dull period of the agency, only an Indian
canoe, perhaps from Mackinaw, disturbed the peace of the river.

It was on this piazza that on a June morning was heard the chorus of
Moore's Canadian Boat Song on the Chicago River, and here General Lewis
Cass presently appeared. The great men of the New West often gathered
here after that. Here the best stories of the lake used to be told by
voyagers, and Mark Beaubien, we may well suppose, often played his
violin.

The scene of the lake and river from the place was changed by moonlight
into romance.

Amid such scenes the old Chief Shaubena related the legends of the
tribes, and Mrs. Kinzie the thrilling episodes of the massacre of 1812.
Jasper, we may imagine, joined the company, with the beautiful spiritual
tales of the Rhine, and Waubeno added his delightful wonder-tale of the
white Indian, whose feet brought good fortune. No one then dreamed that
John Kinzie's home stood for two millions of people who would come there
before the century should close, or that the cool cottonwood tree would
throw its shade over some of the grandest scenes in the march of the
world.

CHAPTER XIII.

LAFAYETTE AT KASKASKIA--THE STATELY MINUET.

Jasper made the best use of the story-telling method of influence in his
school in the little cabin on the lake near Chicago River. He sought to
impart moral ideas by the old Roman fables and German folk-lore stories.
He often told the tale of the poor girl who went out for a few drops of
water for her dying mother, in the water famine, and how her dipper was
changed into silver, gold, and diamonds, as she shared the water with
the sufferers on her return. But neither AEsop nor fairy lore so
influenced the Indian boys as his story of the Indiana boy who defended
the turtles and pitied the turtle with the broken shell.

"I would like to meet him," said Waubeno, one day when the story had
been told. "What is his name, Parable? What do you call him by?"

"Lincoln," said Jasper, "Abraham Lincoln."

"Where does he live, Parable?"

"On Pigeon Creek, in Indiana."

"Is the place far away?"

"Yes, very far away by water, and a hard journey by land. Pigeon Creek
is far away, near the Ohio River; south, Waubeno--far away to the
south."

"Will you ever go there again?"

"Yes--I hope to go there again, and to take you along with me," said
Jasper. "I have planned to go down the Illinois in the spring, in a
canoe, to the Mississippi, and down