Oak Openings

who's

at's civil, sp

, or

bel

ning began to gather, the Pottawattamie arose, shook the ashes from his pipe, gave a grunt, and uttered a word or two, by way of announcing his disposition to retire. On this hint, Ben went into the cabin, spread his skins, and intimated to his guests that their beds were ready for them. Few compliment

lling in a wilderness, the "openings" had not the character of ordinary forests. The air circulates freely beneath their oaks, the sun penetrates in a thousand places, and grass grows, wild but verdant. There was little of the dampness of the virgin woods; and the morning air, though cool, as is ever the case, even in midsummer, in regions still covered with trees, was balmy; and, at that particular spot, it came to the senses of le Bourdon loaded with the sweets of many a wide glade of his favorite white clover.

fudder-" said Pigeonswing; "go co

of which they made their ablutions-the redskin being totally without paint. When t

a, with a sententious allusion to the British propensity to

manner of talking I had set yo

EL bit so. MY

lt of wampum sent you, as

ot him-don'

ou dare to s

no keep him. Keep him for Canada fad

u then done w

im dis war. No-Waubkenewh no

which the commonalty had just the same indisposition to use as the French have to call Marshal Soult the Duc de Dalmatie. The last may be the most honorable title, but it is not that by which he is the best known to his countrymen. Waubkenewh was an a

o the Yankees, and an e

f le Bourdon, and squeezed it

Canada belt. Got medal of king, too. Have Yankee scalp

o America, and that the Pottawatamie is not. If this be so, why have you held the sp

den t'ink me HIS friend d

lse, that Mackinaw is

oner. Plenty Winnebago, plenty Pottawata

he Chi

pause. "Can't all go on same path this war. Hatchets, someho

friendly to the Americans? I make no secret of my feelings-I am for my

little distastefully. "No good have so long tongue. As

hat is your bu

icago, fo

ssage from some American genera

ness. Guess him, rig

Indian laughs that the

who has sent you on th

e army dere-warrior ple

unter, and it caused him to mu

can general who has sent you o

ered the Oje

ose, to show that he will prove dangerous to the

ame-good name

he name of the governor of the territory, and y

know-just same-on

ther, if a body only understands y

ll you. Got big army-plen

o call yourself a friend of the Yankees. If you have been sent from Detroit to Chicago, why are you so far north as t

d own eye how garrison do-den go to Chicago, and tell warrior de

you, there, and having seen things with your own eyes, have started for Chicago to give your

ast named was put, however, the Indian looked cautiously around him, as if to be certain there were no spectators. Then he carefully opened his tobacco-pouch, and extricated from the centre of the cut weed a letter that was rolled into the smallest compass to admit of this mode of concealment, and which wa

ippewa, pointedly-"dat

ve it a hearty squeeze. Then he said frankly, and

n the right side. You play'd so deep a game, at first, hows'ever, that I didn't know exactly wha

nute only can't catch him. He got belt from

you, he and you fell into the same path within a mile o

question-too much squaw-ask on

n likes to do one thing at a time. Which

uess-guess he on p

lackbird, and w

two of his fingers, at the same time, by way of rebuke. "Blackbird o

his part of the country, but here and there a tra

time. An't partic'lar, down at Montre

that case, Chippewa, you should outrun this Pottawatamie,

straight, nudder, or Pottawatamie see pri

re cunning enough to do that twi

tretching his arms, as if fairly wearied with sleep. At the sight of this

-love Montreal, eh? Pretty goo

however, and it's of no great account how he stands. His scalp

ter look out for Pottawatam

comes, looking as if his breakfast would be welco

quietly eating his morning's meal, Gershom having taken his bitters aside, and, as he fancied, unobserved. This was not so much owing to niggardliness, as to a distrust of his having a sufficient sup

s of any but the cultivated. When each had risen, however, and by certain preliminary arrangements it was obv

