mouth some very bitter stuff, made from the roots of a certain plant,
and squirted it into the boy's nose. They kept repeating the dose,
till the poor fellow was almost strangled, and I suppose by that time
he was cured of his fault."

"Pooh, was that all?" said Oscar; "I thought something terrible was
coming."

"I guess you would not like to try the Indian remedy more than once,"
replied his mother; "but if you think it is so pleasant to take,
perhaps your father will give you a taste of it, one of these days, if
you do not behave better than you have done of late."

"Did you ever get frightened by the Indians, grandmother?" inquired
Ralph.

"No," replied the old lady; "there were plenty of them around, when I
was a little girl, but they had got to be quite civil, and we were not
afraid of them. I wish I could remember all the stories my mother used
to tell me about them--they were plenty and troublesome, too, in her
day. I recollect one fight that took place in our neighborhood, when
she was young. One evening, a man who was returning from another
settlement, happened to discover a party of Indians, making their way
very quietly up the river in their canoes, towards our little village.
He watched their movements as narrowly as possible, but was careful not
to let them see or hear him. When they got within about half a mile of
the settlement, they pulled their canoes ashore, and concealed them
among the bushes. They meant to creep along very slowly and slily, the
rest of the way, and then fall suddenly upon the whites, and murder and
plunder them before they could know what the matter was. But the man