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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40574 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 40574-h.htm or 40574-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40574/40574-h/40574-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40574/40574-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      http://archive.org/details/rancheonoxhidest00inma
+
+
+
+
+
+THE RANCHE ON THE OXHIDE
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    OFFICERS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL
+
+    Honorary President, THE HON. WOODROW WILSON
+    Honorary Vice-President, HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT
+    Honorary Vice-President, COLONEL THEODORE ROOSEVELT
+    President, COLIN H. LIVINGSTON, Washington, D. C.
+    Vice-President, B. L. DULANEY, Bristol, Tenn.
+    Vice-President, MILTON A. McRAE, Detroit, Mich.
+    Vice-President, DAVID STARR JORDAN, Stanford University, Cal.
+    Vice-President, F. L. SEELY, Asheville, N. C.
+    Vice-President, A. STAMFORD WHITE, Chicago, Ill.
+    Chief Scout, ERNEST THOMPSON SETON, Greenwich, Connecticut
+    National Scout Commissioner, DANIEL CARTER BEARD, Flushing N. Y.
+
+
+    NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
+
+    BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
+
+    THE FIFTH AVENUE BUILDING, 200 FIFTH AVENUE
+    TELEPHONE GRAMERCY 545
+    NEW YORK CITY
+
+
+
+    FINANCE COMMITTEE
+    John Sherman Hoyt, Chairman
+    August Belmont
+    George D. Pratt
+    Mortimer L. Schiff
+    H. Rogers Winthrop
+
+    GEORGE D. PRATT
+    Treasurer
+
+    JAMES E. WEST
+    Chief Scout Executive
+
+    ADDITIONAL MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD
+    Ernest P. Bicknell
+    Robert Garrett
+    Lee F. Hanmer
+    John Sherman Hoyt
+    Charles C. Jackson
+    Prof. Jeremiah W. Jenks
+    William D. Murray
+    Dr. Charles P. Neill
+    George D. Porter
+    Frank Presbrey
+    Edgar M. Robinson
+    Mortimer L. Schiff
+    Lorillard Spencer
+    Seth Sprague Terry
+
+
+    July 31st, 1913.
+
+TO THE PUBLIC:--
+
+In the execution of its purpose to give educational value and moral
+worth to the recreational activities of the boyhood of America, the
+leaders of the Boy Scout Movement quickly learned that to effectively
+carry out its program, the boy must be influenced not only in his
+out-of-door life but also in the diversions of his other leisure
+moments. It is at such times that the boy is captured by the tales of
+daring enterprises and adventurous good times. What now is needful is
+not that his taste should be thwarted but trained. There should
+constantly be presented to him the books the boy likes best, yet always
+the books that will be best for the boy. As a matter of fact, however,
+the boy's taste is being constantly vitiated and exploited by the great
+mass of cheap juvenile literature.
+
+To help anxiously concerned parents and educators to meet this grave
+peril, the Library Commission of the Boy Scouts of America has been
+organised. EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY is the result of their labors. All the
+books chosen have been approved by them. The Commission is composed of
+the following members: George F. Bowerman, Librarian, Public Library of
+the District of Columbia, Washington, D. C.; Harrison W. Graver,
+Librarian, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Claude G. Leland,
+Superintendent, Bureau of Libraries, Board of Education, New York City:
+Edward F. Stevens, Librarian, Pratt Institute Free Library, Brooklyn,
+New York; together with the Editorial Board of our Movement William D.
+Murray, George D. Pratt and Frank Presbrey, with Franklin K. Mathiews,
+Chief Scout Librarian, as Secretary.
+
+    "DO A GOOD TURN DAILY."
+
+In selecting the books, the Commission has chosen only such as are of
+interest to boys, the first twenty-five being either works of fiction or
+stirring stories of adventurous experiences. In later lists, books of a
+more serious sort will be included. It is hoped that as many as
+twenty-five may be added to the Library each year.
+
+Thanks are due the several publishers who have helped to inaugurate this
+new department of our work. Without their co-operation in making
+available for popular priced editions some of the best books ever
+published for boys, the promotion of EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY would have been
+impossible.
+
+We wish, too, to express our heartiest gratitude to the Library
+Commission, who, without compensation, have placed their vast experience
+and immense resources at the service of our Movement.
+
+The Commission invites suggestions as to future books to be included in
+the Library. Librarians, teachers, parents, and all others interested in
+welfare work for boys, can render a unique service by forwarding to
+National Headquarters lists of such books as in their judgment would be
+suitable for EVERY BOY'S LIBRARY.
+
+                                     Signed
+                                       [Illustration: James E West]
+                                                   Chief Scout Executive.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE RANCHE ON THE OXHIDE
+
+[Illustration: "The most indescribable antics were gone through."
+
+_Page 290._ _Frontispiece._]
+
+
+Every Boy's Library--Boy Scout Edition
+
+THE RANCHE ON THE OXHIDE
+
+A Story of Boys' and Girls' Life on the Frontier
+
+by
+
+HENRY INMAN
+
+Late Captain United States Army
+Brevet Lieutenant Colonel
+
+Author of
+The Old Santa Fé Trail
+
+Illustrated by Charles Bradford Hudson
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+New York
+Grosset & Dunlap
+Publishers
+(Macmillan's Standard Library)
+
+Copyright, 1898,
+By The Macmillan Company.
+
+Set up and electrotyped. Published July, 1898. Reprinted
+December, 1905; December, 1908; October, 1909; June, 1911.
+New edition September, 1906; August, September, 1911; March,
+June, 1912; July, 1913.
+
+Norwood Press
+J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
+Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+    To My Grandson
+    GEORGE INMAN SEITZ
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+  TAKING UP A "CLAIM" IN KANSAS--THE TRAIL FROM
+    LEAVENWORTH--ANIMALS SEEN EN ROUTE--PRAIRIE
+    CHICKENS--BUILDING THE CABIN--THE COSY
+    SITTING-ROOM--ANIMALS FOUND IN THE TIMBER AND ON THE
+    PRAIRIE--WHY THE CREEK WAS NAMED "OXHIDE"                 Page 1
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+  THE HOUSE IS FINISHED--BUILDING CORRALS--THE HOUNDS--THEIR
+    FIGHT WITH A LYNX--ITS HIDE GIVEN TO GERTRUDE--THE
+    IMMENSE HERD OF BUFFALO--CAPTURE FOUR CALVES--GET THEIR
+    PONIES IN A STRANGE MANNER--BREAKING THEM                Page 13
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+  THE BOYS GO FISHING FOR THE FIRST TIME--AN IDEA SUDDENLY
+    STRIKES ROB--ROB'S QUEST AND LUCK--THE ISLAND OF
+    WILLOWS--ROB'S BIG CAT--JOE'S TUSSLE WITH A PANTHER
+    CUB--KILLS HIM--IS WOUNDED--SKINS THE ANIMAL, AND GETS
+    HOME AT LAST--GIVES THE BEAUTIFUL ROBE TO HIS MOTHER     Page 29
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+  BOY AND GIRL LIFE AT ERROLSTRATH RANCHE--THEIR PETS--THE
+    GIRLS ENCOUNTER A BIG PRAIRIE WOLF--JOE TO THE
+    RESCUE--DEATH OF THE FEROCIOUS BEAST                     Page 48
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+  THE FRIENDLY PAWNEES CAMP ON THE OXHIDE--OLD "YELLOW
+    CALF," THE CHIEF--JOE IS NAMED "THE WHITE PANTHER"--JOE
+    GOES HUNTING WITH THE BAND--HE LEARNS THE
+    LANGUAGE--HUNTING WITH THE BOYS OF THE TRIBE             Page 62
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+  THE STORY OF THE MASSACRE ON SPILLMAN CREEK--SCOUTS GO TO
+    THE RESCUE--JOE AND ROB TALK OVER THE HORRID WORK OF THE
+    SAVAGES--THE DOG SOLDIERS--CHARLEY BENT--PLACE OF
+    RENDEZVOUS--PARTY STARTS OUT--JOE'S OPINION IS ASKED     Page 71
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+  ARRIVAL OF CAVALRY ON THE ELKHORN--A DEER HUNT--WHAT THE
+    SCOUTS SAW--THE STORY OF THE TWO LITTLE GIRLS--THE DEAD
+    AND WOUNDED--MEN HIDDEN IN THE BRUSH--AN INDIAN
+    LEGEND--ARRIVAL OF THE INFANTRY--THE DEER HUNT IN THE
+    MORNING--DEATH OF THE DEER                               Page 98
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+  MR. TUCKER PASSES THE NIGHT AT ERROLSTRATH--HE TELLS SOME
+    STORIES OF HUNTING BIG GAME IN THE ROCKY
+    MOUNTAINS--SAGACITY OF THE FEMALE BIGHORN--THE AMERICAN
+    COUGAR--THE BEAR AND THE PANTHER--THE RABBIT HUNT--HOW
+    THE BOYS TRAINED THEIR HOUNDS                           Page 118
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+  INDIAN RAIDS--KATE IS MISSING--"BUFFALO BILL'S"
+    OPINION--"BUFFALO BILL" FINDS HER LITTLE BASKET--THE
+    SOLDIERS RETURN TO THE FORT WITHOUT FINDING HER--GRIEF
+    OF THE FAMILY                                           Page 137
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+  HOW KATE WAS CAPTURED BY THE INDIANS--THE BAND RIDE
+    RAPIDLY SOUTHWARD--AT THE INDIAN VILLAGE--HER
+    DETERMINATION TO ESCAPE--TEACHES THE SQUAWS--IS TREATED
+    KINDLY                                                  Page 147
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+  THANKSGIVING DAY AT ERROLSTRATH--KATE'S RETURN--CUSTER'S
+    BATTLE WITH "BLACK KETTLE"--KATE TELLS HER STORY--THE
+    ORIGIN OF INDIAN CORN--A WOLF HUNT WITH GENERAL
+    CUSTER--A WOLF STORY BY THE COLONEL                     Page 156
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+  A WOLF HUNT--TWO SNAKE STORIES--TERRIBLE STRUGGLE WITH A
+    MOUNTAIN WOLF--A MAIL RIDER EATEN--THE OLD TRAPPER'S
+    EXPERIENCE WITH FOUR OF THE FIERCE BEASTS               Page 193
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+  JOE, ROB, AND THE OLD TRAPPER--GENERAL CUSTER ARRIVES AT
+    THE RENDEZVOUS--THE WOLF DENS--FIRST TUSSLE BETWEEN THE
+    HOUNDS AND A WOLF--CINCH'S GREAT BATTLE                 Page 211
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+  A WILD TURKEY HUNT--THE TRIP TO MUD CREEK--THE TURKEY
+    ROOST--THE SHOOTING BEGINS--COUNTING THE NUMBER
+    KILLED--JOE SELLS TURKEYS                               Page 222
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+  HOW THE ROBIN CAME TO KANSAS--MOCKING-BIRDS--EATEN BY
+    SNAKES--JOE LOSES HIS TAME ELK--THE LAST OF THE
+    WOLVES--FINDING THE QUAIL'S NEST--JOE BUILDS A CAGE FOR
+    THEM--RAISING CHICKENS                                  Page 229
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+  THE PAWNEES RETURN--ANTELOPE HUNT WITH THE INDIANS--JOE
+    MISSES--WHITE WOLF--TALK OF A WILD HORSE HUNT--THE
+    SAND-HILL CRANES--THEIR WEIRD COTILLION                 Page 246
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+  WILD HORSES--JOE SLEEPS IN WHITE WOLF'S TENT--CAMP ON THE
+    WALNUT--WOLVES AND LYNXES--KILL AN ELK--THE
+    CHASE--CAPTURE OF THE BLACK STALLION--WHITE WOLF'S
+    SKILL--BREAKING THE HORSES                              Page 256
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+  THE LAST HERD OF BUFFALO--THE STAMPEDE--THE SOLDIERS IN
+    FULL CHASE--JOE GETS TWO COWS--HAULING IN THE
+    MEAT--RATTLESNAKES                                      Page 272
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+  THE INDIAN HORSE-RACE--KATE'S PONY WINS--THE TRADE WITH
+    THE PAWNEES--THE DANCES AT NIGHT--THE INDIANS SAY GOOD
+    BY TO THE FAMILY--NOBLE ACTION OF WHITE WOLF            Page 281
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+  RETROSPECTIVE--THE OLD TRAPPER PASSES AWAY--MR. AND MRS.
+    THOMPSON ARE DEAD--GENERAL CUSTER AND COLONEL KEOGH ARE
+    KILLED--ERROLSTRATH BELONGS TO JOE AND ROB              Page 295
+
+
+
+
+THE RANCHE ON THE OXHIDE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+  TAKING UP A "CLAIM" IN KANSAS--THE TRAIL FROM
+    LEAVENWORTH--ANIMALS SEEN EN ROUTE--PRAIRIE
+    CHICKENS--BUILDING THE CABIN--THE COSY
+    SITTING-ROOM--ANIMALS FOUND IN THE TIMBER AND ON THE
+    PRAIRIE--WHY THE CREEK WAS NAMED "OXHIDE"
+
+
+IN 1865-66, immigrants began to rush into the new state of Kansas which
+had just been admitted into the Union. A large majority of the early
+settlers were old soldiers who had served faithfully during the war for
+the preservation of their country. To these veterans the Government, by
+Act of Congress, made certain concessions, whereby they could take up
+"claims" of a hundred and sixty acres of the public land under easier
+regulations than other citizens who had not helped their country in the
+hour of her extreme danger.
+
+Many of them, however, were forced to go out on the extreme frontier, as
+the eastern portion of the state was already well settled. On the remote
+border several tribes of Indians, notably the Cheyennes, Kiowas,
+Comanches, and Arapahoes, still held almost undisputed possession, and
+they were violently opposed to the white man's encroachment upon their
+ancestral hunting-grounds, from which he drove away the big game upon
+which they depended for the subsistence of themselves and their
+families. Consequently, these savages became very hostile as they
+witnessed, day after day, the arrival of hundreds of white settlers who
+squatted on the best land, felled the trees on the margin of the streams
+to build their log-cabins, and ploughed up the ground to plant crops.
+
+Late in the fall of 1866, Robert Thompson, a veteran of one of the
+Vermont regiments, having read in his village newspaper such glowing
+accounts of the advantages offered by Kansas to the immigrant, decided
+to leave his ancestral homestead among the barren hills of the Green
+Mountain State, and take up a claim in the far West. The family,
+consisting of father, mother, Joseph, Robert, Gertrude, and Kate, after
+a journey by railroad and steamboat without incident worth recording,
+arrived at Leavenworth on the Missouri River, the general rendezvous in
+those early days for all who intended to cross the great plains, through
+which a railroad was then an idle dream. In that rough, but busy town,
+Mr. Thompson purchased two six-mule teams, two white-covered wagons
+called "prairie schooners," together with sufficient provisions to last
+a month, by which time he thought he should find a suitable location on
+the vast plains whither he was going.
+
+A few cooking-utensils of the simplest character, together with a
+double-barrelled shot-gun and a Spencer rifle, constituted the entire
+outfit necessary for their lonely trip of perhaps three hundred miles,
+before they could hope to find unoccupied land on which to settle.
+
+One Monday morning, bright and early, the teams pulled out of the town,
+Mr. Thompson driving in the lead, and Joe, who was the elder of the
+boys, in the other. Gertrude rode with her father and mother, and Kate
+and Rob with their brother Joe. Their course ran over the broad trail
+to the Rocky Mountains, on which were then hauled by government
+caravans, all the supplies for the military posts in the Indian country.
+
+Their route for the first two weeks passed through deep forests
+extending for a long distance from the bank of the great river. The
+whole family were charmed with the new and strange scenes they passed as
+they rode slowly on day after day, scenes so different in their details
+from those to which they had been used in the staid old region they had
+left so far behind them. The boys and girls, particularly, were in a
+constant state of excitement. They marvelled at the immense trees as
+they passed through groups of great elms and giant cottonwoods. The
+gnarled trunks were vine-covered clear to their topmost branches by the
+magnificent Virginia creeper, or woodbine, as it is called, the most
+beautiful of the American ivies, and which grows in its greatest
+luxuriance west of the Missouri River. On the ends of the huge limbs of
+the lofty trees as they branched over the trail, the red squirrels sat,
+peeping saucily at the travellers as they drove under them, and the
+blue jay, the noisiest of birds, screeched as he darted like lightning
+through the dark foliage. The blue jay is the shark of the air; he
+kills, without any discrimination, all the young fledglings he can find
+in their nests while their parents are absent. Although his plumage is
+magnificent in its cerulean hue as the sun glints upon it, and he has a
+very sweet note when sitting quietly on the limbs of the oak, which he
+loves, yet his awful screaming as he flies--and he is ever on the
+wing--is far from pleasant to ears not trained to listen to his harsh
+voice.
+
+Occasionally a gaunt, hungry wolf--they are always hungry--would skulk
+out of the timber and then run across the trail, with his tail wrapped
+closely between his legs. He would just show a mouth full of great white
+teeth for a moment, as he sneaked cowardly off, the rattle of the wagons
+having, perhaps, disturbed his slumbers on some ledge of rock near the
+road.
+
+Prairie chickens, or pinnated grouse, were seen in large flocks as soon
+as the open country was reached. They were far from wild in those days;
+you could approach near enough always to get a good shot at them, for
+civilization was to them almost as strange an experience as it was to
+those beasts and birds on Robinson Crusoe's island. Joe was already
+quite proficient with the shot-gun, and he often handed the lines to
+Rob, and stopping the team, got out and walked ahead of the wagons to
+stalk a flock of the beautiful game, which had been frightened away from
+their feeding-ground by the rattle of the teams. For a long time grouse
+was a part of every meal until the party became really tired of them.
+Mrs. Thompson was a famous cook, and they were served up in a variety of
+ways, but the favorite style of all the family was to have them broiled
+before the camp-fire on peeled willow twigs. Rob always regarded it as
+part of his duty to procure these twigs, as he was the handiest with a
+jack-knife or hatchet.
+
+The weeks passed pleasantly for the children, but the old folks were
+becoming very anxious to settle somewhere, for the winter, as they
+thought, would soon be coming on. They did not know then that that
+season in Kansas is usually short, and that the three or four months
+preceding it is the most delightful time of the whole year. So after
+travelling nearly two months on the broad trail to the mountains,
+examining a piece of land here and another there, they camped early one
+afternoon on the bank of Oxhide Creek, in what is now Ellsworth County,
+and so delighted were they all with the charming spot, that they made up
+their minds to seek no further.
+
+Their "claim," as the possession of the public land is called, included
+a beautiful bend of the little stream which flowed through the one
+hundred and sixty acres to which they were entitled by being the first
+to settle on it. They discovered in the very centre of a group of elms
+and cottonwoods a large spring of deliciously cool water, and the trees
+which hid it from view were more than a century old. The magnificent
+pool for untold ages had evidently been a favorite resort of the
+antelope and buffalo, if one could so judge from the quantity of the
+bones of those animals that were constantly ploughed up near by when the
+ground was cultivated. No doubt that the big prairie wolf and the
+cowardly little coyote hidden in the long grass and underbrush
+surrounding the spring got many a kid and calf whose incautious mothers
+had strayed from the protection of the herd to quench their thirst.
+
+The beautiful creek flowed at the base of a range of low, rocky hills,
+while two miles northward ran a magnificent stretch of level prairie,
+beyond which ran the Smoky Hill River.
+
+To their ranche, as all homes in the far West are called, the Thompsons
+gave the name of Errolstrath. It had no special significance; it was so
+called merely because "Strath" in Scotch means a valley through which a
+stream meanders. It comported perfectly with the situation of the place,
+and "Errol" was added as a prefix for euphony's sake. In this
+picturesque little valley Mr. Thompson, with the assistance of his boys,
+began at once the construction of a rude but comfortable cabin,
+fashioned partly out of logs and partly of stone. The house outside gave
+no hint of the excellence of its interior, or the cosy rooms which a
+refined taste and culture had felt to be as necessary on the remote
+frontier as in the thickly settled East. The largest division of the
+house was an apartment which served as the family sitting-room. In one
+corner of this, they built diagonally across it, after the Mexican
+style, an old-fashioned fireplace, patterned like one in the ancestral
+homestead in Vermont. Up its cavernous throat you could see the sky,
+and in the summer, when the full moon was at the zenith, a flood of
+bright light would pour down on the broad hearth. In the winter evenings
+the family gathered around the great blazing logs, whose yellow flames
+roared like a tornado as they shot up the chimney. The mother sewed, the
+girls were engaged with their studies, and the boys either listened to
+their father as he told of some experience in his own youthful days,
+played chess, or were busied with some other intellectual amusement.
+
+This large room was also furnished with a small but well-selected
+library. It was a source of much pleasure to the family, as the country
+was not settled up very rapidly, and the members were thrown entirely
+upon their own resources for amusements. The following spring and summer
+many newcomers arrived and took up the choicest lands in the vicinity,
+until there were several families within varying distances of
+Errolstrath. Some were only three miles away, others twelve, but in that
+region then, all were considered neighbors, no matter how far away.
+
+The children had lots of fun, for the rare sport differed entirely from
+that which their former home in the old East had furnished. The dense
+timber which grew by the water of the Oxhide like a fringe, was the home
+of the lynx, erroneously called the wild cat, squirrels, badgers, and
+coons. The wolf and the little coyote had their dens in the great ledges
+of rock that were piled up on the hilly sides of the valley. The great
+prairie was often black with vast herds of buffalo, or bison, which
+roamed over its velvety area at certain seasons. The timid antelope,
+too, graceful as a flower, and gifted with a wonderful curiosity, could
+be seen for many years after the Thompsons had settled on the creek.
+They moved in great flocks, frequently numbering a thousand or more, but
+now, like their immense shaggy congener, the buffalo, through the
+wantonness of man, they have been almost annihilated.
+
+Joe Thompson, the eldest child, about fourteen, was a rare boy, strongly
+built, and possessed of a mind that was equal to his well-developed
+body. He was a born leader, and became one of the most prominent men on
+the frontier when the troublous times came with the savages, some years
+after the family had settled on Oxhide Creek. Robert, the second son,
+was a bright, active, muscular fellow, two years younger than Joe, but
+he lacked that self-reliance, energy, and coolness in the presence of
+danger which so strikingly characterized Joe. Gertrude and Kate were
+respectively ten and seven years old, and were carefully instructed by
+their estimable mother in all that should be known by a woman whose life
+was destined, perhaps, to the isolation and hardships of the frontier.
+They were both taught to cook a dinner, ride horseback, handle a pistol
+if necessary, or entertain gracefully in the parlor. To employ a
+metaphor, theirs was a versatility which "could pick up a needle or rive
+an oak!" In some of her characteristics Gertrude resembled her brother
+Joe; she was braver and cooler under trying circumstances than Kate, who
+was more like Rob. Both were rare specimens of noble girlhood, and their
+life on the ranche, as will be seen, was full of adventure and thrilling
+experiences.
+
+It may seem strange that a stream should be called Oxhide, but, like the
+nomenclature of the Indians, the name of every locality out on the
+great plains is based upon some incident connected with the scene or the
+individual. As this is a true story, it will not be amiss to tell here
+why the odd-sounding name was given to the creek on which the Thompsons
+had settled. Some years before the country was sought after by
+emigrants, the only travellers through it were the old-time trappers,
+who caught the various fur-bearing animals on the margins of its waters,
+and the miner destined for far-off Pike's Peak or California. A party
+camping there one day, on their way to the Pacific coast, discovered a
+yoke of oxen, or rather their desiccated hides and skeletons, fastened
+by their chains to a tree, where they had literally starved to death. It
+was supposed that they had belonged to some travellers like themselves,
+on their way to the mines, who had been surprised and murdered by the
+Indians. The savages must have run off the moment they had finished
+their bloody work, without ever looking for or finding the poor animals.
+Thus it was that the stream was given the name of Oxhide, which it bears
+to this day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+  THE HOUSE IS FINISHED--BUILDING CORRALS--THE HOUNDS--THEIR
+    FIGHT WITH A LYNX--ITS HIDE GIVEN TO GERTRUDE--THE
+    IMMENSE HERD OF BUFFALO--CAPTURE FOUR CALVES--GET THEIR
+    PONIES IN A STRANGE MANNER--BREAKING THEM
+
+
+IT was quite late in the season, towards the end of October, when the
+stone and log cabin was completed and ready for occupancy. The family
+had meanwhile lived in their big tent which they had brought with them
+from the Missouri River. They had carried in their wagons bedding and
+blankets, a table and several chairs, enough to suffice until the
+arrival of their other goods, which had been stored at Leavenworth while
+they were hunting for a location. At the end of two months after their
+settlement on the Oxhide, a freight caravan arrived with their things,
+much of it the old-fashioned furniture from the homestead in Vermont.
+This caravan was en route to Fort Union, New Mexico, the trail to which
+military post ran along the bank of the Smoky Hill River, not more than
+two miles from the ranche.
+
+Joe and Rob were constantly busy helping their father to make matters
+snug for the winter, building a corral for the cows, a stone stable for
+the horses, and a chicken house for the fowls, of which they had more
+than a hundred, Plymouth rocks and white leghorns, the best layers in
+the world. Up to that time they had not had as much time for sport as
+they wished for. They had been kept too busy, until long after the cold
+weather set in, when all the streams were frozen over and the woods were
+bare and brown.
+
+A near neighbor who had taken a fancy to the bright lads when they first
+arrived in the country, had given them two fine greyhounds, which they
+named Bluey and Brutus; the former on account of his color, and the
+other because they had recently been interested in Shakespeare's play of
+"Julius Cæsar," which their father had read to them. With these
+magnificent animals they had lots of fun during the long months of the
+winter, hunting jack-rabbits, digging coyotes out of their holes in the
+ledge above the banks of the creek, or fighting lynxes and coons in the
+timber.
+
+One bright day they were out among the hills with their hounds, which
+had run far in advance of their young masters, when suddenly the boys'
+ears were startled by a terrible commotion in a wooded ravine about a
+hundred yards ahead of them. The dogs were barking furiously, sometimes
+howling in pain, and they could see the dust flying in great clouds. In
+a few moments all was still; the turmoil had ceased, a truce evidently
+having been patched up between the belligerents. The boys hurried on and
+presently came to a sheltered spot where the timber had been apparently
+blown down by a small tornado many years before; and there as they came
+up to it, in a triangle formed by the trunks of three fallen trees, a
+space about ten feet square, they saw the hounds holding a great lynx at
+bay! The cat was standing in the apex of the triangle, crowding her body
+as closely as she could against the timber so that the dogs were unable
+to attack her without getting a scratch from her sharp claws. Her hair
+was all bristling up with battle, and the dogs had evidently tried
+several times to drive her out of her almost impregnable position, but
+each attempt had ended in themselves being driven back discomfited. As
+soon as the hounds saw the boys, however, their courage rose, and Bluey,
+the oldest dog, at an encouraging "Sic 'em!" from Joe, made a sudden
+dash, caught the ferocious beast by the middle of the back and commenced
+to shake her with the awful rapidity for which he was noted, and in a
+few seconds she was dropped dead at Joe's feet.
+
+Bluey first became famous as a shaker several months before his
+encounter with the lynx. One morning Rob got up very early for some
+reason, and went into the chicken house, and as soon as he entered it he
+saw a skunk half hidden under one of the beams of the floor. He did not
+dare to call Bluey, who was sleeping on a pile of hay a few feet away,
+for fear the animal would take the alarm and run off. So he quietly went
+to where the dog was, and lifting him bodily in his arms carried him to
+the chicken house and held his nose down to the ground so that he could
+see or smell the skunk. In an instant that skunk was caught up by the
+neck and the life shaken out of him before he could have possibly
+realized what was the matter with him.
+
+"By jolly!" said Rob, a favorite ejaculation with him when he was
+excited, as he saw the cat lying perfectly still where Bluey had dropped
+him. "I say, Joe, what a set of teeth and a strong neck old Bluey must
+have to shake anything as he does! Why, if he could take up a man in his
+jaws, the fellow would stand no more chance of his life than that lynx!"
+
+"The hound," replied Joe, "has a strong jaw and a powerful neck; but he
+lacks the intelligence of some other breeds. His brain is not nearly as
+large as that of a Newfoundland, a setter, pointer, or even a poodle.
+Hounds like Bluey and Brutus run by sight alone; they have no nose, and
+the moment they cannot see their game they are lost. You have often
+noticed that, Rob, when a rabbit gets away from them in the long grass
+or in the corn stalks. They will jump up and down, completely bewildered
+until they catch sight of the animal again. Now, with the other breed of
+hounds, they hunt by scent; the moment they get wind of anything they
+run with their noses close to the ground and commence to howl. The
+greyhound, on the contrary, makes no noise at all."
+
+Joe skinned the lynx, assisted by Rob, and after throwing the carcass in
+the ravine where the battle had been fought, slowly walked back to the
+ranche, followed by the dogs, that kept close to their heels, tired and
+sore from the struggle just ended.
+
+"Let us give the hide to Gert after we tan it, to put at the side of her
+bed; you know she is fond of such things," said Rob.
+
+"All right," replied Joe. "We'll do it, and if we have good luck in
+getting other animals, we'll just fill her room with skins. Won't that
+be jolly?"
+
+Mr. Thompson had but two teams of horses on the ranche, and they could
+not often be spared from work, for the mere amusement of the boys. It
+was a constant source of regret to them that they did not have ponies of
+their own. On their way home the oft-repeated subject came up again.
+Both Joe and Rob felt keenly that they were obliged to go where they
+were sent, or desired to go themselves, on foot. How to obtain the
+coveted little creatures was a source of continual worry to them.
+
+"I do wish that we had ponies," began Rob for the hundredth time, "so
+that we could go anywhere in a hurry; don't you, Joe?"
+
+"Father would buy them for us if he felt that he could afford it; and he
+means to as soon as he can see his way clear. I heard him tell mother
+so, several times when she wished that we had 'em," replied Joe.
+"Maybe," continued he, "some band of friendly Indians will come along
+after a while; it's nearly time for the Pawnees to start out on their
+annual buffalo hunt. When they come up here, we may be able to trade 'em
+out of a real nice pair. They are always eager for a 'swap'; so old man
+Tucker told me the other day, and he is an old Indian trader and
+fighter. He has lived on the plains and in the mountains for more than
+forty years; so he knows what he is talking about."
+
+"Golly! couldn't we have lots of fun," he continued, "with old Bluey and
+Brutus, after jack-rabbits and wolves, if we only had something to
+ride?"
+
+"Couldn't we, though!" answered Rob. "I tell you, Joe, it's awful hard
+work to climb over these hills on foot; we can't begin to keep up with
+the dogs; can't get anywhere in sight of 'em. You know that, and I just
+bet that we lose lots of game; don't you?"
+
+"Oh! I know it," said Joe; "for the hounds become discouraged when they
+find themselves so far away from us. Often, when I'm out alone with
+them, Brutus will come back to hunt me instead of hunting rabbits.
+Sometimes I can't get him to go on after Bluey; he, the old rascal is
+more cunning; he gets many a rabbit we never see, and eats it. That is
+what makes him so much fatter than Brutus, though he does twice as much
+running. Did you ever think of that, Rob?"
+
+That night when the tired boys went to bed, they little dreamed that
+they were to have something to ride sooner than their fondest hopes had
+flattered them, and from an entirely different source than the Indians.
+
+Before the sun's broad disc rose above the Harker Hills next morning,
+although its rays had already crimsoned the rocky crests of the buttes
+which bounded the little valley of the Oxhide on the west, Rob had
+risen without disturbing his brother. He was always an early riser; he
+loved the calm, beautiful hours that usher in the day, and was the first
+one of all the family out of bed on the ranche.
+
+He took the tin wash basin from its hook outside of the kitchen door,
+and started for the spring, only a few yards away, to wash himself. Just
+as he arrived there, chancing to look towards the hills, he saw that the
+whole country, upland and bottom alike, was black with buffaloes. In his
+excitement, he threw down the basin, and ran back to the house as fast
+as his legs could carry him. He rushed into his father's room, and
+unceremoniously seizing him by the shoulder, waking him from a sound
+slumber, shook him, and shouted as loud as he was able:--
+
+"Father, get up! Father, get up! the whole country is alive with
+buffaloes, and the nearest one is not a quarter of a mile away. Quick!
+father."
+
+Mr. Thompson roused himself, and instantly got out of bed and dressed
+himself quicker than he had ever done since he had lived on the ranche.
+He threw on only clothes enough to cover him, for he had already caught
+some of his boy's enthusiasm.
+
+He told Rob to go to the closet, bring him a dozen bullets and his
+powder-flask, while he commenced to wipe out the barrels of his two
+old-fashioned rifles and the Spencer carbine, that always hung on a set
+of elk antlers fastened to the wall of his bed-chamber.
+
+As Rob had declared, the whole region was literally dark with a mighty
+multitude of the great shaggy monsters, grazing quietly toward the east.
+There were thousands in sight, and for just such a chance Mr. Thompson
+had been anxiously waiting to get a supply of meat for the family.
+
+Of course, every member of the household got up as soon as Rob had ended
+his noisy announcement. Hurriedly dressing, they rushed out under a
+group of trees that grew near the door, and watched Mr. Thompson
+crawling cautiously round the rocks as he drew nearer and nearer to the
+yet unconscious herd.
+
+In a few moments he was lost to sight, and almost immediately they saw
+the herd raise their heads simultaneously. The family then knew that Mr.
+Thompson had been discovered by the wary animals, for the alarmed
+buffaloes began their characteristic quick, short gallop, and the boys
+were fearful that their father had not gotten within range and that
+there would be no meat for breakfast. But at the instant they were
+expecting to be disappointed, the loud crack of a rifle echoed through
+the valley once, twice, then a short silence; three, four times.
+
+As the sound of the discharges died away, they saw their father climb to
+the summit of the divide, in full view of all, and wave his hat. Then
+they knew he had been successful, and eagerly watched him as he came
+slowly down the declivity toward them.
+
+When he had come within hailing distance he cried out that he had killed
+four fat cows; one for each shot. Then the boys and girls took off their
+hats, and, vigorously waving them, gave three hearty cheers.
+
+Just beyond the cabin and corral, which latter was surrounded by a stone
+wall nearly five feet high, was a single hill whose summit was round,
+and to which had been given the name of Haystack Mound, because at a
+distance it exactly resembled a haystack. When the buffaloes had
+started to run eastwardly, this mound cut off some of the animals of the
+herd, about three hundred in all, the majority going south of it, the
+smaller number north, which brought them near the house. Seeing the
+family standing there, they suddenly turned and rushed right over the
+corral; the gate was open, and a few dashed through it, but the most of
+them leaped over the wall. The buffalo is not easily stopped by any
+ordinary obstacle when stampeded; he will go down a precipice, or up a
+steep hill; madly rushing on to his destruction, in order to get away
+from the common enemy, man.
+
+Rob saw the buffaloes first as they were turned from their course by the
+mound, and when they began to rush over the wall of the corral and
+through its gate, he shouted to Joe:--
+
+"Come, Joe, let's try to shut some of them in; maybe there are calves
+among them. If there are, we can keep 'em in, for the little ones can
+never mount that wall on the other side."
+
+Instantly acting on the suggestion, both boys ran as fast as they could
+to the corral, and succeeded in closing the entrance just as the last of
+the herd was leaping over the far wall.
+
+As Rob had surmised, four calves remained inside, too young to follow
+their mothers over the wall. Both he and Joe were nearly wild with
+excitement at their luck in having been able to shut the gate in time to
+corral the baby buffaloes. They were about to rush to the house to tell
+the rest of the family of their wonderful capture, when Joe chanced to
+look into the door of the rude shed that was used to shelter the stock
+in stormy weather, and saw jammed against the farther wall two animals
+that were too small to be full-grown buffaloes, and too large for
+calves. It was so dark in the corner where they were that he could not
+make out at first what kind of animals they had caught. He called Rob,
+who crawled nearer to where the beasts stood huddled against each other,
+trembling with fear at their strange quarters.
