CHAPTER XIV. 



L CAMP-FIRE SCENE VAGABONDIZING THE BLACK PACER OF THE PLAINS SOMH 



ADVICE FROM BUFFALO BILL ABOUT INDIAN FIGHTING LO'fl ABHORRENCE OF 



LONG RANGE HIS DREAD OF CANNON AN IRISH GOBLIN SACHEM'S " SONG OF 



SHAMUS." 



HOW vividly, When one is fairly embarked in any 

 new enterprise, do the events of the first night 

 impress one's imagination, and how indelibly do they 

 fix themselves in the memory ! Inside our tents all 

 was clean and cheery, but as none of us were disposed 

 to seek them before a late hour, we spent the evening 

 around our camp-fires. Excitement, for the time, had 

 overmastered our sense of fatigue. The Professor's 

 notes were out, and, with his feet to the fire and a box 

 for a desk, he looked more like the Arkansas traveler 

 writing home, than the learned savan committing to 

 paper the latest secrets wrung from nature. The re- 

 mainder of our party were scattered promiscuously 

 around the fire, some seated on logs and boxes, the 

 others outstretched upon the grass. 



Tammany Sachem was the first to break the si- 

 lence. "Fellow citizens," he exclaimed, "let's vaga- 

 bondize ! " Now, with our alderman, vagabondizing 

 meant story telling, an accomplishment which we 

 consider the especial forte of vagabonds. 



We all hailed this proposition gladly, for Buffalo 

 Bill, stretched there before the fire, had much of plain 



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