Meantime everything was in readiness for forting up should it become necessary.

In the midst of this word reached me one afternoon that the people at Prineville were forting up, and that a company had been organized to go out to meet the Indians.

I hoped I might not have to see Rowena before she went away; for the very thought of seeing the girl with the child embarrassed me; but on the third day the widowthey afterward moved on to the Fort Dodge countrycame to me, and standing afar off as if I was infected with something malignant, told me that Mrs. Vandemark wanted to see me.

I could not see it twenty feet away; but I was almost upset by a snow fort which the children had built, and taking this as the sure sign of a playground, I guessed my way the fifty or sixty feet that more by luck than judgment brought me to the back end of the house, instead of the front.

eparture from Fort WinnebagoDuck CreekUpset in a CanoePillonEncamping in WinterFour LakesIndian EncampmentBlue MoundMorrison'sA Tennessee Woman CHAPTER XIV.

Fort DearbornChicago in 1831First Settlement of ChicagoJohn Kinzie, Sen.-Fate of George ForsythTrading PostsCanadian VoyageursM. St. JeanLouis la Liberté CHAPTER XVIII.

Mr. KentAn Escaped PrisonerThe Cut-Nose againLeave-taking with our Red ChildrenDeparture from Fort Winnebago APPENDIX THE "EARLY DAY" IN THE NORTHWEST.

Every year the leading men of the Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottowattamies, Menomonees, Winnebagoes, Sauks, and Foxes, and even still more remote tribes, journeyed from their distant homes to Fort Malden in Upper Canada, to receive their annual amount of presents from their Great Father across the water.

She had been a great belle among the young officers at Fort Crawford; so much so, indeed, that the suicide of the post-surgeon was attributed to an unsuccessful attachment he had conceived for her.

As we steamed away from the shore, the view came full upon usthe sloping beach with the scattered wigwams, and canoes drawn up here and therethe irregular, quaint-looking housesthe white walls of the fort, and, beyond, one eminence still more lofty crowned with the remains of old Fort Holmes.

As we steamed away from the shore, the view came full upon usthe sloping beach with the scattered wigwams, and canoes drawn up here and therethe irregular, quaint-looking housesthe white walls of the fort, and, beyond, one eminence still more lofty crowned with the remains of old Fort Holmes.

A gentleman pointed out to me Fort Howard, on a projecting point of the opposite shore, about three-quarters of a mile distantthe old barracks, the picketed inclosure, the walls, all looking quaint, and, considering their modern erection, really ancient and venerable.

We learned, upon inquiry, that Captain Harney, who had kindly offered to come with a boat and crew of soldiers from Fort Winnebago, to convey us to that place, our destined home, had not yet arrived; we therefore felt at liberty to make arrangements for a few days of social enjoyment at "the Bay.

They opened to me, however, a new field of apprehension; for, on my expressing my great impatience to see my new home, they exclaimed, with a look of wonder, "Vous n'avez donc pas peur des serpens?" "Snakes! was it possible there were snakes at Fort Winnebago?"

The young officers were up from Fort Howard, looking so smart in their uniformstreasures of finery, long uncalled forth, were now brought to lighteverybody was bound to do honor to the strangers by appearing in their very best.

As he helped me along over the ploughed ground and other inequalities in our way to the river-bank, where the boat lay, he told me how impatiently Mrs. Twiggs, the wife of the commanding officer, who since the past spring had been the only white lady at Fort Winnebago, was now expecting a companion and friend.

The greater part of our furniture, together with the various articles for housekeeping with which we had supplied ourselves in New York and Detroit, were to follow in another boat, under the charge of people whose business it professed to be to take cargoes safely up the rapids and on to Fort Winnebago.

He was once retaken, and kept for a time in confinement, but immediately on his release deserted again, and his remains were found the following spring, not many miles from the fort.

The trail for Fort Winnebago then led from the shore opposite Butte des Morts, through Ma-zhee-gaw-gaw swamp, and past Green Lake, and it was well for the Judge that his horses stood waiting for him to "mount and away" as early as possible after breakfast, or I am afraid the story

When the fort was first pointed out to me, I exclaimed, with delight, "Oh, we shall be there in half an hour!"

" "But are we going to stop there?" "No; do you not see we are going back to the fort?"

CHAPTER VIII FORT WINNEBAGO.

The Major insisted on our taking possession at once of vacant quarters in the fort, instead of at "the Agency," as had been proposed.

The bold promontory on which Fort Winnebago was built looked down upon the extended prairie and the Fox River on one side, and on the other stretched away into the thickly-wooded ridge that led off to Belle Fontaine and Lake Puckaway.

Too impatient to wait until they could be carried up to the fort, the gentlemen soon furnished themselves with, hammers and hatchets, and fell eagerly to work, opening the boxes to explore the extent of the damage.