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 PLOUGHED UNDER 
 
 The Story of an Indian Chief 
 
 TOLD BY HIMSELF 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY INSHTA THEAMBA 
 (BRIGHT EYES) 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 FORDS, HOWARD, & HULBERT. 
 1*81. 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1881. 
 FORDS, HOWARD, & HULBERT. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY INSHTA THEAMBA. 
 
 (" Bright yes.") 
 
 THE white people have tried to solve the " Indian 
 Question " by commencing with the proposition that 
 the Indian is different from all other human beings. 
 
 With some he is a peculiar being, surrounded by a 
 halo of romance, who has to be set apart on a reserva 
 tion as something sacred, who has to be fed, clothed, 
 and taken care of by a guardian or agent, by whom he 
 is not to be allowed to come in contact with his 
 conquerors lest it might degrade him ; his conquerors 
 being a people who hold their civilization above that 
 of all others on the earth, because of their perfect 
 freedom and liberty. " The contact of peoples is the 
 best of all education." And this the ward is denied. 
 
 With others again he is a savage, a sort of monster 
 without % any heart or soul or mind, but whose whole 
 being is full of hatred, ferocity, and blood-thirstiness. 
 They suppose him to have no family affections, no 
 love for his home, none of the sensitive feelings that 
 all other human beings presumably have. This class 
 demand his extermination. 
 
 8840 
 
4 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 Under the shelter of the conflicting laws imposed 
 by these two extreme views, the clever operators of 
 the Indian Ring not caring what he is, but looking 
 on him for what he has, and the opportunities lie 
 affords, as legitimate prey pounce on him and use him 
 as a means of obtaining contracts, removals, land 
 speculations, and appropriations which are to be 
 stolen. They tear him from his home, disregarding 
 all the rights of his manhood. 
 
 Allow an Indian to suggest that the solution of the 
 vexed "Indian Question" is Citizenship , with all its 
 attending duties and responsibilities, as well as the 
 privileges of protection under the law, by which the 
 Indian could appeal to the courts, when deprived 
 of life, liberty, or property, as every citizen can, and 
 would be allowed the opportunity to make something 
 of himself, in common with every other citizen. If it 
 were not for the lands which the Indian holds, he 
 would have been a citizen long before the negro ; and 
 in this respect his lands have been a curse to him 
 rather than a blessing. But for them, he would have 
 been insignificant in the eyes of this powerful and 
 wealthy nation, and allowed to live in peace and 
 quietness, without attracting the birds of prey forever 
 hovering over the helpless ; then his citizenship 
 would have protected him, as it does any other ordi 
 nary human being. As a ward," or extraordinary 
 being, if he is accused of committing a crime, this 
 serves as a pretext of war for his extermination, and 
 his father, mother, sister, brother, wife, or people 
 are involved in one common ruin ; while if he were 
 
IN TROD UCTION. 5 
 
 simply a citizen, he would be individually arrested by 
 the sheriff, and tried in court, and either protected in 
 his innocence or convicted and punished in his guilt. 
 The Indian, as a "ward," or extraordinary being, 
 affords employment to about ten thousand employes 
 in the Indian Bureau, with all the salaries attached, as 
 well as innumerable contractors, freighters, and land 
 speculators. He requires also, periodically, immense 
 appropriations to move him from place to place. 
 Imagine a company of Irish immigrants requiring from 
 Congress an appropriation to move them from one 
 part of the country to another ! No wonder that the 
 powers-that-be refuse to recognize the Indian as an 
 ordinary human being, but insist that he be taken care 
 of and "protected" by the decisions of the Indian 
 Bureau. In this " land of- freedom and liberty" an 
 Indian has to get the permission of an agent before 
 he can either step off his reservation or allow any 
 civilization to enter it ; and this, under heavy penalty 
 for disobedience. In this land, where the boast is 
 made that all men are " equal before the law," the 
 Indian cannot sue in the courts for his life, liberty, or 
 property, because, forsooth, the Indian is not a " per 
 son," as the learned attorney employed by a Secretary 
 of the Interior argued for five hours, when an Indian 
 appealed to the writ of habeas corpus for his liberty. 
 
 The key to this complicated problem is, simply, 
 To recognize the Indian as a person and a citizen, 
 give him a title to his lands, and place him within the 
 jurisdiction of the courts, as an individual. It is 
 absurd for a great government like this to say that it 
 
6 PLOUGH ED UNDER. 
 
 cannot manage a little handful of helpless people, 
 who are but as an atom in the mass of fifty millions 
 of people, unless they treat them as "wards." 
 
 No, the Indian is not an extraordinary being ; he is 
 of the race of man, and, like others, is the creature 
 of his surroundings. If you would know something 
 of what he is, of how his spirit and his disposition 
 are affected by his circumstances, read the record 
 of life its loves and hates here set forth. As 
 the hero of this story says, " If those of our race 
 who have been slain by the white man should spring 
 up from the sod as trees, there would be one broad 
 moaning forest from the great river to the sea." The 
 incidents of this tale are based upon easily authenti 
 cated facts most of them, indeed, being matters of 
 official record. The lines are not too deep nor the 
 colors too strong. It would be impossible to exag 
 gerate the sufferings imposed upon my people by the 
 cruel greed of their plunderers. As the author has so 
 graphically depicted, the huge plough of the " Indian 
 system" has run for a hundred years, beam deep, 
 turning down into the darkness of the earth every 
 hope and aspiration which we have cherished. The 
 sod is rich with the blood of human beings of both 
 races. What sort of a harvest, think you, will it yield 
 in the future to the nation whose hand has guided 
 this plough? 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN committing this little story to the public, it is neces 
 sary to assure that honorable body that the tragic events 
 described are in no case overdrawn. While the narrative 
 has not followed the history of any one tribe, all the 
 scenes depicted have been taken from the great unwrit 
 ten volume of Indian suffering. 
 
 The dialogue contains the substance of the discussions 
 around the camp-fires and in the lodges and homes of all 
 the Indians of the great North-west. The Indian lan 
 guage is so full of metaphor, that to preserve anything 
 like a true conception of Indian speech, the seemingly 
 excessive richness of its coloring must be preserved. 
 
 The title will suggest a figure familiar to every one 
 who has had the least experience in agricultural pursuits. 
 The advancing ploughshare turns under the wild and 
 beautiful growths of the native sod to enrich the soil and 
 open the way for new seeds and growths. This is bene 
 ficial and necessary in the case of vegetable life ; but it is 
 a fair question whether it is so in the case of the human 
 bodies and souls that go down under the advancing 
 ploughshare of American civilization on the Western 
 plains. It is worthy the consideration of the intelligence 
 and humanity of this land whether there may not be 
 some material in the Indian race which is worth saving 
 and improving, even for the sake of the white race and 
 its civilization. To assist in the formation of right con 
 clusions in respect to these weighty matters, the following 
 story has been written. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE FIRST PUZZLE. 
 
 MY earliest memories are concerned with the shining 
 of a great river, which, flowing by the spot where our 
 simple village stood, gave sport to the boys, fear to the 
 girls, toil to the men, and food to all. By the banks of 
 this stream, with my feet in its current, I would sit for 
 hours, and it was to me the suggestion and type of 
 thoughts I could never hope in our simple language to 
 express; I doubt if they could be defined even in the 
 sweetest and most powerful words that other peoples 
 know so well how to use. Sometimes I would pick a 
 dandelion and fling it out into the swirl, and how strangely 
 I felt as I saw it sweep dancing away ! Or I would lose 
 my arrowhead in its quicksands and would forget to search 
 or even weep for it, because of the flood of strange medi 
 tations that would come over me. Or I would lay my 
 cheek on the grassy bank, my eyes on a line with 
 the river s surface ; and usually at such times there was 
 another cheek, a softer one than mine, on the grass beside 
 mine and I know not what made me think of rushing 
 down great lengths of time with her by my side, of strug 
 gling with other men when I should be a man, of going 
 into still places and then into stormy places, and at last 
 coming to a wide, beautiful quiet. 
 
 Our village, at the time of my boyhood, was built 
 under great trees whose whispers at night put us to sleep 
 and whose laughter in the fresh morning breeze wakened 
 us. The lands of my fathers stretched away for many 
 miles to another great river, but it was the custom of my 
 
12 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 people to live clustered together, in this one most beauti- 
 * 1 fulcgot oflaH, for mutual happiness and protection. Our 
 Tathers had lived upon this spot for so many years that 
 ; \\ : o>i^c51d^st.\tracf{tions spake not of their coming their 
 grabs -on the neighboring hill far outnumbered the 
 members of our tribe who now lived or could live for 
 many years. They had mostly fed upon buffalo-meat from 
 the prairies and fish from the river; but in addition to 
 these, which were now becoming scarce, we had potatoes 
 and grain from our own lands, cultivated by our toil. How 
 we came to plough the earth and raise corn upon it, mar 
 ring beauty for utility s sake, was told to me when I was 
 of years to understand by Um-pan-nez-zhe, or " Standing 
 Elk" as the white man would call him, who was the " wise 
 man" of our tribe. 
 
 "Some years ago," he said, as we sat under the deep 
 shade of a tree and he made a new bow for me while I 
 whittled the arrow, "there came a white man to our 
 tepees,* and we received him as a brother. His hair was 
 white as yonder foam upon the Missouri. His form was 
 bent by the winds of many years. But his words were 
 soft and sweet as the rippling of Niobrara over the sand. 
 In his hand he brought The Book, the holy teachings of 
 which were like the gentle fall of rain, causing to spring 
 up from our hearts grains and flowers whose seeds had 
 long lain there. Our fathers had dim traditions of all 
 the good man taught, but the words of the holy Book 
 made these buried sproutings to rise and bud. He gath 
 ered the chiefs and head men of our tribe together and 
 told them of Wakanda, whom the white men call God. 
 The chiefs reverently told him that they and their fathers 
 had always known and worshiped Wakanda, who was 
 
 * Tents. 
 
THE FIRST PUZZLE. 13 
 
 the kind Father of red men as well as white. Then the 
 good man told them of the wrongfulness of anger, lying, 
 and revenge, and the chiefs said they had known all this 
 too. But when he told them of Wakanda s Son, who 
 loved the simple-hearted and the poor and died for them, 
 our fathers wept and said, We had hoped for such an 
 E-Ka-gah,or " Friend," but we knew not he was ours. 
 For many days the good man staid with our people, and 
 taught us how to build these houses of the logs felled 
 from the brook-sides. He told us many of the strange 
 ways of white men, who live in close and dirty cities, and 
 many of whom have never felt the sweet breeze of the 
 prairies on their cheeks, or watched the scarlet bursting 
 of a blizzard-storm. He chided us for not plowing the 
 ground and raising corn, and seemed to think his people 
 were wiser than ours that they did so. But our chiefs 
 said that their fathers had raised corn upon that continent 
 before white man s foot had pressed it. That we had 
 departed from their ways was a matter of proud choice. 
 Our fathers, they said, were like the prairie-dogs who 
 burrow into the ground on one spot to gain their food. 
 We are like the eagles who in unchained liberty snatch 
 their prey from the foamy tops of river-waves. We might 
 be squaws to dig, we choose to be free. And there was 
 like to be hatred between the chiefs and the good man ; 
 but his face was so calm and he showed so well how strong 
 it is to forgive that instantly there was peace. Then he 
 pointed out, in words as cooling as balsam-salve, how the 
 game was disappearing from the divides and how the 
 Hu-hxi* were netted, and so slaughtered, in every stream, 
 and how the Ma-chiit was seldom met in the everglades, 
 and how the Um-pan \ and Dta no longer swarmed in 
 
 *Fish. fBear. J Elk. Buffalo. 
 
14 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 droves upon the wide prairies, and how the white men 
 were pushing on to hem us in, so that a fierce necessity 
 was on the red men to adopt the ways of the stronger 
 race. At these words, Eagle Wing, thy father, who was 
 a young man then, started up and said : Better to die 
 than be as squaws. But the oldest chief of all, Stern 
 Face, who has since been laid with his fathers, an 
 swered, Thou art a young man, Eagle Wing. Upon 
 thy skirts even now hang the trophies of the chase. 
 Thou hast but one child : dost thou wish to see him 
 die? We might face death ourselves rather than be 
 oppressed, but shall we bring worse than death upon 
 our little ones who smile at us and reach up their soft 
 hands to pat our cheeks ? The young men could not 
 answer when the chief had spoken, but for that day and 
 for many days they preserved a sullen silence ; and for the 
 first time there were anxious faces in our village. But the 
 counsel of the old chiefs prevailed, and the good mission 
 ary set about teaching us to leave, as he called it, the state 
 of savages." 
 
 When Standing Elk had reached this point in his story 
 I dropped my arrow and, springing up, exclaimed : 
 
 " Savages ! How can they rightly call us savages ? Is 
 it because we prefer the bounding air to their shut-up 
 houses ? Is it because the narrow ways of their kind of 
 life are hateful to us? I have heard of it all. Is my 
 mother a savage because she nursed me in a bed of wild 
 mosses instead of a covered mattress, and gave me dande 
 lions and wild roses instead of painted balls for playthings ? 
 So long as we do not interfere with the happiness of others, 
 who can call us savages without sinning against us and 
 himself as well?" 
 
 " Hush ! my passionate boy," the wise man said. " There 
 are some having the dusky skin who have committed 
 
THE FIRST PUZZLE. 15 
 
 deeds of violence when maddened by the exactions of the 
 white race, and they are taken as examples of us all. 
 Nay, there are some tribes who are bitterly hostile to the 
 whites and lose no chance of harming them; we friendly 
 tribes- are measured by those "hostiles" although, it is 
 true, the white man treats the hostiles with more consid 
 eration than those who befriend him." 
 
 " This is a greater evil still," I cried. " That there be 
 wild-beets which poison and destroy should not be held 
 against the healthful roots. And are there not some 
 white hands which have robbed and murdered, and are 
 all of their race held guilty?" 
 
 "My son," the wise man said, "the world can see 
 but one character among all Indian races. It is for 
 you to bear your destiny as Wakanda has ordered it. 
 They are the stronger race. The weak rush must go 
 down before the mighty wind. Meanwhile we have our 
 lands secure. Our fathers have always dwelt upon them 
 and called them theirs, and the great nation within whose 
 bounds we live have in many treaties acknowledged our 
 claim to them. Let us cultivate the soil as we have been 
 taught by the good Wa-ga-za* to whose word you are so 
 much opposed. He marked out the trail which will lead 
 you to happiness ; follow it like a brave and faithful son 
 of a brave and noble chief." 
 
 For many days oh for so many days ! did I think of 
 these words of the wise man, and they became vividly real 
 to me when certain terrible events, which I must tell you 
 of, had taken place. But at this boyhood-period of my 
 life every day was a constant joy, increased rather than 
 diminished by the sober thoughts awakened by such con 
 versations as this with the wise man. 
 
 * Missionary. 
 
1 6 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 Our village was built in the form of a circle, and the 
 large, clear, open space left in the very heart of all was 
 reserved for a common play-ground. Here the boys 
 learned to shoot their arrows, with such accuracy that a 
 little daisy from the plain could be cut in twain ; and one 
 part of it was to be kept by the archer himself, while the 
 other must be laid in the -lap of the little maiden whom 
 he loved the best and whose bright black eyes had been 
 watching timidly and anxiously the whole test. Here the 
 older youths matched their athletic skill in many a leap, 
 handspring, and race. Here they led their beautiful 
 ponies and matched them against each other for speed and 
 spirit. How their smooth flanks would shine, and how 
 their intelligent eyes would twinkle, and how their strong 
 muscles would fling them over the sod, and with what 
 prodigious leaps would they clear the highest obstructions 
 placed in their way ! How the riders would bend them 
 selves on every side, now standing upright on the ponies 
 rumps, now lying prone on their backs, and now stooping 
 to pick hats or moccasins or even arrows from the dust 
 beneath their ponies flying feet ! And then after the 
 sport, how those whom they loved would deck ponies and 
 riders in their brightest ribbons and grasses, and timidly 
 smile their admiration ! 
 
 But by far the greater part of our happiness was in 
 association with the beautiful world which Wakanda had 
 made. Oh, how we loved the gentle voices of the grove, 
 and the tender murmurs of the tall wild-grass, the sweet 
 shining of moon-rays, and the rumble of the storm! 
 What long excursions would we take whole troops of us 
 to count the spears on the bunches of buffalo-grass, and 
 chase the butterfly to the woods or the prairie-dog to his 
 burrow, and watch the green eyes of the turtle sunning 
 himself on the logs, and plait our hair with sweet scent- 
 
THE FIRST PUZZLE. l^ 
 
 ed grass, until, worn out with such activity, we would 
 lie upon the banks overlooking a spring and watch the 
 bubbles bursting on its surface. And when at evening 
 we sat around the great camp-fire and told our mothers of 
 the day s sport, they would tell us that Wakanda made 
 all these beautiful things and we must love them for His 
 sake and Him for theirs. And our fathers and brothers 
 would point out to us on their fingers how much the 
 corn had grown in a day, and some one would take The 
 Book which the good missionary had left and read to 
 us the sweet words of Wakanda s Son. Then when I laid 
 myself down to sleep I would puzzle myself with the 
 ever-recurring question : " Is this to be a savage ?" 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON THE PRAIRI E. 
 
 I HAVE spoken of the softer cheek than mine which 
 often lay upon the bank beside me when I thought, and 
 surely you who know anything of that love which must 
 be the same in every race have already guessed that that 
 cheek belonged to the sweet maiden I loved best. Her 
 father was Standing Elk, the wise man, and truly he was 
 never wiser than when he called her Wagh-ta, or " Prairie 
 Flower." To my young eyes she was fairer than the 
 morning, and her eyes outshone the stars of night. Her 
 form was as slender and shapely as the spring-time growth 
 of the mountain aspen, and her footfall gentler than the 
 dew on the wild-rose. The young doves hatched together 
 in one swinging nest upon the birch-bough are mated 
 from that moment, and when the one is absent the other 
 can but sit with breast to the wind and mourn ; thus it 
 seemed to us we had loved forever, and neither could be 
 happy alone. 
 
 There was one line of events in our lives involving us 
 in a common peril, and bringing to us a common deliver 
 ance, which seemed to unite us with a bond of renewed 
 life almost as strong as our spontaneous love. I must tell 
 the story to you as I heard it, mentioning also my own 
 vivid memories of such things as would strike a boy s 
 fancy. 
 
 When I was about eight years of age, my father, Khe- 
 tha-a-hi, or Eagle Wing, determined to take the branch 
 of our tribe of which he was chief upon a grand buffalo- 
 hunt. The plans were talked over for many nights 
 
ON THE PRAIRIE. 19 
 
 around the camp-fires, and when at last the day came for 
 the start everything had been carefully arranged. There 
 were about one hundred warriors, all mounted on their 
 fleetest ponies, drawn up upon the plain when the moment 
 came to start, Other ponies were hitched to the tent- 
 poles, across which were stretched skins, and the 
 children and the camping outfit were then placed upon 
 these drags. My father, when we were on the way, 
 rode at the head of the little band on a magnificent horse, 
 so white that the foam from his trembling lips could not 
 be detected when it had fallen on his flanks. It was a 
 grand and beautiful sight. The horses heads were decked 
 with ribbons and strings of wolves ears tipped with paint. 
 The warriors were dressed in their brightest garments, 
 and the children vied with the birds in the beauty and 
 variety of the feathers with which they were adorned. 
 On one of the foremost of the sleds little Prairie Flower 
 and I were placed; and although I was not fully con 
 scious of it then, I am quite sure now that I needed no 
 other ornament than her simple presence to make me the 
 most attractive and envied of all. So with shouts and 
 merry laughter ; with jumping off our sleds to pluck a 
 dandelion or snatch a spread plover s wing from the hand 
 of a comrade and then hastily springing to our seat again ; 
 with many trials of speed between the best ponies on level 
 spots ; with cautious reconnoitering of wooded places to 
 see if the Sioux were lurking there ; with the gathering of 
 sticks beside the cool spring at noon to roast the plover 
 or the grouse to satisfy our hunger, while the ponies 
 browsed upon the tender and savory grass ; with the 
 pitching of our camp in some secure spot at nightfall, to 
 rest after the hard day s ride ; with the starting up again 
 and speeding away when the first streaks of blood 
 appeared in the East stabbed by the Sunbeam with these 
 
20 PLOUGHED UNDER, 
 
 and a thousand other delights, gayly we went upon our 
 buffalo-hunt. Our course lay toward the north-west, 
 where great herds of the noble game congregated. We 
 crossed wide stretches of daisy-dotted plain and many 
 little streams. I did not then love, as I have since learned 
 to love, these gracefully rolling prairies, presenting, as 
 they do, so many picturesque views. How often have I 
 sat with Prairie Flower by my side, and watched for hours, 
 that seemed but as moments, the ever-varying shades of 
 green upon those magnificent contours, and felt emotions 
 that I wish I could tell you of ! I loved it best at evening- 
 time, when the wondrous, untrained music of the valleys 
 was fully abroad. Oh what sweet and varied harmonies 
 the winds of the twilight can breathe into the swaying 
 reeds and rushes which grow by the watercourses of the 
 West ! The heart of the red man loves that Wa-e * well ! 
 The patter of frost-drops upon the decaying fringes and 
 cones in the neighboring pine-grove ; the thunder of the 
 stone dislodged by the badger s foot and sent bounding 
 down the hillside into the river ; the whisper of the night- 
 wind in the nodding cups of the prairie lily and ane 
 mone ; the crash of the tree at whose root the worm has 
 been gnawing, and which now is overblown to fall into 
 columnar decay ; the "honk" of the wild geese sweeping in 
 triangular bands toward the south, and the startled cry of 
 the wild ducks rising out of the swamps ; the splash of 
 the beaver s tail as he builds his watery home ; the whistle 
 of the thrush, the drumming of the prairie-cock s wings, 
 and the occasional whirr of the belated quail hastening 
 back to her young ; the snort of the elk, the barking of the 
 wolf, and the voice of man, all these, and a thousand 
 other strains, grave and gay, shrill and melodious, enter 
 
 * Music. 
 
ON THE PRAIRIE. 21 
 
 into this song of nature, so sublime that no sound of 
 forest or valley, or creeping thing or fowl of the air, can 
 be out of time or tune to it or mar in the least its har 
 mony. Wakanda smiled and the melodies began. All 
 this I loved and Prairie Flower loved, for I loved her 
 loves and she mine. 
 
 In the progress of our hunt toward the north-west, we 
 soon reached a region where increasing caution was 
 necessary, as we were approaching the hunting-grounds 
 of the Sioux. This powerful tribe was at war with all 
 others of my people. Deadly feuds had for many genera 
 tions existed between them and all neighboring tribes, 
 and many had been the romantic and bloody encounters 
 betweeen members of the opposed parties. The cause of 
 the difficulty was the great pride of the Sioux chiefs to 
 unite all Indian races under their leadership and control, 
 and hence the tribes which refused to recognize them as 
 supreme were treated as rebels. The tribe of which my 
 father was one chief had for generations been distin 
 guished for its scorn of the Sioux s pretensions and its 
 successful conflict with them. It was known to us that 
 throughout the great Sioux nation runners were sent pro 
 claiming that whoever would bring in the scalp of Eagle 
 Wing should be rewarded with the chieftainship of one of 
 the inferior bands. This of course increased the desire to 
 encounter and kill him, but, such is the strange nature of 
 my people, it also increased my father s importance in the 
 tribe, and his own and his followers willingness to be 
 encountered. There was on both sides a thirst for con 
 flict such as is felt when in the forest glades in the time of 
 mating there is a sudden meeting of rival Um-pan-nu-gas.* 
 
 *This name is used by the Indians to distinguish the elk bucks in the 
 spring time, when mating occurs. They are then supposed to possess 
 souls, and on no account must one of them be killed. 
 
22 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 On this trip, therefore, my father s warriors were magnifi 
 cently mounted, and armed, as well as their means would 
 permit, with rifles and our more primitive weapons, 
 which are almost as effective in skillful hands bows 
 of great length and power, tomahawks as sharp as 
 wild-grass-blades, and long hunting-knives. Runners 
 were constantly kept in advance, every spot available for 
 an ambush was carefully examined, and at night watches 
 were posted to prevent a surprise. 
 
 There is one other circumstance I must tell you of 
 before you can understand the animosity exhibited in the 
 scenes I am about to describe. In all the wars with the 
 Sioux our people had championed the cause of the whites, 
 and many were the settlers who in those early days had 
 taken refuge in our wigwams from bitter pursuit. Our 
 tribe had never been at war with the whites. The chiefs 
 had always been of the opinion that the only safe policy 
 for us, as a weaker nation, was to preserve the utmost 
 faith with the whites, and our hope was that this would 
 recommend us to their mercy. The sickly or wounded 
 wolf must not bark too noisily, else all the others of the 
 pack will pounce upon it and tear it rib from rib. As we 
 thus lifted our tomahawks in defense of the settlers, the 
 Sioux regarded us as betrayers of the glory of the Indian 
 race, and hence their hatred for us was bitter. When the 
 prairie-dog seeks to defend the little bird who nestled with 
 him in his home, the rattlesnake conceives of both as 
 equally enemies, and drives them equally forth. It was so 
 with the Sioux s hatred of us. On the side of my people 
 the feeling was strong that it was not treacherous in us 
 and our fathers towards the Sioux that we had never 
 entered into treaty with them to destroy the whites. We 
 thought we had the right of all free things to choose who 
 should be our friends and who our enemies; and as we 
 
ON THE PRAIRIE. 23 
 
 had chosen to be friends with the whites and to fight the 
 Sioux , we stood ready to make our boast good with our 
 blood. Thus the hatred was bitter on both sides they 
 calling us false as the sneaking badger, we calling them 
 liars and base as the sand-hill lynx. Many bleeding 
 wounds and ghastly corpses on both sides called for bitter 
 revenge, and whenever their followers and ours met, 
 whether singly or in companies, there was instant battle 
 and no backs turned. But now to my story. 
 
 One lovely afternoon my father had taken me to ride 
 before him on his pony s neck, from which station of 
 high honor I was hailing my less fortunate companions. 
 Suddenly my father s face, which had been smiling and 
 gentle as the afternoon itself, was clouded with a look of 
 awful hatred, with tracings still of a fierce delight. In the 
 crushing of a dandelion he had seen the trail of the Sioux. 
 With one majestic wave of his hand he stopped the ad 
 vance of his band. 
 
 " Boy," he said sternly to me, " there is bloody work 
 here to be done." With these words he lifted me from 
 the pony s neck and dropped me to the earth. 
 
 His followers gathered breathlessly around the crushed 
 flower, which seemed to contain tidings of some awful woe. 
 
 "Call in the runners," my father said, "and let watchers 
 be hidden on every side." 
 
 When Great Bear, the most trusted of the runners, 
 made his appearance, my father eyed him as if he were an 
 inexcusable culprit, and sternly said : 
 
 "If Ma-chu-ta-ga* sees not such prints as these, whom 
 can we trust ? Do you pass such sod -cuts with a dreamy 
 eye?" 
 
 " Xo one," Great Bear replied, with downcast look, 
 
 * Great Bear. 
 
24 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 " could have seen so slight a trail as this save Khe-tha-a- 
 hi himself." 
 
 " Thou art generally as faithful as my own right hand," 
 my father replied ; " see that this happens not again. But 
 who is this?" 
 
 The question was called out by the breathless coming 
 of another runner, who at a hundred lariats distance to 
 the northward had skirted our little party s advance. 
 When he caught his breath he exclaimed : 
 
 " Two hundred Sioux warriors are skulking down upon 
 us from the north. I met their runner, and his scalp is 
 mine." 
 
 " This shall be a token of our larger victory," my father 
 said. " Meanwhile, be active. Get the women and chil 
 dren into yonder hollow place ; let them hide behind the 
 bank. And let the warriors who have squaws-hearts 
 crouch beside them. But you who are brave, think of 
 what the Sioux have done, count in your quiver an arrow 
 for every home they have left desolate in our tribe, and 
 let each arrow shout the U-gtha-a* as it flies!" 
 
 The greatest confusion instantly began. It was as if 
 the great shadow of a hovering crow had been seen by a 
 nestful of thrushes. The wise and noble Standing Elk 
 led us to the safe hiding-place my father had mentioned, 
 and kissing Prairie Flower, left her by my side. The tears 
 of the gentle girl ran wildly down her cheeks ; for, though 
 she knew not the awful woes of war, her heart feared by 
 instinct its tumult and pain, as the wild fawn starts un 
 wittingly at the first hearing of the voice of man. My 
 mother was beside us, and was a mother to both; for 
 little Prairie Flower had none. She held our bursting 
 pulses and bade us not to fear. So from our bank we 
 
 * War-cry, 
 
ON THE PRAIRIE. 25 
 
 \ 
 
 looked out upon the hurrying warriors. Some were daub 
 ing their faces with high-colored earths. Some were 
 testing bow-strings to see that they failed them not at the 
 sore moment. Some were quieting restless ponies by a 
 word of tenderness or one of command. My father had 
 placed upon his head a peculiar tuft of long hair the 
 most sacred emblem in our whole tribe, handed down for 
 generations that no one could count, and supposed by us 
 to make victory sure. He had also upon his head his own 
 war-bonnet, made of a crown of white eagle-plumes and 
 two strings of the same noble feathers hanging down his 
 back. Some of these feathers were painted red, for our 
 custom was thus to color one for every wound the wearer 
 had received in battle, and to place the colored plumes 
 opposite the part of the body injured. Thus arrayed, and 
 seated proudly upon his white pony, my father awaited 
 with perfect coolness the coming of the Sioux; and, while 
 the maiden by my side still wept for harrowed gentleness, 
 I wept for admiration when I saw him. Everywhere the 
 wise Standing Elk went attending to the details that were 
 regarded as beneath the notice of the chief, and when he 
 came near where Eagle Wing sat, he whispered in his ear 
 a word which was both caution born of years, and 
 encouragement born of pride. One by one the warriors, 
 having completed their war-dress, arranged themselves 
 in line on each side of my father, until of all the number 
 only one was absent the rebuked trail-finder, Great 
 Bear. The chief cast his eye sternly down the line, and 
 demanded : 
 
 " Has our Ma-chu-ta-ga gone into a winter sleep while 
 yet summer shines and his enemy, the wolf, steals upon 
 his young?" 
 
 Either no one dared to speak or no one wished to 
 defend the absent warrior; at least there was silence. A 
 
26 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 few moments passed, and then the missing man suddenly 
 appeared from behind a clump of dense bushes. I was 
 amazed to see that he was dressed precisely like my 
 father, and this at first I supposed would be taken as a 
 great insult by the chief. But I afterwards learned that 
 it was the noblest and most faithful service any warrior 
 could perform for his chief s safety. Great Bear without 
 a word mounted a white pony of the shape and size of that 
 my father rode, and took a place at the end of the line. 
 At the distance of a few yards it was impossible to distin 
 guish him from Eagle Wing, and indeed the very object 
 in his heart was by his disguise to deceive the enemy and 
 draw shafts meant for my father s breast into his own. 
 He had determined, out of a real love for his chief and a 
 sense of deep shame that he had been so blamed, to sacri 
 fice himself, if need be, for the safety of his chief. When 
 the chief saw him, he said softly to Standing Elk : 
 
 " My heart bleeds, wise man ; my heart bleeds ! If it 
 were not for the need to preserve the high honor of my 
 chieftainship I would command Ma-chu-ta-ga to seek his 
 own safety by mingling, in common dress, with the other 
 warriors. Would that I could take him as a brother to 
 my arms and forgive him, for he is a noble man and, save 
 yourself, my best warrior !" 
 
 " It is better thus," the wise man answered, though tears 
 were in his eyes, for Great Bear was his younger and well- 
 beloved brother. And so they awaited the coming of the 
 Sioux. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 AN INDIAN BATTLE. 
 
 I HAD but time to kiss one tear from the cheek of the 
 trembling maiden, when the thrilling U-gtha-a of our peo 
 ple announced that the enemy was in sight. I held my 
 breath to hear the answering shout of rage and defiance, 
 but all was still. The Sioux were either squaw-hearted or 
 reserved their breath for the close encounter. From our 
 bank we could now see them riding forward in a line 
 fully twice as long as that my father s warriors formed. 
 They came in a gentle trot ; no weapons were visible about 
 them, and for a moment my heart took great leaps of joy, 
 supposing that after all the meeting would be as one of 
 brothers. " Oh," I thought to myself, " how much better 
 to join hands instead of arrow-tips ; or, if there must be 
 some strife, let it be between the fleetest ponies down this 
 lovely valley, or between the friendly wrestling power of 
 the young men upon this green plain ?" - Certainly it 
 would have been a far nobler test of relative prowess ; 
 for when past grievances can only be righted by the 
 stretching of a row of ghastly corpses upon the grass, 
 even that fails to satisfy both tribes, and there are 
 new grievances to the number of these very corpses, 
 which must be avenged in future encounters. War is sad 
 and foolish enough, 
 
 However, the Sioux came quietly forward, and, though 
 my father s followers taunted them with cowardice rnd 
 treachery by turns, shouting " Coo ! coo ! " * until the 
 
 *" Coward! coward 1" 
 
28 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 very sand-ridges echoed, they revealed no weapons and 
 made no reply. It being the custom of my people to tie 
 a knot in a pony s mane every time we can shout " Coo ! " 
 to an enemy without a reply being made, the hands of our 
 warriors w r ere busy preparing these score-marks against 
 the Sioux, and the very ponies tossed their knotted manes 
 in pride and defiance as if they understood the sign. 
 I noticed on the arm of each of our enemies a folded red 
 blanket, and I innocently thought they were to be presents 
 to our people. Still coming forward, they were soon but 
 twenty paces from the nose of Eagle Wing s horse. Our 
 warriors had now an arrow set in every bow, and such as 
 had rifles sat with deliberate aim ; yet, to my great won 
 der, my father did not order them to fire. Evidently he 
 wished to scan to the full the intent of his enemies, think 
 ing it beneath a chief to take any advantage of them. 
 Now they were within ten paces of my father s line. 
 Suddenly each of the Sioux, rising upon his horse s neck, 
 whisked his blanket from his arm and shook it full-spread 
 and in all its dazzling color before the eyes of our ponies. 
 Oh then was seen the wonderful command that love exerts 
 over the animal ! Our ponies, trained to obey by long 
 influence of kindness, did not wheel and dash away, as the 
 Sioux hoped they would, to render our warriors backs an 
 easy mark for their weapons. Not a hoof moved from its 
 print in the grassy sod. The poor creatures, unused to 
 such warfare, trembled as the wild cottonwood leaves do 
 before the storm ; many of them crouched in mute fear 
 until their bellies touched the grass ; some snorted and 
 whinnied wildly, as they do when a grizzly tramps upon 
 their lariat ; but all stood their ground. And before the 
 Sioux could drop their blankets and seize their weapons, 
 my father s voice was heard, shouting : 
 
 "Ke-da!"* 
 
 * " Fire." 
 
AN IXDIAN BATTIJ:. 29 
 
 And many Sioux fell headlong to the earth, while the 
 survivors, having failed in their trusted device, were now 
 put to personal skill and strength for safety. Then fol 
 lowed indescribable confusion. There was wild scrambling 
 of horses, there were fierce struggles of hand-to-hand 
 combatants, there was a mingling of hoarse battle-cries, 
 shouts of defiance and victory, screams of pain, whirring 
 of arrows, and cracking of rifles. Oh, the beautiful sod 
 which Wakanda had made had bitter draught of blood 
 that day ! I hid my eyes to keep out the dreadful knowl 
 edge that brave men were uselessly killing each other, but 
 my ears continued to tell the tidings, and when I closed 
 my ears as well, my fancy took the story up. How long I 
 continued thus I know not, but at last I felt a touch upon 
 my arm, and, opening my eyes, saw Prairie Flower look 
 ing, too horrified to weep, into my face. She gently took 
 my hands down from my ears and said : 
 
 " Oh listen to the dreadful shout of the Sioux ! Thy 
 father is dead ! " 
 
 As she spoke a prolonged cry arose, a cry such as a 
 hundred mountain lions might make in depth of hungry 
 winter over the carcass of an ox : 
 
 " Khe-tha-a-hi is dead ! Khe -tha-a-hi is dead ! " 
 
 While the cry thus rang, a Sioux warrior dashed by, 
 within six paces of where we were crouching, and holding 
 aloft a bloody scalp, he cried : 
 
 " Khe*-tha-a-hi is dead ! My hand did the deed ! I 
 claim the prize ! I shall be a chief ! " 
 
 My heart sank within me as I heard these words, and 
 my poor mother wrung her hands and moaned in pitiable 
 despair. The cry " Eagle Wing is dead !" was caught up 
 by the enemy in every part of the field, and it seemed for 
 a moment as if our fate were sealed. Anxiously I cast my 
 eye over the tumult to catch, if I might, any glimpse of 
 
30 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 my father to show the shout untrue. At last, in the very 
 deadliest spot of all, I saw his plumed head-dress rising 
 above the multitude of those who beset him ; as I have 
 seen the white feathers of the eagle s crown rising out of 
 tumultuous waves after having dashed after his prey. 
 And as also the eagle might shake himself free from the 
 scattering drops that still clung to his wings, so my father 
 threw off the Sioux who clutched at his arms and legs to 
 drag him down, and running to a high spot in plain view 
 of all, he waved his tomahawk above his head and cried : 
 " Khe-tha-a-hi is not dead ! He lives to avenge his slain, 
 though Great Bear has died in his stead." 
 
 The lightning s flash, calling forth from the cloud the 
 sudden storm of spring, swells the rivulet and makes it a 
 mighty, resistless torrent. So my father s brave shout 
 swept his remaining warriors into the sure course of vic 
 tory. On the other hand the Sioux, disappointed and 
 amazed that he, upon whom they had burst with so much 
 fury and who had stood so long and bravely before he 
 fell, was the noble Great Bear and not Eagle Wing, could 
 strike now but feeble blows, gave way in every direction, 
 and at last fled on their fleet ponies away. 
 
 When they had gone, we who had been so secure while 
 others suffered for us came out of our retreat, anxious to 
 do what we might to stay their loss of blood. Oh then 
 there were sad scenes ! Would the white man call us 
 savages if he could see this mother holding upon her lap 
 the head of her dying son, who poured his blood forth 
 freely that her gray hairs might be undefiled ? Would he 
 call this wife a savage who, with her crowing babe cling 
 ing to her breast, kneels here beside the body of her 
 young husband and whispers tender words in his dull ear? 
 That love shines not in satins, is it love the less ? Or is this 
 a savage scene this sister clasping her brother, safe and 
 
AN INDIAN BA TTLE 3 I 
 
 well, in her arms ; this little family clustered together in a 
 quiet spot, thanking \Vakanda, with a mingling of aged and 
 infant voices, that He had saved the loved father from 
 death ? Over the fallen Great Bear was bending the gray 
 head of the wise Standing Elk. Prairie Flower and I, 
 hearing his mourning, had hastened to his side, and while 
 she fondled one of his hands I reverently held the other. 
 She wept to see her father thus distressed ; I wept because 
 the Great Bear had died to leave me mine. When we 
 had sat thus a moment, Standing Elk began the touching 
 Dta-ivd-e, or lament for the dead, which springs naturally 
 from the heart of the red man as the alkali waters bubble 
 from the swamp-spring. 
 
 "Alas! my noble brother!" he cried. "Thou wert 
 swifter than the antelope, and as tender in thy love. Thou 
 wert wiser than the wild-bee ! Thy sight was sharper 
 than the king-fisher s, and thy strength as lasting as the 
 hart s. From the day on which thou didst meet the 
 mighty bear on the foot,-hills of the west and kill him 
 alone, and take his great name, where has been the glar 
 ing eye of animal or man that thou daredst not face ? 
 And when until now wast thou ever overcome? But, my 
 brother, these crossed heaps of Sioux around thee show 
 thou didst not die the badger s death. Who now shall 
 find for us the light footprint of the deer, who shall lead 
 us on the covered track of the spoiler ? \Vhose voice but 
 thine can bring one small pulse of joy to hearts left sad by 
 thy untimely death ? And yet thou couldst have had no 
 nobler death to die to save thy chief were worthy of 
 Great Bear! Alas! my noble brother! Alas! Ma-chu- 
 ta-ga ! Ma-chu-ta-ga ! thou hast fallen ! " 
 
 When he had finished his lament, he sat silent for a few 
 moments and then rose, wrapped his blanket about him 
 and walked away. I lifted my eyes to follow him, and 
 
32 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 they encountered the tall form of my father standing 
 with folded arms and gazing tenderly upon the prostrate 
 body of him who had died in his stead. 
 
 " Tis a noble thing, my son," he said to me, " to die for 
 thy people s sake and for the life of thy chief. Thou wilt 
 be chief one day, and then thou wilt know how sad it is to 
 see thy children fall. My heart weeps for Ma-chu-ta-ga 
 to-day. But get thee to thy mother. They come who 
 will prepare the brave warrior for his long sleep." 
 
 The twilight had now come down. Over the spot of 
 prairie where lately such fury and hatred burned a 
 strange silence rested. The whispering of the wind 
 through the long prairie grass, the moaning of some 
 heart-broken one by the side of a body, the barking of the 
 wolves who from afar had smelt the flowing blood, and 
 the distant falling of worn-away banks into the eddying 
 river, were all the sounds we heard. I held sweet Prairie 
 Flower s hand tightly as we walked away, fearing that 
 some stray Sioux-shaft might still come to strike her 
 from my side. 
 
 Around the camp-fires that night there were many 
 breaking hearts. Only the young and innocent could 
 sleep. Upon a little hillock near by those who had been- 
 killed were laid, and at their heads a row of pine torches 
 burned. Watches were stationed to do them every possible 
 honor, and at stated intervals to chant the Dta-wa-e the 
 death-song of my people. Upon the highest point that 
 had been covered by the battle shadowy forms were seen 
 at work during the long hours, and the dull thud of their 
 implements striking against the earth told the sad story 
 of the digging of graves. Oh how many silent and lovely 
 spots have heard that weird and dreadful sound ! 
 
 With the first streaks of light on the following morning 
 the camp was astir. A mournful procession was formed 
 
AN INDIAN BATTLE. 33 
 
 out of every member of our little party to convey the 
 bodies of the dead warriors to their last resting-place. 
 On wicker-work of wild aspens, covered with soft furs and 
 bright blankets, they were placed. These were borne on 
 the shoulders of the bravest warriors, my father still in 
 his war-dress, and Standing Elk, with his blanket folded 
 tightly round him, taking the lead. After the bodies 
 came the warriors who were able to walk ; after these the 
 women, many of whom wrung their hands in deep despair; 
 and after these the children, who little knew the dread 
 solemnity of the spectacle of which they formed a part. 
 Upon this sad march the most perfect silence was de 
 manded. When we reached the graves and had ranged 
 ourselves around them, the wise man, Standing Elk, 
 turned to us and said : 
 
 " Let us call to mind the words spoken to us by the 
 good Wa-ga-za* of the great love of Wakanda and the 
 great Love-Gift. I see -before me my brother and my 
 friend. You see your husband and your son. We lay 
 them where the wild winds shall sweep and the dande 
 lions blossom. Here the storm shall burst, but they shall 
 not fear it. Here the soft snows shall rest, but they shall 
 not feel them cold. But shall nothing else be here? Yes, 
 here shall be Wakanda s smile, and this they shall feel !" 
 
 As he spoke these words the bright sun rose above 
 the horizon, and while its rays touched hill and tree 
 with a gold richer than that the white man seeks, 
 pur warriors were laid to their rest. Their ponies, fallen 
 in the fight, were buried beside them, and over all was 
 built a framework of poplar boughs. Oh, if you pass that 
 way, drop a tear for Great Bear s sake, who followed the 
 full extent of duty as he knew it, though it demanded his 
 
 * Missionary. 
 
34 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 life as dear to him as yours to you ; and as you stand 
 upon that lovely, lonely spot, think of my people as 
 ignorant, if you please, but possessed of a love and sym 
 pathy which in any condition avail to make life worth the 
 living ; think of us with pity, not with scorn, because our 
 usages seem strange to you. We were made by the same 
 Wakanda who fashioned you, and whom in our simple 
 way we love. Possibly we are peculiarly his own because 
 we are weak and ignorant. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE BUFFALO-HUNT. 
 
 THE weeping of the night-dew is soon dried from the 
 short grass, and abides not many hours upon the long, 
 save where the shade of shrub or willow wards off the 
 sun-rays. So the tears of sadness remained but for a short 
 space upon the eyelashes of those of us who were young, 
 and even the older members of the tribe were soon so 
 interested in the progress of our hunt that their hearts 
 had no room for bitter thoughts. Only those who had 
 peculiar reason for sorrow, in the loss of near relatives, 
 continued long to mourn. It may be that this shortness 
 of grief is the foundation of the charge that we are 
 savages. One mark of the civilization we lack may be the 
 lasting love that friend has for friend, and husband for 
 wife a love like that of bald eagles once mated in youth, 
 which never cease to mourn when the object of it is dead, 
 and never seeks to supply the vacant place. I know not 
 how this is. 
 
 There was one circumstance connected with our con 
 flict with the Sioux which struck even my childish fancy 
 as peculiarly important. When we came to gather up 
 the blankets with which they had hoped to gain an 
 easy victory, and which had been left where they had 
 fallen, we found them in every respect superior to any we 
 had before seen. They were thick and warm and durable. 
 The wise Standing Elk showed one of these blankets to 
 me, and, child as I was, impressed me deeply as he said : 
 
 "In these blankets there is a bitter story folded. You 
 must know, my son, that they were given to the Sioux by 
 
36 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 the Great Father who rules the whole land in which we 
 dwell. To him we also owe the blankets which keep us 
 warm and the implements with which we cultivate the 
 soil. But you have already noticed that the Sioux s 
 blankets are much better than any we have ever received, 
 although we have always been faithful to the whites, 
 while the Sioux have been their bitterest enemies." 
 
 " Do the white men treat their enemies better than 
 their friends?" I asked in astonishment. 
 
 "They do. And so they encourage the red men to 
 slaughter and revenge. Frequently in our councils it has 
 taken all my eloquence and all thy father s authority to 
 prevent the young men going to war, because, as they 
 truly said, the red man can get his right only by making 
 himself feared. If we were bad Indians as the Sioux 
 are, we would have as beautiful blankets as they. It 
 seems an unmerciful and unthinking policy adopted by 
 the whites to treat the red men who have fought and 
 suffered for them with indignities and cruelty, while those 
 who threaten them with murder and robbery are con 
 ciliated with the brightest presents and the greatest 
 favors." 
 
 Oh how often in after-years did I think of these weighty 
 words ! On how many cruel occasions, and in how many 
 bloody scenes, did I learn that they were true ! 
 
 When the wounded among our warriors were able to 
 mount their ponies again, we pursued our journey toward 
 the great north-west. Our way now led us over wide 
 stretches of untrodden prairie, crossing here and there a 
 little stream with wood-dotted banks. Oh how free we 
 felt able to hold our path against all disputers ; depen 
 dent on the skill of our hunters alo ne ; careful simply 
 that no sunrise or sunset pass without receiving due 
 admiration, and obliged only to Wakanda who kept us 
 
THE BUFFALO-HUNT 37 
 
 securely and well. At last we reached a lovely camping- 
 spot in a grove of great trees which, because they stood 
 in a defile of the prairie, had been spared for many years 
 by the fires. Here never-failing springs burst forth, 
 offering their cool and healthful refreshment. Is it one 
 mark of the " savage" to love these quiet retreats better 
 than the noise and anxiety of a great city ; and are we to 
 be spit upon and shot at sight because Wakanda has 
 made us with these simple tastes? Is it because liberty 
 is more to us than life that the white men say sneeringly 
 of all red men, whether good or bad, "The only good 
 Indian is the dead Indian ? We love liberty because the 
 world is full of it, and we are a part of Wakanda s world. 
 From the moment of our birth, nature around us has 
 rippled with freedom in every rill, and bubbled with it in 
 every spring, and shone with it in every glistening sand- 
 grain, and waved with it in every grass-spear and nodding 
 dandelion. Why, then, should we be called "savages" 
 because of all races we love the rills and springs and grass 
 the most, and are most akin to their nature? 
 
 In this free and beautiful spot we pitched our perma 
 nent camp. Here we were to remain until our hunters 
 had secured all the game we desired and the buffalo- 
 meat was sufficiently dried to be taken home for winter 
 use. Every morning our scouts went out in every direc 
 tion to watch for the coming of a buffalo-herd, when they 
 were to report to us at camp and the sport was to begin. 
 And we had not long to wait. The second morning after 
 our reaching this camping-spot, our scouts came in, wild 
 with excitement and shouting, " Dta ! dta !"* They an 
 nounced that an immense herd of the noble game we 
 sought blackened the whole horizon to the northward. 
 
 * " Buffalo ! buffalo I" 
 
38 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 Instantly there was the greatest confusion. The warriors, 
 who had been sleeping in the shade, or mending their 
 bow-strings, or fashioning new arrows, sprang up and 
 began to prepare for the hunt. The ponies were hastily 
 loosed from their tethers, the long hunting-knives were 
 thrust into the hunters belts, outer garments were thrown 
 away, and in a time so short that you would scarce 
 believe it could be done the whole company was ready 
 for the start. The ponies seemed to share in the common 
 excitement, for they pawed the ground and whinnied 
 ceaselessly, wild to be away. When all was ready my father 
 gave the word, and the whole hunting-party, dividing into 
 three bands so as to encompass the herd, rode gayly 
 forth. Those of us who were not permitted to enter 
 actively upon the sport took a station upon a high spot 
 of ground near by, where we could share in the general 
 excitement and watch the entire proceedings of the day. 
 The very children danced about in uncontrollable delight, 
 shouting, " Dta ! dta !" 
 
 When the hunters gained the open prairie the bands 
 separated, one going eastward, another in the opposite 
 direction, while the central band continued to advance 
 directly upon the game. We could see the flanking 
 parties galloping away, taking advantage of every little 
 hillock, riding along dry creek-beds, or pursuing lines of 
 long prairie-grass, so as to come as near as possible to the 
 grazing buffaloes without alarming them. At last we saw 
 one of the leaders of the herd lift his head and gaze 
 steadily toward the right flanking party. This the 
 hunters knew would be instantly followed by the stam 
 pede of the whole herd ; and therefore, with wild and 
 joyous cries, the three bands dashed in full speed upon 
 the noble game. For a few moments the buffaloes, con 
 fused by the loud and opposite shouts, stood irresolute, 
 
THE BUFFALO-HUNT. 39 
 
 and then, forming a column of shaggy might that shook 
 the very earth, they galloped away. The delay, however, 
 was sufficient to allow our hunters to get within gun- 
 range and even arrow-shot of the stragglers, and in the 
 dust which instantly arose, a great cloud, to heaven, we 
 could see the blaze of the rifle and the stumbling fall of 
 the victims. The custom was to ride up beside the 
 buffaloes and shoot them in the back, and one arrow or 
 ball was generally sufficient to stretch them upon the 
 earth, where they could afterwards be dispatched with the 
 long knives. For many hours that day the dust con 
 tinued, rolling away toward the north ; and though the 
 shouts and reports grew gradually less and less distinct, 
 and finally ceased entirely, we knew the sport continued 
 still. 
 
 It was late at night when the hunters returned to 
 camp, bringing such tender and savory parts of buffalo- 
 meat as were designed for the evening meal, but leaving 
 until the next day the great work of carrying in the hides 
 and joints for drying. We had bright fires blazing for 
 them when they came, and every preparation, except the 
 roasting of the meat they were to bring, made for their 
 evening meal. The hunters threw themselves down 
 before the fires, and after their more pressing hunger was 
 satisfied, each took a buffalo-rib and held it in the coals, 
 watching it as it roasted brown and savory. Then began 
 the recalling of the day s adventures and incidents. What 
 ringing laughter was heard as some amusing exploit was 
 related, and how they gloried in the swiftness of their 
 ponies and the strength of their own right arms ! Little 
 Prairie Flower and I loved to sit beside our fathers and 
 hear these thrilling stories. The fire s glare lit up the 
 little hillsides around us, and peopled the pine-tops with 
 angels of light who evermore whispered joy and love to 
 
40 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 our hearts. As I look back upon that happy, cheerful 
 evening, it seems very strange that men like those, who 
 dwell together without jealousy and without cheating, 
 with no hard words and no cruel exactions, with none of 
 the niggardliness of riches or the grumbling of poverty, 
 should be hated of the white men and beloved of Wa- 
 kanda: for the self-same reason that they fulfill their 
 simple natures as Wakanda has taught them, and wish 
 only to be left alone in bounding, joyous liberty ! 
 
