The Prairie

ather, what h

he

. Then why shou

gant piece of

e and exe

mbe

them to action. To the eyes of the anxious spectators who occupied the little eminence, already described as the position of the captives, the scene presented the broad, solemn view of a waste, dimly lighted by the glimmering rays of a clouded moon. The p

ased, as minute after minute passed away, and not the smallest sound of life arose out of the calm and darkness which enveloped the brake. The breathing of Paul grew lou

himself imposed. It was at the precise moment when we left Mahtoree yielding to his nearly ungovernable delight, as he surveyed the number and quality of Ishmael's beasts of burden, that the man he had sel

ef by the hands of the Long-knives[

called by the Indian

t-wood warrior must submit to his laws, as well as his other children

blade of his knife before the face of his c

a gleam of honest and powerful disgust shot from their deep cells; but it instantly

ter profited by the unintentional offence of his captive, and, seizing him by the thin, grey locks, that fell from beneath his cap, was on the point of passing the blade of his knife in malignant triumph around their roots, w

d Ishmael, is the time to show the native blood of Kentucky! Fire low, boy

still maintained their posts at the side of the captives, but it was with that sort of difficulty with which steeds are restrained at the starting-post, when expecting the signal t

hat which might be expected to precede the passage of a flight of buffaloes, and

a beaver!" He was yet speaking, when the whole body of the terrified animals rose the little acclivity, and swept by

when all eyes were directed to the passing whirlwind of men and beasts, the trapper caught the knife from the hands of his inattentive keeper, with a power that his age would have seemed to contradict, and, at a single blow,

ongings of a Western Indian. The struggle between thirst for vengeance and cupidity was severe but short. The latter quickly predominated in the bosom of one whose passions were proverbially grovelling; and scarcely a moment intervened between the flight of the animals and th

e! And yet the imps will have every hoof of them afore the day sets in, because it's reason ag'in instinct. Poor reason, I allow; but still there is a great deal of the man in an Indian. Ah's me! your Delawares were the redskins of which America might boast; but few and scattered is tha

ee-hunter. "There will be a regular fight about this matt

hastily excl

er, who laid his hand gently

us into danger. Is your friend," he added,

ed the youth. "I never yet harboured with one who cou

nce. Is he a man to maintain his own

ined a beautiful swarm that very day into the hollow of a dead beech, and there lay the people's officer at its roots, with a hole directly through the 'grace of God;' which he carried in his jacket pocket covering his heart, as if he thought a bit o

o suppress the sigh which arose in spite of her

ion conveyed in Paul's reply, the old man raised no further question concerning the readiness of Ishmael to rev

erence in those who, after all, are but the children of one father! Howsomever," he continued, by a transition not a little characteristic of the pursuits and feelings of the man, "as this is a busi

uch terror at the approach of her friends, as she had before manifested at the

e care of old Ishmael, at least, may I never hear the hum of anoth

me. Though I am sure, Paul, we have parted before

efore a man can fairly strike the line of your flight. What think you, old trapper? How long may it be

r beasts these six hours yet! Listen! you may hear them in the willow bottoms at this very moment; ay, your real Sioux cattle will run like so

fortunate that the senses of the aged hunter remained so acute, and that he had lost none of his readiness of action. The three were scarcely bowed to the ground, when their ears wer

could entirely depress. "As pretty a volley, as one would wish to bear on the wrong end of a rifle! Wh

ords," returned the other, ha

I were to speak with my tongue instead of the pie

them hear you!" cried Ellen. "Go, Pa

rous messenger, still nearer than the preceding discharge

se you should both love and honour, but something must be done to save your lives. A few hours more or less can never be missed from the time of one who has already

ion, nor suffering it to be retarded by fear. The light of the moon fell brighter for a moment on his tall, gaunt, form, and served to warn the emigrants of his approach

s; friend

o has lived too long to disturb

om beneath the slight covering of a low bush, and meeting the trapper, face to face; "old man,

ost?" calmly dem

a cloven hoof for her dairy, or her loom, and I believe even the grunters, foot sore as they be, are ploughing the prairie. And now, stranger," he added, dropping the butt of

s there for a horse among the hills and woods of York-that is, as York was, but as I greatly fear York is no longer-as for woollen covering and cow's milk, I covet

ly quickening into a flame, that might speedily have burst forth with dangerous violence. He listened like one who doubted, not entirely convinced: a

but to my judgment, too lawyer-like, for a straig

er than a trapper," th

sitting too tight upon me, and am not over fond of neighbours who can't settle a dispute without troubling a jus

the prairies, must abide

nger, where the law or the reason, is to be found, which says that one man shall have a section, or a town, or perhaps a county to his

premises, were in singular accordance with those of his companion, "and I have often thought and said as much, when and where I

ho knows better," said the other in a portentous voic

ne who gives to his chaps as good a

prisoner, while they

g evil. "I am not much given to call every man, I fall in with, cousin, but colour should be something, when Christians meet in such a place as this. But what is done, is done, and cannot be mended, by

seen, on the swell of the prairie, were a part of the Sioux band. As each man approached, and dropped his rifle into the hollow of his arm, he cast an indolent but enquiring glance at the stranger, though neither of them expressed the least curiosity to know whence he had come or why he was there. This forbearance, however, proceeded only in part, from the sluggishness of their common temper; for long and frequent experience in s

arty I saw on the upland, yonder, we have

a lost idea being recalled by the hint of his son. "How is it, stranger;

y black-looking evil ones, on the heels of your cattle, my friend,

d woman would have been smartly at work among them, and the Siouxes would have found she was not given to part with her cheese and her butter without a price. But there'll come a time, stranger, right soon, when justice will have its dues, and that too, wit

have struck many a blow myself, but never have I felt the same ease of mind that of right belongs to a man who follows his reason, after slaying even a faw

t there was altogether too much tatooing and regulating among his troops for me; so I left him without calling on the paymaster to settle my arrearages. Though, as Esther afterwards boas

ennsylvanian distingui

quently against the I

l, by which he gained

. General Wayne was

e of West as command

is milita

nst dwelling on the violent scenes in which he had so often been an actor. "I was passing from the States on the sea-shore into these far regions, when I cross'd the trail of his army, and I fell in, on his rear, just as a looker-on; but when they got to blows

in the wild warfare of the west, "it is of small account, what may be the ground-work of the disturbance, when it's a Christia

ment, into the presence of his family. Here, with a very few words of explanation, mingled with scarce but ominous denunciations against the plunderers, he made his wife acqu

s capital and surrounded by his armed protectors. The old man did not close his eyes, however, until he had assured himself that Ellen Wade was among the females of the family, and that her relation, or lover, w