not unhappy. Our
wanderings from place to place afforded us many pleasant experiences
and quite as many hardships and misfortunes. There were times of plenty
and times of scarcity, and we had several narrow escapes from death. In
savage life, the early spring is the most trying time and almost all
the famines occurred at this period of the year.

The Indians are a patient and a clannish people; their love for one
another is stronger than that of any civilized people I know. If this
were not so, I believe there would have been tribes of cannibals among
them. White people have been known to kill and eat their companions in
preference to starving; but Indians--never!

In times of famine, the adults often denied themselves in order to make
the food last as long as possible for the children, who were not able
to bear hunger as well as the old. As a people, they can live without
food much longer than any other nation.

I once passed through one of these hard springs when we had nothing to
eat for several days. I well remember the six small birds which
constituted the breakfast for six families one morning; and then we had
no dinner or supper to follow! What a relief that was to me--although I
had only a small wing of a small bird for my share! Soon after this, we
came into a region where buffaloes were plenty, and hunger and scarcity
were forgotten.

Such was the Indians' wild life! When game was to be had and the sun
shone, they easily forgot the bitter experiences of the winter before.
Little preparation was made for the future. They are children of
Nature, and occasionally she whips them with the lashes of experience,
yet they are forgetful and careless. Much of their suffering might have
been prevented by a little calculation.

During the summer, when Nature is at her best, and provides abundantly
for the savage, it seems to me that no life is happier than his! Food
is free--lodging free--everything free! All were alike rich in the
summer, and, again, all were alike poor in the winter and early spring.
However, their diseases were fewer and not so destructive as now, and
the Indian's health was generally good. The Indian boy enjoyed such a
life as almost all boys dream of and would choose for themselves if
they were permitted to do so.

The raids made upon our people by other tribes were frequent, and we
had to be constantly on the watch. I remember at one time a night
attack was made upon our camp and all our poni