this little forest of the wild rice, he
+was enabled to drag the canoe farther and farther from the north shore,
+though his progress was both slow and laborious, on account of the
+resistance met.
+
+All this time, the savages were not idle. Until the canoe got within
+its new cover, it was at no instant fifty yards from the beach, and the
+yells, and orders, and whoopings sounded as if uttered directly in le
+Bourdon's ear. A splashing in the water soon announced that our fugitive
+was pursued by swimmers. As the savages knew that the beehunter was
+without a paddle, and that the wind blew fresh, the expectation
+of overtaking their late captive, in this manner, was by no means
+chimerical. Half a dozen active young men would prove very formidable to
+one in such a situation, more especially while entangled in the mazes
+of the rice-plant. The bee-hunter was so well convinced of this
+circumstance, that no sooner did he hear the splashes of the swimmers,
+than he redoubled his exertions to pull his canoe farther from the spot.
+But his progress was slow, and he was soon convinced that his impunity
+was more owing to the fact that his pursuers did not know where to find
+him, than to the rapidity of his flight.
+
+Notwithstanding his exertions, and the start obtained, le Bourdon soon
+felt assured that the swimmers were within a hundred feet of him, their
+voices coming from the outer margin of the cover in which he now lay,
+stationary. He had ceased dragging the canoe ahead, from an apprehension
+of being heard, though the rushing of the wind and the rustling of
+the rice might have assured him that the slight noises made by his
+own movements would not be very likely to rise above those sounds. The
+splashing of the swimmers, and their voices, gradually drew nearer,
+until the bee-hunter took up his rifle, determined to sacrifice the
+first savage who approached; hoping, thereby, to intimidate the others.
+For the first time, it now occurred to him that the breech of his rifle
+might be used as a paddle, and he was resolved to apply it to that
+service, could he once succeed in extricating himself from the enemies
+by whom he was nearly environed, and from the rice.
+
+Just as le Bourdon fancied that the crisis had arrived, and that he
+should soon be called on to kill his man, a shout was given by a savage
+at some distance in the river, and presently calls passed from mouth to
+mouth, among the swimmers. Our hero now listened to a degree that kept
+his faculty of hearing at a point of painful attention. The voices and
+plashes on the water receded, and what was startling, a sound was heard
+resembling that which as produced by a paddle when struck incautiously
+against the side of a canoe. Was it then possible that the Chippewa was
+out, or had the Pottawattamies one boat that had escaped his attention?
+The last was not very probable, as he had several times counted their
+little fleet, and was pretty sure of having taken it all to the other
+side of the river. The sound of the paddle was repeated, however; then
+it occurred to the bee-hunter, that Pigeonswing might be on the scent
+for another scalp.
+
+Although the conjecture just mentioned was exceedingly unpleasant to le
+Bourdon, the chase of the strange canoe gave him an opportunity to drag
+his own light craft ahead, penetrating deeper and deeper among the wild
+rice, which now spread itself to a considerable distance from the shore,
+and grew so thick as to make it impossible to get through the waving
+mass. At length, wearied with his exertions, and a little uncertain as
+to his actual position, our hero paused, listening intently, in order to
+catch any sounds that might direct his future movements.
+
+By this time the savages ceased to call to each other; most probably
+conscious of the advantage it gave the fugitive. The bee-hunter
+perfectly understood that his pursuers must be aware of its being
+entirely out of his power to get to windward, and that they would keep
+along the shore of the river, as he did himself, expecting to see his
+canoe sooner or later driven by the wind on the beach. This had made him
+anxious to drag his boat as much toward the outer edge of the rice as
+he could get it, and by the puffs of wind that he occasionally felt, he
+hoped he had, in a great measure, effected his purpose. Still he had his
+apprehensions of the savages; as some would be very apt to swim quite
+out into the stream, not only to look for him, but to avoid being
+entangled among the plants. It was only in the natural channels of the
+rice, of which there were a good many, that a swimmer could very readily
+make his way, or be in much safety. By waiting long enough, moreover,
+the bee-hunter was sure he should tire out his pursuers, and thus get
+rid of them.
+
+Just as le Bourdon began to think this last-mentioned purpose had
+been accomplished, he heard low voices directly to windward, and the
+splashing of water, as if more than one man was coming down upon him,
+forcing the stalks of the plants aside. He grasped the rifle, and let
+the canoe drift, which it did slowly, under the power of the wind,
+notwithstanding the protection of the cover. The swimmers forced their
+way through the stalks; but it was evident, just then, that they
+were more occupied by their present pursuit than in looking for him.
+Presently a canoe came brushing through the rice, forced by the wind,
+and dragged by two savages, one of whom swam on each bow. The last did
+not see the bee-hunter, or his canoe, the one nearest having his face
+turned in the opposite direction; but they were distinctly seen by the
+former. Surprised that a seizure should be made with so little fracas,
+le Bourdon bent forward to look the better, and, as the stern of the
+strange canoe came almost under his eyes, he saw the form of Margery
+lying in its bottom. His blood curdled at this sight; for his first
+impression was, that the charming young creature had been killed and
+scalped; but there being no time to lose, he sprang lightly from one
+canoe to the other, carrying the rifle in his hand. As he struck in
+the bottom of the boat of Gershom, he heard his name uttered in a
+sweet female voice, and knew that Margery was living. Without stopping,
+however, to inquire more, he moved to the head of the canoe, and, with
+a sharp blow on the fingers, made each of the savages release his grasp.
+Then, seizing the rice-plants, he dragged the little craft swiftly to
+windward again. All this was done, as it might be, in an instant; the
+savages and the canoe being separated some twenty feet, in much less
+time than is required to relate the occurrence.
+
+“Bourdon, are you injured?” asked Margery, her voice trembling with
+anxiety.
+
+“Not in the least, dear Margery--and you, my excellent girl?”
+
+“They caught my canoe, and I almost died of fright; but they have only
+dragged it toward the shore.”
+
+“God be praised! Is there any paddle in the canoe?”
+
+“There are several--one is at your feet, Bourdon--and here, I have
+another.”
+
+“Then, let us search for my canoe, and get out of the rice. If we can
+but find my canoe, we shall be safe enough, for the savages have nothing
+in which to cross the river. Keep your eyes about you, Margery, and look
+among the rice for the other boat.”
+
+The search was not long, but it was intently anxious. At length Margery
+saw the lost canoe just as it was drifting past them, and it was secured
+immediately. In a few minutes, le Bourdon succeeded in forcing the
+two craft into open water, when it was easy for him to paddle both to
+windward. The reader can readily imagine that our hero did not permit
+many minutes to elapse, ere he questioned his companion on the subject
+of her adventures. Nor was Margery reluctant to tell them. She had
+become alarmed at le Bourdon's protracted absence, and taking advantage
+of Pigeonswing lying down, she unloaded her brother's canoe, and
+went out into the river to look for the absent one. As a matter of
+course--though so feminine and far removed from all appearance of
+coarseness, a true American girl in this respect--Margery knew perfectly
+well how to manage a bark canoe. The habits of her life for the last few
+years, made her acquainted with this simple art; and strength being
+much less needed than skill, she had no difficulty in going whither
+she wished. The fires served as beacons, and Margery had been a distant
+witness of the bee-hunter's necromancy as well as of his escape. The
+instant the latter was effected, she endeavored to join him; and it was
+while incautiously paddling along the outer edge of the rice, with this
+intention, that her canoe was seized by two of the swimmers. As soon as
+these last ascertained that they had captured a “squaw,” they did not
+give themselves the trouble to get into the canoe--a very difficult
+operation with one made of bark, and which is not loaded--but they
+set about towing the captured craft to the shore, swimming each with a
+single hand and holding on by the other.
+
+“I shall not soon forget this kindness of yours, Margery,” said le
+Bourdon, with warmth, when the girl had ended her simple tale, which
+had been related in the most artless and ingenuous manner. “No man could
+forget so generous a risk on the part of a young woman in his behalf.”
+
+“I hope you do not think it wrong, Bourdon--I should be sorry to have
+you think ill of me!”
+
+“Wrong, dear Margery!--but no matter. Let us get ourselves out of
+present difficulties, and into a place of safety; then I will tell you
+honestly what I think of it, and of you, too. Was your brother awake,
+dear Margery, when you left the family?”
+
+“I believe not--he sleeps long and heavily after drinking. But he can
+now drink no more, until he reaches the settlements.”
+
+“Not unless he finds the whiskey spring,” returned the bee-hunter,
+laughing.
+
+The young man then related to his wondering companion the history of the
+mummery and incantations of which she had been a distant spectator. Le
+Bourdon's heart was light, after his hazards and escape, and his spirits
+rose as his narrative proceeded. Nor was pretty Margery in a mood to
+balk his humor. As the bee-hunter recounted his contrivances to elude
+the savages, and most especially when he gave the particulars of the
+manner in which he managed to draw whiskey out of the living rock, the
+girl joined in his merriment, and filled the boat with that melody of
+the laugh of her years and sex, which is so beautifully described by
+Halleck.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     The things that once she loved are still the same;
+     Yet now there needs another name
+     To give the feeling which they claim,
+       While she the feeling gives;
+     She cannot call it gladness or delight;
+     And yet there seems to be a richer, lovelier light
+     On e'en the humblest thing that lives.
+                                --WASHINGTON ALLSTON.
+
+
+The history given by le Bourdon lasted until the canoes reached the
+south shore. Glad enough was Dorothy to see them both safe back, for
+neither of her companions had yet awoke. It was then midnight, and all
+now retired to seek the rest which might be so needful to prepare them
+for the exertions of the next day. The bee-hunter slept in his canoe,
+while Margery shared the buffalo-skin of her sister.
+
+As perfect security, for the moment at least, was felt by the sleepers,
+their slumbers were sound, and reached into the morning. Then le Bourdon
+arose, and withdrawing to a proper distance, he threw off his clothes
+and plunged into the stream, in conformity with a daily practice of his
+at that genial season of the year. After bathing, the young man ascended
+a hill, whence he might get a good view of the opposite shore, and
+possibly obtain some notion of what the Pottawattamies were about. In
+all his movements, however, the bee-hunter had an eye to the concealment
+of his person, it being of the last importance that the savages should
+not learn his position. With the intention of concealment, the fire had
+been suffered to go down, a smoke being a sign that no Indian would be
+likely to overlook. As for the canoe and the bivouac of the party, the
+wild rice and an intermediate hill formed a perfect cover, so long as
+nothing was shown above them.
+
+From the height to which he ascended, the bee-hunter, aided by his
+glass, got a very clear view of Whiskey Centre and the parts adjacent.
+The savages were already stirring, and were busy in the various
+avocations of the red man on a war-path. One party was disposing of
+the body of their dead companion. Several were cooking, or cleaning the
+wild-fowl shot in the bay, while a group was collected near the spot of
+the wished-for spring, reluctant to abandon the hopes to which it had
+given birth, at the very moment they were plotting to obtain the scalp
+of the “medicine-man.” The beloved “fire-water,” that seduces so many
+to their destruction, who have enjoyed the advantages of moral teaching,
+and which has been a withering curse on the red man of this continent,
+still had its influence; and the craving appetites of several of the
+drunkards of the party brought them to the spot, as soon as their eyes
+opened on the new day. The bee-hunter could see some of this cluster
+kneeling on the rocks, lapping like hounds at the scattered little
+pools of the liquor, while others scented around, in the hope of yet
+discovering the bird that laid the golden egg. Le Bourdon had now little
+expectation that his assumed character could be maintained among these
+savages any longer, did accident again throw him in their way. The
+chiefs, he saw, had distrusted him all along, but had given him an
+opportunity to prove what he could do, in order to satisfy the more
+vulgar curiosity of their young men. He wisely determined, therefore, to
+keep out of the hands of his enemies.
+
+Although le Bourdon could hold a conversation in the tongue of
+the Ojebways, he was not fond of so doing. He comprehended without
+difficulty nearly all of what was said by them, and had observed the
+previous night that the warriors made many allusions to a chief whom
+they styled Onoah, but who he himself knew was usually called Scalping
+Peter among the whites of that frontier. This savage had a fearful
+reputation at all the garrisons, though he never showed himself in
+them; and he was now spoken of by the Pottawattamies present, as if they
+expected to meet him soon, and to be governed by his commands or his
+advice. The bee-hunter had paid great attention whenever this dreaded
+name was mentioned, for he was fully aware of the importance of
+keeping clear of an enemy who bore so bad a reputation that it was not
+considered prudent for a white man to remain long in his company even
+in a time of peace. His English sobriquet had been obtained from the
+circumstances of its being reputed that this chief, who seemed to belong
+to no tribe in particular, while he had great influence with all, had
+on divers occasions murdered the palefaces who fell in his way, and then
+scalped them. It was added, that he had already forty notches on his
+pole, to note that number of scalps taken from the hated whites. In
+short, this Indian, a sort of chief by birth, though of what tribe no
+one exactly knew, appeared to live only to revenge the wrongs done his
+color by the intruders, who had come from toward the rising sun to
+drive his people into the great salt lake on the other side of the Rocky
+Mountains. Of course there was a good deal that was questionable in
+these reports; a rumor in the “openings” and on the prairies, having
+this general resemblance to those that circulate in town, and in
+drawing-rooms, and at feasts, that no one of them all can be relied on
+as rigidly exact. But le Bourdon was still young, and had yet to learn
+how little of that which we all hear is true, and how very much is
+false. Nevertheless, as an Indian tradition is usually more accurate
+than a white man's written history, so is a rumor of the forest
+generally entitled to more respect than the ceaseless gossipings of the
+beings who would be affronted were they not accounted civilized.
+
+The bee-hunter was still on the elevated bit of ground, making his
+observations, when he was joined by Margery. The girl appeared fresh and
+handsome, after a night of sleep, and coming from her dressing-room in
+a thicket, and over a stream of sweet running water; but she was sad and
+thoughtful. No sooner had le Bourdon shaken her hand, and repeated his
+thanks for the succor of the past night, than the full heart of Margery
+poured out its feelings, as the swollen stream overflows its banks, and
+began to weep.
+
+“Brother is awake,” she said, as soon as her sobs were quieted by a
+powerful effect; “but, as is usual with him after hard drinking, so
+stupid, that Dolly cannot make him understand our danger. He tells her
+he has seen too many Injins to be afraid of these, and that they will
+never harm a family that has brought so much liquor into their country.”
+
+“His senses must be at a low ebb, truly, if he counts on Injin
+friendship because he has sold fire-water to the young men!” answered
+le Bourdon, with a nice understanding of not only Indian nature, but
+of human nature. “We may like the sin, Margery, while we detest the
+tempter. I have never yet met with the man, pale-face or red-skin, who
+did not curse, in his sober moments, the hand that fed his appetite
+while intoxicated.”
+
+“I dare say that may be very true,” returned the girl, in a low voice;
+“but one has need of his reason to understand it. What will become of us
+now, it is hard to say.”
+
+“Why, now, Margery, more than yesterday, or the day before?”
+
+“Yesterday there were no savages near us, and Gershorn had all along
+told us he intended to start for the garrison at the head of the lake,
+as soon as he got back from his visit to the openings. He is back; but
+not in a state to protect his wife and sister from the red man, who will
+be looking for us as soon as they can build a canoe, or anything that
+will do to cross the river with.”
+
+“Had they even a canoe,” returned le Bourdon, coolly, “they would not
+know where to look for us. Thank Heaven! that will be a job that would
+take some time; nor is a bark canoe built in a minute. But, Margery,
+if your brother be a little dull and heavy, after his debauch, _I_ am
+sober, and as much awake as ever I was in my life.”
+
+“Oh! you have no weakness like that of poor brother's, to make you
+otherwise; but, Bourdon, you will naturally wish to take care of
+yourself and your property, and will quit us the first good opportunity.
+I'm sure that we have no right to expect you will stay a minute longer
+than it is your interest to do so, and I do not know that I wish it.”
+
+“Not wish it, Margery!” exclaimed the bee-hunter, in the manner of a
+disappointed man. “I had supposed you would have wished my company. But,
+now I know the contrary, I shall not much care how soon I go, or into
+whose hands I fall.”
+
+It is strange how apt are those who ought to understand one another so
+readily, to misinterpret each other's thoughts. Margery had never seen
+the bee-hunter twenty-four hours before, though she had often heard
+of him, and of his success in his art; for the fame of a man of good
+reputation and active qualities spreads far on a frontier. The very
+individual whose existence would be nearly overlooked in a crowded
+region, shall be spoken of, and known by his qualities, a hundred
+leagues from his place of residence, when settlements are few and far
+apart. In this way, Margery had heard of Boden, or of “Bourdon,” as she
+called him, in common with hundreds who, confounding his real name with
+his sobriquet, made the mistake of using the last under the impression
+that it was the true appellation. Margery had no other knowledge of
+French than the few words gleaned in her slow progress among a frontier
+on which, it is true, more of that language than of any other was heard,
+but heard under circumstances that were not particularly favorable to
+the acquisition of a foreign tongue. Had she understood the real meaning
+of “Bourdon,” she would have bitten off her tongue before she would have
+once called Boden by such an appellation; though the bee-hunter himself
+was so accustomed to his Canadian nickname as to care nothing at all
+about it. But Margery did not like to give pain to any one; and, least
+of all, would she desire to inflict it on the bee-hunter, though he
+were only an acquaintance of a day. Still, Margery could not muster
+sufficient courage to tell her new friend how much he was mistaken, and
+that of all the youths she had ever met she would most prefer to keep
+him near her brother and sister in their distress; while the young man,
+inspired by a pure and infant passion, was just in the frame of mind to
+believe the worst of himself, and of his claims to the attention of her
+who had begun to occupy so many of his thoughts.
+
+No explanation occurring, our young people descended from the hill,
+misconceiving each other's meaning and wishes, and unhappy under the
+influence of an ideal source of misery, when actual circumstances
+created so many that were substantial and real. Gershom was found
+awake, but, as his sister had described him, stupid and lethargic. The
+bee-hunter at once saw that, in his present condition, Whiskey Centre
+would still be an incumbrance rather than of any service, in the event
+of an occasion for extraordinary exertion. Margery had hinted that it
+usually took twenty-four hours to bring her brother entirely round,
+after one of his serious debauches; and within that time it was more
+than probable that the fate of the family would be decided.
+
+Le Bourdon thought intently, during breakfast, of the condition of his
+party, and of the best mode of proceeding, while the pallid and anxious
+young creature at his side believed he was deliberating solely on the
+best means of extricating himself and his store of honey, from the
+savages on the other shore. Had the acquaintance between these young
+people been of longer date than it actually was, Margery could not
+have entertained a notion so injurious to the bee-hunter, for a single
+moment; but there was nothing either violent, or depreciating, in
+supposing that one so near being a total stranger would think first of
+himself and his own interests, in the situation in which this young man
+was now placed.
+
+Little was said during the meal. Dorothy was habitually silent; the
+result of grief and care. As for her husband, he was too stupid to
+talk, though usually somewhat garrulous; while the Indian seldom did
+two things at the same time. This was the hour for acting; when that
+for talking should arrive, he would be found equal to its duties.
+Pigeonswing could either abstain from food, or could indulge in it
+without measure, just as occasion offered. He had often gone for
+days without tasting a mouthful, with the exception of a few berries,
+perhaps; and he had lain about the camp-fire, a week at a time, gorging
+himself with venison, like an anaconda. It is perhaps fortunate for the
+American Indian, that this particular quality of food is so very easy of
+digestion, since his excesses on it are notorious, and so common to his
+habits as almost to belong to his nature. Death might otherwise often be
+the consequence.
+
+When the breakfast was ended, it was time to consult about the future
+course. As yet, the Pottawattamies had made no new discovery; but the
+sagacity of the red man was ever to be feared, when it came to be merely
+a question of finding his foe in a forest.
+
+“We have obtained one advantage over the enemy,” said le Bourdon, “by
+crossing the river. Water leaves no trail; even had Crowsfeather a
+canoe, he might not know where to go in it, in order to find us.”
+
+“Dat not so,” put in the Chippewa, a little dogmatically; “know we hab
+canoe--know cross river in him.”
+
+“Why should they know this, Pigeonswing? We may have gone out upon the
+lake, or we may have gone up in the oak openings again, for anything the
+Pottawattamies can know to the contrary.”
+
+“Tell you, not so. Know don't go on lake, cause wind blow. Know don't
+go up river, cause dat hard work; know come here, cause dat easy. Injin
+like to do what easy, and pale-face do just what Injin do. Crowsfeather
+make raft, pretty soon; den he come look arter scalp.”
+
+“Yes,” said Margery, gently; “you had better load your canoe at once,
+and go on the lake, while the savages cannot reach you. The wind is fair
+for them that are to go north; and I have heard you say that you are
+bound to Mackinaw.”
+
+“I shall load my canoe, and I shall load yours, too, Margery; but I
+shall not go away from this family, so long as any in it stand in need
+of my services.”
+
+“Brother will be able to help us by afternoon. He manages a canoe well,
+when himself; so go, Bourdon, while you can. I dare say you have a
+mother at home; or a sister perhaps a wife--”
+
+“Neither,” interrupted the bee-hunter, with emphasis. “No one expects
+me; no one has a right to expect me.”
+
+The color stole into pretty Margery's cheeks as she heard these words,
+and a ray of comfort gleamed on an imagination that, for the last hour,
+had been portraying the worst. Still, her generous temper did not like
+the idea of the bee-hunter's sacrificing himself for those who had
+so few claims on him, and she could not but again admonish him of the
+necessity of losing no time.
+
+“You will think better of this, Bourdon,” the girl resumed. “We are
+going south, and cannot quit the river with this wind, but you could
+not have a better time to go north, unless the wind blows harder than I
+think it does.”
+
+“The lake is a bad water for a canoe, when there is much wind,” put in
+Gershom, yawning after he had spoken, as if the effort fatigued him,
+“I wonder what we're all doing over on this side of the river! Whiskey
+Centre is a good enough country for me; I'm going back to look arter my
+casks, now I've breakfasted. Come, Doll; let's load up, and be off.”
+
+“You are not yourself yet, Gershom,” returned the sorrowful wife, “or
+you would not talk in this way. You had better listen to the advice of
+Bourdon, who has done so much for us already, and who will tell you the
+way to keep out of Injin clutches. We owe our lives to Bourdon, Gershom,
+and you should thank him for it.”
+
+Whiskey Centre muttered a few half intelligible words of thanks, and
+relapsed into his state of drowsy indifference. The bee-hunter saw,
+however, that the effects of the brandy were leaving him, and he managed
+to get him on one side, where he persuaded the fellow to strip and go
+into the water. The bath did wonders for the poor creature, who soon
+got to be so far himself again, as to be of use, instead of being an
+incumbrance. When sober, and more especially when sober for several
+consecutive days, Gershom was a man of sufficient energy, possessing
+originally great personal strength and activity, which had been
+essentially lessened, however, by his excesses in liquor. It has already
+been stated what a different being he became, in a moral point of view,
+after having been sober for any length of time.
+
+On his return from the bathing, le Bourdon again joined the females.
+Margery had been weeping; but she smiled in a friendly way, on meeting
+his eye, and appeared less anxious for his departure than she had been
+an hour before. As the day advanced, and no signs of the savages were
+seen, a sense of greater security began to steal over the females, and
+Margery saw less necessity for the departure of their new friend. It
+was true, he was losing a wind; but the lake was rough, and after all
+it might be better to wait. In short, now that no immediate danger was
+apparent, Margery began to reason in conformity with her wishes, as is
+so apt to be the case with the young and inexperienced. The bee-hunter
+perceived this change in the deportment of his fair friend, and was well
+enough disposed to hope it would admit of a favorable construction.
+
+All this time, the Chippewa had taken little visible interest in the
+state of the party to which he had now attached himself. The previous
+evening had been fertile in excitement and in gratification, and he had
+since slept and ate to his entire content. He was ready to meet events
+as they might arise, and began to plot the means of obtaining more
+Pottawattamie scalps. Let not the refined reader feel disdisgust at this
+exhibition of the propensities of an American savage. Civilized life has
+had, and still has, very many customs, little less excusable than that
+of scalping. Without dragging into the account the thousand and one sins
+that disgrace and deform society, it will be sufficient to look into the
+single interest of civilized warfare, in order to make out our case. In
+the first place, the noblest strategy of the art is, to put the greatest
+possible force on the least of the enemy, and to slay the weaker party
+by the mere power of numbers. Then, every engine that ingenuity can
+invent, is drawn into the conflict; and rockets, revolvers, shells, and
+all other infernal devices, are resorted to, in order to get the
+better of an enemy who is not provided with such available means of
+destruction. And after the battle is over, each side commonly claims
+the victory; sometimes, because a partial success has been obtained in a
+small portion of the field; sometimes, because half a dozen horses have
+run away with a gun, carrying it into the hostile ranks; and, again,
+because a bit of rag has fallen from the hands of a dead man, and been
+picked up by one of the opposing side. How often has it happened that a
+belligerent, well practised in his art, has kept his own colors out of
+the affair, and then boasted that they were not lost! Now, an Indian
+practises no such shameless expedients. His point of honor is not a
+bit of rag, but a bit of his skin. He shaves his head because the hair
+encumbers him; but he chivalrously leaves a scalp-lock, by the aid of
+which his conquerors can the more easily carry away the coveted
+trophy. The thought of cheating in such a matter never occurs to his
+unsophisticated mind; and as for leaving his “colors” in barracks, while
+he goes in the field himself, he would disdain it--nay, cannot practise
+it; for the obvious reason that his head would have to be left with
+them.
+
+Thus it was with Pigeonswing. He had made his toilet for the war-path,
+and was fierce in his paint, but honest and fair-dealing in other
+particulars. If he could terrify his enemies by looking like a skeleton,
+or a demon, it was well; his enemy would terrify him, if possible, by
+similar means. But neither would dream, or did dream, of curtailing, by
+a single hair, that which might be termed the flag-staff of his scalp.
+If the enemy could seize it, he was welcome to the prize; but if he
+could seize that of the enemy, no scruples on the score of refinement,
+or delicacy, would be apt to interfere with his movements. It was in
+this spirit, then, that Pigeonswing came to the canoe, where le Bourdon
+was holding a little private discourse with Margery, and gave utterance
+to what was passing in his mind.
+
+“Good time, now, get more scalps, Bourdon,” said the Chippewa, in his
+clipping, sententious English.
+
+“It is a good time, too, to keep our own, Chippewa,” was the answer.
+“Your scalp-lock is too long, to be put before Pottawattamie eyes
+without good looking after it.”
+
+“Nebber mind him--if go, go; if stay, stay. Always good for warrior to
+bring home scalp.”
+
+“Yes; I know your customs in this respect, Pigeonswing, but ours are
+different. We are satisfied if we can keep out of harm's way, when we
+have our squaws and pappooses with us.”
+
+“No pappooses here,” returned the Indian, looking around him--“dat your
+squaw, eh?”
+
+The reader can readily imagine that this abrupt question brought blushes
+into the cheeks of pretty Margery, making her appear ten times
+more handsome than before; while even le Bourdon did not take the
+interrogatory wholly undisturbed. Still, the latter answered manfully,
+as became his sex.
+
+“I am not so fortunate as to have a squaw, and least of all to have
+this” said le Bourdon.
+
+“Why no hab her--she good squaw,” returned the literal-minded
+Indian--“han'some 'nough for chief. You ask; she hab--now squaw
+well--always like warrior to ask him fuss; den say, yes.”
+
+“Aye, that may do with your red-skin squaws,” le Bourdon hastily
+replied; for he saw that Margery was not only distressed, but a little
+displeased--“but not with the young women of the pale-faces. I never saw
+Margery before last evening; and it takes time for a pale-face girl to
+know a youth.”
+
+“Just so wid red-skin--sometime don't know, till too late! See plenty
+dat, in wigwam.”
+
+“Then it is very much in the wigwams as it is in the houses. I have
+heard this before.”
+
+“Why not same?--skin make no difference--pale-face spile squaw,
+too--make too much of her.”
+
+“That can never be!” exclaimed le Bourdon, earnestly. “When a pretty,
+modest, warm-hearted young woman accepts a youth for a husband, he can
+never make enough of her!”
+
+On hearing sentiments so agreeable to a woman's ears, Margery looked
+down, but she looked pleased. Pigeonswing viewed the matter very
+differently; and being somewhat of a partisan in matters relating
+to domestic economy, he had no thought of leaving a point of so much
+importance in so bad a way. Accordingly, it is not surprising that,
+in pursuing the subject, he expressed opinions in several essentials
+diametrically the reverse of those of the bee-hunter.
+
+'“Easy 'nough spile squaw,” rejoined the Chippewa. “What she good for,
+don't make her work? Can't go on the warpath--can't take scalp--can't
+shoot deer--can't hunt--can't kill warrior--so muss work. Dat what squaw
+good for.”
+
+“That may do among red men, but we pale-faces find squaws good for
+something else--we love them and take care of them--keep them from the
+cold in winter, and from the heat in summer; and try to make them as
+comfortable and happy as we can.”
+
+“Dat good talk for young squaw's ears,” returned the Chippewa, a little
+contemptuously as to manner; though his real respect for the bee-hunter,
+of whose prowess he had so lately been a witness, kept him a little
+within bounds “but it bess not take nobody in. What Injin say to squaw,
+he do--what pale-face say, he no do.”
+
+“Is that true, Bourdon?” demanded Margery, laughing at the Indian's
+earnestness.
+
+“I shall be honest, and own that there may be some truth in it--for the
+Injin promises nothing, or next to nothing, and it is easy to square
+accounts, in such cases. That white men undertake more than they always
+perform, is quite likely to be the fact The Injin gets his advantage in
+this matter, by not even thinking of treating his wife as a woman should
+be treated.”
+
+“How should treat woman?” put in Pigeonswing with warmth. “When warrior
+eat venison, gib her rest, eh? Dat no good--what you call good, den? If
+good hunter husband, she get 'nough--if an't good hunter, she don't get
+'nough. Just so wid Injin--sometime hungry, sometime full. Dat way to
+live!”
+
+“Aye, that may be your red man's ways, but it is not the manner in which
+we wish to treat our wives. Ask pretty Margery, here, if she would be
+satisfied to wait until her husband had eaten his dinner, and then come
+in for the scraps. No-no-Pigeonswing; we feed our women and children
+first and come in last, ourselves.”
+
+“Dat good for pappoose--he little; want venison--squaw tough; use to
+wait. Do her good.”
+
+Margery now laughed outright, at these specimens of Indian gallantry,
+which only too well embody the code of the red man's habits. Doubtless
+the heart has its influence among even the most savage people, for
+nature has not put into our breasts feelings and passions to be
+discarded by one's own expedients, or wants. But no advocate of the
+American Indian has ever yet been able to maintain that woman fills her
+proper place in his estimate of claims. As for Margery, though so long
+subject to the whims, passions and waywardness of a drunkard, she
+had reaped many of the advantages of having been born in that woman's
+paradise, New England. We are no great admirers of the legacy left
+by the Puritan to his descendants, taken as an inheritance in morals,
+manners, and customs, and as a whole; though there are parts, in the way
+of codicils, that there is no portion of the Christian world which might
+not desire to emulate. In particular, do we allude to the estimate put
+upon, and the treatment received by their women. Our allusion is not to
+the refinements and gracefulness of polished intercourse; for of THEM,
+the Blarney Rock of Plymouth has transmitted but a meagre account in the
+inventory, and perhaps the less that is said about this portion of the
+family property the better; but, dropping a few degrees in the social
+scale, and coming down to the level where we are accustomed to regard
+people merely as men and women, we greatly question if any other portion
+of the world can furnish a parallel to the manly, considerate, rational,
+and wisely discriminating care, that the New England husband, as the
+rule, bestows on his wife; the father on his daughter; or the brother
+on his sister. Gershom was a living, and, all things considered, a
+remarkable instance of these creditable traits. When sober, he was
+uniformly kind to Dorothy; and for Margery he would at any time risk
+his life. The latter, indeed, had more power over him than his own
+wife possessed, and it was her will and her remonstrances that most
+frequently led him back from the verge of that precipice over which he
+was so often disposed to cast himself. By some secret link she bound him
+closest to the family dwelling, and served most to recall the days of
+youth and comparative innocence, when they dwelt together beneath
+the paternal roof, and were equally the objects of the affection and
+solicitude of the same kind mother. His attachment to Dorothy was
+sincere, and, for one so often brutalized by drink, steady; but Dorothy
+could not carry him as far back, in recollections, as the one only
+sister who had passed the morning of life with him, in the same homely
+but comfortable abode.
+
+We have no disposition to exaggerate the character of those whom it is
+the fashion to term the American yeomen, though why such an appellation
+should be applied to any in a state of society to which legal
+distinctions are unknown, is what we could never understand. There are
+no more of esquires and yeomen in this country than there are of knights
+and nobles, though the quiet manner in which the transition from the old
+to the new state of things has been made, has not rendered the public
+mind very sensible to the changes. But, recurring to the class, which is
+a positive thing and consequently ought to have a name of some sort or
+other, we do not belong to those that can sound its praises without some
+large reservations on the score of both principles and manners. Least of
+all, are we disposed to set up these yeomen as a privileged class,
+like certain of the titular statesmen of the country, and fall down and
+worship a calf--not a golden one by the way--of our own setting up.
+We can see citizens in these yeomen, but not princes, who are to be
+especially favored by laws made to take from others to bestow on them.
+But making allowances for human infirmities, the American freeholder
+belongs to a class that may justly hold up its head among the tillers
+of the earth. He improves daily, under the influence of beneficent
+laws, and if he don't get spoiled, of which there is some danger, in the
+eagerness of factions to secure his favor, and through that favor his
+VOTE--if he escape this danger, he will ere long make a reasonably near
+approach to that being, which the tongue of the flatterer would long
+since have persuaded him he had already more than got to be.
+
+To one accustomed to be treated kindly, as was the case with Margery,
+the Chippewa's theory for the management of squaws contained much to
+excite her mirth, as well as her resentment, as she now made apparent by
+her remarks.
+
+“You do not deserve to HAVE a wife, Pigeonswing,” she cried,
+half-laughing, yet evidently alive to the feelings of her sex--“can have
+no gratitude for a wife's tenderness and care. I wonder that a Chippewa
+girl can be found to have you?”
+
+“Don't want him,” coolly returned the Indian, making his preparations
+to light his pipe--“got Winnebagoe squaw, already; good 'nough for
+me. Shoot her t'other husband and take his scalp--den she come into my
+wigwam.”
+
+“The wretch!” exclaimed Margery.
+
+But this was a word the savage did not understand, and he continued to
+puff at the newly lighted tobacco, with all of a smoker's zeal. When the
+fire was secured, he found time to continue the subject.
+
+“Yes, dat good war-path--got rifle; got wife; got TWO scalp! Don't do so
+well, ebbery day.”
+
+“And that woman hoes your corn, and cooks your venison?” demanded the
+bee-hunter.
+
+“Sartain--capital good to hoe--no good to cook--make deer meat too dry.
+Want to be made to mind business. Bye'm by teach him. No l'arn all at
+once, like pale-face pappoose in school.”
+
+“Pigeonswing, have you never observed the manner in which the white man
+treats his squaw?”
+
+“Sartain--see him make much of her--put her in warm corner--wrap
+blanket round her--give her venison 'fore he eat himself--see all dat,
+often--what den? DAT don't make it right.”
+
+“I give you up, Chippewa, and agree with Margery in thinking you ought
+not to have a squaw, at all.”
+
+“T'ink alike, den--why no get marry?” asked the Indian, without
+circumlocution.
+
+Margery's face became red as fire; then her cheeks settled into the
+color of roses, and she looked down, embarrassed. The bee-hunter's
+admiration was very apparent to the Indian, though the girl did not dare
+to raise her eyes from the ground, and so did not take heed of it. But
+this gossiping was suddenly brought to an end by a most unexpected cause
+of interruption; the manner and form of which it shall be our office to
+relate, in the succeeding chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+   So should it be--for no heart beats
+      Within his cold and silent breast;
+    To him no gentle voice repeats
+      The soothing words that make us blest.
+                                    --PEABODY.
+
+
+The interruption came from Dorothy, who, on ascending the little height,
+had discovered a canoe coming into the mouth of the river, and who was
+running, breathless with haste, to announce the circumstance to the
+bee-hunter. The latter immediately repaired to the eminence, and saw for
+himself the object that so justly had alarmed the woman. The canoe was
+coming in from the lake, after running before the wind, which now began
+to abate a little in its strength, and it evidently had been endeavoring
+to proceed to the northward. The reason for its entering the river, was
+probably connected with the cookery or food of the party, since the lake
+was each minute getting to be safer, and more navigable for so light
+a craft. To le Bourdon's great apprehension, he saw the savages on the
+north shore making signal to this strange canoe, by means of smoke,
+and he foresaw the probability of his enemies obtaining the means
+of crossing the stream, should the strangers proceed in the desired
+direction. To counteract this design, he ran down to a spot on the beach
+where there was no rice-plant, and showing himself to the strangers,
+invited them to land on the south side, which was much the nearest, and
+in other visible respects quite as convenient as the opposite bank
+of the river. One of the strangers soon made a gesture with an arm,
+implying assent, and the bows of this strange canoe were immediately
+turned toward the spot where the bee-hunter stood.
+
+As the canoe drew near, the whole party, including Pigeonswing, came
+to the margin of the water to receive the strangers. Of the last, there
+were three; one paddling at each end of the light bark, and a third
+seated in its centre, doing nothing. As the bee-hunter had his glass,
+with which he examined these visitors, he was soon questioned by his
+companions concerning their character and apparent purposes.
+
+“Who are they, Bourdon?” demanded the impatient Margery--“and why do
+they come here?”
+
+“The last is a question they must answer for themselves, but the
+person paddling in the bows of the canoe seems to be a white man, and a
+soldier--or a half-soldier, if one may judge from his dress. The man in
+the middle of the canoe is white, also. This last fellow seems to be
+a parson--yes, he is a clergyman, though pretty well used up in the
+wilderness, as to dress. The third man is a red-skin, beyond all doubt.”
+
+“A clergyman!” repeated Margery, in surprise. “What should a clergyman
+be doing here?”
+
+“There are missionaries scattered about among the savages, I suppose
+you know, and this is probably one of them. A body can tell one of these
+parsons by his outside, as far as he can see him. The poor man has heard
+of the war, most likely, and is trying to get back into the settlements,
+while his scalp is safe on his head.”
+
+“Don't hurt HIM” put in the Chippewa, pointedly. “Know MEAN well--talk
+about Great Spirit--Injin don't scalp sich medicine-men--if don't mind
+what he say, no good to take his scalp.”
+
+“I'm glad to hear this, Pigeonswing, for I had begun to think NO man's
+scalp was safe under YOUR fingers. But what can the so'ger be doing
+down this-away? A body would think there was business enough for all
+the so'gers up at the garrison, at the head of the lake. By the way,
+Pigeonswing, what has become of your letter to the captain at Fort
+Dearborn, to let him know of the war?”
+
+“Chaw him up, like so much 'baccy,” answered the Chippewa--“yes, chaw
+him up, lest Pottawattamie get hold on him, and ask one of King George's
+men to read him. No good to hab letter in sich times.”
+
+“The general who employed you to carry that letter, will scarce thank
+you for your care.”
+
+“Yes, he do--t'ank all same--pay all same--letter no use now.”
+
+“How can you know that? The letter might be the means of preventing the
+garrison from falling into the enemy's hands.”
+
+“Got dere, already. Garrison all kill, scalp, or prisoner. Pottawattamie
+talk tell me DAT!”
+
+“Is this possible! Mackinaw and Chicago both gone, already! John Bull
+must have been at work among the savages a long time, to get them into
+this state of readiness!”
+
+“Sartain--work long as can 'member. ALWAY somebody talkin' for great
+Montreal Fadder among red men.”
+
+“It must be as you say, Chippewa--but, here are our visitors--let us see
+what we can make of THEM!”
+
+By this time, the canoe was so near as to render it easy to distinguish
+countenances and dress, without the aid of the glass--so near, indeed,
+that a swift-moving boat, like the canoe, might be expected soon to
+reach the shore. The truth of the observation of the bee-hunter was
+confirmed, as the strangers approached. The individual in the bows of
+the canoe was clearly a soldier, in a fatigue-dress, and the musket
+between his legs was one of those pieces that government furnishes to
+the troops of the line. The man in the middle of the boat could no more
+be mistaken than he in its bows. Each might be said to be in uniform--
+the well-worn, nay, almost threadbare black coat of the “minister,” as
+much denoting him to be a man of peace, as the fatigue-jacket and cap on
+the person of his hard-featured and weather-beaten companion indicated
+that the last was a man of war. As for the red man, Pigeonswing declared
+that he could not yet tell his tribe, though there was that about his
+air, attire and carriage, that proclaimed him a chief—and, as the
+Chippewa fancied, a chief of note. In another minute, the bows of the
+light craft grated gently on the shingle of the beach.
+
+“Sago, sago,” said the soldier, rising to step ashore--“sago all,
+friends, and I hope we come to a welcome camp.”
+
+“You are welcome,” returned the bee-hunter. “Welcome as strangers met in
+the wilderness, but more welcome, as I see by your dress that you are a
+veteran of one of Uncle Sam's regiments.”
+
+“Quite true, Mr. Bee-hunter ; for such I see is _your_ callin', by the
+honey vessel and glass you carry, and by the other signs about you. We
+are travelling toward Mackinaw, and hope to fere as friends, while we
+stay in your good company.”
+
+“In going to Mackinaw, do you expect to meet with an _American or an
+English_ garrison ?”
+
+“One of our own, to be sure,” returned the soldier, looking up from his
+work, like one struck by the question.
+
+“Mackinaw has fallen, and is now an English post, as well as Chicago.”
+
+“This, then, must alter our plans, Mr. Amen !” exclaimed the soldier,
+addressing the minister. “If the enemy has Mackinaw, it will not do for
+us to trust ourselves on the island.”
+
+“Amen” was not the real name of the missionary ; but it was a
+_sobriquet_ bestowed by the soldiers, on account of the unction with
+which this particular word was ordinarily pronounced, and quite likely,
+too, because it was the word of all others most pleasant to their ears,
+after a sermon, or a prayer. It had, by long use, got to be so familiar,
+that the men did not scruple to use it to the good man's face. This
+missionary was a Methodist ; a sect that possessed, in that day, very
+few clergymen of education, most of its divines coming of a class in
+life that did not predispose them to take offence at light invasions on
+their dignity, and whose zeal and habitual self-denial had schooled them
+into a submission to far more positive personal privations, than any
+connected with the mere tongue. That there are “wolves in sheep's
+clothing” among the Methodists, as well as among the other religious
+sects of the country, our daily experience shows ; but the mind must be
+sadly inclined to believe evil of others, which does not see in the
+humble and untiring efforts of this particular sect of Christians, more
+than mere fanaticism or hypocrisy can produce.
+
+“You are right, corporal,” returned the missionary ; “since this is the
+case, I see no better course for us to pursue, than to put ourselves
+altogether in the hands of Onoah. He has counselled us well, hitherto,
+and will do better by us than any other guide to be found, out in this
+wilderness.”
+
+Le Bourdon could scarcely trust his sense of hearing ! Onoah was the
+Indian appellation of the terrible and most dreaded savage, who, in
+English, went by the name of Scalping Peter, or “Scalping Pete,” among
+all the white dwellers on that frontier, and at all the garrisons of the
+Americans, far and near. The Indian name, indeed, was said to mean
+“scalp,” in several of the dialects of the Iroquois. Perhaps it may be
+well, also, to explain here, that the term “garrison” did not imply, in
+the language of that region, the troops only who garrisoned a post, but
+it was even oftener applied to the post itself than to those who held
+it. Thus old, empty, and deserted forts, those that have actually been
+abandoned, and are devoted to decay, are almost universally styled the ”
+ garrisons,” even though a soldier had not put foot in them for a quarter
+of a century. This is one of the proofs of the convertible nature of our
+language, of which the country affords so many, and which has changed
+the smaller-sized rivers into “creeks,” “lakes” into “ponds,” “squares”
+ into “parks,” public promenades on the water into “batteries”; to all of
+which innovations, bad as they may be, and useless and uncalled for, and
+wanton as they are, we are much more willing to submit, than to the new-
+fangled and lubberly abomination of saying “ON a steamboat,” or “ON a
+ship.”
+
+While le Bourdon was so much astounded at hearing the terrible name of
+Onoah, which was familiar enough to him, neither of his white companions
+betrayed any emotion. Had the Indian been termed “Scalping Peter,” it
+is probable that both Dorothy and Margery would have screamed, if not
+actually fled; but they knew nothing of the appellation that was given
+to this mysterious chief, in the language of the red men. To this
+circumstance, therefore, was it owing that the utterance of his name did
+not produce a general commotion. The bee-hunter observed, nevertheless,
+a great change in the demeanor of the Chippewa, the instant the
+missionary had uttered the ominous word, though he did not seem to be
+alarmed. On the contrary, Boden fancied that his friend Pigeonswing was
+pleased, rather than terrified, at ascertaining the character of their
+visitor, though he no longer put himself forward, as had been the case
+previously; and from that moment the young warrior appeared to carry
+himself in a more subdued and less confident manner than was his wont.
+This unexpected demeanor on the part of his friend, somewhat confounded
+le Bourdon, though it in a degree relieved his apprehensions of any
+immediate danger. All this time, the conversation between the missionary
+and the corporal went on in as quiet and composed a manner, as if each
+saw no ground for any other uneasiness than that connected with the fall
+of Mackinaw.
+
+“Yes, sir,” returned the soldier, “Onoah is a good guide, and a great
+hand at a council-fire; but these is war-times, and we must stand to
+our arms, each accordin' to his edication and temper--you, sir, with
+preachin' and prayin', and I with gun and baggonet.”
+
+“Ah! corporal, the preaching and praying would be of quite as much
+account with you men of war, as your arms and ammunition, if you could
+only be made to think so. Look at Fort Dearborn! It was defended
+by human means, having its armed band, and its guns and swords, and
+captains and corporals; yet you have seen their pride lowered, their
+means of defence destroyed, and a large part of your comrades massacred.
+All this has been done to armed men, while the Lord has brought ME, an
+unarmed and humble teacher of his word, safely out of the hands of
+the Philistines, and placed me here in safety, on the shores of the
+Kalamazoo.”
+
+“For that matter, Mr. Amen, the Lord has done the same by ME, with a
+musket on my shoulder and a baggonet by my side,” returned the
+literal corporal. “Preachin' may be good on some marches; but arms and
+ammunition answers well enough on others. Hearken to the Hebrew, who
+knows all the ways of the wilderness, and see if he don't give you the
+same opinion.” “The Hebrew is one of the discarded of the Lord, as he
+is one chosen of the Lord!” returned the missionary. “I agree with you,
+however, that he is as safe an adviser, for a human adviser, as can
+be easily found; therefore will I consult him. Child of the seed of
+Abraham,” he added, turning to Onoah, “thou hast heard the tidings from
+Mackinaw; we cannot think, any longer, of pursuing our journey in that
+direction; whither, then, wouldst thou advise that we shall direct
+our steps? I ask this question of THEE first, as an experienced and
+sagacious dweller in the wilderness: at a more fitting time, I intend
+to turn to the Lord, and seek divine aid for the direction of our
+footsteps.”
+
+“Aye,” observed the corporal, who entertained a good deal of respect for
+the zealous, but slightly fanatical missionary, though he believed an
+Indian was always safe to consult in matters of this sort, “try BOTH--if
+one staff should fail, it may be well to have another to lean on. A good
+soldier always keeps a part of his troops for a reserve. I motto of his
+coat of arms; the “gare a qui la touchc,” or “noli me tangere,” of his
+device.”
+
+The head was shaved, as is usual with a warrior, carrying only the
+chivalrous scalp-lock, but the chief was not in his paint. The outline
+of this celebrated savage's features was bold and eagle-like; a
+comparison that his steady, calm, piercing eye well sustained. The chin
+was full and expanded, the lips compressed and firm, the teeth were
+short, but even and sound, his smile courteous, and, at times, winning.
+
+In the way of attire, Onoah was simply dressed, consulting the season
+and his journey. He had a single eagle's feather attached to the
+scalp-lock, and wore a belt of wampum of more than usual value, beneath
+which he had thrust his knife and tomahawk; a light, figured and fringed
+hunting-shirt of cotton covered his body, while leggings of deerskin,
+with a plain moccasin of similar material, rose to his knee. The latter,
+with the lower part of a stout sinewy thigh, was bare. He also carried a
+horn and pouch, and a rifle of the American rather than of the military
+fashion that is, one long, true, and sighted to the deviation of a hair.
+
+On landing, Peter (for so he was generally called by the whites, when in
+courtesy they omitted the prefix of “Scalping”) courteously saluted the
+party assembled around the bow of the canoe. This he did with a grave
+countenance, like a true American, but in simple sincerity, so far as
+human eye could penetrate his secret feelings. To each man he offered
+his hand, glancing merely at the two females; though it may be
+questioned if he ever before had looked upon so perfect a picture of
+female loveliness as Margery at that precise instant presented, with
+her face flushed with excitement, her spirited blue eye wandering with
+curiosity, and her beautiful mouth slightly parted in admiration.
+
+“Sago, sago!” said Peter, in his deep, guttural enunciation, speaking
+reasonably good English. “Sago, sago all, ole and young, friend come to
+see you, and eat in your wigwam--which head--chief, eh?”
+
+“We have neither wigwam nor chief here,” answered le Bourdon, though he
+almost shrunk from taking the hand of one of whom he had heard the tales
+of which this savage had been the hero; “we are common people, and
+have no one among us who holds the States' commission. I live by taking
+honey, of which you are welcome to all you can want, and this man is a
+helper of the sutlers at the garrisons. He was travelling south to join
+the troops at the head of the lake, and I was going north to Mackinaw,
+on my way in, toward the settlements.”
+
+“Why is my brother in such haste?” demanded Peter, mildly. “Bees get
+tired of making honey?”
+
+“The times are troubled, and the red men have dug up the hatchet; a
+pale-face cannot tell when his wigwam is safe.”
+
+“Where my brodder wigwam?” asked Peter, looking warily around him. “See
+he an't here; where is he?”
+
+“Over in the openings, far up the Kalamazoo. We left it last week, and
+had got to the hut on the other shore, when a party of Pottawattamies
+came in from the lake, and drove us over here for safety.”
+
+On hearing this, Peter turned slowly to the missionary, raising a finger
+as one makes a gesture to give emphasis to his words.
+
+“Tole you so,” said the Indian. “Know dere was Pottawattamie dere. Can
+tell 'em great way off.”
+
+“We fear them, having women in our party,” added the bee-hunter, “and
+think they might fancy our scalps.”
+
+“Dat like enough; all Injin love scalp in war-time. You Yankee, dey
+Br'ish; can't travel on same path now, and not quarrel. Must not let
+Pottawattamie catch you.”
+
+“How are we to help it, now you have come in? We had all the canoes on
+this side of the river, and were pretty safe, but should you cross and
+place your canoe in their hands, there is nothing to prevent them from
+doing what they please with us. If you will promise not to cross the
+river till we can get out well on the lake, we may shift our ground,
+however, and leave no trail.”
+
+“Muss cross over--yes, muss cross over, else Pottawattamie t'ink it
+strange--yes, muss cross over. Shan't touch canoe, dough.”
+
+“How can you help it, if they be so minded? You are but a single man,
+and they are twenty.”
+
+On hearing this, Corporal Flint pricked up his ears, and stood if
+possible more erect than ever, for he considered himself a part of a man
+at least, and one moreover who had served in all the wars of the west,
+from the great battle of St. Glair to that of Mad Anthony. He was spared
+the necessity of a reply, however, for Peter made a significant gesture
+which as much as told him that he would take that office on himself.
+
+“No need be afeard,” said Peter, quietly. “Know Pottawattamie--know all
+chief. Nobody touch canoe of Onoah when he say don't touch him.”
+
+“Yet they are Injins of the British, and I see you here in company with
+a soldier of Uncle Sam.”
+
+“No matter; Onoah go just where he please. Sometime to Pottawattamie;
+sometime to Iroquois. All Ojebways know Onoah. All Six Nation know him
+well. All Injin know him. Even Cherokee know him now, and open ears when
+he speak. Muss cross river, and shake hand with Crowsfeather.”
+
+There was nothing boastful, or vaunting, in Peter's manner while he
+thus announced his immunity or power, but he alluded to it in a quiet,
+natural way, like one accustomed to being considered a personage of
+consequence. Mankind, in general, make few allowances for the influence
+of habit; the sensibilities of the vainglorious themselves being quite
+as often wounded by the most natural and direct allusions of those who
+enjoy advantages superior to their own, as by those that are intended to
+provoke comparisons. In the present instance, however, no such feeling
+could exist, the Indian asserting no more than his extended reputation
+would fully maintain.
+
+When Peter had thus expressed himself, the missionary thought it meet to
+add a few words in explanation. This he did, however, aside, walking a
+little apart with the bee-hunter, in order so to do. As for Gershom,
+no one seemed to think him of sufficient importance to throw away any
+interest or care on him.
+
+“You can trust to Peter, friend bee-hunter,” the missionary observed,
+“for what he promises he will perform. I know him well, and have put
+myself altogether in his hands. If he says that the Pottawattamies are
+not to have his canoe, the Pottawattamies will not get it. He is a man
+to be depended on.”
+
+“Is not this, then, Scalping Peter, who bears so terrible a name on all
+this frontier?” demanded le Bourdon.
+
+“The same; but do not disturb yourself with names: they hurt no one, and
+will soon be forgotten. A descendant of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of
+Jacob, is not placed in the wilderness by the hand of divine power for
+no purpose; since he is here, rely on it, it is for good.”
+
+“A descendant of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob! Is not Peter, then, a
+red-skin and an Injin?”
+
+“Certainly; though no one knows his tribe but himself. I know it, friend
+bee-hunter, and shortly shall proclaim it throughout the length and
+breadth of the land. Yes, it has been given to me to make this important
+discovery, though I sometimes think that Peter himself is really as
+ignorant as all around him of the tribe to which he properly belongs.”
+
+“Do you wish to keep it a secret from me, too? I own that, in my eyes,
+the tribe of a red-skin goes a good way in making up my opinions of the
+man. Is he a Winnebagoe?”
+
+“No, my friend, the Winnebagoes have no claims on him at all.”
+
+“Nor a Pottawattamie, Ottawa, or Ojebway of any sort?”
+
+“He is none of these. Peter cometh of a nobler tribe than any that
+beareth such names.”
+
+“Perhaps he is an Injin of the Six Nations? They tell me that many such
+have found their way hither since the war of the revolution.”
+
+“All that may be true, but Peter cometh not of Pottawattamie, Ottawa,
+nor Ojebway.”
+
+“He can hardly be of the Sacs or the Foxes; he has not the appearance of
+an Injin from a region so far west.”
+
+“Neither, neither, neither,” answered Parson Amen, now so full of his
+secret as fairly to let it overflow. “Peter is a son of Israel; one of
+the lost children of the land of Judea, in common with many of his
+red brethren-mind, I do not say ALL, but with MANY of his red
+brethren--though he may not know exactly of what tribe himself. This
+last point has exercised me greatly, and days and nights have I pondered
+over the facts. Turn to Genesis XLIX and 14th, and there will you find
+all the authorities recorded. 'Zebulon shall dwell at the haven of the
+sea.' That refers to some other red brother, nearer to the coast, most
+clearly. 'Issachar is a strong ass, crouching down between two burdens';
+'and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.'
+That refers, most manifestly, to the black man of the Southern States,
+and cannot mean Peter. 'Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in
+the path.' There is the red man for you, drawn with the pencil of truth!
+'Gad, a troop shall overcome him.' Here, corporal, come this way and
+tell our new friend how Mad Anthony with his troopers finally routed
+the red-skins. You were there, and know all about it. No language can
+be plainer: until the 'long-knives and leather-stockings' came into the
+woods, the red man had his way. Against THEM he COULD not prevail.”
+
+“Yes,” returned Corporal Flint, who delighted in talking of the wars,
+“it was very much as Parson Amen says. The savages, by their nimbleness
+and artifices, would first ambush us, and then break away from our
+charges, until the gin'ral bethought him of bringing cavalry into
+the wilderness. Nobody ever thought of such a plan, until old Anthony
+invented it. As soon as we got the fire of the savages, at the Mawmee,
+we charged with the baggonet, and put 'em up; and no sooner was they
+up, than away went the horse into them, flourishing the 'long knife'
+and pressing the heel of the 'leather-stocking' into the flanks of their
+beasts. Mr. Amen has found a varse in Scriptur's that does come near to
+the p'int, and almost foretells our victory, and that, too, as plain as
+it stood in dispatches, arterward, from headquarters.”
+
+“'Gad, a TROOP shall overcome him,'” put in the missionary,
+triumphantly.
+
+“That's it--that's it; there was just one troop on 'em, and not a
+man more! Mad Anthony said a troop would answer, arter we had put the
+red-skins up out of their ambushes, or any other bushes; and so it did.
+I must acknowledge that I think more of the Scriptur's than ever, since
+Parson Amen read to me that varse.”
+
+“Hearken unto this, friend bee-hunter,” added the missionary, who
+by this time had fairly mounted his hobby, and fancied he saw a true
+Israelite in every other Indian of the west, “and tell me if words were
+ever more prophetic--'Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf; in the morning he
+shall devour his prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.' The art
+of man could not draw a more faithful picture of these Indians.”
+
+Boden was not much skilled in sacred lore, and scarce knew what to make
+of all this. The idea that the American Indians were the descendants
+of the lost tribes of Israel was entirely new to him; nor did he know
+anything to boast of, touching those tribes, even in their palmiest
+days, and while in possession of the promised land; still he had some
+confused recollection of that which he had read when a child--what
+American has not?--and was enabled to put a question or two, in return
+for the information now received. “What, do you take the savages of
+America for Jews?” he asked, understanding the general drift of the
+missionary's meaning.
+
+“As sure as you are there, friend bee-hunter, though you are not to
+suppose that I think Peter Onoah of the tribe of Benjamin. No, I turn to
+the 21st verse for the tribe of Peter Naphthali--Naphthalis, the root
+of his stock. 'Naphthali is a hind, let loose: he giveth goodly words.'
+Now, what can be plainer than this? A hind let loose is a deer running
+at large, and, by a metaphor, that deer includes the man that hunts him.
+Now, Peter has been--nay, is still--a renowned hunter, and is intended
+to be enumerated among the hinds let loose; 'he giveth goodly words,'
+would set that point at rest, if anything were wanting to put it beyond
+controversy, for Onoah is the most eloquent speaker ear ever listened
+to! No one, that has ever heard him speak, can doubt that he is the one
+who 'giveth goodly words.'”
+
+To what other circumstance the well-intentioned missionary would next
+have alluded, in the course of this demonstration of a theory that had
+got to be a favorite with him, is more than can now be related, since
+the Indian himself drew near, and put an end to the conversation. Peter
+had made up his mind to cross the river at once; and came to say as
+much to his companions, both of whom he intended to leave behind him. Le
+Bourdon could not arrest this movement, short of an appeal to force;
+and force he did not like to use, doubting equally its justice and its
+prudence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+  There is no other land like thee, No dearer shore; Thou art the shelter
+  of the free; The home, the port of liberty Thou hast been, and shall
+  ever be Till time is o'er. Ere I forget to think upon My land, shall
+  mother curse the son She bore.
+                                                    --Percival.
+
+
+The independent, not to say controlling, manner of Peter, would seem
+to put all remonstrances and arguments at defiance, Le Bourdon soon had
+occasion to see that both the missionary and the corporal submitted
+to his wishes, and that there was no use in gainsaying anything he
+proposed. In all matters he did as he pleased; his two companions
+submitting to his will as completely as if one of them had seen in this
+supposed child of Israel, Joshua, the son of Nun, and the other even
+Aaron, the high-priest, himself.
+
+Peter's preparations were soon made. Everything belonging to the
+missionary and the corporal was removed from the canoe, which then
+contained only the extra clothing and the special property of the Indian
+himself. As soon as ready, the latter quietly and fearlessly paddled
+away, his canoe going easily and swiftly down before the wind. He had no
+sooner got clear of the rice, than the bee-hunter and Margery ran away
+to the eminence, to watch his movements, and to note his reception among
+the Pottawattamies. Leaving them there, we shall accompany the canoe, in
+its progress toward the northern shore.
+
+At first, Peter paddled quietly on, as if he had no other object
+before him than the passage of the river. When quite clear of the
+rice, however, he ceased, and undid his bundle of clothes, which were
+carefully put away in the knapsack of a soldier. From this repository of
+his effects, the chief carefully drew forth a small bundle, on opening
+which, no less than seven fresh human scalps appeared. These he arranged
+in order on a wand-like pole, when, satisfied with the arrangement,
+he resumed the paddle. It was apparent, from the first, that the
+Pottawattamies on the north shore had seen the strange canoe when it
+entered the river, and they now collected in a group, at the ordinary
+landing beneath the chiente, to await its approach. Peter ceased his
+own exertion, as soon as he had got within a hundred yards of the beach,
+took the scalp-pole in his hand, arose, and permitted the canoe to drift
+down before the wind, certain it would take the desired direction, from
+the circumstance of his having placed it precisely to windward of
+the landing. Once or twice he slowly waved the pole in a way to draw
+attention to the scalps, which were suspended from its end, each obvious
+and distinct from its companions.
+
+Napoleon, when he returned from the campaign of Austerlitz; or
+Wellington, when he entered the House of Commons to receive the thanks
+of its speaker, on his return from Spain; or the chief of all the
+battles of the Rio Bravo del Norte; or him of the valley of Mexico,
+whose exploits fairly rival those of Cortes himself, could scarcely be a
+subject of greater interest to a body of spectators, assembled to do
+him honor, than was this well-known Indian, as he drew near to the
+Pottawattamies, waving his scalps, in significant triumph! Glory, as the
+homage paid by man to military renown is termed, was the common impulse
+with them all. It is true, that, measured by the standards of reason
+and right, the wise and just might find motives for appreciating the
+victories of those named differently from the manner in which they are
+usually regarded through the atmosphere of success; but in the common
+mind it was all glory, alike. The name of “Onoah” passed in murmurs of
+admiration, from mouth to mouth; for, as it appeared, the person of this
+renowned Indian was recognized by many on the shore, some time ere he
+reached it himself.
+
+Crowsfeather, and the other chiefs, advanced to meet the visitor; the
+young men standing in the background, in respectful admiration. Peter
+now stepped from the canoe, and greeted each of the principal men with
+the courteous gravity of a savage. He shook hands with each, calling
+one or two by name, a proof of the parties having met before; then
+the following dialogue occurred. All spoke in the tongue of the
+Pottawattamies, but, as we have had occasion to remark on previous
+occasions, it is to be presumed that the reader would scarcely be able
+to understand what was said, were we to record it, word for word, in the
+language in which it was uttered. In consequence of this difficulty, and
+for other reasons to which it may not be necessary to allude, we shall
+endeavor to translate that which passed, as closely as the English
+idioms will permit us so to do.
+
+“My father is very welcome!” exclaimed Crowsfeather, who, by many
+degrees, exceeded all his companions in consideration and rank. “I see
+he has taken many scalps as is his practice, and that the pale-faces are
+daily getting to be fewer. Will the sun ever rise on that day when their
+wigwams will look like the branches of the oak in winter? Can my father
+give us any hope of seeing that hour?”
+
+“It is a long path from the salt-lake out of which the sun rises, to
+that other salt-lake in which it hides itself at night. The sun sleeps
+each night beneath water, but it is so hot that it is soon dried when it
+comes out of its bed in the morning. This is the Great Spirit's doings,
+and not ours. The sun is his sun; the Indians can warm themselves by it,
+but they cannot shorten its journey a single tomahawk handle's length.
+The same is true of time; it belongs to the Manitou, who will lengthen
+or shorten it, as he may see fit. We are his children, and it is our
+duty to submit. He has not forgotten us. He made us with his own hand,
+and will no more turn us out of the land than a father will turn his
+child from the wigwam.”
+
+“We hope this is so; but it does not seem thus to out poor weak eyes,
+Onoah. We count the pale-faces, and every summer they grow fast as the
+grass on the prairies. We can see more when the leaf falls than when
+the tree is in bud; and, then, more when the leaf is in bud than when
+it falls. A few moons will put a town where the pine stood, and wigwams
+drive the wolves from their homes. In a few years we shall have nothing
+but dogs to eat, if the pale-face dogs do not eat us.”
+
+“Squaws are impatient, but men know how to wait. This land was given to
+the red man by the Great Spirit, as I have often told you, my children;
+if he has let in the pale-faces for a few winters, it is to punish us
+for having done wrong. Now that we are sorry for what we have done, he
+will help us to drive away the strangers, and give us the woods again
+to hunt in by ourselves. Have not messengers from our Great Father in
+Montreal been among the Pottawattamies to strengthen their hearts?”
+
+“They are always whispering in the ears of our tribes. I cannot remember
+the time when whispers from Montreal have not been among us. Their
+blankets are warm, their fire-water is strong, their powder is good,
+and their rifles shoot well; but all this does not stop the children of
+Uncle Sam from being more at night than they were in the morning. The
+red men get tired of counting them. They have become plentier than the
+pigeons in the spring. My father has taken many of their scalps, but the
+hair must grow after his knife, their scalps are so many.”
+
+“See!” rejoined Peter, lowering his pole so that all might examine his
+revolting trophies, “these come from the soldiers at the head of the
+lake. Blackbird was there with his young men; no one of them all got as
+many scalps! This is the way to stop the white pigeon from flying over
+us in such flocks as to hide and darken the sun.”
+
+Another murmur of admiration passed through the crowd, as each young
+warrior bent forward to count the number of the scalps, and to note,
+by signs familiar to themselves, the ages, sex, and condition of the
+different victims. Here was another instance among a hundred others of
+which they had heard, of the prowess of the mysterious Onoah, as well
+as of his inextinguishable hatred of the race, that was slowly, but
+unerringly, supplanting the ancient stock, causing the places that once
+knew the people of their tribes “to know them no more.” As soon as this
+little burst of feeling had subsided, the conversation went on.
+
+“We have had a pale-face medicine-man among us, Onoah,” continued
+Crowsfeather, “and he has so far blinded us that we know not what to
+think.”
+
+The chief then recounted the leading events of the visit of the
+bee-hunter to the place, stating each occurrence fairly, as he
+understood it, and as fairly confessing that even the chiefs were at a
+loss to know what to make of the affair. In addition to this account,
+he gave the mysterious Onoah the history of the prisoner they had taken,
+the death of Elks-foot, their intention to torture that very morning the
+Chippewa they had captured, and his flight, together with the loss of
+their young man, and the subsequent escape of their unknown enemies,
+who had taken away all of their own canoes. How far the medicine-man had
+anything to do with the other events of his narrative, Crowsfeather very
+candidly admitted he could not even conjecture. He was still at a loss
+whether to set down the conjurer for a pretender, or as a real oracle.
+Peter, however, was less credulous even than the chiefs. He had his
+superstitious notions, like all uneducated men, but a clear head and
+quick intellect placed him far above the weaknesses of the red man
+in general. On receiving a description of the person of the unknown
+“medicine-man,” he at once recognized the bee-hunter. With an Indian to
+describe, and an Indian to interpret or apply, escape from discovery was
+next to impossible.
+
+Although Onoah, or the “Tribeless,” as he was also frequently called
+by the red men, from the circumstance of no one's knowing to what
+particular section of the great Indian family he belonged, perfectly
+understood that the bee-hunter he had seen on the other shore was the
+individual who had been playing the part of a conjurer among these
+Pottawattamies, he was very careful not to reveal the fact to
+Crowsfeather. He had his own policy, and was fully aware of all the
+virtue there is in mystery and reserve. With an Indian, these qualities
+go farther even than with a white man; and we of the Caucasian race are
+not entirely exempt from the folly of being deceived by appearances. On
+the present occasion Peter kept his knowledge to himself, still leaving
+his red brethren in doubt and uncertainty; but he took care to be right
+in his own opinions by putting as many questions as were necessary for
+that purpose. Once assured of this fact, he turned to other subjects of
+even greater interest to himself and his companions.
+
+The conference which now took place between the “Tribeless” and
+Crowsfeather was held apart, both being chiefs of too much importance
+to be intruded on at a moment like that. The two chiefs exhibited a very
+characteristic picture while engaged in this conference. They seated
+themselves on a bank, and drawing their legs partially under them, sat
+face to face, with their heads less than two feet asunder, occasionally
+gesticulating with dignity, but each speaking in his turn with studied
+decorum. Crowsfeather was highly painted, and looked fierce and warlike,
+but Onoah had nothing extraordinary about him, with the exception of
+the decorations and dress already described, unless it might be his
+remarkable countenance. The face of this Indian ordinarily wore a
+thoughtful cast, an expression which it is not unusual to meet with in
+a savage; though at times it lighted up, as it might be with the heat of
+inward fires, like the crater giving out its occasional flames beneath
+the hues of a saddened atmosphere. One accustomed to study the human
+face, and to analyze its expressions, would possibly have discovered in
+that countenance lines of deep artifice, together with the traces of
+a profound and constitutional enthusiasm. He was bent, at that
+very moment, on a scheme worthy of the loftiest spirit living; the
+regeneration and union of the people of his race, with a view to recover
+the possessions they had yielded to the pale-faces; but it was a project
+blended with the ferocity and revenge of a savage-noble while ferocious.
+
+Not idly had the whites, scattered along that frontier, given the
+sobriquet of “Scalping” to Peter, As his pole now showed, it had been
+earned in a hundred scenes of bloody vengeance; and so great had been
+his success, that the warrior, prophet, and councillor, for all
+these characters were united in his single person, began to think the
+attainment of his wishes possible. As a matter of course, much ignorance
+of the power of the Anglo-Saxon race on this continent was blended with
+these opinions and hopes; but it was scarcely an ignorance exceeding
+that of certain persons of far higher pretensions in knowledge, who live
+in another hemisphere, and who often set themselves up as infallible
+judges of all things connected with man and his attributes. Peter, the
+“Tribeless,” was not more in fault than those who fancied they saw the
+power of this great republic in the gallant little band collected at
+Corpus Christi, under its indomitable chief, and who, march by march,
+nay, foot by foot, as it might be, have perseveringly predicted the
+halt, the defeat, the disasters, and final discomfiture, which it has
+not yet pleased Divine Providence to inflict on this slight effort of
+the young Hercules, as he merely moves in his cradle. Alas, the enemy
+that most menaces the overthrow of this new and otherwise invincible
+exhibition of human force, is within; seated in the citadel itself;
+and must be narrowly watched, or he will act his malignant purpose, and
+destroy the fairest hopes that ever yet dawned on the fortunes of the
+human race!
+
+The conference between the chiefs lasted fully an hour. Crowsfeather
+possessed much of the confidence of Peter, and, as for Onoah, neither
+Tecumseh, nor his brother the Prophet, commanded as much of the
+respect of Crowsfeather as he did himself. Some even whispered that the
+“Tribeless” was the individual who lay behind all, and that the others
+named merely acted as he suggested, or advised. The reader will obtain
+all the insight into the future that it is necessary now to give him,
+by getting a few of the remarks made by the two colloquists, just before
+they joined the rest of the party.
+
+“My father, then, intends to lead his pale-faces on a crooked path, and
+take their scalps when he has done with them,” said Crowsfeather, who
+had been gravely listening to Peter's plans of future proceeding; “but
+who is to get the scalp of the Chippewa?”
+
+“One of my Pottawattamie young men; but not until I have made use of
+him. I have a medicine-priest of the pale-faces and a warrior with me,
+but shall not put their scalps on my pole until they have paddled
+me further. The council is to be first held in the Oak Openings”--we
+translate this term freely, that used by Peter meaning rather “the open
+woods of the prairies”--“and I wish to show my prisoners to the chiefs,
+that they may see how easy it is to cut off all the Yankees. I have now
+four men of that people, and two squaws, in my power; let every red man
+destroy as many, and the land will soon be clear of them all!”
+
+This was uttered with gleamings of ferocity in the speaker's face, that
+rendered his countenance terrible. Even Crowsfeather quailed a little
+before that fierce aspect; but the whole passed away almost as soon as
+betrayed, and was succeeded by a friendly and deceptive smile, that
+was characteristic of the wily Asiatic rather than of the aboriginal
+American.
+
+“They cannot be counted,” returned the Pottawattamie chief, as soon as
+his restraint was a little removed by this less terrific aspect of his
+companion, “if all I hear is true. Blackbird says that even the squaws
+of the pale-faces are numerous enough to overcome all the red men that
+remain.”
+
+“There will be two less, when I fasten to my pole the scalps of those
+on the other side of the river,” answered Peter, with another of his
+transient, but startling gleams of intense revenge. “But no matter, now:
+my brother knows all I wish him to do. Not a hair of the head of any
+of these pale-faces must be touched by any hand but mine. When the time
+comes, the knife of Onoah is sure. The Pottawattamies shall have their
+canoes, and can follow us up the river. They will find us in the
+Openings, and near the Prairie Round. They know the spot; for the red
+men love to hunt the deer in that region. Now, go and tell this to your
+young men; and tell them that corn will not grow, nor the deer wait to
+be killed by any of your people, if they forget to do as I have said.
+Vengeance shall come, when it is time.”
+
+Crowsfeather communicated all this to his warriors, who received it as
+the ancients received the words of their oracles. Each member of the
+party endeavored to get an accurate notion of his duty, in order that
+he might comply to the very letter with the injunctions received. So
+profound was the impression made among all the red men of the north-west
+by the previous labors of the “Tribeless” to awaken a national spirit,
+and so great was their dread of the consequences of disobedience, that
+every warrior present felt as if his life were the threatened penalty of
+neglect or disinclination to obey.
+
+No sooner, however, had Crowsfeather got through with his communication,
+than a general request was made that the problem of the whiskey-spring
+might be referred to Onoah for solution. The young men had strong hopes,
+not-withstanding all that had passed, that this spring might yet turn
+out to be a reality. The scent was still there, strong and fragrant,
+and they could not get rid of the notion that “fire-water” grew on that
+spot. It is true, their faith had been somewhat disturbed by the manner
+in which the medicine-man had left them, and by his failure to draw
+forth the gushing stream which he had impliedly promised, and in a small
+degree performed; nevertheless little pools of whiskey had been found on
+the rock, and several had tasted and satisfied themselves of the quality
+of the liquor. As is usual, that taste had created a desire for more, a
+desire that seldom slumbered on an Indian palate when strong drinks were
+connected with its gratification.
+
+Peter heard the request with gravity, and consented to look into the
+matter with a due regard to his popularity and influence. He had his own
+superstitious views, but among them there did not happen to be one
+which admitted the possibility of whiskey's running in a stream from the
+living rock. Still he was willing to examine the charmed spot, scent the
+fragrant odor, and make up his own estimate of the artifices by which
+the bee-hunter had been practising on the untutored beings into whose
+hand chance had thrown him.
+
+While the young men eagerly pointed out the precise spots where the
+scent was the strongest, Peter maintained the most unmoved gravity. He
+did not kneel to smell the rocks, like the other chiefs, for this an
+innate sense of propriety told him would be undignified; but he made
+his observations closely, and with a keen Indian-like attention to every
+little circumstance that might aid him in arriving at the truth. All
+this time, great was the awe and deep the admiration of the lookers-on.
+Onoah had succeeded in creating a moral power for himself among the
+Indians of the northwest which much exceeded that of any other red man
+of that region. The whites scarcely heard of him, knew but little of
+his career, and less of his true character, for both were shrouded in
+mystery. There is nothing remarkable in this ignorance of the pale-faces
+of the time. They did not understand their own leaders; much less the
+leaders of the children of the openings, the prairies, and the forest.
+At this hour, what is really known by the mass of the American people of
+the true characters of their public men? No nation that has any claim
+to civilization and publicity knows less, and for several very obvious
+reasons. The want of a capital in which the intelligence of the nation
+periodically assembles and whence a corrected public opinion on all such
+matters ought constantly to flow, as truth emanates from the collisions
+of minds, is one of these reasons. The extent of the country, which
+separates men by distances that no fact can travel over without
+incurring the dangers of being perverted on the road, is another. But
+the most fatal of al he influences that tend to mislead the judgment of
+the American citizen, is to be found in the abuse of a machinery that
+was intended to produce an exactly contrary effect. If the tongue was
+given to man to communicate ideas to his fellows, so has philosophy
+described it as “a gift to conceal his thoughts.” If the press was
+devised to circulate truth, so has it been changed into a means of
+circulating lies. One is easily, nay, more easily, sent abroad on
+the four winds of the heavens than the other. Truth requires candor,
+impartiality, honesty, research, and industry; but a falsehood, whether
+designed or not, stands in need of neither. Of that which is the most
+easily produced, the country gets the most; and it were idle to imagine
+that a people who blindly and unresistingly submit to be put, as it
+might be, under the feet of falsehood, as respects all their own public
+men, can ever get very accurate notions of those of other nations.
+
+Thus was it with Onoah. His name was unknown to the whites, except as
+a terrible and much-dreaded avenger of the wrongs of his race. With
+the red men it was very different. They had no “forked tongues” to make
+falsehood take the place of truth; or if such existed they were not
+believed. The Pottawattamies now present knew all about Tecumseh,
+[Footnote: A “tiger stooping for his prey.”] of whom the whites had also
+various and ample accounts. This Shawanee chief had long been active
+among them, and his influence was extended far and near. He was a bold,
+restless, and ingenious warrior; one, perhaps, who better understood
+the art of war, as it was practised among red men, than any Indian then
+living. They knew the name and person, also, of his brother Elkswatawa,
+[Footnote: “A door opened.”] or the Prophet, whose name has also become
+incorporated with the histories of the times. These two chiefs were
+very powerful, though scarce dwelling regularly in any tribe; but their
+origin, their careers, and their characters were known to all, as were
+those of their common father, Pukeesheno, [Footnote: “I light from
+fly--“] and their mother, Meethetaske.[Footnote: “A turtle laying her
+eggs in the sand.”] But with Onoah it was very different. With him the
+past was as much of a mystery as the future. No Indian could say even of
+what tribe he was born. The totem that he bore on his person belonged
+to no people then existing on the continent, and all connected with him,
+his history, nation, and family, was conjecture and fancy.
+
+It is said that the Indians have traditions which are communicated
+only to a favored few, and which by them have been transmitted from
+generation to generation. An enlightened and educated red man has quite
+recently told us in person, that he had been made the repository of some
+of these traditions, and that he had thus obtained enough of the history
+of his race to be satisfied that they were not derived from the lost
+tribes of Israel, though he declined communicating any more. It is so
+natural to resort to secrecy in order to extend influence, that we can
+have no difficulty In believing the existence of the practice; there
+probably being no other reason why Free Masonry or Odd Fellowship should
+have recourse to such an expedient, but to rule through the imagination
+in preference to the judgment. Now Peter enjoyed all the advantages of
+mystery. It was said that even his real name was unknown, that of Onoah
+having been given in token of the many scalps he took, and that of
+Wa-wa-nosh, which he also sometimes bore, having been bestowed on him
+by adoption in consequence of an act of favor extended to him from an
+Ojebway of some note, while that of Peter was clearly derived from the
+whites. Some of his greatest admirers whispered that when the true name
+of the “Tribeless” should get to be known, his origin, early career, and
+all relating to him would at once become familiar to every red man.
+At present, the Indians must rest content with what they saw and
+understood. The wisdom of Wa-wa-nosh made itself felt in the councils;
+his eloquence no speaker has equalled for ages; as for his vengeance on
+the enemies of his race, that was to be estimated by the scalps he had
+taken. More than this no Indian was to be permitted to know, until the
+mission of this oracle and chief was completed.
+
+Had one enlightened by the education of a civilized man been there, to
+watch the movements and countenance of Peter as he scented the whiskey,
+and looked in vain for the cause of the odor, and for a clew to the
+mystery which so much perplexed the Pottawattamies, he would probably
+have discovered some reason to distrust the sincerity of this remarkable
+savage's doubts. If ever Peter was an actor, it was on that occasion.
+He did not, in the least, fall into any of the errors of his companions;
+but the scent a good deal confounded him at first. At length he came to
+the natural conclusion, that this unusual odor was in some way connected
+with the family he had left on the other shore; and from that moment his
+mind was at ease.
+
+It did not suit the views of Peter, however, to explain to the
+Pottawattamies that which was now getting to be so obvious to himself.
+On the contrary, he rather threw dust into the eyes of the chiefs, with
+a view to bring them also under the influence of superstition. After
+making his observations with unmoved gravity, he promised a solution
+of the whole affair when they should again meet in the Openings, and
+proposed to recross the river. Before quitting the shore Peter
+and Crowsfeather had a clear understanding on the subject of their
+respective movements; and, as soon as the former began to paddle up
+against the wind, the latter called his young men together, made a short
+address, and led them into the woods, as if about to proceed on a march
+of length. The party, notwithstanding, did not proceed more than a mile
+and a half, when it came to a halt, and lighted a fire in order to cook
+some venison taken on the way.
+
+When Peter reached the south shore, he found the whole group assembled
+to receive him. His tale was soon told. He had talked with the
+Pottawattamies, and they were gone. The canoes, however, must be carried
+to the other shore and left there, in order that their owners might
+recover their property when they returned. This much had Peter promised,
+and his pale-face friends must help him to keep his word. Then he
+pointed to the Openings as to their place of present safety. There they
+would be removed from all immediate danger, and he would accompany them
+and give them the countenance and protection of his name and presence.
+As for going south on the lake, that was impossible, so long as the wind
+lasted, and it was useless even could it be done. The troops had all
+left Chicago, and the fort was destroyed.
+
+Parson Amen and Corporal Flint, both of whom were completely deluded by
+Peter, fancying him a secret friend of the whites, in consequence of his
+own protestations to that effect and the service he had already rendered
+them, in appearance at least, instantly acquiesced in this wily savage's
+proposal. It was the best, the wisest, nay, the only thing that now
+could be done. Mackinaw was gone, as well as Chicago, and Detroit must
+be reached by crossing the peninsula, instead of taking the easier
+but far more circuitous route of the lakes. Gershom was easily enough
+persuaded into the belief of the feasibility, as well as of the
+necessity, of this deviation from his original road, and he soon agreed
+to accompany the party.
+
+With le Bourdon the case was different. He understood himself and the
+wilderness. For him the wind was fair, and there was no necessity for
+his touching at Mackinaw at all. It is true, he usually passed several
+days on that pleasant and salubrious island, and frequently disposed of
+lots of honey there; but he could dispense with the visit and the sales.
+There was certainly danger now to be apprehended from the Ottawas, who
+would be very apt to be out on the lake after this maritime excursion
+against the fort; but it was possible even to elude their vigilance. In
+a word, the bee-hunter did not believe in the prudence of returning to
+the Openings, but thought it by far the wisest for the whole party to
+make the best of its way by water to the settlements. All this he urged
+warmly on his white companions, taking them aside for that purpose, and
+leaving Peter and Pigeonswing together while he did so.
+
+But Parson Amen would as soon have believed that his old congregation in
+Connecticut was composed of Philistines, as not to believe that the
+red men were the lost tribes, and that Peter, in particular, was not
+especially and elaborately described in the Old Testament. He had become
+so thoroughly possessed by this crotchet as to pervert everything that
+he saw, read, or heard, into evidence, of some sort or other, of the
+truth of his notions. In this respect there was nothing peculiar in the
+good missionary's weakness, it being a failing common to partisans of a
+theory, to discover proofs of its truths in a thousand things in which
+indifferent persons can find even no connection with the subject at all.
+In this frame of mind the missionary would as soon think of letting go
+his hold on the Bible itself, as think of separating from an Indian who
+might turn out any day to be a direct representative of Abraham, and
+Isaac, and Jacob. Not to speak irreverently, but to use language that
+must be familiar to all, the well-meaning missionary wished to be in at
+the death.
+
+Corporal Flint, too, had great faith in Peter. It was a part of
+the scheme of the savage to make this straight for-ward soldier an
+instrument in placing many scalps in hit power; and though he had
+designed from the first to execute his bloody office on the corporal
+himself, he did not intend to do so until he had made the most of him
+as a stool-pigeon. Here were four more pale-faces thrown in his power,
+principally by means of the confidence he had awakened in the minds of
+the missionary and the soldier; and that same confidence might be made
+instrumental in adding still more to the number. Peter was a sagacious,
+even a far-seeing savage, but he labored under the curse of ignorance.
+Had his information been of a more extended nature, he would have seen
+the utter fallacy of his project to destroy the pale-faces altogether,
+and most probably would have abandoned it.
+
+It is a singular fact that, while such men as Tecumseh, his brother the
+Prophet, and Peter, were looking forward to the downfall of the republic
+on the side of the forest, so many, who ought to have been better
+informed on such a subject, were anxiously expecting, nay confidently
+predicting it, from beyond the Atlantic. Notwithstanding these sinister
+soothsayers, the progress of the nation has, by a beneficent Providence,
+been onward and onward, until it is scarcely presumptuous to suppose
+that even England has abandoned the expectation of classing this country
+again among her dependencies. The fortunes of America, under God, depend
+only on herself. America may destroy America; of that there is danger;
+but it is pretty certain that Europe united could make no serious
+impression on her. Favored by position, and filled with a population
+that we have ever maintained was one of the most military in existence,
+a truth that recent events are hourly proving to be true, it much
+exceeds the power of all the enemies of her institutions to make any
+serious impression on her. There is an enemy who may prove too much for
+her; it exists in her bosom; and God alone can keep him in subjection,
+and repress his desolation.
+
+These were facts, however, of which Wa-wa-nosh, or Onoah, was as
+ignorant as if he were an English or French minister of state, and had
+got his notions of the country from English or French travellers, who
+wished for what they predicted. He had heard of the towns and population
+of the republic; but one gets a very imperfect notion of any fact of
+this sort by report, unless previous experience has prepared the mind
+to make the necessary comparisons, and fitted it to receive the images
+intended to be conveyed. No wonder, then, that Peter fell into a mistake
+common to those who had so many better opportunities of forming just
+opinions, and of arriving at truths that were sufficiently obvious to
+all who did not wilfully shut their eyes to their existence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     Hearest thou voices on the shore
+      That our ears perceive no more,
+      Deafened by the cataract's roar?
+
+     Bear, through sorrow, wrong, and ruth,
+      In thy heart the dew of youth,
+      On thy lips the smile of truth.
+                            --LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+From all that has been stated, the reader will, probably, be prepared to
+learn that Boden did not succeed in his effort to persuade Gershom,
+and the other Christians, to accompany him on his voyage round by Lake
+Huron. Corporal Flint was obdurate, and Parson Amen confiding. As for
+Gershom, he did not like the thought of retracing his steps so soon, and
+the females were obliged to remain with the husband and brother.
+
+“You had better get out of the river while all the canoes are on this
+side,” said Margery, as she and le Bourdon walked toward the boats in
+company, the council having ended, and everything beginning to assume
+the appearance of action. “Remember you will be quite alone, and have a
+long, long road to travel!”
+
+“I do remember all this, Margery, and see the necessity for all of us
+getting back to the settlements as fast as we can. I don't half like
+this Peter; his name is a bad one in the garrisons, and it makes me
+miserable to think that you may be in his power.”
+
+“The missionary and the corporal, as well as my brother, seem willing to
+trust him--what can two females do, when their male protector has made
+up his mind in such a matter?”
+
+“One who would very gladly be your protector, pretty Margery, has not
+made up his mind to the prudence of trusting Peter at all. Put yourself
+under my care, and my life shall be lost, or I will carry you safe to
+your friends in Detroit.”
+
+This might be deemed tolerably explicit; yet was it not sufficiently so
+to satisfy female scruples, or female rights. Margery blushed, and
+she looked down, while she did not look absolutely displeased. But her
+answer was given firmly, and with a promptitude that showed she was
+quite in earnest.
+
+“I cannot quit Dorothy, placed as she is--and it is my duty to die with
+brother,” she said.
+
+“Have you thought enough of this, Margery? may not reflection change
+your mind?”
+
+“This is a duty on which a girl is not called to reflect; she must FEEL,
+in a matter of conscience.”
+
+The bee-hunter fairly sighed, and from a very resolute he became a very
+irresolute sort of person. As was natural to one in his situation, he
+let out the secret current his thoughts had taken, in the remarks which
+followed.
+
+“I do not like the manner in which Peter and Pigeonswing are now talking
+together,” he said. “When an Injin is so earnest, there is generally
+mischief brewing. Do you see Peter's manner?”
+
+“He seems to be telling the young warrior something that makes both
+forget themselves. I never saw two men who seem so completely to forget
+all the rest of the world as them two savages! What can be the meaning,
+Bourdon, of so much fierce earnestness?”
+
+“I would give the world to know-possibly the Chippewa may tell me. We
+understand each other tolerably well, and, just as you spoke, he gave
+me a secret sign that I have a right to think means confidence and
+friendship. That savage is either a fast friend, or a thorough villain.”
+
+“Is it safe to trust any of them, Bourdon? No--no--your best way will
+be to go down the lakes, and get back to Detroit as soon as you can. Not
+only your property, but your LIFE, is at risk.”
+
+“Go, and leave you here, Margery--here, with a brother whose failing you
+know as well as I do, and who may, at any moment, fall back into his old
+ways! I should not be a man to do it!”
+
+“But brother can get no liquor, now, for it is all emptied. When himself
+for a few days, Gershom is a good protector, as well as a good provider.
+You must not judge brother too harshly, from what you have seen of him,
+Bourdon.”
+
+“I do not wish to judge him at all, Margery. We all have our failin's,
+and whiskey is his. I dare say mine are quite as bad, in some other way.
+It's enough for me, Margery, that Gershom is your brother, to cause me
+to try to think well of him. We must not trust to there being no more
+liquor among us; for, if that so'ger is altogether without his rations,
+he's the first so'ger I ever met with who was!”
+
+“But this corporal is a friend of the minister, and ministers ought not
+to drink!”
+
+“Ministers are like other men, as them that live much among 'em will
+soon find out. Hows'ever, if you WILL stay, Margery, there is no more to
+be said. I must cache [Footnote: A Western term, obviously derived from
+cacher, to conceal. Cache is much used by the Western adventurers.]
+my honey, and get the canoe ready to go up stream again. Where you go,
+Margery, I go too, unless you tell me that you do not wish my company.”
+
+This was said quietly, but in the manner of one whose mind was made up.
+Margery scarce knew how to take it. That she was secretly delighted,
+cannot be denied; while, at the same time, that she felt a generous and
+lively concern for the fortunes of le Bourdon, is quite as certain. As
+Gershom just then called to her to lend her assistance in preparing to
+embark, she had no leisure for expostulation, nor do we know that she
+now seriously wished to divert the bee-hunter from his purpose.
+
+It was soon understood by every one that the river was to be crossed,
+in order that Gershom might get his household effects, previously to
+ascending the Kalamazoo. This set all at--work but the Chippewa, who
+appeared to le Bourdon to be watchful and full of distrust. As the
+latter had a job before him, that would be likely to consume a couple
+of hours, the others were ready for a start long before he had his hole
+dug. It was therefore arranged that the bee-hunter should complete
+his task, while the others crossed the stream, and went in quest of
+Gershom's scanty stock of household goods. Pigeonswing, however, was
+not to be found, when the canoes were ready, and Peter proceeded without
+him. Nor did le Bourdon see anything of his friend until the adventurers
+were fairly on the north shore, when he rejoined le Bourdon, sitting
+on a log, a curious spectator of the latter's devices to conceal
+his property, but not offering to aid him in a single movement. The
+bee-hunter too well understood an Indian warrior's aversion to labor of
+all sorts, unless it be connected with his military achievements, to be
+surprised at his companion's indifference to his own toil. As the work
+went on, a friendly dialogue was kept up between the parties.
+
+“I didn't know, Pigeonswing, but you had started for the openings,
+before us,” observed le Bourdon. “That tribeless old Injin made
+something of a fuss about your being out of the way; I dare say he
+wanted you to help back the furniture down to the canoes.”
+
+“Got squaw--what he want--better to do dat?”
+
+“So you would put that pretty piece of work on such persons as Margery
+and Dolly!”
+
+“Why not, no? Bot' squaw-bot know how. Dere business to work for
+warrior.”
+
+“Did you keep out of the way, then, lest old Peter should get you at a
+job that is onsuitable to your manhood?”
+
+“Keep out of way of Pottawattamie,” returned the Chippewa; “no want to
+lose scalp-radder take his'n.”
+
+“But Peter says the Pottawattamies are all gone, and that we have no
+longer any reason to fear them; and this medicine-priest tells us, that
+what Peter says we can depend on for truth.”
+
+“Dat good medicine-man, eh? T'ink he know a great deal, eh?”
+
+“That is more than I can tell you, Pigeonswing; for though I've been
+a medicine-man myself, so lately, it is in a different line altogether
+from that of Parson Amen's.”
+
+As the bee-hunter uttered this answer, he was putting the last of his
+honey-kegs into the cache, and as he rose from completing the operation,
+he laughed heartily, like one who saw images in the occurrences of the
+past night, that tended to divert himself, if they had not the same
+effect on the other spectators.
+
+“If you medicine-man, can tell who Peter be? Winnebagoe, Sioux, Fox,
+Ojebway, Six Nations all say don't know him. Medicine-man ought to
+know--who he be, eh?”
+
+“I am not enough of a medicine-man to answer your question, Pigeonswing.
+Set me at finding a whiskey-spring, or any little job of that sort,
+and I'll turn my back to no other whiskey-spring finder on the whole
+frontier; but, as for Peter, he goes beyond my calculations, quite. Why
+is he called Scalping Peter in the garrisons, if he be so good an Injin,
+Chippewa?”
+
+“You ask question--you answer. Don't know, 'less he take a good many
+scalps. Hear he do take all he can find--den hear he don't.”
+
+“But you take all you can find, Pigeonswing; and that which is good in
+you, cannot be so bad in Peter.”
+
+“Don't take scalp from friend. When you hear Pigeonswing scalp FRIEND,
+eh?”
+
+“I never did hear it; and hope I never shall. But when did you hear that
+Peter is so wicked?”
+
+“S'pose he don't, 'cause he got no friend among pale-face. Bes' take
+care of dat man?”
+
+“I'm of your way of thinking, myself, Chippewa; though the corporal and
+the priest think him all in all. When I asked Parson Amen how he came to
+be the associate of one who went by a scalping name, even he told me it
+was all name; that Peter hadn't touched a hair of a human head, in the
+way of scalping, since his youth, and that most of his notions and ways
+were quite Jewish, The parson has almost as much faith in Peter, as he
+has in his religion; I'm not quite sure he has not even more.”
+
+“No matter. Bes' always for pale-face to trust pale-face, and Injin to
+trust Injin. Dat most likely to be right.”
+
+“Nevertheless, I trust YOU Pigeonswing; and, hitherto, you have not
+deceived me!”
+
+The Chippewa cast a glance of so much meaning on the bee-hunter, that
+the last was troubled by it. For many a day did le Bourdon remember that
+look; and painful were the apprehensions to which it gave birth. Until
+that morning, the intercourse between the two had been of the most
+confidential character; but something like a fierce hatred was blended
+in that look. Could it be that the feelings of the Chippewa were
+changed? and was it possible that Peter was in any way connected with
+this alteration in looks and sentiments? All these suspicions passed
+through le Bourdon's mind, as he finished his cache; and sufficiently
+disagreeable did he find it to entertain them. The circumstances,
+however, did not admit of any change of plan; and, in a few minutes, the
+two were in the canoe, and on their way to join their companions.
+
+Peter had dealt fairly enough with those who accompanied him. The
+Pottawattamies were nowhere to be seen, and Gershom led the corporal
+to the place where his household goods had been secreted, in so much
+confidence, that both the men left their arms behind them. Such was the
+state of things when le Bourdon reached the north shore. The young man
+was startled, when his eyes fell on the rifles; but, on looking around,
+there did not really appear to be any sufficient reason why they might
+not be laid aside for a few minutes.
+
+The bee-hunter, having disposed of all his honey, had now a nearly empty
+canoe; accordingly, he received a portion of Gershom's effects; all of
+which were safely transported from their place of concealment to the
+water side. Their owner was slowly recovering the use of his body and
+mind, though still a little dull, from his recent debauch. The females
+supplied his place, however, in many respects; and two hours after the
+party had landed, it was ready again to proceed on its journey into the
+interior. The last article was stowed in one of the canoes, and Gershom
+announced his willingness to depart.
+
+At this moment, Peter led the bee-hunter aside, telling his friends that
+he would speedily rejoin them. Our hero followed his savage leader along
+the foot of the declivity, in the rear of the hut, until the former
+stopped at the place where the first, and principal fire of the past
+night, had been lighted. Here Peter made a sweeping gesture of his hand,
+as if to invite his companion to survey the different objects around. As
+this characteristic gesture was made, the Indian spoke.
+
+“My brother is a medicine-man,” he said. “He knows where whiskey
+grows--let him tell Peter where to find the spring.”
+
+The recollection of the scene of the previous night came so fresh
+and vividly over the imagination of the bee-hunter, that, instead of
+answering the question of the chief, he burst into a hearty fit of
+laughter. Then, fearful of giving offence, he was about to apologize
+for a mirth so ill-timed, when the Indian smiled, with a gleam of
+intelligence on his swarthy face, that seemed to say, “I understand it
+all,” and continued--
+
+“Good--the chief with three eyes”--in allusion to the spy--glass that
+le Bourdon always carried suspended from his neck--“is a very great
+medicine-man; he knows when to laugh, and when to look sad. The
+Pottawattamies were dry, and he wanted to find them some whiskey to
+drink, but could not--our brother, in the canoe, had drunk it all.
+Good.”
+
+Again the bee-hunter laughed; and though Peter did not join in his
+mirth, it was quite plain that he understood its cause. With this
+good-natured sort of intelligence between them, the two returned to the
+canoes; the bee-hunter always supposing that the Indian had obtained
+his object, in receiving his indirect admission, that the scene of the
+previous night had been merely a piece of ingenious jugglery. So much of
+a courtier, however, was Peter, and so entire his self-command, that
+on no occasion, afterward, did he ever make any further allusion to the
+subject.
+
+The ascent of the river was now commenced. It was not a difficult matter
+for le Bourdon to persuade Margery, that her brother's canoe would be
+too heavily loaded for such a passage, unless she consented to quit
+it for his own. Pigeonswing took the girl's place, and was of material
+assistance in forcing the light, but steady craft, up stream. The three
+others continued in the canoe in which they had entered the river. With
+this arrangement, therefore, our adventurers commenced this new journey.
+
+Every reader will easily understand, that ascending such a stream as the
+Kalamazoo was a very difficult thing from descending it. The progress
+was slow, and at many points laborious. At several of the “rifts,” it
+became necessary to “track” the canoes up; and places occurred at which
+the only safe way of proceeding was to unload them altogether, and
+transport boats, cargoes, and all, on the shoulders of the men,
+across what are called, in the language of the country, “portages,” or
+“carrying-places.” In such toil as this, the corporal was found to be
+very serviceable; but neither of the Indians declined to lend their
+assistance, in work of this manly character. By this time, moreover,
+Gershom had come round, and was an able-bodied, vigorous assistant, once
+more. If the corporal was the master of any alcohol, he judiciously kept
+it a secret; for not a drop passed any one's lips during the whole of
+that toilsome journey.
+
+Although the difficult places in the river were sufficiently numerous,
+most of the reaches were places having steady, but not swift currents
+toward the lake. In these reaches the paddles, and those not very
+vigorously applied, enabled the travellers to advance as fast as was
+desirable; and such tranquil waters were a sort of resting-places
+to those who managed the canoes. It was while ascending these easy
+channels, that conversation most occurred; each speaker yielding, as
+was natural, to the impulses of the thoughts uppermost in his mind. The
+missionary talked much of the Jews; and, as the canoes came near each
+other, he entered at large, with their different occupants, into the
+reasons he had for believing that the red men of America were the
+lost tribes of Israel. “The very use of the word 'tribes,'” would this
+simple-minded, and not very profound expounder of the word of God, say,
+“is one proof of the truth of what I tell you. Now, no one thinks of
+dividing the white men of America into 'tribes.' Who ever heard of the
+'tribe' of New England, or of the 'tribe' of Virginia, or of the
+'tribe' of the Middle States? [Footnote: The reader is not to infer any
+exaggeration in this picture. There is no end to the ignorance and folly
+of sects and parties, when religious or political zeal runs high. The
+writer well remembers to have heard a Universalist, of more zeal
+than learning, adduce, as an argument in favor of his doctrine, the
+twenty-fifth chapter and forty-sixth verse of St. Matthew, where we are
+told that the wicked “shall go away into ever-lasting punishment; but
+the righteous into Vis eternal”; by drawing a distinction between the
+adjectives, and this so much the more, because the Old Testament speaks
+of “everlasting hills,” and “everlasting valleys “; thus proving, from
+the Bible, a substantial difference between “everlasting” and “eternal.”
+ Now, every Sophomore knows that the word used in Matthew is the same
+in both cases, being “aionion,” or “existing forever.”] Even among the
+blacks, there are no tribes. There is a very remarkable passage in the
+sixty-eighth Psalm, that has greatly struck me, since my mind has turned
+to this subject; 'God shall wound the head his enemies.' saith the
+Psalmist, 'and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his
+wickedness.' Here is a very obvious allusion to a well-known, and what
+we think, a barbarous practice of the red men; but, rely on it, friends,
+nothing that is permitted on earth is permitted in vain. The attentive
+reader of the inspired book, by gleaning here and there, can collect
+much authority for this new opinion about the lost tribes; and the day
+will come, I do not doubt, when men will marvel that the truth hath
+been so long hidden from them. I can scarcely open a chapter, in the Old
+Testament, that some passage does not strike me as going to prove
+this identity, between the red men and the Hebrews; and, were they all
+collected together, and published in a book, mankind would be astonished
+at their lucidity and weight. As for scalping, it is a horrid thing in
+our eyes, but it is honorable with the red men; and I have quoted to you
+the words of the Psalmist, in order to show the manner in which divine
+wisdom inflicts penalties on sin. Here is plain justification of
+the practice, provided always that the sufferer be in the bondage of
+transgression, and obnoxious to divine censure. Let no man, therefore,
+in the pride of his learning, and, perhaps, of his prosperity, disdain
+to believe things that are so manifestly taught and foretold; but let us
+all bow in humble submission to the will of a Being who, to our finite
+understanding, is so perfectly incomprehensible.”
+
+We trust that no one of our readers will be disposed to deride Parson
+Amen's speculations on this interesting subject, although this may
+happen to be the first occasion on which he has ever heard the practice
+of taking scalps justified by Scripture. Viewed in a proper spirit, they
+ought merely to convey a lesson of humility, by rendering apparent
+the wisdom, nay the necessity, of men's keeping them-selves within
+the limits of the sphere of knowledge they were designed to fill, and
+convey, when rightly considered, as much of a lesson to the Puseyite,
+with abstractions that are quite as unintelligible to himself as they
+are to others; to the high-wrought and dogmatical Calvinist, who in the
+midst of his fiery zeal, forgets that love is the very essence of the
+relation between God and man; to the Quaker, who seems to think the cut
+of a coat essential to salvation; to the descendant of the Puritan, who
+whether he be Socinian, Calvinist, Universalist, or any other “1st,”
+ appears to believe that the “rock” on which Christ declared he would
+found his church was the “Rock of Plymouth”; and to the unbeliever,
+who, in deriding all creeds, does not know where to turn to find one
+to substitute in their stead. Humility, in matters of this sort, is the
+great lesson that all should teach and learn; for it opens the way to
+charity, and eventually to faith, and through both of these to hope;
+finally, through all of these, to heaven.
+
+The journey up the Kalamazoo lasted many days, the ascent being often
+so painful, and no one seeming in a hurry. Peter waited for the time set
+for his council to approach, and was as well content to remain in his
+canoe, as to “camp out” in the openings. Gershom never was in haste,
+while the bee-hunter would have been satisfied to pass the summer in so
+pleasant a manner, Margery being seated most of the time in his
+canoe. In his ordinary excursions, le Bourdon carried the mastiff as a
+companion; but, now that his place was so much better filled, Hive was
+suffered to roam the woods that lined most of the river-banks, joining
+his master from time to time at the portages or landings. As for the
+missionary and the corporal, impatience formed no part of their present
+disposition. The first had been led, by the artful Peter, to expect
+great results to his theory from the assembly of chiefs which was to
+meet in the “openings”; and the credulous parson was, in one sense,
+going as blindly on the path of destruction, as any sinner it had ever
+been his duty to warn of his fate, was proceeding in the same direction
+in another. The corporal, too, was the dupe of Peter's artifices.
+This man had heard so many stories to the Indian's prejudice, at the
+different posts where he had been stationed, as at first to render him
+exceedingly averse to making the present journey in his company. The
+necessity of the case, as connected with the preservation of his own
+life after the massacre of Fort Dearborn, and the influence of the
+missionary, had induced him to overlook his ancient prejudices, and to
+forget opinions that, it now occurred to him, had been founded in error.
+Once fairly within the influence of Peter's wiles, a simple-minded
+soldier like the corporal, was soon completely made the Indian's dupe.
+By the time the canoe reached the mouth of the Kalamazoo, as has been
+related, each of these men placed the most implicit reliance on the good
+faith and friendly feelings of the very being whose entire life, both
+sleeping and waking thoughts, were devoted, not only to his destruction,
+but to that of the whole white race on the American continent. So bland
+was the manner of this terrible savage, when it comported with his
+views to conceal his ruthless designs, that persons more practised and
+observant than either of his two companions might have been its dupes,
+not to say its victims. While the missionary was completely mystified
+by his own headlong desire to establish a theory, and to announce to the
+religious world where the lost tribes were to be found, the corporal had
+aided in deceiving himself, also, by another process. With him, Peter
+had privately conversed of war, and had insinuated that he was secretly
+laboring in behalf of his great father at Washington, and against the
+other great father down at Montreal. As between the two, Peter professed
+to lean to the interests of the first; though, had he laid bare his
+in-most soul, a fiery hatred of each would have been found to be its
+predominant feeling. But Corporal Flint fondly fancied he was making
+a concealed march with an ally, while he thus accompanied one of the
+fiercest enemies of his race.
+
+Peter is not to be judged too harshly. It is always respectable to
+defend the fireside, and the land of one's nativity, although the cause
+connected with it may be sometimes wrong. This Indian knew nothing of
+the principles of colonization, and had no conception that any
+other than its original owners--original so far as his traditions
+reached--could have a right to his own hunting-grounds. Of the slow but
+certain steps by which an overruling Providence is extending a knowledge
+of the true God, and of the great atonement through the death of his
+blessed Son, Peter had no conception; nor would it probably have seemed
+right to his contracted mind, had he even seen and understood this
+general tendency of things. To him, the pale-face appeared only as
+a rapacious invader, and not a creature obeying the great law of his
+destiny, the end of which is doubtless to help knowledge to abound,
+until it shall “cover the whole earth as the waters cover the sea.”
+ Hatred, inextinguishable and active hatred, appeared to be the law
+of this man's being; and he devoted all the means, aided by all
+the intelligence he possessed, to the furtherance of his narrow and
+short-sighted means of vengeance and redress. In all this, he acted in
+common with Tecumseh and his brother, though his consummate art kept him
+behind a veil, while the others were known and recognized as open and
+active foes. No publication speaks of this Peter, nor does any orator
+enumerate his qualities, while the other two chiefs have been the
+subjects of every species of descriptive talent, from that of the poet
+to that of the painter.
+
+As day passed after day, the feeling of distrust in the bosom of the
+bee-hunter grew weaker and weaker, and Peter succeeded in gradually
+worming himself into his confidence also. This was done, moreover,
+without any apparent effort. The Indian made no professions of
+friendship, laid himself out for no particular attention, nor ever
+seemed to care how his companions regarded his deportment. His secret
+purposes he kept carefully smothered in his own breast, it is true; but,
+beyond that, no other sign of duplicity could have been discovered even
+by one who knew his objects and schemes. So profound was his art, that
+it had the aspect of nature. Pigeonswing alone was alive to the
+danger of this man's company; and he knew it only by means of certain
+semi-confidential communications received in his character of a red man.
+It was no part of Peter's true policy to become an ally to either of the
+great belligerents of the day. On the contrary, his ardent wish was to
+see them destroy each other, and it was the sudden occurrence of
+the present war that had given a new impulse to his hopes, and a new
+stimulus to his efforts, as a time most propitious to his purposes. He
+was perfectly aware of the state of the Chippewa's feelings, and he knew
+that this man was hostile to the Pottawattamies, as well as to most
+of the tribes of Michigan; but this made no difference with him. If
+Pigeonswing took the scalp of a white man, he cared not whether it grew
+on an English or an American head; in either case it was the destruction
+of his enemy. With such a policy constantly in view, it cannot be matter
+of surprise that Peter continued on just as good terms with Pigeonswing
+as with Crowsfeather. But one precaution was observed in his intercourse
+with the first. To Crowsfeather, then on the war-path in quest of
+Yankee scalps, he had freely communicated his designs on his own white
+companions, while he did not dare to confide to the Chippewa this
+particular secret, since that Indian's relations with the bee-hunter
+were so amicable as to be visible to every observer. Peter felt the
+necessity of especial caution in his communication with this savage,
+therefore; and this was the reason why the Chippewa was in so much
+painful uncertainty as to the other's intentions. He had learned enough
+to be distrustful, but not enough to act with decision.
+
+Once, and once only, during their slow passage up the Kalamazoo, did
+the bee-hunter observe something about Peter to awaken his original
+apprehensions. The fourth day after leaving the mouth of the river,
+and when the whole party were resting after the toil of passing a
+“carrying-place,” our hero had observed the eyes of that tribeless
+savage roaming from one white face to another, with an expression in
+them so very fiendish, as actually to cause his heart to beat quicker
+than common. The look was such a one as le Bourdon could not remember to
+have ever before beheld in a human countenance. In point of fact, he had
+seen Peter in one of those moments when the pent fires of the volcano,
+that ceaselessly raged within his bosom, were becoming difficult to
+suppress; and when memory was busiest in recalling to his imagination
+scenes of oppression and wrong, that the white man is only too apt to
+forget amid the ease of his civilization, and the security of his power.
+But the look, and the impression produced by it on le Bourdon, soon
+passed away, and were forgotten by him to whom it might otherwise have
+proved to be a most useful warning.
+
+It was a little remarkable that Margery actually grew to be attached to
+Peter, often manifesting toward the chief attentions and feelings such
+as a daughter is apt to exhibit toward a father. This arose from the
+high and courteous bearing of this extraordinary savage. At all times,
+an Indian warrior is apt to maintain the dignified and courteous bearing
+that has so often been remarked in the race, but it is very seldom that
+he goes out of his way to manifest attention to the squaws. Doubtless
+these men have the feelings of humanity, and love their wives and
+offspring like others; but it is so essential a part of their training
+to suppress the exhibition of such emotions, that it is seldom the mere
+looker-on has occasion to note them. Peter, however, had neither wife
+nor child; or if they existed, no one knew where either was to be found.
+The same mystery shrouded this part of his history as veiled all the
+rest. In his hunts, various opportunities occurred for exhibiting to the
+females manly attentions, by offering to them the choicest pieces of
+his game, and pointing out the most approved Indian modes of cooking the
+meats, so as to preserve their savory properties. This he did sparingly
+at first, and as a part of a system of profound deception; but day by
+day, and hour after hour, most especially with Margery, did his manner
+become sensibly less distant, and more natural. The artlessness, the
+gentle qualities, blended with feminine spirit as they were, and the
+innocent gayety of the girl, appeared to win on this nearly remorseless
+savage, in spite of his efforts to resist her influence. Perhaps the
+beauty of Margery contributed its share in exciting these novel emotions
+in the breast of one so stern. We do not mean that Peter yielded to
+feelings akin-to love; of this, he was in a manner incapable; but a man
+can submit to a gentle regard for woman that shall be totally free from
+passion. This sort of regard Peter certainly began to entertain for
+Margery; and like begetting like, as money produces money, it is not
+surprising that the confidence of the girl herself, as well as her
+sympathies, should continue to increase in the favor of this terrible
+Indian.
+
+But the changes of feeling, and the various little incidents to which we
+have alluded, did not occur in a single moment of time. Day passed after
+day, and still the canoes were working their way up the winding channels
+of the Kalamazoo, placing at each setting sun longer and longer reaches
+of its sinuous stream between the travellers and the broad sheet of
+Michigan. As le Bourdon had been up and down the river often, in his
+various excursions, he acted as the pilot of the navigation; though all
+worked, even to the missionary and the Chippewa. On such an expedition,
+toil was not deemed to be discreditable to a warrior, and Pigeonswing
+used the paddle and the pole as willingly, and with as much dexterity,
+as any of the party.
+
+It was only on the eleventh day after quitting the mouth of the river,
+that the canoes came to in the little bay where le Bourdon was in the
+habit of securing his light bark, when in the openings. Castle Meal was
+in full view, standing peacefully in its sweet solitude; and Hive, who,
+as he came within the range of his old hunts, had started off, and got
+to the spot the previous evening, now stood on the bank of the river
+to welcome his master and his friends to the chiente. It wanted a few
+minutes of sunset as the travellers landed, and the parting rays of the
+great luminary of our system were glancing through the various glades of
+the openings, imparting a mellow softness to the herbage and flowers.
+So far as the bee-hunter could perceive, not even a bear had visited
+the place in his absence. On ascending to his abode and examining the
+fastenings, and on entering the hut, storehouse, etc., le Bourdon became
+satisfied that all the property he had left behind was safe, and that
+the foot of man--he almost thought of beast too--had not visited the
+spot at all during the last fortnight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+      Hope in your mountains, and hope in your streams,
+        Bow down in their worship, and loudly pray;
+      Trust in your strength, and believe in your dreams,
+        But the wind shall carry them all away.
+                                        --BRAINARD.
+
+
+The week which succeeded the arrival of our party at Chateau au Miel,
+or Castle Meal, as le Bourdon used to call his abode, was one of very
+active labor. It was necessary to house the adventurers, and the little
+habitation already built was quite insufficient for such a purpose.
+It was given to the females, who used it as a private apartment for
+themselves, while the cooking, eating, and even sleeping, so far as the
+males were concerned, were all done beneath the trees of the openings.
+But a new chiente was soon constructed, which, though wanting in the
+completeness and strength of Castle Meal, was sufficient for the wants
+of these sojourners in the wilderness. It is surprising with how little
+of those comforts which civilization induces us to regard as necessaries
+we can get along, when cast into the midst of the western wilds. The
+female whose foot has trodden, from infancy upward, on nothing harder
+than a good carpet-who has been reared amid all the appliances of
+abundance and art, seems at once to change her nature, along with her
+habits, and often proves a heroine, and an active assistant, when there
+was so much reason to apprehend she might turn out to be merely an
+encumbrance. In the course of a life that is now getting to be well
+stored with experience of this sort, as well as of many other varieties,
+we can recall a hundred cases of women, who were born and nurtured
+in affluence and abundance, who have cheerfully quitted the scenes of
+youth, their silks and satins, their china and plate, their mahogany and
+Brussels, to follow husbands and fathers into the wilderness, there
+to compete with the savage, often for food, and always for the final
+possession of the soil!
+
+But in the case of Dorothy and Blossom, the change had never been of
+this very broad character, and habit had long been preparing them for
+scenes even more savage than that into which they were now cast. Both
+were accustomed to work, as, blessed be God! the American woman
+usually works; that is to say, within doors, and to render home neat,
+comfortable, and welcome. As housewives, they were expert and willing,
+considering the meagreness of their means; and le Bourdon told
+the half-delighted, half-blushing Margery, ere the latter had been
+twenty-four hours in his chiente, that nothing but the presence of such
+a one as herself was wanting to render it an abode fit for a prince!
+Then, the cooking was so much improved! Apart from cleanliness, the
+venison was found to be more savory; the cakes were lighter; and the
+pork less greasy. On this subject of grease, however, we could wish that
+a sense of right would enable us to announce its utter extinction in
+the American kitchen; or, if not absolutely its extinction, such a
+subjection of the unctuous properties, as to bring them within the
+limits of a reasonably accurate and healthful taste. To be frank,
+Dorothy carried a somewhat heavy hand, in this respect; but pretty
+Margery was much her superior. How this difference in domestic
+discipline occurred, is more than we can say; but of its existence there
+can be no doubt There are two very respectable sections of the civilized
+world to which we should imagine no rational being would ever think of
+resorting in order to acquire the art of cookery, and these are Germany
+and the land of the Pilgrims. One hears, and reads in those elegant
+specimens of the polite literature of the day, the letters from
+Washington, and from various travellers, who go up and down this river
+in steamboats, or along that railway, gratis, much in honor of the good
+things left behind the several writers, in the “region of the kock”;
+but, woe betide the wight who is silly enough to believe in all this
+poetical imagery, and who travels in that direction, in the expectation
+of finding a good table! It is extraordinary that such a marked
+difference does exist, on an interest of this magnitude, among such
+near neighbors; but, of the fact, we should think no intelligent and
+experienced man can doubt. Believing as we do, that no small portion
+of the elements of national character can be, and are, formed in the
+kitchen, the circumstance may appear to us of more moment than to some
+of our readers. The vacuum left in cookery, between Boston and Baltimore
+for instance, is something like that which exists between Le Verrier's
+new planet and the sun.
+
+But Margery could even fry pork without causing it to swim in grease,
+and at a venison steak, a professed cook was not her superior. She also
+understood various little mysteries, in the way of converting their
+berries and fruits of the wilderness into pleasant dishes; and Corporal
+Flint soon affirmed that it was a thousand pities she did not live in
+a garrison, which, agreeably to his view of things, was something like
+placing her at the comptoir of the Cafe de Paris, or of marrying her to
+some second Vatel.
+
+With the eating and drinking, the building advanced pari passu.
+Pigeonswing brought in his venison, his ducks, his pigeons, and his game
+of different varieties, daily, keeping the larder quite as well supplied
+as comported with the warmth of the weather; while the others worked on
+the new chiente. In order to obtain materials for this building, one so
+much larger than his old abode, Ben went up the Kalamazoo about half a
+mile, where he felled a sufficient number of young pines, with trunks of
+about a foot in diameter, cutting them into lengths of twenty and thirty
+feet, respectively. These lengths, or trunks, were rolled into the
+river, down which they slowly floated, until they arrived abreast of
+Castle Meal, where they were met by Peter, in a canoe, who towed each
+stick, as it arrived, to the place of landing. In this way, at the end
+of two days' work, a sufficient quantity of materials was collected to
+commence directly on the building itself.
+
+Log-houses are of so common occurrence, as to require no particular
+description of the one now put up, from us. It was rather less than
+thirty feet in length, and one-third narrower than it was long. The logs
+were notched, and the interstices were filled by pieces of the pine,
+split to a convenient size. The roof was of bark, and of the simplest
+construction, while there was neither door nor window; though one
+aperture was left for the first, and two for the last. Corporal Flint,
+however, was resolved that not only a door should be made, as well
+as shutters for the windows, but that the house should, in time, be
+picketed. When le Bourdon remonstrated with him on the folly of
+taking so much unnecessary pains, it led to a discussion, in which the
+missionary even felt constrained to join.
+
+“What's the use--what's the use?” exclaimed le Bourdon a little
+impatiently, when he found the corporal getting to be in earnest in
+his proposal. “Here have I lived, safely, two seasons in Castle Meal,
+without any pickets or palisades; and yet you want to turn this new
+house into a regular garrison!”
+
+“Aye, Bourdon, that was in peaceable times; but these is war times.
+I've seen the fall of Fort Dearborn, and I don't want to see the fall of
+another post this war. The Pottawattamies is hostile, even Peter owns;
+and the Pottawattamies has been here once, as you say yourself, and may
+come ag'in.”
+
+“The only Pottawattamie who has ever been at this spot, to my knowledge,
+is dead, and his bones are bleaching up yonder in the openings. No fear
+of him, then.”
+
+“His body is gone,” answered the corporal; “and what is more the rifle
+is gone with it. I heard that his rifle had been forgotten, and went
+to collect the arms left on the field of battle, but found nothing. No
+doubt his friends have burned, or buried, the chief, and they will be
+apt to take another look in this quarter of the country, having l'arnt
+the road.”
+
+Boden was struck with this intelligence, as well as with the reasoning,
+and after a moment's pause, he answered in a way that showed a wavering
+purpose.
+
+“It will take a week's work, to picket or palisade the house,” he
+answered, “and I wish to be busy among the bees, once more.”
+
+“Go to your bees, Bourdon, and leave me to fortify and garrison, as
+becomes my trade. Parson Amen, here, will tell you that the children of
+Israel are often bloody-minded and are not to be forgotten.”
+
+“The corporal is right,” put in the missionary; “the corporal is quite
+right. The whole history of the ancient Jews gives us this character
+of them; and even Saul of Tarsus was bent on persecution and slaughter,
+until his hand was stayed by the direct manifestation of the power of
+God. I can see glimmerings of this spirit in Peter, and this at a moment
+when he is almost ready to admit that he's a descendant of Israel.”
+
+“Is Peter ready to allow that?” asked the bee-hunter, with more interest
+in the answer than he would have been willing to allow.
+
+“As good as that-yes, quite as good as that. I can see, plainly, that
+Peter has some heavy mystery on his mind; sooner, or later, we shall
+learn it. When it does come out, the world may be prepared to learn the
+whole history of the Ten Tribes!”
+
+“In my judgment,” observed the corporal, “that chief could give the
+history of twenty, if he was so minded.”
+
+“There were but ten of them, brother Flint--but ten; and of those ten he
+could give us a full and highly interesting account. One of these days,
+we shall hear it all; in the mean time, it may be well enough to turn
+one of these houses into some sort of a garrison.”
+
+“Let it, then, be Castle Meal,” said le Bourdon; “surely, if any one is
+to be defended and fortified in this way, it ought to be the women. You
+may easily palisade that hut, which is so much stronger than this, and
+so much smaller.”
+
+With this compromise, the work went on. The corporal dug a trench four
+feet deep, encircling the “castle,” as happy as a lord the whole time;
+for this was not the first time he had been at such work, which
+he considered to be altogether in character, and suitable to his
+profession. No youthful engineer, fresh from the Point, that seat of
+military learning to which the republic is even more indebted for its
+signal successes in Mexico, than to the high military character of this
+population-no young aspirant for glory, fresh from this useful
+school, could have greater delight in laying out his first bastion,
+or counter-scarp, or glacis, than Corporal Flint enjoyed in fortifying
+Castle Meal. It will be remembered that this was the first occasion he
+was ever actually at the head of the engineering department Hitherto, it
+had been his fortune to follow; but now it had become his duty to lead.
+As no one else, of that party, had ever been employed in such a work
+on any previous occasion, the corporal did not affect to conceal the
+superior knowledge with which he was overflowing. Gershom he found a
+ready and active assistant; for, by this time, the whiskey was well out
+of him; and he toiled with the greater willingness, as he felt that the
+palisades would add to the security of his wife and sister. Neither
+did Parson Amen disdain to use the pick and shovel; for, while the
+missionary had the fullest reliance in the fact that the red men of that
+region were the descendants of the children of Israel, he regarded them
+as a portion of the chosen people who were living under the ban of the
+divine displeasure, and as more than usually influenced by those evil
+spirits, whom St. Paul mentions as the powers of the air. In a word,
+while the good missionary had all faith in the final conversion and
+restoration of these children of the forests, he did not overlook the
+facts of their present barbarity, and great propensity to scalp. He
+was not quite as efficient as Gershom, at this novel employment, but
+a certain inborn zeal rendered him both active and useful. As for the
+Indians, neither of them deigned to touch a tool. Pigeonswing had little
+opportunity for so doing, indeed, being usually, from the rising to
+the setting sun, out hunting for the support of the party; while Peter
+passed most of his time in ruminations and solitary walks. This last
+paid little attention to the work about the castle, either knowing it
+would, at any moment, by an act of treachery, be in his power to render
+all these precautions of no avail; or, relying on the amount of savage
+force that he knew was about to collect in the openings. Whenever he
+cast a glance on the progress of the work, it was with an eye of great
+indifference; once he even carried his duplicity so far, as to make a
+suggestion to the corporal, by means of which, as he himself expressed
+it, in his imperfect English--“Injin no get inside, to use knife and
+tomahawk.” This seeming indifference, on the part of Peter, did
+not escape the observation of the bee-hunter, who became still less
+distrustful of that mysterious savage, as he noted his conduct in
+connection with the dispositions making for defence.
+
+Le Bourdon would not allow a tree of any sort to be felled anywhere near
+his abode. While the corporal and his associates were busy in digging
+the trench, he had gone to a considerable distance, quite out of sight
+from Castle Meal, and near his great highway, the river, where he cut
+and trimmed the necessary number of burr-oaks for the palisades. Boden
+labored the more cheerfully at this work, for two especial reasons. One
+was the fact that the defences might be useful to himself, hereafter,
+as much against bears as against Indians; and the other, because Margery
+daily brought her sewing or knitting, and sat on the fallen trees,
+laughing and chatting, as the axe performed its duties. On three several
+occasions Peter was present, also, accompanying Blossom, with a kindness
+of manner, and an attention to her pretty little tastes in culling
+flowers, that would have done credit to a man of a higher school of
+civilization.
+
+The reader is not to suppose, however, because the Indian pays but
+little outward attention to the squaws, that he is without natural
+feeling, or manliness of character. In some respects his chivalrous
+devotion to the sex is, perhaps, in no degree inferior to that of the
+class which makes a parade of such sentiments, and this quite as much
+from convention and ostentation, as from any other motive. The red man
+is still a savage beyond all question, but he is a savage with so many
+nobler and more manly qualities, when uncorrupted by communion with the
+worst class of whites, and not degraded by extreme poverty, as justly to
+render him a subject of our admiration, in self-respect, in dignity, and
+in simplicity of deportment. The Indian chief is usually a gentleman;
+and this, though he may have never heard of Revelation, and has not the
+smallest notion of the Atonement, and of the deep obligations it has
+laid on the human race.
+
+Amid the numberless exaggerations of the day, one of particular capacity
+has arisen connected with the supposed character of a gentleman. Those
+who regard all things through the medium of religious feeling, are apt
+to insist that he who is a Christian, is necessarily a gentleman; while
+he can be no thorough gentleman, who has not most of the qualities of
+the Christian character. This confusion in thought and language, can
+lead to no really useful result, while it embarrasses the minds of many,
+and renders the expression of our ideas less exact and comprehensive
+than they would otherwise be.
+
+We conceive that a man may be very much of a Christian, and very little
+of a gentleman; or very much of a gentleman, and very little of a
+Christian. There is, in short, not much in common between the two
+characters, though it is possible for them to become united in the same
+individual. That the finished courtesies of polished life may wear some
+of the aspects of that benevolence which causes the Christian “to love
+his neighbor as himself,” is certainly true, though the motives of the
+parties are so very different as to destroy all real identity between
+them. While the moving principle of a gentleman is self-respect, that
+of a Christian is humility. The first is ready to lay down his life
+in order to wipe away an imaginary dishonor, or to take the life of
+another; the last is taught to turn the other cheek, when smitten. In a
+word, the first keeps the world, its opinions and its estimation, ever
+uppermost in his thoughts; the last lives only to reverence God, and to
+conform to his will, in obedience to his revealed mandates. Certainly,
+there is that which is both grateful and useful in the refined
+deportment of one whose mind and manners have been polished even in the
+schools of the world; but it is degrading to the profoundly beautiful
+submission of the truly Christian temper, to imagine that anything like
+a moral parallel can justly be run between them.
+
+Of course, Peter had none of the qualities of him who sees and feels
+his own defects, and relies only on the merits of the atonement for
+his place among the children of light, while he had so many of those
+qualities which depend on the estimate which man is so apt to place on
+his own merits. In this last sense, this Indian had a great many of
+the essentials of a gentleman; a lofty courtesy presiding over all his
+intercourse with others, when passion or policy did not thrust in new
+and sudden principles of action. Even the missionary was so much struck
+with the gentleness of this mysterious savage's deportment in connection
+with Margery, as at first to impute it to a growing desire to make a
+wife of that flower of the wilderness. But closer observation induced
+greater justice to the Indian in this respect Nothing like the
+uneasiness, impatience, or distrust of passion could be discerned in his
+demeanor; and when Parson Amen perceived that the bee-hunter's marked
+devotion to the beautiful Blossom rather excited a benevolent and kind
+interest in the feelings of Peter, so far at least as one could judge
+of the heart by external appearances, than anything that bore the fierce
+and uneasy impulses of jealousy, he was satisfied that his original
+impression was a mistake.
+
+As le Bourdon flourished his axe, and Margery plied her needles, making
+a wholesome provision for the coming winter, the mysterious Indian would
+stand, a quarter of an hour at a time, immovable as a statue, his eyes
+riveted first on one, and then on the other. What passed at such moments
+in that stern breast, it exceeds the penetration of man to say: but that
+the emotions thus pent within barriers that none could pass or destroy,
+were not always ferocious and revengeful, a carefully observant
+spectator might possibly have suspected, had such a person been there to
+note all the signs of what was uppermost in the chiefs thoughts. Still,
+gleamings of sudden, but intense ferocity did occasionally occur; and,
+at such instants, the countenance of this extraordinary being was
+truly terrific. Fortunately, such bursts of uncontrollable feeling were
+transient, being of rare occurrence, and of very short duration.
+
+By the time the corporal had his trenches dug, le Bourdon was prepared
+with his palisades, which were just one hundred in number, being
+intended to enclose a space of forty feet square. The men all united in
+the transportation of the timber, which was floated down the river on a
+raft of white pine, the burr-oak being of a specific gravity that fresh
+water would not sustain. A couple of days, however, sufficed for the
+transportation by water, and as many more for that by land, between
+the place of landing and Castle Meal. This much accomplished, the
+whole party rested from their labors, the day which succeeded being the
+Sabbath.
+
+Those who dwell habitually amid the haunts of men, alone thoroughly
+realize the vast importance that ought to be attached to the great day
+of rest. Men on the ocean, and men in the forest, are only too apt
+to overlook the returns of the Sabbath; thus slowly, but inevitably
+alienating themselves more and more from the dread Being who established
+the festival, as much in his own honor as for the good of man. When we
+are told that the Almighty is jealous of his rights, and desires to
+be worshipped, we are not to estimate this wish by any known human
+standard, but are ever to bear in mind that it is exactly in proportion
+as we do reverence the Creator and Ruler of heaven and earth that we are
+nearest, or farthest, from the condition of the blessed. It is probably
+for his own good, that the adoration of man is pleasing in the eyes of
+God.
+
+The missionary, though a visionary and an enthusiast, as respected the
+children of Israel, was a zealous observer of his duties. On Sundays,
+he never neglected to set up his tabernacle, even though it were in
+a howling wilderness, and went regularly through the worship of God,
+according to the form of the sect to which he belonged. His influence,
+on the present occasion, was sufficient to cause a suspension of
+all labor, though not without some remonstrances on the part of the
+corporal. The latter contended that, in military affairs, there was no
+Sunday known, unless it might be in peaceable times, and that he had
+never heard of intrenchments “resting from their labors,” on the part
+of either the besieger or the besieged. Work of that sort, he thought,
+ought to go on, day and night, by means of reliefs; and, instead of
+pausing to hold church, he had actually contemplated detailing fatigue
+parties to labor through, not only that day, but the whole of the
+succeeding night.
+
+As for Peter, he never offered the slightest objection to any of Parson
+Amen's sermons or prayers. He listened to both with unmoved gravity,
+though no apparent impression was ever made on his feelings. The
+Chippewa hunted on the Sabbaths as much as on any other day; and it was
+in reference to this fact that the following little conversation took
+place between Margery and the missionary, as the party sat beneath the
+oaks, passing a tranquil eventide at midsummer.
+
+“How happens it, Mr. Amen,” said Margery, who had insensibly adopted the
+missionary's sobriquet, “that no red man keeps the Sabbath-day, if they
+are all descended from the Jews? This is one of the most respected of
+all the commandments, and it does not seem natural”--Margery's use of
+terms was necessarily influenced by association and education-“that any
+of that people should wholly forget the day of rest.”
+
+“Perhaps you are not aware, Margery, that the Jews, even in civilized
+countries, do not keep the same Sabbath as the Christians,” returned
+the missionary. “They have public worship on a Saturday, as we do on
+a Sunday. Now, I did think I saw some signs of Peter's privately
+worshipping yesterday, while we were all so busy at our garrison. You
+may have observed how thoughtful and silent the chief was in the middle
+of the afternoon.”
+
+“I DID observe it,” said the bee-hunter, “but must own I did not suspect
+him of holding meeting for any purposes within himself. That was one of
+the times when I like the manners and behavior of this Injin the least.”
+
+“We do not know--we do not know--perhaps his spirit struggled with the
+temptations of the Evil One. To me he appeared to be worshipping, and I
+set the fact down as a proof that the red men keep the Jewish Sabbath.”
+
+“I did not know that the Jews keep a Sabbath different from our own,
+else I might have thought the same. But I never saw a Jew, to my
+knowledge. Did you, Margery?”
+
+“Not to know him for one,” answered the girl; and true enough was the
+remark of each. Five-and-thirty years ago, America was singularly not
+only a Christian but a Protestant nation. Jews certainly did exist in
+the towns, but they were so blended with the rest of the population,
+and were so few in number, as scarcely to attract attention to them as
+a sect. As for the Romanists, they too had their churches and their
+dioceses; but what untravelled American had then ever seen a nun? From
+monks, Heaven be praised, we are yet spared; and this is said without
+any prejudice against the denomination to which they usually belong. He
+who has lived much in a country where that sect prevails, if a man of
+a particle of liberality, soon learns that piety and reverence for God,
+and a deep sense of all the Christian obligations, can just as well,
+nay better, exist in a state of society where a profound submission to
+well-established dogmas is to be found, than in a state of society where
+there is so much political freedom as to induce the veriest pretenders
+to learning to imagine that each man is a church and a hierarchy in his
+own person! All this is rapidly changing. Romanists abound, and spots
+that half a century since, appeared to be the most improbable place in
+the world to admit of the rites of the priests of Rome, now hear the
+chants and prayers of the mass-books. All this shows a tendency toward
+that great commingling of believers, which is doubtless to precede the
+final fusion of sects, and the predicted end.
+
+On the Monday that succeeded the Sabbath mentioned, the corporal had all
+his men at work, early, pinning together his palisades, making them up
+into manageable bents, and then setting them up on their legs. As the
+materials were all there, and quite ready to be put together, the work
+advanced rapidly; and by the time the sun drew near the western horizon
+once more, Castle Meal was surrounded by its bristling defences. The
+whole was erect and stay-lathed, waiting only for the earth to be
+shovelled back into the trench, and to be pounded well down. As it
+was, the palisades offered a great increase of security to those in
+the chiente, and both the females expressed their obligations to their
+friends for having taken this important step toward protecting them from
+the enemy. When they retired for the night, everything was arranged,
+so that the different members of the party might know where to assemble
+within the works. Among the effects of Gershom, were a conch and a horn;
+the latter being one of those common instruments of tin, which are so
+much used in and about American farm-houses, to call the laborers from
+the field. The conch was given to the men, that, in case of need, they
+might sound the alarm from without, while the horn, or trumpet of tin,
+was suspended by the door of the chiente, in order that the females
+might have recourse to it, at need.
+
+About midnight, long after the whole party had retired to rest, and when
+the stillness of the hours of deepest repose reigned over the openings,
+the bee-hunter was awoke from his sleep by an unwonted call. At first,
+he could scarce believe his senses, so plaintive, and yet so wild,
+was the blast. But there could be no mistake: it was the horn from
+the chiente, and, in a moment, he was on his feet. By this time, the
+corporal was afoot, and presently all the men were in motion. On this
+occasion, Gershom manifested a readiness and spirit that spoke equally
+well for his heart and his courage. He was foremost in rushing to the
+assistance of his wife and sister, though le Bourdon was very close on
+his heels.
+
+On reaching the gate of the palisade, it was found closed, and barred
+within; nor did any one appear, until Dorothy was summoned, by repeated
+calls, in the well-known voice of her husband. When the two females came
+out of the chiente, great was their wonder and alarm! No horn had been
+blown by either of them, and there the instrument itself hung, on its
+peg, as quiet and mute as if a blast had never been blown into it The
+bee-hunter, on learning this extraordinary fact, looked around him
+anxiously, in order to ascertain who might be absent. Every man was
+present, and each person stood by his arms, no one betraying the
+slightest consciousness of knowing whence the unaccountable summons had
+proceeded!
+
+“This has been done by you, corporal, in order to bring us together,
+under arms, by way of practice,” le Bourdon at length exclaimed.
+
+“False alarms is useful, if not overdone; especially among raw troops,”
+ answered Flint, coolly; “but I have given none to-night. I will own I
+did intend to have you all out in a day or two by way of practice, but
+I have thought it useless to attempt too much at once. When the
+garrison is finished, it will be time enough to drill the men to the
+alarm-posts.”
+
+“What is your opinion, Peter?” continued le Bourdon. “You understand the
+wilderness, and its ways. To what is this extr'or'nary call owing? Why
+have we been brought here, at this hour?”
+
+“Somebody blow horn, most likely,” answered Peter, in his unmoved,
+philosophical manner. “'Spose don't know; den can't tell. Warrior often
+hear 'larm on war-path.”
+
+“This is an onaccountable thing! If I ever heard a horn, I heard one
+to-night; yet this is the only horn we have, and no one has touched it!
+It was not the conch I heard; there is no mistaking the difference in
+sound between a shell and a horn; and there is the conch, hanging at
+Gershom's neck, just where it has been the whole night.”
+
+“No one has touched the conch--I will answer for THAT,” returned
+Gershom, laying a hand on the shell, as if to make certain all was
+right.
+
+“This is most extr'or'nary! I heard the horn, if ears of mine ever heard
+such an instrument!”
+
+Each of the white men added as much, for every one of them had
+distinctly heard the blast. Still neither could suggest any probable
+clue to the mystery. The Indians said nothing; but it was so much in
+conformity with their habits for red men to maintain silence, whenever
+any unusual events awakened feelings in others, that no one thought
+their deportment out of rule. As for Peter, a statue of stone could
+scarcely have been colder in aspect than was this chief, who seemed to
+be altogether raised above every exhibition of human feeling. Even the
+corporal gaped, though much excited, for he had been suddenly aroused
+from a deep sleep; but Peter was as much superior to physical, as to
+moral impressions, on this occasion. He made no suggestion, manifested
+no concern, exhibited no curiosity; and when the men withdrew, again, to
+their proper habitation, he walked back with them, in the same silence
+and calm, as those with which he had advanced. Gershom, however, entered
+within the palisade, and passed the remainder of the night with his
+family.
+
+The bee-hunter and the Chippewa accidentally came together, as the men
+moved slowly toward their own hut, when the following short dialogue
+occurred between them.
+
+“Is that you, Pigeonswing?” exclaimed le Bourdon, when he found his
+friend touching an elbow, as if by chance.
+
+“Yes, dis me--want better friend, eh?”
+
+“No, I'm well satisfied to have you near me, in an alarm, Chippewa.
+We've stood by each other once, in troublesome times; and I think we can
+do as much, ag'in.”
+
+“Yes; stand by friend--dat honor. Nebber turn back on friend; dat my
+way.”
+
+“Chippewa, who blew the blast on the horn?--can you tell me THAT?”
+
+“Why don't you ask Peter? He wise chief--know eb-beryt'ing. Young Injin
+ask ole Injin when don't know--why not young pale-face ask ole man, too,
+eh?”
+
+“Pigeonswing, if truth was said, I believe it would be found that you
+suspect Peter of having a hand in this business?”
+
+This speech was rather too idiomatic for the comprehension of the
+Indian, who answered according to his own particular view of the matter.
+
+“Don't blow horn wid hand,” he said--“Injin blow wid mout', just like
+pale-face.”
+
+The bee-hunter did not reply; but his companion's remark had a tendency
+to revive in his breast certain unpleasant and distrustful feelings
+toward the mysterious savage, which the incidents and communications of
+the last two weeks had had a strong tendency to put to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+      None knows his lineage, age, or name;
+      His looks are like the snows of Caucasus; his eyes
+      Beam with the wisdom of collected ages
+      In green, unbroken years he sees, 'tis said,
+      The generations pass like autumn fruits,
+      Garner'd, consumed, and springing fresh to life,
+      Again to perish--
+                                      --HILLHOUSE
+
+
+No further disturbance took place that night, and the men set about
+filling up the trenches in the morning steadily, as if nothing had
+happened. They talked a little of the extraordinary occurrence, but more
+was THOUGHT than SAID. Le Bourdon observed, however, that Pigeonswing
+went earlier than usual to the hunt, and that he made his preparations
+as if he expected to be absent more than the customary time.
+
+As there were just one hundred feet of ditch to fill with dirt, the task
+was completed, and that quite thoroughly, long ere the close of the day.
+The pounding down of the earth consumed more time, and was much more
+laborious than the mere tumbling of the earth back into its former bed;
+but even this portion of the work was sufficiently attended to. When all
+was done, the corporal himself, a very critical sort of person in what
+he called “garrisons,” was fain to allow that it was as “pretty a piece
+of palisading” as he had ever laid eyes on. The “garrison” wanted only
+one thing, now, to render it a formidable post--and that was water--no
+spring or well existing within its narrow limit; however, he procured
+two or three empty barrels, portions of le Bourdon's effects, placed
+them within the works, and had them filled with sweet water. By emptying
+this water two or three times a week, and refilling the barrels, it was
+thought that a sufficient provision of that great necessary would be
+made and kept up. Luckily the corporal's “garrison” did not drink, and
+the want was so much the more easily supplied for the moment.
+
+In truth, the chiente was now converted into a place of some strength,
+when it is considered that artillery had never yet penetrated to those
+wilds. More than half the savages of the west fought with arrows
+and spears in that day, as most still do when the great prairies are
+reached. A rifleman so posted as to have his body in a great measure
+covered by the trunk of a burr-oak tree, would be reasonably secure
+against the missives of an Indian, and, using his own fatal instrument
+of death, under a sense of personal security, he would become a
+formidable opponent to dislodge. Nor was the smallness of the work any
+objection to its security. A single well-armed man might suffice
+to defend twenty-five feet of palisades, when he would have been
+insufficient to make good his position with twice the extent. Then le
+Bourdon had cut loops on three sides of the hut itself, in order to fire
+at the bears, and sometimes at the deer, which had often approached
+the building in its days of solitude and quiet, using the window on
+the fourth side for the same purpose. In a word, a sense of increased
+security was felt by the whole party when this work was completed,
+though one arrangement was still wanting to render it perfect. By
+separating the real garrison from the nominal garrison during the night,
+there always existed the danger of surprise; and the corporal, now that
+his fortifications were finished, soon devised a plan to obviate this
+last-named difficulty. His expedient was very simple, and had somewhat
+of barrack-life about it.
+
+Corporal Flint raised a low platform along one side of the chiente,
+by placing there logs of pine that were squared on one of their sides.
+Above, at the height of a man's head, a roof of bark was reared on
+poles, and prairie grass, aided by skins, formed very comfortable
+barrack-beds beneath. As the men were expected to lie with their heads
+to the wall of the hut, and their feet outward, there was ample space
+for twice their number. Thither, then, were all the homely provisions
+for the night transported; and when Margery closed the door of the
+chiente, after returning the bee-hunter's cordial good night, it was
+with no further apprehension for the winding of the mysterious horn.
+
+The first night that succeeded the new arrangement passed without any
+disturbance. Pigeonswing did not return, as usual, at sunset, and
+a little uneasiness was felt on his account; but, as he made his
+appearance quite early in the morning, this source of concern ceased.
+Nor did the Chippewa come in empty-handed; he had killed not only a
+buck, but he had knocked over a bear in his rambles, besides taking a
+mess of famously fine trout from a brawling stream at no great distance.
+The fish were eaten for breakfast, and immediately after that meal was
+ended, a party.
+
+“I know no more than he has himself told me. By his account there is
+to be a great council of red men on the prairie, a few miles from this
+spot; he is waiting for the appointed day to come, in order to go and
+make one of the chiefs that will be there. Is not this true, Chippewa?”
+
+“Yes, dat true--what dat council smoke round fire for, eh? You know?”
+
+“No, I do not, and would be right glad to have you tell me, Pigeonswing.
+Perhaps the tribe mean to have a meetin' to determine in their own minds
+which side they ought to take in this war.”
+
+“Not dat nudder. Know well 'nough which side take. Got message and
+wampum from Canada fadder, and most all Injin up this-a way look for
+Yankee scalp. Not dat nudder.”
+
+“Then I have no notion what is at the bottom of this council. Peter
+seems to expect great things from it; that I can see by his way of
+talking and looking whenever he speaks of it.”
+
+“Peter want to see him very much. Smoke at great many sich council
+fire.”
+
+“Do you intend to be present at this council on Prairie Round?” asked
+the bee-hunter, innocently enough. Pigeonswing turned to look at his
+companion, in a way that seemed to inquire how far he was really the
+dupe of the mysterious Indian's wiles. Then, suddenly aware of the
+importance of not betraying all he himself knew, until the proper moment
+had arrived, he bent his eyes forward again, continuing onward and
+answering somewhat evasively.
+
+“Don't know,” he replied. “Hunter nebber tell. Chief want venison, and
+he must hunt. Just like squaw in pale-face wigwam--work,
+work--sweep, sweep--cook, cook--never know when work done. So hunter
+hunt--hunt--hunt.”
+
+“And for that matter, Chippewa, just like squaw in the red man's
+village, too. Hoe, hoe--dig, dig--carry, carry--so that she never knows
+when she may sit down to rest.”
+
+“Yes,” returned Pigeonswing, coolly nodding his assent as he moved
+steadily forward. “Dat do right way wid squaw--juss what he good
+for--juss what he MADE for--work for warrior and cook his dinner.
+Pale-face make too much of squaw.”
+
+“Not accordin' to your account of their manner of getting along, Injin.
+If the work of our squaws is never done, we can hardly make too much of
+them. Where does Peter keep HIS squaw?”
+
+“Don't know,” answered the Chippewa. “Nobody know. Don't know where his
+tribe even.”
+
+“This is very extraor'nary, considering the influence the man seems to
+enjoy. How is it that he has so completely got the ears of all the red
+men, far and near?”
+
+To this question Pigeonswing gave no answer. His own mind was so far
+under Peter's control that he did not choose to tell more than might be
+prudent. He was fully aware of the mysterious chief's principal design,
+that of destroying the white race altogether, and of restoring the red
+men to their ancient rights, but several reasons prevented his entering
+into the plot heart and hand. In the first place, he was friendly to
+the “Yankees,” from whom he, personally, had received many favors and
+no wrongs; then, the tribe, or half-tribe, to which he belonged had
+been employed, more or less, by the agents of the American government
+as runners, and in other capacities, ever since the peace of '83; and,
+lastly, he himself had been left much in different garrisons, where
+he had not only acquired his English, but a habit of thinking of the
+Americans as his friends. It might also be added that Pigeonswing,
+though far less gifted by nature than the mysterious Peter, had formed
+a truer estimate of the power of the “Yankees,” and did not believe they
+were to be annihilated so easily. How it happened that this Indian had
+come to a conclusion so much safer than that of Peter's, a man of twice
+his capacity, is more than we can explain; though it was probably owing
+to the accidental circumstances of his more intimate associations with
+the whites.
+
+The bee-hunter was by nature a man of observation, a faculty that his
+habits had both increased and stimulated. Had it not been for the manner
+in which he was submitting to the influence of Margery, he would long
+before have seen that in the deportment of the Chippewa which would have
+awakened his distrust; not that Margery in any way endeavored to blind
+him to what was passing before his face, but that he was fast getting to
+have eyes only for her. By this time she filled not only his waking, but
+many of his sleeping thoughts; and when she was not actually before him,
+charming him with her beauty, enlivening him with her artless gayety,
+and inspiring him with her innocent humor, he fancied she was there,
+imagination, perhaps, heightening all those advantages which we have
+enumerated. When a man is thoroughly in love, he is quite apt to be
+fit for very little else but to urge his suit. Such, in a certain
+way, proved to be the case with le Bourdon, who allowed things to pass
+unheeded directly before his eyes that previously to his acquaintance
+with Margery would not only have been observed, but which would have
+most probably led to some practical results. The conduct of Pigeonswing
+was among the circumstances that were thus over-looked by our hero. In
+point of fact, Peter was slowly but surely working on the mind of the
+Chippewa, changing all his opinions radically, and teaching him to
+regard every pale-face as an enemy. The task, in this instance, was not
+easy; for Pigeonswing, in addition to his general propensities in favor
+of the “Yankees,” the result of mere accident, had conceived a real
+personal regard for le Bourdon, and was very slow to admit any views
+that tended to his injury. The struggle in the mind of the young warrior
+was severe; and twenty times was he on the point of warning his friend
+of the danger which impended over the whole party, when a sense of good
+faith toward Peter, who held his word to the contrary, prevented his so
+doing. This conflict of feeling was now constantly active in the breast
+of the young savage.
+
+Pigeonswing had another source of uneasiness, to which his companions
+were entirely strangers. While hunting, his keen eyes had detected the
+presence of warriors in the openings. It is true he had not seen even
+one, but he knew that the signs he had discovered could not deceive him.
+Not only were warriors at hand, but warriors in considerable numbers.
+He had found one deserted lair, from which its late occupants could not
+have departed many hours when it came under his own notice. By means of
+that attentive sagacity which forms no small portion of the education
+of an American Indian, Pigeonswing was enabled to ascertain that this
+party, of itself, numbered seventeen, all of whom were men and warriors.
+The first fact was easily enough to be seen, perhaps, there being just
+seventeen different impressions left in the grass; but that all these
+persons were armed men, was learned by Pigeonswing through evidence that
+would have been overlooked by most persons. By the length of the lairs
+he was satisfied none but men of full stature had been there; and he
+even examined sufficiently close to make out the proofs that all but
+four of these men carried firearms. Strange as it may seem to those who
+do not know how keen the senses become when whetted by the apprehensions
+and wants of savage life, Pigeonswing was enabled to discover signs
+which showed that the excepted were provided with bows and arrows, and
+spears.
+
+When the bee-hunter and his companion came in sight of the carcase of
+the bear, which they did shortly after the last remark which we have
+given in the dialogue recorded, the former exclaimed with a little
+surprise:
+
+“How's this, Chippewa! You have killed this beast with your bow! Did you
+not hunt with the rifle yesterday?”
+
+“Bad fire rifle off now-a-day,” answered Pigeonswing, sententiously.
+“Make noise--noise no good.”
+
+“Noise!” repeated the perfectly unsuspecting bee-hunter. “Little good
+or little harm can noise do in these openings, where there is neither
+mountain to give back an echo, or ear to be startled. The crack of my
+rifle has rung through these groves a hundred times and no harm come of
+it.”
+
+“Forget war-time now. Bess nebber fire, less can't help him.
+Pottawattamie hear great way off.”
+
+“Oh! That's it, is it! You're afraid our old friends the Pottawattamies
+may find us out, and come to thank us for all that happened down at
+the river's mouth. Well,” continued le Bourdon, laughing, “if they wish
+another whiskey-spring, I have a small jug left, safely hid against a
+wet day; a very few drops will answer to make a tolerable spring. You
+redskins don't know everything, Pigeonswing, though you are so keen and
+quick-witted on a trail.”
+
+“Bess not tell Pottawattamie any more 'bout springs,” answered the
+Chippewa, gravely; for by this time he regarded the state of things in
+the openings to be so serious as to feel little disposition to mirth.
+“Why you don't go home, eh? Why don't med'cine-man go home, too? Bess
+for pale-face to be wid pale-face when red man go on war-path. Color
+bess keep wid color.”
+
+“I see you want to be rid of us, Pigeonswing; but the parson has no
+thought of quitting this part of the world until he has convinced all
+the red-skins that they are Jews.”
+
+“What he mean, eh?” demanded the Chippewa, with more curiosity than it
+was usual for an Indian warrior to betray. “What sort of a man Jew, eh?
+Why call red man Jew?”
+
+“I know very little more about it than you do yourself, Pigeonswing; but
+such as my poor knowledge is, you're welcome to it. You've heard of the
+Bible, I dare say?”
+
+“Sartain--med'cine-man read him Sunday. Good book to read, some t'ink.”
+
+“Yes, it's all that, and a great companion have I found my Bible, when
+I've been alone with the bees out here in the openings. It tells us of
+our God, Chippewa; and teaches us how we are to please him, and how we
+may offend. It's a great loss to you red-skins not to have such a book
+among you.”
+
+“Med'cine-man bring him--don't do much good, yet; some day, p'r'aps, do
+better. How dat make red man Jew?”
+
+“Why, this is a new idea to me, though Parson Amen seems fully possessed
+with it. I suppose you know what a Jew is?”
+
+“Don't know anything 'bout him. Sort o' nigger, eh?”
+
+“No, no, Pigeonswing, you're wide of the mark this time. But, that we
+may understand each other, we'll begin at the beginning like, which will
+let you into the whole history of the pale-face religion. As we've had a
+smart walk, however, and here is the bear's meat safe and sound, just as
+you left it, let us sit down a bit on this trunk of a tree, while I give
+you our tradition from beginning to end, as it might be. In the first
+place, Chippewa, the earth was made without creatures of any sort to
+live on it--not so much as a squirrel or a woodchuck.”
+
+“Poor country to hunt in, dat,” observed the Chippewa quietly, while le
+Bourdon was wiping his forehead after removing his cap. “Ojebways stay
+in it very little time.”
+
+“This, according to our belief, was before any Ojebway lived. At length,
+God made a man, out of clay, and fashioned him, as we see men fashioned
+and living all around us.”
+
+“Yes,” answered the Chippewa, nodding his head in assent. “Den Manitou
+put plenty blood in him--dat make red warrior. Bible good book, if tell
+dat tradition.”
+
+“The Bible says nothing about any colors; but we suppose the man first
+made to have been a pale-face. At any rate, the pale-faces have got
+possession of the best parts of the earth, as it might be, and I
+think they mean to keep them. First come, first served, you know. The
+pale-faces are many, and are strong.”
+
+“Stop!” exclaimed Pigeonswing, in a way that was very unusual for an
+Indian to interrupt another when speaking; “want to ask question--how
+many pale-face you t'ink is dere? Ebber count him?”
+
+“Count him!--Why, Chippewa, you might as well count the bees, as
+they buzz around a fallen tree. You saw me cut down the tree I last
+discovered, and saw the movement of the little animals, and may judge
+what success tongue or eye would have in counting THEM; now, just as
+true would it be to suppose that any man could count the pale-faces on
+this earth.”
+
+“Don't want count ALL,” answered Pigeonswing. “Want to know how many dis
+side of great salt lake.”
+
+“That's another matter, and more easily come at. I understand you now,
+Chippewa; you wish to know how many of us there are in the country we
+call America?”
+
+“Juss so,” returned Pigeonswing, nodding in assent. “Dat juss it--juss
+what Injin want to know.”
+
+“Well, we do have a count of our own people, from time to time, and
+I suppose come about as near to the truth as men can come in such a
+matter. There must be about eight millions of us altogether; that is,
+old and young, big and little, male and female.”
+
+“How many warrior you got?--don't want hear about squaw and pappoose.”
+
+“No, I see you're warlike this morning, and want to see how we are
+likely to come out of this struggle with your great Canada father.
+Counting all round, I think we might muster hard on upon a million of
+fighting men--good, bad, and indifferent; that is to say, there must be
+a million of us of proper age to go into the wars.”
+
+Pigeonswing made no answer for near a minute. Both he and the bee-hunter
+had come to a halt alongside of the bear's meat, and the latter was
+beginning to prepare his own portion of the load for transportation,
+while his companion stood thus motionless, lost in thought. Suddenly,
+Pigeonswing recovered his recollection, and resumed the conversation, by
+saying:
+
+“What million mean, Bourdon? How many time so'ger at Detroit, and so'ger
+on lakes?”
+
+“A million is more than the leaves on all the trees in these
+openings”--le Bourdon's notions were a little exaggerated, perhaps, but
+this was what he SAID--“yes, more than the leaves on all these oaks, far
+and near. A million is a countless number, and I suppose would make a
+row of men as long as from this spot to the shores of the great salt
+lake, if not farther.”
+
+It is probable that the bee-hunter himself had no very clear notion
+of the distance of which he spoke, or of the number of men it would
+actually require to fill the space he mentioned; but his answer sufficed
+deeply to impress the imagination of the Indian, who now helped le
+Bourdon to secure his load to his back, in silence, receiving the same
+service in return. When the meat of the bear was securely bestowed, each
+resumed his rifle, and the friends commenced their march in, toward the
+chiente; conversing, as they went, on the matter which still occupied
+their minds. When the bee-hunter again took up the history of the
+creation, it was to speak of our common mother.
+
+“You will remember, Chippewa,” he said, “that I told you nothing on the
+subject of any woman. What I have told you, as yet, consarned only the
+first MAN, who was made out of clay, into whom God breathed the breath
+of life.”
+
+“Dat good--make warrior fuss. Juss right. When breat' in him, fit to
+take scalp, eh?”
+
+“Why, as to that, it is not easy to see whom he was to scalp, seeing
+that he was quite alone in the world, until it pleased his Creator to
+give him a woman for a companion.”
+
+“Tell 'bout dat,” returned Pigeonswing, with interest--“tell how he got
+squaw.”
+
+“Accordin' to the Bible, God caused this man to fall into a deep sleep,
+when he took one of his ribs, and out of that he made a squaw for him.
+Then he put them both to live together, in a most beautiful garden, in
+which all things excellent and pleasant was to be found--some such place
+as these openings, I reckon.”
+
+“Any bee dere?” asked the Indian, quite innocently. “Plenty honey, eh?”
+
+“That will I answer for! It could hardly be otherwise, when it was the
+intention to make the first man and first woman perfectly happy. I dare
+say, Chippewa, if the truth was known, it would be found that bees was a
+sipping at every flower in that most delightful garden!”
+
+“Why pale-face quit dat garden, eh? Why come here to drive poor Injin
+'way from game? Tell me dat, Bourdon, if he can? Why pale-face ever
+leave DAT garden, when he so han'some, eh?”
+
+“God turned him out of it, Chippewa--yes, he was turned OUT of it, with
+shame on his face, for having disobeyed the commandments of his Creator.
+Having left the garden, his children have scattered over the face of the
+earth.”
+
+“So come here to drive off Injin! Well, dat 'e way wid pale-face I Did
+ever hear of red man comin' to drive off pale-face?”
+
+“I have heard of your red warriors often coming to take our scalps,
+Chippewa. More or less of this has been done every year, since our
+people have landed in America. More than that they have not done, for
+we are too many to be driven very far in, by a few scattering tribes of
+Injins.”
+
+“T'ink, den, more pale-face dan Injin, eh?” asked the Chippewa, with an
+interest so manifest that he actually stopped in his semi-trot, in order
+to put the question. “More pale-face warrior dan red men?”
+
+“More! Aye, a thousand times more, Chippewa. Where you could show one
+warrior, we could show a thousand!”
+
+Now, this was not strictly true, perhaps, but it answered the purpose
+of deeply impressing the Chippewa with the uselessness of Peter's plans,
+and sustained as it was by his early predilections, it served to
+keep him on the right side, in the crisis which was approaching. The
+discourse continued, much in the same strain, until the men got in with
+their bear's meat, having been preceded some time by the others, with
+the venison.
+
+It is a little singular that neither the questions, nor the manner of
+Pigeonswing, awakened any distrust in the bee-hunter. So far from this,
+the latter regarded all that had passed as perfectly natural, and as
+likely to arise in conversation, in the way of pure speculation, as in
+any other manner. Pigeonswing intended to be guarded in what he said and
+did, for, as yet, he had not made up his mind which side he would really
+espouse, in the event of the great project coming to a head. He had the
+desire, natural to a red man, to avenge the wrongs committed against
+his race; but this desire existed in a form a good deal mitigated by his
+intercourse with the “Yankees,” and his regard for individuals. It had,
+nevertheless, strangely occurred to the savage reasoning of this young
+warrior that possibly some arrangement might be effected, by means of
+which he should take scalps from the Canadians, while Peter and his
+other followers were working their will on the Americans. In this
+confused condition was the mind of the Chippewa, when he and his
+companion threw down their loads, near the place where the provision of
+game was usually kept. This was beneath the tree, near the spring and
+the cook-house, in order that no inconvenience should arise from its
+proximity to the place where the party dwelt and slept. For a siege,
+should there be occasion to shut themselves up within the “garrison,”
+ the men depended on the pickled pork, and a quantity of dried meat; of
+the latter of which the missionary had brought a considerable supply
+in his own canoe. Among these stores were a few dozen of buffaloes'
+or bisons' tongues, a delicacy that would honor the best table in the
+civilized world, though then so common among the western hunters, as
+scarce to be deemed food as good as the common salted pork and beef of
+the settlements.
+
+The evening that followed proved to be one of singular softness and
+sweetness. The sun went down in a cloudless sky, and gentle airs from
+the southwest fanned the warm cheeks of Margery, as she sat, resting
+from the labors of the day, with le Bourdon at her side, speaking of the
+pleasures of a residence in such a spot. The youth was eloquent, for he
+felt all that he said, and the maiden was pleased. The young man could
+expatiate on bees in a way to arrest any one's attention; and Margery
+delighted to hear him relate his adventures with these little creatures;
+his successes, losses, and journeys.
+
+“But are you not often lonely, Bourdon, living here in the openings,
+whole summers at a time, without a living soul to speak to?” demanded
+Margery, coloring to the eyes, the instant the question was asked,
+lest it should subject her to an imputation against which her modesty
+revolted, that of wishing to draw the discourse to a discussion on the
+means of preventing this solitude in future.
+
+“I have not been, hitherto,” answered le Bourdon, so frankly as at once
+to quiet his companion's sensitiveness, “though I will not answer for
+the future. Now that I have so many with me, we may make some of them
+necessary. Mind--I say SOME, not all of my present guests. If I could
+have my pick, pretty Margery, the present company would give me ALL I
+can desire, and more too. I should not think of going to Detroit for
+that companion, since she is to be found so much nearer.”
+
+Margery blushed, and looked down--then she raised her eyes, smiled,
+and seemed grateful as well as pleased. By this time she had become
+accustomed to such remarks, and she had no difficulty in discovering her
+lover's wishes, though he had never been more explicit. The reflections
+natural to her situation threw a shade of gentle seriousness over her
+countenance, rendering her more charming than ever, and causing the
+youth to plunge deeper and deeper into the meshes that female influence
+had cast around him, In all this, however, one of the parties was
+governed by a manly sincerity, and the other by girlish artlessness.
+Diffidence, one of the most certain attendants of a pure passion, alone
+kept le Bourdon from asking Margery to become his wife; while Margery
+herself sometimes doubted whether it were possible that any reputable
+man could wish to connect himself and his fortunes with a family that
+had sunk as low as persons could well sink, in this country, and not
+lose their characters altogether. With these doubts and distrusts, so
+naturally affecting the mind of each, these young people were rapidly
+becoming more and more enamored; the bee-hunter betraying his passion
+in the close, absorbed attentions that more properly belong to his sex,
+while that of Margery was to be seen in sudden blushes, the thoughtful
+brow, the timid glance, and a cast of tenderness that came over her
+whole manner, and, as it might be, her whole being.
+
+While our young folk were thus employed, now conversing cheerfully, now
+appearing abstracted and lost in thought, though seated side by side,
+le Bourdon happened to look behind him, and saw that Peter was regarding
+them with one of those intense, but mysterious expressions of the
+countenance, that had, now, more than once attracted his attention;
+giving reason, each time, for a feeling in which doubt, curiosity, and
+apprehension were singularly mingled, even in himself.
+
+At the customary hour, which was always early, in that party of simple
+habits, the whole family sought its rest; the females withdrew within
+the chiente, while the males arranged their skins without. Ever since
+the erection of the palisades, le Bourdon had been in the habit of
+calling Hive within the defences, leaving him at liberty to roam about
+inside, at pleasure. Previously to this new arrangement, the dog had
+been shut up in his kennel, in order to prevent his getting on the track
+of a deer, or in close combat with some bear, when his master was not
+present to profit by his efforts. As the palisades were too high for
+his leap, this putting him at liberty within them answered the double
+purpose of giving the mastiff room for healthful exercise, and of
+possessing a most vigilant sentinel against dangers of all sorts. On the
+present occasion, however, the dog was missing, and after calling and
+whistling for him some time, the bee-hunter was fain to bar the gate,
+and leave him on the outside. This done, he sought his skin, and was
+soon asleep.
+
+It was midnight, when the bee-hunter felt a hand laid on his own arm.
+It was the corporal, making this movement, in order to awake him. In an
+instant the young man was on his feet, with his rifle in his hand.
+
+“Did you not hear it, Bourdon?” demanded the corporal, in a tone so low
+as scarce to exceed a whisper.
+
+“Hear what! I've been sleeping, sound as a bee in winter.”
+
+“The horn!--The horn has been blown twice, and, I think, we shall soon
+hear it again.”
+
+“The horn was hanging at the door of the chiente, and the conch, too. It
+will be easy to see if they are in their places.”
+
+It was only necessary to walk around the walls of the hut, to its
+opposite side, in order to ascertain this fact. Le Bourdon did so,
+accompanied by the corporal, and just as each laid a hand on the
+instruments, which were suspended in their proper places, a heavy rush
+was made against the gate, as if to try its fastenings. These pushes
+were repeated several times, with a violence that menaced the bars. Of
+course, the two men stepped to the spot, a distance of only a few
+paces, the gateway of the palisades and the door of the chiente being
+contiguous to each other, and immediately ascertained that it was the
+mastiff, endeavoring to force his way in. The bee-hunter admitted the
+dog, which had been trained to suppress his bark, though this animal was
+too brave and large to throw away his breath when he had better rely on
+his force. Powerful animals, of this race, are seldom noisy, it being
+the province of the cur, both among dogs and men, to be blustering and
+spitting out their venom, at all hours and seasons. Hive, however, in
+addition to his natural disposition, had been taught, from the time he
+was a pup, not to betray his presence unnecessarily by a bark; and it
+was seldom that his deep throat opened beneath the arches of the oaks.
+When it did, it told like the roaring of the lion in the desert.
+
+Hive was no sooner admitted to the “garrison,” than he manifested just
+as strong a desire to get out, as a moment before he had manifested
+to get in. This, le Bourdon well knew, indicated the presence of some
+thing, or creature, that did not properly belong to the vicinity. After
+consulting with the corporal, Pigeonswing was called; and leaving him as
+a sentinel at the gate, the two others made a sortie. The corporal
+was as brave as a lion, and loved all such movements, though he fully
+anticipated encountering savages, while his companion expected an
+interview with bears.
+
+As this movement was made at the invitation of the dog, it was
+judiciously determined to let him act as pioneer, on the advance.
+Previously to quitting the defences, however, the two adventurers looked
+closely to their arms. Each examined the priming, saw that his horn
+and pouch were accessible, and loosened his knife in its sheath. The
+corporal, moreover, fixed his “baggonet,” as he called the formidable,
+glittering instrument that usually embellished the end of his musket--a
+MUSKET being the weapon he chose to carry, while the bee-hunter himself
+was armed with a long western RIFLE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     The raptures of a conqueror's mood
+     Rushed burning through his frame;
+     The depths of that green solitude
+     Its torrents could not tame,
+     Though stillness lay, with eve's last smile,
+     Round those far fountains of the Nile
+                               --MRS HEMANS.
+
+
+When the bee-hunter and Corporal Flint thus went forth in midnight, from
+the “garrison” of Castle Meal (Chateau au Miel), as the latter would
+have expressed it, it was with no great apprehension of meeting any
+other than a four-footed enemy, notwithstanding the blast of the horn
+the worthy corporal supposed he had heard. The movements of the dog
+seemed to announce such a result rather than any other, for Hive was
+taken along as a sort of guide. Le Bourdon, however, did not permit his
+mastiff to run off wide, but, having the animal at perfect command, it
+was kept close to his own person.
+
+The two men first moved toward the grove of the Kitchen, much to Hive's
+discontent. The dog several times halted, and he whined, and growled,
+and otherwise manifested his great dislike to proceed in that direction.
+At length so decided did his resistance become, that his master said to
+his companion:
+
+“It seems to me best, corporal, to let the mastiff lead us. I have never
+yet seen him so set on not going in one way, and on going in another.
+Hive has a capital nose, and we may trust him.”
+
+“Forward,” returned the corporal, wheeling short in the direction of
+the dog; “one thing should be understood, however, Bourdon, which is
+this--you must act as light troops in this sortie, and I as the main
+body. If we come on the inimy, it will be your duty to skrimmage in
+front as long as you can, and then fall back on your resarves. I shall
+depend chiefly on the baggonet, which is the best tool to put an Injin
+up with; and as he falls back, before my charge, we must keep him under
+as warm a fire as possible. Having no cavalry, the dog might be made
+useful in movements to the front and on our flanks.”
+
+“Pooh, pooh, corporal, you're almost as much set in the notions of your
+trade as Parson Amen is set in his idees about the lost tribes. In
+my opinion there'll be more tribes FOUND in these openings before the
+summer is over than we shall wish to meet. Let us follow the dog, and
+see what will turn up.” Hive WAS followed, and he took a direction that
+led to a distant point in the openings, where not only the trees were
+much thicker than common, but where a small tributary of the Kalamazoo
+ran through a ravine, from the higher lands adjacent into the main
+artery of all the neighboring watercourses. The bee-hunter knew the
+spot well, having often drank at the rivulet, and cooled his brow in the
+close shades of the ravine, when heated by exertions in the more
+open grounds. In short, the spot was one of the most eligible for
+concealment, coolness, and pure water, within several miles of Castle
+Meal. The trees formed a spacious grove around it, and, by means of the
+banks, their summits and leaves answered the purpose of a perfect screen
+to those who might descend into the ravine, or, it would be better to
+say, to the bottom. Le Bourdon was no sooner satisfied that his mastiff
+was proceeding toward the great spring which formed the rivulet at the
+head of the ravine mentioned, than he suspected Indians might be there.
+He had seen signs about the spot, which wore an appearance of its having
+been used as a place of encampment--or for “camping out,” as it is
+termed in the language of the west--and, coupling the sound of the horn
+with the dog's movements, his quick apprehension seized on the facts as
+affording reasonable grounds of distrust. Consequently he resorted to
+great caution, as he and the corporal entered the wood which surrounded
+the spring, and the small oval bit of bottom that lay spread before it,
+like a little lawn. Hive was kept close at his master's side, though
+he manifested a marked impatience to advance. “Now, corporal,” said the
+bee-hunter in a low tone, “I think we have lined some savages to their
+holes. We will go round the basin and descend to the bottom, in a close
+wood which grows there. Did you see that?”
+
+“I suppose I did,” answered the corporal, who was as firm as a rock.
+“You meant to ask me if I saw fire?”
+
+“I did. The red men have lighted their council fire in this spot,
+and have met to talk around it. Well, let 'em hearken to each other's
+thoughts, if they will; we shall be neither the better nor the worse for
+it.”
+
+“I don't know that. When the commander-in-chief calls together his
+principal officers, something usually comes of it. Who knows but this
+very council is called in order to take opinions on the subject of
+besieging or of storming our new garrison? Prudent soldiers should
+always be ready for the worst.”
+
+“I have no fear, so long as Peter is with us. That chief is listened to
+by every red-skin; and while we have him among us there will be little
+to care for. But we are getting near to the bottom and must work our way
+through these bushes with as little noise as possible. I will keep the
+dog quiet.”
+
+The manner in which that sagacious animal now behaved was truly
+wonderful. Hive appeared to be quite as much aware of the necessity
+of extreme caution as either of the men, and did not once attempt to
+precede his master his own length. On one or two occasions he actually
+discovered the best passages, and led his companions through them with
+something like the intelligence of a human being. Neither growl nor bark
+escaped him; on the contrary, even the hacking breathing of an impatient
+dog was suppressed, precisely as if the animal knew how near he was
+getting to the most watchful ears in the world.
+
+After using the greatest care, the bee-hunter and the corporal got just
+such a station as they desired. It was within a very few feet of the
+edge of the cover, but perfectly concealed, while small openings enabled
+them to see all that was passing in their front. A fallen tree, a relic
+of somewhat rare occurrence in the openings of Michigan, even furnished
+them with a seat, while it rendered their position less exposed. Hive
+placed himself at his master's side, apparently trusting to other senses
+than that of sight for his information, since he could see nothing of
+what was going on in front.
+
+As soon as the two men had taken their stations, and began to look about
+them, a feeling of awe mingled with their curiosity. Truly, the scene
+was one so very remarkable and imposing that it might have filled more
+intellectual and better fortified minds with some such sensation.
+The fire was by no means large, nor was it particularly bright; but
+sufficient to cast a dim light on the objects within reach of its rays.
+It was in the precise centre of a bit of bottom land of about half an
+acre in extent, which was so formed and surrounded, as to have something
+of the appearance of the arena of a large amphitheatre. There was one
+break in the encircling rise of ground, it is true, and that was at
+a spot directly opposite the station of le Bourdon and his companion,
+where the rill which flowed from the spring found a passage out toward
+the more open ground. Branches shaded most of the mound, but the arena
+itself was totally free from all vegetation but that which covered the
+dense and beautiful sward with which it was carpeted. Such is a brief
+description of the natural accessories of this remarkable scene.
+
+But it was from the human actors, and their aspects, occupations,
+movements, dress, and appearance generally, that the awe which came
+over both the bee-hunter and the corporal had its origin. Of these, near
+fifty were present, offering a startling force by their numbers alone.
+Each man was a warrior, and each warrior was in his paint. These were
+facts that the familiarity of the two white men with Indian customs
+rendered only too certain. What was still more striking was the fact
+that all present appeared to be chiefs; a circumstance which went to
+show that an imposing body of red men was most likely somewhere in the
+openings, and that too at no great distance. It was while observing and
+reflecting on all these things, a suspicion first crossed the mind of le
+Bourdon that this great council was about to be held, at that midnight
+hour, and so near his own abode, for the purpose of accommodating Peter,
+whose appearance in the dark crowd, from that instant, he began to
+expect.
+
+The Indians already present were not seated. They stood in groups
+conversing, or stalked across the arena, resembling so many dark and
+stately spectres. No sound was heard among them, a circumstance that
+added largely to the wild and supernatural aspect of the scene. If any
+spoke, it was in a tone so low and gentle, as to carry the sound no
+farther than to the ears that were listening; two never spoke at
+the same time and in the same group, while the moccasin permitted no
+footfall to be audible. Nothing could have been more unearthly than the
+picture presented in that little, wood-circled arena, of velvet-like
+grass and rural beauty. The erect, stalking forms, half naked, if not
+even more; the swarthy skins; the faces fierce in the savage conceits
+which were intended to strike terror into the bosoms of enemies, and the
+glittering eyes that fairly sparkled in their midst, all contributed to
+the character of the scene, which le Bourdon rightly enough imagined was
+altogether much the most remarkable of any he had ever been in the way
+of witnessing.
+
+Our two spectators might have been seated on the fallen tree half an
+hour, all of which time they had been gazing at what was passing before
+their eyes; with positively not a human sound to relieve the unearthly
+nature of the picture. No one spoke, coughed, laughed, or exclaimed, in
+all that period. Suddenly, every chief stood still, and all the faces
+turned in the same direction. It was toward the little gateway of the
+rill, which being the side of the arena most remote from the bee-hunter
+and the corporal, lay nearly in darkness as respected them. With the red
+men it must have been different, for THEY all appeared to be in intent
+expectation of some one from that quarter. Nor did they have to wait
+long; for, in half a minute, two forms came out of the obscurity,
+advancing with a dignified and deliberate tread to the centre of
+the arena. As these newcomers got more within the influence of the
+flickering light, le Bourdon saw that they were Peter and Parson Amen.
+The first led, with a slow, imposing manner, while the other followed,
+not a little bewildered with what he saw. It may be as well to explain
+here, that the Indian was coming alone to this place of meeting, when
+he encountered the missionary wandering among the oaks, looking for le
+Bourdon and the corporal, and, instead of endeavoring to throw off this
+unexpected companion, he quietly invited him to be of his own party.
+
+It was evident to le Bourdon, at a glance, that Peter was expected,
+though it was not quite so clear that such was the fact as regarded
+his companion. Still, respect for the great chief prevented any
+manifestations of surprise or discontent, and the medicine-man of the
+pale-faces was received with as grave a courtesy as if he had been an
+invited guest. Just as the two had entered the dark circle that formed
+around them, a young chief threw some dry sticks on the fire, which
+blazing upward, cast a stronger light on a row of as terrifically
+looking countenances as ever gleamed on human forms. This sudden
+illumination, with its accompanying accessories, had the effect to
+startle all the white spectators, though Peter looked on the whole with
+a calm like that of the leafless tree, when the cold is at its height,
+and the currents of the wintry air are death-like still Nothing appeared
+to move HIM, whether expected or not; though use had probably accustomed
+his eye to all the aspects in which savage ingenuity could offer savage
+forms. He even smiled, as he made a gesture of recognition, which
+seemed to salute the whole group. It was just then, when the fire burned
+brightest, and when the chiefs pressed most within its influence, that
+le Bourdon perceived that his old acquaintances, the head-men of the
+Pottawattamies, were present, among the other chiefs so strangely and
+portentously assembled in these grounds, which he had so long possessed
+almost entirely to himself.
+
+A few of the oldest of the chiefs now approached Peter, and a low
+conversation took place between them. What was said did not reach le
+Bourdon, of course; for it was not even heard in the dark circle of
+savages who surrounded the fire. The effect of this secret dialogue,
+however, was to cause all the chiefs to be seated, each taking his place
+on the grass; the whole preserving the original circle around the fire.
+Fortunately, for the wishes of le Bourdon, Peter and his companions took
+their stations directly opposite to his own seat, thus enabling him to
+watch every lineament of that remarkable chief's still more remarkable
+countenance. Unlike each and all of the red men around him, the face of
+Peter was not painted, except by the tints imparted by nature; which, in
+his case, was that of copper a little tarnished, or rendered dull by the
+action of the atmosphere. The bee-hunter could distinctly trace every
+lineament; nor was the dark roving eye beyond the reach of his own
+vision. Some attention was given to the fire, too, one of the younger
+chiefs occasionally throwing on it a few dried sticks, more to keep
+alive the flame, and to renew the light, than from any need of warmth.
+One other purpose, however, this fire DID answer; that of enabling
+the young chiefs to light the pipes that were now prepared; it seldom
+occurring that the chiefs thus assembled without SMOKING around their
+council-fire.
+
+As this smoking was just then more a matter of ceremony than for any
+other purpose, a whiff or two suffices for each chief; the smoker
+passing the pipe to his neighbor as soon as he had inhaled a few puffs.
+The Indians are models of propriety, in their happiest moods, and every
+one in that dark and menacing circle was permitted to have his turn
+with the pipe, before any other step was taken. There were but two pipes
+lighted, and mouths being numerous, some time was necessary in order
+to complete this ceremony. Still, no sign of impatience was seen, the
+lowest chief having as much respect paid to his feelings, as related
+to his attention, as the highest. At length the pipes completed their
+circuit, even Parson Amen getting, and using, his turn, when a dead
+pause succeeded. The silence resembled that of a Quaker meeting, and
+was broken only by the rising of one of the principal chiefs, evidently
+about to speak. The language of the great Ojebway nation was used on
+this occasion, most of the chiefs present belonging to some one of the
+tribes of that stock, though several spoke other tongues, English and
+French included. Of the three whites present, Parson Amen alone fully
+comprehended all that was said, he having qualified himself in this
+respect, to preach to the tribes of that people; though le Bourdon
+understood nearly all, and even the corporal comprehended a good deal.
+The name of the chief who first spoke at this secret meeting, which was
+afterward known among the Ojebways by the name of the “Council of the
+Bottom Land, near to the spring of gushing water,” was Bear's Meat, an
+appellation that might denote a distinguished hunter, rather than an
+orator of much renown.
+
+“Brothers of the many tribes of the Ojebways,” commenced this personage,
+“the Great Spirit has permitted us to meet in council. The Manitou of
+our fathers is now among these oaks, listening to our words, and looking
+in at our hearts. Wise Indians will be careful what they say in such a
+presence, and careful of what they think. All should be said and thought
+for the best. We are a scattered nation, and the time is come when we
+must stop in our tracks, or travel beyond the sound of each other's
+cries. If we travel beyond the hearing of our people, soon will our
+children learn tongues that Ojebway ears cannot understand. The mother
+talks to her child, and the child learns her words. But no child can
+hear across a great lake. Once we lived near the rising sun. Where are
+we now? Some of our young men say they have seen the sun go down in the
+lakes of sweet water. There can be no hunting-grounds beyond THAT spot;
+and if we would live, we must stand still in our tracks. How to do this,
+we have met to consider.
+
+“Brothers, many wise chiefs and braves are seated at this council-fire.
+It is pleasant to my eyes to look upon them. Ottawas, Chippeways,
+Pottawattamies, Menominees, Hurons, and all. Our father at Quebec has
+dug up the hatchet against the Yankees. The war-path is open between
+Detroit and all the villages of the red men. The prophets are speaking
+to our people, and we listen. One is here; he is about to speak. The
+council will have but a single sense, which will be that of hearing.”
+
+Thus concluding, Bear's Meat took his seat, in the same composed
+and dignified manner as that in which he had risen, and deep silence
+succeeded. So profound was the stillness, that, taken in connection with
+the dark lineaments, the lustrous eyeballs that threw back the light
+of the fire, the terrific paint and the armed hands of every warrior
+present, the picture might be described as imposing to a degree that
+is seldom seen in the assemblies of the civilized. In the midst of this
+general but portentous calm, Peter arose. The breathing of the circle
+grew deeper, so much so as to be audible, the only manner in which
+the intensity of the common expectation betrayed itself. Peter was an
+experienced orator, and knew how to turn every minutiae of his art to
+good account. His every movement was deliberate, his attitude highly
+dignified--even his eye seemed eloquent.
+
+Oratory! what a power art thou, wielded, as is so often the case, as
+much for evil as for good. The very reasoning that might appear to
+be obtuse, or which would be over looked entirely when written and
+published, issuing from the mouth, aided by the feelings of sympathy and
+the impulses of the masses, seems to partake of the wisdom of divinity.
+Thus is it, also, with the passions, the sense of wrong, the appeals
+to vengeance, and all the other avenues of human emotion. Let them be
+addressed to the cold eye of reason and judgment, in the form of written
+statements, and the mind pauses to weigh the force of arguments, the
+justice of the appeals, the truth of facts: but let them come upon the
+ear aided by thy art, with a power concentrated by sympathy, and the
+torrent is often less destructive in its course, than that of the
+whirlwind that thou canst awaken!
+
+“Chiefs of the great Ojebway nation, I wish you well,” said Peter,
+stretching out his arms toward the circle, as if desirous of embracing
+all present. “The Manitou has been good to me. He has cleared a path to
+this spring, and to this council-fire. I see around it the faces of many
+friends. Why should we not all be friendly? Why should a red man ever
+strike a blow against a red man? The Great Spirit made us of the same
+color, and placed us on the same hunting-grounds. He meant that we
+should hunt in company; not take each other's scalps. How many warriors
+have fallen in our family wars? Who has counted them? Who can say?
+Perhaps enough, had they not been killed, to drive the pale-faces into
+the sea!”
+
+Here Peter, who as yet had spoken only in a low and barely audible
+voice, suddenly paused, in order to allow the idea he had just thrown
+out to work on the minds of his listeners. That it was producing its
+effect was apparent by the manner in which one stern face turned toward
+another, and eye seemed to search in eye some response to a query that
+the mind suggested, though no utterance was given to it with the tongue.
+As soon, however, as the orator thought time sufficient to impress
+that thought on the memories of the listeners had elapsed, he resumed,
+suffering his voice gradually to increase in volume, as he warmed with
+his subject.
+
+“Yes,” he continued, “the Manitou has been very kind. Who is the
+Manitou? Has any Indian ever seen him? Every Indian has seen him. No one
+can look on the hunting-grounds, on the lakes, on the prairies, on the
+trees, on the game, without seeing his hand. His face is to be seen in
+the sun at noonday; his eyes in the stars at night. Has any Indian
+ever heard the Manitou? When it thunders, he speaks. When the crash is
+loudest, then he scolds. Some Indian has done wrong. Perhaps one red man
+has taken another red man's scalp!”
+
+Another pause succeeded, briefer, and less imposing than the first, but
+one that sufficed to impress on the listeners anew, the great evil of an
+Indian's raising his hand against an Indian.
+
+“Yes, there is no one so deaf as not to hear the voice of the Great
+Spirit when he is angry,” resumed Peter. “Ten thousands of buffalo
+bulls, roaring together, do not make as much noise as his whisper.
+Spread the prairies, and the openings, and the lakes, before him, and he
+can be heard in all, and on all, at the same time.
+
+“Here is a medicine-priest of the pale-faces; he tells me that the voice
+of the Manitou reaches into the largest villages of his people, beneath
+the rising sun, when it is heard by the red man across the great lakes,
+and near the rocks of the setting sun. It is a loud voice; woe to him
+who does not remember it. It speaks to all colors, and to every people,
+and tribe, and nation.
+
+“Brothers, that is a lying tradition which says, there is one Manitou
+for a Sac, and another for the Ojebway--one Manitou for the red man, and
+another for the pale-face. In this, we are alike. One Great Spirit
+made all; governs all; rewards all; punishes all. He may keep the happy
+hunting-grounds of an Indian separate from the white man's heaven,
+for he knows that their customs are different, and what would please a
+warrior would displease a trader; and what would please a trader would
+displease a warrior. He has thought of these things, and has made
+several places for the spirits of the good, let their colors be what
+they may. Is it the same with the places of the spirits of the bad? I
+think not. To me it would seem best to let THEM go together, that they
+may torment one another. A wicked Indian and a wicked pale-face would
+make a bad neighborhood. I think the Manitou will let THEM go together.
+
+“Brothers, if the Manitou keeps the good Indian and the good pale-face
+apart in another world, what has brought them together in this? If he
+brings the bad spirits of all colors together in another world, why
+should they come together here, before their time? A place for wicked
+spirits should not be found on earth. This is wrong; it must be looked
+into.
+
+“Brothers, I have now done; this pale-face wishes to speak, and I have
+said that you would hear his words. When he has spoken his mind, I
+may have more to tell you. Now, listen to the stranger. He is a
+medicine-priest of the white men, and says he has a great secret to tell
+our people--when he has told it, I have another for their ears too. Mine
+must be spoken when there is no one near but the children of red clay.”
+
+Having thus opened the way for the missionary, Peter courteously took
+his seat, producing a little disappointment among his own admirers,
+though he awakened a lively curiosity to know what this medicine-priest
+might have to say on an occasion so portentous. The Indians in the
+regions of the great lakes had long been accustomed to missionaries, and
+it is probable that even some of their own traditions, so far as they
+related to religious topics, had been insensibly colored by, if not
+absolutely derived from, men of this character; for the first whites
+who are known to have penetrated into that portion of the continent were
+Jesuits, who carried the cross as their standard and emblem of peace.
+Blessed emblem! that any should so confound their own names and
+denunciatory practices with the revealed truth, as to imagine that a
+standard so appropriate should ever be out of season and place, when it
+is proper for man to use aught, at all, that is addressed to his senses,
+in the way of symbols, rites, and ceremonies! To the Jesuits succeeded
+the less ceremonious and less imposing priesthood of America, as America
+peculiarly was in the first years that followed the Revolution. There is
+reason to believe that the spirit of God, in a greater or less degree,
+accompanied all; for all were self-denying and zealous, though the
+fruits of near two centuries of labor have, as yet, amounted to little
+more than the promise of the harvest at some distant day. Enough,
+however, was known of the missionaries, and their views in general,
+to prepare the council, in some small degree, for the forthcoming
+exhibition.
+
+Parson Amen had caught some of the habits of the Indians, in the course
+of years of communication and intercourse. Like them he had learned to
+be deliberate, calm, and dignified in his exterior; and, like them, he
+had acquired a sententious mode of speaking.
+
+“My children,” he said, for he deemed it best to assume the parental
+character, in a scene of so great moment, “as Peter has told you, the
+spirit of God is among you! Christians know that such has he promised
+to be always with his people, and I see faces in this circle that I am
+ready to claim as belonging to those who have prayed with me, in days
+that are long past. If your souls are not touched by divine love, it
+does not kill the hope I entertain of your yet taking up the cross, and
+calling upon the Redeemer's name. But, not for this have I come with
+Peter, this night. I am now here to lay before you an all-important
+fact, that Providence has revealed to me, as the fruit of long labor in
+the vineyard of study and biblical inquiry. It is a tradition--and red
+men love traditions--it is a tradition that touches your own history,
+and which it will gladden your hearts to hear, for it will teach you how
+much your nation and tribes have been the subject of the especial care
+and love of the Great Spirit. When my children say, speak, I shall be
+ready to speak.”
+
+Here the missionary took his seat, wisely awaiting a demonstration on
+the part of the council, ere he ventured to proceed any further. This
+was the first occasion on which he had ever attempted to broach, in a
+direct form, his favorite theory of the “lost tribes.” Let a man get
+once fairly possessed of any peculiar notion, whether it be on religion,
+political economy, morals, politics, arts, or anything else, and he sees
+little beside his beloved principle, which he is at all times ready to
+advance, defend, demonstrate, or expatiate on. Nothing can be simpler
+than the two great dogmas of Christianity, which are so plain that all
+can both comprehend them and feel their truth. They teach us to love
+God, the surest way to obey him, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
+Any one can understand this; all can see how just it is, and how much of
+moral sublimity it contains. It is Godlike, and brings us near the very
+essence of the Divinity, which is love, mercy, and truth. Yet how few
+are content to accept the teachings of the Saviour in this respect,
+without embarrassing them with theories that have so much of their
+origin in human fancies. We do not mean by this, however, that Parson
+Amen was so very wrong in bestowing a part of his attention on that
+wonderful people, who, so early set apart by the Creator as the
+creatures of his own especial ends, have already played so great a
+part in the history of nations, and who are designed, so far as we can
+penetrate revelation, yet to enact their share in the sublime drama of
+human events.
+
+As for the council, its members were moved by more than ordinary
+curiosity to hear what further the missionary might have to say, though
+all present succeeded admirably in suppressing the exhibition of
+any interest that might seem weak and womanly. After a decent delay,
+therefore, Bear's Meat intimated to the parson that it would be
+agreeable to the chiefs present to listen to him further.
+
+“My children, I have a great tradition to tell you,” the missionary
+resumed, as soon as on his feet again; “a very great and divine
+tradition; not a tradition of man's, but one that came direct from the
+Manitou himself. Peter has spoken truth; there is but one Great Spirit;
+he is the Great Spirit of all colors, and tribes, and nations. He made
+all men of the same clay.” Here a slight sensation was perceptible among
+the audience, most of whom were very decidedly of a different opinion,
+on this point of natural history. But the missionary was now so far
+warmed with his subject as to disregard any slight interruption, and
+proceeded as if his listeners had betrayed no feeling. “And he divided
+them afterward into nations and tribes. It was then he caused the color
+of his creatures to change. Some he kept white, as he had made them.
+Some he put behind a dark cloud, and they became altogether black. Our
+wise men think that this was done in punishment for their sins. Some he
+painted red, like the nations on this continent.” Here Peter raised a
+finger, in sign that he would ask a question; for, without permission
+granted, no Indian would interrupt the speaker. Indeed, no one of less
+claims than Peter would hardly have presumed to take the step he now
+did, and that because he saw a burning curiosity gleaming in the bright
+eyes of so many in the dark circle.
+
+“Say on, Peter,” answered the missionary to this sign; “I will reply.”
+
+“Let my brother say WHY the Great Spirit turned the Indian to a red
+color. Was he angry with him? or did he paint him so out of love?”
+
+“This is more than I can tell you, friends. There are many colors among
+men, in different parts of the world, and many shades among people of
+the same color. There are pale-faces fair as the lily, and there are
+pale-faces so dark, as scarcely to be distinguished from blacks. The
+sun does much of this; but no sun, nor want of sun, will ever make a
+pale-face a red-skin, or a red skin a pale-face.”
+
+“Good--that is what we Indians say. The Manitou has made us different;
+he did not mean that we should live on the same hunting-grounds,”
+ rejoined Peter, who rarely failed to improve every opportunity in order
+to impress on the minds of his followers the necessity of now crushing
+the serpent in its shell.
+
+“No man can say that,” answered Parson Amen. “Unless my people had come
+to this continent, the word of God could not have been preached by
+me, along the shores of these lakes. But I will now speak of our great
+tradition. The Great Spirit divided mankind into nations and tribes.
+When this was done, he picked out one for his chosen people. The
+pale-faces call that favorite, and for a long time much-favored people,
+Jews. The Manitou led them through a wilderness, and even through a salt
+lake, until they reached a promised land, where he permitted them to
+live for many hundred winters. A great triumph was to come out of that
+people--the triumphs of truth and of the law, over sin and death. In the
+course of time--”
+
+Here a young chief rose, made a sign of caution, and crossing the circle
+rapidly, disappeared by the passage through which the rill flowed.
+In about a minute he returned, showing the way into the centre of the
+council to one whom all present immediately recognized as a runner, by
+his dress and equipments. Important news was at hand; yet not a man of
+all that crowd either rose or spoke, in impatience to learn what it was!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+   Who will believe that, with a smile whose blessing
+     Would, like the patriarch's, soothe a dying hour;
+   With voice as low, as gentle, and caressing
+     As e'er won maiden's lips in moonlight bower;
+
+   With look like patient Job's, eschewing evil;
+     With motions graceful as the birds in air;
+   Thou art, in sober truth, the veriest devil
+     That e'er clinched fingers in a captive's hair?
+                                        --HALLECK'S Red-Jacket.
+
+
+Although the arrival of the runner was so totally unexpected, it
+scarcely disturbed the quiet of that grave assembly. His approaching
+step had been heard, and he was introduced in the manner mentioned, when
+the young chief resumed his seat, leaving the messenger standing near
+the centre of the circle, and altogether within the influence of the
+light. He was an Ottawa, and had evidently travelled far and fast. At
+length he spoke; no one having put a single question to him, or betrayed
+the least sign of impatient curiosity.
+
+“I come to tell the chiefs what has happened,” said the runner. “Our
+Great Father from Quebec has sent his young men against the Yankees. Red
+warriors, too, were there in hundreds--” here a murmur of interest was
+slightly apparent among the chiefs--“their path led them to Detroit; it
+is taken.”
+
+A low murmur, expressive of satisfaction, passed round the circle,
+for Detroit was then the most important of all the posts held by the
+Americans, along the whole line of the great lakes. Eye met eye in
+surprise and admiration; then one of the older chiefs yielded to his
+interest in the subject, and inquired:
+
+“Have our young men taken many pale-face scalps?”
+
+“So few that they are not worth counting. I did not see one pole that
+was such as an Indian loves to look on.”
+
+“Did our young men keep back, and let the warriors from Quebec do all
+the fighting?”
+
+“No one fought. The Yankees asked to be made prisoners, without using
+their rifles. Never before have so many captives been led into the
+villages with so little to make their enemies look on them with friendly
+eyes.”
+
+A gleam of fierce delight passed athwart the dark features of Peter. It
+is probable that he fell into the same error, on hearing these tidings,
+as that which so generally prevailed for a short time among the natives
+of the old world, at the commencement of both of the two last wars of
+the republic, when the disasters with which they opened induced so
+many to fall into the fatal error of regarding Jonathan as merely
+a “shopkeeper.” A shopkeeper, in a certain sense, he may well be
+accounted; but among his wares are arms, that he has the head, the
+heart, and the hands to use, as man has very rarely been known to use
+them before. Even at this very instant, the brilliant success which has
+rendered the armed citizens of this country the wonder of Europe, is
+reacting on the masses of the old world, teaching them their power, and
+inciting them to stand up to the regularly armed bands of their rulers,
+with a spirit and confidence that, hitherto, has been little known in
+their histories. Happy, thrice happy will it be, if the conquerors use
+their success in moderation, and settle down into the ways of practical
+reason, instead of suffering their minds to be led astray in quest
+of the political jack-o'-lanterns, that are certain to conduct their
+followers into the quagmires of impracticable and visionary theories.
+To abolish abuses, to set in motion the car of state on the track of
+justice and economy, and to distinguish between that which is really
+essential to human happiness and human rights, and that which is merely
+the result of some wild and bootless proposition in political economy,
+are the great self-imposed tasks that the European people seem now to
+have assumed; and God grant that they may complete their labors with the
+moderation and success with which they would appear to have commenced
+them!
+
+As for Peter, with the curse of ignorance weighing on his mind, it is to
+be presumed that he fancied his own great task of destroying the whites
+was so much the lighter, in consequence of the feeble defence of the
+Yankees at Detroit. The runner was now questioned by the different
+chiefs for details, which he furnished with sufficient intelligence and
+distinctness. The whole of that discreditable story is too prominent in
+history, and of too recent occurrence, to stand in need of repetition
+here. When the runner had told his tale, the chiefs broke the order of
+their circle, to converse the more easily concerning the great events
+which had just occurred. Some were not backward in letting their
+contempt for the “Yankees” be known. Here were three of their strong
+places taken, in quick succession, and almost without a blow. Detroit,
+the strongest of them all, and defended by an army, had fallen in a way
+to bring the blush to the American face, seemingly leaving the whole
+of the northwestern frontier of the country ravished from the red man,
+exposed to his incursions and depredations.
+
+“What does my father think of this?” asked Bear's Meat of Peter, as the
+two stood apart, in a cluster of some three or four of the principal
+personages present. “Does the news make his heart stronger?”
+
+“It is always strong when this business is before it. The Manitou has
+long looked darkly upon the red men, but now his face brightens. The
+cloud is passing from before his countenance, and we can begin again to
+see his smile. It will be with our sons as it was with our fathers. Our
+hunting-grounds will be our own, and the buffalo and deer will be plenty
+in our wigwams. The fire-water will flow after them that brought it into
+the country, and the red man will once more be happy, as in times past!”
+
+The ignis fatuus of human happiness employs all minds, all faculties,
+all pens, and all theories, just at this particular moment. A thousand
+projects have been broached, will continue to be broached, and will
+fail, each in its time, showing the mistakes of men, without remedying
+the evils of which they complain. This is not because a beneficent
+Providence has neglected to enlighten their minds, and to show them the
+way to be happy, here and hereafter; but because human conceit runs,
+pari passu, with human woes, and we are too proud to look for our
+lessons of conduct, in that code in which they have been set before us
+by unerring wisdom and ceaseless love. If the political economists,
+and reformers, and revolutionists of the age, would turn from their
+speculations to those familiar precepts which all are taught and so few
+obey, they would find rules for every emergency; and, most of all, would
+they learn the great secret which lies so profoundly hid from them and
+their philosophy, in the contented mind. Nothing short of this will ever
+bring the mighty reform that the world needs. The press may be declared
+free, but a very brief experience will teach those who fancy that this
+one conquest will secure the victory, that they have only obtained King
+Stork in the lieu of King Log; a vulgar and most hideous tyrant for one
+of royal birth and gentle manners. They may set up the rule of patriots
+by profession, in place of the dominion of those who have so long
+pretended that the art of governing descends from male to male,
+according to the order of primogeniture, and live to wonder that love
+of country should have so many weaknesses in common with love of itself.
+They may rely on written charters for their liberties, instead of
+the divine right of kings, and come perchance to learn, that neither
+language, nor covenants, nor signatures, nor seals avail much, as
+against the necessities of nations, and the policy of rulers. Do we then
+regard reform as impossible, and society to be doomed to struggle on in
+its old sloughs of oppression and abuses? Far from it. We believe and
+hope, that at each effort of a sage character, something is gained,
+while much more than had been expected is lost; and such we think will
+continue to be the course of events, until men shall reach that period
+in their history when, possibly to their wonder, they will find that a
+faultless code for the government of all their affairs has been lying
+neglected, daily and hourly, in their very hands, for eighteen centuries
+and a half, without their perceiving the all-important truth. In due
+season this code will supersede all others, when the world will, for the
+first time, be happy and truly free.
+
+There was a marked resemblance between the hopes and expectations of
+Peter, in reference to the overthrow of his pale-face enemies on the
+American continent, and those of the revolutionists of the old world in
+reference to the overthrow of their strong-intrenched foes on that of
+Europe. Each fancies success more easy of attainment than the end is
+likely to show; both overlook the terrible power of their adversaries;
+and both take the suggestions of a hope that is lively rather than
+enlightened, as the substitute for the lessons of wisdom.
+
+It was some little time ere the council had so far regained its calm,
+as to think of inviting the missionary to resume his discourse. The last
+had necessarily heard the news, and was so much troubled by it, as to
+feel no great disposition to proceed; but Peter intimating that “the
+ears of his friends were open,” he was of opinion it would be wisest to
+go on with his traditions.
+
+“Thus it was, my children,” Parson Amen continued, the circle being just
+as quiet and attentive as if no interruption had occurred--“the Great
+Spirit, selecting from among the nations of the earth, one to be his
+chosen people. I cannot stop, now, to tell you all he did for this
+nation, in the way of wonders and powers; but, finally, he placed them
+in a beautiful country, where milk and honey abounded, and made them
+its masters. From that people, in his earthly character, came the Christ
+whom we missionaries preach to you, and who is the great head of our
+church. Although the Jews, or Israelites, as we call that people, were
+thus honored and thus favored of the Manitou, they were but men, they
+had the weaknesses of men. On more than one occasion they displeased the
+Great Spirit, and that so seriously as to draw down condign punishment
+on themselves, and on their wives and children. In various ways were
+they visited for their backsliding and sins, each time repenting and
+receiving forgiveness. At length the Great Spirit, tired of their
+forgetfulness and crimes, allowed an army to come into their land,
+and to carry away as captives no less than ten of their twelve tribes;
+putting their people in strange hunting-grounds. Now, this happened many
+thousands of moons since, and no one can say with certainty what has
+become of those captives, whom Christians are accustomed to call 'the
+lost tribes of Israel.'”
+
+Here the missionary paused to arrange his thoughts, and a slight murmur
+was heard in the circle as the chiefs communed together, in interested
+comments on what had just been said. The pause, however, was short,
+and the speaker again proceeded, safe from any ungracious interruption,
+among auditors so trained in self-restraint.
+
+“Children, I shall not now say anything touching the birth of Christ,
+the redemption of the world, and the history of the two tribes that
+remained in the land where God had placed his people; for that is a
+part of the subject that comes properly within the scope of my ordinary
+teaching. At present I wish only to speak of yourselves; of the red man
+of America, of his probable origin and end, and of a great discovery
+that many of us think we have made, on this most interesting topic in
+the history of the good book. Does any one present know aught of the ten
+lost tribes of whom I have spoken?”
+
+Eye met eye, and expectation was lively among those primitive and
+untaught savages. At length Crowsfeather arose to answer, the missionary
+standing the whole time, motionless, as if waiting for a reply.
+
+“My brother has told us a tradition,” said the Pottawattamie. “It is
+a good tradition. It is a strange tradition. Red men love to hear such
+traditions. It is wonderful that so many as ten tribes should be LOST,
+at the same time, and no one know what has become of them! My brother
+asks us if WE know what has become of these ten tribes. How should poor
+red men, who live on their hunting-grounds, and who are busy when the
+grass grows in getting together food for their squaws and pappooses,
+against a time when the buffalo can find nothing to eat in this part of
+the world, know anything of a people that they never saw? My brother has
+asked a question that he only can answer. Let him tell us where these
+ten tribes are to be found, if he knows the place. We should like to go
+and look at them.”
+
+“Here!” exclaimed the missionary, the instant Crowsfeather ceased
+speaking, and even before he was seated. “Here--in this council--on
+these prairies--in these openings--here, on the shores of the great
+lakes of sweet water, and throughout the land of America, are these
+tribes to be found. The red man is a Jew; a Jew is a red man. The
+Manitou has brought the scattered people of Israel to this part of the
+world, and I see his power in the wonderful fact. Nothing but a miracle
+could have done this!”
+
+Great was the admiration of the Indians at this announcement! None of
+their own traditions gave this account of their origin; but there is
+reason to believe, on the other hand, that none of them contradict
+it. Nevertheless, here was a medicine-priest of the pale-faces boldly
+proclaiming the fact, and great was the wonder of all who heard,
+thereat! Having spoken, the missionary again paused, that his words
+might produce their effect. Bear's Meat now became his interrogator,
+rising respectfully, and standing during the colloquy that succeeded.
+
+“My brother has spoken a great tradition,” said the Menominee. “Did he
+first hear it from his fathers?”
+
+“In part, only. The history of the lost tribes has come down to us from
+our fathers; it is written in the good book of the pale-faces; the book
+that contains the word of the Great Spirit.”
+
+“Does the good book of the pale-faces say that the red men are the
+children of the people he has mentioned?”
+
+“I cannot say that it does. While the good book tells us so much,
+it also leaves very much untold. It is best that we should look for
+ourselves, that we may find out some of its meanings. It is in thus
+looking, that many Christians see the great truth which makes the
+Indians of America and the Jews beyond the great salt lake, one and the
+same people.”
+
+“If this be so, let my brother tell us how far it is from our
+hunting-grounds to that distant land across the great salt lake.”
+
+“I cannot give you this distance in miles exactly; but I suppose it may
+be eleven or twelve times the length of Michigan.”
+
+“Will my brother tell us how much of this long path is water, and how
+much of it is dry land?”
+
+“Perhaps one-fourth is land, as the traveller may choose; the rest must
+be water, if the journey be made from the rising toward the setting
+sun, which is the shortest path; but, let the journey be made from
+the setting toward the rising sun, and there is little water to cross;
+rivers and lakes of no great width, as is seen here, but only a small
+breadth of salt lake.”
+
+“Are there, then, two roads to that far-off land, where the red men are
+thought to have once lived?
+
+“Even so. The traveller may come to this spot from that land by way of
+the rising sun, or by way of the setting sun.”
+
+The general movement among the members of the council denoted the
+surprise with which this account was received. As the Indians, until
+they have had much intercourse with the whites, very generally believe
+the earth to be flat, it was not easy for them to comprehend how a given
+point could be reached by directly opposite routes. Such an apparent
+contradiction would be very likely to extort further questions.
+
+“My brother is a medicine-man of the pale-faces; his hairs are gray,”
+ observed Crowsfeather. “Some of your medicine-men are good, and some
+wicked. It is so with the medicine-men of the red-skins. Good and bad
+are to be found in all nations. A medicine-man of your people cheated my
+young men by promising to show them where fire-water grows. He did not
+show them. He let them smell, but he did not let them drink. That was a
+wicked medicine-man. His scalp would not be safe did my young men see it
+again”--here the bee-hunter, insensibly to himself, felt for his rifle,
+making sure that he had it between his legs; the corporal being a little
+surprised at the sudden start he gave. “His hair does not grow on his
+head closer than the trees grow to the ground. Even a tree can be
+cut down. But all medicine-men are not alike. My brother is a GOOD
+medicine-man. All he says may not be just as he thinks, but he BELIEVES
+what he says. It is wonderful how men can look two ways; but it is
+more wonderful that they should go to the same place by paths that lead
+before and behind. This we do not understand; my brother will tell us
+how it can be.”
+
+“I believe I understand what it is that my children would know. They
+think the earth is flat, but the pale-faces know that it is round. He
+who travels and travels toward the setting sun would come to this very
+spot, if he travelled long enough. The distance would be great, but the
+end of every straight path in this world is the place of starting.”
+
+“My brother says this. He says many curious things. I have heard a
+medicine-man of his people say that the palefaces have seen their Great
+Spirit, talked with him, walked with him. It is not so with us Indians.
+Our Manitou speaks to us in thunder only. We are ignorant, and wish to
+learn more than we now know. Has my brother ever travelled on that path
+which ends where it begins? Once, on the prairies, I lost my way. There
+was snow, and glad was I to find tracks. I followed the tracks. But one
+traveller had passed. After walking an hour, two had passed. Another
+hour, and the three had passed, Then I saw the tracks were my own, and
+that I had been walking, as the squaws reason, round and round, but not
+going ahead.”
+
+“I understand my friend, but he is wrong. It is no matter which path the
+lost tribes travelled to get here. The main question is, whether they
+came at all. I see in the red men, in their customs, their history,
+their looks, and even in their traditions, proof that they are these
+Jews, once the favored people of the Great Spirit.”
+
+“If the Manitou so well loves the Indians, why has he permitted the
+pale-faces to take away their hunting-grounds? Why has he made the red
+man poor, and the white man rich? Brother, I am afraid your tradition is
+a lying tradition, or these things would not be so.”
+
+“It is not given to men to understand the wisdom that cometh from above.
+That which seemeth so strange to us may be right. The lost tribes had
+offended God; and their scattering, and captivity, and punishment, are
+but so many proofs of his displeasure. But, if lost, we have reason to
+believe that one day they will be found. Yes, my children, it will be
+the pleasure of the Great Spirit, one day, to restore you to the land
+of your fathers, and make you again, what you once were, a great and
+glorious people!”
+
+As the well-meaning but enthusiastic missionary spoke with great fervor,
+the announcement of such an event, coming as it did from one whom they
+respected, even while they could not understand him, did not fail to
+produce a deep sensation. If their fortunes were really the care of the
+Great Spirit, and justice was to be done to them by his love and wisdom,
+then would the projects of Peter, and those who acted and felt with
+him, be unnecessary, and might lead to evil instead of to good. That
+sagacious savage did not fail to discover this truth; and he now
+believed it might be well for him to say a word, in order to lessen the
+influence Parson Amen might otherwise obtain among those whom it was his
+design to mould in a way entirely to meet his own wishes. So intense
+was the desire of this mysterious leader to execute vengeance on the
+pale-faces, that the redemption of the tribes from misery and poverty,
+unaccompanied by this part of his own project, would have given him pain
+in lieu of pleasure. His very soul had got to be absorbed in this one
+notion of retribution, and of annihilation for the oppressors of his
+race; and he regarded all things through a medium of revenge, thus
+created by his feelings, much as the missionary endeavored to bend every
+fact and circumstance, connected with the Indians, to the support of his
+theory touching their Jewish origin.
+
+When Peter arose, therefore, fierce and malignant passions were at work
+in his bosom; such as a merciful and a benignant deity never wishes to
+see in the breast of man, whether civilized or savage. The self-command
+of the Tribeless, however, was great, and he so far succeeded in
+suppressing the volcano that was raging within, as to speak with his
+usual dignity and an entire calmness of exterior.
+
+“My brothers have heard what the medicine-man had to say,” Peter
+commenced. “He has told them that which was new to them. He has told
+them an Indian is not an Indian. That a red man is a pale-face, and that
+we are not what we thought we were. It is good to learn. It makes the
+difference between the wise and the foolish. The palefaces learn more
+than the red-skins. That is the way they have learned how to get our
+hunting-grounds. That is the way they have learned to build their
+villages on the spots where our fathers killed the deer. That is the way
+they have learned how to come and tell us that we are not Indians, but
+Jews. I wish to learn. Though old, my mind craves to know more. That I
+may know more, I will ask this medicine-man questions, and my brothers
+can open their ears, and learn a little, too, by what he answers.
+Perhaps we shall believe that we are not red-skins, but pale-faces.
+Perhaps we shall believe that our true hunting-grounds are not near the
+great lakes of sweet water, but under the rising sun. Perhaps we shall
+wish to go home, and to leave these pleasant openings for the pale faces
+to put their cabins on them, as the small-pox that they have also given
+to us, puts its sores on our bodies. Brother--” turning toward the
+missionary--“listen. You say we are no longer Indians, but Jews: is this
+true of ALL red men, or only of the tribes whose chiefs are HERE?”
+
+“Of ALL red men, as I most sincerely believe. You are now red, but once
+all of your people were fairer than the fairest of the pale-faces. It is
+climate, and hardships, and sufferings that have changed your color.”
+
+“If suffering can do THAT,” returned Peter, with emphasis, “I wonder we
+are not BLACK. When ALL our hunting-grounds are covered with the farms
+of your people, I think we shall be BLACK.”
+
+Signs of powerful disgust were now visible among the listeners, an
+Indian having much of the contempt that seems to weigh so heavily on
+that unfortunate class, for all of the color mentioned. At the south, as
+is known, the red man has already made a slave of the descendants of the
+children of Africa, but no man has ever yet made a slave of a son of
+the American forests! THAT is a result which no human power has yet been
+able to accomplish. Early in the settlement of the country, attempts
+were indeed MADE, by sending a few individuals to the islands; but so
+unsuccessful did the experiment turn out to be, that the design was soon
+abandoned. Whatever may be his degradation, and poverty, and ignorance,
+and savage ferocity, it would seem to be the settled purpose of the
+American Indians of our own territories--unlike the aborigines who are
+to be found farther south--to live and die free men.
+
+“My children,” answered the missionary, “I pretend not to say what will
+happen, except as it has been told to us in the word of God. You know
+that we pale-faces have a book, in which the Great Spirit has told us
+his laws, and foretold to us many of the things that are to happen. Some
+of these things HAVE happened, while some remain TO happen. The loss
+of the ten tribes was foretold, and HAS happened; but their being FOUND
+again, has not YET happened, unless indeed I am so blessed as to be one
+of those who have been permitted to meet them in these openings. Here is
+the book--it goes where I go, and is my companion and friend, by day and
+by night; in good and evil; in season and out of season. To this book I
+cling as to my great anchor, that is to carry me through the storms in
+safety! Every line in it is precious; every word true!”
+
+Perhaps half the chiefs present had seen books before, while those who
+now laid eyes on one for the first time, had heard of this art of the
+pale-faces, which enabled them to set down their traditions in a way
+peculiar to themselves. Even the Indians have their records, however,
+though resorting to the use of natural signs, and a species of
+hieroglyphics, in lieu of the more artistical process of using words and
+letters, in a systemized written language. The Bible, too, was a book of
+which all had heard, more or less; though not one of those present had
+ever been the subject of its influence. A Christian Indian, indeed--and
+a few of those were to be found even at that day--would hardly have
+attended a council convened for the objects which had caused this to be
+convened. Still, a strong but regulated curiosity existed, to see, and
+touch, and examine the great medicine-book of the pale-faces. There was
+a good deal of superstition blended with the Indian manner of regarding
+the sacred volume; some present having their doubts about touching
+it, even while most excited by admiration, and a desire to probe its
+secrets.
+
+Peter took the little volume, which the missionary extended as if
+inviting any one who might so please, to examine it also. It was the
+first time the wary chief had ever suffered that mysterious book to
+touch him. Among his other speculations on the subject of the manner in
+which the white men were encroaching, from year to year, on the lands of
+the natives, it had occurred to his mind that this extraordinary volume,
+which the pale-faces all SEEMED to reverence, even to the drunkards of
+the garrisons, might contain the great elements of their power. Perhaps
+he was not very much out of the way in this supposition; though they who
+use the volume habitually, are not themselves aware, one-half the time,
+why it is so.
+
+On the present occasion, Peter saw the great importance of not betraying
+apprehension, and he turned over the pages awkwardly, as one would
+be apt to handle a book for the first time, but boldly and without
+hesitation. Encouraged by the impunity that accompanied this hardihood,
+Peter shook the leaves open, and held the volume on high, in a way that
+told his own people that he cared not for its charms or power. There
+was more of seeming than of truth, however, in this bravado; for never
+before had this extraordinary being made so heavy a draft on his courage
+and self-command, as in the performance of this simple act. He did not,
+could not know what were the virtues of the book, and his imagination
+very readily suggested the worst. As the great medicine-volume of the
+pale-faces, it was quite likely to contain that which was hostile to the
+red men; and this fact, so probable to his eyes, rendered it likely that
+some serious evil to himself might follow from the contact. It did
+not, however; and a smile of grim satisfaction lighted his swarthy
+countenance, as, turning to the missionary, he said with point--
+
+“Let my brother open his eyes. I have looked into his medicine-book, but
+do not see that the red man is anything but a red man. The Great Spirit
+made him; and what the Great Spirit makes, lasts. The pale-faces have
+made their book, and it lies.”
+
+“No, no--Peter, Peter, thou utterest wicked words. But the Lord will
+pardon thee, since thou knowest not what thou sayest. Give me the sacred
+volume, that I may place it next my heart, where I humbly trust so many
+of its divine precepts are already entrenched.”
+
+This was said in English, under the impulse of feeling, but being
+understood by Peter, the latter quietly relinquished the Bible,
+preparing to follow up the advantage he perceived he had gained, on the
+spot.
+
+“My brother has his medicine-book, again,” said Peter, “and the red men
+live. This hand is not withered like the dead branch of the hemlock; yet
+it has held his word of the Great Spirit! It may be that a red-skin and
+a pale-face book cannot do each other harm. I looked into my brother's
+great charm, but did not see or hear a tradition that tells me we are
+Jews. There is a bee-hunter in these openings. I have talked with him.
+He has told me who these Jews are. He says they are people who do not
+go with the pale-faces, but live apart from them, like men with the
+small-pox. It is not right for my brother to come among the red men, and
+tell them that their fathers were not good enough to live, and eat, and
+go on the same paths as his fathers.”
+
+“This is all a mistake, Peter--a great and dangerous mistake. The
+bee-hunter has heard the Jews spoken of by those who do not sufficiently
+read the good book. They have been, and are still, the chosen people of
+the Great Spirit, and will one day be received back to his favor.
+Would that I were one of them, only enlightened by the words of the
+New Testament! No real Christian ever can, or does now despise a son of
+Israel, whatever has been done in times past. It is an honor, and not a
+disgrace, to be what I have said my friends are.”
+
+“If this be so, why do not the pale-faces let us keep out
+hunting-grounds to ourselves? We are content. We do not wish to be Jews.
+Our canoes are too small to cross the great salt lake. They are hardly
+large enough to cross the great lakes of sweet water. We should be
+tired of paddling so far. My brother says there is a rich land under the
+rising sun, which the Manitou gave to the red men. Is this so?”
+
+“Beyond all doubt. It was given to the children of Israel, for a
+possession forever; and though you have been carried away from it for
+a time, there the land still is, open to receive you, and waiting the
+return of its ancient masters. In good season that return must come; for
+we have the word of God for it, in our Christian Bible.”
+
+“Let my brother open his ears very wide, and hear what I have to say.
+We thank him for letting us know that we are Jews. We believe that he
+thinks what he says. Still, we think we are red men, and Injins, and not
+Jews. We never saw the place where the sun rises. We do not wish to see
+it. Our hunting-grounds are nearer to the place where he sets. If the
+pale-faces believe we have a right to that distant land, which is so
+rich in good things, we will give it to them, and keep these openings,
+and prairies, and woods. We know the game of this country, and have
+found out how to kill it. We do not know the game under the rising sun,
+which may kill us. Go to your friends and say, 'The Injins will give
+you that land near the rising sun, if you will let them alone on their
+hunting-grounds, where they have so long been. They say that your canoes
+are larger than their canoes, and that one can carry a whole tribe. They
+have seen some of your big canoes on the great lakes, and have measured
+them. Fill all you have got with your squaws and pappooses, put your
+property in them, and go back by the long path through which you came.
+Then will the red man thank the pale-face and be his friend. The white
+man is welcome to that far-off land. Let him take it, and build his
+villages on it, and cut down its trees. This is all the Injins ask. If
+the pale-faces can take away with them the small-pox and the fire-water,
+it will be better still. They brought both into this country, it is
+right that they should take them away.' Will my brother tell this to his
+people?”
+
+“It would do no good. They know that the land of Judea is reserved by
+God for his chosen people, and they are not Jews. None but the children
+of Israel can restore that land to its ancient fertility. It would be
+useless for any other to attempt it. Armies have been there, and it
+was once thought that a Christian kingdom was set up on the spot; but
+neither the time nor the people had come. Jews alone can make Judea what
+it was, and what it will be again. If my people owned that land, they
+could not use it. There are also too many of us now, to go away in
+canoes.”
+
+“Did not the fathers of the pale-faces come in canoes?” demanded Peter,
+a little sternly.
+
+“They did; but since that time their increase has been so great, that
+canoes enough to hold them could not be found. No; the Great Spirit,
+for his own wise ends, has brought my people hither; and here must they
+remain to the end of time. It is not easy to make the pigeons fly south
+in the spring.”
+
+This declaration, quietly but distinctly made, as it was the habit of
+the missionary to speak, had its effect. It told Peter, and those with
+him, as plainly as language could tell them, that there was no reason
+to expect the pale-faces would ever willingly abandon the country, and
+seemed the more distinctly, in all their uninstructed minds, to
+place the issue on the armed hand. It is not improbable that some
+manifestation of feeling would have escaped the circle, had not an
+interruption to the proceedings occurred, which put a stop to all other
+emotions but those peculiar to the lives of savages.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+     Nearer the mount stood Moses; in his hand
+     The rod which blasted with strange plagues the realm
+     Of Misraim, and from its time-worn channels
+     Upturned the Arabian sea. Fair was his broad
+     High front, and forth from his soul-piercing eye
+     Did legislation look; which full he fixed
+     Upon the blazing panoply undazzled.
+                                    --HILLHOUSE.
+
+It often happens in the recesses of the wilderness, that, in the
+absence of men, the animals hunt each other. The wolves, in particular,
+following their instincts, are often seen in packs, pressing upon the
+heels of the antelope, deer, and other creatures of that family, which
+depend for safety more on their speed than on their horns. On the
+present occasion, a fine buck, with a pack of fifty wolves close after
+it, came bounding through the narrow gorge that contained the rill, and
+entered the amphitheatre of the bottom-land. Its headlong career was
+first checked by the sight of the fire; then arose a dark circle of men,
+each armed and accustomed to the chase. In much less time than it has
+taken to record the fact, that little piece of bottom-land was crowded
+with wolves, deer, and men. The headlong impetuosity of the chase
+and flight had prevented the scent from acting, and all were huddled
+together, for a single instant, in a sort of inextricable confusion.
+Brief as was this melee, it sufficed to allow of a young hunter's
+driving his arrow through the heart of the buck, and enabled others
+among the Indians to kill several of the wolves; some with arrows,
+others with knives, etc. No rifle was used, probably from a wish not to
+give an alarm.
+
+The wolves were quite as much astonished at this unexpected rencontre,
+as the Indians. They were not a set of hungry and formidable beasts,
+that famine might urge to any pass of desperation; but a pack hunting,
+like gentlemen, for their own amusement. Their headlong speed was
+checked less by the crowd of men, than by the sight of fire. In their
+impetuosity, it is probable that they would have gone clean through five
+hundred men, but no wild beast will willingly encounter fire. Three or
+four of the chiefs, aware of this dread, seized brands, and throwing
+themselves, without care, into the midst of the pack, the animals went
+howling off, scattering in all directions. Unfortunately for its own
+welfare, one went directly through the circle, plunged into the thicket
+beyond, and made its way quite up to the fallen tree, on which
+the bee-hunter and the corporal had taken their stations. This was
+altogether too much for the training, or for the philosophy of Hive.
+Perceiving a recognized enemy rushing toward him, that noble mastiff
+met him in a small cleared spot, open-mouthed, and for a few moments
+a fierce combat was the consequence. Dogs and wolves do not fight in
+silence, and loud were the growls and yells on this occasion. In vain
+did le Bourdon endeavor to drag his mastiff off; the animal was on the
+high-road to victory, when it is ever hard to arrest the steps of the
+combatant. Almost as a matter of course, some of the chiefs rushed
+toward the spot, when the presence of the two spectators first became
+known to them. At the next moment the wolf lay dead at the feet of Hive;
+and the parties stood gazing at each other, equally taken by surprise,
+and equally at a loss to know what to do next.
+
+It was perhaps fortunate for the bee-hunter, that neither Crowsfeather,
+nor any other of the Pottawattamies, was present at this first
+rencontre, or he might have fallen on the spot, a victim to their
+disappointed hopes of drinking at a whiskey-spring. The chiefs present
+were strangers to le Bourdon, and they stared at him, in a way to show
+that his person was equally unknown to them. But it was necessary, now,
+to follow the Indians back to their circle, where the whole party soon
+collected again, the wolves having gone off on their several routes, to
+put up some other animal, and run him to death.
+
+During the whole of that excited and tumultuous scene, which would
+probably now be termed a “stampede” in the Mexican-Americo-English of
+the day, Peter had not stirred. Familiar with such occurrences, he felt
+the importance of manifesting an unmoved calm, as a quality most likely
+to impress the minds of his companions with a profound sense of his
+dignity and self-command. While all around him was in a tumult, he stood
+in his tracks, motionless as a statue. Even the fortitude of the worthy
+missionary was shaken by the wild tempest that momentarily prevailed;
+and the good man forgot the Jews in his alarm at wolves, forgot the
+mighty past in his apprehensions for the uncomfortable and ill-boding
+present time. All this, however, was soon over, and order, and quiet,
+and a dignified calm once more reigned in the circle. Fagots were thrown
+on the fire; and the two captives, or spectators, stood as near it, the
+observed of all observers, as the heat rendered comfortable. It was just
+then that Crowsfeather and his companions first recognized the magician
+of the whiskey-spring.
+
+Peter saw the discovery of the two spectators with some uneasiness. The
+time had not come when he intended to strike his blow; and he had seen
+signs among those Pottawattamies, when at the mouth of the river, which
+had told him how little they were disposed to look with favor on one who
+had so grievously trifled with their hopes. His first care, therefore,
+was to interpose his authority and influence between le Bourdon and
+any project of revenge, which Crowsfeather's young men might be apt to
+devise, as soon as they, too, laid eyes on the offender. This was done
+in a characteristic and wily manner.
+
+“Does my brother love honey?” asked the tribeless chief of the leader of
+the Pottawattamies present, who sat near him, gazing on le Bourdon much
+as the cat looks upon the mouse, ere it makes it its prey. “Some Injins
+are fond of that sweet food: if my brother is one of that sort, I can
+tell him how to fill his wigwam with honey with little trouble.”
+
+At this suggestion, coming from such a source, Crowsfeather could not
+do less than express his thanks, and his readiness to hear what further
+might be in reserve for him. Peter then alluded to le Bourdon's art,
+describing him as being the most skilful bee-hunter of the West. So
+great was his art in that way, that no Indian had ever yet seen his
+equal. It was Peter's intention to make him exercise his craft soon, for
+the benefit of the chiefs and warriors present, who might then return to
+their village, carrying with them stores of honey to gladden the hearts
+of their squaws and pappooses. This artifice succeeded; for the Indians
+are not expert in taking this article of food, which so much abounds in
+the forests, both on account of the difficulty they find in felling the
+trees, and on account of the “angle-ing” part of the process, which much
+exceeds their skill in mathematics. On the other hand, the last is just
+the sort of skill a common white American would be likely to manifest,
+his readiness and ingenuity in all such processes almost amounting to an
+instinct.
+
+Having thus thrown his mantle around le Bourdon for the moment, Peter
+then deemed it the better course to finish the historical investigation
+in which the council had been so much interested, when the strange
+interruption by the wolves occurred. With this view, therefore, he
+rose himself, and recalled the minds of all present to this interesting
+subject, by a short speech. This he did, especially to prevent any
+premature attack on the person of le Bourdon.
+
+“Brothers,” said this mysterious chief, “it is good for Injins to learn.
+When they learn a thing, they know it; then they may learn another. It
+is in this way that the pale-faces do; it makes them wise, and puts
+it in their power to take away our hunting-grounds. A man that knows
+nothing is only a child that has grown up too fast. He may be big--may
+take long steps--may be strong enough to carry burdens--may love venison
+and buffaloes' humps; but his size is only in the way; his steps he does
+not know where to direct; his burdens he does not know how to choose;
+and he has to beg food of the squaws, instead of carrying it himself to
+their wigwams. He has not learned how to take game. We must all learn.
+It is right. When we have learned how to take game, and how to strike
+the enemy, and how to keep the wigwam filled, then we may learn
+traditions. Traditions tell us of our fathers. We have many traditions.
+Some are talked of, even to the squaws. Some are told around the fires
+of the tribes. Some are known only to the aged chiefs. This is right,
+too. Injins ought not to say too much, nor too little. They should say
+what is wise--what is best. But my brother, the medicine-man of the
+pale-faces, says that our traditions have not told us everything.
+Something has been kept back. If so, it is best to learn that too. If we
+are Jews, and not Injins, we ought to know it. If we are Injins, and not
+Jews, our brother ought to know it, and not call us by a wrong name. Let
+him speak. We listen.”
+
+Here Peter slowly resumed his seat. As the missionary understood all
+that had been said, he next arose, and proceeded to make good, as far
+as he was able, and in such language as his knowledge of Indian habits
+suggested, his theory of the lost tribes.
+
+“I wish my children to understand,” resumed the missionary, “that it
+is an honor to be a Jew. I have not come here to lessen the red men in
+their own eyes, but to do them honor. I see that Bear's Meat wishes to
+say something; my ears are open, and my tongue is still.”
+
+“I thank my brother for the opportunity to say what is on my mind,”
+ returned the chief mentioned. “It is true I have something to say; it
+is this: I wish to ask the medicine-man if the pale-faces honor and show
+respect to the Jews?”
+
+This was rather an awkward question for the missionary, but he was much
+too honest to dissemble. With a reverence for truth that proceeded from
+his reverence for the Father of all that is true, he replied honestly,
+though not altogether without betraying how much he regretted the
+necessity of answering at all. Both remained standing while the dialogue
+proceeded; or in parliamentary language, each may be said to have had
+the floor at the same time.
+
+“My brother wishes to know if the pale-faces honor the Jews,” returned
+the missionary. “I wish I could answer 'yes'; but the truth forces me to
+say 'no.' The pale-faces have traditions that make against the Jews, and
+the judgments of God weigh heavy on the children of Israel. But all
+good Christians, now, look with friendly eyes on this dispersed and
+persecuted people, and wish them well. It will give the white men very
+great pleasure to learn that I have found the lost tribes of Israel in
+the red men of America.”
+
+“Will my brother tell us WHY this will give his people pleasure? Is it
+because they will be glad to find old enemies, poor, living on narrow
+hunting-grounds, off which the villages and farms of the pale-faces
+begin to push them still nearer to the setting sun; and toward whom the
+small-pox has found a path to go, but none to come from?”
+
+“Nay, nay, Bear's Meat, think not so unkindly of us of the white race!
+In crossing the great salt lake, and in coming to this quarter of the
+world, our fathers were led by the finger of God. We do but obey the
+will of the Great Spirit, in pressing forward into this wilderness,
+directed by his wisdom how to spread the knowledge of his name among
+those who, as yet, have never heard it; or, having heard, have not
+regarded it. In all this, the wisest men are but babes; not being able
+to say whither they are to go, or what is to be done.”
+
+“This is strange,” returned the unmoved Indian. “It is not so with the
+red men. Our squaws and pappooses do know the hunting-ground of one
+tribe from the hunting-ground of another. When they put their feet on
+strange hunting-grounds, it is because they INTENDED to go there, and to
+steal game. This is sometimes right. If it is right to take the scalp of
+an enemy, it is right to get his deer and his buffalo, too. But we
+never do this without knowing it. If we did, we should be unfit to go at
+large, unfit to sit in council. This is the first time I have heard that
+the pale-faces are so weak, and they have such feeble minds, too, that
+they do not know where they go.”
+
+“My brother does not understand me. No man can see into the future--no
+man can say what will happen to-morrow. The Great Spirit only can tell.
+It is for him, then, to guide his children in their wanderings. When our
+fathers first came out of their canoes upon the land, on this side of
+the great salt lake, not one among them knew anything of this country
+between the great lakes of sweet water. They did not know that red men
+lived here. The Great Spirit did know, and intended then, that I should
+this night stand up in this council, and speak of his power and of his
+name, and do him reverence. It was the Great Spirit that put it into my
+mind to come among the Indians; and it is the Great Spirit who has led
+me, step by step, as warriors move toward the graves of their fathers,
+to make the discovery, that the Indians are, in truth, the children of
+Israel, a part of his own chosen and once much-favored people. Let me
+ask my friends one or two questions. Do not your traditions say that
+your fathers once came from a far-off land?”
+
+Bear's Meat now took his seat, not choosing to answer a question of
+this nature, in the presence of a chief so much respected as Peter. He
+preferred to let the last take up the dialogue where he now saw fit to
+abandon it. As the other very well understood the reason of this sudden
+movement, he quietly assumed the office of spokesman; the whole affair
+proceeding much as if there had been no change.
+
+“Our traditions DO tell us that our fathers came from a far-off land,”
+ answered Peter, without rising.
+
+“I thought so!--I thought so!” exclaimed the simple-minded and confiding
+missionary. “How wonderful are the ways of God! Yes, my brother, Judea
+is a far-off land, and your traditions say that your fathers came from
+such a distance! This, then, is something proved. Do not your traditions
+say, that once your tribes were more in favor with the Great Spirit than
+they are now?”
+
+“Our traditions do say this: once our tribes did not see the face of
+the Manitou looking dark upon them, as it now does. That was before
+the pale-faces came in their big canoes, across the great salt lake, to
+drive the Indians from their hunting-grounds. It was when the small-pox
+had not found the path to their villages. When fire-water was unknown to
+them, and no Indian had ever burned his throat with it.”
+
+“Oh, but I speak of a time much more distant than that. Of a time when
+your prophets stood face to face with God, and talked with the Creator.
+Since that day a great change has come over your people. Then your color
+was light, like that of the fairest and handsomest of the Circassian
+race; now, it has become red. When even the color is changed, it is not
+wonderful that men should no longer be the same in other particulars.
+Yes; once all the races of men were of the same color and origin.”
+
+“This is not what our traditions say. We have heard from our fathers
+that the Great Spirit made men of different colors; some he made light,
+like the pale-faces; some red, like the Injins; some black, like the
+pale-faces' slaves. To some he gave high noses; to some low noses: to
+some flat noses. To the pale-faces he gave eyes of many colors. This is
+the reason why they see so many things, and in so many different ways.
+To the red men he gave eyes of the same color, and they always see
+things of the same color. To a red man there is no change. Our fathers
+have always been red. This we know. If them Jews, of whom my brother
+speaks, were ever white, they have not been our fathers. We tell this to
+the medicine-man, that he may know it, too. We do not wish to lead him
+on a crooked path, or to speak to him with a forked tongue. What we have
+said, is so. Now, the road is open to the wigwam of the pale-faces, and
+we wish them safe on their journey home. We Injins have a council to
+hold around this fire, and will stay longer.”
+
+At this plain intimation that their presence was no longer desirable, it
+became necessary for them to depart. The missionary, filled with zeal,
+was reluctant to go, for, in his eyes, the present communications with
+the savages promised him not only the conversion of pagans, but the
+restoration of the Jews! Nevertheless, he was compelled to comply; and
+when le Bourdon and the corporal took their departure, he turned, and
+pronounced in solemn tone the Christian benediction on the assembly.
+The meaning of this last impressive office was understood by most of the
+chiefs, and they rose as one man, in acknowledgment.
+
+The three white men, on retiring from the circle, held their way toward
+Castle Meal. Hive followed his master, having come out of the combat but
+little injured. As they got to a point where a last look could be had of
+the bottom-land of the council, each turned to see what was now in the
+course of proceeding. The fire glimmered just enough to show the circlet
+of dark faces, but not an Indian spoke or moved. There they all sat,
+patiently waiting for the moment when the “strangers” might “withdraw”
+ to a sufficient distance, to permit them to proceed with their own
+private affairs without fear of interruption.
+
+“This has been to me a most trying scene,” observed the missionary,
+as the three pursued their way toward the garrison. “How hard it is to
+convince men against their wishes. Now, I am as certain as a man can be,
+that every one of these Injins is in fact a Jew; and yet, you have seen
+how small has been my success in persuading them to be of the right way
+of thinking, on this subject.”
+
+“I have always noticed that men stick even to their defects, when
+they're nat'ral,” returned the bee-hunter. “Even a nigger will stand up
+for his color, and why shouldn't an Injin? You began wrong, parson. Had
+you just told these chiefs that they were Jews, they might have stood
+THAT, poor creatures, for they hardly know how mankind looks upon a
+Jew; but you went to work to skin them, in a lump, making so many poor,
+wishy-washy pale-faces of all the red-skins, in a body. You and I may
+fancy a white face better than one of any other color; but nature colors
+the eye when it colors the body, and there's not a nigger in America who
+doesn't think black the pink of beauty.”
+
+“Perhaps it was proceeding too fast to say anything about the change of
+color, Bourdon. But what can a Christian minister do, unless he tell
+the truth? Adam could have been but of one color; and all the races on
+earth, one excepted, must have changed from that one color.”
+
+“Aye, and my life on it, that all the races on 'arth believe that
+one color to have been just that which has fallen to the luck of each
+partic'lar shade. Hang me if I should like to be persuaded out of my
+color, any more than these Injins. In America, color goes for a great
+deal; and it may count for as much with an Injin as among us whites. No,
+no, parson; you should have begun with persuading these savages into
+the notion that they're Jews; if you could get along with THAT, the rest
+might be all the easier.”
+
+“You speak of the Jews, not as if you considered them a chosen people
+of the Lord, but as a despised and hateful race. This is not right,
+Bourdon. I know that Christians are thus apt to regard them; but it does
+not tell well for their charity or their knowledge.”
+
+“I know very little about them, Parson Amen; not being certain of ever
+having seen a Jew in my life. Still, I will own that I have a sort of
+grudge against them, though I can hardly tell you why. Of one thing I
+feel certain--no man breathing should ever persuade me into the notion
+that I'M a Jew, lost or found; ten tribes or twenty. What say you,
+corporal, to this idea?”
+
+“Just as you say, Bourdon. Jews, Turks, and infidels, I despise: so was
+I brought up, and so I shall remain.”
+
+“Can either of you tell me WHY you look in this uncharitable light, on
+so many of your fellow-creatures? It cannot be Christianity, for such
+are not its teachings or feelings. Nor is either of you very remarkable
+for his observance of the laws of God, as they have been revealed to
+Christian people. MY heart yearns toward these Injins, who are infidels,
+instead of entertaining any of the feelings that the corporal has just
+expressed.”
+
+“I wish there were fewer of them, and that them few were farther from
+Castle Meal,” put in le Bourdon, with point. “I have known all along
+that Peter meant to have a great council; but will own, now that I have
+seen something of it, I do not find it quite as much to my mind as I had
+expected it would be.”
+
+“There's a strong force on 'em,” said the corporal, “and a hard set
+be they to look at. When a man's a young soldier, all this paint, and
+shaving of heads, and rings in noses and ears, makes some impression;
+but a campaign or two ag'in' the fellows soon brings all down to one
+color and one uniform, if their naked hides can be so called. I told 'em
+off, Bourdon, and reconn'itred 'em pretty well, while they was a making
+speeches; and, in my judgment, we can hold good the garrison ag'in' 'em
+all, if so be we do not run short of water. Provisions and water is what
+a body may call fundamentals, in a siege.”
+
+“I hope we shall have no need of force--nay, I feel persuaded there will
+not be,” said Parson Amen. “Peter is our friend; and his command
+over these savages is wonderful! Never before have I seen red men so
+completely under the control of a chief. Your men at Fort Dearborn,
+corporal, were scarcely more under the orders of their officers, than
+these red-skins are under the orders of this chief!”
+
+“I will not go to compare rig'lars with Injins, Mr. Parson,” answered
+the corporal, a little stiffly. “They be not of the same natur' at all,
+and ought not to be put on a footing, in any particular. These savages
+may obey their orders, after a fashion of their own; but I should like
+to see them manoeuvre under fire. I've fit Injins fourteen times, in
+my day, and have never seen a decent line, or a good, honest, manly,
+stand-up charge, made by the best among 'em, in any field, far or near.
+Trees and covers is necessary to their constitutions, just as sartain as
+a deer chased will take to water to throw off the scent. Put 'em up with
+the baggonet, and they'll not stand a minute.”
+
+“How should they, corporal,” interrupted le Bourdon laughing, “when
+they've no baggonets of their own to make a stand with? You put one
+in mind of what my father used to say. He was a soldier in revolution
+times, and sarved his seven years with Washington. The English used
+to boast that the Americans wouldn't 'stand up to the rack,' if
+the baggonet was set to work; 'but this was before we got our own
+toothpicks,' said the old man. 'As soon as they gave US baggonets, too,
+there was no want of standing up to the work.' It seems to me, corporal,
+you overlook the fact that Injins carry no baggonets.”
+
+“Every army uses its own weapons. If an Injin prefers his knife and his
+tomahawk to a baggonet, it is no affair of mine. I speak of a charge
+as I see it; and the soldier who relies on a tomahawk instead of a
+baggonet, should stand in his tracks, and give tomahawk play. No, no,
+Bourdon, seeing is believing. These red-skins can do nothing with our
+people, when our people is properly regimented, well officered, and
+thoroughly drilled. They're skeary to new beginners--THAT I must
+acknowledge--but beyond that I set them down as nothing remarkable as
+military men.”
+
+“Good or bad, I wish there were fewer of them, and that they were
+farther off. This man Peter is a mystery to me: sometimes he seems quite
+friendly; then, ag'in, he appears just ready to take all our scalps. Do
+you know much of his past history, Mr. Amen?”
+
+“Not as much as I wish I did,” the missionary replied. “No one can tell
+me aught concerning Peter, beyond the fact of his being a sort of a
+prophet, and a chief of commanding influence. Even his tribe is unknown;
+a circumstance that points us to the ancient history of the Jews for the
+explanation. It is my own opinion that Peter is of the race of Aaron,
+and that he is designed by Divine Providence to play an important
+part in the great events on which we touch. All that is wanting is, to
+persuade HIM into this belief, himself. Once persuade a man that he is
+intended to be something, and your work is half done to your hands. But
+the world is so full of ill-digested and random theories, that truth has
+as much as it can do to obtain a sober and patient hearing!”
+
+Thus is it with poor human nature. Let a man get a crotchet into his
+head--however improbable it may be, however little supported by reason
+or fact, however ridiculous, indeed--and he becomes indisposed to
+receive any evidence but that which favors his theory; to see any truths
+but such as he fancies will harmonize with HIS truths; or to allow
+of any disturbing causes in the great workings of his particular
+philosophy. This notion of Parson Amen's concerning the origin of
+the North American savage, did not originate with that simple-minded
+enthusiast, by any means. In this way are notions formed and nurtured.
+The missionary had read somewhat concerning the probability that the
+American Indians were the lost tribes of Israel; and possessed with the
+idea, everything he saw was tortured into evidence in support of his
+theory. There is just as much reason for supposing that any, and all, of
+the heathen savages that are scattered up and down the earth have this
+origin, as to ascribe it to our immediate tribes; but to this truth the
+good parson was indifferent, simply because it did not come within the
+circle of his particular belief.
+
+Thus, too, was it with the corporal. Unless courage, and other military
+qualities, were manifested precisely in the way in which HE had been
+trained, they were not courage and military qualities at all. Every
+virtue has its especial and conventional accessories, according to this
+school of morals; nothing of the sort remaining as it came from above,
+in the simple abstract qualities of right and wrong. On such feelings
+and principles as these, do men get to be dogmatical, narrow-minded, and
+conceited!
+
+Our three white men pursued their way back to the “garrison,” conversing
+as they went, much in the manner they did in the dialogue we have just
+recorded. Neither Parson Amen nor the corporal seemed to apprehend
+anything, not-withstanding the extraordinary scene in which one had been
+an actor, and of which the other had been a witness. Their wonder and
+apprehensions, no doubt, were much mitigated by the fact, that it was
+understood Peter was to meet a large collection of the chiefs in the
+Openings, and the minds of all were, more or less, prepared to see some
+such assemblage as had that night got together. The free manner in which
+the mysterious chief led the missionary to the circle, was, of itself,
+some proof that HE did not desire concealment; and even le Bourdon
+admitted, when they came to discuss the details, that this was a
+circumstance that told materially in favor of the friendliness of his
+intentions. Still, the bee-hunter had his doubts; and most sincerely did
+he wish that all in Castle Meal, Blossom in particular, were safe within
+the limits of civilized settlements.
+
+On reaching the “garrison,” all was safe. Whiskey Centre watched the
+gate--a sober man, now, perforce, if not by inclination; for being
+in the Openings, in this respect, is like being at sea with an empty
+spirit-room. He was aware that several had passed out, but was surprised
+to learn that Peter was of the number. That gate Peter had not passed,
+of a certainty; and how else he could quit the palisades was not easily
+understood. It was possible to climb over them, it is true; but the feat
+would be attended with so great an exertion, and would be so likely
+to lead to a noise which would expose the effort, that all had great
+difficulty in believing a man so dignified and reserved in manner as
+this mysterious chief would be apt to resort to such means of quitting
+the place.
+
+As for the Chippewa, Gershom reported his return a few minutes before;
+and the bee-hunter entered, to look for that tried friend, as soon as he
+learned the fact. He found Pigeonswing laying aside his accoutrements,
+previously to lying down to take his rest.
+
+“So, Chippewa, YOU have come back, have you?” exclaimed le Bourdon. “So
+many of your red-skin brethren are about, that I didn't expect to see
+you again for these two or three days.”
+
+“No want to eat, den, eh? How you all eat, if hunter don't do he
+duty? S'pose squaw don't cook vittles, you no like it, eh? Juss so wid
+hunter--no KILL vittles, don't like it nudder.”
+
+“This is true enough. Still, so many of your people are about, just now,
+that I thought it probable you might wish to remain outside with them
+for a day or two.”
+
+“How know red man about, eh? You SEE him--you COUNT him eh?”
+
+“I have seen something like fifty, and may say I counted that many.
+They were chiefs, however, and I take it for granted, a goodly number of
+common warriors are not far off. Am I right, Pigeonswing?”
+
+“S'pose don't know--den, can't tell? Only tell what he know.”
+
+“Sometimes an Injin GUESSES, and comes as near the truth as a white man
+who has seen the thing with his own Pigeonswing made no answer; though
+le Bourdon fancied, from his manner, that he had really something on his
+mind, and that, too, of importance, which he wished to communicate.
+
+“I think you might tell me some news that I should like to hear,
+Chippewa, if you was so minded.”
+
+“Why you stay here, eh?” demanded the Indian, abruptly. “Got plenty
+honey--bess go home, now. Always bess go home, when hunt up. Home good
+place, when hunter well tired.”
+
+“My home is here, in the Openings, Pigeonswing. When I go into the
+settlements, I do little but loaf about among the farm-houses on the
+Detroit River, having neither squaw nor wigwam of my own to go to. I
+like this place well enough, if your red brethren will let me keep it in
+peace.”
+
+“Dis bad place for pale-face, juss now. Better go home, dan stay in
+Openin'. If don't know short path to Detroit, I show you. Bess go, soon
+as can; and bess go ALONE. No good to be trouble wid squaw, when in
+hurry.”
+
+The countenance of le Bourdon changed at this last intimation; though
+the Indian might not have observed it in the darkness. After a brief
+pause, the first answered in a very determined way.
+
+“I believe I understand you, Chippewa,” he said. “I shall do nothing of
+the sort, however. If the squaws can't go, too, I shall not quit them.
+Would you desert YOUR squaws because you thought them in trouble?”
+
+“An't your squaw yet. Bess not have squaw at all, when Openin' so full
+of Injin. Where you t'ink is two buck I shoot dis mornin', eh? Skin
+'em, cut 'em up, hang 'em on tree, where wolf can't get 'em. Well, go
+on after anudder; kill HIM, too. Dere he is, inside of palisade, but no
+tudder two. He bot' gone, when I get back to tree. Two good buck as ever
+see! How you like dat, eh?”
+
+“I care very little about it, since we have food enough, and are not
+likely to want. So the wolves got your venison from the trees, after all
+your care; ha! Pigeonswing.”
+
+“Wolf don't touch him--wolf CAN'T touch him. Moccasin been under tree.
+See him mark. Bess do as I tell you; go home, soon as ever can. Short
+path to Detroit; an't two hundred pale-face mile.”
+
+“I see how it is, Pigeonswing; I see how it is, and thank you for this
+hint, while I honor your good faith to your own people. But I cannot go
+to Detroit, in the first place, for that town and fort have fallen into
+the hands of the British. It might be possible for a canoe to get past
+in the night, and to work its way through into Lake Erie, but I cannot
+quit my friends. If you can put us ALL in the way of getting away from
+this spot, I shall be ready to enter into the scheme. Why can't we all
+get into the canoe, and go down stream, as soon as another night sets
+in? Before morning we could be twenty miles on our road.”
+
+“No do any good,” returned Pigeonswing, coldly. “If can't go alone,
+can't go at all. Squaw no keep up when so many be on trail. No good to
+try canoe. Catch you in two days--p'raps one. Well, I go to sleep--can't
+keep eye open all night.”
+
+Hereupon, Pigeonswing coolly repaired to his skins, lay down, and was
+soon fast asleep. The bee-hunter was fain to do the same, the night
+being now far advanced; but he lay awake a long time, thinking of the
+hint he had received, and pondering on the nature of the danger which
+menaced the security of the family. At length, sleep asserted its power
+over even him, and the place lay in the deep stillness of night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+     And stretching out, on either hand,
+     O'er all that wide and unshorn land,
+     Till weary of its gorgeousness,
+     The aching and the dazzled eye
+     Rests, gladdened, on the calm, blue sky.
+                                         --WHITTIER.
+
+
+No other disturbance occurred in the course of the night. With the dawn,
+le Bourdon was again stirring; and as he left the palisades to repair
+to the run, in order to make his ablutions, he saw Peter returning to
+Castle Meal. The two met; but no allusion was made to the manner in
+which the night had passed. The chief paid his salutations courteously;
+and, instead of repairing to his skins, he joined le Bourdon, seemingly
+as little inclined to seek for rest, as if just arisen from his lair.
+When the bee-hunter left the spring, this mysterious Indian, for the
+first time, spoke of business.
+
+“My brother wanted to-day to show Injin how to find honey,” said Peter,
+as he and Bourdon walked toward the palisades, within which the whole
+family was now moving. “I nebber see honey find, myself, ole as I be.”
+
+“I shall be very willing to teach your chiefs my craft,” answered the
+bee-hunter, “and this so much the more readily, because I do not expect
+to pracTYSE it much longer, myself; not in this part of the country, at
+least.”
+
+“How dat happen?--expec' go away soon?” demanded Peter, whose keen,
+restless eye would, at one instant, seem to read his companion's soul,
+and then would glance off to some distant object, as if conscious of its
+own startling and fiery expression. “Now Br'ish got Detroit, where my
+broder go? Bess stay here, I t'ink.”
+
+“I shall not be in a hurry, Peter; but my season will soon be up, and I
+must get ahead of the bad weather, you know, or a bark canoe will have
+but a poor time of it on Lake Huron. When am I to meet the chiefs, to
+give them a lesson in finding bees?”
+
+“Tell by-'em-by. No hurry for dat. Want to sleep fuss. See so much
+better, when I open eye. So you t'ink of makin' journey on long path. If
+can't go to Detroit, where can go to?”
+
+“My proper home is in Pennsylvania, on the other side of Lake Erie. It
+is a long path, and I'm not certain of getting safely over it in these
+troubled times. Perhaps it would be best for me, however, to shape at
+once for Ohio; if in that state I might find my way round the end of
+Erie, and so go the whole distance by land.”
+
+The bee-hunter said this, by way of throwing dust into the Indian's
+eyes, for he had not the least intention of travelling in the direction
+named. It is true, it was HIS most direct course, and the one that
+prudence would point out to him, under all the circumstances, had he
+been alone. But le Bourdon was no longer alone--in heart and feelings,
+at least. Margery now mingled with all his views for the future; and he
+could no more think of abandoning her in her present situation, than he
+could of offering his own person to the savages for a sacrifice. It was
+idle to think of attempting such a journey in company with the
+females, and most of all to attempt it in defiance of the ingenuity,
+perseverance, and hostility of the Indians. The trail could not be
+concealed; and, as for speed, a party of the young men of the wilderness
+would certainly travel two miles to Margery's one.
+
+Le Bourdon, notwithstanding Pigeonswing's remonstrances, still had his
+eye on the Kalamazoo. He remembered the saying, “that water leaves no
+trail,” and was not without hopes of reaching the lake again, where he
+felt he should be in comparative security; his own canoe, as well as
+that of Gershom, being large, well fitted, and not altogether unsuited
+to those waters in the summer months. As it would be of the last
+importance, however, to get several hours' start of the Indians, in the
+event of his having recourse to such a mode of flight, it was of the
+utmost importance also to conceal his intentions, and, if possible, to
+induce Peter to imagine his eyes were turned in another direction.
+
+“Well, s'pose go dat way,” answered the chief, quietly, as if suspecting
+no artifice. “Set 'bout him by-'em-by. Today muss teach Injin how to
+find honey. Dat make him good friend; and maybe he help my pale-face
+broders back to deir country. Been better for ebbery body, if none come
+here, at all.”
+
+Thus ended the discourse for that moment. Peter was not fond of much
+talking, when he had not his great object in view, but rather kept his
+mind occupied in observation. For the next hour, every one in and
+about Castle Meal was engaged in the usual morning avocations, that of
+breaking their fasts included; and then it was understood that all were
+to go forth to meet the chiefs, that le Bourdon might give a specimen of
+his craft.
+
+One, ignorant of the state of political affairs on the American
+continent, and who was not aware of the vicinity of savages, would
+have seen nothing that morning, as the party proceeded on its little
+excursion, in and around that remote spot, but a picture of rural
+tranquillity and peace. A brighter day never poured its glories on the
+face of the earth; and the Openings, and the glades, and even the dark
+and denser forests, were all bathed in the sunlight, as that orb is
+known to illuminate objects in the softer season of the year, and in the
+forty-third degree of latitude. Even the birds appeared to rejoice in
+the beauties of the time, and sang and fluttered among the oaks, in
+numbers greater than common. Nature usually observes a stern fitness in
+her adaptation of means to ends. Birds are to be found in the forests,
+on the prairies, and in the still untenanted openings of the west--and
+often in countless numbers; more especially those birds which fly in
+flocks, and love the security of unoccupied regions--unoccupied by
+man is meant--wherein to build their nests, obey the laws of their
+instincts, and fulfil their destinies. Thus, myriads of pigeons, and
+ducks, and geese, etc., are to be found in the virgin woods, while the
+companionable and friendly robin, the little melodious wren, the thrush,
+the lark, the swallow, the marten, and all those pleasant little winged
+creatures, that flit about our dwellings and grounds, and seem to be
+sent by Providence, expressly to chant their morning and evening hymns
+to God in our ears, most frequent the peopled districts. It has been
+said by Europeans that the American birds are mute, in comparison with
+those of the Old World. This is true, to a certain extent, as respects
+those which are properly called forest birds, which do, in general,
+appear to partake of the sombre character that marks the solemn
+stillness of their native haunts. It is not true, however, with the
+birds which live in our fields, and grounds, and orchards, each of which
+sings its song of praise, and repeats its calls and its notes, as richly
+and as pleasantly to the ear, as the birds of other lands. One large
+class, indeed, possesses a faculty that enables it to repeat every note
+it has ever heard, even to some of the sounds of quadrupeds. Nor is this
+done in the discordant tones of the parrot; but in octaves, and trills,
+and in rich contra-altos, and all the other pleasing intonations known
+to the most gifted of the feathered race. Thus it is, that one American
+mocking-bird can outsing all the birds of Europe united.
+
+It seemed that morning as if every bird that was accustomed to glean its
+food from the neighborhood of Castle Meal was on the wing, and ready to
+accompany the party that now sallied forth to catch the bee. This party
+consisted of le Bourdon, himself, as its chief and leader; of Peter, the
+missionary, and the corporal. Margery, too, went along; for, as yet, she
+had never seen an exhibition of Boden's peculiar skill. As for Gershom
+and his wife, they remained behind, to make ready the noontide meal;
+while the Chippewa took his accoutrements, and again sallied out on
+a hunt. The whole time of this Indian appeared to be thus taken up;
+though, in truth, venison and bear's meat both abounded, and there was
+much less necessity for those constant efforts than he wished to make it
+appear. In good sooth, more than half his time was spent in making those
+observations, which had led to the advice he had been urging on his
+friend, the bee-hunter, in order to induce him to fly. Had Pigeonswing
+better understood Peter, and had he possessed a clearer insight into the
+extent and magnitude of his plans of retributive vengeance, it is not
+probable his uneasiness, at the moment, would have been so great, or the
+urgency for an immediate decision on the part of le Bourdon would have
+appeared as urgently pressing as it now seemed to be.
+
+The bee-hunter took his way to a spot that was at some distance from
+his habitation, a small prairie of circular form, that is now generally
+known in that region of the country by the name of Prairie Round. Three
+hours were necessary to reach it, and this so much the more, because
+Margery's shorter steps were to be considered. Margery, however, was
+no laggard on a path. Young, active, light of foot, and trained in
+exertions of this nature, her presence did not probably retard the
+arrival many minutes.
+
+The extraordinary part of the proceedings was the circumstance, that the
+bee-hunter did not tell any one whither he was going, and that Peter did
+not appear to care about putting the question to him. Notwithstanding
+this reserve on one side, and seeming indifference on the other, when
+the party reached Prairie Round, every one of the chiefs who had been
+present at the council of the previous night, was there before it. The
+Indians were straggling about, but remained sufficiently near the point
+where the bee-hunter and his followers reached the prairie, to assemble
+around the group in a very few minutes after it made its appearance.
+
+All this struck le Bourdon as fearfully singular, since it proved how
+many secret means of communication existed between the savages. That
+the inmates of the habitations were closely observed, and all their
+proceedings noted, he could not but suspect, even before receiving this
+proof of Peter's power; but he was not aware until now, how completely
+he and all with him were at the mercy of these formidable foes. What
+hope could there be for escape, when hundreds of eyes were thus watching
+their movements, and every thicket had its vigilant and sagacious
+sentinel? Yet must flight be attempted, in some way or other, or Margery
+and her sister would be hopelessly lost--to say nothing of himself and
+the three other men.
+
+But the appearance of the remarkable little prairie that he had just
+reached, and the collection of chiefs, now occupied all the present
+thoughts of le Bourdon. As for the first, it is held in repute, even
+at the present hour, as a place that the traveller should see, though
+covered with farms, and the buildings that belong to husbandry. It
+is still visited as a picture of ancient civilization, placed in the
+setting of a new country. It is true that very little of this part
+of Michigan wears much, if any, of that aspect of a rough beginning,
+including stubs, stumps, and circled trees, that it has so often
+fallen to our share to describe. There are dense forests, and those of
+considerable extent; and wherever the axe is put into them, the progress
+of improvement is marked by the same steps as elsewhere; but the lovely
+openings form so many exceptions, as almost to compose the rule.
+
+On Prairie Round there was even a higher stamp of seeming
+civilization--seeming, since it was nature, after all, that had mainly
+drawn the picture. In the first place, the spot had been burnt so
+recently, as to leave the entire expanse covered with young grasses and
+flowers, the same as if it were a well-kept park. This feature, at
+that advanced period of the summer, was in some degree accidental, the
+burning of the prairies depending more or less on contingencies of that
+sort. We have now less to do with the cause, than with its consequences.
+These were most agreeable to the eye, as well as comfortable to the
+foot, the grass nowhere being of a height to impede movement, or,
+what was of still more importance to le Bourdon's present pursuit, to
+overshadow the flowers. Aware of this fact, he had led his companions
+all that distance, to reach this scene of remarkable rural beauty, in
+order that he might make a grand display of his art, in presence of the
+assembled chiefs of that region. The bee-hunter had pride in his craft,
+the same as any other skilful workman who had gained a reputation by
+his cunning, and he now trod the prairie with a firmer step, and a more
+kindling eye, than was his wont in the commoner haunts of his calling.
+Men were there whom it might be an honor to surprise, and pretty Margery
+was there also, she who had so long desired to see this very exhibition.
+
+But to revert once more to the prairie, ere we commence the narrative
+of what occurred on it. This well-known area is of no great extent,
+possessing a surface about equal to that of one of the larger parks
+of Europe. Its name was derived from its form, which, without being
+absolutely regular, had so near an approach to a circle as to justify
+the use of the appellation. The face of this charming field was neither
+waving, or what is called “rolling,” nor a dead flat, as often occurs
+with river bottoms. It had just enough of undulation to prevent too much
+moisture, and to impart an agreeable variety to its plain. As a whole,
+it was clear of the forest; quite as much so as if the axe had done its
+work there a thousand years before, though wood was not wanting. On the
+contrary, enough of the last was to be seen, in addition to that which
+formed the frame of this charming landscape, to relieve the view from
+all appearance of monotony, and to break it up into copses, thickets,
+trees in small clusters, and in most of the varieties that embellish
+native scenery. One who had been unexpectedly transferred to the spot,
+might well have imagined that he was looking on the site of some old
+and long-established settlement, from which every appliance of human
+industry had been suddenly and simultaneously abstracted. Of houses,
+out-buildings, fences, stacks, and husbandry, there were no signs;
+unless the even and verdant sward, that was spread like a vast carpet,
+sprinkled with flowers, could have been deemed a sign of the last. There
+were the glades, vistas, irregular lawns, and woods, shaped with the
+pleasing outlines of the free hand of nature, as if consummate art
+had been endeavoring to imitate our great mistress in one of her most
+graceful moods.
+
+The Indians present served largely to embellish this scene. Of late
+years, horses have become so common among the western tribes, the vast
+natural meadows of those regions furnishing the means necessary to keep
+them, that one can now hardly form a picture of those savages, with-out
+representing them mounted, and wielding the spear; but such was not the
+fact with the time of which we are writing, nor was it ever the general
+practice to go mounted, among the Indians in the immediate vicinity
+of the great lakes. Not a hoof of any sort was now visible, with the
+exception of those which belonged to a herd of deer, that were grazing
+on a favorite spot, less than a league distant from the place where le
+Bourdon and his companions reached the prairie. All the chiefs were on
+foot, and very few were equipped with more than the knife and tomahawk,
+the side-arms of a chief; the rifles having been secreted, as it might
+be, in deference to the festivities and peaceful character of the
+occasion. As le Bourdon's party was duly provided with rifles, the
+missionary and Margery excepted, this was a sign that no violence was
+contemplated on that occasion at least. “Contemplated,” however, is a
+word very expressive, when used in connection with the out-breakings
+of human passions, as they are wont to exhibit themselves among the
+ignorant and excited. It matters not whether the scene be the capital of
+some ancient European monarchy, or the wilds of America, the workings of
+such impulses are much the same. Now, a throne is overturned, perhaps,
+before they who do it are yet fully aware of what they ought to set up
+in its place; and now the deadly rifle, or the murderous tomahawk is
+used, more in obedience to the incentives of demons, than in furtherance
+of justly recognized rules of conduct. Le Bourdon was aware of all
+this, and did not so far confide in appearances, as to overlook the
+watchfulness that he deemed indispensable.
+
+The bee-hunter was not long in selecting a place to set up his
+apparatus. In this particular, he was mainly governed by a lovely
+expanse of sweet-scented flowers, among which bees in thousands were
+humming, sipping of their precious gifts at will. Le Bourdon had a care,
+also, not to go far from the forests which encircled the prairies, for
+among its trees he knew he had to seek the habitations of the insects.
+Instead of a stump, or a fallen tree, he had prepared a light framework
+of lath, which the corporal bore to the field for him, and on which he
+placed his different implements, as soon as he had selected the scene of
+operations.
+
+It will not be necessary for us to repeat the process, which has already
+been described in our opening chapters; but we shall only touch such
+parts of it as have a direct connection with the events of the legend.
+As le Bourdon commenced his preparations, however, the circle of chiefs
+closed around him, in mute but close attention to every-thing that
+passed. Although every one of them had heard of the bee-hunters of the
+pale-faces, and most of them had heard of this particular individual
+of their number, not an Indian present had ever seen one of these men
+practise his craft. This may seem strange, as respects those who so
+much roamed the woods; but we have already remarked that it exceeded the
+knowledge of the red man to make the calculations that are necessary to
+take the bee by the process described. Usually, when he obtains honey,
+it is the result of some chance meeting in the forest, and not the
+fruits of that far-sighted and persevering industry, which enables the
+white man to lay in a store large enough to supply a neighborhood, in
+the course of a few weeks' hunting.
+
+Never was a juggler watched with closer attention, than was le Bourdon,
+while setting up his stand, and spreading his implements. Every grave,
+dark countenance was turned toward him, and each keen, glistening eye
+was riveted on his movements. As the vessel with the comb was set down,
+the chiefs nearest recognizing the substance murmured their admiration;
+for to them it seemed as if the operator were about to make honey with
+honey. Then the glass was a subject of surprise: for half of those
+present had never seen such an utensil before. Though many of the chiefs
+present had visited the “garrisons” of the northwest, both American and
+English, many had not; and, of those who had, not one in ten got any
+clear idea of the commonest appliances of civilized life. Thus it was,
+then, that almost every article used by the bee-hunter, though so simple
+and homely, was the subject of a secret, but well-suppressed admiration.
+
+It was not long ere le Bourdon was ready to look for his bee. The
+insects were numerous on the flowers, particularly on the white clover,
+which is indigenous in America, springing up spontaneously wherever
+grasses are permitted to grow. The great abundance of the bees, however,
+had its usual effect, and our hero was a little difficult to please. At
+length, a fine and already half-loaded little animal was covered by the
+glass and captured. This was done so near the group of Indians, that
+each and all noted the process. It was curious, and it was inexplicable!
+Could the pale-faces compel bees to reveal the secret of their hives,
+and was that encroaching race about to drive all the insects from the
+woods and seize their honey, as they drove the Indians before them and
+seized their lands? Such was the character of the thoughts that passed
+through the minds of more than one chief, that morning, though all
+looked on in profound stillness.
+
+When the imprisoned bee was put over the comb, and le Bourdon's cap
+was placed above all, these simple-minded children of the woods and the
+prairies gazed, as if expecting a hive to appear beneath the covering,
+whenever the latter should be removed. It was not long before the bee
+“settled,” and not only the cap, but the tumbler was taken away. For the
+first time since the exhibition commenced, le Bourdon spoke, addressing
+himself to Peter.
+
+“If the tribeless chief will look sharply,” he said, “he will soon see
+the bee take flight. It is filling itself with honey, and the moment
+it is loaded--look--look--it is about to rise--there, it is up--see
+it circling around the stand, as if to take a look that it may know it
+again--there it goes!”
+
+There it did go, of a truth, and in a regular bee-line, or as straight
+as an arrow. Of all that crowd, the bee-hunter and Margery alone saw
+the insect in its flight. Most of those present lost sight of it,
+while circling around the stand; but the instant it darted away, to
+the remainder it seemed to vanish into air. Not so with le Bourdon and
+Margery, however. The former saw it from habit; the latter from a
+quick eye, intense attention, and the wish not to miss anything that le
+Bourdon saw fit to do, for her information or amusement. The animal flew
+in an air-line toward a point of wood distant fully half a mile, and on
+the margin of the prairie.
+
+Many low exclamations arose among the savages. The bee was gone, but
+whither they knew not, or on what errand. Could it have been sent on a
+message by the pale-face, or had it flown off to give the alarm to its
+companions, in order to adopt the means of disappointing the bee-hunter?
+As for the last, he went coolly to work to choose another insect; and he
+soon had three at work on the comb--all in company, and all uncovered.
+Had the number anything to do with the charm, or were these three to be
+sent to bring back the one that had already gone away? Such was the sort
+of reasoning, and such the queries put to themselves, by several of the
+stern children of nature who were drawn up around the stand.
+
+In the mean time le Bourdon proceeded with his operations in the utmost
+simplicity. He now called Peter and Bear's Meat and Crowsfeather nearer
+to his person, where they might share with Margery the advantage of more
+closely seeing all that passed. As soon as these three chiefs were
+near enough, Ben pointed to one bee in particular, saying in the Indian
+dialect:
+
+“My brothers see that bee in the centre--he is about to go away. If he
+go after the one that went before him, I shall soon know where to look
+for honey.”
+
+“How can my brother tell which bee will first fly away?” demanded Bear's
+Meat.
+
+The bee-hunter was able to foresee this, by knowing which insect had
+been longest on the comb; but so practised had his eye become, that he
+knew with tolerable accuracy, by the movements of the creatures, those
+that had filled themselves with honey from those that had not. As it did
+not suit his purpose, however, to let all the minutiae of his craft be
+known, his answer was evasive. Just at that moment a thought occurred to
+him, which it might be well to carry out in full. He had once saved his
+life by necromancy, or what seemed to the simple children of the woods
+to be necromancy, and why might he not turn the cunning of his regular
+art to account, and render it the means of rescuing the females, as well
+as himself, from the hands of their captors? This sudden impulse from
+that moment controlled his conduct; and his mind was constantly
+casting about for the means of effecting what was now his one great
+purpose-escape. Instead of uttering in reply to Bear's Meat's question
+the simple truth, therefore, he rather sought for such an answer as
+might make the process in which he was engaged appear imposing and
+mystical.
+
+“How do the Injins know the path of the deer?” he asked, by way of
+reply. “They look at the deer, get to know him, and understand his ways.
+This middle bee will soon fly.”
+
+“Which way will he go?” asked Peter. “Can my brother tell us THAT?”
+
+“To his hive,” returned le Bourdon, carelessly, as if he did not fully
+understand the question. “All of them go to their hives, unless I tell
+them to go in another direction. See, the bee is up!”
+
+The chiefs now looked with all their eyes. They saw, indeed, that the
+bee was making its circles above the stand. Presently they lost sight of
+the insect, which to them seemed to vanish; though le Bourdon distinctly
+traced its flight for a hundred yards. It took a direction at right
+angles to that of the first bee, flying off into the prairie, and
+shaping its course toward an island of wood, which might have been of
+three or four acres in extent, and distant rather less than a mile.
+
+While le Bourdon was noting this flight, another bee arose. This
+creature flew toward the point of forest, already mentioned as the
+destination of the insect that had first risen. No sooner was this third
+little animal out of sight, than the fourth was up, humming around the
+stand. Ben pointed it out to the chiefs; and this time they succeeded in
+tracing the flight for, perhaps, a hundred feet from the spot where they
+stood. Instead of following either of its companions, this fourth bee
+took a course which led it off the prairie altogether, and toward the
+habitations.
+
+The suddenly conceived purpose of le Bourdon, to attempt to mystify the
+savages, and thus get a hold upon their minds which he might turn to
+advantage, was much aided by the different directions taken by these
+several bees. Had they all gone the same way, the conclusion that
+all went home would be so very natural and obvious, as to deprive
+the discovery of a hive of any supernatural merit, at least; and to
+establish this was just now the great object the bee-hunter had in view.
+As it was, the Indians were no wiser, now all the bees were gone, than
+they had been before one of them had flown. On the contrary, they could
+not understand how the flights of so many insects, in so many different
+directions, should tell the bee-hunter where honey was to be found. Le
+Bourdon saw that the prairie was covered with bees, and well knew that,
+such being the fact, the inmates of perhaps a hundred different hives
+must be present. All this, however, was too novel and too complicated
+for the calculations of savages; and not one of those who crowded near,
+as observers, could account for so many of the bees going different
+ways.
+
+Le Bourdon now intimated a wish to change his ground. He had noted two
+of the bees, and the only question that remained to be decided, as IT
+respected THEM, was whether they belonged to the precise points toward
+which they had flown, or to points beyond them. The reader will easily
+understand that this is the nature of the fact determined by taking an
+angle, the point of intersection between any two of the lines of flight
+being necessarily the spot where the hive is to be found. So far from
+explaining this to those around him, however, Boden kept it a secret in
+his own breast. Margery knew the whole process, for to HER he had often
+gone over it in description, finding a pleasure in instructing one so
+apt, and whose tender, liquid blue eyes seemed to reflect every movement
+of his own soul and feelings. Margery he could have taught forever, or
+fancied for the moment he could; which is as near the truth as men under
+the influence of love often get. But, as for the Indians, so far from
+letting them into any of his secrets, his strong desire was now to
+throw dust into their eyes, in all possible ways, and to make their
+well-established character for superstition subservient to his own
+projects.
+
+Boden was far from being a scholar, even for one in his class in life.
+Down to this hour, the neglect of the means of public instruction
+is somewhat of a just ground of reproach against the venerable and
+respectable commonwealth of which he was properly a member, though her
+people have escaped a knowledge of a great deal of small philosophy and
+low intriguing, which it is fair to presume that evil spirits thrust
+in among the leaves of a more legitimate information, when the book of
+knowledge is opened for the instruction of those who, by circumstances,
+are prevented from doing more than bestowing a few hurried glances at
+its contents. Still, Ben had read everything about bees on which he
+could lay his hands. He had studied their habits personally, and he
+had pondered over the various accounts of their communities--a sort of
+limited monarchy in which the prince is deposed occasionally, or
+when matters go very wrong--some written by really very observant and
+intelligent persons, and others again not a little fanciful. Among other
+books that had thus fallen in le Bourdon's way, was one which somewhat
+minutely described the uses that were made of bees by the ancient
+soothsayers in their divinations. Our hero had no notion of reviving
+those rites, or of attempting to imitate the particular practices of
+which he had read and heard; but the recollection of them occurred
+most opportunely to strengthen and encourage the design, so suddenly
+entertained, of making his present operation aid in opening the way to
+the one great thing of the hour--an escape into Lake Michigan.
+
+“A bee knows a great deal,” said le Bourdon, to his nearest companions,
+while the whole party was moving some distance to take up new ground. “A
+bee often knows more than a man.”
+
+“More than pale-face?” demanded Bear's Meat, a chief who had attained
+his authority more by means of physical than of intellectual qualities.
+
+“Sometimes. Pale-faces have gone to bees to ask what will happen. Let me
+ask our medicine-man this question. Parson Amen, have YOU any knowledge
+of the soothsayers of old using bees when they wished to know what was
+about to happen?”
+
+Now, the missionary was not a learned man, any more than the bee-hunter;
+but many an unlearned man has heard of this, and he happened to be one
+of the number. Of Virgil, for instance, Parson Amen knew but little;
+though in the progress of a very loose, but industrious course of
+reading, he had learned that the soothsayers put great faith in bees.
+His answer was given in conformity with this fact, and in the most
+perfect good faith, for he had not the smallest suspicion of what Boden
+wished to establish.
+
+“Certainly--most certainly,” answered the well-meaning missionary--“the
+fortune-tellers of old times often went to their bees when they wished
+to look into the future. It has been a subject much talked of among
+Christians, to account for the soothsaying, and witchcraft, and other
+supernatural dealings of those who lived in the times of the prophets;
+and most of them have held the opinion that evil spirits have been--nay,
+still are permitted to work their will on certain men in the flesh. But
+bees were in much favor with the soothsayers of old.”
+
+This answer was given in English, and little of it was comprehended by
+Peter, and the others who had more or less knowledge of that language,
+beyond the part which asserted the agency of bees in witchcraft.
+Luckily, this was all le Bourdon desired, and he was well satisfied at
+seeing that the idea passed from one chief to another; those who did not
+know the English at all, being told by those who had some knowledge
+of the tongue, that “bees were thought to be 'medicine' among the
+pale-faces.”
+
+Le Bourdon gained a great deal of ground by this fortunate corroboration
+of his own still more fortunate thought Matters were pretty nearly
+desperate with him, and with all his friends, should Peter really
+meditate evil; and as desperate diseases notoriously require remedies of
+the same character, he was ready to attempt anything that promised even
+the smallest chance of success.
+
+“Yes, yes--” the bee-hunter pursued the discourse by saying--“bees know
+a great deal. I have sometimes thought that bees know more than bears,
+and my brother must be able to tell something of them?”
+
+“Yes; my name is Bear's Meat,” answered that chief, complacently. “Injin
+always give name that mean somet'ing. Kill so many bear one winter, got
+dat name.”
+
+“A good name it is! To kill a bear is the most honorable thing a hunter
+can do, as we all know. If my brother wishes to hear it, I will ask my
+bees when he is to kill another.”
+
+The savage to whom this was addressed fairly started with delight. He
+was eagerly signifying his cheerful assent to the proposal, when Peter
+quietly interposed, and changed the discourse to himself, in a way that
+he had, and which would not easily admit of denial. It was apparent
+to le Bourdon that this mysterious Indian was not content that one so
+direct and impetuous in his feelings as Bear's Meat, and who was at the
+same time so little qualified to manage his portion of an intellectual
+conversation, should be foremost any longer. For that reason he brought
+himself more into the foreground, leaving to his friend the capacity
+of listener and observer, rather than that of a speaker and actor. What
+took place under this new arrangement, will appear as the narrative
+proceeds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     --Therefore, go with me;
+     I'll give the fairies to attend on thee;
+     And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
+     --Peas-blossom! cobweb! moth! and mustard-seed,
+                                    --Midsummer-Night's Dream
+
+
+As le Bourdon kept moving across the prairie, while the remarks were
+made that have been recorded in the preceding chapter, he soon reached
+the new position where he intended to again set up his stand. Here he
+renewed his operations; Peter keeping nearest his person, in jealous
+watchfulness of the least movement he made. Bees were caught, and scarce
+a minute elapsed ere the bee-hunter had two of them on the piece of
+comb, uncovered and at liberty. The circumstance that the cap was
+momentarily placed over the insects, struck the savages as a piece of
+necromancy, in particular. The reader will understand that this is done
+in order to darken the tumbler, and induce the bee to settle down on the
+honey so much the sooner. To one who understood the operation and its
+reason, the whole was simple enough; but it was a very different matter
+with men as little accustomed to prying into the habits of creatures
+as insignificant as bees. Had deer, or bisons, or bears, or any of the
+quadrupeds of those regions, been the subject of the experiment, it is
+highly probable that individuals could have been found in that attentive
+and wondering crowd, who could have enlightened the ablest naturalists
+on the subject of the animals under examination; but when the inquiry
+descended to the bee, it went below the wants and usages of savage life.
+
+“Where you t'ink dis bee go?” demanded Peter, in English, as soon as le
+Bourdon raised the tumbler.
+
+“One will go in this direction, the other in that,” answered the
+bee-hunter, pointing first toward the corner of the woods, then toward
+the island in the prairie--the two points toward which two of the other
+bees had flown.
+
+The predictions might or might not prove true. If they did, the effect
+must be great; if they did not, the failure would soon be forgotten in
+matters of more interest. Our hero, therefore, risked but little, while
+he had the chance of gaining a very great advantage. By a fortunate
+coincidence, the result completely justified the prediction. A bee
+rose, made its circles around the stand, and away it went toward the
+island-like copse in the prairie; while its companion soon imitated
+its example, but taking the other prescribed direction. This time Peter
+watched the insects so closely that he was a witness of their movements,
+and with his own eyes he beheld the flight, as well as the direction
+taken by each.
+
+“You tell bee do dis?” demanded Peter, with a surprise that was so
+sudden, as well as so great, that it overcame in some slight degree his
+habitual self-command.
+
+“To be sure I did,” replied le Bourdon, carelessly. “If you wish to see
+another, you may.”
+
+Here the young man coolly took another bee, and put it on the comb.
+Indifferent as he appeared, however, he used what was perhaps the
+highest degree of his art in selecting this insect. It was taken from
+the bunch of flowers whence one of his former captives had been taken,
+and there was every chance of its belonging to the same hive as its
+companion. Which direction it might take, should it prove to be a bee
+from either of the two hives of which the positions were now known,
+it altogether exceeded Boden's art to tell, so he dexterously avoided
+committing himself. It was enough that Peter gazed attentively, and
+that he saw the insect dart away, disappearing in the direction of the
+island. By this time more of the savages were on the alert, and now
+knowing how and where to look for the bee, they also saw its course.
+
+“You tell him ag'in go dere?” asked Peter, whose interest by this time
+was so manifest, as to defy all attempts at concealment.
