op, stop!)

"_Comment se portent Madame Rolette et les enfans?_" (How are Mrs.
Rolette and the children?)

* * * * *

This day, with its excitement, was at length over, and we retired to our
rest, thankful that we had not General Root and his secretary close to
our bed's head, with their budget of political news.

My slumbers were not destined, however, to be quite undisturbed. I was
awakened, at the first slight peep of dawn, by a sound from an apartment
beneath our own--a plaintive, monotonous chant, rising and then falling
in a sort of mournful cadence. It seemed to me a wail of something
unearthly--so wild--so strange--so unaccountable. In terror I awoke my
husband, who reassured me by telling me it was the morning salutation of
the Indians to the opening day.

Some Menomonees had been kindly given shelter for the night in the
kitchen below, and, having fulfilled their unvarying custom of chanting
their morning hymn, they now ceased, and again composed themselves to
sleep. But not so their auditor. There was to me something inexpressibly
beautiful in this morning song of praise from the untaught sons of the
forest. What a lesson did it preach to the civilized, Christianized
world, too many of whom lie down and rise up without an aspiration of
thanksgiving to their Almighty Preserver--without even a remembrance of
His care, who gives His angels charge concerning them! Never has the
impression of that simple act of worship faded from my mind. I have
loved to think that, with some, these strains might be the outpouring of
a devotion as pure as that of the Christian when he utters the inspiring
words of the sainted Ken--

"Awake, my soul! and with the sun," etc.

* * * * *

Among the visitors who called to offer me a welcome to the West, were
Mr. and Miss Cadle, who were earnestly engaged in the first steps of
their afterwards flourishing enterprise for the education of Indian and
half-breed children. The school-houses and chapel were not yet erected,
but we visited their proposed site, and listened with great interest to
bright anticipations of the future good that was to be accomplished--the
success that was to crown their efforts for taming the heathen and
teaching them the knowledge of their Saviour and the blessings of
civilized life. The sequel has shown how little the zeal of the few can
accomplish, when opposed to the cupidity of the many.