s they plunged along, or now and then stood at bay, were enough
to unnerve a boy less well tried. He was unable to select his victim.
He had been carried deeply into the midst of the herd and found himself
helpless to make the one sure shot, therefore he held his one arrow in
his mouth and merely strove to separate them so as to get his chance.

At last the herd parted, and he cut out two fat cows, and was
maneuvering for position when a rider appeared out of the snow cloud on
their other side. This aroused him to make haste lest his rival secure
both cows; he saw his chance, and in a twinkling his arrow sped clear
through one of the animals so that she fell headlong.

In this instant he observed that the man who had joined him was his
own father, who had met with the same difficulties as himself. When the
young man had shot his only arrow, the old chief with a whoop went after
the cow that was left, but as he gained her broadside, his horse stepped
in a badger hole and fell, throwing him headlong. The maddened buffalo,
as sometimes happens in such cases, turned upon the pony and gored him
to death. His rider lay motionless, while Two Strike rushed forward
to draw her attention, but she merely tossed her head at him, while
persistently standing guard over the dead horse and the all but frozen
Indian.

Alas for the game of "one arrow to kill!" The boy must think fast, for
his father's robe had slipped off, and he was playing dead, lying almost
naked in the bitter air upon the trampled snow. His bluff would not
serve, so he flew back to pull out his solitary arrow from the body of
the dead cow. Quickly wheeling again, he sent it into her side and she
fell. The one arrow to kill had become one arrow to kill two buffalo! At
the council lodge that evening Two Strike was the hero.

The following story is equally characteristic of him, and in explanation
it should be said that in the good old days among the Sioux, a young
man is not supposed to associate with girls until he is ready to take
a wife. It was a rule with our young men, especially the honorable and
well-born, to gain some reputation in the hunt and in war,--the more
difficult the feats achieved the better,--before even speaking to
a young woman. Many a life was risked in the effort to establish a
reputation along these lines. Courtship was no secret, but rather a
social event, often celebrated by the proud parents with feasts and
presents to the poor, and this e