+
+“To be sure I did. The bees obey ME, as your young men obey YOU. I am
+their chief, and they KNOW me. I will give you further proof of this. We
+will now go to that little bit of wood, when you shall all see what it
+contains. I have sent three of my bees there; and here, one of them is
+already back, to let me know what he has seen.”
+
+Sure enough, a bee was buzzing around the head of le Bourdon, probably
+attracted by some fragment of comb, and he cunningly converted it into
+a messenger from the copse! All this was wonderful to the crowd, and
+it even greatly troubled Peter. This man was much less liable to the
+influence of superstition than most of his people; but he was very far
+from being altogether above it. This is the fact with very few civilized
+men; perhaps with no man whatever, let his philosophy and knowledge be
+what they may; and least of all, is it true with the ignorant. There is
+too much of the uncertain, of the conjectural in our condition as human
+beings, to raise us altogether above the distrusts, doubts, wonder, and
+other weaknesses of our present condition. To these simple savages, the
+manner in which the bees flew, seemingly at le Bourdon's bidding, to
+this or that thicket, was quite as much a matter of astonishment, as
+any of our most elaborate deceptions are wonders to our own ignorant and
+vulgar. Ignorant! And where is the line to be drawn that is to place men
+beyond the pale of ignorance? Each of us fails in some one, if not
+in very many of the important branches of the knowledge that is even
+reduced to rules Among us. Here is seen the man of books, so ignorant
+of the application of his own beloved theories, as to be a mere child in
+practice; and there, again, can be seen the expert in practice, who is
+totally unacquainted with a single principle of the many that lie at
+the root of his very handicraft. Let us not, then, deride these poor
+children of the forest, because that which was so entirely new to them,
+should also appear inexplicable and supernatural.
+
+As for Peter, he was more confounded than convinced. His mind was so
+much superior to those of the other chiefs, as to render him far more
+difficult to mislead; though even he was not exempt from the great
+weaknesses of ignorance, superstition, and its concomitants--credulity,
+and a love of the marvellous. His mind was troubled, as was quite
+apparent to Ben, who watched HIM quite as narrowly as he was observed
+himself, in all he did. Willing to deepen the impression, our artist
+now determined to exhibit some of the higher fruits of his skill. The
+production of a considerable quantity of honey would of itself be a sort
+of peace-offering, and he now prepared to turn the certainty of there
+being a hive in the little wood to account--certainty, because three
+bees had taken wing for it, and a very distinct angle had been made with
+two of them.
+
+“Does my brother wish any honey?” asked le Bourdon carelessly; “or shall
+I send a bee across Lake Michigan, to tell the Injins further west that
+Detroit is taken?”
+
+“Can Bourdon find honey, NOW?” demanded Peter.
+
+“Easily. Several hives are within a mile of us. The bees like this
+prairie, which is so well garnished with flowers, and I am never at a
+loss for work, in this neighborhood. This is my favorite bee-ground; and
+I have got all the little creatures so that they know me, and are ready
+to do everything that I tell them. As I see that the chiefs love honey,
+and wish to eat some, we will now go to one of my hives.”
+
+Thus saying, le Bourdon prepared for another march. He moved with
+all his appliances, Margery keeping close at his side, carrying the
+honey-comb and honey. As the girl walked lightly, in advance of the
+Indians, some fifteen or twenty bees, attracted by the flavor of what
+she carried, kept circling around her head, and consequently around that
+of Boden; and Peter did not fail to observe the circumstance. To him it
+appeared as if these bees were so many accompanying agents, who attended
+their master in order to do his bidding. In a word, Peter was fast
+getting into that frame of mind, when all that is seen is pressed into
+the support of the theory we have adopted. The bee-hunter had some
+mysterious connection with, and control over the bees, and this was
+one among the many other signs of the existence of his power. All this,
+however, Boden himself disregarded. His mind was bent on throwing dust
+into the eyes of the Indians; and he was cogitating the means of so
+doing, on a much larger scale than any yet attempted.
+
+“Why dem bee fly 'round young squaw?” demanded Peter--“and fly round
+you, too?”
+
+“They know us, and go with us to their hive; just as Injins would come
+out of their villages to meet and honor visitors.”
+
+This was a ready reply, but it scarcely satisfied the wily savage to
+whom it was given. Just then Crowsfeather led Peter a little aside,
+and began talking earnestly to that chief, both continuing on with
+the crowd. Le Bourdon felt persuaded that the subject of this private
+conference was some of his own former backslidings in the character of
+conjuror, and that the Pottawattamie would not deal very tenderly with
+his character. Nevertheless, it was too late to retrace his steps, and
+he saw the necessity of going on.
+
+“I wish you had not come out with us,” the bee-hunter found an occasion
+to say to Margery. “I do not half like the state of things, and this
+conjuration about the bees may all fall through.”
+
+“It is better that I should be here, Bourdon,” returned the spirited
+girl. “My being here may make them less unfriendly to you. When I am by,
+Peter always seems more human, and less of a savage, they all tell me,
+than when I am not by.”
+
+“No one can be more willing to own your power, Margery, than I; but
+Injins hold the squaws too cheap, to give you much influence over this
+old fellow.”
+
+“You do not know--he may have had a daughter of about my age, or size,
+or appearance; or with my laugh, or voice, or something else that
+reminds him of her, when he sees me. One thing I am sure of--Peter is no
+enemy of MINE!”
+
+“I hope this may prove to be true! I do not see, after all, why an Injin
+should not have the feelin's you name. He is a man, and must feel for
+his wife and children, the same as other--”
+
+“Bourdon, what ails the dog? Look at the manner in which Hive is
+behaving!”
+
+Sure enough, the appearance of Hive was sufficiently obvious to attract
+his master's attention. By this time the crowd had got within twenty
+rods of the little island-like copse of wood, the mastiff being nearly
+half that distance in advance. Instead of preceding the party, however,
+Hive had raised his form in a menacing manner, and moved cautiously
+from side to side, like one of his kind that scents a foe. There was no
+mistaking these movements; and all the principal chiefs soon had their
+attention also drawn to the behavior of the dog.
+
+“Why he do so?” asked Peter. “He 'fraid of bee, eh?”
+
+“He waits for me to come up,” answered le Bourdon. “Let my brother and
+two other chiefs come with me, and let the rest stay here. Bees do not
+like crowds. Corporal, I put Margery in your keeping, and Parson Amen
+will be near you. I now go to show these chiefs what a bee can tell a
+man.”
+
+Thus saying, le Bourdon advanced, followed by Peter, Bear's Meat, and
+Crowsfeather. Our hero had made up his mind that something more than
+bees were to be found in the thicket; for, the place being a little
+marshy, bushes as well as trees were growing on it, and he fully
+expected a rencontre with bears, the creatures most disposed to prey on
+the labors of the bee--man excepted. Being well armed, and accompanied
+by men accustomed to such struggles, he had no apprehensions, and led
+the way boldly, feeling the necessity of manifesting perfect confidence
+in all his own acts, in order to command the respect of the observers.
+As soon as the bee-hunter passed the dog, the latter growled, showed
+his teeth fiercely, and followed, keeping closely at his side. The
+confidence and alacrity with which le Bourdon moved into the thicket,
+compelled his companions to be on the alert; though the first broke
+through the belt of hazels which enclosed the more open area within,
+a few instants before the Indians reached the place. Then it was that
+there arose such a yell, such screechings and cries, as reached far over
+the prairie, and might have appalled the stoutest heart. The picture
+that was soon offered to the eye was not less terrific than the sounds
+which assailed the ear. Hundreds of savages, in their war-paint, armed,
+and in a crowded maze, arose as it might be by one effort, seemingly out
+of the earth, and began to leap and play their antics amid the
+trees. The sudden spectacle of a crowd of such beings, nearly naked,
+frightfully painted, and tossing their arms here and there, while
+each yelled like a demon, was enough to overcome the nerves of a very
+resolute man. But le Bourdon was prepared for a conflict and even felt
+relieved rather than alarmed, when he saw the savages. His ready mind at
+once conceived the truth. This band belonged to the chiefs, and composed
+the whole, or a principal part of the force which he knew they must
+have outlying somewhere on the prairies, or in the openings. He had
+sufficiently understood the hints of Pigeonswing to be prepared for such
+a meeting, and at no time, of late, had he approached a cover, without
+remembering the possibility of its containing Indians.
+
+Instead of betraying alarm, therefore, when this cloud of phantom-like
+beings rose before his eyes, le Bourdon stood firm, merely turning
+toward the chiefs behind him, to ascertain if they were taken by
+surprise, as well as himself. It was apparent that they were; for,
+understanding that a medicine-ceremony was to take place on the prairie,
+these young men had preceded the party from the hut, and had, ununknown
+to all the chiefs, got possession of this copse, as the best available
+cover, whence to make their observations on what was going on.
+
+“My brother sees his young men,” said le Bourdon, quietly, the instant a
+dead calm had succeeded to the outcries with which he had been greeted.
+“I thought he might wish to say something to them, and my bees told me
+where to find them. Does my brother wish to know anything else?”
+
+Great was the wonder of the three chiefs, at this exhibition of medicine
+power! So far from suspecting the truth, or of detecting the lucky
+coincidence by which le Bourdon had been led to the cover of their
+warriors, it all appeared to them to be pure necromancy. Such an art
+must be of great service; and how useful it would be to the warrior on
+his path, to be accompanied by one who could thus command the vigilance
+of the bees.
+
+“You find enemy all same as friend?” demanded Peter, letting out the
+thought that was uppermost, in the question.
+
+“To be sure. It makes no difference with a bee; he can find an enemy as
+easily as he can find a friend.'
+
+“No whiskey-spring dis time?” put in Crowsfeather, a little
+inopportunely, and with a distrust painted in his swarthy face that le
+Bourdon did not like.
+
+“Pottawattamie, you do not understand medicine-men. OUGHT I to have
+shown your young men where whiskey was to be had for nothing? Ask
+yourself that question. Did you wish to see your young men wallowing
+like hogs in such a spring? What would the great medicine-priest of the
+pale-faces, who is out yonder, have said to THAT?”
+
+This was a coup de maitre on the part of the bee-hunter. Until that
+moment, the affair of the whiskey-spring had weighed heavily in the
+balance against him; but now, it was suddenly changed over in the
+scales, and told as strongly in his favor. Even a savage can understand
+the morality which teaches men to preserve their reason, and not to
+lower themselves to the level of brutes, by swallowing “fire-water”; and
+Crowsfeather suddenly saw a motive for regarding our hero with the eyes
+of favor, instead of those of distrust and dislike.
+
+“What the pale-face says is true,” observed Peter to his companion. “Had
+he opened his spring, your warrior would have been weaker than women. He
+is a wonderful medicine-man, and we must not provoke him to anger. How
+COULD he know, but through his bees, that our young men were here?”
+
+This question could not be answered; and when the chiefs, followed by
+the whole band of warriors, some three or four hundred in number came
+out upon the open prairie, all that had passed was communicated to those
+who awaited their return, in a few brief, but clear explanations. Le
+Bourdon found a moment to let Margery comprehend his position and views,
+while Parson Amen and the corporal were put sufficiently on their guard
+not to make any unfortunate blunder. The last was much more easily
+managed than the first. So exceedingly sensitive was the conscience
+of the priest, that had he clearly understood the game le Bourdon was
+playing, he might have revolted at the idea of necromancy, as touching
+on the province of evil spirits; but he was so well mystified as to
+suppose all that passed was regularly connected with the art of taking
+bees. In this respect, he and the Indians equally resembled one of those
+familiar pictures, in which we daily see men, in masses, contributing
+to their own deception and subjection, while they fondly but blindly
+imagine that they are not only inventors, but masters. This trade
+of mastery, after all, is the property of a very few minds; and no
+precaution of the prudent, no forethought of the wary, nor any expedient
+of charters, constitutions, or restrictions, will prevent the few from
+placing their feet on the neck of the many. We may revive the fable of
+King Log and King Stork, as often, and in as many forms as we will; it
+will ever be the fable of King Log and King Stork. We are no admirers
+of political aristocracies, as a thousand paragraphs from our pen will
+prove; and, as for monarchs, we have long thought they best enact their
+parts, when most responsible to opinion; but we cannot deceive ourselves
+on the subject of the atrocities that are daily committed by those
+who are ever ready to assume the places of both, making their
+fellow-creatures in masses their dupes, and using those that they affect
+to serve.
+
+Ben Boden was now a sort of “gouvernement provisoire” among the
+wondering savages who surrounded him. He had got them to believe in
+necromancy--a very considerable step toward the exercise of despotic
+power. It is true, he hardly knew, himself, what was to be done next;
+but he saw quite distinctly that he was in a dilemma, and must manage to
+get out of it by some means or other. If he could only succeed in this
+instance, as well as he had succeeded in his former essay in the black
+art, all might be well, and Margery be carried in triumph into the
+settlements. Margery, pro haec vice, was his goddess of liberty, and he
+asked for no higher reward, than to be permitted to live the remainder
+of his days in the sunshine of her smiles. Liberty! a word that is, just
+now, in all men's mouths, but in how few hearts in its purity and
+truth! What a melancholy mistake, moreover, to suppose that, could it
+be enjoyed in that perfection with which the imaginations of men love to
+cheat their judgments, it is the great good of life! One hour spent
+in humble veneration for the Being that gave it, in common with all of
+earth, its vacillating and uncertain existence, is of more account
+than ages passed in its service; and he who fancies that in worshipping
+liberty, he answers the great end of his existence, hugs a delusion
+quite as weak, and infinitely more dangerous, than that which now
+came over the minds of Peter and his countrymen, in reference to the
+intelligence of the bee. It is a good thing to possess the defective and
+qualified freedom, which we term “liberty”; but it is a grave error to
+set it up as an idol to be worshipped.
+
+“What my brother do next?” demanded Bear's Meat, who, being a
+somewhat vulgar-minded savage, was all for striking and wonder-working
+exhibitions of necromancy. “P'raps he find some honey now?”
+
+“If you wish it, chief. What says Peter?--shall I ask my bees to tell
+where there is a hive?”
+
+As Peter very readily assented, le Bourdon next set about achieving this
+new feat in his art. The reader will recollect that the positions of two
+hives were already known to the bee-hunter, by means of that very simple
+and every-day process by which he earned his bread. One of these hives
+was in the point of wood already mentioned, that lay along the margin of
+the prairie; while the other was in this very copse, where the savages
+had secreted themselves. Boden had now no thought of giving any further
+disturbance to this last-named colony of insects; for an insight into
+their existence might disturb the influence obtained by the jugglery of
+the late discovery, and he at once turned his attention toward the other
+hive indicated by his bees.
+
+Nor did le Bourdon now deem it necessary to resort to his usual means of
+carrying on his trade. These were not necessary to one who knew already
+where the hive was to be found, while it opened the way to certain
+mummeries that might be made to tell well in support of his assumed
+character. Catching a bee, then, and keeping it confined within his
+tumbler, Ben held the last to his ear, as if listening to what the
+fluttering insect had to say. Having seemingly satisfied himself on this
+point, he desired the chiefs once more to follow him, having first let
+the bee go, with a good deal of ceremony. This set all in motion again;
+the party being now increased by the whole band of savages who had been
+“put up” from their cover.
+
+By this time, Margery began to tremble for the consequences. She had
+held several short conferences with le Bourdon, as they walked together,
+and had penetrated far enough into his purposes to see that he was
+playing a ticklish game. It might succeed for a time, but she feared
+it must fail in the end; and there was always the risk of incurring the
+summary vengeance of savages. Perhaps she did not fully appreciate
+the power of superstition, and the sluggishness of the mind that once
+submits to its influence; while her woman's heart made her keenly
+alive to all those frightful consequences that must attend an exposure.
+Nevertheless, nothing could now be done to avert the consequences. It
+was too late to recede, and things must take their course, even at all
+the hazards of the case. That she might not be wholly useless, when her
+lover was risking so much for herself--Margery well understanding
+that her escape was the only serious difficulty the bee-hunter
+apprehended--the girl turned all her attention to Peter, in whose favor
+she felt that she had been daily growing, and on whose pleasure so much
+must depend. Changing her position a little, she now came closer to the
+chief than she had hitherto done.
+
+“Squaw like medicine-man?” asked Peter, with a significance of
+expression that raised a blush in Margery's cheek.
+
+“You mean to ask me if I like to SEE medicine-men perform,” answered
+Margery, with the readiness of her sex. “White women are always curious,
+they say--how is it with the women of the red men?”
+
+“Juss so--full of cur'osity. Squaw is squaw--no matter what color.”
+
+“I am sorry, Peter, you do not think better of squaws. Perhaps you never
+had a squaw--no wife, or daughter?”
+
+A gleam of powerful feeling shot athwart the dark countenance of the
+Indian, resembling the glare of the electric fluid flashing on a cloud
+at midnight; but it passed away as quickly as it appeared, leaving
+in its stead the hard, condensed expression, which the intensity of
+a purpose so long entertained and cultivated, had imprinted there, as
+indelibly as if cut in stone.
+
+“All chief have squaw--all chief have pappoose--” was the answer that
+came at last. “What he good for, eh?”
+
+“It is always good to have children, Peter; especially when the children
+themselves are good.”
+
+“Good for pale-face, maybe--no good for Injin. Pale-face glad when
+pappoose born--red-skin sorry.”
+
+“I hope this is not so. Why should an Injin be sorry to see the laugh of
+his little son?”
+
+“Laugh when he little--p'raps so; he little, and don't know what happen.
+But Injin don't laugh any more when he grow up. Game gone; land gone;
+corn-field gone. No more room for Injin--pale-face want all. Pale-face
+young man laugh--red-skin young man cry. Dat how it is.”
+
+“Oh! I hope not, Peter! I should be sorry to think it was so. The red
+man has as good a right--nay, he has a BETTER right to this country than
+we whites; and God forbid that he should not always have his full share
+of the land!”
+
+Margery probably owed her life to that honest, natural burst of feeling,
+which was uttered with a warmth and sincerity that could leave no doubt
+that the sentiment expressed came from the heart. Thus singularly are we
+constructed! A minute before, and no exemption was made in the mind of
+Peter, in behalf of this girl, in the plan he had formed for cutting off
+the whites; on the contrary, he had often be-thought him of the number
+of young pale-faces that might be, as it were, strangled in their
+cradles, by including the bee-hunter and his intended squaw in the
+contemplated sacrifice. All this was changed, as in the twinkling of an
+eye, by Margery's honest and fervent expression of her sense of right,
+on the great subject that occupied all of Peter's thoughts. These sudden
+impulses in the direction of love for our species, the second of the
+high lessons left by the Redeemer to his disciples, are so many proofs
+of the creation of man in the image of his maker. They exert their power
+often when least expected, and are ever stamped by the same indelible
+impression of their divine origin. Without these occasional glimpses at
+those qualities which are so apt to lie dormant, we might indeed despair
+of the destinies of our race. We are, however, in safe and merciful
+hands; and all the wonderful events that are at this moment developing
+themselves around us, are no other than the steps taken by Providence
+in the progress it is steadily making toward the great and glorious end!
+Some of the agencies will be corrupt; others deluded; and no one of them
+all, perhaps, will pursue with unerring wisdom the precise path that
+ought to be taken; but even the crimes, errors, and delusions, will
+be made instrumental in achieving that which was designed before the
+foundations of this world were laid!
+
+“Does my daughter wish this?” returned Peter, when Margery had thus
+frankly and sincerely given vent to her feelings. “Can a pale-face squaw
+wish to leave an Injin any of his hunting-grounds?”
+
+“Thousands of us wish it, Peter, and I for one. Often and often have we
+talked of this around our family fire, and even Gershom, when his head
+has not been affected by fire-water, has thought as we all have thought.
+I know that Bourdon thinks so, too; and I have heard him say that he
+thought Congress ought to pass a law to prevent white men from getting
+any more of the Injin's lands.”
+
+The face of Peter would have been a remarkable study, during the few
+moments that his fierce will was in the process of being brought
+in subjugation to the influence of his better feelings. At first he
+appeared bewildered; then compunction had its shade; and human sympathy
+came last, asserting its long dormant, but inextinguishable power.
+Margery saw some of this, though it far exceeded her penetration to read
+all the workings of that stern and savage mind; yet she felt encouraged
+by what she did see and understand.
+
+While an almighty and divine Providence was thus carrying out its
+own gracious designs in its own way, the bee-hunter continued bent on
+reaching a similar end by means of his own. Little did he imagine how
+much had been done for him within the last few moments, and how
+greatly all he had in view was jeoparded and put at risk by his own
+contrivances--contrivances which seemed to him so clever, but which were
+wanting in the unerring simplicity and truth that render those that come
+from above infallible. Still, the expedients of le Bourdon may have had
+their agency in bringing about events, and may have been intended to be
+a part of that moral machinery, which was now at work in the breast of
+Peter, for good.
+
+It will be remembered that the bee-hunter habitually carried a small
+spy-glass, as a part of the implements of his calling. It enabled him
+to watch the bees, as they went in and came out of the hives, on the
+highest trees, and often saved him hours of fruitless search. This glass
+was now in his hand; for an object on a dead tree, that rose a little
+apart from those around it, and which stood quite near the extreme point
+in the forest, toward which they were all proceeding, had caught his
+attention. The distance was still too great to ascertain by the naked
+eye what that object was; but a single look with the glass showed
+that it was a bear. This was an old enemy of the bee-hunter, who often
+encountered the animal, endeavoring to get at the honey, and he had on
+divers occasions been obliged to deal with these plunderers, before he
+could succeed in his own plans of pilfering. The bear now seen continued
+in sight but an instant; the height to which he had clambered being so
+great, most probably, as to weary him with the effort, and to compel him
+to fall back again. All this was favorable to le Bourdon's wishes, who
+immediately called a halt. The first thing that Bourdon did, when all
+the dark eyes were gleaming on him in fierce curiosity, was to catch a
+bee and hold it to his ear, as it buzzed about in the tumbler.
+
+“You t'ink dat bee talk?” Peter asked of Margery, in a tone of
+confidence, as if a newly-awakened principle now existed between them.
+
+“Bourdon must think so, Peter,” the girl evasively answered, “or he
+would hardly listen to hear what it says.”
+
+“It's strange, bee should talk! Almos' as strange as pale-face wish to
+leave Injin any land! Sartain, bee talk, eh?”
+
+“I never heard one talk, Peter, unless it might be in its buzzing. That
+may be the tongue of a bee, for anything I know to the contrary.”
+
+By this time le Bourdon seemed to be satisfied, and let the bee go; the
+savages murmuring their wonder and admiration.
+
+“Do my brothers wish to hunt?” asked the bee-hunter in a voice so loud
+that all near might hear what he had to say.
+
+This question produced a movement at once. Skill in hunting, next to
+success on the war-path, constitutes the great merit of an Indian; and
+it is ever his delight to show that he possesses it. No sooner did le
+Bourdon throw out his feeler, therefore, than a general exclamation
+proclaimed the readiness of all the young men, in particular, to join in
+the chase.
+
+“Let my brothers come closer,” said Ben, in an authoritative manner;
+“I have something to put into their ears. They see that point of wood,
+where the dead basswood has fallen on the prairie. Near that basswood
+is honey, and near that honey are bears. This my bees have told me. Now,
+let my brothers divide, and some go into the woods, and some stay on the
+prairie; then they will have plenty of sweet food.”
+
+As all this was very simple, and easily to be comprehended, not a moment
+was lost in the execution. With surprising order and aptitude, the
+chiefs led off their parties; one line of dark warriors penetrating the
+forest on the eastern side of the basswood, and another on its western;
+while a goodly number scattered themselves on the prairie itself, in its
+front. In less than a quarter of an hour, signals came from the forest
+that the battue was ready, and Peter gave the answering sign to proceed.
+
+Down to this moment, doubts existed among the savages concerning the
+accuracy of le Bourdon's statement. How was it possible that his bees
+should tell him where he could find bears? To be sure, bears were the
+great enemies of bees--this every Indian knew--but could the bees have a
+faculty of thus arming one enemy against another? These doubts, however,
+were soon allayed by the sudden appearance of a drove of bears, eight
+or ten in number, that came waddling out of the woods, driven before the
+circle of shouting hunters that had been formed within.
+
+Now commenced a scene of wild tumult and of fierce delight. The
+warriors on the prairie retired before their enemies until all of their
+associates were clear of the forest, when the circle swiftly closed
+again, until it had brought the bears to something like close quarters.
+Bear's Meat, as became his appellation, led off the dance, letting fly
+an arrow at the nearest animal. Astounded by the great number of their
+enemies, and not a little appalled by their yells, the poor quadrupeds
+did not know which way to turn. Occasionally, attempts were made to
+break through the circle, but the flight of arrows, aimed directly at
+their faces, invariably drove the creatures back. Fire-arms were not
+resorted to at all in this hunt, spears and arrows being the weapons
+depended on. Several ludicrous incidents occurred, but none that were
+tragical. One or two of the more reckless of the hunters, ambitious of
+shining before the representatives of so many tribes, ran rather greater
+risks than were required, but they escaped with a few smart scratches.
+In one instance, however, a young Indian had a still narrower SQUEEZE
+for his life. Literally a SQUEEZE it was, for, suffering himself to get
+within the grasp of a bear, he came near being pressed to death, ere his
+companions could dispatch the creature. As for the prisoner, the only
+means he had to prevent his being bitten, was to thrust the head of his
+spear into the bear's mouth, where he succeeded in holding it, spite of
+the animal's efforts to squeeze him into submission. By the time this
+combat was terminated, the field was strewn with the slain; every one of
+the bears having been killed by hunters so much practised in the art of
+destroying game.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+     She was an only child--her name Ginevra,
+     The joy, the pride of an indulgent father;
+     And in her fifteenth year became a bride,
+     Marrying an only son, Francesco Dona,
+     Her playmate from her birth, and her first love.
+                                                     --ROGERS.
+
+
+ During the hunt there was little leisure for reflection on the
+seemingly extraordinary manner in which the bee-hunter had pointed out
+the spot where the bears were to be found. No one of the Indians had
+seen him apply the glass to his eye, for, leading the party, he had been
+able to do this unobserved; but, had they witnessed such a procedure,
+it would have been as inexplicable as all the rest. It is true,
+Crowsfeather and one or two of his companions had taken a look
+through that medicine-glass, but it rather contributed to increase
+the conjuror's renown, than served to explain any of the marvels he
+performed.
+
+Peter was most struck with all that had just occurred. He had often
+heard of the skill of those who hunted bees, and had several times met
+with individuals who practised the art, but this was the first occasion
+on which he had ever been a witness, in his own person, of the exercise
+of a craft so wonderful! Had the process been simply that of catching a
+bee, filling it with honey, letting it go, and then following it to its
+hive, it would have been so simple as to require no explanation. But
+Peter was too intelligent, as well as too observant, not to have seen
+that a great deal more than this was necessary. On the supposition that
+the bee flew TOWARD the forest, as had been the fact with two of the
+bees taken that morning, in what part of that forest was the hunter to
+look for the bee-tree? It was the angle that perplexed Peter, as it did
+all the Indians; for that angle, to be understood, required a degree
+of knowledge and calculation that entirely exceeded all he had ever
+acquired. Thus is it with us ever. The powers, and faculties, and
+principles that are necessary fully to comprehend all that we see
+and all that surrounds us, exist and have been bestowed on man by his
+beneficent Creator. Still, it is only by slow degrees that he is to
+become their master, acquiring knowledge, step by step, as he has need
+of its services, and learns how to use it. Such seems to be the design
+of Providence, which is gradually opening to our inquiries the arcana of
+nature, in order that we may convert their possession into such uses as
+will advance its own wise intentions. Happy are they who feel this truth
+in their character of individuals! Thrice happy the nations which can
+be made to understand, that the surest progress is that which is made
+on the clearest principles, and with the greatest caution! The notion of
+setting up anything new in morals, is as fallacious in theory as it will
+be found to be dangerous in practice.
+
+It has been said that a sudden change had come over the fierce purposes
+of Peter. For some time, the nature, artlessness, truth, feminine
+playfulness and kindness, not to say personal beauty of Margery, had
+been gradually softening the heart of this stern savage, as it respected
+the girl herself. Nothing of a weak nature was blended with this
+feeling, which was purely the growth of that divine principle that is
+implanted in us all. The quiet, earnest manner in which the girl
+had, that day, protested her desire to see the rights of the red man
+respected, completed her conquest; and, so far as the great chief was
+concerned, secured her safety. It may seem singular, however, that
+Peter, with all his influence, was unable to say that even one that he
+was so much disposed to favor, should be spared. By means of his own
+eloquence, and perseverance, and deep desire for vengeance, however, he
+had aroused a spirit among his followers that was not so easily quelled.
+On several occasions, he had found it difficult to prevent the younger
+and more impetuous of the chiefs from proceeding at once to secure the
+scalps of those who were in their power; and this he had done, only
+by promising to increase the number of the victims. How was he then
+to lessen that number? and that, too, when circumstances did not seem
+likely to throw any more immediately into his power, as he had once
+hoped. This council must soon be over, and it would not be in his power
+to send the chiefs away without enumerating the scalps of the pale-faces
+present among those which were to make up the sum of their race.
+
+Taking the perplexity produced by the bee-hunter's necromancy, and
+adding it to his concern for Margery, Peter found ample subject for
+all his reflections. While the young men were dressing their bears, and
+making the preparations for a feast, he walked apart, like a man whose
+thoughts had little in common with the surrounding scene. Even the
+further proceedings of le Bourdon, who had discovered his bee-tree, had
+felled it, and was then distributing the honey among the Indians, could
+not draw him from his meditations. The great council of all was to be
+held that very day--there, on Prairie Round--and it was imperative on
+Peter to settle the policy he intended to pursue, previously to the
+hour when the fire was to be lighted, and the chiefs met in final
+consultation.
+
+In the mean time, le Bourdon, by his distribution of the honey, no less
+than by the manner in which he had found it, was winning golden opinions
+of those who shared in his bounty. One would think that the idea of
+property is implanted in us by nature, since men in all conditions
+appear to entertain strong and distinct notions of this right. Natural
+it may not be, in the true signification of the term; but it is a
+right so interwoven with those that are derived from nature, and
+more particularly with our wants, as almost to identify it with the
+individual being. It is certain that all we have of civilization is
+dependent on a just protection of this right; for, without the assurance
+of enjoying his earnings, who would produce beyond the supply necessary
+for his own immediate wants? Among the American savages the rights of
+property are distinctly recognized, so far as their habits and resources
+extend. The hunting-ground belongs to the tribe, and occasionally the
+field; but the wigwam, and the arms, and the skins, both for use and
+for market, and often the horses, and all other movables, belong to the
+individual. So sacred is this right held to be, that not one of those
+who stood by, and saw le Bourdon fell his tree, and who witnessed the
+operation of bringing to light its stores of honey, appeared to dream of
+meddling with the delicious store, until invited so to do by its lawful
+owner. It was this reserve, and this respect for a recognized principle,
+that enabled the bee-hunter to purchase a great deal of popularity,
+by giving away liberally an article so much prized. None, indeed, was
+reserved; Boden seeing the impossibility of carrying it away. Happy
+would he have been, most happy, could he have felt the assurance of
+being able to get Margery off, without giving a second thought to any of
+his effects, whether present or absent.
+
+As has been intimated, the bee-hunter was fast rising in the favor of
+the warriors; particularly of those who had a weakness on the score of
+the stomach. This is the first great avenue to the favor of man--the
+belly ruling all the other members, the brains included. All this Peter
+noted, and was now glad to perceive; for, in addition to the favor that
+Margery had found in his eyes, that wary chief had certain very serious
+misgivings on the subject of the prudence of attempting to deal harshly
+with a medicine man of Boden's calibre. Touching the whiskey-spring he
+had been doubtful, from the first; even Crowsfeather's account of
+the wonderful glass through which that chief had looked, and seen
+men reduced to children and then converted into giants, had failed to
+conquer his scepticism; but he was not altogether proof against what he
+had that day beheld with his own eyes. These marvels shook his previous
+opinion touching the other matters; and, altogether, the effect was to
+elevate the bee-hunter to a height, that it really appeared dangerous to
+assail.
+
+While Peter was thus shaken with doubts--and that, too, on a point on
+which he had hitherto stood as firm as a rock--there was another in the
+crowd, who noted the growing favor of le Bourdon with deep disgust.
+This man could hardly be termed a chief, though he possessed a malignant
+power that was often wielded to the discomfiture of those who were. He
+went by the significant appellation of “The Weasel,” a sobriquet that
+had been bestowed on him for some supposed resemblance to the little
+pilfering, prowling quadruped after which he was thus named. In person,
+and in physical qualities generally, this individual was mean and
+ill-favored; and squalid habits contributed to render him even less
+attractive than he might otherwise have been. He was, moreover,
+particularly addicted to intemperance; lying, wallowing like a hog,
+for days at a time, whenever his tribe received any of the ample
+contribution of fire-water, which it was then more the custom than it is
+to-day, to send among the aborigines. A warrior of no renown, a hunter
+so indifferent as to compel his squaw and pappooses often to beg for
+food in strange lodges, of mean presence, and a drunkard, it may seem
+extraordinary that the Weasel should possess any influence amid so many
+chiefs renowned for courage, wisdom, deeds in arms, on the hunt, and for
+services around the council-fire. It was all due to his tongue. Ungque,
+or the Weasel, was eloquent in a high degree--possessing that variety of
+his art which most addresses itself to the passions; and, strange as
+it may seem, men are oftener and more easily led by those who do little
+else than promise, than by those who actually perform. A lying and
+fluent tongue becomes a power of itself, with the masses; subverting
+reason, looking down justice, brow-beating truth, and otherwise placing
+the wrong before the right. This quality the Weasel possessed in a
+high degree, and was ever willing to use, on occasions that seemed most
+likely to defeat the wishes of those he hated. Among the last was Peter,
+whose known ascendancy in his own particular tribe had been a source
+of great envy and uneasiness to this Indian. He had struggled hard to
+resist it, and had even dared to speak in favor of the pale-faces,
+and in opposition to the plan of cutting them all off, purely with a
+disposition to oppose this mysterious stranger. It had been in vain,
+however; the current running the other way, and the fiery eloquence of
+Peter proving too strong even for him. Now, to his surprise, from a few
+words dropped casually, this man ascertained that their greatest leader
+was disposed so far to relent, as not to destroy ALL the pale-faces in
+his power. Whom, and how many he meant to spare, Ungque could not tell;
+but his quick, practised discernment detected the general disposition,
+and his ruthless tendency to oppose, caused him to cast about for the
+means of resisting this sudden inclination to show mercy. With the
+Weasel, the moving principle was ever that of the demagogue; it was to
+flatter the mass that he might lead it; and he had an innate hostility
+to whatever was frank, manly, and noble.
+
+The time had now come when the Indians wished to be alone. At this
+council it was their intention to come to an important decision;
+and even the “young men,” unless chiefs, were to be merely distant
+spectators. Peter sent for le Bourdon, accordingly, and communicated his
+wish that all the whites would return to the castle, whither he promised
+to join them about the setting of the sun, or early the succeeding day.
+
+“One of you, you know--dat my wigwam,” said the grim chief, smiling on
+Margery with a friendly eye, and shaking hands with the bee-hunter, who
+thought his manner less constrained than on former similar occasions.
+“Get good supper for ole Injin, young squaw; dat juss what squaw good
+for.”
+
+Margery laughingly promised to remember his injunction, and went her
+way, closely attended by her lover. The corporal followed, armed to the
+teeth, and keeping at just such a distance from the young people,
+as might enable them to converse without being overheard. As for the
+missionary, he was detained a moment by Peter, the others moving slowly,
+in order to permit him to come up, ere they had gone their first mile.
+Of course, the mysterious chief had not detained Parson Amen without a
+motive.
+
+“My brother has told me many curious things,” said Peter, when
+alone with the missionary, and speaking now in the language of the
+Ojebways--“many very curious things. I like to listen to them. Once he
+told me how the pale-face young men take their squaws.”
+
+“I remember to have told you this. We ask the Great Spirit to bless our
+marriages, and the ceremony is commonly performed by a priest. This is
+our practice, Peter; though not necessary, I think it good.”
+
+“Yes; good alway for pale-face to do pale-face fashion, and for Injin
+to do Injin fashion. Don't want medicine-man to get red-skin squaw. Open
+wigwam door, and she come in. Dat 'nough. If she don't wish to come
+in, can't make her. Squaw go to warrior she likes; warrior ask squaw
+he likes. But it is best for pale-face to take his wife in pale-face
+fashion. Does not my brother see a young man of his people, and a young
+maiden, that he had better bring together and bless?”
+
+“You must mean Bourdon and Margery,” answered the missionary, in
+English, after a moment's reflection. “The idea is a new one to me;
+for my mind has been much occuoccupied of late, with other and more
+important matters; though I now plainly see what you mean!”
+
+“That flower of the Openings would soon fade, if the young bee-hunter
+should leave it alone on the prairies. This is the will of the Great
+Spirit. He puts it into the minds of the young squaws to see all things
+well that the hunters of their fancy do. Why he has made the young with
+this kindness for each other, perhaps my brother knows. He is wise, and
+has books. The poor Injins have none. They can see only with the eyes
+they got from Injins, like themselves. But one thing they know. What the
+Great Spirit has commanded, is good. Injins can't make it any better.
+They can do it harm, but they can do it no good. Let my brother bless
+the couple that the Manitou has brought together.”
+
+“I believe I understand you. Peter, and will think of this. And now that
+I must leave you for a little while, let me beg you to think of this
+matter of the origin of your tribes, candidly, and with care. Everything
+depends on your people's not mistaking the truth, in this great matter.
+It is as necessary for a nation to know its duties, as for a single man.
+Promise me to think of this, Peter.”
+
+“My brother's words have come into my ears--they are good,” returned
+the Indian, courteously. “We will think of them at the council, if my
+brother will bless his young man and young maiden, according to the law
+of his people.”
+
+“I will promise to do this, Peter; or to urge Bourdon and Margery to do
+it, if you will promise to speak to-day, in council, of the history of
+your forefathers, and to take into consideration, once more, the great
+question of your being Hebrews.”
+
+“I will speak as my brother wishes--let him do as I wish. Let him tell
+me that I can say to the chiefs before the sun has fallen the length
+of my arm, that the young pale-face bee-hunter has taken the young
+pale-face squaw into his wigwam.”
+
+“I do not understand your motive, Peter; but that which you ask is wise,
+and according to God's laws, and it shall be done. Fare you well, then,
+for a season. When we again meet, Bourdon and Margery shall be one, if
+my persuasions can prevail, and you will have pressed this matter of the
+lost tribes, again, home to your people. Fare you well, Peter; fare you
+well.”
+
+They separated; the Indian with a cold smile of courtesy, but with his
+ruthless intentions as respected the missionary in no degree changed.
+Boden and Margery alone were exempt from vengeance, according to his
+present designs. An unaccountable gentleness of feeling governed him, as
+connected with the girl; while superstition, and the dread of an unknown
+power, had its full influence on his determination to spare her lover.
+There might be some faint ray of human feeling glimmering among the
+fierce fires that so steadily burned in the breast of this savage; but
+they were so much eclipsed by the brighter light that gleamed around
+them, as to be barely perceptible, even to himself. The result of all
+these passions was, a determination in Peter to spare those whom he had
+advised the missionary to unite--making that union a mysterious argument
+in favor of Margery--and to sacrifice all the rest. The red American
+is so much accustomed to this species of ruthless proceeding, that the
+anguish he might occasion the very beings to whom he now wished to be
+merciful, gave the stern chief very little concern. Leaving the Indians
+in the exclusive possession of Prairie Round, we will return to the rest
+of the party.
+
+The missionary hastened after his friends as fast as he could go. Boden
+and Margery had much to say to each other in that walk, which had a
+great deal about it to bring their thoughts within the circle of their
+own existence. As has been said, the fire had run through that region
+late, and the grasses were still young, offering but little impediment
+to their movements. As the day was now near its heat, le Bourdon led his
+spirited, but gentle companion, through the groves, where they had the
+benefit of a most delicious shade, a relief that was now getting to be
+very grateful. Twice had they stopped to drink at cool, clear springs,
+in which the water seemed to vie with the air in transparency. As this
+is not the general character of the water of that region, though marked
+exceptions exist, Margery insisted that the water was eastern and not
+western water.
+
+“Why do we always think the things we had in childhood better than
+those we enjoy afterward?” asked Margery, after making one of these
+comparisons, somewhat to the disadvantage of the part of the country in
+which she then was. “I can scarce ever think of home--what I call home,
+and which was so long a home to me--without shedding tears. Nothing here
+seems as good of its kind as what I have left behind me. Do you have the
+same longings for Pennsylvania that I feel for the sea-coast and for the
+rocks about Quincy?”
+
+“Sometimes. When I have been quite alone for two or three months, I have
+fancied that an apple, or a potato, or even a glass of cider that came
+from the spot where I was born, would be sweeter than all the honey bees
+ever gathered in Michigan.”
+
+“To me it has always seemed strange, Bourdon, that one of your kind
+feelings should ever wish to live alone, at all; yet I have heard you
+say that a love of solitude first drew you to your trade.”
+
+“It is these strong cases which get a man under, as it might be, and
+almost alter his nature. One man will pass his days in hunting deer;
+another in catching fish; my taste has been for the bees, and for such
+chances with other creatures as may offer. What between hunting, and
+hiving, and getting the honey to market, I have very little time to long
+for company. But my taste is altering, Margery; HAS altered.”
+
+The girl blushed, but she also smiled, and, moreover, she looked
+pleased.
+
+“I am afraid that you are not as much altered as you think,” she
+answered, laughingly, however. “It may seem so now; but when you come to
+LIVE in the settlements again, you will get tired of crowds.”
+
+“Then I will come with you, Margery, into these Openings, and we can
+live TOGETHER here, surely, as well, or far better than I can live here
+ALONE. You and Gershom's wife have spoiled my housekeeping. I really did
+not know, until you came up here, how much a woman can do in a chiente.
+
+“Why, Bourdon, you have lived long enough in the settlements to know
+THAT!”
+
+“That is true; but I look upon the settlements as one thing, and on the
+Openings as another. What will do there isn't needed here; and what
+will do here won't answer there. But these last few days have so changed
+Castle Meal, that I hardly know it myself.”
+
+“Perhaps the change is for the worse, and you wish it undone, Bourdon,”
+ observed the girl, in the longing she had to hear an assurance to the
+contrary, at the very moment she felt certain that assurance would be
+given.
+
+“No, no, Margery. Woman has taken possession of my cabin, and woman
+shall now always command there, unless you alter your mind, and refuse
+to have me. I shall speak to the missionary to marry us, as soon as I
+can get him alone. His mind is running so much on the Jews, that he has
+hardly a moment left for us Christians.”
+
+The color on Margery's cheek was not lessened by this declaration;
+though, to admit the truth, she looked none the less pleased. She was a
+warm-hearted and generous girl, and sometimes hesitated about separating
+herself and her fortunes from those of Gershom and Dorothy; but the
+bee-hunter had persuaded her this would be unnecessary, though she did
+accept him for a husband. The point had been settled between them on
+previous occasions, and much conversation had already passed, in that
+very walk, which was confined to that interesting subject. But Margery
+was not now disposed to say more, and she adroitly improved the hint
+thrown out by Boden, to change the discourse.
+
+“It is the strangest notion I ever heard of,” she cried, laughing, “to
+believe Injins to be Jews!”
+
+“He tells me he is by no means the first who has fancied it. Many
+writers have said as much before him, and all he claims is, to have been
+among them, and to have seen these Hebrews with his own eyes. But here
+he comes, and can answer for himself.”
+
+Just as this was said, Parson Amen joined the party, Corporal Flint
+closing to the front, as delicacy no longer required him to act as a
+rear-guard. The good missionary came up a little heated; and, in order
+that he might have time to cool himself, the rate of movement was
+slightly reduced. In the mean time the conversation did not the less
+proceed.
+
+“We were talking of the lost tribes,” said Margery, half smiling as she
+spoke, “and of your idea, Mr. Amen, that these Injins are Jews. It seems
+strange to me that they should have lost so much of their ancient ways,
+and notions, and appearances, if they are really the people you think.”
+
+“Lost! It is rather wonderful that, after the lapse of two thousand
+years and more, so much should remain. Whichever way I look, signs of
+these people's origin beset me. You have read your Bible, Margery--which
+I am sorry to say all on this frontier have not--but you have read your
+Bible, and one can make an allusion to you with some satisfaction. Now,
+let me ask you if you remember such a thing as the scape-goat of the
+ancient Jews. It is to be found in Leviticus, and is one of those
+mysterious customs with which that extraordinary book is full.”
+
+“Leviticus is a book I never read but once, for we do not read it in our
+New England schools. But I do remember that the Jews were commanded to
+let one of two goats go, from which practice it has, I believe, been
+called a scape-goat.”
+
+“Well,” said le Bourdon, simply, “what a thing is 'l'arnin'!' Now, this
+is all news to me, though I have heard of 'scape-goats,' and TALKED of
+'scape-goats' a thousand times! There's a meanin' to everything, I find;
+and I do not look upon this idea of the lost tribes as half as strange
+as I did before I l'arnt this!”
+
+Margery had not fallen in love with the bee-hunter for his biblical
+knowledge, else might her greater information have received a rude shock
+by this mark of simplicity; but instead of dwelling on this proof of le
+Bourdon's want of “schooling,” her active mind was more disposed to push
+the allusion to scape-goats to some useful conclusion.
+
+“And what of the goat, Mr. Amen?” she asked; “and how can it belong to
+anything here?”
+
+“Why were all those goats turned into the woods and deserts, in the
+olden time, Margery? Doubtless to provide food for the ten tribes, when
+these should be driven forth by conquerors and hard task-masters. Time,
+and climate, and a difference of food, has altered them, as they have
+changed the Jews themselves, though they still retain the cleft hoof,
+the horns, the habits, and the general characteristics of the goats of
+Arabia. Yes; naturalists will find in the end, that the varieties of the
+deer of this continent, particularly the antelope, are nothing but
+the scape-goats of the ancient world, altered and perhaps improved by
+circumstances.”
+
+As this was much the highest flight the good missionary had ever yet
+taken, not trifling was the astonishment of his young friends thereat.
+Touching the Jews, le Bourdon did not pretend to, or in fact did not
+possess much knowledge; but when the question was reduced down to one
+of venison, or bears' meat, or bisons' humps, with the exception of the
+professed hunters and trappers, few knew more about them all than he did
+himself. That the deer, or even the antelopes of America ever had been
+goats, he did not believe; nor was he at all backward in letting his
+dissent to such a theory be known.
+
+“I'm sorry, Parson Amen, you've brought in the deer,” he cried. “Had
+you stuck to the Jews, I might have believed all that you fancy, in
+this business; but the deer have spoiled all. As for scape-goats, since
+Margery seems to agree with you, I suppose you are right about THEM
+though my notion of such creatures has been to keep clear of them,
+instead of following them up, as you seem to think these Hebrews have
+done. But if you are no nearer right in your doctrine about the Injins
+than you are about their game, you'll have to change your religion.”
+
+“Do not think that my religion depends on any thread so slight, Bourdon.
+A man may be mistaken in interpreting prophecy, and still be a devout
+Christian. There are more reasons than you may at first suppose, for
+believing in this theory of the gradual change of the goat into the
+deer, and especially into the antelope. We do not any of us believe that
+Noah had with him, in the ark, all the animals that are now to be found,
+but merely the parent-stems, in each particular case, which would be
+reducing the number many fold. If all men came from Adam, Bourdon, why
+could not all deer come from goats?”
+
+“Why this matter about men has a good deal puzzled me, Parson, and I
+hardly know what answer to give. Still, men are men, wherever you find
+them. They may be lighter or darker, taller or shorter, with hair or
+wool, and yet you can see they are MEN. Perhaps food, and climate, and
+manner of living, may have made all the changes we see in them; but
+Lord, Parson, a goat has a beard!”
+
+“What has become of the thousands of scape-goats that the ancient
+Hebrews must have turned loose in the wilderness? Answer me that,
+Bourdon?”
+
+“You might as well ask me, sir, what has become of the thousands of
+Hebrews who turned them loose. I suppose all must be dead a thousand
+years ago. Scape-goats are creatures that even Injins would not like.”
+
+“All this is a great mystery, Bourdon--a much greater mystery than our
+friend Peter, whom you have so often said was a man so unaccountable. By
+the way, he has given me a charge to perform an office between you and
+Margery, that I had almost forgotten. From what he said to me, I rather
+think it may have some connection with our safety. We have enemies among
+these savages, I feel very certain; though I believe we have also warm
+friends.”
+
+“But what have you in charge that has anything to do with Bourdon
+and me?” asked the wondering Margery, who was quick to observe the
+connection, though utterly at a loss to comprehend it.
+
+The missionary now called a halt, and finding convenient seats, he
+gradually opened the subject with which he had been charged by Peter to
+his companions. The reader is probably prepared to learn that there was
+no longer any reserve between le Bourdon and Margery on the subject of
+their future marriage. The young man had already pressed an immediate
+union, as the wisest and safest course to be pursued. Although the
+savage American is little addicted to abusing his power over female
+captives, and seldom takes into his lodge an unwilling squaw, the
+bee-hunter had experienced a good deal of uneasiness on the score of
+what might befall his betrothed. Margery was sufficiently beautiful
+to attract attention, even in a town; and more than one fierce-looking
+warrior had betrayed his admiration that very day, though it was in a
+very Indian-like fashion. Rhapsody, and gallant speeches, and sonnets,
+form no part of Indian courtship; but the language of admiration is
+so very universal, through the eyes, that it is sufficiently easy of
+comprehension. It was possible that some chief, whose band was too
+formidable to be opposed, might take it into his head to wish to see a
+pale-face squaw in his wigwam; and, while it was not usual to do much
+violence to a female's inclinations on such occasions, it was not common
+to offer much opposition to those of a powerful warrior. The married
+tie, if it could be said to exist at all, however, was much respected;
+and it was far less likely that Margery, a wife, would thus be
+appropriated, than Margery, unmarried. It is true, cases of unscrupulous
+exercise of power are to be found among Indians, as well as among
+civilized men, but they are rare, and usually are much condemned.
+
+The bee-hunter, consequently, was well disposed to second Peter's
+project. As for Margery herself, she had half yielded all her objections
+to her lover's unaided arguments, and was partly conquered before this
+reinforcement was brought into the field against her. Peter's motive was
+much canvassed, no one of them all being able to penetrate it. Boden,
+however, had his private opinion on the subject, nor was it so very much
+out of the way. He fancied that the mysterious chief was well disposed
+to Margery, and wished to put her as far as possible beyond the chances
+of an Indian wigwam; marriage being the step of all others most likely
+to afford her this protection. Now this was not exactly true, but it was
+right enough in the main. Peter's aim was to save the life of the girl;
+her gentle attractions, and kind attentions to himself having wrought
+this much in her favor; and he believed no means of doing so as
+certain as forming a close connection for her with the great
+medicine-bee-hunter. Judging of them by himself, he did not think the
+Indians would dare to include so great a conjurer in their schemes
+of vengeance, and was willing himself that le Bourdon should escape,
+provided Margery could go free and unharmed with him. As for the
+bee-hunter's powers, he had many misgivings; they might be dangerous to
+the red men, and they might not. On this subject, he was in the painful
+doubts of ignorance, and had the wide area of conjecture open before his
+mind. He saw; but it was “as in a glass, darkly.”
+
+Margery was disposed to delay the ceremony, at least until her brother
+and sister might be present. But to this le Bourdon himself was not
+much inclined. It had struck him that Gershom was opposed to an early
+marriage, most probably because he fancied himself more secure of
+the bee-hunter's ingenious and important aid in getting back to the
+settlements, so long as this strong inducement existed to cling to
+himself, than if he should release his own hold of Margery, by giving
+her at once to her lover. Right or wrong, such was the impression taken
+up by le Bourdon, and he was glad when the missionary urged his request
+to be permitted to pronounce the nuptial benediction on the spot.
+
+Little ceremony is generally used in an American marriage. In a vast
+many cases no clergyman is employed at all; and where there is, most
+of the sects have no ring, no giving away, nor any of those observances
+which were practised in the churches of old. There existed no
+impediment, therefore; and after a decent interval spent in persuasions,
+Margery consented to plight her vows to the man of her heart before they
+left the spot. She would fain have had Dorothy present, for woman loves
+to lean on her own sex on such occasions, but submitted to the necessity
+of proceeding at once, as the bee-hunter and the missionary chose to
+term it.
+
+A better altar could not have been selected in all that vast region. It
+was one of nature's own erecting; and le Bourdon and his pretty bride
+placed themselves before it, with feelings suited to the solemnity of
+the occasion. The good missionary stood within the shade of a burr oak
+in the centre of those park-like Openings, every object looking fresh,
+and smiling, and beautiful. The sward was gieen, and short as that of
+a well-tended lawn; the flowers were, like the bride herself, soft,
+modest, and sweet; while charming rural vistas stretched through the
+trees, much as if art had been summoned in aid of the great mistress who
+had designed the landscape. When the parties knelt in prayer--which all
+present did, not excepting the worthy corporal--it was on the verdant
+ground, with first the branches of the trees, and then the deep,
+fathomless vault of heaven for a canopy. In this manner was the marriage
+benediction pronounced on the bee-hunter and Margery Waring, in the
+venerable Oak Openings. No gothic structure, with its fretted aisles and
+clustered columns, could have been onehalf as appropriate for the union
+of such a couple.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+     No shrift the gloomy savage brooks,
+     As scowling on the priest he looks;
+     Cowesass--cowesass--tawkich wessasseen!
+     Let my father look on Bornazeen--
+     My father's heart is the heart of a squaw,
+     But mine is so hard that it does not thaw,
+                                    --WHITTIER.
+
+
+Leaving the newly-married couple to pursue their way homeward, it is now
+our province to return to Prairie Round. One accustomed to such
+scenes would easily have detected the signs of divided opinions and of
+agitating doubts among the chiefs, though nothing like contention or
+dispute had yet manifested itself. Peter's control was still in the
+ascendant, and he had neglected none of his usual means of securing
+influence. Perhaps he labored so much the harder, from the circumstance
+that he now found himself so situated, as to be compelled to undo much
+that he had previously done.
+
+On the other hand, Ungque appeared to have no particular cause of
+concern. His manner was as much unoccupied as usual; and to his habit of
+referring all his influence to sudden and powerful bursts of eloquence,
+if design of any sort was entertained, he left his success.
+
+We pass over the details of assembling the council. The spot was not
+exactly on the prairie, but in a bit of lovely “Opening” on its margin,
+where the eye could roam over a wide extent of that peculiar natural
+meadow, while the body enjoyed the shades of the wood. The chiefs alone
+were in the circle, while the “braves” and the “young men” generally
+formed a group on the outside; near enough to hear what passed, and to
+profit by it, if so disposed. The pipe was smoked, and all the ordinary
+customs observed, when Bear's Meat arose, the first speaker on that
+momentous occasion.
+
+“Brothers,” he said, “this is the great council on Prairie Round to
+which we have been called. We have met before, but not here. This is our
+first meeting here. We have travelled a long path to get here. Some
+of our brethren have travelled farther. They are at Detroit. They went
+there to meet our great Canada father, and to take Yankee scalps. How
+many scalps they have taken I do not know, or I would tell you. It is
+pleasant to me to count Yankee scalps. I would rather count them, than
+count the scalps of red men. There are still a great many left. The
+Yankees are many, and each Yankee has a scalp. There should not be so
+many. When the buffaloes came in the largest droves, our fathers used to
+go out to hunt them in the strongest parties. Their sons should do the
+same. We are the sons of those fathers. They say we look like them, talk
+like them, live like them--we should ACT like them. Let another speak,
+for I have done.”
+
+After this brief address, which bore some resemblance to a chairman's
+calling a meeting of civilized men to order, there was more smoking.
+It was fully expected that Peter would next arise, but he did not.
+Perceiving this, and willing to allow time to that great chief to
+arrange his thoughts, Crowsfeather assumed the office of filling the
+gap. He was far more of a warrior than of an orator, and was listened
+to respectfully, but less for what he said, than for what he had done.
+A good deal of Indian boasting, quite naturally, was blended with HIS
+discourse.
+
+“My brother has told you of the Yankee scalps,” he commenced. “He says
+they are many. He says there ought to be fewer. He did not remember who
+sat so near him. Perhaps he does not know that there are three less now
+than there were a moon since. Crowsfeather took three at Chicago. Many
+scalps were taken there. The Yankees must be plentier than the buffaloes
+on the great prairies, if they can lose so many scalps often, and send
+forth their warriors. I am a Pottawattamie. My brothers know that tribe.
+It is not a tribe of Jews, but a tribe of Injins. It is a great tribe.
+It never was LOST. It CANNOT be lost. No tribe better knows all the
+paths, and all the best routes to every point where it wishes to go.
+It is foolish to say you can lose a Pottawattamie. A duck would be
+as likely to lose itself as a Pottawattamie. I do not speak for the
+Ottawas: I speak for the Pottawattamies. We are not Jews. We do not wish
+to be Jews; and what we do not wish to be, we will not be. Our father
+who has come so far to tell us that we are not Injins, but Jews, is
+mistaken. I never heard of these Jews before. I do not wish to hear of
+them again. When a man has heard enough, he does not keep his ears
+open willingly. It is then best for the speaker to sit down. The
+Pottawattamies have shut their ears to the great medicine-priest of the
+pale-faces. What he says may be true of other tribes, but it is not true
+of the Pottawatttamies. We are not lost; we are not Jews. I have done.”
+
+This speech was received with general favor. The notion that the Indians
+were not Indians, but Jews, was far from being agreeable to those
+who had heard what had been said on the subject; and the opinions of
+Crowsfeather possessed the great advantage of reflecting the common
+sentiment on this interesting subject. When this is the case, a very
+little eloquence or logic goes a great way; and, on the whole, the
+address of the last speaker was somewhat better received than that of
+the first.
+
+It was now confidently believed that Peter would rise. But he did
+not. That mysterious chief was not yet prepared to speak, or he was
+judiciously exciting expectation by keeping back. There were at least
+ten minutes of silent smoking, ere a chief, whose name rendered into
+English was Bough of the Oak, arose, evidently with a desire to help
+the time along. Taking his cue from the success of Crows-feather, he
+followed up the advantage obtained by that chief, assailing the theory
+of the missionary from another quarter.
+
+“I am an Injin,” said Bough of the Oak; “my father was an Injin, and my
+mother was the daughter of an Injin. All my fathers were red men,
+and all their sons. Why should I wish to be anything else? I asked my
+brother, the medicine-priest, and he owned that Jews are pale-faces.
+This he should not have owned if he wished the Injins to be Jews. My
+skin is red. The Manitou of my fathers so painted it, and their child
+will not try to wash out the color. Were the color washed out of my
+face, I should be a pale-face! There would not be paint enough to hide
+my shame. No; I was born red, and will die a red man. It is not good to
+have two faces. An Injin is not a snake, to cast his skin. The skin in
+which he was born he keeps. He plays in it when a child; he goes in it
+to his first hunt; the bears and the deer know him by it; he carries it
+with him on the warpath, and his enemies tremble at the sight of it; his
+squaw knows him by that skin when he comes back to his wigwam; and when
+he dies, he is put aside in the same skin in--which he was born. There
+is but one skin, and it has but one color. At first, it is little. The
+pappoose that wears it is little. There is not need of a large skin.
+But it grows with the pappoose, and the biggest warrior finds his skin
+around him. This is because the Great Spirit fitted it to him. Whatever
+the Manitou does is good.
+
+“My brothers have squaws--they have pappooses. When the pappoose is put
+into their arms, do they get the paint-stones, and paint it red? They do
+not. It is not necessary. The Manitou painted it red before it was born.
+How this was done I do not know. I am nothing but a poor Injin, and only
+know what I see. I have seen that the pappooses are red when they are
+born, and that the warriors are red when they die. They are also
+red while living. It is enough. Their fathers could never have been
+pale-faces, or we should find some white spots on their children. There
+are none.
+
+“Crowsfeather has spoken of the Jews as lost. I am not surprised to hear
+it. It seems to me that all pale-faces get lost. They wander from
+their own hunting-grounds into those of other people. It is not so with
+Injins. The Pottawattamie does not kill the deer of the Iowa, nor the
+Ottawa the deer of the Menomenees. Each tribe knows its own game. This
+is because they are not lost. My pale-face father appears to wish us
+well. He has come on a long and weary path to tell us about his Manitou.
+For this I thank him. I thank all who wish to do me good. Them that wish
+to do me harm I strike from behind. It is our Injin custom. I do not
+wish to hurt the medicine-priest, because I think he wishes to do me
+good, and not to do me harm. He has a strange law. It is to do good to
+them that do harm to you. It is not the law of the red men. It is not
+good law. I do not wonder that the tribes which follow such a law get
+lost. They cannot tell their friends from their enemies. They can have
+no people to scalp. What is a warrior if he cannot find someone to
+scalp? No; such a law would make women of the bravest braves in the
+Openings, or on the prairie. It may be a good law for Jews, who get
+lost; but it is a bad law for Injins, who know the paths they travel.
+Let another speak.”
+
+This brief profession of faith, on the subject that had been so recently
+broached in the council, seemed to give infinite satisfaction. All
+present evidently preferred being red men, who knew where they were,
+than to be pale-faces who had lost their road. Ignorance of his path is
+a species of disgrace to an American savage, and not a man there would
+have confessed that his particular division of the great human family
+was in that dilemma. The idea that the Yankees were “lost,” and had got
+materially astray, was very grateful to most who heard it; and Bough of
+the Oak gained a considerable reputation as an orator, in consequence of
+the lucky hits made on this occasion.
+
+Another long, ruminating pause, and much passing of the pipe of peace
+succeeded. It was near half an hour after the last speaker had resumed
+his seat, ere Peter stood erect. In that long interval expectation had
+time to increase, and curiosity to augment itself. Nothing but a very
+great event could cause this pondering, this deliberation, and this
+unwillingness to begin. When, however, the time did come for the
+mysterious chief to speak, the man of many scalps to open his mouth,
+profound was the attention that prevailed among all present. Even after
+he had arisen, the orator stood silently looking around him, as if the
+throes of his thoughts had to be a little suppressed before he could
+trust his tongue to give them utterance.
+
+“What is the earth?” commenced Peter, in a deep, guttural tone of voice,
+which the death-like stillness rendered audible even to the outermost
+boundaries of the circle of admiring and curious countenances. “It is
+one plain adjoining another; river after river; lake after lake; prairie
+touching prairie; and pleasant woods, that seem to have no limits, all
+given to men to dwell in. It would seem that the Great Spirit parcelled
+out this rich possession into hunting-grounds for all. He colored men
+differently. His dearest children he painted red, which is his own
+color. Them that he loved less he colored less, and they had red only in
+spots. Them he loved least he dipped in a dark dye, and left them black.
+These are the colors of men. If there are more, I have not seen them.
+Some say there are. I shall think so, too, when I see them.
+
+“Brothers, this talk about lost tribes is a foolish talk. We are not
+lost. We know where we are, and we know where the Yankees have come to
+seek us. My brother has well spoken. If any are lost, it is the Yankees.
+The Yankees are Jews; they are lost. The time is near when they will be
+found, and when they will again turn their eyes toward the rising sun.
+They have looked so long toward the setting sun, that they cannot see
+clearly. It is not good to look too long at the same object. The Yankees
+have looked at our hunting-grounds, until their eyes are dim. They see
+the hunting-grounds, but they do not see all the warriors that are in
+them. In time, they will learn to count them.
+
+“Brothers, when the Great Spirit made man, he put him to live on the
+earth. Our traditions do not agree in saying of what he was made.
+Some say it was of clay, and that when his spirit starts for the happy
+hunting-grounds, his body becomes clay again. I do not say that this is
+so, for I do not know. It is not good to say that which we do not
+know to be true. I wish to speak only the truth. This we do know. If a
+warrior die, and we put him in the earth, and come to look for him many
+years afterward, nothing but bones are found. All else is gone. I have
+heard old men say that, in time, even these bones are not to be found.
+It is so with trees; it may be so with men. But it is not so with
+hunting-grounds. They were made to last forever.
+
+“Brothers, you know why we have come together on this prairie. It was
+to count the pale-faces, and to think of the way of making their number
+less. Now is a good time for such a thing. They have dug up the hatchet
+against each other, and when we hear of scalps taken among them, it
+is good for the red men. I do not think our Canada father is more our
+friend than the great Yankee, Uncle Sam. It is true, he gives us more
+powder, and blankets, and tomahawks, and rifles than the Yankee, but it
+is to get us to fight his battles. We will fight his battles. They are
+our battles, too. For this reason we will fight his enemies.
+
+“Brothers, it is time to think of our children. A wise chief once told
+me how many winters it is since a pale-face was first seen among red
+men. It was not a great while ago. Injins are living who have seen
+Injins, whose own fathers saw the first pale-faces. They were few.
+They were like little children, then; but now they are grown to be men.
+Medicine-men are plenty among them, and tell them how to raise children.
+The Injins do not understand this. Small-pox, fire-water, bad hunting,
+and frosts, keep us poor, and keep our children from growing as fast as
+the children of the pale-faces. Brothers, all this has happened within
+the lives of three aged chiefs. One told to another, and he told it to a
+third. Three chiefs have kept that tradition. They have given it to
+me. I have cut notches on this stick (holding up a piece of ash, neatly
+trimmed, as a record) for the winters they told me, and every winter
+since I have cut one more. See; there are not many notches. Some of our
+people say that the pale-faces are already plentier than leaves on the
+trees. I do not believe this. These notches tell us differently. It is
+true the pale-faces grow fast, and have many children, and small-pox
+does not kill many of them, and their wars are few; but look at this
+stick. Could a canoe-full of men become as many as they say, in so few
+winters? No; it is not so. The stories we have heard are not true. A
+crooked tongue first told them. We are strong enough still to drive
+these strangers into the great salt lake, and get back all our
+hunting-grounds. This is what I wish to have done.
+
+“Brothers, I have taken many scalps. This stick will tell the number.”
+ Here one of those terrible gleams of ferocity to which we have before
+alluded, passed athwart the dark countenance of the speaker, causing
+all present to feel a deeper sympathy in the thoughts he would express.
+“There are many. Every one has come from the head of a pale-face. It is
+now twenty winters since I took the scalp of a red man. I shall never
+take another. We want all of our own warriors, to drive back the
+strangers.
+
+“Brothers, some Injins tell us of different tribes. They talk about
+distant tribes as strangers. I tell you we are all children of the same
+father. All our skins are red. I see no difference between an Ojebway,
+and a Sac, or a Sioux. I love even a Cherokee.” Here very decided signs
+of dissatisfaction were manifested by several of the listeners; parties
+of the tribes of the great lakes having actually marched as far as
+the Gulf of Mexico to make war on the Indians of that region, who were
+generally hated by them with the most intense hatred. “He has the blood
+of our fathers in him. We are brothers, and should live together as
+brothers. If we want scalps, the pale-faces have plenty. It is sweet to
+take the scalp of a pale-face. I know it. My hand has done it often,
+and will do it again. If every Injin had taken as many scalps as I have
+taken, few of these strangers would now remain.
+
+“Brothers, one thing more I have to say. I wish to hear others, and will
+not tell all I know this time. One thing more I have to say, and I
+now say it. I have told you that we must take the scalps of all the
+pale-faces who are now near us. I thought there would have been more,
+but the rest do not come. Perhaps they are frightened. There are only
+six. Six scalps are not many. I am sorry they are so few. But we can go
+where there will be more. One of these six is a medicine-man. I do not
+know what to think. It may be good to take his scalp. It may be bad.
+Medicine-men have great power. You have seen what this bee-hunter can
+do. He knows how to talk with bees. Them little insects can fly into
+small places, and see things that Injins cannot see. The Great Spirit
+made them so. When we get back all the land, we shall get the bees with
+it, and may then hold a council to say what it is best to do with them.
+Until we know more, I do not wish to touch the scalp of that bee-hunter.
+It may do us great harm. I knew a medicine-man of the pale-faces to lose
+his scalp, and small-pox took off half the band that made him prisoner
+and killed him. It is not good to meddle with medicine-men. A few days
+ago, and I wanted this young man's scalp, very much. Now, I do not want
+it. It may do us harm to touch it. I wish to let him go, and to take his
+squaw with him. The rest we can scalp.”
+
+Peter cunningly made no allusion to Margery, until just before he
+resumed his seat, though now deeply interested in her safety. As for le
+Bourdon, so profound was the impression he had made that morning, that
+few of the chiefs were surprised at the exemption proposed in his favor.
+The superstitious dread of witchcraft is very general among the American
+savages; and it certainly did seem to be hazardous to plot the death
+of a man, who had even the bees that were humming on all sides of them
+under his control. He might at that very moment be acquainted with all
+that was passing; and several of the grim-looking and veteran warriors
+who sat in the circle, and who appeared to be men able and willing to
+encounter aught human, did not fail to remember the probability of a
+medicine-man's knowing who were his friends, and who his enemies.
+
+When Peter sat down, there was but one man in the circle of chiefs who
+was resolved to oppose his design of placing Boden and Margery without
+the pale of the condemned. Several were undecided, scarce knowing what
+to think of so sudden and strange a proposition, but could not be said
+to have absolutely adhered to the original scheme of cutting off all.
+The exception was Ungque. This man--a chief by a sort of sufferance,
+rather than as a right--was deadly hostile to Peter's influence, as has
+been said, and was inclined to oppose all his plans, though compelled by
+policy to be exceedingly cautious how he did it. Here, however, was an
+excellent opportunity to strike a blow, and he was determined not to
+neglect it. Still, so wily was this Indian, so much accustomed to put a
+restraint on his passions and wishes, that he did not immediately arise,
+with the impetuous ardor of frank impulses, to make his reply, but
+awaited his time.
+
+An Indian is but a man, after all, and is liable to his weaknesses,
+notwithstanding the self-command he obtains by severe drilling. Bough of
+the Oak was to supply a proof of this truth. He had been so unexpectedly
+successful in his late attempt at eloquence, that it was not easy to
+keep him off his feet, now that another good occasion to exhibit his
+powers offered. He was accordingly the next to speak.
+
+“My brothers,” said Bough of the Oak, “I am named after a tree. You all
+know that tree. It is not good for bows or arrows; it is not good for
+canoes; it does not make the best fire, though it will burn, and is hot
+when well lighted. There are many things for which the tree after which
+I am named is not good. It is not good to eat. It has no sap that Injins
+can drink, like the maple. It does not make good brooms. But it has
+branches like other trees, and they are tough. Tough branches are good.
+The boughs of the oak will not bend, like the boughs of the willow, or
+the boughs of the ash, or the boughs of the hickory.
+
+“Brothers, I am a bough of the oak. I do not like to bend. When my mind
+is made up, I wish to keep it where it was first put. My mind has been
+made up to take the scalps of ALL the pale-faces who are now in the
+Openings. I do not want to change it. My mind can break, but it can not
+bend. It is tough.”
+
+Having uttered this brief but sententious account of his view of the
+matter at issue, the chief resumed his seat, reasonably well satisfied
+with this, his second attempt to be eloquent that day. His success
+this time was not as unequivocal as on the former occasion, but it
+was respectable. Several of the chiefs saw a reasonable, if not a very
+logical analogy, between a man's name and his mind; and to them it
+appeared a tolerably fair inference that a man should act up to his
+name. If his name was tough, he ought to be tough, too. In this it does
+not strike us that they argued very differently from civilized beings,
+who are only too apt to do that which their better judgments really
+condemn, because they think they are acting “in character,” as it is
+termed.
+
+Ungque was both surprised and delighted with this unexpected support
+from Bough of the Oak. He knew enough of human nature to understand
+that a new-born ambition, that of talking against the great, mysterious
+chief, Peter, was at the bottom of this unexpected opposition; but
+with this he was pleased, rather than otherwise. An opposition that
+is founded in reason, may always be reasoned down, if reasons exist
+therefor; but an opposition that has its rise in any of the passions,
+is usually somewhat stubborn. All this the mean-looking chief, or the
+Weasel, understood perfectly, and appreciated highly. He thought the
+moment favorable, and was disposed to “strike while the iron was hot.”
+ Rising after a decent interval had elapsed, this wily Indian looked
+about him, as if awed by the presence in which he stood, and doubtful
+whether he could venture to utter his thoughts before so many wise
+chiefs. Having made an impression by this air of diffidence, he
+commenced his harangue.
+
+“I am called the Weasel,” he said, modestly. “My name is not taken from
+the mightiest tree of the forest, like that of my brother; it is taken
+from a sort of rat--an animal that lives by its wits. I am well named.
+When my tribe gave me that name, it was just. All Injins have not names.
+My great brother, who told us once that we ought to take the scalp of
+every white man, but WHO now tells us that we ought not to take the
+scalp of every white man, has no name. He is called Peter, by the
+pale-faces. It is a good name. But it is a pale-face name. I wish we
+knew the real name of my brother. We do not know his nation or his
+tribe. Some say he is an Ottawa, some an Iowa, some even think him a
+Sioux. I have heard he was a Delaware, from toward the rising sun.
+Some, but they must be Injins with forked tongues, think and say he is
+a Cherokee! I do not believe this. It is a lie. It is said to do my
+brother harm. Wicked Injins will say such things. But we do not mind
+what THEY say. It is not necessary.
+
+“My brothers, I wish we knew the tribe of this great chief, who tells
+us to take scalps, and then tells us not to take scalps. Then we might
+understand why he has told us two stories. I believe all he says, but I
+should like to know WHY I believe it. It is good to know why we believe
+things. I have heard what my brother has said about letting this
+bee-hunter go to his own people, but I do not know why he believes this
+is best. It is because I am a poor Injin, perhaps; and because I am
+called the Weasel. I am an animal that creeps through small holes. That
+is my nature. The bison jumps through open prairies, and a horse is
+wanted to catch him. It is not so with the weasel; he creeps through
+small holes. But he always looks where he goes.
+
+“The unknown chief, who belongs to no tribe, talks of this bee-hunter's
+squaw. He is afraid of so great a medicine-man, and wishes him to go,
+and take all in his wigwam with him. He has no squaw. There is a young
+squaw in his lodge, but she is not HIS squaw. There is no need of
+letting her go, on his account. If we take her scalp, he cannot hurt us.
+In that, my brother is wrong. The bees have buzzed too near his ears.
+Weasels can hear, as well as other animals; and I have heard that this
+young squaw is not this bee-hunter's squaw.
+
+“If Injins are to take the scalps of all the pale-faces, why should we
+not begin with these who are in our hands? When the knife is ready, and
+the head is ready, nothing but the hand is wanting. Plenty of hands are
+ready, too; and it does not seem good to the eyes of a poor, miserable
+weasel, who has to creep through very small holes to catch his game, to
+let that game go when it is taken. If my great brother, who has told us
+not to scalp this bee-hunter and her he calls his squaw, will tell us
+the name of his tribe, I shall be glad. I am an ignorant Injin, and like
+to learn all I can; I wish to learn that. Perhaps it will help us to
+understand why he gave one counsel yesterday, and another to-day. There
+is a reason for it. I wish to know what it is.”
+
+Ungque now slowly seated himself. He had spoken with great moderation,
+as to manner; and with such an air of humility as one of our own
+demagogues is apt to assume, when he tells the people of their virtues,
+and seems to lament the whole time that he, himself, was one of the
+meanest of the great human family. Peter saw, at once, that he had
+a cunning competitor, and had a little difficulty in suppressing
+all exhibition of the fiery indignation he actually felt, at meeting
+opposition in such a quarter. Peter was artful, and practised in all
+the wiles of managing men, but he submitted to use his means to attain a
+great end. The virtual extinction of the white race was his object, and
+in order to effect it, there was little he would have hesitated to do.
+Now, however, when for the first time in many years a glimmering of
+human feeling was shining on the darkness of his mind, he found himself
+unexpectedly opposed by one of those whom he had formerly found so
+difficult to persuade into his own dire plans! Had that one been a chief
+of any renown, the circumstances would have been more tolerable; but
+here was a man presuming to raise his voice against him, who, so far as
+he knew anything of his past career, had not a single claim to open his
+mouth in such a council. With a volcano raging within, that such a state
+of things would be likely to kindle in the breast of a savage who had
+been for years a successful and nearly unopposed leader, the mysterious
+chief rose to reply.
+
+“My brother says he is a weasel,” observed Peter, looking round at the
+circle of interested and grave countenances by which he was surrounded.
+“That is a very small animal. It creeps through very small holes, but
+not to do good. It is good for nothing. When it goes through a small
+hole, it is not to do the Injins a service, but for its own purposes. I
+do not like weasels.
+
+“My brother is not afraid of a bee-hunter. Can HE tell us what a bee
+whispers? If he can, I wish he would tell us. Let him show our young men
+where there is more honey--where they can find bear's meat for another
+feast--where they can find warriors hid in the woods.
+
+“My brother says the bee-hunter has no squaw. How does he know this? Has
+he lived in the lodge with them--paddled in the same canoe--eat of
+the same venison? A weasel is very small. It might steal into the
+bee-hunter's lodge, and see what is there, what is doing, what is eaten,
+who is his squaw, and who is not--has this weasel ever done so? I never
+saw him there.
+
+“Brothers, the Great Spirit has his own way of doing things. He does not
+stop to listen to weasels. He knows there are such animals--there are
+snakes, and toads, and skunks. The Great Spirit knows them all, but he
+does not mind them. He is wise, and hearkens only to his own mind. So
+should it be with a council of great chiefs. It should listen to its own
+mind. That is wisdom. To listen to the mind of a weasel is folly.
+
+“Brothers, you have been told that this weasel does not know the tribe
+of which I am born. Why should you know it? Injins once were foolish.
+While the pale-faces were getting one hunting-ground after another from
+them, they dug up the hatchet against their own friends. They took each
+other's scalps. Injin hated Injin--tribe hated tribe. I am of no tribe,
+and no one can hate me for my people. You see my skin. It is red. That
+is enough. I scalp, and smoke, and talk, and go on weary paths for all
+Injins, and not for any tribe. I am without a tribe. Some call me the
+Tribeless. It is better to bear that name, than to be called a weasel. I
+have done.”
+
+Peter had so much success by this argumentum ad hominem, that most
+present fancied that the weasel would creep through some hole, and
+disappear. Not so, however, with Ungque. He was a demagogue, after an
+Indian fashion; and this is a class of men that ever “make capital” of
+abuses, as we Americans say, in our money-getting habits. Instead of
+being frightened off the ground, he arose to answer as promptly as if a
+practised debater, though with an air of humility so profound, that no
+one could take offence at his presumption.
+
+“The unknown chief has answered,” he said, “I am glad. I love to hear
+his words. My ears are always open when he speaks, and my mind is
+stronger. I now see that it is good he should not have a tribe. He may
+be a Cherokee, and then our warriors would wish him ill.” This was a
+home-thrust, most artfully concealed; a Cherokee being the Indian of all
+others the most hated by the chiefs present;--the Carthaginians of those
+western Romans. “It is better he should not have a tribe, than be a
+Cherokee. He might better be a weasel.
+
+“Brothers, we have been told to kill ALL the pale-faces. I like that
+advice. The land cannot have two owners. If a pale-face owns it, an
+Injin cannot. If an Injin owns it, a pale-face cannot. But the chief
+without a tribe tells us not to kill all. He tells us to kill all but
+the bee-hunter and his squaw. He thinks this bee-hunter is a medicine
+bee-hunter, and may do us Injins great harm. He wishes to let him go.
+
+“Brothers, this is not my way of thinking. It is better to kill the
+bee-hunter and his squaw while we can, that there may be no more such
+medicine bee-hunters to frighten us Injins. If one bee-hunter can do so
+much harm, what would a tribe of bee-hunters do? I do not want to see
+any more. It is a dangerous thing to know how to talk with bees. It
+is best that no one should have that power. I would rather never taste
+honey again, than live among pale-faces that can talk with bees.
+
+“Brothers, it is not enough that the pale-faces know so much more than
+the red men, but they must get the bees to tell them where to find
+honey, to find bears, to find warriors. No; let us take the scalp of the
+bee-talker, and of his squaw, that there may never be such a medicine
+again. I have spoken.”
+
+Peter did not rise again. He felt that his dignity was involved in
+maintaining silence. Various chiefs now uttered their opinions, in
+brief, sententious language. For the first time since he began to preach
+his crusade, the current was setting against the mysterious chief. The
+Weasel said no more, but the hints he had thrown out were improved on
+by others. It is with savages as with civilized men; a torrent must find
+vent. Peter had the sagacity to see that by attempting further to save
+le Bourdon and Margery, he should only endanger his own ascendancy,
+without effecting his purpose. Here he completely overlaid the art of
+Ungque, turning his own defeat into an advantage. After the matter had
+been discussed for fully an hour, and this mysterious chief perceived
+that it was useless to adhere to his new resolution, he gave it up
+with as much tact as the sagacious Wellington himself could manifest
+in yielding Catholic emancipation, or parliamentary reform; or, just in
+season to preserve an appearance of floating in the current, and with a
+grace that disarmed his opponents.
+
+“Brothers,” said Peter, by way of closing the debate, “I have not seen
+straight. Fog sometimes gets before the eyes, and we cannot see. I have
+been in a fog. The breath of my brother has blown it away. I now see
+clearly. I see that bee-hunters ought not to live. Let this one die--let
+his squaw die, too!”
+
+This terminated the discussion, as a matter of course. It was solemnly
+decided that all the pale-faces then in the Openings should be cut off.
+In acquiescing in this decision, Peter had no mental reservations. He
+was quite sincere. When, after sitting two hours longer, in order to
+arrange still more important points, the council arose, it was with
+his entire assent to the decision. The only power he retained over the
+subject was that of directing the details of the contemplated massacre.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+     Why is that graceful female here
+     With yon red hunter of the deer?
+     Of gentle mien and shape, she seems
+     For civil halls design'd;
+     Yet with the stately savage walks,
+     As she were of his kind.
+                            --Pinkney.
+
+
+The family at Castle Meal saw nothing of any Indian until the day that
+succeeded the council. Gershom and Dorothy received the tidings of
+their sister's marriage with very little emotion. It was an event they
+expected; and as for bride-cake and ceremonies, of one there was none at
+all, and of the other no more than has been mentioned. The relatives of
+Margery did not break their hearts on account of the neglect with which
+they had been treated, but received the young couple as if one had given
+her away, and the other “had pulled off her glove,” as young ladies now
+express it, in deference to the act that generally gives the coup de
+grace to youthful female friendships. On the Openings, neither time nor
+breath is wasted in useless compliments; and all was held to be well
+done on this occasion, because it was done legally. A question might
+have been raised, indeed, whether that marriage had taken place
+under the American, or under the English flag; for General Hull, in
+surrendering Detroit, had included the entire territory of Michigan, as
+well as troops present, troops absent, and troops on the march to join
+him. Had he been in possession of Peter's ruthless secret, which we
+happen to know he was not, he could not have been more anxious to throw
+the mantle of British authority around all of his race on that remote
+frontier, than he proved himself to be. Still, it is to be presumed that
+the marriage would have been regarded as legal; conquered territories
+usually preserving their laws and usages for a time, at least. A little
+joking passed, as a matter of course; for this is de rigueur in all
+marriages, except in the cases of the most cultivated; and certainly
+neither the corporal nor Gershom belonged to the elite of human society.
+
+About the hour of breakfast Pigeonswing came in, as if returning from
+one of his ordinary hunts. He brought with him venison, as well as
+several wild ducks that he had killed in the Kalamazoo, and three or
+four prairie hens. The Chippewa never betrayed exultation at the success
+of his exertions, but on this occasion he actually appeared sad. Dorothy
+received his game, and as she took the ducks and other fowls, she spoke
+to him.
+
+“Thank you, Pigeonswing,” said the young matron. “No pale-face could be
+a better provider, and many are not one-half as good.”
+
+“What provider mean, eh?” demanded the literal-minded savage. “Mean
+good; mean bad, eh?”
+
+“Oh! it means good, of course. I could say nothing against a hunter who
+takes so good care of us all.”
+
+“What he mean, den?”
+
+“It means a man who keeps his wife and children well supplied with
+food.”
+
+“You get 'nough, eh?”
+
+“I get enough, Pigeonswing, thanks to your industry, such as it is.
+Injin diet, however, is not always the best for Christian folk, though
+a body may live on it. I miss many things, out here in the Openings, to
+which I have been used all the early part of my life.”
+
+“What squaw miss, eh? P'raps Injin find him sometime.”
+
+“I thank you, Pigeonswing, with all my heart, and am just as grateful
+for your good intentions, as I should be was you to do all you wish. It
+is the mind that makes the marcy, and not always the deed. But you can
+never find the food of a pale-face kitchen out here in the Openings of
+Michigan. When a body comes to reckon up all the good things of Ameriky,
+she don't know where to begin, or where to stop. I miss tea as much as
+anything. And milk comes next. Then there's buckwheat and coffee--though
+things may be found in the woods to make coffee of, but tea has no
+substitute. Then, I like wheaten bread, and butter, and potatoes, and
+many other such articles, that I was used to all my life, until I came
+out here, close to sunset. As for pies and custards, I can't bear to
+think of 'em now!”
+
+Pigeonswing looked intently at the woman, as she carefully enumerated
+her favorites among the dishes of her home-kitchen. When she had ended,
+he raised a finger, looked still more significantly at her, and said:
+
+“Why don't go back, get all dem good t'ings? Better for pale-face to eat
+pale-face food, and leave Injin Injin food.”
+
+“For my part, Pigeonswing, I wish such had ever been the law. Venison,
+and prairie-fowls, and wild ducks, and trout, and bear's meat, and wild
+pigeons, and the fish that are to be found in these western rivers, are
+all good for them that was brought up on 'em, but they tire an eastern
+palate dreadfully. Give me roast beef any day before buffalo's hump, and
+a good barn-yard fowl before all the game-birds that ever flew.”
+
+“Yes; dat de way pale-face squaw feel. Bess go back, and get what she
+like. Bess go quick as she can--go today.”
+
+“I'm in no such hurry, Pigeonswing, and I like these Openings well
+enough to stay a while longer, and see what all these Injins, that they
+tell me are about 'em, mean to do. Now we are fairly among your people,
+and on good terms with them, it is wisest to stay where we are. These
+are war-times, and travelling is dangerous, they tell me. When Gershom
+and Bourdon are ready to start, I shall be ready.”
+
+“Bess get ready, now,” rejoined Pigeonswing; who, having given this
+advice with point, as to manner, proceeded to the spring, where he knelt
+and slaked his thirst. The manner of the Chippewa was such as to attract
+the attention of the missionary, who, full of his theory, imagined
+that this desire to get rid of the whites was, in some way or other,
+connected with a reluctance in the Indians to confess themselves Jews.
+He had been quite as much surprised as he was disappointed, with the
+backwardness of the chiefs in accepting this tradition, and was now in
+a state of mind that predisposed him to impute everything to this one
+cause.
+
+“I hope, Pigeonswing,” he said to the Chippewa, whom he had followed to
+the spring--“I hope, Pigeonswing, that no offence has been taken by the
+chiefs on account of what I told them yesterday, concerning their being
+Jews. It is what I think, and it is an honor to belong to God's chosen
+people, and in no sense a disgrace. I hope no offence has been taken on
+account of my telling the chief they are Jews.”
+
+“Don't care any t'ing 'bout it,” answered the literal Indian, rising
+from his kneeling position, and wiping his mouth with the back of his
+hand. “Don't care wedder Jew, or wedder Indian.”
+
+“For my own part, gladly would I have it to say that I am descended from
+Israel.”
+
+“Why don't say him, if he make you grad? Good to be grad. All Injin love
+to be grad.”
+
+“Because I cannot say it with truth. No; I come of the Gentiles, and not
+of the Hebrews, else would I glory in saying I am a Jew, in the sense
+of extraction, though not now in the sense of faith. I trust the chiefs
+will not take offence at my telling them just what I think.”
+
+“Tell you he don't care,” returned Pigeonswing, a little crustily.
+“Don't care if Jew--don't care if Injin. Know dat make no difference.
+Hunting-ground just same--game just same--scalps just same. Make no
+difference, and don't care.”
+
+“I am glad of this--but why did you advise Dorothy to quit the Openings
+in the hasty manner you did, if all is right with the chiefs? It is not
+good to start on a journey without preparation and prayer. Why, then,
+did you give this advice to Dorothy to quit the Openings so soon?”
+
+“Bess for squaw to go home, when Injin dig up hatchet. Openin' full of
+warrior--prairie full of warrior--wood full of warrior. When dat so,
+bess for squaw to go home.”
+
+“This would be true, were the Indians our enemies. Heaven be praised,
+they are our friends, and will not harm us. Peter is a great chief, and
+can make his young men do what he tells them; and Peter is our friend.
+With Peter to stand by us, and a merciful Providence to direct us where,
+when, and how to go, we can have nothing to fear. I trust in Divine
+Providence.”
+
+“Who he be?” asked Pigeonswing, innocently, for his knowledge of English
+did not extend far enough to comprehend a phrase so complicated, though
+so familiar to ourselves. “He know all paths, eh?”
+
+“Yes; and directs us on all paths--more especially such as are for our
+good.”
+
+“Bess get him to tell you path into Detroit. Dat good path, now, for all
+pale-faces.”
+
+On uttering this advice, which he did also somewhat pointedly, the
+Chippewa left the spring, and walked toward the kennel of Hive, where
+the bee-hunter was busy feeding his old companion.
+
+“You're welcome back, Pigeonswing,” the last cordially remarked, without
+pausing in his occupation, however. “I saw that you came in loaded, as
+usual. Have you left any dead game in the Openings, for me to go and
+back in with you?”
+
+“You open ear, Bourdon--you know what Injin say,” returned the Chippewa,
+earnestly. “When dog get 'nough come wid me. Got somet'ing to tell. Bess
+hear it, when he CAN hear it.”
+
+“You'll find me ready enough in a minute. There, Hive, my good fellow,
+that ought to satisfy any reasonable dog, and I've never found
+you unreasonable yet. Well, Chippewa, here I am, with my ears wide
+open--stop, I've a bit of news, first, for your ears. Do you know,
+Pigeonswing, my good fellow, that I am married?”
+
+“Marry, eh? Got squaw, eh? Where you get him?”
+
+“Here, to be sure--where else should I get her? There is but one girl in
+these Openings that I would ask to be my wife, and she has been asked,
+and answered, yes. Parson Amen married us, yesterday, on our way in
+from Prairie Round; so that puts me on a footing with yourself. When you
+boast of your squaw that you've left in your wigwam, I can boast of mine
+that I have here. Margery is a girl to boast of, too!”
+
+“Yes; good squaw, dat. Like dat squaw pretty well. Nebber see better.
+Bess keep squaw alway in his own wigwam.”
+
+“Well, mine is in my own wigwam. Castle Meal is my property, and she
+does it honor.”
+
+“Dat an't what Injin mean. Mean dis. Bess have wigwam at home, dere,
+where pale-face lives, and bess keep squaw in DAT wigwam. Where my
+squaw, eh? She home, in my wigwam--take care of pappoose, hoe corn, and
+keep ground good. So bess wid white squaw--bess home, at work.”
+
+“I believe I understand what you mean, Pigeon. Well, home we mean to go,
+before the winter sets in, and when matters have a little settled down
+between the English and Yankees. It isn't safe travelling, just now, in
+Michigan--you must own that, yourself, my good fellow.”
+
+The Indian appeared at a loss, now, how to express himself further.
+On one side was his faith to his color, and his dread of Peter and the
+great chiefs; on the other, his strong regard for the bee-hunter. He
+pondered a moment, and then took his own manner of communicating that
+which he wished to say. The fact that his friend was married made no
+great difference in his advice, for the Indian was much too shrewd an
+observer not to have detected the bee-hunter's attachment. He had not
+supposed it possible to separate his friend from the family of Gershom,
+though he did suppose there would be less difficulty in getting him to
+go on a path different from that which the missionary and corporal might
+take. His own great purpose was to serve le Bourdon, and how many or how
+few might incidentally profit by it he did not care. The truth compels
+us to own, that even Margery's charms, and nature, and warm-hearted
+interest in all around her, had failed to make any impression on his
+marble-like feelings; while the bee-hunter's habits, skill in his craft,
+and close connection with himself at the mouth of the river, and more
+especially in liberating him from his enemies, had united him in a
+comrade's friendship with her husband. It was a little singular that
+this Chippewa did not fall into Peter's superstitious dread of the
+bee-hunter's necromancy, though he was aware of all that had passed
+the previous day on the prairie. Either on account of his greater
+familiarity with le Bourdon's habits, or because he was in the secret of
+the trick of the whiskey-spring, or from a closer knowledge of white men
+and their ways, this young Indian was freer from apprehensions of this
+nature, perhaps, than any one of the same color and origin within many
+miles of the spot. In a word, Pigeons-wing regarded the bee-hunter as
+his friend, while he looked upon the other pale-faces as so many persons
+thrown by accident in his company. Now that Margery had actually become
+his friend's squaw, his interest in her was somewhat increased; though
+she had never obtained that interest in his feelings that she had
+awakened in the breast of Peter, by her attentions to him, her
+gentleness, light-hearted gayety, and womanly care, and all without the
+least design on her own part.
+
+“No,” answered the Chippewa, after a moment's reflection, “no very safe
+for Yankee, or Yankee Injin. Don't t'ink my scalp very safe, if
+chief know'd I'm Yankee runner. Bess alway to keep scalp safe. Dem
+Pottawattamie I take care not to see. Know all about 'em, too. Know what
+he SAY--know what he DO--b'lieve I know what he T'INK.”
+
+“I did not see you, Pigeon, among the red young men, yesterday, out on
+Prairie Round.”
+
+“Know too much to go dere. Crowsfeather and Pottawattamie out dere. Bess
+not go near dem when dey have eye open. Take 'em asleep. Dat bess way
+wid sich Injin. Catch 'em some time! But your ear open, Bourdon?”
+
+“Wide open, my good friend--what have you to whisper in it?”
+
+“You look hard at Peter when he come in. If he t'ink good deal, and
+don't say much, when he DO speak, mind what he say. If he smile, and
+very much friend, must hab his scalp.”
+
+“Chippewa, Peter is my friend, lives in my cabin, and eats of my bread!
+The hand that touches him, touches me.”
+
+“Which bess, eh--HIS scalp, or your'n? If he VERY much friend when he
+comes in, his scalp muss come off, or your'n. Yes, juss so. Dat de way.
+Know Injin better dan you know him, Bourdon. You good bee-hunter, but
+poor Injin. Ebbery body hab his way--Injin got his. Peter laugh and very
+much friend, when he come home, den he mean to hab YOUR scalp. If don't
+smile, and don't seem very much friend, but look down, and t'ink, t'ink,
+t'ink, den he no mean to hurt you, but try to get you out of hand of
+chiefs. Dat all.”
+
+As Pigeonswing concluded, he walked coolly away, leaving his friend to
+ruminate on the alternative of scalp or no scalp! The bee-hunter now
+understood the Chippewa perfectly. He was aware that this man had means
+of his own to ascertain what was passing around him in the Openings, and
+he had the utmost confidence in his integrity and good wishes. If a red
+man is slow to forget an injury, he never forgets a favor. In this he
+was as unlike as possible to most of the pale-faces who were supplanting
+his race, for these last had, and have, as extraordinary a tenacity in
+losing sight of benefits, as they have in remembering wrongs.
+
+By some means or other, it was now clear that Pigeonswing foresaw that a
+crisis was at hand. Had le Bourdon been as disconnected and solitary as
+he was when he first met the Chippewa, it is not probable that
+either the words or the manner of his friend would have produced much
+impression on him, so little accustomed was he to dwell on the hazards
+of his frontier position. But the case was now altogether changed.
+Margery and her claims stood foremost in his mind; and through Margery
+came Dolly and her husband. There was no mistaking Pigeonswing's
+intention. It was to give warning of some immediate danger, and a danger
+that, in some way, was connected with the deportment of Peter. It was
+easy enough to comprehend the allusions to the mysterious chief's smiles
+and melancholy; and the bee-hunter understood that he was to watch
+that Indian's manner, and take the alarm or bestow his confidence
+accordingly.
+
+Le Bourdon was not left long in doubt. Peter arrived about half-an-hour
+after Pigeonswing had gone to seek his rest; and from the instant he
+came in sight, our hero discerned the thoughtful eye and melancholy
+manner. These signs were still more obvious when the tribeless Indian
+came nearer; so obvious, indeed, as to strike more than one of those who
+were interested observers of all that this extraordinary being said and
+did. Among others, Margery was the first to see this change, and the
+first to let it influence her own manner. This she did, notwithstanding
+le Bourdon had said nothing to her on the subject, and in defiance of
+the bashful feelings of a bride; which, under circumstances less marked,
+might have induced her to keep more in the background. As Peter stopped
+at the spring to quench his thirst, Margery was, in truth, the first to
+approach and to speak to him.
+
+“You seem weary, Peter,” said the young wife, somewhat timidly as to
+voice and air, but with a decided and honest manifestation of interest
+in what she was about. Nor had Margery gone empty-handed. She took with
+her a savory dish, one of those that the men of the woods love--meat
+cooked in its own juices, and garnished with several little additions,
+that her skill in the arts of civilized life enabled her to supply.
+
+“You seem tired, Peter, and if I did not fear to say it, I should tell
+you that you also seem sad,” said Margery, as she placed her dish on a
+rude table that was kept at the spot, for the convenience of those who
+seldom respected hours, or regularity of any sort in their meals. “Here
+is food that you like, which I have cooked with my own hands.”
+
+The Indian looked intently at the timid and charming young creature,
+who came forward thus to contribute to his comforts, and the saddened
+expression of his countenance deepened. He was fatigued and hungry,
+and he ate for some time without speaking, beyond uttering a brief
+expression of his thanks. When his appetite was appeased, however, and
+she who had so sedulously attended to his wants was about to remove the
+remains of the dish, he signed with his finger for her to draw nearer,
+intimating that he had something to say. Margery obeyed without
+hesitation, though the color flitted in her face like the changes in
+an evening sky. But so much good will and confidence had been awakened
+between these two, that a daughter would not have drawn near to a father
+with more confidence than Margery stood before Peter.
+
+“Medicine-man do what I tell him, young squaw, eh?” demanded Peter,
+smiling slightly, and for the first time since they had met.
+
+“By medicine-man do you mean Mr. Amen, or Bourdon?” the bride asked in
+her turn, her whole face reflecting the confusion she felt, scarcely
+knowing why.
+
+“Bot'. One medicine-man say his prayer; t'odder medicine-man take young
+squaw's hand, and lead her into his wigwam. Dat what I mean.”
+
+“I am married to Bourdon,” returned Margery, dropping her eyes to the
+ground, “if that be what you wish to know. I hope you think I shall have
+a good husband, Peter.”
+
+“Hope so, too--nebber know till time come. All good for little
+while--Injin good, squaw good. Juss like weadder. Sometime
+rain--sometime storm--sometime sunshine. Juss so wid Injin, juss so wid
+pale-face. No difference. All same. You see dat cloud?--he little now;
+but let wind blow, he grow big, and you see nuttin' but cloud. Let him
+have plenty of sunshine, and he go away; den all clear over head. Dat
+bess way to live wid husband.”
+
+“And that is the way which Bourdon and I WILL always live together. When
+we get back among our own people, Peter, and are living comfortably in a
+pale-face wigwam, with pale-face food, and pale-face drinks, and all the
+other good things of pale-face housekeeping about us, then I hope you
+will come and see how happy we are, and pass some time with us. Every
+year I wish you to come and see us, and to bring us venison, and Bourdon
+will give you powder, and lead, and blankets, and all you may want,
+unless it be fire-water. Fire-water he has promised never again to give
+to an Injin.”
+
+“No find any more whiskey-spring, eh?” demanded Peter, greatly
+interested in the young woman's natural and warm-hearted manner of
+proposing her hospitalities. “So bess--so bess. Great curse for Injin.
+Plenty honey, no fire-water. All dat good. And I come, if--”
+
+Here Peter stopped, nor could all Margery's questions induce him to
+complete the sentence. His gaze at the earnest countenance of the bride
+was such as to give her an indefinite sort of uneasiness, not to say a
+feeling of alarm.
+
+Still no explanation passed between them. Margery remained near Peter
+for some time, administering to his wants, and otherwise demeaning
+herself much as a daughter might have done. At length le Bourdon
+joined them. The salutations were friendly, and the manner in which the
+mysterious chief regarded the equally mysterious bee-hunter, was not
+altogether without a certain degree of awe. Boden perceived this, and
+was not slow to comprehend that he owed this accession of influence to
+the scene which had occurred on the prairie.
+
+“Is the great council ended, Peter?” asked the bee-hunter, when the
+little interval of silence had been observed.
+
+“Yes, it over. No more council, now, on Prairie Round.”
+
+“And the chiefs--have they all gone on their proper paths? What has
+become of my old acquaintance, Crowsfeather? and all the rest of
+them--Bear's Meat, in particular?”
+
+“All gone. No more council now. Agree what to do and so go away.”
+
+“But are red men always as good as their words? do they PERFORM always
+what they PROMISE?”
+
+“Sartain. Ebbery man ought do what he say. Dat Injin law--no pale-face
+law, eh?”
+
+“It may be the LAW, Peter, and a very good law it is; but we white men
+do not always MIND our own laws.”
+
+“Dat bad--Great Spirit don't like dat,” returned Peter, looking grave,
+and slowly shaking his head. “Dat very bad. When Injin say he do it,
+den he do it, if he can. If can't, no help for it. Send squaw away now,
+Bourdon--bess not to let squaw hear what men say, or will always want to
+hear.”
+
+Le Bourdon laughed, as he turned to Margery and repeated these words.
+The young wife colored, but she took it in good part, and ran up toward
+the palisaded lodge, like one who was glad to be rid of her companions.
+Peter waited a few moments, then turning his head slowly in all
+directions, to make sure of not being overheard, he began to lay open
+his mind.
+
+“You been on Prairie Round, Bourdon--you see Injin dere--chief, warrior,
+young men, hunter, all dere.”
+
+“I saw them all, Peter, and a goodly sight it was--what between paint,
+and medals, and bows and arrows and tomahawks, and all your bravery!”
+
+“You like to see him, eh? Yes; he fine t'ing to look at. Well, dat
+council call togedder by ME--you know dat, too, Bourdon?”
+
+“I have heard you say that such was your intention, and I suppose you
+did it, chief. They tell me you have great power among your own people,
+and that they do very much as you tell them to do.”
+
+Peter looked graver than ever at this remark; and one of his startling
+gleams of ferocity passed over his dark countenance. Then he answered
+with his customary self-command.
+
+“Sometime so,” he said; “sometime not so. Yesterday, not so. Dere is
+chief dat want to put Peter under his foot! He try, but he no do it! I
+know Peter well, and know dat chief, too.”
+
+“This is news to me, Peter, and I am surprised to hear it. I did think
+that even the great Tecumthe was scarcely as big a chief as you are
+yourself.”
+
+“Yes, pretty big chief; dat true. But, among Injin, ebbery man can
+speak, and nebber know which way council go. Sometime he go one way;
+sometime he go tudder. You hear Bough of Oak speak, eh? Tell me dat?”
+
+“You will remember that I heard none of your speakers on Prairie Round,
+Peter. I do not remember any such orator as this Bough of Oak.”
+
+“He great rascal,” said Peter, who had picked up some of the garrison
+expressions among those from whom he acquired the knowledge of English
+he possessed, such as it was. “Listen, Bourdon. Nebber bess stand too
+much in Peter's way.”
+
+The bee-hunter laughed freely at this remark; for his own success the
+previous day, and the impression he had evidently made on that occasion,
+emboldened him to take greater liberties with the mysterious chief than
+had been his wont.
+
+“I should think that, Peter,” cried the young man, gayly--“I should
+think all that. For one, I should choose to get out of it. The path you
+travel is your own, and all wise men will leave you to journey along it
+in your own fashion.”
+
+“Yes; dat bess way,” answered the great chief, with admirable
+simplicity. “Don't like, when he says yes, to hear anudder chief say no.
+Dat an't good way to do business.”
+
+These were expressions caught from the trading whites, and were often
+used by those who got their English from them. “I tell you one t'ing,
+Bourdon--dat Bough of Oak very foolish Injin if he put foot on my path.”
+
+“This is plain enough, Peter,” rejoined le Bourdon, who was
+unconcernedly repairing some of the tools of his ordinary craft. “By
+the way, I am greatly in your debt, I learn, for one thing. They tell me
+I've got my squaw in my wigwam a good deal sooner, by your advice, than
+I might have otherwise done. Margery is now my wife, I suppose you know;
+and I thank you heartily, for helping me to get married so much sooner
+than I expected to be.”
+
+Here Peter grasped Bourdon by the hand, and poured out his whole soul,
+secret hopes, fears, and wishes. On this occasion he spoke in the Indian
+dialect--one of those that he knew the bee-hunter understood. And we
+translate what he said freely into English, preserving as much of the
+original idiom as the change of language will permit.
+
+“Listen, hunter of the bee, the great medicine of the pale-faces, and
+hear what a chief that knows the red men is about to tell you. Let my
+words go into your ears; let them stay in your mind. They are words that
+will do you good. It is not wise to let such words come out again by the
+hole through which they have just entered.
+
+“My young friend knows our traditions. They do not tell us that the
+Injins were Jews; they tell us that the Manitou created them red men.
+They tell us that our fathers used these hunting-grounds ever since the
+earth was placed on the back of the big tortoise which upholds it. The
+pale-faces say the earth moves. If this be true, it moves as slowly
+as the tortoise walks. It cannot have gone far since the Great Spirit
+lifted his hand off it. If it move, the hunting-grounds move with it,
+and the tribes move with their own hunting-grounds. It may be that some
+of the pale-faces are lost, but no Injin is lost--the medicine-priest is
+mistaken. He has looked so often in his book, that he sees nothing but
+what is there. He does not see what is before his eyes, at his side,
+behind his back, all around him. I have known such Injins. They see but
+one thing; even the deer jump across their paths, and are not seen.
+
+“Such are our traditions. They tell us that this land was given to the
+red men, and not to pale-faces. That none but red men have any right to
+hunt here. The Great Spirit has laws. He has told us these laws. They
+teach us to love our friends, and to hate our enemies. You don't believe
+this, Bourdon?” observing the bee-hunter to wince a little, as if he
+found the doctrine bad.
+
+“This is not what our priests tell US,” answered le Bourdon. “They tell
+us that the white man's God commands us to love all alike--to do GOOD to
+our enemies, to LOVE them that wish us HARM, and to treat all men as
+we would wish men to treat us.” Peter was a good deal surprised at this
+doctrine, and it was nearly a minute before he resumed the discourse. He
+had recently heard it several times, and it was slowly working its way
+into his mind.
+
+“Such are our traditions, and such are our laws. Look at me. Fifty
+winters have tried to turn my hair white. Time can do that. The hair is
+the only part of an Injin that ever turns white; all the rest of him is
+red. That is his color. The game knows an Injin by his color. The tribes
+know him. Everything knows him by his color. He knows the things which
+the Great Spirit has given him, in the same way. He gets used to them,
+and they are his acquaintances. He does not like strange things. He does
+not like strangers. White men are strangers, and he does not like to
+see them on his hunting-ground. If they come singly, to kill a few
+buffaloes, or to look for honey, or to catch beaver, the Injins would
+not complain. They love to give of their abundance. The pale-faces
+do not come in this fashion. They do not come as guests; they come as
+masters. They come and they stay. Each year of my fifty have I heard of
+new tribes that have been driven by them toward the setting sun.
+
+“Bourdon, for many seasons I have thought of this. I have tried to find
+a way to stop them. There is but one. That way must the Injins try, or
+give up their hunting-grounds to the strangers. No nation likes to give
+up its hunting-grounds. They come from the Manitou, and one day he may
+ask to have them back again. What could the red men say, if they let the
+pale-faces take them away? No; this we cannot do. We will first try the
+one thing that is to be done.”
+
+“I believe I understand you, Peter,” observed le Bourdon, finding
+that his companion paused. “You mean war. War, in the Injin mode of
+redressing all wrongs; war against man, woman, and child!”
+
+Peter nodded in acquiescence, fixing his glowing eyes on the
+bee-hunter's face, as if to read his soul.
+
+“Am I to understand, then, that you and your friends, the chiefs and
+their followers, that I saw on Prairie Round, mean to begin with US,
+half-a-dozen whites, of whom two are women, who happen to be here in
+your power--that OUR scalps are to be the first taken?”
+
+“First!--no, Bourdon. Peter's hand has taken a great many, years since.
+He has got a name for his deeds, and no longer dare go to the white
+men's forts. He does not look for Yankees, he looks for pale-faces. When
+he meets a pale-face on the prairies, or in the woods, he tries to get
+his scalp. This has he done for years, and many has he taken.”
+
+“This is a bloody account you are giving of yourself, Peter, and I
+would rather you should not have told it. Some such account I have heard
+before; but living with you, and eating, and drinking, and sleeping, and
+travelling in your company, I had not only hoped, but begun to think, it
+was not true.”
+
+“It is true. My wish is to cut off the pale-faces. This must be done, or
+the pale-faces will cut off the Injins. There is no choice. One nation
+or the other must be destroyed. I am a red man; my heart tells me that
+the pale-faces should die. They are on strange hunting-grounds, not
+the red men. They are wrong, we are right. But, Bourdon, I have friends
+among the pale-faces, and it is not natural to scalp our friends. I do
+not understand a religion that tells us to love our enemies, and to do
+good to them that do harm to us--it is a strange religion. I am a poor
+Injin, and do not know what to think! I shall not believe that any do
+this, till I see it. I understand that we ought to love our friends.
+Your squaw is my daughter. I have called her daughter--she knows it, and
+my tongue is not forked, like a snake's. What it says, I mean. Once I
+meant to scalp your young squaw, because she was a pale-face squaw, and
+might be the mother of more. Now I do not mean to scalp her; my hand
+shall never harm her. My wisdom shall tell her to escape from the hands
+of red men who seek her scalp. You, too; now you are her husband,
+and are a great medicine-man of the bees, my hand shall not hurt you,
+either. Open your ears wide, for big truths must go into them.”
+
+Peter then related in full his attempt to procure a safe passage for
+le Bourdon and Margery into the settlements, and its total failure. He
+owned that by his previous combinations he had awakened a spirit among
+the Indians that his present efforts could not quell. In a word, he told
+the whole story as it must have been made apparent to the reader, and he
+now came with his plans to defeat the very schemes that he had himself
+previously projected. One thing, however, that he did not conceal,
+filled the mind of his listener with horror, and created so strong an
+aversion to acting in concert with one who could even allude to it so
+coolly, that there was danger of breaking off all communications between
+the parties, and placing the result purely on force; a course that must
+have proved totally destructive to all the whites. The difficulty arose
+from a naive confession of Peter's, that he did not even wish to save
+any but le Bourdon and Margery, and that he still desired the deaths of
+all the others, himself!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+     For thou wert born of woman! Thou didst come,
+     O Holiest! to this world of sin and gloom,
+     Not in thy dread omnipotent array;
+     And not by thunders strewed
+     Was thy tempestuous road,
+     Nor indignation burnt before thee on thy way.
+     But thee, a soft and naked child,
+     Thy mother undefiled,
+     In the rude manger laid to rest
+     From off her virgin breast.
+
+
+The blood of the bee-hunter curdled in his veins as he listened to
+Peter's business-like and direct manner of treating this terrible
+subject. Putting the most favorable view on his situation, it was
+frightful to look on. Admitting that this fanatical savage were sincere
+in all his professions of a wish to save him and Margery, and le
+Bourdon did not, nay, COULD not doubt this, after his calm but ferocious
+revelations; but, admitting all this to be true, how was he to escape
+with his charming bride, environed as they were by so large a band of
+hostile Indians? Then the thought of abandoning his other companions,
+and attempting, in cold selfishness, to escape with Margery alone, was
+more than he could bear. Never before, in his adventurous and bold life,
+had le Bourdon been so profoundly impressed with a sense of his danger,
+or so much overcome.
+
+Still, our hero was not unmanned. He saw all the hazards, as it were, at
+a glance, and felt how terrible might be the result should they really
+fall into the hands of the warriors, excited to exercise their ingenuity
+in devising the means of torture; and he gazed into the frightful
+perspective with a manly steadiness that did him credit, even while he
+sickened at the prospect.
+
+Peter had told his story in a way to add to its horrible character.
+There was a manner of truth, of directness, of WORK, if one may use such
+an expression on such a subject, that gave a graphic reality to all he
+said. As if his task was done, the mysterious chief now coolly arose,
+and moved away to a little grove, in which the missionary and the
+corporal had thrown themselves on the grass, where they lay speculating
+on the probable course that the bands in their neighborhood would next
+pursue. So thoroughly possessed was the clergyman with his one idea,
+however, that he was expressing regret at his failure in the attempt to
+convince the savages that they were Jews, when Peter joined them.
+
+“You tired--you lie down in daytime, like sick squaw, eh?” asked the
+Indian, in a slightly satirical manner. “Bess be up, sich fine day, and
+go wid me to see some more chief.”
+
+“Most gladly, Peter,” returned the missionary, springing to his feet
+with alacrity--“and I shall have one more opportunity to show your
+friends the truth of what I have told them.”
+
+“Yes, Injin love to hear trut'--hate to hear lie. Can tell 'em all you
+want to say. He go too, eh?” pointing to the corporal, who rather hung
+back, as if he saw that in the invitation which was not agreeable to
+him.
+
+“I will answer for my friend,” returned the confiding missionary,
+cheerfully. “Lead on, Peter, and we will follow.”
+
+Thus pledged, the corporal no longer hesitated; but he accompanied
+Parson Amen, as the latter fell into the tracks of the chief, and
+proceeded rapidly in the direction of the spring in the piece of
+bottom-land, where the council first described had been held. This spot
+was about two miles from the palisaded house, and quite out of view, as
+well as out of reach of sound. As they walked side by side, taking the
+footsteps of the great chief for their guides, the corporal, however,
+expressed to his companion his dislike of the whole movement.
+
+“We ought to stand by our garrison in times like these, Mr. Amen,” said
+the well-meaning soldier. “A garrison is a garrison; and Injins seldom
+do much on a well-built and boldly-defended spot of that natur'. They
+want artillery, without which their assaults are never very formidable.”
+
+“Why talk you of warlike means, corporal, when we are in the midst of
+friends? Is not Peter our known and well-tried associate, one with whom
+you and I have travelled far; and do we not know that we have friends
+among these chiefs, whom we are now going to visit? The Lord has led
+me into these distant and savage regions, to carry his word, and to
+proclaim his name; and a most unworthy and unprofitable servant should
+I prove, were I to hesitate about approaching them I am appointed to
+teach. No, no; fear nothing. I will not say that you carry Caesar and
+his fortunes, as I have heard was once said of old, but I will say you
+follow one who is led of God, and who marches with the certainty of
+being divinely commanded.”
+
+The corporal was ashamed to oppose so confident an enthusiasm, and he
+offered no further resistance. Together the two followed their leader,
+who, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, soon had them
+out of sight of the castle, and well on their way toward the spring.
+When about half the distance was made, the direction took the
+party through a little thicket, or rather along its margin, and the
+missionary, a good deal to his surprise, saw Pigeonswing within the
+cover, seemingly preparing for another hunt. This young warrior had
+so lately returned from one excursion of this nature, that he was not
+expected to go forth so soon on another. Nor was he accustomed to go out
+so early in the day. This was the hour in which he ordinarily slept; but
+there he was, beyond a question, and apparently looking at the party as
+it passed. So cold was his manner, however, and so indifferent did he
+seem, that no one would have suspected that he knew aught of what was in
+contemplation. Having satisfied himself that his friend, the bee-hunter,
+was not one of those who followed Peter, the Chippewa turned coldly
+away, and began to examine the flint of his rifle. The corporal noted
+this manner, and it gave him additional confidence to proceed; for
+he could not imagine that any human being would manifest so much
+indifference, when sinister designs existed.
+
+Peter turned neither to the right hand nor to the left, until he had led
+the way down upon the little arena of bottom-land already described, and
+which was found well sprinkled with savages. A few stood, or sat about
+in groups, earnestly conversing; but most lay extended at length on the
+green sward, in the indolent repose that is so grateful to an Indian
+warrior in his hours of inaction. The arrival of Peter, however,
+instantly put a new face on the appearance of matters. Every man started
+to his feet, and additions were made to those who were found in the
+arena by those who came out of the adjacent thickets, until some two
+or three hundred of the red men were assembled in a circle around the
+newly-arrived pale-faces.
+
+“There,” said Peter, sternly, fastening his eye with a hostile
+expression on Bough of the Oak and Ungque, in particular--“there are
+your captives. Do with them as you will. As for them that have dared to
+question my faith, let them own that they are liars!”
+
+This was not a very amicable salutation, but savages are accustomed to
+plain language. Bough of the Oak appeared a little uneasy, and Ungque's
+countenance denoted dissatisfaction; but the last was too skilful an
+actor to allow many of the secrets of his plotting mind to shine through
+the windows of his face. As for the crowd at large, gleams of content
+passed over the bright red faces, illuminating them with looks of savage
+joy. Murmurs of approbation were heard, and Crowsfeather addressed the
+throng, there, where it stood, encircling the two helpless and as yet
+but half-alarmed victims of so fell a plot.
+
+“My brothers and my young men can now see,” said this Pottawattamie,
+“that the tribeless chief has an Injin heart. His heart is NOT a
+pale-face heart--it is that of a red man. Some of our chiefs have
+thought that he had lived too much with the strangers, and that he had
+forgotten the traditions of our fathers, and was listening to the song
+of the medicine priest. Some thought that he believed himself lost, and
+a Jew, and not an Injin. This is not so. Peter knows the path he is on.
+He knows that he is a redskin, and he looks on the Yankees as enemies.
+The scalps he has taken are so numerous they cannot be counted. He is
+ready to take more. Here are two that he gives to us. When we have done
+with these two captives, he will bring us more. He will continue to
+bring them, until the pale-faces will be as few as the deer in their own
+clearings. Such is the will of the Manitou.”
+
+The missionary understood all that was said, and he was not a little
+appalled at the aspect of things. For the first time he began
+to apprehend that he was in danger. So much was this devout and
+well-intentioned servant of his church accustomed to place his
+dependence on a superintending Providence, that apprehension of personal
+suffering seldom had any influence on his exertions. He believed himself
+to be an object of especial care; though he was ever ready to admit that
+the wisdom which human minds cannot compass, might order events that,
+at first sight, would seem to be opposed to that which ought to be
+permitted to come to pass. In this particular Parson Amen was a model of
+submission, firmly believing that all that happened was in furtherance
+of the great scheme of man's regeneration and eventual salvation.
+
+With the corporal it was very different. Accustomed to war with red
+men, and most acquainted with them in their worst character, he ever
+suspected treachery, and had followed Peter with a degree of reluctance
+he had not cared to express. He now thoroughly took the alarm, however,
+and stood on his guard. Although he did not comprehend more than half of
+that which Peter had said, he understood quite enough to see that he and
+the missionary were surrounded by enemies, if not by executioners.
+
+“We have fallen into a sort of ambush here, Parson Amen,” cried the
+corporal, rattling his arms as he looked to their condition, “and it's
+high time we beat the general. If there were four on us we might form
+a square; but being only two, the best thing we can do will be to stand
+back to back, and for one to keep an eye on the right flank, while he
+nat'rally watches all in front; and for the other to keep an eye on the
+left flank, while he sees to the rear. Place your back close to mine,
+and take the left flank into your part of the lookout. Closer, closer,
+my good sir; we must stand solid as rooted trees, to make anything of a
+stand.”
+
+The missionary, in his surprise, permitted the corporal to assume the
+position described, though conscious of its uselessness in their actual
+condition. As for the Indians, the corporal's manner and the rattling of
+his arms induced the circle to recede several paces; though nothing like
+alarm prevailed among them. The effect, nevertheless, was to leave the
+two captives space for their evolutions, and a sort of breathing time.
+This little change had the appearance of something like success, and it
+greatly encouraged the corporal. He began to think it even possible to
+make a retreat that would be as honorable as any victory.
+
+“Steady--keep shoulder to shoulder, Parson Amen, and take care of your
+flank. Our movement must be by our left flank, and everything depends
+on keeping that clear. I shall have to give you my baggonet, for you're
+entirely without arms, which leaves my rear altogether exposed.”
+
+“Think nothing of your arms, Brother Flint--they would be useless in my
+hands in any case; and, were we made of muskets, they could be of no use
+against these odds. My means of defence come from on high; my armor is
+faith; and my only weapon, prayer. I shall not hesitate to use the last
+on this, as on all other occasions.”
+
+The missionary then called on the circle of curious savages by whom he
+was surrounded, and who certainly contemplated nothing less than his
+death, in common with those of all his white companions, to unite with
+him in addressing the Throne of Grace. Accustomed to preach and pray
+to these people in their own dialect, the worthy parson made a strong
+appeal to their charities, while supplicating the favors of Divine
+Providence in behalf of himself and his brother captive. He asked for
+all the usual benedictions and blessings on his enemies, and made a very
+happy exposition of those sublime dogmas of Christianity, which teach us
+to “bless them that curse us,” and to “pray for those who despitefully
+use us.” Peter, for the first time in his life, was now struck with
+the moral beauty of such a sentiment, which seldom fails, when duly
+presented, of producing an effect on even the dullest minds. His
+curiosity was touched, and instead of turning coldly, as had been his
+intention, and leaving the captives in the hands of those to whom he
+had delivered them, he remained in the circle, and paid the closest
+attention to all of the proceedings. He had several times previously
+heard the missionary speak of this duty as a command of God's, but never
+before had he deemed it possible to realize such a thing in practice.
+
+The Indians, if not absolutely awe-struck by the singular spectacle
+before them, seemed well disposed to let the missionary finish his
+appeal; some wondering, others doubting, and all more or less at a
+loss to know what to make of an exhibition so unusual. There stood the
+corporal, with his back pressed closely to that of his companion, his
+musket at “make ready,” and his whole mien that of a man with every
+nerve screwed to the sticking-point; while the missionary, the other
+side of the picture, with outstretched arms, was lifting his voice
+in prayer to the throne of the Most High. As this extraordinary scene
+continued, the corporal grew excited; and ere long his voice was
+occasionally heard, blended with that of the clergyman, in terms of
+advice and encouragement.
+
+“Blaze away, Mr. Amen,” shouted the soldier. “Give 'em another
+volley--you're doing wonders, and their front has given ground! One
+more such volley as the last, and we'll make a forward movement,
+ourselves--attention!--prepare to march by the left flank, as soon as
+there is a good opening!”
+
+That good opening, however, was never made. The savages, though
+astonished, were by no means frightened, and had not the smallest idea
+of letting their captives escape. On the contrary, Bear's Meat, who
+acted as commander-in-chief on this occasion, was quite self-possessed,
+and so far from being impressed with the missionary's prayer, he
+listened to it only in the hope of hearing some admission of weakness
+escape. But the excitement of the corporal soon produced a crisis. His
+attempts to make a movement “by the left flank,” caused his column of
+defence to be broken, and obtaining no assistance from Parson Amen, who
+was still pouring out his soul in prayer, while endeavoring to
+bring things back to their original state, he suddenly found himself
+surrounded and disarmed. From that instant, the corporal changed
+his tactics. So long as he was armed, and comparatively free, he had
+bethought him only of the means of resistance; now that these were
+denied him, he submitted, and summoned all his resolution to bear the
+penalties of his captivity, in a manner that might not do discredit to
+his regiment. This was the third time that Corporal Flint had been a
+prisoner among the Indians, and he was not now to learn the nature of
+their tender mercies. His forebodings were not of the most pleasant
+character; but that which could not be helped, he was disposed to bear
+with manly fortitude. His greatest concern, at that fearful moment, was
+for the honor of his corps.
+
+All this time, Parson Amen continued his prayer. So completely was his
+spirit occupied with the duty of offering up his petition, that he was
+utterly unconscious of what else had passed; nor had he heard one of the
+corporal's appeals for “attention,” and to be “steady,” and to march “by
+the left flank.” In a word, the whole man was intent on prayer; and when
+thus employed, a six-pounder discharged in the circle would hardly
+have disconcerted him. He persevered, therefore, uninterrupted by his
+conquerors, until he concluded in his own way. Having thus fortified his
+soul, and asked for succor where he had now so long been accustomed to
+seek and to find it, the worthy missionary took his seat quietly on a
+log, on which the corporal had been previously placed by his captors.
+
+The time had arrived for the chiefs to proceed in the execution of their
+purposes. Peter, profoundly struck with the prayers of the missionary in
+behalf of his enemies, had taken a station a little on one side, where
+he stood ruminating on what he had just heard. If ever precept bore the
+stamp of a divine origin, it is this. The more we reflect on it, the
+clearer do our perceptions of this truth become. The whole scheme of
+Christ's redemption and future existence is founded in love, and such a
+system would be imperfect while any were excluded from its benefits.
+To love those who reciprocate our feelings is so very natural, that
+the sympathies which engender this feeling are soonest attracted by a
+knowledge of their existence, love producing love, as power increases
+power. But to love those who hate us, and to strive to do good to those
+who are plotting evil against ourselves, greatly exceeds the moral
+strength of man, unaided from above. This was the idea that puzzled
+Peter, and he now actually interrupted the proceedings, in order
+to satisfy his mind on a subject so totally new to him. Previously,
+however, to taking this step, he asked the permission of the principal
+chiefs, awakening in their bosoms by means of his explanations some of
+the interest in this subject that he felt himself.
+
+“Brother medicine-man,” said the mysterious chief, drawing nearer to the
+missionary, accompanied himself by Bear's Meat, Crowsfeather, and one or
+two more, “you have been talking to the Great Spirit o! the pale-faces.
+We have heard your words, and think them well. They are good words for
+a man about to set out on the path that leads to the unknown lands.
+Thither we must all go some time, and it matters little when. We may not
+all travel the same path. I do not think the Manitou will crowd tribes
+of different colors together there, as they are getting to be crowded
+together here.
+
+“Brother, you are about to learn how all these things really are. If red
+men, and pale-faces, and black men are to live in the same land, after
+death, you will shortly know it. My brother is about to go there. He and
+his friend, this warrior of his people, will travel on that long path in
+company. I hope they will agree by the way, and not trouble each other.
+It will be convenient to my brother to have a hunter with him; the path
+is so long, he will be hungry before he gets to the end. This warrior
+knows how to use a musket, and we shall put his arms with him in his
+grave.
+
+“Brother, before you start on this journey, from which no traveller ever
+returns, let his color be what it may, we wish to hear you speak further
+about loving our enemies. This is not the Indian rule. The red men hate
+their enemies, and love their friends. When they ask the Manitou to
+do anything to their enemies, it is to do them harm. This is what our
+fathers taught us: it is what we teach our children. Why should we love
+them that hate us: why should we do good to them that do us harm? Tell
+us now, or we may never hear the reason.”
+
+“Tell you I will, Peter, and the Lord so bless my words that they may
+soften your hearts, and lead you all to the truth, and to dependence on
+the mediation of his blessed Son! We should do good to them that do evil
+to us, because the Great Spirit has commanded us so to do. Ask your own
+heart if this is not right. If they sound like words that are spoken by
+any but those who have been taught by the Manitou, himself. The devils
+tell us to revenge, but God commands us to forgive. It is easy to do
+good to them that do good to us; but it tries the heart sorely to do
+good to them that do us evil. I have spoken to you of the Son of the
+Great Spirit. He came on earth, and told us with his own mouth all these
+great truths. He said that next to the duty of loving the Manitou, was
+the duty of loving our neighbors. No matter whether friend or enemy, it
+was our duty to love them, and do them all the good we can. If there is
+no venison in their wigwams, we should take the deer off our own poles,
+and carry it and put on theirs. Why have I come here to tell you this?
+When at home, I lived under a good roof, eat of abundance, and slept in
+a soft and warm bed. You know how it is here. We do not know to-day what
+we shall eat to-morrow. Our beds are hard, and our roofs are of bark. I
+come, because the Son of the Manitou, he who came and lived among men,
+told us to do all this. His commands to his medicine-men were, to go
+forth, and tell all nations, and tribes, and colors, the truth--to
+tell them to 'love them that sought to do them harm, and to do good for
+evil.'”
+
+Parson Amen pausing a moment to take breath, Ungque, who detected the
+wavering of Peter's mind, and who acted far more in opposition to the
+mysterious and tribeless chief than from any other motive, profited by
+the occasion thus afforded to speak. Without this pause, however, the
+breeding of an Indian would have prevented any interruption.
+
+“I open my mouth to speak,” said The Weasel, in his humblest manner.
+“What I say is not fit for the wise chiefs to hear. It is foolish, but
+my mind tells me to say it. Does the medicine-man of the pale-faces tell
+us that the Son of the Great Spirit came upon earth, and lived among
+men?”
+
+“I do; such is our belief; and the religion we believe and teach cometh
+directly from his mouth.”
+
+“Let the medicine-man tell the chiefs how long the Son of the Great
+Spirit stayed on earth, and which way he went when he left it.”
+
+Now, this question was put by Ungque through profound dissimulation. He
+had heard of the death of Christ, and had obtained some such idea of
+the great sacrifice as would be apt to occur to the mind of a savage.
+He foresaw that the effect of the answer would be very likely to destroy
+most of the influence that the missionary had just been building up, by
+means of his doctrine and his prayers. Parson Amen was a man of singular
+simplicity of character, but he had his misgivings touching the effect
+of this reply. Still he did not scruple about giving it, or attempt in
+any manner to mystify or to deceive.
+
+“It is a humiliating and sad story, my brethren, and one that ought to
+cause all heads to be bowed to the earth in shame,” he answered. “The
+Son of the Great Spirit came among men; he did nothing but good; told
+those who heard him how to live and how to die. In return for all this,
+wicked and unbelieving men put him to death. After death his body
+was taken up into Heaven--the region of departed spirits, and the
+dwelling-place of his Father--where he now is, waiting for the time
+when he is to return to the earth, to reward the good and to punish the
+wicked. That time will surely come; nor do I believe the day to be very
+distant.”
+
+The chiefs listened to this account with grave attention. Some of them
+had heard outlines of the same history before. Accounts savoring of the
+Christian history had got blended with some of their own traditions,
+most probably the fruits of the teachings of the earlier missionaries,
+but were so confused and altered as to be scarcely susceptible of being
+recognized. To most of them, however, the history of the incarnation
+of the Son of God was entirely new; and it struck THEM as a most
+extraordinary thing altogether that any man should have injured such
+a being! It was, perhaps, singular that no one of them all doubted
+the truth of the tradition itself. This they supposed to have been
+transmitted with the usual care, and they received it as a fact not to
+be disputed. The construction that was put on its circumstances will
+best appear in the remarks that followed.
+
+“If the pale-faces killed the Son of the Great Spirit,” said Bough of
+the Oak, pointedly, “we can see why they wish to drive the red men from
+their lands. Evil spirits dwell in such men, and they do nothing but
+what is bad. I am glad that our great chief has told us to put the foot
+on this worm and crush it, while yet the Indian foot is large enough to
+do it. In a few winters they would kill us, as they killed the Spirit
+that did them nothing but good!”
+
+“I am afraid that this mighty tradition hath a mystery in it that
+your Indian minds will scarcely be willing to receive,” resumed the
+missionary, earnestly. “I would not, for a thousand worlds, or to save
+ten thousand lives as worthless as my own, place a straw in the way of
+the faith of any; yet must I tell the thing as it happened. This Son of
+the Great Spirit was certainly killed by the Jews of that day, so far as
+he COULD be killed. He possessed two natures, as indeed do all men: the
+body and soul. In his body he was man, as we all are men; in his soul he
+was a part of the Great Spirit himself. This is the great mystery of our
+religion. We cannot tell how it can happen, but we believe it. We see
+around us a thousand things that we cannot understand, and this is one
+of them.”
+
+Here Bear's Meat availed himself of another pause to make a remark. This
+he did with the keenness of one accustomed to watch words and events
+closely, but with a simplicity that showed no vulgar disposition to
+scepticism.
+
+“We do not expect that all the Great Spirit does can be clear to us
+Indians,” he said. “We know very little; he knows everything. Why
+should we think to know all that he knows? We do not. That part of the
+tradition gives us no trouble. Indians can believe without seeing. They
+are not squaws, that wish to look behind every bush. But my brother has
+told too much for his own good. If the pale-faces killed their Great
+Spirit, they can have no Manitou, and must be in the hands of the Evil
+Spirit This is the reason they want our hunting-grounds. I will not let
+them come any nearer to the setting sun. It is time to begin to kill
+them, as they killed their Great Spirit. The Jews did this. My brother
+wishes us to think that red men are Jews! No; red men never harmed the
+Son of the Great Spirit, They would receive him as a friend, and treat
+him as a chief. Accursed be the hand that should be raised to harm him.
+This tradition is a wise tradition. It tells us many things. It tells us
+that Injins are not Jews. They never hurt the Son of the Great Spirit.
+It tells us that the red men have always lived on these hunting-grounds,
+and did not come from toward the rising sun. It tells us that pale-faces
+are not fit to live. They are too wicked. Let them die.”
+
+“I would ask a question,” put in Peter. “This tradition is not new. I
+have heard it before. It entered but a little way into my ears. I did
+not think of it. It has now entered deeper, and I wish to hear more. Why
+did not the Son of the Great Spirit kill the Jews?--why did he let the
+Jews kill him? Will my brother say?”
+
+“He came on earth to die for man, whose wickedness was so deep that the
+Great Spirit's justice could not be satisfied with less. WHY this is so
+no one knows. It is enough that it should be so. Instead of thinking of
+doing harm to his tormentors and murderers, he died for them, and died
+asking for benefits on them, and on their wives and children, for all
+time to come. It was he who commanded us to do good to them that do harm
+to us.”
+
+Peter gave the utmost attention to this answer, and when he had received
+it, he walked apart, musing profoundly. It is worthy of being observed
+that not one of these savages raised any hollow objections to the
+incarnation of the Son of the Great Spirit, as would have been the case
+with so many civilized men. To them this appeared no more difficult and
+incomprehensible than most of that which they saw around them. It is
+when we begin to assume the airs of philosophy, and to fancy, because
+we know a little, that the whole book of knowledge is within our grasp,
+that men become sceptics. There is not a human being now in existence
+who does not daily, hourly see that which is just as much beyond his
+powers of comprehension as this account of the incarnation of the Deity,
+and the whole doctrine of the Trinity; and yet he acquiesces in that
+which is before his eyes, because it is familiar and he sees it, while
+he cavils at all else, though the same unknown and inexplicable cause
+lies behind everything. The deepest philosophy is soon lost in this
+general mystery, and, to the eye of a meek reason, all around us is a
+species of miracle, which must be referred to the power of the Deity.
+
+While thus disposed to receive the pale-face traditions with respect,
+however, the red men did not lose sight of their own policy and
+purposes. The principal chiefs now stepped aside, and held a brief
+council. Though invited to do so, Peter did not join them; leaving to
+Bough of the Oak, Ungque, and Bear's Meat the control of the result
+The question was whether the original intention of including this
+medicine-priest among those to be cut off should, or should not, be
+adhered to. One or two of the chiefs had their doubts, but the opinion
+of the council was adverse.
+
+“If the pale-faces killed the Son of their Great Spirit, why should we
+hesitate about killing them?” The Weasel asked, with malicious point,
+for he saw that Peter was now sorely troubled at the probability of his
+own design being fully carried out. “There is no difference. This is
+a medicine-priest--in the wigwam is a medicine-bee-hunter, and that
+warrior may be a medicine-warrior. We do not know. We are poor Injins
+that know but little. It is not so with the pale-faces; they talk with
+the conjurer's bees, and know much. We shall not have ground enough to
+take even a muskrat, soon, unless we cut off the strangers. The Manitou
+has given us these; let us kill them.”
+
+As no one very strenuously opposed the scheme, the question was soon
+decided, and Ungque was commissioned to communicate the result to
+the captives. One exception, however, was to be made in favor of the
+missionary. His object appeared to be peaceful, and it was determined
+that he should be led a short distance into the surrounding thicket, and
+be there put to death, without any attempt to torture, or aggravate his
+sufferings. As a mark of singular respect, it was also decided not to
+scalp him.
+
+As Ungque, and those associated with him, led the missionary to the
+place of execution, the former artfully invited Peter to follow. This
+was done simply because the Weasel saw that it would now be unpleasant
+to the man he hated--hated merely because he possessed an influence that
+he coveted for himself.
+
+“My father will see a pleasant sight,” said the wily Weasel, as he
+walked at Peter's side, toward the indicated spot; “he will see a
+pale-face die, and know that his foot has been put upon another worm.”
+
+No answer was made to this ironical remark, but Peter walked in silence
+to the place where the missionary was stationed, surrounded by a guard.
+Ungque now advanced and spoke.
+
+“It is time for the medicine-priest of the pale-faces to start after the
+spirits of his people who have gone before him,” he said. “The path is
+long, and unless he walks fast, and starts soon, he may not overtake
+them. I hope he will see some of them that helped to kill the Son of his
+Great Spirit, starving, and foot-sore, on the way.”
+
+“I understand you,” returned the missionary, after a few moments passed
+in recovering from the shock of this communication. “My hour is come. I
+have held my life in my hand ever since I first put foot in this heathen
+region, and if it be the Creator's will that I am now to die, I bow to
+the decree. Grant me a few minutes for prayer to my God.”
+
+Ungque signed that the delay should be granted. The missionary uncovered
+his head, knelt, and again lifted up his voice in prayer. At first the
+tones were a little tremulous; but they grew firmer as he proceeded.
+Soon they became as serene as usual. He first asked mercy for himself,
+threw all his hopes on the great atonement, and confessed how far he was
+from that holiness which alone could fit him to see God. When this duty
+was performed, he prayed for his enemies. The language used was his
+mother tongue, but Peter comprehended most of that which was said. He
+heard his own people prayed for; he heard his own name mentioned, as the
+condemned man asked the mercy of the Manitou in his behalf. Never before
+was the soul of this extraordinary savage so shaken. The past seemed
+like a dream to him, while the future possessed a light that was still
+obscured by clouds. Here was an exemplification in practice of that
+divine spirit of love and benevolence which had struck him, already,
+as so very wonderful. There could be no mistake. There was the kneeling
+captive, and his words, clear, distinct, and imploring, ascended through
+the cover of the bushes to the throne of God.
+
+As soon as the voice of the missionary was mute, the mysterious chief
+bowed his head and moved away. He was then powerless. No authority of
+his could save the captive, and the sight that so lately would have
+cheered his eyes was now too painful to bear. He heard the single blow
+of the tomahawk which brained the victim, and he shuddered from head to
+foot. It was the first time such a weakness had ever come over him. As
+for the missionary, in deference to his pursuits, his executioners dug
+him a grave, and buried him unmutilated on the spot where he had fallen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+     Brutal alike in deed and word,
+     With callous heart and hand of strife.
+     How like a fiend may man be made,
+     Plying the foul and monstrous trade
+     Whose harvest-field is human life.
+                                 --WHITTIER.
+
+
+A veil like that of oblivion dropped before the form of the missionary.
+The pious persons who had sent him forth to preach to the heathen,
+never knew his fate; a disappearance that was so common to that class of
+devoted men, as to produce regret rather than surprise. Even those who
+took his life felt a respect for him; and, strange as it may seem, it
+was to the eloquence of the man who now would have died to save him,
+that his death was alone to be attributed. Peter had awakened fires that
+he could not quench, and aroused a spirit that he could not quell. In
+this respect, he resembled most of those who, under the guise of reform,
+or revolution, in moments of doubt, set in motion a machine that is
+found impossible to control, when it is deemed expedient to
+check exaggeration by reason. Such is often the case with even
+well-intentioned leaders, who constantly are made to feel how much
+easier it is to light a conflagration, than to stay its flames when
+raging.
+
+Corporal Flint was left seated on the log, while the bloody scene of the
+missionary's death was occurring. He was fully alive to all the horrors
+of his own situation, and comprehended the nature of his companion's
+movements. The savages usually manifested so much respect for
+missionaries, that he was in no degree surprised. Parson Amen had been
+taken apart for his execution, and when those who had caused his removal
+returned, the corporal looked anxiously for the usual but revolting
+token of his late companion's death. As has been said, however, the
+missionary was suffered to lie in his wild grave, without suffering a
+mutilation of his remains.
+
+Notwithstanding this moderation, the Indians were getting to be incited
+by this taste of blood. The principal chiefs became sterner in their
+aspects, and the young men began to manifest some such impatience as
+that which the still untried pup betrays, when he first scents his
+game. All these were ominous symptoms, and were well understood by the
+captive.
+
+Perhaps it would not have been possible, in the whole range of human
+feelings, to find two men under influences more widely opposed to each
+other than were the missionary and the corporal, in this, their last
+scene on earth. The manner of Parson Amen's death has been described. He
+died in humble imitation of his Divine Master, asking for blessings on
+those who were about to destroy him, with a heart softened by Christian
+graces, and a meekness that had its origin in the consciousness of his
+own demerits. On the other hand, the corporal thought only of vengeance.
+Escape he knew to be impossible, and he would fain take his departure
+like a soldier, or as he conceived a soldier should die, in the midst of
+fallen foes.
+
+Corporal Flint had a salutary love of life, and would very gladly
+escape, did the means offer; but, failing of these, all his thoughts
+turned toward revenge. Some small impulses of ambition, or what it is
+usual to dignify with that term, showed themselves even at that serious
+moment. He had heard around the camp-fires, and in the garrisons, so
+many tales of heroism and of fortitude manifested by soldiers who had
+fallen into the hands of the Indians, that a faint desire to enroll his
+own name on the list of these worthies was beginning to arise in his
+breast. But truth compels us to add that the predominant feeling was
+the wish to revenge his own fate, by immolating as many of his foes
+as possible. To this last purpose, therefore, his thoughts were mainly
+directed, during that interval which his late companion had employed in
+prayers for those under whose blows he was about to fall. Such is the
+difference in man, with his heart touched, or untouched, by the power of
+the Holy Spirit.
+
+It was, however, much easier for the corporal to entertain designs of
+the nature mentioned than to carry them out: unarmed, surrounded by
+watchful enemies, and totally without support of any sort, the chances
+of effecting his purpose were small indeed. Once, for a minute only,
+the veteran seriously turned his thoughts to escape. It occurred to him,
+that he might possibly reach the castle, could he get a little start;
+and should the Indians compel him to run the gauntlet, as was often
+their practice, he determined to make an effort for life in that mode.
+Agreeably to the code of frontier warfare, a successful flight of this
+nature was scarcely less creditable than a victory in the field.
+
+Half an hour passed after the execution of the missionary before the
+chiefs commenced their proceedings with the corporal. The delay was
+owing to a consultation, in which The Weasel had proposed despatching
+a party to the castle, to bring in the family, and thus make a common
+destruction of the remaining pale-faces known to be in that part of the
+Openings. Peter did not dare to oppose this scheme, himself; but he so
+managed as to get Crowsfeather to do it, without bringing himself into
+the foreground. The influence of the Pottawattamie prevailed, and it
+was decided to torture this one captive, and to secure his scalp, before
+they proceeded to work their will on the others. Ungque, who had gained
+ground rapidly by his late success, was once more commissioned to state
+to the captive the intentions of his captors.
+
+“Brother,” commenced The Weasel, placing himself directly in front of
+the corporal, “I am about to speak to you. A wise warrior opens his
+ears, when he hears the voice of his enemy. He may learn something it
+will be good for him to know. It will be good for you to know what I am
+about to say.
+
+“Brother, you are a pale-face, and we are Injins. You wish to get our
+hunting-grounds, and we wish to keep them. To keep them, it has become
+necessary to take your scalp. I hope you are ready to let us have it.”
+
+The corporal had but an indifferent knowledge of the Indian language,
+but he comprehended all that was uttered on this occasion. Interest
+quickened his faculties, and no part of what was said was lost. The
+gentle, slow, deliberate manner in which The Weasel delivered himself,
+contributed to his means of understanding. He was fortunately prepared
+for what her heard, and the announcement of his approaching fate did not
+disturb him to the degree of betraying weakness. This last was a
+triumph in which the Indians delighted, though they ever showed the
+most profound respect for such of their victims as manifested a manly
+fortitude. It was necessary to reply, which the corporal did in English,
+knowing that several present could interpret his words. With a view to
+render this the more easy, he spoke in fragments of sentences, and with
+great deliberation.
+
+“Injins,” returned the corporal, “you surrounded me, and I have been
+taken prisoner--had there been a platoon on us, you mightn't have made
+out quite so well. It's no great victory for three hundred warriors to
+overcome a single man. I count Parson Amen as worse than nothing, for
+he looked to neither rear nor flank. If I could have half an hour's work
+upon you, with only half of our late company, I think we should lower
+your conceit. But that is impossible, and so you may do just what you
+please with me. I ask no favors.”
+
+Although this answer was very imperfectly translated, it awakened a good
+deal of admiration. A man who could look death so closely in the face,
+with so much steadiness, became a sort of hero in Indian eyes; and
+with the North American savage, fortitude is a virtue not inferior to
+courage. Murmurs of approbation were heard, and Ungque was privately
+requested to urge the captive further, in order to see how far present
+appearances were likely to be maintained.
+
+“Brother, I have said that we are Injins,” resumed The Weasel, with an
+air so humble, and a voice so meek, that a stranger might have supposed
+he was consoling, instead of endeavoring to intimidate, the prisoner.
+“It is true. We are nothing but poor, ignorant Injins. We can only
+torment our prisoners after Injin fashion. If we were pale-faces, we
+might do better. We did not torment the medicine-priest. We were afraid
+he would laugh at our mistakes. He knew a great deal. We know but
+little. We do as well as we know how.
+
+“Brother, when Injins do as well as they know how, a warrior should
+forget their mistakes. We wish to torment you, in a way to prove that
+you are all over man. We wish so to torment you that you will stand up
+under the pain in such a way that it will make our young men think your
+mother was not a squaw--that there is no woman in you. We do this for
+our own honor, as well as for yours. It will be an honor to us to have
+such a captive; it will be an honor to you to be such a captive. We
+shall do as well as we know how.
+
+“Brother, it is most time to begin. The tormenting will last a long
+time. We must not let the medicine-priest get too great a start on the
+path to the happy hunting-grounds of your--”
+
+Here, a most unexpected interruption occurred, that effectually put a
+stop to the eloquence of Ungque. In his desire to make an impression,
+the savage approached within reach of the captive's arm, while his
+own mind was intent on the words that he hoped would make the prisoner
+quail. The corporal kept his eye on that of the speaker, charming him,
+as it were, into a riveted gaze, in return. Watching his opportunity, he
+caught the tomahawk from The Weasel's belt, and by a single blow, felled
+him dead at his feet. Not content with this, the old soldier now bounded
+forward, striking right and left, inflicting six or eight wounds on
+others, before he could be again arrested, disarmed, and bound. While
+the last was doing, Peter withdrew, unobserved.
+
+Many were the “hughs” and other exclamations of admiration that
+succeeded this display of desperate manhood! The body of The Weasel was
+removed, and interred, while the wounded withdrew to attend to their
+hurts; leaving the arena to the rest assembled there. As for the
+corporal, he was pretty well blown, and, in addition to being now bound
+hand and foot, his recent exertions, which were terrific while they
+lasted, effectually incapacitated him from making any move, so long as
+he was thus exhausted and confined.
+
+A council was now held by the principal chiefs. Ungque had few friends.
+In this, he shared the fate of most demagogues, who are commonly
+despised even by those they lead and deceive. No one regretted him
+much, and some were actually glad of his fate. But the dignity of the
+conquerors must be vindicated. It would never do to allow a pale-face
+to obtain so great an advantage, and not take a signal vengeance for
+his deeds. After a long consultation, it was determined to subject the
+captive to the trial by saplings, and thus see if he could bear the
+torture without complaining.
+
+As some of our readers may not understand what this fell mode of
+tormenting is, it may be necessary to explain.
+
+There is scarcely a method of inflicting pain, that comes within, the
+compass of their means, that the North American Indians have not essayed
+on their enemies. When the infernal ingenuity that is exercised on these
+occasions fails of its effect, the captives themselves have been heard
+to suggest other means of torturing that THEY have known practised
+successfully by their own people. There is often a strange strife
+between the tormentors and the tormented; the one to manifest skill in
+inflicting pain, and the other to manifest fortitude in enduring it.
+As has just been said, quite as much renown is often acquired by the
+warrior, in setting all the devices of his conquerors at defiance, while
+subject to their hellish attempts, as in deeds of arms. It might be more
+true to say that such WAS the practice among the Indians, than to say,
+at the present time, that such IS; for it is certain that civilization
+in its approaches, while it has in many particulars even degraded the
+red man, has had a silent effect in changing and mitigating many of his
+fiercer customs--this, perhaps, among the rest. It is probable that the
+more distant tribes still resort to all these ancient usages; but it is
+both hoped and believed that those nearer to the whites do not.
+
+The “torture by saplings” is one of those modes of inflicting pain that
+would naturally suggest themselves to savages. Young trees that do not
+stand far apart are trimmed of their branches, and brought nearer to
+each other by bending their bodies; the victim is then attached to both
+trunks, sometimes by his extended arms, at others by his legs, or by
+whatever part of the frame cruelty can suggest, when the saplings are
+released, and permitted to resume their upright positions. Of course,
+the sufferer is lifted from the earth, and hangs suspended by his limbs,
+with a strain on them that soon produces the most intense anguish. The
+celebrated punishment of the “knout” partakes a good deal of this same
+character of suffering. Bough of the Oak now approached the corporal, to
+let him know how high an honor was in reserve for him.
+
+“Brother,” said this ambitious orator, “you are a brave warrior. You
+have done well. Not only have you killed one of our chiefs, but you have
+wounded several of our young men. No one but a brave could have done
+this. You have forced us to bind you, lest you might kill some more.
+It is not often that captives do this. Your courage has caused us to
+consult HOW we might best torture you, in a way most to manifest your
+manhood. After talking together, the chiefs have decided that a man of
+your firmness ought to be hung between two young trees. We have found
+the trees, and have cut off their branches. You can see them. If they
+were a little larger their force would be greater, and they would give
+you more pain--would be more worthy of you; but these are the largest
+saplings we could find. Had there been any larger, we would have let
+you have them. We wish to do you honor, for you are a bold warrior, and
+worthy to be well tormented.
+
+“Brother, look at these saplings! They are tall and straight. When they
+are bent by many hands, they will come together. Take away the hands,
+and they will become straight again. Your arms must then keep them
+together. We wish we had some pappooses here, that they might shoot
+arrows into your flesh. That would help much to torment you. You cannot
+have this honor, for we have no pappooses. We are afraid to let our
+young men shoot arrows into your flesh. They are strong, and might kill
+you. We wish you to die between the saplings, as is your right, being so
+great a brave.
+
+“Brother, we think much better of you since you killed The Weasel, and
+hurt our young men. If all your warriors at Chicago had been as bold
+as you, Black-Bird would not have taken that fort. You would have saved
+many scalps. This encourages us. It makes us think the Great Spirit
+means to help us, and that we shall kill all the pale-faces. When we get
+further into your settlements, we do not expect to meet many such braves
+as you. They tell us we shall then find men who will run, and screech
+like women. It will not be a pleasure to torment such men. We had
+rather torment a bold warrior, like you, who makes us admire him for his
+manliness. We love our squaws, but not in the warpath. They are best
+in the lodges; here we want nothing but men. You are a man--a brave--we
+honor you. We think, notwithstanding, we shall yet make you weak. It
+will not be easy, yet we hope to do it. We shall try. We may not think
+quite so well of you, if we do it; but we shall always call you a brave.
+A man is not a stone. We can all feel, and when we have done all that is
+in our power, no one can do more. It is so with Injins; we think it must
+be so with pale-faces. We mean to try and see how it is.”
+
+The corporal understood very little of this harangue, though he
+perfectly comprehended the preparations of the saplings, and Bough of
+the Oak's allusions to THEM. He was in a cold sweat at the thought, for
+resolute as he was, he foresaw sufferings that human fortitude could
+hardly endure. In this state of the case, and in the frame of mind he
+was in, he had recourse to an expedient of which he had often heard,
+and which he thought might now be practised to some advantage. It was to
+open upon the savages with abuse, and to exasperate them, by taunts and
+sarcasm, to such a degree as might induce some of the weaker members
+of the tribe to dispatch him on the spot. As the corporal, with the
+perspective of the saplings before his eyes, manifested a good deal of
+ingenuity on this occasion, we shall record some of his efforts.
+
+“D'ye call yourselves chiefs and warriors?” he began, upon a pretty high
+key. “I call ye squaws! There is not a man among ye. Dogs would be the
+best name. You are poor Injins. A long time ago, the pale-faces came
+here in two or three little canoes. They were but a handful, and you
+were plentier than prairie wolves. Your bark could be heard throughout
+the land. Well, what did this handful of pale-faces? It drove your
+fathers before them, until they got all the best of the hunting-grounds.
+Not an Injin of you all, now, ever get down on the shores of the great
+salt lake, unless to sell brooms and baskets, and then he goes sneaking
+like a wolf after a sheep. You have forgotten how clams and oysters
+taste. Your fathers had as many of them as they could eat; but not one
+of YOU ever tasted them. The pale-faces eat them all. If an Injin asked
+for one, they would throw the shell at his head, and call him a dog.
+
+“Do you think that my chiefs would hang one of you between two such
+miserable saplings as these? No! They would scorn to practice such
+pitiful torture. They would bring the tops of two tall pines together,
+trees a hundred and fifty feet high, and put their prisoner on the
+topmost boughs, for the crows and ravens to pick his eyes out. But you
+are miserable Injins! You know nothing. If you know'd any better, would
+you act such poor torment ag'in' a great brave? I spit upon ye, and call
+you squaws. The pale-faces have made women of ye. They have taken out
+your hearts, and put pieces of dog's flesh in their places.”
+
+Here the corporal, who delivered himself with an animation suited to his
+language, was obliged to pause, literally for want of breath. Singular
+as it may seem, this tirade excited great admiration among the savages.
+It is true, that very few understood what was said; perhaps no one
+understood ALL, but the manner was thought to be admirable. When some of
+the language was interpreted, a deep but smothered resentment was felt;
+more especially at the taunts touching the manner in which the whites
+had overcome the red men. Truth is hard to be borne, and the individual,
+or people, who will treat a thousand injurious lies with contempt, feel
+all their ire aroused at one reproach that has its foundation in fact.
+Nevertheless, the anger that the corporal's words did, in truth, awaken,
+was successfully repressed, and he had the disappointment of seeing that
+his life was spared for the torture.
+
+“Brother,” said Bough of the Oak, again placing himself before the
+captive, “you have a stout heart. It is made of stone, and not of flesh.
+If our hearts be of dog's meat, yours is of stone. What you say is true.
+The pale-faces DID come at first in two or three canoes, and there were
+but few of them. We are ashamed, for it is true, A few pale-faces drove
+toward the setting sun many Injins. But we cannot be driven any further.
+We mean to stop here, and begin to take all the scalps we can. A great
+chief, who belongs to no one tribe, but belongs to all tribes, who
+speaks all tongues, has been sent by the Great Spirit to arouse us. He
+has done it. You know him. He came from the head of the lake with you,
+and kept his eye on your scalp. He has meant to take it from the first.
+He waited only for an opportunity. That opportunity has come, and we now
+mean to do as he has told us we ought to do. This is right. Squaws are
+in a hurry; warriors know how to wait. We would kill you at once, and
+hang your scalp on our pole, but it would not be right We wish to do
+what is right. If we ARE poor Injins, and know but little, we know what
+is right. It is right to torment so great a brave, and we mean to do
+it. It is only just to you to do so. An old warrior who has seen so many
+enemies, and who has so big a heart, ought not to be knocked in the
+head like a pappoose or a squaw. It is his right to be tormented. We are
+getting ready, and shall soon begin. If my brother can tell us a new way
+of tormenting, we are willing to try it. Should we not make out as well
+as pale-faces, my brother will remember who we are. We mean to do our
+best, and we hope to make his heart soft. If we do this, great will be
+our honor. Should we not do it, we cannot help it. We shall try.”
+
+It was now the corporal's turn to put in a rebutter.
+
+This he did without any failure in will or performance. By this time he
+was so well warmed as to think or care very little about the saplings,
+and to overlook the pain they might occasion.
+
+“Dogs can do little but bark; 'specially Injin dogs,” he said. “Injins
+themselves are little better than their own dogs. They can bark, but
+they don't know how to bite. You have many great chiefs here. Some
+are panthers, and some bears, and some buffaloes; but where are your
+weasels? I have fit you now these twenty years, and never have I known
+ye to stand up to the baggonet. It's not Injin natur' to do THAT.”
+
+Here the corporal, without knowing it, made some such reproach to the
+aboriginal warriors of America as the English used to throw into the
+teeth of ourselves--that of not standing up to a weapon which neither
+party possessed. It was matter of great triumph that the Americans would
+not stand the charge of the bayonet at the renowned fight on Breed's,
+for instance, when it is well known that not one man in five among the
+colonists had any such weapon at all to “stand up” with. A different
+story was told at Guildford, and Stony Point, and Eutaw, and Bennington,
+and Bemis' Heights, and fifty other places that might be named, after
+the troops were furnished with bayonets. THEN it was found that the
+Americans could use them as well as others, and so might it have proved
+with the red men, though their discipline, or mode of fighting, scarce
+admitted of such systematic charges. All this, however, the corporal
+overlooked, much as if he were a regular historian who was writing to
+make out a case.
+
+“Harkee, brother, since you WILL call me brother; though, Heaven be
+praised, not a drop of nigger or Injin blood runs in my veins,” resumed
+the corporal. “Harkee, friend redskin, answer me one thing. Did you ever
+hear of such a man as Mad Anthony? He was the tickler for your infernal
+tribes! You pulled no saplings together for him. He put you up with 'the
+long-knives and leather-stockings,' and you outrun his fleetest horses.
+I was with him, and saw more naked backs than naked faces among your
+people, that day. Your Great Bear got a rap on his nose that sent him to
+his village yelping like a cur.”
+
+Again was the corporal compelled to stop to take breath. The allusion to
+Wayne, and his defeat of the Indians, excited so much ire, that several
+hands grasped knives and tomahawks, and one arrow was actually drawn
+nearly to the head; but the frown of Bear's Meat prevented any outbreak,
+or actual violence. It wa's deemed prudent, however, to put an end to
+this scene, lest the straightforward corporal, who laid it on heavily,
+and who had so much to say about Indian defeats, might actually succeed
+in touching some festering wound that would bring him to his death at
+once. It was, accordingly, determined to proceed with the torture of the
+saplings without further delay.
+
+The corporal was removed accordingly, and placed between the two bended
+trees, which were kept together by withes around their tops. An arm of
+the captive was bound tightly at the wrist to the top of each tree, so
+that his limbs were to act as the only tie between the saplings, as soon
+as the withes should be cut. The Indians now worked in silence, and the
+matter was getting to be much too serious for the corporal to indulge in
+any more words. The cold sweat returned, and many an anxious glance
+was cast by the veteran on the fell preparations. Still he maintained
+appearances, and when all was ready, not a man there was aware of the
+agony of dread which prevailed in the breast of the victim. It was not
+death that he feared as much as suffering. A few minutes, the corporal
+well knew, would make the pain intolerable, while he saw no hope of
+putting a speedy end to his existence. A man might live hours in such a
+situation. Then it was that the teachings of childhood were revived in
+the bosom of this hardened man, and he remembered the Being that died
+for HIM, in common with the rest of the human race, on the tree. The
+seeming similarity of his own execution struck his imagination, and
+brought a tardy but faint recollection of those lessons that had lost
+most of their efficacy in the wickedness and impiety of camps. His soul
+struggled for relief in that direction, but the present scene was too
+absorbing to admit of its lifting itself so far above his humanity.
+
+“Warrior of the pale-faces,” said Bough of the Oak, “we are going to cut
+the withe. You will then be where a brave man will want all his courage.
+If you are firm, we will do you honor; if you faint and screech, our
+young men will laugh at you. This is the way with Injins. They honor
+braves; they point the finger at cowards.”
+
+Here a sign was made by Bear's Meat, and a warrior raised the tomahawk
+that was to separate the fastenings, His hand was in the very act of
+descending, when the crack of a rifle was heard, and a little smoke rose
+out of the thicket, near the spot where the bee-hunter and the corporal,
+himself, had remained so long hid, on the occasion of the council first
+held in that place. The tomahawk fell, however, the withes were parted,
+and up flew the saplings, with a violence that threatened to tear the
+arms of the victim out of their sockets.
+
+The Indians listened, expecting the screeches and groans;--they
+gazed, hoping to witness the writhings of their captive. But they were
+disappointed. There hung the body, its arms distended, still holding
+the tops of the saplings bowed, but not a sign of life was seen. A small
+line of blood trickled down the forehead, and above it was the nearly
+imperceptible hole made by the passage of a bullet. The head itself had
+fallen forward, and a little on one shoulder. The corporal had escaped
+the torments reserved for him, by this friendly blow.
+
+It was so much a matter of course for an Indian to revenge his own
+wounds--to alleviate his smarts, by retaliating on those who inflicted
+them--that the chiefs expressed neither surprise nor resentment at the
+manner of the corporal's death. There was some disappointment, it is
+true; but no anger was manifested, since it was supposed that some one
+of those whom the prisoner had wounded had seen fit, in this mode,
+to revenge his own hurts. In this, however, the Indians deceived
+themselves. The well-intentioned and deadly shot that saved the corporal
+from hours of agony came from the friendly hand of Pigeonswing, who had
+no sooner discharged his rifle than he stole away through the thicket,
+and was never discovered. This he did, too, at the expense of Ungque's
+scalp, on which he had set his heart.
+
+As for the Indians, perceiving that their hopes of forcing a captive
+to confess his weakness were frustrated, they conferred together on the
+course of future proceedings. There was an inquiry for Peter, but Peter
+was not to be found. Bough of the Oak suggested that the mysterious
+chief must have gone to the palisaded hut, in order to get the remaining
+scalps, his passion for this symbol of triumphs over pale-faces being
+well known. It was, therefore, incumbent on the whole band to follow,
+with the double view of sharing in the honor of the assault, and of
+rendering assistance.
+
+Abandoning the body of the corporal where it hung, away went these
+savages, by this time keenly alive to the scent of blood. Something like
+order was observed, however, each chief leading his own particular part
+of the band, in his own way, but on a designated route. Bear's Meat
+acted as commander-in-chief, the subordinate leaders following his
+instructions with reasonable obedience. Some went in one direction,
+others in another; until the verdant bottom near the sweet spring was
+deserted.
+
+In less than half an hour the whole band was collected around Castle
+Meal, distant, however, beyond the range of a rifle. The different
+parties, as they arrived, announced their presence by whoops, which were
+intended to answer the double purpose of signals, and of striking terror
+to the hearts of the besieged; the North American Indians making ample
+use of this great auxiliary in war.
+
+All this time no one was seen in or about the fortified hut The gate
+was closed, as were the doors and windows, manifesting preparations for
+defence; but the garrison kept close. Nor was Peter to be seen. He might
+be a prisoner, or he might not have come in this direction. It was just
+possible that he might be stealing up to the building, to get a nearer
+view, and a closer scout.
+
+Indian warfare is always stealthy. It is seldom, indeed, that the
+aboriginal Americans venture on an open assault of any fortified place,
+however small and feeble it may be. Ignorant of the use of artillery,
+and totally without that all-important arm, their approaches to any
+cover, whence a bullet may be sent against them, are ever wary, slow,
+and well concerted. They have no idea of trenches--do not possess the
+means of making them, indeed--but they have such substitutes of their
+own as usually meet all their wants, more particularly in portions of
+the country that are wooded. In cases like this before our present band,
+they had to exercise their wits to invent new modes of effecting their
+purposes.
+
+Bear's Meat collected his principal chiefs, and, after a considerable
+amount of consultation, it was determined, in the present instance, to
+try the virtue of fire. The only sign of life they could detect about
+the hut was an occasional bark from Hive, who had been taken within the
+building, most probably to protect him from the bullets and arrows of
+the enemy. Even this animal did not howl like a dog in distress; but he
+barked, as if aware of the vicinity of strangers. The keenest scrutiny
+could not detect an outlet of any sort about the hut. Everything was
+tightly closed, and it was impossible to say when, or whence, a bullet
+might not be sent against the unwary.
+
+The plan was soon formed, and was quite as rapidly executed. Bough of
+the Oak, himself, supported by two or three other braves, undertook to
+set the buildings on fire. This was done by approaching the kitchen,
+dodging from tree to tree, making each movement with a rapidity that
+defeated aim, and an irregularity that defied calculation. In this way
+the kitchen was safely reached, where there was a log cover to conceal
+the party. Here also was fire, the food for dinner being left, just as
+it had been put over to boil, not long before. The Indians had prepared
+themselves with arrows and light wood, and soon they commenced sending
+their flaming missiles toward the roof of the hut. Arrow after arrow
+struck, and it was not long before the roof was on fire.
+
+A yell now arose throughout the Openings. Far and near the Indians
+exulted at their success. The wood was dry, and it was of a very
+inflammable nature. The wind blew, and in half an hour Castle Meal
+was in a bright blaze. Hive now began to howl, a sign that he knew his
+peril. Still, no human being appeared. Presently the flaming roof fell
+in and the savages listened intently to hear the screeches of their
+victims. The howls of the dog increased, and he was soon seen, with his
+hair burned from his skin, leaping on the unroofed wall, and thence into
+the area within the palisades. A bullet terminated his sufferings as he
+alighted.
+
+Bear's Meat now gave the signal, and a general rush was made. No rifle
+opposed them, and a hundred Indians were soon at the palisades. To the
+surprise of all, the gate was found unfastened. Rushing within, the
+door of the hut was forced, and a view obtained of the blazing furnace
+within. The party had arrived in sufficient season to perceive fragments
+of le Bourdon's rude furniture and stores yet blazing, but nowhere was
+a human corpse visible. Poles were got, and the brands were removed, in
+the expectation of finding bones beneath them; but without success. It
+was now certain that no pale-face had perished in that hut. Then the
+truth flashed on the minds of all the savages: le Bourdon and his
+friends had taken the alarm in time, and had escaped!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+     Behold, O Lord! the heathen tread
+      The branches of thy fruitful vine,
+     That its luxurious tendrils spread
+      O'er all the hills of Palestine.
+     And now the wild boar comes to waste
+     Even us, the greenest boughs and last.
+     That, drinking of its choicest dew,
+     On Zion's hill in beauty grew.
+                                  --MILMAN.
+
+ The change in Peter had been gradually making itself apparent, ever
+since he joined the party of the bee-hunter. When he entered the
+Kalamazoo, in the company of the two men who had now fallen the victims
+of his own designs, his heart was full of the fell intention of cutting
+off the whole white race. Margery had first induced him to think of
+exceptions. He had early half-decided that she should be spared, to be
+carried to his own lodge, as an adopted daughter. When he became aware
+of the state of things between his favorite and her lover, there was a
+severe struggle in his breast on the subject of sparing the last. He
+saw how strongly the girl was attached to him, and something like human
+sentiments forced their way among his savage plans. The mysterious
+communication of le Bourdon with the bees, however, had far more
+influence in determining him to spare so great a medicine-man, than
+Margery's claims; and he had endeavored to avail himself of a marriage
+as a means of saving the bride, instead of saving the bridegroom.
+All the Indians entertained a species of awe for le Bourdon, and all
+hesitated about laying hands on one who appeared so gifted. It was,
+therefore, the expectation of this extraordinary being that the wife
+might be permitted to escape with the husband. The effect of The
+Weasel's cunning has been described. Such was the state of Peter's mind
+when he met the band in the scenes last described. There he had been all
+attention to the demeanor of the missionary. A hundred times had he seen
+warriors die uttering maledictions on their enemies; but this was the
+first occasion on which he had ever known a man to use his latest breath
+in asking for blessings on those “who persecuted him.” At first, Peter
+was astounded. Then the sublime principles had their effect, and his
+heart was deeply touched with what he heard. How far the Holy Spirit
+aided these better feelings, it might be presumptuous, on the one hand,
+to say; while, on the other, it will be equally presuming to think of
+denying the possibility--nay, the probability--that the great change
+which so suddenly came over the heart of Peter was produced by more than
+mere human agencies. We know that this blessed Spirit is often poured
+out, in especial cases, with affluent benevolence, and there can be no
+sufficient reason for supposing this savage might not have been thus
+signally favored, as soon as the avenues of his heart opened to the
+impulses of a generous humanity. The very qualities that would induce
+such a being to attempt the wild and visionary scheme of vengeance and
+retribution, that had now occupied his sleeping and waking thoughts for
+years, might, under a better direction, render him eminently fit to be
+the subject of divine grace. A latent sense of right lay behind all his
+seeming barbarity, and that which to us appears as a fell ferocity, was,
+in his own eyes, no less than a severe justice.
+
+The words, the principles, the prayers, and, more than all, the EXAMPLE
+of the missionary, wrought this great change, so far as human agencies
+were employed; but the power of God was necessary to carry out and
+complete this renewal of the inner man. We do not mean that a miracle
+was used in the sudden conversion of this Indian to better feelings, for
+that which is of hourly occurrence, and which may happen to all, comes
+within the ordinary workings of a Divine Providence, and cannot thus be
+designated with propriety; but we do wish to be understood as saying,
+that no purely human power could have cleared the moral vision, changed
+all the views, and softened the heart of such a man, as was so promptly
+done in the case of Peter. The way had been gradually preparing,
+perhaps, by the means already described, but the great transformation
+came so suddenly and so powerfully as to render him a different being,
+as it might almost be, in the twinkling of an eye! Such changes often
+occur, and though it may suit the self-sufficiency of the worldling
+to deride them, he is the wisest who submits in the meekest spirit to
+powers that exceed his comprehension.
+
+In this state of mind, then, Peter left the band as soon as the fate of
+the missionary was decided. His immediate object was to save the
+whites who remained, Gershom and Dorothy now having a place in his
+good intentions, as well as le Bourdon and Margery. Although he moved
+swiftly, and nearly by an air-line, his thoughts scarce kept company
+with his feet. During that rapid walk, he was haunted with the image of
+a man, dying while he pronounced benedictions on his enemies!
+
+There was little in common between the natural objects of that placid
+and rural scene and the fell passions that were so actively at work
+among the savages. The whole of the landscape was bathed in the light
+of a clear, warm summer's day. These are the times when the earth truly
+seems a sanctuary, in spots remote from the haunts of men, and least
+exposed to his abuses. The bees hum around the flowers, the birds carol
+on the boughs and from amid their leafy arbors, while even the leaping
+and shining waters appear to be instinct with the life that extols the
+glory of God.
+
+As for the family near the palisaded hut, happiness had not, for many
+a month, been so seated among them, as on this very occasion. Dorothy
+sympathized truly in the feelings of the youthful and charming bride,
+while Gershom had many of the kind and affectionate wishes of a brother
+in her behalf. The last was in his best attire, as indeed were the
+females, who were neatly though modestly clad, and Gershom had that air
+of decent repose and of quiet enjoyment, which is so common of a Sabbath
+with the men of his class, among the people from whom he sprung. The
+fears lately excited were momentarily forgotten. Everything around them
+wore an air so placid; the vault above them was so profoundly tranquil;
+the light of day was so soft and yet so bright; the Openings seemed so
+rural and so much like pictures of civilization, that apprehension had
+been entirely forgotten in present enjoyment. Such was the moment when
+Peter suddenly stood before le Bourdon and Margery, as the young couple
+sat beneath the shade of the oaks, near the spring. One instant the
+Indian regarded this picture of young wedded life with a gleam of
+pleasure on his dark face; then he announced his presence by speaking.
+
+“Can't sit here lookin' at young squaw,” said this literal being.
+“Get up, and put thing in canoe. Time come to go on path dat lead to
+pale-face country.”
+
+“What has happened, Peter?” demanded the bee-hunter, springing to his
+feet. “You come like a runner rushing in with his bad tidings. Has
+anything happened to give an alarm?”
+
+“Up, and off, tell you. No use talkin' now. Put all he can in canoe,
+and paddle away fast as can.” There was no mistaking Peter's manner. The
+bee-hunter saw the uselessness of questioning such a man, at a time like
+that, and he called to Gershom to join him.
+
+“Here is the chief, to warn us to move,” said the bee-hunter,
+endeavoring to appear calm, in order that he might not needlessly alarm
+the females, “and what he advises, we had better do. I know there is
+danger, by what has fallen from Pigeonswing as well as from himself; so
+let us lose no time, but stow the canoes, and do as he tells us.”
+
+As Gershom assented, it was not two minutes ere all were at work. For
+several days, each canoe had been furnished with provisions for a hasty
+flight. It remained only to add such of the effects as were too valuable
+and necessary to be abandoned, and which had not been previously exposed
+without the palisades. For half an hour le Bourdon and Gershom worked
+as for life. No questions were asked, nor was a single moment lost, in
+a desire to learn more. The manner in which Peter bore himself satisfied
+Boden that the emergency was pressing, and it is seldom that more was
+done by so few hands in so short a period. Fortunately, the previous
+preparation greatly aided the present object, and nearly everything of
+any value was placed in the canoes within the brief space mentioned. It
+then became necessary to decide concerning the condition in which Castle
+Meal was to be left. Peter advised closing every aperture, shutting
+the gate, and leaving the dog within. There is no doubt that these
+expedients prevented the parties falling early into the hands of their
+enemies; for the time lost by the savages in making their approaches to
+the hut was very precious to the fugitives.
+
+Just as the canoes were loaded, Pigeonswing came in. He announced that
+the whole band was in motion, and might be expected to reach the grove
+in ten minutes. Placing an arm around the slender waist of Margery, le
+Bourdon almost carried her to his own canoe, Gershom soon had Dorothy in
+his little bark, while Peter entered that to the ownership of which he
+may be said to have justly succeeded by the deaths of the corporal and
+the missionary. Pigeonswing remained behind, in order to act as a scout,
+having first communicated to Peter the course the last ought to steer.
+Before the Chippewa plunged into the cover in which it was his intention
+to conceal himself, he made a sign that the band was already in sight.
+
+The heart of le Bourdon sunk within him, when he learned how near were
+the enemy. To him, escape seemed impossible; and he now regretted having
+abandoned the defences of his late residence. The river was sluggish for
+more than a mile at that spot, and then occurred a rift, which could
+not be passed without partly unloading the canoes, and where there must
+necessarily be a detention of more than an hour. Thus, it was scarcely
+possible for canoes descending that stream to escape from so large a
+band of pursuers. The sinuosities, themselves, would enable the last
+to gain fifty points ahead of them, where ambushes, or even open
+resistance, must place them altogether at the mercy of the savages.
+
+Peter knew all this, as well as the bee-hunter, and he had no intention
+of trusting his new friends in a flight down the river. Pigeonswing,
+with the sententious brevity of an Indian, had made an important
+communication to him, while they were moving, for the last time, toward
+the canoes, and he now determined to profit by it. Taking the lead,
+therefore, with his own canoe, Peter paddled UP, instead of DOWN the
+stream, going in a direction opposite to that which it would naturally
+be supposed the fugitives had taken. In doing this, also, he kept
+close under the bank which would most conceal the canoes from those who
+approached it on its southern side.
+
+It will be remembered that the trees for the palisades had been cut from
+a swamp, a short distance above the bee-hunter's residence. They had
+grown on the margin of the river, which had been found serviceable in
+floating the logs to their point of destination. The tops of many of
+these trees, resinuous, and suited by their nature to preserve their
+leaves for a considerable time, lay partly in the stream and partly on
+its banks; and Pigeonswing, foreseeing the necessity of having a place
+of refuge, had made so artful a disposition of several of them, that,
+while they preserved all the appearance of still lying where they had
+fallen, it was possible to haul canoes up beneath them, between the
+branches and the bank, in a way to form a place of perfect concealment.
+No Indian would have trusted to such a hiding-place, had it not been
+matter of notoriety that the trees had been felled for a particular
+purpose, or had their accidental disposition along the bank been
+discernibly deranged. But such was not the case, the hand of Pigeonswing
+having been so skilfully employed that what he had done could not
+be detected. He might be said to have assisted nature, instead of
+disturbing her.
+
+The canoes were actually paddling close under the bank, in the Castle
+Meal reach of the river, when the band arrived at the grove, and
+commenced what might be called the investment of the place. Had not all
+the attention of the savages been drawn toward the hut, it is probable
+that some wandering eye might have caught a glimpse of some one of them,
+as inequalities in the bank momentarily exposed each, in succession,
+to view. This danger, however, passed away, and by turning a point,
+the fugitives were effectually concealed from all who did not actually
+approach the river at that particular point. Here it was, however, that
+the swamp commenced, and the ground being wet and difficult, no one
+would be likely to do this. The stream flowed through this swamp, having
+a dense wood on each side, though one of no great extent. The reach,
+moreover, was short, making a completely sheltered haven of the
+Kalamazoo, within its limits.
+
+Once in this wooded reach, Peter tossed an arm, and assumed an air of
+greater security. He felt infinitely relieved, and knew that they were
+safe, for a time, unless some wanderer should have taken to the swamp--a
+most improbable thing of itself. When high enough, he led the way across
+the stream, and entering below, he soon had all the canoes in their
+place of concealment.
+
+“Dis good place,” observed the great chief, as soon as all were fast;
+“bess take care, dough. Bess not make track too much on land; Injin got
+sharp eye, and see ebbery t'ing. Now, I go and talk wid chief. Come back
+by-'em-by. You stay here. Good-bye.”
+
+“Stop, Peter--one word before we part. If you see Parson Amen, or the
+corporal, it might be well to tell THEM where we are to be found. They
+would be glad to know.”
+
+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.
+
+“Peter, we can count on you for a friend, I hope?” said the bee-hunter,
+as the two were about to part, on the bank of the river. “I fear you
+were, once, our enemy!”
+
+“Bourdon,” said Peter, with dignity, and speaking in the language of his
+own people, “listen. There are Good Spirits, and there are Bad Spirits.
+Our traditions tell us this. Our own minds tell us this, too. For twenty
+winters a Bad Spirit has been whispering in my ear. I listened to
+him; and did what he told me to do. I believed what he said. His words
+were--'Kill your enemies--scalp all the pale-faces--do not leave a
+squaw, or a pappoose. Make all their hearts heavy. This is what an Injin
+should do.' So has the Bad Spirit been whispering to me, for twenty
+winters. I listened to him. What he said, I did. It was pleasant to me
+to take the scalps of the pale-faces. It was pleasant to think that no
+more scalps would be left among them, to take. I was Scalping Peter.
+
+“Bourdon, the Good Spirit has, at last, made himself heard. His whisper
+is so low, that at first my ears did not hear him. They hear him now.
+When he spoke loudest, it was with the tongue of the medicine-priest of
+your people. He was about to die. When we are about to die, our voices
+become strong and clear. So do our eyes. We see what is before, and we
+see what is behind. We feel joy for what is before--we feel sorrow for
+what is behind. Your medicine-priest spoke well. It sounded in my ears
+as if the Great Spirit, himself, was talking. They say it was his Son.
+I believe them. Blossom has read to me out of the good book of your
+people, and I find it is so. I feel like a child, and could sit down, in
+my wigwam, and weep.
+
+“Bourdon, you are a pale-face, and I am an Injin. You are strong, and
+I am weak. This is because the Son of the Great Spirit has talked with
+your people, and has not talked with mine. I now see why the pale-faces
+overrun the earth and take the hunting-grounds. They know most, and have
+been told to come here, and to tell what they know to the poor ignorant
+Injins. I hope my people will listen. What the Son of the Great Spirit
+says must be true. He does not know how to do wrong.
+
+“Bourdon, once it seemed sweet to me to take the scalps of my enemies.
+When an Injin did me harm, I took his scalp. This was my way. I could
+not help it, then. The Wicked Spirit told me to do this. The Son of the
+Manitou has now told me better. I have lived under a cloud. The breath
+of the dying medicine-priest of your people has blown away that cloud.
+I see clearer. I hear him telling the Manitou to do me good, though
+I wanted his scalp. He was answered in my heart. Then my ears opened
+wider, and I heard what the Good Spirit whispered. The ear in which the
+Bad Spirit had been talking for twenty winters shut, and was deaf. I
+hear him no more. I do not want to hear him again. The whisper of the
+Son of the Manitou is very pleasant to me. It sounds like the wren
+singing his sweetest song. I hope he will always whisper so. My ear
+shall never again be shut to his words.
+
+“Bourdon, it is pleasant to me to look forward. It is not pleasant to me
+to look back. I see how many things I have done in one way, that ought
+to have been done in another way. I feel sorry, and wish it had not been
+so. Then I hear the Son of the Manitou asking His Father, who liveth
+above the clouds, to do good to the Jews who took his life. I do not
+think Injins are Jews. In this, my brother was wrong. It was his own
+notion, and it is easy for a man to think wrong. It is not so with the
+Son of the Manitou. He thinketh always as His Father thinketh, which is
+right.
+
+“Bourdon, I am no longer Peter--I must be another Injin. I do not feel
+the same. A scalp is a terrible thing in my eyes--I wish never to take
+another--never to see another--a scalp is a bad thing. I now LOVE the
+Yankees. I wish to do them good, and not to do them harm. I love
+most the Great Spirit, that let his own Son die for all men. The
+medicine-priest said he died for Injins, as well as for pale-faces. This
+we did not know, or we should have talked of him more in our traditions.
+We love to talk of good acts. But we are such ignorant Injins! The Son
+of the Manitou will have pity on us, and tell us oftener what we ought
+to do. In time, we shall learn. Now, I feel like a child: I hope I shall
+one day be a man.”
+
+Having made this “confession of faith,” one that would have done credit
+to a Christian church, Peter shook the bee-hunter kindly by the hand,
+and took his departure. He did not walk into the swamp, though it was
+practicable with sufficient care, but he stepped into the river, and
+followed its margin, knowing that “water leaves no trail.” Nor did Peter
+follow the direct route toward the now blazing hut, the smoke from
+which was rising high above the trees, but he ascended the stream, until
+reaching a favorable spot, he threw aside all of his light dress, made
+it into a bundle, and swam across the Kalamazoo, holding his clothes
+above the element with one hand. On reaching the opposite shore, he
+moved on to the upper margin of the swamp, where he resumed his clothes.
+Then he issued into the Openings, carrying neither rifle, bow, tomahawk,
+nor knife. All his weapons he had left in his canoe, fearful that they
+might tempt him to do evil, instead of good, to his enemies. Neither
+Bear's Meat, nor Bough of the Oak, was yet regarded by Peter with the
+eye of love. He tried not to hate them, and this he found sufficiently
+difficult; conscious of this difficulty, he had laid aside his arms,
+accordingly. This mighty change had been gradually in progress, ever
+since the chief's close communication with Margery, but it had received
+its consummation in the last acts, and last words, of the missionary!
+
+Having got out into the Openings, it was not difficult for Peter to join
+his late companions without attracting observation from whence he came.
+He kept as much under cover as was convenient, and reached the kitchen,
+just as the band broke into the defences, and burst open the door of the
+blazing and already roofless hut. Here Peter paused, unwilling to
+seem inactive in such a scene, yet averse to doing anything that a
+sensitively tender conscience might tell him was wrong. He knew there
+was no human being there to save, and cared little for the few effects
+that might be destroyed. He did not join the crowd, therefore, until it
+was ascertained that the bee-hunter and his companions had escaped.
+
+“The pale-faces have fled,” said Bear's Meat to the great chief, when
+the last did approach him. “We have looked for their bones among the
+ashes, but there are none. That medicine-bee-hunter has told them that
+their scalps were wanted, and they have gone off!”
+
+“Have any of the young men been down to the river, to look for their
+canoes?” quietly demanded Peter. “If the canoes are gone, too, they have
+taken the route toward the Great Lake.”
+
+This was so obvious and probable, that a search was immediately set on
+foot. The report was soon made, and great was the eagerness to pursue.
+The Kalamazoo was so crooked, that no one there doubted of overtaking
+the fugitives, and parties were immediately organized for the chase.
+This was done with the customary intelligence and shrewdness of Indians.
+The canoes that belonged to Crowsfeather and his band had been brought
+up the river, and they lay concealed in rushes, not a mile from the hut.
+A party of warriors brought them to the landing, and they carried one
+division of the party to the opposite shore, it being the plan to follow
+each bank of the river, keeping close to the stream, even to its mouth,
+should it prove necessary. Two other parties were sent in direct lines,
+one on each side of the river, also, to lay in ambush at such distant
+points, ahead, as would be almost certain to anticipate the arrival of
+the fugitives. The canoes were sent down the stream, to close the net
+against return, while Bear's Meat, Bough of the Oak, Crowsfeather, and
+several others of the leading chiefs, remained near the still burning
+hut, with a strong party, to examine the surrounding Openings for
+foot-prints and trails. It was possible that the canoes had been sent
+adrift, in order to mislead them, while the pale-faces had fled by land.
+
+It has been stated that the Openings had a beautiful sward, near Castle
+Meal, This was true of that particular spot, and was the reason why
+le Bourdon had selected it for his principal place of residence. The
+abundance of flowers drew the bees there, a reason of itself why he
+should like the vicinity. Lest the reader should be misled, however,
+it may be well to explain that an absence of sward is characteristic of
+these Openings, rather than the reverse, it being, to a certain degree,
+a cause of complaint, now that the country is settled, that the lands of
+the Oak Openings are apt to be so light that the grasses do not readily
+form as firm a turf as is desirable for meadows and pastures. We
+apprehend this is true, however, less as a rule than as exceptions;
+there being variety in the soils of these Openings, as well as in other
+quarters.
+
+Nevertheless, the savages were aware that the country around the burned
+hut, for a considerable extent, differed, in this particular, from most
+of that which lay farther east, or more inland. On the last a trail
+would be much more easily detected than on the first, and a party,
+under the direction of a particularly experienced leader, was dispatched
+several miles to the eastward, to look for the usual signs of the
+passage of any toward Detroit, taking that route. This last expedient
+troubled Peter exceedingly, since it placed a body of enemies in the
+rear of the fugitives; thereby rendering their position doubly perilous.
+There was no help for the difficulty, however; and the great chief saw
+the party depart without venturing on remonstrance, advice, or any
+other expedient to arrest the movement. Bear's Meat now called the head
+chiefs, who remained, into a circle, and asked for opinions concerning
+the course that ought next to be taken.
+
+“What does my brother, the tribeless chief, say?” he asked, looking at
+Peter, in a way to denote the expectation which all felt, that he ought
+to be able to give useful counsel in such a strait. “We have got but
+two scalps from six heads; and one of THEM is buried with the
+medicine-priest.”
+
+“Scalps cannot be taken from them that get off,” returned Peter,
+evasively. “We must first catch these pale-faces. When they are found
+it will be easy to scalp them. If the canoes are gone, I think the
+medicine-bee-hunter and his squaws have gone in them. We may find the
+whole down the river.”
+
+To this opinion most of the chiefs assented, though the course of
+examining for a trail farther east was still approved. The band was so
+strong, while the pale-faces were so few, that a distribution of their
+own force was of no consequence, and it was clearly the most prudent to
+send out young men in all directions. Every one, however, expected that
+the fugitives would be overtaken on, or near, the river, and Bear's Meat
+suggested the propriety of their moving down stream, themselves, very
+shortly.
+
+“When did my brother last see the pale-faces?” asked Crowsfeather. “This
+bee-hunter knows the river well, and may have started yesterday; or even
+after he came from the Great Council of the Prairie.”
+
+This was a new idea, but one that seemed probable enough. All eyes
+turned toward Peter, who saw, at once, that such a notion must greatly
+favor the security of the fugitives, and felt a strong desire to
+encourage it. He found evasion difficult, however, and well knew the
+danger of committing himself. Instead of giving a straightforward
+answer, therefore, he had recourse to circumlocution and subterfuge.
+
+“My brother is right,” he answered. “The pale-faces HAVE had time to
+get far down the stream. As my brothers know, I slept among them at the
+Round Prairie. To-day, they know I was with them at the council of the
+spring of gushing waters.”
+
+All this was true, as far as it went, although the omissions were very
+material. No one seemed to suspect the great chief, whose fidelity
+to his own principles was believed to be of a character amounting to
+enthusiasm. Little did any there know of the power of the unseen Spirit
+of God to alter the heart, producing what religionists term the new
+birth. We do not wish, however, to be understood that Peter had, as
+yet, fully experienced this vast change. It is not often the work of a
+moment, though well-authenticated modern instances do exist, in which we
+have every reason to believe that men have been made to see and feel
+the truth almost as miraculously as was St. Paul himself. As for this
+extraordinary savage, he had entered into the strait and narrow way,
+though he was not far advanced on its difficult path.
+
+When men tell us of the great progress that the race is making toward
+perfection, and point to the acts which denote its wisdom, its power to
+control its own affairs, its tendencies toward good when most left
+to its own self-control, our minds are filled with scepticism. The
+every-day experience of a life now fast verging toward threescore,
+contradicts the theory and the facts. We believe not in the possibility
+of man's becoming even a strictly rational being, unaided by a power
+from on high; and all that we have seen and read goes to convince us
+that HE is most of a philosopher, the most accurate judge of his real
+state, the most truly learned, who most vividly sees the necessity of
+falling back on the precepts of revelation for all his higher principles
+and practice. We conceive that this mighty truth furnishes unanswerable
+proof of the unceasing agency of a Providence, and when we once admit
+this, we concede that our own powers are insufficient for our own wants.
+
+That the world, as a whole, is advancing toward a better state of
+things, we as firmly believe as we do that it is by ways that have not
+been foreseen by man; and that, whenever the last has been made the
+agent of producing portions of this improvement, it has oftener been
+without design, or calculation, than with it. Who, for instance,
+supposes that the institutions of this country, of which we boast so
+much, could have stood as long as they have, without the conservative
+principles that are to be found in the Union; and who is there so vain
+as to ascribe the overshadowing influence of this last great power to
+any wisdom in man? We all know that perfectly fortuitous circumstances,
+or what appear to us to be such, produced the Federal Government, and
+that its strongest and least exceptionable features are precisely those
+which could not be withstood, much less invented, as parts of the theory
+of a polity.
+
+A great and spasmodic political movement is, at this moment, convulsing
+Christendom. That good will come of it, we think is beyond a question;
+but we greatly doubt whether it will come in the particular form, or by
+the specified agencies, that human calculations would lead us to expect.
+It must be admitted that the previous preparations, which have induced
+the present effort, are rather in opposition to, than the consequences
+of, calculated agencies; overturning in their progress the very
+safeguards which the sagacity of men had interposed to the advance of
+those very opinions that have been silently, and by means that would
+perhaps baffle inquiry, preparing the way for the results that have been
+so suddenly and unexpectedly obtained. If the course is onward, it is
+more as the will of God, than from any calculations of man; and it is
+when the last are the most active, that there is the greatest reason to
+apprehend the consequences.
+
+Of such a dispensation of the Providence of Almighty God, do we believe
+Peter to have been the subject. Among the thousand ways that are
+employed to touch the heart, he had been most affected by the sight of
+a dying man's asking benedictions on his enemies! It was assailing his
+besetting sin; attacking the very citadel of his savage character, and
+throwing open, at once, an approach into the deepest recesses of his
+habits and dispositions. It was like placing a master-key in the hands
+of him who would go through the whole tenement, for the purpose of
+purifying it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+     Thou to whom every faun and satyr flies
+     For willing service; whether to surprise
+     The squatted hare, while in half sleeping fits,
+     Or upward ragged precipices flit
+     To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw;
+     Or by mysterious enticement draw
+     Bewildered shepherds to their path again;--
+                                      --KEATS.
+
+
+It can easily be understood that the party with the canoes were left by
+Peter in a state of great anxiety. The distance between the site of the
+hut and their place of concealment was but little more than a quarter
+of a mile, and the yell of the savages had often reached their ears,
+notwithstanding the cover of the woods. This proximity, of itself, was
+fearful; but the uncertainty that le Bourdon felt on the subject of
+Peter's real intentions added greatly to his causes of concern. Of
+course, he knew but little of the sudden change that had come over this
+mysterious chief's feelings; nor is it very likely that he would have
+been able to appreciate it, even had the fact been more fully stated.
+Our hero had very little acquaintance with the dogmas of Christianity,
+and would have, most probably, deemed it impossible that so great a
+revolution of purpose could have been so suddenly wrought in the mind of
+man, had the true state of the case been communicated to him. He would
+have been ready enough to allow that, with God, nothing is impossible;
+but might have been disposed to deny the influence of His Holy Spirit,
+as exhibited in this particular form, for a reason no better than the
+circumstance that he himself had never been the subject of such a power.
+All that Peter had said, therefore, served rather to mystify him, than
+to explain, in its true colors, what had actually occurred. With Margery
+it was different. Her schooling had been far better than that of any
+other of the party, and, while she admired the manly appearance, and
+loved the free, generous character of her husband, she had more than
+once felt pained at the passing thoughts of his great indifference to
+sacred things. This feeling in le Bourdon, however, was passive rather
+than active, and gave her a kind interest in his future welfare, rather
+than any present pain through acts and words.
+
+But, as respects their confidence in Peter, this young couple were much
+farther apart than in their religious notions. The bee-hunter had never
+been without distrust, though his apprehensions had been occasionally
+so far quieted as to leave him nearly free of them altogether; while
+his wife had felt the utmost confidence in the chief, from the very
+commencement of their acquaintance. It would be useless, perhaps, to
+attempt to speculate on the causes; but it is certain that there are
+secret sources of sympathy that draw particular individuals toward each
+other and antipathies that keep them widely separated. Men shall meet
+for the first time, and feel themselves attracted toward each other,
+like two drops of water, or repelled, like the corks of an electric
+machine.
+
+The former had been the case with Peter and Margery. They liked each
+other from the first, and kind orifices had soon come to increase this
+feeling. The girl had now seen so much of the Indians, as to regard
+them much as she did others, or with the discriminations, and tastes,
+or distastes, with which we all regard our fellow-creatures; feeling no
+particular cause of estrangement. It is true that Margery would not have
+been very likely to fall in love with a young Indian, had one come in
+her way of a suitable age and character; for her American notions on the
+subject of color might have interposed difficulties; but, apart from the
+tender sentiments, she could see good and bad qualities in one of the
+aborigines, as well as in a white man. As a consequence of this sympathy
+between Peter and Margery, the last had ever felt the utmost confidence
+in the protection and friendship of the first. This she did, even while
+the struggle was going on in his breast on the subject of including her
+in his fell designs, or of making an exception in her favor. It
+shows the waywardness of our feelings that Margery had never reposed
+confidence in Pigeonswing, who was devotedly the friend of le Bourdon,
+and who remained with them for no other reason than a general wish to be
+of use. Something BRUSQUE in his manner, which was much less courteous
+and polished than that of Peter, had early rendered her dissatisfied
+with him, and once estranged, she had never felt disposed to be on terms
+of intimacy sufficient to ascertain his good or bad qualities.
+
+The great change of feeling in Peter was not very clearly understood by
+Margery, any more than it was by her husband; though, had her attention
+been drawn more strictly to it, she would have best known how to
+appreciate it. But this knowledge was not wanting to put HER perfectly
+at peace, so far as apprehension of his doing her harm was concerned.
+This sense of security she now manifested in a conversation with le
+Bourdon, that took place soon after Peter had left them.
+
+“I wish we weren't in the hands of this red-skin, Margery,” said her
+husband, a little more off his guard than was his wont.
+
+“Of Peter! You surprise me, Benjamin. I think we could not be in better
+hands, since we have got this risk to run with the savages. If it was
+Pigeonswing that you feared, I could understand it.”
+
+“I will answer for Pigeonswing with my life.”
+
+“I am glad to hear you say so, for _I_ do not half like HIM. Perhaps I
+am prejudiced against him. The scalp he took down at the mouth of the
+river set me against him from the first.”
+
+“Do you not know, Margery, that your great friend goes by the name of
+'Scalping Peter'?”
+
+“Yes, I know it very well; but I do not believe he ever took a scalp in
+his life.”
+
+“Did he ever tell you as much as that?”
+
+“I can't say that he did; but he has never paraded anything of the sort
+before my eyes, like Pigeonswing. I do not half like that Chippewa, dear
+Bourdon.”
+
+“No fear of him, Margery; nor, when I come to think it all over, do I
+see why Peter should have brought us here, if he means anything wrong.
+The man is so mysterious, that I cannot line him down to his hole.”
+
+“My word for it, Bourdon, that when you DO, it will take you to a
+friendly hive. I have put almost as much faith in Peter as in you or
+Gershom. You heard what he said about Parson Amen and the corporal.”
+
+“And how coolly he took it all,” answered her husband, shaking his head.
+“It has been a sudden departure for them, and one would think even an
+Injin might have felt it more.”
+
+Margery's cheek grew pale, and her limbs trembled a little. It was a
+minute ere she could pursue the discourse.
+
+“This is terrible, but I will not, cannot believe it,” she said. “I'm
+sure, Bourdon, we ought to be very thankful to Peter for having
+brought us here. Remember how earnestly he listened to the words of the
+Saviour.”
+
+“If he has brought us here with a good intention, I thank him for it.
+But I scarce know what to think. Pigeonswing has given me many a hint,
+which I have understood to mean that we ought not to trust this unknown
+Injin too much.”
+
+“So has he given me some of his hints, though I would sooner trust Peter
+than trust him, any time.”
+
+“Our lives are in the care of Providence, I see. If we can really rely
+on these two Injins, all may be well; for Peter has brought us to an
+admirable cover, and he says that the Chippewa prepared it.”
+
+The young husband and his wife now landed, and began to examine
+more particularly into the state of the swamp, near their place of
+concealment. Just at that spot, the bank of the river was higher than
+in most of the low land, and was dry, with a soil that approached sand.
+This was the place where the few young pines had grown. The dry ground
+might have covered four or five acres, and so many trees having been
+felled, light and air were admitted, in a way to render the place
+comparatively cheerful. The branches of the felled trees made a
+sufficient cover in all directions, though the swamp itself was more
+than that, almost a defence, toward the Openings. The bee-hunter found
+it was possible, though it was exceedingly difficult, to make his
+way through it. He ascertained the fact, however, since it might be
+important to their future movements to know it.
+
+In a word, le Bourdon made a complete RECONNAISSANCE of his position. He
+cleared a spot for the females, and made a sort of hut, that would
+serve as a protection against rain, and in which they all might sleep at
+night. There was little doubt that this place must be occupied for some
+days, if Peter was acting in good faith, since an early movement would
+infallibly lead to detection. Time must be given to the Indians to
+precede them, or the great numbers of the savages would scarce leave a
+hope of escape. A greater sense of security succeeded this examination,
+and these arrangements. The danger was almost entirely to be apprehended
+on the side of the river. A canoe passing up-stream might, indeed,
+discover their place of concealment, but it was scarcely to be
+apprehended that one would wade through the mud and water of the swamp
+to approach them in any other direction.
+
+Under these circumstances, le Bourdon began to feel more security in
+their position. Could he now be certain of Peter, his mind would be
+comparatively at ease, and he might turn his attention altogether to
+making the party comfortable. Margery, who seldom quitted his side,
+reasoned with him on the subject of the mysterious chief's good faith,
+and by means of her own deep reliance on him, she came at last to the
+point of instilling some of her own confidence into the mind of her
+husband. From that time he worked at the shelter for the females, and
+the other little arrangements their situation rendered necessary, with
+greater zest, and with far more attention to the details. So long as
+we are in doubt of accomplishing good, we hesitate about employing our
+energies; but once let hope revive within us, in the shape of favorable
+results, and we become new men, bracing every nerve to the task, and
+working with redoubled spirit; even should it be at the pump of the
+sinking ship, which, we believe, ranks the highest among the toils that
+are inflicted on the unfortunate.
+
+For three days and nights did le Bourdon and his friends remain on that
+dry land of the swamp, without hearing or seeing anything of either
+Peter or Pigeonswing. The time was growing long, and the party anxious;
+though the sense of security was much increased by this apparent
+exemption from danger. Still, uncertainty, and the wish to ascertain the
+precise state of things in the Openings, were gradually getting to be
+painful, and it was with great satisfaction that the bee-hunter met his
+young wife as she came running toward him, on the morning of the fourth
+day, to announce that an Indian was approaching, by wading in the margin
+of the river, keeping always in the water so as to leave no trail.
+Hurrying to a point whence their visitor might be seen, le Bourdon soon
+perceived it was no other than Pigeonswing. In a few minutes this Indian
+arrived, and was gladly received by all four of the fugitives, who
+gathered around him, eager to hear the news.
+
+“You are welcome, Chippewa,” cried le Bourdon, shaking his friend
+cordially by the hand. “We were half afraid we might never see you
+again. Do you bring us good or evil tidings?”
+
+“Mustn't be squaw, and ask too much question, Bourdon,” returned the
+red-skin, carefully examining the priming of his rifle, in order to make
+sure it was not wet. “Got plenty venison, eh?”
+
+“Not much venison is left, but we have caught a good many fish, which
+have helped us along. I have killed a dozen large squirrels, too, with
+your bow and arrows, which I find you left in your canoe. But--”
+
+“Yes, he good bow, dat--might kill hummin'-bird wid dat bow. Fish good
+here, eh?”
+
+“They are eatable, when a body can get no better. But NOW, I should
+think, Pigeonswing, you might give us some of the news.”
+
+“Mustn't be squaw, Bourdon--bad for warrior be squaw. Alway bess be man,
+and be patient, like man. What you t'ink, Bourdon? Got him at last!”
+
+“Got WHAT my good fellow? I see nothing about you, but your arms and
+ammunition.”
+
+“Got scalp of dat Weasel! Wasn't dat well done? Nebber no young warrior
+take more scalp home dan Pigeonswing carry dis time! Got t'ree; all
+hid, where Bear's Meat nebber know. Take 'em away, when he get ready to
+march.”
+
+“Well, well, Chippewa--I suppose it will not be easy to reason you out
+of this feelin'--but what has become of the red-skins who burned my
+cabin, and who killed the missionary and the corporal?”
+
+“All about--dough must go down river. Look here, Bourdon, some of dem
+chief fool enough to t'ink bee carry you off on his wing!”
+
+Here the Chippewa looked his contempt for the credulity and ignorance of
+the others, though he did not express it after the boisterous manner in
+which a white man of his class might have indulged. To him le Bourdon
+was a good fellow, but no conjuror, and he understood the taking of the
+bee too well to have any doubts as to the character of that process.
+His friend had let him amuse himself by the hour in looking through his
+spy-glass, so that the mind of this one savage was particularly well
+fortified against the inroads of the weaknesses that had invaded those
+of most of the members of the great council. Consequently, he was amused
+with the notion taken up by some of the others, that le Bourdon had
+been carried off by bees, though he manifested his amusement in a very
+Indian-like fashion.
+
+“So much the better,” answered le Bourdon; “and I hope they have
+followed to line me down to my hive in the settlements.”
+
+“Most on 'em go--yes, dat true. But some don't go. Plenty of Injins
+still about dis part of Opening.”
+
+“What are we then to do? We shall soon be in want of food. The fish do
+not bite as they did, and I have killed all the squirrels I can find.
+You know I dare not use a rifle.”
+
+“Don't be squaw, Bourdon. When Injin get marry he grows good deal like
+squaw at fuss; but dat soon go away. I spose it's just so wid pale-face.
+Mustn't be squaw, Bourdon. Dat bad for warrior. What you do for eat?
+Why, see dere,” pointing to an object that was floating slowly down the
+river, the current of which was very sluggish just in that reach. “Dere
+as fat buck as ever did see, eh?”
+
+Sure enough the Indian had killed a deer, of which the Openings were
+full, and having brought it to the river, he had constructed a raft of
+logs, and placing the carcase on it, he had set his game adrift, taking
+care to so far precede it as to be in readiness to tow it into port.
+When this last operation was performed, it was found that the Chippewa
+did not heedlessly vaunt the quality of his prize. What was more, so
+accurately had he calculated the time, and the means of subsistence in
+the possession of the fugitives, that his supply came in just as it
+was most needed. In all this he manifested no more than the care of
+an experienced and faithful hunter. Next to the war-path, the
+hunting-ground is the great field for an Indian's glory; deeds and facts
+so far eclipsing purely intellectual qualifications with savages, as to
+throw oratory, though much esteemed by them, and wisdom at the Council
+Fires, quite into the shade. In all this, we find the same propensity
+among ourselves. The common mind, ever subject to these impulses, looks
+rather to such exploits as address themselves to the senses and the
+imagination, than to those qualities which the reason alone can best
+appreciate; and in this, ignorance asserts its negative power over all
+conditions of life.
+
+Pigeonswing now condescended to enter on such explanations as the state
+of the case rendered necessary. His account was sufficiently clear,
+and it manifested throughout the sagacity and shrewdness of a practised
+hunter and scout. We shall not attempt to give his words, which would
+require too much space, but the substance of his story was briefly this:
+
+As has been alluded to already, the principal chiefs, on a suggestion
+of Bear's Meat, had followed the young men down the Kalamazoo, dividing
+themselves by a part of their body's crossing the stream at the first
+favorable spot. In this way the Indians proceeded, sweeping the river
+before them, and examining every place that seemed capable of concealing
+a canoe. Runners were kept in constant motion between the several
+parties, in order to let the state of the search be known to all; and,
+feigning to be one of these very men, Pigeonswing had held communication
+with several whom he purposely met, and to whom he imparted such
+invented information as contributed essentially to send the young men
+forward on a false scent. In this way, the main body of the savages
+descended the river some sixty miles, following its windings, in the
+first day and a half. Here Pigeonswing left them, turning his own face
+up stream, in order to rejoin his friends. Of Peter he had no knowledge;
+neither knowing, nor otherwise learning, what had become of the great
+chief. On his way up stream, Pigeonswing met several more Indians;
+runners like himself, or as he seemed to be; or scouts kept on the
+lookout for the fugitives. He had no difficulty in deceiving these men.
+None of them had been of Crowsfeather's party, and he was a stranger to
+them all. Ignorant of his real character, they received his information
+without distrust, and the orders he pretended to convey were obeyed by
+them without the smallest hesitation. In this way, then, Pigeonswing
+contrived to send all the scouts he met away from the river, by telling
+them that there was reason to think the pale-faces had abandoned the
+stream, and that it was the wish of Bear's Meat that their trail should
+be looked for in the interior. This was the false direction that he gave
+to all, thereby succeeding better even than he had hoped in clearing
+the banks of the Kalamazoo of observers and foes. Nevertheless, many of
+those whom he knew to be out, some quite in the rear of the party, and
+others in its front, and at no great distance from them, he did not
+meet; of course he could not get his false directions to their ears.
+There were, in fact, so many of the Indians and so few of the whites,
+that it was an easy matter to cover the path with young warriors, any
+one party of whom would be strong enough to capture two men and as many
+women.
+
+Having told the tale of his own doings, Pigeonswing next came to his
+proposition for the mode of future proceeding. He proposed that the
+family should get into the canoes that very night, and commence its
+flight by going down the stream directly toward its foes! This sounded
+strangely, but there did not seem to be any alternative. A march across
+the peninsula would be too much for the females, and there was the
+certainty that their trail would be found. It may seem strange to
+those who are unacquainted with the American Indian, and his habits,
+to imagine that, in so large an expanse, the signs of the passage of so
+small a party might not escape detection; but such was the case. To one
+unaccustomed to the vigilance and intelligence of these savages, it must
+appear just as probable that the vessel could be followed through the
+wastes of the ocean, by means of its wake, as that the footprints should
+be so indelible as to furnish signs that can be traced for days. Such,
+however, is the fact, and no one understood it better than the Chippewa.
+He was also aware that the country toward Ohio, whither the fugitives
+would naturally direct their course, now that the English were in
+possession of Detroit, must soon be a sort of battle-ground, to which
+most of the warriors of that region would eagerly repair. Under all the
+circumstances, therefore, he advised the flight by means of the river.
+Le Bourdon reasoned on all he heard, and, still entertaining some of his
+latent distrust of Peter, and willing to get beyond his reach, he soon
+acquiesced in the proposition, and came fully into the plan.
+
+It was now necessary to reload the canoes. This was done in the course
+of the day, and every arrangement was made, so as to be ready for a
+start as soon as the darkness set in. Everybody was glad to move, though
+all were aware of the extent of the hazard they ran. The females, in
+particular, felt their hearts beat, as each, in her husband's canoe,
+issued out of the cover into the open river. Pigeonswing took the lead,
+paddling with a slow, but steady sweep of his arm, and keeping as
+close as was convenient to one bank. By adopting this precaution, he
+effectually concealed the canoes from the eyes of all on that side of
+the river, unless they stood directly on its margin, and had the aid of
+the shadows to help conceal them from any who might happen to be on the
+other. In this way, then, the party proceeded, passing the site of
+the hut, and the grove of Openings around it, undetected. As the river
+necessarily flowed through the lowest land, its banks were wooded much
+of the way, which afforded great protection to the fugitives; and this
+so much the more because these woods often grew in swamps where the
+scouts would not be likely to resort.
+
+About midnight the canoes reached the first rift. An hour was lost in
+unloading and in reloading the canoes, and in passing the difficulties
+at that point. As soon as this was done, the party re-embarked,
+and resorted once more to the use of the paddle, in order to gain a
+particular sheltered reach of the river previously to the return of
+light. This was effected successfully, and the party landed.
+
+It now appeared that Pigeonswing had chosen another swamp as a place
+of concealment for the fugitives to use during the day. These swamps,
+through which the river wound its way in short reaches, were admirably
+adapted to such purposes. Dark, sombre, and hardly penetrable on the
+side of the land, they were little likely to be entered after a first
+examination. Nor was it at all probable that females, in particular,
+would seek a refuge in such a place. But the Chippewa had found the
+means to obviate the natural obstacles of the low land. There were
+several spots where the water from the river set back into the swamp,
+forming so many little creeks; and into the largest of one of these he
+pushed his canoe, the others following where he led. By resorting to
+such means, the shelter now obtained was more complete, perhaps, than
+that previously left.
+
+Pigeonswing forced his light boat up the shallow inlet, until he
+reached a bit of dry land, where he brought up, announcing THAT as the
+abiding-place during the day. Glad enough was every one to get on shore,
+in a spot that promised security, after eight hours of unremitting
+paddling and of painful excitement. Notwithstanding the rifts and
+carrying-places they had met, and been obliged to overcome, le Bourdon
+calculated that they had made as many as thirty miles in the course of
+that one night. This was a great movement, and to all appearances it had
+been made without detection. As for the Chippewa, he was quite content,
+and no sooner was his canoe secured, than he lighted his pipe and sat
+down to his enjoyment with an air of composure and satisfaction.
+
+“And here, you think, Pigeonswing, that we shall be safe during the
+day?” demanded le Bourdon, approaching the fallen tree on which the
+Indian had taken his seat.
+
+“Sartain--no Pottawattamie come here. Too wet. Don't like wet. An't
+duck, or goose--like dry land, juss like squaw. Dis good 'baccy,
+Bourdon--hope you got more for friend.”
+
+“I have enough for us all, Pigeonswing, and you shall have a full share.
+Now, tell me; what will be your next move, and where do you intend to
+pass the morrow?”
+
+“Juss like diss. Plenty of swamp, Bourdon, on Kekalamazoo. [Footnote:
+This is the true Indian word, though the whites have seen fit to omit
+the first syllable.] Run canoe in swamp; den safe 'nough. Injins won't
+look 'ere, 'cause he don't know whereabout look. Don't like swamp. Great
+danger down at mouth of river.”
+
+“So it has seemed to me, Chippewa. The Injins must be there in a strong
+force, and we shall find it no easy matter to get through them. How do
+you propose to do it?”
+
+“Go by in night. No udder way. When can't see, can't see. Dere plenty of
+rush dere; dat good t'ing, and, p'raps, dat help us. Rush good cover for
+canoe. Expec', when we get down 'ere, to get some scalp, too. Plenty of
+Pottawattamie about dat lodge, sartain; and it very hard if don't get
+some on him scalp. You mean stop, and dig up cache; eh, Bourdon?”
+
+The cool, quiet manner in which Pigeonswing revealed his own plans, and
+inquired into those of his friend, had, at least, the effect to revive
+the confidence of le Bourdon. He could not think the danger very great
+so long as one so experienced as the Chippewa felt so much confidence in
+his own future proceedings; and, after talking a short time longer with
+this man, the bee-hunter went to seek Margery, in order to impart to her
+a due portion of his own hopes.
+
+The sisters were preparing the breakfast. This was done without the use
+of fire, it being too hazardous to permit smoke to rise above the tops
+of the trees. Many is the camp that has been discovered by the smoke,
+which can be seen at a great distance; and it is a certain sign of the
+presence of man, when it ascends in threads, or such small columns as
+denote a domestic fire beneath. This is very different from the clouds
+that float above the burning prairies, and which all, at once, impute
+to their true origin. The danger of using fire had been so much guarded
+against by our fugitives, that the cooking of the party had been done
+at night; the utmost caution having been used to prevent the fire itself
+from being seen, and care taken to extinguish it long before the return
+of day. A supply of cold meat was always on hand, and had it not been,
+the fugitives would have known how to live on berries, or, at need, to
+fast; anything was preferable, being exposed to certain capture.
+
+As soon as the party had broken their fast, arrangements were made for
+recruiting nature by sleep. As for Pigeonswing, Indian-like, he had
+eaten enormously, no reasonable quantity of venison sufficing to appease
+his appetite; and when he had eaten, he lay down in the bottom of his
+canoe and slept. Similar dispositions were made of their persons by the
+rest, and half an hour after the meal was ended, all there were in a
+profound sleep. No watch was considered necessary, and none was kept.
+
+The rest of the weary is sweet. Long hours passed, ere any one there
+awoke; but no sooner did the Chippewa move than all the rest were afoot.
+It was now late in the day, and it was time to think of taking the
+meal that was to sustain them through the toil and fatigues of another
+arduous night. This was done; the necessary preparations being made for
+a start ere the sun had set. The canoes were then shoved as near the
+mouth of the inlet as it was safe to go, while the light remained.
+Here they stopped, and a consultation took place, as to the manner of
+proceeding.
+
+No sooner did the shades of evening close around the place than the
+fugitives again put forth. The night was clouded and dark, and so much
+of the way now lay through forests that there was little reason to
+apprehend detection. The chief causes of delay were the rifts, and the
+portages, as had been the case the night before. Luckily, le Bourdon had
+been up and down the stream so often as to be a very tolerable pilot
+in its windings. He assumed the control, and by midnight the greatest
+obstacle to that evening's progress was overcome. At the approach of
+day, Pigeonswing pointed out another creek, in another swamp, where the
+party found a refuge for the succeeding day. In this manner four nights
+were passed on the river, and as many days in swamps, without discovery.
+The Chippewa had nicely calculated his time and his distances, and
+not the smallest mistake was made. Each morning a place of shelter was
+reached in sufficient season; and each night the fugitives were ready
+for the start as the day shut in. In this manner, most of the river was
+descended, until a distance that could be easily overcome in a couple of
+hours of paddling alone remained between the party and the mouth of the
+stream. Extreme caution was now necessary, for signs of Indians in the
+neighborhood had been detected at several points in the course of the
+last night's work. On one occasion, indeed, the escape was so narrow as
+to be worth recording.
+
+It was at a spot where the stream flowed through a forest denser than
+common, that Pigeonswing heard voices on the river, ahead of him. One
+Indian was calling to another, asking to be set across the stream in a
+canoe. It was too late to retreat, and so much uncertainty existed as
+to the nearness, or distance, of the danger, that the Chippewa deemed it
+safest to bring all three of his canoes together, and to let them float
+past the point suspected, or rather KNOWN, to be occupied by enemies.
+This was done, with the utmost care. The plan succeeded, though not
+without running a very great risk. The canoes did float past unseen,
+though there was a minute of time when le Bourdon fancied by the sounds
+that savages were talking to each other, within a hundred feet of his
+ears. Additional security, however, was felt in consequence of the
+circumstance, since the pursuers must imagine the river below them to be
+free from the pursued.
+
+The halt that morning was made earlier than had been the practice
+previously. This was done because the remaining distance was so small
+that, in continuing to advance, the party would have incurred the risk
+of reaching the mouth of the river by daylight. This was to be avoided
+on every account, but principally because it was of great importance to
+conceal from the savages the direction taken. Were the chiefs certain
+that their intended victims were on Lake Michigan, it would be possible
+for them to send parties across the isthmus, that should reach points
+on Lake Huron, days in advance of the arrival of the bee-hunter and his
+friends in the vicinity of Saginaw, or Pointe aux Barques, for instance,
+and where the canoes would be almost certain to pass near the shore,
+laying their ambushes to accomplish these ends. It was thought very
+material, therefore, to conceal the movements, even after the lake
+might be reached, though le Bourdon had not a doubt of his canoes much
+outsailing those of the savages. The Indians are not very skilful in the
+use of sails, while the bee-hunter knew how to manage a bark canoe in
+rough water, with unusual skill. In the common acceptation, he was no
+sailor; but, in his own peculiar craft, there was not a man living who
+could excel him in dexterity or judgment.
+
+The halting-place that morning was not in a swamp, for none offered at
+a suitable distance from the mouth of the river. On the contrary, it
+was in a piece of Opening, that was tolerably well garnished with trees,
+however, and through which ran a small brook that poured its tribute
+into the Kalamazoo. The Chippewa had taken notice of this brook, which
+was large enough to receive the canoes, where they might be concealed
+in the rushes. A favorable copse, surrounded with elders, afforded
+a covered space on shore, and these advantages were improved for an
+encampment.
+
+Instead of seeking his rest as usual, on reaching this cover,
+Pigeonswing left the party on a scout. He walked up the brook some
+distance, in order to conceal his trail, and then struck across the
+Opening, taking the direction westward, or toward the river's mouth.
+As for le Bourdon and his friends, they ate and slept as usual,
+undisturbed; but arose some hours before the close of day.
+
+Thus far, a great work had been accomplished. The canoes had descended
+the stream with a success that was only equalled by the hardihood of the
+measure, conducted by an intelligence that really seemed to amount to
+an instinct Pigeonswing carried a map of the Kalamazoo in his head, and
+seemed never at a loss to know where to find the particular place he
+sought. It is true, he had roamed through those Openings ever since he
+was a child; and an Indian seldom passes a place susceptible of being
+made of use to his habits, that he does not take such heed of its
+peculiarities, as to render him the master of all its facilities.
+
+Margery was now full of hope, while the bee-hunter was filled with
+apprehensions. She saw all things couleur de rose, for she was young,
+happy, and innocent; but he better understood that they were just
+approaching the most serious moment of their flight. He knew the
+vigilance of the American savage, and could not deceive himself on the
+subject of the danger they must run. The mouth of the river was just the
+place that, of all others, would be the closest watched, and to pass it
+would require not only all their skill and courage, but somewhat of the
+fostering care of Providence. It might be done with success, though the
+chances were much against.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+     Yes! we have need to bid our hopes repose
+     On some protecting influence; here confined
+     Life hath no healing balm for mental woes;
+     Earth is too narrow for the immortal mind.
+     Our spirits burn to mingle with the day,
+     As exiles panting for their native coast;
+     Yet lured by every wild-flower from their way,
+     And shrinking from the gulf that must be crossed.
+     Death hovers round us--in the zephyr's sigh
+     As in the storm he comes--and lo! Eternity!
+                                                --MRS. HEMANS.
+
+
+It was probably that inherent disposition to pry into unknown things,
+which is said to mark her sex, and which was the weakness assailed by
+the serpent when he deluded Eve into disobedience, that now tempted
+Margery to go beyond the limits which Pigeonswing had set for her, with
+a view to explore and ascertain what might be found without. In doing
+this, however, she did not neglect a certain degree of caution, and
+avoided exposing her person as much as possible.
+
+Margery had got to the very verge of prudence, so far as the cover was
+concerned, when her steps were suddenly arrested by a most unexpected
+and disagreeable sight. An Indian was seated on a rock within twenty
+feet of the place where she stood. His back was toward her, but she
+was certain it could not be Pigeonswing, who had gone in a contrary
+direction, while the frame of this savage was much larger and heavier
+than that of the Chippewa. His rifle leaned against the rock, near his
+arm, and the tomahawk and knife were in his belt; still Margery thought,
+so far as she could ascertain, that he was not in his war-paint, as she
+knew was the fact with those whom she had seen at Prairie Round. The
+attitude and whole deportment of this stranger, too, struck her as
+remarkable. Although our heroine stood watching him for several minutes,
+almost breathless with terror and anxiety to learn his object, he never
+stirred even a limb in all that time. There he sat, motionless as
+the rock on which he had placed himself; a picture of solitude and
+reflection.
+
+It was evident, moreover, that this stranger also sought a species of
+concealment, as well as the fugitives. It is true he had not buried
+himself in a cover of bushes; but his seat was in a hollow of the ground
+where no one could have seen him, from the rear or on either side, at a
+distance a very little greater than that at which Margery stood, while
+his front was guarded from view by a line of bushes that fringed the
+margin of the stream. Marius, pondering on the mutations of fortune,
+amid the ruins of Carthage, could scarcely have presented a more
+striking object than the immovable form of this stranger. At length
+the Indian slightly turned his head, when his observer, to her great
+surprise, saw the hard, red, but noble and expressive profile of the
+well-known features of Peter.
+
+In an instant all Margery's apprehensions vanished, and her hand was
+soon lightly laid on the shoulder of her friend. Notwithstanding the
+suddenness of this touch, the great chief manifested no alarm. He turned
+his head slowly, and when he saw the bright countenance of the charming
+bride, his smile met hers in pleased recognition. There was no start, no
+exclamation, no appearance of surprise; on the contrary, Peter seemed to
+meet his pretty young friend much as a matter of course, and obviously
+with great satisfaction.
+
+“How lucky this is, Peter!” exclaimed the breathless Margery. “Bourdon's
+mind will now be at rest, for he was afraid you had gone to join our
+enemies, Bear's Meat and his party.”
+
+“Yes; go and stay wid 'em. So bess. Now dey t'ink Peter all on deir
+side. But never forget you, young Blossom.”
+
+“I believe you, Peter; for I FEEL as if you are a true friend. How lucky
+that we should meet here!”
+
+“No luck at all. Come a purpose. Pigeonswing tell me where you be, so
+come here. Juss so.”
+
+“Then you expected to find us in this cover! and what have you to tell
+us of our enemies?”
+
+“Plenty of DEM. All about mout' of river. All about woods and Openings
+here. More dan you count. T'ink of nuttin' but get your scalp.”
+
+“Ah! Peter;--why is it that you red men wish so much to take our
+lives?--and why have you destroyed the missionary, a pious Christian,
+who wished for nothing but your good?”
+
+Peter bent his eyes to the earth, and for more than a minute he made no
+reply. He was much moved, however, as was visible in his countenance,
+which plainly denoted that strong emotions were at work within.
+
+“Blossom, listen to my words,” he, at length, answered. “They are such
+as a fader would speak to his da'ghter. You my da'ghter. Tell you so,
+once; and what Injin say once, he say alway. Poor, and don't know much,
+but know how to do as he say he do. Yes, you my da'ghter! Bear's Meat
+can't touch YOU, widout he touch ME. Bourdon your husband; you his
+squaw. Husband and squaw go togedder, on same path. Dat right. But,
+Blossom, listen. Dere is Great Spirit. Injin believe dat as well as
+pale-face. See dat is so. Dere is Great WICKED Spirit, too. Feel dat,
+too; can't help it. For twenty winter dat Great Wicked Spirit stay close
+to my side. He put his hand before one of my ear, and he put his mout'
+to tudder. Keep whisper, whisper, day and night, nebber stop whisper.
+Tell me to kill pale-face, wherever I find him. Bess to kill him. If
+didn't kill pale-face, pale-face kill Injin. No help for it. Kill ole
+man, kill young man; kill squaws, pappoose and all. Smash eggs and break
+up 'e nest. Dat what he whisper, day and night, for twenty winters.
+Whisper so much, was force to b'lieve him. Bad to have too much whisper
+of same t'ing in ear. Den I want scalp. Couldn't have too much scalp.
+Took much scalp. All pale-face scalp. Heart grow hard. Great pleasure
+was to kill pale-face. Dat feeling last, Blossom, till I see you. Feel
+like fader to you, and don't want your scalp. Won'er great deal why I
+feel so, but do feel so. Dat my natur'. Still want all udder pale-face
+scalp. Want Bourdon scalp, much as any.”
+
+A slight exclamation from his companion, which could scarcely be called
+a scream, caused the Indian to cease speaking, when the two looked
+toward each other, and their eyes met. Margery, however, saw none of
+those passing gleams of ferocity which had so often troubled her in the
+first few weeks of their acquaintance; in their stead, an expression of
+subdued anxiety, and an earnestness of inquiry that seemed to say how
+much the chief's heart yearned to know more on that mighty subject
+toward which his thoughts had lately been turned. The mutual glance
+sufficed to renew the confidence our heroine was very reluctant to
+relinquish, while it awakened afresh all of Peter's parental concern in
+the welfare of the interesting young woman at his side.
+
+“But this feeling has left you, Peter, and you no longer wish Bourdon's
+scalp,” said Margery, hastily. “Now he is my husband, he is your son.”
+
+“Dat good, p'raps,” answered the Injin, “but dat not a reason, nudder,
+Blossom. You right, too. Don't want Bourdon scalp any longer. Dat true.
+But don't want ANY scalp, any more. Heart grow soft--an't hard, now.”
+
+“I wish I could let you understand, Peter, how much I rejoice to hear
+this! I have never felt afraid of you, on my own account, though I will
+own that I have sometimes feared that the dreadful cruel stories which
+are told of your enmity to my color are not altogether without truth.
+Now, you tell me you are the white man's friend, and that you no longer
+wish to injure him. These are blessed words, Peter; and humbly do I
+thank God, through his blessed Son, that I have lived to hear them!”
+
+“Dat Son make me feel so,” returned the Indian, earnestly. “Yes, juss
+so. My heart was hard, till medicinepriest tell dat tradition of Son of
+Great Spirit--how he die for all tribes and nations, and ask his fader
+to do good to dem dat take his life--dat won'erful tradition, Blossom!
+Sound like song of wren in my ear--sweeter dan mocking-bird when he do
+his bess. Yes, dat won'erful. He true, too; for medicine-priest ask his
+Manitou to bless Injin, juss as Injins lift tomahawk to take his life. I
+see'd and heard dat, myself. All, won'erful, won'erful!”
+
+“It was the Spirit of God that enabled poor Amen to do that, Peter; and
+it is the Spirit of God that teaches you to see and feel the beauty
+of such an act. Without the aid of that Spirit, we are helpless as
+children; with it, strong as giants. I do not wonder, at all, that the
+good missionary was able to pray for his enemies with his dying breath.
+God gave him strength to do so.”
+
+Margery spoke as she felt, earnestly, and with emphasis. Her cheeks
+flushed with the strength of her feelings, and Peter gazed on her with a
+species of reverence and wonder. The beauty of this charming young woman
+was pleasing rather than brilliant, depending much on expression for
+its power. A heightened color greatly increased it, and when, as in this
+instance, the eyes reflected the tints of the cheeks, one might have
+journeyed days in older regions, without finding her equal in personal
+attractions. Much as he admired her, however, Peter had now that on his
+mind which rendered her beauty but a secondary object with him. His
+soul had been touched by the unseen, but omnipresent, power of the Holy
+Spirit, and his companion's language and fervor contributed largely in
+keeping alive his interest in what he felt.
+
+“Nebber know Injin do dat,” said Peter, in a slow, deliberative sort of
+way; “no, nebber know Injin do so. Always curse and hate his enemy, and
+most when about to lose his scalp. Den, feelin's hottest. Den, most want
+to use tomahawk on his enemy. Den, most feel dat he hate him. But not so
+wid medicine-priest. Pray for Injin; ask Great Spirit to do him all
+'e good he can; juss as Injin was goin' to strike. Won'erful--most
+won'erful DAT, in my eyes. Blossom, you know Peter. He your fader. He
+take you, and make you his da'ghter. His heart is soft to you, Blossom.
+But, he nuttin' but poor Injin, dough a great chief. What he know?
+Pale-face pappoose know more dan Injin chief. Dat come from Great Spirit
+too. He wanted it so, and it is so. Our chiefs say dat Great Spirit love
+Injin. May be so. T'ink he love ebbery body; but he can't love Injin as
+much as he love pale-face, or he wouldn't let red man know so little.
+Don't count wigwams, and canoes, and powder, and lead, as proof of Great
+Spirit's love. Pale-face got more of dese dan Injin. Dat I see and know,
+and dat I feel. But it no matter. Injin used to be poor, and don't care.
+When used to be poor, den used to it. When used to be rich, den it hard
+not to be rich. All use. Injin don't care. But it bad not to know. I'm
+warrior--I'm hunter--I'm great chief. You squaw--you young--you know
+so much as squaw of chief. But you know most. I feel ashamed to know so
+little. Want to know more. Want to know most how 'e Son of Great Spirit
+die for all tribe, and pray to his fader to bless 'em dat kill him. Dat
+what Peter now want most to know!”
+
+“I wish I was better able to teach you, Peter, from the bottom of my
+heart; but the little I do know you shall hear. I would not deny you for
+a thousand worlds, for I believe the Holy Spirit has touched your heart,
+and that you will become a new man. Christians believe that all must
+become new men, who are to live in the other world, in the presence of
+God.”
+
+“How can dat be? Peter soon be ole--how can ole man grow young ag'in?”
+
+“The meaning of this is that we must so change in feelings, as no longer
+to be the same persons. The things that we loved we must hate, and the
+things that we hated, or at least neglected, we must love. When we feel
+this change in our hearts, then may we hope that we love and reverence
+the Great Spirit, and are living under his holy care.”
+
+Peter listened with the attention of an obedient and respectful child.
+If meekness, humility, a wish to learn the truth, and a devout sentiment
+toward the Creator, are so many indications of the “new birth,” then
+might this savage be said to have been truly “born again.” Certainly he
+was no longer the same man, in a moral point of view, and of this he was
+himself entirely conscious. To him the wonder was what had produced so
+great and so sudden a change! But the reply he made to Margery will, of
+itself, sufficiently express his views of his own case.
+
+“An Injin like a child,” he said, meekly; “nebber know. Even pale-face
+squaw know more dan great chief, Nebber feel as do now. Heart soft as
+young squaw's. Don't hate any body, no more. Wish well to all tribe,
+and color, and nation. Don't hate Bri'sh, don't hate Yankee; don't hate
+Cherokee, even. Wish 'em all well. Don't know dat heart is strong enough
+to ask Great Spirit to do 'em all good, if dey want my scalp--p'rap
+dat too much for poor Injin; but don't want nobody's scalp, myself. Dat
+somet'in', I hope, for me.”
+
+“It is, indeed, Peter; and if you will get down on your knees, and
+humble your thoughts, and pray to God to strengthen you in these good
+feelings, he will be sure to do it, and make you, altogether, a new
+man.”
+
+Peter looked wistfully at Margery, and then turned his eyes toward
+the earth. After sitting in a thoughtful mood for some time, he again
+regarded his companion, saying, with the simplicity of a child:
+
+“Don't know how to do dat, Blossom. Hear medicine-priest of pale-faces
+pray, sometime, but poor Injin don't know enough to speak to Great
+Spirit. You speak to Great Spirit for him. He know your voice, Blossom,
+and listen to what you say; but he won't hear Peter, who has so long
+hated his enemy. P'raps he angry if he hear Peter speak.”
+
+“In that you are mistaken, Peter. The ears of the Lord are ever open to
+our prayers, when put up in sincerity, as I feel certain that yours will
+now be. But, after I have told you the meaning of what I am about to
+say, I will pray with you and for you. It is best that you should begin
+to do this, as soon as you can.”
+
+Margery then slowly repeated to Peter the words of the Lord's prayer.
+She gave him its history, and explained the meaning of several of
+its words that might otherwise have been unintelligible to him,
+notwithstanding his tolerable proficiency in English--a proficiency
+that had greatly increased in the last few weeks, in consequence of his
+constant communications with those who spoke it habitually. The word
+“trespasses,” in particular, was somewhat difficult for the Indian to
+comprehend, but Margery persevered until she succeeded in giving her
+scholar tolerably accurate ideas of the meaning of each term. Then she
+told the Indian to kneel with her, and, for the first time in his life,
+that man of the Openings and prairies lifted his voice in prayer to the
+one God. It is true that Peter had often before mentally asked favors
+of his Manitou; but the requests were altogether of a worldly character,
+and the being addressed was invested with attributes very different from
+those which he now understood to belong to the Lord of heaven and earth.
+Nor was the spirit in asking at all the same. We do not wish to be
+understood as saying that this Indian was already a full convert to
+Christianity, which contains many doctrines of which he had not the most
+distant idea; but his heart had undergone the first step in the great
+change of conversion, and he was now as humble as he had once been
+proud; as meek, as he had formerly been fierce; and he felt that certain
+proof of an incipient love of the Creator, in a similar feeling toward
+all the works of his hands.
+
+When Peter arose from his knees, after repeating the prayer to Margery's
+slow leading, it was with the dependence of a child on the teaching of
+its mother. Physically, he was the man he ever had been. He was as able
+to endure fatigue, as sinewy in his frame, and as capable of fasting and
+of sustaining fatigue, as in his most warlike days; but, morally, the
+change was great, indeed. Instead of the obstinate confidence in himself
+and his traditions, which had once so much distinguished this chief,
+there was substituted an humble distrust of his own judgment, that
+rendered him singularly indisposed to rely on his personal views, in
+any matter of conscience, and he was truly become a child in all
+that pertained to his religious belief. In good hands, and under more
+advantageous circumstances, the moral improvement of Peter would have
+been great; but, situated as he was, it could not be said to amount to
+much more than a very excellent commencement.
+
+All this time both Peter and Margery had been too intent on their
+feelings and employment, to take much heed to the precautions necessary
+to their concealment. The sun was setting ere they arose, and then it
+was that Peter made the important discovery that they were observed by
+two of the young men of the Pottawattamies--scouts kept out by Bear's
+Meat to look for the fugitives.
+
+The time was when Peter would not have hesitated to use his rifle on
+these unwelcome intruders; but the better spirit that had come over him,
+now led him to adopt a very different course. Motioning to the young
+men, he ordered them to retire, while he led Margery within the cover
+of the bushes. Formerly, Peter would not have scrupled to resort to
+deception, in order to throw these two young men on a wrong scent, and
+get rid of them in that mode; but now he had a reluctance to deceive;
+and, no sooner did they fall back at his beckoning, than he followed
+Margery to the camp. The latter was giving her husband a hurried account
+of what had just happened, as Peter joined them.
+
+“Our camp is known!” exclaimed the bee-hunter the instant he beheld the
+Indian.
+
+“Juss so. Pottawattamie see squaw, and go and tell his chief. Dat
+sartain,” answered Peter.
+
+“What is there to be done?--Fight for our lives, or fly?”
+
+“Get in canoe quick as can. It take dem young men half-hour to reach
+place where chief be. In dat half-hour we muss go as far as we can. No
+good to stay here. Injin come in about one hour.”
+
+Le Bourdon knew his position well enough to understand this.
+Nevertheless, there were several serious objections to an immediate
+flight. Pigeonswing was absent, and the bee-hunter did not like the
+notion of leaving him behind, for various reasons. Then it was not yet
+dark; and to descend the river by daylight, appeared like advancing into
+the jaws of the lion designedly. Nor was le Bourdon at his ease on the
+subject of Peter. His sudden appearance, the insufficient and far from
+clear account of Margery, and the extraordinary course advised, served
+to renew ancient distrusts, and to render him reluctant to move. But of
+one thing there could be no doubt. Their present position must be known,
+for Margery had seen the two strange Indians with her own eyes, and a
+search might soon be expected. Under all the circumstances, therefore,
+our hero reluctantly complied with Margery's reiterated solicitations,
+and they all got into the canoes.
+
+“I do not like this movement, Peter,” said le Bourdon, as he shoved his
+own light craft down the brook, previously to entering the river. “I
+hope it may turn out to be better than it looks, and that you can keep
+us out of the hands of our enemies. Remember, it is broad daylight, and
+that red men are plenty two or three miles below us.”
+
+“Yes, know dat; but muss go. Injin too plenty here, soon. Yes, muss go.
+Bourdon, why you can't ask bee, now, what bess t'ing for you to do, eh?
+Good time, now, ask bee to tell what he know.”
+
+The bee-hunter made no reply, but his pretty wife raised her hand,
+involuntarily, as if to implore the Indian to forbear. Peter was a
+little bewildered; for as yet, he did not understand that a belief in
+necromancy was not exactly compatible with the notions of the Christian
+Providence. In his ignorance, how much was he worse off than the wisest
+of our race? Will any discreet man who has ever paid close attention to
+the power of the somnambule, deny that there is a mystery about such a
+person that exceeds all our means of explanation? That there are degrees
+in the extent of this power--that there are false, as well as true
+somnambules--all who have attended to the subject must allow; but, a
+deriding disbeliever in our own person once, we have since seen that
+which no laws, known to us, can explain, and which we are certain is
+not the subject of collusion, as we must have been a party to the fraud
+ourselves, were any such practised. To deny the evidence of our senses
+is an act of greater weakness than to believe that there are mysteries
+connected with our moral and physical being that human sagacity has not
+yet been able to penetrate; and we repudiate the want of manliness
+that shrinks from giving its testimony when once convinced, through an
+apprehension of being derided, as weaker than those who withhold their
+belief. We KNOW that our own thoughts have been explained and rendered,
+by a somnambule, under circumstances that will not admit of any
+information by means known to us by other principles; and whatever
+others may think on the subject, we are perfectly conscious that no
+collusion did or could exist. Why, then, are we to despise the poor
+Indian because he still fancied le Bourdon could hold communication with
+his bees? We happen to be better informed, and there may be beings
+who are aware of the as yet hidden laws of animal magnetism--hidden
+as respects ourselves, though known to them--and who fully comprehend
+various mistakes and misapprehensions connected with our impressions on
+this subject, that escape our means of detection. It is not surprising,
+therefore, that Peter, in his emergency, turned to those bees, in the
+hope that they might prove of assistance, or that Margery silently
+rebuked him for the weakness, in the manner mentioned.
+
+Although it was still light, the sun was near setting when the canoes
+glided into the river. Fortunately for the fugitives, the banks were
+densely wooded, and the stream of great width--a little lake, in
+fact--and there was not much danger of their being seen until they got
+near the mouth; nor then, even, should they once get within the cover
+of the wild rice, and of the rushes. There was no retreat, however; and
+after paddling some distance, in order to get beyond the observation of
+any scout who might approach the place where they had last been seen,
+the canoes were brought close together, and suffered to float before
+a smart breeze, so as not to reach the mouth of the stream before the
+night closed around them. Everything appeared so tranquil, the solitude
+was so profound, and their progress so smooth and uninterrupted, that a
+certain amount of confidence revived in the breasts of all, and even the
+bee-hunter had hopes of eventual escape.
+
+A conversation now occurred, in which Peter was questioned concerning
+the manner in which he had been occupied during his absence; an absence
+that had given le Bourdon so much concern. Had the chief been perfectly
+explicit, he would have confessed that fully one-half of his waking
+thoughts had been occupied in thinking of the death of the Son of God,
+of the missionary's prayer for his enemies, and of the sublime morality
+connected with such a religion. It is true Peter did not--could not,
+indeed--enter very profoundly into the consideration of these subjects;
+nor were his notions either very clear or orthodox; but they were
+sincere, and the feelings to which they gave birth were devout.
+Peter did not touch on these circumstances, however, confining his
+explanations to the purely material part of his proceedings. He had
+remained with Bear's Meat, Crowsfeather, and the other leading chiefs,
+in order to be at the fountain-head of information, and to interpose his
+influence should the pale-faces unhappily fall into the hands of those
+who were so industriously looking for them. Nothing had occurred to call
+his authority out, but a strange uncertainty seemed to reign among the
+warriors, concerning the manner in which their intended victims eluded
+their endeavors to overtake them. No trail had been discovered, scout
+after scout coming in to report a total want of success in their
+investigations inland. This turned the attention of the Indians still
+more keenly on the river's mouth, it being certain that the canoes could
+not have passed out into the lake previously to the arrival of the two
+or three first parties of their young men, who had been sent so early to
+watch that particular outlet.
+
+Peter informed le Bourdon that his cache had been discovered, opened,
+and rifled of its stores. This was a severe loss to our hero, and one
+that would have been keenly felt at any other time; but just then he had
+interests so much more important to protect, that he thought and said
+little about this mishap. The circumstance which gave him the most
+concern was this: Peter stated that Bear's Meat had directed about a
+dozen of his young men to keep watch, day and night, in canoes, near
+the mouth of the river, lying in wait among the wild rice, like so many
+snakes in the grass.
+
+The party was so much interested in this conversation that, almost
+insensibly to themselves, they had dropped down to the beginning of the
+rushes and rice, and had got rather dangerously near to the critical
+point of their passage. As it was still daylight, Peter now proposed
+pushing the canoes in among the plants, and there remaining until it
+might be safer to move. This was done accordingly, and in a minute or
+two all three of the little barks were concealed within the cover.
+
+The question now was whether the fugitives had been observed, but
+suffered to advance, as every foot they descended the stream was taking
+them nearer to their foes. Peter did not conceal his apprehension on
+this point, since he deemed it improbable that any reach near the mouth
+of the Kalamazoo was without its lookouts, at a moment so interesting.
+Such was, indeed, the fact, as was afterward ascertained; but the young
+men who had seen Peter and Margery had given the alarm, passing the
+word where the fugitives were to be found, and the sentinels along this
+portion of the stream had deserted their stations, in order to be in at
+the capture. By such delicate and unforeseen means does Providence often
+protect those who are the subjects of its especial care, baffling the
+calculations of art by its own quiet control of events.
+
+The bee-hunter had a feverish desire to be moving. After remaining
+in the cover about half an hour, he proposed that they should get the
+canoes into one of the open passages, of which there were many among the
+plants, and proceed. Peter had more of the patience of an Indian, and
+deemed the hour too early. But le Bourdon was not yet entirely free
+from distrust of his companion, and telling Gershom to follow, he
+began paddling down one of the passages mentioned. This decisive step
+compelled the rest to follow, or to separate from their companions. They
+chose to do the first.
+
+Had le Bourdon possessed more self-command, and remained stationary a
+little longer, he would, in all probability, have escaped altogether
+from a very serious danger that he was now compelled to run. Although
+there were many of the open places among the plants, they did not always
+communicate with each other, and it became necessary to force the
+canoes through little thickets, in order to get out of one into another,
+keeping the general direction of descending the river. It was while
+effecting the first of these changes, that the agitation of the tops
+of the plants caught the eye of a lookout on the shore. By signals,
+understood among themselves, this man communicated his discovery to a
+canoe that was acting as one of the guard-boats, thus giving a general
+alarm along the whole line of sentinels, as well as to the chiefs down
+at the hut or at the mouth of the river. The fierce delight with which
+this news was received, after so long a delay, became ungovernable, and
+presently yells and cries filled the air, proceeding from both sides of
+the stream, as well as from the river itself.
+
+There was not a white person in those canoes who did not conceive that
+their party was lost, when this clamor was heard. With Peter it was
+different. Instead of admitting of alarm, he turned all his faculties to
+use. While le Bourdon himself was nearly in despair, Peter was listening
+with his nice ears, to catch the points on the river whence the yells
+arose. For the banks he cared nothing. The danger was from the canoes.
+By the keenness of his faculties, the chief ascertained that there were
+four canoes out, and that they would have to run the gauntlet between
+them, or escape would be hopeless. By the sounds he also became certain
+that these four canoes were in the rice, two on each side of the river,
+and there they would probably remain, in expectation that the fugitives
+would be most likely to come down in the cover.
+
+The decision of Peter was made in a moment. It was now quite dark, and
+those who were in canoes within the rice could not well see the middle
+of the stream, even by daylight. He determined, therefore, to take the
+very centre of the river, giving his directions to that effect with
+precision and clearness. The females he ordered to lie down, each in
+her own canoe, while their husbands alone were to remain visible. Peter
+hoped that, in the darkness, le Bourdon and Gershom might pass for
+Indians, on the lookout, and under his own immediate command.
+
+One very important fact was ascertained by le Bourdon, as soon as these
+arrangements were explained and completed. The wind on the lake was
+blowing from the south, and of course was favorable to those who desired
+to proceed in the opposite direction. This he communicated to Margery in
+a low tone, endeavoring to encourage her by all the means in his power.
+In return, the young wife muttered a few encouraging words to her
+husband. Every measure was understood between the parties. In the event
+of a discovery, the canoes were to bury themselves in the rice, taking
+different directions, each man acting for himself. A place of rendezvous
+was appointed outside, at a headland known to Gershom and le Bourdon,
+and signals were agreed on, by which the latest arrival might know that
+all was safe there. These points were settled as the canoes floated
+slowly down the stream.
+
+Peter took and kept the lead. The night was star-lit and clear, but
+there was no moon. On the water, this made but little difference,
+objects not being visible at any material distance. The chief governed
+the speed, which was moderate, but regular. At the rate he was now
+going, it would require about an hour to carry the canoes into the lake.
+But nearly all of that hour must pass in the midst of enemies!
+
+Half of the period just mentioned elapsed, positively without an alarm
+of any sort. By this time, the party was abreast of the spot where
+Gershom and le Bourdon had secreted the canoes in the former adventure
+at the mouth of the river. On the shores, however, a very different
+scene now offered. Then, the fire burned brightly in the hut, and the
+savages could be seen by its light. Now, all was not only dark, but
+still as death. There was no longer any cry, sound, alarm, or foot-fall,
+audible. The very air seemed charged with uncertainty, and its
+offspring, apprehension.
+
+As they approached nearer and nearer to what was conceived to be the
+most critical point in the passage, the canoes got closer together; so
+close, indeed, that le Bourdon and Gershom might communicate in very
+guarded tones. The utmost care was taken to avoid making any noise,
+since a light and careless blow from a paddle, on the side of a canoe,
+would be almost certain, now, to betray them. Margery and Dorothy could
+no longer control their feelings, and each rose in her seat, raising her
+body so as to bring her head above the gunwale of the canoe, if a bark
+canoe can be said to have a gunwale at all. They even whispered to each
+other, endeavoring to glean encouragement by sympathy. At this instant
+occurred the crisis in their attempt to escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+     For an Indian isle she shapes her way
+     With constant mind both night and day:
+     She seems to hold her home in view
+     And sails as if the path she knew,
+     So calm and stately in her motion
+     Across the unfathomed, trackless ocean.
+                                           -- WILSON.
+
+
+It has been said that Peter was in advance. When his canoe was nearly
+abreast of the usual landing at the hut, he saw two canoes coming out
+from among the rice, and distant from him not more than a hundred
+yards. At a greater distance, indeed, it would not have been easy to
+distinguish such an object on the water at all. Instead of attempting to
+avoid these two canoes, the chief instantly called to them, drawing the
+attention of those in them to himself, speaking so loud as to be easily
+overheard by those who followed.
+
+“My young men are too late,” he said. “The pale-faces have been seen in
+the openings above by our warriors, and must soon be here. Let us land,
+and be ready to meet them at the wigwam.”
+
+Peter's voice was immediately recognized. The confident, quiet, natural
+manner in which he spoke served to mislead those in the canoes; and when
+he joined them, and entered the passage among the rice that led to the
+landing, preceding the others, the last followed him as regularly as the
+colt follows its dam. Le Bourdon heard the conversation, and understood
+the movement, though he could not see the canoes. Peter continued
+talking aloud, as he went up the passage, receiving answers to all he
+said from his new companions, his voice serving to let the fugitives
+know precisely where they were. All this was understood and improved by
+the last, who lost no time in turning the adventure to account.
+
+The first impulse of le Bourdon had been to turn and fly up stream.
+But, ascertaining that these dangerous enemies were so fully occupied
+by Peter as not to see the canoes behind, he merely inclined a little
+toward the other side of the channel, and slackened his rate of
+movement, in order not to come too near. The instant he was satisfied
+that all three of the canoes in advance had entered the passage
+mentioned, and were moving toward the landing, he let out, and glided
+down stream like an arrow. It required but half a minute to cross the
+opening of the passage, but Peter's conversation kept his followers
+looking ahead, which greatly lessened the risk. Le Bourdon's heart was
+in his mouth several times, while thus running the gauntlet, as it might
+be; but fortune favored them; or, as Margery more piously understood the
+circumstances, a Divine Providence led them in safety past the danger.
+
+At the mouth of the river both le Bourdon and Gershom thought it highly
+probable that they should fall in with more lookouts, and each prepared
+his arms for a fight. But no canoe was there, and the fugitives were
+soon in the lake. Michigan is a large body of water, and a bark canoe is
+but a frail craft to put to sea in, when there is any wind or commotion.
+On the present occasion, there was a good deal of both; so much as
+greatly to terrify the females. Of all the craft known, however, one
+of these egg-shells is really the safest, if properly managed, among
+breakers or amid the combing of seas. We have ourselves ridden in them
+safely through a surf that would have swamped the best man-of-war cutter
+that ever floated; and done it, too, without taking on board as much
+water as would serve to wash one's hands. The light vessel floats on so
+little of the element, indeed, that the foam of a large sea has scarce
+a chance of getting above it, or aboard it; the great point in the
+handling being to prevent the canoe from falling broadside to. By
+keeping it end on to the sea, in our opinion, a smart gale might be
+weathered in one of these craft, provided the endurance of a man could
+bear up against the unceasing watchfulness and incessant labor of
+sweeping with the paddle, in order to prevent broaching to.
+
+Le Bourdon, it has been said, was very skilful in the management of his
+craft; and Gershom, now perforce a sober and useful man, was not
+much behind him in this particular. The former had foreseen this very
+difficulty, and made all his arrangements to counteract it. No sooner,
+therefore, did he find the canoes in rough water than he brought them
+together, side by side, and lashed them there. This greatly lessened the
+danger of capsizing, though it increased the labor of managing the craft
+when disposed to turn broadside to. It only remained to get sail on the
+catamaran, for some such thing was it now, in order to keep ahead of the
+sea as much as possible. Light cotton lugs were soon spread, one in each
+canoe, and away they went, as sailors term it, wing and wing.
+
+It was now much easier steering, though untiring vigilance was still
+necessary. A boat may appear to fly, and yet the “send of the sea”
+ shall glance ahead of it with the velocity of a bird. Nothing that goes
+through, or ON, the water--and the last is the phrase best suited to
+the floating of a bark canoe--can ever be made to keep company with
+that feathery foam, which, under the several names of “white-caps”--an
+in-shore and lubber's term--“combs,” “breaking of the seas,” “the wash,”
+ etc., etc., glances by a vessel in a blow, or comes on board her even
+when she is running before it. We have often watched these clouds of
+water, as they have shot ahead of us, when ploughing our own ten or
+eleven knot through the brine, and they have ever appeared to us as so
+many useful admonishers of what the power of God is, as compared to the
+power of man. The last shall construct his ship, fit her with all the
+appliances of his utmost art, sail her with the seaman's skill, and
+force her through her element with something like railroad speed;
+yet will the seas “send” their feathery crests past her, like so
+many dolphins, or porpoises, sporting under her fore-foot. It is this
+following sea which becomes so very dangerous in heavy gales, and which
+compels the largest ships frequently to heave to, in order that they may
+present their bows to its almost resistless power.
+
+But our adventurers had no such gales as those we mean, or any such seas
+to withstand. The wind blew fresh from the south, and Michigan can get
+up a very respectable swell at need. Like the seas in all the great
+lakes, it was short, and all the worse for that. The larger the expanse
+of water over which the wind passes, the longer is the sea, and the
+easier is it for the ship to ride on it. Those of Lake Michigan,
+however, were quite long enough for a bark canoe, and glad enough were
+both Margery and Dorothy when they found their two little vessels lashed
+together, and wearing an air of more stability than was common to them.
+Le Bourdon's sail was first spread, and it produced an immediate relief
+from the washing of the waves. The drift of a bark canoe, in a smart
+blow, is considerable, it having no hold on the water to resist it; but
+our adventurers fairly flew as soon as the cotton cloth was opened. The
+wind being exactly south, by steering due north, or dead before it, it
+was found possible to carry the sail in the other canoe, borne out
+on the opposite side; and from the moment that was opened, all the
+difficulty was reduced to steering so “small,” as seamen term it, as
+to prevent one or the other of the lugs from jibing. Had this occurred,
+however, no very serious consequences would have followed, the
+precaution taken of lashing the craft together rendering capsizing next
+to impossible.
+
+The Kalamazoo and its mouth were soon far behind, and le Bourdon no
+longer felt the least apprehension of the savages left in it. The
+Indians are not bold navigators, and he felt certain that the lake was
+too rough for the savages to venture out, while his own course gradually
+carried him off the land, and out of the track of anything that kept
+near the shore. A short time produced a sense of security, and the
+wind appearing to fall, instead of increasing in violence, it was soon
+arranged that one of the men should sleep, while the other looked to the
+safety of the canoes.
+
+It was about nine o'clock when the fugitives made sail, off the mouth of
+the Kalamazoo; and, at the return of light, seven hours later, they were
+more than forty miles from the place of starting. The wind still stood,
+with symptoms of growing fresher again as the sun rose, and the land
+could just be seen in the eastern board, the coast in that direction
+having made a considerable curvature inland. This had brought the canoes
+farther from the land than le Bourdon wished to be, but he could not
+materially change his course without taking in one of his sails. As much
+variation was made, however, as was prudent, and by nine o'clock, or
+twelve hours after entering the lake, the canoes again drew near to the
+shore, which met them ahead. By the bee hunter's calculations, they were
+now about seventy miles from the mouth of the Kalamazoo, having passed
+the outlets of two or three of the largest streams of those regions.
+
+The fugitives selected a favorable spot, and landed behind a headland
+that gave them a sufficient lee for the canoes. They had now reached a
+point where the coast trends a little to the eastward, which brought the
+wind in a slight degree off the land. This change produced no very
+great effect on the seas, but it enabled the canoes to keep close to
+the shore, making something of a lee for them. This they did about noon,
+after having lighted a fire, caught some fish in a small stream, killed
+a deer and dressed it, and cooked enough provisions to last for two
+or three days. The canoes were now separated again; it being easier to
+manage them in that state than when lashed together, besides enabling
+them to carry both sails. The farther north they got the more of a lee
+was found, though it was in no place sufficient to bring smooth water.
+
+In this manner several more hours were passed, and six times as many
+more miles were made in distance. When le Bourdon again landed, which
+he did shortly before the sun set, he calculated his distance from
+the mouth of the Kalamazoo to be rather more than a hundred miles. His
+principal object was to ascend a bluff and to take a look at the coast,
+in order to examine it for canoes. This his glass enabled him to do with
+some accuracy, and when he rejoined the party, he was rejoiced to have
+it in his power to report that the coast was clear. After refreshing
+themselves, the canoes were again brought together, in order to divide
+the watches, and a new start was made for the night. In this manner did
+our adventurers make their way to the northward for two nights and days,
+landing often, to fish, hunt, rest, and cook, as well as to examine the
+coast. At the end of the time mentioned, the celebrated straits of the
+Michillimackinac, or Mackinaw, as they are almost universally termed,
+came in sight. The course had been gradually changing toward the
+eastward, and, luckily for the progress of the fugitives, the wind with
+it, leaving them always a favorable breeze. But it was felt to be no
+longer safe to use a sail, and recourse was had to the paddles, until
+the straits and island were passed. This caused some delay, and added a
+good deal to the labor; but it was deemed so dangerous to display
+their white cotton sails, objects that might be seen for a considerable
+distance, that it was thought preferable to adopt this caution. Nor
+was it useless. In consequence of this foresight, a fleet of canoes was
+passed in safety, which were crossing from the post at Mackinaw to ward
+the main land of Michigan. The number of the canoes in this fleet could
+not have been less than fifty, but getting a timely view of them, le
+Bourdon hid his own craft in a cove, and remained there until the danger
+was over.
+
+The course now changed still more, while the wind got quite round to the
+westward. This made a fair wind at first, and gave the canoes a good lee
+as they advanced. Lake Huron, which was the water the fugitives were now
+on, lies nearly parallel to Michigan, and the course was southeasterly.
+As le Bourdon had often passed both ways on these waters, he had his
+favorite harbors, and knew those signs which teach navigators how to
+make their prognostics of the weather. On the whole, the fugitives did
+very well, though they lost two days between Mackinaw and Saginaw Bay;
+one on account of the strength of the wind, and one on account of rain.
+During the last, they remained in a hut that le Bourdon had himself
+constructed in one of his many voyages, and which he had left standing.
+These empty cabins, or chientes, are of frequent occurrence in new
+countries, being used, like the Refuges in the Alps, by every traveller
+as he has need of them.
+
+The sight of the fleet of canoes, in the straits of Michillimackinac,
+caused the fugitives the only real trouble they had felt, between the
+time when they left the mouth of the Kalamazoo, and the ten days that
+succeeded. By the end of that period the party had crossed Saginaw,
+and was fast coming up with Point au Barques, a landmark for all who
+navigate the waters of Huron, when a canoe was seen coming out from
+under the land, steering as if to intercept them. This sight gave both
+concern and pleasure; concern, as it might lead to a hostile encounter,
+and pleasure, because the bee-hunter hoped for information that might be
+useful in governing his future course. Here his glass came in play, with
+good effect. By means of that instrument, it was soon ascertained that
+the strange canoe contained but two men, both Indians, and as that was
+just their own force no great danger was apprehended from the meeting.
+The craft, therefore, continued to approach each other, le Bourdon
+keeping his glass levelled on the strangers much of the time.
+
+“As I live, yonder are Peter and Pigeonswing,” suddenly exclaimed our
+hero. “They have crossed the Peninsula, and have come out from the
+point, in that canoe, to meet us.”
+
+“With important news, then, depend on it, Benjamin,” answered the wife.
+“Tell this to brother, that he and Dolly may not feel more alarm than is
+necessary.”
+
+The bee-hunter called out to his friends in the other canoe, and
+communicated the discovery just made, the two craft keeping always
+within hailing distance of each other.
+
+“Them Injins are not here for nothing,” answered Dorothy. “You will find
+they have something serious to say.”
+
+“We shall soon know,” called out le Bourdon. “Ten minutes will bring us
+alongside of them.”
+
+The ten minutes did that much, and before the expiration of the short
+space, the three canoes were fastened together, that of Peter being in
+the centre. The bee-hunter saw, at a glance, that the expedition of
+the Indians had been hurried; for their canoe, besides being of
+very indifferent qualities, was not provided with the implements and
+conveniences usual to a voyage of any length. Still, he would not ask
+a question, but lighting his pipe, after a few puffs, he passed it
+courteously over to Peter. The great chief smoked a while, and gave it
+to Pigeonswing, in his turn, who appeared to enjoy it quite as much as
+any of the party.
+
+“My father does not believe he is a Jew?” said le Bourdon, smiling;
+willing to commence a discourse, though still determined not to betray a
+womanish curiosity.
+
+“We are poor Injins, Bourdon; just as the Great Spirit made us. Dat
+bess. Can't help what Manitou do. If he don't make us Jew, can't be Jew.
+If he make us Injin, muss be Injin. For my part, b'lieve I'm Injin, and
+don't want to be pale-face. Can love pale-face, now, juss as well as
+love Injin.”
+
+“Oh, I hope this is true, Peter,” exclaimed Margery, her handsome face
+flushing with delight, at hearing these words. “So long as your heart
+tells you this, be certain that the Spirit of God is in you.”
+
+Peter made no answer, but he looked profoundly impressed with the novel
+feeling that had taken possession of his soul. As for the bee-hunter, he
+did not meddle with Margery's convictions or emotions on such subjects,
+resembling, in this particular, most men, who, however indifferent to
+religion in their own persons, are never sorry to find that their wives
+profoundly submit to its influence. After a short pause, a species
+of homage involuntarily paid to the subject, he thought he might now
+inquire into the circumstances that brought the Indians on their route,
+without incurring the imputation of a weak and impatient curiosity. In
+reply, Peter's story was soon told. He had rejoined the chiefs without
+exciting distrust, and all had waited for the young men to bring in the
+captives. As soon as it was ascertained that the intended victims had
+escaped, and by water, parties proceeded to different points, in order
+to intercept them. Some followed in canoes, but, being less bold in
+their navigation than the bee-hunter, they did not make the straits
+until some time after the fugitives had passed. Peter, himself,
+had joined Bear's Meat and some twenty warriors who had crossed the
+Peninsula, procured canoes at the head of Saginaw Bay, and had come out
+at Point au Barques, the very spot our party was now approaching, three
+days before its arrival.
+
+Tired with waiting, and uncertain whether his enemies had not got the
+start of him, Bear's Meat had gone into the river below, intending to
+keep his watch there, leaving Peter at the Point, with three young men
+and one canoe, to have a lookout. These young men the great chief had
+found an excuse for sending to the head of the Bay, in quest of another
+canoe, which left him, of course, quite alone on the Point. Scarce had
+the young man got out of sight, ere Pigeonswing joined his confederate,
+for it seems that this faithful friend had kept on the skirts of the
+enemy the whole time, travelling hundreds of miles, and enduring hunger
+and fatigue, besides risking his life at nearly every step, in order to
+be of use to those whom he considered himself pledged to serve.
+
+Of course, Peter and Pigeonswing understood each other. One hour after
+they joined company, the canoes of the fugitives came in sight, and
+were immediately recognized by their sails. They were met, as has been
+mentioned, and the explanations that we have given were made before the
+party landed at the Point.
+
+It was something to know where the risk was to be apprehended; but le
+Bourdon foresaw great danger. He had brought his canoes, already, quite
+five hundred miles, along a hazardous coast--though a little craft, like
+one of those he navigated, ran less risk, perhaps, than a larger
+vessel, since a shelter might, at any time, be found within a reasonable
+distance for it. From Pointe au Barques to the outlet of the lake
+was less than a hundred miles more. This outlet was a river, as it is
+called--a strait, in fact--which communicates with the small shallow
+lake of St. Clair, by a passage of some thirty miles in length. Then
+the lake St. Clair was to be crossed about an equal distance, when the
+canoes would come out in what is called the Detroit River, a strait
+again, as its name indicates. Some six or eight miles down this passage,
+and on its western side, stands the city of Detroit, then a village of
+no great extent, with a fort better situated to repel an attack of the
+savages, than to withstand a siege of white men. This place was now in
+the possession of the British, and, according to le Bourdon's notion, it
+was scarcely less dangerous to him than the hostility of Bear's Meat and
+his companions.
+
+Delay, however, was quite as dangerous as anything else. After cooking
+and eating, therefore, the canoes continued their course, Peter and
+Pigeonswing accompanying them, though they abandoned their own craft.
+Peter went with the bee-hunter and Margery, while the Chippewa took a
+seat and a paddle in the canoe of Gershom. This change was made in
+order to put a double power in each canoe, since it was possible that
+downright speed might become the only means of safety.
+
+The wind still stood at the westward, and the rate of sailing was rapid.
+About the close of the day the party drew near to the outlet, when Peter
+directed the sails to be taken in. This was done to prevent their being
+seen, a precaution that was now aided by keeping as near to the shore
+as possible, where objects so small and low would be very apt to be
+confounded with others on the land.
+
+It was quite dark when the canoes entered the St. Clair river. Favored
+by the current and the wind, their progress was rapid, and ere the day
+returned, changing his direction from the course ordinarily taken, Peter
+entered the lake by a circuitous passage; one of the many that lead from
+the river to the lake, among aquatic plants that form a perfect shelter.
+This detour saved the fugitives from falling into the hands of one party
+of their enemies, as was afterward ascertained by the Indians. Bear's
+Meat had left two canoes, each manned by five warriors, to watch the
+principal passages into Lake St. Clair, not anticipating that any
+particular caution would be used by the bee-hunter and his friends, at
+this great distance from the place where they had escaped from their
+foes. But the arrival of Peter, his sagacity, and knowledge of Indian
+habits, prevented the result that was expected. The canoes got into
+the lake unseen, and crossed it a little diagonally, so as to reach the
+Canada shore in the middle of the afternoon of the succeeding day, using
+their sails only when far from land, and not exposed to watchful eyes.
+
+The bee-hunter and his friends landed that afternoon at the cabin of
+a Canadian Frenchman, on the shore of the lake, and at a safe distance
+from the outlet which led still farther south. Here the females were
+hospitably received, and treated with that kindness which marks the
+character of the Canadian French. It mattered little to these simple
+people, whether the travellers were of the hostile nation or not. It is
+true, they did not like the “Yankees,” as all Americans are termed by
+them, but they were not particularly in love with their English masters.
+It was well enough to be repossessed of both banks of the Detroit,
+for both banks were then peopled principally by their own race, the
+descendants of Frenchmen of the time of Louis XIV., and who still
+preserved much of the language, and many of the usages, of the French
+of that period. They spoke then, as now, only the language of their
+fathers.
+
+The bee-hunter left the cottage of these simple and hospitable people,
+as soon as the night was fairly set in; or, rather, as soon as a young
+moon had gone down. Peter now took the command, steering the canoe of
+le Bourdon, while Gershom followed so close as to keep the bow of his
+little craft within reach of the Indian's arm. In less than an hour the
+fugitives reached the opening of the river, which is here divided into
+two channels by a large island. On that very island, and at that precise
+moment, was Bear's Meat lying in wait for their appearance, provided
+with three canoes, each having a crew of six men. It would have been
+easy for this chief to go to Detroit, and give the alarm to the savages
+who were then collected there in a large force, and to have made such
+a disposition of the canoes as would have rendered escape by water
+impossible; but this would have been robbing himself and his friends of
+all the credit of taking the scalps, and throwing away what is termed
+“honor” among others as well as among savages. He chose, therefore, to
+trust to his own ability to succeed; and supposing the fugitives would
+not be particularly on their guard at this point, had little doubt of
+intercepting them here, should they succeed in eluding those he had left
+above.
+
+The bee-hunter distrusted that island, and used extra caution in passing
+it. In the first place, the two canoes were brought together, so as to
+give them, in the dark, the appearance of only one; while the four men
+added so much to the crew as to aid the deception. In the end it proved
+that one of Bear's Meat's canoes that was paddling about in the middle
+of the river had actually seen them, but mistook the party for a canoe
+of their own, which ought to have been near that spot, with precisely
+six persons in it, just at that time. These six warriors had landed, and
+gone up among the cottages of the French to obtain some fruit, of which
+they were very fond, and of which they got but little in their own
+villages. Owing to this lucky coincidence, which the pretty Margery ever
+regarded as another special interposition of Providence in their favor,
+the fugitives passed the island without molestation, and actually got
+below the last lookouts of Bear's Meat, though without their knowledge.
+
+It was by no means a difficult thing to go down the river, now that so
+many canoes were in motion on it, at all hours. The bee-hunter knew what
+points were to be avoided, and took care not to approach a sentinel. The
+river, or strait, is less than a mile wide, and by keeping in the centre
+of the passage, the canoes, favored by both wind and current, drove by
+the town, then an inconsiderable village, without detection. As soon as
+far enough below, the canoes were again cast loose from each other, and
+sail was made on each. The water was smooth, and some time before
+the return of light the fugitives were abreast of Malden, but in the
+American channel. Had it been otherwise, the danger could not have been
+great. So completely were the Americans subdued by Hull's capitulation,
+and so numerous were the Indian allies of the British, that the passage
+of a bark canoe, more or less, would hardly have attracted attention. At
+that time, Michigan was a province of but little more than a name. The
+territory was wide, to be sure, but the entire population was not larger
+than that of a moderately sized English market town, and Detroit was
+then regarded as a distant and isolated point. It is true that Mackinac
+and Chicago were both more remote, and both more isolated, but an
+English force, in possession of Detroit, could be approached by the
+Americans on the side of the land only by overcoming the obstacles of a
+broad belt of difficult wilderness. This was done the succeeding year,
+it is true, but time is always necessary to bring out Jonathan's latent
+military energies. When aroused, they are not trifling, as all his
+enemies have been made to feel; but a good deal of miscalculation,
+pretending ignorance, and useless talking must be expended, before the
+really efficient are allowed to set about serving the country in their
+own way.
+
+In this respect, thanks to West Point, a well-organized staff, and
+well-educated officers, matters are a little improving. Congress has
+not been able to destroy the army, in the present war, though it did its
+best to attain that end; and all because the nucleus was too powerful
+to be totally eclipsed by the gas of the usual legislative tail of the
+Great National Comet, of which neither the materials nor the orbit can
+any man say he knows. One day, it declares war with a hurrah; the next,
+it denies the legislation necessary to carry it on, as if it distrusted
+its own acts, and already repented of its patriotism. And this is
+the body, soulless, the very school of faction, as a whole of very
+questionable quality in the outset, that, according to certain
+expounders of the constitution, is to perform all the functions of a
+government; which is not only to pass laws, but is to interpret them;
+which is to command the army, aye, even to wheeling its platoons;
+which reads the constitution as an abbe mumbles his aves and paters, or
+looking at everything but his texts; and which is never to have its
+acts vetoed, unless in cases where the Supreme Court would spare the
+Executive that trouble. We never yet could see either the elements or
+the fruits of this great sanctity in the National Council. In our eyes
+it is scarcely ever in its proper place on the railway of the Union, has
+degenerated into a mere electioneering machine, performing the little
+it really does convulsively, by sudden impulses, equally without
+deliberation or a sense of responsibility. In a word, we deem it the
+power of all others in the state that needs the closest watching, and
+were we what is termed in this country “politicians,” we should go for
+the executive who is the most ready to apply the curb to these vagaries
+of faction and interested partisans! Vetoes. Would to Heaven we could
+see the days of Good Queen Bess revived for one session of Congress at
+least, and find that more laws were sent back for the second thoughts
+of their framers than were approved! Then, indeed, might the country be
+brought back to a knowledge of the very material constitutional facts
+that the legislature is not commander-in-chief, does not negotiate
+or make treaties, and has no right to do that which it has done so
+often--appoint to office by act of Congress.
+
+As a consequence of the little apprehension entertained by the English
+of being soon disturbed in their new conquests, le Bourdon and his
+friends got out of the Detroit River, and into Lake Erie, without
+discovery or molestation. There still remained a long journey before
+them. In that day the American side of the shores of all the Great Lakes
+was little more than a wilderness. There were exceptions at particular
+points, but these were few and far asunder. The whole coast of
+Ohio--for Ohio has its coast as well as Bohemia [Footnote: See
+Shakespeare--Winter's Tale.]--was mostly in a state of nature, as was
+much of those of Pennsylvania and New York, on the side of the fresh
+water. The port which the bee-hunter had in view was Presque Isle, now
+known as Erie, a harbor in Pennsylvania, that has since become somewhat
+celebrated in consequence of its being the port out of which the
+American vessels sailed, about a year later than the period of which we
+are writing, to fight the battle that gave them the mastery of the lake.
+This was a little voyage of itself, of near two hundred miles, following
+the islands and the coast, but it was safely made in the course of
+the succeeding week. Once in Lake Erie and on the American side, our
+adventurers felt reasonably safe against all dangers but those of the
+elements. It is true that a renowned annalist, whose information is
+sustained by the collected wisdom of a State Historical Society, does
+tell us that the enemy possessed both shores of Lake Erie in 1814; but
+this was so small a mistake, compared with some others that this Nestor
+in history had made, that we shall not stop to explain it. Le Bourdon
+and his party found all the south shore of Lake Erie in possession
+of the Americans, so far as it was in the possession of any one, and
+consequently ran no risks from this blunder of the historian and his
+highly intelligent associates!
+
+Peter and Pigeonswing left their friends before they reached Presque
+Isle. The bee-hunter gave them his own canoe, and the parting was not
+only friendly, but touching. In the course of their journey, and during
+their many stops, Margery had frequently prayed with the great chief.
+His constant and burning desire, now, was to learn to read, that he
+might peruse the word of the Great Spirit, and regulate his future life
+by its wisdom and tenets. Margery promised, should they ever meet again,
+and under circumstances favorable to such a design, to help him attain
+his wishes.
+
+Pigeonswing parted from his friend with the same light-hearted vivacity
+as he had manifested in all their intercourse. Le Bourdon gave him his
+own rifle, plenty of ammunition, and various other small articles that
+were of value to an Indian, accepting the Chippewa's arms in return. The
+exchange, however, was greatly to the advantage of the savage. As for
+Peter, he declined all presents. He carried weapons now, indeed, merely
+for the purpose of hunting; but the dignity of his character and station
+would have placed him above such compensations, had the fact been
+otherwise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+           Come to the land of peace!
+     Come where the tempest hath no longer sway,
+     The shadow passes from the soul away--
+            The sounds of weeping cease.
+
+           Fear hath no dwelling there!
+     Come to the mingling--of repose and love,
+     Breathed by the silent spirit of the dove,
+            Through the celestial air.
+                                           --MRS. HEMANS.
+
+It is now more than thirty-three years since the last war with the
+English terminated, and about thirty-six to the summer in which the
+events recorded in this legend occurred. This third of a century has
+been a period of mighty changes in America. Ages have not often brought
+about as many in other portions of the earth, as this short period of
+time has given birth to among ourselves. We had written, thus far, on
+the evidence of documents sent to us, when an occasion offered to
+verify the truth of some of our pictures, at least, by means of personal
+observation.
+
+Quitting our own quiet and secluded abode in the mountains, in the
+pleasant month of June, and in this current year of 1848, we descended
+into the valley of the Mohawk, got into the cars, and went flying by
+rails toward the setting sun. Well could we remember the time when an
+entire day was required to pass between that point on the Mohawk where
+we got on the rails, and the little village of Utica. On the present
+occasion, we flew over the space in less than three hours, and dined in
+a town of some fifteen thousand souls.
+
+We reached Buffalo, at the foot of Lake Erie, in about twenty hours
+after we had entered the cars. This journey would have been the labor of
+more than a week, at the time in which the scene of this tale occurred.
+Now, the whole of the beautiful region, teeming with its towns and
+villages, and rich with the fruits of a bountiful season, was almost
+brought into a single landscape by the rapidity of our passage.
+
+At Buffalo, we turned aside to visit the cataract. Thither, too, we went
+on rails. Thirty-eight years had passed away since we had laid eyes on
+this wonderful fall of water. In the intervening time we had travelled
+much, and had visited many of the renowned falls of the old world, to
+say nothing of the great number which are to be found in other parts of
+our own land. Did this visit, then, produce disappointment?
+
+Did time, and advancing years, and feelings that had become deadened by
+experience, contribute to render the view less striking, less grand, in
+any way less pleasing than we had hoped to find it? So far from this,
+all our expectations were much more than realized. In one particular,
+touching which we do not remember ever to have seen anything said, we
+were actually astonished at the surpassing glory of Niagara. It was the
+character of sweetness, if we can so express it, that glowed over the
+entire aspect of the scene. We were less struck with the grandeur of
+this cataract, than with its sublime softness and gentleness. To water
+in agitation, use had so long accustomed us, perhaps, as in some slight
+degree to lessen the feeling of awe that is apt to come over the
+novice in such scenes; but we at once felt ourselves attracted by the
+surpassing loveliness of Niagara. The gulf below was more imposing than
+we had expected to see it, but it was Italian in hue and softness, amid
+its wildness and grandeur. Not a drop of the water that fell down that
+precipice inspired terror; for everything appeared to us to be filled
+with attraction and love. Like Italy itself, notwithstanding so much
+that is grand and imposing, the character of softness, and the witchery
+of the gentler properties, is the power we should ascribe to Niagara, in
+preference to that of its majesty. We think this feeling, too, is more
+general than is commonly supposed, for we find those who dwell near the
+cataract playing around it, even to the very verge of its greatest fall,
+with a species of affection, as if they had the fullest confidence in
+its rolling waters. Thus it is that we see the little steamer, the Maid
+of the Mist, paddling up quite near to the green sheet of the Horse-Shoe
+itself, and gliding down in the current of the vortex, as it is
+compelled to quit the eddies, and come more in a line with the main
+course of the stream. Wires, too, are suspended across the gulf below,
+and men pass it in baskets. It is said that one of these inventions is
+to carry human beings over the main fall, so that the adventurer may
+hang suspended in the air, directly above the vortex. In this way do
+men, and even women, prove their love for the place, all of which we
+impute to its pervading character of sweetness and attraction.
+
+At Buffalo we embarked in a boat under the English flag, which is called
+the Canada, This shortened our passage to Detroit, by avoiding all the
+stops at lateral ports, and we had every reason to be satisfied with our
+selection. Boat, commander, and the attendance were such as would have
+done credit to any portion of the civilized world. There were many
+passengers, a motley collection, as usual, from all parts of the
+country.
+
+Our attention was early drawn to one party, by the singular beauty of
+its females. They seemed to us to be a grandmother, in a well-preserved,
+green old age; a daughter, but a matron of little less than forty; and
+two exceedingly pretty girls of about eighteen and sixteen, whom we took
+to be children of the last. The strong family likeness between these
+persons led us early to make this classification, which we afterward
+found was correct.
+
+By occasional remarks, I gathered that the girls had been to an
+“Eastern” boarding-school, that particular feature in civilization not
+yet flourishing in the Northwestern States. It seemed to us that we
+could trace in the dialect of the several members of this family,
+the gradations and peculiarities that denote the origin and habits of
+individuals. Thus, the grandmother was not quite as Western in her forms
+of speech as her matronly daughter, while the grandchildren evidently
+spoke under the influence of boarding-school correction, or like girls
+who had been often lectured on the subject “First rate,” and “Yes, sir,”
+ and “That's a fact,” were often in the mouth of the pleasing mother, and
+even the grandmother used them all, though not as often as her daughter,
+while the young people looked a little concerned and surprised, whenever
+they came out of the mouth of their frank-speaking mother. That these
+persons were not of a very high social class was evident enough, even in
+their language. There was much occasion to mention New York, we found,
+and they uniformly called it “the city.” By no accident did either of
+them happen to use the expression that she had been “in town,” as one of
+us would be apt to say. “He's gone to the city,” or “She's in the city,”
+ are awkward phrases, and tant soit peu vulgar; but even our pretty
+young boarding-school eleves would use them. We have a horror of the
+expression “city,” and are a little fastidious, perhaps, touching its
+use.
+
+But these little peculiarities were spots on the sun. The entire family,
+taken as a whole, was really charming; and long before the hour for
+retiring came, we had become much interested in them all. We found
+there was a fifth person belonging to this party, who did not make his
+appearance that night. From the discourse of these females, however, it
+was easy to glean the following leading facts: This fifth person was
+a male; he was indisposed, and kept his berth; and he was quite
+aged. Several nice little dishes were carried from the table into his
+state-room that evening, by one or the other of the young sisters,
+and each of the party appeared anxious to contribute to the invalid's
+comfort. All this sympathy excited our interest, and we had some
+curiosity to see this old man, long ere it was time to retire. As
+for the females, no name was mentioned among them but that of a Mrs.
+Osborne, who was once or twice alluded to in full. It was “grandma,” and
+“ma,” and “Dolly,” and “sis.” We should have liked it better had it been
+“mother,” and “grandmother,” and that the “sis” had been called Betsey
+or Molly; but we do not wish to be understood as exhibiting these
+amiable and good-looking strangers as models of refinement. “Ma” and
+“sis” did well enough, all things considered, though “mamma” would have
+been better if they were not sufficiently polished to say “mother.”
