so nourishing that
people live on it; where it is never winter; where the sun shines
brightly, but never withers and parches; and where stars dance to the
swing of the breezes. There no white man comes to rob the Indian and
teach him to do wrong. Gorgeous birds fly through changing skies that
borrow the tints of flowers, the fields are spangled with blossoms of red
and blue and gold that load each wind with perfume, the grass is as fine
as the hair of deer, and the streams are thick with honey.

At sunset those who loved each other in life are gathered to their
lodges, and raise songs of joy and thankfulness. Their voices are soft
and musical, their faces are young again and beam with smiles, and there
is no death. It was only the chiefs who heard his story, for, had all the
tribe known it, many who were old and ill and weary would have gone to
the bayou, and leaped in, to find that restful, happy Under Land. Those
who had gone before they sometimes tried to see, when the lake was still
and dappled with pictures of sunset clouds, but the dead never came
back--they kept away from the margin of the water lest they should be
called again to a life of toil and sorrow. And Opaleeta lived for many
years and ruled his tribe with wisdom, yet he shared in few of the
merry-makings of his people, and when, at last, his lodge was ready in
the Under Land, he gave up his life without a sigh.

THE CENRAL STATES AND THE GREAT LAKES

AN AVERTED PERIL

In 1786 a little building stood at North Bend, Ohio, near the junction of
the Miami and Ohio Rivers, from which building the stars and stripes were
flying. It was one of a series of blockhouses built for the protecting of
cleared land while the settlers were coming in, yet it was a trading
station rather than a fort, for the attitude of government toward the red
men was pacific. The French of the Mississippi Valley were not
reconciled, however, to the extension of power by a Saxon people, and the
English in Canada were equally jealous of the prosperity of those
provinces they had so lately lost. Both French and English had emissaries
among the Shawnees when it had become known that the United States
intended to negotiate a treaty with them.

It was the mild weather that comes for a time in October, when
Cantantowit blesses the land from his home in the southwest with rich
colors, plaintive perfumes of decay, soft airs, and tender lights a time
for peace; but the garrison a