In The Morning The Warrior And His Companion Arrived; I Found That, Instead Of Hunting, They Had Passed The Whole Time In A Drunken Fit At A Short Distance From The Tent.

In reply to our angry questions the Warrior held out an empty vessel as if to demand the payment of a debt before he entered into any new negotiation.

Not being inclined to starve his family we set out for another Indian tent ten miles to the southward, but we found only the frame or tent poles standing when we reached the spot. The men, by digging where the fireplace had been, ascertained that the Indians had quitted it the day before and, as their marches are short when encumbered with the women and baggage, we sought out their track and followed it. At an abrupt angle of it which was obscured by trees the men suddenly disappeared and, hastening forward to discover the cause, I perceived them both still rolling at the foot of a steep cliff over which they had been dragged while endeavouring to stop the descent of their sledges. The dogs were gazing silently with the wreck of their harness about them and the sledges deeply buried in the snow. The effects of this accident did not detain us long and we proceeded afterwards with greater caution.

SOJOURNS WITH AN INDIAN PARTY.

The air was warm at noon and the solitary but sweet notes of the jay, the earliest spring bird, were in every wood.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 227 of 649
Words from 61351 to 61601 of 176017