4

hardly to be supposed that they ever met again," said Mrs. Warren.

"I think they did, for although Mrs. Estlick was twice wounded and unable to move, she was rescued by a mail-carrier, after the savages had left the settlement." "Couldn't our soldiers put down the revolt?" asked Frank.

They did finally, but inasmuch as the Indians, like guerrilla bands, went to and fro, and as the work of the war was urgent elsewhere, we won the mastery but slowly. Soon after the destruction of New Ulm and other settlements in Minnesota, our General Sibley, to whom was committed the defence of the frontier, defeated the Indian chief and leader of the uprising, Little Crow, in battle by Wood Lake, in September, 1862. Here we took five hundred prisoners; about the same number as that of our murdered whites. Three hundred, after due trial, were sentenced to death. However, but thirty-eight of these were executed, for our merciful President,

wishing only that sufficient punishment should be inflicted to serve as a warning to the tribes, allowed the others to go at liberty.

"Little Crow was discomfited but not subdued, nor did his followers give proof of amendment. Scarcely a month after the rout at Wood Lake, Major Brown, of our army, with a small detachment, was suddenly attacked by three hundred Indians, who slew all his horses save one that was left wounded-there were over ninetyriddled his tents and killed a large number of his command; and had not the Major behaved with great coolness and bravery, the whole of it would have been destroyed. His order was, not 'Take aim,' but 'Fall to work digging holes ;' and though but six utensils were to be found, all old and poor, yet with the use of bayonets, knives and sticks, the novel earthworks were dug; many of the laborers falling disabled before they were completed. This struggle was one of the sharpest of the war, thus far,

for when the detachment was reinforced by aid from General Sibley, every living man could show wounds or bullet-riddled garments as proof of his part in the action." "And are the Indians still fighting?" asked Maedy.

"No, the war is virtually at an end. Last spring Little Crow issued from his retreat by the Devil's Lake, and gathered his savages anew, but General Sibley again put him to flight in the last of July, at Big Mound, Dead Buffalo Lake, and elsewhere. Thereupon they re-crossed the Missouri, leaving their wagons and plunder behind, while our army watched their departure from a post of observation near Burnt Boot Island.

"I didn't know before that they had been so troublesome," added Maedy, "though we've heard of their drinking 'fire-water,' and using bows and arrows and other weapons. I supposed they lived peaceably, working at their gay beaded things-moccasins, birch-bark boxes, and other things."

"At least ten thousand souls scattered over our frontier wilds, have suffered by the atrocities of these Sioux," continued Mr. Warren. "Had it not been for aid sent from both private and public sources-for the Government has been interested to relieve the condition of the settlers-they would have been wretched indeed. This part of the war has been attended with great expense; it has demanded the utmost courage and efficiency of our troops, and has repaid them in hardships and perils, but not in a soldier's most coveted reward-glory."..

CHAPTER XII.

FLORIDA, GEORGIA, SOUTH CAROLINA.

NEXT day, Maedy hearing Roger in his room, stopped in passing, and putting her head in the doorway, exclaimed, "What are you doing here in the cold? Dear me, how gay! ah! I understand now your questions and hintings about pine-cone frames. You want one for the centrepiece, eh!"

"I'm making an addition or two to my National Art Gallery," answered Roger, when he had hammered a tack into the corner of a picture. "See these turtles, the iron-clads; aren't they bouncers! And I tell you what, Maedy, if you have cones enough-if you haven't, I know a place