IN THE OLD WEST 99 



turned from trapping on the waters of Grand 

 River, on the western side the mountains, who in- 

 terlards his mountain jargon with Spanish words 

 picked up in Taos and California. In one corner 

 a trapper, lean and gaunt from the starving re- 

 gions of the Yellow Stone, has just recognized 

 an old camp any ero, with whom he hunted years 

 before in the perilous country of the Blackfeet. 



" Why, John, old hoss, how do you come on ? " 



"What! Meek, old 'coon! I thought you 

 were under? " 



One from Arkansa stalks into the center of the 

 room, with a pack of cards in his hand and a 

 handful of dollars in his hat. Squatting cross- 

 legged on a buffalo-robe, he smacks down the 

 money and cries out " Ho, boys ! hyar's a deck, 

 and hyar's the beaver " (rattling the coin) ; " who 

 dar set his hoss? Wagh! " 



Tough are the yarns of wondrous hunts and 

 Indian perils, of hairbreadth 'scapes and curious 

 " fixes." Transcendent are the qualities of sun- 

 dry rifles which call these hunters masters ; 

 " plum " is the " center " each vaunted barrel 

 shoots ; sufficing for a hundred wigs is the " hair " 

 each hunter has " lifted " from Indians' scalps ; 

 multitudinous the " coups " he has " struck." As 

 they drink so do they brag, first of their guns, 

 their horses, and their squaws, and lastly of them- 

 selves : and when it comes to that, " ware steel." 



La Bonte, on his arrival at St. Louis, found 



