[AP] It is a singular fact that all the martins, of which there were great numbers occupying the little houses constructed for them by the soldiers, were observed to have disappeared from their homes on the morning following the embarkation of the troops. After an absence of five days they returned. They had perhaps taken a fancy to accompany their old friends, but, finding they were not Mother Carey’s chickens, deemed it most prudent to return and reoccupy their old dwellings.
RETURN TO FORT WINNEBAGO
A great part of the command, with the cattle belonging to the officers and soldiers, had a day or two previous to the time of our departure, set out on their march by land to Green Bay, via Fort Winnebago. Lieut. Foster, under whose charge they were, had lingered behind that he might have the pleasure of joining our party, and we, in turn, had delayed in order to see the other members of our family safely on board the Napoleon. But now, all things being ready, we set our faces once more homeward.
We took with us a little bound-girl, Josette (a daughter of Ouilmette, a Frenchman who had lived here at the time of the Massacre, and of a Pottowattamie mother), a bright, pretty child of ten years of age. She had been at the St. Joseph’s mission-school, under Mr. McCoy, and she was now full of delight at the prospect of a journey all the way to the Portage with Monsieur and Madame Jolm.
We had also a negro boy, Harry, brought a year before from Kentucky, by Mr. Kercheval. In the transfer at that time from a slave State to a free one, Harry’s position became somewhat changed—he could be no more than an indentured servant. He was about to become a member of Dr. Wolcott’s household, and it was necessary for him to choose a guardian. All this was explained to him on his being brought into the parlor, where the family were assembled. My husband was then a young man, on a visit to his home. “Now, Harry,” it was said to him, "you must choose your guardian;" and the natural expectation was that Harry would select the person of his acquaintance of the greatest age and dignity. But, rolling round his great eyes, and hanging his head on one side, he said,
“I’ll have Master John for my guardian.”
From that day forward Harry felt as if he belonged, in a measure, to Master John, and at the breaking up of the family in Chicago he was, naturally, transferred to our establishment.