"The warrior looked down on the Ouisconsin under the stars. He looked up to heaven, and cried, 'Lead thou my boy!' Then he set his face toward the stockades of Prairie du Chien.
"He strode across the prairie as the sun was rising; he arrived in time, and—Father, listen!"
There was another silence, so deep that one might almost hear the puffing smoke as it rose on the air.
"They shot him! That is his boy, Waubeno."
Jasper stood silent; he thought of Johnnie Kongapod's story, and the night-scene at Pigeon Creek.
"I shall teach him a better way," said Jasper, at last. "I will lead him to honor the memory of his great father in a way that he does not now know. The Great Spirit will guide us both. His father was a great man. I will lead him to become a greater."
"Father," said the boy, coming forward, "I will always be true to you, but I have sworn by the stars."
Jasper stood like one in a dream. Could such a tale as this be true among savages? Honor like this only needed the gospel teaching to do great deeds. Jasper saw his opportunity, and his love of mankind never glowed before as it did then. He folded his hands, closed his eyes, and his silent thoughts winged upward to the skies.