and of the young men who went out
with me there is not one missing. Best of all, we have brought back a
captive, the daughter of the white chief of the flying fires and the
guns which load themselves. Let me hand her over to our women; they will
know how to make her cry; and we will send her head to the white chief,
to show that his guns cannot reach to the Indian country. Have I spoken
well?'

A murmur of assent followed the chief's speech; and supposing that no
more would be said upon the matter, the Stag was about to declare the
council closed, when an Indian sitting in the inner circle rose.

'My brothers, I will tell you a story. The birds once went out to attack
the nest of an eagle, but the eagle was too strong for them; and when
all had gone, he went out from his nest with his children, the young
eagles, and he found the raven and two other birds hurt and unable to
fly, and instead of killing them, as they might have done, the eagles
took them up to their nest, and nursed them and tended them until they
were able to fly, and then sent them home to their other birds. So was
it with Tawaina and his two friends.' And the speaker indicated with his
arm two Indians sitting at the outer edge of the circle. 'Tawaina fell
at the fence where so many of us fell, and in the morning the white men
took him and gave him water, and placed him in shelter, and bandaged his
wound; and the little White Bird and her sister brought him food and
cool drinks every day, and looked pitifully at him. But Tawaina said to
himself, The white men are only curing Tawaina, that when the time comes
they may see how an Indian can die. But when he was well, they brought
horses, and put a bow and arrows into our hands, and bade us go free. It
is only in the battle that the great white chief is terrible. He has a
great heart. The enemies he killed he did not triumph over. He laid them
in a great grave. He honoured them, and planted trees with drooping
leaves at their head and at their feet, and put a fence round that the
foxes might not touch their bones. Shall the Indian be less generous
than the white man? Even those taken in battle they spared and sent
home. Shall we kill the White Bird captured in her nest? My brothers
will not do so. They will send back the White Bird to the great white
chief. Have I spoken well?'

This time a confused murmur ran round the circle. Some of the younger
men were struck with this appeal to their generosity, and