en
there's the blankets; they live out in the woods and on the prairie,
in teepees, or lodges, of skins and canvas-like, moving round from
place to place, hunting over the plains in summer, and living off'n
the Gov'ment in winter. They are mostly at peace with the whites, but
they will steal whenever they get a chance. The other kind, and the
worst, is the wild ones. They have nothing to do with the Government,
and they make war on the whites whenever they feel like it. Just now,
I don't know of any wild Injuns that are at war with Uncle Sam; but
the Arapahoes, Comanches, and Cheyennes are all likely to break loose
any time. I give 'm all a plenty of elbow room."

As the boys reluctantly ceased contemplating the fascinating Indian
trail, and moved on behind the rest of the party, Charlie said: "I
suppose we must make allowance for Younkins's prejudices. He is like
most of the border men, who believe that all the good Indians are
dead. If the Cheyennes and the Comanches could only tell their story
in the books and newspapers, we might hear the other side."

The idea of a wild Indian's writing a book or a letter to the
newspapers tickled Sandy so much that he laughed loud and long.

Some two miles above the point where the settlers' ford crossed the
Republican Fork, the stream swept around a bluffy promontory, and on a
curve just above this was the tract of timber land which they now
proposed to enter upon for their second claim. The trees were oak,
hickory, and beech, with a slight undergrowth of young cottonwoods and
hazel. The land lay prettily, the stream at this point flowing in a
southerly direction, with the timber claim on its northwesterly bank.
The sunny exposure of the grove, the open glades that diversified its
dense growth, and the babbling brook that wound its way through it to
the river, all combined to make it very desirable for a timber claim.
At a short distance from the river the land rose gradually to a high
ridge, and on the top of this grew a thick wood of spruce and fir.

"That's what you want for your next cabin," said Younkins, pointing
his finger in the direction of the pines. "Best kind of stuff for
building there is in these parts." Then he explained to the boys the
process of cutting down the trees, splitting them up into shakes, or
into lengths suitable for cabin-building, and he gave them an
entertaining account of all the ways and means of finishing up a
log-cabin,--a process, by the wa