, or ain't you going? It's your only chance. Why, Pony, what are
you afraid of? Hain't you always wanted to sleep out-doors and not do
anything but hunt?"

Pony had to confess that he had, and then Jim Leonard said: "Well, then,
that's what you'll do if you go with the Indians. I suppose you'll have to
go on the warpath with them when you get out there; and if it's against
the whites you won't like it at first; but you've got to remember what the
whites have done to the Indians ever since they discovered America, and
you'll soon get to feeling like an Indian anyway. One thing is, you've got
to get over being afraid."

That made Pony mad, and he said: "I ain't afraid now."

"I know that," said Jim Leonard. "But what I mean is, that if you get hurt
you mustn't hollo, or cry, or anything; and even when they're scalping
you, you mustn't even make a face, so as to let them know that you feel
it."

By this time some of the other fellows began to come around to hear what
Jim Leonard was saying to Pony. A good many of the Indians had gone off
anyway, for the people had stopped sticking quarters into the ground for
them to shoot at, and they could not shoot at nothing. Jim Leonard saw the
fellows crowding around, but he went on as if he did not notice them.
"You've got to go without eating anything for weeks when the medicine-man
tells you to; and when you come back from the warpath, and they have a
scalp-dance, you've got to keep dancing till you drop in a fit. When they
give a dog feast you must eat dog stew until you can't swallow another
mouthful, and you'll be so full that you'll just have to lay around for
days without moving. But the great thing is to bear any kind of pain
without budging or saying a single word. Maybe you're used to holloing
now when you get hurt?"

Pony confessed that he holloed a little; the others tried to look as if
they never holloed at all, and Jim Leonard went on:

"Well, you've got to stop that. If an arrow was to go through you and
stick out at your back, or anywhere, you must just reach around and pull
it out and not speak. When you're having the sun-dance--I think it's the
sun-dance, but I ain't really certain--you have to stick a hook through
you, right here"--he grabbed Pony by the muscles on his shoulders--"and
let them pull you up on a pole and hang there as long as they please.
They'll let you practise gradually so that you won't mind hardly anything.
Why, I've practised a good deal