ty should leave as soon as their
preparations could be made, the war chief sent for those who were to
dance. The dance was performed every third or, fourth night until the
party left. For each dance the war chief had a hew set of performers;
only so many were asked at a time as could conveniently dance inside the
wigwam. While some were dancing, others were preparing for the
expedition, getting extra mocassins made, drying meat, or parching corn.

When all was ready, the party set out, with every confidence in their
war chief. He was to direct them where to find the enemy, and at the
same time to protect them from being killed themselves.

For a few days they hunted as they went along, and they would build
large fires at night, and tell long stories, to make the time pass
pleasantly.

The party was composed of about twenty warriors, and they all obeyed
implicitly the orders of their war chief, who appointed some warriors to
see that his directions were carried out by the whole party. Wo to him
who violates a single regulation! his gun is broken, his blanket cut to
pieces, and he is told to return home. Such was the fate of Iron Eyes,
who wandered from the party to shoot a bird on the wing, contrary to the
orders of their chief. But although disgraced and forbidden to join in
the attempt to punish the Chippeways for the outrage they had commited,
he did not return to his village; he followed the tracks of the war
party, determining to see the fun if he could not partake of it.

On the fourth night after they left home, the warriors were all
assembled to hear the war song of their chief. They were yet in their
own country, seated on the edge of a prairie, and back of them as far as
the eye could reach, there was nothing to be seen but the half melted
snow; no rocks, no trees, relieved the sameness of the view. On the
opposite side of the Mississippi, high bluffs, with their worn sides and
broken rocks, hung over the river; and in the centre of its waters lay
the sacred isles, whose many trees and bushes wanted only the warm
breath of summer to display their luxuriance. The war chief commenced.
He prophesied that they would see deer on the next day, but that they
must begin to be careful, for they would then have entered their
enemies' country. He told them how brave they were, and that he was
braver still. He told them the Chippeways were worse than prairie dogs.
To all of which the warriors responded, Ho!

When they