aring a field to plant corn. I think it was not more
than ten days after our arrival, when my father told us in the morning,
that, from the actions of the horses, he perceived there were Indians
lurking about in the woods, and he said to me, 'John, you must not go
out of the house to-day.' After giving strict charge to my stepmother to
let none of the little children go out, he went to the field, with the
negroes, and my elder brother, to drop corn.

Three little children, besides myself, were left in the house with my
stepmother. To prevent me from going out, my stepmother required me to
take care of the little child, then not more than a few months old; but
as I soon became impatient of confinement, I began to pinch my little
brother, to make him cry. My mother, perceiving his uneasiness, told me
to take him in my arms and walk about the house; I did so, but continued
to pinch him. My mother at length took him from me to nurse him. I
watched my opportunity, and escaped into the yard; thence through a
small door in the large gate of the wall into the open field. There was
a walnut-tree at some distance from the house, and near the side of the
field where I had been in the habit of finding some of the last year's
nuts. To gain this tree without being seen by my father and those in the
field, I had to use some precaution. I remember perfectly well having
seen my father, as I skulked towards the tree; he stood in the middle of
the field, with his gun in his hand, to watch for Indians, while the
others were dropping corn. As I came near the tree, I thought to myself,
'I wish I could see these Indians.' I had partly filled with nuts a
straw hat which I wore, when I heard a crackling noise behind me; I
looked round, and saw the Indians; almost at the same instant, I was
seized by both hands, and dragged off betwixt two. One of them took my
straw hat, emptied the nuts on the ground, and put it on my head. The
Indians who seized me were an old man and a young one; these were, as I
learned subsequently, Manito-o-geezhik, and his son Kish-kau-ko.

[Illustration]

After I saw myself firmly seized by both wrists by the two Indians, I
was not conscious of anything that passed for a considerable time. I
must have fainted, as I did not cry out, and I can remember nothing that
happened to me until they threw me over a large log, which must have
been at a considerable distance from the house. The old man I did not
now see; I was drag