My sister, the children, and myself stationed ourselves at the open windows, according to custom, and my husband sat on the broad step before the door, which opened from the outer air directly into the parlor where we were.
The performance commenced, and as the dancers proceeded, following each other round and round in the progress of the dance, my sister, Mrs.
Helm, remarked to me, "Look at that small, dark Indian, with the green boughs on his person--that is _a Sauk!_ They always mark themselves in this manner with white clay, and ornament themselves with leaves when they dance!" In truth, I had never seen this costume among our own Indians, and as I gazed at this one with green chaplets round his head and his legs, and even his gun wreathed in the same manner, while his body displayed no paint except the white transverse streaks with which it was covered, I saw that he was, indeed, a stranger.

Without owing anything to the exaggeration of fear, his countenance was truly ferocious.
He held his gun in his hand, and every time the course of the dance brought him directly in front of where we sat, he would turn his gaze full upon us, and club his weapon before him with what we interpreted into an air of defiance.

We sat as still as death, for we knew it would not be wise to exhibit any appearance of fear; but my sister remarked, in a low tone, "I have always thought that I was to lose my life by the hands of the Indians.

This is the third Indian war I have gone through, and now, I suppose, it will be the last." It was the only time I ever saw her lose her self-possession.

She was always remarkably calm and resolute, but now I could see that she trembled.