+
+We had a pleasant night of it, and all the passengers appeared next
+morning with smiling faces. It often blows heavily on that lake, but
+light airs off the land were all the breezes we encountered. We were
+among the first to turn out, and on the upper deck forward, a place
+where the passengers are fond of collecting, as it enables them to look
+ahead, we found a single individual who immediately drew all of our
+attention to himself. It was an aged man, with hair already as white as
+snow. Still there was that in his gait, attitudes, and all his movements
+which indicated physical vigor, not to say the remains, at least, of
+great elasticity and sinewy activity. Aged as he was, and he must have
+long since passed his fourscore years, his form was erect as that of
+a youth. In stature he was of rather more than middle height, and in
+movements deliberate and dignified. His dress was quite plain, being
+black, and according to the customs of the day. The color of his face
+and hands, however, as well as the bold outlines of his countenance, and
+the still keen, restless, black eye, indicated the Indian.
+
+Here, then, was a civilized red man, and it struck us at once, that he
+was an ancient child of the forest, who had been made to feel the truths
+of the gospel. One seldom hesitates about addressing an Indian, and we
+commenced a discourse with our venerable fellow-passenger, with very
+little circumlocution or ceremony.
+
+“Good-morning, sir,” we observed--“a charming time we have of it, on
+the lake.”
+
+“Yes--good time--” returned my red neighbor, speaking short and clipped,
+like an Indian, but pronouncing his words as if long accustomed to the
+language.
+
+“These steamboats are great inventions for the western lakes, as are the
+railroads for this vast inland region. I dare say you can remember Lake
+Erie when it was an unusual thing to see a sail of any sort on it; and
+now, I should think, we might count fifty.”
+
+“Yes--great change--great change, friend!--all change from ole time.”
+
+“The traditions of your people, no doubt, give you reason to see and
+feel all this?”
+
+The predominant expression of this red man's countenance was that of
+love. On everything, on every human being toward whom he turned his
+still expressive eyes, the looks he gave them would seem to indicate
+interest and affection. This expression was so decided and peculiar,
+that we early remarked it, and it drew us closer and closer to the old
+chief, the longer we remained in his company. That expression, however,
+slightly changed when we made this allusion to the traditions of
+his people, and a cloud passed before his countenance. This change,
+nevertheless, was as transient as it was sudden, the benevolent and
+gentle look returning almost as soon as it had disappeared. He seemed
+anxious to atone for this involuntary expression of regrets for the
+past, by making his communications to me as free as they could be.
+
+“My tradition say a great deal,” was the answer, “It say some good, some
+bad.”
+
+“May I ask of what tribe you are?”
+
+The red man turned his eyes on us kindly, as if to lessen anything
+ungracious there might be in his refusal to answer, and with an
+expression of benevolence that we scarcely remember ever to have seen
+equalled. Indeed, we might say with truth, that the love which shone out
+of this old man's countenance habitually, surpassed that which we can
+recall as belonging to any other human face. He seemed to be at peace
+with himself, and with all the other children of Adam.
+
+“Tribe make no difference,” he answered. “All children of same Great
+Spirit.”
+
+“Red men and pale-faces?” I asked, not a little surprised with his
+reply.
+
+“Red man and pale-face. Christ die for all, and his Fadder make all. No
+difference, excep' in color. Color only skin deep.”
+
+“Do you, then, look on us pale-faces as having a right here? Do you
+not regard us as invaders, as enemies who have come to take away your
+lands?”
+
+“Injin don't own 'arth. 'Arth belong to God, and he send whom he like
+to live on it. One time he send Injin; now he send pale-face. His 'arth,
+and he do what he please wid it. Nobody any right to complain. Bad to
+find fault wid Great Spirit. All he do, right; nebber do anyt'ing bad.
+His blessed Son die for all color, and all color muss bow down at his
+holy name. Dat what dis good book say,” showing a small pocket Bible,
+“and what dis good book say come from Great Spirit, himself.”
+
+“You read the Holy Scriptures, then--you are an educated Indian?”
+
+“No; can't read at all. Don't know how. Try hard, but too ole to begin.
+Got young eyes, however, to help me,” he added, with one of the fondest
+smiles I ever saw light a human face, as he turned to meet the pretty
+Dolly's “Good-morning, Peter,” and to shake the hand of the elder
+sister. “She read good book for old Injin, when he want her; and when
+she off at school, in 'city,' den her mudder or her gran'mudder read for
+him. Fuss begin wid gran'mudder; now get down to gran'da'ghter. But good
+book all de same, let who will read it.”
+
+This, then, was “Scalping Peter,” the very man I was travelling into
+Michigan to see, but how wonderfully changed! The Spirit of the Most
+High God had been shed freely upon his moral being, and in lieu of the
+revengeful and vindictive savage, he now lived a subdued, benevolent
+Christian! In every human being he beheld a brother, and no longer
+thought of destroying races, in order to secure to his own people the
+quiet possession of their hunting-grounds. His very soul was love; and
+no doubt he felt himself strong enough to “bless those who cursed him,”
+ and to give up his spirit, like the good missionary whose death had
+first turned him toward the worship of the one true God, praying for
+those who took his life.
+
+The ways of Divine Providence are past the investigations of human
+reason. How often, in turning over the pages of history, do we find
+civilization, the arts, moral improvement, nay, Christianity itself,
+following the bloody train left by the conqueror's car, and good pouring
+in upon a nation by avenues that at first were teeming only with the
+approaches of seeming evils! In this way, there is now reason to hope
+that America is about to pay the debt she owes to Africa; and in this
+way will the invasion of the forests, and prairies and “openings,”
+ of the red man be made to atone for itself by carrying with it the
+blessings of the Gospel, and a juster view of the relations which man
+bears to his Creator. Possibly Mexico may derive lasting benefits from
+the hard lesson that she has so recently been made to endure.
+
+This, then, was Peter, changed into a civilized man and a Christian! I
+have found, subsequently, that glimmerings of the former being existed
+in his character; but they showed themselves only at long intervals, and
+under very peculiar circumstances. The study of these traits became a
+subject of great interest with us, for we now travelled in company the
+rest of our journey. The elder lady, or “grandma,” was the Margery of
+our tale; still handsome, spirited, and kind. The younger matron was her
+daughter and only child, and “sis,” another Margery, and Dorothy, were
+her grandchildren. There was also a son, or a grandson rather, Ben,
+who was on Prairie Round, “with the general.” The “general” was our old
+friend, le Bourdon, who was still as often called “General Bourdon,”
+ as “General Boden.” This matter of “generals” at the West is a little
+overdone, as all ranks and titles are somewhat apt to be in new
+countries. It causes one often to smile, at the East; and no wonder that
+an Eastern habit should go down in all its glory, beneath the
+“setting sun.” In after-days, generals will not be quite as “plenty as
+blackberries.”
+
+No sooner did Mrs. Boden, or Margery, to use her familiar name, learn
+that we were the very individual to whom the “general” had sent the
+notes relative to his early adventures, which had been prepared by
+the “Rev. Mr. Varse,” of Kalamazoo, than she became as friendly and
+communicative as we could possibly desire.
+
+Her own life had been prosperous, and her marriage happy. Her brother,
+however, had fallen back into his old habits, and died ere the war of
+1812 was ended. Dorothy had returned to her friends in Massachusetts,
+and was still living, in a comfortable condition, owing to a legacy from
+an uncle. The bee-hunter had taken the field in that war, and had seen
+some sharp fighting on the banks of the Niagara. No sooner was peace
+made, however, than he returned to his beloved Openings, where he had
+remained, “growing with the country,” as it is termed, until he was now
+what is deemed a rich man in Michigan. He has a plenty of land, and that
+which is good; a respectable dwelling, and is out of debt. He meets
+his obligations to an Eastern man just as promptly as he meets those
+contracted at home, and regards the United States, and not Michigan, as
+his country. All these were good traits, and we were glad to learn that
+they existed in one who already possessed so much of our esteem. At
+Detroit we found a fine flourishing town, of a healthful and natural
+growth, and with a population that was fast approaching twenty thousand.
+The shores of the beautiful strait on which it stands, and which, by a
+strange blending of significations and languages, is popularly called
+the “Detroit River,” were alive with men and their appliances, and we
+scarce know where to turn to find a more agreeable landscape than that
+which was presented to us, after passing the island of “Bobolo” (Bois
+Blanc), near Maiden. Altogether, it resembled a miniature picture of
+Constantinople, without its Eastern peculiarities.
+
+At Detroit commenced our surprise at the rapid progress of Western
+civilization. It will be remembered that at the period of our tale, the
+environs of Detroit excepted, the whole peninsula of Michigan lay in
+a state of nature. Nor did the process of settlement commence actively
+until about twenty years since; but, owing to the character of
+the country, it already possesses many of the better features of a
+long-inhabited region. There are stumps, of course, for new fields are
+constantly coming into cultivation; but on the whole, the appearance is
+that of a middle-aged, rather than that of a new region.
+
+We left Detroit on a railroad, rattling away toward the setting sun, at
+a good speed even for that mode of conveyance. It seemed to us that
+our route was well garnished with large villages, of which we must have
+passed through a dozen, in the course of a few hours' “railing,” These
+are places varying in size from one to three thousand inhabitants. The
+vegetation certainly surpassed that of even West New York, the trees
+alone excepted. The whole country was a wheat-field, and we now began
+to understand how America could feed the world. Our road lay among the
+“Openings” much of the way, and we found them undergoing the changes
+which are incident to the passage of civilized men. As the periodical
+fires had now ceased for many years, underbrush was growing in lieu of
+the natural grass, and in so much those groves are less attractive than
+formerly; but one easily comprehends the reason, and can picture to
+himself the aspect that these pleasant woods must have worn in times of
+old.
+
+We left the railroad at Kalamazoo--an unusually pretty village, on the
+banks of the stream of that name. Those who laid out this place, some
+fifteen years since, had the taste to preserve most of its trees;
+and the houses and grounds that stand a little apart from the busiest
+streets--and they are numerous for a place of rather more than two
+thousand souls--are particularly pleasant to the eye, on account of the
+shade, and the rural pictures they present. Here Mrs. Boden told us we
+were within a mile or two of the very spot where once had stood Castle
+Meal (Chateau au Miel), though the “general” had finally established
+himself at Schoolcraft, on Prairie Ronde.
+
+The first prairie we had ever seen was on the road between Detroit and
+Kalamazoo; distant from the latter place only some eight or nine miles.
+The axe had laid the country open in its neighborhood; but the spot was
+easily to be recognized by the air of cultivation and age that pervaded
+it. There was not a stump on it, and the fields were as smooth as any on
+the plains of Lombardy, and far more fertile, rich as the last are known
+to be. In a word, the beautiful perfection of that little natural meadow
+became apparent at once, though seated amid a landscape that was by no
+means wanting in interest of its own.
+
+We passed the night at the village of Kalamazoo; but the party of
+females, with old Peter, proceeded on to Prairie Round, as that
+particular part of the country is called in the dialect of Michigan, it
+being a corruption of the old French name of la prairie ronde. The Round
+Meadow does not sound as well as Prairie Round, and the last being quite
+as clear a term as the other, though a mixture of the two languages,
+we prefer to use it. Indeed, the word “prairie” may now be said to
+be adopted into the English; meaning merely a natural instead of an
+artificial meadow, though one of peculiar and local characteristics. We
+wrote a note to General Boden, as I found our old acquaintance Ben Boden
+was universally termed, letting him know I should visit Schoolcraft next
+day; not wishing to intrude at the moment when that charming family was
+just reunited after so long a separation.
+
+The next day, accordingly, we got into a “buggy” and went our way.
+The road was slightly sandy a good part of the twelve miles we had
+to travel, though it became less so as we drew near to the celebrated
+prairie. And celebrated, and that by an abler pen than ours, does this
+remarkable place deserve to be! We found all our expectations concerning
+it fully realized, and drove through the scene of abundance it presented
+with an admiration that was not entirely free from awe.
+
+To get an idea of Prairie Round, the reader must imagine an oval plain
+of some five-and-twenty or thirty thousand acres in extent, of the most
+surpassing fertility, without an eminence of any sort--almost without an
+inequality. There are a few small cavities, howevers in which there are
+springs that form large pools of water that the cattle will drink. This
+plain, so far as we saw it, is now entirely fenced and cultivated. The
+fields are large, many containing eighty acres, and some one hundred and
+sixty; most of them being in wheat. We saw several of this size in
+that grain. Farm-houses dotted the surface, with barns, and the other
+accessories of rural life. In the centre of the prairie is an “island”
+ of forest, containing some five or six hundred acres of the noblest
+native trees we remember ever to have seen. In the centre of this wood
+is a little lake, circular in shape, and exceeding a quarter of a mile
+in diameter. The walk in this wood-which is not an Opening, but an
+old-fashioned virgin forest--we found delightful of a warm summer's day.
+One thing that we saw in it was characteristic of the country. Some
+of the nearest farmers had drawn their manure into it, where it lay in
+large piles, in order to get it out of the way of doing any mischief.
+Its effect on the land, it was thought, would be to bring too much
+straw!
+
+On one side of this island of wood lies the little village or large
+hamlet of Schoolcraft. Here we were most cordially welcomed by General
+Boden, and all of his fine descendants. The head of this family is
+approaching seventy, but is still hale and hearty. His head is as white
+as snow, and his face as red as a cherry. A finer old man one seldom
+sees. Temperance, activity, the open air, and a good conscience, have
+left him a noble ruin; if ruin he can yet be called. He owes the last
+blessing, as he told us himself, to the fact that he kept clear of
+the whirlwind of speculation that passed over this region some ten or
+fifteen years since. His means are ample; and the harvest being about to
+commence, he invited me to the field.
+
+The peculiar ingenuity of the American has supplied the want of
+laborers, in a country where agriculture is carried on by wholesale,
+especially in the cereals, by an instrument of the most singular and
+elaborate construction. This machine is drawn by sixteen or eighteen
+horses, attached to it laterally, so as to work clear of the standing
+grain, and who move the whole fabric on a moderate but steady walk. A
+path is first cut with the cradle on one side of the field, when the
+machine is dragged into the open place. Here it enters the standing
+grain, cutting off its heads with the utmost accuracy as it moves. Forks
+beneath prepare the way, and a rapid vibratory motion of a great number
+of two-edged knives effect the object. The stalks of the grain can be
+cut as low or as high as one pleases, but it is usually thought best to
+take only the heads. Afterward the standing straw is burned, or fed off,
+upright.
+
+The impelling power which causes the great fabric to advance also sets
+in motion the machinery within it As soon as the heads of the grain are
+severed from the stalks, they pass into a receptacle, where, by a very
+quick and simple process, the kernels are separated from the husks.
+Thence all goes into a fanning machine, where the chaff is blown away.
+The clean grain falls into a small bin, whence it is raised by a screw
+elevator to a height that enables it to pass out at an opening to which
+a bag is attached. Wagons follow the slow march of the machine, and the
+proper number of men are in attendance. Bag after bag is renewed, until
+a wagon is loaded, when it at once proceeds to the mill, where the grain
+is soon converted into flour. Generally the husbandman sells to the
+miller, but occasionally he pays for making the flour, and sends the
+latter off, by railroad, to Detroit, whence it finds its way to Europe,
+possibly, to help feed the millions of the old world. Such, at least,
+was the course of trade the past season. As respects this ingenious
+machine, it remains only to say that it harvests, cleans, and bags
+from twenty to thirty acres of heavy wheat, in the course of a single
+summer's day! Altogether it is a gigantic invention, well adapted to
+meet the necessities of a gigantic country.
+
+Old Peter went afield with us that day. There he stood, like a striking
+monument of a past that was still so recent and wonderful. On that very
+prairie, which was now teeming with the appliances of civilization,
+he had hunted and held his savage councils. On that prairie had he
+meditated, or consented to the deaths of the young couple, whose
+descendants were now dwelling there, amid abundance, and happy. Nothing
+but the prayers of the dying missionary, in behalf of his destroyers,
+had prevented the dire consummation.
+
+We were still in the field, when General Boden's attention was drawn
+toward the person of another guest. This, too, was an Indian, old like
+himself, but not clad like Peter, in the vestments of the whites. The
+attire of this sinewy old man was a mixture of that of the two races. He
+wore a hunting-shirt, moccasins, and a belt; but he also wore trousers,
+and otherwise had brought himself within the habits of conventional
+decency. It was Pigeonswing, the Chippewa, come to pay his annual visit
+to his friend, the bee-hunter, The meeting was cordial, and we afterward
+ascertained that when the old man departed, he went away loaded with
+gifts that would render him comfortable for a twelvemonth.
+
+But Peter, after all, was the great centre of interest with us. We could
+admire the General's bee-hives, which were numerous and ingenious; could
+admire his still handsome Margery, and all their blooming descendants;
+and were glad when we discovered that our old friend--made so by means
+of a knowledge of his character, if not by actual acquaintance--was much
+improved in mind, was a sincere Christian, and had been a Senator of his
+own State; respected and esteemed by all who knew him. Such a career,
+however, has nothing peculiar in America; it is one of every-day
+occurrence, and shows the power of man when left free to make his own
+exertions; while that of the Scalping Peter indicated the power of God.
+There he was, living in the midst of the hated race, loving and beloved;
+wishing naught but blessings on all colors alike; looking back upon his
+traditions and superstitions with a sort of melancholy interest, as
+we all portray in our memories the scenes, legends, and feelings of an
+erring childhood.
+
+We were walking in the garden, after dinner, and looking at the hives.
+There were the general, Margery, Peter, and ourselves. The first was
+loud in praise of his buzzing friends, for whom it was plain he still
+entertained a lively regard. The old Indian, at first, was sad. Then
+he smiled, and, turning to us, he spoke earnestly and with some of his
+ancient fire and eloquence.
+
+“Tell me you make a book,” he said. “In dat book tell trut'. You see
+me--poor old Injin. My fadder was chief--I was great chief, but we was
+children. Knowed nuttin'. Like little child, dough great chief.
+Believe tradition. T'ink dis 'arth flat--t'ink Injin could scalp all
+pale-face--t'ink tomahawk, and war-path, and rifle, bess t'ings in
+whole world. In dat day, my heart was stone. Afraid of Great Spirit, but
+didn't love him. In dat time I t'ink General could talk wid bee. Yes;
+was very foolish den. Now, all dem cloud blow away, and I see my Fadder
+dat is in heaven. His face shine on me, day and night, and I never get
+tired of looking at it. I see him smile, I see him lookin' at poor ole
+Injin, as if he want him to come nearer; sometime I see him frown and
+dat scare me. Den I pray, and his frown go away.
+
+“Stranger, love God. B'lieve his blessed Son, who pray for dem dat kill
+him. Injin don't do that. Injin not strong enough to do so good t'ing.
+It want de Holy Spirit to strengthen de heart, afore man can do so great
+t'ing. When he got de force of de Holy Spirit, de heart of stone is
+changed to de heart of woman, and we all be ready to bless our enemy and
+die. I have spoken. Let dem dat read your book understand.”
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Oak Openings, by James Fenimore Cooper
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Oak Openings, by James Fennimore Cooper
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oak Openings, by James Fenimore Cooper
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Oak Openings
+
+Author: James Fenimore Cooper
+
+
+Release Date: July, 2003 [Etext# 4215]
+This file was first posted on December 11, 2001
+Last Updated: March 11, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OAK OPENINGS ***
+
+
+
+
+Text file produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team
+
+HTML file produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      OAK OPENINGS
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By James Fennimore Cooper
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <b>CONTENTS</b>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> <b>THE OAK OPENINGS.</b> </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER XXV. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER XXVI. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER XXVII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER XXVIII. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER XXIX. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2HCH0030"> CHAPTER XXX. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      PREFACE.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It ought to be matter of surprise how men live in the midst of marvels,
+      without taking heed of their existence. The slightest derangement of their
+      accustomed walks in political or social life shall excite all their
+      wonder, and furnish themes for their discussions, for months; while the
+      prodigies that come from above are presented daily to their eyes, and are
+      received without surprise, as things of course. In a certain sense, this
+      may be well enough, inasmuch as all which comes directly from the hands of
+      the Creator may be said so far to exceed the power of human comprehension,
+      as to be beyond comment; but the truth would show us that the cause of
+      this neglect is rather a propensity to dwell on such interests as those
+      over which we have a fancied control, than on those which confessedly
+      transcend our understanding. Thus is it ever with men. The wonders of
+      creation meet them at every turn, without awakening reflection, while
+      their minds labor on subjects that are not only ephemeral and illusory,
+      but which never attain an elevation higher than that the most sordid
+      interests can bestow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For ourselves, we firmly believe that the finger of Providence is pointing
+      the way to all races, and colors, and nations, along the path that is to
+      lead the east and the west alike to the great goal of human wants. Demons
+      infest that path, and numerous and unhappy are the wanderings of millions
+      who stray from its course; sometimes in reluctance to proceed; sometimes
+      in an indiscreet haste to move faster than their fellows, and always in a
+      forgetfulness of the great rules of conduct that have been handed down
+      from above. Nevertheless, the main course is onward; and the day, in the
+      sense of time, is not distant, when the whole earth is to be filled with
+      the knowledge of the Lord, &ldquo;as the waters cover the sea.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the great stumbling-blocks with a large class of well-meaning, but
+      narrow-judging moralists, are the seeming wrongs that are permitted by
+      Providence, in its control of human events. Such persons take a one-sided
+      view of things, and reduce all principles to the level of their own
+      understandings. If we could comprehend the relations which the Deity bears
+      to us, as well as we can comprehend the relations we bear to him, there
+      might be a little seeming reason in these doubts; but when one of the
+      parties in this mighty scheme of action is a profound mystery to the
+      other, it is worse than idle, it is profane, to attempt to explain those
+      things which our minds are not yet sufficiently cleared from the dross of
+      earth to understand. Look at Italy, at this very moment. The darkness and
+      depression from which that glorious peninsula is about to emerge are the
+      fruits of long-continued dissensions and an iron despotism, which is at
+      length broken by the impulses left behind him by a ruthless conqueror,
+      who, under the appearance and the phrases of Liberty, contended only for
+      himself. A more concentrated egotism than that of Napoleon probably never
+      existed; yet has it left behind it seeds of personal rights that have
+      sprung up by the wayside, and which are likely to take root with a force
+      that will bid defiance to eradication. Thus is it ever, with the progress
+      of society. Good appears to arise out of evil, and the inscrutable ways of
+      Providence are vindicated by general results, rather than by instances of
+      particular care. We leave the application of these remarks to the
+      intelligence of such of our readers as may have patience to peruse the
+      work that will be found in the succeeding pages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have a few words of explanation to say, in connection with the
+      machinery of our tale. In the first place, we would remark, that the
+      spelling of &ldquo;burr-oak,&rdquo; as given in this book, is less our own than an
+      office spelling. We think it should be &ldquo;bur-oak,&rdquo; and this for the simple
+      reason, that the name is derived from the fact that the acorn borne by
+      this tree is partially covered with a bur. Old Sam Johnson, however, says
+      that &ldquo;burr&rdquo; means the lobe, or lap of the ear; and those who can fancy
+      such a resemblance between this and the covering of our acorn, are at
+      liberty to use the two final consonants. Having commenced stereotyping
+      with this supernumerary, for the sake of uniformity that mode of spelling,
+      wrong as we think it, has been continued through-out the book.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is nothing imaginary in the fertility of the West. Personal
+      observation has satisfied us that it much surpasses anything that exists
+      in the Atlantic States, unless in exceptions, through the agency of great
+      care and high manuring, or in instances of peculiar natural soil. In these
+      times, men almost fly. We have passed over a thousand miles of territory
+      within the last few days, and have brought the pictures at the two
+      extremes of this journey in close proximity in our mind's eye. Time may
+      lessen that wonderful fertility, and bring the whole country more on a
+      level; but there it now is, a glorious gift from God, which it is devoutly
+      to be wished may be accepted with due gratitude and with a constant
+      recollection of his unwavering rules of right and wrong, by those who have
+      been selected to enjoy it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      June, 1848.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      THE OAK OPENINGS.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER I.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+       How doth the little busy bee
+       Improve each shining hour,
+       And gather honey all the day,
+       From every opening flower.
+                     WATTS' HYMNS FOR CHILDREN.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      We have heard of those who fancied that they beheld a signal instance of
+      the hand of the Creator in the celebrated cataract of Niagara. Such
+      instances of the power of sensible and near objects to influence certain
+      minds, only prove how much easier it is to impress the imaginations of the
+      dull with images that are novel, than with those that are less apparent,
+      though of infinitely greater magnitude. Thus it would seem to be strange
+      indeed, that any human being should find more to wonder at in any one of
+      the phenomena of the earth, than in the earth itself; or should especially
+      stand astonished at the might of Him who created the world, when each
+      night brings into view a firmament studded with other worlds, each equally
+      the work of His hands!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, there is (at bottom) a motive for adoration, in the study of
+      the lowest fruits of the wisdom and power of God. The leaf is as much
+      beyond our comprehension of remote causes, as much a subject of
+      intelligent admiration, as the tree which bears it: the single tree
+      confounds our knowledge and researches the same as the entire forest; and,
+      though a variety that appears to be endless pervades the world, the same
+      admirable adaptation of means to ends, the same bountiful forethought, and
+      the same benevolent wisdom, are to be found in the acorn, as in the
+      gnarled branch on which it grew.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The American forest has so often been described, as to cause one to
+      hesitate about reviving scenes that might possibly pall, and in retouching
+      pictures that have been so frequently painted as to be familiar to every
+      mind. But God created the woods, and the themes bestowed by his bounty are
+      inexhaustible. Even the ocean, with its boundless waste of water, has been
+      found to be rich in its various beauties and marvels; and he who shall
+      bury himself with us, once more, in the virgin forests of this widespread
+      land, may possibly discover new subjects of admiration, new causes to
+      adore the Being that has brought all into existence, from the universe to
+      its most minute particle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The precise period of our legend was in the year 1812, and the season of
+      the year the pleasant month of July, which had now drawn near to its
+      close. The sun was already approaching the western limits of a wooded
+      view, when the actors in its opening scene must appear on a stage that is
+      worthy of a more particular description.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The region was, in one sense, wild, though it offered a picture that was
+      not without some of the strongest and most pleasing features of
+      civilization. The country was what is termed &ldquo;rolling,&rdquo; from some fancied
+      resemblance to the surface of the ocean, when it is just undulating with a
+      long &ldquo;ground-swell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Although wooded, it was not, as the American forest is wont to grow, with
+      tail straight trees towering toward the light, but with intervals between
+      the low oaks that were scattered profusely over the view, and with much of
+      that air of negligence that one is apt to see in grounds where art is made
+      to assume the character of nature. The trees, with very few exceptions,
+      were what is called the &ldquo;burr-oak,&rdquo; a small variety of a very extensive
+      genus; and the spaces between them, always irregular, and often of
+      singular beauty, have obtained the name of &ldquo;openings&rdquo;; the two terms
+      combined giving their appellation to this particular species of native
+      forest, under the name of &ldquo;Oak Openings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These woods, so peculiar to certain districts of country, are not
+      altogether without some variety, though possessing a general character of
+      sameness. The trees were of very uniform size, being little taller than
+      pear-trees, which they resemble a good deal in form; and having trunks
+      that rarely attain two feet in diameter. The variety is produced by their
+      distribution. In places they stand with a regularity resembling that of an
+      orchard; then, again, they are more scattered and less formal, while wide
+      breadths of the land are occasionally seen in which they stand in copses,
+      with vacant spaces, that bear no small affinity to artificial lawns, being
+      covered with verdure. The grasses are supposed to be owing to the fires
+      lighted periodically by the Indians in order to clear their
+      hunting-grounds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Toward one of these grassy glades, which was spread on an almost
+      imperceptible acclivity, and which might have contained some fifty or
+      sixty acres of land, the reader is now requested to turn his eyes. Far in
+      the wilderness as was the spot, four men were there, and two of them had
+      even some of the appliances of civilization about them. The woods around
+      were the then unpeopled forest of Michigan; and the small winding reach of
+      placid water that was just visible in the distance, was an elbow of the
+      Kalamazoo, a beautiful little river that flows westward, emptying its
+      tribute into the vast expanse of Lake Michigan. Now, this river has
+      already become known, by its villages and farms, and railroads and mills;
+      but then, not a dwelling of more pretension than the wigwam of the Indian,
+      or an occasional shanty of some white adventurer, had ever been seen on
+      its banks. In that day, the whole of that fine peninsula, with the
+      exception of a narrow belt of country along the Detroit River, which was
+      settled by the French as far back as near the close of the seventeenth
+      century, was literally a wilderness. If a white man found his way into it,
+      it was as an Indian trader, a hunter, or an adventurer in some other of
+      the pursuits connected with border life and the habits of the savages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of this last character were two of the men on the open glade just
+      mentioned, while their companions were of the race of the aborigines. What
+      is much more remarkable, the four were absolutely strangers to each
+      other's faces, having met for the first time in their lives, only an hour
+      previously to the commencement of our tale. By saying that they were
+      strangers to each other, we do not mean that the white men were
+      acquaintances, and the Indians strangers, but that neither of the four had
+      ever seen either of the party until they met on that grassy glade, though
+      fame had made them somewhat acquainted through their reputations. At the
+      moment when we desire to present this group to the imagination of the
+      reader, three of its number were grave and silent observers of the
+      movements of the fourth. The fourth individual was of middle size, young,
+      active, exceedingly well formed, and with a certain open and frank
+      expression of countenance, that rendered him at least well-looking, though
+      slightly marked with the small-pox. His real name was Benjamin Boden,
+      though he was extensively known throughout the northwestern territories by
+      the sobriquet of Ben Buzz&mdash;extensively as to distances, if not as to
+      people. By the voyageurs, and other French of that region, he was almost
+      universally styled le Bourdon or the &ldquo;Drone&rdquo;; not, however, from his
+      idleness or inactivity, but from the circumstances that he was notorious
+      for laying his hands on the products of labor that proceeded from others.
+      In a word, Ben Boden was a &ldquo;bee-hunter,&rdquo; and as he was one of the first to
+      exercise his craft in that portion of the country, so was he infinitely
+      the most skilful and prosperous. The honey of le Bourdon was not only
+      thought to be purer and of higher flavor than that of any other trader in
+      the article, but it was much the most abundant. There were a score of
+      respectable families on the two banks of the Detroit, who never purchased
+      of any one else, but who patiently waited for the arrival of the capacious
+      bark canoe of Buzz, in the autumn, to lay in their supplies of this savory
+      nutriment for the approaching winter. The whole family of griddle cakes,
+      including those of buckwheat, Indian rice, and wheaten flour, were more or
+      less dependent on the safe arrival of le Bourdon, for their popularity and
+      welcome. Honey was eaten with all; and wild honey had a reputation,
+      rightfully or not obtained, that even rendered it more welcome than that
+      which was formed by the labor and art of the domesticated bee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dress of le Bourdon was well adapted to his pursuits and life. He wore
+      a hunting-shirt and trousers, made of thin stuff, which was dyed green,
+      and trimmed with yellow fringe. This was the ordinary forest attire of the
+      American rifleman; being of a character, as it was thought, to conceal the
+      person in the woods, by blending its hues with those of the forest. On his
+      head Ben wore a skin cap, somewhat smartly made, but without the fur; the
+      weather being warm. His moccasins were a good deal wrought, but seemed to
+      be fading under the exposure of many marches. His arms were excellent; but
+      all his martial accoutrements, even to a keen long-bladed knife, were
+      suspended from the rammer of his rifle; the weapon itself being allowed to
+      lean, in careless confidence, against the trunk of the nearest oak, as if
+      their master felt there was no immediate use for them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not so with the other three. Not only was each man well armed, but each
+      man kept his trusty rifle hugged to his person, in a sort of jealous
+      watchfulness; while the other white man, from time to time, secretly, but
+      with great minuteness, examined the flint and priming of his own piece.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This second pale-face was a very different person from him just described.
+      He was still young, tall, sinewy, gaunt, yet springy and strong, stooping
+      and round-shouldered, with a face that carried a very decided top-light in
+      it, like that of the notorious Bardolph. In short, whiskey had dyed the
+      countenance of Gershom Waring with a tell-tale hue, that did not less
+      infallibly betray his destination than his speech denoted his origin,
+      which was clearly from one of the States of New England. But Gershom had
+      been so long at the Northwest as to have lost many of his peculiar habits
+      and opinions, and to have obtained substitutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of the Indians, one, an elderly, wary, experienced warrior, was a
+      Pottawattamie, named Elksfoot, who was well known at all the
+      trading-houses and &ldquo;garrisons&rdquo; of the northwestern territory, including
+      Michigan as low down as Detroit itself. The other red man was a young
+      Chippewa, or O-jeb-way, as the civilized natives of that nation now tell
+      us the word should be spelled. His ordinary appellation among his own
+      people was that of Pigeonswing; a name obtained from the rapidity and
+      length of his flights. This young man, who was scarcely turned of
+      five-and-twenty, had already obtained a high reputation among the numerous
+      tribes of his nation, as a messenger, or &ldquo;runner.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Accident had brought these four persons, each and all strangers to one
+      another, in communication in the glade of the Oak Openings, which has
+      already been mentioned, within half an hour of the scene we are about to
+      present to the reader. Although the rencontre had been accompanied by the
+      usual precautions of those who meet in a wilderness, it had been friendly
+      so far; a circumstance that was in some measure owing to the interest they
+      all took in the occupation of the bee-hunter. The three others, indeed,
+      had come in on different trails, and surprised le Bourdon in the midst of
+      one of the most exciting exhibitions of his art&mdash;an exhibition that
+      awoke so much and so common an interest in the spectators, as at once to
+      place its continuance for the moment above all other considerations. After
+      brief salutations, and wary examinations of the spot and its tenants, each
+      individual had, in succession, given his grave attention to what was going
+      on, and all had united in begging Ben Buzz to pursue his occupation,
+      without regard to his visitors. The conversation that took place was
+      partly in English, and partly in one of the Indian dialects, which luckily
+      all the parties appeared to understand. As a matter of course, with a sole
+      view to oblige the reader, we shall render what was said, freely, into the
+      vernacular.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let's see, let's see, STRANger,&rdquo; cried Gershom, emphasizing the syllable
+      we have put in italics, as if especially to betray his origin, &ldquo;what you
+      can do with your tools. I've heer'n tell of such doin's, but never see'd a
+      bee lined in all my life, and have a desp'rate fancy for larnin' of all
+      sorts, from 'rithmetic to preachin'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That comes from your Puritan blood,&rdquo; answered le Bourdon, with a quiet
+      smile, using surprisingly pure English for one in his class of life. &ldquo;They
+      tell me you Puritans preach by instinct.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know how that is,&rdquo; answered Gershom, &ldquo;though I can turn my hand
+      to anything. I heer'n tell, across at Bob Ruly (Bois Brulk [Footnote: This
+      unfortunate name, which it may be necessary to tell a portion of our
+      readers means &ldquo;burnt wood,&rdquo; seems condemned to all sorts of abuses among
+      the linguists of the West. Among other pronunciations is that of &ldquo;Bob
+      Ruly&rdquo;; while an island near Detroit, the proper name of which is &ldquo;Bois
+      Blanc,&rdquo; is familiarly known to the lake mariners by the name of
+      &ldquo;Bobolo.&rdquo;]) of sich doin's, and would give a week's keep at Whiskey
+      Centre, to know how 'twas done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Whiskey Centre&rdquo; was a sobriquet bestowed by the fresh-water sailors of
+      that region, and the few other white adventurers of Saxon origin who found
+      their way into that trackless region, firstly on Gershom himself, and
+      secondly on his residence. These names were obtained from the intensity of
+      their respective characters, in favor of the beverage named. L'eau de mort
+      was the place termed by the voyagers, in a sort of pleasant travesty on
+      the eau de vie of their distant, but still well-remembered manufactures on
+      the banks of the Garonne. Ben Boden, however, paid but little attention to
+      the drawling remarks of Gershom Waring. This was not the first time he had
+      heard of &ldquo;Whiskey Centre,&rdquo; though the first time he had ever seen the man
+      himself. His attention was on his own trade, or present occupation; and
+      when it wandered at all, it was principally bestowed on the Indians; more
+      especially on the runner. Of Elk's foot, or Elksfoot, as we prefer to
+      spell it, he had some knowledge by means of rumor; and the little he knew
+      rendered him somewhat more indifferent to his proceedings than he felt
+      toward those of the Pigeonswing. Of this young redskin he had never heard;
+      and, while he managed to suppress all exhibition of the feeling, a lively
+      curiosity to learn the Chippewa's business was uppermost in his mind. As
+      for Gershom, he had taken HIS measure at a glance, and had instantly set
+      him down to be, what in truth he was, a wandering, drinking, reckless
+      adventurer, who had a multitude of vices and bad qualities, mixed up with
+      a few that, if not absolutely redeeming, served to diminish the disgust in
+      which he might otherwise have been held by all decent people. In the
+      meanwhile, the bee-hunting, in which all the spectators took so much
+      interest, went on. As this is a process with which most of our readers are
+      probably unacquainted, it may be necessary to explain the modus operandi,
+      as well as the appliances used.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The tools of Ben Buzz, as Gershom had termed these implements of his
+      trade, were neither very numerous nor very complex. They were all
+      contained in a small covered wooden pail like those that artisans and
+      laborers are accustomed to carry for the purpose of conveying their food
+      from place to place. Uncovering this, le Bourdon had brought his
+      implements to view, previously to the moment when he was first seen by the
+      reader. There was a small covered cup of tin; a wooden box; a sort of
+      plate, or platter, made also of wood; and a common tumbler, of a very
+      inferior, greenish glass. In the year 1812, there was not a pane, nor a
+      vessel, of clear, transparent glass, made in all America! Now, some of the
+      most beautiful manufactures of that sort, known to civilization, are
+      abundantly produced among us, in common with a thousand other articles
+      that are used in domestic economy. The tumbler of Ben Buzz, however, was
+      his countryman in more senses than one. It was not only American, but it
+      came from the part of Pennsylvania of which he was himself a native.
+      Blurred, and of a greenish hue, the glass was the best that Pittsburg
+      could then fabricate, and Ben had bought it only the year before, on the
+      very spot where it had been made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An oak, of more size than usual, had stood a little remote from its
+      fellows, or more within the open ground of the glade than the rest of the
+      &ldquo;orchard.&rdquo; Lightning had struck this tree that very summer, twisting off
+      its trunk at a height of about four feet from the ground. Several
+      fragments of the body and branches lay near, and on these the spectators
+      now took their seats, watching attentively the movements of the
+      bee-hunter. Of the stump Ben had made a sort of table, first levelling its
+      splinters with an axe, and on it he placed the several implements of his
+      craft, as he had need of each in succession.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wooden platter was first placed on this rude table. Then le Bourdon
+      opened his small box, and took out of it a piece of honeycomb, that was
+      circular in shape, and about an inch and a half in diameter. The little
+      covered tin vessel was next brought into use. Some pure and beautifully
+      clear honey was poured from its spout into the cells of the piece of comb,
+      until each of them was about half filled. The tumbler was next taken in
+      hand, carefully wiped, and examined, by holding it up before the eyes of
+      the bee-hunter. Certainly, there was little to admire in it, but it was
+      sufficiently transparent to answer his purposes. All he asked was to be
+      able to look through the glass in order to see what was going on in its
+      interior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having made these preliminary arrangements, Buzzing Ben&mdash;for the
+      sobriquet was applied to him in this form quite as often as in the other&mdash;next
+      turned his attention to the velvet-like covering of the grassy glade. Fire
+      had run over the whole region late that spring, and the grass was now as
+      fresh, and sweet and short, as if the place were pastured. The white
+      clover, in particular, abounded, and was then just bursting forth into the
+      blossom. Various other flowers had also appeared, and around them were
+      buzzing thousands of bees. These industrious little animals were hard at
+      work, loading themselves with sweets; little foreseeing the robbery
+      contemplated by the craft of man. As le Bourdon moved stealthily among the
+      flowers and their humming visitors, the eyes of the two red men followed
+      his smallest movement, as the cat watches the mouse; but Gershom was less
+      attentive, thinking the whole curious enough, but preferring whiskey to
+      all the honey on earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length le Bourdon found a bee to his mind, and watching the moment when
+      the animal was sipping sweets from a head of white clover, he cautiously
+      placed his blurred and green-looking tumbler over it, and made it his
+      prisoner. The moment the bee found itself encircled with the glass, it
+      took wing and attempted to rise. This carried it to the upper part of its
+      prison, when Ben carefully introduced the unoccupied hand beneath the
+      glass, and returned to the stump. Here he set the tumbler down on the
+      platter in a way to bring the piece of honeycomb within its circle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So much done successfully, and with very little trouble, Buzzing Ben
+      examined his captive for a moment, to make sure that all was right. Then
+      he took off his cap and placed it over tumbler, platter, honeycomb, and
+      bee. He now waited half a minute, when cautiously raising the cap again,
+      it was seen that the bee, the moment a darkness like that of its hive came
+      over it, had lighted on the comb, and commenced filling itself with the
+      honey. When Ben took away the cap altogether, the head and half of the
+      body of the bee was in one of the cells, its whole attention being
+      bestowed on this unlooked-for hoard of treasure. As this was just what its
+      captor wished, he considered that part of his work accomplished. It now
+      became apparent why a glass was used to take the bee, instead of a vessel
+      of wood or of bark. Transparency was necessary in order to watch the
+      movements of the captive, as darkness was necessary in order to induce it
+      to cease its efforts to escape, and to settle on the comb.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the bee was now intently occupied in filling itself, Buzzing Ben, or le
+      Bourdon, did not hesitate about removing the glass. He even ventured to
+      look around him, and to make another captive, which he placed over the
+      comb, and managed as he had done with the first. In a minute, the second
+      bee was also buried in a cell, and the glass was again removed. Le Bourdon
+      now signed for his companions to draw near.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There they are, hard at work with the honey,&rdquo; he said, speaking in
+      English, and pointing at the bees. &ldquo;Little do they think, as they
+      undermine that comb, how near they are to the undermining of their own
+      hive! But so it is with us all! When we think we are in the highest
+      prosperity we may be nearest to a fall, and when we are poorest and
+      hum-blest, we may be about to be exalted. I often think of these things,
+      out here in the wilderness, when I'm alone, and my thoughts are acTYVE.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ben used a very pure English, when his condition in life is remembered;
+      but now and then, he encountered a word which pretty plainly proved he was
+      not exactly a scholar. A false emphasis has sometimes an influence on a
+      man's fortune, when one lives in the world; but it mattered little to one
+      like Buzzing Ben, who seldom saw more than half a dozen human faces in the
+      course of a whole summer's hunting. We remember an Englishman, however,
+      who would never concede talents to Burr, because the latter said, a
+      L'AmEricaine, EurOpean, instead of EuropEan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How hive in danger?&rdquo; demanded Elksfoot, who was very much of a
+      matter-of-fact person. &ldquo;No see him, no hear him&mdash;else get some
+      honey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Honey you can have for asking, for I've plenty of it already in my cabin,
+      though it's somewhat 'arly in the season to begin to break in upon the
+      store. In general, the bee-hunters keep back till August, for they think
+      it better to commence work when the creatures&rdquo;&mdash;this word Ben
+      pronounced as accurately as if brought up at St. James's, making it
+      neither &ldquo;creatur'&rdquo; nor &ldquo;creatOOre&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;to commence work when the
+      creatures have had time to fill up, after winter's feed. But I like the
+      old stock, and, what is more, I feel satisfied this is not to be a common
+      summer, and so I thought I would make an early start.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Ben said this, he glanced his eyes at Pigeonswing, who returned the
+      look in a way to prove there was already a secret intelligence between
+      them, though neither had ever seen the other an hour before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Waal!&rdquo; exclaimed Gershom, &ldquo;this is cur'ous, I'll allow THAT; yes, it's
+      cur'ous&mdash;but we've got an article at Whiskey Centre that'll put the
+      sweetest honey bee ever suck'd, altogether out o' countenance!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An article of which you suck your share, I'll answer for it, judging by
+      the sign you carry between the windows of your face,&rdquo; returned Ben,
+      laughing; &ldquo;but hush, men, hush. That first bee is filled, and begins to
+      think of home. He'll soon be off for HONEY Centre, and I must keep my eye
+      on him. Now, stand a little aside, friends, and give me room for my
+      craft.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The men complied, and le Bourdon was now all intense attention to his
+      business. The bee first taken had, indeed, filled itself to satiety, and
+      at first seemed to be too heavy to rise on the wing. After a few moments
+      of preparation, however, up it went, circling around the spot, as if
+      uncertain what course to take. The eye of Ben never left it, and when the
+      insect darted off, as it soon did, in an air-line, he saw it for fifty
+      yards after the others had lost sight of it. Ben took the range, and was
+      silent fully a minute while he did so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That bee may have lighted in the corner of yonder swamp,&rdquo; he said,
+      pointing, as he spoke, to a bit of low land that sustained a growth of
+      much larger trees than those which grew in the &ldquo;opening,&rdquo; &ldquo;or it has
+      crossed the point of the wood, and struck across the prairie beyond, and
+      made for a bit of thick forest that is to be found about three miles
+      further. In the last case, I shall have my trouble for nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What t'other do?&rdquo; demanded Elksfoot, with very obvious curiosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure enough; the other gentleman must be nearly ready for a start, and
+      we'll see what road HE travels. 'Tis always an assistance to a bee-hunter
+      to get one creature fairly off, as it helps him to line the next with
+      greater sartainty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ben WOULD say acTYVE, and SARtain, though he was above saying creatoore,
+      or creatur'. This is the difference between a Pennsylvanian and a Yankee.
+      We shall not stop, however, to note all these little peculiarities in
+      these individuals, but use the proper or the peculiar dialect, as may
+      happen to be most convenient to ourselves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there was no time for disquisition, the second bee being now ready for
+      a start. Like his companion, this insect rose and encircled the stump
+      several times, ere it darted away toward its hive, in an air-line. So
+      small was the object, and so rapid its movement, that no one but the
+      bee-hunter saw the animal after it had begun its journey in earnest. To
+      HIS disappointment, instead of flying in the same direction as the bee
+      first taken, this little fellow went buzzing off fairly at a right angle!
+      It was consequently clear that there were two hives, and that they lay in
+      very different directions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without wasting his time in useless talk, le Bourdon now caught another
+      bee, which was subjected to the same process as those first taken. When
+      this creature had filled it-self, it rose, circled the stump as usual, as
+      if to note the spot for a second visit, and darted away, directly in a
+      line with the bee first taken. Ben noted its flight most accurately, and
+      had his eye on it, until it was quite a hundred yards from the stump. This
+      he was enabled to do, by means of a quick sight and long practice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll move our quarters, friends,&rdquo; said Buzzing Ben, good-humoredly, as
+      soon as satisfied with this last observation, and gathering together his
+      traps for a start. &ldquo;I must angle for that hive, and I fear it will turn
+      out to be across the prairie, and quite beyond my reach for to-day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The prairie alluded to was one of those small natural meadows, or
+      pastures, that are to be found in Michigan, and may have contained four or
+      five thousand acres of open land. The heavy timber of the swamp mentioned,
+      jutted into it, and the point to be determined was, to ascertain whether
+      the bees had flown OVER these trees, toward which they had certainly gone
+      in an air-line, or whether they had found their hive among them. In order
+      to settle this material question, a new process was necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I must 'angle' for them chaps,&rdquo; repeated le Bourdon; &ldquo;and if you will go
+      with me, strangers, you shall soon see the nicest part of the business of
+      bee-hunting. Many a man who can 'line' a bee, can do nothing at an
+      'angle'.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As this was only gibberish to the listeners, no answer was made, but all
+      prepared to follow Ben, who was soon ready to change his ground. The
+      bee-hunter took his way across the open ground to a point fully a hundred
+      rods distant from his first position, where he found another stump of a
+      fallen tree, which he converted into a stand. The same process was gone
+      through with as before, and le Bourdon was soon watching two bees that had
+      plunged their heads down into the cells of the comb. Nothing could exceed
+      the gravity and attention of the Indians, all this time. They had fully
+      comprehended the business of &ldquo;lining&rdquo; the insects toward their hives, but
+      they could not understand the virtue of the &ldquo;angle.&rdquo; The first bore so
+      strong an affinity to their own pursuit of game, as to be very obvious to
+      their senses; but the last included a species of information to which they
+      were total strangers. Nor were they much the wiser after le Bourdon had
+      taken his &ldquo;angle&rdquo;; it requiring a sort of induction to which they were not
+      accustomed, in order to put the several parts of his proceedings together,
+      and to draw the inference. As for Gershom, he affected to be familiar with
+      all that was going on, though he was just as ignorant as the Indians
+      themselves. This little bit of hypocrisy was the homage he paid to his
+      white blood: it being very unseemly, according to his view of the matter,
+      for a pale-face not to know more than a redskin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bees were some little time in filling themselves. At length one of
+      them came out of his cell, and was evidently getting ready for his flight.
+      Ben beckoned to the spectators to stand farther back, in order to give him
+      a fair chance, and, just as he had done so, the bee rose. After humming
+      around the stump for an instant, away the insect flew, taking a course
+      almost at right angles to that in which le Bourdon had expected to see it
+      fly. It required half a minute for him to recollect that this little
+      creature had gone off in a line nearly parallel to that which had been
+      taken by the second of the bees, which he had seen quit his original
+      position. The line led across the neighboring prairie, and any attempt to
+      follow these bees was hopeless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the second creature was also soon ready, and when it darted away, le
+      Bourdon, to his manifest delight, saw that it held its flight toward the
+      point of the swamp INTO, or OVER which two of his first captives had gone.
+      This settled the doubtful matter. Had the hive of these bees been BEYOND
+      that wood, the angle of intersection would not have been there, but at the
+      hive across the prairie. The reader will understand that creatures which
+      obey an instinct, or such a reason as bees possess, would never make a
+      curvature in their flights without some strong motive for it. Thus, two
+      bees taken from flowers that stood half a mile apart would be certain not
+      to cross each other's tracks, in returning home, until they met at the
+      common hive: and wherever the intersecting angle in their respective
+      flights may be, there would that hive be also. As this repository of
+      sweets was the game le Bourdon had in view, it is easy to see how much he
+      was pleased when the direction taken by the last of his bees gave him the
+      necessary assurance that its home would certainly be found in that very
+      point of dense wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER II.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+       How skilfully it builds its cell,
+       How neat it spreads the wax,
+       And labors hard to store it well,
+       With the sweet food it makes.
+                  WATTS' HYMNS FOR CHILDREN.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The next thing was to ascertain which was the particular tree in which the
+      bees had found a shelter. Collecting his implements, le Bourdon was soon
+      ready, and, with a light elastic tread, he moved off toward the point of
+      the wood, followed by the whole party. The distance was about half a mile,
+      and men so much accustomed to use their limbs made light of it. In a few
+      minutes all were there, and the bee-hunter was busy in looking for his
+      tree. This was the consummation of the whole process, and Ben was not only
+      provided for the necessities of the case, but he was well skilled in all
+      the signs that betokened the abodes of bees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An uninstructed person might have passed that point of wood a thousand
+      times, without the least consciousness of the presence of a single insect
+      of the sort now searched for. In general, the bees flew too high to be
+      easily perceptible from the ground, though a practised eye can discern
+      them at distances that would almost seem to be marvellous. But Ben had
+      other assistants than his eyes. He knew that the tree he sought must be
+      hollow, and such trees usually give outward signs of the defect that
+      exists within. Then, some species of wood are more frequented by the bees
+      than others, while the instinct of the industrious little creatures
+      generally enables them to select such homes as will not be very likely to
+      destroy all the fruits of their industry by an untimely fall. In all these
+      particulars, both bees and bee-hunter were well versed, and Ben made his
+      search accordingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Among the other implements of his calling, le Bourdon had a small
+      spy-glass; one scarcely larger than those that are used in theatres, but
+      which was powerful and every way suited to its purposes. Ben was not long
+      in selecting a tree, a half-decayed elm, as the one likely to contain the
+      hive; and by the aid of his glass he soon saw bees flying among its dying
+      branches, at a height of not less than seventy feet from the ground. A
+      little further search directed his attention to a knot-hole, in and out of
+      which the glass enabled him to see bees passing in streams. This decided
+      the point; and putting aside all his implements but the axe, Buzzing Ben
+      now set about the task of felling the tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;STRANger,&rdquo; said Gershom, when le Bourdon had taken out the first chip,
+      &ldquo;perhaps you'd better let ME do that part of the job. I shall expect to
+      come in for a share of the honey, and I'm willing to 'arn all I take. I
+      was brought up on axes, and jack-knives, and sich sort of food, and can
+      cut OR whittle with the best chopper, or the neatest whittler, in or out
+      of New England.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can try your hand, if you wish it,&rdquo; said Ben, relinquishing the axe.
+      &ldquo;I can fell a tree as well as yourself, but have no such love for the
+      business as to wish to keep it all to myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Waal, I can say, I LIKE it,&rdquo; answered Gershom, first passing his thumb
+      along the edge of the axe, in order to ascertain its state; then swinging
+      the tool, with a view to try its &ldquo;hang.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't say much for your axe, STRANGER, for this helve has no tarve
+      to't, to my mind; but, sich as it is, down must come this elm, though ten
+      millions of bees should set upon me for my pains.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was no idle boast of Waring's. Worthless as he was in so many
+      respects, he was remarkably skilful with the axe, as he now proved by the
+      rapid manner in which he severed the trunk of the large elm on which he
+      was at work. He inquired of Ben where he should &ldquo;lay the tree,&rdquo; and when
+      it came clattering down, it fell on the precise spot indicated. Great was
+      the confusion among the bees at this sudden downfall of their
+      long-cherished home. The fact was not known to their enemy, but they had
+      inhabited that tree for a long time; and the prize now obtained was the
+      richest he had ever made in his calling. As for the insects, they filled
+      the air in clouds, and all the invaders deemed it prudent to withdraw to
+      some little distance for a time, lest the irritated and wronged bees
+      should set upon them and take an ample revenge. Had they known their
+      power, this might easily have been done, no ingenuity of man being able to
+      protect him against the assaults of this insignificant-looking animal,
+      when unable to cover himself, and the angry little heroes are in earnest.
+      On the present occasion, however, no harm befell the marauders. So
+      suddenly had the hive tumbled that its late occupants appeared to be
+      astounded, and they submitted to their fate as men yield to the power of
+      tempests and earthquakes. In half an hour most of them were collected on
+      an adjacent tree, where doubtless a consultation on the mode of future
+      proceedings was held, after their fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indians were more delighted with le Bourdon's ingenious mode of
+      discovering the hive than with the richness of the prize; while Ben
+      himself, and Gershom, manifested most satisfaction at the amount of the
+      earnings. When the tree was cut in pieces, and split, it was ascertained
+      that years of sweets were contained within its capacious cavities, and Ben
+      estimated the portion that fell to his share at more than three hundred
+      pounds of good honey&mdash;comb included&mdash;after deducting the
+      portions that were given to the Indians, and which were abstracted by
+      Gershom. The three last, however, could carry but little, as they had no
+      other means of bearing it away than their own backs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The honey was not collected that night. The day was too far advanced for
+      that; and le Bourdon&mdash;certainly never was name less merited than this
+      sobriquet as applied to the active young bee-hunter&mdash;but le Bourdon,
+      to give him his quaint appellation, offered the hospitalities of his own
+      cabin to the strangers, promising to put them on their several paths the
+      succeeding day, with a good store of honey in each knapsack.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They do say there ar' likely to be troublesome times.&rdquo; he continued, with
+      simple earnestness, after having given the invitation to partake of his
+      homely fare; &ldquo;and I should like to hear what is going on in the world.
+      From Whiskey Centre I do not expect to learn much, I will own; but I am
+      mistaken if the Pigeonswing, here, has not a message that will make us all
+      open our ears.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indians ejaculated their assent; but Gershom was a man who could not
+      express anything sententiously. As the bee-hunter led the way toward his
+      cabin, or shanty, he made his comments with his customary freedom. Before
+      recording what he communicated, however, we shall digress for one moment
+      in order to say a word ourselves concerning this term &ldquo;shanty.&rdquo; It is now
+      in general use throughout the whole of the United States, meaning a cabin
+      that has been constructed in haste, and for temporary purposes. By a
+      license of speech, it is occasionally applied to more permanent
+      residences, as men are known to apply familiar epithets to familiar
+      objects. The derivation of the word has caused some speculation. The term
+      certainly came from the West-perhaps from the Northwest-and the best
+      explanation we have ever heard of its derivation is to sup-pose &ldquo;shanty,&rdquo;
+       as we now spell it, a corruption of &ldquo;chiente,&rdquo; which it is thought may
+      have been a word in Canadian French phrase to express a &ldquo;dog-kennel.&rdquo;
+       &ldquo;Chenil,&rdquo; we believe, is the true French term for such a thing, and our
+      own word is said to be derived from it&mdash;&ldquo;meute&rdquo; meaning &ldquo;a kennel of
+      dogs,&rdquo; or &ldquo;a pack of hounds,&rdquo; rather than their dwelling. At any rate,
+      &ldquo;chiente&rdquo; is so plausible a solution of the difficulty, that one may hope
+      it is the true one, even though he has no better authority for it than a
+      very vague rumor. Curious discoveries are sometimes made by these rude
+      analogies, however, though they are generally thought not to be very near
+      akin to learning. For ourselves, now, we do not entertain a doubt that the
+      sobriquet of &ldquo;Yankees&rdquo; which is in every man's mouth, and of which the
+      derivation appears to puzzle all our philologists, is nothing but a slight
+      corruption of the word &ldquo;Yengeese,&rdquo; the term applied to the &ldquo;English,&rdquo; by
+      the tribes to whom they first became known. We have no other authority for
+      this derivation than conjecture, and conjectures that are purely our own;
+      but it is so very plausible as almost to carry conviction of itself.
+      [Footnote: Since writing the above, the author has met with an allusion
+      that has induced him to think he may not have been the first to suggest
+      this derivation of the word &ldquo;Yankee.&rdquo; With himself, the suggestion is
+      perfectly original, and has long since been published by him; but nothing
+      is more probable than the fact that a solution so very natural, of this
+      long-disputed question in language, may have suggested itself to various
+      minds.]
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The &ldquo;chiente'&rdquo; or shanty of le Bourdon stood quite near to the banks of
+      the Kalamazoo, and in a most beautiful grove of the burr-oak. Ben had
+      selected the site with much taste, though the proximity of a spring of
+      delicious water had probably its full share in influencing his decision.
+      It was necessary, moreover, that he should be near the river, as his great
+      movements were all made by water, for the convenience of transporting his
+      tools, furniture, etc., as well as his honey. A famous bark canoe lay in a
+      little bay, out of the current of the stream, securely moored, head and
+      stern, in order to prevent her beating against any object harder than
+      herself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dwelling had been constructed with some attention to security. This
+      was rendered necessary, in some measure, as Ben had found by experience,
+      on account of two classes of enemies&mdash;men and bears. From the first,
+      it is true, the bee-hunter had hitherto apprehended but little. There were
+      few human beings in that region. The northern portions of the noble
+      peninsula of Michigan are some-what low and swampy, or are too broken and
+      savage to tempt the native hunters from the openings and prairies that
+      then lay, in such rich profusion, further south and west. With the
+      exception of the shores, or coasts, it was seldom that the northern half
+      of the peninsula felt the footstep of man. With the southern half,
+      however, it was very different; the &ldquo;openings,&rdquo; and glades, and
+      watercourses, offering almost as many temptations to the savage as they
+      have since done to the civilized man. Nevertheless, the bison, or the
+      buffalo, as the animal is erroneously, but very generally, termed
+      throughout the country, was not often found in the vast herds of which we
+      read, until one reached the great prairies west of the Mississippi. There
+      it was that the red men most loved to congregate; though always bearing,
+      in numbers, but a trifling proportion to the surface they occupied. In
+      that day, however, near as to the date, but distant as to the events, the
+      Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawattamies, kindred tribes, we believe, had still
+      a footing in Michigan proper, and were to be found in considerable numbers
+      in what was called the St. Joseph's country, or along the banks of the
+      stream of that name; a region that almost merits the lofty appellation of
+      the garden of America. Le Bourdon knew many of their warriors, and was
+      much esteemed among them; though he had never met with either of those
+      whom chance now had thrown in his way. In general, he suffered little
+      wrong from the red men, who wondered at his occupation, while they liked
+      his character; but he had sustained losses, and even ill-treatment, from
+      certain outcasts of the tribes, as well as from vagrant whites, who
+      occasionally found their way to his temporary dwellings. On the present
+      occasion, le Bourdon felt far more uneasiness from the circumstance of
+      having his abode known to Gershom Waring, a countryman and
+      fellow-Christian, in one sense at least, than from its being known to the
+      Chippewa and the Pottawattamie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bears were constant and dangerous sources of annoyance to the
+      bee-hunter. It was not often that an armed man&mdash;and le Bourdon seldom
+      moved without his rifle&mdash;has much to apprehend from the common brown
+      bear of America. Though a formidable-looking animal, especially when full
+      grown, it is seldom bold enough to attack a human being, nothing but
+      hunger, or care for its young, ever inducing it to go so much out of the
+      ordinary track of its habits. But the love of the bear for honey amounts
+      to a passion. Not only will it devise all sorts of bearish expedients to
+      get at the sweet morsels, but it will scent them from afar. On one
+      occasion, a family of Bruins had looked into a shanty of Ben's, that was
+      not constructed with sufficient care, and consummated their burglary by
+      demolishing the last comb. That disaster almost ruined the adventurer,
+      then quite young in his calling; and ever since its occurrence he had
+      taken the precaution to build such a citadel as should at least set teeth
+      and paws at defiance. To one who had an axe, with access to young pines,
+      this was not a difficult task, as was proved by the present habitation of
+      our hero.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the second season that le Bourdon had occupied &ldquo;Castle Meal,&rdquo; as
+      he himself called the shanty. This appellation was a corruption of
+      &ldquo;chateau au Mtel&rdquo; a name given to it by a wag of a voyageur who had aided
+      Ben in ascending the Kalamazoo the previous summer, and had remained long
+      enough with him to help him put up his habitation. The building was just
+      twelve feet square, in the interior, and somewhat less than fourteen on
+      its exterior. It was made of pine logs, in the usual mode, with the
+      additional security of possessing a roof of squared timbers of which the
+      several parts were so nicely fitted together as to shed rain. This unusual
+      precaution was rendered necessary to protect the honey, since the bears
+      would have unroofed the common bark coverings of the shanties, with the
+      readiness of human beings, in order to get at stores as ample as those
+      which the bee-hunter had soon collected beneath his roof. There was one
+      window of glass, which le Bourdon had brought in his canoe; though it was
+      a single sash of six small lights, that opened on hinges; the exterior
+      being protected by stout bars of riven oak, securely let into the logs.
+      The door was made of three thicknesses of oaken plank, pinned well
+      together, and swinging on stout iron hinges, so secured as not to be
+      easily removed. Its outside fastening was made by means of two stout
+      staples, a short piece of ox-chain, and an unusually heavy padlock.
+      Nothing short of an iron bar, and that cleverly applied, could force this
+      fastening. On the inside, three bars of oak rendered all secure, when the
+      master was at home.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You set consid'rable store by your honey, I guess, STRANger,&rdquo; said
+      Gershom, as le Bourdon unlocked the fastenings and removed the chain, &ldquo;if
+      a body may judge by the kear (care) you take on't! Now, down our way we
+      ain't half so partic'lar; Dolly and Blossom never so much as putting up a
+      bar to the door, even when I sleep out, which is about half the time, now
+      the summer is fairly set in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And whereabouts is 'down our way,' if one may be so bold as to ask the
+      question?&rdquo; returned le Bourdon, holding the door half-opened, while he
+      turned his face toward the other, in expectation of the answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, down at Whiskey Centre, to be sure, as the v'y'gerers and other
+      boatmen call the place.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where is Whiskey Centre?&rdquo; demanded Ben, a little pertinaciously.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, I thought everybody would 'a' known that,&rdquo; answered Greshom; &ldquo;sin'
+      whiskey is as drawin' as a blister. Whiskey Centre is just where <i>I</i>
+      happen to live; bein' what a body may call a travellin' name. As I'm now
+      down at the mouth of the Kalamazoo, why Whiskey Centre's there, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand the matter, now,&rdquo; answered le Bourdon, composing his
+      well-formed mouth in a sort of contemptuous smile. &ldquo;You and whiskey, being
+      sworn friends, are always to be found in company. When I came into the
+      river, which was the last week in April, I saw nothing like whiskey, nor
+      anything like a Centre at the mouth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you'd 'a' be'n a fortnight later, STRANger, you'd 'a' found both.
+      Travellin' Centres, and stationary, differs somewhat, I guess; one is
+      always to be found, while t'other must be s'arched a'ter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And pray who are Dolly and Blossom; I hope the last is not a WHISKEY
+      blossom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not she&mdash;she never touches a spoonful, though I tell her it never
+      hurt mortal! She tries hard to reason me into it that it hurts ME&mdash;but
+      that's all a mistake, as anybody can see that jest looks at me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ben DID look at him; and, to say truth, came to a somewhat different
+      conclusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is she so blooming that you call her 'Blossom'?&rdquo; demanded the bee-hunter,
+      &ldquo;or is she so young?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The gal's a little of both. Dolly is my wife, and Blossom is my sister.
+      The real name of Blossom is Margery Waring, but everybody calls her
+      Blossom; and so I gi'n into it, with the rest on 'em.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It is probable that le Bourdon lost a good deal of his interest in this
+      flower of the wilderness, as soon as he learned she was so nearly related
+      to the Whiskey Centre. Gershom was so very uninviting an object, and had
+      so many palpable marks, that he had fairly earned the nickname which, as
+      it afterward appeared, the western adventurers had given HIM, as well as
+      his ABODE, wherever the last might be, that no one of decently sober
+      habits could readily fancy anything belonging to him. At any rate, the
+      bee-hunter now led the way into his cabin, whither he was followed without
+      unnecessary ceremony, by all three of his guests.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The interior of the &ldquo;chiente,&rdquo; to use the most poetical, if not the most
+      accurate word, was singularly clean for an establishment set up by a
+      bachelor, in so remote a part of the world. The honey, in neat,
+      well-constructed kegs, was carefully piled along one side of the
+      apartment, in a way to occupy the minimum of room, and to be rather
+      ornamental than unsightly. These kegs were made by le Bourdon himself, who
+      had acquired as much of the art as was necessary to that object. The woods
+      always furnished the materials; and a pile of staves that was placed
+      beneath a neighboring tree sufficiently denoted that he did not yet deem
+      that portion of his task completed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In one corner of the hut was a pile of well-dressed bearskins, three in
+      number, each and all of which had been taken from the carcasses of fallen
+      foes, within the last two months. Three more were stretched on saplings,
+      near by, in the process of curing. It was a material part of the
+      bee-hunter's craft to kill this animal, in particular; and the trophies of
+      his conflicts with them were proportionably numerous. On the pile already
+      prepared, he usually slept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a very rude table, a single board set up on sticks; and a bench
+      or two, together with a wooden chest of some size, completed the
+      furniture. Tools were suspended from the walls, it is true; and no less
+      than three rifles, in addition to a very neat double-barrelled &ldquo;shot-gun,&rdquo;
+       or fowling-piece, were standing in a corner. These were arms collected by
+      our hero in his different trips, and retained quite as much from affection
+      as from necessity, or caution. Of ammunition, there was no very great
+      amount visible; only three or four horns and a couple of pouches being
+      suspended from pegs: but Ben had a secret store, as well as another rifle,
+      carefully secured, in a natural magazine and arsenal, at a distance
+      sufficiently great from the chiente to remove it from all danger of
+      sharing in the fortunes of his citadel, should disaster befall the last.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The cooking was done altogether out of doors. For this essential comfort,
+      le Bourdon had made very liberal provision. He had a small oven, a
+      sufficiently convenient fire-place, and a storehouse, at hand; all placed
+      near the spring, and beneath the shade of a magnificent elm. In the
+      storehouse he kept his barrel of flour, his barrel of salt, a stock of
+      smoked or dried meat, and that which the woodsman, if accustomed in early
+      life to the settlements, prizes most highly, a half-barrel of pickled
+      pork. The bark canoe had sufficed to transport all these stores, merely
+      ballasting handsomely that ticklish craft; and its owner relied on the
+      honey to perform the same office on the return voyage, when trade or
+      consumption should have disposed of the various articles just named.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader may smile at the word &ldquo;trade,&rdquo; and ask where were those to be
+      found who could be parties to the traffic. The vast lakes and innumerable
+      rivers of that region, however, remote as it then was from the ordinary
+      abodes of civilized man, offered facilities for communication that the
+      active spirit of trade would be certain not to neglect. In the first
+      place, there were always the Indians to barter skins and furs against
+      powder, lead, rifles, blankets, and unhappily &ldquo;fire-water.&rdquo; Then, the
+      white men who penetrated to those semi-wilds were always ready to &ldquo;dicker&rdquo;
+       and to &ldquo;swap,&rdquo; and to &ldquo;trade&rdquo; rifles, and watches, and whatever else they
+      might happen to possess, almost to their wives and Children.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But we should be doing injustice to le Bourdon, were we in any manner to
+      confound him with the &ldquo;dickering&rdquo; race. He was a bee-hunter quite as much
+      through love of the wilderness and love of adventure, as through love of
+      gain. Profitable he had certainly found the employment, or he probably
+      would not have pursued it; but there was many a man who&mdash;nay, most
+      men, even in his own humble class in life-would have deemed his liberal
+      earnings too hardly obtained, when gained at the expense of all
+      intercourse with their own kind. But Buzzing Ben loved the solitude of his
+      situation, its hazards, its quietude, relieved by passing moments of high
+      excitement; and, most of all, the self-reliance that was indispensable
+      equally to his success and his happiness. Woman, as yet, had never
+      exercised her witchery over him, and every day was his passion for
+      dwelling alone, and for enjoying the strange, but certainly most alluring,
+      pleasures of the woods, increasing and gaining strength in his bosom. It
+      was seldom, now, that he held intercourse even with the Indian tribes that
+      dwelt near his occasional places of hunting; and frequently had he shifted
+      his ground in order to avoid collision, however friendly, with whites who,
+      like himself, were pushing their humble fortunes along the shores of those
+      inland seas, which, as yet, were rarely indeed whitened by a sail. In this
+      respect, Boden and Waring were the very antipodes of each other; Gershom
+      being an inveterate gossip, in despite of his attachment to a vagrant and
+      border life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The duties of hospitality are rarely forgotten among border men. The
+      inhabitant of a town may lose his natural disposition to receive all who
+      offer at his board, under the pressure of society; but it is only in most
+      extraordinary exceptions that the frontier man is ever known to be
+      inhospitable. He has little to offer, but that little is seldom withheld,
+      either through prudence or niggardliness. Under this feeling&mdash;we
+      might call it habit also&mdash;le Bourdon now set himself at work to place
+      on the table such food as he had at command and ready cooked. The meal
+      which he soon pressed his guests to share with him was composed of a good
+      piece of cold boiled pork, which Ben had luckily cooked the day
+      previously, some bear's meat roasted, a fragment of venison steak, both
+      lean and cold, and the remains of a duck that had been shot the day
+      before, in the Kalamazoo, with bread, salt, and, what was somewhat unusual
+      in the wilderness, two or three onions, raw. The last dish was highly
+      relished by Gershom, and was slightly honored by Ben; but the Indians
+      passed it over with cold indifference. The dessert consisted of bread and
+      honey, which were liberally partaken of by all at table.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little was said by either host or guests, until the supper was finished,
+      when the whole party left the chiente, to enjoy their pipes in the cool
+      evening air, beneath the oaks of the grove in which the dwelling stood.
+      Their conversation began to let the parties know something of each other's
+      movements and characters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;YOU are a Pottawattamie, and YOU a Chippewa,&rdquo; said le Bourdon, as he
+      courteously handed to his two red guests pipes of theirs, that he had just
+      stuffed with some of his own tobacco&mdash;&ldquo;I believe you are a sort of
+      cousins, though your tribes are called by different names.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nation, Ojebway,&rdquo; returned the elder Indian, holding up a finger, by way
+      of enforcing attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tribe, Pottawattamie,&rdquo; added the runner, in the same sententious manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Baccy, good&rdquo;&mdash;put in the senior, by way of showing he was well
+      contented with his comforts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you nothin' to drink?&rdquo; demanded Whiskey Centre, who saw no great
+      merit in anything but &ldquo;firewater.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is the spring,&rdquo; returned le Bourdon, gravely; &ldquo;a gourd hangs
+      against the tree.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gershom made a wry face, but he did not move.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is there any news stirring among the tribes?&rdquo; asked the bee-hunter,
+      waiting, however, a decent interval, lest he might be supposed to betray a
+      womanly curiosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elksfoot puffed away some time before he saw fit to answer, reserving a
+      salvo in behalf of his own dignity. Then he removed the pipe, shook off
+      the ashes, pressed down the fire a little, gave a reviving draught or two,
+      and quietly replied:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ask my young brother&mdash;he runner&mdash;he know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But Pigeonswing seemed to be little more communicative than the
+      Pottawattamie. He smoked on in quiet dignity, while the bee-hunter
+      patiently waited for the moment when it might suit his younger guest to
+      speak. That moment did not arrive for some time, though it came at last.
+      Almost five minutes after Elksfoot had made the allusion mentioned, the
+      Ojebway, or Chippewa, removed his pipe also, and looking courteously round
+      at his host, he said with emphasis:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bad summer come soon. Pale-faces call young men togedder, and dig up
+      hatchet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I had heard something of this,&rdquo; answered le Bourdon, with a saddened
+      countenance, &ldquo;and was afraid it might happen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother dig up hatchet too, eh?&rdquo; demanded Pigeonswing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should I? I am alone here, on the Openings, and it would seem foolish
+      in me to wish to fight.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got no tribe&mdash;no Ojebway&mdash;no Pottawattamie, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have my tribe, as well as another, Chippewa, but can see no use I can
+      be to it, here. If the English and Americans fight, it must be a long way
+      from this wilderness, and on or near the great salt lake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't know&mdash;nebber know, 'till see. English warrior plenty in
+      Canada.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That may be; but American warriors are not plenty here. This country is a
+      wilderness, and there are no soldiers hereabouts, to cut each other's
+      throats.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What you t'ink him?&rdquo; asked Pigeonswing, glancing at Gershom; who, unable
+      to forbear any longer, had gone to the spring to mix a cup from a small
+      supply that still remained of the liquor with which he had left home. &ldquo;Got
+      pretty good scalp?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose it is as good as another's&mdash;but he and I are countrymen,
+      and we cannot raise the tomahawk on one another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't t'ink so. Plenty Yankee, him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon smiled at this proof of Pigeonswings sagacity, though he felt a
+      good deal of uneasiness at the purport of his discourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are right enough in THAT&rdquo; he answered, &ldquo;but I'm plenty of Yankee,
+      too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, don't say so,&rdquo; returned the Chippewa&mdash;&ldquo;no, mustn't say DAT.
+      English; no Yankee. HIM not a bit like you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, we are unlike each other, in some respects, it is true, though we
+      are countrymen, notwithstanding. My great father lives at Washington, as
+      well as his.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Chippewa appeared to be disappointed; perhaps he appeared sorry, too;
+      for le Bourdon's frank and manly hospitality had disposed him to
+      friendship instead of hostilities, while his admissions would rather put
+      him in an antagonist position. It was probably with a kind motive that he
+      pursued the discourse in a way to give his host some insight into the true
+      condition of matters in that part of the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Plenty Breetish in woods,&rdquo; he said, with marked deliberation and point.
+      &ldquo;Yankee no come yet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let me know the truth, at once, Chippewa,&rdquo; exclaimed le Bourdon. &ldquo;I am
+      but a peaceable bee-hunter, as you see, and wish no man's scalp, or any
+      man's honey but my own. Is there to be a war between America and Canada,
+      or not?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some say, yes; some say, no,&rdquo; returned Pigeonswing, evasively, &ldquo;My part,
+      don't know. Go, now, to see. But plenty Montreal belt among redskins;
+      plenty rifle; plenty powder, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I heard something of this as I came up the lakes,&rdquo; rejoined Ben; &ldquo;and
+      fell in with a trader, an old acquaintance, from Canada, and a good
+      friend, too, though he is to be my enemy, according to law, who gave me to
+      understand that the summer would not go over without blows. Still, they
+      all seemed to be asleep at Mackinaw (Michilimackinac) as I passed there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wake up pretty soon. Canada warrior take fort.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If I thought that, Chippewa, I would be off this blessed night to give
+      the alarm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;t'ink better of dat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go I would, if I died for it the next hour!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;T'ink better&mdash;be no such fool, I tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I tell you, Pigeonswing, that go I would, if the whole Ojebway nation
+      was on my trail. I am an American, and mean to stand by my own people,
+      come what will.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;T'ought you only peaceable bee-hunter, just now,&rdquo; retorted the Chippewa,
+      a little sarcastically.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time le Bourdon had somewhat cooled, and he became conscious of
+      his indiscretion. He knew enough of the history of the past, to be fully
+      aware that, in all periods of American history, the English, and, for that
+      matter, the French too, so long as they had possessions on this continent,
+      never scrupled about employing the savages in their conflicts. It is true,
+      that these highly polished, and, we may justly add, humane nations&mdash;(for
+      each is, out of all question, entitled to that character in the scale of
+      comparative humanity as between communities, and each if you will take its
+      own account of the matter, stands at the head of civilization in this
+      respect)&mdash;would, notwithstanding these high claims, carry on their
+      AMERICAN wars by the agency of the tomahawk, the scalping-knife, and the
+      brand. Eulogies, though pronounced by ourselves on ourselves, cannot erase
+      the stains of blood. Even down to the present hour, a cloud does not
+      obscure the political atmosphere between England and America, that its
+      existence may not be discovered on the prairies, by a movement among the
+      In-dians. The pulse that is to be felt there is a sure indication of the
+      state of the relations between the parties. Every one knows that the
+      savage, in his warfare, slays both sexes and all ages; that the door-post
+      of the frontier cabin is defiled by the blood of the infant, whose brains
+      have been dashed against it; and that the smouldering ruins of log-houses
+      oftener than not cover the remains of their tenants. But what of all that?
+      Brutus is still &ldquo;an honorable man,&rdquo; and the American, who has not this sin
+      to answer for among his numberless transgressions, is reviled as a
+      semi-barbarian! The time is at hand, when the Lion of the West will draw
+      his own picture, too; and fortunate will it be for the characters of some
+      who will gather around the easel, if they do not discover traces of their
+      own lineaments among his labors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The feeling engendered by the character of such a warfare is the secret of
+      the deeply seated hostility which pervades the breast of the WESTERN
+      American against the land of his ancestors. He never sees the Times, and
+      cares not a rush for the mystifications of the Quarterly Review; but he
+      remembers where his mother was brained, and his father or brother
+      tortured; aye, and by whose instrumentality the foul deeds were mainly
+      done. The man of the world can understand that such atrocities may be
+      committed, and the people of the offending nation remain ignorant of their
+      existence, and, in a measure, innocent of the guilt; but the sufferer, in
+      his provincial practice, makes no such distinction, confounding all alike
+      in his resentments, and including all that bear the hated name in his
+      maledictions. It is a fearful thing to awaken the anger of a nation; to
+      excite in it a desire for revenge; and thrice is that danger magnified,
+      when the people thus aroused possess the activity, the resources, the
+      spirit, and the enterprise of the Americans. We have been openly derided,
+      and that recently, because, in the fulness of our sense of power and sense
+      of right, language that exceeds any direct exhibition of the national
+      strength has escaped the lips of legislators, and, perhaps justly, has
+      exposed them to the imputation of boastfulness. That derision, however,
+      will not soon be repeated. The scenes enacting in Mexico, faint as they
+      are in comparison with what would have been seen, had hostilities taken an
+      other direction, place a perpetual gag in the mouths of all scoffers. The
+      child is passing from the gristle into the bone, and the next generation
+      will not even laugh, as does the present, at any idle and ill-considered
+      menaces to coerce this republic; strong in the consciousness of its own
+      power, it will eat all such fanfaronades, if any future statesman should
+      be so ill-advised as to renew them, with silent indifference.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, le Bourdon was fully aware that one of the surest pulses of
+      approaching hostilities between England and America was to be felt in the
+      far West. If the Indians were in movement, some power was probably behind
+      the scenes to set them in motion. Pigeonswing was well known to him by
+      reputation; and there was that about the man which awakened the most
+      unpleasant apprehensions, and he felt an itching desire to learn all he
+      could from him, without betraying any more of his own feelings, if that
+      were possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not think the British will attempt Mackinaw,&rdquo; Ben remarked, after a
+      long pause and a good deal of smoking had enabled him to assume an air of
+      safe indifference.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got him, I tell you,&rdquo; answered Pigeonswing, pointedly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got what, Chippewa?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Him&mdash;Mac-naw&mdash;got fort&mdash;got so'gers&mdash;got whole
+      island. Know dat, for been dere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was astounding news, indeed! The commanding officer of that
+      ill-starred garrison could not himself have been more astonished, when he
+      was unexpectedly summoned to surrender by an enemy who appeared to start
+      out of the earth, than was le Bourdon, at hearing this intelligence. To
+      western notions, Michilimackinac was another Gibraltar, although really a
+      place of very little strength, and garrisoned by only one small company of
+      regulars. Still, habit had given the fortress a sort of sanctity among the
+      adventurers of that region; and its fall, even in the settled parts of the
+      country, sounded like the loss of a province. It is now known that,
+      anticipating the movements of the Americans, some three hundred whites,
+      sustained by more than twice that number of Indians, including warriors
+      from nearly every adjacent tribe, had surprised the post on the 17th of
+      July, and compelled the subaltern in command, with some fifty odd men, to
+      surrender. This rapid and highly military measure, on the part of the
+      British, completely cut off the post of Chicago, at the head of Lake
+      Michigan, leaving it isolated, on what was then a very remote wilderness.
+      Chicago, Mackinac, and Detroit, were the three grand stations of the
+      Americans on the upper lakes, and here were two of them virtually gone at
+      a blow!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER III.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+              &mdash;Ho! who's here?
+      If anything that's civil, speak; if savage,
+      Take, or lend&mdash;
+
+                               Cymbeline
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Not another syllable did le Bourdon utter to the Chippewa, or the Chippewa
+      to him, in that sitting, touching the important event just communicated.
+      Each carefully avoided manifesting any further interest in the subject,
+      but the smoking continued for some time after the sun had set. As the
+      shades of evening began to gather, the Pottawattamie arose, shook the
+      ashes from his pipe, gave a grunt, and uttered a word or two, by way of
+      announcing his disposition to retire. On this hint, Ben went into the
+      cabin, spread his skins, and intimated to his guests that their beds were
+      ready for them. Few compliments pass among border men on such occasions,
+      and one after another dropped off, until all were stretched on the skins
+      but the master of the place. He remained up two hours later, ruminating on
+      the state of things; when, perceiving that the night was wearing on, he
+      also found a nest, and sought his repose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nothing occurred to disturb the occupants of &ldquo;Castle Meal,&rdquo; as le Bourdon
+      laughingly called his cabin, until the return of day. If there were any
+      bears scenting around the place, as often occurred at night, their
+      instinct must have apprised them that a large reinforcement was present,
+      and caused them to defer their attack to a more favorable opportunity. The
+      first afoot next morning was the bee-hunter himself, who arose and left
+      his cabin just as the earliest streaks of day were appearing in the east.
+      Although dwelling in a wilderness, the &ldquo;openings&rdquo; had not the character of
+      ordinary forests. The air circulates freely beneath their oaks, the sun
+      penetrates in a thousand places, and grass grows, wild but verdant. There
+      was little of the dampness of the virgin woods; and the morning air,
+      though cool, as is ever the case, even in midsummer, in regions still
+      covered with trees, was balmy; and, at that particular spot, it came to
+      the senses of le Bourdon loaded with the sweets of many a wide glade of
+      his favorite white clover. Of course, he had placed his cabin near those
+      spots where the insect he sought most abounded; and a fragrant site it
+      proved to be, in favorable conditions of the atmosphere. Ben had a taste
+      for all the natural advantages of his abode, and was standing in enjoyment
+      of its placid beauties when some one touched his elbow. Turning, quick as
+      thought, he perceived the Chippewa at his side. That young Indian had
+      approached with the noiseless tread of his people, and was now anxious to
+      hold a private communication with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pottawattamie got long ear&mdash;come fudder&mdash;&rdquo; said Pigeonswing;
+      &ldquo;go cook-house&mdash;t'ink we want breakfast.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ben did as desired; and the two were soon side by side at the spring, in
+      the outlet of which they made their ablutions&mdash;the redskin being
+      totally without paint. When this agreeable office was performed, each felt
+      in better condition for a conference.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Elkfoot got belt from Canada fadder,&rdquo; commenced the Chippewa, with a
+      sententious allusion to the British propensity to keep the savages in pay.
+      &ldquo;KNOW he got him KNOW he keep him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you, Pigeonswing&mdash;by your manner of talking I had set you down
+      for a king's Injin, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;TALK so&mdash;no FEEL bit so. MY heart Yankee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And have you not had a belt of wampum sent you, as well as the rest of
+      them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat true&mdash;got him&mdash;don't keep him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! did you dare to send it back?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ain't fool, dough young. Keep him; no keep him. Keep him for Canada
+      fadder; no keep him for Chippewa brave.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What have you then done with your belt?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bury him where nobody find him dis war. No&mdash;Waubkenewh no hole in
+      heart to let king in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pigeonswing, as this young Indian was commonly called in his tribe, in
+      consequence of the rapidity of his movement when employed as a runner, had
+      a much more respectable name, and one that he had fairly earned in some of
+      the forays of his people, but which the commonalty had just the same
+      indisposition to use as the French have to call Marshal Soult the Duc de
+      Dalmatie. The last may be the most honorable title, but it is not that by
+      which he is the best known to his countrymen. Waubkenewh was an
+      appellation, notwithstanding, of which the young Chippewa was justly
+      proud; and he often asserted his right to use it, as sternly as the old
+      hero of Toulouse asserted his right to his duchy, when the Austrians
+      wished to style him &ldquo;le Marechal DUC Soult.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And you are friendly to the Yankees, and an enemy to the red-coats?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Waubkenewh grasped the hand of le Bourdon, and squeezed it firmly. Then he
+      said, warily:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take care&mdash;Elkfoot friend of Blackbird; like to look at Canada belt.
+      Got medal of king, too. Have Yankee scalp, bye'm by. Take care&mdash;must
+      speak low, when Elkfoot near.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I begin to understand you, Chippewa; you wish me to believe that YOU are
+      a friend to America, and that the Pottawatamie is not. If this be so, why
+      have you held the speech that you did last night, and seemed to be on a
+      war-path AGAINST my countrymen?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat good way, eh? Elkfoot den t'ink me HIS friend dat very good in
+      war-time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But is it true, or false, that Mackinaw is taken by the British?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat true too&mdash;gone, and warrior all prisoner. Plenty Winnebago,
+      plenty Pottawatamie, plenty Ottowa, plenty redskin, dere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the Chippewas?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some Ojebway, too&rdquo;&mdash;answered Pigeonswing, after a reluctant pause.
+      &ldquo;Can't all go on same path this war. Hatchets, somehow, got two handle&mdash;one
+      strike Yankee; one strike King George.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what is your business here, and where are you now going if you are
+      friendly to the Americans? I make no secret of my feelings&mdash;I am for
+      my own people, and I wish proof that you are a friend, and not an enemy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Too many question, one time,&rdquo; returned the Chippewa, a little
+      distastefully. &ldquo;No good have so long tongue. Ask one question, answer him&mdash;ask
+      anoder, answer HIM, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, then, what is your business, here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go to Chicago, for gen'ral.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you mean that you bear a message from some American general to the
+      commandant at Chicago?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just so&mdash;dat my business. Guess him, right off; he, he, he!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It is so seldom that an Indian laughs that the bee-hunter was startled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where is the general who has sent you on this errand?&rdquo; he demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He at Detroit&mdash;got whole army dere&mdash;warrior plenty as oak in
+      opening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All this was news to the bee-hunter, and it caused him to muse a moment,
+      ere he proceeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the name of the American general who has sent you on this path?&rdquo;
+       he then demanded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hell,&rdquo; answered the Ojebway, quietly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hell! You mean to give his Indian title, I suppose, to show that he will
+      prove dangerous to the wicked. But how is he called in our own tongue?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hell&mdash;dat he name&mdash;good name for so'ger, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe I understand you, Chippewa&mdash;Hull is the name of the
+      governor of the territory, and you must have mistaken the sound&mdash;'is
+      it not so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hull&mdash;Hell&mdash;don't know&mdash;just same&mdash;one good as
+      t'other.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, one will do as well as the other, if a body only understands you. So
+      Governor Hull sent you here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No gubbernor&mdash;general, tell you. Got big army&mdash;plenty warrior&mdash;eat
+      Breesh up!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, Chippewa, answer me one thing to my likin', or I shall set you down
+      as a man with a forked tongue, though you do call yourself a friend of the
+      Yankees. If you have been sent from Detroit to Chicago, why are you so far
+      north as this? Why are you here, on the banks of the Kalamazoo, when your
+      path ought to lead you more toward the St. Joseph's?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Been to Mackinaw. Gen'ral says, first go to Mackinaw and see wid own eye
+      how garrison do&mdash;den go to Chicago, and tell warrior dere what
+      happen, and how he best manage. Understan' dat, Bourdon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, it all sounds well enough, I will acknowledge. You have been to
+      Mackinaw to look about you, there, and having seen things with your own
+      eyes, have started for Chicago to give your knowledge to the commandant at
+      that place. Now, redskin, have you any proof of what you say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      For some reason that the bee-hunter could not yet fathom, the Chippewa was
+      particularly anxious either to obtain his confidence, or to deceive him.
+      Which he was attempting, was not yet quite apparent; but that one or other
+      was uppermost in his mind, Ben thought was beyond dispute. As soon as the
+      question last named was put, however, the Indian looked cautiously around
+      him, as if to be certain there were no spectators. Then he carefully
+      opened his tobacco-pouch, and extricated from the centre of the cut weed a
+      letter that was rolled into the smallest compass to admit of this mode of
+      concealment, and which was encircled by a thread. The last removed, the
+      letter was unrolled, and its superscription exposed. The address was to
+      &ldquo;Captain&mdash;Heald, U. S. Army, commanding at Chicago.&rdquo; In one corner
+      were the words &ldquo;On public service, by Pigeonswing.&rdquo; All this was submitted
+      to the bee-hunter, who read it with his own eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat good&rdquo;&mdash;asked the Chippewa, pointedly-&ldquo;dat tell trut'-b'lieve HIM?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon grasped the hand of the Indian, and gave it a hearty squeeze.
+      Then he said frankly, and like a man who no longer entertained any doubts:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I put faith in all you say, Chippewa. That is an officer's letter, and I
+      now see that you are on the right side. You play'd so deep a game, at
+      first, hows'ever, that I didn't know exactly what to make of you. Now, as
+      for the Pottawattamie&mdash;do you set him down as friend or foe, in
+      reality?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Enemy&mdash;take your scalp&mdash;take my scalp, in minute only can't
+      catch him. He got belt from Montreal, and it look handsome in his eye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which way d'ye think he's travelling? As I understood you, he and you
+      fell into the same path within a mile of this very spot. Was the meeting
+      altogether friendly?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; friendly&mdash;but ask too many question&mdash;too much squaw&mdash;ask
+      one question, den stop for answer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true&mdash;I will remember that an Indian likes to do one thing at a
+      time. Which way, then, do you think he's travelling?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't know&mdash;on'y guess&mdash;guess he on path to Blackbird.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And where is Blackbird, and what is he about?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Two question, dat!&rdquo; returned the Chippewa, smiling, and holding up two of
+      his fingers, at the same time, by way of rebuke. &ldquo;Blackbird on war-path;&mdash;when
+      warrior on dat path, he take scalp if can get him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But where is his enemy? There are no whites in this part of the country,
+      but here and there a trader, or a trapper, or a bee-hunter, or a
+      VOYAGEUR.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take HIS scalp&mdash;all scalp good, in war time. An't partic'lar, down
+      at Montreal. What you call garrison at Chicago?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Blackbird, you then think, may be moving upon Chicago. In that case,
+      Chippewa, you should outrun this Pottawatamie, and reach the post in time
+      to let its men know the danger.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Start, as soon as eat breakfast. Can't go straight, nudder, or
+      Pottawatamie see print of moccasin. Must t'row him off trail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very true; but I'll engage you're cunning enough to do that twice over,
+      should it be necessary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then Gershom Waring came out of the cabin, gaping like a hound, and
+      stretching his arms, as if fairly wearied with sleep. At the sight of this
+      man the Indian made a gesture of caution, saying, however, in an
+      undertone:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How is heart&mdash;Yankee or Breesh&mdash;love Montreal, eh? Pretty good
+      scalp! Love King George, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I rather think not, but am not certain. He is a poor pale-face, however,
+      and it's of no great account how he stands. His scalp would hardly be
+      worth the taking, whether by English or American.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sell, down at Montreal&mdash;better look out for Pottawatamie. Don't like
+      that Injin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We'll be on our guard against him; and there he comes, looking as if his
+      breakfast would be welcome, and as if he was already thinking of a start.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon had been busy with his pots, during the whole time this
+      discourse was going on, and had warmed up a sufficiency of food to supply
+      the wants of all his guests. In a few minutes each was busy quietly eating
+      his morning's meal, Gershom having taken his bitters aside, and, as he
+      fancied, unobserved. This was not so much owing to niggardliness, as to a
+      distrust of his having a sufficient supply of the liquor, that long
+      indulgence had made, in a measure, necessary to him, to last until he
+      could get back to the barrels that were still to be found in his cabin,
+      down on the shore of the lake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the breakfast little was said, conversation forming no material
+      part of the entertainment, at the meals of any but the cultivated. When
+      each had risen, however, and by certain preliminary arrangements it was
+      obvious that the two Indians intended to depart, the Pottawatamie advanced
+      to le Bourdon, and thrust out a hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thankee&rdquo;&mdash;he said, in the brief way in which he clipped his English&mdash;&ldquo;good
+      supper&mdash;good sleep&mdash;good breakfast. Now go. Thankee&mdash;when
+      any friend come to Pottawatamie village, good wigwam dere, and no door.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you, Elksfoot&mdash;and should you pass this way, ag'in, soon, I
+      hope you'll just step into this chiente and help yourself it I should
+      happen to be off on a hunt. Good luck to you, and a happy sight of home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Pottawatamie then turned and thrust out a hand to each of the others,
+      who met his offered leave-taking with apparent friendship. The bee-hunter
+      observed that neither of the Indians said anything to the other touching
+      the path he was about to travel, but that each seemed ready to pursue his
+      own way as if entirely independent, and without the expectation of having
+      a companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Elksfoot left the spot the first. After completing his adieus, the
+      Pottawattamie threw his rifle into the hollow of his arm, felt at his
+      belt, as if to settle it into its place, made some little disposition of
+      his light summer covering, and moved off in a southwesterly direction,
+      passing through the open glades, and almost equally unobstructed groves,
+      as steady in his movements as if led by an instinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There he goes, on a bee-line,&rdquo; said le Bourdon, as the straight form of
+      the old savage disappeared at length, behind a thicket of trees. &ldquo;On a
+      bee-line for the St. Joseph's river, where he will shortly be, among
+      friends and neighbors, I do not doubt. What, Chippewa! are you in motion
+      too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Must go, now,&rdquo; returned Pigeonswing, in a friendly way. &ldquo;Bye'm by come
+      back and eat more honey-bring sweet news, hope-no Canada here,&rdquo; placing a
+      finger on his heart-&ldquo;all Yankee.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God be with you, Chippewa-God be with you. We shall have a stirring
+      summer of it, and I expect to hear of your name in the wars, as of a chief
+      who knows no fear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pigeonswing waved his hand, cast a glance, half friendly half
+      contemptuously, at Whiskey Centre, and glided away. The two who remained
+      standing near the smouldering fire remarked that the direction taken by
+      the Chippewa was toward the lake, and nearly at right angles to that taken
+      by the Pottawattamie. They also fancied that the movement of the former
+      was about half as fast again as that of the latter. In less than three
+      minutes the young Indian was concealed in the &ldquo;openings,&rdquo; though he had to
+      cross a glade of considerable width in order to reach them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter was now alone with the only one of his guests who was of
+      the color and race to which he himself belonged. Of the three, he was the
+      visitor he least respected; but the dues of hospitality are usually sacred
+      in a wilderness, and among savages, so that he could do nothing to get rid
+      of him. As Gershom manifested no intention to quit the place, le Bourdon
+      set about the business of the hour, with as much method and coolness as if
+      the other had not been present. The first thing was to bring home the
+      honey discovered on the previous day; a task of no light labor, the
+      distance it was to be transported being so considerable, and the quantity
+      so large. But our bee-hunter was not without the means of accomplishing
+      such an object, and he now busied himself in getting ready. As Gershom
+      volunteered his assistance, together they toiled in apparent amity and
+      confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Kalamazoo is a crooked stream; and it wound from the spot where le
+      Bourdon had built his cabin, to a point within a hundred yards of the
+      fallen tree in which the bees had constructed their hive. As a matter of
+      course, Ben profited by this circumstance to carry his canoe to the latter
+      place, with a view to render it serviceable in transporting the honey.
+      First securing everything in and around the chiente, he and Gershom
+      embarked, taking with them no less than four pieces of fire-arms; one of
+      which was, to use the language of the west, a double-barrelled &ldquo;shot-gun.&rdquo;
+       Before quitting the place, however, the bee-hunter went to a large kennel
+      made of logs, and let out a mastiff of great power and size. Between this
+      dog and himself there existed the best possible intelligence; the master
+      having paid many visits to the prisoner since his return, feeding and
+      caressing him. Glad, indeed, was this fine animal to be released, bounding
+      back and forth, and leaping about le Bourdon in a way to manifest his
+      delight. He had been cared for in his kennel, and well cared for, too; but
+      there is no substitute for liberty, whether in man or beast, individuals
+      or communities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When all Was ready, le Bourdon and Gershom got into the canoe, whither the
+      former now called his dog, using the name of &ldquo;Hive,&rdquo; an appellation that
+      was doubtless derived from his own pursuit. As soon as the mastiff leaped
+      into the canoe, Ben shoved off, and the light craft was pushed up the
+      stream by himself and Gershom without much difficulty, and with
+      considerable rapidity. But little driftwood choked the channel; and, after
+      fifteen minutes of moderate labor, the two men came near to the point of
+      low wooded land in which the bee-tree had stood. As they drew nigh,
+      certain signs of uneasiness in the dog attracted his master's attention,
+      and he pointed them out to Gershom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's game in the wind,&rdquo; answered Whiskey Centre, who had a good
+      knowledge of most of the craft of border life, notwithstanding his
+      ungovernable propensity to drink, and who, by nature, was both shrewd and
+      resolute. &ldquo;I shouldn't wonder&rdquo;&mdash;a common expression of his class&mdash;&ldquo;if
+      we found bears prowling about that honey!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such things have happened in my time,&rdquo; answered the bee-hunter, &ldquo;and
+      twice in my experience I've been driven from the field, and forced to let
+      the devils get my 'arnin's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That was when you had no comrade, stranger&rdquo; returned Gershom, raising a
+      rifle, and carefully examining its flint and its priming. &ldquo;It will be a
+      large family on 'em that drives us from that tree; for my mind is made up
+      to give Doll and Blossom a taste of the sweets.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      If this was said imprudently, as respects ownership in the prize, it was
+      said heartily, so far as spirit and determination were concerned. It
+      proved that Whiskey Centre had points about him which, if not absolutely
+      redeeming, served in some measure to lessen the disgust which one might
+      other-wise have felt for his character. The bee-hunter knew that there was
+      a species of hardihood that belonged to border men as the fruits of their
+      habits, and, apparently, he had all necessary confidence in Gershom's
+      disposition to sustain him, should there be occasion for a conflict with
+      his old enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first measure of the bee-hunter, after landing and securing his boat,
+      was to quiet Hive. The animal being under excellent command, this was soon
+      done; the mastiff maintaining the position assigned him in the rear,
+      though evidently impatient to be let loose. Had not le Bourdon known the
+      precise position of the fallen tree, and through that the probable
+      position of his enemies, he would have placed the mastiff in advance, as a
+      pioneer or scout; but he deemed it necessary, under the actual
+      circumstances, to hold him as a reserve, or a force to be directed whither
+      occasion might require. With this arrangement, then, le Bourdon and
+      Whiskey Centre advanced, side by side, each carrying two pieces, from the
+      margin of the river toward the open land that commanded a view of the
+      tree. On reaching the desired point, a halt was called, in order to
+      reconnoitre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader will remember that the bee-elm had stood on the edge of a dense
+      thicket, or swamp, in which the trees grew to a size several times
+      exceeding those of the oaks in the openings; and le Bourdon had caused it
+      to fall upon the open ground, in order to work at the honey with greater
+      ease to himself. Consequently, the fragments lay in full view of the spot
+      where the halt was made. A little to Gershom's surprise, Ben now produced
+      his spy-glass, which he levelled with much earnestness toward the tree.
+      The bee-hunter, however, well knew his business, and was examining into
+      the state of the insects whom he had so violently invaded the night
+      before. The air was filled with them, flying above and around the tree; a
+      perfect cloud of the little creatures hovering directly over the hole, as
+      if to guard its treasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Waal,&rdquo; said Gershom, in his drawling way, when le Bourdon had taken a
+      long look with the glass, &ldquo;I don't see much use in spy-glassin' in that
+      fashion. Spy-glassin' may do out on the lake, if a body has only the tools
+      to do it with; but here, in the openin's, nature's eyes is about as good
+      as them a body buys in the stores.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Take a look at them bees, and see what a fret they're in,&rdquo; returned Ben,
+      handing the glass to his companion. &ldquo;As long as I've been in the business,
+      I've never seen a colony in such a fever. Commonly, a few hours after the
+      bees find that their tree is down, and their plans broken into, they give
+      it up, and swarm; looking for a new hive, and setting about the making
+      more food for the next winter; but here are all the bees yet, buzzing
+      above the hole, as if they meant to hold out for a siege.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's an onaccountable grist on 'em&rdquo;&mdash;Gershom was never very
+      particular in his figures of speech, usually terming anything in
+      quantities a'grist&rdquo;; and meaning in the present instance by
+      &ldquo;onaccountable,&rdquo; a number not to be counted&mdash;&ldquo;an onaccountable grist
+      on 'em, I can tell you, and if you mean to charge upon sich enemies, you
+      must look out for somebody besides Whiskey Centre for your vanguard. What
+      in natur' has got into the critters! They can't expect to set that tree on
+      its legs ag'in!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you see a flight of them just in the edge of the for-est&mdash;here,
+      more to the southward?&rdquo; demanded le Bourdon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sure enough! There is a lot on 'em there, too, and they seem to be comin'
+      and goin' to the tree, like folks&rdquo;&mdash;Gershom WOULD put his noun of
+      multitude into the plural, Nova-Anglice&mdash;&ldquo;comin' and goin' like folks
+      carryin' water to a fire. A body would think, by the stir among 'em, them
+      critters' barrel was empty!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The bears are there,&rdquo; coolly returned the bee-hunter; &ldquo;I've seen such
+      movements before, and know how to account for them. The bears are in the
+      thicket, but don't like to come out in the face of such a colony. I have
+      heard of bears being chased miles by bees, when their anger was up!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mortality! They have a good deal of dander (dandruff) for sich little
+      vipers! But what are WE to do, Bourdon? for Doll and Blossom MUST taste
+      that honey! Half's mine, you know, and I don't like to give it up.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter smiled at the coolness with which Gershom assigned to
+      himself so large a portion of his property; though he did not think it
+      worth his while, just then, to &ldquo;demur to his declaration,&rdquo; as the lawyers
+      might have it. There was a sort of border rule, which gave all present
+      equal shares in any forest captures; just as vessels in sight come in for
+      prize-money, taken in time of war by public cruisers. At any rate, the
+      honey of a single tree was not of sufficient value to induce a serious
+      quarrel about it. If there should be any extra trouble or danger in
+      securing the present prize, every craft in view might, fairly enough, come
+      in for its share.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Doll shall not be forgotten, if we can only house our honey,&rdquo; answered
+      the bee-hunter; &ldquo;nor Blossom, neither. I've a fancy, already, for that
+      blossom of the wilderness, and shall do all I can to make myself agreeable
+      to her. A man cannot approach a maiden with anything sweeter than honey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Some gals like sugar'd words better; but, let me tell you one thing,
+      STRANger-&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You have eaten bread and salt with me, Whiskey, and both are scarce
+      articles in a wilderness; and you've slept under my roof: is it not almost
+      time to call me something else than stranger?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Bourdon, if you prefer that name; though STRANger is a name I like,
+      it has sich an up and off sound to it. When a man calls all he sees
+      STRANgers, it's a sign he don't let the grass grow in the road for want of
+      movin'; and a movin' man for me, any day, before your stationaries. I was
+      born on the sea-shore, in the Bay State; and here I am, up among the
+      fresh-water lakes, as much nat'ralized as any muskelunge that was ever
+      cotch'd in Huron, or about Mackinaw. If I can believe my eyes, Bourdon,
+      there is the muzzle of a bear to be seen, jist under that heavy hemlock&mdash;here,
+      where the bees seem thickest!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No doubt in the world,&rdquo; answered le Bourdon, coolly; though he had taken
+      the precaution to look to the priming of each of his pieces, as if he
+      expected there would soon be occasion to use them. &ldquo;But what was that you
+      were about to say concernin' Blossom? It would not be civil to the young
+      woman to overlook her, on account of a bear or two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You take it easy, STRANger&mdash;Bourdon, I should say&mdash;you take it
+      easy! What I was about to say was this: that the whull lake country, and
+      that's a wide stretch to foot it over, I know; but, big as it is, the
+      whull lake country don't contain Blossom's equal. I'm her brother, and
+      perhaps ought to be a little modest in sich matters; but I an't a bit, and
+      let out jist what I think. Blossom's a di'mond, if there be di'monds on
+      'arth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And yonder is a bear, if there be bears on earth!&rdquo; exclaimed le Bourdon,
+      who was not a little amused with Gershom's account of his family, but who
+      saw that the moment was now arrived when it would be necessary to
+      substitute deeds for words. &ldquo;There they come, in a drove, and they seem in
+      earnest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was true enough. No less than eight bears, half of which, however,
+      were quite young, came tumbling over the logs, and bounding up toward the
+      fallen tree, as if charging the citadel of the bees by preconcert. Their
+      appearance was the signal for a general rally of the insects, and by the
+      time the foremost of the clumsy animals had reached the tree, the air
+      above and around him was absolutely darkened by the cloud of bees that was
+      collected to defend their treasures. Bruin trusted too much to the
+      thickness of his hide and to the defences with which he was provided by
+      nature, besides being too much incited by the love of honey, to regard the
+      little heroes, but thrust his nose in at the hole, doubtless hoping to
+      plunge it at once into the midst of a mass of the sweets. A growl, a start
+      backward, and a flourishing of the fore-paws, with sundry bites in the
+      air, at once announced that he had met with greater resistance than he had
+      anticipated. In a minute, all the bears were on their hind-legs, beating
+      the air with their fore-paws, and nipping right and left with their jaws,
+      in vigorous combat with their almost invisible foes. Instinct supplied the
+      place of science, and spite of the hides and the long hair that covered
+      them, the bees found the means of darting their stings into unprotected
+      places, until the quadrupeds were fairly driven to rolling about on the
+      grass in order to crush their assailants. This last process had some
+      effect, a great many bees being destroyed by the energetic rollings and
+      tumblings of the bears; but, as in the tide of battle, the places of those
+      who fell were immediately supplied by fresh assailants, until numbers
+      seemed likely to prevail over power, if not over discipline. At this
+      critical instant, when the bears seemed fatigued with their nearly frantic
+      saltations, and violent blows upon nothing, le Bourdon deemed it wise to
+      bring his forces into the combat. Gershom having been apprised of the
+      plan, both fired at the same instant. Each ball took effect; one killing
+      the largest of all the bears, dead on the spot, while the other inflicted
+      a grievous wound on a second. This success was immediately followed by a
+      second discharge, wounding two more of the enemy, while Ben held the
+      second barrel of his &ldquo;shot-gun&rdquo; in reserve. While the hurt animals were
+      hobbling off, the men reloaded their pieces; and by the time the last were
+      ready to advance on the enemy, the ground was cleared of bears and bees
+      alike, only two of the former remaining, of which one was already dead and
+      the other dying. As for the bees, they followed their retreating enemies
+      in a body, making a mistake that sometimes happens to still more
+      intelligent beings; that of attributing to themselves, and their own
+      prowess, a success that had been gained by others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter and his friend now set themselves at work to provide a
+      reception for the insects, the return of which might shortly be expected.
+      The former lighted a fire, being always provided with the means, while
+      Gershom brought dry wood. In less than five minutes a bright blaze was
+      gleaming upward, and when the bees returned, as most of them soon did,
+      they found this new enemy intrenched, as it might be, behind walls of
+      flame. Thousands of the little creatures perished by means of this new
+      invention of man, and the rest soon after were led away by their chiefs to
+      seek some new deposit for the fruits of their industry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+             The sad butterfly,
+        Waving his lackered wings, darts quickly on,
+        And, by his free flight, counsels us to speed
+        For better lodgings, and a scene more sweet,
+        Than these dear borders offer us to-night.
+                                    SIMMS.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was noon before Ben and Gershom dared to commence the process of
+      cutting and splitting the tree, in order to obtain the honey. Until then,
+      the bees lingered around their fallen hive, and it would have been
+      dangerous to venture beyond the smoke and heat, in order to accomplish the
+      task. It is true, le Bourdon possessed several secrets, of more or less
+      virtue, to drive off the bees when disposed to assault him, but no one
+      that was as certain as a good fire, backed by a dense column of vapor.
+      Various plants are thought to be so offensive to the insects, that they
+      avoid even their odor; and the bee-hunter had faith in one or two of them;
+      but none of the right sort happened now to be near, and he was obliged to
+      trust, first to a powerful heat, and next to the vapor of damp wood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As there were axes, and wedges, and a beetle in the canoe, and Gershom was
+      as expert with these implements as a master of fencing is with his foil,
+      to say nothing of the skill of le Bourdon, the tree was soon laid open,
+      and its ample stores of sweets exposed. In the course of the afternoon the
+      honey was deposited in kegs, the kegs were transferred to the canoe, and
+      the whole deposited in the chiente. The day had been one of toil, and when
+      our two bordermen sat down near the spring, to take their evening meal,
+      each felt glad that his work was done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe this must be the last hive I line, this summer,&rdquo; said le
+      Bourdon, while eating his supper. &ldquo;My luck has been good so far, but in
+      troublesome times one had better not be too far from home. I am surprised,
+      Waring, that you have ventured so far from your family, while the tidings
+      are so gloomy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's partly because you don't know ME, and partly because you don't
+      know DOLLY. As for leaving hum, with anybody to kear for it, I should like
+      to know who is more to the purpose than Dolly Waring? I haven't no idee
+      that even bees would dare get upon HER! If they did, they'd soon get the
+      worst on't Her tongue is all-powerful, to say nawthin' of her arms; and if
+      the so'gers can only handle their muskets as she can handle a broom, there
+      is no need of new regiments to carry on this war.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, nothing could be more false than this character; but a drunkard has
+      little regard to what he says.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad your garrison is so strong,&rdquo; answered the beehunter,
+      thoughtfully; &ldquo;but mine is too weak to stay any longer, out here in the
+      openings. Whiskey Centre, I intend to break up, and return to the
+      settlement, before the red-skins break loose in earnest. If you will stay
+      and lend me a hand to embark the honey and stores, and help to carry the
+      canoe down the river, you shall be well paid for your trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Waal, I'd about as lief do that, as do anything else. Good jobs is
+      scarce, out here in the wilderness, and when a body lights of one, he
+      ought to profit by it. I come up here thinkin' to meet you, for I heer'n
+      tell from a voyager that you was a-beeing it, out in the openin's, and
+      there's nawthin' in natur' that Dolly takes to with a greater relish than
+      good wild honey. 'Try whiskey,' I've told her a thousand times, 'and
+      you'll soon get to like THAT better than all the rest of creation'; but
+      not a drop could I ever get her, or Blossom, to swallow. It's true, that
+      leaves so much the more for me; but I'm a companionable crittur, and don't
+      think I've drunk as much as I want, unless I take it society-like. That's
+      one reason I've taken so mightily to you, Bourdon; you're not much at a
+      pull, but you an't downright afeared of a jug, neither.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter was glad to hear that all the family had not this man's
+      vice, for he now plainly foresaw that the accidents of his position must
+      bring him and these strangers much in contact, for some weeks, at least.
+      Le Bourdon, though not absolutely &ldquo;afraid of a jug,&rdquo; as Whiskey Centre had
+      expressed it, was decidedly a temperate man; drinking but seldom, and
+      never to excess. He too well knew the hazards by which he was surrounded,
+      to indulge in this way, even had he the taste for it; but he had no taste
+      that way, one small jug of brandy forming his supply for a whole season.
+      In these days of exaggeration in all things, exaggeration in politics, in
+      religion, in temperance, in virtue, and even in education, by putting &ldquo;new
+      wine into old bottles,&rdquo; that one little jug might have sufficed to give
+      him a bad name; but five-and-thirty years ago men had more real
+      independence than they now possess, and were not as much afraid of that
+      croquemitaine, public opinion, as they are to-day. To be sure, it was
+      little to le Bourdon's taste to make a companion of such a person as
+      Whiskey Centre; but there was no choice. The man was an utter stranger to
+      him; and the only means he possessed of making sure that he did not carry
+      off the property that lay so much at his mercy, was by keeping near him.
+      With many men, the bee-hunter would have been uneasy at being compelled to
+      remain alone with them in the woods; for cases in which one had murdered
+      another, in order to get possession of the goods, in these remote regions,
+      were talked of, among the other rumors of the borders; but Gershom had
+      that in his air and manner that rendered Ben confident his delinquencies,
+      at the most, would scarcely reach bloodshed. Pilfer he might; but murder
+      was a crime which he did not appear at all likely to commit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After supping in company, our two adventurers secured everything; and,
+      retiring to the chiente, they went to sleep. No material disturbance
+      occurred, but the night passed in tranquillity; the bee-hunter merely
+      experiencing some slight interruption to his slumbers, from the unusual
+      circumstance of having a companion. One as long accustomed to be alone as
+      himself would naturally submit to some such sensation, our habits getting
+      so completely the mastery as often to supplant even nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following morning the bee-hunter commenced his preparations for a
+      change of residence. Had he not been discovered, it is probable that the
+      news received from the Chippewa would not have induced him to abandon his
+      present position, so early in the season; but he thought the risk of
+      remaining was too great under all the circumstances. The Pottawattamie, in
+      particular, was a subject of great distrust to him, and he believed it
+      highly possible some of that old chief's tribe might be after his scalp
+      ere many suns had risen. Gershom acquiesced in these opinions, and, as
+      soon as his brain was less under the influence of liquor than was common
+      with him, he appeared to be quite happy in having it in his power to form
+      a species of alliance, offensive and defensive, with a man of his own
+      color and origin. Great harmony now prevailed between the two, Gershom
+      improving vastly in all the better qualities, the instant his intellect
+      and feelings got to be a little released from the thraldom of the jug. His
+      own immediate store of whiskey was quite exhausted, and le Bourdon kept
+      the place in which his own small stock of brandy was secured a profound
+      secret. These glimmerings of returning intellect, and of reviving
+      principles, are by no means unusual with the sot, thus proving that &ldquo;so
+      long as there is life, there is hope,&rdquo; for the moral, as well as for the
+      physical being. What was a little remarkable, Gershom grew less vulgar,
+      even in his dialect, as he grew more sober, showing that in all respects
+      he was becoming a greatly improved person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The men were several hours in loading the canoe, not only all the stores
+      and ammunition, but all the honey being transferred to it. The bee-hunter
+      had managed to conceal his jug of brandy, reduced by this time to little
+      more than a quart, within an empty powder-keg, into which he had crammed a
+      beaver-skin or two, that he had taken, as it might be incidentally, in the
+      course of his rambles. At length everything was removed and stowed in its
+      proper place, on board the capacious canoe, and Gershom expected an
+      announcement on the part of Ben of his readiness to embark. But there
+      still remained one duty to perform. The beehunter had killed a buck only
+      the day before the opening of our narrative, and shouldering a quarter, he
+      had left the remainder of the animal suspended from the branches of a
+      tree, near the place where it had been shot and cleaned. As venison might
+      be needed before they could reach the mouth of the river, Ben deemed it
+      advisable that he and Gershom should go and bring in the remainder of the
+      carcass. The men started on this undertaking accordingly, leaving the
+      canoe about two in the afternoon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The distance between the spot where the deer had been killed, and the
+      chiente, was about three miles; which was the reason why the bee-hunter
+      had not brought home the entire animal the day he killed it; the American
+      woodsman often carrying his game great distances in preference to leaving
+      it any length of time in the forest. In the latter case there is always
+      danger from beasts of prey, which are drawn from afar by the scent of
+      blood. Le Bourdon thought it possible they might now encounter wolves;
+      though he had left the carcass of the deer so suspended as to place it
+      beyond the reach of most of the animals of the wilderness. Each of the
+      men, however, carried a rifle: and Hive was allowed to accompany them, by
+      an act of grace on the part of his master.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the first half-hour, nothing occurred out of the usual course of
+      events. The bee-hunter had been conversing freely with his companion, who,
+      he rejoiced to find, manifested far more common sense, not to say good
+      sense, than he had previously shown; and from whom he was deriving
+      information touching the number of vessels, and the other movements on the
+      lakes, that he fancied might be of use to himself when he started for
+      Detroit. While thus engaged, and when distant only a hundred rods from the
+      place where he had left the venison, le Bourdon was suddenly struck with
+      the movements of the dog. Instead of doubling on his own tracks, and
+      scenting right and left, as was the animal's wont, he was now advancing
+      cautiously, with his head low, seemingly feeling his way with his nose, as
+      if there was a strong taint in the wind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartain as my name is Gershom,&rdquo; exclaimed Waring, just after he and Ben
+      had come to a halt, in order to look around them&mdash;&ldquo;yonder is an
+      Injin! The crittur' is seated at the foot of the large oak&mdash;hereaway,
+      more to the right of the dog, and Hive has struck his scent. The fellow is
+      asleep, with his rifle across his lap, and can't have much dread of wolves
+      or bears!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see him,&rdquo; answered le Bourdon, &ldquo;and am as much surprised as grieved to
+      find him there. It is a little remarkable that I should have so many
+      visitors, just at this time, on my hunting-ground, when I never had any at
+      all before yesterday. It gives a body an uncomfortable feeling, Waring, to
+      live so much in a crowd! Well, well&mdash;I'm about to move, and it will
+      matter little twenty-four hours hence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The chap's a Winnebago by his paint,&rdquo; added Gershom&mdash;&ldquo;but let's go
+      up and give him a call.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter assented to this proposal, remarking, as they moved
+      forward, that he did not think the stranger of the tribe just named;
+      though he admitted that the use of paint was so general and loose among
+      these warriors, as to render it difficult to decide.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The crittur' sleeps soundly!&rdquo; exclaimed Gershom, stopping within ten
+      yards of the Indian, to take another look at him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He'll never awake,&rdquo; put in the bee-hunter, solemnly&mdash;&ldquo;the man is
+      dead. See; there is blood on the side of his head, and a rifle-bullet has
+      left its hole there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Even while speaking, the bee-hunter advanced, and raising a sort of shawl,
+      that once had been used as an ornament, and which had last been thrown
+      carelessly over the head of its late owner, he exposed the well-known
+      features of Elks-foot, the Pottawattamie, who had left them little more
+      than twenty-four hours before! The warrior had been shot by a rifle-bullet
+      directly through the temple, and had been scalped. The powder had been
+      taken from his horn, and the bullets from his pouch; but, beyond this, he
+      had not been plundered. The body was carefully placed against a tree, in a
+      sitting attitude, the rifle was laid across its legs, and there it had
+      been left, in the centre of the openings, to become food for beasts of
+      prey, and to have its bones bleached by the snows and the rains!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter shuddered, as he gazed at this fearful memorial of the
+      violence against which even a wilderness could afford no sufficient
+      protection. That Pigeonswing had slain his late fellow-guest, le Bourdon
+      had no doubt, and he sickened at the thought. Although he had himself
+      dreaded a good deal from the hostility of the Pottawattamie, he could have
+      wished this deed undone. That there was a jealous distrust of each other
+      between the two Indians had been sufficiently apparent; but the bee-hunter
+      could not have imagined that it would so soon lead to results as terrible
+      as these!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After examining the body, and noting the state of things around it, the
+      men proceeded, deeply impressed with the necessity, not only of their
+      speedy removal, but of their standing by each other in that remote region,
+      now that violence had so clearly broken out among the tribes. The
+      bee-hunter had taken a strong liking to the Chippewa, and he regretted so
+      much the more to think that he had done this deed. It was true, that such
+      a state of things might exist as to justify an Indian warrior, agreeably
+      to his own notions, in taking the life of any one of a hostile tribe; but
+      le Bourdon wished it had been otherwise. A man of gentle and peaceable
+      disposition himself, though of a profoundly enthusiastic temperament in
+      his own peculiar way, he had ever avoided those scenes of disorder and
+      bloodshed, which are of so frequent occurrence in the forest and on the
+      prairies; and this was actually the first instance in which he had ever
+      beheld a human body that had fallen by human hands. Gershom had seen more
+      of the peculiar life of the frontiers than his companion, in consequence
+      of having lived so closely in contact with the &ldquo;fire-water&rdquo;; but even HE
+      was greatly shocked with the suddenness and nature of the Pottawattamie's
+      end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No attempt was made to bury the remains of Elksfoot, inasmuch as our
+      adventurers had no tools fit for such a purpose, and any merely
+      superficial interment would have been a sort of invitation to the wolves
+      to dig the body up again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let him lean ag'in' the tree,&rdquo; said Waring, as they moved on toward the
+      spot where the carcass of the deer was left, &ldquo;and I'll engage nothin'
+      touches him. There's that about the face of man, Bourdon, that skears the
+      beasts; and if a body can only muster courage to stare them full in the
+      eye, one single human can drive before him a whull pack of wolves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I've heard as much,&rdquo; returned the bee-hunter, &ldquo;but should not like to be
+      the 'human' to try the experiment That the face of man may have terrors
+      for a beast, I think likely; but hunger would prove more than a match for
+      such fear. Yonder is our venison, Waring; safe where I left it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The carcass of the deer was divided, and each man shouldering his burden,
+      the two returned to the river, taking care to avoid the path that led by
+      the body of the dead Indian. As both labored with much earnestness,
+      everything was soon ready, and the canoe speedily left the shore. The
+      Kalamazoo is not in general a swift and turbulent stream, though it has a
+      sufficient current to carry away its waters without any appearance of
+      sluggishness. Of course, this character is not uniform, reaches occurring
+      in which the placid water is barely seen to move; and others, again, are
+      found, in which something like rapids, and even falls, appear. But on the
+      whole, and more especially in the part of the stream where it was, the
+      canoe had little to disturb it, as it glided easily down, impelled by a
+      light stroke of the paddle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter did not abandon his station without regret. He had chosen a
+      most agreeable site for his chiente, consulting air, shade, water,
+      verdure, and groves, as well as the chances of obtaining honey. In his
+      regular pursuit he had been unusually fortunate; and the little pile of
+      kegs in the centre of his canoe was certainly a grateful sight to his
+      eyes. The honey gathered this season, moreover, had proved to be of an
+      unusually delicious flavor, affording the promise of high prices and ready
+      sales. Still, the bee-hunter left the place with profound regret. He loved
+      his calling; he loved solitude to a morbid degree, perhaps; and he loved
+      the gentle excitement that naturally attended his &ldquo;bee-lining,&rdquo; his
+      discoveries, and his gains. Of all the pursuits that are more or less
+      dependent on the chances of the hunt and the field, that of the bee-hunter
+      is of the most quiet and placid enjoyment. He has the stirring motives of
+      uncertainty and doubt, without the disturbing qualities of bustle and
+      fatigue; and, while his exercise is sufficient for health, and for the
+      pleasures of the open air, it is seldom of a nature to weary or unnerve.
+      Then the study of the little animal that is to be watched, and, if the
+      reader will, plundered, is not without a charm for those who delight in
+      looking into the wonderful arcana of nature. So great was the interest
+      that le Bourdon sometimes felt in his little companions, that, on three
+      several occasions that very summer, he had spared hives after having found
+      them, because he had ascertained that they were composed of young bees,
+      and had not yet got sufficiently colonized to render a new swarming more
+      than a passing accident. With all this kindness of feeling toward his
+      victims, Boden had nothing of the transcendental folly that usually
+      accompanies the sentimentalism of the exaggerated, but his feelings and
+      impulses were simple and direct, though so often gentle and humane. He
+      knew that the bee, like all the other inferior animals of creation, was
+      placed at the disposition of man, and did not scruple to profit by the
+      power thus beneficently bestowed, though he exercised it gently, and with
+      a proper discrimination between its use and its abuse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Neither of the men toiled much, as the canoe floated down the stream. Very
+      slight impulses served to give their buoyant craft a reasonably swift
+      motion, and the current itself was a material assistant. These
+      circumstances gave an opportunity for conversation, as the canoe glided
+      onward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A'ter all,&rdquo; suddenly exclaimed Waring, who had been examining the pile of
+      kegs for some time in silence&mdash;&ldquo;a'ter all, Bourdon, your trade is an
+      oncommon one! A most extr'ornary and oncommon callin'!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More so, think you, Gershom, than swallowing whiskey, morning, noon, and
+      night?&rdquo; answered the bee-hunter, with a quiet smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, but that's not a reg'lar callin'; only a likin'! Now a man may have
+      a likin' to a hundred things in which he don't deal. I set nothin' down as
+      a business, which a man don't live by.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you're right, Waring. More die by whiskey than live by whiskey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whiskey Centre seemed struck with this remark, which was introduced so
+      aptly, and was uttered so quietly. He gazed earnestly at his companion for
+      near a minute, ere he attempted to resume the discourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Blossom has often said as much as this,&rdquo; he then slowly rejoined; &ldquo;and
+      even Dolly has prophesized the same.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter observed that an impression had been made, and he thought
+      it wisest to let the reproof already administered produce its effect,
+      without endeavoring to add to its power. Waring sat with his chin on his
+      breast, in deep thought, while his companion, for the first time since
+      they had met, examined the features and aspect of the man. At first sight,
+      Whiskey Centre certainly offered little that was inviting; but a closer
+      study of his countenance showed that he had the remains of a singularly
+      handsome man. Vulgar as were his forms of speech, coarse and forbidding as
+      his face had become, through the indulgence which was his bane, there were
+      still traces of this truth. His complexion had once been fair almost to
+      effeminacy, his cheeks ruddy with health, and his blue eye bright and full
+      of hope. His hair was light; and all these peculiarities strongly denoted
+      his Saxon origin. It was not so much Anglo-Saxon as Americo-Saxon, that
+      was to be seen in the physical outlines and hues of this nearly
+      self-destroyed being. The heaviness of feature, the ponderousness of limb
+      and movement, had all long disappeared from his race, most probably under
+      the influence of climate, and his nose was prominent and graceful in
+      outline, while his mouth and chin might have passed for having been under
+      the chisel of some distinguished sculptor. It was, in truth, painful to
+      examine that face, steeped as it was in liquor, and fast losing the
+      impress left by nature. As yet, the body retained most of its power, the
+      enemy having insidiously entered the citadel, rather than having actually
+      subdued it. The bee-hunter sighed as he gazed at his moody companion, and
+      wondered whether Blossom had aught of this marvellous comeliness of
+      countenance, without its revolting accompaniments.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All that afternoon, and the whole of the night that succeeded, did the
+      canoe float downward with the current. Occasionally, some slight obstacle
+      to its progress would present itself; but, on the whole, its advance was
+      steady and certain. As the river necessarily followed the formation of the
+      land, it was tortuous and irregular in its course, though its general
+      direction was toward the northwest, or west a little northerly. The
+      river-bottoms being much more heavily &ldquo;timbered&rdquo;&mdash;to use a woodsman
+      term&mdash;than the higher grounds, there was little of the park-like
+      &ldquo;openings&rdquo; on its immediate banks, though distant glimpses were had of
+      many a glade and of many a charming grove.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the canoe moved toward its point of destination, the conversation did
+      not lag between the bee-hunter and his companion. Each gave the other a
+      sort of history of his life; for, now that the jug was exhausted, Gershom
+      could talk not only rationally, but with clearness and force. Vulgar he
+      was, and, as such, uninviting and often repulsive; still his early
+      education partook of that peculiarity of New England which, if it do not
+      make her children absolutely all they are apt to believe themselves to be,
+      seldom leaves them in the darkness of a besotted ignorance. As usually
+      happens with this particular race, Gershom had acquired a good deal for a
+      man of his class in life; and this information, added to native
+      shrewdness, enabled him to maintain his place in the dialogue with a
+      certain degree of credit. He had a very lively perception&mdash;fancied or
+      real&mdash;of all the advantages of being born in the land of the
+      Puritans, deeming everything that came of the great &ldquo;Blarney Stone&rdquo;
+       superior to everything else of the same nature elsewhere; and, while much
+      disposed to sneer and rail at all other parts of the country, just as much
+      indisposed to &ldquo;take,&rdquo; as disposed to &ldquo;give.&rdquo; Ben Boden soon detected this
+      weakness in his companion's character, a weakness so very general as
+      scarce to need being pointed out to any observant man, and which is almost
+      inseparable from half-way intelligence and provincial self-admiration; and
+      Ben was rather inclined to play on it, whenever Gershom laid himself a
+      little more open than common on the subject. On the whole, however, the
+      communications were amicable; and the dangers of the wilderness rendering
+      the parties allies, they went their way with an increasing confidence in
+      each other's support. Gershom, now that he was thoroughly sober, could
+      impart much to Ben that was useful; while Ben knew a great deal that even
+      his companion, coming as he did from the chosen people, was not sorry to
+      learn. As has been, already intimated, each communicated to the other, in
+      the course of this long journey on the river, an outline of his past life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The history of Gershom Waring was one of every-day occurrence. He was born
+      of a family in humble circumstances in Massachusetts, a community in
+      which, however, none are so very humble as to be beneath the paternal
+      watchfulness of the State. The common schools had done their duty by him;
+      while, according to his account of the matter, his only sister had fallen
+      into the hands of a female relative, who was enabled to impart an
+      instruction slightly superior to that which is to be had from the servants
+      of the public. After a time, the death of this relative, and the marriage
+      of Gershom, brought the brother and sister together again, the last still
+      quite young. From this period the migratory life of the family commenced.
+      Previously to the establishment of manufactories within her limits, New
+      England systematically gave forth her increase to the States west and
+      south of her own territories. A portion of this increase still migrates,
+      and will probably long continue so to do; but the tide of young women,
+      which once flowed so steadily from that region, would now seem to have
+      turned, and is setting back in a flood of &ldquo;factory girls.&rdquo; But the Warings
+      lived at too early a day to feel the influence of such a pass of
+      civilization, and went west, almost as a matter of course. With the
+      commencement of his migratory life, Gershom began to &ldquo;dissipate,&rdquo; as it
+      has got to be matter of convention to term &ldquo;drinking.&rdquo; Fortunately, Mrs.
+      Waring had no children, thus lessening in a measure the privations to
+      which those unlucky females were obliged to submit. When Gershom left his
+      birthplace he had a sum of money exceeding a thousand dollars in amount,
+      the united means of himself and sister; but, by the time he had reached
+      Detroit, it was reduced to less than a hundred. Several years, however,
+      had been consumed by the way, the habits growing worse and the money
+      vanishing, as the family went further and further toward the skirts of
+      society. At length Gershom attached himself to a sutler, who was going up
+      to Michilimackinac, with a party of troops; and finally he left that place
+      to proceed, in a canoe of his own, to the head of Lake Michigan, where was
+      a post on the present site of Chicago, which was then known as Fort
+      Dearborn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In quitting Mackinac for Chicago, Waring had no very settled plan. His
+      habits had completely put him out of favor at the former place; and a
+      certain restlessness urged him to penetrate still farther into the
+      wilderness. In all his migrations and wanderings the two devoted females
+      followed his fortunes; the one because she was his wife, the other because
+      she was his sister. When the canoe reached the mouth of the Kalamazoo, a
+      gale of wind drove it into the river; and finding a deserted cabin, ready
+      built, to receive him, Gershom landed, and had been busy with the rifle
+      for the last fortnight, the time he had been on shore. Hearing from some
+      voyageurs who had gone down the lake that a bee-hunter was up the river,
+      he had followed the stream in its windings until he fell in with le
+      Bourdon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such is an outline of the account which Whiskey Centre gave of himself. It
+      is true, he said very little of his propensity to drink, but this his
+      companion was enabled to conjecture from the context of his narrative, as
+      well as from what he had seen. It was very evident to the bee-hunter, that
+      the plans of both parties for the summer were about to be seriously
+      deranged by the impending hostilities, and that some decided movement
+      might be rendered necessary, even for the protection of their lives. This
+      much he communicated to Gershom, who heard his opinions with interest, and
+      a concern in behalf of his wife and sister that at least did some credit
+      to his heart. For the first time in many months, indeed, Gershom was now
+      PERFECTLY sober, a circumstance that was solely owing to his having had no
+      access to liquor for eight-and-forty hours. With the return of a clear
+      head, came juster notions of the dangers and difficulties in which he had
+      involved the two self-devoted women who had accompanied him so far, and
+      who really seemed ready to follow him in making the circuit of the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's troublesome times,&rdquo; exclaimed Whiskey Centre, when his companion had
+      just ended one of his strong and lucid statements of the embarrassments
+      that might environ them, ere they could get back to the settled portions
+      of the country&mdash;&ldquo;it's troublesome times, truly! I see all you would
+      say, Bourdon, and wonder I ever got my foot so deep into it, without
+      thinkin' of all, beforehand! The best on us will make mistakes, hows'ever,
+      and I suppose I've been called on to make mine, as well as another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My trade speaks for itself,&rdquo; returned the bee-hunter, &ldquo;and any man can
+      see why one who looks for bees must come where they're to be found; but I
+      will own, Gershom, that your speculation lies a little beyond my
+      understanding. Now, you tell me you have two full barrels of whiskey&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had, Bourdon&mdash;HAD&mdash;one of them is pretty nearly half used, I am
+      afeared.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, HAD, until you began to be your own customer. But here you are,
+      squatted at the mouth of the Kalamazoo, with a barrel and a half of
+      liquor, and nobody but yourself to drink it! Where the profits are to come
+      from, exceeds Pennsylvany calculations; perhaps a Yankee can tell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You forget the Injins. I met a man at Mackinaw, who only took out in his
+      canoe ONE barrel, and he brought in skins enough to set up a grocery, at
+      Detroit. But I was on the trail of the soldiers, and meant to make a
+      business on't, at Fort Dearborn. What between the soldiers and the
+      redskins, a man might sell gallons a day, and at fair prices.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's a sorry business at the best, Whiskey; and now you're fairly sober,
+      if you'll take my advice you'll remain so. Why not make up your mind, like
+      a man, and vow you'll never touch another drop.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Maybe I will, when these two barrels is emptied&mdash;I've often thought
+      of doin' some sich matter; and, ag'in and ag'in, has Dolly and Blossom
+      advised me to fall into the plan; but it's hard to give up old habits, all
+      at once. If I could only taper off on a pint a day, for a year or so, I
+      think I might come round in time. I know as well as you do, Bourdon, that
+      sobriety is a good thing, and dissipation a bad thing; but it's hard to
+      give up all at once.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Lest the instructed reader should wonder at a man's using the term
+      &ldquo;dissipation&rdquo; in a wilderness, it may be well to explain that, in common
+      American parlance, &ldquo;dissipation&rdquo; has got to mean &ldquo;drunkenness.&rdquo; Perhaps
+      half of the whole country, if told that a man, or a woman, might be
+      exceedingly dissipated and never swallow anything stronger than water,
+      would stoutly deny the justice of applying the word to such a person. This
+      perversion of the meaning of a very common term has probably arisen from
+      the circumstance that there is very little dissipation in the country that
+      is not connected with hard drinking. A dissipated woman is a person almost
+      unknown in America; or when the word is applied, it means a very different
+      degree of misspending of time, from that which is understood by the use of
+      the same reproach in older and more sophisticated states of society. The
+      majority rules in this country, and with the majority excess usually takes
+      this particular aspect; refinement having very little connection with the
+      dissipation of the masses, anywhere.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The excuses of his companion, however, caused le Bourdon to muse, more
+      than might otherwise have been the case, on Whiskey Centre's condition.
+      Apart from all considerations connected with the man's own welfare, and
+      the happiness of his family, there were those which were inseparable from
+      the common safety, in the present state of the country. Boden was a man of
+      much decision and firmness of character, and he was clear-headed as to
+      causes and consequences. The practice of living alone had induced in him
+      the habits of reflection; and the self-reliance produced by his solitary
+      life, a life of which he was fond almost to a passion, caused him to
+      decide warily, but to act promptly. As they descended the river together,
+      therefore, he went over the whole of Gershom Waring's case and prospects,
+      with great impartiality and care, and settled in his own mind what ought
+      to be done, as well as the mode of doing it. He kept his own counsel,
+      however, discussing all sorts of subjects that were of interest to men in
+      their situation, as they floated down the stream, avoiding any recurrence
+      to this theme, which was possibly of more importance to them both, just
+      then, than any other that could be presented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER V.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+      He was a wight of high renown,
+        And thou art but of low degree;
+     'Tis pride that pulls the country down&mdash;
+        Then take thine auld cloak about thee.
+                                     SHAKESPEARE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The canoe did not reach the mouth of the river until near evening of the
+      third day of its navigation. It was not so much the distance, though that
+      was considerable, as it was the obstacles that lay in the way, which
+      brought the travellers to the end of their journey at so late a period. As
+      they drew nearer and nearer to the place where Gershom had left his wife
+      and sister, le Bourdon detected in his companion signs of an interest in
+      the welfare of the two last, as well as a certain feverish uneasiness lest
+      all might not be well with them, that said something in favor of his
+      heart, whatever might be urged against his prudence and care in leaving
+      them alone in so exposed a situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm afeard a body don't think as much as he ought to do, when liquor is
+      in him,&rdquo; said Whiskey Centre, just as the canoe doubled the last point,
+      and the hut came into view; &ldquo;else I never could have left two women by
+      them-selves in so lonesome a place. God be praised! there is the chiente
+      at any rate; and there's a smoke comin' out of it, if my eyes don't
+      deceive me! Look, Bourdon, for I can scarcely see at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is the house; and, as you say, there is certainly a smoke rising
+      from it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's comfort in that!&rdquo; exclaimed the truant husband and brother, with
+      a sigh that seemed to relieve a very loaded breast. &ldquo;Yes, there's comfort
+      in that! If there's a fire, there must be them that lighted it; and a fire
+      at this season, too, says that there's somethin' to eat, I should be
+      sorry, Bourdon, to think I'd left the women folks without food; though, to
+      own the truth, I don't remember whether I did or not.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The man who drinks, Gershom, has commonly but a very poor memory.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's true&mdash;yes, I'll own that; and I wish it warn't as true as it
+      is; but reason and strong drink do NOT travel far in company&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gershom suddenly ceased speaking; dropping his paddle like one beset by a
+      powerless weakness. The bee-hunter saw that he was overcome by some
+      unexpected occurrence, and that the man's feelings were keenly connected
+      with the cause, whatever that might be. Looking eagerly around in quest of
+      the explanation, le Bourdon saw a female standing on a point of land that
+      commanded a view of the river and its banks for a considerable distance,
+      unequivocally watching the approach of the canoe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There she is,&rdquo; said Gershom, in a subdued tone&mdash;&ldquo;that's Dolly; and
+      there she has been, I'll engage, half the time of my absence, waitin' to
+      get the first glimpse of my miserable body, as it came back to her. Sich
+      is woman, Bourdon; and God forgive me, if I have ever forgotten their
+      natur', when I was bound to remember it. But we all have our weak moments,
+      at times, and I trust mine will not be accounted ag'in' me more than them
+      of other men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a beautiful sight, Gershom, and it almost makes me your friend!
+      The man for whom a woman can feel so much concern&mdash;that a woman&mdash;nay,
+      women; for you tell me your sister is one of the family&mdash;but the man
+      whom DECENT women can follow to a place like this, must have some good
+      p'ints about him. That woman is a-weepin'; and it must be for joy at your
+      return.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Twould be jist like Dolly to do so&mdash;she's done it before, and would
+      be likely to do so ag'in,&rdquo; answered Gershom, nearly choked by the effort
+      he made to speak without betraying his own emotion. &ldquo;Put the canoe into
+      the p'int, and let me land there. I must go up and say a kind word to poor
+      Dolly; while you can paddle on, and let Blossom know I'm near at hand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter complied in silence, casting curious glances upward at the
+      woman while doing so, in order to ascertain what sort of a female Whiskey
+      Centre could possibly have for a wife. To his surprise, Dorothy Waring was
+      not only decently, but she was neatly clad, appearing as if she had
+      studiously attended to her personal appearance, in the hope of welcoming
+      her wayward and unfortunate husband back to his forest home. This much le
+      Bourdon saw by a hasty glance as his companion landed, for a feeling of
+      delicacy prevented him from taking a longer look at the woman. As Gershom
+      ascended the bank to meet his wife, le Bourdon paddled on, and landed just
+      below the grove in which was the chiente. It might have been his long
+      exclusion from all of the other sex, and most especially from that portion
+      of it which retains its better looks, but the being which now met the
+      bee-hunter appeared to him to belong to another world, rather than to that
+      in which he habitually dwelt. As this was Margery Waring, who was almost
+      uniformly called Blossom by her acquaintances, and who is destined to act
+      an important part in this legend of the &ldquo;openings,&rdquo; it may be well to give
+      a brief description of her age, attire, and personal appearance, at the
+      moment when she was first seen by le Bourdon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In complexion, color of the hair, and outline of face, Margery Waring bore
+      a strong family resemblance to her brother. In spite of exposure, and the
+      reflection of the sun's rays from the water of the lake, however, HER skin
+      was of a clear, transparent white, such as one might look for in a
+      drawing-room, but hardly expect to find in a wilderness; while the tint of
+      her lips, cheeks, and, in a diminished degree, of her chin and ears, were
+      such as one who wielded a pencil might long endeavor to catch without
+      succeeding. Her features had the chiselled outline which was so remarkable
+      in her brother; while in HER countenance, in addition to the softened
+      expression of her sex and years, there was nothing to denote any physical
+      or moral infirmity, to form a drawback to its witchery and regularity. Her
+      eyes were blue, and her hair as near golden as human tresses well could
+      be. Exercise, a life of change, and of dwelling much in the open air, had
+      given to this unusually charming girl not only health, but its appearance.
+      Still, she was in no respect coarse, or had anything in the least about
+      her that indicated her being accustomed to toil, with some slight
+      exception in her hands, perhaps, which were those of a girl who did not
+      spare herself, when there was an opportunity to be of use. In this
+      particular, the vagrant life of her brother had possibly been of some
+      advantage to her, as it had prevented her being much employed in the
+      ordinary toil of her condition in life. Still, Margery Waring had that
+      happy admixture of delicacy and physical energy, which is, perhaps,
+      oftener to be met in the American girl of her class, than in the girl of
+      almost any other nation; and far oftener than in the young American of her
+      sex, who is placed above the necessity of labor.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a stranger approached her, the countenance of this fair creature
+      expressed both surprise and satisfaction; surprise that any one should
+      have been met by Gershom, in such a wilderness, and satisfaction that the
+      stranger proved to be a white man, and seemingly one who did not drink.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are Blossom,&rdquo; said the bee-hunter, taking the hand of the
+      half-reluctant girl, in a way so respectful and friendly that she could
+      not refuse it, even while she doubted the propriety of thus receiving an
+      utter stranger&mdash;&ldquo;the Blossom of whom Gershom Waring speaks so often,
+      and so affectionately?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are, then, my brother's friend,&rdquo; answered Margery, smiling so
+      sweetly, that le Bourdon gazed on her with delight. &ldquo;We are SO glad that
+      he has come back! Five terrible nights have sister and I been here alone,
+      and we have believed every bush was a red man!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That danger is over, now, Blossom; but there is still an enemy near you
+      that must be overcome.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An enemy! There is no one here, but Dolly and myself. No one has been
+      near us, since Gershom went after the bee-hunter, whom we heard was out in
+      the openings. Are you that bee-bunter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am, beautiful Blossom; and I tell you there is an enemy here, in your
+      cabin, that must be looked to.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We fear no enemies but the red men, and we have seen none of them since
+      we reached this river. What is the name of the enemy you so dread, and
+      where is he to be found?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His name is Whiskey, and he is kept somewhere in this hut, in casks. Show
+      me the place, that I may destroy him, before his friend comes to his
+      assistance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A gleam of bright intelligence flashed into the face of the beautiful
+      young creature. First she reddened almost to scarlet; then her face became
+      pale as death. Compressing her lips intensely, she stood irresolute&mdash;now
+      gazing at the pleasing and seemingly well-disposed stranger before her,
+      now looking earnestly toward the still distant forms of her brother and
+      sister, which were slowly advancing in the direction of the cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dare you?&rdquo; Margery at length asked, pointing toward her brother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare: he is now quite sober, and may be reasoned with. For the sake of
+      us all, let us profit by this advantage.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He keeps the liquor in two casks that you will find under the shed,
+      behind the hut.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This said, the girl covered her face with both her hands, and sunk on a
+      stool, as if afraid to be a witness of that which was to follow. As for le
+      Bourdon, he did not delay a moment, but passed out of the cabin by a
+      second door, that opened in its rear. There were the two barrels, and by
+      their side an axe. His first impulse was to dash in the heads of the casks
+      where they stood; but a moment's reflection told him that the odor, so
+      near the cabin, would be unpleasant to every one, and might have a
+      tendency to exasperate the owner of the liquor. He cast about him,
+      therefore, for the means of removing the casks, in order to stave them, at
+      a distance from the dwelling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fortunately, the cabin of Whiskey Centre stood on the brow of a sharp
+      descent, at the bottom of which ran a brawling brook. At another moment,
+      le Bourdon would have thought of saving the barrels; but time pressed, and
+      he could not delay. Seizing the barrel next to him, he rolled it without
+      difficulty to the brow of the declivity, and set it off with a powerful
+      shove of his foot. It was the half-empty cask, and away it went, the
+      liquor it contained washing about as it rolled over and over, until
+      hitting a rock about half-way down the declivity, the hoops gave way, when
+      the staves went over the little precipice, and the water of the stream was
+      tumbling through all that remained of the cask, at the next instant. A
+      slight exclamation of delight behind him caused the bee-hunter to look
+      round, and he saw Margery watching his movement with an absorbed interest.
+      Her smile was one of joy, not unmingled with terror; and she rather
+      whispered than said aloud&mdash;&ldquo;The other&mdash;the other&mdash;THAT is
+      full&mdash;be quick; there is no time to lose.&rdquo; The bee-hunter seized the
+      second cask and rolled it toward the brow of the rocks. It was not quite
+      as easily handled as the other barrel, but his strength sufficed, and it
+      was soon bounding down the declivity after its companion. The second cask
+      hit the same rock as the first, whence it leaped off the precipice, and,
+      aided by its greater momentum, it was literally dashed in pieces at its
+      base.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not only was this barrel broken into fragments, but its hoops and staves
+      were carried down the torrent, driving before them those of the sister
+      cask, until the whole were swept into the lake, which was some distance
+      from the cabin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That job is well done!&rdquo; exclaimed le Bourdon, when the last fragment of
+      the wreck was taken out of sight. &ldquo;No man will ever turn himself into a
+      beast by means of that liquor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God be praised!&rdquo; murmured Margery. &ldquo;He is SO different, stranger, when he
+      has been drinking, from what he is when he has not! You have been sent by
+      Providence to do us this good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can easily believe that, for it is so with us all. But you must not
+      call me stranger, sweet Margery; for, now that you and I have this secret
+      between us, I am a stranger no longer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl smiled and blushed; then she seemed anxious to ask a question. In
+      the mean time they left the shed, and took seats, in waiting for the
+      arrival of Gershom and his wife. It was not long ere the last entered; the
+      countenance of the wife beaming with a satisfaction she made no effort to
+      conceal. Dolly was not as beautiful as her sister-in-law; still, she was a
+      comely woman, though one who had been stricken by sorrow. She was still
+      young, and might have been in the pride of her good looks, had it not been
+      for the manner in which she had grieved over the fall of Gershom. The joy
+      that gladdens a woman's heart, however, was now illuminating her
+      countenance, and she welcomed le Bourdon most cordially, as if aware that
+      he had been of service to her husband. For months she had not seen Gershom
+      quite himself, until that evening.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have told Dolly all our adventur's, Bourdon,&rdquo; cried Gershom, as soon as
+      the brief greetings were over, &ldquo;and she tells me all's right, hereabouts.
+      Three canoe-loads of Injins passed along shore, goin' up the lake, she
+      tells me, this very a'ternoon; but they didn't see the smoke, the fire
+      bein' out, and must have thought the hut empty; if indeed, they knew
+      anythin' of it, at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The last is the most likely,&rdquo; remarked Margery; &ldquo;for I watched them
+      narrowly from the beeches on the shore, and there was no pointing, or
+      looking up, as would have happened had there been any one among them who
+      could show the others a cabin. Houses an't so plenty, in this part of the
+      country, that travellers pass without turning round to look at them. An
+      Injin has curiosity as well as a white man, though he manages so often to
+      conceal it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Didn't you say, Blossom, that one of the canoes was much behind the
+      others, and that a warrior in that canoe DID look up toward this grove, as
+      if searching for the cabin?&rdquo; asked Dorothy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Either it was so, or my fears made it SEEM so. The two canoes that passed
+      first were well filled with Injins, each having eight in it; while the one
+      that came last held but four warriors. They were a mile apart, and the
+      last canoe seemed to be trying to overtake the others. I did think that
+      nothing but their haste prevented the men in the last canoe from landing;
+      but my fears may have made that seem so that was not so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the cheek of the charming girl flushed with excitement, and her race
+      became animated, Margery appeared marvellously handsome; more so, the
+      bee-hunter fancied, than any other female he had ever before seen. But her
+      words impressed him quite as much as her looks; for he at once saw the
+      importance of such an event, to persons in their situation. The wind was
+      rising on the lake, and it was ahead for the canoes; should the savages
+      feel the necessity of making a harbor, they might return to the mouth of
+      the Kalamazoo; a step that would endanger all their lives, in the event of
+      these Indians proving to belong to those, whom there was now reason to
+      believe were in British pay. In times of peace, the intercourse between
+      the whites and the red men was usually amicable, and seldom led to
+      violence, unless through the effects of liquor; but, a price being placed
+      on scalps, a very different state of things might be anticipated, as a
+      consequence of the hostilities. This was then a matter to be looked to;
+      and, as evening was approaching, no time was to be lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The shores of Michigan are generally low, nor are harbors either numerous,
+      or very easy of access. It would be difficult, indeed, to find in any
+      other part of the world, so great an extent of coast that possesses so
+      little protection for the navigator, as that of this very lake. There are
+      a good many rivers, it is true, but usually they have bars, and are not
+      easy of entrance. This is the reason why that very convenient glove, the
+      Constitution, which can be made to fit any hand, has been discovered to
+      have an extra finger in it, which points out a mode by which the federal
+      government can create ports wherever nature has forgotten to perform this
+      beneficent office. It is a little extraordinary that the fingers of so
+      many of the great &ldquo;expounders&rdquo; turn out to be &ldquo;thumbs,&rdquo; however,
+      exhibiting clumsiness, rather than that adroit lightness which usually
+      characterizes the dexterity of men who are in the habit of rummaging other
+      people's pockets, for their own especial purposes. It must be somewhat
+      up-hill work to persuade any disinterested and clear-headed man, that a
+      political power to &ldquo;regulate commerce&rdquo; goes the length of making harbors;
+      the one being in a great measure a moral, while the other is exclusively a
+      physical agency; any more than it goes the length of making ware-houses,
+      and cranes, and carts, and all the other physical implements for carrying
+      on trade. Now, what renders all this &ldquo;thumbing&rdquo; of the Constitution so
+      much the more absurd, is the fact, that the very generous compact
+      interested does furnish a means, by which the poverty of ports on the
+      great lakes may be remedied, without making any more unnecessary rents in
+      the great national glove. Congress clearly possesses the power to create
+      and maintain a navy, which includes the power to create all sorts of
+      necessary physical appliances; and, among others, places of refuge for
+      that navy, should they be actually needed. As a vessel of war requires a
+      harbor, and usually a better harbor than a merchant-vessel, it strikes us
+      the &ldquo;expounders&rdquo; would do well to give this thought a moment's attention.
+      Behind it will be found the most unanswerable argument in favor of the
+      light-houses, too.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, to return to the narrative: the Kalamazoo could be entered by canoes,
+      though it offered no very available shelter for a vessel of any size.
+      There was no other shelter for the savages for several miles to the
+      southward; and, should the wind increase, of which there were strong
+      indications, it was not only possible, but highly probable, that the
+      canoes would return. According to the account of the females, they had
+      passed only two hours before, and the breeze had been gradually gathering
+      strength ever since. It was not unlikely, indeed, that the attention paid
+      to the river by the warrior in the last canoe may have had reference to
+      this very state of the weather; and his haste to overtake his companions
+      been connected with a desire to induce them to seek a shelter. All this
+      presented itself to the beehunter's mind, at once; and it was discussed
+      between the members of the party, freely, and not without some grave
+      apprehensions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was one elevated point&mdash;elevated comparatively, if not in a
+      very positive sense&mdash;whence the eye could command a considerable
+      distance along the lake shore. Thither Margery now hastened to look after
+      the canoes. Boden accompanied her; and together they proceeded, side by
+      side, with a new-born but lively and increasing confidence, that was all
+      the greater, in consequence of their possessing a common secret.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother must be much better than he was,&rdquo; the girl observed, as they
+      hurried on, &ldquo;for he has not once been into the shed to look at the
+      barrels! Before he went into the openings, he never entered the house
+      without drinking; and sometimes he would raise the cup to his mouth as
+      often as three times in the first half-hour. Now, he does not seem even to
+      think of it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be well that he can find nothing to put into his cup, should he
+      fall into his old ways. One is never sure of a man of such habits, until
+      he is placed entirely out of harm's way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gershom is such a different being when he has not been drinking!&rdquo;
+       rejoined the sister, in a touching manner. &ldquo;We love him, and strive to do
+      all we can to keep him up, but it IS hard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am surprised that YOU should have come into this wilderness with any
+      one of bad habits.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not? He is my brother, and I have no parents&mdash;he is all to me:
+      and what would become of Dorothy if I were to quit her, too! She has lost
+      most of her friends, since Gershom fell into these ways, and it would
+      quite break her heart, did I desert her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All this speaks well for you, pretty Margery, but it is not the less
+      surprising&mdash;ah, there is my canoe, in plain sight of all who enter
+      the river; THAT must be concealed, Injins or no Injins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is only a step further to the place where we can get a lookout. Just
+      there, beneath the burr-oak. Hours and hours have I sat on that spot, with
+      my sewing, while Gershom was gone into the openings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And Dolly&mdash;where was she while you were here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor Dolly!&mdash;I do think she passed quite half her time up at the
+      beech-tree, where you first saw her, looking if brother was not coming
+      home. It is a cruel thing to a wife to have a truant husband!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which I hope may never be your case, pretty Margery, and which I think
+      never CAN.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery did not answer: but the speech must have been heard, uttered as it
+      was in a much lower tone of voice than the young man had hitherto used;
+      for the charming maiden looked down and blushed. Fortunately, the two now
+      soon arrived at the tree, and their conversation naturally reverted to the
+      subject which had brought them there. Three canoes were in sight, close in
+      with the land, but so distant as to render it for some time doubtful which
+      way they were moving. At first, the bee-hunter said that they were still
+      going slowly to the southward; but he habitually carried his little glass,
+      and, on levelling that, it was quite apparent that the savages were
+      paddling before the wind, and making for the mouth of the river. This was
+      a very grave fact; and, as Blossom flew to communicate it to her brother
+      and his wife, le Bourdon moved toward his own canoe, and looked about for
+      a place of concealment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Several considerations had to be borne in mind, in disposing of the
+      canoes; for that of Gershom was to be secreted, as well as that of the
+      bee-hunter. A tall aquatic plant, that is termed wild rice, and which we
+      suppose to be the ordinary rice-plant, unimproved by tillage, grows
+      spontaneously about the mouths and on the flats of most of the rivers of
+      the part of Michigan of which we are writing; as, indeed, it is to be
+      found in nearly all the shallow waters of those regions. There was a good
+      deal of this rice at hand; and the bee-hunter, paddling his own canoe and
+      towing the other, entered this vegetable thicket, choosing a channel that
+      had been formed by some accident of nature, and which wound through the
+      herbage in a way soon to conceal all that came within its limits. These
+      channels were not only numerous, but exceedingly winding; and the
+      bee-hunter had no sooner brought his canoes to the firm ground and
+      fastened them there, than he ascended a tree, and studied the windings of
+      these narrow passages, until he had got a general idea of their direction
+      and characters. This precaution taken, he hurried back to the hut.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, Gershom, have you settled on the course to be taken?&rdquo; were the
+      first words uttered by the bee-hunter when he rejoined the family of
+      Whiskey Centre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We haven't,&rdquo; answered the husband. &ldquo;Sister begs us to quit the chiente,
+      for the Indians must soon be here; but wife seems to think that she MUST
+      be safe, now I'm at home ag'in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then wife is wrong, and sister is right. If you will take my advice, you
+      will hide all your effects in the woods, and quit the cabin as soon as
+      possible. The Injins cannot fail to see this habitation, and will be
+      certain to destroy all they find in it, and that they do not carry off.
+      Besides, the discovery of the least article belonging to a white man will
+      set them on our trail; for scalps will soon bear a price at Montreal. In
+      half an hour, all that is here can be removed into the thicket that is
+      luckily so near; and by putting out the fire with care, and using proper
+      caution, we may give the place such a deserted look, that the savages will
+      suspect nothing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If they enter the river, Bourdon, they will not camp out with a wigwam so
+      near by, and should they come here, what is to prevent their seein' the
+      footprints we shall leave behind us?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The night, and that only. Before morning their own footsteps will be so
+      plenty as to deceive them. Luckily we all wear moccasins, which is a great
+      advantage just now. But every moment is precious, and we should be
+      stirring. Let the women take the beds and bedding, while you and I
+      shoulder this chest. Up it goes, and away with it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Gershom had got to be so much under his companion's influence, that he
+      complied, though his mind suggested various objections to the course
+      taken, to which his tongue gave utterance as they busied themselves in
+      this task. The effects of Whiskey Centre had been gradually diminishing in
+      quantity, as well as in value, for the last three years, and were now of
+      no great amount, in any sense. Still there were two chests, one large, and
+      one small. The last contained all that a generous regard for the growing
+      wants of the family had left to Margery; while the first held the joint
+      wardrobes of the husband and wife, with a few other articles that were
+      considered as valuable. Among other things were half a dozen of very thin
+      silver tea-spoons, which had fallen to Gershom on a division of family
+      plate. The other six were carefully wrapped up in paper and put in the
+      till of Margery's chest, being her portion of this species of property.
+      The Americans, generally, have very little plate; though here and there
+      marked exceptions do exist; nor do the humbler classes lay out much of
+      their earnings in jewelry, while they commonly dress far beyond their
+      means in all other ways. In this respect, the European female of the same
+      class in life frequently possesses as much in massive golden personal
+      ornaments as would make an humble little fortune, while her attire is as
+      homely as cumbrous petticoats, coarse cloth, and a vile taste can render
+      it. On the other hand, the American matron that has not a set&mdash;one
+      half-dozen&mdash;of silver tea-spoons must be poor indeed, and can hardly
+      be said to belong to the order of housekeepers at all. By means of a
+      careful mother, both Gershom and his sister had the half-dozen mentioned;
+      and they were kept more as sacred memorials of past and better days than
+      as articles of any use. The household goods of Waring would have been
+      limited by his means of transportation, if not by his poverty. Two common
+      low-post maple bedsteads were soon uncorded and carried off, as were the
+      beds and bedding. There was scarcely any crockery, pewter and tin being
+      its substitutes; and as for chairs there was only one, and that had
+      rockers: a practice of New England that has gradually diffused itself over
+      the whole country, looking down ridicule, the drilling of
+      boarding-schools, the comments of elderly ladies of the old school, the
+      sneers of nurses, and, in a word, all that venerable ideas of decorum
+      could suggest, until this appliance of domestic ease has not only fairly
+      planted itself in nearly every American dwelling, but in a good many of
+      Europe also!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It required about twenty minutes for the party to clear the cabin of every
+      article that might induce an Indian to suspect the presence of white men.
+      The furniture was carried to a sufficient distance to be safe from
+      everything but a search; and care was had to avoid as much as possible
+      making a trail, to lead the savages to the place selected for the
+      temporary storeroom. This was merely a close thicket, into which there was
+      a narrow but practicable entrance on the side the least likely to be
+      visited. When all was accomplished the four went to the lookout to
+      ascertain how far the canoes had come. It was soon ascertained that they
+      were within a mile, driving down before a strong breeze and following sea,
+      and impelled by as many paddles as there were living beings in them. Ten
+      minutes would certainly bring them up with the bar, and five more fairly
+      within the river. The question now arose, where the party was to be
+      concealed during the stay of the savages. Dolly, as was perhaps natural
+      for the housewife, wished to remain by her worldly goods, and pretty
+      Margery had a strong feminine leaning to do the same. But neither of the
+      men approved of the plan. It was risking too much in one spot; and a
+      suggestion that the bee-hunter was not long in making prevailed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will be remembered that le Bourdon had carried the canoes within the
+      field of wild rice, and bestowed them there with a good deal of attention
+      to security. Now these canoes offered, in many respects, better places of
+      temporary refuge, under all the circumstances, than any other that could
+      readily be found on shore. They were dry; and by spreading skins, of which
+      Boden had so many, comfortable beds might be made for the females, which
+      would be easily protected from the night air and dews by throwing a rug
+      over the gunwales. Then, each canoe contained many articles that would
+      probably be wanted; that of the bee-hunter in particular furnishing food
+      in abundance, as well as diverse other things that would be exceedingly
+      useful to persons in their situation. The great advantage of the canoes,
+      however, in the mind of le Bourdon, was the facilities they offered for
+      flight. He hardly hoped that Indian sagacity would be so far blinded as to
+      prevent the discovery of the many footsteps they must have left in their
+      hurried movements, and he anticipated that with the return of day
+      something would occur to render it necessary for them to seek safety by a
+      stealthy removal from the spot. This might be done, he both hoped and
+      believed, under cover of the rice, should sufficient care be taken to
+      avoid exposure. In placing the canoes, he had used the precaution to leave
+      them where they could not be seen from the cabin or its vicinity, or,
+      indeed, from any spot in the vicinity of the ground that the savages would
+      be likely to visit during their stay. All these reasons le Bourdon now
+      rapidly laid before his companions, and to the canoes the whole party
+      retired as fast as they could walk.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was great judgment displayed on the part of the bee-hunter in
+      selecting the wild rice as a place of shelter. At that season it was
+      sufficiently grown to afford a complete screen to everything within it
+      that did not exceed the height of a man, or which was not seen from some
+      adjacent elevation. Most of the land near the mouth of the river was low,
+      and the few spots which formed exceptions had been borne in mind when the
+      canoes were taken into the field. But just as Gershom was on the point of
+      putting a foot into his own canoe, with a view to arrange it for the
+      reception of his wife, he drew back, and exclaimed after the manner of one
+      to whom a most important idea suddenly occurs:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Land's sake! I've forgotten all about them barrels! They'll fall into the
+      hands of the savages, and an awful time they'll make with them! Let me
+      pass, Dolly; I must look after the barrels this instant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While the wife gently detained her eager husband, the bee-hunter quietly
+      asked to what barrels he alluded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The whiskey casks,&rdquo; was the answer. &ldquo;There's two on 'em in the shed
+      behind the hut, and whiskey enough to set a whole tribe in commotion. I
+      wonder I should have overlooked the whiskey!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a sign of great improvement, friend Waring, and will lead to no bad
+      consequences,&rdquo; returned le Bourdon, coolly. &ldquo;I foresaw the danger, and
+      rolled the casks down the hill, where they were dashed to pieces in the
+      brook, and the liquor has long since been carried into the lake in the
+      shape of grog.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Waring seemed astounded; but was so completely mystified as not to suspect
+      the truth. That his liquor should be hopelessly lost was bad enough; but
+      even that was better than to have it drunk by savages without receiving
+      any re-turns. After groaning and lamenting over the loss for a few
+      minutes, he joined the rest of the party in making some further
+      dispositions, which le Bourdon deemed prudent, if not necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It had occurred to the bee-hunter to divide his own cargo between the two
+      canoes, which was the task that the whole party was now engaged in. The
+      object was to lighten his own canoe in the event of flight, and, by
+      placing his effects in two parcels, give a chance to those in the boat
+      which might escape, of having wherewithal to comfort and console
+      themselves. As soon as this new arrangement was completed, le Bourdon ran
+      up to a tree that offered the desired facilities, and springing into its
+      branches, was soon high enough to get a view of the bar and the mouth of
+      the river. By the parting light of day, he distinctly saw FOUR canoes
+      coming up the stream; which was one more than those reported to him by
+      Margery as having passed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+      And long shall timorous fancy see
+      The painted chief and pointed spear;
+      And reason's self shall bow the knee
+      To shadows and delusions here.
+                                 FRENEAU.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A bright moon reflected on the earth for about an hour the light of the
+      sun, as the latter luminary disappeared. By its aid the bee-hunter, who
+      still continued in the tree, was enabled to watch the movements of the
+      canoes of the Indians, though the persons they contained soon got to be so
+      indistinct as to render it impossible to do more than count their numbers.
+      The last he made out to be five each in three of the canoes, and six in
+      the other, making twenty-one individuals in all. This was too great an
+      odds to think of resisting, in the event of the strangers turning out to
+      be hostile; and the knowledge of this disparity in force admonished all
+      the fugitives of the necessity of being wary and prudent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The strangers landed just beneath the hut, or at the precise spot where
+      Whiskey Centre was in the habit of keeping his canoe, and whence Boden had
+      removed it only an hour or two before. The savages had probably selected
+      the place on account of its shores being clear of the wild rice, and
+      because the high ground near it promised both a lookout and comfortable
+      lodgings. Several of the party strolled upward, as if searching for an
+      eligible spot to light their fire, and one of them soon discovered the
+      cabin. The warrior announced his success by a whoop, and a dozen of the
+      Indians were shortly collected in and about the chiente. All this proved
+      the prudence of the course taken by the fugitives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Blossom stood beneath the tree, and the bee-hunter told her, as each
+      incident occurred, all that passed among the strangers, when the girl
+      communicated the same to her brother and his wife, who were quite near at
+      hand in one of the canoes. As there was no danger of being overheard,
+      conversation in an ordinary tone passed between the parties, two of whom
+      at least were now fond of holding this sort of communion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do they seem to suspect the neighborhood of the occupants of the cabin?&rdquo;
+       asked Margery, when the bee-hunter had let her know the manner in which
+      the savages had taken possession of her late dwelling.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One cannot tell. Savages are always distrustful and cautious when on a
+      war-path; and these seem to be scenting about like so many hounds which
+      are nosing for a trail. They are now gathering sticks to light a fire,
+      which is better than burning the chiente.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;THAT they will not be likely to do until they have no further need of it.
+      Tell me, Bourdon, do any go near the thicket of alders where we have
+      hidden our goods?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not as yet; though there is a sudden movement and many loud yells among
+      them!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Heaven send that it may not be at having discovered anything we have
+      forgotten. The sight of even a lost dipper or cup would set them
+      blood-hounds on our path, as sure as we are white and they are savages!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I live, they scent the whiskey! There is a rush toward, and a pow-wow
+      in and about the shed&mdash;yes, of a certainty they smell the liquor!
+      Some of it has escaped in rolling down the hill, and their noses are too
+      keen to pass over a fragrance that to them equals that of roses. Well, let
+      them SCENT as they may&mdash;even an Injin does not get drunk through his
+      NOSE.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are quite right, Bourdon: but is not this a most unhappy scent for
+      us, since the smell of whiskey can hardly be there without their seeing it
+      did not grow in the woods of itself, like an oak or a beech?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand you, Margery, and there is good sense in what you say. They
+      will never think the liquor grew there, like a blackberry or a chestnut,
+      though the place IS called Whiskey Centre!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is hard enough to know that a family has deserved such a name, without
+      being reminded of it by those that call themselves friends,&rdquo; answered the
+      girl pointedly, after a pause of near a minute, though she spoke in sorrow
+      rather than in anger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In an instant the bee-hunter was at pretty Margery's side, making his
+      peace by zealous apologies and winning protestations of respect and
+      concern. The mortified girl was soon appeased; and, after consulting
+      together for a minute, they went to the canoe to communicate to the
+      husband and wife what they had seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The whiskey after all is likely to prove our worst enemy,&rdquo; said the
+      bee-hunter as he approached. &ldquo;It would seem that in moving the barrels
+      some of the liquor has escaped, and the nose of an Injin is too quick for
+      the odor it leaves, not to scent it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Much good may it do them,&rdquo; growled Gershom&mdash;&ldquo;they've lost me that
+      whiskey, and let them long for it without gettin' any, as a punishment for
+      the same. My fortun' would have been made could I only have got them two
+      barrels as far as Fort Dearborn before the troops moved!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The BARRELS might have been got there, certainly,&rdquo; answered le Bourdon,
+      so much provoked at the man's regrets for the destroyer which had already
+      come so near to bringing want and ruin on himself and family, as
+      momentarily to forget his recent scene with pretty Margery; &ldquo;but whether
+      anything would have been IN them is another question. One of those I
+      rolled to the brow of the hill was half empty as it was.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gershom is so troubled with the ague, if he don't take stimulant in this
+      new country,&rdquo; put in the wife, in the apologetic manner in which woman
+      struggles to conceal the failings of him she loves. &ldquo;As for the whiskey, I
+      don't grudge THAT in the least; for it's a poor way of getting rich to be
+      selling it to soldiers, who want all the reason liquor has left 'em, and
+      more too. Still, Gershom needs bitters; and ought not to have every drop
+      he has taken thrown into his face.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time le Bourdon was again sensible of his mistake, and he beat a
+      retreat in the best manner he could, secretly resolving not to place
+      himself any more between two fires, in consequence of further blunders on
+      this delicate subject. He now found that it was a very different thing to
+      joke Whiskey Centre himself on the subject of his great failing, from
+      making even the most distant allusion to it in the presence of those who
+      felt for a husband's and a brother's weakness, with a liveliness of
+      feeling that brutal indulgence had long since destroyed in the object of
+      their solicitude. He accordingly pointed out the risk there was that the
+      Indians should make the obvious inference, that human beings must have
+      recently been in the hut, to leave the fresh scent of the liquor in
+      question behind them. This truth was so apparent that all felt its force,
+      though to no one else did the danger seem so great as to the bee-hunter.
+      He had greater familiarity with the Indian character than any of his
+      companions, and dreaded the sagacity of the savages in a just proportion
+      to his greater knowledge. He did not fail, therefore, to admonish his new
+      friends of the necessity for vigilance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will return to the tree and take another look at the movements of the
+      savages,&rdquo; le Bourdon concluded by saying. &ldquo;By this time their fire must be
+      lighted; and by the aid of my glass a better insight may be had into their
+      plans and feelings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter now went back to his tree, whither he was slowly followed
+      by Margery; the girl yielding to a feverish desire to accompany him, at
+      the very time she was half restrained by maiden bashfulness; though
+      anxiety and the wish to learn the worst as speedily as possible,
+      prevailed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They have kindled a blazing fire, and the whole of the inside of the
+      house is as bright as if illuminated,&rdquo; said le Bourdon, who was now
+      carefully bestowed among the branches of his small tree. &ldquo;There are lots
+      of the red devils moving about the chiente, inside and out; and they seem
+      to have fish as well as venison to cook. Aye, there goes more dry brush on
+      the fire to brighten up the picture, and daylight is almost eclipsed. As I
+      live, they have a prisoner among 'em!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A prisoner!&rdquo; exclaimed Margery, in the gentle tones of female pity. &ldquo;Not
+      a white person, surely?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;he is a red-skin like all of them&mdash;but&mdash;wait a minute
+      till I can get the glass a little more steady. Yes&mdash;it is so&mdash;I
+      was right at first!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is so, Bourdon&mdash;and in what are you right?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You may remember, Blossom, that your brother and I spoke of the two
+      Injins who visited me in the Openings. One was a Pottawattamie and the
+      other a Chippewa. The first we found dead and scalped, after he had left
+      us; and the last is now in yonder hut, bound and a prisoner. He has taken
+      to the lake on his way to Fort Dearborn, and has, with all his craft and
+      resolution, fallen into enemies' hands. Well will it be for him if his
+      captors do not learn what befell the warrior who was slain near my cabin,
+      and left seated against a tree!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think these savages mean to revenge the death of their brother on
+      this unfortunate wretch?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know that he is in the pay of our general at Detroit, while the
+      Pottawattamies are in the pay of the English. This of itself would make
+      them enemies, and has no doubt been the cause of his being taken; but I do
+      not well see how Injins on the lake here can know anything of what
+      happened some fifty miles or so up in the Openings.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps the savages in the canoes belong to the same party as the warrior
+      you call Elksfoot, and that they have had the means of learning his death,
+      and by whose hand he fell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter was surprised at the quickness of the girl's wit, the
+      suggestion being as discreet as it was ingenious. The manner in which
+      intelligence flies through the wilderness had often surprised him, and
+      certainly it was possible that the party now before him might have heard
+      of the fate of the chief whose body he had found in the Openings, short as
+      was the time for the news to have gone so far. The circumstance that the
+      canoes had come from the northward was against the inference, however, and
+      after musing a minute on the facts, le Bourdon mentioned this objection to
+      his companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are we certain these are the same canoes as those which I saw pass this
+      afternoon?&rdquo; asked Margery, who comprehended the difficulty in an instant.
+      &ldquo;Of those I saw, two passed first, and one followed; while here are FOUR
+      that have landed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What you say may be true enough. We are not to suppose that the canoes
+      you saw pass are all that are on the lake. But let the savages be whom
+      they may, prudence tells us to keep clear of them if we can; and this more
+      so than ever, now I can see that Pigeonswing, who I know to be an American
+      Injin, is treated by them as an enemy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How are the savages employed now, Bourdon? Do they prepare to eat, or do
+      they torture their prisoner?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No fear of their attempting the last to-night. There is an uneasiness
+      about them, as if they still smelt the liquor; but some are busy cooking
+      at the fire. I would give all my honey, pretty Margery, to be able to save
+      Pigeonswing! He is a good fellow for a savage, and is heart and hand with
+      us in this new war, that he tells me has begun between us and the
+      English!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You surely would not risk your own life to save a savage, who kills and
+      scalps at random, as this man has done!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In that he has but followed the habits of his color and race. I dare say
+      WE do things that are quite as bad, according to Injin ways of thinking. I
+      DO believe, Margery, was that man to see ME in the hands of the
+      Pottawattamies, as I now see HIM, he would undertake something for my
+      relief.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what can you, a single man, do when there are twenty against you?&rdquo;
+       asked Margery, a little reproachfully as to manner, speaking like one who
+      had more interest in the safety of the young bee-hunter than she chose
+      very openly to express.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one can say what he can do till he tries. I do not like the way they
+      are treating that Chippewa, for it looks as if they meant to do him harm.
+      He is neither fed, nor suffered to be with his masters; but there the poor
+      fellow is, bound hand and foot near the cabin door, and lashed to a tree.
+      They do not even give him the relief of suffering him to sit down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The gentle heart of Margery was touched by this account of the manner in
+      which the captive was treated, and she inquired into other particulars
+      concerning his situation, with a more marked interest than she had
+      previously manifested in his state. The bee-hunter answered her questions
+      as they were put; and the result was to place the girl in possession of a
+      minute detail of the true manner in which Pigeonswing was treated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although there was probably no intention on the part of the captors of the
+      Chippewa to torture him before his time, tortured he must have been by the
+      manner in which his limbs and body were confined. Not only were his arms
+      fastened behind his back at the elbows, but the hands were also tightly
+      bound together in front. The legs had ligatures in two places, just above
+      the knees and just below the ankles. Around the body was another
+      fastening; which secured the captive to a beech that stood about thirty
+      feet from the door of the cabin, and so nearly in a line with the fire
+      within and the lookout of le Bourdon, as to enable the last distinctly to
+      note these particulars, aided as he was by his glass. Relying on the
+      manner in which they secured their prisoner, the savages took little heed
+      of him; but each appeared bent on attending to his own comfort, by means
+      of a good supper, and by securing a dry lair in which to pass the night.
+      All this le Bourdon saw and noted too, ere he dropped lightly on his feet
+      by the side of Margery, at the root of the tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Without losing time that was precious, the bee-hunter went at once to the
+      canoes and communicated his intention to Waring. The moon had now set, and
+      the night was favorable to the purpose of le Bourdon. At the first glance
+      it might seem wisest to wait until sleep had fallen upon the savages, ere
+      any attempt were made to approach the hut; but Boden reasoned differently.
+      A general silence would succeed as soon as the savages disposed of
+      themselves to sleep, which would be much more likely to allow his
+      footsteps to be overheard, than when tongues and bodies and teeth were all
+      in active movement. A man who eats after a long march, or a severe
+      paddling, usually concentrates his attention on his food, as le Bourdon
+      knew by long experience; and it is a much better moment to steal upon the
+      hungry and weary, to do so when they feed, than to do so when they sleep,
+      provided anything like a watch be kept. That the Pottawattamie would
+      neglect this latter caution le Bourdon did not believe; and his mind was
+      made up, not only to attempt the rescue of his Chippewa friend, but to
+      attempt it at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After explaining his plan in a few words, and requesting Waring's
+      assistance, le Bourdon took a solemn leave of the party, and proceeded at
+      once toward the hut. In order to understand the movements of the
+      bee-hunter, it may be well now briefly to explain the position of the
+      chiente, and the nature of the ground on which the adventurer was required
+      to act. The hut stood on a low and somewhat abrupt swell, being surrounded
+      on all sides by land so low as to be in many places wet and swampy. There
+      were a good many trees on the knoll, and several thickets of alders and
+      other bushes on the lower ground; but on the whole, the swamps were nearly
+      devoid of what is termed &ldquo;timber.&rdquo; Two sides of the knoll were abrupt;
+      that on which the casks had been rolled into the lake, and that opposite,
+      which was next to the tree where Boden had so long been watching the
+      proceedings of the savages. The distance between the hut and this tree was
+      somewhat less than a mile. The intervening ground was low, and most of it
+      was marshy; though it was possible to cross the marsh by following a
+      particular course. Fortunately this course, which was visible to the eye
+      by daylight, and had been taken by the fugitives on quitting the hut,
+      might be dimly traced at night, by one who understood the ground, by means
+      of certain trees and bushes, that formed so many finger-posts for the
+      traveller. Unless this particular route were taken, however, a circuit of
+      three or four miles must be made, in order to pass from the chiente to the
+      spot where the family had taken refuge. As le Bourdon had crossed this
+      firm ground by daylight and had observed it well from his tree, he thought
+      himself enough of a guide to find his way through it in the dark, aided by
+      the marks just mentioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter had got as far as the edge of the marsh on his way toward
+      the hut, when, pausing an instant to examine the priming of his rifle, he
+      fancied that he heard a light footstep behind him. Turning, quick as
+      thought, he perceived that pretty Margery had followed him thus far.
+      Although time pressed, he could not part from the girl without showing
+      that he appreciated the interest she manifested in his behalf. Taking her
+      hand, therefore, he spoke with a simplicity and truth, that imparted to
+      his manner a natural grace that one bred in courts might have envied. What
+      was more, with a delicacy that few in course would deem necessary under
+      the circumstances, he did not in his language so much impute to concern on
+      his own account this movement of Margery's, as to that she felt for her
+      brother and sister; though in his inmost heart a throbbing hope prevailed
+      that he had his share in it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not be troubled on account of Gershom and his wife, pretty Margery,&rdquo;
+       said the bee-hunter, &ldquo;which, as I perceive, is the main reason why you
+      have come here; and as for myself, be certain that I shall not forget who
+      I have left behind, and how much her safety depends on my prudence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery was pleased, though a good deal confused. It was new to her to
+      hear allusions of this sort, but nature supplied the feeling to appreciate
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it not risking too much, Bourdon?&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Are you sure of being
+      able to find the crossing in the marsh, in a night so very dark? I do not
+      know but looking so long at the bright light in the cabin may blind me,
+      but it DOES seem as if I never saw a darker night!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The darkness increases, for the star-light is gone; but I can see where I
+      go, and so long as I can do that there is not much fear of losing my way.
+      I do not like to expose you to danger, but&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Never mind me, Bourdon&mdash;set me to do anything in which you think I
+      can be of use!&rdquo; exclaimed the girl, eagerly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well then, Margery, you may do this: come with me to the large tree in
+      the centre of the marsh, and I will set you on a duty that may possibly
+      save my life. I will tell you my meaning when there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery followed with a light, impatient step; and, as neither stopped to
+      speak or to look around, the two soon stood beneath the tree in question.
+      It was a large elm that completely overshadowed a considerable extent of
+      firm ground. Here a full and tolerably near view could be had of the hut,
+      which was still illuminated by the blazing fire within. For a minute both
+      stood silently gazing at the strange scene; then le Bourdon explained to
+      his companion the manner in which she might assist him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once at the elm, it was not so difficult to find the way across the marsh,
+      as it was to reach that spot, coming FROM the chiente. As there were
+      several elms scattered about in the centre of the marsh, the bee-hunter
+      was fearful that he might not reach the right tree; in which case he would
+      be compelled to retrace his steps, and that at the imminent hazard of
+      being captured. He carried habitually a small dark lantern, and had
+      thought of so disposing of it in the lower branches of this very elm, as
+      to form a focus of it, but hesitated about doing that which might prove a
+      guide to his enemies as well as to himself. If Margery would take charge
+      of this lantern, he could hope to reap its advantages without incurring
+      the hazard of having a light suspended in the tree for any length of time.
+      Margery understood the lessons she received, and promised to obey all the
+      injunctions by which they were accompanied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, God bless you, Margery,&rdquo; added the bee-hunter. &ldquo;Providence has
+      brought me and your brother's family together in troublesome times; should
+      I get back safe from this adventure, I shall look upon it as a duty to do
+      all I can to help Gershom place his wife and sister beyond the reach of
+      harm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God bless you, Bourdon!&rdquo; half whispered the agitated girl. &ldquo;I know it is
+      worth some risk to save a human life, even though it be that of an Injin,
+      and I will not try to persuade you from this undertaking; but do not
+      attempt more than is necessary, and rely on my using the lantern just as
+      you have told me to use it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Those young persons had not yet known each other a single day, yet both
+      felt that confidence which years alone, in the crowds of the world, can
+      ordinarily create in the human mind. The cause of the sympathy which draws
+      heart to heart, which generates friendships, and love, and passionate
+      attachments, is not obvious to all who choose to talk of it. There is yet
+      a profound mystery in our organization, which has hitherto escaped the
+      researches of both classes of philosophers, and which it probably was the
+      design of the Creator should not be made known to us until we draw nearer
+      to that great end which, sooner or later, is to be accomplished in behalf
+      of our race, when &ldquo;knowledge will abound,&rdquo; and we shall better understand
+      our being and its objects, than is permitted to us in this our day of
+      ignorance. But while we cannot trace the causes of a thousand things, we
+      know and feel their effects. Among the other mysteries of our nature is
+      this of sudden and strong sympathies, which, as between men for men, and
+      women for women, awaken confidence and friendship; and as between those of
+      different sexes, excite passionate attachments that more or less color
+      their future lives. The great delineator of our common nature, in no one
+      of the many admirable pictures he has drawn of men, manifests a more
+      profound knowledge of his subject, than in that in which he portrays the
+      sudden and nearly ungovernable inclination which Romeo and Juliet are made
+      to display for each other; an inclination that sets reason, habit,
+      prejudice, and family enmities at defiance. That such an attachment is to
+      be commended, we do not say; that all can feel it, we do not believe; that
+      connections formed under its influence can always be desirable, we are far
+      from thinking: but that it may exist we believe is just as certain as any
+      of the incomprehensible laws of our wayward and yet admirable nature. We
+      have no Veronese tale to relate here, however, but simply a homely legend,
+      in which human feeling may occasionally be made to bear an humble
+      resemblance to that world-renowned picture which had its scenes in the
+      beautiful capital of Venetian Lombardy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When le Bourdon left his companion, now so intensely interested in his
+      success, to pick his way in the darkness across the remainder of the
+      marsh, Margery retired behind the tree, where the first thing she did was
+      to examine her lantern, and to see that its light was ready to perform the
+      very important office which might so speedily be required of it. Satisfied
+      on this point, she turned her eyes anxiously in the direction of the hut.
+      By this time every trace of the bee-hunter was lost, the hillock in his
+      front forming too dark a background to admit of his being seen. But the
+      fire still blazed in the chiente, the savages not having yet finished
+      their cooking, though several had satisfied their appetites, and had
+      already sought places where they might stretch themselves for the night.
+      Margery was glad to see that these last individuals bestowed themselves
+      within the influence of the fire, warm as was the night. This was done
+      most probably to escape from the annoyance of the mosquitos, more or less
+      of which are usually found in the low lands of the new countries, and near
+      the margins of rivers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery could distinctly see the Chippewa, erect and bound to his tree. On
+      him she principally kept her looks riveted, for near his person did she
+      expect first again to find the bee-hunter. Indeed, there was no chance of
+      seeing one who was placed beneath the light of the fire, since the brow of
+      the acclivity formed a complete cover, throwing all below it into deep
+      shade. This circumstance was of the greatest importance to the adventurer,
+      however, enabling him to steal quite near to his friend, favored by a
+      darkness that was getting to be intense. Quitting Margery, we will now
+      rejoin le Bourdon, who by this time was approaching his goal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter had some difficulty in finding his way across the marsh;
+      but floundering through the impediments, and on the whole preserving the
+      main direction, he got out on the firm ground quite as soon as he had
+      expected to do. It was necessary for him to use extreme caution. The
+      Indians according to their custom had dogs, two of which had been in
+      sight, lying about half-way between the prisoner and the door of the hut.
+      Boden had seen a savage feeding these dogs; and it appeared to him at the
+      time as if the Indian had been telling them to be watchful of the
+      Chippewa. He well knew the services that the red men expected of these
+      animals, which are kept rather as sentinels than for any great use they
+      put them to in the hunts. An Indian dog is quick enough to give the alarm,
+      and he will keep on a trail for a long run and with considerable accuracy,
+      but it is seldom that he closes and has his share in the death, unless in
+      the case of very timid and powerless creatures.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, the presence of these dogs exacted extra caution in the
+      movements of the bee-hunter. He had ascended the hill a little out of the
+      stream of light which still issued from the open door of the hut, and was
+      soon high enough to get a good look at the state of things on the bit of
+      level land around the cabin. Fully one-half of the savages were yet up and
+      in motion; though the processes of cooking and eating were by this time
+      nearly ended. These men had senses almost as acute as those of their dogs,
+      and it was very necessary to be on his guard against them also. By moving
+      with the utmost caution, le Bourdon reached the edge of the line of light,
+      where he was within ten yards of the captive. Here he placed his rifle
+      against a small tree, and drew his knife, in readiness to cut the
+      prisoner's thongs. Three several times, while the bee-hunter was making
+      these preparations, did the two dogs raise their heads and scent the air;
+      once, the oldest of the two gave a deep and most ominous growl. Singular
+      as it may seem, this last indication of giving the alarm was of great
+      service to le Bourdon and the Chippewa. The latter heard the growl, and
+      saw two of the movements of the animals' heads, from all which he inferred
+      that there was some creature, or some danger behind him. This naturally
+      enough induced him to bestow a keen attention in that direction, and being
+      unable to turn body, limbs, or head, the sense of hearing was his only
+      means of watchfulness. It was while in this state of profound listening
+      that Pigeonswing fancied he heard his own name, in such a whisper as one
+      raises when he wishes to call from a short distance with the least
+      possible expenditure of voice. Presently the words &ldquo;Pigeonswing,&rdquo; and
+      &ldquo;Chippewa,&rdquo; were succeeded by those of &ldquo;bee-hunter,&rdquo; &ldquo;Bourdon.&rdquo; This was
+      enough: the quick-witted warrior made a low ejaculation, such as might be
+      mistaken for a half-suppressed murmur that proceeded from pain, but which
+      one keenly on the watch, and who was striving to communicate with him,
+      would be apt to understand as a sign of attention. The whispering then
+      ceased altogether, and the prisoner waited the result with the stoic
+      patience of an American Indian. A minute later the Chippewa felt the
+      thongs giving way, and his arms were released at the elbows. An arm was
+      next passed round his body, and the fastenings at the wrist were cut. At
+      this instant a voice whispered in his ear&mdash;&ldquo;Be of good heart,
+      Chippewa&mdash;your friend, Bourdon, is here. Can you stand?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No stand,&rdquo; answered the Indian in a low whisper&mdash;&ldquo;too much tie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At the next moment the feet of the Chippewa were released, as were also
+      his knees. Of all the fastenings none now remained but that which bound
+      the captive to the tree. In not cutting this, the bee-hunter manifested
+      his coolness and judgment; for were the stout rope of bark severed, the
+      Indian would have fallen like a log, from total inability to stand. His
+      thongs had impeded the circulation of the blood, and the usual temporary
+      paralysis had been the consequence. Pigeonswing understood the reason of
+      his friend's forbearance, and managed to rub his hands and wrists
+      together, while the bee-hunter himself applied friction to his feet, by
+      passing his own arms around the bottom of the tree. The reader may imagine
+      the intense anxiety of Margery the while; for she witnessed the arrival of
+      le Bourdon at the tree, and could not account for the long delay which
+      succeeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time, the dogs were far from being quiet or satisfied. Their
+      masters, accustomed to being surrounded at night by wolves and foxes, or
+      other beasts, took little heed, however, of the discontent of these
+      creatures, which were in the habit of growling in their lairs. The
+      bee-hunter, as he kept rubbing at his friend's legs, felt now but little
+      apprehension of the dogs, though a new source of alarm presented itself by
+      the time the Chippewa was barely able to sustain his weight on his feet,
+      and long before he could use them with anything like his former agility.
+      The manner in which the savages came together in the hut, and the gestures
+      made by their chief, announced pretty plainly that a watch was about to be
+      set for the night. As it was probable that the sentinel would take his
+      station near the prisoner, the bee-hunter was at a loss to decide whether
+      it were better to commence the flight before or after the rest of the
+      savages were in their lairs. Placing his mouth as close to the ear of
+      Pigeonswing as could be done without bringing his head into the light, the
+      following dialogue passed between le Bourdon and the captive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you see, Chippewa,&rdquo; the bee-hunter commenced, &ldquo;the chief is telling
+      one of the young men to come and keep guard near you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See him, well 'nough. Make too many sign, no to see.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What think you&mdash;shall we wait till the warriors are asleep, or try
+      to be off before the sentinel comes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bess wait, if one t'ing. You got rifle&mdash;got tomahawk&mdash;got
+      knife, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have them all, though my rifle is a short distance behind me, and a
+      little down the hill.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat bad&mdash;nebber let go rifle on war-path. Well, YOU tomahawk him&mdash;<i>I</i>
+      scalp him&mdash;dat'll do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall kill no man, Chippewa, unless there is great occasion for it. If
+      there is no other mode of getting you off, I shall choose to cut this last
+      thong, and leave you to take care of yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Give him tomahawk, den&mdash;give him knife, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not for such a purpose. I do not like to shed blood without a good reason
+      for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No call war good reason, eh? Bess reason in world Pottawattamie dig up
+      hatchet ag'in' Great Fadder at Wash'ton&mdash;dat no good reason why take
+      his scalp, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      In whispering these last words the Chippewa used so much energy, that the
+      dogs again raised their heads from between their forepaws and growled.
+      Almost at that instant the chief and his few remaining wakeful companions
+      laid themselves down to sleep, and the young warrior designated as the
+      sentinel left the hut and came slowly toward the prisoner. The
+      circumstances admitted of no delay; le Bourdon pressed the keen edge of
+      his knife across the withe that bound the Indian to the tree; first giving
+      him notice, in order that he might be prepared to sustain his own weight.
+      This done, the bee-hunter dropped on the ground, crawling away out of the
+      light; though the brow of the hill almost immediately formed a screen to
+      conceal his person from all near the hut. In another instant he had
+      regained his rifle, and was descending swiftly toward the crossing at the
+      marsh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+      We call them savage&mdash;oh, be just!
+        Their outraged feelings scan;
+      A voice comes forth, 'tis from the dust&mdash;
+        The savage was a man!
+                                 SPRAGUE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      As soon as le Bourdon reached the commencement of that which might be
+      called his path across the marsh, he stopped and looked backward. He was
+      now sufficiently removed from the low acclivity to see objects on its
+      summit, and had no difficulty in discerning all that the waning fire
+      illuminated. There stood the Chippewa erect against the tree as if still
+      bound with thongs, while the sentinel was slowly approaching him. The dogs
+      were on their feet, and gave two or three sharp barks, which had the
+      effect to cause five or six of the savages to lift their heads in their
+      lairs. One arose even and threw an armful of dried branches on the fire,
+      producing a bright blaze, that brought everything around the hut, and
+      which the light could touch, into full view.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter was astonished at the immovable calmness with which
+      Pigeonswing still stood to his tree, awaiting the approach of the
+      sentinel. In a few moments the latter was at his side. At first the
+      Pottawattamie did not perceive that the prisoner was unbound. He threw him
+      into shadow by his own person, and it required a close look to note the
+      circumstance. Boden was too far from the spot to see all the minor
+      movements of the parties, but there was soon a struggle that could not be
+      mistaken. As the Pottawattamie was examining the prisoner, an exclamation
+      that escaped him betrayed the sudden consciousness that the Chippewa was
+      unbound. The sound was no sooner uttered than Pigeonswing made a grasp at
+      the sentinel's knife, which however he did not obtain, when the two closed
+      and fell, rolling down the declivity into the darkness. When the
+      Pottawattamie seized the Chippewa, he uttered a yell, which instantly
+      brought every man of his party to his feet. As the savages now united in
+      the whoops, and the dogs began to bark wildly, an infernal clamor was
+      made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first, le Bourdon did not know how to act. He greatly feared the dogs,
+      and could not but think of Margery, and the probable consequences, should
+      those sagacious animals follow him across the marsh. But he did not like
+      the idea of abandoning Pigeonswing, when a single blow of his arm, or a
+      kick of his foot, might be the cause of his escape. While deliberating in
+      painful uncertainty, the sounds of the struggle ceased, and he saw the
+      sentinel rising again into the light, limping like one who had suffered by
+      a fall. Presently he heard a footstep near him, and, calling in a low
+      voice, he was immediately joined by Pigeonswing. Before the bee-hunter was
+      aware of his intention, the Chippewa seized his rifle, and levelling at
+      the sentinel, who still stood on the brow of the hill, drawn in all his
+      savage outlines distinctly in the light of the flames, he fired. The cry,
+      the leap into the air, and the fall, announced the unerring character of
+      the aim. In coming to the earth, the wounded man fell over the brow of the
+      sharp acclivity, and was heard rolling toward its base.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon felt the importance of now improving the precious moments, and
+      was in the act of urging his companion to follow, when the latter passed
+      an arm around his body, whipped his knife from the girdle and sheath, and
+      dropping the rifle into his friend's arms, bounded away in the darkness,
+      taking the direction of his fallen enemy. There was no mistaking all this;
+      Chippewa, led by his own peculiar sense of honor, risking everything to
+      obtain the usual trophy of victory. By this time, a dozen of the savages
+      stood on the brow of the hill, seemingly at a loss to understand what had
+      become of the combatants. Perceiving this, the bee-hunter profited by the
+      delay and reloaded his rifle. As everything passed almost as swiftly as
+      the electric spark is known to travel, it was but a moment after the
+      Pottawattamie fell ere his conqueror was through with his bloody task.
+      Just as le Bourdon threw his rifle up into the hollow of his arm, he was
+      rejoined by his red friend, who bore the reeking scalp of the sentinel at
+      his belt; though fortunately the bee-hunter did not see it on account of
+      the obscurity, else might he not have been so willing to continue to act
+      with so ruthless an ally.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Further stay was out of the question; for the Indians were now collected
+      in a body on the brow of the hill, where the chief was rapidly issuing his
+      orders. In a minute the band dispersed, every man bounding into the
+      darkness, as if aware of the danger of remaining within the influence of
+      the bright light thrown from the fire. Then came such a clamor from the
+      dogs, as left no doubt in the mind of the bee-hunter that they had scented
+      and found the remains of the fallen man. A fierce yell came from the same
+      spot, the proof that some of the savages had already discovered the body;
+      and le Bourdon told his companion to follow, taking his way across the
+      marsh as fast as he could overcome the difficulties of the path.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has already been intimated that it was not easy, if indeed it were
+      possible, to cross that piece of low wet land in a direct line. There was
+      tolerably firm ground on it, but it lay in an irregular form, its presence
+      being generally to be noted by the growth of trees. Le Bourdon had been
+      very careful in taking his landmarks, foreseeing the probability of a
+      hasty retreat, and he had no difficulty for some time in keeping in the
+      right direction. But the dogs soon left the dead body, and came bounding
+      across the marsh, disregarding its difficulties; though their plunges and
+      yells soon made it apparent that even they did not escape altogether with
+      dry feet. As for the savages, they poured down the declivity in a stream,
+      taking the dogs as their guides; and safe ones they might well be
+      accounted, so far as the SCENT was concerned, though they did not happen
+      to be particularly well acquainted with all the difficulties of the path.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At length le Bourdon paused, causing his companion to stop also. In the
+      hurry and confusion of the flight, the former had lost his landmarks,
+      finding himself amidst a copse of small trees, or large bushes, but not in
+      the particular copse he sought. Every effort to get out of this thicket,
+      except by the way he had entered it, proved abortive, and the dogs were
+      barking at no great distance in his rear. It is true that these animals no
+      longer approached: for they were floundering in the mud and water; but
+      their throats answered every purpose to lead the pursuers on, and the low
+      calls that passed from mouth to mouth, let the pursued understand that the
+      Pottawattamies were at their heels, if not absolutely on their trail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The crisis demanded both discretion and decision; qualities in which the
+      bee-hunter, with his forest training, was not likely to be deficient. He
+      looked out for the path by which he had reached the unfortunate thicket,
+      and having found it, commenced a retreat by the way he had come. Nerve was
+      needed to move almost in a line toward the dogs and their masters; but the
+      nerve was forthcoming, and the two advanced like veterans expecting the
+      fire of some concealed but well-armed battery. Presently, le Bourdon
+      stopped, and examined the ground on which he stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;HERE we must turn, Chippewa,&rdquo; he said, in a guarded voice. &ldquo;This is the
+      spot where I must have missed my way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good place to turn 'bout,&rdquo; answered the Indian&mdash;&ldquo;dog too near.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We must shoot the dogs if they press us too hard,&rdquo; returned the
+      bee-hunter, leading off rapidly, now secure in the right direction. &ldquo;They
+      seem to be in trouble, just at this time; but animals like them will soon
+      find their way across this marsh.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bess shoot Pottawattamie,&rdquo; coolly returned Pigeonswing. &ldquo;Pottawattamie
+      got capital scalp&mdash;dog's ears no good for nutting any more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yonder, I believe, is the tree I am in search of!&rdquo; exclaimed le Bourdon.
+      &ldquo;If we can reach that tree, I think all will go well with us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The tree was reached, and the bee-hunter proceeded to make sure of his
+      course from that point. Removing from his pouch a small piece of moistened
+      powder that he had prepared ere he liberated the Chippewa, he stuck it on
+      a low branch of the tree he was under, and on the side next the spot where
+      he had stationed Margery. When this was done, he made his companion stand
+      aside, and lighting some spunk with his flint and steel, he fired his
+      powder. Of course, this little preparation burned like the fireworks of a
+      boy, making sufficient light, however, to be seen in a dark night for a
+      mile or more. No sooner was the wetted powder hissing and throwing off its
+      sparks, than the bee-hunter gazed intently into the now seemingly tangible
+      obscurity of the marsh. A bright light appeared and vanished. It was
+      enough; the bee-hunter threw down his own signal and extinguished it with
+      his foot; and, as he wished, the lantern of Margery appeared no more.
+      Assured now of the accuracy of his position, as well as of the course he
+      was to pursue, le Bourdon bade his companion follow, and pressed anew
+      across the marsh. A tree was soon visible, and toward that particular
+      object the fugitives steadily pressed, until it was reached. At the next
+      instant Margery was joined; and the bee-hunter could not refrain from
+      kissing her, in the excess of his pleasure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is a dreadful howling of dogs,&rdquo; said Margery, feeling no offence at
+      the liberty taken, in a moment like that, &ldquo;and it seems to me that a whole
+      tribe is following at their heels. For Heaven's sake, Bourdon, let us
+      hasten to the canoes; brother and sister must think us lost!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The circumstances pressed, and the bee-hunter took Margery's arm, passing
+      it through one of his own, with a decided and protecting manner, that
+      caused the girl's heart to beat with emotions not in the least connected
+      with fear, leaving an impression of pleasure even at that perilous moment.
+      As the distance was not great, the three were soon on the beach and near
+      to the canoes. Here they met Dorothy, alone, and pacing to and fro like a
+      person distressed. She had doubtless heard the clamor, and was aware that
+      the savages were out looking for their party. As Margery met her sister,
+      she saw that something more than common had gone wrong, and in the
+      eagerness of her apprehensions she did not scruple about putting her
+      questions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has become of brother? Where is Gershom?&rdquo; demanded the sensitive
+      girl, at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The answer was given in a low voice, and in that sort of manner with which
+      woman struggles to the last to conceal the delinquencies of him she loves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Gershom is not himself, just now,&rdquo; half whispered the wife&mdash;&ldquo;he has
+      fallen into one of his old ways, ag'in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Old ways?&rdquo; slowly repeated the sister, dropping her own voice to tones
+      similar to those in which the unpleasant news had just been communicated.
+      &ldquo;How is that possible, now that all the whiskey is emptied?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems that Bourdon had a jug of brandy among his stores, and Gershom
+      found it out. I blame no one; for Bourdon, who never abuses the gifts of
+      Providence, had a right to his comforts at least; but it IS a pity that
+      there was anything of the sort in the canoes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter was greatly concerned at this unwelcome intelligence,
+      feeling all its importance far more vividly than either of his companions.
+      They regretted as women; but he foresaw the danger, as a man accustomed to
+      exertion in trying scenes. If Whiskey Centre had really fallen into his
+      old ways, so as to render himself an incumbrance, instead of being an
+      assistant at such a moment, the fact was to be deplored, but it could only
+      be remedied by time. Luckily they had the Indian with them, and he could
+      manage one of the canoes, while he himself took charge of the other. As no
+      time was to be lost&mdash;the barking of the dogs and the cries of the
+      savages too plainly letting it be known that the enemy was getting through
+      the marsh by some means or other&mdash;he hurried the party down to the
+      canoes, entering that of Whiskey Centre at once.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon found Gershom asleep, but with the heavy slumbers of the
+      drunkard. Dolly had removed the jug and concealed it, as soon as the state
+      of her husband enabled her to do so without incurring his violence. Else
+      might the unfortunate man have destroyed himself, by indulging in a liquor
+      so much more palatable than that he was accustomed to use, after so long
+      and compelled an abstinence. The jug was now produced, however, and le
+      Bourdon emptied it in the river, to the great joy of the two females,
+      though not without a sharp remonstrance from the Chippewa. The bee-hunter
+      was steady, and the last drop of the liquor of Gascony was soon mingling
+      with the waters of the Kalamazoo. This done, the bee-hunter desired the
+      women to embark, and called to the Chippewa to do the same. By quitting
+      the spot in the canoes, it was evident the pursuers would be balked,
+      temporarily at least, since they must recross the marsh in order to get
+      into their own boats, without which further pursuit would be fruitless.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It might have been by means of a secret sympathy, or it was possibly the
+      result of accident, but certain it is, that the Chippewa was placed in
+      that of le Bourdon. As for Whiskey Centre, he lay like a log in the bottom
+      of his own light bark, cared for only by his affectionate wife, who had
+      made a pillow for his head; but, fortunately, if no assistance just then,
+      not any material hindrance to the movements of his friends. By the time le
+      Bourdon and the Chippewa had got their stations, and the canoes were free
+      of the bottom, it was evident by the sounds, that not only the dogs, but
+      divers of their masters, had floundered through the swamp, and were
+      already on the firm ground east of it. As the dogs ran by scent, little
+      doubt remained of their soon leading the savages to the place of
+      embarkation. Aware of this, the bee-hunter directed the Chippewa to
+      follow, and urged his own canoe away from the shore, following one of
+      three of the natural channels that united just at that point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The clamor now sensibly increased, and the approach of the pursuers was
+      much faster than it had previously been, in consequence of there no longer
+      being wet land beneath their feet. At the distance of fifty yards from the
+      shore, however, the channel, or open avenue among the rice-plants that the
+      canoes had taken, made a short turn to the northward; for all the events
+      we have just been recording occurred on the northern, or leeward side of
+      the river. Once around this bend in the channel, the canoes would have
+      been effectually concealed from those on the beach, had it even been broad
+      daylight, and, of course, were so much more hidden from view under the
+      obscurity of a very dark night. Perceiving this, and fearful that the dip
+      of the paddles might be heard, le Bourdon ceased to urge his canoe through
+      the water, telling the Chippewa to imitate his example, and let the boats
+      drift. In consequence of this precaution the fugitives were still quite
+      near the shore when, first, the dogs, then a party of their masters, came
+      rushing down to the very spot whence the canoes had departed scarcely two
+      minutes before. As no precautions were taken to conceal the advance of the
+      pursuers, the pursued, or the individuals among them who alone understood
+      the common language of the great Ojebway nation well, had an opportunity
+      of hearing and understanding all that was said. Le Bourdon had brought the
+      two canoes together; and the Chippewa, at his request, now translated such
+      parts of the discourse of their enemies as he deemed worthy of
+      communicating to the females.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say, now, nobody dere!&rdquo; commenced the Indian, coolly. &ldquo;T'ink he no great
+      way off&mdash;mean to look for him&mdash;t'ink dog uneasy&mdash;won'er why
+      dog so uneasy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Them dogs are very likely to scent us here in the canoes, we are so near
+      them,&rdquo; whispered le Bourdon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;S'pose he do, can't catch us,&rdquo; coolly answered the Chippewa&mdash;&ldquo;beside,
+      shoot him, don't take care&mdash;bad for dog to chase warrior too much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There is one speaking now, who seems to have authority.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;he chief&mdash;know he voice&mdash;hear him too often&mdash;he
+      mean to put Pigeonswing to torture. Well, let him catch Pigeonswing fust&mdash;swift
+      bird do that, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what says he?&mdash;it may be of importance to learn what the chief
+      says, just now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who care what he say&mdash;can't do nuttin'&mdash;if get good chance,
+      take HIS scalp, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, that I dare say&mdash;but he is speaking earnestly and in a low
+      voice; listen, and let us know what he says. I do not well understand at
+      this distance.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Chippewa complied, and maintained an attentive silence until the chief
+      ceased to speak. Then he rendered what had been said into such English as
+      he could command, accompanying the translation by the explanations that
+      naturally suggested themselves to one like himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Chief talk to young men,&rdquo; said the Chippewa&mdash;&ldquo;all chief talk to
+      young men&mdash;tell him dat Pigeonswing must get off in canoe&mdash;don't
+      see canoe, nudder&mdash;but, muss be canoe, else he swim. T'ink more than
+      one Injin here&mdash;don't know, dough&mdash;maybe, maybe not&mdash;can't
+      tell, till see trail, morrow morning&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well; but what does he tell his young men to DO?&rdquo; demanded the
+      bee-hunter, impatiently.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't be squaw, Bourdon&mdash;tell all by'em bye. Tell young men s'pose
+      he get canoe, den he may get OUR canoe, and carry 'em off&mdash;s'pose he
+      swim; dat Chippewa devil swim down stream and get OUR canoe dat fashion&mdash;bess
+      go back, some of you, and see arter OUR canoe&mdash;dat what he tell young
+      men most.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is a lucky thought!&rdquo; exclaimed le Bourdon&mdash;&ldquo;let us paddle down,
+      at once, and seize all their canoes before they can get there. The
+      distance by water, owing to this bend in the river, is not half as great
+      as that by land, and the marsh will double the distance to them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat good counsel,&rdquo; said Pigeonswing&mdash;&ldquo;you go&mdash;I follow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was no sooner said, than the canoes again got in motion. The darkness
+      might now have been a sufficient protection had there been no rice, but
+      the plant would have concealed the movement, even at noon-day. The fire in
+      the hut served as a beacon, and enabled le Bourdon to find the canoes.
+      When he reached the landing, he could still hear the dogs barking on the
+      marsh, and the voices of those with them, calling in loud tones to two of
+      the savages who had remained at the chiente, as a sort of camp-guard.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What do them chaps say?&rdquo; asked le Bourdon of the Chippewa. &ldquo;They yell as
+      if striving to make the two men at the door of the hut hear them. Can you
+      make out what they are bawling so loud?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell two warrior to come down and take care of canoe&mdash;dat all&mdash;let
+      'em come&mdash;find two here to take care of DEM&mdash;got good scalp,
+      them two rascal Pottawattamie!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No&mdash;no&mdash;Pigeonswing&mdash;we must have no more of that work
+      to-night, but must set about towing these four canoes off the shore as
+      fast as we can. Have you got hitches on your two?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Fast 'nough&mdash;so fast, he follow,&rdquo; answered the Indian, who,
+      notwithstanding his preparations to help to remove the canoes, was
+      manifestly reluctant to depart without striking another blow at his
+      enemies. &ldquo;Now good time for dem rascal to lose scalp!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Them rascals, as you call them, begin to understand their friends in the
+      marsh, and are looking to the priming of their rifles. We must be moving,
+      or they may see us, and give us a shot. Shove off, Chippewa, and paddle at
+      once for the middle of the bay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As le Bourdon was much in earnest, Pigeonswing was fain to comply. Had the
+      last possessed a rifle of his own, or even a knife, it is highly probable
+      he would have leaped ashore, and found the means of stealing on some of
+      his enemies unawares, and thus secured another trophy. But the bee-hunter
+      was determined, and the Chippewa, however reluctant, was compelled to
+      obey; for not only had le Bourdon kept his rifle at his side, but he had
+      used the precaution of securing his knife and tomahawk, both of which he
+      carried habitually, the same as a red man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The canoes had now a somewhat difficult task. The wind still blew fresh,
+      and it was necessary for one of these light craft, pretty well loaded with
+      its proper freight, and paddled by only a single person, to tow two other
+      craft of equal size dead to the windward. The weight in the towing craft,
+      and the lightness of those that were towed, rendered this task, however,
+      easier than it might otherwise have proved. In the course of a couple of
+      minutes all the canoes were far enough from the shore to be out of sight
+      of the two Indians, who, by that time, had got down to the beach to look
+      after their own craft. The yell these savages raised on finding themselves
+      too late, not only announced their disappointment, but communicated the
+      extent of the disaster to their friends, who were still floundering
+      through the marsh.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great advantage that the party of the bee-hunter had now obtained must
+      be very apparent to all. In possession of ALL the canoes, their enemies
+      were, or would be for some time at least, confined to the northern side of
+      the river, which was so wide near its mouth as to present an effectual
+      barrier between them and those who occupied the opposite bank. The canoes,
+      also, enabled the weaker party to change their position at will, carrying
+      with them as many effects as were on board, and which included the whole
+      of the property of le Bourdon; while their loss deprived their enemies of
+      all extra means of motion, and would be very likely to induce them to
+      proceed on their expedition by land. The objects of that expedition could
+      only be conjectured by the bee-hunter, until he had questioned the
+      Chippewa; a thing he did not fail to do, so soon as he believed the party
+      quite safe under the south shore. Here the fugitives landed, proceeding up
+      a natural channel in the wild rice in order to do so, and selecting a bit
+      of dry beach for their purpose. Margery set about lighting a fire, in
+      order to keep the mosquitos at a distance, selecting a spot to kindle it,
+      behind a swell on the land, that concealed the light from all on the other
+      shore. In the morning, it would be necessary to extinguish that fire, lest
+      its smoke should betray their position. It was while these things were in
+      progress, and after le Bourdon had himself procured the fuel necessary to
+      feed pretty Margery's fire, that he questioned the Chippewa touching his
+      captivity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, tell all 'bout him,&rdquo; answered the Indian, as soon as interrogated&mdash;&ldquo;no
+      good to hide trail from friend. 'Member when say good-by up in openin' to
+      Bourdon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly&mdash;I remember the very instant when you left me. The
+      Pottawattamie went on one path, and you went on another. I was glad of
+      that, as you seemed to think he was not your friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; good not to travel on same path as inimy, 'cause he quarrel
+      sometime,&rdquo; coolly returned the Indian. &ldquo;Dis time, path come together,
+      somehow; and Pottawattamie lose he scalp.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am aware of all that, Pigeonswing, and wish it had not been so. I found
+      the body of Elksfoot sitting up against a tree soon after you left me, and
+      knew by whose hands he had fallen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Didn't find scalp, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, the scalp had been taken; though I accounted that but for little,
+      since the man's life was gone. There is little gained by carrying on war
+      in this manner, making the woods, and the openings, and the prairies,
+      alike unsafe. You see, to what distress this family is reduced by your
+      Injin manner of making war.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How you make him, den&mdash;want, to hear. Go kiss, and give venison to
+      inimy, or go get his scalp, eh? Which bess fashion to make him afeard, and
+      own you master?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All that may be done without killing single travellers, or murdering
+      women and children. The peace will be made none the sooner between England
+      and America, because you have got the scalp of Elksfoot.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No haben't got him any longer; wish had&mdash;Pottawattamie take him
+      away, and say he bury him. Well, let him hide him in a hole deep as white
+      man's well, can't hide Pigeonswing honor dere, too. Dat is safe as notch
+      cut on stick can make him!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This notch on a stick was the Indian mode of gazetting a warrior; and a
+      certain number of these notches was pretty certain to procure for him a
+      sort of savage brevet, which answered his purpose quite as well as the
+      modern mode of brevetting at Washington answers our purpose. Neither
+      brings any pay, we believe, nor any command, except in such cases as
+      rarely occur, and then only to the advantage of government. There are
+      varieties in honor, as in any other human interest: so are there many
+      moral degrees in warfare. Thus, the very individual who admires the
+      occupation of Algiers, or that of Tahiti, or the attack on Canton,
+      together with the long train of Indian events which have dyed the
+      peninsulas of the East in the blood of their people, sees an alarming
+      enormity in the knocking down of the walls of Vera Cruz, though the breach
+      opened a direct road into San Juan de Ulloa. In the eyes of the same
+      profound moralists, the garitas of Mexico ought to have been respected, as
+      so many doors opening into the boudoirs of the beautiful dames of that
+      fine capital; it being a monstrous thing to fire a shot into the streets
+      of a town, no matter how many came out of them. We are happy, therefore,
+      to have it in our power to add these touches of philosophy that came from
+      Pigeonswing to those of the sages of the old world, by way of completing a
+      code of international morals on this interesting subject, in which the
+      student shall be at a loss to say which he most admires&mdash;that which
+      comes from the schools, or that which comes direct from the wilderness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So best,&rdquo; answered the bee-hunter. &ldquo;I wish I could persuade you to throw
+      away that disgusting thing at your belt. Remember, Chippewa, you are now
+      among Christians, and ought to do as Christians wish.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What Christians DO, eh?&rdquo; returned the Indian, with a sneer, &ldquo;get drunk
+      like Whiskey Centre, dere? Cheat poor red man; den get down on knee and
+      look up at Manitou? DAT what Christian do, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They who do such things are Christian but in name&mdash;you must think
+      better of such as are Christians in fact.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ebberybody call himself Christian, tell you&mdash;all pale-face
+      Christian, dey say. Now, listen to Chippewa. Once talk long talk wit'
+      missionary&mdash;tell all about Christian&mdash;what Christian do&mdash;what
+      Christian say&mdash;how he eat, how he sleep, HOW he drink!&mdash;all good&mdash;wish
+      Pigeonwing Christian&mdash;den 'member so'ger at garrison&mdash;no eat, no
+      sleep, no drink Christian fashion&mdash;do ebbery t'ing so'ger fashion&mdash;swear,
+      fight, cheat, get drunk&mdash;wuss dan Injin&mdash;dat Christian, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, that is not acting like a Christian; and I fear very few of us who
+      call ourselves by that name, act as if we were Christians, in truth,&rdquo; said
+      le Bourdon, conscious of the justice of the Chippewa's accusation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just dat&mdash;now, I get him&mdash;ask missionary, one day, where all
+      Christian go to, so dat Injin can't find him&mdash;none in woods&mdash;none
+      on prairie&mdash;none in garrison&mdash;none in Mack'naw&mdash;none at
+      Detroit&mdash;where all go to, den, so Injin can't find him, on'y in
+      missionary talk?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am curious to know what answer your missionary made to that question.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, tell you&mdash;say, on'y one in ten t'ousant RAAL Christians 'mong
+      pale-face, dough all call himself Christian! DAT what Injin t'ink queer,
+      eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not easy to make a red man understand all the ways of the
+      pale-faces, Pigeonswing; but we will talk of these things another time,
+      when we are more at our ease. Just now, I wish to learn all I can of the
+      manner in which you fell into the hands of the Pottawattamies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat plain 'nough&mdash;wish Christian talk half as plain. You see,
+      Bourdon, dat Elksfoot on scout, when we meet in openin', up river. I
+      know'd his ar'nd, and so took scalp. Dem Pottawattamie his friend&mdash;when
+      dey come to meet ole chief, no find him; but find Pigeonwing; got me when
+      tired and 'sleep; got Elkfoot scalp wid me&mdash;sorry for dat&mdash;know
+      scalp by scalp-lock, which had gray hair, and some mark. So put me in
+      canoe, and meant to take Chippewa to Chicago to torture him&mdash;but too
+      much wind. So, when meet friend in t'odder canoe, come back here to wait
+      little while.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was the simple explanation of the manner in which Pigeonswing had
+      fallen into the hands of his enemies. It would seem that Elksfoot had come
+      in a canoe from the mouth of the St. Joseph's to a point about half-way
+      between that river and the mouth of the Kalamazoo, and there landed. What
+      the object of the party was, does not exactly appear, though it is far
+      from being certain that it was not to seize the bee-hunter, and confiscate
+      his effects. Although le Bourdon was personally a stranger to Elksfoot,
+      news flies through the wilderness in an extraordinary manner; and it was
+      not at all unlikely that the fact of a white American's being in the
+      openings should soon spread, along with the tidings that the hatchet was
+      dug up, and that a party should go out in quest of his scalp and the
+      plunder. It would seem that the savage tact of the Chippewa detected that
+      in the manner of the Pottawattamie chief, which assured him the intentions
+      of the old warrior were not amicable; and that he took the very summary
+      process which has been related, not only to secure HIS scalp, but
+      effectually to put it out of his power to do any mischief to one who was
+      an ally, and by means of recent confidence, now a friend. All this the
+      Indian explained to his companion, in his usual clipped English, but with
+      a clearness sufficient to make it perfectly intelligible to his listener.
+      The bee-hunter listened with the most profound attention, for he was fully
+      aware of the importance of comprehending all the hazards of his own
+      situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While this dialogue was going on, Margery had succeeded in lighting her
+      fire, and was busy in preparing some warm compound, which she knew would
+      be required by her unhappy brother after his debauch, Dorothy passed often
+      between the fire and the canoe, feeling a wife's anxiety in the fate of
+      her husband. As for the Chippewa, intoxication was a very venial offence
+      in his eyes; though he had a contempt for a man who would thus indulge
+      while on a warpath. The American Indian does possess this merit of
+      adapting his deportment to his circumstances. When engaged in war he
+      usually prepares himself, in the coolest and wisest manner, to meet its
+      struggles, indulging only in moments of leisure, and of comparative
+      security. It is true that the march of what is called civilization is fast
+      changing the red man's character, and he is very apt now to do that which
+      he sees done by the &ldquo;Christians&rdquo; around him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon, when his dialogue with the Chippewa was over, and after a few
+      words of explanation with Margery, took his own canoe, and paddled through
+      the rice-plants into the open water of the river, to reconnoitre. The
+      breadth of the stream induced him to float down before the wind, until he
+      reached a point where he could again command a view of the hut. What he
+      there saw, and what he next did, must be reserved for a succeeding
+      chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER VIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     The elfin cast a glance around,
+     As he lighted down from his courser toad,
+     Then round his breast his wings he wound,
+     And close to the river's brink he strode;
+     He sprang on a rock, he breathed a prayer,
+     Above his head his arm he threw,
+     Then tossed a tiny curve in air,
+     And headlong plunged in the water blue.
+                                           DRAKE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      An hour had intervened between the time when le Bourdon had removed the
+      canoes of the Pottawattamies, and the time when he returned alone to the
+      northern side of the river. In the course of that hour the chief of the
+      savages had time to ascertain all the leading circumstances that have just
+      been related, and to collect his people in and around the hut, for a
+      passing council. The moment was one of action, and not of ceremonies. No
+      pipe was smoked, nor any of the observances of the great councils of the
+      tribe attended to; the object was merely to glean facts and to collect
+      opinions. In all the tribes of this part of North America, something very
+      like a principle of democracy is the predominant feature of their
+      politics. It is not, however, that bastard democracy which is coming so
+      much in fashion among ourselves, and which looks into the gutters solely
+      for the &ldquo;people,&rdquo; forgetting that the landlord has just as much right to
+      protection as the tenant, the master as the servant, the rich as the poor,
+      the gentleman as the blackguard. The Indians know better than all this.
+      They understand, fully, that the chiefs are entitled to more respect than
+      the loafers in their villages, and listen to the former, while their ears
+      are shut to the latter. They appear to have a common sense, which teaches
+      them to avoid equally the exaggerations of those who believe in blood, and
+      of those who believe in blackguardism. With them the doctrines of &ldquo;new
+      men&rdquo; would sound as an absurdity, for they never submit to change for
+      change's sake. On the contrary, while there is no positive hereditary
+      rank, there is much hereditary consideration; and we doubt if a red man
+      could be found in all America, who is so much of a simpleton as to cite
+      among the qualifications of any man for a situation of trust and
+      responsibility, that he had never been TAUGHT how to perform its duties.
+      They are not guilty of the contradiction of elevating men BECAUSE they are
+      self-taught, while they expend millions on schools. Doubtless they have,
+      after a fashion of their own, demagogues and Caesars, but they are usually
+      kept within moderate limits; and in rare instances, indeed, do either ever
+      seriously trespass on the rights of the tribe. As human nature is
+      everywhere the same, it is not to be supposed that pure justice prevails
+      even among savages; but one thing would seem to be certain, that, all over
+      the world, man in his simplest and wildest state is more apt to respect
+      his own ordinances, than when living in what is deemed a condition of high
+      civilization.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When le Bourdon reached the point whence he could get a good view of the
+      door of the hut, which was still illuminated by the fire within, he ceased
+      using the paddle beyond the slight effort necessary to keep the canoe
+      nearly stationary. He was quite within the range of a rifle, but trusted
+      to the darkness of the night for his protection. That scouts were out,
+      watching the approaches to the hut, he felt satisfied; and he did not
+      doubt that some were prowling along the margin of the Kalamazoo, either
+      looking for the lost boats, or for those who had taken them away. This
+      made him cautious, and he took good care not to place his canoe in a
+      position of danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was very apparent that the savages were in great uncertainty as to the
+      number of their enemies. Had not the rifle been fired, and their warrior
+      killed and scalped, they might have supposed that their prisoner had found
+      the means of releasing his limbs himself, and thus effected his escape;
+      but they knew that the Chippewa had neither gun nor knife, and as all
+      their own arms, even to those of the dead man, were still in their
+      possession, it was clear that he had been succored from without. Now, the
+      Pottawattamies had heard of both the bee-hunter and Whiskey Centre, and it
+      was natural enough for them to ascribe some of these unlooked-for feats to
+      one or the other of these agents. It is true, the hut was known to have
+      been built three or four years earlier, by an Indian trader, and no one of
+      the party had ever actually seen Gershom and his family in possession; but
+      the conjectures on this head were as near the fact, as if the savages had
+      passed and repassed daily. There was only one point on which these close
+      calculators of events were at fault. So thoroughly had everything been
+      removed from the chiente, and so carefully the traces of its recent
+      occupation concealed, that no one among them suspected that the family had
+      left the place only an hour before their own arrival. The bee-hunter,
+      moreover, was well assured that the savages had not yet blundered on the
+      hiding-place of the furniture. Had this been discovered, its contents
+      would have been dragged to light, and seen around the fire; for there is
+      usually little self-restraint among the red men, when they make a prize of
+      this sort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, there was one point about which even those keen-scented
+      children of the forest were much puzzled, and which the bee-hunter
+      perfectly comprehended, notwithstanding the distance at which he was
+      compelled to keep himself. The odor of the whiskey was so strong, in and
+      about the chiente, that the Pottawattamies did not know what to make of
+      it. That there should be the remains of this peculiar smell&mdash;one so
+      fragrant and tempting to those who are accustomed to indulge in the liquor&mdash;in
+      the hut itself, was natural enough; but the savages were perplexed at
+      finding it so strong on the declivity down which the barrels had been
+      rolled. On this subject were they conversing, when le Bourdon first got
+      near enough to observe their proceedings. After discussing the matter for
+      some time, torches were lighted, and most of the party followed a grim old
+      warrior, who had an exceedingly true nose for the scent of whiskey, and
+      who led them to the very spot where the half-barrel had been first stove
+      by rolling off a rock, and where its contents had been mainly spilled.
+      Here the earth was yet wet in places, and the scent was so strong as to
+      leave no doubt of the recent nature of the accident which had wasted so
+      much of a liquor that was very precious in Pottawattamie eyes; for
+      accident they thought it must be, since no sane man could think of
+      destroying the liquor intentionally.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All the movements, gestures, and genuflections of the savages were plainly
+      seen by the bee-hunter. We say the genuflections, for nearly all of the
+      Indians got on their knees and applied their noses to the earth, in order
+      to scent the fragrance of the beloved whiskey; some out of curiosity, but
+      more because they loved even this tantalizing indulgence, when no better
+      could be had. But le Bourdon was right in his conjectures, that the matter
+      was not to end here. Although most of the Indians scented the remains of
+      the whiskey out of love for the liquor, a few of their number reasoned on
+      the whole transaction with quite as much acuteness as could have been done
+      by the shrewdest natural philosopher living. To them it was very apparent
+      that no great length of time, a few hours at most, could have elapsed
+      since that whiskey was spilled; and human hands must have brought it
+      there, in the first place, and poured it on the ground, in the second.
+      There must have been a strong reason for such an act, and that reason
+      presented itself to their minds with unerring accuracy. Their own approach
+      must have been seen, and the liquor was destroyed because it could not be
+      removed in time to prevent its falling into their hands. Even the precise
+      manner in which the whiskey had been disposed of was pretty nearly
+      conjectured by a few of the chiefs, acute and practised as they were; who,
+      accustomed to this species of exercise of their wits, had some such
+      dexterity in examining facts of this nature, and in arriving at just
+      results, as the men of the schools manifest in the inquiries that more
+      especially belong to their habits and training. But their conclusions were
+      confined to themselves; and they were also sufficiently enveloped in
+      doubts, to leave those who made them ready enough to receive new
+      impressions on the same subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this, moreover, le Bourdon both saw and understood; or, if not
+      absolutely all, so much of it as to let him comprehend the main
+      conclusions of the savages, as well as the process by which they were
+      reached. To obtain light, the Indians made a fire near the charmed spot,
+      which brought themselves and their movements into plain view from the
+      canoe of the bee-hunter. Curiosity now became strongly awakened in the
+      latter, and he ventured in nearer to the shore, in order to get the best
+      possible view of what was going on. In a manner, he was solving an enigma;
+      and he experienced the sort of pleasure we all feel at exercising our wits
+      on difficulties of that nature. The interest he felt rendered the young
+      man careless as respected the position of his canoe, which drifted down
+      before the strong breeze, until le Bourdon found himself in the very edge
+      of the wild rice, which at this point formed but a very narrow belt along
+      the beach. It was this plant, indeed, that contributed to make the young
+      man so regardless of his drift, for he looked upon the belt of rice as a
+      species of landmark to warn him when to turn. But, at no other spot along
+      that whole shore, where the plant was to be found at all, was its belt so
+      narrow as at this, immediately opposite to the new fire of the savages,
+      and almost within the influence of its rays. To le Bourdon's surprise, and
+      somewhat to his consternation, just as his little craft touched the rice,
+      the forms of two stout warriors passed along the beach, between him and
+      the light, their feet almost dipping in the water. So near were these two
+      warriors to him, that, on listening intently, he heard not only their
+      voices, as they communicated their thoughts to each other in low tones,
+      but the tread of their moccasined feet on the ground. Retreat, under the
+      circumstances, would not be safe, for it must have been made under the
+      muzzles of the rifles; and but one resource presented itself. By grasping
+      in his hand two or three stalks of the rice-plant, and holding them
+      firmly, the drift of the canoe was arrested.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After a moment's reflection, le Bourdon was better satisfied with this new
+      station than he had been on first gaining it. To have ventured on such a
+      near approach to his enemies, he would have regarded as madness; but now
+      he was there, well concealed among the rice, he enjoyed the advantages of
+      observation it gave him, and looked upon the chance that brought him there
+      as lucky. He found a thong of buckskin, and fastened his canoe to the
+      stalks of the plant, thus anchoring or mooring his little bark, and
+      leaving himself at liberty to move about in it. The rice was high enough
+      to conceal him, even when erect, and he had some difficulty in finding
+      places favorable to making his observations through it. When the
+      bee-hunter made his way into the bow of his canoe, however, which he did
+      with a moccasined and noiseless foot, he was startled at perceiving how
+      small was his cover. In point of fact, he was now within three feet of the
+      inner edge of the rice-plant, which grew within ten feet of the shore,
+      where the two warriors already mentioned were still standing, in close
+      communication with each other. Their faces were turned toward the fire,
+      the bright light from which, at times, streamed over the canoe itself, in
+      a way to illumine all it contained. The first impulse of le Bourdon, on
+      ascertaining how closely he had drifted to the shore, was to seize a
+      paddle and make off, but a second thought again told him it would be far
+      safer to remain where he was. Taking his seat, therefore, on a bit of
+      board laid athwart, from gunwale to gunwale, if such a craft can be said
+      to have gunwales at all, he patiently waited the course of events.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time, all or nearly all of the Pottawattamies had collected on
+      this spot, on the side of the hill. The hut was deserted, its fire got to
+      be low, and darkness reigned around the place. On the other hand, the
+      Indians kept piling brush on their new fire, until the whole of that
+      hill-side, the stream at its foot, and the ravine through which the latter
+      ran, were fairly illuminated. Of course, all within the influence of this
+      light was to be distinctly seen, and the bee-hunter was soon absorbed in
+      gazing at the movements of savage enemies, under circumstances so
+      peculiar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The savages seemed to be entranced by the singular, and to most of them
+      unaccountable circumstance of the earth's giving forth the scent of fresh
+      whiskey, in a place so retired and unknown. While two or three of their
+      number had certain inklings of the truth, as has been stated, to much the
+      greater portion of their body it appeared to be a profound mystery; and
+      one that, in some inexplicable manner, was connected with the recent
+      digging up of the hatchet. Ignorance and superstition ever go hand in
+      hand, and it was natural that many, perhaps most of these uninstructed
+      beings should thus consider so unusual a fragrance, on such a spot.
+      Whiskey has unfortunately obtained a power over the red man of this
+      continent that it would require many Fathers Matthew to suppress, and
+      which can only be likened to that which is supposed to belong to the
+      influence of witchcraft. The Indian is quite as sensible as the white man
+      of the mischief that the &ldquo;fire-water&rdquo; produces; but, like the white man,
+      he finds how hard it is to get rid of a master passion, when we have once
+      submitted ourselves to its sway. The portion of the band that could not
+      account for the fact of the scent of their beloved beverage's being found
+      in such a place, and it was all but three of their whole party, were quite
+      animated in their discussions on the subject, and many and crude were the
+      suggestions that fell from their lips. The two warriors on the beach were
+      more deeply impressed than any of their companions, with the notion that
+      some &ldquo;medicine charm&rdquo; was connected with this extraordinary affair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader will not be surprised to hear that le Bourdon gazed on the
+      scene before him with the most profound attention. So near did he seem to
+      be, and so near was he, in fact, to the savages who were grouped around
+      the fire, that he fancied he could comprehend what they were saying, by
+      the expressions of their grim and swarthy countenances. His conjectures
+      were in part just, and occasionally the bee-hunter was absolutely accurate
+      in his notions of what was said. The frequency with which different
+      individuals knelt on the ground, to scent an odor that is always so
+      pleasant to the red man, would of itself have given a clew to the general
+      character of the discourse; but the significant and expressive gestures,
+      the rapid enunciation, and the manner in which the eyes of the speakers
+      glanced from the faces near themselves to the spot consecrated by whiskey,
+      pretty plainly told the story. It was while thus intently occupied in
+      endeavoring to read the singular impression made on the minds of most of
+      those wild beings, by an incident so much out of the usual track of their
+      experience, that le Bourdon suddenly found the bow of his canoe thrusting
+      itself beyond the inner margin of the rice, and issuing into open water,
+      within ten feet of the very spot where the two nearest of the savages were
+      still conferring together, apart. The buckskin thong which served as a
+      fastening had got loosened, and the light craft was again drifting down
+      before the strong southerly wind, which still continued to blow a little
+      gale.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had there been an opportunity for such a thing, the bee-hunter would have
+      made an effort to escape. But so sudden and unexpected was this exposure,
+      that he found himself almost within reach of a rifle, before he was aware
+      of his approaching the two warriors on the shore, at all. His paddle was
+      in the stern of the canoe, and had he used the utmost activity, the boat
+      would have grounded on the beach, ere he could have obtained it. In this
+      situation, therefore, he was absolutely without any other means than his
+      hands of stopping the canoe, had there even been time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon understood his real situation without stopping to reflect; and,
+      though his heart made one violent leap as soon as he perceived he was out
+      of cover, he immediately bethought him of the course he ought to pursue.
+      It would have been fatal to betray alarm, or to attempt flight. As
+      accident had thus brought him, as it might be on a visit, to the spot, he
+      at once determined to give his arrival the character of a friendly call,
+      and the better to support the pretension, to blend with it, if possible, a
+      little of the oracular, or &ldquo;medicine&rdquo; manner, in order to impose on the
+      imaginations of the superstitious beings into whose power he had so
+      unwittingly fallen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The instant the canoe touched the shore, and it was only a moment after it
+      broke through the cover, le Bourdon arose, and extending his hand to the
+      nearest Indian, saluted him with the mongrel term of &ldquo;Sago.&rdquo; A slight
+      exclamation from this warrior communicated to his companion an arrival
+      that was quite as much a matter of surprise to the Indians as to their
+      guest, and through this second warrior to the whole party on the
+      hill-side. A little clamor succeeded, and presently the bee-hunter was
+      surrounded with savages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The meeting was marked by the self-command and dignified quiet that are so
+      apt to distinguish the deportment of Indian warriors, when they are on the
+      war-path, and alive to the duties of manhood. The bee-hunter shook hands
+      with several, who received his salutations with perfect calmness, if not
+      with absolute confidence and amity. This little ceremony gave our hero an
+      opportunity to observe the swarthy countenances by which he was
+      surrounded, most of which were fierce in their paint, as well as to
+      reflect a little on his own course. By a fortunate inspiration he now
+      determined to assume the character of a &ldquo;medicine man,&rdquo; and to connect his
+      prophecies and juggleries with this lucky accident of the whiskey.
+      Accordingly, he inquired if any one spoke English, not wishing to trust
+      his explanations to his own imperfect knowledge of the Ojebway tongue,
+      which is spoken by all the numerous tribes of that widely-extended nation.
+      Several could render themselves intelligible in English, and one was so
+      expert as to render communication with him easy, if not very agreeable. As
+      the savages, however, soon insisted on examining the canoe, and taking a
+      look at its contents, previously to listening to their visitor's
+      explanations, le Bourdon was fain to submit, and to let the young men
+      satisfy their curiosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter had come on his hazardous expedition in his own canoe.
+      Previously to quitting the south shore, however, he had lightened the
+      little craft, by landing everything that was not essential to his present
+      purpose. As nearly half of his effects were in the canoe of Whiskey
+      Centre, the task was soon performed, and lucky it was for our hero that he
+      had bethought him of the prudence of the measure. His sole object had been
+      to render the canoe swifter and lighter, in the event of a chase; but, as
+      things turned out, he saved no small portion of his property by using the
+      precaution. The Indians found nothing in the canoe, but one rifle, with a
+      horn and pouch, a few light articles belonging to the bee-hunter's
+      domestic economy, and which he had not thought it necessary to remove, and
+      the paddles. All the honey, and the skins and stores, and spare powder,
+      and lead, and, in short, everything else that belonged to le Bourdon, was
+      still safe on the other side of the river. The greatest advantage gained
+      by the Pottawattamies was in the possession of the canoe itself, by means
+      of which they would now be enabled to cross the Kalamazoo, or make any
+      other similar expedition, by water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, as yet, not a sign of hostility was betrayed by either party. The
+      bee-hunter seemed to pay no attention to his rifle and ammunition, or even
+      to his canoe, while the savages, after having warily examined the last,
+      together with its contents, returned to their visitor, to re-examine him,
+      with a curiosity as lively as it was full of distrust. At this stage in
+      the proceeding, something like a connected and intelligible conversation
+      commenced between the chief who spoke English, and who was known in most
+      of the north-western garrisons of the Americans by the name of
+      Thundercloud, or Cloud, by way of abbreviation, on account of his sinister
+      looks, though the man actually sustained a tolerably fair reputation for
+      one of those who, having been wronged, was so certain to be calumniated.
+      No man was ever yet injured, that he has not been slandered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who kill and scalp my young man?&rdquo; asked Cloud, a little abruptly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Has my brother lost a warrior?&rdquo; was the calm reply. &ldquo;Yes, I see that he
+      has. A medicine-man can see that, though it is dark.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who kill him, if can see?-who scalp him, too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An enemy did both,&rdquo; answered le Bourdon, oracularly. &ldquo;Yes; 'twas an enemy
+      that killed him; and an enemy that took his scalp.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do it, eh? Why come here to take Pottawattamia scalp, when no
+      war-path open, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pottawattamie, the truth must always be said to a medicine-man. There is
+      no use in trying to hide truth from HIM. There IS a war-path open; and a
+      long and a tangled path it is. My Great Father at Washington has dug up
+      the hatchet against my Great Father at Quebec. Enemies always take scalps
+      when they can get them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat true&mdash;dat right, too&mdash;nobody grumble at DAT&mdash;but who
+      enemy? pale-face or red-skin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This time it was a red-skin&mdash;a Chippewa&mdash;one of your own
+      nation, though not of your own tribe. A warrior called Pigeonswing, whom
+      you had in thongs, intending to torture him in the morning. He cut his
+      thongs, and shot your young man&mdash;after which he took his scalp.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How know dat?&rdquo; demanded the Cloud, a little fiercely. &ldquo;You 'long, and
+      help kill Pottawattamie, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know it,&rdquo; answered le Bourdon, coolly, &ldquo;because medicine-men know most
+      of what happens. Do not be so hasty, chief, for this is a medicine spot&mdash;whiskey
+      GROWS here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A common exclamation escaped all of the red men, who comprehended the
+      clear, distinct, and oracular-like language and manner of the bee-hunter.
+      He intended to make an impression on his listeners, and he succeeded
+      admirably; perhaps as much by means of manner as of matter. As has been
+      said, all who understood his words&mdash;some four or five of the party&mdash;grunted
+      forth their surprise at this evidence of their guest's acquaintance with
+      the secrets of the place, in which they were joined by the rest of their
+      companions, as soon as the words of the pale-face had been translated.
+      Even the experienced and wary old chiefs, who had more than half
+      conjectured the truth, in connection with this mysterious odor of whiskey,
+      were much unsettled in their opinions concerning the wonder, and got to be
+      in that condition of mind when a man does not know what to think of any
+      particular event. The bee-hunter, quick-witted, and managing for his life,
+      was not slow to perceive the advantage he had gained, and he proceeded at
+      once to clinch the nail he had so skilfully driven. Turning from Cloud to
+      the head-chief of the party, a warrior whom he had no difficulty in
+      recognizing, after having so long watched his movements in the earlier
+      part of the night, he pushed the same subject a little further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; this place is called by the whites Whiskey Centre,&rdquo; he added&mdash;&ldquo;which
+      means that it is the centre of all the whiskey of the country round
+      about.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat true,&rdquo; said Cloud, quickly&mdash;&ldquo;I hear so'ger at Fort Dearborn call
+      him Whiskey Centre!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This little circumstance greatly complicated the mystery, and le Bourdon
+      perceived that he had hit on a lucky explanation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Soldiers far and near&mdash;soldiers drunk or sober&mdash;soldiers with
+      scalps, and soldiers without scalps&mdash;all know the place by that name.
+      But you need not believe with your eyes shut and noses stopped, chief,
+      since you have the means of learning for yourselves the truth of what I
+      tell you. Come with me, and I will tell you where to dig in the morning
+      for a whiskey spring.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This communication excited a tremendous feeling among the savages, when
+      its purport came to be explained to the whole party. Apart from the
+      extraordinary, miraculous nature of such a spring, which in itself was
+      sufficient to keep alive expectation and gratify curiosity, it was so
+      comfortable to have an inexhaustible supply of the liquor running out of
+      the bowels of the earth, that it is no wonder the news spread infinite
+      delight among the listeners. Even the two or three of the chiefs who had
+      so shrewdly divined the manner in which the liquor had been spilled, were
+      staggered by the solemnity and steadiness of the bee-hunter's manner, and
+      perhaps a little carried away by sympathy with those around them. This
+      yielding of the human mind to the influence of numbers is so common an
+      occurrence as scarcely to require explanation, and is the source of half
+      the evils that popular associations inflict on themselves. It is not that
+      men capable of SEEING the truth are ever wanting; but men capable of
+      MAINTAINING it, in the face of clamor and collected power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will be readily conceived that a medicine-man who is supposed to
+      possess the means of discovering a spring that should overflow with pure
+      whiskey, would not be left without urgent demands for a speedy exercise of
+      this art. This was now the case with le Bourdon, who was called on from
+      all sides to point out the precise spot where the young men were to
+      commence digging in order to open on the treasure. Our hero knew that his
+      only hope of escape was connected with his steadily maintaining his
+      assumed character; or of maintaining this assumed character, with his
+      going on, at once, to do something that might have the effect, temporarily
+      at least, of satisfying the impatience of his now attentive listeners.
+      Accordingly, when the demand was made on him to give some evidence of his
+      power, he set about the task, not only with composure, but with a good
+      deal of ingenuity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon, it will be remembered, had, with his own hands, rolled the two
+      barrels of whiskey down the declivity. Feeling the great importance of
+      effectually destroying them, he had watched their descent, from the top to
+      the bottom of the hill, and the final disappearance of the staves, etc.,
+      into the torrent which brawled at its foot. It had so happened that the
+      half-filled cask broke and let out its liquor at a point much more remote
+      from the stream, than the filled. The latter had held together until it
+      went over the low rocky precipice, already mentioned, and was stove at its
+      base, within two yards of the torrent, which received all its fragments
+      and swept them away, including most of the liquor itself; but not until
+      the last had been spilled. Now, the odorous spot which had attracted the
+      noses of the savages, and near which they had built their fire, was that
+      where the smallest quantity of the whiskey had fallen. Le Bourdon reasoned
+      on these circumstances in this wise:&mdash;if half a barrel of the liquor
+      can produce so strong a scent, a barrel filled ought to produce one still
+      stronger; and I will manifest my medicine-character, by disregarding for
+      the present moment the spot on the hill-side, and proceed at once to that
+      at the foot of the rocks. To this latter point, therefore, did he direct
+      all the ceremony, as well as his own footsteps, when he yielded to the
+      solicitations of the Pottawattamies, and undertook to point out the
+      position of the whiskey spring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter understood the Indian character too well to forget to
+      embellish his work with a proper amount of jugglery and acting. Luckily,
+      he had left in the canoe a sort of frock of mottled colors that he had
+      made himself, to wear in the woods in the autumn as a hunting-dress, under
+      the notion that such a covering would conceal his approach from his game,
+      by blending its hues with those of the autumn leaf. This dress he now
+      assumed, extorting a good deal of half-suppressed admiration from the
+      younger warriors, by the gay appearance he made. Then he drew out his
+      spy-glass to its greatest length, making various mysterious signs and
+      gestures as he did so. This glass proved to be a great auxiliary, and
+      possibly alone kept the doubters in awe. Le Bourdon saw at once that it
+      was entirely new, even to the oldest chief, and he felt how much it might
+      be made to assist him. Beckoning to Cloud, and adjusting the focus, he
+      directed the small end of his glass to the fire, and placed the large end
+      to that Indian's eye. A solitary savage, who loved the scent of whiskey
+      too much to tear himself away from the spot, was lingering within the
+      influence of the rays, and of course was seen by the chief, with his
+      person diminished to that of a dwarf, and his form thrown to a seeming
+      distance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An eloquent exclamation followed this exhibition of the medicine-man's
+      power; and each of the chiefs, and most of the other warriors, were
+      gratified with looks through the glass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What dat mean?&rdquo; demanded Cloud, earnestly. &ldquo;See Wolfeye well 'nough&mdash;why
+      he so little?&mdash;why he so far off, he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is to show you what a medicine-man of the pale-faces can do, when he
+      is so minded. That Indian is named Wolfseye, and he loves whiskey too
+      well. That I know, as well as I know his name.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Each of these exhibitions of intelligence extorted exclamations of wonder.
+      It is true, that one or two of the higher chiefs understood that the name
+      might possibly have been obtained from Cloud; but how was the medicine-man
+      to know that Wolfseye was a drunkard? This last had not been said in
+      terms; but enough had been said, to let those who were aware of the
+      propensity feel that more was meant than had been expressed. Before there
+      was time, however, to deliberate on, or to dissect this specimen of
+      mysterious knowledge, le Bourdon reversed the glass, and applied the small
+      end to the eye of Cloud, after having given it its former direction. The
+      Indian fairly yelled, partly with dread, and partly with delight, when he
+      saw Wolfseye, large as life, brought so near him that he fancied he might
+      be touched with his own hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What dat mean?&rdquo; exclaimed Cloud, as soon as surprise and awe enabled him
+      to find his voice. &ldquo;Fuss he little, den he big&mdash;fuss he great way,
+      den he close by&mdash;what dat mean, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It means that I am a medicine-man, and this is a medicine-glass, and that
+      I can see with it into the earth, deeper than the wells, or higher than
+      the mountains!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These words were translated, and explained to all three. They extorted
+      many ejaculations of wonder, and divers grunts of admiration and
+      contentment. Cloud conferred a moment with the two principal chiefs; then
+      he turned eagerly to the bee-hunter, saying&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All good, but want to hear more&mdash;want to l'arn more&mdash;want to
+      SEE more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Name your wants freely, Pottawattamie,&rdquo; answered le Bourdon, with
+      dignity, &ldquo;they shall be satisfied.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Want to see&mdash;want to TASTE whiskey spring&mdash;see won't do&mdash;want
+      to TASTE&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good&mdash;you shall smell first; then you shall see; after that you
+      shall taste. Give me room, and be silent; a great medicine is near.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus delivering himself, le Bourdon proceeded with his necromancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER IX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  He turned him round, and fled amain With hurry and dash to the beach
+  again; He twisted over from side to side, And laid his cheek to the
+  cleaving tide; The strokes of his plunging arms are fleet, And with all
+  his might he flings his feet, But the water-sprites are round him still,
+  To cross his path and work him ill.
+                                        &mdash;The Culprit Fay.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The first step in the conjuration of the bee-hunter was, to produce an
+      impression on the minds of his untutored observers, by resorting to a
+      proper amount of mummery and mystical action. This he was enabled to do
+      with some effect, in consequence of having practised as a lad in similar
+      mimicry, by way of pastime. The Germans, and the descendants of Germans in
+      America, are not of a very high class, as respects education, taken as a
+      body, and they retain many of the most inveterate of the superstitions of
+      their Teutonic ancestors. Although the bee-hunter himself was of purely
+      English descent, he came from a State that was in part peopled by these
+      Germans and their descendants; and, by intercourse with them, he had
+      acquired a certain knowledge of their notions on the subject of
+      necromancy, that he now found was of use. So far as gravity of mien,
+      solemn grimaces, and unintelligible mutterings were concerned, le Bourdon
+      played his part to admiration; and by the time he had led the party half
+      the distance he intended to go, our necromancer, or &ldquo;medicine-man,&rdquo; had
+      complete possession of the imaginations of all the savages, the two or
+      three chiefs already mentioned alone excepted. At this stage of the
+      proceedings occurred a little incident, which goes to prove the
+      disposition of the common mind to contribute in deceiving itself, and
+      which was of considerable assistance to le Bourdon, in maintaining his
+      assumed character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will be remembered that the place where the Indians had found their
+      strongest scent was on the hill-side, or the spot where the half-filled
+      barrel had let out most of its contents. Near this spot their new fire was
+      still brightly blazing, and there Wolfseye remained, regaling one of his
+      senses, at least, with an odor that he found so agreeable. But the
+      bee-hunter knew that he should greatly increase the wonder of the savages
+      by leading them to a NEW scent-spot, one to which there was no visible
+      clew, and where the odor was probably much stronger than on the hill-side.
+      Accordingly he did not approach the fire, but kept around the base of the
+      hill, just enough within the influence of the light to pick his way
+      readily, and yet so distant from it as to render his countenance
+      indistinct and mysterious. No sooner, however, had he got abreast of the
+      scent-spot known to the savages, than the crowd endeavored to lead him
+      toward it, by gestures and hints, and, finally, by direct intimations that
+      he was going astray. All this our &ldquo;medicine-man&rdquo; disregarded; he held his
+      way steadily and solemnly toward that place at the foot of the hill where
+      he knew that the filled barrel had let out its contents, and where he,
+      reasonably enough, expected to find sufficient traces of the whiskey to
+      answer his purposes. At first, this pertinacity provoked the crowd, which
+      believed he was going wrong; but a few words from Crowsfeather, the
+      principal chief, caused the commotion to cease. In a few more minutes le
+      Bourdon stopped, near the place of his destination. As a fresh scent of
+      whiskey was very perceptible here, a murmur of admiration, not unmixed
+      with delight, passed among the attendants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, let the young men build a fire for ME&rdquo; said the bee-hunter, solemnly&mdash;&ldquo;not
+      such a fire as that which is burning on the hill, but a medicine-fire. I
+      SMELL the whiskey spring, and want a medicine-light to SEE it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A dozen young men began to collect the brush; in a minute a pile of some
+      size had been accumulated on a flat rock, within twenty feet of the spot
+      where le Bourdon knew that the cask had been dashed to pieces. When he
+      thought the pile sufficiently large, he told Crowsfeather that it might be
+      lighted by bringing a brand from the other fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This will not be a medicine-light, for that can come only from
+      'medicine-matches,'&rdquo; he added; &ldquo;but I want a fire to see the shape of the
+      ground. Put in the brand, brothers; let us have a flame.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The desire of the bee-hunter was gratified, and the whole of the base of
+      the hill around the spot where the filled cask had broken, was
+      illuminated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now, let all the Pottawattamies stand back,&rdquo; added le Bourdon, earnestly.
+      &ldquo;It might cost a warrior his life to come forward too soon&mdash;or, if
+      not his life, it might give a rheumatism that can never be cured, which is
+      worse. When it is time for my red brothers to advance, they will be
+      called.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the bee-hunter accompanied this announcement by suitable gestures, he
+      succeeded in ranging all of the silent, but excited savages on three sides
+      of his fire, leaving that next his mysterious spring to himself, alone.
+      When all was arranged, le Bourdon moved slowly, but unaccompanied, to the
+      precise spot where the cask had broken. Here he found the odor of the
+      whiskey so strong, as to convince him that some of the liquor must yet
+      remain. On examining more closely, he ascertained that several shallow
+      cavities of the flat rock, on which the cask had been dashed, still
+      contained a good deal of the liquor; enough to prove of great assistance
+      to his medicine character.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this while the bee-hunter kept one portion of his faculties on the
+      alert, in order to effect his escape. That he might deceive for a time,
+      aided as he was by so many favorable circumstances, he did not doubt; but
+      he dreaded the morning and the results of a night of reflection and rest.
+      Crowsfeather, in particular, troubled him; and he foresaw that his fate
+      would be terrible, did the savages once get an inkling of the deception he
+      was practising. As he stood there, bending over the little pools of
+      whiskey, he glanced his eyes toward the gloom which pervaded the northern
+      side of the hill, and calculated the chances of escape by trusting to his
+      speed. All of the Pottawattamies were on the opposite side, and there was
+      a thicket favorably placed for a cover, so near that the rifle would
+      scarce have time to perform its fatal office, ere he might hope to bury
+      himself within its leaves. So tempting did the occasion appear, that, for
+      a single instant, le Bourdon forgot his caution, and his mummeries, and
+      had actually advanced a step or two in the direction toward which he
+      contemplated flight, when, on glancing an uneasy look behind him, he
+      perceived Crowsfeather and his two intimate counsellors stealthily
+      preparing their rifles, as if they distrusted his intentions. This at once
+      induced a change of plan, and brought the bee-hunter back to a sense of
+      his critical position, and of the indispensable necessity of caution to a
+      man in his situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon now seemingly gave all his attention to the rocks where he
+      stood, and out of which the much-coveted liquor was expected to flow;
+      though his thoughts were still busily employed in considering the means of
+      escape, the whole time. While stooping over the different pools, and
+      laying his plans for continuing his medicine-charms, the bee-hunter saw
+      how near he had been to committing a great mistake. It was almost as
+      indispensable to carry off the canoe, as it was to carry off himself;
+      since, with the canoe, not only would all his own property, but pretty
+      Margery, and Gershom and his wife, be at the mercy of the Pottawattamies;
+      whereas, by securing the boat, the wide Kalamazoo would serve as a nearly
+      impassable barrier, until time was given to the whites to escape. His
+      whole plan was changed by this suggestion, and he no longer thought of the
+      thicket and of flight inland. At the same time that the bee hunter was
+      laying up in his mind ideas so important to his future movements, he did
+      not neglect the necessary examination of the means that might be required
+      to extend and prolong his influence over the minds of the superstitious
+      children of the forest on whom he was required to practise his arts. His
+      thoughts reverted to the canoe, and he concocted a plan by which he
+      believed it possible to get possession of his little craft again. Once on
+      board it, by one vigorous shove he fancied he might push it within the
+      cover of the rice-plants, where he would be in reasonable safety against
+      the bullets of the savages. Could he only get the canoe on the outer side
+      of the narrow belt of the plant, he should deem himself safe!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having arranged his course in his own mind, le Bourdon now beckoned to
+      Crowsfeather to draw near, at the same time inviting the whole party to
+      approach within a few feet of the spot where he himself stood. The
+      bee-hunter had brought with him from the boat a fragment of the larger end
+      of a cane fishing-rod, which he used as a sort of wand. Its size was
+      respectable, and its length about eight feet. With this wand he pointed
+      out the different objects he named, and it answered the very important
+      purpose of enabling him to make certain small changes in the formation of
+      the ground, that were of the greatest service to him, without permitting
+      curious eyes to come so near as to detect his artifices.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Now open your ears, Crowsfeather; and you, Cloud; and all of you, young
+      braves,&rdquo; commenced the bee-hunter, solemnly, and with a steadiness that
+      was admirable; &ldquo;yes, open wide your ears. The Great Spirit has given the
+      red man a nose that he might smell&mdash;does the Cloud smell more than
+      common?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartain&mdash;smell whiskey&mdash;this Whiskey Centre dey say&mdash;nat'ral
+      dat such smell be here.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do all the chiefs and warriors of the Pottawattamies who are present,
+      also smell the same?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;S'pose so&mdash;why he don't, eh? Got nose&mdash;can smell whiskey good
+      way, tell you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is right they should smell the liquor here, for out of this rock a
+      whiskey spring will soon begin to run. It will begin with a very small
+      stream, but soon will there be enough to satisfy everybody. The Great
+      Manitou knows that his red children are dry; he has sent a 'medicine-man'
+      of the pale-faces to find a spring for them. Now, look at this piece of
+      rock&mdash;it is dry&mdash;not even the dew has yet moistened it. See&mdash;it
+      is made like a wooden bowl, that it may hold the liquor of the spring. Let
+      Crowsfeather smell it&mdash;smell it, Cloud&mdash;let all my young men
+      smell it, too, that they may be certain that there is nothing there.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On this invitation, accompanied as it was by divers flourishes of the
+      wand, and uttered in a deep, solemn tone of voice, the whole party of the
+      Indians gathered around the small hollow basin-like cavity pointed out by
+      the bee-hunter, in order both to see and to smell. Most knelt, and each
+      and all applied their noses to the rock, as near the bowl as they could
+      thrust them. Even the dignified and distrustful Crowsfeather could not
+      refrain from bending in the crowd. This was the moment for which le
+      Bourdon wished, and he instantly prepared to carry out his design.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Previously, however, to completing the project originally conceived, a
+      momentary impulse prevailed which urged him to adopt a new mode of
+      effecting his escape. Now, that most of the savages were on their hands
+      and knees, struggling to get their noses as near as possible to the bowl,
+      and all were intent on the same object, it occurred to the bee-hunter, who
+      was almost as active as the panther of the American forest, that he might
+      dash on toward the canoe, and make his escape without further mummery. Had
+      it been only a question of human speed perhaps such would have been the
+      wisest thing he could do; but a moment's reflection told him how much
+      swifter than any foot of man was the bullet of a rifle. The distance
+      exceeded a hundred yards, and it was altogether in bright light, by means
+      of the two fires, Wolfseye continuing to pile brush on that near which he
+      still maintained his post, as if afraid the precious liquor would start
+      out of the scent-spot, and be wasted should he abandon his ward. Happily,
+      therefore, le Bourdon relinquished his dangerous project almost as soon as
+      it was entertained, turning his attention immediately to the completion of
+      the plan originally laid.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been said that the bee-hunter made sundry flourishes with his wand.
+      While the savages were most eager in endeavoring to smell the rock, he
+      lightly touched the earth that confined the whiskey in the largest pool,
+      and opened a passage by which the liquor could trickle down the side of
+      the rock, selecting a path for itself, until it actually came into the
+      bowl, by a sinuous but certain channel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here was a wonder! Liquor could not only be smelled, but it could be
+      actually seen! As for Cloud, not satisfied with gratifying the two senses
+      connected with the discoveries named, he began to lap with his tongue,
+      like a dog, to try the effect of taste.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Manitou does not hide his face from the Pottawattamie!&rdquo; exclaimed
+      this savage, rising to his feet in astonishment; &ldquo;this is the fire-water,
+      and such as the pale-faces bring us for skins!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Others imitated his example, and the exclamations of wonder and delight
+      flew from mouth to mouth, in a torrent of vehement assertions and
+      ejaculations. So great a &ldquo;medicine&rdquo; charm had never before been witnessed
+      in that tribe, or in that region, and a hundred more might succeed, before
+      another should equal this in its welcome character. There was whiskey, of
+      a certainty, not much in quantity, to be sure, but of excellent quality,
+      as several affirmed, and coming in a current that was slowly increasing!
+      This last sign was owing to the circumstance that le Bourdon had deepened
+      the outlet of the pool, permitting a larger quantity to flow down the
+      little channel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The moment had now come for a decisive step. The bee-hunter knew that his
+      precious rivulet would soon cease to run, and that he must carry out his
+      design under the first impressions of his charm, or that he probably would
+      not be permitted to carry it out, at all. At this moment even Crowsfeather
+      appeared to be awed by what he had seen; but a chief so sagacious might
+      detect the truth, and disappointment would then be certain to increase the
+      penalties he would incur.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Making many sweeps of his wand, and touching various points of the rock,
+      both to occupy the attention of the savages, and to divert it from his
+      pool, the bee-hunter next felt in his pocket and drew out a small piece of
+      resin that he knew was there; the remains of a store with which he resined
+      the bow of his fiddle; for our hero had a violin among his effects, and
+      often used it in his solitary abodes in the openings. Breaking this resin
+      on a coal, he made it flash and blaze; but the quantity was too small to
+      produce the &ldquo;medicine-fire&rdquo; he wanted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have more in my canoe,&rdquo; he said, addressing himself to the interpreter;
+      &ldquo;while I go for it, the red men must not stir, lest they destroy a
+      pale-face's doings. Least of all they must go near the spring. It would be
+      better for the chiefs to lead away their young men, and make them stand
+      under the oak, where nothing can be done to hurt the 'medicine-charm.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter pointed to a tree that stood in the direction of the canoe,
+      in order to prevent distrust, though he had taken care to select a spot
+      whence the little craft could not be seen, on account of an intervening
+      swell in the land, Crowsfeather led his warriors to the indicated place,
+      where they took their stations, in silent and grave attention.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean while, le Bourdon continued his incantations aloud; walking
+      toward his canoe, waving his hand, and uttering a great deal of gibberish
+      as he slowly proceeded. In passing the tree, our hero, though he did not
+      turn his head, was sensible that he was followed by the chiefs, a movement
+      against which he did not dare to remonstrate, though it sadly disappointed
+      him. Neither hastening nor retarding his steps, however, in consequence of
+      this unpleasant circumstance, the young man continued on; once or twice
+      sweeping the wand behind him, in order to ascertain if he could reach his
+      followers. But Crowsfeather and his companions stopped when they reached
+      the swell of land which concealed the canoe, suffering the &ldquo;medicine-man&rdquo;
+       to move on alone. Of this fact le Bourdon became aware, by turning three
+      times in a circle, and pointing upward at the heavens with his wand, as he
+      did so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a nervous moment when the bee-hunter reached the canoe. He did not
+      like to look behind him again, lest the chiefs should suspect his motive,
+      and, in shoving off from the shore, he might do so within a few yards of
+      the muzzle of a hostile rifle. There was no time to lose, however, for any
+      protracted delay on his part would certainly cause the savages to
+      approach, through curiosity, if not through distrust of his motives. He
+      stepped into his light craft, therefore, without any delay, still
+      flourishing his wand, and muttering his incantations. The first thing was
+      to walk to the stern of the canoe, that his weight might raise the bow
+      from the shore, and also that he might have an excuse for turning round,
+      and thus get another look at the Indians. So critical was his situation,
+      and so nervous did it make our young hero, that he took no heed of the
+      state of matters in the canoe, until the last moment. When he had turned,
+      however, he ascertained that the two principal chiefs had drawn so near as
+      to be within twenty yards of him, though neither held his rifle at
+      &ldquo;ready,&rdquo; but each leaned on it in a careless manner, as if in no
+      anticipation of any necessity to make a speedy use of the weapon. This
+      state of things could not last, and le Bourdon braced his nerves for the
+      final trial. On looking for his paddle, however, he found that of three
+      which the canoe had contained when he left it, not even one was to be
+      seen! These wily savages had, out of all question, taken their opportunity
+      to remove and secrete these simple, but almost indispensable, means of
+      motion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the instant when first apprised of the loss just mentioned, the
+      bee-hunter's heart sunk within him, and he fell into the seat in the stern
+      of the canoe, nearly with the weight of so much lead. Then a species of
+      desperation came over him, and putting an end of his cane wand upon the
+      bottom, with a vigorous shove he forced the canoe swiftly astern and to
+      windward. Sudden as was this attempt, and rapid as was the movement, the
+      jealous eyes and ready hands of the chiefs seemed to anticipate it. Two
+      shots were fired within a few seconds after the canoe had quitted the
+      shore. The reports of the rifles were a declaration of hostilities, and a
+      general yell, accompanied by a common rush toward the river, announced
+      that the whole band now understood that some deception had been practised
+      at their expense.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the two chiefs in advance had been so very prompt, they were not
+      quick enough for the rapid movement of the canoe. The distance between the
+      stern of the boat and the rice-plants was so small, that the single
+      desperate shove given by the bee-hunter sufficed to bury his person in the
+      cover, before the leaden messengers reached him. Anticipating this very
+      attempt, and knowing that the savages might get their range from the part
+      of the canoe that was still in sight, le Bourdon bent his body far over
+      the gunwale, grasping the rice-plants at the same time, and hauling his
+      little craft through them, in the way that sailors call &ldquo;hand over hand.&rdquo;
+       This expedient most probably saved his life. While bending over the
+      gunwale, he heard the crack of the rifles, and the whizzing of two bullets
+      that appeared to pass just behind him. By this time the whole of the canoe
+      was within the cover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a moment like that we are describing, incidents pass so rapidly as
+      almost to defy description. It was not twenty seconds from the instant
+      when le Bourdon first put his wand down to push the canoe from the land,
+      ere he found his person emerging from the cover, on its weather side. Here
+      he was effectually concealed from his enemies, not only on account of the
+      cover made by the rice-plants, but by reason of the darkness; the light
+      not extending far enough from the fire to illumine objects on the river.
+      Nevertheless, new difficulties presented themselves. When clear of the
+      rice, the wind, which still blew strong, pressed upon his canoe to such a
+      degree as not only to stop its further movement from the shore, but so as
+      to turn it broadside to, to its power. Trying with his wand, the
+      bee-hunter ascertained that it would no longer reach the bottom. Then he
+      attempted to use the cane as a paddle, but soon found it had not
+      sufficient hold of the water to answer for such an implement. The most he
+      could effect with it, in that way, was to keep the canoe for a short
+      distance along the outer edge of the rice, until it reached a spot where
+      the plant extended a considerable distance farther toward the middle of
+      the river. Once within this little forest of the wild rice, he was enabled
+      to drag the canoe farther and farther from the north shore, though his
+      progress was both slow and laborious, on account of the resistance met.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time, the savages were not idle. Until the canoe got within its
+      new cover, it was at no instant fifty yards from the beach, and the yells,
+      and orders, and whoopings sounded as if uttered directly in le Bourdon's
+      ear. A splashing in the water soon announced that our fugitive was pursued
+      by swimmers. As the savages knew that the beehunter was without a paddle,
+      and that the wind blew fresh, the expectation of overtaking their late
+      captive, in this manner, was by no means chimerical. Half a dozen active
+      young men would prove very formidable to one in such a situation, more
+      especially while entangled in the mazes of the rice-plant. The bee-hunter
+      was so well convinced of this circumstance, that no sooner did he hear the
+      splashes of the swimmers, than he redoubled his exertions to pull his
+      canoe farther from the spot. But his progress was slow, and he was soon
+      convinced that his impunity was more owing to the fact that his pursuers
+      did not know where to find him, than to the rapidity of his flight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding his exertions, and the start obtained, le Bourdon soon
+      felt assured that the swimmers were within a hundred feet of him, their
+      voices coming from the outer margin of the cover in which he now lay,
+      stationary. He had ceased dragging the canoe ahead, from an apprehension
+      of being heard, though the rushing of the wind and the rustling of the
+      rice might have assured him that the slight noises made by his own
+      movements would not be very likely to rise above those sounds. The
+      splashing of the swimmers, and their voices, gradually drew nearer, until
+      the bee-hunter took up his rifle, determined to sacrifice the first savage
+      who approached; hoping, thereby, to intimidate the others. For the first
+      time, it now occurred to him that the breech of his rifle might be used as
+      a paddle, and he was resolved to apply it to that service, could he once
+      succeed in extricating himself from the enemies by whom he was nearly
+      environed, and from the rice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as le Bourdon fancied that the crisis had arrived, and that he should
+      soon be called on to kill his man, a shout was given by a savage at some
+      distance in the river, and presently calls passed from mouth to mouth,
+      among the swimmers. Our hero now listened to a degree that kept his
+      faculty of hearing at a point of painful attention. The voices and plashes
+      on the water receded, and what was startling, a sound was heard resembling
+      that which as produced by a paddle when struck incautiously against the
+      side of a canoe. Was it then possible that the Chippewa was out, or had
+      the Pottawattamies one boat that had escaped his attention? The last was
+      not very probable, as he had several times counted their little fleet, and
+      was pretty sure of having taken it all to the other side of the river. The
+      sound of the paddle was repeated, however; then it occurred to the
+      bee-hunter, that Pigeonswing might be on the scent for another scalp.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the conjecture just mentioned was exceedingly unpleasant to le
+      Bourdon, the chase of the strange canoe gave him an opportunity to drag
+      his own light craft ahead, penetrating deeper and deeper among the wild
+      rice, which now spread itself to a considerable distance from the shore,
+      and grew so thick as to make it impossible to get through the waving mass.
+      At length, wearied with his exertions, and a little uncertain as to his
+      actual position, our hero paused, listening intently, in order to catch
+      any sounds that might direct his future movements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time the savages ceased to call to each other; most probably
+      conscious of the advantage it gave the fugitive. The bee-hunter perfectly
+      understood that his pursuers must be aware of its being entirely out of
+      his power to get to windward, and that they would keep along the shore of
+      the river, as he did himself, expecting to see his canoe sooner or later
+      driven by the wind on the beach. This had made him anxious to drag his
+      boat as much toward the outer edge of the rice as he could get it, and by
+      the puffs of wind that he occasionally felt, he hoped he had, in a great
+      measure, effected his purpose. Still he had his apprehensions of the
+      savages; as some would be very apt to swim quite out into the stream, not
+      only to look for him, but to avoid being entangled among the plants. It
+      was only in the natural channels of the rice, of which there were a good
+      many, that a swimmer could very readily make his way, or be in much
+      safety. By waiting long enough, moreover, the bee-hunter was sure he
+      should tire out his pursuers, and thus get rid of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as le Bourdon began to think this last-mentioned purpose had been
+      accomplished, he heard low voices directly to windward, and the splashing
+      of water, as if more than one man was coming down upon him, forcing the
+      stalks of the plants aside. He grasped the rifle, and let the canoe drift,
+      which it did slowly, under the power of the wind, notwithstanding the
+      protection of the cover. The swimmers forced their way through the stalks;
+      but it was evident, just then, that they were more occupied by their
+      present pursuit than in looking for him. Presently a canoe came brushing
+      through the rice, forced by the wind, and dragged by two savages, one of
+      whom swam on each bow. The last did not see the bee-hunter, or his canoe,
+      the one nearest having his face turned in the opposite direction; but they
+      were distinctly seen by the former. Surprised that a seizure should be
+      made with so little fracas, le Bourdon bent forward to look the better,
+      and, as the stern of the strange canoe came almost under his eyes, he saw
+      the form of Margery lying in its bottom. His blood curdled at this sight;
+      for his first impression was, that the charming young creature had been
+      killed and scalped; but there being no time to lose, he sprang lightly
+      from one canoe to the other, carrying the rifle in his hand. As he struck
+      in the bottom of the boat of Gershom, he heard his name uttered in a sweet
+      female voice, and knew that Margery was living. Without stopping, however,
+      to inquire more, he moved to the head of the canoe, and, with a sharp blow
+      on the fingers, made each of the savages release his grasp. Then, seizing
+      the rice-plants, he dragged the little craft swiftly to windward again.
+      All this was done, as it might be, in an instant; the savages and the
+      canoe being separated some twenty feet, in much less time than is required
+      to relate the occurrence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bourdon, are you injured?&rdquo; asked Margery, her voice trembling with
+      anxiety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not in the least, dear Margery&mdash;and you, my excellent girl?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They caught my canoe, and I almost died of fright; but they have only
+      dragged it toward the shore.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God be praised! Is there any paddle in the canoe?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are several&mdash;one is at your feet, Bourdon&mdash;and here, I
+      have another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then, let us search for my canoe, and get out of the rice. If we can but
+      find my canoe, we shall be safe enough, for the savages have nothing in
+      which to cross the river. Keep your eyes about you, Margery, and look
+      among the rice for the other boat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The search was not long, but it was intently anxious. At length Margery
+      saw the lost canoe just as it was drifting past them, and it was secured
+      immediately. In a few minutes, le Bourdon succeeded in forcing the two
+      craft into open water, when it was easy for him to paddle both to
+      windward. The reader can readily imagine that our hero did not permit many
+      minutes to elapse, ere he questioned his companion on the subject of her
+      adventures. Nor was Margery reluctant to tell them. She had become alarmed
+      at le Bourdon's protracted absence, and taking advantage of Pigeonswing
+      lying down, she unloaded her brother's canoe, and went out into the river
+      to look for the absent one. As a matter of course&mdash;though so feminine
+      and far removed from all appearance of coarseness, a true American girl in
+      this respect&mdash;Margery knew perfectly well how to manage a bark canoe.
+      The habits of her life for the last few years, made her acquainted with
+      this simple art; and strength being much less needed than skill, she had
+      no difficulty in going whither she wished. The fires served as beacons,
+      and Margery had been a distant witness of the bee-hunter's necromancy as
+      well as of his escape. The instant the latter was effected, she endeavored
+      to join him; and it was while incautiously paddling along the outer edge
+      of the rice, with this intention, that her canoe was seized by two of the
+      swimmers. As soon as these last ascertained that they had captured a
+      &ldquo;squaw,&rdquo; they did not give themselves the trouble to get into the canoe&mdash;a
+      very difficult operation with one made of bark, and which is not loaded&mdash;but
+      they set about towing the captured craft to the shore, swimming each with
+      a single hand and holding on by the other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall not soon forget this kindness of yours, Margery,&rdquo; said le
+      Bourdon, with warmth, when the girl had ended her simple tale, which had
+      been related in the most artless and ingenuous manner. &ldquo;No man could
+      forget so generous a risk on the part of a young woman in his behalf.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you do not think it wrong, Bourdon&mdash;I should be sorry to have
+      you think ill of me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wrong, dear Margery!&mdash;but no matter. Let us get ourselves out of
+      present difficulties, and into a place of safety; then I will tell you
+      honestly what I think of it, and of you, too. Was your brother awake, dear
+      Margery, when you left the family?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe not&mdash;he sleeps long and heavily after drinking. But he can
+      now drink no more, until he reaches the settlements.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not unless he finds the whiskey spring,&rdquo; returned the bee-hunter,
+      laughing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The young man then related to his wondering companion the history of the
+      mummery and incantations of which she had been a distant spectator. Le
+      Bourdon's heart was light, after his hazards and escape, and his spirits
+      rose as his narrative proceeded. Nor was pretty Margery in a mood to balk
+      his humor. As the bee-hunter recounted his contrivances to elude the
+      savages, and most especially when he gave the particulars of the manner in
+      which he managed to draw whiskey out of the living rock, the girl joined
+      in his merriment, and filled the boat with that melody of the laugh of her
+      years and sex, which is so beautifully described by Halleck.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER X.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     The things that once she loved are still the same;
+     Yet now there needs another name
+     To give the feeling which they claim,
+       While she the feeling gives;
+     She cannot call it gladness or delight;
+     And yet there seems to be a richer, lovelier light
+     On e'en the humblest thing that lives.
+                                &mdash;WASHINGTON ALLSTON.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The history given by le Bourdon lasted until the canoes reached the south
+      shore. Glad enough was Dorothy to see them both safe back, for neither of
+      her companions had yet awoke. It was then midnight, and all now retired to
+      seek the rest which might be so needful to prepare them for the exertions
+      of the next day. The bee-hunter slept in his canoe, while Margery shared
+      the buffalo-skin of her sister.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As perfect security, for the moment at least, was felt by the sleepers,
+      their slumbers were sound, and reached into the morning. Then le Bourdon
+      arose, and withdrawing to a proper distance, he threw off his clothes and
+      plunged into the stream, in conformity with a daily practice of his at
+      that genial season of the year. After bathing, the young man ascended a
+      hill, whence he might get a good view of the opposite shore, and possibly
+      obtain some notion of what the Pottawattamies were about. In all his
+      movements, however, the bee-hunter had an eye to the concealment of his
+      person, it being of the last importance that the savages should not learn
+      his position. With the intention of concealment, the fire had been
+      suffered to go down, a smoke being a sign that no Indian would be likely
+      to overlook. As for the canoe and the bivouac of the party, the wild rice
+      and an intermediate hill formed a perfect cover, so long as nothing was
+      shown above them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the height to which he ascended, the bee-hunter, aided by his glass,
+      got a very clear view of Whiskey Centre and the parts adjacent. The
+      savages were already stirring, and were busy in the various avocations of
+      the red man on a war-path. One party was disposing of the body of their
+      dead companion. Several were cooking, or cleaning the wild-fowl shot in
+      the bay, while a group was collected near the spot of the wished-for
+      spring, reluctant to abandon the hopes to which it had given birth, at the
+      very moment they were plotting to obtain the scalp of the &ldquo;medicine-man.&rdquo;
+       The beloved &ldquo;fire-water,&rdquo; that seduces so many to their destruction, who
+      have enjoyed the advantages of moral teaching, and which has been a
+      withering curse on the red man of this continent, still had its influence;
+      and the craving appetites of several of the drunkards of the party brought
+      them to the spot, as soon as their eyes opened on the new day. The
+      bee-hunter could see some of this cluster kneeling on the rocks, lapping
+      like hounds at the scattered little pools of the liquor, while others
+      scented around, in the hope of yet discovering the bird that laid the
+      golden egg. Le Bourdon had now little expectation that his assumed
+      character could be maintained among these savages any longer, did accident
+      again throw him in their way. The chiefs, he saw, had distrusted him all
+      along, but had given him an opportunity to prove what he could do, in
+      order to satisfy the more vulgar curiosity of their young men. He wisely
+      determined, therefore, to keep out of the hands of his enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although le Bourdon could hold a conversation in the tongue of the
+      Ojebways, he was not fond of so doing. He comprehended without difficulty
+      nearly all of what was said by them, and had observed the previous night
+      that the warriors made many allusions to a chief whom they styled Onoah,
+      but who he himself knew was usually called Scalping Peter among the whites
+      of that frontier. This savage had a fearful reputation at all the
+      garrisons, though he never showed himself in them; and he was now spoken
+      of by the Pottawattamies present, as if they expected to meet him soon,
+      and to be governed by his commands or his advice. The bee-hunter had paid
+      great attention whenever this dreaded name was mentioned, for he was fully
+      aware of the importance of keeping clear of an enemy who bore so bad a
+      reputation that it was not considered prudent for a white man to remain
+      long in his company even in a time of peace. His English sobriquet had
+      been obtained from the circumstances of its being reputed that this chief,
+      who seemed to belong to no tribe in particular, while he had great
+      influence with all, had on divers occasions murdered the palefaces who
+      fell in his way, and then scalped them. It was added, that he had already
+      forty notches on his pole, to note that number of scalps taken from the
+      hated whites. In short, this Indian, a sort of chief by birth, though of
+      what tribe no one exactly knew, appeared to live only to revenge the
+      wrongs done his color by the intruders, who had come from toward the
+      rising sun to drive his people into the great salt lake on the other side
+      of the Rocky Mountains. Of course there was a good deal that was
+      questionable in these reports; a rumor in the &ldquo;openings&rdquo; and on the
+      prairies, having this general resemblance to those that circulate in town,
+      and in drawing-rooms, and at feasts, that no one of them all can be relied
+      on as rigidly exact. But le Bourdon was still young, and had yet to learn
+      how little of that which we all hear is true, and how very much is false.
