But only half a mile away began the great prairie,
where there was neither tree nor bush, but only tall grass; and
it stretched like a green sea as far as the eye could reach.
What there was on the other side of the prairie the Indians did
not know. But they had been told that a fierce race of men lived
there who loved only war.
"We will live quietly in our own place," they said, "and then
these strangers will not molest us."
And so for many years they lived, in a careless, happy way by the
side of the pretty river; and few of their young men dared to
wander far from the friendly shelter of the woods.
One day in summer, when the woods were full of the songs of
birds, and the prairie of the sweet odors of flowers, the
Illinois had a festival under the oaks that shaded their village.
The young people played merry games on the greeIr, while their
fathers and mothers sat in the doors of the wigwams and talked
of the peaceful days that were past.
All at once a savage yell was heard in the hazel thicket by the
river; then another from the edge of the prairie; and then a
third from the lower end of the village.
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