176 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



Time rolled on his ceaseless course, and among other 

 things brought the image of the lost husband in the 

 form of a fair daughter, who, at the suggestion of Scott, 

 was christiened "Indiana." 



After years of mourning, without the least tidings of 

 Atwater, his widow accepted the heart and hand of her 

 noble-minded friend, and became Mrs. Scott. Knowing 

 the contents of the Will, they acted upon the principles 

 of it, though the original being lost, they could not do so 

 in all the "legal forms by law provided." Indiana, like 

 the state whose name she bore, grew in strength and 

 loveliness — and like that state, too, she loved and honored, 

 and ever will honor one of the heroes of the Tippecanoe. 

 Scott to her was a father — she knew no other. Peace and 

 prosperity smiled upon them without alloy, until about 

 the time she reached her maturity, when a most sudden 

 and unexpected shock came upon them. 



The son of Atwater had visited them once, a few years 

 before, since when they had not seen or heard but little 

 of him, and that little not much to his credit. Dissipa- 

 tion and its attendant vices were fast dissipating his 

 ample fortune ; but the thought never entered their peace- 

 ful habitation that he intended to lay claim to any part 

 of their possessions, until they were astonished one morn- 

 ing by an early visit of a person who never before had 

 had the honor to visit them in an official capacity, and 

 whose appearance now indicated that he did not come in 

 a private one. 



In vain did Scott rack his brain to think who, why, 

 or for what, the sheriff could have a writ for him. And 

 even after the sheriff handed the writ to him endorsed, 

 "Atwater vs Scott and others," he was still at a loss until 

 the lively Indiana cried out, "the dream — the dream. Oh, 

 my poor father's dream upon the fatal battle-field." 

 Alas ! too true, that dream was about to be realized. The 

 dissipated, profligate young Atwater, having spent his 

 own estate, had commenced suit to eject the second w'fe 

 and child of Atwater, from theirs. Could he do it? A 



