92 ADVENTURES OF DR. ALLEN. 



and the boys gave the little fellows three cheers, which the 

 Indians seemed to take as a compliment. The Indian pony 

 got about three feet the start of the other and came out 

 twenty feet ahead. This set the first race completely in the 

 shade, and the whoops and yells could scarcely be endured. 

 The Crows loudly ridiculed the boys, calling them squaws, 

 and acted like men intoxicated. They said their hearts 

 were good, their medicine was strong and they had a pony 

 at camp that could outrun anything the pale faces owned. 



The boys pretended to be very much cast down by this 

 second defeat, which gave the Indians great confidence in 

 their ponies, so finally the Crows brought out their cham- 

 pion race-pony, and offered to bet two to one that he could 

 beat any horse the settlers might bring forward. The time 

 had come for the boys to show their hand, so they led out 

 Oregon Snail, covered with dirt,, his head down, his mane 

 full of burrs, and he really looked like an old cow. 



The Indians laughed and hallooed, calling him a squaw 

 pony, and made many other disparaging remarks. The 

 Crows then bet forty head of ponies, all the robes in camp, 

 and the squaws bet their moccasins and their entire stock of 

 clothing, just received from the agency. The boys contin- 

 ued betting until sure that the Crows had staked every- 

 thing they had, money included. The owner of Snail had a 

 band of cattle, worth five thousand dollars, and he had 

 also pledged his word to make good every loss which the set- 

 tlers might sustain through extravagant betting. 



The Indian racer, rode by a son of Birdshift, was 

 champing his bit and prancing around like a wild horse, but 

 his rider was an expert and handled him well. Snail stood 

 with head down, switching the flies with 'his tail until the 

 word to make ready was given,, when his rider, clad in a 

 tight-fitting suit of silk, stepped forth, with a few light 



