He pointed the young man out, as
one whose example should be followed, and recorded, among many other
praiseworthy actions that three squaws, with many children, having been
reduced to misery by the death of their husbands in the last war agains
the Crows; this young man, although the deceased were the greatest foes
of his family, undertook to provide for their widow and children till
the boys, grown up, would be able to provide for themselves and their
mothers. Since that time, he had given them the produce of his chase,
reserving to himself nothing but what was strictly necessary to sustain
the wants of nature. This was a noble and virtuous act, one that
pleased the Manitou. It was an example which all the Shoshones should
follow.

The young man bowed, and as the venerable chief was stooping to put the
coronet upon his head, he started back and, to the astonishment of all,
refused the premium.

"Chiefs, warriors, elders of the Shoshones, pardon me! You know the
good which I have done, but you know not in what I have erred. My first
feeling was to receive the coronet, and conceal what wrong I had done;
but a voice in my heart forbids my taking what others have perchance
better deserved.

"Hear me, Shoshones! the truth must be told; hear my shame! One day, I
was hungry; it was in the great prairies. I had killed no game, and I
was afraid to return among our young men with empty hands. I remained
four days hunting, and still I saw neither buffaloes nor bears. At
last, I perceived the tent of an Arrapahoe. I went in; there was no one
there, and it was full of well-cured meat. I had not eaten for five
days; I was hungry, and I became a thief. I took away a large piece,
and ran away like a cowardly wolf. I have said: the prize cannot be
mine."

A murmur ran through the assembly, and the chiefs, holy men, and elders
consulted together. At last, the ancient chief advanced once more
towards the young man, and took his two hands between his own. "My
son," he said, "good, noble, and brave; thy acknowledgment of thy fault
and self-denial in such a moment make thee as pure as a good spirit in
the eyes of the great Manitou. Evil, when confessed and repented of, is
forgotten; bend thy head, my son, and let me crown thee. The premium is
twice deserved and twice due."

A Shoshone warrior possessed a beautiful mare; no horse in the prairie
could outspeed her, and in the buffalo or bear hunt she would enjoy the
s