feet stumbled in the path of
duty. Surely he was a long way from the single-minded map-builder who
had crossed the Sulphur Spring Divide.

XII

SPRING ON THE ELK

Spring came early in that latitude, and Curtis was profoundly thankful
that his first winter had proven unusually short and mild, for it
enabled him to provide for his people far better than he had dared to
hope. The rations were insufficient at best, and for several days of
each alternate week the grown people were hungry as well as cold, though
no one actually perished from lack of food. Beyond the wood contract and
the hauling of hides each month there was very little work to be done
during the winter, not enough to buy the tobacco the men longed for.

They believed in Swift Eagle, however, for he visited every cluster of
huts each month, and became acquainted with nearly every family during
the winter. No agent had ever taken the like pains to shake the old
women by the hand, or to speak as kindly to the old men who sat beside
the fire, feeble and bent with rheumatism. The little children all ran
to him when he came near, as if he were a friend, and that was a good
sign, too. Some of the old chiefs complained, of course--there was so
little else for them to do; but they did not blame the Little Father.
They were assured of his willingness to do whatever lay within his
power to mitigate their poverty. Jennie, who was often at the beds of
those who suffered, had won wide acceptance of her lotions by an amused
tolerance of the medicine-men, whose mystic paraphernalia interested her
exceedingly. The men of magic came at last to sing their curious songs
and perform their feats of healing in her presence. "Together we will
defeat the evil spirits," they said, and the health of the tribe
continued to be very good, in spite of unsanitary housing and the evil
influence of the medicine-men. When the missionaries came to have the
native doctors suppressed Curtis said: "My policy is to supplant, not to
suppress."

The bill which called for the removal of the Tetongs to another
reservation was reported killed. The compromise measure for buying out
the settlers was "hung up" in the committee-room, and this delay on the
part of Congress exasperated the settlers beyond reason, and at a
convention held early in April at Pinon City, Joseph Streeter brazenly
shouted, "If the government does not remove these Injuns before the
first of July we'll make it hot for