+
+In another moment, as soon as Rob's eyes became used to the dim light,
+he came bounding out with the speed of a Comanche Indian on the
+war-path, and catching Joe by the shoulders was just able to gasp:--
+
+"By jolly, Joe, they're real ponies!"
+
+They were so astonished for a few seconds that they stood paralyzed
+before they ventured in the shed to take a good look at the little
+animals. They boldly went in, and the moment the ponies saw the boys
+they made a break for the outside and vainly attempted to dash over the
+wall. Their frantic efforts, however, were of no avail; they could not
+make it: they were regular prisoners, and Rob and Joe were almost out of
+their senses with delight.
+
+After their excitement had somewhat subsided they went to the house and
+brought out all the rest of the family to see the cunning little
+animals. They lost all their interest in the buffalo calves now that
+their brightest dreams of owning ponies of their own were realized.
+
+The diminutive beasts which the boys had so successfully corralled were
+sorry-looking animals enough. They were so dirty, thin, angular, and
+their coats so rough, so filled with sand-burrs and bull-nettles, that
+it was hard to determine what color they were. All the family made a
+guess at it. Kate said she thought they were mouse-color, while Gertrude
+believed they were gray. Joe thought they were brown, and Rob white. Mr.
+Thompson, however, who knew more about horses than his boys, told them
+they were bays, but it would take a few days of currying and brushing up
+to determine which of the family had guessed correctly. There was
+evidently lots of life in them, for they cavorted around the big corral,
+prancing like thoroughbreds.
+
+That afternoon, when they had taken care of the buffaloes which Mr.
+Thompson shot, and had stretched their robes on the corral wall to cure,
+the ponies were roped by Mr. Thompson, who could handle a lariat with
+some degree of skill, and halters were put on them. They were nearly of
+a size, and both of the same color, so they could hardly be
+distinguished from each other, but on a closer examination it was
+discovered that one of them had a white spot on his breast. This was the
+only apparent difference between them, so the boys drew lots to see
+which should have the one with the white breast. Their father selected
+two straws, one shorter than the other, and holding them partly
+concealed so that only their ends showed, told Rob to draw first. He got
+the longer straw, and so became the owner of the pony with the spot of
+white on his breast.
+
+In less than two weeks, through kindness and good care, they were
+changed into clean, sleek, beautiful bays, just as Mr. Thompson had said
+they would be. In a month the boys could ride them anywhere, and the
+acme of their happiness was reached.
+
+The animals had strayed from some band of wild horses and had drifted
+along with the herd of buffaloes, as was not infrequently the case in
+the early days on the great plains.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+  THE BOYS GO FISHING FOR THE FIRST TIME--AN IDEA SUDDENLY
+    STRIKES ROB--ROB'S QUEST AND LUCK--THE ISLAND OF
+    WILLOWS--ROB'S BIG CAT--JOE'S TUSSLE WITH A PANTHER
+    CUB--KILLS HIM--IS WOUNDED--SKINS THE ANIMAL, AND GETS
+    HOME AT LAST--GIVES THE BEAUTIFUL ROBE TO HIS MOTHER
+
+
+THE winter, contrary to their expectations, was not a severe one. The
+family had been used to the long, dreary, cold months of a New England
+winter, and were agreeably surprised when April arrived with its sunny
+skies, delicious breezes, and wild flowers covering the prairies.
+
+One morning, when his father was just starting for the little village of
+Ellsworth, six miles distant, for a load of lumber, Rob asked him to buy
+some hooks and lines.
+
+"Father," said he, "Oxhide Creek is just full of bull-pouts, perch, cat
+and buffalo fish. Joe and I want to go fishing to-day, if you return in
+time."
+
+Mr. Thompson told the boys that he would not forget them, and as he
+drove off, they took their spades to dig in the garden as their father
+had directed them to do while he was away.
+
+Both Joe and Rob worked very industriously, anxious to make the time
+slip away until their father's return, when, if he was satisfied with
+what they had done, they knew he would let them go fishing.
+
+Just before twelve o'clock Mr. Thompson came back. The boys had worked
+for more than three hours, but it seemed only one to them, so quickly
+does time glide along when we are engaged in some healthful labor.
+
+When Mr. Thompson saw how faithfully his boys had worked, he told them,
+as he handed to each a line and some hooks, they might have the
+afternoon to themselves and go fishing if they wished to, but must wait
+until they had taken the lumber off the wagon and eaten their dinner.
+
+The boys were all excitement at the idea of going fishing. When they sat
+down to dinner they hurried through it, asked to be excused, and went
+out and unloaded the lumber before their father had done eating.
+
+When they returned to the house and told their father they had unloaded
+the boards and run the wagon under the shed, he said they might go, but
+were to be sure to return in time to do the chores.
+
+They took a spade from the tool-shed and an old tomato can their mother
+had given them, and started for the creek, where in the soft, black soil
+of its banks they dug for white grubs for bait. They were not very
+successful, however. They turned over almost as much soil as they had
+dug in the garden that morning, but found only three or four worms; not
+enough to take out on their excursion. They were disgusted for a few
+moments, fearing that they would have to give up their fishing, so stood
+staring at each other, their faces filled with disappointment.
+
+At last an idea struck Rob. He said:--
+
+"I'll tell you what we'll do, Joe. I read in one of father's books the
+other day about the Indians out in Oregon catching trout with crayfish.
+It said that the savages commence to fish far up at the head of the
+stream, lifting, as they walk down, the flat stones under which the
+little animals hide themselves. They look like small lobsters, only
+they are gray instead of green. Then they break them open and use the
+white meat for bait. The book said they catch more trout in an hour than
+a white man will in a week with all his flies, bugs, and fancy rigging."
+
+"Let's try 'em for luck," answered Joe. "I don't know whether there are
+any crayfish in the Oxhide, but we can go and find out; and if there
+are, I guess cat and perch will bite at 'em as well as trout."
+
+"All right," said Rob, the look of disappointment instantly vanishing
+from his face as he listened to his brother's suggestion. "But I tell
+you, Joe," continued he, "we've got to have poles. You go up to that
+bunch of willows yonder," pointing with the old can he held in his hand,
+to the bunch of willows growing as thick as rushes on a little island in
+the creek, about an eighth of a mile from where he stood; "and here,
+Joe, take my line and hooks, too. Fix yours and mine all ready for us,
+while I go and hunt for the crayfish. I know where they are; I saw a
+whole lot crawling in the water near the house the other day."
+
+The two brothers then separated,--Joe, jack-knife in hand, going toward
+the willows, and Rob to the creek with the tomato can.
+
+As soon as Rob arrived at the bank of the stream, he took off his boots
+and stockings, rolled his trousers above his knees, tied the can around
+his neck with a string, and waded in. The creek was not at all deep, and
+the water as clear as crystal. He could see shoals of perch dart ahead
+of him, and many bull-pouts rush under the shadow of the bank as he
+waded toward the island of willows. In the bed of the creek were
+hundreds of flat rocks; some that he could easily lift, others so large
+that he could not budge them.
+
+The first stone he turned over had three of the coveted crayfish hidden
+under its slimy bottom, and excited at his luck, he quickly caught them.
+So many were there as he lifted stone after stone, that he soon filled
+the tomato can, and by that time he had arrived at the willows. Joe was
+anxiously waiting for him with two handsome rods, at least ten feet
+long, the lines already attached and the hooks nicely fastened to their
+ends.
+
+"Golly! Rob, you must have had awful good luck," said Joe, as he looked
+at the can full of struggling crayfish.
+
+"Pshaw!" answered Rob. "Why, Joe, I could have got a bushel of 'em; the
+Oxhide was just swimming with 'em."
+
+"Let's go to that little lake that was so nice where we went swimming
+last autumn," suggested Joe. "I know there are lots of cats in there;
+big ones, too."
+
+"All right, Joe," said Rob, as he commenced to put on his stockings.
+When he had got his boots on, the two boys walked briskly toward the
+so-called lake, which was a mere widening of the creek, forming quite a
+large sheet of water, where they arrived in about seven minutes. It was
+a very delightful spot. The whole surface of the water was shaded by the
+gigantic limbs of great elms a hundred years old, growing on its margin,
+and all around the edge was a heavy mat of buffalo grass, soft as a
+carpet.
+
+It required only a dozen seconds or so for the boys to unwind their
+lines, bait the hooks, seat themselves on the cushioned sod, and cast
+the shining white meat in the water.
+
+There they anxiously waited for results, as the catfish is not game like
+the trout, but is slow and deliberate in all its movements. The trout
+rushes at anything that touches the surface of the water, but the
+catfish carefully investigates whatever comes within reach of its great
+jaws, before it opens its ugly mouth to take it in.
+
+In a few minutes, Rob felt a tremendous tugging at his line, and in
+another instant he skilfully landed a large channel cat on the grass at
+his feet.
+
+"Look, Joe, look! see what a big one I've caught," said Rob, as he
+dexterously extracted the hook from the creature's great mouth, and then
+held the fish at arm's length so that his brother could have a good look
+at it.
+
+Rob's catch weighed at least four pounds, and no wonder he was delighted
+at such success, as it showed considerable skill to land a fish of that
+size.
+
+Joe had not yet had a nibble, and a shade of disappointment began to
+creep over his face when suddenly, just as he was about to go over to
+examine his brother's catch more closely, he was nearly jerked off his
+feet by a tremendous pull at his own line. He recovered himself
+immediately, and by dint of a hard struggle, hauled in a cat that was
+almost as big again as that which Rob had caught.
+
+It was Joe's turn to yell now; he held up the big fish as high as he
+could,--its tail touched the ground even then,--and sung out:--
+
+"I say, Rob, just look at this, will you? Yours is only a minnow
+alongside of mine. When you go fishing, why don't you catch something
+like this?"
+
+Unfortunately, at the instant he was so wild with excitement, he stood
+on the very edge of the bank, and so absorbed was he in the
+contemplation of the great fish, that his foot slipped and both he and
+the cat were thrown into the water at the same moment. The cat made a
+terrible lunge forward when it found itself once more in its native
+element, and before you could say "Jack Robinson," was out of sight.
+
+If ever disgust was to be seen on a boy's face, that face was Joe
+Thompson's; he only glanced at the water, did not say a word; his
+feelings were too sad for utterance.
+
+Rob looked over at his brother and sarcastically said, as he held up his
+cat and stroked it:--
+
+"I say, Joe, who's got the biggest fish now?"
+
+In an instant he saw that he had touched Joe in a tender spot; he was a
+very sensitive boy, so Rob quickly added: "Well, never mind, Joe. You
+remember what mother often says to us, 'There is as good a fish in the
+sea as was ever caught,' and I'll bet there's just as big cats in here
+as the one you lost. Try again, Joe, but stand away from the edge of the
+water with the next one you haul out."
+
+Joe, thus encouraged and comforted, sat down again in his old place,
+threw his line to try once more, and in the excitement soon forgot his
+misfortune.
+
+In less than three hours the boys caught more than a dozen apiece, none
+so large, however, as that which escaped from Joe. It was now nearly six
+o'clock, the sun was low in the heavens, and as they had as many fish as
+they could conveniently carry, they decided to go home. Arriving there
+in a short time, they at once went to work at their chores. Their
+customary evening's task was to drive the cows into the corral, feed the
+horses and their own ponies, and bring water from the spring for their
+mother, so that it should be handy when she rose in the morning.
+
+While Joe and Rob were at their work, their father cleaned some of the
+fish, which their mother then cooked for supper, and they certainly
+tasted to the young anglers better than ever did fish before. While at
+the table they related every little incident that had befallen them on
+this their first angling expedition in the new country.
+
+After that very successful excursion the brothers sometimes spent whole
+mornings or portions of the afternoons at some place on the creek or
+river, when the work on the ranche was not pushing, and so expert did
+they become with hook and line, that the family was never at a loss for
+a supply of fish during the proper seasons.
+
+Joe was a close observer of nature, and he very quickly learned the
+habits of all the animals, birds, and fish that were common to the
+region where he lived. Being the eldest son, too, he was intrusted with
+a small but excellent rifle and a shot-gun which his father bought one
+morning in the village, on the fifteenth anniversary of his birthday. He
+would get up very early in the morning and with his pony and the hounds
+have many a lively chase after the little cottontail rabbit or the
+larger "jack," improperly so called, for it is really the hare. The
+rabbit burrows in the ground, while the jack-rabbit does not, but makes
+his nest on the top, in a bunch of grass, or in the holes in the rocky
+ledges of the bluffs that fringe nearly every stream on the great
+plains. Out on the open prairies the grouse congregated in large flocks
+at certain seasons, and in every covert in the woods the quail could be
+found. Joe had really handled a gun long before he left Vermont, but the
+superior chance for practice out on the ranche soon made him a
+magnificent shot; consequently the table at the ranche was never without
+game if the family desired it.
+
+Beside the smaller game I have mentioned, there were immense herds of
+buffalo and antelope, and in some places in the deep woods was the only
+long-tailed specimen of the genus felis on the continent,--the cougar,
+or panther. All the wildcats, so called, are lynxes, with short tails.
+With one of the first mentioned Joe once had a severe tussle, which
+nearly proved disastrous to him. It happened in this way.
+
+One afternoon in November shortly after the cabin was finished and the
+family had moved in, he was out on the range with his father's horse,
+the Spencer carbine, and about twenty rounds of ammunition. Even at that
+early stage of his life at Errolstrath he was always careful never to
+ride far away from home, without taking a gun with him; for he was
+always sure to see something in the shape of game worth killing for the
+table; and as its main support in that particular very soon depended on
+his prowess as a hunter, he was always on the lookout.
+
+Joe had ridden a long way from the cabin. He had really forgotten how
+far away he was and was becoming very thirsty, for the day had been
+warm, so he commenced to hunt for water.
+
+He was riding along the bank of the Smoky Hill in the thickest of the
+timber which grows on its banks, and by certain signs he had studied
+since he had lived on the ranche, knew that he was near some springs,
+though he had never been in that vicinity before.
+
+He got off his horse, slipped the loop of the bridle-rein over his left
+arm, slung the carbine across his right shoulder, and cautiously walked
+on. There was, of course, no trail or path at the base of the bluffs
+along which he was travelling, so he stopped at the mouth of every
+ravine he came to, hoping to find a pool of water, or to discover some
+hidden spring whose source was high up among the great rocks that
+towered above his head.
+
+Presently he arrived at a depression in the earth in the bottom of a
+gully, evidently made by the claws of some animal, for beside those
+marks were the imprint of foot-tracks. Joe intuitively guessed they were
+those of a panther, as he had been told by the old trapper, Tucker, that
+that animal knows by instinct when the water is near the surface, and
+scratches with his claws until he reaches it. Joe knew, too, that the
+panther was not a very large one; his footprints were too small; so he
+did not feel at all alarmed at their sight. On the contrary, boy-like,
+he was delighted at the idea of a possible tussle with one of the
+dreadful creatures, and he thought that if he could succeed in killing
+it he would add another feather to his cap by taking its hide home.
+
+Joe felt himself equal to a possible struggle. He knew that he was fully
+armed, and at once examined his carbine, took out the knife which he
+always carried in his belt for skinning, and finding everything in
+perfect order, he was really anxious to find the animal that had been
+digging for water only a little while before his arrival at the spot.
+
+A few rods further on, in the same ravine, he saw a little pool of
+water, evidently clear and cool, and after looking cautiously all around
+him, dipped the rim of his hat into the pool before him and indulged in
+a long drink of the delicious fluid. Then after having satisfied his
+thirst, he stood still for a few moments undecided as to what course he
+should pursue.
+
+[Illustration: "With one vigorous thrust of his knife he struck the
+animal's heart."]
+
+He concluded that if he was to remain and fight the panther if the
+animal made his appearance, it would be best to tie his horse to a
+sapling a short distance from the pool. After doing this he placed a
+fresh cartridge in his carbine and walked slowly on, following the
+beast's tracks, which had grown plainly visible a few paces from the
+edge of the water, and which soon led him into a rocky cañon.
+
+Joe came in sight of the panther much sooner than he expected. As he was
+turning the sharp projecting corner of a mass of rocks which formed the
+walls of a ravine, there was the panther sitting on a shelf of
+sandstone, not forty feet away from him. He was busy licking his paws
+cat-fashion, his ears cocked as if listening, and his small green eyes
+turned toward the intruder, but evidently not much concerned at the
+sight of his greatest enemy, man.
+
+Joe was rather taken aback at first, but as the brute was only a little
+over half-grown, and appeared so indifferent to his presence, he
+uncocked his carbine, which he had a moment before hastily cocked, and
+both boy and panther stood quietly gazing at each other for ten seconds
+before either made any demonstration.
+
+Presently the panther rose and turned sideways toward Joe, and edging up
+toward the top of the ledge, gave vent to a low growl, and showed a
+beautiful set of long, sharp teeth, evidently intending to let Joe know
+that he wasn't afraid of him. This movement on the part of the panther
+somewhat excited Joe, and cocking his carbine again, he deliberately
+took aim at the place where the heart of the beast should be, as the
+animal had now turned its left side toward the young hunter. Quick as a
+flash Joe pulled the trigger, but the ball glancing upward, only grazed
+the end of the beast's shoulder-blade and shattered it, the panther at
+the same instant tumbling over on its side. This made Joe yell with
+delight, for he thought he had killed it at the first shot.
+
+The panther lay on the ground only for about ten seconds when the aspect
+of affairs for Joe was suddenly changed. The brute staggered to its
+feet, and, maddened with rage and pain, made for the boy. Although the
+beast was evidently very lame from the effect of the shot, Joe saw to
+his amazement that he was far from dead, and for a moment his usual
+presence of mind forsook him, and he made a bolt for his horse, feeling
+that the dreadful animal was close to him.
+
+In his fright he dropped his carbine, but in another moment was on his
+horse, who, on being so unceremoniously mounted, and seeing the
+panther, gave a wild snort and a desperate kick which sent Joe heels
+over head to the ground, and then dashed down the trail for home!
+
+Joe was now all alone, on foot, and with nothing but his knife to defend
+himself from the attack of the panther, who was almost upon him as he
+got up from the ground after having been so hurriedly tossed from his
+saddle. Although the panther was lame and bleeding profusely, he waddled
+along as best he could toward Joe, his mouth wide open and his great
+jaws covered with froth in his rage. Joe was somewhat bruised by his
+fall, and seeing very quickly that he could not escape a tussle with the
+beast, made up his mind that he would fight him to the best of his
+ability. There was no other chance, for the panther was now upon him,
+trying to get at him so that he could claw and bite at his leisure. But
+Joe, who had now gained his normal coolness, turned deliberately, and
+facing the savage brute, whose hot breath he could feel, with one
+vigorous thrust of his knife he struck the animal's heart and
+fortunately killed him instantly.
+
+In the close struggle the panther was so near Joe, that in his death
+throes, having fallen right on top of the boy, his sharp claws tore the
+sleeve of his coat off and scratched a goodly piece of flesh from his
+arms, as with one convulsive shudder the ferocious animal had rolled
+over dead.
+
+There was never a more delighted boy than Joe, despite his really
+painful wounds, and rising with some difficulty to his feet, he went
+back for his carbine, and returned with it to the dead panther. He
+picked up his knife which had fallen on the ground when the fatal thrust
+was given, deftly skinned him, suspended the beautiful hide to a limb of
+a cottonwood tree to keep the wolves from it, and then turned away and
+followed his trail towards the ranche. Of course, in a little while he
+began to grow stiff in his arms from the severity of his wounds, and not
+knowing exactly how far he was from the cabin, he was disturbed, not so
+much for himself as at the thought that when the riderless horse arrived
+there it would alarm his parents.
+
+Joe was correct in his conjectures. As the horse dashed up to the stable
+without his rider, both his father and mother were terribly frightened.
+They plucked up courage, however, and immediately saddling another
+horse, led back on his own trail the one Joe had ridden, and soon came
+up to where Joe was resting at the side of a large spring, and suffering
+considerably with the pain caused by his wounds.
+
+They all arrived at the cabin by sundown, with the skin of the panther,
+Joe's father having gone back to the tree where the boy had hung it.
+That was a red-letter day in Joe's young life. He had to tell again and
+again how he happened to come on the panther and his awful fight with
+the enraged creature.
+
+Joe soon recovered under the devoted nursing of his mother; his arm
+healed nicely, but a good-sized scar was left where the panther had dug
+its sharp claws into the flesh. The hide was smoke-tanned, and for many
+years afterward adorned the floor at the foot of his mother's bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+  BOY AND GIRL LIFE AT ERROLSTRATH RANCHE--THEIR PETS--THE
+    GIRLS ENCOUNTER A BIG PRAIRIE WOLF--JOE TO THE
+    RESCUE--DEATH OF THE FEROCIOUS BEAST
+
+
+AS the months rolled on, the family, particularly the children, grew
+more and more delighted with their new home in the wilderness. The boys
+and girls had an abundance of leisure; for though their father exacted
+the most prompt obedience, he was not a hard task-master. He allowed his
+children every indulgence compatible with reason, and only certain
+portions of the day were devoted to work. They all studied under their
+father's personal supervision, for no schools had yet been established
+in the settlement.
+
+For the boys, there were the cows to be driven to and from their
+pasture, morning and night, and it was their duty to milk them, too.
+Then the horses were to be fed, and in season they worked in the large
+garden, on which their father prided himself. The girls helped their
+mother in every household duty, and relieved her of many cares as she
+grew older. So the children of Errolstrath Ranche had a good time--a
+much better time than generally falls to the lot of those families in
+only moderate circumstances, as were the Thompsons.
+
+Before they had resided on the ranche a year, the boys and girls had
+become possessed of a variety of pets. Gertrude had a coon; Kate, an
+antelope; Rob, a prairie dog; and Joe, an elk.
+
+The antelope was caught when young by Joe, and the hounds, Bluey and
+Brutus, under the following circumstances: Although one of the most
+timid and swift of all the ruminants on the great plains, it is also one
+of the most inquisitive. Whenever it sees something with which it is not
+familiar, its curiosity overpowers its usual fear, and it will approach
+very near to the object that has excited its attention. Now Joe had
+learned from old Tucker, the trapper, just how the Indians act, when out
+hunting the antelope, to draw the herd within range of their arrows. He
+said that sometimes one or two of the savages would stand on their heads
+and shake their legs in the air; then again, they would hold up a
+blanket, no matter what color, and wave it slowly, when the herd, or at
+least a number from it, would gradually walk toward the Indians who were
+lying flat on the ground, and thus become easy victims to their swift,
+unerring arrows.
+
+It was this knowledge of the antelope's prominent characteristic that
+enabled Joe to secure one for his favorite sister. He was out very early
+one morning when he noticed a large herd with many kids among it, about
+half a mile distant. He was well aware that his dogs, swift as they
+were, would be no match for the beautiful creatures in a trial of speed,
+so he resolved to resort to the Indian method. Ordering his hounds to
+lie close, he tied his white handkerchief round his head, and taking off
+his overalls, he began to move his body slowly backward and forward, at
+the same time vigorously waving the overalls in the air. In a few
+moments, just as he expected they would, he had the satisfaction of
+seeing first one, then another, look up and gaze steadily at the
+strange object. Presently, about half a dozen of the does with their
+little ones by their sides, commenced to move cautiously towards him.
+When they had approached sufficiently near, he started the hounds after
+them, and after a short, lively chase they caught a fine kid, which, of
+course, could not keep up with its mother. They captured it without
+injury, for they had been trained not to mouth their game. As there were
+a dozen cows on the ranch, there was an abundance of milk, with which
+Kate used to feed her little pet from a bottle. The pretty creature
+throve rapidly, and soon became as affectionate as a kitten, following
+its mistress everywhere like a dog.
+
+The big gray wolf, that ghoul of the great plains, understands full well
+the inordinate curiosity of the antelope, and knowing that it is
+impossible for him to catch one of the fleet animals by the employment
+of his legs alone, he effects by cunning what he could never accomplish
+by the best efforts of his endurance. The wicked old fellow, when he
+discovers a bunch of antelopes in the distance, rolls himself into a
+ball, like a badger, and tumbles about on the grass until some of the
+deluded animals come near enough for him to spring on them.
+
+Gertrude's coon was caught by both the boys, assisted by Bluey and
+Brutus. They dug him out of his nest under the roots of a huge elm tree
+near the cabin, one day in the early springtime, when the warm sun had
+just begun to thaw him after his winter's hibernation. He was "'cute"
+and mischievous as he could be, stealing anything on which he could get
+his tiny paws. Whenever Gertrude called him,--his name was Tom,--he
+would run to her as fast as he could, jump on her back, and sit on her
+shoulders for an hour at a time, when she was sewing or doing something
+which did not require her to move about. He lived on any scraps from the
+table, always rolling his food in his paws before he ate it.
+
+The prairie dog, the property of Rob, was accidentally captured by
+Gertrude one morning when she and Kate were out gathering wild flowers.
+She actually stumbled on him as she stooped to pick a sensitive rose.
+The little creature had somehow become entangled in the convolutions of
+the vine, and thus became an easy prey. It fought like a tiger at
+first, and tried to bite with its sharp teeth everything that came near
+it. It was soon tamed, however, and became a regular nuisance at times,
+for it would run under your feet in spite of the many pinches it got by
+being stepped upon. It tripped up the boys and girls a dozen times a
+day, as it was allowed the freedom of the house and the dooryard.
+Gertrude gave it to Rob, who had often expressed a desire to own one,
+and had failed a hundred times, perhaps, to capture one by drowning it
+out of its hole.
+
+The elk was given to Joe by old Tucker, and in a short time grew to be
+as big as a young mule. Joe broke him to harness, and used to drive him
+hitched to a little cart which his father, with the boy's help,
+improvised out of an odd pair of wheels and a dry-goods box. He was kept
+in the corral with the cows and horses, and became very tame, but
+sometimes attempted to use his sharp front hoofs too freely. He was
+forbidden the precincts of the dooryard and the house, for he came near
+cutting Kate in two once, all in play, but too rough a kind of affection
+for a repetition of it to be allowed.
+
+The wild raspberries grew in great profusion near every ledge of rock in
+the vicinity of the ranche. About a mile and a half from the house,
+however, there was a specially favored spot for them, where the vines
+were more dense and the berries of large size and delicious flavor. In
+the second week of June, the second year of their residence on the
+creek, Rob, who had been up the valley herding the cows, reported that
+evening, upon his return, that the berries were ripe and that there were
+bushels of them.
+
+The next morning, immediately after breakfast, Gertrude and Kate left
+the house with a tin bucket each, intending to go up to the ledge and
+gather raspberries. They were dressed lightly,--Kate in a white muslin
+skirt, and her sister in a lawn. As the nearest way to the place where
+the berries were to be found lay by a trail on the other side of the
+Oxhide the girls crossed it near the cabin, and as there was neither log
+bridge nor stepping-stones, they took off their shoes and stockings and
+waded it. After reaching the other side and putting on their shoes and
+stockings, they wandered slowly through a little flower-bedecked
+prairie, beyond the margin of timber which fringed the creek, to make a
+short cut to where the raspberries grew, for the Oxhide made a sweeping
+curve to the northeast, nearly in the shape of half a circle.
+
+Both loving flowers, they gathered great bunches of the sensitive roses,
+anemones, and white daisies, growing everywhere in such profusion. This
+occupation consumed a great deal of time, for they naturally loitered,
+charmed by so much floral beauty around them. It was fortunate they did,
+as the sequel will show, and they did not arrive at the ledge of rocks
+until nearly ten o'clock--more than two hours after they had left home.
+It was intensely hot, and after gathering their buckets full of the
+delicious fruit, they sat down on a shelf of the ledge which projected
+over the creek. They dabbled their bare feet in the stream as it flowed
+in murmuring rhythm over the rounded white pebbles, while they ate their
+lunch of cake brought from the ranche, and the red berries so sweet in
+the wildness of their flavor.
+
+Having satisfied their hunger, Kate said to her sister: "Gert, we ought
+to fill up our buckets again. If we go home empty-handed, mother will
+think we have been making pigs of ourselves."
+
+"There's time enough for that yet," replied Gertrude. "This cool water
+feels so delightful to my feet that I believe I could sit here and
+dabble in it until dark. Don't you think it's delicious, Kate?"
+
+"Yes," answered Kate, "but I want to get home before dinner, because Joe
+said that he would go with me down to the village this evening. I am
+going to ride his pony, and he will ride Rob's."
+
+"Well," said Gertrude, "if we must, we must. Mother loves raspberries
+so; they are her favorite fruit, you know; and if we did not take her a
+bucketful back with us, I should never forgive myself, though perhaps
+she would not say a word."
+
+"Let us commence right now," imploringly said Kate. "I want to get back
+as soon as I can."
+
+Both girls rose languidly to do as they proposed, but there did not seem
+to be much energy in their motions. Just as Gertrude had taken her pail
+from its place in the rocks, their ears were greeted by a low growl,
+which seemed to come directly from underneath the shelf on which they
+had been sitting. They looked at each other, and their faces blanched as
+another snarl and a howl, nearer than before, came to their ears, and
+both recognized the familiar sound they had so often heard when lying in
+bed at night, as that of a wolf. Those predatory brutes frequently made
+their nightly rounds in the vicinity of the corral, trying to get at the
+young calves, and they might be heard in the timber, watching for a
+chance to secure some of the fowls shut up in their house of stone near
+the barn.
+
+Gertrude, who was really very brave under ordinary circumstances,
+immediately stood still, and looking all around her, she suddenly met
+the gaze of a large, gaunt she-wolf at whose side were standing six
+little ones! Generally the wolf, like nearly all other wild animals,
+will run instantly at the sight of a human being; but the maternal
+instinct is so wonderful that, when they have young, they will die in
+defending their offspring from any supposed danger. This instinct was
+shown in this instance. The fierce animal had crept out of her den at
+the sound of voices, and believing that her cubs were in jeopardy, she
+made a frantic dash toward the now thoroughly frightened girls, who
+hastily scrambled to the summit of the ledge.
+
+Fortunately for them, the wolf is a poor climber, but with a savage
+bound toward the base of the flat rock on which the girls had a moment
+before been sitting, she arrived at it the same instant they had
+succeeded in reaching an elevation of about twelve feet above the level
+of the water.
+
+Just as Kate, who was not as collected as her sister, was being dragged
+up by Gertrude, the wolf made a desperate leap and snapped at her with
+his terrible teeth, but failed. It succeeded, however, in catching her
+skirt in its ponderous jaws, and tore it completely from her waist, and
+she, almost feeling the hot breath of the infuriated brute, uttered a
+loud scream and fell fainting in her sister's arms.
+
+Less than three hundred yards above the ledge of rocks, in a beautiful
+piece of prairie, Joe was herding the cattle, and Kate's cry, so full of
+fear, fell piercingly on his ears. He was aware that his sisters were to
+go berrying that morning, and he also knew that the sound could only
+come from one of them. He was lying on the grass under the shade of a
+big elm with the bridle-rein of his pony in his hand. Grasping his
+rifle, which was at his side, in an instant he had mounted his animal,
+and digging his heels into its flanks, fairly flew down the creek to
+where his sisters were held at bay by the wolf. He arrived there in less
+than three minutes after he heard the scream of alarm, and saw the wolf
+still persisting in its vain efforts to reach the girls on the summit of
+the ledge. Gertrude was almost paralyzed with fear, and Kate lay at her
+feet in the swoon into which the action of the wolf had thrown her.
+
+The enraged beast was too much occupied with the girls to notice that
+its would-be victims had assistance so near at hand, and Joe, as
+Gertrude saw her brother's approach, put his finger to his lips,
+indicating that she must remain perfectly silent. He dismounted in a
+second, and putting the loop of the reins over his left arm, dropped on
+one knee, and taking careful aim, sent a ball crashing right through the
+brain of the wolf, which instantly fell dead in its tracks.
+
+Joe then rushed down to the creek and filled his hat with water. He then
+climbed hurriedly up to the rocky steep again and threw the water into
+Kate's face as she still lay prone on the ledge at her sister's feet.
+Kate soon revived, and after staring around her for a few seconds in a
+dazed way, she smiled and said:--
+
+"Oh, Joe, you have saved us!" and rising to her feet, forgetful of her
+wet face, she kissed him half a dozen times.
+
+While his sisters were adjusting their dresses and recovering from their
+terrible fright, Joe killed the young wolves with the butt of his rifle,
+and then taking his knife from his belt commenced to skin the old one.
+It did not require much time to perform the operation, for he had long
+since become an adept at such work. He then threw the beautiful hide
+over the withers of his pony, and walked home with his sisters.
+
+Arriving at the cabin, the girls had much to tell about their wonderful
+experience and lucky escape from the jaws of the wolf, which would
+certainly have torn them to pieces if it had not been for Joe's timely
+arrival.
+
+The hide, which was an immense one, was first tacked to the side of the
+stable, and when dried, Joe smoke-tanned it until it was as soft as a
+piece of silk. He gave it to Kate as a memento of her awful experience
+with its former owner. She used it as a rug at the side of her bed, and
+often said that for a long time whenever she stepped on it, the scene in
+which it played such an important part was brought vividly to her mind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+  THE FRIENDLY PAWNEES CAMP ON THE OXHIDE--OLD "YELLOW
+    CALF," THE CHIEF--JOE IS NAMED "THE WHITE PANTHER"--JOE
+    GOES HUNTING WITH THE BAND--HE LEARNS THE
+    LANGUAGE--HUNTING WITH THE BOYS OF THE TRIBE
+
+
+THE Pawnees and Kaws, tribes of Indians long at peace with the whites,
+and whose reservations were in the eastern part of the state, frequently
+made incursions into the buffalo region two hundred miles from their
+home in the valley of the Neosho, on their annual hunt for their
+winter's supply of meat. The valley of the Oxhide was one of their
+favorite camping-grounds, and from thence they radiated in bands to the
+plains, where the vast herds of the great shaggy animals grazed in the
+autumn months, on their curious elliptical march from the Yellowstone to
+the southern border of Texas.
+
+Every autumn these Indians camped in the timber only about a mile from
+Errolstrath ranche, and it was very natural that the boys, especially
+Joe, should often visit their temporary village, as it was decidedly a
+new sensation for them. The tepees, or lodges, built in a conical shape
+out of long poles covered with well-tanned buffalo hides, were a
+never-ending curiosity to Joe. The chief of the band, Yellow Calf, an
+old man nearly eighty years of age, took a great fancy to Joe from the
+moment he first saw him. As soon as he became acquainted with his
+character he called him "White Panther," after the strange nomenclature
+of the North American savage. The Indians noticed immediately that Joe
+was different from the majority of white children they had met, and his
+quickness of motion was the reason they named him as they did. His
+readiness in acquiring their language, which he almost mastered in a few
+months, astonished them. Then Joe was always kind and gentle to the
+band, often bringing food from his mother's table when she could give it
+to him, especially bread or biscuit, of which old Yellow Calf was
+inordinately fond. At the suggestion of the chief, the closest warriors
+of his council took great delight in showing their new boy friend the
+use of the bow and arrow. They taught him how to prepare the skins of
+animals he shot; how to make the robe of the buffalo as soft as a
+doeskin, and they taught him how to trap beaver, otter, and muskrat, in
+which valuable fur-bearing animals all the streams abounded. Yellow Calf
+would sit for hours talking with Joe, learning from him all about the
+strange inventions of the white man, and their uses. He in turn taught
+the boy the mysteries of the beautiful sign language, so wonderful in
+its symbolism; and the manner of trailing, so that in a few months he
+was as well versed in the methods of following an enemy on the warpath
+as the savages themselves.
+
+The Indians frequently took Joe with them far up the Arkansas valley on
+their grand hunts after the buffalo. His parents readily gave their
+consent to his going with his red friends, though he was sometimes
+absent from home for more than a week. For three seasons the same band
+of Pawnees had their village on the creek, remaining there during the
+months of September and October of each year. All that time Joe
+continued his intimacy with them, and became more perfect in his
+knowledge of their savage methods. He could follow the blindest trail
+by day or night, and the signs of the various hostile tribes were as
+familiar to him as the alphabet.
