wards the west (as I had now learned the course towards the 

 sunset was called), the river had also left its old channel. Up 

 to this time it had flowed along at the foot of some low, rocky, 

 timbered bluffs on its right; but now it had left those bluffs, and 

 its course was through the lowlands. My now being on an 

 island was the reason, I think, why I and so many other trees 

 thereon grew to the size we did. Before this the fires that the 

 red people would set out on the prairies would burn through 

 our woods in the hot summer-time, and would kill or badly 

 scorch and cripple many of the trees; but now these fires 

 couldn't get to us to do us harm, and we grew and flourished 

 without hurt or mischief from anything or anybody. The soil 

 where we stood was rich and strong, and our tap-roots reached 

 to the underflow of the river; so times of drouth or burning 

 hot winds from the southwest did not affect us a bit. As 

 the result of all these things, many of the trees on our island 

 reached an immense size. There were several black walnuts 

 that were fully as large as I was, and other trees, such as bur 

 and pin oaks, that were not far behind. But the biggest tree 

 not only on the island, but up and down the rivcx for hundreds 

 of miles (so the crows said), was a gigantic sycamore. It stood 

 only a few rods east of me, and was at least a third larger, 

 in every respect, than I was. In the winter-time, especially, 

 it presented a striking appearance, when its grand white limbs 

 loomed up far above all the surrounding trees. The big prairie 

 hawks seemed to have a great liking for it as a nesting-place, 

 and for a long time not a summer passed without a pair of 

 those birds building their nest upon it and bringing fo/th from 

 its massive top a brood of their yoimg. The sycamore and 

 I were close and ititimate friends. We were near enough to 

 each other to talk back and forth, and we had much social 

 gossip. He was taller than I was, so he could see more than 

 I could of things which happened in our neighborhood, and we 

 had no lack of subjects for conversation. 



Some time after that last war I have spoken about, there 

 came other wars among the white people. The red-coat men 

 came back again, and fought with the white creatures of this 

 country, and many were killed on each side; but after a while 



14 