 That day was the type of many others as our hunt went 
 gayly on. There occurred, however, an incident which 
 more nearly concerns my story, and I must tell you of it. 
 As the twilight came down upon us one evening, the 
 warriors had not returned from the day s expedition, and 
 the women were preparing their supper around the camp- 
 fires. Suddenly from a thicket near by a dozen Sioux 
 sprang upon us, screaming their terrible war-cry, and 
 began to strike the defenseless women and children to the 
 earth. I clasped little Prairie Flower in my arms, expect 
 ing that our turn to die would soon come, and wishing 
 only that I might hold her thus when the blow came. 
 Oh, how often in the weary and sad years that have since 
 passed have I wished that we had then and thus died ! 
 As we were thus crouching on the grass, clasped in each 
 other s arms, my mother rushed to us, her frightened face 
 streaming with tears, caught us by the arms and thrust us 
 into a little pit which we, in our play, had dug in the 
 earth. She then threw herself over us, with her face 
 downward, and in this manner completely hid us from 
 sight. "The next moment one of the lynx-hearted mur 
 derers came by, and supposing her to be dead, as she 
 feigned to be, gave her a cruel kick in the side and passed 
 along. She uttered no groan, but whispered to us to 
 remain perfectly still, and by the blessing of Wakanda 
 
THE BUFFALO-HUNT. 4 1 
 
 she would save our lives, though it took her own. 
 Another of the Sioux, discovering her, came and with 
 horrid oaths thrust his arrow again and again into her 
 quivering back and sides. Still she did not move a 
 muscle or moan in the slightest, though I could feel the 
 hot tears falling upon my cheek. Just as he had started 
 away, satisfied that my mother was dead, we heard the 
 shouts of a party of our warriors returning from the hunt. 
 They soon understood the cause of the screams and com 
 motion in our camp, and, with cries of hate and rage, 
 dashed upon the Sioux so fiercely and swiftly that only 
 two or three escaped. When the mother-partridge sees 
 the shadow of the hawk, she utters her chirp of warning, 
 and instantly the little brood scatters into the grass, hid 
 ing behind shrubs and crouching under leaves ; but when 
 danger is over the little chicks come forth again. So 
 when the Sioux had gone as many of the women and 
 children of our party as had been saved made a sudden 
 appearance from little clumps of bushes and other retreats 
 whither they had fled at the first notice of danger. With 
 scarce a moment s delay of weeping, they began the sad 
 task of arranging the remains of those who had been 
 killed. The cruel wounds my mother had received bled 
 freely and became very painful, but she clasped little 
 Prairie Flower and me to her breast and said cheerfully: 
 
 " My dear children ! I would die a thousand times for 
 your sakes !" 
 
 Oh ! was I not right when I thought, as I have thought 
 many times since, that civilization can claim absolute 
 superiority to our simple ways .only when it presents the 
 spectacle of holier love than this, and inculcates prin 
 ciples of a nobler self-sacrifice ? 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ARRIVAL OF GRAY COAT. 
 
 FOR about two years after our return from this hunt, 
 nothing took place in our little village of sufficient impor 
 tance to be mentioned here. At the end of something 
 like that period, however, an event occurred which changed 
 the whole future history of our tribe, and brought us, ulti 
 mately, from the high hills of hope and liberty to the 
 dark caves of slavery and despair. 
 
 One day a troop of us, boys and girls together, were 
 chasing yellow-winged butterflies upon the prairie a mile 
 or more from our homes. The rich green grass of spring 
 had just burst up from the sod, and while our fathers and 
 older brothers were preparing the soil in our fields for the 
 year s crop, we who were happily released from such slav 
 ish work allowed our energies to escape in noisy romp 
 and wild chase. While thus engaged, we saw four horse 
 men riding over the prairie toward us, and instantly our 
 sport was stopped, and we gathered into a bunch, to specu 
 late as to who the visitors might be. They rode horses 
 much larger than any we had ever seen before, and their 
 faces and garments and manner pointed them out as 
 belonging to some race with which we children had never 
 come in contact. We watched them closely until they had 
 come within twenty lariats length of us, and then one of 
 our number shouted : 
 
 " Run ! run ! Wa-gha ! wa-gha* ! The white men ! The 
 white men !" and we scampered back to our village wild 
 
 * " White man! white man!" 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF GRAY COAT. 43 
 
 with affright, and yet bursting ever and anon into peals of 
 venturesome laughter. Oh ! would that we had run so 
 fast and so far that we had never seen their faces again ! 
 
 They proved indeed to be white men, and as they rode 
 proudly into the little open space within our village, my 
 father received them with the kindness of a brother. He 
 waved his hand in welcome to them, and, through an 
 interpreter who was in their company, invited them to 
 dismount and enter our homes. The white man who 
 seemed of the most authority said to my father: 
 
 " Most noble Eagle Wing, we thank you for your gener 
 ous welcome. But we come from the Great Father on 
 business of the greatest importance to you and your tribe, 
 and therefore we desire a council with you and your head 
 men as soon as you may be willing to grant it." 
 
 The speaker was a fat man of about fifty years of age. 
 He sat very erect, and even haughtily, upon his large bay 
 horse, from which high station his restless gray eyes 
 seemed to be taking in the several advantages of our vil 
 lage. To my boyish fancy he appeared to be sweeping, 
 by his quick glances, all our possessions into his arms for 
 his own use. The whole expression of his face was one 
 of cunning, masked under a pretense of sincerity. His 
 words were very gracious, and apparently so fair that 
 many of our tribe were completely deceived. He wore a 
 great gray coat, and the custom of our people being to 
 give a name to every prominent person who comes among 
 them, and to take that name from some striking circum 
 stance or object about him, I could hear the members of 
 our tribe saying to each other, as they watched him : 
 
 " U-nosh-e-chu-day ! U-nosh-e-chu-day !" This in the 
 white man s language means Gray Coat ! Gray Coat! and 
 by this title he was ever afterward known among us. 
 
 To his request for a council my father replied : 
 
44 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 " The Indian always receives the white man as a brother 
 when he comes in peace. We will have a large wigwam 
 built here in the center of this open space, and in it our 
 council shall be held. There we will smoke the pipe of 
 peace." 
 
 The chief then gave a few words of direction and com 
 mand to his warriors, and they departed instantly for a 
 swamp, which was at no great distance from our village. 
 A great forest of tall, slender trees grew there, and in a 
 short time the warriors returned, bearing upon their 
 shoulders a number of poles cut therefrom. The butts of 
 these poles were planted in the ground in the form of a 
 circle, and their tops brought together and fastened with 
 strong thongs. Over this framework our brightest blank 
 ets and richest furs were flung, and thus a wigwam was 
 formed large enough to seat thirty persons. A fire of the 
 fragrant pine boughs was built in the center of the wig 
 wam; the smoke escaped at the top, where, wedded to 
 the gentle breeze, it curled upward to the sky. Into this 
 wigwam the white men were invited, and then my father, 
 dressed in all the gorgeous signs of his high chieftainship^ 
 and the head men of our tribe, including, of course, the 
 wise Standing Elk, followed them. All were seated in a 
 circle, on robes spread upon the ground, and before any 
 conversation could be entered upon the pipe of peace 
 must be passed from lip to lip. It may not be known to 
 some who read these simple pages that our peace-pipe is 
 a tomahawk, the hollow handle of which forms the stem, 
 and the round top above the blade, the bowl. The extreme 
 end of the handle is whittled down to fit the mouth. In 
 this pipe we smoke pounded dogwood bark, called kinm- 
 kinic, mixed with the very Least tobacco. When the pipe 
 is lighted, it is passed from mouth to mouth, each person 
 taking a few puffs, and always exhaling the smoke 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF GRAY COAT. 45 
 
 through the nose, and no greater insult can be offered to 
 your entertainer than to refuse to place the peace-pipe in 
 your mouth. In this manner the pipe was passed around 
 the circle in the wigwam that day, beginning with my 
 father, who passed it directly to the white men, and end 
 ing with the youngest Indian in the council. When this 
 ceremony was completed, Gray Coat arose and said : 
 
 " The Great Father is pleased with the tribe of Eagle 
 Wing. He has sent me to tell you this, and to urge upon 
 you to continue to be wise and friendly, that you may still 
 enjoy his favor. You have for years received your blank 
 ets and farming implements, and, when in hunger, food as 
 well, from the kind hand of the Great Father. But all 
 these and many other dealings between you and him have 
 been conducted by persons appointed specially to bring 
 each gift; and, as men are apt to be treacherous, and 
 some of these messengers have proven so, the red men 
 have suffered much from robbery and deceit. The Great 
 Father has now determined that I shall remain among 
 you as his agent, to receive and deliver all his gifts to you, 
 and convey to him any suggestions or complaints you 
 may have to make. This gentleman at my side has been 
 appointed trader with you. To him you are required by 
 our law to sell all your grain and furs, and from him you 
 must buy all your supplies. This other gentleman, who 
 with the interpreter makes up my party, is a farmer, sent 
 to teach you how best to cultivate the soil. We will live 
 among you and be your brothers, and all we ask in return 
 is that you obey our commands and grant to us a reason 
 able support from the annuities which the Great Father 
 will send you. We wish you also to cede to us all the 
 land that you now hold, except a tract which we will here 
 after specify, sufficient for your support. This tract will 
 be set apart as a reservation, upon which it shall be my 
 
46 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 duty to defend you, and from which you will not be 
 allowed to go except by my permission. The food and 
 clothing of all the members of the tribe are to be placed 
 under my control. All the letters passing between you 
 and the outside world must be open to my eyes. The 
 expending of your annuities shall be in my hands entirely, 
 since, of course, it would not do to regard so many various 
 wishes as the tribe might express if a public consultation 
 were held. In short, you are no longer to be neglected, 
 but will be taken care of and protected by me." 
 
 " In short," my father exclaimed, with instant impulse, 
 " we are to be thy slaves ! Go thou to the Great Father 
 and tell him we will not accept his plans. Tell him we do 
 not trust his words. Why may not we live as we have 
 always lived and as our fathers have lived before us? 
 Must the nestlings of the eagle turn into prairie-dogs ? 
 Must the free-born become slaves ? Must the wild colt, 
 shaking the dews from his mane and snorting defiance 
 at the elk-buck s horns, subject his flanks tamely to 
 the spur ? Go and tell him that we will not sell our 
 land and let any of his servants, like thyself, live upon 
 the money ; go and tell him we will be free ! " 
 
 " Most noble Eagle Wing," the white man replied, in a 
 voice that was soft and insinuating, "the Great Father 
 has already arranged that I should stay with your tribe. 
 If you do not submit quietly to this regulation, which in 
 time you will discover to be wise and fatherly, it will be 
 the Great Father s unpleasant duty to send the soldiers to 
 enforce his commands." 
 
 "His commands!" my father said, springing up and 
 flinging the peace-pipe away from him. " Are we already 
 slaves ? When did we invite his patronage ? When did 
 we ask thy nation to be a father to us ? Shall the brown 
 bear lie down in the antelope s simple hiding-place, and, 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF GRAY COAT. 47 
 
 just because his limbs are stronger, force the timid crea 
 tures to part with the larger share of their scanty room 
 and present their tender breasts and hams to his cruel 
 jaws? The white man dare not do so unjust a deed, 
 which in the end would make such savage work between 
 his race and my own, if he fear Wakanda !" 
 
 "Oh! Wakanda?" Gray Coat smoothly answered. 
 "Wakanda is ail well enough in his way and in his place, 
 but we are dealing now with plain facts. I am sent to be 
 the Great Father s agent for this tribe, and if the best 
 and bravest of all your warriors should dare to disobey 
 my commands, your Wakanda should not save him from 
 the piercing bayonet." 
 
 Oh ! to what quarter of all this bright universe above us, 
 or of all this radiant earth around us, can the poor red 
 men turn their eyes for succor and sympathy when the 
 power of Wakanda, our only friend, the only one who has 
 fulfilled his promises to us or failed to enrich himself at 
 our expense, is denied and spit upon ? Will the white 
 man not grant us even the slight hold upon their mercy 
 that a mute and tearful appeal to the Friend of all would 
 convey, as it would seem, to the most wretched suppliant 
 of the favor of the strong? Have tears lost their elo 
 quence, and do bleeding wounds gape in vain ? It is the 
 simple belief of my people that even the she-wolf, which, 
 springing suddenly from cover upon the antelope, stands 
 with dripping jaws and fierce eyes over the fallen victim, 
 will have pity and refuse to slay the poor creature if it but 
 turn its soft and pathetic eyes upward, as if seeking Wa- 
 kanda s face. Will the white man show less mercy than 
 the she-wolf ? 
 
 When Gray Coat had spoken his cruel and wicked 
 words, he arose haughtily, and with his three friends left 
 the council. For a long space my father and his people 
 
48 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 sat silent and despairing around the ruins of the council- 
 fire. At last the noble Um-pan-nez-zhe arose and said : 
 
 " You have often, since I came among you, taken my 
 words as those of wisdom, my children. Will you regard 
 them now ? " 
 
 " We will ! " said my father. 
 
 "We will! we will!" sorrowfully answered one after 
 another of the head men, knowing perfectly what would 
 be the old man s advice. 
 
 "My children," Um-pan-nez-zhe said, with great solem 
 nity, " at least our lives are secure. For the present, and 
 as long as we quietly obey, they are secure. And when 
 the red man has even life remaining, and while his wife 
 and babes are safe, though he has been stripped of every 
 other comfort, he has all nay ! far more than all he can 
 expect from the stronger race. Still, if we send to the 
 Great Father a petition, signed by all the head men of 
 our tribe, he may regard our wishes and suffer us to be 
 free." 
 
 This last hint, being the only hope that could be 
 offered, was eagerly accepted by all, and a messenger was 
 dispatched to the white men, begging them to return and 
 hold another conference. 
 
 Gray Coat and his companions soon made their appear 
 ance, wearing upon their faces the injured look of those 
 who have for a long time borne patiently with the whims 
 and fancies of a childish people. 
 
 " Are you willing now to talk words of wisdom ? " Gray 
 Coat asked, with as much severity as his soft voice could 
 assume, and also with a trace of triumph in its tone. 
 
 All the warriors turned their eyes to Um-pan-nez-zhe as 
 having proposed the petition, and as therefore being the 
 proper person to explain and favor it. But the wise man 
 had still another plan in his mind, and so when my father 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF GRAY COAT. 49 
 
 waved his hand to him to speak, he arose, with a dignity 
 which I saw really affected the white men, and said : 
 
 "Is it our land that the Great Father desires? Has 
 he not enough for his people in all the great prairies that 
 sweep so grandly between the watering rivers ? If so, let 
 him send a few of his families to us and we will give 
 them land. And if he desires all our land, but will still 
 grant us life and liberty, we will move on toward the setting 
 sun, the course our fathers all have taken, and there we 
 will live and be out of the white man s way." 
 
 " Nay! my noble old man," Gray Coat replied, " I have 
 come for the very purpose of defending you from the 
 powerful tribes of Sioux who roam upon the prairies to 
 the west." 
 
 " Is there such strength in thine arm, then ? " the wise 
 man replied sneeringly. " Surely I did not think it. 
 And besides, for many generations we have been fully 
 able to defend ourselves against the Sioux, and if this be 
 the object of thy journey to us, we thank thee for thy 
 kindness but we decline thine aid." 
 
 Stung by these words, Gray Coat angrily exclaimed : 
 
 " Cease such foolish talking ! The Great Father com 
 mands you to remain where you now are, and to obey my 
 directions." 
 
 " But if we should send a petition to him, stating that 
 we prefer to remain as we have been and that we love not 
 even our beautiful homes so much as we do liberty, would 
 he not respect our wishes ? " 
 
 " Most certainly ! " was the reply of the white man, 
 whose expression of face instantly changed from anger to 
 quiet triumph. "And as I anticipated that you would 
 desire to make such a petition, I have ordered my secre 
 tary, the interpreter, to bring writing materials to take 
 your words down." 
 
5 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 When Gray Coat had thus spoken he held a short con 
 ference with the interpreter. A look of understanding 
 between them and a smile of cunning and triumph played 
 for a moment upon the faces of all the white men. Ah ! 
 it was only after many years of bitter suffering and cruel 
 robbery that I learned what that look and smile por 
 tended to the unhappy Indian race ! The paper which 
 was on that day prepared opened the way for one of the 
 most unjust of all the dealings that even the white man 
 has had with us, and is the cause and groundwork of the 
 sorrowful story that I have to tell ; a story sad because 
 of the pathetic tears we were made to shed, and sweet 
 because of the graces which, by our suffering itself, were 
 nourished and developed in certain hearts very dear to 
 me. 
 
 When Standing Elk had heard the words of the white 
 man he took his seat, as it was our custom to delegate 
 the task of dictating treaties or petitions to the chief. My 
 father, therefore, arose when the secretary was ready to 
 take down his words, gathered his robes of command 
 about him, and spoke the earnest wishes of our hearts. It 
 was a grand picture. My father was so tall that he stood 
 very near the center of the council-wigwam, in order to 
 be able to lift himself erect, and even then the eagle- 
 plumes upon his head touched the robes that were flung 
 upon the roof. He made many gestures of majesty and 
 grace ; and to the dignity of the orator added the earn 
 estness of one who is conscious of pleading the most 
 sacred rights of the humble against the cruelty of the 
 strong. His words were as follows : 
 
 " Most noble Great Father ! was it by your command 
 that Gray Coat came to deprive us of our liberty, and did 
 you tell him to threaten us with death if we did not sub 
 mit to his authority? What crime have we committed 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF GRAY COAT. 51 
 
 that we may not be free? When have we failed to stand 
 between the white settlers and the Sioux, and when have 
 we hesitated to die that those who have taken refuge in 
 our wigwams might live ? Does it not seem that we who 
 have always been the white man s friends ought surely to 
 enjoy our little possessions in security and peace ? Our 
 hearts are heavy and our eyes are dull with weeping. 
 Our wives and children will moan and cry, Ma-shan ! 
 Ma-shan ! ; * through all the night if we may not live in 
 liberty. For what is home if we be not free ? If the 
 Great Father wants our land we will move away, following 
 the sun, which smiles with constant brightness upon us. 
 The red man loves liberty. Will the Great Father grant 
 it to him ?" 
 
 These words were taken down, as we supposed, by the 
 interpreter, and under them my father and all the head 
 men present made their marks. There was a peculiar 
 blotch upon the paper near where my father placed his 
 cross, and this being fixed in my memory, I was able to 
 recognize the petition when for a very cruel purpose it 
 was presented to us many years thereafter. 
 
 " It will be some time," Gray Coat said, " before the 
 Great Father will reply to these words. Meanwhile it is 
 my duty to assume authority over you. I shall take up 
 my residence in the little grove which crowns the hill to 
 the east of us, and let no one of your tribe without my 
 permission leave the reservation, as we shall now call the 
 part of your land which I shall hereafter mark out." 
 
 Thus the " Indian Agent" came among us, and thus our 
 slavery began. The results of his presence were not 
 appreciated by me at that time ; indeed it was some years 
 before the very wisest of all our people knew what power 
 
 "Horae! home!" 
 
52 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 for oppression and cruelty he had in his hands. There 
 were even some in our tribe who regarded his coming as 
 a favorable sign to us, since, as they argued, we thus had 
 a representative of the Great Father at our very door, 
 and could present our grievances to him in person. More 
 over, they said, we can learn from him many wise ways 
 and judicious customs, so that our lives will be happier 
 and our children better educated. And it is only just to 
 say that they were right in this last particular. The agent 
 did indeed establish a school in which more than one 
 hundred of our young people learned to read and speak 
 the English language. To him I owe the power, which I 
 now so poorly use, of writing my simple history, with the 
 hope of securing sympathy and justice for my unhappy 
 people. 
 
 It was not long before we began to discover how real 
 and absolute was the power Gray Coat exerted over us. 
 In a thousand ways he made us feel our subjection. The 
 faces of my people gradually assumed more and more of 
 a despairing look, until it seemed to me that one who had 
 visited us when I was a child would scarce recognize us as 
 the same race had he come again when I had become a 
 youth. 
 
 I must anticipate my story a little while I tell you of the 
 singular and original manner in which Gray Coat secured, 
 without expense to himself, a large and comfortable home 
 among the trees of which he spoke at the council. 
 
 When our first annuities, amounting to about six thou 
 sand dollars, were sent to our agent, he prepared to ex 
 pend them without consulting our wishes in the slightest. 
 He ordered a large number of our young men to leave 
 their field-work, take their teams, and haul an immense 
 number of bricks from a distant station on the white 
 man s railroad. Workmen were also brought over, who 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF GRAY COAT. 53 
 
 began to build the walls of a large structure, many of the 
 Indians being required to assist on the more simple and 
 burdensome parts of the work. We wondered much v/hat 
 the building could be designed for; but as the walls rose 
 higher and higher in such disproportionate grandeur to 
 the simple homes in which we dwelt, the wiser among us 
 began to suspect that it was to be the agent s dwelling- 
 place. The weeds were growing rank between our rows 
 of corn, and we were stared in the face by cruel hunger, 
 which too really beset us in the following winter, but Gray 
 Coat cared not. After many months of hard work the 
 building was completed, and then the agent said to us : 
 
 li I have spent your six thousand dollars in this edifice, 
 which I design for a hospital for the tribe. If any one 
 among you should be sick, he will be cared for here. See 
 how kind and thoughtful I have been of the interests of 
 those under my charge. Do you not repent that you ever 
 refused for a moment to regard my authority ?" 
 
 But our chief answered him : 
 
 " We do not wish to be treated in a hospital. We have 
 our homes, in which our wives and daughters may nurse 
 us when we are sick. You have deceived us in this mat 
 ter, and spent money which was not rightfully your own 
 in a way that will not benefit us in the least." 
 
 " Do you refuse to accept the hospital that the Great 
 Father has in kindness and love provided for you ?" 
 
 " We do." 
 
 "Very well, then," the agent smilingly replied; "it 
 would certainly be wrong to allow so noble a building to 
 go to waste, and therefore I will move into it with my 
 family." 
 
 Which he accordingly and cheerfully did. 
 
 The family of Gray Coat consisted of his wife and two 
 sons, the eldest of whom seldom made his appearance 
 
54 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 upon the reservation, as he had some lucrative office un 
 der the Great Father at Washington. The younger son 
 was a vile and unprincipled man, who brought more 
 agony upon my heart than it has felt from all other sources 
 and causes combined. I hated him from the moment my 
 eyes first saw him, and I instinctively feared that some 
 great calamity would be brought by him upon myself and 
 Prairie Flower. I dreaded him as I should dread the rat 
 tlesnake even before I had felt its fangs. He had a pecu 
 liar scar upon his cheek, and thus was always known to 
 my people by the name of Scar Face. 
 
 The wife of Gray Coat was a most gentle and lovable 
 woman. Many were the kindnesses that she showed to 
 my people, and if our gratitude could be known to her in 
 the grave, whither she was sent by the unnatural and in 
 famous blow of her own son s hand, she might be repaid 
 for her mercy to the helpless. Oh, daily from hundreds 
 of hearts a prayer goes up to Wakanda that He will bless 
 her and lead her through all the beautiful places of His 
 Ma-shan, because she remembered in love those who were 
 far below her, just as she is below Him ! It was singular 
 to see what a respect and even love Scar Face had for this 
 noble mother during her whole lifetime, and in all his 
 lustful and reckless deeds he took care that not a word of 
 it should reach her ears. He feared neither the laws of 
 Wakanda nor those of man, yet he would give up the 
 most fascinating scheme or prospect if he might thereby 
 give pleasure to his mother. I have often thought how 
 wonderful and how wise this provision of our nature is, 
 that a man, no matter what may be the color of his skin, 
 will reverence and adore the gray-haired mother who, in 
 great pain and sorrow, bore him ; and if he be wise and 
 diligent, will hasten to lay at her feet all the honors or pos 
 sessions he has wrested from the world ; or if he be fool- 
 
THE ARRIVAL OF GRA Y CO A T. 55 
 
 ish and sinful, will be kept back from many an evil deed 
 and many a cruel wrong by the sweet remembrance of her 
 love. In the case of Scar Face this peculiarity of his na 
 ture saved to me what little happiness my life still retains, 
 and therefore wherever I shall see the love of a son for his 
 mother, whether on the free prairies, where my people 
 dwell, or among the grand palaces of the stronger race, 
 who have so little in all their finery and elegance to at 
 tract my heart, I shall fall down and worship the spec 
 tacle. 
 
 It was not long before I could notice the most marked 
 change in the interest my people took in the cultivation 
 of the soil. Hitherto they had been proud of their prog 
 ress in the ways and customs of the white men, but now 
 they seemed to regard them as tyrants, and all desire to 
 become like them was destroyed. The farmer who had 
 been sent to teach us agriculture made a great show of 
 his superior knowledge ; and as he laughed much at our 
 simple methods without showing us any better way, there 
 were many of our people who refused to work at all. The 
 agent had no sympathy with our worship of Wakanda, 
 though his wife secretly encouraged us in it, and when 
 ever he could interfere with it he seemed to take a par 
 ticular delight in doing so. On many occasions he forced 
 us to work upon the Sabbath day, which in obedience to 
 the teachings of the missionary we had always observed 
 as sacred. He openly encouraged the thoughtless ones 
 among our people to disregard our worship, and spread 
 arguments against Wakanda wherever he could find ears 
 to hear. In short, in more ways than I have words to ex 
 press he ground us down in hated slavery, and bound 
 upon us exactions and cruelties which galled the soul as 
 no spiked collar could possibly gall the neck. 
 
 Can the white men hope that such treatment will help 
 
5 6 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 us up to a level with themselves? Do they not know 
 that a slave is, by very hatred, kept from wishing to 
 become like his master ? Is it not the testimony of their 
 histories that in all subjugated nations the inhabitants 
 are spurred to continual revolt, dash themselves against 
 the most fearful odds, take hope by brooding upon despair, 
 grow desperate by defeat, and plan revenge in tears? 
 
 There is a beautiful bird, radiant with plumage of gold 
 and green, which flies through the groves of the West, 
 and, so long as he is left in glorious liberty, he takes pride 
 in his own beauty of wing and feather. But when the bird 
 has been caged by the Indian boy behind cruel bars of 
 wild cherry, he plucks out with his own beak all the beau 
 tiful feathers he can reach, as if determined that the captor 
 shall not be delighted with the glory of his plumage, since 
 he cannot spread his wings upon free boughs. Thus the 
 simple hearts of the red men disdain to exhibit forced 
 virtues to their tyrants, and if they cannot be instructed 
 and admired as brothers, they will not be instructed and 
 admired at all. This, we admit, is the feeling of our 
 hearts ; are we to be shot at sight because it is so ? 
 
 Meanwhile little Prairie Flower and I, but half con 
 scious of the web of slavery that was being woven around 
 us, were happy in each other s love, and, like twin wild- 
 roses, lifted up smiling faces amid thorns which pierced 
 the hearts of those who, being older and more experi 
 enced, could appreciate their sharpness. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A CHAPTER OF LOVE. 
 
 I HAVE described the adventures of our buffalo-hunt 
 with some particularity, for the purpose of showing you 
 how deep and sacred was the love between Prairie Flower 
 and myself. Thrown thus into a common danger and 
 saved thus by the self-sacrificing love of the most dear to 
 both our hearts, we came to regard it as the will of 
 Wakanda, as it certainly was our dearest wish, that we 
 should live for each other s happiness. It was not, how 
 ever, until some years after the events described in that 
 chapter that I grew to know what this love really was, 
 that was rooted in my soul, and found courage to express 
 my love plainly to her and ask that her heart might 
 always be mine. It was in the following manner. And I 
 may venture to hope that the simple story of our love will 
 not be uninteresting to you, since the entire bitterness of 
 the events I must by and by describe is owing to the 
 complete and sacred surrender of our hearts each to the 
 other. 
 
 It was at our little village beside the shining river. For 
 some time I had not seen as much of Prairie Flower as 
 during the period of our childhood. I feared that her 
 face was shadowed from me. Our quiet strolls together 
 upon the divides and through the valleys had entirely 
 ceased, and for a long time the softer cheek than mine 
 had not rested on the grass beside me. All this I knew 
 was right, as I was now become a young man and Prairie 
 Flower was blooming into womanhood. The Indians are 
 exceedingly careful respecting the regulations to be ob- 
 
5 s PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 served in the association between the youths of different 
 sex. Not even a brother and sister, after they have come 
 up out of childhood, are allowed to be alone together. So 
 that I perfectly understood Prairie Flower s feeling in the 
 matter. Still, that anxiety which is, perhaps, always pres 
 ent to real love, in whatever race, was in my heart also, and 
 I fancied that even in the company of our people the little 
 maiden avoided me. So beautiful a girl was not without 
 other admirers among our people,, and though I had at one 
 time received from her the very best evidences of her pref 
 erence, there were times when my anxiety that she should 
 not forget me or prefer another overbalanced by far my 
 assurance of her affection. For days together I revolved 
 the matter in my mind as I sat upon the river-banks or 
 strolled along the shady paths in the woods. What if she 
 has changed in these changing years, I thought, and looks 
 back with laughing wonder at her childish love for me? 
 What if the face of some other youth seems to her hand 
 somer than mine and his limbs more shapely? But no! 
 true love can never change, and the touch of our childish 
 cheeks was not more real and tender than the touching of 
 our hearts. She loved me once ; has she changed, or have 
 I become less lovable? If she did not love me, I was dis 
 posed to assign this last reason for it rather than think 
 that she could change. But in the eyes of love the object 
 could never be other than lovely, though wrinkles may 
 have come upon the face and gray hairs upon the head. 
 Oh ! if she loves me, how fair the days will be, and how 
 bright life will seem ! but if she loves me not I could not 
 bring myself to think of such utter gloom as my life then 
 would be. Rendered miserable by these alternate emo 
 tions, I determined that I would formally present my love 
 to her, in the presence of her father, as is the custom of 
 my people. 
 
A CHAPTER OF LOVE. 59 
 
 Early one radiant evening when such stars as had come 
 out were shining above, and the river was murmuring as 
 it seemed to me it had never done before, I made up my 
 mind to carry my purpose into effect. The air was throb 
 bing with all the busy hum of night-life, and the varied 
 music of the wind sighing through different lengths of 
 grass soothed and encouraged my beating heart. It was 
 in the early summer, and the perfume of the wild-rose and 
 balsam delighted the sense and imparted the stimulus of 
 health to the frame. It was a twilight such as only lovers 
 can rightly appreciate. 
 
 I dressed myself in my gayest garments, and over my 
 shoulder I flung a bright blanket, neatly folded. My hunt 
 ing-jacket, leggings, and moccasins were richly orna 
 mented with beads, and by my side hung a small looking- 
 glass, supposed by the youth of my people to add a 
 particular charm to the appearance of the wearer, and to 
 render much assistance in the matter of love-making. 
 Around my neck I tied a necklace of bears claws, belong 
 ing to my father. This necklace was of particular value 
 from the fact that the claws where white, as if carved out 
 of pure pearl, whereas usually the claws of the bear have 
 a brownish tinge. From the necklace hung a strip, to fall 
 down the back, of the finest otter-skin, ornamented with 
 rabbits ears, tied in pairs, and dotted with brilliant colors. 
 Upon this pendant also were two or three medicine- 
 charms, supposed to be of great, efficacy in the healing of 
 diseases. Thus gallantly arrayed, I started for the home 
 wherein my Prairie Flower bloomed. 
 
 I supposed it would be the easiest matter in the world 
 to open my heart to her on this subject as it had been 
 opened on so many others. Had 1 not played with her 
 from the moment of my earliest recollection ? Was not 
 her sweet smile entwined with all that I knew of life? 
 
60 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 Had we not passed days together by the river-side, or 
 wandering in search of plover s eggs upon the plains ? 
 And, more than all, had we not had shelter under one 
 bosom from the sharp thrusts of the Sioux s arrow-points? 
 Why should I hesitate to tell her of my affection when I 
 had shown it to her so often ? But when I had crossed 
 the open place in our village that I have spoken of, and 
 came near the spot where Um-pan-nez-zhe s home stood, 
 my courage suddenly deserted me, and I made up my 
 mind that a short stroll upon the open prairie would pre 
 pare me to face my love. Turning from my course, there 
 fore, I bent my steps to the grassy valley-sides where I 
 had so often raced with her in our sport, and, throwing 
 myself down upon my back, I gazed up into the early 
 stars, and wondered why I was so timid. The stars 
 seemed to whisper the answer : " It is because," they said, 
 " there is a vast difference between childish love and that 
 expression of sober and tried affection that manhood 
 can make. It is one thing to ramble with a child-lover 
 over flower-spangled prairies, and quite another to woo a 
 wife, to be to thee another self. Look at us. See how 
 we shine in glory, remaining in our glowing places not for 
 ourselves alone, but for the lighting of the world. Let 
 thy affection be as bright, as abiding, and as unselfish. 
 Be thou not like yonder falling meteors, who, disregard 
 ing duty, dash away on selfish courses ; for behold in their 
 speedy extinction the sure type of every selfish career. 
 Remember this in thy love for the sweet, blooming Prairie 
 Flower and thou shalt be happy." 
 
 While I thus lay thinking and listening, I saw a white, 
 fluttering object, far up in the sky, falling down toward 
 me through the gathering gloom. It flitted and circled 
 downwards, and reflected from its bright surface the rays 
 of the rising moon. Quietly the object descended to the 
 
A CHAPTER OF LOVE. 61 
 
 earth, and falling lightly at my feet, proved to be an eagle s 
 plume, radiant with blended gray and russet and heavy 
 brown. I looked to discover the bird, but in the uncer 
 tain light he was not to be seen. I watched to see him 
 pass, but in that I failed as well. In some far region of 
 infinite space the grand old bird was sweeping away, but 
 had not disdained to send down this feathery messenger 
 of his good-will to the cold earth. Oh, what lessons that 
 one little plume taught me on that night of my anxiety. 
 It taught me of a great region of purity and excellence 
 far above the world in which I lived. It taught me that 
 she was the brightest inhabitant of that celestial domain 
 in all that concerned moral elevation and dignity. But it 
 also taught me that perhaps she would send down to me 
 some little token of affection which I might treasure side 
 by side with my eagle s plume. As I thought of this I 
 sprang up, snatched the feather from the grass, and deter 
 mined to hasten away, lay it at her feet, tell the simple 
 story of how it had fallen at mine, and beg a return of my 
 great love for her. 
 
 Simple as this purpose seemed, it was hard to carry it 
 into effect. Twenty times on my way to her father s 
 home I stopped, threw myself on the grass, and half 
 resolved to postpone the eventful declaration. Had the 
 prize been less in value, I should have turned to my own 
 home, but when I thought of her sweet face and simple 
 ways and thrilling voice, I could not but go forward. And 
 as I found that thinking of these gave me courage to 
 advance, I bound myself to think of nothing but these, 
 and so I reached her father s door. 
 
 I found him, the wise Standing Elk, sitting just at his 
 door-step, twisting a sinew for a bow-string. 
 
 " Good-evening, my son," he said ; " have you been on 
 one of your thinking-journeys over the prairies?" 
 
62 I* LOUGH ED UNDER. 
 
 " I have only been listening to the night-music," I said. 
 
 " But what have you in your hand ?" he asked. 
 
 "An eagle s plume," I answered. 
 
 " And did you find it out on the prairie?" 
 
 "Yes," I said shortly, not wishing to tell the story of the 
 feather until the one for whom it was designed could hear. 
 
 Of course the wise man knew whom I had come to see, 
 and I supposed he would call her without my being 
 obliged to ask directly for her. But for some moments 
 this seemed the very farthest thing in all the world from 
 his thoughts. During this time I was painfully embar 
 rassed and conscious that he was enjoying my perplexity. 
 At last he called : 
 
 " Prairie Flower, my child, there is a looking-glass and 
 a young man here, and they both wish to see you." 
 
 At this jocose reference to my attire and the particular 
 significance in love-making of the ornament mentioned, 
 I am sure my cheeks colored deeply. Nor was my embar 
 rassment relieved in the least when I heard Prairie Flow 
 er s voice saying sweetly : 
 
 " It seems to me I hear a voice here, beside that of my 
 father, that I ought to know." 
 
 Instantly she stepped forth. How I blessed the dear 
 girl for not partaking of her father s merriment ! And 
 what a sly little maiden she was that she did not even look 
 at the looking-glass hanging at my side, which betrayed 
 my purpose. Nevertheless, I was exceedingly confused 
 in her presence, and although I had seen her almost every 
 day of my life, it seemed to me at this moment that I had 
 not seen her for years. And before her bright smile how 
 soon all the fascination faded from the story of the eagle- 
 plume! It seemed the most simple and silly thing I had 
 ever imagined, and I instantly determined not to make 
 any use of it at least on that occasion. How many of 
 
A CHAPTER OF LOVE. 63 
 
 our twilight visions seem trivial and absurd in the light of 
 day! Her smile was the sunshine in which my carefully 
 prepared story paled to insignificance. 
 
 While I was thinking these things, an awkward silence 
 reigned ; but Standing Elk, who was as good as he was 
 wise, noticing the rabbits ears on the pendant to my neck 
 lace, asked : 
 
 " Do you know, my children, why the chief of our peo 
 ple always has these rabbit-ears upon the necklace that 
 marks his chieftainship ?" 
 
 " I do not," I said, eager to have the silence broken, 
 partly because it was exceedingly painful to me, and partly 
 because I really delighted in the wise man s stories. 
 
 Prairie Flower likewise protested her ignorance in the 
 matter, and her father, with the greatest consideration, 
 turning away from us, thus affording me an opportunity 
 to sit at my dear one s feet, began his story: 
 
 " One of the greatest of our chiefs, who lived many years 
 ago, became a very old man before he was blessed by 
 Wakanda with the gift of a boy. For long years he had 
 wished, and the whole tribe had wished, that the sound 
 of a son s voice might be heard within his wigwam, that 
 he might have a successor in the chieftainship. This was 
 before the good Wa-ga-za had come to our tribe, and 
 our fathers knew no better way than to practice their sim 
 ple rites of superstition, hoping thus that their great de 
 sire might be granted. At last Wakanda heard their un 
 conscious prayers, and a son was born to the chief. Oh, 
 how they tended and watched him during his infancy and 
 early childhood ! It seemed as if the entire hope of a 
 proud and powerful race were wrapped up in one little 
 bosom. The wisest men were chosen for his instructors, 
 and the most careful matrons were appointed for his 
 nurses, and if the child received so much as a scratch the 
 
64 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 one through whose inattention it occurred was instantly 
 put to death. You are a chief s son yourself, but you can 
 scarcely appreciate the extreme care taken by the entire 
 tribe of that tender child s life. 
 
 " One day the father of the boy was out hunting, to se 
 cure for his son a savory rabbit or a tender quail. Be 
 hind a little sage-bush he discovered what he supposed to 
 be a rabbit. He was sure that he saw a pair of rabbit s 
 ears bending and rising, as if the animal were picking the 
 sage berries and leaves. Instantly he let fly an arrow, and 
 what was his amazement to see his own son rise from be 
 hind the sage-bush, to see who was thus interfering with 
 his innocent sport. The boy had escaped from his sleep 
 ing nurse, and had there thrown himself down to enjoy 
 the beauty of all things around him. Clasped to his bo 
 som he held a pet rabbit, which his father had seen, and 
 the ears of which the father s arrow had smoothly cut 
 away. The chief caught his boy in his arms, frantic with 
 delight that he had not slain his own child, and rushed 
 wildly back to camp. The nurses, who had for this time 
 been forgiven on account of the wild joy of the chief that 
 his son was safe, went out, found the rabbit s ears, which 
 spake so plainly of their own carelessness and the nurse 
 ling s narrow escape, tied them together with bright-col 
 ored thongs of deer-skin, and the boy ever afterward wore 
 them about his neck, to recall this crisis of his life. 
 
 "Thus," said Standing Elk, completing his story, "the 
 chiefs of our tribe, descended from this saved boy, have 
 worn upon the pendant of their necklaces a succession of 
 rabbits ears, tied in pairs, and bringing to their memory 
 the simple story of how their ancestor, Ma-shti-gaNe-ta,* 
 was saved from the arrow of his father." 
 
 When the wise man had completed his story he relaxed 
 into deep meditation. I was naturally very deeply im- 
 * Rabbit s Ears. 
 
A CHAPTER OF LOVE. 65 
 
 pressed by what he had said, as it concerned the history 
 of one of my own ancestors, and explained the wearing of 
 an emblem which I would be required to wear on many 
 important occasions if I should live to become a chief. 
 But I was even more concerned to effect the real object 
 of my visit, and as the deep meditation of the wise man 
 rendered us practically alone, I turned to Prairie Flower 
 and said : 
 
 " And what do you think of this pretty story?" 
 
 She waited a moment before replying, and then, look 
 ing up shyly and sweetly into my face, she said : 
 
 " I love to hear these simple stories of our people. I 
 do not know much about them. But of rabbit ears," she 
 whispered after a moment, " I know only this, there are 
 always two of them found together." 
 
 This was said with such a pretty meaning, and she 
 looked so pretty too, that without further consideration I 
 clasped her in my arms and exclaimed : 
 
 " We shall be like rabbit-ears we two found always 
 side by side!" 
 
 Then I poured into her ear all the love of my heart. 
 
 " Think, my sweet Prairie Flower," I exclaimed, " how 
 often we have roamed the prairies together ; shall life not 
 be one great, beautiful, and flower-dotted plain to us? 
 Think how many times as children we have whispered 
 our mutual love; shall it change now, that we are simply 
 older? Think how the self-sacrificing pain of my mother 
 by right, and thine, wedded us in the most sacred way at 
 the arrow-points of the Sioux. Shall we not reaffirm that 
 right to each other s love ? Speak to me, and speak hap 
 piness or woe !" 
 
 To my passionate entreaty the little maiden simply 
 looked up into my face with tears, and said : 
 
 " Khta-we-tha ! * Khta-we-tha !" 
 * I love thee." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE WINNING OF A NAME. 
 
 THE wise man seemed to be by no means startled or 
 displeased by the turn affairs had taken when he returned 
 from his absorbing trip of meditation. Calling us to his 
 side, he caused us to kneel there and, placing a hand on 
 each of our heads, said : 
 
 " My children, dear to me by every thought and memory 
 that can make us treasure an object, I have noticed with 
 joy the growth of your affection, and now see with the 
 greatest happiness its consummation. The prairie-cock 
 could never watch with more tenderness the feathering of 
 his brood of two nestlings, the others having been 
 snatched away by the cold rains of spring, than I have 
 watched your growth, my dears the one the last of a 
 great line of chiefs, the other the orphaned last of as 
 great a line of wise men." 
 
 " I boast, my son," he said to me, "but I boast humbly, 
 for I am the least of all my ancestors, the wise men that 
 our tribe has had. Yet I am glad that in little Prairie 
 Flower thou wilt have a wife worthy by birth, as she 
 certainly is by character, to sleep by the side of a chief s 
 son." 
 
 " Worthy ! " I cried; " noble father, she dwells far above 
 the blue region which my lightest arrow could find. See ! 
 You asked me whence I got my eagle-plume. It fell at 
 my feet out of the twilight as gray as it, and I picked it 
 up to lay at the feet of my Prairie Flower, to ask that she 
 would, like the eagle, send down from her far height one 
 little token of love to my heart." 
 
THE WINNING OF A NAME. 67 
 
 " You can talk more beautiful words than I," Prairie 
 Flower whispered to me, " but I love you more ! The 
 male thrush has the brightest plumage and a breast 
 streaked with the deepest brown, but his mate has the 
 tenderest heart. 
 
 My daughter," the wise man said to her, " my hair is 
 white whiter than the down of the ripened dandelion. 
 But as the flower then is ready to fly away over many 
 valleys and live again, by the dropping of its seed, in a 
 score of young and fragrant blossoms so I shall soon be 
 gathered to my fathers ; but let the principles of my wis 
 dom live again and again in those who, if Wakanda please, 
 shall spring from thee. I saw not thy mother die ; of her 
 cruel and unrighteous murder by the white man I will 
 tell you, again ; but while she lived she had but one wish 
 for thee, that thou mightst be as happy and true happy 
 because true in thy wedded life as she was in hers. So 
 I charge thee to do thy part to fulfill her wish." 
 
 The gentle Prairie Flower could only answer with her 
 tears. 
 
 44 Give me thy hand, my son, and thine, my daughter, and 
 as I unite you this night under the full moon, in token 
 of your love, let me tell you the nrst principle of the red 
 man s glory. It is to remember your fathers, to honor 
 their memories, to practice their virtues and defend their 
 graves. In you the lines of power and wisdom meet; in 
 you also, and in all your actions, let power and wisdom 
 blend. Power may seem to have a dignity and value want 
 ing to mere wisdom, and power is rightly represented 
 in thee, my son. But wisdom exerts a milder influence 
 and a mighty because gentle restraint upon power, so that 
 the one is never truly itself without the other, and thus 
 wisdom is rightly represented in thee, my daughter. If 
 you thus live in mutual assistance, you will be able to call 
 
68 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 down the blessings of Wakanda upon the members of 
 your tribe, as the tall twin-trees draw the showers out of 
 the sky to revive the shivering aspens that grow between 
 them. Thus also I call down the favor of Wakanda to 
 rest upon thee now." 
 
 " We thank thee," we said together. 
 
 "And now one word of caution," the wise man said. 
 " Have you ever seen the young red foxes mating ? They 
 stare upon each other with wide-open eyes for some min 
 utes, and then lie down side by side in the shade of the 
 rock with eyes half closed as if perfectly content. Keep your 
 eyes well open upon each other s faults while you are in 
 this period of courtship, but when you are married let 
 your eyes be partly closed, in charity forbearing with, and 
 in love helping to remove, your mutual failings." 
 
 After taking a tender leave of Prairie Flower, I started 
 toward my home. What emotions and joys were 
 entangled together in my heart ! I seemed to tread upon 
 the air. The dull earth could not rise to touch my feet. 
 How brightly the moon shone upon the tips of the river- 
 waves, and how the distant barking of a pack of coyotes 
 seemed but to hail me to honor and happiness ! The 
 evening breeze had never had such delightful freshness 
 for my cheeks, and I had never seen our village so peace 
 ful and beautiful as it now appeared, slumbering in the 
 moonlight. I knew that 1 was far too happy to sleep, and 
 so 1 turned my steps again toward the prairie to think it 
 r.ll calmly over and charge the pale stars to keep watch 
 over my love. 
 
 Such is the strange paradox of our natures, however, 
 that even in this moment of my greatest happiness I 
 was haunted with a feeling of unworthiness and misery. 
 In my heart the counter-currents of emotions met and 
 swirls of anxiety were formed, wilder and fiercer than the 
 
THE WINNING OF A NAME. 69 
 
 eddies my boat had often passed upon the shifting Mis 
 souri. My thoughts were much engaged, as I walked 
 along, with one of the most rigid of our customs which I 
 had never fulfilled. My people had always held that a 
 man was not worthy a fair maiden until he had performed 
 some feat of bravery or skill of sufficient prominence to 
 distinguish him ever after. It is perhaps known to you 
 that we get our names from some remarkable circum 
 stance attending our early lives or some exploit accom 
 plished by us in youthful years. My Prairie Flower her 
 self received her name from the fact that when her 
 mother took her forth for the first time to see the broad 
 valleys among the mountains where she was born, she bent 
 forward, babe that she was, and clapped her little hands 
 in the highest joy when she saw the wild flowers spring 
 ing around her. I thought of this and of all the stories I 
 had heard around the camp-fires, of how each member of 
 our tribe had obtained a title of honor. But I was 
 still known as Eagle Wing s son a title proud indeed, yet 
 not sufficient to commend me to the consideration of my 
 people. While I had not been unsuccessful in fishing, 
 and had always been among the first in the chase, I had 
 not performed any individual act of prowess sufficient to 
 give me a distinguishing title. So much of my time had 
 been given to musing under the trees that I had employed 
 little in pursuits which would throw me into places of 
 danger. Thus I had acquired the reputation of an idler 
 among our people, much to the uneasiness of my father, 
 who frequently placed before me the glory of my ances 
 tors and warned me not to tarnish their name. There 
 was an additional circumstance that rendered my condi 
 tion a perplexing one. The longer the exploit was post 
 poned the more my people expected that it would be a great 
 one, and while the crushing of a wild bee might have suf- 
 
70 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 ficed in my childhood, the slaying of a bear at least was 
 demanded now. It is perhaps difficult for the white man 
 to realize how firmly this custom would become rooted, 
 in the course of many years, in the hearts of a simple race. 
 We clung to it as sincerely and regarded it with as much 
 veneration as a far graver principle might be held among 
 a more cultured race. 
 
 Thinking upon these things materially marred the hap 
 piness with which I had started out upon my walk. My 
 step had gradually quickened, as I was distressed and 
 stimulated by these musings, and, without taking note of 
 distance, I sped rapidly over the prairies, crushing the 
 flowers recklessly and caring little that I aroused many a 
 bird from her night-perch. At last I came to a little 
 grove of pines nestling around a sunken basin of a few 
 yards width, and, casting myself under one of these trees, 
 I cried passionately : 
 
 " I will do something great. I will, for her sake, distin 
 guish myself. Oh ! why have I watched the shadows on 
 the hillsides when I should have been following the trail 
 of the bear or crouching under sage-cover for the lion of 
 the mountains ? What fatal spell has made a sluggard of 
 me when I love so truly and wish so much that my little 
 Prairie Flower should not blush for me? Oh that the 
 glory of my ancestors should thus cease ! Has their blood 
 run into water in the long course before it reached my 
 veins?" 
 
 Bitterly I wept that night as the moon-rays trickled 
 down to me through the pine-fringes. It was the storm 
 which at the evening relieves the passionate heat of the 
 summer day. 
 
 " Show me some enemy worthy of a chief s son!" I cried, 
 springing up and looking wildly around. 
 
 That look was the first notice I had that the event I had 
 
THE WINNING OF A NAME. 71 
 
 so often wished was close at hand. Peering at me from 
 beneath the underbrush, I saw four points of fire. As I 
 looked at them, they seemed to expand and to assume 
 the shape of interwoven rings of many hues, always com 
 ing back to the points of fire when I had looked away or 
 closed my eyes for a moment. Well did I know that a 
 pair of animals were glaring at me from their lair; but of 
 what description they were I could not tell. Thought 
 at such a time travels fast, and a hundred possibilities 
 instantly sprang into my mind. Were they simply badg 
 ers, eying me from the rim of their burrow and wishing 
 but to find a moment in which to make a sure retreat into 
 the ground ? Or were they the dreadful wild-cats, lashing 
 their sides in the shade of the underbrush and licking their 
 lips, while they purred softly to each other in anticipation 
 of a lapping feast of blood ? Were they the tassel-eared 
 lynxes to creep slyly after me when I should turn home 
 ward, to see if some stronger animal should fell me to the 
 earth that they might then come in and share the spoil? 
 Or were they a brace of lions who had bounded down 
 from the foot-hills in search of prey, which they would con 
 vey thither again before the morning appeared? These 
 thoughts flashed through my mind, and it was a matter 
 of deep concern with me which conjecture was the true one. 
 I had no weapon save a small hunting-knife, which by 
 mere accident lay in the pocket of my jacket. Still, in 
 my present mood, I sincerely hoped that a fierce encoun 
 ter might be awaiting me, that in one night I might gain 
 a bride and a name. I distinctly remember also that in 
 that hour of my first consciousness of real peril I was 
 perfectly cool, more so than I had ever imagined would 
 be the case, and, as I held my hunting-knife in my hand 
 and ran my finger along its keen edge, not a muscle quiv 
 ered. All this took but a moment, though it requires 
 
72 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 some time to tell it. The echo of my wild cry had scarce 
 died on the farther margin of the little pool when I deter 
 mined upon a course of action. 
 
 I knew that the best way to discover the intent of a 
 wild animal is to appear to retreat from him. If he is 
 peaceably disposed, he will also retreat; but if thirsting 
 for blood, he will think his moment of opportunity has 
 come and will dash upon you. The fiercest wild animal 
 is naturally a coward in the presence of man, and, unless 
 wounded, waits for some advantage before making an 
 attack. Knowing all this, I took a few cautious steps 
 backward, keeping my eyes, however, fixed upon the spots 
 of fire. Instantly a fierce noise, between a growl and a 
 bark, issued from among the fire-points, and I could have 
 no further doubt as to the nature of the animals before 
 me. They were the savage timber-wolves, the most 
 dreaded because the most active, knowing, and treacher 
 ous foes that man has among the animals of the plains. 
 Well did I know that a conflict was before me in which 
 the utmost bravery and skill would be required, and that 
 the conflict could end only in utter death of one party or 
 the other. Little howls of a whole pack of young wolves 
 now I heard, and I knew that alone, and unarmed save 
 with one small knife, I had burst into a den whence the 
 she-wolf allows no one to pass out except over her dead 
 body. As I retreated, therefore, I was not surprised to see 
 the points of fire follow me, and when I stopped, knowing 
 no flight could give me safety, the blazing eyes crouched 
 among the aspen leaves as before, except that they were 
 much nearer now. 
 
 I knew they were crouching for the spring. In the 
 dread moment that ensued, a picture of my whole life 
 passed before my mind. The scenes and dangers of my 
 childhood, the shining of the great river, the blossoming 
 
THE WINNING OF A NAME. 73 
 
 of the wild-flowers I had loved so much, the wide stretches 
 of grassy prairies I had crossed, every minute fault I had 
 had, the sounding of every passionate word, the thudding 
 of every revengeful blow, the sweet presence of my mother 
 and the smiles of my Prairie Flower, whom possibly I was 
 about to lose forever, all this, and many other things that 
 I had hoped to forget, flashed before me, and I saw it all 
 plainly. Sometimes in the darkness of the storm a sud 
 den flash of lightning lights up the whole village in which 
 J had lived all these years, and I can see the outline of 
 every familiar house and play-spot, and then all dies into 
 darkness again. So some strange quick gleam lit up old 
 scenes for me, and forgotten memories and buried hopes, 
 in that moment when I waited for the she-wolf s spring. 
 
 I waited not long. Two shaggy and mighty brutes 
 dashed upon me and I fell to the earth. Fortunately in 
 the fall I happened to catch the fore-paw of one of the 
 wolves in my left hand, and knowing it to be exceedingly 
 sensitive I clutched it with the might of despair, crushing 
 its joints together and causing the animal such intense 
 pain that it could inflict very little injury upon me. 
 Against the other wolf I plied my knife vigorously. This 
 proved to be the she-wolf, and against her I knew I must 
 carefully defend my throat. So I kept my knife flying be 
 fore this part of my body, and at every dash she made, as 
 she stood growling horribly above me, I would thrust it 
 into her breast or neck. The wolf whose paw I held at 
 last fastened himself upon my left arm ; the she-wolf tore 
 the flesh from my right side with her claws, and from my 
 right shoulder with her venom-dripping teeth. 1 know 
 not how long the struggle continued, but at last with a 
 fortunate thrust of my knife I pierced her heart and the 
 foul brute fell over upon the decayed pine-fringes, dead. 
 Still holding on to the paw of the other wolf, I rose to a 
 
74 PLOU GHED UNDER. 
 
 sitting posture and soon succeeded in giving him a death 
 blow, and with one howl of mingled pain and rage he 
 rolled heavily to the earth. Then with a sigh of relief I 
 fell back and, faint from loss of blood, became unconscious. 
 
