Such was the fate of Iron Eyes,
who wandered from the party to shoot a bird on the wing, contrary to the
orders of their chief. But although disgraced and forbidden to join in
the attempt to punish the Chippeways for the outrage they had commited,
he did not return to his village; he followed the tracks of the war
party, determining to see the fun if he could not partake of it.
On the fourth night after they left home, the warriors were all
assembled to hear the war song of their chief. They were yet in their
own country, seated on the edge of a prairie, and back of them as far as
the eye could reach, there was nothing to be seen but the half melted
snow; no rocks, no trees, relieved the sameness of the view. On the
opposite side of the Mississippi, high bluffs, with their worn sides and
broken rocks, hung over the river; and in the centre of its waters lay
the sacred isles, whose many trees and bushes wanted only the warm
breath of summer to display their luxuriance. The war chief commenced.
He prophesied that they would see deer on the next day, but that they
must begin to be careful, for they would then have entered their
enemies' country.
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