"Give me back my Lela's tresses, Let me kiss them once again! She, who blest me with caresses Lies unburied on the plain! "See yon smoke? there was my dwelling; That is all I have of home! Hark! I hear their fiendish yelling, As I, houseless, childless, roam! "Have they killed my Hans and Otto? Did they find them in the corn? Go and tell that savage monster Not to slay my youngest born. "Yonder is my new-bought reaper, Standing mid the ripened grain; E'en my cow asks why I leave her Wand'ring, unmilked, o'er the plain. "Soldiers, bury here my Lela; Place _me_ also 'neath the sod; Long we lived and wrought together-- Let me die with her--O God! "Faithful Fido, you they've left me, Can you tell me, Fido, why God at once has thus bereft me? All I ask is here to die. "O, my daughter Jennie, darling! Worse than death is Jennie's fate!" * * * * * Nelson, as our troops were leaving Turned and shut his garden gate. [Illustration: Designed by A. P. Connolly. Father Hennepin Raised the Cross of His Church on the Bank of the Mississippi River near where Fort Snelling now Stands in 1618.] CHAPTER IV. ORIGIN OF INDIANS--CAPTAIN CARVER--SITTING BULL. There is something wonderfully interesting about the origin of the Indians. Different writers have different theories; John McIntosh, who is an interesting and very exhaustive writer on this subject, says they can date their origin back to the time of the flood, and that Magog, the second son of Japhet, is the real fountain head. Our North American Indians, however, were first heard of authentically from Father Hennepin, who so early came among them. At a later date, about 1766, Jonathan Carver, a British subject and a captain in the army, made a visit of adventure to this almost unknown and interesting country. The Sioux were then very powerful and occupied the country about St. Anthony Falls, and west of the Mississippi, and south, taking in a portion of what now is the State of Iowa. The country to the north and northeast was owned by the Chippewas. The Sioux then, as later, were a very war-like nation, and at the time of Captain Carver's advent among them were at war with the Chippewas, their hated foes. Captain Carver came among them as a peace-maker; his diplomacy and genial spirit prevailed, and the hatchet was buried. For these good offices, the Indians ceded to him a large tract of land, extending from the Falls of St. Anthony to the foot of Lake Pipin; thence east one hundred miles; thence north and west to the place of beginning--a most magnificent domain, truly, and which in Europe would call for nothing less than a king to supervise its destinies.