Their Rifles, Dingy And Battered With Hard Service, Rested With Ours Against The Old Tree; Their Strong Rude Saddles, Their Buffalo Robes, Their Traps, And The Few Rough And Simple Articles Of Their Traveling Equipment, Were Piled Near Our Tent.

Their mountain horses were turned to graze in the meadow among our own; and the men themselves, no less

Rough and hardy, used to lie half the day in the shade of our tree lolling on the grass, lazily smoking, and telling stories of their adventures; and I defy the annals of chivalry to furnish the record of a life more wild and perilous than that of a Rocky Mountain trapper.

With this efficient re-enforcement the agitation of Reynal's nerves subsided. He began to conceive a sort of attachment to our old camping ground; yet it was time to change our quarters, since remaining too long on one spot must lead to certain unpleasant results not to be borne with unless in a case of dire necessity. The grass no longer presented a smooth surface of turf; it was trampled into mud and clay. So we removed to another old tree, larger yet, that grew by the river side at a furlong's distance. Its trunk was full six feet in diameter; on one side it was marked by a party of Indians with various inexplicable hieroglyphics, commemorating some warlike enterprise, and aloft among the branches were the remains of a scaffolding, where dead bodies had once been deposited, after the Indian manner.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 173 of 486
Words from 46250 to 46502 of 129303