 When I opened my eyes again I was surrounded by a 
 party of my people whom my father had sent upon my 
 trail to find me. It was midday, and as I became con 
 scious after the long period since my severe contest I felt 
 exceedingly faint and weak. On one side of me lay the 
 she-wolf and on the other her mate, in whose bloody flank 
 my hunting-knife still was sticking. 
 
 54 Thou hast done bravely ! the leader of the party ex 
 claimed. " Thou shalt worthily succeed thy father." 
 
 The other members of the party were full of admiration, 
 and I found that they had already bound up my wounds 
 with such natural balsams as the red man knows where to 
 find and how to prepare, and had tied together a frame 
 work of wild aspens upon which to carry me back to our 
 village. 
 
 We soon set out upon the return, and although my 
 wounds were beyond expression painful, I forgot their 
 heat and agony when those who conducted me so loudly 
 and generously praised my exploit. A runner was sent 
 forward to tell the people of our approach, and to rehearse 
 the story of how I had conquered the two fierce wolves, so 
 that the whole village turned out to meet us, with my 
 father at their head. 
 
 " Bravely hast thou upheld the glory of thy ancestors, 
 my son," my father said. 
 
 " Sha-ta-ga-dta-tha" * shall be thy name," said the wise 
 Um-pan-nez-zhe. 
 
 Sweet Prairie Flower was in the throng, and though she 
 
 * Wolf Killer. 
 
THE WINNING OF A NAME. 75 
 
 said nothing to me, her hands were full of salves for my 
 hurts, and her eyes were full of proud tears. And as we 
 advanced into the village, past the familiar play-ground 
 and before the well known houses, the people made the 
 hills to echo with their shout: "Sha-ta-ga-dta-tha! Sha- 
 ta-ga-dta-tha!" 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BITTER COUNSEL. 
 
 THUS I acquired the name by which I have ever since 
 been known. I was required again and again to repeat 
 the story of the contest with the wolves to the people of 
 our village, and I am quite sure that their admiration of 
 my bravery could not have been so hearty if it had not 
 been sincere. This generous praise helped me to bear 
 the pain of my wounds without complaint, and indeed I 
 gloried in them as removing the stain that had previously 
 rested upon my nameless youth. Even the young men of 
 the tribe who had been my rivals in hoping to secure the 
 affections of Prairie Flower were very noble in their 
 praise, professing that not one of them could have done 
 the deed. When one of the young eaglets has stolen a 
 lamb and flown with it to his rocky nest the others of the 
 brood gather fluttering round and scream with defiant 
 delight, while the old bird blesses all with hovering wing. 
 Thus was I the praised of our village. In the attentions 
 of my little bride, however, I had the most delight. It 
 was now known to all the tribe that we were to be mar 
 ried, and thus she was permitted, by our social customs. 
 to wait upon me during my recovery, always, however, in 
 the presence of my mother. The heart of her who had 
 sustained such pain without a murmur to save my little 
 friend and me from the Sioux was gladdened now and 
 doubly repaid by seeing the happiness we had in love, 
 and so our mother s presence was no restraint upon us. 
 
 On one of the days when Prairie Flower was beside me 
 she asked : 
 
 " What made thee so brave, my Wolf Killer ? How 
 
BITTER COUNSEL. 77 
 
 bold, to stand alone against the terrible beasts, and in 
 the night too, when there were no eyes to see thee and 
 inspire thee with courage ! " 
 
 " I fought for love of thee ! " I answered. " The bright 
 ness of thy presence in thought gave me light, and the 
 hope to win thy smile gave me strength." 
 
 " I prayed to Wakanda for thee," she answered, "for I 
 felt a strange fear for thy safety." 
 
 " No obstacle is now between our union," I said joy 
 fully, "and no longer will you blush for being loved by a 
 nameless youth. O my blooming Flower, what happi 
 ness we shall know I" 
 
 " I knew that thou wouldst prove thyself brave," she 
 said. " Even the little wren needs but a moment of dan 
 ger to show the strength there is in her tiny wing and the 
 courage in her russet breast. I knew that if Wakanda 
 granted thee but the opportunity thou wouldst reveal thy 
 might and bravery. There is truly no obstacle between 
 us now, save one. Thou must recover. And that it may 
 be speedily and happily accomplished talk no more, but 
 sleep thus upon my arm,while I watch and sing beside thee." 
 
 Then in a sweet low voice, such as could only be caught 
 from a constant dwelling amid prairie music, she sang a 
 little strain of her own composing. It may not be known 
 to you that the better tribes among the red men love to 
 sing many little melodies, and our music is dear to us, 
 although it might seem simple or even monotonous to 
 those who admire the strained modulations that are heard 
 in cultured nations. A most imperfect translation of my 
 Prairie Flower s song might run as follows : 
 
 The wild thrush lines her nest with moss, 
 
 And builds a shade above, dear; 
 So would 1 screen thy rest from harm, 
 
 So soften it with love, dear. 
 
78 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 For me, as bravely thou hast fought, 
 
 So tenderly I ll watch thee, 
 Most happy that thou rt safe, my love 
 
 Nay! that thou still dost love me. 
 
 The wild bee will not sleep in shade, 
 
 But perches in the morn-ray; 
 So in thy love s light would I bask, 
 
 Which e er shall be my noonday. 
 
 The sweet winds whisper of thy skill, 
 
 But sweeter I shall sing it; 
 The Shon-ga s * mane thy fame shall toss 
 
 From every knotted ringlet. 
 
 Sleep on, my love, renew thy strength, 
 
 Confess thee conquered never; 
 The wild buds blossom once and die, 
 
 But thou shalt bloom forever. 
 
 When other conflicts thou dost meet, 
 
 Wakanda still shall guide thee; 
 Through life, in death, oh let me pray 
 
 Thou lt only rest beside me. 
 
 By the soft tones of her voice I was soothed into a 
 refreshing repose, which did far more to restore me than 
 many unguents could have done. 
 
 One beautiful evening, when I had gained sufficient 
 strength to sit up, my father helped me out to a little 
 camp-fire, before which Standing Elk and Prairie Flower, 
 with my mother, were already seated. They gave me a 
 comfortable seat at my father s right hand, the place of 
 honor. I motioned my little bride to come and sit beside 
 me, which she gladly consented to do, and during the 
 evening she held my hand in both her own. 
 
 The conversation naturally turned upon my conflict 
 
 * Pony s. Reference is here made to the Indians custom of tying 
 Itnots in the manes of their ponies in token of bravery. 
 
BITTER COUNSEL. 79 
 
 with the wolves, and my father seemed to find peculiar 
 pleasure in rehearsing the difficulties of it. He was usually 
 very silent, as became a chief. His noble face had always 
 been stern to me, although his own and only living child. 
 When in camp he was accustomed to pass backward and 
 forward, demanding the greatest homage from his follow 
 ers, and striking all with admiration of his immense 
 figure, straight as an arrow and sinewy as a bow. How 
 often had I seen his majestic form pass around the camp 
 in the dim starlight when any danger might be near, and 
 how I thought, as he came and went, of another Father 
 who never sleeps at all ! His character being thus august 
 and almost forbidding, it was with particular delight that 
 I heard him converse so freely and proudly of what I had 
 done. 
 
 After a few moments of conversation upon this theme a 
 short space of silence fell upon the little group. The pine- 
 knots blazed up weirdly, and their light seemed to watch 
 the covert creeping of the shadows until they came too 
 near, and then it would spring brightly forth and drive the 
 darkness to the woods again. We all gazed into the fire, 
 and upon the faces of all came a look of solemnity. Pos 
 sibly there was something in -the dying embers to inspire 
 that look, or perhaps we were all unconsciously thinking 
 of the same deep meaning that life has to the simple- 
 hearted. Upon the face of the wise man particularly 
 there was a look of the most intense awe. Prairie Flower 
 touched my arm gently and pointed to it. At last he 
 broke the silence and began one of the most important 
 conversations it has been my lot to hear. 
 
 " There is a fiercer foe to the red man than even the 
 she wolf robbed of her young," he said. 
 
 There was a moment of deep silence around the camp- 
 fire. 
 
So PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 "Thou hast spoken truly," my father answered with the 
 greatest solemnity. 
 
 "Tell us, Eagle Wing," the wise man then said to him, 
 "tell this son and daughter of thine and mine who is the 
 worst foe of the Indian race." 
 
 I shall never forget the slow and august tone my father 
 used, as, straightening himself up to his full height and 
 looking sadly out upon our fields, he answered : 
 
 " Wa-gha! " * 
 
 "The white man ! " I demanded, incredulous. 
 
 " Yes, my son," Eagle Wing replied, " the white man. 
 This glorious land, running so wild with rivers and bloom 
 ing back Wakanda s smile in such wealth of flowers, once 
 belonged to the red man, and of most of it he has been 
 shamelessly robbed. If those of our race who have been 
 slain by the white man should spring up from the sod as 
 trees, there would be one broad moaning forest from the 
 great river to the sea. Those of us whose lives have been 
 spared are sneered at, despised, enslaved, and spit upon as 
 dogs." 
 
 " But," I asked, " are not the white men boasters of their 
 love of liberty ? Do they not profess to offer all men an 
 asylum from oppression and outrage ? Do they not claim 
 to be the helpers of the weak and the upholders of those 
 who fall ? " 
 
 " My son," he answered, with a look such as I have seen 
 his face wear only in battle, " the foulest scum of every 
 nation under the stars can come to the Great Father s 
 land and be protected and blessed by equal laws, but the 
 red men, the original owners of the land, are trodden in 
 the mire and esteemed worse than brutes. The bald 
 eagle is their chosen emblem, but as you have seen this 
 
 * "The white man!" 
 
BITTER COUNSEL. 8l 
 
 noble bird upon the banks of yonder river snatch the 
 putrid carrion from the very lips of the wolf, so will the 
 white man debase himself to rob and outrage the poorest 
 member of our unhappy race. Of all the many treaties 
 we have made with the Great Father scarce a score have 
 they honored with even the pretense of keeping." 
 
 " Why not rise, and join with other bands of our peo 
 ple," I exclaimed, " and sweep the white man from the 
 land!" 
 
 " My son, your words accord with the message I received 
 not many days sjnce from certain of the great chiefs far 
 to the west of us. While thou wert lying too severely 
 hurt to be informed of any startling thing, a messenger 
 came from these chiefs to me. He had in his hand the 
 tomahawk of the greatest chief of all, and thus, as is the 
 custom of our people, I knew that he was a trustworthy 
 runner and that his words would be true. If he said one 
 word that is false, our customs demand that he shall die 
 as soon as he returns to his band. This young man 
 rehearsed the names of the chiefs who had sent him, and 
 added this message: Come to us with your warriors and 
 people. Let us meet among the sand-hills. There let us 
 await the coming of the white men, and die in one last 
 battle. As it now is, we die like dogs. Let us be men. 
 There is a universal tradition among our race that a noble 
 chief, Tecumseh by name, dreamed of a time when his 
 people would unite themselves together in one last stand 
 against the white men. That time has come! For 
 many hours we solemnly thought of the message in our 
 wigwams and when a council was held " 
 
 " Of course you said you would go. Da-de-ha ! Da-de- 
 ha !* tell me you will go ! " 
 
 * " My father." 
 
82 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 " We said to the messenger, We will wait. The eyes 
 of some of the white men are turned toward us in sym 
 pathy. We will see if they will grant us their law. If not, 
 we can but die. If we act with treachery, we shall be 
 despised by the white men and by ourselves as well. If 
 we suffer patiently, we shall at least not despise ourselves, 
 and that is something. Then we sent the messenger 
 away." 
 
 " You sent him away ! You feared to fight ! " 
 
 " My son, thou little understandest the power of our 
 oppressors. They have mighty revenues and well-trained 
 armies. The minnow is not more within the power of 
 the fish-hawk when clutched in its talons than we are 
 within the absolute control of the whites. It is for us to 
 submit patiently, to be oppressed without answering, to 
 be spit upon without shrinking, and to die without a 
 murmur." 
 
 With these words the grand chief, my noble father, 
 wrapped his blanket about him and with a strange look of 
 craven submission upon his majestic features took his 
 seat beside us. 
 
 "But, my father," I exclaimed, "even if we might not 
 sweep the white man from the earth, we may at least slay 
 those of his race who come within our reach. We may 
 avenge many a drop of blood by many an individual sacri 
 fice. The Missouri cannot bear yonder mountain bodily 
 away to the sea, but it can tear many a particle of earth 
 or rock from its side." 
 
 To this my father made no answer. He was wrapped 
 in deep meditation. Seeing which, the wise man turned 
 to me and impressively said : 
 
 " Never slay a white man. Bear to be robbed, bear to 
 be tortured, bear to be murdered, bear to see thy wife torn 
 from thee and outraged in thy sight " 
 
BITTER COUNSEL. 83 
 
 " What !" I exclaimed, interrupting him, " bear to have 
 this blooming Flower polluted by the breath of foul evil ? 
 Can you, her father, counsel it ? " 
 
 " Yes, I, her loving father, insist upon it, and further 
 say, bear to have thy children scattered limb from limb 
 before the whirlwind of their wrath, but never slay a white 
 man, never answer him with sneers." 
 
 "Thou art teaching me to be a coward," I cried. 
 
 " I am teaching thee to be truly brave," he answered. 
 " It is the part of a brave man to bear any personal harm 
 and agony rather than bring death upon those to whom 
 he has no right to cause distress." 
 
 " What is thy dark meaning ?" I implored. 
 
 " My meaning is this. The white men hold the entire 
 tribe responsible for the fault of one of its members. If 
 you should kill a white man, however just might be your 
 grievance, the papers which daily appear in all their cities 
 would represent you as bloodthirsty and revengeful. The 
 most false and unjust account would be given of the affair, 
 making you wholly to blame and the white man a martyr. 
 We have no means to deny the slander before the people 
 of the Great Father, and so even the gentle and true- 
 hearted of the whites come to believe us inhuman. 
 Then the Great Father sends an army, and although your 
 father and mother and your beautiful bride might be 
 utterly innocent of any desire to do harm, they would all 
 be put to death for your fault." 
 
 " Horrible !" I exclaimed. " Is this justice ?" 
 
 " It is justice as the white man knows and practices it 
 toward our helpless race." 
 
 At this stage in the conversation my father started up 
 again, not excitedly as before, but with the greatest dig 
 nity. The flickering light brought out his majestic form 
 against the darkness around, and speaking as the apolo- 
 
84 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 gist of his people, and in a tone of blended sadness and en 
 treaty, said : 
 
 "This strange dealing of the white man is the cause of 
 every Indian war. In all our tribes there are reckless men, 
 or there are headstrong young men, who, stung to mad 
 ness by the exactions of the whites, forget the teachings of 
 their fathers and commit some deed of violence out of a 
 natural love of revenge. Then the entire tribe, being held 
 responsible by the Great Father, is forced to take part in 
 the strife in mere self-defense. If only the guilty could 
 be punished, as is the case with our brethren in Canada, 
 there would never be any difficulty in this country, as there 
 has not been in that, between the red men and the white. 
 But as it is, my son, the wise Um-pan-nez-zhe has taught 
 thee rightly. Our only safety is in drilling every member 
 of our tribe to uncomplaining submission, no matter what 
 may be the provocation, and thou as the future chief of 
 this people must learn this lesson well. But who is this ?" 
 
 The question was occasioned by the approach of a 
 young man, a member of our tribe, who had been sent two 
 days before to trade at a neighboring outpost of the whites. 
 He came now to make his report to the chief. But what 
 was our astonishment to see his garments covered with 
 blood ! A fearful gash laid open his cheek to the bone, 
 one arm was terribly cut, and his right side was literally 
 torn to pieces. 
 
 "Strong Arm!" my father cried in amazement, "can 
 this be thou ? What fearful calamity has befallen thee? 
 Have you too invaded the den of the she-wolf?" 
 
 " Nay ! my father," the wounded man replied, " I have 
 been attacked by a white boy !" 
 
 " A white boy !" I exclaimed. "Was he of thy size and 
 strength ? Where was Strong Arm s boasted prowess ?" 
 
 " I suffered myself to be thus stabbed," he said. " I re- 
 
BITTER COUNSEL. 85 
 
 membered the teachings of my fathers. I returned no 
 blow, I answered not a word." * 
 
 " Oh ! woe is to our race !" I cried. " Better that all 
 our people die nobly defending their rights than that one 
 be thus injured." 
 
 " Strong Arm !" my father said, without noticing my 
 words, "thou hast vindicated thy name and shown that 
 thou hast a strong heart as well. Go to thy home, and I 
 will send salves for thy wounds. Always thus remember 
 the safety of thy people and thou shalt always deserve 
 their praise." 
 
 After he had departed, my father turned to me and said : 
 
 " My son, that we are utterly within the power of the 
 white man is a bitter lesson to learn. It cost me many 
 tears. But we must burn it into the heart of every Indian 
 youth, and thou as my successor must take this task up at 
 my death. The safety of thy people depends on teaching 
 this lesson well !" 
 
 * An actual occurrence among the Omaha Indians in Nebraska, du 
 ring the summer of 1880. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MA-SHAN! HOME! 
 
 LONG and sadly I pondered these weighty suggestions 
 of my father. I began to see that the Indians, although 
 loving freedom so dearly and taught it by every breath of 
 prairie air they breathe, and inspired by it in every flower 
 they see, are really the slaves of the white race. True, no 
 chains are riveted about our wrists and ankles, no yokes 
 are placed upon our shoulders, no spiked collars gall our 
 necks, and no lashes are laid upon our backs ; but bet 
 ter have these merely physical sufferings than the ago 
 nies which I now became conscious we had to bear. 
 When a man is so helplessly in the grasp of another that 
 he cannot resent the deliberate taking of his property is 
 not that slavery ? When the very love we have for wife 
 and child and brother is made the excuse for murders 
 which, because of this very love, we dare not avenge and 
 cannot resent without involving these dear and innocent 
 persons in a common ruin is not that slavery? When 
 those who have authority in the white man s government 
 can withhold the money that is rightfully ours, can sell to 
 others the provisions designed for us, can cause the wail 
 of women and little ones to ascend from a thousand camp- 
 fires on the prairies, and when there is no recourse left us 
 but silent submission is not that slavery ? When a man 
 must know that his dear wife is shamefully outraged by a 
 white man, that there is no law by which the transgressor 
 can be punished, that the Indian if he oversteps the limits 
 of a martyr s self-control and shoots the white man down 
 
MA- SHAN! HOME! 87 
 
 is bringing death upon hundreds of innocent ones in his 
 race is not that slaver} ? And does not the fact that the 
 holiest emotions of our nature are made the shackles by 
 which we are bound give a peculiar agony to our slavery 
 that no mere physical smarts or salty tears can express ? 
 
 All these things I thought of constantly and seriously. 
 For a time it seemed that a great darkness had come upon 
 my life. Eagerly I sought an opportunity when the wise 
 Standing Elk might instruct me further in these terrible 
 truths, hoping that he might be able to show me a wav 
 out of the night. 
 
 One afternoon I was resting on a couch of wolves skins 
 in a cool arbor of aspens built for me under a great tree. 
 My mother and my little bride were working upon a pair 
 of moccasins, shaping and beading them for my feet. 
 They worked secretly, hoping to hide the moccasins from 
 me, since they were intended as my wedding-present. But 
 at moments when they were intent upon their toil I 
 caught sly glimpses of what they were doing, and although 
 1 said nothing it seemed to me a beautiful and a touching 
 thing for these two persons, who loved me most and whom 
 I most loved, to join in shoeing me for many a trip across 
 the divides in search of game, and for long marches against 
 the Sioux. Ah, it is well they little knew upon what jour 
 ney I should wear them ! I thought of that simple legend 
 of my people which relates that the she-bears rub their 
 cheeks so steadily and lovingly along the claw-points of 
 their mates that they sharpen them for the bloody encoun 
 ter with the mountain lion among the rocks, or with the 
 elk-buck along the water-courses. So love prepared me 
 for providing for my loves. 
 
 While they were thus engaged in toil, and I in thought, 
 our company was increased by the coming of the wise 
 Standing Elk. I never until that moment noticed how 
 
88 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 old and sorrow-worn he seemed. His long hair was turn 
 ing white in many places, and though his form was per 
 fectly elastic and erect, and his eyes were bright, there was 
 a deep look of sadness upon his face which showed plainly 
 that his soul was "bent and its lights were dim. He seated 
 himself with the air of one who lives in other days, and 
 the rapid and steady winking of his eyelids showed that 
 he was buried in thought. 
 
 " My father," I said to him, " the eaglet was never half 
 so clamorously glad to see the return of its sire with a fish 
 in his claws as I am to see thee to-day. My soul hungers. 
 Tell us more of this sad and terrible law by which the 
 white man, grinding us down in slavery, compels us to 
 submission by threatening the lives of our wives and 
 children. Is there no counter-law of theirs to give us 
 escape ? Is there no ray of light in this horrible mid 
 night ?" 
 
 "Nay, my father!" Prairie Flower exclaimed. "Wolf 
 Killer has already distressed his mind too much with 
 these terrible thoughts. His very wounds will soon begin 
 to bleed with them. Tell us rather some sweet story of 
 thy youth, some pleasing tale of thy love for my mother 
 when she was fair. Or if thy soul is too sad for that, tell 
 us, as thou hast promised to do, how my poor mother met 
 her death." 
 
 The bright bass springs from the waters of the lake, 
 gleams in the warm sunshine for an instant, every scale 
 and fin radiant with rounded rainbows, and then falls back 
 into the darkness again. Thus the wise man emerged for 
 a moment from his thoughts when his daughter spoke, 
 the light of a smile played upon his shriveled face, but 
 then he returned with a sigh to his meditation. 
 
 " Thy voice, my Flower !" he said, " would recall me 
 from the very gloom of death and thrill me with life s 
 
MA-SHAN! HOME! 89 
 
 delight. But I am sad to-day. I feel that my trail is 
 almost completed. Before I die I must prepare you both 
 for living. And, strangely, I can answer both your requests 
 with one story. Listen, my daughter, while I tell thee 
 how thy mother was slain. Listen, my son, for in these 
 same words thou shalt find one sad illustration of the 
 dreadful hold the whites have upon us, and how they pun 
 ish the innocent for the crimes of the guilty." 
 
 Seating himself more comfortably upon a pile of furs, 
 he gave himself a moment s thought as a preparation for 
 the story. The sun, just setting, scattered with most 
 prodigal hands its wealth of rays upon the spears of 
 wild grass and the fluttering leaves of the shrubs. The 
 sky was lit up with scarlet and amber and gold, and such 
 clouds as there were sought to hide themselves in light 
 for very shame to mar such loveliness. The prairies 
 which stretched away to the south and the hills which 
 broke away to the north answered each other in all the 
 varied voices of the twilight music; while, nearer, the 
 whistle of the quail was heard calling to his mate. Not 
 one sound was heard suggestive of human strife and pas 
 sion ; but oh, what a story we were to hear of how all 
 that is worst and most devilish in man seems directed 
 against our helpless race ! 
 
 1 was not born a member of this portion of our tribe 
 which Eagle Wing commands," the wise man began. 
 " Our band was part of one great family with yours, spoke 
 the same language, and practiced the same customs. 
 There were about five hundred of us, all told, and we 
 lived far to the west of this village. The rugged moun 
 tains rose above our wigwams in great uneven peaks, 
 their sides were storm-worn and their summits crowned 
 with snow. As you love the bending trees, we loved the 
 unyielding rocks. We were a hardier, though certainly 
 
90 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 not a nobler, people than you. Our sport was to track 
 the great bear over slippery paths and up lofty mountains, 
 or to fish in the raging torrents which thunder through 
 the canons and throw out a thousand little white spray- 
 arms to push away the stone which obstructs their course. 
 Our joy was to watch the creeping of heavy sun-shadows 
 down the mountain-sides as the sun rose or set, and to see 
 the radiance that the highest peaks caught first at morn 
 ing and held longest at evening. And oh, what lessons 
 we thus learned of holy souls who catch and forever retain 
 the brightness of Wakanda s smile, shining out of eternity ! 
 Our music was the scratching of the bears claws upon the 
 pine bark, the roar of mountain streams, the thundering 
 fall of stones, and the moan of winds over trackless snow. 
 
 " I must pause in my story to call up, from the dark 
 shadows of memory, a picture of that sweetest of all 
 places, Mashan home. Images of it come brightly back 
 to all men alike in the most solemn, happy, and saddened 
 moments. Listen, while the image flashes before my old 
 eyes to-night and becomes radiant in my tears. 
 
 " Our village stood in a little valley which had been 
 beautifully hollowed out in the heart of a great rocky 
 range. There were but two entrances to our retreat, one 
 at each extremity of the valley. These gateways were 
 formed in the rocks by the cutting of a mountain stream 
 which flowed through the length of the valley. The sides 
 of these granite gateways were as precipitous as even 
 those stupendous rocks could be, so that we were com 
 pelled to build, above the level of the stream, trails just 
 wide enough for two ponies to walk abreast. Over what 
 narrow footways will the most dreadful disasters come ! 
 
 "The mountains ranged themselves in uneven ranks 
 parallel to the stream, and seemed to our simple imagina 
 tion to have assumed that position that they might the 
 
MA-SH^N! HOME! 91 
 
 more easily guard us from the intrusion of man. And 
 that -they widened out above, so as to show a great belt of 
 blue sky, we interpreted as meaning that they wished to 
 afford free access to the benefactions of Wakanda. With 
 the blending of these ideas in mind, we called the moun 
 tains after the most renowned warriors that had ever lived 
 in our race. There was one great peak to the extreme 
 west, by whose foot the stream flowed in, and whose rough 
 head, reaching up far beyond the timber-growth, was 
 streaked and seamed with flowing snow. This mountain 
 we called the Old Chief. Next to him were smaller 
 mountains, clothed to their tops with a green growth of 
 aspens, and these we adorned with the names of the noble 
 men who, by their gentleness and strength of nature, had 
 been as dear to our hearts as they were terrible to our 
 enemies. Then, on the farther side of the stream, came 
 a great mountain, bald but not rocky, which seemed to 
 extend two wide arms of mercy to hold our village in, and 
 this was named Gentle Face, after the father of my 
 father, who was chief of the wise men. Then came other 
 peaks in one sublime succession of snowy might, extend 
 ing around our village to the Old Chief again. Some 
 were crowned with rocky heads, some shook the cloud- 
 mists from beards of pine, and some laughed forever in 
 the sunshine. These were named for other lesser persons 
 who in the past had given their lives to protect our race. 
 Within this circle of strength there were smaller, gentler 
 hills, covered with picturesque patches of aspens or 
 dressed in flowing garments of rustling spruce ; and these, 
 leaning against the breasts of the higher mountains, we 
 called the wives and children of the warriors who lifted 
 their pleased faces above. 
 
 " My father was the wise man of that band as I am of 
 this, and his sole aim was, as mine has been, to teach his 
 
92 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 children how to observe their own natures and thus be led 
 to happiness. My wife, thy mother, was a noble treasure, 
 faithful and devoted to a degree that only genuine love 
 can produce. I had three noble sons and two daughters 
 beside thyself, my Prairie Flower. Thy years then num 
 bered but two, and we held thce close to our breasts as the 
 child of our old age. 
 
 " The white men had a settlement about twenty miles 
 from our village, and we had frequent intercourse with 
 them. Until the dreadful day of which I now must speak, 
 not the slightest difficulty had ever arisen between the 
 settlers and our people. There was, however, a young 
 man among us of most passionate disposition, and who 
 frequently declared that the white man who failed to 
 regard his wishes should die. Long and frequently my 
 father urged him to be considerate and forgiving; but 
 Long Knife, such was his name, would not be wise. There 
 were some among our people, as there are reckless men 
 in every tribe, who encouraged Long Knife in his boastful 
 threats, and promised him their assistance in case he 
 found himself in difficulty. The number of these foolish 
 and wicked men was, however, very small in proportion 
 to the vast majority of us who wished to preserve all good 
 faith with the whites. 
 
 " One day Long Knife was drinking heavily with a dissi 
 pated white man in their settlement. The Indian proposed 
 that they should together take a day s sport upon the 
 mountains ; but the white man would not consent to the 
 project. He pleaded the press of business duties; he said 
 he was no great hunter ; in short, he would not go. A 
 long and heated dispute followed a drunken brawl in 
 the height of which Long Knife sprang upon the white 
 man, bore him to the earth, and stabbed him to the 
 heart. The murderer, instantly realizing the terrible con- 
 
.IfA-SlfA.V! HOME! 93 
 
 sequences upon himself and upon his tribe of what he 
 had done, took refuge among the high rocks of moun 
 tains above our village. 
 
 " An account of the transaction, distorted into the most 
 frightful falsehoods, was published in all the white man s 
 papers. Wicked men, who lived near us and thirsted for 
 our land, represented our whole band as utterly evil, and 
 the wildest reports were spread abroad that we had gone 
 to war. It was said that we had fallen on many settlers, 
 had burned their houses, slaughtered their wives and 
 children, and stolen their property. We had no means to 
 deny these reports, and many of the white people may 
 believe them true to this day. 
 
 " The day after the murder of the white man, an officer 
 with a few soldiers rode into our village, and from a paper 
 in his hand he read these words: The Great Father is 
 much displeased because a member of this tribe has done 
 so cruel a deed. He requires you to find Long Knife 
 before fifteen suns have set. If you do not, war shall be 
 made upon this village. The officer and soldiers then 
 rode haughtily away. 
 
 " Our village was instantly the scene of the wildest con 
 fusion, such as you see among the white ants when a pony 
 stamps his foot into the center of their mound-home. 
 The women moaned and wrung their hands, and the chil 
 dren wept, not knowing why, save that they saw their 
 mothers distressed. 
 
 "A sorrowful procession was formed which wound 
 round and round the beloved homes, and under the famil 
 iar trees, and past the sacred places where our fathers 
 slept, and the people smote their breasts and cried : 
 
 Ma-shan ! Ma-shan ! * We love our homes ; they are 
 
 * " Home ! home !" 
 
94 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 to be taken away from us. We love our lives ; we are 
 to lose them. Oh, Ma-shan ! Ma-shan ! Ma-shan ! 
 
 " A council of all the male members of the party was im 
 mediately held, a heap of pine-knots was started into a 
 flame, and oh, I trust Wakanda has forgiven us for the many 
 bitter words we spoke around that fire. The chief was 
 the first, of course, to express his opinion. 
 
 " My children, he said, this is a bitter hour. Never 
 has my heart been wrung with such unspeakable agony. 
 There could be nothing more unjust nothing that more 
 directly smites Wakanda in the face than this law of the 
 whites by which we are made chargeable for the crime of 
 Long Knife. I did not command it; you did not know 
 of it; we all lament it. But if the punishment rested 
 with the destruction of the men of our band, I could die 
 content, Behold, the white men demand the lives of our 
 wives and little ones those who never handled a bow, 
 and those who know not their right hand from the left ! 
 This is hard. This makes even a chief weep! Were we 
 not helpless in their grasp, we might laugh such unjust 
 pretensions to scorn. But they have the right to make 
 what laws they please to bind us the right that the tyrant 
 may ever exercise over the slave. We must submit, my 
 children, we must submit. Let it only be bravely and 
 proudly done. 
 
 " When he had ceased speaking, one of the young men 
 started up and said angrily : 
 
 " Must the elk-buck kneel to the hounds because his 
 mate and their young will die too? My young wife, but 
 one month pressed to my breast, would gladly perish rather 
 than have her husband a craven ! 
 
 " We have no right to bring ruin on others, even though 
 they are our own wives and children, the chief gently said. 
 
MA- SHAN! HOME! 95 
 
 " But if they consent nay, clamor to die rather than 
 see us kneel to the white man ? 
 
 " We should not place them where they are forced to 
 consent, the chief replied. 
 
 " For a long space there was the silence of despair 
 around that camp- tire. At last another young man arose 
 and said : 
 
 " Let us take our wives and little ones and flee into the 
 canons of the mountains, and there defy pursuit. 
 
 " Such an attempt would simply result in instant death ; 
 for the white men, as I am informed by a scout, have 
 placed sentinels in every direction/ the chief replied. 
 
 " Then we can but die ! one said. We can but die ! 
 his neighbor said. And this awful sentence passed around 
 the little group, each man repeating it as his turn came, 
 until it came my father s turn. All eyes were then bent 
 upon him ; for he, being the wise man of the tribe, was 
 accounted able to free us from even worse difficulties than 
 that in which we were then involved. My father rose, 
 and shaking loose his long flowing locks touched with 
 gray, as mine now are, fixed his piercing eyes upon us, 
 and said : 
 
 " We but lose time by repeating this wail. Fifteen days 
 are allotted to us to find Long Knife. Is it the part of 
 brave men to talk loudly and do nothing when the lives 
 of their wives and children are in danger ? Organize your 
 scouting-bands, explore the rocks, come upon his trail, 
 and bring the murderer back. He that finds Long Knife 
 shall be the savior of his people ! 
 
 " Instantly we sprang up, ashamed of our inaction. The 
 sun had been hidden for three hours behind the crest of 
 the mountain, and no time was to be lost. The others 
 went in parties of two and thee, but I preferred to go 
 
9<> PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 alone. So, kissing my wife and holding my children for a 
 moment to my heart in what I, too truly, feared would 
 be my last embrace, I started up the mountain-side. And 
 as I walked the night came on, but at every footstep un 
 der the stars I thought of my loved ones, and whispered 
 to myself the words of my father : He that finds Long 
 Knife shall be the savior of his people ! " 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 A VAIN SACRIFICE. 
 
 WHEN he had reached this point in his story the wise 
 man paused for a moment, as if to arrange his thoughts 
 before continuing. I was conscious that the eyes of 
 Prairie Flower were turned up to me, and looking down 
 I saw that they were full of tears, and her lips were trem 
 bling, and such a look of unutterable sadness was upon her 
 face as I had never before seen her bright features wear. 
 I drew her close to me, so that she should not fear. 
 
 By this time the night had come down, and great clouds 
 were wheeling toward us from the south-west, massing 
 themselves into gigantic shapes, lit up by sharp lightnings 
 which shot within them. The noise of the distant thunder 
 sounded like the stampede of great herds of buffalo over 
 pebbled plains. The main storm passed far to the west of 
 us, but we got the flanking showers. The freshened breeze 
 swept by us, hasting into the storm-cloud, and causing 
 the aspen arbor in which we sat to tremble and rock as if 
 shaken by the hand of a giant. The gloom of the tem 
 pest, increasing the natural darkness of night, fell upon us 
 and brought us into trembling sympathy with the sad ter 
 rors of the wise man s story. 
 
 " I must now, my children," he said, resuming his nar 
 rative, " divide what I have to tell you into two parts, in 
 order to give you the story complete. I shall first tell 
 you what befell the people of our tribe whom we left in 
 our village, and afterward relate the adventures I person 
 ally met with upon the mountains. 
 
9 3 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 "You can easily imagine the anxiety with which those 
 who remained in the village awaited the results of our 
 search. As day followed day and no word was brought 
 in that the criminal had been secured, the fear and appre 
 hension of the people increased until it was the frenzy of 
 madness. One ceaseless wail resounded in our beautiful 
 village. Many of the women started out in hope of find 
 ing Long Knife themselves, and thus to save their babes 
 from the bayonet of the soldier. Every child who was 
 old enough to find or follow a trail took part in the 
 search, until the soldiers who were stationed as sentinels 
 around our village raised the alarm that we were endeav 
 oring to escape in small parties to the mountains, under 
 pretense of looking for Long Knife. Then the women 
 and children were called in, and, having nothing else to 
 occupy their activities, they prepared arrows for the hope 
 less conflict in which they now -foresaw we should be 
 called upon to engage. By day they toiled, and at night 
 they formed a sad procession and passed round and round 
 the beautiful spot where we had lived so long, exclaim 
 ing: 
 
 " Ma-shan ! Ma-shan ! Another day has passed, another 
 sun has set. Oh, our homes will soon be vacant ! Ma-shan ! 
 Ma-shan ! 
 
 " At last the evening of the fourteenth day came. Every 
 scouting party, as it came in, was anxiously questioned 
 as to its success, and from each the dreadful news was 
 learned that no trace of the criminal had been found. 
 Then the wails of the women and the crying of the chil 
 dren increased a hundred-fold, for it seemed certain then 
 that all must die. I had not yet come in. I did not reach 
 the village for three days. But, my children, do not think 
 me a coward, do not imagine that I left my wife and chil 
 dren to die, if need be, alone, until I relate to you what 
 
A VAIN SACRIFICE. 99 
 
 befell me in the mountains. What took place at the vil 
 lage was told me many months afterwards by one who 
 was an eye-witness of the scene. 
 
 "A council was immediately held around one of the 
 blazing fires. The chief called upon each party to report 
 what efforts they had made, and with what success, if any, 
 they had met. One after another arose and told how they 
 had traversed the rocks, and penetrated the dark, deep 
 places, and explored the canons, and tramped down the 
 wild grass in every high spot where a man could hide. 
 They told of the agony in their spirits, and how they had 
 made rocks which never before had heard the human 
 voice resound and echo wildly with their wails. They 
 told of lying down to rest when their steps wavered upon 
 the paths from utter fatigue, and how they started up 
 almost instantly again and pursued the search, chiding 
 themselves that they had lost a moment of the precious 
 time. They told of strange hopes that this place or that 
 might harbor the criminal ; of promises the night-winds 
 seemed to whisper to their frantic hearts; of gathering 
 breathlessly around some crushed flower, fancying it to 
 reveal the sought trail, only to find that it had been trodden 
 down by the brown bear. Whenever they saw a vulture 
 or eagle hovering over a spot, however high and inacces 
 sible, they hastened to it, hoping to find at least the 
 carrion of the criminal ; or when the stream at the depth 
 of the cafion murmured as if clogged by some dead 
 weight, they anxiously descended to its bank, to see if the 
 obstruction were his body. And when the last sun had 
 arisen they had turned their despairing steps homeward, 
 ashamed to show themselves among their brethren, but 
 still vaguely hoping that some other party had been more 
 fortunate than they. Only one man could say that he had 
 seen any trail that might possibly have been that of Long 
 
loo PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 Knife. This he had followed wild with delight and hope, 
 until it suddenly ceased upon a high and barren rock, and, 
 although he examined every sand-grain that rested upon 
 its surface, that rock would hold forever the secret of 
 where the murderer had gone, and would commemorate 
 the slaughter of a race. 
 
 " When the last man had spoken, the chief slowly arose 
 and said : 
 
 " My children, the Dta-wa-e* of our people must be sung. 
 The wave of ruin which has rolled over a land once ours 
 and swept so many of a simple-hearted race away has at 
 last reached our beautiful homes. The wild dove had 
 hoped to save one little nestling out of so large and noble 
 a brood, but this, too, must be sacrificed. And by whom 
 is this last sad murder to be done? By a nation ignorant 
 of Wakanda s ways, or careless of the pain of a human 
 heart, or professing simply to be unlearned and savage? 
 Nay ! It is done by a nation boastful of its justice, its 
 regard for the feelings of all, its desire to civilize our 
 people a nation shone upon by a free sun, fanned to sleep 
 by free winds, and roared at by free waves and rivers a 
 nation favored and honored and blessed by the very 
 liberty it denies to us. Long Knife Bought to have been 
 punished ; we would gladly have seen him repay Wakanda 
 with his life for the life he has taken. But why should 
 our wives and little ones suffer in his place? But it must 
 be. I would not unnerve you, my children, for the trial. 
 We must die; see that ye die bravely. I have spoken. 
 
 " All eyes were turned upon my father at the conclusion 
 of the chief s address, for to him they looked for advice 
 when all other wisdom failed. He arose, shook out his 
 flowing hair, and, looking slowly around on all the anxious 
 faces, simply said : 
 
A I ALV SACA n- TO: 
 
 " Wait, my children, until Standing Elk returns. 
 
 44 He then resumed his seat. 
 
 Truly! the chief exclaimed, the brave young 
 Standing Elk has not yet returned. He is fleet of foot 
 and quick of eye and strong of arm ; he may be the 
 saviour of his people by bringing in the criminal. 
 
 44 You shall not see him for many suns, sneered a young 
 man who hated to hear me praised. 
 
 " What ! my father exclaimed, springing up, dare you 
 say that Standing Elk will desert us in our sore need? 
 Think you he has your heart, to stay away until the threat 
 ened conflict has passed? I will answer with my life 
 that he returns before our last sun rises over to-morrow s 
 peaks. Or if he comes hot, some disaster holds him. 
 
 " * Peace ! my children, the chief said. We will watch 
 here beside the embers of our last council-fire until the 
 morning dawns. If Standing Elk does not then return 
 with Long Knife, we will prepare to die. 
 
 " All that night, while the pitying stars looked divinely 
 down, they sat around that dying fire, speaking not a word, 
 wrapped in the sad meditation of despair. The solemn, 
 familiar peaks rose above them, and to their excited 
 fancies assumed shapes of majesty or affright, became 
 giants with stern faces and rugged arms and cruel clubs, 
 or changed into fair fingers pointing them up to Wakanda 
 as man s last hope. Every sound of the night-wind they 
 listened to eagerly, hoping it might be my footstep. 
 Whenever the loosened stone fell down the mountain-side 
 they thought He is dragging the criminal after him, and 
 will soon be here. The stars wheeled away, and strange 
 ones came up from the east to take their places, just as 
 the red men had been pushed aside by the march of the 
 white men ; the planets set one by one behind the pine- 
 trees, and the waning moon hid its scanty light from their 
 
02 ; PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 hopeless gaze. Still Um-pan-nez-zhe did not come. On 
 the high peaks to the west of the valley a faint streak of 
 light at last appeared. It was instantly erased by the hand 
 of night, and a deeper darkness than any that had rested 
 upon them came upon peaks and valley alike. Soon, 
 however, the light returned brighter than before, and the 
 spread of coming day began to creep down the mountain 
 side into the valley. The day-birds opened their throats 
 for their song, the crushing of the sage-brush was heard 
 as the bear hastened back to his den, and the pines began 
 to wave glad welcomes in the air to the approaching sun. 
 It was their last allotted sun, but yet Standing Elk did 
 not come. 
 
 " Then my father arose and said : 
 
 " My children, some accident detains the brave Standing 
 Elk. He carries the scalp of Long Knife at his belt, and 
 if a day or two could be granted he would be the saviour 
 of his people. But something must now be done. My 
 children, my locks are touched with gray and I have seen 
 the sun rise on many mornings. Hundreds of my people 
 and some of my sons I have seen shot by the white men. 
 Wakanda has given them The Book,* by the teachings of 
 which they have been made strong. He has not given us 
 The Book, and therefore we are weak. But how the white 
 men can use in robbing and murdering our helpless people 
 the strength they have derived from a book which teaches, 
 as we have been told, charity and brotherly love, seems 
 strange to me. I cannot understand this. The wild beet 
 lifts up into the air tender and tempting leaves, but its 
 root is full of poison. The white man is alike treacherous. 
 Every coming year adds to the snake of these canons a 
 new rattle, and places fresh venom in its fangs. Every 
 
 * The Bible, singularly spoken of as The Book by all the Indian races. 
 
A VAIN SACRIFICE. 103 
 
 year has increased the white man s loud professions to be 
 our friend, and at the same time made him more thirst- 
 ingly our enemy. I wish to die by the hand of the red 
 men. They may not know the mysteries of the ,vhite 
 man s religion, but are not rendered alike insensible to 
 the pain of a broken heart or the claims that the weak 
 may ever urge against the strong. My children, my 
 advice to you is : It is better for one to perish than that 
 all should die. Shoot me and lay my body at the feet of 
 the captain. Perhaps he will accept me as the criminal, 
 and have mercy upon our wives and little ones. I die a 
 willing sacrifice. Let my pale lips, when they cannot 
 speak, persuade you that Standing Elk remains not 
 willingly away, and tell him when he comes that his 
 father died gladly to vindicate his bravery. 
 
 " I repent already ! tearfully exclaimed the young man 
 who had cast suspicion on my courage. 
 
 " Come, then, my father said, let us go out into the 
 everglade where the crack of the rifle shall not reach the 
 ears of my children and grandchildren ; there I will die. 
 Come, I lead the way ! 
 
 "One by one the warriors sadly and reluctantly arose 
 from the ashes of the dead camp-fire and followed my 
 father, who, stopping a moment as he passed through our 
 village, kissed the little ones of his family, took thee, my 
 little Prairie Flower, into his arms for a moment and 
 blessed thee, and then walked rapidly away. He led the 
 silent and sorrowful procession to a retired spot, where 
 the mountain s side had been worn away by a succession 
 of great torrents, and stationing himself on a mossy 
 bowlder, asked them to shoot. No one, however, had 
 thought to bring a rifle, as they were all so horrified 
 by the terrible idea of sacrifice. A messenger was dis 
 patched to the village for the weapon. In the moments 
 
104 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 of delay my father never trembled for an instant. His 
 tall form and patient face and streaming white hair made 
 a sublime picture against the purple and gray and green 
 of the rocks behind him. The mighty mountains threw 
 down deep mourning shadows to hide the scene from the 
 pitying eye of the sun, the very eagle screamed with 
 horror and flew away, and the wild birds in the bushes 
 were dumb with awe ! 
 
 "Chief/ my father said, the rifle is at thy hand; aim 
 it as I have seen thee aim at the brown bear. I die to 
 vindicate the bravery of my son ! I die to save the rem 
 nant of my people ! Wakanda forgive the white man ! 
 Wakanda bless my simple-hearted race ! Wakanda 
 receive me to his home ! I have spoken. 
 
 " Thrice the chief raised the rifle to his shoulder, and 
 thrice lowered it again. His hand trembled, his eyes were 
 full of tears. 
 
 " O wise brother, he said to my father, I shoot but 
 for thy sake and for that of my poor people. 
 
 " He aimed the rifle once again and pulled the trigger. 
 My father s brave heart was pierced. His gray hair 
 streamed among the moss upon the boulder. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 AN EMPTY SUCCESS. 
 
 " MEANWHILE, my children, what kept the brave Um- 
 pan-nez-zhe upon the mountains ? Why did he not return 
 as the saviour of his people, dragging Long Knife behind 
 him ? 
 
 " I had not the slightest idea where I should be most 
 likely to find the criminal. But I knew that in the hor 
 ror of his remorse he would seek the very wildest peaks, 
 and frequent the deep caverns which yawn in their sides, 
 where the scorched pine, blasted by the lightning s stroke, 
 lifted itself into the night akin to itself for blackness, and 
 suggested to his mind a grim image of his own ruined 
 life. I knew he would crouch under overhanging bowl 
 ders, and hide behind dark young pines; and would spring 
 up at the slightest noise, glare fiercely for a moment, and 
 then wildly, around ; and then start like the hounded deer 
 away and away through the darkness. I knew that if I 
 could find his trail I might track him by the bloody prints 
 he would leave of feet cruelly torn by the sharp rocks, by 
 the scraps of deer-skin that the brambles in his flight would 
 tear from his garments, by the very bending of the flowers 
 and wild grasses away from his path on both sides, as if 
 they had shrunk down in terror and hate when he had 
 passed wildly by. Yet I knew that he would not go too 
 far away, that a strange fascination would attract him, at 
 still moments, to creep near the scene of his crime ; that 
 in the darkness or in fits of fevered sleep he would see 
 the shining of the murdered man s face, and those pallid 
 
106 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 lips would call him so sternly that he could not refuse, 
 and that silent finger would beckon him so commandingly 
 that he must obey. I knew that thus he would continu 
 ally hover near, and yet not too near, the white man s set 
 tlement, now approaching it stealthily in the dead of night, 
 and now running wildly away again ; now coming so near 
 that from his rocky hiding-place he could see the smoke 
 of their fires resting on the distant hillsides, and now 
 dashing fiercely miles and miles and miles into the silent 
 hills ; now groaning madly, rolling on the ground, that 
 he had done the deed, and now springing up with clenched 
 fists and blazing eyes, thirsting to do the murder over 
 again and ten thousand others like it. I knew that even 
 the canon-stream could not alternate so quickly between 
 insane dashing and idiot quietness as he, and if I should 
 come upon him in his quieter moods I might take him 
 alive, but if when he was fierce with madness and remorse 
 I must kill him. And, as I searched, these and many 
 other thoughts went through my excited mind. 
 
 " But how could I kill him ? Never had my hand slain 
 human being, and what would make this deed the harder 
 was that I had known Long Knife well. Had he not been 
 a member of our own tribe ? Had we not slept by the same 
 streams, and eaten by the same camp-fires, and hunted 
 on the same rocks ? Had we not obeyed the commands 
 of the same chief, and when we both were children had 
 we not sat together at my father s feet and heard his 
 words of wisdom ? Yet when I pictured to myself what 
 he had done, and how his deed had hung a spear over our 
 whole tribe, and how my very wife and sweet children 
 were concerned in the doom, I felt that I could do the 
 deed. The more I thought of this as I struggled on over 
 the rocks, the more I was sure I could kill him. Was he 
 not virtually the murderer not simply of the white man 
 
.-/.V EMPTY SUCCESS. 107 
 
 but of our tribe and my dear ones as well ? Yet at other 
 moments I pitied him. At the back of all the difficulty I 
 knew the white man stood, with his sham professions of 
 law and his smiling hypocrisy and his cruel deceits. Long 
 Knife was only the instrumental cause of the doom that 
 rested on our people. Still, he had known how unjustly 
 the white man holds the tribe responsible for the crime 
 of any of its members, and knowing it had not hesitated 
 to commit the deed and bring down upon us the doom. 
 However unjust, and shamefully so, the white man might 
 be, Long Knife was the immediate, the nearest cause of 
 the difficulty, and as I brooded more and more over it I 
 began to hate him. Yes, I hated him. And in my hate 
 the pride of my race blended, and the love of my wife and 
 the joy of having sons, and all these made me hate him 
 the more. I transferred all the traditional scorn I had of 
 the white man to him, who was at least the instrument by 
 whom the stronger race could inflict all its cruel injustice 
 upon us. I hated the white man in him. I hated him 
 more in the morning than I had done in the evening, and 
 more in the evening than in the morning. The flowers 
 which bloom in such prodigal splendor and multitude 
 upon the high mountains stared amazed at me as I passed 
 exclaiming, I hate him! I hate him! I hate him! 
 But I crushed the flowers down, so they should not shame 
 me out of my hatred by their large and beautiful eyes, and 
 I hated him all the more because he had caused me to 
 make such destruction of lovely things. 
 
 " Meanwhile I never for a moment relaxed my agony to 
 find his trail. The wondrous beauty of the scenery around 
 me claimed not a single look. The morning dawned, and 
 was amazed to see that a red man could be out on the 
 mountains and not be lost in rapture at the splendor of 
 its coming. The evening went to sleep, and with its last 
 
io8 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 peeps of light it wondered that I should turn my back 
 upon it and not admire its radiance by word or look. But 
 I had eyes for the grass, the sage-brush, and the flowers, 
 only to see, if I might, where Long Knife had gone, where 
 he had rested, where crouched for a moment, and in what 
 direction hurried away. The days were coming and going, 
 the nights were hurrying, the fate of my people was being 
 decided, and I must not rest. My brain was on fire with 
 hope, and yet I was filled with a constant dread that I 
 should not succeed after all. Some strange thing told 
 me that if any one should save my people it must be I. I 
 knew, as if by a revelation from Wakanda, that the scout- 
 ing-parties would not find Long Knife, that I must never 
 rest, never stop for sleep, never delay e"ven for eating, if I 
 hoped to avert the horrible doom. Such wild roots as I 
 could catch up while I walked I ate hurriedly, and I bent 
 at every spring and rill that I came upon and tried to 
 quench my agony of thirst. But still my fever burned 
 more wildly than before, and still I hastened hither and 
 thither, wherever a man could hide, saving madly to my 
 self, I must find him ! I must have his blood ! 
 
 " So the days passed. Sometimes I feared that in the 
 greatness of my agony I would not number them aright ; 
 but I found that my very anxiety and distress, being so 
 frantic, prevented me forgetting even for the slightest 
 moment what day it was. My memory of little things 
 was so vivid that I could recall every circumstance that 
 had attended my first, second, third, or any day that I 
 had been upon the search ; and so by arranging the 
 transactions of the several days before my mind I could 
 confirm my count. Thus the tenth sun rose as brightly 
 as the others had done, and the eleventh, and they set 
 again, without leading me to the criminal s hiding-place. 
 
 "Just before the setting of the twelfth sun, the sky, 
 
A.V KMPTY SUCCESS. 109 
 
 which had been remarkably clear and beautiful, became 
 suddenly overcast with great clouds. They came sweep 
 ing up from the valleys just beyond the range on which I 
 stood, and, parting now and then to circle a high peak, 
 they would come together again nearer me and career on 
 wilder than before. I watched the coming storm chang 
 ing its hues from gray to brown, from brown to scarlet, 
 and from scarlet to black, and I thought what a mighty 
 and portentous type it revealed of the doom that was 
 sweeping upon my race. I tried to think that Wakanda 
 guided our dark destinies as surely and easily as he did 
 those apparently lawless masses of heavy vapor, but in 
 the maddened state of my mind the thought either would 
 not possess me or gave me no courage. I tried to look 
 up into the heavens as the bright flowers around me did, 
 as brave as they, and as trustful that out of all this 
 tumult and night the refreshment would come and the 
 morrow dawn again; but I could not. Soon the thunder 
 became more fearful, the lightning darted hither and 
 thither among the rocks, and the great, heavy drops of 
 the coming rain began to fall among the pine-cones. The 
 breeze freshened moment by moment ; the loosened stones 
 fell with a thundering crash into the valley, three thou 
 sand feet below ; the roar of the storm, hastening up to 
 its full fury, smote me as with heavy blows ; and the 
 swollen stream, near at hand, raged and hissed so as to 
 be heard above all the tumult. You cannot imagine, my 
 children, how fierce the lightning is in a mountain storm, 
 and how full of it the air becomes. It seemed to me that 
 day that the" whole mountain was one mass of forked 
 flame : the rocks were glowing with it, the pines were 
 wreathed with it; the aspens, girded with it, forgot to 
 tremble. I knew it was certain death to remain where I 
 was, and although I valued my life little in itself, yet, 
 
no PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 because of the deed I felt I must accomplish, I esteemed 
 it dear, and. so sought refuge under a large boulder which 
 seemed firmly attached to the mountain-side. From this 
 safe retreat I looked out with wild admiration upon the 
 storm, and, feeling it terribly in sympathy with my pas 
 sions and moods at the moment, knew something of my 
 old enjoyment of the wild elements. 
 
