heat was almost insupportable. The lodges
stood crowded together without order in the narrow space. Each was a
perfect hothouse, within which the lazy proprietor lay sleeping. The
camp was silent as death. Nothing stirred except now and then an old
woman passing from lodge to lodge. The girls and young men sat together
in groups under the pine trees upon the surrounding heights. The dogs
lay panting on the ground, too lazy even to growl at the white man.
At the entrance of the meadow there was a cold spring among the rocks,
completely overshadowed by tall trees and dense undergrowth. In this
cold and shady retreat a number of girls were assembled, sitting
together on rocks and fallen logs, discussing the latest gossip of
the village, or laughing and throwing water with their hands at the
intruding Meneaska. The minutes seemed lengthened into hours. I lay
for a long time under a tree, studying the Ogallalla tongue, with the
zealous instructions of my friend the Panther. When we were both tired
of this I went and lay down by the side of a deep, clear pool formed
by the water of the spring. A shoal of little fishes of about a pin's
length were playing in it, sporting together, as it seemed, very
amicably; but on closer observation, I saw that they were engaged in a
cannibal warfare among themselves. Now and then a small one would fall
a victim, and immediately disappear down the maw of his voracious
conqueror. Every moment, however, the tyrant of the pool, a monster
about three inches long, with staring goggle eyes, would slowly issue
forth with quivering fins and tail from under the shelving bank. The
small fry at this would suspend their hostilities, and scatter in a
panic at the appearance of overwhelming force.

"Soft-hearted philanthropists," thought I, "may sigh long for their
peaceful millennium; for from minnows up to men, life is an incessant
battle."

Evening approached at last, the tall mountain-tops around were still gay
and bright in sunshine, while our deep glen was completely shadowed.
I left the camp and ascended a neighboring hill, whose rocky summit
commanded a wide view over the surrounding wilderness. The sun was still
glaring through the stiff pines on the ridge of the western mountain.
In a moment he was gone, and as the landscape rapidly darkened, I turned
again toward the village. As I descended the hill, the howling of wolves
and the barking of foxes came up out of the dim woods from far and near