The beginning of their “experiment” was here at Berthold. Captain Pratt, who was detailed by the Government to get fifty Indians from the mission, came to start his company at this agency, and I shall always feel that it was an honor to have been able to help him get a start. We did not know how the people would feel about sending their children to a distant and unknown country. They were superstitious about school and church influences. Would they trust the white man? Would they be sufficiently influenced by the desire for an education. Well, Captain Pratt had both experience and faith; he told us of his talks and prayer meetings with the prisoners in Florida, and of their desire for education, and of the willingness of Eastern Christian friends to help them; then we knelt down in the sitting-room of our mission home, that Sabbath evening, and committed our way unto the Lord. All was in doubt; some had refused to go; the chiefs would not send their children; but soon three youth (boys of eighteen or twenty years of age) came of their own accord and offered themselves. They had been attending our school and had learned in a measure to trust us. They said they knew it was a long way to go and a long time to stay, and it would be hard; but they were prepared to carry out their resolution to learn to be white men. Soon thirteen youth, nine boys and four girls, were secured, all from our school; it took the nucleus of our school; but we knew that this movement would create a new interest in education and bring us new scholars, as well as do more than we could for the old ones who should go away, so we gave them up willingly. With this beginning, Captain Pratt started down the river in a flat-bottom stern-wheel mission steamboat, one cold October day, collecting more from the river agencies as he went along till forty-nine were secured. The youth looked very sober as they started off; there were some very touching partings with friends, one of whom said, “I may not see a hair of him again;” and at the last look at them we saw blankets and coats waving in lieu of handkerchiefs on the upper deck of the boat. My heart was in my mouth as I thought of the boys and their Indian relatives, and of the better days in store for Indians, of which Uncle Sam was giving us a foretaste. All this was a year ago; to-day a hundred more from Dakota are on their way to Hampton and to Carlisle, and provision is being made for others in the West near their own homes. It is a beginning of better days, and I rejoice that our two Congregational societies can find occasion to co-operate with each other and the Government in behalf of the Indian. Now let us make a vigorous push, along with the forces now at work, to get him the protection of the U. S. Courts, so that he may have a better appeal than the only one now open to him, as Gen. Crook says—_his rifle_.