about in the camp, and his name is
called aloud by all the people, when the war party returns."
[Illustration: MY GRANDFATHER ... LONG BEFORE HAD GIVEN UP THE WARPATH]
_Lessons of the Prairie._
Once when I was a little older, I was out on the hills one day, watching
the horses. They were feeding quietly, and I lay on a hill and went to
sleep. Suddenly I was awakened by a terrible crash close to my head, and I
knew that a gun had been fired close to me, and I thought that the enemy
had attacked me and were killing me, and would drive off the horses. I was
badly frightened. I sprang to my feet, and started to run to my horse, and
in doing this I ran away from the camp, but before I reached the horse I
heard someone laughing, and when I looked around my uncle sat there on the
ground, with the smoke still coming from his gun. He signed to me to come
to him and sit down, and when I had done so, he said:
"My son, you keep a careless watch. You do not act as a man ought to do.
Instead of sitting here looking over the prairie in all directions to see
if enemies are approaching, or if there are any signs of strange people
being near, you lie here and sleep. I crept up to you and fired my gun, to
see what you would do. You did not stop to see where the noise came from,
nor did you look about to see if enemies were here. You thought only of
saving your body, and started to run away. This is not good. A warrior does
not act like this; he is always watching all about him, to see what is
going to happen, and if he is attacked suddenly, he tries to fight, or, if
he cannot fight, he thinks more of giving warning to the people than he
does of saving himself."
When my uncle spoke to me like this he made me feel bad, for of all people
he was the one whom I most wished to please, and with him I wished to stand
well. I considered a little before I said to him: "I was trying to run to
my horse, and if I had got him I think I should have tried to reach the
camp, and perhaps I should have tried to drive in some of the horses; but I
was badly frightened, for I had been asleep and did not know what had
happened."
"I think you speak truly," said my uncle, "but you should not have gone to
sleep when you were sent out here to watch the horses. Boys who go to sleep
when they ought to be looking over the country, and watching their horses,
or men who get tired and go to sleep when they are on the warpath, never do
much. I should li
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