by the Indian warrior of the intended attack of the
red-skins on our camp soon collected all the party together in the
common hail. Our men had pretty well strung nerves, and the women, old
and young, were in no ways given to fainting; so, although the latter
listened with the greatest attention, and the former spoke gravely and
deliberately, there was not much excitement, and no great amount of
anxiety perceptible on their countenances. Our feather-bedecked,
skin-clothed visitor was not much addicted to giving forth long-winded
speeches as are some of his countrymen. Short and Noggin were his chief
interrogators, as they understood his dialect, and they translated his
answers for the benefit of those who did not. He was asked how it was
he became acquainted with the information he had brought us.

"Can you say, O white-skins, how the blossoms come on the trees? how the
mist fills the air? how the snow melts on the ground?" was his reply.
"I heard it; I speak the truth; enough."

"But when, friend, are they coming?" asked Short.

"Can you say when the thunderbolt will fall? when the tempest is about
to burst? where the prairie-fire will break forth?" he replied.

Short and Noggin seemed perfectly satisfied with his answers. But that
was more than I felt, when he replied to the questions put him as to
their numbers.

"Can you count the flakes which fall in early winter? do you know the
number of the stars in the blue canopy above our heads? can you reckon
the buffaloes as they scamper across the plains in a stampedo?"

Noggin on this got up, and bowing to the old chief who was squatting on
his hams by his side, in a most polite way, observed--"All this
rigmarole, which this old red-skin here has been telling to us, comes to
this, as far as I can make out. He has heard the plot of those
thieving, varmint red-skins through his wife, or some friend or other.
When they will come he does not exactly know, but it will be about the
time that the snow begins to melt, and travelling is pretty heavy work,
and then they'll come down upon us in no small numbers, enough, I guess,
to make us look pretty foolish if we don't keep our powder dry, and our
eyes wide awake around us. The question now is, shall we stay here and
fight the varmints, or shall we strike tents, and push away over the
mountains?"

Various opinions were given on this point. If we remained where we were
the red-skins would attack us, and though we mi