ear
the shrieks of the females, and then, as the smoke whirled away in the
wind, he caught a view of the fluttering bark, and felt assured that all
his former skill was not entirely departed from him. Dropping the piece
to the earth, he turned again to his companion with an air of the utmost
composure, and demanded--

"Is my brother satisfied?"

"Mahtoree is a chief of the Dahcotahs," returned the cunning Teton,
laying his hand on his chest, in acknowledgment of the other's
sincerity. "He knows that a warrior, who has smoked at so many
council-fires, until his head has grown white, would not be found in
wicked company. But did not my father once ride on a horse, like a rich
chief of the Pale-faces, instead of travelling on foot like a hungry
Konza?"

"Never! The Wahcondah has given me legs, and he has given me resolution
to use them. For sixty summers and winters did I journey in the woods
of America, and ten tiresome years have I dwelt on these open fields,
without finding need to call often upon the gifts of the other creatur's
of the Lord to carry me from place to place."

"If my father has so long lived in the shade, why has he come upon the
prairies? The sun will scorch him."

The old man looked sorrowfully about for a moment, and then turning with
a confidential air to the other, he replied--

"I passed the spring, summer, and autumn of life among the trees. The
winter of my days had come, and found me where I loved to be, in the
quiet--ay, and in the honesty of the woods! Teton, then I slept happily,
where my eyes could look up through the branches of the pines and the
beeches, to the very dwelling of the Good Spirit of my people. If I
had need to open my heart to him, while his fires were burning above my
head, the door was open and before my eyes. But the axes of the choppers
awoke me. For a long time my ears heard nothing but the uproar of
clearings. I bore it like a warrior and a man; there was a reason that
I should bear it: but when that reason was ended, I bethought me to
get beyond the accursed sounds. It was trying to the courage and to
the habits, but I had heard of these vast and naked fields, and I came
hither to escape the wasteful temper of my people. Tell me, Dahcotah,
have I not done well?"

The trapper laid his long lean finger on the naked shoulder of the
Indian as he ended, and seemed to demand his felicitations on his
ingenuity and success, with a ghastly smile, in which triumph was