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Show ... ' 244 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. spare, having at that moment scarcely enough to keep my seat on horseback. Then, for the first time, it pressed upon me as a stmng probability that I might never leave those deserts. ' Well,' thought I to myself, ' a prairie makes quick and sharp work. Better to die here, in the saddle to the last, than to stifle in the hot air of a sick chamber ; and a thousand ti.m es better than to drag out life, as many have done, in the helpless inaction of lingering disease.' So, drawing the buffalo-robe on which I sat, over my head, I waited till the storm should come. It broke at last with a sudden burst of fury, and passing away as rapidly as it came, left the sky clear again. My reflections served me no other purpose than to look back upon as a piece of curious experience ; for the rain did not produce the ill effects that I had expected. We encamped within an hour. Having no change of clothes, I contrived to borrow a curious kind of substitute from Reynal ; and this done, I went homG, that is, to the Big Crow's lodge, to make the entire transfer, that was necessary. I-Ialf a dozen squaws were in the lodge, and one of them taking my arm held it against her own, while a general laugh and scream of admiration was raised at the contrast in the color of the skin. Our encampment that afternoon was not far distant from a spur of the Black Hills, whose ridges, bristling with fir trees, rose from the plains a mile or two on our right. That they might move more rapidly toward their proposed huntinggrounds, the Indians determined to leave at this place their stock of dried meat and other superfluous articles. Some left even their lodges, and contented themselves with carrying a few hides to make a shelter from the sun and rain. Half the inhabitants set out in the afternoon, with loaded pack-horses, THE OGILLALLAH VILLAGE. 245 toward the mountains. I-Iere they suspended the dried meat upon trees, where the wolves and grizzly bears could not get at it. All returned at evening. Some of the young men de. clared that they had heard- the reports of guns among the mountains to the eastward, and many surmises were thrown out as to the origin of these sounds. For my part, I was in hopes that Shaw and I-Ienry Chatillon were coming to join us. I would have welcomed them cordially, for I had no other companions than two brutish white men and five hundrBd savages. I little suspected that at that very moment my unlucky comrade was lying on a buffalo-robe at Fort Laramie, fevered with ivy poison, and solacing his woes with tobacco and Shakspeare. As we moved over the plains on the next morning, several young men were riding about the country as scouts; and at length we began to see them occasionally on the tops of the hills, shaking their robes as a signal that they saw buffalo. Soon after, some bulls came in"' sight. Horsemen darted away in pursuit, and we could see from the distance that one or two of the buffalo were killed. Raymond suddenly became inspired. I looked at him as he rode by my side ; his face had actually grown intelligent ! ' This is the country for me !' he said ; 'if I could only carry the buffalo that are killed here every month down to St. Louis, I'd make my fortune in one winter. I'd grow as rich as old Papin, or Mackenzie either. I call this the poor man's market. When I'm hungry, I have only got to take my rifle and go out and get better meat than the rick folks down below can get, with all their money. You won't catch me living in St. Louis another winter.' |