IN PRAIRIE-LANDS 



close to sandy shores. Bass swarmed in the 

 colder lakes and wall-eyed pike were taken by 

 the Indians, with the bow or spear. 



From one end of the land to the other the 

 Sioux roamed proud, revengeful, and suspi- 

 cious. Then the smoke of the council-fires 

 rose and the skin tepees of Indian villages 

 shone brown in the sun. Tethered-out ponies 

 cropped the prairies and little pappooses lay 

 wrapped in their curious pouches, silent and 

 stoical. War and pillage were the order of 

 those days. As the settlers began to drift in 

 and jealousies seethed and smoldered and 

 burned, the fire of passion sprang up in the 

 breast of both white man and red, and the 

 land was drenched in blood and ablaze with 

 the light of burning dwellings. The Sioux 

 uprising came like a searing flash of lightning 

 across the northern steppes and the edifice 

 of northern civilization was christened and 

 consecrated by the sacrifices of the early 

 pioneers. 



The sword was beaten into the plough- 

 share, the bayonet into the reaping-hook, and 

 slowly but inevitably the course of progress, 

 stayed for a moment by the fierce hand of the 



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