+      Nevertheless, as an Indian tradition is usually more accurate than a white
+      man's written history, so is a rumor of the forest generally entitled to
+      more respect than the ceaseless gossipings of the beings who would be
+      affronted were they not accounted civilized.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter was still on the elevated bit of ground, making his
+      observations, when he was joined by Margery. The girl appeared fresh and
+      handsome, after a night of sleep, and coming from her dressing-room in a
+      thicket, and over a stream of sweet running water; but she was sad and
+      thoughtful. No sooner had le Bourdon shaken her hand, and repeated his
+      thanks for the succor of the past night, than the full heart of Margery
+      poured out its feelings, as the swollen stream overflows its banks, and
+      began to weep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother is awake,&rdquo; she said, as soon as her sobs were quieted by a
+      powerful effect; &ldquo;but, as is usual with him after hard drinking, so
+      stupid, that Dolly cannot make him understand our danger. He tells her he
+      has seen too many Injins to be afraid of these, and that they will never
+      harm a family that has brought so much liquor into their country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His senses must be at a low ebb, truly, if he counts on Injin friendship
+      because he has sold fire-water to the young men!&rdquo; answered le Bourdon,
+      with a nice understanding of not only Indian nature, but of human nature.
+      &ldquo;We may like the sin, Margery, while we detest the tempter. I have never
+      yet met with the man, pale-face or red-skin, who did not curse, in his
+      sober moments, the hand that fed his appetite while intoxicated.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I dare say that may be very true,&rdquo; returned the girl, in a low voice;
+      &ldquo;but one has need of his reason to understand it. What will become of us
+      now, it is hard to say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, now, Margery, more than yesterday, or the day before?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yesterday there were no savages near us, and Gershorn had all along told
+      us he intended to start for the garrison at the head of the lake, as soon
+      as he got back from his visit to the openings. He is back; but not in a
+      state to protect his wife and sister from the red man, who will be looking
+      for us as soon as they can build a canoe, or anything that will do to
+      cross the river with.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Had they even a canoe,&rdquo; returned le Bourdon, coolly, &ldquo;they would not know
+      where to look for us. Thank Heaven! that will be a job that would take
+      some time; nor is a bark canoe built in a minute. But, Margery, if your
+      brother be a little dull and heavy, after his debauch, <i>I</i> am sober,
+      and as much awake as ever I was in my life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! you have no weakness like that of poor brother's, to make you
+      otherwise; but, Bourdon, you will naturally wish to take care of yourself
+      and your property, and will quit us the first good opportunity. I'm sure
+      that we have no right to expect you will stay a minute longer than it is
+      your interest to do so, and I do not know that I wish it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not wish it, Margery!&rdquo; exclaimed the bee-hunter, in the manner of a
+      disappointed man. &ldquo;I had supposed you would have wished my company. But,
+      now I know the contrary, I shall not much care how soon I go, or into
+      whose hands I fall.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It is strange how apt are those who ought to understand one another so
+      readily, to misinterpret each other's thoughts. Margery had never seen the
+      bee-hunter twenty-four hours before, though she had often heard of him,
+      and of his success in his art; for the fame of a man of good reputation
+      and active qualities spreads far on a frontier. The very individual whose
+      existence would be nearly overlooked in a crowded region, shall be spoken
+      of, and known by his qualities, a hundred leagues from his place of
+      residence, when settlements are few and far apart. In this way, Margery
+      had heard of Boden, or of &ldquo;Bourdon,&rdquo; as she called him, in common with
+      hundreds who, confounding his real name with his sobriquet, made the
+      mistake of using the last under the impression that it was the true
+      appellation. Margery had no other knowledge of French than the few words
+      gleaned in her slow progress among a frontier on which, it is true, more
+      of that language than of any other was heard, but heard under
+      circumstances that were not particularly favorable to the acquisition of a
+      foreign tongue. Had she understood the real meaning of &ldquo;Bourdon,&rdquo; she
+      would have bitten off her tongue before she would have once called Boden
+      by such an appellation; though the bee-hunter himself was so accustomed to
+      his Canadian nickname as to care nothing at all about it. But Margery did
+      not like to give pain to any one; and, least of all, would she desire to
+      inflict it on the bee-hunter, though he were only an acquaintance of a
+      day. Still, Margery could not muster sufficient courage to tell her new
+      friend how much he was mistaken, and that of all the youths she had ever
+      met she would most prefer to keep him near her brother and sister in their
+      distress; while the young man, inspired by a pure and infant passion, was
+      just in the frame of mind to believe the worst of himself, and of his
+      claims to the attention of her who had begun to occupy so many of his
+      thoughts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No explanation occurring, our young people descended from the hill,
+      misconceiving each other's meaning and wishes, and unhappy under the
+      influence of an ideal source of misery, when actual circumstances created
+      so many that were substantial and real. Gershom was found awake, but, as
+      his sister had described him, stupid and lethargic. The bee-hunter at once
+      saw that, in his present condition, Whiskey Centre would still be an
+      incumbrance rather than of any service, in the event of an occasion for
+      extraordinary exertion. Margery had hinted that it usually took
+      twenty-four hours to bring her brother entirely round, after one of his
+      serious debauches; and within that time it was more than probable that the
+      fate of the family would be decided.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon thought intently, during breakfast, of the condition of his
+      party, and of the best mode of proceeding, while the pallid and anxious
+      young creature at his side believed he was deliberating solely on the best
+      means of extricating himself and his store of honey, from the savages on
+      the other shore. Had the acquaintance between these young people been of
+      longer date than it actually was, Margery could not have entertained a
+      notion so injurious to the bee-hunter, for a single moment; but there was
+      nothing either violent, or depreciating, in supposing that one so near
+      being a total stranger would think first of himself and his own interests,
+      in the situation in which this young man was now placed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little was said during the meal. Dorothy was habitually silent; the result
+      of grief and care. As for her husband, he was too stupid to talk, though
+      usually somewhat garrulous; while the Indian seldom did two things at the
+      same time. This was the hour for acting; when that for talking should
+      arrive, he would be found equal to its duties. Pigeonswing could either
+      abstain from food, or could indulge in it without measure, just as
+      occasion offered. He had often gone for days without tasting a mouthful,
+      with the exception of a few berries, perhaps; and he had lain about the
+      camp-fire, a week at a time, gorging himself with venison, like an
+      anaconda. It is perhaps fortunate for the American Indian, that this
+      particular quality of food is so very easy of digestion, since his
+      excesses on it are notorious, and so common to his habits as almost to
+      belong to his nature. Death might otherwise often be the consequence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the breakfast was ended, it was time to consult about the future
+      course. As yet, the Pottawattamies had made no new discovery; but the
+      sagacity of the red man was ever to be feared, when it came to be merely a
+      question of finding his foe in a forest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have obtained one advantage over the enemy,&rdquo; said le Bourdon, &ldquo;by
+      crossing the river. Water leaves no trail; even had Crowsfeather a canoe,
+      he might not know where to go in it, in order to find us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat not so,&rdquo; put in the Chippewa, a little dogmatically; &ldquo;know we hab
+      canoe&mdash;know cross river in him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why should they know this, Pigeonswing? We may have gone out upon the
+      lake, or we may have gone up in the oak openings again, for anything the
+      Pottawattamies can know to the contrary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell you, not so. Know don't go on lake, cause wind blow. Know don't go
+      up river, cause dat hard work; know come here, cause dat easy. Injin like
+      to do what easy, and pale-face do just what Injin do. Crowsfeather make
+      raft, pretty soon; den he come look arter scalp.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Margery, gently; &ldquo;you had better load your canoe at once, and
+      go on the lake, while the savages cannot reach you. The wind is fair for
+      them that are to go north; and I have heard you say that you are bound to
+      Mackinaw.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall load my canoe, and I shall load yours, too, Margery; but I shall
+      not go away from this family, so long as any in it stand in need of my
+      services.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother will be able to help us by afternoon. He manages a canoe well,
+      when himself; so go, Bourdon, while you can. I dare say you have a mother
+      at home; or a sister perhaps a wife&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither,&rdquo; interrupted the bee-hunter, with emphasis. &ldquo;No one expects me;
+      no one has a right to expect me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The color stole into pretty Margery's cheeks as she heard these words, and
+      a ray of comfort gleamed on an imagination that, for the last hour, had
+      been portraying the worst. Still, her generous temper did not like the
+      idea of the bee-hunter's sacrificing himself for those who had so few
+      claims on him, and she could not but again admonish him of the necessity
+      of losing no time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will think better of this, Bourdon,&rdquo; the girl resumed. &ldquo;We are going
+      south, and cannot quit the river with this wind, but you could not have a
+      better time to go north, unless the wind blows harder than I think it
+      does.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The lake is a bad water for a canoe, when there is much wind,&rdquo; put in
+      Gershom, yawning after he had spoken, as if the effort fatigued him, &ldquo;I
+      wonder what we're all doing over on this side of the river! Whiskey Centre
+      is a good enough country for me; I'm going back to look arter my casks,
+      now I've breakfasted. Come, Doll; let's load up, and be off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are not yourself yet, Gershom,&rdquo; returned the sorrowful wife, &ldquo;or you
+      would not talk in this way. You had better listen to the advice of
+      Bourdon, who has done so much for us already, and who will tell you the
+      way to keep out of Injin clutches. We owe our lives to Bourdon, Gershom,
+      and you should thank him for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Whiskey Centre muttered a few half intelligible words of thanks, and
+      relapsed into his state of drowsy indifference. The bee-hunter saw,
+      however, that the effects of the brandy were leaving him, and he managed
+      to get him on one side, where he persuaded the fellow to strip and go into
+      the water. The bath did wonders for the poor creature, who soon got to be
+      so far himself again, as to be of use, instead of being an incumbrance.
+      When sober, and more especially when sober for several consecutive days,
+      Gershom was a man of sufficient energy, possessing originally great
+      personal strength and activity, which had been essentially lessened,
+      however, by his excesses in liquor. It has already been stated what a
+      different being he became, in a moral point of view, after having been
+      sober for any length of time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On his return from the bathing, le Bourdon again joined the females.
+      Margery had been weeping; but she smiled in a friendly way, on meeting his
+      eye, and appeared less anxious for his departure than she had been an hour
+      before. As the day advanced, and no signs of the savages were seen, a
+      sense of greater security began to steal over the females, and Margery saw
+      less necessity for the departure of their new friend. It was true, he was
+      losing a wind; but the lake was rough, and after all it might be better to
+      wait. In short, now that no immediate danger was apparent, Margery began
+      to reason in conformity with her wishes, as is so apt to be the case with
+      the young and inexperienced. The bee-hunter perceived this change in the
+      deportment of his fair friend, and was well enough disposed to hope it
+      would admit of a favorable construction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time, the Chippewa had taken little visible interest in the state
+      of the party to which he had now attached himself. The previous evening
+      had been fertile in excitement and in gratification, and he had since
+      slept and ate to his entire content. He was ready to meet events as they
+      might arise, and began to plot the means of obtaining more Pottawattamie
+      scalps. Let not the refined reader feel disdisgust at this exhibition of
+      the propensities of an American savage. Civilized life has had, and still
+      has, very many customs, little less excusable than that of scalping.
+      Without dragging into the account the thousand and one sins that disgrace
+      and deform society, it will be sufficient to look into the single interest
+      of civilized warfare, in order to make out our case. In the first place,
+      the noblest strategy of the art is, to put the greatest possible force on
+      the least of the enemy, and to slay the weaker party by the mere power of
+      numbers. Then, every engine that ingenuity can invent, is drawn into the
+      conflict; and rockets, revolvers, shells, and all other infernal devices,
+      are resorted to, in order to get the better of an enemy who is not
+      provided with such available means of destruction. And after the battle is
+      over, each side commonly claims the victory; sometimes, because a partial
+      success has been obtained in a small portion of the field; sometimes,
+      because half a dozen horses have run away with a gun, carrying it into the
+      hostile ranks; and, again, because a bit of rag has fallen from the hands
+      of a dead man, and been picked up by one of the opposing side. How often
+      has it happened that a belligerent, well practised in his art, has kept
+      his own colors out of the affair, and then boasted that they were not
+      lost! Now, an Indian practises no such shameless expedients. His point of
+      honor is not a bit of rag, but a bit of his skin. He shaves his head
+      because the hair encumbers him; but he chivalrously leaves a scalp-lock,
+      by the aid of which his conquerors can the more easily carry away the
+      coveted trophy. The thought of cheating in such a matter never occurs to
+      his unsophisticated mind; and as for leaving his &ldquo;colors&rdquo; in barracks,
+      while he goes in the field himself, he would disdain it&mdash;nay, cannot
+      practise it; for the obvious reason that his head would have to be left
+      with them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it was with Pigeonswing. He had made his toilet for the war-path, and
+      was fierce in his paint, but honest and fair-dealing in other particulars.
+      If he could terrify his enemies by looking like a skeleton, or a demon, it
+      was well; his enemy would terrify him, if possible, by similar means. But
+      neither would dream, or did dream, of curtailing, by a single hair, that
+      which might be termed the flag-staff of his scalp. If the enemy could
+      seize it, he was welcome to the prize; but if he could seize that of the
+      enemy, no scruples on the score of refinement, or delicacy, would be apt
+      to interfere with his movements. It was in this spirit, then, that
+      Pigeonswing came to the canoe, where le Bourdon was holding a little
+      private discourse with Margery, and gave utterance to what was passing in
+      his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good time, now, get more scalps, Bourdon,&rdquo; said the Chippewa, in his
+      clipping, sententious English.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a good time, too, to keep our own, Chippewa,&rdquo; was the answer. &ldquo;Your
+      scalp-lock is too long, to be put before Pottawattamie eyes without good
+      looking after it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nebber mind him&mdash;if go, go; if stay, stay. Always good for warrior
+      to bring home scalp.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; I know your customs in this respect, Pigeonswing, but ours are
+      different. We are satisfied if we can keep out of harm's way, when we have
+      our squaws and pappooses with us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No pappooses here,&rdquo; returned the Indian, looking around him&mdash;&ldquo;dat
+      your squaw, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader can readily imagine that this abrupt question brought blushes
+      into the cheeks of pretty Margery, making her appear ten times more
+      handsome than before; while even le Bourdon did not take the interrogatory
+      wholly undisturbed. Still, the latter answered manfully, as became his
+      sex.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not so fortunate as to have a squaw, and least of all to have this&rdquo;
+       said le Bourdon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why no hab her&mdash;she good squaw,&rdquo; returned the literal-minded Indian&mdash;&ldquo;han'some
+      'nough for chief. You ask; she hab&mdash;now squaw well&mdash;always like
+      warrior to ask him fuss; den say, yes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, that may do with your red-skin squaws,&rdquo; le Bourdon hastily replied;
+      for he saw that Margery was not only distressed, but a little displeased&mdash;&ldquo;but
+      not with the young women of the pale-faces. I never saw Margery before
+      last evening; and it takes time for a pale-face girl to know a youth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just so wid red-skin&mdash;sometime don't know, till too late! See plenty
+      dat, in wigwam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then it is very much in the wigwams as it is in the houses. I have heard
+      this before.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not same?&mdash;skin make no difference&mdash;pale-face spile squaw,
+      too&mdash;make too much of her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That can never be!&rdquo; exclaimed le Bourdon, earnestly. &ldquo;When a pretty,
+      modest, warm-hearted young woman accepts a youth for a husband, he can
+      never make enough of her!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On hearing sentiments so agreeable to a woman's ears, Margery looked down,
+      but she looked pleased. Pigeonswing viewed the matter very differently;
+      and being somewhat of a partisan in matters relating to domestic economy,
+      he had no thought of leaving a point of so much importance in so bad a
+      way. Accordingly, it is not surprising that, in pursuing the subject, he
+      expressed opinions in several essentials diametrically the reverse of
+      those of the bee-hunter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      '&ldquo;Easy 'nough spile squaw,&rdquo; rejoined the Chippewa. &ldquo;What she good for,
+      don't make her work? Can't go on the warpath&mdash;can't take scalp&mdash;can't
+      shoot deer&mdash;can't hunt&mdash;can't kill warrior&mdash;so muss work.
+      Dat what squaw good for.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That may do among red men, but we pale-faces find squaws good for
+      something else&mdash;we love them and take care of them&mdash;keep them
+      from the cold in winter, and from the heat in summer; and try to make them
+      as comfortable and happy as we can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat good talk for young squaw's ears,&rdquo; returned the Chippewa, a little
+      contemptuously as to manner; though his real respect for the bee-hunter,
+      of whose prowess he had so lately been a witness, kept him a little within
+      bounds &ldquo;but it bess not take nobody in. What Injin say to squaw, he do&mdash;what
+      pale-face say, he no do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that true, Bourdon?&rdquo; demanded Margery, laughing at the Indian's
+      earnestness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall be honest, and own that there may be some truth in it&mdash;for
+      the Injin promises nothing, or next to nothing, and it is easy to square
+      accounts, in such cases. That white men undertake more than they always
+      perform, is quite likely to be the fact The Injin gets his advantage in
+      this matter, by not even thinking of treating his wife as a woman should
+      be treated.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How should treat woman?&rdquo; put in Pigeonswing with warmth. &ldquo;When warrior
+      eat venison, gib her rest, eh? Dat no good&mdash;what you call good, den?
+      If good hunter husband, she get 'nough&mdash;if an't good hunter, she
+      don't get 'nough. Just so wid Injin&mdash;sometime hungry, sometime full.
+      Dat way to live!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, that may be your red man's ways, but it is not the manner in which
+      we wish to treat our wives. Ask pretty Margery, here, if she would be
+      satisfied to wait until her husband had eaten his dinner, and then come in
+      for the scraps. No-no-Pigeonswing; we feed our women and children first
+      and come in last, ourselves.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat good for pappoose&mdash;he little; want venison&mdash;squaw tough;
+      use to wait. Do her good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery now laughed outright, at these specimens of Indian gallantry,
+      which only too well embody the code of the red man's habits. Doubtless the
+      heart has its influence among even the most savage people, for nature has
+      not put into our breasts feelings and passions to be discarded by one's
+      own expedients, or wants. But no advocate of the American Indian has ever
+      yet been able to maintain that woman fills her proper place in his
+      estimate of claims. As for Margery, though so long subject to the whims,
+      passions and waywardness of a drunkard, she had reaped many of the
+      advantages of having been born in that woman's paradise, New England. We
+      are no great admirers of the legacy left by the Puritan to his
+      descendants, taken as an inheritance in morals, manners, and customs, and
+      as a whole; though there are parts, in the way of codicils, that there is
+      no portion of the Christian world which might not desire to emulate. In
+      particular, do we allude to the estimate put upon, and the treatment
+      received by their women. Our allusion is not to the refinements and
+      gracefulness of polished intercourse; for of THEM, the Blarney Rock of
+      Plymouth has transmitted but a meagre account in the inventory, and
+      perhaps the less that is said about this portion of the family property
+      the better; but, dropping a few degrees in the social scale, and coming
+      down to the level where we are accustomed to regard people merely as men
+      and women, we greatly question if any other portion of the world can
+      furnish a parallel to the manly, considerate, rational, and wisely
+      discriminating care, that the New England husband, as the rule, bestows on
+      his wife; the father on his daughter; or the brother on his sister.
+      Gershom was a living, and, all things considered, a remarkable instance of
+      these creditable traits. When sober, he was uniformly kind to Dorothy; and
+      for Margery he would at any time risk his life. The latter, indeed, had
+      more power over him than his own wife possessed, and it was her will and
+      her remonstrances that most frequently led him back from the verge of that
+      precipice over which he was so often disposed to cast himself. By some
+      secret link she bound him closest to the family dwelling, and served most
+      to recall the days of youth and comparative innocence, when they dwelt
+      together beneath the paternal roof, and were equally the objects of the
+      affection and solicitude of the same kind mother. His attachment to
+      Dorothy was sincere, and, for one so often brutalized by drink, steady;
+      but Dorothy could not carry him as far back, in recollections, as the one
+      only sister who had passed the morning of life with him, in the same
+      homely but comfortable abode.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We have no disposition to exaggerate the character of those whom it is the
+      fashion to term the American yeomen, though why such an appellation should
+      be applied to any in a state of society to which legal distinctions are
+      unknown, is what we could never understand. There are no more of esquires
+      and yeomen in this country than there are of knights and nobles, though
+      the quiet manner in which the transition from the old to the new state of
+      things has been made, has not rendered the public mind very sensible to
+      the changes. But, recurring to the class, which is a positive thing and
+      consequently ought to have a name of some sort or other, we do not belong
+      to those that can sound its praises without some large reservations on the
+      score of both principles and manners. Least of all, are we disposed to set
+      up these yeomen as a privileged class, like certain of the titular
+      statesmen of the country, and fall down and worship a calf&mdash;not a
+      golden one by the way&mdash;of our own setting up. We can see citizens in
+      these yeomen, but not princes, who are to be especially favored by laws
+      made to take from others to bestow on them. But making allowances for
+      human infirmities, the American freeholder belongs to a class that may
+      justly hold up its head among the tillers of the earth. He improves daily,
+      under the influence of beneficent laws, and if he don't get spoiled, of
+      which there is some danger, in the eagerness of factions to secure his
+      favor, and through that favor his VOTE&mdash;if he escape this danger, he
+      will ere long make a reasonably near approach to that being, which the
+      tongue of the flatterer would long since have persuaded him he had already
+      more than got to be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To one accustomed to be treated kindly, as was the case with Margery, the
+      Chippewa's theory for the management of squaws contained much to excite
+      her mirth, as well as her resentment, as she now made apparent by her
+      remarks.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not deserve to HAVE a wife, Pigeonswing,&rdquo; she cried,
+      half-laughing, yet evidently alive to the feelings of her sex&mdash;&ldquo;can
+      have no gratitude for a wife's tenderness and care. I wonder that a
+      Chippewa girl can be found to have you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't want him,&rdquo; coolly returned the Indian, making his preparations to
+      light his pipe&mdash;&ldquo;got Winnebagoe squaw, already; good 'nough for me.
+      Shoot her t'other husband and take his scalp&mdash;den she come into my
+      wigwam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The wretch!&rdquo; exclaimed Margery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But this was a word the savage did not understand, and he continued to
+      puff at the newly lighted tobacco, with all of a smoker's zeal. When the
+      fire was secured, he found time to continue the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, dat good war-path&mdash;got rifle; got wife; got TWO scalp! Don't do
+      so well, ebbery day.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that woman hoes your corn, and cooks your venison?&rdquo; demanded the
+      bee-hunter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartain&mdash;capital good to hoe&mdash;no good to cook&mdash;make deer
+      meat too dry. Want to be made to mind business. Bye'm by teach him. No
+      l'arn all at once, like pale-face pappoose in school.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pigeonswing, have you never observed the manner in which the white man
+      treats his squaw?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartain&mdash;see him make much of her&mdash;put her in warm corner&mdash;wrap
+      blanket round her&mdash;give her venison 'fore he eat himself&mdash;see
+      all dat, often&mdash;what den? DAT don't make it right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I give you up, Chippewa, and agree with Margery in thinking you ought not
+      to have a squaw, at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;T'ink alike, den&mdash;why no get marry?&rdquo; asked the Indian, without
+      circumlocution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery's face became red as fire; then her cheeks settled into the color
+      of roses, and she looked down, embarrassed. The bee-hunter's admiration
+      was very apparent to the Indian, though the girl did not dare to raise her
+      eyes from the ground, and so did not take heed of it. But this gossiping
+      was suddenly brought to an end by a most unexpected cause of interruption;
+      the manner and form of which it shall be our office to relate, in the
+      succeeding chapter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   So should it be&mdash;for no heart beats
+      Within his cold and silent breast;
+    To him no gentle voice repeats
+      The soothing words that make us blest.
+                                    &mdash;PEABODY.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The interruption came from Dorothy, who, on ascending the little height,
+      had discovered a canoe coming into the mouth of the river, and who was
+      running, breathless with haste, to announce the circumstance to the
+      bee-hunter. The latter immediately repaired to the eminence, and saw for
+      himself the object that so justly had alarmed the woman. The canoe was
+      coming in from the lake, after running before the wind, which now began to
+      abate a little in its strength, and it evidently had been endeavoring to
+      proceed to the northward. The reason for its entering the river, was
+      probably connected with the cookery or food of the party, since the lake
+      was each minute getting to be safer, and more navigable for so light a
+      craft. To le Bourdon's great apprehension, he saw the savages on the north
+      shore making signal to this strange canoe, by means of smoke, and he
+      foresaw the probability of his enemies obtaining the means of crossing the
+      stream, should the strangers proceed in the desired direction. To
+      counteract this design, he ran down to a spot on the beach where there was
+      no rice-plant, and showing himself to the strangers, invited them to land
+      on the south side, which was much the nearest, and in other visible
+      respects quite as convenient as the opposite bank of the river. One of the
+      strangers soon made a gesture with an arm, implying assent, and the bows
+      of this strange canoe were immediately turned toward the spot where the
+      bee-hunter stood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the canoe drew near, the whole party, including Pigeonswing, came to
+      the margin of the water to receive the strangers. Of the last, there were
+      three; one paddling at each end of the light bark, and a third seated in
+      its centre, doing nothing. As the bee-hunter had his glass, with which he
+      examined these visitors, he was soon questioned by his companions
+      concerning their character and apparent purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who are they, Bourdon?&rdquo; demanded the impatient Margery&mdash;&ldquo;and why do
+      they come here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The last is a question they must answer for themselves, but the person
+      paddling in the bows of the canoe seems to be a white man, and a soldier&mdash;or
+      a half-soldier, if one may judge from his dress. The man in the middle of
+      the canoe is white, also. This last fellow seems to be a parson&mdash;yes,
+      he is a clergyman, though pretty well used up in the wilderness, as to
+      dress. The third man is a red-skin, beyond all doubt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A clergyman!&rdquo; repeated Margery, in surprise. &ldquo;What should a clergyman be
+      doing here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There are missionaries scattered about among the savages, I suppose you
+      know, and this is probably one of them. A body can tell one of these
+      parsons by his outside, as far as he can see him. The poor man has heard
+      of the war, most likely, and is trying to get back into the settlements,
+      while his scalp is safe on his head.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't hurt HIM&rdquo; put in the Chippewa, pointedly. &ldquo;Know MEAN well&mdash;talk
+      about Great Spirit&mdash;Injin don't scalp sich medicine-men&mdash;if
+      don't mind what he say, no good to take his scalp.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm glad to hear this, Pigeonswing, for I had begun to think NO man's
+      scalp was safe under YOUR fingers. But what can the so'ger be doing down
+      this-away? A body would think there was business enough for all the
+      so'gers up at the garrison, at the head of the lake. By the way,
+      Pigeonswing, what has become of your letter to the captain at Fort
+      Dearborn, to let him know of the war?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Chaw him up, like so much 'baccy,&rdquo; answered the Chippewa&mdash;&ldquo;yes, chaw
+      him up, lest Pottawattamie get hold on him, and ask one of King George's
+      men to read him. No good to hab letter in sich times.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The general who employed you to carry that letter, will scarce thank you
+      for your care.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he do&mdash;t'ank all same&mdash;pay all same&mdash;letter no use
+      now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can you know that? The letter might be the means of preventing the
+      garrison from falling into the enemy's hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got dere, already. Garrison all kill, scalp, or prisoner. Pottawattamie
+      talk tell me DAT!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is this possible! Mackinaw and Chicago both gone, already! John Bull must
+      have been at work among the savages a long time, to get them into this
+      state of readiness!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartain&mdash;work long as can 'member. ALWAY somebody talkin' for great
+      Montreal Fadder among red men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It must be as you say, Chippewa&mdash;but, here are our visitors&mdash;let
+      us see what we can make of THEM!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time, the canoe was so near as to render it easy to distinguish
+      countenances and dress, without the aid of the glass&mdash;so near,
+      indeed, that a swift-moving boat, like the canoe, might be expected soon
+      to reach the shore. The truth of the observation of the bee-hunter was
+      confirmed, as the strangers approached. The individual in the bows of the
+      canoe was clearly a soldier, in a fatigue-dress, and the musket between
+      his legs was one of those pieces that government furnishes to the troops
+      of the line. The man in the middle of the boat could no more be mistaken
+      than he in its bows. Each might be said to be in uniform&mdash;the
+      well-worn, nay, almost threadbare black coat of the &ldquo;minister,&rdquo; as much
+      denoting him to be a man of peace, as the fatigue-jacket
+and cap on the person of his hard-featured and weather-beaten companion
+indicated that the last was a man of war. As for the red man,
+Pigeonswing declared that he could not yet tell his tribe, though there
+was that about his air, attire and carriage, that proclaimed him a
+chief&mdash;and, as the Chippewa fancied, a chief of note. In another minute,
+the bows of the light craft grated gently on the shingle of the beach.
+</p>
+    <p>
+&ldquo;Sago, sago,&rdquo; said the soldier, rising to step ashore--&ldquo;sago all,
+friends, and I hope we come to a welcome camp.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+    <p>
+&ldquo;You are welcome,&rdquo; returned the bee-hunter. &ldquo;Welcome as strangers met in
+the wilderness, but more welcome, as I see by your dress that you are a
+veteran of one of Uncle Sam's regiments.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+    <p>
+&ldquo;Quite true, Mr. Bee-hunter; for such I see is _your_ callin', by the
+honey vessel and glass you carry, and by the other signs about you. We
+are travelling toward Mackinaw, and hope to fere as friends, while we
+stay in your good company.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+    <p>
+&ldquo;In going to Mackinaw, do you expect to meet with an _American or an
+English_ garrison ?&rdquo;
+ </p>
+    <p>
+&ldquo;One of our own, to be sure,&rdquo; returned the soldier, looking up from his
+work, like one struck by the question.
+</p>
+    <p>
+&ldquo;Mackinaw has fallen, and is now an English post, as well as Chicago.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+    <p>
+&ldquo;This, then, must alter our plans, Mr. Amen !&rdquo; exclaimed the soldier,
+addressing the minister. &ldquo;If the enemy has Mackinaw, it will not do for
+us to trust ourselves on the island.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+    <p>
+&ldquo;Amen&rdquo; was not the real name of the missionary ; but it was a
+_sobriquet_ bestowed by the soldiers, on account of the unction with
+which this particular word was ordinarily pronounced, and quite likely,
+too, because it was the word of all others most pleasant to their ears,
+after a sermon, or a prayer. It had, by long use, got to be so familiar,
+that the men did not scruple to use it to the good man's face. This
+missionary was a Methodist ; a sect that possessed, in that day, very
+few clergymen of education, most of its divines coming of a class in
+life that did not predispose them to take offence at light invasions on
+their dignity, and whose zeal and habitual self-denial had schooled them
+into a submission to far more positive personal privations, than any
+connected with the mere tongue. That there are &ldquo;wolves in sheep's
+clothing&rdquo; among the Methodists, as well as among the other religious
+sects of the country, our daily experience shows ; but the mind must be
+sadly inclined to believe evil of others, which does not see in the
+humble and untiring efforts of this particular sect of Christians, more
+than mere fanaticism or hypocrisy can produce.
+</p>
+    <p>
+&ldquo;You are right, corporal,&rdquo; returned the missionary ; &ldquo;since this is the
+case, I see no better course for us to pursue, than to put ourselves
+altogether in the hands of Onoah. He has counselled us well, hitherto,
+and will do better by us than any other guide to be found, out in this
+wilderness.&rdquo;
+ </p>
+    <p>
+Le Bourdon could scarcely trust his sense of hearing ! Onoah was the
+Indian appellation of the terrible and most dreaded savage, who, in
+English, went by the name of Scalping Peter, or &ldquo;Scalping Pete,&rdquo; among
+all the white dwellers on that frontier, and at all the garrisons of the
+Americans, far and near. The Indian name, indeed, was said to mean
+&ldquo;scalp,&rdquo; in several of the dialects of the Iroquois. Perhaps it may be
+well, also, to explain here, that the term &ldquo;garrison&rdquo; did not imply, in
+the language of that region, the troops only who garrisoned a post, but
+it was even oftener applied to the post itself than to those who held
+it. Thus old, empty, and deserted forts, those that have actually been
+abandoned, and are devoted to decay, are almost universally styled the
+&ldquo;garrisons,&rdquo; even though a soldier had not put foot in them for a quarter
+of a century. This is one of the proofs of the convertible nature of our
+language, of which the country affords so many, and which has changed
+the smaller-sized rivers into &ldquo;creeks,&rdquo; &ldquo;lakes&rdquo; into &ldquo;ponds,&rdquo; &ldquo;squares&rdquo;
+ into &ldquo;parks,&rdquo; public promenades on the water into into &ldquo;batteries&rdquo;;
+      to all of which innovations, bad as they may be, and useless and uncalled
+      for, and wanton as they are, we are much more willing to submit, than to
+      the new-fangled and lubberly abomination of saying &ldquo;ON a steamboat,&rdquo; or
+      &ldquo;ON a ship.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      While le Bourdon was so much astounded at hearing the terrible name of
+      Onoah, which was familiar enough to him, neither of his white companions
+      betrayed any emotion. Had the Indian been termed &ldquo;Scalping Peter,&rdquo; it is
+      probable that both Dorothy and Margery would have screamed, if not
+      actually fled; but they knew nothing of the appellation that was given to
+      this mysterious chief, in the language of the red men. To this
+      circumstance, therefore, was it owing that the utterance of his name did
+      not produce a general commotion. The bee-hunter observed, nevertheless, a
+      great change in the demeanor of the Chippewa, the instant the missionary
+      had uttered the ominous word, though he did not seem to be alarmed. On the
+      contrary, Boden fancied that his friend Pigeonswing was pleased, rather
+      than terrified, at ascertaining the character of their visitor, though he
+      no longer put himself forward, as had been the case previously; and from
+      that moment the young warrior appeared to carry himself in a more subdued
+      and less confident manner than was his wont. This unexpected demeanor on
+      the part of his friend, somewhat confounded le Bourdon, though it in a
+      degree relieved his apprehensions of any immediate danger. All this time,
+      the conversation between the missionary and the corporal went on in as
+      quiet and composed a manner, as if each saw no ground for any other
+      uneasiness than that connected with the fall of Mackinaw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; returned the soldier, &ldquo;Onoah is a good guide, and a great hand
+      at a council-fire; but these is war-times, and we must stand to our arms,
+      each accordin' to his edication and temper&mdash;you, sir, with preachin'
+      and prayin', and I with gun and baggonet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! corporal, the preaching and praying would be of quite as much account
+      with you men of war, as your arms and ammunition, if you could only be
+      made to think so. Look at Fort Dearborn! It was defended by human means,
+      having its armed band, and its guns and swords, and captains and
+      corporals; yet you have seen their pride lowered, their means of defence
+      destroyed, and a large part of your comrades massacred. All this has been
+      done to armed men, while the Lord has brought ME, an unarmed and humble
+      teacher of his word, safely out of the hands of the Philistines, and
+      placed me here in safety, on the shores of the Kalamazoo.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For that matter, Mr. Amen, the Lord has done the same by ME, with a
+      musket on my shoulder and a baggonet by my side,&rdquo; returned the literal
+      corporal. &ldquo;Preachin' may be good on some marches; but arms and ammunition
+      answers well enough on others. Hearken to the Hebrew, who knows all the
+      ways of the wilderness, and see if he don't give you the same opinion.&rdquo;
+       &ldquo;The Hebrew is one of the discarded of the Lord, as he is one chosen of
+      the Lord!&rdquo; returned the missionary. &ldquo;I agree with you, however, that he is
+      as safe an adviser, for a human adviser, as can be easily found; therefore
+      will I consult him. Child of the seed of Abraham,&rdquo; he added, turning to
+      Onoah, &ldquo;thou hast heard the tidings from Mackinaw; we cannot think, any
+      longer, of pursuing our journey in that direction; whither, then, wouldst
+      thou advise that we shall direct our steps? I ask this question of THEE
+      first, as an experienced and sagacious dweller in the wilderness: at a
+      more fitting time, I intend to turn to the Lord, and seek divine aid for
+      the direction of our footsteps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye,&rdquo; observed the corporal, who entertained a good deal of respect for
+      the zealous, but slightly fanatical missionary, though he believed an
+      Indian was always safe to consult in matters of this sort, &ldquo;try BOTH&mdash;if
+      one staff should fail, it may be well to have another to lean on. A good
+      soldier always keeps a part of his troops for a reserve. I motto of his
+      coat of arms; the &ldquo;gare a qui la touchc,&rdquo; or &ldquo;noli me tangere,&rdquo; of his
+      device.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The head was shaved, as is usual with a warrior, carrying only the
+      chivalrous scalp-lock, but the chief was not in his paint. The outline of
+      this celebrated savage's features was bold and eagle-like; a comparison
+      that his steady, calm, piercing eye well sustained. The chin was full and
+      expanded, the lips compressed and firm, the teeth were short, but even and
+      sound, his smile courteous, and, at times, winning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the way of attire, Onoah was simply dressed, consulting the season and
+      his journey. He had a single eagle's feather attached to the scalp-lock,
+      and wore a belt of wampum of more than usual value, beneath which he had
+      thrust his knife and tomahawk; a light, figured and fringed hunting-shirt
+      of cotton covered his body, while leggings of deerskin, with a plain
+      moccasin of similar material, rose to his knee. The latter, with the lower
+      part of a stout sinewy thigh, was bare. He also carried a horn and pouch,
+      and a rifle of the American rather than of the military fashion that is,
+      one long, true, and sighted to the deviation of a hair.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On landing, Peter (for so he was generally called by the whites, when in
+      courtesy they omitted the prefix of &ldquo;Scalping&rdquo;) courteously saluted the
+      party assembled around the bow of the canoe. This he did with a grave
+      countenance, like a true American, but in simple sincerity, so far as
+      human eye could penetrate his secret feelings. To each man he offered his
+      hand, glancing merely at the two females; though it may be questioned if
+      he ever before had looked upon so perfect a picture of female loveliness
+      as Margery at that precise instant presented, with her face flushed with
+      excitement, her spirited blue eye wandering with curiosity, and her
+      beautiful mouth slightly parted in admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sago, sago!&rdquo; said Peter, in his deep, guttural enunciation, speaking
+      reasonably good English. &ldquo;Sago, sago all, ole and young, friend come to
+      see you, and eat in your wigwam&mdash;which head&mdash;chief, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have neither wigwam nor chief here,&rdquo; answered le Bourdon, though he
+      almost shrunk from taking the hand of one of whom he had heard the tales
+      of which this savage had been the hero; &ldquo;we are common people, and have no
+      one among us who holds the States' commission. I live by taking honey, of
+      which you are welcome to all you can want, and this man is a helper of the
+      sutlers at the garrisons. He was travelling south to join the troops at
+      the head of the lake, and I was going north to Mackinaw, on my way in,
+      toward the settlements.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why is my brother in such haste?&rdquo; demanded Peter, mildly. &ldquo;Bees get tired
+      of making honey?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The times are troubled, and the red men have dug up the hatchet; a
+      pale-face cannot tell when his wigwam is safe.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where my brodder wigwam?&rdquo; asked Peter, looking warily around him. &ldquo;See he
+      an't here; where is he?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Over in the openings, far up the Kalamazoo. We left it last week, and had
+      got to the hut on the other shore, when a party of Pottawattamies came in
+      from the lake, and drove us over here for safety.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On hearing this, Peter turned slowly to the missionary, raising a finger
+      as one makes a gesture to give emphasis to his words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tole you so,&rdquo; said the Indian. &ldquo;Know dere was Pottawattamie dere. Can
+      tell 'em great way off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We fear them, having women in our party,&rdquo; added the bee-hunter, &ldquo;and
+      think they might fancy our scalps.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat like enough; all Injin love scalp in war-time. You Yankee, dey
+      Br'ish; can't travel on same path now, and not quarrel. Must not let
+      Pottawattamie catch you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How are we to help it, now you have come in? We had all the canoes on
+      this side of the river, and were pretty safe, but should you cross and
+      place your canoe in their hands, there is nothing to prevent them from
+      doing what they please with us. If you will promise not to cross the river
+      till we can get out well on the lake, we may shift our ground, however,
+      and leave no trail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Muss cross over&mdash;yes, muss cross over, else Pottawattamie t'ink it
+      strange&mdash;yes, muss cross over. Shan't touch canoe, dough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can you help it, if they be so minded? You are but a single man, and
+      they are twenty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On hearing this, Corporal Flint pricked up his ears, and stood if possible
+      more erect than ever, for he considered himself a part of a man at least,
+      and one moreover who had served in all the wars of the west, from the
+      great battle of St. Glair to that of Mad Anthony. He was spared the
+      necessity of a reply, however, for Peter made a significant gesture which
+      as much as told him that he would take that office on himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No need be afeard,&rdquo; said Peter, quietly. &ldquo;Know Pottawattamie&mdash;know
+      all chief. Nobody touch canoe of Onoah when he say don't touch him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yet they are Injins of the British, and I see you here in company with a
+      soldier of Uncle Sam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No matter; Onoah go just where he please. Sometime to Pottawattamie;
+      sometime to Iroquois. All Ojebways know Onoah. All Six Nation know him
+      well. All Injin know him. Even Cherokee know him now, and open ears when
+      he speak. Muss cross river, and shake hand with Crowsfeather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There was nothing boastful, or vaunting, in Peter's manner while he thus
+      announced his immunity or power, but he alluded to it in a quiet, natural
+      way, like one accustomed to being considered a personage of consequence.
+      Mankind, in general, make few allowances for the influence of habit; the
+      sensibilities of the vainglorious themselves being quite as often wounded
+      by the most natural and direct allusions of those who enjoy advantages
+      superior to their own, as by those that are intended to provoke
+      comparisons. In the present instance, however, no such feeling could
+      exist, the Indian asserting no more than his extended reputation would
+      fully maintain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Peter had thus expressed himself, the missionary thought it meet to
+      add a few words in explanation. This he did, however, aside, walking a
+      little apart with the bee-hunter, in order so to do. As for Gershom, no
+      one seemed to think him of sufficient importance to throw away any
+      interest or care on him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You can trust to Peter, friend bee-hunter,&rdquo; the missionary observed, &ldquo;for
+      what he promises he will perform. I know him well, and have put myself
+      altogether in his hands. If he says that the Pottawattamies are not to
+      have his canoe, the Pottawattamies will not get it. He is a man to be
+      depended on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is not this, then, Scalping Peter, who bears so terrible a name on all
+      this frontier?&rdquo; demanded le Bourdon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The same; but do not disturb yourself with names: they hurt no one, and
+      will soon be forgotten. A descendant of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of
+      Jacob, is not placed in the wilderness by the hand of divine power for no
+      purpose; since he is here, rely on it, it is for good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A descendant of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob! Is not Peter, then, a
+      red-skin and an Injin?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly; though no one knows his tribe but himself. I know it, friend
+      bee-hunter, and shortly shall proclaim it throughout the length and
+      breadth of the land. Yes, it has been given to me to make this important
+      discovery, though I sometimes think that Peter himself is really as
+      ignorant as all around him of the tribe to which he properly belongs.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you wish to keep it a secret from me, too? I own that, in my eyes, the
+      tribe of a red-skin goes a good way in making up my opinions of the man.
+      Is he a Winnebagoe?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, my friend, the Winnebagoes have no claims on him at all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nor a Pottawattamie, Ottawa, or Ojebway of any sort?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He is none of these. Peter cometh of a nobler tribe than any that beareth
+      such names.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps he is an Injin of the Six Nations? They tell me that many such
+      have found their way hither since the war of the revolution.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All that may be true, but Peter cometh not of Pottawattamie, Ottawa, nor
+      Ojebway.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He can hardly be of the Sacs or the Foxes; he has not the appearance of
+      an Injin from a region so far west.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Neither, neither, neither,&rdquo; answered Parson Amen, now so full of his
+      secret as fairly to let it overflow. &ldquo;Peter is a son of Israel; one of the
+      lost children of the land of Judea, in common with many of his red
+      brethren-mind, I do not say ALL, but with MANY of his red brethren&mdash;though
+      he may not know exactly of what tribe himself. This last point has
+      exercised me greatly, and days and nights have I pondered over the facts.
+      Turn to Genesis XLIX and 14th, and there will you find all the authorities
+      recorded. 'Zebulon shall dwell at the haven of the sea.' That refers to
+      some other red brother, nearer to the coast, most clearly. 'Issachar is a
+      strong ass, crouching down between two burdens'; 'and bowed his shoulder
+      to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.' That refers, most manifestly,
+      to the black man of the Southern States, and cannot mean Peter. 'Dan shall
+      be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path.' There is the red man for
+      you, drawn with the pencil of truth! 'Gad, a troop shall overcome him.'
+      Here, corporal, come this way and tell our new friend how Mad Anthony with
+      his troopers finally routed the red-skins. You were there, and know all
+      about it. No language can be plainer: until the 'long-knives and
+      leather-stockings' came into the woods, the red man had his way. Against
+      THEM he COULD not prevail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; returned Corporal Flint, who delighted in talking of the wars, &ldquo;it
+      was very much as Parson Amen says. The savages, by their nimbleness and
+      artifices, would first ambush us, and then break away from our charges,
+      until the gin'ral bethought him of bringing cavalry into the wilderness.
+      Nobody ever thought of such a plan, until old Anthony invented it. As soon
+      as we got the fire of the savages, at the Mawmee, we charged with the
+      baggonet, and put 'em up; and no sooner was they up, than away went the
+      horse into them, flourishing the 'long knife' and pressing the heel of the
+      'leather-stocking' into the flanks of their beasts. Mr. Amen has found a
+      varse in Scriptur's that does come near to the p'int, and almost foretells
+      our victory, and that, too, as plain as it stood in dispatches, arterward,
+      from headquarters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;'Gad, a TROOP shall overcome him,'&rdquo; put in the missionary, triumphantly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's it&mdash;that's it; there was just one troop on 'em, and not a man
+      more! Mad Anthony said a troop would answer, arter we had put the
+      red-skins up out of their ambushes, or any other bushes; and so it did. I
+      must acknowledge that I think more of the Scriptur's than ever, since
+      Parson Amen read to me that varse.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hearken unto this, friend bee-hunter,&rdquo; added the missionary, who by this
+      time had fairly mounted his hobby, and fancied he saw a true Israelite in
+      every other Indian of the west, &ldquo;and tell me if words were ever more
+      prophetic&mdash;'Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf; in the morning he shall
+      devour his prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.' The art of man
+      could not draw a more faithful picture of these Indians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Boden was not much skilled in sacred lore, and scarce knew what to make of
+      all this. The idea that the American Indians were the descendants of the
+      lost tribes of Israel was entirely new to him; nor did he know anything to
+      boast of, touching those tribes, even in their palmiest days, and while in
+      possession of the promised land; still he had some confused recollection
+      of that which he had read when a child&mdash;what American has not?&mdash;and
+      was enabled to put a question or two, in return for the information now
+      received. &ldquo;What, do you take the savages of America for Jews?&rdquo; he asked,
+      understanding the general drift of the missionary's meaning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As sure as you are there, friend bee-hunter, though you are not to
+      suppose that I think Peter Onoah of the tribe of Benjamin. No, I turn to
+      the 21st verse for the tribe of Peter Naphthali&mdash;Naphthalis, the root
+      of his stock. 'Naphthali is a hind, let loose: he giveth goodly words.'
+      Now, what can be plainer than this? A hind let loose is a deer running at
+      large, and, by a metaphor, that deer includes the man that hunts him. Now,
+      Peter has been&mdash;nay, is still&mdash;a renowned hunter, and is
+      intended to be enumerated among the hinds let loose; 'he giveth goodly
+      words,' would set that point at rest, if anything were wanting to put it
+      beyond controversy, for Onoah is the most eloquent speaker ear ever
+      listened to! No one, that has ever heard him speak, can doubt that he is
+      the one who 'giveth goodly words.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To what other circumstance the well-intentioned missionary would next have
+      alluded, in the course of this demonstration of a theory that had got to
+      be a favorite with him, is more than can now be related, since the Indian
+      himself drew near, and put an end to the conversation. Peter had made up
+      his mind to cross the river at once; and came to say as much to his
+      companions, both of whom he intended to leave behind him. Le Bourdon could
+      not arrest this movement, short of an appeal to force; and force he did
+      not like to use, doubting equally its justice and its prudence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+  There is no other land like thee, No dearer shore; Thou art the shelter
+  of the free; The home, the port of liberty Thou hast been, and shall
+  ever be Till time is o'er. Ere I forget to think upon My land, shall
+  mother curse the son She bore.
+                                                    &mdash;Percival.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The independent, not to say controlling, manner of Peter, would seem to
+      put all remonstrances and arguments at defiance, Le Bourdon soon had
+      occasion to see that both the missionary and the corporal submitted to his
+      wishes, and that there was no use in gainsaying anything he proposed. In
+      all matters he did as he pleased; his two companions submitting to his
+      will as completely as if one of them had seen in this supposed child of
+      Israel, Joshua, the son of Nun, and the other even Aaron, the high-priest,
+      himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter's preparations were soon made. Everything belonging to the
+      missionary and the corporal was removed from the canoe, which then
+      contained only the extra clothing and the special property of the Indian
+      himself. As soon as ready, the latter quietly and fearlessly paddled away,
+      his canoe going easily and swiftly down before the wind. He had no sooner
+      got clear of the rice, than the bee-hunter and Margery ran away to the
+      eminence, to watch his movements, and to note his reception among the
+      Pottawattamies. Leaving them there, we shall accompany the canoe, in its
+      progress toward the northern shore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At first, Peter paddled quietly on, as if he had no other object before
+      him than the passage of the river. When quite clear of the rice, however,
+      he ceased, and undid his bundle of clothes, which were carefully put away
+      in the knapsack of a soldier. From this repository of his effects, the
+      chief carefully drew forth a small bundle, on opening which, no less than
+      seven fresh human scalps appeared. These he arranged in order on a
+      wand-like pole, when, satisfied with the arrangement, he resumed the
+      paddle. It was apparent, from the first, that the Pottawattamies on the
+      north shore had seen the strange canoe when it entered the river, and they
+      now collected in a group, at the ordinary landing beneath the chiente, to
+      await its approach. Peter ceased his own exertion, as soon as he had got
+      within a hundred yards of the beach, took the scalp-pole in his hand,
+      arose, and permitted the canoe to drift down before the wind, certain it
+      would take the desired direction, from the circumstance of his having
+      placed it precisely to windward of the landing. Once or twice he slowly
+      waved the pole in a way to draw attention to the scalps, which were
+      suspended from its end, each obvious and distinct from its companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Napoleon, when he returned from the campaign of Austerlitz; or Wellington,
+      when he entered the House of Commons to receive the thanks of its speaker,
+      on his return from Spain; or the chief of all the battles of the Rio Bravo
+      del Norte; or him of the valley of Mexico, whose exploits fairly rival
+      those of Cortes himself, could scarcely be a subject of greater interest
+      to a body of spectators, assembled to do him honor, than was this
+      well-known Indian, as he drew near to the Pottawattamies, waving his
+      scalps, in significant triumph! Glory, as the homage paid by man to
+      military renown is termed, was the common impulse with them all. It is
+      true, that, measured by the standards of reason and right, the wise and
+      just might find motives for appreciating the victories of those named
+      differently from the manner in which they are usually regarded through the
+      atmosphere of success; but in the common mind it was all glory, alike. The
+      name of &ldquo;Onoah&rdquo; passed in murmurs of admiration, from mouth to mouth; for,
+      as it appeared, the person of this renowned Indian was recognized by many
+      on the shore, some time ere he reached it himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Crowsfeather, and the other chiefs, advanced to meet the visitor; the
+      young men standing in the background, in respectful admiration. Peter now
+      stepped from the canoe, and greeted each of the principal men with the
+      courteous gravity of a savage. He shook hands with each, calling one or
+      two by name, a proof of the parties having met before; then the following
+      dialogue occurred. All spoke in the tongue of the Pottawattamies, but, as
+      we have had occasion to remark on previous occasions, it is to be presumed
+      that the reader would scarcely be able to understand what was said, were
+      we to record it, word for word, in the language in which it was uttered.
+      In consequence of this difficulty, and for other reasons to which it may
+      not be necessary to allude, we shall endeavor to translate that which
+      passed, as closely as the English idioms will permit us so to do.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father is very welcome!&rdquo; exclaimed Crowsfeather, who, by many degrees,
+      exceeded all his companions in consideration and rank. &ldquo;I see he has taken
+      many scalps as is his practice, and that the pale-faces are daily getting
+      to be fewer. Will the sun ever rise on that day when their wigwams will
+      look like the branches of the oak in winter? Can my father give us any
+      hope of seeing that hour?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a long path from the salt-lake out of which the sun rises, to that
+      other salt-lake in which it hides itself at night. The sun sleeps each
+      night beneath water, but it is so hot that it is soon dried when it comes
+      out of its bed in the morning. This is the Great Spirit's doings, and not
+      ours. The sun is his sun; the Indians can warm themselves by it, but they
+      cannot shorten its journey a single tomahawk handle's length. The same is
+      true of time; it belongs to the Manitou, who will lengthen or shorten it,
+      as he may see fit. We are his children, and it is our duty to submit. He
+      has not forgotten us. He made us with his own hand, and will no more turn
+      us out of the land than a father will turn his child from the wigwam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We hope this is so; but it does not seem thus to out poor weak eyes,
+      Onoah. We count the pale-faces, and every summer they grow fast as the
+      grass on the prairies. We can see more when the leaf falls than when the
+      tree is in bud; and, then, more when the leaf is in bud than when it
+      falls. A few moons will put a town where the pine stood, and wigwams drive
+      the wolves from their homes. In a few years we shall have nothing but dogs
+      to eat, if the pale-face dogs do not eat us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Squaws are impatient, but men know how to wait. This land was given to
+      the red man by the Great Spirit, as I have often told you, my children; if
+      he has let in the pale-faces for a few winters, it is to punish us for
+      having done wrong. Now that we are sorry for what we have done, he will
+      help us to drive away the strangers, and give us the woods again to hunt
+      in by ourselves. Have not messengers from our Great Father in Montreal
+      been among the Pottawattamies to strengthen their hearts?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are always whispering in the ears of our tribes. I cannot remember
+      the time when whispers from Montreal have not been among us. Their
+      blankets are warm, their fire-water is strong, their powder is good, and
+      their rifles shoot well; but all this does not stop the children of Uncle
+      Sam from being more at night than they were in the morning. The red men
+      get tired of counting them. They have become plentier than the pigeons in
+      the spring. My father has taken many of their scalps, but the hair must
+      grow after his knife, their scalps are so many.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;See!&rdquo; rejoined Peter, lowering his pole so that all might examine his
+      revolting trophies, &ldquo;these come from the soldiers at the head of the lake.
+      Blackbird was there with his young men; no one of them all got as many
+      scalps! This is the way to stop the white pigeon from flying over us in
+      such flocks as to hide and darken the sun.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another murmur of admiration passed through the crowd, as each young
+      warrior bent forward to count the number of the scalps, and to note, by
+      signs familiar to themselves, the ages, sex, and condition of the
+      different victims. Here was another instance among a hundred others of
+      which they had heard, of the prowess of the mysterious Onoah, as well as
+      of his inextinguishable hatred of the race, that was slowly, but
+      unerringly, supplanting the ancient stock, causing the places that once
+      knew the people of their tribes &ldquo;to know them no more.&rdquo; As soon as this
+      little burst of feeling had subsided, the conversation went on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have had a pale-face medicine-man among us, Onoah,&rdquo; continued
+      Crowsfeather, &ldquo;and he has so far blinded us that we know not what to
+      think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The chief then recounted the leading events of the visit of the bee-hunter
+      to the place, stating each occurrence fairly, as he understood it, and as
+      fairly confessing that even the chiefs were at a loss to know what to make
+      of the affair. In addition to this account, he gave the mysterious Onoah
+      the history of the prisoner they had taken, the death of Elks-foot, their
+      intention to torture that very morning the Chippewa they had captured, and
+      his flight, together with the loss of their young man, and the subsequent
+      escape of their unknown enemies, who had taken away all of their own
+      canoes. How far the medicine-man had anything to do with the other events
+      of his narrative, Crowsfeather very candidly admitted he could not even
+      conjecture. He was still at a loss whether to set down the conjurer for a
+      pretender, or as a real oracle. Peter, however, was less credulous even
+      than the chiefs. He had his superstitious notions, like all uneducated
+      men, but a clear head and quick intellect placed him far above the
+      weaknesses of the red man in general. On receiving a description of the
+      person of the unknown &ldquo;medicine-man,&rdquo; he at once recognized the
+      bee-hunter. With an Indian to describe, and an Indian to interpret or
+      apply, escape from discovery was next to impossible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although Onoah, or the &ldquo;Tribeless,&rdquo; as he was also frequently called by
+      the red men, from the circumstance of no one's knowing to what particular
+      section of the great Indian family he belonged, perfectly understood that
+      the bee-hunter he had seen on the other shore was the individual who had
+      been playing the part of a conjurer among these Pottawattamies, he was
+      very careful not to reveal the fact to Crowsfeather. He had his own
+      policy, and was fully aware of all the virtue there is in mystery and
+      reserve. With an Indian, these qualities go farther even than with a white
+      man; and we of the Caucasian race are not entirely exempt from the folly
+      of being deceived by appearances. On the present occasion Peter kept his
+      knowledge to himself, still leaving his red brethren in doubt and
+      uncertainty; but he took care to be right in his own opinions by putting
+      as many questions as were necessary for that purpose. Once assured of this
+      fact, he turned to other subjects of even greater interest to himself and
+      his companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conference which now took place between the &ldquo;Tribeless&rdquo; and
+      Crowsfeather was held apart, both being chiefs of too much importance to
+      be intruded on at a moment like that. The two chiefs exhibited a very
+      characteristic picture while engaged in this conference. They seated
+      themselves on a bank, and drawing their legs partially under them, sat
+      face to face, with their heads less than two feet asunder, occasionally
+      gesticulating with dignity, but each speaking in his turn with studied
+      decorum. Crowsfeather was highly painted, and looked fierce and warlike,
+      but Onoah had nothing extraordinary about him, with the exception of the
+      decorations and dress already described, unless it might be his remarkable
+      countenance. The face of this Indian ordinarily wore a thoughtful cast, an
+      expression which it is not unusual to meet with in a savage; though at
+      times it lighted up, as it might be with the heat of inward fires, like
+      the crater giving out its occasional flames beneath the hues of a saddened
+      atmosphere. One accustomed to study the human face, and to analyze its
+      expressions, would possibly have discovered in that countenance lines of
+      deep artifice, together with the traces of a profound and constitutional
+      enthusiasm. He was bent, at that very moment, on a scheme worthy of the
+      loftiest spirit living; the regeneration and union of the people of his
+      race, with a view to recover the possessions they had yielded to the
+      pale-faces; but it was a project blended with the ferocity and revenge of
+      a savage-noble while ferocious.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Not idly had the whites, scattered along that frontier, given the
+      sobriquet of &ldquo;Scalping&rdquo; to Peter, As his pole now showed, it had been
+      earned in a hundred scenes of bloody vengeance; and so great had been his
+      success, that the warrior, prophet, and councillor, for all these
+      characters were united in his single person, began to think the attainment
+      of his wishes possible. As a matter of course, much ignorance of the power
+      of the Anglo-Saxon race on this continent was blended with these opinions
+      and hopes; but it was scarcely an ignorance exceeding that of certain
+      persons of far higher pretensions in knowledge, who live in another
+      hemisphere, and who often set themselves up as infallible judges of all
+      things connected with man and his attributes. Peter, the &ldquo;Tribeless,&rdquo; was
+      not more in fault than those who fancied they saw the power of this great
+      republic in the gallant little band collected at Corpus Christi, under its
+      indomitable chief, and who, march by march, nay, foot by foot, as it might
+      be, have perseveringly predicted the halt, the defeat, the disasters, and
+      final discomfiture, which it has not yet pleased Divine Providence to
+      inflict on this slight effort of the young Hercules, as he merely moves in
+      his cradle. Alas, the enemy that most menaces the overthrow of this new
+      and otherwise invincible exhibition of human force, is within; seated in
+      the citadel itself; and must be narrowly watched, or he will act his
+      malignant purpose, and destroy the fairest hopes that ever yet dawned on
+      the fortunes of the human race!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The conference between the chiefs lasted fully an hour. Crowsfeather
+      possessed much of the confidence of Peter, and, as for Onoah, neither
+      Tecumseh, nor his brother the Prophet, commanded as much of the respect of
+      Crowsfeather as he did himself. Some even whispered that the &ldquo;Tribeless&rdquo;
+       was the individual who lay behind all, and that the others named merely
+      acted as he suggested, or advised. The reader will obtain all the insight
+      into the future that it is necessary now to give him, by getting a few of
+      the remarks made by the two colloquists, just before they joined the rest
+      of the party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father, then, intends to lead his pale-faces on a crooked path, and
+      take their scalps when he has done with them,&rdquo; said Crowsfeather, who had
+      been gravely listening to Peter's plans of future proceeding; &ldquo;but who is
+      to get the scalp of the Chippewa?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of my Pottawattamie young men; but not until I have made use of him.
+      I have a medicine-priest of the pale-faces and a warrior with me, but
+      shall not put their scalps on my pole until they have paddled me further.
+      The council is to be first held in the Oak Openings&rdquo;&mdash;we translate
+      this term freely, that used by Peter meaning rather &ldquo;the open woods of the
+      prairies&rdquo;&mdash;&ldquo;and I wish to show my prisoners to the chiefs, that they
+      may see how easy it is to cut off all the Yankees. I have now four men of
+      that people, and two squaws, in my power; let every red man destroy as
+      many, and the land will soon be clear of them all!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was uttered with gleamings of ferocity in the speaker's face, that
+      rendered his countenance terrible. Even Crowsfeather quailed a little
+      before that fierce aspect; but the whole passed away almost as soon as
+      betrayed, and was succeeded by a friendly and deceptive smile, that was
+      characteristic of the wily Asiatic rather than of the aboriginal American.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They cannot be counted,&rdquo; returned the Pottawattamie chief, as soon as his
+      restraint was a little removed by this less terrific aspect of his
+      companion, &ldquo;if all I hear is true. Blackbird says that even the squaws of
+      the pale-faces are numerous enough to overcome all the red men that
+      remain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There will be two less, when I fasten to my pole the scalps of those on
+      the other side of the river,&rdquo; answered Peter, with another of his
+      transient, but startling gleams of intense revenge. &ldquo;But no matter, now:
+      my brother knows all I wish him to do. Not a hair of the head of any of
+      these pale-faces must be touched by any hand but mine. When the time
+      comes, the knife of Onoah is sure. The Pottawattamies shall have their
+      canoes, and can follow us up the river. They will find us in the Openings,
+      and near the Prairie Round. They know the spot; for the red men love to
+      hunt the deer in that region. Now, go and tell this to your young men; and
+      tell them that corn will not grow, nor the deer wait to be killed by any
+      of your people, if they forget to do as I have said. Vengeance shall come,
+      when it is time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Crowsfeather communicated all this to his warriors, who received it as the
+      ancients received the words of their oracles. Each member of the party
+      endeavored to get an accurate notion of his duty, in order that he might
+      comply to the very letter with the injunctions received. So profound was
+      the impression made among all the red men of the north-west by the
+      previous labors of the &ldquo;Tribeless&rdquo; to awaken a national spirit, and so
+      great was their dread of the consequences of disobedience, that every
+      warrior present felt as if his life were the threatened penalty of neglect
+      or disinclination to obey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sooner, however, had Crowsfeather got through with his communication,
+      than a general request was made that the problem of the whiskey-spring
+      might be referred to Onoah for solution. The young men had strong hopes,
+      not-withstanding all that had passed, that this spring might yet turn out
+      to be a reality. The scent was still there, strong and fragrant, and they
+      could not get rid of the notion that &ldquo;fire-water&rdquo; grew on that spot. It is
+      true, their faith had been somewhat disturbed by the manner in which the
+      medicine-man had left them, and by his failure to draw forth the gushing
+      stream which he had impliedly promised, and in a small degree performed;
+      nevertheless little pools of whiskey had been found on the rock, and
+      several had tasted and satisfied themselves of the quality of the liquor.
+      As is usual, that taste had created a desire for more, a desire that
+      seldom slumbered on an Indian palate when strong drinks were connected
+      with its gratification.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter heard the request with gravity, and consented to look into the
+      matter with a due regard to his popularity and influence. He had his own
+      superstitious views, but among them there did not happen to be one which
+      admitted the possibility of whiskey's running in a stream from the living
+      rock. Still he was willing to examine the charmed spot, scent the fragrant
+      odor, and make up his own estimate of the artifices by which the
+      bee-hunter had been practising on the untutored beings into whose hand
+      chance had thrown him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While the young men eagerly pointed out the precise spots where the scent
+      was the strongest, Peter maintained the most unmoved gravity. He did not
+      kneel to smell the rocks, like the other chiefs, for this an innate sense
+      of propriety told him would be undignified; but he made his observations
+      closely, and with a keen Indian-like attention to every little
+      circumstance that might aid him in arriving at the truth. All this time,
+      great was the awe and deep the admiration of the lookers-on. Onoah had
+      succeeded in creating a moral power for himself among the Indians of the
+      northwest which much exceeded that of any other red man of that region.
+      The whites scarcely heard of him, knew but little of his career, and less
+      of his true character, for both were shrouded in mystery. There is nothing
+      remarkable in this ignorance of the pale-faces of the time. They did not
+      understand their own leaders; much less the leaders of the children of the
+      openings, the prairies, and the forest. At this hour, what is really known
+      by the mass of the American people of the true characters of their public
+      men? No nation that has any claim to civilization and publicity knows
+      less, and for several very obvious reasons. The want of a capital in which
+      the intelligence of the nation periodically assembles and whence a
+      corrected public opinion on all such matters ought constantly to flow, as
+      truth emanates from the collisions of minds, is one of these reasons. The
+      extent of the country, which separates men by distances that no fact can
+      travel over without incurring the dangers of being perverted on the road,
+      is another. But the most fatal of al he influences that tend to mislead
+      the judgment of the American citizen, is to be found in the abuse of a
+      machinery that was intended to produce an exactly contrary effect. If the
+      tongue was given to man to communicate ideas to his fellows, so has
+      philosophy described it as &ldquo;a gift to conceal his thoughts.&rdquo; If the press
+      was devised to circulate truth, so has it been changed into a means of
+      circulating lies. One is easily, nay, more easily, sent abroad on the four
+      winds of the heavens than the other. Truth requires candor, impartiality,
+      honesty, research, and industry; but a falsehood, whether designed or not,
+      stands in need of neither. Of that which is the most easily produced, the
+      country gets the most; and it were idle to imagine that a people who
+      blindly and unresistingly submit to be put, as it might be, under the feet
+      of falsehood, as respects all their own public men, can ever get very
+      accurate notions of those of other nations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus was it with Onoah. His name was unknown to the whites, except as a
+      terrible and much-dreaded avenger of the wrongs of his race. With the red
+      men it was very different. They had no &ldquo;forked tongues&rdquo; to make falsehood
+      take the place of truth; or if such existed they were not believed. The
+      Pottawattamies now present knew all about Tecumseh, [Footnote: A &ldquo;tiger
+      stooping for his prey.&rdquo;] of whom the whites had also various and ample
+      accounts. This Shawanee chief had long been active among them, and his
+      influence was extended far and near. He was a bold, restless, and
+      ingenious warrior; one, perhaps, who better understood the art of war, as
+      it was practised among red men, than any Indian then living. They knew the
+      name and person, also, of his brother Elkswatawa, [Footnote: &ldquo;A door
+      opened.&rdquo;] or the Prophet, whose name has also become incorporated with the
+      histories of the times. These two chiefs were very powerful, though scarce
+      dwelling regularly in any tribe; but their origin, their careers, and
+      their characters were known to all, as were those of their common father,
+      Pukeesheno, [Footnote: &ldquo;I light from fly&mdash;&ldquo;] and their mother,
+      Meethetaske.[Footnote: &ldquo;A turtle laying her eggs in the sand.&rdquo;] But with
+      Onoah it was very different. With him the past was as much of a mystery as
+      the future. No Indian could say even of what tribe he was born. The totem
+      that he bore on his person belonged to no people then existing on the
+      continent, and all connected with him, his history, nation, and family,
+      was conjecture and fancy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is said that the Indians have traditions which are communicated only to
+      a favored few, and which by them have been transmitted from generation to
+      generation. An enlightened and educated red man has quite recently told us
+      in person, that he had been made the repository of some of these
+      traditions, and that he had thus obtained enough of the history of his
+      race to be satisfied that they were not derived from the lost tribes of
+      Israel, though he declined communicating any more. It is so natural to
+      resort to secrecy in order to extend influence, that we can have no
+      difficulty In believing the existence of the practice; there probably
+      being no other reason why Free Masonry or Odd Fellowship should have
+      recourse to such an expedient, but to rule through the imagination in
+      preference to the judgment. Now Peter enjoyed all the advantages of
+      mystery. It was said that even his real name was unknown, that of Onoah
+      having been given in token of the many scalps he took, and that of
+      Wa-wa-nosh, which he also sometimes bore, having been bestowed on him by
+      adoption in consequence of an act of favor extended to him from an Ojebway
+      of some note, while that of Peter was clearly derived from the whites.
+      Some of his greatest admirers whispered that when the true name of the
+      &ldquo;Tribeless&rdquo; should get to be known, his origin, early career, and all
+      relating to him would at once become familiar to every red man. At
+      present, the Indians must rest content with what they saw and understood.
+      The wisdom of Wa-wa-nosh made itself felt in the councils; his eloquence
+      no speaker has equalled for ages; as for his vengeance on the enemies of
+      his race, that was to be estimated by the scalps he had taken. More than
+      this no Indian was to be permitted to know, until the mission of this
+      oracle and chief was completed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had one enlightened by the education of a civilized man been there, to
+      watch the movements and countenance of Peter as he scented the whiskey,
+      and looked in vain for the cause of the odor, and for a clew to the
+      mystery which so much perplexed the Pottawattamies, he would probably have
+      discovered some reason to distrust the sincerity of this remarkable
+      savage's doubts. If ever Peter was an actor, it was on that occasion. He
+      did not, in the least, fall into any of the errors of his companions; but
+      the scent a good deal confounded him at first. At length he came to the
+      natural conclusion, that this unusual odor was in some way connected with
+      the family he had left on the other shore; and from that moment his mind
+      was at ease.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It did not suit the views of Peter, however, to explain to the
+      Pottawattamies that which was now getting to be so obvious to himself. On
+      the contrary, he rather threw dust into the eyes of the chiefs, with a
+      view to bring them also under the influence of superstition. After making
+      his observations with unmoved gravity, he promised a solution of the whole
+      affair when they should again meet in the Openings, and proposed to
+      recross the river. Before quitting the shore Peter and Crowsfeather had a
+      clear understanding on the subject of their respective movements; and, as
+      soon as the former began to paddle up against the wind, the latter called
+      his young men together, made a short address, and led them into the woods,
+      as if about to proceed on a march of length. The party, notwithstanding,
+      did not proceed more than a mile and a half, when it came to a halt, and
+      lighted a fire in order to cook some venison taken on the way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Peter reached the south shore, he found the whole group assembled to
+      receive him. His tale was soon told. He had talked with the
+      Pottawattamies, and they were gone. The canoes, however, must be carried
+      to the other shore and left there, in order that their owners might
+      recover their property when they returned. This much had Peter promised,
+      and his pale-face friends must help him to keep his word. Then he pointed
+      to the Openings as to their place of present safety. There they would be
+      removed from all immediate danger, and he would accompany them and give
+      them the countenance and protection of his name and presence. As for going
+      south on the lake, that was impossible, so long as the wind lasted, and it
+      was useless even could it be done. The troops had all left Chicago, and
+      the fort was destroyed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Parson Amen and Corporal Flint, both of whom were completely deluded by
+      Peter, fancying him a secret friend of the whites, in consequence of his
+      own protestations to that effect and the service he had already rendered
+      them, in appearance at least, instantly acquiesced in this wily savage's
+      proposal. It was the best, the wisest, nay, the only thing that now could
+      be done. Mackinaw was gone, as well as Chicago, and Detroit must be
+      reached by crossing the peninsula, instead of taking the easier but far
+      more circuitous route of the lakes. Gershom was easily enough persuaded
+      into the belief of the feasibility, as well as of the necessity, of this
+      deviation from his original road, and he soon agreed to accompany the
+      party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With le Bourdon the case was different. He understood himself and the
+      wilderness. For him the wind was fair, and there was no necessity for his
+      touching at Mackinaw at all. It is true, he usually passed several days on
+      that pleasant and salubrious island, and frequently disposed of lots of
+      honey there; but he could dispense with the visit and the sales. There was
+      certainly danger now to be apprehended from the Ottawas, who would be very
+      apt to be out on the lake after this maritime excursion against the fort;
+      but it was possible even to elude their vigilance. In a word, the
+      bee-hunter did not believe in the prudence of returning to the Openings,
+      but thought it by far the wisest for the whole party to make the best of
+      its way by water to the settlements. All this he urged warmly on his white
+      companions, taking them aside for that purpose, and leaving Peter and
+      Pigeonswing together while he did so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Parson Amen would as soon have believed that his old congregation in
+      Connecticut was composed of Philistines, as not to believe that the red
+      men were the lost tribes, and that Peter, in particular, was not
+      especially and elaborately described in the Old Testament. He had become
+      so thoroughly possessed by this crotchet as to pervert everything that he
+      saw, read, or heard, into evidence, of some sort or other, of the truth of
+      his notions. In this respect there was nothing peculiar in the good
+      missionary's weakness, it being a failing common to partisans of a theory,
+      to discover proofs of its truths in a thousand things in which indifferent
+      persons can find even no connection with the subject at all. In this frame
+      of mind the missionary would as soon think of letting go his hold on the
+      Bible itself, as think of separating from an Indian who might turn out any
+      day to be a direct representative of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. Not to
+      speak irreverently, but to use language that must be familiar to all, the
+      well-meaning missionary wished to be in at the death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corporal Flint, too, had great faith in Peter. It was a part of the scheme
+      of the savage to make this straight for-ward soldier an instrument in
+      placing many scalps in hit power; and though he had designed from the
+      first to execute his bloody office on the corporal himself, he did not
+      intend to do so until he had made the most of him as a stool-pigeon. Here
+      were four more pale-faces thrown in his power, principally by means of the
+      confidence he had awakened in the minds of the missionary and the soldier;
+      and that same confidence might be made instrumental in adding still more
+      to the number. Peter was a sagacious, even a far-seeing savage, but he
+      labored under the curse of ignorance. Had his information been of a more
+      extended nature, he would have seen the utter fallacy of his project to
+      destroy the pale-faces altogether, and most probably would have abandoned
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a singular fact that, while such men as Tecumseh, his brother the
+      Prophet, and Peter, were looking forward to the downfall of the republic
+      on the side of the forest, so many, who ought to have been better informed
+      on such a subject, were anxiously expecting, nay confidently predicting
+      it, from beyond the Atlantic. Notwithstanding these sinister soothsayers,
+      the progress of the nation has, by a beneficent Providence, been onward
+      and onward, until it is scarcely presumptuous to suppose that even England
+      has abandoned the expectation of classing this country again among her
+      dependencies. The fortunes of America, under God, depend only on herself.
+      America may destroy America; of that there is danger; but it is pretty
+      certain that Europe united could make no serious impression on her.
+      Favored by position, and filled with a population that we have ever
+      maintained was one of the most military in existence, a truth that recent
+      events are hourly proving to be true, it much exceeds the power of all the
+      enemies of her institutions to make any serious impression on her. There
+      is an enemy who may prove too much for her; it exists in her bosom; and
+      God alone can keep him in subjection, and repress his desolation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These were facts, however, of which Wa-wa-nosh, or Onoah, was as ignorant
+      as if he were an English or French minister of state, and had got his
+      notions of the country from English or French travellers, who wished for
+      what they predicted. He had heard of the towns and population of the
+      republic; but one gets a very imperfect notion of any fact of this sort by
+      report, unless previous experience has prepared the mind to make the
+      necessary comparisons, and fitted it to receive the images intended to be
+      conveyed. No wonder, then, that Peter fell into a mistake common to those
+      who had so many better opportunities of forming just opinions, and of
+      arriving at truths that were sufficiently obvious to all who did not
+      wilfully shut their eyes to their existence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Hearest thou voices on the shore
+      That our ears perceive no more,
+      Deafened by the cataract's roar?
+
+     Bear, through sorrow, wrong, and ruth,
+      In thy heart the dew of youth,
+      On thy lips the smile of truth.
+                            &mdash;LONGFELLOW.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      From all that has been stated, the reader will, probably, be prepared to
+      learn that Boden did not succeed in his effort to persuade Gershom, and
+      the other Christians, to accompany him on his voyage round by Lake Huron.
+      Corporal Flint was obdurate, and Parson Amen confiding. As for Gershom, he
+      did not like the thought of retracing his steps so soon, and the females
+      were obliged to remain with the husband and brother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You had better get out of the river while all the canoes are on this
+      side,&rdquo; said Margery, as she and le Bourdon walked toward the boats in
+      company, the council having ended, and everything beginning to assume the
+      appearance of action. &ldquo;Remember you will be quite alone, and have a long,
+      long road to travel!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do remember all this, Margery, and see the necessity for all of us
+      getting back to the settlements as fast as we can. I don't half like this
+      Peter; his name is a bad one in the garrisons, and it makes me miserable
+      to think that you may be in his power.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The missionary and the corporal, as well as my brother, seem willing to
+      trust him&mdash;what can two females do, when their male protector has
+      made up his mind in such a matter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One who would very gladly be your protector, pretty Margery, has not made
+      up his mind to the prudence of trusting Peter at all. Put yourself under
+      my care, and my life shall be lost, or I will carry you safe to your
+      friends in Detroit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This might be deemed tolerably explicit; yet was it not sufficiently so to
+      satisfy female scruples, or female rights. Margery blushed, and she looked
+      down, while she did not look absolutely displeased. But her answer was
+      given firmly, and with a promptitude that showed she was quite in earnest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot quit Dorothy, placed as she is&mdash;and it is my duty to die
+      with brother,&rdquo; she said.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have you thought enough of this, Margery? may not reflection change your
+      mind?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a duty on which a girl is not called to reflect; she must FEEL,
+      in a matter of conscience.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter fairly sighed, and from a very resolute he became a very
+      irresolute sort of person. As was natural to one in his situation, he let
+      out the secret current his thoughts had taken, in the remarks which
+      followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not like the manner in which Peter and Pigeonswing are now talking
+      together,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;When an Injin is so earnest, there is generally
+      mischief brewing. Do you see Peter's manner?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He seems to be telling the young warrior something that makes both forget
+      themselves. I never saw two men who seem so completely to forget all the
+      rest of the world as them two savages! What can be the meaning, Bourdon,
+      of so much fierce earnestness?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would give the world to know-possibly the Chippewa may tell me. We
+      understand each other tolerably well, and, just as you spoke, he gave me a
+      secret sign that I have a right to think means confidence and friendship.
+      That savage is either a fast friend, or a thorough villain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is it safe to trust any of them, Bourdon? No&mdash;no&mdash;your best way
+      will be to go down the lakes, and get back to Detroit as soon as you can.
+      Not only your property, but your LIFE, is at risk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go, and leave you here, Margery&mdash;here, with a brother whose failing
+      you know as well as I do, and who may, at any moment, fall back into his
+      old ways! I should not be a man to do it!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But brother can get no liquor, now, for it is all emptied. When himself
+      for a few days, Gershom is a good protector, as well as a good provider.
+      You must not judge brother too harshly, from what you have seen of him,
+      Bourdon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not wish to judge him at all, Margery. We all have our failin's, and
+      whiskey is his. I dare say mine are quite as bad, in some other way. It's
+      enough for me, Margery, that Gershom is your brother, to cause me to try
+      to think well of him. We must not trust to there being no more liquor
+      among us; for, if that so'ger is altogether without his rations, he's the
+      first so'ger I ever met with who was!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this corporal is a friend of the minister, and ministers ought not to
+      drink!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ministers are like other men, as them that live much among 'em will soon
+      find out. Hows'ever, if you WILL stay, Margery, there is no more to be
+      said. I must cache [Footnote: A Western term, obviously derived from
+      cacher, to conceal. Cache is much used by the Western adventurers.] my
+      honey, and get the canoe ready to go up stream again. Where you go,
+      Margery, I go too, unless you tell me that you do not wish my company.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was said quietly, but in the manner of one whose mind was made up.
+      Margery scarce knew how to take it. That she was secretly delighted,
+      cannot be denied; while, at the same time, that she felt a generous and
+      lively concern for the fortunes of le Bourdon, is quite as certain. As
+      Gershom just then called to her to lend her assistance in preparing to
+      embark, she had no leisure for expostulation, nor do we know that she now
+      seriously wished to divert the bee-hunter from his purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was soon understood by every one that the river was to be crossed, in
+      order that Gershom might get his household effects, previously to
+      ascending the Kalamazoo. This set all at&mdash;work but the Chippewa, who
+      appeared to le Bourdon to be watchful and full of distrust. As the latter
+      had a job before him, that would be likely to consume a couple of hours,
+      the others were ready for a start long before he had his hole dug. It was
+      therefore arranged that the bee-hunter should complete his task, while the
+      others crossed the stream, and went in quest of Gershom's scanty stock of
+      household goods. Pigeonswing, however, was not to be found, when the
+      canoes were ready, and Peter proceeded without him. Nor did le Bourdon see
+      anything of his friend until the adventurers were fairly on the north
+      shore, when he rejoined le Bourdon, sitting on a log, a curious spectator
+      of the latter's devices to conceal his property, but not offering to aid
+      him in a single movement. The bee-hunter too well understood an Indian
+      warrior's aversion to labor of all sorts, unless it be connected with his
+      military achievements, to be surprised at his companion's indifference to
+      his own toil. As the work went on, a friendly dialogue was kept up between
+      the parties.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I didn't know, Pigeonswing, but you had started for the openings, before
+      us,&rdquo; observed le Bourdon. &ldquo;That tribeless old Injin made something of a
+      fuss about your being out of the way; I dare say he wanted you to help
+      back the furniture down to the canoes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got squaw&mdash;what he want&mdash;better to do dat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So you would put that pretty piece of work on such persons as Margery and
+      Dolly!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why not, no? Bot' squaw-bot know how. Dere business to work for warrior.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you keep out of the way, then, lest old Peter should get you at a job
+      that is onsuitable to your manhood?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Keep out of way of Pottawattamie,&rdquo; returned the Chippewa; &ldquo;no want to
+      lose scalp-radder take his'n.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But Peter says the Pottawattamies are all gone, and that we have no
+      longer any reason to fear them; and this medicine-priest tells us, that
+      what Peter says we can depend on for truth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat good medicine-man, eh? T'ink he know a great deal, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is more than I can tell you, Pigeonswing; for though I've been a
+      medicine-man myself, so lately, it is in a different line altogether from
+      that of Parson Amen's.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the bee-hunter uttered this answer, he was putting the last of his
+      honey-kegs into the cache, and as he rose from completing the operation,
+      he laughed heartily, like one who saw images in the occurrences of the
+      past night, that tended to divert himself, if they had not the same effect
+      on the other spectators.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you medicine-man, can tell who Peter be? Winnebagoe, Sioux, Fox,
+      Ojebway, Six Nations all say don't know him. Medicine-man ought to know&mdash;who
+      he be, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am not enough of a medicine-man to answer your question, Pigeonswing.
+      Set me at finding a whiskey-spring, or any little job of that sort, and
+      I'll turn my back to no other whiskey-spring finder on the whole frontier;
+      but, as for Peter, he goes beyond my calculations, quite. Why is he called
+      Scalping Peter in the garrisons, if he be so good an Injin, Chippewa?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You ask question&mdash;you answer. Don't know, 'less he take a good many
+      scalps. Hear he do take all he can find&mdash;den hear he don't.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But you take all you can find, Pigeonswing; and that which is good in
+      you, cannot be so bad in Peter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't take scalp from friend. When you hear Pigeonswing scalp FRIEND,
+      eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never did hear it; and hope I never shall. But when did you hear that
+      Peter is so wicked?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;S'pose he don't, 'cause he got no friend among pale-face. Bes' take care
+      of dat man?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm of your way of thinking, myself, Chippewa; though the corporal and
+      the priest think him all in all. When I asked Parson Amen how he came to
+      be the associate of one who went by a scalping name, even he told me it
+      was all name; that Peter hadn't touched a hair of a human head, in the way
+      of scalping, since his youth, and that most of his notions and ways were
+      quite Jewish, The parson has almost as much faith in Peter, as he has in
+      his religion; I'm not quite sure he has not even more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No matter. Bes' always for pale-face to trust pale-face, and Injin to
+      trust Injin. Dat most likely to be right.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nevertheless, I trust YOU Pigeonswing; and, hitherto, you have not
+      deceived me!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Chippewa cast a glance of so much meaning on the bee-hunter, that the
+      last was troubled by it. For many a day did le Bourdon remember that look;
+      and painful were the apprehensions to which it gave birth. Until that
+      morning, the intercourse between the two had been of the most confidential
+      character; but something like a fierce hatred was blended in that look.
+      Could it be that the feelings of the Chippewa were changed? and was it
+      possible that Peter was in any way connected with this alteration in looks
+      and sentiments? All these suspicions passed through le Bourdon's mind, as
+      he finished his cache; and sufficiently disagreeable did he find it to
+      entertain them. The circumstances, however, did not admit of any change of
+      plan; and, in a few minutes, the two were in the canoe, and on their way
+      to join their companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter had dealt fairly enough with those who accompanied him. The
+      Pottawattamies were nowhere to be seen, and Gershom led the corporal to
+      the place where his household goods had been secreted, in so much
+      confidence, that both the men left their arms behind them. Such was the
+      state of things when le Bourdon reached the north shore. The young man was
+      startled, when his eyes fell on the rifles; but, on looking around, there
+      did not really appear to be any sufficient reason why they might not be
+      laid aside for a few minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter, having disposed of all his honey, had now a nearly empty
+      canoe; accordingly, he received a portion of Gershom's effects; all of
+      which were safely transported from their place of concealment to the water
+      side. Their owner was slowly recovering the use of his body and mind,
+      though still a little dull, from his recent debauch. The females supplied
+      his place, however, in many respects; and two hours after the party had
+      landed, it was ready again to proceed on its journey into the interior.
+      The last article was stowed in one of the canoes, and Gershom announced
+      his willingness to depart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment, Peter led the bee-hunter aside, telling his friends that
+      he would speedily rejoin them. Our hero followed his savage leader along
+      the foot of the declivity, in the rear of the hut, until the former
+      stopped at the place where the first, and principal fire of the past
+      night, had been lighted. Here Peter made a sweeping gesture of his hand,
+      as if to invite his companion to survey the different objects around. As
+      this characteristic gesture was made, the Indian spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother is a medicine-man,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;He knows where whiskey grows&mdash;let
+      him tell Peter where to find the spring.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The recollection of the scene of the previous night came so fresh and
+      vividly over the imagination of the bee-hunter, that, instead of answering
+      the question of the chief, he burst into a hearty fit of laughter. Then,
+      fearful of giving offence, he was about to apologize for a mirth so
+      ill-timed, when the Indian smiled, with a gleam of intelligence on his
+      swarthy face, that seemed to say, &ldquo;I understand it all,&rdquo; and continued&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good&mdash;the chief with three eyes&rdquo;&mdash;in allusion to the spy&mdash;glass
+      that le Bourdon always carried suspended from his neck&mdash;&ldquo;is a very
+      great medicine-man; he knows when to laugh, and when to look sad. The
+      Pottawattamies were dry, and he wanted to find them some whiskey to drink,
+      but could not&mdash;our brother, in the canoe, had drunk it all. Good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again the bee-hunter laughed; and though Peter did not join in his mirth,
+      it was quite plain that he understood its cause. With this good-natured
+      sort of intelligence between them, the two returned to the canoes; the
+      bee-hunter always supposing that the Indian had obtained his object, in
+      receiving his indirect admission, that the scene of the previous night had
+      been merely a piece of ingenious jugglery. So much of a courtier, however,
+      was Peter, and so entire his self-command, that on no occasion, afterward,
+      did he ever make any further allusion to the subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ascent of the river was now commenced. It was not a difficult matter
+      for le Bourdon to persuade Margery, that her brother's canoe would be too
+      heavily loaded for such a passage, unless she consented to quit it for his
+      own. Pigeonswing took the girl's place, and was of material assistance in
+      forcing the light, but steady craft, up stream. The three others continued
+      in the canoe in which they had entered the river. With this arrangement,
+      therefore, our adventurers commenced this new journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Every reader will easily understand, that ascending such a stream as the
+      Kalamazoo was a very difficult thing from descending it. The progress was
+      slow, and at many points laborious. At several of the &ldquo;rifts,&rdquo; it became
+      necessary to &ldquo;track&rdquo; the canoes up; and places occurred at which the only
+      safe way of proceeding was to unload them altogether, and transport boats,
+      cargoes, and all, on the shoulders of the men, across what are called, in
+      the language of the country, &ldquo;portages,&rdquo; or &ldquo;carrying-places.&rdquo; In such
+      toil as this, the corporal was found to be very serviceable; but neither
+      of the Indians declined to lend their assistance, in work of this manly
+      character. By this time, moreover, Gershom had come round, and was an
+      able-bodied, vigorous assistant, once more. If the corporal was the master
+      of any alcohol, he judiciously kept it a secret; for not a drop passed any
+      one's lips during the whole of that toilsome journey.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although the difficult places in the river were sufficiently numerous,
+      most of the reaches were places having steady, but not swift currents
+      toward the lake. In these reaches the paddles, and those not very
+      vigorously applied, enabled the travellers to advance as fast as was
+      desirable; and such tranquil waters were a sort of resting-places to those
+      who managed the canoes. It was while ascending these easy channels, that
+      conversation most occurred; each speaker yielding, as was natural, to the
+      impulses of the thoughts uppermost in his mind. The missionary talked much
+      of the Jews; and, as the canoes came near each other, he entered at large,
+      with their different occupants, into the reasons he had for believing that
+      the red men of America were the lost tribes of Israel. &ldquo;The very use of
+      the word 'tribes,'&rdquo; would this simple-minded, and not very profound
+      expounder of the word of God, say, &ldquo;is one proof of the truth of what I
+      tell you. Now, no one thinks of dividing the white men of America into
+      'tribes.' Who ever heard of the 'tribe' of New England, or of the 'tribe'
+      of Virginia, or of the 'tribe' of the Middle States? [Footnote: The reader
+      is not to infer any exaggeration in this picture. There is no end to the
+      ignorance and folly of sects and parties, when religious or political zeal
+      runs high. The writer well remembers to have heard a Universalist, of more
+      zeal than learning, adduce, as an argument in favor of his doctrine, the
+      twenty-fifth chapter and forty-sixth verse of St. Matthew, where we are
+      told that the wicked &ldquo;shall go away into ever-lasting punishment; but the
+      righteous into Vis eternal&rdquo;; by drawing a distinction between the
+      adjectives, and this so much the more, because the Old Testament speaks of
+      &ldquo;everlasting hills,&rdquo; and &ldquo;everlasting valleys &ldquo;; thus proving, from the
+      Bible, a substantial difference between &ldquo;everlasting&rdquo; and &ldquo;eternal.&rdquo; Now,
+      every Sophomore knows that the word used in Matthew is the same in both
+      cases, being &ldquo;aionion,&rdquo; or &ldquo;existing forever.&rdquo;] Even among the blacks,
+      there are no tribes. There is a very remarkable passage in the
+      sixty-eighth Psalm, that has greatly struck me, since my mind has turned
+      to this subject; 'God shall wound the head his enemies.' saith the
+      Psalmist, 'and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his
+      wickedness.' Here is a very obvious allusion to a well-known, and what we
+      think, a barbarous practice of the red men; but, rely on it, friends,
+      nothing that is permitted on earth is permitted in vain. The attentive
+      reader of the inspired book, by gleaning here and there, can collect much
+      authority for this new opinion about the lost tribes; and the day will
+      come, I do not doubt, when men will marvel that the truth hath been so
+      long hidden from them. I can scarcely open a chapter, in the Old
+      Testament, that some passage does not strike me as going to prove this
+      identity, between the red men and the Hebrews; and, were they all
+      collected together, and published in a book, mankind would be astonished
+      at their lucidity and weight. As for scalping, it is a horrid thing in our
+      eyes, but it is honorable with the red men; and I have quoted to you the
+      words of the Psalmist, in order to show the manner in which divine wisdom
+      inflicts penalties on sin. Here is plain justification of the practice,
+      provided always that the sufferer be in the bondage of transgression, and
+      obnoxious to divine censure. Let no man, therefore, in the pride of his
+      learning, and, perhaps, of his prosperity, disdain to believe things that
+      are so manifestly taught and foretold; but let us all bow in humble
+      submission to the will of a Being who, to our finite understanding, is so
+      perfectly incomprehensible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      We trust that no one of our readers will be disposed to deride Parson
+      Amen's speculations on this interesting subject, although this may happen
+      to be the first occasion on which he has ever heard the practice of taking
+      scalps justified by Scripture. Viewed in a proper spirit, they ought
+      merely to convey a lesson of humility, by rendering apparent the wisdom,
+      nay the necessity, of men's keeping them-selves within the limits of the
+      sphere of knowledge they were designed to fill, and convey, when rightly
+      considered, as much of a lesson to the Puseyite, with abstractions that
+      are quite as unintelligible to himself as they are to others; to the
+      high-wrought and dogmatical Calvinist, who in the midst of his fiery zeal,
+      forgets that love is the very essence of the relation between God and man;
+      to the Quaker, who seems to think the cut of a coat essential to
+      salvation; to the descendant of the Puritan, who whether he be Socinian,
+      Calvinist, Universalist, or any other &ldquo;1st,&rdquo; appears to believe that the
+      &ldquo;rock&rdquo; on which Christ declared he would found his church was the &ldquo;Rock of
+      Plymouth&rdquo;; and to the unbeliever, who, in deriding all creeds, does not
+      know where to turn to find one to substitute in their stead. Humility, in
+      matters of this sort, is the great lesson that all should teach and learn;
+      for it opens the way to charity, and eventually to faith, and through both
+      of these to hope; finally, through all of these, to heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The journey up the Kalamazoo lasted many days, the ascent being often so
+      painful, and no one seeming in a hurry. Peter waited for the time set for
+      his council to approach, and was as well content to remain in his canoe,
+      as to &ldquo;camp out&rdquo; in the openings. Gershom never was in haste, while the
+      bee-hunter would have been satisfied to pass the summer in so pleasant a
+      manner, Margery being seated most of the time in his canoe. In his
+      ordinary excursions, le Bourdon carried the mastiff as a companion; but,
+      now that his place was so much better filled, Hive was suffered to roam
+      the woods that lined most of the river-banks, joining his master from time
+      to time at the portages or landings. As for the missionary and the
+      corporal, impatience formed no part of their present disposition. The
+      first had been led, by the artful Peter, to expect great results to his
+      theory from the assembly of chiefs which was to meet in the &ldquo;openings&rdquo;;
+      and the credulous parson was, in one sense, going as blindly on the path
+      of destruction, as any sinner it had ever been his duty to warn of his
+      fate, was proceeding in the same direction in another. The corporal, too,
+      was the dupe of Peter's artifices. This man had heard so many stories to
+      the Indian's prejudice, at the different posts where he had been
+      stationed, as at first to render him exceedingly averse to making the
+      present journey in his company. The necessity of the case, as connected
+      with the preservation of his own life after the massacre of Fort Dearborn,
+      and the influence of the missionary, had induced him to overlook his
+      ancient prejudices, and to forget opinions that, it now occurred to him,
+      had been founded in error. Once fairly within the influence of Peter's
+      wiles, a simple-minded soldier like the corporal, was soon completely made
+      the Indian's dupe. By the time the canoe reached the mouth of the
+      Kalamazoo, as has been related, each of these men placed the most implicit
+      reliance on the good faith and friendly feelings of the very being whose
+      entire life, both sleeping and waking thoughts, were devoted, not only to
+      his destruction, but to that of the whole white race on the American
+      continent. So bland was the manner of this terrible savage, when it
+      comported with his views to conceal his ruthless designs, that persons
+      more practised and observant than either of his two companions might have
+      been its dupes, not to say its victims. While the missionary was
+      completely mystified by his own headlong desire to establish a theory, and
+      to announce to the religious world where the lost tribes were to be found,
+      the corporal had aided in deceiving himself, also, by another process.
+      With him, Peter had privately conversed of war, and had insinuated that he
+      was secretly laboring in behalf of his great father at Washington, and
+      against the other great father down at Montreal. As between the two, Peter
+      professed to lean to the interests of the first; though, had he laid bare
+      his in-most soul, a fiery hatred of each would have been found to be its
+      predominant feeling. But Corporal Flint fondly fancied he was making a
+      concealed march with an ally, while he thus accompanied one of the
+      fiercest enemies of his race.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter is not to be judged too harshly. It is always respectable to defend
+      the fireside, and the land of one's nativity, although the cause connected
+      with it may be sometimes wrong. This Indian knew nothing of the principles
+      of colonization, and had no conception that any other than its original
+      owners&mdash;original so far as his traditions reached&mdash;could have a
+      right to his own hunting-grounds. Of the slow but certain steps by which
+      an overruling Providence is extending a knowledge of the true God, and of
+      the great atonement through the death of his blessed Son, Peter had no
+      conception; nor would it probably have seemed right to his contracted
+      mind, had he even seen and understood this general tendency of things. To
+      him, the pale-face appeared only as a rapacious invader, and not a
+      creature obeying the great law of his destiny, the end of which is
+      doubtless to help knowledge to abound, until it shall &ldquo;cover the whole
+      earth as the waters cover the sea.&rdquo; Hatred, inextinguishable and active
+      hatred, appeared to be the law of this man's being; and he devoted all the
+      means, aided by all the intelligence he possessed, to the furtherance of
+      his narrow and short-sighted means of vengeance and redress. In all this,
+      he acted in common with Tecumseh and his brother, though his consummate
+      art kept him behind a veil, while the others were known and recognized as
+      open and active foes. No publication speaks of this Peter, nor does any
+      orator enumerate his qualities, while the other two chiefs have been the
+      subjects of every species of descriptive talent, from that of the poet to
+      that of the painter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As day passed after day, the feeling of distrust in the bosom of the
+      bee-hunter grew weaker and weaker, and Peter succeeded in gradually
+      worming himself into his confidence also. This was done, moreover, without
+      any apparent effort. The Indian made no professions of friendship, laid
+      himself out for no particular attention, nor ever seemed to care how his
+      companions regarded his deportment. His secret purposes he kept carefully
+      smothered in his own breast, it is true; but, beyond that, no other sign
+      of duplicity could have been discovered even by one who knew his objects
+      and schemes. So profound was his art, that it had the aspect of nature.
+      Pigeonswing alone was alive to the danger of this man's company; and he
+      knew it only by means of certain semi-confidential communications received
+      in his character of a red man. It was no part of Peter's true policy to
+      become an ally to either of the great belligerents of the day. On the
+      contrary, his ardent wish was to see them destroy each other, and it was
+      the sudden occurrence of the present war that had given a new impulse to
+      his hopes, and a new stimulus to his efforts, as a time most propitious to
+      his purposes. He was perfectly aware of the state of the Chippewa's
+      feelings, and he knew that this man was hostile to the Pottawattamies, as
+      well as to most of the tribes of Michigan; but this made no difference
+      with him. If Pigeonswing took the scalp of a white man, he cared not
+      whether it grew on an English or an American head; in either case it was
+      the destruction of his enemy. With such a policy constantly in view, it
+      cannot be matter of surprise that Peter continued on just as good terms
+      with Pigeonswing as with Crowsfeather. But one precaution was observed in
+      his intercourse with the first. To Crowsfeather, then on the war-path in
+      quest of Yankee scalps, he had freely communicated his designs on his own
+      white companions, while he did not dare to confide to the Chippewa this
+      particular secret, since that Indian's relations with the bee-hunter were
+      so amicable as to be visible to every observer. Peter felt the necessity
+      of especial caution in his communication with this savage, therefore; and
+      this was the reason why the Chippewa was in so much painful uncertainty as
+      to the other's intentions. He had learned enough to be distrustful, but
+      not enough to act with decision.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once, and once only, during their slow passage up the Kalamazoo, did the
+      bee-hunter observe something about Peter to awaken his original
+      apprehensions. The fourth day after leaving the mouth of the river, and
+      when the whole party were resting after the toil of passing a
+      &ldquo;carrying-place,&rdquo; our hero had observed the eyes of that tribeless savage
+      roaming from one white face to another, with an expression in them so very
+      fiendish, as actually to cause his heart to beat quicker than common. The
+      look was such a one as le Bourdon could not remember to have ever before
+      beheld in a human countenance. In point of fact, he had seen Peter in one
+      of those moments when the pent fires of the volcano, that ceaselessly
+      raged within his bosom, were becoming difficult to suppress; and when
+      memory was busiest in recalling to his imagination scenes of oppression
+      and wrong, that the white man is only too apt to forget amid the ease of
+      his civilization, and the security of his power. But the look, and the
+      impression produced by it on le Bourdon, soon passed away, and were
+      forgotten by him to whom it might otherwise have proved to be a most
+      useful warning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a little remarkable that Margery actually grew to be attached to
+      Peter, often manifesting toward the chief attentions and feelings such as
+      a daughter is apt to exhibit toward a father. This arose from the high and
+      courteous bearing of this extraordinary savage. At all times, an Indian
+      warrior is apt to maintain the dignified and courteous bearing that has so
+      often been remarked in the race, but it is very seldom that he goes out of
+      his way to manifest attention to the squaws. Doubtless these men have the
+      feelings of humanity, and love their wives and offspring like others; but
+      it is so essential a part of their training to suppress the exhibition of
+      such emotions, that it is seldom the mere looker-on has occasion to note
+      them. Peter, however, had neither wife nor child; or if they existed, no
+      one knew where either was to be found. The same mystery shrouded this part
+      of his history as veiled all the rest. In his hunts, various opportunities
+      occurred for exhibiting to the females manly attentions, by offering to
+      them the choicest pieces of his game, and pointing out the most approved
+      Indian modes of cooking the meats, so as to preserve their savory
+      properties. This he did sparingly at first, and as a part of a system of
+      profound deception; but day by day, and hour after hour, most especially
+      with Margery, did his manner become sensibly less distant, and more
+      natural. The artlessness, the gentle qualities, blended with feminine
+      spirit as they were, and the innocent gayety of the girl, appeared to win
+      on this nearly remorseless savage, in spite of his efforts to resist her
+      influence. Perhaps the beauty of Margery contributed its share in exciting
+      these novel emotions in the breast of one so stern. We do not mean that
+      Peter yielded to feelings akin-to love; of this, he was in a manner
+      incapable; but a man can submit to a gentle regard for woman that shall be
+      totally free from passion. This sort of regard Peter certainly began to
+      entertain for Margery; and like begetting like, as money produces money,
+      it is not surprising that the confidence of the girl herself, as well as
+      her sympathies, should continue to increase in the favor of this terrible
+      Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the changes of feeling, and the various little incidents to which we
+      have alluded, did not occur in a single moment of time. Day passed after
+      day, and still the canoes were working their way up the winding channels
+      of the Kalamazoo, placing at each setting sun longer and longer reaches of
+      its sinuous stream between the travellers and the broad sheet of Michigan.
+      As le Bourdon had been up and down the river often, in his various
+      excursions, he acted as the pilot of the navigation; though all worked,
+      even to the missionary and the Chippewa. On such an expedition, toil was
+      not deemed to be discreditable to a warrior, and Pigeonswing used the
+      paddle and the pole as willingly, and with as much dexterity, as any of
+      the party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was only on the eleventh day after quitting the mouth of the river,
+      that the canoes came to in the little bay where le Bourdon was in the
+      habit of securing his light bark, when in the openings. Castle Meal was in
+      full view, standing peacefully in its sweet solitude; and Hive, who, as he
+      came within the range of his old hunts, had started off, and got to the
+      spot the previous evening, now stood on the bank of the river to welcome
+      his master and his friends to the chiente. It wanted a few minutes of
+      sunset as the travellers landed, and the parting rays of the great
+      luminary of our system were glancing through the various glades of the
+      openings, imparting a mellow softness to the herbage and flowers. So far
+      as the bee-hunter could perceive, not even a bear had visited the place in
+      his absence. On ascending to his abode and examining the fastenings, and
+      on entering the hut, storehouse, etc., le Bourdon became satisfied that
+      all the property he had left behind was safe, and that the foot of man&mdash;he
+      almost thought of beast too&mdash;had not visited the spot at all during
+      the last fortnight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+      Hope in your mountains, and hope in your streams,
+        Bow down in their worship, and loudly pray;
+      Trust in your strength, and believe in your dreams,
+        But the wind shall carry them all away.
+                                        &mdash;BRAINARD.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The week which succeeded the arrival of our party at Chateau au Miel, or
+      Castle Meal, as le Bourdon used to call his abode, was one of very active
+      labor. It was necessary to house the adventurers, and the little
+      habitation already built was quite insufficient for such a purpose. It was
+      given to the females, who used it as a private apartment for themselves,
+      while the cooking, eating, and even sleeping, so far as the males were
+      concerned, were all done beneath the trees of the openings. But a new
+      chiente was soon constructed, which, though wanting in the completeness
+      and strength of Castle Meal, was sufficient for the wants of these
+      sojourners in the wilderness. It is surprising with how little of those
+      comforts which civilization induces us to regard as necessaries we can get
+      along, when cast into the midst of the western wilds. The female whose
+      foot has trodden, from infancy upward, on nothing harder than a good
+      carpet-who has been reared amid all the appliances of abundance and art,
+      seems at once to change her nature, along with her habits, and often
+      proves a heroine, and an active assistant, when there was so much reason
+      to apprehend she might turn out to be merely an encumbrance. In the course
+      of a life that is now getting to be well stored with experience of this
+      sort, as well as of many other varieties, we can recall a hundred cases of
+      women, who were born and nurtured in affluence and abundance, who have
+      cheerfully quitted the scenes of youth, their silks and satins, their
+      china and plate, their mahogany and Brussels, to follow husbands and
+      fathers into the wilderness, there to compete with the savage, often for
+      food, and always for the final possession of the soil!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But in the case of Dorothy and Blossom, the change had never been of this
+      very broad character, and habit had long been preparing them for scenes
+      even more savage than that into which they were now cast. Both were
+      accustomed to work, as, blessed be God! the American woman usually works;
+      that is to say, within doors, and to render home neat, comfortable, and
+      welcome. As housewives, they were expert and willing, considering the
+      meagreness of their means; and le Bourdon told the half-delighted,
+      half-blushing Margery, ere the latter had been twenty-four hours in his
+      chiente, that nothing but the presence of such a one as herself was
+      wanting to render it an abode fit for a prince! Then, the cooking was so
+      much improved! Apart from cleanliness, the venison was found to be more
+      savory; the cakes were lighter; and the pork less greasy. On this subject
+      of grease, however, we could wish that a sense of right would enable us to
+      announce its utter extinction in the American kitchen; or, if not
+      absolutely its extinction, such a subjection of the unctuous properties,
+      as to bring them within the limits of a reasonably accurate and healthful
+      taste. To be frank, Dorothy carried a somewhat heavy hand, in this
+      respect; but pretty Margery was much her superior. How this difference in
+      domestic discipline occurred, is more than we can say; but of its
+      existence there can be no doubt There are two very respectable sections of
+      the civilized world to which we should imagine no rational being would
+      ever think of resorting in order to acquire the art of cookery, and these
+      are Germany and the land of the Pilgrims. One hears, and reads in those
+      elegant specimens of the polite literature of the day, the letters from
+      Washington, and from various travellers, who go up and down this river in
+      steamboats, or along that railway, gratis, much in honor of the good
+      things left behind the several writers, in the &ldquo;region of the kock&rdquo;; but,
+      woe betide the wight who is silly enough to believe in all this poetical
+      imagery, and who travels in that direction, in the expectation of finding
+      a good table! It is extraordinary that such a marked difference does
+      exist, on an interest of this magnitude, among such near neighbors; but,
+      of the fact, we should think no intelligent and experienced man can doubt.
+      Believing as we do, that no small portion of the elements of national
+      character can be, and are, formed in the kitchen, the circumstance may
+      appear to us of more moment than to some of our readers. The vacuum left
+      in cookery, between Boston and Baltimore for instance, is something like
+      that which exists between Le Verrier's new planet and the sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Margery could even fry pork without causing it to swim in grease, and
+      at a venison steak, a professed cook was not her superior. She also
+      understood various little mysteries, in the way of converting their
+      berries and fruits of the wilderness into pleasant dishes; and Corporal
+      Flint soon affirmed that it was a thousand pities she did not live in a
+      garrison, which, agreeably to his view of things, was something like
+      placing her at the comptoir of the Cafe de Paris, or of marrying her to
+      some second Vatel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the eating and drinking, the building advanced pari passu.
+      Pigeonswing brought in his venison, his ducks, his pigeons, and his game
+      of different varieties, daily, keeping the larder quite as well supplied
+      as comported with the warmth of the weather; while the others worked on
+      the new chiente. In order to obtain materials for this building, one so
+      much larger than his old abode, Ben went up the Kalamazoo about half a
+      mile, where he felled a sufficient number of young pines, with trunks of
+      about a foot in diameter, cutting them into lengths of twenty and thirty
+      feet, respectively. These lengths, or trunks, were rolled into the river,
+      down which they slowly floated, until they arrived abreast of Castle Meal,
+      where they were met by Peter, in a canoe, who towed each stick, as it
+      arrived, to the place of landing. In this way, at the end of two days'
+      work, a sufficient quantity of materials was collected to commence
+      directly on the building itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Log-houses are of so common occurrence, as to require no particular
+      description of the one now put up, from us. It was rather less than thirty
+      feet in length, and one-third narrower than it was long. The logs were
+      notched, and the interstices were filled by pieces of the pine, split to a
+      convenient size. The roof was of bark, and of the simplest construction,
+      while there was neither door nor window; though one aperture was left for
+      the first, and two for the last. Corporal Flint, however, was resolved
+      that not only a door should be made, as well as shutters for the windows,
+      but that the house should, in time, be picketed. When le Bourdon
+      remonstrated with him on the folly of taking so much unnecessary pains, it
+      led to a discussion, in which the missionary even felt constrained to
+      join.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What's the use&mdash;what's the use?&rdquo; exclaimed le Bourdon a little
+      impatiently, when he found the corporal getting to be in earnest in his
+      proposal. &ldquo;Here have I lived, safely, two seasons in Castle Meal, without
+      any pickets or palisades; and yet you want to turn this new house into a
+      regular garrison!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, Bourdon, that was in peaceable times; but these is war times. I've
+      seen the fall of Fort Dearborn, and I don't want to see the fall of
+      another post this war. The Pottawattamies is hostile, even Peter owns; and
+      the Pottawattamies has been here once, as you say yourself, and may come
+      ag'in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The only Pottawattamie who has ever been at this spot, to my knowledge,
+      is dead, and his bones are bleaching up yonder in the openings. No fear of
+      him, then.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;His body is gone,&rdquo; answered the corporal; &ldquo;and what is more the rifle is
+      gone with it. I heard that his rifle had been forgotten, and went to
+      collect the arms left on the field of battle, but found nothing. No doubt
+      his friends have burned, or buried, the chief, and they will be apt to
+      take another look in this quarter of the country, having l'arnt the road.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Boden was struck with this intelligence, as well as with the reasoning,
+      and after a moment's pause, he answered in a way that showed a wavering
+      purpose.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It will take a week's work, to picket or palisade the house,&rdquo; he
+      answered, &ldquo;and I wish to be busy among the bees, once more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go to your bees, Bourdon, and leave me to fortify and garrison, as
+      becomes my trade. Parson Amen, here, will tell you that the children of
+      Israel are often bloody-minded and are not to be forgotten.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The corporal is right,&rdquo; put in the missionary; &ldquo;the corporal is quite
+      right. The whole history of the ancient Jews gives us this character of
+      them; and even Saul of Tarsus was bent on persecution and slaughter, until
+      his hand was stayed by the direct manifestation of the power of God. I can
+      see glimmerings of this spirit in Peter, and this at a moment when he is
+      almost ready to admit that he's a descendant of Israel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is Peter ready to allow that?&rdquo; asked the bee-hunter, with more interest
+      in the answer than he would have been willing to allow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As good as that-yes, quite as good as that. I can see, plainly, that
+      Peter has some heavy mystery on his mind; sooner, or later, we shall learn
+      it. When it does come out, the world may be prepared to learn the whole
+      history of the Ten Tribes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In my judgment,&rdquo; observed the corporal, &ldquo;that chief could give the
+      history of twenty, if he was so minded.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There were but ten of them, brother Flint&mdash;but ten; and of those ten
+      he could give us a full and highly interesting account. One of these days,
+      we shall hear it all; in the mean time, it may be well enough to turn one
+      of these houses into some sort of a garrison.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let it, then, be Castle Meal,&rdquo; said le Bourdon; &ldquo;surely, if any one is to
+      be defended and fortified in this way, it ought to be the women. You may
+      easily palisade that hut, which is so much stronger than this, and so much
+      smaller.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      With this compromise, the work went on. The corporal dug a trench four
+      feet deep, encircling the &ldquo;castle,&rdquo; as happy as a lord the whole time; for
+      this was not the first time he had been at such work, which he considered
+      to be altogether in character, and suitable to his profession. No youthful
+      engineer, fresh from the Point, that seat of military learning to which
+      the republic is even more indebted for its signal successes in Mexico,
+      than to the high military character of this population-no young aspirant
+      for glory, fresh from this useful school, could have greater delight in
+      laying out his first bastion, or counter-scarp, or glacis, than Corporal
+      Flint enjoyed in fortifying Castle Meal. It will be remembered that this
+      was the first occasion he was ever actually at the head of the engineering
+      department Hitherto, it had been his fortune to follow; but now it had
+      become his duty to lead. As no one else, of that party, had ever been
+      employed in such a work on any previous occasion, the corporal did not
+      affect to conceal the superior knowledge with which he was overflowing.
+      Gershom he found a ready and active assistant; for, by this time, the
+      whiskey was well out of him; and he toiled with the greater willingness,
+      as he felt that the palisades would add to the security of his wife and
+      sister. Neither did Parson Amen disdain to use the pick and shovel; for,
+      while the missionary had the fullest reliance in the fact that the red men
+      of that region were the descendants of the children of Israel, he regarded
+      them as a portion of the chosen people who were living under the ban of
+      the divine displeasure, and as more than usually influenced by those evil
+      spirits, whom St. Paul mentions as the powers of the air. In a word, while
+      the good missionary had all faith in the final conversion and restoration
+      of these children of the forests, he did not overlook the facts of their
+      present barbarity, and great propensity to scalp. He was not quite as
+      efficient as Gershom, at this novel employment, but a certain inborn zeal
+      rendered him both active and useful. As for the Indians, neither of them
+      deigned to touch a tool. Pigeonswing had little opportunity for so doing,
+      indeed, being usually, from the rising to the setting sun, out hunting for
+      the support of the party; while Peter passed most of his time in
+      ruminations and solitary walks. This last paid little attention to the
+      work about the castle, either knowing it would, at any moment, by an act
+      of treachery, be in his power to render all these precautions of no avail;
+      or, relying on the amount of savage force that he knew was about to
+      collect in the openings. Whenever he cast a glance on the progress of the
+      work, it was with an eye of great indifference; once he even carried his
+      duplicity so far, as to make a suggestion to the corporal, by means of
+      which, as he himself expressed it, in his imperfect English&mdash;&ldquo;Injin
+      no get inside, to use knife and tomahawk.&rdquo; This seeming indifference, on
+      the part of Peter, did not escape the observation of the bee-hunter, who
+      became still less distrustful of that mysterious savage, as he noted his
+      conduct in connection with the dispositions making for defence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon would not allow a tree of any sort to be felled anywhere near
+      his abode. While the corporal and his associates were busy in digging the
+      trench, he had gone to a considerable distance, quite out of sight from
+      Castle Meal, and near his great highway, the river, where he cut and
+      trimmed the necessary number of burr-oaks for the palisades. Boden labored
+      the more cheerfully at this work, for two especial reasons. One was the
+      fact that the defences might be useful to himself, hereafter, as much
+      against bears as against Indians; and the other, because Margery daily
+      brought her sewing or knitting, and sat on the fallen trees, laughing and
+      chatting, as the axe performed its duties. On three several occasions
+      Peter was present, also, accompanying Blossom, with a kindness of manner,
+      and an attention to her pretty little tastes in culling flowers, that
+      would have done credit to a man of a higher school of civilization.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader is not to suppose, however, because the Indian pays but little
+      outward attention to the squaws, that he is without natural feeling, or
+      manliness of character. In some respects his chivalrous devotion to the
+      sex is, perhaps, in no degree inferior to that of the class which makes a
+      parade of such sentiments, and this quite as much from convention and
+      ostentation, as from any other motive. The red man is still a savage
+      beyond all question, but he is a savage with so many nobler and more manly
+      qualities, when uncorrupted by communion with the worst class of whites,
+      and not degraded by extreme poverty, as justly to render him a subject of
+      our admiration, in self-respect, in dignity, and in simplicity of
+      deportment. The Indian chief is usually a gentleman; and this, though he
+      may have never heard of Revelation, and has not the smallest notion of the
+      Atonement, and of the deep obligations it has laid on the human race.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Amid the numberless exaggerations of the day, one of particular capacity
+      has arisen connected with the supposed character of a gentleman. Those who
+      regard all things through the medium of religious feeling, are apt to
+      insist that he who is a Christian, is necessarily a gentleman; while he
+      can be no thorough gentleman, who has not most of the qualities of the
+      Christian character. This confusion in thought and language, can lead to
+      no really useful result, while it embarrasses the minds of many, and
+      renders the expression of our ideas less exact and comprehensive than they
+      would otherwise be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We conceive that a man may be very much of a Christian, and very little of
+      a gentleman; or very much of a gentleman, and very little of a Christian.
+      There is, in short, not much in common between the two characters, though
+      it is possible for them to become united in the same individual. That the
+      finished courtesies of polished life may wear some of the aspects of that
+      benevolence which causes the Christian &ldquo;to love his neighbor as himself,&rdquo;
+       is certainly true, though the motives of the parties are so very different
+      as to destroy all real identity between them. While the moving principle
+      of a gentleman is self-respect, that of a Christian is humility. The first
+      is ready to lay down his life in order to wipe away an imaginary dishonor,
+      or to take the life of another; the last is taught to turn the other
+      cheek, when smitten. In a word, the first keeps the world, its opinions
+      and its estimation, ever uppermost in his thoughts; the last lives only to
+      reverence God, and to conform to his will, in obedience to his revealed
+      mandates. Certainly, there is that which is both grateful and useful in
+      the refined deportment of one whose mind and manners have been polished
+      even in the schools of the world; but it is degrading to the profoundly
+      beautiful submission of the truly Christian temper, to imagine that
+      anything like a moral parallel can justly be run between them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course, Peter had none of the qualities of him who sees and feels his
+      own defects, and relies only on the merits of the atonement for his place
+      among the children of light, while he had so many of those qualities which
+      depend on the estimate which man is so apt to place on his own merits. In
+      this last sense, this Indian had a great many of the essentials of a
+      gentleman; a lofty courtesy presiding over all his intercourse with
+      others, when passion or policy did not thrust in new and sudden principles
+      of action. Even the missionary was so much struck with the gentleness of
+      this mysterious savage's deportment in connection with Margery, as at
+      first to impute it to a growing desire to make a wife of that flower of
+      the wilderness. But closer observation induced greater justice to the
+      Indian in this respect Nothing like the uneasiness, impatience, or
+      distrust of passion could be discerned in his demeanor; and when Parson
+      Amen perceived that the bee-hunter's marked devotion to the beautiful
+      Blossom rather excited a benevolent and kind interest in the feelings of
+      Peter, so far at least as one could judge of the heart by external
+      appearances, than anything that bore the fierce and uneasy impulses of
+      jealousy, he was satisfied that his original impression was a mistake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As le Bourdon flourished his axe, and Margery plied her needles, making a
+      wholesome provision for the coming winter, the mysterious Indian would
+      stand, a quarter of an hour at a time, immovable as a statue, his eyes
+      riveted first on one, and then on the other. What passed at such moments
+      in that stern breast, it exceeds the penetration of man to say: but that
+      the emotions thus pent within barriers that none could pass or destroy,
+      were not always ferocious and revengeful, a carefully observant spectator
+      might possibly have suspected, had such a person been there to note all
+      the signs of what was uppermost in the chiefs thoughts. Still, gleamings
+      of sudden, but intense ferocity did occasionally occur; and, at such
+      instants, the countenance of this extraordinary being was truly terrific.
+      Fortunately, such bursts of uncontrollable feeling were transient, being
+      of rare occurrence, and of very short duration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By the time the corporal had his trenches dug, le Bourdon was prepared
+      with his palisades, which were just one hundred in number, being intended
+      to enclose a space of forty feet square. The men all united in the
+      transportation of the timber, which was floated down the river on a raft
+      of white pine, the burr-oak being of a specific gravity that fresh water
+      would not sustain. A couple of days, however, sufficed for the
+      transportation by water, and as many more for that by land, between the
+      place of landing and Castle Meal. This much accomplished, the whole party
+      rested from their labors, the day which succeeded being the Sabbath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Those who dwell habitually amid the haunts of men, alone thoroughly
+      realize the vast importance that ought to be attached to the great day of
+      rest. Men on the ocean, and men in the forest, are only too apt to
+      overlook the returns of the Sabbath; thus slowly, but inevitably
+      alienating themselves more and more from the dread Being who established
+      the festival, as much in his own honor as for the good of man. When we are
+      told that the Almighty is jealous of his rights, and desires to be
+      worshipped, we are not to estimate this wish by any known human standard,
+      but are ever to bear in mind that it is exactly in proportion as we do
+      reverence the Creator and Ruler of heaven and earth that we are nearest,
+      or farthest, from the condition of the blessed. It is probably for his own
+      good, that the adoration of man is pleasing in the eyes of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The missionary, though a visionary and an enthusiast, as respected the
+      children of Israel, was a zealous observer of his duties. On Sundays, he
+      never neglected to set up his tabernacle, even though it were in a howling
+      wilderness, and went regularly through the worship of God, according to
+      the form of the sect to which he belonged. His influence, on the present
+      occasion, was sufficient to cause a suspension of all labor, though not
+      without some remonstrances on the part of the corporal. The latter
+      contended that, in military affairs, there was no Sunday known, unless it
+      might be in peaceable times, and that he had never heard of intrenchments
+      &ldquo;resting from their labors,&rdquo; on the part of either the besieger or the
+      besieged. Work of that sort, he thought, ought to go on, day and night, by
+      means of reliefs; and, instead of pausing to hold church, he had actually
+      contemplated detailing fatigue parties to labor through, not only that
+      day, but the whole of the succeeding night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Peter, he never offered the slightest objection to any of Parson
+      Amen's sermons or prayers. He listened to both with unmoved gravity,
+      though no apparent impression was ever made on his feelings. The Chippewa
+      hunted on the Sabbaths as much as on any other day; and it was in
+      reference to this fact that the following little conversation took place
+      between Margery and the missionary, as the party sat beneath the oaks,
+      passing a tranquil eventide at midsummer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How happens it, Mr. Amen,&rdquo; said Margery, who had insensibly adopted the
+      missionary's sobriquet, &ldquo;that no red man keeps the Sabbath-day, if they
+      are all descended from the Jews? This is one of the most respected of all
+      the commandments, and it does not seem natural&rdquo;&mdash;Margery's use of
+      terms was necessarily influenced by association and education-&ldquo;that any of
+      that people should wholly forget the day of rest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps you are not aware, Margery, that the Jews, even in civilized
+      countries, do not keep the same Sabbath as the Christians,&rdquo; returned the
+      missionary. &ldquo;They have public worship on a Saturday, as we do on a Sunday.
+      Now, I did think I saw some signs of Peter's privately worshipping
+      yesterday, while we were all so busy at our garrison. You may have
+      observed how thoughtful and silent the chief was in the middle of the
+      afternoon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I DID observe it,&rdquo; said the bee-hunter, &ldquo;but must own I did not suspect
+      him of holding meeting for any purposes within himself. That was one of
+      the times when I like the manners and behavior of this Injin the least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We do not know&mdash;we do not know&mdash;perhaps his spirit struggled
+      with the temptations of the Evil One. To me he appeared to be worshipping,
+      and I set the fact down as a proof that the red men keep the Jewish
+      Sabbath.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not know that the Jews keep a Sabbath different from our own, else
+      I might have thought the same. But I never saw a Jew, to my knowledge. Did
+      you, Margery?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not to know him for one,&rdquo; answered the girl; and true enough was the
+      remark of each. Five-and-thirty years ago, America was singularly not only
+      a Christian but a Protestant nation. Jews certainly did exist in the
+      towns, but they were so blended with the rest of the population, and were
+      so few in number, as scarcely to attract attention to them as a sect. As
+      for the Romanists, they too had their churches and their dioceses; but
+      what untravelled American had then ever seen a nun? From monks, Heaven be
+      praised, we are yet spared; and this is said without any prejudice against
+      the denomination to which they usually belong. He who has lived much in a
+      country where that sect prevails, if a man of a particle of liberality,
+      soon learns that piety and reverence for God, and a deep sense of all the
+      Christian obligations, can just as well, nay better, exist in a state of
+      society where a profound submission to well-established dogmas is to be
+      found, than in a state of society where there is so much political freedom
+      as to induce the veriest pretenders to learning to imagine that each man
+      is a church and a hierarchy in his own person! All this is rapidly
+      changing. Romanists abound, and spots that half a century since, appeared
+      to be the most improbable place in the world to admit of the rites of the
+      priests of Rome, now hear the chants and prayers of the mass-books. All
+      this shows a tendency toward that great commingling of believers, which is
+      doubtless to precede the final fusion of sects, and the predicted end.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the Monday that succeeded the Sabbath mentioned, the corporal had all
+      his men at work, early, pinning together his palisades, making them up
+      into manageable bents, and then setting them up on their legs. As the
+      materials were all there, and quite ready to be put together, the work
+      advanced rapidly; and by the time the sun drew near the western horizon
+      once more, Castle Meal was surrounded by its bristling defences. The whole
+      was erect and stay-lathed, waiting only for the earth to be shovelled back
+      into the trench, and to be pounded well down. As it was, the palisades
+      offered a great increase of security to those in the chiente, and both the
+      females expressed their obligations to their friends for having taken this
+      important step toward protecting them from the enemy. When they retired
+      for the night, everything was arranged, so that the different members of
+      the party might know where to assemble within the works. Among the effects
+      of Gershom, were a conch and a horn; the latter being one of those common
+      instruments of tin, which are so much used in and about American
+      farm-houses, to call the laborers from the field. The conch was given to
+      the men, that, in case of need, they might sound the alarm from without,
+      while the horn, or trumpet of tin, was suspended by the door of the
+      chiente, in order that the females might have recourse to it, at need.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About midnight, long after the whole party had retired to rest, and when
+      the stillness of the hours of deepest repose reigned over the openings,
+      the bee-hunter was awoke from his sleep by an unwonted call. At first, he
+      could scarce believe his senses, so plaintive, and yet so wild, was the
+      blast. But there could be no mistake: it was the horn from the chiente,
+      and, in a moment, he was on his feet. By this time, the corporal was
+      afoot, and presently all the men were in motion. On this occasion, Gershom
+      manifested a readiness and spirit that spoke equally well for his heart
+      and his courage. He was foremost in rushing to the assistance of his wife
+      and sister, though le Bourdon was very close on his heels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On reaching the gate of the palisade, it was found closed, and barred
+      within; nor did any one appear, until Dorothy was summoned, by repeated
+      calls, in the well-known voice of her husband. When the two females came
+      out of the chiente, great was their wonder and alarm! No horn had been
+      blown by either of them, and there the instrument itself hung, on its peg,
+      as quiet and mute as if a blast had never been blown into it The
+      bee-hunter, on learning this extraordinary fact, looked around him
+      anxiously, in order to ascertain who might be absent. Every man was
+      present, and each person stood by his arms, no one betraying the slightest
+      consciousness of knowing whence the unaccountable summons had proceeded!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This has been done by you, corporal, in order to bring us together, under
+      arms, by way of practice,&rdquo; le Bourdon at length exclaimed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;False alarms is useful, if not overdone; especially among raw troops,&rdquo;
+       answered Flint, coolly; &ldquo;but I have given none to-night. I will own I did
+      intend to have you all out in a day or two by way of practice, but I have
+      thought it useless to attempt too much at once. When the garrison is
+      finished, it will be time enough to drill the men to the alarm-posts.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your opinion, Peter?&rdquo; continued le Bourdon. &ldquo;You understand the
+      wilderness, and its ways. To what is this extr'or'nary call owing? Why
+      have we been brought here, at this hour?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Somebody blow horn, most likely,&rdquo; answered Peter, in his unmoved,
+      philosophical manner. &ldquo;'Spose don't know; den can't tell. Warrior often
+      hear 'larm on war-path.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is an onaccountable thing! If I ever heard a horn, I heard one
+      to-night; yet this is the only horn we have, and no one has touched it! It
+      was not the conch I heard; there is no mistaking the difference in sound
+      between a shell and a horn; and there is the conch, hanging at Gershom's
+      neck, just where it has been the whole night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one has touched the conch&mdash;I will answer for THAT,&rdquo; returned
+      Gershom, laying a hand on the shell, as if to make certain all was right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is most extr'or'nary! I heard the horn, if ears of mine ever heard
+      such an instrument!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Each of the white men added as much, for every one of them had distinctly
+      heard the blast. Still neither could suggest any probable clue to the
+      mystery. The Indians said nothing; but it was so much in conformity with
+      their habits for red men to maintain silence, whenever any unusual events
+      awakened feelings in others, that no one thought their deportment out of
+      rule. As for Peter, a statue of stone could scarcely have been colder in
+      aspect than was this chief, who seemed to be altogether raised above every
+      exhibition of human feeling. Even the corporal gaped, though much excited,
+      for he had been suddenly aroused from a deep sleep; but Peter was as much
+      superior to physical, as to moral impressions, on this occasion. He made
+      no suggestion, manifested no concern, exhibited no curiosity; and when the
+      men withdrew, again, to their proper habitation, he walked back with them,
+      in the same silence and calm, as those with which he had advanced.
+      Gershom, however, entered within the palisade, and passed the remainder of
+      the night with his family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter and the Chippewa accidentally came together, as the men
+      moved slowly toward their own hut, when the following short dialogue
+      occurred between them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is that you, Pigeonswing?&rdquo; exclaimed le Bourdon, when he found his friend
+      touching an elbow, as if by chance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, dis me&mdash;want better friend, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I'm well satisfied to have you near me, in an alarm, Chippewa. We've
+      stood by each other once, in troublesome times; and I think we can do as
+      much, ag'in.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; stand by friend&mdash;dat honor. Nebber turn back on friend; dat my
+      way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Chippewa, who blew the blast on the horn?&mdash;can you tell me THAT?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don't you ask Peter? He wise chief&mdash;know eb-beryt'ing. Young
+      Injin ask ole Injin when don't know&mdash;why not young pale-face ask ole
+      man, too, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pigeonswing, if truth was said, I believe it would be found that you
+      suspect Peter of having a hand in this business?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This speech was rather too idiomatic for the comprehension of the Indian,
+      who answered according to his own particular view of the matter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't blow horn wid hand,&rdquo; he said&mdash;&ldquo;Injin blow wid mout', just like
+      pale-face.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter did not reply; but his companion's remark had a tendency to
+      revive in his breast certain unpleasant and distrustful feelings toward
+      the mysterious savage, which the incidents and communications of the last
+      two weeks had had a strong tendency to put to sleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+      None knows his lineage, age, or name;
+      His looks are like the snows of Caucasus; his eyes
+      Beam with the wisdom of collected ages
+      In green, unbroken years he sees, 'tis said,
+      The generations pass like autumn fruits,
+      Garner'd, consumed, and springing fresh to life,
+      Again to perish&mdash;
+                                      &mdash;HILLHOUSE
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      No further disturbance took place that night, and the men set about
+      filling up the trenches in the morning steadily, as if nothing had
+      happened. They talked a little of the extraordinary occurrence, but more
+      was THOUGHT than SAID. Le Bourdon observed, however, that Pigeonswing went
+      earlier than usual to the hunt, and that he made his preparations as if he
+      expected to be absent more than the customary time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As there were just one hundred feet of ditch to fill with dirt, the task
+      was completed, and that quite thoroughly, long ere the close of the day.
+      The pounding down of the earth consumed more time, and was much more
+      laborious than the mere tumbling of the earth back into its former bed;
+      but even this portion of the work was sufficiently attended to. When all
+      was done, the corporal himself, a very critical sort of person in what he
+      called &ldquo;garrisons,&rdquo; was fain to allow that it was as &ldquo;pretty a piece of
+      palisading&rdquo; as he had ever laid eyes on. The &ldquo;garrison&rdquo; wanted only one
+      thing, now, to render it a formidable post&mdash;and that was water&mdash;no
+      spring or well existing within its narrow limit; however, he procured two
+      or three empty barrels, portions of le Bourdon's effects, placed them
+      within the works, and had them filled with sweet water. By emptying this
+      water two or three times a week, and refilling the barrels, it was thought
+      that a sufficient provision of that great necessary would be made and kept
+      up. Luckily the corporal's &ldquo;garrison&rdquo; did not drink, and the want was so
+      much the more easily supplied for the moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In truth, the chiente was now converted into a place of some strength,
+      when it is considered that artillery had never yet penetrated to those
+      wilds. More than half the savages of the west fought with arrows and
+      spears in that day, as most still do when the great prairies are reached.
+      A rifleman so posted as to have his body in a great measure covered by the
+      trunk of a burr-oak tree, would be reasonably secure against the missives
+      of an Indian, and, using his own fatal instrument of death, under a sense
+      of personal security, he would become a formidable opponent to dislodge.
+      Nor was the smallness of the work any objection to its security. A single
+      well-armed man might suffice to defend twenty-five feet of palisades, when
+      he would have been insufficient to make good his position with twice the
+      extent. Then le Bourdon had cut loops on three sides of the hut itself, in
+      order to fire at the bears, and sometimes at the deer, which had often
+      approached the building in its days of solitude and quiet, using the
+      window on the fourth side for the same purpose. In a word, a sense of
+      increased security was felt by the whole party when this work was
+      completed, though one arrangement was still wanting to render it perfect.
+      By separating the real garrison from the nominal garrison during the
+      night, there always existed the danger of surprise; and the corporal, now
+      that his fortifications were finished, soon devised a plan to obviate this
+      last-named difficulty. His expedient was very simple, and had somewhat of
+      barrack-life about it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corporal Flint raised a low platform along one side of the chiente, by
+      placing there logs of pine that were squared on one of their sides. Above,
+      at the height of a man's head, a roof of bark was reared on poles, and
+      prairie grass, aided by skins, formed very comfortable barrack-beds
+      beneath. As the men were expected to lie with their heads to the wall of
+      the hut, and their feet outward, there was ample space for twice their
+      number. Thither, then, were all the homely provisions for the night
+      transported; and when Margery closed the door of the chiente, after
+      returning the bee-hunter's cordial good night, it was with no further
+      apprehension for the winding of the mysterious horn.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first night that succeeded the new arrangement passed without any
+      disturbance. Pigeonswing did not return, as usual, at sunset, and a little
+      uneasiness was felt on his account; but, as he made his appearance quite
+      early in the morning, this source of concern ceased. Nor did the Chippewa
+      come in empty-handed; he had killed not only a buck, but he had knocked
+      over a bear in his rambles, besides taking a mess of famously fine trout
+      from a brawling stream at no great distance. The fish were eaten for
+      breakfast, and immediately after that meal was ended, a party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know no more than he has himself told me. By his account there is to be
+      a great council of red men on the prairie, a few miles from this spot; he
+      is waiting for the appointed day to come, in order to go and make one of
+      the chiefs that will be there. Is not this true, Chippewa?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, dat true&mdash;what dat council smoke round fire for, eh? You know?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I do not, and would be right glad to have you tell me, Pigeonswing.
+      Perhaps the tribe mean to have a meetin' to determine in their own minds
+      which side they ought to take in this war.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not dat nudder. Know well 'nough which side take. Got message and wampum
+      from Canada fadder, and most all Injin up this-a way look for Yankee
+      scalp. Not dat nudder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I have no notion what is at the bottom of this council. Peter seems
+      to expect great things from it; that I can see by his way of talking and
+      looking whenever he speaks of it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peter want to see him very much. Smoke at great many sich council fire.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you intend to be present at this council on Prairie Round?&rdquo; asked the
+      bee-hunter, innocently enough. Pigeonswing turned to look at his
+      companion, in a way that seemed to inquire how far he was really the dupe
+      of the mysterious Indian's wiles. Then, suddenly aware of the importance
+      of not betraying all he himself knew, until the proper moment had arrived,
+      he bent his eyes forward again, continuing onward and answering somewhat
+      evasively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't know,&rdquo; he replied. &ldquo;Hunter nebber tell. Chief want venison, and he
+      must hunt. Just like squaw in pale-face wigwam&mdash;work, work&mdash;sweep,
+      sweep&mdash;cook, cook&mdash;never know when work done. So hunter hunt&mdash;hunt&mdash;hunt.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And for that matter, Chippewa, just like squaw in the red man's village,
+      too. Hoe, hoe&mdash;dig, dig&mdash;carry, carry&mdash;so that she never
+      knows when she may sit down to rest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; returned Pigeonswing, coolly nodding his assent as he moved
+      steadily forward. &ldquo;Dat do right way wid squaw&mdash;juss what he good for&mdash;juss
+      what he MADE for&mdash;work for warrior and cook his dinner. Pale-face
+      make too much of squaw.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not accordin' to your account of their manner of getting along, Injin. If
+      the work of our squaws is never done, we can hardly make too much of them.
+      Where does Peter keep HIS squaw?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't know,&rdquo; answered the Chippewa. &ldquo;Nobody know. Don't know where his
+      tribe even.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is very extraor'nary, considering the influence the man seems to
+      enjoy. How is it that he has so completely got the ears of all the red
+      men, far and near?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To this question Pigeonswing gave no answer. His own mind was so far under
+      Peter's control that he did not choose to tell more than might be prudent.
+      He was fully aware of the mysterious chief's principal design, that of
+      destroying the white race altogether, and of restoring the red men to
+      their ancient rights, but several reasons prevented his entering into the
+      plot heart and hand. In the first place, he was friendly to the &ldquo;Yankees,&rdquo;
+       from whom he, personally, had received many favors and no wrongs; then,
+      the tribe, or half-tribe, to which he belonged had been employed, more or
+      less, by the agents of the American government as runners, and in other
+      capacities, ever since the peace of '83; and, lastly, he himself had been
+      left much in different garrisons, where he had not only acquired his
+      English, but a habit of thinking of the Americans as his friends. It might
+      also be added that Pigeonswing, though far less gifted by nature than the
+      mysterious Peter, had formed a truer estimate of the power of the
+      &ldquo;Yankees,&rdquo; and did not believe they were to be annihilated so easily. How
+      it happened that this Indian had come to a conclusion so much safer than
+      that of Peter's, a man of twice his capacity, is more than we can explain;
+      though it was probably owing to the accidental circumstances of his more
+      intimate associations with the whites.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter was by nature a man of observation, a faculty that his
+      habits had both increased and stimulated. Had it not been for the manner
+      in which he was submitting to the influence of Margery, he would long
+      before have seen that in the deportment of the Chippewa which would have
+      awakened his distrust; not that Margery in any way endeavored to blind him
+      to what was passing before his face, but that he was fast getting to have
+      eyes only for her. By this time she filled not only his waking, but many
+      of his sleeping thoughts; and when she was not actually before him,
+      charming him with her beauty, enlivening him with her artless gayety, and
+      inspiring him with her innocent humor, he fancied she was there,
+      imagination, perhaps, heightening all those advantages which we have
+      enumerated. When a man is thoroughly in love, he is quite apt to be fit
+      for very little else but to urge his suit. Such, in a certain way, proved
+      to be the case with le Bourdon, who allowed things to pass unheeded
+      directly before his eyes that previously to his acquaintance with Margery
+      would not only have been observed, but which would have most probably led
+      to some practical results. The conduct of Pigeonswing was among the
+      circumstances that were thus over-looked by our hero. In point of fact,
+      Peter was slowly but surely working on the mind of the Chippewa, changing
+      all his opinions radically, and teaching him to regard every pale-face as
+      an enemy. The task, in this instance, was not easy; for Pigeonswing, in
+      addition to his general propensities in favor of the &ldquo;Yankees,&rdquo; the result
+      of mere accident, had conceived a real personal regard for le Bourdon, and
+      was very slow to admit any views that tended to his injury. The struggle
+      in the mind of the young warrior was severe; and twenty times was he on
+      the point of warning his friend of the danger which impended over the
+      whole party, when a sense of good faith toward Peter, who held his word to
+      the contrary, prevented his so doing. This conflict of feeling was now
+      constantly active in the breast of the young savage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pigeonswing had another source of uneasiness, to which his companions were
+      entirely strangers. While hunting, his keen eyes had detected the presence
+      of warriors in the openings. It is true he had not seen even one, but he
+      knew that the signs he had discovered could not deceive him. Not only were
+      warriors at hand, but warriors in considerable numbers. He had found one
+      deserted lair, from which its late occupants could not have departed many
+      hours when it came under his own notice. By means of that attentive
+      sagacity which forms no small portion of the education of an American
+      Indian, Pigeonswing was enabled to ascertain that this party, of itself,
+      numbered seventeen, all of whom were men and warriors. The first fact was
+      easily enough to be seen, perhaps, there being just seventeen different
+      impressions left in the grass; but that all these persons were armed men,
+      was learned by Pigeonswing through evidence that would have been
+      overlooked by most persons. By the length of the lairs he was satisfied
+      none but men of full stature had been there; and he even examined
+      sufficiently close to make out the proofs that all but four of these men
+      carried firearms. Strange as it may seem to those who do not know how keen
+      the senses become when whetted by the apprehensions and wants of savage
+      life, Pigeonswing was enabled to discover signs which showed that the
+      excepted were provided with bows and arrows, and spears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the bee-hunter and his companion came in sight of the carcase of the
+      bear, which they did shortly after the last remark which we have given in
+      the dialogue recorded, the former exclaimed with a little surprise:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How's this, Chippewa! You have killed this beast with your bow! Did you
+      not hunt with the rifle yesterday?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bad fire rifle off now-a-day,&rdquo; answered Pigeonswing, sententiously. &ldquo;Make
+      noise&mdash;noise no good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Noise!&rdquo; repeated the perfectly unsuspecting bee-hunter. &ldquo;Little good or
+      little harm can noise do in these openings, where there is neither
+      mountain to give back an echo, or ear to be startled. The crack of my
+      rifle has rung through these groves a hundred times and no harm come of
+      it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forget war-time now. Bess nebber fire, less can't help him. Pottawattamie
+      hear great way off.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! That's it, is it! You're afraid our old friends the Pottawattamies
+      may find us out, and come to thank us for all that happened down at the
+      river's mouth. Well,&rdquo; continued le Bourdon, laughing, &ldquo;if they wish
+      another whiskey-spring, I have a small jug left, safely hid against a wet
+      day; a very few drops will answer to make a tolerable spring. You redskins
+      don't know everything, Pigeonswing, though you are so keen and
+      quick-witted on a trail.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bess not tell Pottawattamie any more 'bout springs,&rdquo; answered the
+      Chippewa, gravely; for by this time he regarded the state of things in the
+      openings to be so serious as to feel little disposition to mirth. &ldquo;Why you
+      don't go home, eh? Why don't med'cine-man go home, too? Bess for pale-face
+      to be wid pale-face when red man go on war-path. Color bess keep wid
+      color.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see you want to be rid of us, Pigeonswing; but the parson has no
+      thought of quitting this part of the world until he has convinced all the
+      red-skins that they are Jews.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What he mean, eh?&rdquo; demanded the Chippewa, with more curiosity than it was
+      usual for an Indian warrior to betray. &ldquo;What sort of a man Jew, eh? Why
+      call red man Jew?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know very little more about it than you do yourself, Pigeonswing; but
+      such as my poor knowledge is, you're welcome to it. You've heard of the
+      Bible, I dare say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartain&mdash;med'cine-man read him Sunday. Good book to read, some
+      t'ink.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it's all that, and a great companion have I found my Bible, when
+      I've been alone with the bees out here in the openings. It tells us of our
+      God, Chippewa; and teaches us how we are to please him, and how we may
+      offend. It's a great loss to you red-skins not to have such a book among
+      you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Med'cine-man bring him&mdash;don't do much good, yet; some day, p'r'aps,
+      do better. How dat make red man Jew?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, this is a new idea to me, though Parson Amen seems fully possessed
+      with it. I suppose you know what a Jew is?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't know anything 'bout him. Sort o' nigger, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Pigeonswing, you're wide of the mark this time. But, that we may
+      understand each other, we'll begin at the beginning like, which will let
+      you into the whole history of the pale-face religion. As we've had a smart
+      walk, however, and here is the bear's meat safe and sound, just as you
+      left it, let us sit down a bit on this trunk of a tree, while I give you
+      our tradition from beginning to end, as it might be. In the first place,
+      Chippewa, the earth was made without creatures of any sort to live on it&mdash;not
+      so much as a squirrel or a woodchuck.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Poor country to hunt in, dat,&rdquo; observed the Chippewa quietly, while le
+      Bourdon was wiping his forehead after removing his cap. &ldquo;Ojebways stay in
+      it very little time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This, according to our belief, was before any Ojebway lived. At length,
+      God made a man, out of clay, and fashioned him, as we see men fashioned
+      and living all around us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; answered the Chippewa, nodding his head in assent. &ldquo;Den Manitou put
+      plenty blood in him&mdash;dat make red warrior. Bible good book, if tell
+      dat tradition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The Bible says nothing about any colors; but we suppose the man first
+      made to have been a pale-face. At any rate, the pale-faces have got
+      possession of the best parts of the earth, as it might be, and I think
+      they mean to keep them. First come, first served, you know. The pale-faces
+      are many, and are strong.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop!&rdquo; exclaimed Pigeonswing, in a way that was very unusual for an
+      Indian to interrupt another when speaking; &ldquo;want to ask question&mdash;how
+      many pale-face you t'ink is dere? Ebber count him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Count him!&mdash;Why, Chippewa, you might as well count the bees, as they
+      buzz around a fallen tree. You saw me cut down the tree I last discovered,
+      and saw the movement of the little animals, and may judge what success
+      tongue or eye would have in counting THEM; now, just as true would it be
+      to suppose that any man could count the pale-faces on this earth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't want count ALL,&rdquo; answered Pigeonswing. &ldquo;Want to know how many dis
+      side of great salt lake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's another matter, and more easily come at. I understand you now,
+      Chippewa; you wish to know how many of us there are in the country we call
+      America?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Juss so,&rdquo; returned Pigeonswing, nodding in assent. &ldquo;Dat juss it&mdash;juss
+      what Injin want to know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, we do have a count of our own people, from time to time, and I
+      suppose come about as near to the truth as men can come in such a matter.
+      There must be about eight millions of us altogether; that is, old and
+      young, big and little, male and female.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How many warrior you got?&mdash;don't want hear about squaw and
+      pappoose.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, I see you're warlike this morning, and want to see how we are likely
+      to come out of this struggle with your great Canada father. Counting all
+      round, I think we might muster hard on upon a million of fighting men&mdash;good,
+      bad, and indifferent; that is to say, there must be a million of us of
+      proper age to go into the wars.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pigeonswing made no answer for near a minute. Both he and the bee-hunter
+      had come to a halt alongside of the bear's meat, and the latter was
+      beginning to prepare his own portion of the load for transportation, while
+      his companion stood thus motionless, lost in thought. Suddenly,
+      Pigeonswing recovered his recollection, and resumed the conversation, by
+      saying:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What million mean, Bourdon? How many time so'ger at Detroit, and so'ger
+      on lakes?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A million is more than the leaves on all the trees in these openings&rdquo;&mdash;le
+      Bourdon's notions were a little exaggerated, perhaps, but this was what he
+      SAID&mdash;&ldquo;yes, more than the leaves on all these oaks, far and near. A
+      million is a countless number, and I suppose would make a row of men as
+      long as from this spot to the shores of the great salt lake, if not
+      farther.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It is probable that the bee-hunter himself had no very clear notion of the
+      distance of which he spoke, or of the number of men it would actually
+      require to fill the space he mentioned; but his answer sufficed deeply to
+      impress the imagination of the Indian, who now helped le Bourdon to secure
+      his load to his back, in silence, receiving the same service in return.
+      When the meat of the bear was securely bestowed, each resumed his rifle,
+      and the friends commenced their march in, toward the chiente; conversing,
+      as they went, on the matter which still occupied their minds. When the
+      bee-hunter again took up the history of the creation, it was to speak of
+      our common mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will remember, Chippewa,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that I told you nothing on the
+      subject of any woman. What I have told you, as yet, consarned only the
+      first MAN, who was made out of clay, into whom God breathed the breath of
+      life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat good&mdash;make warrior fuss. Juss right. When breat' in him, fit to
+      take scalp, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, as to that, it is not easy to see whom he was to scalp, seeing that
+      he was quite alone in the world, until it pleased his Creator to give him
+      a woman for a companion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell 'bout dat,&rdquo; returned Pigeonswing, with interest&mdash;&ldquo;tell how he
+      got squaw.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Accordin' to the Bible, God caused this man to fall into a deep sleep,
+      when he took one of his ribs, and out of that he made a squaw for him.
+      Then he put them both to live together, in a most beautiful garden, in
+      which all things excellent and pleasant was to be found&mdash;some such
+      place as these openings, I reckon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Any bee dere?&rdquo; asked the Indian, quite innocently. &ldquo;Plenty honey, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That will I answer for! It could hardly be otherwise, when it was the
+      intention to make the first man and first woman perfectly happy. I dare
+      say, Chippewa, if the truth was known, it would be found that bees was a
+      sipping at every flower in that most delightful garden!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why pale-face quit dat garden, eh? Why come here to drive poor Injin 'way
+      from game? Tell me dat, Bourdon, if he can? Why pale-face ever leave DAT
+      garden, when he so han'some, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;God turned him out of it, Chippewa&mdash;yes, he was turned OUT of it,
+      with shame on his face, for having disobeyed the commandments of his
+      Creator. Having left the garden, his children have scattered over the face
+      of the earth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So come here to drive off Injin! Well, dat 'e way wid pale-face I Did
+      ever hear of red man comin' to drive off pale-face?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard of your red warriors often coming to take our scalps,
+      Chippewa. More or less of this has been done every year, since our people
+      have landed in America. More than that they have not done, for we are too
+      many to be driven very far in, by a few scattering tribes of Injins.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;T'ink, den, more pale-face dan Injin, eh?&rdquo; asked the Chippewa, with an
+      interest so manifest that he actually stopped in his semi-trot, in order
+      to put the question. &ldquo;More pale-face warrior dan red men?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More! Aye, a thousand times more, Chippewa. Where you could show one
+      warrior, we could show a thousand!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, this was not strictly true, perhaps, but it answered the purpose of
+      deeply impressing the Chippewa with the uselessness of Peter's plans, and
+      sustained as it was by his early predilections, it served to keep him on
+      the right side, in the crisis which was approaching. The discourse
+      continued, much in the same strain, until the men got in with their bear's
+      meat, having been preceded some time by the others, with the venison.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is a little singular that neither the questions, nor the manner of
+      Pigeonswing, awakened any distrust in the bee-hunter. So far from this,
+      the latter regarded all that had passed as perfectly natural, and as
+      likely to arise in conversation, in the way of pure speculation, as in any
+      other manner. Pigeonswing intended to be guarded in what he said and did,
+      for, as yet, he had not made up his mind which side he would really
+      espouse, in the event of the great project coming to a head. He had the
+      desire, natural to a red man, to avenge the wrongs committed against his
+      race; but this desire existed in a form a good deal mitigated by his
+      intercourse with the &ldquo;Yankees,&rdquo; and his regard for individuals. It had,
+      nevertheless, strangely occurred to the savage reasoning of this young
+      warrior that possibly some arrangement might be effected, by means of
+      which he should take scalps from the Canadians, while Peter and his other
+      followers were working their will on the Americans. In this confused
+      condition was the mind of the Chippewa, when he and his companion threw
+      down their loads, near the place where the provision of game was usually
+      kept. This was beneath the tree, near the spring and the cook-house, in
+      order that no inconvenience should arise from its proximity to the place
+      where the party dwelt and slept. For a siege, should there be occasion to
+      shut themselves up within the &ldquo;garrison,&rdquo; the men depended on the pickled
+      pork, and a quantity of dried meat; of the latter of which the missionary
+      had brought a considerable supply in his own canoe. Among these stores
+      were a few dozen of buffaloes' or bisons' tongues, a delicacy that would
+      honor the best table in the civilized world, though then so common among
+      the western hunters, as scarce to be deemed food as good as the common
+      salted pork and beef of the settlements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The evening that followed proved to be one of singular softness and
+      sweetness. The sun went down in a cloudless sky, and gentle airs from the
+      southwest fanned the warm cheeks of Margery, as she sat, resting from the
+      labors of the day, with le Bourdon at her side, speaking of the pleasures
+      of a residence in such a spot. The youth was eloquent, for he felt all
+      that he said, and the maiden was pleased. The young man could expatiate on
+      bees in a way to arrest any one's attention; and Margery delighted to hear
+      him relate his adventures with these little creatures; his successes,
+      losses, and journeys.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But are you not often lonely, Bourdon, living here in the openings, whole
+      summers at a time, without a living soul to speak to?&rdquo; demanded Margery,
+      coloring to the eyes, the instant the question was asked, lest it should
+      subject her to an imputation against which her modesty revolted, that of
+      wishing to draw the discourse to a discussion on the means of preventing
+      this solitude in future.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have not been, hitherto,&rdquo; answered le Bourdon, so frankly as at once to
+      quiet his companion's sensitiveness, &ldquo;though I will not answer for the
+      future. Now that I have so many with me, we may make some of them
+      necessary. Mind&mdash;I say SOME, not all of my present guests. If I could
+      have my pick, pretty Margery, the present company would give me ALL I can
+      desire, and more too. I should not think of going to Detroit for that
+      companion, since she is to be found so much nearer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery blushed, and looked down&mdash;then she raised her eyes, smiled,
+      and seemed grateful as well as pleased. By this time she had become
+      accustomed to such remarks, and she had no difficulty in discovering her
+      lover's wishes, though he had never been more explicit. The reflections
+      natural to her situation threw a shade of gentle seriousness over her
+      countenance, rendering her more charming than ever, and causing the youth
+      to plunge deeper and deeper into the meshes that female influence had cast
+      around him, In all this, however, one of the parties was governed by a
+      manly sincerity, and the other by girlish artlessness. Diffidence, one of
+      the most certain attendants of a pure passion, alone kept le Bourdon from
+      asking Margery to become his wife; while Margery herself sometimes doubted
+      whether it were possible that any reputable man could wish to connect
+      himself and his fortunes with a family that had sunk as low as persons
+      could well sink, in this country, and not lose their characters
+      altogether. With these doubts and distrusts, so naturally affecting the
+      mind of each, these young people were rapidly becoming more and more
+      enamored; the bee-hunter betraying his passion in the close, absorbed
+      attentions that more properly belong to his sex, while that of Margery was
+      to be seen in sudden blushes, the thoughtful brow, the timid glance, and a
+      cast of tenderness that came over her whole manner, and, as it might be,
+      her whole being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While our young folk were thus employed, now conversing cheerfully, now
+      appearing abstracted and lost in thought, though seated side by side, le
+      Bourdon happened to look behind him, and saw that Peter was regarding them
+      with one of those intense, but mysterious expressions of the countenance,
+      that had, now, more than once attracted his attention; giving reason, each
+      time, for a feeling in which doubt, curiosity, and apprehension were
+      singularly mingled, even in himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the customary hour, which was always early, in that party of simple
+      habits, the whole family sought its rest; the females withdrew within the
+      chiente, while the males arranged their skins without. Ever since the
+      erection of the palisades, le Bourdon had been in the habit of calling
+      Hive within the defences, leaving him at liberty to roam about inside, at
+      pleasure. Previously to this new arrangement, the dog had been shut up in
+      his kennel, in order to prevent his getting on the track of a deer, or in
+      close combat with some bear, when his master was not present to profit by
+      his efforts. As the palisades were too high for his leap, this putting him
+      at liberty within them answered the double purpose of giving the mastiff
+      room for healthful exercise, and of possessing a most vigilant sentinel
+      against dangers of all sorts. On the present occasion, however, the dog
+      was missing, and after calling and whistling for him some time, the
+      bee-hunter was fain to bar the gate, and leave him on the outside. This
+      done, he sought his skin, and was soon asleep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was midnight, when the bee-hunter felt a hand laid on his own arm. It
+      was the corporal, making this movement, in order to awake him. In an
+      instant the young man was on his feet, with his rifle in his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did you not hear it, Bourdon?&rdquo; demanded the corporal, in a tone so low as
+      scarce to exceed a whisper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hear what! I've been sleeping, sound as a bee in winter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The horn!&mdash;The horn has been blown twice, and, I think, we shall
+      soon hear it again.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The horn was hanging at the door of the chiente, and the conch, too. It
+      will be easy to see if they are in their places.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was only necessary to walk around the walls of the hut, to its opposite
+      side, in order to ascertain this fact. Le Bourdon did so, accompanied by
+      the corporal, and just as each laid a hand on the instruments, which were
+      suspended in their proper places, a heavy rush was made against the gate,
+      as if to try its fastenings. These pushes were repeated several times,
+      with a violence that menaced the bars. Of course, the two men stepped to
+      the spot, a distance of only a few paces, the gateway of the palisades and
+      the door of the chiente being contiguous to each other, and immediately
+      ascertained that it was the mastiff, endeavoring to force his way in. The
+      bee-hunter admitted the dog, which had been trained to suppress his bark,
+      though this animal was too brave and large to throw away his breath when
+      he had better rely on his force. Powerful animals, of this race, are
+      seldom noisy, it being the province of the cur, both among dogs and men,
+      to be blustering and spitting out their venom, at all hours and seasons.
+      Hive, however, in addition to his natural disposition, had been taught,
+      from the time he was a pup, not to betray his presence unnecessarily by a
+      bark; and it was seldom that his deep throat opened beneath the arches of
+      the oaks. When it did, it told like the roaring of the lion in the desert.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Hive was no sooner admitted to the &ldquo;garrison,&rdquo; than he manifested just as
+      strong a desire to get out, as a moment before he had manifested to get
+      in. This, le Bourdon well knew, indicated the presence of some thing, or
+      creature, that did not properly belong to the vicinity. After consulting
+      with the corporal, Pigeonswing was called; and leaving him as a sentinel
+      at the gate, the two others made a sortie. The corporal was as brave as a
+      lion, and loved all such movements, though he fully anticipated
+      encountering savages, while his companion expected an interview with
+      bears.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As this movement was made at the invitation of the dog, it was judiciously
+      determined to let him act as pioneer, on the advance. Previously to
+      quitting the defences, however, the two adventurers looked closely to
+      their arms. Each examined the priming, saw that his horn and pouch were
+      accessible, and loosened his knife in its sheath. The corporal, moreover,
+      fixed his &ldquo;baggonet,&rdquo; as he called the formidable, glittering instrument
+      that usually embellished the end of his musket&mdash;a MUSKET being the
+      weapon he chose to carry, while the bee-hunter himself was armed with a
+      long western RIFLE.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     The raptures of a conqueror's mood
+     Rushed burning through his frame;
+     The depths of that green solitude
+     Its torrents could not tame,
+     Though stillness lay, with eve's last smile,
+     Round those far fountains of the Nile
+                               &mdash;MRS HEMANS.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      When the bee-hunter and Corporal Flint thus went forth in midnight, from
+      the &ldquo;garrison&rdquo; of Castle Meal (Chateau au Miel), as the latter would have
+      expressed it, it was with no great apprehension of meeting any other than
+      a four-footed enemy, notwithstanding the blast of the horn the worthy
+      corporal supposed he had heard. The movements of the dog seemed to
+      announce such a result rather than any other, for Hive was taken along as
+      a sort of guide. Le Bourdon, however, did not permit his mastiff to run
+      off wide, but, having the animal at perfect command, it was kept close to
+      his own person.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The two men first moved toward the grove of the Kitchen, much to Hive's
+      discontent. The dog several times halted, and he whined, and growled, and
+      otherwise manifested his great dislike to proceed in that direction. At
+      length so decided did his resistance become, that his master said to his
+      companion:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It seems to me best, corporal, to let the mastiff lead us. I have never
+      yet seen him so set on not going in one way, and on going in another. Hive
+      has a capital nose, and we may trust him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forward,&rdquo; returned the corporal, wheeling short in the direction of the
+      dog; &ldquo;one thing should be understood, however, Bourdon, which is this&mdash;you
+      must act as light troops in this sortie, and I as the main body. If we
+      come on the inimy, it will be your duty to skrimmage in front as long as
+      you can, and then fall back on your resarves. I shall depend chiefly on
+      the baggonet, which is the best tool to put an Injin up with; and as he
+      falls back, before my charge, we must keep him under as warm a fire as
+      possible. Having no cavalry, the dog might be made useful in movements to
+      the front and on our flanks.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pooh, pooh, corporal, you're almost as much set in the notions of your
+      trade as Parson Amen is set in his idees about the lost tribes. In my
+      opinion there'll be more tribes FOUND in these openings before the summer
+      is over than we shall wish to meet. Let us follow the dog, and see what
+      will turn up.&rdquo; Hive WAS followed, and he took a direction that led to a
+      distant point in the openings, where not only the trees were much thicker
+      than common, but where a small tributary of the Kalamazoo ran through a
+      ravine, from the higher lands adjacent into the main artery of all the
+      neighboring watercourses. The bee-hunter knew the spot well, having often
+      drank at the rivulet, and cooled his brow in the close shades of the
+      ravine, when heated by exertions in the more open grounds. In short, the
+      spot was one of the most eligible for concealment, coolness, and pure
+      water, within several miles of Castle Meal. The trees formed a spacious
+      grove around it, and, by means of the banks, their summits and leaves
+      answered the purpose of a perfect screen to those who might descend into
+      the ravine, or, it would be better to say, to the bottom. Le Bourdon was
+      no sooner satisfied that his mastiff was proceeding toward the great
+      spring which formed the rivulet at the head of the ravine mentioned, than
+      he suspected Indians might be there. He had seen signs about the spot,
+      which wore an appearance of its having been used as a place of encampment&mdash;or
+      for &ldquo;camping out,&rdquo; as it is termed in the language of the west&mdash;and,
+      coupling the sound of the horn with the dog's movements, his quick
+      apprehension seized on the facts as affording reasonable grounds of
+      distrust. Consequently he resorted to great caution, as he and the
+      corporal entered the wood which surrounded the spring, and the small oval
+      bit of bottom that lay spread before it, like a little lawn. Hive was kept
+      close at his master's side, though he manifested a marked impatience to
+      advance. &ldquo;Now, corporal,&rdquo; said the bee-hunter in a low tone, &ldquo;I think we
+      have lined some savages to their holes. We will go round the basin and
+      descend to the bottom, in a close wood which grows there. Did you see
+      that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose I did,&rdquo; answered the corporal, who was as firm as a rock. &ldquo;You
+      meant to ask me if I saw fire?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did. The red men have lighted their council fire in this spot, and have
+      met to talk around it. Well, let 'em hearken to each other's thoughts, if
+      they will; we shall be neither the better nor the worse for it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I don't know that. When the commander-in-chief calls together his
+      principal officers, something usually comes of it. Who knows but this very
+      council is called in order to take opinions on the subject of besieging or
+      of storming our new garrison? Prudent soldiers should always be ready for
+      the worst.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have no fear, so long as Peter is with us. That chief is listened to by
+      every red-skin; and while we have him among us there will be little to
+      care for. But we are getting near to the bottom and must work our way
+      through these bushes with as little noise as possible. I will keep the dog
+      quiet.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The manner in which that sagacious animal now behaved was truly wonderful.
+      Hive appeared to be quite as much aware of the necessity of extreme
+      caution as either of the men, and did not once attempt to precede his
+      master his own length. On one or two occasions he actually discovered the
+      best passages, and led his companions through them with something like the
+      intelligence of a human being. Neither growl nor bark escaped him; on the
+      contrary, even the hacking breathing of an impatient dog was suppressed,
+      precisely as if the animal knew how near he was getting to the most
+      watchful ears in the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After using the greatest care, the bee-hunter and the corporal got just
+      such a station as they desired. It was within a very few feet of the edge
+      of the cover, but perfectly concealed, while small openings enabled them
+      to see all that was passing in their front. A fallen tree, a relic of
+      somewhat rare occurrence in the openings of Michigan, even furnished them
+      with a seat, while it rendered their position less exposed. Hive placed
+      himself at his master's side, apparently trusting to other senses than
+      that of sight for his information, since he could see nothing of what was
+      going on in front.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the two men had taken their stations, and began to look about
+      them, a feeling of awe mingled with their curiosity. Truly, the scene was
+      one so very remarkable and imposing that it might have filled more
+      intellectual and better fortified minds with some such sensation. The fire
+      was by no means large, nor was it particularly bright; but sufficient to
+      cast a dim light on the objects within reach of its rays. It was in the
+      precise centre of a bit of bottom land of about half an acre in extent,
+      which was so formed and surrounded, as to have something of the appearance
+      of the arena of a large amphitheatre. There was one break in the
+      encircling rise of ground, it is true, and that was at a spot directly
+      opposite the station of le Bourdon and his companion, where the rill which
+      flowed from the spring found a passage out toward the more open ground.
+      Branches shaded most of the mound, but the arena itself was totally free
+      from all vegetation but that which covered the dense and beautiful sward
+      with which it was carpeted. Such is a brief description of the natural
+      accessories of this remarkable scene.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But it was from the human actors, and their aspects, occupations,
+      movements, dress, and appearance generally, that the awe which came over
+      both the bee-hunter and the corporal had its origin. Of these, near fifty
+      were present, offering a startling force by their numbers alone. Each man
+      was a warrior, and each warrior was in his paint. These were facts that
+      the familiarity of the two white men with Indian customs rendered only too
+      certain. What was still more striking was the fact that all present
+      appeared to be chiefs; a circumstance which went to show that an imposing
+      body of red men was most likely somewhere in the openings, and that too at
+      no great distance. It was while observing and reflecting on all these
+      things, a suspicion first crossed the mind of le Bourdon that this great
+      council was about to be held, at that midnight hour, and so near his own
+      abode, for the purpose of accommodating Peter, whose appearance in the
+      dark crowd, from that instant, he began to expect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indians already present were not seated. They stood in groups
+      conversing, or stalked across the arena, resembling so many dark and
+      stately spectres. No sound was heard among them, a circumstance that added
+      largely to the wild and supernatural aspect of the scene. If any spoke, it
+      was in a tone so low and gentle, as to carry the sound no farther than to
+      the ears that were listening; two never spoke at the same time and in the
+      same group, while the moccasin permitted no footfall to be audible.
+      Nothing could have been more unearthly than the picture presented in that
+      little, wood-circled arena, of velvet-like grass and rural beauty. The
+      erect, stalking forms, half naked, if not even more; the swarthy skins;
+      the faces fierce in the savage conceits which were intended to strike
+      terror into the bosoms of enemies, and the glittering eyes that fairly
+      sparkled in their midst, all contributed to the character of the scene,
+      which le Bourdon rightly enough imagined was altogether much the most
+      remarkable of any he had ever been in the way of witnessing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our two spectators might have been seated on the fallen tree half an hour,
+      all of which time they had been gazing at what was passing before their
+      eyes; with positively not a human sound to relieve the unearthly nature of
+      the picture. No one spoke, coughed, laughed, or exclaimed, in all that
+      period. Suddenly, every chief stood still, and all the faces turned in the
+      same direction. It was toward the little gateway of the rill, which being
+      the side of the arena most remote from the bee-hunter and the corporal,
+      lay nearly in darkness as respected them. With the red men it must have
+      been different, for THEY all appeared to be in intent expectation of some
+      one from that quarter. Nor did they have to wait long; for, in half a
+      minute, two forms came out of the obscurity, advancing with a dignified
+      and deliberate tread to the centre of the arena. As these newcomers got
+      more within the influence of the flickering light, le Bourdon saw that
+      they were Peter and Parson Amen. The first led, with a slow, imposing
+      manner, while the other followed, not a little bewildered with what he
+      saw. It may be as well to explain here, that the Indian was coming alone
+      to this place of meeting, when he encountered the missionary wandering
+      among the oaks, looking for le Bourdon and the corporal, and, instead of
+      endeavoring to throw off this unexpected companion, he quietly invited him
+      to be of his own party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was evident to le Bourdon, at a glance, that Peter was expected, though
+      it was not quite so clear that such was the fact as regarded his
+      companion. Still, respect for the great chief prevented any manifestations
+      of surprise or discontent, and the medicine-man of the pale-faces was
+      received with as grave a courtesy as if he had been an invited guest. Just
+      as the two had entered the dark circle that formed around them, a young
+      chief threw some dry sticks on the fire, which blazing upward, cast a
+      stronger light on a row of as terrifically looking countenances as ever
+      gleamed on human forms. This sudden illumination, with its accompanying
+      accessories, had the effect to startle all the white spectators, though
+      Peter looked on the whole with a calm like that of the leafless tree, when
+      the cold is at its height, and the currents of the wintry air are
+      death-like still Nothing appeared to move HIM, whether expected or not;
+      though use had probably accustomed his eye to all the aspects in which
+      savage ingenuity could offer savage forms. He even smiled, as he made a
+      gesture of recognition, which seemed to salute the whole group. It was
+      just then, when the fire burned brightest, and when the chiefs pressed
+      most within its influence, that le Bourdon perceived that his old
+      acquaintances, the head-men of the Pottawattamies, were present, among the
+      other chiefs so strangely and portentously assembled in these grounds,
+      which he had so long possessed almost entirely to himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few of the oldest of the chiefs now approached Peter, and a low
+      conversation took place between them. What was said did not reach le
+      Bourdon, of course; for it was not even heard in the dark circle of
+      savages who surrounded the fire. The effect of this secret dialogue,
+      however, was to cause all the chiefs to be seated, each taking his place
+      on the grass; the whole preserving the original circle around the fire.
+      Fortunately, for the wishes of le Bourdon, Peter and his companions took
+      their stations directly opposite to his own seat, thus enabling him to
+      watch every lineament of that remarkable chief's still more remarkable
+      countenance. Unlike each and all of the red men around him, the face of
+      Peter was not painted, except by the tints imparted by nature; which, in
+      his case, was that of copper a little tarnished, or rendered dull by the
+      action of the atmosphere. The bee-hunter could distinctly trace every
+      lineament; nor was the dark roving eye beyond the reach of his own vision.
+      Some attention was given to the fire, too, one of the younger chiefs
+      occasionally throwing on it a few dried sticks, more to keep alive the
+      flame, and to renew the light, than from any need of warmth. One other
+      purpose, however, this fire DID answer; that of enabling the young chiefs
+      to light the pipes that were now prepared; it seldom occurring that the
+      chiefs thus assembled without SMOKING around their council-fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As this smoking was just then more a matter of ceremony than for any other
+      purpose, a whiff or two suffices for each chief; the smoker passing the
+      pipe to his neighbor as soon as he had inhaled a few puffs. The Indians
+      are models of propriety, in their happiest moods, and every one in that
+      dark and menacing circle was permitted to have his turn with the pipe,
+      before any other step was taken. There were but two pipes lighted, and
+      mouths being numerous, some time was necessary in order to complete this
+      ceremony. Still, no sign of impatience was seen, the lowest chief having
+      as much respect paid to his feelings, as related to his attention, as the
+      highest. At length the pipes completed their circuit, even Parson Amen
+      getting, and using, his turn, when a dead pause succeeded. The silence
+      resembled that of a Quaker meeting, and was broken only by the rising of
+      one of the principal chiefs, evidently about to speak. The language of the
+      great Ojebway nation was used on this occasion, most of the chiefs present
+      belonging to some one of the tribes of that stock, though several spoke
+      other tongues, English and French included. Of the three whites present,
+      Parson Amen alone fully comprehended all that was said, he having
+      qualified himself in this respect, to preach to the tribes of that people;
+      though le Bourdon understood nearly all, and even the corporal
+      comprehended a good deal. The name of the chief who first spoke at this
+      secret meeting, which was afterward known among the Ojebways by the name
+      of the &ldquo;Council of the Bottom Land, near to the spring of gushing water,&rdquo;
+       was Bear's Meat, an appellation that might denote a distinguished hunter,
+      rather than an orator of much renown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers of the many tribes of the Ojebways,&rdquo; commenced this personage,
+      &ldquo;the Great Spirit has permitted us to meet in council. The Manitou of our
+      fathers is now among these oaks, listening to our words, and looking in at
+      our hearts. Wise Indians will be careful what they say in such a presence,
+      and careful of what they think. All should be said and thought for the
+      best. We are a scattered nation, and the time is come when we must stop in
+      our tracks, or travel beyond the sound of each other's cries. If we travel
+      beyond the hearing of our people, soon will our children learn tongues
+      that Ojebway ears cannot understand. The mother talks to her child, and
+      the child learns her words. But no child can hear across a great lake.
+      Once we lived near the rising sun. Where are we now? Some of our young men
+      say they have seen the sun go down in the lakes of sweet water. There can
+      be no hunting-grounds beyond THAT spot; and if we would live, we must
+      stand still in our tracks. How to do this, we have met to consider.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, many wise chiefs and braves are seated at this council-fire. It
+      is pleasant to my eyes to look upon them. Ottawas, Chippeways,
+      Pottawattamies, Menominees, Hurons, and all. Our father at Quebec has dug
+      up the hatchet against the Yankees. The war-path is open between Detroit
+      and all the villages of the red men. The prophets are speaking to our
+      people, and we listen. One is here; he is about to speak. The council will
+      have but a single sense, which will be that of hearing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus concluding, Bear's Meat took his seat, in the same composed and
+      dignified manner as that in which he had risen, and deep silence
+      succeeded. So profound was the stillness, that, taken in connection with
+      the dark lineaments, the lustrous eyeballs that threw back the light of
+      the fire, the terrific paint and the armed hands of every warrior present,
+      the picture might be described as imposing to a degree that is seldom seen
+      in the assemblies of the civilized. In the midst of this general but
+      portentous calm, Peter arose. The breathing of the circle grew deeper, so
+      much so as to be audible, the only manner in which the intensity of the
+      common expectation betrayed itself. Peter was an experienced orator, and
+      knew how to turn every minutiae of his art to good account. His every
+      movement was deliberate, his attitude highly dignified&mdash;even his eye
+      seemed eloquent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oratory! what a power art thou, wielded, as is so often the case, as much
+      for evil as for good. The very reasoning that might appear to be obtuse,
+      or which would be over looked entirely when written and published, issuing
+      from the mouth, aided by the feelings of sympathy and the impulses of the
+      masses, seems to partake of the wisdom of divinity. Thus is it, also, with
+      the passions, the sense of wrong, the appeals to vengeance, and all the
+      other avenues of human emotion. Let them be addressed to the cold eye of
+      reason and judgment, in the form of written statements, and the mind
+      pauses to weigh the force of arguments, the justice of the appeals, the
+      truth of facts: but let them come upon the ear aided by thy art, with a
+      power concentrated by sympathy, and the torrent is often less destructive
+      in its course, than that of the whirlwind that thou canst awaken!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Chiefs of the great Ojebway nation, I wish you well,&rdquo; said Peter,
+      stretching out his arms toward the circle, as if desirous of embracing all
+      present. &ldquo;The Manitou has been good to me. He has cleared a path to this
+      spring, and to this council-fire. I see around it the faces of many
+      friends. Why should we not all be friendly? Why should a red man ever
+      strike a blow against a red man? The Great Spirit made us of the same
+      color, and placed us on the same hunting-grounds. He meant that we should
+      hunt in company; not take each other's scalps. How many warriors have
+      fallen in our family wars? Who has counted them? Who can say? Perhaps
+      enough, had they not been killed, to drive the pale-faces into the sea!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here Peter, who as yet had spoken only in a low and barely audible voice,
+      suddenly paused, in order to allow the idea he had just thrown out to work
+      on the minds of his listeners. That it was producing its effect was
+      apparent by the manner in which one stern face turned toward another, and
+      eye seemed to search in eye some response to a query that the mind
+      suggested, though no utterance was given to it with the tongue. As soon,
+      however, as the orator thought time sufficient to impress that thought on
+      the memories of the listeners had elapsed, he resumed, suffering his voice
+      gradually to increase in volume, as he warmed with his subject.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;the Manitou has been very kind. Who is the Manitou?
+      Has any Indian ever seen him? Every Indian has seen him. No one can look
+      on the hunting-grounds, on the lakes, on the prairies, on the trees, on
+      the game, without seeing his hand. His face is to be seen in the sun at
+      noonday; his eyes in the stars at night. Has any Indian ever heard the
+      Manitou? When it thunders, he speaks. When the crash is loudest, then he
+      scolds. Some Indian has done wrong. Perhaps one red man has taken another
+      red man's scalp!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Another pause succeeded, briefer, and less imposing than the first, but
+      one that sufficed to impress on the listeners anew, the great evil of an
+      Indian's raising his hand against an Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, there is no one so deaf as not to hear the voice of the Great Spirit
+      when he is angry,&rdquo; resumed Peter. &ldquo;Ten thousands of buffalo bulls, roaring
+      together, do not make as much noise as his whisper. Spread the prairies,
+      and the openings, and the lakes, before him, and he can be heard in all,
+      and on all, at the same time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is a medicine-priest of the pale-faces; he tells me that the voice
+      of the Manitou reaches into the largest villages of his people, beneath
+      the rising sun, when it is heard by the red man across the great lakes,
+      and near the rocks of the setting sun. It is a loud voice; woe to him who
+      does not remember it. It speaks to all colors, and to every people, and
+      tribe, and nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, that is a lying tradition which says, there is one Manitou for
+      a Sac, and another for the Ojebway&mdash;one Manitou for the red man, and
+      another for the pale-face. In this, we are alike. One Great Spirit made
+      all; governs all; rewards all; punishes all. He may keep the happy
+      hunting-grounds of an Indian separate from the white man's heaven, for he
+      knows that their customs are different, and what would please a warrior
+      would displease a trader; and what would please a trader would displease a
+      warrior. He has thought of these things, and has made several places for
+      the spirits of the good, let their colors be what they may. Is it the same
+      with the places of the spirits of the bad? I think not. To me it would
+      seem best to let THEM go together, that they may torment one another. A
+      wicked Indian and a wicked pale-face would make a bad neighborhood. I
+      think the Manitou will let THEM go together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, if the Manitou keeps the good Indian and the good pale-face
+      apart in another world, what has brought them together in this? If he
+      brings the bad spirits of all colors together in another world, why should
+      they come together here, before their time? A place for wicked spirits
+      should not be found on earth. This is wrong; it must be looked into.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, I have now done; this pale-face wishes to speak, and I have
+      said that you would hear his words. When he has spoken his mind, I may
+      have more to tell you. Now, listen to the stranger. He is a
+      medicine-priest of the white men, and says he has a great secret to tell
+      our people&mdash;when he has told it, I have another for their ears too.
+      Mine must be spoken when there is no one near but the children of red
+      clay.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Having thus opened the way for the missionary, Peter courteously took his
+      seat, producing a little disappointment among his own admirers, though he
+      awakened a lively curiosity to know what this medicine-priest might have
+      to say on an occasion so portentous. The Indians in the regions of the
+      great lakes had long been accustomed to missionaries, and it is probable
+      that even some of their own traditions, so far as they related to
+      religious topics, had been insensibly colored by, if not absolutely
+      derived from, men of this character; for the first whites who are known to
+      have penetrated into that portion of the continent were Jesuits, who
+      carried the cross as their standard and emblem of peace. Blessed emblem!
+      that any should so confound their own names and denunciatory practices
+      with the revealed truth, as to imagine that a standard so appropriate
+      should ever be out of season and place, when it is proper for man to use
+      aught, at all, that is addressed to his senses, in the way of symbols,
+      rites, and ceremonies! To the Jesuits succeeded the less ceremonious and
+      less imposing priesthood of America, as America peculiarly was in the
+      first years that followed the Revolution. There is reason to believe that
+      the spirit of God, in a greater or less degree, accompanied all; for all
+      were self-denying and zealous, though the fruits of near two centuries of
+      labor have, as yet, amounted to little more than the promise of the
+      harvest at some distant day. Enough, however, was known of the
+      missionaries, and their views in general, to prepare the council, in some
+      small degree, for the forthcoming exhibition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Parson Amen had caught some of the habits of the Indians, in the course of
+      years of communication and intercourse. Like them he had learned to be
+      deliberate, calm, and dignified in his exterior; and, like them, he had
+      acquired a sententious mode of speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My children,&rdquo; he said, for he deemed it best to assume the parental
+      character, in a scene of so great moment, &ldquo;as Peter has told you, the
+      spirit of God is among you! Christians know that such has he promised to
+      be always with his people, and I see faces in this circle that I am ready
+      to claim as belonging to those who have prayed with me, in days that are
+      long past. If your souls are not touched by divine love, it does not kill
+      the hope I entertain of your yet taking up the cross, and calling upon the
+      Redeemer's name. But, not for this have I come with Peter, this night. I
+      am now here to lay before you an all-important fact, that Providence has
+      revealed to me, as the fruit of long labor in the vineyard of study and
+      biblical inquiry. It is a tradition&mdash;and red men love traditions&mdash;it
+      is a tradition that touches your own history, and which it will gladden
+      your hearts to hear, for it will teach you how much your nation and tribes
+      have been the subject of the especial care and love of the Great Spirit.
+      When my children say, speak, I shall be ready to speak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the missionary took his seat, wisely awaiting a demonstration on the
+      part of the council, ere he ventured to proceed any further. This was the
+      first occasion on which he had ever attempted to broach, in a direct form,
+      his favorite theory of the &ldquo;lost tribes.&rdquo; Let a man get once fairly
+      possessed of any peculiar notion, whether it be on religion, political
+      economy, morals, politics, arts, or anything else, and he sees little
+      beside his beloved principle, which he is at all times ready to advance,
+      defend, demonstrate, or expatiate on. Nothing can be simpler than the two
+      great dogmas of Christianity, which are so plain that all can both
+      comprehend them and feel their truth. They teach us to love God, the
+      surest way to obey him, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Any one can
+      understand this; all can see how just it is, and how much of moral
+      sublimity it contains. It is Godlike, and brings us near the very essence
+      of the Divinity, which is love, mercy, and truth. Yet how few are content
+      to accept the teachings of the Saviour in this respect, without
+      embarrassing them with theories that have so much of their origin in human
+      fancies. We do not mean by this, however, that Parson Amen was so very
+      wrong in bestowing a part of his attention on that wonderful people, who,
+      so early set apart by the Creator as the creatures of his own especial
+      ends, have already played so great a part in the history of nations, and
+      who are designed, so far as we can penetrate revelation, yet to enact
+      their share in the sublime drama of human events.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for the council, its members were moved by more than ordinary curiosity
+      to hear what further the missionary might have to say, though all present
+      succeeded admirably in suppressing the exhibition of any interest that
+      might seem weak and womanly. After a decent delay, therefore, Bear's Meat
+      intimated to the parson that it would be agreeable to the chiefs present
+      to listen to him further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My children, I have a great tradition to tell you,&rdquo; the missionary
+      resumed, as soon as on his feet again; &ldquo;a very great and divine tradition;
+      not a tradition of man's, but one that came direct from the Manitou
+      himself. Peter has spoken truth; there is but one Great Spirit; he is the
+      Great Spirit of all colors, and tribes, and nations. He made all men of
+      the same clay.&rdquo; Here a slight sensation was perceptible among the
+      audience, most of whom were very decidedly of a different opinion, on this
+      point of natural history. But the missionary was now so far warmed with
+      his subject as to disregard any slight interruption, and proceeded as if
+      his listeners had betrayed no feeling. &ldquo;And he divided them afterward into
+      nations and tribes. It was then he caused the color of his creatures to
+      change. Some he kept white, as he had made them. Some he put behind a dark
+      cloud, and they became altogether black. Our wise men think that this was
+      done in punishment for their sins. Some he painted red, like the nations
+      on this continent.&rdquo; Here Peter raised a finger, in sign that he would ask
+      a question; for, without permission granted, no Indian would interrupt the
+      speaker. Indeed, no one of less claims than Peter would hardly have
+      presumed to take the step he now did, and that because he saw a burning
+      curiosity gleaming in the bright eyes of so many in the dark circle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Say on, Peter,&rdquo; answered the missionary to this sign; &ldquo;I will reply.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let my brother say WHY the Great Spirit turned the Indian to a red color.
+      Was he angry with him? or did he paint him so out of love?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is more than I can tell you, friends. There are many colors among
+      men, in different parts of the world, and many shades among people of the
+      same color. There are pale-faces fair as the lily, and there are
+      pale-faces so dark, as scarcely to be distinguished from blacks. The sun
+      does much of this; but no sun, nor want of sun, will ever make a pale-face
+      a red-skin, or a red skin a pale-face.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good&mdash;that is what we Indians say. The Manitou has made us
+      different; he did not mean that we should live on the same
+      hunting-grounds,&rdquo; rejoined Peter, who rarely failed to improve every
+      opportunity in order to impress on the minds of his followers the
+      necessity of now crushing the serpent in its shell.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No man can say that,&rdquo; answered Parson Amen. &ldquo;Unless my people had come to
+      this continent, the word of God could not have been preached by me, along
+      the shores of these lakes. But I will now speak of our great tradition.
+      The Great Spirit divided mankind into nations and tribes. When this was
+      done, he picked out one for his chosen people. The pale-faces call that
+      favorite, and for a long time much-favored people, Jews. The Manitou led
+      them through a wilderness, and even through a salt lake, until they
+      reached a promised land, where he permitted them to live for many hundred
+      winters. A great triumph was to come out of that people&mdash;the triumphs
+      of truth and of the law, over sin and death. In the course of time&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here a young chief rose, made a sign of caution, and crossing the circle
+      rapidly, disappeared by the passage through which the rill flowed. In
+      about a minute he returned, showing the way into the centre of the council
+      to one whom all present immediately recognized as a runner, by his dress
+      and equipments. Important news was at hand; yet not a man of all that
+      crowd either rose or spoke, in impatience to learn what it was!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+   Who will believe that, with a smile whose blessing
+     Would, like the patriarch's, soothe a dying hour;
+   With voice as low, as gentle, and caressing
+     As e'er won maiden's lips in moonlight bower;
+
+   With look like patient Job's, eschewing evil;
+     With motions graceful as the birds in air;
+   Thou art, in sober truth, the veriest devil
+     That e'er clinched fingers in a captive's hair?
+                                        &mdash;HALLECK'S Red-Jacket.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Although the arrival of the runner was so totally unexpected, it scarcely
+      disturbed the quiet of that grave assembly. His approaching step had been
+      heard, and he was introduced in the manner mentioned, when the young chief
+      resumed his seat, leaving the messenger standing near the centre of the
+      circle, and altogether within the influence of the light. He was an
+      Ottawa, and had evidently travelled far and fast. At length he spoke; no
+      one having put a single question to him, or betrayed the least sign of
+      impatient curiosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I come to tell the chiefs what has happened,&rdquo; said the runner. &ldquo;Our Great
+      Father from Quebec has sent his young men against the Yankees. Red
+      warriors, too, were there in hundreds&mdash;&rdquo; here a murmur of interest
+      was slightly apparent among the chiefs&mdash;&ldquo;their path led them to
+      Detroit; it is taken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A low murmur, expressive of satisfaction, passed round the circle, for
+      Detroit was then the most important of all the posts held by the
+      Americans, along the whole line of the great lakes. Eye met eye in
+      surprise and admiration; then one of the older chiefs yielded to his
+      interest in the subject, and inquired:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have our young men taken many pale-face scalps?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So few that they are not worth counting. I did not see one pole that was
+      such as an Indian loves to look on.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did our young men keep back, and let the warriors from Quebec do all the
+      fighting?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one fought. The Yankees asked to be made prisoners, without using
+      their rifles. Never before have so many captives been led into the
+      villages with so little to make their enemies look on them with friendly
+      eyes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A gleam of fierce delight passed athwart the dark features of Peter. It is
+      probable that he fell into the same error, on hearing these tidings, as
+      that which so generally prevailed for a short time among the natives of
+      the old world, at the commencement of both of the two last wars of the
+      republic, when the disasters with which they opened induced so many to
+      fall into the fatal error of regarding Jonathan as merely a &ldquo;shopkeeper.&rdquo;
+       A shopkeeper, in a certain sense, he may well be accounted; but among his
+      wares are arms, that he has the head, the heart, and the hands to use, as
+      man has very rarely been known to use them before. Even at this very
+      instant, the brilliant success which has rendered the armed citizens of
+      this country the wonder of Europe, is reacting on the masses of the old
+      world, teaching them their power, and inciting them to stand up to the
+      regularly armed bands of their rulers, with a spirit and confidence that,
+      hitherto, has been little known in their histories. Happy, thrice happy
+      will it be, if the conquerors use their success in moderation, and settle
+      down into the ways of practical reason, instead of suffering their minds
+      to be led astray in quest of the political jack-o'-lanterns, that are
+      certain to conduct their followers into the quagmires of impracticable and
+      visionary theories. To abolish abuses, to set in motion the car of state
+      on the track of justice and economy, and to distinguish between that which
+      is really essential to human happiness and human rights, and that which is
+      merely the result of some wild and bootless proposition in political
+      economy, are the great self-imposed tasks that the European people seem
+      now to have assumed; and God grant that they may complete their labors
+      with the moderation and success with which they would appear to have
+      commenced them!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Peter, with the curse of ignorance weighing on his mind, it is to
+      be presumed that he fancied his own great task of destroying the whites
+      was so much the lighter, in consequence of the feeble defence of the
+      Yankees at Detroit. The runner was now questioned by the different chiefs
+      for details, which he furnished with sufficient intelligence and
+      distinctness. The whole of that discreditable story is too prominent in
+      history, and of too recent occurrence, to stand in need of repetition
+      here. When the runner had told his tale, the chiefs broke the order of
+      their circle, to converse the more easily concerning the great events
+      which had just occurred. Some were not backward in letting their contempt
+      for the &ldquo;Yankees&rdquo; be known. Here were three of their strong places taken,
+      in quick succession, and almost without a blow. Detroit, the strongest of
+      them all, and defended by an army, had fallen in a way to bring the blush
+      to the American face, seemingly leaving the whole of the northwestern
+      frontier of the country ravished from the red man, exposed to his
+      incursions and depredations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does my father think of this?&rdquo; asked Bear's Meat of Peter, as the
+      two stood apart, in a cluster of some three or four of the principal
+      personages present. &ldquo;Does the news make his heart stronger?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is always strong when this business is before it. The Manitou has long
+      looked darkly upon the red men, but now his face brightens. The cloud is
+      passing from before his countenance, and we can begin again to see his
+      smile. It will be with our sons as it was with our fathers. Our
+      hunting-grounds will be our own, and the buffalo and deer will be plenty
+      in our wigwams. The fire-water will flow after them that brought it into
+      the country, and the red man will once more be happy, as in times past!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ignis fatuus of human happiness employs all minds, all faculties, all
+      pens, and all theories, just at this particular moment. A thousand
+      projects have been broached, will continue to be broached, and will fail,
+      each in its time, showing the mistakes of men, without remedying the evils
+      of which they complain. This is not because a beneficent Providence has
+      neglected to enlighten their minds, and to show them the way to be happy,
+      here and hereafter; but because human conceit runs, pari passu, with human
+      woes, and we are too proud to look for our lessons of conduct, in that
+      code in which they have been set before us by unerring wisdom and
+      ceaseless love. If the political economists, and reformers, and
+      revolutionists of the age, would turn from their speculations to those
+      familiar precepts which all are taught and so few obey, they would find
+      rules for every emergency; and, most of all, would they learn the great
+      secret which lies so profoundly hid from them and their philosophy, in the
+      contented mind. Nothing short of this will ever bring the mighty reform
+      that the world needs. The press may be declared free, but a very brief
+      experience will teach those who fancy that this one conquest will secure
+      the victory, that they have only obtained King Stork in the lieu of King
+      Log; a vulgar and most hideous tyrant for one of royal birth and gentle
+      manners. They may set up the rule of patriots by profession, in place of
+      the dominion of those who have so long pretended that the art of governing
+      descends from male to male, according to the order of primogeniture, and
+      live to wonder that love of country should have so many weaknesses in
+      common with love of itself. They may rely on written charters for their
+      liberties, instead of the divine right of kings, and come perchance to
+      learn, that neither language, nor covenants, nor signatures, nor seals
+      avail much, as against the necessities of nations, and the policy of
+      rulers. Do we then regard reform as impossible, and society to be doomed
+      to struggle on in its old sloughs of oppression and abuses? Far from it.
+      We believe and hope, that at each effort of a sage character, something is
+      gained, while much more than had been expected is lost; and such we think
+      will continue to be the course of events, until men shall reach that
+      period in their history when, possibly to their wonder, they will find
+      that a faultless code for the government of all their affairs has been
+      lying neglected, daily and hourly, in their very hands, for eighteen
+      centuries and a half, without their perceiving the all-important truth. In
+      due season this code will supersede all others, when the world will, for
+      the first time, be happy and truly free.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was a marked resemblance between the hopes and expectations of
+      Peter, in reference to the overthrow of his pale-face enemies on the
+      American continent, and those of the revolutionists of the old world in
+      reference to the overthrow of their strong-intrenched foes on that of
+      Europe. Each fancies success more easy of attainment than the end is
+      likely to show; both overlook the terrible power of their adversaries; and
+      both take the suggestions of a hope that is lively rather than
+      enlightened, as the substitute for the lessons of wisdom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was some little time ere the council had so far regained its calm, as
+      to think of inviting the missionary to resume his discourse. The last had
+      necessarily heard the news, and was so much troubled by it, as to feel no
+      great disposition to proceed; but Peter intimating that &ldquo;the ears of his
+      friends were open,&rdquo; he was of opinion it would be wisest to go on with his
+      traditions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thus it was, my children,&rdquo; Parson Amen continued, the circle being just
+      as quiet and attentive as if no interruption had occurred&mdash;&ldquo;the Great
+      Spirit, selecting from among the nations of the earth, one to be his
+      chosen people. I cannot stop, now, to tell you all he did for this nation,
+      in the way of wonders and powers; but, finally, he placed them in a
+      beautiful country, where milk and honey abounded, and made them its
+      masters. From that people, in his earthly character, came the Christ whom
+      we missionaries preach to you, and who is the great head of our church.
+      Although the Jews, or Israelites, as we call that people, were thus
+      honored and thus favored of the Manitou, they were but men, they had the
+      weaknesses of men. On more than one occasion they displeased the Great
+      Spirit, and that so seriously as to draw down condign punishment on
+      themselves, and on their wives and children. In various ways were they
+      visited for their backsliding and sins, each time repenting and receiving
+      forgiveness. At length the Great Spirit, tired of their forgetfulness and
+      crimes, allowed an army to come into their land, and to carry away as
+      captives no less than ten of their twelve tribes; putting their people in
+      strange hunting-grounds. Now, this happened many thousands of moons since,
+      and no one can say with certainty what has become of those captives, whom
+      Christians are accustomed to call 'the lost tribes of Israel.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the missionary paused to arrange his thoughts, and a slight murmur
+      was heard in the circle as the chiefs communed together, in interested
+      comments on what had just been said. The pause, however, was short, and
+      the speaker again proceeded, safe from any ungracious interruption, among
+      auditors so trained in self-restraint.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Children, I shall not now say anything touching the birth of Christ, the
+      redemption of the world, and the history of the two tribes that remained
+      in the land where God had placed his people; for that is a part of the
+      subject that comes properly within the scope of my ordinary teaching. At
+      present I wish only to speak of yourselves; of the red man of America, of
+      his probable origin and end, and of a great discovery that many of us
+      think we have made, on this most interesting topic in the history of the
+      good book. Does any one present know aught of the ten lost tribes of whom
+      I have spoken?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Eye met eye, and expectation was lively among those primitive and untaught
+      savages. At length Crowsfeather arose to answer, the missionary standing
+      the whole time, motionless, as if waiting for a reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother has told us a tradition,&rdquo; said the Pottawattamie. &ldquo;It is a
+      good tradition. It is a strange tradition. Red men love to hear such
+      traditions. It is wonderful that so many as ten tribes should be LOST, at
+      the same time, and no one know what has become of them! My brother asks us
+      if WE know what has become of these ten tribes. How should poor red men,
+      who live on their hunting-grounds, and who are busy when the grass grows
+      in getting together food for their squaws and pappooses, against a time
+      when the buffalo can find nothing to eat in this part of the world, know
+      anything of a people that they never saw? My brother has asked a question
+      that he only can answer. Let him tell us where these ten tribes are to be
+      found, if he knows the place. We should like to go and look at them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here!&rdquo; exclaimed the missionary, the instant Crowsfeather ceased
+      speaking, and even before he was seated. &ldquo;Here&mdash;in this council&mdash;on
+      these prairies&mdash;in these openings&mdash;here, on the shores of the
+      great lakes of sweet water, and throughout the land of America, are these
+      tribes to be found. The red man is a Jew; a Jew is a red man. The Manitou
+      has brought the scattered people of Israel to this part of the world, and
+      I see his power in the wonderful fact. Nothing but a miracle could have
+      done this!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Great was the admiration of the Indians at this announcement! None of
+      their own traditions gave this account of their origin; but there is
+      reason to believe, on the other hand, that none of them contradict it.
+      Nevertheless, here was a medicine-priest of the pale-faces boldly
+      proclaiming the fact, and great was the wonder of all who heard, thereat!
+      Having spoken, the missionary again paused, that his words might produce
+      their effect. Bear's Meat now became his interrogator, rising
+      respectfully, and standing during the colloquy that succeeded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother has spoken a great tradition,&rdquo; said the Menominee. &ldquo;Did he
+      first hear it from his fathers?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In part, only. The history of the lost tribes has come down to us from
+      our fathers; it is written in the good book of the pale-faces; the book
+      that contains the word of the Great Spirit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does the good book of the pale-faces say that the red men are the
+      children of the people he has mentioned?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot say that it does. While the good book tells us so much, it also
+      leaves very much untold. It is best that we should look for ourselves,
+      that we may find out some of its meanings. It is in thus looking, that
+      many Christians see the great truth which makes the Indians of America and
+      the Jews beyond the great salt lake, one and the same people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If this be so, let my brother tell us how far it is from our
+      hunting-grounds to that distant land across the great salt lake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I cannot give you this distance in miles exactly; but I suppose it may be
+      eleven or twelve times the length of Michigan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will my brother tell us how much of this long path is water, and how much
+      of it is dry land?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps one-fourth is land, as the traveller may choose; the rest must be
+      water, if the journey be made from the rising toward the setting sun,
+      which is the shortest path; but, let the journey be made from the setting
+      toward the rising sun, and there is little water to cross; rivers and
+      lakes of no great width, as is seen here, but only a small breadth of salt
+      lake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Are there, then, two roads to that far-off land, where the red men are
+      thought to have once lived?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Even so. The traveller may come to this spot from that land by way of the
+      rising sun, or by way of the setting sun.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The general movement among the members of the council denoted the surprise
+      with which this account was received. As the Indians, until they have had
+      much intercourse with the whites, very generally believe the earth to be
+      flat, it was not easy for them to comprehend how a given point could be
+      reached by directly opposite routes. Such an apparent contradiction would
+      be very likely to extort further questions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother is a medicine-man of the pale-faces; his hairs are gray,&rdquo;
+       observed Crowsfeather. &ldquo;Some of your medicine-men are good, and some
+      wicked. It is so with the medicine-men of the red-skins. Good and bad are
+      to be found in all nations. A medicine-man of your people cheated my young
+      men by promising to show them where fire-water grows. He did not show
+      them. He let them smell, but he did not let them drink. That was a wicked
+      medicine-man. His scalp would not be safe did my young men see it again&rdquo;&mdash;here
+      the bee-hunter, insensibly to himself, felt for his rifle, making sure
+      that he had it between his legs; the corporal being a little surprised at
+      the sudden start he gave. &ldquo;His hair does not grow on his head closer than
+      the trees grow to the ground. Even a tree can be cut down. But all
+      medicine-men are not alike. My brother is a GOOD medicine-man. All he says
+      may not be just as he thinks, but he BELIEVES what he says. It is
+      wonderful how men can look two ways; but it is more wonderful that they
+      should go to the same place by paths that lead before and behind. This we
+      do not understand; my brother will tell us how it can be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe I understand what it is that my children would know. They think
+      the earth is flat, but the pale-faces know that it is round. He who
+      travels and travels toward the setting sun would come to this very spot,
+      if he travelled long enough. The distance would be great, but the end of
+      every straight path in this world is the place of starting.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother says this. He says many curious things. I have heard a
+      medicine-man of his people say that the palefaces have seen their Great
+      Spirit, talked with him, walked with him. It is not so with us Indians.
+      Our Manitou speaks to us in thunder only. We are ignorant, and wish to
+      learn more than we now know. Has my brother ever travelled on that path
+      which ends where it begins? Once, on the prairies, I lost my way. There
+      was snow, and glad was I to find tracks. I followed the tracks. But one
+      traveller had passed. After walking an hour, two had passed. Another hour,
+      and the three had passed, Then I saw the tracks were my own, and that I
+      had been walking, as the squaws reason, round and round, but not going
+      ahead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand my friend, but he is wrong. It is no matter which path the
+      lost tribes travelled to get here. The main question is, whether they came
+      at all. I see in the red men, in their customs, their history, their
+      looks, and even in their traditions, proof that they are these Jews, once
+      the favored people of the Great Spirit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If the Manitou so well loves the Indians, why has he permitted the
+      pale-faces to take away their hunting-grounds? Why has he made the red man
+      poor, and the white man rich? Brother, I am afraid your tradition is a
+      lying tradition, or these things would not be so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is not given to men to understand the wisdom that cometh from above.
+      That which seemeth so strange to us may be right. The lost tribes had
+      offended God; and their scattering, and captivity, and punishment, are but
+      so many proofs of his displeasure. But, if lost, we have reason to believe
+      that one day they will be found. Yes, my children, it will be the pleasure
+      of the Great Spirit, one day, to restore you to the land of your fathers,
+      and make you again, what you once were, a great and glorious people!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the well-meaning but enthusiastic missionary spoke with great fervor,
+      the announcement of such an event, coming as it did from one whom they
+      respected, even while they could not understand him, did not fail to
+      produce a deep sensation. If their fortunes were really the care of the
+      Great Spirit, and justice was to be done to them by his love and wisdom,
+      then would the projects of Peter, and those who acted and felt with him,
+      be unnecessary, and might lead to evil instead of to good. That sagacious
+      savage did not fail to discover this truth; and he now believed it might
+      be well for him to say a word, in order to lessen the influence Parson
+      Amen might otherwise obtain among those whom it was his design to mould in
+      a way entirely to meet his own wishes. So intense was the desire of this
+      mysterious leader to execute vengeance on the pale-faces, that the
+      redemption of the tribes from misery and poverty, unaccompanied by this
+      part of his own project, would have given him pain in lieu of pleasure.
+      His very soul had got to be absorbed in this one notion of retribution,
+      and of annihilation for the oppressors of his race; and he regarded all
+      things through a medium of revenge, thus created by his feelings, much as
+      the missionary endeavored to bend every fact and circumstance, connected
+      with the Indians, to the support of his theory touching their Jewish
+      origin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Peter arose, therefore, fierce and malignant passions were at work in
+      his bosom; such as a merciful and a benignant deity never wishes to see in
+      the breast of man, whether civilized or savage. The self-command of the
+      Tribeless, however, was great, and he so far succeeded in suppressing the
+      volcano that was raging within, as to speak with his usual dignity and an
+      entire calmness of exterior.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brothers have heard what the medicine-man had to say,&rdquo; Peter
+      commenced. &ldquo;He has told them that which was new to them. He has told them
+      an Indian is not an Indian. That a red man is a pale-face, and that we are
+      not what we thought we were. It is good to learn. It makes the difference
+      between the wise and the foolish. The palefaces learn more than the
+      red-skins. That is the way they have learned how to get our
+      hunting-grounds. That is the way they have learned to build their villages
+      on the spots where our fathers killed the deer. That is the way they have
+      learned how to come and tell us that we are not Indians, but Jews. I wish
+      to learn. Though old, my mind craves to know more. That I may know more, I
+      will ask this medicine-man questions, and my brothers can open their ears,
+      and learn a little, too, by what he answers. Perhaps we shall believe that
+      we are not red-skins, but pale-faces. Perhaps we shall believe that our
+      true hunting-grounds are not near the great lakes of sweet water, but
+      under the rising sun. Perhaps we shall wish to go home, and to leave these
+      pleasant openings for the pale faces to put their cabins on them, as the
+      small-pox that they have also given to us, puts its sores on our bodies.
+      Brother&mdash;&rdquo; turning toward the missionary&mdash;&ldquo;listen. You say we
+      are no longer Indians, but Jews: is this true of ALL red men, or only of
+      the tribes whose chiefs are HERE?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of ALL red men, as I most sincerely believe. You are now red, but once
+      all of your people were fairer than the fairest of the pale-faces. It is
+      climate, and hardships, and sufferings that have changed your color.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If suffering can do THAT,&rdquo; returned Peter, with emphasis, &ldquo;I wonder we
+      are not BLACK. When ALL our hunting-grounds are covered with the farms of
+      your people, I think we shall be BLACK.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Signs of powerful disgust were now visible among the listeners, an Indian
+      having much of the contempt that seems to weigh so heavily on that
+      unfortunate class, for all of the color mentioned. At the south, as is
+      known, the red man has already made a slave of the descendants of the
+      children of Africa, but no man has ever yet made a slave of a son of the
+      American forests! THAT is a result which no human power has yet been able
+      to accomplish. Early in the settlement of the country, attempts were
+      indeed MADE, by sending a few individuals to the islands; but so
+      unsuccessful did the experiment turn out to be, that the design was soon
+      abandoned. Whatever may be his degradation, and poverty, and ignorance,
+      and savage ferocity, it would seem to be the settled purpose of the
+      American Indians of our own territories&mdash;unlike the aborigines who
+      are to be found farther south&mdash;to live and die free men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My children,&rdquo; answered the missionary, &ldquo;I pretend not to say what will
+      happen, except as it has been told to us in the word of God. You know that
+      we pale-faces have a book, in which the Great Spirit has told us his laws,
+      and foretold to us many of the things that are to happen. Some of these
+      things HAVE happened, while some remain TO happen. The loss of the ten
+      tribes was foretold, and HAS happened; but their being FOUND again, has
+      not YET happened, unless indeed I am so blessed as to be one of those who
+      have been permitted to meet them in these openings. Here is the book&mdash;it
+      goes where I go, and is my companion and friend, by day and by night; in
+      good and evil; in season and out of season. To this book I cling as to my
+      great anchor, that is to carry me through the storms in safety! Every line
+      in it is precious; every word true!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps half the chiefs present had seen books before, while those who now
+      laid eyes on one for the first time, had heard of this art of the
+      pale-faces, which enabled them to set down their traditions in a way
+      peculiar to themselves. Even the Indians have their records, however,
+      though resorting to the use of natural signs, and a species of
+      hieroglyphics, in lieu of the more artistical process of using words and
+      letters, in a systemized written language. The Bible, too, was a book of
+      which all had heard, more or less; though not one of those present had
+      ever been the subject of its influence. A Christian Indian, indeed&mdash;and
+      a few of those were to be found even at that day&mdash;would hardly have
+      attended a council convened for the objects which had caused this to be
+      convened. Still, a strong but regulated curiosity existed, to see, and
+      touch, and examine the great medicine-book of the pale-faces. There was a
+      good deal of superstition blended with the Indian manner of regarding the
+      sacred volume; some present having their doubts about touching it, even
+      while most excited by admiration, and a desire to probe its secrets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter took the little volume, which the missionary extended as if inviting
+      any one who might so please, to examine it also. It was the first time the
+      wary chief had ever suffered that mysterious book to touch him. Among his
+      other speculations on the subject of the manner in which the white men
+      were encroaching, from year to year, on the lands of the natives, it had
+      occurred to his mind that this extraordinary volume, which the pale-faces
+      all SEEMED to reverence, even to the drunkards of the garrisons, might
+      contain the great elements of their power. Perhaps he was not very much
+      out of the way in this supposition; though they who use the volume
+      habitually, are not themselves aware, one-half the time, why it is so.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the present occasion, Peter saw the great importance of not betraying
+      apprehension, and he turned over the pages awkwardly, as one would be apt
+      to handle a book for the first time, but boldly and without hesitation.
+      Encouraged by the impunity that accompanied this hardihood, Peter shook
+      the leaves open, and held the volume on high, in a way that told his own
+      people that he cared not for its charms or power. There was more of
+      seeming than of truth, however, in this bravado; for never before had this
+      extraordinary being made so heavy a draft on his courage and self-command,
+      as in the performance of this simple act. He did not, could not know what
+      were the virtues of the book, and his imagination very readily suggested
+      the worst. As the great medicine-volume of the pale-faces, it was quite
+      likely to contain that which was hostile to the red men; and this fact, so
+      probable to his eyes, rendered it likely that some serious evil to himself
+      might follow from the contact. It did not, however; and a smile of grim
+      satisfaction lighted his swarthy countenance, as, turning to the
+      missionary, he said with point&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let my brother open his eyes. I have looked into his medicine-book, but
+      do not see that the red man is anything but a red man. The Great Spirit
+      made him; and what the Great Spirit makes, lasts. The pale-faces have made
+      their book, and it lies.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no&mdash;Peter, Peter, thou utterest wicked words. But the Lord will
+      pardon thee, since thou knowest not what thou sayest. Give me the sacred
+      volume, that I may place it next my heart, where I humbly trust so many of
+      its divine precepts are already entrenched.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was said in English, under the impulse of feeling, but being
+      understood by Peter, the latter quietly relinquished the Bible, preparing
+      to follow up the advantage he perceived he had gained, on the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother has his medicine-book, again,&rdquo; said Peter, &ldquo;and the red men
+      live. This hand is not withered like the dead branch of the hemlock; yet
+      it has held his word of the Great Spirit! It may be that a red-skin and a
+      pale-face book cannot do each other harm. I looked into my brother's great
+      charm, but did not see or hear a tradition that tells me we are Jews.
+      There is a bee-hunter in these openings. I have talked with him. He has
+      told me who these Jews are. He says they are people who do not go with the
+      pale-faces, but live apart from them, like men with the small-pox. It is
+      not right for my brother to come among the red men, and tell them that
+      their fathers were not good enough to live, and eat, and go on the same
+      paths as his fathers.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is all a mistake, Peter&mdash;a great and dangerous mistake. The
+      bee-hunter has heard the Jews spoken of by those who do not sufficiently
+      read the good book. They have been, and are still, the chosen people of
+      the Great Spirit, and will one day be received back to his favor. Would
+      that I were one of them, only enlightened by the words of the New
+      Testament! No real Christian ever can, or does now despise a son of
+      Israel, whatever has been done in times past. It is an honor, and not a
+      disgrace, to be what I have said my friends are.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If this be so, why do not the pale-faces let us keep out hunting-grounds
+      to ourselves? We are content. We do not wish to be Jews. Our canoes are
+      too small to cross the great salt lake. They are hardly large enough to
+      cross the great lakes of sweet water. We should be tired of paddling so
+      far. My brother says there is a rich land under the rising sun, which the
+      Manitou gave to the red men. Is this so?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Beyond all doubt. It was given to the children of Israel, for a
+      possession forever; and though you have been carried away from it for a
+      time, there the land still is, open to receive you, and waiting the return
+      of its ancient masters. In good season that return must come; for we have
+      the word of God for it, in our Christian Bible.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let my brother open his ears very wide, and hear what I have to say. We
+      thank him for letting us know that we are Jews. We believe that he thinks
+      what he says. Still, we think we are red men, and Injins, and not Jews. We
+      never saw the place where the sun rises. We do not wish to see it. Our
+      hunting-grounds are nearer to the place where he sets. If the pale-faces
+      believe we have a right to that distant land, which is so rich in good
+      things, we will give it to them, and keep these openings, and prairies,
+      and woods. We know the game of this country, and have found out how to
+      kill it. We do not know the game under the rising sun, which may kill us.
+      Go to your friends and say, 'The Injins will give you that land near the
+      rising sun, if you will let them alone on their hunting-grounds, where
+      they have so long been. They say that your canoes are larger than their
+      canoes, and that one can carry a whole tribe. They have seen some of your
+      big canoes on the great lakes, and have measured them. Fill all you have
+      got with your squaws and pappooses, put your property in them, and go back
+      by the long path through which you came. Then will the red man thank the
+      pale-face and be his friend. The white man is welcome to that far-off
+      land. Let him take it, and build his villages on it, and cut down its
+      trees. This is all the Injins ask. If the pale-faces can take away with
+      them the small-pox and the fire-water, it will be better still. They
+      brought both into this country, it is right that they should take them
+      away.' Will my brother tell this to his people?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It would do no good. They know that the land of Judea is reserved by God
+      for his chosen people, and they are not Jews. None but the children of
+      Israel can restore that land to its ancient fertility. It would be useless
+      for any other to attempt it. Armies have been there, and it was once
+      thought that a Christian kingdom was set up on the spot; but neither the
+      time nor the people had come. Jews alone can make Judea what it was, and
+      what it will be again. If my people owned that land, they could not use
+      it. There are also too many of us now, to go away in canoes.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did not the fathers of the pale-faces come in canoes?&rdquo; demanded Peter, a
+      little sternly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They did; but since that time their increase has been so great, that
+      canoes enough to hold them could not be found. No; the Great Spirit, for
+      his own wise ends, has brought my people hither; and here must they remain
+      to the end of time. It is not easy to make the pigeons fly south in the
+      spring.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This declaration, quietly but distinctly made, as it was the habit of the
+      missionary to speak, had its effect. It told Peter, and those with him, as
+      plainly as language could tell them, that there was no reason to expect
+      the pale-faces would ever willingly abandon the country, and seemed the
+      more distinctly, in all their uninstructed minds, to place the issue on
+      the armed hand. It is not improbable that some manifestation of feeling
+      would have escaped the circle, had not an interruption to the proceedings
+      occurred, which put a stop to all other emotions but those peculiar to the
+      lives of savages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XVIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Nearer the mount stood Moses; in his hand
+     The rod which blasted with strange plagues the realm
+     Of Misraim, and from its time-worn channels
+     Upturned the Arabian sea. Fair was his broad
+     High front, and forth from his soul-piercing eye
+     Did legislation look; which full he fixed
+     Upon the blazing panoply undazzled.
+                                    &mdash;HILLHOUSE.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It often happens in the recesses of the wilderness, that, in the absence
+      of men, the animals hunt each other. The wolves, in particular, following
+      their instincts, are often seen in packs, pressing upon the heels of the
+      antelope, deer, and other creatures of that family, which depend for
+      safety more on their speed than on their horns. On the present occasion, a
+      fine buck, with a pack of fifty wolves close after it, came bounding
+      through the narrow gorge that contained the rill, and entered the
+      amphitheatre of the bottom-land. Its headlong career was first checked by
+      the sight of the fire; then arose a dark circle of men, each armed and
+      accustomed to the chase. In much less time than it has taken to record the
+      fact, that little piece of bottom-land was crowded with wolves, deer, and
+      men. The headlong impetuosity of the chase and flight had prevented the
+      scent from acting, and all were huddled together, for a single instant, in
+      a sort of inextricable confusion. Brief as was this melee, it sufficed to
+      allow of a young hunter's driving his arrow through the heart of the buck,
+      and enabled others among the Indians to kill several of the wolves; some
+      with arrows, others with knives, etc. No rifle was used, probably from a
+      wish not to give an alarm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wolves were quite as much astonished at this unexpected rencontre, as
+      the Indians. They were not a set of hungry and formidable beasts, that
+      famine might urge to any pass of desperation; but a pack hunting, like
+      gentlemen, for their own amusement. Their headlong speed was checked less
+      by the crowd of men, than by the sight of fire. In their impetuosity, it
+      is probable that they would have gone clean through five hundred men, but
+      no wild beast will willingly encounter fire. Three or four of the chiefs,
+      aware of this dread, seized brands, and throwing themselves, without care,
+      into the midst of the pack, the animals went howling off, scattering in
+      all directions. Unfortunately for its own welfare, one went directly
+      through the circle, plunged into the thicket beyond, and made its way
+      quite up to the fallen tree, on which the bee-hunter and the corporal had
+      taken their stations. This was altogether too much for the training, or
+      for the philosophy of Hive. Perceiving a recognized enemy rushing toward
+      him, that noble mastiff met him in a small cleared spot, open-mouthed, and
+      for a few moments a fierce combat was the consequence. Dogs and wolves do
+      not fight in silence, and loud were the growls and yells on this occasion.
+      In vain did le Bourdon endeavor to drag his mastiff off; the animal was on
+      the high-road to victory, when it is ever hard to arrest the steps of the
+      combatant. Almost as a matter of course, some of the chiefs rushed toward
+      the spot, when the presence of the two spectators first became known to
+      them. At the next moment the wolf lay dead at the feet of Hive; and the
+      parties stood gazing at each other, equally taken by surprise, and equally
+      at a loss to know what to do next.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was perhaps fortunate for the bee-hunter, that neither Crowsfeather,
+      nor any other of the Pottawattamies, was present at this first rencontre,
+      or he might have fallen on the spot, a victim to their disappointed hopes
+      of drinking at a whiskey-spring. The chiefs present were strangers to le
+      Bourdon, and they stared at him, in a way to show that his person was
+      equally unknown to them. But it was necessary, now, to follow the Indians
+      back to their circle, where the whole party soon collected again, the
+      wolves having gone off on their several routes, to put up some other
+      animal, and run him to death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      During the whole of that excited and tumultuous scene, which would
+      probably now be termed a &ldquo;stampede&rdquo; in the Mexican-Americo-English of the
+      day, Peter had not stirred. Familiar with such occurrences, he felt the
+      importance of manifesting an unmoved calm, as a quality most likely to
+      impress the minds of his companions with a profound sense of his dignity
+      and self-command. While all around him was in a tumult, he stood in his
+      tracks, motionless as a statue. Even the fortitude of the worthy
+      missionary was shaken by the wild tempest that momentarily prevailed; and
+      the good man forgot the Jews in his alarm at wolves, forgot the mighty
+      past in his apprehensions for the uncomfortable and ill-boding present
+      time. All this, however, was soon over, and order, and quiet, and a
+      dignified calm once more reigned in the circle. Fagots were thrown on the
+      fire; and the two captives, or spectators, stood as near it, the observed
+      of all observers, as the heat rendered comfortable. It was just then that
+      Crowsfeather and his companions first recognized the magician of the
+      whiskey-spring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter saw the discovery of the two spectators with some uneasiness. The
+      time had not come when he intended to strike his blow; and he had seen
+      signs among those Pottawattamies, when at the mouth of the river, which
+      had told him how little they were disposed to look with favor on one who
+      had so grievously trifled with their hopes. His first care, therefore, was
+      to interpose his authority and influence between le Bourdon and any
+      project of revenge, which Crowsfeather's young men might be apt to devise,
+      as soon as they, too, laid eyes on the offender. This was done in a
+      characteristic and wily manner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does my brother love honey?&rdquo; asked the tribeless chief of the leader of
+      the Pottawattamies present, who sat near him, gazing on le Bourdon much as
+      the cat looks upon the mouse, ere it makes it its prey. &ldquo;Some Injins are
+      fond of that sweet food: if my brother is one of that sort, I can tell him
+      how to fill his wigwam with honey with little trouble.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this suggestion, coming from such a source, Crowsfeather could not do
+      less than express his thanks, and his readiness to hear what further might
+      be in reserve for him. Peter then alluded to le Bourdon's art, describing
+      him as being the most skilful bee-hunter of the West. So great was his art
+      in that way, that no Indian had ever yet seen his equal. It was Peter's
+      intention to make him exercise his craft soon, for the benefit of the
+      chiefs and warriors present, who might then return to their village,
+      carrying with them stores of honey to gladden the hearts of their squaws
+      and pappooses. This artifice succeeded; for the Indians are not expert in
+      taking this article of food, which so much abounds in the forests, both on
+      account of the difficulty they find in felling the trees, and on account
+      of the &ldquo;angle-ing&rdquo; part of the process, which much exceeds their skill in
+      mathematics. On the other hand, the last is just the sort of skill a
+      common white American would be likely to manifest, his readiness and
+      ingenuity in all such processes almost amounting to an instinct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having thus thrown his mantle around le Bourdon for the moment, Peter then
+      deemed it the better course to finish the historical investigation in
+      which the council had been so much interested, when the strange
+      interruption by the wolves occurred. With this view, therefore, he rose
+      himself, and recalled the minds of all present to this interesting
+      subject, by a short speech. This he did, especially to prevent any
+      premature attack on the person of le Bourdon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers,&rdquo; said this mysterious chief, &ldquo;it is good for Injins to learn.
+      When they learn a thing, they know it; then they may learn another. It is
+      in this way that the pale-faces do; it makes them wise, and puts it in
+      their power to take away our hunting-grounds. A man that knows nothing is
+      only a child that has grown up too fast. He may be big&mdash;may take long
+      steps&mdash;may be strong enough to carry burdens&mdash;may love venison
+      and buffaloes' humps; but his size is only in the way; his steps he does
+      not know where to direct; his burdens he does not know how to choose; and
+      he has to beg food of the squaws, instead of carrying it himself to their
+      wigwams. He has not learned how to take game. We must all learn. It is
+      right. When we have learned how to take game, and how to strike the enemy,
+      and how to keep the wigwam filled, then we may learn traditions.
+      Traditions tell us of our fathers. We have many traditions. Some are
+      talked of, even to the squaws. Some are told around the fires of the
+      tribes. Some are known only to the aged chiefs. This is right, too. Injins
+      ought not to say too much, nor too little. They should say what is wise&mdash;what
+      is best. But my brother, the medicine-man of the pale-faces, says that our
+      traditions have not told us everything. Something has been kept back. If
+      so, it is best to learn that too. If we are Jews, and not Injins, we ought
+      to know it. If we are Injins, and not Jews, our brother ought to know it,
+      and not call us by a wrong name. Let him speak. We listen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here Peter slowly resumed his seat. As the missionary understood all that
+      had been said, he next arose, and proceeded to make good, as far as he was
+      able, and in such language as his knowledge of Indian habits suggested,
+      his theory of the lost tribes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish my children to understand,&rdquo; resumed the missionary, &ldquo;that it is an
+      honor to be a Jew. I have not come here to lessen the red men in their own
+      eyes, but to do them honor. I see that Bear's Meat wishes to say
+      something; my ears are open, and my tongue is still.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank my brother for the opportunity to say what is on my mind,&rdquo;
+       returned the chief mentioned. &ldquo;It is true I have something to say; it is
+      this: I wish to ask the medicine-man if the pale-faces honor and show
+      respect to the Jews?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was rather an awkward question for the missionary, but he was much
+      too honest to dissemble. With a reverence for truth that proceeded from
+      his reverence for the Father of all that is true, he replied honestly,
+      though not altogether without betraying how much he regretted the
+      necessity of answering at all. Both remained standing while the dialogue
+      proceeded; or in parliamentary language, each may be said to have had the
+      floor at the same time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother wishes to know if the pale-faces honor the Jews,&rdquo; returned the
+      missionary. &ldquo;I wish I could answer 'yes'; but the truth forces me to say
+      'no.' The pale-faces have traditions that make against the Jews, and the
+      judgments of God weigh heavy on the children of Israel. But all good
+      Christians, now, look with friendly eyes on this dispersed and persecuted
+      people, and wish them well. It will give the white men very great pleasure
+      to learn that I have found the lost tribes of Israel in the red men of
+      America.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will my brother tell us WHY this will give his people pleasure? Is it
+      because they will be glad to find old enemies, poor, living on narrow
+      hunting-grounds, off which the villages and farms of the pale-faces begin
+      to push them still nearer to the setting sun; and toward whom the
+      small-pox has found a path to go, but none to come from?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nay, nay, Bear's Meat, think not so unkindly of us of the white race! In
+      crossing the great salt lake, and in coming to this quarter of the world,
+      our fathers were led by the finger of God. We do but obey the will of the
+      Great Spirit, in pressing forward into this wilderness, directed by his
+      wisdom how to spread the knowledge of his name among those who, as yet,
+      have never heard it; or, having heard, have not regarded it. In all this,
+      the wisest men are but babes; not being able to say whither they are to
+      go, or what is to be done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is strange,&rdquo; returned the unmoved Indian. &ldquo;It is not so with the red
+      men. Our squaws and pappooses do know the hunting-ground of one tribe from
+      the hunting-ground of another. When they put their feet on strange
+      hunting-grounds, it is because they INTENDED to go there, and to steal
+      game. This is sometimes right. If it is right to take the scalp of an
+      enemy, it is right to get his deer and his buffalo, too. But we never do
+      this without knowing it. If we did, we should be unfit to go at large,
+      unfit to sit in council. This is the first time I have heard that the
+      pale-faces are so weak, and they have such feeble minds, too, that they do
+      not know where they go.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother does not understand me. No man can see into the future&mdash;no
+      man can say what will happen to-morrow. The Great Spirit only can tell. It
+      is for him, then, to guide his children in their wanderings. When our
+      fathers first came out of their canoes upon the land, on this side of the
+      great salt lake, not one among them knew anything of this country between
+      the great lakes of sweet water. They did not know that red men lived here.
+      The Great Spirit did know, and intended then, that I should this night
+      stand up in this council, and speak of his power and of his name, and do
+      him reverence. It was the Great Spirit that put it into my mind to come
+      among the Indians; and it is the Great Spirit who has led me, step by
+      step, as warriors move toward the graves of their fathers, to make the
+      discovery, that the Indians are, in truth, the children of Israel, a part
+      of his own chosen and once much-favored people. Let me ask my friends one
+      or two questions. Do not your traditions say that your fathers once came
+      from a far-off land?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Bear's Meat now took his seat, not choosing to answer a question of this
+      nature, in the presence of a chief so much respected as Peter. He
+      preferred to let the last take up the dialogue where he now saw fit to
+      abandon it. As the other very well understood the reason of this sudden
+      movement, he quietly assumed the office of spokesman; the whole affair
+      proceeding much as if there had been no change.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our traditions DO tell us that our fathers came from a far-off land,&rdquo;
+       answered Peter, without rising.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thought so!&mdash;I thought so!&rdquo; exclaimed the simple-minded and
+      confiding missionary. &ldquo;How wonderful are the ways of God! Yes, my brother,
+      Judea is a far-off land, and your traditions say that your fathers came
+      from such a distance! This, then, is something proved. Do not your
+      traditions say, that once your tribes were more in favor with the Great
+      Spirit than they are now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our traditions do say this: once our tribes did not see the face of the
+      Manitou looking dark upon them, as it now does. That was before the
+      pale-faces came in their big canoes, across the great salt lake, to drive
+      the Indians from their hunting-grounds. It was when the small-pox had not
+      found the path to their villages. When fire-water was unknown to them, and
+      no Indian had ever burned his throat with it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, but I speak of a time much more distant than that. Of a time when
+      your prophets stood face to face with God, and talked with the Creator.
+      Since that day a great change has come over your people. Then your color
+      was light, like that of the fairest and handsomest of the Circassian race;
+      now, it has become red. When even the color is changed, it is not
+      wonderful that men should no longer be the same in other particulars. Yes;
+      once all the races of men were of the same color and origin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is not what our traditions say. We have heard from our fathers that
+      the Great Spirit made men of different colors; some he made light, like
+      the pale-faces; some red, like the Injins; some black, like the
+      pale-faces' slaves. To some he gave high noses; to some low noses: to some
+      flat noses. To the pale-faces he gave eyes of many colors. This is the
+      reason why they see so many things, and in so many different ways. To the
+      red men he gave eyes of the same color, and they always see things of the
+      same color. To a red man there is no change. Our fathers have always been
+      red. This we know. If them Jews, of whom my brother speaks, were ever
+      white, they have not been our fathers. We tell this to the medicine-man,
+      that he may know it, too. We do not wish to lead him on a crooked path, or
+      to speak to him with a forked tongue. What we have said, is so. Now, the
+      road is open to the wigwam of the pale-faces, and we wish them safe on
+      their journey home. We Injins have a council to hold around this fire, and
+      will stay longer.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      At this plain intimation that their presence was no longer desirable, it
+      became necessary for them to depart. The missionary, filled with zeal, was
+      reluctant to go, for, in his eyes, the present communications with the
+      savages promised him not only the conversion of pagans, but the
+      restoration of the Jews! Nevertheless, he was compelled to comply; and
+      when le Bourdon and the corporal took their departure, he turned, and
+      pronounced in solemn tone the Christian benediction on the assembly. The
+      meaning of this last impressive office was understood by most of the
+      chiefs, and they rose as one man, in acknowledgment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The three white men, on retiring from the circle, held their way toward
+      Castle Meal. Hive followed his master, having come out of the combat but
+      little injured. As they got to a point where a last look could be had of
+      the bottom-land of the council, each turned to see what was now in the
+      course of proceeding. The fire glimmered just enough to show the circlet
+      of dark faces, but not an Indian spoke or moved. There they all sat,
+      patiently waiting for the moment when the &ldquo;strangers&rdquo; might &ldquo;withdraw&rdquo; to
+      a sufficient distance, to permit them to proceed with their own private
+      affairs without fear of interruption.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This has been to me a most trying scene,&rdquo; observed the missionary, as the
+      three pursued their way toward the garrison. &ldquo;How hard it is to convince
+      men against their wishes. Now, I am as certain as a man can be, that every
+      one of these Injins is in fact a Jew; and yet, you have seen how small has
+      been my success in persuading them to be of the right way of thinking, on
+      this subject.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have always noticed that men stick even to their defects, when they're
+      nat'ral,&rdquo; returned the bee-hunter. &ldquo;Even a nigger will stand up for his
+      color, and why shouldn't an Injin? You began wrong, parson. Had you just
+      told these chiefs that they were Jews, they might have stood THAT, poor
+      creatures, for they hardly know how mankind looks upon a Jew; but you went
+      to work to skin them, in a lump, making so many poor, wishy-washy
+      pale-faces of all the red-skins, in a body. You and I may fancy a white
+      face better than one of any other color; but nature colors the eye when it
+      colors the body, and there's not a nigger in America who doesn't think
+      black the pink of beauty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps it was proceeding too fast to say anything about the change of
+      color, Bourdon. But what can a Christian minister do, unless he tell the
+      truth? Adam could have been but of one color; and all the races on earth,
+      one excepted, must have changed from that one color.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Aye, and my life on it, that all the races on 'arth believe that one
+      color to have been just that which has fallen to the luck of each
+      partic'lar shade. Hang me if I should like to be persuaded out of my
+      color, any more than these Injins. In America, color goes for a great
+      deal; and it may count for as much with an Injin as among us whites. No,
+      no, parson; you should have begun with persuading these savages into the
+      notion that they're Jews; if you could get along with THAT, the rest might
+      be all the easier.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You speak of the Jews, not as if you considered them a chosen people of
+      the Lord, but as a despised and hateful race. This is not right, Bourdon.
+      I know that Christians are thus apt to regard them; but it does not tell
+      well for their charity or their knowledge.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I know very little about them, Parson Amen; not being certain of ever
+      having seen a Jew in my life. Still, I will own that I have a sort of
+      grudge against them, though I can hardly tell you why. Of one thing I feel
+      certain&mdash;no man breathing should ever persuade me into the notion
+      that I'M a Jew, lost or found; ten tribes or twenty. What say you,
+      corporal, to this idea?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Just as you say, Bourdon. Jews, Turks, and infidels, I despise: so was I
+      brought up, and so I shall remain.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can either of you tell me WHY you look in this uncharitable light, on so
+      many of your fellow-creatures? It cannot be Christianity, for such are not
+      its teachings or feelings. Nor is either of you very remarkable for his
+      observance of the laws of God, as they have been revealed to Christian
+      people. MY heart yearns toward these Injins, who are infidels, instead of
+      entertaining any of the feelings that the corporal has just expressed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish there were fewer of them, and that them few were farther from
+      Castle Meal,&rdquo; put in le Bourdon, with point. &ldquo;I have known all along that
+      Peter meant to have a great council; but will own, now that I have seen
+      something of it, I do not find it quite as much to my mind as I had
+      expected it would be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There's a strong force on 'em,&rdquo; said the corporal, &ldquo;and a hard set be
+      they to look at. When a man's a young soldier, all this paint, and shaving
+      of heads, and rings in noses and ears, makes some impression; but a
+      campaign or two ag'in' the fellows soon brings all down to one color and
+      one uniform, if their naked hides can be so called. I told 'em off,
+      Bourdon, and reconn'itred 'em pretty well, while they was a making
+      speeches; and, in my judgment, we can hold good the garrison ag'in' 'em
+      all, if so be we do not run short of water. Provisions and water is what a
+      body may call fundamentals, in a siege.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope we shall have no need of force&mdash;nay, I feel persuaded there
+      will not be,&rdquo; said Parson Amen. &ldquo;Peter is our friend; and his command over
+      these savages is wonderful! Never before have I seen red men so completely
+      under the control of a chief. Your men at Fort Dearborn, corporal, were
+      scarcely more under the orders of their officers, than these red-skins are
+      under the orders of this chief!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not go to compare rig'lars with Injins, Mr. Parson,&rdquo; answered the
+      corporal, a little stiffly. &ldquo;They be not of the same natur' at all, and
+      ought not to be put on a footing, in any particular. These savages may
+      obey their orders, after a fashion of their own; but I should like to see
+      them manoeuvre under fire. I've fit Injins fourteen times, in my day, and
+      have never seen a decent line, or a good, honest, manly, stand-up charge,
+      made by the best among 'em, in any field, far or near. Trees and covers is
+      necessary to their constitutions, just as sartain as a deer chased will
+      take to water to throw off the scent. Put 'em up with the baggonet, and
+      they'll not stand a minute.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How should they, corporal,&rdquo; interrupted le Bourdon laughing, &ldquo;when
+      they've no baggonets of their own to make a stand with? You put one in
+      mind of what my father used to say. He was a soldier in revolution times,
+      and sarved his seven years with Washington. The English used to boast that
+      the Americans wouldn't 'stand up to the rack,' if the baggonet was set to
+      work; 'but this was before we got our own toothpicks,' said the old man.
+      'As soon as they gave US baggonets, too, there was no want of standing up
+      to the work.' It seems to me, corporal, you overlook the fact that Injins
+      carry no baggonets.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Every army uses its own weapons. If an Injin prefers his knife and his
+      tomahawk to a baggonet, it is no affair of mine. I speak of a charge as I
+      see it; and the soldier who relies on a tomahawk instead of a baggonet,
+      should stand in his tracks, and give tomahawk play. No, no, Bourdon,
+      seeing is believing. These red-skins can do nothing with our people, when
+      our people is properly regimented, well officered, and thoroughly drilled.
+      They're skeary to new beginners&mdash;THAT I must acknowledge&mdash;but
+      beyond that I set them down as nothing remarkable as military men.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good or bad, I wish there were fewer of them, and that they were farther
+      off. This man Peter is a mystery to me: sometimes he seems quite friendly;
+      then, ag'in, he appears just ready to take all our scalps. Do you know
+      much of his past history, Mr. Amen?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not as much as I wish I did,&rdquo; the missionary replied. &ldquo;No one can tell me
+      aught concerning Peter, beyond the fact of his being a sort of a prophet,
+      and a chief of commanding influence. Even his tribe is unknown; a
+      circumstance that points us to the ancient history of the Jews for the
+      explanation. It is my own opinion that Peter is of the race of Aaron, and
+      that he is designed by Divine Providence to play an important part in the
+      great events on which we touch. All that is wanting is, to persuade HIM
+      into this belief, himself. Once persuade a man that he is intended to be
+      something, and your work is half done to your hands. But the world is so
+      full of ill-digested and random theories, that truth has as much as it can
+      do to obtain a sober and patient hearing!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus is it with poor human nature. Let a man get a crotchet into his head&mdash;however
+      improbable it may be, however little supported by reason or fact, however
+      ridiculous, indeed&mdash;and he becomes indisposed to receive any evidence
+      but that which favors his theory; to see any truths but such as he fancies
+      will harmonize with HIS truths; or to allow of any disturbing causes in
+      the great workings of his particular philosophy. This notion of Parson
+      Amen's concerning the origin of the North American savage, did not
+      originate with that simple-minded enthusiast, by any means. In this way
+      are notions formed and nurtured. The missionary had read somewhat
+      concerning the probability that the American Indians were the lost tribes
+      of Israel; and possessed with the idea, everything he saw was tortured
+      into evidence in support of his theory. There is just as much reason for
+      supposing that any, and all, of the heathen savages that are scattered up
+      and down the earth have this origin, as to ascribe it to our immediate
+      tribes; but to this truth the good parson was indifferent, simply because
+      it did not come within the circle of his particular belief.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus, too, was it with the corporal. Unless courage, and other military
+      qualities, were manifested precisely in the way in which HE had been
+      trained, they were not courage and military qualities at all. Every virtue
+      has its especial and conventional accessories, according to this school of
+      morals; nothing of the sort remaining as it came from above, in the simple
+      abstract qualities of right and wrong. On such feelings and principles as
+      these, do men get to be dogmatical, narrow-minded, and conceited!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our three white men pursued their way back to the &ldquo;garrison,&rdquo; conversing
+      as they went, much in the manner they did in the dialogue we have just
+      recorded. Neither Parson Amen nor the corporal seemed to apprehend
+      anything, not-withstanding the extraordinary scene in which one had been
+      an actor, and of which the other had been a witness. Their wonder and
+      apprehensions, no doubt, were much mitigated by the fact, that it was
+      understood Peter was to meet a large collection of the chiefs in the
+      Openings, and the minds of all were, more or less, prepared to see some
+      such assemblage as had that night got together. The free manner in which
+      the mysterious chief led the missionary to the circle, was, of itself,
+      some proof that HE did not desire concealment; and even le Bourdon
+      admitted, when they came to discuss the details, that this was a
+      circumstance that told materially in favor of the friendliness of his
+      intentions. Still, the bee-hunter had his doubts; and most sincerely did
+      he wish that all in Castle Meal, Blossom in particular, were safe within
+      the limits of civilized settlements.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On reaching the &ldquo;garrison,&rdquo; all was safe. Whiskey Centre watched the gate&mdash;a
+      sober man, now, perforce, if not by inclination; for being in the
+      Openings, in this respect, is like being at sea with an empty spirit-room.
+      He was aware that several had passed out, but was surprised to learn that
+      Peter was of the number. That gate Peter had not passed, of a certainty;
+      and how else he could quit the palisades was not easily understood. It was
+      possible to climb over them, it is true; but the feat would be attended
+      with so great an exertion, and would be so likely to lead to a noise which
+      would expose the effort, that all had great difficulty in believing a man
+      so dignified and reserved in manner as this mysterious chief would be apt
+      to resort to such means of quitting the place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for the Chippewa, Gershom reported his return a few minutes before; and
+      the bee-hunter entered, to look for that tried friend, as soon as he
+      learned the fact. He found Pigeonswing laying aside his accoutrements,
+      previously to lying down to take his rest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So, Chippewa, YOU have come back, have you?&rdquo; exclaimed le Bourdon. &ldquo;So
+      many of your red-skin brethren are about, that I didn't expect to see you
+      again for these two or three days.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No want to eat, den, eh? How you all eat, if hunter don't do he duty?
+      S'pose squaw don't cook vittles, you no like it, eh? Juss so wid hunter&mdash;no
+      KILL vittles, don't like it nudder.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is true enough. Still, so many of your people are about, just now,
+      that I thought it probable you might wish to remain outside with them for
+      a day or two.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How know red man about, eh? You SEE him&mdash;you COUNT him eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have seen something like fifty, and may say I counted that many. They
+      were chiefs, however, and I take it for granted, a goodly number of common
+      warriors are not far off. Am I right, Pigeonswing?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;S'pose don't know&mdash;den, can't tell? Only tell what he know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sometimes an Injin GUESSES, and comes as near the truth as a white man
+      who has seen the thing with his own Pigeonswing made no answer; though le
+      Bourdon fancied, from his manner, that he had really something on his
+      mind, and that, too, of importance, which he wished to communicate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I think you might tell me some news that I should like to hear, Chippewa,
+      if you was so minded.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why you stay here, eh?&rdquo; demanded the Indian, abruptly. &ldquo;Got plenty honey&mdash;bess
+      go home, now. Always bess go home, when hunt up. Home good place, when
+      hunter well tired.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My home is here, in the Openings, Pigeonswing. When I go into the
+      settlements, I do little but loaf about among the farm-houses on the
+      Detroit River, having neither squaw nor wigwam of my own to go to. I like
+      this place well enough, if your red brethren will let me keep it in
+      peace.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dis bad place for pale-face, juss now. Better go home, dan stay in
+      Openin'. If don't know short path to Detroit, I show you. Bess go, soon as
+      can; and bess go ALONE. No good to be trouble wid squaw, when in hurry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The countenance of le Bourdon changed at this last intimation; though the
+      Indian might not have observed it in the darkness. After a brief pause,
+      the first answered in a very determined way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe I understand you, Chippewa,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I shall do nothing of
+      the sort, however. If the squaws can't go, too, I shall not quit them.
+      Would you desert YOUR squaws because you thought them in trouble?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An't your squaw yet. Bess not have squaw at all, when Openin' so full of
+      Injin. Where you t'ink is two buck I shoot dis mornin', eh? Skin 'em, cut
+      'em up, hang 'em on tree, where wolf can't get 'em. Well, go on after
+      anudder; kill HIM, too. Dere he is, inside of palisade, but no tudder two.
+      He bot' gone, when I get back to tree. Two good buck as ever see! How you
+      like dat, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I care very little about it, since we have food enough, and are not
+      likely to want. So the wolves got your venison from the trees, after all
+      your care; ha! Pigeonswing.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wolf don't touch him&mdash;wolf CAN'T touch him. Moccasin been under
+      tree. See him mark. Bess do as I tell you; go home, soon as ever can.
+      Short path to Detroit; an't two hundred pale-face mile.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I see how it is, Pigeonswing; I see how it is, and thank you for this
+      hint, while I honor your good faith to your own people. But I cannot go to
+      Detroit, in the first place, for that town and fort have fallen into the
+      hands of the British. It might be possible for a canoe to get past in the
+      night, and to work its way through into Lake Erie, but I cannot quit my
+      friends. If you can put us ALL in the way of getting away from this spot,
+      I shall be ready to enter into the scheme. Why can't we all get into the
+      canoe, and go down stream, as soon as another night sets in? Before
+      morning we could be twenty miles on our road.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No do any good,&rdquo; returned Pigeonswing, coldly. &ldquo;If can't go alone, can't
+      go at all. Squaw no keep up when so many be on trail. No good to try
+      canoe. Catch you in two days&mdash;p'raps one. Well, I go to sleep&mdash;can't
+      keep eye open all night.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Hereupon, Pigeonswing coolly repaired to his skins, lay down, and was soon
+      fast asleep. The bee-hunter was fain to do the same, the night being now
+      far advanced; but he lay awake a long time, thinking of the hint he had
+      received, and pondering on the nature of the danger which menaced the
+      security of the family. At length, sleep asserted its power over even him,
+      and the place lay in the deep stillness of night.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XIX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     And stretching out, on either hand,
+     O'er all that wide and unshorn land,
+     Till weary of its gorgeousness,
+     The aching and the dazzled eye
+     Rests, gladdened, on the calm, blue sky.
+                                         &mdash;WHITTIER.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      No other disturbance occurred in the course of the night. With the dawn,
+      le Bourdon was again stirring; and as he left the palisades to repair to
+      the run, in order to make his ablutions, he saw Peter returning to Castle
+      Meal. The two met; but no allusion was made to the manner in which the
+      night had passed. The chief paid his salutations courteously; and, instead
+      of repairing to his skins, he joined le Bourdon, seemingly as little
+      inclined to seek for rest, as if just arisen from his lair. When the
+      bee-hunter left the spring, this mysterious Indian, for the first time,
+      spoke of business.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother wanted to-day to show Injin how to find honey,&rdquo; said Peter, as
+      he and Bourdon walked toward the palisades, within which the whole family
+      was now moving. &ldquo;I nebber see honey find, myself, ole as I be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall be very willing to teach your chiefs my craft,&rdquo; answered the
+      bee-hunter, &ldquo;and this so much the more readily, because I do not expect to
+      pracTYSE it much longer, myself; not in this part of the country, at
+      least.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How dat happen?&mdash;expec' go away soon?&rdquo; demanded Peter, whose keen,
+      restless eye would, at one instant, seem to read his companion's soul, and
+      then would glance off to some distant object, as if conscious of its own
+      startling and fiery expression. &ldquo;Now Br'ish got Detroit, where my broder
+      go? Bess stay here, I t'ink.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I shall not be in a hurry, Peter; but my season will soon be up, and I
+      must get ahead of the bad weather, you know, or a bark canoe will have but
+      a poor time of it on Lake Huron. When am I to meet the chiefs, to give
+      them a lesson in finding bees?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell by-'em-by. No hurry for dat. Want to sleep fuss. See so much better,
+      when I open eye. So you t'ink of makin' journey on long path. If can't go
+      to Detroit, where can go to?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My proper home is in Pennsylvania, on the other side of Lake Erie. It is
+      a long path, and I'm not certain of getting safely over it in these
+      troubled times. Perhaps it would be best for me, however, to shape at once
+      for Ohio; if in that state I might find my way round the end of Erie, and
+      so go the whole distance by land.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter said this, by way of throwing dust into the Indian's eyes,
+      for he had not the least intention of travelling in the direction named.
+      It is true, it was HIS most direct course, and the one that prudence would
+      point out to him, under all the circumstances, had he been alone. But le
+      Bourdon was no longer alone&mdash;in heart and feelings, at least. Margery
+      now mingled with all his views for the future; and he could no more think
+      of abandoning her in her present situation, than he could of offering his
+      own person to the savages for a sacrifice. It was idle to think of
+      attempting such a journey in company with the females, and most of all to
+      attempt it in defiance of the ingenuity, perseverance, and hostility of
+      the Indians. The trail could not be concealed; and, as for speed, a party
+      of the young men of the wilderness would certainly travel two miles to
+      Margery's one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon, notwithstanding Pigeonswing's remonstrances, still had his eye
+      on the Kalamazoo. He remembered the saying, &ldquo;that water leaves no trail,&rdquo;
+       and was not without hopes of reaching the lake again, where he felt he
+      should be in comparative security; his own canoe, as well as that of
+      Gershom, being large, well fitted, and not altogether unsuited to those
+      waters in the summer months. As it would be of the last importance,
+      however, to get several hours' start of the Indians, in the event of his
+      having recourse to such a mode of flight, it was of the utmost importance
+      also to conceal his intentions, and, if possible, to induce Peter to
+      imagine his eyes were turned in another direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, s'pose go dat way,&rdquo; answered the chief, quietly, as if suspecting
+      no artifice. &ldquo;Set 'bout him by-'em-by. Today muss teach Injin how to find
+      honey. Dat make him good friend; and maybe he help my pale-face broders
+      back to deir country. Been better for ebbery body, if none come here, at
+      all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus ended the discourse for that moment. Peter was not fond of much
+      talking, when he had not his great object in view, but rather kept his
+      mind occupied in observation. For the next hour, every one in and about
+      Castle Meal was engaged in the usual morning avocations, that of breaking
+      their fasts included; and then it was understood that all were to go forth
+      to meet the chiefs, that le Bourdon might give a specimen of his craft.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One, ignorant of the state of political affairs on the American continent,
+      and who was not aware of the vicinity of savages, would have seen nothing
+      that morning, as the party proceeded on its little excursion, in and
+      around that remote spot, but a picture of rural tranquillity and peace. A
+      brighter day never poured its glories on the face of the earth; and the
+      Openings, and the glades, and even the dark and denser forests, were all
+      bathed in the sunlight, as that orb is known to illuminate objects in the
+      softer season of the year, and in the forty-third degree of latitude. Even
+      the birds appeared to rejoice in the beauties of the time, and sang and
+      fluttered among the oaks, in numbers greater than common. Nature usually
+      observes a stern fitness in her adaptation of means to ends. Birds are to
+      be found in the forests, on the prairies, and in the still untenanted
+      openings of the west&mdash;and often in countless numbers; more especially
+      those birds which fly in flocks, and love the security of unoccupied
+      regions&mdash;unoccupied by man is meant&mdash;wherein to build their
+      nests, obey the laws of their instincts, and fulfil their destinies. Thus,
+      myriads of pigeons, and ducks, and geese, etc., are to be found in the
+      virgin woods, while the companionable and friendly robin, the little
+      melodious wren, the thrush, the lark, the swallow, the marten, and all
+      those pleasant little winged creatures, that flit about our dwellings and
+      grounds, and seem to be sent by Providence, expressly to chant their
+      morning and evening hymns to God in our ears, most frequent the peopled
+      districts. It has been said by Europeans that the American birds are mute,
+      in comparison with those of the Old World. This is true, to a certain
+      extent, as respects those which are properly called forest birds, which
+      do, in general, appear to partake of the sombre character that marks the
+      solemn stillness of their native haunts. It is not true, however, with the
+      birds which live in our fields, and grounds, and orchards, each of which
+      sings its song of praise, and repeats its calls and its notes, as richly
+      and as pleasantly to the ear, as the birds of other lands. One large
+      class, indeed, possesses a faculty that enables it to repeat every note it
+      has ever heard, even to some of the sounds of quadrupeds. Nor is this done
+      in the discordant tones of the parrot; but in octaves, and trills, and in
+      rich contra-altos, and all the other pleasing intonations known to the
+      most gifted of the feathered race. Thus it is, that one American
+      mocking-bird can outsing all the birds of Europe united.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It seemed that morning as if every bird that was accustomed to glean its
+      food from the neighborhood of Castle Meal was on the wing, and ready to
+      accompany the party that now sallied forth to catch the bee. This party
+      consisted of le Bourdon, himself, as its chief and leader; of Peter, the
+      missionary, and the corporal. Margery, too, went along; for, as yet, she
+      had never seen an exhibition of Boden's peculiar skill. As for Gershom and
+      his wife, they remained behind, to make ready the noontide meal; while the
+      Chippewa took his accoutrements, and again sallied out on a hunt. The
+      whole time of this Indian appeared to be thus taken up; though, in truth,
+      venison and bear's meat both abounded, and there was much less necessity
+      for those constant efforts than he wished to make it appear. In good
+      sooth, more than half his time was spent in making those observations,
+      which had led to the advice he had been urging on his friend, the
+      bee-hunter, in order to induce him to fly. Had Pigeonswing better
+      understood Peter, and had he possessed a clearer insight into the extent
+      and magnitude of his plans of retributive vengeance, it is not probable
+      his uneasiness, at the moment, would have been so great, or the urgency
+      for an immediate decision on the part of le Bourdon would have appeared as
+      urgently pressing as it now seemed to be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter took his way to a spot that was at some distance from his
+      habitation, a small prairie of circular form, that is now generally known
+      in that region of the country by the name of Prairie Round. Three hours
+      were necessary to reach it, and this so much the more, because Margery's
+      shorter steps were to be considered. Margery, however, was no laggard on a
+      path. Young, active, light of foot, and trained in exertions of this
+      nature, her presence did not probably retard the arrival many minutes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The extraordinary part of the proceedings was the circumstance, that the
+      bee-hunter did not tell any one whither he was going, and that Peter did
+      not appear to care about putting the question to him. Notwithstanding this
+      reserve on one side, and seeming indifference on the other, when the party
+      reached Prairie Round, every one of the chiefs who had been present at the
+      council of the previous night, was there before it. The Indians were
+      straggling about, but remained sufficiently near the point where the
+      bee-hunter and his followers reached the prairie, to assemble around the
+      group in a very few minutes after it made its appearance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this struck le Bourdon as fearfully singular, since it proved how many
+      secret means of communication existed between the savages. That the
+      inmates of the habitations were closely observed, and all their
+      proceedings noted, he could not but suspect, even before receiving this
+      proof of Peter's power; but he was not aware until now, how completely he
+      and all with him were at the mercy of these formidable foes. What hope
+      could there be for escape, when hundreds of eyes were thus watching their
+      movements, and every thicket had its vigilant and sagacious sentinel? Yet
+      must flight be attempted, in some way or other, or Margery and her sister
+      would be hopelessly lost&mdash;to say nothing of himself and the three
+      other men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the appearance of the remarkable little prairie that he had just
+      reached, and the collection of chiefs, now occupied all the present
+      thoughts of le Bourdon. As for the first, it is held in repute, even at
+      the present hour, as a place that the traveller should see, though covered
+      with farms, and the buildings that belong to husbandry. It is still
+      visited as a picture of ancient civilization, placed in the setting of a
+      new country. It is true that very little of this part of Michigan wears
+      much, if any, of that aspect of a rough beginning, including stubs,
+      stumps, and circled trees, that it has so often fallen to our share to
+      describe. There are dense forests, and those of considerable extent; and
+      wherever the axe is put into them, the progress of improvement is marked
+      by the same steps as elsewhere; but the lovely openings form so many
+      exceptions, as almost to compose the rule.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On Prairie Round there was even a higher stamp of seeming civilization&mdash;seeming,
+      since it was nature, after all, that had mainly drawn the picture. In the
+      first place, the spot had been burnt so recently, as to leave the entire
+      expanse covered with young grasses and flowers, the same as if it were a
+      well-kept park. This feature, at that advanced period of the summer, was
+      in some degree accidental, the burning of the prairies depending more or
+      less on contingencies of that sort. We have now less to do with the cause,
+      than with its consequences. These were most agreeable to the eye, as well
+      as comfortable to the foot, the grass nowhere being of a height to impede
+      movement, or, what was of still more importance to le Bourdon's present
+      pursuit, to overshadow the flowers. Aware of this fact, he had led his
+      companions all that distance, to reach this scene of remarkable rural
+      beauty, in order that he might make a grand display of his art, in
+      presence of the assembled chiefs of that region. The bee-hunter had pride
+      in his craft, the same as any other skilful workman who had gained a
+      reputation by his cunning, and he now trod the prairie with a firmer step,
+      and a more kindling eye, than was his wont in the commoner haunts of his
+      calling. Men were there whom it might be an honor to surprise, and pretty
+      Margery was there also, she who had so long desired to see this very
+      exhibition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But to revert once more to the prairie, ere we commence the narrative of
+      what occurred on it. This well-known area is of no great extent,
+      possessing a surface about equal to that of one of the larger parks of
+      Europe. Its name was derived from its form, which, without being
+      absolutely regular, had so near an approach to a circle as to justify the
+      use of the appellation. The face of this charming field was neither
+      waving, or what is called &ldquo;rolling,&rdquo; nor a dead flat, as often occurs with
+      river bottoms. It had just enough of undulation to prevent too much
+      moisture, and to impart an agreeable variety to its plain. As a whole, it
+      was clear of the forest; quite as much so as if the axe had done its work
+      there a thousand years before, though wood was not wanting. On the
+      contrary, enough of the last was to be seen, in addition to that which
+      formed the frame of this charming landscape, to relieve the view from all
+      appearance of monotony, and to break it up into copses, thickets, trees in
+      small clusters, and in most of the varieties that embellish native
+      scenery. One who had been unexpectedly transferred to the spot, might well
+      have imagined that he was looking on the site of some old and
+      long-established settlement, from which every appliance of human industry
+      had been suddenly and simultaneously abstracted. Of houses, out-buildings,
+      fences, stacks, and husbandry, there were no signs; unless the even and
+      verdant sward, that was spread like a vast carpet, sprinkled with flowers,
+      could have been deemed a sign of the last. There were the glades, vistas,
+      irregular lawns, and woods, shaped with the pleasing outlines of the free
+      hand of nature, as if consummate art had been endeavoring to imitate our
+      great mistress in one of her most graceful moods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indians present served largely to embellish this scene. Of late years,
+      horses have become so common among the western tribes, the vast natural
+      meadows of those regions furnishing the means necessary to keep them, that
+      one can now hardly form a picture of those savages, with-out representing
+      them mounted, and wielding the spear; but such was not the fact with the
+      time of which we are writing, nor was it ever the general practice to go
+      mounted, among the Indians in the immediate vicinity of the great lakes.
+      Not a hoof of any sort was now visible, with the exception of those which
+      belonged to a herd of deer, that were grazing on a favorite spot, less
+      than a league distant from the place where le Bourdon and his companions
+      reached the prairie. All the chiefs were on foot, and very few were
+      equipped with more than the knife and tomahawk, the side-arms of a chief;
+      the rifles having been secreted, as it might be, in deference to the
+      festivities and peaceful character of the occasion. As le Bourdon's party
+      was duly provided with rifles, the missionary and Margery excepted, this
+      was a sign that no violence was contemplated on that occasion at least.
+      &ldquo;Contemplated,&rdquo; however, is a word very expressive, when used in
+      connection with the out-breakings of human passions, as they are wont to
+      exhibit themselves among the ignorant and excited. It matters not whether
+      the scene be the capital of some ancient European monarchy, or the wilds
+      of America, the workings of such impulses are much the same. Now, a throne
+      is overturned, perhaps, before they who do it are yet fully aware of what
+      they ought to set up in its place; and now the deadly rifle, or the
+      murderous tomahawk is used, more in obedience to the incentives of demons,
+      than in furtherance of justly recognized rules of conduct. Le Bourdon was
+      aware of all this, and did not so far confide in appearances, as to
+      overlook the watchfulness that he deemed indispensable.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter was not long in selecting a place to set up his apparatus.
+      In this particular, he was mainly governed by a lovely expanse of
+      sweet-scented flowers, among which bees in thousands were humming, sipping
+      of their precious gifts at will. Le Bourdon had a care, also, not to go
+      far from the forests which encircled the prairies, for among its trees he
+      knew he had to seek the habitations of the insects. Instead of a stump, or
+      a fallen tree, he had prepared a light framework of lath, which the
+      corporal bore to the field for him, and on which he placed his different
+      implements, as soon as he had selected the scene of operations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will not be necessary for us to repeat the process, which has already
+      been described in our opening chapters; but we shall only touch such parts
+      of it as have a direct connection with the events of the legend. As le
+      Bourdon commenced his preparations, however, the circle of chiefs closed
+      around him, in mute but close attention to every-thing that passed.
+      Although every one of them had heard of the bee-hunters of the pale-faces,
+      and most of them had heard of this particular individual of their number,
+      not an Indian present had ever seen one of these men practise his craft.
+      This may seem strange, as respects those who so much roamed the woods; but
+      we have already remarked that it exceeded the knowledge of the red man to
+      make the calculations that are necessary to take the bee by the process
+      described. Usually, when he obtains honey, it is the result of some chance
+      meeting in the forest, and not the fruits of that far-sighted and
+      persevering industry, which enables the white man to lay in a store large
+      enough to supply a neighborhood, in the course of a few weeks' hunting.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Never was a juggler watched with closer attention, than was le Bourdon,
+      while setting up his stand, and spreading his implements. Every grave,
+      dark countenance was turned toward him, and each keen, glistening eye was
+      riveted on his movements. As the vessel with the comb was set down, the
+      chiefs nearest recognizing the substance murmured their admiration; for to
+      them it seemed as if the operator were about to make honey with honey.
+      Then the glass was a subject of surprise: for half of those present had
+      never seen such an utensil before. Though many of the chiefs present had
+      visited the &ldquo;garrisons&rdquo; of the northwest, both American and English, many
+      had not; and, of those who had, not one in ten got any clear idea of the
+      commonest appliances of civilized life. Thus it was, then, that almost
+      every article used by the bee-hunter, though so simple and homely, was the
+      subject of a secret, but well-suppressed admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was not long ere le Bourdon was ready to look for his bee. The insects
+      were numerous on the flowers, particularly on the white clover, which is
+      indigenous in America, springing up spontaneously wherever grasses are
+      permitted to grow. The great abundance of the bees, however, had its usual
+      effect, and our hero was a little difficult to please. At length, a fine
+      and already half-loaded little animal was covered by the glass and
+      captured. This was done so near the group of Indians, that each and all
+      noted the process. It was curious, and it was inexplicable! Could the
+      pale-faces compel bees to reveal the secret of their hives, and was that
+      encroaching race about to drive all the insects from the woods and seize
+      their honey, as they drove the Indians before them and seized their lands?
+      Such was the character of the thoughts that passed through the minds of
+      more than one chief, that morning, though all looked on in profound
+      stillness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When the imprisoned bee was put over the comb, and le Bourdon's cap was
+      placed above all, these simple-minded children of the woods and the
+      prairies gazed, as if expecting a hive to appear beneath the covering,
+      whenever the latter should be removed. It was not long before the bee
+      &ldquo;settled,&rdquo; and not only the cap, but the tumbler was taken away. For the
+      first time since the exhibition commenced, le Bourdon spoke, addressing
+      himself to Peter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If the tribeless chief will look sharply,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;he will soon see the
+      bee take flight. It is filling itself with honey, and the moment it is
+      loaded&mdash;look&mdash;look&mdash;it is about to rise&mdash;there, it is
+      up&mdash;see it circling around the stand, as if to take a look that it
+      may know it again&mdash;there it goes!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      There it did go, of a truth, and in a regular bee-line, or as straight as
+      an arrow. Of all that crowd, the bee-hunter and Margery alone saw the
+      insect in its flight. Most of those present lost sight of it, while
+      circling around the stand; but the instant it darted away, to the
+      remainder it seemed to vanish into air. Not so with le Bourdon and
+      Margery, however. The former saw it from habit; the latter from a quick
+      eye, intense attention, and the wish not to miss anything that le Bourdon
+      saw fit to do, for her information or amusement. The animal flew in an
+      air-line toward a point of wood distant fully half a mile, and on the
+      margin of the prairie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many low exclamations arose among the savages. The bee was gone, but
+      whither they knew not, or on what errand. Could it have been sent on a
+      message by the pale-face, or had it flown off to give the alarm to its
+      companions, in order to adopt the means of disappointing the bee-hunter?
+      As for the last, he went coolly to work to choose another insect; and he
+      soon had three at work on the comb&mdash;all in company, and all
+      uncovered. Had the number anything to do with the charm, or were these
+      three to be sent to bring back the one that had already gone away? Such
+      was the sort of reasoning, and such the queries put to themselves, by
+      several of the stern children of nature who were drawn up around the
+      stand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time le Bourdon proceeded with his operations in the utmost
+      simplicity. He now called Peter and Bear's Meat and Crowsfeather nearer to
+      his person, where they might share with Margery the advantage of more
+      closely seeing all that passed. As soon as these three chiefs were near
+      enough, Ben pointed to one bee in particular, saying in the Indian
+      dialect:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brothers see that bee in the centre&mdash;he is about to go away. If
+      he go after the one that went before him, I shall soon know where to look
+      for honey.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can my brother tell which bee will first fly away?&rdquo; demanded Bear's
+      Meat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter was able to foresee this, by knowing which insect had been
+      longest on the comb; but so practised had his eye become, that he knew
+      with tolerable accuracy, by the movements of the creatures, those that had
+      filled themselves with honey from those that had not. As it did not suit
+      his purpose, however, to let all the minutiae of his craft be known, his
+      answer was evasive. Just at that moment a thought occurred to him, which
+      it might be well to carry out in full. He had once saved his life by
+      necromancy, or what seemed to the simple children of the woods to be
+      necromancy, and why might he not turn the cunning of his regular art to
+      account, and render it the means of rescuing the females, as well as
+      himself, from the hands of their captors? This sudden impulse from that
+      moment controlled his conduct; and his mind was constantly casting about
+      for the means of effecting what was now his one great purpose-escape.
+      Instead of uttering in reply to Bear's Meat's question the simple truth,
+      therefore, he rather sought for such an answer as might make the process
+      in which he was engaged appear imposing and mystical.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How do the Injins know the path of the deer?&rdquo; he asked, by way of reply.
+      &ldquo;They look at the deer, get to know him, and understand his ways. This
+      middle bee will soon fly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which way will he go?&rdquo; asked Peter. &ldquo;Can my brother tell us THAT?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To his hive,&rdquo; returned le Bourdon, carelessly, as if he did not fully
+      understand the question. &ldquo;All of them go to their hives, unless I tell
+      them to go in another direction. See, the bee is up!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The chiefs now looked with all their eyes. They saw, indeed, that the bee
+      was making its circles above the stand. Presently they lost sight of the
+      insect, which to them seemed to vanish; though le Bourdon distinctly
+      traced its flight for a hundred yards. It took a direction at right angles
+      to that of the first bee, flying off into the prairie, and shaping its
+      course toward an island of wood, which might have been of three or four
+      acres in extent, and distant rather less than a mile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While le Bourdon was noting this flight, another bee arose. This creature
+      flew toward the point of forest, already mentioned as the destination of
+      the insect that had first risen. No sooner was this third little animal
+      out of sight, than the fourth was up, humming around the stand. Ben
+      pointed it out to the chiefs; and this time they succeeded in tracing the
+      flight for, perhaps, a hundred feet from the spot where they stood.
+      Instead of following either of its companions, this fourth bee took a
+      course which led it off the prairie altogether, and toward the
+      habitations.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The suddenly conceived purpose of le Bourdon, to attempt to mystify the
+      savages, and thus get a hold upon their minds which he might turn to
+      advantage, was much aided by the different directions taken by these
+      several bees. Had they all gone the same way, the conclusion that all went
+      home would be so very natural and obvious, as to deprive the discovery of
+      a hive of any supernatural merit, at least; and to establish this was just
+      now the great object the bee-hunter had in view. As it was, the Indians
+      were no wiser, now all the bees were gone, than they had been before one
+      of them had flown. On the contrary, they could not understand how the
+      flights of so many insects, in so many different directions, should tell
+      the bee-hunter where honey was to be found. Le Bourdon saw that the
+      prairie was covered with bees, and well knew that, such being the fact,
+      the inmates of perhaps a hundred different hives must be present. All
+      this, however, was too novel and too complicated for the calculations of
+      savages; and not one of those who crowded near, as observers, could
+      account for so many of the bees going different ways.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon now intimated a wish to change his ground. He had noted two of
+      the bees, and the only question that remained to be decided, as IT
+      respected THEM, was whether they belonged to the precise points toward
+      which they had flown, or to points beyond them. The reader will easily
+      understand that this is the nature of the fact determined by taking an
+      angle, the point of intersection between any two of the lines of flight
+      being necessarily the spot where the hive is to be found. So far from
+      explaining this to those around him, however, Boden kept it a secret in
+      his own breast. Margery knew the whole process, for to HER he had often
+      gone over it in description, finding a pleasure in instructing one so apt,
+      and whose tender, liquid blue eyes seemed to reflect every movement of his
+      own soul and feelings. Margery he could have taught forever, or fancied
+      for the moment he could; which is as near the truth as men under the
+      influence of love often get. But, as for the Indians, so far from letting
+      them into any of his secrets, his strong desire was now to throw dust into
+      their eyes, in all possible ways, and to make their well-established
+      character for superstition subservient to his own projects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Boden was far from being a scholar, even for one in his class in life.
+      Down to this hour, the neglect of the means of public instruction is
+      somewhat of a just ground of reproach against the venerable and
+      respectable commonwealth of which he was properly a member, though her
+      people have escaped a knowledge of a great deal of small philosophy and
+      low intriguing, which it is fair to presume that evil spirits thrust in
+      among the leaves of a more legitimate information, when the book of
+      knowledge is opened for the instruction of those who, by circumstances,
+      are prevented from doing more than bestowing a few hurried glances at its
+      contents. Still, Ben had read everything about bees on which he could lay
+      his hands. He had studied their habits personally, and he had pondered
+      over the various accounts of their communities&mdash;a sort of limited
+      monarchy in which the prince is deposed occasionally, or when matters go
+      very wrong&mdash;some written by really very observant and intelligent
+      persons, and others again not a little fanciful. Among other books that
+      had thus fallen in le Bourdon's way, was one which somewhat minutely
+      described the uses that were made of bees by the ancient soothsayers in
+      their divinations. Our hero had no notion of reviving those rites, or of
+      attempting to imitate the particular practices of which he had read and
+      heard; but the recollection of them occurred most opportunely to
+      strengthen and encourage the design, so suddenly entertained, of making
+      his present operation aid in opening the way to the one great thing of the
+      hour&mdash;an escape into Lake Michigan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A bee knows a great deal,&rdquo; said le Bourdon, to his nearest companions,
+      while the whole party was moving some distance to take up new ground. &ldquo;A
+      bee often knows more than a man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;More than pale-face?&rdquo; demanded Bear's Meat, a chief who had attained his
+      authority more by means of physical than of intellectual qualities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sometimes. Pale-faces have gone to bees to ask what will happen. Let me
+      ask our medicine-man this question. Parson Amen, have YOU any knowledge of
+      the soothsayers of old using bees when they wished to know what was about
+      to happen?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, the missionary was not a learned man, any more than the bee-hunter;
+      but many an unlearned man has heard of this, and he happened to be one of
+      the number. Of Virgil, for instance, Parson Amen knew but little; though
+      in the progress of a very loose, but industrious course of reading, he had
+      learned that the soothsayers put great faith in bees. His answer was given
+      in conformity with this fact, and in the most perfect good faith, for he
+      had not the smallest suspicion of what Boden wished to establish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Certainly&mdash;most certainly,&rdquo; answered the well-meaning missionary&mdash;&ldquo;the
+      fortune-tellers of old times often went to their bees when they wished to
+      look into the future. It has been a subject much talked of among
+      Christians, to account for the soothsaying, and witchcraft, and other
+      supernatural dealings of those who lived in the times of the prophets; and
+      most of them have held the opinion that evil spirits have been&mdash;nay,
+      still are permitted to work their will on certain men in the flesh. But
+      bees were in much favor with the soothsayers of old.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This answer was given in English, and little of it was comprehended by
+      Peter, and the others who had more or less knowledge of that language,
+      beyond the part which asserted the agency of bees in witchcraft. Luckily,
+      this was all le Bourdon desired, and he was well satisfied at seeing that
+      the idea passed from one chief to another; those who did not know the
+      English at all, being told by those who had some knowledge of the tongue,
+      that &ldquo;bees were thought to be 'medicine' among the pale-faces.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon gained a great deal of ground by this fortunate corroboration
+      of his own still more fortunate thought Matters were pretty nearly
+      desperate with him, and with all his friends, should Peter really meditate
+      evil; and as desperate diseases notoriously require remedies of the same
+      character, he was ready to attempt anything that promised even the
+      smallest chance of success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, yes&mdash;&rdquo; the bee-hunter pursued the discourse by saying&mdash;&ldquo;bees
+      know a great deal. I have sometimes thought that bees know more than
+      bears, and my brother must be able to tell something of them?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; my name is Bear's Meat,&rdquo; answered that chief, complacently. &ldquo;Injin
+      always give name that mean somet'ing. Kill so many bear one winter, got
+      dat name.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A good name it is! To kill a bear is the most honorable thing a hunter
+      can do, as we all know. If my brother wishes to hear it, I will ask my
+      bees when he is to kill another.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The savage to whom this was addressed fairly started with delight. He was
+      eagerly signifying his cheerful assent to the proposal, when Peter quietly
+      interposed, and changed the discourse to himself, in a way that he had,
+      and which would not easily admit of denial. It was apparent to le Bourdon
+      that this mysterious Indian was not content that one so direct and
+      impetuous in his feelings as Bear's Meat, and who was at the same time so
+      little qualified to manage his portion of an intellectual conversation,
+      should be foremost any longer. For that reason he brought himself more
+      into the foreground, leaving to his friend the capacity of listener and
+      observer, rather than that of a speaker and actor. What took place under
+      this new arrangement, will appear as the narrative proceeds.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     &mdash;Therefore, go with me;
+     I'll give the fairies to attend on thee;
+     And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
+     &mdash;Peas-blossom! cobweb! moth! and mustard-seed,
+                                    &mdash;Midsummer-Night's Dream
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      As le Bourdon kept moving across the prairie, while the remarks were made
+      that have been recorded in the preceding chapter, he soon reached the new
+      position where he intended to again set up his stand. Here he renewed his
+      operations; Peter keeping nearest his person, in jealous watchfulness of
+      the least movement he made. Bees were caught, and scarce a minute elapsed
+      ere the bee-hunter had two of them on the piece of comb, uncovered and at
+      liberty. The circumstance that the cap was momentarily placed over the
+      insects, struck the savages as a piece of necromancy, in particular. The
+      reader will understand that this is done in order to darken the tumbler,
+      and induce the bee to settle down on the honey so much the sooner. To one
+      who understood the operation and its reason, the whole was simple enough;
+      but it was a very different matter with men as little accustomed to prying
+      into the habits of creatures as insignificant as bees. Had deer, or
+      bisons, or bears, or any of the quadrupeds of those regions, been the
+      subject of the experiment, it is highly probable that individuals could
+      have been found in that attentive and wondering crowd, who could have
+      enlightened the ablest naturalists on the subject of the animals under
+      examination; but when the inquiry descended to the bee, it went below the
+      wants and usages of savage life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Where you t'ink dis bee go?&rdquo; demanded Peter, in English, as soon as le
+      Bourdon raised the tumbler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One will go in this direction, the other in that,&rdquo; answered the
+      bee-hunter, pointing first toward the corner of the woods, then toward the
+      island in the prairie&mdash;the two points toward which two of the other
+      bees had flown.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The predictions might or might not prove true. If they did, the effect
+      must be great; if they did not, the failure would soon be forgotten in
+      matters of more interest. Our hero, therefore, risked but little, while he
+      had the chance of gaining a very great advantage. By a fortunate
+      coincidence, the result completely justified the prediction. A bee rose,
+      made its circles around the stand, and away it went toward the island-like
+      copse in the prairie; while its companion soon imitated its example, but
+      taking the other prescribed direction. This time Peter watched the insects
+      so closely that he was a witness of their movements, and with his own eyes
+      he beheld the flight, as well as the direction taken by each.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You tell bee do dis?&rdquo; demanded Peter, with a surprise that was so sudden,
+      as well as so great, that it overcame in some slight degree his habitual
+      self-command.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure I did,&rdquo; replied le Bourdon, carelessly. &ldquo;If you wish to see
+      another, you may.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the young man coolly took another bee, and put it on the comb.
+      Indifferent as he appeared, however, he used what was perhaps the highest
+      degree of his art in selecting this insect. It was taken from the bunch of
+      flowers whence one of his former captives had been taken, and there was
+      every chance of its belonging to the same hive as its companion. Which
+      direction it might take, should it prove to be a bee from either of the
+      two hives of which the positions were now known, it altogether exceeded
+      Boden's art to tell, so he dexterously avoided committing himself. It was
+      enough that Peter gazed attentively, and that he saw the insect dart away,
+      disappearing in the direction of the island. By this time more of the
+      savages were on the alert, and now knowing how and where to look for the
+      bee, they also saw its course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You tell him ag'in go dere?&rdquo; asked Peter, whose interest by this time was
+      so manifest, as to defy all attempts at concealment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure I did. The bees obey ME, as your young men obey YOU. I am
+      their chief, and they KNOW me. I will give you further proof of this. We
+      will now go to that little bit of wood, when you shall all see what it
+      contains. I have sent three of my bees there; and here, one of them is
+      already back, to let me know what he has seen.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sure enough, a bee was buzzing around the head of le Bourdon, probably
+      attracted by some fragment of comb, and he cunningly converted it into a
+      messenger from the copse! All this was wonderful to the crowd, and it even
+      greatly troubled Peter. This man was much less liable to the influence of
+      superstition than most of his people; but he was very far from being
+      altogether above it. This is the fact with very few civilized men; perhaps
+      with no man whatever, let his philosophy and knowledge be what they may;
+      and least of all, is it true with the ignorant. There is too much of the
+      uncertain, of the conjectural in our condition as human beings, to raise
+      us altogether above the distrusts, doubts, wonder, and other weaknesses of
+      our present condition. To these simple savages, the manner in which the
+      bees flew, seemingly at le Bourdon's bidding, to this or that thicket, was
+      quite as much a matter of astonishment, as any of our most elaborate
+      deceptions are wonders to our own ignorant and vulgar. Ignorant! And where
+      is the line to be drawn that is to place men beyond the pale of ignorance?
+      Each of us fails in some one, if not in very many of the important
+      branches of the knowledge that is even reduced to rules Among us. Here is
+      seen the man of books, so ignorant of the application of his own beloved
+      theories, as to be a mere child in practice; and there, again, can be seen
+      the expert in practice, who is totally unacquainted with a single
+      principle of the many that lie at the root of his very handicraft. Let us
+      not, then, deride these poor children of the forest, because that which
+      was so entirely new to them, should also appear inexplicable and
+      supernatural.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for Peter, he was more confounded than convinced. His mind was so much
+      superior to those of the other chiefs, as to render him far more difficult
+      to mislead; though even he was not exempt from the great weaknesses of
+      ignorance, superstition, and its concomitants&mdash;credulity, and a love
+      of the marvellous. His mind was troubled, as was quite apparent to Ben,
+      who watched HIM quite as narrowly as he was observed himself, in all he
+      did. Willing to deepen the impression, our artist now determined to
+      exhibit some of the higher fruits of his skill. The production of a
+      considerable quantity of honey would of itself be a sort of
+      peace-offering, and he now prepared to turn the certainty of there being a
+      hive in the little wood to account&mdash;certainty, because three bees had
+      taken wing for it, and a very distinct angle had been made with two of
+      them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does my brother wish any honey?&rdquo; asked le Bourdon carelessly; &ldquo;or shall I
+      send a bee across Lake Michigan, to tell the Injins further west that
+      Detroit is taken?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can Bourdon find honey, NOW?&rdquo; demanded Peter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Easily. Several hives are within a mile of us. The bees like this
+      prairie, which is so well garnished with flowers, and I am never at a loss
+      for work, in this neighborhood. This is my favorite bee-ground; and I have
+      got all the little creatures so that they know me, and are ready to do
+      everything that I tell them. As I see that the chiefs love honey, and wish
+      to eat some, we will now go to one of my hives.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus saying, le Bourdon prepared for another march. He moved with all his
+      appliances, Margery keeping close at his side, carrying the honey-comb and
+      honey. As the girl walked lightly, in advance of the Indians, some fifteen
+      or twenty bees, attracted by the flavor of what she carried, kept circling
+      around her head, and consequently around that of Boden; and Peter did not
+      fail to observe the circumstance. To him it appeared as if these bees were
+      so many accompanying agents, who attended their master in order to do his
+      bidding. In a word, Peter was fast getting into that frame of mind, when
+      all that is seen is pressed into the support of the theory we have
+      adopted. The bee-hunter had some mysterious connection with, and control
+      over the bees, and this was one among the many other signs of the
+      existence of his power. All this, however, Boden himself disregarded. His
+      mind was bent on throwing dust into the eyes of the Indians; and he was
+      cogitating the means of so doing, on a much larger scale than any yet
+      attempted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why dem bee fly 'round young squaw?&rdquo; demanded Peter&mdash;&ldquo;and fly round
+      you, too?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They know us, and go with us to their hive; just as Injins would come out
+      of their villages to meet and honor visitors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a ready reply, but it scarcely satisfied the wily savage to whom
+      it was given. Just then Crowsfeather led Peter a little aside, and began
+      talking earnestly to that chief, both continuing on with the crowd. Le
+      Bourdon felt persuaded that the subject of this private conference was
+      some of his own former backslidings in the character of conjuror, and that
+      the Pottawattamie would not deal very tenderly with his character.