-"good supper-good sleep-good breakfast. Now go. Thankee-when any f

pe you'll just step into this chiente and help yourself it I should ha

ship. The bee-hunter observed that neither of the Indians said anything to the other touching the path he was about to travel,

s belt, as if to settle it into its place, made some little disposition of his light summer covering, and moved off in a southwesterly

ed at length, behind a thicket of trees. "On a bee-line for the St. Joseph's river, where he will

ye'm by come back and eat more honey-bring sweet news, hope

ave a stirring summer of it, and I expect to hear of y

e direction taken by the Chippewa was toward the lake, and nearly at right angles to that taken by the Pottawattamie. They also fancied that the movement of the former was about half as

id of him. As Gershom manifested no intention to quit the place, le Bourdon set about the business of the hour, with as much method and coolness as if the other had not been present. The first thing was to bring home the honey discovered on the previous day; a task of no light labor, the dist

d around the chiente, he and Gershom embarked, taking with them no less than four pieces of fire-arms; one of which was, to use the language of the west, a double-barrelled "shot-gun." Before quitting the place, however, the bee-hunter went to a large kennel made of logs, and let out a mastiff of great power and size. Between this dog and himself there existed the best possible intelligen

the canoe, Ben shoved off, and the light craft was pushed up the stream by himself and Gershom without much difficulty, and with considerable rapidity. But little driftwood choked the channel; and, after fifteen minutes of mo

er life, notwithstanding his ungovernable propensity to drink, and who, by nature, was both shrewd and res

hunter, "and twice in my experience I've been driven from

ully examining its flint and its priming. "It will be a large family on 'em that drives u

f not absolutely redeeming, served in some measure to lessen the disgust which one might other-wise have felt for his character. The bee-hunter knew that there was a species of hardihood that belong

the precise position of the fallen tree, and through that the probable position of his enemies, he would have placed the mastiff in advance, as a pioneer or scout; but he deemed it necessary, under the actual circumstances, to hold him as a reserve, or a force to be directed whither occ

y with greater ease to himself. Consequently, the fragments lay in full view of the spot where the halt was made. A little to Gershom's surprise, Ben now produced his spy-glass, which he levelled with much earnestness toward the tree. The bee-hunter, however, well knew his

e much use in spy-glassin' in that fashion. Spy-glassin' may do out on the lake, if a body has only the tool

a colony in such a fever. Commonly, a few hours after the bees find that their tree is down, and their plans broken into, they give it up, and swarm; looking for a n

the present instance by "onaccountable," a number not to be counted-"an onaccountable grist on 'em, I can tell you, and if you mean to charge upon sich enemies, you

the edge of the for-est-here, more to

folks"-Gershom WOULD put his noun of multitude into the plural, Nova-Anglice-"comin' and goin' like fol

ow how to account for them. The bears are in the thicket, but don't like to come out in the fac

vipers! But what are WE to do, Bourdon? for Doll and Blossom MUST tas

have it. There was a sort of border rule, which gave all present equal shares in any forest captures; just as vessels in sight come in for prize-money, taken in time of war by public cruisers. At any rate, the honey of a

som, neither. I've a fancy, already, for that blossom of the wilderness, and shall do all I can t

rds better; but, let me te

carce articles in a wilderness; and you've slept under my roof:

d for want of movin'; and a movin' man for me, any day, before your stationaries. I was born on the sea-shore, in the Bay State; and here I am, up among the fresh-water lakes, as much nat'ralized as any m

each of his pieces, as if he expected there would soon be occasion to use them. "But what was that you were about

wide stretch to foot it over, I know; but, big as it is, the whull lake country don't contain Blossom's equal. I'm her brother, and perhaps ou

ed with Gershom's account of his family, but who saw that the moment was now arrived when it would

than he had anticipated. In a minute, all the bears were on their hind-legs, beating the air with their fore-paws, and nipping right and left with their jaws, in vigorous combat with their almost invisible foes. Instinct supplied the place of science, and spite of the hides and the long hair that covered them, the bees found the means of darting their stings into unprotected places, until the quadrupeds were fairly driven to rolling about on the grass in order to crush their assailants. This last process had some effect, a great many bees being destroyed by the energetic rollings and tumblings of the bears; but, as in the tide of battle, the places of those who fell were immediately supplied by fresh assailants, until numbers seemed likely to prevail over power, if not over discipline. At this critical instant, when the bears seemed fatigued with their nearly frantic saltations, and violent blows upon nothing, le Bour

while Gershom brought dry wood. In less than five minutes a bright blaze was gleaming upward, and when the bees returned, as most of them soon did, they found this new enemy intrenched, as it might be, behind