learn how he felt toward them. They could scarcely believe that
he was the savage, who, only a few years before, had been a leading
spirit in the torture of Colonel Crawford.

Occasionally the chief used a few English words and the boys gathered
from the general trend of his remarks that they would be welcome if they
came only as traders; but that settlers were not welcome, and the Indians
wished no one to come among them who would clear land or do anything
which might lead to the establishing of a settlement of the whites in
their country. A reasonable number of hunters and traders might come and
go unmolested but there must be no building of permanent cabins; there
must be no different life than that led by the children of the
forest--the Indians themselves.

A long silence followed this address, and then Ree arose to speak. His
heart beat fast, and John trembled inwardly as his friend began. But
nervous as he was, there was no weakness in Ree's tones. He spoke slowly
and distinctly, using every sign which could be expressed by look or
gesture to make his meaning clear; and looking the Indians squarely in
the eyes they did not fail to understand as the boy thus told them in his
own way, that he and his friends hoped to live at peace with them; that
there was but a very small party of them, himself and one other, besides
a woodsman who was temporarily with them, and that they had journeyed to
that beautiful country of the Delawares to hunt and trade and make
themselves a home.

They had not been taught to live as the Indians lived, he said, and they
could not have a home without some cleared land about it for the crops
which they would need. For this land, Ree went on, they were willing to
pay a fair price, and they were desirous of selecting a location that
they might get their cabin built. The spot they had chosen was where the
course of the river had changed at some time, years before, leaving a
little clearing.

As Ree finished speaking he stepped up and laid his presents--two small
mirrors and a handsome hunting knife--before Capt. Pipe. John followed
his example in this, and there were grunts of approval from all the
Indians except Big Buffalo, as the boys sat down.

More speech-making followed, however, taking so much time that John
whispered: "If they don't stop soon, or ask us to stay all night, we will
have to climb a tree, somewhere."

At last a decision was reached that the boys were to have a piece o