And so, in the month of September, we came to the southern line of Wisconsin. Anna had just completed the course at Rockford Female Seminary, and was ready to do duty in our new home. Martha accepted a call to teach at Mankato. Isabella accompanied us to Beloit, having under consideration the question of going to China with Rev. Mark W. Williams. This decision was not fully reached until the meeting of the American Board in Chicago, in the fall of 1865. One day she and I walked down Washington street together, and talked over the subject, and she gave in her answer. In the early days of that year, two of the leaders in the outbreak of 1862 were captured from beyond the British line, and, after a trial by a military commission, were condemned to be hanged. These men were commonly known as Little Six and Medicine Bottle. While in Chicago at the meeting of the Board, I received a note from Colonel McLaren, commanding at Fort Snelling, asking me to attend these men before their execution. The invitation was sent at their request. I obeyed the summons, and spent a couple of days with the condemned. But while I was there a telegram came from Washington giving them a reprieve. This relieved me from being present when they were hanged, one month afterward. The winter that followed, I gave to the prisoners at Davenport. They had passed through the small-pox with considerable loss of life; and that winter only the ordinary cases of sickness and the ordinary number of deaths occurred. These were numerous enough. The confinement of nearly four years, and the uncertainty which had always rested upon them like a nightmare, had all along produced many cases of decline. And even when the time of their deliverance drew nigh, and hope should have made them buoyant, they were too much afraid to hope--the promise was too good to be believed. Before their release, I was called home to attend, on the 21st of February, the marriage of Isabella and Mr. Williams, and to bid them God-speed on their long journey by sailing vessel to China. CHAPTER XV. 1866-1869.--Prisoners Meet their Families at the Niobrara.--Our Summer's Visitation.--At the Scouts' Camp.--Crossing the Prairie.--Killing Buffalo.--At Niobrara.--Religious Meetings.--Licensing Natives.--Visiting the Omahas.--Scripture Translating.--Sisseton Treaty at Washington.--Second Visit to the Santees.--Artemas and Titus Ordained.--Crossing to the Head of the Coteau.--Organizing Churches and Licensing Dakotas.--Solomon, Robert, Louis, Daniel.--On Horseback in 1868.--Visit to the Santees, Yanktons, and Brules.--Gathering at Dry Wood.--Solomon Ordained.--Writing "Takoo Wakan."--Mary's Sickness.--Grand Hymns.--Going through the Valley of the Shadow.--Death!