couldn't milk a cow till you kim out hyer."

"I could not."

"Hokee!" suddenly exclaimed Ethan. "What's all that mean?"

"What, Ethan?"

"Don't you see all them hosses up to the house? Hokee! Them's Injins,
as sure's you live!"

Fanny looked, and saw about twenty Indians ride up to the house and
dismount. The sight did not alarm her, though it was rather early in
the morning for such a visit.

"D'ye see all them Injins, Miss Grant?" said Ethan to his mistress.

"Dear me! What can they want at this time in the morning? I must go
into the house, and see to them, for they'll steal like all possessed."

Mrs. Grant put her milk-pail in a safe place, and hastened to the
house, which she reached before any of the savages had secured their
horses. Five or six of the visitors entered by the front door, and the
rest assembled in a group, a short distance from the dwelling.

"I wonder what them redskins wants here so airly in the mornin'," mused
Ethan, when Mrs. Grant had gone. "I wonder ef they know there ain't no
one to home but women folks and boys."

"Suppose they do know,--what then?" asked Fanny.

"Nothin'; only I reckon they kim to steal sunthin'."

"They wouldn't steal from aunt Grant."

"Wouldn't they, though!" exclaimed Ethan, incredulously.

"She has been very kind to them."

"They'd steal from their own mothers," added Ethan, as he finished
milking another cow, and moved towards a third.

As he crossed the yard he stopped to look at the horses, and to see
what had become of the riders.

"Hokee!" cried he, using his favorite expression when excited.

"What's the matter, Ethan?" asked Fanny.

"As true as you live, one of them hosses is 'Whiteskin,'" replied he,
alluding to one of Mr. Grant's animals.

"One of the Indian horses?"

"Yes; as true as you live! I kin see the old scar on his flank."

"Where could the Indians get him?"

"That's what I want to know," continued Ethan, now so much excited that
he could not think of his milking. "Creation hokee!" he added--his
usual expression when extraordinarily excited.

"What is it?"

"Creation hokee!" repeated Ethan.

"What do you see, Ethan?" demanded Fanny, who was now so much
interested that she abandoned her occupation.

"There's the t'other hoss!" replied Ethan. "They've got both on 'em."

"Where could they get them?" said Fanny, who regarded the fact
indicated by her companion as sufficiently ominous to excite her alarm.

"That's what