He did not add his opinion, which agreed with that of the wisest men he knew, that Illinois would know no real prosperity till the savages, which disturbed its peace, were removed from its borders. For she loved them, hoped for them, believed in them; even though her own common sense forced her to agree with him that the time was not ripe then, if it ever would be, for their civilization. So he held his peace and soon they were at home. "Heigho! There are lights in our cabin. Hear me prophesy: Mother Mercy has come over with a roast for our supper and Mother Wahneenah has quietly set it aside to wait until her own is eaten. Ho there within!" he called merrily. "Who breaches our castle when its lord is absent?" Mercy promptly appeared in the doorway. She was greatly excited and hastily led them to the rear of the house, pointing with both hands to an animal fastened behind it. "There's your fine Indian for you! See that?" "Indeed I do!" laughed Kitty. "An ox, Jim, isn't it? with the Doctor's saddle on his back and his botanizing box, and--What does it mean? I knew he was absent-minded, but not like this." "Absent-minded. Absent shucks! That's Osceolo--_that_ is!" in a tone of fiercest indignation. "He's such a crooked log he can't lie still." "Is that his work? He dared not play his tricks on the dear Doctor!" "Yes, it's his'n. The idee! There was Abel went and gave old Dobbin to the parson, to save his long legs some of their trampin' after weeds and stuff and 'cause he was afraid to ride ary other horse in the settlement. And there was Osceolo, that for a feller's hired out to a regular tavern-keeper like us, to be a hostler and such, he don't earn his salt. All the time prankin' round on some tomfoolery. And Abel's just as bad. A man with only two or three little weeny tufts o' hair left on his head and mighty little sense on the inside, at his time of life, a-fiddlin' and cuttin' up jokes, I declare--I declare, I'm beat, and I wish----" "But what is it?" demanded Kitty, bringing her old friend back to facts. "Why, nothing. Only when the dominie came home and stopped here, as he always does after he's been a-prairieing, to show you his truck and dicker, Osceolo happens along and is took smart! The simpleton! Just set old Dobbin scamperin' off back into the grass again and clapped the saddle and tin box and what not on to the ox's back. Spected he'd see the parson come out and mount and never notice. 'Stead of that, along comes Abel--strange how constant he has to visit to your house!--and sees the whole business. Well, he'd caught some sort of a wild animal, and--say, Kitty Briscoe, I mean Keith!--_that Indian'd drink whiskey, if he got a chance_, just as quick as one raised in the woods, instead of one privileged to set under such a saint as the Doctor all his days. I tell you--Well, what you laughing at, Gaspar Keith? Ain't I tellin' the truth?"