what would happen in the future. He said, The white traders come
here, give the Indians whiskey, get them drunk, and then cheat them
out of their lands. Once we owned this whole country; now, if an
Indian strips a little bark off of a tree to shelter him when it rains,
a white man steps up, with a gun in his hand, and says, That's my
tree; let it alone, or I'll shoot you.

Then the "Prophet" said to the red men, Stop drinking
"fire-water,"[4] and you will have strength to kill off the
"pale-faces" and get your land back again. When you have killed them
off, I will bless the earth. I will make pumpkins[5] grow to be as
big as wigwams, and the corn shall be so large that one ear will be
enough for a dinner for a dozen hungry Indians. The Indians liked
to hear these things; they wanted to taste those pumpkins and that
corn, and so they got ready to fight.

[Footnote 2: Tecumseh (Te-kum'seh).]

[Footnote 3: Prophet (prof'et): one who tells what will happen in
the future.]

[Footnote 4: Fire-water: the Indian name for whiskey.]

[Footnote 5: Pumpkins (pump'kins).]

203. Who William Henry Harrison was; the march to Tippecanoe; the
"Prophet's" sacred beans; the battle of Tippecanoe.--At this time
William Henry Harrison[6] was governor of Indiana territory. He had
fought under General Wayne[7] in his war with the Indians in Ohio.
Everybody knew Governor Harrison's courage, and the Indians all
respected him; but he tried in vain to prevent the Indians from going
to war. The "Prophet" urged them on at the north, and Tecumseh had
gone south to persuade the Indians there to join the northern tribes.

[Illustration: GOVERNOR HARRISON TALKING WITH THE "PROPHET."]

Governor Harrison saw that a battle must soon be fought; so he started
with his soldiers to meet the Indians. He marched to the Tippecanoe
River, and there he stopped.

While Harrison's men were asleep in the woods, the "Prophet" told
the Indians not to wait, but to attack the soldiers at once. In his
hand he held up a string of beans. These beans, said he to the Indians,
are sacred.[8] Come and touch them, and you are safe; no white man's
bullet can hit you. The Indians hurried up in crowds to touch the
wonderful beans.

Now, said the "Prophet," let each one take his hatchet in one hand
and his gun in the other, and creep through the tall grass till he
gets to the edge of the woods. The soldiers lie there fast asleep;
when you get close to them, spring up a