briestos_.

A crystal rivulet, the arroyo of the Spaniards, stole away southward to
the Arkansas. On the bank of this rivulet, and under one of its bluffs,
we chose a spot for our bivouac. The _bois de vache_ was collected, a
fire was kindled, and hump steaks, spitted on sticks, were soon
sputtering in the blaze. Luckily, Saint Vrain and I had our flasks
along; and as each of them contained a pint of pure Cognac, we managed
to make a tolerable supper. The old hunters had their pipes and
tobacco, my friend and I our cigars, and we sat round the ashes till a
late hour, smoking and listening to wild tales of mountain adventure.

At length the watch was told off, the lariats were shortened, the
picket-pins driven home, and my comrades, rolling themselves up in their
blankets, rested their heads in the hollow of their saddles, and went to
sleep.

There was a man named Hibbets in our party, who, from his habits of
somnolency, had earned the sobriquet of "Sleepy-head." For this reason
the first watch had been assigned to him, being the least dangerous, as
Indians seldom made their attacks until the hour of soundest sleep--that
before daybreak.

Hibbets had climbed to his post, the top of the bluff, where he could
command a view of the surrounding prairie.

Before night had set in, I had noticed a very beautiful spot on the bank
of the arroyo, about two hundred yards from where my comrades lay. A
sudden fancy came into my head to sleep there; and taking up my rifle,
robe, and blanket, at the same time calling to "Sleepy-head" to awake me
in case of alarm, I proceeded thither.

The ground, shelving gradually down to the arroyo, was covered with soft
buffalo grass, thick and dry--as good a bed as was ever pressed by
sleepy mortal. On this I spread my robe, and, folding my blanket around
me, lay down, cigar in mouth, to smoke myself asleep.

It was a lovely moonlight, so clear that I could easily distinguish the
colours of the prairie flowers--the silver euphorbias, the golden
sunflowers, and the scarlet malvas, that fringed the banks of the arroyo
at my feet. There was an enchanting stillness in the air, broken only
by an occasional whine from the prairie wolf, the distant snoring of my
companions, and the "crop, crop" of our horses shortening the crisp
grass.

I lay a good while awake, until my cigar burnt up to my lips (we smoke
them close on the prairies); then, spitting out the stump, I turned over
on my sid