ptain had some rockets let off. This
greatly excited the Indians, and their yells and wild cries resounded
along the shore. Except for the momentary flash of the rockets, it
was perfectly dark, and my sensations as I walked with a stranger to a
strange hotel, through the midst of these shrieking savages, and heard
the pants and snorts of the departing steamer, which carried, away
all my companions, were somewhat of the dismal sort; though it was
pleasant, too, in the way that everything strange is; everything that
breaks in upon the routine that so easily incrusts us.

I had reason to expect a room to myself at the hotel, but found
none, and was obliged to take up my rest in the common parlor and
eating-room, a circumstance which insured my being an early riser.

With the first rosy streak, I was out among my Indian neighbors, whose
lodges honeycombed the beautiful beach, that curved away in long, fair
outline on either side the house. They were already on the alert, the
children creeping out from beneath the blanket door of the lodge, the
women pounding corn in their rude mortars, the young men playing on
their pipes. I had been much amused, when the strain proper to the
Winnebago courting flute was played to me on another instrument, at
any one fancying it a melody; but now, when I heard the notes in
their true tone and time, I thought it not unworthy comparison, in
its graceful sequence, and the light flourish at the close, with the
sweetest bird-song; and this, like the bird-song, is only practised
to allure a mate. The Indian, become a citizen and a husband, no more
thinks of playing the flute, than one of the "settled-down" members of
our society would, of choosing the "purple light of love" as dye-stuff
for a surtout.

Mackinaw has been fully described by able pens, and I can only add my
tribute to the exceeding beauty of the spot and its position. It is
charming to be on an island so small that you can sail round it in an
afternoon, yet large enough to admit of long, secluded walks through
its gentle groves. You can go round it in your boat; or, on foot, you
can tread its narrow beach, resting, at times, beneath the lofty walls
of stone, richly wooded, which rise from it in various architectural
forms. In this stone, caves are continually forming, from the action
of the atmosphere; one of these is quite deep, and a rocky fragment
left at its mouth, wreathed with little creeping plants, looks, as you
sit withi