 " There I sat until it must have been midnight. Sud 
 denly a flash of lightning, brighter than those that were 
 constantly shining, lit up the dark entrance of a cavern 
 just on the other side of a little ravine before me, and I 
 saw what seemed a human face. I started wildly to my 
 feet, awaiting the next bright flash. It came yes ! O 
 Wakanda! it was he Long Knife! I could see him 
 crouching away from the storm, shivering whenever it 
 thundered, and holding his eyes against the lightning. 
 Awfully haggard and careworn he looked, and for a 
 moment I pitied him. But only for a moment. After 
 that I hated him far more than ever. He had not seen 
 me, and I hoped that by coming suddenly upon him, when 
 he was so terrified by the storm, I might take him pris 
 oner and deliver him to the white men, leaving them to 
 take his life. 
 
 " Full of this purpose and wild with hope, I came out of 
 my retreat and began eagerly to skirt the ravine so as to 
 reach him. The storm was wild enough still to conceal 
 the noise of my footsteps, yet I stepped with great caution 
 and cursed every twig that snapped under my feet. I no 
 longer thought of any danger from the lightning, and 
 although it buried its forked burning tongues into the 
 soil beside me once and again, I did not even shudder. 
 My whole soul was filled with one desire, and I had 
 thought for nothing else. I had much more difficulty in 
 getting around the ravine than I had anticipated ; but at 
 
AN EMPTY SUCCESS, in 
 
 last, after the greatest struggling over slippery rocks and 
 through muddy thickets, I approached the spot where he 
 lay. The bank overhung him so that he was not visible 
 to me, or I to him, and therefore I determined to creep to 
 the edge of the bank, stare down into his frightened face 
 and demand his surrender. I crept noiselessly forward. 
 I held my breath. Every muscle and nerve of my body 
 was drawn into one agony, and I felt that if I did not soon 
 clutch the criminal my whole being, with one snap, would 
 die. I reached the edge of the bank, peered cautiously 
 over, and there he lay within three feet of me. 
 
 " My lips were just parting to speak, when, taking down 
 his hands from his eyes, he turned his haggard face up 
 and saw me. Oh the wild look in those staring eyes! 
 Oh the deep agony upon those purple lips ! With one 
 cry of terror, such as the wild beast at bay might make, 
 he sprang twenty feet sheer down the side of the ravine, 
 and before I recovered myself he was out of sight in the 
 storm. I had not the despair to make me take the leap 
 after him, and by the time I had gained the spot where he 
 had alighted he was nowhere to be seen. It was impossi 
 ble to follow his trail in such a night, although I could 
 scarce bring myself to believe it ; but feeling sure that I 
 could overtake him now that his trail was found, I 
 returned and took shelter in the very cavern that he 
 had crouched in. 
 
 " How slowly the hours passed, and how I filled them 
 with moans and cries, you can easily imagine. At the 
 first glimmer of early light I was standing on the spot 
 where the deep indentations in the soil and gravel showed 
 he had struck the earth after his leap. Then began the 
 terrible chase. There was something certain before me, 
 and the thought gave me almost the bear s strength and 
 the deer s endurance. I knew that I was far swifter of 
 
H2 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 foot than he, and his start could not be very great, as he 
 must have been delayed by the storm of the night. How 
 I could picture him rushing with frightened face through 
 the storm, turning to see if I were at hand, trembling at 
 every sound, falling prostrate in his too great haste, and 
 springing up again with wilder energy than before ! 
 
 " He took a course toward the upper rocks, hoping per 
 haps that I would lose the trail when the grass and under 
 brush ceased. But I believe my intense passion would 
 have helped me to read his footprints on solid and smooth 
 rock. I followed him as the she-wolf follows her victim. 
 All that day and all the succeeding night, which was 
 bright and starlit, I followed him. Sometimes the trail 
 would be indistinct and I would lose many precious 
 moments ; at other places I could fancy the point he wished 
 to reach, and by a shorter path I could regain what I had 
 lost. Once I saw him, pushing his way up and still up, 
 panting for breath in the thin air and casting frightened 
 looks behind ; but a huge rock hid him from my sight again. 
 
 " On the morning of the fourteenth day I saw that the 
 path he had chosen would lead him to a wide table-rock 
 at the very summit of one of the highest peaks of all the 
 Rockies. From this rock there was only one way of 
 ascent or descent, and that was the very ridge we were 
 then advancing upon. I knew that in a few half-hours 
 Long Knife would be brought to bay, and then the dread 
 and deadly conflict between us would begin. Inspired 
 with a new courage, I pressed still more vigorously for 
 ward, and passing round the corner of a great boulder 
 I saw him. Yes, I saw him ! He had gained the table- 
 rock, and now knew that his escape was impossible. Oh, 
 never shall I forget the spectacle he made, wild with re 
 morse and fear, standing alone on that mighty peak, while 
 beyond him nothing could be seen but the deep blue of 
 
AN EMPTY SUCCESS. 113 
 
 heaven ! When he saw me he wrung his hands in the most 
 dreadful manner, and began to heap curses upon my head. 
 I was rejoiced to see that he was not armed, and thus I 
 regarded him as my prisoner already. After the first 
 shudderings of fear had passed over him he awaited me, 
 perfectly calm, and I could see by his clinched teeth and 
 resolute air that some stern purpose was in his mind. 
 When I came so near to him that my voice could be heard 
 I cried : 
 
 " Surrender to me, Long Knife, and I shall do thee no 
 harm ! 
 
 " No harm ! he said, glaring down upon me, who can 
 do harm to a man hunted by conscience? But take this, 
 thou boaster, for thy pains ! 
 
 "With these words he suddenly bent to the earth, 
 caught up a huge stone that lay at his feet, and hurled it 
 down the narrow path toward me. He flung it with so true 
 an aim that, though I sought to avoid it by springing aside 
 with all my agility, it struck me upon the ankle, mashing 
 the bone. I felt at the time but slight pain from the hurt, 
 but oh ! through my whole life there has been a bitter 
 aching of soul because of it. 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! Long Knife exclaimed, how feels the brave 
 Um-pan-nez-zhe now ? 
 
 " Strong enough, I cried, to take thy scalp ! 
 
 " That thou shalt never do, he replied. I shall die 
 at no man s hand. I perish upon Wakanda s rocks. Alas ! 
 that my life should be so soon blighted ! Alas ! for the 
 youth of the noble Long Knife ! Alas ! that his eyes shall 
 never more rejoice at the coming of the morning or gaze 
 at the setting of the sun ! But I will die bravely ! I hate 
 the white men, and I curse the red. Enemy of all, I shall 
 crave pardon of none. I die thus freely, and I conquer as 
 I die! 
 
H4 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 " With these fearful words, chanted in a mournful strain, 
 he cast himself headlong from the rock where he stood 
 into the awful abyss below. T saw him shoot like an arrow 
 through the air, and as he fell only one wild scream 
 escaped his lips. Several awful seconds were consumed 
 in his fall, but at last I saw him strike the cruel rocks, 
 four thousand feet below, where he lay motionless and 
 lifeless. Alas, poor Long Knife, how terrible was thy 
 fate ! Thy bitterest enemy, who tracked thee as if thirst 
 ing for thy blood to the last hiding-place thou couldst 
 find, bows pitying before thee ! 
 
 " It was only when I began to descend to him that I 
 realized how seriously my ankle was injured. At first I 
 could w r alk without any great difficulty, but the pain in 
 creased with every step and soon became unbearable. I 
 sat down beside a little stream that raged across my path, 
 and stripping off the inner bark from several aspens that 
 grew near, I bound up my aching limb in them, after 
 having soaked them in water. Then I was able to proceed 
 My anxiety to have his scalp gave me strength, and at last 
 I had descended to the spot where he lay, a tangled mass 
 of human flesh. Oh ! how I pitied him ! If he had 
 allowed himself to be guided by my father s principles of 
 wisdom, and borne anything rather than kill a white man, 
 he might have been among our best warriors. But here he 
 lay, hated alike by the white men and the red, because 
 passion instead of wisdom had controjled him. But I 
 knew I must not delay, and hastily tearing from him his 
 bloody scalp, the only one I ever took, I left him to the 
 eagles who, having scented a feast from afar, were already 
 circling in the air above him. 
 
 " It was now noon of the fourteenth day. I knew not 
 how far I had wandered from our village, and only that 
 sun shining above me, and another, were allowed me for 
 
AN EMPTY SUCCESS. 115 
 
 * 
 the return. But holding aloft the bloody prize which I 
 
 believed would save my wife and little ones from death, I 
 started. The pain in my ankle made my progress very 
 slow, and I was frequently compelled to stop and bathe it 
 in the streams I crossed. The agony I endured upon this 
 journey only Wakanda knows. The physical pain I suffered 
 was as nothing compared with the deep distress that fed 
 upon my mind as the wolf-cubs feed upon the deer s heart. 
 What if I should be too late after all ? I thought. How 
 far could it be to our village ? Would my crushed ankle 
 allow me to make the trip in time to save my people? 
 These and a thousand other thoughts and misgivings 
 passed through my mind. The weary hours of that after 
 noon passed while I dragged myself along, and the dark 
 moments of the succeeding night became things of yester 
 day. Still I plodded patiently and painfully homeward. 
 The last sun arose, and still there was not one in all the 
 wilderness of hills that rose around me that I could recog 
 nize. The terrible conclusion flashed upon my mind that 
 I must have gone many, many miles in my eager pursuit 
 of the criminal, without noting the distance; and only 
 by the most agonizing efforts could I hope to reach our 
 village in time to avert the slaughter. 
 
 " Oh, how I prayed for strength ! Oh, how I cursed 
 the stone that had crippled me and prevented me being 
 the savior of my people ! Now I would cast myself upon 
 the ground in hopeless despair, thinking that all my efforts 
 were useless. Then I would start wildly up, chiding my 
 self for the precious moments lost through such cowardice, 
 and thinking that the least I could possibly do was to 
 spend the very last minute in earnest, although it might 
 be useless, endeavor to reach our village. In the moments 
 of my deepest distress I would throw the scalp of Long 
 Knife upon the ground and stamp upon it in fury. Then 
 
n6 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 I would catch it up and hurry away. Oh, how I envied 
 the eagles their wings, and the antelopes their speed, and 
 thought, itself, its power instantly to fly to the point it 
 desires to reach ! 
 
 " Thus passed the last day allowed to us. I wept long 
 and bitterly when I saw the fifteenth sun sink behind the 
 foot-hills. Its dying moments were just as I had often seen 
 them, the beauty of the crimson clouds was the same ; but 
 never, as it seemed to me, had so much depended on a 
 sunset never had it sealed so many dooms. I thought 
 of my faithful wife and my beautiful children. Perhaps 
 they would blame me for remaining away, thinking that I 
 had deserted them to their fate. This thought almost 
 maddened me. But, on the contrary, I dared at moments 
 to hope that some kind plan of Wakanda would delay 
 the slaughter and I might still arrive in time to save my 
 people. Encourage d by this thought, I would advance 
 more rapidly than before, although much of the way I was 
 compelled to hop upon one foot, and the pain in my 
 swollen ankle almost made me wild. Thus the nights 
 and days passed hopelessly, painfully passed. The six 
 teenth sun was no more, the seventeenth followed it, the 
 eighteenth and nineteenth were things of the past and 
 on the evening of the twentieth day after the decree of 
 the white man had been read in our camp, I stood in the 
 gateway to the valley in which our village was built. 
 Just before me was a large rock projecting out into the 
 valley, and I knew that when I had passed that all the 
 humble homes of my people would be in full sight. But 
 I feared so much. that the slaughter had been made that 
 I dared not pass that rock. I stopped and listened. No 
 happy laugh of child, no shout of youth, no voice of man, 
 met my ear. All was silent, save that I heard the flap of 
 some bird s wing as it hovered near the ground. 
 
AN EMPTY SUCCESS. 117 
 
 " O Wakanda! I cried, has the dreadful doom come 
 upon my wife and babes ? 
 
 " Frantic with fear, I burst round the rock, and what a 
 sight met my gaze ! All our beautiful homes were burned 
 to the ground. The bodies of my people were scattered 
 upon the bloody sward. As I advanced I frightened off 
 a flock of crows and vultures who we re fattening on cheeks 
 I had kissed and hands I had held in mine. I went, 
 trembling like an aspen-leaf, among the terrible collection, 
 recognizing here the chief and there a brother and there 
 a friend. In their hands they still grasped their weapons, 
 and on their pale lips was the scowl of battle. The blood 
 was scarcely dry in their terrible wounds, their useless 
 weapons had not begun to rust, and I knew that the day 
 before must have been that on which the fatal conflict 
 had occurred. Oh ! to think I had been only so few hours 
 too late to prevent the taking of so many precious lives, 
 which all my tears and my most passionate cries could not 
 now recall from the silence and coldness whither they had 
 gone ! 
 
 " At least, I said, mournfully musing, my noble people 
 died bravely defending themselves and their little ones 
 against the whites. 
 
 " Nowhere could I find the body of my noble father ; 
 the cause of his absence you know, my children. And 
 for a long time I could not find thy mother, my Prairie 
 Flower, though my brave sons were lying dead where they 
 had fought and fallen beside their chief. At last in a little 
 copse which grew near the spot where my once happy 
 home had stood I saw thy. mother lying. Her breast had 
 been pierced by a bullet, and her folcfed hands showed 
 she had died pleading for her life. Beside her dead body 
 I threw down the scalp of Long Knife, stamped and spit 
 upon it in rage, and exclaimed : 
 
n PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 " Was it for this, O Wakanda ! I traversed the moun 
 tains for this I scalped the Long Knife ? Was it for this 
 I have suffered agonies that man never felt before ? O 
 Wakanda ! O my noble wife ! O my brave sons ! Ma-shan ! 
 Ma-shan! 
 
 " I fell helpless to the earth, and had almost sunk into 
 insensibility when I was startled to hear the feeble cry of 
 an infant. Wondering much whence it could come, I 
 started up and hastened toward it. From a box which 
 lay not far from thy mother s side the wail had risen, and 
 turning the rude hiding-place over I drew thee forth, my 
 Prairie Flower, wrapped in a bright scarf that I had given 
 thy mother on our wedding-day. Thou didst smile at 
 once and weep, to see my face, and hugging thee to my 
 heart, I looked up to heaven and said : 
 
 " O Wakanda ! I thank thee 1 I can still live and still 
 forgive ! " 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BLINDFOLDED JUSTICE. 
 
 WHEN Standing Elk had concluded this part of his 
 story he paused because of very emotion. His eyes were 
 blinded with tears, and the deep wrinkles on his cheek ran 
 full of them. The tears of an Indian warrior, and of an 
 Indian wise man, must be called forth by some great sorrow 
 indeed they are the very weightiest that fall. Little 
 Prairie Flower, seeing her father weep, stole to his side, 
 since there she believed her true place and office to be, 
 laid her head upon his shoulder, and wiped away his tears 
 with her long shining hair. 
 
 While the wise man s story was being told, one after 
 another of our people had gathered round my aspen arbor 
 to hear it, so that now a large number were crouching on 
 the ground on every side, thrilled with his tale and 
 sympathizing with his woe. 
 
 O mighty Secretaries of the Interior ! O noble Com 
 missioners of Indian Affairs! O learned Senators and 
 Debaters ! O people who boast of your equal laws ! O 
 fathers who are proud of sons, and mothers who love 
 babes! O young men and women who weep over 
 imaginary tales of woe would you not have pitied us had 
 you seen us sadly crouching there, the poor remnant of a 
 once proud and powerful race, bemoaning much the ruin 
 that had fallen on our people in the past, but bemoaning 
 more the sad prospect that our time to bear the white 
 man s unpitying blow might soon come? Ours was a real 
 fear, ours was. a real despair. The uncertain light of the 
 
120 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 night was just beginning to break through the clouds 
 which were scattering after the storm, and the weird 
 shadows, chasing each other across the prairies, passed 
 over our spirits as well. And the dread uncertainty in 
 our hearts was far greater than any gray darkness of a 
 stormy night could ever be ; for when such strong enemies 
 were against us, and when they had such an awful hold 
 upon us as the threat against our wives and children 
 furnished them with, how could we hope long to enjoy the 
 freedom so dear to us, and live in the homes we ourselves 
 had built? We felt that, as there was no law to which 
 we could appeal, as we had no friend stronger than the 
 white man, all we could do was to turn our petitions to 
 Wakanda, whose ears are never closed to the wail of 
 distress, no matter what the color of the lips whence it 
 comes. 
 
 But the story of the wise man was not completed, and 
 therefore I said to him : 
 
 " Noble father, did not the white man accept thy father 
 as a martyr substitute ?" 
 
 At this question the sorrow of Standing Elk broke forth 
 afresh, and I heard the soothing voice of my little Prairie 
 Flower whispering to him 
 
 " Dear father, do not grieve that you failed to save my 
 mother. No one who knows the pain that delayed thy 
 return could possibly blame thee or fail to admire thy 
 wonderful strength and courage, in struggling forward at 
 all. Wakanda I know forgives thee, and my mother, if 
 she knows all, as thou hast taught me she does, forgives 
 thee also and loves thee but the more." 
 
 " I weep not, my child," he said, " for what I have told 
 you, but for what I have still to tell." 
 
 At these words a moan passed round the group that 
 listened. Could he have more dreadful things to recount ? 
 
BLINDFOLDED J US TICE 1 2 1 
 
 Had he not reached the depth of the white man s perfidy? 
 What sadder thing could he relate than the dreadful story 
 he had already told ? 
 
 When he could command his voice sufficiently to 
 resume his narrative the wise man said : 
 
 " To me the saddest part of the story is the scorn that 
 my father s poor remains met with from the white men. 
 I have told you how gladly he laid down his life to vindi 
 cate my bravery and save his people. They lifted up his 
 body from the rocks where it had fallen, the green moss 
 clinging to his gray hair as they carried him, and while 
 yet his body was warm they laid him at the feet of the 
 commander. 
 
 " Here is thy satisfaction ! they said. 
 
 "The commander was friendly to the red men, as so 
 many of the white man s officers and soldiers have been, 
 and wished to save us. Therefore he said : 
 
 " It is well, my friends. You have done nobly, and the 
 Great Father will certainly not forget you. 
 
 " But standing near, there was one of those wicked 
 white men whom no words of hatred and cursing can 
 forcibly describe aright a man who coveted our land, 
 and for years after the fatal slaughter I am to describe 
 lived on the very spot where our village had stood ; a man 
 who boasted of his scorn of all decency and law, and who 
 had openly desired for many months to ruin our people. 
 This man, rising with great show of justice, said to the 
 commander : 
 
 " This is not the criminal, sir ! This is not Long Knife, 
 as you very well know. If you have regard for the opinion 
 the Great Father has of you, you must carry out his orders 
 and make war upon this tribe. 
 
 " How is this ? the commander said to those who had 
 brought my father s body to him. 
 
122 PLOUGHED UNDER, 
 
 " They then related to him the whole story. They told 
 him how anxiously they had searched ; how they had held 
 a council in deep despair; how the brave Standing Elk 
 was still upon the hills and might any moment return 
 with the criminal, for, they said, he never comes empty- 
 handed home; and how they had watched for me the 
 whole night through. They told him, with tears, how 
 my father had offered to die to vindicate my honor and 
 save his people, and how with sad hearts they had done 
 the wise man s wishes. 
 
 " This is truly a pathetic story, the commander said. 
 I must send word to the Great Father and get his orders 
 in the matter. 
 
 " Will you tell him the whole story ? they asked. 
 How we hunted long and painfully for Long Knife, how 
 Standing Elk is still away, and how his noble father died ? 
 
 " Yes, I will tell it all, he answered. 
 
 " He sent the story over the white man s talking wires, 
 and after two days an answer came which, with a few 
 short words, sealed the death-doom of nearly all our tribe. 
 The words of the Great Father were grand and boastful, 
 but they were words of murder. I do not know how the 
 message was expressed, but the meaning of it was, Make 
 war upon them. The dignity of the white man must be 
 preserved. Oh ! would it not seem a grander and more 
 enduring dignity to have had charity for a helpless race, 
 and to have refrained from the unprovoked murder of 
 helpless babes and women ? Have the white men no 
 thought of the consequences of the crimes they commit 
 against us, which sooner or later will overtake them 
 though they are the most powerful race upon the earth ? 
 And perhaps these consequences will be all the more 
 deadly and ruinous because the heads upon which they 
 fall are proud and lifted high. 
 
BLIXDFOLDED JUSTICE. 123 
 
 " You have beheld, out upon the prairie, the slow but 
 steady rise of white vapor curling to the skies, and 
 although each little mist thus formed seemed slight and 
 powerless, the aggregate of all when joined in the black, 
 dense cloud could sweep whole villages away, and pour 
 streams of heavy rain upon the land, amid thunder- 
 ings which will not cease, and terrific blinding bolts of 
 lightning which strike the highest objects first to the 
 ground. Have the white men no ears to hear and no 
 hearts to dread the many moans and cries and prayers 
 that, vapor-like, are rising to heaven, to pour a dark and 
 mighty vengeance on their heads when the cup of 
 Wakanda s forbearance shall be full and overflow? 
 
 " The first notice of the Great Father s answer was con 
 veyed to my poor people by the hasty riding of one of 
 their scouts into the village, crying: 
 
 " The soldiers are upon us ! The soldiers are upon us ! 
 
 "This was, as I had conjectured, on the nineteenth day 
 after the decree had been read to us, and the day before 
 the sad one when I returned to our village. During all 
 this time the people had anxiously watched the rocks 
 above them, and the upper parts of the valley in which 
 they lived, hoping that Standing Elk would come with 
 the scalp of the criminal. 
 
 " When, however, the scout rode in shouting these fear 
 ful words, all hope of life deserted them. The moans 
 and wails that had resounded through the camp instantly 
 ceased, and in a silence more terrible than the greatest 
 tumult could have been they prepared to die. Hastily 
 catching up .their weapons, the warriors took positions 
 of safety behind boulders and trees, while the women and 
 children with the greatest bravery remained at their sides. 
 My noble sons attended the chief and fought with him 
 during the conflict. 
 
124 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 " The soldiers, numbering twice as many as our warriors, 
 marched up with their banners flying and their drums 
 sounding, as if they were performing some great act of 
 bravery, and when within two lariats distance they poured 
 in a merciless volley upon our people. Thus the unequal 
 contest began. Our warriors defended themselves bravely, 
 until every bullet had been shot and every arrow used; 
 then, having kissed their wives and hugged their little 
 ones to their breasts a moment, they started up and cried : 
 
 " Ma-shan ! Ma-shan ! Alas ! for the freedom of our 
 race. Alas ! for the glory of the red man. We die! we die! 
 Unjustly and shamefully we die ! Ma-shan ! Ma-shan ! 
 
 " Making this cry for home and liberty, they rushed 
 toward the white men that they might die the more 
 speedily. There was a volley. And when the smoke 
 cleared away, scarce a score of all my noble people were 
 left alive. These were allowed to escape. But the 
 glorious sun, going to rest that lovely evening, looked 
 down upon a scene of bloody horrors which has never 
 been surpassed in all the dreadful history of tyranny. 
 And this is simply one out of many wholesale massacres 
 which stare the white men in the face. The papers in all 
 the Great Father s cities, I was told, gave a most false and 
 bitter account of this conflict, representing our poor 
 people as refusing to yield up the criminal, charging us 
 with an attempt, at the beginning of the battle, to creep 
 upon the soldiers to slaughter them, and praising the 
 commander for his great bravery. We had no means to 
 deny these statements, and thus the honest-hearted among 
 the white people were deceived, and the base schemers 
 who had caused the murder were shielded and admired 
 in their treachery to secure our lands. 
 
 "When I had found thee, my Prairie Flower, in the 
 hiding-place where thy poor mother, with her last failing 
 
BLINDFOLDED JUSTICE. 125 
 
 love and strength, had placed thec, I fled with thee from 
 that fatal spot as swiftly as my injured ankle could bear 
 me, and v hastened to join myself to Eagle Wing s band, 
 whither also the few other survivors had naturally gone. I 
 pray Wakanda that the lust and avarice of the white men 
 may never attack us here, and that living peaceably and 
 wisely until our end shall come, we may then rest undis 
 turbed among our fathers upon yonder hill. So, Prairie 
 Flower, thou hast the story of thy mother s death, and 
 thou, Wolf Killer, hast in the same sad recital an illustra 
 tion of the dreadful slavery we are in to the white man, 
 and of the galling thongs he binds us with, by holding 
 the innocent among our people responsible for the guilt 
 of the criminal." 
 
 The night was far advanced when the wise man spoke 
 these concluding words, but so thrilled were we by his 
 story that not one among all the listeners showed any 
 tedium or desire to go to their rest. The tops of the 
 mighty pines and cottonwoods, under which our homes 
 were built, began to rustle and murmur their midnight 
 music, and the roar of the river, never ceasing in light or 
 darkness, seemed doubly distinct now that the myriad 
 noises of day were hushed. My mind was throbbing with 
 feverish excitement, and though my heart ran alternate 
 currents of submissive fear and revengeful hatred, as I 
 thought how real and bitter the slavery was that ground 
 us down, still I hoped that somewhere in this awful 
 night there was a glimmer of hope for the red men, and 
 therefore I said to the wise Standing Elk : 
 
 " My father, surely this case you relate is an extreme 
 one. No one touched by the least feeling of human sym 
 pathy, which all hearts must possess, and even the Great 
 Father s too, could possibly order a repetition of such a 
 barbarous outrage. And in the instance you mention, he 
 
126 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 must have been deceived by the falsehoods you have re 
 ferred to. Tell us, my father, your sad story is a bitter 
 exception, is it not, to the general treatment the red men 
 receive from the white ?" 
 
 "My son," the wise man gravely replied, "the holding 
 of the innocent among us responsible for the crimes of 
 the guilty is a definite policy, adopted deliberately by the 
 white man s government, defended by his statesmen, 
 clamored for by the multitudes, demanded loudly and 
 fiercely by his public journals, and repeated as many times 
 as there have been years since first he made profession 
 of loving liberty himself and giving it to all. I cast my 
 thought over the names of all the proud tribes which 
 once possessed this wide land : where are they this silent 
 night? Silent as it! Not one single tribe among the 
 whole multitude but has been butchered and destroyed, 
 either wholly or in part, by the carrying out of this terri 
 ble law ! Yonder river flows not more constantly within 
 its banks than has this stream of unjust and unmerciful 
 slaughter poured through the homes of our race !" 
 
 "But," I asked, "might not the white man find some 
 excuse for this cruel dealing with us from the fact that it 
 would be exceedingly hard to find an Indian who has com 
 mitted a crime, unless the tribe were held responsible?" 
 
 " The white men make the most of this plea. But, my 
 son, it does not make right the cruel wrong. In my 
 younger years I made a visit to the city where the Great 
 Father lives. One night while we were there, a murder 
 was committed in one of the low streets. The next morn 
 ing I walked out and saw many great houses where the 
 rich and learned people lived, and I thought to myself : 
 How would these proud men and women feel if some great 
 king, much more powerful than they, should send a vast 
 army and demand that this murderer be delivered to him 
 
BLINDFOLDED JUSTICE. 1 2 7 
 
 in fifteen days, or he would kill them all and burn their 
 beautiful homes to the ground ? They would answer the 
 king : We did not do the murder, we are not guilty, and 
 you must not kill us. But the king would answer: The 
 murderer has not been found. In this great city with its 
 many streets and alleys he is very likely to escape, and 
 this excuses me for dragging your wives and little ones 
 from your comfortable homes and putting them to a 
 shameful death. They would answer the king : Before our 
 laws, and before your own, every man stands alone. If the 
 murderer can be found he ought certainly to be punished, 
 but that he cannot be found gives you no right to kill the 
 innocent. And the king would say : I care not what your 
 laws hold, and as for my own I can regulate them to suit 
 myself. I am far stronger than you, and thus I can and 
 will have the blood of your warriors, nay, also of your 
 wives and children. 
 
 "These thoughts, bitter indeed, but it seems to me just, 
 passed through my mind as I walked that beautiful morn 
 ing before those splendid mansions, some of them far 
 higher than these tallest cottonwoods, and the conclusion 
 I reached was this: It makes all the difference in the 
 world whether arguments are directed against ourselves 
 or against those whom from childhood we have hated and 
 despised. In dripping places, near our rocky springs, there 
 grows a plant whose pounded root drops into one cup 
 health and stimulus, and into another poison and death. 
 Thus a policy which is outrage and ruin to us seems to 
 the white man necessary and right. But if they were to 
 change the cup at their lip .for ours, how bitter and 
 poisonous the draught would seem !" 
 
 With these sad words the wise man became silent. A 
 subdued moan passed round the little group of listeners. 
 For some of them knew by experience, and all could guess, 
 
128 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 how terrible and fatal this law is to our race. For many 
 minutes they all sat mute and despairing upon the ground, 
 and then, one by one, they silently arose and went to their 
 homes. I held Prairie Flower to my side, fearing that 
 some power might be near to snatch her away forever. 
 Oh ! if I could but write down upon this page the horror 
 and despair and the many intangible emotions of bitter 
 ness and dread that throbbed within my heart as I felt my 
 bride s soft touch upon my hand and warm breath upon my 
 cheek, and thought how some white man might, before 
 my eyes, insult or maltreat her, and that I could appeal to no 
 law for protection, could not even strike the foul villain 
 to the earth without bringing disgrace and ruin upon my 
 whole tribe, I am sure real sympathy would come into 
 your hearts for us, and in your eyes tears of real sorrow for 
 our woes ! How can it be, I thought, the mere shade of 
 one s skin brings upon him such deep and irremediable 
 woe ! My thoughts were again interrupted by the voice 
 of the wise man : 
 
 " My children, I have told you my story. You behold 
 me, a bowed and broken man of many years and many 
 sorrows. In Wakanda s Home, but only there I fear, will 
 the white man learn that the despised Indian is his brother, 
 and might, had he been blessed and encouraged by just 
 laws, have become the helper and equal of the more 
 favored race. There I shall soon be. You remember the 
 scorched and blackened elm-tree that stands alone upon 
 yonder hill. It has proudly suffered many lightning- 
 strokes and waved through many prairie-fires, but now 
 every branch is gone, the mere stump remains; yet at 
 morning and evening the glory of coming or departing 
 day rests in a glory of beauty upon its head. It has by 
 patience conquered. Only thus can any man triumph 
 over his destiny. At the foot of the scorched stump there 
 
BLINDFOLDED JUSTICE. 129 
 
 grows one little elm-sprout, slender and beautiful as a ray 
 of light, and in that sprout the old tree shall live again. I 
 am that blackened elm-trunk, standing upon the hill 
 
 "And I," little Prairie Flower exclaimed joyously, "am 
 the twig? Nay, my father, I am a strong tree, to hold 
 thee and comfort thee in thine age ! " 
 
 " Bless thee, my dear. Thy mother and I shall live 
 again in thee. And it may be that the elm-sprout I have 
 spoken of may be saved from the fires by which the old 
 tree was blackened. So I pray Wakanda that in the 
 greater wisdom of the white man a protecting law may be 
 given to you both to save you from the woes your parents 
 have suffered." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 KIND FACE AND GRAY COAT. 
 
 THERE was a shriveled little Frenchman living near 
 our reservation, whose heart was always warm toward 
 us and whose hands were always full of gifts for our necessi 
 ties. He dwelt in that most singular species of domicile 
 called by the Western people a "dug-out," because mostly 
 underground. In fact, the Frenchman s home was simply 
 a cellar hollowed in the side of a hill, with a roof of plain 
 pine boards. It had but one room. Along one side he 
 had built a narrow berth of rough boards, covered with 
 army blankets, whereon he slept. At one end there was a 
 large fireplace dug into the hillside, with an opening above 
 for the escape of the smoke. A rude table and a couple of 
 camp-stools composed his furniture. Here he had lived 
 for many years, and strange stones were in circulation 
 among our people as to the secret of his thus being con 
 tent to dwell away from civilization. 
 
 In appearance he was attractively comical. Short and 
 thin and misshapen, he yet im-pressed one as possessed of 
 wonderful nerve and agility. In fact, few of our young 
 men could outrun him or match him in strength. His 
 hair was long and curly, falling in white waves upon his 
 neck. He wore a heavy mustache and what he called an 
 "imperil/." When in his ordinary gait, he advanced by 
 means of a curious springing hop which invariably sent 
 our younger people into fits of laughter. His hands were 
 small and beautiful, and he always wore gloves upon them. 
 Of their whiteness he was very proud. He had the strange 
 
KIXD FACE AND GRAY COAT. 15 l 
 
 habit of drawing his right glove off and putting it rapidly 
 on again while conversing. 
 
 His expression of face was the most singular mixture of 
 grave roguishness and real kindliness that 1 have ever 
 seen upon a human countenance. The wrinkles about his 
 eyes seemed to play with the several emotions and passions. 
 There was something exceedingly attractive in his smile, 
 and his coming among us was always the signal for 
 boisterous merriment. Because of the gentle, humane 
 expression of his face our people had given him the name 
 " Kind Face." They had given him also a place in their 
 hearts, and always reserved for him the warmest corner 
 around our camp-fires. 
 
 It is the greatest mistake to suppose that the Indian 
 does not appreciate fun and humor. It would be hard to 
 find a spot where mirth and gladness are better loved than 
 they were in our simple cabins and upon our torch-lit 
 play-ground. The Indian is quick to observe the play 
 upon words, keen in his enjoyment of a skillful repartee, 
 and alive to the humorous in everything. It is true we 
 do not exhibit much laughter before the white people, but 
 it is only because we shrink from their ridicule. 
 
 One evening, as dear Wagh-ta and I sat in my aspen 
 arbor, the cry went up that Kind Face was hopping toward 
 us. A troop of children ran out instantly from every hut, 
 to go forth to meet him. They shouted and screamed 
 and laughed, caught up handfuls of the fresh grass and 
 tossed green wreaths of it into the air, and in every way 
 attested their joy. Kind Face saw them coming and his 
 face at once became one great twinkle. Onward the 
 screaming company swept, and just before they reached 
 him he dodged suddenly toward one side and started in 
 his sidelong canter across the prairie with the whole noisy 
 troop at his heels. He made great show of endeavoring 
 
I3 2 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 to elude them, of being captured solely by their superior 
 speed and endurance, and of being led much against his 
 will into our village. We watched the sport with the 
 greatest amusement, and the faces of even the sternest 
 warriors relaxed into smiles of interest and pleasure. 
 
 The chase thus happily consummated, Kind Face, having 
 greeted us all heartily, seated himself beside the fire of 
 pine-boughs that crackled and blazed before the arbor. 
 The conversation turned upon the harvest of corn our 
 people had reason to expect, the growth of the cattle, the 
 happiness of the young members of our tribe, and kindred 
 topics of wild life. While thus engaged word was brought 
 to us that Gray Coat and another white man were ap 
 proaching, and we had just time to flee into our haughty 
 pride the last piteous resort the white man has left us 
 before they were with us. 
 
 " Good-evening, noble Eagle Wing," the comfortable 
 agent said to my father; " my friend here is anxious to 
 come into personal contact with you and your people so 
 as to learn something of your customs and manners before 
 returning East. And 1 may venture to mention that it 
 lies in his power to benefit your tribe largely, munificently 
 indeed, if it should be his most excellent pleasure so to 
 do." 
 
 "Ahem !" replied the white man to whom the agent had 
 turned with a pompous wave of the hand. " I may further 
 say that I have the honor to occupy a seat in our National 
 Congress, as senator from a neighboring State, and, most 
 excellent Eagle Feather, ah ! thank you ; yes, Eagle 
 Wing, to be sure, I may remark that I am chairman of 
 a committee sent out for the express purpose of examining, 
 and reporting upon, the exact condition of affairs among 
 our Indian wards." 
 
 Wagh-ta and I, to whom his words were perfectly under- 
 
KIXD FACE AND GRAY COAT. 133 
 
 stood without an interpreter, were not a little amused by 
 his grand airs and swelling manners. 
 
 "Where are the other members of the committee?" 
 innocently inquired the wise Um-pan-nez-zhe, who was of 
 our number. 
 
 " Well ah ! to tell the truth, they were so greatly pleased 
 by the entertainment afforded by the agent that they were 
 unable to tear themselves from his wine-decanter." 
 
 " Think you they can report intelligently of the Indian s 
 necessities and wishes by inspecting the bottom of wine 
 glasses ?" inquired Kind Face. 
 
 The senator looked down at the little Frenchman as if 
 one of his great glances were certain death to all triflers, 
 but made no reply. 
 
 Chairs were produced for the visitors, and when they 
 were seated a great number of our people gathered round 
 to hear what should be said. 
 
 " Ahem ! tell me," the senator demanded with a majes 
 tic wave of his hand, "tell me without reserve what your 
 tribe most wishes and most needs." 
 
 " The protection of just laws," my father answered. 
 
 " The what ! Do I understand you ? The protection of 
 law ? Why, who disturbs you ? Does not the agent 
 defend you ?" 
 
 "Any one may rob us who wills. My child may be 
 murdered and I cannot have the offender punished !" 
 
 It is true, ahem ! that our Indian policy is as yet im 
 perfect, and some cases of violence may escape their pro 
 per punishment. I have heard rumors that this is the 
 case, but have had no direct testimony of the fact." 
 
 Our good Kind Face was always strong in our defense, 
 and while the senator had been speaking I had noticed 
 that his right glove was coming off and being thrust on 
 with uncommon vehemence. This was the usual signal 
 of combat with him, and at this point he exclaimed : 
 
134 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 "Any Indian can give you cases. The official reports 
 of the agents are full of them. Just a few months since a 
 member of this tribe was hired by a white man to chop 
 wood for him in a secluded spot within a forest. The 
 Indian was an honest, hard-working fellow, and we all 
 respected him. As he did not return at the time expected, 
 I went with a few of his friends to ascertain the cause of 
 his delay. We found the poor fellow lying across the log 
 he had been splitting, his heart pierced by a rifle-ball. It 
 was winter and there was snow upon the ground, so that 
 we could track the murderer from the cover where he 
 had done the stealthy deed to his home. We endeavored 
 to have him punished we tried to have him indicted as 
 a disturber of the peace, if nothing more but, according 
 to the most wise statute of your government, " No Indian 
 can sue, or be sued, or form a party to any suit in a United 
 States court," and we failed. That murderer is boldly 
 living to-day within a day s ride of us, and there is no law 
 by which he can be punished." 
 
 Be calm, my friend," the senator complacently said, 
 " You seem to be a man of sense, and as you can under 
 stand me, and speak to me, in English, I do not object to 
 having a few words with you. It is true that the ward- 
 policy, if I may so call it, of our government is liable to 
 the abuse you mention. But I fancy the Indians would 
 not be better off if they were placed under the protection 
 of the law and forced to support themselves. The Indian 
 is lazy and indifferent I can speak unreservedly since I 
 speak in general terms and is constitutionally opposed to 
 self-support." 
 
 Pardon me," Kind Face replied, as the glove came off 
 with a jerk, " you are either ignorant or grossly misin 
 formed." 
 
 " I am thoroughly conversant with the condition of our 
 
K1XD FACE AND GRAY COAT. 135 
 
 Indian tribes, as I am chairman of the committee I have 
 mentioned," the senator haughtily replied, tipping back 
 ward in his chair. 
 
 " You must know, then, that out of 275,000 Indians in this 
 country, 157,000 more than half wear citizens gar 
 ments. You must know that there are 219 churches 
 among the tribes, with an aggregate membership of 30,000. 
 You must know that of the 70 tribes mentioned in a 
 recent official report, 22 are stated to be entirely self-sup 
 porting. You must know that of the remaining 48 tribes, 
 44 are reported by the agents as able and desirous to sup 
 port themselves if the government would only grant them 
 the high privilege. Out of 70 tribes, therefore, there are 
 only 4, according to the testimony of your own official 
 records, which are not abundantly prepared for self-sup 
 port." 
 
 "I speak on general principles," grandly said the sena 
 tor. 
 
 "So do I," returned Kind Face with warmth. "You 
 must knpw that the Omahas, numbering about 1 100 per 
 sons, cultivate their farms with singular fidelity ; the beau 
 tiful slopes of their reservation are crowned with comfort 
 able frame dwellings, and the few tepees you still see in 
 the valleys would speedily be displaced by houses if the 
 Indians had any assurance that they will be allowed to 
 remain where they are. The Winnebagoes are better 
 farmers than some of the surrounding whites, and have a 
 large sum in the hands of the government in the form of 
 a loan, as they think, the interest on which, however, they 
 can only with the greatest difficulty obtain. This tribe, 
 by frugality and thrift, has become wealthy in spite of the 
 greatest obstacles any community of people has ever been 
 obliged to contend with. Years ago they resided in 
 another State. They had their farms nicely cultivated, 
 
I3 6 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 and their stock, of all descriptions, was numbered by the 
 hundred. They were happy, peaceful, wealthy. But by 
 order of the government they were taken to St. Louis, 
 thence transported on flat-boats up the Missouri to a most 
 barren spot in Dakota, where, among the sand-hills, with 
 out shelter or implements, they were left to their fate. 
 The government agents promised to drive their stock 
 overland from their old home to the new reservation, but 
 to this day they have not seen a single head coming to 
 them over the hills. After surveying the sand-hills, and 
 becoming convinced that no support could be wrested 
 from them, they worked their way down into Nebraska, 
 and having transformed a region of wild soil into farms it 
 was confirmed to them as a reservation. And now in 
 your senatorial wisdom you are threatening another base 
 robbery of them by means of a removal to the Indian Ter 
 ritory. And look around you. As you came up I was 
 talking with this industrious people as to the harvests 
 they expect to gather. They have nearly 1000 acres under 
 cultivation ; they count their cattle by the score. Many 
 of these young people can read and speak the English 
 language far better than I can. 
 
 " In addition to all this," continued Kind Face, taking 
 a pamphlet from his pocket, " I will cite, with your per 
 mission, the words of the agents themselves in respect to 
 the good character of the Indians." He then read as 
 follows : 
 
 " The Ottawa and Chippewa Indians are naturally 
 honest and scrupulously conscientious in keeping their 
 word, and expect the same scrupulous exactness in the 
 fulfillment of all engagements made to them, especially 
 by the government. 
 
 " G. W. LEE, Mackinaw, Mich., 1877. 
 
KIXD FACE AND GRAY COAT. 137 
 
 " Less crimes have been committed by them the past 
 year than by the same number of whites. I have not 
 known a drunken Indian upon the agency during the 
 
 year. 
 
 "J. H. WILBUR, Yakama Agency, W. T., 1877. 
 
 "I believe it can be shown that no Indian tribe in 
 which education and Christianity have been introduced 
 have given our government any trouble by war. 
 
 " R. II. MILROY, Agent, W. T., 1877. 
 
 " The Sabbath is generally regarded by them as a day 
 of rest, and more strictly observed as such than by the 
 white settlers in the frontier towns. No intoxicating 
 liquors are used by the Indians on the reserve. 
 
 " E. H. C. HOOPER, Sisseton Agency, Dakota, 1878. 
 
 " Considering their location, it has been a subject of 
 remark that no crimes have been committed by them 
 against the whites or among themselves for the last three 
 years. 
 
 "THOMAS S. FREE, Sac and Fox Agency, Iowa, 1878. 
 
 " Situated as they are, in a flourishing farming commu 
 nity, they have become well informed regarding their 
 relations to the whites, and have been very peaceable and 
 quiet. No crimes have been committed, while they have 
 advanced in the knowledge and disposition to labor, and 
 have made many friends. Nearly all of the able-bodied 
 men have been employed during harvest, receiving good 
 wages, and make good laborers. 
 
 "THOMAS S. FREE, Sac and Fox Agency, Iowa, 1878. 
 
 " The Santees are nearly all professors of religion. 
 There are six places for worship, which are generally 
 attended on First day. 
 
 "ISAIAH LIGHTNER, Santee Agency, Neb., 1878. 
 
13 s PLOUGHED UNDER, 
 
 " They say that they have been faithful on their part 
 in complying with their promises and obligations to the 
 government, and intend to continue to be so ; and they 
 ask a reciprocal compliance on the part of the government 
 with its promises and treaties with them. They are often 
 disturbed by rumors and probabilities of changes, either 
 of their homes or their management, and they feel that 
 either would be great injustice, especially without their 
 free and unenforced consent. They are quick to discrim 
 inate between justice and injustice, and they say they 
 want to live in undisturbed peace on their own rightful 
 possessions, and in friendship with their white neighbors; 
 which is certainly asking no more than a generous and 
 just humanity would accord to them. 
 
 " JACOB VORE, Omaha Agency, Neb., 1878. " 
 
 " I must insist that I speak generally when I say that 
 the Indian character is worthless," responded the senator. 
 
 " Let us broaden our survey, then. One of the ablest 
 presidents the Mexican Republic has ever had was a full- 
 blood Indian. It was under his far-sighted statesmanship 
 that Mexico threw off the yoke of Rome which had been 
 weighing her people down in ignorance, superstition, and 
 vice ever since Cortez subjugated their ancestors. Thus 
 an Indian is the combined Washington and Luther of 
 Mexico, and I say, All honor to him ! To go a little far 
 ther back, the history of Tennessee is most suggestive. 
 The first party which in the old days, before the Revolu 
 tion, fought as a party for the liberty of the United States, 
 being worsted in their untimely attempts, fled to the wil 
 derness, were cordially received by the Cherokees, and 
 from them obtained the tract of land which now blooms 
 as Tennessee. To go still farther back : when the elo 
 quent young clergyman, Roger Williams, was driven out 
 
KIND FACE AND GRAY COAT. 139 
 
 of Plymouth Colony because he had forecast the religious 
 freedom for which this nation is now distinguished, who 
 received him with open arms? All the world knows it 
 was Canonicus, the celebrated Narragansett chief, who, 
 with a charity as pure as the new-fallen snow over which 
 the young clergyman fled to him, bade him welcome to 
 his wigwams and council-fires. Thus an Indian gave the 
 first countenance and afforded the first harbor to the idea 
 of religious toleration in the United States!" 
 
 " I fail to see how all this affects the working of the 
 committee of which I have the honor to be chairman." 
 
 " I thought you demanded that I should show you, on 
 general principles, that the Indian character is not utterly 
 worthless. Similar facts of a far more convincing char 
 acter are to be found nearer home. So far back as 1839 
 the Osages showed their great desire for civilization by 
 requesting agricultural implements, and by special treaty 
 they were promised them; but in 1870 the government 
 by a public statute acknowledged that it had disregarded 
 the treaty for thirty-one years, and appropriated $20,000 
 to repair the loss. In 1868 the Sioux, supposed to be 
 the most untamable of all our tribes, demanded that a 
 teacher for every thirty of their children, and missionaries 
 to.teach them of The Book, should be sent among them. 
 Spotted Tail, who is held up as the " chief of red devils" 
 by our public prints, said recently to the Secretary of the 
 Interior: "I want God s Word taught to my people. I 
 want to be allowed to employ honest lawyers to plead my 
 cause." This same bloodthirsty savage sent word down 
 to this tribe not long since that his people were anxious 
 to learn how to till the soil. Twenty of our young men 
 started toward his home to give his people instruction in 
 the matter. But they were arrested at command of Gray 
 Coat, your "agent," and sent back in disgrace to their 
 
14 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 homes. Thus has the government, through its agents, 
 interfered with the progress the Indians are anxious to 
 make toward civilization and self-support. These Indians 
 before you were compelled, last season, to cut their wheat 
 with butcher-knives because the Indian Department 
 would not grant them reapers and thus aid them toward 
 self-support. 
 
 " Allow me to refer to my little pamphlet again : 
 
 " They hear of Indians at other agencies receiving them, 
 and they are constantly asking me, " Why cannot we have 
 them ?" And when I urge them on to work, their reply is : 
 " How can we work without anything to work with ? 
 Give us what we need and you will see what we can do." 
 " H. E. GREGORY, Agent Lower Brule Sioux, 1877. 
 
 " There have been no agricultural implements here in 
 season for use, except two old ploughs. 
 
 " GEO. W. FROST, Crow Agency, Mont., 1878. 
 
 " It is the avowed policy of the government to make the 
 Indians self-supporting; and yet I am left without the 
 means to make the initiatory steps for the furtherance of 
 that policy. 
 
 " W. V. RINEHART, Malheur Agency, Oregon, 1877. 
 
 " My resignation having been tendered some time since, 
 I avail myself of this opportunity to say that while I have 
 not at any time claimed to have sought or accepted an 
 Indian agency for motives of philanthropy, I did wish and 
 believe that I could be instrumental in doing them good. 
 I supposed that all agencies were located on Indian reser 
 vations ; that more or less farming was done ; that there 
 were schools connected with them, and all reasonable 
 effort made to civilize, educate, and Christianize the 
 Indian. Instead of such influences and opportunity for 
 
K1XD FACE AND GRAY COAT. 141 
 
 usefulness I found my agency located in a Mexican 
 village, more than fifty miles from a reservation ; and the 
 Indians, when visiting the agency, exposed to all the 
 most demoralizing influences. I have, of course, been 
 disappointed in my expectations. 
 " S. A. RUSSELL, Abiquin Agency, New Mex., 1878. " 
 
 " I repeat my assertion of the worthlessness of Indian 
 character," said the senator with an august wave of the 
 hand, "and I further remark that, by his love of blood 
 shed and robbery, the red man has forfeited all claim to 
 our consideration." 
 
 "That the Indians are in many instances treacherous 
 and revengeful I do not deny," answered Kind Face. 
 "But that they are worse than a corresponding number 
 of white people would be, under similar circumstances, 
 I am far from admitting. Let a certain class of white 
 men be treated with outrage, perfidy, robbery, and ridicule, 
 for a long succession of years; let them grow up in the 
 knowledge that they are ground down by a stock com 
 pany of those who are being enriched at their expense; 
 let them see their holiest affections disregarded, their 
 dearest relatives murdered ; let them live in constant 
 dread of being removed by a brutal and murderous com 
 mand to the Land of Fire, which is literally the land of 
 Death and they would be either more or less than 
 human if they did not resent such treatment. The 
 Swedes are a patient race, and the Germans are slow to 
 take offense; but how long do you imagine either class 
 would bear to have the nearest Englishman or American 
 enrich himself from their barn-yards and stores, avail him 
 self of their best land and their purest daughters, and hide 
 his villainous deeds under high-sounding professions of 
 ward-policy and senseless sneers as to Swedish or 
 
142 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 German worthlessness ? How long, think you, would any 
 class of white people bear such unjust treatment as I find 
 written down in my little pamphlet ? Another case or 
 two may be given as most wholesome reading : 
 
 " A party of Texans, under the pretext of searching for 
 horses stolen from them by the Indians, were shown by 
 my direction through the Indian camps; but they were, 
 as they say, unable to find any of their horses. The next 
 night they surrounded the weakest camp, fired on the 
 Indians (fortunately without effect), and drove off all the 
 horses they could collect (thirteen), the others having 
 scattered during the firing. This raid was allowed to go 
 unpunished. 
 
 " F. C. GODFREY, Agent Apaches, New Mex., 1877. 
 
 "This is a very interesting case, as there is much 
 discussion at present in regard to the cruelties practiced 
 by the New Mexican Indians against the whites. Who 
 will write a history of the long years they patiently suffered 
 before resorting to arms ? But here is another point : 
 
 " It is not the fault of these Indians that they are not 
 to-day self-supporting. They have been left by the 
 paternal government without a home, and compelled to 
 become wanderers, by being driven from place to place, 
 when they have attempted to locate and cultivate the 
 soil. They have, through me, been for almost four years 
 begging for a home a place where they could farm and 
 have schools for their children. It has thus far been 
 denied them. 
 
 "S. A. RUSSELL, Abiquin Agency, New Mex., 1878. 
 
 " The state of disquiet among the tribes north of us 
 has not been participated in by the Klamaths. They have 
 their own grievances, which are serious, and a great deal 
 
K1XD FACE AXD GRAY COAT. 143 
 
 of patience and forbearance on their part is shown. They 
 claim that " there are lands offered for sale and purchased 
 and occupied by white settlers which in reality belong by 
 treaty to them, and it is injustice to deprive them of these 
 lands." 
 
 " J. H. ROOCK, Agent Klamaths, Oregon, 1877. 
 
 " With few exceptions they are a quiet, peaceable, well- 
 disposed people. Quarrels and contentions among them 
 selves are infrequent, and not a single instance has come 
 to my knowledge of violence or crime committed by them 
 against the person or property of the whites settled along 
 the borders of their reservations, or even against the 
 squatters, who knowingly, and in defiance of all rights and 
 justice and even the authorities of the government, have 
 encroached upon, and taken possession of, their most 
 fertile lands. 
 
 "J. B. ABBOTT, Los Pinos Agency, Col., 1878. 
 
 " Large trespasses have been committed, from year to 
 year, upon these lands, to which the attention of the 
 proper officers has been called; but still the work of 
 robbery and destruction goes on unchecked. 
 
