after
building a little fire of his own, set to work preparing a meal out of
his ill-gotten booty. This done, he seized on a tin plate and spoon, and
sat down under the cart to regale himself. His preliminary repast did
not at all prejudice his subsequent exertions at supper; where, in spite
of his miniature dimensions, he made a better figure than any of us.
Indeed, about this time his appetite grew quite voracious. He began to
thrive wonderfully. His small body visibly expanded, and his cheeks,
which when we first took him were rather yellow and cadaverous, now
dilated in a wonderful manner, and became ruddy in proportion. Tete
Rouge, in short, began to appear like another man.

Early in the afternoon of the next day, looking along the edge of the
horizon in front, we saw that at one point it was faintly marked with
pale indentations, like the teeth of a saw. The lodges of the Arapahoes,
rising between us and the sky, caused this singular appearance. It
wanted still two or three hours of sunset when we came opposite their
camp. There were full two hundred lodges standing in the midst of a
grassy meadow at some distance beyond the river, while for a mile around
and on either bank of the Arkansas were scattered some fifteen hundred
horses and mules grazing together in bands, or wandering singly about
the prairie. The whole were visible at once, for the vast expanse was
unbroken by hills, and there was not a tree or a bush to intercept the
view.

Here and there walked an Indian, engaged in watching the horses. No
sooner did we see them than Tete Rouge begged Delorier to stop the cart
and hand him his little military jacket, which was stowed away there. In
this he instantly invested himself, having for once laid the old buffalo
coat aside, assumed a most martial posture in the saddle, set his cap
over his left eye with an air of defiance, and earnestly entreated that
somebody would lend him a gun or a pistol only for half an hour. Being
called upon to explain these remarkable proceedings, Tete Rouge observed
that he knew from experience what effect the presence of a military man
in his uniform always had upon the mind of an Indian, and he thought the
Arapahoes ought to know that there was a soldier in the party.

Meeting Arapahoes here on the Arkansas was a very different thing from
meeting the same Indians among their native mountains. There was another
circumstance in our favor. General Kearny had seen them a few wee