LIFE IN THE FAR WEST 5 



on Cimmaron : a hundred and forty mules and oxen 

 was froze that night, wagh !" 



" Surely Black Harris was thar ; and the darndest 

 liar was Black Harris for lies tumbled out of his 

 mouth like boudins out of a bufler's stomach. He was 

 the child as saw the putrefied forest in the Black Hills. 

 Black Harris come in from Laramie ; he'd been trapping 

 three year an' more on Platte and the ' other side ; ' 

 and, when he got into Liberty, he fixed himself right 

 off like a Saint Louiy dandy. Well, he sat to dinner 

 one day in the tavern, and a lady says to him : 



" l Well, Mister Harris, I hear you're a great 

 truvler.' 



" ' Travler, marm/ says Black Harris, ' this niggur's 

 no travler ; I ar' a trapper, marm, a mountain-man, 

 wagh !' 



" ' Well, Mister Harris, trappers are great travlers, 

 and you goes over a sight of ground in your perishina- 

 tions, I'll be bound to say.' 



" ' A sight, marm, this coon's gone over, if that's the 

 way your ' stick floats.'* I've trapped beaver on Platte 

 and Arkansa, and away up on Missoura and Yaller 

 Stone ; I've trapped on Columbia, on Lewis Fork, and 

 Green River ; I've trapped, marm, on Grand River and 

 the Heely (Gila). I've fout the ' Blackfoot' (and 

 d d bad Injuns they ar) ; I've ' raised the hair't 



* Meaning if that's what you mean. The "stick" is tied to 

 the beaver trap by a string ; and, floating on the water, points 

 out its position, should a beaver have carried it away. 



t Scalped. 



