eving the other without
intermission; so that I was afraid poor Charley would have but little
chance of a sleep. He, however, when I paid him a visit before
retiring, assured me that he had got accustomed to the noise; and that
the Flower of the Prairies had taken such good care of him that he was
perfectly ready to remain where he was. Although we had every
confidence in the honesty of our new friends, we deemed it prudent to
keep a watch at night, both in camp and over the animals, for fear some
young brave might take it into his head to distinguish himself by
running off with a horse or two, as he would be sure to find a welcome
among any friendly tribe after the performance of such an act. I have
no doubt there are some noble Redskins fit to become heroes of romances;
but the greater part are unmitigated savages, with notions of right and
wrong very different from those of civilised people.

The next day we paid a visit to Yellow Wolf, when we found his people
still dancing with unabated vigour.

"The buffalo have not come yet!" I observed to him.

"Wait a bit, they come by-and-by," he replied. Dick suggested that we
should strike away westward in search of them, but Yellow Wolf replied
that it would be of no use, and that probably the buffalo would turn
back and take a different course, should the pale-faces pursue them.

Old Ben advised us not to act contrary to the chief's wishes, observing
that he undoubtedly had a very correct notion of when the buffalo would
appear, as he never allowed the dance to commence until he calculated
that the herd were not far off.

Wishing to cement our friendship with the chief we invited him and some
of his principal braves to our camp, where we provided a feast as
suitable to their tastes as we were capable of producing. They approved
of the boiled ham and pork as well as the corn cakes, sweetened with
sugar, which old Ben manufactured; but they hinted pretty strongly that
the stuff our flasks contained was more to their taste than anything
else we possessed. We took good care, however, not to give them enough
to make them drunk; but Armitage observed that we were doing them harm
by creating in them a taste for spirits, and that it would have been
wiser not to allow them from the first to know that we had any.

The feast was over, and our guests were smoking the tobacco with which
we provided them, puffing away with evident enjoyment, when a young
brave was seen gall