In writing this work, I have, with peculiar interest, lived over the scenes and incidents of my varied frontier experience; have travelled once more amid the waving grasses and beckoning flowers; heard again the bark of the wolf, and the voices of birds; felt on my brow the kiss of the health-giving breeze; worshipped anew in the log-cabin sanctuary. Yes, East and West are both dear to me. One fittingly supplements the other. Each holds the ashes of kindred. By a singular providence, since this tale was completed, a much-loved relative, one of the gentlest and most self-sacrificing whose presence ever glorified the earth, has found a resting-place in the bosom of the very prairie I had in mind while penning these pages. Sent west by physicians to save her life, she reached that spot in time to die, thus attaching my heart to that soil by another and sorrowful tie. That East and West may be bound together by love, as well as by national and commercial relations, and that this story may tend in its humble way to so happy a result, is the earnest wish of THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. The Pioneer Family.--A Spirited Chase. 9 II. Shooting Double.--A Frontier Doctor. 23 III. Where Can He Be?--A Heart Revelation. 35 IV. A Brush With Indians.--A Black Heart. 47 V. Brother Smith and Quarter Stakes. 65 VI. Mrs. Jones's Story.--The Gray Wolf. 79 VII. A Sabbath on the Prairie. 93 VIII. Tom's Victory. 105 IX. A Surprise. 116 X. "No Whiskey at This Raising!" 126 XI. Old Mrs. Skinflint in Trouble.--Lost in the Woods. 142 XII. Fire and Flood. 158 XIII. The Indian Lodge. 170 XIV. The War-Song. 187 XV. The Massacre at Spirit Lake. 194 XVI. A Beleaguered Cabin. 210 XVII. The Mysterious Fire. 226 XVIII. The Boy in the Tree. 237 XIX. Bub's Broadside. 250 XX. Long Hair. 260 XXI. "Pull the String, Bub." 272 XXII. Tom and the Money-Lender. 285 XXIII. An Enchanting Scene.--The Parting. 295 THE CABIN ON THE PRAIRIE. CHAPTER I. THE PIONEER FAMILY.--A SPIRITED CHASE.