 "GEO. W. LEE, Mackinaw Agency, Mich., 1878. 
 
 " The Indians are much discouraged by these raids, and 
 seem to think too little effort has been made to recover 
 their property. 
 
 " P. B. HUNT, Kiowa and Comanche Agency, 1878. 
 
 "The white settlers alluded to in my first Annual 
 Report still remain on the reservation, being located on 
 their several claims, increasing their stock and improve 
 ments, and, of course, still further encroaching on the 
 Indians rights. 
 "JAMES I. PATTEN, Shoshone Agency, Wyoming 1878. 
 
144 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 "And, in addition, I can say that in a comparison of 
 Indian cruelty with white cruelty the shame must be upon 
 the pale cheek. Save in dime literature, and in sensational 
 falsehoods for the columns of partisan papers, there is no 
 recorded case of Indian massacre which will outcolor the 
 cruelties the whites have frequently practiced against the 
 red men. Since the Pequot Indians were starved to death 
 on Block Island the white men having stolen away their 
 canoes hardly a year has passed without a scene of out 
 rageous cruelty, in which the Indians are the victims. 
 Just a few years since, the farmer hired by the govern 
 ment to teach the Pawnees how to till the soil super 
 intended the raising of a large amount of grain, the 
 Indians doing most of the work. When the crop was 
 harvested the farmer claimed it all as his share and had it 
 secured in granaries. Then came on the long, cold 
 winter with its dreariness and hunger. The Indians, 
 having trusted to the promise of the farmer that they 
 should have this grain for support, had made no other 
 provision for winter, and soon were literally starving. They 
 went to the farmer and begged piteously for some of the 
 corn for which they had labored. They pointed to their 
 starving wives and children. They were refused. When 
 in the extremity of their distress some of them ventured 
 to go to the granaries to take a little of the corn, the 
 farmer, standing in the doorway of his house, coolly shot 
 them down. A red devil was never more cruel than 
 that." 
 
 " They might have applied to the agent." 
 "Truly; but the winter would have been consumed 
 waiting for your National Circumlocution Office known 
 as the Indian Department to take action, even if the 
 agent had been willing to intercede for them. The Utes 
 waited more than a year for provisions that should have 
 
KIND FACE AND GRAY COAT. 145 
 
 been sent to them, and the country knows the dread result. 
 The agents in these cases, and in all cases, are so impeded 
 by the regulations of the Indian Department that they 
 cannot act upon kindly sentiments toward the red men, 
 even should they entertain them. It is a public statute, I 
 understand, that no agent shall visit Washington to inter 
 cede for those under his charge, on penalty of instant 
 removal, except upon special invitation of the Indian 
 Department." 
 
 "There is one circumstance," the senator remarked, 
 shifting his position as if he had just thought of a way 
 out of all difficulty, " in the warfare of the red men which 
 has always had the effect to prejudice my own mind, and 
 the minds of many of the chief thinkers of the country, 
 against them. I refer to the cruel practice of taking scalps. 
 Ugh ! Ahem !" The latter exclamation uttered apolo 
 getically to his own dignity. 
 
 " Even in this particular," Kind Face replied, " the 
 Indians have been surpassed by the white men. At one 
 time the most Christian commonwealth of Massachusetts 
 offered a large bounty for every Indian scalp secured. 
 And when they were not forthcoming in sufficient quanti 
 ties, the bounty was sevenfold increased. And it is to be 
 noted that this bounty was offered for the scalps of 
 women and children as well as men, and to encourage 
 the cruel practice in times of peace as well as war. The 
 Indians with all their cruelty never countenanced a worse 
 barbarity than that. There are many other cases of the 
 same character. One is historic. Soon after the terrible 
 massacre in Wyoming " 
 
 " Ah ! yes, a case in point I" 
 
 " Soon after this massacre, which, as you will remember, 
 was instigated and conducted by the white men, a British 
 general stationed at Detroit issued a proclamation that 
 
I4 6 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 a rich bounty would be paid for every scalp laid at his 
 feet, adding significantly that no reward could be 
 expected for the taking of prisoners alive. For this 
 infamous transaction the Indians well called him The 
 hair-buying general ! In each of the English appropria 
 tion bills for the war in America dated from 1775 to 1 77& 
 there is an item for scalping-knives. The practice of 
 scalp-taking has not been as distasteful to all white men 
 as it is to you." 
 
 " You are so evidently a partisan in this matter," broke 
 in the smooth voice of the comfortable senator, "that it 
 will be necessary for us to take your arguments with some 
 allowance. You might explain to us whether you would 
 wish an Indian punished at all or not." 
 
 " I would have an offender punished whether he have 
 a white or a red skin. I honestly believe that the white offi 
 cials, whoever they may be, who are responsible for the mas 
 sacre of the Cheyennes at Fort Robinson, ought to be hung 
 as much as any common murderer. That a man, or a few 
 men, cause the death of from one hundred to one thousand 
 persons and then call it a " Policy" seems to me an odd 
 reason that they should go free, when he who slays one 
 man is strung up. To my mind, also, they who insist upon 
 the removal of northern Indians to the Indian Territory, 
 knowing that they will die there like sheep, are simply 
 murderers and cut-throats in wholesale. In the report of 
 one of the recent Indian Commissioners I have found these 
 words: Experience has shown the exceeding impolicy of 
 removing northern Indians to the Indian Territory. He 
 then mentions that out of 2376 Pawnees removed to the 
 Land of Fire, 800 died in two years. He states that the 
 same death-ratio prevails among Cheyennes and Poncas, 
 and remarks that this simply means the extinction of all 
 northern tribes sent to that latitude. In the very next 
 
KIXD FACE AND GRAY COAT. 14? 
 
 sentence after these bloody details are given, the Commis 
 sioner coolly says: In this connection I recommend the 
 removal of all the Indians in Colorado and Arizona to the 
 Indian Territory ! To my unofficial mind that seems a 
 simple recommendation that some 20,000 persons be forth 
 with murdered by inches. I must not forget, however, 
 that if a murder is called a Ward-policy it is not a 
 murder." 
 
 " You certainly must have intellect sufficient to observe," 
 said the senator angrily, " that a government has the right 
 to pursue certain policies, even though they be attended 
 with some loss of life, when the ultimate object is of com 
 manding importance. No one blames the general for the 
 loss of life when liberty or honor is gained by the battle." 
 
 " True," said Kind Face, " but the object to be gained 
 by the removal of the Indians is simply the enriching of 
 the whites living in the vicinity of the reservations. This 
 is the very grandest aim you can profess to have in view. 
 In too many instances the benefit accrues to a few plotting 
 individuals. The Indians are perfectly aware of the con 
 dition of affairs. They are conscious of being the victims 
 in a great gambling system." 
 
 "To what do you refer, sir? " 
 
 "To the method of obtaining appropriations of Con 
 gress for the benefit of the Indians, upon whom the good 
 seldom descends. From seven to nine millions of dollars 
 are appropriated yearly for the Indian tribes, and it is 
 quite safe to say that not more than three millions reach 
 those for whom the money was designed. Let me show 
 you a case before your very eyes. Just beyond this line 
 of hills there lies a treacherous swamp, for which the 
 Indian children have a singularly expressive name, The 
 Eleven Hundred Dollar Bridge. The secret of the name 
 is this : Some years since the government appropriated 
 
148 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 $1100 to build a bridge across this swamp so that the 
 children, on their way to school, should not get their feet 
 wet and take cold in the bleak weather. The money, 
 however, disappeared in some one s pocket ; the bridge 
 was never built ; and the children, as they trudge through 
 the swamp, laugh as they give it the name I have men 
 tioned. The agents among some of the tribes receive a 
 salary of $1500, but in many cases the position is acknowS 
 edged by all concerned to be worth an even $10,000. For 
 the removal of each Indian tribe from $25,000 to $45,000 
 are appropriated, the great bulk of which disappears in 
 the pockets of those who conduct the removal and their 
 coadjutors. A dying agent recently made a confession to 
 a friend of mine that he had been concerned in two cases 
 of fraud, while he had witnessed many others. The cases 
 in respect to which his conscience was aroused were as 
 follows : A prominent man, now residing in Omaha, re 
 ceived $7000 for ploughs which were never delivered to the 
 indians ; and a merchant in the same city was awarded a 
 large sum of money for the breaking up of a certain tract 
 of land for the Indians, when in fact not a single foot of 
 turf had been overturned. The agent, who revealed these 
 facts when dying, had certified to the vouchers for a 
 monetary consideration, and the matter lay so heavily 
 upon his mind that he disclosed it." 
 
 " It is unavoidable," remarked the senator, knitting his 
 brows with the show of much wisdom, " that some abuse 
 of contracts should occur in so extensive an operation as 
 is the supply of the tribes. This, however, should not be 
 laid up against the government or its policy." 
 
 " So far is robbery from being incidental to the con 
 ducting of Indian affairs," replied the sturdy friend of our 
 race, "that it is the deliberate purpose of many who, from 
 official position, should be above it. I happened a few 
 
KIND PACK AXD CRAY COAT. 149 
 
 months since to be traveling on the cars iri company with 
 a number of wealthy gentleman. One was a judge from 
 Montana, another was from Kentucky. The latter gentle 
 man was very anxious to learn from the former just how 
 he had succeeded in making so much money out of an 
 Indian contract the preceding summer. The judge was 
 exceedingly communicative and, not minding in the least 
 the presence of a deformed Frenchman, told the whole 
 story of a gigantic robbery. You see, he said, there 
 was Mr. A. and Mr. B. of Iowa, Mr. C. and Senator D. of 
 Illinois, Senators F. and G. of New York, and myself, in 
 the ring. We took one hundred thousand dollars, went 
 to Washington and made Christmas presents of two 
 thousand dollars to some of the Congressmen. Then a 
 bill was introduced by Senator D. of Illinois, appro 
 priating one million dollars to certain of the Indian tribes- 
 it was of course passed, for nothing can be more noble than 
 our care of our red wards and the contracts were awarded 
 to us who stood in the background of the ring. The main 
 condition upon which we received the contracts was that 
 we should devote $200,000 for election purposes in the 
 State of Iowa. We bought a supply of guns and ammuni 
 tion, sent them out to our Indians, and instructed the 
 agents to grant permission to the Indians to go upon a 
 grand buffalo-hunt. They remained away the entire sum 
 mer, and consequently we had to furnish no provisions 
 for that period. We reported ten thousand Indians upon 
 one reservation, when the actual number was about one 
 thousand, and in all other cases the same liberal ratio was 
 carefully observed. Then by skillful buying of damaged 
 articles for a very low price, and selling the same to the 
 Indians for a high price, we were able to get through the 
 winter. When we came to square up accounts we had 
 about an even 100,000 for each of the seven members of 
 
15 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 the ring. But how did you manage the vouchers? 
 asked the uninformed Kentuckian. Vouchers! ex 
 claimed the judge in a tone of the highest disgust. 
 Our agents swore to them and our Indian Department 
 audited them. What more would you want ? While 
 the company indulged in a hearty laugh over the solving 
 of the golden riddle, my heart was sore for the poor 
 Indians." 
 
 Kind Face paused for a moment, and, the white men 
 making no reply, there was a sad silence around our 
 twilight camp-fire. Kind Face was gazing thoughtfully 
 into the distance where the bluffs beyond the great river 
 reared themselves into the sky. 
 
 " See ! " he exclaimed at length. All eyes followed the 
 direction of his pointing finger. " Behold that little speck, 
 that dark spot, far, far away in the distance, rising slowly 
 against the sky. Watch it ; it grows somewhat more dis 
 tinct; it is a slender line now against the evening sunset. 
 Turn your attention now to the rocks opposite us where, 
 every Indian child knows, is the nest of a brace of Wash 
 ington eagles. By their keen vision they have long since 
 discovered the speck and the line we have noticed. 
 Behold ! the male eagle with a scream springs up from 
 the nest, soars with heavy strokes of his wings into the 
 sky, and conceals himself at a great height. The line we 
 have noticed comes nearer : it is a bird a snowy brant 
 belated in its return from the uplands. He comes with 
 great speed toward the eagle s nest. See ! as he nears it 
 the female eagle springs up, faces him in his flight and 
 stops him suddenly. The affrighted brant, startled by the 
 sudden appearance of such a terrible foe, pauses, wheels, 
 circles aloft, trusting to his strong, lithe wings for escape. 
 And he would elude his foe but that the male eagle, who 
 has been watching the whole proceeding from his high 
 
KIND FACE AND GRAY COAT. 151 
 
 station, now descends like a thunderbolt and attacks the 
 brave brant from above. Oh ! the eagles eyes are fierce, 
 their claws are sharpened against many a pine-trunk, their 
 neck-feathers rise up stiffly with savage thirst for blood, 
 their screams are wild and exultant ; and the poor brant 
 soon pours forth his warm blood to tinge his snowy breast. 
 Most noble agent and senator, in this aerial combat, so 
 unequal, so unsought by the victim, so unavoidably san 
 guine, I see a type of what is occurring daily in the con 
 stant struggle between the white and the red races. The 
 poor victims in this larger battle simply desire to be left 
 in freedom to fly unmolested where they will, to haste 
 from their fields to their simple homes. In plain words, 
 the Indians make but one petition of the Great Father 
 that they may have the protection of equitable laws; that 
 their wrongs may be righted and robbery prevented. 
 " Let me read just two little sentences from my pamphlet : 
 
 " Wish well to the Indians as we may, and do for them 
 what we will, the efforts of civil agents, teachers, and mis 
 sionaries are like the struggles of drowning men weighted 
 with lead, as long as by the absence of law Indian society 
 is left without a base. Bishop Hares Report. 
 
 " It seems to me to be an odd feature of our judicial 
 system that the only people in this country who have no 
 rights under the law are the original owners of the soil. 
 An Irishman, German, Chinaman, Turk or Tartar will be 
 protected in life and property, but the Indian commands 
 respect for his rights only so long as he inspires terror for 
 his rifle. GEN. CROOK. " 
 
 " By Jove!" said the senator, " it must be dinner-time ; 
 I was almost asleep." 
 
 Without another word, the white men betook themselves 
 homeward. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE BRIDAL EVE. 
 
 " GOOD evening, young invalid ! You seem to be taking 
 it rather easy under this arbor, while your lazy brothers 
 are pretending at least to work in the fields. Have you 
 obtained the consent of my father to lie around and do 
 nothing?" 
 
 The speaker was the dreaded Scar Face, who, a few 
 days after the events mentioned in the last chapter, sur 
 prised me talking with my little bride under the arbor 
 that my father had built for me. 
 
 "And who is this nursing you?" Scar Face continued. 
 
 "She is Prairie Flower, sir," I said, "and as soon as I 
 recover from my wounds she is to be my wife." 
 
 In uttering the first part of this sentence I could not 
 prevent my lips trembling with dread and anger; but I 
 spoke the last words proudly, and yet hastily, that he 
 might not presume that she was nothing to me, and try 
 to win her away from my side. How foolish I was to sup 
 pose that he would respect the love we had for each other, 
 I did not know until some days thereafter. 
 
 "By Jove!" Scar Face said brutally, " she has a pretty 
 face and a neat form and a let s see your foot, miss !" 
 
 But Prairie Flower did not move. She held her face 
 down upon my shoulder and blushed irr deep shame and 
 indignation. 
 
 With a coarse laugh Scar Face passed on, turning, after 
 he had taken a few steps, to shake his finger at Prairie 
 Flower and say, " I will see you again, my dear." 
 
THE BRIDAL EVE. 153 
 
 Foi aays I could not rid my mind of his rough and 
 ribald expression of face, and by night I was haunted with 
 a fear of some great disaster to come upon my bride. I 
 saw his scarred countenance in everything about me, and 
 when I heard a sudden noise I sprang up in affright, as if 
 it were the scream of my Prairie Flower struggling in his 
 grasp. But as he came not again, I by and by forgot his 
 insult, and began to hope that he meditated no particular 
 wrong against us. 
 
 Meanwhile the days as they came saw a great improve 
 ment in my strength, and before many had passed I was 
 able to walk abroad upon the prairies. The main thought 
 in my mind was my approaching marriage with Prairie 
 Flower, the day of which had been fixed. The wedding 
 customs of my people were very simple, the service be 
 ginning with the gathering of all the members of the 
 tribe to a feast as complete as we had means to prepare. 
 But if this feast lacked many of the choicer delicacies 
 which go to make up a more civilized entertainment, it 
 more than supplied the deficiency by furnishing the most 
 abundant quantity of good will, the most extravagant joy, 
 and the truest happiness. When the fire leaped up before 
 which the savory antelope ribs were to be roasted, what 
 delight there was! How the faces of the old warriors 
 would relax into the pleasantest of smiles ! How impor 
 tant and busy the wives were as they bustled hither and 
 thither preparing the odorous coffee and seeing that the 
 maize-cakes be not done too brown ! How the sweet wild 
 vegetables tempted us to attack them, and how fiercely 
 we accepted the challenge when all was ready! How 
 pleased and blushing the bride would be when she was 
 placed at the head of the rows of hungry relatives and 
 friends, prepared to do full honor to the feast ! And if 
 we had not the toasts and sentiments of the entertain- 
 
154 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 ments of otner races, we had at least warm expressions of 
 affection, genuine wishes for the welfare of the married 
 couple, admiration without hypocrisy, and friendship with 
 out jealousy. 
 
 After the conclusion of the feast, generous draughts 
 were taken from the cool waters of the neighboring 
 spring, and, the company composed themselves to witness 
 and partake in the remaining ceremonies. These con 
 sisted in the giving of presents by the bridegroom to the 
 bride and her parents, the accepting of the bride from the 
 arms of her father, and the triumphal march to the home 
 where the wedded couple were to live. There were also 
 songs and dances of children, and trials of strength or 
 speed upon the play-ground, and matches between the 
 best bowmen of the tribe to see which could shoot arrow 
 after arrow into the sky and have the largest number in 
 the air at any one time, the playing of pranks upon sly 
 lovers whose turn to be married would next come, the 
 wreathing of wild flowers and divers colored grasses into 
 fantastic shapes, and such other spontaneous expressions 
 of delight as a simple-hearted people love on a holiday 
 to make. 
 
 There was another custom among us which could by 
 no means be disregarded. The bridegroom on the day 
 before the wedding was required to gather a large quantity 
 of the most beautiful wild roses, with which to adorn the 
 bride. When the day before the one set for our wedding 
 had arrived, I started out, in obedience to this custom, to 
 gather flowers, which, for beauty and fragrance, were to 
 exceed anything my people had ever seen before ; for, I 
 said to myself, only such flowers could possibly be allowed 
 to twine around my Prairie Flower s neck and rest upon 
 her bosom. The morning was of that radiant brightness 
 which dawns only, it seems to me, on wide stretches of 
 
THE BRIDAL EVE. 155 
 
 prairie in high altitudes. The hills in the distance were 
 just of sufficient height to vary the scene delightfully and 
 to impress upon one the real loveliness of the grassy plain 
 at his feet. With high hopes and bounding pulse I started 
 out in my search, in full sympathy with all the happiness 
 and beauty around me. Was not the next sun to see me 
 wedded to my sweet bride? What then could bring me 
 sadness? With her by my side I could be happy in any, 
 the most fearful, calamities, I was sure. Do not these 
 dear doves, that fly with whistling wings above me, get 
 under the heavy pine fringes when it storms, and coo and 
 love as happily as if no rain were pelting to the earth and 
 no thunders were raging in the sky? Oh, if but my 
 bride and I can remain together, even the white man can 
 not bring a woe upon us that we could not patiently 
 bear. 
 
 But then the thought would come to me, \Vhat if my 
 bride be wrested from me? What if Scar Face plots al 
 ready to have her for his own base use ? The thought 
 maddened me, but the day was so fair, and my heart so 
 light, that I laughed off my fears and continued my 
 search. 
 
 Nowhere, however, could I find roses sweet or beautiful 
 enough for my Prairie Flower. Every bush that I saw I 
 eagerly examined ; but, although there were many deli 
 cately tinted flowers full worthy to adorn a less shapely 
 neck than hers, there was none that would not blush to a 
 deeper red if placed near the cheek of my bride. I hunted 
 every little defile where before I had thought the roses 
 beautiful, but they all seemed to have faded since I saw 
 them last, and I wondered that I had for a moment 
 thought them worthy of her, So the day passed and the 
 evening began to comedown upon me, and I realized that 
 I must soon make a choice. Then I regretted that I had 
 
IS 6 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 not plucked such or such a flower that I had hesitated 
 over. Hastily gathering my scarf full of those which were 
 nearest at hand, I thought, " It is just as well : she would 
 outshine the most beautiful rose that the sun and earth 
 ever bore, and these that I have found, being of inferior 
 shape and odor, will but make her superiority the more 
 marked and her triumph surer." 
 
 Comforted by these thoughts, I hurried back to our 
 village, which I reached just at dusk. Filled with my own 
 bright thoughts, I did not notice that the first group of 
 my people that I met looked pityingly upon me. I met 
 another group, but when they saw me they whispered to 
 gether and walked another way, so as not to encounter 
 me. A third group I smiled upon, but they turned their 
 faces away. " What is this ?" I thought : " surely the people 
 mean no insult to the son of Eagle Wing. Oh, I have it 
 now : they do not wish to disturb me in my joy." 
 
 I soon saw one of the maidens of our tribe coming to 
 ward me. We called her "Swallow," and I knew that 
 she loved me and thought hard of Prairie Flower that I 
 had not chosen herself to be my bride. Her face was 
 sad and tearful this evening, and as she came toward me 
 I determined to soothe her hard feelings against us by 
 showing her the roses I had gathered for my bride. I 
 did not then know how hateful the finery and possessions 
 of one woman appear in the eyes of her rival, particularly 
 when they are the gift of the one they both love. 
 
 " See ! dear little Swallow," I exclaimed, "see the roses 
 I have gathered for my bride. Are they not lovely? 
 Come, now tell me if Prairie Flower will not be the 
 sweetest rose of all the cluster?" 
 
 The little maiden would not cast a single look upon the 
 flowers, but turned her eyes, full of tears, up to my very 
 face, and said : 
 
THE BRIDAL EVE. 157 
 
 "Alas for thee ! Alas for thee, Sha-ta-ga-dta-tha !" 
 
 " What is it, Swallow?" I exclaimed. " Can you not for 
 give me that I love Prairie Flower or has some calamity 
 befallen me? Oh! it may be that. Tell me, is Prairie 
 Flower safe?" 
 
 " I love thee too much to tell thee. Go to Eagle Wing, 
 go to thy father ! But thou mayst as well drop thy roses 
 here!" 
 
 I let them fall at her feet and dashed swiftly away. 
 Little Swallow seated herself amidst the scattered flowers 
 and wept aloud that they had not been gathered for her. 
 
 My father was standing with folded arms at the door of 
 our home when I came up. 
 
 " What is it, my father?" I exclaimed. "Why do the 
 people turn their faces away from me as I pass ? Why 
 does little Swallow send me hastily to thee for tidings? 
 Is my Prairie Flower safe?" 
 
 " My son," he replied, turning upon me a look of the 
 greatest sympathy, "thy time for suffering has come. 
 Hold thyself proudly under it as becomes the son of a chief. 
 
 " But is Prairie Flower safe ?" I demanded impatiently. 
 
 " She is as yet, but I know not how long she will be." 
 
 " Thank Wakanda ! the worst at least has not come. Is 
 she at her home is she sick?" 
 
 " Nay to both questions. This afternoon Scar Face " 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! oh !" I broke in, " has that beast carried out 
 his threat? Has he stolen her away?" 
 
 " He took her away. I know not where, I know not 
 for what purpose." 
 
 " I know," I said bitterly. "O Wakanda! why could 
 I not be spared this? All my bright hopes thus cast in 
 ruin to the ground. My sweet bride torn from my arms 
 at the very moment when she was to be fully mine. O 
 Wakanda! Wakanda!" 
 
158 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 I threw myself upon the ground, and my mother, who 
 had stood weeping near, came and held my head in her 
 lap. 
 
 " Be comforted, my child," she whispered. " No allure 
 ments of the white man can ever make Prairie Flower 
 forget thee, and if her heart be still thine no wickedness 
 that she may endure can make her unworthy." 
 
 " But she will suffer so ! And oh ! mother, I cannot 
 kill him !" 
 
 Anger and sorrow combined to bring tears into my eyes, 
 and by their flow I was calmed though not comforted. 
 O mother, mother ! how I think of thee now as I write 
 and bless thy tenderness ! Howl bring back thy face and 
 touch out of the darkness of death ! thy warm kiss still 
 lingers upon my cheek; thy words still thrill my heart; 
 thy bending, beaming countenance is still a bright sky, a 
 holy heaven, to me. Thou wert great when but one tear 
 fell upon my cheek as the Sioux thrust their cruel arrows 
 into thy side, but thou wert greater and more motherly 
 when many tears of sympathy fell from thy eyes because 
 the white man had stolen away my bride. O mother ! 
 earth has but one of thee, and even Heaven cannot supply 
 thy place ! 
 
 How long I remained thus upon the ground I know 
 not, but suddenly the thought came to me that the wise 
 Standing Elk would be able to give me the particulars of 
 the stealing of my bride ; and starting wildly up I was 
 about to dash away, when my mother caught my arm and 
 exclaimed : 
 
 "Art thou mad, my son ? Stay with me ! stay with me ! 
 Do not destroy thyself, for Prairie Flower will return and 
 will weep much if thou art not here to welcome her !" 
 
 " I go to Um-pan-nez-zhe, mother," I said with forced 
 calmness. " He can tell me all." 
 
THE BRIDAL EVE. 159 
 
 The night had now come on, and as I sped madly, reck 
 lessly toward the home of my bride, now so sadly empty, 
 I blessed the darkness which hid me from the curious gaze 
 of our people. 1 could see around the camp-fires groups 
 of happy lovers who laughed and caressed each other as 
 if my laden, beating heart were not nigh. As I paused a 
 moment before such a sight, which by cruel contrast gave 
 me a feeling of bitterness strangely sweet to my heart, I 
 heard a soft step at my side, and little Swallow caught my 
 hand in hers and said : 
 
 "O Wolf Killer, may not I comfort thce one little 
 moment? May not I hold thy head upon my breast while 
 a star twinkles once and delude myself that thou art 
 mine ?" 
 
 " Swallow, I can love but one !" I said, and dashed 
 away. I did not hear her say proudly to the night : 
 
 " I ivill comfort him in a way he little thinks of!" 
 
 I did not see her steal cautiously through our village 
 and take her course toward the splendid home of Gray 
 Coat, our agent. 
 
 As I neared the home of the wise man and saw it so 
 dark and lonely I slackened my pace, feeling almost that 
 I even I had no right to interrupt the sacredness of a 
 father s grief. I crept so near that in the starlight I could 
 see the old man pacing backward and forward, tearing 
 at his long gray hair, and showing every possible 
 sign of deep grief. He moaned and wrung his hands, 
 and in pity for him I half forgot to grieve myself. At last 
 he came to the door of his home and exclaimed bitterly: 
 
 " Look down, ye stars ! and see the deepest grief that 
 even Um-pan-nez-zhe has borne. You have dropped dew- 
 tears of sympathy upon me when I mourned for wife and 
 father and friend ; but these all died nobly and with no 
 stain upon their names. But now, in my old age, my last 
 
io PLOUGHED UNDER, 
 
 comfort and joy is wrested from me to be disgraced and 
 dishonored by the cruel Scar Face. O Wakanda, hast 
 thou lost all pity for the red men ? Hast thou forgotten 
 us in our simple homes and turned thy thoughts upon 
 statelier nations? Nay! I know that cannot be; but 
 why, oh why are the Indians hands so cruelly bound ? O 
 my little Wagh-ta, was it for this that thou wast saved 
 from the death that overwhelmed thy mother? for this 
 that I have tended thee so long and lovingly? for this my 
 gray hairs have been preserved in many perils ? I saw 
 thy mother in thee; in thy ruin thy mother dies the 
 second time ! O my Flower, my Flower, torn from thy 
 old father s arms and from those of thy husband, who 
 shall bring comfort to us now? And I could not dash 
 the foul villain to the earth ! This arm, trained to defend 
 thee, trained in so many battles to strike a killing blow, 
 fell limp to my side when a brutal wretch tore thee away ! 
 Ah ! were it not better for all my people to die rather than 
 to see Prairie Flower disgraced? But no! I must not 
 cause the death of the innocent. O white man, what cruel 
 bonds you bind us with ! O Prairie Flower, where do thy 
 tears fall to-night ? O Wakanda, spare thy feeble ones !" 
 
 When I could stand suspense no longer I rushed for 
 ward and cried : 
 
 " My father, what is this terrible fate that has come 
 upon my bride ? Speak ! I can stand anything rather than 
 uncertainty !" 
 
 He turned upon me a look in which sympathy appeared 
 struggling with woe. And it triumphed, for with a great 
 effort of will he subdued his moans, and becoming wonder 
 fully almost fiercely calm, he said to me in a steady 
 voice : 
 
 " My son, it may not be so bad with little Prairie Flower 
 as I fear. Perhaps my sad experiences with the white 
 
THE BRIDAL EVE. 161 
 
 men have made me too suspicious, and what may be but 
 a temporary absence I .have magnified into a permanent 
 loss. Scar Face " 
 
 "Curses upon him !" I could not help exclaiming. 
 
 "Came shortly after noon to-day, saying that his mother 
 had commissioned him to select a waiting-maid for her 
 from the most beautiful of our maidens. He had examined, 
 he added, with a wicked leer, all that could lay any just 
 claim to the title, without being satisfied, and as he had 
 seen my daughter once before, he requested that he might 
 be honored with a sight of her again. I tried to excuse 
 her on the plea that she was not well, but he demanded 
 yes, demanded that she should instantly appear before 
 him. My fatherly love sprang into my arm, and for a 
 moment I clinched my fist, half intending to strike him to 
 the earth. He stepped back a few paces and drew a pistol 
 from an inner pocket and pointed it at my heart. Oh! 
 would to Wakanda he had killed me on the spot ! But he 
 knew that he must not stain his hands with murder, and 
 so he demanded, with curses, that Prairie Flower be given 
 to him. I replied, as calmly as I could : 
 
 " Scar Face, it is not fear of thee that prompts me to 
 obey thy devilish command. It is because I scorn to do 
 a wrong. If I should strike thee to the earth, as my hate 
 of thee and love of my child prompt me to do, thou 
 well knowest what a cruel fate I should bring upon the 
 innocent ones in my tribe. I scorn to adopt the unholy 
 selfishness of the white man. Thou dost take advantage 
 of this unjust law which treats us all as guilty if one 
 offends, and for a short time thou wilt enjoy thy brutal 
 triumph. But mark the words of an old man : in no race 
 can crime prosper, and the passion which now leads thee 
 to outrage shall of itself lead thee to ruin. 
 
 "There was no need to call little Wagh-ta, for the 
 
1 62 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 moment she had seen the pistol pointed at my heart she 
 had rushed forth, and during my speech to Scar Face had 
 clung sobbing to my breast. I saw the base libertine s 
 eyes gleam upon her in insulting admiration of her charms ; 
 I saw him close his rough hands upon her shoulders ; 
 I felt her tender arms clinging to me for protection, and I, 
 her heaven -appointed protector, could not touch the 
 villain with my finger. I heard her sob as he tore her 
 away, and for the last time yes, I am sure for the last 
 time I felt her soft breath upon my cheek. Mark me! 
 Sha-ta-ga-dta-tha, my mind is old and has attained the 
 prophet s foresight. I can feel my soul snapping like a 
 bow-string too tightly drawn, but there is a strange, wild 
 music even in the breaking of it. I see that a great 
 calamity approaches our tribe. A dark, a fierce cloud comes 
 sweeping up toward us, and either in the blackness of the 
 ruin it shall cast upon us, or before it comes, I shall be 
 separated from my child so that from this moment I shall 
 never see her again. O Wakanda ! Wakanda !" 
 
 A solemn look of woe passed over the old man s face 
 the holy expression that all the prophets of my people 
 have and sinking upon the ground he covered his face 
 with his blanket and relapsed into silence. 
 
 " Which way went they, my father ?" I exclaimed. 
 
 But his ears were deaf to me as he swayed backward and 
 forward in his hopeless grief. 
 
 " Speak to me, my father ! which way did they take ?" 
 
 Still the old man did not speak. Gradually he sank 
 back upon the ground. I snatched the blanket from 
 before his face, and saw that his eyes were glazing and his 
 lips gasping for breath. He started up, and waving his 
 arm with majestic grace, said with a rapt smile : 
 
 "Wife, I come! My noble sons, I come! Wakanda, I 
 come ! Wagh-ta ! Prairie Flower, I " 
 
THE BRIDAL EVE. 163 
 
 He sank down to the earth again. The wind in the 
 pine-tops deepened into a moan. The wise, the noble Um- 
 pan-nez-zhe was dead. O noble legislators and governors ! 
 
 learned debaters and lawyers ! O proud senators and 
 statesmen ! O most honored Great Father ! O multitudes 
 of unthinking people ! heard you nothing in your happy 
 homes that night like the snapping of a heart? As you 
 read your papers next morning and saw the demand that 
 this or that Indian tribe be exterminated for the crimes of 
 a few without which demand scarce an issue can be 
 published seemed there no voice in the air whispering, 
 "Unjust! Unjust! Unjust!"? 
 
 I left the dead man where he had fallen, and stole away 
 into the darkness. Clouds had gathered under the stars 
 and were rolling up blacker and blacker from the southwest. 
 
 1 felt almost calmed as I walked along. A strange sense 
 that the crime of Scar Face had been avenged in the death 
 of Um-pan-nez-zhe came over me, so confused was I by the 
 thrilling events a single day had brought about. It seemed 
 to me that the glazed eyes and white lips and stiffening 
 cheeks of the wise man were laying up a mighty claim 
 against the white men in some sure place under the very 
 eye of Wakanda, and that by and by our whole race would 
 be benefited because of what we were suffering now. So 
 I began to pity Scar Face, as if he had been foiled after 
 all, and I painted to myself how his disfigured countenance 
 would look, covered with blood and gashed deeper than 
 before, lying under this brush or beside that rock, and in 
 the thought I had a strange delight. 
 
 But when I realized that the bride who was to be mine 
 on the morrow was in the clutches of a more savage brute 
 than the wolf could ever be, I ceased to pity and began 
 again to hate him. I called upon all the powers of the 
 night and all the terrors of the storm to blast him. If any 
 
1 64 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 one had been crouching in the bushes beside which I 
 passed and could have heard my wild ravings and seen the 
 fierce hatred upon my countenance, he would have supposed 
 that some demon had escaped from the place of his con 
 finement and was wandering up and down the earth. I 
 took no account of space, and though I impatiently trod 
 upon miles of daisy-spangled sod, I was as unconscious of 
 changing my position relative to what was below and 
 around me as I was of shifting my place relative to the star- 
 spangled sky above me. 
 
 "Can it be," I thought, "that this is the very prairie I 
 wandered over, and these the very valleys I explored, only 
 a few hours since, hoping then to secure roses beautiful 
 enough to be allowed to adorn my bride? How different 
 my feelings now! Then I was hopeful and happy; now I 
 am brideless and despairing ! Then I sought flowers to 
 add to my joy ; now I only desire to hide my grief! Then 
 it was day ; now it is night. Has ,the darkness come so 
 soon to swallow up the sun-rays ? So soon also, and so 
 completely, has the night of heavy woe overtaken me and 
 quenched all the day of my heart. 
 
 "Is it because we are poor," I continued to think, "that 
 the white man denies us the protection of his law ? But 
 are there no poor ones in his great cities, no shriveled 
 hearts in reeking places, no despairing wretches dwelling 
 in dark, damp rooms, no souls to whom day brings no 
 light and night no repose, no orphans longing for one 
 touch of sympathy/and no childless parents weeping that 
 misery and want have robbed them of sweet smiles and 
 tender kisses ? And if this great class of distressed beings 
 are not debarred by their wretchedness from the protec 
 tion of just and equitable laws, why should we be ? Or is 
 it because we are incapable of appreciating the white 
 
THE BRIDAL ETE. 165 
 
 man s civilization ? But when has any one come to us 
 with charity and patience who has not been welcomed as 
 a brother and whose instructions have not benefited us ? 
 When have we had an honest chance to become as the 
 white men, since so many of those sent to us prey upon 
 our substance and make return to the power that sends 
 them only by publishing the most extravagant falsehoods 
 concerning our cruelty and laziness? Are we not cruel, 
 then ? Yes, in war with each other, or when crazed and 
 maddened by being driven from one home after another 
 and suffering insult, robbery, and outrage without limit at 
 the hands of the white man, we do try our best to be as 
 cruel as he though we are not cunning enough or strong 
 enough to succeed. I have often been told that our more 
 favored brethren living far to the north of us, in a country 
 lying out of the Great Father s possessions, are fully as 
 intelligent as the majority of the white people, are in 
 many instances far better informed than they upon the 
 leading questions of the day, and are wealthy, industrious, 
 and happy, because they enjoy the priceless benefits of 
 legal protection on an equal footing with the whites. The 
 guilty are punished ; the good are fostered : contentment 
 and prosperity are the result. 
 
 " Is it because there are too many people on the earth 
 that the white man thinks himself excused in destroying 
 our race as fast as possible ? But would not Wakanda be 
 a better judge of the number that the world He has formed 
 is capable of supporting? And how can the white man 
 judge whom it would please Him most to see destroyed ? 
 It may be that the judgment of the stronger race is at 
 fault in this matter ; that He loves the simple-hearted and 
 feeble children of the plains as much as he does those who 
 have power to build gigantic cities and fill them with huge 
 
1 66 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 rivalries and hypocrisies ; and if this be the case, where 
 comes in the unquestionable right to destroy our race as 
 being the one which by all means should perish ?" 
 
 These thoughts, though not in any connected shape, 
 passed through my mind as I rushed frantically along. 
 They were present, at one moment, in a mass, revolving, 
 and rolling, and boiling, and raging there as if they had 
 entered into a special conspiracy to drive me wild. Then 
 one of these thoughts would take complete possession of 
 me, chaining me, however, with not the less rigor. Images 
 of my lost Prairie Flower constantly floated before my 
 heated fancy, and her last words, coupled with her sweet 
 looks and winning ways, were ever present to my heart. 
 Oh ! she was so much to me can I believe that she is 
 gone ? Shall I never again feel her soft breath upon my 
 cheek? I began to think I had attained the dead Ufn-pan- 
 nez-zhe s prophetic sight, and, gazing into the darkness 
 before me, I seemed to read that the sweet Prairie Flower 
 should never be mine again. 
 
 This mood alternated with one whose chief desire was 
 revenge. Why should I tamely weep when I had more 
 than strength sufficient to strike Scar Face, who had 
 brought all this woe upon me, to the earth ? Again arid 
 again I resolved, as I walked along, to kill him. But at 
 such moments the solemn voice of Um-pan-nez-zhe came 
 whispering on the night wind to me : 
 
 " Bear anything bear to see thy wife torn from thy 
 arms but never kill the white man !" 
 
 And these words seemed the more solemn and sublime 
 now that the wise man was dead. Had he been living I 
 know I should have rushed back to the mansion of Gray 
 Coat, sought out his infamous son, and killed him on the 
 spot. But the noble Um-pan-nez-zhe is dead, and his 
 words are as sacred as his memory. 
 
THE BRIDAL EVK. 1 
 
 Then at other moments I would think, " What if Prairie 
 Flower should come back to me in a few days could I 
 love her as I had done ?" At first I almost answered " No !" 
 but when I thought how helpless and innocent she was I 
 stopped, looked up into the stars which were now peeping 
 from the clouds, and resolutely said " Yes !" I could pic 
 ture her as she would come. Oh, how sad would be her 
 beautiful face ! how disgraced would she seem to herself! 
 how timid she would be lest I should not receive her as 
 of old ! how I would open my arms to her, and how she 
 would weep joyously and sadly as she fell into them ! 
 When I thought of this I exclaimed aloud in the night : 
 
 " Come, my bride ! my Prairie Flower ! Here is a heart 
 that will never do thee dishonor! Here is a breast that 
 will always be warm to thee, and where thou mayst ever 
 find rest !" 
 
 Startled at the sound of my own voice, I hurried on 
 faster than before. What was my surprise when I came 
 suddenly and unexpectedly upon a rude fence of willow 
 pales stretching directly across my path ! In my heedless 
 wanderings I had described a circle, and now discovered 
 that I had reached the fence that enclosed the beautiful 
 grove where stood the house of our agent. Something 
 impelled me to enter the enclosure. The mansion that 
 our money had built loomed up grimly in the darkness 
 before me, its successive stories and rows of windows and 
 high porches and corniced eaves presenting to my inex 
 perienced mind the most complete image of all earthly 
 magnificence and wealth. I approached the building from 
 the side. All was dark about it ; neither in door norwin- 
 dow did the least sign of life appear. I crouched low in 
 the underbrush, some of which was still allowed to remain 
 in the grove, and crept cautiously toward the house. 
 What I hoped to obtain I could not tell distinctly even to 
 
1 68 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 myself, yet I dimly felt that it would be a relief to be near 
 my bride although I had no power to render her assist 
 ance. So I lingered round the house. In the barns I 
 could hear the baying of the savage hounds that Gray 
 Coat kept to defend his premises and hunt down the 
 unyielding among our people ; but I feared not their 
 cruel jaws; to die so near to her would have been an 
 inexpressible pleasure. Round and round the house I 
 crept, now imagining that a face was peering out from this 
 shutter or from that upon me, now fancying I heard a 
 smothered scream as of some one my bride, perchance 
 in deadly fright. I wondered which window hid my 
 Prairie Flower from her lover s sight, and I wept to think 
 what a short distance there was between her falling tears 
 and mine. 
 
 By and by I grew bolder and came very near the house, 
 with the dim hope that at some corner I should hear her 
 whisper : 
 
 "O Wolf Killer! Wolf Killer! save me! Hold wide 
 spread your arms and I will spring into them as I have 
 often done, as a child, from some fallen log or crumbling 
 boulder. Here I am ! Save me ! Save me !" 
 
 But no such voice I heard. The first gray streaks of 
 the coming day that was to have been my wedding-day 
 now began to appear in the east. The twitter of the 
 early birds resounded through the grove. I heard a shut 
 ter open in a distant part of the house. Certain I was 
 that soon I should be apprehended for prowling around 
 the premises of the agent, but even to save my bones from 
 the jaws of the blood-hounds I could not flee. Oh ! another 
 moment might place my bride in my arms. Or she might 
 in the next minute need me so much and what if I were 
 not here ? For a time I seriously thought of confronting 
 the agent and demanding my bride, but I knew such a 
 
THE BRIDAL EVE. 169 
 
 course would be of no avail. Oh what should I do ! what 
 should I do ! 
 
 While I was gazing thus hopelessly at the great blank 
 walls I felt a touch upon my arm, and turning I met the 
 gaze of little Swallow. She beckoned me to follow her, 
 which I was only too glad to do, as she seemed to promise 
 some hope. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 BLOOD-HOUNDS AND LUNACY. 
 
 IT was well that the little maiden had come lor me, for 
 I should never have been able alone to find my way out 
 of the labyrinth of walks and drives, flower beds and 
 garden plots, terraced lawns and shady avenues, with 
 which the agent had adorned his luxuriant home, even if 
 I had found in my heart the desire to leave my post of 
 observation and make the attempt. But Swallow seemed 
 to know so well what paths to take and what turns to 
 make, that I followed her quite assured that she would 
 lead me out into the prairie again, where I should be 
 perfectly at home ; but what was far more encouraging, 
 her familiarity with the surroundings of the agent s house, 
 together with a certain importance with which she set 
 each little foot upon the ground, seemed to promise that 
 she had some revelation to make in regard to Prairie 
 Flower. 
 
 "Swallow, dear Swallow!" I said after we had walked 
 some little distance, "what tidings of my bride? Will 
 you lead me to her?" 
 
 "Hush!" she replied sharply; "do you not fear the 
 hounds ?" 
 
 As she spoke, their fierce baying broke out afresh, and 
 this time I noticed with terror that the sound seemed 
 much louder, as if the animals were nearer to us than 
 before. 
 
 " But " I began. 
 
 " Hush !" she said. 
 
BLOOD-HOUNDS AXD LUXACY. 171 
 
 Down along the fringes of a spruce hedge around a 
 patch of sweet corn up a narrow path in which the weeds 
 were growing thick crouching a moment under this 
 vine-covered arbor while the milkman passes us and 
 makes his way toward the house. The hounds were bay 
 ing fiercely. 
 
 "Curses on the brutes! Shut up !" the milkman said. 
 "They must smell Indian blood. Shut up, I say !" 
 
 Hurrying on again along the fence of an enclosed 
 pasture past the stables, in which the horses are just 
 noisily rising from their night s sleep, striking their hoofs 
 against the sides of the stalls past the very kennels of 
 the hounds, which dash against their chains and foam 
 upon us madly down through the corn-lands, breathing 
 more freely now and at last out upon the glorious, 
 glorious prairie so we pursued our way. 
 
 " Swallow, tell me of my bride !" 
 
 Hush ! hush ! On ! on ! The moment the hounds 
 are loosed they will be upon our track. We must reach 
 the little stream, and cross it and gain the valleys beyond, 
 before we shall be safe. Should Gray Coat discover that 
 you have been wandering like the wolf about his dwellings 
 in the night, he would assume thy name he would be the 
 Wolf Killer s killer." 
 
 On and on along this dry creek bed past these 
 blooming roses, such as were on this very day to adorn 
 my bride into this thicket to pant a moment and listen 
 scrambling down this bank and up upon the other side 
 through this patch of brambles which tear garments 
 and flesh pacing this level spot, unthinking of the 
 radiant daisies crushed by our footsteps hush! hush! 
 away ! away ! 
 
 " Take up this pine branch and carry it with us," 
 Swallow said as we passed one that had been rent from 
 
172 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 the old tree in some great storm and swept alongside our 
 path. " We shall need it." 
 
 Away ! away ! the morning has fully dawned yonder 
 is the sun see how the dew-drops sparkle in its light 
 not brighter they than my little bride s eyes ah! not 
 more moist than her tears away ! away ! the chains have 
 fallen from the hounds necks. Hark ! was not that a 
 deep bay? and there is another ! away ! away ! has not 
 Gray Coat sworn that if any cursed red devils are found 
 stealing his vegetables or prowling around his chicken 
 coops, they shall die? away ! away ! 
 
 There the hounds come. Hear their fierce bark ; see, 
 even from this distance, their red jaws ; mark the fearful 
 leaps they take, fully ten of our steps in one. Hasten, 
 little Swallow ! hasten, brave, sad Wolf Killer ! See the 
 milkman, and the cowboy, and the gardener urge them 
 on hear how they shout and laugh rare sport, rare 
 sport human game ! far better than antelope or grouse 
 far better, ha ! ha ! 
 
 But they do not see us, we are hidden by this thicket. 
 No conscience in those cruel hearts ; no feeling in those 
 mangling jaws ; no law that all the high legislators, and 
 noble senators, and honorable Great Father, and govern 
 ing people can grant to us now. Hasten ! hasten ! the 
 Horsetail or death the Horsetail or death ! 
 
 For the little stream we are straining to gain is called 
 by our people " The Horsetail," because of its foaming fine 
 white spray. 
 
 Now the baying is louder, fiercer, nearer, and the 
 laughter is pleasanter ha ! ha ! noble statesmen, you 
 are joining in the chase. O dignified Secretaries of the 
 Interior ! O pompous members of the Cabinet ! I see your 
 eyes gleaming over yonder hill watching the lark. Come 
 on, patriotic debaters on ! boasters of " equal laws." 
 
BLOOD-HOUNDS AXD LUNACY. 173 
 
 Ha! ha! how the learned editors scramble and jostle 
 and stride ha! ha! how the intelligent and truthful 
 reporters drop pencil and note-book and join the hunt! 
 Noble game, this ! Only country on all the face of the earth 
 in which you can have such sport : can t have it in Russia, 
 the serfs are free ; can t have it in England or Canada, the 
 Indians enjoy the protection of law; can t have it even in 
 the slave-hunting South of this same free America, for the 
 blacks are at least allowed to call themselves citizens 
 slaves no longer. But an Indian may have stolen a potato 
 or a turnip, which no white man ever does : therefore the 
 Indian can t be civilized. Hunt him ! kill him ! Ha! ha! 
 
 Now we ve gained the bank of the Horsetail. 
 
 "Quick!" panted Swallow; "tread with me upon the 
 
 pine bough you have brought; place your moccasins 
 
 .beside mine upon it; bind bunches of the pine-fringe on 
 
 your bare feet; set the bough adrift. So! Now for the 
 
 other side !" 
 
 Oh ! the pine fringes pierce our feet like needles ; the 
 current of the stream is fierce ; the quicksands lurk slyly 
 on every hand ; the slippery rocks try to cast us into the 
 waters. We gain the other bank ; we press on through 
 the long grass, crouching low that we may not be seen; 
 moccasins of pine-fringe are not for swift racing, but they 
 leave no trail-scent behind. On ! on ! on ! until the 
 baying of the baffled hounds and the curses of the dis 
 appointed cowboy and milkman die away in the distance, 
 and we reach the shady valleys we had been longing for. 
 Under a thicket of sumac we cast ourselves, panting, 
 gasping. Our hearts throb wildly and our temples beat 
 and rage. The lips of little Swallow are livid with fear 
 and exertion ; my own eyes I can feel bursting from their 
 sockets ; we are panting, gasping gasping, panting but 
 oh! safe, safe, safe! 
 
174 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 And I think of little Prairie Flower, sweet little bride 
 of mine, pursued and hunted down by the hounds of 
 lust and filthiness whose scent is unerring and devilish. 
 Oh, in all the plains of human law, in all the fields of 
 human charity, in all the green forests of pity for the 
 feeble, is there not one little pine bough of mercy that 
 can be thrown to her ? 
 
 " What took thee to the agent s mansion ?" Swallow 
 demanded, breaking suddenly the flow of my thoughts. 
 
 "What wonder that I should find myself, without 
 knowing how or why, near the spot where my bride is 
 imprisoned ? The mocking-bird hovers around the wicker 
 basket where the Indian boy coops up her young, hoping 
 to comfort if she may not rescue." 
 
 " But thou wert in the greatest danger, from which lit 
 tle Swallow always remember it was little Swallow ! 
 scarce rescued thee." 
 
 " Remember ! Dear little Swallow, if I were not wedded 
 in love to my Prairie Flower, I should hope to show my 
 gratitude by shielding thee, as my wife, from every danger 
 in the future." 
 
 I did not think how galling such words must have been 
 to her. 
 
 Then I added, sadly musing to myself : 
 
 "Oh ! I have shielded my true bride in a brave manner 
 indeed!" 
 
 Meanwhile the breast of little Swallow was heaving as 
 if some great storm raged within. Her eyes gleamed 
 with some strange passion, her cheeks were hot with some 
 great resolve ; yet her teeth and lips were tightly set toge 
 ther as if she strove agonizingly with herself to hide her 
 emotion. Her hands were clenched and she half started 
 up upon her feet, but reconsidering her resolution she sank 
 upon the ground again. Even in my own woe I noticed 
 
BLOOD-HOUNDS AND LUNACY. i?S 
 
 these singular evidences of some great struggle going on 
 in her heart. I half thought her insane for a moment, 
 but I did not conjecture the real cause of her agitation. 
 I did not know it until many weary months thereafter. 
 
 " Listen to me, Wolf Killer," she said, when at length 
 she had forced herself into a severe calmness. "Your 
 bride is not imprisoned. She might return to you at any 
 moment if she would." 
 
 " Is she really the waiting-maid of Gray Coat s wife ?" 
 I asked, not at first catching her terrible meaning. " Then 
 is she perhaps safe after all ! O Wakanda ! I thank thee !" 
 
 " I mean not that," Swallow answered fiercely. " She is 
 not in a woman s service, but a man s ; yet she might 
 return to thee if she would." 
 
 "False! false! false!" I cried, springing up. "Little 
 Swallow, I have honored and even loved thee, but if thou 
 tellest me this horrible lie I will hate thee I will kill 
 thee ! There is no law to prevent my killing an Indian !" 
 
 " But If it be true, will you love me still love me more 
 than before?" 
 
 This was said with the most piteous expression of plead 
 ing on the sweet upturned face of the girl. 
 
 " But it cannot be true !" I exclaimed. " If Prairie 
 Flower were free she would come to me swifter than you 
 ever saw wild dove wing herself back to her young. She 
 must be imprisoned by the villain Scar Face !" 
 
 The pleading look faded out of Swallow s face, and eager 
 hatred took its place. I had always considered the girl a 
 child, as indeed she was in years, and I had considered 
 her love for me as a childish passion which would soon 
 pass away; but now before my very eyes she seemed to 
 live several years in as many moments and to become a 
 woman, with a woman s stern hatred when her love is 
 refused. She straightened herself up, her lips trembling 
 
176 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 with anger, her eyes sparkling with it, her breast heaving 
 with it, her cheeks as red with it as the sumac berries 
 above her were red with ripeness, and shaking her taper 
 ing forefinger at me, she exclaimed : 
 
 " Thou hast treasured a love that was not thine ; thou 
 hast spurned a love that was. Sha-ta-ga-dta-tha, thou 
 knowest that at one time I was waiting-maid to the wife 
 of Gray Coat. It. was then that I learned the paths through 
 which to-day I have led thee to safety. It was then that 
 I became aware of the base nature of Scar Face, and when 
 I knew that he was casting his eyes upon thy Prairie 
 Flower, at first I shuddered, but at last I exulted. Yes, I 
 exulted ! For thou knowest little of an Indian woman s 
 heart if thou hast not weighed the dark deeds she will do 
 and the horrible thoughts she will entertain when stung 
 by jealousy. I saw thee devoted in thought and deed to 
 her. I hoped that if she were removed thou wouldst learn 
 to love little Swallow. So I consented to carry messages 
 from Scar Face to the bride, and she at first received them 
 spurningly, then timidly, and at last gladly." 
 