+      Nevertheless, it was too late to retrace his steps, and he saw the
+      necessity of going on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish you had not come out with us,&rdquo; the bee-hunter found an occasion to
+      say to Margery. &ldquo;I do not half like the state of things, and this
+      conjuration about the bees may all fall through.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is better that I should be here, Bourdon,&rdquo; returned the spirited girl.
+      &ldquo;My being here may make them less unfriendly to you. When I am by, Peter
+      always seems more human, and less of a savage, they all tell me, than when
+      I am not by.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No one can be more willing to own your power, Margery, than I; but Injins
+      hold the squaws too cheap, to give you much influence over this old
+      fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not know&mdash;he may have had a daughter of about my age, or
+      size, or appearance; or with my laugh, or voice, or something else that
+      reminds him of her, when he sees me. One thing I am sure of&mdash;Peter is
+      no enemy of MINE!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope this may prove to be true! I do not see, after all, why an Injin
+      should not have the feelin's you name. He is a man, and must feel for his
+      wife and children, the same as other&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bourdon, what ails the dog? Look at the manner in which Hive is
+      behaving!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sure enough, the appearance of Hive was sufficiently obvious to attract
+      his master's attention. By this time the crowd had got within twenty rods
+      of the little island-like copse of wood, the mastiff being nearly half
+      that distance in advance. Instead of preceding the party, however, Hive
+      had raised his form in a menacing manner, and moved cautiously from side
+      to side, like one of his kind that scents a foe. There was no mistaking
+      these movements; and all the principal chiefs soon had their attention
+      also drawn to the behavior of the dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why he do so?&rdquo; asked Peter. &ldquo;He 'fraid of bee, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He waits for me to come up,&rdquo; answered le Bourdon. &ldquo;Let my brother and two
+      other chiefs come with me, and let the rest stay here. Bees do not like
+      crowds. Corporal, I put Margery in your keeping, and Parson Amen will be
+      near you. I now go to show these chiefs what a bee can tell a man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus saying, le Bourdon advanced, followed by Peter, Bear's Meat, and
+      Crowsfeather. Our hero had made up his mind that something more than bees
+      were to be found in the thicket; for, the place being a little marshy,
+      bushes as well as trees were growing on it, and he fully expected a
+      rencontre with bears, the creatures most disposed to prey on the labors of
+      the bee&mdash;man excepted. Being well armed, and accompanied by men
+      accustomed to such struggles, he had no apprehensions, and led the way
+      boldly, feeling the necessity of manifesting perfect confidence in all his
+      own acts, in order to command the respect of the observers. As soon as the
+      bee-hunter passed the dog, the latter growled, showed his teeth fiercely,
+      and followed, keeping closely at his side. The confidence and alacrity
+      with which le Bourdon moved into the thicket, compelled his companions to
+      be on the alert; though the first broke through the belt of hazels which
+      enclosed the more open area within, a few instants before the Indians
+      reached the place. Then it was that there arose such a yell, such
+      screechings and cries, as reached far over the prairie, and might have
+      appalled the stoutest heart. The picture that was soon offered to the eye
+      was not less terrific than the sounds which assailed the ear. Hundreds of
+      savages, in their war-paint, armed, and in a crowded maze, arose as it
+      might be by one effort, seemingly out of the earth, and began to leap and
+      play their antics amid the trees. The sudden spectacle of a crowd of such
+      beings, nearly naked, frightfully painted, and tossing their arms here and
+      there, while each yelled like a demon, was enough to overcome the nerves
+      of a very resolute man. But le Bourdon was prepared for a conflict and
+      even felt relieved rather than alarmed, when he saw the savages. His ready
+      mind at once conceived the truth. This band belonged to the chiefs, and
+      composed the whole, or a principal part of the force which he knew they
+      must have outlying somewhere on the prairies, or in the openings. He had
+      sufficiently understood the hints of Pigeonswing to be prepared for such a
+      meeting, and at no time, of late, had he approached a cover, without
+      remembering the possibility of its containing Indians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instead of betraying alarm, therefore, when this cloud of phantom-like
+      beings rose before his eyes, le Bourdon stood firm, merely turning toward
+      the chiefs behind him, to ascertain if they were taken by surprise, as
+      well as himself. It was apparent that they were; for, understanding that a
+      medicine-ceremony was to take place on the prairie, these young men had
+      preceded the party from the hut, and had, ununknown to all the chiefs, got
+      possession of this copse, as the best available cover, whence to make
+      their observations on what was going on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother sees his young men,&rdquo; said le Bourdon, quietly, the instant a
+      dead calm had succeeded to the outcries with which he had been greeted. &ldquo;I
+      thought he might wish to say something to them, and my bees told me where
+      to find them. Does my brother wish to know anything else?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Great was the wonder of the three chiefs, at this exhibition of medicine
+      power! So far from suspecting the truth, or of detecting the lucky
+      coincidence by which le Bourdon had been led to the cover of their
+      warriors, it all appeared to them to be pure necromancy. Such an art must
+      be of great service; and how useful it would be to the warrior on his
+      path, to be accompanied by one who could thus command the vigilance of the
+      bees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You find enemy all same as friend?&rdquo; demanded Peter, letting out the
+      thought that was uppermost, in the question.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure. It makes no difference with a bee; he can find an enemy as
+      easily as he can find a friend.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No whiskey-spring dis time?&rdquo; put in Crowsfeather, a little inopportunely,
+      and with a distrust painted in his swarthy face that le Bourdon did not
+      like.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Pottawattamie, you do not understand medicine-men. OUGHT I to have shown
+      your young men where whiskey was to be had for nothing? Ask yourself that
+      question. Did you wish to see your young men wallowing like hogs in such a
+      spring? What would the great medicine-priest of the pale-faces, who is out
+      yonder, have said to THAT?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a coup de maitre on the part of the bee-hunter. Until that
+      moment, the affair of the whiskey-spring had weighed heavily in the
+      balance against him; but now, it was suddenly changed over in the scales,
+      and told as strongly in his favor. Even a savage can understand the
+      morality which teaches men to preserve their reason, and not to lower
+      themselves to the level of brutes, by swallowing &ldquo;fire-water&rdquo;; and
+      Crowsfeather suddenly saw a motive for regarding our hero with the eyes of
+      favor, instead of those of distrust and dislike.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What the pale-face says is true,&rdquo; observed Peter to his companion. &ldquo;Had
+      he opened his spring, your warrior would have been weaker than women. He
+      is a wonderful medicine-man, and we must not provoke him to anger. How
+      COULD he know, but through his bees, that our young men were here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This question could not be answered; and when the chiefs, followed by the
+      whole band of warriors, some three or four hundred in number came out upon
+      the open prairie, all that had passed was communicated to those who
+      awaited their return, in a few brief, but clear explanations. Le Bourdon
+      found a moment to let Margery comprehend his position and views, while
+      Parson Amen and the corporal were put sufficiently on their guard not to
+      make any unfortunate blunder. The last was much more easily managed than
+      the first. So exceedingly sensitive was the conscience of the priest, that
+      had he clearly understood the game le Bourdon was playing, he might have
+      revolted at the idea of necromancy, as touching on the province of evil
+      spirits; but he was so well mystified as to suppose all that passed was
+      regularly connected with the art of taking bees. In this respect, he and
+      the Indians equally resembled one of those familiar pictures, in which we
+      daily see men, in masses, contributing to their own deception and
+      subjection, while they fondly but blindly imagine that they are not only
+      inventors, but masters. This trade of mastery, after all, is the property
+      of a very few minds; and no precaution of the prudent, no forethought of
+      the wary, nor any expedient of charters, constitutions, or restrictions,
+      will prevent the few from placing their feet on the neck of the many. We
+      may revive the fable of King Log and King Stork, as often, and in as many
+      forms as we will; it will ever be the fable of King Log and King Stork. We
+      are no admirers of political aristocracies, as a thousand paragraphs from
+      our pen will prove; and, as for monarchs, we have long thought they best
+      enact their parts, when most responsible to opinion; but we cannot deceive
+      ourselves on the subject of the atrocities that are daily committed by
+      those who are ever ready to assume the places of both, making their
+      fellow-creatures in masses their dupes, and using those that they affect
+      to serve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ben Boden was now a sort of &ldquo;gouvernement provisoire&rdquo; among the wondering
+      savages who surrounded him. He had got them to believe in necromancy&mdash;a
+      very considerable step toward the exercise of despotic power. It is true,
+      he hardly knew, himself, what was to be done next; but he saw quite
+      distinctly that he was in a dilemma, and must manage to get out of it by
+      some means or other. If he could only succeed in this instance, as well as
+      he had succeeded in his former essay in the black art, all might be well,
+      and Margery be carried in triumph into the settlements. Margery, pro haec
+      vice, was his goddess of liberty, and he asked for no higher reward, than
+      to be permitted to live the remainder of his days in the sunshine of her
+      smiles. Liberty! a word that is, just now, in all men's mouths, but in how
+      few hearts in its purity and truth! What a melancholy mistake, moreover,
+      to suppose that, could it be enjoyed in that perfection with which the
+      imaginations of men love to cheat their judgments, it is the great good of
+      life! One hour spent in humble veneration for the Being that gave it, in
+      common with all of earth, its vacillating and uncertain existence, is of
+      more account than ages passed in its service; and he who fancies that in
+      worshipping liberty, he answers the great end of his existence, hugs a
+      delusion quite as weak, and infinitely more dangerous, than that which now
+      came over the minds of Peter and his countrymen, in reference to the
+      intelligence of the bee. It is a good thing to possess the defective and
+      qualified freedom, which we term &ldquo;liberty&rdquo;; but it is a grave error to set
+      it up as an idol to be worshipped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What my brother do next?&rdquo; demanded Bear's Meat, who, being a somewhat
+      vulgar-minded savage, was all for striking and wonder-working exhibitions
+      of necromancy. &ldquo;P'raps he find some honey now?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you wish it, chief. What says Peter?&mdash;shall I ask my bees to tell
+      where there is a hive?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Peter very readily assented, le Bourdon next set about achieving this
+      new feat in his art. The reader will recollect that the positions of two
+      hives were already known to the bee-hunter, by means of that very simple
+      and every-day process by which he earned his bread. One of these hives was
+      in the point of wood already mentioned, that lay along the margin of the
+      prairie; while the other was in this very copse, where the savages had
+      secreted themselves. Boden had now no thought of giving any further
+      disturbance to this last-named colony of insects; for an insight into
+      their existence might disturb the influence obtained by the jugglery of
+      the late discovery, and he at once turned his attention toward the other
+      hive indicated by his bees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nor did le Bourdon now deem it necessary to resort to his usual means of
+      carrying on his trade. These were not necessary to one who knew already
+      where the hive was to be found, while it opened the way to certain
+      mummeries that might be made to tell well in support of his assumed
+      character. Catching a bee, then, and keeping it confined within his
+      tumbler, Ben held the last to his ear, as if listening to what the
+      fluttering insect had to say. Having seemingly satisfied himself on this
+      point, he desired the chiefs once more to follow him, having first let the
+      bee go, with a good deal of ceremony. This set all in motion again; the
+      party being now increased by the whole band of savages who had been &ldquo;put
+      up&rdquo; from their cover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time, Margery began to tremble for the consequences. She had held
+      several short conferences with le Bourdon, as they walked together, and
+      had penetrated far enough into his purposes to see that he was playing a
+      ticklish game. It might succeed for a time, but she feared it must fail in
+      the end; and there was always the risk of incurring the summary vengeance
+      of savages. Perhaps she did not fully appreciate the power of
+      superstition, and the sluggishness of the mind that once submits to its
+      influence; while her woman's heart made her keenly alive to all those
+      frightful consequences that must attend an exposure. Nevertheless, nothing
+      could now be done to avert the consequences. It was too late to recede,
+      and things must take their course, even at all the hazards of the case.
+      That she might not be wholly useless, when her lover was risking so much
+      for herself&mdash;Margery well understanding that her escape was the only
+      serious difficulty the bee-hunter apprehended&mdash;the girl turned all
+      her attention to Peter, in whose favor she felt that she had been daily
+      growing, and on whose pleasure so much must depend. Changing her position
+      a little, she now came closer to the chief than she had hitherto done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Squaw like medicine-man?&rdquo; asked Peter, with a significance of expression
+      that raised a blush in Margery's cheek.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You mean to ask me if I like to SEE medicine-men perform,&rdquo; answered
+      Margery, with the readiness of her sex. &ldquo;White women are always curious,
+      they say&mdash;how is it with the women of the red men?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Juss so&mdash;full of cur'osity. Squaw is squaw&mdash;no matter what
+      color.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry, Peter, you do not think better of squaws. Perhaps you never
+      had a squaw&mdash;no wife, or daughter?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A gleam of powerful feeling shot athwart the dark countenance of the
+      Indian, resembling the glare of the electric fluid flashing on a cloud at
+      midnight; but it passed away as quickly as it appeared, leaving in its
+      stead the hard, condensed expression, which the intensity of a purpose so
+      long entertained and cultivated, had imprinted there, as indelibly as if
+      cut in stone.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All chief have squaw&mdash;all chief have pappoose&mdash;&rdquo; was the answer
+      that came at last. &ldquo;What he good for, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is always good to have children, Peter; especially when the children
+      themselves are good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good for pale-face, maybe&mdash;no good for Injin. Pale-face glad when
+      pappoose born&mdash;red-skin sorry.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope this is not so. Why should an Injin be sorry to see the laugh of
+      his little son?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Laugh when he little&mdash;p'raps so; he little, and don't know what
+      happen. But Injin don't laugh any more when he grow up. Game gone; land
+      gone; corn-field gone. No more room for Injin&mdash;pale-face want all.
+      Pale-face young man laugh&mdash;red-skin young man cry. Dat how it is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I hope not, Peter! I should be sorry to think it was so. The red man
+      has as good a right&mdash;nay, he has a BETTER right to this country than
+      we whites; and God forbid that he should not always have his full share of
+      the land!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery probably owed her life to that honest, natural burst of feeling,
+      which was uttered with a warmth and sincerity that could leave no doubt
+      that the sentiment expressed came from the heart. Thus singularly are we
+      constructed! A minute before, and no exemption was made in the mind of
+      Peter, in behalf of this girl, in the plan he had formed for cutting off
+      the whites; on the contrary, he had often be-thought him of the number of
+      young pale-faces that might be, as it were, strangled in their cradles, by
+      including the bee-hunter and his intended squaw in the contemplated
+      sacrifice. All this was changed, as in the twinkling of an eye, by
+      Margery's honest and fervent expression of her sense of right, on the
+      great subject that occupied all of Peter's thoughts. These sudden impulses
+      in the direction of love for our species, the second of the high lessons
+      left by the Redeemer to his disciples, are so many proofs of the creation
+      of man in the image of his maker. They exert their power often when least
+      expected, and are ever stamped by the same indelible impression of their
+      divine origin. Without these occasional glimpses at those qualities which
+      are so apt to lie dormant, we might indeed despair of the destinies of our
+      race. We are, however, in safe and merciful hands; and all the wonderful
+      events that are at this moment developing themselves around us, are no
+      other than the steps taken by Providence in the progress it is steadily
+      making toward the great and glorious end! Some of the agencies will be
+      corrupt; others deluded; and no one of them all, perhaps, will pursue with
+      unerring wisdom the precise path that ought to be taken; but even the
+      crimes, errors, and delusions, will be made instrumental in achieving that
+      which was designed before the foundations of this world were laid!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Does my daughter wish this?&rdquo; returned Peter, when Margery had thus
+      frankly and sincerely given vent to her feelings. &ldquo;Can a pale-face squaw
+      wish to leave an Injin any of his hunting-grounds?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thousands of us wish it, Peter, and I for one. Often and often have we
+      talked of this around our family fire, and even Gershom, when his head has
+      not been affected by fire-water, has thought as we all have thought. I
+      know that Bourdon thinks so, too; and I have heard him say that he thought
+      Congress ought to pass a law to prevent white men from getting any more of
+      the Injin's lands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The face of Peter would have been a remarkable study, during the few
+      moments that his fierce will was in the process of being brought in
+      subjugation to the influence of his better feelings. At first he appeared
+      bewildered; then compunction had its shade; and human sympathy came last,
+      asserting its long dormant, but inextinguishable power. Margery saw some
+      of this, though it far exceeded her penetration to read all the workings
+      of that stern and savage mind; yet she felt encouraged by what she did see
+      and understand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While an almighty and divine Providence was thus carrying out its own
+      gracious designs in its own way, the bee-hunter continued bent on reaching
+      a similar end by means of his own. Little did he imagine how much had been
+      done for him within the last few moments, and how greatly all he had in
+      view was jeoparded and put at risk by his own contrivances&mdash;contrivances
+      which seemed to him so clever, but which were wanting in the unerring
+      simplicity and truth that render those that come from above infallible.
+      Still, the expedients of le Bourdon may have had their agency in bringing
+      about events, and may have been intended to be a part of that moral
+      machinery, which was now at work in the breast of Peter, for good.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will be remembered that the bee-hunter habitually carried a small
+      spy-glass, as a part of the implements of his calling. It enabled him to
+      watch the bees, as they went in and came out of the hives, on the highest
+      trees, and often saved him hours of fruitless search. This glass was now
+      in his hand; for an object on a dead tree, that rose a little apart from
+      those around it, and which stood quite near the extreme point in the
+      forest, toward which they were all proceeding, had caught his attention.
+      The distance was still too great to ascertain by the naked eye what that
+      object was; but a single look with the glass showed that it was a bear.
+      This was an old enemy of the bee-hunter, who often encountered the animal,
+      endeavoring to get at the honey, and he had on divers occasions been
+      obliged to deal with these plunderers, before he could succeed in his own
+      plans of pilfering. The bear now seen continued in sight but an instant;
+      the height to which he had clambered being so great, most probably, as to
+      weary him with the effort, and to compel him to fall back again. All this
+      was favorable to le Bourdon's wishes, who immediately called a halt. The
+      first thing that Bourdon did, when all the dark eyes were gleaming on him
+      in fierce curiosity, was to catch a bee and hold it to his ear, as it
+      buzzed about in the tumbler.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You t'ink dat bee talk?&rdquo; Peter asked of Margery, in a tone of confidence,
+      as if a newly-awakened principle now existed between them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bourdon must think so, Peter,&rdquo; the girl evasively answered, &ldquo;or he would
+      hardly listen to hear what it says.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's strange, bee should talk! Almos' as strange as pale-face wish to
+      leave Injin any land! Sartain, bee talk, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I never heard one talk, Peter, unless it might be in its buzzing. That
+      may be the tongue of a bee, for anything I know to the contrary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      By this time le Bourdon seemed to be satisfied, and let the bee go; the
+      savages murmuring their wonder and admiration.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do my brothers wish to hunt?&rdquo; asked the bee-hunter in a voice so loud
+      that all near might hear what he had to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This question produced a movement at once. Skill in hunting, next to
+      success on the war-path, constitutes the great merit of an Indian; and it
+      is ever his delight to show that he possesses it. No sooner did le Bourdon
+      throw out his feeler, therefore, than a general exclamation proclaimed the
+      readiness of all the young men, in particular, to join in the chase.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let my brothers come closer,&rdquo; said Ben, in an authoritative manner; &ldquo;I
+      have something to put into their ears. They see that point of wood, where
+      the dead basswood has fallen on the prairie. Near that basswood is honey,
+      and near that honey are bears. This my bees have told me. Now, let my
+      brothers divide, and some go into the woods, and some stay on the prairie;
+      then they will have plenty of sweet food.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As all this was very simple, and easily to be comprehended, not a moment
+      was lost in the execution. With surprising order and aptitude, the chiefs
+      led off their parties; one line of dark warriors penetrating the forest on
+      the eastern side of the basswood, and another on its western; while a
+      goodly number scattered themselves on the prairie itself, in its front. In
+      less than a quarter of an hour, signals came from the forest that the
+      battue was ready, and Peter gave the answering sign to proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Down to this moment, doubts existed among the savages concerning the
+      accuracy of le Bourdon's statement. How was it possible that his bees
+      should tell him where he could find bears? To be sure, bears were the
+      great enemies of bees&mdash;this every Indian knew&mdash;but could the
+      bees have a faculty of thus arming one enemy against another? These
+      doubts, however, were soon allayed by the sudden appearance of a drove of
+      bears, eight or ten in number, that came waddling out of the woods, driven
+      before the circle of shouting hunters that had been formed within.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Now commenced a scene of wild tumult and of fierce delight. The warriors
+      on the prairie retired before their enemies until all of their associates
+      were clear of the forest, when the circle swiftly closed again, until it
+      had brought the bears to something like close quarters. Bear's Meat, as
+      became his appellation, led off the dance, letting fly an arrow at the
+      nearest animal. Astounded by the great number of their enemies, and not a
+      little appalled by their yells, the poor quadrupeds did not know which way
+      to turn. Occasionally, attempts were made to break through the circle, but
+      the flight of arrows, aimed directly at their faces, invariably drove the
+      creatures back. Fire-arms were not resorted to at all in this hunt, spears
+      and arrows being the weapons depended on. Several ludicrous incidents
+      occurred, but none that were tragical. One or two of the more reckless of
+      the hunters, ambitious of shining before the representatives of so many
+      tribes, ran rather greater risks than were required, but they escaped with
+      a few smart scratches. In one instance, however, a young Indian had a
+      still narrower SQUEEZE for his life. Literally a SQUEEZE it was, for,
+      suffering himself to get within the grasp of a bear, he came near being
+      pressed to death, ere his companions could dispatch the creature. As for
+      the prisoner, the only means he had to prevent his being bitten, was to
+      thrust the head of his spear into the bear's mouth, where he succeeded in
+      holding it, spite of the animal's efforts to squeeze him into submission.
+      By the time this combat was terminated, the field was strewn with the
+      slain; every one of the bears having been killed by hunters so much
+      practised in the art of destroying game.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     She was an only child&mdash;her name Ginevra,
+     The joy, the pride of an indulgent father;
+     And in her fifteenth year became a bride,
+     Marrying an only son, Francesco Dona,
+     Her playmate from her birth, and her first love.
+                                                     &mdash;ROGERS.
+</pre>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+ During the hunt there was little leisure for reflection on the
+seemingly extraordinary manner in which the bee-hunter had pointed out
+the spot where the bears were to be found. No one of the Indians had
+seen him apply the glass to his eye, for, leading the party, he had been
+able to do this unobserved; but, had they witnessed such a procedure,
+it would have been as inexplicable as all the rest. It is true,
+Crowsfeather and one or two of his companions had taken a look
+through that medicine-glass, but it rather contributed to increase
+the conjuror's renown, than served to explain any of the marvels he
+performed.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Peter was most struck with all that had just occurred. He had often heard
+      of the skill of those who hunted bees, and had several times met with
+      individuals who practised the art, but this was the first occasion on
+      which he had ever been a witness, in his own person, of the exercise of a
+      craft so wonderful! Had the process been simply that of catching a bee,
+      filling it with honey, letting it go, and then following it to its hive,
+      it would have been so simple as to require no explanation. But Peter was
+      too intelligent, as well as too observant, not to have seen that a great
+      deal more than this was necessary. On the supposition that the bee flew
+      TOWARD the forest, as had been the fact with two of the bees taken that
+      morning, in what part of that forest was the hunter to look for the
+      bee-tree? It was the angle that perplexed Peter, as it did all the
+      Indians; for that angle, to be understood, required a degree of knowledge
+      and calculation that entirely exceeded all he had ever acquired. Thus is
+      it with us ever. The powers, and faculties, and principles that are
+      necessary fully to comprehend all that we see and all that surrounds us,
+      exist and have been bestowed on man by his beneficent Creator. Still, it
+      is only by slow degrees that he is to become their master, acquiring
+      knowledge, step by step, as he has need of its services, and learns how to
+      use it. Such seems to be the design of Providence, which is gradually
+      opening to our inquiries the arcana of nature, in order that we may
+      convert their possession into such uses as will advance its own wise
+      intentions. Happy are they who feel this truth in their character of
+      individuals! Thrice happy the nations which can be made to understand,
+      that the surest progress is that which is made on the clearest principles,
+      and with the greatest caution! The notion of setting up anything new in
+      morals, is as fallacious in theory as it will be found to be dangerous in
+      practice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been said that a sudden change had come over the fierce purposes of
+      Peter. For some time, the nature, artlessness, truth, feminine playfulness
+      and kindness, not to say personal beauty of Margery, had been gradually
+      softening the heart of this stern savage, as it respected the girl
+      herself. Nothing of a weak nature was blended with this feeling, which was
+      purely the growth of that divine principle that is implanted in us all.
+      The quiet, earnest manner in which the girl had, that day, protested her
+      desire to see the rights of the red man respected, completed her conquest;
+      and, so far as the great chief was concerned, secured her safety. It may
+      seem singular, however, that Peter, with all his influence, was unable to
+      say that even one that he was so much disposed to favor, should be spared.
+      By means of his own eloquence, and perseverance, and deep desire for
+      vengeance, however, he had aroused a spirit among his followers that was
+      not so easily quelled. On several occasions, he had found it difficult to
+      prevent the younger and more impetuous of the chiefs from proceeding at
+      once to secure the scalps of those who were in their power; and this he
+      had done, only by promising to increase the number of the victims. How was
+      he then to lessen that number? and that, too, when circumstances did not
+      seem likely to throw any more immediately into his power, as he had once
+      hoped. This council must soon be over, and it would not be in his power to
+      send the chiefs away without enumerating the scalps of the pale-faces
+      present among those which were to make up the sum of their race.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Taking the perplexity produced by the bee-hunter's necromancy, and adding
+      it to his concern for Margery, Peter found ample subject for all his
+      reflections. While the young men were dressing their bears, and making the
+      preparations for a feast, he walked apart, like a man whose thoughts had
+      little in common with the surrounding scene. Even the further proceedings
+      of le Bourdon, who had discovered his bee-tree, had felled it, and was
+      then distributing the honey among the Indians, could not draw him from his
+      meditations. The great council of all was to be held that very day&mdash;there,
+      on Prairie Round&mdash;and it was imperative on Peter to settle the policy
+      he intended to pursue, previously to the hour when the fire was to be
+      lighted, and the chiefs met in final consultation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mean time, le Bourdon, by his distribution of the honey, no less
+      than by the manner in which he had found it, was winning golden opinions
+      of those who shared in his bounty. One would think that the idea of
+      property is implanted in us by nature, since men in all conditions appear
+      to entertain strong and distinct notions of this right. Natural it may not
+      be, in the true signification of the term; but it is a right so interwoven
+      with those that are derived from nature, and more particularly with our
+      wants, as almost to identify it with the individual being. It is certain
+      that all we have of civilization is dependent on a just protection of this
+      right; for, without the assurance of enjoying his earnings, who would
+      produce beyond the supply necessary for his own immediate wants? Among the
+      American savages the rights of property are distinctly recognized, so far
+      as their habits and resources extend. The hunting-ground belongs to the
+      tribe, and occasionally the field; but the wigwam, and the arms, and the
+      skins, both for use and for market, and often the horses, and all other
+      movables, belong to the individual. So sacred is this right held to be,
+      that not one of those who stood by, and saw le Bourdon fell his tree, and
+      who witnessed the operation of bringing to light its stores of honey,
+      appeared to dream of meddling with the delicious store, until invited so
+      to do by its lawful owner. It was this reserve, and this respect for a
+      recognized principle, that enabled the bee-hunter to purchase a great deal
+      of popularity, by giving away liberally an article so much prized. None,
+      indeed, was reserved; Boden seeing the impossibility of carrying it away.
+      Happy would he have been, most happy, could he have felt the assurance of
+      being able to get Margery off, without giving a second thought to any of
+      his effects, whether present or absent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As has been intimated, the bee-hunter was fast rising in the favor of the
+      warriors; particularly of those who had a weakness on the score of the
+      stomach. This is the first great avenue to the favor of man&mdash;the
+      belly ruling all the other members, the brains included. All this Peter
+      noted, and was now glad to perceive; for, in addition to the favor that
+      Margery had found in his eyes, that wary chief had certain very serious
+      misgivings on the subject of the prudence of attempting to deal harshly
+      with a medicine man of Boden's calibre. Touching the whiskey-spring he had
+      been doubtful, from the first; even Crowsfeather's account of the
+      wonderful glass through which that chief had looked, and seen men reduced
+      to children and then converted into giants, had failed to conquer his
+      scepticism; but he was not altogether proof against what he had that day
+      beheld with his own eyes. These marvels shook his previous opinion
+      touching the other matters; and, altogether, the effect was to elevate the
+      bee-hunter to a height, that it really appeared dangerous to assail.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While Peter was thus shaken with doubts&mdash;and that, too, on a point on
+      which he had hitherto stood as firm as a rock&mdash;there was another in
+      the crowd, who noted the growing favor of le Bourdon with deep disgust.
+      This man could hardly be termed a chief, though he possessed a malignant
+      power that was often wielded to the discomfiture of those who were. He
+      went by the significant appellation of &ldquo;The Weasel,&rdquo; a sobriquet that had
+      been bestowed on him for some supposed resemblance to the little
+      pilfering, prowling quadruped after which he was thus named. In person,
+      and in physical qualities generally, this individual was mean and
+      ill-favored; and squalid habits contributed to render him even less
+      attractive than he might otherwise have been. He was, moreover,
+      particularly addicted to intemperance; lying, wallowing like a hog, for
+      days at a time, whenever his tribe received any of the ample contribution
+      of fire-water, which it was then more the custom than it is to-day, to
+      send among the aborigines. A warrior of no renown, a hunter so indifferent
+      as to compel his squaw and pappooses often to beg for food in strange
+      lodges, of mean presence, and a drunkard, it may seem extraordinary that
+      the Weasel should possess any influence amid so many chiefs renowned for
+      courage, wisdom, deeds in arms, on the hunt, and for services around the
+      council-fire. It was all due to his tongue. Ungque, or the Weasel, was
+      eloquent in a high degree&mdash;possessing that variety of his art which
+      most addresses itself to the passions; and, strange as it may seem, men
+      are oftener and more easily led by those who do little else than promise,
+      than by those who actually perform. A lying and fluent tongue becomes a
+      power of itself, with the masses; subverting reason, looking down justice,
+      brow-beating truth, and otherwise placing the wrong before the right. This
+      quality the Weasel possessed in a high degree, and was ever willing to
+      use, on occasions that seemed most likely to defeat the wishes of those he
+      hated. Among the last was Peter, whose known ascendancy in his own
+      particular tribe had been a source of great envy and uneasiness to this
+      Indian. He had struggled hard to resist it, and had even dared to speak in
+      favor of the pale-faces, and in opposition to the plan of cutting them all
+      off, purely with a disposition to oppose this mysterious stranger. It had
+      been in vain, however; the current running the other way, and the fiery
+      eloquence of Peter proving too strong even for him. Now, to his surprise,
+      from a few words dropped casually, this man ascertained that their
+      greatest leader was disposed so far to relent, as not to destroy ALL the
+      pale-faces in his power. Whom, and how many he meant to spare, Ungque
+      could not tell; but his quick, practised discernment detected the general
+      disposition, and his ruthless tendency to oppose, caused him to cast about
+      for the means of resisting this sudden inclination to show mercy. With the
+      Weasel, the moving principle was ever that of the demagogue; it was to
+      flatter the mass that he might lead it; and he had an innate hostility to
+      whatever was frank, manly, and noble.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The time had now come when the Indians wished to be alone. At this council
+      it was their intention to come to an important decision; and even the
+      &ldquo;young men,&rdquo; unless chiefs, were to be merely distant spectators. Peter
+      sent for le Bourdon, accordingly, and communicated his wish that all the
+      whites would return to the castle, whither he promised to join them about
+      the setting of the sun, or early the succeeding day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;One of you, you know&mdash;dat my wigwam,&rdquo; said the grim chief, smiling
+      on Margery with a friendly eye, and shaking hands with the bee-hunter, who
+      thought his manner less constrained than on former similar occasions. &ldquo;Get
+      good supper for ole Injin, young squaw; dat juss what squaw good for.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery laughingly promised to remember his injunction, and went her way,
+      closely attended by her lover. The corporal followed, armed to the teeth,
+      and keeping at just such a distance from the young people, as might enable
+      them to converse without being overheard. As for the missionary, he was
+      detained a moment by Peter, the others moving slowly, in order to permit
+      him to come up, ere they had gone their first mile. Of course, the
+      mysterious chief had not detained Parson Amen without a motive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother has told me many curious things,&rdquo; said Peter, when alone with
+      the missionary, and speaking now in the language of the Ojebways&mdash;&ldquo;many
+      very curious things. I like to listen to them. Once he told me how the
+      pale-face young men take their squaws.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I remember to have told you this. We ask the Great Spirit to bless our
+      marriages, and the ceremony is commonly performed by a priest. This is our
+      practice, Peter; though not necessary, I think it good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; good alway for pale-face to do pale-face fashion, and for Injin to
+      do Injin fashion. Don't want medicine-man to get red-skin squaw. Open
+      wigwam door, and she come in. Dat 'nough. If she don't wish to come in,
+      can't make her. Squaw go to warrior she likes; warrior ask squaw he likes.
+      But it is best for pale-face to take his wife in pale-face fashion. Does
+      not my brother see a young man of his people, and a young maiden, that he
+      had better bring together and bless?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must mean Bourdon and Margery,&rdquo; answered the missionary, in English,
+      after a moment's reflection. &ldquo;The idea is a new one to me; for my mind has
+      been much occuoccupied of late, with other and more important matters;
+      though I now plainly see what you mean!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That flower of the Openings would soon fade, if the young bee-hunter
+      should leave it alone on the prairies. This is the will of the Great
+      Spirit. He puts it into the minds of the young squaws to see all things
+      well that the hunters of their fancy do. Why he has made the young with
+      this kindness for each other, perhaps my brother knows. He is wise, and
+      has books. The poor Injins have none. They can see only with the eyes they
+      got from Injins, like themselves. But one thing they know. What the Great
+      Spirit has commanded, is good. Injins can't make it any better. They can
+      do it harm, but they can do it no good. Let my brother bless the couple
+      that the Manitou has brought together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe I understand you. Peter, and will think of this. And now that I
+      must leave you for a little while, let me beg you to think of this matter
+      of the origin of your tribes, candidly, and with care. Everything depends
+      on your people's not mistaking the truth, in this great matter. It is as
+      necessary for a nation to know its duties, as for a single man. Promise me
+      to think of this, Peter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother's words have come into my ears&mdash;they are good,&rdquo; returned
+      the Indian, courteously. &ldquo;We will think of them at the council, if my
+      brother will bless his young man and young maiden, according to the law of
+      his people.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will promise to do this, Peter; or to urge Bourdon and Margery to do
+      it, if you will promise to speak to-day, in council, of the history of
+      your forefathers, and to take into consideration, once more, the great
+      question of your being Hebrews.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will speak as my brother wishes&mdash;let him do as I wish. Let him
+      tell me that I can say to the chiefs before the sun has fallen the length
+      of my arm, that the young pale-face bee-hunter has taken the young
+      pale-face squaw into his wigwam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not understand your motive, Peter; but that which you ask is wise,
+      and according to God's laws, and it shall be done. Fare you well, then,
+      for a season. When we again meet, Bourdon and Margery shall be one, if my
+      persuasions can prevail, and you will have pressed this matter of the lost
+      tribes, again, home to your people. Fare you well, Peter; fare you well.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They separated; the Indian with a cold smile of courtesy, but with his
+      ruthless intentions as respected the missionary in no degree changed.
+      Boden and Margery alone were exempt from vengeance, according to his
+      present designs. An unaccountable gentleness of feeling governed him, as
+      connected with the girl; while superstition, and the dread of an unknown
+      power, had its full influence on his determination to spare her lover.
+      There might be some faint ray of human feeling glimmering among the fierce
+      fires that so steadily burned in the breast of this savage; but they were
+      so much eclipsed by the brighter light that gleamed around them, as to be
+      barely perceptible, even to himself. The result of all these passions was,
+      a determination in Peter to spare those whom he had advised the missionary
+      to unite&mdash;making that union a mysterious argument in favor of Margery&mdash;and
+      to sacrifice all the rest. The red American is so much accustomed to this
+      species of ruthless proceeding, that the anguish he might occasion the
+      very beings to whom he now wished to be merciful, gave the stern chief
+      very little concern. Leaving the Indians in the exclusive possession of
+      Prairie Round, we will return to the rest of the party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The missionary hastened after his friends as fast as he could go. Boden
+      and Margery had much to say to each other in that walk, which had a great
+      deal about it to bring their thoughts within the circle of their own
+      existence. As has been said, the fire had run through that region late,
+      and the grasses were still young, offering but little impediment to their
+      movements. As the day was now near its heat, le Bourdon led his spirited,
+      but gentle companion, through the groves, where they had the benefit of a
+      most delicious shade, a relief that was now getting to be very grateful.
+      Twice had they stopped to drink at cool, clear springs, in which the water
+      seemed to vie with the air in transparency. As this is not the general
+      character of the water of that region, though marked exceptions exist,
+      Margery insisted that the water was eastern and not western water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why do we always think the things we had in childhood better than those
+      we enjoy afterward?&rdquo; asked Margery, after making one of these comparisons,
+      somewhat to the disadvantage of the part of the country in which she then
+      was. &ldquo;I can scarce ever think of home&mdash;what I call home, and which
+      was so long a home to me&mdash;without shedding tears. Nothing here seems
+      as good of its kind as what I have left behind me. Do you have the same
+      longings for Pennsylvania that I feel for the sea-coast and for the rocks
+      about Quincy?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sometimes. When I have been quite alone for two or three months, I have
+      fancied that an apple, or a potato, or even a glass of cider that came
+      from the spot where I was born, would be sweeter than all the honey bees
+      ever gathered in Michigan.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To me it has always seemed strange, Bourdon, that one of your kind
+      feelings should ever wish to live alone, at all; yet I have heard you say
+      that a love of solitude first drew you to your trade.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is these strong cases which get a man under, as it might be, and
+      almost alter his nature. One man will pass his days in hunting deer;
+      another in catching fish; my taste has been for the bees, and for such
+      chances with other creatures as may offer. What between hunting, and
+      hiving, and getting the honey to market, I have very little time to long
+      for company. But my taste is altering, Margery; HAS altered.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl blushed, but she also smiled, and, moreover, she looked pleased.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid that you are not as much altered as you think,&rdquo; she answered,
+      laughingly, however. &ldquo;It may seem so now; but when you come to LIVE in the
+      settlements again, you will get tired of crowds.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then I will come with you, Margery, into these Openings, and we can live
+      TOGETHER here, surely, as well, or far better than I can live here ALONE.
+      You and Gershom's wife have spoiled my housekeeping. I really did not
+      know, until you came up here, how much a woman can do in a chiente.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, Bourdon, you have lived long enough in the settlements to know
+      THAT!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is true; but I look upon the settlements as one thing, and on the
+      Openings as another. What will do there isn't needed here; and what will
+      do here won't answer there. But these last few days have so changed Castle
+      Meal, that I hardly know it myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps the change is for the worse, and you wish it undone, Bourdon,&rdquo;
+       observed the girl, in the longing she had to hear an assurance to the
+      contrary, at the very moment she felt certain that assurance would be
+      given.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No, no, Margery. Woman has taken possession of my cabin, and woman shall
+      now always command there, unless you alter your mind, and refuse to have
+      me. I shall speak to the missionary to marry us, as soon as I can get him
+      alone. His mind is running so much on the Jews, that he has hardly a
+      moment left for us Christians.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The color on Margery's cheek was not lessened by this declaration; though,
+      to admit the truth, she looked none the less pleased. She was a
+      warm-hearted and generous girl, and sometimes hesitated about separating
+      herself and her fortunes from those of Gershom and Dorothy; but the
+      bee-hunter had persuaded her this would be unnecessary, though she did
+      accept him for a husband. The point had been settled between them on
+      previous occasions, and much conversation had already passed, in that very
+      walk, which was confined to that interesting subject. But Margery was not
+      now disposed to say more, and she adroitly improved the hint thrown out by
+      Boden, to change the discourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is the strangest notion I ever heard of,&rdquo; she cried, laughing, &ldquo;to
+      believe Injins to be Jews!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He tells me he is by no means the first who has fancied it. Many writers
+      have said as much before him, and all he claims is, to have been among
+      them, and to have seen these Hebrews with his own eyes. But here he comes,
+      and can answer for himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as this was said, Parson Amen joined the party, Corporal Flint
+      closing to the front, as delicacy no longer required him to act as a
+      rear-guard. The good missionary came up a little heated; and, in order
+      that he might have time to cool himself, the rate of movement was slightly
+      reduced. In the mean time the conversation did not the less proceed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We were talking of the lost tribes,&rdquo; said Margery, half smiling as she
+      spoke, &ldquo;and of your idea, Mr. Amen, that these Injins are Jews. It seems
+      strange to me that they should have lost so much of their ancient ways,
+      and notions, and appearances, if they are really the people you think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lost! It is rather wonderful that, after the lapse of two thousand years
+      and more, so much should remain. Whichever way I look, signs of these
+      people's origin beset me. You have read your Bible, Margery&mdash;which I
+      am sorry to say all on this frontier have not&mdash;but you have read your
+      Bible, and one can make an allusion to you with some satisfaction. Now,
+      let me ask you if you remember such a thing as the scape-goat of the
+      ancient Jews. It is to be found in Leviticus, and is one of those
+      mysterious customs with which that extraordinary book is full.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Leviticus is a book I never read but once, for we do not read it in our
+      New England schools. But I do remember that the Jews were commanded to let
+      one of two goats go, from which practice it has, I believe, been called a
+      scape-goat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said le Bourdon, simply, &ldquo;what a thing is 'l'arnin'!' Now, this is
+      all news to me, though I have heard of 'scape-goats,' and TALKED of
+      'scape-goats' a thousand times! There's a meanin' to everything, I find;
+      and I do not look upon this idea of the lost tribes as half as strange as
+      I did before I l'arnt this!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery had not fallen in love with the bee-hunter for his biblical
+      knowledge, else might her greater information have received a rude shock
+      by this mark of simplicity; but instead of dwelling on this proof of le
+      Bourdon's want of &ldquo;schooling,&rdquo; her active mind was more disposed to push
+      the allusion to scape-goats to some useful conclusion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And what of the goat, Mr. Amen?&rdquo; she asked; &ldquo;and how can it belong to
+      anything here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why were all those goats turned into the woods and deserts, in the olden
+      time, Margery? Doubtless to provide food for the ten tribes, when these
+      should be driven forth by conquerors and hard task-masters. Time, and
+      climate, and a difference of food, has altered them, as they have changed
+      the Jews themselves, though they still retain the cleft hoof, the horns,
+      the habits, and the general characteristics of the goats of Arabia. Yes;
+      naturalists will find in the end, that the varieties of the deer of this
+      continent, particularly the antelope, are nothing but the scape-goats of
+      the ancient world, altered and perhaps improved by circumstances.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As this was much the highest flight the good missionary had ever yet
+      taken, not trifling was the astonishment of his young friends thereat.
+      Touching the Jews, le Bourdon did not pretend to, or in fact did not
+      possess much knowledge; but when the question was reduced down to one of
+      venison, or bears' meat, or bisons' humps, with the exception of the
+      professed hunters and trappers, few knew more about them all than he did
+      himself. That the deer, or even the antelopes of America ever had been
+      goats, he did not believe; nor was he at all backward in letting his
+      dissent to such a theory be known.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm sorry, Parson Amen, you've brought in the deer,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Had you
+      stuck to the Jews, I might have believed all that you fancy, in this
+      business; but the deer have spoiled all. As for scape-goats, since Margery
+      seems to agree with you, I suppose you are right about THEM though my
+      notion of such creatures has been to keep clear of them, instead of
+      following them up, as you seem to think these Hebrews have done. But if
+      you are no nearer right in your doctrine about the Injins than you are
+      about their game, you'll have to change your religion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do not think that my religion depends on any thread so slight, Bourdon. A
+      man may be mistaken in interpreting prophecy, and still be a devout
+      Christian. There are more reasons than you may at first suppose, for
+      believing in this theory of the gradual change of the goat into the deer,
+      and especially into the antelope. We do not any of us believe that Noah
+      had with him, in the ark, all the animals that are now to be found, but
+      merely the parent-stems, in each particular case, which would be reducing
+      the number many fold. If all men came from Adam, Bourdon, why could not
+      all deer come from goats?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why this matter about men has a good deal puzzled me, Parson, and I
+      hardly know what answer to give. Still, men are men, wherever you find
+      them. They may be lighter or darker, taller or shorter, with hair or wool,
+      and yet you can see they are MEN. Perhaps food, and climate, and manner of
+      living, may have made all the changes we see in them; but Lord, Parson, a
+      goat has a beard!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has become of the thousands of scape-goats that the ancient Hebrews
+      must have turned loose in the wilderness? Answer me that, Bourdon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You might as well ask me, sir, what has become of the thousands of
+      Hebrews who turned them loose. I suppose all must be dead a thousand years
+      ago. Scape-goats are creatures that even Injins would not like.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All this is a great mystery, Bourdon&mdash;a much greater mystery than
+      our friend Peter, whom you have so often said was a man so unaccountable.
+      By the way, he has given me a charge to perform an office between you and
+      Margery, that I had almost forgotten. From what he said to me, I rather
+      think it may have some connection with our safety. We have enemies among
+      these savages, I feel very certain; though I believe we have also warm
+      friends.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But what have you in charge that has anything to do with Bourdon and me?&rdquo;
+       asked the wondering Margery, who was quick to observe the connection,
+      though utterly at a loss to comprehend it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The missionary now called a halt, and finding convenient seats, he
+      gradually opened the subject with which he had been charged by Peter to
+      his companions. The reader is probably prepared to learn that there was no
+      longer any reserve between le Bourdon and Margery on the subject of their
+      future marriage. The young man had already pressed an immediate union, as
+      the wisest and safest course to be pursued. Although the savage American
+      is little addicted to abusing his power over female captives, and seldom
+      takes into his lodge an unwilling squaw, the bee-hunter had experienced a
+      good deal of uneasiness on the score of what might befall his betrothed.
+      Margery was sufficiently beautiful to attract attention, even in a town;
+      and more than one fierce-looking warrior had betrayed his admiration that
+      very day, though it was in a very Indian-like fashion. Rhapsody, and
+      gallant speeches, and sonnets, form no part of Indian courtship; but the
+      language of admiration is so very universal, through the eyes, that it is
+      sufficiently easy of comprehension. It was possible that some chief, whose
+      band was too formidable to be opposed, might take it into his head to wish
+      to see a pale-face squaw in his wigwam; and, while it was not usual to do
+      much violence to a female's inclinations on such occasions, it was not
+      common to offer much opposition to those of a powerful warrior. The
+      married tie, if it could be said to exist at all, however, was much
+      respected; and it was far less likely that Margery, a wife, would thus be
+      appropriated, than Margery, unmarried. It is true, cases of unscrupulous
+      exercise of power are to be found among Indians, as well as among
+      civilized men, but they are rare, and usually are much condemned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter, consequently, was well disposed to second Peter's project.
+      As for Margery herself, she had half yielded all her objections to her
+      lover's unaided arguments, and was partly conquered before this
+      reinforcement was brought into the field against her. Peter's motive was
+      much canvassed, no one of them all being able to penetrate it. Boden,
+      however, had his private opinion on the subject, nor was it so very much
+      out of the way. He fancied that the mysterious chief was well disposed to
+      Margery, and wished to put her as far as possible beyond the chances of an
+      Indian wigwam; marriage being the step of all others most likely to afford
+      her this protection. Now this was not exactly true, but it was right
+      enough in the main. Peter's aim was to save the life of the girl; her
+      gentle attractions, and kind attentions to himself having wrought this
+      much in her favor; and he believed no means of doing so as certain as
+      forming a close connection for her with the great medicine-bee-hunter.
+      Judging of them by himself, he did not think the Indians would dare to
+      include so great a conjurer in their schemes of vengeance, and was willing
+      himself that le Bourdon should escape, provided Margery could go free and
+      unharmed with him. As for the bee-hunter's powers, he had many misgivings;
+      they might be dangerous to the red men, and they might not. On this
+      subject, he was in the painful doubts of ignorance, and had the wide area
+      of conjecture open before his mind. He saw; but it was &ldquo;as in a glass,
+      darkly.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery was disposed to delay the ceremony, at least until her brother and
+      sister might be present. But to this le Bourdon himself was not much
+      inclined. It had struck him that Gershom was opposed to an early marriage,
+      most probably because he fancied himself more secure of the bee-hunter's
+      ingenious and important aid in getting back to the settlements, so long as
+      this strong inducement existed to cling to himself, than if he should
+      release his own hold of Margery, by giving her at once to her lover. Right
+      or wrong, such was the impression taken up by le Bourdon, and he was glad
+      when the missionary urged his request to be permitted to pronounce the
+      nuptial benediction on the spot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Little ceremony is generally used in an American marriage. In a vast many
+      cases no clergyman is employed at all; and where there is, most of the
+      sects have no ring, no giving away, nor any of those observances which
+      were practised in the churches of old. There existed no impediment,
+      therefore; and after a decent interval spent in persuasions, Margery
+      consented to plight her vows to the man of her heart before they left the
+      spot. She would fain have had Dorothy present, for woman loves to lean on
+      her own sex on such occasions, but submitted to the necessity of
+      proceeding at once, as the bee-hunter and the missionary chose to term it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A better altar could not have been selected in all that vast region. It
+      was one of nature's own erecting; and le Bourdon and his pretty bride
+      placed themselves before it, with feelings suited to the solemnity of the
+      occasion. The good missionary stood within the shade of a burr oak in the
+      centre of those park-like Openings, every object looking fresh, and
+      smiling, and beautiful. The sward was gieen, and short as that of a
+      well-tended lawn; the flowers were, like the bride herself, soft, modest,
+      and sweet; while charming rural vistas stretched through the trees, much
+      as if art had been summoned in aid of the great mistress who had designed
+      the landscape. When the parties knelt in prayer&mdash;which all present
+      did, not excepting the worthy corporal&mdash;it was on the verdant ground,
+      with first the branches of the trees, and then the deep, fathomless vault
+      of heaven for a canopy. In this manner was the marriage benediction
+      pronounced on the bee-hunter and Margery Waring, in the venerable Oak
+      Openings. No gothic structure, with its fretted aisles and clustered
+      columns, could have been onehalf as appropriate for the union of such a
+      couple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     No shrift the gloomy savage brooks,
+     As scowling on the priest he looks;
+     Cowesass&mdash;cowesass&mdash;tawkich wessasseen!
+     Let my father look on Bornazeen&mdash;
+     My father's heart is the heart of a squaw,
+     But mine is so hard that it does not thaw,
+                                    &mdash;WHITTIER.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Leaving the newly-married couple to pursue their way homeward, it is now
+      our province to return to Prairie Round. One accustomed to such scenes
+      would easily have detected the signs of divided opinions and of agitating
+      doubts among the chiefs, though nothing like contention or dispute had yet
+      manifested itself. Peter's control was still in the ascendant, and he had
+      neglected none of his usual means of securing influence. Perhaps he
+      labored so much the harder, from the circumstance that he now found
+      himself so situated, as to be compelled to undo much that he had
+      previously done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On the other hand, Ungque appeared to have no particular cause of concern.
+      His manner was as much unoccupied as usual; and to his habit of referring
+      all his influence to sudden and powerful bursts of eloquence, if design of
+      any sort was entertained, he left his success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We pass over the details of assembling the council. The spot was not
+      exactly on the prairie, but in a bit of lovely &ldquo;Opening&rdquo; on its margin,
+      where the eye could roam over a wide extent of that peculiar natural
+      meadow, while the body enjoyed the shades of the wood. The chiefs alone
+      were in the circle, while the &ldquo;braves&rdquo; and the &ldquo;young men&rdquo; generally
+      formed a group on the outside; near enough to hear what passed, and to
+      profit by it, if so disposed. The pipe was smoked, and all the ordinary
+      customs observed, when Bear's Meat arose, the first speaker on that
+      momentous occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;this is the great council on Prairie Round to which
+      we have been called. We have met before, but not here. This is our first
+      meeting here. We have travelled a long path to get here. Some of our
+      brethren have travelled farther. They are at Detroit. They went there to
+      meet our great Canada father, and to take Yankee scalps. How many scalps
+      they have taken I do not know, or I would tell you. It is pleasant to me
+      to count Yankee scalps. I would rather count them, than count the scalps
+      of red men. There are still a great many left. The Yankees are many, and
+      each Yankee has a scalp. There should not be so many. When the buffaloes
+      came in the largest droves, our fathers used to go out to hunt them in the
+      strongest parties. Their sons should do the same. We are the sons of those
+      fathers. They say we look like them, talk like them, live like them&mdash;we
+      should ACT like them. Let another speak, for I have done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      After this brief address, which bore some resemblance to a chairman's
+      calling a meeting of civilized men to order, there was more smoking. It
+      was fully expected that Peter would next arise, but he did not. Perceiving
+      this, and willing to allow time to that great chief to arrange his
+      thoughts, Crowsfeather assumed the office of filling the gap. He was far
+      more of a warrior than of an orator, and was listened to respectfully, but
+      less for what he said, than for what he had done. A good deal of Indian
+      boasting, quite naturally, was blended with HIS discourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother has told you of the Yankee scalps,&rdquo; he commenced. &ldquo;He says
+      they are many. He says there ought to be fewer. He did not remember who
+      sat so near him. Perhaps he does not know that there are three less now
+      than there were a moon since. Crowsfeather took three at Chicago. Many
+      scalps were taken there. The Yankees must be plentier than the buffaloes
+      on the great prairies, if they can lose so many scalps often, and send
+      forth their warriors. I am a Pottawattamie. My brothers know that tribe.
+      It is not a tribe of Jews, but a tribe of Injins. It is a great tribe. It
+      never was LOST. It CANNOT be lost. No tribe better knows all the paths,
+      and all the best routes to every point where it wishes to go. It is
+      foolish to say you can lose a Pottawattamie. A duck would be as likely to
+      lose itself as a Pottawattamie. I do not speak for the Ottawas: I speak
+      for the Pottawattamies. We are not Jews. We do not wish to be Jews; and
+      what we do not wish to be, we will not be. Our father who has come so far
+      to tell us that we are not Injins, but Jews, is mistaken. I never heard of
+      these Jews before. I do not wish to hear of them again. When a man has
+      heard enough, he does not keep his ears open willingly. It is then best
+      for the speaker to sit down. The Pottawattamies have shut their ears to
+      the great medicine-priest of the pale-faces. What he says may be true of
+      other tribes, but it is not true of the Pottawatttamies. We are not lost;
+      we are not Jews. I have done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This speech was received with general favor. The notion that the Indians
+      were not Indians, but Jews, was far from being agreeable to those who had
+      heard what had been said on the subject; and the opinions of Crowsfeather
+      possessed the great advantage of reflecting the common sentiment on this
+      interesting subject. When this is the case, a very little eloquence or
+      logic goes a great way; and, on the whole, the address of the last speaker
+      was somewhat better received than that of the first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now confidently believed that Peter would rise. But he did not.
+      That mysterious chief was not yet prepared to speak, or he was judiciously
+      exciting expectation by keeping back. There were at least ten minutes of
+      silent smoking, ere a chief, whose name rendered into English was Bough of
+      the Oak, arose, evidently with a desire to help the time along. Taking his
+      cue from the success of Crows-feather, he followed up the advantage
+      obtained by that chief, assailing the theory of the missionary from
+      another quarter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am an Injin,&rdquo; said Bough of the Oak; &ldquo;my father was an Injin, and my
+      mother was the daughter of an Injin. All my fathers were red men, and all
+      their sons. Why should I wish to be anything else? I asked my brother, the
+      medicine-priest, and he owned that Jews are pale-faces. This he should not
+      have owned if he wished the Injins to be Jews. My skin is red. The Manitou
+      of my fathers so painted it, and their child will not try to wash out the
+      color. Were the color washed out of my face, I should be a pale-face!
+      There would not be paint enough to hide my shame. No; I was born red, and
+      will die a red man. It is not good to have two faces. An Injin is not a
+      snake, to cast his skin. The skin in which he was born he keeps. He plays
+      in it when a child; he goes in it to his first hunt; the bears and the
+      deer know him by it; he carries it with him on the warpath, and his
+      enemies tremble at the sight of it; his squaw knows him by that skin when
+      he comes back to his wigwam; and when he dies, he is put aside in the same
+      skin in&mdash;which he was born. There is but one skin, and it has but one
+      color. At first, it is little. The pappoose that wears it is little. There
+      is not need of a large skin. But it grows with the pappoose, and the
+      biggest warrior finds his skin around him. This is because the Great
+      Spirit fitted it to him. Whatever the Manitou does is good.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brothers have squaws&mdash;they have pappooses. When the pappoose is
+      put into their arms, do they get the paint-stones, and paint it red? They
+      do not. It is not necessary. The Manitou painted it red before it was
+      born. How this was done I do not know. I am nothing but a poor Injin, and
+      only know what I see. I have seen that the pappooses are red when they are
+      born, and that the warriors are red when they die. They are also red while
+      living. It is enough. Their fathers could never have been pale-faces, or
+      we should find some white spots on their children. There are none.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Crowsfeather has spoken of the Jews as lost. I am not surprised to hear
+      it. It seems to me that all pale-faces get lost. They wander from their
+      own hunting-grounds into those of other people. It is not so with Injins.
+      The Pottawattamie does not kill the deer of the Iowa, nor the Ottawa the
+      deer of the Menomenees. Each tribe knows its own game. This is because
+      they are not lost. My pale-face father appears to wish us well. He has
+      come on a long and weary path to tell us about his Manitou. For this I
+      thank him. I thank all who wish to do me good. Them that wish to do me
+      harm I strike from behind. It is our Injin custom. I do not wish to hurt
+      the medicine-priest, because I think he wishes to do me good, and not to
+      do me harm. He has a strange law. It is to do good to them that do harm to
+      you. It is not the law of the red men. It is not good law. I do not wonder
+      that the tribes which follow such a law get lost. They cannot tell their
+      friends from their enemies. They can have no people to scalp. What is a
+      warrior if he cannot find someone to scalp? No; such a law would make
+      women of the bravest braves in the Openings, or on the prairie. It may be
+      a good law for Jews, who get lost; but it is a bad law for Injins, who
+      know the paths they travel. Let another speak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This brief profession of faith, on the subject that had been so recently
+      broached in the council, seemed to give infinite satisfaction. All present
+      evidently preferred being red men, who knew where they were, than to be
+      pale-faces who had lost their road. Ignorance of his path is a species of
+      disgrace to an American savage, and not a man there would have confessed
+      that his particular division of the great human family was in that
+      dilemma. The idea that the Yankees were &ldquo;lost,&rdquo; and had got materially
+      astray, was very grateful to most who heard it; and Bough of the Oak
+      gained a considerable reputation as an orator, in consequence of the lucky
+      hits made on this occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another long, ruminating pause, and much passing of the pipe of peace
+      succeeded. It was near half an hour after the last speaker had resumed his
+      seat, ere Peter stood erect. In that long interval expectation had time to
+      increase, and curiosity to augment itself. Nothing but a very great event
+      could cause this pondering, this deliberation, and this unwillingness to
+      begin. When, however, the time did come for the mysterious chief to speak,
+      the man of many scalps to open his mouth, profound was the attention that
+      prevailed among all present. Even after he had arisen, the orator stood
+      silently looking around him, as if the throes of his thoughts had to be a
+      little suppressed before he could trust his tongue to give them utterance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is the earth?&rdquo; commenced Peter, in a deep, guttural tone of voice,
+      which the death-like stillness rendered audible even to the outermost
+      boundaries of the circle of admiring and curious countenances. &ldquo;It is one
+      plain adjoining another; river after river; lake after lake; prairie
+      touching prairie; and pleasant woods, that seem to have no limits, all
+      given to men to dwell in. It would seem that the Great Spirit parcelled
+      out this rich possession into hunting-grounds for all. He colored men
+      differently. His dearest children he painted red, which is his own color.
+      Them that he loved less he colored less, and they had red only in spots.
+      Them he loved least he dipped in a dark dye, and left them black. These
+      are the colors of men. If there are more, I have not seen them. Some say
+      there are. I shall think so, too, when I see them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, this talk about lost tribes is a foolish talk. We are not lost.
+      We know where we are, and we know where the Yankees have come to seek us.
+      My brother has well spoken. If any are lost, it is the Yankees. The
+      Yankees are Jews; they are lost. The time is near when they will be found,
+      and when they will again turn their eyes toward the rising sun. They have
+      looked so long toward the setting sun, that they cannot see clearly. It is
+      not good to look too long at the same object. The Yankees have looked at
+      our hunting-grounds, until their eyes are dim. They see the
+      hunting-grounds, but they do not see all the warriors that are in them. In
+      time, they will learn to count them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, when the Great Spirit made man, he put him to live on the
+      earth. Our traditions do not agree in saying of what he was made. Some say
+      it was of clay, and that when his spirit starts for the happy
+      hunting-grounds, his body becomes clay again. I do not say that this is
+      so, for I do not know. It is not good to say that which we do not know to
+      be true. I wish to speak only the truth. This we do know. If a warrior
+      die, and we put him in the earth, and come to look for him many years
+      afterward, nothing but bones are found. All else is gone. I have heard old
+      men say that, in time, even these bones are not to be found. It is so with
+      trees; it may be so with men. But it is not so with hunting-grounds. They
+      were made to last forever.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, you know why we have come together on this prairie. It was to
+      count the pale-faces, and to think of the way of making their number less.
+      Now is a good time for such a thing. They have dug up the hatchet against
+      each other, and when we hear of scalps taken among them, it is good for
+      the red men. I do not think our Canada father is more our friend than the
+      great Yankee, Uncle Sam. It is true, he gives us more powder, and
+      blankets, and tomahawks, and rifles than the Yankee, but it is to get us
+      to fight his battles. We will fight his battles. They are our battles,
+      too. For this reason we will fight his enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, it is time to think of our children. A wise chief once told me
+      how many winters it is since a pale-face was first seen among red men. It
+      was not a great while ago. Injins are living who have seen Injins, whose
+      own fathers saw the first pale-faces. They were few. They were like little
+      children, then; but now they are grown to be men. Medicine-men are plenty
+      among them, and tell them how to raise children. The Injins do not
+      understand this. Small-pox, fire-water, bad hunting, and frosts, keep us
+      poor, and keep our children from growing as fast as the children of the
+      pale-faces. Brothers, all this has happened within the lives of three aged
+      chiefs. One told to another, and he told it to a third. Three chiefs have
+      kept that tradition. They have given it to me. I have cut notches on this
+      stick (holding up a piece of ash, neatly trimmed, as a record) for the
+      winters they told me, and every winter since I have cut one more. See;
+      there are not many notches. Some of our people say that the pale-faces are
+      already plentier than leaves on the trees. I do not believe this. These
+      notches tell us differently. It is true the pale-faces grow fast, and have
+      many children, and small-pox does not kill many of them, and their wars
+      are few; but look at this stick. Could a canoe-full of men become as many
+      as they say, in so few winters? No; it is not so. The stories we have
+      heard are not true. A crooked tongue first told them. We are strong enough
+      still to drive these strangers into the great salt lake, and get back all
+      our hunting-grounds. This is what I wish to have done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, I have taken many scalps. This stick will tell the number.&rdquo;
+       Here one of those terrible gleams of ferocity to which we have before
+      alluded, passed athwart the dark countenance of the speaker, causing all
+      present to feel a deeper sympathy in the thoughts he would express. &ldquo;There
+      are many. Every one has come from the head of a pale-face. It is now
+      twenty winters since I took the scalp of a red man. I shall never take
+      another. We want all of our own warriors, to drive back the strangers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, some Injins tell us of different tribes. They talk about
+      distant tribes as strangers. I tell you we are all children of the same
+      father. All our skins are red. I see no difference between an Ojebway, and
+      a Sac, or a Sioux. I love even a Cherokee.&rdquo; Here very decided signs of
+      dissatisfaction were manifested by several of the listeners; parties of
+      the tribes of the great lakes having actually marched as far as the Gulf
+      of Mexico to make war on the Indians of that region, who were generally
+      hated by them with the most intense hatred. &ldquo;He has the blood of our
+      fathers in him. We are brothers, and should live together as brothers. If
+      we want scalps, the pale-faces have plenty. It is sweet to take the scalp
+      of a pale-face. I know it. My hand has done it often, and will do it
+      again. If every Injin had taken as many scalps as I have taken, few of
+      these strangers would now remain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, one thing more I have to say. I wish to hear others, and will
+      not tell all I know this time. One thing more I have to say, and I now say
+      it. I have told you that we must take the scalps of all the pale-faces who
+      are now near us. I thought there would have been more, but the rest do not
+      come. Perhaps they are frightened. There are only six. Six scalps are not
+      many. I am sorry they are so few. But we can go where there will be more.
+      One of these six is a medicine-man. I do not know what to think. It may be
+      good to take his scalp. It may be bad. Medicine-men have great power. You
+      have seen what this bee-hunter can do. He knows how to talk with bees.
+      Them little insects can fly into small places, and see things that Injins
+      cannot see. The Great Spirit made them so. When we get back all the land,
+      we shall get the bees with it, and may then hold a council to say what it
+      is best to do with them. Until we know more, I do not wish to touch the
+      scalp of that bee-hunter. It may do us great harm. I knew a medicine-man
+      of the pale-faces to lose his scalp, and small-pox took off half the band
+      that made him prisoner and killed him. It is not good to meddle with
+      medicine-men. A few days ago, and I wanted this young man's scalp, very
+      much. Now, I do not want it. It may do us harm to touch it. I wish to let
+      him go, and to take his squaw with him. The rest we can scalp.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter cunningly made no allusion to Margery, until just before he resumed
+      his seat, though now deeply interested in her safety. As for le Bourdon,
+      so profound was the impression he had made that morning, that few of the
+      chiefs were surprised at the exemption proposed in his favor. The
+      superstitious dread of witchcraft is very general among the American
+      savages; and it certainly did seem to be hazardous to plot the death of a
+      man, who had even the bees that were humming on all sides of them under
+      his control. He might at that very moment be acquainted with all that was
+      passing; and several of the grim-looking and veteran warriors who sat in
+      the circle, and who appeared to be men able and willing to encounter aught
+      human, did not fail to remember the probability of a medicine-man's
+      knowing who were his friends, and who his enemies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Peter sat down, there was but one man in the circle of chiefs who was
+      resolved to oppose his design of placing Boden and Margery without the
+      pale of the condemned. Several were undecided, scarce knowing what to
+      think of so sudden and strange a proposition, but could not be said to
+      have absolutely adhered to the original scheme of cutting off all. The
+      exception was Ungque. This man&mdash;a chief by a sort of sufferance,
+      rather than as a right&mdash;was deadly hostile to Peter's influence, as
+      has been said, and was inclined to oppose all his plans, though compelled
+      by policy to be exceedingly cautious how he did it. Here, however, was an
+      excellent opportunity to strike a blow, and he was determined not to
+      neglect it. Still, so wily was this Indian, so much accustomed to put a
+      restraint on his passions and wishes, that he did not immediately arise,
+      with the impetuous ardor of frank impulses, to make his reply, but awaited
+      his time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An Indian is but a man, after all, and is liable to his weaknesses,
+      notwithstanding the self-command he obtains by severe drilling. Bough of
+      the Oak was to supply a proof of this truth. He had been so unexpectedly
+      successful in his late attempt at eloquence, that it was not easy to keep
+      him off his feet, now that another good occasion to exhibit his powers
+      offered. He was accordingly the next to speak.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brothers,&rdquo; said Bough of the Oak, &ldquo;I am named after a tree. You all
+      know that tree. It is not good for bows or arrows; it is not good for
+      canoes; it does not make the best fire, though it will burn, and is hot
+      when well lighted. There are many things for which the tree after which I
+      am named is not good. It is not good to eat. It has no sap that Injins can
+      drink, like the maple. It does not make good brooms. But it has branches
+      like other trees, and they are tough. Tough branches are good. The boughs
+      of the oak will not bend, like the boughs of the willow, or the boughs of
+      the ash, or the boughs of the hickory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, I am a bough of the oak. I do not like to bend. When my mind is
+      made up, I wish to keep it where it was first put. My mind has been made
+      up to take the scalps of ALL the pale-faces who are now in the Openings. I
+      do not want to change it. My mind can break, but it can not bend. It is
+      tough.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Having uttered this brief but sententious account of his view of the
+      matter at issue, the chief resumed his seat, reasonably well satisfied
+      with this, his second attempt to be eloquent that day. His success this
+      time was not as unequivocal as on the former occasion, but it was
+      respectable. Several of the chiefs saw a reasonable, if not a very logical
+      analogy, between a man's name and his mind; and to them it appeared a
+      tolerably fair inference that a man should act up to his name. If his name
+      was tough, he ought to be tough, too. In this it does not strike us that
+      they argued very differently from civilized beings, who are only too apt
+      to do that which their better judgments really condemn, because they think
+      they are acting &ldquo;in character,&rdquo; as it is termed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Ungque was both surprised and delighted with this unexpected support from
+      Bough of the Oak. He knew enough of human nature to understand that a
+      new-born ambition, that of talking against the great, mysterious chief,
+      Peter, was at the bottom of this unexpected opposition; but with this he
+      was pleased, rather than otherwise. An opposition that is founded in
+      reason, may always be reasoned down, if reasons exist therefor; but an
+      opposition that has its rise in any of the passions, is usually somewhat
+      stubborn. All this the mean-looking chief, or the Weasel, understood
+      perfectly, and appreciated highly. He thought the moment favorable, and
+      was disposed to &ldquo;strike while the iron was hot.&rdquo; Rising after a decent
+      interval had elapsed, this wily Indian looked about him, as if awed by the
+      presence in which he stood, and doubtful whether he could venture to utter
+      his thoughts before so many wise chiefs. Having made an impression by this
+      air of diffidence, he commenced his harangue.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am called the Weasel,&rdquo; he said, modestly. &ldquo;My name is not taken from
+      the mightiest tree of the forest, like that of my brother; it is taken
+      from a sort of rat&mdash;an animal that lives by its wits. I am well
+      named. When my tribe gave me that name, it was just. All Injins have not
+      names. My great brother, who told us once that we ought to take the scalp
+      of every white man, but WHO now tells us that we ought not to take the
+      scalp of every white man, has no name. He is called Peter, by the
+      pale-faces. It is a good name. But it is a pale-face name. I wish we knew
+      the real name of my brother. We do not know his nation or his tribe. Some
+      say he is an Ottawa, some an Iowa, some even think him a Sioux. I have
+      heard he was a Delaware, from toward the rising sun. Some, but they must
+      be Injins with forked tongues, think and say he is a Cherokee! I do not
+      believe this. It is a lie. It is said to do my brother harm. Wicked Injins
+      will say such things. But we do not mind what THEY say. It is not
+      necessary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brothers, I wish we knew the tribe of this great chief, who tells us
+      to take scalps, and then tells us not to take scalps. Then we might
+      understand why he has told us two stories. I believe all he says, but I
+      should like to know WHY I believe it. It is good to know why we believe
+      things. I have heard what my brother has said about letting this
+      bee-hunter go to his own people, but I do not know why he believes this is
+      best. It is because I am a poor Injin, perhaps; and because I am called
+      the Weasel. I am an animal that creeps through small holes. That is my
+      nature. The bison jumps through open prairies, and a horse is wanted to
+      catch him. It is not so with the weasel; he creeps through small holes.
+      But he always looks where he goes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The unknown chief, who belongs to no tribe, talks of this bee-hunter's
+      squaw. He is afraid of so great a medicine-man, and wishes him to go, and
+      take all in his wigwam with him. He has no squaw. There is a young squaw
+      in his lodge, but she is not HIS squaw. There is no need of letting her
+      go, on his account. If we take her scalp, he cannot hurt us. In that, my
+      brother is wrong. The bees have buzzed too near his ears. Weasels can
+      hear, as well as other animals; and I have heard that this young squaw is
+      not this bee-hunter's squaw.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If Injins are to take the scalps of all the pale-faces, why should we not
+      begin with these who are in our hands? When the knife is ready, and the
+      head is ready, nothing but the hand is wanting. Plenty of hands are ready,
+      too; and it does not seem good to the eyes of a poor, miserable weasel,
+      who has to creep through very small holes to catch his game, to let that
+      game go when it is taken. If my great brother, who has told us not to
+      scalp this bee-hunter and her he calls his squaw, will tell us the name of
+      his tribe, I shall be glad. I am an ignorant Injin, and like to learn all
+      I can; I wish to learn that. Perhaps it will help us to understand why he
+      gave one counsel yesterday, and another to-day. There is a reason for it.
+      I wish to know what it is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ungque now slowly seated himself. He had spoken with great moderation, as
+      to manner; and with such an air of humility as one of our own demagogues
+      is apt to assume, when he tells the people of their virtues, and seems to
+      lament the whole time that he, himself, was one of the meanest of the
+      great human family. Peter saw, at once, that he had a cunning competitor,
+      and had a little difficulty in suppressing all exhibition of the fiery
+      indignation he actually felt, at meeting opposition in such a quarter.
+      Peter was artful, and practised in all the wiles of managing men, but he
+      submitted to use his means to attain a great end. The virtual extinction
+      of the white race was his object, and in order to effect it, there was
+      little he would have hesitated to do. Now, however, when for the first
+      time in many years a glimmering of human feeling was shining on the
+      darkness of his mind, he found himself unexpectedly opposed by one of
+      those whom he had formerly found so difficult to persuade into his own
+      dire plans! Had that one been a chief of any renown, the circumstances
+      would have been more tolerable; but here was a man presuming to raise his
+      voice against him, who, so far as he knew anything of his past career, had
+      not a single claim to open his mouth in such a council. With a volcano
+      raging within, that such a state of things would be likely to kindle in
+      the breast of a savage who had been for years a successful and nearly
+      unopposed leader, the mysterious chief rose to reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother says he is a weasel,&rdquo; observed Peter, looking round at the
+      circle of interested and grave countenances by which he was surrounded.
+      &ldquo;That is a very small animal. It creeps through very small holes, but not
+      to do good. It is good for nothing. When it goes through a small hole, it
+      is not to do the Injins a service, but for its own purposes. I do not like
+      weasels.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother is not afraid of a bee-hunter. Can HE tell us what a bee
+      whispers? If he can, I wish he would tell us. Let him show our young men
+      where there is more honey&mdash;where they can find bear's meat for
+      another feast&mdash;where they can find warriors hid in the woods.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother says the bee-hunter has no squaw. How does he know this? Has
+      he lived in the lodge with them&mdash;paddled in the same canoe&mdash;eat
+      of the same venison? A weasel is very small. It might steal into the
+      bee-hunter's lodge, and see what is there, what is doing, what is eaten,
+      who is his squaw, and who is not&mdash;has this weasel ever done so? I
+      never saw him there.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, the Great Spirit has his own way of doing things. He does not
+      stop to listen to weasels. He knows there are such animals&mdash;there are
+      snakes, and toads, and skunks. The Great Spirit knows them all, but he
+      does not mind them. He is wise, and hearkens only to his own mind. So
+      should it be with a council of great chiefs. It should listen to its own
+      mind. That is wisdom. To listen to the mind of a weasel is folly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, you have been told that this weasel does not know the tribe of
+      which I am born. Why should you know it? Injins once were foolish. While
+      the pale-faces were getting one hunting-ground after another from them,
+      they dug up the hatchet against their own friends. They took each other's
+      scalps. Injin hated Injin&mdash;tribe hated tribe. I am of no tribe, and
+      no one can hate me for my people. You see my skin. It is red. That is
+      enough. I scalp, and smoke, and talk, and go on weary paths for all
+      Injins, and not for any tribe. I am without a tribe. Some call me the
+      Tribeless. It is better to bear that name, than to be called a weasel. I
+      have done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter had so much success by this argumentum ad hominem, that most present
+      fancied that the weasel would creep through some hole, and disappear. Not
+      so, however, with Ungque. He was a demagogue, after an Indian fashion; and
+      this is a class of men that ever &ldquo;make capital&rdquo; of abuses, as we Americans
+      say, in our money-getting habits. Instead of being frightened off the
+      ground, he arose to answer as promptly as if a practised debater, though
+      with an air of humility so profound, that no one could take offence at his
+      presumption.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The unknown chief has answered,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I am glad. I love to hear his
+      words. My ears are always open when he speaks, and my mind is stronger. I
+      now see that it is good he should not have a tribe. He may be a Cherokee,
+      and then our warriors would wish him ill.&rdquo; This was a home-thrust, most
+      artfully concealed; a Cherokee being the Indian of all others the most
+      hated by the chiefs present;&mdash;the Carthaginians of those western
+      Romans. &ldquo;It is better he should not have a tribe, than be a Cherokee. He
+      might better be a weasel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, we have been told to kill ALL the pale-faces. I like that
+      advice. The land cannot have two owners. If a pale-face owns it, an Injin
+      cannot. If an Injin owns it, a pale-face cannot. But the chief without a
+      tribe tells us not to kill all. He tells us to kill all but the bee-hunter
+      and his squaw. He thinks this bee-hunter is a medicine bee-hunter, and may
+      do us Injins great harm. He wishes to let him go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, this is not my way of thinking. It is better to kill the
+      bee-hunter and his squaw while we can, that there may be no more such
+      medicine bee-hunters to frighten us Injins. If one bee-hunter can do so
+      much harm, what would a tribe of bee-hunters do? I do not want to see any
+      more. It is a dangerous thing to know how to talk with bees. It is best
+      that no one should have that power. I would rather never taste honey
+      again, than live among pale-faces that can talk with bees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers, it is not enough that the pale-faces know so much more than the
+      red men, but they must get the bees to tell them where to find honey, to
+      find bears, to find warriors. No; let us take the scalp of the bee-talker,
+      and of his squaw, that there may never be such a medicine again. I have
+      spoken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter did not rise again. He felt that his dignity was involved in
+      maintaining silence. Various chiefs now uttered their opinions, in brief,
+      sententious language. For the first time since he began to preach his
+      crusade, the current was setting against the mysterious chief. The Weasel
+      said no more, but the hints he had thrown out were improved on by others.
+      It is with savages as with civilized men; a torrent must find vent. Peter
+      had the sagacity to see that by attempting further to save le Bourdon and
+      Margery, he should only endanger his own ascendancy, without effecting his
+      purpose. Here he completely overlaid the art of Ungque, turning his own
+      defeat into an advantage. After the matter had been discussed for fully an
+      hour, and this mysterious chief perceived that it was useless to adhere to
+      his new resolution, he gave it up with as much tact as the sagacious
+      Wellington himself could manifest in yielding Catholic emancipation, or
+      parliamentary reform; or, just in season to preserve an appearance of
+      floating in the current, and with a grace that disarmed his opponents.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brothers,&rdquo; said Peter, by way of closing the debate, &ldquo;I have not seen
+      straight. Fog sometimes gets before the eyes, and we cannot see. I have
+      been in a fog. The breath of my brother has blown it away. I now see
+      clearly. I see that bee-hunters ought not to live. Let this one die&mdash;let
+      his squaw die, too!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This terminated the discussion, as a matter of course. It was solemnly
+      decided that all the pale-faces then in the Openings should be cut off. In
+      acquiescing in this decision, Peter had no mental reservations. He was
+      quite sincere. When, after sitting two hours longer, in order to arrange
+      still more important points, the council arose, it was with his entire
+      assent to the decision. The only power he retained over the subject was
+      that of directing the details of the contemplated massacre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Why is that graceful female here
+     With yon red hunter of the deer?
+     Of gentle mien and shape, she seems
+     For civil halls design'd;
+     Yet with the stately savage walks,
+     As she were of his kind.
+                            &mdash;Pinkney.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The family at Castle Meal saw nothing of any Indian until the day that
+      succeeded the council. Gershom and Dorothy received the tidings of their
+      sister's marriage with very little emotion. It was an event they expected;
+      and as for bride-cake and ceremonies, of one there was none at all, and of
+      the other no more than has been mentioned. The relatives of Margery did
+      not break their hearts on account of the neglect with which they had been
+      treated, but received the young couple as if one had given her away, and
+      the other &ldquo;had pulled off her glove,&rdquo; as young ladies now express it, in
+      deference to the act that generally gives the coup de grace to youthful
+      female friendships. On the Openings, neither time nor breath is wasted in
+      useless compliments; and all was held to be well done on this occasion,
+      because it was done legally. A question might have been raised, indeed,
+      whether that marriage had taken place under the American, or under the
+      English flag; for General Hull, in surrendering Detroit, had included the
+      entire territory of Michigan, as well as troops present, troops absent,
+      and troops on the march to join him. Had he been in possession of Peter's
+      ruthless secret, which we happen to know he was not, he could not have
+      been more anxious to throw the mantle of British authority around all of
+      his race on that remote frontier, than he proved himself to be. Still, it
+      is to be presumed that the marriage would have been regarded as legal;
+      conquered territories usually preserving their laws and usages for a time,
+      at least. A little joking passed, as a matter of course; for this is de
+      rigueur in all marriages, except in the cases of the most cultivated; and
+      certainly neither the corporal nor Gershom belonged to the elite of human
+      society.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About the hour of breakfast Pigeonswing came in, as if returning from one
+      of his ordinary hunts. He brought with him venison, as well as several
+      wild ducks that he had killed in the Kalamazoo, and three or four prairie
+      hens. The Chippewa never betrayed exultation at the success of his
+      exertions, but on this occasion he actually appeared sad. Dorothy received
+      his game, and as she took the ducks and other fowls, she spoke to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Thank you, Pigeonswing,&rdquo; said the young matron. &ldquo;No pale-face could be a
+      better provider, and many are not one-half as good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What provider mean, eh?&rdquo; demanded the literal-minded savage. &ldquo;Mean good;
+      mean bad, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! it means good, of course. I could say nothing against a hunter who
+      takes so good care of us all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What he mean, den?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It means a man who keeps his wife and children well supplied with food.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You get 'nough, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I get enough, Pigeonswing, thanks to your industry, such as it is. Injin
+      diet, however, is not always the best for Christian folk, though a body
+      may live on it. I miss many things, out here in the Openings, to which I
+      have been used all the early part of my life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What squaw miss, eh? P'raps Injin find him sometime.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I thank you, Pigeonswing, with all my heart, and am just as grateful for
+      your good intentions, as I should be was you to do all you wish. It is the
+      mind that makes the marcy, and not always the deed. But you can never find
+      the food of a pale-face kitchen out here in the Openings of Michigan. When
+      a body comes to reckon up all the good things of Ameriky, she don't know
+      where to begin, or where to stop. I miss tea as much as anything. And milk
+      comes next. Then there's buckwheat and coffee&mdash;though things may be
+      found in the woods to make coffee of, but tea has no substitute. Then, I
+      like wheaten bread, and butter, and potatoes, and many other such
+      articles, that I was used to all my life, until I came out here, close to
+      sunset. As for pies and custards, I can't bear to think of 'em now!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Pigeonswing looked intently at the woman, as she carefully enumerated her
+      favorites among the dishes of her home-kitchen. When she had ended, he
+      raised a finger, looked still more significantly at her, and said:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don't go back, get all dem good t'ings? Better for pale-face to eat
+      pale-face food, and leave Injin Injin food.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For my part, Pigeonswing, I wish such had ever been the law. Venison, and
+      prairie-fowls, and wild ducks, and trout, and bear's meat, and wild
+      pigeons, and the fish that are to be found in these western rivers, are
+      all good for them that was brought up on 'em, but they tire an eastern
+      palate dreadfully. Give me roast beef any day before buffalo's hump, and a
+      good barn-yard fowl before all the game-birds that ever flew.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; dat de way pale-face squaw feel. Bess go back, and get what she
+      like. Bess go quick as she can&mdash;go today.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I'm in no such hurry, Pigeonswing, and I like these Openings well enough
+      to stay a while longer, and see what all these Injins, that they tell me
+      are about 'em, mean to do. Now we are fairly among your people, and on
+      good terms with them, it is wisest to stay where we are. These are
+      war-times, and travelling is dangerous, they tell me. When Gershom and
+      Bourdon are ready to start, I shall be ready.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bess get ready, now,&rdquo; rejoined Pigeonswing; who, having given this advice
+      with point, as to manner, proceeded to the spring, where he knelt and
+      slaked his thirst. The manner of the Chippewa was such as to attract the
+      attention of the missionary, who, full of his theory, imagined that this
+      desire to get rid of the whites was, in some way or other, connected with
+      a reluctance in the Indians to confess themselves Jews. He had been quite
+      as much surprised as he was disappointed, with the backwardness of the
+      chiefs in accepting this tradition, and was now in a state of mind that
+      predisposed him to impute everything to this one cause.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope, Pigeonswing,&rdquo; he said to the Chippewa, whom he had followed to
+      the spring&mdash;&ldquo;I hope, Pigeonswing, that no offence has been taken by
+      the chiefs on account of what I told them yesterday, concerning their
+      being Jews. It is what I think, and it is an honor to belong to God's
+      chosen people, and in no sense a disgrace. I hope no offence has been
+      taken on account of my telling the chief they are Jews.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't care any t'ing 'bout it,&rdquo; answered the literal Indian, rising from
+      his kneeling position, and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
+      &ldquo;Don't care wedder Jew, or wedder Indian.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;For my own part, gladly would I have it to say that I am descended from
+      Israel.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why don't say him, if he make you grad? Good to be grad. All Injin love
+      to be grad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Because I cannot say it with truth. No; I come of the Gentiles, and not
+      of the Hebrews, else would I glory in saying I am a Jew, in the sense of
+      extraction, though not now in the sense of faith. I trust the chiefs will
+      not take offence at my telling them just what I think.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell you he don't care,&rdquo; returned Pigeonswing, a little crustily. &ldquo;Don't
+      care if Jew&mdash;don't care if Injin. Know dat make no difference.
+      Hunting-ground just same&mdash;game just same&mdash;scalps just same. Make
+      no difference, and don't care.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad of this&mdash;but why did you advise Dorothy to quit the
+      Openings in the hasty manner you did, if all is right with the chiefs? It
+      is not good to start on a journey without preparation and prayer. Why,
+      then, did you give this advice to Dorothy to quit the Openings so soon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bess for squaw to go home, when Injin dig up hatchet. Openin' full of
+      warrior&mdash;prairie full of warrior&mdash;wood full of warrior. When dat
+      so, bess for squaw to go home.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This would be true, were the Indians our enemies. Heaven be praised, they
+      are our friends, and will not harm us. Peter is a great chief, and can
+      make his young men do what he tells them; and Peter is our friend. With
+      Peter to stand by us, and a merciful Providence to direct us where, when,
+      and how to go, we can have nothing to fear. I trust in Divine Providence.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who he be?&rdquo; asked Pigeonswing, innocently, for his knowledge of English
+      did not extend far enough to comprehend a phrase so complicated, though so
+      familiar to ourselves. &ldquo;He know all paths, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; and directs us on all paths&mdash;more especially such as are for
+      our good.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bess get him to tell you path into Detroit. Dat good path, now, for all
+      pale-faces.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      On uttering this advice, which he did also somewhat pointedly, the
+      Chippewa left the spring, and walked toward the kennel of Hive, where the
+      bee-hunter was busy feeding his old companion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You're welcome back, Pigeonswing,&rdquo; the last cordially remarked, without
+      pausing in his occupation, however. &ldquo;I saw that you came in loaded, as
+      usual. Have you left any dead game in the Openings, for me to go and back
+      in with you?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You open ear, Bourdon&mdash;you know what Injin say,&rdquo; returned the
+      Chippewa, earnestly. &ldquo;When dog get 'nough come wid me. Got somet'ing to
+      tell. Bess hear it, when he CAN hear it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You'll find me ready enough in a minute. There, Hive, my good fellow,
+      that ought to satisfy any reasonable dog, and I've never found you
+      unreasonable yet. Well, Chippewa, here I am, with my ears wide open&mdash;stop,
+      I've a bit of news, first, for your ears. Do you know, Pigeonswing, my
+      good fellow, that I am married?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Marry, eh? Got squaw, eh? Where you get him?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here, to be sure&mdash;where else should I get her? There is but one girl
+      in these Openings that I would ask to be my wife, and she has been asked,
+      and answered, yes. Parson Amen married us, yesterday, on our way in from
+      Prairie Round; so that puts me on a footing with yourself. When you boast
+      of your squaw that you've left in your wigwam, I can boast of mine that I
+      have here. Margery is a girl to boast of, too!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; good squaw, dat. Like dat squaw pretty well. Nebber see better. Bess
+      keep squaw alway in his own wigwam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, mine is in my own wigwam. Castle Meal is my property, and she does
+      it honor.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat an't what Injin mean. Mean dis. Bess have wigwam at home, dere, where
+      pale-face lives, and bess keep squaw in DAT wigwam. Where my squaw, eh?
+      She home, in my wigwam&mdash;take care of pappoose, hoe corn, and keep
+      ground good. So bess wid white squaw&mdash;bess home, at work.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe I understand what you mean, Pigeon. Well, home we mean to go,
+      before the winter sets in, and when matters have a little settled down
+      between the English and Yankees. It isn't safe travelling, just now, in
+      Michigan&mdash;you must own that, yourself, my good fellow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian appeared at a loss, now, how to express himself further. On one
+      side was his faith to his color, and his dread of Peter and the great
+      chiefs; on the other, his strong regard for the bee-hunter. He pondered a
+      moment, and then took his own manner of communicating that which he wished
+      to say. The fact that his friend was married made no great difference in
+      his advice, for the Indian was much too shrewd an observer not to have
+      detected the bee-hunter's attachment. He had not supposed it possible to
+      separate his friend from the family of Gershom, though he did suppose
+      there would be less difficulty in getting him to go on a path different
+      from that which the missionary and corporal might take. His own great
+      purpose was to serve le Bourdon, and how many or how few might
+      incidentally profit by it he did not care. The truth compels us to own,
+      that even Margery's charms, and nature, and warm-hearted interest in all
+      around her, had failed to make any impression on his marble-like feelings;
+      while the bee-hunter's habits, skill in his craft, and close connection
+      with himself at the mouth of the river, and more especially in liberating
+      him from his enemies, had united him in a comrade's friendship with her
+      husband. It was a little singular that this Chippewa did not fall into
+      Peter's superstitious dread of the bee-hunter's necromancy, though he was
+      aware of all that had passed the previous day on the prairie. Either on
+      account of his greater familiarity with le Bourdon's habits, or because he
+      was in the secret of the trick of the whiskey-spring, or from a closer
+      knowledge of white men and their ways, this young Indian was freer from
+      apprehensions of this nature, perhaps, than any one of the same color and
+      origin within many miles of the spot. In a word, Pigeons-wing regarded the
+      bee-hunter as his friend, while he looked upon the other pale-faces as so
+      many persons thrown by accident in his company. Now that Margery had
+      actually become his friend's squaw, his interest in her was somewhat
+      increased; though she had never obtained that interest in his feelings
+      that she had awakened in the breast of Peter, by her attentions to him,
+      her gentleness, light-hearted gayety, and womanly care, and all without
+      the least design on her own part.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; answered the Chippewa, after a moment's reflection, &ldquo;no very safe
+      for Yankee, or Yankee Injin. Don't t'ink my scalp very safe, if chief
+      know'd I'm Yankee runner. Bess alway to keep scalp safe. Dem Pottawattamie
+      I take care not to see. Know all about 'em, too. Know what he SAY&mdash;know
+      what he DO&mdash;b'lieve I know what he T'INK.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I did not see you, Pigeon, among the red young men, yesterday, out on
+      Prairie Round.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Know too much to go dere. Crowsfeather and Pottawattamie out dere. Bess
+      not go near dem when dey have eye open. Take 'em asleep. Dat bess way wid
+      sich Injin. Catch 'em some time! But your ear open, Bourdon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wide open, my good friend&mdash;what have you to whisper in it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You look hard at Peter when he come in. If he t'ink good deal, and don't
+      say much, when he DO speak, mind what he say. If he smile, and very much
+      friend, must hab his scalp.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Chippewa, Peter is my friend, lives in my cabin, and eats of my bread!
+      The hand that touches him, touches me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Which bess, eh&mdash;HIS scalp, or your'n? If he VERY much friend when he
+      comes in, his scalp muss come off, or your'n. Yes, juss so. Dat de way.
+      Know Injin better dan you know him, Bourdon. You good bee-hunter, but poor
+      Injin. Ebbery body hab his way&mdash;Injin got his. Peter laugh and very
+      much friend, when he come home, den he mean to hab YOUR scalp. If don't
+      smile, and don't seem very much friend, but look down, and t'ink, t'ink,
+      t'ink, den he no mean to hurt you, but try to get you out of hand of
+      chiefs. Dat all.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Pigeonswing concluded, he walked coolly away, leaving his friend to
+      ruminate on the alternative of scalp or no scalp! The bee-hunter now
+      understood the Chippewa perfectly. He was aware that this man had means of
+      his own to ascertain what was passing around him in the Openings, and he
+      had the utmost confidence in his integrity and good wishes. If a red man
+      is slow to forget an injury, he never forgets a favor. In this he was as
+      unlike as possible to most of the pale-faces who were supplanting his
+      race, for these last had, and have, as extraordinary a tenacity in losing
+      sight of benefits, as they have in remembering wrongs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By some means or other, it was now clear that Pigeonswing foresaw that a
+      crisis was at hand. Had le Bourdon been as disconnected and solitary as he
+      was when he first met the Chippewa, it is not probable that either the
+      words or the manner of his friend would have produced much impression on
+      him, so little accustomed was he to dwell on the hazards of his frontier
+      position. But the case was now altogether changed. Margery and her claims
+      stood foremost in his mind; and through Margery came Dolly and her
+      husband. There was no mistaking Pigeonswing's intention. It was to give
+      warning of some immediate danger, and a danger that, in some way, was
+      connected with the deportment of Peter. It was easy enough to comprehend
+      the allusions to the mysterious chief's smiles and melancholy; and the
+      bee-hunter understood that he was to watch that Indian's manner, and take
+      the alarm or bestow his confidence accordingly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon was not left long in doubt. Peter arrived about half-an-hour
+      after Pigeonswing had gone to seek his rest; and from the instant he came
+      in sight, our hero discerned the thoughtful eye and melancholy manner.
+      These signs were still more obvious when the tribeless Indian came nearer;
+      so obvious, indeed, as to strike more than one of those who were
+      interested observers of all that this extraordinary being said and did.
+      Among others, Margery was the first to see this change, and the first to
+      let it influence her own manner. This she did, notwithstanding le Bourdon
+      had said nothing to her on the subject, and in defiance of the bashful
+      feelings of a bride; which, under circumstances less marked, might have
+      induced her to keep more in the background. As Peter stopped at the spring
+      to quench his thirst, Margery was, in truth, the first to approach and to
+      speak to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You seem weary, Peter,&rdquo; said the young wife, somewhat timidly as to voice
+      and air, but with a decided and honest manifestation of interest in what
+      she was about. Nor had Margery gone empty-handed. She took with her a
+      savory dish, one of those that the men of the woods love&mdash;meat cooked
+      in its own juices, and garnished with several little additions, that her
+      skill in the arts of civilized life enabled her to supply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You seem tired, Peter, and if I did not fear to say it, I should tell you
+      that you also seem sad,&rdquo; said Margery, as she placed her dish on a rude
+      table that was kept at the spot, for the convenience of those who seldom
+      respected hours, or regularity of any sort in their meals. &ldquo;Here is food
+      that you like, which I have cooked with my own hands.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indian looked intently at the timid and charming young creature, who
+      came forward thus to contribute to his comforts, and the saddened
+      expression of his countenance deepened. He was fatigued and hungry, and he
+      ate for some time without speaking, beyond uttering a brief expression of
+      his thanks. When his appetite was appeased, however, and she who had so
+      sedulously attended to his wants was about to remove the remains of the
+      dish, he signed with his finger for her to draw nearer, intimating that he
+      had something to say. Margery obeyed without hesitation, though the color
+      flitted in her face like the changes in an evening sky. But so much good
+      will and confidence had been awakened between these two, that a daughter
+      would not have drawn near to a father with more confidence than Margery
+      stood before Peter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Medicine-man do what I tell him, young squaw, eh?&rdquo; demanded Peter,
+      smiling slightly, and for the first time since they had met.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;By medicine-man do you mean Mr. Amen, or Bourdon?&rdquo; the bride asked in her
+      turn, her whole face reflecting the confusion she felt, scarcely knowing
+      why.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bot'. One medicine-man say his prayer; t'odder medicine-man take young
+      squaw's hand, and lead her into his wigwam. Dat what I mean.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am married to Bourdon,&rdquo; returned Margery, dropping her eyes to the
+      ground, &ldquo;if that be what you wish to know. I hope you think I shall have a
+      good husband, Peter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hope so, too&mdash;nebber know till time come. All good for little while&mdash;Injin
+      good, squaw good. Juss like weadder. Sometime rain&mdash;sometime storm&mdash;sometime
+      sunshine. Juss so wid Injin, juss so wid pale-face. No difference. All
+      same. You see dat cloud?&mdash;he little now; but let wind blow, he grow
+      big, and you see nuttin' but cloud. Let him have plenty of sunshine, and
+      he go away; den all clear over head. Dat bess way to live wid husband.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And that is the way which Bourdon and I WILL always live together. When
+      we get back among our own people, Peter, and are living comfortably in a
+      pale-face wigwam, with pale-face food, and pale-face drinks, and all the
+      other good things of pale-face housekeeping about us, then I hope you will
+      come and see how happy we are, and pass some time with us. Every year I
+      wish you to come and see us, and to bring us venison, and Bourdon will
+      give you powder, and lead, and blankets, and all you may want, unless it
+      be fire-water. Fire-water he has promised never again to give to an
+      Injin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No find any more whiskey-spring, eh?&rdquo; demanded Peter, greatly interested
+      in the young woman's natural and warm-hearted manner of proposing her
+      hospitalities. &ldquo;So bess&mdash;so bess. Great curse for Injin. Plenty
+      honey, no fire-water. All dat good. And I come, if&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here Peter stopped, nor could all Margery's questions induce him to
+      complete the sentence. His gaze at the earnest countenance of the bride
+      was such as to give her an indefinite sort of uneasiness, not to say a
+      feeling of alarm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still no explanation passed between them. Margery remained near Peter for
+      some time, administering to his wants, and otherwise demeaning herself
+      much as a daughter might have done. At length le Bourdon joined them. The
+      salutations were friendly, and the manner in which the mysterious chief
+      regarded the equally mysterious bee-hunter, was not altogether without a
+      certain degree of awe. Boden perceived this, and was not slow to
+      comprehend that he owed this accession of influence to the scene which had
+      occurred on the prairie.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Is the great council ended, Peter?&rdquo; asked the bee-hunter, when the little
+      interval of silence had been observed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, it over. No more council, now, on Prairie Round.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And the chiefs&mdash;have they all gone on their proper paths? What has
+      become of my old acquaintance, Crowsfeather? and all the rest of them&mdash;Bear's
+      Meat, in particular?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All gone. No more council now. Agree what to do and so go away.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But are red men always as good as their words? do they PERFORM always
+      what they PROMISE?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartain. Ebbery man ought do what he say. Dat Injin law&mdash;no
+      pale-face law, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It may be the LAW, Peter, and a very good law it is; but we white men do
+      not always MIND our own laws.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat bad&mdash;Great Spirit don't like dat,&rdquo; returned Peter, looking
+      grave, and slowly shaking his head. &ldquo;Dat very bad. When Injin say he do
+      it, den he do it, if he can. If can't, no help for it. Send squaw away
+      now, Bourdon&mdash;bess not to let squaw hear what men say, or will always
+      want to hear.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon laughed, as he turned to Margery and repeated these words. The
+      young wife colored, but she took it in good part, and ran up toward the
+      palisaded lodge, like one who was glad to be rid of her companions. Peter
+      waited a few moments, then turning his head slowly in all directions, to
+      make sure of not being overheard, he began to lay open his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You been on Prairie Round, Bourdon&mdash;you see Injin dere&mdash;chief,
+      warrior, young men, hunter, all dere.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I saw them all, Peter, and a goodly sight it was&mdash;what between
+      paint, and medals, and bows and arrows and tomahawks, and all your
+      bravery!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You like to see him, eh? Yes; he fine t'ing to look at. Well, dat council
+      call togedder by ME&mdash;you know dat, too, Bourdon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have heard you say that such was your intention, and I suppose you did
+      it, chief. They tell me you have great power among your own people, and
+      that they do very much as you tell them to do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter looked graver than ever at this remark; and one of his startling
+      gleams of ferocity passed over his dark countenance. Then he answered with
+      his customary self-command.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sometime so,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;sometime not so. Yesterday, not so. Dere is chief
+      dat want to put Peter under his foot! He try, but he no do it! I know
+      Peter well, and know dat chief, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is news to me, Peter, and I am surprised to hear it. I did think
+      that even the great Tecumthe was scarcely as big a chief as you are
+      yourself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, pretty big chief; dat true. But, among Injin, ebbery man can speak,
+      and nebber know which way council go. Sometime he go one way; sometime he
+      go tudder. You hear Bough of Oak speak, eh? Tell me dat?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You will remember that I heard none of your speakers on Prairie Round,
+      Peter. I do not remember any such orator as this Bough of Oak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He great rascal,&rdquo; said Peter, who had picked up some of the garrison
+      expressions among those from whom he acquired the knowledge of English he
+      possessed, such as it was. &ldquo;Listen, Bourdon. Nebber bess stand too much in
+      Peter's way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter laughed freely at this remark; for his own success the
+      previous day, and the impression he had evidently made on that occasion,
+      emboldened him to take greater liberties with the mysterious chief than
+      had been his wont.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should think that, Peter,&rdquo; cried the young man, gayly&mdash;&ldquo;I should
+      think all that. For one, I should choose to get out of it. The path you
+      travel is your own, and all wise men will leave you to journey along it in
+      your own fashion.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; dat bess way,&rdquo; answered the great chief, with admirable simplicity.
+      &ldquo;Don't like, when he says yes, to hear anudder chief say no. Dat an't good
+      way to do business.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      These were expressions caught from the trading whites, and were often used
+      by those who got their English from them. &ldquo;I tell you one t'ing, Bourdon&mdash;dat
+      Bough of Oak very foolish Injin if he put foot on my path.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is plain enough, Peter,&rdquo; rejoined le Bourdon, who was unconcernedly
+      repairing some of the tools of his ordinary craft. &ldquo;By the way, I am
+      greatly in your debt, I learn, for one thing. They tell me I've got my
+      squaw in my wigwam a good deal sooner, by your advice, than I might have
+      otherwise done. Margery is now my wife, I suppose you know; and I thank
+      you heartily, for helping me to get married so much sooner than I expected
+      to be.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here Peter grasped Bourdon by the hand, and poured out his whole soul,
+      secret hopes, fears, and wishes. On this occasion he spoke in the Indian
+      dialect&mdash;one of those that he knew the bee-hunter understood. And we
+      translate what he said freely into English, preserving as much of the
+      original idiom as the change of language will permit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Listen, hunter of the bee, the great medicine of the pale-faces, and hear
+      what a chief that knows the red men is about to tell you. Let my words go
+      into your ears; let them stay in your mind. They are words that will do
+      you good. It is not wise to let such words come out again by the hole
+      through which they have just entered.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My young friend knows our traditions. They do not tell us that the Injins
+      were Jews; they tell us that the Manitou created them red men. They tell
+      us that our fathers used these hunting-grounds ever since the earth was
+      placed on the back of the big tortoise which upholds it. The pale-faces
+      say the earth moves. If this be true, it moves as slowly as the tortoise
+      walks. It cannot have gone far since the Great Spirit lifted his hand off
+      it. If it move, the hunting-grounds move with it, and the tribes move with
+      their own hunting-grounds. It may be that some of the pale-faces are lost,
+      but no Injin is lost&mdash;the medicine-priest is mistaken. He has looked
+      so often in his book, that he sees nothing but what is there. He does not
+      see what is before his eyes, at his side, behind his back, all around him.
+      I have known such Injins. They see but one thing; even the deer jump
+      across their paths, and are not seen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such are our traditions. They tell us that this land was given to the red
+      men, and not to pale-faces. That none but red men have any right to hunt
+      here. The Great Spirit has laws. He has told us these laws. They teach us
+      to love our friends, and to hate our enemies. You don't believe this,
+      Bourdon?&rdquo; observing the bee-hunter to wince a little, as if he found the
+      doctrine bad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is not what our priests tell US,&rdquo; answered le Bourdon. &ldquo;They tell us
+      that the white man's God commands us to love all alike&mdash;to do GOOD to
+      our enemies, to LOVE them that wish us HARM, and to treat all men as we
+      would wish men to treat us.&rdquo; Peter was a good deal surprised at this
+      doctrine, and it was nearly a minute before he resumed the discourse. He
+      had recently heard it several times, and it was slowly working its way
+      into his mind.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Such are our traditions, and such are our laws. Look at me. Fifty winters
+      have tried to turn my hair white. Time can do that. The hair is the only
+      part of an Injin that ever turns white; all the rest of him is red. That
+      is his color. The game knows an Injin by his color. The tribes know him.
+      Everything knows him by his color. He knows the things which the Great
+      Spirit has given him, in the same way. He gets used to them, and they are
+      his acquaintances. He does not like strange things. He does not like
+      strangers. White men are strangers, and he does not like to see them on
+      his hunting-ground. If they come singly, to kill a few buffaloes, or to
+      look for honey, or to catch beaver, the Injins would not complain. They
+      love to give of their abundance. The pale-faces do not come in this
+      fashion. They do not come as guests; they come as masters. They come and
+      they stay. Each year of my fifty have I heard of new tribes that have been
+      driven by them toward the setting sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bourdon, for many seasons I have thought of this. I have tried to find a
+      way to stop them. There is but one. That way must the Injins try, or give
+      up their hunting-grounds to the strangers. No nation likes to give up its
+      hunting-grounds. They come from the Manitou, and one day he may ask to
+      have them back again. What could the red men say, if they let the
+      pale-faces take them away? No; this we cannot do. We will first try the
+      one thing that is to be done.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe I understand you, Peter,&rdquo; observed le Bourdon, finding that his
+      companion paused. &ldquo;You mean war. War, in the Injin mode of redressing all
+      wrongs; war against man, woman, and child!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter nodded in acquiescence, fixing his glowing eyes on the bee-hunter's
+      face, as if to read his soul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Am I to understand, then, that you and your friends, the chiefs and their
+      followers, that I saw on Prairie Round, mean to begin with US,
+      half-a-dozen whites, of whom two are women, who happen to be here in your
+      power&mdash;that OUR scalps are to be the first taken?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;First!&mdash;no, Bourdon. Peter's hand has taken a great many, years
+      since. He has got a name for his deeds, and no longer dare go to the white
+      men's forts. He does not look for Yankees, he looks for pale-faces. When
+      he meets a pale-face on the prairies, or in the woods, he tries to get his
+      scalp. This has he done for years, and many has he taken.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is a bloody account you are giving of yourself, Peter, and I would
+      rather you should not have told it. Some such account I have heard before;
+      but living with you, and eating, and drinking, and sleeping, and
+      travelling in your company, I had not only hoped, but begun to think, it
+      was not true.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is true. My wish is to cut off the pale-faces. This must be done, or
+      the pale-faces will cut off the Injins. There is no choice. One nation or
+      the other must be destroyed. I am a red man; my heart tells me that the
+      pale-faces should die. They are on strange hunting-grounds, not the red
+      men. They are wrong, we are right. But, Bourdon, I have friends among the
+      pale-faces, and it is not natural to scalp our friends. I do not
+      understand a religion that tells us to love our enemies, and to do good to
+      them that do harm to us&mdash;it is a strange religion. I am a poor Injin,
+      and do not know what to think! I shall not believe that any do this, till
+      I see it. I understand that we ought to love our friends. Your squaw is my
+      daughter. I have called her daughter&mdash;she knows it, and my tongue is
+      not forked, like a snake's. What it says, I mean. Once I meant to scalp
+      your young squaw, because she was a pale-face squaw, and might be the
+      mother of more. Now I do not mean to scalp her; my hand shall never harm
+      her. My wisdom shall tell her to escape from the hands of red men who seek
+      her scalp. You, too; now you are her husband, and are a great medicine-man
+      of the bees, my hand shall not hurt you, either. Open your ears wide, for
+      big truths must go into them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter then related in full his attempt to procure a safe passage for le
+      Bourdon and Margery into the settlements, and its total failure. He owned
+      that by his previous combinations he had awakened a spirit among the
+      Indians that his present efforts could not quell. In a word, he told the
+      whole story as it must have been made apparent to the reader, and he now
+      came with his plans to defeat the very schemes that he had himself
+      previously projected. One thing, however, that he did not conceal, filled
+      the mind of his listener with horror, and created so strong an aversion to
+      acting in concert with one who could even allude to it so coolly, that
+      there was danger of breaking off all communications between the parties,
+      and placing the result purely on force; a course that must have proved
+      totally destructive to all the whites. The difficulty arose from a naive
+      confession of Peter's, that he did not even wish to save any but le
+      Bourdon and Margery, and that he still desired the deaths of all the
+      others, himself!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     For thou wert born of woman! Thou didst come,
+     O Holiest! to this world of sin and gloom,
+     Not in thy dread omnipotent array;
+     And not by thunders strewed
+     Was thy tempestuous road,
+     Nor indignation burnt before thee on thy way.
+     But thee, a soft and naked child,
+     Thy mother undefiled,
+     In the rude manger laid to rest
+     From off her virgin breast.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The blood of the bee-hunter curdled in his veins as he listened to Peter's
+      business-like and direct manner of treating this terrible subject. Putting
+      the most favorable view on his situation, it was frightful to look on.
+      Admitting that this fanatical savage were sincere in all his professions
+      of a wish to save him and Margery, and le Bourdon did not, nay, COULD not
+      doubt this, after his calm but ferocious revelations; but, admitting all
+      this to be true, how was he to escape with his charming bride, environed
+      as they were by so large a band of hostile Indians? Then the thought of
+      abandoning his other companions, and attempting, in cold selfishness, to
+      escape with Margery alone, was more than he could bear. Never before, in
+      his adventurous and bold life, had le Bourdon been so profoundly impressed
+      with a sense of his danger, or so much overcome.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still, our hero was not unmanned. He saw all the hazards, as it were, at a
+      glance, and felt how terrible might be the result should they really fall
+      into the hands of the warriors, excited to exercise their ingenuity in
+      devising the means of torture; and he gazed into the frightful perspective
+      with a manly steadiness that did him credit, even while he sickened at the
+      prospect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter had told his story in a way to add to its horrible character. There
+      was a manner of truth, of directness, of WORK, if one may use such an
+      expression on such a subject, that gave a graphic reality to all he said.
+      As if his task was done, the mysterious chief now coolly arose, and moved
+      away to a little grove, in which the missionary and the corporal had
+      thrown themselves on the grass, where they lay speculating on the probable
+      course that the bands in their neighborhood would next pursue. So
+      thoroughly possessed was the clergyman with his one idea, however, that he
+      was expressing regret at his failure in the attempt to convince the
+      savages that they were Jews, when Peter joined them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You tired&mdash;you lie down in daytime, like sick squaw, eh?&rdquo; asked the
+      Indian, in a slightly satirical manner. &ldquo;Bess be up, sich fine day, and go
+      wid me to see some more chief.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most gladly, Peter,&rdquo; returned the missionary, springing to his feet with
+      alacrity&mdash;&ldquo;and I shall have one more opportunity to show your friends
+      the truth of what I have told them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Injin love to hear trut'&mdash;hate to hear lie. Can tell 'em all
+      you want to say. He go too, eh?&rdquo; pointing to the corporal, who rather hung
+      back, as if he saw that in the invitation which was not agreeable to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will answer for my friend,&rdquo; returned the confiding missionary,
+      cheerfully. &ldquo;Lead on, Peter, and we will follow.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus pledged, the corporal no longer hesitated; but he accompanied Parson
+      Amen, as the latter fell into the tracks of the chief, and proceeded
+      rapidly in the direction of the spring in the piece of bottom-land, where
+      the council first described had been held. This spot was about two miles
+      from the palisaded house, and quite out of view, as well as out of reach
+      of sound. As they walked side by side, taking the footsteps of the great
+      chief for their guides, the corporal, however, expressed to his companion
+      his dislike of the whole movement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We ought to stand by our garrison in times like these, Mr. Amen,&rdquo; said
+      the well-meaning soldier. &ldquo;A garrison is a garrison; and Injins seldom do
+      much on a well-built and boldly-defended spot of that natur'. They want
+      artillery, without which their assaults are never very formidable.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why talk you of warlike means, corporal, when we are in the midst of
+      friends? Is not Peter our known and well-tried associate, one with whom
+      you and I have travelled far; and do we not know that we have friends
+      among these chiefs, whom we are now going to visit? The Lord has led me
+      into these distant and savage regions, to carry his word, and to proclaim
+      his name; and a most unworthy and unprofitable servant should I prove,
+      were I to hesitate about approaching them I am appointed to teach. No, no;
+      fear nothing. I will not say that you carry Caesar and his fortunes, as I
+      have heard was once said of old, but I will say you follow one who is led
+      of God, and who marches with the certainty of being divinely commanded.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The corporal was ashamed to oppose so confident an enthusiasm, and he
+      offered no further resistance. Together the two followed their leader,
+      who, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, soon had them out
+      of sight of the castle, and well on their way toward the spring. When
+      about half the distance was made, the direction took the party through a
+      little thicket, or rather along its margin, and the missionary, a good
+      deal to his surprise, saw Pigeonswing within the cover, seemingly
+      preparing for another hunt. This young warrior had so lately returned from
+      one excursion of this nature, that he was not expected to go forth so soon
+      on another. Nor was he accustomed to go out so early in the day. This was
+      the hour in which he ordinarily slept; but there he was, beyond a
+      question, and apparently looking at the party as it passed. So cold was
+      his manner, however, and so indifferent did he seem, that no one would
+      have suspected that he knew aught of what was in contemplation. Having
+      satisfied himself that his friend, the bee-hunter, was not one of those
+      who followed Peter, the Chippewa turned coldly away, and began to examine
+      the flint of his rifle. The corporal noted this manner, and it gave him
+      additional confidence to proceed; for he could not imagine that any human
+      being would manifest so much indifference, when sinister designs existed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter turned neither to the right hand nor to the left, until he had led
+      the way down upon the little arena of bottom-land already described, and
+      which was found well sprinkled with savages. A few stood, or sat about in
+      groups, earnestly conversing; but most lay extended at length on the green
+      sward, in the indolent repose that is so grateful to an Indian warrior in
+      his hours of inaction. The arrival of Peter, however, instantly put a new
+      face on the appearance of matters. Every man started to his feet, and
+      additions were made to those who were found in the arena by those who came
+      out of the adjacent thickets, until some two or three hundred of the red
+      men were assembled in a circle around the newly-arrived pale-faces.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;There,&rdquo; said Peter, sternly, fastening his eye with a hostile expression
+      on Bough of the Oak and Ungque, in particular&mdash;&ldquo;there are your
+      captives. Do with them as you will. As for them that have dared to
+      question my faith, let them own that they are liars!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was not a very amicable salutation, but savages are accustomed to
+      plain language. Bough of the Oak appeared a little uneasy, and Ungque's
+      countenance denoted dissatisfaction; but the last was too skilful an actor
+      to allow many of the secrets of his plotting mind to shine through the
+      windows of his face. As for the crowd at large, gleams of content passed
+      over the bright red faces, illuminating them with looks of savage joy.
+      Murmurs of approbation were heard, and Crowsfeather addressed the throng,
+      there, where it stood, encircling the two helpless and as yet but
+      half-alarmed victims of so fell a plot.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brothers and my young men can now see,&rdquo; said this Pottawattamie, &ldquo;that
+      the tribeless chief has an Injin heart. His heart is NOT a pale-face heart&mdash;it
+      is that of a red man. Some of our chiefs have thought that he had lived
+      too much with the strangers, and that he had forgotten the traditions of
+      our fathers, and was listening to the song of the medicine priest. Some
+      thought that he believed himself lost, and a Jew, and not an Injin. This
+      is not so. Peter knows the path he is on. He knows that he is a redskin,
+      and he looks on the Yankees as enemies. The scalps he has taken are so
+      numerous they cannot be counted. He is ready to take more. Here are two
+      that he gives to us. When we have done with these two captives, he will
+      bring us more. He will continue to bring them, until the pale-faces will
+      be as few as the deer in their own clearings. Such is the will of the
+      Manitou.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The missionary understood all that was said, and he was not a little
+      appalled at the aspect of things. For the first time he began to apprehend
+      that he was in danger. So much was this devout and well-intentioned
+      servant of his church accustomed to place his dependence on a
+      superintending Providence, that apprehension of personal suffering seldom
+      had any influence on his exertions. He believed himself to be an object of
+      especial care; though he was ever ready to admit that the wisdom which
+      human minds cannot compass, might order events that, at first sight, would
+      seem to be opposed to that which ought to be permitted to come to pass. In
+      this particular Parson Amen was a model of submission, firmly believing
+      that all that happened was in furtherance of the great scheme of man's
+      regeneration and eventual salvation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the corporal it was very different. Accustomed to war with red men,
+      and most acquainted with them in their worst character, he ever suspected
+      treachery, and had followed Peter with a degree of reluctance he had not
+      cared to express. He now thoroughly took the alarm, however, and stood on
+      his guard. Although he did not comprehend more than half of that which
+      Peter had said, he understood quite enough to see that he and the
+      missionary were surrounded by enemies, if not by executioners.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We have fallen into a sort of ambush here, Parson Amen,&rdquo; cried the
+      corporal, rattling his arms as he looked to their condition, &ldquo;and it's
+      high time we beat the general. If there were four on us we might form a
+      square; but being only two, the best thing we can do will be to stand back
+      to back, and for one to keep an eye on the right flank, while he nat'rally
+      watches all in front; and for the other to keep an eye on the left flank,
+      while he sees to the rear. Place your back close to mine, and take the
+      left flank into your part of the lookout. Closer, closer, my good sir; we
+      must stand solid as rooted trees, to make anything of a stand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The missionary, in his surprise, permitted the corporal to assume the
+      position described, though conscious of its uselessness in their actual
+      condition. As for the Indians, the corporal's manner and the rattling of
+      his arms induced the circle to recede several paces; though nothing like
+      alarm prevailed among them. The effect, nevertheless, was to leave the two
+      captives space for their evolutions, and a sort of breathing time. This
+      little change had the appearance of something like success, and it greatly
+      encouraged the corporal. He began to think it even possible to make a
+      retreat that would be as honorable as any victory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Steady&mdash;keep shoulder to shoulder, Parson Amen, and take care of
+      your flank. Our movement must be by our left flank, and everything depends
+      on keeping that clear. I shall have to give you my baggonet, for you're
+      entirely without arms, which leaves my rear altogether exposed.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Think nothing of your arms, Brother Flint&mdash;they would be useless in
+      my hands in any case; and, were we made of muskets, they could be of no
+      use against these odds. My means of defence come from on high; my armor is
+      faith; and my only weapon, prayer. I shall not hesitate to use the last on
+      this, as on all other occasions.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The missionary then called on the circle of curious savages by whom he was
+      surrounded, and who certainly contemplated nothing less than his death, in
+      common with those of all his white companions, to unite with him in
+      addressing the Throne of Grace. Accustomed to preach and pray to these
+      people in their own dialect, the worthy parson made a strong appeal to
+      their charities, while supplicating the favors of Divine Providence in
+      behalf of himself and his brother captive. He asked for all the usual
+      benedictions and blessings on his enemies, and made a very happy
+      exposition of those sublime dogmas of Christianity, which teach us to
+      &ldquo;bless them that curse us,&rdquo; and to &ldquo;pray for those who despitefully use
+      us.&rdquo; Peter, for the first time in his life, was now struck with the moral
+      beauty of such a sentiment, which seldom fails, when duly presented, of
+      producing an effect on even the dullest minds. His curiosity was touched,
+      and instead of turning coldly, as had been his intention, and leaving the
+      captives in the hands of those to whom he had delivered them, he remained
+      in the circle, and paid the closest attention to all of the proceedings.
+      He had several times previously heard the missionary speak of this duty as
+      a command of God's, but never before had he deemed it possible to realize
+      such a thing in practice.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indians, if not absolutely awe-struck by the singular spectacle before
+      them, seemed well disposed to let the missionary finish his appeal; some
+      wondering, others doubting, and all more or less at a loss to know what to
+      make of an exhibition so unusual. There stood the corporal, with his back
+      pressed closely to that of his companion, his musket at &ldquo;make ready,&rdquo; and
+      his whole mien that of a man with every nerve screwed to the
+      sticking-point; while the missionary, the other side of the picture, with
+      outstretched arms, was lifting his voice in prayer to the throne of the
+      Most High. As this extraordinary scene continued, the corporal grew
+      excited; and ere long his voice was occasionally heard, blended with that
+      of the clergyman, in terms of advice and encouragement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Blaze away, Mr. Amen,&rdquo; shouted the soldier. &ldquo;Give 'em another volley&mdash;you're
+      doing wonders, and their front has given ground! One more such volley as
+      the last, and we'll make a forward movement, ourselves&mdash;attention!&mdash;prepare
+      to march by the left flank, as soon as there is a good opening!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      That good opening, however, was never made. The savages, though
+      astonished, were by no means frightened, and had not the smallest idea of
+      letting their captives escape. On the contrary, Bear's Meat, who acted as
+      commander-in-chief on this occasion, was quite self-possessed, and so far
+      from being impressed with the missionary's prayer, he listened to it only
+      in the hope of hearing some admission of weakness escape. But the
+      excitement of the corporal soon produced a crisis. His attempts to make a
+      movement &ldquo;by the left flank,&rdquo; caused his column of defence to be broken,
+      and obtaining no assistance from Parson Amen, who was still pouring out
+      his soul in prayer, while endeavoring to bring things back to their
+      original state, he suddenly found himself surrounded and disarmed. From
+      that instant, the corporal changed his tactics. So long as he was armed,
+      and comparatively free, he had bethought him only of the means of
+      resistance; now that these were denied him, he submitted, and summoned all
+      his resolution to bear the penalties of his captivity, in a manner that
+      might not do discredit to his regiment. This was the third time that
+      Corporal Flint had been a prisoner among the Indians, and he was not now
+      to learn the nature of their tender mercies. His forebodings were not of
+      the most pleasant character; but that which could not be helped, he was
+      disposed to bear with manly fortitude. His greatest concern, at that
+      fearful moment, was for the honor of his corps.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time, Parson Amen continued his prayer. So completely was his
+      spirit occupied with the duty of offering up his petition, that he was
+      utterly unconscious of what else had passed; nor had he heard one of the
+      corporal's appeals for &ldquo;attention,&rdquo; and to be &ldquo;steady,&rdquo; and to march &ldquo;by
+      the left flank.&rdquo; In a word, the whole man was intent on prayer; and when
+      thus employed, a six-pounder discharged in the circle would hardly have
+      disconcerted him. He persevered, therefore, uninterrupted by his
+      conquerors, until he concluded in his own way. Having thus fortified his
+      soul, and asked for succor where he had now so long been accustomed to
+      seek and to find it, the worthy missionary took his seat quietly on a log,
+      on which the corporal had been previously placed by his captors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The time had arrived for the chiefs to proceed in the execution of their
+      purposes. Peter, profoundly struck with the prayers of the missionary in
+      behalf of his enemies, had taken a station a little on one side, where he
+      stood ruminating on what he had just heard. If ever precept bore the stamp
+      of a divine origin, it is this. The more we reflect on it, the clearer do
+      our perceptions of this truth become. The whole scheme of Christ's
+      redemption and future existence is founded in love, and such a system
+      would be imperfect while any were excluded from its benefits. To love
+      those who reciprocate our feelings is so very natural, that the sympathies
+      which engender this feeling are soonest attracted by a knowledge of their
+      existence, love producing love, as power increases power. But to love
+      those who hate us, and to strive to do good to those who are plotting evil
+      against ourselves, greatly exceeds the moral strength of man, unaided from
+      above. This was the idea that puzzled Peter, and he now actually
+      interrupted the proceedings, in order to satisfy his mind on a subject so
+      totally new to him. Previously, however, to taking this step, he asked the
+      permission of the principal chiefs, awakening in their bosoms by means of
+      his explanations some of the interest in this subject that he felt
+      himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother medicine-man,&rdquo; said the mysterious chief, drawing nearer to the
+      missionary, accompanied himself by Bear's Meat, Crowsfeather, and one or
+      two more, &ldquo;you have been talking to the Great Spirit o! the pale-faces. We
+      have heard your words, and think them well. They are good words for a man
+      about to set out on the path that leads to the unknown lands. Thither we
+      must all go some time, and it matters little when. We may not all travel
+      the same path. I do not think the Manitou will crowd tribes of different
+      colors together there, as they are getting to be crowded together here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother, you are about to learn how all these things really are. If red
+      men, and pale-faces, and black men are to live in the same land, after
+      death, you will shortly know it. My brother is about to go there. He and
+      his friend, this warrior of his people, will travel on that long path in
+      company. I hope they will agree by the way, and not trouble each other. It
+      will be convenient to my brother to have a hunter with him; the path is so
+      long, he will be hungry before he gets to the end. This warrior knows how
+      to use a musket, and we shall put his arms with him in his grave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother, before you start on this journey, from which no traveller ever
+      returns, let his color be what it may, we wish to hear you speak further
+      about loving our enemies. This is not the Indian rule. The red men hate
+      their enemies, and love their friends. When they ask the Manitou to do
+      anything to their enemies, it is to do them harm. This is what our fathers
+      taught us: it is what we teach our children. Why should we love them that
+      hate us: why should we do good to them that do us harm? Tell us now, or we
+      may never hear the reason.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell you I will, Peter, and the Lord so bless my words that they may
+      soften your hearts, and lead you all to the truth, and to dependence on
+      the mediation of his blessed Son! We should do good to them that do evil
+      to us, because the Great Spirit has commanded us so to do. Ask your own
+      heart if this is not right. If they sound like words that are spoken by
+      any but those who have been taught by the Manitou, himself. The devils
+      tell us to revenge, but God commands us to forgive. It is easy to do good
+      to them that do good to us; but it tries the heart sorely to do good to
+      them that do us evil. I have spoken to you of the Son of the Great Spirit.
+      He came on earth, and told us with his own mouth all these great truths.
+      He said that next to the duty of loving the Manitou, was the duty of
+      loving our neighbors. No matter whether friend or enemy, it was our duty
+      to love them, and do them all the good we can. If there is no venison in
+      their wigwams, we should take the deer off our own poles, and carry it and
+      put on theirs. Why have I come here to tell you this? When at home, I
+      lived under a good roof, eat of abundance, and slept in a soft and warm
+      bed. You know how it is here. We do not know to-day what we shall eat
+      to-morrow. Our beds are hard, and our roofs are of bark. I come, because
+      the Son of the Manitou, he who came and lived among men, told us to do all
+      this. His commands to his medicine-men were, to go forth, and tell all
+      nations, and tribes, and colors, the truth&mdash;to tell them to 'love
+      them that sought to do them harm, and to do good for evil.'&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Parson Amen pausing a moment to take breath, Ungque, who detected the
+      wavering of Peter's mind, and who acted far more in opposition to the
+      mysterious and tribeless chief than from any other motive, profited by the
+      occasion thus afforded to speak. Without this pause, however, the breeding
+      of an Indian would have prevented any interruption.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I open my mouth to speak,&rdquo; said The Weasel, in his humblest manner. &ldquo;What
+      I say is not fit for the wise chiefs to hear. It is foolish, but my mind
+      tells me to say it. Does the medicine-man of the pale-faces tell us that
+      the Son of the Great Spirit came upon earth, and lived among men?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do; such is our belief; and the religion we believe and teach cometh
+      directly from his mouth.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Let the medicine-man tell the chiefs how long the Son of the Great Spirit
+      stayed on earth, and which way he went when he left it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Now, this question was put by Ungque through profound dissimulation. He
+      had heard of the death of Christ, and had obtained some such idea of the
+      great sacrifice as would be apt to occur to the mind of a savage. He
+      foresaw that the effect of the answer would be very likely to destroy most
+      of the influence that the missionary had just been building up, by means
+      of his doctrine and his prayers. Parson Amen was a man of singular
+      simplicity of character, but he had his misgivings touching the effect of
+      this reply. Still he did not scruple about giving it, or attempt in any
+      manner to mystify or to deceive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a humiliating and sad story, my brethren, and one that ought to
+      cause all heads to be bowed to the earth in shame,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;The Son
+      of the Great Spirit came among men; he did nothing but good; told those
+      who heard him how to live and how to die. In return for all this, wicked
+      and unbelieving men put him to death. After death his body was taken up
+      into Heaven&mdash;the region of departed spirits, and the dwelling-place
+      of his Father&mdash;where he now is, waiting for the time when he is to
+      return to the earth, to reward the good and to punish the wicked. That
+      time will surely come; nor do I believe the day to be very distant.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The chiefs listened to this account with grave attention. Some of them had
+      heard outlines of the same history before. Accounts savoring of the
+      Christian history had got blended with some of their own traditions, most
+      probably the fruits of the teachings of the earlier missionaries, but were
+      so confused and altered as to be scarcely susceptible of being recognized.
+      To most of them, however, the history of the incarnation of the Son of God
+      was entirely new; and it struck THEM as a most extraordinary thing
+      altogether that any man should have injured such a being! It was, perhaps,
+      singular that no one of them all doubted the truth of the tradition
+      itself. This they supposed to have been transmitted with the usual care,
+      and they received it as a fact not to be disputed. The construction that
+      was put on its circumstances will best appear in the remarks that
+      followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If the pale-faces killed the Son of the Great Spirit,&rdquo; said Bough of the
+      Oak, pointedly, &ldquo;we can see why they wish to drive the red men from their
+      lands. Evil spirits dwell in such men, and they do nothing but what is
+      bad. I am glad that our great chief has told us to put the foot on this
+      worm and crush it, while yet the Indian foot is large enough to do it. In
+      a few winters they would kill us, as they killed the Spirit that did them
+      nothing but good!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am afraid that this mighty tradition hath a mystery in it that your
+      Indian minds will scarcely be willing to receive,&rdquo; resumed the missionary,
+      earnestly. &ldquo;I would not, for a thousand worlds, or to save ten thousand
+      lives as worthless as my own, place a straw in the way of the faith of
+      any; yet must I tell the thing as it happened. This Son of the Great
+      Spirit was certainly killed by the Jews of that day, so far as he COULD be
+      killed. He possessed two natures, as indeed do all men: the body and soul.
+      In his body he was man, as we all are men; in his soul he was a part of
+      the Great Spirit himself. This is the great mystery of our religion. We
+      cannot tell how it can happen, but we believe it. We see around us a
+      thousand things that we cannot understand, and this is one of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here Bear's Meat availed himself of another pause to make a remark. This
+      he did with the keenness of one accustomed to watch words and events
+      closely, but with a simplicity that showed no vulgar disposition to
+      scepticism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We do not expect that all the Great Spirit does can be clear to us
+      Indians,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;We know very little; he knows everything. Why should
+      we think to know all that he knows? We do not. That part of the tradition
+      gives us no trouble. Indians can believe without seeing. They are not
+      squaws, that wish to look behind every bush. But my brother has told too
+      much for his own good. If the pale-faces killed their Great Spirit, they
+      can have no Manitou, and must be in the hands of the Evil Spirit This is
+      the reason they want our hunting-grounds. I will not let them come any
+      nearer to the setting sun. It is time to begin to kill them, as they
+      killed their Great Spirit. The Jews did this. My brother wishes us to
+      think that red men are Jews! No; red men never harmed the Son of the Great
+      Spirit, They would receive him as a friend, and treat him as a chief.
+      Accursed be the hand that should be raised to harm him. This tradition is
+      a wise tradition. It tells us many things. It tells us that Injins are not
+      Jews. They never hurt the Son of the Great Spirit. It tells us that the
+      red men have always lived on these hunting-grounds, and did not come from
+      toward the rising sun. It tells us that pale-faces are not fit to live.
+      They are too wicked. Let them die.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would ask a question,&rdquo; put in Peter. &ldquo;This tradition is not new. I have
+      heard it before. It entered but a little way into my ears. I did not think
+      of it. It has now entered deeper, and I wish to hear more. Why did not the
+      Son of the Great Spirit kill the Jews?&mdash;why did he let the Jews kill
+      him? Will my brother say?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He came on earth to die for man, whose wickedness was so deep that the
+      Great Spirit's justice could not be satisfied with less. WHY this is so no
+      one knows. It is enough that it should be so. Instead of thinking of doing
+      harm to his tormentors and murderers, he died for them, and died asking
+      for benefits on them, and on their wives and children, for all time to
+      come. It was he who commanded us to do good to them that do harm to us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter gave the utmost attention to this answer, and when he had received
+      it, he walked apart, musing profoundly. It is worthy of being observed
+      that not one of these savages raised any hollow objections to the
+      incarnation of the Son of the Great Spirit, as would have been the case
+      with so many civilized men. To them this appeared no more difficult and
+      incomprehensible than most of that which they saw around them. It is when
+      we begin to assume the airs of philosophy, and to fancy, because we know a
+      little, that the whole book of knowledge is within our grasp, that men
+      become sceptics. There is not a human being now in existence who does not
+      daily, hourly see that which is just as much beyond his powers of
+      comprehension as this account of the incarnation of the Deity, and the
+      whole doctrine of the Trinity; and yet he acquiesces in that which is
+      before his eyes, because it is familiar and he sees it, while he cavils at
+      all else, though the same unknown and inexplicable cause lies behind
+      everything. The deepest philosophy is soon lost in this general mystery,
+      and, to the eye of a meek reason, all around us is a species of miracle,
+      which must be referred to the power of the Deity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      While thus disposed to receive the pale-face traditions with respect,
+      however, the red men did not lose sight of their own policy and purposes.
+      The principal chiefs now stepped aside, and held a brief council. Though
+      invited to do so, Peter did not join them; leaving to Bough of the Oak,
+      Ungque, and Bear's Meat the control of the result The question was whether
+      the original intention of including this medicine-priest among those to be
+      cut off should, or should not, be adhered to. One or two of the chiefs had
+      their doubts, but the opinion of the council was adverse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If the pale-faces killed the Son of their Great Spirit, why should we
+      hesitate about killing them?&rdquo; The Weasel asked, with malicious point, for
+      he saw that Peter was now sorely troubled at the probability of his own
+      design being fully carried out. &ldquo;There is no difference. This is a
+      medicine-priest&mdash;in the wigwam is a medicine-bee-hunter, and that
+      warrior may be a medicine-warrior. We do not know. We are poor Injins that
+      know but little. It is not so with the pale-faces; they talk with the
+      conjurer's bees, and know much. We shall not have ground enough to take
+      even a muskrat, soon, unless we cut off the strangers. The Manitou has
+      given us these; let us kill them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As no one very strenuously opposed the scheme, the question was soon
+      decided, and Ungque was commissioned to communicate the result to the
+      captives. One exception, however, was to be made in favor of the
+      missionary. His object appeared to be peaceful, and it was determined that
+      he should be led a short distance into the surrounding thicket, and be
+      there put to death, without any attempt to torture, or aggravate his
+      sufferings. As a mark of singular respect, it was also decided not to
+      scalp him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As Ungque, and those associated with him, led the missionary to the place
+      of execution, the former artfully invited Peter to follow. This was done
+      simply because the Weasel saw that it would now be unpleasant to the man
+      he hated&mdash;hated merely because he possessed an influence that he
+      coveted for himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father will see a pleasant sight,&rdquo; said the wily Weasel, as he walked
+      at Peter's side, toward the indicated spot; &ldquo;he will see a pale-face die,
+      and know that his foot has been put upon another worm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No answer was made to this ironical remark, but Peter walked in silence to
+      the place where the missionary was stationed, surrounded by a guard.
+      Ungque now advanced and spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is time for the medicine-priest of the pale-faces to start after the
+      spirits of his people who have gone before him,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The path is
+      long, and unless he walks fast, and starts soon, he may not overtake them.
+      I hope he will see some of them that helped to kill the Son of his Great
+      Spirit, starving, and foot-sore, on the way.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I understand you,&rdquo; returned the missionary, after a few moments passed in
+      recovering from the shock of this communication. &ldquo;My hour is come. I have
+      held my life in my hand ever since I first put foot in this heathen
+      region, and if it be the Creator's will that I am now to die, I bow to the
+      decree. Grant me a few minutes for prayer to my God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Ungque signed that the delay should be granted. The missionary uncovered
+      his head, knelt, and again lifted up his voice in prayer. At first the
+      tones were a little tremulous; but they grew firmer as he proceeded. Soon
+      they became as serene as usual. He first asked mercy for himself, threw
+      all his hopes on the great atonement, and confessed how far he was from
+      that holiness which alone could fit him to see God. When this duty was
+      performed, he prayed for his enemies. The language used was his mother
+      tongue, but Peter comprehended most of that which was said. He heard his
+      own people prayed for; he heard his own name mentioned, as the condemned
+      man asked the mercy of the Manitou in his behalf. Never before was the
+      soul of this extraordinary savage so shaken. The past seemed like a dream
+      to him, while the future possessed a light that was still obscured by
+      clouds. Here was an exemplification in practice of that divine spirit of
+      love and benevolence which had struck him, already, as so very wonderful.
+      There could be no mistake. There was the kneeling captive, and his words,
+      clear, distinct, and imploring, ascended through the cover of the bushes
+      to the throne of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the voice of the missionary was mute, the mysterious chief
+      bowed his head and moved away. He was then powerless. No authority of his
+      could save the captive, and the sight that so lately would have cheered
+      his eyes was now too painful to bear. He heard the single blow of the
+      tomahawk which brained the victim, and he shuddered from head to foot. It
+      was the first time such a weakness had ever come over him. As for the
+      missionary, in deference to his pursuits, his executioners dug him a
+      grave, and buried him unmutilated on the spot where he had fallen.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXV.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Brutal alike in deed and word,
+     With callous heart and hand of strife.
+     How like a fiend may man be made,
+     Plying the foul and monstrous trade
+     Whose harvest-field is human life.
+                                 &mdash;WHITTIER.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A veil like that of oblivion dropped before the form of the missionary.
+      The pious persons who had sent him forth to preach to the heathen, never
+      knew his fate; a disappearance that was so common to that class of devoted
+      men, as to produce regret rather than surprise. Even those who took his
+      life felt a respect for him; and, strange as it may seem, it was to the
+      eloquence of the man who now would have died to save him, that his death
+      was alone to be attributed. Peter had awakened fires that he could not
+      quench, and aroused a spirit that he could not quell. In this respect, he
+      resembled most of those who, under the guise of reform, or revolution, in
+      moments of doubt, set in motion a machine that is found impossible to
+      control, when it is deemed expedient to check exaggeration by reason. Such
+      is often the case with even well-intentioned leaders, who constantly are
+      made to feel how much easier it is to light a conflagration, than to stay
+      its flames when raging.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corporal Flint was left seated on the log, while the bloody scene of the
+      missionary's death was occurring. He was fully alive to all the horrors of
+      his own situation, and comprehended the nature of his companion's
+      movements. The savages usually manifested so much respect for
+      missionaries, that he was in no degree surprised. Parson Amen had been
+      taken apart for his execution, and when those who had caused his removal
+      returned, the corporal looked anxiously for the usual but revolting token
+      of his late companion's death. As has been said, however, the missionary
+      was suffered to lie in his wild grave, without suffering a mutilation of
+      his remains.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Notwithstanding this moderation, the Indians were getting to be incited by
+      this taste of blood. The principal chiefs became sterner in their aspects,
+      and the young men began to manifest some such impatience as that which the
+      still untried pup betrays, when he first scents his game. All these were
+      ominous symptoms, and were well understood by the captive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Perhaps it would not have been possible, in the whole range of human
+      feelings, to find two men under influences more widely opposed to each
+      other than were the missionary and the corporal, in this, their last scene
+      on earth. The manner of Parson Amen's death has been described. He died in
+      humble imitation of his Divine Master, asking for blessings on those who
+      were about to destroy him, with a heart softened by Christian graces, and
+      a meekness that had its origin in the consciousness of his own demerits.
+      On the other hand, the corporal thought only of vengeance. Escape he knew
+      to be impossible, and he would fain take his departure like a soldier, or
+      as he conceived a soldier should die, in the midst of fallen foes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Corporal Flint had a salutary love of life, and would very gladly escape,
+      did the means offer; but, failing of these, all his thoughts turned toward
+      revenge. Some small impulses of ambition, or what it is usual to dignify
+      with that term, showed themselves even at that serious moment. He had
+      heard around the camp-fires, and in the garrisons, so many tales of
+      heroism and of fortitude manifested by soldiers who had fallen into the
+      hands of the Indians, that a faint desire to enroll his own name on the
+      list of these worthies was beginning to arise in his breast. But truth
+      compels us to add that the predominant feeling was the wish to revenge his
+      own fate, by immolating as many of his foes as possible. To this last
+      purpose, therefore, his thoughts were mainly directed, during that
+      interval which his late companion had employed in prayers for those under
+      whose blows he was about to fall. Such is the difference in man, with his
+      heart touched, or untouched, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was, however, much easier for the corporal to entertain designs of the
+      nature mentioned than to carry them out: unarmed, surrounded by watchful
+      enemies, and totally without support of any sort, the chances of effecting
+      his purpose were small indeed. Once, for a minute only, the veteran
+      seriously turned his thoughts to escape. It occurred to him, that he might
+      possibly reach the castle, could he get a little start; and should the
+      Indians compel him to run the gauntlet, as was often their practice, he
+      determined to make an effort for life in that mode. Agreeably to the code
+      of frontier warfare, a successful flight of this nature was scarcely less
+      creditable than a victory in the field.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half an hour passed after the execution of the missionary before the
+      chiefs commenced their proceedings with the corporal. The delay was owing
+      to a consultation, in which The Weasel had proposed despatching a party to
+      the castle, to bring in the family, and thus make a common destruction of
+      the remaining pale-faces known to be in that part of the Openings. Peter
+      did not dare to oppose this scheme, himself; but he so managed as to get
+      Crowsfeather to do it, without bringing himself into the foreground. The
+      influence of the Pottawattamie prevailed, and it was decided to torture
+      this one captive, and to secure his scalp, before they proceeded to work
+      their will on the others. Ungque, who had gained ground rapidly by his
+      late success, was once more commissioned to state to the captive the
+      intentions of his captors.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother,&rdquo; commenced The Weasel, placing himself directly in front of the
+      corporal, &ldquo;I am about to speak to you. A wise warrior opens his ears, when
+      he hears the voice of his enemy. He may learn something it will be good
+      for him to know. It will be good for you to know what I am about to say.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother, you are a pale-face, and we are Injins. You wish to get our
+      hunting-grounds, and we wish to keep them. To keep them, it has become
+      necessary to take your scalp. I hope you are ready to let us have it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The corporal had but an indifferent knowledge of the Indian language, but
+      he comprehended all that was uttered on this occasion. Interest quickened
+      his faculties, and no part of what was said was lost. The gentle, slow,
+      deliberate manner in which The Weasel delivered himself, contributed to
+      his means of understanding. He was fortunately prepared for what her
+      heard, and the announcement of his approaching fate did not disturb him to
+      the degree of betraying weakness. This last was a triumph in which the
+      Indians delighted, though they ever showed the most profound respect for
+      such of their victims as manifested a manly fortitude. It was necessary to
+      reply, which the corporal did in English, knowing that several present
+      could interpret his words. With a view to render this the more easy, he
+      spoke in fragments of sentences, and with great deliberation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Injins,&rdquo; returned the corporal, &ldquo;you surrounded me, and I have been taken
+      prisoner&mdash;had there been a platoon on us, you mightn't have made out
+      quite so well. It's no great victory for three hundred warriors to
+      overcome a single man. I count Parson Amen as worse than nothing, for he
+      looked to neither rear nor flank. If I could have half an hour's work upon
+      you, with only half of our late company, I think we should lower your
+      conceit. But that is impossible, and so you may do just what you please
+      with me. I ask no favors.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Although this answer was very imperfectly translated, it awakened a good
+      deal of admiration. A man who could look death so closely in the face,
+      with so much steadiness, became a sort of hero in Indian eyes; and with
+      the North American savage, fortitude is a virtue not inferior to courage.
+      Murmurs of approbation were heard, and Ungque was privately requested to
+      urge the captive further, in order to see how far present appearances were
+      likely to be maintained.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother, I have said that we are Injins,&rdquo; resumed The Weasel, with an air
+      so humble, and a voice so meek, that a stranger might have supposed he was
+      consoling, instead of endeavoring to intimidate, the prisoner. &ldquo;It is
+      true. We are nothing but poor, ignorant Injins. We can only torment our
+      prisoners after Injin fashion. If we were pale-faces, we might do better.
+      We did not torment the medicine-priest. We were afraid he would laugh at
+      our mistakes. He knew a great deal. We know but little. We do as well as
+      we know how.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother, when Injins do as well as they know how, a warrior should forget
+      their mistakes. We wish to torment you, in a way to prove that you are all
+      over man. We wish so to torment you that you will stand up under the pain
+      in such a way that it will make our young men think your mother was not a
+      squaw&mdash;that there is no woman in you. We do this for our own honor,
+      as well as for yours. It will be an honor to us to have such a captive; it
+      will be an honor to you to be such a captive. We shall do as well as we
+      know how.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother, it is most time to begin. The tormenting will last a long time.
+      We must not let the medicine-priest get too great a start on the path to
+      the happy hunting-grounds of your&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here, a most unexpected interruption occurred, that effectually put a stop
+      to the eloquence of Ungque. In his desire to make an impression, the
+      savage approached within reach of the captive's arm, while his own mind
+      was intent on the words that he hoped would make the prisoner quail. The
+      corporal kept his eye on that of the speaker, charming him, as it were,
+      into a riveted gaze, in return. Watching his opportunity, he caught the
+      tomahawk from The Weasel's belt, and by a single blow, felled him dead at
+      his feet. Not content with this, the old soldier now bounded forward,
+      striking right and left, inflicting six or eight wounds on others, before
+      he could be again arrested, disarmed, and bound. While the last was doing,
+      Peter withdrew, unobserved.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Many were the &ldquo;hughs&rdquo; and other exclamations of admiration that succeeded
+      this display of desperate manhood! The body of The Weasel was removed, and
+      interred, while the wounded withdrew to attend to their hurts; leaving the
+      arena to the rest assembled there. As for the corporal, he was pretty well
+      blown, and, in addition to being now bound hand and foot, his recent
+      exertions, which were terrific while they lasted, effectually
+      incapacitated him from making any move, so long as he was thus exhausted
+      and confined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A council was now held by the principal chiefs. Ungque had few friends. In
+      this, he shared the fate of most demagogues, who are commonly despised
+      even by those they lead and deceive. No one regretted him much, and some
+      were actually glad of his fate. But the dignity of the conquerors must be
+      vindicated. It would never do to allow a pale-face to obtain so great an
+      advantage, and not take a signal vengeance for his deeds. After a long
+      consultation, it was determined to subject the captive to the trial by
+      saplings, and thus see if he could bear the torture without complaining.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As some of our readers may not understand what this fell mode of
+      tormenting is, it may be necessary to explain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There is scarcely a method of inflicting pain, that comes within, the
+      compass of their means, that the North American Indians have not essayed
+      on their enemies. When the infernal ingenuity that is exercised on these
+      occasions fails of its effect, the captives themselves have been heard to
+      suggest other means of torturing that THEY have known practised
+      successfully by their own people. There is often a strange strife between
+      the tormentors and the tormented; the one to manifest skill in inflicting
+      pain, and the other to manifest fortitude in enduring it. As has just been
+      said, quite as much renown is often acquired by the warrior, in setting
+      all the devices of his conquerors at defiance, while subject to their
+      hellish attempts, as in deeds of arms. It might be more true to say that
+      such WAS the practice among the Indians, than to say, at the present time,
+      that such IS; for it is certain that civilization in its approaches, while
+      it has in many particulars even degraded the red man, has had a silent
+      effect in changing and mitigating many of his fiercer customs&mdash;this,
+      perhaps, among the rest. It is probable that the more distant tribes still
+      resort to all these ancient usages; but it is both hoped and believed that
+      those nearer to the whites do not.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The &ldquo;torture by saplings&rdquo; is one of those modes of inflicting pain that
+      would naturally suggest themselves to savages. Young trees that do not
+      stand far apart are trimmed of their branches, and brought nearer to each
+      other by bending their bodies; the victim is then attached to both trunks,
+      sometimes by his extended arms, at others by his legs, or by whatever part
+      of the frame cruelty can suggest, when the saplings are released, and
+      permitted to resume their upright positions. Of course, the sufferer is
+      lifted from the earth, and hangs suspended by his limbs, with a strain on
+      them that soon produces the most intense anguish. The celebrated
+      punishment of the &ldquo;knout&rdquo; partakes a good deal of this same character of
+      suffering. Bough of the Oak now approached the corporal, to let him know
+      how high an honor was in reserve for him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother,&rdquo; said this ambitious orator, &ldquo;you are a brave warrior. You have
+      done well. Not only have you killed one of our chiefs, but you have
+      wounded several of our young men. No one but a brave could have done this.
+      You have forced us to bind you, lest you might kill some more. It is not
+      often that captives do this. Your courage has caused us to consult HOW we
+      might best torture you, in a way most to manifest your manhood. After
+      talking together, the chiefs have decided that a man of your firmness
+      ought to be hung between two young trees. We have found the trees, and
+      have cut off their branches. You can see them. If they were a little
+      larger their force would be greater, and they would give you more pain&mdash;would
+      be more worthy of you; but these are the largest saplings we could find.
+      Had there been any larger, we would have let you have them. We wish to do
+      you honor, for you are a bold warrior, and worthy to be well tormented.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother, look at these saplings! They are tall and straight. When they
+      are bent by many hands, they will come together. Take away the hands, and
+      they will become straight again. Your arms must then keep them together.
+      We wish we had some pappooses here, that they might shoot arrows into your
+      flesh. That would help much to torment you. You cannot have this honor,
+      for we have no pappooses. We are afraid to let our young men shoot arrows
+      into your flesh. They are strong, and might kill you. We wish you to die
+      between the saplings, as is your right, being so great a brave.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother, we think much better of you since you killed The Weasel, and
+      hurt our young men. If all your warriors at Chicago had been as bold as
+      you, Black-Bird would not have taken that fort. You would have saved many
+      scalps. This encourages us. It makes us think the Great Spirit means to
+      help us, and that we shall kill all the pale-faces. When we get further
+      into your settlements, we do not expect to meet many such braves as you.
+      They tell us we shall then find men who will run, and screech like women.
+      It will not be a pleasure to torment such men. We had rather torment a
+      bold warrior, like you, who makes us admire him for his manliness. We love
+      our squaws, but not in the warpath. They are best in the lodges; here we
+      want nothing but men. You are a man&mdash;a brave&mdash;we honor you. We
+      think, notwithstanding, we shall yet make you weak. It will not be easy,
+      yet we hope to do it. We shall try. We may not think quite so well of you,
+      if we do it; but we shall always call you a brave. A man is not a stone.
+      We can all feel, and when we have done all that is in our power, no one
+      can do more. It is so with Injins; we think it must be so with pale-faces.
+      We mean to try and see how it is.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The corporal understood very little of this harangue, though he perfectly
+      comprehended the preparations of the saplings, and Bough of the Oak's
+      allusions to THEM. He was in a cold sweat at the thought, for resolute as
+      he was, he foresaw sufferings that human fortitude could hardly endure. In
+      this state of the case, and in the frame of mind he was in, he had
+      recourse to an expedient of which he had often heard, and which he thought
+      might now be practised to some advantage. It was to open upon the savages
+      with abuse, and to exasperate them, by taunts and sarcasm, to such a
+      degree as might induce some of the weaker members of the tribe to dispatch
+      him on the spot. As the corporal, with the perspective of the saplings
+      before his eyes, manifested a good deal of ingenuity on this occasion, we
+      shall record some of his efforts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;D'ye call yourselves chiefs and warriors?&rdquo; he began, upon a pretty high
+      key. &ldquo;I call ye squaws! There is not a man among ye. Dogs would be the
+      best name. You are poor Injins. A long time ago, the pale-faces came here
+      in two or three little canoes. They were but a handful, and you were
+      plentier than prairie wolves. Your bark could be heard throughout the
+      land. Well, what did this handful of pale-faces? It drove your fathers
+      before them, until they got all the best of the hunting-grounds. Not an
+      Injin of you all, now, ever get down on the shores of the great salt lake,
+      unless to sell brooms and baskets, and then he goes sneaking like a wolf
+      after a sheep. You have forgotten how clams and oysters taste. Your
+      fathers had as many of them as they could eat; but not one of YOU ever
+      tasted them. The pale-faces eat them all. If an Injin asked for one, they
+      would throw the shell at his head, and call him a dog.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you think that my chiefs would hang one of you between two such
+      miserable saplings as these? No! They would scorn to practice such pitiful
+      torture. They would bring the tops of two tall pines together, trees a
+      hundred and fifty feet high, and put their prisoner on the topmost boughs,
+      for the crows and ravens to pick his eyes out. But you are miserable
+      Injins! You know nothing. If you know'd any better, would you act such
+      poor torment ag'in' a great brave? I spit upon ye, and call you squaws.
+      The pale-faces have made women of ye. They have taken out your hearts, and
+      put pieces of dog's flesh in their places.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the corporal, who delivered himself with an animation suited to his
+      language, was obliged to pause, literally for want of breath. Singular as
+      it may seem, this tirade excited great admiration among the savages. It is
+      true, that very few understood what was said; perhaps no one understood
+      ALL, but the manner was thought to be admirable. When some of the language
+      was interpreted, a deep but smothered resentment was felt; more especially
+      at the taunts touching the manner in which the whites had overcome the red
+      men. Truth is hard to be borne, and the individual, or people, who will
+      treat a thousand injurious lies with contempt, feel all their ire aroused
+      at one reproach that has its foundation in fact. Nevertheless, the anger
+      that the corporal's words did, in truth, awaken, was successfully
+      repressed, and he had the disappointment of seeing that his life was
+      spared for the torture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Brother,&rdquo; said Bough of the Oak, again placing himself before the
+      captive, &ldquo;you have a stout heart. It is made of stone, and not of flesh.
+      If our hearts be of dog's meat, yours is of stone. What you say is true.
+      The pale-faces DID come at first in two or three canoes, and there were
+      but few of them. We are ashamed, for it is true, A few pale-faces drove
+      toward the setting sun many Injins. But we cannot be driven any further.
+      We mean to stop here, and begin to take all the scalps we can. A great
+      chief, who belongs to no one tribe, but belongs to all tribes, who speaks
+      all tongues, has been sent by the Great Spirit to arouse us. He has done
+      it. You know him. He came from the head of the lake with you, and kept his
+      eye on your scalp. He has meant to take it from the first. He waited only
+      for an opportunity. That opportunity has come, and we now mean to do as he
+      has told us we ought to do. This is right. Squaws are in a hurry; warriors
+      know how to wait. We would kill you at once, and hang your scalp on our
+      pole, but it would not be right We wish to do what is right. If we ARE
+      poor Injins, and know but little, we know what is right. It is right to
+      torment so great a brave, and we mean to do it. It is only just to you to
+      do so. An old warrior who has seen so many enemies, and who has so big a
+      heart, ought not to be knocked in the head like a pappoose or a squaw. It
+      is his right to be tormented. We are getting ready, and shall soon begin.
+      If my brother can tell us a new way of tormenting, we are willing to try
+      it. Should we not make out as well as pale-faces, my brother will remember
+      who we are. We mean to do our best, and we hope to make his heart soft. If
+      we do this, great will be our honor. Should we not do it, we cannot help
+      it. We shall try.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now the corporal's turn to put in a rebutter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This he did without any failure in will or performance. By this time he
+      was so well warmed as to think or care very little about the saplings, and
+      to overlook the pain they might occasion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dogs can do little but bark; 'specially Injin dogs,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Injins
+      themselves are little better than their own dogs. They can bark, but they
+      don't know how to bite. You have many great chiefs here. Some are
+      panthers, and some bears, and some buffaloes; but where are your weasels?
+      I have fit you now these twenty years, and never have I known ye to stand
+      up to the baggonet. It's not Injin natur' to do THAT.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the corporal, without knowing it, made some such reproach to the
+      aboriginal warriors of America as the English used to throw into the teeth
+      of ourselves&mdash;that of not standing up to a weapon which neither party
+      possessed. It was matter of great triumph that the Americans would not
+      stand the charge of the bayonet at the renowned fight on Breed's, for
+      instance, when it is well known that not one man in five among the
+      colonists had any such weapon at all to &ldquo;stand up&rdquo; with. A different story
+      was told at Guildford, and Stony Point, and Eutaw, and Bennington, and
+      Bemis' Heights, and fifty other places that might be named, after the
+      troops were furnished with bayonets. THEN it was found that the Americans
+      could use them as well as others, and so might it have proved with the red
+      men, though their discipline, or mode of fighting, scarce admitted of such
+      systematic charges. All this, however, the corporal overlooked, much as if
+      he were a regular historian who was writing to make out a case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Harkee, brother, since you WILL call me brother; though, Heaven be
+      praised, not a drop of nigger or Injin blood runs in my veins,&rdquo; resumed
+      the corporal. &ldquo;Harkee, friend redskin, answer me one thing. Did you ever
+      hear of such a man as Mad Anthony? He was the tickler for your infernal
+      tribes! You pulled no saplings together for him. He put you up with 'the
+      long-knives and leather-stockings,' and you outrun his fleetest horses. I
+      was with him, and saw more naked backs than naked faces among your people,
+      that day. Your Great Bear got a rap on his nose that sent him to his
+      village yelping like a cur.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Again was the corporal compelled to stop to take breath. The allusion to
+      Wayne, and his defeat of the Indians, excited so much ire, that several
+      hands grasped knives and tomahawks, and one arrow was actually drawn
+      nearly to the head; but the frown of Bear's Meat prevented any outbreak,
+      or actual violence. It wa's deemed prudent, however, to put an end to this
+      scene, lest the straightforward corporal, who laid it on heavily, and who
+      had so much to say about Indian defeats, might actually succeed in
+      touching some festering wound that would bring him to his death at once.
+      It was, accordingly, determined to proceed with the torture of the
+      saplings without further delay.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The corporal was removed accordingly, and placed between the two bended
+      trees, which were kept together by withes around their tops. An arm of the
+      captive was bound tightly at the wrist to the top of each tree, so that
+      his limbs were to act as the only tie between the saplings, as soon as the
+      withes should be cut. The Indians now worked in silence, and the matter
+      was getting to be much too serious for the corporal to indulge in any more
+      words. The cold sweat returned, and many an anxious glance was cast by the
+      veteran on the fell preparations. Still he maintained appearances, and
+      when all was ready, not a man there was aware of the agony of dread which
+      prevailed in the breast of the victim. It was not death that he feared as
+      much as suffering. A few minutes, the corporal well knew, would make the
+      pain intolerable, while he saw no hope of putting a speedy end to his
+      existence. A man might live hours in such a situation. Then it was that
+      the teachings of childhood were revived in the bosom of this hardened man,
+      and he remembered the Being that died for HIM, in common with the rest of
+      the human race, on the tree. The seeming similarity of his own execution
+      struck his imagination, and brought a tardy but faint recollection of
+      those lessons that had lost most of their efficacy in the wickedness and
+      impiety of camps. His soul struggled for relief in that direction, but the
+      present scene was too absorbing to admit of its lifting itself so far
+      above his humanity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Warrior of the pale-faces,&rdquo; said Bough of the Oak, &ldquo;we are going to cut
+      the withe. You will then be where a brave man will want all his courage.
+      If you are firm, we will do you honor; if you faint and screech, our young
+      men will laugh at you. This is the way with Injins. They honor braves;
+      they point the finger at cowards.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here a sign was made by Bear's Meat, and a warrior raised the tomahawk
+      that was to separate the fastenings, His hand was in the very act of
+      descending, when the crack of a rifle was heard, and a little smoke rose
+      out of the thicket, near the spot where the bee-hunter and the corporal,
+      himself, had remained so long hid, on the occasion of the council first
+      held in that place. The tomahawk fell, however, the withes were parted,
+      and up flew the saplings, with a violence that threatened to tear the arms
+      of the victim out of their sockets.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Indians listened, expecting the screeches and groans;&mdash;they
+      gazed, hoping to witness the writhings of their captive. But they were
+      disappointed. There hung the body, its arms distended, still holding the
+      tops of the saplings bowed, but not a sign of life was seen. A small line
+      of blood trickled down the forehead, and above it was the nearly
+      imperceptible hole made by the passage of a bullet. The head itself had
+      fallen forward, and a little on one shoulder. The corporal had escaped the
+      torments reserved for him, by this friendly blow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was so much a matter of course for an Indian to revenge his own wounds&mdash;to
+      alleviate his smarts, by retaliating on those who inflicted them&mdash;that
+      the chiefs expressed neither surprise nor resentment at the manner of the
+      corporal's death. There was some disappointment, it is true; but no anger
+      was manifested, since it was supposed that some one of those whom the
+      prisoner had wounded had seen fit, in this mode, to revenge his own hurts.
+      In this, however, the Indians deceived themselves. The well-intentioned
+      and deadly shot that saved the corporal from hours of agony came from the
+      friendly hand of Pigeonswing, who had no sooner discharged his rifle than
+      he stole away through the thicket, and was never discovered. This he did,
+      too, at the expense of Ungque's scalp, on which he had set his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for the Indians, perceiving that their hopes of forcing a captive to
+      confess his weakness were frustrated, they conferred together on the
+      course of future proceedings. There was an inquiry for Peter, but Peter
+      was not to be found. Bough of the Oak suggested that the mysterious chief
+      must have gone to the palisaded hut, in order to get the remaining scalps,
+      his passion for this symbol of triumphs over pale-faces being well known.
+      It was, therefore, incumbent on the whole band to follow, with the double
+      view of sharing in the honor of the assault, and of rendering assistance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Abandoning the body of the corporal where it hung, away went these
+      savages, by this time keenly alive to the scent of blood. Something like
+      order was observed, however, each chief leading his own particular part of
+      the band, in his own way, but on a designated route. Bear's Meat acted as
+      commander-in-chief, the subordinate leaders following his instructions
+      with reasonable obedience. Some went in one direction, others in another;
+      until the verdant bottom near the sweet spring was deserted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In less than half an hour the whole band was collected around Castle Meal,
+      distant, however, beyond the range of a rifle. The different parties, as
+      they arrived, announced their presence by whoops, which were intended to
+      answer the double purpose of signals, and of striking terror to the hearts
+      of the besieged; the North American Indians making ample use of this great
+      auxiliary in war.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time no one was seen in or about the fortified hut The gate was
+      closed, as were the doors and windows, manifesting preparations for
+      defence; but the garrison kept close. Nor was Peter to be seen. He might
+      be a prisoner, or he might not have come in this direction. It was just
+      possible that he might be stealing up to the building, to get a nearer
+      view, and a closer scout.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Indian warfare is always stealthy. It is seldom, indeed, that the
+      aboriginal Americans venture on an open assault of any fortified place,
+      however small and feeble it may be. Ignorant of the use of artillery, and
+      totally without that all-important arm, their approaches to any cover,
+      whence a bullet may be sent against them, are ever wary, slow, and well
+      concerted. They have no idea of trenches&mdash;do not possess the means of
+      making them, indeed&mdash;but they have such substitutes of their own as
+      usually meet all their wants, more particularly in portions of the country
+      that are wooded. In cases like this before our present band, they had to
+      exercise their wits to invent new modes of effecting their purposes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bear's Meat collected his principal chiefs, and, after a considerable
+      amount of consultation, it was determined, in the present instance, to try
+      the virtue of fire. The only sign of life they could detect about the hut
+      was an occasional bark from Hive, who had been taken within the building,
+      most probably to protect him from the bullets and arrows of the enemy.
+      Even this animal did not howl like a dog in distress; but he barked, as if
+      aware of the vicinity of strangers. The keenest scrutiny could not detect
+      an outlet of any sort about the hut. Everything was tightly closed, and it
+      was impossible to say when, or whence, a bullet might not be sent against
+      the unwary.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The plan was soon formed, and was quite as rapidly executed. Bough of the
+      Oak, himself, supported by two or three other braves, undertook to set the
+      buildings on fire. This was done by approaching the kitchen, dodging from
+      tree to tree, making each movement with a rapidity that defeated aim, and
+      an irregularity that defied calculation. In this way the kitchen was
+      safely reached, where there was a log cover to conceal the party. Here
+      also was fire, the food for dinner being left, just as it had been put
+      over to boil, not long before. The Indians had prepared themselves with
+      arrows and light wood, and soon they commenced sending their flaming
+      missiles toward the roof of the hut. Arrow after arrow struck, and it was
+      not long before the roof was on fire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A yell now arose throughout the Openings. Far and near the Indians exulted
+      at their success. The wood was dry, and it was of a very inflammable
+      nature. The wind blew, and in half an hour Castle Meal was in a bright
+      blaze. Hive now began to howl, a sign that he knew his peril. Still, no
+      human being appeared. Presently the flaming roof fell in and the savages
+      listened intently to hear the screeches of their victims. The howls of the
+      dog increased, and he was soon seen, with his hair burned from his skin,
+      leaping on the unroofed wall, and thence into the area within the
+      palisades. A bullet terminated his sufferings as he alighted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bear's Meat now gave the signal, and a general rush was made. No rifle
+      opposed them, and a hundred Indians were soon at the palisades. To the
+      surprise of all, the gate was found unfastened. Rushing within, the door
+      of the hut was forced, and a view obtained of the blazing furnace within.
+      The party had arrived in sufficient season to perceive fragments of le
+      Bourdon's rude furniture and stores yet blazing, but nowhere was a human
+      corpse visible. Poles were got, and the brands were removed, in the
+      expectation of finding bones beneath them; but without success. It was now
+      certain that no pale-face had perished in that hut. Then the truth flashed
+      on the minds of all the savages: le Bourdon and his friends had taken the
+      alarm in time, and had escaped!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVI.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Behold, O Lord! the heathen tread
+      The branches of thy fruitful vine,
+     That its luxurious tendrils spread
+      O'er all the hills of Palestine.
+     And now the wild boar comes to waste
+     Even us, the greenest boughs and last.
+     That, drinking of its choicest dew,
+     On Zion's hill in beauty grew.
+                                  &mdash;MILMAN.
+
+ The change in Peter had been gradually making itself apparent, ever
+since he joined the party of the bee-hunter. When he entered the
+Kalamazoo, in the company of the two men who had now fallen the victims
+of his own designs, his heart was full of the fell intention of cutting
+off the whole white race. Margery had first induced him to think of
+exceptions. He had early half-decided that she should be spared, to be
+carried to his own lodge, as an adopted daughter. When he became aware
+of the state of things between his favorite and her lover, there was a
+severe struggle in his breast on the subject of sparing the last. He
+saw how strongly the girl was attached to him, and something like human
+sentiments forced their way among his savage plans. The mysterious
+communication of le Bourdon with the bees, however, had far more
+influence in determining him to spare so great a medicine-man, than
+Margery's claims; and he had endeavored to avail himself of a marriage
+as a means of saving the bride, instead of saving the bridegroom.
+All the Indians entertained a species of awe for le Bourdon, and all
+hesitated about laying hands on one who appeared so gifted. It was,
+therefore, the expectation of this extraordinary being that the wife
+might be permitted to escape with the husband. The effect of The
+Weasel's cunning has been described. Such was the state of Peter's mind
+when he met the band in the scenes last described. There he had been all
+attention to the demeanor of the missionary. A hundred times had he seen
+warriors die uttering maledictions on their enemies; but this was the
+first occasion on which he had ever known a man to use his latest breath
+in asking for blessings on those &ldquo;who persecuted him.&rdquo; At first, Peter
+was astounded. Then the sublime principles had their effect, and his
+heart was deeply touched with what he heard. How far the Holy Spirit
+aided these better feelings, it might be presumptuous, on the one hand,
+to say; while, on the other, it will be equally presuming to think of
+denying the possibility&mdash;nay, the probability&mdash;that the great change
+which so suddenly came over the heart of Peter was produced by more than
+mere human agencies. We know that this blessed Spirit is often poured
+out, in especial cases, with affluent benevolence, and there can be no
+sufficient reason for supposing this savage might not have been thus
+signally favored, as soon as the avenues of his heart opened to the
+impulses of a generous humanity. The very qualities that would induce
+such a being to attempt the wild and visionary scheme of vengeance and
+retribution, that had now occupied his sleeping and waking thoughts for
+years, might, under a better direction, render him eminently fit to be
+the subject of divine grace. A latent sense of right lay behind all his
+seeming barbarity, and that which to us appears as a fell ferocity, was,
+in his own eyes, no less than a severe justice.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The words, the principles, the prayers, and, more than all, the EXAMPLE of
+      the missionary, wrought this great change, so far as human agencies were
+      employed; but the power of God was necessary to carry out and complete
+      this renewal of the inner man. We do not mean that a miracle was used in
+      the sudden conversion of this Indian to better feelings, for that which is
+      of hourly occurrence, and which may happen to all, comes within the
+      ordinary workings of a Divine Providence, and cannot thus be designated
+      with propriety; but we do wish to be understood as saying, that no purely
+      human power could have cleared the moral vision, changed all the views,
+      and softened the heart of such a man, as was so promptly done in the case
+      of Peter. The way had been gradually preparing, perhaps, by the means
+      already described, but the great transformation came so suddenly and so
+      powerfully as to render him a different being, as it might almost be, in
+      the twinkling of an eye! Such changes often occur, and though it may suit
+      the self-sufficiency of the worldling to deride them, he is the wisest who
+      submits in the meekest spirit to powers that exceed his comprehension.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this state of mind, then, Peter left the band as soon as the fate of
+      the missionary was decided. His immediate object was to save the whites
+      who remained, Gershom and Dorothy now having a place in his good
+      intentions, as well as le Bourdon and Margery. Although he moved swiftly,
+      and nearly by an air-line, his thoughts scarce kept company with his feet.
+      During that rapid walk, he was haunted with the image of a man, dying
+      while he pronounced benedictions on his enemies!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was little in common between the natural objects of that placid and
+      rural scene and the fell passions that were so actively at work among the
+      savages. The whole of the landscape was bathed in the light of a clear,
+      warm summer's day. These are the times when the earth truly seems a
+      sanctuary, in spots remote from the haunts of men, and least exposed to
+      his abuses. The bees hum around the flowers, the birds carol on the boughs
+      and from amid their leafy arbors, while even the leaping and shining
+      waters appear to be instinct with the life that extols the glory of God.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As for the family near the palisaded hut, happiness had not, for many a
+      month, been so seated among them, as on this very occasion. Dorothy
+      sympathized truly in the feelings of the youthful and charming bride,
+      while Gershom had many of the kind and affectionate wishes of a brother in
+      her behalf. The last was in his best attire, as indeed were the females,
+      who were neatly though modestly clad, and Gershom had that air of decent
+      repose and of quiet enjoyment, which is so common of a Sabbath with the
+      men of his class, among the people from whom he sprung. The fears lately
+      excited were momentarily forgotten. Everything around them wore an air so
+      placid; the vault above them was so profoundly tranquil; the light of day
+      was so soft and yet so bright; the Openings seemed so rural and so much
+      like pictures of civilization, that apprehension had been entirely
+      forgotten in present enjoyment. Such was the moment when Peter suddenly
+      stood before le Bourdon and Margery, as the young couple sat beneath the
+      shade of the oaks, near the spring. One instant the Indian regarded this
+      picture of young wedded life with a gleam of pleasure on his dark face;
+      then he announced his presence by speaking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Can't sit here lookin' at young squaw,&rdquo; said this literal being. &ldquo;Get up,
+      and put thing in canoe. Time come to go on path dat lead to pale-face
+      country.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What has happened, Peter?&rdquo; demanded the bee-hunter, springing to his
+      feet. &ldquo;You come like a runner rushing in with his bad tidings. Has
+      anything happened to give an alarm?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Up, and off, tell you. No use talkin' now. Put all he can in canoe, and
+      paddle away fast as can.&rdquo; There was no mistaking Peter's manner. The
+      bee-hunter saw the uselessness of questioning such a man, at a time like
+      that, and he called to Gershom to join him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Here is the chief, to warn us to move,&rdquo; said the bee-hunter, endeavoring
+      to appear calm, in order that he might not needlessly alarm the females,
+      &ldquo;and what he advises, we had better do. I know there is danger, by what
+      has fallen from Pigeonswing as well as from himself; so let us lose no
+      time, but stow the canoes, and do as he tells us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As Gershom assented, it was not two minutes ere all were at work. For
+      several days, each canoe had been furnished with provisions for a hasty
+      flight. It remained only to add such of the effects as were too valuable
+      and necessary to be abandoned, and which had not been previously exposed
+      without the palisades. For half an hour le Bourdon and Gershom worked as
+      for life. No questions were asked, nor was a single moment lost, in a
+      desire to learn more. The manner in which Peter bore himself satisfied
+      Boden that the emergency was pressing, and it is seldom that more was done
+      by so few hands in so short a period. Fortunately, the previous
+      preparation greatly aided the present object, and nearly everything of any
+      value was placed in the canoes within the brief space mentioned. It then
+      became necessary to decide concerning the condition in which Castle Meal
+      was to be left. Peter advised closing every aperture, shutting the gate,
+      and leaving the dog within. There is no doubt that these expedients
+      prevented the parties falling early into the hands of their enemies; for
+      the time lost by the savages in making their approaches to the hut was
+      very precious to the fugitives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just as the canoes were loaded, Pigeonswing came in. He announced that the
+      whole band was in motion, and might be expected to reach the grove in ten
+      minutes. Placing an arm around the slender waist of Margery, le Bourdon
+      almost carried her to his own canoe, Gershom soon had Dorothy in his
+      little bark, while Peter entered that to the ownership of which he may be
+      said to have justly succeeded by the deaths of the corporal and the
+      missionary. Pigeonswing remained behind, in order to act as a scout,
+      having first communicated to Peter the course the last ought to steer.
+      Before the Chippewa plunged into the cover in which it was his intention
+      to conceal himself, he made a sign that the band was already in sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The heart of le Bourdon sunk within him, when he learned how near were the
+      enemy. To him, escape seemed impossible; and he now regretted having
+      abandoned the defences of his late residence. The river was sluggish for
+      more than a mile at that spot, and then occurred a rift, which could not
+      be passed without partly unloading the canoes, and where there must
+      necessarily be a detention of more than an hour. Thus, it was scarcely
+      possible for canoes descending that stream to escape from so large a band
+      of pursuers. The sinuosities, themselves, would enable the last to gain
+      fifty points ahead of them, where ambushes, or even open resistance, must
+      place them altogether at the mercy of the savages.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter knew all this, as well as the bee-hunter, and he had no intention of
+      trusting his new friends in a flight down the river. Pigeonswing, with the
+      sententious brevity of an Indian, had made an important communication to
+      him, while they were moving, for the last time, toward the canoes, and he
+      now determined to profit by it. Taking the lead, therefore, with his own
+      canoe, Peter paddled UP, instead of DOWN the stream, going in a direction
+      opposite to that which it would naturally be supposed the fugitives had
+      taken. In doing this, also, he kept close under the bank which would most
+      conceal the canoes from those who approached it on its southern side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will be remembered that the trees for the palisades had been cut from a
+      swamp, a short distance above the bee-hunter's residence. They had grown
+      on the margin of the river, which had been found serviceable in floating
+      the logs to their point of destination. The tops of many of these trees,
+      resinuous, and suited by their nature to preserve their leaves for a
+      considerable time, lay partly in the stream and partly on its banks; and
+      Pigeonswing, foreseeing the necessity of having a place of refuge, had
+      made so artful a disposition of several of them, that, while they
+      preserved all the appearance of still lying where they had fallen, it was
+      possible to haul canoes up beneath them, between the branches and the
+      bank, in a way to form a place of perfect concealment. No Indian would
+      have trusted to such a hiding-place, had it not been matter of notoriety
+      that the trees had been felled for a particular purpose, or had their
+      accidental disposition along the bank been discernibly deranged. But such
+      was not the case, the hand of Pigeonswing having been so skilfully
+      employed that what he had done could not be detected. He might be said to
+      have assisted nature, instead of disturbing her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The canoes were actually paddling close under the bank, in the Castle Meal
+      reach of the river, when the band arrived at the grove, and commenced what
+      might be called the investment of the place. Had not all the attention of
+      the savages been drawn toward the hut, it is probable that some wandering
+      eye might have caught a glimpse of some one of them, as inequalities in
+      the bank momentarily exposed each, in succession, to view. This danger,
+      however, passed away, and by turning a point, the fugitives were
+      effectually concealed from all who did not actually approach the river at
+      that particular point. Here it was, however, that the swamp commenced, and
+      the ground being wet and difficult, no one would be likely to do this. The
+      stream flowed through this swamp, having a dense wood on each side, though
+      one of no great extent. The reach, moreover, was short, making a
+      completely sheltered haven of the Kalamazoo, within its limits.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Once in this wooded reach, Peter tossed an arm, and assumed an air of
+      greater security. He felt infinitely relieved, and knew that they were
+      safe, for a time, unless some wanderer should have taken to the swamp&mdash;a
+      most improbable thing of itself. When high enough, he led the way across
+      the stream, and entering below, he soon had all the canoes in their place
+      of concealment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dis good place,&rdquo; observed the great chief, as soon as all were fast;
+      &ldquo;bess take care, dough. Bess not make track too much on land; Injin got
+      sharp eye, and see ebbery t'ing. Now, I go and talk wid chief. Come back
+      by-'em-by. You stay here. Good-bye.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop, Peter&mdash;one word before we part. If you see Parson Amen, or the
+      corporal, it might be well to tell THEM where we are to be found. They
+      would be glad to know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nebber know any t'ing ag'in,&rdquo; returned the chief. &ldquo;Both dem pale-face
+      dead.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dead!&rdquo; echoed all within hearing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Juss so; Injin kill him. Mean to kill you, too&mdash;dat why I run away.
+      Saw medicine-priest die. What you t'ink, Blossom?&mdash;What you t'ink,
+      Bourdon?&mdash;Dat man die asking Great Spirit to do good to Injin!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;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.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, Peter, such are our Christian laws,&rdquo; put in Margery, earnestly.
+      &ldquo;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.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You got him?&rdquo; said Peter, with interest. &ldquo;See you read him, of'en. Got
+      dat book here?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;To be sure I have&mdash;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.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Why, I'm no great scholar, Margery,&rdquo; returned her husband, scratching his
+      full, curling head of hair, out of pure awkwardness; &ldquo;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!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It's easy, it's easy, dear Benjamin, if you will only make a beginning,&rdquo;
+       returned the much interested young wife. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You read dem word for me, Blossom: I want to hear him, out of dis book,
+      himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      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.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Peter, we can count on you for a friend, I hope?&rdquo; said the bee-hunter, as
+      the two were about to part, on the bank of the river. &ldquo;I fear you were,
+      once, our enemy!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bourdon,&rdquo; said Peter, with dignity, and speaking in the language of his
+      own people, &ldquo;listen. There are Good Spirits, and there are Bad Spirits.
+      Our traditions tell us this. Our own minds tell us this, too. For twenty
+      winters a Bad Spirit has been whispering in my ear. I listened to him; and
+      did what he told me to do. I believed what he said. His words were&mdash;'Kill
+      your enemies&mdash;scalp all the pale-faces&mdash;do not leave a squaw, or
+      a pappoose. Make all their hearts heavy. This is what an Injin should do.'
+      So has the Bad Spirit been whispering to me, for twenty winters. I
+      listened to him. What he said, I did. It was pleasant to me to take the
+      scalps of the pale-faces. It was pleasant to think that no more scalps
+      would be left among them, to take. I was Scalping Peter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bourdon, the Good Spirit has, at last, made himself heard. His whisper is
+      so low, that at first my ears did not hear him. They hear him now. When he
+      spoke loudest, it was with the tongue of the medicine-priest of your
+      people. He was about to die. When we are about to die, our voices become
+      strong and clear. So do our eyes. We see what is before, and we see what
+      is behind. We feel joy for what is before&mdash;we feel sorrow for what is
+      behind. Your medicine-priest spoke well. It sounded in my ears as if the
+      Great Spirit, himself, was talking. They say it was his Son. I believe
+      them. Blossom has read to me out of the good book of your people, and I
+      find it is so. I feel like a child, and could sit down, in my wigwam, and
+      weep.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bourdon, you are a pale-face, and I am an Injin. You are strong, and I am
+      weak. This is because the Son of the Great Spirit has talked with your
+      people, and has not talked with mine. I now see why the pale-faces overrun
+      the earth and take the hunting-grounds. They know most, and have been told
+      to come here, and to tell what they know to the poor ignorant Injins. I
+      hope my people will listen. What the Son of the Great Spirit says must be
+      true. He does not know how to do wrong.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bourdon, once it seemed sweet to me to take the scalps of my enemies.
+      When an Injin did me harm, I took his scalp. This was my way. I could not
+      help it, then. The Wicked Spirit told me to do this. The Son of the
+      Manitou has now told me better. I have lived under a cloud. The breath of
+      the dying medicine-priest of your people has blown away that cloud. I see
+      clearer. I hear him telling the Manitou to do me good, though I wanted his
+      scalp. He was answered in my heart. Then my ears opened wider, and I heard
+      what the Good Spirit whispered. The ear in which the Bad Spirit had been
+      talking for twenty winters shut, and was deaf. I hear him no more. I do
+      not want to hear him again. The whisper of the Son of the Manitou is very
+      pleasant to me. It sounds like the wren singing his sweetest song. I hope
+      he will always whisper so. My ear shall never again be shut to his words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bourdon, it is pleasant to me to look forward. It is not pleasant to me
+      to look back. I see how many things I have done in one way, that ought to
+      have been done in another way. I feel sorry, and wish it had not been so.
+      Then I hear the Son of the Manitou asking His Father, who liveth above the
+      clouds, to do good to the Jews who took his life. I do not think Injins
+      are Jews. In this, my brother was wrong. It was his own notion, and it is
+      easy for a man to think wrong. It is not so with the Son of the Manitou.
+      He thinketh always as His Father thinketh, which is right.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Bourdon, I am no longer Peter&mdash;I must be another Injin. I do not
+      feel the same. A scalp is a terrible thing in my eyes&mdash;I wish never
+      to take another&mdash;never to see another&mdash;a scalp is a bad thing. I
+      now LOVE the Yankees. I wish to do them good, and not to do them harm. I
+      love most the Great Spirit, that let his own Son die for all men. The
+      medicine-priest said he died for Injins, as well as for pale-faces. This
+      we did not know, or we should have talked of him more in our traditions.
+      We love to talk of good acts. But we are such ignorant Injins! The Son of
+      the Manitou will have pity on us, and tell us oftener what we ought to do.
+      In time, we shall learn. Now, I feel like a child: I hope I shall one day
+      be a man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Having made this &ldquo;confession of faith,&rdquo; one that would have done credit to
+      a Christian church, Peter shook the bee-hunter kindly by the hand, and
+      took his departure. He did not walk into the swamp, though it was
+      practicable with sufficient care, but he stepped into the river, and
+      followed its margin, knowing that &ldquo;water leaves no trail.&rdquo; Nor did Peter
+      follow the direct route toward the now blazing hut, the smoke from which
+      was rising high above the trees, but he ascended the stream, until
+      reaching a favorable spot, he threw aside all of his light dress, made it
+      into a bundle, and swam across the Kalamazoo, holding his clothes above
+      the element with one hand. On reaching the opposite shore, he moved on to
+      the upper margin of the swamp, where he resumed his clothes. Then he
+      issued into the Openings, carrying neither rifle, bow, tomahawk, nor
+      knife. All his weapons he had left in his canoe, fearful that they might
+      tempt him to do evil, instead of good, to his enemies. Neither Bear's
+      Meat, nor Bough of the Oak, was yet regarded by Peter with the eye of
+      love. He tried not to hate them, and this he found sufficiently difficult;
+      conscious of this difficulty, he had laid aside his arms, accordingly.
+      This mighty change had been gradually in progress, ever since the chief's
+      close communication with Margery, but it had received its consummation in
+      the last acts, and last words, of the missionary!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having got out into the Openings, it was not difficult for Peter to join
+      his late companions without attracting observation from whence he came. He
+      kept as much under cover as was convenient, and reached the kitchen, just
+      as the band broke into the defences, and burst open the door of the
+      blazing and already roofless hut. Here Peter paused, unwilling to seem
+      inactive in such a scene, yet averse to doing anything that a sensitively
+      tender conscience might tell him was wrong. He knew there was no human
+      being there to save, and cared little for the few effects that might be
+      destroyed. He did not join the crowd, therefore, until it was ascertained
+      that the bee-hunter and his companions had escaped.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The pale-faces have fled,&rdquo; said Bear's Meat to the great chief, when the
+      last did approach him. &ldquo;We have looked for their bones among the ashes,
+      but there are none. That medicine-bee-hunter has told them that their
+      scalps were wanted, and they have gone off!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Have any of the young men been down to the river, to look for their
+      canoes?&rdquo; quietly demanded Peter. &ldquo;If the canoes are gone, too, they have
+      taken the route toward the Great Lake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was so obvious and probable, that a search was immediately set on
+      foot. The report was soon made, and great was the eagerness to pursue. The
+      Kalamazoo was so crooked, that no one there doubted of overtaking the
+      fugitives, and parties were immediately organized for the chase. This was
+      done with the customary intelligence and shrewdness of Indians. The canoes
+      that belonged to Crowsfeather and his band had been brought up the river,
+      and they lay concealed in rushes, not a mile from the hut. A party of
+      warriors brought them to the landing, and they carried one division of the
+      party to the opposite shore, it being the plan to follow each bank of the
+      river, keeping close to the stream, even to its mouth, should it prove
+      necessary. Two other parties were sent in direct lines, one on each side
+      of the river, also, to lay in ambush at such distant points, ahead, as
+      would be almost certain to anticipate the arrival of the fugitives. The
+      canoes were sent down the stream, to close the net against return, while
+      Bear's Meat, Bough of the Oak, Crowsfeather, and several others of the
+      leading chiefs, remained near the still burning hut, with a strong party,
+      to examine the surrounding Openings for foot-prints and trails. It was
+      possible that the canoes had been sent adrift, in order to mislead them,
+      while the pale-faces had fled by land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been stated that the Openings had a beautiful sward, near Castle
+      Meal, This was true of that particular spot, and was the reason why le
+      Bourdon had selected it for his principal place of residence. The
+      abundance of flowers drew the bees there, a reason of itself why he should
+      like the vicinity. Lest the reader should be misled, however, it may be
+      well to explain that an absence of sward is characteristic of these
+      Openings, rather than the reverse, it being, to a certain degree, a cause
+      of complaint, now that the country is settled, that the lands of the Oak
+      Openings are apt to be so light that the grasses do not readily form as
+      firm a turf as is desirable for meadows and pastures. We apprehend this is
+      true, however, less as a rule than as exceptions; there being variety in
+      the soils of these Openings, as well as in other quarters.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, the savages were aware that the country around the burned
+      hut, for a considerable extent, differed, in this particular, from most of
+      that which lay farther east, or more inland. On the last a trail would be
+      much more easily detected than on the first, and a party, under the
+      direction of a particularly experienced leader, was dispatched several
+      miles to the eastward, to look for the usual signs of the passage of any
+      toward Detroit, taking that route. This last expedient troubled Peter
+      exceedingly, since it placed a body of enemies in the rear of the
+      fugitives; thereby rendering their position doubly perilous. There was no
+      help for the difficulty, however; and the great chief saw the party depart
+      without venturing on remonstrance, advice, or any other expedient to
+      arrest the movement. Bear's Meat now called the head chiefs, who remained,
+      into a circle, and asked for opinions concerning the course that ought
+      next to be taken.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What does my brother, the tribeless chief, say?&rdquo; he asked, looking at
+      Peter, in a way to denote the expectation which all felt, that he ought to
+      be able to give useful counsel in such a strait. &ldquo;We have got but two
+      scalps from six heads; and one of THEM is buried with the
+      medicine-priest.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Scalps cannot be taken from them that get off,&rdquo; returned Peter,
+      evasively. &ldquo;We must first catch these pale-faces. When they are found it
+      will be easy to scalp them. If the canoes are gone, I think the
+      medicine-bee-hunter and his squaws have gone in them. We may find the
+      whole down the river.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      To this opinion most of the chiefs assented, though the course of
+      examining for a trail farther east was still approved. The band was so
+      strong, while the pale-faces were so few, that a distribution of their own
+      force was of no consequence, and it was clearly the most prudent to send
+      out young men in all directions. Every one, however, expected that the
+      fugitives would be overtaken on, or near, the river, and Bear's Meat
+      suggested the propriety of their moving down stream, themselves, very
+      shortly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;When did my brother last see the pale-faces?&rdquo; asked Crowsfeather. &ldquo;This
+      bee-hunter knows the river well, and may have started yesterday; or even
+      after he came from the Great Council of the Prairie.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This was a new idea, but one that seemed probable enough. All eyes turned
+      toward Peter, who saw, at once, that such a notion must greatly favor the
+      security of the fugitives, and felt a strong desire to encourage it. He
+      found evasion difficult, however, and well knew the danger of committing
+      himself. Instead of giving a straightforward answer, therefore, he had
+      recourse to circumlocution and subterfuge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My brother is right,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;The pale-faces HAVE had time to get
+      far down the stream. As my brothers know, I slept among them at the Round
+      Prairie. To-day, they know I was with them at the council of the spring of
+      gushing waters.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      All this was true, as far as it went, although the omissions were very
+      material. No one seemed to suspect the great chief, whose fidelity to his
+      own principles was believed to be of a character amounting to enthusiasm.
+      Little did any there know of the power of the unseen Spirit of God to
+      alter the heart, producing what religionists term the new birth. We do not
+      wish, however, to be understood that Peter had, as yet, fully experienced
+      this vast change. It is not often the work of a moment, though
+      well-authenticated modern instances do exist, in which we have every
+      reason to believe that men have been made to see and feel the truth almost
+      as miraculously as was St. Paul himself. As for this extraordinary savage,
+      he had entered into the strait and narrow way, though he was not far
+      advanced on its difficult path.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When men tell us of the great progress that the race is making toward
+      perfection, and point to the acts which denote its wisdom, its power to
+      control its own affairs, its tendencies toward good when most left to its
+      own self-control, our minds are filled with scepticism. The every-day
+      experience of a life now fast verging toward threescore, contradicts the
+      theory and the facts. We believe not in the possibility of man's becoming
+      even a strictly rational being, unaided by a power from on high; and all
+      that we have seen and read goes to convince us that HE is most of a
+      philosopher, the most accurate judge of his real state, the most truly
+      learned, who most vividly sees the necessity of falling back on the
+      precepts of revelation for all his higher principles and practice. We
+      conceive that this mighty truth furnishes unanswerable proof of the
+      unceasing agency of a Providence, and when we once admit this, we concede
+      that our own powers are insufficient for our own wants.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That the world, as a whole, is advancing toward a better state of things,
+      we as firmly believe as we do that it is by ways that have not been
+      foreseen by man; and that, whenever the last has been made the agent of
+      producing portions of this improvement, it has oftener been without
+      design, or calculation, than with it. Who, for instance, supposes that the
+      institutions of this country, of which we boast so much, could have stood
+      as long as they have, without the conservative principles that are to be
+      found in the Union; and who is there so vain as to ascribe the
+      overshadowing influence of this last great power to any wisdom in man? We
+      all know that perfectly fortuitous circumstances, or what appear to us to
+      be such, produced the Federal Government, and that its strongest and least
+      exceptionable features are precisely those which could not be withstood,
+      much less invented, as parts of the theory of a polity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great and spasmodic political movement is, at this moment, convulsing
+      Christendom. That good will come of it, we think is beyond a question; but
+      we greatly doubt whether it will come in the particular form, or by the
+      specified agencies, that human calculations would lead us to expect. It
+      must be admitted that the previous preparations, which have induced the
+      present effort, are rather in opposition to, than the consequences of,
+      calculated agencies; overturning in their progress the very safeguards
+      which the sagacity of men had interposed to the advance of those very
+      opinions that have been silently, and by means that would perhaps baffle
+      inquiry, preparing the way for the results that have been so suddenly and
+      unexpectedly obtained. If the course is onward, it is more as the will of
+      God, than from any calculations of man; and it is when the last are the
+      most active, that there is the greatest reason to apprehend the
+      consequences.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of such a dispensation of the Providence of Almighty God, do we believe
+      Peter to have been the subject. Among the thousand ways that are employed
+      to touch the heart, he had been most affected by the sight of a dying
+      man's asking benedictions on his enemies! It was assailing his besetting
+      sin; attacking the very citadel of his savage character, and throwing
+      open, at once, an approach into the deepest recesses of his habits and
+      dispositions. It was like placing a master-key in the hands of him who
+      would go through the whole tenement, for the purpose of purifying it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Thou to whom every faun and satyr flies
+     For willing service; whether to surprise
+     The squatted hare, while in half sleeping fits,
+     Or upward ragged precipices flit
+     To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw;
+     Or by mysterious enticement draw
+     Bewildered shepherds to their path again;&mdash;
+                                      &mdash;KEATS.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It can easily be understood that the party with the canoes were left by
+      Peter in a state of great anxiety. The distance between the site of the
+      hut and their place of concealment was but little more than a quarter of a
+      mile, and the yell of the savages had often reached their ears,
+      notwithstanding the cover of the woods. This proximity, of itself, was
+      fearful; but the uncertainty that le Bourdon felt on the subject of
+      Peter's real intentions added greatly to his causes of concern. Of course,
+      he knew but little of the sudden change that had come over this mysterious
+      chief's feelings; nor is it very likely that he would have been able to
+      appreciate it, even had the fact been more fully stated. Our hero had very
+      little acquaintance with the dogmas of Christianity, and would have, most
+      probably, deemed it impossible that so great a revolution of purpose could
+      have been so suddenly wrought in the mind of man, had the true state of
+      the case been communicated to him. He would have been ready enough to
+      allow that, with God, nothing is impossible; but might have been disposed
+      to deny the influence of His Holy Spirit, as exhibited in this particular
+      form, for a reason no better than the circumstance that he himself had
+      never been the subject of such a power. All that Peter had said,
+      therefore, served rather to mystify him, than to explain, in its true
+      colors, what had actually occurred. With Margery it was different. Her
+      schooling had been far better than that of any other of the party, and,
+      while she admired the manly appearance, and loved the free, generous
+      character of her husband, she had more than once felt pained at the
+      passing thoughts of his great indifference to sacred things. This feeling
+      in le Bourdon, however, was passive rather than active, and gave her a
+      kind interest in his future welfare, rather than any present pain through
+      acts and words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, as respects their confidence in Peter, this young couple were much
+      farther apart than in their religious notions. The bee-hunter had never
+      been without distrust, though his apprehensions had been occasionally so
+      far quieted as to leave him nearly free of them altogether; while his wife
+      had felt the utmost confidence in the chief, from the very commencement of
+      their acquaintance. It would be useless, perhaps, to attempt to speculate
+      on the causes; but it is certain that there are secret sources of sympathy
+      that draw particular individuals toward each other and antipathies that
+      keep them widely separated. Men shall meet for the first time, and feel
+      themselves attracted toward each other, like two drops of water, or
+      repelled, like the corks of an electric machine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The former had been the case with Peter and Margery. They liked each other
+      from the first, and kind orifices had soon come to increase this feeling.
+      The girl had now seen so much of the Indians, as to regard them much as
+      she did others, or with the discriminations, and tastes, or distastes,
+      with which we all regard our fellow-creatures; feeling no particular cause
+      of estrangement. It is true that Margery would not have been very likely
+      to fall in love with a young Indian, had one come in her way of a suitable
+      age and character; for her American notions on the subject of color might
+      have interposed difficulties; but, apart from the tender sentiments, she
+      could see good and bad qualities in one of the aborigines, as well as in a
+      white man. As a consequence of this sympathy between Peter and Margery,
+      the last had ever felt the utmost confidence in the protection and
+      friendship of the first. This she did, even while the struggle was going
+      on in his breast on the subject of including her in his fell designs, or
+      of making an exception in her favor. It shows the waywardness of our
+      feelings that Margery had never reposed confidence in Pigeonswing, who was
+      devotedly the friend of le Bourdon, and who remained with them for no
+      other reason than a general wish to be of use. Something BRUSQUE in his
+      manner, which was much less courteous and polished than that of Peter, had
+      early rendered her dissatisfied with him, and once estranged, she had
+      never felt disposed to be on terms of intimacy sufficient to ascertain his
+      good or bad qualities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The great change of feeling in Peter was not very clearly understood by
+      Margery, any more than it was by her husband; though, had her attention
+      been drawn more strictly to it, she would have best known how to
+      appreciate it. But this knowledge was not wanting to put HER perfectly at
+      peace, so far as apprehension of his doing her harm was concerned. This
+      sense of security she now manifested in a conversation with le Bourdon,
+      that took place soon after Peter had left them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish we weren't in the hands of this red-skin, Margery,&rdquo; said her
+      husband, a little more off his guard than was his wont.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of Peter! You surprise me, Benjamin. I think we could not be in better
+      hands, since we have got this risk to run with the savages. If it was
+      Pigeonswing that you feared, I could understand it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will answer for Pigeonswing with my life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am glad to hear you say so, for <i>I</i> do not half like HIM. Perhaps
+      I am prejudiced against him. The scalp he took down at the mouth of the
+      river set me against him from the first.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you not know, Margery, that your great friend goes by the name of
+      'Scalping Peter'?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, I know it very well; but I do not believe he ever took a scalp in
+      his life.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Did he ever tell you as much as that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can't say that he did; but he has never paraded anything of the sort
+      before my eyes, like Pigeonswing. I do not half like that Chippewa, dear
+      Bourdon.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No fear of him, Margery; nor, when I come to think it all over, do I see
+      why Peter should have brought us here, if he means anything wrong. The man
+      is so mysterious, that I cannot line him down to his hole.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My word for it, Bourdon, that when you DO, it will take you to a friendly
+      hive. I have put almost as much faith in Peter as in you or Gershom. You
+      heard what he said about Parson Amen and the corporal.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And how coolly he took it all,&rdquo; answered her husband, shaking his head.
+      &ldquo;It has been a sudden departure for them, and one would think even an
+      Injin might have felt it more.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery's cheek grew pale, and her limbs trembled a little. It was a
+      minute ere she could pursue the discourse.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;This is terrible, but I will not, cannot believe it,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I'm
+      sure, Bourdon, we ought to be very thankful to Peter for having brought us
+      here. Remember how earnestly he listened to the words of the Saviour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If he has brought us here with a good intention, I thank him for it. But
+      I scarce know what to think. Pigeonswing has given me many a hint, which I
+      have understood to mean that we ought not to trust this unknown Injin too
+      much.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So has he given me some of his hints, though I would sooner trust Peter
+      than trust him, any time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our lives are in the care of Providence, I see. If we can really rely on
+      these two Injins, all may be well; for Peter has brought us to an
+      admirable cover, and he says that the Chippewa prepared it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The young husband and his wife now landed, and began to examine more
+      particularly into the state of the swamp, near their place of concealment.
+      Just at that spot, the bank of the river was higher than in most of the
+      low land, and was dry, with a soil that approached sand. This was the
+      place where the few young pines had grown. The dry ground might have
+      covered four or five acres, and so many trees having been felled, light
+      and air were admitted, in a way to render the place comparatively
+      cheerful. The branches of the felled trees made a sufficient cover in all
+      directions, though the swamp itself was more than that, almost a defence,
+      toward the Openings. The bee-hunter found it was possible, though it was
+      exceedingly difficult, to make his way through it. He ascertained the
+      fact, however, since it might be important to their future movements to
+      know it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a word, le Bourdon made a complete RECONNAISSANCE of his position. He
+      cleared a spot for the females, and made a sort of hut, that would serve
+      as a protection against rain, and in which they all might sleep at night.
+      There was little doubt that this place must be occupied for some days, if
+      Peter was acting in good faith, since an early movement would infallibly
+      lead to detection. Time must be given to the Indians to precede them, or
+      the great numbers of the savages would scarce leave a hope of escape. A
+      greater sense of security succeeded this examination, and these
+      arrangements. The danger was almost entirely to be apprehended on the side
+      of the river. A canoe passing up-stream might, indeed, discover their
+      place of concealment, but it was scarcely to be apprehended that one would
+      wade through the mud and water of the swamp to approach them in any other
+      direction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Under these circumstances, le Bourdon began to feel more security in their
+      position. Could he now be certain of Peter, his mind would be
+      comparatively at ease, and he might turn his attention altogether to
+      making the party comfortable. Margery, who seldom quitted his side,
+      reasoned with him on the subject of the mysterious chief's good faith, and
+      by means of her own deep reliance on him, she came at last to the point of
+      instilling some of her own confidence into the mind of her husband. From
+      that time he worked at the shelter for the females, and the other little
+      arrangements their situation rendered necessary, with greater zest, and
+      with far more attention to the details. So long as we are in doubt of
+      accomplishing good, we hesitate about employing our energies; but once let
+      hope revive within us, in the shape of favorable results, and we become
+      new men, bracing every nerve to the task, and working with redoubled
+      spirit; even should it be at the pump of the sinking ship, which, we
+      believe, ranks the highest among the toils that are inflicted on the
+      unfortunate.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For three days and nights did le Bourdon and his friends remain on that
+      dry land of the swamp, without hearing or seeing anything of either Peter
+      or Pigeonswing. The time was growing long, and the party anxious; though
+      the sense of security was much increased by this apparent exemption from
+      danger. Still, uncertainty, and the wish to ascertain the precise state of
+      things in the Openings, were gradually getting to be painful, and it was
+      with great satisfaction that the bee-hunter met his young wife as she came
+      running toward him, on the morning of the fourth day, to announce that an
+      Indian was approaching, by wading in the margin of the river, keeping
+      always in the water so as to leave no trail. Hurrying to a point whence
+      their visitor might be seen, le Bourdon soon perceived it was no other
+      than Pigeonswing. In a few minutes this Indian arrived, and was gladly
+      received by all four of the fugitives, who gathered around him, eager to
+      hear the news.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You are welcome, Chippewa,&rdquo; cried le Bourdon, shaking his friend
+      cordially by the hand. &ldquo;We were half afraid we might never see you again.
+      Do you bring us good or evil tidings?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mustn't be squaw, and ask too much question, Bourdon,&rdquo; returned the
+      red-skin, carefully examining the priming of his rifle, in order to make
+      sure it was not wet. &ldquo;Got plenty venison, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Not much venison is left, but we have caught a good many fish, which have
+      helped us along. I have killed a dozen large squirrels, too, with your bow
+      and arrows, which I find you left in your canoe. But&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, he good bow, dat&mdash;might kill hummin'-bird wid dat bow. Fish
+      good here, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They are eatable, when a body can get no better. But NOW, I should think,
+      Pigeonswing, you might give us some of the news.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mustn't be squaw, Bourdon&mdash;bad for warrior be squaw. Alway bess be
+      man, and be patient, like man. What you t'ink, Bourdon? Got him at last!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got WHAT my good fellow? I see nothing about you, but your arms and
+      ammunition.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Got scalp of dat Weasel! Wasn't dat well done? Nebber no young warrior
+      take more scalp home dan Pigeonswing carry dis time! Got t'ree; all hid,
+      where Bear's Meat nebber know. Take 'em away, when he get ready to march.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well, well, Chippewa&mdash;I suppose it will not be easy to reason you
+      out of this feelin'&mdash;but what has become of the red-skins who burned
+      my cabin, and who killed the missionary and the corporal?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All about&mdash;dough must go down river. Look here, Bourdon, some of dem
+      chief fool enough to t'ink bee carry you off on his wing!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Here the Chippewa looked his contempt for the credulity and ignorance of
+      the others, though he did not express it after the boisterous manner in
+      which a white man of his class might have indulged. To him le Bourdon was
+      a good fellow, but no conjuror, and he understood the taking of the bee
+      too well to have any doubts as to the character of that process. His
+      friend had let him amuse himself by the hour in looking through his
+      spy-glass, so that the mind of this one savage was particularly well
+      fortified against the inroads of the weaknesses that had invaded those of
+      most of the members of the great council. Consequently, he was amused with
+      the notion taken up by some of the others, that le Bourdon had been
+      carried off by bees, though he manifested his amusement in a very
+      Indian-like fashion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So much the better,&rdquo; answered le Bourdon; &ldquo;and I hope they have followed
+      to line me down to my hive in the settlements.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Most on 'em go&mdash;yes, dat true. But some don't go. Plenty of Injins
+      still about dis part of Opening.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What are we then to do? We shall soon be in want of food. The fish do not
+      bite as they did, and I have killed all the squirrels I can find. You know
+      I dare not use a rifle.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't be squaw, Bourdon. When Injin get marry he grows good deal like
+      squaw at fuss; but dat soon go away. I spose it's just so wid pale-face.
+      Mustn't be squaw, Bourdon. Dat bad for warrior. What you do for eat? Why,
+      see dere,&rdquo; pointing to an object that was floating slowly down the river,
+      the current of which was very sluggish just in that reach. &ldquo;Dere as fat
+      buck as ever did see, eh?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Sure enough the Indian had killed a deer, of which the Openings were full,
+      and having brought it to the river, he had constructed a raft of logs, and
+      placing the carcase on it, he had set his game adrift, taking care to so
+      far precede it as to be in readiness to tow it into port. When this last
+      operation was performed, it was found that the Chippewa did not heedlessly
+      vaunt the quality of his prize. What was more, so accurately had he
+      calculated the time, and the means of subsistence in the possession of the
+      fugitives, that his supply came in just as it was most needed. In all this
+      he manifested no more than the care of an experienced and faithful hunter.
+      Next to the war-path, the hunting-ground is the great field for an
+      Indian's glory; deeds and facts so far eclipsing purely intellectual
+      qualifications with savages, as to throw oratory, though much esteemed by
+      them, and wisdom at the Council Fires, quite into the shade. In all this,
+      we find the same propensity among ourselves. The common mind, ever subject
+      to these impulses, looks rather to such exploits as address themselves to
+      the senses and the imagination, than to those qualities which the reason
+      alone can best appreciate; and in this, ignorance asserts its negative
+      power over all conditions of life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pigeonswing now condescended to enter on such explanations as the state of
+      the case rendered necessary. His account was sufficiently clear, and it
+      manifested throughout the sagacity and shrewdness of a practised hunter
+      and scout. We shall not attempt to give his words, which would require too
+      much space, but the substance of his story was briefly this:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As has been alluded to already, the principal chiefs, on a suggestion of
+      Bear's Meat, had followed the young men down the Kalamazoo, dividing
+      themselves by a part of their body's crossing the stream at the first
+      favorable spot. In this way the Indians proceeded, sweeping the river
+      before them, and examining every place that seemed capable of concealing a
+      canoe. Runners were kept in constant motion between the several parties,
+      in order to let the state of the search be known to all; and, feigning to
+      be one of these very men, Pigeonswing had held communication with several
+      whom he purposely met, and to whom he imparted such invented information
+      as contributed essentially to send the young men forward on a false scent.
+      In this way, the main body of the savages descended the river some sixty
+      miles, following its windings, in the first day and a half. Here
+      Pigeonswing left them, turning his own face up stream, in order to rejoin
+      his friends. Of Peter he had no knowledge; neither knowing, nor otherwise
+      learning, what had become of the great chief. On his way up stream,
+      Pigeonswing met several more Indians; runners like himself, or as he
+      seemed to be; or scouts kept on the lookout for the fugitives. He had no
+      difficulty in deceiving these men. None of them had been of Crowsfeather's
+      party, and he was a stranger to them all. Ignorant of his real character,
+      they received his information without distrust, and the orders he
+      pretended to convey were obeyed by them without the smallest hesitation.
+      In this way, then, Pigeonswing contrived to send all the scouts he met
+      away from the river, by telling them that there was reason to think the
+      pale-faces had abandoned the stream, and that it was the wish of Bear's
+      Meat that their trail should be looked for in the interior. This was the
+      false direction that he gave to all, thereby succeeding better even than
+      he had hoped in clearing the banks of the Kalamazoo of observers and foes.
+      Nevertheless, many of those whom he knew to be out, some quite in the rear
+      of the party, and others in its front, and at no great distance from them,
+      he did not meet; of course he could not get his false directions to their
+      ears. There were, in fact, so many of the Indians and so few of the
+      whites, that it was an easy matter to cover the path with young warriors,
+      any one party of whom would be strong enough to capture two men and as
+      many women.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having told the tale of his own doings, Pigeonswing next came to his
+      proposition for the mode of future proceeding. He proposed that the family
+      should get into the canoes that very night, and commence its flight by
+      going down the stream directly toward its foes! This sounded strangely,
+      but there did not seem to be any alternative. A march across the peninsula
+      would be too much for the females, and there was the certainty that their
+      trail would be found. It may seem strange to those who are unacquainted
+      with the American Indian, and his habits, to imagine that, in so large an
+      expanse, the signs of the passage of so small a party might not escape
+      detection; but such was the case. To one unaccustomed to the vigilance and
+      intelligence of these savages, it must appear just as probable that the
+      vessel could be followed through the wastes of the ocean, by means of its
+      wake, as that the footprints should be so indelible as to furnish signs
+      that can be traced for days. Such, however, is the fact, and no one
+      understood it better than the Chippewa. He was also aware that the country
+      toward Ohio, whither the fugitives would naturally direct their course,
+      now that the English were in possession of Detroit, must soon be a sort of
+      battle-ground, to which most of the warriors of that region would eagerly
+      repair. Under all the circumstances, therefore, he advised the flight by
+      means of the river. Le Bourdon reasoned on all he heard, and, still
+      entertaining some of his latent distrust of Peter, and willing to get
+      beyond his reach, he soon acquiesced in the proposition, and came fully
+      into the plan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now necessary to reload the canoes. This was done in the course of
+      the day, and every arrangement was made, so as to be ready for a start as
+      soon as the darkness set in. Everybody was glad to move, though all were
+      aware of the extent of the hazard they ran. The females, in particular,
+      felt their hearts beat, as each, in her husband's canoe, issued out of the
+      cover into the open river. Pigeonswing took the lead, paddling with a
+      slow, but steady sweep of his arm, and keeping as close as was convenient
+      to one bank. By adopting this precaution, he effectually concealed the
+      canoes from the eyes of all on that side of the river, unless they stood
+      directly on its margin, and had the aid of the shadows to help conceal
+      them from any who might happen to be on the other. In this way, then, the
+      party proceeded, passing the site of the hut, and the grove of Openings
+      around it, undetected. As the river necessarily flowed through the lowest
+      land, its banks were wooded much of the way, which afforded great
+      protection to the fugitives; and this so much the more because these woods
+      often grew in swamps where the scouts would not be likely to resort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      About midnight the canoes reached the first rift. An hour was lost in
+      unloading and in reloading the canoes, and in passing the difficulties at
+      that point. As soon as this was done, the party re-embarked, and resorted
+      once more to the use of the paddle, in order to gain a particular
+      sheltered reach of the river previously to the return of light. This was
+      effected successfully, and the party landed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It now appeared that Pigeonswing had chosen another swamp as a place of
+      concealment for the fugitives to use during the day. These swamps, through
+      which the river wound its way in short reaches, were admirably adapted to
+      such purposes. Dark, sombre, and hardly penetrable on the side of the
+      land, they were little likely to be entered after a first examination. Nor
+      was it at all probable that females, in particular, would seek a refuge in
+      such a place. But the Chippewa had found the means to obviate the natural
+      obstacles of the low land. There were several spots where the water from
+      the river set back into the swamp, forming so many little creeks; and into
+      the largest of one of these he pushed his canoe, the others following
+      where he led. By resorting to such means, the shelter now obtained was
+      more complete, perhaps, than that previously left.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pigeonswing forced his light boat up the shallow inlet, until he reached a
+      bit of dry land, where he brought up, announcing THAT as the abiding-place
+      during the day. Glad enough was every one to get on shore, in a spot that
+      promised security, after eight hours of unremitting paddling and of
+      painful excitement. Notwithstanding the rifts and carrying-places they had
+      met, and been obliged to overcome, le Bourdon calculated that they had
+      made as many as thirty miles in the course of that one night. This was a
+      great movement, and to all appearances it had been made without detection.
+      As for the Chippewa, he was quite content, and no sooner was his canoe
+      secured, than he lighted his pipe and sat down to his enjoyment with an
+      air of composure and satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And here, you think, Pigeonswing, that we shall be safe during the day?&rdquo;
+       demanded le Bourdon, approaching the fallen tree on which the Indian had
+      taken his seat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Sartain&mdash;no Pottawattamie come here. Too wet. Don't like wet. An't
+      duck, or goose&mdash;like dry land, juss like squaw. Dis good 'baccy,
+      Bourdon&mdash;hope you got more for friend.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have enough for us all, Pigeonswing, and you shall have a full share.
+      Now, tell me; what will be your next move, and where do you intend to pass
+      the morrow?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Juss like diss. Plenty of swamp, Bourdon, on Kekalamazoo. [Footnote: This
+      is the true Indian word, though the whites have seen fit to omit the first
+      syllable.] Run canoe in swamp; den safe 'nough. Injins won't look 'ere,
+      'cause he don't know whereabout look. Don't like swamp. Great danger down
+      at mouth of river.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;So it has seemed to me, Chippewa. The Injins must be there in a strong
+      force, and we shall find it no easy matter to get through them. How do you
+      propose to do it?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Go by in night. No udder way. When can't see, can't see. Dere plenty of
+      rush dere; dat good t'ing, and, p'raps, dat help us. Rush good cover for
+      canoe. Expec', when we get down 'ere, to get some scalp, too. Plenty of
+      Pottawattamie about dat lodge, sartain; and it very hard if don't get some
+      on him scalp. You mean stop, and dig up cache; eh, Bourdon?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The cool, quiet manner in which Pigeonswing revealed his own plans, and
+      inquired into those of his friend, had, at least, the effect to revive the
+      confidence of le Bourdon. He could not think the danger very great so long
+      as one so experienced as the Chippewa felt so much confidence in his own
+      future proceedings; and, after talking a short time longer with this man,
+      the bee-hunter went to seek Margery, in order to impart to her a due
+      portion of his own hopes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sisters were preparing the breakfast. This was done without the use of
+      fire, it being too hazardous to permit smoke to rise above the tops of the
+      trees. Many is the camp that has been discovered by the smoke, which can
+      be seen at a great distance; and it is a certain sign of the presence of
+      man, when it ascends in threads, or such small columns as denote a
+      domestic fire beneath. This is very different from the clouds that float
+      above the burning prairies, and which all, at once, impute to their true
+      origin. The danger of using fire had been so much guarded against by our
+      fugitives, that the cooking of the party had been done at night; the
+      utmost caution having been used to prevent the fire itself from being
+      seen, and care taken to extinguish it long before the return of day. A
+      supply of cold meat was always on hand, and had it not been, the fugitives
+      would have known how to live on berries, or, at need, to fast; anything
+      was preferable, being exposed to certain capture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the party had broken their fast, arrangements were made for
+      recruiting nature by sleep. As for Pigeonswing, Indian-like, he had eaten
+      enormously, no reasonable quantity of venison sufficing to appease his
+      appetite; and when he had eaten, he lay down in the bottom of his canoe
+      and slept. Similar dispositions were made of their persons by the rest,
+      and half an hour after the meal was ended, all there were in a profound
+      sleep. No watch was considered necessary, and none was kept.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The rest of the weary is sweet. Long hours passed, ere any one there
+      awoke; but no sooner did the Chippewa move than all the rest were afoot.
+      It was now late in the day, and it was time to think of taking the meal
+      that was to sustain them through the toil and fatigues of another arduous
+      night. This was done; the necessary preparations being made for a start
+      ere the sun had set. The canoes were then shoved as near the mouth of the
+      inlet as it was safe to go, while the light remained. Here they stopped,
+      and a consultation took place, as to the manner of proceeding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      No sooner did the shades of evening close around the place than the
+      fugitives again put forth. The night was clouded and dark, and so much of
+      the way now lay through forests that there was little reason to apprehend
+      detection. The chief causes of delay were the rifts, and the portages, as
+      had been the case the night before. Luckily, le Bourdon had been up and
+      down the stream so often as to be a very tolerable pilot in its windings.
+      He assumed the control, and by midnight the greatest obstacle to that
+      evening's progress was overcome. At the approach of day, Pigeonswing
+      pointed out another creek, in another swamp, where the party found a
+      refuge for the succeeding day. In this manner four nights were passed on
+      the river, and as many days in swamps, without discovery. The Chippewa had
+      nicely calculated his time and his distances, and not the smallest mistake
+      was made. Each morning a place of shelter was reached in sufficient
+      season; and each night the fugitives were ready for the start as the day
+      shut in. In this manner, most of the river was descended, until a distance
+      that could be easily overcome in a couple of hours of paddling alone
+      remained between the party and the mouth of the stream. Extreme caution
+      was now necessary, for signs of Indians in the neighborhood had been
+      detected at several points in the course of the last night's work. On one
+      occasion, indeed, the escape was so narrow as to be worth recording.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was at a spot where the stream flowed through a forest denser than
+      common, that Pigeonswing heard voices on the river, ahead of him. One
+      Indian was calling to another, asking to be set across the stream in a
+      canoe. It was too late to retreat, and so much uncertainty existed as to
+      the nearness, or distance, of the danger, that the Chippewa deemed it
+      safest to bring all three of his canoes together, and to let them float
+      past the point suspected, or rather KNOWN, to be occupied by enemies. This
+      was done, with the utmost care. The plan succeeded, though not without
+      running a very great risk. The canoes did float past unseen, though there
+      was a minute of time when le Bourdon fancied by the sounds that savages
+      were talking to each other, within a hundred feet of his ears. Additional
+      security, however, was felt in consequence of the circumstance, since the
+      pursuers must imagine the river below them to be free from the pursued.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The halt that morning was made earlier than had been the practice
+      previously. This was done because the remaining distance was so small
+      that, in continuing to advance, the party would have incurred the risk of
+      reaching the mouth of the river by daylight. This was to be avoided on
+      every account, but principally because it was of great importance to
+      conceal from the savages the direction taken. Were the chiefs certain that
+      their intended victims were on Lake Michigan, it would be possible for
+      them to send parties across the isthmus, that should reach points on Lake
+      Huron, days in advance of the arrival of the bee-hunter and his friends in
+      the vicinity of Saginaw, or Pointe aux Barques, for instance, and where
+      the canoes would be almost certain to pass near the shore, laying their
+      ambushes to accomplish these ends. It was thought very material,
+      therefore, to conceal the movements, even after the lake might be reached,
+      though le Bourdon had not a doubt of his canoes much outsailing those of
+      the savages. The Indians are not very skilful in the use of sails, while
+      the bee-hunter knew how to manage a bark canoe in rough water, with
+      unusual skill. In the common acceptation, he was no sailor; but, in his
+      own peculiar craft, there was not a man living who could excel him in
+      dexterity or judgment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The halting-place that morning was not in a swamp, for none offered at a
+      suitable distance from the mouth of the river. On the contrary, it was in
+      a piece of Opening, that was tolerably well garnished with trees, however,
+      and through which ran a small brook that poured its tribute into the
+      Kalamazoo. The Chippewa had taken notice of this brook, which was large
+      enough to receive the canoes, where they might be concealed in the rushes.
+      A favorable copse, surrounded with elders, afforded a covered space on
+      shore, and these advantages were improved for an encampment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instead of seeking his rest as usual, on reaching this cover, Pigeonswing
+      left the party on a scout. He walked up the brook some distance, in order
+      to conceal his trail, and then struck across the Opening, taking the
+      direction westward, or toward the river's mouth. As for le Bourdon and his
+      friends, they ate and slept as usual, undisturbed; but arose some hours
+      before the close of day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus far, a great work had been accomplished. The canoes had descended the
+      stream with a success that was only equalled by the hardihood of the
+      measure, conducted by an intelligence that really seemed to amount to an
+      instinct Pigeonswing carried a map of the Kalamazoo in his head, and
+      seemed never at a loss to know where to find the particular place he
+      sought. It is true, he had roamed through those Openings ever since he was
+      a child; and an Indian seldom passes a place susceptible of being made of
+      use to his habits, that he does not take such heed of its peculiarities,
+      as to render him the master of all its facilities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery was now full of hope, while the bee-hunter was filled with
+      apprehensions. She saw all things couleur de rose, for she was young,
+      happy, and innocent; but he better understood that they were just
+      approaching the most serious moment of their flight. He knew the vigilance
+      of the American savage, and could not deceive himself on the subject of
+      the danger they must run. The mouth of the river was just the place that,
+      of all others, would be the closest watched, and to pass it would require
+      not only all their skill and courage, but somewhat of the fostering care
+      of Providence. It might be done with success, though the chances were much
+      against.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXVIII.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Yes! we have need to bid our hopes repose
+     On some protecting influence; here confined
+     Life hath no healing balm for mental woes;
+     Earth is too narrow for the immortal mind.
+     Our spirits burn to mingle with the day,
+     As exiles panting for their native coast;
+     Yet lured by every wild-flower from their way,
+     And shrinking from the gulf that must be crossed.
+     Death hovers round us&mdash;in the zephyr's sigh
+     As in the storm he comes&mdash;and lo! Eternity!
+                                                &mdash;MRS. HEMANS.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It was probably that inherent disposition to pry into unknown things,
+      which is said to mark her sex, and which was the weakness assailed by the
+      serpent when he deluded Eve into disobedience, that now tempted Margery to
+      go beyond the limits which Pigeonswing had set for her, with a view to
+      explore and ascertain what might be found without. In doing this, however,
+      she did not neglect a certain degree of caution, and avoided exposing her
+      person as much as possible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery had got to the very verge of prudence, so far as the cover was
+      concerned, when her steps were suddenly arrested by a most unexpected and
+      disagreeable sight. An Indian was seated on a rock within twenty feet of
+      the place where she stood. His back was toward her, but she was certain it
+      could not be Pigeonswing, who had gone in a contrary direction, while the
+      frame of this savage was much larger and heavier than that of the
+      Chippewa. His rifle leaned against the rock, near his arm, and the
+      tomahawk and knife were in his belt; still Margery thought, so far as she
+      could ascertain, that he was not in his war-paint, as she knew was the
+      fact with those whom she had seen at Prairie Round. The attitude and whole
+      deportment of this stranger, too, struck her as remarkable. Although our
+      heroine stood watching him for several minutes, almost breathless with
+      terror and anxiety to learn his object, he never stirred even a limb in
+      all that time. There he sat, motionless as the rock on which he had placed
+      himself; a picture of solitude and reflection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was evident, moreover, that this stranger also sought a species of
+      concealment, as well as the fugitives. It is true he had not buried
+      himself in a cover of bushes; but his seat was in a hollow of the ground
+      where no one could have seen him, from the rear or on either side, at a
+      distance a very little greater than that at which Margery stood, while his
+      front was guarded from view by a line of bushes that fringed the margin of
+      the stream. Marius, pondering on the mutations of fortune, amid the ruins
+      of Carthage, could scarcely have presented a more striking object than the
+      immovable form of this stranger. At length the Indian slightly turned his
+      head, when his observer, to her great surprise, saw the hard, red, but
+      noble and expressive profile of the well-known features of Peter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In an instant all Margery's apprehensions vanished, and her hand was soon
+      lightly laid on the shoulder of her friend. Notwithstanding the suddenness
+      of this touch, the great chief manifested no alarm. He turned his head
+      slowly, and when he saw the bright countenance of the charming bride, his
+      smile met hers in pleased recognition. There was no start, no exclamation,
+      no appearance of surprise; on the contrary, Peter seemed to meet his
+      pretty young friend much as a matter of course, and obviously with great
+      satisfaction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How lucky this is, Peter!&rdquo; exclaimed the breathless Margery. &ldquo;Bourdon's
+      mind will now be at rest, for he was afraid you had gone to join our
+      enemies, Bear's Meat and his party.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes; go and stay wid 'em. So bess. Now dey t'ink Peter all on deir side.
+      But never forget you, young Blossom.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I believe you, Peter; for I FEEL as if you are a true friend. How lucky
+      that we should meet here!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No luck at all. Come a purpose. Pigeonswing tell me where you be, so come
+      here. Juss so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Then you expected to find us in this cover! and what have you to tell us
+      of our enemies?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Plenty of DEM. All about mout' of river. All about woods and Openings
+      here. More dan you count. T'ink of nuttin' but get your scalp.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Ah! Peter;&mdash;why is it that you red men wish so much to take our
+      lives?&mdash;and why have you destroyed the missionary, a pious Christian,
+      who wished for nothing but your good?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter bent his eyes to the earth, and for more than a minute he made no
+      reply. He was much moved, however, as was visible in his countenance,
+      which plainly denoted that strong emotions were at work within.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Blossom, listen to my words,&rdquo; he, at length, answered. &ldquo;They are such as
+      a fader would speak to his da'ghter. You my da'ghter. Tell you so, once;
+      and what Injin say once, he say alway. Poor, and don't know much, but know
+      how to do as he say he do. Yes, you my da'ghter! Bear's Meat can't touch
+      YOU, widout he touch ME. Bourdon your husband; you his squaw. Husband and
+      squaw go togedder, on same path. Dat right. But, Blossom, listen. Dere is
+      Great Spirit. Injin believe dat as well as pale-face. See dat is so. Dere
+      is Great WICKED Spirit, too. Feel dat, too; can't help it. For twenty
+      winter dat Great Wicked Spirit stay close to my side. He put his hand
+      before one of my ear, and he put his mout' to tudder. Keep whisper,
+      whisper, day and night, nebber stop whisper. Tell me to kill pale-face,
+      wherever I find him. Bess to kill him. If didn't kill pale-face, pale-face
+      kill Injin. No help for it. Kill ole man, kill young man; kill squaws,
+      pappoose and all. Smash eggs and break up 'e nest. Dat what he whisper,
+      day and night, for twenty winters. Whisper so much, was force to b'lieve
+      him. Bad to have too much whisper of same t'ing in ear. Den I want scalp.
+      Couldn't have too much scalp. Took much scalp. All pale-face scalp. Heart
+      grow hard. Great pleasure was to kill pale-face. Dat feeling last,
+      Blossom, till I see you. Feel like fader to you, and don't want your
+      scalp. Won'er great deal why I feel so, but do feel so. Dat my natur'.
+      Still want all udder pale-face scalp. Want Bourdon scalp, much as any.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      A slight exclamation from his companion, which could scarcely be called a
+      scream, caused the Indian to cease speaking, when the two looked toward
+      each other, and their eyes met. Margery, however, saw none of those
+      passing gleams of ferocity which had so often troubled her in the first
+      few weeks of their acquaintance; in their stead, an expression of subdued
+      anxiety, and an earnestness of inquiry that seemed to say how much the
+      chief's heart yearned to know more on that mighty subject toward which his
+      thoughts had lately been turned. The mutual glance sufficed to renew the
+      confidence our heroine was very reluctant to relinquish, while it awakened
+      afresh all of Peter's parental concern in the welfare of the interesting
+      young woman at his side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;But this feeling has left you, Peter, and you no longer wish Bourdon's
+      scalp,&rdquo; said Margery, hastily. &ldquo;Now he is my husband, he is your son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat good, p'raps,&rdquo; answered the Injin, &ldquo;but dat not a reason, nudder,
+      Blossom. You right, too. Don't want Bourdon scalp any longer. Dat true.
+      But don't want ANY scalp, any more. Heart grow soft&mdash;an't hard, now.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I could let you understand, Peter, how much I rejoice to hear
+      this! I have never felt afraid of you, on my own account, though I will
+      own that I have sometimes feared that the dreadful cruel stories which are
+      told of your enmity to my color are not altogether without truth. Now, you
+      tell me you are the white man's friend, and that you no longer wish to
+      injure him. These are blessed words, Peter; and humbly do I thank God,
+      through his blessed Son, that I have lived to hear them!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Dat Son make me feel so,&rdquo; returned the Indian, earnestly. &ldquo;Yes, juss so.
+      My heart was hard, till medicinepriest tell dat tradition of Son of Great
+      Spirit&mdash;how he die for all tribes and nations, and ask his fader to
+      do good to dem dat take his life&mdash;dat won'erful tradition, Blossom!
+      Sound like song of wren in my ear&mdash;sweeter dan mocking-bird when he
+      do his bess. Yes, dat won'erful. He true, too; for medicine-priest ask his
+      Manitou to bless Injin, juss as Injins lift tomahawk to take his life. I
+      see'd and heard dat, myself. All, won'erful, won'erful!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It was the Spirit of God that enabled poor Amen to do that, Peter; and it
+      is the Spirit of God that teaches you to see and feel the beauty of such
+      an act. Without the aid of that Spirit, we are helpless as children; with
+      it, strong as giants. I do not wonder, at all, that the good missionary
+      was able to pray for his enemies with his dying breath. God gave him
+      strength to do so.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery spoke as she felt, earnestly, and with emphasis. Her cheeks
+      flushed with the strength of her feelings, and Peter gazed on her with a
+      species of reverence and wonder. The beauty of this charming young woman
+      was pleasing rather than brilliant, depending much on expression for its
+      power. A heightened color greatly increased it, and when, as in this
+      instance, the eyes reflected the tints of the cheeks, one might have
+      journeyed days in older regions, without finding her equal in personal
+      attractions. Much as he admired her, however, Peter had now that on his
+      mind which rendered her beauty but a secondary object with him. His soul
+      had been touched by the unseen, but omnipresent, power of the Holy Spirit,
+      and his companion's language and fervor contributed largely in keeping
+      alive his interest in what he felt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Nebber know Injin do dat,&rdquo; said Peter, in a slow, deliberative sort of
+      way; &ldquo;no, nebber know Injin do so. Always curse and hate his enemy, and
+      most when about to lose his scalp. Den, feelin's hottest. Den, most want
+      to use tomahawk on his enemy. Den, most feel dat he hate him. But not so
+      wid medicine-priest. Pray for Injin; ask Great Spirit to do him all 'e
+      good he can; juss as Injin was goin' to strike. Won'erful&mdash;most
+      won'erful DAT, in my eyes. Blossom, you know Peter. He your fader. He take
+      you, and make you his da'ghter. His heart is soft to you, Blossom. But, he
+      nuttin' but poor Injin, dough a great chief. What he know? Pale-face
+      pappoose know more dan Injin chief. Dat come from Great Spirit too. He
+      wanted it so, and it is so. Our chiefs say dat Great Spirit love Injin.
+      May be so. T'ink he love ebbery body; but he can't love Injin as much as
+      he love pale-face, or he wouldn't let red man know so little. Don't count
+      wigwams, and canoes, and powder, and lead, as proof of Great Spirit's
+      love. Pale-face got more of dese dan Injin. Dat I see and know, and dat I
+      feel. But it no matter. Injin used to be poor, and don't care. When used
+      to be poor, den used to it. When used to be rich, den it hard not to be
+      rich. All use. Injin don't care. But it bad not to know. I'm warrior&mdash;I'm
+      hunter&mdash;I'm great chief. You squaw&mdash;you young&mdash;you know so
+      much as squaw of chief. But you know most. I feel ashamed to know so
+      little. Want to know more. Want to know most how 'e Son of Great Spirit
+      die for all tribe, and pray to his fader to bless 'em dat kill him. Dat
+      what Peter now want most to know!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I wish I was better able to teach you, Peter, from the bottom of my
+      heart; but the little I do know you shall hear. I would not deny you for a
+      thousand worlds, for I believe the Holy Spirit has touched your heart, and
+      that you will become a new man. Christians believe that all must become
+      new men, who are to live in the other world, in the presence of God.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How can dat be? Peter soon be ole&mdash;how can ole man grow young
+      ag'in?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The meaning of this is that we must so change in feelings, as no longer
+      to be the same persons. The things that we loved we must hate, and the
+      things that we hated, or at least neglected, we must love. When we feel
+      this change in our hearts, then may we hope that we love and reverence the
+      Great Spirit, and are living under his holy care.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter listened with the attention of an obedient and respectful child. If
+      meekness, humility, a wish to learn the truth, and a devout sentiment
+      toward the Creator, are so many indications of the &ldquo;new birth,&rdquo; then might
+      this savage be said to have been truly &ldquo;born again.&rdquo; Certainly he was no
+      longer the same man, in a moral point of view, and of this he was himself
+      entirely conscious. To him the wonder was what had produced so great and
+      so sudden a change! But the reply he made to Margery will, of itself,
+      sufficiently express his views of his own case.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;An Injin like a child,&rdquo; he said, meekly; &ldquo;nebber know. Even pale-face
+      squaw know more dan great chief, Nebber feel as do now. Heart soft as
+      young squaw's. Don't hate any body, no more. Wish well to all tribe, and
+      color, and nation. Don't hate Bri'sh, don't hate Yankee; don't hate
+      Cherokee, even. Wish 'em all well. Don't know dat heart is strong enough
+      to ask Great Spirit to do 'em all good, if dey want my scalp&mdash;p'rap
+      dat too much for poor Injin; but don't want nobody's scalp, myself. Dat
+      somet'in', I hope, for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is, indeed, Peter; and if you will get down on your knees, and humble
+      your thoughts, and pray to God to strengthen you in these good feelings,
+      he will be sure to do it, and make you, altogether, a new man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter looked wistfully at Margery, and then turned his eyes toward the
+      earth. After sitting in a thoughtful mood for some time, he again regarded
+      his companion, saying, with the simplicity of a child:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Don't know how to do dat, Blossom. Hear medicine-priest of pale-faces
+      pray, sometime, but poor Injin don't know enough to speak to Great Spirit.
+      You speak to Great Spirit for him. He know your voice, Blossom, and listen
+      to what you say; but he won't hear Peter, who has so long hated his enemy.
+      P'raps he angry if he hear Peter speak.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;In that you are mistaken, Peter. The ears of the Lord are ever open to
+      our prayers, when put up in sincerity, as I feel certain that yours will
+      now be. But, after I have told you the meaning of what I am about to say,
+      I will pray with you and for you. It is best that you should begin to do
+      this, as soon as you can.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Margery then slowly repeated to Peter the words of the Lord's prayer. She
+      gave him its history, and explained the meaning of several of its words
+      that might otherwise have been unintelligible to him, notwithstanding his
+      tolerable proficiency in English&mdash;a proficiency that had greatly
+      increased in the last few weeks, in consequence of his constant
+      communications with those who spoke it habitually. The word &ldquo;trespasses,&rdquo;
+       in particular, was somewhat difficult for the Indian to comprehend, but
+      Margery persevered until she succeeded in giving her scholar tolerably
+      accurate ideas of the meaning of each term. Then she told the Indian to
+      kneel with her, and, for the first time in his life, that man of the
+      Openings and prairies lifted his voice in prayer to the one God. It is
+      true that Peter had often before mentally asked favors of his Manitou; but
+      the requests were altogether of a worldly character, and the being
+      addressed was invested with attributes very different from those which he
+      now understood to belong to the Lord of heaven and earth. Nor was the
+      spirit in asking at all the same. We do not wish to be understood as
+      saying that this Indian was already a full convert to Christianity, which
+      contains many doctrines of which he had not the most distant idea; but his
+      heart had undergone the first step in the great change of conversion, and
+      he was now as humble as he had once been proud; as meek, as he had
+      formerly been fierce; and he felt that certain proof of an incipient love
+      of the Creator, in a similar feeling toward all the works of his hands.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Peter arose from his knees, after repeating the prayer to Margery's
+      slow leading, it was with the dependence of a child on the teaching of its
+      mother. Physically, he was the man he ever had been. He was as able to
+      endure fatigue, as sinewy in his frame, and as capable of fasting and of
+      sustaining fatigue, as in his most warlike days; but, morally, the change
+      was great, indeed. Instead of the obstinate confidence in himself and his
+      traditions, which had once so much distinguished this chief, there was
+      substituted an humble distrust of his own judgment, that rendered him
+      singularly indisposed to rely on his personal views, in any matter of
+      conscience, and he was truly become a child in all that pertained to his
+      religious belief. In good hands, and under more advantageous
+      circumstances, the moral improvement of Peter would have been great; but,
+      situated as he was, it could not be said to amount to much more than a
+      very excellent commencement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All this time both Peter and Margery had been too intent on their feelings
+      and employment, to take much heed to the precautions necessary to their
+      concealment. The sun was setting ere they arose, and then it was that
+      Peter made the important discovery that they were observed by two of the
+      young men of the Pottawattamies&mdash;scouts kept out by Bear's Meat to
+      look for the fugitives.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The time was when Peter would not have hesitated to use his rifle on these
+      unwelcome intruders; but the better spirit that had come over him, now led
+      him to adopt a very different course. Motioning to the young men, he
+      ordered them to retire, while he led Margery within the cover of the
+      bushes. Formerly, Peter would not have scrupled to resort to deception, in
+      order to throw these two young men on a wrong scent, and get rid of them
+      in that mode; but now he had a reluctance to deceive; and, no sooner did
+      they fall back at his beckoning, than he followed Margery to the camp. The
+      latter was giving her husband a hurried account of what had just happened,
+      as Peter joined them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Our camp is known!&rdquo; exclaimed the bee-hunter the instant he beheld the
+      Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Juss so. Pottawattamie see squaw, and go and tell his chief. Dat
+      sartain,&rdquo; answered Peter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is there to be done?&mdash;Fight for our lives, or fly?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Get in canoe quick as can. It take dem young men half-hour to reach place
+      where chief be. In dat half-hour we muss go as far as we can. No good to
+      stay here. Injin come in about one hour.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon knew his position well enough to understand this. Nevertheless,
+      there were several serious objections to an immediate flight. Pigeonswing
+      was absent, and the bee-hunter did not like the notion of leaving him
+      behind, for various reasons. Then it was not yet dark; and to descend the
+      river by daylight, appeared like advancing into the jaws of the lion
+      designedly. Nor was le Bourdon at his ease on the subject of Peter. His
+      sudden appearance, the insufficient and far from clear account of Margery,
+      and the extraordinary course advised, served to renew ancient distrusts,
+      and to render him reluctant to move. But of one thing there could be no
+      doubt. Their present position must be known, for Margery had seen the two
+      strange Indians with her own eyes, and a search might soon be expected.
+      Under all the circumstances, therefore, our hero reluctantly complied with
+      Margery's reiterated solicitations, and they all got into the canoes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not like this movement, Peter,&rdquo; said le Bourdon, as he shoved his
+      own light craft down the brook, previously to entering the river. &ldquo;I hope
+      it may turn out to be better than it looks, and that you can keep us out
+      of the hands of our enemies. Remember, it is broad daylight, and that red
+      men are plenty two or three miles below us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, know dat; but muss go. Injin too plenty here, soon. Yes, muss go.
+      Bourdon, why you can't ask bee, now, what bess t'ing for you to do, eh?
+      Good time, now, ask bee to tell what he know.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter made no reply, but his pretty wife raised her hand,
+      involuntarily, as if to implore the Indian to forbear. Peter was a little
+      bewildered; for as yet, he did not understand that a belief in necromancy
+      was not exactly compatible with the notions of the Christian Providence.
+      In his ignorance, how much was he worse off than the wisest of our race?
+      Will any discreet man who has ever paid close attention to the power of
+      the somnambule, deny that there is a mystery about such a person that
+      exceeds all our means of explanation? That there are degrees in the extent
+      of this power&mdash;that there are false, as well as true somnambules&mdash;all
+      who have attended to the subject must allow; but, a deriding disbeliever
+      in our own person once, we have since seen that which no laws, known to
+      us, can explain, and which we are certain is not the subject of collusion,
+      as we must have been a party to the fraud ourselves, were any such
+      practised. To deny the evidence of our senses is an act of greater
+      weakness than to believe that there are mysteries connected with our moral
+      and physical being that human sagacity has not yet been able to penetrate;
+      and we repudiate the want of manliness that shrinks from giving its
+      testimony when once convinced, through an apprehension of being derided,
+      as weaker than those who withhold their belief. We KNOW that our own
+      thoughts have been explained and rendered, by a somnambule, under
+      circumstances that will not admit of any information by means known to us
+      by other principles; and whatever others may think on the subject, we are
+      perfectly conscious that no collusion did or could exist. Why, then, are
+      we to despise the poor Indian because he still fancied le Bourdon could
+      hold communication with his bees? We happen to be better informed, and
+      there may be beings who are aware of the as yet hidden laws of animal
+      magnetism&mdash;hidden as respects ourselves, though known to them&mdash;and
+      who fully comprehend various mistakes and misapprehensions connected with
+      our impressions on this subject, that escape our means of detection. It is
+      not surprising, therefore, that Peter, in his emergency, turned to those
+      bees, in the hope that they might prove of assistance, or that Margery
+      silently rebuked him for the weakness, in the manner mentioned.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although it was still light, the sun was near setting when the canoes
+      glided into the river. Fortunately for the fugitives, the banks were
+      densely wooded, and the stream of great width&mdash;a little lake, in fact&mdash;and
+      there was not much danger of their being seen until they got near the
+      mouth; nor then, even, should they once get within the cover of the wild
+      rice, and of the rushes. There was no retreat, however; and after paddling
+      some distance, in order to get beyond the observation of any scout who
+      might approach the place where they had last been seen, the canoes were
+      brought close together, and suffered to float before a smart breeze, so as
+      not to reach the mouth of the stream before the night closed around them.
+      Everything appeared so tranquil, the solitude was so profound, and their
+      progress so smooth and uninterrupted, that a certain amount of confidence
+      revived in the breasts of all, and even the bee-hunter had hopes of
+      eventual escape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A conversation now occurred, in which Peter was questioned concerning the
+      manner in which he had been occupied during his absence; an absence that
+      had given le Bourdon so much concern. Had the chief been perfectly
+      explicit, he would have confessed that fully one-half of his waking
+      thoughts had been occupied in thinking of the death of the Son of God, of
+      the missionary's prayer for his enemies, and of the sublime morality
+      connected with such a religion. It is true Peter did not&mdash;could not,
+      indeed&mdash;enter very profoundly into the consideration of these
+      subjects; nor were his notions either very clear or orthodox; but they
+      were sincere, and the feelings to which they gave birth were devout. Peter
+      did not touch on these circumstances, however, confining his explanations
+      to the purely material part of his proceedings. He had remained with
+      Bear's Meat, Crowsfeather, and the other leading chiefs, in order to be at
+      the fountain-head of information, and to interpose his influence should
+      the pale-faces unhappily fall into the hands of those who were so
+      industriously looking for them. Nothing had occurred to call his authority
+      out, but a strange uncertainty seemed to reign among the warriors,
+      concerning the manner in which their intended victims eluded their
+      endeavors to overtake them. No trail had been discovered, scout after
+      scout coming in to report a total want of success in their investigations
+      inland. This turned the attention of the Indians still more keenly on the
+      river's mouth, it being certain that the canoes could not have passed out
+      into the lake previously to the arrival of the two or three first parties
+      of their young men, who had been sent so early to watch that particular
+      outlet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter informed le Bourdon that his cache had been discovered, opened, and
+      rifled of its stores. This was a severe loss to our hero, and one that
+      would have been keenly felt at any other time; but just then he had
+      interests so much more important to protect, that he thought and said
+      little about this mishap. The circumstance which gave him the most concern
+      was this: Peter stated that Bear's Meat had directed about a dozen of his
+      young men to keep watch, day and night, in canoes, near the mouth of the
+      river, lying in wait among the wild rice, like so many snakes in the
+      grass.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The party was so much interested in this conversation that, almost
+      insensibly to themselves, they had dropped down to the beginning of the
+      rushes and rice, and had got rather dangerously near to the critical point
+      of their passage. As it was still daylight, Peter now proposed pushing the
+      canoes in among the plants, and there remaining until it might be safer to
+      move. This was done accordingly, and in a minute or two all three of the
+      little barks were concealed within the cover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The question now was whether the fugitives had been observed, but suffered
+      to advance, as every foot they descended the stream was taking them nearer
+      to their foes. Peter did not conceal his apprehension on this point, since
+      he deemed it improbable that any reach near the mouth of the Kalamazoo was
+      without its lookouts, at a moment so interesting. Such was, indeed, the
+      fact, as was afterward ascertained; but the young men who had seen Peter
+      and Margery had given the alarm, passing the word where the fugitives were
+      to be found, and the sentinels along this portion of the stream had
+      deserted their stations, in order to be in at the capture. By such
+      delicate and unforeseen means does Providence often protect those who are
+      the subjects of its especial care, baffling the calculations of art by its
+      own quiet control of events.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter had a feverish desire to be moving. After remaining in the
+      cover about half an hour, he proposed that they should get the canoes into
+      one of the open passages, of which there were many among the plants, and
+      proceed. Peter had more of the patience of an Indian, and deemed the hour
+      too early. But le Bourdon was not yet entirely free from distrust of his
+      companion, and telling Gershom to follow, he began paddling down one of
+      the passages mentioned. This decisive step compelled the rest to follow,
+      or to separate from their companions. They chose to do the first.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Had le Bourdon possessed more self-command, and remained stationary a
+      little longer, he would, in all probability, have escaped altogether from
+      a very serious danger that he was now compelled to run. Although there
+      were many of the open places among the plants, they did not always
+      communicate with each other, and it became necessary to force the canoes
+      through little thickets, in order to get out of one into another, keeping
+      the general direction of descending the river. It was while effecting the
+      first of these changes, that the agitation of the tops of the plants
+      caught the eye of a lookout on the shore. By signals, understood among
+      themselves, this man communicated his discovery to a canoe that was acting
+      as one of the guard-boats, thus giving a general alarm along the whole
+      line of sentinels, as well as to the chiefs down at the hut or at the
+      mouth of the river. The fierce delight with which this news was received,
+      after so long a delay, became ungovernable, and presently yells and cries
+      filled the air, proceeding from both sides of the stream, as well as from
+      the river itself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There was not a white person in those canoes who did not conceive that
+      their party was lost, when this clamor was heard. With Peter it was
+      different. Instead of admitting of alarm, he turned all his faculties to
+      use. While le Bourdon himself was nearly in despair, Peter was listening
+      with his nice ears, to catch the points on the river whence the yells
+      arose. For the banks he cared nothing. The danger was from the canoes. By
+      the keenness of his faculties, the chief ascertained that there were four
+      canoes out, and that they would have to run the gauntlet between them, or
+      escape would be hopeless. By the sounds he also became certain that these
+      four canoes were in the rice, two on each side of the river, and there
+      they would probably remain, in expectation that the fugitives would be
+      most likely to come down in the cover.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The decision of Peter was made in a moment. It was now quite dark, and
+      those who were in canoes within the rice could not well see the middle of
+      the stream, even by daylight. He determined, therefore, to take the very
+      centre of the river, giving his directions to that effect with precision
+      and clearness. The females he ordered to lie down, each in her own canoe,
+      while their husbands alone were to remain visible. Peter hoped that, in
+      the darkness, le Bourdon and Gershom might pass for Indians, on the
+      lookout, and under his own immediate command.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One very important fact was ascertained by le Bourdon, as soon as these
+      arrangements were explained and completed. The wind on the lake was
+      blowing from the south, and of course was favorable to those who desired
+      to proceed in the opposite direction. This he communicated to Margery in a
+      low tone, endeavoring to encourage her by all the means in his power. In
+      return, the young wife muttered a few encouraging words to her husband.
+      Every measure was understood between the parties. In the event of a
+      discovery, the canoes were to bury themselves in the rice, taking
+      different directions, each man acting for himself. A place of rendezvous
+      was appointed outside, at a headland known to Gershom and le Bourdon, and
+      signals were agreed on, by which the latest arrival might know that all
+      was safe there. These points were settled as the canoes floated slowly
+      down the stream.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter took and kept the lead. The night was star-lit and clear, but there
+      was no moon. On the water, this made but little difference, objects not
+      being visible at any material distance. The chief governed the speed,
+      which was moderate, but regular. At the rate he was now going, it would
+      require about an hour to carry the canoes into the lake. But nearly all of
+      that hour must pass in the midst of enemies!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Half of the period just mentioned elapsed, positively without an alarm of
+      any sort. By this time, the party was abreast of the spot where Gershom
+      and le Bourdon had secreted the canoes in the former adventure at the
+      mouth of the river. On the shores, however, a very different scene now
+      offered. Then, the fire burned brightly in the hut, and the savages could
+      be seen by its light. Now, all was not only dark, but still as death.
+      There was no longer any cry, sound, alarm, or foot-fall, audible. The very
+      air seemed charged with uncertainty, and its offspring, apprehension.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As they approached nearer and nearer to what was conceived to be the most
+      critical point in the passage, the canoes got closer together; so close,
+      indeed, that le Bourdon and Gershom might communicate in very guarded
+      tones. The utmost care was taken to avoid making any noise, since a light
+      and careless blow from a paddle, on the side of a canoe, would be almost
+      certain, now, to betray them. Margery and Dorothy could no longer control
+      their feelings, and each rose in her seat, raising her body so as to bring
+      her head above the gunwale of the canoe, if a bark canoe can be said to
+      have a gunwale at all. They even whispered to each other, endeavoring to
+      glean encouragement by sympathy. At this instant occurred the crisis in
+      their attempt to escape.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXIX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     For an Indian isle she shapes her way
+     With constant mind both night and day:
+     She seems to hold her home in view
+     And sails as if the path she knew,
+     So calm and stately in her motion
+     Across the unfathomed, trackless ocean.
+                                           &mdash; WILSON.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It has been said that Peter was in advance. When his canoe was nearly
+      abreast of the usual landing at the hut, he saw two canoes coming out from
+      among the rice, and distant from him not more than a hundred yards. At a
+      greater distance, indeed, it would not have been easy to distinguish such
+      an object on the water at all. Instead of attempting to avoid these two
+      canoes, the chief instantly called to them, drawing the attention of those
+      in them to himself, speaking so loud as to be easily overheard by those
+      who followed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My young men are too late,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The pale-faces have been seen in
+      the openings above by our warriors, and must soon be here. Let us land,
+      and be ready to meet them at the wigwam.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter's voice was immediately recognized. The confident, quiet, natural
+      manner in which he spoke served to mislead those in the canoes; and when
+      he joined them, and entered the passage among the rice that led to the
+      landing, preceding the others, the last followed him as regularly as the
+      colt follows its dam. Le Bourdon heard the conversation, and understood
+      the movement, though he could not see the canoes. Peter continued talking
+      aloud, as he went up the passage, receiving answers to all he said from
+      his new companions, his voice serving to let the fugitives know precisely
+      where they were. All this was understood and improved by the last, who
+      lost no time in turning the adventure to account.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first impulse of le Bourdon had been to turn and fly up stream. But,
+      ascertaining that these dangerous enemies were so fully occupied by Peter
+      as not to see the canoes behind, he merely inclined a little toward the
+      other side of the channel, and slackened his rate of movement, in order
+      not to come too near. The instant he was satisfied that all three of the
+      canoes in advance had entered the passage mentioned, and were moving
+      toward the landing, he let out, and glided down stream like an arrow. It
+      required but half a minute to cross the opening of the passage, but
+      Peter's conversation kept his followers looking ahead, which greatly
+      lessened the risk. Le Bourdon's heart was in his mouth several times,
+      while thus running the gauntlet, as it might be; but fortune favored them;
+      or, as Margery more piously understood the circumstances, a Divine
+      Providence led them in safety past the danger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the mouth of the river both le Bourdon and Gershom thought it highly
+      probable that they should fall in with more lookouts, and each prepared
+      his arms for a fight. But no canoe was there, and the fugitives were soon
+      in the lake. Michigan is a large body of water, and a bark canoe is but a
+      frail craft to put to sea in, when there is any wind or commotion. On the
+      present occasion, there was a good deal of both; so much as greatly to
+      terrify the females. Of all the craft known, however, one of these
+      egg-shells is really the safest, if properly managed, among breakers or
+      amid the combing of seas. We have ourselves ridden in them safely through
+      a surf that would have swamped the best man-of-war cutter that ever
+      floated; and done it, too, without taking on board as much water as would
+      serve to wash one's hands. The light vessel floats on so little of the
+      element, indeed, that the foam of a large sea has scarce a chance of
+      getting above it, or aboard it; the great point in the handling being to
+      prevent the canoe from falling broadside to. By keeping it end on to the
+      sea, in our opinion, a smart gale might be weathered in one of these
+      craft, provided the endurance of a man could bear up against the unceasing
+      watchfulness and incessant labor of sweeping with the paddle, in order to
+      prevent broaching to.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Le Bourdon, it has been said, was very skilful in the management of his
+      craft; and Gershom, now perforce a sober and useful man, was not much
+      behind him in this particular. The former had foreseen this very
+      difficulty, and made all his arrangements to counteract it. No sooner,
+      therefore, did he find the canoes in rough water than he brought them
+      together, side by side, and lashed them there. This greatly lessened the
+      danger of capsizing, though it increased the labor of managing the craft
+      when disposed to turn broadside to. It only remained to get sail on the
+      catamaran, for some such thing was it now, in order to keep ahead of the
+      sea as much as possible. Light cotton lugs were soon spread, one in each
+      canoe, and away they went, as sailors term it, wing and wing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was now much easier steering, though untiring vigilance was still
+      necessary. A boat may appear to fly, and yet the &ldquo;send of the sea&rdquo; shall
+      glance ahead of it with the velocity of a bird. Nothing that goes through,
+      or ON, the water&mdash;and the last is the phrase best suited to the
+      floating of a bark canoe&mdash;can ever be made to keep company with that
+      feathery foam, which, under the several names of &ldquo;white-caps&rdquo;&mdash;an
+      in-shore and lubber's term&mdash;&ldquo;combs,&rdquo; &ldquo;breaking of the seas,&rdquo; &ldquo;the
+      wash,&rdquo; etc., etc., glances by a vessel in a blow, or comes on board her
+      even when she is running before it. We have often watched these clouds of
+      water, as they have shot ahead of us, when ploughing our own ten or eleven
+      knot through the brine, and they have ever appeared to us as so many
+      useful admonishers of what the power of God is, as compared to the power
+      of man. The last shall construct his ship, fit her with all the appliances
+      of his utmost art, sail her with the seaman's skill, and force her through
+      her element with something like railroad speed; yet will the seas &ldquo;send&rdquo;
+       their feathery crests past her, like so many dolphins, or porpoises,
+      sporting under her fore-foot. It is this following sea which becomes so
+      very dangerous in heavy gales, and which compels the largest ships
+      frequently to heave to, in order that they may present their bows to its
+      almost resistless power.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But our adventurers had no such gales as those we mean, or any such seas
+      to withstand. The wind blew fresh from the south, and Michigan can get up
+      a very respectable swell at need. Like the seas in all the great lakes, it
+      was short, and all the worse for that. The larger the expanse of water
+      over which the wind passes, the longer is the sea, and the easier is it
+      for the ship to ride on it. Those of Lake Michigan, however, were quite
+      long enough for a bark canoe, and glad enough were both Margery and
+      Dorothy when they found their two little vessels lashed together, and
+      wearing an air of more stability than was common to them. Le Bourdon's
+      sail was first spread, and it produced an immediate relief from the
+      washing of the waves. The drift of a bark canoe, in a smart blow, is
+      considerable, it having no hold on the water to resist it; but our
+      adventurers fairly flew as soon as the cotton cloth was opened. The wind
+      being exactly south, by steering due north, or dead before it, it was
+      found possible to carry the sail in the other canoe, borne out on the
+      opposite side; and from the moment that was opened, all the difficulty was
+      reduced to steering so &ldquo;small,&rdquo; as seamen term it, as to prevent one or
+      the other of the lugs from jibing. Had this occurred, however, no very
+      serious consequences would have followed, the precaution taken of lashing
+      the craft together rendering capsizing next to impossible.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Kalamazoo and its mouth were soon far behind, and le Bourdon no longer
+      felt the least apprehension of the savages left in it. The Indians are not
+      bold navigators, and he felt certain that the lake was too rough for the
+      savages to venture out, while his own course gradually carried him off the
+      land, and out of the track of anything that kept near the shore. A short
+      time produced a sense of security, and the wind appearing to fall, instead
+      of increasing in violence, it was soon arranged that one of the men should
+      sleep, while the other looked to the safety of the canoes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was about nine o'clock when the fugitives made sail, off the mouth of
+      the Kalamazoo; and, at the return of light, seven hours later, they were
+      more than forty miles from the place of starting. The wind still stood,
+      with symptoms of growing fresher again as the sun rose, and the land could
+      just be seen in the eastern board, the coast in that direction having made
+      a considerable curvature inland. This had brought the canoes farther from
+      the land than le Bourdon wished to be, but he could not materially change
+      his course without taking in one of his sails. As much variation was made,
+      however, as was prudent, and by nine o'clock, or twelve hours after
+      entering the lake, the canoes again drew near to the shore, which met them
+      ahead. By the bee hunter's calculations, they were now about seventy miles
+      from the mouth of the Kalamazoo, having passed the outlets of two or three
+      of the largest streams of those regions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The fugitives selected a favorable spot, and landed behind a headland that
+      gave them a sufficient lee for the canoes. They had now reached a point
+      where the coast trends a little to the eastward, which brought the wind in
+      a slight degree off the land. This change produced no very great effect on
+      the seas, but it enabled the canoes to keep close to the shore, making
+      something of a lee for them. This they did about noon, after having
+      lighted a fire, caught some fish in a small stream, killed a deer and
+      dressed it, and cooked enough provisions to last for two or three days.
+      The canoes were now separated again; it being easier to manage them in
+      that state than when lashed together, besides enabling them to carry both
+      sails. The farther north they got the more of a lee was found, though it
+      was in no place sufficient to bring smooth water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this manner several more hours were passed, and six times as many more
+      miles were made in distance. When le Bourdon again landed, which he did
+      shortly before the sun set, he calculated his distance from the mouth of
+      the Kalamazoo to be rather more than a hundred miles. His principal object
+      was to ascend a bluff and to take a look at the coast, in order to examine
+      it for canoes. This his glass enabled him to do with some accuracy, and
+      when he rejoined the party, he was rejoiced to have it in his power to
+      report that the coast was clear. After refreshing themselves, the canoes
+      were again brought together, in order to divide the watches, and a new
+      start was made for the night. In this manner did our adventurers make
+      their way to the northward for two nights and days, landing often, to
+      fish, hunt, rest, and cook, as well as to examine the coast. At the end of
+      the time mentioned, the celebrated straits of the Michillimackinac, or
+      Mackinaw, as they are almost universally termed, came in sight. The course
+      had been gradually changing toward the eastward, and, luckily for the
+      progress of the fugitives, the wind with it, leaving them always a
+      favorable breeze. But it was felt to be no longer safe to use a sail, and
+      recourse was had to the paddles, until the straits and island were passed.
+      This caused some delay, and added a good deal to the labor; but it was
+      deemed so dangerous to display their white cotton sails, objects that
+      might be seen for a considerable distance, that it was thought preferable
+      to adopt this caution. Nor was it useless. In consequence of this
+      foresight, a fleet of canoes was passed in safety, which were crossing
+      from the post at Mackinaw to ward the main land of Michigan. The number of
+      the canoes in this fleet could not have been less than fifty, but getting
+      a timely view of them, le Bourdon hid his own craft in a cove, and
+      remained there until the danger was over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The course now changed still more, while the wind got quite round to the
+      westward. This made a fair wind at first, and gave the canoes a good lee
+      as they advanced. Lake Huron, which was the water the fugitives were now
+      on, lies nearly parallel to Michigan, and the course was southeasterly. As
+      le Bourdon had often passed both ways on these waters, he had his favorite
+      harbors, and knew those signs which teach navigators how to make their
+      prognostics of the weather. On the whole, the fugitives did very well,
+      though they lost two days between Mackinaw and Saginaw Bay; one on account
+      of the strength of the wind, and one on account of rain. During the last,
+      they remained in a hut that le Bourdon had himself constructed in one of
+      his many voyages, and which he had left standing. These empty cabins, or
+      chientes, are of frequent occurrence in new countries, being used, like
+      the Refuges in the Alps, by every traveller as he has need of them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The sight of the fleet of canoes, in the straits of Michillimackinac,
+      caused the fugitives the only real trouble they had felt, between the time
+      when they left the mouth of the Kalamazoo, and the ten days that
+      succeeded. By the end of that period the party had crossed Saginaw, and
+      was fast coming up with Point au Barques, a landmark for all who navigate
+      the waters of Huron, when a canoe was seen coming out from under the land,
+      steering as if to intercept them. This sight gave both concern and
+      pleasure; concern, as it might lead to a hostile encounter, and pleasure,
+      because the bee-hunter hoped for information that might be useful in
+      governing his future course. Here his glass came in play, with good
+      effect. By means of that instrument, it was soon ascertained that the
+      strange canoe contained but two men, both Indians, and as that was just
+      their own force no great danger was apprehended from the meeting. The
+      craft, therefore, continued to approach each other, le Bourdon keeping his
+      glass levelled on the strangers much of the time.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;As I live, yonder are Peter and Pigeonswing,&rdquo; suddenly exclaimed our
+      hero. &ldquo;They have crossed the Peninsula, and have come out from the point,
+      in that canoe, to meet us.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;With important news, then, depend on it, Benjamin,&rdquo; answered the wife.
+      &ldquo;Tell this to brother, that he and Dolly may not feel more alarm than is
+      necessary.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter called out to his friends in the other canoe, and
+      communicated the discovery just made, the two craft keeping always within
+      hailing distance of each other.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Them Injins are not here for nothing,&rdquo; answered Dorothy. &ldquo;You will find
+      they have something serious to say.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We shall soon know,&rdquo; called out le Bourdon. &ldquo;Ten minutes will bring us
+      alongside of them.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The ten minutes did that much, and before the expiration of the short
+      space, the three canoes were fastened together, that of Peter being in the
+      centre. The bee-hunter saw, at a glance, that the expedition of the
+      Indians had been hurried; for their canoe, besides being of very
+      indifferent qualities, was not provided with the implements and
+      conveniences usual to a voyage of any length. Still, he would not ask a
+      question, but lighting his pipe, after a few puffs, he passed it
+      courteously over to Peter. The great chief smoked a while, and gave it to
+      Pigeonswing, in his turn, who appeared to enjoy it quite as much as any of
+      the party.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My father does not believe he is a Jew?&rdquo; said le Bourdon, smiling;
+      willing to commence a discourse, though still determined not to betray a
+      womanish curiosity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;We are poor Injins, Bourdon; just as the Great Spirit made us. Dat bess.
+      Can't help what Manitou do. If he don't make us Jew, can't be Jew. If he
+      make us Injin, muss be Injin. For my part, b'lieve I'm Injin, and don't
+      want to be pale-face. Can love pale-face, now, juss as well as love
+      Injin.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, I hope this is true, Peter,&rdquo; exclaimed Margery, her handsome face
+      flushing with delight, at hearing these words. &ldquo;So long as your heart
+      tells you this, be certain that the Spirit of God is in you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter made no answer, but he looked profoundly impressed with the novel
+      feeling that had taken possession of his soul. As for the bee-hunter, he
+      did not meddle with Margery's convictions or emotions on such subjects,
+      resembling, in this particular, most men, who, however indifferent to
+      religion in their own persons, are never sorry to find that their wives
+      profoundly submit to its influence. After a short pause, a species of
+      homage involuntarily paid to the subject, he thought he might now inquire
+      into the circumstances that brought the Indians on their route, without
+      incurring the imputation of a weak and impatient curiosity. In reply,
+      Peter's story was soon told. He had rejoined the chiefs without exciting
+      distrust, and all had waited for the young men to bring in the captives.
+      As soon as it was ascertained that the intended victims had escaped, and
+      by water, parties proceeded to different points, in order to intercept
+      them. Some followed in canoes, but, being less bold in their navigation
+      than the bee-hunter, they did not make the straits until some time after
+      the fugitives had passed. Peter, himself, had joined Bear's Meat and some
+      twenty warriors who had crossed the Peninsula, procured canoes at the head
+      of Saginaw Bay, and had come out at Point au Barques, the very spot our
+      party was now approaching, three days before its arrival.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Tired with waiting, and uncertain whether his enemies had not got the
+      start of him, Bear's Meat had gone into the river below, intending to keep
+      his watch there, leaving Peter at the Point, with three young men and one
+      canoe, to have a lookout. These young men the great chief had found an
+      excuse for sending to the head of the Bay, in quest of another canoe,
+      which left him, of course, quite alone on the Point. Scarce had the young
+      man got out of sight, ere Pigeonswing joined his confederate, for it seems
+      that this faithful friend had kept on the skirts of the enemy the whole
+      time, travelling hundreds of miles, and enduring hunger and fatigue,
+      besides risking his life at nearly every step, in order to be of use to
+      those whom he considered himself pledged to serve.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Of course, Peter and Pigeonswing understood each other. One hour after
+      they joined company, the canoes of the fugitives came in sight, and were
+      immediately recognized by their sails. They were met, as has been
+      mentioned, and the explanations that we have given were made before the
+      party landed at the Point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was something to know where the risk was to be apprehended; but le
+      Bourdon foresaw great danger. He had brought his canoes, already, quite
+      five hundred miles, along a hazardous coast&mdash;though a little craft,
+      like one of those he navigated, ran less risk, perhaps, than a larger
+      vessel, since a shelter might, at any time, be found within a reasonable
+      distance for it. From Pointe au Barques to the outlet of the lake was less
+      than a hundred miles more. This outlet was a river, as it is called&mdash;a
+      strait, in fact&mdash;which communicates with the small shallow lake of
+      St. Clair, by a passage of some thirty miles in length. Then the lake St.
+      Clair was to be crossed about an equal distance, when the canoes would
+      come out in what is called the Detroit River, a strait again, as its name
+      indicates. Some six or eight miles down this passage, and on its western
+      side, stands the city of Detroit, then a village of no great extent, with
+      a fort better situated to repel an attack of the savages, than to
+      withstand a siege of white men. This place was now in the possession of
+      the British, and, according to le Bourdon's notion, it was scarcely less
+      dangerous to him than the hostility of Bear's Meat and his companions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Delay, however, was quite as dangerous as anything else. After cooking and
+      eating, therefore, the canoes continued their course, Peter and
+      Pigeonswing accompanying them, though they abandoned their own craft.
+      Peter went with the bee-hunter and Margery, while the Chippewa took a seat
+      and a paddle in the canoe of Gershom. This change was made in order to put
+      a double power in each canoe, since it was possible that downright speed
+      might become the only means of safety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The wind still stood at the westward, and the rate of sailing was rapid.
+      About the close of the day the party drew near to the outlet, when Peter
+      directed the sails to be taken in. This was done to prevent their being
+      seen, a precaution that was now aided by keeping as near to the shore as
+      possible, where objects so small and low would be very apt to be
+      confounded with others on the land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was quite dark when the canoes entered the St. Clair river. Favored by
+      the current and the wind, their progress was rapid, and ere the day
+      returned, changing his direction from the course ordinarily taken, Peter
+      entered the lake by a circuitous passage; one of the many that lead from
+      the river to the lake, among aquatic plants that form a perfect shelter.
+      This detour saved the fugitives from falling into the hands of one party
+      of their enemies, as was afterward ascertained by the Indians. Bear's Meat
+      had left two canoes, each manned by five warriors, to watch the principal
+      passages into Lake St. Clair, not anticipating that any particular caution
+      would be used by the bee-hunter and his friends, at this great distance
+      from the place where they had escaped from their foes. But the arrival of
+      Peter, his sagacity, and knowledge of Indian habits, prevented the result
+      that was expected. The canoes got into the lake unseen, and crossed it a
+      little diagonally, so as to reach the Canada shore in the middle of the
+      afternoon of the succeeding day, using their sails only when far from
+      land, and not exposed to watchful eyes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter and his friends landed that afternoon at the cabin of a
+      Canadian Frenchman, on the shore of the lake, and at a safe distance from
+      the outlet which led still farther south. Here the females were hospitably
+      received, and treated with that kindness which marks the character of the
+      Canadian French. It mattered little to these simple people, whether the
+      travellers were of the hostile nation or not. It is true, they did not
+      like the &ldquo;Yankees,&rdquo; as all Americans are termed by them, but they were not
+      particularly in love with their English masters. It was well enough to be
+      repossessed of both banks of the Detroit, for both banks were then peopled
+      principally by their own race, the descendants of Frenchmen of the time of
+      Louis XIV., and who still preserved much of the language, and many of the
+      usages, of the French of that period. They spoke then, as now, only the
+      language of their fathers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter left the cottage of these simple and hospitable people, as
+      soon as the night was fairly set in; or, rather, as soon as a young moon
+      had gone down. Peter now took the command, steering the canoe of le
+      Bourdon, while Gershom followed so close as to keep the bow of his little
+      craft within reach of the Indian's arm. In less than an hour the fugitives
+      reached the opening of the river, which is here divided into two channels
+      by a large island. On that very island, and at that precise moment, was
+      Bear's Meat lying in wait for their appearance, provided with three
+      canoes, each having a crew of six men. It would have been easy for this
+      chief to go to Detroit, and give the alarm to the savages who were then
+      collected there in a large force, and to have made such a disposition of
+      the canoes as would have rendered escape by water impossible; but this
+      would have been robbing himself and his friends of all the credit of
+      taking the scalps, and throwing away what is termed &ldquo;honor&rdquo; among others
+      as well as among savages. He chose, therefore, to trust to his own ability
+      to succeed; and supposing the fugitives would not be particularly on their
+      guard at this point, had little doubt of intercepting them here, should
+      they succeed in eluding those he had left above.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The bee-hunter distrusted that island, and used extra caution in passing
+      it. In the first place, the two canoes were brought together, so as to
+      give them, in the dark, the appearance of only one; while the four men
+      added so much to the crew as to aid the deception. In the end it proved
+      that one of Bear's Meat's canoes that was paddling about in the middle of
+      the river had actually seen them, but mistook the party for a canoe of
+      their own, which ought to have been near that spot, with precisely six
+      persons in it, just at that time. These six warriors had landed, and gone
+      up among the cottages of the French to obtain some fruit, of which they
+      were very fond, and of which they got but little in their own villages.
+      Owing to this lucky coincidence, which the pretty Margery ever regarded as
+      another special interposition of Providence in their favor, the fugitives
+      passed the island without molestation, and actually got below the last
+      lookouts of Bear's Meat, though without their knowledge.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was by no means a difficult thing to go down the river, now that so
+      many canoes were in motion on it, at all hours. The bee-hunter knew what
+      points were to be avoided, and took care not to approach a sentinel. The
+      river, or strait, is less than a mile wide, and by keeping in the centre
+      of the passage, the canoes, favored by both wind and current, drove by the
+      town, then an inconsiderable village, without detection. As soon as far
+      enough below, the canoes were again cast loose from each other, and sail
+      was made on each. The water was smooth, and some time before the return of
+      light the fugitives were abreast of Malden, but in the American channel.
+      Had it been otherwise, the danger could not have been great. So completely
+      were the Americans subdued by Hull's capitulation, and so numerous were
+      the Indian allies of the British, that the passage of a bark canoe, more
+      or less, would hardly have attracted attention. At that time, Michigan was
+      a province of but little more than a name. The territory was wide, to be
+      sure, but the entire population was not larger than that of a moderately
+      sized English market town, and Detroit was then regarded as a distant and
+      isolated point. It is true that Mackinac and Chicago were both more
+      remote, and both more isolated, but an English force, in possession of
+      Detroit, could be approached by the Americans on the side of the land only
+      by overcoming the obstacles of a broad belt of difficult wilderness. This
+      was done the succeeding year, it is true, but time is always necessary to
+      bring out Jonathan's latent military energies. When aroused, they are not
+      trifling, as all his enemies have been made to feel; but a good deal of
+      miscalculation, pretending ignorance, and useless talking must be
+      expended, before the really efficient are allowed to set about serving the
+      country in their own way.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this respect, thanks to West Point, a well-organized staff, and
+      well-educated officers, matters are a little improving. Congress has not
+      been able to destroy the army, in the present war, though it did its best
+      to attain that end; and all because the nucleus was too powerful to be
+      totally eclipsed by the gas of the usual legislative tail of the Great
+      National Comet, of which neither the materials nor the orbit can any man
+      say he knows. One day, it declares war with a hurrah; the next, it denies
+      the legislation necessary to carry it on, as if it distrusted its own
+      acts, and already repented of its patriotism. And this is the body,
+      soulless, the very school of faction, as a whole of very questionable
+      quality in the outset, that, according to certain expounders of the
+      constitution, is to perform all the functions of a government; which is
+      not only to pass laws, but is to interpret them; which is to command the
+      army, aye, even to wheeling its platoons; which reads the constitution as
+      an abbe mumbles his aves and paters, or looking at everything but his
+      texts; and which is never to have its acts vetoed, unless in cases where
+      the Supreme Court would spare the Executive that trouble. We never yet
+      could see either the elements or the fruits of this great sanctity in the
+      National Council. In our eyes it is scarcely ever in its proper place on
+      the railway of the Union, has degenerated into a mere electioneering
+      machine, performing the little it really does convulsively, by sudden
+      impulses, equally without deliberation or a sense of responsibility. In a
+      word, we deem it the power of all others in the state that needs the
+      closest watching, and were we what is termed in this country
+      &ldquo;politicians,&rdquo; we should go for the executive who is the most ready to
+      apply the curb to these vagaries of faction and interested partisans!
+      Vetoes. Would to Heaven we could see the days of Good Queen Bess revived
+      for one session of Congress at least, and find that more laws were sent
+      back for the second thoughts of their framers than were approved! Then,
+      indeed, might the country be brought back to a knowledge of the very
+      material constitutional facts that the legislature is not
+      commander-in-chief, does not negotiate or make treaties, and has no right
+      to do that which it has done so often&mdash;appoint to office by act of
+      Congress.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As a consequence of the little apprehension entertained by the English of
+      being soon disturbed in their new conquests, le Bourdon and his friends
+      got out of the Detroit River, and into Lake Erie, without discovery or
+      molestation. There still remained a long journey before them. In that day
+      the American side of the shores of all the Great Lakes was little more
+      than a wilderness. There were exceptions at particular points, but these
+      were few and far asunder. The whole coast of Ohio&mdash;for Ohio has its
+      coast as well as Bohemia [Footnote: See Shakespeare&mdash;Winter's Tale.]&mdash;was
+      mostly in a state of nature, as was much of those of Pennsylvania and New
+      York, on the side of the fresh water. The port which the bee-hunter had in
+      view was Presque Isle, now known as Erie, a harbor in Pennsylvania, that
+      has since become somewhat celebrated in consequence of its being the port
+      out of which the American vessels sailed, about a year later than the
+      period of which we are writing, to fight the battle that gave them the
+      mastery of the lake. This was a little voyage of itself, of near two
+      hundred miles, following the islands and the coast, but it was safely made
+      in the course of the succeeding week. Once in Lake Erie and on the
+      American side, our adventurers felt reasonably safe against all dangers
+      but those of the elements. It is true that a renowned annalist, whose
+      information is sustained by the collected wisdom of a State Historical
+      Society, does tell us that the enemy possessed both shores of Lake Erie in
+      1814; but this was so small a mistake, compared with some others that this
+      Nestor in history had made, that we shall not stop to explain it. Le
+      Bourdon and his party found all the south shore of Lake Erie in possession
+      of the Americans, so far as it was in the possession of any one, and
+      consequently ran no risks from this blunder of the historian and his
+      highly intelligent associates!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Peter and Pigeonswing left their friends before they reached Presque Isle.
+      The bee-hunter gave them his own canoe, and the parting was not only
+      friendly, but touching. In the course of their journey, and during their
+      many stops, Margery had frequently prayed with the great chief. His
+      constant and burning desire, now, was to learn to read, that he might
+      peruse the word of the Great Spirit, and regulate his future life by its
+      wisdom and tenets. Margery promised, should they ever meet again, and
+      under circumstances favorable to such a design, to help him attain his
+      wishes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Pigeonswing parted from his friend with the same light-hearted vivacity as
+      he had manifested in all their intercourse. Le Bourdon gave him his own
+      rifle, plenty of ammunition, and various other small articles that were of
+      value to an Indian, accepting the Chippewa's arms in return. The exchange,
+      however, was greatly to the advantage of the savage. As for Peter, he
+      declined all presents. He carried weapons now, indeed, merely for the
+      purpose of hunting; but the dignity of his character and station would
+      have placed him above such compensations, had the fact been otherwise.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /><br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030"> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      CHAPTER XXX.
+    </h2>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+           Come to the land of peace!
+     Come where the tempest hath no longer sway,
+     The shadow passes from the soul away&mdash;
+            The sounds of weeping cease.
+
+           Fear hath no dwelling there!
+     Come to the mingling&mdash;of repose and love,
+     Breathed by the silent spirit of the dove,
+            Through the celestial air.
+                                           &mdash;MRS. HEMANS.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      It is now more than thirty-three years since the last war with the English
+      terminated, and about thirty-six to the summer in which the events
+      recorded in this legend occurred. This third of a century has been a
+      period of mighty changes in America. Ages have not often brought about as
+      many in other portions of the earth, as this short period of time has
+      given birth to among ourselves. We had written, thus far, on the evidence
+      of documents sent to us, when an occasion offered to verify the truth of
+      some of our pictures, at least, by means of personal observation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Quitting our own quiet and secluded abode in the mountains, in the
+      pleasant month of June, and in this current year of 1848, we descended
+      into the valley of the Mohawk, got into the cars, and went flying by rails
+      toward the setting sun. Well could we remember the time when an entire day
+      was required to pass between that point on the Mohawk where we got on the
+      rails, and the little village of Utica. On the present occasion, we flew
+      over the space in less than three hours, and dined in a town of some
+      fifteen thousand souls.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We reached Buffalo, at the foot of Lake Erie, in about twenty hours after
+      we had entered the cars. This journey would have been the labor of more
+      than a week, at the time in which the scene of this tale occurred. Now,
+      the whole of the beautiful region, teeming with its towns and villages,
+      and rich with the fruits of a bountiful season, was almost brought into a
+      single landscape by the rapidity of our passage.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Buffalo, we turned aside to visit the cataract. Thither, too, we went
+      on rails. Thirty-eight years had passed away since we had laid eyes on
+      this wonderful fall of water. In the intervening time we had travelled
+      much, and had visited many of the renowned falls of the old world, to say
+      nothing of the great number which are to be found in other parts of our
+      own land. Did this visit, then, produce disappointment?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Did time, and advancing years, and feelings that had become deadened by
+      experience, contribute to render the view less striking, less grand, in
+      any way less pleasing than we had hoped to find it? So far from this, all
+      our expectations were much more than realized. In one particular, touching
+      which we do not remember ever to have seen anything said, we were actually
+      astonished at the surpassing glory of Niagara. It was the character of
+      sweetness, if we can so express it, that glowed over the entire aspect of
+      the scene. We were less struck with the grandeur of this cataract, than
+      with its sublime softness and gentleness. To water in agitation, use had
+      so long accustomed us, perhaps, as in some slight degree to lessen the
+      feeling of awe that is apt to come over the novice in such scenes; but we
+      at once felt ourselves attracted by the surpassing loveliness of Niagara.
