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Show 420 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. 'Don't be in a hurry, captain,' added the lieutenant. ' ·well, have it your own way, we'll wait awhile lana ' 5 er, replied the obsequious commander. At length however our visitors went straggling away as they. had come, and we, to our gr at relief, were left alone again. No one can deny the intrepid bravery of these men, their intelligence and the bold frankness of their character, free from all that is mean and sordid. Yet for the moment the extreme roughness of their manners, half inclines one to forget their heroic qualities. Most of them seem without the least per. ception of delicacy or propriety, though among them individuals may be found in whose manners there is a plain courtesy, while their features bespeak a gallant spirit equal to any enterprise. No one was more relieved than Delorier by the departure of the volunteers ; for dinner was getting colder every moment. He spread a well-whitened buffalo-hide upon the grass, placed in the middle the juicy hump of a fat cow, ranged around it the tin plates and cups, and then acquainted us that all was ready. T e't e R ouge, W·l t1 1 hu· ; usual alacritv on such occasions was ~ ' the first to take his seat. In his former capacity of steamboat clerk, he had learned to prefix the honorary Mister to every body's name, whether of high or low degree ; so Jim Gurney was Mr. Gurney, f-Ienry was Mr. Henry, and even Delorier, for the first time in his life, heard himself addressed as Mr. Delorier. This did not prevent his conceivina a violent enmity . b agamst Tete Rouge, who in his futile though praiseworthy attempts to make himself useful, used always to intermeddle with. cooking the dinners. Delorier's disposition knew no medrum between smiles and sunshine and a downright tornado DOWN THE AHICANSAS. 421 of wrath; he said nothing to Tete Rouge, but his wrongs rankled in his breast. Tete Rouge had taken his place at dinner ; it was his happiest moment ; he sat enveloped in the old buffalo-coat, sleeves turned up in preparation for the work, and his short legs crossed on the grass before him ; he had a cup of coffee by his side and his knife ready in his hand, and while he looked upon the fat hump ribs, his eyes dilated with anticipation. Delorier sat just opposite to him, and the rest of us by this time had taken our seats. . 'How is this, Delorier ? You haven't given us bread enough.' At this Delorier's placid face flew instantly into a paroxysm of contortions. He grinned with wrath, chattered, gesticulated, and hurled forth a volley of incoherent words in broken English at the astonished T6te Rouge. It was just possible to make out that he was accusing him of having stolen and eaten four large cakes which had been laid by for dinner. Tete Rouge, utterly confounded at this sudden attack, stared at Delorier for a moment in dumb amazement, with mouth and eyes wide open. At last he found speech, and protested that the accusation was false; and that he could not conceive how he had offended Mr. Delorier, or provoked him to use such ungentlemanly expressions. The tempest of words raged with such fury that nothing else could be heard. But TMe Rouge from his greater command of English had a manifest advantage over D elon.e r, who after sputterm· g anc] gn.· ma c1·nba for awhile ' found his words quite inadequate to the expression of his wrath. He jumped up and vanished, jerking out between his teeth one furious sacre enfan de grace, a Canadian title of honor, made |