+
+He had been carefully trained to all this knowledge by the Pawnees, who
+were the hereditary enemies of the Cheyennes who still claimed
+sovereignty over the great plains. Once, in fact, when he had been out
+for a fortnight with his Indian friends on a buffalo hunt, the party was
+suddenly met by a band of Cheyennes, and, of course, a battle ensued to
+which Joe was a witness. After the fight that night, when the band
+camped on the Walnut, he saw the dances of the victorious Pawnees and
+learned a great deal about savage warfare.
+
+Shortly after the advent of the Pawnees on the Oxhide, and when Joe had
+established his friendly relations with them, although he could shoot
+fairly well previously, he now began to take a special delight in
+hunting. Every moment he could get to himself, he was off in the timber
+or out on the prairie with his rifle or shot-gun. He never carried
+these, however, unless he hunted alone, as on many occasions he was
+accompanied by one or two of the Pawnee boys about his own age whom the
+band had brought with them; young bucks, not yet old enough to have
+reached the dignity of warriors. They had to do the work generally
+assigned to the women, for no squaws were with the band. It is beneath a
+warrior to do anything but hunt, eat, smoke, and go to war; for idleness
+is the predominant characteristic of the men of every savage race, and
+the Pawnees were no exception.
+
+While they were encamped on the Oxhide the warriors scarcely ever left
+the delightful place except, of course, when summoned by their chief to
+the hunt. They sat all day in the shadow of their lodges, puffing lazily
+at their pipes and relating over and over again the stories of their
+feats in personal encounters with their enemies, the Cheyennes.
+
+The North American Indians are very assiduous in teaching their boys all
+that becomes a great warrior,--how to ride the wildest horses, and how
+to hunt and trap every variety of animal used in the domestic economy of
+their families. The very moment a son is large enough to handle them,
+bows and arrows are constantly in his hands.
+
+As the Indians had only a few poor rifles, whenever Joe went out with
+his dusky young companions on a hunt, he, too, took nothing but his bow
+and arrows which the Pawnees had given him, for he did not want his boy
+friends to feel his superiority when armed with the white man's weapons.
+The number of squirrels, rabbits, and game birds he killed in a single
+day would have astonished a city-bred boy.
+
+The Pawnee warriors, flattered by Joe's preference for their society to
+that of his white neighbors, made him the very finest bows and arrows of
+which their skill was capable. They looked forward to the day when he
+should develop into a great warrior, and hoped, too, that the time would
+come when, becoming tired of civilization, he would let them adopt him
+into the tribe. One morning, to the surprise of Joe, the old chief
+despatched a runner back to the reservation with orders to his squaws to
+make a complete suit of buckskin for his young white friend. In about
+two weeks when the messenger returned to the camp with the savage dress,
+Joe, of course, was delighted with his quaint and really beautiful
+costume. It was made out of the finest doeskin, elegantly embroidered
+with beads; the seams of the coat-sleeves and trousers were fringed in
+the most approved savage fashion, while the moccasins were exquisitely
+wrought with the quills of the porcupine, gayly colored. There were also
+given the boy all the adjuncts of a warrior,--a tomahawk, medicine-bag,
+tobacco-pouch, powder-horn, bullet-sack, flint and steel, and, last of
+all, a magnificent calumet manufactured of the red stone from the sacred
+quarry in far-off Minnesota.
+
+Joe had never mentioned to any of the family, not even to Rob, what was
+in store for him from the Pawnees. To make the surprise greater to the
+household, when he was ready to put on the new suit, he got one of the
+warriors to decorate his face in royal savage style, and thus
+metamorphosed, he walked into the cabin one noon, just as the family
+were about to sit down to dinner. None of them recognized him, and when
+he began to talk in the Pawnee language, not a word of which any of them
+could understand, his father motioned him to take a seat at the table
+and eat, as he had often done to the real Pawnees on their many visits
+to the ranche.
+
+At last Joe could contain himself no longer, and he cried out in his
+exultation over the farce he had enacted: "Father, mother, Rob, and you
+girls, don't you know me?"
+
+"No!" they all answered simultaneously, but immediately recognizing his
+voice, now that he spoke English, his mother said that she had never
+suspected for a moment that the horrid-looking, paint-bedaubed creature
+before her could be her own child.
+
+Then all had a good laugh over the manner in which Joe had deceived
+them, but his father insisted that he must go and wash the paint from
+his face before he thought of sitting down to eat with Christian people;
+he could allow it in the case of a real savage, because they did not
+know any better.
+
+Joe was very hungry, for he had been out hunting grouse on the hills all
+the morning, and was tired, too, so he hastily obeyed his father's
+injunction. He ran to the spring, and by vigorously rubbing at the
+various colors, he at last succeeded in getting his face clean. In a few
+moments he returned to the dining-room looking like himself again, but
+very stately, by reason of his brand-new suit; and the family could not
+help staring at and admiring him. Then, when he had taken his place at
+the table, he was obliged to tell how he had happened to acquire such a
+fantastic dress, and explain the use of each curious article belonging
+to it.
+
+Gertrude and Kate both hoped that he would not wear the handsome clothes
+every day, and his mother suggested that he must never go to the village
+in such a savage dress. His father said nothing, but evidently regarded
+his boy with pride.
+
+In reply to the various comments, Joe told the family that he intended
+to wear the Indian costume only on extraordinary occasions. If ever the
+Cheyennes, Kiowas, Comanches, or Arapahoes broke out, he would certainly
+wear it, for when those savages saw him, they would think he was a great
+warrior, and be careful how they bothered him. The family little
+thought, as he uttered his playful remarks, how soon that uniform would
+be worn on a mission fraught with danger to themselves and the whole
+settlement.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+  THE STORY OF THE MASSACRE ON SPILLMAN CREEK--SCOUTS GO TO
+    THE RESCUE--JOE AND ROB TALK OVER THE HORRID WORK OF THE
+    SAVAGES--THE DOG SOLDIERS--CHARLEY BENT--PLACE OF
+    RENDEZVOUS--PARTY STARTS OUT--JOE'S OPINION IS ASKED
+
+
+THE family had lived on their comfortable ranche on the Oxhide for
+nearly three years. During the whole of this period the valley had been
+most happily exempt from any raid by the hostile Indians farther west,
+who for all that time had made incursions into the sparse settlements
+not a hundred miles away, devastating the country from Nebraska on the
+north to the border of Texas on the south.
+
+General Sheridan had been ordered by the Government to the command of
+the Military Department of the Missouri, with headquarters at Fort
+Leavenworth. The already famous General Custer with his celebrated
+regiment, the Seventh United States Cavalry, was stationed at Fort
+Harker, recently established on the Smoky Hill, about four miles from
+Errolstrath ranche, so the settlers on the Oxhide, and through the
+valley, felt comparatively safe from any possible raid by the savages
+into that region.
+
+One beautiful Sunday afternoon in the middle of the May following the
+autumn in which Joe had received his present of a full Indian dress from
+the friendly Pawnees, the family were sitting on the veranda of the
+cabin. Dinner was long since over, and Mr. Thompson was reading aloud
+from their weekly religious journal, when a horseman suddenly appeared,
+coming toward the ranche on the trail which led from the mouth of the
+Oxhide where it empties into the Smoky Hill. He was hatless and
+coatless, his long hair was streaming in the wind, and his heels were
+rapping his horse's flanks vigorously, and its breast and shoulders were
+covered with foam from the desperate gait at which it was urged.
+
+The reading was instantly suspended, and every eye strained toward the
+unusual object coming toward the house at such a breakneck speed.
+
+"I wonder who that is, and why he rides so fast," inquired Mr. Thompson,
+addressing himself to no one in the group in particular.
+
+"Something unusual must have occurred," suggested Mrs. Thompson; "some
+one of the neighbors taken ill suddenly, maybe."
+
+"It's no one we know," spoke up Joe. "I never saw that man before," the
+individual under discussion having come near enough now for his features
+to be distinguished, "nor the horse he's on, and I know every man and
+horse in the whole settlement. There's some trouble not far away, I
+think, or he would not run his animal that way."
+
+In less than three minutes more, the stranger horseman rode up to the
+front of the house and jumped off his horse. Hurriedly tying him to the
+hitching-post, he ran up the steps of the veranda, and in the most
+excited manner, his eyes wearing a wild look and his breath coming with
+great difficulty, told Mr. Thompson, who had walked forward to meet him,
+that the Indians had completely destroyed the little settlement of
+Spillman Creek that morning about daylight. He alone, as far as he
+knew, had escaped the massacre. He said that luckily he happened to be
+down in the timber, getting some wood for his morning fire, and the
+savages did not see him. He had his pony with him, and when he saw the
+Indians all dressed in their war-bonnets and hideously painted, he rode
+to the river and across country as fast as his animal could carry him.
+
+"How many families are there in the settlement?" inquired Mr. Thompson.
+
+"About ten," answered the stranger; "forty individuals, perhaps, and all
+of them, I feel satisfied, have been murdered and their cabins burnt,
+because I saw the smoke and flames from the trail on the south side of
+the Saline as I rode hurriedly on."
+
+"Had you no family?" asked Mrs. Thompson, excitedly, in her sympathy for
+the unfortunate people who had been so cruelly massacred.
+
+"No, ma'am," answered the stranger. "I was living all alone on my claim,
+which I had taken up only a week ago, on the edge of the timber. My
+family are still back in Illinois, thank God! or they, too, with myself,
+would have been butchered with the rest, for I would never have left
+them."
+
+"Do you think the savages will continue on their raid, and come further
+down the Saline valley?" inquired Mr. Thompson, who now for the first
+time since he had been on his ranche, felt a little alarmed for his
+family.
+
+"I don't know," was the reply, "but I'm afraid they will. The Elkhorn is
+fairly settled, but the cabins are widely scattered; the Indians know
+that, and before the neighbors could rally for mutual defence, the
+savages might be able to murder them in detail. I have come down here to
+warn the settlers on this creek, and if I can, to get a party to go to
+the rescue of those on the Elkhorn. I stopped at Fort Harker on my way
+and reported to the commanding officer the state of affairs, but he said
+that he had only part of a company of infantry at the post, all the
+cavalry being out under General Custer, looking after the Indians 'way
+up the Smoky Hill. He suggested that I should come here to inform you
+people of the danger, and that, if I could muster up a crowd of men, he
+would furnish all the arms and ammunition necessary for them. He also
+said that General Sheridan was coming to Fort Harker in a few days to
+establish his headquarters there, and that a general Indian war was
+imminent."
+
+"Have you any idea how many of the savages there were in the band that
+raided Spillman Creek settlement?" inquired Mr. Thompson.
+
+"I think there must have been about fifty. I counted their pony tracks
+in the soft mud at the ford of the Saline where they crossed it; they
+were very plain, and I was enabled to come close to their probable
+number. If you could muster twenty or thirty men, well armed, who are
+brave, and good shots with the rifle, I believe that if they start for
+the Elkhorn to-day, they could circumvent the savages before they reach
+the creek, or at least drive them out of the neighborhood. I am ready to
+go back with them and act as guide, for I know every foot of the
+country, having spent a whole year out there before I settled upon a
+location. Who are the best men in this settlement, and where shall I go
+to warn them?"
+
+"Well," replied Mr. Thompson, "I am willing to go for one. I guess there
+will be no difficulty in gathering as large a force as is
+necessary--good shots, too; for no one will hesitate a moment when it
+comes to defending his family from an Indian raid. It will take a couple
+of hours to ride around the neighborhood to the several ranches to
+notify the men. My boys, here, can go to the nearest, while you and I
+ride to the most remote and get as large a crowd as possible. Boys,"
+continued he, turning to his sons, who stood with eyes wide open and
+mouth agape as they listened with astonishment to the terrible story of
+the stranger, "get your ponies at once; saddle them as quickly as ever
+you did in your lives, and ride to the nearest ranches on the creek; up
+one side and down the other. Tell all the folks the dreadful news, and
+tell them to have the men meet here at Errolstrath as quickly as they
+can, and to bring their rifles with them. All are well armed," said he,
+turning to the stranger, "and they will respond in a hurry."
+
+"Now," said Mr. Thompson, as the boys jumped off of the veranda to carry
+out their father's order, "I will go with you to old Tucker's ranche. He
+is a man of most excellent judgment, and a trapper; has fought Indians
+all his eventful life on the plains and in the mountains, so we can
+safely rely on his advice in regard to what is best to be done." Looking
+at his wife he said, "Won't you get this man a bite to eat while I'm
+catching another animal for him? Yours is tired out," continued he,
+addressing the stranger again; "you must have a fresh horse. I've got
+lots of them."
+
+While Mr. Thompson went to the stable, and the stranger to the spring to
+wash the dust off himself, Mrs. Thompson, assisted by Gertrude and Kate,
+made ready a cold lunch for the half-famished man, who told them, when
+he returned to the dining-room, that he had not eaten a morsel since the
+evening before.
+
+By the time he had finished his meal, Mr. Thompson returned to the front
+of the house with two animals, and taking the stranger's horse to the
+stable, after the saddle had been put on the fresh one, he returned to
+the house. He gave his wife some advice about the boys and their
+mission, then he and the stranger mounted their animals and loped off at
+a good gait for the ranche of old Mr. Tucker, three miles away.
+
+The boys had started some while before their father, as it only required
+a few minutes to catch and saddle their ponies that were picketed in
+front of the house, on a patch of buffalo grass not twenty yards away.
+In less than half an hour they were at the nearest ranche, and had
+delivered their message. They then rode on and made the rounds of the
+circuit assigned them, relating the bad news as they travelled from
+cabin to cabin as quickly as their hardy little Indian ponies could
+carry them.
+
+While on their mission the boys talked over the story of the massacre,
+Joe explaining many things in connection with the savage method of
+making a raid on a white settlement. Those were things which Rob did not
+fully understand, but with which Joe was familiar, having been told all
+about them by the friendly Pawnees. He told Rob that he was crazy to go
+on the little expedition, but did not dare ask permission.
+
+"Father might be willing, maybe," suggested Rob, "though I'm sure that
+mother and the girls would object."
+
+"I'll bet that I can find the trail of the Cheyennes, for I know better
+than any one who is going along, that they were Cheyennes who made the
+attack," said Joe. "That man who came down with the news don't know much
+about Indians; I could tell that by the way he talked; he's a
+'tender-foot.' He admitted to papa he'd only been in the country a very
+short time."
+
+"By jolly! I'll bet he was scared when he saw those Indians," said Rob;
+"he wasn't used to such sights!"
+
+"How he must have ridden his horse," said Joe. "I never saw an animal so
+frothy in my life before; did you, Rob? You could have scraped a
+wash-tub of lather off him!"
+
+"If the Cheyennes have left any kind of a trail after them, I can tell
+just how many there were of them," continued Joe, "but they are ahead of
+all other Indians in covering up their tracks; old Yellow Calf has told
+me so a dozen times. I expect that it was Charley Bent's band of Dog
+soldiers that made the raid."
+
+"What are Dog soldiers?" inquired Rob.
+
+"Why, the young bucks of a tribe who will not obey the orders of their
+chief; renegades who will not be controlled by any custom. Those Indians
+who have not done anything yet to make them warriors, and who go off on
+their own hook to murder and steal, and to fire the cabins of the poor
+settlers, thinking that if they can get a few scalps of women and
+children they will be recognized by the rest of the tribe as braves.
+Sometimes there are 'Squaw-men' among them, that is, white men who have
+married Indian women; generally bad men who have committed some crime
+where they used to live and dare not go back to where they came from."
+
+"Who is Charley Bent?" asked Rob. "That is not an Indian name, surely!"
+
+"I know it isn't," answered Joe. "He's a half breed; half white and half
+Cheyenne. His mother was a Cheyenne squaw, and his father was Colonel
+Bent, one of the most celebrated frontiersmen of his time. Charley was
+well educated in St. Louis, but when he returned to his father's home,
+at Bent's Fort, way up the Arkansas River, in what is now Colorado, he
+threw off the white man's dress and manner of living, joined the
+Indians, and became, in his devilishness, the worst savage to be found
+in the whole Indian country. The United States Government has offered a
+thousand dollars for him, dead or alive. Somebody will catch him yet;
+the army scouts are after him red hot, so the Pawnees told me."
+
+"I wish the Pawnees, lots of 'em, were back on the creek, Joe," said
+Rob, continuing the lively conversation they had been keeping up ever
+since they started from the ranche; "wouldn't they like such a chance to
+go after their old enemies?"
+
+"I expect they will be here sooner than usual, this coming autumn; one
+of the boys told me so when the band left; but it will be four months
+yet before we may look for them."
+
+"Are you going to ask to go with the party to the Elkhorn, Joe?" asked
+Rob of his brother.
+
+"No, I think not. I intend to be still unless some of the crowd drop a
+hint they'd like to have me along; then I'll speak out."
+
+By four o'clock the boys returned to the ranche, having warned twelve
+families of the impending danger. All the men expressed their readiness
+to go with Mr. Thompson and the others to circumvent the savages on
+their raid. When Joe and Rob had turned their ponies out to graze and
+went back to the house again, they found a dozen men there already,
+waiting for the return of their father and the stranger. The anxious
+group sat on the veranda, discussing the state of affairs, suggesting to
+each other what course should be pursued concerning those settlers who
+would have to remain in the valley with their wives and children. Uncle
+Dick Smith, as he was familiarly called, an old man with white hair and
+long white beard, who had had some experience with the savages in his
+earlier days in Wisconsin, suggested that while the scouting party were
+absent, Job Wilkersin's stone corral would be the best place for the
+settlers to rendezvous in case the Indians came down into the valley of
+the Oxhide. After some discussion, however, it was agreed to let the
+question remain open until Mr. Thompson and the other men should arrive.
+
+A short time before sundown a group of horsemen could be seen coming
+down the trail from the north. They were those for whom the crowd at
+Errolstrath were anxiously looking. When they rode up to the house,
+headed by Mr. Thompson, they dismounted, fastened their horses to trees,
+and after a hurried meal which the girls had been getting ready during
+their father's absence, they all adjourned to the lawn outside of the
+veranda, and the subject was renewed as to what those should do who were
+compelled to remain behind on the Oxhide. Mr. Wilkersin was among them,
+and as he stated his house was the largest in the neighborhood, and his
+big stone corral a grand place for defence in case the savages continued
+on their raid, it was agreed to rendezvous there. Twenty determined men
+in the corral could keep off a hundred Indians, and besides there was
+food enough at his house for every one who should go there. He further
+said that he would be glad to assist his friends thus much in trying
+times like these.
+
+Rob, who was familiar with the location of every cabin in the
+settlement, was immediately despatched on a fresh horse to call on the
+people and communicate the result of the conference. He was to tell them
+where to go in the event of the Indians coming into Oxhide valley after
+the scouting party had left for the Elkhorn.
+
+There were about thirty men who were obliged to remain at home; too old
+to undertake the fatigue of the long night's ride contemplated. They
+were all excellent shots, many of them having been pioneers in the
+settlement of the states east of the Mississippi when they constituted
+the far West.
+
+When all the men who could be mustered for the expedition had arrived at
+Errolstrath, there were about fifty. Old man Tucker was unanimously
+chosen for their leader, with the title, by courtesy, of captain. He was
+a man nearly sixty-five years old, but had been early recognized by the
+settlers of the valley as one to whom they could look whenever the
+affairs of the neighborhood demanded the exercise of good judgment or
+sound advice. He was well educated, having graduated at Yale, but after
+graduation a quarrel with his father resulted in his drifting out on the
+frontier, where his life had been that of a trapper and hunter. He was
+as active as any of the young men, so his age in this case did not
+militate against him. He was the best rifle-shot in the valley, and if,
+like Davy Crockett, he failed to hit a squirrel in the eye, "it didn't
+count!"
+
+The stranger from Spillman Creek was named Alderdyce, as he had informed
+Mr. Thompson while on the trip with him, and, as many of those who now
+met him for the first time desired to hear his story, he related the
+details of the horrid massacre again. At its sickening recital a
+majority became impatient of delay, and wanted to start on the trail of
+the savages at once, although the whole valley was flooded with the
+golden glow of sunset.
+
+Joe stood modestly in the crowd, eagerly drinking in the awful story
+told by Mr. Alderdyce, and he noticed how anxious the scouting party was
+to get away. He knew that this would be the height of absurdity until
+night had closed in, and in all probability would defeat the very object
+of the expedition, so he ventured to suggest that it would be better to
+wait until after dark.
+
+Old Mr. Tucker knew as well as the boy's father that Joe's judgment in
+matters relating to savage methods when on the war-path was far in
+advance of his sixteen years. His ideas and opinions commanded a
+consideration his age did not otherwise warrant, so the keen observation
+he had developed since his intimacy with the Pawnees, and the astuteness
+he had imbibed from them, caused Mr. Tucker to ask the boy's reasons for
+his suggestion.
+
+Joe replied hesitatingly: "I believe it's better to wait until dark. The
+runners, as their spies are called, of the hostile band, are, I
+honestly think, at this moment stationed on some of the highest points
+of the valley. They are watching to learn if there will be any
+demonstration made against the raiding band from this settlement. If
+this is true, and I believe it is, they should not be permitted to see
+our party start out. If they do discover that a number of mounted men
+are riding on the prairie, they will hang on their trail, keep the main
+band warned of every movement, and you could not effect anything. In
+that case you might as well stay at home."
+
+Upon these hints so forcibly thrown out by Joe, nearly every one at once
+coincided with his opinion, and the captain decided to act upon the
+boy's judgment.
+
+Joe, who was always an attentive listener, rarely obtruded his ideas
+into the conversation of his elders; in reality he was of rather a
+reticent disposition, a trait generally indicative of bravery, but he
+was ever ready to venture an opinion when asked for it, fearlessly and
+in great earnestness. So during the discussion of the supposed details
+of the morning's massacre, Captain Tucker asked him what he thought of
+the probability of the savages coming down to the Elkhorn from the
+scene of their raid on the Spillman.
+
+"Well, Mr. Tucker," replied Joe, "distance is never considered by an
+Indian. If a band start on a raid and are successful at the beginning,
+they will keep on a dozen miles or five hundred; it makes no difference
+to them; they'll wear out any animal but a wolf. If the massacre was
+complete, as Mr. Alderdyce thinks, they will probably keep right on
+murdering, scalping, and firing the cabins, until they get a setback. My
+own opinion is that they will go down to the Elkhorn or some other place
+where there is a settlement, and if successful again, will continue on
+and come to the Oxhide, perhaps, now they have tasted blood. But if they
+have met with a repulse anywhere, or learn that the United States troops
+are after them, they may abandon their raid and be now a hundred miles
+on the trail to their village."
+
+Joe was evidently fidgety; he wanted to go along, and as the captain and
+his father had questioned him so earnestly on such important matters, he
+thought he had a right to be one of the party; still, he said nothing
+until Captain Tucker, noticing the boy's anxious countenance, asked him
+if he would like to go with them.
+
+Joe answered very quickly in the affirmative, but it was with much
+hesitancy that his parents gave their consent. The neighbors gathered at
+the ranche, however, importuned very earnestly in his favor, declaring
+that the success of the expedition might depend materially upon their
+decision whether the boy should go or not. Of course, to resist such an
+appeal was out of the question, coming as it did almost unanimously from
+their friends, so Joe was permitted to accompany the party.
+
+Hurriedly did the delighted boy go out to the corral and saddle his
+favorite pony, a coal-black little animal, very swift, full of
+endurance, sure-footed as a mule, and as obedient to the touch of its
+young master's hand and legs as a well-trained circus horse. Soon
+returning, he tied him with the other animals to a tree and then went
+into the house to prepare himself for the venturesome trip.
+
+Coming back on the veranda in a few moments dressed in the buckskin suit
+given him by the old chief Yellow Calf, he looked the very
+impersonation of a veteran frontiersman, and but for his childish face
+might have passed for a veritable army scout. He slung his rifle across
+the horn of his saddle; its complement of bullets in his pouch he
+fastened to the cantle, while the powder-flask was suspended by a cord
+thrown over his shoulder. He also carried his flint and steel, thinking
+he might have occasion to use it, and with a small lantern was ready for
+whatever he might be called upon to do.
+
+As the welcome darkness would not come for an hour yet, the party kept
+their animals concealed in the thick timber near the cabin. They sat
+quietly in the shadow of the veranda, so that if there were any of the
+hostile spies in the vicinity, as Joe had suggested there might be, they
+would not be able to observe any unusual demonstration on the place, as
+the house was completely masked by the giant trees surrounding it.
+
+[Illustration: "He looked the very impersonation of a veteran
+frontiersman."]
+
+By eight o'clock it was dark enough to venture out, and the party
+quietly mounted their horses, and strung out in single file down the
+narrow trail leading from the ranche to the ford of the Smoky Hill.
+Tucker, Joe, and Alderdyce were at the head of the line. Every one was
+familiar with the trail as far as the river, for it was the main
+travelled track to the village of Ellsworth. It was six miles from
+Errolstrath, and contained a general store, a blacksmith shop, and the
+post office for all the surrounding country.
+
+The ford crossed the Smoky Hill about two miles east of the little
+hamlet, but the party did not follow the trail up the river. They took a
+shorter cut over the hills bordering the stream where there was a series
+of buffalo paths running northward in the direction they wanted to go.
+They thus saved a détour of three or four miles, an important
+consideration where time was of the greatest consequence. The buffalo
+paths all came out on the other side of the high divide separating the
+Saline from the Smoky Hill. A short distance beyond the summit of the
+ridge, and down a gradual slope, was one of the valleys of the several
+tributaries which gave the many-branched stream called the Elkhorn, its
+suggestive name.
+
+After the party had forded the Smoky Hill, the country was unknown to
+all excepting Alderdyce and Joe. The latter had often accompanied the
+Pawnees on their hunts as far as the Saline and Paradise creeks,
+twenty-five miles from the Oxhide.
+
+All had been travelling up to that point in groups of twos and threes on
+the flat river bottom, but now again they strung out in Indian file,
+following Joe and Alderdyce slowly up the divide and down on the other
+side. They then all moved out more rapidly into a short, quick lope as
+the ground was more level for several miles. At the end of the level
+stretch they halted, as they were approaching the beginning of the
+limestone region.
+
+Following Joe's advice they dismounted and muffled the hoofs of their
+horses with gunny sacks which they had brought for that purpose, in
+order to prevent the sound of the animals' feet from being heard by any
+of the savage runners.
+
+This wise precaution was frequently employed by the scouts of the army
+with General Sheridan during his celebrated winter campaign against the
+allied tribes of the plains, when the troops were obliged to travel at
+night through the enemy's country.
+
+It was soon after they had passed the limestone region that a heavy
+rolling prairie, over which the trail ran up one slope and down another
+of the rocky divides, separated the narrow intervales between. Most of
+the time it was a hard, killing pace for the poor horses, as they had
+travelled for hours continuously without a halt, excepting to muffle
+their feet. The settlement must be reached before daylight, or perhaps
+it would be too late to thwart the murderous schemes of the Indians, who
+always chose the early hours of the dawn in which to commit their
+atrocities. At that time when sleep oppresses most heavily, life and
+death were the issue, and the tired animals could not be mercifully
+spared. Would they be able to hold out with ten miles of the same cruel
+lope ahead of them, before the breaks of the main Elkhorn would be
+reached?
+
+There was an hour more of severe riding, during which the heels of the
+riders and the sharp sting of the quirt were often called into
+requisition to urge the jaded animals on to their hard duty. They were
+flecked with foam, their nostrils distended, and they were almost worn
+out when the terribly earnest men rode down the last divide into the
+grassy bottom of the first branch of the main Elkhorn.
+
+The faintest streaks of the coming dawn were beginning to show
+themselves; the summits of the Twin Mounds, capped with white limestone,
+already reflected the rosy tinge of the rising sun, which was still far
+below the horizon of the valley. The beautiful intervales, through which
+the party urged their horses, were covered with buffalo grass, and at
+the farther end, not quite half a mile distant, the fringe of timber
+bordering the creek could be distinguished as its dark contour cast a
+still blacker shadow over the sombre valley.
+
+There the party halted for a few moments to reconnoitre. Captain Tucker
+again had occasion to interrogate Joe. He inquired of the young trailer
+what would be the first acts of the savages when they arrived in the
+valley of the Elkhorn, if indeed they came at all.
+
+"Well, Mr. Tucker," replied the boy, "the first thing the Indians would
+do--they'd hide themselves in the timber; lie down in the grass,
+probably, and then send out one or more of their runners, the very best
+they had with them, to sneak around and watch for a chance to make a
+break together on the cabins. Then, if the outlook was favorable, and
+none of the settlers were stirring, they'd go from cabin to cabin,
+murdering, scalping, and firing the buildings as fast as they could."
+
+"Well, then," said the captain, as he took both of the boy's hands in
+his own, and gazed into his bright face, "you know that all the settlers
+on the Oxhide, and your own folks, too, say that you are as much of an
+Indian as if you had been born in a tepee, so far as savage education is
+concerned. Now, I've been talking to your father, and he agrees with me;
+I want you to do some dangerous work, or at least it is somewhat risky.
+You are the only one among us all who can do it as it should be done. It
+is this. While we remain here in the shadow of the timber to blow our
+animals and graze them a little, I want you to cross the creek on foot,
+and go up to Spillman Ford with Alderdyce, who will show you where it
+intersects this branch of the Elkhorn, and try to discover, if you can,
+by the dim light, any signs of Indians. I'm inclined to think they have
+not come down into this valley at all. But I want you to find out where
+they are, if possible. If you do not find any track of them, after we
+have rested our horses and warned the settlers of the danger, we will
+all go on to the scene of the massacre, and there you will be sure to
+learn where they have gone."
+
+Joe and Alderdyce turned over their horses to one of the men who were on
+guard watching the animals while they fed on the rich buffalo grass, and
+then started on foot for the ford of the Elkhorn leading to Spillman
+Creek. It was about a mile, and during the walk, Joe and Alderdyce
+talked over the affair of the morning. Joe asked his companion to tell
+him exactly what the commanding officer had said to him when he reported
+the massacre to him at Fort Harker.
+
+"Well, Joe, I will tell you just what he told me. He said that General
+Sheridan had ordered a company of Custer's regiment of mounted troopers
+to be sent to the Elkhorn valley and to remain there until the settlers
+were advised to come in, or the proposed Indian war was ended."
+
+"Now I have an idea," said Joe to him. "We shall not find any Indians on
+this trip; the cavalry have already started for the valley, and the
+savages have got wind of it and have gone back to their village,
+probably, a hundred miles south of the Arkansas. But, anyhow, we'll go
+on up to the ford and learn what we can."
+
+When they reached the crossing, not a sign of a pony's hoof could be
+discovered, and both gave a sigh of relief as they now knew that none of
+the savages had come down towards the Elkhorn. They hurried back to
+their party, and Joe reported that he had not seen a sign.
+
+"Good enough," said Captain Tucker, as he listened to the good news.
+"Now, men," continued he, turning and addressing himself to the party
+who had gathered near him to learn what report Joe and Alderdyce might
+bring, "we will remain here for another hour, and after warning some of
+the prominent settlers in the valley, we will go up to the head of
+Spillman Creek and see what is to be discovered there. Who knows but
+some one may be found hidden in the brush, not daring to come out. We
+may be able to save a life or two yet."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+  ARRIVAL OF CAVALRY ON THE ELKHORN--A DEER HUNT--WHAT THE
+    SCOUTS SAW--THE STORY OF THE TWO LITTLE GIRLS--THE DEAD
+    AND WOUNDED--MEN HIDDEN IN THE BRUSH--AN INDIAN
+    LEGEND--ARRIVAL OF THE INFANTRY--THE DEER HUNT IN THE
+    MORNING--DEATH OF THE DEER
+
+
+JUST as the sun appeared above the top of the Twin Mounds, Joe, who
+could not keep quiet when among the timber or on the prairie, was
+scouting around on his own hook, while the remainder of the party was
+lying on the grass eating the cold breakfast they had brought from
+Errolstrath. Suddenly he rushed down to them, and yelled at the top of
+his voice:--
+
+"The cavalry are coming! I saw the gleam of their carbines on the ridge
+about a mile away toward the trail to Fort Harker."
+
+Every man was on his feet in an instant; and sure enough, in a few
+minutes they heard the clanging of sabres and the sound of the hoofs of
+approaching horses. Presently a fine-looking set of men wearing the
+fatigue uniform of the United States Cavalry, splendidly mounted on
+sleek bay animals, swung around the point of timber where Captain Tucker
+and his scouts from the Oxhide valley were standing. The trumpeter
+sounded the "Halt," and in another moment the horses, in obedience to
+the signal, stood still as if petrified, while the commander of the
+troop, Colonel Keogh, of Custer's famous regiment, rode forward and
+talked with Captain Tucker, whom he had at once recognized as the leader
+of the scouts.
+
+They conversed for some moments, each giving the other what information
+he had of the movements of the Indians. Then the Colonel told Captain
+Tucker that his orders were to camp on the Elkhorn with his company, and
+scout through the valley, protecting the settlers. He said that a
+detachment of infantry was also ordered to the creek, and was to remain
+there, while he with his mounted men would move from point to point, and
+thus prevent the savages from making another raid in that part of the
+country. He thanked Captain Tucker for the promptness with which he and
+his neighbors had responded to the appeal of Alderdyce. He said that
+now the cavalry were there the men might go home feeling assured that no
+more attacks were to be feared from the Indians, and that General
+Sheridan would soon have enough soldiers under his command to whip
+thoroughly the allied tribes, and force them to a peace which they would
+be glad to keep.
+
+Captain Tucker told the Colonel how bright Joe was in relation to Indian
+affairs, and what a great hunter he had already become. After Colonel
+Keogh had himself conversed with Joe, he took a great fancy to him. He
+told him that he was going on a deer hunt just as soon as he was settled
+in camp, and the infantry had arrived, and he invited Joe to be one of
+the party.
+
+Joe thanked the Colonel, and spoke modestly of the compliments which had
+been paid him by Captain Tucker. He promised that he would certainly go
+on the hunt with him, and be delighted to do so.
+
+He spoke up boldly: "When do you expect to go, Colonel? I know there are
+lots of red deer and elk, too, on the Elkhorn, and this is a good time
+to find them; I've been here with the Pawnees often."
+
+The Colonel said: "The infantry, in all probability, will reach the
+creek some time this evening, as they were getting ready for the march
+when I left Fort Harker with my troop. Suppose, Joe, we say the day
+after to-morrow? You can remain here with me; I have buffalo robes, and
+you shall have a bed in my tent. So go and ask your father at once and
+come back to me as quick as you can and report his answer. You'll find
+me somewhere about the camp. My tent is not yet put up, but you will
+know it when it is, by its similarity to an Indian tepee. It is called a
+'Sibley,' and was patterned after the Sioux lodge by its inventor, an
+officer of the army of that name."
+
+Joe, wild with delight, ran off to find his father, to whom he told of
+the invitation, and finding that no objections were made, thanked him
+for his permission to remain.
+
+Captain Tucker had informed the Colonel that as his men and animals were
+sufficiently rested, and the horses filled with the rich grass, he
+intended to go to the scene of the massacre with Alderdyce, to find
+whether any of the settlers were hiding and not daring to show
+themselves, or if any of the wounded were still living. Should he find
+any of the latter, he would return by way of Fort Harker and notify the
+commanding officer, so that he might send an ambulance for them and
+medical assistance.
+
+Telling his men of his intentions, they immediately brought in their
+horses and saddled them. They then mounted, and rode slowly west toward
+Spillman Creek, which was about seven or eight miles from the Elkhorn.
+Joe, of course, went with them, as they wanted him to find out which way
+the Indians had gone after committing their devilish deeds. He intended
+to leave the party at the ford of the Elkhorn on its return, and to join
+Colonel Keogh.