+      The gulf below was more imposing than we had expected to see it, but it
+      was Italian in hue and softness, amid its wildness and grandeur. Not a
+      drop of the water that fell down that precipice inspired terror; for
+      everything appeared to us to be filled with attraction and love. Like
+      Italy itself, notwithstanding so much that is grand and imposing, the
+      character of softness, and the witchery of the gentler properties, is the
+      power we should ascribe to Niagara, in preference to that of its majesty.
+      We think this feeling, too, is more general than is commonly supposed, for
+      we find those who dwell near the cataract playing around it, even to the
+      very verge of its greatest fall, with a species of affection, as if they
+      had the fullest confidence in its rolling waters. Thus it is that we see
+      the little steamer, the Maid of the Mist, paddling up quite near to the
+      green sheet of the Horse-Shoe itself, and gliding down in the current of
+      the vortex, as it is compelled to quit the eddies, and come more in a line
+      with the main course of the stream. Wires, too, are suspended across the
+      gulf below, and men pass it in baskets. It is said that one of these
+      inventions is to carry human beings over the main fall, so that the
+      adventurer may hang suspended in the air, directly above the vortex. In
+      this way do men, and even women, prove their love for the place, all of
+      which we impute to its pervading character of sweetness and attraction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Buffalo we embarked in a boat under the English flag, which is called
+      the Canada, This shortened our passage to Detroit, by avoiding all the
+      stops at lateral ports, and we had every reason to be satisfied with our
+      selection. Boat, commander, and the attendance were such as would have
+      done credit to any portion of the civilized world. There were many
+      passengers, a motley collection, as usual, from all parts of the country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Our attention was early drawn to one party, by the singular beauty of its
+      females. They seemed to us to be a grandmother, in a well-preserved, green
+      old age; a daughter, but a matron of little less than forty; and two
+      exceedingly pretty girls of about eighteen and sixteen, whom we took to be
+      children of the last. The strong family likeness between these persons led
+      us early to make this classification, which we afterward found was
+      correct.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By occasional remarks, I gathered that the girls had been to an &ldquo;Eastern&rdquo;
+       boarding-school, that particular feature in civilization not yet
+      flourishing in the Northwestern States. It seemed to us that we could
+      trace in the dialect of the several members of this family, the gradations
+      and peculiarities that denote the origin and habits of individuals. Thus,
+      the grandmother was not quite as Western in her forms of speech as her
+      matronly daughter, while the grandchildren evidently spoke under the
+      influence of boarding-school correction, or like girls who had been often
+      lectured on the subject &ldquo;First rate,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Yes, sir,&rdquo; and &ldquo;That's a fact,&rdquo;
+       were often in the mouth of the pleasing mother, and even the grandmother
+      used them all, though not as often as her daughter, while the young people
+      looked a little concerned and surprised, whenever they came out of the
+      mouth of their frank-speaking mother. That these persons were not of a
+      very high social class was evident enough, even in their language. There
+      was much occasion to mention New York, we found, and they uniformly called
+      it &ldquo;the city.&rdquo; By no accident did either of them happen to use the
+      expression that she had been &ldquo;in town,&rdquo; as one of us would be apt to say.
+      &ldquo;He's gone to the city,&rdquo; or &ldquo;She's in the city,&rdquo; are awkward phrases, and
+      tant soit peu vulgar; but even our pretty young boarding-school eleves
+      would use them. We have a horror of the expression &ldquo;city,&rdquo; and are a
+      little fastidious, perhaps, touching its use.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But these little peculiarities were spots on the sun. The entire family,
+      taken as a whole, was really charming; and long before the hour for
+      retiring came, we had become much interested in them all. We found there
+      was a fifth person belonging to this party, who did not make his
+      appearance that night. From the discourse of these females, however, it
+      was easy to glean the following leading facts: This fifth person was a
+      male; he was indisposed, and kept his berth; and he was quite aged.
+      Several nice little dishes were carried from the table into his state-room
+      that evening, by one or the other of the young sisters, and each of the
+      party appeared anxious to contribute to the invalid's comfort. All this
+      sympathy excited our interest, and we had some curiosity to see this old
+      man, long ere it was time to retire. As for the females, no name was
+      mentioned among them but that of a Mrs. Osborne, who was once or twice
+      alluded to in full. It was &ldquo;grandma,&rdquo; and &ldquo;ma,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Dolly,&rdquo; and &ldquo;sis.&rdquo; We
+      should have liked it better had it been &ldquo;mother,&rdquo; and &ldquo;grandmother,&rdquo; and
+      that the &ldquo;sis&rdquo; had been called Betsey or Molly; but we do not wish to be
+      understood as exhibiting these amiable and good-looking strangers as
+      models of refinement. &ldquo;Ma&rdquo; and &ldquo;sis&rdquo; did well enough, all things
+      considered, though &ldquo;mamma&rdquo; would have been better if they were not
+      sufficiently polished to say &ldquo;mother.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      We had a pleasant night of it, and all the passengers appeared next
+      morning with smiling faces. It often blows heavily on that lake, but light
+      airs off the land were all the breezes we encountered. We were among the
+      first to turn out, and on the upper deck forward, a place where the
+      passengers are fond of collecting, as it enables them to look ahead, we
+      found a single individual who immediately drew all of our attention to
+      himself. It was an aged man, with hair already as white as snow. Still
+      there was that in his gait, attitudes, and all his movements which
+      indicated physical vigor, not to say the remains, at least, of great
+      elasticity and sinewy activity. Aged as he was, and he must have long
+      since passed his fourscore years, his form was erect as that of a youth.
+      In stature he was of rather more than middle height, and in movements
+      deliberate and dignified. His dress was quite plain, being black, and
+      according to the customs of the day. The color of his face and hands,
+      however, as well as the bold outlines of his countenance, and the still
+      keen, restless, black eye, indicated the Indian.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Here, then, was a civilized red man, and it struck us at once, that he was
+      an ancient child of the forest, who had been made to feel the truths of
+      the gospel. One seldom hesitates about addressing an Indian, and we
+      commenced a discourse with our venerable fellow-passenger, with very
+      little circumlocution or ceremony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Good-morning, sir,&rdquo; we observed&mdash;&ldquo;a charming time we have of it, on
+      the lake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;good time&mdash;&rdquo; returned my red neighbor, speaking short and
+      clipped, like an Indian, but pronouncing his words as if long accustomed
+      to the language.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;These steamboats are great inventions for the western lakes, as are the
+      railroads for this vast inland region. I dare say you can remember Lake
+      Erie when it was an unusual thing to see a sail of any sort on it; and
+      now, I should think, we might count fifty.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes&mdash;great change&mdash;great change, friend!&mdash;all change from
+      ole time.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;The traditions of your people, no doubt, give you reason to see and feel
+      all this?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The predominant expression of this red man's countenance was that of love.
+      On everything, on every human being toward whom he turned his still
+      expressive eyes, the looks he gave them would seem to indicate interest
+      and affection. This expression was so decided and peculiar, that we early
+      remarked it, and it drew us closer and closer to the old chief, the longer
+      we remained in his company. That expression, however, slightly changed
+      when we made this allusion to the traditions of his people, and a cloud
+      passed before his countenance. This change, nevertheless, was as transient
+      as it was sudden, the benevolent and gentle look returning almost as soon
+      as it had disappeared. He seemed anxious to atone for this involuntary
+      expression of regrets for the past, by making his communications to me as
+      free as they could be.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My tradition say a great deal,&rdquo; was the answer, &ldquo;It say some good, some
+      bad.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;May I ask of what tribe you are?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The red man turned his eyes on us kindly, as if to lessen anything
+      ungracious there might be in his refusal to answer, and with an expression
+      of benevolence that we scarcely remember ever to have seen equalled.
+      Indeed, we might say with truth, that the love which shone out of this old
+      man's countenance habitually, surpassed that which we can recall as
+      belonging to any other human face. He seemed to be at peace with himself,
+      and with all the other children of Adam.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tribe make no difference,&rdquo; he answered. &ldquo;All children of same Great
+      Spirit.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Red men and pale-faces?&rdquo; I asked, not a little surprised with his reply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Red man and pale-face. Christ die for all, and his Fadder make all. No
+      difference, excep' in color. Color only skin deep.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Do you, then, look on us pale-faces as having a right here? Do you not
+      regard us as invaders, as enemies who have come to take away your lands?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Injin don't own 'arth. 'Arth belong to God, and he send whom he like to
+      live on it. One time he send Injin; now he send pale-face. His 'arth, and
+      he do what he please wid it. Nobody any right to complain. Bad to find
+      fault wid Great Spirit. All he do, right; nebber do anyt'ing bad. His
+      blessed Son die for all color, and all color muss bow down at his holy
+      name. Dat what dis good book say,&rdquo; showing a small pocket Bible, &ldquo;and what
+      dis good book say come from Great Spirit, himself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You read the Holy Scriptures, then&mdash;you are an educated Indian?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;No; can't read at all. Don't know how. Try hard, but too ole to begin.
+      Got young eyes, however, to help me,&rdquo; he added, with one of the fondest
+      smiles I ever saw light a human face, as he turned to meet the pretty
+      Dolly's &ldquo;Good-morning, Peter,&rdquo; and to shake the hand of the elder sister.
+      &ldquo;She read good book for old Injin, when he want her; and when she off at
+      school, in 'city,' den her mudder or her gran'mudder read for him. Fuss
+      begin wid gran'mudder; now get down to gran'da'ghter. But good book all de
+      same, let who will read it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This, then, was &ldquo;Scalping Peter,&rdquo; the very man I was travelling into
+      Michigan to see, but how wonderfully changed! The Spirit of the Most High
+      God had been shed freely upon his moral being, and in lieu of the
+      revengeful and vindictive savage, he now lived a subdued, benevolent
+      Christian! In every human being he beheld a brother, and no longer thought
+      of destroying races, in order to secure to his own people the quiet
+      possession of their hunting-grounds. His very soul was love; and no doubt
+      he felt himself strong enough to &ldquo;bless those who cursed him,&rdquo; and to give
+      up his spirit, like the good missionary whose death had first turned him
+      toward the worship of the one true God, praying for those who took his
+      life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ways of Divine Providence are past the investigations of human reason.
+      How often, in turning over the pages of history, do we find civilization,
+      the arts, moral improvement, nay, Christianity itself, following the
+      bloody train left by the conqueror's car, and good pouring in upon a
+      nation by avenues that at first were teeming only with the approaches of
+      seeming evils! In this way, there is now reason to hope that America is
+      about to pay the debt she owes to Africa; and in this way will the
+      invasion of the forests, and prairies and &ldquo;openings,&rdquo; of the red man be
+      made to atone for itself by carrying with it the blessings of the Gospel,
+      and a juster view of the relations which man bears to his Creator.
+      Possibly Mexico may derive lasting benefits from the hard lesson that she
+      has so recently been made to endure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This, then, was Peter, changed into a civilized man and a Christian! I
+      have found, subsequently, that glimmerings of the former being existed in
+      his character; but they showed themselves only at long intervals, and
+      under very peculiar circumstances. The study of these traits became a
+      subject of great interest with us, for we now travelled in company the
+      rest of our journey. The elder lady, or &ldquo;grandma,&rdquo; was the Margery of our
+      tale; still handsome, spirited, and kind. The younger matron was her
+      daughter and only child, and &ldquo;sis,&rdquo; another Margery, and Dorothy, were her
+      grandchildren. There was also a son, or a grandson rather, Ben, who was on
+      Prairie Round, &ldquo;with the general.&rdquo; The &ldquo;general&rdquo; was our old friend, le
+      Bourdon, who was still as often called &ldquo;General Bourdon,&rdquo; as &ldquo;General
+      Boden.&rdquo; This matter of &ldquo;generals&rdquo; at the West is a little overdone, as all
+      ranks and titles are somewhat apt to be in new countries. It causes one
+      often to smile, at the East; and no wonder that an Eastern habit should go
+      down in all its glory, beneath the &ldquo;setting sun.&rdquo; In after-days, generals
+      will not be quite as &ldquo;plenty as blackberries.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      No sooner did Mrs. Boden, or Margery, to use her familiar name, learn that
+      we were the very individual to whom the &ldquo;general&rdquo; had sent the notes
+      relative to his early adventures, which had been prepared by the &ldquo;Rev. Mr.
+      Varse,&rdquo; of Kalamazoo, than she became as friendly and communicative as we
+      could possibly desire.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Her own life had been prosperous, and her marriage happy. Her brother,
+      however, had fallen back into his old habits, and died ere the war of 1812
+      was ended. Dorothy had returned to her friends in Massachusetts, and was
+      still living, in a comfortable condition, owing to a legacy from an uncle.
+      The bee-hunter had taken the field in that war, and had seen some sharp
+      fighting on the banks of the Niagara. No sooner was peace made, however,
+      than he returned to his beloved Openings, where he had remained, &ldquo;growing
+      with the country,&rdquo; as it is termed, until he was now what is deemed a rich
+      man in Michigan. He has a plenty of land, and that which is good; a
+      respectable dwelling, and is out of debt. He meets his obligations to an
+      Eastern man just as promptly as he meets those contracted at home, and
+      regards the United States, and not Michigan, as his country. All these
+      were good traits, and we were glad to learn that they existed in one who
+      already possessed so much of our esteem. At Detroit we found a fine
+      flourishing town, of a healthful and natural growth, and with a population
+      that was fast approaching twenty thousand. The shores of the beautiful
+      strait on which it stands, and which, by a strange blending of
+      significations and languages, is popularly called the &ldquo;Detroit River,&rdquo;
+       were alive with men and their appliances, and we scarce know where to turn
+      to find a more agreeable landscape than that which was presented to us,
+      after passing the island of &ldquo;Bobolo&rdquo; (Bois Blanc), near Maiden.
+      Altogether, it resembled a miniature picture of Constantinople, without
+      its Eastern peculiarities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At Detroit commenced our surprise at the rapid progress of Western
+      civilization. It will be remembered that at the period of our tale, the
+      environs of Detroit excepted, the whole peninsula of Michigan lay in a
+      state of nature. Nor did the process of settlement commence actively until
+      about twenty years since; but, owing to the character of the country, it
+      already possesses many of the better features of a long-inhabited region.
+      There are stumps, of course, for new fields are constantly coming into
+      cultivation; but on the whole, the appearance is that of a middle-aged,
+      rather than that of a new region.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We left Detroit on a railroad, rattling away toward the setting sun, at a
+      good speed even for that mode of conveyance. It seemed to us that our
+      route was well garnished with large villages, of which we must have passed
+      through a dozen, in the course of a few hours' &ldquo;railing,&rdquo; These are places
+      varying in size from one to three thousand inhabitants. The vegetation
+      certainly surpassed that of even West New York, the trees alone excepted.
+      The whole country was a wheat-field, and we now began to understand how
+      America could feed the world. Our road lay among the &ldquo;Openings&rdquo; much of
+      the way, and we found them undergoing the changes which are incident to
+      the passage of civilized men. As the periodical fires had now ceased for
+      many years, underbrush was growing in lieu of the natural grass, and in so
+      much those groves are less attractive than formerly; but one easily
+      comprehends the reason, and can picture to himself the aspect that these
+      pleasant woods must have worn in times of old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We left the railroad at Kalamazoo&mdash;an unusually pretty village, on
+      the banks of the stream of that name. Those who laid out this place, some
+      fifteen years since, had the taste to preserve most of its trees; and the
+      houses and grounds that stand a little apart from the busiest streets&mdash;and
+      they are numerous for a place of rather more than two thousand souls&mdash;are
+      particularly pleasant to the eye, on account of the shade, and the rural
+      pictures they present. Here Mrs. Boden told us we were within a mile or
+      two of the very spot where once had stood Castle Meal (Chateau au Miel),
+      though the &ldquo;general&rdquo; had finally established himself at Schoolcraft, on
+      Prairie Ronde.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The first prairie we had ever seen was on the road between Detroit and
+      Kalamazoo; distant from the latter place only some eight or nine miles.
+      The axe had laid the country open in its neighborhood; but the spot was
+      easily to be recognized by the air of cultivation and age that pervaded
+      it. There was not a stump on it, and the fields were as smooth as any on
+      the plains of Lombardy, and far more fertile, rich as the last are known
+      to be. In a word, the beautiful perfection of that little natural meadow
+      became apparent at once, though seated amid a landscape that was by no
+      means wanting in interest of its own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We passed the night at the village of Kalamazoo; but the party of females,
+      with old Peter, proceeded on to Prairie Round, as that particular part of
+      the country is called in the dialect of Michigan, it being a corruption of
+      the old French name of la prairie ronde. The Round Meadow does not sound
+      as well as Prairie Round, and the last being quite as clear a term as the
+      other, though a mixture of the two languages, we prefer to use it. Indeed,
+      the word &ldquo;prairie&rdquo; may now be said to be adopted into the English; meaning
+      merely a natural instead of an artificial meadow, though one of peculiar
+      and local characteristics. We wrote a note to General Boden, as I found
+      our old acquaintance Ben Boden was universally termed, letting him know I
+      should visit Schoolcraft next day; not wishing to intrude at the moment
+      when that charming family was just reunited after so long a separation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next day, accordingly, we got into a &ldquo;buggy&rdquo; and went our way. The
+      road was slightly sandy a good part of the twelve miles we had to travel,
+      though it became less so as we drew near to the celebrated prairie. And
+      celebrated, and that by an abler pen than ours, does this remarkable place
+      deserve to be! We found all our expectations concerning it fully realized,
+      and drove through the scene of abundance it presented with an admiration
+      that was not entirely free from awe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To get an idea of Prairie Round, the reader must imagine an oval plain of
+      some five-and-twenty or thirty thousand acres in extent, of the most
+      surpassing fertility, without an eminence of any sort&mdash;almost without
+      an inequality. There are a few small cavities, howevers in which there are
+      springs that form large pools of water that the cattle will drink. This
+      plain, so far as we saw it, is now entirely fenced and cultivated. The
+      fields are large, many containing eighty acres, and some one hundred and
+      sixty; most of them being in wheat. We saw several of this size in that
+      grain. Farm-houses dotted the surface, with barns, and the other
+      accessories of rural life. In the centre of the prairie is an &ldquo;island&rdquo; of
+      forest, containing some five or six hundred acres of the noblest native
+      trees we remember ever to have seen. In the centre of this wood is a
+      little lake, circular in shape, and exceeding a quarter of a mile in
+      diameter. The walk in this wood-which is not an Opening, but an
+      old-fashioned virgin forest&mdash;we found delightful of a warm summer's
+      day. One thing that we saw in it was characteristic of the country. Some
+      of the nearest farmers had drawn their manure into it, where it lay in
+      large piles, in order to get it out of the way of doing any mischief. Its
+      effect on the land, it was thought, would be to bring too much straw!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On one side of this island of wood lies the little village or large hamlet
+      of Schoolcraft. Here we were most cordially welcomed by General Boden, and
+      all of his fine descendants. The head of this family is approaching
+      seventy, but is still hale and hearty. His head is as white as snow, and
+      his face as red as a cherry. A finer old man one seldom sees. Temperance,
+      activity, the open air, and a good conscience, have left him a noble ruin;
+      if ruin he can yet be called. He owes the last blessing, as he told us
+      himself, to the fact that he kept clear of the whirlwind of speculation
+      that passed over this region some ten or fifteen years since. His means
+      are ample; and the harvest being about to commence, he invited me to the
+      field.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The peculiar ingenuity of the American has supplied the want of laborers,
+      in a country where agriculture is carried on by wholesale, especially in
+      the cereals, by an instrument of the most singular and elaborate
+      construction. This machine is drawn by sixteen or eighteen horses,
+      attached to it laterally, so as to work clear of the standing grain, and
+      who move the whole fabric on a moderate but steady walk. A path is first
+      cut with the cradle on one side of the field, when the machine is dragged
+      into the open place. Here it enters the standing grain, cutting off its
+      heads with the utmost accuracy as it moves. Forks beneath prepare the way,
+      and a rapid vibratory motion of a great number of two-edged knives effect
+      the object. The stalks of the grain can be cut as low or as high as one
+      pleases, but it is usually thought best to take only the heads. Afterward
+      the standing straw is burned, or fed off, upright.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The impelling power which causes the great fabric to advance also sets in
+      motion the machinery within it As soon as the heads of the grain are
+      severed from the stalks, they pass into a receptacle, where, by a very
+      quick and simple process, the kernels are separated from the husks. Thence
+      all goes into a fanning machine, where the chaff is blown away. The clean
+      grain falls into a small bin, whence it is raised by a screw elevator to a
+      height that enables it to pass out at an opening to which a bag is
+      attached. Wagons follow the slow march of the machine, and the proper
+      number of men are in attendance. Bag after bag is renewed, until a wagon
+      is loaded, when it at once proceeds to the mill, where the grain is soon
+      converted into flour. Generally the husbandman sells to the miller, but
+      occasionally he pays for making the flour, and sends the latter off, by
+      railroad, to Detroit, whence it finds its way to Europe, possibly, to help
+      feed the millions of the old world. Such, at least, was the course of
+      trade the past season. As respects this ingenious machine, it remains only
+      to say that it harvests, cleans, and bags from twenty to thirty acres of
+      heavy wheat, in the course of a single summer's day! Altogether it is a
+      gigantic invention, well adapted to meet the necessities of a gigantic
+      country.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Old Peter went afield with us that day. There he stood, like a striking
+      monument of a past that was still so recent and wonderful. On that very
+      prairie, which was now teeming with the appliances of civilization, he had
+      hunted and held his savage councils. On that prairie had he meditated, or
+      consented to the deaths of the young couple, whose descendants were now
+      dwelling there, amid abundance, and happy. Nothing but the prayers of the
+      dying missionary, in behalf of his destroyers, had prevented the dire
+      consummation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were still in the field, when General Boden's attention was drawn
+      toward the person of another guest. This, too, was an Indian, old like
+      himself, but not clad like Peter, in the vestments of the whites. The
+      attire of this sinewy old man was a mixture of that of the two races. He
+      wore a hunting-shirt, moccasins, and a belt; but he also wore trousers,
+      and otherwise had brought himself within the habits of conventional
+      decency. It was Pigeonswing, the Chippewa, come to pay his annual visit to
+      his friend, the bee-hunter, The meeting was cordial, and we afterward
+      ascertained that when the old man departed, he went away loaded with gifts
+      that would render him comfortable for a twelvemonth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Peter, after all, was the great centre of interest with us. We could
+      admire the General's bee-hives, which were numerous and ingenious; could
+      admire his still handsome Margery, and all their blooming descendants; and
+      were glad when we discovered that our old friend&mdash;made so by means of
+      a knowledge of his character, if not by actual acquaintance&mdash;was much
+      improved in mind, was a sincere Christian, and had been a Senator of his
+      own State; respected and esteemed by all who knew him. Such a career,
+      however, has nothing peculiar in America; it is one of every-day
+      occurrence, and shows the power of man when left free to make his own
+      exertions; while that of the Scalping Peter indicated the power of God.
+      There he was, living in the midst of the hated race, loving and beloved;
+      wishing naught but blessings on all colors alike; looking back upon his
+      traditions and superstitions with a sort of melancholy interest, as we all
+      portray in our memories the scenes, legends, and feelings of an erring
+      childhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We were walking in the garden, after dinner, and looking at the hives.
+      There were the general, Margery, Peter, and ourselves. The first was loud
+      in praise of his buzzing friends, for whom it was plain he still
+      entertained a lively regard. The old Indian, at first, was sad. Then he
+      smiled, and, turning to us, he spoke earnestly and with some of his
+      ancient fire and eloquence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell me you make a book,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In dat book tell trut'. You see me&mdash;poor
+      old Injin. My fadder was chief&mdash;I was great chief, but we was
+      children. Knowed nuttin'. Like little child, dough great chief. Believe
+      tradition. T'ink dis 'arth flat&mdash;t'ink Injin could scalp all
+      pale-face&mdash;t'ink tomahawk, and war-path, and rifle, bess t'ings in
+      whole world. In dat day, my heart was stone. Afraid of Great Spirit, but
+      didn't love him. In dat time I t'ink General could talk wid bee. Yes; was
+      very foolish den. Now, all dem cloud blow away, and I see my Fadder dat is
+      in heaven. His face shine on me, day and night, and I never get tired of
+      looking at it. I see him smile, I see him lookin' at poor ole Injin, as if
+      he want him to come nearer; sometime I see him frown and dat scare me. Den
+      I pray, and his frown go away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stranger, love God. B'lieve his blessed Son, who pray for dem dat kill
+      him. Injin don't do that. Injin not strong enough to do so good t'ing. It
+      want de Holy Spirit to strengthen de heart, afore man can do so great
+      t'ing. When he got de force of de Holy Spirit, de heart of stone is
+      changed to de heart of woman, and we all be ready to bless our enemy and
+      die. I have spoken. Let dem dat read your book understand.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <h3>
+      THE END.
+    </h3>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Oak Openings, by James Fenimore Cooper
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+</pre>
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+  </body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oak Openings, by James Fenimore Cooper
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Oak Openings
+
+Author: James Fenimore Cooper
+
+
+Release Date: July, 2003 [Etext# 4215]
+This file was first posted on December 11, 2001
+Last Updated: May 4, 2013
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OAK OPENINGS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+OAK OPENINGS
+
+
+By James Fennimore Cooper
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+It ought to be matter of surprise how men live in the midst of marvels,
+without taking heed of their existence. The slightest derangement of
+their accustomed walks in political or social life shall excite all
+their wonder, and furnish themes for their discussions, for months;
+while the prodigies that come from above are presented daily to their
+eyes, and are received without surprise, as things of course. In a
+certain sense, this may be well enough, inasmuch as all which comes
+directly from the hands of the Creator may be said so far to exceed the
+power of human comprehension, as to be beyond comment; but the truth
+would show us that the cause of this neglect is rather a propensity to
+dwell on such interests as those over which we have a fancied control,
+than on those which confessedly transcend our understanding. Thus is it
+ever with men. The wonders of creation meet them at every turn, without
+awakening reflection, while their minds labor on subjects that are not
+only ephemeral and illusory, but which never attain an elevation higher
+than that the most sordid interests can bestow.
+
+For ourselves, we firmly believe that the finger of Providence is
+pointing the way to all races, and colors, and nations, along the path
+that is to lead the east and the west alike to the great goal of
+human wants. Demons infest that path, and numerous and unhappy are
+the wanderings of millions who stray from its course; sometimes in
+reluctance to proceed; sometimes in an indiscreet haste to move faster
+than their fellows, and always in a forgetfulness of the great rules of
+conduct that have been handed down from above. Nevertheless, the main
+course is onward; and the day, in the sense of time, is not distant,
+when the whole earth is to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, "as
+the waters cover the sea."
+
+One of the great stumbling-blocks with a large class of well-meaning,
+but narrow-judging moralists, are the seeming wrongs that are permitted
+by Providence, in its control of human events. Such persons take a
+one-sided view of things, and reduce all principles to the level of
+their own understandings. If we could comprehend the relations which the
+Deity bears to us, as well as we can comprehend the relations we bear
+to him, there might be a little seeming reason in these doubts; but when
+one of the parties in this mighty scheme of action is a profound mystery
+to the other, it is worse than idle, it is profane, to attempt to
+explain those things which our minds are not yet sufficiently cleared
+from the dross of earth to understand. Look at Italy, at this very
+moment. The darkness and depression from which that glorious peninsula
+is about to emerge are the fruits of long-continued dissensions and an
+iron despotism, which is at length broken by the impulses left behind
+him by a ruthless conqueror, who, under the appearance and the phrases
+of Liberty, contended only for himself. A more concentrated egotism than
+that of Napoleon probably never existed; yet has it left behind it seeds
+of personal rights that have sprung up by the wayside, and which are
+likely to take root with a force that will bid defiance to eradication.
+Thus is it ever, with the progress of society. Good appears to arise
+out of evil, and the inscrutable ways of Providence are vindicated by
+general results, rather than by instances of particular care. We leave
+the application of these remarks to the intelligence of such of our
+readers as may have patience to peruse the work that will be found in
+the succeeding pages.
+
+We have a few words of explanation to say, in connection with the
+machinery of our tale. In the first place, we would remark, that the
+spelling of "burr-oak," as given in this book, is less our own than
+an office spelling. We think it should be "bur-oak," and this for the
+simple reason, that the name is derived from the fact that the acorn
+borne by this tree is partially covered with a bur. Old Sam Johnson,
+however, says that "burr" means the lobe, or lap of the ear; and those
+who can fancy such a resemblance between this and the covering of our
+acorn, are at liberty to use the two final consonants. Having commenced
+stereotyping with this supernumerary, for the sake of uniformity that
+mode of spelling, wrong as we think it, has been continued through-out
+the book.
+
+There is nothing imaginary in the fertility of the West. Personal
+observation has satisfied us that it much surpasses anything that exists
+in the Atlantic States, unless in exceptions, through the agency of
+great care and high manuring, or in instances of peculiar natural soil.
+In these times, men almost fly. We have passed over a thousand miles of
+territory within the last few days, and have brought the pictures at the
+two extremes of this journey in close proximity in our mind's eye. Time
+may lessen that wonderful fertility, and bring the whole country more
+on a level; but there it now is, a glorious gift from God, which it
+is devoutly to be wished may be accepted with due gratitude and with
+a constant recollection of his unwavering rules of right and wrong, by
+those who have been selected to enjoy it.
+
+June, 1848.
+
+
+
+
+THE OAK OPENINGS.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+       How doth the little busy bee
+       Improve each shining hour,
+       And gather honey all the day,
+       From every opening flower.
+                     WATTS' HYMNS FOR CHILDREN.
+
+We have heard of those who fancied that they beheld a signal instance
+of the hand of the Creator in the celebrated cataract of Niagara. Such
+instances of the power of sensible and near objects to influence certain
+minds, only prove how much easier it is to impress the imaginations
+of the dull with images that are novel, than with those that are less
+apparent, though of infinitely greater magnitude. Thus it would seem to
+be strange indeed, that any human being should find more to wonder at
+in any one of the phenomena of the earth, than in the earth itself; or
+should especially stand astonished at the might of Him who created the
+world, when each night brings into view a firmament studded with other
+worlds, each equally the work of His hands!
+
+Nevertheless, there is (at bottom) a motive for adoration, in the study
+of the lowest fruits of the wisdom and power of God. The leaf is as
+much beyond our comprehension of remote causes, as much a subject of
+intelligent admiration, as the tree which bears it: the single tree
+confounds our knowledge and researches the same as the entire forest;
+and, though a variety that appears to be endless pervades the world,
+the same admirable adaptation of means to ends, the same bountiful
+forethought, and the same benevolent wisdom, are to be found in the
+acorn, as in the gnarled branch on which it grew.
+
+The American forest has so often been described, as to cause one
+to hesitate about reviving scenes that might possibly pall, and in
+retouching pictures that have been so frequently painted as to be
+familiar to every mind. But God created the woods, and the themes
+bestowed by his bounty are inexhaustible. Even the ocean, with its
+boundless waste of water, has been found to be rich in its various
+beauties and marvels; and he who shall bury himself with us, once more,
+in the virgin forests of this widespread land, may possibly discover new
+subjects of admiration, new causes to adore the Being that has brought
+all into existence, from the universe to its most minute particle.
+
+The precise period of our legend was in the year 1812, and the season
+of the year the pleasant month of July, which had now drawn near to its
+close. The sun was already approaching the western limits of a wooded
+view, when the actors in its opening scene must appear on a stage that
+is worthy of a more particular description.
+
+The region was, in one sense, wild, though it offered a picture that
+was not without some of the strongest and most pleasing features of
+civilization. The country was what is termed "rolling," from some
+fancied resemblance to the surface of the ocean, when it is just
+undulating with a long "ground-swell."
+
+Although wooded, it was not, as the American forest is wont to grow,
+with tail straight trees towering toward the light, but with intervals
+between the low oaks that were scattered profusely over the view, and
+with much of that air of negligence that one is apt to see in grounds
+where art is made to assume the character of nature. The trees, with
+very few exceptions, were what is called the "burr-oak," a small
+variety of a very extensive genus; and the spaces between them, always
+irregular, and often of singular beauty, have obtained the name of
+"openings"; the two terms combined giving their appellation to this
+particular species of native forest, under the name of "Oak Openings."
+
+These woods, so peculiar to certain districts of country, are not
+altogether without some variety, though possessing a general character
+of sameness. The trees were of very uniform size, being little taller
+than pear-trees, which they resemble a good deal in form; and having
+trunks that rarely attain two feet in diameter. The variety is produced
+by their distribution. In places they stand with a regularity resembling
+that of an orchard; then, again, they are more scattered and less
+formal, while wide breadths of the land are occasionally seen in which
+they stand in copses, with vacant spaces, that bear no small affinity to
+artificial lawns, being covered with verdure. The grasses are supposed
+to be owing to the fires lighted periodically by the Indians in order to
+clear their hunting-grounds.
+
+Toward one of these grassy glades, which was spread on an almost
+imperceptible acclivity, and which might have contained some fifty or
+sixty acres of land, the reader is now requested to turn his eyes. Far
+in the wilderness as was the spot, four men were there, and two of them
+had even some of the appliances of civilization about them. The woods
+around were the then unpeopled forest of Michigan; and the small winding
+reach of placid water that was just visible in the distance, was an
+elbow of the Kalamazoo, a beautiful little river that flows westward,
+emptying its tribute into the vast expanse of Lake Michigan. Now, this
+river has already become known, by its villages and farms, and railroads
+and mills; but then, not a dwelling of more pretension than the wigwam
+of the Indian, or an occasional shanty of some white adventurer,
+had ever been seen on its banks. In that day, the whole of that fine
+peninsula, with the exception of a narrow belt of country along the
+Detroit River, which was settled by the French as far back as near the
+close of the seventeenth century, was literally a wilderness. If a white
+man found his way into it, it was as an Indian trader, a hunter, or an
+adventurer in some other of the pursuits connected with border life and
+the habits of the savages.
+
+Of this last character were two of the men on the open glade just
+mentioned, while their companions were of the race of the aborigines.
+What is much more remarkable, the four were absolutely strangers to each
+other's faces, having met for the first time in their lives, only an
+hour previously to the commencement of our tale. By saying that they
+were strangers to each other, we do not mean that the white men were
+acquaintances, and the Indians strangers, but that neither of the four
+had ever seen either of the party until they met on that grassy glade,
+though fame had made them somewhat acquainted through their reputations.
+At the moment when we desire to present this group to the imagination of
+the reader, three of its number were grave and silent observers of
+the movements of the fourth. The fourth individual was of middle size,
+young, active, exceedingly well formed, and with a certain open
+and frank expression of countenance, that rendered him at least
+well-looking, though slightly marked with the small-pox. His real name
+was Benjamin Boden, though he was extensively known throughout the
+northwestern territories by the sobriquet of Ben Buzz--extensively as
+to distances, if not as to people. By the voyageurs, and other French
+of that region, he was almost universally styled le Bourdon or the
+"Drone"; not, however, from his idleness or inactivity, but from the
+circumstances that he was notorious for laying his hands on the
+products of labor that proceeded from others. In a word, Ben Boden was
+a "bee-hunter," and as he was one of the first to exercise his craft in
+that portion of the country, so was he infinitely the most skilful and
+prosperous. The honey of le Bourdon was not only thought to be purer and
+of higher flavor than that of any other trader in the article, but it
+was much the most abundant. There were a score of respectable families
+on the two banks of the Detroit, who never purchased of any one else,
+but who patiently waited for the arrival of the capacious bark canoe of
+Buzz, in the autumn, to lay in their supplies of this savory nutriment
+for the approaching winter. The whole family of griddle cakes, including
+those of buckwheat, Indian rice, and wheaten flour, were more or less
+dependent on the safe arrival of le Bourdon, for their popularity and
+welcome. Honey was eaten with all; and wild honey had a reputation,
+rightfully or not obtained, that even rendered it more welcome than that
+which was formed by the labor and art of the domesticated bee.
+
+The dress of le Bourdon was well adapted to his pursuits and life. He
+wore a hunting-shirt and trousers, made of thin stuff, which was dyed
+green, and trimmed with yellow fringe. This was the ordinary forest
+attire of the American rifleman; being of a character, as it was
+thought, to conceal the person in the woods, by blending its hues with
+those of the forest. On his head Ben wore a skin cap, somewhat smartly
+made, but without the fur; the weather being warm. His moccasins were
+a good deal wrought, but seemed to be fading under the exposure of many
+marches. His arms were excellent; but all his martial accoutrements,
+even to a keen long-bladed knife, were suspended from the rammer of his
+rifle; the weapon itself being allowed to lean, in careless confidence,
+against the trunk of the nearest oak, as if their master felt there was
+no immediate use for them.
+
+Not so with the other three. Not only was each man well armed, but each
+man kept his trusty rifle hugged to his person, in a sort of jealous
+watchfulness; while the other white man, from time to time, secretly,
+but with great minuteness, examined the flint and priming of his own
+piece.
+
+This second pale-face was a very different person from him just
+described. He was still young, tall, sinewy, gaunt, yet springy and
+strong, stooping and round-shouldered, with a face that carried a very
+decided top-light in it, like that of the notorious Bardolph. In short,
+whiskey had dyed the countenance of Gershom Waring with a tell-tale
+hue, that did not less infallibly betray his destination than his speech
+denoted his origin, which was clearly from one of the States of New
+England. But Gershom had been so long at the Northwest as to have
+lost many of his peculiar habits and opinions, and to have obtained
+substitutes.
+
+Of the Indians, one, an elderly, wary, experienced warrior, was
+a Pottawattamie, named Elksfoot, who was well known at all the
+trading-houses and "garrisons" of the northwestern territory, including
+Michigan as low down as Detroit itself. The other red man was a young
+Chippewa, or O-jeb-way, as the civilized natives of that nation now tell
+us the word should be spelled. His ordinary appellation among his own
+people was that of Pigeonswing; a name obtained from the rapidity
+and length of his flights. This young man, who was scarcely turned
+of five-and-twenty, had already obtained a high reputation among the
+numerous tribes of his nation, as a messenger, or "runner."
+
+Accident had brought these four persons, each and all strangers to one
+another, in communication in the glade of the Oak Openings, which has
+already been mentioned, within half an hour of the scene we are about
+to present to the reader. Although the rencontre had been accompanied
+by the usual precautions of those who meet in a wilderness, it had been
+friendly so far; a circumstance that was in some measure owing to the
+interest they all took in the occupation of the bee-hunter. The three
+others, indeed, had come in on different trails, and surprised le
+Bourdon in the midst of one of the most exciting exhibitions of his
+art--an exhibition that awoke so much and so common an interest in the
+spectators, as at once to place its continuance for the moment above all
+other considerations. After brief salutations, and wary examinations of
+the spot and its tenants, each individual had, in succession, given his
+grave attention to what was going on, and all had united in begging
+Ben Buzz to pursue his occupation, without regard to his visitors. The
+conversation that took place was partly in English, and partly in one
+of the Indian dialects, which luckily all the parties appeared to
+understand. As a matter of course, with a sole view to oblige the
+reader, we shall render what was said, freely, into the vernacular.
+
+"Let's see, let's see, STRANger," cried Gershom, emphasizing the
+syllable we have put in italics, as if especially to betray his origin,
+"what you can do with your tools. I've heer'n tell of such doin's, but
+never see'd a bee lined in all my life, and have a desp'rate fancy for
+larnin' of all sorts, from 'rithmetic to preachin'."
+
+"That comes from your Puritan blood," answered le Bourdon, with a quiet
+smile, using surprisingly pure English for one in his class of life.
+"They tell me you Puritans preach by instinct."
+
+"I don't know how that is," answered Gershom, "though I can turn my hand
+to anything. I heer'n tell, across at Bob Ruly (Bois Brulk [Footnote:
+This unfortunate name, which it may be necessary to tell a portion of
+our readers means "burnt wood," seems condemned to all sorts of abuses
+among the linguists of the West. Among other pronunciations is that of
+"Bob Ruly"; while an island near Detroit, the proper name of which is
+"Bois Blanc," is familiarly known to the lake mariners by the name of
+"Bobolo."]) of sich doin's, and would give a week's keep at Whiskey
+Centre, to know how 'twas done."
+
+"Whiskey Centre" was a sobriquet bestowed by the fresh-water sailors
+of that region, and the few other white adventurers of Saxon origin who
+found their way into that trackless region, firstly on Gershom himself,
+and secondly on his residence. These names were obtained from the
+intensity of their respective characters, in favor of the beverage
+named. L'eau de mort was the place termed by the voyagers, in a sort
+of pleasant travesty on the eau de vie of their distant, but still
+well-remembered manufactures on the banks of the Garonne. Ben Boden,
+however, paid but little attention to the drawling remarks of Gershom
+Waring. This was not the first time he had heard of "Whiskey Centre,"
+though the first time he had ever seen the man himself. His attention
+was on his own trade, or present occupation; and when it wandered at
+all, it was principally bestowed on the Indians; more especially on the
+runner. Of Elk's foot, or Elksfoot, as we prefer to spell it, he had
+some knowledge by means of rumor; and the little he knew rendered him
+somewhat more indifferent to his proceedings than he felt toward those
+of the Pigeonswing. Of this young redskin he had never heard; and, while
+he managed to suppress all exhibition of the feeling, a lively curiosity
+to learn the Chippewa's business was uppermost in his mind. As for
+Gershom, he had taken HIS measure at a glance, and had instantly set
+him down to be, what in truth he was, a wandering, drinking, reckless
+adventurer, who had a multitude of vices and bad qualities, mixed up
+with a few that, if not absolutely redeeming, served to diminish the
+disgust in which he might otherwise have been held by all decent people.
+In the meanwhile, the bee-hunting, in which all the spectators took
+so much interest, went on. As this is a process with which most of our
+readers are probably unacquainted, it may be necessary to explain the
+modus operandi, as well as the appliances used.
+
+The tools of Ben Buzz, as Gershom had termed these implements of his
+trade, were neither very numerous nor very complex. They were all
+contained in a small covered wooden pail like those that artisans and
+laborers are accustomed to carry for the purpose of conveying their
+food from place to place. Uncovering this, le Bourdon had brought his
+implements to view, previously to the moment when he was first seen by
+the reader. There was a small covered cup of tin; a wooden box; a sort
+of plate, or platter, made also of wood; and a common tumbler, of a very
+inferior, greenish glass. In the year 1812, there was not a pane, nor a
+vessel, of clear, transparent glass, made in all America! Now, some of
+the most beautiful manufactures of that sort, known to civilization, are
+abundantly produced among us, in common with a thousand other articles
+that are used in domestic economy. The tumbler of Ben Buzz, however, was
+his countryman in more senses than one. It was not only American, but
+it came from the part of Pennsylvania of which he was himself a native.
+Blurred, and of a greenish hue, the glass was the best that Pittsburg
+could then fabricate, and Ben had bought it only the year before, on the
+very spot where it had been made.
+
+An oak, of more size than usual, had stood a little remote from its
+fellows, or more within the open ground of the glade than the rest of
+the "orchard." Lightning had struck this tree that very summer, twisting
+off its trunk at a height of about four feet from the ground. Several
+fragments of the body and branches lay near, and on these the spectators
+now took their seats, watching attentively the movements of the
+bee-hunter. Of the stump Ben had made a sort of table, first levelling
+its splinters with an axe, and on it he placed the several implements of
+his craft, as he had need of each in succession.
+
+The wooden platter was first placed on this rude table. Then le Bourdon
+opened his small box, and took out of it a piece of honeycomb, that was
+circular in shape, and about an inch and a half in diameter. The little
+covered tin vessel was next brought into use. Some pure and beautifully
+clear honey was poured from its spout into the cells of the piece of
+comb, until each of them was about half filled. The tumbler was next
+taken in hand, carefully wiped, and examined, by holding it up before
+the eyes of the bee-hunter. Certainly, there was little to admire in it,
+but it was sufficiently transparent to answer his purposes. All he asked
+was to be able to look through the glass in order to see what was going
+on in its interior.
+
+Having made these preliminary arrangements, Buzzing Ben--for the
+sobriquet was applied to him in this form quite as often as in the
+other--next turned his attention to the velvet-like covering of the
+grassy glade. Fire had run over the whole region late that spring, and
+the grass was now as fresh, and sweet and short, as if the place were
+pastured. The white clover, in particular, abounded, and was then
+just bursting forth into the blossom. Various other flowers had
+also appeared, and around them were buzzing thousands of bees. These
+industrious little animals were hard at work, loading themselves with
+sweets; little foreseeing the robbery contemplated by the craft of
+man. As le Bourdon moved stealthily among the flowers and their humming
+visitors, the eyes of the two red men followed his smallest movement, as
+the cat watches the mouse; but Gershom was less attentive, thinking the
+whole curious enough, but preferring whiskey to all the honey on earth.
+
+At length le Bourdon found a bee to his mind, and watching the moment
+when the animal was sipping sweets from a head of white clover, he
+cautiously placed his blurred and green-looking tumbler over it, and
+made it his prisoner. The moment the bee found itself encircled with the
+glass, it took wing and attempted to rise. This carried it to the upper
+part of its prison, when Ben carefully introduced the unoccupied hand
+beneath the glass, and returned to the stump. Here he set the tumbler
+down on the platter in a way to bring the piece of honeycomb within its
+circle.
+
+So much done successfully, and with very little trouble, Buzzing Ben
+examined his captive for a moment, to make sure that all was right. Then
+he took off his cap and placed it over tumbler, platter, honeycomb, and
+bee. He now waited half a minute, when cautiously raising the cap again,
+it was seen that the bee, the moment a darkness like that of its hive
+came over it, had lighted on the comb, and commenced filling itself with
+the honey. When Ben took away the cap altogether, the head and half of
+the body of the bee was in one of the cells, its whole attention being
+bestowed on this unlooked-for hoard of treasure. As this was just what
+its captor wished, he considered that part of his work accomplished. It
+now became apparent why a glass was used to take the bee, instead of a
+vessel of wood or of bark. Transparency was necessary in order to watch
+the movements of the captive, as darkness was necessary in order to
+induce it to cease its efforts to escape, and to settle on the comb.
+
+As the bee was now intently occupied in filling itself, Buzzing Ben, or
+le Bourdon, did not hesitate about removing the glass. He even ventured
+to look around him, and to make another captive, which he placed over
+the comb, and managed as he had done with the first. In a minute, the
+second bee was also buried in a cell, and the glass was again removed.
+Le Bourdon now signed for his companions to draw near.
+
+"There they are, hard at work with the honey," he said, speaking in
+English, and pointing at the bees. "Little do they think, as they
+undermine that comb, how near they are to the undermining of their own
+hive! But so it is with us all! When we think we are in the highest
+prosperity we may be nearest to a fall, and when we are poorest and
+hum-blest, we may be about to be exalted. I often think of these things,
+out here in the wilderness, when I'm alone, and my thoughts are acTYVE."
+
+Ben used a very pure English, when his condition in life is remembered;
+but now and then, he encountered a word which pretty plainly proved he
+was not exactly a scholar. A false emphasis has sometimes an influence
+on a man's fortune, when one lives in the world; but it mattered little
+to one like Buzzing Ben, who seldom saw more than half a dozen human
+faces in the course of a whole summer's hunting. We remember an
+Englishman, however, who would never concede talents to Burr, because
+the latter said, a L'AmEricaine, EurOpean, instead of EuropEan.
+
+"How hive in danger?" demanded Elksfoot, who was very much of a
+matter-of-fact person. "No see him, no hear him--else get some honey."
+
+"Honey you can have for asking, for I've plenty of it already in my
+cabin, though it's somewhat 'arly in the season to begin to break in
+upon the store. In general, the bee-hunters keep back till August, for
+they think it better to commence work when the creatures"--this word
+Ben pronounced as accurately as if brought up at St. James's, making it
+neither "creatur'" nor "creatOOre"--"to commence work when the creatures
+have had time to fill up, after winter's feed. But I like the old stock,
+and, what is more, I feel satisfied this is not to be a common summer,
+and so I thought I would make an early start."
+
+As Ben said this, he glanced his eyes at Pigeonswing, who returned the
+look in a way to prove there was already a secret intelligence between
+them, though neither had ever seen the other an hour before.
+
+"Waal!" exclaimed Gershom, "this is cur'ous, I'll allow THAT; yes, it's
+cur'ous--but we've got an article at Whiskey Centre that'll put the
+sweetest honey bee ever suck'd, altogether out o' countenance!"
+
+"An article of which you suck your share, I'll answer for it, judging
+by the sign you carry between the windows of your face," returned Ben,
+laughing; "but hush, men, hush. That first bee is filled, and begins to
+think of home. He'll soon be off for HONEY Centre, and I must keep my
+eye on him. Now, stand a little aside, friends, and give me room for my
+craft."
+
+The men complied, and le Bourdon was now all intense attention to his
+business. The bee first taken had, indeed, filled itself to satiety, and
+at first seemed to be too heavy to rise on the wing. After a few moments
+of preparation, however, up it went, circling around the spot, as if
+uncertain what course to take. The eye of Ben never left it, and when
+the insect darted off, as it soon did, in an air-line, he saw it for
+fifty yards after the others had lost sight of it. Ben took the range,
+and was silent fully a minute while he did so.
+
+"That bee may have lighted in the corner of yonder swamp," he said,
+pointing, as he spoke, to a bit of low land that sustained a growth of
+much larger trees than those which grew in the "opening," "or it has
+crossed the point of the wood, and struck across the prairie beyond,
+and made for a bit of thick forest that is to be found about three miles
+further. In the last case, I shall have my trouble for nothing."
+
+"What t'other do?" demanded Elksfoot, with very obvious curiosity.
+
+"Sure enough; the other gentleman must be nearly ready for a start,
+and we'll see what road HE travels. 'Tis always an assistance to a
+bee-hunter to get one creature fairly off, as it helps him to line the
+next with greater sartainty."
+
+Ben WOULD say acTYVE, and SARtain, though he was above saying creatoore,
+or creatur'. This is the difference between a Pennsylvanian and
+a Yankee. We shall not stop, however, to note all these little
+peculiarities in these individuals, but use the proper or the peculiar
+dialect, as may happen to be most convenient to ourselves.
+
+But there was no time for disquisition, the second bee being now ready
+for a start. Like his companion, this insect rose and encircled the
+stump several times, ere it darted away toward its hive, in an air-line.
+So small was the object, and so rapid its movement, that no one but the
+bee-hunter saw the animal after it had begun its journey in earnest. To
+HIS disappointment, instead of flying in the same direction as the
+bee first taken, this little fellow went buzzing off fairly at a right
+angle! It was consequently clear that there were two hives, and that
+they lay in very different directions.
+
+Without wasting his time in useless talk, le Bourdon now caught another
+bee, which was subjected to the same process as those first taken. When
+this creature had filled it-self, it rose, circled the stump as usual,
+as if to note the spot for a second visit, and darted away, directly in
+a line with the bee first taken. Ben noted its flight most accurately,
+and had his eye on it, until it was quite a hundred yards from the
+stump. This he was enabled to do, by means of a quick sight and long
+practice.
+
+"We'll move our quarters, friends," said Buzzing Ben, good-humoredly, as
+soon as satisfied with this last observation, and gathering together his
+traps for a start. "I must angle for that hive, and I fear it will turn
+out to be across the prairie, and quite beyond my reach for to-day."
+
+The prairie alluded to was one of those small natural meadows, or
+pastures, that are to be found in Michigan, and may have contained
+four or five thousand acres of open land. The heavy timber of the
+swamp mentioned, jutted into it, and the point to be determined was, to
+ascertain whether the bees had flown OVER these trees, toward which they
+had certainly gone in an air-line, or whether they had found their hive
+among them. In order to settle this material question, a new process was
+necessary.
+
+"I must 'angle' for them chaps," repeated le Bourdon; "and if you
+will go with me, strangers, you shall soon see the nicest part of the
+business of bee-hunting. Many a man who can 'line' a bee, can do nothing
+at an 'angle'."
+
+As this was only gibberish to the listeners, no answer was made, but
+all prepared to follow Ben, who was soon ready to change his ground.
+The bee-hunter took his way across the open ground to a point fully a
+hundred rods distant from his first position, where he found another
+stump of a fallen tree, which he converted into a stand. The same
+process was gone through with as before, and le Bourdon was soon
+watching two bees that had plunged their heads down into the cells of
+the comb. Nothing could exceed the gravity and attention of the Indians,
+all this time. They had fully comprehended the business of "lining" the
+insects toward their hives, but they could not understand the virtue of
+the "angle." The first bore so strong an affinity to their own pursuit
+of game, as to be very obvious to their senses; but the last included a
+species of information to which they were total strangers. Nor were they
+much the wiser after le Bourdon had taken his "angle"; it requiring a
+sort of induction to which they were not accustomed, in order to put the
+several parts of his proceedings together, and to draw the inference.
+As for Gershom, he affected to be familiar with all that was going on,
+though he was just as ignorant as the Indians themselves. This little
+bit of hypocrisy was the homage he paid to his white blood: it being
+very unseemly, according to his view of the matter, for a pale-face not
+to know more than a redskin.
+
+The bees were some little time in filling themselves. At length one
+of them came out of his cell, and was evidently getting ready for his
+flight. Ben beckoned to the spectators to stand farther back, in order
+to give him a fair chance, and, just as he had done so, the bee rose.
+After humming around the stump for an instant, away the insect flew,
+taking a course almost at right angles to that in which le Bourdon had
+expected to see it fly. It required half a minute for him to recollect
+that this little creature had gone off in a line nearly parallel to that
+which had been taken by the second of the bees, which he had seen quit
+his original position. The line led across the neighboring prairie, and
+any attempt to follow these bees was hopeless.
+
+But the second creature was also soon ready, and when it darted away, le
+Bourdon, to his manifest delight, saw that it held its flight toward
+the point of the swamp INTO, or OVER which two of his first captives had
+gone. This settled the doubtful matter. Had the hive of these bees been
+BEYOND that wood, the angle of intersection would not have been there,
+but at the hive across the prairie. The reader will understand that
+creatures which obey an instinct, or such a reason as bees possess,
+would never make a curvature in their flights without some strong motive
+for it. Thus, two bees taken from flowers that stood half a mile apart
+would be certain not to cross each other's tracks, in returning home,
+until they met at the common hive: and wherever the intersecting angle
+in their respective flights may be, there would that hive be also. As
+this repository of sweets was the game le Bourdon had in view, it is
+easy to see how much he was pleased when the direction taken by the
+last of his bees gave him the necessary assurance that its home would
+certainly be found in that very point of dense wood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+       How skilfully it builds its cell,
+       How neat it spreads the wax,
+       And labors hard to store it well,
+       With the sweet food it makes.
+                  WATTS' HYMNS FOR CHILDREN.
+
+
+The next thing was to ascertain which was the particular tree in which
+the bees had found a shelter. Collecting his implements, le Bourdon was
+soon ready, and, with a light elastic tread, he moved off toward the
+point of the wood, followed by the whole party. The distance was about
+half a mile, and men so much accustomed to use their limbs made light
+of it. In a few minutes all were there, and the bee-hunter was busy in
+looking for his tree. This was the consummation of the whole process,
+and Ben was not only provided for the necessities of the case, but he
+was well skilled in all the signs that betokened the abodes of bees.
+
+An uninstructed person might have passed that point of wood a thousand
+times, without the least consciousness of the presence of a single
+insect of the sort now searched for. In general, the bees flew too high
+to be easily perceptible from the ground, though a practised eye can
+discern them at distances that would almost seem to be marvellous. But
+Ben had other assistants than his eyes. He knew that the tree he sought
+must be hollow, and such trees usually give outward signs of the defect
+that exists within. Then, some species of wood are more frequented
+by the bees than others, while the instinct of the industrious little
+creatures generally enables them to select such homes as will not be
+very likely to destroy all the fruits of their industry by an untimely
+fall. In all these particulars, both bees and bee-hunter were well
+versed, and Ben made his search accordingly.
+
+Among the other implements of his calling, le Bourdon had a small
+spy-glass; one scarcely larger than those that are used in theatres,
+but which was powerful and every way suited to its purposes. Ben was
+not long in selecting a tree, a half-decayed elm, as the one likely to
+contain the hive; and by the aid of his glass he soon saw bees flying
+among its dying branches, at a height of not less than seventy feet
+from the ground. A little further search directed his attention to a
+knot-hole, in and out of which the glass enabled him to see bees passing
+in streams. This decided the point; and putting aside all his implements
+but the axe, Buzzing Ben now set about the task of felling the tree.
+
+"STRANger," said Gershom, when le Bourdon had taken out the first chip,
+"perhaps you'd better let ME do that part of the job. I shall expect to
+come in for a share of the honey, and I'm willing to 'arn all I take. I
+was brought up on axes, and jack-knives, and sich sort of food, and can
+cut OR whittle with the best chopper, or the neatest whittler, in or out
+of New England."
+
+"You can try your hand, if you wish it," said Ben, relinquishing the
+axe. "I can fell a tree as well as yourself, but have no such love for
+the business as to wish to keep it all to myself."
+
+"Waal, I can say, I LIKE it," answered Gershom, first passing his
+thumb along the edge of the axe, in order to ascertain its state; then
+swinging the tool, with a view to try its "hang."
+
+"I can't say much for your axe, STRANGER, for this helve has no tarve
+to't, to my mind; but, sich as it is, down must come this elm, though
+ten millions of bees should set upon me for my pains."
+
+This was no idle boast of Waring's. Worthless as he was in so many
+respects, he was remarkably skilful with the axe, as he now proved by
+the rapid manner in which he severed the trunk of the large elm on which
+he was at work. He inquired of Ben where he should "lay the tree," and
+when it came clattering down, it fell on the precise spot indicated.
+Great was the confusion among the bees at this sudden downfall of their
+long-cherished home. The fact was not known to their enemy, but they had
+inhabited that tree for a long time; and the prize now obtained was the
+richest he had ever made in his calling. As for the insects, they filled
+the air in clouds, and all the invaders deemed it prudent to withdraw
+to some little distance for a time, lest the irritated and wronged bees
+should set upon them and take an ample revenge. Had they known their
+power, this might easily have been done, no ingenuity of man being
+able to protect him against the assaults of this insignificant-looking
+animal, when unable to cover himself, and the angry little heroes are in
+earnest. On the present occasion, however, no harm befell the marauders.
+So suddenly had the hive tumbled that its late occupants appeared to be
+astounded, and they submitted to their fate as men yield to the power of
+tempests and earthquakes. In half an hour most of them were collected on
+an adjacent tree, where doubtless a consultation on the mode of future
+proceedings was held, after their fashion.
+
+The Indians were more delighted with le Bourdon's ingenious mode of
+discovering the hive than with the richness of the prize; while Ben
+himself, and Gershom, manifested most satisfaction at the amount of the
+earnings. When the tree was cut in pieces, and split, it was ascertained
+that years of sweets were contained within its capacious cavities, and
+Ben estimated the portion that fell to his share at more than three
+hundred pounds of good honey--comb included--after deducting the
+portions that were given to the Indians, and which were abstracted by
+Gershom. The three last, however, could carry but little, as they had no
+other means of bearing it away than their own backs.
+
+The honey was not collected that night. The day was too far advanced for
+that; and le Bourdon--certainly never was name less merited than this
+sobriquet as applied to the active young bee-hunter--but le Bourdon, to
+give him his quaint appellation, offered the hospitalities of his own
+cabin to the strangers, promising to put them on their several paths the
+succeeding day, with a good store of honey in each knapsack.
+
+"They do say there ar' likely to be troublesome times." he continued,
+with simple earnestness, after having given the invitation to partake
+of his homely fare; "and I should like to hear what is going on in the
+world. From Whiskey Centre I do not expect to learn much, I will own;
+but I am mistaken if the Pigeonswing, here, has not a message that will
+make us all open our ears."
+
+The Indians ejaculated their assent; but Gershom was a man who could not
+express anything sententiously. As the bee-hunter led the way toward
+his cabin, or shanty, he made his comments with his customary freedom.
+Before recording what he communicated, however, we shall digress for one
+moment in order to say a word ourselves concerning this term "shanty."
+It is now in general use throughout the whole of the United States,
+meaning a cabin that has been constructed in haste, and for temporary
+purposes. By a license of speech, it is occasionally applied to more
+permanent residences, as men are known to apply familiar epithets
+to familiar objects. The derivation of the word has caused some
+speculation. The term certainly came from the West-perhaps from the
+Northwest-and the best explanation we have ever heard of its derivation
+is to sup-pose "shanty," as we now spell it, a corruption of "chiente,"
+which it is thought may have been a word in Canadian French phrase to
+express a "dog-kennel." "Chenil," we believe, is the true French
+term for such a thing, and our own word is said to be derived from
+it--"meute" meaning "a kennel of dogs," or "a pack of hounds," rather
+than their dwelling. At any rate, "chiente" is so plausible a solution
+of the difficulty, that one may hope it is the true one, even though
+he has no better authority for it than a very vague rumor. Curious
+discoveries are sometimes made by these rude analogies, however, though
+they are generally thought not to be very near akin to learning. For
+ourselves, now, we do not entertain a doubt that the sobriquet of
+"Yankees" which is in every man's mouth, and of which the derivation
+appears to puzzle all our philologists, is nothing but a slight
+corruption of the word "Yengeese," the term applied to the "English," by
+the tribes to whom they first became known. We have no other authority
+for this derivation than conjecture, and conjectures that are purely
+our own; but it is so very plausible as almost to carry conviction of
+itself. [Footnote: Since writing the above, the author has met with an
+allusion that has induced him to think he may not have been the first
+to suggest this derivation of the word "Yankee." With himself, the
+suggestion is perfectly original, and has long since been published by
+him; but nothing is more probable than the fact that a solution so very
+natural, of this long-disputed question in language, may have suggested
+itself to various minds.]
+
+The "chiente'" or shanty of le Bourdon stood quite near to the banks of
+the Kalamazoo, and in a most beautiful grove of the burr-oak. Ben had
+selected the site with much taste, though the proximity of a spring of
+delicious water had probably its full share in influencing his decision.
+It was necessary, moreover, that he should be near the river, as
+his great movements were all made by water, for the convenience of
+transporting his tools, furniture, etc., as well as his honey. A famous
+bark canoe lay in a little bay, out of the current of the stream,
+securely moored, head and stern, in order to prevent her beating against
+any object harder than herself.
+
+The dwelling had been constructed with some attention to security. This
+was rendered necessary, in some measure, as Ben had found by experience,
+on account of two classes of enemies--men and bears. From the first, it
+is true, the bee-hunter had hitherto apprehended but little. There were
+few human beings in that region. The northern portions of the noble
+peninsula of Michigan are some-what low and swampy, or are too broken
+and savage to tempt the native hunters from the openings and prairies
+that then lay, in such rich profusion, further south and west. With the
+exception of the shores, or coasts, it was seldom that the northern
+half of the peninsula felt the footstep of man. With the southern
+half, however, it was very different; the "openings," and glades, and
+watercourses, offering almost as many temptations to the savage as they
+have since done to the civilized man. Nevertheless, the bison, or
+the buffalo, as the animal is erroneously, but very generally, termed
+throughout the country, was not often found in the vast herds of which
+we read, until one reached the great prairies west of the Mississippi.
+There it was that the red men most loved to congregate; though always
+bearing, in numbers, but a trifling proportion to the surface they
+occupied. In that day, however, near as to the date, but distant as to
+the events, the Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawattamies, kindred tribes, we
+believe, had still a footing in Michigan proper, and were to be found
+in considerable numbers in what was called the St. Joseph's country, or
+along the banks of the stream of that name; a region that almost merits
+the lofty appellation of the garden of America. Le Bourdon knew many of
+their warriors, and was much esteemed among them; though he had never
+met with either of those whom chance now had thrown in his way. In
+general, he suffered little wrong from the red men, who wondered at his
+occupation, while they liked his character; but he had sustained losses,
+and even ill-treatment, from certain outcasts of the tribes, as well as
+from vagrant whites, who occasionally found their way to his temporary
+dwellings. On the present occasion, le Bourdon felt far more uneasiness
+from the circumstance of having his abode known to Gershom Waring, a
+countryman and fellow-Christian, in one sense at least, than from its
+being known to the Chippewa and the Pottawattamie.
+
+The bears were constant and dangerous sources of annoyance to the
+bee-hunter. It was not often that an armed man--and le Bourdon seldom
+moved without his rifle--has much to apprehend from the common brown
+bear of America. Though a formidable-looking animal, especially when
+full grown, it is seldom bold enough to attack a human being, nothing
+but hunger, or care for its young, ever inducing it to go so much out
+of the ordinary track of its habits. But the love of the bear for honey
+amounts to a passion. Not only will it devise all sorts of bearish
+expedients to get at the sweet morsels, but it will scent them from
+afar. On one occasion, a family of Bruins had looked into a shanty of
+Ben's, that was not constructed with sufficient care, and consummated
+their burglary by demolishing the last comb. That disaster almost ruined
+the adventurer, then quite young in his calling; and ever since its
+occurrence he had taken the precaution to build such a citadel as should
+at least set teeth and paws at defiance. To one who had an axe, with
+access to young pines, this was not a difficult task, as was proved by
+the present habitation of our hero.
+
+This was the second season that le Bourdon had occupied "Castle Meal,"
+as he himself called the shanty. This appellation was a corruption of
+"chateau au Mtel" a name given to it by a wag of a voyageur who had
+aided Ben in ascending the Kalamazoo the previous summer, and had
+remained long enough with him to help him put up his habitation. The
+building was just twelve feet square, in the interior, and somewhat less
+than fourteen on its exterior. It was made of pine logs, in the usual
+mode, with the additional security of possessing a roof of squared
+timbers of which the several parts were so nicely fitted together as to
+shed rain. This unusual precaution was rendered necessary to protect the
+honey, since the bears would have unroofed the common bark coverings
+of the shanties, with the readiness of human beings, in order to get at
+stores as ample as those which the bee-hunter had soon collected beneath
+his roof. There was one window of glass, which le Bourdon had brought in
+his canoe; though it was a single sash of six small lights, that opened
+on hinges; the exterior being protected by stout bars of riven oak,
+securely let into the logs. The door was made of three thicknesses of
+oaken plank, pinned well together, and swinging on stout iron hinges, so
+secured as not to be easily removed. Its outside fastening was made by
+means of two stout staples, a short piece of ox-chain, and an unusually
+heavy padlock. Nothing short of an iron bar, and that cleverly applied,
+could force this fastening. On the inside, three bars of oak rendered
+all secure, when the master was at home.
+
+"You set consid'rable store by your honey, I guess, STRANger," said
+Gershom, as le Bourdon unlocked the fastenings and removed the chain,
+"if a body may judge by the kear (care) you take on't! Now, down our way
+we ain't half so partic'lar; Dolly and Blossom never so much as putting
+up a bar to the door, even when I sleep out, which is about half the
+time, now the summer is fairly set in."
+
+"And whereabouts is 'down our way,' if one may be so bold as to ask the
+question?" returned le Bourdon, holding the door half-opened, while he
+turned his face toward the other, in expectation of the answer.
+
+"Why, down at Whiskey Centre, to be sure, as the v'y'gerers and other
+boatmen call the place."
+
+"And where is Whiskey Centre?" demanded Ben, a little pertinaciously.
+
+"Why, I thought everybody would 'a' known that," answered Greshom; "sin'
+whiskey is as drawin' as a blister. Whiskey Centre is just where _I_
+happen to live; bein' what a body may call a travellin' name. As I'm now
+down at the mouth of the Kalamazoo, why Whiskey Centre's there, too."
+
+"I understand the matter, now," answered le Bourdon, composing his
+well-formed mouth in a sort of contemptuous smile. "You and whiskey,
+being sworn friends, are always to be found in company. When I came into
+the river, which was the last week in April, I saw nothing like whiskey,
+nor anything like a Centre at the mouth."
+
+"If you'd 'a' be'n a fortnight later, STRANger, you'd 'a' found both.
+Travellin' Centres, and stationary, differs somewhat, I guess; one is
+always to be found, while t'other must be s'arched a'ter."
+
+"And pray who are Dolly and Blossom; I hope the last is not a WHISKEY
+blossom?"
+
+"Not she--she never touches a spoonful, though I tell her it never hurt
+mortal! She tries hard to reason me into it that it hurts ME--but that's
+all a mistake, as anybody can see that jest looks at me."
+
+Ben DID look at him; and, to say truth, came to a somewhat different
+conclusion.
+
+"Is she so blooming that you call her 'Blossom'?" demanded the
+bee-hunter, "or is she so young?"
+
+"The gal's a little of both. Dolly is my wife, and Blossom is my sister.
+The real name of Blossom is Margery Waring, but everybody calls her
+Blossom; and so I gi'n into it, with the rest on 'em."
+
+It is probable that le Bourdon lost a good deal of his interest in
+this flower of the wilderness, as soon as he learned she was so nearly
+related to the Whiskey Centre. Gershom was so very uninviting an object,
+and had so many palpable marks, that he had fairly earned the nickname
+which, as it afterward appeared, the western adventurers had given
+HIM, as well as his ABODE, wherever the last might be, that no one of
+decently sober habits could readily fancy anything belonging to him. At
+any rate, the bee-hunter now led the way into his cabin, whither he was
+followed without unnecessary ceremony, by all three of his guests.
+
+The interior of the "chiente," to use the most poetical, if not the most
+accurate word, was singularly clean for an establishment set up by
+a bachelor, in so remote a part of the world. The honey, in neat,
+well-constructed kegs, was carefully piled along one side of the
+apartment, in a way to occupy the minimum of room, and to be rather
+ornamental than unsightly. These kegs were made by le Bourdon himself,
+who had acquired as much of the art as was necessary to that object.
+The woods always furnished the materials; and a pile of staves that was
+placed beneath a neighboring tree sufficiently denoted that he did not
+yet deem that portion of his task completed.
+
+In one corner of the hut was a pile of well-dressed bearskins, three
+in number, each and all of which had been taken from the carcasses of
+fallen foes, within the last two months. Three more were stretched on
+saplings, near by, in the process of curing. It was a material part
+of the bee-hunter's craft to kill this animal, in particular; and the
+trophies of his conflicts with them were proportionably numerous. On the
+pile already prepared, he usually slept.
+
+There was a very rude table, a single board set up on sticks; and a
+bench or two, together with a wooden chest of some size, completed the
+furniture. Tools were suspended from the walls, it is true; and no
+less than three rifles, in addition to a very neat double-barrelled
+"shot-gun," or fowling-piece, were standing in a corner. These were arms
+collected by our hero in his different trips, and retained quite as much
+from affection as from necessity, or caution. Of ammunition, there was
+no very great amount visible; only three or four horns and a couple of
+pouches being suspended from pegs: but Ben had a secret store, as well
+as another rifle, carefully secured, in a natural magazine and arsenal,
+at a distance sufficiently great from the chiente to remove it from all
+danger of sharing in the fortunes of his citadel, should disaster befall
+the last.
+
+The cooking was done altogether out of doors. For this essential
+comfort, le Bourdon had made very liberal provision. He had a small
+oven, a sufficiently convenient fire-place, and a storehouse, at hand;
+all placed near the spring, and beneath the shade of a magnificent elm.
+In the storehouse he kept his barrel of flour, his barrel of salt,
+a stock of smoked or dried meat, and that which the woodsman, if
+accustomed in early life to the settlements, prizes most highly, a
+half-barrel of pickled pork. The bark canoe had sufficed to transport
+all these stores, merely ballasting handsomely that ticklish craft; and
+its owner relied on the honey to perform the same office on the return
+voyage, when trade or consumption should have disposed of the various
+articles just named.
+
+The reader may smile at the word "trade," and ask where were those to
+be found who could be parties to the traffic. The vast lakes and
+innumerable rivers of that region, however, remote as it then was
+from the ordinary abodes of civilized man, offered facilities for
+communication that the active spirit of trade would be certain not to
+neglect. In the first place, there were always the Indians to barter
+skins and furs against powder, lead, rifles, blankets, and unhappily
+"fire-water." Then, the white men who penetrated to those semi-wilds
+were always ready to "dicker" and to "swap," and to "trade" rifles, and
+watches, and whatever else they might happen to possess, almost to their
+wives and Children.
+
+But we should be doing injustice to le Bourdon, were we in any manner
+to confound him with the "dickering" race. He was a bee-hunter quite as
+much through love of the wilderness and love of adventure, as through
+love of gain. Profitable he had certainly found the employment, or he
+probably would not have pursued it; but there was many a man who--nay,
+most men, even in his own humble class in life-would have deemed his
+liberal earnings too hardly obtained, when gained at the expense of all
+intercourse with their own kind. But Buzzing Ben loved the solitude of
+his situation, its hazards, its quietude, relieved by passing moments
+of high excitement; and, most of all, the self-reliance that was
+indispensable equally to his success and his happiness. Woman, as yet,
+had never exercised her witchery over him, and every day was his passion
+for dwelling alone, and for enjoying the strange, but certainly most
+alluring, pleasures of the woods, increasing and gaining strength in his
+bosom. It was seldom, now, that he held intercourse even with the Indian
+tribes that dwelt near his occasional places of hunting; and frequently
+had he shifted his ground in order to avoid collision, however friendly,
+with whites who, like himself, were pushing their humble fortunes along
+the shores of those inland seas, which, as yet, were rarely indeed
+whitened by a sail. In this respect, Boden and Waring were the very
+antipodes of each other; Gershom being an inveterate gossip, in despite
+of his attachment to a vagrant and border life.
+
+The duties of hospitality are rarely forgotten among border men. The
+inhabitant of a town may lose his natural disposition to receive all
+who offer at his board, under the pressure of society; but it is only in
+most extraordinary exceptions that the frontier man is ever known to
+be inhospitable. He has little to offer, but that little is seldom
+withheld, either through prudence or niggardliness. Under this
+feeling--we might call it habit also--le Bourdon now set himself at work
+to place on the table such food as he had at command and ready cooked.
+The meal which he soon pressed his guests to share with him was composed
+of a good piece of cold boiled pork, which Ben had luckily cooked the
+day previously, some bear's meat roasted, a fragment of venison steak,
+both lean and cold, and the remains of a duck that had been shot the
+day before, in the Kalamazoo, with bread, salt, and, what was somewhat
+unusual in the wilderness, two or three onions, raw. The last dish was
+highly relished by Gershom, and was slightly honored by Ben; but the
+Indians passed it over with cold indifference. The dessert consisted of
+bread and honey, which were liberally partaken of by all at table.
+
+Little was said by either host or guests, until the supper was finished,
+when the whole party left the chiente, to enjoy their pipes in the cool
+evening air, beneath the oaks of the grove in which the dwelling stood.
+Their conversation began to let the parties know something of each
+other's movements and characters.
+
+"YOU are a Pottawattamie, and YOU a Chippewa," said le Bourdon, as he
+courteously handed to his two red guests pipes of theirs, that he had
+just stuffed with some of his own tobacco--"I believe you are a sort of
+cousins, though your tribes are called by different names."
+
+"Nation, Ojebway," returned the elder Indian, holding up a finger, by
+way of enforcing attention.
+
+"Tribe, Pottawattamie," added the runner, in the same sententious
+manner.
+
+"Baccy, good"--put in the senior, by way of showing he was well
+contented with his comforts.
+
+"Have you nothin' to drink?" demanded Whiskey Centre, who saw no great
+merit in anything but "firewater."
+
+"There is the spring," returned le Bourdon, gravely; "a gourd hangs
+against the tree."
+
+Gershom made a wry face, but he did not move.
+
+"Is there any news stirring among the tribes?" asked the bee-hunter,
+waiting, however, a decent interval, lest he might be supposed to betray
+a womanly curiosity.
+
+Elksfoot puffed away some time before he saw fit to answer, reserving a
+salvo in behalf of his own dignity. Then he removed the pipe, shook off
+the ashes, pressed down the fire a little, gave a reviving draught or
+two, and quietly replied:
+
+"Ask my young brother--he runner--he know."
+
+But Pigeonswing seemed to be little more communicative than the
+Pottawattamie. He smoked on in quiet dignity, while the bee-hunter
+patiently waited for the moment when it might suit his younger guest to
+speak. That moment did not arrive for some time, though it came at last.
+Almost five minutes after Elksfoot had made the allusion mentioned, the
+Ojebway, or Chippewa, removed his pipe also, and looking courteously
+round at his host, he said with emphasis:
+
+"Bad summer come soon. Pale-faces call young men togedder, and dig up
+hatchet."
+
+"I had heard something of this," answered le Bourdon, with a saddened
+countenance, "and was afraid it might happen."
+
+"My brother dig up hatchet too, eh?" demanded Pigeonswing.
+
+"Why should I? I am alone here, on the Openings, and it would seem
+foolish in me to wish to fight."
+
+"Got no tribe--no Ojebway--no Pottawattamie, eh?"
+
+"I have my tribe, as well as another, Chippewa, but can see no use I can
+be to it, here. If the English and Americans fight, it must be a long
+way from this wilderness, and on or near the great salt lake."
+
+"Don't know--nebber know, 'till see. English warrior plenty in Canada."
+
+"That may be; but American warriors are not plenty here. This country is
+a wilderness, and there are no soldiers hereabouts, to cut each other's
+throats."
+
+"What you t'ink him?" asked Pigeonswing, glancing at Gershom; who,
+unable to forbear any longer, had gone to the spring to mix a cup from
+a small supply that still remained of the liquor with which he had left
+home. "Got pretty good scalp?"
+
+"I suppose it is as good as another's--but he and I are countrymen, and
+we cannot raise the tomahawk on one another."
+
+"Don't t'ink so. Plenty Yankee, him!"
+
+Le Bourdon smiled at this proof of Pigeonswings sagacity, though he felt
+a good deal of uneasiness at the purport of his discourse.
+
+"You are right enough in THAT" he answered, "but I'm plenty of Yankee,
+too."
+
+"No, don't say so," returned the Chippewa--"no, mustn't say DAT.
+English; no Yankee. HIM not a bit like you."
+
+"Why, we are unlike each other, in some respects, it is true, though we
+are countrymen, notwithstanding. My great father lives at Washington, as
+well as his."
+
+The Chippewa appeared to be disappointed; perhaps he appeared sorry,
+too; for le Bourdon's frank and manly hospitality had disposed him to
+friendship instead of hostilities, while his admissions would rather put
+him in an antagonist position. It was probably with a kind motive that
+he pursued the discourse in a way to give his host some insight into the
+true condition of matters in that part of the world.
+
+"Plenty Breetish in woods," he said, with marked deliberation and point.
+"Yankee no come yet."
+
+"Let me know the truth, at once, Chippewa," exclaimed le Bourdon. "I am
+but a peaceable bee-hunter, as you see, and wish no man's scalp, or any
+man's honey but my own. Is there to be a war between America and Canada,
+or not?"
+
+"Some say, yes; some say, no," returned Pigeonswing, evasively, "My
+part, don't know. Go, now, to see. But plenty Montreal belt among
+redskins; plenty rifle; plenty powder, too."
+
+"I heard something of this as I came up the lakes," rejoined Ben; "and
+fell in with a trader, an old acquaintance, from Canada, and a good
+friend, too, though he is to be my enemy, according to law, who gave me
+to understand that the summer would not go over without blows. Still,
+they all seemed to be asleep at Mackinaw (Michilimackinac) as I passed
+there."
+
+"Wake up pretty soon. Canada warrior take fort."
+
+"If I thought that, Chippewa, I would be off this blessed night to give
+the alarm."
+
+"No--t'ink better of dat."
+
+"Go I would, if I died for it the next hour!"
+
+"T'ink better--be no such fool, I tell you."
+
+"And I tell you, Pigeonswing, that go I would, if the whole Ojebway
+nation was on my trail. I am an American, and mean to stand by my own
+people, come what will."
+
+"T'ought you only peaceable bee-hunter, just now," retorted the
+Chippewa, a little sarcastically.
+
+By this time le Bourdon had somewhat cooled, and he became conscious of
+his indiscretion. He knew enough of the history of the past, to be fully
+aware that, in all periods of American history, the English, and, for
+that matter, the French too, so long as they had possessions on
+this continent, never scrupled about employing the savages in their
+conflicts. It is true, that these highly polished, and, we may justly
+add, humane nations--(for each is, out of all question, entitled to that
+character in the scale of comparative humanity as between communities,
+and each if you will take its own account of the matter, stands at the
+head of civilization in this respect)--would, notwithstanding these high
+claims, carry on their AMERICAN wars by the agency of the tomahawk, the
+scalping-knife, and the brand. Eulogies, though pronounced by ourselves
+on ourselves, cannot erase the stains of blood. Even down to the present
+hour, a cloud does not obscure the political atmosphere between England
+and America, that its existence may not be discovered on the prairies,
+by a movement among the In-dians. The pulse that is to be felt there
+is a sure indication of the state of the relations between the parties.
+Every one knows that the savage, in his warfare, slays both sexes and
+all ages; that the door-post of the frontier cabin is defiled by the
+blood of the infant, whose brains have been dashed against it; and that
+the smouldering ruins of log-houses oftener than not cover the remains
+of their tenants. But what of all that? Brutus is still "an honorable
+man," and the American, who has not this sin to answer for among his
+numberless transgressions, is reviled as a semi-barbarian! The time is
+at hand, when the Lion of the West will draw his own picture, too; and
+fortunate will it be for the characters of some who will gather around
+the easel, if they do not discover traces of their own lineaments among
+his labors.
+
+The feeling engendered by the character of such a warfare is the secret
+of the deeply seated hostility which pervades the breast of the WESTERN
+American against the land of his ancestors. He never sees the Times, and
+cares not a rush for the mystifications of the Quarterly Review; but
+he remembers where his mother was brained, and his father or brother
+tortured; aye, and by whose instrumentality the foul deeds were mainly
+done. The man of the world can understand that such atrocities may be
+committed, and the people of the offending nation remain ignorant of
+their existence, and, in a measure, innocent of the guilt; but the
+sufferer, in his provincial practice, makes no such distinction,
+confounding all alike in his resentments, and including all that bear
+the hated name in his maledictions. It is a fearful thing to awaken the
+anger of a nation; to excite in it a desire for revenge; and thrice
+is that danger magnified, when the people thus aroused possess
+the activity, the resources, the spirit, and the enterprise of the
+Americans. We have been openly derided, and that recently, because,
+in the fulness of our sense of power and sense of right, language that
+exceeds any direct exhibition of the national strength has escaped
+the lips of legislators, and, perhaps justly, has exposed them to the
+imputation of boastfulness. That derision, however, will not soon be
+repeated. The scenes enacting in Mexico, faint as they are in comparison
+with what would have been seen, had hostilities taken an other
+direction, place a perpetual gag in the mouths of all scoffers. The
+child is passing from the gristle into the bone, and the next generation
+will not even laugh, as does the present, at any idle and ill-considered
+menaces to coerce this republic; strong in the consciousness of its own
+power, it will eat all such fanfaronades, if any future statesman should
+be so ill-advised as to renew them, with silent indifference.
+
+Now, le Bourdon was fully aware that one of the surest pulses of
+approaching hostilities between England and America was to be felt in
+the far West. If the Indians were in movement, some power was probably
+behind the scenes to set them in motion. Pigeonswing was well known to
+him by reputation; and there was that about the man which awakened the
+most unpleasant apprehensions, and he felt an itching desire to learn
+all he could from him, without betraying any more of his own feelings,
+if that were possible.
+
+"I do not think the British will attempt Mackinaw," Ben remarked, after
+a long pause and a good deal of smoking had enabled him to assume an air
+of safe indifference.
+
+"Got him, I tell you," answered Pigeonswing, pointedly.
+
+"Got what, Chippewa?"
+
+"Him--Mac-naw--got fort--got so'gers--got whole island. Know dat, for
+been dere."
+
+This was astounding news, indeed! The commanding officer of that
+ill-starred garrison could not himself have been more astonished, when
+he was unexpectedly summoned to surrender by an enemy who appeared
+to start out of the earth, than was le Bourdon, at hearing this
+intelligence. To western notions, Michilimackinac was another Gibraltar,
+although really a place of very little strength, and garrisoned by only
+one small company of regulars. Still, habit had given the fortress a
+sort of sanctity among the adventurers of that region; and its fall,
+even in the settled parts of the country, sounded like the loss of
+a province. It is now known that, anticipating the movements of the
+Americans, some three hundred whites, sustained by more than twice that
+number of Indians, including warriors from nearly every adjacent tribe,
+had surprised the post on the 17th of July, and compelled the subaltern
+in command, with some fifty odd men, to surrender. This rapid and highly
+military measure, on the part of the British, completely cut off the
+post of Chicago, at the head of Lake Michigan, leaving it isolated, on
+what was then a very remote wilderness. Chicago, Mackinac, and Detroit,
+were the three grand stations of the Americans on the upper lakes, and
+here were two of them virtually gone at a blow!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+              --Ho! who's here?
+      If anything that's civil, speak; if savage,
+      Take, or lend--
+
+                               Cymbeline
+
+
+Not another syllable did le Bourdon utter to the Chippewa, or the
+Chippewa to him, in that sitting, touching the important event just
+communicated. Each carefully avoided manifesting any further interest in
+the subject, but the smoking continued for some time after the sun had
+set. As the shades of evening began to gather, the Pottawattamie arose,
+shook the ashes from his pipe, gave a grunt, and uttered a word or two,
+by way of announcing his disposition to retire. On this hint, Ben went
+into the cabin, spread his skins, and intimated to his guests that their
+beds were ready for them. Few compliments pass among border men on such
+occasions, and one after another dropped off, until all were stretched
+on the skins but the master of the place. He remained up two hours
+later, ruminating on the state of things; when, perceiving that the
+night was wearing on, he also found a nest, and sought his repose.
+
+Nothing occurred to disturb the occupants of "Castle Meal," as le
+Bourdon laughingly called his cabin, until the return of day. If there
+were any bears scenting around the place, as often occurred at night,
+their instinct must have apprised them that a large reinforcement was
+present, and caused them to defer their attack to a more favorable
+opportunity. The first afoot next morning was the bee-hunter himself,
+who arose and left his cabin just as the earliest streaks of day were
+appearing in the east. Although dwelling in a wilderness, the "openings"
+had not the character of ordinary forests. The air circulates freely
+beneath their oaks, the sun penetrates in a thousand places, and grass
+grows, wild but verdant. There was little of the dampness of the virgin
+woods; and the morning air, though cool, as is ever the case, even in
+midsummer, in regions still covered with trees, was balmy; and, at that
+particular spot, it came to the senses of le Bourdon loaded with the
+sweets of many a wide glade of his favorite white clover. Of course, he
+had placed his cabin near those spots where the insect he sought most
+abounded; and a fragrant site it proved to be, in favorable conditions
+of the atmosphere. Ben had a taste for all the natural advantages of his
+abode, and was standing in enjoyment of its placid beauties when some
+one touched his elbow. Turning, quick as thought, he perceived the
+Chippewa at his side. That young Indian had approached with the
+noiseless tread of his people, and was now anxious to hold a private
+communication with him.
+
+"Pottawattamie got long ear--come fudder--" said Pigeonswing; "go
+cook-house--t'ink we want breakfast."
+
+Ben did as desired; and the two were soon side by side at the spring, in
+the outlet of which they made their ablutions--the redskin being totally
+without paint. When this agreeable office was performed, each felt in
+better condition for a conference.
+
+"Elkfoot got belt from Canada fadder," commenced the Chippewa, with a
+sententious allusion to the British propensity to keep the savages in
+pay. "KNOW he got him KNOW he keep him."
+
+"And you, Pigeonswing--by your manner of talking I had set you down for
+a king's Injin, too."
+
+"TALK so--no FEEL bit so. MY heart Yankee."
+
+"And have you not had a belt of wampum sent you, as well as the rest of
+them?"
+
+"Dat true--got him--don't keep him."
+
+"What! did you dare to send it back?"
+
+"Ain't fool, dough young. Keep him; no keep him. Keep him for Canada
+fadder; no keep him for Chippewa brave."
+
+"What have you then done with your belt?"
+
+"Bury him where nobody find him dis war. No--Waubkenewh no hole in heart
+to let king in."
+
+Pigeonswing, as this young Indian was commonly called in his tribe, in
+consequence of the rapidity of his movement when employed as a runner,
+had a much more respectable name, and one that he had fairly earned in
+some of the forays of his people, but which the commonalty had just the
+same indisposition to use as the French have to call Marshal Soult the
+Duc de Dalmatie. The last may be the most honorable title, but it is not
+that by which he is the best known to his countrymen. Waubkenewh was
+an appellation, notwithstanding, of which the young Chippewa was justly
+proud; and he often asserted his right to use it, as sternly as the old
+hero of Toulouse asserted his right to his duchy, when the Austrians
+wished to style him "le Marechal DUC Soult."
+
+"And you are friendly to the Yankees, and an enemy to the red-coats?"
+
+Waubkenewh grasped the hand of le Bourdon, and squeezed it firmly. Then
+he said, warily:
+
+"Take care--Elkfoot friend of Blackbird; like to look at Canada belt.
+Got medal of king, too. Have Yankee scalp, bye'm by. Take care--must
+speak low, when Elkfoot near."
+
+"I begin to understand you, Chippewa; you wish me to believe that YOU
+are a friend to America, and that the Pottawatamie is not. If this be
+so, why have you held the speech that you did last night, and seemed to
+be on a war-path AGAINST my countrymen?"
+
+"Dat good way, eh? Elkfoot den t'ink me HIS friend dat very good in
+war-time."
+
+"But is it true, or false, that Mackinaw is taken by the British?"
+
+"Dat true too--gone, and warrior all prisoner. Plenty Winnebago, plenty
+Pottawatamie, plenty Ottowa, plenty redskin, dere."
+
+"And the Chippewas?"
+
+"Some Ojebway, too"--answered Pigeonswing, after a reluctant pause.
+"Can't all go on same path this war. Hatchets, somehow, got two
+handle--one strike Yankee; one strike King George."
+
+"But what is your business here, and where are you now going if you are
+friendly to the Americans? I make no secret of my feelings--I am for my
+own people, and I wish proof that you are a friend, and not an enemy."
+
+"Too many question, one time," returned the Chippewa, a little
+distastefully. "No good have so long tongue. Ask one question, answer
+him--ask anoder, answer HIM, too."
+
+"Well, then, what is your business, here?"
+
+"Go to Chicago, for gen'ral."
+
+"Do you mean that you bear a message from some American general to the
+commandant at Chicago?"
+
+"Just so--dat my business. Guess him, right off; he, he, he!"
+
+It is so seldom that an Indian laughs that the bee-hunter was startled.
+
+"Where is the general who has sent you on this errand?" he demanded.
+
+"He at Detroit--got whole army dere--warrior plenty as oak in opening."
+
+All this was news to the bee-hunter, and it caused him to muse a moment,
+ere he proceeded.
+
+"What is the name of the American general who has sent you on this
+path?" he then demanded.
+
+"Hell," answered the Ojebway, quietly.
+
+"Hell! You mean to give his Indian title, I suppose, to show that he
+will prove dangerous to the wicked. But how is he called in our own
+tongue?"
+
+"Hell--dat he name--good name for so'ger, eh?"
+
+"I believe I understand you, Chippewa--Hull is the name of the governor
+of the territory, and you must have mistaken the sound--'is it not so?"
+
+"Hull--Hell--don't know--just same--one good as t'other."
+
+"Yes, one will do as well as the other, if a body only understands you.
+So Governor Hull sent you here?"
+
+"No gubbernor--general, tell you. Got big army--plenty warrior--eat
+Breesh up!"
+
+"Now, Chippewa, answer me one thing to my likin', or I shall set you
+down as a man with a forked tongue, though you do call yourself a friend
+of the Yankees. If you have been sent from Detroit to Chicago, why
+are you so far north as this? Why are you here, on the banks of
+the Kalamazoo, when your path ought to lead you more toward the St.
+Joseph's?"
+
+"Been to Mackinaw. Gen'ral says, first go to Mackinaw and see wid own
+eye how garrison do--den go to Chicago, and tell warrior dere what
+happen, and how he best manage. Understan' dat, Bourdon?"
+
+"Aye, it all sounds well enough, I will acknowledge. You have been to
+Mackinaw to look about you, there, and having seen things with your own
+eyes, have started for Chicago to give your knowledge to the commandant
+at that place. Now, redskin, have you any proof of what you say?"
+
+For some reason that the bee-hunter could not yet fathom, the Chippewa
+was particularly anxious either to obtain his confidence, or to deceive
+him. Which he was attempting, was not yet quite apparent; but that one
+or other was uppermost in his mind, Ben thought was beyond dispute.
+As soon as the question last named was put, however, the Indian looked
+cautiously around him, as if to be certain there were no spectators.
+Then he carefully opened his tobacco-pouch, and extricated from the
+centre of the cut weed a letter that was rolled into the smallest
+compass to admit of this mode of concealment, and which was encircled
+by a thread. The last removed, the letter was unrolled, and its
+superscription exposed. The address was to "Captain--Heald, U. S. Army,
+commanding at Chicago." In one corner were the words "On public service,
+by Pigeonswing." All this was submitted to the bee-hunter, who read it
+with his own eyes.
+
+"Dat good"-asked the Chippewa, pointedly-"dat tell trut'-b'lieve HIM?"
+
+Le Bourdon grasped the hand of the Indian, and gave it a hearty squeeze.
+Then he said frankly, and like a man who no longer entertained any
+doubts:
+
+"I put faith in all you say, Chippewa. That is an officer's letter, and
+I now see that you are on the right side. You play'd so deep a game, at
+first, hows'ever, that I didn't know exactly what to make of you. Now,
+as for the Pottawattamie--do you set him down as friend or foe, in
+reality?"
+
+"Enemy--take your scalp--take my scalp, in minute only can't catch him.
+He got belt from Montreal, and it look handsome in his eye."
+
+"Which way d'ye think he's travelling? As I understood you, he and you
+fell into the same path within a mile of this very spot. Was the meeting
+altogether friendly?"
+
+"Yes; friendly--but ask too many question--too much squaw--ask one
+question, den stop for answer."
+
+"Very true--I will remember that an Indian likes to do one thing at a
+time. Which way, then, do you think he's travelling?"
+
+"Don't know--on'y guess--guess he on path to Blackbird."
+
+"And where is Blackbird, and what is he about?"
+
+"Two question, dat!" returned the Chippewa, smiling, and holding up
+two of his fingers, at the same time, by way of rebuke. "Blackbird on
+war-path;--when warrior on dat path, he take scalp if can get him."
+
+"But where is his enemy? There are no whites in this part of the
+country, but here and there a trader, or a trapper, or a bee-hunter, or
+a VOYAGEUR."
+
+"Take HIS scalp--all scalp good, in war time. An't partic'lar, down at
+Montreal. What you call garrison at Chicago?"
+
+"Blackbird, you then think, may be moving upon Chicago. In that case,
+Chippewa, you should outrun this Pottawatamie, and reach the post in
+time to let its men know the danger."
+
+"Start, as soon as eat breakfast. Can't go straight, nudder, or
+Pottawatamie see print of moccasin. Must t'row him off trail."
+
+"Very true; but I'll engage you're cunning enough to do that twice over,
+should it be necessary."
+
+Just then Gershom Waring came out of the cabin, gaping like a hound, and
+stretching his arms, as if fairly wearied with sleep. At the sight of
+this man the Indian made a gesture of caution, saying, however, in an
+undertone:
+
+"How is heart--Yankee or Breesh--love Montreal, eh? Pretty good scalp!
+Love King George, eh?"
+
+"I rather think not, but am not certain. He is a poor pale-face,
+however, and it's of no great account how he stands. His scalp would
+hardly be worth the taking, whether by English or American."
+
+"Sell, down at Montreal--better look out for Pottawatamie. Don't like
+that Injin."
+
+"We'll be on our guard against him; and there he comes, looking as if
+his breakfast would be welcome, and as if he was already thinking of a
+start."
+
+Le Bourdon had been busy with his pots, during the whole time this
+discourse was going on, and had warmed up a sufficiency of food to
+supply the wants of all his guests. In a few minutes each was busy
+quietly eating his morning's meal, Gershom having taken his bitters
+aside, and, as he fancied, unobserved. This was not so much owing to
+niggardliness, as to a distrust of his having a sufficient supply of the
+liquor, that long indulgence had made, in a measure, necessary to him,
+to last until he could get back to the barrels that were still to be
+found in his cabin, down on the shore of the lake.
+
+During the breakfast little was said, conversation forming no material
+part of the entertainment, at the meals of any but the cultivated. When
+each had risen, however, and by certain preliminary arrangements it
+was obvious that the two Indians intended to depart, the Pottawatamie
+advanced to le Bourdon, and thrust out a hand.
+
+"Thankee"--he said, in the brief way in which he clipped his
+English--"good supper--good sleep--good breakfast. Now go. Thankee--when
+any friend come to Pottawatamie village, good wigwam dere, and no door."
+
+"I thank you, Elksfoot--and should you pass this way, ag'in, soon, I
+hope you'll just step into this chiente and help yourself it I should
+happen to be off on a hunt. Good luck to you, and a happy sight of
+home."
+
+The Pottawatamie then turned and thrust out a hand to each of the
+others, who met his offered leave-taking with apparent friendship. The
+bee-hunter observed that neither of the Indians said anything to the
+other touching the path he was about to travel, but that each seemed
+ready to pursue his own way as if entirely independent, and without the
+expectation of having a companion.
+
+Elksfoot left the spot the first. After completing his adieus, the
+Pottawattamie threw his rifle into the hollow of his arm, felt at his
+belt, as if to settle it into its place, made some little disposition of
+his light summer covering, and moved off in a southwesterly direction,
+passing through the open glades, and almost equally unobstructed groves,
+as steady in his movements as if led by an instinct.
+
+"There he goes, on a bee-line," said le Bourdon, as the straight form of
+the old savage disappeared at length, behind a thicket of trees. "On
+a bee-line for the St. Joseph's river, where he will shortly be, among
+friends and neighbors, I do not doubt. What, Chippewa! are you in motion
+too?"
+
+"Must go, now," returned Pigeonswing, in a friendly way. "Bye'm by come
+back and eat more honey-bring sweet news, hope-no Canada here," placing
+a finger on his heart-"all Yankee."
+
+"God be with you, Chippewa-God be with you. We shall have a stirring
+summer of it, and I expect to hear of your name in the wars, as of a
+chief who knows no fear."
+
+Pigeonswing waved his hand, cast a glance, half friendly half
+contemptuously, at Whiskey Centre, and glided away. The two who remained
+standing near the smouldering fire remarked that the direction taken
+by the Chippewa was toward the lake, and nearly at right angles to that
+taken by the Pottawattamie. They also fancied that the movement of the
+former was about half as fast again as that of the latter. In less than
+three minutes the young Indian was concealed in the "openings," though
+he had to cross a glade of considerable width in order to reach them.
+
+The bee-hunter was now alone with the only one of his guests who was of
+the color and race to which he himself belonged. Of the three, he was
+the visitor he least respected; but the dues of hospitality are usually
+sacred in a wilderness, and among savages, so that he could do nothing
+to get rid of him. As Gershom manifested no intention to quit the place,
+le Bourdon set about the business of the hour, with as much method and
+coolness as if the other had not been present. The first thing was to
+bring home the honey discovered on the previous day; a task of no light
+labor, the distance it was to be transported being so considerable, and
+the quantity so large. But our bee-hunter was not without the means
+of accomplishing such an object, and he now busied himself in getting
+ready. As Gershom volunteered his assistance, together they toiled in
+apparent amity and confidence.
+
+The Kalamazoo is a crooked stream; and it wound from the spot where le
+Bourdon had built his cabin, to a point within a hundred yards of the
+fallen tree in which the bees had constructed their hive. As a matter
+of course, Ben profited by this circumstance to carry his canoe to the
+latter place, with a view to render it serviceable in transporting
+the honey. First securing everything in and around the chiente, he
+and Gershom embarked, taking with them no less than four pieces
+of fire-arms; one of which was, to use the language of the west, a
+double-barrelled "shot-gun." Before quitting the place, however, the
+bee-hunter went to a large kennel made of logs, and let out a mastiff
+of great power and size. Between this dog and himself there existed the
+best possible intelligence; the master having paid many visits to the
+prisoner since his return, feeding and caressing him. Glad, indeed, was
+this fine animal to be released, bounding back and forth, and leaping
+about le Bourdon in a way to manifest his delight. He had been cared for
+in his kennel, and well cared for, too; but there is no substitute for
+liberty, whether in man or beast, individuals or communities.
+
+When all Was ready, le Bourdon and Gershom got into the canoe, whither
+the former now called his dog, using the name of "Hive," an appellation
+that was doubtless derived from his own pursuit. As soon as the mastiff
+leaped into the canoe, Ben shoved off, and the light craft was pushed
+up the stream by himself and Gershom without much difficulty, and with
+considerable rapidity. But little driftwood choked the channel; and,
+after fifteen minutes of moderate labor, the two men came near to the
+point of low wooded land in which the bee-tree had stood. As they drew
+nigh, certain signs of uneasiness in the dog attracted his master's
+attention, and he pointed them out to Gershom.
+
+"There's game in the wind," answered Whiskey Centre, who had a good
+knowledge of most of the craft of border life, notwithstanding his
+ungovernable propensity to drink, and who, by nature, was both shrewd
+and resolute. "I shouldn't wonder"-a common expression of his class--"if
+we found bears prowling about that honey!"
+
+"Such things have happened in my time," answered the bee-hunter, "and
+twice in my experience I've been driven from the field, and forced to
+let the devils get my 'arnin's."
+
+"That was when you had no comrade, stranger" returned Gershom, raising a
+rifle, and carefully examining its flint and its priming. "It will be a
+large family on 'em that drives us from that tree; for my mind is made
+up to give Doll and Blossom a taste of the sweets."
+
+If this was said imprudently, as respects ownership in the prize, it
+was said heartily, so far as spirit and determination were concerned. It
+proved that Whiskey Centre had points about him which, if not absolutely
+redeeming, served in some measure to lessen the disgust which one might
+other-wise have felt for his character. The bee-hunter knew that there
+was a species of hardihood that belonged to border men as the fruits
+of their habits, and, apparently, he had all necessary confidence in
+Gershom's disposition to sustain him, should there be occasion for a
+conflict with his old enemies.
+
+The first measure of the bee-hunter, after landing and securing his
+boat, was to quiet Hive. The animal being under excellent command, this
+was soon done; the mastiff maintaining the position assigned him in the
+rear, though evidently impatient to be let loose. Had not le Bourdon
+known the precise position of the fallen tree, and through that the
+probable position of his enemies, he would have placed the mastiff in
+advance, as a pioneer or scout; but he deemed it necessary, under
+the actual circumstances, to hold him as a reserve, or a force to be
+directed whither occasion might require. With this arrangement, then,
+le Bourdon and Whiskey Centre advanced, side by side, each carrying two
+pieces, from the margin of the river toward the open land that commanded
+a view of the tree. On reaching the desired point, a halt was called, in
+order to reconnoitre.
+
+The reader will remember that the bee-elm had stood on the edge of a
+dense thicket, or swamp, in which the trees grew to a size several times
+exceeding those of the oaks in the openings; and le Bourdon had caused
+it to fall upon the open ground, in order to work at the honey with
+greater ease to himself. Consequently, the fragments lay in full view
+of the spot where the halt was made. A little to Gershom's surprise,
+Ben now produced his spy-glass, which he levelled with much earnestness
+toward the tree. The bee-hunter, however, well knew his business, and
+was examining into the state of the insects whom he had so violently
+invaded the night before. The air was filled with them, flying above
+and around the tree; a perfect cloud of the little creatures hovering
+directly over the hole, as if to guard its treasure.
+
+"Waal," said Gershom, in his drawling way, when le Bourdon had taken a
+long look with the glass, "I don't see much use in spy-glassin' in that
+fashion. Spy-glassin' may do out on the lake, if a body has only the
+tools to do it with; but here, in the openin's, nature's eyes is about
+as good as them a body buys in the stores."
+
+"Take a look at them bees, and see what a fret they're in," returned
+Ben, handing the glass to his companion. "As long as I've been in the
+business, I've never seen a colony in such a fever. Commonly, a few
+hours after the bees find that their tree is down, and their plans
+broken into, they give it up, and swarm; looking for a new hive, and
+setting about the making more food for the next winter; but here are all
+the bees yet, buzzing above the hole, as if they meant to hold out for a
+siege."
+
+"There's an onaccountable grist on 'em"--Gershom was never very
+particular in his figures of speech, usually terming anything
+in quantities a'grist"; and meaning in the present instance by
+"onaccountable," a number not to be counted--"an onaccountable grist on
+'em, I can tell you, and if you mean to charge upon sich enemies, you
+must look out for somebody besides Whiskey Centre for your vanguard.
+What in natur' has got into the critters! They can't expect to set that
+tree on its legs ag'in!"
+
+"Do you see a flight of them just in the edge of the for-est--here, more
+to the southward?" demanded le Bourdon.
+
+"Sure enough! There is a lot on 'em there, too, and they seem to be
+comin' and goin' to the tree, like folks"--Gershom WOULD put his noun
+of multitude into the plural, Nova-Anglice--"comin' and goin' like folks
+carryin' water to a fire. A body would think, by the stir among 'em,
+them critters' barrel was empty!"
+
+"The bears are there," coolly returned the bee-hunter; "I've seen such
+movements before, and know how to account for them. The bears are in the
+thicket, but don't like to come out in the face of such a colony. I have
+heard of bears being chased miles by bees, when their anger was up!"
+
+"Mortality! They have a good deal of dander (dandruff) for sich little
+vipers! But what are WE to do, Bourdon? for Doll and Blossom MUST taste
+that honey! Half's mine, you know, and I don't like to give it up."
+
+The bee-hunter smiled at the coolness with which Gershom assigned to
+himself so large a portion of his property; though he did not think
+it worth his while, just then, to "demur to his declaration," as the
+lawyers might have it. There was a sort of border rule, which gave all
+present equal shares in any forest captures; just as vessels in sight
+come in for prize-money, taken in time of war by public cruisers. At any
+rate, the honey of a single tree was not of sufficient value to induce a
+serious quarrel about it. If there should be any extra trouble or danger
+in securing the present prize, every craft in view might, fairly enough,
+come in for its share.
+
+"Doll shall not be forgotten, if we can only house our honey," answered
+the bee-hunter; "nor Blossom, neither. I've a fancy, already, for
+that blossom of the wilderness, and shall do all I can to make myself
+agreeable to her. A man cannot approach a maiden with anything sweeter
+than honey."
+
+"Some gals like sugar'd words better; but, let me tell you one thing,
+STRANger-"
+
+"You have eaten bread and salt with me, Whiskey, and both are scarce
+articles in a wilderness; and you've slept under my roof: is it not
+almost time to call me something else than stranger?"
+
+"Well, Bourdon, if you prefer that name; though STRANger is a name I
+like, it has sich an up and off sound to it. When a man calls all he
+sees STRANgers, it's a sign he don't let the grass grow in the road
+for want of movin'; and a movin' man for me, any day, before your
+stationaries. I was born on the sea-shore, in the Bay State; and here
+I am, up among the fresh-water lakes, as much nat'ralized as any
+muskelunge that was ever cotch'd in Huron, or about Mackinaw. If I can
+believe my eyes, Bourdon, there is the muzzle of a bear to be seen, jist
+under that heavy hemlock--here, where the bees seem thickest!"
+
+"No doubt in the world," answered le Bourdon, coolly; though he had
+taken the precaution to look to the priming of each of his pieces, as if
+he expected there would soon be occasion to use them. "But what was that
+you were about to say concernin' Blossom? It would not be civil to the
+young woman to overlook her, on account of a bear or two."
+
+"You take it easy, STRANger--Bourdon, I should say--you take it easy!
+What I was about to say was this: that the whull lake country, and
+that's a wide stretch to foot it over, I know; but, big as it is, the
+whull lake country don't contain Blossom's equal. I'm her brother, and
+perhaps ought to be a little modest in sich matters; but I an't a bit,
+and let out jist what I think. Blossom's a di'mond, if there be di'monds
+on 'arth."
+
+"And yonder is a bear, if there be bears on earth!" exclaimed le
+Bourdon, who was not a little amused with Gershom's account of his
+family, but who saw that the moment was now arrived when it would be
+necessary to substitute deeds for words. "There they come, in a drove,
+and they seem in earnest."
+
+This was true enough. No less than eight bears, half of which, however,
+were quite young, came tumbling over the logs, and bounding up toward
+the fallen tree, as if charging the citadel of the bees by preconcert.
+Their appearance was the signal for a general rally of the insects, and
+by the time the foremost of the clumsy animals had reached the tree, the
+air above and around him was absolutely darkened by the cloud of bees
+that was collected to defend their treasures. Bruin trusted too much to
+the thickness of his hide and to the defences with which he was provided
+by nature, besides being too much incited by the love of honey, to
+regard the little heroes, but thrust his nose in at the hole, doubtless
+hoping to plunge it at once into the midst of a mass of the sweets. A
+growl, a start backward, and a flourishing of the fore-paws, with
+sundry bites in the air, at once announced that he had met with greater
+resistance than he had anticipated. In a minute, all the bears were on
+their hind-legs, beating the air with their fore-paws, and nipping right
+and left with their jaws, in vigorous combat with their almost invisible
+foes. Instinct supplied the place of science, and spite of the hides
+and the long hair that covered them, the bees found the means of darting
+their stings into unprotected places, until the quadrupeds were fairly
+driven to rolling about on the grass in order to crush their assailants.
+This last process had some effect, a great many bees being destroyed by
+the energetic rollings and tumblings of the bears; but, as in the tide
+of battle, the places of those who fell were immediately supplied by
+fresh assailants, until numbers seemed likely to prevail over power,
+if not over discipline. At this critical instant, when the bears seemed
+fatigued with their nearly frantic saltations, and violent blows upon
+nothing, le Bourdon deemed it wise to bring his forces into the combat.
+Gershom having been apprised of the plan, both fired at the same
+instant. Each ball took effect; one killing the largest of all the
+bears, dead on the spot, while the other inflicted a grievous wound on
+a second. This success was immediately followed by a second discharge,
+wounding two more of the enemy, while Ben held the second barrel of his
+"shot-gun" in reserve. While the hurt animals were hobbling off, the men
+reloaded their pieces; and by the time the last were ready to advance on
+the enemy, the ground was cleared of bears and bees alike, only two of
+the former remaining, of which one was already dead and the other dying.
+As for the bees, they followed their retreating enemies in a body,
+making a mistake that sometimes happens to still more intelligent
+beings; that of attributing to themselves, and their own prowess, a
+success that had been gained by others.
+
+The bee-hunter and his friend now set themselves at work to provide
+a reception for the insects, the return of which might shortly be
+expected. The former lighted a fire, being always provided with the
+means, while Gershom brought dry wood. In less than five minutes a
+bright blaze was gleaming upward, and when the bees returned, as most
+of them soon did, they found this new enemy intrenched, as it might be,
+behind walls of flame. Thousands of the little creatures perished by
+means of this new invention of man, and the rest soon after were led
+away by their chiefs to seek some new deposit for the fruits of their
+industry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+             The sad butterfly,
+        Waving his lackered wings, darts quickly on,
+        And, by his free flight, counsels us to speed
+        For better lodgings, and a scene more sweet,
+        Than these dear borders offer us to-night.
+                                    SIMMS.
+
+
+It was noon before Ben and Gershom dared to commence the process of
+cutting and splitting the tree, in order to obtain the honey. Until
+then, the bees lingered around their fallen hive, and it would have been
+dangerous to venture beyond the smoke and heat, in order to accomplish
+the task. It is true, le Bourdon possessed several secrets, of more or
+less virtue, to drive off the bees when disposed to assault him, but
+no one that was as certain as a good fire, backed by a dense column of
+vapor. Various plants are thought to be so offensive to the insects,
+that they avoid even their odor; and the bee-hunter had faith in one or
+two of them; but none of the right sort happened now to be near, and he
+was obliged to trust, first to a powerful heat, and next to the vapor of
+damp wood.
+
+As there were axes, and wedges, and a beetle in the canoe, and Gershom
+was as expert with these implements as a master of fencing is with his
+foil, to say nothing of the skill of le Bourdon, the tree was soon
+laid open, and its ample stores of sweets exposed. In the course of the
+afternoon the honey was deposited in kegs, the kegs were transferred to
+the canoe, and the whole deposited in the chiente. The day had been one
+of toil, and when our two bordermen sat down near the spring, to take
+their evening meal, each felt glad that his work was done.
+
+"I believe this must be the last hive I line, this summer," said le
+Bourdon, while eating his supper. "My luck has been good so far, but
+in troublesome times one had better not be too far from home. I am
+surprised, Waring, that you have ventured so far from your family, while
+the tidings are so gloomy."
+
+"That's partly because you don't know ME, and partly because you don't
+know DOLLY. As for leaving hum, with anybody to kear for it, I should
+like to know who is more to the purpose than Dolly Waring? I haven't no
+idee that even bees would dare get upon HER! If they did, they'd soon
+get the worst on't Her tongue is all-powerful, to say nawthin' of her
+arms; and if the so'gers can only handle their muskets as she can handle
+a broom, there is no need of new regiments to carry on this war."
+
+Now, nothing could be more false than this character; but a drunkard has
+little regard to what he says.
+
+"I am glad your garrison is so strong," answered the beehunter,
+thoughtfully; "but mine is too weak to stay any longer, out here in
+the openings. Whiskey Centre, I intend to break up, and return to the
+settlement, before the red-skins break loose in earnest. If you will
+stay and lend me a hand to embark the honey and stores, and help
+to carry the canoe down the river, you shall be well paid for your
+trouble."
+
+"Waal, I'd about as lief do that, as do anything else. Good jobs is
+scarce, out here in the wilderness, and when a body lights of one, he
+ought to profit by it. I come up here thinkin' to meet you, for I heer'n
+tell from a voyager that you was a-beeing it, out in the openin's, and
+there's nawthin' in natur' that Dolly takes to with a greater relish
+than good wild honey. 'Try whiskey,' I've told her a thousand times,
+'and you'll soon get to like THAT better than all the rest of creation';
+but not a drop could I ever get her, or Blossom, to swallow. It's true,
+that leaves so much the more for me; but I'm a companionable crittur,
+and don't think I've drunk as much as I want, unless I take it
+society-like. That's one reason I've taken so mightily to you, Bourdon;
+you're not much at a pull, but you an't downright afeared of a jug,
+neither."
+
+The bee-hunter was glad to hear that all the family had not this man's
+vice, for he now plainly foresaw that the accidents of his position must
+bring him and these strangers much in contact, for some weeks, at least.
+Le Bourdon, though not absolutely "afraid of a jug," as Whiskey Centre
+had expressed it, was decidedly a temperate man; drinking but seldom,
+and never to excess. He too well knew the hazards by which he was
+surrounded, to indulge in this way, even had he the taste for it; but he
+had no taste that way, one small jug of brandy forming his supply for a
+whole season. In these days of exaggeration in all things, exaggeration
+in politics, in religion, in temperance, in virtue, and even in
+education, by putting "new wine into old bottles," that one little jug
+might have sufficed to give him a bad name; but five-and-thirty years
+ago men had more real independence than they now possess, and were
+not as much afraid of that croquemitaine, public opinion, as they
+are to-day. To be sure, it was little to le Bourdon's taste to make a
+companion of such a person as Whiskey Centre; but there was no choice.
+The man was an utter stranger to him; and the only means he possessed of
+making sure that he did not carry off the property that lay so much at
+his mercy, was by keeping near him. With many men, the bee-hunter would
+have been uneasy at being compelled to remain alone with them in the
+woods; for cases in which one had murdered another, in order to get
+possession of the goods, in these remote regions, were talked of, among
+the other rumors of the borders; but Gershom had that in his air and
+manner that rendered Ben confident his delinquencies, at the most, would
+scarcely reach bloodshed. Pilfer he might; but murder was a crime which
+he did not appear at all likely to commit.
+
+After supping in company, our two adventurers secured everything; and,
+retiring to the chiente, they went to sleep. No material disturbance
+occurred, but the night passed in tranquillity; the bee-hunter merely
+experiencing some slight interruption to his slumbers, from the unusual
+circumstance of having a companion. One as long accustomed to be alone
+as himself would naturally submit to some such sensation, our habits
+getting so completely the mastery as often to supplant even nature.
+
+The following morning the bee-hunter commenced his preparations for a
+change of residence. Had he not been discovered, it is probable that the
+news received from the Chippewa would not have induced him to abandon
+his present position, so early in the season; but he thought the risk of
+remaining was too great under all the circumstances. The Pottawattamie,
+in particular, was a subject of great distrust to him, and he believed
+it highly possible some of that old chief's tribe might be after his
+scalp ere many suns had risen. Gershom acquiesced in these opinions,
+and, as soon as his brain was less under the influence of liquor than
+was common with him, he appeared to be quite happy in having it in his
+power to form a species of alliance, offensive and defensive, with a
+man of his own color and origin. Great harmony now prevailed between the
+two, Gershom improving vastly in all the better qualities, the instant
+his intellect and feelings got to be a little released from the thraldom
+of the jug. His own immediate store of whiskey was quite exhausted, and
+le Bourdon kept the place in which his own small stock of brandy was
+secured a profound secret. These glimmerings of returning intellect,
+and of reviving principles, are by no means unusual with the sot, thus
+proving that "so long as there is life, there is hope," for the moral,
+as well as for the physical being. What was a little remarkable, Gershom
+grew less vulgar, even in his dialect, as he grew more sober, showing
+that in all respects he was becoming a greatly improved person.
+
+The men were several hours in loading the canoe, not only all the
+stores and ammunition, but all the honey being transferred to it. The
+bee-hunter had managed to conceal his jug of brandy, reduced by this
+time to little more than a quart, within an empty powder-keg, into which
+he had crammed a beaver-skin or two, that he had taken, as it might be
+incidentally, in the course of his rambles. At length everything was
+removed and stowed in its proper place, on board the capacious canoe,
+and Gershom expected an announcement on the part of Ben of his readiness
+to embark. But there still remained one duty to perform. The beehunter
+had killed a buck only the day before the opening of our narrative, and
+shouldering a quarter, he had left the remainder of the animal suspended
+from the branches of a tree, near the place where it had been shot and
+cleaned. As venison might be needed before they could reach the mouth
+of the river, Ben deemed it advisable that he and Gershom should go
+and bring in the remainder of the carcass. The men started on this
+undertaking accordingly, leaving the canoe about two in the afternoon.
+
+The distance between the spot where the deer had been killed, and the
+chiente, was about three miles; which was the reason why the bee-hunter
+had not brought home the entire animal the day he killed it; the
+American woodsman often carrying his game great distances in preference
+to leaving it any length of time in the forest. In the latter case there
+is always danger from beasts of prey, which are drawn from afar by the
+scent of blood. Le Bourdon thought it possible they might now encounter
+wolves; though he had left the carcass of the deer so suspended as to
+place it beyond the reach of most of the animals of the wilderness. Each
+of the men, however, carried a rifle: and Hive was allowed to accompany
+them, by an act of grace on the part of his master.
+
+For the first half-hour, nothing occurred out of the usual course of
+events. The bee-hunter had been conversing freely with his companion,
+who, he rejoiced to find, manifested far more common sense, not to say
+good sense, than he had previously shown; and from whom he was deriving
+information touching the number of vessels, and the other movements on
+the lakes, that he fancied might be of use to himself when he started
+for Detroit. While thus engaged, and when distant only a hundred rods
+from the place where he had left the venison, le Bourdon was suddenly
+struck with the movements of the dog. Instead of doubling on his own
+tracks, and scenting right and left, as was the animal's wont, he was
+now advancing cautiously, with his head low, seemingly feeling his way
+with his nose, as if there was a strong taint in the wind.
+
+"Sartain as my name is Gershom," exclaimed Waring, just after he and Ben
+had come to a halt, in order to look around them--"yonder is an Injin!
+The crittur' is seated at the foot of the large oak--hereaway, more
+to the right of the dog, and Hive has struck his scent. The fellow is
+asleep, with his rifle across his lap, and can't have much dread of
+wolves or bears!"
+
+"I see him," answered le Bourdon, "and am as much surprised as grieved
+to find him there. It is a little remarkable that I should have so many
+visitors, just at this time, on my hunting-ground, when I never had
+any at all before yesterday. It gives a body an uncomfortable feeling,
+Waring, to live so much in a crowd! Well, well--I'm about to move, and
+it will matter little twenty-four hours hence."
+
+"The chap's a Winnebago by his paint," added Gershom--"but let's go up
+and give him a call."
+
+The bee-hunter assented to this proposal, remarking, as they moved
+forward, that he did not think the stranger of the tribe just named;
+though he admitted that the use of paint was so general and loose among
+these warriors, as to render it difficult to decide.
+
+"The crittur' sleeps soundly!" exclaimed Gershom, stopping within ten
+yards of the Indian, to take another look at him.
+
+"He'll never awake," put in the bee-hunter, solemnly--"the man is dead.
+See; there is blood on the side of his head, and a rifle-bullet has left
+its hole there."
+
+Even while speaking, the bee-hunter advanced, and raising a sort of
+shawl, that once had been used as an ornament, and which had last
+been thrown carelessly over the head of its late owner, he exposed the
+well-known features of Elks-foot, the Pottawattamie, who had left them
+little more than twenty-four hours before! The warrior had been shot by
+a rifle-bullet directly through the temple, and had been scalped. The
+powder had been taken from his horn, and the bullets from his pouch;
+but, beyond this, he had not been plundered. The body was carefully
+placed against a tree, in a sitting attitude, the rifle was laid across
+its legs, and there it had been left, in the centre of the openings, to
+become food for beasts of prey, and to have its bones bleached by the
+snows and the rains!
+
+The bee-hunter shuddered, as he gazed at this fearful memorial of the
+violence against which even a wilderness could afford no sufficient
+protection. That Pigeonswing had slain his late fellow-guest, le Bourdon
+had no doubt, and he sickened at the thought. Although he had himself
+dreaded a good deal from the hostility of the Pottawattamie, he could
+have wished this deed undone. That there was a jealous distrust of each
+other between the two Indians had been sufficiently apparent; but the
+bee-hunter could not have imagined that it would so soon lead to results
+as terrible as these!
+
+After examining the body, and noting the state of things around it, the
+men proceeded, deeply impressed with the necessity, not only of their
+speedy removal, but of their standing by each other in that remote
+region, now that violence had so clearly broken out among the tribes.
+The bee-hunter had taken a strong liking to the Chippewa, and he
+regretted so much the more to think that he had done this deed. It was
+true, that such a state of things might exist as to justify an Indian
+warrior, agreeably to his own notions, in taking the life of any one of
+a hostile tribe; but le Bourdon wished it had been otherwise. A man
+of gentle and peaceable disposition himself, though of a profoundly
+enthusiastic temperament in his own peculiar way, he had ever avoided
+those scenes of disorder and bloodshed, which are of so frequent
+occurrence in the forest and on the prairies; and this was actually the
+first instance in which he had ever beheld a human body that had fallen
+by human hands. Gershom had seen more of the peculiar life of the
+frontiers than his companion, in consequence of having lived so closely
+in contact with the "fire-water"; but even HE was greatly shocked with
+the suddenness and nature of the Pottawattamie's end.
+
+No attempt was made to bury the remains of Elksfoot, inasmuch as
+our adventurers had no tools fit for such a purpose, and any merely
+superficial interment would have been a sort of invitation to the wolves
+to dig the body up again.
+
+"Let him lean ag'in' the tree," said Waring, as they moved on toward the
+spot where the carcass of the deer was left, "and I'll engage nothin'
+touches him. There's that about the face of man, Bourdon, that skears
+the beasts; and if a body can only muster courage to stare them full in
+the eye, one single human can drive before him a whull pack of wolves."
+
+"I've heard as much," returned the bee-hunter, "but should not like
+to be the 'human' to try the experiment That the face of man may have
+terrors for a beast, I think likely; but hunger would prove more than
+a match for such fear. Yonder is our venison, Waring; safe where I left
+it."
+
+The carcass of the deer was divided, and each man shouldering his
+burden, the two returned to the river, taking care to avoid the path
+that led by the body of the dead Indian. As both labored with much
+earnestness, everything was soon ready, and the canoe speedily left the
+shore. The Kalamazoo is not in general a swift and turbulent stream,
+though it has a sufficient current to carry away its waters without any
+appearance of sluggishness. Of course, this character is not uniform,
+reaches occurring in which the placid water is barely seen to move;
+and others, again, are found, in which something like rapids, and even
+falls, appear. But on the whole, and more especially in the part of the
+stream where it was, the canoe had little to disturb it, as it glided
+easily down, impelled by a light stroke of the paddle.
+
+The bee-hunter did not abandon his station without regret. He had chosen
+a most agreeable site for his chiente, consulting air, shade, water,
+verdure, and groves, as well as the chances of obtaining honey. In his
+regular pursuit he had been unusually fortunate; and the little pile of
+kegs in the centre of his canoe was certainly a grateful sight to his
+eyes. The honey gathered this season, moreover, had proved to be of an
+unusually delicious flavor, affording the promise of high prices and
+ready sales. Still, the bee-hunter left the place with profound regret.
+He loved his calling; he loved solitude to a morbid degree, perhaps; and
+he loved the gentle excitement that naturally attended his "bee-lining,"
+his discoveries, and his gains. Of all the pursuits that are more or
+less dependent on the chances of the hunt and the field, that of
+the bee-hunter is of the most quiet and placid enjoyment. He has the
+stirring motives of uncertainty and doubt, without the disturbing
+qualities of bustle and fatigue; and, while his exercise is sufficient
+for health, and for the pleasures of the open air, it is seldom of a
+nature to weary or unnerve. Then the study of the little animal that
+is to be watched, and, if the reader will, plundered, is not without
+a charm for those who delight in looking into the wonderful arcana of
+nature. So great was the interest that le Bourdon sometimes felt in his
+little companions, that, on three several occasions that very summer,
+he had spared hives after having found them, because he had ascertained
+that they were composed of young bees, and had not yet got sufficiently
+colonized to render a new swarming more than a passing accident. With
+all this kindness of feeling toward his victims, Boden had nothing of
+the transcendental folly that usually accompanies the sentimentalism of
+the exaggerated, but his feelings and impulses were simple and direct,
+though so often gentle and humane. He knew that the bee, like all the
+other inferior animals of creation, was placed at the disposition
+of man, and did not scruple to profit by the power thus beneficently
+bestowed, though he exercised it gently, and with a proper
+discrimination between its use and its abuse.
+
+Neither of the men toiled much, as the canoe floated down the stream.
+Very slight impulses served to give their buoyant craft a reasonably
+swift motion, and the current itself was a material assistant. These
+circumstances gave an opportunity for conversation, as the canoe glided
+onward.
+
+"A'ter all," suddenly exclaimed Waring, who had been examining the pile
+of kegs for some time in silence--"a'ter all, Bourdon, your trade is an
+oncommon one! A most extr'ornary and oncommon callin'!"
+
+"More so, think you, Gershom, than swallowing whiskey, morning, noon,
+and night?" answered the bee-hunter, with a quiet smile.
+
+"Aye, but that's not a reg'lar callin'; only a likin'! Now a man may
+have a likin' to a hundred things in which he don't deal. I set nothin'
+down as a business, which a man don't live by."
+
+"Perhaps you're right, Waring. More die by whiskey than live by
+whiskey."
+
+Whiskey Centre seemed struck with this remark, which was introduced so
+aptly, and was uttered so quietly. He gazed earnestly at his companion
+for near a minute, ere he attempted to resume the discourse.
+
+"Blossom has often said as much as this," he then slowly rejoined; "and
+even Dolly has prophesized the same."
+
+The bee-hunter observed that an impression had been made, and he thought
+it wisest to let the reproof already administered produce its effect,
+without endeavoring to add to its power. Waring sat with his chin on his
+breast, in deep thought, while his companion, for the first time since
+they had met, examined the features and aspect of the man. At first
+sight, Whiskey Centre certainly offered little that was inviting; but
+a closer study of his countenance showed that he had the remains of a
+singularly handsome man. Vulgar as were his forms of speech, coarse and
+forbidding as his face had become, through the indulgence which was his
+bane, there were still traces of this truth. His complexion had once
+been fair almost to effeminacy, his cheeks ruddy with health, and his
+blue eye bright and full of hope. His hair was light; and all these
+peculiarities strongly denoted his Saxon origin. It was not so much
+Anglo-Saxon as Americo-Saxon, that was to be seen in the physical
+outlines and hues of this nearly self-destroyed being. The heaviness
+of feature, the ponderousness of limb and movement, had all long
+disappeared from his race, most probably under the influence of climate,
+and his nose was prominent and graceful in outline, while his mouth
+and chin might have passed for having been under the chisel of some
+distinguished sculptor. It was, in truth, painful to examine that face,
+steeped as it was in liquor, and fast losing the impress left by
+nature. As yet, the body retained most of its power, the enemy having
+insidiously entered the citadel, rather than having actually subdued it.
+The bee-hunter sighed as he gazed at his moody companion, and wondered
+whether Blossom had aught of this marvellous comeliness of countenance,
+without its revolting accompaniments.
+
+All that afternoon, and the whole of the night that succeeded, did
+the canoe float downward with the current. Occasionally, some slight
+obstacle to its progress would present itself; but, on the whole, its
+advance was steady and certain. As the river necessarily followed the
+formation of the land, it was tortuous and irregular in its course,
+though its general direction was toward the northwest, or west a little
+northerly. The river-bottoms being much more heavily "timbered"--to
+use a woodsman term--than the higher grounds, there was little of the
+park-like "openings" on its immediate banks, though distant glimpses
+were had of many a glade and of many a charming grove.
+
+As the canoe moved toward its point of destination, the conversation did
+not lag between the bee-hunter and his companion. Each gave the other
+a sort of history of his life; for, now that the jug was exhausted,
+Gershom could talk not only rationally, but with clearness and force.
+Vulgar he was, and, as such, uninviting and often repulsive; still his
+early education partook of that peculiarity of New England which, if
+it do not make her children absolutely all they are apt to believe
+themselves to be, seldom leaves them in the darkness of a besotted
+ignorance. As usually happens with this particular race, Gershom
+had acquired a good deal for a man of his class in life; and this
+information, added to native shrewdness, enabled him to maintain his
+place in the dialogue with a certain degree of credit. He had a very
+lively perception--fancied or real--of all the advantages of being born
+in the land of the Puritans, deeming everything that came of the
+great "Blarney Stone" superior to everything else of the same nature
+elsewhere; and, while much disposed to sneer and rail at all other
+parts of the country, just as much indisposed to "take," as disposed
+to "give." Ben Boden soon detected this weakness in his companion's
+character, a weakness so very general as scarce to need being pointed
+out to any observant man, and which is almost inseparable from half-way
+intelligence and provincial self-admiration; and Ben was rather inclined
+to play on it, whenever Gershom laid himself a little more open than
+common on the subject. On the whole, however, the communications were
+amicable; and the dangers of the wilderness rendering the parties
+allies, they went their way with an increasing confidence in each
+other's support. Gershom, now that he was thoroughly sober, could impart
+much to Ben that was useful; while Ben knew a great deal that even his
+companion, coming as he did from the chosen people, was not sorry to
+learn. As has been, already intimated, each communicated to the other,
+in the course of this long journey on the river, an outline of his past
+life.
+
+The history of Gershom Waring was one of every-day occurrence. He was
+born of a family in humble circumstances in Massachusetts, a community
+in which, however, none are so very humble as to be beneath the paternal
+watchfulness of the State. The common schools had done their duty by
+him; while, according to his account of the matter, his only sister had
+fallen into the hands of a female relative, who was enabled to impart
+an instruction slightly superior to that which is to be had from the
+servants of the public. After a time, the death of this relative, and
+the marriage of Gershom, brought the brother and sister together again,
+the last still quite young. From this period the migratory life of
+the family commenced. Previously to the establishment of manufactories
+within her limits, New England systematically gave forth her increase
+to the States west and south of her own territories. A portion of this
+increase still migrates, and will probably long continue so to do; but
+the tide of young women, which once flowed so steadily from that
+region, would now seem to have turned, and is setting back in a flood
+of "factory girls." But the Warings lived at too early a day to feel
+the influence of such a pass of civilization, and went west, almost as
+a matter of course. With the commencement of his migratory life, Gershom
+began to "dissipate," as it has got to be matter of convention to term
+"drinking." Fortunately, Mrs. Waring had no children, thus lessening in
+a measure the privations to which those unlucky females were obliged to
+submit. When Gershom left his birthplace he had a sum of money exceeding
+a thousand dollars in amount, the united means of himself and sister;
+but, by the time he had reached Detroit, it was reduced to less than
+a hundred. Several years, however, had been consumed by the way, the
+habits growing worse and the money vanishing, as the family went further
+and further toward the skirts of society. At length Gershom attached
+himself to a sutler, who was going up to Michilimackinac, with a party
+of troops; and finally he left that place to proceed, in a canoe of his
+own, to the head of Lake Michigan, where was a post on the present site
+of Chicago, which was then known as Fort Dearborn.
+
+In quitting Mackinac for Chicago, Waring had no very settled plan. His
+habits had completely put him out of favor at the former place; and
+a certain restlessness urged him to penetrate still farther into the
+wilderness. In all his migrations and wanderings the two devoted females
+followed his fortunes; the one because she was his wife, the other
+because she was his sister. When the canoe reached the mouth of the
+Kalamazoo, a gale of wind drove it into the river; and finding a
+deserted cabin, ready built, to receive him, Gershom landed, and had
+been busy with the rifle for the last fortnight, the time he had been
+on shore. Hearing from some voyageurs who had gone down the lake that a
+bee-hunter was up the river, he had followed the stream in its windings
+until he fell in with le Bourdon.
+
+Such is an outline of the account which Whiskey Centre gave of himself.
+It is true, he said very little of his propensity to drink, but this his
+companion was enabled to conjecture from the context of his narrative,
+as well as from what he had seen. It was very evident to the bee-hunter,
+that the plans of both parties for the summer were about to be seriously
+deranged by the impending hostilities, and that some decided movement
+might be rendered necessary, even for the protection of their lives.
+This much he communicated to Gershom, who heard his opinions with
+interest, and a concern in behalf of his wife and sister that at least
+did some credit to his heart. For the first time in many months, indeed,
+Gershom was now PERFECTLY sober, a circumstance that was solely owing to
+his having had no access to liquor for eight-and-forty hours. With
+the return of a clear head, came juster notions of the dangers and
+difficulties in which he had involved the two self-devoted women who
+had accompanied him so far, and who really seemed ready to follow him in
+making the circuit of the earth.
+
+"It's troublesome times," exclaimed Whiskey Centre, when his
+companion had just ended one of his strong and lucid statements of the
+embarrassments that might environ them, ere they could get back to the
+settled portions of the country--"it's troublesome times, truly! I see
+all you would say, Bourdon, and wonder I ever got my foot so deep
+into it, without thinkin' of all, beforehand! The best on us will make
+mistakes, hows'ever, and I suppose I've been called on to make mine, as
+well as another."
+
+"My trade speaks for itself," returned the bee-hunter, "and any man can
+see why one who looks for bees must come where they're to be found;
+but I will own, Gershom, that your speculation lies a little beyond my
+understanding. Now, you tell me you have two full barrels of whiskey--"
+
+"Had, Bourdon--HAD--one of them is pretty nearly half used, I am
+afeared."
+
+"Well, HAD, until you began to be your own customer. But here you are,
+squatted at the mouth of the Kalamazoo, with a barrel and a half of
+liquor, and nobody but yourself to drink it! Where the profits are to
+come from, exceeds Pennsylvany calculations; perhaps a Yankee can tell."
+
+"You forget the Injins. I met a man at Mackinaw, who only took out
+in his canoe ONE barrel, and he brought in skins enough to set up a
+grocery, at Detroit. But I was on the trail of the soldiers, and meant
+to make a business on't, at Fort Dearborn. What between the soldiers and
+the redskins, a man might sell gallons a day, and at fair prices."
+
+"It's a sorry business at the best, Whiskey; and now you're fairly
+sober, if you'll take my advice you'll remain so. Why not make up your
+mind, like a man, and vow you'll never touch another drop."
+
+"Maybe I will, when these two barrels is emptied--I've often thought
+of doin' some sich matter; and, ag'in and ag'in, has Dolly and Blossom
+advised me to fall into the plan; but it's hard to give up old habits,
+all at once. If I could only taper off on a pint a day, for a year
+or so, I think I might come round in time. I know as well as you do,
+Bourdon, that sobriety is a good thing, and dissipation a bad thing; but
+it's hard to give up all at once."
+
+Lest the instructed reader should wonder at a man's using the term
+"dissipation" in a wilderness, it may be well to explain that, in common
+American parlance, "dissipation" has got to mean "drunkenness." Perhaps
+half of the whole country, if told that a man, or a woman, might be
+exceedingly dissipated and never swallow anything stronger than water,
+would stoutly deny the justice of applying the word to such a person.
+This perversion of the meaning of a very common term has probably arisen
+from the circumstance that there is very little dissipation in the
+country that is not connected with hard drinking. A dissipated woman
+is a person almost unknown in America; or when the word is applied, it
+means a very different degree of misspending of time, from that which
+is understood by the use of the same reproach in older and more
+sophisticated states of society. The majority rules in this country,
+and with the majority excess usually takes this particular aspect;
+refinement having very little connection with the dissipation of the
+masses, anywhere.
+
+The excuses of his companion, however, caused le Bourdon to muse, more
+than might otherwise have been the case, on Whiskey Centre's condition.
+Apart from all considerations connected with the man's own welfare, and
+the happiness of his family, there were those which were inseparable
+from the common safety, in the present state of the country. Boden was a
+man of much decision and firmness of character, and he was clear-headed
+as to causes and consequences. The practice of living alone had induced
+in him the habits of reflection; and the self-reliance produced by his
+solitary life, a life of which he was fond almost to a passion, caused
+him to decide warily, but to act promptly. As they descended the river
+together, therefore, he went over the whole of Gershom Waring's case and
+prospects, with great impartiality and care, and settled in his own mind
+what ought to be done, as well as the mode of doing it. He kept his own
+counsel, however, discussing all sorts of subjects that were of interest
+to men in their situation, as they floated down the stream, avoiding any
+recurrence to this theme, which was possibly of more importance to them
+both, just then, than any other that could be presented.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+      He was a wight of high renown,
+        And thou art but of low degree;
+     'Tis pride that pulls the country down--
+        Then take thine auld cloak about thee.
+                                     SHAKESPEARE.
+
+
+The canoe did not reach the mouth of the river until near evening of
+the third day of its navigation. It was not so much the distance, though
+that was considerable, as it was the obstacles that lay in the way,
+which brought the travellers to the end of their journey at so late a
+period. As they drew nearer and nearer to the place where Gershom had
+left his wife and sister, le Bourdon detected in his companion signs
+of an interest in the welfare of the two last, as well as a certain
+feverish uneasiness lest all might not be well with them, that said
+something in favor of his heart, whatever might be urged against his
+prudence and care in leaving them alone in so exposed a situation.
+
+"I'm afeard a body don't think as much as he ought to do, when liquor is
+in him," said Whiskey Centre, just as the canoe doubled the last point,
+and the hut came into view; "else I never could have left two women by
+them-selves in so lonesome a place. God be praised! there is the chiente
+at any rate; and there's a smoke comin' out of it, if my eyes don't
+deceive me! Look, Bourdon, for I can scarcely see at all."
+
+"There is the house; and, as you say, there is certainly a smoke rising
+from it."
+
+"There's comfort in that!" exclaimed the truant husband and brother,
+with a sigh that seemed to relieve a very loaded breast. "Yes, there's
+comfort in that! If there's a fire, there must be them that lighted it;
+and a fire at this season, too, says that there's somethin' to eat,
+I should be sorry, Bourdon, to think I'd left the women folks without
+food; though, to own the truth, I don't remember whether I did or not."
+
+"The man who drinks, Gershom, has commonly but a very poor memory."
+
+"That's true--yes, I'll own that; and I wish it warn't as true as it is;
+but reason and strong drink do NOT travel far in company--"
+
+Gershom suddenly ceased speaking; dropping his paddle like one beset by
+a powerless weakness. The bee-hunter saw that he was overcome by some
+unexpected occurrence, and that the man's feelings were keenly connected
+with the cause, whatever that might be. Looking eagerly around in quest
+of the explanation, le Bourdon saw a female standing on a point of land
+that commanded a view of the river and its banks for a considerable
+distance, unequivocally watching the approach of the canoe.
+
+"There she is," said Gershom, in a subdued tone--"that's Dolly; and
+there she has been, I'll engage, half the time of my absence, waitin' to
+get the first glimpse of my miserable body, as it came back to her. Sich
+is woman, Bourdon; and God forgive me, if I have ever forgotten their
+natur', when I was bound to remember it. But we all have our weak
+moments, at times, and I trust mine will not be accounted ag'in' me more
+than them of other men."
+
+"This is a beautiful sight, Gershom, and it almost makes me your friend!
+The man for whom a woman can feel so much concern--that a woman--nay,
+women; for you tell me your sister is one of the family--but the man
+whom DECENT women can follow to a place like this, must have some good
+p'ints about him. That woman is a-weepin'; and it must be for joy at
+your return."
+
+"'Twould be jist like Dolly to do so--she's done it before, and would be
+likely to do so ag'in," answered Gershom, nearly choked by the effort he
+made to speak without betraying his own emotion. "Put the canoe into the
+p'int, and let me land there. I must go up and say a kind word to poor
+Dolly; while you can paddle on, and let Blossom know I'm near at hand."
+
+The bee-hunter complied in silence, casting curious glances upward at
+the woman while doing so, in order to ascertain what sort of a female
+Whiskey Centre could possibly have for a wife. To his surprise, Dorothy
+Waring was not only decently, but she was neatly clad, appearing as if
+she had studiously attended to her personal appearance, in the hope of
+welcoming her wayward and unfortunate husband back to his forest home.
+This much le Bourdon saw by a hasty glance as his companion landed, for
+a feeling of delicacy prevented him from taking a longer look at the
+woman. As Gershom ascended the bank to meet his wife, le Bourdon paddled
+on, and landed just below the grove in which was the chiente. It
+might have been his long exclusion from all of the other sex, and most
+especially from that portion of it which retains its better looks, but
+the being which now met the bee-hunter appeared to him to belong to
+another world, rather than to that in which he habitually dwelt. As
+this was Margery Waring, who was almost uniformly called Blossom by
+her acquaintances, and who is destined to act an important part in this
+legend of the "openings," it may be well to give a brief description
+of her age, attire, and personal appearance, at the moment when she was
+first seen by le Bourdon.
+
+In complexion, color of the hair, and outline of face, Margery Waring
+bore a strong family resemblance to her brother. In spite of exposure,
+and the reflection of the sun's rays from the water of the lake,
+however, HER skin was of a clear, transparent white, such as one might
+look for in a drawing-room, but hardly expect to find in a wilderness;
+while the tint of her lips, cheeks, and, in a diminished degree, of her
+chin and ears, were such as one who wielded a pencil might long endeavor
+to catch without succeeding. Her features had the chiselled outline
+which was so remarkable in her brother; while in HER countenance, in
+addition to the softened expression of her sex and years, there was
+nothing to denote any physical or moral infirmity, to form a drawback
+to its witchery and regularity. Her eyes were blue, and her hair as near
+golden as human tresses well could be. Exercise, a life of change, and
+of dwelling much in the open air, had given to this unusually charming
+girl not only health, but its appearance. Still, she was in no respect
+coarse, or had anything in the least about her that indicated her being
+accustomed to toil, with some slight exception in her hands, perhaps,
+which were those of a girl who did not spare herself, when there was an
+opportunity to be of use. In this particular, the vagrant life of her
+brother had possibly been of some advantage to her, as it had prevented
+her being much employed in the ordinary toil of her condition in life.
+Still, Margery Waring had that happy admixture of delicacy and physical
+energy, which is, perhaps, oftener to be met in the American girl of her
+class, than in the girl of almost any other nation; and far oftener than
+in the young American of her sex, who is placed above the necessity of
+labor.
+
+As a stranger approached her, the countenance of this fair creature
+expressed both surprise and satisfaction; surprise that any one should
+have been met by Gershom, in such a wilderness, and satisfaction that
+the stranger proved to be a white man, and seemingly one who did not
+drink.
+
+"You are Blossom," said the bee-hunter, taking the hand of the
+half-reluctant girl, in a way so respectful and friendly that she could
+not refuse it, even while she doubted the propriety of thus receiving an
+utter stranger--"the Blossom of whom Gershom Waring speaks so often, and
+so affectionately?"
+
+"You are, then, my brother's friend," answered Margery, smiling so
+sweetly, that le Bourdon gazed on her with delight. "We are SO glad
+that he has come back! Five terrible nights have sister and I been here
+alone, and we have believed every bush was a red man!"
+
+"That danger is over, now, Blossom; but there is still an enemy near you
+that must be overcome."
+
+"An enemy! There is no one here, but Dolly and myself. No one has been
+near us, since Gershom went after the bee-hunter, whom we heard was out
+in the openings. Are you that bee-bunter?"
+
+"I am, beautiful Blossom; and I tell you there is an enemy here, in your
+cabin, that must be looked to."
+
+"We fear no enemies but the red men, and we have seen none of them since
+we reached this river. What is the name of the enemy you so dread, and
+where is he to be found?"
+
+"His name is Whiskey, and he is kept somewhere in this hut, in casks.
+Show me the place, that I may destroy him, before his friend comes to
+his assistance."
+
+A gleam of bright intelligence flashed into the face of the beautiful
+young creature. First she reddened almost to scarlet; then her face
+became pale as death. Compressing her lips intensely, she stood
+irresolute--now gazing at the pleasing and seemingly well-disposed
+stranger before her, now looking earnestly toward the still distant
+forms of her brother and sister, which were slowly advancing in the
+direction of the cabin.
+
+"Dare you?" Margery at length asked, pointing toward her brother.
+
+"I dare: he is now quite sober, and may be reasoned with. For the sake
+of us all, let us profit by this advantage."
+
+"He keeps the liquor in two casks that you will find under the shed,
+behind the hut."
+
+This said, the girl covered her face with both her hands, and sunk on a
+stool, as if afraid to be a witness of that which was to follow. As for
+le Bourdon, he did not delay a moment, but passed out of the cabin by a
+second door, that opened in its rear. There were the two barrels, and
+by their side an axe. His first impulse was to dash in the heads of
+the casks where they stood; but a moment's reflection told him that the
+odor, so near the cabin, would be unpleasant to every one, and might
+have a tendency to exasperate the owner of the liquor. He cast about
+him, therefore, for the means of removing the casks, in order to stave
+them, at a distance from the dwelling.
+
+Fortunately, the cabin of Whiskey Centre stood on the brow of a sharp
+descent, at the bottom of which ran a brawling brook. At another moment,
+le Bourdon would have thought of saving the barrels; but time pressed,
+and he could not delay. Seizing the barrel next to him, he rolled it
+without difficulty to the brow of the declivity, and set it off with
+a powerful shove of his foot. It was the half-empty cask, and away it
+went, the liquor it contained washing about as it rolled over and over,
+until hitting a rock about half-way down the declivity, the hoops gave
+way, when the staves went over the little precipice, and the water of
+the stream was tumbling through all that remained of the cask, at the
+next instant. A slight exclamation of delight behind him caused the
+bee-hunter to look round, and he saw Margery watching his movement
+with an absorbed interest. Her smile was one of joy, not unmingled
+with terror; and she rather whispered than said aloud--"The other--the
+other--THAT is full--be quick; there is no time to lose." The bee-hunter
+seized the second cask and rolled it toward the brow of the rocks. It
+was not quite as easily handled as the other barrel, but his strength
+sufficed, and it was soon bounding down the declivity after its
+companion. The second cask hit the same rock as the first, whence it
+leaped off the precipice, and, aided by its greater momentum, it was
+literally dashed in pieces at its base.
+
+Not only was this barrel broken into fragments, but its hoops and staves
+were carried down the torrent, driving before them those of the sister
+cask, until the whole were swept into the lake, which was some distance
+from the cabin.
+
+"That job is well done!" exclaimed le Bourdon, when the last fragment of
+the wreck was taken out of sight. "No man will ever turn himself into a
+beast by means of that liquor."
+
+"God be praised!" murmured Margery. "He is SO different, stranger, when
+he has been drinking, from what he is when he has not! You have been
+sent by Providence to do us this good."
+
+"I can easily believe that, for it is so with us all. But you must
+not call me stranger, sweet Margery; for, now that you and I have this
+secret between us, I am a stranger no longer."
+
+The girl smiled and blushed; then she seemed anxious to ask a question.
+In the mean time they left the shed, and took seats, in waiting for the
+arrival of Gershom and his wife. It was not long ere the last entered;
+the countenance of the wife beaming with a satisfaction she made no
+effort to conceal. Dolly was not as beautiful as her sister-in-law;
+still, she was a comely woman, though one who had been stricken by
+sorrow. She was still young, and might have been in the pride of her
+good looks, had it not been for the manner in which she had grieved over
+the fall of Gershom. The joy that gladdens a woman's heart, however,
+was now illuminating her countenance, and she welcomed le Bourdon most
+cordially, as if aware that he had been of service to her husband. For
+months she had not seen Gershom quite himself, until that evening.
+
+"I have told Dolly all our adventur's, Bourdon," cried Gershom, as
+soon as the brief greetings were over, "and she tells me all's right,
+hereabouts. Three canoe-loads of Injins passed along shore, goin' up the
+lake, she tells me, this very a'ternoon; but they didn't see the smoke,
+the fire bein' out, and must have thought the hut empty; if indeed, they
+knew anythin' of it, at all."
+
+"The last is the most likely," remarked Margery; "for I watched them
+narrowly from the beeches on the shore, and there was no pointing, or
+looking up, as would have happened had there been any one among them who
+could show the others a cabin. Houses an't so plenty, in this part of
+the country, that travellers pass without turning round to look at them.
+An Injin has curiosity as well as a white man, though he manages so
+often to conceal it."
+
+"Didn't you say, Blossom, that one of the canoes was much behind the
+others, and that a warrior in that canoe DID look up toward this grove,
+as if searching for the cabin?" asked Dorothy.
+
+"Either it was so, or my fears made it SEEM so. The two canoes that
+passed first were well filled with Injins, each having eight in it;
+while the one that came last held but four warriors. They were a mile
+apart, and the last canoe seemed to be trying to overtake the others.
+I did think that nothing but their haste prevented the men in the last
+canoe from landing; but my fears may have made that seem so that was not
+so."
+
+As the cheek of the charming girl flushed with excitement, and her race
+became animated, Margery appeared marvellously handsome; more so, the
+bee-hunter fancied, than any other female he had ever before seen. But
+her words impressed him quite as much as her looks; for he at once saw
+the importance of such an event, to persons in their situation. The
+wind was rising on the lake, and it was ahead for the canoes; should the
+savages feel the necessity of making a harbor, they might return to the
+mouth of the Kalamazoo; a step that would endanger all their lives, in
+the event of these Indians proving to belong to those, whom there
+was now reason to believe were in British pay. In times of peace, the
+intercourse between the whites and the red men was usually amicable,
+and seldom led to violence, unless through the effects of liquor; but, a
+price being placed on scalps, a very different state of things might be
+anticipated, as a consequence of the hostilities. This was then a matter
+to be looked to; and, as evening was approaching, no time was to be
+lost.
+
+The shores of Michigan are generally low, nor are harbors either
+numerous, or very easy of access. It would be difficult, indeed, to
+find in any other part of the world, so great an extent of coast that
+possesses so little protection for the navigator, as that of this very
+lake. There are a good many rivers, it is true, but usually they have
+bars, and are not easy of entrance. This is the reason why that very
+convenient glove, the Constitution, which can be made to fit any hand,
+has been discovered to have an extra finger in it, which points out a
+mode by which the federal government can create ports wherever nature
+has forgotten to perform this beneficent office. It is a little
+extraordinary that the fingers of so many of the great "expounders" turn
+out to be "thumbs," however, exhibiting clumsiness, rather than that
+adroit lightness which usually characterizes the dexterity of men who
+are in the habit of rummaging other people's pockets, for their own
+especial purposes. It must be somewhat up-hill work to persuade any
+disinterested and clear-headed man, that a political power to "regulate
+commerce" goes the length of making harbors; the one being in a great
+measure a moral, while the other is exclusively a physical agency; any
+more than it goes the length of making ware-houses, and cranes, and
+carts, and all the other physical implements for carrying on trade. Now,
+what renders all this "thumbing" of the Constitution so much the more
+absurd, is the fact, that the very generous compact interested does
+furnish a means, by which the poverty of ports on the great lakes may
+be remedied, without making any more unnecessary rents in the great
+national glove. Congress clearly possesses the power to create and
+maintain a navy, which includes the power to create all sorts of
+necessary physical appliances; and, among others, places of refuge for
+that navy, should they be actually needed. As a vessel of war requires
+a harbor, and usually a better harbor than a merchant-vessel, it strikes
+us the "expounders" would do well to give this thought a moment's
+attention. Behind it will be found the most unanswerable argument in
+favor of the light-houses, too.
+
+But, to return to the narrative: the Kalamazoo could be entered by
+canoes, though it offered no very available shelter for a vessel of any
+size. There was no other shelter for the savages for several miles to
+the southward; and, should the wind increase, of which there were strong
+indications, it was not only possible, but highly probable, that the
+canoes would return. According to the account of the females, they
+had passed only two hours before, and the breeze had been gradually
+gathering strength ever since. It was not unlikely, indeed, that the
+attention paid to the river by the warrior in the last canoe may have
+had reference to this very state of the weather; and his haste to
+overtake his companions been connected with a desire to induce them to
+seek a shelter. All this presented itself to the beehunter's mind, at
+once; and it was discussed between the members of the party, freely, and
+not without some grave apprehensions.
+
+There was one elevated point--elevated comparatively, if not in a very
+positive sense--whence the eye could command a considerable distance
+along the lake shore. Thither Margery now hastened to look after the
+canoes. Boden accompanied her; and together they proceeded, side by
+side, with a new-born but lively and increasing confidence, that was all
+the greater, in consequence of their possessing a common secret.
+
+"Brother must be much better than he was," the girl observed, as they
+hurried on, "for he has not once been into the shed to look at the
+barrels! Before he went into the openings, he never entered the house
+without drinking; and sometimes he would raise the cup to his mouth as
+often as three times in the first half-hour. Now, he does not seem even
+to think of it!"
+
+"It may be well that he can find nothing to put into his cup, should he
+fall into his old ways. One is never sure of a man of such habits, until
+he is placed entirely out of harm's way."
+
+"Gershom is such a different being when he has not been drinking!"
+rejoined the sister, in a touching manner. "We love him, and strive to
+do all we can to keep him up, but it IS hard."
+
+"I am surprised that YOU should have come into this wilderness with any
+one of bad habits."
+
+"Why not? He is my brother, and I have no parents--he is all to me: and
+what would become of Dorothy if I were to quit her, too! She has lost
+most of her friends, since Gershom fell into these ways, and it would
+quite break her heart, did I desert her."
+
+"All this speaks well for you, pretty Margery, but it is not the less
+surprising--ah, there is my canoe, in plain sight of all who enter the
+river; THAT must be concealed, Injins or no Injins."
+
+"It is only a step further to the place where we can get a lookout. Just
+there, beneath the burr-oak. Hours and hours have I sat on that spot,
+with my sewing, while Gershom was gone into the openings."
+
+"And Dolly--where was she while you were here?"
+
+"Poor Dolly!--I do think she passed quite half her time up at the
+beech-tree, where you first saw her, looking if brother was not coming
+home. It is a cruel thing to a wife to have a truant husband!"
+
+"Which I hope may never be your case, pretty Margery, and which I think
+never CAN."
+
+Margery did not answer: but the speech must have been heard, uttered
+as it was in a much lower tone of voice than the young man had hitherto
+used; for the charming maiden looked down and blushed. Fortunately,
+the two now soon arrived at the tree, and their conversation naturally
+reverted to the subject which had brought them there. Three canoes were
+in sight, close in with the land, but so distant as to render it for
+some time doubtful which way they were moving. At first, the bee-hunter
+said that they were still going slowly to the southward; but he
+habitually carried his little glass, and, on levelling that, it was
+quite apparent that the savages were paddling before the wind, and
+making for the mouth of the river. This was a very grave fact; and, as
+Blossom flew to communicate it to her brother and his wife, le Bourdon
+moved toward his own canoe, and looked about for a place of concealment.
+
+Several considerations had to be borne in mind, in disposing of the
+canoes; for that of Gershom was to be secreted, as well as that of the
+bee-hunter. A tall aquatic plant, that is termed wild rice, and which
+we suppose to be the ordinary rice-plant, unimproved by tillage, grows
+spontaneously about the mouths and on the flats of most of the rivers
+of the part of Michigan of which we are writing; as, indeed, it is to
+be found in nearly all the shallow waters of those regions. There was
+a good deal of this rice at hand; and the bee-hunter, paddling his own
+canoe and towing the other, entered this vegetable thicket, choosing a
+channel that had been formed by some accident of nature, and which wound
+through the herbage in a way soon to conceal all that came within its
+limits. These channels were not only numerous, but exceedingly winding;
+and the bee-hunter had no sooner brought his canoes to the firm ground
+and fastened them there, than he ascended a tree, and studied the
+windings of these narrow passages, until he had got a general idea of
+their direction and characters. This precaution taken, he hurried back
+to the hut.
+
+"Well, Gershom, have you settled on the course to be taken?" were the
+first words uttered by the bee-hunter when he rejoined the family of
+Whiskey Centre.
+
+"We haven't," answered the husband. "Sister begs us to quit the chiente,
+for the Indians must soon be here; but wife seems to think that she MUST
+be safe, now I'm at home ag'in."
+
+"Then wife is wrong, and sister is right. If you will take my advice,
+you will hide all your effects in the woods, and quit the cabin as soon
+as possible. The Injins cannot fail to see this habitation, and will be
+certain to destroy all they find in it, and that they do not carry off.
+Besides, the discovery of the least article belonging to a white
+man will set them on our trail; for scalps will soon bear a price at
+Montreal. In half an hour, all that is here can be removed into the
+thicket that is luckily so near; and by putting out the fire with care,
+and using proper caution, we may give the place such a deserted look,
+that the savages will suspect nothing."
+
+"If they enter the river, Bourdon, they will not camp out with a wigwam
+so near by, and should they come here, what is to prevent their seein'
+the footprints we shall leave behind us?"
+
+"The night, and that only. Before morning their own footsteps will be
+so plenty as to deceive them. Luckily we all wear moccasins, which is a
+great advantage just now. But every moment is precious, and we should
+be stirring. Let the women take the beds and bedding, while you and I
+shoulder this chest. Up it goes, and away with it!"
+
+Gershom had got to be so much under his companion's influence, that he
+complied, though his mind suggested various objections to the course
+taken, to which his tongue gave utterance as they busied themselves in
+this task. The effects of Whiskey Centre had been gradually diminishing
+in quantity, as well as in value, for the last three years, and were
+now of no great amount, in any sense. Still there were two chests, one
+large, and one small. The last contained all that a generous regard for
+the growing wants of the family had left to Margery; while the first
+held the joint wardrobes of the husband and wife, with a few other
+articles that were considered as valuable. Among other things were half
+a dozen of very thin silver tea-spoons, which had fallen to Gershom on
+a division of family plate. The other six were carefully wrapped up in
+paper and put in the till of Margery's chest, being her portion of this
+species of property. The Americans, generally, have very little plate;
+though here and there marked exceptions do exist; nor do the humbler
+classes lay out much of their earnings in jewelry, while they commonly
+dress far beyond their means in all other ways. In this respect, the
+European female of the same class in life frequently possesses as much
+in massive golden personal ornaments as would make an humble little
+fortune, while her attire is as homely as cumbrous petticoats, coarse
+cloth, and a vile taste can render it. On the other hand, the American
+matron that has not a set--one half-dozen--of silver tea-spoons must
+be poor indeed, and can hardly be said to belong to the order of
+housekeepers at all. By means of a careful mother, both Gershom and his
+sister had the half-dozen mentioned; and they were kept more as sacred
+memorials of past and better days than as articles of any use. The
+household goods of Waring would have been limited by his means of
+transportation, if not by his poverty. Two common low-post maple
+bedsteads were soon uncorded and carried off, as were the beds and
+bedding. There was scarcely any crockery, pewter and tin being its
+substitutes; and as for chairs there was only one, and that had rockers:
+a practice of New England that has gradually diffused itself over the
+whole country, looking down ridicule, the drilling of boarding-schools,
+the comments of elderly ladies of the old school, the sneers of nurses,
+and, in a word, all that venerable ideas of decorum could suggest, until
+this appliance of domestic ease has not only fairly planted itself in
+nearly every American dwelling, but in a good many of Europe also!
+
+It required about twenty minutes for the party to clear the cabin of
+every article that might induce an Indian to suspect the presence of
+white men. The furniture was carried to a sufficient distance to be
+safe from everything but a search; and care was had to avoid as much as
+possible making a trail, to lead the savages to the place selected for
+the temporary storeroom. This was merely a close thicket, into which
+there was a narrow but practicable entrance on the side the least likely
+to be visited. When all was accomplished the four went to the lookout to
+ascertain how far the canoes had come. It was soon ascertained that they
+were within a mile, driving down before a strong breeze and following
+sea, and impelled by as many paddles as there were living beings in
+them. Ten minutes would certainly bring them up with the bar, and five
+more fairly within the river. The question now arose, where the party
+was to be concealed during the stay of the savages. Dolly, as was
+perhaps natural for the housewife, wished to remain by her worldly
+goods, and pretty Margery had a strong feminine leaning to do the same.
+But neither of the men approved of the plan. It was risking too much in
+one spot; and a suggestion that the bee-hunter was not long in making
+prevailed.
+
+It will be remembered that le Bourdon had carried the canoes within
+the field of wild rice, and bestowed them there with a good deal of
+attention to security. Now these canoes offered, in many respects,
+better places of temporary refuge, under all the circumstances, than
+any other that could readily be found on shore. They were dry; and by
+spreading skins, of which Boden had so many, comfortable beds might be
+made for the females, which would be easily protected from the night air
+and dews by throwing a rug over the gunwales. Then, each canoe contained
+many articles that would probably be wanted; that of the bee-hunter in
+particular furnishing food in abundance, as well as diverse other things
+that would be exceedingly useful to persons in their situation. The
+great advantage of the canoes, however, in the mind of le Bourdon, was
+the facilities they offered for flight. He hardly hoped that Indian
+sagacity would be so far blinded as to prevent the discovery of the
+many footsteps they must have left in their hurried movements, and he
+anticipated that with the return of day something would occur to render
+it necessary for them to seek safety by a stealthy removal from the
+spot. This might be done, he both hoped and believed, under cover of the
+rice, should sufficient care be taken to avoid exposure. In placing the
+canoes, he had used the precaution to leave them where they could not
+be seen from the cabin or its vicinity, or, indeed, from any spot in the
+vicinity of the ground that the savages would be likely to visit during
+their stay. All these reasons le Bourdon now rapidly laid before his
+companions, and to the canoes the whole party retired as fast as they
+could walk.
+
+There was great judgment displayed on the part of the bee-hunter in
+selecting the wild rice as a place of shelter. At that season it was
+sufficiently grown to afford a complete screen to everything within it
+that did not exceed the height of a man, or which was not seen from some
+adjacent elevation. Most of the land near the mouth of the river was
+low, and the few spots which formed exceptions had been borne in mind
+when the canoes were taken into the field. But just as Gershom was on
+the point of putting a foot into his own canoe, with a view to arrange
+it for the reception of his wife, he drew back, and exclaimed after the
+manner of one to whom a most important idea suddenly occurs:
+
+"Land's sake! I've forgotten all about them barrels! They'll fall into
+the hands of the savages, and an awful time they'll make with them! Let
+me pass, Dolly; I must look after the barrels this instant."
+
+While the wife gently detained her eager husband, the bee-hunter quietly
+asked to what barrels he alluded.
+
+"The whiskey casks," was the answer. "There's two on 'em in the shed
+behind the hut, and whiskey enough to set a whole tribe in commotion. I
+wonder I should have overlooked the whiskey!"
+
+"It is a sign of great improvement, friend Waring, and will lead to no
+bad consequences," returned le Bourdon, coolly. "I foresaw the danger,
+and rolled the casks down the hill, where they were dashed to pieces in
+the brook, and the liquor has long since been carried into the lake in
+the shape of grog."
+
+Waring seemed astounded; but was so completely mystified as not to
+suspect the truth. That his liquor should be hopelessly lost was bad
+enough; but even that was better than to have it drunk by savages
+without receiving any re-turns. After groaning and lamenting over the
+loss for a few minutes, he joined the rest of the party in making some
+further dispositions, which le Bourdon deemed prudent, if not necessary.
+
+It had occurred to the bee-hunter to divide his own cargo between the
+two canoes, which was the task that the whole party was now engaged in.
+The object was to lighten his own canoe in the event of flight, and, by
+placing his effects in two parcels, give a chance to those in the
+boat which might escape, of having wherewithal to comfort and console
+themselves. As soon as this new arrangement was completed, le Bourdon
+ran up to a tree that offered the desired facilities, and springing
+into its branches, was soon high enough to get a view of the bar and the
+mouth of the river. By the parting light of day, he distinctly saw FOUR
+canoes coming up the stream; which was one more than those reported to
+him by Margery as having passed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+      And long shall timorous fancy see
+      The painted chief and pointed spear;
+      And reason's self shall bow the knee
+      To shadows and delusions here.
+                                 FRENEAU.
+
+
+A bright moon reflected on the earth for about an hour the light of the
+sun, as the latter luminary disappeared. By its aid the bee-hunter, who
+still continued in the tree, was enabled to watch the movements of the
+canoes of the Indians, though the persons they contained soon got to
+be so indistinct as to render it impossible to do more than count their
+numbers. The last he made out to be five each in three of the canoes,
+and six in the other, making twenty-one individuals in all. This was
+too great an odds to think of resisting, in the event of the strangers
+turning out to be hostile; and the knowledge of this disparity in force
+admonished all the fugitives of the necessity of being wary and prudent.
+
+The strangers landed just beneath the hut, or at the precise spot where
+Whiskey Centre was in the habit of keeping his canoe, and whence Boden
+had removed it only an hour or two before. The savages had probably
+selected the place on account of its shores being clear of the wild
+rice, and because the high ground near it promised both a lookout
+and comfortable lodgings. Several of the party strolled upward, as if
+searching for an eligible spot to light their fire, and one of them soon
+discovered the cabin. The warrior announced his success by a whoop, and
+a dozen of the Indians were shortly collected in and about the chiente.
+All this proved the prudence of the course taken by the fugitives.
+
+Blossom stood beneath the tree, and the bee-hunter told her, as each
+incident occurred, all that passed among the strangers, when the girl
+communicated the same to her brother and his wife, who were quite near
+at hand in one of the canoes. As there was no danger of being overheard,
+conversation in an ordinary tone passed between the parties, two of whom
+at least were now fond of holding this sort of communion.
+
+"Do they seem to suspect the neighborhood of the occupants of the
+cabin?" asked Margery, when the bee-hunter had let her know the manner
+in which the savages had taken possession of her late dwelling.
+
+"One cannot tell. Savages are always distrustful and cautious when on a
+war-path; and these seem to be scenting about like so many hounds which
+are nosing for a trail. They are now gathering sticks to light a fire,
+which is better than burning the chiente."
+
+"THAT they will not be likely to do until they have no further need of
+it. Tell me, Bourdon, do any go near the thicket of alders where we have
+hidden our goods?"
+
+"Not as yet; though there is a sudden movement and many loud yells among
+them!"
+
+"Heaven send that it may not be at having discovered anything we
+have forgotten. The sight of even a lost dipper or cup would set them
+blood-hounds on our path, as sure as we are white and they are savages!"
+
+"As I live, they scent the whiskey! There is a rush toward, and a
+pow-wow in and about the shed--yes, of a certainty they smell the
+liquor! Some of it has escaped in rolling down the hill, and their noses
+are too keen to pass over a fragrance that to them equals that of roses.
+Well, let them SCENT as they may--even an Injin does not get drunk
+through his NOSE."
+
+"You are quite right, Bourdon: but is not this a most unhappy scent for
+us, since the smell of whiskey can hardly be there without their seeing
+it did not grow in the woods of itself, like an oak or a beech?"
+
+"I understand you, Margery, and there is good sense in what you say.
+They will never think the liquor grew there, like a blackberry or a
+chestnut, though the place IS called Whiskey Centre!"
+
+"It is hard enough to know that a family has deserved such a name,
+without being reminded of it by those that call themselves friends,"
+answered the girl pointedly, after a pause of near a minute, though she
+spoke in sorrow rather than in anger.
+
+In an instant the bee-hunter was at pretty Margery's side, making his
+peace by zealous apologies and winning protestations of respect and
+concern. The mortified girl was soon appeased; and, after consulting
+together for a minute, they went to the canoe to communicate to the
+husband and wife what they had seen.
+
+"The whiskey after all is likely to prove our worst enemy," said the
+bee-hunter as he approached. "It would seem that in moving the barrels
+some of the liquor has escaped, and the nose of an Injin is too quick
+for the odor it leaves, not to scent it."
+
+"Much good may it do them," growled Gershom--"they've lost me that
+whiskey, and let them long for it without gettin' any, as a punishment
+for the same. My fortun' would have been made could I only have got them
+two barrels as far as Fort Dearborn before the troops moved!"
+
+"The BARRELS might have been got there, certainly," answered le Bourdon,
+so much provoked at the man's regrets for the destroyer which had
+already come so near to bringing want and ruin on himself and family, as
+momentarily to forget his recent scene with pretty Margery; "but whether
+anything would have been IN them is another question. One of those I
+rolled to the brow of the hill was half empty as it was."
+
+"Gershom is so troubled with the ague, if he don't take stimulant in
+this new country," put in the wife, in the apologetic manner in which
+woman struggles to conceal the failings of him she loves. "As for
+the whiskey, I don't grudge THAT in the least; for it's a poor way
+of getting rich to be selling it to soldiers, who want all the reason
+liquor has left 'em, and more too. Still, Gershom needs bitters; and
+ought not to have every drop he has taken thrown into his face."
+
+By this time le Bourdon was again sensible of his mistake, and he beat
+a retreat in the best manner he could, secretly resolving not to place
+himself any more between two fires, in consequence of further blunders
+on this delicate subject. He now found that it was a very different
+thing to joke Whiskey Centre himself on the subject of his great
+failing, from making even the most distant allusion to it in the
+presence of those who felt for a husband's and a brother's weakness,
+with a liveliness of feeling that brutal indulgence had long since
+destroyed in the object of their solicitude. He accordingly pointed out
+the risk there was that the Indians should make the obvious inference,
+that human beings must have recently been in the hut, to leave the fresh
+scent of the liquor in question behind them. This truth was so apparent
+that all felt its force, though to no one else did the danger seem so
+great as to the bee-hunter. He had greater familiarity with the Indian
+character than any of his companions, and dreaded the sagacity of the
+savages in a just proportion to his greater knowledge. He did not fail,
+therefore, to admonish his new friends of the necessity for vigilance.
+
+"I will return to the tree and take another look at the movements of the
+savages," le Bourdon concluded by saying. "By this time their fire must
+be lighted; and by the aid of my glass a better insight may be had into
+their plans and feelings."
+
+The bee-hunter now went back to his tree, whither he was slowly followed
+by Margery; the girl yielding to a feverish desire to accompany him,
+at the very time she was half restrained by maiden bashfulness; though
+anxiety and the wish to learn the worst as speedily as possible,
+prevailed.
+
+"They have kindled a blazing fire, and the whole of the inside of the
+house is as bright as if illuminated," said le Bourdon, who was now
+carefully bestowed among the branches of his small tree. "There are lots
+of the red devils moving about the chiente, inside and out; and they
+seem to have fish as well as venison to cook. Aye, there goes more dry
+brush on the fire to brighten up the picture, and daylight is almost
+eclipsed. As I live, they have a prisoner among 'em!"
+
+"A prisoner!" exclaimed Margery, in the gentle tones of female pity.
+"Not a white person, surely?"
+
+"No--he is a red-skin like all of them--but--wait a minute till I
+can get the glass a little more steady. Yes--it is so--I was right at
+first!"
+
+"What is so, Bourdon--and in what are you right?"
+
+"You may remember, Blossom, that your brother and I spoke of the two
+Injins who visited me in the Openings. One was a Pottawattamie and the
+other a Chippewa. The first we found dead and scalped, after he had
+left us; and the last is now in yonder hut, bound and a prisoner. He
+has taken to the lake on his way to Fort Dearborn, and has, with all his
+craft and resolution, fallen into enemies' hands. Well will it be for
+him if his captors do not learn what befell the warrior who was slain
+near my cabin, and left seated against a tree!"
+
+"Do you think these savages mean to revenge the death of their brother
+on this unfortunate wretch?"
+
+"I know that he is in the pay of our general at Detroit, while the
+Pottawattamies are in the pay of the English. This of itself would make
+them enemies, and has no doubt been the cause of his being taken; but
+I do not well see how Injins on the lake here can know anything of what
+happened some fifty miles or so up in the Openings."
+
+"Perhaps the savages in the canoes belong to the same party as the
+warrior you call Elksfoot, and that they have had the means of learning
+his death, and by whose hand he fell."
+
+The bee-hunter was surprised at the quickness of the girl's wit, the
+suggestion being as discreet as it was ingenious. The manner in which
+intelligence flies through the wilderness had often surprised him, and
+certainly it was possible that the party now before him might have heard
+of the fate of the chief whose body he had found in the Openings, short
+as was the time for the news to have gone so far. The circumstance
+that the canoes had come from the northward was against the inference,
+however, and after musing a minute on the facts, le Bourdon mentioned
+this objection to his companion.
+
+"Are we certain these are the same canoes as those which I saw pass
+this afternoon?" asked Margery, who comprehended the difficulty in an
+instant. "Of those I saw, two passed first, and one followed; while here
+are FOUR that have landed."
+
+"What you say may be true enough. We are not to suppose that the canoes
+you saw pass are all that are on the lake. But let the savages be whom
+they may, prudence tells us to keep clear of them if we can; and this
+more so than ever, now I can see that Pigeonswing, who I know to be an
+American Injin, is treated by them as an enemy."
+
+"How are the savages employed now, Bourdon? Do they prepare to eat, or
+do they torture their prisoner?"
+
+"No fear of their attempting the last to-night. There is an uneasiness
+about them, as if they still smelt the liquor; but some are busy cooking
+at the fire. I would give all my honey, pretty Margery, to be able to
+save Pigeonswing! He is a good fellow for a savage, and is heart and
+hand with us in this new war, that he tells me has begun between us and
+the English!"
+
+"You surely would not risk your own life to save a savage, who kills and
+scalps at random, as this man has done!"
+
+"In that he has but followed the habits of his color and race. I dare
+say WE do things that are quite as bad, according to Injin ways of
+thinking. I DO believe, Margery, was that man to see ME in the hands of
+the Pottawattamies, as I now see HIM, he would undertake something for
+my relief."
+
+"But what can you, a single man, do when there are twenty against you?"
+asked Margery, a little reproachfully as to manner, speaking like one
+who had more interest in the safety of the young bee-hunter than she
+chose very openly to express.
+
+"No one can say what he can do till he tries. I do not like the way
+they are treating that Chippewa, for it looks as if they meant to do him
+harm. He is neither fed, nor suffered to be with his masters; but there
+the poor fellow is, bound hand and foot near the cabin door, and lashed
+to a tree. They do not even give him the relief of suffering him to sit
+down."
+
+The gentle heart of Margery was touched by this account of the manner in
+which the captive was treated, and she inquired into other particulars
+concerning his situation, with a more marked interest than she had
+previously manifested in his state. The bee-hunter answered her
+questions as they were put; and the result was to place the girl in
+possession of a minute detail of the true manner in which Pigeonswing
+was treated.
+
+Although there was probably no intention on the part of the captors of
+the Chippewa to torture him before his time, tortured he must have been
+by the manner in which his limbs and body were confined. Not only were
+his arms fastened behind his back at the elbows, but the hands were also
+tightly bound together in front. The legs had ligatures in two places,
+just above the knees and just below the ankles. Around the body was
+another fastening; which secured the captive to a beech that stood about
+thirty feet from the door of the cabin, and so nearly in a line with
+the fire within and the lookout of le Bourdon, as to enable the last
+distinctly to note these particulars, aided as he was by his glass.
+Relying on the manner in which they secured their prisoner, the savages
+took little heed of him; but each appeared bent on attending to his own
+comfort, by means of a good supper, and by securing a dry lair in which
+to pass the night. All this le Bourdon saw and noted too, ere he dropped
+lightly on his feet by the side of Margery, at the root of the tree.
+
+Without losing time that was precious, the bee-hunter went at once to
+the canoes and communicated his intention to Waring. The moon had now
+set, and the night was favorable to the purpose of le Bourdon. At the
+first glance it might seem wisest to wait until sleep had fallen upon
+the savages, ere any attempt were made to approach the hut; but Boden
+reasoned differently. A general silence would succeed as soon as the
+savages disposed of themselves to sleep, which would be much more likely
+to allow his footsteps to be overheard, than when tongues and bodies and
+teeth were all in active movement. A man who eats after a long march, or
+a severe paddling, usually concentrates his attention on his food, as le
+Bourdon knew by long experience; and it is a much better moment to steal
+upon the hungry and weary, to do so when they feed, than to do so
+when they sleep, provided anything like a watch be kept. That the
+Pottawattamie would neglect this latter caution le Bourdon did not
+believe; and his mind was made up, not only to attempt the rescue of his
+Chippewa friend, but to attempt it at once.
+
+After explaining his plan in a few words, and requesting Waring's
+assistance, le Bourdon took a solemn leave of the party, and proceeded
+at once toward the hut. In order to understand the movements of the
+bee-hunter, it may be well now briefly to explain the position of
+the chiente, and the nature of the ground on which the adventurer was
+required to act. The hut stood on a low and somewhat abrupt swell, being
+surrounded on all sides by land so low as to be in many places wet and
+swampy. There were a good many trees on the knoll, and several thickets
+of alders and other bushes on the lower ground; but on the whole, the
+swamps were nearly devoid of what is termed "timber." Two sides of the
+knoll were abrupt; that on which the casks had been rolled into the
+lake, and that opposite, which was next to the tree where Boden had so
+long been watching the proceedings of the savages. The distance between
+the hut and this tree was somewhat less than a mile. The intervening
+ground was low, and most of it was marshy; though it was possible to
+cross the marsh by following a particular course. Fortunately this
+course, which was visible to the eye by daylight, and had been taken by
+the fugitives on quitting the hut, might be dimly traced at night, by
+one who understood the ground, by means of certain trees and bushes,
+that formed so many finger-posts for the traveller. Unless this
+particular route were taken, however, a circuit of three or four miles
+must be made, in order to pass from the chiente to the spot where the
+family had taken refuge. As le Bourdon had crossed this firm ground
+by daylight and had observed it well from his tree, he thought himself
+enough of a guide to find his way through it in the dark, aided by the
+marks just mentioned.
+
+The bee-hunter had got as far as the edge of the marsh on his way toward
+the hut, when, pausing an instant to examine the priming of his rifle,
+he fancied that he heard a light footstep behind him. Turning, quick
+as thought, he perceived that pretty Margery had followed him thus far.
+Although time pressed, he could not part from the girl without showing
+that he appreciated the interest she manifested in his behalf. Taking
+her hand, therefore, he spoke with a simplicity and truth, that imparted
+to his manner a natural grace that one bred in courts might have envied.
+What was more, with a delicacy that few in course would deem necessary
+under the circumstances, he did not in his language so much impute to
+concern on his own account this movement of Margery's, as to that she
+felt for her brother and sister; though in his inmost heart a throbbing
+hope prevailed that he had his share in it.
+
+"Do not be troubled on account of Gershom and his wife, pretty Margery,"
+said the bee-hunter, "which, as I perceive, is the main reason why you
+have come here; and as for myself, be certain that I shall not forget
+who I have left behind, and how much her safety depends on my prudence."
+
+Margery was pleased, though a good deal confused. It was new to her
+to hear allusions of this sort, but nature supplied the feeling to
+appreciate them.
+
+"Is it not risking too much, Bourdon?" she said. "Are you sure of being
+able to find the crossing in the marsh, in a night so very dark? I do
+not know but looking so long at the bright light in the cabin may blind
+me, but it DOES seem as if I never saw a darker night!"
+
+"The darkness increases, for the star-light is gone; but I can see where
+I go, and so long as I can do that there is not much fear of losing my
+way. I do not like to expose you to danger, but--"
+
+"Never mind me, Bourdon--set me to do anything in which you think I can
+be of use!" exclaimed the girl, eagerly.
+
+"Well then, Margery, you may do this: come with me to the large tree in
+the centre of the marsh, and I will set you on a duty that may possibly
+save my life. I will tell you my meaning when there."
+
+Margery followed with a light, impatient step; and, as neither stopped
+to speak or to look around, the two soon stood beneath the tree in
+question. It was a large elm that completely overshadowed a considerable
+extent of firm ground. Here a full and tolerably near view could be had
+of the hut, which was still illuminated by the blazing fire within.
+For a minute both stood silently gazing at the strange scene; then le
+Bourdon explained to his companion the manner in which she might assist
+him.
+
+Once at the elm, it was not so difficult to find the way across the
+marsh, as it was to reach that spot, coming FROM the chiente. As there
+were several elms scattered about in the centre of the marsh, the
+bee-hunter was fearful that he might not reach the right tree; in
+which case he would be compelled to retrace his steps, and that at the
+imminent hazard of being captured. He carried habitually a small dark
+lantern, and had thought of so disposing of it in the lower branches of
+this very elm, as to form a focus of it, but hesitated about doing
+that which might prove a guide to his enemies as well as to himself.
+If Margery would take charge of this lantern, he could hope to reap its
+advantages without incurring the hazard of having a light suspended
+in the tree for any length of time. Margery understood the lessons she
+received, and promised to obey all the injunctions by which they were
+accompanied.
+
+"Now, God bless you, Margery," added the bee-hunter. "Providence has
+brought me and your brother's family together in troublesome times;
+should I get back safe from this adventure, I shall look upon it as a
+duty to do all I can to help Gershom place his wife and sister beyond
+the reach of harm."
+
+"God bless you, Bourdon!" half whispered the agitated girl. "I know it
+is worth some risk to save a human life, even though it be that of an
+Injin, and I will not try to persuade you from this undertaking; but
+do not attempt more than is necessary, and rely on my using the lantern
+just as you have told me to use it."
+
+Those young persons had not yet known each other a single day, yet both
+felt that confidence which years alone, in the crowds of the world, can
+ordinarily create in the human mind. The cause of the sympathy which
+draws heart to heart, which generates friendships, and love, and
+passionate attachments, is not obvious to all who choose to talk of it.
+There is yet a profound mystery in our organization, which has hitherto
+escaped the researches of both classes of philosophers, and which it
+probably was the design of the Creator should not be made known to us
+until we draw nearer to that great end which, sooner or later, is to be
+accomplished in behalf of our race, when "knowledge will abound," and we
+shall better understand our being and its objects, than is permitted to
+us in this our day of ignorance. But while we cannot trace the causes
+of a thousand things, we know and feel their effects. Among the other
+mysteries of our nature is this of sudden and strong sympathies, which,
+as between men for men, and women for women, awaken confidence and
+friendship; and as between those of different sexes, excite passionate
+attachments that more or less color their future lives. The great
+delineator of our common nature, in no one of the many admirable
+pictures he has drawn of men, manifests a more profound knowledge of
+his subject, than in that in which he portrays the sudden and nearly
+ungovernable inclination which Romeo and Juliet are made to display
+for each other; an inclination that sets reason, habit, prejudice, and
+family enmities at defiance. That such an attachment is to be commended,
+we do not say; that all can feel it, we do not believe; that connections
+formed under its influence can always be desirable, we are far from
+thinking: but that it may exist we believe is just as certain as any of
+the incomprehensible laws of our wayward and yet admirable nature.
+We have no Veronese tale to relate here, however, but simply a homely
+legend, in which human feeling may occasionally be made to bear an
+humble resemblance to that world-renowned picture which had its scenes
+in the beautiful capital of Venetian Lombardy.
+
+When le Bourdon left his companion, now so intensely interested in his
+success, to pick his way in the darkness across the remainder of the
+marsh, Margery retired behind the tree, where the first thing she did
+was to examine her lantern, and to see that its light was ready to
+perform the very important office which might so speedily be required
+of it. Satisfied on this point, she turned her eyes anxiously in the
+direction of the hut. By this time every trace of the bee-hunter was
+lost, the hillock in his front forming too dark a background to admit
+of his being seen. But the fire still blazed in the chiente, the savages
+not having yet finished their cooking, though several had satisfied
+their appetites, and had already sought places where they might stretch
+themselves for the night. Margery was glad to see that these last
+individuals bestowed themselves within the influence of the fire,
+warm as was the night. This was done most probably to escape from the
+annoyance of the mosquitos, more or less of which are usually found in
+the low lands of the new countries, and near the margins of rivers.
+
+Margery could distinctly see the Chippewa, erect and bound to his tree.
+On him she principally kept her looks riveted, for near his person did
+she expect first again to find the bee-hunter. Indeed, there was no
+chance of seeing one who was placed beneath the light of the fire, since
+the brow of the acclivity formed a complete cover, throwing all below it
+into deep shade. This circumstance was of the greatest importance to
+the adventurer, however, enabling him to steal quite near to his friend,
+favored by a darkness that was getting to be intense. Quitting Margery,
+we will now rejoin le Bourdon, who by this time was approaching his
+goal.
+
+The bee-hunter had some difficulty in finding his way across the marsh;
+but floundering through the impediments, and on the whole preserving the
+main direction, he got out on the firm ground quite as soon as he had
+expected to do. It was necessary for him to use extreme caution. The
+Indians according to their custom had dogs, two of which had been in
+sight, lying about half-way between the prisoner and the door of the
+hut. Boden had seen a savage feeding these dogs; and it appeared to him
+at the time as if the Indian had been telling them to be watchful of the
+Chippewa. He well knew the services that the red men expected of these
+animals, which are kept rather as sentinels than for any great use they
+put them to in the hunts. An Indian dog is quick enough to give the
+alarm, and he will keep on a trail for a long run and with considerable
+accuracy, but it is seldom that he closes and has his share in the
+death, unless in the case of very timid and powerless creatures.
+
+Nevertheless, the presence of these dogs exacted extra caution in the
+movements of the bee-hunter. He had ascended the hill a little out of
+the stream of light which still issued from the open door of the hut,
+and was soon high enough to get a good look at the state of things on
+the bit of level land around the cabin. Fully one-half of the savages
+were yet up and in motion; though the processes of cooking and eating
+were by this time nearly ended. These men had senses almost as acute
+as those of their dogs, and it was very necessary to be on his guard
+against them also. By moving with the utmost caution, le Bourdon reached
+the edge of the line of light, where he was within ten yards of the
+captive. Here he placed his rifle against a small tree, and drew his
+knife, in readiness to cut the prisoner's thongs. Three several times,
+while the bee-hunter was making these preparations, did the two dogs
+raise their heads and scent the air; once, the oldest of the two gave
+a deep and most ominous growl. Singular as it may seem, this last
+indication of giving the alarm was of great service to le Bourdon and
+the Chippewa. The latter heard the growl, and saw two of the movements
+of the animals' heads, from all which he inferred that there was some
+creature, or some danger behind him. This naturally enough induced him
+to bestow a keen attention in that direction, and being unable to
+turn body, limbs, or head, the sense of hearing was his only means of
+watchfulness. It was while in this state of profound listening that
+Pigeonswing fancied he heard his own name, in such a whisper as one
+raises when he wishes to call from a short distance with the least
+possible expenditure of voice. Presently the words "Pigeonswing," and
+"Chippewa," were succeeded by those of "bee-hunter," "Bourdon." This was
+enough: the quick-witted warrior made a low ejaculation, such as might
+be mistaken for a half-suppressed murmur that proceeded from pain, but
+which one keenly on the watch, and who was striving to communicate with
+him, would be apt to understand as a sign of attention. The whispering
+then ceased altogether, and the prisoner waited the result with the
+stoic patience of an American Indian. A minute later the Chippewa felt
+the thongs giving way, and his arms were released at the elbows. An arm
+was next passed round his body, and the fastenings at the wrist were
+cut. At this instant a voice whispered in his ear--"Be of good heart,
+Chippewa--your friend, Bourdon, is here. Can you stand?"
+
+"No stand," answered the Indian in a low whisper--"too much tie."
+
+At the next moment the feet of the Chippewa were released, as were also
+his knees. Of all the fastenings none now remained but that which bound
+the captive to the tree. In not cutting this, the bee-hunter manifested
+his coolness and judgment; for were the stout rope of bark severed, the
+Indian would have fallen like a log, from total inability to stand. His
+thongs had impeded the circulation of the blood, and the usual temporary
+paralysis had been the consequence. Pigeonswing understood the reason
+of his friend's forbearance, and managed to rub his hands and wrists
+together, while the bee-hunter himself applied friction to his feet,
+by passing his own arms around the bottom of the tree. The reader may
+imagine the intense anxiety of Margery the while; for she witnessed the
+arrival of le Bourdon at the tree, and could not account for the long
+delay which succeeded.
+
+All this time, the dogs were far from being quiet or satisfied. Their
+masters, accustomed to being surrounded at night by wolves and foxes,
+or other beasts, took little heed, however, of the discontent of these
+creatures, which were in the habit of growling in their lairs. The
+bee-hunter, as he kept rubbing at his friend's legs, felt now but little
+apprehension of the dogs, though a new source of alarm presented itself
+by the time the Chippewa was barely able to sustain his weight on his
+feet, and long before he could use them with anything like his former
+agility. The manner in which the savages came together in the hut, and
+the gestures made by their chief, announced pretty plainly that a watch
+was about to be set for the night. As it was probable that the sentinel
+would take his station near the prisoner, the bee-hunter was at a loss
+to decide whether it were better to commence the flight before or after
+the rest of the savages were in their lairs. Placing his mouth as close
+to the ear of Pigeonswing as could be done without bringing his head
+into the light, the following dialogue passed between le Bourdon and the
+captive.
+
+"Do you see, Chippewa," the bee-hunter commenced, "the chief is telling
+one of the young men to come and keep guard near you?"
+
+"See him, well 'nough. Make too many sign, no to see."
+
+"What think you--shall we wait till the warriors are asleep, or try to
+be off before the sentinel comes?"
+
+"Bess wait, if one t'ing. You got rifle--got tomahawk--got knife, eh?"
+
+"I have them all, though my rifle is a short distance behind me, and a
+little down the hill."
+
+"Dat bad--nebber let go rifle on war-path. Well, YOU tomahawk him--_I_
+scalp him--dat'll do."
+
+"I shall kill no man, Chippewa, unless there is great occasion for it.
+If there is no other mode of getting you off, I shall choose to cut this
+last thong, and leave you to take care of yourself."
+
+"Give him tomahawk, den--give him knife, too."
+
+"Not for such a purpose. I do not like to shed blood without a good
+reason for it."
+
+"No call war good reason, eh? Bess reason in world Pottawattamie dig up
+hatchet ag'in' Great Fadder at Wash'ton--dat no good reason why take his
+scalp, eh?"
+
+In whispering these last words the Chippewa used so much energy, that
+the dogs again raised their heads from between their forepaws and
+growled. Almost at that instant the chief and his few remaining
+wakeful companions laid themselves down to sleep, and the young warrior
+designated as the sentinel left the hut and came slowly toward the
+prisoner. The circumstances admitted of no delay; le Bourdon pressed
+the keen edge of his knife across the withe that bound the Indian to
+the tree; first giving him notice, in order that he might be prepared to
+sustain his own weight. This done, the bee-hunter dropped on the ground,
+crawling away out of the light; though the brow of the hill almost
+immediately formed a screen to conceal his person from all near the hut.
+In another instant he had regained his rifle, and was descending swiftly
+toward the crossing at the marsh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+      We call them savage--oh, be just!
+        Their outraged feelings scan;
+      A voice comes forth, 'tis from the dust--
+        The savage was a man!
+                                 SPRAGUE.
+
+
+As soon as le Bourdon reached the commencement of that which might be
+called his path across the marsh, he stopped and looked backward. He was
+now sufficiently removed from the low acclivity to see objects on its
+summit, and had no difficulty in discerning all that the waning fire
+illuminated. There stood the Chippewa erect against the tree as if still
+bound with thongs, while the sentinel was slowly approaching him. The
+dogs were on their feet, and gave two or three sharp barks, which had
+the effect to cause five or six of the savages to lift their heads in
+their lairs. One arose even and threw an armful of dried branches on the
+fire, producing a bright blaze, that brought everything around the hut,
+and which the light could touch, into full view.
+
+The bee-hunter was astonished at the immovable calmness with which
+Pigeonswing still stood to his tree, awaiting the approach of the
+sentinel. In a few moments the latter was at his side. At first the
+Pottawattamie did not perceive that the prisoner was unbound. He threw
+him into shadow by his own person, and it required a close look to note
+the circumstance. Boden was too far from the spot to see all the minor
+movements of the parties, but there was soon a struggle that could
+not be mistaken. As the Pottawattamie was examining the prisoner, an
+exclamation that escaped him betrayed the sudden consciousness that the
+Chippewa was unbound. The sound was no sooner uttered than Pigeonswing
+made a grasp at the sentinel's knife, which however he did not obtain,
+when the two closed and fell, rolling down the declivity into the
+darkness. When the Pottawattamie seized the Chippewa, he uttered a
+yell, which instantly brought every man of his party to his feet. As the
+savages now united in the whoops, and the dogs began to bark wildly, an
+infernal clamor was made.
+
+At first, le Bourdon did not know how to act. He greatly feared the
+dogs, and could not but think of Margery, and the probable consequences,
+should those sagacious animals follow him across the marsh. But he did
+not like the idea of abandoning Pigeonswing, when a single blow of his
+arm, or a kick of his foot, might be the cause of his escape. While
+deliberating in painful uncertainty, the sounds of the struggle ceased,
+and he saw the sentinel rising again into the light, limping like one
+who had suffered by a fall. Presently he heard a footstep near him, and,
+calling in a low voice, he was immediately joined by Pigeonswing. Before
+the bee-hunter was aware of his intention, the Chippewa seized his
+rifle, and levelling at the sentinel, who still stood on the brow of the
+hill, drawn in all his savage outlines distinctly in the light of
+the flames, he fired. The cry, the leap into the air, and the fall,
+announced the unerring character of the aim. In coming to the earth,
+the wounded man fell over the brow of the sharp acclivity, and was heard
+rolling toward its base.
+
+Le Bourdon felt the importance of now improving the precious moments,
+and was in the act of urging his companion to follow, when the latter
+passed an arm around his body, whipped his knife from the girdle and
+sheath, and dropping the rifle into his friend's arms, bounded away in
+the darkness, taking the direction of his fallen enemy. There was no
+mistaking all this; Chippewa, led by his own peculiar sense of honor,
+risking everything to obtain the usual trophy of victory. By this time,
+a dozen of the savages stood on the brow of the hill, seemingly at a
+loss to understand what had become of the combatants. Perceiving
+this, the bee-hunter profited by the delay and reloaded his rifle. As
+everything passed almost as swiftly as the electric spark is known
+to travel, it was but a moment after the Pottawattamie fell ere his
+conqueror was through with his bloody task. Just as le Bourdon threw his
+rifle up into the hollow of his arm, he was rejoined by his red
+friend, who bore the reeking scalp of the sentinel at his belt; though
+fortunately the bee-hunter did not see it on account of the obscurity,
+else might he not have been so willing to continue to act with so
+ruthless an ally.
+
+Further stay was out of the question; for the Indians were now collected
+in a body on the brow of the hill, where the chief was rapidly issuing
+his orders. In a minute the band dispersed, every man bounding into the
+darkness, as if aware of the danger of remaining within the influence of
+the bright light thrown from the fire. Then came such a clamor from
+the dogs, as left no doubt in the mind of the bee-hunter that they had
+scented and found the remains of the fallen man. A fierce yell came from
+the same spot, the proof that some of the savages had already discovered
+the body; and le Bourdon told his companion to follow, taking his way
+across the marsh as fast as he could overcome the difficulties of the
+path.
+
+It has already been intimated that it was not easy, if indeed it were
+possible, to cross that piece of low wet land in a direct line. There
+was tolerably firm ground on it, but it lay in an irregular form, its
+presence being generally to be noted by the growth of trees. Le
+Bourdon had been very careful in taking his landmarks, foreseeing the
+probability of a hasty retreat, and he had no difficulty for some time
+in keeping in the right direction. But the dogs soon left the dead
+body, and came bounding across the marsh, disregarding its difficulties;
+though their plunges and yells soon made it apparent that even they did
+not escape altogether with dry feet. As for the savages, they poured
+down the declivity in a stream, taking the dogs as their guides;
+and safe ones they might well be accounted, so far as the SCENT was
+concerned, though they did not happen to be particularly well acquainted
+with all the difficulties of the path.
+
+At length le Bourdon paused, causing his companion to stop also. In the
+hurry and confusion of the flight, the former had lost his landmarks,
+finding himself amidst a copse of small trees, or large bushes, but
+not in the particular copse he sought. Every effort to get out of this
+thicket, except by the way he had entered it, proved abortive, and the
+dogs were barking at no great distance in his rear. It is true that
+these animals no longer approached: for they were floundering in the mud
+and water; but their throats answered every purpose to lead the pursuers
+on, and the low calls that passed from mouth to mouth, let the
+pursued understand that the Pottawattamies were at their heels, if not
+absolutely on their trail.
+
+The crisis demanded both discretion and decision; qualities in which the
+bee-hunter, with his forest training, was not likely to be deficient. He
+looked out for the path by which he had reached the unfortunate thicket,
+and having found it, commenced a retreat by the way he had come. Nerve
+was needed to move almost in a line toward the dogs and their masters;
+but the nerve was forthcoming, and the two advanced like veterans
+expecting the fire of some concealed but well-armed battery. Presently,
+le Bourdon stopped, and examined the ground on which he stood.
+
+"HERE we must turn, Chippewa," he said, in a guarded voice. "This is the
+spot where I must have missed my way."
+
+"Good place to turn 'bout," answered the Indian--"dog too near."
+
+"We must shoot the dogs if they press us too hard," returned the
+bee-hunter, leading off rapidly, now secure in the right direction.
+"They seem to be in trouble, just at this time; but animals like them
+will soon find their way across this marsh."
+
+"Bess shoot Pottawattamie," coolly returned Pigeonswing. "Pottawattamie
+got capital scalp--dog's ears no good for nutting any more."
+
+"Yonder, I believe, is the tree I am in search of!" exclaimed le
+Bourdon. "If we can reach that tree, I think all will go well with us."
+
+The tree was reached, and the bee-hunter proceeded to make sure of
+his course from that point. Removing from his pouch a small piece of
+moistened powder that he had prepared ere he liberated the Chippewa, he
+stuck it on a low branch of the tree he was under, and on the side next
+the spot where he had stationed Margery. When this was done, he made his
+companion stand aside, and lighting some spunk with his flint and steel,
+he fired his powder. Of course, this little preparation burned like the
+fireworks of a boy, making sufficient light, however, to be seen in a
+dark night for a mile or more. No sooner was the wetted powder hissing
+and throwing off its sparks, than the bee-hunter gazed intently into the
+now seemingly tangible obscurity of the marsh. A bright light appeared
+and vanished. It was enough; the bee-hunter threw down his own signal
+and extinguished it with his foot; and, as he wished, the lantern of
+Margery appeared no more. Assured now of the accuracy of his position,
+as well as of the course he was to pursue, le Bourdon bade his companion
+follow, and pressed anew across the marsh. A tree was soon visible, and
+toward that particular object the fugitives steadily pressed, until it
+was reached. At the next instant Margery was joined; and the bee-hunter
+could not refrain from kissing her, in the excess of his pleasure.
+
+"There is a dreadful howling of dogs," said Margery, feeling no offence
+at the liberty taken, in a moment like that, "and it seems to me that a
+whole tribe is following at their heels. For Heaven's sake, Bourdon, let
+us hasten to the canoes; brother and sister must think us lost!"
+
+The circumstances pressed, and the bee-hunter took Margery's arm,
+passing it through one of his own, with a decided and protecting manner,
+that caused the girl's heart to beat with emotions not in the least
+connected with fear, leaving an impression of pleasure even at that
+perilous moment. As the distance was not great, the three were soon
+on the beach and near to the canoes. Here they met Dorothy, alone, and
+pacing to and fro like a person distressed. She had doubtless heard the
+clamor, and was aware that the savages were out looking for their party.
+As Margery met her sister, she saw that something more than common
+had gone wrong, and in the eagerness of her apprehensions she did not
+scruple about putting her questions.
+
+"What has become of brother? Where is Gershom?" demanded the sensitive
+girl, at once.
+
+The answer was given in a low voice, and in that sort of manner with
+which woman struggles to the last to conceal the delinquencies of him
+she loves.
+
+"Gershom is not himself, just now," half whispered the wife--"he has
+fallen into one of his old ways, ag'in."
+
+"Old ways?" slowly repeated the sister, dropping her own voice to
+tones similar to those in which the unpleasant news had just been
+communicated. "How is that possible, now that all the whiskey is
+emptied?"
+
+"It seems that Bourdon had a jug of brandy among his stores, and Gershom
+found it out. I blame no one; for Bourdon, who never abuses the gifts of
+Providence, had a right to his comforts at least; but it IS a pity that
+there was anything of the sort in the canoes!"
+
+The bee-hunter was greatly concerned at this unwelcome intelligence,
+feeling all its importance far more vividly than either of his
+companions. They regretted as women; but he foresaw the danger, as a man
+accustomed to exertion in trying scenes. If Whiskey Centre had really
+fallen into his old ways, so as to render himself an incumbrance,
+instead of being an assistant at such a moment, the fact was to be
+deplored, but it could only be remedied by time. Luckily they had
+the Indian with them, and he could manage one of the canoes, while he
+himself took charge of the other. As no time was to be lost--the barking
+of the dogs and the cries of the savages too plainly letting it be known
+that the enemy was getting through the marsh by some means or other--he
+hurried the party down to the canoes, entering that of Whiskey Centre at
+once.
+
+Le Bourdon found Gershom asleep, but with the heavy slumbers of the
+drunkard. Dolly had removed the jug and concealed it, as soon as
+the state of her husband enabled her to do so without incurring his
+violence. Else might the unfortunate man have destroyed himself, by
+indulging in a liquor so much more palatable than that he was accustomed
+to use, after so long and compelled an abstinence. The jug was now
+produced, however, and le Bourdon emptied it in the river, to the great
+joy of the two females, though not without a sharp remonstrance from the
+Chippewa. The bee-hunter was steady, and the last drop of the liquor of
+Gascony was soon mingling with the waters of the Kalamazoo. This done,
+the bee-hunter desired the women to embark, and called to the Chippewa
+to do the same. By quitting the spot in the canoes, it was evident the
+pursuers would be balked, temporarily at least, since they must recross
+the marsh in order to get into their own boats, without which further
+pursuit would be fruitless.
+
+It might have been by means of a secret sympathy, or it was possibly the
+result of accident, but certain it is, that the Chippewa was placed
+in that of le Bourdon. As for Whiskey Centre, he lay like a log in the
+bottom of his own light bark, cared for only by his affectionate wife,
+who had made a pillow for his head; but, fortunately, if no assistance
+just then, not any material hindrance to the movements of his friends.
+By the time le Bourdon and the Chippewa had got their stations, and the
+canoes were free of the bottom, it was evident by the sounds, that not
+only the dogs, but divers of their masters, had floundered through the
+swamp, and were already on the firm ground east of it. As the dogs ran
+by scent, little doubt remained of their soon leading the savages to
+the place of embarkation. Aware of this, the bee-hunter directed
+the Chippewa to follow, and urged his own canoe away from the shore,
+following one of three of the natural channels that united just at that
+point.
+
+The clamor now sensibly increased, and the approach of the pursuers
+was much faster than it had previously been, in consequence of there no
+longer being wet land beneath their feet. At the distance of fifty
+yards from the shore, however, the channel, or open avenue among
+the rice-plants that the canoes had taken, made a short turn to the
+northward; for all the events we have just been recording occurred on
+the northern, or leeward side of the river. Once around this bend in the
+channel, the canoes would have been effectually concealed from those on
+the beach, had it even been broad daylight, and, of course, were so
+much more hidden from view under the obscurity of a very dark night.
+Perceiving this, and fearful that the dip of the paddles might be heard,
+le Bourdon ceased to urge his canoe through the water, telling the
+Chippewa to imitate his example, and let the boats drift. In consequence
+of this precaution the fugitives were still quite near the shore when,
+first, the dogs, then a party of their masters, came rushing down to the
+very spot whence the canoes had departed scarcely two minutes before.
+As no precautions were taken to conceal the advance of the pursuers, the
+pursued, or the individuals among them who alone understood the common
+language of the great Ojebway nation well, had an opportunity of hearing
+and understanding all that was said. Le Bourdon had brought the two
+canoes together; and the Chippewa, at his request, now translated
+such parts of the discourse of their enemies as he deemed worthy of
+communicating to the females.
+
+"Say, now, nobody dere!" commenced the Indian, coolly. "T'ink he no
+great way off--mean to look for him--t'ink dog uneasy--won'er why dog so
+uneasy."
+
+"Them dogs are very likely to scent us here in the canoes, we are so
+near them," whispered le Bourdon.
+
+"S'pose he do, can't catch us," coolly answered the Chippewa--"beside,
+shoot him, don't take care--bad for dog to chase warrior too much."
+
+"There is one speaking now, who seems to have authority."
+
+"Yes--he chief--know he voice--hear him too often--he mean to put
+Pigeonswing to torture. Well, let him catch Pigeonswing fust--swift bird
+do that, eh?"
+
+"But what says he?--it may be of importance to learn what the chief
+says, just now."
+
+"Who care what he say--can't do nuttin'--if get good chance, take HIS
+scalp, too."
+
+"Aye, that I dare say--but he is speaking earnestly and in a low voice;
+listen, and let us know what he says. I do not well understand at this
+distance."
+
+The Chippewa complied, and maintained an attentive silence until the
+chief ceased to speak. Then he rendered what had been said into such
+English as he could command, accompanying the translation by the
+explanations that naturally suggested themselves to one like himself.
+
+"Chief talk to young men," said the Chippewa--"all chief talk to young
+men--tell him dat Pigeonswing must get off in canoe--don't see canoe,
+nudder--but, muss be canoe, else he swim. T'ink more than one Injin
+here--don't know, dough--maybe, maybe not--can't tell, till see trail,
+morrow morning--"
+
+"Well, well; but what does he tell his young men to DO?" demanded the
+bee-hunter, impatiently.
+
+"Don't be squaw, Bourdon--tell all by'em bye. Tell young men s'pose he
+get canoe, den he may get OUR canoe, and carry 'em off--s'pose he swim;
+dat Chippewa devil swim down stream and get OUR canoe dat fashion--bess
+go back, some of you, and see arter OUR canoe--dat what he tell young
+men most."
+
+"That is a lucky thought!" exclaimed le Bourdon--"let us paddle down, at
+once, and seize all their canoes before they can get there. The distance
+by water, owing to this bend in the river, is not half as great as that
+by land, and the marsh will double the distance to them."
+
+"Dat good counsel," said Pigeonswing--"you go--I follow."
+
+This was no sooner said, than the canoes again got in motion. The
+darkness might now have been a sufficient protection had there been no
+rice, but the plant would have concealed the movement, even at noon-day.
+The fire in the hut served as a beacon, and enabled le Bourdon to find
+the canoes. When he reached the landing, he could still hear the dogs
+barking on the marsh, and the voices of those with them, calling in loud
+tones to two of the savages who had remained at the chiente, as a sort
+of camp-guard.
+
+"What do them chaps say?" asked le Bourdon of the Chippewa. "They yell
+as if striving to make the two men at the door of the hut hear them. Can
+you make out what they are bawling so loud?"
+
+"Tell two warrior to come down and take care of canoe--dat all--let 'em
+come--find two here to take care of DEM--got good scalp, them two rascal
+Pottawattamie!"
+
+"No--no--Pigeonswing--we must have no more of that work to-night, but
+must set about towing these four canoes off the shore as fast as we can.
+Have you got hitches on your two?"
+
+"Fast 'nough--so fast, he follow," answered the Indian, who,
+notwithstanding his preparations to help to remove the canoes, was
+manifestly reluctant to depart without striking another blow at his
+enemies. "Now good time for dem rascal to lose scalp!"
+
+"Them rascals, as you call them, begin to understand their friends in
+the marsh, and are looking to the priming of their rifles. We must be
+moving, or they may see us, and give us a shot. Shove off, Chippewa, and
+paddle at once for the middle of the bay."
+
+As le Bourdon was much in earnest, Pigeonswing was fain to comply. Had
+the last possessed a rifle of his own, or even a knife, it is highly
+probable he would have leaped ashore, and found the means of stealing on
+some of his enemies unawares, and thus secured another trophy. But the
+bee-hunter was determined, and the Chippewa, however reluctant, was
+compelled to obey; for not only had le Bourdon kept his rifle at his
+side, but he had used the precaution of securing his knife and tomahawk,
+both of which he carried habitually, the same as a red man.
+
+The canoes had now a somewhat difficult task. The wind still blew fresh,
+and it was necessary for one of these light craft, pretty well loaded
+with its proper freight, and paddled by only a single person, to tow two
+other craft of equal size dead to the windward. The weight in the towing
+craft, and the lightness of those that were towed, rendered this task,
+however, easier than it might otherwise have proved. In the course of
+a couple of minutes all the canoes were far enough from the shore to be
+out of sight of the two Indians, who, by that time, had got down to the
+beach to look after their own craft. The yell these savages raised on
+finding themselves too late, not only announced their disappointment,
+but communicated the extent of the disaster to their friends, who were
+still floundering through the marsh.
+
+The great advantage that the party of the bee-hunter had now obtained
+must be very apparent to all. In possession of ALL the canoes, their
+enemies were, or would be for some time at least, confined to the
+northern side of the river, which was so wide near its mouth as to
+present an effectual barrier between them and those who occupied the
+opposite bank. The canoes, also, enabled the weaker party to change
+their position at will, carrying with them as many effects as were on
+board, and which included the whole of the property of le Bourdon; while
+their loss deprived their enemies of all extra means of motion, and
+would be very likely to induce them to proceed on their expedition by
+land. The objects of that expedition could only be conjectured by the
+bee-hunter, until he had questioned the Chippewa; a thing he did not
+fail to do, so soon as he believed the party quite safe under the south
+shore. Here the fugitives landed, proceeding up a natural channel in the
+wild rice in order to do so, and selecting a bit of dry beach for
+their purpose. Margery set about lighting a fire, in order to keep the
+mosquitos at a distance, selecting a spot to kindle it, behind a swell
+on the land, that concealed the light from all on the other shore. In
+the morning, it would be necessary to extinguish that fire, lest its
+smoke should betray their position. It was while these things were in
+progress, and after le Bourdon had himself procured the fuel necessary
+to feed pretty Margery's fire, that he questioned the Chippewa touching
+his captivity.
+
+"Yes, tell all 'bout him," answered the Indian, as soon as
+interrogated--"no good to hide trail from friend. 'Member when say
+good-by up in openin' to Bourdon?"
+
+"Certainly--I remember the very instant when you left me. The
+Pottawattamie went on one path, and you went on another. I was glad of
+that, as you seemed to think he was not your friend."
+
+"Yes; good not to travel on same path as inimy, 'cause he quarrel
+sometime," coolly returned the Indian. "Dis time, path come together,
+somehow; and Pottawattamie lose he scalp."
+
+"I am aware of all that, Pigeonswing, and wish it had not been so. I
+found the body of Elksfoot sitting up against a tree soon after you left
+me, and knew by whose hands he had fallen."
+
+"Didn't find scalp, eh?"
+
+"No, the scalp had been taken; though I accounted that but for little,
+since the man's life was gone. There is little gained by carrying on war
+in this manner, making the woods, and the openings, and the prairies,
+alike unsafe. You see, to what distress this family is reduced by your
+Injin manner of making war."
+
+"How you make him, den--want, to hear. Go kiss, and give venison to
+inimy, or go get his scalp, eh? Which bess fashion to make him afeard,
+and own you master?"
+
+"All that may be done without killing single travellers, or murdering
+women and children. The peace will be made none the sooner between
+England and America, because you have got the scalp of Elksfoot."
+
+"No haben't got him any longer; wish had--Pottawattamie take him away,
+and say he bury him. Well, let him hide him in a hole deep as white
+man's well, can't hide Pigeonswing honor dere, too. Dat is safe as notch
+cut on stick can make him!"
+
+This notch on a stick was the Indian mode of gazetting a warrior; and a
+certain number of these notches was pretty certain to procure for him a
+sort of savage brevet, which answered his purpose quite as well as the
+modern mode of brevetting at Washington answers our purpose. Neither
+brings any pay, we believe, nor any command, except in such cases as
+rarely occur, and then only to the advantage of government. There are
+varieties in honor, as in any other human interest: so are there many
+moral degrees in warfare. Thus, the very individual who admires the
+occupation of Algiers, or that of Tahiti, or the attack on Canton,
+together with the long train of Indian events which have dyed the
+peninsulas of the East in the blood of their people, sees an alarming
+enormity in the knocking down of the walls of Vera Cruz, though the
+breach opened a direct road into San Juan de Ulloa. In the eyes of
+the same profound moralists, the garitas of Mexico ought to have been
+respected, as so many doors opening into the boudoirs of the beautiful
+dames of that fine capital; it being a monstrous thing to fire a shot
+into the streets of a town, no matter how many came out of them. We
+are happy, therefore, to have it in our power to add these touches of
+philosophy that came from Pigeonswing to those of the sages of the
+old world, by way of completing a code of international morals on this
+interesting subject, in which the student shall be at a loss to say
+which he most admires--that which comes from the schools, or that which
+comes direct from the wilderness.
+
+"So best," answered the bee-hunter. "I wish I could persuade you to
+throw away that disgusting thing at your belt. Remember, Chippewa, you
+are now among Christians, and ought to do as Christians wish."
+
+"What Christians DO, eh?" returned the Indian, with a sneer, "get drunk
+like Whiskey Centre, dere? Cheat poor red man; den get down on knee and
+look up at Manitou? DAT what Christian do, eh?"
+
+"They who do such things are Christian but in name--you must think
+better of such as are Christians in fact."
+
+"Ebberybody call himself Christian, tell you--all pale-face
+Christian, dey say. Now, listen to Chippewa. Once talk long talk wit'
+missionary--tell all about Christian--what Christian do--what Christian
+say--how he eat, how he sleep, HOW he drink!--all good--wish Pigeonwing
+Christian--den 'member so'ger at garrison--no eat, no sleep, no drink
+Christian fashion--do ebbery t'ing so'ger fashion--swear, fight, cheat,
+get drunk--wuss dan Injin--dat Christian, eh?"
+
+"No, that is not acting like a Christian; and I fear very few of us who
+call ourselves by that name, act as if we were Christians, in truth,"
+said le Bourdon, conscious of the justice of the Chippewa's accusation.
+
+"Just dat--now, I get him--ask missionary, one day, where all Christian
+go to, so dat Injin can't find him--none in woods--none on prairie--none
+in garrison--none in Mack'naw--none at Detroit--where all go to, den, so
+Injin can't find him, on'y in missionary talk?"
+
+"I am curious to know what answer your missionary made to that
+question."
+
+"Well, tell you--say, on'y one in ten t'ousant RAAL Christians 'mong
+pale-face, dough all call himself Christian! DAT what Injin t'ink queer,
+eh?"
+
+"It is not easy to make a red man understand all the ways of the
+pale-faces, Pigeonswing; but we will talk of these things another time,
+when we are more at our ease. Just now, I wish to learn all I can of the
+manner in which you fell into the hands of the Pottawattamies."
+
+"Dat plain 'nough--wish Christian talk half as plain. You see, Bourdon,
+dat Elksfoot on scout, when we meet in openin', up river. I know'd his
+ar'nd, and so took scalp. Dem Pottawattamie his friend--when dey come to
+meet ole chief, no find him; but find Pigeonwing; got me when tired
+and 'sleep; got Elkfoot scalp wid me--sorry for dat--know scalp by
+scalp-lock, which had gray hair, and some mark. So put me in canoe, and
+meant to take Chippewa to Chicago to torture him--but too much wind. So,
+when meet friend in t'odder canoe, come back here to wait little while."
+
+This was the simple explanation of the manner in which Pigeonswing had
+fallen into the hands of his enemies. It would seem that Elksfoot had
+come in a canoe from the mouth of the St. Joseph's to a point about
+half-way between that river and the mouth of the Kalamazoo, and there
+landed. What the object of the party was, does not exactly appear,
+though it is far from being certain that it was not to seize the
+bee-hunter, and confiscate his effects. Although le Bourdon was
+personally a stranger to Elksfoot, news flies through the wilderness in
+an extraordinary manner; and it was not at all unlikely that the fact of
+a white American's being in the openings should soon spread, along with
+the tidings that the hatchet was dug up, and that a party should go out
+in quest of his scalp and the plunder. It would seem that the savage
+tact of the Chippewa detected that in the manner of the Pottawattamie
+chief, which assured him the intentions of the old warrior were not
+amicable; and that he took the very summary process which has been
+related, not only to secure HIS scalp, but effectually to put it out
+of his power to do any mischief to one who was an ally, and by means of
+recent confidence, now a friend. All this the Indian explained to his
+companion, in his usual clipped English, but with a clearness sufficient
+to make it perfectly intelligible to his listener. The bee-hunter
+listened with the most profound attention, for he was fully aware of the
+importance of comprehending all the hazards of his own situation.
+
+While this dialogue was going on, Margery had succeeded in lighting her
+fire, and was busy in preparing some warm compound, which she knew would
+be required by her unhappy brother after his debauch, Dorothy passed
+often between the fire and the canoe, feeling a wife's anxiety in the
+fate of her husband. As for the Chippewa, intoxication was a very venial
+offence in his eyes; though he had a contempt for a man who would thus
+indulge while on a warpath. The American Indian does possess this merit
+of adapting his deportment to his circumstances. When engaged in war he
+usually prepares himself, in the coolest and wisest manner, to meet
+its struggles, indulging only in moments of leisure, and of comparative
+security. It is true that the march of what is called civilization is
+fast changing the red man's character, and he is very apt now to do that
+which he sees done by the "Christians" around him.
+
+Le Bourdon, when his dialogue with the Chippewa was over, and after a
+few words of explanation with Margery, took his own canoe, and
+paddled through the rice-plants into the open water of the river, to
+reconnoitre. The breadth of the stream induced him to float down before
+the wind, until he reached a point where he could again command a view
+of the hut. What he there saw, and what he next did, must be reserved
+for a succeeding chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     The elfin cast a glance around,
+     As he lighted down from his courser toad,
+     Then round his breast his wings he wound,
+     And close to the river's brink he strode;
+     He sprang on a rock, he breathed a prayer,
+     Above his head his arm he threw,
+     Then tossed a tiny curve in air,
+     And headlong plunged in the water blue.
+                                           DRAKE.
+
+
+An hour had intervened between the time when le Bourdon had removed the
+canoes of the Pottawattamies, and the time when he returned alone to the
+northern side of the river. In the course of that hour the chief of the
+savages had time to ascertain all the leading circumstances that have
+just been related, and to collect his people in and around the hut, for
+a passing council. The moment was one of action, and not of ceremonies.
+No pipe was smoked, nor any of the observances of the great councils
+of the tribe attended to; the object was merely to glean facts and
+to collect opinions. In all the tribes of this part of North America,
+something very like a principle of democracy is the predominant feature
+of their politics. It is not, however, that bastard democracy which
+is coming so much in fashion among ourselves, and which looks into the
+gutters solely for the "people," forgetting that the landlord has just
+as much right to protection as the tenant, the master as the servant,
+the rich as the poor, the gentleman as the blackguard. The Indians
+know better than all this. They understand, fully, that the chiefs are
+entitled to more respect than the loafers in their villages, and listen
+to the former, while their ears are shut to the latter. They appear
+to have a common sense, which teaches them to avoid equally the
+exaggerations of those who believe in blood, and of those who believe
+in blackguardism. With them the doctrines of "new men" would sound as
+an absurdity, for they never submit to change for change's sake. On
+the contrary, while there is no positive hereditary rank, there is much
+hereditary consideration; and we doubt if a red man could be found
+in all America, who is so much of a simpleton as to cite among the
+qualifications of any man for a situation of trust and responsibility,
+that he had never been TAUGHT how to perform its duties. They are
+not guilty of the contradiction of elevating men BECAUSE they are
+self-taught, while they expend millions on schools. Doubtless they
+have, after a fashion of their own, demagogues and Caesars, but they are
+usually kept within moderate limits; and in rare instances, indeed,
+do either ever seriously trespass on the rights of the tribe. As human
+nature is everywhere the same, it is not to be supposed that pure
+justice prevails even among savages; but one thing would seem to be
+certain, that, all over the world, man in his simplest and wildest state
+is more apt to respect his own ordinances, than when living in what is
+deemed a condition of high civilization.
+
+When le Bourdon reached the point whence he could get a good view of
+the door of the hut, which was still illuminated by the fire within, he
+ceased using the paddle beyond the slight effort necessary to keep the
+canoe nearly stationary. He was quite within the range of a rifle, but
+trusted to the darkness of the night for his protection. That scouts
+were out, watching the approaches to the hut, he felt satisfied; and he
+did not doubt that some were prowling along the margin of the Kalamazoo,
+either looking for the lost boats, or for those who had taken them away.
+This made him cautious, and he took good care not to place his canoe in
+a position of danger.
+
+It was very apparent that the savages were in great uncertainty as to
+the number of their enemies. Had not the rifle been fired, and their
+warrior killed and scalped, they might have supposed that their prisoner
+had found the means of releasing his limbs himself, and thus effected
+his escape; but they knew that the Chippewa had neither gun nor knife,
+and as all their own arms, even to those of the dead man, were still in
+their possession, it was clear that he had been succored from without.
+Now, the Pottawattamies had heard of both the bee-hunter and Whiskey
+Centre, and it was natural enough for them to ascribe some of these
+unlooked-for feats to one or the other of these agents. It is true,
+the hut was known to have been built three or four years earlier, by an
+Indian trader, and no one of the party had ever actually seen Gershom
+and his family in possession; but the conjectures on this head were as
+near the fact, as if the savages had passed and repassed daily. There
+was only one point on which these close calculators of events were at
+fault. So thoroughly had everything been removed from the chiente, and
+so carefully the traces of its recent occupation concealed, that no one
+among them suspected that the family had left the place only an hour
+before their own arrival. The bee-hunter, moreover, was well assured
+that the savages had not yet blundered on the hiding-place of the
+furniture. Had this been discovered, its contents would have been
+dragged to light, and seen around the fire; for there is usually little
+self-restraint among the red men, when they make a prize of this sort.
+
+Nevertheless, there was one point about which even those keen-scented
+children of the forest were much puzzled, and which the bee-hunter
+perfectly comprehended, notwithstanding the distance at which he was
+compelled to keep himself. The odor of the whiskey was so strong, in and
+about the chiente, that the Pottawattamies did not know what to make
+of it. That there should be the remains of this peculiar smell--one
+so fragrant and tempting to those who are accustomed to indulge in the
+liquor--in the hut itself, was natural enough; but the savages were
+perplexed at finding it so strong on the declivity down which the
+barrels had been rolled. On this subject were they conversing, when
+le Bourdon first got near enough to observe their proceedings. After
+discussing the matter for some time, torches were lighted, and most of
+the party followed a grim old warrior, who had an exceedingly true nose
+for the scent of whiskey, and who led them to the very spot where the
+half-barrel had been first stove by rolling off a rock, and where its
+contents had been mainly spilled. Here the earth was yet wet in places,
+and the scent was so strong as to leave no doubt of the recent nature of
+the accident which had wasted so much of a liquor that was very precious
+in Pottawattamie eyes; for accident they thought it must be, since no
+sane man could think of destroying the liquor intentionally.
+
+All the movements, gestures, and genuflections of the savages were
+plainly seen by the bee-hunter. We say the genuflections, for nearly all
+of the Indians got on their knees and applied their noses to the earth,
+in order to scent the fragrance of the beloved whiskey; some out of
+curiosity, but more because they loved even this tantalizing
+indulgence, when no better could be had. But le Bourdon was right in his
+conjectures, that the matter was not to end here. Although most of the
+Indians scented the remains of the whiskey out of love for the liquor, a
+few of their number reasoned on the whole transaction with quite as much
+acuteness as could have been done by the shrewdest natural philosopher
+living. To them it was very apparent that no great length of time, a few
+hours at most, could have elapsed since that whiskey was spilled; and
+human hands must have brought it there, in the first place, and poured
+it on the ground, in the second. There must have been a strong reason
+for such an act, and that reason presented itself to their minds with
+unerring accuracy. Their own approach must have been seen, and the
+liquor was destroyed because it could not be removed in time to prevent
+its falling into their hands. Even the precise manner in which the
+whiskey had been disposed of was pretty nearly conjectured by a few of
+the chiefs, acute and practised as they were; who, accustomed to this
+species of exercise of their wits, had some such dexterity in examining
+facts of this nature, and in arriving at just results, as the men of the
+schools manifest in the inquiries that more especially belong to their
+habits and training. But their conclusions were confined to themselves;
+and they were also sufficiently enveloped in doubts, to leave those who
+made them ready enough to receive new impressions on the same subject.
+
+All this, moreover, le Bourdon both saw and understood; or, if not
+absolutely all, so much of it as to let him comprehend the main
+conclusions of the savages, as well as the process by which they were
+reached. To obtain light, the Indians made a fire near the charmed spot,
+which brought themselves and their movements into plain view from the
+canoe of the bee-hunter. Curiosity now became strongly awakened in the
+latter, and he ventured in nearer to the shore, in order to get the
+best possible view of what was going on. In a manner, he was solving
+an enigma; and he experienced the sort of pleasure we all feel at
+exercising our wits on difficulties of that nature. The interest he felt
+rendered the young man careless as respected the position of his canoe,
+which drifted down before the strong breeze, until le Bourdon found
+himself in the very edge of the wild rice, which at this point formed
+but a very narrow belt along the beach. It was this plant, indeed, that
+contributed to make the young man so regardless of his drift, for he
+looked upon the belt of rice as a species of landmark to warn him when
+to turn. But, at no other spot along that whole shore, where the plant
+was to be found at all, was its belt so narrow as at this, immediately
+opposite to the new fire of the savages, and almost within the
+influence of its rays. To le Bourdon's surprise, and somewhat to his
+consternation, just as his little craft touched the rice, the forms of
+two stout warriors passed along the beach, between him and the light,
+their feet almost dipping in the water. So near were these two warriors
+to him, that, on listening intently, he heard not only their voices,
+as they communicated their thoughts to each other in low tones, but
+the tread of their moccasined feet on the ground. Retreat, under the
+circumstances, would not be safe, for it must have been made under
+the muzzles of the rifles; and but one resource presented itself. By
+grasping in his hand two or three stalks of the rice-plant, and holding
+them firmly, the drift of the canoe was arrested.
+
+After a moment's reflection, le Bourdon was better satisfied with this
+new station than he had been on first gaining it. To have ventured on
+such a near approach to his enemies, he would have regarded as madness;
+but now he was there, well concealed among the rice, he enjoyed the
+advantages of observation it gave him, and looked upon the chance that
+brought him there as lucky. He found a thong of buckskin, and fastened
+his canoe to the stalks of the plant, thus anchoring or mooring his
+little bark, and leaving himself at liberty to move about in it. The
+rice was high enough to conceal him, even when erect, and he had some
+difficulty in finding places favorable to making his observations
+through it. When the bee-hunter made his way into the bow of his canoe,
+however, which he did with a moccasined and noiseless foot, he was
+startled at perceiving how small was his cover. In point of fact, he was
+now within three feet of the inner edge of the rice-plant, which grew
+within ten feet of the shore, where the two warriors already mentioned
+were still standing, in close communication with each other. Their faces
+were turned toward the fire, the bright light from which, at times,
+streamed over the canoe itself, in a way to illumine all it contained.
+The first impulse of le Bourdon, on ascertaining how closely he had
+drifted to the shore, was to seize a paddle and make off, but a second
+thought again told him it would be far safer to remain where he was.
+Taking his seat, therefore, on a bit of board laid athwart, from gunwale
+to gunwale, if such a craft can be said to have gunwales at all, he
+patiently waited the course of events.
+
+By this time, all or nearly all of the Pottawattamies had collected on
+this spot, on the side of the hill. The hut was deserted, its fire got
+to be low, and darkness reigned around the place. On the other hand,
+the Indians kept piling brush on their new fire, until the whole of
+that hill-side, the stream at its foot, and the ravine through which the
+latter ran, were fairly illuminated. Of course, all within the influence
+of this light was to be distinctly seen, and the bee-hunter was
+soon absorbed in gazing at the movements of savage enemies, under
+circumstances so peculiar.
+
+The savages seemed to be entranced by the singular, and to most of them
+unaccountable circumstance of the earth's giving forth the scent of
+fresh whiskey, in a place so retired and unknown. While two or three of
+their number had certain inklings of the truth, as has been stated,
+to much the greater portion of their body it appeared to be a profound
+mystery; and one that, in some inexplicable manner, was connected with
+the recent digging up of the hatchet. Ignorance and superstition ever
+go hand in hand, and it was natural that many, perhaps most of these
+uninstructed beings should thus consider so unusual a fragrance, on such
+a spot. Whiskey has unfortunately obtained a power over the red man of
+this continent that it would require many Fathers Matthew to suppress,
+and which can only be likened to that which is supposed to belong to the
+influence of witchcraft. The Indian is quite as sensible as the white
+man of the mischief that the "fire-water" produces; but, like the white
+man, he finds how hard it is to get rid of a master passion, when we
+have once submitted ourselves to its sway. The portion of the band that
+could not account for the fact of the scent of their beloved beverage's
+being found in such a place, and it was all but three of their whole
+party, were quite animated in their discussions on the subject, and
+many and crude were the suggestions that fell from their lips. The
+two warriors on the beach were more deeply impressed than any of their
+companions, with the notion that some "medicine charm" was connected
+with this extraordinary affair.
+
+The reader will not be surprised to hear that le Bourdon gazed on the
+scene before him with the most profound attention. So near did he seem
+to be, and so near was he, in fact, to the savages who were grouped
+around the fire, that he fancied he could comprehend what they were
+saying, by the expressions of their grim and swarthy countenances.
+His conjectures were in part just, and occasionally the bee-hunter was
+absolutely accurate in his notions of what was said. The frequency with
+which different individuals knelt on the ground, to scent an odor that
+is always so pleasant to the red man, would of itself have given a
+clew to the general character of the discourse; but the significant and
+expressive gestures, the rapid enunciation, and the manner in which the
+eyes of the speakers glanced from the faces near themselves to the spot
+consecrated by whiskey, pretty plainly told the story. It was while thus
+intently occupied in endeavoring to read the singular impression made
+on the minds of most of those wild beings, by an incident so much out of
+the usual track of their experience, that le Bourdon suddenly found the
+bow of his canoe thrusting itself beyond the inner margin of the rice,
+and issuing into open water, within ten feet of the very spot where the
+two nearest of the savages were still conferring together, apart. The
+buckskin thong which served as a fastening had got loosened, and the
+light craft was again drifting down before the strong southerly wind,
+which still continued to blow a little gale.
+
+Had there been an opportunity for such a thing, the bee-hunter would
+have made an effort to escape. But so sudden and unexpected was this
+exposure, that he found himself almost within reach of a rifle, before
+he was aware of his approaching the two warriors on the shore, at all.
+His paddle was in the stern of the canoe, and had he used the utmost
+activity, the boat would have grounded on the beach, ere he could have
+obtained it. In this situation, therefore, he was absolutely without any
+other means than his hands of stopping the canoe, had there even been
+time.
+
+Le Bourdon understood his real situation without stopping to reflect;
+and, though his heart made one violent leap as soon as he perceived he
+was out of cover, he immediately bethought him of the course he ought to
+pursue. It would have been fatal to betray alarm, or to attempt flight.
+As accident had thus brought him, as it might be on a visit, to the
+spot, he at once determined to give his arrival the character of a
+friendly call, and the better to support the pretension, to blend with
+it, if possible, a little of the oracular, or "medicine" manner, in
+order to impose on the imaginations of the superstitious beings into
+whose power he had so unwittingly fallen.
+
+The instant the canoe touched the shore, and it was only a moment after
+it broke through the cover, le Bourdon arose, and extending his hand
+to the nearest Indian, saluted him with the mongrel term of "Sago." A
+slight exclamation from this warrior communicated to his companion an
+arrival that was quite as much a matter of surprise to the Indians as to
+their guest, and through this second warrior to the whole party on the
+hill-side. A little clamor succeeded, and presently the bee-hunter was
+surrounded with savages.
+
+The meeting was marked by the self-command and dignified quiet that are
+so apt to distinguish the deportment of Indian warriors, when they are
+on the war-path, and alive to the duties of manhood. The bee-hunter
+shook hands with several, who received his salutations with perfect
+calmness, if not with absolute confidence and amity. This little
+ceremony gave our hero an opportunity to observe the swarthy
+countenances by which he was surrounded, most of which were fierce in
+their paint, as well as to reflect a little on his own course. By a
+fortunate inspiration he now determined to assume the character of a
+"medicine man," and to connect his prophecies and juggleries with this
+lucky accident of the whiskey. Accordingly, he inquired if any one spoke
+English, not wishing to trust his explanations to his own imperfect
+knowledge of the Ojebway tongue, which is spoken by all the numerous
+tribes of that widely-extended nation. Several could render
+themselves intelligible in English, and one was so expert as to render
+communication with him easy, if not very agreeable. As the savages,
+however, soon insisted on examining the canoe, and taking a look at its
+contents, previously to listening to their visitor's explanations,
+le Bourdon was fain to submit, and to let the young men satisfy their
+curiosity.
+
+The bee-hunter had come on his hazardous expedition in his own canoe.
+Previously to quitting the south shore, however, he had lightened
+the little craft, by landing everything that was not essential to his
+present purpose. As nearly half of his effects were in the canoe of
+Whiskey Centre, the task was soon performed, and lucky it was for our
+hero that he had bethought him of the prudence of the measure. His sole
+object had been to render the canoe swifter and lighter, in the event
+of a chase; but, as things turned out, he saved no small portion of
+his property by using the precaution. The Indians found nothing in
+the canoe, but one rifle, with a horn and pouch, a few light articles
+belonging to the bee-hunter's domestic economy, and which he had not
+thought it necessary to remove, and the paddles. All the honey, and the
+skins and stores, and spare powder, and lead, and, in short, everything
+else that belonged to le Bourdon, was still safe on the other side of
+the river. The greatest advantage gained by the Pottawattamies was in
+the possession of the canoe itself, by means of which they would now be
+enabled to cross the Kalamazoo, or make any other similar expedition, by
+water.
+
+But, as yet, not a sign of hostility was betrayed by either party. The
+bee-hunter seemed to pay no attention to his rifle and ammunition, or
+even to his canoe, while the savages, after having warily examined
+the last, together with its contents, returned to their visitor, to
+re-examine him, with a curiosity as lively as it was full of distrust.
+At this stage in the proceeding, something like a connected and
+intelligible conversation commenced between the chief who spoke
+English, and who was known in most of the north-western garrisons of the
+Americans by the name of Thundercloud, or Cloud, by way of abbreviation,
+on account of his sinister looks, though the man actually sustained a
+tolerably fair reputation for one of those who, having been wronged, was
+so certain to be calumniated. No man was ever yet injured, that he has
+not been slandered.
+
+"Who kill and scalp my young man?" asked Cloud, a little abruptly.
+
+"Has my brother lost a warrior?" was the calm reply. "Yes, I see that he
+has. A medicine-man can see that, though it is dark."
+
+"Who kill him, if can see?-who scalp him, too?"
+
+"An enemy did both," answered le Bourdon, oracularly. "Yes; 'twas an
+enemy that killed him; and an enemy that took his scalp."
+
+"Why do it, eh? Why come here to take Pottawattamia scalp, when no
+war-path open, eh?"
+
+"Pottawattamie, the truth must always be said to a medicine-man. There
+is no use in trying to hide truth from HIM. There IS a war-path open;
+and a long and a tangled path it is. My Great Father at Washington has
+dug up the hatchet against my Great Father at Quebec. Enemies always
+take scalps when they can get them."
+
+"Dat true--dat right, too--nobody grumble at DAT--but who enemy?
+pale-face or red-skin?"
+
+"This time it was a red-skin--a Chippewa--one of your own nation, though
+not of your own tribe. A warrior called Pigeonswing, whom you had in
+thongs, intending to torture him in the morning. He cut his thongs, and
+shot your young man--after which he took his scalp."
+
+"How know dat?" demanded the Cloud, a little fiercely. "You 'long, and
+help kill Pottawattamie, eh?"
+
+"I know it," answered le Bourdon, coolly, "because medicine-men know
+most of what happens. Do not be so hasty, chief, for this is a medicine
+spot--whiskey GROWS here."
+
+A common exclamation escaped all of the red men, who comprehended
+the clear, distinct, and oracular-like language and manner of the
+bee-hunter. He intended to make an impression on his listeners, and he
+succeeded admirably; perhaps as much by means of manner as of matter.
+As has been said, all who understood his words--some four or five of the
+party--grunted forth their surprise at this evidence of their guest's
+acquaintance with the secrets of the place, in which they were joined by
+the rest of their companions, as soon as the words of the pale-face had
+been translated. Even the experienced and wary old chiefs, who had more
+than half conjectured the truth, in connection with this mysterious odor
+of whiskey, were much unsettled in their opinions concerning the wonder,
+and got to be in that condition of mind when a man does not know what
+to think of any particular event. The bee-hunter, quick-witted, and
+managing for his life, was not slow to perceive the advantage he had
+gained, and he proceeded at once to clinch the nail he had so skilfully
+driven. Turning from Cloud to the head-chief of the party, a warrior
+whom he had no difficulty in recognizing, after having so long watched
+his movements in the earlier part of the night, he pushed the same
+subject a little further.
+
+"Yes; this place is called by the whites Whiskey Centre," he
+added--"which means that it is the centre of all the whiskey of the
+country round about."
+
+"Dat true," said Cloud, quickly--"I hear so'ger at Fort Dearborn call
+him Whiskey Centre!"
+
+This little circumstance greatly complicated the mystery, and le Bourdon
+perceived that he had hit on a lucky explanation.
+
+"Soldiers far and near--soldiers drunk or sober--soldiers with scalps,
+and soldiers without scalps--all know the place by that name. But you
+need not believe with your eyes shut and noses stopped, chief, since you
+have the means of learning for yourselves the truth of what I tell you.
+Come with me, and I will tell you where to dig in the morning for a
+whiskey spring."
+
+This communication excited a tremendous feeling among the savages, when
+its purport came to be explained to the whole party. Apart from the
+extraordinary, miraculous nature of such a spring, which in itself was
+sufficient to keep alive expectation and gratify curiosity, it was so
+comfortable to have an inexhaustible supply of the liquor running out of
+the bowels of the earth, that it is no wonder the news spread infinite
+delight among the listeners. Even the two or three of the chiefs who
+had so shrewdly divined the manner in which the liquor had been spilled,
+were staggered by the solemnity and steadiness of the bee-hunter's
+manner, and perhaps a little carried away by sympathy with those around
+them. This yielding of the human mind to the influence of numbers is
+so common an occurrence as scarcely to require explanation, and is
+the source of half the evils that popular associations inflict on
+themselves. It is not that men capable of SEEING the truth are ever
+wanting; but men capable of MAINTAINING it, in the face of clamor and
+collected power.
+
+It will be readily conceived that a medicine-man who is supposed to
+possess the means of discovering a spring that should overflow with pure
+whiskey, would not be left without urgent demands for a speedy exercise
+of this art. This was now the case with le Bourdon, who was called on
+from all sides to point out the precise spot where the young men were
+to commence digging in order to open on the treasure. Our hero knew that
+his only hope of escape was connected with his steadily maintaining his
+assumed character; or of maintaining this assumed character, with
+his going on, at once, to do something that might have the effect,
+temporarily at least, of satisfying the impatience of his now attentive
+listeners. Accordingly, when the demand was made on him to give some
+evidence of his power, he set about the task, not only with composure,
+but with a good deal of ingenuity.
+
+Le Bourdon, it will be remembered, had, with his own hands, rolled the
+two barrels of whiskey down the declivity. Feeling the great importance
+of effectually destroying them, he had watched their descent, from
+the top to the bottom of the hill, and the final disappearance of the
+staves, etc., into the torrent which brawled at its foot. It had so
+happened that the half-filled cask broke and let out its liquor at a
+point much more remote from the stream, than the filled. The latter
+had held together until it went over the low rocky precipice, already
+mentioned, and was stove at its base, within two yards of the torrent,
+which received all its fragments and swept them away, including most
+of the liquor itself; but not until the last had been spilled. Now,
+the odorous spot which had attracted the noses of the savages, and near
+which they had built their fire, was that where the smallest quantity
+of the whiskey had fallen. Le Bourdon reasoned on these circumstances
+in this wise:--if half a barrel of the liquor can produce so strong a
+scent, a barrel filled ought to produce one still stronger; and I will
+manifest my medicine-character, by disregarding for the present moment
+the spot on the hill-side, and proceed at once to that at the foot
+of the rocks. To this latter point, therefore, did he direct all
+the ceremony, as well as his own footsteps, when he yielded to the
+solicitations of the Pottawattamies, and undertook to point out the
+position of the whiskey spring.
+
+The bee-hunter understood the Indian character too well to forget to
+embellish his work with a proper amount of jugglery and acting. Luckily,
+he had left in the canoe a sort of frock of mottled colors that he had
+made himself, to wear in the woods in the autumn as a hunting-dress,
+under the notion that such a covering would conceal his approach from
+his game, by blending its hues with those of the autumn leaf. This dress
+he now assumed, extorting a good deal of half-suppressed admiration from
+the younger warriors, by the gay appearance he made. Then he drew out
+his spy-glass to its greatest length, making various mysterious signs
+and gestures as he did so. This glass proved to be a great auxiliary,
+and possibly alone kept the doubters in awe. Le Bourdon saw at once that
+it was entirely new, even to the oldest chief, and he felt how much
+it might be made to assist him. Beckoning to Cloud, and adjusting the
+focus, he directed the small end of his glass to the fire, and placed
+the large end to that Indian's eye. A solitary savage, who loved the
+scent of whiskey too much to tear himself away from the spot, was
+lingering within the influence of the rays, and of course was seen by
+the chief, with his person diminished to that of a dwarf, and his form
+thrown to a seeming distance.
+
+An eloquent exclamation followed this exhibition of the medicine-man's
+power; and each of the chiefs, and most of the other warriors, were
+gratified with looks through the glass.
+
+"What dat mean?" demanded Cloud, earnestly. "See Wolfeye well
+'nough--why he so little?--why he so far off, he?"
+
+"That is to show you what a medicine-man of the pale-faces can do, when
+he is so minded. That Indian is named Wolfseye, and he loves whiskey too
+well. That I know, as well as I know his name."
+
+Each of these exhibitions of intelligence extorted exclamations of
+wonder. It is true, that one or two of the higher chiefs understood that
+the name might possibly have been obtained from Cloud; but how was the
+medicine-man to know that Wolfseye was a drunkard? This last had not
+been said in terms; but enough had been said, to let those who
+were aware of the propensity feel that more was meant than had been
+expressed. Before there was time, however, to deliberate on, or to
+dissect this specimen of mysterious knowledge, le Bourdon reversed the
+glass, and applied the small end to the eye of Cloud, after having given
+it its former direction. The Indian fairly yelled, partly with dread,
+and partly with delight, when he saw Wolfseye, large as life, brought so
+near him that he fancied he might be touched with his own hand.
+
+"What dat mean?" exclaimed Cloud, as soon as surprise and awe enabled
+him to find his voice. "Fuss he little, den he big--fuss he great way,
+den he close by--what dat mean, eh?"
+
+"It means that I am a medicine-man, and this is a medicine-glass, and
+that I can see with it into the earth, deeper than the wells, or higher
+than the mountains!"
+
+These words were translated, and explained to all three. They extorted
+many ejaculations of wonder, and divers grunts of admiration and
+contentment. Cloud conferred a moment with the two principal chiefs;
+then he turned eagerly to the bee-hunter, saying--
+
+"All good, but want to hear more--want to l'arn more--want to SEE more."
+
+"Name your wants freely, Pottawattamie," answered le Bourdon, with
+dignity, "they shall be satisfied."
+
+"Want to see--want to TASTE whiskey spring--see won't do--want to TASTE"
+
+"Good--you shall smell first; then you shall see; after that you shall
+taste. Give me room, and be silent; a great medicine is near."
+
+Thus delivering himself, le Bourdon proceeded with his necromancy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+  He turned him round, and fled amain With hurry and dash to the beach
+  again; He twisted over from side to side, And laid his cheek to the
+  cleaving tide; The strokes of his plunging arms are fleet, And with all
+  his might he flings his feet, But the water-sprites are round him still,
+  To cross his path and work him ill.
+                                        --The Culprit Fay.
+
+
+The first step in the conjuration of the bee-hunter was, to produce an
+impression on the minds of his untutored observers, by resorting to a
+proper amount of mummery and mystical action. This he was enabled to do
+with some effect, in consequence of having practised as a lad in similar
+mimicry, by way of pastime. The Germans, and the descendants of Germans
+in America, are not of a very high class, as respects education,
+taken as a body, and they retain many of the most inveterate of the
+superstitions of their Teutonic ancestors. Although the bee-hunter
+himself was of purely English descent, he came from a State that was in
+part peopled by these Germans and their descendants; and, by intercourse
+with them, he had acquired a certain knowledge of their notions on the
+subject of necromancy, that he now found was of use. So far as gravity
+of mien, solemn grimaces, and unintelligible mutterings were concerned,
+le Bourdon played his part to admiration; and by the time he had led
+the party half the distance he intended to go, our necromancer, or
+"medicine-man," had complete possession of the imaginations of all the
+savages, the two or three chiefs already mentioned alone excepted. At
+this stage of the proceedings occurred a little incident, which goes
+to prove the disposition of the common mind to contribute in deceiving
+itself, and which was of considerable assistance to le Bourdon, in
+maintaining his assumed character.
+
+It will be remembered that the place where the Indians had found their
+strongest scent was on the hill-side, or the spot where the half-filled
+barrel had let out most of its contents. Near this spot their new fire
+was still brightly blazing, and there Wolfseye remained, regaling one of
+his senses, at least, with an odor that he found so agreeable. But
+the bee-hunter knew that he should greatly increase the wonder of the
+savages by leading them to a NEW scent-spot, one to which there was no
+visible clew, and where the odor was probably much stronger than on the
+hill-side. Accordingly he did not approach the fire, but kept around the
+base of the hill, just enough within the influence of the light to pick
+his way readily, and yet so distant from it as to render his countenance
+indistinct and mysterious. No sooner, however, had he got abreast of the
+scent-spot known to the savages, than the crowd endeavored to lead him
+toward it, by gestures and hints, and, finally, by direct intimations
+that he was going astray. All this our "medicine-man" disregarded; he
+held his way steadily and solemnly toward that place at the foot of the
+hill where he knew that the filled barrel had let out its contents, and
+where he, reasonably enough, expected to find sufficient traces of the
+whiskey to answer his purposes. At first, this pertinacity provoked
+the crowd, which believed he was going wrong; but a few words from
+Crowsfeather, the principal chief, caused the commotion to cease. In a
+few more minutes le Bourdon stopped, near the place of his destination.
+As a fresh scent of whiskey was very perceptible here, a murmur of
+admiration, not unmixed with delight, passed among the attendants.
+
+"Now, let the young men build a fire for ME" said the bee-hunter,
+solemnly--"not such a fire as that which is burning on the hill, but a
+medicine-fire. I SMELL the whiskey spring, and want a medicine-light to
+SEE it."
+
+A dozen young men began to collect the brush; in a minute a pile of some
+size had been accumulated on a flat rock, within twenty feet of the spot
+where le Bourdon knew that the cask had been dashed to pieces. When he
+thought the pile sufficiently large, he told Crowsfeather that it might
+be lighted by bringing a brand from the other fire.
+
+"This will not be a medicine-light, for that can come only from
+'medicine-matches,'" he added; "but I want a fire to see the shape of
+the ground. Put in the brand, brothers; let us have a flame."
+
+The desire of the bee-hunter was gratified, and the whole of the base
+of the hill around the spot where the filled cask had broken, was
+illuminated.
+
+"Now, let all the Pottawattamies stand back," added le Bourdon,
+earnestly. "It might cost a warrior his life to come forward too
+soon--or, if not his life, it might give a rheumatism that can never be
+cured, which is worse. When it is time for my red brothers to advance,
+they will be called."
+
+As the bee-hunter accompanied this announcement by suitable gestures,
+he succeeded in ranging all of the silent, but excited savages on three
+sides of his fire, leaving that next his mysterious spring to
+himself, alone. When all was arranged, le Bourdon moved slowly, but
+unaccompanied, to the precise spot where the cask had broken. Here he
+found the odor of the whiskey so strong, as to convince him that some
+of the liquor must yet remain. On examining more closely, he ascertained
+that several shallow cavities of the flat rock, on which the cask had
+been dashed, still contained a good deal of the liquor; enough to prove
+of great assistance to his medicine character.
+
+All this while the bee-hunter kept one portion of his faculties on the
+alert, in order to effect his escape. That he might deceive for a time,
+aided as he was by so many favorable circumstances, he did not doubt;
+but he dreaded the morning and the results of a night of reflection and
+rest. Crowsfeather, in particular, troubled him; and he foresaw that
+his fate would be terrible, did the savages once get an inkling of the
+deception he was practising. As he stood there, bending over the little
+pools of whiskey, he glanced his eyes toward the gloom which pervaded
+the northern side of the hill, and calculated the chances of escape by
+trusting to his speed. All of the Pottawattamies were on the opposite
+side, and there was a thicket favorably placed for a cover, so near that
+the rifle would scarce have time to perform its fatal office, ere
+he might hope to bury himself within its leaves. So tempting did the
+occasion appear, that, for a single instant, le Bourdon forgot his
+caution, and his mummeries, and had actually advanced a step or two in
+the direction toward which he contemplated flight, when, on glancing an
+uneasy look behind him, he perceived Crowsfeather and his two intimate
+counsellors stealthily preparing their rifles, as if they distrusted
+his intentions. This at once induced a change of plan, and brought
+the bee-hunter back to a sense of his critical position, and of the
+indispensable necessity of caution to a man in his situation.
+
+Le Bourdon now seemingly gave all his attention to the rocks where he
+stood, and out of which the much-coveted liquor was expected to flow;
+though his thoughts were still busily employed in considering the means
+of escape, the whole time. While stooping over the different pools, and
+laying his plans for continuing his medicine-charms, the bee-hunter saw
+how near he had been to committing a great mistake. It was almost as
+indispensable to carry off the canoe, as it was to carry off himself;
+since, with the canoe, not only would all his own property, but
+pretty Margery, and Gershom and his wife, be at the mercy of the
+Pottawattamies; whereas, by securing the boat, the wide Kalamazoo would
+serve as a nearly impassable barrier, until time was given to the whites
+to escape. His whole plan was changed by this suggestion, and he no
+longer thought of the thicket and of flight inland. At the same time
+that the bee hunter was laying up in his mind ideas so important to his
+future movements, he did not neglect the necessary examination of the
+means that might be required to extend and prolong his influence over
+the minds of the superstitious children of the forest on whom he was
+required to practise his arts. His thoughts reverted to the canoe, and
+he concocted a plan by which he believed it possible to get possession
+of his little craft again. Once on board it, by one vigorous shove he
+fancied he might push it within the cover of the rice-plants, where he
+would be in reasonable safety against the bullets of the savages. Could
+he only get the canoe on the outer side of the narrow belt of the plant,
+he should deem himself safe!
+
+Having arranged his course in his own mind, le Bourdon now beckoned to
+Crowsfeather to draw near, at the same time inviting the whole party
+to approach within a few feet of the spot where he himself stood. The
+bee-hunter had brought with him from the boat a fragment of the larger
+end of a cane fishing-rod, which he used as a sort of wand. Its size was
+respectable, and its length about eight feet. With this wand he pointed
+out the different objects he named, and it answered the very important
+purpose of enabling him to make certain small changes in the formation
+of the ground, that were of the greatest service to him, without
+permitting curious eyes to come so near as to detect his artifices.
+
+"Now open your ears, Crowsfeather; and you, Cloud; and all of you, young
+braves," commenced the bee-hunter, solemnly, and with a steadiness that
+was admirable; "yes, open wide your ears. The Great Spirit has given
+the red man a nose that he might smell--does the Cloud smell more than
+common?"
+
+"Sartain--smell whiskey--this Whiskey Centre dey say--nat'ral dat such
+smell be here."
+
+"Do all the chiefs and warriors of the Pottawattamies who are present,
+also smell the same?"
+
+"S'pose so--why he don't, eh? Got nose--can smell whiskey good way, tell
+you."
+
+"It is right they should smell the liquor here, for out of this rock a
+whiskey spring will soon begin to run. It will begin with a very small
+stream, but soon will there be enough to satisfy everybody. The
+Great Manitou knows that his red children are dry; he has sent a
+'medicine-man' of the pale-faces to find a spring for them. Now, look
+at this piece of rock--it is dry--not even the dew has yet moistened it.
+See--it is made like a wooden bowl, that it may hold the liquor of the
+spring. Let Crowsfeather smell it--smell it, Cloud--let all my young men
+smell it, too, that they may be certain that there is nothing there."
+
+On this invitation, accompanied as it was by divers flourishes of the
+wand, and uttered in a deep, solemn tone of voice, the whole party of
+the Indians gathered around the small hollow basin-like cavity pointed
+out by the bee-hunter, in order both to see and to smell. Most knelt,
+and each and all applied their noses to the rock, as near the bowl as
+they could thrust them. Even the dignified and distrustful Crowsfeather
+could not refrain from bending in the crowd. This was the moment for
+which le Bourdon wished, and he instantly prepared to carry out his
+design.
+
+Previously, however, to completing the project originally conceived,
+a momentary impulse prevailed which urged him to adopt a new mode of
+effecting his escape. Now, that most of the savages were on their hands
+and knees, struggling to get their noses as near as possible to the
+bowl, and all were intent on the same object, it occurred to the
+bee-hunter, who was almost as active as the panther of the American
+forest, that he might dash on toward the canoe, and make his escape
+without further mummery. Had it been only a question of human speed
+perhaps such would have been the wisest thing he could do; but a
+moment's reflection told him how much swifter than any foot of man was
+the bullet of a rifle. The distance exceeded a hundred yards, and it
+was altogether in bright light, by means of the two fires, Wolfseye
+continuing to pile brush on that near which he still maintained
+his post, as if afraid the precious liquor would start out of the
+scent-spot, and be wasted should he abandon his ward. Happily,
+therefore, le Bourdon relinquished his dangerous project almost as
+soon as it was entertained, turning his attention immediately to the
+completion of the plan originally laid.
+
+It has been said that the bee-hunter made sundry flourishes with his
+wand. While the savages were most eager in endeavoring to smell the
+rock, he lightly touched the earth that confined the whiskey in the
+largest pool, and opened a passage by which the liquor could trickle
+down the side of the rock, selecting a path for itself, until it
+actually came into the bowl, by a sinuous but certain channel.
+
+Here was a wonder! Liquor could not only be smelled, but it could be
+actually seen! As for Cloud, not satisfied with gratifying the two
+senses connected with the discoveries named, he began to lap with his
+tongue, like a dog, to try the effect of taste.
+
+"The Manitou does not hide his face from the Pottawattamie!" exclaimed
+this savage, rising to his feet in astonishment; "this is the
+fire-water, and such as the pale-faces bring us for skins!"
+
+Others imitated his example, and the exclamations of wonder and delight
+flew from mouth to mouth, in a torrent of vehement assertions and
+ejaculations. So great a "medicine" charm had never before been
+witnessed in that tribe, or in that region, and a hundred more might
+succeed, before another should equal this in its welcome character.
+There was whiskey, of a certainty, not much in quantity, to be sure, but
+of excellent quality, as several affirmed, and coming in a current that
+was slowly increasing! This last sign was owing to the circumstance
+that le Bourdon had deepened the outlet of the pool, permitting a larger
+quantity to flow down the little channel.
+
+The moment had now come for a decisive step. The bee-hunter knew that
+his precious rivulet would soon cease to run, and that he must carry out
+his design under the first impressions of his charm, or that he probably
+would not be permitted to carry it out, at all. At this moment even
+Crowsfeather appeared to be awed by what he had seen; but a chief so
+sagacious might detect the truth, and disappointment would then be
+certain to increase the penalties he would incur.
+
+Making many sweeps of his wand, and touching various points of the rock,
+both to occupy the attention of the savages, and to divert it from his
+pool, the bee-hunter next felt in his pocket and drew out a small piece
+of resin that he knew was there; the remains of a store with which
+he resined the bow of his fiddle; for our hero had a violin among his
+effects, and often used it in his solitary abodes in the openings.
+Breaking this resin on a coal, he made it flash and blaze; but the
+quantity was too small to produce the "medicine-fire" he wanted.
+
+"I have more in my canoe," he said, addressing himself to the
+interpreter; "while I go for it, the red men must not stir, lest they
+destroy a pale-face's doings. Least of all they must go near the spring.
+It would be better for the chiefs to lead away their young men, and
+make them stand under the oak, where nothing can be done to hurt the
+'medicine-charm.'"
+
+The bee-hunter pointed to a tree that stood in the direction of the
+canoe, in order to prevent distrust, though he had taken care to select
+a spot whence the little craft could not be seen, on account of an
+intervening swell in the land, Crowsfeather led his warriors to the
+indicated place, where they took their stations, in silent and grave
+attention.
+
+In the mean while, le Bourdon continued his incantations aloud;
+walking toward his canoe, waving his hand, and uttering a great deal of
+gibberish as he slowly proceeded. In passing the tree, our hero, though
+he did not turn his head, was sensible that he was followed by the
+chiefs, a movement against which he did not dare to remonstrate, though
+it sadly disappointed him. Neither hastening nor retarding his steps,
+however, in consequence of this unpleasant circumstance, the young man
+continued on; once or twice sweeping the wand behind him, in order to
+ascertain if he could reach his followers. But Crowsfeather and his
+companions stopped when they reached the swell of land which concealed
+the canoe, suffering the "medicine-man" to move on alone. Of this
+fact le Bourdon became aware, by turning three times in a circle, and
+pointing upward at the heavens with his wand, as he did so.
+
+It was a nervous moment when the bee-hunter reached the canoe. He did
+not like to look behind him again, lest the chiefs should suspect his
+motive, and, in shoving off from the shore, he might do so within a
+few yards of the muzzle of a hostile rifle. There was no time to lose,
+however, for any protracted delay on his part would certainly cause the
+savages to approach, through curiosity, if not through distrust of his
+motives. He stepped into his light craft, therefore, without any delay,
+still flourishing his wand, and muttering his incantations. The first
+thing was to walk to the stern of the canoe, that his weight might
+raise the bow from the shore, and also that he might have an excuse for
+turning round, and thus get another look at the Indians. So critical was
+his situation, and so nervous did it make our young hero, that he took
+no heed of the state of matters in the canoe, until the last moment.
+When he had turned, however, he ascertained that the two principal
+chiefs had drawn so near as to be within twenty yards of him, though
+neither held his rifle at "ready," but each leaned on it in a careless
+manner, as if in no anticipation of any necessity to make a speedy
+use of the weapon. This state of things could not last, and le Bourdon
+braced his nerves for the final trial. On looking for his paddle,
+however, he found that of three which the canoe had contained when he
+left it, not even one was to be seen! These wily savages had, out of all
+question, taken their opportunity to remove and secrete these simple,
+but almost indispensable, means of motion.
+
+At the instant when first apprised of the loss just mentioned, the
+bee-hunter's heart sunk within him, and he fell into the seat in the
+stern of the canoe, nearly with the weight of so much lead. Then a
+species of desperation came over him, and putting an end of his cane
+wand upon the bottom, with a vigorous shove he forced the canoe swiftly
+astern and to windward. Sudden as was this attempt, and rapid as was
+the movement, the jealous eyes and ready hands of the chiefs seemed to
+anticipate it. Two shots were fired within a few seconds after the canoe
+had quitted the shore. The reports of the rifles were a declaration of
+hostilities, and a general yell, accompanied by a common rush toward the
+river, announced that the whole band now understood that some deception
+had been practised at their expense.
+
+Although the two chiefs in advance had been so very prompt, they were
+not quick enough for the rapid movement of the canoe. The distance
+between the stern of the boat and the rice-plants was so small, that
+the single desperate shove given by the bee-hunter sufficed to bury
+his person in the cover, before the leaden messengers reached him.
+Anticipating this very attempt, and knowing that the savages might
+get their range from the part of the canoe that was still in sight, le
+Bourdon bent his body far over the gunwale, grasping the rice-plants
+at the same time, and hauling his little craft through them, in the way
+that sailors call "hand over hand." This expedient most probably saved
+his life. While bending over the gunwale, he heard the crack of the
+rifles, and the whizzing of two bullets that appeared to pass just
+behind him. By this time the whole of the canoe was within the cover.
+
+In a moment like that we are describing, incidents pass so rapidly as
+almost to defy description. It was not twenty seconds from the instant
+when le Bourdon first put his wand down to push the canoe from the land,
+ere he found his person emerging from the cover, on its weather side.
+Here he was effectually concealed from his enemies, not only on account
+of the cover made by the rice-plants, but by reason of the darkness; the
+light not extending far enough from the fire to illumine objects on the
+river. Nevertheless, new difficulties presented themselves. When clear
+of the rice, the wind, which still blew strong, pressed upon his canoe
+to such a degree as not only to stop its further movement from the
+shore, but so as to turn it broadside to, to its power. Trying with
+his wand, the bee-hunter ascertained that it would no longer reach the
+bottom. Then he attempted to use the cane as a paddle, but soon found
+it had not sufficient hold of the water to answer for such an implement.
+The most he could effect with it, in that way, was to keep the canoe for
+a short distance along the outer edge of the rice, until it reached a
+spot where the plant extended a considerable distance farther toward the
+middle of the river. Once within this little forest of the wild rice, he
+was enabled to drag the canoe farther and farther from the north shore,
+though his progress was both slow and laborious, on account of the
+resistance met.
+
+All this time, the savages were not idle. Until the canoe got within
+its new cover, it was at no instant fifty yards from the beach, and the
+yells, and orders, and whoopings sounded as if uttered directly in le
+Bourdon's ear. A splashing in the water soon announced that our fugitive
+was pursued by swimmers. As the savages knew that the beehunter was
+without a paddle, and that the wind blew fresh, the expectation
+of overtaking their late captive, in this manner, was by no means
+chimerical. Half a dozen active young men would prove very formidable to
+one in such a situation, more especially while entangled in the mazes
+of the rice-plant. The bee-hunter was so well convinced of this
+circumstance, that no sooner did he hear the splashes of the swimmers,
+than he redoubled his exertions to pull his canoe farther from the spot.
+But his progress was slow, and he was soon convinced that his impunity
+was more owing to the fact that his pursuers did not know where to find
+him, than to the rapidity of his flight.
+
+Notwithstanding his exertions, and the start obtained, le Bourdon soon
+felt assured that the swimmers were within a hundred feet of him, their
+voices coming from the outer margin of the cover in which he now lay,
+stationary. He had ceased dragging the canoe ahead, from an apprehension
+of being heard, though the rushing of the wind and the rustling of
+the rice might have assured him that the slight noises made by his
+own movements would not be very likely to rise above those sounds. The
+splashing of the swimmers, and their voices, gradually drew nearer,
+until the bee-hunter took up his rifle, determined to sacrifice the
+first savage who approached; hoping, thereby, to intimidate the others.
+For the first time, it now occurred to him that the breech of his rifle
+might be used as a paddle, and he was resolved to apply it to that
+service, could he once succeed in extricating himself from the enemies
+by whom he was nearly environed, and from the rice.
+
+Just as le Bourdon fancied that the crisis had arrived, and that he
+should soon be called on to kill his man, a shout was given by a savage
+at some distance in the river, and presently calls passed from mouth to
+mouth, among the swimmers. Our hero now listened to a degree that kept
+his faculty of hearing at a point of painful attention. The voices and
+plashes on the water receded, and what was startling, a sound was heard
+resembling that which as produced by a paddle when struck incautiously
+against the side of a canoe. Was it then possible that the Chippewa was
+out, or had the Pottawattamies one boat that had escaped his attention?
+The last was not very probable, as he had several times counted their
+little fleet, and was pretty sure of having taken it all to the other
+side of the river. The sound of the paddle was repeated, however; then
+it occurred to the bee-hunter, that Pigeonswing might be on the scent
+for another scalp.
+
+Although the conjecture just mentioned was exceedingly unpleasant to le
+Bourdon, the chase of the strange canoe gave him an opportunity to drag
+his own light craft ahead, penetrating deeper and deeper among the wild
+rice, which now spread itself to a considerable distance from the shore,
+and grew so thick as to make it impossible to get through the waving
+mass. At length, wearied with his exertions, and a little uncertain as
+to his actual position, our hero paused, listening intently, in order to
+catch any sounds that might direct his future movements.
+
+By this time the savages ceased to call to each other; most probably
+conscious of the advantage it gave the fugitive. The bee-hunter
+perfectly understood that his pursuers must be aware of its being
+entirely out of his power to get to windward, and that they would keep
+along the shore of the river, as he did himself, expecting to see his
+canoe sooner or later driven by the wind on the beach. This had made him
+anxious to drag his boat as much toward the outer edge of the rice as
+he could get it, and by the puffs of wind that he occasionally felt, he
+hoped he had, in a great measure, effected his purpose. Still he had his
+apprehensions of the savages; as some would be very apt to swim quite
+out into the stream, not only to look for him, but to avoid being
+entangled among the plants. It was only in the natural channels of the
+rice, of which there were a good many, that a swimmer could very readily
+make his way, or be in much safety. By waiting long enough, moreover,
+the bee-hunter was sure he should tire out his pursuers, and thus get
+rid of them.
+
+Just as le Bourdon began to think this last-mentioned purpose had
+been accomplished, he heard low voices directly to windward, and the
+splashing of water, as if more than one man was coming down upon him,
+forcing the stalks of the plants aside. He grasped the rifle, and let
+the canoe drift, which it did slowly, under the power of the wind,
+notwithstanding the protection of the cover. The swimmers forced their
+way through the stalks; but it was evident, just then, that they
+were more occupied by their present pursuit than in looking for him.
+Presently a canoe came brushing through the rice, forced by the wind,
+and dragged by two savages, one of whom swam on each bow. The last did
+not see the bee-hunter, or his canoe, the one nearest having his face
+turned in the opposite direction; but they were distinctly seen by the
+former. Surprised that a seizure should be made with so little fracas,
+le Bourdon bent forward to look the better, and, as the stern of the
+strange canoe came almost under his eyes, he saw the form of Margery
+lying in its bottom. His blood curdled at this sight; for his first
+impression was, that the charming young creature had been killed and
+scalped; but there being no time to lose, he sprang lightly from one
+canoe to the other, carrying the rifle in his hand. As he struck in
+the bottom of the boat of Gershom, he heard his name uttered in a
+sweet female voice, and knew that Margery was living. Without stopping,
+however, to inquire more, he moved to the head of the canoe, and, with
+a sharp blow on the fingers, made each of the savages release his grasp.
+Then, seizing the rice-plants, he dragged the little craft swiftly to
+windward again. All this was done, as it might be, in an instant; the
+savages and the canoe being separated some twenty feet, in much less
+time than is required to relate the occurrence.
+
+"Bourdon, are you injured?" asked Margery, her voice trembling with
+anxiety.
+
+"Not in the least, dear Margery--and you, my excellent girl?"
+
+"They caught my canoe, and I almost died of fright; but they have only
+dragged it toward the shore."
+
+"God be praised! Is there any paddle in the canoe?"
+
+"There are several--one is at your feet, Bourdon--and here, I have
+another."
+
+"Then, let us search for my canoe, and get out of the rice. If we can
+but find my canoe, we shall be safe enough, for the savages have nothing
+in which to cross the river. Keep your eyes about you, Margery, and look
+among the rice for the other boat."
+
+The search was not long, but it was intently anxious. At length Margery
+saw the lost canoe just as it was drifting past them, and it was secured
+immediately. In a few minutes, le Bourdon succeeded in forcing the
+two craft into open water, when it was easy for him to paddle both to
+windward. The reader can readily imagine that our hero did not permit
+many minutes to elapse, ere he questioned his companion on the subject
+of her adventures. Nor was Margery reluctant to tell them. She had
+become alarmed at le Bourdon's protracted absence, and taking advantage
+of Pigeonswing lying down, she unloaded her brother's canoe, and
+went out into the river to look for the absent one. As a matter of
+course--though so feminine and far removed from all appearance of
+coarseness, a true American girl in this respect--Margery knew perfectly
+well how to manage a bark canoe. The habits of her life for the last few
+years, made her acquainted with this simple art; and strength being
+much less needed than skill, she had no difficulty in going whither
+she wished. The fires served as beacons, and Margery had been a distant
+witness of the bee-hunter's necromancy as well as of his escape. The
+instant the latter was effected, she endeavored to join him; and it was
+while incautiously paddling along the outer edge of the rice, with this
+intention, that her canoe was seized by two of the swimmers. As soon as
+these last ascertained that they had captured a "squaw," they did not
+give themselves the trouble to get into the canoe--a very difficult
+operation with one made of bark, and which is not loaded--but they
+set about towing the captured craft to the shore, swimming each with a
+single hand and holding on by the other.
+
+"I shall not soon forget this kindness of yours, Margery," said le
+Bourdon, with warmth, when the girl had ended her simple tale, which
+had been related in the most artless and ingenuous manner. "No man could
+forget so generous a risk on the part of a young woman in his behalf."
+
+"I hope you do not think it wrong, Bourdon--I should be sorry to have
+you think ill of me!"
+
+"Wrong, dear Margery!--but no matter. Let us get ourselves out of
+present difficulties, and into a place of safety; then I will tell you
+honestly what I think of it, and of you, too. Was your brother awake,
+dear Margery, when you left the family?"
+
+"I believe not--he sleeps long and heavily after drinking. But he can
+now drink no more, until he reaches the settlements."
+
+"Not unless he finds the whiskey spring," returned the bee-hunter,
+laughing.
+
+The young man then related to his wondering companion the history of the
+mummery and incantations of which she had been a distant spectator. Le
+Bourdon's heart was light, after his hazards and escape, and his spirits
+rose as his narrative proceeded. Nor was pretty Margery in a mood to
+balk his humor. As the bee-hunter recounted his contrivances to elude
+the savages, and most especially when he gave the particulars of the
+manner in which he managed to draw whiskey out of the living rock, the
+girl joined in his merriment, and filled the boat with that melody of
+the laugh of her years and sex, which is so beautifully described by
+Halleck.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+     The things that once she loved are still the same;
+     Yet now there needs another name
+     To give the feeling which they claim,
+       While she the feeling gives;
+     She cannot call it gladness or delight;
+     And yet there seems to be a richer, lovelier light
+     On e'en the humblest thing that lives.
+                                --WASHINGTON ALLSTON.
+
+
+The history given by le Bourdon lasted until the canoes reached the
+south shore. Glad enough was Dorothy to see them both safe back, for
+neither of her companions had yet awoke. It was then midnight, and all
+now retired to seek the rest which might be so needful to prepare them
+for the exertions of the next day. The bee-hunter slept in his canoe,
+while Margery shared the buffalo-skin of her sister.
+
+As perfect security, for the moment at least, was felt by the sleepers,
+their slumbers were sound, and reached into the morning. Then le Bourdon
+arose, and withdrawing to a proper distance, he threw off his clothes
+and plunged into the stream, in conformity with a daily practice of his
+at that genial season of the year. After bathing, the young man ascended
+a hill, whence he might get a good view of the opposite shore, and
+possibly obtain some notion of what the Pottawattamies were about. In
+all his movements, however, the bee-hunter had an eye to the concealment
+of his person, it being of the last importance that the savages should
+not learn his position. With the intention of concealment, the fire had
+been suffered to go down, a smoke being a sign that no Indian would be
+likely to overlook. As for the canoe and the bivouac of the party, the
+wild rice and an intermediate hill formed a perfect cover, so long as
+nothing was shown above them.
+
+From the height to which he ascended, the bee-hunter, aided by his
+glass, got a very clear view of Whiskey Centre and the parts adjacent.
+The savages were already stirring, and were busy in the various
+avocations of the red man on a war-path. One party was disposing of
+the body of their dead companion. Several were cooking, or cleaning the
+wild-fowl shot in the bay, while a group was collected near the spot of
+the wished-for spring, reluctant to abandon the hopes to which it had
+given birth, at the very moment they were plotting to obtain the scalp
+of the "medicine-man." The beloved "fire-water," that seduces so many
+to their destruction, who have enjoyed the advantages of moral teaching,
+and which has been a withering curse on the red man of this continent,
+still had its influence; and the craving appetites of several of the
+drunkards of the party brought them to the spot, as soon as their eyes
+opened on the new day. The bee-hunter could see some of this cluster
+kneeling on the rocks, lapping like hounds at the scattered little
+pools of the liquor, while others scented around, in the hope of yet
+discovering the bird that laid the golden egg. Le Bourdon had now little
+expectation that his assumed character could be maintained among these
+savages any longer, did accident again throw him in their way. The
+chiefs, he saw, had distrusted him all along, but had given him an
+opportunity to prove what he could do, in order to satisfy the more
+vulgar curiosity of their young men. He wisely determined, therefore, to
+keep out of the hands of his enemies.
+
+Although le Bourdon could hold a conversation in the tongue of
+the Ojebways, he was not fond of so doing. He comprehended without
+difficulty nearly all of what was said by them, and had observed the
+previous night that the warriors made many allusions to a chief whom
+they styled Onoah, but who he himself knew was usually called Scalping
+Peter among the whites of that frontier. This savage had a fearful
+reputation at all the garrisons, though he never showed himself in
+them; and he was now spoken of by the Pottawattamies present, as if they
+expected to meet him soon, and to be governed by his commands or his
+advice. The bee-hunter had paid great attention whenever this dreaded
+name was mentioned, for he was fully aware of the importance of
+keeping clear of an enemy who bore so bad a reputation that it was not
+considered prudent for a white man to remain long in his company even
+in a time of peace. His English sobriquet had been obtained from the
+circumstances of its being reputed that this chief, who seemed to belong
+to no tribe in particular, while he had great influence with all, had
+on divers occasions murdered the palefaces who fell in his way, and then
+scalped them. It was added, that he had already forty notches on his
+pole, to note that number of scalps taken from the hated whites. In
+short, this Indian, a sort of chief by birth, though of what tribe no
+one exactly knew, appeared to live only to revenge the wrongs done his
+color by the intruders, who had come from toward the rising sun to
+drive his people into the great salt lake on the other side of the Rocky
+Mountains. Of course there was a good deal that was questionable in
+these reports; a rumor in the "openings" and on the prairies, having
+this general resemblance to those that circulate in town, and in
+drawing-rooms, and at feasts, that no one of them all can be relied on
+as rigidly exact. But le Bourdon was still young, and had yet to learn
+how little of that which we all hear is true, and how very much is
+false. Nevertheless, as an Indian tradition is usually more accurate
+than a white man's written history, so is a rumor of the forest
+generally entitled to more respect than the ceaseless gossipings of the
+beings who would be affronted were they not accounted civilized.
+
+The bee-hunter was still on the elevated bit of ground, making his
+observations, when he was joined by Margery. The girl appeared fresh and
+handsome, after a night of sleep, and coming from her dressing-room in
+a thicket, and over a stream of sweet running water; but she was sad and
+thoughtful. No sooner had le Bourdon shaken her hand, and repeated his
+thanks for the succor of the past night, than the full heart of Margery
+poured out its feelings, as the swollen stream overflows its banks, and
+began to weep.
+
+"Brother is awake," she said, as soon as her sobs were quieted by a
+powerful effect; "but, as is usual with him after hard drinking, so
+stupid, that Dolly cannot make him understand our danger. He tells her
+he has seen too many Injins to be afraid of these, and that they will
+never harm a family that has brought so much liquor into their country."
+
+"His senses must be at a low ebb, truly, if he counts on Injin
+friendship because he has sold fire-water to the young men!" answered
+le Bourdon, with a nice understanding of not only Indian nature, but
+of human nature. "We may like the sin, Margery, while we detest the
+tempter. I have never yet met with the man, pale-face or red-skin, who
+did not curse, in his sober moments, the hand that fed his appetite
+while intoxicated."
+
+"I dare say that may be very true," returned the girl, in a low voice;
+"but one has need of his reason to understand it. What will become of us
+now, it is hard to say."
+
+"Why, now, Margery, more than yesterday, or the day before?"
+
+"Yesterday there were no savages near us, and Gershorn had all along
+told us he intended to start for the garrison at the head of the lake,
+as soon as he got back from his visit to the openings. He is back; but
+not in a state to protect his wife and sister from the red man, who will
+be looking for us as soon as they can build a canoe, or anything that
+will do to cross the river with."
+
+"Had they even a canoe," returned le Bourdon, coolly, "they would not
+know where to look for us. Thank Heaven! that will be a job that would
+take some time; nor is a bark canoe built in a minute. But, Margery,
+if your brother be a little dull and heavy, after his debauch, _I_ am
+sober, and as much awake as ever I was in my life."
+
+"Oh! you have no weakness like that of poor brother's, to make you
+otherwise; but, Bourdon, you will naturally wish to take care of
+yourself and your property, and will quit us the first good opportunity.
+I'm sure that we have no right to expect you will stay a minute longer
+than it is your interest to do so, and I do not know that I wish it."
+
+"Not wish it, Margery!" exclaimed the bee-hunter, in the manner of a
+disappointed man. "I had supposed you would have wished my company. But,
+now I know the contrary, I shall not much care how soon I go, or into
+whose hands I fall."
+
+It is strange how apt are those who ought to understand one another so
+readily, to misinterpret each other's thoughts. Margery had never seen
+the bee-hunter twenty-four hours before, though she had often heard
+of him, and of his success in his art; for the fame of a man of good
+reputation and active qualities spreads far on a frontier. The very
+individual whose existence would be nearly overlooked in a crowded
+region, shall be spoken of, and known by his qualities, a hundred
+leagues from his place of residence, when settlements are few and far
+apart. In this way, Margery had heard of Boden, or of "Bourdon," as she
+called him, in common with hundreds who, confounding his real name with
+his sobriquet, made the mistake of using the last under the impression
+that it was the true appellation. Margery had no other knowledge of
+French than the few words gleaned in her slow progress among a frontier
+on which, it is true, more of that language than of any other was heard,
+but heard under circumstances that were not particularly favorable to
+the acquisition of a foreign tongue. Had she understood the real meaning
+of "Bourdon," she would have bitten off her tongue before she would have
+once called Boden by such an appellation; though the bee-hunter himself
+was so accustomed to his Canadian nickname as to care nothing at all
+about it. But Margery did not like to give pain to any one; and, least
+of all, would she desire to inflict it on the bee-hunter, though he
+were only an acquaintance of a day. Still, Margery could not muster
+sufficient courage to tell her new friend how much he was mistaken, and
+that of all the youths she had ever met she would most prefer to keep
+him near her brother and sister in their distress; while the young man,
+inspired by a pure and infant passion, was just in the frame of mind to
+believe the worst of himself, and of his claims to the attention of her
+who had begun to occupy so many of his thoughts.
