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Show 258 TALES OF THE COLORADO PIONEERS. strength and proportions), and we talked of the ghastly relic. AH of his ornaments, which hung by him, the beads, feathers and earrings, looked bran new. He must have been cut down in the freshness of his youth, before he had an opportunity to decorate his belt with many scalps. Death is so remorseless. But it is hard to tell, he might have been " heep big Indian," and powerful hair-puller of his day, bearing the high-sounding cognomen of Rolling Thunder, Roaring Water or Whistling Wind. I couldn't learn the particulars, for the only relic of him in any one's possession was there, the property of Dr. Jennings. He says it is genuine, and he wouldn't sell it for its weight in gold. He is right, for soon the once powerful race will be swept from the face of the earth, aad exist only in memory, or on the canvas of Jack Howland, where, in company with the buffalo of the plains, they will live in life-like reality, long after the hand of the gifted artist has mingled with the dust. As I sat there, that grinning face on the wall seemed to be casting reproachful glances at me, and saying, "all these millions of acres were my hunting ground; you came here and tried to make me earn my living by the sweat of my brow, like the white man, and teach me to say, ' gee, haw, come up Buck!' But I preferred to borrow ponies and chase the antelope and deer. I knew nothing of Sunday School and the sciences, except the science of hair-lifting. You should have kept away. The Gospel that says, ' preach my word to all people,' was not intended for me." Solemn thought-a subject of remorse for those who believed they were taking the " buried talent " from the unworthy steward! Only a few years ago smoke curled from their tepees on the plains, the braves |