+
+In about two hours the party arrived at the mouth of Spillman Creek, and
+the first evidence of the acts of the savages confronted the men. Riding
+up to a small cabin which the Indians had not consigned to the torch, no
+doubt having missed it on their fiendish rounds, they discovered two
+little girls crouched in one of its dark corners. One of them was only
+six years old, and her sister but eight. They were very bright for
+their age, and told a wonderfully sad story of their escape from the
+Indians. They said that a big band of savages rode up to their home very
+early in the morning; that their father and mother were not yet out of
+bed. The Indians killed both of them, and after setting the house on
+fire, threw the children on their ponies and rode off. Coming to the top
+of a high hill, they saw a company of soldiers in the distance, and they
+then dropped them on the prairie and hurried away as fast as their
+ponies could run. The girls were not hurt at all. They wandered on,
+frightened nearly to death, and seeing the cabin down in the valley,
+they went to it and slept there all night. They had waked very early in
+the morning, and on going out of doors, saw the wild grapes growing on
+the vines at the creek; they ate some for their breakfast, but soon
+hearing the sound of horses' hoofs, and thinking the Indians were coming
+to look for them, they crawled back into the corner where the scouts had
+found them.
+
+Captain Tucker and the rest of the scouts were in a dilemma at first
+when they found themselves with the two little orphaned children on
+their hands; and they did not know exactly what to do. But soon Joe's
+excellent judgment manifested itself. He proposed that one of the men
+should be sent back to Colonel Keogh's camp to tell him of their
+discovery, and ask him to send his ambulance out to take the children to
+Fort Harker, where they would be cared for by the kind ladies of the
+post.
+
+The suggestion was acted upon at once. Every man volunteered to go, so
+it was left to the Captain to select one. This he did, started him off,
+and left Mr. Thompson to stay with the little girls until the arrival of
+the ambulance. He and the others of the party then rode up on the valley
+of Spillman Creek, as the savages appeared to have confined their
+atrocities to that narrow region.
+
+As they were riding close to the bank of the stream, about three miles
+from where they had found the two girls, they saw a wagon with the
+horses still attached. As they came up to it for a closer examination,
+two men, both of whom were known to Alderdyce, came out of the
+underbrush.
+
+They had a story to tell, too. Early in the morning they were on their
+way to examine a claim on the Spillman, when they perceived at only a
+short distance from them, what appeared to be a body of soldiers. They
+were all dressed in blue blouses, and were marching four abreast just as
+the cavalry do. The men stopped for a moment to get a closer view as
+they rode up the divide, when to their horror they discovered the
+supposed soldiers to be a band of Indians. They turned their team about,
+and made for the nearest timber on the creek and hid themselves. Next
+morning they still decided to remain in ambush until they saw some white
+people. They had plenty of food with them, so they had remained until
+they were discovered by Captain Tucker's scouts. Learning that all was
+safe, they climbed into their wagon, whipped up the team, and drove
+away. Presently the scouts came to the remains of a cabin, partly
+destroyed by fire, where they discovered the dead bodies of a man and
+woman, probably husband and wife. These they decently buried and rode
+on.
+
+They next found the body of a young man, dead in his field, where he had
+evidently been at work when the savages surprised him. He was murdered
+with his own hatchet, which was found by his side, his face having been
+chopped until it was not recognizable. His body was interred too.
+
+It is useless to relate all that the scouts saw on their mission of
+discovery up the Spillman. In all, thirty bodies were found, and some
+dozen or more persons who had been wounded and had managed to hide after
+the savages had supposed them to be dead. During the next twenty-four
+hours these were gathered and taken to the hospital at the fort. Some
+recovered, but the majority died.
+
+The party returned to Colonel Keogh's camp, because they had discovered
+so much that it was thought best he should know. When they arrived there
+they learned that the little girls had been sent to the fort under an
+escort of a squad of the troopers, and they also found Mr. Thompson in
+the camp waiting for them.
+
+After winding their horses for about half an hour, all returned to
+Errolstrath, with the exception of Joe, who remained to go on the
+proposed hunt when the infantry arrived.
+
+Colonel Keogh's tent was already pitched, and Joe sat in there with him
+discussing the atrocities on Spillman Creek and the deer hunt.
+
+"Colonel," said Joe, "you know that deer have no gall-bladder and the
+antelope no dew-claws. Did you ever hear the Indian legend about the
+reason?"
+
+"I know the deer have no gall-bladder and the antelope no dew-claws, but
+I don't think I have ever heard the reason. What do the Indians say
+about it, Joe?"
+
+"Well, old Yellow Calf, the chief of the band of Pawnees which has
+camped on our creek ever since we have lived there, told me that a long
+time ago a deer and an antelope met on the prairie near the Great Bend
+of the Arkansas. At that time both animals had a gall and dew-claws.
+They fell to talking together and bragging how fast each could run. The
+deer claimed that he could outstrip the antelope, and the antelope that
+he could beat the deer. They got awfully mad at each other, and finally
+determined they would try their speed. The stakes were their galls, and
+the trial was made on the open prairie. The antelope beat the deer and
+took the deer's gall. The deer felt very unhappy at his defeat, and he
+became so miserable over it, that the antelope felt sorry for him, and
+to cheer him up took off both his dew-claws and gave them to the deer.
+Ever since then the deer has had no gall-bladder, and the antelope no
+dew-claws.
+
+"I met some Kaws once, and I told them what the Pawnees had told me
+about it, and the chief of that band said the story the Pawnees had told
+was only partly correct. The Kaw chief's version was that after the
+antelope had won the race, the deer said to him, 'You have won, but that
+race was not fair, for it was over the prairie. We ought to try again in
+the woods to decide which of us is really the faster.' So the antelope
+agreed to run the second race, and on it they bet their dew-claws. The
+deer beat the antelope that time, because he could run faster than the
+antelope through the timber, over the fallen trunks of trees, and in the
+thick underbrush, and he took the antelope's dew-claws."
+
+"Well, Joe, that is a very funny story; I never heard it before." Then,
+looking out of the front of his tent, the Colonel turned to Joe, and
+said, "There comes the company of infantry, so we may go on our hunt
+to-morrow."
+
+Joe ran out and watched the infantry as they filed into the timber. It
+was after sundown, but far from dark. The men were soon settled in their
+tents, their camp-kettles bubbling over the fires, and preparations in
+full swing for their evening meal.
+
+Joe wandered among the troops and soon picked up an acquaintance with
+them. They admired his Indian suit, and earnestly listened to the tale
+of his adventures with the Pawnees. Presently he was called by the
+Colonel's orderly to come to supper. He went back to the Sibley tent,
+where he sat down at the table with Colonel Keogh and his two
+lieutenants.
+
+Their simple table was improvised out of the end gates of two of the
+wagons, and the cook, a colored soldier, had managed to provide an
+excellent meal, and as Joe was very hungry, he did ample justice to it.
+
+When the trumpets and the bugles sounded the retreat, Joe went out with
+the Colonel, who inspected the men to see that everything was in good
+order for the night. They then returned to their canvas quarters, where
+the Colonel smoked his pipe, and again discussed to-morrow's hunt with
+the boy.
+
+They were to make a very early start in the morning, so, as soon as
+"taps" had sounded, which meant that all lights must be put out and the
+soldiers retire to their tents, the Colonel suggested to Joe that he had
+better go to bed, while he would sit up a while and write out his report
+to the commander at Fort Harker. Calling in the orderly, the Colonel
+told him to fix up a sleeping-place for the boy. The man spread four
+heavy buffalo robes on the floor of the tent, and putting two blankets
+on top, the bed was ready for Joe, who tumbled into it and was soon fast
+asleep.
+
+When the trumpeter sounded the reveille, at the first streak of dawn the
+next morning, the Colonel, who had already risen, called Joe, who
+bounded out of his soft bed like a cat. Breakfast was ready in a few
+moments, and after he and the Colonel had eaten, and the latter had
+given his orders to the officer who was to command the camp during his
+absence, Joe and he started out on foot for the hunt.
+
+The night had been cold, and although it was the middle of May, the
+white rime of the late frost covered the earth. It was a good omen, as
+the sharp footprints of the animals could be more easily distinguished.
+
+Carefully examining their rifles and cartridges as they walked briskly
+on, they soon struck the main branch of the Elkhorn, and continued along
+its margin in a southerly direction for a mile or more, when they came
+to a little opening.
+
+There Joe suddenly stopped, and turning to Colonel Keogh, who had on the
+instant also halted, said, "Doesn't that look a little deerish,
+Colonel?"
+
+The Colonel, though a good shot and hunter, could distinguish nothing
+out of the ordinary after scrutinizing the ground to which the boy had
+pointed. The earth looked the same everywhere in the Colonel's eyes.
+
+"Here!" said Joe, as, noticing the bewildered appearance of his new
+friend, he turned over a fallen cottonwood leaf with his foot. There the
+Colonel saw, after carefully stooping down, the very faint impress of a
+hoof.
+
+"Is that a fresh track, Joe?" he asked.
+
+"You may be sure it is," replied Joe, "and only about an hour old!"
+
+"Well, I want _that_ deer," said Colonel Keogh, enthusiastically. He
+rose from a stump on which he had been sitting for a few moments, with
+his rifle across his knees, and started quickly for a little patch of
+box-elder not a hundred yards distant.
+
+"Hold on, Colonel!" said Joe, cautiously; "the deer isn't there now.
+Don't you see his hoof-marks point the other way? Look, here's where
+he's nibbled the grass," pointing with his rifle to a strip of
+bunch-grass in the opposite direction from the box-elders. "Let's go on,
+Colonel; deer don't stay long in one spot so early in the day, and if we
+don't get a move on us, it may be hours before we can get a shot at
+'em."
+
+They trudged on for about a mile and a half, walking side by side, the
+Colonel telling the boy some of his experiences in the war of the
+Rebellion. Suddenly Joe, touching the Colonel's shoulder, said, "Hark!"
+in a hoarse whisper, at the same instant elevating his head like a
+stag-hound that has just winded game. In another minute they heard a
+rustling as though something were stepping on dead leaves.
+
+"There's a buck deer in there, and a big one, too," said Joe, in a
+whisper, as he pointed to a bunch of upland willows whose slender tops
+were oscillating slowly as if disturbed by a gentle breeze, though there
+was not a breath of wind blowing. "He's probably got a half dozen or
+more does around him, and if we are mighty careful, we may both get a
+shot."
+
+The willow copse was on the top of a little knoll, and the ground was
+smooth on the side of it where the Colonel and Joe stood. Here and there
+at intervals were great trees, but without any underbrush to snap under
+their feet as they quietly trod over the soft, black soil.
+
+At Joe's suggestion, he and the Colonel separated, widening the distance
+between them to about twenty paces, Colonel Keogh on the right of Joe.
+They crept on as silently as savages on the trail of an enemy, and soon
+arrived at the base of the elevation, which was only some fifty yards to
+its crest. There they noticed that the dark earth had been cut up in
+every direction by the sharp, delicate foot-marks of the creatures
+supposed to be in front of them. A significant glance rapidly passed
+from one to the other as they drew nearer their quarry.
+
+At that juncture, just as they reached the edge of the copse, each
+masked himself behind a good-sized cottonwood, which seemed to have
+grown where it did for their especial use. The Colonel in his enthusiasm
+could not repress the remark in a whisper to Joe:--
+
+"Look there, Joe. There's a dozen deer!"
+
+Sure enough, right in front of them were a dozen fat does lying down
+ruminating their morning meal. The old buck, the guardian of the whole
+herd, was standing up as if watching over his charge, and stamping the
+ground with his sharp hoofs to drive off the buffalo gnats that swarmed
+thickly around him.
+
+In another instant, at a signal previously agreed upon, a low whistle
+from the Colonel, the rifles of the hunters were discharged
+simultaneously, and all but two of the terribly frightened animals
+bounded off through the timber.
+
+Before the echoes of the pieces had died away, Joe was among the
+struggling deer with his hunting-knife, cutting their throats while
+they were yet in their death throes. The stately buck had been the
+Colonel's game, and he asked Joe to take its head to the ranche so that
+the Pawnees, when they arrived in the autumn, could preserve it with its
+magnificent set of antlers, which he desired to keep as a trophy of
+their hunt.
+
+It was but a little more than two miles to camp, and they did not have
+to wait more than an hour for a wagon to arrive, as the driver had been
+told by the Colonel to start the moment the sharp double report of the
+rifles reached his ears. The dead animals were soon loaded into it, and
+the proud hunters walked leisurely alongside of it, back to camp,
+arriving there before eleven o'clock.
+
+The deer were skinned by Joe. The meat was cut up into saddles and
+haunches, and hung on the limb of a great tree, to secure it from the
+prowling wolves, who already scented blood and began to make their
+appearance on the bluffs, so keen is the nose of that vicious and
+cowardly brute. The Colonel had brought with him from the fort, half a
+dozen hounds, among them some of General Custer's celebrated animals,
+but they were left tied up in camp that morning, as the Colonel had
+decided to make a still hunt the first day, and to chase with the dogs
+the next.
+
+That evening, just as all were about to roll themselves up in their
+blankets, a scout arrived from Fort Harker with the intelligence that
+the Cheyennes and the Kiowas, under the leadership of the bloodthirsty
+Sa-tan-ta, the notorious war-chief, had made a raid upon the settlements
+near Council Grove, and Custer was leaving at once for the field with
+his regiment. As Colonel Keogh's company was part of it, he must return
+to Fort Harker immediately, and another detachment of colored infantry
+were on their way to take its place on the Elkhorn.
+
+All was bustle in a few moments. Tents were struck, and in less than an
+hour the cavalry command was on its way, Joe riding at the head of the
+column with the Colonel.
+
+They arrived at Fort Harker long before daylight, and Joe bade the
+Colonel good by and rode on to Errolstrath, where he pulled up his pony
+just as his father and Rob were coming out of the house to go to the
+spring to wash themselves.
+
+The boy was gladly welcomed back by all the family, and they sat at the
+table for more than an hour after they finished eating their breakfast,
+listening to Joe's experiences at the scene of the massacre, and his
+hunt with Colonel Keogh.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+  MR. TUCKER PASSES THE NIGHT AT ERROLSTRATH--HE TELLS SOME
+    STORIES OF HUNTING BIG GAME IN THE ROCKY
+    MOUNTAINS--SAGACITY OF THE FEMALE BIGHORN--THE AMERICAN
+    COUGAR--THE BEAR AND THE PANTHER--THE RABBIT HUNT--HOW
+    THE BOYS TRAINED THEIR HOUNDS.
+
+
+THAT evening many of those who had acted as scouts under Captain Tucker
+came to Errolstrath, where, on the shady veranda they discussed their
+trip and the possibilities of a prolonged Indian war. The Kiowas had
+inaugurated hostilities by their raid on the settlements near Council
+Grove. General Sheridan had already established his headquarters at Fort
+Harker, and every preparation was going on at that post for a winter
+campaign against the allied tribes.
+
+After the group on the porch had talked matters over for about two
+hours, they all went to their respective homes excepting old Mr. Tucker,
+whom the family had invited to stay all night. As it was but eight
+o'clock when the others left, Joe and Mr. Tucker turned to the subject
+of hunting big game, and the latter told some of his own adventures when
+he was a trapper in the Rocky Mountains many years ago. As Joe had never
+seen the bighorn of that region, Mr. Tucker related an adventure he once
+had when hunting for a pair of young ones. He was up in the Yellowstone
+Range, not very far from the scene of Custer's unequal battle with
+Sitting Bull, in which the General's entire command was annihilated by
+the savages.
+
+"My camp was on the Green River," began the old man, "and one morning
+while I was out baiting my traps, I noticed a she bighorn that I knew
+would soon have little ones. I was determined to have a pair of kids, as
+I had a sort of a small menagerie at my camp, but it contained no
+bighorn. So I started to follow her trail and stay with her until her
+kids were born, when I intended to capture them and make pets of them.
+
+"I followed her for about two weeks, and was sometimes compelled to
+creep cautiously after her in my stockinged feet. My stockings were
+clumsy things made of buckskin, not such stockings as you buy. One
+evening being so near her, and obliged to climb a steep mountain, I took
+out my knife and cut off all the silver trimmings of my buckskin suit,
+so that nothing could jingle and scare her.
+
+"At last, after tracking her day after day, I came upon her den, where
+she had brought forth two kids. It was the very top of one of the
+tallest peaks in the Wind River Mountains, in a sort of cave about five
+feet deep, worn in the side of an enormous rock. When I first got a
+sight of the kids, they were nearly two weeks old, and were jumping and
+playing as all of the goat or sheep family are wont to do.
+
+"They were alone, but their mother was on the brink of a precipice,
+within a hundred yards of them, carefully looking down into the valley
+below to see if she could discover anything hostile. They are great
+watchers. The old one had not seen me, and I had made a détour to the
+very summit of the mountain, where I could see that there was a trail
+which the mother used to travel in going to and from her young ones. I
+felt sure that once at the mouth of the cave or hole in the big rock, I
+might easily capture the kids, for which I had footed it so many miles
+and followed so many days.
+
+"Before I reached the entrance of the den the old one caught a glimpse
+of me, and in an instant, filled with the courage which the maternal
+instinct always prompts, she was upon me and trying to get the sharp
+point of her crooked horns into my legs to toss me over the precipice
+which formed one of the walls of the mountain. The trail on which I was
+standing was narrow and slippery. I had left my rifle on the top of the
+divide, and was in a mighty tight place, for the female bighorn is
+almost as dangerous as a tiger when enraged and solicitous for the
+safety of her little ones.
+
+"I fought off the infuriated mother with my hands and feet as well as I
+could, but the rage of the brute increased terribly every second. Just
+then she caught sight of her kids, and leaving me, she rushed toward
+them and ran around them several times, as if telling them she wanted
+them to do something in her great trouble.
+
+"The distance from the wall of one mountain to the precipice of the
+other was but eight feet. Both had originally been but one mountain,
+but ages ago some great convulsion of nature had split them apart, and
+had left a huge fissure between them at least two thousand feet deep,
+with walls as smooth as glass.
+
+"The old one ran back and forth from the precipice to the kids several
+times, showing them as plainly as if she could talk that they must make
+the leap to escape from their natural enemy. At last, as if the whole
+matter was understood, the mother flew back to the edge of the cañon,
+the little ones hot in her tracks, and then all three made the jump,
+just clearing the frightful gorge by half the length of the young ones.
+
+"I was dumfounded for an instant, but soon recovered my senses and went
+for my rifle, but the coveted animals were far out of range on the top
+of the twin peak. I then returned to my camp on Green River more than a
+hundred miles away, disgusted and worn out, and never again attempted to
+capture the kids of the bighorn in the fashion of my first venture."
+
+Joe and the rest of the family, remembering Joe's scrap with the young
+panther, asked the old man if he had ever had any fight with one of
+them. He said that he had, and would tell them all about it. Then they
+would go to bed, as it was very late for the ranche folks to be up.
+
+"I remember the day you had that tussle with a young panther, Joe, and I
+tell you that you got off mighty luckily; the chances were that the
+animal would have made mincemeat of you if it hadn't been for that
+thrust with your knife.
+
+"The California lion, puma, or panther, as the animal is indifferently
+called according to locality, once had a very extensive range on the
+North American continent. It could be found from the Adirondacks to
+Patagonia, but now, like nearly all of our indigenous great mammals, is
+relatively scarce, and is rapidly following the sad trail of the
+buffalo.
+
+"Although sometimes called a lion, he in nowise resembles either his
+African or Asiatic namesake. He is more nearly related to the tiger in
+his habits, though lion-like in color. He is the puma or American cougar
+of the naturalists. He is really a long-tailed cat, and the only true
+representative of the genus felis on the continent.
+
+"He is a splendid fellow, too, with sleepy green eyes, skin as soft as
+velvet and beautifully mottled, and teeth half an inch long and sharp as
+razors. His paws measure four inches across, and his limbs are as finely
+proportioned as a sculptor could desire, while all his muscles are as
+brawny as a prize-fighter's. His breast is broad, and his body as
+flexible as a snake's. He is an active climber and generally drops or
+springs upon his prey from a limb where he has carefully secreted
+himself. Like the majority of wild beasts, he generally runs from man,
+excepting when cornered, or in the case of a female with kittens when
+suddenly met; then her motherly love presents itself as strongly as in
+any other animal.
+
+"The cougar attains its greatest size in the Rocky Mountains, where its
+body reaches a length of four feet ten inches, and its tail from two to
+two and a half feet.
+
+"The American panther has one inveterate foe, the bear. The grizzly and
+the panther are mortal enemies. The famous trappers I have known, such
+men as Kit Carson and Lucien B. Maxwell, have told me that in these
+animals' frequent combats, the panther generally comes out victor, and
+that in their early trapping days they often came across the carcass of
+a bear which had evidently met its death in a lively encounter with a
+mountain lion, as they called it.
+
+"Carson once related a contest of that character which he had
+accidentally witnessed. A large deer was running at full speed, closely
+followed by a panther. The chase had already been a long one, for as
+they came nearer to where he stood, he could see both of their parched
+tongues hanging out of their mouths, and their bounding, though
+powerful, was no longer as elastic as usual. The deer having discovered
+in the distance a large black bear playing with her cub, stopped for a
+moment to sniff the air, then coming nearer, he made a bound with head
+extended, to ascertain whether the bear had kept her position. As the
+panther was closing with him, the deer wheeled sharply around, and
+turning almost upon its own trail, passed within thirty yards of its
+pursuer. The panther, not being able at once to stop his career, gave
+an angry growl and followed the deer again, but at a distance of some
+hundred yards. Hearing the growl, the bear drew her body half out of the
+bushes, remaining quietly on the lookout. Soon the deer again appeared,
+but his speed was much reduced, and as he approached the spot where the
+bear lay concealed, it was evident that the animal was calculating the
+distance with admirable precision. The panther, now expecting to seize
+his prey easily, followed about thirty yards behind, his eyes so
+intently fixed on the deer that he did not see the bear at all. Not so
+the bear; she was aware of the close proximity of her wicked enemy, and
+she cleared the briars before her and squared herself for action, when
+the deer with a powerful spring passed clear over her head and
+disappeared.
+
+"At the moment the deer took the flying leap the panther was close upon
+him, and was just balancing himself for a spring, when he perceived, to
+his astonishment, that he was now face to face with a formidable
+adversary. Not in the least disposed to fly, he crouched, lashing his
+flanks with his long tail, while the bear, about five yards from him,
+remained like a statue, looking at the panther with her fierce, glaring
+eyes.
+
+"They remained thus a minute: the panther agitated, and apparently
+undecided, and his sides heaving with exertion; the bear perfectly calm
+and motionless. Gradually the panther crawled backward until at the
+right distance for a spring; then throwing all his weight upon his
+hinder parts to increase his power, he darted upon the bear like
+lightning and forced his claws into her back. The bear then, with
+irresistible force, seized the panther with her two fore paws, pressing
+it with the weight of her body and rolling over it. Carson said that he
+heard a heavy grunt, a plaintive howl, a crashing of bones, and the
+panther was dead.
+
+"The cub of the bear came after a few minutes to learn what was going
+on, examined the victim, and strutted down the hill followed by its
+mother, who was apparently unhurt. The old trappers used to claim that
+it was a common practice of the deer, when chased by the panther, to
+lead him to the haunt of a bear; but I won't vouch for the truth of the
+statement.
+
+"I have killed several of the creatures," continued Mr. Tucker, "but
+never had a very serious tussle, excepting once, up in what was then
+called the Klikatat Valley, in Washington Territory. I had been out
+after elk, but had not seen any, and was going up a very narrow, rocky
+ravine looking for their tracks. When I arrived at the head of the
+little cañon, I heard a snarl. Casting my eyes in the direction of the
+sound, I saw, to my dismay, a she panther on a flat ledge under a clump
+of dwarf cedars, with three kittens alongside of her.
+
+"The enraged beast was in the attitude of springing, when I caught sight
+of her. I had no time to pull my rifle to my shoulder or jump aside. The
+ravine was so narrow that there was not room enough between the jagged
+walls to raise the piece and take aim. So quick were the cat's movements
+that she was almost upon me, her mouth wide open and her claws
+unsheathed ready for business. I was calm, for I had trained myself
+never to become excited under danger, and just as she jumped for me I
+cocked my piece, stuck the muzzle down her throat, and pulled the
+trigger as she fell upon my shoulder.
+
+"The shot killed her instantly, but not before she had ripped some of
+the flesh off my arm as she rolled to the ground. It was a remarkably
+close shot, and a lucky one for me too. I skinned her, but was so sore
+that I had to return to my camp and dress my wounds, which healed in a
+few days."
+
+When the story was finished, they all went to bed. Mr. Tucker promised
+the boys and girls he would remain over the next day and go on a rabbit
+hunt which they had planned for the morning.
+
+It proved to be a glorious day as the sun rose next morning in a
+cloudless sky. Breakfast was out of the way by six o'clock, and the boys
+saddled their buffalo ponies, as they called those which they had
+captured out of the herd; their sisters' ponies also were saddled.
+Gertrude had a very gentle animal which her father had traded for with
+the Pawnees, but he was blind in one eye, and she called him Bartimæus,
+or Barty for short. He was hard to catch, but when caught was a quiet,
+easily ridden animal. Kate's was an iron-gray which had been born on a
+neighboring ranche, and especially broken for her benefit. He was of
+that small breed peculiar to Texas, and his power of endurance was
+phenomenal. On a long journey, with only the wild grass to subsist on,
+they soon wear out the pampered steed of the stable.
+
+The relation between Ginger and his young mistress was remarkable for
+the confidence and affection each had in and for the other. He was now
+five years old, and Kate had trained him herself, but had never used
+whip, spur, or severe curb during her long and patient training.
+Consequently Ginger responded cheerfully and promptly to her every
+command. His education had been based upon gentleness and affection. Her
+love for him was reciprocated in a manner bordering upon human
+intelligence, thus confirming the theory that kindness is more effective
+in subordinating the brute creation to our will than the club or kindred
+harsh measures.
+
+Kate's pony had never been confined by fence or lariat; he roamed at
+will all over the beautiful prairie or in the timber surrounding
+Errolstrath. Yet day or night, in sunshine or in storm, if Kate required
+his services, she had only to go and call him, and if within the sound
+of her voice, he would come galloping up to her, neighing cheerfully.
+When he arrived where she stood, bridle in hand, waiting for him, he
+would affectionately rub his nose on her arm or shoulder, and
+submissively follow her to the house. If he happened to be a long way
+off when she went to seek him, she would jump on his bare back and ride
+him home. He was always rewarded on these occasions with a lump of sugar
+or salt, of both of which he was very fond. In the three years of their
+companionship neither girl nor pony had ever deceived each other: his
+sugar or salt was never forgotten, nor had he once failed to respond to
+her summons.
+
+It made no difference when Kate wanted to go anywhere, whether she
+mounted Ginger bareback and bridleless, or with saddle. Under either
+condition she was perfectly at her ease, and he equally obedient to her
+voice, by which alone she frequently guided him.
+
+He was as fleet as the wind, and more than once Kate had run down a
+cottontail rabbit in a spirited chase over the prairie.
+
+She had christened him Ginger, not because there was the slightest
+resemblance to that spice in his color, but rather for the "spice" in
+his nature.
+
+Mr. Tucker rode his favorite large roan horse, which he had brought to
+the ranche with him, and which had carried him so bravely on the long
+and wearisome trip to the Elkhorn.
+
+The happy little party left Errolstrath about seven o'clock, followed by
+the old hounds Bluey and Brutus, which were as anxious as their young
+masters for the excitement of the impending chase.
+
+They rode down the Oxhide under the shade of the elms which fringed its
+border, until they arrived at the open prairie a mile from the ranche.
+There the dogs were ordered ahead, and began to run, eagerly looking out
+for a sight of any foolish rabbit, cottontail or jack, that might be out
+on the level stretch of country over which the hunters were now loping.
+
+They had not gone on half a mile before they started a big jack from his
+lair of bunch-grass, where, probably, he had been taking a late nap.
+With a characteristic bound, jumping stiff-legged for a moment, he
+fairly flew over the short buffalo sod, the dogs after him with every
+muscle strained to overtake him before he could hide in some tall weeds,
+or clump of plum bushes which were scattered throughout the prairie at
+intervals of five or six hundred yards.
+
+Ever since they had come into possession of their ponies, Joe and Rob
+had trained Bluey and Brutus in such a manner that they scarcely ever
+failed to secure any game they hunted.
+
+The rabbit is a very swift creature, and has a fashion, when pursued, of
+suddenly doubling on his own tracks. Being so much smaller than a hound,
+he can perform the feat a great deal quicker than a dog, and if the
+latter is not trained to know just what to do under such circumstances,
+and just how to run, the rabbit almost invariably slips away from him.
+Bluey and Brutus were taught not to keep close to each other when on the
+run after rabbits. One of them, generally the younger, when they first
+started out for a hunt, remained far enough away from his mate to make
+the turn when the rabbit did, without forging ahead of him, as the
+foremost hound was sure to do, by the sheer momentum of his rapid
+running. Then, the hound in the rear had plenty of room and time to
+make the turn as soon as the rabbit, and was right upon him, as close as
+was the head dog when he doubled on his tracks. Then the old dog would
+recover himself and take his place behind the one that was now ahead,
+ready for the same tactics whenever the rabbit made another attempt to
+escape by again doubling on himself. So the race was conducted until the
+rabbit was caught. That was effected by the dog which happened to be
+ahead when he came near enough to thrust his long nose under the
+animal's belly and toss him high in the air, catching him in his mouth
+as he came down.
+
+"Admirable!" said Mr. Tucker, as Bluey, who happened to be ahead, tossed
+the rabbit up and caught him as he fell toward the ground. "I tell you,
+boys, that's as fine a piece of work as I ever saw done by any hounds I
+have run with. You must have taken a great deal of pains to teach them
+to do their work so splendidly?"
+
+"It took a long time," said Rob, who had really given more attention to
+training Bluey and Brutus, than had Joe, who had spent more of his spare
+hours in the camp of the Pawnees. "I sometimes almost gave up, they
+were so stupid when I first tried to teach them, but by degrees they
+understood what I wanted, and now I will put them against any hounds in
+the settlement for doing good work."
+
+"I must admit," said Joe, "that all they can do is to the credit of Rob;
+he has more patience with animals than I have, though you know, Mr.
+Tucker, that I am never cruel. I know that you can accomplish more with
+a dumb brute by kindness than you can with a whip."
+
+By noon the hounds had caught ten rabbits--six cottontails and four
+jacks--and, of course, were played out when the party turned back on the
+trail to Errolstrath. Here they found dinner waiting for them, and they
+all ate heartily, the delightful exercise having made them as ravenous
+as coyotes. The hounds were not forgotten; they had a rabbit each for
+their dinner, after eating which, they went to their accustomed beds on
+the shady side of a haystack near the corral, and slept all the rest of
+the afternoon.
+
+Mr. Tucker left for his ranche about an hour after dinner, promising to
+come to visit the family again soon.
+
+The family were worried about the impending Indian war, and when three
+o'clock had arrived his mother sent Joe up to Fort Harker to find out if
+there was any news of Custer and the troops under his command, who had
+gone after the Kiowas.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+  INDIAN RAIDS--KATE IS MISSING--"BUFFALO BILL'S"
+    OPINION--"BUFFALO BILL" FINDS HER LITTLE BASKET--THE
+    SOLDIERS RETURN TO THE FORT WITHOUT FINDING HER--GRIEF
+    OF THE FAMILY
+
+
+IT was after dark when Joe returned from his mission to Fort Harker. He
+had been very kindly received by the officers, who had heard all about
+him from Colonel Keogh. The commanding officer told him that he wanted
+him to warn the settlers on the Oxhide that the war had really
+commenced; that General Sully had had a great fight on the Arkansas, and
+that it could not be considered as a victory. He told him also to tell
+the people on the creek that at any moment they might be visited by a
+hostile band, notwithstanding that they were in such close proximity to
+the post.
+
+"You know yourself, my man, that the Indians have a faculty of going
+anywhere they want to go, and all the troops in the army might be
+fooled in regard to their movements. They are here to-day, murdering,
+and taking young girls captive, and a hundred miles away to-morrow.
+
+"Tell the settlers," continued he, "that they must be on the lookout. I
+have not enough troops to put on guard on every creek. I wish I had;
+then there would be no danger of any sudden and unexpected raids. Why,
+do you know, Joe, that only yesterday, a band of Dog-soldiers made an
+attack on Wilson Creek, sixteen miles from here, and killed two men who
+were at work in their hayfield?
+
+"It was reported to me about three hours after the affair had occurred,
+and I sent a company up there, but as they were only infantry,--I have
+no cavalry now at the post,--the Indians were soon out of reach.
+
+"I want you to tell the settlers on the Oxhide to particularly watch
+their girls. The Indians will get some of them if they possibly can.
+They don't always murder them, but hold them in a terrible slavery in
+hopes of getting a heavy money ransom from the Government for their
+release."
+
+Joe related to his parents all the conversation he had with the
+officers at Fort Harker, and early the next morning he and his father
+rode through the settlement, warning the people to be on their guard.
+
+Only ten days afterward, when the family at Errolstrath were just going
+to sit down to supper, it was discovered that Kate was missing. Gertrude
+went up to her room, supposing she might be reading there, for she was a
+great devourer of books, but she did not find her.
+
+The boys hunted for her in all imaginable places on the ranche where
+they thought she might possibly be, but could not find her. When Joe and
+Rob returned from their fruitless quest, the family were too thoroughly
+frightened to think of eating. Mr. Thompson mounted his horse and
+started to make the rounds of the nearest neighbors to learn whether she
+was visiting any of them.
+
+He returned to the ranche long after dark, but brought no news of her
+whereabouts, and found every member of the family in tears, and his wife
+nearly crazy. He was told that Kate's pony had come home, riderless, to
+the corral while he was absent, and a small sumac bush to which his
+reins were tied, had been torn up by the roots and was dragging at his
+feet. None of them could conjecture where she could be.
+
+"My God!" exclaimed her mother, "if the Indians have captured her and
+carried her off, what shall we do?"
+
+"Something must be done at once," said Mr. Thompson. "Joe, get your pony
+quickly, and we will hurry to the fort to learn whether any Indians have
+been seen or heard of in this vicinity to-day. If so, we will get the
+commanding officer to send out a squad of soldiers immediately. You must
+go with them, Joe, and trail the savages if you can find any signs of
+them."
+
+Joe and his father rode as rapidly to Fort Harker as their animals could
+carry them; went to the commanding officer's private quarters, as the
+business offices were closed after night, and reported to him the
+terrible anguish which the family were suffering.
+
+They immediately adjourned to the Adjutant's office, and the commander
+sent his orderly for the officer of the day. When he made his
+appearance, he asked him whether any reports had been received
+concerning Indians being in the vicinity. He replied that no such
+report had been received by him, and it was his belief that none of the
+hostile savages were in the immediate country.
+
+At that moment, Buffalo Bill entered the room. He was chief of scouts at
+Fort Harker, and had just returned from some perilous mission to one of
+the military posts on the Arkansas, and was coming from the stable, to
+report to the Adjutant. He was told of the mysterious disappearance of
+Mr. Thompson's daughter Kate, and the opinion of the famous Indian
+fighter and courier was asked as to what he thought of the matter, as no
+Indians had been reported in the vicinity.
+
+"Well," said Bill, "because you gentlemen have received no report of the
+savages, it does not follow that none have been here. _I know that they
+have been here, and to-day._ As I crossed Bluff Creek on my way here
+this afternoon, about six o'clock, I saw in the distance a band of
+Indians, numbering about ten or twelve, riding rapidly south. I hid
+myself in a ravine so that they should not discover me, but I got a good
+look at 'em with my field-glass. I think they were Comanches, though I
+can't be certain of that; they might have been Cheyennes or Kiowas;
+they were too far off to be made out exactly. Now, you ask for my
+opinion as to what has become of the gentleman's daughter. I believe
+those Indians have her; because they were riding so fast toward their
+villages, and they are, you know, all south of the Canadian.
