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Show • 328 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. dered the creek, we rode across to the other side. The rapid and foaming waters were filled with fish playing and splashing in the shallows. As we gained the farther bank, our horses turned eagerly to drink, and we, kneeling on the sand, followed their example. We had not gone far before the scene began to grow familiar. ' We are getting near home, Raymond,' said I. There stood the Big Tree under which we had encamped so long; there were the white cliffs that used to look down upon our tent when it stood at the bend of the creek; there was the meadow in which our horses had grazed for weeks, and a little farther on, the prairie-dog village where I had beguiled many a languid hour in persecuting the unfortunate inhabitants. 'We are going to catch it now,' said Raymond, turning his broad, vacant face up toward the sky. In truth the landscape, the cliffs, and the meadow, the stream and the groves, were darkening fast. Black masses of cloud were swelling up in the south, and the thunder was growling ominously. 'We will 'camp there,' I said, pointing to a dense grove of trees lower down the stream. Raymond and I turned toward it, but the Indian stopped and called earnestly after us. When we demanded what was the matter, he said, that the ghosts of two warriors were always among those trees, and that if we slept there, they would scream and throw stones at us all night, and perhaps steal our horses before morning. Thinking it as well to humor him, we left behind us the haunt of these extraordinary ghosts, and passed on toward Chugwater, riding at full gallop, for the big drops began to patter down. Soon we came in sight of the poplar saplings that grew about the mouth ofthe PASSAGE OF THE MOUNTAINS. 329 little stream. We leaped to the ground, threw off our saddles, turned our horses loose, and drawing our knives began to slash among the bushes to cut twigs and branches for making a shelter against the rain. Bending down the taller saplings as they grew, we piled the young shoots upon them, and thus made a convenient pent-house ; but all our labor was useless. The storm scarcely touched us. I-Ialf a mile on our right the rain was pouring down like a cataract, and the thunder roared over the prairie like a battery of cannon ; while we by good fortune received only a few heavy drops from the skirt of the passing cloud. The weather cleared and the sun set gloriously. Sitting close under our leafy canopy, we proceeded to discuss a substantial meal of wasna which W eah-W ashtay had given me. The Indian had brought with him his pipe and a bag of shongsaslta ~· so before lying down to sleep, we sat for some time smoking together. Previously, however, our wide-mouthed friend had taken the precaution of carefully examining the neighborhood. He reported that eight men, counting them on his fingers, had been encamped there not long before. Bisonette, Paul Dorion, Antoine Le Rouge, Richardson, and four others, whose names he could not tell. All this proved strictly correct. By what instinct he had arrived at such accurate conclusions, I am utterly at a loss to divine. It was still quite dark when I awoke and called Raymond. Th 8 In d I' an was already gone, having chosen to go on before ~s to the Fort. Setting out after him, we rode for some time m complete darkness, and when the sun at leno-th rose glowinol1' l 0 ' b {e a fiery ball of copper, we were ten miles distant fi·om the Fort. At length, from the broken summit of a tall sandy bluff We could see Fort Laramie, miles before us, standing by the |