non narrating to her only son, a mere infant, the prominent events of
her husband's life. Night came, and with her child lashed upon her
back, the woman erected a scaffold on the margin of a neighboring
stream, and with none to lend her a helping hand, enveloped the corpse
in her more valuable robes, and fastened it upon the scaffold. She
completed her task just as the day was breaking, when she returned to
her lodge, and shutting herself therein, spent the three following
days without tasting food.

During her retirement the widow had a dream, in which she was visited
by the Master of Life. He endeavored to console her in her sorrow, and
for the reason that he had loved her husband, promised to make her son
a more famous warrior and medicine man than his father had been. And
what was more remarkable, this prophecy was to be realized within the
period of a few weeks. She told her story in the village, and was
laughed at for her credulity.

On the following day, when the village boys were throwing the ball
upon the plain, a noble youth suddenly made his appearance among the
players, and eclipsed them all in the bounds he made and the wildness
of his shouts. He was a stranger to all, but when the widow's dream
was remembered, he was recognized as her son, and treated with
respect. But the youth was yet without a name, for his mother had told
him that he should win one for himself by his individual prowess.

Only a few days had elapsed, when it was rumored that a party of
Pawnees had overtaken and destroyed a Sioux hunter, when it was
immediately determined in council that a party of one hundred warriors
should start upon the war-path and revenge the injury. Another council
was held for the purpose of appointing a leader, when a young man
suddenly entered the ring and claimed the privilege of leading the
way. His authority was angrily questioned, but the stranger only
replied by pointing to the brilliant eagle's feathers on his head, and
by shaking from his belt a large number of fresh Pawnee scalps. They
remembered the stranger boy, and acknowledged the supremacy of the
stranger man.

Night settled upon the prairie world, and the Sioux warriors started
upon the war-path. Morning dawned, and a Pawnee village was in ashes,
and the bodies of many hundred men, women, and children were left upon
the ground as food for the wolf and vulture. The Sioux warriors
returned to their own encampment, when it was ascertained that th