+
+"But don't let Mr. Thompson worry too much; the simple fact that she is
+a prisoner among them is bad enough. If among the Kiowas, and the chief,
+Kicking Bird, is in the village when the band arrives with the girl, he
+will not allow her to be harmed. He is a cunning old fellow, and knows
+the value of money. He will have good care taken of her, and get a heavy
+reward from the Government for ransom. If she should fall into the
+village of Sa-tan-ta, God help her! He is the worst demon on the trail;
+but anyhow, I don't think they will harm her, as they will want a
+ransom."
+
+"Well," said the officer, "I am sorry that I have no cavalry at the
+post, but I will send a detachment of the infantry after them in
+six-mule wagons. I imagine it will be a useless task to try to catch up
+with them if, as Buffalo Bill says, they were going as fast as they
+could to their village on the Canadian. Lieutenant Hale," said he,
+turning to the Adjutant, "make a detail at once of thirty men, and send
+them out under a couple of non-commissioned officers on the trail of the
+savages, if it can be found. Anyhow, some sign may be discovered that
+will tell us whether the girl is with them."
+
+Then turning to Joe, he said: "I wish that you would go with the
+detachment, for you are the best trailer in the whole country, not
+excepting our chief scout here, Buffalo Bill, and he's the prince of all
+frontiersmen."
+
+"Well," said Buffalo Bill, "I've just come off a pretty hard trip, but I
+volunteer to go with the party; if I can do anything in a case of this
+kind, fatigue doesn't count."
+
+"Thank you, Bill," said Mr. Thompson. "I will return to Errolstrath and
+tell my family what has been done, and your favorable opinion that the
+savages won't harm her: that will be a comfort at least. Good night,
+gentlemen," said he; and he went out and untied his horse from the
+hitching-post, and rode slowly home.
+
+The night was quite dark, though there was a little moonlight, but the
+detachment did not get away from the post until long after midnight, as
+there was so much delay in hitching up the teams and turning out the
+soldiers who had gone to bed. By the time the little train of three
+wagons arrived at Bluff Creek, where Buffalo Bill had seen the Indians,
+the day was just breaking. They could not travel to that point from the
+fort very rapidly on account of the rough nature of the trail. It was
+nothing but a series of rocky hills after they had crossed the Smoky
+Hill, and was constantly becoming rougher as they approached Bluff
+Creek, which was well named on account of its high bluffs.
+
+The party halted at the ford where they supposed the savages had
+crossed, and began to look for Indian signs. Pony tracks were plainly
+visible in the soft earth where the trail led down to the water, and
+Buffalo Bill dismounted and examined them carefully. He then asked Joe
+to get off his horse and count the hoof-marks. Joe did so, and both he
+and the famous scout agreed that there must have been about a dozen of
+the savages.
+
+Crossing the creek, followed by the wagons, Joe and he ascended the hill
+on the other side. They had not proceeded a quarter of a mile when
+Buffalo Bill picked up from the trail a small par-flèche basket, which
+Joe immediately recognized as belonging to his sister.
+
+"Look here, Mr. Cody, there is her name which I carved myself when I
+gave it to her. Now we know for a fact that the savages have captured
+her. I know why Ginger came home with that little sumac bush fastened to
+his bridle. Kate must have tied him to it, and when the Indians swooped
+down on her, the pony broke loose and tore up the little tree by the
+roots in his fright, for he was always scared out of his wits at the
+sight of an Indian."
+
+The little detachment of soldiers rode on for a dozen more miles, when
+the mules showed unmistakable signs of fatigue. They could not be made
+to travel faster than a walk, notwithstanding the persuasive efforts of
+the blacksnake-whips in the hands of their drivers. So both Buffalo Bill
+and Joe reluctantly decided that it was no use to follow the Indians any
+farther. They knew the habits of the savages so well, that they were now
+probably a hundred miles ahead of them, for they always took loose
+stock along with them so as to change animals when their own horses
+became leg-weary.
+
+Very reluctantly, then, the cavalcade was turned round and headed for
+the fort, where the party arrived at about one o'clock. Buffalo Bill, as
+chief of scouts, reported the result of the trip to the commanding
+officer.
+
+All were depressed at the failure of the expedition, but it was
+impossible that it should have turned out differently, and when Joe
+arrived at Errolstrath and related the story of the finding of Kate's
+basket, the grief of the family knew no bounds. All felt keen anguish at
+the absence of their favorite, and at her sad fate.
+
+There was nothing to be done except to wait patiently for some action on
+the part of the Government in ransoming her if she was alive. The family
+settled themselves into a calm resignation, but the sun did not seem to
+shine so brightly, nor the birds to sing so sweetly as when the pet of
+the household was there. Even her antelope appeared to partake of the
+general gloom; it evidently missed its loving young mistress, and would
+wander around the house, disconsolately seeking her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+  HOW KATE WAS CAPTURED BY THE INDIANS--THE BAND RIDE
+    RAPIDLY SOUTHWARD--AT THE INDIAN VILLAGE--HER
+    DETERMINATION TO ESCAPE--TEACHES THE SQUAWS--IS TREATED
+    KINDLY
+
+
+IMMEDIATELY after dinner on the day that Kate was missed, she bethought
+herself that the raspberries might be ripe. She wanted to surprise her
+mother and sister, but as will be seen, was surprised in such a manner
+that she never forgot it as long as she lived.
+
+Without saying a word to her mother or Gertrude, she took out of her
+room a little basket made of par-flèche,[1] given to Joe by the Pawnees,
+and by him presented to her. She went out to the pasture, caught her
+pony, Ginger, saddled him, and rode out to the fatal raspberry patch
+where once she had such a terrible encounter with a she-wolf.
+
+It was a fortunate thing that both the girls had learned to ride, for a
+sad fate would have been in store for her had she not been a thorough
+horsewoman.
+
+Arriving there in less than half an hour, she tied Ginger to a sumac
+bush, and to her delight found that the berries were quite ripe, and was
+soon absorbed in the task of filling her basket. Suddenly, with the rush
+of a tornado, and uttering the most diabolical yells, a dozen Comanches,
+dressed up in their war paint and eagle feathers, swooped down on the
+unsuspecting girl as a hawk swoops down on a chicken. Before she
+realized where she was, one of the red devils, leaning over from his
+pony, caught her by the arms and tossed her in front of his saddle, and
+in another instant the whole band was dashing away southward as fast as
+their little animals could be urged.
+
+Of course, she fainted for a moment, but strangely held on to her
+basket. When she had recovered from her first shock, the Indians
+endeavored to make her understand by signs that they were not going to
+hurt her. In fact, they treated her with a sort of savage kindness. The
+great feather-bedecked brute made her as comfortable as he could in
+front of him, as he pounded the pony's flanks with his moccasined heels
+to urge it on as fast as possible.
+
+They rode rapidly on, staying for nothing, crossed Bluff Creek, and
+reached the Arkansas River that night. They waited there for an hour to
+allow their ponies to graze, and themselves to eat and smoke. They rode
+on again until daylight the next morning, when the sand hills of the
+Beaver came in sight. There they halted for breakfast, and shared with
+the now relatively calm girl their dried buffalo meat, and bread made of
+ground-roots.
+
+That evening they arrived at their village on the Canadian, more than
+two hundred and fifty miles from the Oxhide. Kate was turned over to the
+squaws, who treated her with the kindness innate in all women, because
+she was only a little girl. Had she been a young woman, that monster
+Jealousy, which makes his home even in the rude tepee of the savage,
+would have made her lot entirely different.
+
+She was allotted to the lodge of an old squaw, the old chief White
+Wolf's fifth wife, whose duty was to guard her and see that she did not
+attempt to escape. The savages, as Buffalo Bill had suggested, simply
+wanted to keep her until the Government should offer a ransom for the
+little captive, so it behooved them not to abuse her.
+
+As the days rolled on in their weary length, the white captive became
+more reconciled to her fate. She had never given up the hope that the
+officers at Fort Harker would soon send out the troops to seek her, and
+that she would be restored to her dear Errolstrath home and her parents.
+At the same time, as she was a most excellent horsewoman, she always
+thought that if the worst came to the worst, she would make her escape
+and again ride the long distance she had ridden in coming to the
+village.
+
+When she had regained her self-control on her dreadful journey, she had
+looked around her and had taken such observations as she could of the
+lay of the country, the timber, and the general aspect of the trail.
+Even then, in all the terrible excitement of her capture, she thought of
+escaping at the first opportunity that offered itself. She indelibly
+imprinted every tree, rock, and ford on her mind, so that the long ride
+over the trail to the village was like a photograph on her brain to be
+taken out of its storehouse whenever required.
+
+In a very few days she had so ingratiated herself in the good opinion of
+the women of the village, that they really took a fancy to her. She
+willingly helped them in all the daily tasks heaped upon them by their
+hard masters. She learned readily how to tan the different furs which
+were brought into the place after a hunt, made moccasins, herded the
+ponies in her turn, and even became such an adept in cooking that she
+was soon permanently assigned as cook for the occupants of the tepee in
+which she was lodged. Then she was spared the dirtier and harder labor
+which fell to the lot of the Indian women, for she had been brought up
+by her excellent mother to perform all kinds of work in which a white
+woman is supposed to become proficient, and now it served her in a way
+that was never dreamed of.
+
+The Indians occasionally had flour, but knew of but one way to prepare
+it. They made a kind of gruel, by boiling, and adding a little salt. A
+most unpalatable dish! She made bread and biscuit, which she baked in
+the most primitive way, on a piece of thin iron before the coals of the
+camp-fire; but then the food was so different from that to which the
+savages had been accustomed, that no one was permitted to prepare the
+meals for the lodge where she made her abode, but the White Fawn, as
+they began to call her.
+
+Like Constantinople, every village is overrun with dogs, and they are
+the most vigilant guards that can be imagined. No one may hope to
+approach an Indian lodge, or a group of them, without being saluted by a
+chorus of the most unearthly barking and howling from the canine
+cataract that is sure to pour out the moment a strange footstep is
+heard. Kate, always a lover of pets, immediately began to cultivate the
+friendship of the dogs of the village. There was, however, something
+more in her method than mere natural affection for the brute creation;
+she had an object in view. She knew that when the time arrived for her
+to attempt to escape, the dogs must be thoroughly attached to her, so
+that they would regard any movement she might make without the slightest
+suspicion. This she soon effected, and in a short time every miserable
+cur in the village was her faithful ally.
+
+The intense interest which she took in the herd of ponies may be
+imagined, for in one of them, at some time in the near future, was
+concentrated her hope of escaping from the hateful village. She had
+noticed a little roan pony which seemed to her to possess that power of
+endurance that would be so necessary when she started on her long and
+lonely journey to the beloved Oxhide. She knew that he was the swiftest
+animal of the hundred or more in the bunch, for she had watched him
+often when the dusky warrior who owned him rode away on the hunt. She
+had read in some favorite magazine at the ranche, that in the old tales
+of English minstrelsy, the roan horse was the favorite color of the
+heroes of those stories, and she selected that animal out of the herd to
+carry her away. So, whenever she could, surreptitiously, she petted him,
+and he became so attached to her that he would follow her like a dog.
+
+The savages watched her very closely, and she dared not think of leaving
+the village for many long weeks. At last she appeared to be so pleased
+with her new associations that their vigilance relaxed somewhat, and
+their eyes were not always upon her.
+
+She very rapidly learned the language of her captors, and then, as she
+could talk to the women, who were really kind to her, her isolation did
+not seem so hard to bear.
+
+The principal food of the savages was dried buffalo meat, and, as it
+would keep sweet for a long time and was very nourishing, she hid
+portions of her rations in the hollow of an old elm that stood near her
+tepee, for use on the trip when the time arrived for her to run away.
+
+The clothes which Kate wore when she was stolen soon began to show the
+hard service to which they had been subjected, and finally she had to
+resort to the blanket for a general wrap like her female associates. She
+had patched her civilized dress until it was like Joseph's coat, of many
+colors, but she tenaciously clung to it, determining that she would wear
+it home, if she was fortunate enough ever to return. So she took it off
+and carefully stored it with her buffalo meat in the hollow of the old
+elm.
+
+She soon became aware that the savages were at war with the whites, for
+often when the warriors went away dressed up in their feathers and
+hideous paint, they came back with their ranks decimated, and then there
+was wailing and howling in the village.
+
+She knew, also, that General Custer, whom the Indians called the
+Crawling Panther, was gradually outwitting them, for she heard the
+sobriquet they had given him often mentioned in their talks around the
+camp-fires.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[1] Par-flèche is the tanned hide of the buffalo, without the hair. The
+Indians make baskets and boxes of it in which to pack their provisions
+and other articles when they move their villages.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+  THANKSGIVING DAY AT ERROLSTRATH--KATE'S RETURN--CUSTER'S
+    BATTLE WITH "BLACK KETTLE"--KATE TELLS HER STORY--THE
+    ORIGIN OF INDIAN CORN--A WOLF HUNT WITH GENERAL
+    CUSTER--A WOLF STORY BY THE COLONEL
+
+
+FIVE months had made their sad passage at Errolstrath ranche since Kate
+was carried off by the Indians. It was now November, and Thanksgiving,
+that day so sacred to every New Englander's heart, was rapidly
+approaching; it lacked but one week of its advent. Notwithstanding the
+sadness which still hovered over Errolstrath, the great healer, Time,
+had poured balm into the wounded hearts. There still remained the tender
+remembrance of the light which the absent one always brought into the
+house, and the parents still strove to fulfil their obligations to those
+who were left to them, so Thanksgiving was kept as it had been ever
+since the settlement of the family on the ranche.
+
+The mince pies had been baked, the cider bottled, and all that was
+lacking to make up the complement of the great dinner was a turkey. As,
+however, the woods were full of them around Errolstrath, no uneasiness
+was felt in regard to the presence of the magnificent bird when he was
+wanted.
+
+Joe, upon whom the family depended to keep the larder well supplied with
+game, intended to go and kill a wild turkey the next day. Thanksgiving
+came the second day following on the twenty-fifth, so there was ample
+time to procure the principal dish for the coming event.
+
+Joe had long since ceased to hunt for mere amusement. He had become a
+veritable pot-hunter, not in the general sense in which the word is
+used, that is, a man who only kills his game on the ground, but he
+hunted only when the family needed a change of diet, and desired some
+kind of game.
+
+It was Rob's duty that month to bring the cows home and milk them, a
+duty at which the boys took turn and turn about each month. That evening
+he was returning home with his charge, and was riding, as usual, one of
+the buffalo ponies. As he was going along the bank of the Oxhide, in the
+long grass which grew in some places higher than a man's head, his
+animal suddenly stumbled with both feet, into a prairie dog's hole, and
+Rob was incontinently thrown over his head, falling into the long grass
+without receiving any injury. As he started to his feet again, he felt
+something struggling in his hands, for he had involuntarily clutched at
+the ground when the pony so unceremoniously tumbled him off, and to his
+great surprise, he discovered that he had accidentally caught a large
+wild turkey! He held on to the bird manfully, although it tried its
+hardest to get away from him; and holding it by the legs, he walked on
+to the corral and drove the cows in. Then, still leading his pony, he
+arrived at the house, and called his mother and Gertrude out,
+exclaiming:--
+
+"I've got the turkey for Thanksgiving, and I didn't have to shoot it,
+either!"
+
+Joe, hearing the noise, came down from his room, and learning what had
+caused the racket, said:--
+
+"By jolly, Rob, you are a lucky dog; but if any one read of the way you
+caught it, they wouldn't believe it. I never heard of such a thing
+before. I sha'n't have to hunt one to-morrow now, and I'm glad of it,
+for I want to go to the fort to try to find out how the Indian war is
+coming on."
+
+"Well, Joe," said his mother, "as you needn't shoot one now, suppose you
+kill and pick it while Rob is milking, then hang it up somewhere so that
+the lynxes can't get it, and in the morning Gertie and I will get it
+ready for the oven."
+
+Joe then took it from Rob, who was still holding the struggling creature
+by the legs, and taking it to the woodpile, he chopped off its head,
+then he picked it, and hung it up in the smoke-house as the safest place
+until his mother was ready for it in the morning.
+
+Thanksgiving day opened clear and cool, but not at all cold, for
+November in Kansas is one of the most delightful months in the whole
+year. The Indian summer is then at its height, and the amber mist hangs
+in light clouds on every hill, giving to all objects a smoky hue. This
+mist rests particularly on the bluffs bordering that stream to which
+General John C. Fremont gave the name of "The Smoky Hill Fork of the
+Republican." He first saw it in the late autumn of 1843, when on his
+exploring expedition to the Rocky Mountains, and it is into that river
+that the Oxhide empties itself only a short distance from Errolstrath
+ranche.
+
+It was intended to have dinner served promptly at noon, and Mrs.
+Thompson had so announced to her husband and children, who were all
+anxious for twelve o'clock to strike.
+
+About ten, while she and Gertrude were busy in the kitchen, the boys out
+in the yard, and Mr. Thompson in the timber, marking some trees he
+planned to cut down, there rode up to the front porch a strange-looking
+figure on a roan pony which was evidently nearly blown in consequence of
+the pace at which it had been driven.
+
+The strange object was seemingly a girl, but she was one mass of rags
+over which was thrown a red blanket, Indian fashion. Her hair was
+unkempt, and she sat crossways on her animal, like a savage.
+
+Mrs. Thompson, hearing the sound of a horse's hoofs on the buffalo sod
+in front of the house, went out with her dish-cloth in her hand to see
+who the intruder might be. Looking at her, she at first thought one of
+the Pawnee boys had come for Joe, but when she heard in a sad and
+apparently disappointed tone a voice which she could never have
+forgotten: "My heavens! mamma, don't you know me?" she recognized it as
+that of her lost daughter Kate. The cloth dropped from her hand, and she
+fell prone upon the porch, overcome by the shock.
+
+Just as Gertrude, who had heard her mother's smothered groan, ran out
+with a tin dipper of water to dash into her face, Kate dismounted, and
+rushing to where her mother was lying, she threw her arms around her
+neck and began to sob violently.
+
+It was then that Gertrude, for the first time, saw her sister Kate, and
+she, too, immediately fell upon her lovingly, and for some moments there
+was weeping, laughing, kissing, and hugging. The boys, in the back part
+of the house, and their father in the stable, hearing the voices,
+hurried to the veranda, and in another second all were kissing and
+hugging the ragged girl, each one trying to outvie the other in their
+joy at the return of the pet of the household.
+
+They fairly dragged Kate into the sitting-room, where, for a few
+minutes, they looked at her in a dazed sort of way. Her mother was the
+first to come to her senses.
+
+"The first thing to do," she said, "is to get some decent clothes on the
+child; then as soon as Mr. Tucker comes we will have dinner. Oh! my,
+what a Thanksgiving it will be!"
+
+Kate was soon made comfortable in clean linen, and a dress of her
+sister's, for she had outgrown all that were of her own wardrobe five
+months before.
+
+At this moment Mr. Tucker rode up to the door, and allowing Rob to take
+his horse to the stable, the old man walked into the house. He was the
+only invited guest on the Thanksgivings at Errolstrath. All his family
+were long since dead, and he was alone in the world; besides, being a
+New Englander, he had not forgotten how to appreciate the most important
+festival of Yankee Land.
+
+He was wonderfully taken aback when he saw that Kate had returned, and
+he congratulated her with his eyes full of tears; for he was a man with
+a warm heart, though his early life in the days of the old trappers had
+given him a rough looking exterior.
+
+Kate looked like the dear Kate of old, as all sat down to a real
+Thanksgiving dinner. She was much browner than when she left
+Errolstrath, because of her constant outdoor life in the Indian village.
+
+"Oh! Kate," said her mother, as the happy girl took her accustomed place
+at the table, between her father and Gertrude, "how earnestly I have
+prayed that you might be restored to us; I felt at times almost in
+despair, but the thought of the good God's promises to the patient,
+cheered me up, and I knew that in His own time my prayer would be
+answered. What a different Thanksgiving this is from what we all have
+expected, when we thought of Kate's vacant chair! Only think, we have
+never yet been separated on this blessed day during all the years we
+have lived at Errolstrath! But we little thought that we should be
+together to-day."
+
+"We have much to be thankful for," said Mr. Thompson; "excellent crops,
+good luck with our stock, and to cap the climax, our beloved Kate is
+restored to us."
+
+The Thanksgiving dinners at Errolstrath were composed of those
+conventional dishes which make up the celebration of the festival in New
+England, and the one at Errolstrath that day was perfect in its
+resemblance to those of the old homestead in Vermont.
+
+While they were discussing the good things on the table, Kate was told
+how Rob had got the turkey for the dinner, and also how matters had
+progressed at the ranche during her absence, for she was very anxious to
+know. Her father said that he had raised the largest crop of corn since
+he had been on the creek; that the wolves had carried off two calves
+from Errolstrath, but that many of the neighbors had suffered a great
+deal more from their depredations, and that a grand wolf hunt was
+contemplated by the whole neighborhood, for something had to be done to
+thin out the ravenous creatures. Gertrude told how many chickens she
+had, but Joe gave them all the best news they had heard for a long
+time.
+
+"I was over at Fort Harker yesterday," he said, "and I heard that
+General Custer had attacked the camp of Black Kettle, the Cheyenne
+chief, on the Washita in the Indian Territory, and completely wiped them
+out. The war is ended, and the savages are suing for a peace which
+General Sheridan says they will be sure to keep this time. The
+commanding officer told me that Custer would soon arrive at the fort,
+and that the settlers need have little more fear; that they may go
+anywhere now without expecting to lose their hair. He said that Sheridan
+had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general for the brilliant
+success of his winter campaign, and that he would shortly be at Fort
+Harker on his way to Washington."
+
+"Well, that is glorious news," said Mr. Tucker. "No more stealing pretty
+little girls from their homes, eh?"
+
+When Joe had finished his joyous piece of intelligence, the family
+adjourned to the big sitting-room, and Kate was asked to tell the
+wonderful story of her capture and escape. She seated herself in her
+favorite chair, an old Boston rocker, brought from Vermont and nicely
+cushioned at the back, and was making ready to begin, when her mother
+said:--
+
+"What in the world, Kate, possessed you to go away from the house that
+day and to tell none of us where you intended to go?"
+
+"Why," answered Kate, "I remembered that you were very fond of
+raspberries, and I thought that, as they must be ripe, I would saddle
+Ginger and go up to the patch to get some, for I wanted to surprise you.
+I took my little Indian basket--"
+
+[Illustration: "I had nearly filled my basket."]
+
+"Buffalo Bill found your basket on the trail the other side of Bluff
+Creek ford," interrupted Joe, "and that is how we came to know that the
+Indians had captured you."
+
+"I remember now," said Kate, "that I held on to it for a long time and
+then dropped it. I don't know why I kept it in my hand. Well, as I was
+saying, I rode out to the patch, tied Ginger to a sumac bush, and began
+to pick the berries, which were ripe as I had expected. I had nearly
+filled my basket when with a dash that nearly frightened me out of
+my senses, a band of Indians came from the other side of the big
+ledge, and before I knew where I was, I found myself in front of a
+horrible-looking savage, and the whole band started south as tight as
+their ponies could go. I remember hearing Ginger give a snort, as he
+jerked up by the roots the bush I had tied him to, and fairly flew
+towards the ranche--"
+
+"There, mother," said Joe, "that's just what I told you when Ginger came
+home with the sumac fastened to his bridle!"
+
+"Oh, if I could only have jumped on Ginger's back," continued Kate,
+"before the Indians had got me, they never would have had the ghost of a
+chance of catching me. But they came upon me before I had the least idea
+they were anywhere near.
+
+"We rode all that afternoon, halting for a few moments, long after dark,
+for the Indians to change ponies, as they had some loose ones with them.
+We kept on at a good gait all that night, until about daylight, when we
+stayed for more than an hour on the other side of the Arkansas River, to
+graze the ponies among the sand hills, and for the Indians to eat their
+breakfast. They were quite kind to me; gave me some dried buffalo meat,
+and brought me some water from the stream in a horn, and tried to make
+me understand that they did not intend to harm me.
+
+"Of course, I was frightened at the idea of being carried off by the
+horrid savages, but I tried to keep my senses, and watched every tree
+and rock on the trail. I looked at the sun to learn which way we were
+going, and determined in my mind that I would escape at the first
+opportunity.
+
+"On the tops of the highest points of the hills, I saw the stone
+monuments, which Joe had often told me were placed by the savages on
+their travels from place to place, as marks to show where water and wood
+are to be found."
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Tucker; "you can see those piles of stones on every hill
+about here; and from them you can always see water or timber, indicating
+where to camp."
+
+"They were to be seen on every divide we crossed," continued Kate; "and
+besides, I saw lots of the compass-plant, or rosin-weed, the leaves of
+which, Joe had told me, always pointed north, so I felt satisfied if I
+could ever escape, I would have no trouble in finding my way back to
+the Oxhide.[2] After a long, wearisome ride, until the next morning, we
+arrived at the Canadian River, which the Indians called the 'Mai-om,' or
+Red, and on the bank of which was the village consisting of about a
+hundred lodges.
+
+"There I was turned over to the women, who treated me very decently, and
+I immediately began to study the language, for I knew that that would
+help me in getting into their good graces. I willingly took hold of the
+work which falls to the lot of the squaws in every camp, and taught them
+how to cook after the white style. You may imagine I had plenty to do,
+for the warriors liked the biscuit I used to make, and they sometimes
+had a good deal of flour for which they had traded with the white men
+who bought their furs.
+
+"I made friends of the dogs in the village, and there were hundreds of
+them, some of them miserable curs, but they could make more noise than a
+pack of wolves; and I thought if I could teach them to know me, they
+would not bother me when I attempted to run away; for you know that
+they are the most watchful animals imaginable. At night, not the
+slightest sound escapes their well-trained ears, and at the approach of
+a human being, they set up the most terrific barking and howling you
+ever heard. Well, I soon made friends with every one of them, and I
+could go around the village after dark, and they would not utter a
+growl.
+
+"I watched very closely the large herd of ponies,--there were more than
+two hundred belonging to the village,--to find out which one of them was
+the fleetest, and had the most endurance. I picked out the little roan I
+rode here, and, Joe, I will make him a present to you; for if you had
+not taught me so much about plants, and the methods of the Indians, and
+before all things else, taken such pains with me when I wanted to ride a
+pony, I never should have been able to run away and come home safely."
+
+"Thank you, Kate," said Joe. "We have kept Ginger just as finely as ever
+for you, and he is the best pony in the whole country, I don't care how
+many the Indians may have."
+
+Kate went on with her wonderful experience. "Near the tepee where I
+slept I found an old elm tree that had a great hollow in it near the
+roots, and I determined to make it my storehouse for the food I should
+need when I ran away. I did not, of course, begin to hide anything in it
+until I had been in the village for over four months. Then I used to
+save little by little of my portion of the dried buffalo meat, as I knew
+that it would keep for a long time without spoiling.
+
+"We ate all sorts of things that at first rather disgusted me;
+puppy-stew, for instance. Now, mother and Gertrude, don't laugh; I
+really soon learned to like it, though I never expect to be compelled to
+eat it again. It is the cleanest thing the Indians have, if you will
+only get over the natural prejudice against eating dog. Why, just think,
+the puppies are only sucklings when they are eaten; they have tasted
+nothing but their mother's milk, and the mothers are fed on buffalo meat
+only.
+
+"I suppose that you, mother and Gert, want to know how puppy-stew is
+prepared? Well, when the little things are rolling fat, as round as a
+ball of butter, the old woman who has charge of the lodge takes them up
+and feels them all over, and if satisfactory, she chokes them to death
+by literally hanging them to a tree with a buffalo sinew. When dead,
+they are singed before the fire, just as you singe a fowl; the entrails
+are taken out, and then the flesh is boiled in a pot, and eaten as hot
+as possible. The savages, particularly the old squaws, can take up in
+their buffalo-horn spoons, meat which would scald a white person to
+death, and swallow it without the slightest difficulty. I suppose that
+that, and their constant brooding over a smoky fire in the tepees, makes
+them look so old and wrinkled at an early age. They are the most
+horrid-looking witches you ever saw, and they would need no 'fixing up'
+to play the part in Macbeth."
+
+"Talking of curious dishes eaten by the Indians," said Mr. Tucker, "up
+in Oregon, where I was trapping a good many years ago, the squaws make
+what I call Indian jelly-cake. They take the black crickets, roasted,
+which form a large portion of their subsistence, and make a kind of
+bread of them, after having ground them on a flat stone. They then
+spread on it the boiled berries of the service tree or bush, and if it
+was not manipulated by their very dirty hands, it would be very
+palatable."
+
+"The Indians of the great plains," continued Kate, "live almost
+exclusively on meat; they gather a few berries sometimes, but their
+principal diet is buffalo meat.
+
+"After I had been in the village for over four months, I began to think
+of trying to escape. My clothes were becoming more ragged every day, and
+I was obliged to resort to the blanket as a covering, though I kept what
+I had worn there as long as I could.
+
+"One day there was a great feast in the village, with dancing and
+carousing, which the warriors kept up until long after midnight, and
+consequently slept very soundly. Now, thought I, is my time. So after I
+found out that the old squaw with whom I lodged was sound asleep, I
+crept up, and looked out to see what kind of a night it was. The moon
+was low down in the western heavens, but bright enough for me to see the
+trail, so I determined to make the attempt. I took a piece of buffalo
+robe for a saddle, and went out to the herd to catch the pony on which
+I had had my eyes for such a long time, and had petted whenever I was
+not watched. The dogs, of course, had come out of their holes to see
+what was going on, having heard my almost noiseless footsteps; but
+recognizing me instantly, they did not set up their customary howl. They
+went back to sleep without making any trouble, and I walked out to the
+herd about a quarter of a mile away, and soon found the little roan I
+wanted. He came up to me without a neigh, luckily, and I fastened the
+piece of robe on him, tucked the dried buffalo meat, which I had taken
+from my hiding-place, into my bosom, and jumping on, started at a pace
+which, if I had not been a good rider, would have tossed me off before I
+had gone half a dozen yards.
+
+"The pony seemed to know just what I required of him, for he ran on a
+good lope, with his belly almost touching the ground, and in a little
+while I had crossed the ford of the Canadian, and was going up the
+divide on the other side as fast as I dared to force him. I took a
+glance at the north star to get my bearings, for I dared not follow the
+broad trail, as the Indians would be sure to track me, and struck across
+the country, up one hill and down the other until day began to break.
+Then I stayed a few seconds at a small branch to let my pony drink and
+to take a swallow myself, and on I went, not daring to let him graze
+yet.
+
+"Mile after mile the noble little fellow carried me until late that
+afternoon. Of course I watered him at every creek I came to, but did not
+halt until it had grown quite dark. Then I took him about a mile down
+into a piece of timber, unsaddled him and let him graze for more than an
+hour. I kept my ears open, fearing every moment to hear the sound of
+ponies' hoofs, for I felt confident that the Indians would follow me the
+moment they discovered that I was gone.
+
+"When I thought he had sufficiently rested, and I had eaten a small
+piece of the meat, I mounted him again and started on a lope northward.
+I kept the little gallop, changing into a brisk walk once in a while,
+until I could see by the daylight the long silvery line of the Arkansas,
+looking like a white snake in its many windings. Then I felt pretty
+safe, after I had stopped and watched the trail back as far as I could,
+which was for more than two miles. I could see nothing like dust, nor
+hear a sound, so I began to hope that I had really escaped, and my heart
+began to feel lighter than it had for many a long month.
+
+"I crossed the Arkansas, which the Indians call 'Mit-sun,' meaning Big,
+and it was up to my pony's breast, but he struggled through splendidly,
+though I got my moccasins wet, for the water came to my knees. I did not
+mind that, as I had often got wet through in the Canadian where we used
+to go swimming almost every morning while at the village. The squaws are
+very fond of the water in that way, but are not so clean with their
+hands as I would many a time have liked them to be.
+
+"On the other side of the divide separating the Arkansas from the Smoky
+Hill, I halted in a box-elder grove to rest my roan, and rest myself,
+for I was nearly worn out. I felt very safe then, for I knew that I was
+approaching the settlements on Plum Creek, and if I had known, what Joe
+has just told us, that the war was over, I might have been at my ease
+all the way from the Arkansas.
+
+"Early this morning I came to Bluff Creek, at the very spot where I had
+crossed with the Indians, and how my heart fluttered when I knew I was
+so near dear Errolstrath! From that creek I rode slowly, as I knew I had
+nothing to fear from the Indians, for the settlements were too thick,
+and besides it was daytime, when the Indians rarely attack.
+
+"I often got off my pony when it grew too dark to see, to feel the
+leaves of the compass-plant, that I could always find without much
+hunting on every hill. Now, mamma and father, don't you think that I
+have made a famous ride?"
+
+"We all think so," said her father; "it is one of the most remarkable on
+record, and we rejoice more than even you can imagine, to have our dear
+daughter back again, well as ever, after such an experience."
+
+"Why don't the Indians raise corn?" inquired Rob, in a general way; "it
+is so easily grown out here on the plains."
+
+"Some of the tribes do," replied Mr. Tucker. "The Sioux and the Mandans
+have always had their corn-fields, but as usual the women have to do
+all the work. Do you know, Rob, that the corn is a native plant of North
+and South America, yet it has never been found wild?"
+
+"Do tell us about it," said Mrs. Thompson; and Kate asked if there were
+not some legend connected with it, "for there is not a thing that they
+eat, without its wonderful story."
+
+"Certainly," replied Mr. Tucker. "There is a beautiful legend among the
+Sioux, which I learned from them when I was among them in 1840, and as
+it is not late yet, if you like, I will tell it to you."
+
+"Do! do!" all exclaimed in chorus.
+
+"Of course," began Mr. Tucker, "among the Indians the origin of corn is
+wrapped up in the supernatural legends of the race, of which there are
+several, differing materially, however, in their details. Strange as it
+may seem, nowhere in all the vast domain of both Americas, has a wild
+species of corn been discovered; and yet the inhabitants of these
+continents have used it from the earliest times, of which even history
+has no record. Yet, at some time in the unchronicled past it must have
+grown wild. An unknown benefactor of his race--one whose name not even
+tradition preserves, excepting in unintelligible myths--saw somewhere,
+the feathery tassels and glossy blades with their silken ears amidst the
+foliage of a sedgy river bank, and owing to his first care, the wild
+plant, after many ages, has become the maize of commerce, and the king
+of all the cereals of the nineteenth century.
+
+"When Columbus found the New World, corn was the staple food of all
+tribes of Indians from the far north to the extreme south, who attempted
+to cultivate the soil at all.
+
+"The celebrated Père Marquette, the Catholic priest who passed his life
+among the savages, met with it at every point, on his memorable journey
+down the Mississippi River, in 1763. It has been exhumed from tombs of a
+greater antiquity than those of the Incas of Peru. Darwin discovered
+heads of it embedded in an ancient beach that had been upheaved
+eighty-five feet above the sea-level.
+
+"That Indian corn is indigenous to America, has never been questioned by
+botanists, for Europe knew nothing of it until Columbus returned home
+from our shores.
+
+"Longfellow has poetically told of one of the Indian traditions of the
+origin of corn, in his _Hiawatha's Fasting_.
+
+"The legend was first transmitted to the white men by Rattlesnake, and
+strange to say, he was a chief of the Kansas or Kaw tribe of Indians. He
+related it on an island at the mouth of the Kansas River, in 1673, as is
+recorded in the old French manuscript of an early traveller.
+
+"It states that a band of a hundred Kansas Indians in returning from a
+successful raid on the Shawnees, of whom they had taken several
+prisoners, halted on the island, taking advantage of the thick timber
+which grew in groups, as a convenient spot to torture their captives.