 " Thou liest!" I exclaimed through my clenched teeth. 
 
 " He promised to take her to be his wife and to make a 
 grand lady of her. This promise she joyously, believed. 
 When the moment had come for them to escape together, 
 the Wolf Killer being away in search of roses ha ! ha ! 
 she feigned the greatest sorrow, so as not to break the 
 heart of her father, the wise Um-pan-nez-zhe." 
 
 " She has broken it !" I bitterly exclaimed. 
 
 "What! is he dead?" 
 
 " He is dead !" 
 
 I did not at the moment particularly notice the strange 
 effect this announcement made upon little Swallow, who 
 had not returned to our village since the previous evening 
 and consequently did not know of the wise man s death. 
 
BLOOD-HOUNDS AND LUNACY. 177 
 
 But in after years I recalled the expression, half remorse 
 ful, half frightened, that passed over her face ; and remem 
 bered how for some moments she seemed unable to resume 
 her narrative. O Swallow ! thou wast too young and too 
 really good at heart to be a great deceiver, even though 
 thy passion was great; but thou didst cruelly and bitterly 
 succeed upon me, stunned by my own sad thoughts, that 
 day ! 
 
 " When they had gone," at length she resumed, " I 
 waited to see if thine eyes would be tender toward me, 
 and when they were not I dashed after the runaways, hop 
 ing to frighten them into returning by threatening to tell 
 the plot to thee. I overtook them in the very arbor where 
 we crouched hiding from the milkman this morning, and 
 there I confronted them." 
 
 "O Wakanda!" I exclaimed, interrupting the narrator, 
 whom I strangely, foolishly believed. " Spare me, Swal 
 low ! spare me !" 
 
 The little maiden regarded me anxiously for a moment, 
 as if to see what impression her words made upon me, 
 and then continued : 
 
 " When I demanded that they should return they 
 laughed aloud, and your own little Prairie Flower said: 
 Go and tell Wolf Killer what you have seen. Tell him that 
 I love Scar Face and that the morrow shall indeed be my 
 wedding-day. But I shall be united to a noble white man, 
 and shall be a grand lady instead of an Indian s squaw/ 
 This she said, and with another laugh they passed on. I 
 lingered round the grand mansion the whole night, hoping 
 that she might repent and come out to me when she knew 
 the real character of Scar Face. That she did not repent 
 thou thyself knowest; and while lingering to succor her 
 I came upon her unhappy lover, and had the bliss of res 
 cuing him from a fierce and bloody death." 
 
178 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 " Swallow !" I cried, grasping her hand with a passionate 
 strength that must have made it ache, " wilt thou swear 
 before the great Wakanda that thy story is true, and that 
 these were Prairie Flower s words?" 
 
 " I I but why should I swear it ? If I had told thee 
 a falsehood would I not be willing to twice perjure my 
 soul to uphold it ? Take my word, or go on in thy ridicu 
 lous deception, and when thy bride comes back to thee 
 accept her as she is !" 
 
 " I believe thee !" I moaned. " Why hast thou cruelly 
 saved me from the jaws of the blood-hounds to be de 
 voured by this fierce agony ?" 
 
 Let no one think me easily duped and worthy the scorn 
 and contempt of all strong hearts, until he has placed 
 himself in the physical and mental condition to which I 
 had been reduced until he has wandered though a whole 
 despairing night upon the prairies, racked by every fear 
 and persecuted by every doubt, and until he has measured 
 that strange jealousy of which the loving heart is capable, 
 which often assumes the garb of humility and prompts one 
 to believe, on any evidence that seems at all adequate, that 
 the object of his love loves him not. O my Wagh-ta ! my 
 bride! in my heart of hearts I knew even at that moment 
 that I cruelly wronged thee, yet maddened by uncertainty, 
 deep in the raging currents of despair, which are colder 
 and fiercer than the swirls of the Missouri, because thou 
 hadst been torn from my arms, I persuaded myself that I 
 believed her I thought I believed thee false. 
 
 Again the pleading, loving look came into the eyes of 
 little Swallow, and turning a frightened, flushed, piteous 
 face up to me, she said : 
 
 " Dost thou not yet love me ? Wilt thou but whisper 
 once in little Swallow s ear Khta-we-tha? " * 
 * I love thee. 
 
BLOOD-HOUNDS AND LUNACY. i?9 
 
 " Love thee ? No !" I cried, casting her from me. " How 
 can I love one who confesses to have helped to rob me of 
 my bride, and who exulted to know that she should be 
 won from me ! I would kill thee, but that thou hast told 
 me certainly of my of Wagh of her /" For the first time 
 her name was bitter upon my lips, and I gnashed my 
 teeth in rage upon her as if I were the wolf himself and not 
 his killer. But ah ! my little Swallow, my dear little 
 Swallow, now, many years after that morning under the 
 sumacs, I do love thee ; I understand the strange attempt 
 thou didst make to win my heart ; I treasure thy 
 memory next to the love of sweet Prairie Flower herself; 
 and if the angel into which thou hast been transformed 
 could pass by me as I write, I would kiss and weep upon 
 the hem of its garment ! 
 
 When I had thus madly repelled the deluded little 
 maiden, I turned from her and rushed wildly away. 
 
 Away ! away ! away ! wading rivers stumbling through 
 bramble patches panting in shady nooks a moment 
 lapping water from the spring (oh ! that it could cool 
 my soul!) tearing blindly through forests darkened by 
 heavy night starting at shadows, and yet hoping for 
 danger and praying for death afraid of the sound of my 
 own footsteps, and yet heeding not the crackling of the 
 underbrush as the black bear plunged through it. On! 
 on ! on I unresting, tottering, scrambling, racing, despair 
 ing vainly striving to get rid of myself by fleeing from 
 place to place; pausing upon beetling rocks that over 
 looked the shining, surging river, and trying passionately 
 and with tears to cast myself off, but held back by some 
 tormenting power. On ! on ! on ! the days chase the 
 nights, and the nights chase the days, and both chase me 
 the howling hours hard at my heels dreams, phantoms, 
 memories, shadows, noises, fears, join in one yelling pack 
 
180 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 and between all horrid barks and bays cry, " We ll have 
 him down ! we ll have him down !" What I thought and 
 fancied only Wakanda will ever know. The only rest I 
 had was when a storm was raging. Only in the contortions 
 of wrestling clouds, and the thundering stampede of the 
 buffaloes of the air, and the flashing of the lightning 
 which is so vivid itself that no likeness can be found for it 
 only in such turbulent commotions could I find any com 
 panionship. I would stand on some little ant-mound or 
 tree-stump in the prairie, and fold my arms when the rain 
 began to fall, and smile when the lightning played around 
 my head, and the fierce voices of the storm roared and 
 laughed at me ; and when the wind would come to batter 
 me from my perch, I would brace myself against it and 
 sneer in its teeth ; and when the storm was full and wildest 
 I would open my arms to take rain and lightning and 
 thunder and tempest into them and greet them as my 
 brothers. 
 
 When the storm began to fail I sadly watched it depart 
 as if it were the one great comfort of my life. And when 
 it was gone and the sky became clear, all my passion and 
 fear and misery came back upon me a hundred times 
 fiercer than before, and leaving my blessings upon the 
 stump or ant-hill where I had enjoyed one little moment 
 of repose, I would start my pained, bleeding feet upon 
 my hopeless, aimless journey. Through the hissing wet 
 grass over the tree-trunks hot yet with the lightning 
 stroke that felled them to the earth through the swollen 
 muddy creeks, from which the very frogs spring up with 
 the swiftness of deers to join the chase away ! away ! 
 away ! 
 
 What years I lived in those few nights and days ! What 
 agonies I suffered ! I hated the day for its brightness and 
 the night that it was not gloomier, but I hated the day 
 
BLOOD-HOUNDS AND LUNACY. 181 
 
 more than the night, and grew so much in my detestation 
 of it that soon I had to lie under thick bushes all the hours 
 that the sun shone, and cover my head with dirt to keep 
 the light from driving me mad. 
 
 I though always of my Wagh-ta my poor, deluded little 
 bride. My years had had but one passion, but one happi 
 ness my love for her ; and now that she had left me I 
 was more deeply despairing than perhaps I should have 
 been had not my life been so retired and simple. I 
 would catch myself, as I rushed along, thinking of her 
 sweet ways and soft breath and wonderful eyes. Then 1 
 would fiercely try to forget them. And I would nerve my 
 poor, frantic brain to see if I really did believe what 
 Swallow had said. Was Wagh-ta false, or had she been 
 torn away against her will? Was I Wolf Killer at all? 
 Was this agony real, or did I but dream ? And I would 
 dash headlong into a bunch of wild blackberry bushes to 
 awaken me. 
 
 W T hither I went I know not. I paid but little attention to 
 the scenery, yet even in my frenzy certain vivid pictures of 
 the country I passed through fixed themselves in my 
 memory, as the images of a horrible dream remain in the 
 mind after the day has come. I know that the country I 
 traversed became more broken day by day ; the settlements 
 of white men, by which I would creep fearful and breathless 
 at night, became fewer and fewer; the prairies gave place 
 to the hills and the hills to the mountains. The great gray 
 rocks under which I would now cast -myself when utterly 
 fatigued were seamed and ridged with purple and scarlet, 
 knotted and twisted into all fantastic shapes, and scarred 
 and chiseled by the cold storms which dashed daily over 
 them. These scenes reminded me painfully, and yet with 
 a tantalizing pleasure, of the story the wise Um-pan-nez-zhe 
 had told us of his boyhood s home; and by consequence 
 
1 82 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 they brought before me as everything I looked upon 
 seemed sworn to do the face of my poor bride. 
 
 These wild scenes acted upon my mind just as the 
 storm did theyaw r ed me into calmness, and in their rug 
 ged grandeur I felt that I had sympathy and brotherhood. 
 I thought much of what Standing Elk had suffered in 
 just such scenes, and I grew strong in the fancied presence 
 of his example. I blessed him again and again for what 
 he had been to me, and I blessed Wakanda that the wise 
 man had died unconscious of the shame that rested upon 
 him. I had no curses in my heart to heap upon Scar 
 Face even, although I moaned day and night, " Wa-gha ! 
 Wa-gha ! * How dreadful is thy power ! How helpless is 
 our unhappy race in thy grasp ! No law, no hope ! Wa- 
 gha! Wa-gha!" 
 
 Wandering aimlessly among these great hills I came 
 one evening upon a little lake, whose waters were so blue 
 and beautiful that it seemed as if a part of the deep sky 
 had fallen down and been caught and retained within the 
 rocky fingers of the banks. My mind was now so calm 
 that I could enter, with something of my former enjoy 
 ment, into a contemplation of serene beauty, and so I sat 
 down upon a mossy boulder to survey the scene at my 
 leisure. On one side of the lake the mountains rose rug 
 ged and precipitous from the very edge of the waters, 
 while on the other side there was a little stretch of level 
 sod which gradually dimpled into hiils and broke into 
 towering crags. The lake itself was so clear that I could 
 see the bright-fmned trout sporting unmolested in the 
 deep places, idling under rock-shadows, or proudly exhib 
 iting their crimson spots to their mates. The shadows 
 of the hills seemed to float upon the surface of the waters 
 
 * "White man ! White man !" 
 
BLOOD-HOUNDS AND LUNACY. 183 
 
 as if they feared to pollute the pure depths. Near the 
 farther bank a flock of wild ducks fed among the ripples, 
 and now and again expanded their bright wings in the 
 sunlight. The distant murmur of irrepressible brooks 
 hasting toward the lake mingled tauntingly with the 
 hoarse growl of the larger stream that was forced to leave 
 that quiet resting place and begin its weary journey 
 through the haunts of men. The fern stalks along the 
 banks waved their fronds sleepily ; the fringy mosses 
 rose and fell upon the miniature tides that put into the 
 tiny bays between the pebbles, and the rows of white 
 flowers seemed like a troop of fairy antelopes that had 
 come down to the water s edge to drink, and, charmed by 
 the loveliness, had neglected to depart. 
 
 It was all so beautiful and restful that for the first time 
 since my sad loss I could think it all calmly over. How 
 strange it seemed that such heartless passions and fierce 
 agonies could be in a world where the lakes were so still 
 and the flowers so lovely. Were not these holy scenes 
 mingled with the unholy for the purpose of pointing the 
 sick heart to the better world beyond ? I leaned my hol 
 low cheek upon my thin hand and brooded for an hour 
 over this thought. The fire of my passion seemed to 
 have burned out, and it was with a strange feeling of re 
 lief that I found I could not awaken a single bitter thought, 
 although I summoned before my mind all the persons by 
 whom I had been wronged. I could even speak the name 
 of my lost bride, and when I found that it was not bitter 
 upon my lips I repeated it over and over " Wagh-ta! 
 Wagh-ta !" "And speaking that sweet name I fell into a 
 gentle sleep. 
 
 When I awoke it was high noon of the next day, and 
 the first object that caught my sight was a white man sit 
 ting upon the root of a tree scarce five feet from me. His 
 
1 84 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 head was down between his knees ; with his hands he was 
 tugging at his curly black hair; his clothes were rent and 
 cut as if his journey had been as long as mine; streaks of 
 hardened blood scarred his hands and naked feet and hag 
 gard face ; and his wild eyes were glaring upon me in a 
 look of the most terrible longing and desire. At first I 
 half suspected that this was one of the horrible creatures 
 which had been pushing their leering faces into my dreams 
 and dogging me with phantom feet, but all doubt of his 
 real existence vanished when the man with foaming lips 
 hissed these words : 
 
 " Ha, ha ! I have found you horrible, ungainly, devilish 
 reptile that have been riding on my back all these years 
 I have found you ! I was watching you all the long night, 
 and while the morning came, and didn t I draw a rattle 
 snake over your lips to awaken you, and you kissed it as 
 if it were your bride? Ha! ha! You ve been down to 
 Boston, have you ? And did you see the treasurer of the 
 Non-interference Missionary Band of Hope ? No ! you 
 didn t, didn t, didn t he s here ; your favored eyes behold 
 him. But I ll have your blood it shall trickle through 
 these fingers you are mine, mine, mine!" 
 
 Unable to stand his horrible jargon any longer, I began 
 to rise from the ground, when, with a piercing scream, 
 which was half a laugh as well, the bloody creature sprang 
 upon me with the strength of ten buffaloes and hurled me 
 back to the earth, I clutched him with my arms, and we 
 tugged, twisted, wrestled, now one having the advantage, 
 and now the other, until, with a scream wilder and shriller 
 than the largest eagle could have made, he caught me in 
 his arms as if I had been a babe, and plunged with me into 
 the lake. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 LITTLE SWALLOW TAKES THE TRAIL. 
 
 WE must now return to little Swallow, so that you 
 may have the whole story in your mind as we pass along. 
 Many weary months had passed before I fully knew 
 what thoughts throbbed through her busy mind under 
 the sumacs that morning, and what brave deeds she per 
 formed to help and save my bride ; but as I do know 
 them while I write, it will be better for you to learn them 
 now. 
 
 When I turned from Swallow and rushed so wildly 
 away she followed me with her eyes, in which the piteous 
 pleading was mixed with a look of deep disappointment. 
 She had played a desperate game, and now that she had 
 so plainly failed to gain her object, she saw how foolish 
 and wicked the whole attempt had been. Mournfully she 
 called upon me to return, extending her arms toward the 
 path I had taken, and weeping hot tears of repentance ; 
 but either I did not hear her voice or I would not obey. 
 Standing for a few moments in this attitude of guilty 
 despair, she at length sank down upon the ground and 
 covered her head with her blanket. 
 
 "Woe! woe! woe!" she moaned, rocking herself from 
 side to side; "would that long since I had sung my Dta- 
 wa-e ! * Would that I were dead 1 How could I so wrong 
 thee, Wagh-ta ! how could I so blast thy life, my noble, 
 generous Sha-ta-ga-dta-tha ! Why did my lips speak 
 such falsehoods when my heart loved so well ? And why 
 
 * Death son^. 
 
1 86 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 did the brave Wolf Killer mention the name of the dead 
 Um-pan-nez-zhe ? O wise man ! wise man ! How poorly I 
 have kept thy teachings, how shamefully I have forgotten 
 the sacred reverence in which thou art by all my people 
 held ! And thou art dead too! Upon thy pale lips and 
 stiffened cheeks did I dare to heap falsehoods? What is 
 life to me now ? Without the love of Wolf Killer and 
 with this great shame resting upon my heart, it were far 
 better to die." As she thus mourned she saw at her very 
 feet a poisonous root, one bite of which would tear soul 
 from body ; and she instantly resolved thus to die. Then, 
 as is our custom in the face of death, she broke out into 
 her death song : " Farewell, O glorious, glorious sun ! I 
 look forth upon thee even from my agony and remorse; 
 I look upon thee for the last time. Farewell, O swelling 
 prairies and shining river and blooming flowers! ye are 
 all so far purer and better than poor, unhappy Swallow, 
 that I leave you unstained in your loveliness ! Now I am 
 but am I, ready? Shall I eat this root this little root 
 that my hand so easily holds, and die? Let me think, O 
 my pounding heart! Would that be bravest and most 
 noble? What will Wakanda say to me when I appear 
 before him ? How will the wise Um-pan-nez-zhe weep for 
 me ! Nay ! nay ! I will live. Tis cowardly to take one s 
 own life when so much ought to be done. I will face the 
 injury I have wrought and repair it if I may. Up! up! 
 I will hasten to Wagh-ta and save her from the cruel 
 clutches of the white man. O Wolf Killer! I have tried 
 two means of comforting thee, one by proffered love and 
 one by bitter falsehood. I will try another I will save 
 thy bride. Love and hate have iailed, unselfishness may 
 succeed !" 
 
 With these words she sprang up, and tearing the bandage 
 of pine-fringe from her bleeding feet, started upon her 
 
LITTLE SWALLOW TAKES THE TRAIL. 187 
 
 noble mission. Jealousy had been conquered or forgotten 
 in the fierce struggle she had had with remorse; and now 
 her whole soul was absorbed in the desire to repair what 
 her misguided love had wrought. And hers was a noble 
 soul truly. She was one of those strong, self-reliant little 
 bodies, who, having adopted a wise course of action, pur 
 sue it to the end. And if, as in the case of Swallow, such 
 a strong nature is apt to fall into errors or even misdeeds, 
 it is the quickest to see the fault and the wisest to undo it. 
 She had a remarkable store of that womanly faculty which 
 reveals, as if by inspiration, what is to be done and the 
 right time for doing it ; as indeed had been shown in our 
 race with the bloodhounds that very morning. Blessings 
 upon thee, little Swallow, as thou art crossing the Horse 
 tail again with bare and bleeding feet, and retracing thy 
 steps toward the beautiful mansion of the agent, search 
 ing for my love ! 
 
 The wise little maiden presumed that Scar Face had 
 poor Wagh-ta in some place of imprisonment which was 
 not far from the mansion of his father, and yet outside of 
 the building itself. She understood the singular desire 
 of the young man that the good opinion his mother had 
 of him should not be altered by any knowledge of his mis 
 deeds, and therefore she argued that he would be very 
 secret and watchful in his present scheme. She thus 
 came to the conclusion that Scar Face would consume 
 some time in the pretense of gaining Wagh-ta s real love 
 by a hypocritical offer of his own, so that his shameful 
 crime should not be talked of among the Indians, and 
 thus reach his mother s ears. Thus she would have 
 opportunity to find the prisoner and help her to escape. 
 If worst came to worst, Swallow resolved to notify his 
 mother of the whole transaction, and thus use her influ 
 ence over her son to make him desist. 
 
1 88 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 Revolving these thoughts in her mind, the self-reliant 
 girl made her way toward Gray Coat s home. Her ser 
 vice with the wife of the agent had been so long and so 
 recent, that all the employes knew her and allowed her 
 to come and go as she pleased. Even the tan-eared 
 bloodhounds opened their sleepy eyes for a moment, and 
 then closed them again when she passed their kennel, as 
 if they were satisfied that she had a right to tread uppn 
 the sacred ground they guarded. 
 
 As Swallow thus gained the garden on this eventful 
 morning she met the milkman going toward the barn. 
 
 " Helloa ! Swallow, is that you ?" he said condescend 
 ingly. "Come back to visit us again? You came too 
 late this time, my dear. We had some grand sport this 
 morning chasing one of your worthless race." 
 
 " Did you catch him ?" asked Swallow, and for the life 
 of her she could not keep a sly twinkle out of her eye. 
 
 " No ! Drat it all, we didn t !" 
 
 " Niver ye moind !" said the Irish gardener, who now 
 came up, and resting on his spade joined in the conversa 
 tion. " It s me opzne-ion that we ll have another whirl at 
 em some of thim foin mornins. To think of the biggars 
 crapin around an honest man s house whin he s a slapin 
 away as paceful as a kitten ! It s me opi ne-lon that we 
 ort to nip em in the bood, it is." 
 
 Little Swallow s blood was up, so turning her flashing 
 eyes upon the foreigner she asked : 
 
 "And how long have yo^i been in this land of liberty 
 that you have learned to judge other people, in true 
 American style, without a hearing?" 
 
 " Nigh onto a twelve mun , me leddy. And I m purty I 
 well plazed wid all I see, cept that the abrigoinal savages 
 ort to be anni-//*>//-letted. It s me op/>/^-ion an honest 
 man 11 niver get his rights till the rid divils are gone." 
 
LITTLE SWALLOW TAKES THE TRAIL. 189 
 
 " And what are your rights, noble sir?" 
 " Hundred and sixty acres o land all paid for, but now 
 occupied by the Injins, and no sass from youngsters!" 
 " And what are our rights, noble sir ?" 
 " You haint got none to spake of." 
 "Ha! ha!" said the milkman. "He! he!" said the 
 cow-boy, who had pushed his speckled nose into the 
 group. 
 
 Encouraged by this flattering reception of his eloquence 
 the Irishman squared his elbows, tipped his hat upon the 
 side of his head, and having spit once or twice upon the 
 ground as if in deep thought, resumed the attack as 
 follows : 
 
 " Look ee, me gerrel. It s me op/#*-ion ye ve niver 
 been to Ne-York harbor, hev ye? Well, in a prominint 
 attichude in said harbor, there s goin to be a jegantic 
 statute o^ Liberty, holdin in her moighty hand a torruch, 
 out to i^ n r to loight me honest counthrymen to the broad 
 shores ^ this land of the free and hum of the brave. 
 And we re a comin , too. And you red-skins is a-goin . 
 And that s all there is about it." 
 
 The brave little maiden turned her brave look upon 
 them all and answered : 
 
 " It seems very strange that while the most ignorant 
 people of the world can come to this land, and claim and 
 receive equality under her laws with her greatest states 
 men ; the poor Indians, who have always lived in happi 
 ness and freedom on this very soil, are put under the 
 meanest whim of the most evil man. The torch-light you 
 tell of may welcome your countrymen ; we do not com 
 plain of that. But I think some of its light might shine 
 toward the red man, who owns the land that you are 
 pushing him out of." 
 
 " Ha ! ha !" said the milkman. 
 
19 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 " Ho ! ho !" said the gardener. 
 
 " He ! he !" said the speckled-nosed cow-boy. 
 
 Then the three profound statesmen stepped aside and 
 allowed the Indian girl to pass.* 
 
 Without heeding their sneers the brave Swallow made 
 her way to the mansion of the agent, with the vague pur 
 pose of finding Scar Face and watching him until he 
 should slip away to the prison of little Prairie Flower, 
 whither she would follow him, and do what she could to 
 defend or even rescue the captive. In the spacious recep 
 tion-room of Gray Coat s residence she found the agent 
 and his wife and son pleasantly conversing upon the 
 events of the day. The lady, with whom she had always 
 been a favorite, gave her a kind welcome ; and little 
 Swallow, taking a station behind her chair, prepared to 
 profit by any hints that Scar Face might drop in the con 
 versation as to the place in which Wagh-ta wS concealed. 
 
 "Are you sure," the lady said, resuming their iversa- 
 tion, " that it was a thief whose track the dogs cair^ht and 
 followed this morning? Have you missed anything from 
 the premises, or was anything disturbed ?" 
 
 "What object, dear mother," Scar Face answered with 
 the greatest reverence, " could any of the red heathen 
 have prowling around our dwelling if it were not the hope 
 of securing plunder? And why did he flee so swiftly from 
 the hounds and plan so skillfully to escape, if he did not 
 feel himself guilty?" 
 
 " But why, dear husband," the lady said, without seem 
 ing to notice the arguments of her son, " is it necessary to 
 keep such cruel and unthinking instruments as these 
 hounds with which to execute justice ? They are just as 
 
 * The attentive reader will discover that this scene in the garden is 
 simply a shorthand report of one of the recent debates in Congress 
 (somewhat condensed) . 
 
LITTLE SWALLOW TAKES THE TRAIL. 191 
 
 likely to fall upon and strangle the innocent as the guilty, 
 since you teach them to follow every Indian s trail. Why 
 could not culprits, if there be such, be brought to punish 
 ment in some more equitable and humane way ?" 
 
 My wife," the smooth voice of the comfortable and 
 hearty agent replied, "it would be very hard to find an 
 Indian who is not in some manner and degree a culprit, 
 so that the hounds can scarcely do any great amount of 
 injustice, even though their jaws close upon red throats 
 indiscriminately. Besides, in this wild country this is all 
 the law we have." 
 
 "It is all the law ive have," exclaimed Swallow from 
 behind the chair, unable to keep silence any longer. 
 "And let me tell you, Gray Coat, it makes all the differ 
 ence in the world whether you are before or behind the 
 bloodhounds when they are on a trail. If you could hear 
 them after you just once, you might have a different 
 opinion of the justice of this kind of law. " 
 
 " Come, come !" exclaimed Scar Face sneeringly, " we 
 have a legislator here." 
 
 " But, little Swallow," the agent replied, in his smooth 
 tone, " since the Great Father has seen fit, in his wisdom, 
 to deny you the protection of our national laws, is it not 
 best to submit ?" 
 
 " Our unhappy race, as a race, can but submit ; but we 
 as a tribe," said Swallow, with a heaving breast, "have 
 one and but one hope of succor." 
 
 " What is that ?" laughed Scar Face. 
 
 Turning her steady eyes upon the young man the 
 maiden slowly replied : " It is in the kindness and grace 
 of thy sweet mother s heart, which surely cannot see the 
 innocent oppressed !" 
 
 With these words Swallow knelt at the lady s feet and 
 hid her face in her garments. With a laugh which sadly 
 
I9 2 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 professed to be careless the young man went out and up 
 the broad stairs to his own room, and his father, with a 
 hearty, comfortable step, passed into his office on the 
 other side of the hall. When they had gone Swallow 
 dared to look up, and she saw that the lady s eyes were 
 full of tears. 
 
 " Is there need, then, of my interference to prevent thy 
 simple-hearted race being wronged ?" the lady asked. 
 
 " Thou shalt see, dear lady ; thou shalt see !" 
 
 And without trusting herself to say more, lest in her 
 excitement she should reveal the crime of Scar Face 
 prematurely, Swallow rushed from the lady s presence. 
 She was sure that the young man had meditated, and per 
 haps accomplished, a cruel purpose, and though she did 
 not hesitate to reveal her suspicions to his mother on his 
 account, or from any felt probability of their being ill- 
 founded, she still wished to spare the lady until she dis 
 covered that her interference alone could save the un 
 happy Wagh-ta. 
 
 After this singular but eventful intervfew Swallow 
 hastened to the quarters of the female servants below to 
 inquire, as cautiously as possible, so as not to arouse a 
 dangerous curiosity, if Wagh-ta had been brought to the 
 mansion at all. Her suspicions were fully sustained and 
 justified by the intelligence, obtained after the most care 
 ful questioning, that not one of all the servants had seen 
 the missing girl upon the premises. In some secret 
 prison the sweet Prairie Flower drooped, and there was 
 nothing now for Swallow to do, as she thought, but to 
 watch the only hall by which Scar Face could escape 
 from his room, and when she saw him issue forth, follow 
 him, and thus learn the whereabouts of the captive. 
 Taking her station therefore at a window in the servants 
 quarters where she could command this whole passage with 
 
LITTLE SWALLOW TAKES THE TRAIL. 193 
 
 her eyes, she made herself as comfortable as possible for a 
 watch that might, as she correctly surmised, last for hours. 
 While Swallow is thus watching I must recall one little 
 incident in her life showing how firm of nerve and strong 
 of purpose she was. One day, when she was a little girl, 
 a troop of us had gone away upon the prairies in search 
 of plovers eggs. We boys having our moccasins and the 
 girls their scarfs full of them, we sat down under a clump 
 of bushes to rest and count our treasures. Little Swallow 
 having been among the most active of us all was soon 
 overcome with fatigue, and sank back upon the grass as 
 if to sleep. When we had gone on with our sport for a 
 few minutes, my attention was suddenly arrested by the 
 horrified look upon the face of one of the other girls. 
 She had clasped her hands as if in agony, her lips were 
 trembling and pale ; and her eyes, starting from their 
 sockets, were turned upon Swallow. I followed the 
 direction of her gaze, and saw the cause of her horror. 
 Creeping across Swallow s tender bosom was a huge cen 
 tipede, whose sting we all knew was a painful and instant 
 death. Swallow, who was now wide-awake, saw her 
 danger, and instantly comprehending that her only safety 
 was in perfect silence and repose, she moved not a muscle, 
 allowed not a nerve to tremble or a cord to tighten, while 
 the horrible and deadly creature crept the full breadth of 
 her bosom and across one beautiful arm, imprinting with 
 every one of his hundred steps a burning, festering, 
 though not a deadly, sting. This ordeal was the harder 
 that we had seen but few of these creatures around our 
 homes, and its sudden appearance, if not its terrible 
 nature, must almost certainly have startled a less firm 
 person into a movement or exclamation that would have 
 been instant death. Of such sterling courage is an Indian 
 maiden capable ! 
 
194 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 Thi long afternoon passed as Swallow sat patiently 
 at tae servants window, and the twilight began to hide 
 slyly among the trees, yet there were no signs of the 
 coming forth of Scar Face. The maiden watched until 
 her eyes ached so that she scarcely could see at all, and at 
 every sound which might by any possibility be a footfall 
 she started nervously, as she might have done had the 
 sudden wail of the panther issued from behind a neigh 
 boring rock. 
 
 When she had given up all hope of being successful in 
 her plan, her attention was arrested by the shuffling step 
 of some one approaching from the wild woods which 
 grew around the cultivated lawn before the house. A 
 narrow path ran through these woods, almost concealed 
 by the heavy overhanging underbrush and lower tree- 
 boughs. Swallow fixed her attention upon this path and 
 soon saw the leaves and brush waving, and then they 
 were parted, and a wrinkled faced, grizzly-haired, and 
 brow-bent woman stepped forth. She was apparently 
 very old. Her limbs trembled with feebleness as she 
 shuffled along, her cheeks were sunken and pale, and hei 
 eyes, although strangely wild and bright, looked forth from 
 beneath brows which made the fierceness of her glance 
 the more appalling. As she walked along she mumbled 
 and cast a wild glance about her, as if she were engaged 
 in some hellish work of witchery. She was such a wretch 
 as in the simple legends of my people is supposed to sit, 
 naked and horrible, upon the rocky edge of some high 
 cliff, presiding, with a demon s glee, over the bursting of 
 the blizzard-hurricane, and laughing horridly so as to be 
 heard in the pauses of the tempest when the wind sweeps 
 a toil-made village into a moaning ruin. Swallow in 
 stinctively determined that this horrid hag had something 
 to do with the imprisonment of Wagh-ta, although she 
 
LITTLE SWALLOW TAKES THE TRAIL. 195 
 
 could not imagine from what dark abode of sin such a 
 foul creature could have arisen, since during her whole 
 service with the agent s wife she had never seen this per 
 son about the house. As the woman opened the gate 
 and came into the lawn, Swallow became strangely excited 
 and could scarce restrain the fierce desire to burst from 
 her hiding-place and grapple with the hideous accomplice 
 of Scar Face, as she already regarded her. But knowing 
 that the safety of Prairie Flower depended on her discre 
 tion and presence of mind, the little maiden wrapped her 
 blanket more closely around her, and, still barefoot, 
 stole cautiously forth. Hiding under the dusk shadow 
 of a flowering bush until the woman had passed, she fell 
 into her path and began the stealthy tracking of her steps. 
 Swallow thought of the bloodhounds, of their pertinacity 
 and endurance, and determined to be like them, as now 
 she had taken the trail. 
 
 The woman shuffled toward the kitchen, and as she 
 disappeared through the lighted doorway Swallow dis 
 covered that she carried a basket under her ragged shawl. 
 Hastily running forward and concealing herself behind 
 the kitchen porch, the little maiden overheard the follow 
 ing short conversation. 
 
 " What do you say you want ?" asked the servant-girl. 
 
 " I want the pastries and the goodies and the vittels 
 as the young master ordered ye to git for me," said a 
 whining voice, which Swallow supposed was that of the 
 hag. 
 
 " What do you want of such good things as these cakes 
 and puddings and pies?" said the girl. 
 
 " Don t ye suppose I likes de//v6acies as much as any 
 
 un 
 
 " Where do you live, Aunt Mollie, anyway ? Why do 
 you skulk around in this way? Why not come and live 
 
196 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 with the other white folks here there are few enough 
 of us and rest your bones on a decent bed, instead of 
 wandering around through the woods and sleeping at 
 night on the damp leaves as they say you do? You 
 only have one life, and you ought to make the most of it." 
 
 " Ah, bah ! Gim me the vittels and the goodies as the 
 young master ordered, and mind yer own business that s 
 what /say." 
 
 " But, Mollie, we girls all pity you. In the bottom of 
 your heart isn t there one bit of womanly feeling one 
 wish to live as others do ?" 
 
 " Come, come, gal ! Does yer think there is no fun but 
 to live in grand houses ? Does yer think the only thing 
 worth doin is to tread carpits and sleep in beds ? Oh, ye 
 don t know what Old Mollie lives fer ye don t know that 
 a woman s love when turned bitter is stronger than when 
 it was sweet. Ye never saw the bright pictures in a 
 snake s eyes shinin in the night ye never tasted of the 
 honey there is in a groan. Oh, ye don t know what life 
 is, gal ! I hate men, and I hate women, and when I kin 
 do an ill turn I do it. That s me!" 
 
 "You re too old a woman, Mollie 
 
 " Mind yer own business !" 
 
 After this amiable dialogue there was a silence of a few 
 moments as if the servant, unable to influence the woman 
 to a more sensible course of life, were filling her basket 
 with the provisions demanded. Then the woman came 
 forth, and glancing stealthily around, as if she feared pur 
 suit, took her way toward the path through the woods in 
 which Swallow had first seen her. The little Indian 
 maiden followed with a soft step and a beating heart. 
 
 After crossing the lawn and entering the woods, Old 
 Mollie increased her gait as much as her feeble limbs 
 would permit ; but the spry little Swallow had no diffi- 
 
LITTLE SWALLOW TAKES THE TRAIL. 19? 
 
 culty in keeping as near her as was prudent. The stars 
 peeping silently down between the leaves afforded a holy 
 light which seemed to the meditative maiden sadly 
 polluted, in being used by Old Mollie for such unholy 
 purposes; and so she determined to redeem back the 
 bright radiance to Wakanda, by using it in designs of 
 rescue, as well. Oh how neutral seem Wakanda s benefits, 
 that man may stamp them with the image of angel or of 
 devil, as he please ! The path wound down into a thickly- 
 wooded defile, and at right angles crossed the dry bed of 
 a small stream. Up this pebbled water-course the old 
 woman unhesitatingly took her way, evidently under 
 standing every inch of the ground she trod upon. The 
 darkness was heavier here, the stars being hidden, and 
 the shrubs and branches of near trees overhung their way 
 so that they were often compelled to creep in order to 
 make any progress at all. Swallow found it necessary to 
 keep within a few feet of the hag, lest she should lose her 
 in the darkness. She was so near that she could hear the 
 old woman s mumbling, which never for a moment ceased, 
 and in the silence and gloom sounded weird and awful 
 enough. 
 
 "Pretty thing to be a doin ," she grumbled, "packin 
 goodies to a squaw ! And I has to pet her up, has I, and 
 tell her how good and noble the young master is ? Pretty 
 thing that he couldn t find a white gal to love. Sort o 
 novelty in this doin s, I expect. H m ! To make me 
 foller and lead around this away. Pretty thing this." 
 
 In little Swallow s heart was a strange mixture of grief 
 and gladness when she heard these words grief that one 
 bearing a woman s shape could be so debased by sin as to 
 cherish such an unwomanly hate and so cruel an ambition 
 gladness, because her words implied that the woman 
 was leading the way to the prison of poor Wagh-ta. And 
 
1 98 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 so indeed it proved, for they had not gone far before Old 
 Mollie stopped suddenly, seemed to listen intently for a 
 moment, and then producing a bunch of keys, placed one 
 in a lock the bolt of which flew back with a screech. 
 Swallow could see nothing, but she heard a door open and 
 the scraping of a pair of heavy shoes upon the step. 
 While she was puzzling her little brain, for the best course 
 of action to pursue, a light was suddenly struck within 
 the hut which the woman had evidently entered, and 
 streaming through the still open door, and the wide 
 cracks between the rude boards of which the building was 
 composed, shone brightly upon the maiden. Fortunately 
 Old Mollie s back was turned toward the door, so she did 
 not discover the startled little spy ; and Swallow springing 
 lightly aside, hid in the bushes that were nearest at hand, 
 where she could see all that passed within the hut without 
 being seen herself. 
 
 A brief survey revealed that the building was simply 
 a shed which had been occupied by the workmen while 
 constructing the agent s mansion. It had evidently been 
 removed by Scar Face to this hidden spot, that it might 
 be used to carry out his sinister plots. The hut contained 
 a rude table, a bed, and a few chairs, upon one of which 
 sat the unhappy Wagh-ta in agony and tears. 
 
 " Come, honey," mumbled the old woman, as she placed 
 her basket upon the table. " Come, and jest taste the 
 goodies and the vittels as the good young master has sent 
 ye. Dry yer eyes, honey, for many is the nice white gal as 
 would like to be in yer place, my larkie. Come now, and 
 don t pout no longer." 
 
 Swallow saw the wretched captive lift her head indig 
 nantly as if to reply, but having no heart even for scorn 
 she let her chin fall upon her breast and betook herself to 
 the sad refuge of tears again. Her beautiful hair fell over 
 
LITTLE SWALLOW TAKES. I HE TRAIL. 199 
 
 her shoulders, and as she \vept she might have been taken 
 for that benign and lovely spirit who, in the simple legends 
 of my people, is contrasted with the storm-witch, and who 
 is represented as sitting among the highest tassels of the 
 birch-tree, sifting her tears through raven tresses, when 
 the evening shower weeps in the sky. 
 
 " Come, honey," Old Mollie mumbled as she took the 
 eatables from the basket ; " dry yer eyes, now ; there s a 
 larkie. Don t you know as the young master may catch 
 you any moment in them ways ! Oh ! he s a noble, fine 
 un, he is! Generous and a thoughtful, and a fine! 
 (Curse it ! Old Moll s mouth ain t for sweet words !) 
 That s what he is. Come now, eat a slice of this cake. 
 He put it into the basket for ye himself. Try a bit of this 
 lamb, tain t no tenderer than his heart." 
 
 And the old wretch chuckled as if the wit in her last 
 remark pleased her not a little. She evidently was prid 
 ing herself that she was admirably fulfilling her young 
 master s directions to present his character in the most 
 favorable light. 
 
 " And see, honey," she went on, with a grin of satisfac 
 tion. " Here is some bread as is light as a feather, but no 
 lighter than his sperrits. You knows who I mean by his. 
 And here s a napkin. Now, don t that show him kind 
 and a noble and a fine, to send a napkin? Come 
 honey, fetch yer chair. The young master as is so fine 
 wants ye to eat and be happy and well. Come now !" 
 
 Wagh-ta looked up through her tears, as if to make a 
 pcornful refusal, but seeing the door standing open and 
 the old woman busy with her preparation of the rude 
 meal, she seemed to catch a hope of escape. She made 
 one or two nervous, irresolute steps from her chair, and 
 then, with the frightened cry of a hounded fawn, sprang 
 toward the door. But the old hag, although she shuffled 
 
200 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 awkwardly along a footpath, was quick enough when 
 occasion demanded, and now, with a sudden bound, she 
 caught the poor girl before she could reach the door, and 
 flung her violently upon the floor. 
 
 "Escape, will ye? I rather guess not," the woman 
 hissed. 
 
 " Foul wretch !" the unhappy Wagh-ta exclaimed, lifting 
 her stunned head from the floor. " Is there no woman 
 hood left in your hard heart ? Do you love to see one of 
 your own sex maltreated and outraged ; and is your 
 highest joy to help on such cruel work ?" 
 
 " Come, honey ; work yer jaws on some of this yere 
 vittel, and not on empty air." 
 
 " Oh ! for the love of Wakanda, for the love of thy 
 mother, for the love of thy childhood memories of 
 modesty and peace oh ! for the dear sakes of these, save 
 me from this cruel man ! Let me escape to my people, or 
 kill me here at thy feet; but save me from this awful 
 fate. Be a woman for a moment. Be merciful !" 
 
 " Come, honey, this yere won t swallow no longer. Lay 
 to on your vittel or you won t get none, I can tell ye. 
 After all that the fine young master has sent ye too how 
 ingrateful ye be ! Now look at ye !" 
 
 The heart-broken maiden was truly a sight to look 
 long upon. Crouching upon the bare planks where she 
 had fallen, holding her bruised head in her hands, weeping 
 for deep shame and despair, she was the picture of abject 
 woe. Little Swallow, seeing her thus, forgot all her 
 jealousy in an instant, was absorbed with a real and 
 passionate pity, and could scarce restrain herself from 
 dashing in upon the unfeeling jailer, to strike her to the 
 earth. She was sure, in her rage, that she had strength 
 to do it. But she could not tell how near the cruel Scar 
 Face might be ; he might be lurking on the other side of 
 
LITTLE SWALLOW TAKES THE TRAIL. 201 
 
 the hut, she thought, or in some nearer bunch of bushes ; 
 and thus she considered that patience would be more 
 likely to succeed than rashness. And thinking thus she 
 sank back into the shadow and strove to be calm. 
 
 " He, he !" chuckled Old Mollie at length ; " if ye won t 
 eat the goodies, I must lay to myself, for it would be a 
 pity to waste such de//racies." 
 
 And as she greedily munched the food spread before 
 her, the woman never ceased to mumble to herself : " A 
 sob wipes lots out. A earnest beg wipes more out. A 
 ruined soul wipes most out. That s Old Mollie s mult - 
 plication tables that is !" 
 
 Speedily the dainties disappeared down her hungry 
 throat, and when the last crumb had gone, she arose and 
 having cast one stealthy look upon poor Wagh-ta, who 
 had now crept painfully back into the corner, carefully 
 closed and secured the door. In another instant the 
 light went out, and Swallow could hear something moving 
 and rattling on the hard boards across the doorway, as if 
 wretched Mollie were laying herself down to her amiable 
 dreams. Oh ! as I write can it be that among the white 
 race there are hearts as cruel, and once innocent lives as 
 seared and blasted, as those of Old Mollie were ! 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE PERIL OF PRAIRIE FLOWER. 
 
 AFTER waiting until every sound had subsided within 
 the hut, and having allowed sufficient time for the 
 inhuman jailer to become sound asleep, little Swallow 
 stole cautiously forth from her hiding-place under the 
 bushes. Her heart was too brave to be frightened by the 
 sharp bark of the wolf prowling along the slopes of the 
 defile in the depths of which the cabin stood ; or by the 
 melancholy wail of the wild-cat, sounding like the moan 
 ing and praying of an Indian child over its mother s grave 
 at night. She feared far more the lawless hand of the 
 white man. She trembled to think that Scar Face might 
 be watching her as she had watched his accomplice, and 
 she knew that he might with impunity shoot her down 
 in that lonely solitude indeed that he need not for a 
 moment fear that he would be punished by the United 
 States law, though all the judges and lawyers of the land 
 should hear of it. She therefore picked her steps very 
 cautiously to the corner of the hut where she knew the 
 wretched Prairie Flower was crouching, and stooping 
 down she listened intently to discover whether the captive 
 were awake or not. Low sobs and struggling moans 
 reached her ears from within the hut, mingled with the 
 more distant heavy breathing of some one in deep sleep. 
 Swallow thus knew that the maiden was awake and 
 bewailed her sad lot, while the cruel woman slept; and 
 therefore, placing her lips close to one of the cracks be 
 tween the boards of which the hut was built, she whispered 
 softly, as if it were only the night wind blowing : 
 
THE PERIL OF PRAIRIE FLOWER. 203 
 
 "Wagh-ta wa-spa !"* 
 
 The sobs continued the sweet night-wind bringing 
 hope and tidings of love was not yet heard. 
 
 " Wagh-ta wa-spa !" 
 
 " Ka-gah ?"t was the inquiring and anxious whisper that 
 came from within the hut. 
 
 " It is a friend, sweet Prairie Flower. It is thy little 
 Swallow, who knows of thy sorrows, and now having found 
 thy place of sad confinement, but waits to save thee." 
 
 " O sweet Swallow, what of my Wolf Killer what of 
 my brave, noble-hearted husband ? Is he well ? And 
 my father, the wise Um-pan-nez-zhe ? Mourn they for the 
 wretched Wagh-ta?" 
 
 O poor little Swallow! How thy heart was rent by these 
 questions! How the old love came up, and how the 
 strange, strong jealousy tempted thee to try another 
 falsehood, to put down thy rival and gain thy love ! But 
 how bravely thou didst crush down the tempter and cling 
 to thy noble, unselfish purpose ! 
 
 "When last I saw them, they mourned for thee," Swal 
 low answered. 
 
 " And were they well ?" 
 
 " When last I saw them, they were well." 
 
 Oh what a tempest of contending passions raged in the 
 heart of little Swallow ! Love for the absent Wolf Killer, 
 determination to persevere in her pure purpose of saving his 
 bride, the old jealousy and hatred of a rival, and the fear 
 that if Wagh-ta should know of her father s death and 
 her husband s insane flight, she would in utter despair 
 take her own life, and then Wolf Killer would charge the 
 deed upon her. 
 
 " But why came not Wolf Killer with thee to help in 
 saving his bride ?" whispered Wagh-ta. 
 
 * Gentle Prairie Flower. t " Is it a friend ?" 
 
204 PLOUGHED UNDER, 
 
 Again the old temptation came up in her heart, as 
 the misty shadow of a demon rises out of the reedy 
 swamp, and she almost spoke the words, "He is false!" 
 which she well knew would end -the happiness, and per 
 chance the life, of the captive. How easy, the tempter 
 said, now to gain all the love and joy for which thy soul 
 panteth ! Speak the sentence the three little words 
 they may after all be true ; speak them ! Then Wolf 
 Killer is thine ! 
 
 She looked up into the midnight stars which had now 
 swept into their places and were shining divinely down 
 upon her. Shall she speak the falsehood ; dare she, in the 
 face of the stars? Is not this the very light which but 
 now she was to redeem from unholy usages? 
 
 " Dear Swallow, are you there ? Why did not Wolf 
 Killer come with thee?" 
 
 " Did you speak, dear Wagh-ta? I was looking at the 
 heavens. He could not come with me he tried to, but 
 the bloodhounds were set upon him." 
 
 " Oh, he is safe tell me he is safe !" 
 
 "Yes, he is safe, but might not have been, had he come 
 farther. I was well known to the hounds and the 
 employes of the agent, and so could come without harm 
 or suspicion. And Wagh-ta he he loves you as ever." 
 
 The stars, as she glanced up now, shone brighter than 
 she had ever seen them do before, and twinkled cheerily 
 of all the honor there is in an honest conquest of self, and 
 seemed to throw down golden wreaths of praise for her 
 brave and truthful words. She had redeemed back their 
 light to God. 
 
 " It is better thus it is better thus," whispered 
 Wagh-ta. 
 
 " Let him be safe, whatever befalls his unhappy bride. 
 If he but loves me I am content." 
 
THE PERIL OF PRAIRIE FLO WER. 205 
 
 " But, Wagh-ta, did Scar Face use violence in bringing 
 thee thither?" 
 
 "Think you I came willingly ?" 
 
 " No ! no ! but did he -use physical force ?" 
 
 " Threats against my noble father, whom he might have 
 ordered to be shot, were the inducements he offered. He 
 cruelly taunted me with the Indian s want of legal pro 
 tection, and charged me, as I valued my father s life, to 
 make no disturbance and occasion him no trouble. Still 
 I had died in sight of our peaceful village, even though it 
 had caused my father s death as well for the wise man 
 would have preferred that to shame had I for a moment 
 supposed that his promise to place me in his mother s 
 service was a lie. The first I thought of any personal 
 cruelty was when I was given suddenly into the clutches 
 of Old Mollie, who dragged me hither." 
 
 " Hush ! Wagh-ta," whispered Swallow from without, " I 
 hear a man s footsteps coming up the dry bed of the 
 stream." 
 
 " Alas ! it must be the cruel Scar Face. O Wakanda, 
 spare thy child !" 
 
 " Here ! Wagh-ta, I slip my hunting-knife to thee. 
 Take it, and defend thyself. I go to thy Wolf Killer. 
 We will come to save thee." 
 
 "Oh, tell him Wagh-ta says Khta-we-tha * to him 
 a thousand times let him hear her say it in every 
 evening wind that whispers, and every wave that sighs." 
 
 At that moment a heavy knock was heard upon the 
 door of the hut, and the voice of Scar Face exclaimed : 
 
 " Here, Old Moll ! wake up, you lazy fossil, and let your 
 young master in." 
 
 At the tones of his dreaded voice little Swallow sank 
 
 *"I love thee." 
 
206 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 down lower into the shadow of the hut. On a moment s 
 reflection she changed her purpose of going in search of 
 Wolf Killer, rightly deciding that her presence might be 
 needed there, and that the mother of Scar Face would be 
 by far the best ally in case any help was necessary. She 
 therefore found a place where she could hear all that was 
 said within, and she hoped that she could also see what 
 took place when the lamp was lit. 
 
 " Comin , master comin ," said Old Mollie, as she 
 scrambled to her feet. " Who d suppose my noble, fine 
 young master would a come this time of night to see his 
 Comin , master, comin !" 
 
 The light was at length lit, the rude door flung open, 
 and Scar Face, much the worse for liquor, stalked heavily 
 into the room. He threw his hat down upon the table, 
 planted himself upon a chair directly in front of the cor 
 ner where poor Prairie Flower still crouched, and gazed 
 insolently into her beautiful face. The wretched girl, 
 presuming that her only safety lay in as haughty a de 
 meanor as she was able to summon to her aid, now arose 
 with the greatest dignity, and folding her arms upon her 
 bosom with that queenly grace and nobility that are 
 natural to a true woman in every sphere, gazed unawed 
 upon the leering face of her drunken captor. It was the 
 mystic strength of purity and truth matching itself against 
 the power of infamy and lust. In such a contest the 
 feeble are strong and the mighty become weak. Scar 
 Face felt instinctively that between him and the fair 
 Wagh-ta there rose an invisible wall which he could no 
 more break over than if it were of leaping fire. Still he 
 hoped that he had one weapon in his possession which he 
 had but to wave over that wall and it would fall in cold 
 ruins upon the earth. 
 
 The fox of our prairie hills has a passion for the human 
 
THE PERIL OF PRAIRIE FLOWER. 207 
 
 face. Often have the mothers of my people found the 
 animal crouched upon the ground before their babes that 
 were sleeping, swinging in the lower tree-boughs. The 
 wild eyes gleamed passionately upon the little quiet hands 
 and nodding heads; the lips of mock fierceness were 
 parted, trembling with some strange desire ; and the nos 
 trils moved and sniffed as if the sweetness of the child s 
 breath were fascinating odor to them. The animal, at 
 such times rooted to the spot as if by some most myste 
 rious passion, could only with the greatest difficulty be 
 driven away, and sometimes even would be content to die 
 rather than forego the strange pleasure it enjoyed. It 
 was with some such fascinated look that the man gazed 
 upon my tearful but haughty Wagh-ta. 
 
 "Well, my dearie," he at length exclaimed, endeavoring 
 to assume some dignity, "has Old Moll informed you of 
 my sincere and fervent love for you ? Has she told you 
 that I desire to make you my lawful wife ? The noble 
 white brant will ally himself with the little red thrush, 
 There s a sentiment for you, Moll," he added, aside, to 
 that worthy, " that would do honor to one of the cussed 
 red orators, hey?" 
 
 "That it would, young master, that it would. As I 
 knows anythin , that it would!" mumbled the literary 
 critic appealed to. 
 
 " And I want to know, dearie," continued Scar Face, 
 " whether you are sensible enough to become my wife 
 willingly, or shall I be forced to execute the intimations I 
 have made as to the life of the wise Um-pan-nez-zhe? 
 
 Ah ! here was the weapon which was to beat down the 
 wall, and place my lovely bride in the brute s possession ! 
 
 " Scar Face," exclaimed Prairie Flower, with all the 
 prairie-fire angry heat blazing in her eye, " I despise thee, as 
 thou well knowest, and I defy thcc to do what thou darest. 
 
208 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 T. .- / 
 
 In spite of all thy plotting and all the cunning of thy 
 villainous assistant there, I have seen one of my people 
 who will do all that mortal can to save me from thy 
 cruelty or to punish thee by the white man s law if any 
 harm is done me or my aged father !" 
 
 " Ha ! ha !" laughed the man, " the white man s law ! 
 Have I not been telling you that that law takes no notice 
 of the redskins ? The Indian has never even been recog 
 nized as a person by our law. The white man s law, in 
 deed ! Do you not know that the red devils have often 
 appealed to it and never for a moment been heard?" 
 
