ter
charged in the month's account of the mess at the sutler's. What does
that mean?"

"If you please, lieutenant," said David, respectfully, "it was to
sweeten up the dining-room and quarters after them milish' officers were
here visiting."

Black Hawk and a few of his warriors had escaped to the north, where
they were shortly after captured by the One-eyed Day-kau-ray and his
party, and brought prisoners to General Street at Prairie du Chien. The
women and children of the band had been put in canoes and sent down the
Mississippi, in hopes of being permitted to cross and reach the rest of
that tribe.

The canoes had been tied together, and many of them were upset, and the
children drowned, their mothers being too weak and exhausted to rescue
them. The survivors were taken prisoners, and, starving and miserable,
were brought to Prairie du Chien. Our mother was at the Port at the time
of their arrival. She described their condition as wretched and reduced
beyond anything she had ever witnessed. One woman who spoke a little
Chippewa gave her an account of the sufferings and hardships they had
endured--it was truly appalling.

After having eaten such of the horses as could be spared, they had
subsisted on acorns, elm-bark, or even grass. Many had died of
starvation, and their bodies were found lying in their trail by the
pursuing whites. This poor woman had lost her husband in battle, and all
her children by the upsetting of the canoe in which they were, and her
only wish now was, to go and join them. Poor Indians! who can wonder
that they do not love the whites?

But a very short time had we been quietly at home when a summons came to
my husband to collect the principal chiefs of the Winnebagoes and meet
General Scott and Governor Reynolds at Rock Island, where it was
proposed to bold a treaty for the purchase of all the lands east and
south of the Wisconsin. Messengers were accordingly sent to collect the
principal men, and, accompanied by as many as chose to report
themselves, he set off on his journey.

He had been gone about two weeks, and I was beginning to count the days
which must elapse before I could reasonably expect his return, when, one
afternoon, I went over to pay a visit to my sister at the Fort. As I
passed into the large hall of one range of quarters, Lieutenant Lacy
came suddenly in from the opposite direction, and, almost without
stopping, cried,--

"Bad news, madam! Have you heard it?"

"No