+
+"Père Marquette, whom the Indians called 'The White Prophet,' happened
+to be there most opportunely; for through the respect and veneration in
+which the monk was held, he saved the lives of the hapless Shawnees, who
+were set at liberty. That evening while eating their supper of cooked
+hominy, the good priest asked for the legend which told of the origin of
+Indian corn, and Rattlesnake gave it, as he said he had often heard it
+at his mother's knee.
+
+"It is the same story the Sioux told me, but I will follow the language
+of the old manuscript, for I have often read it.
+
+"Once when the world was young, and there were but few red men in it,
+there was a chief whose wife bore him many children. Every summer added
+one and sometimes two to his family. They became so numerous that the
+father could not give them sufficient food, and the hungry children were
+continually crying. By great patience and skill in hunting, however, the
+chief at length raised a large family, until his eldest son reached the
+stature of manhood.
+
+"In those days the red men all lived in peace and friendship. There was
+no war, and no scalp-locks hung from the doors of the lodges. The eldest
+son had the fear of the Great Spirit in his heart, and, like his father,
+he toiled patiently in the chase that he might assist in procuring food
+for his brothers and sisters.
+
+"In those days all of the promising young men, at their entrance into
+manhood, had to separate themselves from the tribe, and retire into the
+forest, to see if the Great Spirit would grant them some request. During
+this time there was to be neither eating nor drinking, but they were to
+spend the hours in thinking intently on the request they were making of
+the Manitou.
+
+"When the young man had gone a long distance in the forest, he began to
+pray to the Great Spirit, and to ask for a favor which he had long
+cherished in his heart for the occasion. He had often felt how
+frequently the chase had disappointed the red men, and how often their
+families had gone to sleep hungry, because they had no meat. He had
+always determined when his fasting and dreaming hour should come, that
+he would ask the Great Spirit to give the red men some article of food
+more certain than the meat obtained in the chase.
+
+"All that day the youth prayed, and thought of his request, and neither
+water nor food entered his mouth.
+
+"At night, with a bright hope in his young heart, he lay down to sleep.
+Soon he had a vision. He saw a magnificently attired youth coming toward
+him. He was clad in robes of green, and green plumes hung gracefully
+about his comely countenance.
+
+"'My dear young friend,' said the stranger, 'the Great Spirit has heard
+your prayer, but the boon you ask is a great boon; and you must pass
+through a heavy trial of suffering and patience before you will see the
+realization of your wish.
+
+"'You must first try your strength with me, and suffer nothing to enter
+your lips until I am overcome, before you will receive your reward.
+Come, the night wears apace, let us wrestle amid the trees.'
+
+"The chief's son had a big heart, and knew no fear, so he closed with
+his graceful antagonist. He found him endowed with muscles like the oak,
+and he had the wind of a wolf, that never was exhausted by effort. Long
+and long they wrestled, but so equal was their strength that neither
+could claim any decided advantage. 'Enough, my friend, for this time.
+You have struggled manfully. Still resist your appetite, give yourself
+up wholly to prayer and fasting, and you will receive the gratification
+of your desires. Farewell until to-morrow night, when I will return to
+wrestle with you again.' Then the young visitor, with his green plumes
+waving over his head, took his flight toward the skies, the green and
+yellow vestments with which he was clad expanding like wings.
+
+"When the Indian awoke, he found himself panting like a stag when chased
+by the wolves, and the perspiration dropped from his body; yet his heart
+was light, for he knew a sign had come from the Manitou. Although he was
+very hungry that day, and some berries and grapes tempted him sorely, he
+refrained from touching them, resisting successfully these natural
+desires.
+
+"Night came, and the young Indian closed his eyes in sleep; and lo!
+there was a continuance of his former vision. He saw coming toward him
+the graceful being he had seen on the previous night. The silken wings
+of green and gold swept through the air with great velocity, and the
+green plumes on his head waved rhythmically in their beauty.
+
+"They again wrestled, as before, and although the Indian had neither
+eaten nor drunk, he felt his strength greater than in the previous
+conflict; and he obtained some signal advantage over his celestial
+competitor. They were struggling together when the morning commenced to
+look upon the world, and he of the green plumes thus addressed the
+Indian youth:--
+
+"'My friend, on our next trial you will be the victor. Now, listen how I
+instruct you to take advantage of your conquest. When my efforts cease I
+shall die. Strip me of my yellow garments and bury me in soft and
+new-made earth. Visit my grave week by week, for in a little time I
+shall return to life in the form of a plant, which you will readily
+recognize by its resemblance to me. Let no weeds or grass be near me to
+keep the dew and sunshine from my green leaves, and once a month draw
+the fresh earth to my body, that it may grow and strengthen. When ears
+have shot from my side, and the silk which shall fall from their tops
+commences to dry, then pull the ear, strip it of its garments as you
+will strip me when I am dead. Place the milky grains before the fire
+which will cook the outside, without destroying any of the juicy
+substance. Then all the race of man will have a sweeter and stronger
+food than they have ever known before. There shall be no more hunger
+upon the earth excepting among those who have a lazy spirit, or whom the
+Bad Manitou claims as his own.'
+
+"When the Indian awoke, he felt very weak from hunger, and it required
+all the resolution of which he was master to restrain the gratification
+of his appetite, but he passed the day in fasting and prayer, and at
+nightfall laid himself down to sleep.
+
+"True to his promise, his friend of the green plumes again appeared in
+his trance, and again the wrestle commenced. The young Indian was
+exceedingly weak from his long fasting, but when engaged in the conflict
+he felt his heart grow big within him; his arms became as strong as the
+young oaks of the forest, and after a short struggle he threw his
+antagonist to the ground. The young Indian stood by the side of his
+adversary who said that he was dying, and told him to remember the
+instructions he had given him. The young Indian accordingly stripped the
+body of its vesture of mingled green and yellow, and carefully digging a
+grave, deposited it in the soft earth. He thought that the earth adhered
+to his hand in a strange manner, and at that moment he awoke, and found
+in his hand a seed such as he had never before seen.
+
+"The Indian then knew that the Manitou had heard his prayer, and that
+the grain was the body of his friend. He then went from the forest to
+the prairie, made soft the earth, and planted the strange seed sent to
+him in his dream.
+
+"He then returned to his father's lodge, and the whole family were
+anxious to know if he had received any sign from the Great Spirit, but
+he evaded all inquiries and kept his important secret. Every morning,
+before the sun's bright rays had looked upon the earth, he was beside
+the grave of the seed, and carefully kept the grass and weeds away.
+
+"On the morning of the ninth day, the faithful youth saw a green plant
+shooting from the earth, and as he gazed on its green blades, he knew at
+once the friend with whom he had wrestled.
+
+"Once each month he drew the fresh earth to the stalks, which grew day
+by day until they far overtopped his own stature, and then there began
+to protrude from their sides the shoots from which a mass of silken
+fibres issued. In a short time the plant began to dry, as had been
+foretold to him, and then he invited his father, mother, brothers, and
+sisters to the spot and showed them what the Great Spirit had sent him
+at his fasting season. He then pulled one of the two ears and roasted it
+before the fire.
+
+"The whole family tasted the new food, and they liked it. The other ear
+was kept for seed, and in a few years the red man had plenty of the new
+food which the Manitou had sent him."
+
+"That is a beautiful story," said Mrs. Thompson, and the others all
+agreed with her. "Kate, you must be very tired; don't you want to go to
+bed and sleep like a Christian once more?"
+
+"No," replied the young girl, "my muscles are 'like the oak trees in the
+forest,' as were those of the Indian who got the corn from the spirit
+with the green wings. Besides, it's only seven o'clock, and I want to
+look at you all for some time yet."
+
+Before eight o'clock, Buffalo Bill and Colonel Keogh came over from the
+fort, as they had heard from some one from Oxhide that Kate had come
+home, and they wanted to see her.
+
+They were both surprised at her excellent condition, and Bill ventured
+the remark that the Indians had certainly used her much better than they
+would have used him had he been in her place.
+
+"I've no doubt of that," said Mr. Tucker; "they would have had a
+roasting frolic if they had caught you instead of our little friend
+Kate!"
+
+"Well," said Colonel Keogh, "the war is ended, and I guess we have had
+the last trouble in Kansas that we shall ever have. The Indians are
+going peacefully to their reservations, where the Government will feed
+them, which is cheaper than fighting them, at anyrate! General Custer is
+at the fort, and he has heard so much of Joe that he wants to see him,
+and take him on a wolf hunt in a day or two."
+
+"I'll go, Colonel, for sure, for they are carrying off calves and hogs
+every night from some of the ranches on this creek," said Joe.
+
+"Talking about wolves," said Colonel Keogh, "I never saw so many
+together in all my life as I did after the battle of the Washita. We
+found the bunch of ponies belonging to the Indians, numbering about
+twelve hundred, and General Custer ordered them all to be killed, as a
+necessity, to prevent other savages from getting them. A Plains Indian
+without a horse to ride is as helpless as a child. He won't walk, and it
+was thought that by killing all the ponies we found, it would cripple
+the savages as effectually as if we killed the same number of warriors.
+The bunch was driven into a narrow cañon near their camp, and as they
+huddled against the high rocky wall, a detachment of the cavalry was
+detailed to shoot them. We camped near there for a few days, and at
+night the wolves would congregate there to feed upon the dead bodies of
+the ponies. I suppose they came from a distance of a hundred miles, for
+you know a wolf thinks nothing of going that far for a good meal. It
+happened to be the time of the full moon, and just after nightfall a lot
+of us used to go and ride on top of the bluff to watch the wolves come
+to the feast. I think it is no exaggeration to say that five thousand of
+the hungry creatures gathered there every evening, as long as any flesh
+remained on the bones of the slaughtered ponies. Such snapping,
+snarling, growling, and fighting was never heard before. You could hear
+them for two miles easily. Some of them were so pugnacious and ravenous
+that they actually killed and devoured each other! I do not believe such
+a scene was ever witnessed before or will be again."
+
+"You have all heard that Sheridan has been promoted to be
+lieutenant-general, and Sherman to be general, as Grant has been elected
+to the Presidency?" said Buffalo Bill. "Sheridan received notice on
+Kansas soil of his well-deserved promotion, and it makes the place
+classic ground. I will tell you how it was. Of course, official notice
+of the promotion was daily expected, as it had been seen in the papers
+from Washington, but the mails were very irregular in the vast
+uninhabited region south of the Arkansas. It was carried by the scouts
+from Fort Hays, the nearest railroad point, and they also took
+despatches to the scattered military posts that had been established
+temporarily, in the form of camps, cantonments, or wherever a detachment
+of troops happened to be. Early one morning General Sheridan,
+accompanied by two officers of his personal staff, left Camp Supply in
+the Indian Territory for Fort Hays, to take the railroad for Washington,
+where he had been ordered to report. When the party had arrived at the
+foot of a high mountain, just on the border of this state, they saw far
+ahead of them on the trail made by the troops in going into the field, a
+dark object moving rapidly toward them. As the distance between them
+lessened, they noticed that it was a horseman whose animal, flecked with
+foam, and with distended nostrils, was straining every muscle to reach
+the ambulance. In a few moments the sound of the horse's hoofs were
+distinctly heard on the hard trail, and when he had approached near
+enough, its rider, the excited scout, recognized Sheridan among the
+occupants of the ambulance. He rose in his stirrups and waved his hat in
+one hand, while in the other he held up a piece of yellow paper, crying
+out at the top of his voice:--
+
+"'Hurrah for the lieutenant-general!' The paper he handed to Sheridan
+was a telegram from the President, informing him of his promotion."
+
+"Well," said Colonel Keogh, looking at the old-fashioned clock in the
+corner of the room, "I had no idea it was so late. It's nearly ten.
+Come, Cody; we must get back to the fort." Then saying good-night to
+all, with an admonition to Joe not to forget the wolf hunt, of which he
+said he would send him word, they mounted their horses and rode off.
+
+Mr. Tucker was to remain until morning, so they all retired, after
+having passed one of the most cheerful Thanksgivings in their lives.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[2] The compass-plant, or rosin-weed, as it is commonly called, is the
+_Silphium laciniatum_ of the botanists. It is found in luxuriance on
+every hill-top on the great plains, and resembles an immense oak leaf,
+which, while growing, always points its thin edges north and south,
+consequently broad surfaces east and west.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+  A WOLF HUNT--TWO SNAKE STORIES--TERRIBLE STRUGGLE WITH A
+    MOUNTAIN WOLF--A MAIL RIDER EATEN--THE OLD TRAPPER'S
+    EXPERIENCE WITH FOUR OF THE FIERCE BEASTS
+
+
+THE allied tribes of the plains, now thoroughly whipped into subjection
+by the gallant Sheridan and his intrepid subordinates, Custer and Sully,
+went sullenly to the reservations recently established by the Government
+in the Indian Territory, and "white-winged Peace" once more spread her
+pinions over the fair land of Kansas. The settlers could go from one
+village to another with perfect immunity from sudden attacks by savages
+hidden in some ambush on the trails, so the state made phenomenal
+strides toward a greater civilization.
+
+Crops were enormous in their results when the virgin soil was turned to
+the sun, but the wolves, especially in the vicinity of Errolstrath,
+seemed to increase with the prodigality of Jonah's gourd. They became so
+persistent in their nightly depredations at the ranches, that only by a
+concentrated effort of the neighborhood to exterminate them could
+stock-raising be made profitable.
+
+A few days after Colonel Keogh's visit to Errolstrath on that happy
+Thanksgiving when Kate had come back safely to her home, an orderly from
+Fort Harker dismounted in front of the house, bearing a note to Joe from
+General Custer. It stated that the General proposed to hunt the wolves
+the day after to-morrow, and desired him to invite Mr. Tucker, the old
+trapper, and as many more of the neighbors who were good shots, as would
+like to go. He wanted the party to meet him at the mouth of the Oxhide
+as early as seven o'clock. From this point he intended to go to the
+general rendezvous of the beasts in the limestone region, down the Smoky
+Hill.
+
+As soon as dinner was over at Errolstrath, Joe saddled his pony, and
+started for Mr. Tucker's ranche three miles away, to invite him to come
+over to stay all night and join Custer and the others of the party on
+the morning of the hunt.
+
+Rob was at the same time told by his father to get his pony and deliver
+General Custer's invitation to as many of the neighbors as he could
+reach, and return by sundown. He left promptly on his mission, but went
+in a direction exactly opposite from that of his brother.
+
+When he had loped along about a mile up the Oxhide, his attention was
+attracted by a curious noise which seemed to come from the bank of the
+stream. He rode his pony through the brush toward the strange sound, and
+what was his surprise to see two snakes fighting right on the extreme
+edge of the water where the bank was only just above its level. One of
+the reptiles was a black water-snake, and the other a bull-snake nearly
+twice as thick round as his opponent, but not quite as long. The
+bull-snake had his tail firmly wrapped around a sunflower stalk, and the
+other had his attached to a big weed. Each had hold of the other by the
+middle and was trying to pull in an opposite direction. It was evidently
+the intention of the black snake to drag his antagonist into the water
+and drown him, for he is a good swimmer, while the bull is not, and the
+latter was just as determined that his enemy should not get him into the
+stream.
+
+They were both stretched to their utmost tension, and as Rob said, when
+he told about them on his return, he expected every moment to see them
+break in two; for both were drawn out as thin as a clothes-line. At last
+the hold of the bull-snake gave way, and the impetus, like the snapping
+of a whip, threw them both into the water. Now the black snake had a
+decided advantage, for he was in his element, and he immediately exerted
+every muscle to draw his antagonist's head under. Finally, after a
+severe struggle he succeeded in holding him there for a few moments, and
+when he let go, the bull-snake's dead body rose to the surface. Then the
+black snake gave a few shakes to his tail and darted off under the
+water, apparently not the least injured by his death-struggle with his
+larger antagonist.
+
+Both boys returned to Errolstrath before sundown, and as it was Rob's
+month to take care of the cows and milk them, he went promptly about his
+business. Joe, after taking Mr. Tucker's horse to the stable, and
+feeding the other stock, returned to the house, and sat in the big room,
+talking to his guest for half an hour, until supper was announced.
+
+Supper being cleared away, all adjourned to the sitting-room again, and
+the boys and girls proposed that the old trapper should relate some more
+of his experiences in the Rocky Mountains, when he was a young man; a
+request with which he cheerfully complied whenever he passed a night at
+Errolstrath.
+
+After all were comfortably seated in their accustomed places, Rob told
+of his adventure with the two snakes on the bank of the Oxhide, when
+Joe, after his brother had finished, remarking that coincidences were
+curious, stated that he, too, that same afternoon, had had an adventure
+with three snakes--one more than Rob.
+
+"When I reached the broad military road to Fort Sill," said he, "at the
+crossing of Mud Creek, I noticed some distance down the trail a terrible
+commotion. The dust was flying as if it had been twisted around by a
+whirlwind, and by looking steadily I could see something moving on the
+bare earth, where the grass is all worn off the road. I rode slowly up
+to the moving object, ready for any emergency, when I discovered three
+bull-snakes, two of them of immense size, the third one not so large.
+They had a half-grown cottontail among them, and were fighting bravely
+for the sole possession of the little creature, which was already nearly
+dead. I thought I would stay to see the fun, so I whipped the smaller
+one, and one of the larger of the reptiles away. They went hissing into
+the grass, as I applied my riding-whip to them pretty lively. Then I sat
+still on my pony to watch the single snake enjoy the meal I had so
+opportunely provided for him.
+
+"Presently he began to wind his long body around the rabbit, and I could
+hear the bones of the poor thing crack as the muscular pressure was
+applied. He then gradually unfolded himself, turned his head toward the
+muzzle of his prey, dislocated his jaws, and commenced to take in the
+rabbit.
+
+"Little by little the rabbit, which was much larger than the snake's
+body, disappeared, until it was entirely enveloped by the reptile. Then
+he coolly reset his jaws, and after a series of hisses--perhaps he was
+thanking me for my kindness in interfering on his behalf--he crawled
+away into the thick grass. I let him go, Mr. Tucker; for we never kill a
+bull-snake, they are such good hunters for gophers, mice, and even
+rabbits, which are becoming such a nuisance here. I saw several wolves,
+of course; you can't go a mile anywhere without seeing them, but as I
+carried no gun with me I did not try to interview any of them."
+
+"I expect to have a good time the day after to-morrow," said the old
+trapper, "and it will recall some of my own experiences with them years
+ago."
+
+"Oh, do tell us about it!" said Kate; "I just love hunting adventures."
+
+"All right, Kate; you have grown into a kind of savage since your life
+with the Indians, eh?"
+
+"I heard lots of wonderful stories from the warriors when they sat
+around the fire at night, but they told such abominable yarns that I
+didn't believe them. They can stretch a thing pretty well, I tell you,"
+answered Kate.
+
+"Begin, please, Mr. Tucker," said Rob, who was as interested as any of
+the family.
+
+"Well, then," said he, "I will tell you of the brave deed of a Mexican,
+which occurred a good many years ago, when I was down in Southern
+California.
+
+"He was a native, and named Amador Sanchez, well known in the Sierra
+Nevadas as a brave and successful hunter. He had a terrible fight with
+one of those great shaggy, gray mountain wolves. The struggle lasted for
+several hours, and ended by both combatants being laid prostrate on the
+ground. They were so completely exhausted as to be unable to reach each
+other from want of sheer physical strength. In that condition they
+passed one whole night. On the following morning, when the Mexican had
+recovered sufficiently to be able to creep to his shaggy antagonist, he
+found him dead.
+
+"The terrible conflict grew out of the Mexican's daring attempt to save
+the life of a boy who was about to be torn to pieces when the Mexican
+attacked the wolf.
+
+"At one time the wolf had the youth under him in such a way that it was
+impossible for Sanchez to plant a ball in any vital organ without
+imperilling the boy's life. Nothing daunted, however, with both revolver
+and rifle, he succeeded in lodging several bullets in other parts of the
+savage beast. Still the enraged brute clung to the unfortunate child,
+using every endeavor to tear him to pieces and horribly mangling every
+part of his body. At this juncture, the brave Mexican hunter could no
+longer refrain from active effort. He dropped his pistols and rifle,
+drew his sheath-knife and slung-shot; then winding his blanket around
+his left arm to protect it, he rushed in and compelled the animal to
+turn upon him, and so gave the boy a chance to escape.
+
+"Wounds were freely given and returned, but the wary Sanchez fought with
+much dexterity and determination. The wolf finally became so mad with
+rage and pain, that he closed in upon the Mexican and threw him headlong
+upon the ground, where he remained almost senseless for a few moments
+before recovering his breath.
+
+"Instead of following up his advantage, the beast, doubtless believing
+his enemy dead, because he did not move, commenced to examine and lick
+his own bleeding wounds. The spirit of the intrepid Mexican, however,
+was up, and he determined to conquer the wolf or die.
+
+"Early in the struggle, by a blow from his slung-shot, Sanchez had
+succeeded in breaking the brute's lower jaw, and that was
+unquestionably the fortunate wound which eventually gave the victory to
+the Mexican.
+
+"Sanchez renewed the fight as soon as he felt himself sufficiently
+rested, and, by adopting some curious tactics, in which he was
+materially assisted by a clump of trees, he succeeded in putting some
+heavy blows with his knife right into its vitals. At this, the wolf was
+aroused again to an unendurable madness, and, gathering himself for one
+grand effort, he bit at the Mexican's head and once more felled him to
+the earth. From this final attack, and his previous loss of blood, the
+brave man fainted dead away. How long he remained in that state he could
+not tell; but when he became conscious again, he found that the victory
+was on his side, for the wolf had breathed his last.
+
+"The poor boy, as soon as the battle was decided, as he supposed at the
+cost of his friend's life, started for the village, arriving there late
+the following afternoon. Upon hearing his story, a party of well-armed
+men immediately went to the scene of the struggle, to bury their brave
+comrade. They were guided by the boy, who was able to ride a pony.
+
+"Arriving at the spot about midnight, they found Sanchez in a most
+pitiful condition. His flesh was terribly mangled, his clothes were torn
+to ribbons, and his back and shoulders were one mass of lacerated
+wounds, inflicted by the sharp teeth and claws of the wolf.
+
+"Although he received the most delicate care and assistance at the
+hospital from those noble women, the Sisters of Charity, it was many
+weeks before he was able to resume his occupation of hunting. Even then
+he owed his life to his wonderful recuperative powers and his iron
+constitution."
+
+"What a terrible time he must have had," said Kate. "The gray wolf is an
+awful animal to be attacked by. Do you know that they very frequently go
+mad, and then many savages are bitten, and die a horrible death from
+hydrophobia? One of the warriors was bitten while I was down in the
+Indian village. He had a hand-to-hand tussle with the wolf, and although
+he was only slightly bitten, he died raving."
+
+"Yes, they are bad brutes to deal with," said the old trapper,
+"particularly those huge fellows that hunt in packs; a man has not the
+slightest chance with them. I know that in Oregon, about twelve years
+ago, the mail rider for the military posts of Forts Dallas and Simcoe
+was caught in the mountains by a pack of them, and nothing of him or his
+animal was found excepting the letter sack, the hoofs of his horse, and
+some buttons, with other portions of the rider's clothing."
+
+"Have you ever had a personal encounter with any of the terrible
+beasts?" inquired Mrs. Thompson.
+
+"Oh, yes!" replied the old man. "I'll tell you all about it."
+
+"In 1856, I tried to ranche it in the central portion of Washington
+Territory. I had no neighbor nearer than thirty miles. I was a little
+lonesome at first, because it was really the first time I had been
+without partners, and I saw my neighbors but once in a whole year.
+
+"I remember that I started to visit John Elliott. I felt that I needed
+company, and he and I had trapped together some years before, and were
+well acquainted.
+
+"Towards evening, I started for my thirty-mile walk. It was in December,
+and of course, cool, with a magnificent full moon to light my trail
+through the deep forest and over the prairie.
+
+"I had gone about two miles, I think, and as I neared a small lake, and
+was tramping along the edge of the water with my rifle carelessly
+swinging in my left hand, I suddenly heard a growl that startled me, and
+stopping at once, I saw a great wolf standing with his paw buried in the
+carcass of a red deer, and his mouth full of its flesh. The brute was
+not chewing, for his jaws were motionless, and he looked at me as if
+deciding which was the better meal for him, that which he had under his
+feet, or I. He was an immense animal. I don't think I have ever seen a
+larger wolf. If I had left him alone and gone about my business, he
+would not have troubled me. They are generally cowards, and will run at
+the sight of man, unless provoked or cornered, or are running in packs,
+when they will fight to the death.
+
+"I, like the fool that I was, raised my rifle, took a quick aim at him,
+and pulled the trigger. He jumped at the instant I fired, and although I
+aimed at his heart, I missed it and hit him in the upper part of the
+fore leg. Then with his mouth wide open, showing his white teeth, and
+the froth running down the sides of his cheeks in his rage, he came for
+me with a howl, which I thought was answered by about fifty more in the
+timber.
+
+"It didn't take me ten seconds to get up into the fork of an oak tree
+which stood only a few feet away. By the time I was safely settled in my
+seat, there were four more of the great grizzled beasts right under me,
+smacking their chops and whining as if their mouths watered for a taste
+of my flesh. If I could have talked to them in their own way, I would
+have suggested that they go and feast off of the deer which still lay
+intact.
+
+"Then, as I could not make them go away by mere suggestions, I loaded my
+rifle and shot one of them as dead as the deer. That made more food for
+the others, as they will eat each other under certain circumstances, but
+that particular time was not one of them. I didn't blame them, for the
+brute I had killed was a long, gaunt, miserably thin, mangy-looking
+creature that seemed as if he had not had anything to eat for a month.
+
+"The refuge I had sought from the ravenous beasts was but a sapling, and
+I expected it every moment to break with my weight. Presently, I heard
+the crotch begin to split, and letting my rifle drop, I was quick enough
+to catch my arms and legs around the trunk of the tree, and hold on for
+life until I could draw my knife and shove it into my belt ready for
+use.
+
+"Having accomplished this, I watched my chance, and if there ever was
+such a scared wolf as the one round whose back I wound my arms when I
+fell, I'd like to see him!
+
+"We rolled on the ground together, and the other three just backed off
+to watch the fight, and a pretty moonlight tussle it was. He got my body
+under him at last, and I thought I was done for.
+
+"I felt a little faint when he sunk his teeth into me, but he didn't
+seem to like the hold he had, so he pulled his teeth out of me, tore my
+coat, shirt, and flesh, then seized my fur cap and shook it for a
+moment, which was a lucky mistake for me on his part. I felt his wet
+lips on my forehead, and had just time to let go my hold on his throat
+and clutch my knife, when he seized my cap again and made an attempt to
+swallow it. His throat was in no condition to get it down, however, for
+my knife-blade was through his jugular, and the point of it in his
+spinal marrow, and in another minute he was dead wolf!
+
+"I bled considerably when I got up, but I wasn't weakened a bit. The
+whole affair had occurred in half a minute, and I was ready for the
+other three, who now all attacked me together. I caught up my rifle and
+struck one of them across the nose and floored him. As he picked himself
+up I seized him by the hind foot and fell upon him. If the first wolf
+was frightened when I tumbled on him from the tree, this one was more
+so. I can never forget the awful howl he gave as I stood up on my feet
+again, and swinging him into the air, struck one of the remaining two a
+terrible blow with his body.
+
+"The first one I had wounded was scared at the novel fight, and tucking
+his tail between his legs, vanished into the woods, and I was left with
+only two on my hands. I caught up one of them as I had caught the other,
+and his comrade took to his heels and was soon out of sight.
+
+"The one I held by the heels, I swung twice around my head and then let
+him fly. The centrifugal force, as they used to call it at college,
+forced out his wind, and his scream, as he shot through the air, was
+diabolical. He went fully a rod into the water, and his howl only
+stopped when he struck it. I was weak and faint now from the tremendous
+exertion. The beast came up again, and struck out for the shore. When he
+reached it, he did not dare to approach me, but stood there as if
+petrified.
+
+"At last he began to move off. I followed him slowly, and saw that he
+was getting tired. Presently he stopped again and tried to climb on the
+top of a shelving rock, but he was very weak, and just as he was making
+the attempt a second time, I raised my rifle and sent a bullet into his
+heart.
+
+"I was now rid of all my foes, but too weak to walk much further, so I
+went back to my cabin and gave up my proposed visit until I was
+recovered from my wounds."
+
+"Well," said Joe, "that beats my fight with the panther. We sha'n't have
+any such trouble on the day after to-morrow, though, for we shall have
+a big enough party to fight a whole mountain full of them."
+
+It was long after ten o'clock when Mr. Tucker had finished the thrilling
+story of his fight, and then the family all retired--some of them to
+dream of wolves, bears, and panthers perhaps.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+  JOE, ROB, AND THE OLD TRAPPER--GENERAL CUSTER ARRIVES AT
+    THE RENDEZVOUS--THE WOLF DENS--FIRST TUSSLE BETWEEN THE
+    HOUNDS AND A WOLF--CINCH'S GREAT BATTLE
+
+
+THE morning of the wolf hunt came at last. Before six o'clock, Mr.
+Tucker, four near neighbors, and the two Thompson boys rode out from
+Errolstrath toward the appointed rendezvous, at the mouth of the Oxhide.
+
+As all dogs work better on an empty stomach, the hounds, Brutus and
+Bluey, had not been fed that morning, so that their appetites for the
+chase should be keen.
+
+The little party from the ranche arrived at the mouth of the Oxhide
+before the contingent from Fort Harker. They did not have to wait many
+minutes, for they soon saw a cloud of dust on the Smoky Hill trail, and
+presently the General's four great hounds came bounding along. Closely
+following them was Custer on a magnificent animal. Colonel Keogh rode
+his favorite horse, Comanche, which had been wounded in the battle with
+the Cheyennes, on Mulberry Creek, when the command had a doubtful
+victory under General Sully. Comanche was destined to become more
+celebrated a few years later, when he and a single Crow Indian were the
+sole survivors of the unequal fight with the Sioux under the notorious
+Sitting Bull. It was there that Custer and all of the famous troopers
+with him went down to annihilation, in the valley of the Rosebud.
+
+The General and Colonel Keogh greeted the party, and they rode on at a
+slow pace. They wanted to save the wind of both the horses and dogs, for
+the supreme moment when the wolves should give them all the excitement
+they might desire.
+
+About seven miles from Errolstrath, the Smoky Hill makes a grand sweep
+to the southeast, the curve forming nearly half a circle. Bordering the
+river at that point is a series of immense limestone bluffs whose
+scarped sides come down to the water. The plateau which crowns the
+bluffs is honeycombed with holes, the dens of the big prairie wolf. They
+intended literally to beard the ferocious beasts there, for the wolf
+prowls by night and remains in his lair in the daytime. The General, the
+Colonel, the old trapper, and the boys were in front, while the hounds
+trailed after the horses, and were not allowed to advance until the word
+was given for them to do so.
+
+Custer's dogs were of rare breed, and had been presented to him by some
+English or Scotch nobleman. They were rough in coat, muscular, fleet of
+foot, and fully able to cope with the biggest wolf that dared tackle
+them.
+
+The zigzag trail leading to the summit of the high bluff where the
+business was expected to begin, was reached about half-past seven, and
+the tedious ascent was commenced. Arriving on the top at a point where a
+heavy belt of timber skirted the edge toward the river, they all halted
+to rest a few moments before they went out into the open where the
+wolves were.
+
+An occasional low growl and a snarl were wafted by the breeze toward
+them, where they were concealed among the great trees. The hounds
+listened with ears cocked up, and uttered a whine now and then, as they
+gazed wistfully into their masters' faces. They were impatient for the
+fray like the charger who "smelleth the battle afar," but the time had
+not yet come for them to do their work.
+
+The morning was deliciously cool. The ground was just covered with a
+slight coating of frost, making friction enough to insure safety for the
+horses. They would be called upon to do some hard running, and the rough
+plain where the wolves were, was sandy and treacherous, from the
+constant digging and scratching of the quarrelsome beasts themselves.
+
+"A perfect day for the fun," said the General, turning to the old
+trapper, who had dismounted and was cinching his saddle a little
+tighter.
+
+"Yes, General," replied he, "we could not have a better morning. The
+wind is just right for the dogs' noses, though I suppose those beautiful
+hounds of yours run both by scent and sight?"
+
+"They are fine specimens of their species, not very graceful or
+beautiful, perhaps, but for muscle and endurance, I don't believe that
+there is a wolf on the plains which can get the better of one of them in
+a fair fight. They have had several tussles single-handed, but so far
+have come out without anything more serious than a few scratches. Their
+jaws are as powerful as a bull dog's, and they hold on with all that
+animal's tenacity. I look for some fine sport to-day; there will be some
+lively coursing if we succeed in getting the wolves out of their holes."
+
+"Bluey," said Joe, who was sitting on his pony alongside of Custer, "is
+a great fighter; he has had three or four tussles with wolves, and came
+out on top every time. He has the most wonderful shaking powers I ever
+saw in any dog, and he has whipped two or three bull dogs in the
+neighborhood. They all give him a wide berth now, whenever they see him
+coming. Brutus is quite a young hound yet, and although he is good with
+rabbits, and did some splendid work when we had that fight with the
+lynx, he has never really shown what he can do. I guess he'll have a
+chance to show his mettle to-day."
+
+"I advise all of you to cinch up your saddles," suggested the General,
+"as Mr. Tucker has already done, for you don't want to be tumbled off by
+a loose cinch. We'll make a break for the wolves in a few minutes; the
+hounds are uneasy, and I guess our horses are sufficiently rested now."
+
+When the last saddle was cinched up, Custer gave the word "forward," and
+the party moved out of the timber. The hounds cavorted around when they
+saw signs of active work, but they were restrained from rushing too far
+ahead by a word from their masters.
+
+The hunters rode slowly at first, until they had emerged from the
+timber. They then broke into a lope, separating to a distance of about
+fifty yards from each other. Custer was on the right, followed by the
+old trapper and Joe; while Rob and Colonel Keogh with the others of the
+party brought up the left.
+
+Although they were out of the standing timber, there were a great many
+fallen trees scattered over the ground, and they were obliged to jump
+over these, as they could not afford to waste the time to go round.
+
+There was one immense black walnut trunk over which all had gone very
+easily excepting Colonel Keogh and Rob. When these two reached the
+obstacle, Rob's buffalo pony took it flying, but as Comanche rose to
+make the leap, the effort burst the cinch of the saddle, and the Colonel
+was thrown. He fortunately struck on his feet and held on to the bridle
+reins, so the animal did not get away. His orderly rushed up, and it did
+not take more than five minutes to change saddles, and give the Colonel
+a mount again.
+
+By that time Custer and the others were far in advance, for they had
+increased their pace as the hounds sighted their quarry. Some were in
+full cry, the rest silent, according to the habits of their species. A
+huge wolf had come out of his hole to learn what the thud of the horses'
+hoofs meant, had seen the dogs, and immediately bristled up ready for
+battle.
+
+The lean and hungry-looking brute stood motionless, awaiting the arrival
+of the pack of hounds. The hair along his spine stood erect like a mad
+cat's, and his tail swelled to twice its normal proportions. They were
+heading for him with tongues out and their long necks stretched, ready
+for the impending battle.
+
+In another instant, when the shock came, there was a chaotic whirlwind
+of wolf, dog, hair, and blood, accompanied by snarls, growls, and
+squeals. This cyclone of enraged canines was enveloped in a cloud of
+dust which fairly obscured the combatants for a few seconds; but when
+it settled there was a dead wolf, literally torn to shreds, and a hound
+or two limping along, nearly _hors de combat_, after the terrible
+struggle.
+
+The noise of the fight caused a dozen or more of the denizens of the
+bluff to crawl out of their dens and look around to learn what was meant
+by this invasion of their sacred precincts.
+
+Some just poked their heads up, and all you could see were their great
+ears. Others came up bristling with fight, and some, the cowardly ones,
+giving one look at the party of horsemen and the pack of hounds, tucked
+their bushy tails between their legs, and scooted off over the plateau,
+yelping like whipped curs!