 My poor Wagh-ta knew this only too well, but in her 
 despair had piteously appealed to the law, vainly hoping 
 that her persecutor might not recognize how useless the 
 appeal would be. 
 
 " Don t you remember the shooting of White Feather ?" 
 sneeringly continued Scar Face, evidently relishing the 
 hopelessness his words were forcing upon the maiden s 
 heart. " I will tell you about it, if you forget. Two chums 
 of mine were riding toward the reservation, to make me 
 a visit, and met the young imp you called White Feather. 
 Do you remember now, hey ? One of the white men ban 
 tered the other to shoot this specimen of your filthy race, 
 and a revolver ball was sent crashing cleanly through the 
 Indian s body. Do you remember all this ? Ah ! I see 
 you do. And you know how your people sent a delega 
 tion to D to have the young men punished by the 
 
 white man s law that you speak of. Were they punished ? 
 Ha, ha ! The constable could not even arrest them, al 
 though he saw them almost every day. They spent a 
 happy summer with me, and returned peacefully home." * 
 
 Poor W T agh-ta knew too well that his words were true, 
 
 * An actual occurrence. 
 
THE PERIL OF PRAIRIE FLOll KR. 209 
 
 and her head fell down upon her breast in hopeless fear 
 not for what the villain before her could make her suffer, 
 but for the dreadful fate and infamy he could bring upon 
 her lather s head. 
 
 " But I will not argue with such as you," exclaimed Scar 
 Face angrily, " and I have thoughtlessly said enough to 
 show you that I have no real love for a vile Indian. You 
 know my purpose. Submit, or by all the powers in hell 
 or heaven, your father shall die ignobly and painfully. 
 Yes, now I think of it, I will practice upon him some of 
 the tortures that your hellish race have inflicted upon the 
 whites." 
 
 " The noble Um-pan-nez-zhc," exclaimed Wagh-ta, 
 proudly lifting up her head, " can die without a groan. 
 He dies gladly to save his daughter from the taint of 
 shame," 
 
 " It shall not save you," fiercely returned the man. 
 Already I have the half-breeds of the tribe, whom you 
 know to be in my employ, informed of the part they are 
 to play in my little drama. They will spread a more 
 damning report of your shame than could ever otherwise 
 be concocted. Submit, or your father dies, and dies of 
 shame and sorrow for his daughter s ruin." 
 
 With these words the man sprang up and shook his fist 
 savagely at the wretched girl, who, overwhelmed by the 
 accumulation of villanies and calamities, to which in our 
 simple homes she had been so unused, crouched down in 
 the corner, hid her face in her woven shawl, and sobbed 
 aloud. 
 
 "Submit!" 
 
 As he spoke the word a little figure stole in at the open 
 door, sprang into the space between the villain and his 
 intended victim, and lifting her hand in an attitude of 
 grace and dignity, said : 
 
210 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 " Scar Face, thy devilish purposes are by the great 
 Wakanda defeated ! Wagh-ta, thy father is already 
 dead !" 
 
 It was the voice of Swallow, who, fearing that the infa 
 mous scheme of Scar Face might succeed, had rushed 
 into the room determined to rescue Wagh-ta by the reve 
 lation which she had previously in tenderness withheld. 
 When, however, she had spoken these words, she darted 
 past Scar Face and Old Mollie, who sought to intercept 
 her, and was instantly lost in the darkness without. 
 
 At this dreadful revelation, made as by the sudden 
 springing of a kind spirit out of heaven, Wagh-ta dried 
 her tears with all an Indian maiden s fortitude, and rising 
 caught from her bosom the hunting-knife that had been 
 given her, and said : 
 
 " Wretch, there remains no harm that now thou canst 
 do. Come but a step nearer, and I drive this knife into 
 my heart. Thou sneerest ! I know that would be but 
 slight punishment to thee, but it would save the daughter 
 of the dead Um-pan-nez-zhe from shame. O E-tha-di ! * 
 E-tha-di ! thou didst call thy child a flower ! Alas ! the 
 bloom of her youth is blighted before it is full-spread. 
 Thou didst teach her many wise things and many cunning 
 works; but now there remainest only the chance to use 
 what thou didst show her of the blade s keen point ! And 
 thou art dead, my noble, wise father! How the stars 
 must bend and weep above thy grave ! Thy Wagh-ta 
 weeps with them, O E-tha-di ! E-tha-di !" 
 
 I can fancy how my beautiful, heart-broken bride looked 
 as she spoke these weeping words. Her attitude, always 
 full of grace, must now have been such as the bright 
 spirit of the evening sunset assumes when she waves back, 
 
 * "Father! Father!" 
 
THE PERIL OF PRAIRIE FLOWER. 211 
 
 the dark clouds that seek to spring above the horizon to 
 tarnish her loveliness. Herflushedchceksandscornfuleyes, 
 turned full upon her tormentor, must have awed him into 
 conviction that her threat of taking her own life was not an 
 emptyone. Theheavingof her bosom musthaveshown the 
 fierce tempest of anguish that raged within, and the knife 
 gleaming over it must have revealed how gladly that brave 
 spirit, rather than be defiled, would leap away through a 
 dagger-wound into Wakanda s arms. Oh ! I have loved her 
 from our childhood, and in my fancy of her as she thus 
 bravely stood before the evil man, I love her a thousand 
 fold the more. 
 
 The white man had often witnessed the calm courage of 
 my people, and knew that the maiden would not hesitate 
 a moment to plunge the knife into her heart if he gave 
 her but that one hope of safety. Awed by Wagh-ta s 
 queenly attitude, and half-stupefied with drink, he sank 
 into a chair as if unable to determine what course to pur 
 sue. He seemed unwilling to press the maiden to suicide, 
 but whether he was influenced by any lingeringtenderness 
 or nobility of heart, or merely by the selfishness of evil 
 passion to preserve its object, I know not. For a long 
 time he sat regarding her, his lips now and again parting 
 as if he would speak, and then closing without uttering a 
 sound, his expression of face being a singular mixture of 
 dread, admiration, and wonder. 
 
 The effect of my poor bride s attitude was not less sin 
 gular and marked upon the debased mind of Old Mollie. 
 Here was a defiance of the power of man which coincided 
 with her own ideas ; and although the pleading of a broken 
 heart could not stir her compassion, such an exhibition of 
 spirit as this excited her regard. There had been some 
 dark transactions in the poor woman s history which had 
 imbittered her against the whole race of man, and when 
 
212 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 he could be spited or agonized by the ruin of one even of 
 her own sex she scrupled not to lend her aid to the accom 
 plishment of the sinister purpose. Yet when her linger 
 ing admiration of dignity and purity was appealed to from 
 the side of her hatred of man, as she imagined it to be in 
 this case, it was still capable of asserting a semblance of 
 its rightful power. 
 
 "This is gran ! this is gran !" she mumbled. "Old 
 Moll ain t so far lost as she can t understan what is gran 
 and what isn t. The young master ain t no match for her, 
 nor Old Moll ain t neither. Them arms them eyes ! 
 Blest if she don t pay up heaps of Old Moll s score against 
 the whole pack o men by jest a-standin there. I almost 
 would save her yet because she does it. I almost would 
 help her agin the young master yet." 
 
 It was singular to notice how the calm resolution of the 
 feeble girl conquered the malice of one tormentor and 
 overawed the passion of the other. For a long time 
 neither of the incongruous group moved or made the 
 slightest noise. Wagh-ta still held her hunting-knife in 
 her hand, and stood, partly turned from Scar Face, proudly 
 looking down at him over her upraised arm. The white 
 man sat stupid and motionless in his chair, feeling him 
 self strangely conquered by one who was to have been his 
 victim. Old Mollie leaned over the rough table, her hands 
 resting upon it, and stared in mute astonishment into the 
 Indian girl s face, subdued by the feeling that there were 
 ideas and emotions represented in that rough room which 
 she could by no means understand. Such is the power 
 that the spectacle of courage exerts over the human mind 
 such the awe awakened by the conviction of the imma 
 nence of death. It is the simple belief of my people that 
 when the Spirit of Death casts his shadow over an indi 
 vidual, although he be not stricken down, he is rooted to 
 
THE PERIL OF PRAIRIE I< LOWER. 213 
 
 the spot whereon he stands and is stiffened in the attitude 
 he at the moment had assumed, whether erect upon the 
 hill-top, or crouching in the valley, or sitting beside the 
 camp-fire, and is not able to cast off the spell until a day 
 and a night have passed. Such a spell, it seems, had 
 fallen upon the group in the shed that sorrowful night. 
 
 And the spell might, perhaps, have continued through 
 its allotted time, had not Wagh-ta at length conceived 
 that Wakanda had cast this awe upon her captors in 
 order to favor her escape. The instant she thought of 
 this she made a second spring toward the door. Ah ! 
 thus the spell was broken. Thus the momentary kindli 
 ness in Old Mollie s heart was driven forth, and the old 
 malice rolled back in bitter waves. Springing upon the 
 little maiden before she could possibly reach the door, the 
 hag bore her to the floor and easily wrenched the knife 
 out of her hand. 
 
 " Number two, my honey," the woman said as she flung 
 Wagh-ta into the corner again. " Old Moll guesses ye 
 won t try to excuse yerself from us agin else ye ll get a 
 broken head. An ye won t kill yerself so bravely, now 
 that I ve got the knife. Me and my young master ain t to 
 be trifled with more n once or twice, I can tell ye." 
 
 " No, we re not !" exclaimed Scar Face, who had now 
 recovered his senses and was wild with rage. " Curses ! 
 curses upon you!" he yelled as he caught up a chair, 
 wielded it above his head and sprang upon the girl. "I 
 will teach you who you are defying. I will show you 
 whom you despise. I will " 
 
 " My son !" said a sad voice at the door. " My son ! my 
 son !" 
 
 Waghta lifted up her eyes and saw the mother of Scar 
 Face standing in the door of the shed. Her hand was 
 held by little Swallow, who had hastily aroused her from 
 her bed, and conducted her with all speed to the rescue of 
 
214 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 poor Prairie Flower. Her face was pale but calm, and her 
 sad, sad voice sounded like the moan of the night-wind. 
 
 Scar Face turned upon her, and at sight of her well- 
 remembered features, his passion seemed to be whetted 
 to insanity. 
 
 " God in heaven !" he cried, " how came you here ?" 
 
 " My son ! my son !" was all the poor mother could say. 
 
 He foamed, like a wild beast, upon her for a moment, 
 and then with a half-cry, half-moan, as if impelled by some 
 horrible spirit that could not be shaken off, sprang toward 
 her, and with one blow of the uplifted chair felled to the 
 earth the form that had given him life. The moment the 
 blow was struck he came to himself, and, horrified beyond 
 measure by what he had done, dropped the chair heavily 
 to the floor and sank down over the prostrate form of his 
 mother. 
 
 "O mother, mother! Forgive me do not die you 
 cannot leave me in hopeless darkness !" he moaned. 
 
 " My son ! my son !" the bloodless lips murmured, and 
 the poor mother was dead. 
 
 When Wagh-ta stood irresolute in the corner where she 
 had been thrown, Swallow crossed the room, caught her 
 by the hand, and led her swiftly out. They paused a 
 moment when they had gained the darkness of the bushes, 
 and looking back saw the wretched murderer bending 
 motionless over his mother s body ; and the night wind as 
 it freshened into the breeze which always heralds the 
 morning on the prairies, moaned and sobbed round the 
 angles of the shed and started away through the tangled 
 bushes to join the ceaseless wail. As they stood listening, 
 Old Mollie went stumbling and mumbling by them, hurry 
 ing as fast as her trembling limbs would permit from that 
 dreadful spot. When she had gone the Indian girls took 
 the opposite direction, and were soon lost from view 
 among the sage-brush and hazel-bushes. 
 
FIIE PERIL OF PRAIRIE FLOWER. 215 
 
 As I think of this escape of my bride from the clutches 
 of the white man, I remember what I once saw upon the 
 prairie near my childhood home. One winter day when 
 the snow lay several inches deep upon the hills, I was 
 hunting with my bow for a rabbit or quail, that my father 
 might have a tender bit when he returned from more 
 daring exploits. I had wandered into a nestling valley, 
 in which grew a number of little clumps of wild-thorn 
 and furze bushes. My attention was suddenly arrested by 
 the shadow of a great bird upon the snow, and looking up 
 I saw a magnificent dun-spotted eagle circling grandly 
 in mid-air and evidently scenting prey. At length he 
 paused in his flight, hovered for a moment upon his wide 
 wings, uttered a scream of victory, and then dashed head 
 long into the center of -one of the thorn clumps I had seen. 
 As he struck the bushes a spray of light snow fell from 
 their branches, and out of this spray sprang a little rabbit 
 which had been hiding under the bush. The frightened 
 creature dashed for his life across the snow and made 
 good his escape, while the cruel bird, which had hoped to 
 make a meal upon him, remained entangled in the thorns, 
 his grand feathers torn and broken and his sharp eyes 
 wild with pain ; and the more he struggled to be free from 
 the ruin he had wrought for himself, the thicker fell his 
 blood-drops upon the snow. There I left him, thinking it 
 Wakanda s will that he should thus of his own wickedness 
 perish. Thus did Scar Face fall a victim to his own 
 unholy designs. He thought, in the greatness of his 
 strength, to make an easy prey of the poor Indian girl, 
 but the Wakanda who can save a rabbit out of an eagle s 
 claws, brought to naught his guilty purposes ; and as his 
 soul bled upon the thorns of unrestrained hate and pas 
 sion, he had but himself to be angry with. And my little 
 rabbit sped over the ground to me, 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 RETURNING REASON. 
 
 MEANWHILE upon the shores of that distant lake among 
 the snowy hills were being enacted certain things that I 
 should tell you of. 
 
 When I felt myself borne into the lake in the arms of 
 the insane white man, I realized how futile would be any 
 struggle against his superhuman strength. I therefore 
 supposed it to be Wakanda s wish that I should resign 
 myself to inevitable death. The moment we sank into 
 the cold waters, however, I felt his fearful grasp relax, in 
 obedience to that natural instinct of self-preservation of 
 which the wise Standing Elk had told us, and which 
 perchance is not totally lost even in minds the most com 
 pletely shattered. Having lived since infancy upon the 
 shores of the darkly flowing Missouri, and being as 
 thoroughly at home in the water as upon the land, I 
 instantly improved the opportunity of escape thus afforded, 
 and by exerting all my power I succeeded jn throwing 
 the maniac off after a terrific struggle which beat the 
 bright waters into such white waves as might have been 
 found in the death-conflict of rival buffaloes. 
 
 Being thus freed, it was the work of a moment only to 
 swim ashore, and when I had clambered upon the rocks 
 again, I turned to discover the fate of the white man. The 
 lake, like nearly all of those found in the mountains, had 
 steep, rocky banks, so that the water was very deep only 
 a few steps from the shore. In those clear depths the 
 white man had gone down, and I could see the bubbles 
 
A E 77 A AYA c; RE A SON. 2 1 7 
 
 rising to the surface and bursting brightly there, just 
 above where he was lying. I can even now remember that 
 in some confused way those bursting bubbles on the bright 
 surface above the secret slime where a life was going out 
 seemed to my untutored mind to afford sad illustrations 
 of how strangely joy and beauty could be so plentiful above 
 and around me when my heart within was dying of pain 
 and agony But my main thought at the moment was 
 for the perishing man should I rescue him or leave him 
 to die ? Might not I avenge the ruin of Wugh-ta, and that 
 without actually staining my hands with blood, by allow 
 ing him to remain as he was? The temptation came 
 fiercely upon me, and I paced like a caged animal up and 
 down upon the rocks. " No tree," the Evil Spirit said, ""will 
 ever tell of it in its rustling, no wave will ever whisper it, 
 no eye but that of yonder eagle, which would gladly be a 
 fellow in such sport, is upon thee. And then," it went on 
 to say, " how can you tell that the insane man, even if saved, 
 will not dash again upon you and succeed in taking your life 
 Is it not self-protection to let him die at most is it not 
 merely remaining passive and allowing him to perish in 
 the ruin he has wrought for himself?" But at that solemn 
 moment all the teaching of the good Wa-ga-za,* all the 
 great words pi the wise Um-pan-nez-zhe, all the impulses 
 of kindness which are naturally in every heart, and all the 
 strange awe there is in the feeling that the eye of Wakancla 
 blazes out of the sky upon every deed, came down upon me, 
 and I plunged into the lake. I know there are great papers 
 printed every day for the white man which say that the 
 Indian is incapable of an act of kindness; I know that the 
 most cruel falsehoods are published, so that even the kind- 
 hearted among our oppressors think we go to war many 
 
 * Missionary. 
 
2.1 8 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 times when we do not ; and I know that we have no means 
 of denying these bitter things, since no public prints herald 
 the red man s story. But I must write what is true, trust 
 ing that some day you will find it to be so. 
 
 By diving down into the waters of the lake, I was, at 
 last, able to catch the white man s sleeve, and so I raised 
 him to the surface and dragged him to the shore. I laid 
 him first upon his face, so that the water could run from his 
 mouth ; and when he began to gasp and breathe, having 
 prepared a bed of the last year s pine-fringes under a 
 neighboring tree, I placed him on it as tenderly as a 
 loving son would care for a father. I found a strange 
 delight in tending him, for all my hatred had died out, and 
 I fancied I might come into deeper sympathy with Wa~ 
 kanda E-zhi-ga* by succoring one who was helpless 
 and distressed. And as I stood beside the deep, bright 
 lake and saw the place where the bubbles had been burst 
 ing, I thought that the white man had not been deeper in 
 the waves than I had been in ignorance and sin when He 
 came to rescue me and my simple-hearted people. 
 
 It was several hours before he opened his eyes. I sat 
 and watched him, tracing the lines of pain and sadness in 
 his face, and studying the long, matted gray hair that fell 
 in heavy coils upon the pine-fringes. His ,face still re 
 tained traces of noble and ingenuous qualities, h is forehead 
 was high and broad, and the more I noted the shades of 
 expression upon the features, the more thoroughly could 
 I believe him to have been, once at least, and before the 
 fierce fires of disease had burned out the powers of his 
 mind, a refined and honorable man. The Indian is made, 
 by all the training of the hunt, a close observer, and hence 
 I noticed, and with the greatest interest and amazement, 
 
 * God s Son. 
 
RETURNING REASON. 219 
 
 that his face exhibited signs of pain and anger as he slowly 
 recovered his senses, as if he would gladly have remained 
 in the arms of a sweet unconsciousness. 
 
 Slowly and gloriously the mountain twilight came down 
 upon us, and when its golden wings were just full-spread 
 above the pine-tops, the white man opened his eyes and 
 gently said : 
 
 " Where am I ? What is it ? What has happened ?" 
 
 " You are with a friend," I answered, " and you are verv 
 weak. You must sleep if you can." 
 
 " Where is Ben ?" he asked. 
 
 "I have not seen him. But he will soon come," I re 
 plied at hazard. 
 
 Then followed a long pause, in which the white man 
 gazed calmly up through the pine branches into the stars, 
 and I fervently and sincerely thanked Wakanda that the 
 man s mind seemed to have returned to him again. 
 The music of the night was just beginning to burst forth, 
 and the scratching of the eagle s claws upon the purple 
 rocks far up the peak entered, with the shrill cry of the 
 stray wolf, into the harmony as if they had a part to play 
 which could by no means be omitted. 
 
 " What is that sound I hear?" whispered the white man 
 at length. 
 
 " What does it sound like?" I said. 
 
 " Like the running of the waters of the old mill-race at 
 home over the dam of beech-logs." 
 
 " It is the wind in that pine tree standing there upon 
 the rocks:" 
 
 " But on this other side I hear a sound precisely like it 
 is there another pine in that direction ?" 
 
 " No, a mountain brook runs along there into the lake. 
 The running of its waters over the rocks makes the same 
 sound as the wind in the pine-top." 
 
220 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 " How strange and one seems to answer and echo the 
 other." 
 
 " Yes,*"" I said, " they are the voices of the Twin Brothers. 
 Did you ever hear what my people say of them ? There 
 were once two noble-hearted brothers, who were twins. 
 They loved the same beautiful maiden, and she loved both 
 so well that her heart could not make choice between 
 them. One day the maiden was in the quiet woods 
 puzzling her heart as to which she loved, when she heard 
 their voices calling her, one from one side and one from 
 the other. Khta-we-tha ! * sang one upon the right hand. 
 Khta-we-tha ! sang the other upon the left hand. And 
 their voices were so exactly alike that the poor maiden 
 could not distinguish who was here and who there. 
 Frantic with love and agony, she cried aloud : O Wakan- 
 da, tear my poor heart asunder, and give half to each of 
 my noble lovers ! And there in the quiet woods the 
 maiden died. The brothers were so smitten with sorrow 
 that, upon their praying most earnestly to Wakanda, they 
 were changed, the one to a noble pine tree, and the other 
 to a mountain brook. And to this day the pine sadly 
 whispers in the wind Khta-we-tha ! while the brook 
 moans the same, Khta-we-tha ! and it is still impossible 
 for a man, listening at a little distance, to distinguish 
 which brother is singing upon the right, and which upon 
 the left. So, white man, you hear to-night the music of 
 the Brothers. And hearing it, sleep." 
 
 His heavy eyelids slowly and dreamily closed, and he 
 slept. I covered him with my blanket, and, having built 
 a fire against a fallen pine-log, I sat for hours and watched 
 the light playing upon his pale face. I was calm and 
 almost soothed from my grief. What strange power is 
 
 *"I love thee !" 
 
RE TURNING RE A SON. 2 2 1 
 
 there in an exercise of sympathy to allay the agony of 
 sorrow ; what spell is there in the doing of a kindness to 
 one of our own nature that causes us to forget the gall in 
 our cup and the aching of our heart-sore ? That it is 
 so, who that has suffered and has shown charity 
 to the suffering can doubt ? And that it is so seems to 
 show me what great inducements the good Wakanda 
 offers that man should more succor his distressed brother. 
 As I thought much of this beside the glowing fire that night, 
 it seemed to me that surely the white men could never 
 have suffered much, nor ever have felt the pang of slavery 
 and the bitterness of oppression ; else they would more 
 readily grant charity of speech, thoughtful patience, and 
 brotherly encouragement and assistance to the red men. 
 The waning moon looked down at me through the 
 tangled branches as I thus thought, and it seemed to me 
 that in its shimmering beams Wakanda was lighting upon 
 me a smile of commendation and hope. 
 
 " Halloo, there, my friend !" suddenly exclaimed the 
 voice of my charge. 
 
 I started it seemed to me that I had not slept : but 
 now the full morning had come; the fire lurked under 
 a heap of gray ashes, just as the rising sun seemed to hide 
 behind the dew clouds ; the healthful fragrance of forest 
 and flowered plain was fully abroad, and the august peaks 
 reared themselves where heavy blackness had but now 
 reigned supreme. I roused myself and went to him. He 
 had raised himself to a sitting posture, and seemed to be 
 suffering very little inconvenience from his temporary 
 insanity and cold bath. 
 
 "Sit down beside me," he said, "and tell me how I 
 came here? Where did you find me, and from what did 
 you rescue me ?" 
 
 " I found you about twelve feet under water in yonder 
 
222 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 lake, and so you can easily imagine what I saved you 
 from." 
 
 " In yonder lake ! And how came I there ?" 
 
 I related to him how I had awakened from sleep and 
 found him glaring upon me. I repeated his words and 
 described with what a mad rush he had run with me into 
 the lake. 
 
 " Great God !" he exclaimed, " I must have been 
 insane." 
 
 He relapsed into silence, and a strange look of chagrin 
 and dismay came into his face. Is it regarded as a dis 
 grace among the white people for a man to lose his mind ? 
 Among our simple nations one so afflicted is with the 
 greatest tenderness nursed, and in many instances even 
 regarded as favored by constant communications with 
 the other world. And it is a singular fact, which may, 
 perhaps, be partially accounted for by this gentle custom, 
 that very few cases of violent insanity occur amongst us. 
 There may be something I do not know in the dread a 
 white man would naturally feel at the approach of this, 
 to him, humiliating affliction, to spur the shattered mind 
 to excess and ferocity. 
 
 "At all events," I replied, "you are well now, thank 
 Wakanda! And while I am getting such food as I can, 
 you had better rest on your bed of pine-fringes." 
 
 " But I am not quite right yet, it seems," he answered 
 with a puzzled look. " Have I ever done you any kind 
 ness , do you feel under obligation to me, that you show 
 me such attention ? I did not know I confess it that 
 an Indian would save the life of a white man when he had 
 him in his power." 
 
 "There are many evil men among the Indians," I said, 
 biting my lip that I might speak calmly, "who would not 
 have saved your life; and the Great Father s people will 
 
RETURNING REASON. 223 
 
 not be convinced that we are not all cruel and revengeful. 
 Would you like to be spit upon as a thief, because some 
 steal who have a pale cheek?" 
 
 " Assuredly not," he said, " assuredly not. But it seems 
 to me that the proportion of the evil-disposed is much 
 greater among the Indian than among the white race." 
 
 " This is because you are always informed of the cruel 
 acts of my people, while the many kindnesses shown to 
 the whites, the frozen feet that are warmed in our tepees, 
 the hungry tongues that are satisfied by our camp fires, 
 and the brotherly words of welcome we give, find no 
 report. The Indian is human, and no more. Touch his 
 heart with kindness, and it will be kind ; touch it with 
 encouragement, and it will wish eagerly to become civilized; 
 touch it with suspicion or coldness, and it retreats within 
 itself ; touch it with cruelty, and cruelty springs forth out 
 of it. You have seen the flint arrow-heads our fathers 
 fashioned do you know how the hard stone was chipped 
 so smoothly and beautifully away?" 
 
 " I do not, indeed ; I believe the secret of this process is 
 one of the deep puzzles of learned men to-day." 
 
 "It is a simple secret. A sharp blow upon the flint 
 would either have broken the stone into shapeless bits, or 
 called forth a spark of fire. So my people were accus 
 tomed to press the flint gently and patiently with small 
 sticks of hickory wood hardened in the fire, and thus, by de 
 grees, the rough chips fell away, and the arrow-heads were 
 beautifully shaped and sharpened. The Indian s heart is 
 flint. To shape it for use there must be no violence, but 
 the most gentle kindness and patience." 
 
 Meanwhile I prepared such wild vegetables as I could 
 find for our simple meal, and set them before the white 
 man, who ate with much eagerness. They tasted sweet 
 upon my own tongue as well, after a fast of many days, 
 
2*4 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 and were strangely sweeter because I had the conscious 
 ness of doing what is right. 
 
 The white man seemed very feeble after the severe 
 strain he had been under, and so, after his hunger had 
 been satisfied, I busied myself in providing a softer bed for 
 him to rest on. When he was made comfortable, he said : 
 
 " Thank you, thank you, my friend. I am easy now. 
 Tell me of your own life ; how came you to be here among 
 the rocks alone ?" 
 
 Oh, how all the flood of sorrow rolled again upon my 
 soul when he asked this question ! It was some moments 
 before I could speak. At last, when I could command 
 my voice, I told him my whole life: of my love for the 
 beautiful Wagh-ta ; of our peaceful dwelling-place beside 
 the shining river ; of the evil man s plot against my bride ; 
 of how there was no law by which I could have the wretch 
 punished ; and of my wild flight across prairie and river 
 to the rocks. Again and again he interrupted me with 
 exclamations of indignation and wonder, and when I 
 ceased speaking, he cried : 
 
 " Do you speak truly ? Is there a God in heaven ? 
 Have the American people no fear of Him?" 
 
 "Wakanda lives," I said, "and He will avenge the 
 wrongs of his children. But oh ! the smart is hot and 
 sore while it lasts." 
 
 " Is there a general desire on the part of the Indians 
 to secure the protection of aur laws ?" 
 
 " For twenty years the one petition of our chiefs has 
 been for tools and farming implements, missionaries and 
 leaders, a secure title to their land, the benefits of just and 
 equal laws, and then the high privilege of supporting 
 themselves." 
 
 " And has not this been acceded to?" 
 
 "Can you not answer that question yourself?" 
 
RETURNING REASON. 22$ 
 
 Our conversation had consumed the whole day. The 
 afternoon was now far spent, the twilight was hovering 
 down. 
 
 "See," I said, "the evening nestles under the trees. 
 Thus the twilight of our race has come. Thousands of 
 our fathers have died and have left no seed behind them. 
 They say we are dying out; and truly, under the present 
 system of cruelty and exaction, it is so. But grant us the 
 blessings you freely accord to the natives of all other 
 lands, and we should increase in numbers, our homes 
 would resound to merry shouts of many little ones, and 
 the voices of our young men would make our harvest 
 fields resound. They say we are a weakly race perishing 
 from the earth ; but it is because when, by a cruel decree 
 from which there is no appeal, a Northern tribe is sent to 
 the Land of Fire,* scores and hundreds die of raging fever. 
 In our own homes we do not die more rapidly than the 
 whites. Can they excuse themselves for causing us to 
 perish by sending out the cry that we are a perishing race ? 
 But, Wa-gha, the despised Indian race is leaving a mark 
 on your history that can never be wiped off. If you 
 could walk with me to some of the farms of the white 
 man, I could show you a strange-looking gully, several 
 feet in depth, running through the wheat and oat fields, 
 and down the sides of the hills, coursing away in regular 
 line for miles together. It is an old Indian trail. Once 
 it was a mere path through the heavy grass and nodding 
 dandelions. Over it the children raced in their play, the 
 lover hasted to the trysting-place, the old chiefs slowly 
 went to the council. But now the rains of heaven have 
 worn it deep. The white man s grain grows in it and 
 along its sides, but it cannot be hid. Under brilliant sun 
 
 * The Indian Territory, so called by the Indians. 
 
226 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 or flickering moon, it still is visible as a scar upon the fair 
 surface of earth ; and oh, what a pathetic story it tells of 
 the sad difference between what once was and that which 
 is ! Wa-gha, there is a scar upon your national history, 
 showing where once the Indians lived and loved, but 
 where now they are not. Under whatever light shines 
 out of heaven, whether of justice or of mercy, it still is, 
 and shall ever be, visible. Seek to hide it as you may 
 under the fruit of your thrift, it yet remains, and is worn 
 deeper year after year by the rushing greed of man. Wa- 
 gha, I have spoken !" 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 CHOPPING LOGIC. 
 
 WHEN I had concluded I sank down upon the ground 
 overcome with emotion. The white man was about to 
 reply, when we heard the voice of a man calling in the 
 distance. 
 
 " That is Ben !" he cried, almost springing up in his ex 
 citement. 
 
 The shouts came rapidly nearer and nearer, until the 
 sick man could answer them. Not sure of the reception 
 I should receive from the approaching strangers, and be 
 ing unwilling to force myself into their company as a wit 
 ness of their meeting, I quietly crept a few steps away, and 
 cast myself down behind a clump of young aspens. 
 
 "Halloa, Colonel!" exclaimed a hearty voice, "you ve 
 led us a lively dance through brush and brier this time, or 
 I ll be hanged. Come to yourself agin, like a regular 
 Methidist out-and-out prodigal, has ye? Wai, ye see, I 
 brings this chum of mine along in case of accidents. 
 Wasn t no match for ye alone, not I, and that crack over 
 the head ve gin me ain t wholesome to be repeated. Ye 
 don t look just now as ye could break an ambulance wheel 
 over yer knee now, do ye ?" 
 
 With these words two athletic men came out of the 
 twilightg loom and stood before the " colonel ". The one 
 who spoke was tall, long-armed, loose-jointed, but evi 
 dently of great strength. His face was, as nearly as I 
 could discover in the imperfect light, genial and mirthful, 
 and in his eye there were both the twinkle and the shining 
 
228 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 of a star. His hair and beard were of that vivid red 
 color which always so amuses an Indian. His com 
 panion, or "pard,"as the miner would say, was shorter, 
 darker, possessed of a singularly grave and knowing 
 countenance, much given to silence and tobacco. Both 
 were dressed in deerskin pants and blue shirts. Upon 
 one extremity they wore heavy boots, and upon the other 
 the customary broad-brimmed hats. 
 
 They both shook hands heartily with the colonel, who 
 seemed to regard them with mingled shrinking and de 
 light. In answer to their salutations, he said to the one 
 who had spoken : 
 
 " Sit down here, Ben, and tell me what has happened. 
 Where are the mules and the ambulance ?" 
 
 "Not if I knows myself," Ben replied. " I don t enter on 
 no such excitin yarn as that ar, until I ve had a some- 
 thin to eat. Jerry and I s hungrier than wolves ain t 
 we, Jerry ?" 
 
 " That s our policy," responded that individual briefly. 
 
 So," continued Ben, " if ye have anythin to eat in 
 yer pantry, Colonel, and will just trot the same out, we 
 will sup rintend the demolishin of the aforesaid. Jerry, 
 you produce the bacon and I ll strike a fire, and we ll see 
 what can be had." 
 
 " That s our policy," again answered Jerry. 
 
 " Ye see, Colonel," said Ben in a low voice to that indi 
 vidual, "old Jerry ain t much to look on now is he? 
 But he s tenderer n a woman. The first time I seed him 
 was when I was laid up at Reno by a little scratch as I 
 got from a feller s dirk knife one night a playin cards. I 
 hadn t a cent in the world, Colonel ; my folks had all died 
 back in Jersey, I spect, and the fellers jest chucked me 
 into an old room and left me to -die. Wai, Jerry come 
 along alookin for a pard. I wasn t a likely one now was 
 
CHOPPING LOGIC. 229 
 
 I ? But never less Jerry tackled to me. I opens my 
 eyes one day after I d laid there more n a week, and the 
 first thing I sot em on was Jerry. He jest touched me 
 with them hard hands seemed to me it was my mother 
 a-come to me. Oh, he s tenderer n a woman, old Jerry is. 
 He paid all my bills, gave the cuss as tickled me with his 
 dirk a blasted thrashin , stuck to me in all our ups and 
 downs, and here we be. An he s awful wise, Jerry is. He 
 can jest sme/liho. gold, an ef it hadn t a been for some of 
 my cussed foolishness we would ha been rich long afore 
 this. When I passes over the range, * Colonel, I wants 
 old Jerry jest to tech me with them hands o his as the 
 last thing, fer he s tenderer n a woman, or / // be hanged ! 
 But here goes for somethin to eat." 
 
 " Ben, "said the colonel, "there was an Indian boy here 
 a moment since, who saved my life and has kindly tended 
 me " 
 
 " A Injun !" said Ben, stopping in the act of striking a 
 match upon the leg of his deerskin pants. " Saved yer 
 life! Tended of ye! Jerry, let s die! But taint much 
 queerer an ye should tend o me, Jerry." 
 
 "Yes," pursued the colonel, "and he will show you 
 where our provisions are kept, and show you about get 
 ting the meal." 
 
 "A Injun! Show us about, hey, Jerry? He! he! 
 Prodigal ain t quite come back yet. But call him in, 
 Colonel, call him in ; we is two to one, and I guess we 
 ain t afeered !" 
 
 If I could have fled without being seen and without the 
 suspicion of cowardice attaching to me, I should have 
 done so rather than face the rough strangers. This being 
 
 *"When I die." A most beautiful expression used by the miners. 
 One side of the Rocky range is usually rough and rocky, but on the other 
 side there lies a lively Park. 
 
23 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 impossible, however, I arose, stepped forward, and with, 
 out a word assisted in the gathering of wood and the prep 
 aration of the meal. At first Ben seemed to regard me 
 with some suspicion, but as I made no formidable demon 
 strations, we were soon upon the most familiar terms. 
 
 The simple meal over, the strangers lighted their pipes, 
 and casting themselves in an easy posture before the fire, 
 prepared for the description of the colonel s dark days. 
 I was surprised to notice that Ben, although apparently 
 of a generous and noble nature, seemed to have no appre 
 ciation of the fact that his words cut the colonel to the 
 heart, for he related the whole transaction as if it were 
 the most natural thing in the world. 
 
 " Wai, ye see, Jerry, the colonel thar hired me to drive 
 him over to Camp Roe. He had a ambulance and four 
 mules, and I was to act as guide, cook, driver, and enter 
 tainer. Wai, we gets along very comf table for a day or 
 two ; we passes smoothly over the range and comes down 
 into this yer valley at the lower end. I notices one night 
 that the colonel don t sleep soun . I notices him a tum- 
 blin and a turnin and a gittin up to look at the stars, 
 and I ses to myself, Somethin don t set well on his 
 stomach or on his heart, I dunno wich/ and let it pass my 
 mind. (List nin , Jerry ?) Wai, the next day the colonel s eyes 
 was kind o wild-like, but I didn t pay no tention to that. 
 Sez I to myself, It s because he didn t sleep none. Wai 
 I hitches up and we makes a start. That was jest a week 
 ago to-day. I was a drivin along, cozy as a beaver on a 
 log, when whoop ! a crack comes onto my head as if a 
 boulder had fallen on it. Sez I to myself, Guess I ll git 
 out and kinder reckon-nooter leastways, I suppose I 
 sez that, for the next thing I knows I m a lyin on the 
 ground. The colonel didn t seem to care no more about 
 me ; so, to be on the safe side in case of accidents I jest 
 
CHOPPING LOGIC. 231 
 
 crawls quiet-like into a bush as was nigh. Whoop! ye 
 ort to have seen the colonel then ! He was gran , I teli 
 ye! He onhitches the mules, gives them a lick with a 
 club, and sends them off to grass. He slashes out the ax 
 and whacks the old ambulance all into splinters in no time 
 piles it all in a heap. (List nin , Jerry?") 
 
 " That s our policy." 
 
 " And then he sots fire to the whole outfit. Blazes ! how 
 it did burn varnish and paint and leather and cushions 
 and all. The Colonel was wild with the fun ; he dances 
 roun and roun it while it blazes, slings his hat and coat 
 in when the light got sort o low, and, bless my eyes! ef I 
 didn t think once he was a-goin to jump in hisself. But 
 he didn t, as ye may jedge. When the whole thing was a 
 heap o hot ashes he wades into it, kicks the ashes and 
 coals about like split, clappin his hands and shakin out 
 his hair. Then all of a sudden he takes a start, and 
 whoop ! away he goes pell-mell, and I gathers in the 
 mules and takes myself back to cabin. Ye knows the rest 
 how we sot out to find him and here he is." 
 
 On the conclusion of his singular narrative the rough 
 frontiersman puffed away at his pipe with the greatest 
 gravity, and seemed lost in some deep meditation upon 
 the fragility of the human mind or some kindred topic. 
 I looked toward the colonel, and though he said not a 
 word, his face seemed very pale in the fire light. I pitied 
 him. The red man can boast of but one sure possession 
 the power to thoroughly pity woe. 
 
 "Jerry, are ye list nin ?" 
 
 tf That s our 
 
 " I m thinkin of the Injun Question, Jerry. Somethin 
 in the personal surroundin s kinder suggests it, ye know. 
 All the gran men of the nation thinks of it, but they 
 haven t their peepers right on the difficulty as we has 
 
232 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 here on the frontier. The nutshell of the whole matter 
 is jest this : the Injuns has got to go. They has the best 
 huntin and the richest mineral on their reservations. 
 They don t use the mineral they don t know how to 
 prospect for it, nor how to mine it. It ain t accordin to 
 reason, Jerry, that a civilized race should stan back and 
 not git rich because a oncivilized race has got the rocks 
 and won t use em. It s jest the old story of the dog in 
 the manger, as we use to hear tell of back on earth.* I fer 
 one means to kick the dog out." 
 
 " That s our policy," said Jerry. 
 
 " But, Ben," said the colonel, coming nearer to the fire 
 and taking a seat on a pine log, his earnest face showing 
 that he had forgotten his own sorrow for the moment, in 
 his interest in a great question, "does it seem to you fair 
 that the possessions of the Indians should be wrested from 
 them without a reasonable compensation ? The land, with 
 all its hunting facilities and all its mineral wealth, is at 
 present theirs. 
 
 " Ain t no doubt on that, Colonel." 
 
 " And every department of our government has acknowl 
 edged the validity of the titles by which they hold this 
 land. In the ordinance of 1787 the claim of the Indians 
 to their possessions is distinctly recognized. It was reaf 
 firmed by the Emperor Napoleon at the sale of Louisiana, 
 and our government entered no protest." 
 
 " That all may be, Colonel, but hanged ef I see yit that 
 I must stand aside when I sees a fine lead of gold or silver 
 because it be on a reserve." 
 
 " But you must have some authority to go on another 
 man s property before it can be right to do so. There are 
 just three ways in which a nation can acquire right to 
 
 * i.e., in "the States." 
 
CHOPPING LOGIC. 233 
 
 any possession : it must be either by discovery, conquest, 
 or purchase. You cannot for a moment claim that we 
 have the right of original discovery in this case, for the 
 red men held the soil when our fathers first found it ; 
 neither can you justly say that the Indian tribes generally 
 have laid themselves liable to a war of conquest on our 
 part; and it is only too well known that but little of the 
 Indian s land has been fairly purchased from him. You re 
 an honest-hearted fellow, Ben ; you would not take a 
 dime s worth of my property without paying for it ; and 
 you must know that we have no right to their possessions 
 until we have given them a just equivalent. Now, have 
 we ?" 
 
 " Lookce here, Colonel," said Ben, crossing his legs and 
 sagely winking to Jerry who moved his lips as if he were 
 repeating his favorite sentence by way of encouragement 
 " lookee here : is it accordin to the Tightness of things, 
 now, that a infeerer race should occupy possessions as 
 could be better used of by a supeerer race? Ain t it our 
 dooty, so to speak (hey, Jerry?), to improve everythin 
 to the very best, like ? You knows what I mean, Colonel, 
 but I se been so long a livin out o God s knowledge * 
 as I can t put it jest right." 
 
 " Yes, Ben, I know what you mean. And I confess that 
 until the last twelve hours this argument, which is the 
 only one that can be urged on our part, has seemed to me 
 enough to warrant the driving out of the Indians. But I 
 have had time to think it over, and I believe it to be 
 simply a national quibble. For where is this law of 
 superior right to stop ? If you owned a farm, and I should 
 become thoroughly persuaded that I could improve it to 
 better advantage than you, could I fairly or honestly drive 
 
 * On the Plains. 
 
234 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 you and your family away ? If I had ten sons, and you 
 had but one, I might succeed in thrusting you away, but 
 would my robbery be excused by the fact of my claiming 
 that I could make better use of the farm than you were 
 doing? I imagine you would claim your privilege of 
 growing either wheat or weeds, barley or sage-bush, as 
 suited your pleasure." 
 
 " But ye see, Colonel, I ain t a Injun !" 
 
 " Is a H^Arfe-wrong a fied-right ?" 
 
 "Ye see, Colonel, ye hasn t lived with yer peepers open 
 right on the Injun question all yer life, as I has. They w 
 all so cussed ! It ain t nothin personal meant to present 
 company, ye understand ; but it s so. And we on the 
 frontier makes every chance count, as we can git agin em 
 hey, Jerry?" 
 
 * That s our policy." 
 
 " Yes, Ben, and I am afraid many of the frontiersmen 
 cannot resist the temptation to make false reports of 
 Indian depredations in order to increase the strife between 
 the races, and thus hasten the removal of the red men." 
 
 " Why, Colonel, ye can t lie about a Injun! " and then, 
 after a pause, " He s so cussed." 
 
 " Still, Ben, I have it on the best evidence that last sum 
 mer in this very Park an Indian was killed by a couple of 
 prospectors; and in order to divert attention an alarm 
 was raised that the whole Ute tribe had gone to war. 
 The daily papers published thrilling dispatches showing 
 up the revengeful nature of the Indians and telling how 
 several battles had been fought, which had existence only 
 in the vivid imaginations of the frontier pards. The 
 cry went up all over the country that the tribes must be 
 removed, and many voices were for extermination." 
 
 During this conversation Jerry had remained perfectly 
 quiet except when he uttered his peculiar expression, or 
 
CHOPPING LOGIC. 235 
 
 made an attempt so to do. While these last few words 
 were being spoken, however, he seemed to be enduring a 
 severe attack of St. Vitus s dance, so restless and eager 
 was he to have a word on the subject of discussion. At 
 this point, therefore, he said : 
 
 " Ye see, Colonel, I has a Injun policy along o the 
 rest. I adwise that all the tribes be gathered in some 
 spot takin care that it ain t whar there is gold and about 
 two barks of a dog* distant have a lot of forty-rod red-eye 
 sccrited in the sand. Then leave em to their fate. They d 
 find that ar whisky less n an hour steal a heap of it 
 drink it stiddy till they all stretched out men, women, 
 and children in a row ^funct. This proceedin would 
 complish three things: they d be happy a stealin , they d 
 be happy a drinkin , they d be happy a dyin . That s 
 humane, that is. And they d die of their own fault. That s 
 my policy." 
 
 Ben and the colonel laughed heartily at this. Realizing 
 how truly the rough Jerry expressed the light valuation 
 placed upon our lives by the border men, I was sad. 
 
 "But, Colonel," said Ben, "hain t the Legislatur of 
 any State the right to hustle off troublesome customers? 
 Hain t they the power to protect the peaceable citizens ?" 
 
 " If I should grant this," replied the colonel, " it would 
 still remain a question whether the Indians or the frontiers 
 men are the troublesome citizens. Am I not right when 
 I say, Ben, that nine tenths of all the trouble between the 
 races is occasioned by the greediness and encroachment 
 of the whites ?" 
 
 " I ain t agoin to be a denyin of it." 
 
 "And it seems to me, Ben, that God has given our 
 nation many warnings that He will revenge the cruelty 
 
 * It is common in the West to measure all distance by the distance a 
 barking do may be heard. 
 
236 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 wrought by us against His helpless children. I call to 
 mind, at this moment, a very striking case. Years ago 
 the Cherokees were wrongfully dispossessed of their land 
 in Georgia. Time passed on, and one of the most terrible 
 battles of our late civil war was fought upon the very spot 
 where these Indians had once lived. If you should search 
 through the whole South you could not find a tract of 
 country so devastated, so covered with graves, as that. 
 Does it not seem that God has thus exhibited his dis 
 pleasure and vengeance against those who sought to profit 
 by the misfortunes of His simple-hearted ones?" 
 
 " Prodigal ain t quite come back yit hey, Jerry?" 
 
 " And I also call to mind at this moment, Ben, a clause 
 out of the last will of Cortez, the cruel Spanish conqueror : 
 It has been long a question whether we can, in good 
 conscience, hold the Indians in slavery. This question 
 not having yet been decided, I order my son, Martin, and 
 his heirs, to spare no pains to arrive at a knowledge of 
 the truth on this point, for it is a matter which interests 
 deeply their conscience and mine. Thus does the most 
 cruel of conquerors shame our great government, which 
 offers to Hottentot, Kaffre and Turk the protection of 
 just laws, but holds the Indians, the original owners of 
 the soil we now possess, in a slavery which is as hateful 
 and loathsome as it is subtle and shameless." 
 
 " That decides me, Jerry, or I ll be hanged," said Ben 
 in a low cautious voice. " Prodigal is way off ain t come 
 back by a heap." 
 
 The night had by this time descended darkly upon us. 
 The fire of pine-boughs crackled and roared, sending up a 
 column of vivid sparks that widened out aloft into a tree 
 of fire. Our faces were aglow with the light. I sat where 
 I could study the countenances of my companions, and 
 while I felt how unjust was the settled hatred to our race 
 
i.oc.ic. 237 
 
 depicted on the faces of the two frontiersmen, I couid not 
 find any bitterness in my heart toward them as individuals. 
 I simply regarded them as the victims of a long course of 
 false training, as the representatives of a class in which 
 love for gold has crushed out every noble feeling of 
 human brotherhood. The face of the colonel was animated 
 and kind, showing the depth and force of the noble cur 
 rent flowing beneath the surface. I recognized in him a 
 true friend, and wherever he may be this beautiful evening 
 as I write, I pray that the blessing of Wakanda may alight 
 upon him. 
 
 " List nin , Jerry?" finally said Ben, knocking the ashes 
 out of his pipe. Without waiting for a reply he con 
 tinued: 
 
 "The news from down country is rather encouragin 
 like. Eagle Wing s band are ordered to the Injun Ter 
 ritory." 
 
 " Where does they reside at ?" inquired Jerry. 
 
 " Bout two hundred miles down the Horsetail. That 
 is the river as we last passed on the over side o the Range 
 do ye notice ?" 
 
 Out of the glowing fire -tree a spirit seemed to come 
 and snatch me suddenly from a most beautiful land into a 
 region of thorns and darkness. My own father s band 
 ordered to the terrible " Land of Fire," which to every 
 northern Indian is the synonym of fever and death ! 
 Had the impending stroke the blow from which we had 
 so long shrunk fallen at last upon us ? Must our 
 beautiful homes and fruitful farms be given up to those 
 who had no right to them who had not toiled to make 
 them charming? It was only the Indian s pride that kept 
 back the groan that started to my lips when I heard the 
 white man s -words. 
 
 My blood was instantly on fire to rush away to my 
 
238 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 people, aid them if we were to resist the cruel command, 
 or, if nothing more, suffer with them and show the weak 
 ones how they might be strong. I thought how much my 
 father might need a strong shoulder on which to lean in 
 this sad moment. I thought of my mother, who had saved 
 my life at the risk of her own. I thought of my beautiful 
 Wagh-ta. Perhaps she had come back to our home had 
 found her noble father dead and her plighted husband 
 fled away, no one could tell her whither. She might need 
 my protection, or at least my sympathy. It almost 
 maddened me to think that she might be chiding me for 
 deserting her in her distress, or imagining that I had 
 met some cruel fate among the swelling divides or upon 
 the rocks. The long arms of the rocking pines beckoned 
 me away ; the voice of the brook murmuring " Khta-we-tha" 
 urged me to all haste ; the smile of my Wagh-ta shone 
 among the aspens where lay the path to the Horsetail. 
 
 I looked at my companions. While I had been think 
 ing these thoughts they had stretched themselves out 
 beside the fire and were now fast asleep. " I can slip away," 
 I thought, "without suspicion, and it shall certainly be with 
 out delay." I stood for a moment beside the slumbering 
 form of the colonel, the only white man, save the French 
 man who dwelt beside our home, whom I had ever heard 
 speaking a word in favor of my race. I called down all 
 blessing and eternal love upon him as he thus lay with 
 the fire-light flickering over his pale cheecks, and then, 
 with a pang, as if I were parting from a brother, I turned 
 away and followed the smile that gleamed among the 
 aspens. I never saw him again. Who or whence he was, 
 or what anguish of life lay behind his brief but terrible 
 aberration of mind, I know not; but his heart was kind 
 and he pitied our woes may Wakanda bless. him 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 THE glorious night was just at its height as I started 
 upon my journey homeward. In the distance I heard the 
 bark of the wolf, and once at my very side my ear caught 
 the purr of the mountain lioness soothing her young. 
 These and other sounds of the night caused me neither to 
 hesitate nor to fear. I had now a great purpose in view, 
 and was nerved by the thought of it. By morning I had 
 crossed the Range, and by the following evening I was 
 far down the Horsetail, whose bank I knew to be my surest 
 and easiest way. 
 
 At noon of the third day I came to the divide from 
 the top of which I knew I should see our village. I crept 
 Breathlessly up its side. I stood upon it, and oh ! what a 
 spectacle did I behold ! Two companies of the Great 
 Father s soldiers were camped in the circular space in the 
 heart of our village ; my father s people were all crouching 
 in abject misery upon the ground in the center of the 
 camp. Seated a little apart from them I could see my 
 father and his main warriors, their bodies wrapped in 
 scarlet blankets and their souls in bitter woe. Some of 
 the soldiers were busily tearing down the homes which 
 we had built with such pains and in which we had 
 spent so many peaceful hours. The few articles of 
 furniture that we had been able to secure were broken, 
 thrown together into a pile, and just beginning to blaze 
 above the torch applied by one of the white men. The 
 woody fringe along the river bank where I had so often 
 
240 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 sat and mused with Wagh-ta; the shining stream itself, 
 in whose waters I had so often fished and sported ; the 
 rain-washed hills beyond the river, upon whose dewy 
 summits I had so often hunted the antelope and wolf 
 these well-remembered objects must have been just the 
 same as of old, but oh ! how changed and desolate and 
 sad they seemed ! Several of the houses were set on fire, 
 that being the easiest mode of destroying them. As these 
 flames leaped upward, spreading their forked tongues, 
 and clapping their cruel hands together, and wreathing 
 the dear homes in diadems of fire, a great wail came up 
 to my ears from the miserable company huddled together 
 on the ground, swelled into such mournful harmony as I 
 have heard the tempest make in the sounding aisles of 
 some distant forest, and as the shifting winds bore the 
 wail to me I heard this sad word repeated : " Ma-shan ! 
 Ma-shan ! Ma-shan !" * 
 
 I ran down the hillside and was allowed to pass the lines 
 of the soldiers and go into the space allotted to my 
 people. I came upon my poor mother first ; her eyes 
 were wild with agony and tears, and her long hair was 
 matted and torn. She lighted upon me a look of love 
 even from her sadness, and said passionately : 
 
 " My son ! my son ! Thou hast come to witness our dis 
 grace, to share our fate." 
 
 " Na-ha ! t Na-ha ! At last I see thy dear face again. 
 Has my Wagh-ta my beautiful bride returned ?" 
 
 She answered me only with a moan. Well did I know 
 her meaning; the one I loved was still away. My heart 
 chilled and hardened in an instant. I was fiercely glad to 
 die. Yet that I might not add to my mother s woe by 
 allowing her to see my own, I turned away without 
 another word. 
 
 * Home! Home! Homel f Mother. 
 
PLOUGHED UNDER 241 
 
 As I walked among that mournful company toward the 
 spot where my father sat, I thought how the great world 
 of society and government and wealth never for a moment 
 stopped in its mad rush to think of what sad things are 
 occurring out upon the prairies, of what cruel wrongs are 
 being perpetrated in the holy name of liberty. I was 
 in a strange agony because I could not lay hold of all the 
 people of the world at once, stop them suddenly, keep 
 them perfectly still, and force them to a fair and brotherly 
 consideration of our sufferings. 
 
