and this
gave the riders the chance to have a good deal of amusement at the
expense of the mothers of the children.

No sooner had the strange cavalcade got well under way than the rascals
galloped off ahead, and were presently out of sight on the boundless
prairie, while the bewildered, anxious mothers ran crying and pleading
after them, until they fell exhausted upon the turf.

Ailie Macrae was among those thus carried off, and Hector pursued the
Indian who held her until even his stout legs could not take another
stride, while Dour and Dandy, barking fiercely, continued the chase a
mile or two farther.

But, as he lay panting upon the grass, his first excitement having
passed away, he began to reason the theory out. 'That's just a trick
they're playing on us,' he said to himself. 'They'll bring the bairns
back nae doot, but it's a mean trick, and I'll tell them so.'

And the boy was as good as his word. When the horsemen, having had
their fun, came back to those on foot, with the children unharmed, and
in most cases having greatly enjoyed the wild gallop, Hector made
straight for his new friend, Wikonaie, and with high-pitched voice and
vigorous gesture, made plain to him what he thought of the performance.

Wikonaie smiled at his passionate earnestness, and took no offence at
his fearless scolding. 'You talk big words,' he said, in a tone of
good-humoured admiration. 'You be big chief some day. Me like you.'
This soft answer completely turned away Hector's wrath, and, in spite
of himself, a smile took possession of his flushed features.

'Ha! Ha! Wikonaie,' he cried, 'ye're a canny chiel. Ye ken right
well how to get out of it.'

And so the matter ended between them, but it was a noticeable fact
that, although some of the other Indians repeated the foolish trick,
Wikonaie took no further part in it, and that henceforth it was little
Ailie that rode upon his saddle, and was so happy there that she was
always sorry when she had to dismount.

The procession could make but slow progress. The settlers were no less
heavy of foot than of heart, and both women and men alike had to carry,
up to the limit of their strength, such of their belongings as they
could not possibly part with. Moreover, their English-made boots were
not at all the right thing, and their poor feet swelled out and
blistered inside them, until some could scarcely stand upright.

How they envied the Indians their soft moccasins, and