+
+In a moment, spying those wolves that had apparently accepted the wager
+of battle, the dogs made a grand rush for them, some in pairs, some
+singly.
+
+General Sheridan owned a magnificent smooth-haired hound, named Cinch,
+from the fact that round his belly was a dark circle, resembling a
+saddle-cinch. He was a very powerful animal, and had been brought with
+the pack by General Custer, on account of his well-known staying
+qualities. Cinch had selected a monstrous beast, a little larger than
+himself, as his victim, and forthwith attacked him singly.
+
+The wolf stood firmly at the mouth of his den, awaiting the approach of
+Cinch with a sort of self-satisfied look, as though he would tear to
+pieces that civilized specimen of his own genus. With a growl and a
+snapping of their great white teeth they came together. How the hair did
+fly as they bit whole mouthfuls out of each other! It was an awful
+struggle for canine supremacy. Every one of the party abandoned his
+quarry elsewhere--although Bluey was making a glorious fight with
+another monster not a hundred yards away, and the rest of the pack were
+hard at work on a number that had attacked them in concert--to witness
+the battle royal between Cinch and the largest wolf that they had ever
+seen.
+
+At last Cinch succeeded in getting a firm hold on his shaggy
+antagonist's throat. It proved to be a "knock-out," for when Cinch had
+done with him, the wolf was stretched out dead. The hound himself did
+not escape without serious wounds. His fore paws were bitten through
+and through. One of his eyes was badly torn, and great pieces of hide
+hung in strings from several parts of his body. He was nearly done for,
+so badly hurt, that the General told one of his orderlies to take the
+poor dog on the saddle in front of him, and carry him back to the fort
+for repairs.
+
+They then turned their attention to Bluey. By the time they came up to
+him he had just finished his antagonist as completely as had Cinch. The
+wolf was dead, and the old hound was busy licking his own wounds, of
+which he had many.
+
+The rest of the pack which had been fighting together had killed four,
+but two of their number had succumbed to the fierce attacks of their
+opponents, and were dead. Joe and Rob were delighted to know that Bluey
+and Brutus were all right after the several battles, excepting a few
+bites which would soon heal.
+
+In taking an inventory of the number of wolves killed by the hounds,
+they found seven in all. Their hides were so badly torn that they were
+not worth skinning, so their carcasses were left just where they fell.
+
+It was considered a good morning's work, as it was but eleven o'clock
+when Cinch had put the finishing touches on his victim. The men were
+tired after their rough ride, and the hounds slowly followed, tongues
+out, and many of them limping fearfully. In this way they rode together
+back to the mouth of the Oxhide, then separated and went to their
+respective homes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+  A WILD TURKEY HUNT--THE TRIP TO MUD CREEK--THE TURKEY
+    ROOST--THE SHOOTING BEGINS--COUNTING THE NUMBER
+    KILLED--JOE SELLS TURKEYS
+
+
+WHEN Mr. Tucker, Joe, and Rob arrived at Errolstrath, it was just one
+o'clock. The family had kept dinner waiting, and everything was ready to
+put on the table by the time the horses were fed and the hounds' wounds
+rubbed with witch-hazel. Mrs. Thompson used to prepare this remedy
+herself, and she considered it the best thing in the world for injuries.
+
+At dinner the boys and the old trapper entertained the family with an
+account of the morning's hunt, telling them how splendidly both Bluey
+and Brutus had behaved in company with such thoroughbreds as Custer's
+hounds, and especially with General Sheridan's famous Cinch, who was
+supposed to be the finest animal of his kind in the country.
+
+They all adjourned to the broad veranda after dinner was over,
+excepting the girls who had to clear up the things. Mr. Tucker said that
+Colonel Keogh had told him that some of the officers' families who had
+just come from the East to Fort Harker were very desirous for wild
+turkey, which they had not yet tasted.
+
+"He wanted me to ask you, Joe, if you cannot soon get them a few. I know
+that this is the very best time to hunt them, so let you, and Rob, and
+me go to that roost on Mud Creek this evening. It's full moon to-night,
+and we shall never have a better chance."
+
+"All right," promptly spoke up both of the boys. "We'll have to take our
+ponies," said Joe, "for it's fully six miles. I was down there the other
+afternoon, and I should think that hundreds roost there."
+
+"What time ought we to leave here?" inquired Rob. "You know that my
+month to herd and milk the cows is not out yet, and I want to do my work
+before I go; not that father would not do it willingly for me in a case
+of this kind, but I don't care to bother him; he has enough to do with
+the other stock."
+
+"Oh!" said Joe, "we need not get away from here until long after
+supper. The birds won't come to their roost until it is nearly dark, and
+as we always have supper at six, and can ride down to Mud Creek easily
+in an hour, you will have ample time to do your chores, Rob, without
+hurrying a bit."
+
+"Tell us something about the wild turkey, Mr. Tucker," said Rob. "You
+know all the habits of our beasts and birds."
+
+"Well, Rob," said the old trapper, "the wild turkey is one of the
+indigenous birds of America. He once flourished from the most remote
+eastern boundary of the United States to every part of the far West.
+Now, through the wantonness of man, he is rapidly disappearing, as is
+nearly all of our large game. There are still plenty here in Kansas. The
+wild turkey makes his haunts in the timber, and being gregarious birds
+they keep together in large flocks, and roost in the same place for
+years, if not disturbed. All of our domestic turkeys have come from the
+wild stock, but the wild ones are still larger than the tame ones in
+many instances. I have shot them in nearly every place in the country
+where I have hunted. They are stupid in refusing to leave their roosts
+at night when shot at. They persistently fly back again to the same
+trees, when they could just as easily fly away out of danger. In such
+times they are almost as foolish as the sage hen, which in my opinion is
+the most stupid bird that flies. You can shoot at them until you hit
+them, if it takes a week; they won't move."
+
+Just as the sun sank behind the hills beyond the Oxhide bluffs, Joe,
+Rob, and Mr. Tucker left Errolstrath for the turkey roost on Mud Creek.
+The old trapper rode Joe's buffalo pony, while Joe mounted the little
+roan which had brought his sister so safely from the Indian village; Rob
+rode Ginger, which Kate had kindly loaned him for the occasion.
+
+They followed the trail up the creek for about a mile, then turned
+abruptly east over the hills toward Fort Sill military road, then over
+the open country for another mile, until they arrived at the head of Mud
+Creek.
+
+The moon had risen in a cloudless sky, and it shines nowhere so
+brilliantly as in our mid-continent region. Every tree and bush cast a
+shadow, and the trail over the prairie was lighted up with a golden
+sheen, so soft and mellow that you could have seen a pin where the
+grass had been shorn away.
+
+When they arrived at the edge of the woods in the centre of which was
+the resting-place of the birds, they tied their ponies to saplings, and
+then quietly walked on into the timber. As soon as they had come in the
+vicinity of the roost, they squatted on the ground behind the friendly
+shelter of a large elm, and waited for the coming of events.
+
+They did not have long to wait. Before they had been there a half an
+hour, two large flocks came stealthily walking down the deep ravines
+leading into the sheltered bottom where great trees stood in thick
+clumps, under whose shadow were the unmistakable signs of an immense
+roost. At the head of each flock, as it unsuspiciously advanced,
+strutted a magnificent male bird in all the pride of his leadership.
+Upon his bronze plumage the moon's rays glinted like a calcium light, as
+its soft beams sifted through the interstices of the bare limbs of the
+winter-garbed forest.
+
+When the leader of the flock had arrived at the spot where his charge
+had been accustomed to roost, he suddenly stopped, glanced cautiously
+around him for a few seconds, then apparently satisfied that all was
+right, he gave the signal--a sharp, quick, shrill whistle. At that
+instant, every bird, with one accord and a tremendous fluttering of
+wing, raised itself and alighted in the topmost branches of the tallest
+trees.
+
+In a few moments more, numerous flocks having settled themselves for a
+peaceful slumber, the old trapper said to the boys: "Now is our time;
+let's begin!"
+
+Joe had his little Ballard rifle, that had never yet played him false on
+his hunts with the chief of the Pawnees; Rob had a shot-gun, and Mr.
+Tucker his never-failing old-fashioned piece which he had carried for
+twenty-five years.
+
+They fired at first almost simultaneously, but after the first discharge
+each fired on his own hook. The turkeys fell like the leaves in October.
+The birds not killed at the first fire did not seem to have sense
+enough, as Mr. Tucker had said, to escape from their doom. They flew
+from tree to tree at every shot, persistently remaining in the immediate
+vicinity of the roost, with all the characteristic idiocy of the sage
+hen.
+
+When it was time to think of going home, they gathered up their birds,
+and found they had killed fourteen--more than an average of four apiece.
+It was all they could do to pack the birds on their ponies, and they
+were compelled to walk them all the way to the ranche to keep the birds
+from falling off.
+
+The next morning Joe took the turkeys to Fort Harker, where he disposed
+of them at a fair price, and received many thanks besides, for his
+prompt action in response to Colonel Keogh's request to go hunting for
+them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+  HOW THE ROBIN CAME TO KANSAS--MOCKING-BIRDS--EATEN BY
+    SNAKES--JOE LOSES HIS TAME ELK--THE LAST OF THE
+    WOLVES--FINDING THE QUAIL'S NEST--JOE BUILDS A CAGE FOR
+    THEM--RAISING CHICKENS
+
+
+THE winter was short, and soon came April, with its sunny skies. The
+robins, wrens, blue jays, and the mocking-birds made the woods melodious
+with their sweet notes. The violets by the brook side under the shade of
+the great trees were the first harbingers of the beautiful season, and
+the dining-table was made odorous with their blue blossoms at every
+meal. Both Kate and Gertrude loved flowers, and never failed to gather
+three times a day, a large bowl full of these poems of springtime.
+
+Mr. Tucker surprised them one evening by paying them a visit after a
+solitary hunting expedition up the creek. The boys soon persuaded him to
+stay the night, and tell them a story until bedtime.
+
+"What shall it be, hunting or fighting?" said Mr. Tucker, turning to
+Joe.
+
+Before her brother could speak, Gertrude answered for him. "Tell us that
+legend about the robin, that you have promised us so often."
+
+"Yes, the robin," said Joe. So they all settled into comfortable
+positions, and Mr. Tucker told them the following story:--
+
+"The Delaware Indians claim that the robin followed them to Kansas. He
+has been in the eastern part of the state only since the establishment
+of their reservation within its limits, according to the legend of the
+tribe.
+
+"The Delawares, you know, were those Indians with whom William Penn made
+a treaty, the provisions of which were religiously kept for many years.
+
+"Among the Delawares the robin is sacred. From the gray-headed chiefs to
+the papoose just freed from the thongs of his hard cradle, they all
+listen with superstitious love and reverence to his warbling. The bird
+was once the favorite son of a great sachem of that powerful tribe,
+changed by the Manitou, but still loving man, and evincing it always by
+building his nest and singing near his abode.
+
+"Once there was, ages ago, a great chief among the Delawares, who then
+lived in the far East. He was distinguished for his wisdom in the
+council, and his success in war. He had many wives, but they brought him
+daughters only, and he, as well as his nation, was dissatisfied, for he
+desired a son who should succeed to the honorable position of his
+father.
+
+"One day when the chief was walking through the village, a dove lit on
+his shoulder, and then flew and nestled in the bosom of a young Indian
+maiden to whom it belonged. She was the daughter of the medicine-man of
+the tribe, and her father declared that the dove was a messenger from
+the Great Spirit, who had thus shown by that sign that the two should be
+one.
+
+"The news imparted by the medicine-man was agreeable to the chief, for
+the girl was beautiful and virtuous. He married her, and she became the
+favorite wife, who, in due time, greatly to his and the joy of his
+people, presented him with a son. The boy was called Is-a-dill-a, and he
+grew up different from all the youth of his age; for he was fond of
+peace, would not mingle with the crowd who tortured prisoners doomed to
+death, and his father thought him a coward. One day the father
+upbraided his son for his peaceful inclinations, and Is-a-dill-a
+answered:--
+
+"'Great chief of the mighty Delawares, my liver is not white, nor would
+my blood chill like snow before the enemy, but Is-a-dill-a prefers to
+gather the wild blossoms which grow upon the prairie, and chase the deer
+among the cliffs, to lying in ambush for the red man, and sending an
+arrow into his heart; the Great Spirit, who is father of all the red
+men, has told me in my dreams to love them all.'
+
+"His father was about to respond angrily to the utterance of a homily so
+unbecoming a great warrior's son, and the future chief of a powerful
+tribe, when he saw a huge black bear approaching him with angry
+demonstrations. The chief was armed, as usual, with bow and arrows, and
+a stone axe. Is-a-dill-a, without any weapons, was ordered by his father
+to climb a tree, that he might escape the danger of the impending
+conflict. The chief, then resting upon one knee, and fixing a selected
+arrow to his bow, aimed at the eye of the bear, when only a few feet
+distant. The oscillating motion of the beast's head prevented it from
+taking fatal effect, and the arrow struck the skull, which was too thick
+and hard to be penetrated. The now infuriated animal, with a savage
+growl, sprang upon the chief who dealt it a fearful blow with his stone
+axe, but was seized in the ponderous paws of the bear, and a mortal
+struggle ensued. In a moment the chief was bleeding from a hundred
+wounds, and the animal's mouth was already at his throat, when
+Is-a-dill-a picked up his father's axe, dealt the beast a powerful blow
+over the eye, which completely destroyed it, and continued the work
+until the exhausted animal fell to the earth. But in his death agonies
+the bear succeeded in embracing Is-a-dill-a and tearing him dreadfully,
+so that he lay insensible by the side of the dead brute.
+
+"The chief was the first to recover from the swoon in which he had
+fallen from loss of blood, and as he saw the body of his son lying
+beside that of the immense bear, it was some time before he could
+connect the circumstances, for it appeared impossible for a boy of his
+age to perform such an exploit. He was bitterly grieved, when he thought
+how pure was the filial affection of his son, and bitterly regretted the
+reproaches he had often heaped upon him who was so worthy of honor and
+affection. He crawled to his son's body,--for he believed him dead,--but
+feeling that the heart was still beating, with much effort and great
+pain he succeeded in getting some water from a little spring near by,
+and applied it to the forehead and lips of the insensible Is-a-dill-a;
+in a few moments he gave a deep sigh, looked at his father with a glow
+of recognition, then again became unconscious.
+
+"Fortunately at this moment, three squaws who had been gathering
+berries, approached, and seeing the condition of the chief and his son,
+hastened to the village for assistance. By careful nursing, both
+recovered, and the boy became the object of admiration and reverence;
+for since his exploit with the bear, none dare dispute his courage,
+which is the greatest virtue among the Indians.
+
+"As I have already told you, it is necessary for all promising youths to
+retire into some solitary place, and submit to a long fast, that they
+may propitiate the Great Spirit. In a few years, Is-a-dill-a expressed
+his desire to attempt the ordeal. The chief made everything in
+readiness, and soon Is-a-dill-a was alone in his little lodge in the
+wilderness, upon his bed of skin. He looked up with great confidence to
+the Great Spirit, and felt that the light of his countenance would rest
+upon him. Every morning his father visited him, and encouraged him to
+persevere, by appealing to his pride, his ambition, and his noble
+instincts. The ninth day came and passed, and also the tenth; on the
+morning of the eleventh Is-a-dill-a was dying with weakness, and his
+full, rounded muscles had shrunk and withered from the prostrating
+effects of the terrible ordeal.
+
+"'Father,' said the almost expiring youth, 'I have fasted eleven days, a
+longer time than man ever fasted before; the Great Spirit is satisfied;
+give me something to eat that I may not die.'
+
+"'To-morrow, my son, before the bright sun rises, I will bring you
+venison cooked by your mother; fast until then that your name may become
+mighty among the great chiefs of the Delawares.'
+
+"The old man departed, proud of the fame his son would acquire; and the
+next morning, before the sun had risen, he was at the lodge of
+Is-a-dill-a, with a supply of the most tempting food, but he stood
+motionless before a strange sight within the lodge. There was a youth
+with golden wings and most beautiful features, having a halo of light
+around his head, painting the breast of Is-a-dill-a with vermilion, and
+his body brown. Then, in a moment, the winged youth was changed to a
+dove, and Is-a-dill-a to a strange and beautiful bird, and they both
+flew through the door of the lodge to a tree, and the strange bird thus
+addressed the chief of the Delawares:
+
+"'Father, farewell. The Great Spirit, when he saw that I was dying from
+hunger, sent a messenger for me, and I am changed to this bird. I will
+always preserve my love for man, and will build and carol near his
+dwelling.'
+
+"The two birds then flew away, but every morning the robin, during the
+lifetime of the chief, sang from the large oak tree that overshadowed
+his lodge.
+
+"When the Delawares moved west of the Missouri, the faithful descendants
+of the strange bird followed them, and that is how the robins came to
+Kansas."
+
+The mocking-bird, that sweetest of our feathered songsters, is
+indigenous to the central region of the great plains, and his notes are
+heard when the day breaks. He seeks the highest points upon the
+dwellings, the ridge of the house, the barn, or the top of the windmill,
+if there be one, where, like the Aztecs of old, or their lineal
+descendants, the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico to-day, he greets the
+coming god in the east.
+
+Like the robin, the mocking-bird loves the companionship of man. He
+builds his nest near their dwellings, in the garden, the orchard, or the
+trees close by. Kate and Gertrude had made several attempts to get hold
+of some little ones in their nests, but there was always something that
+seemed to thwart their plans. Last year they found a nest in a grapevine
+in the garden, and they watched it zealously day by day, from the laying
+of the last twig by the parent birds, to the hatching of the two white
+eggs. They saw the fledglings develop from week to week, until they were
+nearly large enough to be taken from the nest, when one morning, on
+going as usual to watch the progress of the little birds, what was their
+horror to see a snake swallowing the last one. The other they knew, by
+the swelled body of the reptile, was hopelessly gone! Their disgust and
+sorrow may be imagined, and as it was too late in the season to think of
+finding another nest with young ones in it, they were forced to abandon
+their quest until another spring.
+
+This April they were successful. A pair had built their nest in the
+vine-covered summer-house, a rustic little place that Mr. Thompson had
+erected out of the wild grape, for a retreat in which his wife and
+daughters might sit in the afternoons when they did not care to go as
+far as the deep woods. No harm came to the fledglings this time, and
+they were placed in a handsome cage bought by the girls from the
+proceeds of the eggs laid by their own brown Leghorn hens.
+
+The birds soon became very tame, and made the house resonant all day
+long with their brilliant notes. They knew the girls the moment they
+came near the cage, and would stretch their wings and gently pick at
+their fingers when they put them between the wires. They were a constant
+source of pleasure, for the girls loved pets of all kinds, and taught
+them to return their affection by means of gentleness and constant
+kindness.
+
+Joe lost his elk this spring, and he was greatly disturbed by it. He had
+made arrangements with an old hunter, living near Fort Harker, to go out
+to the Saline Valley and capture another young one. He intended to break
+them both to harness, and expected to have a unique team to drive. The
+elk was so tame that he permitted it to roam at will through the woods
+on the margin of the Oxhide, where it browsed on the small bushes or
+grazed on the luxurious grass which grew in such profusion on the creek
+bottom. It always returned to the corral at night for its feed of corn,
+but one evening it failed to come up as usual. He wandered through the
+woods, looking for it, when, happening to come upon a camp near the
+mouth of the Oxhide on the trail westward, he saw to his indignation,
+that the emigrants, a very ignorant set from Missouri, had butchered his
+elk. He gave them a talking-to that was more emphatic than choice in its
+language. They told him they thought it was a wild one, but he became
+disgusted at their falsehood, and asked them if wild elks had blue
+ribbons on their necks as his had, and he pulled it from the hide which
+was lying near their wagons. The girls had sewed it on the elk for him
+not a week ago. He saw that the party was such a miserable set that he
+could do nothing with them, so he had to leave the place, as mad as a
+wet hen, and abandon his idea of ever having an elk team.
+
+It was a relief for the family to feel that they could now go where they
+pleased without fear of marauding bands of Indians. The winter campaign
+had most effectually settled their propensities for murdering and
+scalping the settlers, so both the girls and boys made trips to the
+neighbors, and went on fishing excursions, or hunted whenever they cared
+to. Even the wolves, which had been such a terror to the whole
+neighborhood, had been so successfully thinned out in several
+"surrounds" by the men living on the various creeks, that the raspberry
+patch was no longer infested by them.
+
+Kate and her sister went up there one morning, not expecting, of course,
+that the berries would be ripe as early as April. As neither of them
+had visited the place since Kate's capture, and everything was now
+perfectly safe, they thought they would like to go there again.
+
+When they arrived at the well-remembered ledge of rocks, Kate pointed
+out to Gertrude the exact spot where she was standing when the savages
+swooped down on her; and they climbed to the top where they were
+attacked by the wolf.
+
+They found the vines full of blossoms, promising a beautiful crop in
+June, and while strolling along the bank of the stream they suddenly
+came upon a quail's nest in which twenty-five eggs were just hatching
+out. As the quail runs the moment it breaks from the shell, the girls
+determined to take the little ones home and bring them up as they did
+their chickens. The old birds made a terrible fuss. They would run a
+short distance from the nest, and pretend to be very lame; apparently
+being hardly able to move. They thus tried to induce the girls to catch
+them--a ruse adopted by many other birds when their young ones are in
+danger. But Kate and Gertrude, who were well posted in the tricks of
+animals and birds, paid no attention to the antics of the old quails,
+but were intent on catching all of the little ones they could. Even then
+it was a hard job, for the baby quails run almost as fast as the
+parents, and hide in the grass where they lie quiet until all danger is
+past. They succeeded, however, in getting all but four of them, and
+walked hurriedly back to Errolstrath with the tender things in their
+aprons.
+
+"If I didn't know they were quails," said Kate, "I should think that
+they were young brown Leghorn chickens. Did you ever see such a
+resemblance, Gert?"
+
+"They do look exactly like the brown Leghorns, and do you know, Kate,
+that when I first saw a brood of Leghorns, I thought they were young
+quails."
+
+"I expect we shall have little trouble in raising them, for Jenny
+Campbell had as many as a dozen of them in her cellar all last summer.
+Her brother caught them as we did these, in the spring, just as they
+were coming out of their shells. They will eat small grain like
+chickens."
+
+"Well, we won't keep them in our cellar," said Gertrude; "we'll get Joe
+or Rob to build us a big cage out of lath, and then we can make them as
+tame as the mocking-birds."
+
+"Do you purpose to eat them?" inquired Kate.
+
+"Certainly; why not? Mamma and papa love them broiled on toast, and so
+do I. I don't expect to make such pets of them that when the time comes
+to eat them, I shall think so much of them that I can't do it; and you
+must not either, Kate."
+
+The girls arrived safely at the ranche with their charge, and Joe being
+begged to make a cage, set about it at once, and had it ready in less
+than an hour. The birds were put in it, and it was set on the veranda,
+where the little things could get plenty of air and sunlight. They
+picked up millet seed as readily as an old chicken, when Gertrude threw
+in a handful to them. In a few days they were contented in their
+confinement and became very tame.
+
+Kate and her sister intended to raise a great many chickens this spring,
+and they set as many as forty hens; for their eggs and young broilers
+brought a good price at the fort and in the village. They had excellent
+luck at hatching time, but as the little ones began to grow, when the
+girls counted them every morning they found their number decreasing day
+by day. They could not divine the cause at first, so Rob was set to
+watch, and discover, if he could, what caused their disappearance. Some
+hens that had fifteen or sixteen would come around the yard next morning
+with only six or seven.
+
+They had three cats: one named Dame Trot, a pure tabby; one called
+Mischief, a white and gray; and Tortoise, because of her color. Tortoise
+had a litter of kittens which she kept under the front porch. Joe had
+suspected that the cats knew something of the disappearance of the
+little birds, and told Rob to keep his eyes on them. As he sat one
+evening on the veranda he saw Tortoise suddenly spring from behind a
+cherry tree and catch one of the young Leghorns in her mouth and carry
+it to her nest under the porch. Rob immediately crawled there, and to
+his surprise found the heads of more than twenty chickens. He ran into
+the house and told of his discovery. His father said that the cat must
+be killed at once; for when a cat gets a taste for chickens, it is
+impossible to break it of the habit, and Joe was commissioned to put
+the guilty Tortoise out of the way.
+
+Kate cried and was in great distress, for Tortoise was her cat, and she
+begged her father to put off its death until to-morrow morning, when she
+would go and spend the day with Jenny Campbell. She could not bear to
+stay and see her favorite cat killed. Her request was granted, and
+Tortoise had a respite until morning, but she was shut up in a box so
+that she could not get any more of the chickens.
+
+When morning came, Kate got Rob to saddle Ginger, but before she started
+she begged Joe to bury Tortoise in some out of the way place where she
+would never find her grave. Joe promised he would, and when his sister
+was out of sight down the trail, he took the cat out of her prison and
+went to the woodpile, and with one stroke of the axe cut off her head.
+Then he took her down into the woods and buried her under a bunch of
+wild plum bushes, where no one would ever see the grave.
+
+After the death of Tortoise the chickens throve admirably, and no more
+were ever missed by reason of the cats having caught them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+  THE PAWNEES RETURN--ANTELOPE HUNT WITH THE INDIANS--JOE
+    MISSES--WHITE WOLF--TALK OF A WILD HORSE HUNT--THE
+    SAND-HILL CRANES--THEIR WEIRD COTILLION
+
+
+THE Pawnees camped on the Oxhide that autumn earlier than usual, as one
+of the boys of the tribe had said they would.
+
+The band arrived the first week in September, and Joe was again in his
+element. He spent every spare moment in the camp, but, much to his
+regret, learned that his old friend Yellow Calf was dead; he had died
+about a month before of sheer wearing out. He was nearer ninety than
+eighty, which he had given as his age to Joe. One of the younger of the
+principal men had been made chief in his place. He had been with the
+band every season when they camped on the creek, and also was a firm
+friend to Joe, so the boy had lost nothing except the presence of the
+old fellow who thought so much of him.
+
+One morning about the middle of April while the Indians were still on
+the Oxhide, and Joe as usual was in the camp, a warrior came in and
+reported a large herd of antelope on the Smoky Hill bottom; he said
+there were at least eight hundred of them. He proposed to Joe that they
+should go after them, and the boy agreed without any hesitation.
+
+The chief told them they had better take about half a dozen of the men
+with them; for if the antelope were out on the open prairie, they could
+not get near enough to them without a great deal of trouble. If they had
+some one to drive the herd toward them while they hid themselves in the
+tall grass, they could entice a number within range by using the usual
+strategy.
+
+Joe and the Indian, whose name was the White Wolf, started, taking with
+them seven men of the band as drivers. When they got out into the
+opening beyond the timber on the Oxhide, they discovered the large herd
+unsuspiciously grazing about two miles away.
+
+The seven Indians were then ordered to make a détour far beyond the
+animals, at least a mile from the far side of them, while Joe and White
+Wolf secreted themselves in a large patch of bunch-grass. This was out
+on the prairie about a hundred rods distant from the timber, and was
+pointed to by White Wolf so that his men would understand exactly what
+was required of them.
+
+Joe and the Indian who had remained behind with him, then walked
+leisurely toward the bunch of tall grass. They had plenty of time to
+prepare themselves, as it would take at least an hour before the Indians
+could get beyond the herd to move it.
+
+On the way to the prairie Joe had stopped at the ranch, to borrow the
+Spencer carbine for White Wolf, while he took his little Ballard rifle,
+that was only good for about a hundred and fifty yards, while the
+Spencer would carry a ball five hundred.
+
+They reached their hiding-place in plenty of time, for they lay there
+fully fifteen minutes before they saw a commotion among the antelope.
+The herd were observed to raise their heads as if they winded danger,
+and then making a few of their characteristic stiff-legged bounds, they
+stood alert as if preparing for flight.
+
+Joe knew by this that the animals had been startled by the Indians,
+though he could not see a sign of one of them.
+
+The herd at first ran as swiftly as they could in an easterly direction,
+then they began to slacken their pace, and a few, having recovered their
+courage, commenced to nibble gingerly at the short buffalo grass again.
+At this juncture White Wolf tied a white rag around his head, and,
+standing on his knees, began to sway his body backward and forward with
+a steady oscillating motion. Presently the antelope saw him, and a few
+of them stopped short to gaze at the strange object.
+
+In a few moments four or five of the inquisitive creatures moved slowly
+forward again, still attracted by the swaying white figure of the
+savage, which so excited their curiosity. Presently, as they came closer
+and closer, Joe told White Wolf not to fire until they came within range
+of his little gun. Soon the proper distance was attained, and Joe,
+drawing up his piece, said:--
+
+"Now, White Wolf, fire away!"
+
+Their pieces were discharged simultaneously; it seemed like a single
+shot, so accurately had the triggers been pulled together. Two of the
+graceful creatures rolled over on their sides, one White Wolf's,
+instantly killed, while Joe's was sprawling out, every limb quivering
+like an aspen leaf.
+
+Both hunters dropped their guns and started out to cut the throats of
+their game, Joe was in the act of placing his hand on the neck of the
+one he had fired at, when, to his surprise, it jumped to its feet and
+ran off to join its not faraway companions, and the astonished boy never
+saw it again!
+
+Which was the more surprised, the boy or the antelope, it would be
+difficult to determine. He turned to the savage, who was bewildered,
+too, and asked him what in the world was the cause of the animal's
+recovery after he had shot him.
+
+"I aimed at his heart as he stood broadside toward me," said Joe, "and I
+don't know what it means."
+
+"You only grazed him," answered White Wolf. "We Indians often catch wild
+horses in that way, when we can't get them in any other." Of course,
+they conversed in the Pawnee tongue, for the savage did not understand a
+word of English.
+
+"Oh! I know what you mean, White Wolf," said Joe. "I just grazed his
+spinal cord with the ball; it paralyzed him for a moment, that's all.
+Yellow Calf told me how the Pawnees used to catch wild horses in that
+way, down on the Cimarron bottom, when the tribe lived on the Republican
+River."
+
+"I'm soon going down there with some of my warriors. A Kaw brave told me
+the other day that there are a good many wild horses there yet; will you
+go, too?" asked White Wolf of his young friend.
+
+"I'll go if my father and mother are willing, and I guess they will be,"
+replied Joe. "I should so like to see a herd of wild horses. I have seen
+nearly all the other animals that live on the plains and in the timber,
+but have never seen wild horses, because they don't range as far east as
+Oxhide Creek. There are lots of them in Nebraska though, farther north,
+Mr. Tucker says."
+
+As the prairie was too level for the hunters to hope to get near the
+antelope again, now that they had discharged their pieces, and as the
+other Indians were coming up to them, they decided to go back.
+
+One of White Wolf's men packed the dead antelope on his horse, and they
+all rode slowly toward Errolstrath. When they arrived there, White Wolf
+insisted that Joe take half of the game. To this at first the boy did
+not agree, but as the chief insisted so persistently, he finally
+consented. So the antelope was divided fairly, one portion was carried
+into the house, and the other to the Indian camp down the creek.
+
+At dinner Joe told his father that White Wolf was going to the Cimarron
+bottom in a few days to try to capture some wild horses which, so he
+learned from one of his Kaw friends, were roaming on the salt marshes of
+that region, and that the chief wanted him to go with him.
+
+Mr. Thompson said that he had not the slightest objection now that the
+war was over and there was nothing to be feared from the savages, but he
+told Joe that if any animals were captured, he ought to be entitled to a
+share.
+
+"I have made that all right with White Wolf already, father," said Joe.
+"He agrees to give me as great a proportion as his other warriors are
+entitled to. He hopes to capture at least one apiece, as the Kaw who
+told him about the herd said there were three or four hundred of them
+down there."
+
+As soon as dinner was over, Joe jumped on his pony and loped off to the
+Indian camp to tell White Wolf that he could go to hunt wild horses with
+the band.
+
+The chief said that he was glad of it, and that they would start by the
+first of the week. It was now Thursday, and that would give them all
+plenty of time to make ready. He told Joe that he would let him have a
+pony out of his herd, so that he could save his own the hard trip, for
+there would be severe work for all the ponies.
+
+Joe started back to the ranche, and when he arrived at the foot of
+Haystack Mound, on the side of it farthest from the corral, he saw a
+squadron of sand-hill cranes circling around near the ground, and as he
+knew they were going to alight, he pulled up his pony. After turning
+loose his animal, which he knew would run right to the corral, he hid
+himself in the plum bushes which grew all over the bottom, to watch the
+strange antics of those curious birds.
+
+They dance a regular cotillion when on the ground. They chassez
+backward and forward, and waltz around, keeping time in a rude sort of
+way as they go through the mazes of their weird movements.
+
+Presently they all came fluttering down, about forty of them, and
+immediately began their laughable capers. Joe had witnessed their
+performance a hundred times, but he could never resist looking at it
+again whenever the opportunity offered. They danced for more than half
+an hour, and then seeming to have enjoyed themselves sufficiently, they
+took flight, and soon were but as a wreath of dark blue far up in the
+sky.
+
+Joe returned to the house, and puttered around until supper was ready.
+At the table he told of his stopping at Haystack Mound to witness the
+antics of a flock of cranes that had alighted on the sand knoll near
+there, and said he could sit and look at them all day.
+
+Of course all the family had witnessed the performance of the cranes
+often, for in the season scarcely a day passed that a flock did not make
+its appearance somewhere on the ranche.
+
+Kate said, "I used to watch them on the Canadian when I was in the
+Indian village, and they were about the only things that I laughed at
+while there. After I had been there about a month and had got pretty
+well acquainted, one of the boys gave me a young crane for a pet. He
+became so tame that he would follow me all over the village.
+
+"I kept him three months, when one morning, as I was walking down to the
+river with him, I saw him suddenly stop, put his head on one side, look
+up at the sky, and running a few steps, fly away. I watched him until he
+was out of sight. It was a flock of his own species that he had seen,
+and I did not even begin to hear their croaking until he was far out of
+sight."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+  WILD HORSES--JOE SLEEPS IN WHITE WOLF'S TENT--CAMP ON THE
+    WALNUT--WOLVES AND LYNXES--KILL AN ELK--THE
+    CHASE--CAPTURE OF THE BLACK STALLION--WHITE WOLF'S
+    SKILL--BREAKING THE HORSES
+
+
+THE Pawnees remained on Oxhide Creek later than usual this spring. As
+they wanted to go on a hunt for the wild horses on the Cimarron bottom,
+they had to wait until the grass grew enough to furnish pasture for
+their own ponies on the trip.
+
+About the middle of April, White Wolf told his warriors that he would
+start in a few days. A runner was despatched to Errolstrath, to tell Joe
+the band would leave in a short time, and to be ready at a moment's
+notice. The runner said that when White Wolf started he wanted to be off
+very early in the morning, so as to make the Arkansas the first night.
+
+Joe, all anxious for the exciting trip, persuaded his mother and sisters
+to bake up a lot of bread, and boil hard a couple of dozen eggs for
+him. He told them that that would be all he wanted, as they intended to
+depend upon the chase, Indian fashion, for everything else; and as the
+country they were going over was full of buffalo, antelope, and elk,
+they would not suffer from lack of food.
+
+He cleaned his father's Spencer carbine, bought a box of cartridges for
+it, and told Kate that he intended to ride the roan which she got from
+the Indians and had given to him. He thought the animal was better than
+any the Pawnees had in their herd, though White Wolf had said that he
+could ride one of theirs.
+
+The night of the third day after the runner had come to tell Joe to get
+ready, another one came to the ranche and said that White Wolf and the
+warriors would start in the morning. He told him that he had better come
+to the camp with him, and stay there that night, so that there would be
+no delay about getting off early in the morning. So Joe got his things
+ready, tied a couple of blankets to the cantle of his saddle, his lariat
+to the horn; slung his carbine over his shoulder, and buckled his belt
+of cartridges around his waist. He then bade good by to the family,
+jumped on his pony, which he had named Comanche, after the tribe which
+had captured Kate, and rode with the runner who had come for him, to the
+Pawnee camp a mile distant.
