ffered myself to
be his companion. Some half-dozen of the youngest agreed to follow us,
and we were at once named--The Hunters to the Expedition.

The rivalry between the two careers, good-natured as it was, served to
amuse and interest us; and while _our_ blank days were certain to obtain
for us a share of scoffs and jibes, _their_ unsuccessful ones did not
escape their share of sarcasm. If one party affected to bewail the
necessity of storing up treasure for a set of walking gentlemen who
passed the day in pleasure-rambles about the country, the other took
care to express their discontent at returning loaded with spoils for a
parcel of lazy impostors that lounged away their time on the bank of a
river. Meanwhile, both pursuits nourished admirably. Practice had made
us most expert with the rifle; and as we were fortunate enough to secure
some of the "mustangs," and train them to the saddle, our "chasse"
became both more profitable and pleasant. By degrees, too, little
evidences of superfluity began to display themselves in our equipment:
our saddles, at first made of a mere wooden trestle, with a strip
of buffalo hide thrown across it, were now ornamented with black
bear-skins, or the more valuable black fox-skin; our own costume, if
not exactly conformable to Parisian models, was comfortable and easy,--a
brown deerskin tunic, fastened by a belt around the waist--, short
breeches, reaching to the knee-cap, which was left bare, for climbing;
"botas vaqueras," very loose at top, and serving as holsters for our
pistols; and a cap of fox or squirrel, usually designed by the wearer,
and exhibiting proofs of ingenuity, if not taste: such was our dress.

Our weapons of rifle, and bowie-knife, and pistols, giving it a
character, which, on the boards of a minor theatre, would have been a
crowning "success." We were also all mounted,--some, Hermose and myself
in particular, admirably so. And although I often in my own heart
regretted the powers of strength and endurance of poor "Charry,"
my little mustang steed, with his long forelock and his bushy
moustaches,--a strange peculiarity of this breed,--was a picture of
compactness and agility.

We had also constructed a rude wagon--so rude that I can even yet laugh
as I think on it--to carry our spoils, which were far too cumbrous for a
mere horse-load, and when left on the prairies attracted such numbers
of prairie-wolves and vultures as to be downright perilous. If this same
wa