American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1869-07-31
Sflisttllantous.
A Story of a Heroic Girl.

On the border of Green Lake, in
Minnesota, there lived a sturdy,
white haired frOntierman named
Walter Brown. He was one of those
adventurous spirits ever to be found
in the van of advancing civilization,
always counting the free, wild air of
the prairie, and rejoicing in the pro-
found depths of uninhabited forests.
But the country became more and
more thickly settled, and Walter
Brown became uneasy. His wife had
borne him daughter the third or
fourth year of their residence at the
headwaters of the st. CroiX, whom
he called LeonOra. She was good
girl, and the idol of her father. He
purchased a rifle for her when she
was but twelve years old, and took
the utmost pains in teaching her the
use of it. She was brave and steady
of nerve, and soon acquired wonder
full skill AS a shot, and the number of
prairie chickens, and other small
game she managed to shoot every
day, was really large. Occasionally
she would shoot Il deer, and one
eventful morning, by IA lucky shot
through the eye into the brain, she
killed a bear.
When she came home with the
news her father could scarcely credit
her. But knowing her perfectly
truthful nature, he danced about til,
room for joy, and seizing the sturd,
little maid, he mounted her upon hi
shoulders and insisted upon carryin,
her all the way to the spot where tn,
dead bruin lay.
Thicker and thicker flowed tn
tide of emigration into Minnesota
e and Wisconsin, following the naviga
:. BILE rivers as a matter of course, an,
# more and more uneasy and = crowd
ed " felt Walter Brown. AT lengtl
his wife died. Leonora was the
sixteen, and engaged to be Marie
to a handsome young trader by til
name of Watson, who had joined he
father i'll business.
The death of the mother had mad
it necessary to postpone the wee
ding, and i'll the interim old Waite
decided to move into northwest Mil
nesOta. NeighborS were getting to
near and hunting and trapping wei
bad. AS the young man had prove
up and pre-empted quarter sectio
of land near Taylor's Falls, and di
not wish to abandon or sell it jus
then, persuading LeOnora to agree
write to him, he badc her an atfe
tionate goodbye.
Brown lived in Minnesota fl
three or four years in peace and quie
finding good trapping and huntiI
grounds, when all at once youl
Watson arrived, and renewed Il
proposition of marriage with Leon
i ra. The old man had about dett
mined to move no more, and had Il
: cordingly located and -cmpt,
5 several thousand acres of land abo
q him, and learning from Watson tn
4 he had money enough to do lillewI>
r proposed that he should go down
d st. Paul and buy land warrants wi
g his money, and take up all the lal
IS he could Swing He might tn
a marry Leonora, and they would
to work, and after building plenty
n stabIing, etc, would get ii good sto
of cattle and sheep, and try al
lead IL pastoral life for the rest
their days.
TO this proposition the young m
heartily assented, and after RETURN
: from st. Paul, went bravcIy to wol
J" in the woods telling trees for buildi
l. purposes. 1t was agreed first IL
they should build IL new hcwcd
, house for the united family, as w
son had got up small single roe
1. cabin. Then the wedding was to ia
h place, and the two men would ag;
resume their work.
While thus busily enga gedthc Sic
,. war broke out. 1t was the habit
os LeOnOra to take her rifle out cv'
morning and shoot prairie chick