ppreciate them. Open a school for just that
branch. I myself will be his pupil. I remember with what delight I
used to mould Mercy's butter. Well, I've been moulding something ever
since."

"Your husband, for instance."

"He's a little difficult material; but time will improve him! Then
there are the Doctor's botanical treatises and specimens. Open a
school. If you have to begin with a few only, still _begin_. Lay the
seed. From our little workroom and classroom may grow one of those
mighty colleges that have made Englishmen great and are making
Americans their equals."

"Hello there, child! Hold on a bit. Their equals? And you a soldier's
daughter!"

"Since I am a soldier's daughter, I can afford to be just, and even
generous. It is all nonsense, because we have gained our independence,
to say we are better than our fathers were. For they were our fathers,
surely; and they had had time in their rich country, with their ages
of instruction, to grow learned and great. But we Americans are their
children, and, just as is already proving, each generation is wiser
than the one which went before. So presently we shall be able to do
even better than they----"

"Give them another dose of Yankee Doodle?"

"If they require it, yes. But come back to just right here in this
little town. Besides the schools for white children, can't we have
those for the Indians?"

"No, dear; not here. Not anywhere, I fear, that will ever result in
permanent good. At least, the time is not yet ripe for that part of
your dreaming to come true."

"But think of Wahneenah. She is teachable and there is none more
noble. Yet she is an Indian."

"She is one, herself. In all her race I have seen none other like her.
There is Black Partridge, too, and Gomo, and old Winnemeg. They are
exceptions. But, my love, there are, also, the Black Hawk and the
Prophet."

He did not add his opinion, which agreed with that of the wisest men
he knew, that Illinois would know no real prosperity till the savages,
which disturbed its peace, were removed from its borders. For she
loved them, hoped for them, believed in them; even though her own
common sense forced her to agree with him that the time was not ripe
then, if it ever would be, for their civilization. So he held his
peace and soon they were at home.

"Heigho! There are lights in our cabin. Hear me prophesy: Mother Mercy
has come over with a roast for our supper and Mother Wahneenah has
quietly set