rcumstance he had obtained the soubriquet of
"wolf-killer." By careful management, we at last got him upon the edge
of the stray, and quietly pushed him into it. He gave it to us as
follows:--

"Wal, strengers, about ten winters agone, I wur travellin' from Bent's
Fort on the Arkensaw, to 'Laramie on the Platte, all alone by myself. I
had undertuk the journey on some business for Bill Bent--no matter now
what.

"I had crossed the divide, and got within sight o' the Black Hills, when
one night I had to camp out on the open parairy, without either bush or
stone to shelter me.

"That wur, perhaps, the coldest night this nigger remembers; thur wur a
wind kim down from the mountains that wud a froze the bar off an iron
dog. I gathered my blanket around me, but that wind whistled through it
as if it had been a rail-fence.

"'Twan't no use lyin' down, for I couldn't a slep, so I sot up.

"You may ask why I hadn't a fire? I'll tell you why. Fust, thur wan't
a stick o' timber within ten mile o' me; and, secondly, if thur had been
I dasen't a made a fire. I wur travellin' as bad a bit o' Injun ground
as could been found in all the country, and I'd seen Injun sign two or
three times that same day. It's true thur wur a good grist o'
buffler-chips about, tol'ably dry, and I mout have made some sort o' a
fire out o' that; an' at last I did make a fire arter a fashion. I did
it this a way.

"Seeing that with the cussed cold I wan't agoin' to get a wink o' sleep,
I gathered a wheen o' the buffler-chips. I then dug a hole in the
ground with my bowie, an' hard pickin' that wur; but I got through the
crust at last, and made a sort o' oven about a fut, or a fut and a half
deep. At the bottom I laid some dry grass and dead branches o' sage
plant, and then settin' it afire, I piled the buffler-chips on top. The
thing burnt tol'able well, but the smoke o' the buffler-dung would
a-choked a skunk.

"As soon as it had got fairly under way, I hunkered, an' sot down over
the hole, in sich a position as to catch all the heat under my blanket,
an' then I was comf'table enough. Of coorse no Injun kud see the smoke
arter night, an it would a tuk sharp eyes to have sighted the fire, I
reckon.

"Wal, strengers, the critter I rode wur a young mustang colt, about
half-broke. I had bought him from a Mexikin at Bent's only the week
afore, and it wur his fust journey, leastwise with me. Of coorse I had
him on the lariat; but up to t