Better, he thought, that they who received the pay of
the Government, for upholding its interests and dignity,
should be subject to a frequent recurrence of duty--not
in itself particularly irksome-than that an important
post--the nucleus of the future prosperity of the
State--should be perilled by the absence of that vigilance
which ought to characterize the soldier. If he allowed
to be retrenched, or indeed left unemployed, any of that
military exhibition, which tends to impress upon the many
the moral superiority of the few, where, he argued, would
be their safety in the hour of need; and if those duties
were performed in a slovenly manner, and without due
regard to SCENIC effect, the result would be to induce
the wily savage to undervalue that superiority which
discipline chiefly secured to the white warrior. Captain
Headley was discriminating and observant. He had, more
than once, remarked the surprise and admiration created
among the Indians who had access within the stockade, at
the promptness and regularity of the system introduced
into it, and this, of itself, was a sufficient motive to
cause him to persevere in the course his judgment had
adopted.

Such was the condition of affairs at the moment when
Ephraim Giles, breathless with speed, and fancying the
party of Winnebagoes close upon his heels, made his entry
into the Fort. The news he brought was of a nature to
assemble the officers, as well as many of the men and
women, all anxious to hear the details of an occurrence,