108 FOUJl-FOOTED AMERICAN;^ 



"They were undi)ubtetlly, in the true sense, all once 

 useful citizens of the liepuhlic of Nature, when every 

 spoke was in place in tlie great balance-wlieel, and 

 man had only the things that were created for his 

 use, had not invented anything for himself, and was 

 called luicivilized ; but all that was long ago. This 

 is changed now, and you will find, when you hear 

 the stories, that guns have driven away animals that 

 arrows could not kill, and some beasts, missing their 

 natural food, have taken to eating things that were not 

 intended for them, and have become beasts of prey and 

 nuisance animals. 



" One thing J want you to remember. The skins of 

 these Mammals were the very first prizes that America 

 offered to the wliite people when they came here — the 

 first wealth of the land. The trappers were of an 

 earlier tribe tlian tlie miners. The pelts of the fur 

 beasts brouglit money while the treasures of gold, 

 silver, copper, and coal were still hidden deep under 

 ground. But man, by killing these ^lammals waste- 

 fully and even during their breeding seasons, has made 

 them now exceedingly rare. (.)ne l)y one they are 

 growing fewer and shyer, and the animals that came 

 over seas, as we did, in the long ago, are filling their 

 places as far as they are al)le. The long-liorned cattle 

 feed on the prairies in place of the Bison, just as our 

 houses stand on the ground once occupied 1)}' the red- 

 man's wigwam." 



" But it is better to have House People and cows 

 in jVmerica than savages and ISisou, isn't it?" asked 

 (.)live, who saw that the cliildren looked puzzled. 



" Ves, it means progress, and one of Heart of Xat- 



