tep in and sit down; the wind, coming in soft puffs from the south,
sends us floating around and around with a dreamy, restful motion that
our tired little charioteers thoroughly appreciate as they lean back and
trail their hands idly through the cool water.

"Come, come," said I at last, "wake up for our row on the lake,
sleepers, and then heigho for home and supper!"

"I was only fooling, Miss Eleanor; I'm fresh as a lark," cried Harry,
leaping nimbly out on the platform.

"So am I," said Jack, lending a hand to Nellie.

"The Rotary Yacht will do for a rest, but this is what I call life,"
exclaimed Harry, as later he and Jack, with even sweep of the oars, sent
our pretty boat skimming over the waters of the lake.

Now we sped around curving shores, and past grassy capes; now we skirted
fairy islands and reedy shallows; then under hollow bridges, that gave
back jolly echoes to Nell's laughter and the dip of the oars.

"Quick, quick--quick, quick," screamed a bevy of ducks, hurrying to
shore, as we rounded a woody bend in the lake, and came upon them with a
rush that sent the water in diamond showers over their backs.

"Tirra-la, tirra-la," whistled a wood-thrush in the grove; "tirra-la,
tirra-la," answered another.

"Ah! that's a warning, children; he sings at sunset. See the light
shooting gold green through the trees; that means that our happy day is
over. And there's another sign; look over your right shoulder--the new
moon."

"Tu-whit, tu-whoo, good-night to you," hooted an owl, as we turned our
boat homeward.

"Don't be alarmed; we are going," sighed Harry, half sad that the jolly
day at Prospect Park was ended.

A BATTLE ON THE BUFFALO RANGE.

Between the half-breeds who form a large portion of the population of
the settlements of the Northwest, along the Red River of the North, and
their neighbors, the Sioux, exists a bitter enmity. Peace is seldom
declared between them, and when parties of Sioux and half-breeds meet,
bloody battles are the result.

Although the half-breeds are more civilized than the Indians, and live
in villages, generally near the forts or trading posts, they depend
largely upon buffalo-meat for their winter food, and upon buffalo-robes,
for which the traders give them guns, powder, shot, blankets, tea,
coffee, sugar, and other necessaries and luxuries of their life. To
obtain this meat and these robes they organize grand buffalo hunts every
summer and fall, each of wh