uick to think and act.

The Indians grasp their cudgels more firmly to give him a good drubbing.
What fun it will be to bring them down upon his broad shoulders, and see
him cringe!

John comes upon the run. Quick as a flash he seizes the cudgel in the
hands of the first Indian, swings it about his head with the strength of
a giant. Whack! it goes upon the skull of one, whack! again upon the
forehead of the Indian opposite, knocking them right and left. The next
two catch it, the third and fourth. They go down as the Philistines fell
before Samson. His blows fall so fast that the Indians take to their
heels: he breaks up the gauntlet, and marches over the ground like a
conqueror. The Indians, instead of punishing him, are greatly pleased.

It is midsummer, and the corn which the Indians have planted needs
hoeing. They take him into the field, put a hoe into his hands to work
with the squaws.

"You hoe corn," they say. John Stark hoe corn for the Indians! Not he.
He cuts up weeds and corn alike, giving a few strokes, doing what damage
he can, and then flings the hoe into the river.

"Squaws hoe corn. Braves fight," he says.

Do they beat him? On the contrary, they pat him on the shoulder.

"Bono! bono!" (good! good!) they say.

The Indians look down upon work as degrading. They make their wives do
all the drudgery. Women were made to work, men to fight. To humiliate
their prisoners they put them to work, degrading them to the condition
of women. John Stark understood their character, and acted accordingly,
and his captors were so delighted that they wanted him to become an
Indian.

"We make you chief," they said.

"You be my son. I give you my daughter," said the chief.

But John Stark had no idea of becoming an Indian. Nevertheless, he kept
his eyes and ears open. He studied their ways. They showed him how to
follow a trail over the dead leaves of the forest--how the leaves would
be rustled here and there, turned up at the edges, or pressed down a
little harder where men had set their feet. He saw what cowards they
were unless the advantage was all on their side, and how wily they were
to steal upon their enemies. He picked up a little of their language. He
was ready to go with them upon a deer-hunt; but as for working, he would
not.

Little did the Indians think that they were teaching one who would turn
all his knowledge to good account against them a few years later; that
when they were showing him how