, 1883-10-27
THE WHITE SQUAW.

! MIS-, OartnOrne had lived in New
Ulm three years, and had been happy
every hour of that time. She had
been married six years, and, had she
been asked, she would have declared
that since her wedding-day she had
never known what it was was to be
sad or unhappy.
One morning she stood with her
baby in her arms watching her hus-
band start for his office. Just as he
was about to turn the corner which
would hide him from those loving,
watching eyes, he looked back and
kissed his hand. The fair young
wife, standing in the sunny door
way, returned the salute and then
made the baby put his wee, dimple
fingers to his rosy mouth and make
an ambiguous gesture towards his
father. With a smile upon his lips
and humming to himself, the hus-
band went his way. Tossing her
growing babe, the wife re-entered
her home. No qminons foreboding
warned Edward 'Carthorne that he
had looked upon his wife's face for
the last time. Little did that happy
woman think that sufFerings worse
than death she would pass through
ere she looked again upon that dear
face which had just passed from
view, smiling on her to the last.
Two hours passed away-the last
happy hours she ever knew. Her
little boy was playing with his blocks
upon the floor by her side. Her
baby had fallen asleep in her arms.
The door opened behind her.
"Don't wake the baby" she half
said, half sang, as she rocked, think
ing the intruder was the servant.
"Ugh p said a cultural voice at
her shoulder. The boy at her side
gave a scream and clutchcd his
mother. She sprang to her feet and
confronted a tall, sinistcr-lOoking
Indian. Even in that awful mo-
ment she saw scalp Of fair, flowing
woman's hair at his belt, and noted
that his cOpper-colOred skin was
heidOusly daubed with war-paint.
She turned very pale, and, putting
one hand down to her oldest child,
held him close to her side while she
strained her babe to her breast. But
she spoke no word. The next in
slant the room seemed full Of the red
fiends. She never changed her first
position, never uttered a sound. She
felt as If she were frozen with horror.
Her boy was torn from her side, and
at the same moment one of the In
dians clutched the babe. She saw
the uplifted tomahawk sink into the
head of her eldest born, and yet at
the same moment she was wrestling
with a huge Indian for the life Of her
infant. A half dozen tomahawks
flashed upward. She thought her
hour was come, and closed her eyes.
The Indian who had first entered
said something in his cultural
tongue. They all assented in chorus
and one Of them went out, reappear-
ing soon with rope. They tied it
about her, and, leading her as il she
were some animal destined for
slaughter, they passed the mutilated
corpse Of her eldest child, and so out
into the road. There they made a
halt. Some Of them returned to the
house. 1t was not until some time
after that, looking back from a dis
tance and seeing her dear old home
in flames, she knew why half the
party fingered.
They placed her upon a horse.
One Of the Indians who had hitherto
held the end of the rope in his hand
now tied 1t about him and leaped
upon his Indian pony. 1t was no
easy matter to hold her babe and
guide her horse, but, bewildered and
agonized as she was, she felt that it
would not do to attract attention to
her dear burden.
In this manner she left the happy
home where she had so long lived.
She had been so enriched by love
that she had not dreamed death or
danger could enter the charmed
sphere. Within that blazing house
where now was burning the corpse Of
her murdered son, her youngest