As For The Rest Of The Day, He Divided It Between Eating
And Sleeping, And Sitting In The Sun On The Outside Of A Lodge.
Here
he would remain for hour after hour, arrayed in all his finery, with
an old dragoon's sword in his hand, and evidently flattering himself
that he was the center of attraction to the eyes of the surrounding
squaws.
Yet he sat looking straight forward with a face of the
utmost gravity, as if wrapped in profound meditation, and it was only
by the occasional sidelong glances which he shot at his supposed
admirers that one could detect the true course of his thoughts.
Both he and his brother may represent a class in the Indian
community; neither should the Hail-Storm's friend, the Rabbit, be
passed by without notice. The Hail-Storm and he were inseparable;
they ate, slept, and hunted together, and shared with one another
almost all that they possessed. If there be anything that deserves
to be called romantic in the Indian character, it is to be sought for
in friendships such as this, which are quite common among many of the
prairie tribes.
Slowly, hour after hour, that weary afternoon dragged away. I lay in
Reynal's lodge, overcome by the listless torpor that pervaded the
whole encampment. The day's work was finished, or if it were not,
the inhabitants had resolved not to finish it at all, and all were
dozing quietly within the shelter of the lodges. A profound
lethargy, the very spirit of indolence, seemed to have sunk upon the
village.
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