act she undoubtedly
saved his life. However, there was still enough of the poison left in
his system to make him very sick and cause his leg to swell greatly.
The result was he could not travel as fast as the buffalo hunters, who
were anxious to reach the herds. So it was decided that he should be
left with his mother to follow as rapidly as they could. So painful
became his leg from the exercise of the riding that at length he was
unable to mount his horse. His brave mother stuck to him, and continued
to help him along for some days. To make matters worse, one of their
two horses disappeared one night. Still, on they pushed as well as they
could with the remaining one, and at length reached a river with many
sandbars. Here the noble woman, in trying to carry him across, got into
the quicksands and began to sink. In vain she tried to pull her feet
out of the treacherous sands. When she would try to lift up one foot
the other only sank deeper and deeper. Failing to succeed in this way,
she lifted him off her shoulders, and, placing him gently beside her,
tried again to struggle loose from the sands. But it was all in vain.
She was held with too tight a grip. Seeing this, and fearing that
Pukumakun might also begin to sink in the sands, she again put him upon
her shoulders, and then both of them shouted and called loudly for help.
But no help came. No human beings were within many miles' distance.
Some prairie wolves heard their voices, and came to the river's bank to
see what it meant. They found the bundle of meat there and quickly
devoured it, but they did not dare to attack the horse, that was eating
the grass not two hundred yards away. When they had fought over and
devoured the food they came to the bank again, and their howls and yelps
seemed to mock the cries for help of the perishing ones, as deeper and
deeper they sank in the treacherous quicksands. But that woman never
wept, for she was the daughter of a chief. But we must let Pukumakun
tell the rest of the story, which fairly thrilled and fascinated the
boys:

"By and by my feet began to touch the water, which ran a few inches deep
over the bad sands, that had so caught hold of my mother, and into which
she was sunk now nearly up to her waist. Still she cried not, but spake
brave words to me. Hoping some Indians might be near, we called and
called, but the wolves only answered with their mocking howls. Deeper
and deeper we sank, until the w