Having been well fed and supplied with shawls and blankets of brilliant colors, childlike, the Indians were now anxious to go home. White Crow, with a showing of much regret, bade good-bye to Sylvia and Rachel Hall. He went over the incidents of their rescue, and, to prove his friendship for the girls, offered to give each of them a Sac squaw as a servant for life. The girls thanked him, but said that they did not want any human being to be taken away from her people as they had been from theirs. The girls then bade adieu to all the Indians, towards whom their hearts had changed, and for whom they now felt considerable friendship. The eloquence of White Crow made an impression on the young women, as he spoke in a sympathetic tone unexpected kind words that touched their hearts. After resting at Morrison’s during the afternoon and night, early the next morning the soldiers with their Indian hostages and the girls, proceeded along the Galena road to Fort Defiance, which was located five miles southeast of Mineral Point. Here again the girls were well cared for by the wives of the officers, and the most sumptuous meal that could be prepared was set before them, and their short stay made as pleasant as possible.[35] [35] X. Wis. Hist., Col., 340. After dinner, with the convoy of soldiers and the Indian hostages, the girls again moved on to Gratiot’s Grove, about a mile south of Shullsburg, and fourteen miles northeast of Galena. At this place there was a village of twenty families, with a hotel and a garrison of United States soldiers.[36] The leading lady of the place was Capt. Gratiot’s wife, a French woman of excellent education, whose mother had been lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie Antoinette. Mrs. Gratiot, who was noted for her hospitality, took charge of the girls and entertained them lavishly at her home.[37] [36] X. Wis. Hist. Col., 256. [37] X. Wis. Hist. Col., 186, 246. Gratiot’s Grove, which became renowned as the most beautiful spot in the northwest, is described by Mrs. Gratiot as follows: “Never in my wanderings had I beheld a prettier place; the beautiful rolling hills extending to Blue Mounds, a distance of thirty miles, the magnificent grove, as yet untouched by the falling axe, formed the graceful frame for the lovely landscape.”[38] Theodore Rudolph, a Swiss traveler who was at Gratiot’s Grove in the spring of 1832, describing the place says: “The vast prairie, as far as the eye could reach, was clothed with a carpet of richest green, interspersed with gorgeous wild flowers, of brilliant hues of red, blue, and yellow, in fact every color of the rainbow--reminding one of the garden of Eden, as our youthful fancies never failed to paint it for us.”[39] [38] X. Wis. Hist. Col., 286. [39] XV. Wis. Hist. Col., 345. CHAPTER XII. HOMEWARD BOUND.