k who's
dancin' gets preeoccupied with thinkin' of something else an' takes to
prancin' an' dancin' listless, the way the kettle-tenders pours the
leather into him to remind him his fits of abstraction is bad form, is
like a religious ceremony. An' it ain't no bad idee; said kettle-tenders
shore promotes what Colonel Sterett calls the _elan_ of the dancin' bucks
no end.

"After your eyes gets used to this whirlin' an' skatin' an' skootin' an'
weavin' in an' out, you notes two bucks, painted to a finish an'
feathered to the stars! who out-skoots an' out-whirls an' out-skates
their fellow bucks like four to one. They gets their nose a little lower
one time an' then stands higher in the air another, than is possible to
the next best buck. Them enthoosiasts ain't Osages at all; which they're
niggers--full-blood Senegambians they be, who's done j'ined the tribe.
These Round House festivals with the paint, the feathers, an' the bells,
fills their trop'cal hearts plumb full, an' forgettin' all about the
white folks an' their gyarded ways, they're the biggest Injuns to warm a
heel that night.

"Saucy Willow is up by the damaged rag-stick buck lendin' a mouthful or
two of cl'ar, bell-like alto yelps to the harmony of the evenin'. Bill
who's a wonder in feathers an' bells, an' whose colour-scheme would drive
a temp'rance lecturer to drink, while zippin' about in the moonlight gets
his eye on her. Mighty likely Bill's smitten; but he don't let on, the
fam'ly like I relates, allers ropin' up a gent's bride. It's good
bettin' this yere Saucy Willow counts up Bill. If she does, however,--no
more than Bill,--she never tips her hand. The Saucy Willow yelps on
onconcerned, like her only dream of bliss is to show the coyotes what
vocal failures they be.

"It's a week after the _Ingraska_, an' Bill's fam'ly holds a round-up to
pick Bill out a squaw. He ain't present, havin' the savey to go
squanderin' off to play Injun poker with some Creek sports he hears has
money over on the Polecat. Bill's fam'ly makes quite a herd, bucks an'
squaws buttin' in on the discussion permiscus an' indiscrim'nate. Shore!
the squaws has as much to say as the bucks among Injuns. They owns their
own ponies an' backs their own play an' is as big a Injun as anybody,
allowin' for that nacheral difference between squaw dooties an' buck
dooties--one keeps camp while the other hunts, or doorin' war times when
one protects the herds an' plunder while th