"Ah! boy, you're green yet," remarked Joe Blunt in an undertone.
"Mayhap ye'll be thankful to do that same yerself some day."

"Well, I'll not refuse to try when it is needful," said Dick with a
laugh; "meanwhile I'm content to see the Red-skins do it, Joe Blunt."

CHAPTER EIGHT.

DICK AND HIS FRIENDS VISIT THE INDIANS AND SEE MANY WONDERS--CRUSOE,
TOO, EXPERIENCES A FEW SURPRISES AND TEACHES INDIAN DOGS A LESSON--AN
INDIAN DANDY--A FOOT-RACE.

The Pawnee village, at which they soon arrived, was situated in the
midst of a most interesting and picturesque scene.

It occupied an extensive plain which sloped gently down to a creek, [In
America small rivers or riverlets are termed "creeks"] whose winding
course was marked by a broken line of wood, here and there interspersed
with a fine clump of trees, between the trunks of which the blue waters
of the lake sparkled in the distance. Hundreds of tents or "lodges" of
buffalo skins covered the ground, and thousand of Indians--men, women,
and children--moved about the busy scene. Some were sitting in their
lodges, lazily smoking their pipes. But these were chiefly old and
infirm veterans, for all the young men had gone to the hunt which we
have just described. The women were stooping over their fires, busily
preparing maize and meat for their husbands and brothers, while myriads
of little brown and naked children romped about everywhere, filling the
air with their yells and screams, which were only equalled, if not
surpassed, by the yelping dogs that seemed innumerable.

Far as the eye could reach were seen scattered herds of horses. These
were tended by little boys who were totally destitute of clothing, and
who seemed to enjoy with infinite zest the pastime of shooting-practice
with little bows and arrows. No wonder that these Indians become expert
bowmen. There were urchins there, scarce two feet high, with round
bullets of bodies and short spindle-shanks, who could knock blackbirds
off the trees at every shot, and cut the heads of the taller flowers
with perfect certainty! There was much need, too, for the utmost
proficiency they could attain, for the very existence of the Indian
tribes of the prairies depends on their success in hunting the buffalo.

There are hundreds and thousands of North American savages who would
undoubtedly perish and their tribes become extinct if the buffaloes were
to leave the prairies or die out. Yet, although animals are ab