+
+No explanation occurring, our young people descended from the hill,
+misconceiving each other's meaning and wishes, and unhappy under the
+influence of an ideal source of misery, when actual circumstances
+created so many that were substantial and real. Gershom was found
+awake, but, as his sister had described him, stupid and lethargic. The
+bee-hunter at once saw that, in his present condition, Whiskey Centre
+would still be an incumbrance rather than of any service, in the event
+of an occasion for extraordinary exertion. Margery had hinted that it
+usually took twenty-four hours to bring her brother entirely round,
+after one of his serious debauches; and within that time it was more
+than probable that the fate of the family would be decided.
+
+Le Bourdon thought intently, during breakfast, of the condition of his
+party, and of the best mode of proceeding, while the pallid and anxious
+young creature at his side believed he was deliberating solely on the
+best means of extricating himself and his store of honey, from the
+savages on the other shore. Had the acquaintance between these young
+people been of longer date than it actually was, Margery could not
+have entertained a notion so injurious to the bee-hunter, for a single
+moment; but there was nothing either violent, or depreciating, in
+supposing that one so near being a total stranger would think first of
+himself and his own interests, in the situation in which this young man
+was now placed.
+
+Little was said during the meal. Dorothy was habitually silent; the
+result of grief and care. As for her husband, he was too stupid to
+talk, though usually somewhat garrulous; while the Indian seldom did
+two things at the same time. This was the hour for acting; when that
+for talking should arrive, he would be found equal to its duties.
+Pigeonswing could either abstain from food, or could indulge in it
+without measure, just as occasion offered. He had often gone for
+days without tasting a mouthful, with the exception of a few berries,
+perhaps; and he had lain about the camp-fire, a week at a time, gorging
+himself with venison, like an anaconda. It is perhaps fortunate for the
+American Indian, that this particular quality of food is so very easy of
+digestion, since his excesses on it are notorious, and so common to his
+habits as almost to belong to his nature. Death might otherwise often be
+the consequence.
+
+When the breakfast was ended, it was time to consult about the future
+course. As yet, the Pottawattamies had made no new discovery; but the
+sagacity of the red man was ever to be feared, when it came to be merely
+a question of finding his foe in a forest.
+
+"We have obtained one advantage over the enemy," said le Bourdon, "by
+crossing the river. Water leaves no trail; even had Crowsfeather a
+canoe, he might not know where to go in it, in order to find us."
+
+"Dat not so," put in the Chippewa, a little dogmatically; "know we hab
+canoe--know cross river in him."
+
+"Why should they know this, Pigeonswing? We may have gone out upon the
+lake, or we may have gone up in the oak openings again, for anything the
+Pottawattamies can know to the contrary."
+
+"Tell you, not so. Know don't go on lake, cause wind blow. Know don't
+go up river, cause dat hard work; know come here, cause dat easy. Injin
+like to do what easy, and pale-face do just what Injin do. Crowsfeather
+make raft, pretty soon; den he come look arter scalp."
+
+"Yes," said Margery, gently; "you had better load your canoe at once,
+and go on the lake, while the savages cannot reach you. The wind is fair
+for them that are to go north; and I have heard you say that you are
+bound to Mackinaw."
+
+"I shall load my canoe, and I shall load yours, too, Margery; but I
+shall not go away from this family, so long as any in it stand in need
+of my services."
+
+"Brother will be able to help us by afternoon. He manages a canoe well,
+when himself; so go, Bourdon, while you can. I dare say you have a
+mother at home; or a sister perhaps a wife--"
+
+"Neither," interrupted the bee-hunter, with emphasis. "No one expects
+me; no one has a right to expect me."
+
+The color stole into pretty Margery's cheeks as she heard these words,
+and a ray of comfort gleamed on an imagination that, for the last hour,
+had been portraying the worst. Still, her generous temper did not like
+the idea of the bee-hunter's sacrificing himself for those who had
+so few claims on him, and she could not but again admonish him of the
+necessity of losing no time.
+
+"You will think better of this, Bourdon," the girl resumed. "We are
+going south, and cannot quit the river with this wind, but you could
+not have a better time to go north, unless the wind blows harder than I
+think it does."
+
+"The lake is a bad water for a canoe, when there is much wind," put in
+Gershom, yawning after he had spoken, as if the effort fatigued him,
+"I wonder what we're all doing over on this side of the river! Whiskey
+Centre is a good enough country for me; I'm going back to look arter my
+casks, now I've breakfasted. Come, Doll; let's load up, and be off."
+
+"You are not yourself yet, Gershom," returned the sorrowful wife, "or
+you would not talk in this way. You had better listen to the advice of
+Bourdon, who has done so much for us already, and who will tell you the
+way to keep out of Injin clutches. We owe our lives to Bourdon, Gershom,
+and you should thank him for it."
+
+Whiskey Centre muttered a few half intelligible words of thanks, and
+relapsed into his state of drowsy indifference. The bee-hunter saw,
+however, that the effects of the brandy were leaving him, and he managed
+to get him on one side, where he persuaded the fellow to strip and go
+into the water. The bath did wonders for the poor creature, who soon
+got to be so far himself again, as to be of use, instead of being an
+incumbrance. When sober, and more especially when sober for several
+consecutive days, Gershom was a man of sufficient energy, possessing
+originally great personal strength and activity, which had been
+essentially lessened, however, by his excesses in liquor. It has already
+been stated what a different being he became, in a moral point of view,
+after having been sober for any length of time.
+
+On his return from the bathing, le Bourdon again joined the females.
+Margery had been weeping; but she smiled in a friendly way, on meeting
+his eye, and appeared less anxious for his departure than she had been
+an hour before. As the day advanced, and no signs of the savages were
+seen, a sense of greater security began to steal over the females, and
+Margery saw less necessity for the departure of their new friend. It
+was true, he was losing a wind; but the lake was rough, and after all
+it might be better to wait. In short, now that no immediate danger was
+apparent, Margery began to reason in conformity with her wishes, as is
+so apt to be the case with the young and inexperienced. The bee-hunter
+perceived this change in the deportment of his fair friend, and was well
+enough disposed to hope it would admit of a favorable construction.
+
+All this time, the Chippewa had taken little visible interest in the
+state of the party to which he had now attached himself. The previous
+evening had been fertile in excitement and in gratification, and he had
+since slept and ate to his entire content. He was ready to meet events
+as they might arise, and began to plot the means of obtaining more
+Pottawattamie scalps. Let not the refined reader feel disdisgust at this
+exhibition of the propensities of an American savage. Civilized life has
+had, and still has, very many customs, little less excusable than that
+of scalping. Without dragging into the account the thousand and one sins
+that disgrace and deform society, it will be sufficient to look into the
+single interest of civilized warfare, in order to make out our case. In
+the first place, the noblest strategy of the art is, to put the greatest
+possible force on the least of the enemy, and to slay the weaker party
+by the mere power of numbers. Then, every engine that ingenuity can
+invent, is drawn into the conflict; and rockets, revolvers, shells, and
+all other infernal devices, are resorted to, in order to get the
+better of an enemy who is not provided with such available means of
+destruction. And after the battle is over, each side commonly claims
+the victory; sometimes, because a partial success has been obtained in a
+small portion of the field; sometimes, because half a dozen horses have
+run away with a gun, carrying it into the hostile ranks; and, again,
+because a bit of rag has fallen from the hands of a dead man, and been
+picked up by one of the opposing side. How often has it happened that a
+belligerent, well practised in his art, has kept his own colors out of
+the affair, and then boasted that they were not lost! Now, an Indian
+practises no such shameless expedients. His point of honor is not a
+bit of rag, but a bit of his skin. He shaves his head because the hair
+encumbers him; but he chivalrously leaves a scalp-lock, by the aid of
+which his conquerors can the more easily carry away the coveted
+trophy. The thought of cheating in such a matter never occurs to his
+unsophisticated mind; and as for leaving his "colors" in barracks, while
+he goes in the field himself, he would disdain it--nay, cannot practise
+it; for the obvious reason that his head would have to be left with
+them.
+
+Thus it was with Pigeonswing. He had made his toilet for the war-path,
+and was fierce in his paint, but honest and fair-dealing in other
+particulars. If he could terrify his enemies by looking like a skeleton,
+or a demon, it was well; his enemy would terrify him, if possible, by
+similar means. But neither would dream, or did dream, of curtailing, by
+a single hair, that which might be termed the flag-staff of his scalp.
+If the enemy could seize it, he was welcome to the prize; but if he
+could seize that of the enemy, no scruples on the score of refinement,
+or delicacy, would be apt to interfere with his movements. It was in
+this spirit, then, that Pigeonswing came to the canoe, where le Bourdon
+was holding a little private discourse with Margery, and gave utterance
+to what was passing in his mind.
+
+"Good time, now, get more scalps, Bourdon," said the Chippewa, in his
+clipping, sententious English.
+
+"It is a good time, too, to keep our own, Chippewa," was the answer.
+"Your scalp-lock is too long, to be put before Pottawattamie eyes
+without good looking after it."
+
+"Nebber mind him--if go, go; if stay, stay. Always good for warrior to
+bring home scalp."
+
+"Yes; I know your customs in this respect, Pigeonswing, but ours are
+different. We are satisfied if we can keep out of harm's way, when we
+have our squaws and pappooses with us."
+
+"No pappooses here," returned the Indian, looking around him--"dat your
+squaw, eh?"
+
+The reader can readily imagine that this abrupt question brought blushes
+into the cheeks of pretty Margery, making her appear ten times
+more handsome than before; while even le Bourdon did not take the
+interrogatory wholly undisturbed. Still, the latter answered manfully,
+as became his sex.
+
+"I am not so fortunate as to have a squaw, and least of all to have
+this" said le Bourdon.
+
+"Why no hab her--she good squaw," returned the literal-minded
+Indian--"han'some 'nough for chief. You ask; she hab--now squaw
+well--always like warrior to ask him fuss; den say, yes."
+
+"Aye, that may do with your red-skin squaws," le Bourdon hastily
+replied; for he saw that Margery was not only distressed, but a little
+displeased--"but not with the young women of the pale-faces. I never saw
+Margery before last evening; and it takes time for a pale-face girl to
+know a youth."
+
+"Just so wid red-skin--sometime don't know, till too late! See plenty
+dat, in wigwam."
+
+"Then it is very much in the wigwams as it is in the houses. I have
+heard this before."
+
+"Why not same?--skin make no difference--pale-face spile squaw,
+too--make too much of her."
+
+"That can never be!" exclaimed le Bourdon, earnestly. "When a pretty,
+modest, warm-hearted young woman accepts a youth for a husband, he can
+never make enough of her!"
+
+On hearing sentiments so agreeable to a woman's ears, Margery looked
+down, but she looked pleased. Pigeonswing viewed the matter very
+differently; and being somewhat of a partisan in matters relating
+to domestic economy, he had no thought of leaving a point of so much
+importance in so bad a way. Accordingly, it is not surprising that,
+in pursuing the subject, he expressed opinions in several essentials
+diametrically the reverse of those of the bee-hunter.
+
+'"Easy 'nough spile squaw," rejoined the Chippewa. "What she good for,
+don't make her work? Can't go on the warpath--can't take scalp--can't
+shoot deer--can't hunt--can't kill warrior--so muss work. Dat what squaw
+good for."
+
+"That may do among red men, but we pale-faces find squaws good for
+something else--we love them and take care of them--keep them from the
+cold in winter, and from the heat in summer; and try to make them as
+comfortable and happy as we can."
+
+"Dat good talk for young squaw's ears," returned the Chippewa, a little
+contemptuously as to manner; though his real respect for the bee-hunter,
+of whose prowess he had so lately been a witness, kept him a little
+within bounds "but it bess not take nobody in. What Injin say to squaw,
+he do--what pale-face say, he no do."
+
+"Is that true, Bourdon?" demanded Margery, laughing at the Indian's
+earnestness.
+
+"I shall be honest, and own that there may be some truth in it--for the
+Injin promises nothing, or next to nothing, and it is easy to square
+accounts, in such cases. That white men undertake more than they always
+perform, is quite likely to be the fact The Injin gets his advantage in
+this matter, by not even thinking of treating his wife as a woman should
+be treated."
+
+"How should treat woman?" put in Pigeonswing with warmth. "When warrior
+eat venison, gib her rest, eh? Dat no good--what you call good, den? If
+good hunter husband, she get 'nough--if an't good hunter, she don't get
+'nough. Just so wid Injin--sometime hungry, sometime full. Dat way to
+live!"
+
+"Aye, that may be your red man's ways, but it is not the manner in which
+we wish to treat our wives. Ask pretty Margery, here, if she would be
+satisfied to wait until her husband had eaten his dinner, and then come
+in for the scraps. No-no-Pigeonswing; we feed our women and children
+first and come in last, ourselves."
+
+"Dat good for pappoose--he little; want venison--squaw tough; use to
+wait. Do her good."
+
+Margery now laughed outright, at these specimens of Indian gallantry,
+which only too well embody the code of the red man's habits. Doubtless
+the heart has its influence among even the most savage people, for
+nature has not put into our breasts feelings and passions to be
+discarded by one's own expedients, or wants. But no advocate of the
+American Indian has ever yet been able to maintain that woman fills her
+proper place in his estimate of claims. As for Margery, though so long
+subject to the whims, passions and waywardness of a drunkard, she
+had reaped many of the advantages of having been born in that woman's
+paradise, New England. We are no great admirers of the legacy left
+by the Puritan to his descendants, taken as an inheritance in morals,
+manners, and customs, and as a whole; though there are parts, in the way
+of codicils, that there is no portion of the Christian world which might
+not desire to emulate. In particular, do we allude to the estimate put
+upon, and the treatment received by their women. Our allusion is not to
+the refinements and gracefulness of polished intercourse; for of THEM,
+the Blarney Rock of Plymouth has transmitted but a meagre account in the
+inventory, and perhaps the less that is said about this portion of the
+family property the better; but, dropping a few degrees in the social
+scale, and coming down to the level where we are accustomed to regard
+people merely as men and women, we greatly question if any other portion
+of the world can furnish a parallel to the manly, considerate, rational,
+and wisely discriminating care, that the New England husband, as the
+rule, bestows on his wife; the father on his daughter; or the brother
+on his sister. Gershom was a living, and, all things considered, a
+remarkable instance of these creditable traits. When sober, he was
+uniformly kind to Dorothy; and for Margery he would at any time risk
+his life. The latter, indeed, had more power over him than his own
+wife possessed, and it was her will and her remonstrances that most
+frequently led him back from the verge of that precipice over which he
+was so often disposed to cast himself. By some secret link she bound him
+closest to the family dwelling, and served most to recall the days of
+youth and comparative innocence, when they dwelt together beneath
+the paternal roof, and were equally the objects of the affection and
+solicitude of the same kind mother. His attachment to Dorothy was
+sincere, and, for one so often brutalized by drink, steady; but Dorothy
+could not carry him as far back, in recollections, as the one only
+sister who had passed the morning of life with him, in the same homely
+but comfortable abode.
+
+We have no disposition to exaggerate the character of those whom it is
+the fashion to term the American yeomen, though why such an appellation
+should be applied to any in a state of society to which legal
+distinctions are unknown, is what we could never understand. There are
+no more of esquires and yeomen in this country than there are of knights
+and nobles, though the quiet manner in which the transition from the old
+to the new state of things has been made, has not rendered the public
+mind very sensible to the changes. But, recurring to the class, which is
+a positive thing and consequently ought to have a name of some sort or
+other, we do not belong to those that can sound its praises without some
+large reservations on the score of both principles and manners. Least of
+all, are we disposed to set up these yeomen as a privileged class,
+like certain of the titular statesmen of the country, and fall down and
+worship a calf--not a golden one by the way--of our own setting up.
+We can see citizens in these yeomen, but not princes, who are to be
+especially favored by laws made to take from others to bestow on them.
+But making allowances for human infirmities, the American freeholder
+belongs to a class that may justly hold up its head among the tillers
+of the earth. He improves daily, under the influence of beneficent
+laws, and if he don't get spoiled, of which there is some danger, in the
+eagerness of factions to secure his favor, and through that favor his
+VOTE--if he escape this danger, he will ere long make a reasonably near
+approach to that being, which the tongue of the flatterer would long
+since have persuaded him he had already more than got to be.
+
+To one accustomed to be treated kindly, as was the case with Margery,
+the Chippewa's theory for the management of squaws contained much to
+excite her mirth, as well as her resentment, as she now made apparent by
+her remarks.
+
+"You do not deserve to HAVE a wife, Pigeonswing," she cried,
+half-laughing, yet evidently alive to the feelings of her sex--"can have
+no gratitude for a wife's tenderness and care. I wonder that a Chippewa
+girl can be found to have you?"
+
+"Don't want him," coolly returned the Indian, making his preparations
+to light his pipe--"got Winnebagoe squaw, already; good 'nough for
+me. Shoot her t'other husband and take his scalp--den she come into my
+wigwam."
+
+"The wretch!" exclaimed Margery.
+
+But this was a word the savage did not understand, and he continued to
+puff at the newly lighted tobacco, with all of a smoker's zeal. When the
+fire was secured, he found time to continue the subject.
+
+"Yes, dat good war-path--got rifle; got wife; got TWO scalp! Don't do so
+well, ebbery day."
+
+"And that woman hoes your corn, and cooks your venison?" demanded the
+bee-hunter.
+
+"Sartain--capital good to hoe--no good to cook--make deer meat too dry.
+Want to be made to mind business. Bye'm by teach him. No l'arn all at
+once, like pale-face pappoose in school."
+
+"Pigeonswing, have you never observed the manner in which the white man
+treats his squaw?"
+
+"Sartain--see him make much of her--put her in warm corner--wrap
+blanket round her--give her venison 'fore he eat himself--see all dat,
+often--what den? DAT don't make it right."
+
+"I give you up, Chippewa, and agree with Margery in thinking you ought
+not to have a squaw, at all."
+
+"T'ink alike, den--why no get marry?" asked the Indian, without
+circumlocution.
+
+Margery's face became red as fire; then her cheeks settled into the
+color of roses, and she looked down, embarrassed. The bee-hunter's
+admiration was very apparent to the Indian, though the girl did not dare
+to raise her eyes from the ground, and so did not take heed of it. But
+this gossiping was suddenly brought to an end by a most unexpected cause
+of interruption; the manner and form of which it shall be our office to
+relate, in the succeeding chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+   So should it be--for no heart beats
+      Within his cold and silent breast;
+    To him no gentle voice repeats
+      The soothing words that make us blest.
+                                    --PEABODY.
+
+
+The interruption came from Dorothy, who, on ascending the little height,
+had discovered a canoe coming into the mouth of the river, and who was
+running, breathless with haste, to announce the circumstance to the
+bee-hunter. The latter immediately repaired to the eminence, and saw for
+himself the object that so justly had alarmed the woman. The canoe was
+coming in from the lake, after running before the wind, which now began
+to abate a little in its strength, and it evidently had been endeavoring
+to proceed to the northward. The reason for its entering the river, was
+probably connected with the cookery or food of the party, since the lake
+was each minute getting to be safer, and more navigable for so light
+a craft. To le Bourdon's great apprehension, he saw the savages on the
+north shore making signal to this strange canoe, by means of smoke,
+and he foresaw the probability of his enemies obtaining the means
+of crossing the stream, should the strangers proceed in the desired
+direction. To counteract this design, he ran down to a spot on the beach
+where there was no rice-plant, and showing himself to the strangers,
+invited them to land on the south side, which was much the nearest, and
+in other visible respects quite as convenient as the opposite bank
+of the river. One of the strangers soon made a gesture with an arm,
+implying assent, and the bows of this strange canoe were immediately
+turned toward the spot where the bee-hunter stood.
+
+As the canoe drew near, the whole party, including Pigeonswing, came
+to the margin of the water to receive the strangers. Of the last, there
+were three; one paddling at each end of the light bark, and a third
+seated in its centre, doing nothing. As the bee-hunter had his glass,
+with which he examined these visitors, he was soon questioned by his
+companions concerning their character and apparent purposes.
+
+"Who are they, Bourdon?" demanded the impatient Margery--"and why do
+they come here?"
+
+"The last is a question they must answer for themselves, but the
+person paddling in the bows of the canoe seems to be a white man, and a
+soldier--or a half-soldier, if one may judge from his dress. The man in
+the middle of the canoe is white, also. This last fellow seems to be
+a parson--yes, he is a clergyman, though pretty well used up in the
+wilderness, as to dress. The third man is a red-skin, beyond all doubt."
+
+"A clergyman!" repeated Margery, in surprise. "What should a clergyman
+be doing here?"
+
+"There are missionaries scattered about among the savages, I suppose
+you know, and this is probably one of them. A body can tell one of these
+parsons by his outside, as far as he can see him. The poor man has heard
+of the war, most likely, and is trying to get back into the settlements,
+while his scalp is safe on his head."
+
+"Don't hurt HIM" put in the Chippewa, pointedly. "Know MEAN well--talk
+about Great Spirit--Injin don't scalp sich medicine-men--if don't mind
+what he say, no good to take his scalp."
+
+"I'm glad to hear this, Pigeonswing, for I had begun to think NO man's
+scalp was safe under YOUR fingers. But what can the so'ger be doing
+down this-away? A body would think there was business enough for all
+the so'gers up at the garrison, at the head of the lake. By the way,
+Pigeonswing, what has become of your letter to the captain at Fort
+Dearborn, to let him know of the war?"
+
+"Chaw him up, like so much 'baccy," answered the Chippewa--"yes, chaw
+him up, lest Pottawattamie get hold on him, and ask one of King George's
+men to read him. No good to hab letter in sich times."
+
+"The general who employed you to carry that letter, will scarce thank
+you for your care."
+
+"Yes, he do--t'ank all same--pay all same--letter no use now."
+
+"How can you know that? The letter might be the means of preventing the
+garrison from falling into the enemy's hands."
+
+"Got dere, already. Garrison all kill, scalp, or prisoner. Pottawattamie
+talk tell me DAT!"
+
+"Is this possible! Mackinaw and Chicago both gone, already! John Bull
+must have been at work among the savages a long time, to get them into
+this state of readiness!"
+
+"Sartain--work long as can 'member. ALWAY somebody talkin' for great
+Montreal Fadder among red men."
+
+"It must be as you say, Chippewa--but, here are our visitors--let us see
+what we can make of THEM!"
+
+By this time, the canoe was so near as to render it easy to distinguish
+countenances and dress, without the aid of the glass--so near, indeed,
+that a swift-moving boat, like the canoe, might be expected soon to
+reach the shore. The truth of the observation of the bee-hunter was
+confirmed, as the strangers approached. The individual in the bows of
+the canoe was clearly a soldier, in a fatigue-dress, and the musket
+between his legs was one of those pieces that government furnishes to
+the troops of the line. The man in the middle of the boat could no more
+be mistaken than he in its bows. Each might be said to be in uniform--
+the well-worn, nay, almost threadbare black coat of the "minister," as
+much denoting him to be a man of peace, as the fatigue-jacket and cap on
+the person of his hard-featured and weather-beaten companion indicated
+that the last was a man of war. As for the red man, Pigeonswing declared
+that he could not yet tell his tribe, though there was that about his
+air, attire and carriage, that proclaimed him a chief�and, as the
+Chippewa fancied, a chief of note. In another minute, the bows of the
+light craft grated gently on the shingle of the beach.
+
+"Sago, sago," said the soldier, rising to step ashore--"sago all,
+friends, and I hope we come to a welcome camp."
+
+"You are welcome," returned the bee-hunter. "Welcome as strangers met in
+the wilderness, but more welcome, as I see by your dress that you are a
+veteran of one of Uncle Sam�s regiments."
+
+"Quite true, Mr. Bee-hunter ; for such I see is _your_ callin�, by the
+honey vessel and glass you carry, and by the other signs about you. We
+are travelling toward Mackinaw, and hope to fere as friends, while we
+stay in your good company."
+
+"In going to Mackinaw, do you expect to meet with an _American or an
+English_ garrison ?"
+
+"One of our own, to be sure," returned the soldier, looking up from his
+work, like one struck by the question.
+
+"Mackinaw has fallen, and is now an English post, as well as Chicago."
+
+"This, then, must alter our plans, Mr. Amen !" exclaimed the soldier,
+addressing the minister. "If the enemy has Mackinaw, it will not do for
+us to trust ourselves on the island."
+
+"Amen" was not the real name of the missionary ; but it was a
+_sobriquet_ bestowed by the soldiers, on account of the unction with
+which this particular word was ordinarily pronounced, and quite likely,
+too, because it was the word of all others most pleasant to their ears,
+after a sermon, or a prayer. It had, by long use, got to be so familiar,
+that the men did not scruple to use it to the good man�s face. This
+missionary was a Methodist ; a sect that possessed, in that day, very
+few clergymen of education, most of its divines coming of a class in
+life that did not predispose them to take offence at light invasions on
+their dignity, and whose zeal and habitual self-denial had schooled them
+into a submission to far more positive personal privations, than any
+connected with the mere tongue. That there are "wolves in sheep�s
+clothing" among the Methodists, as well as among the other religious
+sects of the country, our daily experience shows ; but the mind must be
+sadly inclined to believe evil of others, which does not see in the
+humble and untiring efforts of this particular sect of Christians, more
+than mere fanaticism or hypocrisy can produce.
+
+"You are right, corporal," returned the missionary ; "since this is the
+case, I see no better course for us to pursue, than to put ourselves
+altogether in the hands of Onoah. He has counselled us well, hitherto,
+and will do better by us than any other guide to be found, out in this
+wilderness."
+
+Le Bourdon could scarcely trust his sense of hearing ! Onoah was the
+Indian appellation of the terrible and most dreaded savage, who, in
+English, went by the name of Scalping Peter, or "Scalping Pete," among
+all the white dwellers on that frontier, and at all the garrisons of the
+Americans, far and near. The Indian name, indeed, was said to mean
+"scalp," in several of the dialects of the Iroquois. Perhaps it may be
+well, also, to explain here, that the term "garrison" did not imply, in
+the language of that region, the troops only who garrisoned a post, but
+it was even oftener applied to the post itself than to those who held
+it. Thus old, empty, and deserted forts, those that have actually been
+abandoned, and are devoted to decay, are almost universally styled the "
+garrisons," even though a soldier had not put foot in them for a quarter
+of a century. This is one of the proofs of the convertible nature of our
+language, of which the country affords so many, and which has changed
+the smaller-sized rivers into "creeks," "lakes" into "ponds," "squares"
+into "parks," public promenades on the water into "batteries"; to all of
+which innovations, bad as they may be, and useless and uncalled for, and
+wanton as they are, we are much more willing to submit, than to the new-
+fangled and lubberly abomination of saying "ON a steamboat," or "ON a
+ship."
+
+While le Bourdon was so much astounded at hearing the terrible name of
+Onoah, which was familiar enough to him, neither of his white companions
+betrayed any emotion. Had the Indian been termed "Scalping Peter," it
+is probable that both Dorothy and Margery would have screamed, if not
+actually fled; but they knew nothing of the appellation that was given
+to this mysterious chief, in the language of the red men. To this
+circumstance, therefore, was it owing that the utterance of his name did
+not produce a general commotion. The bee-hunter observed, nevertheless,
+a great change in the demeanor of the Chippewa, the instant the
+missionary had uttered the ominous word, though he did not seem to be
+alarmed. On the contrary, Boden fancied that his friend Pigeonswing was
+pleased, rather than terrified, at ascertaining the character of their
+visitor, though he no longer put himself forward, as had been the case
+previously; and from that moment the young warrior appeared to carry
+himself in a more subdued and less confident manner than was his wont.
+This unexpected demeanor on the part of his friend, somewhat confounded
+le Bourdon, though it in a degree relieved his apprehensions of any
+immediate danger. All this time, the conversation between the missionary
+and the corporal went on in as quiet and composed a manner, as if each
+saw no ground for any other uneasiness than that connected with the fall
+of Mackinaw.
+
+"Yes, sir," returned the soldier, "Onoah is a good guide, and a great
+hand at a council-fire; but these is war-times, and we must stand to
+our arms, each accordin' to his edication and temper--you, sir, with
+preachin' and prayin', and I with gun and baggonet."
+
+"Ah! corporal, the preaching and praying would be of quite as much
+account with you men of war, as your arms and ammunition, if you could
+only be made to think so. Look at Fort Dearborn! It was defended
+by human means, having its armed band, and its guns and swords, and
+captains and corporals; yet you have seen their pride lowered, their
+means of defence destroyed, and a large part of your comrades massacred.
+All this has been done to armed men, while the Lord has brought ME, an
+unarmed and humble teacher of his word, safely out of the hands of
+the Philistines, and placed me here in safety, on the shores of the
+Kalamazoo."
+
+"For that matter, Mr. Amen, the Lord has done the same by ME, with a
+musket on my shoulder and a baggonet by my side," returned the
+literal corporal. "Preachin' may be good on some marches; but arms and
+ammunition answers well enough on others. Hearken to the Hebrew, who
+knows all the ways of the wilderness, and see if he don't give you the
+same opinion." "The Hebrew is one of the discarded of the Lord, as he
+is one chosen of the Lord!" returned the missionary. "I agree with you,
+however, that he is as safe an adviser, for a human adviser, as can
+be easily found; therefore will I consult him. Child of the seed of
+Abraham," he added, turning to Onoah, "thou hast heard the tidings from
+Mackinaw; we cannot think, any longer, of pursuing our journey in that
+direction; whither, then, wouldst thou advise that we shall direct
+our steps? I ask this question of THEE first, as an experienced and
+sagacious dweller in the wilderness: at a more fitting time, I intend
+to turn to the Lord, and seek divine aid for the direction of our
+footsteps."
+
+"Aye," observed the corporal, who entertained a good deal of respect for
+the zealous, but slightly fanatical missionary, though he believed an
+Indian was always safe to consult in matters of this sort, "try BOTH--if
+one staff should fail, it may be well to have another to lean on. A good
+soldier always keeps a part of his troops for a reserve. I motto of his
+coat of arms; the "gare a qui la touchc," or "noli me tangere," of his
+device."
+
+The head was shaved, as is usual with a warrior, carrying only the
+chivalrous scalp-lock, but the chief was not in his paint. The outline
+of this celebrated savage's features was bold and eagle-like; a
+comparison that his steady, calm, piercing eye well sustained. The chin
+was full and expanded, the lips compressed and firm, the teeth were
+short, but even and sound, his smile courteous, and, at times, winning.
+
+In the way of attire, Onoah was simply dressed, consulting the season
+and his journey. He had a single eagle's feather attached to the
+scalp-lock, and wore a belt of wampum of more than usual value, beneath
+which he had thrust his knife and tomahawk; a light, figured and fringed
+hunting-shirt of cotton covered his body, while leggings of deerskin,
+with a plain moccasin of similar material, rose to his knee. The latter,
+with the lower part of a stout sinewy thigh, was bare. He also carried a
+horn and pouch, and a rifle of the American rather than of the military
+fashion that is, one long, true, and sighted to the deviation of a hair.
+
+On landing, Peter (for so he was generally called by the whites, when in
+courtesy they omitted the prefix of "Scalping") courteously saluted the
+party assembled around the bow of the canoe. This he did with a grave
+countenance, like a true American, but in simple sincerity, so far as
+human eye could penetrate his secret feelings. To each man he offered
+his hand, glancing merely at the two females; though it may be
+questioned if he ever before had looked upon so perfect a picture of
+female loveliness as Margery at that precise instant presented, with
+her face flushed with excitement, her spirited blue eye wandering with
+curiosity, and her beautiful mouth slightly parted in admiration.
+
+"Sago, sago!" said Peter, in his deep, guttural enunciation, speaking
+reasonably good English. "Sago, sago all, ole and young, friend come to
+see you, and eat in your wigwam--which head--chief, eh?"
+
+"We have neither wigwam nor chief here," answered le Bourdon, though he
+almost shrunk from taking the hand of one of whom he had heard the tales
+of which this savage had been the hero; "we are common people, and
+have no one among us who holds the States' commission. I live by taking
+honey, of which you are welcome to all you can want, and this man is a
+helper of the sutlers at the garrisons. He was travelling south to join
+the troops at the head of the lake, and I was going north to Mackinaw,
+on my way in, toward the settlements."
+
+"Why is my brother in such haste?" demanded Peter, mildly. "Bees get
+tired of making honey?"
+
+"The times are troubled, and the red men have dug up the hatchet; a
+pale-face cannot tell when his wigwam is safe."
+
+"Where my brodder wigwam?" asked Peter, looking warily around him. "See
+he an't here; where is he?"
+
+"Over in the openings, far up the Kalamazoo. We left it last week, and
+had got to the hut on the other shore, when a party of Pottawattamies
+came in from the lake, and drove us over here for safety."
+
+On hearing this, Peter turned slowly to the missionary, raising a finger
+as one makes a gesture to give emphasis to his words.
+
+"Tole you so," said the Indian. "Know dere was Pottawattamie dere. Can
+tell 'em great way off."
+
+"We fear them, having women in our party," added the bee-hunter, "and
+think they might fancy our scalps."
+
+"Dat like enough; all Injin love scalp in war-time. You Yankee, dey
+Br'ish; can't travel on same path now, and not quarrel. Must not let
+Pottawattamie catch you."
+
+"How are we to help it, now you have come in? We had all the canoes on
+this side of the river, and were pretty safe, but should you cross and
+place your canoe in their hands, there is nothing to prevent them from
+doing what they please with us. If you will promise not to cross the
+river till we can get out well on the lake, we may shift our ground,
+however, and leave no trail."
+
+"Muss cross over--yes, muss cross over, else Pottawattamie t'ink it
+strange--yes, muss cross over. Shan't touch canoe, dough."
+
+"How can you help it, if they be so minded? You are but a single man,
+and they are twenty."
+
+On hearing this, Corporal Flint pricked up his ears, and stood if
+possible more erect than ever, for he considered himself a part of a man
+at least, and one moreover who had served in all the wars of the west,
+from the great battle of St. Glair to that of Mad Anthony. He was spared
+the necessity of a reply, however, for Peter made a significant gesture
+which as much as told him that he would take that office on himself.
+
+"No need be afeard," said Peter, quietly. "Know Pottawattamie--know all
+chief. Nobody touch canoe of Onoah when he say don't touch him."
+
+"Yet they are Injins of the British, and I see you here in company with
+a soldier of Uncle Sam."
+
+"No matter; Onoah go just where he please. Sometime to Pottawattamie;
+sometime to Iroquois. All Ojebways know Onoah. All Six Nation know him
+well. All Injin know him. Even Cherokee know him now, and open ears when
+he speak. Muss cross river, and shake hand with Crowsfeather."
+
+There was nothing boastful, or vaunting, in Peter's manner while he
+thus announced his immunity or power, but he alluded to it in a quiet,
+natural way, like one accustomed to being considered a personage of
+consequence. Mankind, in general, make few allowances for the influence
+of habit; the sensibilities of the vainglorious themselves being quite
+as often wounded by the most natural and direct allusions of those who
+enjoy advantages superior to their own, as by those that are intended to
+provoke comparisons. In the present instance, however, no such feeling
+could exist, the Indian asserting no more than his extended reputation
+would fully maintain.
+
+When Peter had thus expressed himself, the missionary thought it meet to
+add a few words in explanation. This he did, however, aside, walking a
+little apart with the bee-hunter, in order so to do. As for Gershom,
+no one seemed to think him of sufficient importance to throw away any
+interest or care on him.
+
+"You can trust to Peter, friend bee-hunter," the missionary observed,
+"for what he promises he will perform. I know him well, and have put
+myself altogether in his hands. If he says that the Pottawattamies are
+not to have his canoe, the Pottawattamies will not get it. He is a man
+to be depended on."
+
+"Is not this, then, Scalping Peter, who bears so terrible a name on all
+this frontier?" demanded le Bourdon.
+
+"The same; but do not disturb yourself with names: they hurt no one, and
+will soon be forgotten. A descendant of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of
+Jacob, is not placed in the wilderness by the hand of divine power for
+no purpose; since he is here, rely on it, it is for good."
+
+"A descendant of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob! Is not Peter, then, a
+red-skin and an Injin?"
+
+"Certainly; though no one knows his tribe but himself. I know it, friend
+bee-hunter, and shortly shall proclaim it throughout the length and
+breadth of the land. Yes, it has been given to me to make this important
+discovery, though I sometimes think that Peter himself is really as
+ignorant as all around him of the tribe to which he properly belongs."
+
+"Do you wish to keep it a secret from me, too? I own that, in my eyes,
+the tribe of a red-skin goes a good way in making up my opinions of the
+man. Is he a Winnebagoe?"
+
+"No, my friend, the Winnebagoes have no claims on him at all."
+
+"Nor a Pottawattamie, Ottawa, or Ojebway of any sort?"
+
+"He is none of these. Peter cometh of a nobler tribe than any that
+beareth such names."
+
+"Perhaps he is an Injin of the Six Nations? They tell me that many such
+have found their way hither since the war of the revolution."
+
+"All that may be true, but Peter cometh not of Pottawattamie, Ottawa,
+nor Ojebway."
+
+"He can hardly be of the Sacs or the Foxes; he has not the appearance of
+an Injin from a region so far west."
+
+"Neither, neither, neither," answered Parson Amen, now so full of his
+secret as fairly to let it overflow. "Peter is a son of Israel; one of
+the lost children of the land of Judea, in common with many of his
+red brethren-mind, I do not say ALL, but with MANY of his red
+brethren--though he may not know exactly of what tribe himself. This
+last point has exercised me greatly, and days and nights have I pondered
+over the facts. Turn to Genesis XLIX and 14th, and there will you find
+all the authorities recorded. 'Zebulon shall dwell at the haven of the
+sea.' That refers to some other red brother, nearer to the coast, most
+clearly. 'Issachar is a strong ass, crouching down between two burdens';
+'and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.'
+That refers, most manifestly, to the black man of the Southern States,
+and cannot mean Peter. 'Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in
+the path.' There is the red man for you, drawn with the pencil of truth!
+'Gad, a troop shall overcome him.' Here, corporal, come this way and
+tell our new friend how Mad Anthony with his troopers finally routed
+the red-skins. You were there, and know all about it. No language can
+be plainer: until the 'long-knives and leather-stockings' came into the
+woods, the red man had his way. Against THEM he COULD not prevail."
+
+"Yes," returned Corporal Flint, who delighted in talking of the wars,
+"it was very much as Parson Amen says. The savages, by their nimbleness
+and artifices, would first ambush us, and then break away from our
+charges, until the gin'ral bethought him of bringing cavalry into
+the wilderness. Nobody ever thought of such a plan, until old Anthony
+invented it. As soon as we got the fire of the savages, at the Mawmee,
+we charged with the baggonet, and put 'em up; and no sooner was they
+up, than away went the horse into them, flourishing the 'long knife'
+and pressing the heel of the 'leather-stocking' into the flanks of their
+beasts. Mr. Amen has found a varse in Scriptur's that does come near to
+the p'int, and almost foretells our victory, and that, too, as plain as
+it stood in dispatches, arterward, from headquarters."
+
+"'Gad, a TROOP shall overcome him,'" put in the missionary,
+triumphantly.
+
+"That's it--that's it; there was just one troop on 'em, and not a
+man more! Mad Anthony said a troop would answer, arter we had put the
+red-skins up out of their ambushes, or any other bushes; and so it did.
+I must acknowledge that I think more of the Scriptur's than ever, since
+Parson Amen read to me that varse."
+
+"Hearken unto this, friend bee-hunter," added the missionary, who
+by this time had fairly mounted his hobby, and fancied he saw a true
+Israelite in every other Indian of the west, "and tell me if words were
+ever more prophetic--'Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf; in the morning he
+shall devour his prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.' The art
+of man could not draw a more faithful picture of these Indians."
+
+Boden was not much skilled in sacred lore, and scarce knew what to make
+of all this. The idea that the American Indians were the descendants
+of the lost tribes of Israel was entirely new to him; nor did he know
+anything to boast of, touching those tribes, even in their palmiest
+days, and while in possession of the promised land; still he had some
+confused recollection of that which he had read when a child--what
+American has not?--and was enabled to put a question or two, in return
+for the information now received. "What, do you take the savages of
+America for Jews?" he asked, understanding the general drift of the
+missionary's meaning.
+
+"As sure as you are there, friend bee-hunter, though you are not to
+suppose that I think Peter Onoah of the tribe of Benjamin. No, I turn to
+the 21st verse for the tribe of Peter Naphthali--Naphthalis, the root
+of his stock. 'Naphthali is a hind, let loose: he giveth goodly words.'
+Now, what can be plainer than this? A hind let loose is a deer running
+at large, and, by a metaphor, that deer includes the man that hunts him.
+Now, Peter has been--nay, is still--a renowned hunter, and is intended
+to be enumerated among the hinds let loose; 'he giveth goodly words,'
+would set that point at rest, if anything were wanting to put it beyond
+controversy, for Onoah is the most eloquent speaker ear ever listened
+to! No one, that has ever heard him speak, can doubt that he is the one
+who 'giveth goodly words.'"
+
+To what other circumstance the well-intentioned missionary would next
+have alluded, in the course of this demonstration of a theory that had
+got to be a favorite with him, is more than can now be related, since
+the Indian himself drew near, and put an end to the conversation. Peter
+had made up his mind to cross the river at once; and came to say as
+much to his companions, both of whom he intended to leave behind him. Le
+Bourdon could not arrest this movement, short of an appeal to force;
+and force he did not like to use, doubting equally its justice and its
+prudence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+  There is no other land like thee, No dearer shore; Thou art the shelter
+  of the free; The home, the port of liberty Thou hast been, and shall
+  ever be Till time is o'er. Ere I forget to think upon My land, shall
+  mother curse the son She bore.
+                                                    --Percival.
+
+
+The independent, not to say controlling, manner of Peter, would seem
+to put all remonstrances and arguments at defiance, Le Bourdon soon had
+occasion to see that both the missionary and the corporal submitted
+to his wishes, and that there was no use in gainsaying anything he
+proposed. In all matters he did as he pleased; his two companions
+submitting to his will as completely as if one of them had seen in this
+supposed child of Israel, Joshua, the son of Nun, and the other even
+Aaron, the high-priest, himself.
+
+Peter's preparations were soon made. Everything belonging to the
+missionary and the corporal was removed from the canoe, which then
+contained only the extra clothing and the special property of the Indian
+himself. As soon as ready, the latter quietly and fearlessly paddled
+away, his canoe going easily and swiftly down before the wind. He had no
+sooner got clear of the rice, than the bee-hunter and Margery ran away
+to the eminence, to watch his movements, and to note his reception among
+the Pottawattamies. Leaving them there, we shall accompany the canoe, in
+its progress toward the northern shore.
+
+At first, Peter paddled quietly on, as if he had no other object
+before him than the passage of the river. When quite clear of the
+rice, however, he ceased, and undid his bundle of clothes, which were
+carefully put away in the knapsack of a soldier. From this repository of
+his effects, the chief carefully drew forth a small bundle, on opening
+which, no less than seven fresh human scalps appeared. These he arranged
+in order on a wand-like pole, when, satisfied with the arrangement,
+he resumed the paddle. It was apparent, from the first, that the
+Pottawattamies on the north shore had seen the strange canoe when it
+entered the river, and they now collected in a group, at the ordinary
+landing beneath the chiente, to await its approach. Peter ceased his
+own exertion, as soon as he had got within a hundred yards of the beach,
+took the scalp-pole in his hand, arose, and permitted the canoe to drift
+down before the wind, certain it would take the desired direction, from
+the circumstance of his having placed it precisely to windward of
+the landing. Once or twice he slowly waved the pole in a way to draw
+attention to the scalps, which were suspended from its end, each obvious
+and distinct from its companions.
+
+Napoleon, when he returned from the campaign of Austerlitz; or
+Wellington, when he entered the House of Commons to receive the thanks
+of its speaker, on his return from Spain; or the chief of all the
+battles of the Rio Bravo del Norte; or him of the valley of Mexico,
+whose exploits fairly rival those of Cortes himself, could scarcely be a
+subject of greater interest to a body of spectators, assembled to do
+him honor, than was this well-known Indian, as he drew near to the
+Pottawattamies, waving his scalps, in significant triumph! Glory, as the
+homage paid by man to military renown is termed, was the common impulse
+with them all. It is true, that, measured by the standards of reason
+and right, the wise and just might find motives for appreciating the
+victories of those named differently from the manner in which they are
+usually regarded through the atmosphere of success; but in the common
+mind it was all glory, alike. The name of "Onoah" passed in murmurs of
+admiration, from mouth to mouth; for, as it appeared, the person of this
+renowned Indian was recognized by many on the shore, some time ere he
+reached it himself.
+
+Crowsfeather, and the other chiefs, advanced to meet the visitor; the
+young men standing in the background, in respectful admiration. Peter
+now stepped from the canoe, and greeted each of the principal men with
+the courteous gravity of a savage. He shook hands with each, calling
+one or two by name, a proof of the parties having met before; then
+the following dialogue occurred. All spoke in the tongue of the
+Pottawattamies, but, as we have had occasion to remark on previous
+occasions, it is to be presumed that the reader would scarcely be able
+to understand what was said, were we to record it, word for word, in the
+language in which it was uttered. In consequence of this difficulty, and
+for other reasons to which it may not be necessary to allude, we shall
+endeavor to translate that which passed, as closely as the English
+idioms will permit us so to do.
+
+"My father is very welcome!" exclaimed Crowsfeather, who, by many
+degrees, exceeded all his companions in consideration and rank. "I see
+he has taken many scalps as is his practice, and that the pale-faces are
+daily getting to be fewer. Will the sun ever rise on that day when their
+wigwams will look like the branches of the oak in winter? Can my father
+give us any hope of seeing that hour?"
+
+"It is a long path from the salt-lake out of which the sun rises, to
+that other salt-lake in which it hides itself at night. The sun sleeps
+each night beneath water, but it is so hot that it is soon dried when it
+comes out of its bed in the morning. This is the Great Spirit's doings,
+and not ours. The sun is his sun; the Indians can warm themselves by it,
+but they cannot shorten its journey a single tomahawk handle's length.
+The same is true of time; it belongs to the Manitou, who will lengthen
+or shorten it, as he may see fit. We are his children, and it is our
+duty to submit. He has not forgotten us. He made us with his own hand,
+and will no more turn us out of the land than a father will turn his
+child from the wigwam."
+
+"We hope this is so; but it does not seem thus to out poor weak eyes,
+Onoah. We count the pale-faces, and every summer they grow fast as the
+grass on the prairies. We can see more when the leaf falls than when
+the tree is in bud; and, then, more when the leaf is in bud than when
+it falls. A few moons will put a town where the pine stood, and wigwams
+drive the wolves from their homes. In a few years we shall have nothing
+but dogs to eat, if the pale-face dogs do not eat us."
+
+"Squaws are impatient, but men know how to wait. This land was given to
+the red man by the Great Spirit, as I have often told you, my children;
+if he has let in the pale-faces for a few winters, it is to punish us
+for having done wrong. Now that we are sorry for what we have done, he
+will help us to drive away the strangers, and give us the woods again
+to hunt in by ourselves. Have not messengers from our Great Father in
+Montreal been among the Pottawattamies to strengthen their hearts?"
+
+"They are always whispering in the ears of our tribes. I cannot remember
+the time when whispers from Montreal have not been among us. Their
+blankets are warm, their fire-water is strong, their powder is good,
+and their rifles shoot well; but all this does not stop the children of
+Uncle Sam from being more at night than they were in the morning. The
+red men get tired of counting them. They have become plentier than the
+pigeons in the spring. My father has taken many of their scalps, but the
+hair must grow after his knife, their scalps are so many."
+
+"See!" rejoined Peter, lowering his pole so that all might examine his
+revolting trophies, "these come from the soldiers at the head of the
+lake. Blackbird was there with his young men; no one of them all got as
+many scalps! This is the way to stop the white pigeon from flying over
+us in such flocks as to hide and darken the sun."
+
+Another murmur of admiration passed through the crowd, as each young
+warrior bent forward to count the number of the scalps, and to note,
+by signs familiar to themselves, the ages, sex, and condition of the
+different victims. Here was another instance among a hundred others of
+which they had heard, of the prowess of the mysterious Onoah, as well
+as of his inextinguishable hatred of the race, that was slowly, but
+unerringly, supplanting the ancient stock, causing the places that once
+knew the people of their tribes "to know them no more." As soon as this
+little burst of feeling had subsided, the conversation went on.
+
+"We have had a pale-face medicine-man among us, Onoah," continued
+Crowsfeather, "and he has so far blinded us that we know not what to
+think."
+
+The chief then recounted the leading events of the visit of the
+bee-hunter to the place, stating each occurrence fairly, as he
+understood it, and as fairly confessing that even the chiefs were at a
+loss to know what to make of the affair. In addition to this account,
+he gave the mysterious Onoah the history of the prisoner they had taken,
+the death of Elks-foot, their intention to torture that very morning the
+Chippewa they had captured, and his flight, together with the loss of
+their young man, and the subsequent escape of their unknown enemies,
+who had taken away all of their own canoes. How far the medicine-man had
+anything to do with the other events of his narrative, Crowsfeather very
+candidly admitted he could not even conjecture. He was still at a loss
+whether to set down the conjurer for a pretender, or as a real oracle.
+Peter, however, was less credulous even than the chiefs. He had his
+superstitious notions, like all uneducated men, but a clear head and
+quick intellect placed him far above the weaknesses of the red man
+in general. On receiving a description of the person of the unknown
+"medicine-man," he at once recognized the bee-hunter. With an Indian to
+describe, and an Indian to interpret or apply, escape from discovery was
+next to impossible.
+
+Although Onoah, or the "Tribeless," as he was also frequently called
+by the red men, from the circumstance of no one's knowing to what
+particular section of the great Indian family he belonged, perfectly
+understood that the bee-hunter he had seen on the other shore was the
+individual who had been playing the part of a conjurer among these
+Pottawattamies, he was very careful not to reveal the fact to
+Crowsfeather. He had his own policy, and was fully aware of all the
+virtue there is in mystery and reserve. With an Indian, these qualities
+go farther even than with a white man; and we of the Caucasian race are
+not entirely exempt from the folly of being deceived by appearances. On
+the present occasion Peter kept his knowledge to himself, still leaving
+his red brethren in doubt and uncertainty; but he took care to be right
+in his own opinions by putting as many questions as were necessary for
+that purpose. Once assured of this fact, he turned to other subjects of
+even greater interest to himself and his companions.
+
+The conference which now took place between the "Tribeless" and
+Crowsfeather was held apart, both being chiefs of too much importance
+to be intruded on at a moment like that. The two chiefs exhibited a very
+characteristic picture while engaged in this conference. They seated
+themselves on a bank, and drawing their legs partially under them, sat
+face to face, with their heads less than two feet asunder, occasionally
+gesticulating with dignity, but each speaking in his turn with studied
+decorum. Crowsfeather was highly painted, and looked fierce and warlike,
+but Onoah had nothing extraordinary about him, with the exception of
+the decorations and dress already described, unless it might be his
+remarkable countenance. The face of this Indian ordinarily wore a
+thoughtful cast, an expression which it is not unusual to meet with in
+a savage; though at times it lighted up, as it might be with the heat of
+inward fires, like the crater giving out its occasional flames beneath
+the hues of a saddened atmosphere. One accustomed to study the human
+face, and to analyze its expressions, would possibly have discovered in
+that countenance lines of deep artifice, together with the traces of
+a profound and constitutional enthusiasm. He was bent, at that
+very moment, on a scheme worthy of the loftiest spirit living; the
+regeneration and union of the people of his race, with a view to recover
+the possessions they had yielded to the pale-faces; but it was a project
+blended with the ferocity and revenge of a savage-noble while ferocious.
+
+Not idly had the whites, scattered along that frontier, given the
+sobriquet of "Scalping" to Peter, As his pole now showed, it had been
+earned in a hundred scenes of bloody vengeance; and so great had been
+his success, that the warrior, prophet, and councillor, for all
+these characters were united in his single person, began to think the
+attainment of his wishes possible. As a matter of course, much ignorance
+of the power of the Anglo-Saxon race on this continent was blended with
+these opinions and hopes; but it was scarcely an ignorance exceeding
+that of certain persons of far higher pretensions in knowledge, who live
+in another hemisphere, and who often set themselves up as infallible
+judges of all things connected with man and his attributes. Peter, the
+"Tribeless," was not more in fault than those who fancied they saw the
+power of this great republic in the gallant little band collected at
+Corpus Christi, under its indomitable chief, and who, march by march,
+nay, foot by foot, as it might be, have perseveringly predicted the
+halt, the defeat, the disasters, and final discomfiture, which it has
+not yet pleased Divine Providence to inflict on this slight effort of
+the young Hercules, as he merely moves in his cradle. Alas, the enemy
+that most menaces the overthrow of this new and otherwise invincible
+exhibition of human force, is within; seated in the citadel itself;
+and must be narrowly watched, or he will act his malignant purpose, and
+destroy the fairest hopes that ever yet dawned on the fortunes of the
+human race!
+
+The conference between the chiefs lasted fully an hour. Crowsfeather
+possessed much of the confidence of Peter, and, as for Onoah, neither
+Tecumseh, nor his brother the Prophet, commanded as much of the
+respect of Crowsfeather as he did himself. Some even whispered that the
+"Tribeless" was the individual who lay behind all, and that the others
+named merely acted as he suggested, or advised. The reader will obtain
+all the insight into the future that it is necessary now to give him,
+by getting a few of the remarks made by the two colloquists, just before
+they joined the rest of the party.
+
+"My father, then, intends to lead his pale-faces on a crooked path, and
+take their scalps when he has done with them," said Crowsfeather, who
+had been gravely listening to Peter's plans of future proceeding; "but
+who is to get the scalp of the Chippewa?"
+
+"One of my Pottawattamie young men; but not until I have made use of
+him. I have a medicine-priest of the pale-faces and a warrior with me,
+but shall not put their scalps on my pole until they have paddled
+me further. The council is to be first held in the Oak Openings"--we
+translate this term freely, that used by Peter meaning rather "the open
+woods of the prairies"--"and I wish to show my prisoners to the chiefs,
+that they may see how easy it is to cut off all the Yankees. I have now
+four men of that people, and two squaws, in my power; let every red man
+destroy as many, and the land will soon be clear of them all!"
+
+This was uttered with gleamings of ferocity in the speaker's face, that
+rendered his countenance terrible. Even Crowsfeather quailed a little
+before that fierce aspect; but the whole passed away almost as soon as
+betrayed, and was succeeded by a friendly and deceptive smile, that
+was characteristic of the wily Asiatic rather than of the aboriginal
+American.
+
+"They cannot be counted," returned the Pottawattamie chief, as soon as
+his restraint was a little removed by this less terrific aspect of his
+companion, "if all I hear is true. Blackbird says that even the squaws
+of the pale-faces are numerous enough to overcome all the red men that
+remain."
+
+"There will be two less, when I fasten to my pole the scalps of those
+on the other side of the river," answered Peter, with another of his
+transient, but startling gleams of intense revenge. "But no matter, now:
+my brother knows all I wish him to do. Not a hair of the head of any
+of these pale-faces must be touched by any hand but mine. When the time
+comes, the knife of Onoah is sure. The Pottawattamies shall have their
+canoes, and can follow us up the river. They will find us in the
+Openings, and near the Prairie Round. They know the spot; for the red
+men love to hunt the deer in that region. Now, go and tell this to your
+young men; and tell them that corn will not grow, nor the deer wait to
+be killed by any of your people, if they forget to do as I have said.
+Vengeance shall come, when it is time."
+
+Crowsfeather communicated all this to his warriors, who received it as
+the ancients received the words of their oracles. Each member of the
+party endeavored to get an accurate notion of his duty, in order that
+he might comply to the very letter with the injunctions received. So
+profound was the impression made among all the red men of the north-west
+by the previous labors of the "Tribeless" to awaken a national spirit,
+and so great was their dread of the consequences of disobedience, that
+every warrior present felt as if his life were the threatened penalty of
+neglect or disinclination to obey.
+
+No sooner, however, had Crowsfeather got through with his communication,
+than a general request was made that the problem of the whiskey-spring
+might be referred to Onoah for solution. The young men had strong hopes,
+not-withstanding all that had passed, that this spring might yet turn
+out to be a reality. The scent was still there, strong and fragrant,
+and they could not get rid of the notion that "fire-water" grew on that
+spot. It is true, their faith had been somewhat disturbed by the manner
+in which the medicine-man had left them, and by his failure to draw
+forth the gushing stream which he had impliedly promised, and in a small
+degree performed; nevertheless little pools of whiskey had been found on
+the rock, and several had tasted and satisfied themselves of the quality
+of the liquor. As is usual, that taste had created a desire for more, a
+desire that seldom slumbered on an Indian palate when strong drinks were
+connected with its gratification.
+
+Peter heard the request with gravity, and consented to look into the
+matter with a due regard to his popularity and influence. He had his own
+superstitious views, but among them there did not happen to be one
+which admitted the possibility of whiskey's running in a stream from the
+living rock. Still he was willing to examine the charmed spot, scent the
+fragrant odor, and make up his own estimate of the artifices by which
+the bee-hunter had been practising on the untutored beings into whose
+hand chance had thrown him.
+
+While the young men eagerly pointed out the precise spots where the
+scent was the strongest, Peter maintained the most unmoved gravity. He
+did not kneel to smell the rocks, like the other chiefs, for this an
+innate sense of propriety told him would be undignified; but he made
+his observations closely, and with a keen Indian-like attention to every
+little circumstance that might aid him in arriving at the truth. All
+this time, great was the awe and deep the admiration of the lookers-on.
+Onoah had succeeded in creating a moral power for himself among the
+Indians of the northwest which much exceeded that of any other red man
+of that region. The whites scarcely heard of him, knew but little of
+his career, and less of his true character, for both were shrouded in
+mystery. There is nothing remarkable in this ignorance of the pale-faces
+of the time. They did not understand their own leaders; much less the
+leaders of the children of the openings, the prairies, and the forest.
+At this hour, what is really known by the mass of the American people of
+the true characters of their public men? No nation that has any claim
+to civilization and publicity knows less, and for several very obvious
+reasons. The want of a capital in which the intelligence of the nation
+periodically assembles and whence a corrected public opinion on all such
+matters ought constantly to flow, as truth emanates from the collisions
+of minds, is one of these reasons. The extent of the country, which
+separates men by distances that no fact can travel over without
+incurring the dangers of being perverted on the road, is another. But
+the most fatal of al he influences that tend to mislead the judgment of
+the American citizen, is to be found in the abuse of a machinery that
+was intended to produce an exactly contrary effect. If the tongue was
+given to man to communicate ideas to his fellows, so has philosophy
+described it as "a gift to conceal his thoughts." If the press was
+devised to circulate truth, so has it been changed into a means of
+circulating lies. One is easily, nay, more easily, sent abroad on
+the four winds of the heavens than the other. Truth requires candor,
+impartiality, honesty, research, and industry; but a falsehood, whether
+designed or not, stands in need of neither. Of that which is the most
+easily produced, the country gets the most; and it were idle to imagine
+that a people who blindly and unresistingly submit to be put, as it
+might be, under the feet of falsehood, as respects all their own public
+men, can ever get very accurate notions of those of other nations.
+
+Thus was it with Onoah. His name was unknown to the whites, except as
+a terrible and much-dreaded avenger of the wrongs of his race. With
+the red men it was very different. They had no "forked tongues" to make
+falsehood take the place of truth; or if such existed they were not
+believed. The Pottawattamies now present knew all about Tecumseh,
+[Footnote: A "tiger stooping for his prey."] of whom the whites had also
+various and ample accounts. This Shawanee chief had long been active
+among them, and his influence was extended far and near. He was a bold,
+restless, and ingenious warrior; one, perhaps, who better understood
+the art of war, as it was practised among red men, than any Indian then
+living. They knew the name and person, also, of his brother Elkswatawa,
+[Footnote: "A door opened."] or the Prophet, whose name has also become
+incorporated with the histories of the times. These two chiefs were
+very powerful, though scarce dwelling regularly in any tribe; but their
+origin, their careers, and their characters were known to all, as were
+those of their common father, Pukeesheno, [Footnote: "I light from
+fly--"] and their mother, Meethetaske.[Footnote: "A turtle laying her
+eggs in the sand."] But with Onoah it was very different. With him the
+past was as much of a mystery as the future. No Indian could say even of
+what tribe he was born. The totem that he bore on his person belonged
+to no people then existing on the continent, and all connected with him,
+his history, nation, and family, was conjecture and fancy.
+
+It is said that the Indians have traditions which are communicated
+only to a favored few, and which by them have been transmitted from
+generation to generation. An enlightened and educated red man has quite
+recently told us in person, that he had been made the repository of some
+of these traditions, and that he had thus obtained enough of the history
+of his race to be satisfied that they were not derived from the lost
+tribes of Israel, though he declined communicating any more. It is so
+natural to resort to secrecy in order to extend influence, that we can
+have no difficulty In believing the existence of the practice; there
+probably being no other reason why Free Masonry or Odd Fellowship should
+have recourse to such an expedient, but to rule through the imagination
+in preference to the judgment. Now Peter enjoyed all the advantages of
+mystery. It was said that even his real name was unknown, that of Onoah
+having been given in token of the many scalps he took, and that of
+Wa-wa-nosh, which he also sometimes bore, having been bestowed on him
+by adoption in consequence of an act of favor extended to him from an
+Ojebway of some note, while that of Peter was clearly derived from the
+whites. Some of his greatest admirers whispered that when the true name
+of the "Tribeless" should get to be known, his origin, early career, and
+all relating to him would at once become familiar to every red man.
+At present, the Indians must rest content with what they saw and
+understood. The wisdom of Wa-wa-nosh made itself felt in the councils;
+his eloquence no speaker has equalled for ages; as for his vengeance on
+the enemies of his race, that was to be estimated by the scalps he had
+taken. More than this no Indian was to be permitted to know, until the
+mission of this oracle and chief was completed.
+
+Had one enlightened by the education of a civilized man been there, to
+watch the movements and countenance of Peter as he scented the whiskey,
+and looked in vain for the cause of the odor, and for a clew to the
+mystery which so much perplexed the Pottawattamies, he would probably
+have discovered some reason to distrust the sincerity of this remarkable
+savage's doubts. If ever Peter was an actor, it was on that occasion.
+He did not, in the least, fall into any of the errors of his companions;
+but the scent a good deal confounded him at first. At length he came to
+the natural conclusion, that this unusual odor was in some way connected
+with the family he had left on the other shore; and from that moment his
+mind was at ease.
+
+It did not suit the views of Peter, however, to explain to the
+Pottawattamies that which was now getting to be so obvious to himself.
+On the contrary, he rather threw dust into the eyes of the chiefs, with
+a view to bring them also under the influence of superstition. After
+making his observations with unmoved gravity, he promised a solution
+of the whole affair when they should again meet in the Openings, and
+proposed to recross the river. Before quitting the shore Peter
+and Crowsfeather had a clear understanding on the subject of their
+respective movements; and, as soon as the former began to paddle up
+against the wind, the latter called his young men together, made a short
+address, and led them into the woods, as if about to proceed on a march
+of length. The party, notwithstanding, did not proceed more than a mile
+and a half, when it came to a halt, and lighted a fire in order to cook
+some venison taken on the way.
+
+When Peter reached the south shore, he found the whole group assembled
+to receive him. His tale was soon told. He had talked with the
+Pottawattamies, and they were gone. The canoes, however, must be carried
+to the other shore and left there, in order that their owners might
+recover their property when they returned. This much had Peter promised,
+and his pale-face friends must help him to keep his word. Then he
+pointed to the Openings as to their place of present safety. There they
+would be removed from all immediate danger, and he would accompany them
+and give them the countenance and protection of his name and presence.
+As for going south on the lake, that was impossible, so long as the wind
+lasted, and it was useless even could it be done. The troops had all
+left Chicago, and the fort was destroyed.
+
+Parson Amen and Corporal Flint, both of whom were completely deluded by
+Peter, fancying him a secret friend of the whites, in consequence of his
+own protestations to that effect and the service he had already rendered
+them, in appearance at least, instantly acquiesced in this wily savage's
+proposal. It was the best, the wisest, nay, the only thing that now
+could be done. Mackinaw was gone, as well as Chicago, and Detroit must
+be reached by crossing the peninsula, instead of taking the easier
+but far more circuitous route of the lakes. Gershom was easily enough
+persuaded into the belief of the feasibility, as well as of the
+necessity, of this deviation from his original road, and he soon agreed
+to accompany the party.
+
+With le Bourdon the case was different. He understood himself and the
+wilderness. For him the wind was fair, and there was no necessity for
+his touching at Mackinaw at all. It is true, he usually passed several
+days on that pleasant and salubrious island, and frequently disposed of
+lots of honey there; but he could dispense with the visit and the sales.
+There was certainly danger now to be apprehended from the Ottawas, who
+would be very apt to be out on the lake after this maritime excursion
+against the fort; but it was possible even to elude their vigilance. In
+a word, the bee-hunter did not believe in the prudence of returning to
+the Openings, but thought it by far the wisest for the whole party to
+make the best of its way by water to the settlements. All this he urged
+warmly on his white companions, taking them aside for that purpose, and
+leaving Peter and Pigeonswing together while he did so.
+
+But Parson Amen would as soon have believed that his old congregation in
+Connecticut was composed of Philistines, as not to believe that the
+red men were the lost tribes, and that Peter, in particular, was not
+especially and elaborately described in the Old Testament. He had become
+so thoroughly possessed by this crotchet as to pervert everything that
+he saw, read, or heard, into evidence, of some sort or other, of the
+truth of his notions. In this respect there was nothing peculiar in the
+good missionary's weakness, it being a failing common to partisans of a
+theory, to discover proofs of its truths in a thousand things in which
+indifferent persons can find even no connection with the subject at all.
+In this frame of mind the missionary would as soon think of letting go
+his hold on the Bible itself, as think of separating from an Indian who
+might turn out any day to be a direct representative of Abraham, and
+Isaac, and Jacob. Not to speak irreverently, but to use language that
+must be familiar to all, the well-meaning missionary wished to be in at
+the death.
+
+Corporal Flint, too, had great faith in Peter. It was a part of
+the scheme of the savage to make this straight for-ward soldier an
+instrument in placing many scalps in hit power; and though he had
+designed from the first to execute his bloody office on the corporal
+himself, he did not intend to do so until he had made the most of him
+as a stool-pigeon. Here were four more pale-faces thrown in his power,
+principally by means of the confidence he had awakened in the minds of
+the missionary and the soldier; and that same confidence might be made
+instrumental in adding still more to the number. Peter was a sagacious,
+even a far-seeing savage, but he labored under the curse of ignorance.
+Had his information been of a more extended nature, he would have seen
+the utter fallacy of his project to destroy the pale-faces altogether,
+and most probably would have abandoned it.
+
+It is a singular fact that, while such men as Tecumseh, his brother the
+Prophet, and Peter, were looking forward to the downfall of the republic
+on the side of the forest, so many, who ought to have been better
+informed on such a subject, were anxiously expecting, nay confidently
+predicting it, from beyond the Atlantic. Notwithstanding these sinister
+soothsayers, the progress of the nation has, by a beneficent Providence,
+been onward and onward, until it is scarcely presumptuous to suppose
+that even England has abandoned the expectation of classing this country
+again among her dependencies. The fortunes of America, under God, depend
+only on herself. America may destroy America; of that there is danger;
+but it is pretty certain that Europe united could make no serious
+impression on her. Favored by position, and filled with a population
+that we have ever maintained was one of the most military in existence,
+a truth that recent events are hourly proving to be true, it much
+exceeds the power of all the enemies of her institutions to make any
+serious impression on her. There is an enemy who may prove too much for
+her; it exists in her bosom; and God alone can keep him in subjection,
+and repress his desolation.
+
+These were facts, however, of which Wa-wa-nosh, or Onoah, was as
+ignorant as if he were an English or French minister of state, and had
+got his notions of the country from English or French travellers, who
+wished for what they predicted. He had heard of the towns and population
+of the republic; but one gets a very imperfect notion of any fact of
+this sort by report, unless previous experience has prepared the mind
+to make the necessary comparisons, and fitted it to receive the images
+intended to be conveyed. No wonder, then, that Peter fell into a mistake
+common to those who had so many better opportunities of forming just
+opinions, and of arriving at truths that were sufficiently obvious to
+all who did not wilfully shut their eyes to their existence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+     Hearest thou voices on the shore
+      That our ears perceive no more,
+      Deafened by the cataract's roar?
+
+     Bear, through sorrow, wrong, and ruth,
+      In thy heart the dew of youth,
+      On thy lips the smile of truth.
+                            --LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+From all that has been stated, the reader will, probably, be prepared to
+learn that Boden did not succeed in his effort to persuade Gershom,
+and the other Christians, to accompany him on his voyage round by Lake
+Huron. Corporal Flint was obdurate, and Parson Amen confiding. As for
+Gershom, he did not like the thought of retracing his steps so soon, and
+the females were obliged to remain with the husband and brother.
+
+"You had better get out of the river while all the canoes are on this
+side," said Margery, as she and le Bourdon walked toward the boats in
+company, the council having ended, and everything beginning to assume
+the appearance of action. "Remember you will be quite alone, and have a
+long, long road to travel!"
+
+"I do remember all this, Margery, and see the necessity for all of us
+getting back to the settlements as fast as we can. I don't half like
+this Peter; his name is a bad one in the garrisons, and it makes me
+miserable to think that you may be in his power."
+
+"The missionary and the corporal, as well as my brother, seem willing to
+trust him--what can two females do, when their male protector has made
+up his mind in such a matter?"
+
+"One who would very gladly be your protector, pretty Margery, has not
+made up his mind to the prudence of trusting Peter at all. Put yourself
+under my care, and my life shall be lost, or I will carry you safe to
+your friends in Detroit."
+
+This might be deemed tolerably explicit; yet was it not sufficiently so
+to satisfy female scruples, or female rights. Margery blushed, and
+she looked down, while she did not look absolutely displeased. But her
+answer was given firmly, and with a promptitude that showed she was
+quite in earnest.
+
+"I cannot quit Dorothy, placed as she is--and it is my duty to die with
+brother," she said.
+
+"Have you thought enough of this, Margery? may not reflection change
+your mind?"
+
+"This is a duty on which a girl is not called to reflect; she must FEEL,
+in a matter of conscience."
+
+The bee-hunter fairly sighed, and from a very resolute he became a very
+irresolute sort of person. As was natural to one in his situation, he
+let out the secret current his thoughts had taken, in the remarks which
+followed.
+
+"I do not like the manner in which Peter and Pigeonswing are now talking
+together," he said. "When an Injin is so earnest, there is generally
+mischief brewing. Do you see Peter's manner?"
+
+"He seems to be telling the young warrior something that makes both
+forget themselves. I never saw two men who seem so completely to forget
+all the rest of the world as them two savages! What can be the meaning,
+Bourdon, of so much fierce earnestness?"
+
+"I would give the world to know-possibly the Chippewa may tell me. We
+understand each other tolerably well, and, just as you spoke, he gave
+me a secret sign that I have a right to think means confidence and
+friendship. That savage is either a fast friend, or a thorough villain."
+
+"Is it safe to trust any of them, Bourdon? No--no--your best way will
+be to go down the lakes, and get back to Detroit as soon as you can. Not
+only your property, but your LIFE, is at risk."
+
+"Go, and leave you here, Margery--here, with a brother whose failing you
+know as well as I do, and who may, at any moment, fall back into his old
+ways! I should not be a man to do it!"
+
+"But brother can get no liquor, now, for it is all emptied. When himself
+for a few days, Gershom is a good protector, as well as a good provider.
+You must not judge brother too harshly, from what you have seen of him,
+Bourdon."
+
+"I do not wish to judge him at all, Margery. We all have our failin's,
+and whiskey is his. I dare say mine are quite as bad, in some other way.
+It's enough for me, Margery, that Gershom is your brother, to cause me
+to try to think well of him. We must not trust to there being no more
+liquor among us; for, if that so'ger is altogether without his rations,
+he's the first so'ger I ever met with who was!"
+
+"But this corporal is a friend of the minister, and ministers ought not
+to drink!"
+
+"Ministers are like other men, as them that live much among 'em will
+soon find out. Hows'ever, if you WILL stay, Margery, there is no more to
+be said. I must cache [Footnote: A Western term, obviously derived from
+cacher, to conceal. Cache is much used by the Western adventurers.]
+my honey, and get the canoe ready to go up stream again. Where you go,
+Margery, I go too, unless you tell me that you do not wish my company."
+
+This was said quietly, but in the manner of one whose mind was made up.
+Margery scarce knew how to take it. That she was secretly delighted,
+cannot be denied; while, at the same time, that she felt a generous and
+lively concern for the fortunes of le Bourdon, is quite as certain. As
+Gershom just then called to her to lend her assistance in preparing to
+embark, she had no leisure for expostulation, nor do we know that she
+now seriously wished to divert the bee-hunter from his purpose.
+
+It was soon understood by every one that the river was to be crossed,
+in order that Gershom might get his household effects, previously to
+ascending the Kalamazoo. This set all at--work but the Chippewa, who
+appeared to le Bourdon to be watchful and full of distrust. As the
+latter had a job before him, that would be likely to consume a couple
+of hours, the others were ready for a start long before he had his hole
+dug. It was therefore arranged that the bee-hunter should complete
+his task, while the others crossed the stream, and went in quest of
+Gershom's scanty stock of household goods. Pigeonswing, however, was
+not to be found, when the canoes were ready, and Peter proceeded without
+him. Nor did le Bourdon see anything of his friend until the adventurers
+were fairly on the north shore, when he rejoined le Bourdon, sitting
+on a log, a curious spectator of the latter's devices to conceal
+his property, but not offering to aid him in a single movement. The
+bee-hunter too well understood an Indian warrior's aversion to labor of
+all sorts, unless it be connected with his military achievements, to be
+surprised at his companion's indifference to his own toil. As the work
+went on, a friendly dialogue was kept up between the parties.
+
+"I didn't know, Pigeonswing, but you had started for the openings,
+before us," observed le Bourdon. "That tribeless old Injin made
+something of a fuss about your being out of the way; I dare say he
+wanted you to help back the furniture down to the canoes."
+
+"Got squaw--what he want--better to do dat?"
+
+"So you would put that pretty piece of work on such persons as Margery
+and Dolly!"
+
+"Why not, no? Bot' squaw-bot know how. Dere business to work for
+warrior."
+
+"Did you keep out of the way, then, lest old Peter should get you at a
+job that is onsuitable to your manhood?"
+
+"Keep out of way of Pottawattamie," returned the Chippewa; "no want to
+lose scalp-radder take his'n."
+
+"But Peter says the Pottawattamies are all gone, and that we have no
+longer any reason to fear them; and this medicine-priest tells us, that
+what Peter says we can depend on for truth."
+
+"Dat good medicine-man, eh? T'ink he know a great deal, eh?"
+
+"That is more than I can tell you, Pigeonswing; for though I've been
+a medicine-man myself, so lately, it is in a different line altogether
+from that of Parson Amen's."
+
+As the bee-hunter uttered this answer, he was putting the last of his
+honey-kegs into the cache, and as he rose from completing the operation,
+he laughed heartily, like one who saw images in the occurrences of the
+past night, that tended to divert himself, if they had not the same
+effect on the other spectators.
+
+"If you medicine-man, can tell who Peter be? Winnebagoe, Sioux, Fox,
+Ojebway, Six Nations all say don't know him. Medicine-man ought to
+know--who he be, eh?"
+
+"I am not enough of a medicine-man to answer your question, Pigeonswing.
+Set me at finding a whiskey-spring, or any little job of that sort,
+and I'll turn my back to no other whiskey-spring finder on the whole
+frontier; but, as for Peter, he goes beyond my calculations, quite. Why
+is he called Scalping Peter in the garrisons, if he be so good an Injin,
+Chippewa?"
+
+"You ask question--you answer. Don't know, 'less he take a good many
+scalps. Hear he do take all he can find--den hear he don't."
+
+"But you take all you can find, Pigeonswing; and that which is good in
+you, cannot be so bad in Peter."
+
+"Don't take scalp from friend. When you hear Pigeonswing scalp FRIEND,
+eh?"
+
+"I never did hear it; and hope I never shall. But when did you hear that
+Peter is so wicked?"
+
+"S'pose he don't, 'cause he got no friend among pale-face. Bes' take
+care of dat man?"
+
+"I'm of your way of thinking, myself, Chippewa; though the corporal and
+the priest think him all in all. When I asked Parson Amen how he came to
+be the associate of one who went by a scalping name, even he told me it
+was all name; that Peter hadn't touched a hair of a human head, in the
+way of scalping, since his youth, and that most of his notions and ways
+were quite Jewish, The parson has almost as much faith in Peter, as he
+has in his religion; I'm not quite sure he has not even more."
+
+"No matter. Bes' always for pale-face to trust pale-face, and Injin to
+trust Injin. Dat most likely to be right."
+
+"Nevertheless, I trust YOU Pigeonswing; and, hitherto, you have not
+deceived me!"
+
+The Chippewa cast a glance of so much meaning on the bee-hunter, that
+the last was troubled by it. For many a day did le Bourdon remember that
+look; and painful were the apprehensions to which it gave birth. Until
+that morning, the intercourse between the two had been of the most
+confidential character; but something like a fierce hatred was blended
+in that look. Could it be that the feelings of the Chippewa were
+changed? and was it possible that Peter was in any way connected with
+this alteration in looks and sentiments? All these suspicions passed
+through le Bourdon's mind, as he finished his cache; and sufficiently
+disagreeable did he find it to entertain them. The circumstances,
+however, did not admit of any change of plan; and, in a few minutes, the
+two were in the canoe, and on their way to join their companions.
+
+Peter had dealt fairly enough with those who accompanied him. The
+Pottawattamies were nowhere to be seen, and Gershom led the corporal
+to the place where his household goods had been secreted, in so much
+confidence, that both the men left their arms behind them. Such was the
+state of things when le Bourdon reached the north shore. The young man
+was startled, when his eyes fell on the rifles; but, on looking around,
+there did not really appear to be any sufficient reason why they might
+not be laid aside for a few minutes.
+
+The bee-hunter, having disposed of all his honey, had now a nearly empty
+canoe; accordingly, he received a portion of Gershom's effects; all of
+which were safely transported from their place of concealment to the
+water side. Their owner was slowly recovering the use of his body and
+mind, though still a little dull, from his recent debauch. The females
+supplied his place, however, in many respects; and two hours after the
+party had landed, it was ready again to proceed on its journey into the
+interior. The last article was stowed in one of the canoes, and Gershom
+announced his willingness to depart.
+
+At this moment, Peter led the bee-hunter aside, telling his friends that
+he would speedily rejoin them. Our hero followed his savage leader along
+the foot of the declivity, in the rear of the hut, until the former
+stopped at the place where the first, and principal fire of the past
+night, had been lighted. Here Peter made a sweeping gesture of his hand,
+as if to invite his companion to survey the different objects around. As
+this characteristic gesture was made, the Indian spoke.
+
+"My brother is a medicine-man," he said. "He knows where whiskey
+grows--let him tell Peter where to find the spring."
+
+The recollection of the scene of the previous night came so fresh
+and vividly over the imagination of the bee-hunter, that, instead of
+answering the question of the chief, he burst into a hearty fit of
+laughter. Then, fearful of giving offence, he was about to apologize
+for a mirth so ill-timed, when the Indian smiled, with a gleam of
+intelligence on his swarthy face, that seemed to say, "I understand it
+all," and continued--
+
+"Good--the chief with three eyes"--in allusion to the spy--glass that
+le Bourdon always carried suspended from his neck--"is a very great
+medicine-man; he knows when to laugh, and when to look sad. The
+Pottawattamies were dry, and he wanted to find them some whiskey to
+drink, but could not--our brother, in the canoe, had drunk it all.
+Good."
+
+Again the bee-hunter laughed; and though Peter did not join in his
+mirth, it was quite plain that he understood its cause. With this
+good-natured sort of intelligence between them, the two returned to the
+canoes; the bee-hunter always supposing that the Indian had obtained
+his object, in receiving his indirect admission, that the scene of the
+previous night had been merely a piece of ingenious jugglery. So much of
+a courtier, however, was Peter, and so entire his self-command, that
+on no occasion, afterward, did he ever make any further allusion to the
+subject.
+
+The ascent of the river was now commenced. It was not a difficult matter
+for le Bourdon to persuade Margery, that her brother's canoe would be
+too heavily loaded for such a passage, unless she consented to quit
+it for his own. Pigeonswing took the girl's place, and was of material
+assistance in forcing the light, but steady craft, up stream. The three
+others continued in the canoe in which they had entered the river. With
+this arrangement, therefore, our adventurers commenced this new journey.
+
+Every reader will easily understand, that ascending such a stream as the
+Kalamazoo was a very difficult thing from descending it. The progress
+was slow, and at many points laborious. At several of the "rifts," it
+became necessary to "track" the canoes up; and places occurred at which
+the only safe way of proceeding was to unload them altogether, and
+transport boats, cargoes, and all, on the shoulders of the men,
+across what are called, in the language of the country, "portages," or
+"carrying-places." In such toil as this, the corporal was found to be
+very serviceable; but neither of the Indians declined to lend their
+assistance, in work of this manly character. By this time, moreover,
+Gershom had come round, and was an able-bodied, vigorous assistant, once
+more. If the corporal was the master of any alcohol, he judiciously kept
+it a secret; for not a drop passed any one's lips during the whole of
+that toilsome journey.
+
+Although the difficult places in the river were sufficiently numerous,
+most of the reaches were places having steady, but not swift currents
+toward the lake. In these reaches the paddles, and those not very
+vigorously applied, enabled the travellers to advance as fast as was
+desirable; and such tranquil waters were a sort of resting-places
+to those who managed the canoes. It was while ascending these easy
+channels, that conversation most occurred; each speaker yielding, as
+was natural, to the impulses of the thoughts uppermost in his mind. The
+missionary talked much of the Jews; and, as the canoes came near each
+other, he entered at large, with their different occupants, into the
+reasons he had for believing that the red men of America were the
+lost tribes of Israel. "The very use of the word 'tribes,'" would this
+simple-minded, and not very profound expounder of the word of God, say,
+"is one proof of the truth of what I tell you. Now, no one thinks of
+dividing the white men of America into 'tribes.' Who ever heard of the
+'tribe' of New England, or of the 'tribe' of Virginia, or of the
+'tribe' of the Middle States? [Footnote: The reader is not to infer any
+exaggeration in this picture. There is no end to the ignorance and folly
+of sects and parties, when religious or political zeal runs high. The
+writer well remembers to have heard a Universalist, of more zeal
+than learning, adduce, as an argument in favor of his doctrine, the
+twenty-fifth chapter and forty-sixth verse of St. Matthew, where we are
+told that the wicked "shall go away into ever-lasting punishment; but
+the righteous into Vis eternal"; by drawing a distinction between the
+adjectives, and this so much the more, because the Old Testament speaks
+of "everlasting hills," and "everlasting valleys "; thus proving, from
+the Bible, a substantial difference between "everlasting" and "eternal."
+Now, every Sophomore knows that the word used in Matthew is the same
+in both cases, being "aionion," or "existing forever."] Even among the
+blacks, there are no tribes. There is a very remarkable passage in the
+sixty-eighth Psalm, that has greatly struck me, since my mind has turned
+to this subject; 'God shall wound the head his enemies.' saith the
+Psalmist, 'and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his
+wickedness.' Here is a very obvious allusion to a well-known, and what
+we think, a barbarous practice of the red men; but, rely on it, friends,
+nothing that is permitted on earth is permitted in vain. The attentive
+reader of the inspired book, by gleaning here and there, can collect
+much authority for this new opinion about the lost tribes; and the day
+will come, I do not doubt, when men will marvel that the truth hath
+been so long hidden from them. I can scarcely open a chapter, in the Old
+Testament, that some passage does not strike me as going to prove
+this identity, between the red men and the Hebrews; and, were they all
+collected together, and published in a book, mankind would be astonished
+at their lucidity and weight. As for scalping, it is a horrid thing in
+our eyes, but it is honorable with the red men; and I have quoted to you
+the words of the Psalmist, in order to show the manner in which divine
+wisdom inflicts penalties on sin. Here is plain justification of
+the practice, provided always that the sufferer be in the bondage of
+transgression, and obnoxious to divine censure. Let no man, therefore,
+in the pride of his learning, and, perhaps, of his prosperity, disdain
+to believe things that are so manifestly taught and foretold; but let us
+all bow in humble submission to the will of a Being who, to our finite
+understanding, is so perfectly incomprehensible."
+
+We trust that no one of our readers will be disposed to deride Parson
+Amen's speculations on this interesting subject, although this may
+happen to be the first occasion on which he has ever heard the practice
+of taking scalps justified by Scripture. Viewed in a proper spirit, they
+ought merely to convey a lesson of humility, by rendering apparent
+the wisdom, nay the necessity, of men's keeping them-selves within
+the limits of the sphere of knowledge they were designed to fill, and
+convey, when rightly considered, as much of a lesson to the Puseyite,
+with abstractions that are quite as unintelligible to himself as they
+are to others; to the high-wrought and dogmatical Calvinist, who in the
+midst of his fiery zeal, forgets that love is the very essence of the
+relation between God and man; to the Quaker, who seems to think the cut
+of a coat essential to salvation; to the descendant of the Puritan, who
+whether he be Socinian, Calvinist, Universalist, or any other "1st,"
+appears to believe that the "rock" on which Christ declared he would
+found his church was the "Rock of Plymouth"; and to the unbeliever,
+who, in deriding all creeds, does not know where to turn to find one
+to substitute in their stead. Humility, in matters of this sort, is the
+great lesson that all should teach and learn; for it opens the way to
+charity, and eventually to faith, and through both of these to hope;
+finally, through all of these, to heaven.
+
+The journey up the Kalamazoo lasted many days, the ascent being often
+so painful, and no one seeming in a hurry. Peter waited for the time set
+for his council to approach, and was as well content to remain in his
+canoe, as to "camp out" in the openings. Gershom never was in haste,
+while the bee-hunter would have been satisfied to pass the summer in so
+pleasant a manner, Margery being seated most of the time in his
+canoe. In his ordinary excursions, le Bourdon carried the mastiff as a
+companion; but, now that his place was so much better filled, Hive was
+suffered to roam the woods that lined most of the river-banks, joining
+his master from time to time at the portages or landings. As for the
+missionary and the corporal, impatience formed no part of their present
+disposition. The first had been led, by the artful Peter, to expect
+great results to his theory from the assembly of chiefs which was to
+meet in the "openings"; and the credulous parson was, in one sense,
+going as blindly on the path of destruction, as any sinner it had ever
+been his duty to warn of his fate, was proceeding in the same direction
+in another. The corporal, too, was the dupe of Peter's artifices.
+This man had heard so many stories to the Indian's prejudice, at the
+different posts where he had been stationed, as at first to render him
+exceedingly averse to making the present journey in his company. The
+necessity of the case, as connected with the preservation of his own
+life after the massacre of Fort Dearborn, and the influence of the
+missionary, had induced him to overlook his ancient prejudices, and to
+forget opinions that, it now occurred to him, had been founded in error.
+Once fairly within the influence of Peter's wiles, a simple-minded
+soldier like the corporal, was soon completely made the Indian's dupe.
+By the time the canoe reached the mouth of the Kalamazoo, as has been
+related, each of these men placed the most implicit reliance on the good
+faith and friendly feelings of the very being whose entire life, both
+sleeping and waking thoughts, were devoted, not only to his destruction,
+but to that of the whole white race on the American continent. So bland
+was the manner of this terrible savage, when it comported with his
+views to conceal his ruthless designs, that persons more practised and
+observant than either of his two companions might have been its dupes,
+not to say its victims. While the missionary was completely mystified
+by his own headlong desire to establish a theory, and to announce to the
+religious world where the lost tribes were to be found, the corporal had
+aided in deceiving himself, also, by another process. With him, Peter
+had privately conversed of war, and had insinuated that he was secretly
+laboring in behalf of his great father at Washington, and against the
+other great father down at Montreal. As between the two, Peter professed
+to lean to the interests of the first; though, had he laid bare his
+in-most soul, a fiery hatred of each would have been found to be its
+predominant feeling. But Corporal Flint fondly fancied he was making
+a concealed march with an ally, while he thus accompanied one of the
+fiercest enemies of his race.
+
+Peter is not to be judged too harshly. It is always respectable to
+defend the fireside, and the land of one's nativity, although the cause
+connected with it may be sometimes wrong. This Indian knew nothing of
+the principles of colonization, and had no conception that any
+other than its original owners--original so far as his traditions
+reached--could have a right to his own hunting-grounds. Of the slow but
+certain steps by which an overruling Providence is extending a knowledge
+of the true God, and of the great atonement through the death of his
+blessed Son, Peter had no conception; nor would it probably have seemed
+right to his contracted mind, had he even seen and understood this
+general tendency of things. To him, the pale-face appeared only as
+a rapacious invader, and not a creature obeying the great law of his
+destiny, the end of which is doubtless to help knowledge to abound,
+until it shall "cover the whole earth as the waters cover the sea."
+Hatred, inextinguishable and active hatred, appeared to be the law
+of this man's being; and he devoted all the means, aided by all
+the intelligence he possessed, to the furtherance of his narrow and
+short-sighted means of vengeance and redress. In all this, he acted in
+common with Tecumseh and his brother, though his consummate art kept him
+behind a veil, while the others were known and recognized as open and
+active foes. No publication speaks of this Peter, nor does any orator
+enumerate his qualities, while the other two chiefs have been the
+subjects of every species of descriptive talent, from that of the poet
+to that of the painter.
+
+As day passed after day, the feeling of distrust in the bosom of the
+bee-hunter grew weaker and weaker, and Peter succeeded in gradually
+worming himself into his confidence also. This was done, moreover,
+without any apparent effort. The Indian made no professions of
+friendship, laid himself out for no particular attention, nor ever
+seemed to care how his companions regarded his deportment. His secret
+purposes he kept carefully smothered in his own breast, it is true; but,
+beyond that, no other sign of duplicity could have been discovered even
+by one who knew his objects and schemes. So profound was his art, that
+it had the aspect of nature. Pigeonswing alone was alive to the
+danger of this man's company; and he knew it only by means of certain
+semi-confidential communications received in his character of a red man.
+It was no part of Peter's true policy to become an ally to either of the
+great belligerents of the day. On the contrary, his ardent wish was to
+see them destroy each other, and it was the sudden occurrence of
+the present war that had given a new impulse to his hopes, and a new
+stimulus to his efforts, as a time most propitious to his purposes. He
+was perfectly aware of the state of the Chippewa's feelings, and he knew
+that this man was hostile to the Pottawattamies, as well as to most
+of the tribes of Michigan; but this made no difference with him. If
+Pigeonswing took the scalp of a white man, he cared not whether it grew
+on an English or an American head; in either case it was the destruction
+of his enemy. With such a policy constantly in view, it cannot be matter
+of surprise that Peter continued on just as good terms with Pigeonswing
+as with Crowsfeather. But one precaution was observed in his intercourse
+with the first. To Crowsfeather, then on the war-path in quest of
+Yankee scalps, he had freely communicated his designs on his own white
+companions, while he did not dare to confide to the Chippewa this
+particular secret, since that Indian's relations with the bee-hunter
+were so amicable as to be visible to every observer. Peter felt the
+necessity of especial caution in his communication with this savage,
+therefore; and this was the reason why the Chippewa was in so much
+painful uncertainty as to the other's intentions. He had learned enough
+to be distrustful, but not enough to act with decision.
+
+Once, and once only, during their slow passage up the Kalamazoo, did
+the bee-hunter observe something about Peter to awaken his original
+apprehensions. The fourth day after leaving the mouth of the river,
+and when the whole party were resting after the toil of passing a
+"carrying-place," our hero had observed the eyes of that tribeless
+savage roaming from one white face to another, with an expression in
+them so very fiendish, as actually to cause his heart to beat quicker
+than common. The look was such a one as le Bourdon could not remember to
+have ever before beheld in a human countenance. In point of fact, he had
+seen Peter in one of those moments when the pent fires of the volcano,
+that ceaselessly raged within his bosom, were becoming difficult to
+suppress; and when memory was busiest in recalling to his imagination
+scenes of oppression and wrong, that the white man is only too apt to
+forget amid the ease of his civilization, and the security of his power.
+But the look, and the impression produced by it on le Bourdon, soon
+passed away, and were forgotten by him to whom it might otherwise have
+proved to be a most useful warning.
+
+It was a little remarkable that Margery actually grew to be attached to
+Peter, often manifesting toward the chief attentions and feelings such
+as a daughter is apt to exhibit toward a father. This arose from the
+high and courteous bearing of this extraordinary savage. At all times,
+an Indian warrior is apt to maintain the dignified and courteous bearing
+that has so often been remarked in the race, but it is very seldom that
+he goes out of his way to manifest attention to the squaws. Doubtless
+these men have the feelings of humanity, and love their wives and
+offspring like others; but it is so essential a part of their training
+to suppress the exhibition of such emotions, that it is seldom the mere
+looker-on has occasion to note them. Peter, however, had neither wife
+nor child; or if they existed, no one knew where either was to be found.
+The same mystery shrouded this part of his history as veiled all the
+rest. In his hunts, various opportunities occurred for exhibiting to the
+females manly attentions, by offering to them the choicest pieces of
+his game, and pointing out the most approved Indian modes of cooking the
+meats, so as to preserve their savory properties. This he did sparingly
+at first, and as a part of a system of profound deception; but day by
+day, and hour after hour, most especially with Margery, did his manner
+become sensibly less distant, and more natural. The artlessness, the
+gentle qualities, blended with feminine spirit as they were, and the
+innocent gayety of the girl, appeared to win on this nearly remorseless
+savage, in spite of his efforts to resist her influence. Perhaps the
+beauty of Margery contributed its share in exciting these novel emotions
+in the breast of one so stern. We do not mean that Peter yielded to
+feelings akin-to love; of this, he was in a manner incapable; but a man
+can submit to a gentle regard for woman that shall be totally free from
+passion. This sort of regard Peter certainly began to entertain for
+Margery; and like begetting like, as money produces money, it is not
+surprising that the confidence of the girl herself, as well as her
+sympathies, should continue to increase in the favor of this terrible
+Indian.
+
+But the changes of feeling, and the various little incidents to which we
+have alluded, did not occur in a single moment of time. Day passed after
+day, and still the canoes were working their way up the winding channels
+of the Kalamazoo, placing at each setting sun longer and longer reaches
+of its sinuous stream between the travellers and the broad sheet of
+Michigan. As le Bourdon had been up and down the river often, in his
+various excursions, he acted as the pilot of the navigation; though all
+worked, even to the missionary and the Chippewa. On such an expedition,
+toil was not deemed to be discreditable to a warrior, and Pigeonswing
+used the paddle and the pole as willingly, and with as much dexterity,
+as any of the party.
+
+It was only on the eleventh day after quitting the mouth of the river,
+that the canoes came to in the little bay where le Bourdon was in the
+habit of securing his light bark, when in the openings. Castle Meal was
+in full view, standing peacefully in its sweet solitude; and Hive, who,
+as he came within the range of his old hunts, had started off, and got
+to the spot the previous evening, now stood on the bank of the river
+to welcome his master and his friends to the chiente. It wanted a few
+minutes of sunset as the travellers landed, and the parting rays of the
+great luminary of our system were glancing through the various glades of
+the openings, imparting a mellow softness to the herbage and flowers.
+So far as the bee-hunter could perceive, not even a bear had visited
+the place in his absence. On ascending to his abode and examining the
+fastenings, and on entering the hut, storehouse, etc., le Bourdon became
+satisfied that all the property he had left behind was safe, and that
+the foot of man--he almost thought of beast too--had not visited the
+spot at all during the last fortnight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+      Hope in your mountains, and hope in your streams,
+        Bow down in their worship, and loudly pray;
+      Trust in your strength, and believe in your dreams,
+        But the wind shall carry them all away.
+                                        --BRAINARD.
+
+
+The week which succeeded the arrival of our party at Chateau au Miel,
+or Castle Meal, as le Bourdon used to call his abode, was one of very
+active labor. It was necessary to house the adventurers, and the little
+habitation already built was quite insufficient for such a purpose.
+It was given to the females, who used it as a private apartment for
+themselves, while the cooking, eating, and even sleeping, so far as the
+males were concerned, were all done beneath the trees of the openings.
+But a new chiente was soon constructed, which, though wanting in the
+completeness and strength of Castle Meal, was sufficient for the wants
+of these sojourners in the wilderness. It is surprising with how little
+of those comforts which civilization induces us to regard as necessaries
+we can get along, when cast into the midst of the western wilds. The
+female whose foot has trodden, from infancy upward, on nothing harder
+than a good carpet-who has been reared amid all the appliances of
+abundance and art, seems at once to change her nature, along with her
+habits, and often proves a heroine, and an active assistant, when there
+was so much reason to apprehend she might turn out to be merely an
+encumbrance. In the course of a life that is now getting to be well
+stored with experience of this sort, as well as of many other varieties,
+we can recall a hundred cases of women, who were born and nurtured
+in affluence and abundance, who have cheerfully quitted the scenes of
+youth, their silks and satins, their china and plate, their mahogany and
+Brussels, to follow husbands and fathers into the wilderness, there
+to compete with the savage, often for food, and always for the final
+possession of the soil!
+
+But in the case of Dorothy and Blossom, the change had never been of
+this very broad character, and habit had long been preparing them for
+scenes even more savage than that into which they were now cast. Both
+were accustomed to work, as, blessed be God! the American woman
+usually works; that is to say, within doors, and to render home neat,
+comfortable, and welcome. As housewives, they were expert and willing,
+considering the meagreness of their means; and le Bourdon told
+the half-delighted, half-blushing Margery, ere the latter had been
+twenty-four hours in his chiente, that nothing but the presence of such
+a one as herself was wanting to render it an abode fit for a prince!
+Then, the cooking was so much improved! Apart from cleanliness, the
+venison was found to be more savory; the cakes were lighter; and the
+pork less greasy. On this subject of grease, however, we could wish that
+a sense of right would enable us to announce its utter extinction in
+the American kitchen; or, if not absolutely its extinction, such a
+subjection of the unctuous properties, as to bring them within the
+limits of a reasonably accurate and healthful taste. To be frank,
+Dorothy carried a somewhat heavy hand, in this respect; but pretty
+Margery was much her superior. How this difference in domestic
+discipline occurred, is more than we can say; but of its existence there
+can be no doubt There are two very respectable sections of the civilized
+world to which we should imagine no rational being would ever think of
+resorting in order to acquire the art of cookery, and these are Germany
+and the land of the Pilgrims. One hears, and reads in those elegant
+specimens of the polite literature of the day, the letters from
+Washington, and from various travellers, who go up and down this river
+in steamboats, or along that railway, gratis, much in honor of the good
+things left behind the several writers, in the "region of the kock";
+but, woe betide the wight who is silly enough to believe in all this
+poetical imagery, and who travels in that direction, in the expectation
+of finding a good table! It is extraordinary that such a marked
+difference does exist, on an interest of this magnitude, among such
+near neighbors; but, of the fact, we should think no intelligent and
+experienced man can doubt. Believing as we do, that no small portion
+of the elements of national character can be, and are, formed in the
+kitchen, the circumstance may appear to us of more moment than to some
+of our readers. The vacuum left in cookery, between Boston and Baltimore
+for instance, is something like that which exists between Le Verrier's
+new planet and the sun.
+
+But Margery could even fry pork without causing it to swim in grease,
+and at a venison steak, a professed cook was not her superior. She also
+understood various little mysteries, in the way of converting their
+berries and fruits of the wilderness into pleasant dishes; and Corporal
+Flint soon affirmed that it was a thousand pities she did not live in
+a garrison, which, agreeably to his view of things, was something like
+placing her at the comptoir of the Cafe de Paris, or of marrying her to
+some second Vatel.
+
+With the eating and drinking, the building advanced pari passu.
+Pigeonswing brought in his venison, his ducks, his pigeons, and his game
+of different varieties, daily, keeping the larder quite as well supplied
+as comported with the warmth of the weather; while the others worked on
+the new chiente. In order to obtain materials for this building, one so
+much larger than his old abode, Ben went up the Kalamazoo about half a
+mile, where he felled a sufficient number of young pines, with trunks of
+about a foot in diameter, cutting them into lengths of twenty and thirty
+feet, respectively. These lengths, or trunks, were rolled into the
+river, down which they slowly floated, until they arrived abreast of
+Castle Meal, where they were met by Peter, in a canoe, who towed each
+stick, as it arrived, to the place of landing. In this way, at the end
+of two days' work, a sufficient quantity of materials was collected to
+commence directly on the building itself.
+
+Log-houses are of so common occurrence, as to require no particular
+description of the one now put up, from us. It was rather less than
+thirty feet in length, and one-third narrower than it was long. The logs
+were notched, and the interstices were filled by pieces of the pine,
+split to a convenient size. The roof was of bark, and of the simplest
+construction, while there was neither door nor window; though one
+aperture was left for the first, and two for the last. Corporal Flint,
+however, was resolved that not only a door should be made, as well
+as shutters for the windows, but that the house should, in time, be
+picketed. When le Bourdon remonstrated with him on the folly of
+taking so much unnecessary pains, it led to a discussion, in which the
+missionary even felt constrained to join.
+
+"What's the use--what's the use?" exclaimed le Bourdon a little
+impatiently, when he found the corporal getting to be in earnest in
+his proposal. "Here have I lived, safely, two seasons in Castle Meal,
+without any pickets or palisades; and yet you want to turn this new
+house into a regular garrison!"
+
+"Aye, Bourdon, that was in peaceable times; but these is war times.
+I've seen the fall of Fort Dearborn, and I don't want to see the fall of
+another post this war. The Pottawattamies is hostile, even Peter owns;
+and the Pottawattamies has been here once, as you say yourself, and may
+come ag'in."
+
+"The only Pottawattamie who has ever been at this spot, to my knowledge,
+is dead, and his bones are bleaching up yonder in the openings. No fear
+of him, then."
+
+"His body is gone," answered the corporal; "and what is more the rifle
+is gone with it. I heard that his rifle had been forgotten, and went
+to collect the arms left on the field of battle, but found nothing. No
+doubt his friends have burned, or buried, the chief, and they will be
+apt to take another look in this quarter of the country, having l'arnt
+the road."
+
+Boden was struck with this intelligence, as well as with the reasoning,
+and after a moment's pause, he answered in a way that showed a wavering
+purpose.
+
+"It will take a week's work, to picket or palisade the house," he
+answered, "and I wish to be busy among the bees, once more."
+
+"Go to your bees, Bourdon, and leave me to fortify and garrison, as
+becomes my trade. Parson Amen, here, will tell you that the children of
+Israel are often bloody-minded and are not to be forgotten."
+
+"The corporal is right," put in the missionary; "the corporal is quite
+right. The whole history of the ancient Jews gives us this character
+of them; and even Saul of Tarsus was bent on persecution and slaughter,
+until his hand was stayed by the direct manifestation of the power of
+God. I can see glimmerings of this spirit in Peter, and this at a moment
+when he is almost ready to admit that he's a descendant of Israel."
+
+"Is Peter ready to allow that?" asked the bee-hunter, with more interest
+in the answer than he would have been willing to allow.
+
+"As good as that-yes, quite as good as that. I can see, plainly, that
+Peter has some heavy mystery on his mind; sooner, or later, we shall
+learn it. When it does come out, the world may be prepared to learn the
+whole history of the Ten Tribes!"
+
+"In my judgment," observed the corporal, "that chief could give the
+history of twenty, if he was so minded."
+
+"There were but ten of them, brother Flint--but ten; and of those ten he
+could give us a full and highly interesting account. One of these days,
+we shall hear it all; in the mean time, it may be well enough to turn
+one of these houses into some sort of a garrison."
+
+"Let it, then, be Castle Meal," said le Bourdon; "surely, if any one is
+to be defended and fortified in this way, it ought to be the women. You
+may easily palisade that hut, which is so much stronger than this, and
+so much smaller."
+
+With this compromise, the work went on. The corporal dug a trench four
+feet deep, encircling the "castle," as happy as a lord the whole time;
+for this was not the first time he had been at such work, which
+he considered to be altogether in character, and suitable to his
+profession. No youthful engineer, fresh from the Point, that seat of
+military learning to which the republic is even more indebted for its
+signal successes in Mexico, than to the high military character of this
+population-no young aspirant for glory, fresh from this useful
+school, could have greater delight in laying out his first bastion,
+or counter-scarp, or glacis, than Corporal Flint enjoyed in fortifying
+Castle Meal. It will be remembered that this was the first occasion he
+was ever actually at the head of the engineering department Hitherto, it
+had been his fortune to follow; but now it had become his duty to lead.
+As no one else, of that party, had ever been employed in such a work
+on any previous occasion, the corporal did not affect to conceal the
+superior knowledge with which he was overflowing. Gershom he found a
+ready and active assistant; for, by this time, the whiskey was well out
+of him; and he toiled with the greater willingness, as he felt that the
+palisades would add to the security of his wife and sister. Neither
+did Parson Amen disdain to use the pick and shovel; for, while the
+missionary had the fullest reliance in the fact that the red men of that
+region were the descendants of the children of Israel, he regarded them
+as a portion of the chosen people who were living under the ban of the
+divine displeasure, and as more than usually influenced by those evil
+spirits, whom St. Paul mentions as the powers of the air. In a word,
+while the good missionary had all faith in the final conversion and
+restoration of these children of the forests, he did not overlook the
+facts of their present barbarity, and great propensity to scalp. He
+was not quite as efficient as Gershom, at this novel employment, but
+a certain inborn zeal rendered him both active and useful. As for the
+Indians, neither of them deigned to touch a tool. Pigeonswing had little
+opportunity for so doing, indeed, being usually, from the rising to
+the setting sun, out hunting for the support of the party; while Peter
+passed most of his time in ruminations and solitary walks. This last
+paid little attention to the work about the castle, either knowing it
+would, at any moment, by an act of treachery, be in his power to render
+all these precautions of no avail; or, relying on the amount of savage
+force that he knew was about to collect in the openings. Whenever he
+cast a glance on the progress of the work, it was with an eye of great
+indifference; once he even carried his duplicity so far, as to make a
+suggestion to the corporal, by means of which, as he himself expressed
+it, in his imperfect English--"Injin no get inside, to use knife and
+tomahawk." This seeming indifference, on the part of Peter, did
+not escape the observation of the bee-hunter, who became still less
+distrustful of that mysterious savage, as he noted his conduct in
+connection with the dispositions making for defence.
+
+Le Bourdon would not allow a tree of any sort to be felled anywhere near
+his abode. While the corporal and his associates were busy in digging
+the trench, he had gone to a considerable distance, quite out of sight
+from Castle Meal, and near his great highway, the river, where he cut
+and trimmed the necessary number of burr-oaks for the palisades. Boden
+labored the more cheerfully at this work, for two especial reasons. One
+was the fact that the defences might be useful to himself, hereafter,
+as much against bears as against Indians; and the other, because Margery
+daily brought her sewing or knitting, and sat on the fallen trees,
+laughing and chatting, as the axe performed its duties. On three several
+occasions Peter was present, also, accompanying Blossom, with a kindness
+of manner, and an attention to her pretty little tastes in culling
+flowers, that would have done credit to a man of a higher school of
+civilization.
+
+The reader is not to suppose, however, because the Indian pays but
+little outward attention to the squaws, that he is without natural
+feeling, or manliness of character. In some respects his chivalrous
+devotion to the sex is, perhaps, in no degree inferior to that of the
+class which makes a parade of such sentiments, and this quite as much
+from convention and ostentation, as from any other motive. The red man
+is still a savage beyond all question, but he is a savage with so many
+nobler and more manly qualities, when uncorrupted by communion with the
+worst class of whites, and not degraded by extreme poverty, as justly to
+render him a subject of our admiration, in self-respect, in dignity, and
+in simplicity of deportment. The Indian chief is usually a gentleman;
+and this, though he may have never heard of Revelation, and has not the
+smallest notion of the Atonement, and of the deep obligations it has
+laid on the human race.
+
+Amid the numberless exaggerations of the day, one of particular capacity
+has arisen connected with the supposed character of a gentleman. Those
+who regard all things through the medium of religious feeling, are apt
+to insist that he who is a Christian, is necessarily a gentleman; while
+he can be no thorough gentleman, who has not most of the qualities of
+the Christian character. This confusion in thought and language, can
+lead to no really useful result, while it embarrasses the minds of many,
+and renders the expression of our ideas less exact and comprehensive
+than they would otherwise be.
+
+We conceive that a man may be very much of a Christian, and very little
+of a gentleman; or very much of a gentleman, and very little of a
+Christian. There is, in short, not much in common between the two
+characters, though it is possible for them to become united in the same
+individual. That the finished courtesies of polished life may wear some
+of the aspects of that benevolence which causes the Christian "to love
+his neighbor as himself," is certainly true, though the motives of the
+parties are so very different as to destroy all real identity between
+them. While the moving principle of a gentleman is self-respect, that
+of a Christian is humility. The first is ready to lay down his life
+in order to wipe away an imaginary dishonor, or to take the life of
+another; the last is taught to turn the other cheek, when smitten. In a
+word, the first keeps the world, its opinions and its estimation, ever
+uppermost in his thoughts; the last lives only to reverence God, and to
+conform to his will, in obedience to his revealed mandates. Certainly,
+there is that which is both grateful and useful in the refined
+deportment of one whose mind and manners have been polished even in the
+schools of the world; but it is degrading to the profoundly beautiful
+submission of the truly Christian temper, to imagine that anything like
+a moral parallel can justly be run between them.
+
+Of course, Peter had none of the qualities of him who sees and feels
+his own defects, and relies only on the merits of the atonement for
+his place among the children of light, while he had so many of those
+qualities which depend on the estimate which man is so apt to place on
+his own merits. In this last sense, this Indian had a great many of
+the essentials of a gentleman; a lofty courtesy presiding over all his
+intercourse with others, when passion or policy did not thrust in new
+and sudden principles of action. Even the missionary was so much struck
+with the gentleness of this mysterious savage's deportment in connection
+with Margery, as at first to impute it to a growing desire to make a
+wife of that flower of the wilderness. But closer observation induced
+greater justice to the Indian in this respect Nothing like the
+uneasiness, impatience, or distrust of passion could be discerned in his
+demeanor; and when Parson Amen perceived that the bee-hunter's marked
+devotion to the beautiful Blossom rather excited a benevolent and kind
+interest in the feelings of Peter, so far at least as one could judge
+of the heart by external appearances, than anything that bore the fierce
+and uneasy impulses of jealousy, he was satisfied that his original
+impression was a mistake.
+
+As le Bourdon flourished his axe, and Margery plied her needles, making
+a wholesome provision for the coming winter, the mysterious Indian would
+stand, a quarter of an hour at a time, immovable as a statue, his eyes
+riveted first on one, and then on the other. What passed at such moments
+in that stern breast, it exceeds the penetration of man to say: but that
+the emotions thus pent within barriers that none could pass or destroy,
+were not always ferocious and revengeful, a carefully observant
+spectator might possibly have suspected, had such a person been there to
+note all the signs of what was uppermost in the chiefs thoughts. Still,
+gleamings of sudden, but intense ferocity did occasionally occur; and,
+at such instants, the countenance of this extraordinary being was
+truly terrific. Fortunately, such bursts of uncontrollable feeling were
+transient, being of rare occurrence, and of very short duration.
+
+By the time the corporal had his trenches dug, le Bourdon was prepared
+with his palisades, which were just one hundred in number, being
+intended to enclose a space of forty feet square. The men all united in
+the transportation of the timber, which was floated down the river on a
+raft of white pine, the burr-oak being of a specific gravity that fresh
+water would not sustain. A couple of days, however, sufficed for the
+transportation by water, and as many more for that by land, between
+the place of landing and Castle Meal. This much accomplished, the
+whole party rested from their labors, the day which succeeded being the
+Sabbath.
+
+Those who dwell habitually amid the haunts of men, alone thoroughly
+realize the vast importance that ought to be attached to the great day
+of rest. Men on the ocean, and men in the forest, are only too apt
+to overlook the returns of the Sabbath; thus slowly, but inevitably
+alienating themselves more and more from the dread Being who established
+the festival, as much in his own honor as for the good of man. When we
+are told that the Almighty is jealous of his rights, and desires to
+be worshipped, we are not to estimate this wish by any known human
+standard, but are ever to bear in mind that it is exactly in proportion
+as we do reverence the Creator and Ruler of heaven and earth that we are
+nearest, or farthest, from the condition of the blessed. It is probably
+for his own good, that the adoration of man is pleasing in the eyes of
+God.
+
+The missionary, though a visionary and an enthusiast, as respected the
+children of Israel, was a zealous observer of his duties. On Sundays,
+he never neglected to set up his tabernacle, even though it were in
+a howling wilderness, and went regularly through the worship of God,
+according to the form of the sect to which he belonged. His influence,
+on the present occasion, was sufficient to cause a suspension of
+all labor, though not without some remonstrances on the part of the
+corporal. The latter contended that, in military affairs, there was no
+Sunday known, unless it might be in peaceable times, and that he had
+never heard of intrenchments "resting from their labors," on the part
+of either the besieger or the besieged. Work of that sort, he thought,
+ought to go on, day and night, by means of reliefs; and, instead of
+pausing to hold church, he had actually contemplated detailing fatigue
+parties to labor through, not only that day, but the whole of the
+succeeding night.
+
+As for Peter, he never offered the slightest objection to any of Parson
+Amen's sermons or prayers. He listened to both with unmoved gravity,
+though no apparent impression was ever made on his feelings. The
+Chippewa hunted on the Sabbaths as much as on any other day; and it was
+in reference to this fact that the following little conversation took
+place between Margery and the missionary, as the party sat beneath the
+oaks, passing a tranquil eventide at midsummer.
+
+"How happens it, Mr. Amen," said Margery, who had insensibly adopted the
+missionary's sobriquet, "that no red man keeps the Sabbath-day, if they
+are all descended from the Jews? This is one of the most respected of
+all the commandments, and it does not seem natural"--Margery's use of
+terms was necessarily influenced by association and education-"that any
+of that people should wholly forget the day of rest."
+
+"Perhaps you are not aware, Margery, that the Jews, even in civilized
+countries, do not keep the same Sabbath as the Christians," returned
+the missionary. "They have public worship on a Saturday, as we do on
+a Sunday. Now, I did think I saw some signs of Peter's privately
+worshipping yesterday, while we were all so busy at our garrison. You
+may have observed how thoughtful and silent the chief was in the middle
+of the afternoon."
+
+"I DID observe it," said the bee-hunter, "but must own I did not suspect
+him of holding meeting for any purposes within himself. That was one of
+the times when I like the manners and behavior of this Injin the least."
+
+"We do not know--we do not know--perhaps his spirit struggled with the
+temptations of the Evil One. To me he appeared to be worshipping, and I
+set the fact down as a proof that the red men keep the Jewish Sabbath."
+
+"I did not know that the Jews keep a Sabbath different from our own,
+else I might have thought the same. But I never saw a Jew, to my
+knowledge. Did you, Margery?"
+
+"Not to know him for one," answered the girl; and true enough was the
+remark of each. Five-and-thirty years ago, America was singularly not
+only a Christian but a Protestant nation. Jews certainly did exist in
+the towns, but they were so blended with the rest of the population,
+and were so few in number, as scarcely to attract attention to them as
+a sect. As for the Romanists, they too had their churches and their
+dioceses; but what untravelled American had then ever seen a nun? From
+monks, Heaven be praised, we are yet spared; and this is said without
+any prejudice against the denomination to which they usually belong. He
+who has lived much in a country where that sect prevails, if a man of
+a particle of liberality, soon learns that piety and reverence for God,
+and a deep sense of all the Christian obligations, can just as well,
+nay better, exist in a state of society where a profound submission to
+well-established dogmas is to be found, than in a state of society where
+there is so much political freedom as to induce the veriest pretenders
+to learning to imagine that each man is a church and a hierarchy in his
+own person! All this is rapidly changing. Romanists abound, and spots
+that half a century since, appeared to be the most improbable place in
+the world to admit of the rites of the priests of Rome, now hear the
+chants and prayers of the mass-books. All this shows a tendency toward
+that great commingling of believers, which is doubtless to precede the
+final fusion of sects, and the predicted end.
+
+On the Monday that succeeded the Sabbath mentioned, the corporal had all
+his men at work, early, pinning together his palisades, making them up
+into manageable bents, and then setting them up on their legs. As the
+materials were all there, and quite ready to be put together, the work
+advanced rapidly; and by the time the sun drew near the western horizon
+once more, Castle Meal was surrounded by its bristling defences. The
+whole was erect and stay-lathed, waiting only for the earth to be
+shovelled back into the trench, and to be pounded well down. As it
+was, the palisades offered a great increase of security to those in
+the chiente, and both the females expressed their obligations to their
+friends for having taken this important step toward protecting them from
+the enemy. When they retired for the night, everything was arranged,
+so that the different members of the party might know where to assemble
+within the works. Among the effects of Gershom, were a conch and a horn;
+the latter being one of those common instruments of tin, which are so
+much used in and about American farm-houses, to call the laborers from
+the field. The conch was given to the men, that, in case of need, they
+might sound the alarm from without, while the horn, or trumpet of tin,
+was suspended by the door of the chiente, in order that the females
+might have recourse to it, at need.
+
+About midnight, long after the whole party had retired to rest, and when
+the stillness of the hours of deepest repose reigned over the openings,
+the bee-hunter was awoke from his sleep by an unwonted call. At first,
+he could scarce believe his senses, so plaintive, and yet so wild,
+was the blast. But there could be no mistake: it was the horn from
+the chiente, and, in a moment, he was on his feet. By this time, the
+corporal was afoot, and presently all the men were in motion. On this
+occasion, Gershom manifested a readiness and spirit that spoke equally
+well for his heart and his courage. He was foremost in rushing to the
+assistance of his wife and sister, though le Bourdon was very close on
+his heels.
+
+On reaching the gate of the palisade, it was found closed, and barred
+within; nor did any one appear, until Dorothy was summoned, by repeated
+calls, in the well-known voice of her husband. When the two females came
+out of the chiente, great was their wonder and alarm! No horn had been
+blown by either of them, and there the instrument itself hung, on its
+peg, as quiet and mute as if a blast had never been blown into it The
+bee-hunter, on learning this extraordinary fact, looked around him
+anxiously, in order to ascertain who might be absent. Every man was
+present, and each person stood by his arms, no one betraying the
+slightest consciousness of knowing whence the unaccountable summons had
+proceeded!
+
+"This has been done by you, corporal, in order to bring us together,
+under arms, by way of practice," le Bourdon at length exclaimed.
+
+"False alarms is useful, if not overdone; especially among raw troops,"
+answered Flint, coolly; "but I have given none to-night. I will own I
+did intend to have you all out in a day or two by way of practice, but
+I have thought it useless to attempt too much at once. When the
+garrison is finished, it will be time enough to drill the men to the
+alarm-posts."
+
+"What is your opinion, Peter?" continued le Bourdon. "You understand the
+wilderness, and its ways. To what is this extr'or'nary call owing? Why
+have we been brought here, at this hour?"
+
+"Somebody blow horn, most likely," answered Peter, in his unmoved,
+philosophical manner. "'Spose don't know; den can't tell. Warrior often
+hear 'larm on war-path."
+
+"This is an onaccountable thing! If I ever heard a horn, I heard one
+to-night; yet this is the only horn we have, and no one has touched it!
+It was not the conch I heard; there is no mistaking the difference in
+sound between a shell and a horn; and there is the conch, hanging at
+Gershom's neck, just where it has been the whole night."
+
+"No one has touched the conch--I will answer for THAT," returned
+Gershom, laying a hand on the shell, as if to make certain all was
+right.
+
+"This is most extr'or'nary! I heard the horn, if ears of mine ever heard
+such an instrument!"
+
+Each of the white men added as much, for every one of them had
+distinctly heard the blast. Still neither could suggest any probable
+clue to the mystery. The Indians said nothing; but it was so much in
+conformity with their habits for red men to maintain silence, whenever
+any unusual events awakened feelings in others, that no one thought
+their deportment out of rule. As for Peter, a statue of stone could
+scarcely have been colder in aspect than was this chief, who seemed to
+be altogether raised above every exhibition of human feeling. Even the
+corporal gaped, though much excited, for he had been suddenly aroused
+from a deep sleep; but Peter was as much superior to physical, as to
+moral impressions, on this occasion. He made no suggestion, manifested
+no concern, exhibited no curiosity; and when the men withdrew, again, to
+their proper habitation, he walked back with them, in the same silence
+and calm, as those with which he had advanced. Gershom, however, entered
+within the palisade, and passed the remainder of the night with his
+family.
+
+The bee-hunter and the Chippewa accidentally came together, as the men
+moved slowly toward their own hut, when the following short dialogue
+occurred between them.
+
+"Is that you, Pigeonswing?" exclaimed le Bourdon, when he found his
+friend touching an elbow, as if by chance.
+
+"Yes, dis me--want better friend, eh?"
+
+"No, I'm well satisfied to have you near me, in an alarm, Chippewa.
+We've stood by each other once, in troublesome times; and I think we can
+do as much, ag'in."
+
+"Yes; stand by friend--dat honor. Nebber turn back on friend; dat my
+way."
+
+"Chippewa, who blew the blast on the horn?--can you tell me THAT?"
+
+"Why don't you ask Peter? He wise chief--know eb-beryt'ing. Young Injin
+ask ole Injin when don't know--why not young pale-face ask ole man, too,
+eh?"
+
+"Pigeonswing, if truth was said, I believe it would be found that you
+suspect Peter of having a hand in this business?"
+
+This speech was rather too idiomatic for the comprehension of the
+Indian, who answered according to his own particular view of the matter.
+
+"Don't blow horn wid hand," he said--"Injin blow wid mout', just like
+pale-face."
+
+The bee-hunter did not reply; but his companion's remark had a tendency
+to revive in his breast certain unpleasant and distrustful feelings
+toward the mysterious savage, which the incidents and communications of
+the last two weeks had had a strong tendency to put to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+      None knows his lineage, age, or name;
+      His looks are like the snows of Caucasus; his eyes
+      Beam with the wisdom of collected ages
+      In green, unbroken years he sees, 'tis said,
+      The generations pass like autumn fruits,
+      Garner'd, consumed, and springing fresh to life,
+      Again to perish--
+                                      --HILLHOUSE
+
+
+No further disturbance took place that night, and the men set about
+filling up the trenches in the morning steadily, as if nothing had
+happened. They talked a little of the extraordinary occurrence, but more
+was THOUGHT than SAID. Le Bourdon observed, however, that Pigeonswing
+went earlier than usual to the hunt, and that he made his preparations
+as if he expected to be absent more than the customary time.
+
+As there were just one hundred feet of ditch to fill with dirt, the task
+was completed, and that quite thoroughly, long ere the close of the day.
+The pounding down of the earth consumed more time, and was much more
+laborious than the mere tumbling of the earth back into its former bed;
+but even this portion of the work was sufficiently attended to. When all
+was done, the corporal himself, a very critical sort of person in what
+he called "garrisons," was fain to allow that it was as "pretty a piece
+of palisading" as he had ever laid eyes on. The "garrison" wanted only
+one thing, now, to render it a formidable post--and that was water--no
+spring or well existing within its narrow limit; however, he procured
+two or three empty barrels, portions of le Bourdon's effects, placed
+them within the works, and had them filled with sweet water. By emptying
+this water two or three times a week, and refilling the barrels, it was
+thought that a sufficient provision of that great necessary would be
+made and kept up. Luckily the corporal's "garrison" did not drink, and
+the want was so much the more easily supplied for the moment.
+
+In truth, the chiente was now converted into a place of some strength,
+when it is considered that artillery had never yet penetrated to those
+wilds. More than half the savages of the west fought with arrows
+and spears in that day, as most still do when the great prairies are
+reached. A rifleman so posted as to have his body in a great measure
+covered by the trunk of a burr-oak tree, would be reasonably secure
+against the missives of an Indian, and, using his own fatal instrument
+of death, under a sense of personal security, he would become a
+formidable opponent to dislodge. Nor was the smallness of the work any
+objection to its security. A single well-armed man might suffice
+to defend twenty-five feet of palisades, when he would have been
+insufficient to make good his position with twice the extent. Then le
+Bourdon had cut loops on three sides of the hut itself, in order to fire
+at the bears, and sometimes at the deer, which had often approached
+the building in its days of solitude and quiet, using the window on
+the fourth side for the same purpose. In a word, a sense of increased
+security was felt by the whole party when this work was completed,
+though one arrangement was still wanting to render it perfect. By
+separating the real garrison from the nominal garrison during the night,
+there always existed the danger of surprise; and the corporal, now that
+his fortifications were finished, soon devised a plan to obviate this
+last-named difficulty. His expedient was very simple, and had somewhat
+of barrack-life about it.
+
+Corporal Flint raised a low platform along one side of the chiente,
+by placing there logs of pine that were squared on one of their sides.
+Above, at the height of a man's head, a roof of bark was reared on
+poles, and prairie grass, aided by skins, formed very comfortable
+barrack-beds beneath. As the men were expected to lie with their heads
+to the wall of the hut, and their feet outward, there was ample space
+for twice their number. Thither, then, were all the homely provisions
+for the night transported; and when Margery closed the door of the
+chiente, after returning the bee-hunter's cordial good night, it was
+with no further apprehension for the winding of the mysterious horn.
+
+The first night that succeeded the new arrangement passed without any
+disturbance. Pigeonswing did not return, as usual, at sunset, and
+a little uneasiness was felt on his account; but, as he made his
+appearance quite early in the morning, this source of concern ceased.
+Nor did the Chippewa come in empty-handed; he had killed not only a
+buck, but he had knocked over a bear in his rambles, besides taking a
+mess of famously fine trout from a brawling stream at no great distance.
+The fish were eaten for breakfast, and immediately after that meal was
+ended, a party.
+
+"I know no more than he has himself told me. By his account there is
+to be a great council of red men on the prairie, a few miles from this
+spot; he is waiting for the appointed day to come, in order to go and
+make one of the chiefs that will be there. Is not this true, Chippewa?"
+
+"Yes, dat true--what dat council smoke round fire for, eh? You know?"
+
+"No, I do not, and would be right glad to have you tell me, Pigeonswing.
+Perhaps the tribe mean to have a meetin' to determine in their own minds
+which side they ought to take in this war."
+
+"Not dat nudder. Know well 'nough which side take. Got message and
+wampum from Canada fadder, and most all Injin up this-a way look for
+Yankee scalp. Not dat nudder."
+
+"Then I have no notion what is at the bottom of this council. Peter
+seems to expect great things from it; that I can see by his way of
+talking and looking whenever he speaks of it."
+
+"Peter want to see him very much. Smoke at great many sich council
+fire."
+
+"Do you intend to be present at this council on Prairie Round?" asked
+the bee-hunter, innocently enough. Pigeonswing turned to look at his
+companion, in a way that seemed to inquire how far he was really the
+dupe of the mysterious Indian's wiles. Then, suddenly aware of the
+importance of not betraying all he himself knew, until the proper moment
+had arrived, he bent his eyes forward again, continuing onward and
+answering somewhat evasively.
+
+"Don't know," he replied. "Hunter nebber tell. Chief want venison, and
+he must hunt. Just like squaw in pale-face wigwam--work,
+work--sweep, sweep--cook, cook--never know when work done. So hunter
+hunt--hunt--hunt."
+
+"And for that matter, Chippewa, just like squaw in the red man's
+village, too. Hoe, hoe--dig, dig--carry, carry--so that she never knows
+when she may sit down to rest."
+
+"Yes," returned Pigeonswing, coolly nodding his assent as he moved
+steadily forward. "Dat do right way wid squaw--juss what he good
+for--juss what he MADE for--work for warrior and cook his dinner.
+Pale-face make too much of squaw."
+
+"Not accordin' to your account of their manner of getting along, Injin.
+If the work of our squaws is never done, we can hardly make too much of
+them. Where does Peter keep HIS squaw?"
+
+"Don't know," answered the Chippewa. "Nobody know. Don't know where his
+tribe even."
+
+"This is very extraor'nary, considering the influence the man seems to
+enjoy. How is it that he has so completely got the ears of all the red
+men, far and near?"
+
+To this question Pigeonswing gave no answer. His own mind was so far
+under Peter's control that he did not choose to tell more than might be
+prudent. He was fully aware of the mysterious chief's principal design,
+that of destroying the white race altogether, and of restoring the red
+men to their ancient rights, but several reasons prevented his entering
+into the plot heart and hand. In the first place, he was friendly to
+the "Yankees," from whom he, personally, had received many favors and
+no wrongs; then, the tribe, or half-tribe, to which he belonged had
+been employed, more or less, by the agents of the American government
+as runners, and in other capacities, ever since the peace of '83; and,
+lastly, he himself had been left much in different garrisons, where
+he had not only acquired his English, but a habit of thinking of the
+Americans as his friends. It might also be added that Pigeonswing,
+though far less gifted by nature than the mysterious Peter, had formed
+a truer estimate of the power of the "Yankees," and did not believe they
+were to be annihilated so easily. How it happened that this Indian had
+come to a conclusion so much safer than that of Peter's, a man of twice
+his capacity, is more than we can explain; though it was probably owing
+to the accidental circumstances of his more intimate associations with
+the whites.
+
+The bee-hunter was by nature a man of observation, a faculty that his
+habits had both increased and stimulated. Had it not been for the manner
+in which he was submitting to the influence of Margery, he would long
+before have seen that in the deportment of the Chippewa which would have
+awakened his distrust; not that Margery in any way endeavored to blind
+him to what was passing before his face, but that he was fast getting to
+have eyes only for her. By this time she filled not only his waking, but
+many of his sleeping thoughts; and when she was not actually before him,
+charming him with her beauty, enlivening him with her artless gayety,
+and inspiring him with her innocent humor, he fancied she was there,
+imagination, perhaps, heightening all those advantages which we have
+enumerated. When a man is thoroughly in love, he is quite apt to be
+fit for very little else but to urge his suit. Such, in a certain
+way, proved to be the case with le Bourdon, who allowed things to pass
+unheeded directly before his eyes that previously to his acquaintance
+with Margery would not only have been observed, but which would have
+most probably led to some practical results. The conduct of Pigeonswing
+was among the circumstances that were thus over-looked by our hero. In
+point of fact, Peter was slowly but surely working on the mind of the
+Chippewa, changing all his opinions radically, and teaching him to
+regard every pale-face as an enemy. The task, in this instance, was not
+easy; for Pigeonswing, in addition to his general propensities in favor
+of the "Yankees," the result of mere accident, had conceived a real
+personal regard for le Bourdon, and was very slow to admit any views
+that tended to his injury. The struggle in the mind of the young warrior
+was severe; and twenty times was he on the point of warning his friend
+of the danger which impended over the whole party, when a sense of good
+faith toward Peter, who held his word to the contrary, prevented his so
+doing. This conflict of feeling was now constantly active in the breast
+of the young savage.
+
+Pigeonswing had another source of uneasiness, to which his companions
+were entirely strangers. While hunting, his keen eyes had detected the
+presence of warriors in the openings. It is true he had not seen even
+one, but he knew that the signs he had discovered could not deceive him.
+Not only were warriors at hand, but warriors in considerable numbers.
+He had found one deserted lair, from which its late occupants could not
+have departed many hours when it came under his own notice. By means of
+that attentive sagacity which forms no small portion of the education
+of an American Indian, Pigeonswing was enabled to ascertain that this
+party, of itself, numbered seventeen, all of whom were men and warriors.
+The first fact was easily enough to be seen, perhaps, there being just
+seventeen different impressions left in the grass; but that all these
+persons were armed men, was learned by Pigeonswing through evidence that
+would have been overlooked by most persons. By the length of the lairs
+he was satisfied none but men of full stature had been there; and he
+even examined sufficiently close to make out the proofs that all but
+four of these men carried firearms. Strange as it may seem to those who
+do not know how keen the senses become when whetted by the apprehensions
+and wants of savage life, Pigeonswing was enabled to discover signs
+which showed that the excepted were provided with bows and arrows, and
+spears.
+
+When the bee-hunter and his companion came in sight of the carcase of
+the bear, which they did shortly after the last remark which we have
+given in the dialogue recorded, the former exclaimed with a little
+surprise:
+
+"How's this, Chippewa! You have killed this beast with your bow! Did you
+not hunt with the rifle yesterday?"
+
+"Bad fire rifle off now-a-day," answered Pigeonswing, sententiously.
+"Make noise--noise no good."
+
+"Noise!" repeated the perfectly unsuspecting bee-hunter. "Little good
+or little harm can noise do in these openings, where there is neither
+mountain to give back an echo, or ear to be startled. The crack of my
+rifle has rung through these groves a hundred times and no harm come of
+it."
+
+"Forget war-time now. Bess nebber fire, less can't help him.
+Pottawattamie hear great way off."
+
+"Oh! That's it, is it! You're afraid our old friends the Pottawattamies
+may find us out, and come to thank us for all that happened down at
+the river's mouth. Well," continued le Bourdon, laughing, "if they wish
+another whiskey-spring, I have a small jug left, safely hid against a
+wet day; a very few drops will answer to make a tolerable spring. You
+redskins don't know everything, Pigeonswing, though you are so keen and
+quick-witted on a trail."
+
+"Bess not tell Pottawattamie any more 'bout springs," answered the
+Chippewa, gravely; for by this time he regarded the state of things in
+the openings to be so serious as to feel little disposition to mirth.
+"Why you don't go home, eh? Why don't med'cine-man go home, too? Bess
+for pale-face to be wid pale-face when red man go on war-path. Color
+bess keep wid color."
+
+"I see you want to be rid of us, Pigeonswing; but the parson has no
+thought of quitting this part of the world until he has convinced all
+the red-skins that they are Jews."
+
+"What he mean, eh?" demanded the Chippewa, with more curiosity than it
+was usual for an Indian warrior to betray. "What sort of a man Jew, eh?
+Why call red man Jew?"
+
+"I know very little more about it than you do yourself, Pigeonswing; but
+such as my poor knowledge is, you're welcome to it. You've heard of the
+Bible, I dare say?"
+
+"Sartain--med'cine-man read him Sunday. Good book to read, some t'ink."
+
+"Yes, it's all that, and a great companion have I found my Bible, when
+I've been alone with the bees out here in the openings. It tells us of
+our God, Chippewa; and teaches us how we are to please him, and how we
+may offend. It's a great loss to you red-skins not to have such a book
+among you."
+
+"Med'cine-man bring him--don't do much good, yet; some day, p'r'aps, do
+better. How dat make red man Jew?"
+
+"Why, this is a new idea to me, though Parson Amen seems fully possessed
+with it. I suppose you know what a Jew is?"
+
+"Don't know anything 'bout him. Sort o' nigger, eh?"
+
+"No, no, Pigeonswing, you're wide of the mark this time. But, that we
+may understand each other, we'll begin at the beginning like, which will
+let you into the whole history of the pale-face religion. As we've had a
+smart walk, however, and here is the bear's meat safe and sound, just as
+you left it, let us sit down a bit on this trunk of a tree, while I give
+you our tradition from beginning to end, as it might be. In the first
+place, Chippewa, the earth was made without creatures of any sort to
+live on it--not so much as a squirrel or a woodchuck."
+
+"Poor country to hunt in, dat," observed the Chippewa quietly, while le
+Bourdon was wiping his forehead after removing his cap. "Ojebways stay
+in it very little time."
+
+"This, according to our belief, was before any Ojebway lived. At length,
+God made a man, out of clay, and fashioned him, as we see men fashioned
+and living all around us."
+
+"Yes," answered the Chippewa, nodding his head in assent. "Den Manitou
+put plenty blood in him--dat make red warrior. Bible good book, if tell
+dat tradition."
+
+"The Bible says nothing about any colors; but we suppose the man first
+made to have been a pale-face. At any rate, the pale-faces have got
+possession of the best parts of the earth, as it might be, and I
+think they mean to keep them. First come, first served, you know. The
+pale-faces are many, and are strong."
+
+"Stop!" exclaimed Pigeonswing, in a way that was very unusual for an
+Indian to interrupt another when speaking; "want to ask question--how
+many pale-face you t'ink is dere? Ebber count him?"
+
+"Count him!--Why, Chippewa, you might as well count the bees, as
+they buzz around a fallen tree. You saw me cut down the tree I last
+discovered, and saw the movement of the little animals, and may judge
+what success tongue or eye would have in counting THEM; now, just as
+true would it be to suppose that any man could count the pale-faces on
+this earth."
+
+"Don't want count ALL," answered Pigeonswing. "Want to know how many dis
+side of great salt lake."
+
+"That's another matter, and more easily come at. I understand you now,
+Chippewa; you wish to know how many of us there are in the country we
+call America?"
+
+"Juss so," returned Pigeonswing, nodding in assent. "Dat juss it--juss
+what Injin want to know."
+
+"Well, we do have a count of our own people, from time to time, and
+I suppose come about as near to the truth as men can come in such a
+matter. There must be about eight millions of us altogether; that is,
+old and young, big and little, male and female."
+
+"How many warrior you got?--don't want hear about squaw and pappoose."
+
+"No, I see you're warlike this morning, and want to see how we are
+likely to come out of this struggle with your great Canada father.
+Counting all round, I think we might muster hard on upon a million of
+fighting men--good, bad, and indifferent; that is to say, there must be
+a million of us of proper age to go into the wars."
+
+Pigeonswing made no answer for near a minute. Both he and the bee-hunter
+had come to a halt alongside of the bear's meat, and the latter was
+beginning to prepare his own portion of the load for transportation,
+while his companion stood thus motionless, lost in thought. Suddenly,
+Pigeonswing recovered his recollection, and resumed the conversation, by
+saying:
+
+"What million mean, Bourdon? How many time so'ger at Detroit, and so'ger
+on lakes?"
+
+"A million is more than the leaves on all the trees in these
+openings"--le Bourdon's notions were a little exaggerated, perhaps, but
+this was what he SAID--"yes, more than the leaves on all these oaks, far
+and near. A million is a countless number, and I suppose would make a
+row of men as long as from this spot to the shores of the great salt
+lake, if not farther."
+
+It is probable that the bee-hunter himself had no very clear notion
+of the distance of which he spoke, or of the number of men it would
+actually require to fill the space he mentioned; but his answer sufficed
+deeply to impress the imagination of the Indian, who now helped le
+Bourdon to secure his load to his back, in silence, receiving the same
+service in return. When the meat of the bear was securely bestowed, each
+resumed his rifle, and the friends commenced their march in, toward the
+chiente; conversing, as they went, on the matter which still occupied
+their minds. When the bee-hunter again took up the history of the
+creation, it was to speak of our common mother.
+
+"You will remember, Chippewa," he said, "that I told you nothing on the
+subject of any woman. What I have told you, as yet, consarned only the
+first MAN, who was made out of clay, into whom God breathed the breath
+of life."
+
+"Dat good--make warrior fuss. Juss right. When breat' in him, fit to
+take scalp, eh?"
+
+"Why, as to that, it is not easy to see whom he was to scalp, seeing
+that he was quite alone in the world, until it pleased his Creator to
+give him a woman for a companion."
+
+"Tell 'bout dat," returned Pigeonswing, with interest--"tell how he got
+squaw."
+
+"Accordin' to the Bible, God caused this man to fall into a deep sleep,
+when he took one of his ribs, and out of that he made a squaw for him.
+Then he put them both to live together, in a most beautiful garden, in
+which all things excellent and pleasant was to be found--some such place
+as these openings, I reckon."
+
+"Any bee dere?" asked the Indian, quite innocently. "Plenty honey, eh?"
+
+"That will I answer for! It could hardly be otherwise, when it was the
+intention to make the first man and first woman perfectly happy. I dare
+say, Chippewa, if the truth was known, it would be found that bees was a
+sipping at every flower in that most delightful garden!"
+
+"Why pale-face quit dat garden, eh? Why come here to drive poor Injin
+'way from game? Tell me dat, Bourdon, if he can? Why pale-face ever
+leave DAT garden, when he so han'some, eh?"
+
+"God turned him out of it, Chippewa--yes, he was turned OUT of it, with
+shame on his face, for having disobeyed the commandments of his Creator.
+Having left the garden, his children have scattered over the face of the
+earth."
+
+"So come here to drive off Injin! Well, dat 'e way wid pale-face I Did
+ever hear of red man comin' to drive off pale-face?"
+
+"I have heard of your red warriors often coming to take our scalps,
+Chippewa. More or less of this has been done every year, since our
+people have landed in America. More than that they have not done, for
+we are too many to be driven very far in, by a few scattering tribes of
+Injins."
+
+"T'ink, den, more pale-face dan Injin, eh?" asked the Chippewa, with an
+interest so manifest that he actually stopped in his semi-trot, in order
+to put the question. "More pale-face warrior dan red men?"
+
+"More! Aye, a thousand times more, Chippewa. Where you could show one
+warrior, we could show a thousand!"
+
+Now, this was not strictly true, perhaps, but it answered the purpose
+of deeply impressing the Chippewa with the uselessness of Peter's plans,
+and sustained as it was by his early predilections, it served to
+keep him on the right side, in the crisis which was approaching. The
+discourse continued, much in the same strain, until the men got in with
+their bear's meat, having been preceded some time by the others, with
+the venison.
+
+It is a little singular that neither the questions, nor the manner of
+Pigeonswing, awakened any distrust in the bee-hunter. So far from this,
+the latter regarded all that had passed as perfectly natural, and as
+likely to arise in conversation, in the way of pure speculation, as in
+any other manner. Pigeonswing intended to be guarded in what he said and
+did, for, as yet, he had not made up his mind which side he would really
+espouse, in the event of the great project coming to a head. He had the
+desire, natural to a red man, to avenge the wrongs committed against
+his race; but this desire existed in a form a good deal mitigated by his
+intercourse with the "Yankees," and his regard for individuals. It had,
+nevertheless, strangely occurred to the savage reasoning of this young
+warrior that possibly some arrangement might be effected, by means of
+which he should take scalps from the Canadians, while Peter and his
+other followers were working their will on the Americans. In this
+confused condition was the mind of the Chippewa, when he and his
+companion threw down their loads, near the place where the provision of
+game was usually kept. This was beneath the tree, near the spring and
+the cook-house, in order that no inconvenience should arise from its
+proximity to the place where the party dwelt and slept. For a siege,
+should there be occasion to shut themselves up within the "garrison,"
+the men depended on the pickled pork, and a quantity of dried meat; of
+the latter of which the missionary had brought a considerable supply
+in his own canoe. Among these stores were a few dozen of buffaloes'
+or bisons' tongues, a delicacy that would honor the best table in the
+civilized world, though then so common among the western hunters, as
+scarce to be deemed food as good as the common salted pork and beef of
+the settlements.
+
+The evening that followed proved to be one of singular softness and
+sweetness. The sun went down in a cloudless sky, and gentle airs from
+the southwest fanned the warm cheeks of Margery, as she sat, resting
+from the labors of the day, with le Bourdon at her side, speaking of the
+pleasures of a residence in such a spot. The youth was eloquent, for he
+felt all that he said, and the maiden was pleased. The young man could
+expatiate on bees in a way to arrest any one's attention; and Margery
+delighted to hear him relate his adventures with these little creatures;
+his successes, losses, and journeys.
+
+"But are you not often lonely, Bourdon, living here in the openings,
+whole summers at a time, without a living soul to speak to?" demanded
+Margery, coloring to the eyes, the instant the question was asked,
+lest it should subject her to an imputation against which her modesty
+revolted, that of wishing to draw the discourse to a discussion on the
+means of preventing this solitude in future.
+
+"I have not been, hitherto," answered le Bourdon, so frankly as at once
+to quiet his companion's sensitiveness, "though I will not answer for
+the future. Now that I have so many with me, we may make some of them
+necessary. Mind--I say SOME, not all of my present guests. If I could
+have my pick, pretty Margery, the present company would give me ALL I
+can desire, and more too. I should not think of going to Detroit for
+that companion, since she is to be found so much nearer."
+
+Margery blushed, and looked down--then she raised her eyes, smiled,
+and seemed grateful as well as pleased. By this time she had become
+accustomed to such remarks, and she had no difficulty in discovering her
+lover's wishes, though he had never been more explicit. The reflections
+natural to her situation threw a shade of gentle seriousness over her
+countenance, rendering her more charming than ever, and causing the
+youth to plunge deeper and deeper into the meshes that female influence
+had cast around him, In all this, however, one of the parties was
+governed by a manly sincerity, and the other by girlish artlessness.
+Diffidence, one of the most certain attendants of a pure passion, alone
+kept le Bourdon from asking Margery to become his wife; while Margery
+herself sometimes doubted whether it were possible that any reputable
+man could wish to connect himself and his fortunes with a family that
+had sunk as low as persons could well sink, in this country, and not
+lose their characters altogether. With these doubts and distrusts, so
+naturally affecting the mind of each, these young people were rapidly
+becoming more and more enamored; the bee-hunter betraying his passion
+in the close, absorbed attentions that more properly belong to his sex,
+while that of Margery was to be seen in sudden blushes, the thoughtful
+brow, the timid glance, and a cast of tenderness that came over her
+whole manner, and, as it might be, her whole being.
+
+While our young folk were thus employed, now conversing cheerfully, now
+appearing abstracted and lost in thought, though seated side by side,
+le Bourdon happened to look behind him, and saw that Peter was regarding
+them with one of those intense, but mysterious expressions of the
+countenance, that had, now, more than once attracted his attention;
+giving reason, each time, for a feeling in which doubt, curiosity, and
+apprehension were singularly mingled, even in himself.
+
+At the customary hour, which was always early, in that party of simple
+habits, the whole family sought its rest; the females withdrew within
+the chiente, while the males arranged their skins without. Ever since
+the erection of the palisades, le Bourdon had been in the habit of
+calling Hive within the defences, leaving him at liberty to roam about
+inside, at pleasure. Previously to this new arrangement, the dog had
+been shut up in his kennel, in order to prevent his getting on the track
+of a deer, or in close combat with some bear, when his master was not
+present to profit by his efforts. As the palisades were too high for
+his leap, this putting him at liberty within them answered the double
+purpose of giving the mastiff room for healthful exercise, and of
+possessing a most vigilant sentinel against dangers of all sorts. On the
+present occasion, however, the dog was missing, and after calling and
+whistling for him some time, the bee-hunter was fain to bar the gate,
+and leave him on the outside. This done, he sought his skin, and was
+soon asleep.
+
+It was midnight, when the bee-hunter felt a hand laid on his own arm.
+It was the corporal, making this movement, in order to awake him. In an
+instant the young man was on his feet, with his rifle in his hand.
+
+"Did you not hear it, Bourdon?" demanded the corporal, in a tone so low
+as scarce to exceed a whisper.
+
+"Hear what! I've been sleeping, sound as a bee in winter."
+
+"The horn!--The horn has been blown twice, and, I think, we shall soon
+hear it again."
+
+"The horn was hanging at the door of the chiente, and the conch, too. It
+will be easy to see if they are in their places."
+
+It was only necessary to walk around the walls of the hut, to its
+opposite side, in order to ascertain this fact. Le Bourdon did so,
+accompanied by the corporal, and just as each laid a hand on the
+instruments, which were suspended in their proper places, a heavy rush
+was made against the gate, as if to try its fastenings. These pushes
+were repeated several times, with a violence that menaced the bars. Of
+course, the two men stepped to the spot, a distance of only a few
+paces, the gateway of the palisades and the door of the chiente being
+contiguous to each other, and immediately ascertained that it was the
+mastiff, endeavoring to force his way in. The bee-hunter admitted the
+dog, which had been trained to suppress his bark, though this animal was
+too brave and large to throw away his breath when he had better rely on
+his force. Powerful animals, of this race, are seldom noisy, it being
+the province of the cur, both among dogs and men, to be blustering and
+spitting out their venom, at all hours and seasons. Hive, however, in
+addition to his natural disposition, had been taught, from the time he
+was a pup, not to betray his presence unnecessarily by a bark; and it
+was seldom that his deep throat opened beneath the arches of the oaks.
+When it did, it told like the roaring of the lion in the desert.
+
+Hive was no sooner admitted to the "garrison," than he manifested just
+as strong a desire to get out, as a moment before he had manifested
+to get in. This, le Bourdon well knew, indicated the presence of some
+thing, or creature, that did not properly belong to the vicinity. After
+consulting with the corporal, Pigeonswing was called; and leaving him as
+a sentinel at the gate, the two others made a sortie. The corporal
+was as brave as a lion, and loved all such movements, though he fully
+anticipated encountering savages, while his companion expected an
+interview with bears.
+
+As this movement was made at the invitation of the dog, it was
+judiciously determined to let him act as pioneer, on the advance.
+Previously to quitting the defences, however, the two adventurers looked
+closely to their arms. Each examined the priming, saw that his horn
+and pouch were accessible, and loosened his knife in its sheath. The
+corporal, moreover, fixed his "baggonet," as he called the formidable,
+glittering instrument that usually embellished the end of his musket--a
+MUSKET being the weapon he chose to carry, while the bee-hunter himself
+was armed with a long western RIFLE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+     The raptures of a conqueror's mood
+     Rushed burning through his frame;
+     The depths of that green solitude
+     Its torrents could not tame,
+     Though stillness lay, with eve's last smile,
+     Round those far fountains of the Nile
+                               --MRS HEMANS.
+
+
+When the bee-hunter and Corporal Flint thus went forth in midnight, from
+the "garrison" of Castle Meal (Chateau au Miel), as the latter would
+have expressed it, it was with no great apprehension of meeting any
+other than a four-footed enemy, notwithstanding the blast of the horn
+the worthy corporal supposed he had heard. The movements of the dog
+seemed to announce such a result rather than any other, for Hive was
+taken along as a sort of guide. Le Bourdon, however, did not permit his
+mastiff to run off wide, but, having the animal at perfect command, it
+was kept close to his own person.
+
+The two men first moved toward the grove of the Kitchen, much to Hive's
+discontent. The dog several times halted, and he whined, and growled,
+and otherwise manifested his great dislike to proceed in that direction.
+At length so decided did his resistance become, that his master said to
+his companion:
+
+"It seems to me best, corporal, to let the mastiff lead us. I have never
+yet seen him so set on not going in one way, and on going in another.
+Hive has a capital nose, and we may trust him."
+
+"Forward," returned the corporal, wheeling short in the direction of
+the dog; "one thing should be understood, however, Bourdon, which is
+this--you must act as light troops in this sortie, and I as the main
+body. If we come on the inimy, it will be your duty to skrimmage in
+front as long as you can, and then fall back on your resarves. I shall
+depend chiefly on the baggonet, which is the best tool to put an Injin
+up with; and as he falls back, before my charge, we must keep him under
+as warm a fire as possible. Having no cavalry, the dog might be made
+useful in movements to the front and on our flanks."
+
+"Pooh, pooh, corporal, you're almost as much set in the notions of your
+trade as Parson Amen is set in his idees about the lost tribes. In
+my opinion there'll be more tribes FOUND in these openings before the
+summer is over than we shall wish to meet. Let us follow the dog, and
+see what will turn up." Hive WAS followed, and he took a direction that
+led to a distant point in the openings, where not only the trees were
+much thicker than common, but where a small tributary of the Kalamazoo
+ran through a ravine, from the higher lands adjacent into the main
+artery of all the neighboring watercourses. The bee-hunter knew the
+spot well, having often drank at the rivulet, and cooled his brow in the
+close shades of the ravine, when heated by exertions in the more
+open grounds. In short, the spot was one of the most eligible for
+concealment, coolness, and pure water, within several miles of Castle
+Meal. The trees formed a spacious grove around it, and, by means of the
+banks, their summits and leaves answered the purpose of a perfect screen
+to those who might descend into the ravine, or, it would be better to
+say, to the bottom. Le Bourdon was no sooner satisfied that his mastiff
+was proceeding toward the great spring which formed the rivulet at the
+head of the ravine mentioned, than he suspected Indians might be there.
+He had seen signs about the spot, which wore an appearance of its having
+been used as a place of encampment--or for "camping out," as it is
+termed in the language of the west--and, coupling the sound of the horn
+with the dog's movements, his quick apprehension seized on the facts as
+affording reasonable grounds of distrust. Consequently he resorted to
+great caution, as he and the corporal entered the wood which surrounded
+the spring, and the small oval bit of bottom that lay spread before it,
+like a little lawn. Hive was kept close at his master's side, though
+he manifested a marked impatience to advance. "Now, corporal," said the
+bee-hunter in a low tone, "I think we have lined some savages to their
+holes. We will go round the basin and descend to the bottom, in a close
+wood which grows there. Did you see that?"
+
+"I suppose I did," answered the corporal, who was as firm as a rock.
+"You meant to ask me if I saw fire?"
+
+"I did. The red men have lighted their council fire in this spot,
+and have met to talk around it. Well, let 'em hearken to each other's
+thoughts, if they will; we shall be neither the better nor the worse for
+it."
+
+"I don't know that. When the commander-in-chief calls together his
+principal officers, something usually comes of it. Who knows but this
+very council is called in order to take opinions on the subject of
+besieging or of storming our new garrison? Prudent soldiers should
+always be ready for the worst."
+
+"I have no fear, so long as Peter is with us. That chief is listened to
+by every red-skin; and while we have him among us there will be little
+to care for. But we are getting near to the bottom and must work our way
+through these bushes with as little noise as possible. I will keep the
+dog quiet."
+
+The manner in which that sagacious animal now behaved was truly
+wonderful. Hive appeared to be quite as much aware of the necessity
+of extreme caution as either of the men, and did not once attempt to
+precede his master his own length. On one or two occasions he actually
+discovered the best passages, and led his companions through them with
+something like the intelligence of a human being. Neither growl nor bark
+escaped him; on the contrary, even the hacking breathing of an impatient
+dog was suppressed, precisely as if the animal knew how near he was
+getting to the most watchful ears in the world.
+
+After using the greatest care, the bee-hunter and the corporal got just
+such a station as they desired. It was within a very few feet of the
+edge of the cover, but perfectly concealed, while small openings enabled
+them to see all that was passing in their front. A fallen tree, a relic
+of somewhat rare occurrence in the openings of Michigan, even furnished
+them with a seat, while it rendered their position less exposed. Hive
+placed himself at his master's side, apparently trusting to other senses
+than that of sight for his information, since he could see nothing of
+what was going on in front.
+
+As soon as the two men had taken their stations, and began to look about
+them, a feeling of awe mingled with their curiosity. Truly, the scene
+was one so very remarkable and imposing that it might have filled more
+intellectual and better fortified minds with some such sensation.
+The fire was by no means large, nor was it particularly bright; but
+sufficient to cast a dim light on the objects within reach of its rays.
+It was in the precise centre of a bit of bottom land of about half an
+acre in extent, which was so formed and surrounded, as to have something
+of the appearance of the arena of a large amphitheatre. There was one
+break in the encircling rise of ground, it is true, and that was at
+a spot directly opposite the station of le Bourdon and his companion,
+where the rill which flowed from the spring found a passage out toward
+the more open ground. Branches shaded most of the mound, but the arena
+itself was totally free from all vegetation but that which covered the
+dense and beautiful sward with which it was carpeted. Such is a brief
+description of the natural accessories of this remarkable scene.
+
+But it was from the human actors, and their aspects, occupations,
+movements, dress, and appearance generally, that the awe which came
+over both the bee-hunter and the corporal had its origin. Of these, near
+fifty were present, offering a startling force by their numbers alone.
+Each man was a warrior, and each warrior was in his paint. These were
+facts that the familiarity of the two white men with Indian customs
+rendered only too certain. What was still more striking was the fact
+that all present appeared to be chiefs; a circumstance which went to
+show that an imposing body of red men was most likely somewhere in the
+openings, and that too at no great distance. It was while observing and
+reflecting on all these things, a suspicion first crossed the mind of le
+Bourdon that this great council was about to be held, at that midnight
+hour, and so near his own abode, for the purpose of accommodating Peter,
+whose appearance in the dark crowd, from that instant, he began to
+expect.
+
+The Indians already present were not seated. They stood in groups
+conversing, or stalked across the arena, resembling so many dark and
+stately spectres. No sound was heard among them, a circumstance that
+added largely to the wild and supernatural aspect of the scene. If any
+spoke, it was in a tone so low and gentle, as to carry the sound no
+farther than to the ears that were listening; two never spoke at
+the same time and in the same group, while the moccasin permitted no
+footfall to be audible. Nothing could have been more unearthly than the
+picture presented in that little, wood-circled arena, of velvet-like
+grass and rural beauty. The erect, stalking forms, half naked, if not
+even more; the swarthy skins; the faces fierce in the savage conceits
+which were intended to strike terror into the bosoms of enemies, and the
+glittering eyes that fairly sparkled in their midst, all contributed to
+the character of the scene, which le Bourdon rightly enough imagined was
+altogether much the most remarkable of any he had ever been in the way
+of witnessing.
+
+Our two spectators might have been seated on the fallen tree half an
+hour, all of which time they had been gazing at what was passing before
+their eyes; with positively not a human sound to relieve the unearthly
+nature of the picture. No one spoke, coughed, laughed, or exclaimed, in
+all that period. Suddenly, every chief stood still, and all the faces
+turned in the same direction. It was toward the little gateway of the
+rill, which being the side of the arena most remote from the bee-hunter
+and the corporal, lay nearly in darkness as respected them. With the red
+men it must have been different, for THEY all appeared to be in intent
+expectation of some one from that quarter. Nor did they have to wait
+long; for, in half a minute, two forms came out of the obscurity,
+advancing with a dignified and deliberate tread to the centre of
+the arena. As these newcomers got more within the influence of the
+flickering light, le Bourdon saw that they were Peter and Parson Amen.
+The first led, with a slow, imposing manner, while the other followed,
+not a little bewildered with what he saw. It may be as well to explain
+here, that the Indian was coming alone to this place of meeting, when
+he encountered the missionary wandering among the oaks, looking for le
+Bourdon and the corporal, and, instead of endeavoring to throw off this
+unexpected companion, he quietly invited him to be of his own party.
+
+It was evident to le Bourdon, at a glance, that Peter was expected,
+though it was not quite so clear that such was the fact as regarded
+his companion. Still, respect for the great chief prevented any
+manifestations of surprise or discontent, and the medicine-man of the
+pale-faces was received with as grave a courtesy as if he had been an
+invited guest. Just as the two had entered the dark circle that formed
+around them, a young chief threw some dry sticks on the fire, which
+blazing upward, cast a stronger light on a row of as terrifically
+looking countenances as ever gleamed on human forms. This sudden
+illumination, with its accompanying accessories, had the effect to
+startle all the white spectators, though Peter looked on the whole with
+a calm like that of the leafless tree, when the cold is at its height,
+and the currents of the wintry air are death-like still Nothing appeared
+to move HIM, whether expected or not; though use had probably accustomed
+his eye to all the aspects in which savage ingenuity could offer savage
+forms. He even smiled, as he made a gesture of recognition, which
+seemed to salute the whole group. It was just then, when the fire burned
+brightest, and when the chiefs pressed most within its influence, that
+le Bourdon perceived that his old acquaintances, the head-men of the
+Pottawattamies, were present, among the other chiefs so strangely and
+portentously assembled in these grounds, which he had so long possessed
+almost entirely to himself.
+
+A few of the oldest of the chiefs now approached Peter, and a low
+conversation took place between them. What was said did not reach le
+Bourdon, of course; for it was not even heard in the dark circle of
+savages who surrounded the fire. The effect of this secret dialogue,
+however, was to cause all the chiefs to be seated, each taking his place
+on the grass; the whole preserving the original circle around the fire.
+Fortunately, for the wishes of le Bourdon, Peter and his companions took
+their stations directly opposite to his own seat, thus enabling him to
+watch every lineament of that remarkable chief's still more remarkable
+countenance. Unlike each and all of the red men around him, the face of
+Peter was not painted, except by the tints imparted by nature; which, in
+his case, was that of copper a little tarnished, or rendered dull by the
+action of the atmosphere. The bee-hunter could distinctly trace every
+lineament; nor was the dark roving eye beyond the reach of his own
+vision. Some attention was given to the fire, too, one of the younger
+chiefs occasionally throwing on it a few dried sticks, more to keep
+alive the flame, and to renew the light, than from any need of warmth.
+One other purpose, however, this fire DID answer; that of enabling
+the young chiefs to light the pipes that were now prepared; it seldom
+occurring that the chiefs thus assembled without SMOKING around their
+council-fire.
+
+As this smoking was just then more a matter of ceremony than for any
+other purpose, a whiff or two suffices for each chief; the smoker
+passing the pipe to his neighbor as soon as he had inhaled a few puffs.
+The Indians are models of propriety, in their happiest moods, and every
+one in that dark and menacing circle was permitted to have his turn
+with the pipe, before any other step was taken. There were but two pipes
+lighted, and mouths being numerous, some time was necessary in order
+to complete this ceremony. Still, no sign of impatience was seen, the
+lowest chief having as much respect paid to his feelings, as related
+to his attention, as the highest. At length the pipes completed their
+circuit, even Parson Amen getting, and using, his turn, when a dead
+pause succeeded. The silence resembled that of a Quaker meeting, and
+was broken only by the rising of one of the principal chiefs, evidently
+about to speak. The language of the great Ojebway nation was used on
+this occasion, most of the chiefs present belonging to some one of the
+tribes of that stock, though several spoke other tongues, English and
+French included. Of the three whites present, Parson Amen alone fully
+comprehended all that was said, he having qualified himself in this
+respect, to preach to the tribes of that people; though le Bourdon
+understood nearly all, and even the corporal comprehended a good deal.
+The name of the chief who first spoke at this secret meeting, which was
+afterward known among the Ojebways by the name of the "Council of the
+Bottom Land, near to the spring of gushing water," was Bear's Meat, an
+appellation that might denote a distinguished hunter, rather than an
+orator of much renown.
+
+"Brothers of the many tribes of the Ojebways," commenced this personage,
+"the Great Spirit has permitted us to meet in council. The Manitou of
+our fathers is now among these oaks, listening to our words, and looking
+in at our hearts. Wise Indians will be careful what they say in such a
+presence, and careful of what they think. All should be said and thought
+for the best. We are a scattered nation, and the time is come when we
+must stop in our tracks, or travel beyond the sound of each other's
+cries. If we travel beyond the hearing of our people, soon will our
+children learn tongues that Ojebway ears cannot understand. The mother
+talks to her child, and the child learns her words. But no child can
+hear across a great lake. Once we lived near the rising sun. Where are
+we now? Some of our young men say they have seen the sun go down in the
+lakes of sweet water. There can be no hunting-grounds beyond THAT spot;
+and if we would live, we must stand still in our tracks. How to do this,
+we have met to consider.
+
+"Brothers, many wise chiefs and braves are seated at this council-fire.
+It is pleasant to my eyes to look upon them. Ottawas, Chippeways,
+Pottawattamies, Menominees, Hurons, and all. Our father at Quebec has
+dug up the hatchet against the Yankees. The war-path is open between
+Detroit and all the villages of the red men. The prophets are speaking
+to our people, and we listen. One is here; he is about to speak. The
+council will have but a single sense, which will be that of hearing."
+
+Thus concluding, Bear's Meat took his seat, in the same composed
+and dignified manner as that in which he had risen, and deep silence
+succeeded. So profound was the stillness, that, taken in connection with
+the dark lineaments, the lustrous eyeballs that threw back the light
+of the fire, the terrific paint and the armed hands of every warrior
+present, the picture might be described as imposing to a degree that
+is seldom seen in the assemblies of the civilized. In the midst of this
+general but portentous calm, Peter arose. The breathing of the circle
+grew deeper, so much so as to be audible, the only manner in which
+the intensity of the common expectation betrayed itself. Peter was an
+experienced orator, and knew how to turn every minutiae of his art to
+good account. His every movement was deliberate, his attitude highly
+dignified--even his eye seemed eloquent.
+
+Oratory! what a power art thou, wielded, as is so often the case, as
+much for evil as for good. The very reasoning that might appear to
+be obtuse, or which would be over looked entirely when written and
+published, issuing from the mouth, aided by the feelings of sympathy and
+the impulses of the masses, seems to partake of the wisdom of divinity.
+Thus is it, also, with the passions, the sense of wrong, the appeals
+to vengeance, and all the other avenues of human emotion. Let them be
+addressed to the cold eye of reason and judgment, in the form of written
+statements, and the mind pauses to weigh the force of arguments, the
+justice of the appeals, the truth of facts: but let them come upon the
+ear aided by thy art, with a power concentrated by sympathy, and the
+torrent is often less destructive in its course, than that of the
+whirlwind that thou canst awaken!
+
+"Chiefs of the great Ojebway nation, I wish you well," said Peter,
+stretching out his arms toward the circle, as if desirous of embracing
+all present. "The Manitou has been good to me. He has cleared a path to
+this spring, and to this council-fire. I see around it the faces of many
+friends. Why should we not all be friendly? Why should a red man ever
+strike a blow against a red man? The Great Spirit made us of the same
+color, and placed us on the same hunting-grounds. He meant that we
+should hunt in company; not take each other's scalps. How many warriors
+have fallen in our family wars? Who has counted them? Who can say?
+Perhaps enough, had they not been killed, to drive the pale-faces into
+the sea!"
+
+Here Peter, who as yet had spoken only in a low and barely audible
+voice, suddenly paused, in order to allow the idea he had just thrown
+out to work on the minds of his listeners. That it was producing its
+effect was apparent by the manner in which one stern face turned toward
+another, and eye seemed to search in eye some response to a query that
+the mind suggested, though no utterance was given to it with the tongue.
+As soon, however, as the orator thought time sufficient to impress
+that thought on the memories of the listeners had elapsed, he resumed,
+suffering his voice gradually to increase in volume, as he warmed with
+his subject.
+
+"Yes," he continued, "the Manitou has been very kind. Who is the
+Manitou? Has any Indian ever seen him? Every Indian has seen him. No one
+can look on the hunting-grounds, on the lakes, on the prairies, on the
+trees, on the game, without seeing his hand. His face is to be seen in
+the sun at noonday; his eyes in the stars at night. Has any Indian
+ever heard the Manitou? When it thunders, he speaks. When the crash is
+loudest, then he scolds. Some Indian has done wrong. Perhaps one red man
+has taken another red man's scalp!"
+
+Another pause succeeded, briefer, and less imposing than the first, but
+one that sufficed to impress on the listeners anew, the great evil of an
+Indian's raising his hand against an Indian.
+
+"Yes, there is no one so deaf as not to hear the voice of the Great
+Spirit when he is angry," resumed Peter. "Ten thousands of buffalo
+bulls, roaring together, do not make as much noise as his whisper.
+Spread the prairies, and the openings, and the lakes, before him, and he
+can be heard in all, and on all, at the same time.
+
+"Here is a medicine-priest of the pale-faces; he tells me that the voice
+of the Manitou reaches into the largest villages of his people, beneath
+the rising sun, when it is heard by the red man across the great lakes,
+and near the rocks of the setting sun. It is a loud voice; woe to him
+who does not remember it. It speaks to all colors, and to every people,
+and tribe, and nation.
+
+"Brothers, that is a lying tradition which says, there is one Manitou
+for a Sac, and another for the Ojebway--one Manitou for the red man, and
+another for the pale-face. In this, we are alike. One Great Spirit
+made all; governs all; rewards all; punishes all. He may keep the happy
+hunting-grounds of an Indian separate from the white man's heaven,
+for he knows that their customs are different, and what would please a
+warrior would displease a trader; and what would please a trader would
+displease a warrior. He has thought of these things, and has made
+several places for the spirits of the good, let their colors be what
+they may. Is it the same with the places of the spirits of the bad? I
+think not. To me it would seem best to let THEM go together, that they
+may torment one another. A wicked Indian and a wicked pale-face would
+make a bad neighborhood. I think the Manitou will let THEM go together.
+
+"Brothers, if the Manitou keeps the good Indian and the good pale-face
+apart in another world, what has brought them together in this? If he
+brings the bad spirits of all colors together in another world, why
+should they come together here, before their time? A place for wicked
+spirits should not be found on earth. This is wrong; it must be looked
+into.
+
+"Brothers, I have now done; this pale-face wishes to speak, and I have
+said that you would hear his words. When he has spoken his mind, I
+may have more to tell you. Now, listen to the stranger. He is a
+medicine-priest of the white men, and says he has a great secret to tell
+our people--when he has told it, I have another for their ears too. Mine
+must be spoken when there is no one near but the children of red clay."
+
+Having thus opened the way for the missionary, Peter courteously took
+his seat, producing a little disappointment among his own admirers,
+though he awakened a lively curiosity to know what this medicine-priest
+might have to say on an occasion so portentous. The Indians in the
+regions of the great lakes had long been accustomed to missionaries, and
+it is probable that even some of their own traditions, so far as they
+related to religious topics, had been insensibly colored by, if not
+absolutely derived from, men of this character; for the first whites
+who are known to have penetrated into that portion of the continent were
+Jesuits, who carried the cross as their standard and emblem of peace.
+Blessed emblem! that any should so confound their own names and
+denunciatory practices with the revealed truth, as to imagine that a
+standard so appropriate should ever be out of season and place, when it
+is proper for man to use aught, at all, that is addressed to his senses,
+in the way of symbols, rites, and ceremonies! To the Jesuits succeeded
+the less ceremonious and less imposing priesthood of America, as America
+peculiarly was in the first years that followed the Revolution. There is
+reason to believe that the spirit of God, in a greater or less degree,
+accompanied all; for all were self-denying and zealous, though the
+fruits of near two centuries of labor have, as yet, amounted to little
+more than the promise of the harvest at some distant day. Enough,
+however, was known of the missionaries, and their views in general,
+to prepare the council, in some small degree, for the forthcoming
+exhibition.
+
+Parson Amen had caught some of the habits of the Indians, in the course
+of years of communication and intercourse. Like them he had learned to
+be deliberate, calm, and dignified in his exterior; and, like them, he
+had acquired a sententious mode of speaking.
+
+"My children," he said, for he deemed it best to assume the parental
+character, in a scene of so great moment, "as Peter has told you, the
+spirit of God is among you! Christians know that such has he promised
+to be always with his people, and I see faces in this circle that I am
+ready to claim as belonging to those who have prayed with me, in days
+that are long past. If your souls are not touched by divine love, it
+does not kill the hope I entertain of your yet taking up the cross, and
+calling upon the Redeemer's name. But, not for this have I come with
+Peter, this night. I am now here to lay before you an all-important
+fact, that Providence has revealed to me, as the fruit of long labor in
+the vineyard of study and biblical inquiry. It is a tradition--and red
+men love traditions--it is a tradition that touches your own history,
+and which it will gladden your hearts to hear, for it will teach you how
+much your nation and tribes have been the subject of the especial care
+and love of the Great Spirit. When my children say, speak, I shall be
+ready to speak."
+
+Here the missionary took his seat, wisely awaiting a demonstration on
+the part of the council, ere he ventured to proceed any further. This
+was the first occasion on which he had ever attempted to broach, in a
+direct form, his favorite theory of the "lost tribes." Let a man get
+once fairly possessed of any peculiar notion, whether it be on religion,
+political economy, morals, politics, arts, or anything else, and he sees
+little beside his beloved principle, which he is at all times ready to
+advance, defend, demonstrate, or expatiate on. Nothing can be simpler
+than the two great dogmas of Christianity, which are so plain that all
+can both comprehend them and feel their truth. They teach us to love
+God, the surest way to obey him, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
+Any one can understand this; all can see how just it is, and how much of
+moral sublimity it contains. It is Godlike, and brings us near the very
+essence of the Divinity, which is love, mercy, and truth. Yet how few
+are content to accept the teachings of the Saviour in this respect,
+without embarrassing them with theories that have so much of their
+origin in human fancies. We do not mean by this, however, that Parson
+Amen was so very wrong in bestowing a part of his attention on that
+wonderful people, who, so early set apart by the Creator as the
+creatures of his own especial ends, have already played so great a
+part in the history of nations, and who are designed, so far as we can
+penetrate revelation, yet to enact their share in the sublime drama of
+human events.
+
+As for the council, its members were moved by more than ordinary
+curiosity to hear what further the missionary might have to say, though
+all present succeeded admirably in suppressing the exhibition of
+any interest that might seem weak and womanly. After a decent delay,
+therefore, Bear's Meat intimated to the parson that it would be
+agreeable to the chiefs present to listen to him further.
+
+"My children, I have a great tradition to tell you," the missionary
+resumed, as soon as on his feet again; "a very great and divine
+tradition; not a tradition of man's, but one that came direct from the
+Manitou himself. Peter has spoken truth; there is but one Great Spirit;
+he is the Great Spirit of all colors, and tribes, and nations. He made
+all men of the same clay." Here a slight sensation was perceptible among
+the audience, most of whom were very decidedly of a different opinion,
+on this point of natural history. But the missionary was now so far
+warmed with his subject as to disregard any slight interruption, and
+proceeded as if his listeners had betrayed no feeling. "And he divided
+them afterward into nations and tribes. It was then he caused the color
+of his creatures to change. Some he kept white, as he had made them.
+Some he put behind a dark cloud, and they became altogether black. Our
+wise men think that this was done in punishment for their sins. Some he
+painted red, like the nations on this continent." Here Peter raised a
+finger, in sign that he would ask a question; for, without permission
+granted, no Indian would interrupt the speaker. Indeed, no one of less
+claims than Peter would hardly have presumed to take the step he now
+did, and that because he saw a burning curiosity gleaming in the bright
+eyes of so many in the dark circle.
+
+"Say on, Peter," answered the missionary to this sign; "I will reply."
+
+"Let my brother say WHY the Great Spirit turned the Indian to a red
+color. Was he angry with him? or did he paint him so out of love?"
+
+"This is more than I can tell you, friends. There are many colors among
+men, in different parts of the world, and many shades among people of
+the same color. There are pale-faces fair as the lily, and there are
+pale-faces so dark, as scarcely to be distinguished from blacks. The
+sun does much of this; but no sun, nor want of sun, will ever make a
+pale-face a red-skin, or a red skin a pale-face."
+
+"Good--that is what we Indians say. The Manitou has made us different;
+he did not mean that we should live on the same hunting-grounds,"
+rejoined Peter, who rarely failed to improve every opportunity in order
+to impress on the minds of his followers the necessity of now crushing
+the serpent in its shell.
+
+"No man can say that," answered Parson Amen. "Unless my people had come
+to this continent, the word of God could not have been preached by
+me, along the shores of these lakes. But I will now speak of our great
+tradition. The Great Spirit divided mankind into nations and tribes.
+When this was done, he picked out one for his chosen people. The
+pale-faces call that favorite, and for a long time much-favored people,
+Jews. The Manitou led them through a wilderness, and even through a salt
+lake, until they reached a promised land, where he permitted them to
+live for many hundred winters. A great triumph was to come out of that
+people--the triumphs of truth and of the law, over sin and death. In the
+course of time--"
+
+Here a young chief rose, made a sign of caution, and crossing the circle
+rapidly, disappeared by the passage through which the rill flowed.
+In about a minute he returned, showing the way into the centre of the
+council to one whom all present immediately recognized as a runner, by
+his dress and equipments. Important news was at hand; yet not a man of
+all that crowd either rose or spoke, in impatience to learn what it was!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+   Who will believe that, with a smile whose blessing
+     Would, like the patriarch's, soothe a dying hour;
+   With voice as low, as gentle, and caressing
+     As e'er won maiden's lips in moonlight bower;
+
+   With look like patient Job's, eschewing evil;
+     With motions graceful as the birds in air;
+   Thou art, in sober truth, the veriest devil
+     That e'er clinched fingers in a captive's hair?
+                                        --HALLECK'S Red-Jacket.
+
+
+Although the arrival of the runner was so totally unexpected, it
+scarcely disturbed the quiet of that grave assembly. His approaching
+step had been heard, and he was introduced in the manner mentioned, when
+the young chief resumed his seat, leaving the messenger standing near
+the centre of the circle, and altogether within the influence of the
+light. He was an Ottawa, and had evidently travelled far and fast. At
+length he spoke; no one having put a single question to him, or betrayed
+the least sign of impatient curiosity.
+
+"I come to tell the chiefs what has happened," said the runner. "Our
+Great Father from Quebec has sent his young men against the Yankees. Red
+warriors, too, were there in hundreds--" here a murmur of interest was
+slightly apparent among the chiefs--"their path led them to Detroit; it
+is taken."
+
+A low murmur, expressive of satisfaction, passed round the circle,
+for Detroit was then the most important of all the posts held by the
+Americans, along the whole line of the great lakes. Eye met eye in
+surprise and admiration; then one of the older chiefs yielded to his
+interest in the subject, and inquired:
+
+"Have our young men taken many pale-face scalps?"
+
+"So few that they are not worth counting. I did not see one pole that
+was such as an Indian loves to look on."
+
+"Did our young men keep back, and let the warriors from Quebec do all
+the fighting?"
+
+"No one fought. The Yankees asked to be made prisoners, without using
+their rifles. Never before have so many captives been led into the
+villages with so little to make their enemies look on them with friendly
+eyes."
+
+A gleam of fierce delight passed athwart the dark features of Peter. It
+is probable that he fell into the same error, on hearing these tidings,
+as that which so generally prevailed for a short time among the natives
+of the old world, at the commencement of both of the two last wars of
+the republic, when the disasters with which they opened induced so
+many to fall into the fatal error of regarding Jonathan as merely
+a "shopkeeper." A shopkeeper, in a certain sense, he may well be
+accounted; but among his wares are arms, that he has the head, the
+heart, and the hands to use, as man has very rarely been known to use
+them before. Even at this very instant, the brilliant success which has
+rendered the armed citizens of this country the wonder of Europe, is
+reacting on the masses of the old world, teaching them their power, and
+inciting them to stand up to the regularly armed bands of their rulers,
+with a spirit and confidence that, hitherto, has been little known in
+their histories. Happy, thrice happy will it be, if the conquerors use
+their success in moderation, and settle down into the ways of practical
+reason, instead of suffering their minds to be led astray in quest
+of the political jack-o'-lanterns, that are certain to conduct their
+followers into the quagmires of impracticable and visionary theories.
+To abolish abuses, to set in motion the car of state on the track of
+justice and economy, and to distinguish between that which is really
+essential to human happiness and human rights, and that which is merely
+the result of some wild and bootless proposition in political economy,
+are the great self-imposed tasks that the European people seem now to
+have assumed; and God grant that they may complete their labors with the
+moderation and success with which they would appear to have commenced
+them!
+
+As for Peter, with the curse of ignorance weighing on his mind, it is to
+be presumed that he fancied his own great task of destroying the whites
+was so much the lighter, in consequence of the feeble defence of the
+Yankees at Detroit. The runner was now questioned by the different
+chiefs for details, which he furnished with sufficient intelligence and
+distinctness. The whole of that discreditable story is too prominent in
+history, and of too recent occurrence, to stand in need of repetition
+here. When the runner had told his tale, the chiefs broke the order of
+their circle, to converse the more easily concerning the great events
+which had just occurred. Some were not backward in letting their
+contempt for the "Yankees" be known. Here were three of their strong
+places taken, in quick succession, and almost without a blow. Detroit,
+the strongest of them all, and defended by an army, had fallen in a way
+to bring the blush to the American face, seemingly leaving the whole
+of the northwestern frontier of the country ravished from the red man,
+exposed to his incursions and depredations.
+
+"What does my father think of this?" asked Bear's Meat of Peter, as the
+two stood apart, in a cluster of some three or four of the principal
+personages present. "Does the news make his heart stronger?"
+
+"It is always strong when this business is before it. The Manitou has
+long looked darkly upon the red men, but now his face brightens. The
+cloud is passing from before his countenance, and we can begin again to
+see his smile. It will be with our sons as it was with our fathers. Our
+hunting-grounds will be our own, and the buffalo and deer will be plenty
+in our wigwams. The fire-water will flow after them that brought it into
+the country, and the red man will once more be happy, as in times past!"
+
+The ignis fatuus of human happiness employs all minds, all faculties,
+all pens, and all theories, just at this particular moment. A thousand
+projects have been broached, will continue to be broached, and will
+fail, each in its time, showing the mistakes of men, without remedying
+the evils of which they complain. This is not because a beneficent
+Providence has neglected to enlighten their minds, and to show them the
+way to be happy, here and hereafter; but because human conceit runs,
+pari passu, with human woes, and we are too proud to look for our
+lessons of conduct, in that code in which they have been set before us
+by unerring wisdom and ceaseless love. If the political economists,
+and reformers, and revolutionists of the age, would turn from their
+speculations to those familiar precepts which all are taught and so few
+obey, they would find rules for every emergency; and, most of all, would
+they learn the great secret which lies so profoundly hid from them and
+their philosophy, in the contented mind. Nothing short of this will ever
+bring the mighty reform that the world needs. The press may be declared
+free, but a very brief experience will teach those who fancy that this
+one conquest will secure the victory, that they have only obtained King
+Stork in the lieu of King Log; a vulgar and most hideous tyrant for one
+of royal birth and gentle manners. They may set up the rule of patriots
+by profession, in place of the dominion of those who have so long
+pretended that the art of governing descends from male to male,
+according to the order of primogeniture, and live to wonder that love
+of country should have so many weaknesses in common with love of itself.
+They may rely on written charters for their liberties, instead of
+the divine right of kings, and come perchance to learn, that neither
+language, nor covenants, nor signatures, nor seals avail much, as
+against the necessities of nations, and the policy of rulers. Do we then
+regard reform as impossible, and society to be doomed to struggle on in
+its old sloughs of oppression and abuses? Far from it. We believe and
+hope, that at each effort of a sage character, something is gained,
+while much more than had been expected is lost; and such we think will
+continue to be the course of events, until men shall reach that period
+in their history when, possibly to their wonder, they will find that a
+faultless code for the government of all their affairs has been lying
+neglected, daily and hourly, in their very hands, for eighteen centuries
+and a half, without their perceiving the all-important truth. In due
+season this code will supersede all others, when the world will, for the
+first time, be happy and truly free.
+
+There was a marked resemblance between the hopes and expectations of
+Peter, in reference to the overthrow of his pale-face enemies on the
+American continent, and those of the revolutionists of the old world in
+reference to the overthrow of their strong-intrenched foes on that of
+Europe. Each fancies success more easy of attainment than the end is
+likely to show; both overlook the terrible power of their adversaries;
+and both take the suggestions of a hope that is lively rather than
+enlightened, as the substitute for the lessons of wisdom.
+
+It was some little time ere the council had so far regained its calm,
+as to think of inviting the missionary to resume his discourse. The last
+had necessarily heard the news, and was so much troubled by it, as to
+feel no great disposition to proceed; but Peter intimating that "the
+ears of his friends were open," he was of opinion it would be wisest to
+go on with his traditions.
+
+"Thus it was, my children," Parson Amen continued, the circle being just
+as quiet and attentive as if no interruption had occurred--"the Great
+Spirit, selecting from among the nations of the earth, one to be his
+chosen people. I cannot stop, now, to tell you all he did for this
+nation, in the way of wonders and powers; but, finally, he placed them
+in a beautiful country, where milk and honey abounded, and made them
+its masters. From that people, in his earthly character, came the Christ
+whom we missionaries preach to you, and who is the great head of our
+church. Although the Jews, or Israelites, as we call that people, were
+thus honored and thus favored of the Manitou, they were but men, they
+had the weaknesses of men. On more than one occasion they displeased the
+Great Spirit, and that so seriously as to draw down condign punishment
+on themselves, and on their wives and children. In various ways were
+they visited for their backsliding and sins, each time repenting and
+receiving forgiveness. At length the Great Spirit, tired of their
+forgetfulness and crimes, allowed an army to come into their land,
+and to carry away as captives no less than ten of their twelve tribes;
+putting their people in strange hunting-grounds. Now, this happened many
+thousands of moons since, and no one can say with certainty what has
+become of those captives, whom Christians are accustomed to call 'the
+lost tribes of Israel.'"
+
+Here the missionary paused to arrange his thoughts, and a slight murmur
+was heard in the circle as the chiefs communed together, in interested
+comments on what had just been said. The pause, however, was short,
+and the speaker again proceeded, safe from any ungracious interruption,
+among auditors so trained in self-restraint.
+
+"Children, I shall not now say anything touching the birth of Christ,
+the redemption of the world, and the history of the two tribes that
+remained in the land where God had placed his people; for that is a
+part of the subject that comes properly within the scope of my ordinary
+teaching. At present I wish only to speak of yourselves; of the red man
+of America, of his probable origin and end, and of a great discovery
+that many of us think we have made, on this most interesting topic in
+the history of the good book. Does any one present know aught of the ten
+lost tribes of whom I have spoken?"
+
+Eye met eye, and expectation was lively among those primitive and
+untaught savages. At length Crowsfeather arose to answer, the missionary
+standing the whole time, motionless, as if waiting for a reply.
+
+"My brother has told us a tradition," said the Pottawattamie. "It is
+a good tradition. It is a strange tradition. Red men love to hear such
+traditions. It is wonderful that so many as ten tribes should be LOST,
+at the same time, and no one know what has become of them! My brother
+asks us if WE know what has become of these ten tribes. How should poor
+red men, who live on their hunting-grounds, and who are busy when the
+grass grows in getting together food for their squaws and pappooses,
+against a time when the buffalo can find nothing to eat in this part of
+the world, know anything of a people that they never saw? My brother has
+asked a question that he only can answer. Let him tell us where these
+ten tribes are to be found, if he knows the place. We should like to go
+and look at them."
+
+"Here!" exclaimed the missionary, the instant Crowsfeather ceased
+speaking, and even before he was seated. "Here--in this council--on
+these prairies--in these openings--here, on the shores of the great
+lakes of sweet water, and throughout the land of America, are these
+tribes to be found. The red man is a Jew; a Jew is a red man. The
+Manitou has brought the scattered people of Israel to this part of the
+world, and I see his power in the wonderful fact. Nothing but a miracle
+could have done this!"
+
+Great was the admiration of the Indians at this announcement! None of
+their own traditions gave this account of their origin; but there is
+reason to believe, on the other hand, that none of them contradict
+it. Nevertheless, here was a medicine-priest of the pale-faces boldly
+proclaiming the fact, and great was the wonder of all who heard,
+thereat! Having spoken, the missionary again paused, that his words
+might produce their effect. Bear's Meat now became his interrogator,
+rising respectfully, and standing during the colloquy that succeeded.
+
+"My brother has spoken a great tradition," said the Menominee. "Did he
+first hear it from his fathers?"
+
+"In part, only. The history of the lost tribes has come down to us from
+our fathers; it is written in the good book of the pale-faces; the book
+that contains the word of the Great Spirit."
+
+"Does the good book of the pale-faces say that the red men are the
+children of the people he has mentioned?"
+
+"I cannot say that it does. While the good book tells us so much,
+it also leaves very much untold. It is best that we should look for
+ourselves, that we may find out some of its meanings. It is in thus
+looking, that many Christians see the great truth which makes the
+Indians of America and the Jews beyond the great salt lake, one and the
+same people."
+
+"If this be so, let my brother tell us how far it is from our
+hunting-grounds to that distant land across the great salt lake."
+
+"I cannot give you this distance in miles exactly; but I suppose it may
+be eleven or twelve times the length of Michigan."
+
+"Will my brother tell us how much of this long path is water, and how
+much of it is dry land?"
+
+"Perhaps one-fourth is land, as the traveller may choose; the rest must
+be water, if the journey be made from the rising toward the setting
+sun, which is the shortest path; but, let the journey be made from
+the setting toward the rising sun, and there is little water to cross;
+rivers and lakes of no great width, as is seen here, but only a small
+breadth of salt lake."
+
+"Are there, then, two roads to that far-off land, where the red men are
+thought to have once lived?
+
+"Even so. The traveller may come to this spot from that land by way of
+the rising sun, or by way of the setting sun."
+
+The general movement among the members of the council denoted the
+surprise with which this account was received. As the Indians, until
+they have had much intercourse with the whites, very generally believe
+the earth to be flat, it was not easy for them to comprehend how a given
+point could be reached by directly opposite routes. Such an apparent
+contradiction would be very likely to extort further questions.
+
+"My brother is a medicine-man of the pale-faces; his hairs are gray,"
+observed Crowsfeather. "Some of your medicine-men are good, and some
+wicked. It is so with the medicine-men of the red-skins. Good and bad
+are to be found in all nations. A medicine-man of your people cheated my
+young men by promising to show them where fire-water grows. He did not
+show them. He let them smell, but he did not let them drink. That was a
+wicked medicine-man. His scalp would not be safe did my young men see it
+again"--here the bee-hunter, insensibly to himself, felt for his rifle,
+making sure that he had it between his legs; the corporal being a little
+surprised at the sudden start he gave. "His hair does not grow on his
+head closer than the trees grow to the ground. Even a tree can be
+cut down. But all medicine-men are not alike. My brother is a GOOD
+medicine-man. All he says may not be just as he thinks, but he BELIEVES
+what he says. It is wonderful how men can look two ways; but it is
+more wonderful that they should go to the same place by paths that lead
+before and behind. This we do not understand; my brother will tell us
+how it can be."
+
+"I believe I understand what it is that my children would know. They
+think the earth is flat, but the pale-faces know that it is round. He
+who travels and travels toward the setting sun would come to this very
+spot, if he travelled long enough. The distance would be great, but the
+end of every straight path in this world is the place of starting."
+
+"My brother says this. He says many curious things. I have heard a
+medicine-man of his people say that the palefaces have seen their Great
+Spirit, talked with him, walked with him. It is not so with us Indians.
+Our Manitou speaks to us in thunder only. We are ignorant, and wish to
+learn more than we now know. Has my brother ever travelled on that path
+which ends where it begins? Once, on the prairies, I lost my way. There
+was snow, and glad was I to find tracks. I followed the tracks. But one
+traveller had passed. After walking an hour, two had passed. Another
+hour, and the three had passed, Then I saw the tracks were my own, and
+that I had been walking, as the squaws reason, round and round, but not
+going ahead."
+
+"I understand my friend, but he is wrong. It is no matter which path the
+lost tribes travelled to get here. The main question is, whether they
+came at all. I see in the red men, in their customs, their history,
+their looks, and even in their traditions, proof that they are these
+Jews, once the favored people of the Great Spirit."
+
+"If the Manitou so well loves the Indians, why has he permitted the
+pale-faces to take away their hunting-grounds? Why has he made the red
+man poor, and the white man rich? Brother, I am afraid your tradition is
+a lying tradition, or these things would not be so."
+
+"It is not given to men to understand the wisdom that cometh from above.
+That which seemeth so strange to us may be right. The lost tribes had
+offended God; and their scattering, and captivity, and punishment, are
+but so many proofs of his displeasure. But, if lost, we have reason to
+believe that one day they will be found. Yes, my children, it will be
+the pleasure of the Great Spirit, one day, to restore you to the land
+of your fathers, and make you again, what you once were, a great and
+glorious people!"
+
+As the well-meaning but enthusiastic missionary spoke with great fervor,
+the announcement of such an event, coming as it did from one whom they
+respected, even while they could not understand him, did not fail to
+produce a deep sensation. If their fortunes were really the care of the
+Great Spirit, and justice was to be done to them by his love and wisdom,
+then would the projects of Peter, and those who acted and felt with
+him, be unnecessary, and might lead to evil instead of to good. That
+sagacious savage did not fail to discover this truth; and he now
+believed it might be well for him to say a word, in order to lessen the
+influence Parson Amen might otherwise obtain among those whom it was his
+design to mould in a way entirely to meet his own wishes. So intense
+was the desire of this mysterious leader to execute vengeance on the
+pale-faces, that the redemption of the tribes from misery and poverty,
+unaccompanied by this part of his own project, would have given him pain
+in lieu of pleasure. His very soul had got to be absorbed in this one
+notion of retribution, and of annihilation for the oppressors of his
+race; and he regarded all things through a medium of revenge, thus
+created by his feelings, much as the missionary endeavored to bend every
+fact and circumstance, connected with the Indians, to the support of his
+theory touching their Jewish origin.
+
+When Peter arose, therefore, fierce and malignant passions were at work
+in his bosom; such as a merciful and a benignant deity never wishes to
+see in the breast of man, whether civilized or savage. The self-command
+of the Tribeless, however, was great, and he so far succeeded in
+suppressing the volcano that was raging within, as to speak with his
+usual dignity and an entire calmness of exterior.
+
+"My brothers have heard what the medicine-man had to say," Peter
+commenced. "He has told them that which was new to them. He has told
+them an Indian is not an Indian. That a red man is a pale-face, and that
+we are not what we thought we were. It is good to learn. It makes the
+difference between the wise and the foolish. The palefaces learn more
+than the red-skins. That is the way they have learned how to get our
+hunting-grounds. That is the way they have learned to build their
+villages on the spots where our fathers killed the deer. That is the way
+they have learned how to come and tell us that we are not Indians, but
+Jews. I wish to learn. Though old, my mind craves to know more. That I
+may know more, I will ask this medicine-man questions, and my brothers
+can open their ears, and learn a little, too, by what he answers.
+Perhaps we shall believe that we are not red-skins, but pale-faces.
+Perhaps we shall believe that our true hunting-grounds are not near the
+great lakes of sweet water, but under the rising sun. Perhaps we shall
+wish to go home, and to leave these pleasant openings for the pale faces
+to put their cabins on them, as the small-pox that they have also given
+to us, puts its sores on our bodies. Brother--" turning toward the
+missionary--"listen. You say we are no longer Indians, but Jews: is this
+true of ALL red men, or only of the tribes whose chiefs are HERE?"
+
+"Of ALL red men, as I most sincerely believe. You are now red, but once
+all of your people were fairer than the fairest of the pale-faces. It is
+climate, and hardships, and sufferings that have changed your color."
+
+"If suffering can do THAT," returned Peter, with emphasis, "I wonder we
+are not BLACK. When ALL our hunting-grounds are covered with the farms
+of your people, I think we shall be BLACK."
+
+Signs of powerful disgust were now visible among the listeners, an
+Indian having much of the contempt that seems to weigh so heavily on
+that unfortunate class, for all of the color mentioned. At the south, as
+is known, the red man has already made a slave of the descendants of the
+children of Africa, but no man has ever yet made a slave of a son of
+the American forests! THAT is a result which no human power has yet been
+able to accomplish. Early in the settlement of the country, attempts
+were indeed MADE, by sending a few individuals to the islands; but so
+unsuccessful did the experiment turn out to be, that the design was soon
+abandoned. Whatever may be his degradation, and poverty, and ignorance,
+and savage ferocity, it would seem to be the settled purpose of the
+American Indians of our own territories--unlike the aborigines who are
+to be found farther south--to live and die free men.
+
+"My children," answered the missionary, "I pretend not to say what will
+happen, except as it has been told to us in the word of God. You know
+that we pale-faces have a book, in which the Great Spirit has told us
+his laws, and foretold to us many of the things that are to happen. Some
+of these things HAVE happened, while some remain TO happen. The loss
+of the ten tribes was foretold, and HAS happened; but their being FOUND
+again, has not YET happened, unless indeed I am so blessed as to be one
+of those who have been permitted to meet them in these openings. Here is
+the book--it goes where I go, and is my companion and friend, by day and
+by night; in good and evil; in season and out of season. To this book I
+cling as to my great anchor, that is to carry me through the storms in
+safety! Every line in it is precious; every word true!"
+
+Perhaps half the chiefs present had seen books before, while those who
+now laid eyes on one for the first time, had heard of this art of the
+pale-faces, which enabled them to set down their traditions in a way
+peculiar to themselves. Even the Indians have their records, however,
+though resorting to the use of natural signs, and a species of
+hieroglyphics, in lieu of the more artistical process of using words and
+letters, in a systemized written language. The Bible, too, was a book of
+which all had heard, more or less; though not one of those present had
+ever been the subject of its influence. A Christian Indian, indeed--and
+a few of those were to be found even at that day--would hardly have
+attended a council convened for the objects which had caused this to be
+convened. Still, a strong but regulated curiosity existed, to see, and
+touch, and examine the great medicine-book of the pale-faces. There was
+a good deal of superstition blended with the Indian manner of regarding
+the sacred volume; some present having their doubts about touching
+it, even while most excited by admiration, and a desire to probe its
+secrets.
+
+Peter took the little volume, which the missionary extended as if
+inviting any one who might so please, to examine it also. It was the
+first time the wary chief had ever suffered that mysterious book to
+touch him. Among his other speculations on the subject of the manner in
+which the white men were encroaching, from year to year, on the lands of
+the natives, it had occurred to his mind that this extraordinary volume,
+which the pale-faces all SEEMED to reverence, even to the drunkards of
+the garrisons, might contain the great elements of their power. Perhaps
+he was not very much out of the way in this supposition; though they who
+use the volume habitually, are not themselves aware, one-half the time,
+why it is so.
+
+On the present occasion, Peter saw the great importance of not betraying
+apprehension, and he turned over the pages awkwardly, as one would
+be apt to handle a book for the first time, but boldly and without
+hesitation. Encouraged by the impunity that accompanied this hardihood,
+Peter shook the leaves open, and held the volume on high, in a way that
+told his own people that he cared not for its charms or power. There
+was more of seeming than of truth, however, in this bravado; for never
+before had this extraordinary being made so heavy a draft on his courage
+and self-command, as in the performance of this simple act. He did not,
+could not know what were the virtues of the book, and his imagination
+very readily suggested the worst. As the great medicine-volume of the
+pale-faces, it was quite likely to contain that which was hostile to the
+red men; and this fact, so probable to his eyes, rendered it likely that
+some serious evil to himself might follow from the contact. It did
+not, however; and a smile of grim satisfaction lighted his swarthy
+countenance, as, turning to the missionary, he said with point--
+
+"Let my brother open his eyes. I have looked into his medicine-book, but
+do not see that the red man is anything but a red man. The Great Spirit
+made him; and what the Great Spirit makes, lasts. The pale-faces have
+made their book, and it lies."
+
+"No, no--Peter, Peter, thou utterest wicked words. But the Lord will
+pardon thee, since thou knowest not what thou sayest. Give me the sacred
+volume, that I may place it next my heart, where I humbly trust so many
+of its divine precepts are already entrenched."
+
+This was said in English, under the impulse of feeling, but being
+understood by Peter, the latter quietly relinquished the Bible,
+preparing to follow up the advantage he perceived he had gained, on the
+spot.
+
+"My brother has his medicine-book, again," said Peter, "and the red men
+live. This hand is not withered like the dead branch of the hemlock; yet
+it has held his word of the Great Spirit! It may be that a red-skin and
+a pale-face book cannot do each other harm. I looked into my brother's
+great charm, but did not see or hear a tradition that tells me we are
+Jews. There is a bee-hunter in these openings. I have talked with him.
+He has told me who these Jews are. He says they are people who do not
+go with the pale-faces, but live apart from them, like men with the
+small-pox. It is not right for my brother to come among the red men, and
+tell them that their fathers were not good enough to live, and eat, and
+go on the same paths as his fathers."
+
+"This is all a mistake, Peter--a great and dangerous mistake. The
+bee-hunter has heard the Jews spoken of by those who do not sufficiently
+read the good book. They have been, and are still, the chosen people of
+the Great Spirit, and will one day be received back to his favor.
+Would that I were one of them, only enlightened by the words of the
+New Testament! No real Christian ever can, or does now despise a son of
+Israel, whatever has been done in times past. It is an honor, and not a
+disgrace, to be what I have said my friends are."
+
+"If this be so, why do not the pale-faces let us keep out
+hunting-grounds to ourselves? We are content. We do not wish to be Jews.
+Our canoes are too small to cross the great salt lake. They are hardly
+large enough to cross the great lakes of sweet water. We should be
+tired of paddling so far. My brother says there is a rich land under the
+rising sun, which the Manitou gave to the red men. Is this so?"
+
+"Beyond all doubt. It was given to the children of Israel, for a
+possession forever; and though you have been carried away from it for
+a time, there the land still is, open to receive you, and waiting the
+return of its ancient masters. In good season that return must come; for
+we have the word of God for it, in our Christian Bible."
+
+"Let my brother open his ears very wide, and hear what I have to say.
+We thank him for letting us know that we are Jews. We believe that he
+thinks what he says. Still, we think we are red men, and Injins, and not
+Jews. We never saw the place where the sun rises. We do not wish to see
+it. Our hunting-grounds are nearer to the place where he sets. If the
+pale-faces believe we have a right to that distant land, which is so
+rich in good things, we will give it to them, and keep these openings,
+and prairies, and woods. We know the game of this country, and have
+found out how to kill it. We do not know the game under the rising sun,
+which may kill us. Go to your friends and say, 'The Injins will give
+you that land near the rising sun, if you will let them alone on their
+hunting-grounds, where they have so long been. They say that your canoes
+are larger than their canoes, and that one can carry a whole tribe. They
+have seen some of your big canoes on the great lakes, and have measured
+them. Fill all you have got with your squaws and pappooses, put your
+property in them, and go back by the long path through which you came.
+Then will the red man thank the pale-face and be his friend. The white
+man is welcome to that far-off land. Let him take it, and build his
+villages on it, and cut down its trees. This is all the Injins ask. If
+the pale-faces can take away with them the small-pox and the fire-water,
+it will be better still. They brought both into this country, it is
+right that they should take them away.' Will my brother tell this to his
+people?"
+
+"It would do no good. They know that the land of Judea is reserved by
+God for his chosen people, and they are not Jews. None but the children
+of Israel can restore that land to its ancient fertility. It would be
+useless for any other to attempt it. Armies have been there, and it
+was once thought that a Christian kingdom was set up on the spot; but
+neither the time nor the people had come. Jews alone can make Judea what
+it was, and what it will be again. If my people owned that land, they
+could not use it. There are also too many of us now, to go away in
+canoes."
+
+"Did not the fathers of the pale-faces come in canoes?" demanded Peter,
+a little sternly.
+
+"They did; but since that time their increase has been so great, that
+canoes enough to hold them could not be found. No; the Great Spirit,
+for his own wise ends, has brought my people hither; and here must they
+remain to the end of time. It is not easy to make the pigeons fly south
+in the spring."
+
+This declaration, quietly but distinctly made, as it was the habit of
+the missionary to speak, had its effect. It told Peter, and those with
+him, as plainly as language could tell them, that there was no reason
+to expect the pale-faces would ever willingly abandon the country, and
+seemed the more distinctly, in all their uninstructed minds, to
+place the issue on the armed hand. It is not improbable that some
+manifestation of feeling would have escaped the circle, had not an
+interruption to the proceedings occurred, which put a stop to all other
+emotions but those peculiar to the lives of savages.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+     Nearer the mount stood Moses; in his hand
+     The rod which blasted with strange plagues the realm
+     Of Misraim, and from its time-worn channels
+     Upturned the Arabian sea. Fair was his broad
+     High front, and forth from his soul-piercing eye
+     Did legislation look; which full he fixed
+     Upon the blazing panoply undazzled.
+                                    --HILLHOUSE.
+
+It often happens in the recesses of the wilderness, that, in the
+absence of men, the animals hunt each other. The wolves, in particular,
+following their instincts, are often seen in packs, pressing upon the
+heels of the antelope, deer, and other creatures of that family, which
+depend for safety more on their speed than on their horns. On the
+present occasion, a fine buck, with a pack of fifty wolves close after
+it, came bounding through the narrow gorge that contained the rill, and
+entered the amphitheatre of the bottom-land. Its headlong career was
+first checked by the sight of the fire; then arose a dark circle of men,
+each armed and accustomed to the chase. In much less time than it has
+taken to record the fact, that little piece of bottom-land was crowded
+with wolves, deer, and men. The headlong impetuosity of the chase
+and flight had prevented the scent from acting, and all were huddled
+together, for a single instant, in a sort of inextricable confusion.
+Brief as was this melee, it sufficed to allow of a young hunter's
+driving his arrow through the heart of the buck, and enabled others
+among the Indians to kill several of the wolves; some with arrows,
+others with knives, etc. No rifle was used, probably from a wish not to
+give an alarm.
+
+The wolves were quite as much astonished at this unexpected rencontre,
+as the Indians. They were not a set of hungry and formidable beasts,
+that famine might urge to any pass of desperation; but a pack hunting,
+like gentlemen, for their own amusement. Their headlong speed was
+checked less by the crowd of men, than by the sight of fire. In their
+impetuosity, it is probable that they would have gone clean through five
+hundred men, but no wild beast will willingly encounter fire. Three or
+four of the chiefs, aware of this dread, seized brands, and throwing
+themselves, without care, into the midst of the pack, the animals went
+howling off, scattering in all directions. Unfortunately for its own
+welfare, one went directly through the circle, plunged into the thicket
+beyond, and made its way quite up to the fallen tree, on which
+the bee-hunter and the corporal had taken their stations. This was
+altogether too much for the training, or for the philosophy of Hive.
+Perceiving a recognized enemy rushing toward him, that noble mastiff
+met him in a small cleared spot, open-mouthed, and for a few moments
+a fierce combat was the consequence. Dogs and wolves do not fight in
+silence, and loud were the growls and yells on this occasion. In vain
+did le Bourdon endeavor to drag his mastiff off; the animal was on the
+high-road to victory, when it is ever hard to arrest the steps of the
+combatant. Almost as a matter of course, some of the chiefs rushed
+toward the spot, when the presence of the two spectators first became
+known to them. At the next moment the wolf lay dead at the feet of Hive;
+and the parties stood gazing at each other, equally taken by surprise,
+and equally at a loss to know what to do next.
+
+It was perhaps fortunate for the bee-hunter, that neither Crowsfeather,
+nor any other of the Pottawattamies, was present at this first
+rencontre, or he might have fallen on the spot, a victim to their
+disappointed hopes of drinking at a whiskey-spring. The chiefs present
+were strangers to le Bourdon, and they stared at him, in a way to show
+that his person was equally unknown to them. But it was necessary, now,
+to follow the Indians back to their circle, where the whole party soon
+collected again, the wolves having gone off on their several routes, to
+put up some other animal, and run him to death.
+
+During the whole of that excited and tumultuous scene, which would
+probably now be termed a "stampede" in the Mexican-Americo-English of
+the day, Peter had not stirred. Familiar with such occurrences, he felt
+the importance of manifesting an unmoved calm, as a quality most likely
+to impress the minds of his companions with a profound sense of his
+dignity and self-command. While all around him was in a tumult, he stood
+in his tracks, motionless as a statue. Even the fortitude of the worthy
+missionary was shaken by the wild tempest that momentarily prevailed;
+and the good man forgot the Jews in his alarm at wolves, forgot the
+mighty past in his apprehensions for the uncomfortable and ill-boding
+present time. All this, however, was soon over, and order, and quiet,
+and a dignified calm once more reigned in the circle. Fagots were thrown
+on the fire; and the two captives, or spectators, stood as near it, the
+observed of all observers, as the heat rendered comfortable. It was just
+then that Crowsfeather and his companions first recognized the magician
+of the whiskey-spring.
+
+Peter saw the discovery of the two spectators with some uneasiness. The
+time had not come when he intended to strike his blow; and he had seen
+signs among those Pottawattamies, when at the mouth of the river, which
+had told him how little they were disposed to look with favor on one who
+had so grievously trifled with their hopes. His first care, therefore,
+was to interpose his authority and influence between le Bourdon and
+any project of revenge, which Crowsfeather's young men might be apt to
+devise, as soon as they, too, laid eyes on the offender. This was done
+in a characteristic and wily manner.
+
+"Does my brother love honey?" asked the tribeless chief of the leader of
+the Pottawattamies present, who sat near him, gazing on le Bourdon much
+as the cat looks upon the mouse, ere it makes it its prey. "Some Injins
+are fond of that sweet food: if my brother is one of that sort, I can
+tell him how to fill his wigwam with honey with little trouble."
+
+At this suggestion, coming from such a source, Crowsfeather could not
+do less than express his thanks, and his readiness to hear what further
+might be in reserve for him. Peter then alluded to le Bourdon's art,
+describing him as being the most skilful bee-hunter of the West. So
+great was his art in that way, that no Indian had ever yet seen his
+equal. It was Peter's intention to make him exercise his craft soon, for
+the benefit of the chiefs and warriors present, who might then return to
+their village, carrying with them stores of honey to gladden the hearts
+of their squaws and pappooses. This artifice succeeded; for the Indians
+are not expert in taking this article of food, which so much abounds in
+the forests, both on account of the difficulty they find in felling the
+trees, and on account of the "angle-ing" part of the process, which much
+exceeds their skill in mathematics. On the other hand, the last is just
+the sort of skill a common white American would be likely to manifest,
+his readiness and ingenuity in all such processes almost amounting to an
+instinct.
+
+Having thus thrown his mantle around le Bourdon for the moment, Peter
+then deemed it the better course to finish the historical investigation
+in which the council had been so much interested, when the strange
+interruption by the wolves occurred. With this view, therefore, he
+rose himself, and recalled the minds of all present to this interesting
+subject, by a short speech. This he did, especially to prevent any
+premature attack on the person of le Bourdon.
+
+"Brothers," said this mysterious chief, "it is good for Injins to learn.
+When they learn a thing, they know it; then they may learn another. It
+is in this way that the pale-faces do; it makes them wise, and puts
+it in their power to take away our hunting-grounds. A man that knows
+nothing is only a child that has grown up too fast. He may be big--may
+take long steps--may be strong enough to carry burdens--may love venison
+and buffaloes' humps; but his size is only in the way; his steps he does
+not know where to direct; his burdens he does not know how to choose;
+and he has to beg food of the squaws, instead of carrying it himself to
+their wigwams. He has not learned how to take game. We must all learn.
+It is right. When we have learned how to take game, and how to strike
+the enemy, and how to keep the wigwam filled, then we may learn
+traditions. Traditions tell us of our fathers. We have many traditions.
+Some are talked of, even to the squaws. Some are told around the fires
+of the tribes. Some are known only to the aged chiefs. This is right,
+too. Injins ought not to say too much, nor too little. They should say
+what is wise--what is best. But my brother, the medicine-man of the
+pale-faces, says that our traditions have not told us everything.
+Something has been kept back. If so, it is best to learn that too. If we
+are Jews, and not Injins, we ought to know it. If we are Injins, and not
+Jews, our brother ought to know it, and not call us by a wrong name. Let
+him speak. We listen."
+
+Here Peter slowly resumed his seat. As the missionary understood all
+that had been said, he next arose, and proceeded to make good, as far
+as he was able, and in such language as his knowledge of Indian habits
+suggested, his theory of the lost tribes.
+
+"I wish my children to understand," resumed the missionary, "that it
+is an honor to be a Jew. I have not come here to lessen the red men in
+their own eyes, but to do them honor. I see that Bear's Meat wishes to
+say something; my ears are open, and my tongue is still."
+
+"I thank my brother for the opportunity to say what is on my mind,"
+returned the chief mentioned. "It is true I have something to say; it
+is this: I wish to ask the medicine-man if the pale-faces honor and show
+respect to the Jews?"
+
+This was rather an awkward question for the missionary, but he was much
+too honest to dissemble. With a reverence for truth that proceeded from
+his reverence for the Father of all that is true, he replied honestly,
+though not altogether without betraying how much he regretted the
+necessity of answering at all. Both remained standing while the dialogue
+proceeded; or in parliamentary language, each may be said to have had
+the floor at the same time.
+
+"My brother wishes to know if the pale-faces honor the Jews," returned
+the missionary. "I wish I could answer 'yes'; but the truth forces me to
+say 'no.' The pale-faces have traditions that make against the Jews, and
+the judgments of God weigh heavy on the children of Israel. But all
+good Christians, now, look with friendly eyes on this dispersed and
+persecuted people, and wish them well. It will give the white men very
+great pleasure to learn that I have found the lost tribes of Israel in
+the red men of America."
+
+"Will my brother tell us WHY this will give his people pleasure? Is it
+because they will be glad to find old enemies, poor, living on narrow
+hunting-grounds, off which the villages and farms of the pale-faces
+begin to push them still nearer to the setting sun; and toward whom the
+small-pox has found a path to go, but none to come from?"
+
+"Nay, nay, Bear's Meat, think not so unkindly of us of the white race!
+In crossing the great salt lake, and in coming to this quarter of the
+world, our fathers were led by the finger of God. We do but obey the
+will of the Great Spirit, in pressing forward into this wilderness,
+directed by his wisdom how to spread the knowledge of his name among
+those who, as yet, have never heard it; or, having heard, have not
+regarded it. In all this, the wisest men are but babes; not being able
+to say whither they are to go, or what is to be done."
+
+"This is strange," returned the unmoved Indian. "It is not so with the
+red men. Our squaws and pappooses do know the hunting-ground of one
+tribe from the hunting-ground of another. When they put their feet on
+strange hunting-grounds, it is because they INTENDED to go there, and to
+steal game. This is sometimes right. If it is right to take the scalp of
+an enemy, it is right to get his deer and his buffalo, too. But we
+never do this without knowing it. If we did, we should be unfit to go at
+large, unfit to sit in council. This is the first time I have heard that
+the pale-faces are so weak, and they have such feeble minds, too, that
+they do not know where they go."
+
+"My brother does not understand me. No man can see into the future--no
+man can say what will happen to-morrow. The Great Spirit only can tell.
+It is for him, then, to guide his children in their wanderings. When our
+fathers first came out of their canoes upon the land, on this side of
+the great salt lake, not one among them knew anything of this country
+between the great lakes of sweet water. They did not know that red men
+lived here. The Great Spirit did know, and intended then, that I should
+this night stand up in this council, and speak of his power and of his
+name, and do him reverence. It was the Great Spirit that put it into my
+mind to come among the Indians; and it is the Great Spirit who has led
+me, step by step, as warriors move toward the graves of their fathers,
+to make the discovery, that the Indians are, in truth, the children of
+Israel, a part of his own chosen and once much-favored people. Let me
+ask my friends one or two questions. Do not your traditions say that
+your fathers once came from a far-off land?"
+
+Bear's Meat now took his seat, not choosing to answer a question of
+this nature, in the presence of a chief so much respected as Peter. He
+preferred to let the last take up the dialogue where he now saw fit to
+abandon it. As the other very well understood the reason of this sudden
+movement, he quietly assumed the office of spokesman; the whole affair
+proceeding much as if there had been no change.
+
+"Our traditions DO tell us that our fathers came from a far-off land,"
+answered Peter, without rising.
+
+"I thought so!--I thought so!" exclaimed the simple-minded and confiding
+missionary. "How wonderful are the ways of God! Yes, my brother, Judea
+is a far-off land, and your traditions say that your fathers came from
+such a distance! This, then, is something proved. Do not your traditions
+say, that once your tribes were more in favor with the Great Spirit than
+they are now?"
+
+"Our traditions do say this: once our tribes did not see the face of
+the Manitou looking dark upon them, as it now does. That was before
+the pale-faces came in their big canoes, across the great salt lake, to
+drive the Indians from their hunting-grounds. It was when the small-pox
+had not found the path to their villages. When fire-water was unknown to
+them, and no Indian had ever burned his throat with it."
+
+"Oh, but I speak of a time much more distant than that. Of a time when
+your prophets stood face to face with God, and talked with the Creator.
+Since that day a great change has come over your people. Then your color
+was light, like that of the fairest and handsomest of the Circassian
+race; now, it has become red. When even the color is changed, it is not
+wonderful that men should no longer be the same in other particulars.
+Yes; once all the races of men were of the same color and origin."
+
+"This is not what our traditions say. We have heard from our fathers
+that the Great Spirit made men of different colors; some he made light,
+like the pale-faces; some red, like the Injins; some black, like the
+pale-faces' slaves. To some he gave high noses; to some low noses: to
+some flat noses. To the pale-faces he gave eyes of many colors. This is
+the reason why they see so many things, and in so many different ways.
+To the red men he gave eyes of the same color, and they always see
+things of the same color. To a red man there is no change. Our fathers
+have always been red. This we know. If them Jews, of whom my brother
+speaks, were ever white, they have not been our fathers. We tell this to
+the medicine-man, that he may know it, too. We do not wish to lead him
+on a crooked path, or to speak to him with a forked tongue. What we have
+said, is so. Now, the road is open to the wigwam of the pale-faces, and
+we wish them safe on their journey home. We Injins have a council to
+hold around this fire, and will stay longer."
+
+At this plain intimation that their presence was no longer desirable, it
+became necessary for them to depart. The missionary, filled with zeal,
+was reluctant to go, for, in his eyes, the present communications with
+the savages promised him not only the conversion of pagans, but the
+restoration of the Jews! Nevertheless, he was compelled to comply; and
+when le Bourdon and the corporal took their departure, he turned, and
+pronounced in solemn tone the Christian benediction on the assembly.
+The meaning of this last impressive office was understood by most of the
+chiefs, and they rose as one man, in acknowledgment.
+
+The three white men, on retiring from the circle, held their way toward
+Castle Meal. Hive followed his master, having come out of the combat but
+little injured. As they got to a point where a last look could be had of
+the bottom-land of the council, each turned to see what was now in the
+course of proceeding. The fire glimmered just enough to show the circlet
+of dark faces, but not an Indian spoke or moved. There they all sat,
+patiently waiting for the moment when the "strangers" might "withdraw"
+to a sufficient distance, to permit them to proceed with their own
+private affairs without fear of interruption.
+
+"This has been to me a most trying scene," observed the missionary,
+as the three pursued their way toward the garrison. "How hard it is to
+convince men against their wishes. Now, I am as certain as a man can be,
+that every one of these Injins is in fact a Jew; and yet, you have seen
+how small has been my success in persuading them to be of the right way
+of thinking, on this subject."
+
+"I have always noticed that men stick even to their defects, when
+they're nat'ral," returned the bee-hunter. "Even a nigger will stand up
+for his color, and why shouldn't an Injin? You began wrong, parson. Had
+you just told these chiefs that they were Jews, they might have stood
+THAT, poor creatures, for they hardly know how mankind looks upon a
+Jew; but you went to work to skin them, in a lump, making so many poor,
+wishy-washy pale-faces of all the red-skins, in a body. You and I may
+fancy a white face better than one of any other color; but nature colors
+the eye when it colors the body, and there's not a nigger in America who
+doesn't think black the pink of beauty."
+
+"Perhaps it was proceeding too fast to say anything about the change of
+color, Bourdon. But what can a Christian minister do, unless he tell
+the truth? Adam could have been but of one color; and all the races on
+earth, one excepted, must have changed from that one color."
+
+"Aye, and my life on it, that all the races on 'arth believe that
+one color to have been just that which has fallen to the luck of each
+partic'lar shade. Hang me if I should like to be persuaded out of my
+color, any more than these Injins. In America, color goes for a great
+deal; and it may count for as much with an Injin as among us whites. No,
+no, parson; you should have begun with persuading these savages into
+the notion that they're Jews; if you could get along with THAT, the rest
+might be all the easier."
+
+"You speak of the Jews, not as if you considered them a chosen people
+of the Lord, but as a despised and hateful race. This is not right,
+Bourdon. I know that Christians are thus apt to regard them; but it does
+not tell well for their charity or their knowledge."
+
+"I know very little about them, Parson Amen; not being certain of ever
+having seen a Jew in my life. Still, I will own that I have a sort of
+grudge against them, though I can hardly tell you why. Of one thing I
+feel certain--no man breathing should ever persuade me into the notion
+that I'M a Jew, lost or found; ten tribes or twenty. What say you,
+corporal, to this idea?"
+
+"Just as you say, Bourdon. Jews, Turks, and infidels, I despise: so was
+I brought up, and so I shall remain."
+
+"Can either of you tell me WHY you look in this uncharitable light, on
+so many of your fellow-creatures? It cannot be Christianity, for such
+are not its teachings or feelings. Nor is either of you very remarkable
+for his observance of the laws of God, as they have been revealed to
+Christian people. MY heart yearns toward these Injins, who are infidels,
+instead of entertaining any of the feelings that the corporal has just
+expressed."
+
+"I wish there were fewer of them, and that them few were farther from
+Castle Meal," put in le Bourdon, with point. "I have known all along
+that Peter meant to have a great council; but will own, now that I have
+seen something of it, I do not find it quite as much to my mind as I had
+expected it would be."
+
+"There's a strong force on 'em," said the corporal, "and a hard set
+be they to look at. When a man's a young soldier, all this paint, and
+shaving of heads, and rings in noses and ears, makes some impression;
+but a campaign or two ag'in' the fellows soon brings all down to one
+color and one uniform, if their naked hides can be so called. I told 'em
+off, Bourdon, and reconn'itred 'em pretty well, while they was a making
+speeches; and, in my judgment, we can hold good the garrison ag'in' 'em
+all, if so be we do not run short of water. Provisions and water is what
+a body may call fundamentals, in a siege."
+
+"I hope we shall have no need of force--nay, I feel persuaded there will
+not be," said Parson Amen. "Peter is our friend; and his command
+over these savages is wonderful! Never before have I seen red men so
+completely under the control of a chief. Your men at Fort Dearborn,
+corporal, were scarcely more under the orders of their officers, than
+these red-skins are under the orders of this chief!"
+
+"I will not go to compare rig'lars with Injins, Mr. Parson," answered
+the corporal, a little stiffly. "They be not of the same natur' at all,
+and ought not to be put on a footing, in any particular. These savages
+may obey their orders, after a fashion of their own; but I should like
+to see them manoeuvre under fire. I've fit Injins fourteen times, in
+my day, and have never seen a decent line, or a good, honest, manly,
+stand-up charge, made by the best among 'em, in any field, far or near.
+Trees and covers is necessary to their constitutions, just as sartain as
+a deer chased will take to water to throw off the scent. Put 'em up with
+the baggonet, and they'll not stand a minute."
+
+"How should they, corporal," interrupted le Bourdon laughing, "when
+they've no baggonets of their own to make a stand with? You put one
+in mind of what my father used to say. He was a soldier in revolution
+times, and sarved his seven years with Washington. The English used
+to boast that the Americans wouldn't 'stand up to the rack,' if
+the baggonet was set to work; 'but this was before we got our own
+toothpicks,' said the old man. 'As soon as they gave US baggonets, too,
+there was no want of standing up to the work.' It seems to me, corporal,
+you overlook the fact that Injins carry no baggonets."
+
+"Every army uses its own weapons. If an Injin prefers his knife and his
+tomahawk to a baggonet, it is no affair of mine. I speak of a charge
+as I see it; and the soldier who relies on a tomahawk instead of a
+baggonet, should stand in his tracks, and give tomahawk play. No, no,
+Bourdon, seeing is believing. These red-skins can do nothing with our
+people, when our people is properly regimented, well officered, and
+thoroughly drilled. They're skeary to new beginners--THAT I must
+acknowledge--but beyond that I set them down as nothing remarkable as
+military men."
+
+"Good or bad, I wish there were fewer of them, and that they were
+farther off. This man Peter is a mystery to me: sometimes he seems quite
+friendly; then, ag'in, he appears just ready to take all our scalps. Do
+you know much of his past history, Mr. Amen?"
+
+"Not as much as I wish I did," the missionary replied. "No one can tell
+me aught concerning Peter, beyond the fact of his being a sort of a
+prophet, and a chief of commanding influence. Even his tribe is unknown;
+a circumstance that points us to the ancient history of the Jews for the
+explanation. It is my own opinion that Peter is of the race of Aaron,
+and that he is designed by Divine Providence to play an important
+part in the great events on which we touch. All that is wanting is, to
+persuade HIM into this belief, himself. Once persuade a man that he is
+intended to be something, and your work is half done to your hands. But
+the world is so full of ill-digested and random theories, that truth has
+as much as it can do to obtain a sober and patient hearing!"
+
+Thus is it with poor human nature. Let a man get a crotchet into his
+head--however improbable it may be, however little supported by reason
+or fact, however ridiculous, indeed--and he becomes indisposed to
+receive any evidence but that which favors his theory; to see any truths
+but such as he fancies will harmonize with HIS truths; or to allow
+of any disturbing causes in the great workings of his particular
+philosophy. This notion of Parson Amen's concerning the origin of
+the North American savage, did not originate with that simple-minded
+enthusiast, by any means. In this way are notions formed and nurtured.
+The missionary had read somewhat concerning the probability that the
+American Indians were the lost tribes of Israel; and possessed with the
+idea, everything he saw was tortured into evidence in support of his
+theory. There is just as much reason for supposing that any, and all, of
+the heathen savages that are scattered up and down the earth have this
+origin, as to ascribe it to our immediate tribes; but to this truth the
+good parson was indifferent, simply because it did not come within the
+circle of his particular belief.
+
+Thus, too, was it with the corporal. Unless courage, and other military
+qualities, were manifested precisely in the way in which HE had been
+trained, they were not courage and military qualities at all. Every
+virtue has its especial and conventional accessories, according to this
+school of morals; nothing of the sort remaining as it came from above,
+in the simple abstract qualities of right and wrong. On such feelings
+and principles as these, do men get to be dogmatical, narrow-minded, and
+conceited!
+
+Our three white men pursued their way back to the "garrison," conversing
+as they went, much in the manner they did in the dialogue we have just
+recorded. Neither Parson Amen nor the corporal seemed to apprehend
+anything, not-withstanding the extraordinary scene in which one had been
+an actor, and of which the other had been a witness. Their wonder and
+apprehensions, no doubt, were much mitigated by the fact, that it was
+understood Peter was to meet a large collection of the chiefs in the
+Openings, and the minds of all were, more or less, prepared to see some
+such assemblage as had that night got together. The free manner in which
+the mysterious chief led the missionary to the circle, was, of itself,
+some proof that HE did not desire concealment; and even le Bourdon
+admitted, when they came to discuss the details, that this was a
+circumstance that told materially in favor of the friendliness of his
+intentions. Still, the bee-hunter had his doubts; and most sincerely did
+he wish that all in Castle Meal, Blossom in particular, were safe within
+the limits of civilized settlements.
+
+On reaching the "garrison," all was safe. Whiskey Centre watched the
+gate--a sober man, now, perforce, if not by inclination; for being
+in the Openings, in this respect, is like being at sea with an empty
+spirit-room. He was aware that several had passed out, but was surprised
+to learn that Peter was of the number. That gate Peter had not passed,
+of a certainty; and how else he could quit the palisades was not easily
+understood. It was possible to climb over them, it is true; but the feat
+would be attended with so great an exertion, and would be so likely
+to lead to a noise which would expose the effort, that all had great
+difficulty in believing a man so dignified and reserved in manner as
+this mysterious chief would be apt to resort to such means of quitting
+the place.
+
+As for the Chippewa, Gershom reported his return a few minutes before;
+and the bee-hunter entered, to look for that tried friend, as soon as he
+learned the fact. He found Pigeonswing laying aside his accoutrements,
+previously to lying down to take his rest.
+
+"So, Chippewa, YOU have come back, have you?" exclaimed le Bourdon. "So
+many of your red-skin brethren are about, that I didn't expect to see
+you again for these two or three days."
+
+"No want to eat, den, eh? How you all eat, if hunter don't do he
+duty? S'pose squaw don't cook vittles, you no like it, eh? Juss so wid
+hunter--no KILL vittles, don't like it nudder."
+
+"This is true enough. Still, so many of your people are about, just now,
+that I thought it probable you might wish to remain outside with them
+for a day or two."
+
+"How know red man about, eh? You SEE him--you COUNT him eh?"
+
+"I have seen something like fifty, and may say I counted that many.
+They were chiefs, however, and I take it for granted, a goodly number of
+common warriors are not far off. Am I right, Pigeonswing?"
+
+"S'pose don't know--den, can't tell? Only tell what he know."
+
+"Sometimes an Injin GUESSES, and comes as near the truth as a white man
+who has seen the thing with his own Pigeonswing made no answer; though
+le Bourdon fancied, from his manner, that he had really something on his
+mind, and that, too, of importance, which he wished to communicate.
+
+"I think you might tell me some news that I should like to hear,
+Chippewa, if you was so minded."
+
+"Why you stay here, eh?" demanded the Indian, abruptly. "Got plenty
+honey--bess go home, now. Always bess go home, when hunt up. Home good
+place, when hunter well tired."
+
+"My home is here, in the Openings, Pigeonswing. When I go into the
+settlements, I do little but loaf about among the farm-houses on the
+Detroit River, having neither squaw nor wigwam of my own to go to. I
+like this place well enough, if your red brethren will let me keep it in
+peace."
+
+"Dis bad place for pale-face, juss now. Better go home, dan stay in
+Openin'. If don't know short path to Detroit, I show you. Bess go, soon
+as can; and bess go ALONE. No good to be trouble wid squaw, when in
+hurry."
+
+The countenance of le Bourdon changed at this last intimation; though
+the Indian might not have observed it in the darkness. After a brief
+pause, the first answered in a very determined way.
+
+"I believe I understand you, Chippewa," he said. "I shall do nothing of
+the sort, however. If the squaws can't go, too, I shall not quit them.
+Would you desert YOUR squaws because you thought them in trouble?"
+
+"An't your squaw yet. Bess not have squaw at all, when Openin' so full
+of Injin. Where you t'ink is two buck I shoot dis mornin', eh? Skin
+'em, cut 'em up, hang 'em on tree, where wolf can't get 'em. Well, go
+on after anudder; kill HIM, too. Dere he is, inside of palisade, but no
+tudder two. He bot' gone, when I get back to tree. Two good buck as ever
+see! How you like dat, eh?"
+
+"I care very little about it, since we have food enough, and are not
+likely to want. So the wolves got your venison from the trees, after all
+your care; ha! Pigeonswing."
+
+"Wolf don't touch him--wolf CAN'T touch him. Moccasin been under tree.
+See him mark. Bess do as I tell you; go home, soon as ever can. Short
+path to Detroit; an't two hundred pale-face mile."
+
+"I see how it is, Pigeonswing; I see how it is, and thank you for this
+hint, while I honor your good faith to your own people. But I cannot go
+to Detroit, in the first place, for that town and fort have fallen into
+the hands of the British. It might be possible for a canoe to get past
+in the night, and to work its way through into Lake Erie, but I cannot
+quit my friends. If you can put us ALL in the way of getting away from
+this spot, I shall be ready to enter into the scheme. Why can't we all
+get into the canoe, and go down stream, as soon as another night sets
+in? Before morning we could be twenty miles on our road."
+
+"No do any good," returned Pigeonswing, coldly. "If can't go alone,
+can't go at all. Squaw no keep up when so many be on trail. No good to
+try canoe. Catch you in two days--p'raps one. Well, I go to sleep--can't
+keep eye open all night."
+
+Hereupon, Pigeonswing coolly repaired to his skins, lay down, and was
+soon fast asleep. The bee-hunter was fain to do the same, the night
+being now far advanced; but he lay awake a long time, thinking of the
+hint he had received, and pondering on the nature of the danger which
+menaced the security of the family. At length, sleep asserted its power
+over even him, and the place lay in the deep stillness of night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+     And stretching out, on either hand,
+     O'er all that wide and unshorn land,
+     Till weary of its gorgeousness,
+     The aching and the dazzled eye
+     Rests, gladdened, on the calm, blue sky.
+                                         --WHITTIER.
+
+
+No other disturbance occurred in the course of the night. With the dawn,
+le Bourdon was again stirring; and as he left the palisades to repair
+to the run, in order to make his ablutions, he saw Peter returning to
+Castle Meal. The two met; but no allusion was made to the manner in
+which the night had passed. The chief paid his salutations courteously;
+and, instead of repairing to his skins, he joined le Bourdon, seemingly
+as little inclined to seek for rest, as if just arisen from his lair.
+When the bee-hunter left the spring, this mysterious Indian, for the
+first time, spoke of business.
+
+"My brother wanted to-day to show Injin how to find honey," said Peter,
+as he and Bourdon walked toward the palisades, within which the whole
+family was now moving. "I nebber see honey find, myself, ole as I be."
+
+"I shall be very willing to teach your chiefs my craft," answered the
+bee-hunter, "and this so much the more readily, because I do not expect
+to pracTYSE it much longer, myself; not in this part of the country, at
+least."
+
+"How dat happen?--expec' go away soon?" demanded Peter, whose keen,
+restless eye would, at one instant, seem to read his companion's soul,
+and then would glance off to some distant object, as if conscious of its
+own startling and fiery expression. "Now Br'ish got Detroit, where my
+broder go? Bess stay here, I t'ink."
+
+"I shall not be in a hurry, Peter; but my season will soon be up, and I
+must get ahead of the bad weather, you know, or a bark canoe will have
+but a poor time of it on Lake Huron. When am I to meet the chiefs, to
+give them a lesson in finding bees?"
+
+"Tell by-'em-by. No hurry for dat. Want to sleep fuss. See so much
+better, when I open eye. So you t'ink of makin' journey on long path. If
+can't go to Detroit, where can go to?"
+
+"My proper home is in Pennsylvania, on the other side of Lake Erie. It
+is a long path, and I'm not certain of getting safely over it in these
+troubled times. Perhaps it would be best for me, however, to shape at
+once for Ohio; if in that state I might find my way round the end of
+Erie, and so go the whole distance by land."
+
+The bee-hunter said this, by way of throwing dust into the Indian's
+eyes, for he had not the least intention of travelling in the direction
+named. It is true, it was HIS most direct course, and the one that
+prudence would point out to him, under all the circumstances, had he
+been alone. But le Bourdon was no longer alone--in heart and feelings,
+at least. Margery now mingled with all his views for the future; and he
+could no more think of abandoning her in her present situation, than he
+could of offering his own person to the savages for a sacrifice. It was
+idle to think of attempting such a journey in company with the
+females, and most of all to attempt it in defiance of the ingenuity,
+perseverance, and hostility of the Indians. The trail could not be
+concealed; and, as for speed, a party of the young men of the wilderness
+would certainly travel two miles to Margery's one.
+
+Le Bourdon, notwithstanding Pigeonswing's remonstrances, still had his
+eye on the Kalamazoo. He remembered the saying, "that water leaves no
+trail," and was not without hopes of reaching the lake again, where he
+felt he should be in comparative security; his own canoe, as well as
+that of Gershom, being large, well fitted, and not altogether unsuited
+to those waters in the summer months. As it would be of the last
+importance, however, to get several hours' start of the Indians, in the
+event of his having recourse to such a mode of flight, it was of the
+utmost importance also to conceal his intentions, and, if possible, to
+induce Peter to imagine his eyes were turned in another direction.
+
+"Well, s'pose go dat way," answered the chief, quietly, as if suspecting
+no artifice. "Set 'bout him by-'em-by. Today muss teach Injin how to
+find honey. Dat make him good friend; and maybe he help my pale-face
+broders back to deir country. Been better for ebbery body, if none come
+here, at all."
+
+Thus ended the discourse for that moment. Peter was not fond of much
+talking, when he had not his great object in view, but rather kept his
+mind occupied in observation. For the next hour, every one in and
+about Castle Meal was engaged in the usual morning avocations, that of
+breaking their fasts included; and then it was understood that all were
+to go forth to meet the chiefs, that le Bourdon might give a specimen of
+his craft.
+
+One, ignorant of the state of political affairs on the American
+continent, and who was not aware of the vicinity of savages, would
+have seen nothing that morning, as the party proceeded on its little
+excursion, in and around that remote spot, but a picture of rural
+tranquillity and peace. A brighter day never poured its glories on the
+face of the earth; and the Openings, and the glades, and even the dark
+and denser forests, were all bathed in the sunlight, as that orb is
+known to illuminate objects in the softer season of the year, and in the
+forty-third degree of latitude. Even the birds appeared to rejoice in
+the beauties of the time, and sang and fluttered among the oaks, in
+numbers greater than common. Nature usually observes a stern fitness in
+her adaptation of means to ends. Birds are to be found in the forests,
+on the prairies, and in the still untenanted openings of the west--and
+often in countless numbers; more especially those birds which fly in
+flocks, and love the security of unoccupied regions--unoccupied by
+man is meant--wherein to build their nests, obey the laws of their
+instincts, and fulfil their destinies. Thus, myriads of pigeons, and
+ducks, and geese, etc., are to be found in the virgin woods, while the
+companionable and friendly robin, the little melodious wren, the thrush,
+the lark, the swallow, the marten, and all those pleasant little winged
+creatures, that flit about our dwellings and grounds, and seem to be
+sent by Providence, expressly to chant their morning and evening hymns
+to God in our ears, most frequent the peopled districts. It has been
+said by Europeans that the American birds are mute, in comparison with
+those of the Old World. This is true, to a certain extent, as respects
+those which are properly called forest birds, which do, in general,
+appear to partake of the sombre character that marks the solemn
+stillness of their native haunts. It is not true, however, with the
+birds which live in our fields, and grounds, and orchards, each of which
+sings its song of praise, and repeats its calls and its notes, as richly
+and as pleasantly to the ear, as the birds of other lands. One large
+class, indeed, possesses a faculty that enables it to repeat every note
+it has ever heard, even to some of the sounds of quadrupeds. Nor is this
+done in the discordant tones of the parrot; but in octaves, and trills,
+and in rich contra-altos, and all the other pleasing intonations known
+to the most gifted of the feathered race. Thus it is, that one American
+mocking-bird can outsing all the birds of Europe united.
+
+It seemed that morning as if every bird that was accustomed to glean its
+food from the neighborhood of Castle Meal was on the wing, and ready to
+accompany the party that now sallied forth to catch the bee. This party
+consisted of le Bourdon, himself, as its chief and leader; of Peter, the
+missionary, and the corporal. Margery, too, went along; for, as yet, she
+had never seen an exhibition of Boden's peculiar skill. As for Gershom
+and his wife, they remained behind, to make ready the noontide meal;
+while the Chippewa took his accoutrements, and again sallied out on
+a hunt. The whole time of this Indian appeared to be thus taken up;
+though, in truth, venison and bear's meat both abounded, and there was
+much less necessity for those constant efforts than he wished to make it
+appear. In good sooth, more than half his time was spent in making those
+observations, which had led to the advice he had been urging on his
+friend, the bee-hunter, in order to induce him to fly. Had Pigeonswing
+better understood Peter, and had he possessed a clearer insight into the
+extent and magnitude of his plans of retributive vengeance, it is not
+probable his uneasiness, at the moment, would have been so great, or the
+urgency for an immediate decision on the part of le Bourdon would have
+appeared as urgently pressing as it now seemed to be.
+
+The bee-hunter took his way to a spot that was at some distance from
+his habitation, a small prairie of circular form, that is now generally
+known in that region of the country by the name of Prairie Round. Three
+hours were necessary to reach it, and this so much the more, because
+Margery's shorter steps were to be considered. Margery, however, was
+no laggard on a path. Young, active, light of foot, and trained in
+exertions of this nature, her presence did not probably retard the
+arrival many minutes.
+
+The extraordinary part of the proceedings was the circumstance, that the
+bee-hunter did not tell any one whither he was going, and that Peter did
+not appear to care about putting the question to him. Notwithstanding
+this reserve on one side, and seeming indifference on the other, when
+the party reached Prairie Round, every one of the chiefs who had been
+present at the council of the previous night, was there before it. The
+Indians were straggling about, but remained sufficiently near the point
+where the bee-hunter and his followers reached the prairie, to assemble
+around the group in a very few minutes after it made its appearance.
+
+All this struck le Bourdon as fearfully singular, since it proved how
+many secret means of communication existed between the savages. That
+the inmates of the habitations were closely observed, and all their
+proceedings noted, he could not but suspect, even before receiving this
+proof of Peter's power; but he was not aware until now, how completely
+he and all with him were at the mercy of these formidable foes. What
+hope could there be for escape, when hundreds of eyes were thus watching
+their movements, and every thicket had its vigilant and sagacious
+sentinel? Yet must flight be attempted, in some way or other, or Margery
+and her sister would be hopelessly lost--to say nothing of himself and
+the three other men.
+
+But the appearance of the remarkable little prairie that he had just
+reached, and the collection of chiefs, now occupied all the present
+thoughts of le Bourdon. As for the first, it is held in repute, even
+at the present hour, as a place that the traveller should see, though
+covered with farms, and the buildings that belong to husbandry. It
+is still visited as a picture of ancient civilization, placed in the
+setting of a new country. It is true that very little of this part
+of Michigan wears much, if any, of that aspect of a rough beginning,
+including stubs, stumps, and circled trees, that it has so often
+fallen to our share to describe. There are dense forests, and those of
+considerable extent; and wherever the axe is put into them, the progress
+of improvement is marked by the same steps as elsewhere; but the lovely
+openings form so many exceptions, as almost to compose the rule.
+
+On Prairie Round there was even a higher stamp of seeming
+civilization--seeming, since it was nature, after all, that had mainly
+drawn the picture. In the first place, the spot had been burnt so
+recently, as to leave the entire expanse covered with young grasses and
+flowers, the same as if it were a well-kept park. This feature, at
+that advanced period of the summer, was in some degree accidental, the
+burning of the prairies depending more or less on contingencies of that
+sort. We have now less to do with the cause, than with its consequences.
+These were most agreeable to the eye, as well as comfortable to the
+foot, the grass nowhere being of a height to impede movement, or,
+what was of still more importance to le Bourdon's present pursuit, to
+overshadow the flowers. Aware of this fact, he had led his companions
+all that distance, to reach this scene of remarkable rural beauty, in
+order that he might make a grand display of his art, in presence of the
+assembled chiefs of that region. The bee-hunter had pride in his craft,
+the same as any other skilful workman who had gained a reputation by
+his cunning, and he now trod the prairie with a firmer step, and a more
+kindling eye, than was his wont in the commoner haunts of his calling.
+Men were there whom it might be an honor to surprise, and pretty Margery
+was there also, she who had so long desired to see this very exhibition.
+
+But to revert once more to the prairie, ere we commence the narrative
+of what occurred on it. This well-known area is of no great extent,
+possessing a surface about equal to that of one of the larger parks
+of Europe. Its name was derived from its form, which, without being
+absolutely regular, had so near an approach to a circle as to justify
+the use of the appellation. The face of this charming field was neither
+waving, or what is called "rolling," nor a dead flat, as often occurs
+with river bottoms. It had just enough of undulation to prevent too much
+moisture, and to impart an agreeable variety to its plain. As a whole,
+it was clear of the forest; quite as much so as if the axe had done its
+work there a thousand years before, though wood was not wanting. On the
+contrary, enough of the last was to be seen, in addition to that which
+formed the frame of this charming landscape, to relieve the view from
+all appearance of monotony, and to break it up into copses, thickets,
+trees in small clusters, and in most of the varieties that embellish
+native scenery. One who had been unexpectedly transferred to the spot,
+might well have imagined that he was looking on the site of some old
+and long-established settlement, from which every appliance of human
+industry had been suddenly and simultaneously abstracted. Of houses,
+out-buildings, fences, stacks, and husbandry, there were no signs;
+unless the even and verdant sward, that was spread like a vast carpet,
+sprinkled with flowers, could have been deemed a sign of the last. There
+were the glades, vistas, irregular lawns, and woods, shaped with the
+pleasing outlines of the free hand of nature, as if consummate art
+had been endeavoring to imitate our great mistress in one of her most
+graceful moods.
+
+The Indians present served largely to embellish this scene. Of late
+years, horses have become so common among the western tribes, the vast
+natural meadows of those regions furnishing the means necessary to keep
+them, that one can now hardly form a picture of those savages, with-out
+representing them mounted, and wielding the spear; but such was not the
+fact with the time of which we are writing, nor was it ever the general
+practice to go mounted, among the Indians in the immediate vicinity
+of the great lakes. Not a hoof of any sort was now visible, with the
+exception of those which belonged to a herd of deer, that were grazing
+on a favorite spot, less than a league distant from the place where le
+Bourdon and his companions reached the prairie. All the chiefs were on
+foot, and very few were equipped with more than the knife and tomahawk,
+the side-arms of a chief; the rifles having been secreted, as it might
+be, in deference to the festivities and peaceful character of the
+occasion. As le Bourdon's party was duly provided with rifles, the
+missionary and Margery excepted, this was a sign that no violence was
+contemplated on that occasion at least. "Contemplated," however, is a
+word very expressive, when used in connection with the out-breakings
+of human passions, as they are wont to exhibit themselves among the
+ignorant and excited. It matters not whether the scene be the capital of
+some ancient European monarchy, or the wilds of America, the workings of
+such impulses are much the same. Now, a throne is overturned, perhaps,
+before they who do it are yet fully aware of what they ought to set up
+in its place; and now the deadly rifle, or the murderous tomahawk is
+used, more in obedience to the incentives of demons, than in furtherance
+of justly recognized rules of conduct. Le Bourdon was aware of all
+this, and did not so far confide in appearances, as to overlook the
+watchfulness that he deemed indispensable.
+
+The bee-hunter was not long in selecting a place to set up his
+apparatus. In this particular, he was mainly governed by a lovely
+expanse of sweet-scented flowers, among which bees in thousands were
+humming, sipping of their precious gifts at will. Le Bourdon had a care,
+also, not to go far from the forests which encircled the prairies, for
+among its trees he knew he had to seek the habitations of the insects.
+Instead of a stump, or a fallen tree, he had prepared a light framework
+of lath, which the corporal bore to the field for him, and on which he
+placed his different implements, as soon as he had selected the scene of
+operations.
+
+It will not be necessary for us to repeat the process, which has already
+been described in our opening chapters; but we shall only touch such
+parts of it as have a direct connection with the events of the legend.
+As le Bourdon commenced his preparations, however, the circle of chiefs
+closed around him, in mute but close attention to every-thing that
+passed. Although every one of them had heard of the bee-hunters of the
+pale-faces, and most of them had heard of this particular individual
+of their number, not an Indian present had ever seen one of these men
+practise his craft. This may seem strange, as respects those who so
+much roamed the woods; but we have already remarked that it exceeded the
+knowledge of the red man to make the calculations that are necessary to
+take the bee by the process described. Usually, when he obtains honey,
+it is the result of some chance meeting in the forest, and not the
+fruits of that far-sighted and persevering industry, which enables the
+white man to lay in a store large enough to supply a neighborhood, in
+the course of a few weeks' hunting.
+
+Never was a juggler watched with closer attention, than was le Bourdon,
+while setting up his stand, and spreading his implements. Every grave,
+dark countenance was turned toward him, and each keen, glistening eye
+was riveted on his movements. As the vessel with the comb was set down,
+the chiefs nearest recognizing the substance murmured their admiration;
+for to them it seemed as if the operator were about to make honey with
+honey. Then the glass was a subject of surprise: for half of those
+present had never seen such an utensil before. Though many of the chiefs
+present had visited the "garrisons" of the northwest, both American and
+English, many had not; and, of those who had, not one in ten got any
+clear idea of the commonest appliances of civilized life. Thus it was,
+then, that almost every article used by the bee-hunter, though so simple
+and homely, was the subject of a secret, but well-suppressed admiration.
+
+It was not long ere le Bourdon was ready to look for his bee. The
+insects were numerous on the flowers, particularly on the white clover,
+which is indigenous in America, springing up spontaneously wherever
+grasses are permitted to grow. The great abundance of the bees, however,
+had its usual effect, and our hero was a little difficult to please. At
+length, a fine and already half-loaded little animal was covered by the
+glass and captured. This was done so near the group of Indians, that
+each and all noted the process. It was curious, and it was inexplicable!
+Could the pale-faces compel bees to reveal the secret of their hives,
+and was that encroaching race about to drive all the insects from the
+woods and seize their honey, as they drove the Indians before them and
+seized their lands? Such was the character of the thoughts that passed
+through the minds of more than one chief, that morning, though all
+looked on in profound stillness.
+
+When the imprisoned bee was put over the comb, and le Bourdon's cap
+was placed above all, these simple-minded children of the woods and the
+prairies gazed, as if expecting a hive to appear beneath the covering,
+whenever the latter should be removed. It was not long before the bee
+"settled," and not only the cap, but the tumbler was taken away. For the
+first time since the exhibition commenced, le Bourdon spoke, addressing
+himself to Peter.
+
+"If the tribeless chief will look sharply," he said, "he will soon see
+the bee take flight. It is filling itself with honey, and the moment
+it is loaded--look--look--it is about to rise--there, it is up--see
+it circling around the stand, as if to take a look that it may know it
+again--there it goes!"
+
+There it did go, of a truth, and in a regular bee-line, or as straight
+as an arrow. Of all that crowd, the bee-hunter and Margery alone saw
+the insect in its flight. Most of those present lost sight of it,
+while circling around the stand; but the instant it darted away, to
+the remainder it seemed to vanish into air. Not so with le Bourdon and
+Margery, however. The former saw it from habit; the latter from a
+quick eye, intense attention, and the wish not to miss anything that le
+Bourdon saw fit to do, for her information or amusement. The animal flew
+in an air-line toward a point of wood distant fully half a mile, and on
+the margin of the prairie.
+
+Many low exclamations arose among the savages. The bee was gone, but
+whither they knew not, or on what errand. Could it have been sent on a
+message by the pale-face, or had it flown off to give the alarm to its
+companions, in order to adopt the means of disappointing the bee-hunter?
+As for the last, he went coolly to work to choose another insect; and he
+soon had three at work on the comb--all in company, and all uncovered.
+Had the number anything to do with the charm, or were these three to be
+sent to bring back the one that had already gone away? Such was the sort
+of reasoning, and such the queries put to themselves, by several of the
+stern children of nature who were drawn up around the stand.
+
+In the mean time le Bourdon proceeded with his operations in the utmost
+simplicity. He now called Peter and Bear's Meat and Crowsfeather nearer
+to his person, where they might share with Margery the advantage of more
+closely seeing all that passed. As soon as these three chiefs were
+near enough, Ben pointed to one bee in particular, saying in the Indian
+dialect:
+
+"My brothers see that bee in the centre--he is about to go away. If he
+go after the one that went before him, I shall soon know where to look
+for honey."
+
+"How can my brother tell which bee will first fly away?" demanded Bear's
+Meat.
+
+The bee-hunter was able to foresee this, by knowing which insect had
+been longest on the comb; but so practised had his eye become, that he
+knew with tolerable accuracy, by the movements of the creatures, those
+that had filled themselves with honey from those that had not. As it did
+not suit his purpose, however, to let all the minutiae of his craft be
+known, his answer was evasive. Just at that moment a thought occurred to
+him, which it might be well to carry out in full. He had once saved his
+life by necromancy, or what seemed to the simple children of the woods
+to be necromancy, and why might he not turn the cunning of his regular
+art to account, and render it the means of rescuing the females, as well
+as himself, from the hands of their captors? This sudden impulse from
+that moment controlled his conduct; and his mind was constantly
+casting about for the means of effecting what was now his one great
+purpose-escape. Instead of uttering in reply to Bear's Meat's question
+the simple truth, therefore, he rather sought for such an answer as
+might make the process in which he was engaged appear imposing and
+mystical.
+
+"How do the Injins know the path of the deer?" he asked, by way of
+reply. "They look at the deer, get to know him, and understand his ways.
+This middle bee will soon fly."
+
+"Which way will he go?" asked Peter. "Can my brother tell us THAT?"
+
+"To his hive," returned le Bourdon, carelessly, as if he did not fully
+understand the question. "All of them go to their hives, unless I tell
+them to go in another direction. See, the bee is up!"
+
+The chiefs now looked with all their eyes. They saw, indeed, that the
+bee was making its circles above the stand. Presently they lost sight of
+the insect, which to them seemed to vanish; though le Bourdon distinctly
+traced its flight for a hundred yards. It took a direction at right
+angles to that of the first bee, flying off into the prairie, and
+shaping its course toward an island of wood, which might have been of
+three or four acres in extent, and distant rather less than a mile.
+
+While le Bourdon was noting this flight, another bee arose. This
+creature flew toward the point of forest, already mentioned as the
+destination of the insect that had first risen. No sooner was this third
+little animal out of sight, than the fourth was up, humming around the
+stand. Ben pointed it out to the chiefs; and this time they succeeded in
+tracing the flight for, perhaps, a hundred feet from the spot where they
+stood. Instead of following either of its companions, this fourth bee
+took a course which led it off the prairie altogether, and toward the
+habitations.
+
+The suddenly conceived purpose of le Bourdon, to attempt to mystify the
+savages, and thus get a hold upon their minds which he might turn to
+advantage, was much aided by the different directions taken by these
+several bees. Had they all gone the same way, the conclusion that
+all went home would be so very natural and obvious, as to deprive
+the discovery of a hive of any supernatural merit, at least; and to
+establish this was just now the great object the bee-hunter had in view.
+As it was, the Indians were no wiser, now all the bees were gone, than
+they had been before one of them had flown. On the contrary, they could
+not understand how the flights of so many insects, in so many different
+directions, should tell the bee-hunter where honey was to be found. Le
+Bourdon saw that the prairie was covered with bees, and well knew that,
+such being the fact, the inmates of perhaps a hundred different hives
+must be present. All this, however, was too novel and too complicated
+for the calculations of savages; and not one of those who crowded near,
+as observers, could account for so many of the bees going different
+ways.
+
+Le Bourdon now intimated a wish to change his ground. He had noted two
+of the bees, and the only question that remained to be decided, as IT
+respected THEM, was whether they belonged to the precise points toward
+which they had flown, or to points beyond them. The reader will easily
+understand that this is the nature of the fact determined by taking an
+angle, the point of intersection between any two of the lines of flight
+being necessarily the spot where the hive is to be found. So far from
+explaining this to those around him, however, Boden kept it a secret in
+his own breast. Margery knew the whole process, for to HER he had often
+gone over it in description, finding a pleasure in instructing one so
+apt, and whose tender, liquid blue eyes seemed to reflect every movement
+of his own soul and feelings. Margery he could have taught forever, or
+fancied for the moment he could; which is as near the truth as men under
+the influence of love often get. But, as for the Indians, so far from
+letting them into any of his secrets, his strong desire was now to
+throw dust into their eyes, in all possible ways, and to make their
+well-established character for superstition subservient to his own
+projects.
+
+Boden was far from being a scholar, even for one in his class in life.
+Down to this hour, the neglect of the means of public instruction
+is somewhat of a just ground of reproach against the venerable and
+respectable commonwealth of which he was properly a member, though her
+people have escaped a knowledge of a great deal of small philosophy and
+low intriguing, which it is fair to presume that evil spirits thrust
+in among the leaves of a more legitimate information, when the book of
+knowledge is opened for the instruction of those who, by circumstances,
+are prevented from doing more than bestowing a few hurried glances at
+its contents. Still, Ben had read everything about bees on which he
+could lay his hands. He had studied their habits personally, and he
+had pondered over the various accounts of their communities--a sort of
+limited monarchy in which the prince is deposed occasionally, or
+when matters go very wrong--some written by really very observant and
+intelligent persons, and others again not a little fanciful. Among other
+books that had thus fallen in le Bourdon's way, was one which somewhat
+minutely described the uses that were made of bees by the ancient
+soothsayers in their divinations. Our hero had no notion of reviving
+those rites, or of attempting to imitate the particular practices of
+which he had read and heard; but the recollection of them occurred
+most opportunely to strengthen and encourage the design, so suddenly
+entertained, of making his present operation aid in opening the way to
+the one great thing of the hour--an escape into Lake Michigan.
+
+"A bee knows a great deal," said le Bourdon, to his nearest companions,
+while the whole party was moving some distance to take up new ground. "A
+bee often knows more than a man."
+
+"More than pale-face?" demanded Bear's Meat, a chief who had attained
+his authority more by means of physical than of intellectual qualities.
+
+"Sometimes. Pale-faces have gone to bees to ask what will happen. Let me
+ask our medicine-man this question. Parson Amen, have YOU any knowledge
+of the soothsayers of old using bees when they wished to know what was
+about to happen?"
+
+Now, the missionary was not a learned man, any more than the bee-hunter;
+but many an unlearned man has heard of this, and he happened to be one
+of the number. Of Virgil, for instance, Parson Amen knew but little;
+though in the progress of a very loose, but industrious course of
+reading, he had learned that the soothsayers put great faith in bees.
+His answer was given in conformity with this fact, and in the most
+perfect good faith, for he had not the smallest suspicion of what Boden
+wished to establish.
+
+"Certainly--most certainly," answered the well-meaning missionary--"the
+fortune-tellers of old times often went to their bees when they wished
+to look into the future. It has been a subject much talked of among
+Christians, to account for the soothsaying, and witchcraft, and other
+supernatural dealings of those who lived in the times of the prophets;
+and most of them have held the opinion that evil spirits have been--nay,
+still are permitted to work their will on certain men in the flesh. But
+bees were in much favor with the soothsayers of old."
+
+This answer was given in English, and little of it was comprehended by
+Peter, and the others who had more or less knowledge of that language,
+beyond the part which asserted the agency of bees in witchcraft.
+Luckily, this was all le Bourdon desired, and he was well satisfied at
+seeing that the idea passed from one chief to another; those who did not
+know the English at all, being told by those who had some knowledge
+of the tongue, that "bees were thought to be 'medicine' among the
+pale-faces."
+
+Le Bourdon gained a great deal of ground by this fortunate corroboration
+of his own still more fortunate thought Matters were pretty nearly
+desperate with him, and with all his friends, should Peter really
+meditate evil; and as desperate diseases notoriously require remedies of
+the same character, he was ready to attempt anything that promised even
+the smallest chance of success.
+
+"Yes, yes--" the bee-hunter pursued the discourse by saying--"bees know
+a great deal. I have sometimes thought that bees know more than bears,
+and my brother must be able to tell something of them?"
+
+"Yes; my name is Bear's Meat," answered that chief, complacently. "Injin
+always give name that mean somet'ing. Kill so many bear one winter, got
+dat name."
+
+"A good name it is! To kill a bear is the most honorable thing a hunter
+can do, as we all know. If my brother wishes to hear it, I will ask my
+bees when he is to kill another."
+
+The savage to whom this was addressed fairly started with delight. He
+was eagerly signifying his cheerful assent to the proposal, when Peter
+quietly interposed, and changed the discourse to himself, in a way that
+he had, and which would not easily admit of denial. It was apparent
+to le Bourdon that this mysterious Indian was not content that one so
+direct and impetuous in his feelings as Bear's Meat, and who was at the
+same time so little qualified to manage his portion of an intellectual
+conversation, should be foremost any longer. For that reason he brought
+himself more into the foreground, leaving to his friend the capacity
+of listener and observer, rather than that of a speaker and actor. What
+took place under this new arrangement, will appear as the narrative
+proceeds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+     --Therefore, go with me;
+     I'll give the fairies to attend on thee;
+     And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
+     --Peas-blossom! cobweb! moth! and mustard-seed,
+                                    --Midsummer-Night's Dream
+
+
+As le Bourdon kept moving across the prairie, while the remarks were
+made that have been recorded in the preceding chapter, he soon reached
+the new position where he intended to again set up his stand. Here he
+renewed his operations; Peter keeping nearest his person, in jealous
+watchfulness of the least movement he made. Bees were caught, and scarce
+a minute elapsed ere the bee-hunter had two of them on the piece of
+comb, uncovered and at liberty. The circumstance that the cap was
+momentarily placed over the insects, struck the savages as a piece of
+necromancy, in particular. The reader will understand that this is done
+in order to darken the tumbler, and induce the bee to settle down on the
+honey so much the sooner. To one who understood the operation and its
+reason, the whole was simple enough; but it was a very different matter
+with men as little accustomed to prying into the habits of creatures
+as insignificant as bees. Had deer, or bisons, or bears, or any of the
+quadrupeds of those regions, been the subject of the experiment, it is
+highly probable that individuals could have been found in that attentive
+and wondering crowd, who could have enlightened the ablest naturalists
+on the subject of the animals under examination; but when the inquiry
+descended to the bee, it went below the wants and usages of savage life.
+
+"Where you t'ink dis bee go?" demanded Peter, in English, as soon as le
+Bourdon raised the tumbler.
+
+"One will go in this direction, the other in that," answered the
+bee-hunter, pointing first toward the corner of the woods, then toward
+the island in the prairie--the two points toward which two of the other
+bees had flown.
+
+The predictions might or might not prove true. If they did, the effect
+must be great; if they did not, the failure would soon be forgotten in
+matters of more interest. Our hero, therefore, risked but little, while
+he had the chance of gaining a very great advantage. By a fortunate
+coincidence, the result completely justified the prediction. A bee
+rose, made its circles around the stand, and away it went toward the
+island-like copse in the prairie; while its companion soon imitated
+its example, but taking the other prescribed direction. This time Peter
+watched the insects so closely that he was a witness of their movements,
+and with his own eyes he beheld the flight, as well as the direction
+taken by each.
+
+"You tell bee do dis?" demanded Peter, with a surprise that was so
+sudden, as well as so great, that it overcame in some slight degree his
+habitual self-command.
+
+"To be sure I did," replied le Bourdon, carelessly. "If you wish to see
+another, you may."
+
+Here the young man coolly took another bee, and put it on the comb.
+Indifferent as he appeared, however, he used what was perhaps the
+highest degree of his art in selecting this insect. It was taken from
+the bunch of flowers whence one of his former captives had been taken,
+and there was every chance of its belonging to the same hive as its
+companion. Which direction it might take, should it prove to be a bee
+from either of the two hives of which the positions were now known,
+it altogether exceeded Boden's art to tell, so he dexterously avoided
+committing himself. It was enough that Peter gazed attentively, and
+that he saw the insect dart away, disappearing in the direction of the
+island. By this time more of the savages were on the alert, and now
+knowing how and where to look for the bee, they also saw its course.
+
+"You tell him ag'in go dere?" asked Peter, whose interest by this time
+was so manifest, as to defy all attempts at concealment.
+
+"To be sure I did. The bees obey ME, as your young men obey YOU. I am
+their chief, and they KNOW me. I will give you further proof of this. We
+will now go to that little bit of wood, when you shall all see what it
+contains. I have sent three of my bees there; and here, one of them is
+already back, to let me know what he has seen."
+
+Sure enough, a bee was buzzing around the head of le Bourdon, probably
+attracted by some fragment of comb, and he cunningly converted it into
+a messenger from the copse! All this was wonderful to the crowd, and
+it even greatly troubled Peter. This man was much less liable to the
+influence of superstition than most of his people; but he was very far
+from being altogether above it. This is the fact with very few civilized
+men; perhaps with no man whatever, let his philosophy and knowledge be
+what they may; and least of all, is it true with the ignorant. There is
+too much of the uncertain, of the conjectural in our condition as human
+beings, to raise us altogether above the distrusts, doubts, wonder, and
+other weaknesses of our present condition. To these simple savages, the
+manner in which the bees flew, seemingly at le Bourdon's bidding, to
+this or that thicket, was quite as much a matter of astonishment, as
+any of our most elaborate deceptions are wonders to our own ignorant and
+vulgar. Ignorant! And where is the line to be drawn that is to place men
+beyond the pale of ignorance? Each of us fails in some one, if not
+in very many of the important branches of the knowledge that is even
+reduced to rules Among us. Here is seen the man of books, so ignorant
+of the application of his own beloved theories, as to be a mere child in
+practice; and there, again, can be seen the expert in practice, who is
+totally unacquainted with a single principle of the many that lie at
+the root of his very handicraft. Let us not, then, deride these poor
+children of the forest, because that which was so entirely new to them,
+should also appear inexplicable and supernatural.
+
+As for Peter, he was more confounded than convinced. His mind was so
+much superior to those of the other chiefs, as to render him far more
+difficult to mislead; though even he was not exempt from the great
+weaknesses of ignorance, superstition, and its concomitants--credulity,
+and a love of the marvellous. His mind was troubled, as was quite
+apparent to Ben, who watched HIM quite as narrowly as he was observed
+himself, in all he did. Willing to deepen the impression, our artist
+now determined to exhibit some of the higher fruits of his skill. The
+production of a considerable quantity of honey would of itself be a sort
+of peace-offering, and he now prepared to turn the certainty of there
+being a hive in the little wood to account--certainty, because three
+bees had taken wing for it, and a very distinct angle had been made with
+two of them.
+
+"Does my brother wish any honey?" asked le Bourdon carelessly; "or shall
+I send a bee across Lake Michigan, to tell the Injins further west that
+Detroit is taken?"
+
+"Can Bourdon find honey, NOW?" demanded Peter.
+
+"Easily. Several hives are within a mile of us. The bees like this
+prairie, which is so well garnished with flowers, and I am never at a
+loss for work, in this neighborhood. This is my favorite bee-ground; and
+I have got all the little creatures so that they know me, and are ready
+to do everything that I tell them. As I see that the chiefs love honey,
+and wish to eat some, we will now go to one of my hives."
+
+Thus saying, le Bourdon prepared for another march. He moved with
+all his appliances, Margery keeping close at his side, carrying the
+honey-comb and honey. As the girl walked lightly, in advance of the
+Indians, some fifteen or twenty bees, attracted by the flavor of what
+she carried, kept circling around her head, and consequently around that
+of Boden; and Peter did not fail to observe the circumstance. To him it
+appeared as if these bees were so many accompanying agents, who attended
+their master in order to do his bidding. In a word, Peter was fast
+getting into that frame of mind, when all that is seen is pressed into
+the support of the theory we have adopted. The bee-hunter had some
+mysterious connection with, and control over the bees, and this was
+one among the many other signs of the existence of his power. All this,
+however, Boden himself disregarded. His mind was bent on throwing dust
+into the eyes of the Indians; and he was cogitating the means of so
+doing, on a much larger scale than any yet attempted.
+
+"Why dem bee fly 'round young squaw?" demanded Peter--"and fly round
+you, too?"
+
+"They know us, and go with us to their hive; just as Injins would come
+out of their villages to meet and honor visitors."
+
+This was a ready reply, but it scarcely satisfied the wily savage to
+whom it was given. Just then Crowsfeather led Peter a little aside,
+and began talking earnestly to that chief, both continuing on with
+the crowd. Le Bourdon felt persuaded that the subject of this private
+conference was some of his own former backslidings in the character of
+conjuror, and that the Pottawattamie would not deal very tenderly with
+his character. Nevertheless, it was too late to retrace his steps, and
+he saw the necessity of going on.
+
+"I wish you had not come out with us," the bee-hunter found an occasion
+to say to Margery. "I do not half like the state of things, and this
+conjuration about the bees may all fall through."
+
+"It is better that I should be here, Bourdon," returned the spirited
+girl. "My being here may make them less unfriendly to you. When I am by,
+Peter always seems more human, and less of a savage, they all tell me,
+than when I am not by."
+
+"No one can be more willing to own your power, Margery, than I; but
+Injins hold the squaws too cheap, to give you much influence over this
+old fellow."
+
+"You do not know--he may have had a daughter of about my age, or size,
+or appearance; or with my laugh, or voice, or something else that
+reminds him of her, when he sees me. One thing I am sure of--Peter is no
+enemy of MINE!"
+
+"I hope this may prove to be true! I do not see, after all, why an Injin
+should not have the feelin's you name. He is a man, and must feel for
+his wife and children, the same as other--"
+
+"Bourdon, what ails the dog? Look at the manner in which Hive is
+behaving!"
+
+Sure enough, the appearance of Hive was sufficiently obvious to attract
+his master's attention. By this time the crowd had got within twenty
+rods of the little island-like copse of wood, the mastiff being nearly
+half that distance in advance. Instead of preceding the party, however,
+Hive had raised his form in a menacing manner, and moved cautiously
+from side to side, like one of his kind that scents a foe. There was no
+mistaking these movements; and all the principal chiefs soon had their
+attention also drawn to the behavior of the dog.
+
+"Why he do so?" asked Peter. "He 'fraid of bee, eh?"
+
+"He waits for me to come up," answered le Bourdon. "Let my brother and
+two other chiefs come with me, and let the rest stay here. Bees do not
+like crowds. Corporal, I put Margery in your keeping, and Parson Amen
+will be near you. I now go to show these chiefs what a bee can tell a
+man."
+
+Thus saying, le Bourdon advanced, followed by Peter, Bear's Meat, and
+Crowsfeather. Our hero had made up his mind that something more than
+bees were to be found in the thicket; for, the place being a little
+marshy, bushes as well as trees were growing on it, and he fully
+expected a rencontre with bears, the creatures most disposed to prey on
+the labors of the bee--man excepted. Being well armed, and accompanied
+by men accustomed to such struggles, he had no apprehensions, and led
+the way boldly, feeling the necessity of manifesting perfect confidence
+in all his own acts, in order to command the respect of the observers.
+As soon as the bee-hunter passed the dog, the latter growled, showed
+his teeth fiercely, and followed, keeping closely at his side. The
+confidence and alacrity with which le Bourdon moved into the thicket,
+compelled his companions to be on the alert; though the first broke
+through the belt of hazels which enclosed the more open area within,
+a few instants before the Indians reached the place. Then it was that
+there arose such a yell, such screechings and cries, as reached far over
+the prairie, and might have appalled the stoutest heart. The picture
+that was soon offered to the eye was not less terrific than the sounds
+which assailed the ear. Hundreds of savages, in their war-paint, armed,
+and in a crowded maze, arose as it might be by one effort, seemingly out
+of the earth, and began to leap and play their antics amid the
+trees. The sudden spectacle of a crowd of such beings, nearly naked,
+frightfully painted, and tossing their arms here and there, while
+each yelled like a demon, was enough to overcome the nerves of a very
+resolute man. But le Bourdon was prepared for a conflict and even felt
+relieved rather than alarmed, when he saw the savages. His ready mind at
+once conceived the truth. This band belonged to the chiefs, and composed
+the whole, or a principal part of the force which he knew they must
+have outlying somewhere on the prairies, or in the openings. He had
+sufficiently understood the hints of Pigeonswing to be prepared for such
+a meeting, and at no time, of late, had he approached a cover, without
+remembering the possibility of its containing Indians.
+
+Instead of betraying alarm, therefore, when this cloud of phantom-like
+beings rose before his eyes, le Bourdon stood firm, merely turning
+toward the chiefs behind him, to ascertain if they were taken by
+surprise, as well as himself. It was apparent that they were; for,
+understanding that a medicine-ceremony was to take place on the prairie,
+these young men had preceded the party from the hut, and had, ununknown
+to all the chiefs, got possession of this copse, as the best available
+cover, whence to make their observations on what was going on.
+
+"My brother sees his young men," said le Bourdon, quietly, the instant a
+dead calm had succeeded to the outcries with which he had been greeted.
+"I thought he might wish to say something to them, and my bees told me
+where to find them. Does my brother wish to know anything else?"
+
+Great was the wonder of the three chiefs, at this exhibition of medicine
+power! So far from suspecting the truth, or of detecting the lucky
+coincidence by which le Bourdon had been led to the cover of their
+warriors, it all appeared to them to be pure necromancy. Such an art
+must be of great service; and how useful it would be to the warrior on
+his path, to be accompanied by one who could thus command the vigilance
+of the bees.
+
+"You find enemy all same as friend?" demanded Peter, letting out the
+thought that was uppermost, in the question.
+
+"To be sure. It makes no difference with a bee; he can find an enemy as
+easily as he can find a friend.'
+
+"No whiskey-spring dis time?" put in Crowsfeather, a little
+inopportunely, and with a distrust painted in his swarthy face that le
+Bourdon did not like.
+
+"Pottawattamie, you do not understand medicine-men. OUGHT I to have
+shown your young men where whiskey was to be had for nothing? Ask
+yourself that question. Did you wish to see your young men wallowing
+like hogs in such a spring? What would the great medicine-priest of the
+pale-faces, who is out yonder, have said to THAT?"
+
+This was a coup de maitre on the part of the bee-hunter. Until that
+moment, the affair of the whiskey-spring had weighed heavily in the
+balance against him; but now, it was suddenly changed over in the
+scales, and told as strongly in his favor. Even a savage can understand
+the morality which teaches men to preserve their reason, and not to
+lower themselves to the level of brutes, by swallowing "fire-water"; and
+Crowsfeather suddenly saw a motive for regarding our hero with the eyes
+of favor, instead of those of distrust and dislike.
+
+"What the pale-face says is true," observed Peter to his companion. "Had
+he opened his spring, your warrior would have been weaker than women. He
+is a wonderful medicine-man, and we must not provoke him to anger. How
+COULD he know, but through his bees, that our young men were here?"
+
+This question could not be answered; and when the chiefs, followed by
+the whole band of warriors, some three or four hundred in number came
+out upon the open prairie, all that had passed was communicated to those
+who awaited their return, in a few brief, but clear explanations. Le
+Bourdon found a moment to let Margery comprehend his position and views,
+while Parson Amen and the corporal were put sufficiently on their guard
+not to make any unfortunate blunder. The last was much more easily
+managed than the first. So exceedingly sensitive was the conscience
+of the priest, that had he clearly understood the game le Bourdon was
+playing, he might have revolted at the idea of necromancy, as touching
+on the province of evil spirits; but he was so well mystified as to
+suppose all that passed was regularly connected with the art of taking
+bees. In this respect, he and the Indians equally resembled one of those
+familiar pictures, in which we daily see men, in masses, contributing
+to their own deception and subjection, while they fondly but blindly
+imagine that they are not only inventors, but masters. This trade
+of mastery, after all, is the property of a very few minds; and no
+precaution of the prudent, no forethought of the wary, nor any expedient
+of charters, constitutions, or restrictions, will prevent the few from
+placing their feet on the neck of the many. We may revive the fable of
+King Log and King Stork, as often, and in as many forms as we will; it
+will ever be the fable of King Log and King Stork. We are no admirers
+of political aristocracies, as a thousand paragraphs from our pen will
+prove; and, as for monarchs, we have long thought they best enact their
+parts, when most responsible to opinion; but we cannot deceive ourselves
+on the subject of the atrocities that are daily committed by those
+who are ever ready to assume the places of both, making their
+fellow-creatures in masses their dupes, and using those that they affect
+to serve.
+
+Ben Boden was now a sort of "gouvernement provisoire" among the
+wondering savages who surrounded him. He had got them to believe in
+necromancy--a very considerable step toward the exercise of despotic
+power. It is true, he hardly knew, himself, what was to be done next;
+but he saw quite distinctly that he was in a dilemma, and must manage to
+get out of it by some means or other. If he could only succeed in this
+instance, as well as he had succeeded in his former essay in the black
+art, all might be well, and Margery be carried in triumph into the
+settlements. Margery, pro haec vice, was his goddess of liberty, and he
+asked for no higher reward, than to be permitted to live the remainder
+of his days in the sunshine of her smiles. Liberty! a word that is, just
+now, in all men's mouths, but in how few hearts in its purity and
+truth! What a melancholy mistake, moreover, to suppose that, could it
+be enjoyed in that perfection with which the imaginations of men love to
+cheat their judgments, it is the great good of life! One hour spent
+in humble veneration for the Being that gave it, in common with all of
+earth, its vacillating and uncertain existence, is of more account
+than ages passed in its service; and he who fancies that in worshipping
+liberty, he answers the great end of his existence, hugs a delusion
+quite as weak, and infinitely more dangerous, than that which now
+came over the minds of Peter and his countrymen, in reference to the
+intelligence of the bee. It is a good thing to possess the defective and
+qualified freedom, which we term "liberty"; but it is a grave error to
+set it up as an idol to be worshipped.
+
+"What my brother do next?" demanded Bear's Meat, who, being a
+somewhat vulgar-minded savage, was all for striking and wonder-working
+exhibitions of necromancy. "P'raps he find some honey now?"
+
+"If you wish it, chief. What says Peter?--shall I ask my bees to tell
+where there is a hive?"
+
+As Peter very readily assented, le Bourdon next set about achieving this
+new feat in his art. The reader will recollect that the positions of two
+hives were already known to the bee-hunter, by means of that very simple
+and every-day process by which he earned his bread. One of these hives
+was in the point of wood already mentioned, that lay along the margin of
+the prairie; while the other was in this very copse, where the savages
+had secreted themselves. Boden had now no thought of giving any further
+disturbance to this last-named colony of insects; for an insight into
+their existence might disturb the influence obtained by the jugglery of
+the late discovery, and he at once turned his attention toward the other
+hive indicated by his bees.
+
+Nor did le Bourdon now deem it necessary to resort to his usual means of
+carrying on his trade. These were not necessary to one who knew already
+where the hive was to be found, while it opened the way to certain
+mummeries that might be made to tell well in support of his assumed
+character. Catching a bee, then, and keeping it confined within his
+tumbler, Ben held the last to his ear, as if listening to what the
+fluttering insect had to say. Having seemingly satisfied himself on this
+point, he desired the chiefs once more to follow him, having first let
+the bee go, with a good deal of ceremony. This set all in motion again;
+the party being now increased by the whole band of savages who had been
+"put up" from their cover.
+
+By this time, Margery began to tremble for the consequences. She had
+held several short conferences with le Bourdon, as they walked together,
+and had penetrated far enough into his purposes to see that he was
+playing a ticklish game. It might succeed for a time, but she feared
+it must fail in the end; and there was always the risk of incurring the
+summary vengeance of savages. Perhaps she did not fully appreciate
+the power of superstition, and the sluggishness of the mind that once
+submits to its influence; while her woman's heart made her keenly
+alive to all those frightful consequences that must attend an exposure.
+Nevertheless, nothing could now be done to avert the consequences. It
+was too late to recede, and things must take their course, even at all
+the hazards of the case. That she might not be wholly useless, when her
+lover was risking so much for herself--Margery well understanding
+that her escape was the only serious difficulty the bee-hunter
+apprehended--the girl turned all her attention to Peter, in whose favor
+she felt that she had been daily growing, and on whose pleasure so much
+must depend. Changing her position a little, she now came closer to the
+chief than she had hitherto done.
+
+"Squaw like medicine-man?" asked Peter, with a significance of
+expression that raised a blush in Margery's cheek.
+
+"You mean to ask me if I like to SEE medicine-men perform," answered
+Margery, with the readiness of her sex. "White women are always curious,
+they say--how is it with the women of the red men?"
+
+"Juss so--full of cur'osity. Squaw is squaw--no matter what color."
+
+"I am sorry, Peter, you do not think better of squaws. Perhaps you never
+had a squaw--no wife, or daughter?"
+
+A gleam of powerful feeling shot athwart the dark countenance of the
+Indian, resembling the glare of the electric fluid flashing on a cloud
+at midnight; but it passed away as quickly as it appeared, leaving
+in its stead the hard, condensed expression, which the intensity of
+a purpose so long entertained and cultivated, had imprinted there, as
+indelibly as if cut in stone.
+
+"All chief have squaw--all chief have pappoose--" was the answer that
+came at last. "What he good for, eh?"
+
+"It is always good to have children, Peter; especially when the children
+themselves are good."
+
+"Good for pale-face, maybe--no good for Injin. Pale-face glad when
+pappoose born--red-skin sorry."
+
+"I hope this is not so. Why should an Injin be sorry to see the laugh of
+his little son?"
+
+"Laugh when he little--p'raps so; he little, and don't know what happen.
+But Injin don't laugh any more when he grow up. Game gone; land gone;
+corn-field gone. No more room for Injin--pale-face want all. Pale-face
+young man laugh--red-skin young man cry. Dat how it is."
+
+"Oh! I hope not, Peter! I should be sorry to think it was so. The red
+man has as good a right--nay, he has a BETTER right to this country than
+we whites; and God forbid that he should not always have his full share
+of the land!"