 My father was calm and stern. He saluted me simply 
 with a slight wave of the hand, indicating both that I 
 was welcome and that I should be seated by his side. For 
 some time we remained in perfect silence, for no one could 
 speak until the chief had been heard. At last my father said: 
 
 "The white men will soon be here. Build the fire for 
 the last council to be held upon our own soil." 
 
 Some of the warriors arose to obey his command. 
 ! " Da-de-ha,"* I said, " have we no means of warding off 
 this terrible fate that threatens us ?" 
 
 "Thou shalt see, my son, thou shalt see. The white 
 men will soon be here to hold a council with us." 
 
 "But how long have the soldiers been here? How 
 long have our people been exposed thus to the weather?" 
 
 " Four days. And they have given us no food, hoping 
 to starve our people into consenting to give up their beauti 
 ful homes and go to the Land of Fire, to die." 
 
 " And what say our people ?" 
 
 " They say, better to die under the old trees and beside 
 the graves of our fathers, than in the land of the 
 stranger." 
 
 " And had you any warning of the approach of this fate 
 we have dreaded so many years?" 
 * My father. 
 
242 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 " The soldiers found us gathering in our corn, and pre 
 paring winter-tepees for our cattle. They have driven 
 away our cattle and taken our corn from us. 
 
 " Da-de-ha ! This is robbery !" 
 
 " Nay, my son. It is the policy of a great government, 
 and cannot be robbery." 
 
 There was an intense bitterness in his voice. Oh ! it 
 made my heart weep to see my noble father so crushed 
 and despairing. He was born to command, to lead his 
 warriors against the enemies of his people, to stalk 
 haughtily among the grand ones of the earth, to overcome 
 the mighty game of the forests it was terrible to see him 
 crouching under oppression, ridicule, and woe. 
 
 At length we saw the agent and three other white men 
 approaching us from the direction of Gray Coat s mansion ; 
 and my father arose, placed his war-bonnet upon his head, 
 and, thus prepared for the council, awaited their coming. 
 The head-men of our tribe ranged themselves upon the 
 ground behind my father. Behind them the wretched 
 people the weeping women and the starving children 
 gathered to listen, in the agony of despair, to the words 
 spoken by the white men. My father folded his arms 
 quietly upon his breast, and stood forth, like a mighty 
 bear at bay, to defend his little ones. It was a noble, a 
 pathetic spectacle, this last stand made by a once proud 
 and powerful race against the slow, creeping advance of a 
 pitiless, hypocritical, irresistible foe. The tender hearts that 
 read these words in their luxuriant homes can by no means 
 imagine how cruelly the Indian is bound, so as to make 
 him the easy prey of scheming men. 
 
 Thus in perfect silence we awaited the coming of the 
 white men, as if it were an attack of the Sioux. One of 
 their number, a stranger to me, was tall and stately in 
 movement, and elaborately dressed ; his hands were nicely 
 
PLOUGHED UNDER. ^3 
 
 encased in gloves, and his nose was surmounted by a pair 
 of gold-rimmed eye-glasses. I afterwards learned that he 
 was one of the inspectors appointed by the Great Father 
 to observe how our tribes obey the commands of their 
 several agents. Another of the agent s companions was a 
 base man, despised by Indians and white men alike for 
 his many known acts of perfidy. The fourth member of 
 the group was an interpreter, who had been brought to 
 see that the interests of the government were not 
 endangered by any want of understanding between the 
 contracting parties. 
 
 While this company was approaching from one side, 
 I saw that Kind Face, our friend, was quietly slipping 
 toward us from the other direction. He was always alert 
 to be by our sides at a moment of need, and my heart 
 rejoiced when I thought we might have his assistance and 
 sympathy in the coming council. 
 
 The inspector, upon coming up, saluted my father with 
 a stately bow, which was as proudly returned. The 
 council was properly arranged around the crackling fire 
 of spruce-boughs, and the conference was about to begin, 
 when the inspector observed the presence of Kind Face, 
 and, turning to the base man I have mentioned, exclaimed 
 haughtily : 
 
 " Have that white man removed from our council." 
 
 It was beneath the pride of a chief to make any plea for 
 the help of any one not of his own race, else my father 
 had requested that the tender-hearted Frenchman might 
 be allowed to remain. As he continued silent, Kind Face 
 arose, and, looking the inspector firmly in the eye, said: 
 
 " This day, I well know, shall witness the crowning 
 perfidy of the English against the simple-hearted red men. 
 I tell thee this" 
 
 " Have him removed! " 
 
244 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 " I tell thee this, self-seeking hypocrite, that had it not 
 been for the service of the red men, thy Anglo-Saxon race 
 had never possessed the American continent. It is matter 
 of history that, in the colonial days of this nation, when the 
 French were bitterly disputing with you the rulership of 
 this vast continent, there came a crisis when the question 
 trembled in the balance. The forces on each side were 
 balanced: both parties knew that in the hands of the 
 Indians the decision lay. My ancestors I do not deny 
 used every method and means to obtain the friendship of 
 the red men, but they failed. At this moment, upon 
 which the destiny of America hung, the historic Six 
 Nations of red men embraced the Saxon cause, and literally 
 changed the whole civilization of America from French 
 Catholic to English Protestant. Right nobly, indeed, 
 have you rewarded your faithful allies ! You have repaid 
 them with smiles and promises, robbery and death ! " 
 
 "Command the captain of these forces to remove this 
 insane fellow from our brotherly council ! " exclaimed the 
 inspector in a rage. 
 
 "I relieve him of the duty," Kind Face replied. "I 
 depart willingly. Farewell, Eagle Wing ! Wakanda shall 
 avenge the cruelty of this day." 
 
 These were his words could I ever forget them ? 
 Having thus spoken, the noble-hearted man turned his 
 steps toward his dug-out, and I never saw his face 
 again. 
 
 The peace-pipe was now passed from mouth to mouth ; 
 but each one saw in the curling smoke that the ceremony 
 was a needless and cruel protest. There could be no 
 peace between the victim and the robber, the helpless and 
 the spoiler. 
 
 When this formality had been completed the inspector 
 arose with much importance, and having dropped his eye- 
 
PLOUGHED UNDER. 245 
 
 glasses till they dangled from a cord about his neck, pro 
 duced a paper from his pocket and gravely opened it. 
 
 " This paper," he said through the interpreter, " is the 
 basis of our action in pressing the removal of this tribe 
 to the Indian Territory. I shall first pass this document 
 to the several chiefs and head-men present, and ask them 
 to be kind enough to identify their marks upon it, and 
 then I shall read it. Interpreter, be so good as to pass 
 this to Eagle Wing, asking him if he signed it in presence 
 of Gray Coat, as our good agent is known among the 
 tribe." 
 
 My father took the paper and quietly handed it to me. 
 I instantly recognized it as the petition drawn up at the 
 suggestion of the dead Um-pan-nez-zhe, asking, as we 
 supposed, that Gray Coat might be removed and we 
 allowed to live in liberty. But as I now cast my eye over 
 it, having learned to read the English language since the 
 paper was written, I was amazed and horrified to dis 
 cover that the petition really requested that our entire 
 tribe might be removed to the Indian Territory. 
 
 " Da-de-ha !" I cried, springing up, " we have been cruelly 
 deceived. Thou didst dictate a plea to the Great Father 
 asking that Gray Coat might not be allowed to throwus into 
 slavery ; behold ! above thy name there was written a peti 
 tion that we might be removed to the Land of Fire. Rise 
 as a chief and tell us if we have not been shamelessly 
 trifled with !" 
 
 "Young man," the inspector said when the meaning 
 of my words was made known to him by the interpreter, 
 " it is foolish for you now to attempt to influence your 
 father to repent his deliberate action. This document 
 has been properly attested by the agent, the trader, and 
 the interpreter; it has been considered by the Great 
 Father; and although the removal will cost him a vast 
 
246 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 sum 01 money, he has decided to grant your petition. 
 The Great Father has no patience with those who do one 
 thing to-day and another to-morrow. It will be necessary 
 for you now to abide by your petition, and as the Great 
 Father has in much tenderness provided a pleasant home 
 for you in the Indian Territory, thither you must go." 
 
 " This action is outrageous, sir," I said in English to 
 him. " The chiefs and head-men of my tribe never signed 
 a petition to be removed. Think you it is like human 
 nature to pray the Great Father to grant misery and 
 uncertainty, sickness and death, in place of happiness and 
 freedom, health and life? Will the deer beg that the 
 fangs of the she-wolf may close upon her own throat and 
 crush the ribs of her fawn ? You have added lying to 
 murder and theft, in this." 
 
 " I refuse to hear any one upon this question," said the 
 inspector, "save only the chief. Let Eagle Wing stand 
 forth and present any claims he may have upon the con 
 sideration and mercy of the Great Father." 
 
 The afternoon was now far spent. The coming twilight 
 threw out patches of deep shadow in the valleys to herald 
 the night s approach, and sent forth the soft winds of 
 evening to whisper of its peace. 
 
 The chief slowly wrapped his blanket more tightly 
 around him, lifted up his face to the sky for a moment of 
 prayer to Wakanda, and then with many a gesture of dig 
 nity and grace spoke the last words of appeal that ever 
 issued from his lips. 
 
 It may not be to you known that the Indian chief uses a 
 language far nobler and more picturesque than that em 
 ployed by ordinary members of his tribe. Hence it is that 
 very few interpreters are able to give the full meaning of a 
 chief s address, while in almost every case the beauty of 
 metaphor and the passion of expression are lost. Every 
 
PLOUGHED UNDER. 247 
 
 sentence contains a reference to some expressive sound 
 or picture of the natural world, and thus it is difficult to 
 retain the full sweetness and glory in a language less inti 
 mately associated with the voices of grove and prairie. I 
 speak of this that you may not think my father s words 
 unworthy of a chief. 
 
 "I am," he said, "like one with the heartache all the 
 time. Through my soul rings the sad cry of the O-we-we.* 
 The homes that our fathers built, in which we and our 
 little ones have in turn been born, are blown by a tempest 
 upon the ground not one of them could shelter a fox. 
 Our lands, the Wa-ghat says, must be given up to the 
 scratching of the broad-winged crows and to the burrow 
 ing of the badger. And he asks what claims I have to 
 urge that we may be allowed, through the condescension 
 of the Great Father, to remain upon our beautiful farms. 
 May I not first of all assert the claim that we have owned 
 by the law of nature and the gift of Wakanda this land 
 whereon our fathers have always lived ? May I not claim 
 that our title to these homes has been confirmed to us by 
 many treaties with the white men, and that we have never 
 broken the slightest stipulation or agreement? May I 
 not claim that we have fought with you in your wars, and 
 for you in our contests with the Sioux ; that many of our 
 race have suffered with you in your woes, and now wear 
 the scars of the veteran in your service? And we have 
 committed no crime. I have been told that by the white 
 man s law no one can be punished until he has done 
 wrong. We have never done wrong, yet we are punished. 
 Have you two laws one for the white man and one for 
 the Indian ? 
 
 " Look upon us we are human beings. The one Father 
 made the white men and the red men alike. Therefore 
 
 * The morning dove. t White man. 
 
24 8 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 we ought to be brothers. You say there are some Indians 
 who are bad and my heart weeps because it is true. But 
 are all white men good ? And that some of our race are 
 evil-hearted seems all the greater reason that we who 
 wish to do right should have strong laws to protect us 
 from their malice. Do you forget that we are men ? We 
 love and hate, we suffer and weep, we must take care of 
 our sick, and prepare for the winter and for old age, as 
 the white men do. Look at us have we not hands and 
 feet, eyes and lips, just as you have? Are we not men? 
 We are poor. Our clothes are torn and soiled. They are 
 all you have left us. But we still are human beings. 
 
 "You say that the Indian is unsettled, that he loves to 
 roam from place to place, after the manner of the lynx. 
 This is false. No one loves his home and the grave of 
 his fathers as the red man does. The ants would never 
 leave their sand-hill if the rising wave of the ravine did 
 not sweep against their home. The Indian would never 
 desert his village if he were not thrust away by the foam 
 ing torrent of white men. He loves to roam the hunting 
 grounds; but he comes back always to his home. We 
 have two words in our language that are more sacred than 
 any other : they are Wakanda and Ma-shan. We speak 
 them together because God gave us our home and 
 would not take it away from us. There is another thing 
 that we have always possessed, and is so dear to us that 
 we have found no word by which to speak of it.* It is 
 freedom of choice to go, to stay, to be ourselves, to have 
 our own. What shall we do to show you that we love our 
 homes above any other thing? Shall we range ourselves 
 along the top of yonder divide and be shot one by one by 
 the soldiers rather than give them up ? Would you do 
 that, my people ?" 
 
 * The Indians have no word for liberty. 
 
PLOUGHED UNDER. 249 
 
 Asking this question, my father turned with a proud 
 smile to his people. The silence of death hung over us; 
 no one uttered a word ; but our entire tribe, men, women, 
 and children alike, arose as if by one brave impulse. Their 
 faces in the twilight were calm and firm they would 
 gladly die with their native breeze fanning their cheek and 
 their native skies above them. I am an Indian myself, 
 and so it was natural for me to think that those faces, lit 
 by love of God and home, were just as noble as they would 
 have been had they been covered by a white skin. 
 
 " My brothers," my father said, turning to the white 
 men, " we are ready for your command. Shall we die upon 
 the divide ? For the days the soldiers have been here I 
 have seemed like one facing a great prairie fire. The sky is 
 red, the grass is tall anti dry, the wind is strong and 
 blows toward me I would take up my babes and run to 
 save their lives. I have seemed like one standing on the 
 bank of an overflowing river. The waves cry ; they run 
 fiercely toward us, and I would take my helpless people and 
 flee to higher ground. But no place of safety can be found. 
 And so I stand and face the fire I plant my feet toward 
 the flood I am willing to spring into either, rather than 
 give up the graves of my fathers and the home of my child 
 hood. 
 
 " My brothers, the Indians must always be remembered 
 in this land. Out of our languages we have given names 
 to many beautiful things which will always speak of us. 
 Minnehaha will laugh of us, Seneca will shine in our _/ 
 image, Mississippi will murmur our woes. The broad 
 Iowa and the rolling Dakota and the fertile Michigan 
 will whisper our names to the sun that kisses them. The 
 roaring Niagara, the sighing Illinois, the singing Delaware, 
 will chant unceasingly our Dta-wa-e.* Can it be that you 
 * Death song, 
 
250 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 and your children will hear that eternal song without a 
 stricken heart? We have been guilty of only one sin we 
 have had possessions that the white man coveted. We 
 moved away toward the setting sun; we gave up our 
 homes to the white man. Behold ! he comes and bids us 
 move again. 
 
 " My brethren, among the legends of my people it is 
 told how a chief, leading the remnant of his people, 
 crossed a great river, and striking his tepee-stake upon the 
 ground, exclaimed, A-la-ba-ma ! This in our language 
 means Here we may rest ! But he saw not the future. 
 The white men came : he and his people could not rest 
 there; they were driven out, and in a dark swamp they 
 were thrust down into the slime and killed. The word 
 he so sadly spoke, I am told, has given a name to one of 
 the white man s States. Wa-gha, there is no spot under 
 those stars, that now begin to smile upon us, where the 
 Indian can plant his foot and sigh A-la-ba-ma. It 
 may be that Wakanda will grant us such a place. But it 
 seems that it will only be at His side. My brothers, Khe- 
 tha-a-hi * has spoken." 
 
 The inspector seemed in nowise affected by these words. 
 In reply he haughtily said : 
 
 " The Great Father has borne patiently with you in all 
 your changeable moods. For four days he has waited 
 that you might make up your minds to go quietly to the 
 Indian Territory. He will wait no longer. To-morrow 
 as the sun rises we will begin our march. The soldiers 
 will see that no one lags behind." 
 
 After speaking these words he was about to turn away, 
 when one of our young men, unable to curb his passion 
 longer, started up, and pointing angrily toward him, cried 
 in the Indian tongue : 
 
 * Eagle Wing. 
 
PLOUGHED UNDER. 251 
 
 " Thou shalt suffer for this ! The agonies of the widow 
 and the orphan have a weight in them that crushes down 
 the soul that offends them." 
 
 A moment of confusion followed ; our sobbing people 
 gathered round the speaker; they swayed to and fro in 
 grief; the soldiers rushed among them ; there was a shot ; 
 the heart of the young man who had spoken was pierced ; 
 his blood gushed into the upturned face of an Indian 
 child standing before him. It was impossible, in the com 
 motion, to tell who had done the deed, or by whose com 
 mand it was done. The soldiers afterwards said that, not 
 being able to understand the words of the young man, 
 they had supposed that he was threatening the inspector s 
 life. This may have been the case. But our poor people 
 only knew that our blood had been spilt, and catching up 
 the warm body of our son, slain on account of the gener 
 ous impulse of his heart against a great cruelty, we formed 
 a sad procession and instantly repaired to the hill-top 
 where our fathers slept. We laid him down upon the 
 dewy grass, and oh, how his upturned face shone in the 
 starlight ! 
 
 My father gathered the people around him rnd told 
 them all to kneel down there before the face of Wakanda 
 while he prayed. This was his prayer : 
 
 " O Wakanda, the red man s only friend ! Our hearts 
 are broken, our eyes are heavy with weeping. Thou 
 didst give us this Ma-shan ; who shall take it away? 
 Here we have lived in love of thy smile, here we have 
 learned more and more of thy wishes, here we have heard 
 of thy Son who died for the red man, and loves him all 
 the more that he is helpless and distressed. Is it by thy 
 wish that we must now go to the Land of Fire? Hast 
 thou given the white man the Book so that he may become 
 strong and oppress us because we are weak ? O Wakanda ! 
 
252 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 Father of the Indian! soften the white man s heart. Let 
 him love us as brethren. Forgive them that they despise 
 and forget us. Make us strong to go wherever it is thy 
 wish. I pray in the name of Wakanda E-zhi-ga. * 
 
 We arose with strong hearts. 
 
 " My children," my father went on to say, " the lips of 
 this son, who lies dead upon the grass, have spoken a true 
 prophecy. Wakanda will see that the cause of the weak 
 prospers. When I think of what the young man said it 
 seems to me that we have no right to be stubborn, and 
 so be killed beside our ruined homes. That would be 
 selfish. That would be to interfere with Wakanda s plan. 
 He seems to wish us to suffer in the Land of Fire ; we 
 bow to that wish. When I was a young Wa-shu-scha t I 
 would go into the woods to hunt. Sometimes after turn 
 ing homeward I would think that the old trail leading 
 back to the village was a hard one to follow. The rocks 
 would seem sharp, and the briers would pierce my flesh. 
 Then I would leave the trail and seek a new path for 
 myself ; but I always became entangled in stouter vines, 
 the rocks were sharper and the swamp deeper, so that I 
 was glad to find again the old way, in which my fathers 
 had walked. My children, it may seem now to us that 
 Wakanda has guided us into a dark, rough way. Remem 
 ber the word of your chief better to go forward than turn 
 aside. Wakanda shall guide us His way is the surest 
 trail to Him." 
 
 Then my father gave directions for the burial of our 
 dead. He was the last of our line that has, as yet, found 
 sleep beside our sleeping fathers. We built the cotton- 
 wood shed above him in the silence of overwhelming de 
 spair. Then, having formed a sad procession, we passed 
 
 * God s Son. t Brave, or warrior. 
 
PLOUGHED UNDER. 253 
 
 to and fro within cur guarded limits, around the ruins of 
 our homes, out as far as we could go into our fields, 
 wailing our sad Dta-wa-e, while the pitying stars looked 
 down, and the old trees wept the dews of sympathy. 
 " Ma-shan ! Ma-shan ! Ma-shan !" we cried, and the divides 
 echoed, and the hills. Away through cottonwood aisles 
 that echo ran ; it joined the ceaseless roar of surging 
 stream. Shall it ever die ? 
 
 The morning came and found us ready to leave our 
 homes. Enough wagons were taken to carry the women 
 and children. The men walked sadly and silently beside 
 them. One company of soldiers preceded us, and the 
 other followed. They hurried us forward with oath and 
 insult and blow. The red men have at least this advan 
 tage over their white brethren they never curse the name 
 of Wakanda until they learn the English language. In 
 our native tongues we have no word of cursing or blas 
 phemy. It makes my heart shiver when white men take 
 Wakanda s name in hatred on their lips, for He made 
 earth, and air, and sunlight, and man. 
 
 At every bridge the captain counted our number to see 
 that no one had escaped to crawl back to our wretched 
 homes. If a child, forgetting for a moment the hopeless 
 ness of our woe, ran a few steps aside to pluck a withered 
 dandelion or a bunch of buffalo grass, the soldiers would 
 swear at him, and amuse themselves by throwing stones 
 at his head while he scampered back to the line. It was 
 not long before even the children realized the misery of 
 our condition, and devoted what energy they had to 
 enduring the severities of the march. All day we pressed 
 forward, and at night, around such scanty fires as we were 
 allowed to build, we wailed our sad Dta-wa-e for loss of 
 home. 
 
 It was now late in the fall. The cold rains of that 
 
254 1^ LOUGH ED UNDER. 
 
 period descended in torrents upon us. We were provided 
 with but scanty protection from the severity of the weather. 
 To add to our discomfort we were allowed the very least 
 amount of food that would suffice to keep us upon the 
 march. Under these circumstances, and considering how 
 sore our hearts were, it is not surprising that many of our 
 people became sick. In a few days they began to die. A 
 hasty hole was dug by the soldiers for those who were 
 fortunate enough to find this speedy end of their miseries, 
 and with scarce an hour s delay of our march the bodies 
 were tumbled in. This the captain called "Christian 
 burial." And I have since learned that when writing of 
 this removal he used the following words, which surely 
 must have been meant for unholy sarcasm : " These burials 
 occasioned considerable expense to the government, but 
 it is my opinion that the civilizing effects upon the minds 
 of the Indians more than compensated for the outlay." 
 
 One evening, after a long journey through the rain, I 
 was sitting under one of the wagons bathing my torn and 
 blistered feet, and listening to the mournful patter of the 
 rain upon the darkening prairie. My father came to me, 
 and without a word beckoned me to follow him. He led 
 me to another wagon, and pointing with his finger to a 
 person lying wrapped in blankets under it, indicated that 
 I should uncover the face. I did so, and found it was my 
 mother. She was evidently very sick ; a raging fever had 
 seized her ; her pulse pounded and throbbed like the 
 swollen Missouri. 
 
 " Na-ha ! * Na-ha !" I cried. 
 
 Her eyes were wild, and she turned them out upon the 
 drenched prairie as if the Spirit of the Storm beckoned 
 her away. But she uttered not a word. 
 
 * My mother. 
 
r LOUGH ED UNDER. 25;, 
 
 " Oh speak to me, Na-ha !" I moaned. " Thou didst brave 
 death for me: conquer it now, and speak." 
 
 My father had tried to build a fire in the shelter of the 
 wagon. It had all died out save one little flame, which 
 flickered feebler and feebler for a moment and then sud 
 denly vanished, affording light enough as it expired simply 
 to reveal to us a little spiral of dun smoke curling up to the 
 dark sky. Thus also died the spark of life in my mother s 
 rent, tear-soaked heart ; but just before the utter dark 
 ness came upon us we caught a glimpse of the soul floating 
 up to the weeping Wakanda. We did not give her 
 " Christian burial." My father and I, accompanied by a 
 guard of two soldiers, took her dear form out to the 
 highest sand-hill we could find, laid it reverently there, 
 and covered it with a strong wicker-work of such boughs 
 as we discovered strewn by the storm around. We 
 breathed a prayer to Wakanda to guard the dear remains. 
 And as I stood there listening to the dripping of the rain 
 and the sighing of the wind through the tall grass, I 
 missed the strong nature and soft kiss of Wagh-ta as I 
 had never done before. 
 
 , The next day as we started upon our march I knew 
 that I must sustain my father s footsteps and try to cheer 
 his heart. I therefore walked by his side and gave him 
 my shoulder to lean upon. His weight upon me became 
 greater and greater as we advanced. The next day he 
 seemed scarcely able to drag one weary foot after the 
 other. When we rested at noon I begged the captain 
 that my father might be allowed to ride in one of the 
 wagons. 
 
 " Go away, you dog !" was his reply. " Your lazy father 
 must take his chances with the soldiers. Is he not as able 
 to march as we ?" 
 
 " Give him the food and coats that the soldiers have," I 
 
25-"> PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 replied, "and he would be able. But he is sick and 
 starving." 
 
 For answer he caught up his sword and struck me in 
 the face with it. 
 
 During the afternoon my father grew rapidly worse. 
 His cough was distressing. He often stumbled, and would 
 have fallen had I not been near. 
 
 " My son," he said, as evening came, " the wing of Death 
 cast its shadow over me when thy mother died. Accord 
 ing to the belief of our people I should have remained 
 quiet under the spell while a day and night passed over 
 me. But I was hurried on by the soldiers. My son, I 
 must suffer the consequences of having broken the spell. 
 I must die." 
 
 All night I sat by his side. In his sleep he moaned and 
 tossed, and I feared every moment would be his last. 
 When the morning came he opened his eyes and said to 
 me: 
 
 " Last night I dreamed of the old home. I heard the 
 whisper of the cottonwood leaves, and the murmur of the 
 river, and the voice of the young men in the fields. Thy 
 mother was with me ; we were glad. My son, I shall socm 
 be in a better home, and thy mother will be beside me. 
 Watch where they bury thy father, and if ever Wakanda 
 brings you back to the old home, take my bones and lay 
 them beside those of my fathers. See! the sun rises. 
 Thy mother beckons me ! I come ! The sunshine is 
 bright ! Khe-tha-a-hi comes !" 
 
 The old chief started up with these words and succeeded 
 in reaching a sitting posture. He raised his hand and 
 pointed toward the light. His long hair streamed in the 
 sunrise breeze. His hand slowly dropped upon the grass 
 We laid him down and closed his eyes. 
 
 The soldiers hurried him out to a " Christian burial." 
 
PLOUGHED UNDER. 257 
 
 I noted well the spot where he was laid, and when the 
 Wa-gha permits I shall take his bones, as he wished, and 
 lay them in the old grave-yard. 
 
 Of what followed I have the most indistinct recollection. 
 Robbed of bride, mother and father, I walked in a maze 
 of woe that rendered me alike oblivious to the sweet 
 sounds and the bitter things around me. We crossed 
 great rivers; we walked many weary miles; we starved, 
 and shivered, and wept ; we buried person after person on 
 the way: hardly a child reached the Land of Fire. There 
 the remnant of us at length arrived. A marshy spot of 
 ground was given us for a home. We were huddled into 
 a few tents, while our agent had a substantial house. The 
 reign of death continued. Whole families became extinct ; 
 the sad cry of the mourner was constantly in our ears. 
 Our young men had no heart to work, and had they toiled 
 with the greatest energy the scanty soil would have 
 yielded but little return. We could kick our foot into 
 the ground and strike the hard underlying rock. We 
 heard the most distressing reports from all the northern 
 tribes that had been taken to the Land of Fire. In nearly 
 every case one third of the tribe would die the first year, 
 and before the second year closed, one half of those who 
 in joy and gladness had skimmed the old hills would be 
 in their graves. 
 
 I roamed the swamps and looked toward the north. I 
 prayed that the fever might attack me next, and that I 
 might die under its hot kisses. I forgot the face of friends, 
 and often would puzzle my brain to know why I was so 
 sad. My people shook their heads as I passed along. 
 Although now the "chief," I could not rouse myself; I 
 was as one in a haunting sleep that cannot be shaken off. 
 
 When along the sand bars of the Niobrara the fish- 
 hawk catches the spotted pickerel and flies with it in its 
 
258 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 claws toward its nest in the high tree-top, how it screams 
 with triumph ; how it enjoys the struggles of the victim 
 as they grow feebler and feebler in death. And when 
 that scream is heard, how the young hawks clamber to 
 the sides of the nest, thrust out their sharp bills and 
 sharper eyes, and scream in answering .chorus till the 
 woods ring ! I have been told that the inspector who 
 removed our tribe wrote an elegant report of exultation 
 over us, and that the noble senators, and officers, and 
 legislators, and commissioners took up the chorus from 
 their nest, and screamed joyously that the blood-thirsty 
 Indian had for once been treated with proper severity. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE TWO VOICES. 
 
 ALL this time 1 had heard no tidings of my bride. I 
 knew not whether she were dead or living, and sometimes 
 I wished it might be the former. At better moments, 
 however, 1 knew that if she lived she loved me still, and 
 in that thought there was sympathy and solace. 
 
 The winter passed at length away, and the warm spring 
 returned. One day word was brought to us that the 
 members of a neighboring tribe would give us some 
 horses, if some orfe would go to receive them. At the 
 earnest request of my people I consented to go, and, 
 having secured the permission of the agent, started upon 
 my journey the following day. It was a bright morning, 
 and 1 could fancy how the grass was springing and the 
 early flowers blooming upon the hills of my northern 
 home. I pressed vigorously forward, and by evening had 
 reached the borders of the reservation of the tribe by 
 whose courtesy we were to profit. I was kindly received 
 at the house where I was to spend the night, and, from 
 the people residing there, learned the history of their 
 tribe s removal, while in return I imparted our own sad 
 story. So strict had been the watch kept upon us, and 
 so thoroughly has the agent the control of all communi 
 cation between the tribes, that we knew scarce anything 
 of what was going on within fifty miles of us. They had 
 come from a region a little north-west of our old home, 
 and had been removed about the time we had been. 
 
 The next morning, bidding adieu to my friends of a 
 
260 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 night, I started toward the place where the horses designed 
 for us were kept. I passed many wretched tents and huts 
 in which the people had spent the winter, and I found 
 that the same story of sickness, misery, and death was to 
 be told here as among our own tribe. 
 
 About noon I came to a picturesque spot in the side of 
 a hill, whence a little spring of pure water bubbled forth. 
 The water that we had been able to procure had been so 
 filthy and brackish, that I hailed this pure fountain as the 
 direct gift of Wakanda. I cast myself down upon the 
 grassy margin of the spring, and drank and drank until 
 the thirst of a half-year was appeased. 
 
 I do not know how long I sat there. At length I heard 
 the sound of footsteps coming down the pathway beyond 
 the bushes. I had nothing to lose, so I did not fear, and 
 I took it for granted that none but Indians would be near. 
 Oh ! I did not think how much I had to gain. 
 
 The footsteps came nearer, the. bushes parted, an Indian 
 girl stepped into the open space. Her head hung down 
 upon her breast, her long hair vailed her face, but I knew 
 her in an instant. Only one neck could be so shapely 
 as that only one footfall could be so soft. Springing up, 
 I cried : 
 
 " Wagh-ta !" 
 
 She dropped the pail which she was carrying in her 
 hand, flung I ack the hair by a toss of her head, clasped 
 her hands in passionate surprise and joy, and said : 
 
 " Sha-ta-ga-dta-tha !" 
 
 Yes, it was it was my bride. She hid her face in my 
 arms and burst into tears. 
 
 " My darling bride," I cried, " how came you here ? By 
 what strange working of Wakanda do I find thee in this 
 lonely place, so far from our old home?" 
 
 She could not answer for weeping. 
 
THE TWO VOICES, 261 
 
 " Tell me at least this, my darling," I said : " do you love 
 me as when we had the bright prairie for a play-ground ?" 
 
 She lifted up her eyes to my face a moment, and in them 
 I saw her heart s truth. So sure was I of her love that 
 all shadow of doubt instantly fled from my mind. 
 
 We sat down upon the grassy bank. The whole scene 
 seemed transformed, as if by some spirit of magic, into 
 the most enchanting beauty. The weeds became flowers, 
 the marsh a garden. We talked of the old home and the 
 old love. I told her how unjustly we had been removed, 
 how my father and mother were dead. At this her tears 
 flowed afresh, I told her how I longed for a kiss from 
 her sweet lips as I stood in the dripping rain and gloom 
 beside my mother s grave, and she lifted up her lips to 
 my cheek and gave me one as I spoke. 
 
 Then she told me all that had happened to her since I 
 had seen her how she had been given into the hands of 
 the cruel woman Mollie, how the evil man had failed in 
 his purposes, and how he had struck his poor mother to 
 the earth. She said that the day following her escape 
 from him, as she was making her way homeward, she had 
 been taken by a band of soldiers and conducted, in spite of 
 her most earnest appeals, to the tribe in which I had 
 found her. They were then on their way to the Land of 
 Fire, and hither she had been taken with them. One of the 
 families of the tribe had kindly received her, and with 
 them she had remained until that time. In all this tale 
 she did not mention little Swallow s name, simply remark 
 ing that she had been saved by one of our people. 
 
 " Who was it," I cried, "that did thee this great service? 
 I will bless him with my latest breath, and, were the world 
 mine, would endow him with it." 
 
 " It is one," she said, " to whom I will instantly conduct 
 thee. And oh, dear Wolf Killer," she added, springing up, 
 
262 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 " we should have gone to her long ago. I have been so 
 happy that I have too long forgotten my duty." 
 
 She took up her pail, which lay where it had fallen, and 
 I filled it for her at the spring. How strange, how exhil 
 arating it was to walk again by Wagh-ta s side ! Again 
 the flowers nodded in joyous sympathy as we passed by ; 
 again the grass-spears jostled their fellows in knowing 
 enjoyment of our joy. She conducted me to a wretched 
 hut where lived the family whose kindness and hospitality 
 she had enjoyed. She pushed aside the tattered carpet 
 which formed the door, and told me to enter. 
 
 There was but one room. A woman sat beside a basin 
 of coals cooking a little food. In one corner of a room 
 there was a wretched bed, and upon it I saw that some 
 sufferer lay. Wagh-ta motioned to me to go and look at 
 the sick person. I did so. 
 
 " Swallow !" I cried in amazement, for it was she. 
 
 The hatred I had for her, because of the profession she 
 had made of having aided Scar Face in wronging me and 
 my bride, came bitterly up in my heart, and I was about 
 to turn away, when Wagh-ta, understanding all, came to 
 me, took my hand in both her own, and said : 
 
 "Dear Wolf Killer! It was little Swallow that saved 
 thy Wagh-ta. Bless her, then, as thou hast said, for I fear 
 she has not many minutes to live." 
 
 Swallow had turned her wan face from the wall toward 
 us, and was now regarding us through wild, staring, 
 sunken eyes. She seemed puzzled, and yet not surprised. 
 
 " Has my bright dream become true, then?" she softly 
 murmured. " Have Wolf Killer and Wagh-ta been 
 united ? O Wakanda ! I thank Thee I love Thee for it !" 
 
 Her tired eyelids slowly drooped. Her breathing grew 
 heavy. 
 
 " The old river is roaring loudly to-night, mother," she 
 
THE TIVO I OJCES. 263 
 
 said in her feverish stupor. And then, after a pause: 
 " How the ice crackles, mother ! It must be colder. I 
 am cold. Hear the river surge it sounds fainter now !" 
 She seemed to harken intently for a long time, then she 
 said : "The river grows fainter and fainter." 
 
 After about an hour, just as the twilight was settling 
 round us, she opened her eyes again and said : 
 
 " Where is he ? Wagh-ta, where is he ? I want to talk 
 to him before I die ! Oh, here he is. Sha-ta-ga-dta-tha, 
 can you forgive poor little Swallow, who sinned because 
 she loved you so dearly?" 
 
 / Oh yes," I said, "dear Swallow, I freely forgive you, 
 and I bless you with all my heart for what you have done 
 for me and mine." 
 
 " I thought it would succeed," she said, looking up to 
 the ceiling with a far-off look in her eyes, " I thought it 
 would succeed. Under the sumacs long ago I said: 
 1 Love and hate have failed, unselfishness may succeed, 
 to gain his love." 
 
 Then in the quiet twilight we talked the whole sad 
 story over, and she told me all she had said and 
 done to save my bride. Her mind seemed to retain its 
 power until she had told all, and then it suddenly failed 
 her. She fell into a quiet stupor, and her breathing be 
 came labored and heavy. We watched beside her while 
 the long hours passed, and just as the midnight stars had 
 wheeled into their places a smile played for a moment 
 upon her sunken cheeks, her lips parted as if before a 
 scene of ineffable grandeur the surging of the river 
 ceased and with a great sigh of relief her soul burst 
 forth into the eternal Ma-shan. 
 
 When it was over I led Wagh-ta out into the starlight 
 to stay her weeping. 
 
 "What shall we do?" I said. 
 
264 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 " I don t know, dear husband," she said. 
 
 A great thought of joy came into my heart. For the 
 first time in many months I felt the enthusiasm and 
 strength of a man. 
 
 " My Wagh-ta !" I whispered in my earnestness, "will 
 you fly with me from this dreadful land of death? Do 
 you loye and trust me enough for that ?" 
 
 " I would do anything for you," she whispered, " and 
 can brave anything with you." 
 
 " We must be all in all to each other, darling," I said, 
 "for all our relatives are with Wakanda. We will fly to 
 our northern home and live together in joy and peace. I 
 can do nothing for my people here ; perhaps there some 
 way may open for me to help them." 
 
 The little maiden looked up into my face with a sweet, 
 brave smile, and whispered : 
 
 " Ge-tha-a-ta-she ! Ge-tha-a-ta-she !"* 
 
 Our kind friends who had harbored the orphan Wagh- 
 ta were taken into our confidence. 
 
 "Go, by all means," they said. 
 
 And the father of the household added : 
 
 "You must go this very night. Our agent and the 
 police are away in the other part of the Reserve. I will- 
 get a brave Shc5n-gat for each of you. I will go with you 
 to the borders, and show you the way to safety and joy." 
 
 " Oh, we cannot go until poor Swallow is buried," my 
 bride said. 
 
 "You must go to-night, or not at all, They would 
 shoot you if they found you stealing away. Poor Swal 
 low is beyond all need of help. We will see that she has 
 proper burial. But you must go to-night." 
 
 Wagh-ta wept, went and kissed the blue lips, and then 
 returned to my side and took my hand. 
 * "Happiness ! Happiness !" Literally, " More than glad." T Pony. 
 
Tin: nro VOICES. 265 
 
 The ponies were soon at the door, and in an instant we 
 were mounted. We had no earthly possession but our 
 mutual love, and that was a light burden. Away! away! 
 
 "You will send the promised horses to my distressed 
 people ?" I said to our kind leader. 
 
 "Yes, yes!" 
 
 "They will wonder much what has become of the son 
 of their last chief. But I could not have had the heart 
 to tell them of our escape. They would have pleaded so 
 piteously to be taken too." 
 
 "Think only of your bride and be off ! " our con 
 ductor said. somewhat harshly; and we started. 
 
 Up dark ravines, over starlit hill-tops, clattering among 
 the rocks, cutting the sod with six pairs of sharp hoofs 
 away ! away ! away ! 
 
 The plain is broad, Never mind, love, it will put the 
 more miles between us and death. Start not at the 
 shadows that chase us ; they are but shadows. The night 
 breeze whistles " Hope ;" the coarse shrubs wave " Cour 
 age ; " the twinkling lights among the wild flowers cry, 
 " Be brave ! be brave !" 
 
 Away ! away ! We pass tottering hovels and rent tents 
 in which our shivering people crouch in sickness and 
 misery. We pass the dying camp-fire of those who have 
 not even such poor protection. Dashing down steep de 
 clivities, rattling along the dry, pebbled beds of streams, 
 now in the shadow, now in the starlight, pausing a moment 
 to listen, then galloping faster than before, through tangled 
 brush and over clear spots away ! away ! Oh ! brave Shon- 
 ga ! strong Sh6n-ga ! Ha ! ha ! we shall be free ; we shall 
 be free ! 
 
 Hist ! there is a camp-fire around which we see moving 
 figures. We must make a detour in perfect silence : tread 
 lightly upon the breaking twig, brave Shon-ga ! Now we 
 
266 PLOUGHED UA DER. 
 
 have passed them on again! The night grows darker ; 
 it would be black to any eyes but those of love, but, dear 
 Wagh-ta, it is noonday with thee by my side. Our guide 
 is wise, and we shall not miss our way. The deeper dark 
 ness now but shows the morn is near. Hark ! The surg 
 ing river is near; beyond it there are liberty and joyl 
 The waters are cold cling close to me, my Wagh-ta. On, 
 brave Sh6n-ga ! There, we stand upon the bank. 
 
 " Farewell," our guide says : " you are now beyond the 
 border of the Land of Fire. Put many miles between you 
 and this river before the morning comes. Wakanda bless 
 you ! Wakanda save all His poor red children as He has 
 saved you. Farewell !" 
 
 It is two years since the good man spoke these words. 
 I sit in a little cabin on the shore of the same shining 
 river whose smile is my first remembrance. But our 
 cabin stands not on our old home. A hundred miles we 
 coursed along, the clear river, beyond the familiar old 
 haunts, and stopped at last where we could find a place 
 which, for the present at least, is not coveted by the white 
 man. There we built us a rude but comfortable cabin. 
 Through the door I see the fields I have with so much joy 
 cultivated. They have given us food and clothing. Our 
 brave Sh6n-ga, that saved us from the Land of Fire, grazes 
 just there by the doorstep. 
 
 By my side dear Wagh-ta sits gazing up into my face 
 as I write. She thinks it the most wonderful thing that 
 I should dare to write down our simple story for the white 
 men to read in their magnificent homes. There in the 
 center of the room si*s another dear object, with her lap 
 full of roses. She laughs and crows, never thinking of 
 what her father and mother have suffered. We call her 
 
THE Tll O VOICES. 267 
 
 " Ma-he-dii-ba," because she is a constant " Sunshine " in 
 our simple home, and she was given by Wakanda. 
 
 But I dare not tell you where our cabin stands. I fear 
 some one would covet my poor possessions, and come to 
 drive us away ; and I could not claim protection by the 
 white man s law. We are happy in our simple ways ; we 
 live in constant love, and for recreation we put our arms 
 about each other, take our little "Sunshine" and walk 
 forth into the world our Wakanda has made, and study 
 all its beautiful things. May we not thus live, and may 
 we not be free ? 
 
 But my people O my people ! I long to do something 
 for them in their desolation. Yet what can I do? Poor, 
 powerless, I cannot help them where they are, nor effect 
 their return to their homes out of that sad land of death. 
 
 As I gaze out upon the shining river, its roar becomes 
 two voices in my ear. One voice swells loudly from the 
 eastward, and cries: "The Indian is an evil thing in the 
 path of civilization ; he must be burned off or ploughed 
 under as the trees of the forest are cleared and the weeds 
 of the prairie go down bfore our driving ploughshares. 
 Get him off the earth, as fast as musket balls and bad 
 whisky can do it !" 
 
 The other voice comes wailing from the southward, 
 and says : " Are we not human beings? Did not the one 
 Wakanda make us and you ? We pray that we may not 
 longer be murdered and plundered in order to enrich a few 
 base men. We pray that we may have our homes in peace 
 and safety, and be allowed, under just laws, to support our 
 selves and our children. Let us have our lands undis 
 turbed as the white men do ; give us teachers to aid and 
 instruct us in your arts of industry ; send us good mis 
 sionaries to teach us from The Book of morality and 
 religion. Be as just to the first owners of the land as you 
 
263 PLOUGHED UNDER. 
 
 are generous to all other people of the earth, and the 
 Indian too shall enrich the free soil of America without 
 being ploughed under." 
 
 It is for the Christian public to say which voice in the 
 river shall swallow up the other. Wolf Killer the son of 
 Eagle Wing has spoken. 
 
 THE END. 
 
BY JUDGE ALBION W. TOURGEE. 
 
 A FOOL S ERRAND. 
 
 BY ONE OF THE FOOLS. 
 
 Handsome 12 mo, with Side Stamp. . . . Cloth, $i. 
 
 ABOUT once in a generation appears a book that is at once 
 and universally accepted as a marked element in the life and 
 literature of the world. Such a work, at the close of the Seven 
 teenth Century, was Bunyan s " Pilgrim s Progress," one of the 
 best-known books of human origin. In the Eighteenth Century, 
 a period of much cultivated talent but little genius, De Foe s 
 "Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" startled the reading 
 public with a narrative so apparently real that it was received 
 with intense enthusiasm as truth, and for a hundred and fifty 
 years has remained one of the unfading English classics. In 
 our own more fertile age, Walter Scott s " Waverley" first burst 
 the bonds of stilted fiction and created the historical novel ; about 
 thirty years later Mrs. Stowe s " Uncle Tom s Cabin" aroused 
 the world with indignation over the wrongs of a race, and inau 
 gurated the novel with a purpose. And now, thirty years later, 
 appears another book, "A FOOL S ERRAND, BY ONE OF THE 
 FOOLS," which has seized upon the popular imagination and run 
 through edition after edition, as fast as it could be printed. It is 
 the marked book of this generation. 
 
 " If this book don t move men, and u The story will be read with breath- 
 start the patriotic blood of the nation less interest. Hartford (Conn,) COM- 
 into warmer flow, then we have mis- rant. 
 
 taken the American people," Chicago .. W hat is most remarkable about the 
 
 Inter-Ocean. book is the spirit of fairness that per- 
 
 , , vades it." Philadelphia Times. 
 
 Abounds m sketches not to be . * 
 
 matched in the whole range of modern It is rare to find an author with 
 
 fiction. The author s keen insight into wrongs before him like those which are 
 
 character gives him a power which portrayed in A Fools Errand, who 
 
 never relaxes to the end ; while his has the courage to turn so clearly as 
 
 kill in dialogue and humorous touches he does, the best side of the wrong-doer 
 
 add greatly to the charm of the story." before one. . . ., It is, as we have 
 
 -Boston Traveller. said, for its historical value that the 
 
 book will be read, but the causes which 
 
 " A political and social study . . . have made it worth reading on this 
 
 which is pursued with great candor, side have conspired to render u also a 
 
 and no small discrimination." The strong piece of novel- work. "A tlantic 
 
 Nation (N. Y.). Monthly. 
 
 FORDS, HOWARD & HULBEKT, 
 
 7 Park Place, 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
Undoubtedly the chief of American writers" -TROY SENTINEL. 
 
 BRICKS WITHOUT STRAW. 
 
 A NOVEL. 
 
 By the Author of "A Fool s Errand." 
 Handsome I2ino, with Frontispiece Illustration, cloth, $1.50. 
 
 "A regular literary brick, with straw or without. * * * Since the days of 
 Swift and his pamphleteers, we doubt if fiction has been made to play so caustic 
 and delicate a part." San Francisco News Letter. 
 
 "The most exalted expectations will be entirely satisfied by this remarkable 
 and delightful book. It is destined to take even a deeper hold upon public sym 
 pathy than the work already famous." N. V. Examiner and Chronicle. 
 
 " The depth of insight into the social problems of which it treats appears to me 
 greater than that displayed in its immediate predecessor. The delicacy and keen 
 ness of its satire are equal to anything within the range of my knowledge." Pres 
 ident ANDERSON, Rochester University. 
 
 "The characters are real creations of romance, who will live alongside of Mrs. 
 Stowe s or Walter Scott s till the times that gave them birth have been forgotten." 
 The Advance, Chicago. 
 
 " Considered with reference to its interest as a story, the book is greatly in 
 advance of A Fool s Errand. " N. Y. Evening Post. 
 
 " In his terse and pleasing style, in his admirable delineation of character and 
 forcible illustration of great truths, Judge Tourgee has placed himself in the front 
 rank of American writers." Chicago Inter-Ocean. 
 
 "The author has finished his work with the accuracy of an eye-witness, and 
 with the brilliancy of a master mind." Kansas City Journal. 
 
 FORDS, HOWARD & HULBERT, 
 
 PUBLISHERS, 27 PARK PLACE, N. Y. 
 
THE STORY OF AN EARNEST MAN. 
 
 FIGS AND THISTLES: 
 
 A Romance of the Western Reserve, 
 BY ALBION W. TOURGEE, 
 
 Author of " A Fool s Errand." 
 
 I2W0, CM/i, Handsome Side Stamp. . . Price^ $1.50. 
 
 ll ITH FRONTISPIECE. 
 
 THE pen which so vividly portrayed the moral and political 
 status of the South in "A Fool s Errand" has not less graphically 
 delineated in " Figs and Thistles" the social and moral atmos 
 phere of the Western Reserve, where GENERAL GARMELD was 
 born and reared. To appreciate the life and character of him 
 who has become the President of the United States, every one 
 should read this book. He is simply an outgrowth of the life 
 there described. Indeed, if some shrewd critics may be trusted, 
 the barefoot boy, student, lawyer, colonel, general, Congress 
 man, Senator, and possibly President, may be discovered in even 
 more intimate relations with the scheme of this novel. No 
 American can afford to be without this vivid picture of the 
 home of Wade and Giddings and Garfield and the civilization 
 from which they spring. 
 
 One of the striking features of Judge Tourgee s works, and 
 one which has done much to give his "Poofs Errand" its vast 
 popularity, is his intense realism and strong sense of local color 
 ing. " Figs and Thistles" has been very generally described by 
 the press as an "Ohio book," " a Western Reserve romance," 
 "the Western Reserve in romantic miniature," etc. Many de 
 clare that so life-like is the portraiture, that the models of the 
 characters, although, of course (and very properly), not to be 
 identified in all incidents of their careers, can easily be distin 
 guished. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 "It is, we think, evident that the " Tourge* is undoubtedly the chief 
 
 hero of the book is the Republican of American writers." Troy Scnti- 
 
 candidate for President, Gen. JAMES A. r.el. 
 GARFIKLD. The author has indulged 
 
 in the novelist s license, and the story "Close observers of our political his- 
 
 is not, of course, a biography. But the tory will not be at a loss to discover 
 
 author evidently models the career of the originals from whom the author has 
 
 his hero upon the life of Gen. GAR- drawn his characters." Burlington 
 
 FIELD. The book is worth reading for Free Press and Times. 
 itself, but the fact we have stated makes 
 
 it an unusually attractive volume. It "It is a representative American 
 is. in many respects, one of the best novel, and deals with characters en- 
 books of the period." A tckison(Kan.) tirely new and fresh, but altogether 
 Champion. real." Hartford Courant. 
 
 FORDS, HOWARD & HULBERT, Publishers, 
 
 27 Park Place, New York. 
 
-A- 
 
 CHEVALIER WIKOFF S 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF AN IDLER, 
 
 BY HENRY WIKOFF, 
 Author of " My Courtship and its consequences," "Adventures of a 
 
 Roving Diplomatist," etc., etc. 
 60i pp., Octavo. Steel Portrait. Price, $1.75. 
 
 Being a man of fortune and excellent 
 social position, his opportunities for 
 observation have evidently been un 
 usually good, and his use of them is 
 proved by his very readable book to 
 have been both apt and admirable." 
 Buffalo Coztrier. 
 
 The Chevalier WikofFg charming 
 Reminiscences of an Idler met with 
 a flattering reception from the critics, 
 who did not know just what to look 
 for, and were evidently better pleased 
 than they had expected to be. The 
 reading public are interested to see 
 through the eyes of an educated and 
 cultured American gentleman scenes 
 and characters for which they have 
 hitherto been mainly dependent upon 
 foreign sources." Christian Re- 
 
 " Mr. Wikoff (who bears the title of 
 Chevalier as Knight Commander 
 of a Spanish order an honor con 
 ferred in recognition of some skillful 
 service to royalty) has been a familiar 
 figure for more than forty years in 
 Europe and America, and his Rem 
 iniscences deal with almost every 
 body of note that anybody ever heard 
 of." Literary ll orld. 
 
 " The charm of this book, which* blends 
 autobiography with reminiscences of 
 noted persons, and not a little rapid 
 and interesting hfstory, is that it is 
 written in a simple, good way, and 
 never presents us with an anecdote 
 or a reminiscence that is not interest 
 ing. The Chevalier is never dull." 
 Hartford Times. 
 
 " Has at once taken its place among the 
 most racy of recent memoirs. . . . 
 
 William Cullen Sri/ant s Famous Book of Poetry. 
 
 THE FAMILY LIBRARY of POETRYISONG. 
 
 Being- 2000 Selections from 600 of the best Pods, English, Scottish, Irish and 
 
 A merican, including translations from Ancient andModern 
 
 Languages. Carefully revised, and printed 
 
 handsomely from entirely new plates. 
 
 With an Introductory Treatise by the venerable Editor on 
 the " Poets and Poetry of the English Language." Including 
 JAMES GRANT WILSON S New Biography of Bryant. 1065 pp., 
 8vo. With full indexes of the Poems, by Authors and by First 
 Lines, and an elaborate Index of Quotations by which any poetical 
 quotation, of which the volume contains all that are recognized 
 as famous, can be readily found. Illustrated with a new Steel 
 Portrait of Mr. Bryant, many Autographic Fac-Similes of Cele 
 brated Poets, and Sixteen Full-page Wood Engravings. Cloth, 
 Gilt, $5 ; Library Leather, $6 ; Half Morocco Gilt, $7.50 ; Turkey 
 Morocco, $10. 
 
 ** We know of no similar collection in 
 the English language which, in copi 
 ousness and felicity of selection and 
 arrangement, can at all compare with 
 it." A 7 ". Y. Times. 
 
 " With all Mr. Bryant s contributions 
 to poetry and social science, we doubt 
 if no has done one service greater 
 than the collection of this admira 
 ble bowk of poetry. 1 Cincinnati 
 C i r: s. . a n Sia n.iard. 
 
 While Mr. Bryant has added no little 
 to the richness of the world s treasures 
 by the creations of his own thought, 
 we cannot avoid the conviction that 
 this library of selections is among his 
 greatest services to the average read 
 er. In this hurried life one cannot 
 afford to wasta much time on inferior 
 productions. It is half the battle to 
 know what to read." A 7 . Y, Chris* 
 iitin Advocate, 
 
. 
 
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