Niniotan, I offer
you a home at our mission-house so long as you choose to remain. Your
mother was brought to me when an infant, and I have educated her in the
fear of God. Will you go with me?" The boy replied in his native
dialect: "Niniotan will never forget the words of Oonomoo. His heart
is warm toward the kind father of Fluellina, and he will never forget
him. The woods are the home of Niniotan, the green earth is his bed
and the blue sky is his blanket. Niniotan goes to them."
[Illustration: Niniotan stood like a statue, his arms folded and his
stony gaze fixed upon the senseless forms of his parents.]
Turning his back upon his white friends, the young warrior walked away
and soon disappeared from sight in the arches of the forest. [He kept
his word, living a life of usefulness as had Oonomoo, being the
unswerving friend of the whites all through Tecumseh's war, and dying
less than ten years since in the Indian Territory beyond the
Mississippi, loved and respected by the whites as well as by all of his
own kindred.]
"Friends," said the missionary, "you have witnessed a scene which I
trust will not be lost upon you. Live and die in the simple faith of
this untutored Indian and all will be well."
"Captain," added the speaker, addressing Captain Prescott, "he has been
a true friend to our race for years, and we must do him what kindness
we can. If we leave these bodies here, the Shawnees will return and
mutilate them--"
"God bless me! it shan't be done! it shan't be done! Form a litter,
boys, form a litter, and place them on it.
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