+
+Margery probably owed her life to that honest, natural burst of feeling,
+which was uttered with a warmth and sincerity that could leave no doubt
+that the sentiment expressed came from the heart. Thus singularly are we
+constructed! A minute before, and no exemption was made in the mind of
+Peter, in behalf of this girl, in the plan he had formed for cutting off
+the whites; on the contrary, he had often be-thought him of the number
+of young pale-faces that might be, as it were, strangled in their
+cradles, by including the bee-hunter and his intended squaw in the
+contemplated sacrifice. All this was changed, as in the twinkling of an
+eye, by Margery's honest and fervent expression of her sense of right,
+on the great subject that occupied all of Peter's thoughts. These sudden
+impulses in the direction of love for our species, the second of the
+high lessons left by the Redeemer to his disciples, are so many proofs
+of the creation of man in the image of his maker. They exert their power
+often when least expected, and are ever stamped by the same indelible
+impression of their divine origin. Without these occasional glimpses at
+those qualities which are so apt to lie dormant, we might indeed despair
+of the destinies of our race. We are, however, in safe and merciful
+hands; and all the wonderful events that are at this moment developing
+themselves around us, are no other than the steps taken by Providence
+in the progress it is steadily making toward the great and glorious end!
+Some of the agencies will be corrupt; others deluded; and no one of them
+all, perhaps, will pursue with unerring wisdom the precise path that
+ought to be taken; but even the crimes, errors, and delusions, will
+be made instrumental in achieving that which was designed before the
+foundations of this world were laid!
+
+"Does my daughter wish this?" returned Peter, when Margery had thus
+frankly and sincerely given vent to her feelings. "Can a pale-face squaw
+wish to leave an Injin any of his hunting-grounds?"
+
+"Thousands of us wish it, Peter, and I for one. Often and often have we
+talked of this around our family fire, and even Gershom, when his head
+has not been affected by fire-water, has thought as we all have thought.
+I know that Bourdon thinks so, too; and I have heard him say that he
+thought Congress ought to pass a law to prevent white men from getting
+any more of the Injin's lands."
+
+The face of Peter would have been a remarkable study, during the few
+moments that his fierce will was in the process of being brought
+in subjugation to the influence of his better feelings. At first he
+appeared bewildered; then compunction had its shade; and human sympathy
+came last, asserting its long dormant, but inextinguishable power.
+Margery saw some of this, though it far exceeded her penetration to read
+all the workings of that stern and savage mind; yet she felt encouraged
+by what she did see and understand.
+
+While an almighty and divine Providence was thus carrying out its
+own gracious designs in its own way, the bee-hunter continued bent on
+reaching a similar end by means of his own. Little did he imagine how
+much had been done for him within the last few moments, and how
+greatly all he had in view was jeoparded and put at risk by his own
+contrivances--contrivances which seemed to him so clever, but which were
+wanting in the unerring simplicity and truth that render those that come
+from above infallible. Still, the expedients of le Bourdon may have had
+their agency in bringing about events, and may have been intended to be
+a part of that moral machinery, which was now at work in the breast of
+Peter, for good.
+
+It will be remembered that the bee-hunter habitually carried a small
+spy-glass, as a part of the implements of his calling. It enabled him
+to watch the bees, as they went in and came out of the hives, on the
+highest trees, and often saved him hours of fruitless search. This glass
+was now in his hand; for an object on a dead tree, that rose a little
+apart from those around it, and which stood quite near the extreme point
+in the forest, toward which they were all proceeding, had caught his
+attention. The distance was still too great to ascertain by the naked
+eye what that object was; but a single look with the glass showed
+that it was a bear. This was an old enemy of the bee-hunter, who often
+encountered the animal, endeavoring to get at the honey, and he had on
+divers occasions been obliged to deal with these plunderers, before he
+could succeed in his own plans of pilfering. The bear now seen continued
+in sight but an instant; the height to which he had clambered being so
+great, most probably, as to weary him with the effort, and to compel him
+to fall back again. All this was favorable to le Bourdon's wishes, who
+immediately called a halt. The first thing that Bourdon did, when all
+the dark eyes were gleaming on him in fierce curiosity, was to catch a
+bee and hold it to his ear, as it buzzed about in the tumbler.
+
+"You t'ink dat bee talk?" Peter asked of Margery, in a tone of
+confidence, as if a newly-awakened principle now existed between them.
+
+"Bourdon must think so, Peter," the girl evasively answered, "or he
+would hardly listen to hear what it says."
+
+"It's strange, bee should talk! Almos' as strange as pale-face wish to
+leave Injin any land! Sartain, bee talk, eh?"
+
+"I never heard one talk, Peter, unless it might be in its buzzing. That
+may be the tongue of a bee, for anything I know to the contrary."
+
+By this time le Bourdon seemed to be satisfied, and let the bee go; the
+savages murmuring their wonder and admiration.
+
+"Do my brothers wish to hunt?" asked the bee-hunter in a voice so loud
+that all near might hear what he had to say.
+
+This question produced a movement at once. Skill in hunting, next to
+success on the war-path, constitutes the great merit of an Indian; and
+it is ever his delight to show that he possesses it. No sooner did le
+Bourdon throw out his feeler, therefore, than a general exclamation
+proclaimed the readiness of all the young men, in particular, to join in
+the chase.
+
+"Let my brothers come closer," said Ben, in an authoritative manner;
+"I have something to put into their ears. They see that point of wood,
+where the dead basswood has fallen on the prairie. Near that basswood
+is honey, and near that honey are bears. This my bees have told me. Now,
+let my brothers divide, and some go into the woods, and some stay on the
+prairie; then they will have plenty of sweet food."
+
+As all this was very simple, and easily to be comprehended, not a moment
+was lost in the execution. With surprising order and aptitude, the
+chiefs led off their parties; one line of dark warriors penetrating the
+forest on the eastern side of the basswood, and another on its western;
+while a goodly number scattered themselves on the prairie itself, in its
+front. In less than a quarter of an hour, signals came from the forest
+that the battue was ready, and Peter gave the answering sign to proceed.
+
+Down to this moment, doubts existed among the savages concerning the
+accuracy of le Bourdon's statement. How was it possible that his bees
+should tell him where he could find bears? To be sure, bears were the
+great enemies of bees--this every Indian knew--but could the bees have a
+faculty of thus arming one enemy against another? These doubts, however,
+were soon allayed by the sudden appearance of a drove of bears, eight
+or ten in number, that came waddling out of the woods, driven before the
+circle of shouting hunters that had been formed within.
+
+Now commenced a scene of wild tumult and of fierce delight. The
+warriors on the prairie retired before their enemies until all of their
+associates were clear of the forest, when the circle swiftly closed
+again, until it had brought the bears to something like close quarters.
+Bear's Meat, as became his appellation, led off the dance, letting fly
+an arrow at the nearest animal. Astounded by the great number of their
+enemies, and not a little appalled by their yells, the poor quadrupeds
+did not know which way to turn. Occasionally, attempts were made to
+break through the circle, but the flight of arrows, aimed directly at
+their faces, invariably drove the creatures back. Fire-arms were not
+resorted to at all in this hunt, spears and arrows being the weapons
+depended on. Several ludicrous incidents occurred, but none that were
+tragical. One or two of the more reckless of the hunters, ambitious of
+shining before the representatives of so many tribes, ran rather greater
+risks than were required, but they escaped with a few smart scratches.
+In one instance, however, a young Indian had a still narrower SQUEEZE
+for his life. Literally a SQUEEZE it was, for, suffering himself to get
+within the grasp of a bear, he came near being pressed to death, ere his
+companions could dispatch the creature. As for the prisoner, the only
+means he had to prevent his being bitten, was to thrust the head of his
+spear into the bear's mouth, where he succeeded in holding it, spite of
+the animal's efforts to squeeze him into submission. By the time this
+combat was terminated, the field was strewn with the slain; every one of
+the bears having been killed by hunters so much practised in the art of
+destroying game.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+     She was an only child--her name Ginevra,
+     The joy, the pride of an indulgent father;
+     And in her fifteenth year became a bride,
+     Marrying an only son, Francesco Dona,
+     Her playmate from her birth, and her first love.
+                                                     --ROGERS.
+
+
+ During the hunt there was little leisure for reflection on the
+seemingly extraordinary manner in which the bee-hunter had pointed out
+the spot where the bears were to be found. No one of the Indians had
+seen him apply the glass to his eye, for, leading the party, he had been
+able to do this unobserved; but, had they witnessed such a procedure,
+it would have been as inexplicable as all the rest. It is true,
+Crowsfeather and one or two of his companions had taken a look
+through that medicine-glass, but it rather contributed to increase
+the conjuror's renown, than served to explain any of the marvels he
+performed.
+
+Peter was most struck with all that had just occurred. He had often
+heard of the skill of those who hunted bees, and had several times met
+with individuals who practised the art, but this was the first occasion
+on which he had ever been a witness, in his own person, of the exercise
+of a craft so wonderful! Had the process been simply that of catching a
+bee, filling it with honey, letting it go, and then following it to its
+hive, it would have been so simple as to require no explanation. But
+Peter was too intelligent, as well as too observant, not to have seen
+that a great deal more than this was necessary. On the supposition that
+the bee flew TOWARD the forest, as had been the fact with two of the
+bees taken that morning, in what part of that forest was the hunter to
+look for the bee-tree? It was the angle that perplexed Peter, as it did
+all the Indians; for that angle, to be understood, required a degree
+of knowledge and calculation that entirely exceeded all he had ever
+acquired. Thus is it with us ever. The powers, and faculties, and
+principles that are necessary fully to comprehend all that we see
+and all that surrounds us, exist and have been bestowed on man by his
+beneficent Creator. Still, it is only by slow degrees that he is to
+become their master, acquiring knowledge, step by step, as he has need
+of its services, and learns how to use it. Such seems to be the design
+of Providence, which is gradually opening to our inquiries the arcana of
+nature, in order that we may convert their possession into such uses as
+will advance its own wise intentions. Happy are they who feel this truth
+in their character of individuals! Thrice happy the nations which can
+be made to understand, that the surest progress is that which is made
+on the clearest principles, and with the greatest caution! The notion of
+setting up anything new in morals, is as fallacious in theory as it will
+be found to be dangerous in practice.
+
+It has been said that a sudden change had come over the fierce purposes
+of Peter. For some time, the nature, artlessness, truth, feminine
+playfulness and kindness, not to say personal beauty of Margery, had
+been gradually softening the heart of this stern savage, as it respected
+the girl herself. Nothing of a weak nature was blended with this
+feeling, which was purely the growth of that divine principle that is
+implanted in us all. The quiet, earnest manner in which the girl
+had, that day, protested her desire to see the rights of the red man
+respected, completed her conquest; and, so far as the great chief was
+concerned, secured her safety. It may seem singular, however, that
+Peter, with all his influence, was unable to say that even one that he
+was so much disposed to favor, should be spared. By means of his own
+eloquence, and perseverance, and deep desire for vengeance, however, he
+had aroused a spirit among his followers that was not so easily quelled.
+On several occasions, he had found it difficult to prevent the younger
+and more impetuous of the chiefs from proceeding at once to secure the
+scalps of those who were in their power; and this he had done, only
+by promising to increase the number of the victims. How was he then
+to lessen that number? and that, too, when circumstances did not seem
+likely to throw any more immediately into his power, as he had once
+hoped. This council must soon be over, and it would not be in his power
+to send the chiefs away without enumerating the scalps of the pale-faces
+present among those which were to make up the sum of their race.
+
+Taking the perplexity produced by the bee-hunter's necromancy, and
+adding it to his concern for Margery, Peter found ample subject for
+all his reflections. While the young men were dressing their bears, and
+making the preparations for a feast, he walked apart, like a man whose
+thoughts had little in common with the surrounding scene. Even the
+further proceedings of le Bourdon, who had discovered his bee-tree, had
+felled it, and was then distributing the honey among the Indians, could
+not draw him from his meditations. The great council of all was to be
+held that very day--there, on Prairie Round--and it was imperative on
+Peter to settle the policy he intended to pursue, previously to the
+hour when the fire was to be lighted, and the chiefs met in final
+consultation.
+
+In the mean time, le Bourdon, by his distribution of the honey, no less
+than by the manner in which he had found it, was winning golden opinions
+of those who shared in his bounty. One would think that the idea of
+property is implanted in us by nature, since men in all conditions
+appear to entertain strong and distinct notions of this right. Natural
+it may not be, in the true signification of the term; but it is a
+right so interwoven with those that are derived from nature, and
+more particularly with our wants, as almost to identify it with the
+individual being. It is certain that all we have of civilization is
+dependent on a just protection of this right; for, without the assurance
+of enjoying his earnings, who would produce beyond the supply necessary
+for his own immediate wants? Among the American savages the rights of
+property are distinctly recognized, so far as their habits and resources
+extend. The hunting-ground belongs to the tribe, and occasionally the
+field; but the wigwam, and the arms, and the skins, both for use and
+for market, and often the horses, and all other movables, belong to the
+individual. So sacred is this right held to be, that not one of those
+who stood by, and saw le Bourdon fell his tree, and who witnessed the
+operation of bringing to light its stores of honey, appeared to dream of
+meddling with the delicious store, until invited so to do by its lawful
+owner. It was this reserve, and this respect for a recognized principle,
+that enabled the bee-hunter to purchase a great deal of popularity,
+by giving away liberally an article so much prized. None, indeed, was
+reserved; Boden seeing the impossibility of carrying it away. Happy
+would he have been, most happy, could he have felt the assurance of
+being able to get Margery off, without giving a second thought to any of
+his effects, whether present or absent.
+
+As has been intimated, the bee-hunter was fast rising in the favor of
+the warriors; particularly of those who had a weakness on the score of
+the stomach. This is the first great avenue to the favor of man--the
+belly ruling all the other members, the brains included. All this Peter
+noted, and was now glad to perceive; for, in addition to the favor that
+Margery had found in his eyes, that wary chief had certain very serious
+misgivings on the subject of the prudence of attempting to deal harshly
+with a medicine man of Boden's calibre. Touching the whiskey-spring he
+had been doubtful, from the first; even Crowsfeather's account of
+the wonderful glass through which that chief had looked, and seen
+men reduced to children and then converted into giants, had failed to
+conquer his scepticism; but he was not altogether proof against what he
+had that day beheld with his own eyes. These marvels shook his previous
+opinion touching the other matters; and, altogether, the effect was to
+elevate the bee-hunter to a height, that it really appeared dangerous to
+assail.
+
+While Peter was thus shaken with doubts--and that, too, on a point on
+which he had hitherto stood as firm as a rock--there was another in the
+crowd, who noted the growing favor of le Bourdon with deep disgust.
+This man could hardly be termed a chief, though he possessed a malignant
+power that was often wielded to the discomfiture of those who were. He
+went by the significant appellation of "The Weasel," a sobriquet that
+had been bestowed on him for some supposed resemblance to the little
+pilfering, prowling quadruped after which he was thus named. In person,
+and in physical qualities generally, this individual was mean and
+ill-favored; and squalid habits contributed to render him even less
+attractive than he might otherwise have been. He was, moreover,
+particularly addicted to intemperance; lying, wallowing like a hog,
+for days at a time, whenever his tribe received any of the ample
+contribution of fire-water, which it was then more the custom than it is
+to-day, to send among the aborigines. A warrior of no renown, a hunter
+so indifferent as to compel his squaw and pappooses often to beg for
+food in strange lodges, of mean presence, and a drunkard, it may seem
+extraordinary that the Weasel should possess any influence amid so many
+chiefs renowned for courage, wisdom, deeds in arms, on the hunt, and for
+services around the council-fire. It was all due to his tongue. Ungque,
+or the Weasel, was eloquent in a high degree--possessing that variety of
+his art which most addresses itself to the passions; and, strange as
+it may seem, men are oftener and more easily led by those who do little
+else than promise, than by those who actually perform. A lying and
+fluent tongue becomes a power of itself, with the masses; subverting
+reason, looking down justice, brow-beating truth, and otherwise placing
+the wrong before the right. This quality the Weasel possessed in a
+high degree, and was ever willing to use, on occasions that seemed most
+likely to defeat the wishes of those he hated. Among the last was Peter,
+whose known ascendancy in his own particular tribe had been a source
+of great envy and uneasiness to this Indian. He had struggled hard to
+resist it, and had even dared to speak in favor of the pale-faces,
+and in opposition to the plan of cutting them all off, purely with a
+disposition to oppose this mysterious stranger. It had been in vain,
+however; the current running the other way, and the fiery eloquence of
+Peter proving too strong even for him. Now, to his surprise, from a few
+words dropped casually, this man ascertained that their greatest leader
+was disposed so far to relent, as not to destroy ALL the pale-faces in
+his power. Whom, and how many he meant to spare, Ungque could not tell;
+but his quick, practised discernment detected the general disposition,
+and his ruthless tendency to oppose, caused him to cast about for the
+means of resisting this sudden inclination to show mercy. With the
+Weasel, the moving principle was ever that of the demagogue; it was to
+flatter the mass that he might lead it; and he had an innate hostility
+to whatever was frank, manly, and noble.
+
+The time had now come when the Indians wished to be alone. At this
+council it was their intention to come to an important decision;
+and even the "young men," unless chiefs, were to be merely distant
+spectators. Peter sent for le Bourdon, accordingly, and communicated his
+wish that all the whites would return to the castle, whither he promised
+to join them about the setting of the sun, or early the succeeding day.
+
+"One of you, you know--dat my wigwam," said the grim chief, smiling on
+Margery with a friendly eye, and shaking hands with the bee-hunter, who
+thought his manner less constrained than on former similar occasions.
+"Get good supper for ole Injin, young squaw; dat juss what squaw good
+for."
+
+Margery laughingly promised to remember his injunction, and went her
+way, closely attended by her lover. The corporal followed, armed to the
+teeth, and keeping at just such a distance from the young people,
+as might enable them to converse without being overheard. As for the
+missionary, he was detained a moment by Peter, the others moving slowly,
+in order to permit him to come up, ere they had gone their first mile.
+Of course, the mysterious chief had not detained Parson Amen without a
+motive.
+
+"My brother has told me many curious things," said Peter, when
+alone with the missionary, and speaking now in the language of the
+Ojebways--"many very curious things. I like to listen to them. Once he
+told me how the pale-face young men take their squaws."
+
+"I remember to have told you this. We ask the Great Spirit to bless our
+marriages, and the ceremony is commonly performed by a priest. This is
+our practice, Peter; though not necessary, I think it good."
+
+"Yes; good alway for pale-face to do pale-face fashion, and for Injin
+to do Injin fashion. Don't want medicine-man to get red-skin squaw. Open
+wigwam door, and she come in. Dat 'nough. If she don't wish to come
+in, can't make her. Squaw go to warrior she likes; warrior ask squaw
+he likes. But it is best for pale-face to take his wife in pale-face
+fashion. Does not my brother see a young man of his people, and a young
+maiden, that he had better bring together and bless?"
+
+"You must mean Bourdon and Margery," answered the missionary, in
+English, after a moment's reflection. "The idea is a new one to me;
+for my mind has been much occuoccupied of late, with other and more
+important matters; though I now plainly see what you mean!"
+
+"That flower of the Openings would soon fade, if the young bee-hunter
+should leave it alone on the prairies. This is the will of the Great
+Spirit. He puts it into the minds of the young squaws to see all things
+well that the hunters of their fancy do. Why he has made the young with
+this kindness for each other, perhaps my brother knows. He is wise, and
+has books. The poor Injins have none. They can see only with the eyes
+they got from Injins, like themselves. But one thing they know. What the
+Great Spirit has commanded, is good. Injins can't make it any better.
+They can do it harm, but they can do it no good. Let my brother bless
+the couple that the Manitou has brought together."
+
+"I believe I understand you. Peter, and will think of this. And now that
+I must leave you for a little while, let me beg you to think of this
+matter of the origin of your tribes, candidly, and with care. Everything
+depends on your people's not mistaking the truth, in this great matter.
+It is as necessary for a nation to know its duties, as for a single man.
+Promise me to think of this, Peter."
+
+"My brother's words have come into my ears--they are good," returned
+the Indian, courteously. "We will think of them at the council, if my
+brother will bless his young man and young maiden, according to the law
+of his people."
+
+"I will promise to do this, Peter; or to urge Bourdon and Margery to do
+it, if you will promise to speak to-day, in council, of the history of
+your forefathers, and to take into consideration, once more, the great
+question of your being Hebrews."
+
+"I will speak as my brother wishes--let him do as I wish. Let him tell
+me that I can say to the chiefs before the sun has fallen the length
+of my arm, that the young pale-face bee-hunter has taken the young
+pale-face squaw into his wigwam."
+
+"I do not understand your motive, Peter; but that which you ask is wise,
+and according to God's laws, and it shall be done. Fare you well, then,
+for a season. When we again meet, Bourdon and Margery shall be one, if
+my persuasions can prevail, and you will have pressed this matter of the
+lost tribes, again, home to your people. Fare you well, Peter; fare you
+well."
+
+They separated; the Indian with a cold smile of courtesy, but with his
+ruthless intentions as respected the missionary in no degree changed.
+Boden and Margery alone were exempt from vengeance, according to his
+present designs. An unaccountable gentleness of feeling governed him, as
+connected with the girl; while superstition, and the dread of an unknown
+power, had its full influence on his determination to spare her lover.
+There might be some faint ray of human feeling glimmering among the
+fierce fires that so steadily burned in the breast of this savage; but
+they were so much eclipsed by the brighter light that gleamed around
+them, as to be barely perceptible, even to himself. The result of all
+these passions was, a determination in Peter to spare those whom he had
+advised the missionary to unite--making that union a mysterious argument
+in favor of Margery--and to sacrifice all the rest. The red American
+is so much accustomed to this species of ruthless proceeding, that the
+anguish he might occasion the very beings to whom he now wished to be
+merciful, gave the stern chief very little concern. Leaving the Indians
+in the exclusive possession of Prairie Round, we will return to the rest
+of the party.
+
+The missionary hastened after his friends as fast as he could go. Boden
+and Margery had much to say to each other in that walk, which had a
+great deal about it to bring their thoughts within the circle of their
+own existence. As has been said, the fire had run through that region
+late, and the grasses were still young, offering but little impediment
+to their movements. As the day was now near its heat, le Bourdon led his
+spirited, but gentle companion, through the groves, where they had the
+benefit of a most delicious shade, a relief that was now getting to be
+very grateful. Twice had they stopped to drink at cool, clear springs,
+in which the water seemed to vie with the air in transparency. As this
+is not the general character of the water of that region, though marked
+exceptions exist, Margery insisted that the water was eastern and not
+western water.
+
+"Why do we always think the things we had in childhood better than
+those we enjoy afterward?" asked Margery, after making one of these
+comparisons, somewhat to the disadvantage of the part of the country in
+which she then was. "I can scarce ever think of home--what I call home,
+and which was so long a home to me--without shedding tears. Nothing here
+seems as good of its kind as what I have left behind me. Do you have the
+same longings for Pennsylvania that I feel for the sea-coast and for the
+rocks about Quincy?"
+
+"Sometimes. When I have been quite alone for two or three months, I have
+fancied that an apple, or a potato, or even a glass of cider that came
+from the spot where I was born, would be sweeter than all the honey bees
+ever gathered in Michigan."
+
+"To me it has always seemed strange, Bourdon, that one of your kind
+feelings should ever wish to live alone, at all; yet I have heard you
+say that a love of solitude first drew you to your trade."
+
+"It is these strong cases which get a man under, as it might be, and
+almost alter his nature. One man will pass his days in hunting deer;
+another in catching fish; my taste has been for the bees, and for such
+chances with other creatures as may offer. What between hunting, and
+hiving, and getting the honey to market, I have very little time to long
+for company. But my taste is altering, Margery; HAS altered."
+
+The girl blushed, but she also smiled, and, moreover, she looked
+pleased.
+
+"I am afraid that you are not as much altered as you think," she
+answered, laughingly, however. "It may seem so now; but when you come to
+LIVE in the settlements again, you will get tired of crowds."
+
+"Then I will come with you, Margery, into these Openings, and we can
+live TOGETHER here, surely, as well, or far better than I can live here
+ALONE. You and Gershom's wife have spoiled my housekeeping. I really did
+not know, until you came up here, how much a woman can do in a chiente.
+
+"Why, Bourdon, you have lived long enough in the settlements to know
+THAT!"
+
+"That is true; but I look upon the settlements as one thing, and on the
+Openings as another. What will do there isn't needed here; and what
+will do here won't answer there. But these last few days have so changed
+Castle Meal, that I hardly know it myself."
+
+"Perhaps the change is for the worse, and you wish it undone, Bourdon,"
+observed the girl, in the longing she had to hear an assurance to the
+contrary, at the very moment she felt certain that assurance would be
+given.
+
+"No, no, Margery. Woman has taken possession of my cabin, and woman
+shall now always command there, unless you alter your mind, and refuse
+to have me. I shall speak to the missionary to marry us, as soon as I
+can get him alone. His mind is running so much on the Jews, that he has
+hardly a moment left for us Christians."
+
+The color on Margery's cheek was not lessened by this declaration;
+though, to admit the truth, she looked none the less pleased. She was a
+warm-hearted and generous girl, and sometimes hesitated about separating
+herself and her fortunes from those of Gershom and Dorothy; but the
+bee-hunter had persuaded her this would be unnecessary, though she did
+accept him for a husband. The point had been settled between them on
+previous occasions, and much conversation had already passed, in that
+very walk, which was confined to that interesting subject. But Margery
+was not now disposed to say more, and she adroitly improved the hint
+thrown out by Boden, to change the discourse.
+
+"It is the strangest notion I ever heard of," she cried, laughing, "to
+believe Injins to be Jews!"
+
+"He tells me he is by no means the first who has fancied it. Many
+writers have said as much before him, and all he claims is, to have been
+among them, and to have seen these Hebrews with his own eyes. But here
+he comes, and can answer for himself."
+
+Just as this was said, Parson Amen joined the party, Corporal Flint
+closing to the front, as delicacy no longer required him to act as a
+rear-guard. The good missionary came up a little heated; and, in order
+that he might have time to cool himself, the rate of movement was
+slightly reduced. In the mean time the conversation did not the less
+proceed.
+
+"We were talking of the lost tribes," said Margery, half smiling as she
+spoke, "and of your idea, Mr. Amen, that these Injins are Jews. It seems
+strange to me that they should have lost so much of their ancient ways,
+and notions, and appearances, if they are really the people you think."
+
+"Lost! It is rather wonderful that, after the lapse of two thousand
+years and more, so much should remain. Whichever way I look, signs of
+these people's origin beset me. You have read your Bible, Margery--which
+I am sorry to say all on this frontier have not--but you have read your
+Bible, and one can make an allusion to you with some satisfaction. Now,
+let me ask you if you remember such a thing as the scape-goat of the
+ancient Jews. It is to be found in Leviticus, and is one of those
+mysterious customs with which that extraordinary book is full."
+
+"Leviticus is a book I never read but once, for we do not read it in our
+New England schools. But I do remember that the Jews were commanded to
+let one of two goats go, from which practice it has, I believe, been
+called a scape-goat."
+
+"Well," said le Bourdon, simply, "what a thing is 'l'arnin'!' Now, this
+is all news to me, though I have heard of 'scape-goats,' and TALKED of
+'scape-goats' a thousand times! There's a meanin' to everything, I find;
+and I do not look upon this idea of the lost tribes as half as strange
+as I did before I l'arnt this!"
+
+Margery had not fallen in love with the bee-hunter for his biblical
+knowledge, else might her greater information have received a rude shock
+by this mark of simplicity; but instead of dwelling on this proof of le
+Bourdon's want of "schooling," her active mind was more disposed to push
+the allusion to scape-goats to some useful conclusion.
+
+"And what of the goat, Mr. Amen?" she asked; "and how can it belong to
+anything here?"
+
+"Why were all those goats turned into the woods and deserts, in the
+olden time, Margery? Doubtless to provide food for the ten tribes, when
+these should be driven forth by conquerors and hard task-masters. Time,
+and climate, and a difference of food, has altered them, as they have
+changed the Jews themselves, though they still retain the cleft hoof,
+the horns, the habits, and the general characteristics of the goats of
+Arabia. Yes; naturalists will find in the end, that the varieties of the
+deer of this continent, particularly the antelope, are nothing but
+the scape-goats of the ancient world, altered and perhaps improved by
+circumstances."
+
+As this was much the highest flight the good missionary had ever yet
+taken, not trifling was the astonishment of his young friends thereat.
+Touching the Jews, le Bourdon did not pretend to, or in fact did not
+possess much knowledge; but when the question was reduced down to one
+of venison, or bears' meat, or bisons' humps, with the exception of the
+professed hunters and trappers, few knew more about them all than he did
+himself. That the deer, or even the antelopes of America ever had been
+goats, he did not believe; nor was he at all backward in letting his
+dissent to such a theory be known.
+
+"I'm sorry, Parson Amen, you've brought in the deer," he cried. "Had
+you stuck to the Jews, I might have believed all that you fancy, in
+this business; but the deer have spoiled all. As for scape-goats, since
+Margery seems to agree with you, I suppose you are right about THEM
+though my notion of such creatures has been to keep clear of them,
+instead of following them up, as you seem to think these Hebrews have
+done. But if you are no nearer right in your doctrine about the Injins
+than you are about their game, you'll have to change your religion."
+
+"Do not think that my religion depends on any thread so slight, Bourdon.
+A man may be mistaken in interpreting prophecy, and still be a devout
+Christian. There are more reasons than you may at first suppose, for
+believing in this theory of the gradual change of the goat into the
+deer, and especially into the antelope. We do not any of us believe that
+Noah had with him, in the ark, all the animals that are now to be found,
+but merely the parent-stems, in each particular case, which would be
+reducing the number many fold. If all men came from Adam, Bourdon, why
+could not all deer come from goats?"
+
+"Why this matter about men has a good deal puzzled me, Parson, and I
+hardly know what answer to give. Still, men are men, wherever you find
+them. They may be lighter or darker, taller or shorter, with hair or
+wool, and yet you can see they are MEN. Perhaps food, and climate, and
+manner of living, may have made all the changes we see in them; but
+Lord, Parson, a goat has a beard!"
+
+"What has become of the thousands of scape-goats that the ancient
+Hebrews must have turned loose in the wilderness? Answer me that,
+Bourdon?"
+
+"You might as well ask me, sir, what has become of the thousands of
+Hebrews who turned them loose. I suppose all must be dead a thousand
+years ago. Scape-goats are creatures that even Injins would not like."
+
+"All this is a great mystery, Bourdon--a much greater mystery than our
+friend Peter, whom you have so often said was a man so unaccountable. By
+the way, he has given me a charge to perform an office between you and
+Margery, that I had almost forgotten. From what he said to me, I rather
+think it may have some connection with our safety. We have enemies among
+these savages, I feel very certain; though I believe we have also warm
+friends."
+
+"But what have you in charge that has anything to do with Bourdon
+and me?" asked the wondering Margery, who was quick to observe the
+connection, though utterly at a loss to comprehend it.
+
+The missionary now called a halt, and finding convenient seats, he
+gradually opened the subject with which he had been charged by Peter to
+his companions. The reader is probably prepared to learn that there was
+no longer any reserve between le Bourdon and Margery on the subject of
+their future marriage. The young man had already pressed an immediate
+union, as the wisest and safest course to be pursued. Although the
+savage American is little addicted to abusing his power over female
+captives, and seldom takes into his lodge an unwilling squaw, the
+bee-hunter had experienced a good deal of uneasiness on the score of
+what might befall his betrothed. Margery was sufficiently beautiful
+to attract attention, even in a town; and more than one fierce-looking
+warrior had betrayed his admiration that very day, though it was in a
+very Indian-like fashion. Rhapsody, and gallant speeches, and sonnets,
+form no part of Indian courtship; but the language of admiration is
+so very universal, through the eyes, that it is sufficiently easy of
+comprehension. It was possible that some chief, whose band was too
+formidable to be opposed, might take it into his head to wish to see a
+pale-face squaw in his wigwam; and, while it was not usual to do much
+violence to a female's inclinations on such occasions, it was not common
+to offer much opposition to those of a powerful warrior. The married
+tie, if it could be said to exist at all, however, was much respected;
+and it was far less likely that Margery, a wife, would thus be
+appropriated, than Margery, unmarried. It is true, cases of unscrupulous
+exercise of power are to be found among Indians, as well as among
+civilized men, but they are rare, and usually are much condemned.
+
+The bee-hunter, consequently, was well disposed to second Peter's
+project. As for Margery herself, she had half yielded all her objections
+to her lover's unaided arguments, and was partly conquered before this
+reinforcement was brought into the field against her. Peter's motive was
+much canvassed, no one of them all being able to penetrate it. Boden,
+however, had his private opinion on the subject, nor was it so very much
+out of the way. He fancied that the mysterious chief was well disposed
+to Margery, and wished to put her as far as possible beyond the chances
+of an Indian wigwam; marriage being the step of all others most likely
+to afford her this protection. Now this was not exactly true, but it was
+right enough in the main. Peter's aim was to save the life of the girl;
+her gentle attractions, and kind attentions to himself having wrought
+this much in her favor; and he believed no means of doing so as
+certain as forming a close connection for her with the great
+medicine-bee-hunter. Judging of them by himself, he did not think the
+Indians would dare to include so great a conjurer in their schemes
+of vengeance, and was willing himself that le Bourdon should escape,
+provided Margery could go free and unharmed with him. As for the
+bee-hunter's powers, he had many misgivings; they might be dangerous to
+the red men, and they might not. On this subject, he was in the painful
+doubts of ignorance, and had the wide area of conjecture open before his
+mind. He saw; but it was "as in a glass, darkly."
+
+Margery was disposed to delay the ceremony, at least until her brother
+and sister might be present. But to this le Bourdon himself was not
+much inclined. It had struck him that Gershom was opposed to an early
+marriage, most probably because he fancied himself more secure of
+the bee-hunter's ingenious and important aid in getting back to the
+settlements, so long as this strong inducement existed to cling to
+himself, than if he should release his own hold of Margery, by giving
+her at once to her lover. Right or wrong, such was the impression taken
+up by le Bourdon, and he was glad when the missionary urged his request
+to be permitted to pronounce the nuptial benediction on the spot.
+
+Little ceremony is generally used in an American marriage. In a vast
+many cases no clergyman is employed at all; and where there is, most
+of the sects have no ring, no giving away, nor any of those observances
+which were practised in the churches of old. There existed no
+impediment, therefore; and after a decent interval spent in persuasions,
+Margery consented to plight her vows to the man of her heart before they
+left the spot. She would fain have had Dorothy present, for woman loves
+to lean on her own sex on such occasions, but submitted to the necessity
+of proceeding at once, as the bee-hunter and the missionary chose to
+term it.
+
+A better altar could not have been selected in all that vast region. It
+was one of nature's own erecting; and le Bourdon and his pretty bride
+placed themselves before it, with feelings suited to the solemnity of
+the occasion. The good missionary stood within the shade of a burr oak
+in the centre of those park-like Openings, every object looking fresh,
+and smiling, and beautiful. The sward was gieen, and short as that of
+a well-tended lawn; the flowers were, like the bride herself, soft,
+modest, and sweet; while charming rural vistas stretched through the
+trees, much as if art had been summoned in aid of the great mistress who
+had designed the landscape. When the parties knelt in prayer--which all
+present did, not excepting the worthy corporal--it was on the verdant
+ground, with first the branches of the trees, and then the deep,
+fathomless vault of heaven for a canopy. In this manner was the marriage
+benediction pronounced on the bee-hunter and Margery Waring, in the
+venerable Oak Openings. No gothic structure, with its fretted aisles and
+clustered columns, could have been onehalf as appropriate for the union
+of such a couple.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+     No shrift the gloomy savage brooks,
+     As scowling on the priest he looks;
+     Cowesass--cowesass--tawkich wessasseen!
+     Let my father look on Bornazeen--
+     My father's heart is the heart of a squaw,
+     But mine is so hard that it does not thaw,
+                                    --WHITTIER.
+
+
+Leaving the newly-married couple to pursue their way homeward, it is now
+our province to return to Prairie Round. One accustomed to such
+scenes would easily have detected the signs of divided opinions and of
+agitating doubts among the chiefs, though nothing like contention or
+dispute had yet manifested itself. Peter's control was still in the
+ascendant, and he had neglected none of his usual means of securing
+influence. Perhaps he labored so much the harder, from the circumstance
+that he now found himself so situated, as to be compelled to undo much
+that he had previously done.
+
+On the other hand, Ungque appeared to have no particular cause of
+concern. His manner was as much unoccupied as usual; and to his habit of
+referring all his influence to sudden and powerful bursts of eloquence,
+if design of any sort was entertained, he left his success.
+
+We pass over the details of assembling the council. The spot was not
+exactly on the prairie, but in a bit of lovely "Opening" on its margin,
+where the eye could roam over a wide extent of that peculiar natural
+meadow, while the body enjoyed the shades of the wood. The chiefs alone
+were in the circle, while the "braves" and the "young men" generally
+formed a group on the outside; near enough to hear what passed, and to
+profit by it, if so disposed. The pipe was smoked, and all the ordinary
+customs observed, when Bear's Meat arose, the first speaker on that
+momentous occasion.
+
+"Brothers," he said, "this is the great council on Prairie Round to
+which we have been called. We have met before, but not here. This is our
+first meeting here. We have travelled a long path to get here. Some
+of our brethren have travelled farther. They are at Detroit. They went
+there to meet our great Canada father, and to take Yankee scalps. How
+many scalps they have taken I do not know, or I would tell you. It is
+pleasant to me to count Yankee scalps. I would rather count them, than
+count the scalps of red men. There are still a great many left. The
+Yankees are many, and each Yankee has a scalp. There should not be so
+many. When the buffaloes came in the largest droves, our fathers used to
+go out to hunt them in the strongest parties. Their sons should do the
+same. We are the sons of those fathers. They say we look like them, talk
+like them, live like them--we should ACT like them. Let another speak,
+for I have done."
+
+After this brief address, which bore some resemblance to a chairman's
+calling a meeting of civilized men to order, there was more smoking.
+It was fully expected that Peter would next arise, but he did not.
+Perceiving this, and willing to allow time to that great chief to
+arrange his thoughts, Crowsfeather assumed the office of filling the
+gap. He was far more of a warrior than of an orator, and was listened
+to respectfully, but less for what he said, than for what he had done.
+A good deal of Indian boasting, quite naturally, was blended with HIS
+discourse.
+
+"My brother has told you of the Yankee scalps," he commenced. "He says
+they are many. He says there ought to be fewer. He did not remember who
+sat so near him. Perhaps he does not know that there are three less now
+than there were a moon since. Crowsfeather took three at Chicago. Many
+scalps were taken there. The Yankees must be plentier than the buffaloes
+on the great prairies, if they can lose so many scalps often, and send
+forth their warriors. I am a Pottawattamie. My brothers know that tribe.
+It is not a tribe of Jews, but a tribe of Injins. It is a great tribe.
+It never was LOST. It CANNOT be lost. No tribe better knows all the
+paths, and all the best routes to every point where it wishes to go.
+It is foolish to say you can lose a Pottawattamie. A duck would be
+as likely to lose itself as a Pottawattamie. I do not speak for the
+Ottawas: I speak for the Pottawattamies. We are not Jews. We do not wish
+to be Jews; and what we do not wish to be, we will not be. Our father
+who has come so far to tell us that we are not Injins, but Jews, is
+mistaken. I never heard of these Jews before. I do not wish to hear of
+them again. When a man has heard enough, he does not keep his ears
+open willingly. It is then best for the speaker to sit down. The
+Pottawattamies have shut their ears to the great medicine-priest of the
+pale-faces. What he says may be true of other tribes, but it is not true
+of the Pottawatttamies. We are not lost; we are not Jews. I have done."
+
+This speech was received with general favor. The notion that the Indians
+were not Indians, but Jews, was far from being agreeable to those
+who had heard what had been said on the subject; and the opinions of
+Crowsfeather possessed the great advantage of reflecting the common
+sentiment on this interesting subject. When this is the case, a very
+little eloquence or logic goes a great way; and, on the whole, the
+address of the last speaker was somewhat better received than that of
+the first.
+
+It was now confidently believed that Peter would rise. But he did
+not. That mysterious chief was not yet prepared to speak, or he was
+judiciously exciting expectation by keeping back. There were at least
+ten minutes of silent smoking, ere a chief, whose name rendered into
+English was Bough of the Oak, arose, evidently with a desire to help
+the time along. Taking his cue from the success of Crows-feather, he
+followed up the advantage obtained by that chief, assailing the theory
+of the missionary from another quarter.
+
+"I am an Injin," said Bough of the Oak; "my father was an Injin, and my
+mother was the daughter of an Injin. All my fathers were red men,
+and all their sons. Why should I wish to be anything else? I asked my
+brother, the medicine-priest, and he owned that Jews are pale-faces.
+This he should not have owned if he wished the Injins to be Jews. My
+skin is red. The Manitou of my fathers so painted it, and their child
+will not try to wash out the color. Were the color washed out of my
+face, I should be a pale-face! There would not be paint enough to hide
+my shame. No; I was born red, and will die a red man. It is not good to
+have two faces. An Injin is not a snake, to cast his skin. The skin in
+which he was born he keeps. He plays in it when a child; he goes in it
+to his first hunt; the bears and the deer know him by it; he carries it
+with him on the warpath, and his enemies tremble at the sight of it; his
+squaw knows him by that skin when he comes back to his wigwam; and when
+he dies, he is put aside in the same skin in--which he was born. There
+is but one skin, and it has but one color. At first, it is little. The
+pappoose that wears it is little. There is not need of a large skin.
+But it grows with the pappoose, and the biggest warrior finds his skin
+around him. This is because the Great Spirit fitted it to him. Whatever
+the Manitou does is good.
+
+"My brothers have squaws--they have pappooses. When the pappoose is put
+into their arms, do they get the paint-stones, and paint it red? They do
+not. It is not necessary. The Manitou painted it red before it was born.
+How this was done I do not know. I am nothing but a poor Injin, and only
+know what I see. I have seen that the pappooses are red when they are
+born, and that the warriors are red when they die. They are also
+red while living. It is enough. Their fathers could never have been
+pale-faces, or we should find some white spots on their children. There
+are none.
+
+"Crowsfeather has spoken of the Jews as lost. I am not surprised to hear
+it. It seems to me that all pale-faces get lost. They wander from
+their own hunting-grounds into those of other people. It is not so with
+Injins. The Pottawattamie does not kill the deer of the Iowa, nor the
+Ottawa the deer of the Menomenees. Each tribe knows its own game. This
+is because they are not lost. My pale-face father appears to wish us
+well. He has come on a long and weary path to tell us about his Manitou.
+For this I thank him. I thank all who wish to do me good. Them that wish
+to do me harm I strike from behind. It is our Injin custom. I do not
+wish to hurt the medicine-priest, because I think he wishes to do me
+good, and not to do me harm. He has a strange law. It is to do good to
+them that do harm to you. It is not the law of the red men. It is not
+good law. I do not wonder that the tribes which follow such a law get
+lost. They cannot tell their friends from their enemies. They can have
+no people to scalp. What is a warrior if he cannot find someone to
+scalp? No; such a law would make women of the bravest braves in the
+Openings, or on the prairie. It may be a good law for Jews, who get
+lost; but it is a bad law for Injins, who know the paths they travel.
+Let another speak."
+
+This brief profession of faith, on the subject that had been so recently
+broached in the council, seemed to give infinite satisfaction. All
+present evidently preferred being red men, who knew where they were,
+than to be pale-faces who had lost their road. Ignorance of his path is
+a species of disgrace to an American savage, and not a man there would
+have confessed that his particular division of the great human family
+was in that dilemma. The idea that the Yankees were "lost," and had got
+materially astray, was very grateful to most who heard it; and Bough of
+the Oak gained a considerable reputation as an orator, in consequence of
+the lucky hits made on this occasion.
+
+Another long, ruminating pause, and much passing of the pipe of peace
+succeeded. It was near half an hour after the last speaker had resumed
+his seat, ere Peter stood erect. In that long interval expectation had
+time to increase, and curiosity to augment itself. Nothing but a very
+great event could cause this pondering, this deliberation, and this
+unwillingness to begin. When, however, the time did come for the
+mysterious chief to speak, the man of many scalps to open his mouth,
+profound was the attention that prevailed among all present. Even after
+he had arisen, the orator stood silently looking around him, as if the
+throes of his thoughts had to be a little suppressed before he could
+trust his tongue to give them utterance.
+
+"What is the earth?" commenced Peter, in a deep, guttural tone of voice,
+which the death-like stillness rendered audible even to the outermost
+boundaries of the circle of admiring and curious countenances. "It is
+one plain adjoining another; river after river; lake after lake; prairie
+touching prairie; and pleasant woods, that seem to have no limits, all
+given to men to dwell in. It would seem that the Great Spirit parcelled
+out this rich possession into hunting-grounds for all. He colored men
+differently. His dearest children he painted red, which is his own
+color. Them that he loved less he colored less, and they had red only in
+spots. Them he loved least he dipped in a dark dye, and left them black.
+These are the colors of men. If there are more, I have not seen them.
+Some say there are. I shall think so, too, when I see them.
+
+"Brothers, this talk about lost tribes is a foolish talk. We are not
+lost. We know where we are, and we know where the Yankees have come to
+seek us. My brother has well spoken. If any are lost, it is the Yankees.
+The Yankees are Jews; they are lost. The time is near when they will be
+found, and when they will again turn their eyes toward the rising sun.
+They have looked so long toward the setting sun, that they cannot see
+clearly. It is not good to look too long at the same object. The Yankees
+have looked at our hunting-grounds, until their eyes are dim. They see
+the hunting-grounds, but they do not see all the warriors that are in
+them. In time, they will learn to count them.
+
+"Brothers, when the Great Spirit made man, he put him to live on the
+earth. Our traditions do not agree in saying of what he was made.
+Some say it was of clay, and that when his spirit starts for the happy
+hunting-grounds, his body becomes clay again. I do not say that this is
+so, for I do not know. It is not good to say that which we do not
+know to be true. I wish to speak only the truth. This we do know. If a
+warrior die, and we put him in the earth, and come to look for him many
+years afterward, nothing but bones are found. All else is gone. I have
+heard old men say that, in time, even these bones are not to be found.
+It is so with trees; it may be so with men. But it is not so with
+hunting-grounds. They were made to last forever.
+
+"Brothers, you know why we have come together on this prairie. It was
+to count the pale-faces, and to think of the way of making their number
+less. Now is a good time for such a thing. They have dug up the hatchet
+against each other, and when we hear of scalps taken among them, it
+is good for the red men. I do not think our Canada father is more our
+friend than the great Yankee, Uncle Sam. It is true, he gives us more
+powder, and blankets, and tomahawks, and rifles than the Yankee, but it
+is to get us to fight his battles. We will fight his battles. They are
+our battles, too. For this reason we will fight his enemies.
+
+"Brothers, it is time to think of our children. A wise chief once told
+me how many winters it is since a pale-face was first seen among red
+men. It was not a great while ago. Injins are living who have seen
+Injins, whose own fathers saw the first pale-faces. They were few.
+They were like little children, then; but now they are grown to be men.
+Medicine-men are plenty among them, and tell them how to raise children.
+The Injins do not understand this. Small-pox, fire-water, bad hunting,
+and frosts, keep us poor, and keep our children from growing as fast as
+the children of the pale-faces. Brothers, all this has happened within
+the lives of three aged chiefs. One told to another, and he told it to a
+third. Three chiefs have kept that tradition. They have given it to
+me. I have cut notches on this stick (holding up a piece of ash, neatly
+trimmed, as a record) for the winters they told me, and every winter
+since I have cut one more. See; there are not many notches. Some of our
+people say that the pale-faces are already plentier than leaves on the
+trees. I do not believe this. These notches tell us differently. It is
+true the pale-faces grow fast, and have many children, and small-pox
+does not kill many of them, and their wars are few; but look at this
+stick. Could a canoe-full of men become as many as they say, in so few
+winters? No; it is not so. The stories we have heard are not true. A
+crooked tongue first told them. We are strong enough still to drive
+these strangers into the great salt lake, and get back all our
+hunting-grounds. This is what I wish to have done.
+
+"Brothers, I have taken many scalps. This stick will tell the number."
+Here one of those terrible gleams of ferocity to which we have before
+alluded, passed athwart the dark countenance of the speaker, causing
+all present to feel a deeper sympathy in the thoughts he would express.
+"There are many. Every one has come from the head of a pale-face. It is
+now twenty winters since I took the scalp of a red man. I shall never
+take another. We want all of our own warriors, to drive back the
+strangers.
+
+"Brothers, some Injins tell us of different tribes. They talk about
+distant tribes as strangers. I tell you we are all children of the same
+father. All our skins are red. I see no difference between an Ojebway,
+and a Sac, or a Sioux. I love even a Cherokee." Here very decided signs
+of dissatisfaction were manifested by several of the listeners; parties
+of the tribes of the great lakes having actually marched as far as
+the Gulf of Mexico to make war on the Indians of that region, who were
+generally hated by them with the most intense hatred. "He has the blood
+of our fathers in him. We are brothers, and should live together as
+brothers. If we want scalps, the pale-faces have plenty. It is sweet to
+take the scalp of a pale-face. I know it. My hand has done it often,
+and will do it again. If every Injin had taken as many scalps as I have
+taken, few of these strangers would now remain.
+
+"Brothers, one thing more I have to say. I wish to hear others, and will
+not tell all I know this time. One thing more I have to say, and I
+now say it. I have told you that we must take the scalps of all the
+pale-faces who are now near us. I thought there would have been more,
+but the rest do not come. Perhaps they are frightened. There are only
+six. Six scalps are not many. I am sorry they are so few. But we can go
+where there will be more. One of these six is a medicine-man. I do not
+know what to think. It may be good to take his scalp. It may be bad.
+Medicine-men have great power. You have seen what this bee-hunter can
+do. He knows how to talk with bees. Them little insects can fly into
+small places, and see things that Injins cannot see. The Great Spirit
+made them so. When we get back all the land, we shall get the bees with
+it, and may then hold a council to say what it is best to do with them.
+Until we know more, I do not wish to touch the scalp of that bee-hunter.
+It may do us great harm. I knew a medicine-man of the pale-faces to lose
+his scalp, and small-pox took off half the band that made him prisoner
+and killed him. It is not good to meddle with medicine-men. A few days
+ago, and I wanted this young man's scalp, very much. Now, I do not want
+it. It may do us harm to touch it. I wish to let him go, and to take his
+squaw with him. The rest we can scalp."
+
+Peter cunningly made no allusion to Margery, until just before he
+resumed his seat, though now deeply interested in her safety. As for le
+Bourdon, so profound was the impression he had made that morning, that
+few of the chiefs were surprised at the exemption proposed in his favor.
+The superstitious dread of witchcraft is very general among the American
+savages; and it certainly did seem to be hazardous to plot the death
+of a man, who had even the bees that were humming on all sides of them
+under his control. He might at that very moment be acquainted with all
+that was passing; and several of the grim-looking and veteran warriors
+who sat in the circle, and who appeared to be men able and willing to
+encounter aught human, did not fail to remember the probability of a
+medicine-man's knowing who were his friends, and who his enemies.
+
+When Peter sat down, there was but one man in the circle of chiefs who
+was resolved to oppose his design of placing Boden and Margery without
+the pale of the condemned. Several were undecided, scarce knowing what
+to think of so sudden and strange a proposition, but could not be said
+to have absolutely adhered to the original scheme of cutting off all.
+The exception was Ungque. This man--a chief by a sort of sufferance,
+rather than as a right--was deadly hostile to Peter's influence, as has
+been said, and was inclined to oppose all his plans, though compelled by
+policy to be exceedingly cautious how he did it. Here, however, was an
+excellent opportunity to strike a blow, and he was determined not to
+neglect it. Still, so wily was this Indian, so much accustomed to put a
+restraint on his passions and wishes, that he did not immediately arise,
+with the impetuous ardor of frank impulses, to make his reply, but
+awaited his time.
+
+An Indian is but a man, after all, and is liable to his weaknesses,
+notwithstanding the self-command he obtains by severe drilling. Bough of
+the Oak was to supply a proof of this truth. He had been so unexpectedly
+successful in his late attempt at eloquence, that it was not easy to
+keep him off his feet, now that another good occasion to exhibit his
+powers offered. He was accordingly the next to speak.
+
+"My brothers," said Bough of the Oak, "I am named after a tree. You all
+know that tree. It is not good for bows or arrows; it is not good for
+canoes; it does not make the best fire, though it will burn, and is hot
+when well lighted. There are many things for which the tree after which
+I am named is not good. It is not good to eat. It has no sap that Injins
+can drink, like the maple. It does not make good brooms. But it has
+branches like other trees, and they are tough. Tough branches are good.
+The boughs of the oak will not bend, like the boughs of the willow, or
+the boughs of the ash, or the boughs of the hickory.
+
+"Brothers, I am a bough of the oak. I do not like to bend. When my mind
+is made up, I wish to keep it where it was first put. My mind has been
+made up to take the scalps of ALL the pale-faces who are now in the
+Openings. I do not want to change it. My mind can break, but it can not
+bend. It is tough."
+
+Having uttered this brief but sententious account of his view of the
+matter at issue, the chief resumed his seat, reasonably well satisfied
+with this, his second attempt to be eloquent that day. His success
+this time was not as unequivocal as on the former occasion, but it
+was respectable. Several of the chiefs saw a reasonable, if not a very
+logical analogy, between a man's name and his mind; and to them it
+appeared a tolerably fair inference that a man should act up to his
+name. If his name was tough, he ought to be tough, too. In this it does
+not strike us that they argued very differently from civilized beings,
+who are only too apt to do that which their better judgments really
+condemn, because they think they are acting "in character," as it is
+termed.
+
+Ungque was both surprised and delighted with this unexpected support
+from Bough of the Oak. He knew enough of human nature to understand
+that a new-born ambition, that of talking against the great, mysterious
+chief, Peter, was at the bottom of this unexpected opposition; but
+with this he was pleased, rather than otherwise. An opposition that
+is founded in reason, may always be reasoned down, if reasons exist
+therefor; but an opposition that has its rise in any of the passions,
+is usually somewhat stubborn. All this the mean-looking chief, or the
+Weasel, understood perfectly, and appreciated highly. He thought the
+moment favorable, and was disposed to "strike while the iron was hot."
+Rising after a decent interval had elapsed, this wily Indian looked
+about him, as if awed by the presence in which he stood, and doubtful
+whether he could venture to utter his thoughts before so many wise
+chiefs. Having made an impression by this air of diffidence, he
+commenced his harangue.
+
+"I am called the Weasel," he said, modestly. "My name is not taken from
+the mightiest tree of the forest, like that of my brother; it is taken
+from a sort of rat--an animal that lives by its wits. I am well named.
+When my tribe gave me that name, it was just. All Injins have not names.
+My great brother, who told us once that we ought to take the scalp of
+every white man, but WHO now tells us that we ought not to take the
+scalp of every white man, has no name. He is called Peter, by the
+pale-faces. It is a good name. But it is a pale-face name. I wish we
+knew the real name of my brother. We do not know his nation or his
+tribe. Some say he is an Ottawa, some an Iowa, some even think him a
+Sioux. I have heard he was a Delaware, from toward the rising sun.
+Some, but they must be Injins with forked tongues, think and say he is
+a Cherokee! I do not believe this. It is a lie. It is said to do my
+brother harm. Wicked Injins will say such things. But we do not mind
+what THEY say. It is not necessary.
+
+"My brothers, I wish we knew the tribe of this great chief, who tells
+us to take scalps, and then tells us not to take scalps. Then we might
+understand why he has told us two stories. I believe all he says, but I
+should like to know WHY I believe it. It is good to know why we believe
+things. I have heard what my brother has said about letting this
+bee-hunter go to his own people, but I do not know why he believes this
+is best. It is because I am a poor Injin, perhaps; and because I am
+called the Weasel. I am an animal that creeps through small holes. That
+is my nature. The bison jumps through open prairies, and a horse is
+wanted to catch him. It is not so with the weasel; he creeps through
+small holes. But he always looks where he goes.
+
+"The unknown chief, who belongs to no tribe, talks of this bee-hunter's
+squaw. He is afraid of so great a medicine-man, and wishes him to go,
+and take all in his wigwam with him. He has no squaw. There is a young
+squaw in his lodge, but she is not HIS squaw. There is no need of
+letting her go, on his account. If we take her scalp, he cannot hurt us.
+In that, my brother is wrong. The bees have buzzed too near his ears.
+Weasels can hear, as well as other animals; and I have heard that this
+young squaw is not this bee-hunter's squaw.
+
+"If Injins are to take the scalps of all the pale-faces, why should we
+not begin with these who are in our hands? When the knife is ready, and
+the head is ready, nothing but the hand is wanting. Plenty of hands are
+ready, too; and it does not seem good to the eyes of a poor, miserable
+weasel, who has to creep through very small holes to catch his game, to
+let that game go when it is taken. If my great brother, who has told us
+not to scalp this bee-hunter and her he calls his squaw, will tell us
+the name of his tribe, I shall be glad. I am an ignorant Injin, and like
+to learn all I can; I wish to learn that. Perhaps it will help us to
+understand why he gave one counsel yesterday, and another to-day. There
+is a reason for it. I wish to know what it is."
+
+Ungque now slowly seated himself. He had spoken with great moderation,
+as to manner; and with such an air of humility as one of our own
+demagogues is apt to assume, when he tells the people of their virtues,
+and seems to lament the whole time that he, himself, was one of the
+meanest of the great human family. Peter saw, at once, that he had
+a cunning competitor, and had a little difficulty in suppressing
+all exhibition of the fiery indignation he actually felt, at meeting
+opposition in such a quarter. Peter was artful, and practised in all
+the wiles of managing men, but he submitted to use his means to attain a
+great end. The virtual extinction of the white race was his object, and
+in order to effect it, there was little he would have hesitated to do.
+Now, however, when for the first time in many years a glimmering of
+human feeling was shining on the darkness of his mind, he found himself
+unexpectedly opposed by one of those whom he had formerly found so
+difficult to persuade into his own dire plans! Had that one been a chief
+of any renown, the circumstances would have been more tolerable; but
+here was a man presuming to raise his voice against him, who, so far as
+he knew anything of his past career, had not a single claim to open his
+mouth in such a council. With a volcano raging within, that such a state
+of things would be likely to kindle in the breast of a savage who had
+been for years a successful and nearly unopposed leader, the mysterious
+chief rose to reply.
+
+"My brother says he is a weasel," observed Peter, looking round at the
+circle of interested and grave countenances by which he was surrounded.
+"That is a very small animal. It creeps through very small holes, but
+not to do good. It is good for nothing. When it goes through a small
+hole, it is not to do the Injins a service, but for its own purposes. I
+do not like weasels.
+
+"My brother is not afraid of a bee-hunter. Can HE tell us what a bee
+whispers? If he can, I wish he would tell us. Let him show our young men
+where there is more honey--where they can find bear's meat for another
+feast--where they can find warriors hid in the woods.
+
+"My brother says the bee-hunter has no squaw. How does he know this? Has
+he lived in the lodge with them--paddled in the same canoe--eat of
+the same venison? A weasel is very small. It might steal into the
+bee-hunter's lodge, and see what is there, what is doing, what is eaten,
+who is his squaw, and who is not--has this weasel ever done so? I never
+saw him there.
+
+"Brothers, the Great Spirit has his own way of doing things. He does not
+stop to listen to weasels. He knows there are such animals--there are
+snakes, and toads, and skunks. The Great Spirit knows them all, but he
+does not mind them. He is wise, and hearkens only to his own mind. So
+should it be with a council of great chiefs. It should listen to its own
+mind. That is wisdom. To listen to the mind of a weasel is folly.
+
+"Brothers, you have been told that this weasel does not know the tribe
+of which I am born. Why should you know it? Injins once were foolish.
+While the pale-faces were getting one hunting-ground after another from
+them, they dug up the hatchet against their own friends. They took each
+other's scalps. Injin hated Injin--tribe hated tribe. I am of no tribe,
+and no one can hate me for my people. You see my skin. It is red. That
+is enough. I scalp, and smoke, and talk, and go on weary paths for all
+Injins, and not for any tribe. I am without a tribe. Some call me the
+Tribeless. It is better to bear that name, than to be called a weasel. I
+have done."
+
+Peter had so much success by this argumentum ad hominem, that most
+present fancied that the weasel would creep through some hole, and
+disappear. Not so, however, with Ungque. He was a demagogue, after an
+Indian fashion; and this is a class of men that ever "make capital" of
+abuses, as we Americans say, in our money-getting habits. Instead of
+being frightened off the ground, he arose to answer as promptly as if a
+practised debater, though with an air of humility so profound, that no
+one could take offence at his presumption.
+
+"The unknown chief has answered," he said, "I am glad. I love to hear
+his words. My ears are always open when he speaks, and my mind is
+stronger. I now see that it is good he should not have a tribe. He may
+be a Cherokee, and then our warriors would wish him ill." This was a
+home-thrust, most artfully concealed; a Cherokee being the Indian of all
+others the most hated by the chiefs present;--the Carthaginians of those
+western Romans. "It is better he should not have a tribe, than be a
+Cherokee. He might better be a weasel.
+
+"Brothers, we have been told to kill ALL the pale-faces. I like that
+advice. The land cannot have two owners. If a pale-face owns it, an
+Injin cannot. If an Injin owns it, a pale-face cannot. But the chief
+without a tribe tells us not to kill all. He tells us to kill all but
+the bee-hunter and his squaw. He thinks this bee-hunter is a medicine
+bee-hunter, and may do us Injins great harm. He wishes to let him go.
+
+"Brothers, this is not my way of thinking. It is better to kill the
+bee-hunter and his squaw while we can, that there may be no more such
+medicine bee-hunters to frighten us Injins. If one bee-hunter can do so
+much harm, what would a tribe of bee-hunters do? I do not want to see
+any more. It is a dangerous thing to know how to talk with bees. It
+is best that no one should have that power. I would rather never taste
+honey again, than live among pale-faces that can talk with bees.
+
+"Brothers, it is not enough that the pale-faces know so much more than
+the red men, but they must get the bees to tell them where to find
+honey, to find bears, to find warriors. No; let us take the scalp of the
+bee-talker, and of his squaw, that there may never be such a medicine
+again. I have spoken."
+
+Peter did not rise again. He felt that his dignity was involved in
+maintaining silence. Various chiefs now uttered their opinions, in
+brief, sententious language. For the first time since he began to preach
+his crusade, the current was setting against the mysterious chief. The
+Weasel said no more, but the hints he had thrown out were improved on
+by others. It is with savages as with civilized men; a torrent must find
+vent. Peter had the sagacity to see that by attempting further to save
+le Bourdon and Margery, he should only endanger his own ascendancy,
+without effecting his purpose. Here he completely overlaid the art of
+Ungque, turning his own defeat into an advantage. After the matter had
+been discussed for fully an hour, and this mysterious chief perceived
+that it was useless to adhere to his new resolution, he gave it up
+with as much tact as the sagacious Wellington himself could manifest
+in yielding Catholic emancipation, or parliamentary reform; or, just in
+season to preserve an appearance of floating in the current, and with a
+grace that disarmed his opponents.
+
+"Brothers," said Peter, by way of closing the debate, "I have not seen
+straight. Fog sometimes gets before the eyes, and we cannot see. I have
+been in a fog. The breath of my brother has blown it away. I now see
+clearly. I see that bee-hunters ought not to live. Let this one die--let
+his squaw die, too!"
+
+This terminated the discussion, as a matter of course. It was solemnly
+decided that all the pale-faces then in the Openings should be cut off.
+In acquiescing in this decision, Peter had no mental reservations. He
+was quite sincere. When, after sitting two hours longer, in order to
+arrange still more important points, the council arose, it was with
+his entire assent to the decision. The only power he retained over the
+subject was that of directing the details of the contemplated massacre.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+     Why is that graceful female here
+     With yon red hunter of the deer?
+     Of gentle mien and shape, she seems
+     For civil halls design'd;
+     Yet with the stately savage walks,
+     As she were of his kind.
+                            --Pinkney.
+
+
+The family at Castle Meal saw nothing of any Indian until the day that
+succeeded the council. Gershom and Dorothy received the tidings of
+their sister's marriage with very little emotion. It was an event they
+expected; and as for bride-cake and ceremonies, of one there was none at
+all, and of the other no more than has been mentioned. The relatives of
+Margery did not break their hearts on account of the neglect with which
+they had been treated, but received the young couple as if one had given
+her away, and the other "had pulled off her glove," as young ladies now
+express it, in deference to the act that generally gives the coup de
+grace to youthful female friendships. On the Openings, neither time nor
+breath is wasted in useless compliments; and all was held to be well
+done on this occasion, because it was done legally. A question might
+have been raised, indeed, whether that marriage had taken place
+under the American, or under the English flag; for General Hull, in
+surrendering Detroit, had included the entire territory of Michigan, as
+well as troops present, troops absent, and troops on the march to join
+him. Had he been in possession of Peter's ruthless secret, which we
+happen to know he was not, he could not have been more anxious to throw
+the mantle of British authority around all of his race on that remote
+frontier, than he proved himself to be. Still, it is to be presumed that
+the marriage would have been regarded as legal; conquered territories
+usually preserving their laws and usages for a time, at least. A little
+joking passed, as a matter of course; for this is de rigueur in all
+marriages, except in the cases of the most cultivated; and certainly
+neither the corporal nor Gershom belonged to the elite of human society.
+
+About the hour of breakfast Pigeonswing came in, as if returning from
+one of his ordinary hunts. He brought with him venison, as well as
+several wild ducks that he had killed in the Kalamazoo, and three or
+four prairie hens. The Chippewa never betrayed exultation at the success
+of his exertions, but on this occasion he actually appeared sad. Dorothy
+received his game, and as she took the ducks and other fowls, she spoke
+to him.
+
+"Thank you, Pigeonswing," said the young matron. "No pale-face could be
+a better provider, and many are not one-half as good."
+
+"What provider mean, eh?" demanded the literal-minded savage. "Mean
+good; mean bad, eh?"
+
+"Oh! it means good, of course. I could say nothing against a hunter who
+takes so good care of us all."
+
+"What he mean, den?"
+
+"It means a man who keeps his wife and children well supplied with
+food."
+
+"You get 'nough, eh?"
+
+"I get enough, Pigeonswing, thanks to your industry, such as it is.
+Injin diet, however, is not always the best for Christian folk, though
+a body may live on it. I miss many things, out here in the Openings, to
+which I have been used all the early part of my life."
+
+"What squaw miss, eh? P'raps Injin find him sometime."
+
+"I thank you, Pigeonswing, with all my heart, and am just as grateful
+for your good intentions, as I should be was you to do all you wish. It
+is the mind that makes the marcy, and not always the deed. But you can
+never find the food of a pale-face kitchen out here in the Openings of
+Michigan. When a body comes to reckon up all the good things of Ameriky,
+she don't know where to begin, or where to stop. I miss tea as much as
+anything. And milk comes next. Then there's buckwheat and coffee--though
+things may be found in the woods to make coffee of, but tea has no
+substitute. Then, I like wheaten bread, and butter, and potatoes, and
+many other such articles, that I was used to all my life, until I came
+out here, close to sunset. As for pies and custards, I can't bear to
+think of 'em now!"
+
+Pigeonswing looked intently at the woman, as she carefully enumerated
+her favorites among the dishes of her home-kitchen. When she had ended,
+he raised a finger, looked still more significantly at her, and said:
+
+"Why don't go back, get all dem good t'ings? Better for pale-face to eat
+pale-face food, and leave Injin Injin food."
+
+"For my part, Pigeonswing, I wish such had ever been the law. Venison,
+and prairie-fowls, and wild ducks, and trout, and bear's meat, and wild
+pigeons, and the fish that are to be found in these western rivers, are
+all good for them that was brought up on 'em, but they tire an eastern
+palate dreadfully. Give me roast beef any day before buffalo's hump, and
+a good barn-yard fowl before all the game-birds that ever flew."
+
+"Yes; dat de way pale-face squaw feel. Bess go back, and get what she
+like. Bess go quick as she can--go today."
+
+"I'm in no such hurry, Pigeonswing, and I like these Openings well
+enough to stay a while longer, and see what all these Injins, that they
+tell me are about 'em, mean to do. Now we are fairly among your people,
+and on good terms with them, it is wisest to stay where we are. These
+are war-times, and travelling is dangerous, they tell me. When Gershom
+and Bourdon are ready to start, I shall be ready."
+
+"Bess get ready, now," rejoined Pigeonswing; who, having given this
+advice with point, as to manner, proceeded to the spring, where he knelt
+and slaked his thirst. The manner of the Chippewa was such as to attract
+the attention of the missionary, who, full of his theory, imagined
+that this desire to get rid of the whites was, in some way or other,
+connected with a reluctance in the Indians to confess themselves Jews.
+He had been quite as much surprised as he was disappointed, with the
+backwardness of the chiefs in accepting this tradition, and was now in
+a state of mind that predisposed him to impute everything to this one
+cause.
+
+"I hope, Pigeonswing," he said to the Chippewa, whom he had followed to
+the spring--"I hope, Pigeonswing, that no offence has been taken by the
+chiefs on account of what I told them yesterday, concerning their being
+Jews. It is what I think, and it is an honor to belong to God's chosen
+people, and in no sense a disgrace. I hope no offence has been taken on
+account of my telling the chief they are Jews."
+
+"Don't care any t'ing 'bout it," answered the literal Indian, rising
+from his kneeling position, and wiping his mouth with the back of his
+hand. "Don't care wedder Jew, or wedder Indian."
+
+"For my own part, gladly would I have it to say that I am descended from
+Israel."
+
+"Why don't say him, if he make you grad? Good to be grad. All Injin love
+to be grad."
+
+"Because I cannot say it with truth. No; I come of the Gentiles, and not
+of the Hebrews, else would I glory in saying I am a Jew, in the sense
+of extraction, though not now in the sense of faith. I trust the chiefs
+will not take offence at my telling them just what I think."
+
+"Tell you he don't care," returned Pigeonswing, a little crustily.
+"Don't care if Jew--don't care if Injin. Know dat make no difference.
+Hunting-ground just same--game just same--scalps just same. Make no
+difference, and don't care."
+
+"I am glad of this--but why did you advise Dorothy to quit the Openings
+in the hasty manner you did, if all is right with the chiefs? It is not
+good to start on a journey without preparation and prayer. Why, then,
+did you give this advice to Dorothy to quit the Openings so soon?"
+
+"Bess for squaw to go home, when Injin dig up hatchet. Openin' full of
+warrior--prairie full of warrior--wood full of warrior. When dat so,
+bess for squaw to go home."
+
+"This would be true, were the Indians our enemies. Heaven be praised,
+they are our friends, and will not harm us. Peter is a great chief, and
+can make his young men do what he tells them; and Peter is our friend.
+With Peter to stand by us, and a merciful Providence to direct us where,
+when, and how to go, we can have nothing to fear. I trust in Divine
+Providence."
+
+"Who he be?" asked Pigeonswing, innocently, for his knowledge of English
+did not extend far enough to comprehend a phrase so complicated, though
+so familiar to ourselves. "He know all paths, eh?"
+
+"Yes; and directs us on all paths--more especially such as are for our
+good."
+
+"Bess get him to tell you path into Detroit. Dat good path, now, for all
+pale-faces."
+
+On uttering this advice, which he did also somewhat pointedly, the
+Chippewa left the spring, and walked toward the kennel of Hive, where
+the bee-hunter was busy feeding his old companion.
+
+"You're welcome back, Pigeonswing," the last cordially remarked, without
+pausing in his occupation, however. "I saw that you came in loaded, as
+usual. Have you left any dead game in the Openings, for me to go and
+back in with you?"
+
+"You open ear, Bourdon--you know what Injin say," returned the Chippewa,
+earnestly. "When dog get 'nough come wid me. Got somet'ing to tell. Bess
+hear it, when he CAN hear it."
+
+"You'll find me ready enough in a minute. There, Hive, my good fellow,
+that ought to satisfy any reasonable dog, and I've never found
+you unreasonable yet. Well, Chippewa, here I am, with my ears wide
+open--stop, I've a bit of news, first, for your ears. Do you know,
+Pigeonswing, my good fellow, that I am married?"
+
+"Marry, eh? Got squaw, eh? Where you get him?"
+
+"Here, to be sure--where else should I get her? There is but one girl in
+these Openings that I would ask to be my wife, and she has been asked,
+and answered, yes. Parson Amen married us, yesterday, on our way in
+from Prairie Round; so that puts me on a footing with yourself. When you
+boast of your squaw that you've left in your wigwam, I can boast of mine
+that I have here. Margery is a girl to boast of, too!"
+
+"Yes; good squaw, dat. Like dat squaw pretty well. Nebber see better.
+Bess keep squaw alway in his own wigwam."
+
+"Well, mine is in my own wigwam. Castle Meal is my property, and she
+does it honor."
+
+"Dat an't what Injin mean. Mean dis. Bess have wigwam at home, dere,
+where pale-face lives, and bess keep squaw in DAT wigwam. Where my
+squaw, eh? She home, in my wigwam--take care of pappoose, hoe corn, and
+keep ground good. So bess wid white squaw--bess home, at work."
+
+"I believe I understand what you mean, Pigeon. Well, home we mean to go,
+before the winter sets in, and when matters have a little settled down
+between the English and Yankees. It isn't safe travelling, just now, in
+Michigan--you must own that, yourself, my good fellow."
+
+The Indian appeared at a loss, now, how to express himself further.
+On one side was his faith to his color, and his dread of Peter and the
+great chiefs; on the other, his strong regard for the bee-hunter. He
+pondered a moment, and then took his own manner of communicating that
+which he wished to say. The fact that his friend was married made no
+great difference in his advice, for the Indian was much too shrewd an
+observer not to have detected the bee-hunter's attachment. He had not
+supposed it possible to separate his friend from the family of Gershom,
+though he did suppose there would be less difficulty in getting him to
+go on a path different from that which the missionary and corporal might
+take. His own great purpose was to serve le Bourdon, and how many or how
+few might incidentally profit by it he did not care. The truth compels
+us to own, that even Margery's charms, and nature, and warm-hearted
+interest in all around her, had failed to make any impression on his
+marble-like feelings; while the bee-hunter's habits, skill in his craft,
+and close connection with himself at the mouth of the river, and more
+especially in liberating him from his enemies, had united him in a
+comrade's friendship with her husband. It was a little singular that
+this Chippewa did not fall into Peter's superstitious dread of the
+bee-hunter's necromancy, though he was aware of all that had passed
+the previous day on the prairie. Either on account of his greater
+familiarity with le Bourdon's habits, or because he was in the secret of
+the trick of the whiskey-spring, or from a closer knowledge of white men
+and their ways, this young Indian was freer from apprehensions of this
+nature, perhaps, than any one of the same color and origin within many
+miles of the spot. In a word, Pigeons-wing regarded the bee-hunter as
+his friend, while he looked upon the other pale-faces as so many persons
+thrown by accident in his company. Now that Margery had actually become
+his friend's squaw, his interest in her was somewhat increased; though
+she had never obtained that interest in his feelings that she had
+awakened in the breast of Peter, by her attentions to him, her
+gentleness, light-hearted gayety, and womanly care, and all without the
+least design on her own part.
+
+"No," answered the Chippewa, after a moment's reflection, "no very safe
+for Yankee, or Yankee Injin. Don't t'ink my scalp very safe, if
+chief know'd I'm Yankee runner. Bess alway to keep scalp safe. Dem
+Pottawattamie I take care not to see. Know all about 'em, too. Know what
+he SAY--know what he DO--b'lieve I know what he T'INK."
+
+"I did not see you, Pigeon, among the red young men, yesterday, out on
+Prairie Round."
+
+"Know too much to go dere. Crowsfeather and Pottawattamie out dere. Bess
+not go near dem when dey have eye open. Take 'em asleep. Dat bess way
+wid sich Injin. Catch 'em some time! But your ear open, Bourdon?"
+
+"Wide open, my good friend--what have you to whisper in it?"
+
+"You look hard at Peter when he come in. If he t'ink good deal, and
+don't say much, when he DO speak, mind what he say. If he smile, and
+very much friend, must hab his scalp."
+
+"Chippewa, Peter is my friend, lives in my cabin, and eats of my bread!
+The hand that touches him, touches me."
+
+"Which bess, eh--HIS scalp, or your'n? If he VERY much friend when he
+comes in, his scalp muss come off, or your'n. Yes, juss so. Dat de way.
+Know Injin better dan you know him, Bourdon. You good bee-hunter, but
+poor Injin. Ebbery body hab his way--Injin got his. Peter laugh and very
+much friend, when he come home, den he mean to hab YOUR scalp. If don't
+smile, and don't seem very much friend, but look down, and t'ink, t'ink,
+t'ink, den he no mean to hurt you, but try to get you out of hand of
+chiefs. Dat all."
+
+As Pigeonswing concluded, he walked coolly away, leaving his friend to
+ruminate on the alternative of scalp or no scalp! The bee-hunter now
+understood the Chippewa perfectly. He was aware that this man had means
+of his own to ascertain what was passing around him in the Openings, and
+he had the utmost confidence in his integrity and good wishes. If a red
+man is slow to forget an injury, he never forgets a favor. In this he
+was as unlike as possible to most of the pale-faces who were supplanting
+his race, for these last had, and have, as extraordinary a tenacity in
+losing sight of benefits, as they have in remembering wrongs.
+
+By some means or other, it was now clear that Pigeonswing foresaw that a
+crisis was at hand. Had le Bourdon been as disconnected and solitary as
+he was when he first met the Chippewa, it is not probable that
+either the words or the manner of his friend would have produced much
+impression on him, so little accustomed was he to dwell on the hazards
+of his frontier position. But the case was now altogether changed.
+Margery and her claims stood foremost in his mind; and through Margery
+came Dolly and her husband. There was no mistaking Pigeonswing's
+intention. It was to give warning of some immediate danger, and a danger
+that, in some way, was connected with the deportment of Peter. It was
+easy enough to comprehend the allusions to the mysterious chief's smiles
+and melancholy; and the bee-hunter understood that he was to watch
+that Indian's manner, and take the alarm or bestow his confidence
+accordingly.
+
+Le Bourdon was not left long in doubt. Peter arrived about half-an-hour
+after Pigeonswing had gone to seek his rest; and from the instant he
+came in sight, our hero discerned the thoughtful eye and melancholy
+manner. These signs were still more obvious when the tribeless Indian
+came nearer; so obvious, indeed, as to strike more than one of those who
+were interested observers of all that this extraordinary being said and
+did. Among others, Margery was the first to see this change, and the
+first to let it influence her own manner. This she did, notwithstanding
+le Bourdon had said nothing to her on the subject, and in defiance of
+the bashful feelings of a bride; which, under circumstances less marked,
+might have induced her to keep more in the background. As Peter stopped
+at the spring to quench his thirst, Margery was, in truth, the first to
+approach and to speak to him.
+
+"You seem weary, Peter," said the young wife, somewhat timidly as to
+voice and air, but with a decided and honest manifestation of interest
+in what she was about. Nor had Margery gone empty-handed. She took with
+her a savory dish, one of those that the men of the woods love--meat
+cooked in its own juices, and garnished with several little additions,
+that her skill in the arts of civilized life enabled her to supply.
+
+"You seem tired, Peter, and if I did not fear to say it, I should tell
+you that you also seem sad," said Margery, as she placed her dish on a
+rude table that was kept at the spot, for the convenience of those who
+seldom respected hours, or regularity of any sort in their meals. "Here
+is food that you like, which I have cooked with my own hands."
+
+The Indian looked intently at the timid and charming young creature,
+who came forward thus to contribute to his comforts, and the saddened
+expression of his countenance deepened. He was fatigued and hungry,
+and he ate for some time without speaking, beyond uttering a brief
+expression of his thanks. When his appetite was appeased, however, and
+she who had so sedulously attended to his wants was about to remove the
+remains of the dish, he signed with his finger for her to draw nearer,
+intimating that he had something to say. Margery obeyed without
+hesitation, though the color flitted in her face like the changes in
+an evening sky. But so much good will and confidence had been awakened
+between these two, that a daughter would not have drawn near to a father
+with more confidence than Margery stood before Peter.
+
+"Medicine-man do what I tell him, young squaw, eh?" demanded Peter,
+smiling slightly, and for the first time since they had met.
+
+"By medicine-man do you mean Mr. Amen, or Bourdon?" the bride asked in
+her turn, her whole face reflecting the confusion she felt, scarcely
+knowing why.
+
+"Bot'. One medicine-man say his prayer; t'odder medicine-man take young
+squaw's hand, and lead her into his wigwam. Dat what I mean."
+
+"I am married to Bourdon," returned Margery, dropping her eyes to the
+ground, "if that be what you wish to know. I hope you think I shall have
+a good husband, Peter."
+
+"Hope so, too--nebber know till time come. All good for little
+while--Injin good, squaw good. Juss like weadder. Sometime
+rain--sometime storm--sometime sunshine. Juss so wid Injin, juss so wid
+pale-face. No difference. All same. You see dat cloud?--he little now;
+but let wind blow, he grow big, and you see nuttin' but cloud. Let him
+have plenty of sunshine, and he go away; den all clear over head. Dat
+bess way to live wid husband."
+
+"And that is the way which Bourdon and I WILL always live together. When
+we get back among our own people, Peter, and are living comfortably in a
+pale-face wigwam, with pale-face food, and pale-face drinks, and all the
+other good things of pale-face housekeeping about us, then I hope you
+will come and see how happy we are, and pass some time with us. Every
+year I wish you to come and see us, and to bring us venison, and Bourdon
+will give you powder, and lead, and blankets, and all you may want,
+unless it be fire-water. Fire-water he has promised never again to give
+to an Injin."
+
+"No find any more whiskey-spring, eh?" demanded Peter, greatly
+interested in the young woman's natural and warm-hearted manner of
+proposing her hospitalities. "So bess--so bess. Great curse for Injin.
+Plenty honey, no fire-water. All dat good. And I come, if--"
+
+Here Peter stopped, nor could all Margery's questions induce him to
+complete the sentence. His gaze at the earnest countenance of the bride
+was such as to give her an indefinite sort of uneasiness, not to say a
+feeling of alarm.
+
+Still no explanation passed between them. Margery remained near Peter
+for some time, administering to his wants, and otherwise demeaning
+herself much as a daughter might have done. At length le Bourdon
+joined them. The salutations were friendly, and the manner in which the
+mysterious chief regarded the equally mysterious bee-hunter, was not
+altogether without a certain degree of awe. Boden perceived this, and
+was not slow to comprehend that he owed this accession of influence to
+the scene which had occurred on the prairie.
+
+"Is the great council ended, Peter?" asked the bee-hunter, when the
+little interval of silence had been observed.
+
+"Yes, it over. No more council, now, on Prairie Round."
+
+"And the chiefs--have they all gone on their proper paths? What has
+become of my old acquaintance, Crowsfeather? and all the rest of
+them--Bear's Meat, in particular?"
+
+"All gone. No more council now. Agree what to do and so go away."
+
+"But are red men always as good as their words? do they PERFORM always
+what they PROMISE?"
+
+"Sartain. Ebbery man ought do what he say. Dat Injin law--no pale-face
+law, eh?"
+
+"It may be the LAW, Peter, and a very good law it is; but we white men
+do not always MIND our own laws."
+
+"Dat bad--Great Spirit don't like dat," returned Peter, looking grave,
+and slowly shaking his head. "Dat very bad. When Injin say he do it,
+den he do it, if he can. If can't, no help for it. Send squaw away now,
+Bourdon--bess not to let squaw hear what men say, or will always want to
+hear."
+
+Le Bourdon laughed, as he turned to Margery and repeated these words.
+The young wife colored, but she took it in good part, and ran up toward
+the palisaded lodge, like one who was glad to be rid of her companions.
+Peter waited a few moments, then turning his head slowly in all
+directions, to make sure of not being overheard, he began to lay open
+his mind.
+
+"You been on Prairie Round, Bourdon--you see Injin dere--chief, warrior,
+young men, hunter, all dere."
+
+"I saw them all, Peter, and a goodly sight it was--what between paint,
+and medals, and bows and arrows and tomahawks, and all your bravery!"
+
+"You like to see him, eh? Yes; he fine t'ing to look at. Well, dat
+council call togedder by ME--you know dat, too, Bourdon?"
+
+"I have heard you say that such was your intention, and I suppose you
+did it, chief. They tell me you have great power among your own people,
+and that they do very much as you tell them to do."
+
+Peter looked graver than ever at this remark; and one of his startling
+gleams of ferocity passed over his dark countenance. Then he answered
+with his customary self-command.
+
+"Sometime so," he said; "sometime not so. Yesterday, not so. Dere is
+chief dat want to put Peter under his foot! He try, but he no do it! I
+know Peter well, and know dat chief, too."
+
+"This is news to me, Peter, and I am surprised to hear it. I did think
+that even the great Tecumthe was scarcely as big a chief as you are
+yourself."
+
+"Yes, pretty big chief; dat true. But, among Injin, ebbery man can
+speak, and nebber know which way council go. Sometime he go one way;
+sometime he go tudder. You hear Bough of Oak speak, eh? Tell me dat?"
+
+"You will remember that I heard none of your speakers on Prairie Round,
+Peter. I do not remember any such orator as this Bough of Oak."
+
+"He great rascal," said Peter, who had picked up some of the garrison
+expressions among those from whom he acquired the knowledge of English
+he possessed, such as it was. "Listen, Bourdon. Nebber bess stand too
+much in Peter's way."
+
+The bee-hunter laughed freely at this remark; for his own success the
+previous day, and the impression he had evidently made on that occasion,
+emboldened him to take greater liberties with the mysterious chief than
+had been his wont.
+
+"I should think that, Peter," cried the young man, gayly--"I should
+think all that. For one, I should choose to get out of it. The path you
+travel is your own, and all wise men will leave you to journey along it
+in your own fashion."
+
+"Yes; dat bess way," answered the great chief, with admirable
+simplicity. "Don't like, when he says yes, to hear anudder chief say no.
+Dat an't good way to do business."
+
+These were expressions caught from the trading whites, and were often
+used by those who got their English from them. "I tell you one t'ing,
+Bourdon--dat Bough of Oak very foolish Injin if he put foot on my path."
+
+"This is plain enough, Peter," rejoined le Bourdon, who was
+unconcernedly repairing some of the tools of his ordinary craft. "By
+the way, I am greatly in your debt, I learn, for one thing. They tell me
+I've got my squaw in my wigwam a good deal sooner, by your advice, than
+I might have otherwise done. Margery is now my wife, I suppose you know;
+and I thank you heartily, for helping me to get married so much sooner
+than I expected to be."
+
+Here Peter grasped Bourdon by the hand, and poured out his whole soul,
+secret hopes, fears, and wishes. On this occasion he spoke in the Indian
+dialect--one of those that he knew the bee-hunter understood. And we
+translate what he said freely into English, preserving as much of the
+original idiom as the change of language will permit.
+
+"Listen, hunter of the bee, the great medicine of the pale-faces, and
+hear what a chief that knows the red men is about to tell you. Let my
+words go into your ears; let them stay in your mind. They are words that
+will do you good. It is not wise to let such words come out again by the
+hole through which they have just entered.
+
+"My young friend knows our traditions. They do not tell us that the
+Injins were Jews; they tell us that the Manitou created them red men.
+They tell us that our fathers used these hunting-grounds ever since the
+earth was placed on the back of the big tortoise which upholds it. The
+pale-faces say the earth moves. If this be true, it moves as slowly
+as the tortoise walks. It cannot have gone far since the Great Spirit
+lifted his hand off it. If it move, the hunting-grounds move with it,
+and the tribes move with their own hunting-grounds. It may be that some
+of the pale-faces are lost, but no Injin is lost--the medicine-priest is
+mistaken. He has looked so often in his book, that he sees nothing but
+what is there. He does not see what is before his eyes, at his side,
+behind his back, all around him. I have known such Injins. They see but
+one thing; even the deer jump across their paths, and are not seen.
+
+"Such are our traditions. They tell us that this land was given to the
+red men, and not to pale-faces. That none but red men have any right to
+hunt here. The Great Spirit has laws. He has told us these laws. They
+teach us to love our friends, and to hate our enemies. You don't believe
+this, Bourdon?" observing the bee-hunter to wince a little, as if he
+found the doctrine bad.
+
+"This is not what our priests tell US," answered le Bourdon. "They tell
+us that the white man's God commands us to love all alike--to do GOOD to
+our enemies, to LOVE them that wish us HARM, and to treat all men as
+we would wish men to treat us." Peter was a good deal surprised at this
+doctrine, and it was nearly a minute before he resumed the discourse. He
+had recently heard it several times, and it was slowly working its way
+into his mind.
+
+"Such are our traditions, and such are our laws. Look at me. Fifty
+winters have tried to turn my hair white. Time can do that. The hair is
+the only part of an Injin that ever turns white; all the rest of him is
+red. That is his color. The game knows an Injin by his color. The tribes
+know him. Everything knows him by his color. He knows the things which
+the Great Spirit has given him, in the same way. He gets used to them,
+and they are his acquaintances. He does not like strange things. He does
+not like strangers. White men are strangers, and he does not like to
+see them on his hunting-ground. If they come singly, to kill a few
+buffaloes, or to look for honey, or to catch beaver, the Injins would
+not complain. They love to give of their abundance. The pale-faces
+do not come in this fashion. They do not come as guests; they come as
+masters. They come and they stay. Each year of my fifty have I heard of
+new tribes that have been driven by them toward the setting sun.
+
+"Bourdon, for many seasons I have thought of this. I have tried to find
+a way to stop them. There is but one. That way must the Injins try, or
+give up their hunting-grounds to the strangers. No nation likes to give
+up its hunting-grounds. They come from the Manitou, and one day he may
+ask to have them back again. What could the red men say, if they let the
+pale-faces take them away? No; this we cannot do. We will first try the
+one thing that is to be done."
+
+"I believe I understand you, Peter," observed le Bourdon, finding
+that his companion paused. "You mean war. War, in the Injin mode of
+redressing all wrongs; war against man, woman, and child!"
+
+Peter nodded in acquiescence, fixing his glowing eyes on the
+bee-hunter's face, as if to read his soul.
+
+"Am I to understand, then, that you and your friends, the chiefs and
+their followers, that I saw on Prairie Round, mean to begin with US,
+half-a-dozen whites, of whom two are women, who happen to be here in
+your power--that OUR scalps are to be the first taken?"
+
+"First!--no, Bourdon. Peter's hand has taken a great many, years since.
+He has got a name for his deeds, and no longer dare go to the white
+men's forts. He does not look for Yankees, he looks for pale-faces. When
+he meets a pale-face on the prairies, or in the woods, he tries to get
+his scalp. This has he done for years, and many has he taken."
+
+"This is a bloody account you are giving of yourself, Peter, and I
+would rather you should not have told it. Some such account I have heard
+before; but living with you, and eating, and drinking, and sleeping, and
+travelling in your company, I had not only hoped, but begun to think, it
+was not true."
+
+"It is true. My wish is to cut off the pale-faces. This must be done, or
+the pale-faces will cut off the Injins. There is no choice. One nation
+or the other must be destroyed. I am a red man; my heart tells me that
+the pale-faces should die. They are on strange hunting-grounds, not
+the red men. They are wrong, we are right. But, Bourdon, I have friends
+among the pale-faces, and it is not natural to scalp our friends. I do
+not understand a religion that tells us to love our enemies, and to do
+good to them that do harm to us--it is a strange religion. I am a poor
+Injin, and do not know what to think! I shall not believe that any do
+this, till I see it. I understand that we ought to love our friends.
+Your squaw is my daughter. I have called her daughter--she knows it, and
+my tongue is not forked, like a snake's. What it says, I mean. Once I
+meant to scalp your young squaw, because she was a pale-face squaw, and
+might be the mother of more. Now I do not mean to scalp her; my hand
+shall never harm her. My wisdom shall tell her to escape from the hands
+of red men who seek her scalp. You, too; now you are her husband,
+and are a great medicine-man of the bees, my hand shall not hurt you,
+either. Open your ears wide, for big truths must go into them."
+
+Peter then related in full his attempt to procure a safe passage for
+le Bourdon and Margery into the settlements, and its total failure. He
+owned that by his previous combinations he had awakened a spirit among
+the Indians that his present efforts could not quell. In a word, he told
+the whole story as it must have been made apparent to the reader, and he
+now came with his plans to defeat the very schemes that he had himself
+previously projected. One thing, however, that he did not conceal,
+filled the mind of his listener with horror, and created so strong an
+aversion to acting in concert with one who could even allude to it so
+coolly, that there was danger of breaking off all communications between
+the parties, and placing the result purely on force; a course that must
+have proved totally destructive to all the whites. The difficulty arose
+from a naive confession of Peter's, that he did not even wish to save
+any but le Bourdon and Margery, and that he still desired the deaths of
+all the others, himself!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+     For thou wert born of woman! Thou didst come,
+     O Holiest! to this world of sin and gloom,
+     Not in thy dread omnipotent array;
+     And not by thunders strewed
+     Was thy tempestuous road,
+     Nor indignation burnt before thee on thy way.
+     But thee, a soft and naked child,
+     Thy mother undefiled,
+     In the rude manger laid to rest
+     From off her virgin breast.
+
+
+The blood of the bee-hunter curdled in his veins as he listened to
+Peter's business-like and direct manner of treating this terrible
+subject. Putting the most favorable view on his situation, it was
+frightful to look on. Admitting that this fanatical savage were sincere
+in all his professions of a wish to save him and Margery, and le
+Bourdon did not, nay, COULD not doubt this, after his calm but ferocious
+revelations; but, admitting all this to be true, how was he to escape
+with his charming bride, environed as they were by so large a band of
+hostile Indians? Then the thought of abandoning his other companions,
+and attempting, in cold selfishness, to escape with Margery alone, was
+more than he could bear. Never before, in his adventurous and bold life,
+had le Bourdon been so profoundly impressed with a sense of his danger,
+or so much overcome.
+
+Still, our hero was not unmanned. He saw all the hazards, as it were, at
+a glance, and felt how terrible might be the result should they really
+fall into the hands of the warriors, excited to exercise their ingenuity
+in devising the means of torture; and he gazed into the frightful
+perspective with a manly steadiness that did him credit, even while he
+sickened at the prospect.
+
+Peter had told his story in a way to add to its horrible character.
+There was a manner of truth, of directness, of WORK, if one may use such
+an expression on such a subject, that gave a graphic reality to all he
+said. As if his task was done, the mysterious chief now coolly arose,
+and moved away to a little grove, in which the missionary and the
+corporal had thrown themselves on the grass, where they lay speculating
+on the probable course that the bands in their neighborhood would next
+pursue. So thoroughly possessed was the clergyman with his one idea,
+however, that he was expressing regret at his failure in the attempt to
+convince the savages that they were Jews, when Peter joined them.
+
+"You tired--you lie down in daytime, like sick squaw, eh?" asked the
+Indian, in a slightly satirical manner. "Bess be up, sich fine day, and
+go wid me to see some more chief."
+
+"Most gladly, Peter," returned the missionary, springing to his feet
+with alacrity--"and I shall have one more opportunity to show your
+friends the truth of what I have told them."
+
+"Yes, Injin love to hear trut'--hate to hear lie. Can tell 'em all you
+want to say. He go too, eh?" pointing to the corporal, who rather hung
+back, as if he saw that in the invitation which was not agreeable to
+him.
+
+"I will answer for my friend," returned the confiding missionary,
+cheerfully. "Lead on, Peter, and we will follow."
+
+Thus pledged, the corporal no longer hesitated; but he accompanied
+Parson Amen, as the latter fell into the tracks of the chief, and
+proceeded rapidly in the direction of the spring in the piece of
+bottom-land, where the council first described had been held. This spot
+was about two miles from the palisaded house, and quite out of view, as
+well as out of reach of sound. As they walked side by side, taking the
+footsteps of the great chief for their guides, the corporal, however,
+expressed to his companion his dislike of the whole movement.
+
+"We ought to stand by our garrison in times like these, Mr. Amen," said
+the well-meaning soldier. "A garrison is a garrison; and Injins seldom
+do much on a well-built and boldly-defended spot of that natur'. They
+want artillery, without which their assaults are never very formidable."
+
+"Why talk you of warlike means, corporal, when we are in the midst of
+friends? Is not Peter our known and well-tried associate, one with whom
+you and I have travelled far; and do we not know that we have friends
+among these chiefs, whom we are now going to visit? The Lord has led
+me into these distant and savage regions, to carry his word, and to
+proclaim his name; and a most unworthy and unprofitable servant should
+I prove, were I to hesitate about approaching them I am appointed to
+teach. No, no; fear nothing. I will not say that you carry Caesar and
+his fortunes, as I have heard was once said of old, but I will say you
+follow one who is led of God, and who marches with the certainty of
+being divinely commanded."
+
+The corporal was ashamed to oppose so confident an enthusiasm, and he
+offered no further resistance. Together the two followed their leader,
+who, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, soon had them
+out of sight of the castle, and well on their way toward the spring.
+When about half the distance was made, the direction took the
+party through a little thicket, or rather along its margin, and the
+missionary, a good deal to his surprise, saw Pigeonswing within the
+cover, seemingly preparing for another hunt. This young warrior had
+so lately returned from one excursion of this nature, that he was not
+expected to go forth so soon on another. Nor was he accustomed to go out
+so early in the day. This was the hour in which he ordinarily slept; but
+there he was, beyond a question, and apparently looking at the party as
+it passed. So cold was his manner, however, and so indifferent did he
+seem, that no one would have suspected that he knew aught of what was in
+contemplation. Having satisfied himself that his friend, the bee-hunter,
+was not one of those who followed Peter, the Chippewa turned coldly
+away, and began to examine the flint of his rifle. The corporal noted
+this manner, and it gave him additional confidence to proceed; for
+he could not imagine that any human being would manifest so much
+indifference, when sinister designs existed.
+
+Peter turned neither to the right hand nor to the left, until he had led
+the way down upon the little arena of bottom-land already described, and
+which was found well sprinkled with savages. A few stood, or sat about
+in groups, earnestly conversing; but most lay extended at length on the
+green sward, in the indolent repose that is so grateful to an Indian
+warrior in his hours of inaction. The arrival of Peter, however,
+instantly put a new face on the appearance of matters. Every man started
+to his feet, and additions were made to those who were found in the
+arena by those who came out of the adjacent thickets, until some two
+or three hundred of the red men were assembled in a circle around the
+newly-arrived pale-faces.
+
+"There," said Peter, sternly, fastening his eye with a hostile
+expression on Bough of the Oak and Ungque, in particular--"there are
+your captives. Do with them as you will. As for them that have dared to
+question my faith, let them own that they are liars!"
+
+This was not a very amicable salutation, but savages are accustomed to
+plain language. Bough of the Oak appeared a little uneasy, and Ungque's
+countenance denoted dissatisfaction; but the last was too skilful an
+actor to allow many of the secrets of his plotting mind to shine through
+the windows of his face. As for the crowd at large, gleams of content
+passed over the bright red faces, illuminating them with looks of savage
+joy. Murmurs of approbation were heard, and Crowsfeather addressed the
+throng, there, where it stood, encircling the two helpless and as yet
+but half-alarmed victims of so fell a plot.
+
+"My brothers and my young men can now see," said this Pottawattamie,
+"that the tribeless chief has an Injin heart. His heart is NOT a
+pale-face heart--it is that of a red man. Some of our chiefs have
+thought that he had lived too much with the strangers, and that he had
+forgotten the traditions of our fathers, and was listening to the song
+of the medicine priest. Some thought that he believed himself lost, and
+a Jew, and not an Injin. This is not so. Peter knows the path he is on.
+He knows that he is a redskin, and he looks on the Yankees as enemies.
+The scalps he has taken are so numerous they cannot be counted. He is
+ready to take more. Here are two that he gives to us. When we have done
+with these two captives, he will bring us more. He will continue to
+bring them, until the pale-faces will be as few as the deer in their own
+clearings. Such is the will of the Manitou."
+
+The missionary understood all that was said, and he was not a little
+appalled at the aspect of things. For the first time he began
+to apprehend that he was in danger. So much was this devout and
+well-intentioned servant of his church accustomed to place his
+dependence on a superintending Providence, that apprehension of personal
+suffering seldom had any influence on his exertions. He believed himself
+to be an object of especial care; though he was ever ready to admit that
+the wisdom which human minds cannot compass, might order events that,
+at first sight, would seem to be opposed to that which ought to be
+permitted to come to pass. In this particular Parson Amen was a model of
+submission, firmly believing that all that happened was in furtherance
+of the great scheme of man's regeneration and eventual salvation.
+
+With the corporal it was very different. Accustomed to war with red
+men, and most acquainted with them in their worst character, he ever
+suspected treachery, and had followed Peter with a degree of reluctance
+he had not cared to express. He now thoroughly took the alarm, however,
+and stood on his guard. Although he did not comprehend more than half of
+that which Peter had said, he understood quite enough to see that he and
+the missionary were surrounded by enemies, if not by executioners.
+
+"We have fallen into a sort of ambush here, Parson Amen," cried the
+corporal, rattling his arms as he looked to their condition, "and it's
+high time we beat the general. If there were four on us we might form
+a square; but being only two, the best thing we can do will be to stand
+back to back, and for one to keep an eye on the right flank, while he
+nat'rally watches all in front; and for the other to keep an eye on the
+left flank, while he sees to the rear. Place your back close to mine,
+and take the left flank into your part of the lookout. Closer, closer,
+my good sir; we must stand solid as rooted trees, to make anything of a
+stand."
+
+The missionary, in his surprise, permitted the corporal to assume the
+position described, though conscious of its uselessness in their actual
+condition. As for the Indians, the corporal's manner and the rattling of
+his arms induced the circle to recede several paces; though nothing like
+alarm prevailed among them. The effect, nevertheless, was to leave the
+two captives space for their evolutions, and a sort of breathing time.
+This little change had the appearance of something like success, and it
+greatly encouraged the corporal. He began to think it even possible to
+make a retreat that would be as honorable as any victory.
+
+"Steady--keep shoulder to shoulder, Parson Amen, and take care of your
+flank. Our movement must be by our left flank, and everything depends
+on keeping that clear. I shall have to give you my baggonet, for you're
+entirely without arms, which leaves my rear altogether exposed."
+
+"Think nothing of your arms, Brother Flint--they would be useless in my
+hands in any case; and, were we made of muskets, they could be of no use
+against these odds. My means of defence come from on high; my armor is
+faith; and my only weapon, prayer. I shall not hesitate to use the last
+on this, as on all other occasions."
+
+The missionary then called on the circle of curious savages by whom he
+was surrounded, and who certainly contemplated nothing less than his
+death, in common with those of all his white companions, to unite with
+him in addressing the Throne of Grace. Accustomed to preach and pray
+to these people in their own dialect, the worthy parson made a strong
+appeal to their charities, while supplicating the favors of Divine
+Providence in behalf of himself and his brother captive. He asked for
+all the usual benedictions and blessings on his enemies, and made a very
+happy exposition of those sublime dogmas of Christianity, which teach us
+to "bless them that curse us," and to "pray for those who despitefully
+use us." Peter, for the first time in his life, was now struck with
+the moral beauty of such a sentiment, which seldom fails, when duly
+presented, of producing an effect on even the dullest minds. His
+curiosity was touched, and instead of turning coldly, as had been his
+intention, and leaving the captives in the hands of those to whom he
+had delivered them, he remained in the circle, and paid the closest
+attention to all of the proceedings. He had several times previously
+heard the missionary speak of this duty as a command of God's, but never
+before had he deemed it possible to realize such a thing in practice.
+
+The Indians, if not absolutely awe-struck by the singular spectacle
+before them, seemed well disposed to let the missionary finish his
+appeal; some wondering, others doubting, and all more or less at a
+loss to know what to make of an exhibition so unusual. There stood the
+corporal, with his back pressed closely to that of his companion, his
+musket at "make ready," and his whole mien that of a man with every
+nerve screwed to the sticking-point; while the missionary, the other
+side of the picture, with outstretched arms, was lifting his voice
+in prayer to the throne of the Most High. As this extraordinary scene
+continued, the corporal grew excited; and ere long his voice was
+occasionally heard, blended with that of the clergyman, in terms of
+advice and encouragement.
+
+"Blaze away, Mr. Amen," shouted the soldier. "Give 'em another
+volley--you're doing wonders, and their front has given ground! One
+more such volley as the last, and we'll make a forward movement,
+ourselves--attention!--prepare to march by the left flank, as soon as
+there is a good opening!"
+
+That good opening, however, was never made. The savages, though
+astonished, were by no means frightened, and had not the smallest idea
+of letting their captives escape. On the contrary, Bear's Meat, who
+acted as commander-in-chief on this occasion, was quite self-possessed,
+and so far from being impressed with the missionary's prayer, he
+listened to it only in the hope of hearing some admission of weakness
+escape. But the excitement of the corporal soon produced a crisis. His
+attempts to make a movement "by the left flank," caused his column of
+defence to be broken, and obtaining no assistance from Parson Amen, who
+was still pouring out his soul in prayer, while endeavoring to
+bring things back to their original state, he suddenly found himself
+surrounded and disarmed. From that instant, the corporal changed
+his tactics. So long as he was armed, and comparatively free, he had
+bethought him only of the means of resistance; now that these were
+denied him, he submitted, and summoned all his resolution to bear the
+penalties of his captivity, in a manner that might not do discredit to
+his regiment. This was the third time that Corporal Flint had been a
+prisoner among the Indians, and he was not now to learn the nature of
+their tender mercies. His forebodings were not of the most pleasant
+character; but that which could not be helped, he was disposed to bear
+with manly fortitude. His greatest concern, at that fearful moment, was
+for the honor of his corps.
+
+All this time, Parson Amen continued his prayer. So completely was his
+spirit occupied with the duty of offering up his petition, that he was
+utterly unconscious of what else had passed; nor had he heard one of the
+corporal's appeals for "attention," and to be "steady," and to march "by
+the left flank." In a word, the whole man was intent on prayer; and when
+thus employed, a six-pounder discharged in the circle would hardly
+have disconcerted him. He persevered, therefore, uninterrupted by his
+conquerors, until he concluded in his own way. Having thus fortified his
+soul, and asked for succor where he had now so long been accustomed to
+seek and to find it, the worthy missionary took his seat quietly on a
+log, on which the corporal had been previously placed by his captors.
+
+The time had arrived for the chiefs to proceed in the execution of their
+purposes. Peter, profoundly struck with the prayers of the missionary in
+behalf of his enemies, had taken a station a little on one side, where
+he stood ruminating on what he had just heard. If ever precept bore the
+stamp of a divine origin, it is this. The more we reflect on it, the
+clearer do our perceptions of this truth become. The whole scheme of
+Christ's redemption and future existence is founded in love, and such a
+system would be imperfect while any were excluded from its benefits.
+To love those who reciprocate our feelings is so very natural, that
+the sympathies which engender this feeling are soonest attracted by a
+knowledge of their existence, love producing love, as power increases
+power. But to love those who hate us, and to strive to do good to those
+who are plotting evil against ourselves, greatly exceeds the moral
+strength of man, unaided from above. This was the idea that puzzled
+Peter, and he now actually interrupted the proceedings, in order
+to satisfy his mind on a subject so totally new to him. Previously,
+however, to taking this step, he asked the permission of the principal
+chiefs, awakening in their bosoms by means of his explanations some of
+the interest in this subject that he felt himself.
+
+"Brother medicine-man," said the mysterious chief, drawing nearer to the
+missionary, accompanied himself by Bear's Meat, Crowsfeather, and one or
+two more, "you have been talking to the Great Spirit o! the pale-faces.
+We have heard your words, and think them well. They are good words for
+a man about to set out on the path that leads to the unknown lands.
+Thither we must all go some time, and it matters little when. We may not
+all travel the same path. I do not think the Manitou will crowd tribes
+of different colors together there, as they are getting to be crowded
+together here.
+
+"Brother, you are about to learn how all these things really are. If red
+men, and pale-faces, and black men are to live in the same land, after
+death, you will shortly know it. My brother is about to go there. He and
+his friend, this warrior of his people, will travel on that long path in
+company. I hope they will agree by the way, and not trouble each other.
+It will be convenient to my brother to have a hunter with him; the path
+is so long, he will be hungry before he gets to the end. This warrior
+knows how to use a musket, and we shall put his arms with him in his
+grave.
+
+"Brother, before you start on this journey, from which no traveller ever
+returns, let his color be what it may, we wish to hear you speak further
+about loving our enemies. This is not the Indian rule. The red men hate
+their enemies, and love their friends. When they ask the Manitou to
+do anything to their enemies, it is to do them harm. This is what our
+fathers taught us: it is what we teach our children. Why should we love
+them that hate us: why should we do good to them that do us harm? Tell
+us now, or we may never hear the reason."
+
+"Tell you I will, Peter, and the Lord so bless my words that they may
+soften your hearts, and lead you all to the truth, and to dependence on
+the mediation of his blessed Son! We should do good to them that do evil
+to us, because the Great Spirit has commanded us so to do. Ask your own
+heart if this is not right. If they sound like words that are spoken by
+any but those who have been taught by the Manitou, himself. The devils
+tell us to revenge, but God commands us to forgive. It is easy to do
+good to them that do good to us; but it tries the heart sorely to do
+good to them that do us evil. I have spoken to you of the Son of the
+Great Spirit. He came on earth, and told us with his own mouth all these
+great truths. He said that next to the duty of loving the Manitou, was
+the duty of loving our neighbors. No matter whether friend or enemy, it
+was our duty to love them, and do them all the good we can. If there is
+no venison in their wigwams, we should take the deer off our own poles,
+and carry it and put on theirs. Why have I come here to tell you this?
+When at home, I lived under a good roof, eat of abundance, and slept in
+a soft and warm bed. You know how it is here. We do not know to-day what
+we shall eat to-morrow. Our beds are hard, and our roofs are of bark. I
+come, because the Son of the Manitou, he who came and lived among men,
+told us to do all this. His commands to his medicine-men were, to go
+forth, and tell all nations, and tribes, and colors, the truth--to
+tell them to 'love them that sought to do them harm, and to do good for
+evil.'"
+
+Parson Amen pausing a moment to take breath, Ungque, who detected the
+wavering of Peter's mind, and who acted far more in opposition to the
+mysterious and tribeless chief than from any other motive, profited by
+the occasion thus afforded to speak. Without this pause, however, the
+breeding of an Indian would have prevented any interruption.
+
+"I open my mouth to speak," said The Weasel, in his humblest manner.
+"What I say is not fit for the wise chiefs to hear. It is foolish, but
+my mind tells me to say it. Does the medicine-man of the pale-faces tell
+us that the Son of the Great Spirit came upon earth, and lived among
+men?"
+
+"I do; such is our belief; and the religion we believe and teach cometh
+directly from his mouth."
+
+"Let the medicine-man tell the chiefs how long the Son of the Great
+Spirit stayed on earth, and which way he went when he left it."
+
+Now, this question was put by Ungque through profound dissimulation. He
+had heard of the death of Christ, and had obtained some such idea of
+the great sacrifice as would be apt to occur to the mind of a savage.
+He foresaw that the effect of the answer would be very likely to destroy
+most of the influence that the missionary had just been building up, by
+means of his doctrine and his prayers. Parson Amen was a man of singular
+simplicity of character, but he had his misgivings touching the effect
+of this reply. Still he did not scruple about giving it, or attempt in
+any manner to mystify or to deceive.
+
+"It is a humiliating and sad story, my brethren, and one that ought to
+cause all heads to be bowed to the earth in shame," he answered. "The
+Son of the Great Spirit came among men; he did nothing but good; told
+those who heard him how to live and how to die. In return for all this,
+wicked and unbelieving men put him to death. After death his body
+was taken up into Heaven--the region of departed spirits, and the
+dwelling-place of his Father--where he now is, waiting for the time
+when he is to return to the earth, to reward the good and to punish the
+wicked. That time will surely come; nor do I believe the day to be very
+distant."
+
+The chiefs listened to this account with grave attention. Some of them
+had heard outlines of the same history before. Accounts savoring of the
+Christian history had got blended with some of their own traditions,
+most probably the fruits of the teachings of the earlier missionaries,
+but were so confused and altered as to be scarcely susceptible of being
+recognized. To most of them, however, the history of the incarnation
+of the Son of God was entirely new; and it struck THEM as a most
+extraordinary thing altogether that any man should have injured such
+a being! It was, perhaps, singular that no one of them all doubted
+the truth of the tradition itself. This they supposed to have been
+transmitted with the usual care, and they received it as a fact not to
+be disputed. The construction that was put on its circumstances will
+best appear in the remarks that followed.
+
+"If the pale-faces killed the Son of the Great Spirit," said Bough of
+the Oak, pointedly, "we can see why they wish to drive the red men from
+their lands. Evil spirits dwell in such men, and they do nothing but
+what is bad. I am glad that our great chief has told us to put the foot
+on this worm and crush it, while yet the Indian foot is large enough to
+do it. In a few winters they would kill us, as they killed the Spirit
+that did them nothing but good!"
+
+"I am afraid that this mighty tradition hath a mystery in it that
+your Indian minds will scarcely be willing to receive," resumed the
+missionary, earnestly. "I would not, for a thousand worlds, or to save
+ten thousand lives as worthless as my own, place a straw in the way of
+the faith of any; yet must I tell the thing as it happened. This Son of
+the Great Spirit was certainly killed by the Jews of that day, so far as
+he COULD be killed. He possessed two natures, as indeed do all men: the
+body and soul. In his body he was man, as we all are men; in his soul he
+was a part of the Great Spirit himself. This is the great mystery of our
+religion. We cannot tell how it can happen, but we believe it. We see
+around us a thousand things that we cannot understand, and this is one
+of them."
+
+Here Bear's Meat availed himself of another pause to make a remark. This
+he did with the keenness of one accustomed to watch words and events
+closely, but with a simplicity that showed no vulgar disposition to
+scepticism.
+
+"We do not expect that all the Great Spirit does can be clear to us
+Indians," he said. "We know very little; he knows everything. Why
+should we think to know all that he knows? We do not. That part of the
+tradition gives us no trouble. Indians can believe without seeing. They
+are not squaws, that wish to look behind every bush. But my brother has
+told too much for his own good. If the pale-faces killed their Great
+Spirit, they can have no Manitou, and must be in the hands of the Evil
+Spirit This is the reason they want our hunting-grounds. I will not let
+them come any nearer to the setting sun. It is time to begin to kill
+them, as they killed their Great Spirit. The Jews did this. My brother
+wishes us to think that red men are Jews! No; red men never harmed the
+Son of the Great Spirit, They would receive him as a friend, and treat
+him as a chief. Accursed be the hand that should be raised to harm him.
+This tradition is a wise tradition. It tells us many things. It tells us
+that Injins are not Jews. They never hurt the Son of the Great Spirit.
+It tells us that the red men have always lived on these hunting-grounds,
+and did not come from toward the rising sun. It tells us that pale-faces
+are not fit to live. They are too wicked. Let them die."
+
+"I would ask a question," put in Peter. "This tradition is not new. I
+have heard it before. It entered but a little way into my ears. I did
+not think of it. It has now entered deeper, and I wish to hear more. Why
+did not the Son of the Great Spirit kill the Jews?--why did he let the
+Jews kill him? Will my brother say?"
+
+"He came on earth to die for man, whose wickedness was so deep that the
+Great Spirit's justice could not be satisfied with less. WHY this is so
+no one knows. It is enough that it should be so. Instead of thinking of
+doing harm to his tormentors and murderers, he died for them, and died
+asking for benefits on them, and on their wives and children, for all
+time to come. It was he who commanded us to do good to them that do harm
+to us."
+
+Peter gave the utmost attention to this answer, and when he had received
+it, he walked apart, musing profoundly. It is worthy of being observed
+that not one of these savages raised any hollow objections to the
+incarnation of the Son of the Great Spirit, as would have been the case
+with so many civilized men. To them this appeared no more difficult and
+incomprehensible than most of that which they saw around them. It is
+when we begin to assume the airs of philosophy, and to fancy, because
+we know a little, that the whole book of knowledge is within our grasp,
+that men become sceptics. There is not a human being now in existence
+who does not daily, hourly see that which is just as much beyond his
+powers of comprehension as this account of the incarnation of the Deity,
+and the whole doctrine of the Trinity; and yet he acquiesces in that
+which is before his eyes, because it is familiar and he sees it, while
+he cavils at all else, though the same unknown and inexplicable cause
+lies behind everything. The deepest philosophy is soon lost in this
+general mystery, and, to the eye of a meek reason, all around us is a
+species of miracle, which must be referred to the power of the Deity.
+
+While thus disposed to receive the pale-face traditions with respect,
+however, the red men did not lose sight of their own policy and
+purposes. The principal chiefs now stepped aside, and held a brief
+council. Though invited to do so, Peter did not join them; leaving to
+Bough of the Oak, Ungque, and Bear's Meat the control of the result
+The question was whether the original intention of including this
+medicine-priest among those to be cut off should, or should not, be
+adhered to. One or two of the chiefs had their doubts, but the opinion
+of the council was adverse.
+
+"If the pale-faces killed the Son of their Great Spirit, why should we
+hesitate about killing them?" The Weasel asked, with malicious point,
+for he saw that Peter was now sorely troubled at the probability of his
+own design being fully carried out. "There is no difference. This is
+a medicine-priest--in the wigwam is a medicine-bee-hunter, and that
+warrior may be a medicine-warrior. We do not know. We are poor Injins
+that know but little. It is not so with the pale-faces; they talk with
+the conjurer's bees, and know much. We shall not have ground enough to
+take even a muskrat, soon, unless we cut off the strangers. The Manitou
+has given us these; let us kill them."
+
+As no one very strenuously opposed the scheme, the question was soon
+decided, and Ungque was commissioned to communicate the result to
+the captives. One exception, however, was to be made in favor of the
+missionary. His object appeared to be peaceful, and it was determined
+that he should be led a short distance into the surrounding thicket, and
+be there put to death, without any attempt to torture, or aggravate his
+sufferings. As a mark of singular respect, it was also decided not to
+scalp him.
+
+As Ungque, and those associated with him, led the missionary to the
+place of execution, the former artfully invited Peter to follow. This
+was done simply because the Weasel saw that it would now be unpleasant
+to the man he hated--hated merely because he possessed an influence that
+he coveted for himself.
+
+"My father will see a pleasant sight," said the wily Weasel, as he
+walked at Peter's side, toward the indicated spot; "he will see a
+pale-face die, and know that his foot has been put upon another worm."
+
+No answer was made to this ironical remark, but Peter walked in silence
+to the place where the missionary was stationed, surrounded by a guard.
+Ungque now advanced and spoke.
+
+"It is time for the medicine-priest of the pale-faces to start after the
+spirits of his people who have gone before him," he said. "The path is
+long, and unless he walks fast, and starts soon, he may not overtake
+them. I hope he will see some of them that helped to kill the Son of his
+Great Spirit, starving, and foot-sore, on the way."
+
+"I understand you," returned the missionary, after a few moments passed
+in recovering from the shock of this communication. "My hour is come. I
+have held my life in my hand ever since I first put foot in this heathen
+region, and if it be the Creator's will that I am now to die, I bow to
+the decree. Grant me a few minutes for prayer to my God."
+
+Ungque signed that the delay should be granted. The missionary uncovered
+his head, knelt, and again lifted up his voice in prayer. At first the
+tones were a little tremulous; but they grew firmer as he proceeded.
+Soon they became as serene as usual. He first asked mercy for himself,
+threw all his hopes on the great atonement, and confessed how far he was
+from that holiness which alone could fit him to see God. When this duty
+was performed, he prayed for his enemies. The language used was his
+mother tongue, but Peter comprehended most of that which was said. He
+heard his own people prayed for; he heard his own name mentioned, as the
+condemned man asked the mercy of the Manitou in his behalf. Never before
+was the soul of this extraordinary savage so shaken. The past seemed
+like a dream to him, while the future possessed a light that was still
+obscured by clouds. Here was an exemplification in practice of that
+divine spirit of love and benevolence which had struck him, already,
+as so very wonderful. There could be no mistake. There was the kneeling
+captive, and his words, clear, distinct, and imploring, ascended through
+the cover of the bushes to the throne of God.
+
+As soon as the voice of the missionary was mute, the mysterious chief
+bowed his head and moved away. He was then powerless. No authority of
+his could save the captive, and the sight that so lately would have
+cheered his eyes was now too painful to bear. He heard the single blow
+of the tomahawk which brained the victim, and he shuddered from head to
+foot. It was the first time such a weakness had ever come over him. As
+for the missionary, in deference to his pursuits, his executioners dug
+him a grave, and buried him unmutilated on the spot where he had fallen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+     Brutal alike in deed and word,
+     With callous heart and hand of strife.
+     How like a fiend may man be made,
+     Plying the foul and monstrous trade
+     Whose harvest-field is human life.
+                                 --WHITTIER.
+
+
+A veil like that of oblivion dropped before the form of the missionary.
+The pious persons who had sent him forth to preach to the heathen,
+never knew his fate; a disappearance that was so common to that class of
+devoted men, as to produce regret rather than surprise. Even those who
+took his life felt a respect for him; and, strange as it may seem, it
+was to the eloquence of the man who now would have died to save him,
+that his death was alone to be attributed. Peter had awakened fires that
+he could not quench, and aroused a spirit that he could not quell. In
+this respect, he resembled most of those who, under the guise of reform,
+or revolution, in moments of doubt, set in motion a machine that is
+found impossible to control, when it is deemed expedient to
+check exaggeration by reason. Such is often the case with even
+well-intentioned leaders, who constantly are made to feel how much
+easier it is to light a conflagration, than to stay its flames when
+raging.
+
+Corporal Flint was left seated on the log, while the bloody scene of the
+missionary's death was occurring. He was fully alive to all the horrors
+of his own situation, and comprehended the nature of his companion's
+movements. The savages usually manifested so much respect for
+missionaries, that he was in no degree surprised. Parson Amen had been
+taken apart for his execution, and when those who had caused his removal
+returned, the corporal looked anxiously for the usual but revolting
+token of his late companion's death. As has been said, however, the
+missionary was suffered to lie in his wild grave, without suffering a
+mutilation of his remains.
+
+Notwithstanding this moderation, the Indians were getting to be incited
+by this taste of blood. The principal chiefs became sterner in their
+aspects, and the young men began to manifest some such impatience as
+that which the still untried pup betrays, when he first scents his
+game. All these were ominous symptoms, and were well understood by the
+captive.
+
+Perhaps it would not have been possible, in the whole range of human
+feelings, to find two men under influences more widely opposed to each
+other than were the missionary and the corporal, in this, their last
+scene on earth. The manner of Parson Amen's death has been described. He
+died in humble imitation of his Divine Master, asking for blessings on
+those who were about to destroy him, with a heart softened by Christian
+graces, and a meekness that had its origin in the consciousness of his
+own demerits. On the other hand, the corporal thought only of vengeance.
+Escape he knew to be impossible, and he would fain take his departure
+like a soldier, or as he conceived a soldier should die, in the midst of
+fallen foes.
+
+Corporal Flint had a salutary love of life, and would very gladly
+escape, did the means offer; but, failing of these, all his thoughts
+turned toward revenge. Some small impulses of ambition, or what it is
+usual to dignify with that term, showed themselves even at that serious
+moment. He had heard around the camp-fires, and in the garrisons, so
+many tales of heroism and of fortitude manifested by soldiers who had
+fallen into the hands of the Indians, that a faint desire to enroll his
+own name on the list of these worthies was beginning to arise in his
+breast. But truth compels us to add that the predominant feeling was
+the wish to revenge his own fate, by immolating as many of his foes
+as possible. To this last purpose, therefore, his thoughts were mainly
+directed, during that interval which his late companion had employed in
+prayers for those under whose blows he was about to fall. Such is the
+difference in man, with his heart touched, or untouched, by the power of
+the Holy Spirit.
+
+It was, however, much easier for the corporal to entertain designs of
+the nature mentioned than to carry them out: unarmed, surrounded by
+watchful enemies, and totally without support of any sort, the chances
+of effecting his purpose were small indeed. Once, for a minute only,
+the veteran seriously turned his thoughts to escape. It occurred to him,
+that he might possibly reach the castle, could he get a little start;
+and should the Indians compel him to run the gauntlet, as was often
+their practice, he determined to make an effort for life in that mode.
+Agreeably to the code of frontier warfare, a successful flight of this
+nature was scarcely less creditable than a victory in the field.
+
+Half an hour passed after the execution of the missionary before the
+chiefs commenced their proceedings with the corporal. The delay was
+owing to a consultation, in which The Weasel had proposed despatching
+a party to the castle, to bring in the family, and thus make a common
+destruction of the remaining pale-faces known to be in that part of the
+Openings. Peter did not dare to oppose this scheme, himself; but he so
+managed as to get Crowsfeather to do it, without bringing himself into
+the foreground. The influence of the Pottawattamie prevailed, and it
+was decided to torture this one captive, and to secure his scalp, before
+they proceeded to work their will on the others. Ungque, who had gained
+ground rapidly by his late success, was once more commissioned to state
+to the captive the intentions of his captors.
+
+"Brother," commenced The Weasel, placing himself directly in front of
+the corporal, "I am about to speak to you. A wise warrior opens his
+ears, when he hears the voice of his enemy. He may learn something it
+will be good for him to know. It will be good for you to know what I am
+about to say.
+
+"Brother, you are a pale-face, and we are Injins. You wish to get our
+hunting-grounds, and we wish to keep them. To keep them, it has become
+necessary to take your scalp. I hope you are ready to let us have it."
+
+The corporal had but an indifferent knowledge of the Indian language,
+but he comprehended all that was uttered on this occasion. Interest
+quickened his faculties, and no part of what was said was lost. The
+gentle, slow, deliberate manner in which The Weasel delivered himself,
+contributed to his means of understanding. He was fortunately prepared
+for what her heard, and the announcement of his approaching fate did not
+disturb him to the degree of betraying weakness. This last was a
+triumph in which the Indians delighted, though they ever showed the
+most profound respect for such of their victims as manifested a manly
+fortitude. It was necessary to reply, which the corporal did in English,
+knowing that several present could interpret his words. With a view to
+render this the more easy, he spoke in fragments of sentences, and with
+great deliberation.
+
+"Injins," returned the corporal, "you surrounded me, and I have been
+taken prisoner--had there been a platoon on us, you mightn't have made
+out quite so well. It's no great victory for three hundred warriors to
+overcome a single man. I count Parson Amen as worse than nothing, for
+he looked to neither rear nor flank. If I could have half an hour's work
+upon you, with only half of our late company, I think we should lower
+your conceit. But that is impossible, and so you may do just what you
+please with me. I ask no favors."
+
+Although this answer was very imperfectly translated, it awakened a good
+deal of admiration. A man who could look death so closely in the face,
+with so much steadiness, became a sort of hero in Indian eyes; and
+with the North American savage, fortitude is a virtue not inferior to
+courage. Murmurs of approbation were heard, and Ungque was privately
+requested to urge the captive further, in order to see how far present
+appearances were likely to be maintained.
+
+"Brother, I have said that we are Injins," resumed The Weasel, with an
+air so humble, and a voice so meek, that a stranger might have supposed
+he was consoling, instead of endeavoring to intimidate, the prisoner.
+"It is true. We are nothing but poor, ignorant Injins. We can only
+torment our prisoners after Injin fashion. If we were pale-faces, we
+might do better. We did not torment the medicine-priest. We were afraid
+he would laugh at our mistakes. He knew a great deal. We know but
+little. We do as well as we know how.
+
+"Brother, when Injins do as well as they know how, a warrior should
+forget their mistakes. We wish to torment you, in a way to prove that
+you are all over man. We wish so to torment you that you will stand up
+under the pain in such a way that it will make our young men think your
+mother was not a squaw--that there is no woman in you. We do this for
+our own honor, as well as for yours. It will be an honor to us to have
+such a captive; it will be an honor to you to be such a captive. We
+shall do as well as we know how.
+
+"Brother, it is most time to begin. The tormenting will last a long
+time. We must not let the medicine-priest get too great a start on the
+path to the happy hunting-grounds of your--"
+
+Here, a most unexpected interruption occurred, that effectually put a
+stop to the eloquence of Ungque. In his desire to make an impression,
+the savage approached within reach of the captive's arm, while his
+own mind was intent on the words that he hoped would make the prisoner
+quail. The corporal kept his eye on that of the speaker, charming him,
+as it were, into a riveted gaze, in return. Watching his opportunity, he
+caught the tomahawk from The Weasel's belt, and by a single blow, felled
+him dead at his feet. Not content with this, the old soldier now bounded
+forward, striking right and left, inflicting six or eight wounds on
+others, before he could be again arrested, disarmed, and bound. While
+the last was doing, Peter withdrew, unobserved.
+
+Many were the "hughs" and other exclamations of admiration that
+succeeded this display of desperate manhood! The body of The Weasel was
+removed, and interred, while the wounded withdrew to attend to their
+hurts; leaving the arena to the rest assembled there. As for the
+corporal, he was pretty well blown, and, in addition to being now bound
+hand and foot, his recent exertions, which were terrific while they
+lasted, effectually incapacitated him from making any move, so long as
+he was thus exhausted and confined.
+
+A council was now held by the principal chiefs. Ungque had few friends.
+In this, he shared the fate of most demagogues, who are commonly
+despised even by those they lead and deceive. No one regretted him
+much, and some were actually glad of his fate. But the dignity of the
+conquerors must be vindicated. It would never do to allow a pale-face
+to obtain so great an advantage, and not take a signal vengeance for
+his deeds. After a long consultation, it was determined to subject the
+captive to the trial by saplings, and thus see if he could bear the
+torture without complaining.
+
+As some of our readers may not understand what this fell mode of
+tormenting is, it may be necessary to explain.
+
+There is scarcely a method of inflicting pain, that comes within, the
+compass of their means, that the North American Indians have not essayed
+on their enemies. When the infernal ingenuity that is exercised on these
+occasions fails of its effect, the captives themselves have been heard
+to suggest other means of torturing that THEY have known practised
+successfully by their own people. There is often a strange strife
+between the tormentors and the tormented; the one to manifest skill in
+inflicting pain, and the other to manifest fortitude in enduring it.
+As has just been said, quite as much renown is often acquired by the
+warrior, in setting all the devices of his conquerors at defiance, while
+subject to their hellish attempts, as in deeds of arms. It might be more
+true to say that such WAS the practice among the Indians, than to say,
+at the present time, that such IS; for it is certain that civilization
+in its approaches, while it has in many particulars even degraded the
+red man, has had a silent effect in changing and mitigating many of his
+fiercer customs--this, perhaps, among the rest. It is probable that the
+more distant tribes still resort to all these ancient usages; but it is
+both hoped and believed that those nearer to the whites do not.
+
+The "torture by saplings" is one of those modes of inflicting pain that
+would naturally suggest themselves to savages. Young trees that do not
+stand far apart are trimmed of their branches, and brought nearer to
+each other by bending their bodies; the victim is then attached to both
+trunks, sometimes by his extended arms, at others by his legs, or by
+whatever part of the frame cruelty can suggest, when the saplings are
+released, and permitted to resume their upright positions. Of course,
+the sufferer is lifted from the earth, and hangs suspended by his limbs,
+with a strain on them that soon produces the most intense anguish. The
+celebrated punishment of the "knout" partakes a good deal of this same
+character of suffering. Bough of the Oak now approached the corporal, to
+let him know how high an honor was in reserve for him.
+
+"Brother," said this ambitious orator, "you are a brave warrior. You
+have done well. Not only have you killed one of our chiefs, but you have
+wounded several of our young men. No one but a brave could have done
+this. You have forced us to bind you, lest you might kill some more.
+It is not often that captives do this. Your courage has caused us to
+consult HOW we might best torture you, in a way most to manifest your
+manhood. After talking together, the chiefs have decided that a man of
+your firmness ought to be hung between two young trees. We have found
+the trees, and have cut off their branches. You can see them. If they
+were a little larger their force would be greater, and they would give
+you more pain--would be more worthy of you; but these are the largest
+saplings we could find. Had there been any larger, we would have let
+you have them. We wish to do you honor, for you are a bold warrior, and
+worthy to be well tormented.
+
+"Brother, look at these saplings! They are tall and straight. When they
+are bent by many hands, they will come together. Take away the hands,
+and they will become straight again. Your arms must then keep them
+together. We wish we had some pappooses here, that they might shoot
+arrows into your flesh. That would help much to torment you. You cannot
+have this honor, for we have no pappooses. We are afraid to let our
+young men shoot arrows into your flesh. They are strong, and might kill
+you. We wish you to die between the saplings, as is your right, being so
+great a brave.
+
+"Brother, we think much better of you since you killed The Weasel, and
+hurt our young men. If all your warriors at Chicago had been as bold
+as you, Black-Bird would not have taken that fort. You would have saved
+many scalps. This encourages us. It makes us think the Great Spirit
+means to help us, and that we shall kill all the pale-faces. When we get
+further into your settlements, we do not expect to meet many such braves
+as you. They tell us we shall then find men who will run, and screech
+like women. It will not be a pleasure to torment such men. We had
+rather torment a bold warrior, like you, who makes us admire him for his
+manliness. We love our squaws, but not in the warpath. They are best
+in the lodges; here we want nothing but men. You are a man--a brave--we
+honor you. We think, notwithstanding, we shall yet make you weak. It
+will not be easy, yet we hope to do it. We shall try. We may not think
+quite so well of you, if we do it; but we shall always call you a brave.
+A man is not a stone. We can all feel, and when we have done all that is
+in our power, no one can do more. It is so with Injins; we think it must
+be so with pale-faces. We mean to try and see how it is."
+
+The corporal understood very little of this harangue, though he
+perfectly comprehended the preparations of the saplings, and Bough of
+the Oak's allusions to THEM. He was in a cold sweat at the thought, for
+resolute as he was, he foresaw sufferings that human fortitude could
+hardly endure. In this state of the case, and in the frame of mind he
+was in, he had recourse to an expedient of which he had often heard,
+and which he thought might now be practised to some advantage. It was to
+open upon the savages with abuse, and to exasperate them, by taunts and
+sarcasm, to such a degree as might induce some of the weaker members
+of the tribe to dispatch him on the spot. As the corporal, with the
+perspective of the saplings before his eyes, manifested a good deal of
+ingenuity on this occasion, we shall record some of his efforts.
+
+"D'ye call yourselves chiefs and warriors?" he began, upon a pretty high
+key. "I call ye squaws! There is not a man among ye. Dogs would be the
+best name. You are poor Injins. A long time ago, the pale-faces came
+here in two or three little canoes. They were but a handful, and you
+were plentier than prairie wolves. Your bark could be heard throughout
+the land. Well, what did this handful of pale-faces? It drove your
+fathers before them, until they got all the best of the hunting-grounds.
+Not an Injin of you all, now, ever get down on the shores of the great
+salt lake, unless to sell brooms and baskets, and then he goes sneaking
+like a wolf after a sheep. You have forgotten how clams and oysters
+taste. Your fathers had as many of them as they could eat; but not one
+of YOU ever tasted them. The pale-faces eat them all. If an Injin asked
+for one, they would throw the shell at his head, and call him a dog.
+
+"Do you think that my chiefs would hang one of you between two such
+miserable saplings as these? No! They would scorn to practice such
+pitiful torture. They would bring the tops of two tall pines together,
+trees a hundred and fifty feet high, and put their prisoner on the
+topmost boughs, for the crows and ravens to pick his eyes out. But you
+are miserable Injins! You know nothing. If you know'd any better, would
+you act such poor torment ag'in' a great brave? I spit upon ye, and call
+you squaws. The pale-faces have made women of ye. They have taken out
+your hearts, and put pieces of dog's flesh in their places."
+
+Here the corporal, who delivered himself with an animation suited to his
+language, was obliged to pause, literally for want of breath. Singular
+as it may seem, this tirade excited great admiration among the savages.
+It is true, that very few understood what was said; perhaps no one
+understood ALL, but the manner was thought to be admirable. When some of
+the language was interpreted, a deep but smothered resentment was felt;
+more especially at the taunts touching the manner in which the whites
+had overcome the red men. Truth is hard to be borne, and the individual,
+or people, who will treat a thousand injurious lies with contempt, feel
+all their ire aroused at one reproach that has its foundation in fact.
+Nevertheless, the anger that the corporal's words did, in truth, awaken,
+was successfully repressed, and he had the disappointment of seeing that
+his life was spared for the torture.
+
+"Brother," said Bough of the Oak, again placing himself before the
+captive, "you have a stout heart. It is made of stone, and not of flesh.
+If our hearts be of dog's meat, yours is of stone. What you say is true.
+The pale-faces DID come at first in two or three canoes, and there were
+but few of them. We are ashamed, for it is true, A few pale-faces drove
+toward the setting sun many Injins. But we cannot be driven any further.
+We mean to stop here, and begin to take all the scalps we can. A great
+chief, who belongs to no one tribe, but belongs to all tribes, who
+speaks all tongues, has been sent by the Great Spirit to arouse us. He
+has done it. You know him. He came from the head of the lake with you,
+and kept his eye on your scalp. He has meant to take it from the first.
+He waited only for an opportunity. That opportunity has come, and we now
+mean to do as he has told us we ought to do. This is right. Squaws are
+in a hurry; warriors know how to wait. We would kill you at once, and
+hang your scalp on our pole, but it would not be right We wish to do
+what is right. If we ARE poor Injins, and know but little, we know what
+is right. It is right to torment so great a brave, and we mean to do
+it. It is only just to you to do so. An old warrior who has seen so many
+enemies, and who has so big a heart, ought not to be knocked in the
+head like a pappoose or a squaw. It is his right to be tormented. We are
+getting ready, and shall soon begin. If my brother can tell us a new way
+of tormenting, we are willing to try it. Should we not make out as well
+as pale-faces, my brother will remember who we are. We mean to do our
+best, and we hope to make his heart soft. If we do this, great will be
+our honor. Should we not do it, we cannot help it. We shall try."
+
+It was now the corporal's turn to put in a rebutter.
+
+This he did without any failure in will or performance. By this time he
+was so well warmed as to think or care very little about the saplings,
+and to overlook the pain they might occasion.
+
+"Dogs can do little but bark; 'specially Injin dogs," he said. "Injins
+themselves are little better than their own dogs. They can bark, but
+they don't know how to bite. You have many great chiefs here. Some
+are panthers, and some bears, and some buffaloes; but where are your
+weasels? I have fit you now these twenty years, and never have I known
+ye to stand up to the baggonet. It's not Injin natur' to do THAT."
+
+Here the corporal, without knowing it, made some such reproach to the
+aboriginal warriors of America as the English used to throw into the
+teeth of ourselves--that of not standing up to a weapon which neither
+party possessed. It was matter of great triumph that the Americans would
+not stand the charge of the bayonet at the renowned fight on Breed's,
+for instance, when it is well known that not one man in five among the
+colonists had any such weapon at all to "stand up" with. A different
+story was told at Guildford, and Stony Point, and Eutaw, and Bennington,
+and Bemis' Heights, and fifty other places that might be named, after
+the troops were furnished with bayonets. THEN it was found that the
+Americans could use them as well as others, and so might it have proved
+with the red men, though their discipline, or mode of fighting, scarce
+admitted of such systematic charges. All this, however, the corporal
+overlooked, much as if he were a regular historian who was writing to
+make out a case.
+
+"Harkee, brother, since you WILL call me brother; though, Heaven be
+praised, not a drop of nigger or Injin blood runs in my veins," resumed
+the corporal. "Harkee, friend redskin, answer me one thing. Did you ever
+hear of such a man as Mad Anthony? He was the tickler for your infernal
+tribes! You pulled no saplings together for him. He put you up with 'the
+long-knives and leather-stockings,' and you outrun his fleetest horses.
+I was with him, and saw more naked backs than naked faces among your
+people, that day. Your Great Bear got a rap on his nose that sent him to
+his village yelping like a cur."
+
+Again was the corporal compelled to stop to take breath. The allusion to
+Wayne, and his defeat of the Indians, excited so much ire, that several
+hands grasped knives and tomahawks, and one arrow was actually drawn
+nearly to the head; but the frown of Bear's Meat prevented any outbreak,
+or actual violence. It wa's deemed prudent, however, to put an end to
+this scene, lest the straightforward corporal, who laid it on heavily,
+and who had so much to say about Indian defeats, might actually succeed
+in touching some festering wound that would bring him to his death at
+once. It was, accordingly, determined to proceed with the torture of the
+saplings without further delay.
+
+The corporal was removed accordingly, and placed between the two bended
+trees, which were kept together by withes around their tops. An arm of
+the captive was bound tightly at the wrist to the top of each tree, so
+that his limbs were to act as the only tie between the saplings, as soon
+as the withes should be cut. The Indians now worked in silence, and the
+matter was getting to be much too serious for the corporal to indulge in
+any more words. The cold sweat returned, and many an anxious glance
+was cast by the veteran on the fell preparations. Still he maintained
+appearances, and when all was ready, not a man there was aware of the
+agony of dread which prevailed in the breast of the victim. It was not
+death that he feared as much as suffering. A few minutes, the corporal
+well knew, would make the pain intolerable, while he saw no hope of
+putting a speedy end to his existence. A man might live hours in such a
+situation. Then it was that the teachings of childhood were revived in
+the bosom of this hardened man, and he remembered the Being that died
+for HIM, in common with the rest of the human race, on the tree. The
+seeming similarity of his own execution struck his imagination, and
+brought a tardy but faint recollection of those lessons that had lost
+most of their efficacy in the wickedness and impiety of camps. His soul
+struggled for relief in that direction, but the present scene was too
+absorbing to admit of its lifting itself so far above his humanity.
+
+"Warrior of the pale-faces," said Bough of the Oak, "we are going to cut
+the withe. You will then be where a brave man will want all his courage.
+If you are firm, we will do you honor; if you faint and screech, our
+young men will laugh at you. This is the way with Injins. They honor
+braves; they point the finger at cowards."
+
+Here a sign was made by Bear's Meat, and a warrior raised the tomahawk
+that was to separate the fastenings, His hand was in the very act of
+descending, when the crack of a rifle was heard, and a little smoke rose
+out of the thicket, near the spot where the bee-hunter and the corporal,
+himself, had remained so long hid, on the occasion of the council first
+held in that place. The tomahawk fell, however, the withes were parted,
+and up flew the saplings, with a violence that threatened to tear the
+arms of the victim out of their sockets.
+
+The Indians listened, expecting the screeches and groans;--they
+gazed, hoping to witness the writhings of their captive. But they were
+disappointed. There hung the body, its arms distended, still holding
+the tops of the saplings bowed, but not a sign of life was seen. A small
+line of blood trickled down the forehead, and above it was the nearly
+imperceptible hole made by the passage of a bullet. The head itself had
+fallen forward, and a little on one shoulder. The corporal had escaped
+the torments reserved for him, by this friendly blow.
+
+It was so much a matter of course for an Indian to revenge his own
+wounds--to alleviate his smarts, by retaliating on those who inflicted
+them--that the chiefs expressed neither surprise nor resentment at the
+manner of the corporal's death. There was some disappointment, it is
+true; but no anger was manifested, since it was supposed that some one
+of those whom the prisoner had wounded had seen fit, in this mode,
+to revenge his own hurts. In this, however, the Indians deceived
+themselves. The well-intentioned and deadly shot that saved the corporal
+from hours of agony came from the friendly hand of Pigeonswing, who had
+no sooner discharged his rifle than he stole away through the thicket,
+and was never discovered. This he did, too, at the expense of Ungque's
+scalp, on which he had set his heart.
+
+As for the Indians, perceiving that their hopes of forcing a captive
+to confess his weakness were frustrated, they conferred together on the
+course of future proceedings. There was an inquiry for Peter, but Peter
+was not to be found. Bough of the Oak suggested that the mysterious
+chief must have gone to the palisaded hut, in order to get the remaining
+scalps, his passion for this symbol of triumphs over pale-faces being
+well known. It was, therefore, incumbent on the whole band to follow,
+with the double view of sharing in the honor of the assault, and of
+rendering assistance.
+
+Abandoning the body of the corporal where it hung, away went these
+savages, by this time keenly alive to the scent of blood. Something like
+order was observed, however, each chief leading his own particular part
+of the band, in his own way, but on a designated route. Bear's Meat
+acted as commander-in-chief, the subordinate leaders following his
+instructions with reasonable obedience. Some went in one direction,
+others in another; until the verdant bottom near the sweet spring was
+deserted.
+
+In less than half an hour the whole band was collected around Castle
+Meal, distant, however, beyond the range of a rifle. The different
+parties, as they arrived, announced their presence by whoops, which were
+intended to answer the double purpose of signals, and of striking terror
+to the hearts of the besieged; the North American Indians making ample
+use of this great auxiliary in war.
+
+All this time no one was seen in or about the fortified hut The gate
+was closed, as were the doors and windows, manifesting preparations for
+defence; but the garrison kept close. Nor was Peter to be seen. He might
+be a prisoner, or he might not have come in this direction. It was just
+possible that he might be stealing up to the building, to get a nearer
+view, and a closer scout.
+
+Indian warfare is always stealthy. It is seldom, indeed, that the
+aboriginal Americans venture on an open assault of any fortified place,
+however small and feeble it may be. Ignorant of the use of artillery,
+and totally without that all-important arm, their approaches to any
+cover, whence a bullet may be sent against them, are ever wary, slow,
+and well concerted. They have no idea of trenches--do not possess the
+means of making them, indeed--but they have such substitutes of their
+own as usually meet all their wants, more particularly in portions of
+the country that are wooded. In cases like this before our present band,
+they had to exercise their wits to invent new modes of effecting their
+purposes.
+
+Bear's Meat collected his principal chiefs, and, after a considerable
+amount of consultation, it was determined, in the present instance, to
+try the virtue of fire. The only sign of life they could detect about
+the hut was an occasional bark from Hive, who had been taken within the
+building, most probably to protect him from the bullets and arrows of
+the enemy. Even this animal did not howl like a dog in distress; but he
+barked, as if aware of the vicinity of strangers. The keenest scrutiny
+could not detect an outlet of any sort about the hut. Everything was
+tightly closed, and it was impossible to say when, or whence, a bullet
+might not be sent against the unwary.
+
+The plan was soon formed, and was quite as rapidly executed. Bough of
+the Oak, himself, supported by two or three other braves, undertook to
+set the buildings on fire. This was done by approaching the kitchen,
+dodging from tree to tree, making each movement with a rapidity that
+defeated aim, and an irregularity that defied calculation. In this way
+the kitchen was safely reached, where there was a log cover to conceal
+the party. Here also was fire, the food for dinner being left, just as
+it had been put over to boil, not long before. The Indians had prepared
+themselves with arrows and light wood, and soon they commenced sending
+their flaming missiles toward the roof of the hut. Arrow after arrow
+struck, and it was not long before the roof was on fire.
+
+A yell now arose throughout the Openings. Far and near the Indians
+exulted at their success. The wood was dry, and it was of a very
+inflammable nature. The wind blew, and in half an hour Castle Meal
+was in a bright blaze. Hive now began to howl, a sign that he knew his
+peril. Still, no human being appeared. Presently the flaming roof fell
+in and the savages listened intently to hear the screeches of their
+victims. The howls of the dog increased, and he was soon seen, with his
+hair burned from his skin, leaping on the unroofed wall, and thence into
+the area within the palisades. A bullet terminated his sufferings as he
+alighted.
+
+Bear's Meat now gave the signal, and a general rush was made. No rifle
+opposed them, and a hundred Indians were soon at the palisades. To the
+surprise of all, the gate was found unfastened. Rushing within, the
+door of the hut was forced, and a view obtained of the blazing furnace
+within. The party had arrived in sufficient season to perceive fragments
+of le Bourdon's rude furniture and stores yet blazing, but nowhere was
+a human corpse visible. Poles were got, and the brands were removed, in
+the expectation of finding bones beneath them; but without success. It
+was now certain that no pale-face had perished in that hut. Then the
+truth flashed on the minds of all the savages: le Bourdon and his
+friends had taken the alarm in time, and had escaped!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+     Behold, O Lord! the heathen tread
+      The branches of thy fruitful vine,
+     That its luxurious tendrils spread
+      O'er all the hills of Palestine.
+     And now the wild boar comes to waste
+     Even us, the greenest boughs and last.
+     That, drinking of its choicest dew,
+     On Zion's hill in beauty grew.
+                                  --MILMAN.
+
+ The change in Peter had been gradually making itself apparent, ever
+since he joined the party of the bee-hunter. When he entered the
+Kalamazoo, in the company of the two men who had now fallen the victims
+of his own designs, his heart was full of the fell intention of cutting
+off the whole white race. Margery had first induced him to think of
+exceptions. He had early half-decided that she should be spared, to be
+carried to his own lodge, as an adopted daughter. When he became aware
+of the state of things between his favorite and her lover, there was a
+severe struggle in his breast on the subject of sparing the last. He
+saw how strongly the girl was attached to him, and something like human
+sentiments forced their way among his savage plans. The mysterious
+communication of le Bourdon with the bees, however, had far more
+influence in determining him to spare so great a medicine-man, than
+Margery's claims; and he had endeavored to avail himself of a marriage
+as a means of saving the bride, instead of saving the bridegroom.
+All the Indians entertained a species of awe for le Bourdon, and all
+hesitated about laying hands on one who appeared so gifted. It was,
+therefore, the expectation of this extraordinary being that the wife
+might be permitted to escape with the husband. The effect of The
+Weasel's cunning has been described. Such was the state of Peter's mind
+when he met the band in the scenes last described. There he had been all
+attention to the demeanor of the missionary. A hundred times had he seen
+warriors die uttering maledictions on their enemies; but this was the
+first occasion on which he had ever known a man to use his latest breath
+in asking for blessings on those "who persecuted him." At first, Peter
+was astounded. Then the sublime principles had their effect, and his
+heart was deeply touched with what he heard. How far the Holy Spirit
+aided these better feelings, it might be presumptuous, on the one hand,
+to say; while, on the other, it will be equally presuming to think of
+denying the possibility--nay, the probability--that the great change
+which so suddenly came over the heart of Peter was produced by more than
+mere human agencies. We know that this blessed Spirit is often poured
+out, in especial cases, with affluent benevolence, and there can be no
+sufficient reason for supposing this savage might not have been thus
+signally favored, as soon as the avenues of his heart opened to the
+impulses of a generous humanity. The very qualities that would induce
+such a being to attempt the wild and visionary scheme of vengeance and
+retribution, that had now occupied his sleeping and waking thoughts for
+years, might, under a better direction, render him eminently fit to be
+the subject of divine grace. A latent sense of right lay behind all his
+seeming barbarity, and that which to us appears as a fell ferocity, was,
+in his own eyes, no less than a severe justice.
+
+The words, the principles, the prayers, and, more than all, the EXAMPLE
+of the missionary, wrought this great change, so far as human agencies
+were employed; but the power of God was necessary to carry out and
+complete this renewal of the inner man. We do not mean that a miracle
+was used in the sudden conversion of this Indian to better feelings, for
+that which is of hourly occurrence, and which may happen to all, comes
+within the ordinary workings of a Divine Providence, and cannot thus be
+designated with propriety; but we do wish to be understood as saying,
+that no purely human power could have cleared the moral vision, changed
+all the views, and softened the heart of such a man, as was so promptly
+done in the case of Peter. The way had been gradually preparing,
+perhaps, by the means already described, but the great transformation
+came so suddenly and so powerfully as to render him a different being,
+as it might almost be, in the twinkling of an eye! Such changes often
+occur, and though it may suit the self-sufficiency of the worldling
+to deride them, he is the wisest who submits in the meekest spirit to
+powers that exceed his comprehension.
+
+In this state of mind, then, Peter left the band as soon as the fate of
+the missionary was decided. His immediate object was to save the
+whites who remained, Gershom and Dorothy now having a place in his
+good intentions, as well as le Bourdon and Margery. Although he moved
+swiftly, and nearly by an air-line, his thoughts scarce kept company
+with his feet. During that rapid walk, he was haunted with the image of
+a man, dying while he pronounced benedictions on his enemies!
+
+There was little in common between the natural objects of that placid
+and rural scene and the fell passions that were so actively at work
+among the savages. The whole of the landscape was bathed in the light
+of a clear, warm summer's day. These are the times when the earth truly
+seems a sanctuary, in spots remote from the haunts of men, and least
+exposed to his abuses. The bees hum around the flowers, the birds carol
+on the boughs and from amid their leafy arbors, while even the leaping
+and shining waters appear to be instinct with the life that extols the
+glory of God.
+
+As for the family near the palisaded hut, happiness had not, for many
+a month, been so seated among them, as on this very occasion. Dorothy
+sympathized truly in the feelings of the youthful and charming bride,
+while Gershom had many of the kind and affectionate wishes of a brother
+in her behalf. The last was in his best attire, as indeed were the
+females, who were neatly though modestly clad, and Gershom had that air
+of decent repose and of quiet enjoyment, which is so common of a Sabbath
+with the men of his class, among the people from whom he sprung. The
+fears lately excited were momentarily forgotten. Everything around them
+wore an air so placid; the vault above them was so profoundly tranquil;
+the light of day was so soft and yet so bright; the Openings seemed so
+rural and so much like pictures of civilization, that apprehension had
+been entirely forgotten in present enjoyment. Such was the moment when
+Peter suddenly stood before le Bourdon and Margery, as the young couple
+sat beneath the shade of the oaks, near the spring. One instant the
+Indian regarded this picture of young wedded life with a gleam of
+pleasure on his dark face; then he announced his presence by speaking.
+
+"Can't sit here lookin' at young squaw," said this literal being.
+"Get up, and put thing in canoe. Time come to go on path dat lead to
+pale-face country."
+
+"What has happened, Peter?" demanded the bee-hunter, springing to his
+feet. "You come like a runner rushing in with his bad tidings. Has
+anything happened to give an alarm?"
+
+"Up, and off, tell you. No use talkin' now. Put all he can in canoe,
+and paddle away fast as can." There was no mistaking Peter's manner. The
+bee-hunter saw the uselessness of questioning such a man, at a time like
+that, and he called to Gershom to join him.
+
+"Here is the chief, to warn us to move," said the bee-hunter,
+endeavoring to appear calm, in order that he might not needlessly alarm
+the females, "and what he advises, we had better do. I know there is
+danger, by what has fallen from Pigeonswing as well as from himself; so
+let us lose no time, but stow the canoes, and do as he tells us."
+
+As Gershom assented, it was not two minutes ere all were at work. For
+several days, each canoe had been furnished with provisions for a hasty
+flight. It remained only to add such of the effects as were too valuable
+and necessary to be abandoned, and which had not been previously exposed
+without the palisades. For half an hour le Bourdon and Gershom worked
+as for life. No questions were asked, nor was a single moment lost, in
+a desire to learn more. The manner in which Peter bore himself satisfied
+Boden that the emergency was pressing, and it is seldom that more was
+done by so few hands in so short a period. Fortunately, the previous
+preparation greatly aided the present object, and nearly everything of
+any value was placed in the canoes within the brief space mentioned. It
+then became necessary to decide concerning the condition in which Castle
+Meal was to be left. Peter advised closing every aperture, shutting
+the gate, and leaving the dog within. There is no doubt that these
+expedients prevented the parties falling early into the hands of their
+enemies; for the time lost by the savages in making their approaches to
+the hut was very precious to the fugitives.
+
+Just as the canoes were loaded, Pigeonswing came in. He announced that
+the whole band was in motion, and might be expected to reach the grove
+in ten minutes. Placing an arm around the slender waist of Margery, le
+Bourdon almost carried her to his own canoe, Gershom soon had Dorothy in
+his little bark, while Peter entered that to the ownership of which he
+may be said to have justly succeeded by the deaths of the corporal and
+the missionary. Pigeonswing remained behind, in order to act as a scout,
+having first communicated to Peter the course the last ought to steer.
+Before the Chippewa plunged into the cover in which it was his intention
+to conceal himself, he made a sign that the band was already in sight.
+
+The heart of le Bourdon sunk within him, when he learned how near were
+the enemy. To him, escape seemed impossible; and he now regretted having
+abandoned the defences of his late residence. The river was sluggish for
+more than a mile at that spot, and then occurred a rift, which could
+not be passed without partly unloading the canoes, and where there must
+necessarily be a detention of more than an hour. Thus, it was scarcely
+possible for canoes descending that stream to escape from so large a
+band of pursuers. The sinuosities, themselves, would enable the last
+to gain fifty points ahead of them, where ambushes, or even open
+resistance, must place them altogether at the mercy of the savages.
+
+Peter knew all this, as well as the bee-hunter, and he had no intention
+of trusting his new friends in a flight down the river. Pigeonswing,
+with the sententious brevity of an Indian, had made an important
+communication to him, while they were moving, for the last time, toward
+the canoes, and he now determined to profit by it. Taking the lead,
+therefore, with his own canoe, Peter paddled UP, instead of DOWN the
+stream, going in a direction opposite to that which it would naturally
+be supposed the fugitives had taken. In doing this, also, he kept
+close under the bank which would most conceal the canoes from those who
+approached it on its southern side.
+
+It will be remembered that the trees for the palisades had been cut from
+a swamp, a short distance above the bee-hunter's residence. They had
+grown on the margin of the river, which had been found serviceable in
+floating the logs to their point of destination. The tops of many of
+these trees, resinuous, and suited by their nature to preserve their
+leaves for a considerable time, lay partly in the stream and partly on
+its banks; and Pigeonswing, foreseeing the necessity of having a place
+of refuge, had made so artful a disposition of several of them, that,
+while they preserved all the appearance of still lying where they had
+fallen, it was possible to haul canoes up beneath them, between the
+branches and the bank, in a way to form a place of perfect concealment.
+No Indian would have trusted to such a hiding-place, had it not been
+matter of notoriety that the trees had been felled for a particular
+purpose, or had their accidental disposition along the bank been
+discernibly deranged. But such was not the case, the hand of Pigeonswing
+having been so skilfully employed that what he had done could not
+be detected. He might be said to have assisted nature, instead of
+disturbing her.
+
+The canoes were actually paddling close under the bank, in the Castle
+Meal reach of the river, when the band arrived at the grove, and
+commenced what might be called the investment of the place. Had not all
+the attention of the savages been drawn toward the hut, it is probable
+that some wandering eye might have caught a glimpse of some one of them,
+as inequalities in the bank momentarily exposed each, in succession,
+to view. This danger, however, passed away, and by turning a point,
+the fugitives were effectually concealed from all who did not actually
+approach the river at that particular point. Here it was, however, that
+the swamp commenced, and the ground being wet and difficult, no one
+would be likely to do this. The stream flowed through this swamp, having
+a dense wood on each side, though one of no great extent. The reach,
+moreover, was short, making a completely sheltered haven of the
+Kalamazoo, within its limits.
+
+Once in this wooded reach, Peter tossed an arm, and assumed an air of
+greater security. He felt infinitely relieved, and knew that they were
+safe, for a time, unless some wanderer should have taken to the swamp--a
+most improbable thing of itself. When high enough, he led the way across
+the stream, and entering below, he soon had all the canoes in their
+place of concealment.
+
+"Dis good place," observed the great chief, as soon as all were fast;
+"bess take care, dough. Bess not make track too much on land; Injin got
+sharp eye, and see ebbery t'ing. Now, I go and talk wid chief. Come back
+by-'em-by. You stay here. Good-bye."
+
+"Stop, Peter--one word before we part. If you see Parson Amen, or the
+corporal, it might be well to tell THEM where we are to be found. They
+would be glad to know."
+
+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.
+
+"Peter, we can count on you for a friend, I hope?" said the bee-hunter,
+as the two were about to part, on the bank of the river. "I fear you
+were, once, our enemy!"
+
+"Bourdon," said Peter, with dignity, and speaking in the language of his
+own people, "listen. There are Good Spirits, and there are Bad Spirits.
+Our traditions tell us this. Our own minds tell us this, too. For twenty
+winters a Bad Spirit has been whispering in my ear. I listened to
+him; and did what he told me to do. I believed what he said. His words
+were--'Kill your enemies--scalp all the pale-faces--do not leave a
+squaw, or a pappoose. Make all their hearts heavy. This is what an Injin
+should do.' So has the Bad Spirit been whispering to me, for twenty
+winters. I listened to him. What he said, I did. It was pleasant to me
+to take the scalps of the pale-faces. It was pleasant to think that no
+more scalps would be left among them, to take. I was Scalping Peter.
+
+"Bourdon, the Good Spirit has, at last, made himself heard. His whisper
+is so low, that at first my ears did not hear him. They hear him now.
+When he spoke loudest, it was with the tongue of the medicine-priest of
+your people. He was about to die. When we are about to die, our voices
+become strong and clear. So do our eyes. We see what is before, and we
+see what is behind. We feel joy for what is before--we feel sorrow for
+what is behind. Your medicine-priest spoke well. It sounded in my ears
+as if the Great Spirit, himself, was talking. They say it was his Son.
+I believe them. Blossom has read to me out of the good book of your
+people, and I find it is so. I feel like a child, and could sit down, in
+my wigwam, and weep.
+
+"Bourdon, you are a pale-face, and I am an Injin. You are strong, and
+I am weak. This is because the Son of the Great Spirit has talked with
+your people, and has not talked with mine. I now see why the pale-faces
+overrun the earth and take the hunting-grounds. They know most, and have
+been told to come here, and to tell what they know to the poor ignorant
+Injins. I hope my people will listen. What the Son of the Great Spirit
+says must be true. He does not know how to do wrong.
+
+"Bourdon, once it seemed sweet to me to take the scalps of my enemies.
+When an Injin did me harm, I took his scalp. This was my way. I could
+not help it, then. The Wicked Spirit told me to do this. The Son of the
+Manitou has now told me better. I have lived under a cloud. The breath
+of the dying medicine-priest of your people has blown away that cloud.
+I see clearer. I hear him telling the Manitou to do me good, though
+I wanted his scalp. He was answered in my heart. Then my ears opened
+wider, and I heard what the Good Spirit whispered. The ear in which the
+Bad Spirit had been talking for twenty winters shut, and was deaf. I
+hear him no more. I do not want to hear him again. The whisper of the
+Son of the Manitou is very pleasant to me. It sounds like the wren
+singing his sweetest song. I hope he will always whisper so. My ear
+shall never again be shut to his words.
+
+"Bourdon, it is pleasant to me to look forward. It is not pleasant to me
+to look back. I see how many things I have done in one way, that ought
+to have been done in another way. I feel sorry, and wish it had not been
+so. Then I hear the Son of the Manitou asking His Father, who liveth
+above the clouds, to do good to the Jews who took his life. I do not
+think Injins are Jews. In this, my brother was wrong. It was his own
+notion, and it is easy for a man to think wrong. It is not so with the
+Son of the Manitou. He thinketh always as His Father thinketh, which is
+right.
+
+"Bourdon, I am no longer Peter--I must be another Injin. I do not feel
+the same. A scalp is a terrible thing in my eyes--I wish never to take
+another--never to see another--a scalp is a bad thing. I now LOVE the
+Yankees. I wish to do them good, and not to do them harm. I love
+most the Great Spirit, that let his own Son die for all men. The
+medicine-priest said he died for Injins, as well as for pale-faces. This
+we did not know, or we should have talked of him more in our traditions.
+We love to talk of good acts. But we are such ignorant Injins! The Son
+of the Manitou will have pity on us, and tell us oftener what we ought
+to do. In time, we shall learn. Now, I feel like a child: I hope I shall
+one day be a man."
+
+Having made this "confession of faith," one that would have done credit
+to a Christian church, Peter shook the bee-hunter kindly by the hand,
+and took his departure. He did not walk into the swamp, though it was
+practicable with sufficient care, but he stepped into the river, and
+followed its margin, knowing that "water leaves no trail." Nor did Peter
+follow the direct route toward the now blazing hut, the smoke from
+which was rising high above the trees, but he ascended the stream, until
+reaching a favorable spot, he threw aside all of his light dress, made
+it into a bundle, and swam across the Kalamazoo, holding his clothes
+above the element with one hand. On reaching the opposite shore, he
+moved on to the upper margin of the swamp, where he resumed his clothes.
+Then he issued into the Openings, carrying neither rifle, bow, tomahawk,
+nor knife. All his weapons he had left in his canoe, fearful that they
+might tempt him to do evil, instead of good, to his enemies. Neither
+Bear's Meat, nor Bough of the Oak, was yet regarded by Peter with the
+eye of love. He tried not to hate them, and this he found sufficiently
+difficult; conscious of this difficulty, he had laid aside his arms,
+accordingly. This mighty change had been gradually in progress, ever
+since the chief's close communication with Margery, but it had received
+its consummation in the last acts, and last words, of the missionary!
+
+Having got out into the Openings, it was not difficult for Peter to join
+his late companions without attracting observation from whence he came.
+He kept as much under cover as was convenient, and reached the kitchen,
+just as the band broke into the defences, and burst open the door of the
+blazing and already roofless hut. Here Peter paused, unwilling to
+seem inactive in such a scene, yet averse to doing anything that a
+sensitively tender conscience might tell him was wrong. He knew there
+was no human being there to save, and cared little for the few effects
+that might be destroyed. He did not join the crowd, therefore, until it
+was ascertained that the bee-hunter and his companions had escaped.
+
+"The pale-faces have fled," said Bear's Meat to the great chief, when
+the last did approach him. "We have looked for their bones among the
+ashes, but there are none. That medicine-bee-hunter has told them that
+their scalps were wanted, and they have gone off!"
+
+"Have any of the young men been down to the river, to look for their
+canoes?" quietly demanded Peter. "If the canoes are gone, too, they have
+taken the route toward the Great Lake."
+
+This was so obvious and probable, that a search was immediately set on
+foot. The report was soon made, and great was the eagerness to pursue.
+The Kalamazoo was so crooked, that no one there doubted of overtaking
+the fugitives, and parties were immediately organized for the chase.
+This was done with the customary intelligence and shrewdness of Indians.
+The canoes that belonged to Crowsfeather and his band had been brought
+up the river, and they lay concealed in rushes, not a mile from the hut.
+A party of warriors brought them to the landing, and they carried one
+division of the party to the opposite shore, it being the plan to follow
+each bank of the river, keeping close to the stream, even to its mouth,
+should it prove necessary. Two other parties were sent in direct lines,
+one on each side of the river, also, to lay in ambush at such distant
+points, ahead, as would be almost certain to anticipate the arrival of
+the fugitives. The canoes were sent down the stream, to close the net
+against return, while Bear's Meat, Bough of the Oak, Crowsfeather, and
+several others of the leading chiefs, remained near the still burning
+hut, with a strong party, to examine the surrounding Openings for
+foot-prints and trails. It was possible that the canoes had been sent
+adrift, in order to mislead them, while the pale-faces had fled by land.
+
+It has been stated that the Openings had a beautiful sward, near Castle
+Meal, This was true of that particular spot, and was the reason why
+le Bourdon had selected it for his principal place of residence. The
+abundance of flowers drew the bees there, a reason of itself why he
+should like the vicinity. Lest the reader should be misled, however,
+it may be well to explain that an absence of sward is characteristic of
+these Openings, rather than the reverse, it being, to a certain degree,
+a cause of complaint, now that the country is settled, that the lands of
+the Oak Openings are apt to be so light that the grasses do not readily
+form as firm a turf as is desirable for meadows and pastures. We
+apprehend this is true, however, less as a rule than as exceptions;
+there being variety in the soils of these Openings, as well as in other
+quarters.
+
+Nevertheless, the savages were aware that the country around the burned
+hut, for a considerable extent, differed, in this particular, from most
+of that which lay farther east, or more inland. On the last a trail
+would be much more easily detected than on the first, and a party,
+under the direction of a particularly experienced leader, was dispatched
+several miles to the eastward, to look for the usual signs of the
+passage of any toward Detroit, taking that route. This last expedient
+troubled Peter exceedingly, since it placed a body of enemies in the
+rear of the fugitives; thereby rendering their position doubly perilous.
+There was no help for the difficulty, however; and the great chief saw
+the party depart without venturing on remonstrance, advice, or any
+other expedient to arrest the movement. Bear's Meat now called the head
+chiefs, who remained, into a circle, and asked for opinions concerning
+the course that ought next to be taken.
+
+"What does my brother, the tribeless chief, say?" he asked, looking at
+Peter, in a way to denote the expectation which all felt, that he ought
+to be able to give useful counsel in such a strait. "We have got but
+two scalps from six heads; and one of THEM is buried with the
+medicine-priest."
+
+"Scalps cannot be taken from them that get off," returned Peter,
+evasively. "We must first catch these pale-faces. When they are found
+it will be easy to scalp them. If the canoes are gone, I think the
+medicine-bee-hunter and his squaws have gone in them. We may find the
+whole down the river."
+
+To this opinion most of the chiefs assented, though the course of
+examining for a trail farther east was still approved. The band was so
+strong, while the pale-faces were so few, that a distribution of their
+own force was of no consequence, and it was clearly the most prudent to
+send out young men in all directions. Every one, however, expected that
+the fugitives would be overtaken on, or near, the river, and Bear's Meat
+suggested the propriety of their moving down stream, themselves, very
+shortly.
+
+"When did my brother last see the pale-faces?" asked Crowsfeather. "This
+bee-hunter knows the river well, and may have started yesterday; or even
+after he came from the Great Council of the Prairie."
+
+This was a new idea, but one that seemed probable enough. All eyes
+turned toward Peter, who saw, at once, that such a notion must greatly
+favor the security of the fugitives, and felt a strong desire to
+encourage it. He found evasion difficult, however, and well knew the
+danger of committing himself. Instead of giving a straightforward
+answer, therefore, he had recourse to circumlocution and subterfuge.
+
+"My brother is right," he answered. "The pale-faces HAVE had time to
+get far down the stream. As my brothers know, I slept among them at the
+Round Prairie. To-day, they know I was with them at the council of the
+spring of gushing waters."
+
+All this was true, as far as it went, although the omissions were very
+material. No one seemed to suspect the great chief, whose fidelity
+to his own principles was believed to be of a character amounting to
+enthusiasm. Little did any there know of the power of the unseen Spirit
+of God to alter the heart, producing what religionists term the new
+birth. We do not wish, however, to be understood that Peter had, as
+yet, fully experienced this vast change. It is not often the work of a
+moment, though well-authenticated modern instances do exist, in which we
+have every reason to believe that men have been made to see and feel
+the truth almost as miraculously as was St. Paul himself. As for this
+extraordinary savage, he had entered into the strait and narrow way,
+though he was not far advanced on its difficult path.
+
+When men tell us of the great progress that the race is making toward
+perfection, and point to the acts which denote its wisdom, its power to
+control its own affairs, its tendencies toward good when most left
+to its own self-control, our minds are filled with scepticism. The
+every-day experience of a life now fast verging toward threescore,
+contradicts the theory and the facts. We believe not in the possibility
+of man's becoming even a strictly rational being, unaided by a power
+from on high; and all that we have seen and read goes to convince us
+that HE is most of a philosopher, the most accurate judge of his real
+state, the most truly learned, who most vividly sees the necessity of
+falling back on the precepts of revelation for all his higher principles
+and practice. We conceive that this mighty truth furnishes unanswerable
+proof of the unceasing agency of a Providence, and when we once admit
+this, we concede that our own powers are insufficient for our own wants.
+
+That the world, as a whole, is advancing toward a better state of
+things, we as firmly believe as we do that it is by ways that have not
+been foreseen by man; and that, whenever the last has been made the
+agent of producing portions of this improvement, it has oftener been
+without design, or calculation, than with it. Who, for instance,
+supposes that the institutions of this country, of which we boast so
+much, could have stood as long as they have, without the conservative
+principles that are to be found in the Union; and who is there so vain
+as to ascribe the overshadowing influence of this last great power to
+any wisdom in man? We all know that perfectly fortuitous circumstances,
+or what appear to us to be such, produced the Federal Government, and
+that its strongest and least exceptionable features are precisely those
+which could not be withstood, much less invented, as parts of the theory
+of a polity.
+
+A great and spasmodic political movement is, at this moment, convulsing
+Christendom. That good will come of it, we think is beyond a question;
+but we greatly doubt whether it will come in the particular form, or by
+the specified agencies, that human calculations would lead us to expect.
+It must be admitted that the previous preparations, which have induced
+the present effort, are rather in opposition to, than the consequences
+of, calculated agencies; overturning in their progress the very
+safeguards which the sagacity of men had interposed to the advance of
+those very opinions that have been silently, and by means that would
+perhaps baffle inquiry, preparing the way for the results that have been
+so suddenly and unexpectedly obtained. If the course is onward, it is
+more as the will of God, than from any calculations of man; and it is
+when the last are the most active, that there is the greatest reason to
+apprehend the consequences.
+
+Of such a dispensation of the Providence of Almighty God, do we believe
+Peter to have been the subject. Among the thousand ways that are
+employed to touch the heart, he had been most affected by the sight of
+a dying man's asking benedictions on his enemies! It was assailing his
+besetting sin; attacking the very citadel of his savage character, and
+throwing open, at once, an approach into the deepest recesses of his
+habits and dispositions. It was like placing a master-key in the hands
+of him who would go through the whole tenement, for the purpose of
+purifying it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+     Thou to whom every faun and satyr flies
+     For willing service; whether to surprise
+     The squatted hare, while in half sleeping fits,
+     Or upward ragged precipices flit
+     To save poor lambkins from the eagle's maw;
+     Or by mysterious enticement draw
+     Bewildered shepherds to their path again;--
+                                      --KEATS.
+
+
+It can easily be understood that the party with the canoes were left by
+Peter in a state of great anxiety. The distance between the site of the
+hut and their place of concealment was but little more than a quarter
+of a mile, and the yell of the savages had often reached their ears,
+notwithstanding the cover of the woods. This proximity, of itself, was
+fearful; but the uncertainty that le Bourdon felt on the subject of
+Peter's real intentions added greatly to his causes of concern. Of
+course, he knew but little of the sudden change that had come over this
+mysterious chief's feelings; nor is it very likely that he would have
+been able to appreciate it, even had the fact been more fully stated.
+Our hero had very little acquaintance with the dogmas of Christianity,
+and would have, most probably, deemed it impossible that so great a
+revolution of purpose could have been so suddenly wrought in the mind of
+man, had the true state of the case been communicated to him. He would
+have been ready enough to allow that, with God, nothing is impossible;
+but might have been disposed to deny the influence of His Holy Spirit,
+as exhibited in this particular form, for a reason no better than the
+circumstance that he himself had never been the subject of such a power.
+All that Peter had said, therefore, served rather to mystify him, than
+to explain, in its true colors, what had actually occurred. With Margery
+it was different. Her schooling had been far better than that of any
+other of the party, and, while she admired the manly appearance, and
+loved the free, generous character of her husband, she had more than
+once felt pained at the passing thoughts of his great indifference to
+sacred things. This feeling in le Bourdon, however, was passive rather
+than active, and gave her a kind interest in his future welfare, rather
+than any present pain through acts and words.
+
+But, as respects their confidence in Peter, this young couple were much
+farther apart than in their religious notions. The bee-hunter had never
+been without distrust, though his apprehensions had been occasionally
+so far quieted as to leave him nearly free of them altogether; while
+his wife had felt the utmost confidence in the chief, from the very
+commencement of their acquaintance. It would be useless, perhaps, to
+attempt to speculate on the causes; but it is certain that there are
+secret sources of sympathy that draw particular individuals toward each
+other and antipathies that keep them widely separated. Men shall meet
+for the first time, and feel themselves attracted toward each other,
+like two drops of water, or repelled, like the corks of an electric
+machine.
+
+The former had been the case with Peter and Margery. They liked each
+other from the first, and kind orifices had soon come to increase this
+feeling. The girl had now seen so much of the Indians, as to regard
+them much as she did others, or with the discriminations, and tastes,
+or distastes, with which we all regard our fellow-creatures; feeling no
+particular cause of estrangement. It is true that Margery would not have
+been very likely to fall in love with a young Indian, had one come in
+her way of a suitable age and character; for her American notions on the
+subject of color might have interposed difficulties; but, apart from the
+tender sentiments, she could see good and bad qualities in one of the
+aborigines, as well as in a white man. As a consequence of this sympathy
+between Peter and Margery, the last had ever felt the utmost confidence
+in the protection and friendship of the first. This she did, even while
+the struggle was going on in his breast on the subject of including her
+in his fell designs, or of making an exception in her favor. It
+shows the waywardness of our feelings that Margery had never reposed
+confidence in Pigeonswing, who was devotedly the friend of le Bourdon,
+and who remained with them for no other reason than a general wish to be
+of use. Something BRUSQUE in his manner, which was much less courteous
+and polished than that of Peter, had early rendered her dissatisfied
+with him, and once estranged, she had never felt disposed to be on terms
+of intimacy sufficient to ascertain his good or bad qualities.
+
+The great change of feeling in Peter was not very clearly understood by
+Margery, any more than it was by her husband; though, had her attention
+been drawn more strictly to it, she would have best known how to
+appreciate it. But this knowledge was not wanting to put HER perfectly
+at peace, so far as apprehension of his doing her harm was concerned.
+This sense of security she now manifested in a conversation with le
+Bourdon, that took place soon after Peter had left them.
+
+"I wish we weren't in the hands of this red-skin, Margery," said her
+husband, a little more off his guard than was his wont.
+
+"Of Peter! You surprise me, Benjamin. I think we could not be in better
+hands, since we have got this risk to run with the savages. If it was
+Pigeonswing that you feared, I could understand it."
+
+"I will answer for Pigeonswing with my life."
+
+"I am glad to hear you say so, for _I_ do not half like HIM. Perhaps I
+am prejudiced against him. The scalp he took down at the mouth of the
+river set me against him from the first."
+
+"Do you not know, Margery, that your great friend goes by the name of
+'Scalping Peter'?"
+
+"Yes, I know it very well; but I do not believe he ever took a scalp in
+his life."
+
+"Did he ever tell you as much as that?"
+
+"I can't say that he did; but he has never paraded anything of the sort
+before my eyes, like Pigeonswing. I do not half like that Chippewa, dear
+Bourdon."
+
+"No fear of him, Margery; nor, when I come to think it all over, do I
+see why Peter should have brought us here, if he means anything wrong.
+The man is so mysterious, that I cannot line him down to his hole."
+
+"My word for it, Bourdon, that when you DO, it will take you to a
+friendly hive. I have put almost as much faith in Peter as in you or
+Gershom. You heard what he said about Parson Amen and the corporal."
+
+"And how coolly he took it all," answered her husband, shaking his head.
+"It has been a sudden departure for them, and one would think even an
+Injin might have felt it more."
+
+Margery's cheek grew pale, and her limbs trembled a little. It was a
+minute ere she could pursue the discourse.
+
+"This is terrible, but I will not, cannot believe it," she said. "I'm
+sure, Bourdon, we ought to be very thankful to Peter for having
+brought us here. Remember how earnestly he listened to the words of the
+Saviour."
+
+"If he has brought us here with a good intention, I thank him for it.
+But I scarce know what to think. Pigeonswing has given me many a hint,
+which I have understood to mean that we ought not to trust this unknown
+Injin too much."
+
+"So has he given me some of his hints, though I would sooner trust Peter
+than trust him, any time."
+
+"Our lives are in the care of Providence, I see. If we can really rely
+on these two Injins, all may be well; for Peter has brought us to an
+admirable cover, and he says that the Chippewa prepared it."
+
+The young husband and his wife now landed, and began to examine
+more particularly into the state of the swamp, near their place of
+concealment. Just at that spot, the bank of the river was higher than
+in most of the low land, and was dry, with a soil that approached sand.
+This was the place where the few young pines had grown. The dry ground
+might have covered four or five acres, and so many trees having been
+felled, light and air were admitted, in a way to render the place
+comparatively cheerful. The branches of the felled trees made a
+sufficient cover in all directions, though the swamp itself was more
+than that, almost a defence, toward the Openings. The bee-hunter found
+it was possible, though it was exceedingly difficult, to make his
+way through it. He ascertained the fact, however, since it might be
+important to their future movements to know it.
+
+In a word, le Bourdon made a complete RECONNAISSANCE of his position. He
+cleared a spot for the females, and made a sort of hut, that would
+serve as a protection against rain, and in which they all might sleep at
+night. There was little doubt that this place must be occupied for some
+days, if Peter was acting in good faith, since an early movement would
+infallibly lead to detection. Time must be given to the Indians to
+precede them, or the great numbers of the savages would scarce leave a
+hope of escape. A greater sense of security succeeded this examination,
+and these arrangements. The danger was almost entirely to be apprehended
+on the side of the river. A canoe passing up-stream might, indeed,
+discover their place of concealment, but it was scarcely to be
+apprehended that one would wade through the mud and water of the swamp
+to approach them in any other direction.
+
+Under these circumstances, le Bourdon began to feel more security in
+their position. Could he now be certain of Peter, his mind would be
+comparatively at ease, and he might turn his attention altogether to
+making the party comfortable. Margery, who seldom quitted his side,
+reasoned with him on the subject of the mysterious chief's good faith,
+and by means of her own deep reliance on him, she came at last to the
+point of instilling some of her own confidence into the mind of her
+husband. From that time he worked at the shelter for the females, and
+the other little arrangements their situation rendered necessary, with
+greater zest, and with far more attention to the details. So long as
+we are in doubt of accomplishing good, we hesitate about employing our
+energies; but once let hope revive within us, in the shape of favorable
+results, and we become new men, bracing every nerve to the task, and
+working with redoubled spirit; even should it be at the pump of the
+sinking ship, which, we believe, ranks the highest among the toils that
+are inflicted on the unfortunate.
+
+For three days and nights did le Bourdon and his friends remain on that
+dry land of the swamp, without hearing or seeing anything of either
+Peter or Pigeonswing. The time was growing long, and the party anxious;
+though the sense of security was much increased by this apparent
+exemption from danger. Still, uncertainty, and the wish to ascertain the
+precise state of things in the Openings, were gradually getting to be
+painful, and it was with great satisfaction that the bee-hunter met his
+young wife as she came running toward him, on the morning of the fourth
+day, to announce that an Indian was approaching, by wading in the margin
+of the river, keeping always in the water so as to leave no trail.
+Hurrying to a point whence their visitor might be seen, le Bourdon soon
+perceived it was no other than Pigeonswing. In a few minutes this Indian
+arrived, and was gladly received by all four of the fugitives, who
+gathered around him, eager to hear the news.
+
+"You are welcome, Chippewa," cried le Bourdon, shaking his friend
+cordially by the hand. "We were half afraid we might never see you
+again. Do you bring us good or evil tidings?"
+
+"Mustn't be squaw, and ask too much question, Bourdon," returned the
+red-skin, carefully examining the priming of his rifle, in order to make
+sure it was not wet. "Got plenty venison, eh?"
+
+"Not much venison is left, but we have caught a good many fish, which
+have helped us along. I have killed a dozen large squirrels, too, with
+your bow and arrows, which I find you left in your canoe. But--"
+
+"Yes, he good bow, dat--might kill hummin'-bird wid dat bow. Fish good
+here, eh?"
+
+"They are eatable, when a body can get no better. But NOW, I should
+think, Pigeonswing, you might give us some of the news."
+
+"Mustn't be squaw, Bourdon--bad for warrior be squaw. Alway bess be man,
+and be patient, like man. What you t'ink, Bourdon? Got him at last!"
+
+"Got WHAT my good fellow? I see nothing about you, but your arms and
+ammunition."
+
+"Got scalp of dat Weasel! Wasn't dat well done? Nebber no young warrior
+take more scalp home dan Pigeonswing carry dis time! Got t'ree; all
+hid, where Bear's Meat nebber know. Take 'em away, when he get ready to
+march."
+
+"Well, well, Chippewa--I suppose it will not be easy to reason you out
+of this feelin'--but what has become of the red-skins who burned my
+cabin, and who killed the missionary and the corporal?"
+
+"All about--dough must go down river. Look here, Bourdon, some of dem
+chief fool enough to t'ink bee carry you off on his wing!"
+
+Here the Chippewa looked his contempt for the credulity and ignorance of
+the others, though he did not express it after the boisterous manner in
+which a white man of his class might have indulged. To him le Bourdon
+was a good fellow, but no conjuror, and he understood the taking of the
+bee too well to have any doubts as to the character of that process.
+His friend had let him amuse himself by the hour in looking through his
+spy-glass, so that the mind of this one savage was particularly well
+fortified against the inroads of the weaknesses that had invaded those
+of most of the members of the great council. Consequently, he was amused
+with the notion taken up by some of the others, that le Bourdon had
+been carried off by bees, though he manifested his amusement in a very
+Indian-like fashion.
+
+"So much the better," answered le Bourdon; "and I hope they have
+followed to line me down to my hive in the settlements."
+
+"Most on 'em go--yes, dat true. But some don't go. Plenty of Injins
+still about dis part of Opening."
+
+"What are we then to do? We shall soon be in want of food. The fish do
+not bite as they did, and I have killed all the squirrels I can find.
+You know I dare not use a rifle."
+
+"Don't be squaw, Bourdon. When Injin get marry he grows good deal like
+squaw at fuss; but dat soon go away. I spose it's just so wid pale-face.
+Mustn't be squaw, Bourdon. Dat bad for warrior. What you do for eat?
+Why, see dere," pointing to an object that was floating slowly down the
+river, the current of which was very sluggish just in that reach. "Dere
+as fat buck as ever did see, eh?"
+
+Sure enough the Indian had killed a deer, of which the Openings were
+full, and having brought it to the river, he had constructed a raft of
+logs, and placing the carcase on it, he had set his game adrift, taking
+care to so far precede it as to be in readiness to tow it into port.
+When this last operation was performed, it was found that the Chippewa
+did not heedlessly vaunt the quality of his prize. What was more, so
+accurately had he calculated the time, and the means of subsistence in
+the possession of the fugitives, that his supply came in just as it
+was most needed. In all this he manifested no more than the care of
+an experienced and faithful hunter. Next to the war-path, the
+hunting-ground is the great field for an Indian's glory; deeds and facts
+so far eclipsing purely intellectual qualifications with savages, as to
+throw oratory, though much esteemed by them, and wisdom at the Council
+Fires, quite into the shade. In all this, we find the same propensity
+among ourselves. The common mind, ever subject to these impulses, looks
+rather to such exploits as address themselves to the senses and the
+imagination, than to those qualities which the reason alone can best
+appreciate; and in this, ignorance asserts its negative power over all
+conditions of life.
+
+Pigeonswing now condescended to enter on such explanations as the state
+of the case rendered necessary. His account was sufficiently clear,
+and it manifested throughout the sagacity and shrewdness of a practised
+hunter and scout. We shall not attempt to give his words, which would
+require too much space, but the substance of his story was briefly this:
+
+As has been alluded to already, the principal chiefs, on a suggestion
+of Bear's Meat, had followed the young men down the Kalamazoo, dividing
+themselves by a part of their body's crossing the stream at the first
+favorable spot. In this way the Indians proceeded, sweeping the river
+before them, and examining every place that seemed capable of concealing
+a canoe. Runners were kept in constant motion between the several
+parties, in order to let the state of the search be known to all; and,
+feigning to be one of these very men, Pigeonswing had held communication
+with several whom he purposely met, and to whom he imparted such
+invented information as contributed essentially to send the young men
+forward on a false scent. In this way, the main body of the savages
+descended the river some sixty miles, following its windings, in the
+first day and a half. Here Pigeonswing left them, turning his own face
+up stream, in order to rejoin his friends. Of Peter he had no knowledge;
+neither knowing, nor otherwise learning, what had become of the great
+chief. On his way up stream, Pigeonswing met several more Indians;
+runners like himself, or as he seemed to be; or scouts kept on the
+lookout for the fugitives. He had no difficulty in deceiving these men.
+None of them had been of Crowsfeather's party, and he was a stranger to
+them all. Ignorant of his real character, they received his information
+without distrust, and the orders he pretended to convey were obeyed by
+them without the smallest hesitation. In this way, then, Pigeonswing
+contrived to send all the scouts he met away from the river, by telling
+them that there was reason to think the pale-faces had abandoned the
+stream, and that it was the wish of Bear's Meat that their trail should
+be looked for in the interior. This was the false direction that he gave
+to all, thereby succeeding better even than he had hoped in clearing
+the banks of the Kalamazoo of observers and foes. Nevertheless, many of
+those whom he knew to be out, some quite in the rear of the party, and
+others in its front, and at no great distance from them, he did not
+meet; of course he could not get his false directions to their ears.
+There were, in fact, so many of the Indians and so few of the whites,
+that it was an easy matter to cover the path with young warriors, any
+one party of whom would be strong enough to capture two men and as many
+women.
+
+Having told the tale of his own doings, Pigeonswing next came to his
+proposition for the mode of future proceeding. He proposed that the
+family should get into the canoes that very night, and commence its
+flight by going down the stream directly toward its foes! This sounded
+strangely, but there did not seem to be any alternative. A march across
+the peninsula would be too much for the females, and there was the
+certainty that their trail would be found. It may seem strange to
+those who are unacquainted with the American Indian, and his habits,
+to imagine that, in so large an expanse, the signs of the passage of so
+small a party might not escape detection; but such was the case. To one
+unaccustomed to the vigilance and intelligence of these savages, it must
+appear just as probable that the vessel could be followed through the
+wastes of the ocean, by means of its wake, as that the footprints should
+be so indelible as to furnish signs that can be traced for days. Such,
+however, is the fact, and no one understood it better than the Chippewa.
+He was also aware that the country toward Ohio, whither the fugitives
+would naturally direct their course, now that the English were in
+possession of Detroit, must soon be a sort of battle-ground, to which
+most of the warriors of that region would eagerly repair. Under all the
+circumstances, therefore, he advised the flight by means of the river.
+Le Bourdon reasoned on all he heard, and, still entertaining some of his
+latent distrust of Peter, and willing to get beyond his reach, he soon
+acquiesced in the proposition, and came fully into the plan.
+
+It was now necessary to reload the canoes. This was done in the course
+of the day, and every arrangement was made, so as to be ready for a
+start as soon as the darkness set in. Everybody was glad to move, though
+all were aware of the extent of the hazard they ran. The females, in
+particular, felt their hearts beat, as each, in her husband's canoe,
+issued out of the cover into the open river. Pigeonswing took the lead,
+paddling with a slow, but steady sweep of his arm, and keeping as
+close as was convenient to one bank. By adopting this precaution, he
+effectually concealed the canoes from the eyes of all on that side of
+the river, unless they stood directly on its margin, and had the aid of
+the shadows to help conceal them from any who might happen to be on the
+other. In this way, then, the party proceeded, passing the site of
+the hut, and the grove of Openings around it, undetected. As the river
+necessarily flowed through the lowest land, its banks were wooded much
+of the way, which afforded great protection to the fugitives; and this
+so much the more because these woods often grew in swamps where the
+scouts would not be likely to resort.
+
+About midnight the canoes reached the first rift. An hour was lost in
+unloading and in reloading the canoes, and in passing the difficulties
+at that point. As soon as this was done, the party re-embarked,
+and resorted once more to the use of the paddle, in order to gain a
+particular sheltered reach of the river previously to the return of
+light. This was effected successfully, and the party landed.
+
+It now appeared that Pigeonswing had chosen another swamp as a place
+of concealment for the fugitives to use during the day. These swamps,
+through which the river wound its way in short reaches, were admirably
+adapted to such purposes. Dark, sombre, and hardly penetrable on the
+side of the land, they were little likely to be entered after a first
+examination. Nor was it at all probable that females, in particular,
+would seek a refuge in such a place. But the Chippewa had found the
+means to obviate the natural obstacles of the low land. There were
+several spots where the water from the river set back into the swamp,
+forming so many little creeks; and into the largest of one of these he
+pushed his canoe, the others following where he led. By resorting to
+such means, the shelter now obtained was more complete, perhaps, than
+that previously left.
+
+Pigeonswing forced his light boat up the shallow inlet, until he
+reached a bit of dry land, where he brought up, announcing THAT as the
+abiding-place during the day. Glad enough was every one to get on shore,
+in a spot that promised security, after eight hours of unremitting
+paddling and of painful excitement. Notwithstanding the rifts and
+carrying-places they had met, and been obliged to overcome, le Bourdon
+calculated that they had made as many as thirty miles in the course of
+that one night. This was a great movement, and to all appearances it had
+been made without detection. As for the Chippewa, he was quite content,
+and no sooner was his canoe secured, than he lighted his pipe and sat
+down to his enjoyment with an air of composure and satisfaction.
+
+"And here, you think, Pigeonswing, that we shall be safe during the
+day?" demanded le Bourdon, approaching the fallen tree on which the
+Indian had taken his seat.
+
+"Sartain--no Pottawattamie come here. Too wet. Don't like wet. An't
+duck, or goose--like dry land, juss like squaw. Dis good 'baccy,
+Bourdon--hope you got more for friend."
+
+"I have enough for us all, Pigeonswing, and you shall have a full share.
+Now, tell me; what will be your next move, and where do you intend to
+pass the morrow?"
+
+"Juss like diss. Plenty of swamp, Bourdon, on Kekalamazoo. [Footnote:
+This is the true Indian word, though the whites have seen fit to omit
+the first syllable.] Run canoe in swamp; den safe 'nough. Injins won't
+look 'ere, 'cause he don't know whereabout look. Don't like swamp. Great
+danger down at mouth of river."
+
+"So it has seemed to me, Chippewa. The Injins must be there in a strong
+force, and we shall find it no easy matter to get through them. How do
+you propose to do it?"
+
+"Go by in night. No udder way. When can't see, can't see. Dere plenty of
+rush dere; dat good t'ing, and, p'raps, dat help us. Rush good cover for
+canoe. Expec', when we get down 'ere, to get some scalp, too. Plenty of
+Pottawattamie about dat lodge, sartain; and it very hard if don't get
+some on him scalp. You mean stop, and dig up cache; eh, Bourdon?"
+
+The cool, quiet manner in which Pigeonswing revealed his own plans, and
+inquired into those of his friend, had, at least, the effect to revive
+the confidence of le Bourdon. He could not think the danger very great
+so long as one so experienced as the Chippewa felt so much confidence in
+his own future proceedings; and, after talking a short time longer with
+this man, the bee-hunter went to seek Margery, in order to impart to her
+a due portion of his own hopes.
+
+The sisters were preparing the breakfast. This was done without the use
+of fire, it being too hazardous to permit smoke to rise above the tops
+of the trees. Many is the camp that has been discovered by the smoke,
+which can be seen at a great distance; and it is a certain sign of the
+presence of man, when it ascends in threads, or such small columns as
+denote a domestic fire beneath. This is very different from the clouds
+that float above the burning prairies, and which all, at once, impute
+to their true origin. The danger of using fire had been so much guarded
+against by our fugitives, that the cooking of the party had been done
+at night; the utmost caution having been used to prevent the fire itself
+from being seen, and care taken to extinguish it long before the return
+of day. A supply of cold meat was always on hand, and had it not been,
+the fugitives would have known how to live on berries, or, at need, to
+fast; anything was preferable, being exposed to certain capture.
+
+As soon as the party had broken their fast, arrangements were made for
+recruiting nature by sleep. As for Pigeonswing, Indian-like, he had
+eaten enormously, no reasonable quantity of venison sufficing to appease
+his appetite; and when he had eaten, he lay down in the bottom of his
+canoe and slept. Similar dispositions were made of their persons by the
+rest, and half an hour after the meal was ended, all there were in a
+profound sleep. No watch was considered necessary, and none was kept.
+
+The rest of the weary is sweet. Long hours passed, ere any one there
+awoke; but no sooner did the Chippewa move than all the rest were afoot.
+It was now late in the day, and it was time to think of taking the
+meal that was to sustain them through the toil and fatigues of another
+arduous night. This was done; the necessary preparations being made for
+a start ere the sun had set. The canoes were then shoved as near the
+mouth of the inlet as it was safe to go, while the light remained.
+Here they stopped, and a consultation took place, as to the manner of
+proceeding.
+
+No sooner did the shades of evening close around the place than the
+fugitives again put forth. The night was clouded and dark, and so much
+of the way now lay through forests that there was little reason to
+apprehend detection. The chief causes of delay were the rifts, and the
+portages, as had been the case the night before. Luckily, le Bourdon had
+been up and down the stream so often as to be a very tolerable pilot
+in its windings. He assumed the control, and by midnight the greatest
+obstacle to that evening's progress was overcome. At the approach of
+day, Pigeonswing pointed out another creek, in another swamp, where the
+party found a refuge for the succeeding day. In this manner four nights
+were passed on the river, and as many days in swamps, without discovery.
+The Chippewa had nicely calculated his time and his distances, and
+not the smallest mistake was made. Each morning a place of shelter was
+reached in sufficient season; and each night the fugitives were ready
+for the start as the day shut in. In this manner, most of the river was
+descended, until a distance that could be easily overcome in a couple of
+hours of paddling alone remained between the party and the mouth of the
+stream. Extreme caution was now necessary, for signs of Indians in the
+neighborhood had been detected at several points in the course of the
+last night's work. On one occasion, indeed, the escape was so narrow as
+to be worth recording.
+
+It was at a spot where the stream flowed through a forest denser than
+common, that Pigeonswing heard voices on the river, ahead of him. One
+Indian was calling to another, asking to be set across the stream in a
+canoe. It was too late to retreat, and so much uncertainty existed as
+to the nearness, or distance, of the danger, that the Chippewa deemed it
+safest to bring all three of his canoes together, and to let them float
+past the point suspected, or rather KNOWN, to be occupied by enemies.
+This was done, with the utmost care. The plan succeeded, though not
+without running a very great risk. The canoes did float past unseen,
+though there was a minute of time when le Bourdon fancied by the sounds
+that savages were talking to each other, within a hundred feet of his
+ears. Additional security, however, was felt in consequence of the
+circumstance, since the pursuers must imagine the river below them to be
+free from the pursued.
+
+The halt that morning was made earlier than had been the practice
+previously. This was done because the remaining distance was so small
+that, in continuing to advance, the party would have incurred the risk
+of reaching the mouth of the river by daylight. This was to be avoided
+on every account, but principally because it was of great importance to
+conceal from the savages the direction taken. Were the chiefs certain
+that their intended victims were on Lake Michigan, it would be possible
+for them to send parties across the isthmus, that should reach points
+on Lake Huron, days in advance of the arrival of the bee-hunter and his
+friends in the vicinity of Saginaw, or Pointe aux Barques, for instance,
+and where the canoes would be almost certain to pass near the shore,
+laying their ambushes to accomplish these ends. It was thought very
+material, therefore, to conceal the movements, even after the lake
+might be reached, though le Bourdon had not a doubt of his canoes much
+outsailing those of the savages. The Indians are not very skilful in the
+use of sails, while the bee-hunter knew how to manage a bark canoe in
+rough water, with unusual skill. In the common acceptation, he was no
+sailor; but, in his own peculiar craft, there was not a man living who
+could excel him in dexterity or judgment.
+
+The halting-place that morning was not in a swamp, for none offered at
+a suitable distance from the mouth of the river. On the contrary, it
+was in a piece of Opening, that was tolerably well garnished with trees,
+however, and through which ran a small brook that poured its tribute
+into the Kalamazoo. The Chippewa had taken notice of this brook, which
+was large enough to receive the canoes, where they might be concealed
+in the rushes. A favorable copse, surrounded with elders, afforded
+a covered space on shore, and these advantages were improved for an
+encampment.
+
+Instead of seeking his rest as usual, on reaching this cover,
+Pigeonswing left the party on a scout. He walked up the brook some
+distance, in order to conceal his trail, and then struck across the
+Opening, taking the direction westward, or toward the river's mouth.
+As for le Bourdon and his friends, they ate and slept as usual,
+undisturbed; but arose some hours before the close of day.
+
+Thus far, a great work had been accomplished. The canoes had descended
+the stream with a success that was only equalled by the hardihood of the
+measure, conducted by an intelligence that really seemed to amount to
+an instinct Pigeonswing carried a map of the Kalamazoo in his head, and
+seemed never at a loss to know where to find the particular place he
+sought. It is true, he had roamed through those Openings ever since he
+was a child; and an Indian seldom passes a place susceptible of being
+made of use to his habits, that he does not take such heed of its
+peculiarities, as to render him the master of all its facilities.
+
+Margery was now full of hope, while the bee-hunter was filled with
+apprehensions. She saw all things couleur de rose, for she was young,
+happy, and innocent; but he better understood that they were just
+approaching the most serious moment of their flight. He knew the
+vigilance of the American savage, and could not deceive himself on the
+subject of the danger they must run. The mouth of the river was just the
+place that, of all others, would be the closest watched, and to pass it
+would require not only all their skill and courage, but somewhat of the
+fostering care of Providence. It might be done with success, though the
+chances were much against.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+     Yes! we have need to bid our hopes repose
+     On some protecting influence; here confined
+     Life hath no healing balm for mental woes;
+     Earth is too narrow for the immortal mind.
+     Our spirits burn to mingle with the day,
+     As exiles panting for their native coast;
+     Yet lured by every wild-flower from their way,
+     And shrinking from the gulf that must be crossed.
+     Death hovers round us--in the zephyr's sigh
+     As in the storm he comes--and lo! Eternity!
+                                                --MRS. HEMANS.
+
+
+It was probably that inherent disposition to pry into unknown things,
+which is said to mark her sex, and which was the weakness assailed by
+the serpent when he deluded Eve into disobedience, that now tempted
+Margery to go beyond the limits which Pigeonswing had set for her, with
+a view to explore and ascertain what might be found without. In doing
+this, however, she did not neglect a certain degree of caution, and
+avoided exposing her person as much as possible.
+
+Margery had got to the very verge of prudence, so far as the cover was
+concerned, when her steps were suddenly arrested by a most unexpected
+and disagreeable sight. An Indian was seated on a rock within twenty
+feet of the place where she stood. His back was toward her, but she
+was certain it could not be Pigeonswing, who had gone in a contrary
+direction, while the frame of this savage was much larger and heavier
+than that of the Chippewa. His rifle leaned against the rock, near his
+arm, and the tomahawk and knife were in his belt; still Margery thought,
+so far as she could ascertain, that he was not in his war-paint, as she
+knew was the fact with those whom she had seen at Prairie Round. The
+attitude and whole deportment of this stranger, too, struck her as
+remarkable. Although our heroine stood watching him for several minutes,
+almost breathless with terror and anxiety to learn his object, he never
+stirred even a limb in all that time. There he sat, motionless as
+the rock on which he had placed himself; a picture of solitude and
+reflection.
+
+It was evident, moreover, that this stranger also sought a species of
+concealment, as well as the fugitives. It is true he had not buried
+himself in a cover of bushes; but his seat was in a hollow of the ground
+where no one could have seen him, from the rear or on either side, at a
+distance a very little greater than that at which Margery stood, while
+his front was guarded from view by a line of bushes that fringed the
+margin of the stream. Marius, pondering on the mutations of fortune,
+amid the ruins of Carthage, could scarcely have presented a more
+striking object than the immovable form of this stranger. At length
+the Indian slightly turned his head, when his observer, to her great
+surprise, saw the hard, red, but noble and expressive profile of the
+well-known features of Peter.
+
+In an instant all Margery's apprehensions vanished, and her hand was
+soon lightly laid on the shoulder of her friend. Notwithstanding the
+suddenness of this touch, the great chief manifested no alarm. He turned
+his head slowly, and when he saw the bright countenance of the charming
+bride, his smile met hers in pleased recognition. There was no start, no
+exclamation, no appearance of surprise; on the contrary, Peter seemed to
+meet his pretty young friend much as a matter of course, and obviously
+with great satisfaction.
+
+"How lucky this is, Peter!" exclaimed the breathless Margery. "Bourdon's
+mind will now be at rest, for he was afraid you had gone to join our
+enemies, Bear's Meat and his party."
+
+"Yes; go and stay wid 'em. So bess. Now dey t'ink Peter all on deir
+side. But never forget you, young Blossom."
+
+"I believe you, Peter; for I FEEL as if you are a true friend. How lucky
+that we should meet here!"
+
+"No luck at all. Come a purpose. Pigeonswing tell me where you be, so
+come here. Juss so."
+
+"Then you expected to find us in this cover! and what have you to tell
+us of our enemies?"
+
+"Plenty of DEM. All about mout' of river. All about woods and Openings
+here. More dan you count. T'ink of nuttin' but get your scalp."
+
+"Ah! Peter;--why is it that you red men wish so much to take our
+lives?--and why have you destroyed the missionary, a pious Christian,
+who wished for nothing but your good?"
+
+Peter bent his eyes to the earth, and for more than a minute he made no
+reply. He was much moved, however, as was visible in his countenance,
+which plainly denoted that strong emotions were at work within.
+
+"Blossom, listen to my words," he, at length, answered. "They are such
+as a fader would speak to his da'ghter. You my da'ghter. Tell you so,
+once; and what Injin say once, he say alway. Poor, and don't know much,
+but know how to do as he say he do. Yes, you my da'ghter! Bear's Meat
+can't touch YOU, widout he touch ME. Bourdon your husband; you his
+squaw. Husband and squaw go togedder, on same path. Dat right. But,
+Blossom, listen. Dere is Great Spirit. Injin believe dat as well as
+pale-face. See dat is so. Dere is Great WICKED Spirit, too. Feel dat,
+too; can't help it. For twenty winter dat Great Wicked Spirit stay close
+to my side. He put his hand before one of my ear, and he put his mout'
+to tudder. Keep whisper, whisper, day and night, nebber stop whisper.
+Tell me to kill pale-face, wherever I find him. Bess to kill him. If
+didn't kill pale-face, pale-face kill Injin. No help for it. Kill ole
+man, kill young man; kill squaws, pappoose and all. Smash eggs and break
+up 'e nest. Dat what he whisper, day and night, for twenty winters.
+Whisper so much, was force to b'lieve him. Bad to have too much whisper
+of same t'ing in ear. Den I want scalp. Couldn't have too much scalp.
+Took much scalp. All pale-face scalp. Heart grow hard. Great pleasure
+was to kill pale-face. Dat feeling last, Blossom, till I see you. Feel
+like fader to you, and don't want your scalp. Won'er great deal why I
+feel so, but do feel so. Dat my natur'. Still want all udder pale-face
+scalp. Want Bourdon scalp, much as any."
+
+A slight exclamation from his companion, which could scarcely be called
+a scream, caused the Indian to cease speaking, when the two looked
+toward each other, and their eyes met. Margery, however, saw none of
+those passing gleams of ferocity which had so often troubled her in the
+first few weeks of their acquaintance; in their stead, an expression of
+subdued anxiety, and an earnestness of inquiry that seemed to say how
+much the chief's heart yearned to know more on that mighty subject
+toward which his thoughts had lately been turned. The mutual glance
+sufficed to renew the confidence our heroine was very reluctant to
+relinquish, while it awakened afresh all of Peter's parental concern in
+the welfare of the interesting young woman at his side.
+
+"But this feeling has left you, Peter, and you no longer wish Bourdon's
+scalp," said Margery, hastily. "Now he is my husband, he is your son."
+
+"Dat good, p'raps," answered the Injin, "but dat not a reason, nudder,
+Blossom. You right, too. Don't want Bourdon scalp any longer. Dat true.
+But don't want ANY scalp, any more. Heart grow soft--an't hard, now."
+
+"I wish I could let you understand, Peter, how much I rejoice to hear
+this! I have never felt afraid of you, on my own account, though I will
+own that I have sometimes feared that the dreadful cruel stories which
+are told of your enmity to my color are not altogether without truth.
+Now, you tell me you are the white man's friend, and that you no longer
+wish to injure him. These are blessed words, Peter; and humbly do I
+thank God, through his blessed Son, that I have lived to hear them!"
+
+"Dat Son make me feel so," returned the Indian, earnestly. "Yes, juss
+so. My heart was hard, till medicinepriest tell dat tradition of Son of
+Great Spirit--how he die for all tribes and nations, and ask his fader
+to do good to dem dat take his life--dat won'erful tradition, Blossom!
+Sound like song of wren in my ear--sweeter dan mocking-bird when he do
+his bess. Yes, dat won'erful. He true, too; for medicine-priest ask his
+Manitou to bless Injin, juss as Injins lift tomahawk to take his life. I
+see'd and heard dat, myself. All, won'erful, won'erful!"
+
+"It was the Spirit of God that enabled poor Amen to do that, Peter; and
+it is the Spirit of God that teaches you to see and feel the beauty
+of such an act. Without the aid of that Spirit, we are helpless as
+children; with it, strong as giants. I do not wonder, at all, that the
+good missionary was able to pray for his enemies with his dying breath.
+God gave him strength to do so."
+
+Margery spoke as she felt, earnestly, and with emphasis. Her cheeks
+flushed with the strength of her feelings, and Peter gazed on her with a
+species of reverence and wonder. The beauty of this charming young woman
+was pleasing rather than brilliant, depending much on expression for
+its power. A heightened color greatly increased it, and when, as in this
+instance, the eyes reflected the tints of the cheeks, one might have
+journeyed days in older regions, without finding her equal in personal
+attractions. Much as he admired her, however, Peter had now that on his
+mind which rendered her beauty but a secondary object with him. His
+soul had been touched by the unseen, but omnipresent, power of the Holy
+Spirit, and his companion's language and fervor contributed largely in
+keeping alive his interest in what he felt.
+
+"Nebber know Injin do dat," said Peter, in a slow, deliberative sort of
+way; "no, nebber know Injin do so. Always curse and hate his enemy, and
+most when about to lose his scalp. Den, feelin's hottest. Den, most want
+to use tomahawk on his enemy. Den, most feel dat he hate him. But not so
+wid medicine-priest. Pray for Injin; ask Great Spirit to do him all
+'e good he can; juss as Injin was goin' to strike. Won'erful--most
+won'erful DAT, in my eyes. Blossom, you know Peter. He your fader. He
+take you, and make you his da'ghter. His heart is soft to you, Blossom.
+But, he nuttin' but poor Injin, dough a great chief. What he know?
+Pale-face pappoose know more dan Injin chief. Dat come from Great Spirit
+too. He wanted it so, and it is so. Our chiefs say dat Great Spirit love
+Injin. May be so. T'ink he love ebbery body; but he can't love Injin as
+much as he love pale-face, or he wouldn't let red man know so little.
+Don't count wigwams, and canoes, and powder, and lead, as proof of Great
+Spirit's love. Pale-face got more of dese dan Injin. Dat I see and know,
+and dat I feel. But it no matter. Injin used to be poor, and don't care.
+When used to be poor, den used to it. When used to be rich, den it hard
+not to be rich. All use. Injin don't care. But it bad not to know. I'm
+warrior--I'm hunter--I'm great chief. You squaw--you young--you know
+so much as squaw of chief. But you know most. I feel ashamed to know so
+little. Want to know more. Want to know most how 'e Son of Great Spirit
+die for all tribe, and pray to his fader to bless 'em dat kill him. Dat
+what Peter now want most to know!"
+
+"I wish I was better able to teach you, Peter, from the bottom of my
+heart; but the little I do know you shall hear. I would not deny you for
+a thousand worlds, for I believe the Holy Spirit has touched your heart,
+and that you will become a new man. Christians believe that all must
+become new men, who are to live in the other world, in the presence of
+God."
+
+"How can dat be? Peter soon be ole--how can ole man grow young ag'in?"
+
+"The meaning of this is that we must so change in feelings, as no longer
+to be the same persons. The things that we loved we must hate, and the
+things that we hated, or at least neglected, we must love. When we feel
+this change in our hearts, then may we hope that we love and reverence
+the Great Spirit, and are living under his holy care."
+
+Peter listened with the attention of an obedient and respectful child.
+If meekness, humility, a wish to learn the truth, and a devout sentiment
+toward the Creator, are so many indications of the "new birth," then
+might this savage be said to have been truly "born again." Certainly he
+was no longer the same man, in a moral point of view, and of this he was
+himself entirely conscious. To him the wonder was what had produced so
+great and so sudden a change! But the reply he made to Margery will, of
+itself, sufficiently express his views of his own case.
+
+"An Injin like a child," he said, meekly; "nebber know. Even pale-face
+squaw know more dan great chief, Nebber feel as do now. Heart soft as
+young squaw's. Don't hate any body, no more. Wish well to all tribe,
+and color, and nation. Don't hate Bri'sh, don't hate Yankee; don't hate
+Cherokee, even. Wish 'em all well. Don't know dat heart is strong enough
+to ask Great Spirit to do 'em all good, if dey want my scalp--p'rap
+dat too much for poor Injin; but don't want nobody's scalp, myself. Dat
+somet'in', I hope, for me."
+
+"It is, indeed, Peter; and if you will get down on your knees, and
+humble your thoughts, and pray to God to strengthen you in these good
+feelings, he will be sure to do it, and make you, altogether, a new
+man."
+
+Peter looked wistfully at Margery, and then turned his eyes toward
+the earth. After sitting in a thoughtful mood for some time, he again
+regarded his companion, saying, with the simplicity of a child:
+
+"Don't know how to do dat, Blossom. Hear medicine-priest of pale-faces
+pray, sometime, but poor Injin don't know enough to speak to Great
+Spirit. You speak to Great Spirit for him. He know your voice, Blossom,
+and listen to what you say; but he won't hear Peter, who has so long
+hated his enemy. P'raps he angry if he hear Peter speak."
+
+"In that you are mistaken, Peter. The ears of the Lord are ever open to
+our prayers, when put up in sincerity, as I feel certain that yours will
+now be. But, after I have told you the meaning of what I am about to
+say, I will pray with you and for you. It is best that you should begin
+to do this, as soon as you can."
+
+Margery then slowly repeated to Peter the words of the Lord's prayer.
+She gave him its history, and explained the meaning of several of
+its words that might otherwise have been unintelligible to him,
+notwithstanding his tolerable proficiency in English--a proficiency
+that had greatly increased in the last few weeks, in consequence of his
+constant communications with those who spoke it habitually. The word
+"trespasses," in particular, was somewhat difficult for the Indian to
+comprehend, but Margery persevered until she succeeded in giving her
+scholar tolerably accurate ideas of the meaning of each term. Then she
+told the Indian to kneel with her, and, for the first time in his life,
+that man of the Openings and prairies lifted his voice in prayer to the
+one God. It is true that Peter had often before mentally asked favors
+of his Manitou; but the requests were altogether of a worldly character,
+and the being addressed was invested with attributes very different from
+those which he now understood to belong to the Lord of heaven and earth.
+Nor was the spirit in asking at all the same. We do not wish to be
+understood as saying that this Indian was already a full convert to
+Christianity, which contains many doctrines of which he had not the most
+distant idea; but his heart had undergone the first step in the great
+change of conversion, and he was now as humble as he had once been
+proud; as meek, as he had formerly been fierce; and he felt that certain
+proof of an incipient love of the Creator, in a similar feeling toward
+all the works of his hands.
+
+When Peter arose from his knees, after repeating the prayer to Margery's
+slow leading, it was with the dependence of a child on the teaching of
+its mother. Physically, he was the man he ever had been. He was as able
+to endure fatigue, as sinewy in his frame, and as capable of fasting and
+of sustaining fatigue, as in his most warlike days; but, morally, the
+change was great, indeed. Instead of the obstinate confidence in himself
+and his traditions, which had once so much distinguished this chief,
+there was substituted an humble distrust of his own judgment, that
+rendered him singularly indisposed to rely on his personal views, in
+any matter of conscience, and he was truly become a child in all
+that pertained to his religious belief. In good hands, and under more
+advantageous circumstances, the moral improvement of Peter would have
+been great; but, situated as he was, it could not be said to amount to
+much more than a very excellent commencement.
+
+All this time both Peter and Margery had been too intent on their
+feelings and employment, to take much heed to the precautions necessary
+to their concealment. The sun was setting ere they arose, and then it
+was that Peter made the important discovery that they were observed by
+two of the young men of the Pottawattamies--scouts kept out by Bear's
+Meat to look for the fugitives.
+
+The time was when Peter would not have hesitated to use his rifle on
+these unwelcome intruders; but the better spirit that had come over him,
+now led him to adopt a very different course. Motioning to the young
+men, he ordered them to retire, while he led Margery within the cover
+of the bushes. Formerly, Peter would not have scrupled to resort to
+deception, in order to throw these two young men on a wrong scent, and
+get rid of them in that mode; but now he had a reluctance to deceive;
+and, no sooner did they fall back at his beckoning, than he followed
+Margery to the camp. The latter was giving her husband a hurried account
+of what had just happened, as Peter joined them.
+
+"Our camp is known!" exclaimed the bee-hunter the instant he beheld the
+Indian.
+
+"Juss so. Pottawattamie see squaw, and go and tell his chief. Dat
+sartain," answered Peter.
+
+"What is there to be done?--Fight for our lives, or fly?"
+
+"Get in canoe quick as can. It take dem young men half-hour to reach
+place where chief be. In dat half-hour we muss go as far as we can. No
+good to stay here. Injin come in about one hour."
+
+Le Bourdon knew his position well enough to understand this.
+Nevertheless, there were several serious objections to an immediate
+flight. Pigeonswing was absent, and the bee-hunter did not like the
+notion of leaving him behind, for various reasons. Then it was not yet
+dark; and to descend the river by daylight, appeared like advancing into
+the jaws of the lion designedly. Nor was le Bourdon at his ease on the
+subject of Peter. His sudden appearance, the insufficient and far from
+clear account of Margery, and the extraordinary course advised, served
+to renew ancient distrusts, and to render him reluctant to move. But of
+one thing there could be no doubt. Their present position must be known,
+for Margery had seen the two strange Indians with her own eyes, and a
+search might soon be expected. Under all the circumstances, therefore,
+our hero reluctantly complied with Margery's reiterated solicitations,
+and they all got into the canoes.
+
+"I do not like this movement, Peter," said le Bourdon, as he shoved his
+own light craft down the brook, previously to entering the river. "I
+hope it may turn out to be better than it looks, and that you can keep
+us out of the hands of our enemies. Remember, it is broad daylight, and
+that red men are plenty two or three miles below us."
+
+"Yes, know dat; but muss go. Injin too plenty here, soon. Yes, muss go.
+Bourdon, why you can't ask bee, now, what bess t'ing for you to do, eh?
+Good time, now, ask bee to tell what he know."
+
+The bee-hunter made no reply, but his pretty wife raised her hand,
+involuntarily, as if to implore the Indian to forbear. Peter was a
+little bewildered; for as yet, he did not understand that a belief in
+necromancy was not exactly compatible with the notions of the Christian
+Providence. In his ignorance, how much was he worse off than the wisest
+of our race? Will any discreet man who has ever paid close attention to
+the power of the somnambule, deny that there is a mystery about such a
+person that exceeds all our means of explanation? That there are degrees
+in the extent of this power--that there are false, as well as true
+somnambules--all who have attended to the subject must allow; but, a
+deriding disbeliever in our own person once, we have since seen that
+which no laws, known to us, can explain, and which we are certain is
+not the subject of collusion, as we must have been a party to the fraud
+ourselves, were any such practised. To deny the evidence of our senses
+is an act of greater weakness than to believe that there are mysteries
+connected with our moral and physical being that human sagacity has not
+yet been able to penetrate; and we repudiate the want of manliness
+that shrinks from giving its testimony when once convinced, through an
+apprehension of being derided, as weaker than those who withhold their
+belief. We KNOW that our own thoughts have been explained and rendered,
+by a somnambule, under circumstances that will not admit of any
+information by means known to us by other principles; and whatever
+others may think on the subject, we are perfectly conscious that no
+collusion did or could exist. Why, then, are we to despise the poor
+Indian because he still fancied le Bourdon could hold communication with
+his bees? We happen to be better informed, and there may be beings
+who are aware of the as yet hidden laws of animal magnetism--hidden
+as respects ourselves, though known to them--and who fully comprehend
+various mistakes and misapprehensions connected with our impressions on
+this subject, that escape our means of detection. It is not surprising,
+therefore, that Peter, in his emergency, turned to those bees, in the
+hope that they might prove of assistance, or that Margery silently
+rebuked him for the weakness, in the manner mentioned.
+
+Although it was still light, the sun was near setting when the canoes
+glided into the river. Fortunately for the fugitives, the banks were
+densely wooded, and the stream of great width--a little lake, in
+fact--and there was not much danger of their being seen until they got
+near the mouth; nor then, even, should they once get within the cover
+of the wild rice, and of the rushes. There was no retreat, however; and
+after paddling some distance, in order to get beyond the observation of
+any scout who might approach the place where they had last been seen,
+the canoes were brought close together, and suffered to float before
+a smart breeze, so as not to reach the mouth of the stream before the
+night closed around them. Everything appeared so tranquil, the solitude
+was so profound, and their progress so smooth and uninterrupted, that a
+certain amount of confidence revived in the breasts of all, and even the
+bee-hunter had hopes of eventual escape.
+
+A conversation now occurred, in which Peter was questioned concerning
+the manner in which he had been occupied during his absence; an absence
+that had given le Bourdon so much concern. Had the chief been perfectly
+explicit, he would have confessed that fully one-half of his waking
+thoughts had been occupied in thinking of the death of the Son of God,
+of the missionary's prayer for his enemies, and of the sublime morality
+connected with such a religion. It is true Peter did not--could not,
+indeed--enter very profoundly into the consideration of these subjects;
+nor were his notions either very clear or orthodox; but they were
+sincere, and the feelings to which they gave birth were devout.
+Peter did not touch on these circumstances, however, confining his
+explanations to the purely material part of his proceedings. He had
+remained with Bear's Meat, Crowsfeather, and the other leading chiefs,
+in order to be at the fountain-head of information, and to interpose his
+influence should the pale-faces unhappily fall into the hands of those
+who were so industriously looking for them. Nothing had occurred to call
+his authority out, but a strange uncertainty seemed to reign among the
+warriors, concerning the manner in which their intended victims eluded
+their endeavors to overtake them. No trail had been discovered, scout
+after scout coming in to report a total want of success in their
+investigations inland. This turned the attention of the Indians still
+more keenly on the river's mouth, it being certain that the canoes could
+not have passed out into the lake previously to the arrival of the two
+or three first parties of their young men, who had been sent so early to
+watch that particular outlet.
+
+Peter informed le Bourdon that his cache had been discovered, opened,
+and rifled of its stores. This was a severe loss to our hero, and one
+that would have been keenly felt at any other time; but just then he had
+interests so much more important to protect, that he thought and said
+little about this mishap. The circumstance which gave him the most
+concern was this: Peter stated that Bear's Meat had directed about a
+dozen of his young men to keep watch, day and night, in canoes, near
+the mouth of the river, lying in wait among the wild rice, like so many
+snakes in the grass.
+
+The party was so much interested in this conversation that, almost
+insensibly to themselves, they had dropped down to the beginning of the
+rushes and rice, and had got rather dangerously near to the critical
+point of their passage. As it was still daylight, Peter now proposed
+pushing the canoes in among the plants, and there remaining until it
+might be safer to move. This was done accordingly, and in a minute or
+two all three of the little barks were concealed within the cover.
+
+The question now was whether the fugitives had been observed, but
+suffered to advance, as every foot they descended the stream was taking
+them nearer to their foes. Peter did not conceal his apprehension on
+this point, since he deemed it improbable that any reach near the mouth
+of the Kalamazoo was without its lookouts, at a moment so interesting.
+Such was, indeed, the fact, as was afterward ascertained; but the young
+men who had seen Peter and Margery had given the alarm, passing the
+word where the fugitives were to be found, and the sentinels along this
+portion of the stream had deserted their stations, in order to be in at
+the capture. By such delicate and unforeseen means does Providence often
+protect those who are the subjects of its especial care, baffling the
+calculations of art by its own quiet control of events.
+
+The bee-hunter had a feverish desire to be moving. After remaining
+in the cover about half an hour, he proposed that they should get the
+canoes into one of the open passages, of which there were many among the
+plants, and proceed. Peter had more of the patience of an Indian, and
+deemed the hour too early. But le Bourdon was not yet entirely free
+from distrust of his companion, and telling Gershom to follow, he
+began paddling down one of the passages mentioned. This decisive step
+compelled the rest to follow, or to separate from their companions. They
+chose to do the first.
+
+Had le Bourdon possessed more self-command, and remained stationary a
+little longer, he would, in all probability, have escaped altogether
+from a very serious danger that he was now compelled to run. Although
+there were many of the open places among the plants, they did not always
+communicate with each other, and it became necessary to force the
+canoes through little thickets, in order to get out of one into another,
+keeping the general direction of descending the river. It was while
+effecting the first of these changes, that the agitation of the tops
+of the plants caught the eye of a lookout on the shore. By signals,
+understood among themselves, this man communicated his discovery to a
+canoe that was acting as one of the guard-boats, thus giving a general
+alarm along the whole line of sentinels, as well as to the chiefs down
+at the hut or at the mouth of the river. The fierce delight with which
+this news was received, after so long a delay, became ungovernable, and
+presently yells and cries filled the air, proceeding from both sides of
+the stream, as well as from the river itself.
+
+There was not a white person in those canoes who did not conceive that
+their party was lost, when this clamor was heard. With Peter it was
+different. Instead of admitting of alarm, he turned all his faculties to
+use. While le Bourdon himself was nearly in despair, Peter was listening
+with his nice ears, to catch the points on the river whence the yells
+arose. For the banks he cared nothing. The danger was from the canoes.
+By the keenness of his faculties, the chief ascertained that there were
+four canoes out, and that they would have to run the gauntlet between
+them, or escape would be hopeless. By the sounds he also became certain
+that these four canoes were in the rice, two on each side of the river,
+and there they would probably remain, in expectation that the fugitives
+would be most likely to come down in the cover.
+
+The decision of Peter was made in a moment. It was now quite dark, and
+those who were in canoes within the rice could not well see the middle
+of the stream, even by daylight. He determined, therefore, to take the
+very centre of the river, giving his directions to that effect with
+precision and clearness. The females he ordered to lie down, each in
+her own canoe, while their husbands alone were to remain visible. Peter
+hoped that, in the darkness, le Bourdon and Gershom might pass for
+Indians, on the lookout, and under his own immediate command.
+
+One very important fact was ascertained by le Bourdon, as soon as these
+arrangements were explained and completed. The wind on the lake was
+blowing from the south, and of course was favorable to those who desired
+to proceed in the opposite direction. This he communicated to Margery in
+a low tone, endeavoring to encourage her by all the means in his power.
+In return, the young wife muttered a few encouraging words to her
+husband. Every measure was understood between the parties. In the event
+of a discovery, the canoes were to bury themselves in the rice, taking
+different directions, each man acting for himself. A place of rendezvous
+was appointed outside, at a headland known to Gershom and le Bourdon,
+and signals were agreed on, by which the latest arrival might know that
+all was safe there. These points were settled as the canoes floated
+slowly down the stream.
+
+Peter took and kept the lead. The night was star-lit and clear, but
+there was no moon. On the water, this made but little difference,
+objects not being visible at any material distance. The chief governed
+the speed, which was moderate, but regular. At the rate he was now
+going, it would require about an hour to carry the canoes into the lake.
+But nearly all of that hour must pass in the midst of enemies!
+
+Half of the period just mentioned elapsed, positively without an alarm
+of any sort. By this time, the party was abreast of the spot where
+Gershom and le Bourdon had secreted the canoes in the former adventure
+at the mouth of the river. On the shores, however, a very different
+scene now offered. Then, the fire burned brightly in the hut, and the
+savages could be seen by its light. Now, all was not only dark, but
+still as death. There was no longer any cry, sound, alarm, or foot-fall,
+audible. The very air seemed charged with uncertainty, and its
+offspring, apprehension.
+
+As they approached nearer and nearer to what was conceived to be the
+most critical point in the passage, the canoes got closer together; so
+close, indeed, that le Bourdon and Gershom might communicate in very
+guarded tones. The utmost care was taken to avoid making any noise,
+since a light and careless blow from a paddle, on the side of a canoe,
+would be almost certain, now, to betray them. Margery and Dorothy could
+no longer control their feelings, and each rose in her seat, raising her
+body so as to bring her head above the gunwale of the canoe, if a bark
+canoe can be said to have a gunwale at all. They even whispered to each
+other, endeavoring to glean encouragement by sympathy. At this instant
+occurred the crisis in their attempt to escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+     For an Indian isle she shapes her way
+     With constant mind both night and day:
+     She seems to hold her home in view
+     And sails as if the path she knew,
+     So calm and stately in her motion
+     Across the unfathomed, trackless ocean.
+                                           -- WILSON.
+
+
+It has been said that Peter was in advance. When his canoe was nearly
+abreast of the usual landing at the hut, he saw two canoes coming out
+from among the rice, and distant from him not more than a hundred
+yards. At a greater distance, indeed, it would not have been easy to
+distinguish such an object on the water at all. Instead of attempting to
+avoid these two canoes, the chief instantly called to them, drawing the
+attention of those in them to himself, speaking so loud as to be easily
+overheard by those who followed.
+
+"My young men are too late," he said. "The pale-faces have been seen in
+the openings above by our warriors, and must soon be here. Let us land,
+and be ready to meet them at the wigwam."
+
+Peter's voice was immediately recognized. The confident, quiet, natural
+manner in which he spoke served to mislead those in the canoes; and when
+he joined them, and entered the passage among the rice that led to the
+landing, preceding the others, the last followed him as regularly as the
+colt follows its dam. Le Bourdon heard the conversation, and understood
+the movement, though he could not see the canoes. Peter continued
+talking aloud, as he went up the passage, receiving answers to all he
+said from his new companions, his voice serving to let the fugitives
+know precisely where they were. All this was understood and improved by
+the last, who lost no time in turning the adventure to account.
+
+The first impulse of le Bourdon had been to turn and fly up stream.
+But, ascertaining that these dangerous enemies were so fully occupied
+by Peter as not to see the canoes behind, he merely inclined a little
+toward the other side of the channel, and slackened his rate of
+movement, in order not to come too near. The instant he was satisfied
+that all three of the canoes in advance had entered the passage
+mentioned, and were moving toward the landing, he let out, and glided
+down stream like an arrow. It required but half a minute to cross the
+opening of the passage, but Peter's conversation kept his followers
+looking ahead, which greatly lessened the risk. Le Bourdon's heart was
+in his mouth several times, while thus running the gauntlet, as it might
+be; but fortune favored them; or, as Margery more piously understood the
+circumstances, a Divine Providence led them in safety past the danger.
+
+At the mouth of the river both le Bourdon and Gershom thought it highly
+probable that they should fall in with more lookouts, and each prepared
+his arms for a fight. But no canoe was there, and the fugitives were
+soon in the lake. Michigan is a large body of water, and a bark canoe is
+but a frail craft to put to sea in, when there is any wind or commotion.
+On the present occasion, there was a good deal of both; so much as
+greatly to terrify the females. Of all the craft known, however, one
+of these egg-shells is really the safest, if properly managed, among
+breakers or amid the combing of seas. We have ourselves ridden in them
+safely through a surf that would have swamped the best man-of-war cutter
+that ever floated; and done it, too, without taking on board as much
+water as would serve to wash one's hands. The light vessel floats on so
+little of the element, indeed, that the foam of a large sea has scarce
+a chance of getting above it, or aboard it; the great point in the
+handling being to prevent the canoe from falling broadside to. By
+keeping it end on to the sea, in our opinion, a smart gale might be
+weathered in one of these craft, provided the endurance of a man could
+bear up against the unceasing watchfulness and incessant labor of
+sweeping with the paddle, in order to prevent broaching to.
+
+Le Bourdon, it has been said, was very skilful in the management of his
+craft; and Gershom, now perforce a sober and useful man, was not
+much behind him in this particular. The former had foreseen this very
+difficulty, and made all his arrangements to counteract it. No sooner,
+therefore, did he find the canoes in rough water than he brought them
+together, side by side, and lashed them there. This greatly lessened the
+danger of capsizing, though it increased the labor of managing the craft
+when disposed to turn broadside to. It only remained to get sail on the
+catamaran, for some such thing was it now, in order to keep ahead of the
+sea as much as possible. Light cotton lugs were soon spread, one in each
+canoe, and away they went, as sailors term it, wing and wing.
+
+It was now much easier steering, though untiring vigilance was still
+necessary. A boat may appear to fly, and yet the "send of the sea"
+shall glance ahead of it with the velocity of a bird. Nothing that goes
+through, or ON, the water--and the last is the phrase best suited to
+the floating of a bark canoe--can ever be made to keep company with
+that feathery foam, which, under the several names of "white-caps"--an
+in-shore and lubber's term--"combs," "breaking of the seas," "the wash,"
+etc., etc., glances by a vessel in a blow, or comes on board her even
+when she is running before it. We have often watched these clouds of
+water, as they have shot ahead of us, when ploughing our own ten or
+eleven knot through the brine, and they have ever appeared to us as so
+many useful admonishers of what the power of God is, as compared to the
+power of man. The last shall construct his ship, fit her with all the
+appliances of his utmost art, sail her with the seaman's skill, and
+force her through her element with something like railroad speed;
+yet will the seas "send" their feathery crests past her, like so
+many dolphins, or porpoises, sporting under her fore-foot. It is this
+following sea which becomes so very dangerous in heavy gales, and which
+compels the largest ships frequently to heave to, in order that they may
+present their bows to its almost resistless power.
+
+But our adventurers had no such gales as those we mean, or any such seas
+to withstand. The wind blew fresh from the south, and Michigan can get
+up a very respectable swell at need. Like the seas in all the great
+lakes, it was short, and all the worse for that. The larger the expanse
+of water over which the wind passes, the longer is the sea, and the
+easier is it for the ship to ride on it. Those of Lake Michigan,
+however, were quite long enough for a bark canoe, and glad enough were
+both Margery and Dorothy when they found their two little vessels lashed
+together, and wearing an air of more stability than was common to them.
+Le Bourdon's sail was first spread, and it produced an immediate relief
+from the washing of the waves. The drift of a bark canoe, in a smart
+blow, is considerable, it having no hold on the water to resist it; but
+our adventurers fairly flew as soon as the cotton cloth was opened. The
+wind being exactly south, by steering due north, or dead before it, it
+was found possible to carry the sail in the other canoe, borne out
+on the opposite side; and from the moment that was opened, all the
+difficulty was reduced to steering so "small," as seamen term it, as
+to prevent one or the other of the lugs from jibing. Had this occurred,
+however, no very serious consequences would have followed, the
+precaution taken of lashing the craft together rendering capsizing next
+to impossible.
+
+The Kalamazoo and its mouth were soon far behind, and le Bourdon no
+longer felt the least apprehension of the savages left in it. The
+Indians are not bold navigators, and he felt certain that the lake was
+too rough for the savages to venture out, while his own course gradually
+carried him off the land, and out of the track of anything that kept
+near the shore. A short time produced a sense of security, and the
+wind appearing to fall, instead of increasing in violence, it was soon
+arranged that one of the men should sleep, while the other looked to the
+safety of the canoes.
+
+It was about nine o'clock when the fugitives made sail, off the mouth of
+the Kalamazoo; and, at the return of light, seven hours later, they were
+more than forty miles from the place of starting. The wind still stood,
+with symptoms of growing fresher again as the sun rose, and the land
+could just be seen in the eastern board, the coast in that direction
+having made a considerable curvature inland. This had brought the canoes
+farther from the land than le Bourdon wished to be, but he could not
+materially change his course without taking in one of his sails. As much
+variation was made, however, as was prudent, and by nine o'clock, or
+twelve hours after entering the lake, the canoes again drew near to the
+shore, which met them ahead. By the bee hunter's calculations, they were
+now about seventy miles from the mouth of the Kalamazoo, having passed
+the outlets of two or three of the largest streams of those regions.
+
+The fugitives selected a favorable spot, and landed behind a headland
+that gave them a sufficient lee for the canoes. They had now reached a
+point where the coast trends a little to the eastward, which brought the
+wind in a slight degree off the land. This change produced no very
+great effect on the seas, but it enabled the canoes to keep close to
+the shore, making something of a lee for them. This they did about noon,
+after having lighted a fire, caught some fish in a small stream, killed
+a deer and dressed it, and cooked enough provisions to last for two
+or three days. The canoes were now separated again; it being easier to
+manage them in that state than when lashed together, besides enabling
+them to carry both sails. The farther north they got the more of a lee
+was found, though it was in no place sufficient to bring smooth water.
+
+In this manner several more hours were passed, and six times as many
+more miles were made in distance. When le Bourdon again landed, which
+he did shortly before the sun set, he calculated his distance from
+the mouth of the Kalamazoo to be rather more than a hundred miles. His
+principal object was to ascend a bluff and to take a look at the coast,
+in order to examine it for canoes. This his glass enabled him to do with
+some accuracy, and when he rejoined the party, he was rejoiced to have
+it in his power to report that the coast was clear. After refreshing
+themselves, the canoes were again brought together, in order to divide
+the watches, and a new start was made for the night. In this manner did
+our adventurers make their way to the northward for two nights and days,
+landing often, to fish, hunt, rest, and cook, as well as to examine the
+coast. At the end of the time mentioned, the celebrated straits of the
+Michillimackinac, or Mackinaw, as they are almost universally termed,
+came in sight. The course had been gradually changing toward the
+eastward, and, luckily for the progress of the fugitives, the wind with
+it, leaving them always a favorable breeze. But it was felt to be no
+longer safe to use a sail, and recourse was had to the paddles, until
+the straits and island were passed. This caused some delay, and added a
+good deal to the labor; but it was deemed so dangerous to display
+their white cotton sails, objects that might be seen for a considerable
+distance, that it was thought preferable to adopt this caution. Nor
+was it useless. In consequence of this foresight, a fleet of canoes was
+passed in safety, which were crossing from the post at Mackinaw to ward
+the main land of Michigan. The number of the canoes in this fleet could
+not have been less than fifty, but getting a timely view of them, le
+Bourdon hid his own craft in a cove, and remained there until the danger
+was over.
+
+The course now changed still more, while the wind got quite round to the
+westward. This made a fair wind at first, and gave the canoes a good lee
+as they advanced. Lake Huron, which was the water the fugitives were now
+on, lies nearly parallel to Michigan, and the course was southeasterly.
+As le Bourdon had often passed both ways on these waters, he had his
+favorite harbors, and knew those signs which teach navigators how to
+make their prognostics of the weather. On the whole, the fugitives did
+very well, though they lost two days between Mackinaw and Saginaw Bay;
+one on account of the strength of the wind, and one on account of rain.
+During the last, they remained in a hut that le Bourdon had himself
+constructed in one of his many voyages, and which he had left standing.
+These empty cabins, or chientes, are of frequent occurrence in new
+countries, being used, like the Refuges in the Alps, by every traveller
+as he has need of them.
+
+The sight of the fleet of canoes, in the straits of Michillimackinac,
+caused the fugitives the only real trouble they had felt, between the
+time when they left the mouth of the Kalamazoo, and the ten days that
+succeeded. By the end of that period the party had crossed Saginaw,
+and was fast coming up with Point au Barques, a landmark for all who
+navigate the waters of Huron, when a canoe was seen coming out from
+under the land, steering as if to intercept them. This sight gave both
+concern and pleasure; concern, as it might lead to a hostile encounter,
+and pleasure, because the bee-hunter hoped for information that might be
+useful in governing his future course. Here his glass came in play, with
+good effect. By means of that instrument, it was soon ascertained that
+the strange canoe contained but two men, both Indians, and as that was
+just their own force no great danger was apprehended from the meeting.
+The craft, therefore, continued to approach each other, le Bourdon
+keeping his glass levelled on the strangers much of the time.
+
+"As I live, yonder are Peter and Pigeonswing," suddenly exclaimed our
+hero. "They have crossed the Peninsula, and have come out from the
+point, in that canoe, to meet us."
+
+"With important news, then, depend on it, Benjamin," answered the wife.
+"Tell this to brother, that he and Dolly may not feel more alarm than is
+necessary."
+
+The bee-hunter called out to his friends in the other canoe, and
+communicated the discovery just made, the two craft keeping always
+within hailing distance of each other.
+
+"Them Injins are not here for nothing," answered Dorothy. "You will find
+they have something serious to say."
+
+"We shall soon know," called out le Bourdon. "Ten minutes will bring us
+alongside of them."
+
+The ten minutes did that much, and before the expiration of the short
+space, the three canoes were fastened together, that of Peter being in
+the centre. The bee-hunter saw, at a glance, that the expedition of
+the Indians had been hurried; for their canoe, besides being of
+very indifferent qualities, was not provided with the implements and
+conveniences usual to a voyage of any length. Still, he would not ask
+a question, but lighting his pipe, after a few puffs, he passed it
+courteously over to Peter. The great chief smoked a while, and gave it
+to Pigeonswing, in his turn, who appeared to enjoy it quite as much as
+any of the party.
+
+"My father does not believe he is a Jew?" said le Bourdon, smiling;
+willing to commence a discourse, though still determined not to betray a
+womanish curiosity.
+
+"We are poor Injins, Bourdon; just as the Great Spirit made us. Dat
+bess. Can't help what Manitou do. If he don't make us Jew, can't be Jew.
+If he make us Injin, muss be Injin. For my part, b'lieve I'm Injin, and
+don't want to be pale-face. Can love pale-face, now, juss as well as
+love Injin."
+
+"Oh, I hope this is true, Peter," exclaimed Margery, her handsome face
+flushing with delight, at hearing these words. "So long as your heart
+tells you this, be certain that the Spirit of God is in you."
+
+Peter made no answer, but he looked profoundly impressed with the novel
+feeling that had taken possession of his soul. As for the bee-hunter, he
+did not meddle with Margery's convictions or emotions on such subjects,
+resembling, in this particular, most men, who, however indifferent to
+religion in their own persons, are never sorry to find that their wives
+profoundly submit to its influence. After a short pause, a species
+of homage involuntarily paid to the subject, he thought he might now
+inquire into the circumstances that brought the Indians on their route,
+without incurring the imputation of a weak and impatient curiosity. In
+reply, Peter's story was soon told. He had rejoined the chiefs without
+exciting distrust, and all had waited for the young men to bring in the
+captives. As soon as it was ascertained that the intended victims had
+escaped, and by water, parties proceeded to different points, in order
+to intercept them. Some followed in canoes, but, being less bold in
+their navigation than the bee-hunter, they did not make the straits
+until some time after the fugitives had passed. Peter, himself,
+had joined Bear's Meat and some twenty warriors who had crossed the
+Peninsula, procured canoes at the head of Saginaw Bay, and had come out
+at Point au Barques, the very spot our party was now approaching, three
+days before its arrival.
+
+Tired with waiting, and uncertain whether his enemies had not got the
+start of him, Bear's Meat had gone into the river below, intending to
+keep his watch there, leaving Peter at the Point, with three young men
+and one canoe, to have a lookout. These young men the great chief had
+found an excuse for sending to the head of the Bay, in quest of another
+canoe, which left him, of course, quite alone on the Point. Scarce had
+the young man got out of sight, ere Pigeonswing joined his confederate,
+for it seems that this faithful friend had kept on the skirts of the
+enemy the whole time, travelling hundreds of miles, and enduring hunger
+and fatigue, besides risking his life at nearly every step, in order to
+be of use to those whom he considered himself pledged to serve.
+
+Of course, Peter and Pigeonswing understood each other. One hour after
+they joined company, the canoes of the fugitives came in sight, and
+were immediately recognized by their sails. They were met, as has been
+mentioned, and the explanations that we have given were made before the
+party landed at the Point.
+
+It was something to know where the risk was to be apprehended; but le
+Bourdon foresaw great danger. He had brought his canoes, already, quite
+five hundred miles, along a hazardous coast--though a little craft, like
+one of those he navigated, ran less risk, perhaps, than a larger
+vessel, since a shelter might, at any time, be found within a reasonable
+distance for it. From Pointe au Barques to the outlet of the lake
+was less than a hundred miles more. This outlet was a river, as it is
+called--a strait, in fact--which communicates with the small shallow
+lake of St. Clair, by a passage of some thirty miles in length. Then
+the lake St. Clair was to be crossed about an equal distance, when the
+canoes would come out in what is called the Detroit River, a strait
+again, as its name indicates. Some six or eight miles down this passage,
+and on its western side, stands the city of Detroit, then a village of
+no great extent, with a fort better situated to repel an attack of the
+savages, than to withstand a siege of white men. This place was now in
+the possession of the British, and, according to le Bourdon's notion, it
+was scarcely less dangerous to him than the hostility of Bear's Meat and
+his companions.
+
+Delay, however, was quite as dangerous as anything else. After cooking
+and eating, therefore, the canoes continued their course, Peter and
+Pigeonswing accompanying them, though they abandoned their own craft.
+Peter went with the bee-hunter and Margery, while the Chippewa took a
+seat and a paddle in the canoe of Gershom. This change was made in
+order to put a double power in each canoe, since it was possible that
+downright speed might become the only means of safety.
+
+The wind still stood at the westward, and the rate of sailing was rapid.
+About the close of the day the party drew near to the outlet, when Peter
+directed the sails to be taken in. This was done to prevent their being
+seen, a precaution that was now aided by keeping as near to the shore
+as possible, where objects so small and low would be very apt to be
+confounded with others on the land.
+
+It was quite dark when the canoes entered the St. Clair river. Favored
+by the current and the wind, their progress was rapid, and ere the day
+returned, changing his direction from the course ordinarily taken, Peter
+entered the lake by a circuitous passage; one of the many that lead from
+the river to the lake, among aquatic plants that form a perfect shelter.
+This detour saved the fugitives from falling into the hands of one party
+of their enemies, as was afterward ascertained by the Indians. Bear's
+Meat had left two canoes, each manned by five warriors, to watch the
+principal passages into Lake St. Clair, not anticipating that any
+particular caution would be used by the bee-hunter and his friends, at
+this great distance from the place where they had escaped from their
+foes. But the arrival of Peter, his sagacity, and knowledge of Indian
+habits, prevented the result that was expected. The canoes got into
+the lake unseen, and crossed it a little diagonally, so as to reach the
+Canada shore in the middle of the afternoon of the succeeding day, using
+their sails only when far from land, and not exposed to watchful eyes.
+
+The bee-hunter and his friends landed that afternoon at the cabin of
+a Canadian Frenchman, on the shore of the lake, and at a safe distance
+from the outlet which led still farther south. Here the females were
+hospitably received, and treated with that kindness which marks the
+character of the Canadian French. It mattered little to these simple
+people, whether the travellers were of the hostile nation or not. It is
+true, they did not like the "Yankees," as all Americans are termed by
+them, but they were not particularly in love with their English masters.
+It was well enough to be repossessed of both banks of the Detroit,
+for both banks were then peopled principally by their own race, the
+descendants of Frenchmen of the time of Louis XIV., and who still
+preserved much of the language, and many of the usages, of the French
+of that period. They spoke then, as now, only the language of their
+fathers.
+
+The bee-hunter left the cottage of these simple and hospitable people,
+as soon as the night was fairly set in; or, rather, as soon as a young
+moon had gone down. Peter now took the command, steering the canoe of
+le Bourdon, while Gershom followed so close as to keep the bow of his
+little craft within reach of the Indian's arm. In less than an hour the
+fugitives reached the opening of the river, which is here divided into
+two channels by a large island. On that very island, and at that precise
+moment, was Bear's Meat lying in wait for their appearance, provided
+with three canoes, each having a crew of six men. It would have been
+easy for this chief to go to Detroit, and give the alarm to the savages
+who were then collected there in a large force, and to have made such
+a disposition of the canoes as would have rendered escape by water
+impossible; but this would have been robbing himself and his friends of
+all the credit of taking the scalps, and throwing away what is termed
+"honor" among others as well as among savages. He chose, therefore, to
+trust to his own ability to succeed; and supposing the fugitives would
+not be particularly on their guard at this point, had little doubt of
+intercepting them here, should they succeed in eluding those he had left
+above.
+
+The bee-hunter distrusted that island, and used extra caution in passing
+it. In the first place, the two canoes were brought together, so as to
+give them, in the dark, the appearance of only one; while the four men
+added so much to the crew as to aid the deception. In the end it proved
+that one of Bear's Meat's canoes that was paddling about in the middle
+of the river had actually seen them, but mistook the party for a canoe
+of their own, which ought to have been near that spot, with precisely
+six persons in it, just at that time. These six warriors had landed, and
+gone up among the cottages of the French to obtain some fruit, of which
+they were very fond, and of which they got but little in their own
+villages. Owing to this lucky coincidence, which the pretty Margery ever
+regarded as another special interposition of Providence in their favor,
+the fugitives passed the island without molestation, and actually got
+below the last lookouts of Bear's Meat, though without their knowledge.
+
+It was by no means a difficult thing to go down the river, now that so
+many canoes were in motion on it, at all hours. The bee-hunter knew what
+points were to be avoided, and took care not to approach a sentinel. The
+river, or strait, is less than a mile wide, and by keeping in the centre
+of the passage, the canoes, favored by both wind and current, drove by
+the town, then an inconsiderable village, without detection. As soon as
+far enough below, the canoes were again cast loose from each other, and
+sail was made on each. The water was smooth, and some time before
+the return of light the fugitives were abreast of Malden, but in the
+American channel. Had it been otherwise, the danger could not have been
+great. So completely were the Americans subdued by Hull's capitulation,
+and so numerous were the Indian allies of the British, that the passage
+of a bark canoe, more or less, would hardly have attracted attention. At
+that time, Michigan was a province of but little more than a name. The
+territory was wide, to be sure, but the entire population was not larger
+than that of a moderately sized English market town, and Detroit was
+then regarded as a distant and isolated point. It is true that Mackinac
+and Chicago were both more remote, and both more isolated, but an
+English force, in possession of Detroit, could be approached by the
+Americans on the side of the land only by overcoming the obstacles of a
+broad belt of difficult wilderness. This was done the succeeding year,
+it is true, but time is always necessary to bring out Jonathan's latent
+military energies. When aroused, they are not trifling, as all his
+enemies have been made to feel; but a good deal of miscalculation,
+pretending ignorance, and useless talking must be expended, before the
+really efficient are allowed to set about serving the country in their
+own way.
+
+In this respect, thanks to West Point, a well-organized staff, and
+well-educated officers, matters are a little improving. Congress has
+not been able to destroy the army, in the present war, though it did its
+best to attain that end; and all because the nucleus was too powerful
+to be totally eclipsed by the gas of the usual legislative tail of the
+Great National Comet, of which neither the materials nor the orbit can
+any man say he knows. One day, it declares war with a hurrah; the next,
+it denies the legislation necessary to carry it on, as if it distrusted
+its own acts, and already repented of its patriotism. And this is
+the body, soulless, the very school of faction, as a whole of very
+questionable quality in the outset, that, according to certain
+expounders of the constitution, is to perform all the functions of a
+government; which is not only to pass laws, but is to interpret them;
+which is to command the army, aye, even to wheeling its platoons;
+which reads the constitution as an abbe mumbles his aves and paters, or
+looking at everything but his texts; and which is never to have its
+acts vetoed, unless in cases where the Supreme Court would spare the
+Executive that trouble. We never yet could see either the elements or
+the fruits of this great sanctity in the National Council. In our eyes
+it is scarcely ever in its proper place on the railway of the Union, has
+degenerated into a mere electioneering machine, performing the little
+it really does convulsively, by sudden impulses, equally without
+deliberation or a sense of responsibility. In a word, we deem it the
+power of all others in the state that needs the closest watching, and
+were we what is termed in this country "politicians," we should go for
+the executive who is the most ready to apply the curb to these vagaries
+of faction and interested partisans! Vetoes. Would to Heaven we could
+see the days of Good Queen Bess revived for one session of Congress at
+least, and find that more laws were sent back for the second thoughts
+of their framers than were approved! Then, indeed, might the country be
+brought back to a knowledge of the very material constitutional facts
+that the legislature is not commander-in-chief, does not negotiate
+or make treaties, and has no right to do that which it has done so
+often--appoint to office by act of Congress.
+
+As a consequence of the little apprehension entertained by the English
+of being soon disturbed in their new conquests, le Bourdon and his
+friends got out of the Detroit River, and into Lake Erie, without
+discovery or molestation. There still remained a long journey before
+them. In that day the American side of the shores of all the Great Lakes
+was little more than a wilderness. There were exceptions at particular
+points, but these were few and far asunder. The whole coast of
+Ohio--for Ohio has its coast as well as Bohemia [Footnote: See
+Shakespeare--Winter's Tale.]--was mostly in a state of nature, as was
+much of those of Pennsylvania and New York, on the side of the fresh
+water. The port which the bee-hunter had in view was Presque Isle, now
+known as Erie, a harbor in Pennsylvania, that has since become somewhat
+celebrated in consequence of its being the port out of which the
+American vessels sailed, about a year later than the period of which we
+are writing, to fight the battle that gave them the mastery of the lake.
+This was a little voyage of itself, of near two hundred miles, following
+the islands and the coast, but it was safely made in the course of
+the succeeding week. Once in Lake Erie and on the American side, our
+adventurers felt reasonably safe against all dangers but those of the
+elements. It is true that a renowned annalist, whose information is
+sustained by the collected wisdom of a State Historical Society, does
+tell us that the enemy possessed both shores of Lake Erie in 1814; but
+this was so small a mistake, compared with some others that this Nestor
+in history had made, that we shall not stop to explain it. Le Bourdon
+and his party found all the south shore of Lake Erie in possession
+of the Americans, so far as it was in the possession of any one, and
+consequently ran no risks from this blunder of the historian and his
+highly intelligent associates!
+
+Peter and Pigeonswing left their friends before they reached Presque
+Isle. The bee-hunter gave them his own canoe, and the parting was not
+only friendly, but touching. In the course of their journey, and during
+their many stops, Margery had frequently prayed with the great chief.
+His constant and burning desire, now, was to learn to read, that he
+might peruse the word of the Great Spirit, and regulate his future life
+by its wisdom and tenets. Margery promised, should they ever meet again,
+and under circumstances favorable to such a design, to help him attain
+his wishes.
+
+Pigeonswing parted from his friend with the same light-hearted vivacity
+as he had manifested in all their intercourse. Le Bourdon gave him his
+own rifle, plenty of ammunition, and various other small articles that
+were of value to an Indian, accepting the Chippewa's arms in return. The
+exchange, however, was greatly to the advantage of the savage. As for
+Peter, he declined all presents. He carried weapons now, indeed, merely
+for the purpose of hunting; but the dignity of his character and station
+would have placed him above such compensations, had the fact been
+otherwise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+           Come to the land of peace!
+     Come where the tempest hath no longer sway,
+     The shadow passes from the soul away--
+            The sounds of weeping cease.
+
+           Fear hath no dwelling there!
+     Come to the mingling--of repose and love,
+     Breathed by the silent spirit of the dove,
+            Through the celestial air.
+                                           --MRS. HEMANS.
+
+It is now more than thirty-three years since the last war with the
+English terminated, and about thirty-six to the summer in which the
+events recorded in this legend occurred. This third of a century has
+been a period of mighty changes in America. Ages have not often brought
+about as many in other portions of the earth, as this short period of
+time has given birth to among ourselves. We had written, thus far, on
+the evidence of documents sent to us, when an occasion offered to
+verify the truth of some of our pictures, at least, by means of personal
+observation.
+
+Quitting our own quiet and secluded abode in the mountains, in the
+pleasant month of June, and in this current year of 1848, we descended
+into the valley of the Mohawk, got into the cars, and went flying by
+rails toward the setting sun. Well could we remember the time when an
+entire day was required to pass between that point on the Mohawk where
+we got on the rails, and the little village of Utica. On the present
+occasion, we flew over the space in less than three hours, and dined in
+a town of some fifteen thousand souls.
+
+We reached Buffalo, at the foot of Lake Erie, in about twenty hours
+after we had entered the cars. This journey would have been the labor of
+more than a week, at the time in which the scene of this tale occurred.
+Now, the whole of the beautiful region, teeming with its towns and
+villages, and rich with the fruits of a bountiful season, was almost
+brought into a single landscape by the rapidity of our passage.
+
+At Buffalo, we turned aside to visit the cataract. Thither, too, we went
+on rails. Thirty-eight years had passed away since we had laid eyes on
+this wonderful fall of water. In the intervening time we had travelled
+much, and had visited many of the renowned falls of the old world, to
+say nothing of the great number which are to be found in other parts of
+our own land. Did this visit, then, produce disappointment?
+
+Did time, and advancing years, and feelings that had become deadened by
+experience, contribute to render the view less striking, less grand, in
+any way less pleasing than we had hoped to find it? So far from this,
+all our expectations were much more than realized. In one particular,
+touching which we do not remember ever to have seen anything said, we
+were actually astonished at the surpassing glory of Niagara. It was the
+character of sweetness, if we can so express it, that glowed over the
+entire aspect of the scene. We were less struck with the grandeur of
+this cataract, than with its sublime softness and gentleness. To water
+in agitation, use had so long accustomed us, perhaps, as in some slight
+degree to lessen the feeling of awe that is apt to come over the
+novice in such scenes; but we at once felt ourselves attracted by the
+surpassing loveliness of Niagara. The gulf below was more imposing than
+we had expected to see it, but it was Italian in hue and softness, amid
+its wildness and grandeur. Not a drop of the water that fell down that
+precipice inspired terror; for everything appeared to us to be filled
+with attraction and love. Like Italy itself, notwithstanding so much
+that is grand and imposing, the character of softness, and the witchery
+of the gentler properties, is the power we should ascribe to Niagara, in
+preference to that of its majesty. We think this feeling, too, is more
+general than is commonly supposed, for we find those who dwell near the
+cataract playing around it, even to the very verge of its greatest fall,
+with a species of affection, as if they had the fullest confidence in
+its rolling waters. Thus it is that we see the little steamer, the Maid
+of the Mist, paddling up quite near to the green sheet of the Horse-Shoe
+itself, and gliding down in the current of the vortex, as it is
+compelled to quit the eddies, and come more in a line with the main
+course of the stream. Wires, too, are suspended across the gulf below,
+and men pass it in baskets. It is said that one of these inventions is
+to carry human beings over the main fall, so that the adventurer may
+hang suspended in the air, directly above the vortex. In this way do
+men, and even women, prove their love for the place, all of which we
+impute to its pervading character of sweetness and attraction.
+
+At Buffalo we embarked in a boat under the English flag, which is called
+the Canada, This shortened our passage to Detroit, by avoiding all the
+stops at lateral ports, and we had every reason to be satisfied with our
+selection. Boat, commander, and the attendance were such as would have
+done credit to any portion of the civilized world. There were many
+passengers, a motley collection, as usual, from all parts of the
+country.
+
+Our attention was early drawn to one party, by the singular beauty of
+its females. They seemed to us to be a grandmother, in a well-preserved,
+green old age; a daughter, but a matron of little less than forty; and
+two exceedingly pretty girls of about eighteen and sixteen, whom we took
+to be children of the last. The strong family likeness between these
+persons led us early to make this classification, which we afterward
+found was correct.
+
+By occasional remarks, I gathered that the girls had been to an
+"Eastern" boarding-school, that particular feature in civilization not
+yet flourishing in the Northwestern States. It seemed to us that we
+could trace in the dialect of the several members of this family,
+the gradations and peculiarities that denote the origin and habits of
+individuals. Thus, the grandmother was not quite as Western in her forms
+of speech as her matronly daughter, while the grandchildren evidently
+spoke under the influence of boarding-school correction, or like girls
+who had been often lectured on the subject "First rate," and "Yes, sir,"
+and "That's a fact," were often in the mouth of the pleasing mother, and
+even the grandmother used them all, though not as often as her daughter,
+while the young people looked a little concerned and surprised, whenever
+they came out of the mouth of their frank-speaking mother. That these
+persons were not of a very high social class was evident enough, even in
+their language. There was much occasion to mention New York, we found,
+and they uniformly called it "the city." By no accident did either of
+them happen to use the expression that she had been "in town," as one of
+us would be apt to say. "He's gone to the city," or "She's in the city,"
+are awkward phrases, and tant soit peu vulgar; but even our pretty
+young boarding-school eleves would use them. We have a horror of the
+expression "city," and are a little fastidious, perhaps, touching its
+use.
+
+But these little peculiarities were spots on the sun. The entire family,
+taken as a whole, was really charming; and long before the hour for
+retiring came, we had become much interested in them all. We found
+there was a fifth person belonging to this party, who did not make his
+appearance that night. From the discourse of these females, however, it
+was easy to glean the following leading facts: This fifth person was
+a male; he was indisposed, and kept his berth; and he was quite
+aged. Several nice little dishes were carried from the table into his
+state-room that evening, by one or the other of the young sisters,
+and each of the party appeared anxious to contribute to the invalid's
+comfort. All this sympathy excited our interest, and we had some
+curiosity to see this old man, long ere it was time to retire. As
+for the females, no name was mentioned among them but that of a Mrs.
+Osborne, who was once or twice alluded to in full. It was "grandma," and
+"ma," and "Dolly," and "sis." We should have liked it better had it been
+"mother," and "grandmother," and that the "sis" had been called Betsey
+or Molly; but we do not wish to be understood as exhibiting these
+amiable and good-looking strangers as models of refinement. "Ma" and
+"sis" did well enough, all things considered, though "mamma" would have
+been better if they were not sufficiently polished to say "mother."
+
+We had a pleasant night of it, and all the passengers appeared next
+morning with smiling faces. It often blows heavily on that lake, but
+light airs off the land were all the breezes we encountered. We were
+among the first to turn out, and on the upper deck forward, a place
+where the passengers are fond of collecting, as it enables them to look
+ahead, we found a single individual who immediately drew all of our
+attention to himself. It was an aged man, with hair already as white as
+snow. Still there was that in his gait, attitudes, and all his movements
+which indicated physical vigor, not to say the remains, at least, of
+great elasticity and sinewy activity. Aged as he was, and he must have
+long since passed his fourscore years, his form was erect as that of
+a youth. In stature he was of rather more than middle height, and in
+movements deliberate and dignified. His dress was quite plain, being
+black, and according to the customs of the day. The color of his face
+and hands, however, as well as the bold outlines of his countenance, and
+the still keen, restless, black eye, indicated the Indian.
+
+Here, then, was a civilized red man, and it struck us at once, that he
+was an ancient child of the forest, who had been made to feel the truths
+of the gospel. One seldom hesitates about addressing an Indian, and we
+commenced a discourse with our venerable fellow-passenger, with very
+little circumlocution or ceremony.
+
+"Good-morning, sir," we observed--"a charming time we have of it, on
+the lake."
+
+"Yes--good time--" returned my red neighbor, speaking short and clipped,
+like an Indian, but pronouncing his words as if long accustomed to the
+language.
+
+"These steamboats are great inventions for the western lakes, as are the
+railroads for this vast inland region. I dare say you can remember Lake
+Erie when it was an unusual thing to see a sail of any sort on it; and
+now, I should think, we might count fifty."
+
+"Yes--great change--great change, friend!--all change from ole time."
+
+"The traditions of your people, no doubt, give you reason to see and
+feel all this?"
+
+The predominant expression of this red man's countenance was that of
+love. On everything, on every human being toward whom he turned his
+still expressive eyes, the looks he gave them would seem to indicate
+interest and affection. This expression was so decided and peculiar,
+that we early remarked it, and it drew us closer and closer to the old
+chief, the longer we remained in his company. That expression, however,
+slightly changed when we made this allusion to the traditions of
+his people, and a cloud passed before his countenance. This change,
+nevertheless, was as transient as it was sudden, the benevolent and
+gentle look returning almost as soon as it had disappeared. He seemed
+anxious to atone for this involuntary expression of regrets for the
+past, by making his communications to me as free as they could be.
+
+"My tradition say a great deal," was the answer, "It say some good, some
+bad."
+
+"May I ask of what tribe you are?"
+
+The red man turned his eyes on us kindly, as if to lessen anything
+ungracious there might be in his refusal to answer, and with an
+expression of benevolence that we scarcely remember ever to have seen
+equalled. Indeed, we might say with truth, that the love which shone out
+of this old man's countenance habitually, surpassed that which we can
+recall as belonging to any other human face. He seemed to be at peace
+with himself, and with all the other children of Adam.
+
+"Tribe make no difference," he answered. "All children of same Great
+Spirit."
+
+"Red men and pale-faces?" I asked, not a little surprised with his
+reply.
+
+"Red man and pale-face. Christ die for all, and his Fadder make all. No
+difference, excep' in color. Color only skin deep."
+
+"Do you, then, look on us pale-faces as having a right here? Do you
+not regard us as invaders, as enemies who have come to take away your
+lands?"
+
+"Injin don't own 'arth. 'Arth belong to God, and he send whom he like
+to live on it. One time he send Injin; now he send pale-face. His 'arth,
+and he do what he please wid it. Nobody any right to complain. Bad to
+find fault wid Great Spirit. All he do, right; nebber do anyt'ing bad.
+His blessed Son die for all color, and all color muss bow down at his
+holy name. Dat what dis good book say," showing a small pocket Bible,
+"and what dis good book say come from Great Spirit, himself."
+
+"You read the Holy Scriptures, then--you are an educated Indian?"
+
+"No; can't read at all. Don't know how. Try hard, but too ole to begin.
+Got young eyes, however, to help me," he added, with one of the fondest
+smiles I ever saw light a human face, as he turned to meet the pretty
+Dolly's "Good-morning, Peter," and to shake the hand of the elder
+sister. "She read good book for old Injin, when he want her; and when
+she off at school, in 'city,' den her mudder or her gran'mudder read for
+him. Fuss begin wid gran'mudder; now get down to gran'da'ghter. But good
+book all de same, let who will read it."
+
+This, then, was "Scalping Peter," the very man I was travelling into
+Michigan to see, but how wonderfully changed! The Spirit of the Most
+High God had been shed freely upon his moral being, and in lieu of the
+revengeful and vindictive savage, he now lived a subdued, benevolent
+Christian! In every human being he beheld a brother, and no longer
+thought of destroying races, in order to secure to his own people the
+quiet possession of their hunting-grounds. His very soul was love; and
+no doubt he felt himself strong enough to "bless those who cursed him,"
+and to give up his spirit, like the good missionary whose death had
+first turned him toward the worship of the one true God, praying for
+those who took his life.
+
+The ways of Divine Providence are past the investigations of human
+reason. How often, in turning over the pages of history, do we find
+civilization, the arts, moral improvement, nay, Christianity itself,
+following the bloody train left by the conqueror's car, and good pouring
+in upon a nation by avenues that at first were teeming only with the
+approaches of seeming evils! In this way, there is now reason to hope
+that America is about to pay the debt she owes to Africa; and in this
+way will the invasion of the forests, and prairies and "openings,"
+of the red man be made to atone for itself by carrying with it the
+blessings of the Gospel, and a juster view of the relations which man
+bears to his Creator. Possibly Mexico may derive lasting benefits from
+the hard lesson that she has so recently been made to endure.
+
+This, then, was Peter, changed into a civilized man and a Christian! I
+have found, subsequently, that glimmerings of the former being existed
+in his character; but they showed themselves only at long intervals, and
+under very peculiar circumstances. The study of these traits became a
+subject of great interest with us, for we now travelled in company the
+rest of our journey. The elder lady, or "grandma," was the Margery of
+our tale; still handsome, spirited, and kind. The younger matron was her
+daughter and only child, and "sis," another Margery, and Dorothy, were
+her grandchildren. There was also a son, or a grandson rather, Ben,
+who was on Prairie Round, "with the general." The "general" was our old
+friend, le Bourdon, who was still as often called "General Bourdon,"
+as "General Boden." This matter of "generals" at the West is a little
+overdone, as all ranks and titles are somewhat apt to be in new
+countries. It causes one often to smile, at the East; and no wonder that
+an Eastern habit should go down in all its glory, beneath the
+"setting sun." In after-days, generals will not be quite as "plenty as
+blackberries."
+
+No sooner did Mrs. Boden, or Margery, to use her familiar name, learn
+that we were the very individual to whom the "general" had sent the
+notes relative to his early adventures, which had been prepared by
+the "Rev. Mr. Varse," of Kalamazoo, than she became as friendly and
+communicative as we could possibly desire.
+
+Her own life had been prosperous, and her marriage happy. Her brother,
+however, had fallen back into his old habits, and died ere the war of
+1812 was ended. Dorothy had returned to her friends in Massachusetts,
+and was still living, in a comfortable condition, owing to a legacy from
+an uncle. The bee-hunter had taken the field in that war, and had seen
+some sharp fighting on the banks of the Niagara. No sooner was peace
+made, however, than he returned to his beloved Openings, where he had
+remained, "growing with the country," as it is termed, until he was now
+what is deemed a rich man in Michigan. He has a plenty of land, and that
+which is good; a respectable dwelling, and is out of debt. He meets
+his obligations to an Eastern man just as promptly as he meets those
+contracted at home, and regards the United States, and not Michigan, as
+his country. All these were good traits, and we were glad to learn that
+they existed in one who already possessed so much of our esteem. At
+Detroit we found a fine flourishing town, of a healthful and natural
+growth, and with a population that was fast approaching twenty thousand.
+The shores of the beautiful strait on which it stands, and which, by a
+strange blending of significations and languages, is popularly called
+the "Detroit River," were alive with men and their appliances, and we
+scarce know where to turn to find a more agreeable landscape than that
+which was presented to us, after passing the island of "Bobolo" (Bois
+Blanc), near Maiden. Altogether, it resembled a miniature picture of
+Constantinople, without its Eastern peculiarities.
+
+At Detroit commenced our surprise at the rapid progress of Western
+civilization. It will be remembered that at the period of our tale, the
+environs of Detroit excepted, the whole peninsula of Michigan lay in
+a state of nature. Nor did the process of settlement commence actively
+until about twenty years since; but, owing to the character of
+the country, it already possesses many of the better features of a
+long-inhabited region. There are stumps, of course, for new fields are
+constantly coming into cultivation; but on the whole, the appearance is
+that of a middle-aged, rather than that of a new region.
+
+We left Detroit on a railroad, rattling away toward the setting sun, at
+a good speed even for that mode of conveyance. It seemed to us that
+our route was well garnished with large villages, of which we must have
+passed through a dozen, in the course of a few hours' "railing," These
+are places varying in size from one to three thousand inhabitants. The
+vegetation certainly surpassed that of even West New York, the trees
+alone excepted. The whole country was a wheat-field, and we now began
+to understand how America could feed the world. Our road lay among the
+"Openings" much of the way, and we found them undergoing the changes
+which are incident to the passage of civilized men. As the periodical
+fires had now ceased for many years, underbrush was growing in lieu of
+the natural grass, and in so much those groves are less attractive than
+formerly; but one easily comprehends the reason, and can picture to
+himself the aspect that these pleasant woods must have worn in times of
+old.
+
+We left the railroad at Kalamazoo--an unusually pretty village, on the
+banks of the stream of that name. Those who laid out this place, some
+fifteen years since, had the taste to preserve most of its trees;
+and the houses and grounds that stand a little apart from the busiest
+streets--and they are numerous for a place of rather more than two
+thousand souls--are particularly pleasant to the eye, on account of the
+shade, and the rural pictures they present. Here Mrs. Boden told us we
+were within a mile or two of the very spot where once had stood Castle
+Meal (Chateau au Miel), though the "general" had finally established
+himself at Schoolcraft, on Prairie Ronde.
+
+The first prairie we had ever seen was on the road between Detroit and
+Kalamazoo; distant from the latter place only some eight or nine miles.
+The axe had laid the country open in its neighborhood; but the spot was
+easily to be recognized by the air of cultivation and age that pervaded
+it. There was not a stump on it, and the fields were as smooth as any on
+the plains of Lombardy, and far more fertile, rich as the last are known
+to be. In a word, the beautiful perfection of that little natural meadow
+became apparent at once, though seated amid a landscape that was by no
+means wanting in interest of its own.
+
+We passed the night at the village of Kalamazoo; but the party of
+females, with old Peter, proceeded on to Prairie Round, as that
+particular part of the country is called in the dialect of Michigan, it
+being a corruption of the old French name of la prairie ronde. The Round
+Meadow does not sound as well as Prairie Round, and the last being quite
+as clear a term as the other, though a mixture of the two languages,
+we prefer to use it. Indeed, the word "prairie" may now be said to
+be adopted into the English; meaning merely a natural instead of an
+artificial meadow, though one of peculiar and local characteristics. We
+wrote a note to General Boden, as I found our old acquaintance Ben Boden
+was universally termed, letting him know I should visit Schoolcraft next
+day; not wishing to intrude at the moment when that charming family was
+just reunited after so long a separation.
+
+The next day, accordingly, we got into a "buggy" and went our way.
+The road was slightly sandy a good part of the twelve miles we had
+to travel, though it became less so as we drew near to the celebrated
+prairie. And celebrated, and that by an abler pen than ours, does this
+remarkable place deserve to be! We found all our expectations concerning
+it fully realized, and drove through the scene of abundance it presented
+with an admiration that was not entirely free from awe.
+
+To get an idea of Prairie Round, the reader must imagine an oval plain
+of some five-and-twenty or thirty thousand acres in extent, of the most
+surpassing fertility, without an eminence of any sort--almost without an
+inequality. There are a few small cavities, howevers in which there are
+springs that form large pools of water that the cattle will drink. This
+plain, so far as we saw it, is now entirely fenced and cultivated. The
+fields are large, many containing eighty acres, and some one hundred and
+sixty; most of them being in wheat. We saw several of this size in
+that grain. Farm-houses dotted the surface, with barns, and the other
+accessories of rural life. In the centre of the prairie is an "island"
+of forest, containing some five or six hundred acres of the noblest
+native trees we remember ever to have seen. In the centre of this wood
+is a little lake, circular in shape, and exceeding a quarter of a mile
+in diameter. The walk in this wood-which is not an Opening, but an
+old-fashioned virgin forest--we found delightful of a warm summer's day.
+One thing that we saw in it was characteristic of the country. Some
+of the nearest farmers had drawn their manure into it, where it lay in
+large piles, in order to get it out of the way of doing any mischief.
+Its effect on the land, it was thought, would be to bring too much
+straw!
+
+On one side of this island of wood lies the little village or large
+hamlet of Schoolcraft. Here we were most cordially welcomed by General
+Boden, and all of his fine descendants. The head of this family is
+approaching seventy, but is still hale and hearty. His head is as white
+as snow, and his face as red as a cherry. A finer old man one seldom
+sees. Temperance, activity, the open air, and a good conscience, have
+left him a noble ruin; if ruin he can yet be called. He owes the last
+blessing, as he told us himself, to the fact that he kept clear of
+the whirlwind of speculation that passed over this region some ten or
+fifteen years since. His means are ample; and the harvest being about to
+commence, he invited me to the field.
+
+The peculiar ingenuity of the American has supplied the want of
+laborers, in a country where agriculture is carried on by wholesale,
+especially in the cereals, by an instrument of the most singular and
+elaborate construction. This machine is drawn by sixteen or eighteen
+horses, attached to it laterally, so as to work clear of the standing
+grain, and who move the whole fabric on a moderate but steady walk. A
+path is first cut with the cradle on one side of the field, when the
+machine is dragged into the open place. Here it enters the standing
+grain, cutting off its heads with the utmost accuracy as it moves. Forks
+beneath prepare the way, and a rapid vibratory motion of a great number
+of two-edged knives effect the object. The stalks of the grain can be
+cut as low or as high as one pleases, but it is usually thought best to
+take only the heads. Afterward the standing straw is burned, or fed off,
+upright.
+
+The impelling power which causes the great fabric to advance also sets
+in motion the machinery within it As soon as the heads of the grain are
+severed from the stalks, they pass into a receptacle, where, by a very
+quick and simple process, the kernels are separated from the husks.
+Thence all goes into a fanning machine, where the chaff is blown away.
+The clean grain falls into a small bin, whence it is raised by a screw
+elevator to a height that enables it to pass out at an opening to which
+a bag is attached. Wagons follow the slow march of the machine, and the
+proper number of men are in attendance. Bag after bag is renewed, until
+a wagon is loaded, when it at once proceeds to the mill, where the grain
+is soon converted into flour. Generally the husbandman sells to the
+miller, but occasionally he pays for making the flour, and sends the
+latter off, by railroad, to Detroit, whence it finds its way to Europe,
+possibly, to help feed the millions of the old world. Such, at least,
+was the course of trade the past season. As respects this ingenious
+machine, it remains only to say that it harvests, cleans, and bags
+from twenty to thirty acres of heavy wheat, in the course of a single
+summer's day! Altogether it is a gigantic invention, well adapted to
+meet the necessities of a gigantic country.
+
+Old Peter went afield with us that day. There he stood, like a striking
+monument of a past that was still so recent and wonderful. On that very
+prairie, which was now teeming with the appliances of civilization,
+he had hunted and held his savage councils. On that prairie had he
+meditated, or consented to the deaths of the young couple, whose
+descendants were now dwelling there, amid abundance, and happy. Nothing
+but the prayers of the dying missionary, in behalf of his destroyers,
+had prevented the dire consummation.
+
+We were still in the field, when General Boden's attention was drawn
+toward the person of another guest. This, too, was an Indian, old like
+himself, but not clad like Peter, in the vestments of the whites. The
+attire of this sinewy old man was a mixture of that of the two races. He
+wore a hunting-shirt, moccasins, and a belt; but he also wore trousers,
+and otherwise had brought himself within the habits of conventional
+decency. It was Pigeonswing, the Chippewa, come to pay his annual visit
+to his friend, the bee-hunter, The meeting was cordial, and we afterward
+ascertained that when the old man departed, he went away loaded with
+gifts that would render him comfortable for a twelvemonth.
+
+But Peter, after all, was the great centre of interest with us. We could
+admire the General's bee-hives, which were numerous and ingenious; could
+admire his still handsome Margery, and all their blooming descendants;
+and were glad when we discovered that our old friend--made so by means
+of a knowledge of his character, if not by actual acquaintance--was much
+improved in mind, was a sincere Christian, and had been a Senator of his
+own State; respected and esteemed by all who knew him. Such a career,
+however, has nothing peculiar in America; it is one of every-day
+occurrence, and shows the power of man when left free to make his own
+exertions; while that of the Scalping Peter indicated the power of God.
+There he was, living in the midst of the hated race, loving and beloved;
+wishing naught but blessings on all colors alike; looking back upon his
+traditions and superstitions with a sort of melancholy interest, as
+we all portray in our memories the scenes, legends, and feelings of an
+erring childhood.
+
+We were walking in the garden, after dinner, and looking at the hives.
+There were the general, Margery, Peter, and ourselves. The first was
+loud in praise of his buzzing friends, for whom it was plain he still
+entertained a lively regard. The old Indian, at first, was sad. Then
+he smiled, and, turning to us, he spoke earnestly and with some of his
+ancient fire and eloquence.
+
+"Tell me you make a book," he said. "In dat book tell trut'. You see
+me--poor old Injin. My fadder was chief--I was great chief, but we was
+children. Knowed nuttin'. Like little child, dough great chief.
+Believe tradition. T'ink dis 'arth flat--t'ink Injin could scalp all
+pale-face--t'ink tomahawk, and war-path, and rifle, bess t'ings in
+whole world. In dat day, my heart was stone. Afraid of Great Spirit, but
+didn't love him. In dat time I t'ink General could talk wid bee. Yes;
+was very foolish den. Now, all dem cloud blow away, and I see my Fadder
+dat is in heaven. His face shine on me, day and night, and I never get
+tired of looking at it. I see him smile, I see him lookin' at poor ole
+Injin, as if he want him to come nearer; sometime I see him frown and
+dat scare me. Den I pray, and his frown go away.
+
+"Stranger, love God. B'lieve his blessed Son, who pray for dem dat kill
+him. Injin don't do that. Injin not strong enough to do so good t'ing.
+It want de Holy Spirit to strengthen de heart, afore man can do so great
+t'ing. When he got de force of de Holy Spirit, de heart of stone is
+changed to de heart of woman, and we all be ready to bless our enemy and
+die. I have spoken. Let dem dat read your book understand."
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Oak Openings, by James Fenimore Cooper
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