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Show 46 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. pantaloons flapping about his feet. 'rhe Captain gazed anx· iously till he saw that the horse was caught; then he sat down, with a countenance of thoughtfulness and care. 'I tell you what it is,' he said, 'this will never do at all. We shall lose every horse in the band some day or other, and then a pretty plight we should be in ! Now I am convinced that the only way for us is to have every man in the camp stand horse-guard in rotation whenever we stop. Supposing a hundred Pawnees should jump up out of that ravine, all yelling and flapping their buffalo robes, in the way they do? Why in two rr1inutes, not a hoof would be in sight.' We reminded the Captain that a hundred Pawnees would probably demolish the horse-guard, if he were to resist their depredations. 'At any rate,' pursued the Captain, evading the point, 'our whole ~ystem is wrong; I'm convinced of it; it is totally unmilitary. Why the way we travel, strung out over the prairie for a mile, an enemy might attack the foremost men, and cut them off before the rest could come up.' 'We are not in an enerny's country yet,' said Shaw ; 'when we are, we'll travel toaether.' b 'Then,' said the Captain, 'we might be attacked in camp. We've no sentinels ; we camp in disorder ; no precautions at all to gua:rd against surprise. My own convictions are, that we ought to camp in a hollow-square, with the fires in the centre ; and have sentinels, and a regular password appointed for every night. Beside, there should be videttes, riding in advance, to find a place for the camp and give warning of an enemy· These are my convictions. I don't want to dictate to any man. I give advice to the best of my judgment, that's all ; and then let people do as they please.' 'JUMPING OFF.' 47 We intimated that perhaps it would be as well to postpone such burdensome precautions until there should be some actual need of them; but he shook his head dubiously. The Captain's sense of military propriety had been severely shocked by what he considered the irregular proceedings of the party ; and this was not the first time he had expressed himself upon the subject. But his convictions seldom produced any practical results. In the present case, he contented himself, as usual, with enlarging on the importance of his suggestions, and wondering that they were not adopted. But his plan of sending out videttes seemed particularly dear to hirn; and as no one else was disposed to second his views on this point, he took it into his head to ride forward that afternoon, hirnself. 'Come, Parkman,' said he, 'will you go with me?' vVe set out together, and rode a mile or two in advance. The Captain, in the course of twenty years' service in the British army, had seen something of life ; one extensive side of it, at least, he had enjoyed the best opportunities for studying ; and being naturally a pleasant fellow, he was a very entertaining companion. ~e cracked jokes and told stories for an hour or two; until looking back, we saw the prairie behind us stretching away to the horizon, without a horseman or a wagon in sight. 'Now,' said the Captain, 'I think the videttes had better stop till the main body comes up.' I was of the same opinion. There was a thick growth of woods just before us, with a stream running through them. Having crossed this, we found on the other side a fine level meadow, half encircled by the trees; and fastening our horses to some bushes, we sat down on the grass ; while, with an old |