+
+Arriving there, Joe found everything in confusion. Some of the warriors
+were picketing their riding animals near the tepees, allowing the loose
+ponies to run at large, as they will never leave the main bunch. Others
+were packing their wallets of par-flèche with dried meat for the
+journey. White Wolf was sitting in the door of his lodge, smoking his
+pipe and giving general directions to his warriors.
+
+At last everything was straightened out to the satisfaction of the
+chief, and then all adjourned to their several tepees to make ready
+their arms and ropes for the work that was to be done when they reached
+the Cimarron.
+
+Joe slept in the lodge of the chief that night, and before the dawn was
+fairly upon the world, the warriors were up, saddling their ponies,
+taking down their lodges, and packing their traps on the backs of the
+animals designated for that purpose. Then after a hastily swallowed
+breakfast of dried buffalo meat, at a signal from White Wolf, the party
+mounted, and the cavalcade rode southwest at a gentle lope, the pack
+animals in front, in charge of two warriors.
+
+Joe rode alongside of White Wolf in the centre of the column, and they
+talked of the probability of finding the herd of wild horses on the salt
+marsh where they were going.
+
+They pulled up about noon to graze their animals and to have a smoke,
+which is the first thing an Indian does when he halts: it is of more
+importance to him than eating.
+
+The Big Bend where the Pawnees wished to cross the Arkansas was
+seventy-two miles from the Oxhide, near the famous Pawnee Rock, on the
+old Santa Fé Trail.
+
+When the sun was about two hours high, they could see, three or four
+miles distant, the white contour of the sand hills which border the
+great silent, treeless stream, and the Indians knew that their
+camping-ground was near. It was to be in the timber at the mouth of the
+Walnut, less than two miles from the spot where they would strike the
+Arkansas.
+
+Before it had grown fairly dark, the heavy timber on the Walnut was
+reached, and the party halted, turned their animals loose, took another
+smoke, and then prepared for the night.
+
+Around the camp-fire, White Wolf and several of the oldest warriors told
+how that region once belonged to their tribe. Their largest village had
+been two hundred miles farther north, on the Republican, and many times
+they had come down to where they were now camped, to hunt the buffalo,
+or steal horses from the Cheyennes, their hereditary enemies. They told
+how they were once a powerful nation, but the white man had stolen their
+lands, and now, only a small band, they were obliged to live on a
+reservation set apart for them by the Government.
+
+It was a wild region where Joe now found himself. All night long could
+be heard the cry of the lynx, which sounded like that of an infant. The
+wolves howled in the timbered recesses of the creek, but Joe slept well,
+rolled up in his blankets in the chief's lodge, and it was morning
+before he thought he had been asleep an hour.
+
+At the first streak of dawn, the Indians were out. White Wolf said that
+the mouth of the Walnut used to be a favorite place for elk. They might
+still haunt the stream; he would send out some of his hunters, and
+perhaps they would have elk for their breakfast.
+
+He selected two of the warriors, who started out on foot to see if they
+could find any game. Joe, of course, accompanied them. They stalked
+cautiously as only an Indian can--Joe had mastered the art
+perfectly--along the bank of the stream, not a stick breaking under
+their feet, nor the sound of the rustle of a dead leaf being heard, so
+quietly did they tread.
+
+At last, arriving at a bend of the creek, where the timber grows the
+thickest, the Indian in the lead stopped abruptly, put his hand out
+behind him, the sign for the others to halt, and taking Joe's carbine
+from the boy's shoulder, got down on his belly and crawled forward as
+noiselessly as a snake. Suddenly he raised the gun, and seeming to take
+a careless aim, pulled the trigger, and immediately Joe and the other
+warrior saw four elk rush past them, down the prairie, and out of sight.
+
+As he turned to Joe and the other warrior, telling them at the same
+time to come on, the Indian who had fired said in his own language,
+"We'll have elk for breakfast now."
+
+They followed him into the timber, and there, not thirty yards from
+where he had stood when he fired the carbine, was an elk, about two
+years old, dead as a stone wall!
+
+The work of skinning the elk did not take more than ten minutes, and it
+was cut up into conveniently sized pieces, and each one of the hunters
+packed his portion to camp, less than a mile distant.
+
+When they arrived they found the fire burning briskly, for White Wolf
+and the other warriors had heard the report of the gun, and they knew
+that something in the shape of game had been secured, for Mazakin and
+Trotter, the two Indians whom the chief had sent out, were unfailing
+shots. The meat was soon cut into slices, and each man cut a twig fork
+upon which he stuck a slice, and every one became a cook for himself.
+Joe produced a loaf of his bread, and with water alone for drink they
+made an excellent meal.
+
+When they had finished, the sun was just rising like a great molten ball
+out of the horizon of the far-stretching level prairie. The ponies,
+standing ready, were mounted, and the party moved out, crossed the
+Arkansas at Pawnee Rock, and continued a southwesterly course all day.
+
+By sundown they arrived at the Cimarron, a clear, babbling stream, where
+the water was a little brackish, and which the Cheyennes call
+Ho-to-oa-oa (Buffalo).
+
+There were no trees at this part of the Cimarron in those days, and they
+were obliged to pitch their camp on the sandy bank of the river. The
+grass was luxurious, and their animals fairly revelled in it. They soon
+filled themselves and lay down, as if they realized the hard work which
+would be their portion for the next few days.
+
+There were plenty of fish in the river, and as Joe had thoughtfully
+brought some hooks and lines, he and White Wolf with two of the other
+warriors took dried buffalo meat for bait, and soon caught all they
+wanted for their supper.
+
+The next morning they broke camp at daybreak, and rode for a grove of
+timber just visible in the far-distant western horizon, where White Wolf
+said he believed they would find some wild horses. They always take
+shelter at night in timber if any is to be found, and wander out on the
+prairie in the morning to graze.
+
+The party arrived at the grove by two o'clock, and established their
+permanent camp, as they saw the unmistakable signs that a herd of wild
+horses made it their nightly rendezvous. Their lodges were put up in the
+southern edge of the grove, away from the trails of the animals.
+
+The Indians kept very quiet all day, sitting in the shadow of their
+lodges, smoking and talking. They did not even build any fires, but
+contented themselves with their dried buffalo meat and the bread which
+Joe had brought, for fear of making the slightest disturbance, and thus
+preventing the wild horses from returning to their usual nightly
+resting-place. Every once in a while, either White Wolf himself or some
+of the other warriors would venture out of the timber and gaze long and
+anxiously over the vast prairie, in hope of seeing something of the
+bunch, which they knew was grazing somewhere not many miles away. Once
+the chief thought he saw in the distance, moving objects which he took
+for horses, for he was noted far beyond any other member of his band
+for his keen sight. He was right in his conjectures, for before half an
+hour had passed from the time he had first riveted his attention, the
+bunch--for such it was--had swung around, broadside to, and, approaching
+nearer the timber, could be counted. There were over forty animals, led
+by a magnificent black horse which the chief said he would try to
+capture.
+
+It was a beautiful sight, and Joe stood transfixed as they kicked up
+their heels, and raced after one another like a group of school
+children, little suspecting that, before the sun went down the next
+evening, many of them would be ridden by the Indians who were now gazing
+at them so covetously.
+
+Night seemed to be very slow in coming to the band of Pawnees, who
+smoked and smoked incessantly, to pass the long hours before darkness
+would invite the herd to seek its bed-ground. At last after dark, by the
+light of the crescent moon, they saw the animals, led by the coal-black
+stallion, cautiously walk into the timber about a mile from the Pawnee
+camp. When the neighing and pawing had ceased, the hunters wrapped
+themselves in their blankets and buffalo robes, intending to be up
+before it was light, and surprise the herd before it was ready to go out
+to graze.
+
+The ponies were securely picketed, saddles, girths, and bridles
+examined, buffalo-hair lariats overhauled, and all made ready for an
+early start on the hard day's ride.
+
+Long before the sun had showed the faintest indication of his coming;
+while the stars were still shining brilliantly, the Indians and Joe were
+up, and hastily breakfasting, or taking their matutinal smoke. They then
+mounted their ponies, and stealthily walked the animals in the direction
+of the slumbering bunch of wild horses.
+
+When they had arrived within a few hundred yards of the place where the
+handsome creatures were still unconsciously resting, one of the Indians
+and Joe, who was as good as the best man among them, dismounted and
+crawled forward in the brush to reconnoitre. They returned in a few
+moments and reported to White Wolf that all was quiet, not a single
+horse's ear had they seen pricked up, so the animals had not as yet been
+warned of danger.
+
+White Wolf then gave his orders, making such disposition of his forces
+as would cause the herd to be surrounded when the warriors had
+approached near enough to use their lassoes. So quietly did the ponies
+do their duty, that when the herd was awakened to hear and see their
+enemies almost upon them, the lassoes of several of the warriors had
+done their work.
+
+As the others bounded away with astonishing speed, out of the timber and
+over the prairie, a spirited chase commenced. The Pawnees urged their
+ponies to their greatest capacity, the manes and tails of the wild
+horses in front were flying wildly in the air, while their hoofs were
+beating the hard sod, showing how tightly strung were the muscles of the
+frightened animals.
+
+The Pawnees were obviously gaining upon the fugitives, quick-footed
+though they were. The chief came up with the leader, the splendid black
+stallion, and began to swing his lasso around his head, gradually
+enlarging the circles by permitting the rough buffalo-rope to slip
+gently through his fingers. A sudden movement at the same instant
+plunged the stallion into an increased speed, when, White Wolf thumping
+the flanks of his mettlesome pony, it dashed quickly forward, and the
+Pawnee threw his lariat with unerring skill around the neck of the black
+horse. The bunch was thrown into a panic, when the members of it saw
+their leader tumble to the ground, and wheeling round in their course,
+they were completely surrounded by their pursuers. At least ten were
+lassoed by the same number of Pawnees, including Joe, who had long ago
+become an expert with the rope. The remainder of the bunch not yet
+caught were kept together by the rest of the Indians, who were
+continually circling around them, so that not one escaped, and at the
+end of an hour the whole forty were lassoed, and tied fast by the legs.
+Some fifteen of them were not desirable animals, and these were turned
+loose again.
+
+The business of breaking them in began when they had driven the
+remaining twenty-five to their camp down on the farther edge of the
+grove. The frightened animals, notwithstanding their fetters of rawhide,
+kicked up the earth, shook their heavy manes, curved their necks, and,
+with eyes that seemed all afire, gazed tremblingly at their captors.
+
+As White Wolf wanted the black stallion for his own riding, he began
+with him. It took four of the stoutest Pawnees to hold the fiery
+creature by a long lasso; this had the effect of partial strangulation,
+which weakened and temporarily overcame the wonderful power of the
+spirited creature. Violent were his plunges as he tried to free himself
+from the grasp of his captors. His terrific leaps only served to draw
+the lariat tighter around his neck; his breathing became more and more
+difficult, and might have been heard for the eighth of a mile. His heart
+beat as if it would burst from his heaving chest, and his veins stood
+out in great ridges along his quivering flesh.
+
+At last, overwhelmed by his agony and fear, powerless with suffocation,
+he fell, and for an instant lay upon the ground without sense or motion.
+The lariat was immediately loosened around his neck, and as
+consciousness returned to him, his already glazed eyes became bright
+again, the fresh air dilated his nostrils, and his tremendous chest rose
+and fell.
+
+In ten minutes he was on his feet, but how different he appeared from
+the magnificent animal which had stood in all his native pride and
+dignity at the head of his band. He was weak, hardly able to stand, his
+great head drooped, and his eyes were without that natural brilliancy
+which had so markedly characterized them; he appeared only the ghost of
+his former self. Like a monarch who had been dragged from his throne,
+who has been scoffed at by those whom he had previously despised, he was
+destined to become the slave of man.
+
+As soon as the horse somewhat recovered from his exhaustion, he was
+mounted by White Wolf, who kept his seat, notwithstanding the animal's
+terrific efforts to throw him, and forced him to run round and round in
+a circle. If for a moment the horse showed the slightest manifestation
+of flagging or obstinacy, White Wolf would give him an awful blow over
+the head with his heavy buffalo-hair rope. Gradually he became more
+passive, and in less than half an hour from the time when the chief had
+mounted him, he was declared broken, and was led away to be picketed
+with the rest of the Indian ponies.
+
+The remaining twenty-four horses were all subjected to the same course
+of discipline; some giving up in a few moments, others as obstinate as
+was their leader. Before dark all had been sufficiently subdued to suit
+a savage's idea of gentleness, and the party went to bed that night
+elated over their wonderful success.
+
+The next morning they started for home, camping at the same place on the
+Walnut. From there to the Oxhide, they made two night halts instead of
+one, as on their outward trip.
+
+Joe's share of the capture was three beautiful ponies. Under the
+discipline of the kindness which always prevailed at Errolstrath, these
+were made in a few weeks almost as gentle as tame horses.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+  THE LAST HERD OF BUFFALO--THE STAMPEDE--THE SOLDIERS IN
+    FULL CHASE--JOE GETS TWO COWS--HAULING IN THE
+    MEAT--RATTLESNAKES
+
+
+THE last big herd of buffalo ever seen in the valley of the Oxhide
+visited their ancient feeding-grounds during that same spring of 1869,
+when Joe hunted wild horses on the Cimarron with the Pawnees. One
+morning, shortly after his return to Errolstrath, an immense number of
+the shaggy ruminants came tearing across the Smoky Hill, below the fort.
+They rushed up toward the soldiers' barracks, and dashed wildly through
+the post, over the parade-ground, and on toward the Oxhide.
+
+In a moment the whole garrison was in full chase, enlisted men and
+officers, and a fusillade ensued, which sounded at a distance like a
+general engagement of troops. The firing was heard on the Oxhide, and
+several of the Pawnees who happened to be out on the highest bluffs saw
+the herd coming. One of their number hurried to their camp and notified
+the other warriors, who immediately mounted their ponies and got ready
+for the chase. Joe and Rob were hunting rabbits with their hounds that
+morning on an elevated plateau, and they, too, saw the cloud of dust
+raised by the great herd, as it came thundering through the Smoky Hill
+bottom. Forgetting all about rabbits and everything else, they rushed to
+the house for their guns. In a few moments they joined the Indians, who
+were coming at a breakneck gait toward the on-rushing mass. The buffalo,
+wild with fear and excitement at their proximity to the cabins of the
+settlers, were on a general stampede.
+
+When buffalo are stampeded, they become absolutely blind, and rush
+without any aim into anything that is in their path. Some of the
+frightened beasts that now had reached Errolstrath ranche, dashed
+through the front yard, leaping over fences and gates as easily as a
+greyhound. In their mad career they knocked down the milk-pans,
+water-buckets, and other things that stood near the kitchen door.
+
+Kate was standing on the wash-bench, trying to get a good look at the
+buffalo as they came tearing along, and before she was aware of the
+fact, she found herself sprawling on the ground. An old bull that was
+separated from the rest of the herd had come dashing round the corner of
+the house, and striking the end of the bench with his leg, sent Kate
+headlong. She picked herself up unhurt, and rushed into the house,
+almost as badly scared as when the Cheyennes had swooped down on her.
+
+She gathered her wits in a moment, and with her mother and sister stood
+on the back veranda, where they could all see the herd now far up on the
+hills, and still running in their madness. The Indians, soldiers, and
+officers were shooting at the frenzied beasts as they ran among them,
+regardless of consequences. Now and then they toppled one of the huge
+animals over, but the white men in their excitement missed oftener than
+they hit, while the Pawnees rarely failed to bring down their game.
+
+The party on the porch at Errolstrath watched the herd and hunters until
+nothing but a cloud of dust could be seen far in the distance, yet the
+yelling of the Pawnees could still be faintly heard long after the
+buffalo had vanished from sight.
+
+By noon, Indians and whites slowly retraced their course down to the
+creek bottom, the Pawnees going to their camp, the soldiers to the fort,
+and the boys, Joe and Rob, home.
+
+"How many of the buffalo were killed after all that terrible yelling and
+shooting?" asked their mother.
+
+"Well, not nearly as many as ought to have been," answered Joe. "I never
+saw such a mixed-up mess in all my life. Enough cartridges were used to
+have killed five hundred, but the men from the fort were as excited as
+the buffalo, and they didn't hit an animal once in a hundred shots, and
+then when they did, half the time the ball struck them where it had no
+more effect than if you had hit them with a stick!
+
+"The Pawnees killed more than all the others; they got twenty-five, and
+have gone to camp for ponies to pack the meat on. I don't think that
+fifty buffaloes were killed in all. I got two, both of 'em cows, and I
+must take the wagon out and haul 'em in. We will have enough meat to
+last us a long while, but we shall have to smoke most of it."
+
+"Where did the herd go?" inquired Kate.
+
+"Most of the animals kept right on toward the east, while some of them
+turned round and travelled south. I suspect that the settlers on Plum
+Creek flats will have a good time with them, as a part of the herd that
+went south was headed for there. I tell you," continued Joe, "you've got
+to keep a clear head on your shoulders when you go after buffalo. Most
+of those fellows from Fort Harker are recruits, and are fresh from the
+East; they never saw a buffalo before, and I don't wonder they were
+excited."
+
+"I never saw so many rattlesnakes," said Rob, "as I did on that big
+stony prairie where we killed the majority of the buffalo. I guess I
+counted fifty if I did one. I think that the stamping of the buffalo
+must have frightened them out of their holes."
+
+"It's very lucky that the rattlesnakes out here are not so venomous as
+those back East," said Mrs. Thompson; "more than twenty persons have
+been bitten by them in the neighborhood since we've lived here, and a
+little whiskey soon cures it."
+
+"Do you remember, Gert," said Kate, "when you nearly sat down on one
+that was curled up on that stump you were going to take for a seat in
+the woods last autumn, and he rattled just in time?"
+
+"I guess I do," answered her sister. "There's one thing I like about a
+rattlesnake: he always gives you good warning that he is around. He
+doesn't ever take you unawares, like some animals, a bull dog for
+instance, that says nothing, and takes hold of you before you know it."
+
+"Their skins make pretty belts and hatbands," said Rob. "The cowboys on
+the big cattle ranches kill hundreds of them while they are out herding,
+and tan the skins to put around their hats. I saw a whole set of jewelry
+that was made out of the rattles and mounted with gold wire. One of the
+boys was going to send it to Texas to his sister."
+
+"Well, they may be odd," said Mrs. Thompson, "but I certainly shouldn't
+like to wear them."
+
+"I like the furs of animals better than anything for ornament, either to
+wear or to have in my room," said Kate. "I guess it would make a city
+girl envious to see my chamber with all its beautiful skins that Joe and
+Rob have given me. One of these days I mean to have papa send some of
+those otter and beaver skins to Kansas City, and get them made up into a
+cape and muff."
+
+"He will," said her mother. "I was telling your father only the other
+day when we were up in your room, that it was a pity so many magnificent
+skins should be tacked around the walls, and lying on the floor, just
+for ornament, when there are enough there to make us all a set of winter
+furs. He said he would send them off in a few days, so I think you will
+have your wish gratified before long."
+
+The boys were sent with the wagon to bring back the meat of the two cows
+that Joe had killed, and about noon they returned. The robes were very
+fine ones. Joe asked the Pawnees to tan them for him, and when they were
+finished, which would be in about a week, he intended to make them a
+present to his father and mother for their bedroom.
+
+The buffalo meat was cut up that evening, by Mr. Thompson, and on the
+next day was smoked with corn-cobs, which are always used for that
+purpose out West.
+
+While getting the meat ready, Mr. Thompson told the boys that he
+wouldn't be at all surprised if, when they wanted buffalo again, they
+would have to go miles away for them, as the country was becoming so
+thickly settled that the herds might never come as far east as the
+Oxhide. "Of course," continued he, "the antelope will remain with us a
+long time yet, but even they will become scarcer each year, and then
+they, too, will disappear, for it seems that the great ruminants of the
+plains cannot live with the white man as they can with the savages. The
+latter have no permanent home, but congregate in temporary villages in
+the winter, and as soon as spring opens, they are off again, living on
+horseback and depending upon the chase for their existence. It has ever
+been so with the Indian since the landing of the Pilgrims, in 1620. The
+white man has dogged their footsteps as they themselves follow the deer.
+One of the facetious old bishops of New England, I forgot his name now,
+said: 'The Puritans, when they landed on Plymouth Rock, first fell upon
+_their knees_, and then upon the _aboriginees_!' It appears to be the
+fate of the red men to vanish before the onward march of the whites."
+
+"I feel sorry for the Indians, father," said Joe. "I tell you it would
+have made you almost weep to hear White Wolf, that night we camped on
+the Walnut, relate in his sorrowful manner how powerful his tribe once
+was, before the white man took their lands away from them."
+
+"I have a warm spot in my heart for the Indian," said Mr. Thompson, "but
+it is their fate, I suppose, and cannot be helped. You cannot civilize
+the old ones, and the only hope is in taking the rising generation away
+from their tribal affiliations when young, and teaching them to live
+like the whites."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+  THE INDIAN HORSE-RACE--KATE'S PONY WINS--THE TRADE WITH
+    THE PAWNEES--THE DANCES AT NIGHT--THE INDIANS SAY GOOD
+    BY TO THE FAMILY--NOBLE ACTION OF WHITE WOLF
+
+
+THE Pawnees having remained on the Oxhide much longer than in any
+previous season, they began to make preparations for departure. Joe
+asked the chief to give a dance with his warriors at the ranche, for his
+parents and his sisters to see how the Indians enjoy themselves.
+
+White Wolf said he would be sure to do so the night before they left.
+To-morrow, they were going to have a horse-race, and, should his father
+be willing, they would use that long, level stretch of prairie between
+the house and the creek. It was a distance of about four miles, the
+usual length of a race-course with the Indians.
+
+White Wolf said that the wagers would be ten horses, and that if Young
+Panther wanted to bet, he would make one with him. Joe replied that
+neither he nor his father approved of betting, but that both of them
+dearly loved to see horses run. "If I believed in betting, though," said
+Joe to the chief, "I would bet that my sister's pony, Ginger, can outrun
+any pony you have." The chief smiled, and told Joe that if he would not
+bet, he might ride that pony in the race, and if he came out ahead, then
+he would know whether his sister's animal was the fastest. Joe agreed to
+it, and when he returned to Errolstrath he obtained Kate's permission to
+ride Ginger in the race the following day. Mr. Thompson had readily
+given his consent to the Indians to use the trail in front of the house
+as a race-course.
+
+Joe went down to the camp that evening and told the warriors that they
+might have the use of the course. White Wolf then said: "We will be up
+there by the time the sun is so high," pointing with his hand to where
+the sun would be at eight o'clock.
+
+"All right," replied Joe; "we will be ready for you. The folks can sit
+on the porch and see the whole length of the course. Be sure to come
+promptly."
+
+When Joe returned to the ranche, he announced that he wanted to get up
+very early in the morning, and as Rob was always the first one in the
+house out of bed, he asked him to call him the moment he awoke.
+
+Rob, as usual, was out before sunrise. He promptly called his brother,
+who lost no time in dressing, washing at the spring, and going out to
+the pasture to catch Ginger. He led him to the corral, gave him a most
+vigorous currying, after which he fed the pony an extra ration of oats,
+to give him heart for the race.
+
+Shortly after breakfast was out of the way, Kate, who was on the
+veranda, feeding the mocking-birds, came rushing into the sitting-room,
+crying, "The Pawnees are coming; I can hear their tom-toms beating; they
+will soon be here!"
+
+All the family went out, and sure enough, there were the Indians all
+dressed up in feathers, and painted in every imaginable savage manner.
+White Wolf had a row of white dots on one cheek, flanked on each side by
+a streak of vermilion, while the other was green and blue. He had on a
+war bonnet with eagle feathers sticking in it around the upper edge,
+making it look like a grotesque crown. Down his back dragged a long
+trail of buffalo hair plaited into his own, and at every few inches for
+its whole length (it reached the ground when he walked) there were
+fastened bright metal disks nearly as big as the top of a tomato can.
+Around his wrists were a dozen or more brass rings, and on his bare
+ankles he wore as many rings of the same material. He had an embroidered
+buffalo robe thrown gracefully over his shoulders, half concealing his
+coat of beaded buckskin. His leggings were of the same stuff, and were
+also gayly decorated with colored porcupine quills deftly woven in them.
+The other warriors were similarly dressed and painted, but wore only one
+eagle feather in their bonnets, which was the distinguishing feature
+between them and their chief.
+
+Following the warriors were the boys of the band, each riding a pony,
+and leading others which had been wagered on the race.
+
+The race animals were ridden by their owners, and came after all the
+others; among them was the wild coal-black stallion that White Wolf had
+captured on the Cimarron. He looked like himself now, as he proudly
+pranced along, his mouth frothing as he champed on his rawhide bit, and
+his neck arched as he stepped like a thoroughbred over buffalo-grass
+turf leading to the house.
+
+Several of the warriors had tom-toms in front of them, which they were
+beating vigorously with a stick as they rode proudly along. The
+tom-toms, or drums, are made of tanned buffalo hide stretched over a
+willow hoop, and the sound resembles that of a drum, but as the pounding
+is simply a continuous series of strokes without any variation, it is
+not music, but a very monotonous noise.
+
+When the band had arrived at the house the Indians dismounted, and after
+a series of "Hows?"--their customary salutation--to the family on the
+veranda, they dismounted and began to converse among themselves in an
+excited manner. Presently one of the warriors started on a run toward
+the creek. He soon returned with some sticks, and then he and another
+warrior began to mark out the course.
+
+This took them some time, and while they were at the work, the boys who
+were to ride the race began to cinch up their buffalo-hide saddles, and
+prepare themselves for the impending struggle.
+
+Joe was already prancing about on Ginger, and he could hardly hold the
+spirited little beast, so anxious was it to be off, as if it perfectly
+understood the meaning of all the preparations. The Indian ponies, too,
+seemed to enter into the spirit of the thing, for they also commenced to
+cavort around, and it was with much difficulty that their riders could
+restrain them from bolting down the track.
+
+At last everything was in readiness, the animals in place, Joe on the
+outside of the four who were to run. The animals were all jumping up and
+down, stiff-legged, and bucking with all their strength to throw their
+riders.
+
+In a few moments White Wolf gave the signal, and away they darted like
+meteors. Ginger kept his place well, the black stallion leading for the
+first half-mile until a big roan of one of the warriors took the lead;
+then Ginger made a dash ahead. For a moment it was nip and tuck which
+would keep the lead, but when the second mile was half run, the animals
+began to show their powers of endurance. Some flagged, others were far
+behind, and Ginger and the roan were going relatively slower; when all
+at once, just as the home stretch was reached, Ginger took a spurt and
+seeming to gain his second wind, like a pugilist in the ring, came in
+forty feet in advance of the roan, the black stallion twenty feet behind
+him. The other ponies were so far away, that if they had been running on
+a white man's course they would have been declared "distanced."
+
+Such a shout went up from the veranda of the house, where the family
+were sitting, as they saw Ginger dash ahead, and Joe caught the sound of
+it as the wind wafted the pæan of victory to his ears.
+
+White Wolf was disappointed in the result. He thought that his black
+horse had great powers of endurance, and as soon as they were assembled
+in front of the veranda, he offered Kate five of the best and youngest
+of his horses in exchange for Ginger. Kate hesitated for a moment, but
+considering that Ginger was now nearly eight years old, and after
+consulting with her father and Joe, she decided to make the swap.
+
+As the chief owned the roan that had really won the race,--Ginger being
+a mere outsider just to test Joe's belief that he was the fastest
+animal,--White Wolf was, in fact, the winner, and took the ten ponies
+that were wagered.
+
+With the assistance of her father and brothers, Kate selected five of
+the best and youngest of the chief's bunch, including the roan. The
+Indians then returned to their camp, promising to come up that evening
+and give a series of dances, as they intended to start for their
+reservation the next morning.
+
+After they had left the front of the house, and Joe had taken the five
+new ponies to the corral, he told Kate that he would now let her have
+Cheyenne back, and he would take the roan, as the latter was too large a
+horse for her to ride. Kate agreed readily to the proposition, so she
+once more owned the little animal that had brought her so safely from
+the Indian village.
+
+When the family had finished their supper, Joe and Rob, with a team of
+work horses, dragged several large logs from the creek to the front of
+the house to make a big bonfire, for the Pawnee dance.
+
+Shortly after dark the redskins came up with their best toggery on, and
+when Joe, who had donned his Indian suit for the occasion, told White
+Wolf he was ready, the Indians commenced to circle around the great fire
+of logs, in their savage fashion. Some of them jumped stiff-legged like
+an antelope when he is first startled. Others, bending nearly double,
+shuffled in pairs, each one on his own hook, trying to see which could
+make the most ridiculous postures, for they have no regular figures, but
+keep admirable time to the drumming on the tom-toms.
+
+When the first dance was finished, they gave a representation of the
+scalp dance. The chief crept along the ground, putting his ear close to
+it, in the attitude of listening on the trail of the enemy, then waving
+his hand for his warriors to come on, they rushed into a supposed Indian
+camp, and went through the simulation of killing their victim, and
+wrenching off his hair with their knives. The motions, which at times
+were really graceful, were carried on in perfect unison with the
+monotonous pounding of the drums.
+
+The next dance was named "Make the buffalo come." The medicine-men, who
+claim to possess mysterious powers, tell the warriors to dance, for
+that will make the buffalo come, and then they can get their meat. The
+crafty old fellows are sure never to order the dance until about the
+season that the animals come to that part of the country where the tribe
+may happen to be. They are kept dancing night after night until the
+buffalo really make their appearance, then the medicine-men claim that
+they brought them by their incantations and the wonderful power of their
+medicine.
+
+For this dance, White Wolf's warriors and himself covered their heads
+with the skin of a buffalo's head, horns and all, so that they looked
+like a lot of men with the heads of that animal as part of their
+anatomy. It was a long dance, and during its performance, the most
+indescribable antics were gone through.
+
+The family were well pleased with the entertainment, and when it was
+over, Mrs. Thompson invited the Indians into the sitting-room, where the
+girls had prepared a little supper for them, consisting of cake and
+lemonade. The latter was new, and created quite a sensation, but Joe
+told them it was not fire-water, and they might drink a barrel full
+without becoming crazy.
+
+At midnight when the dances and the supper were over, the Pawnees rode
+back to their camp, delighted with their evening's entertainment.
+
+The next morning Joe was down at the Indian camp very early to see his
+dusky friends make ready for their departure. The chief told him that
+they had camped on the Oxhide for the last time; the whites had taken up
+all the country, and the buffalo would come there no more. Now when they
+needed buffalo meat, they would be obliged to go out as far as the
+Walnut, and in a few more years there would be no buffalo at all. His
+people would have to take the "white man's road" if they expected to
+live. He and the other warriors made their youthful friend some
+presents, and told him that they had to go by the house to take the
+trail down the Smoky Hill Fork to their distant home. He said that they
+would stop a moment at the ranche to say good by to all the people who
+had been so kind to him and the tribe every year since they had camped
+on the creek.
+
+Joe returned to Errolstrath, feeling very sad, because he had become
+much attached to the Indians, and he knew that he would miss them so
+much, and feel lonely for a long time. He told the family that the
+Pawnees would come soon to say farewell, and that they must be sure to
+be out on the veranda when they came.
+
+By nine o'clock, Kate, whose ears were well trained to faint sounds,
+through her vigilance when a captive in the Cheyenne camp, came into the
+house from the porch where she had been attending to her birds as usual,
+and said the Pawnees were coming; she could hear the tread of their
+ponies' hoofs.
+
+Then the family took their places on the veranda, as they had promised
+Joe. Presently, slowly coming up the trail, with White Wolf in the lead,
+the band of Pawnees were seen approaching the house. Arrived in front,
+they all halted, and with their usual "How? How?" saluted the family.
+
+All came down from the porch to shake hands, when Ginger, who with the
+other ponies was running loose in the bunch, came up to Kate and,
+neighing affectionately, began to rub his nose against her arm and
+shoulder. The salutation of her once favorite pony was too much for the
+warm-hearted girl, and she burst into tears as she returned the
+animal's love for her by throwing her arms around his neck.
+
+"Oh, father!" said she, "why did I ever consent to part with Ginger? I
+am so sorry now. I would give worlds to have him back again."
+
+White Wolf, noticing her weeping, asked in his own language why the
+little squaw was feeling so badly. Joe told him how she loved Ginger and
+how sorry she was she had ever consented to give him up.
+
+White Wolf then said: "Tell her she shall have her pony again. I am a
+chief and do not like to see the white squaws cry." He dismounted from
+his animal, and going up to Kate, took Ginger's foretop in his hand;
+then taking hers, he pressed into it the bunch of hair.
+
+Ginger neighed when the rude ceremony of returning him to his former
+mistress was over, seeming to understand just what had been effected.
+
+Kate took the chief by the hand and thanked him as earnestly as she
+could find language to express herself, which, of course, had to be
+interpreted by Joe.
+
+Then Rob brought from the stable the five other ponies that had been
+given for Ginger, and after a few more parting salutations the Pawnees
+rode down the trail.
+
+Ginger was restored to his stall in the stable, and Kate was the
+happiest girl in the settlement that day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+  RETROSPECTIVE--THE OLD TRAPPER PASSES AWAY--MR. AND MRS.
+    THOMPSON ARE DEAD--GENERAL CUSTER AND COLONEL KEOGH ARE
+    KILLED--ERROLSTRATH BELONGS TO JOE AND ROB
+
+
+TWENTY-NINE years have elapsed since the events related in this story.
+The Indians, buffalo, and antelope have all disappeared. There is no
+longer any frontier. Granite monuments mark the dividing line between
+great states. The children of this generation will never know by
+experience the hardships, the perils, and the amusements which so
+conspicuously characterized the life of Joe, Rob, Gertrude, and Kate at
+Errolstrath.
+
+General Custer, Colonel Keogh, and nearly all of the famous cavalry
+regiment commanded by the great Indian fighter went down to their death
+in the awful massacre at the battle of the Little Bighorn, or Rosebud,
+as it is sometimes called.
+
+The old trapper, Mr. Tucker, who was such a warm friend of the family,
+has long since passed away. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are buried in the
+quiet cemetery on the hill, near the ranche. Kate and her sister have
+been married for many years and still live in Kansas, but not at the
+dear old home. Errolstrath belongs to Joe and Rob. It is now a large
+ranche, comprising many thousand acres. Where the buffalo and the
+antelope used to roam in such vast herds are to be seen, peacefully
+grazing, hundreds of mild-eyed Jerseys and the broad-backed Durhams. A
+new house with all modern improvements has been erected on the site of
+the old one. On its broad veranda may be seen every evening in summer
+the children of the two brothers, to whom, as the shadows lengthen, they
+tell of their own early experiences when they too were children and when
+the ranche was far out in the wilderness of the great central plains.
+
+The shrill whistle of the locomotive may be heard at the ranche as the
+palace trains with their load of living freight dash along the bank of
+the Smoky Hill, toward the Rocky Mountains. Ellsworth has grown to be a
+beautiful town with electric lights and all the appliances of our
+wonderful nineteenth century civilization.
+
+The moon shines as brightly and the birds sing as sweetly as of yore
+around Errolstrath, but of all the familiar faces that knew it so many
+years ago, only those of Joe and Rob may be seen. Even they are bearded,
+their hair is slightly mixed with gray. They are growing old; but the
+laughter of their merry children serves to keep green the memory of
+their own happy childhood.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors were corrected.
+
+Page 127, "lighting" changed to "lightning" (like lightning and forced)
+
+Page 225, "lightedl" changed to "lighted" (prairie was lighted)
+
+Page 225, "th" changed to "that" (and mellow that)
+
+Page 226, "n" removed from text at start of new paragraph. Original read
+(n When the leader of the)
+
+Page 226, on the line below the previous note, "hu" changed to "the"
+(the spot where his)
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40574 ***