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Harte, Bret, 1836-1902

"Drift from Two Shores"

"
"Treason!" shrieked the General; "order an advance along the whole
line."
But in vain. The next moment he fell beneath the tomahawk of the
Boy Chief, and within the next quarter of an hour the United States
Army was dispersed. Thus ended the battle of Boot-black Creek.

CHAPTER V

And yet the Boy Chief was not entirely happy. Indeed, at times he
seriously thought of accepting the invitation extended by the Great
Chief at Washington, immediately after the massacre of the
soldiers, and once more revisiting the haunts of civilization. His
soul sickened in feverish inactivity; schoolmasters palled on his
taste; he had introduced base ball, blind hooky, marbles, and peg-
top among his Indian subjects, but only with indifferent success.
The squaws insisted in boring holes through the china alleys and
wearing them as necklaces; his warriors stuck spikes in their base
ball bats and made war clubs of them. He could not but feel, too,
that the gentle Mushymush, although devoted to her pale-faced
brother, was deficient in culinary education.


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