Camp-fire and Wigwam   By: Edward Sylvester Ellis (1840-1916)

By EDWARD S. ELLIS

AUTHOR OF "NED IN THE BLOCK HOUSE," "NED IN THE WOODS," "NED ON THE RIVER," "THE LOST TRAIL," ETC.

PHILADELPHIA: PORTER & COATES.

COPYRIGHT, 1885, BY PORTER & COATES.

[Illustration: JACK'S WRESTLING BOUT WITH THE YOUNG INDIAN.]

CONTENTS.

I. AT HOME

II. A DOUBTFUL ENTERPRISE

III. WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN EXPECTED

IV. CAPTORS AND CAPTIVES

V. JOURNEYING SOUTHWARD

VI. AN INVOLUNTARY BATH

VII. TWO VISITORS

VIII. A SURPRISE

IX. BY THE CAMP FIRE

X. WAITING AND HOPING

XI. THROUGH THE FOREST

XII. THE SIGNAL FIRES

XIII. THE INDIAN VILLAGE

XIV. ON THE MOUNTAIN CREST

XV. THE RETURN AND DEPARTURE

XVI. A PERPLEXING QUESTION

XVII. TWO ACQUAINTANCES AND FRIENDS

XVIII. THE TRAPPERS

XIX. DEERFOOT'S WOODCRAFT

XX. SAUK AND SHAWANOE

XXI. CHRISTIAN AND PAGAN

XXII. AN ABORIGINAL SERMON

XXIII. IN THE LODGE OF OGALLAH

XXIV. A ROW

XXV. THE WAR FEAST

XXVI. AN ALARMING DISCOVERY

XXVII. "GAH HAW GE"

XXVIII. A PATIENT OF THE MEDICINE MAN

XXIX. CONVALESCENCE

XXX. OUT IN THE WORLD

XXXI. JOURNEYING EASTWARD

XXXII. A MISCALCULATION

XXXIII. CONCLUSION

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

JACK'S WRESTLING BOUT WITH THE YOUNG INDIAN

A NARROW ESCAPE

THE SIGNAL

DEERFOOT'S VICTORY

CAMP FIRE AND WIGWAM.

CHAPTER I.

AT HOME.

On the evening of a dismal, rainy day in spring, a mother and her son were sitting in their log cabin home in the southern portion of the present State of Missouri. The settlement bore the name of Martinsville, in honor of the leader of the little party of pioneers who had left Kentucky some months before, and, crossing the Mississippi, located in that portion of the vast territory known at that time as Louisiana.

There were precisely twenty cabins, all of which had been constructed with a view to rugged strength, durability, and comfort. Lusty arms had felled the trees, that were cut the proper length and dovetailed in the usual manner at the corners, the crevices being filled with a species of plaster, made almost entirely from yellow clay. The interiors were generally divided into two apartments, with a broad fireplace and the rude furniture of the border. Colonel Martin himself, with the assistance of his two full grown sons, erected a more pretentious dwelling with two stories and a loft, but the other houses, as has already been stated, were of such a simple and familiar character that the American reader needs no further description.

Mrs. Carleton was a widow, whose husband had been slain by Indians in Kentucky some time previous, and who, in the daily requirement of her duties, and in her great love for her only child, Jack, found some relief from the dreadful sorrow that overshadowed her life. Kind neighbors had lent willing hands, and her home was as well made as any in the settlement. Jack and his companion, Otto Relstaub, had arrived only a couple of days before, and each had wrought so hard in his respective household that they had scarcely found time to speak to or see each other.

The evening meal had been eaten, the things cleared away, and wood heaped upon the fire which filled the little room with cheerful illumination. The mother was seated at one side, the silent spinning wheel just beyond, while her deft fingers were busy with her knitting. Jack was half reclining on a rude bench opposite, recounting, in his boyish fashion, the adventures of himself and Otto on their memorable journey, which has been fully told in the "Lost Trail."