march
of three hundred miles, and think it nothing, if she could be repaid by
tearing the heart from one Chippeway child.

There were, however, two old squaws who had applied first, and the
Screaming Eagle was rejected.

There were no bounds to her passion. She attempted to hang herself and
was cut down; she made the village resound with her lamentations; she
called upon all the spirits of the lakes, rivers, and prairies, to
torment the war party; nothing would pacify her. Two days after the war
party left, the Eagle that Screams as she Flies expired, in a fit
of rage!

When the war-party returned, the Shield was the observed of all
observers; he had taken two scalps.

Sacred Wind sighed to think he was her cousin. How could she help loving
the warrior who had returned the bravest in the battle?

The Swan saw that she loved in vain. She knew that she loved the Shield
more in absence; why then hope that he would forget Sacred Wind when he
saw her no more?

When she saw him enter the village, her heart beat fast with emotion;
she pressed her hand upon it, but could not still its tumult. "He has
come," she said to herself, "but will his eye seek mine? will he tell
_me_ that the time has been long since he saw me woman he loved?"

She follows his footsteps--she watches his every glance, as he meets his
relations. Alas! for the Swan, the wounded bird feels not so acutely the
arrow that pierces, as she that look of recognition between the cousins!

But the unhappy girl was roused from a sense of her griefs, to a
recollection of her wrongs. With all the impetuosity of a loving heart,
she thought she had a right to the affections of the Shield. As the
water reflected her features, so should his heart give back the devoted
love of hers.

But while she lived, she was determined to bring sorrow upon her rival;
she would not "sing in dying." That very evening did she repeat to the
family of Sacred Wind the conversation she had overheard, adding that
the love of the cousins was the true cause of Sacred Wind's refusing
to marry.

Time would fail me to tell of the consequent sufferings of Sacred Wind.
She was scolded and watched, shamed, and even beaten. The medicine men
threatened her with all their powers; no punishment was severe enough
for the Dahcotah who would thus transgress the laws of their nation.

The Shield was proof against the machinations of his enemies, for he was
a medicine man, and could counteract all