e women and children fear their
enemies, but we will face our foes, and always conquer.

"We are going to talk with the white men; our great Father wishes us to
be at peace with our enemies. We have long enough shed the blood of the
Chippeways; we have danced round their scalps, and our children have
kicked their heads about in the dust. What more do we want? When we are
in council, listen to the words of the Interpreter as he tells us what
our great Father says, and I will answer him for you; and when we have
eaten and smoked the pipe of peace, we will return to our village."

The chief took his seat with all the importance of a public benefactor.
He intended to have all the talking to himself, to arrange matters
according to his own ideas; but he did it with the utmost condescension,
and his warriors were satisfied.

Besides being an orator, Shah-co-pee is a beggar, and one of a high
order too, for he will neither take offence nor a refusal. Tell him one
day that you will not give him pork and flour, and on the next he
returns, nothing daunted, shaking hands, and asking for pork and flour.
He always gains his point, for you are obliged to give in order to get
rid of him. He will take up his quarters at the Interpreter's, and come
down upon you every day for a week just at meal time--and as he is
always blessed with a ferocious appetite, it is much better to
capitulate, come to terms by giving him what he wants, and let him go.
And after he has once started, ten to one if he does not come back to
say he wants to shoot and bring you some ducks; you must give him powder
and shot to enable him to do so. That will probably be the last of it.

CHAPTER II.

It was a beautiful morning in June when we left Fort Snelling to go on a
pleasure party up the St. Peters, in a steamboat, the first that had
ever ascended that river. There were many drawbacks in the commencement,
as there always are on such occasions. The morning was rather cool,
thought some, and as they hesitated about going, of course their toilets
were delayed to the last moment. And when all were fairly in the boat,
wood was yet to be found. Then something was the matter with one of the
wheels--and the mothers were almost sorry they had consented to come;
while the children, frantic with joy, were in danger of being drowned
every moment, by the energetic movements they made near the sides of the
boat, by way of indicating their satisfaction at the state o