e waded polite,
but he waded deep right off the first thing.

And, sez he, "Before they all die I hope they will sharpen up their
tommyhawks and march on to Washington, and have a war-dance before the
Capitol, and take a few scalps there amongst the law-makers and the
Injun bureau."

He got kinder lost and excited by his feelin's, Krit did, or he wouldn't
have said anything about scalpin' a bureau. Good land! he might talk
about smashin' its draws up, but nobody ever hearn of scalpin' a bureau
or a table.

But he went on dretful smart, and, sez he, "Gentlemen, I have lived
right out there amongst the Injuns and the rascally agents, and I know
what I am talkin' about when I say that, instead of wonderin' about the
Injuns risin' up aginst the whites, as they do sometimes, the wonder is
that they don't try to kill every white man they see.

"When I think of the brutality, the cheatin', the cruelty, the
devilishness of the agents, it is a wonder to me that they let one stick
remain on another at the agencies--that they don't burn 'em up, root
and branch, and destroy all the lazy, cheatin', lyin' white scamps they
can get sight of."

The two men acted fairly browbeat and smut to hear Krit go on, and they
sez--

"You must be mistaken in your views; the Goverment, I am sure, tries to
protect the Injuns and take care of 'em."

"What is the Goverment doin'," sez Krit, "but goin' into partnership
with lyin' and stealin,' when it knows just what their agents are doin',
and still protects them in their shameful acts, and sends out troops to
build up their strength? Maybe you have a home you love?" sez Krit,
turnin' to the best lookin' of the men.

"Yes, indeed," sez he; "my country home down on the Hudson is the same
one we have had in the family for over two hundred years. My babies are
to-day runnin' over the same turf that I rolled on in my boyhood, and
their great-great-grandmothers played on in their childhood.

"My babies' voices raise the same echoes from the high rock back of the
orchard, the same blue river runs along at their feet, the sun sets
right over the same high palisade. Why, that very golden light acrost
the water between the two high rocks--that golden line of light seems
to me now, almost as it did then in my childhood, the only path to
Heaven.

"Heaven and Earth would be all changed to me if I had to give up my old
home. Why, every tree, and shrub, and rock seems like a part of my own
beloved fam