LONG, long before Columbus came to America,

the Red Children were here. They were the

first and only real Americans. From the Big Sea Water on the east to the Big Sea Water on the west, sranged these Children of the Sun, as they called themselves. Happy and free as the sunlight and air about them, they ran through wide forests all their own or plied their bark canoes up and down the streams.

Then the Indian had a dream. This was long 10 before Columbus dreamed his dream of the Western World. In his dream the Indian saw a great White Bird coming out of the east. Its wings were stretched wide to the north and south. With great strength and speed it swept toward the setting sun. In fear Is and wonder the Indian watched this giant White Bird appear and disappear. He knew its meaning and the Indian's heart was sad.

Then the White man came. From the Big Sea Water on the east he came, in his great white-winged

20 canoe.

With one hand pointing to the Great Spirit and with the other extended to the Red man, he came. He asked for a small seat. A seat the size of a buffalo skin would be quite large enough for him, he said.

In the name of the Great Spirit the Red Children 25 greeted the White man and called him "Brother." They gave him the seat he asked. They gave him a

large buffalo skin also, and showed him where he could spread it by their council fire. The White man took the buffalo skin. He thanked his Red brother in the name of the Great Spirit. Then he began to cut the skin into many, many small strips. When the whole s buffalo skin had been cut into narrow strips, he tied the strips together. They made a long cord that would reach over a long trail. In amazement the Indians watched the White man while he measured off a seat as long and as broad as this cord would reach around. 10 The "small seat," the size of a buffalo skin, became a tract of land.

Soon the White man asked for another seat. This time his seat took in the Indians' lodges and camp fire. He asked the Indians if they would move on a 15 few arrow flights. This they did. Then the White man wanted another seat. Each time it took a larger skin for him to sit upon. This time the skin stretched so far that it covered the Indians' hunting grounds. Again the Indians moved on. Again the White man 20 followed. Each time his seat grew larger, until the Indian had a place but the size of a buffalo skin on which to sit.

Thus it was that the White man came. Like a great White Bird that swept from the Big Sea Water 25 on the east to the Big Sea Water on the west, the White man came; and he drove the Indian from the rising to the setting sun.

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AN INDIAN CAMP

BY FRANCIS PARKMAN

This is a description of an Indian camp, by an eyewitness. The author made a trip to the Northwest in 1845, and related what he saw in The Oregon Trail.

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LITTLE farther on I found a very small meadow,

set deeply among steep mountains; and here the whole village had encamped. The little spot was crowded with the confused and disorderly host. Some s of the lodges were already completely prepared, or the squaws perhaps were busy in drawing the heavy coverings of skin over the bare poles. Others were as yet mere skeletons, while others still-poles, covering, and all lay scattered in complete disorder on the ground among buffalo robes, bales of meat, domestic utensils, harness, and weapons.

Squaws were screaming to one another, horses rearing and plunging, dogs yelping, eager to be disburdened of their loads, while the fluttering of feathers and the gleam of barbaric ornaments added liveliness to the scene. The small children ran about amid the crowd, s while many of the boys were scrambling among the overhanging rocks, and standing, with their little bows in their hands, looking down upon the restless crowd.

In contrast with the general confusion, a circle of old men and warriors sat in the midst, smoking in 10 profound indifference and tranquillity. The disorder at length subsided. The horses were driven away to feed along the adjacent valley, and the camp assumed an air of listless repose.

It was scarcely past noon; a vast white canopy of 15 smoke from a burning forest to the eastward overhung the place and partially obscured the sun; yet the heat was almost insupportable. The lodges stood crowded together without order in the narrow space. Each was a perfect hothouse, within which the lazy proprietor lay sleeping with the perspiration bursting from every pore.

The camp was silent as death. Nothing stirred except now and then an old woman passing from lodge to lodge. The girls and young men sat together in groups under the pine trees upon the surrounding heights. The dogs lay panting on the ground, too lazy even to growl at the white man.

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