92 LIFE IN THE FAB WEST 



In all the philosophy of hardened hearts, our hunters 

 turned from the spot where the unraourned trapper 

 met his death. La Bonte, however, not yet entirely 

 steeled by mountain life to a perfect indifference to 

 human feeling, drew his hard hand across his eye, as 

 the unbidden tear rose from his rough but kindly heart. 

 He could not forget so soon the comrade he had lost ; 

 the companion in the hunt or over the cheerful camp- 

 fire ; the narrator of many a tale of dangers past of 

 sufferings from hunger, cold, thirst, and untended 

 wounds of Indian perils, and other vicissitudes. One 

 tear dropped from the young hunter's eye, and rolled 

 down his cheek the last for many a long year. 



In the forks of the northern branch of the Platte, 

 formed by the junction of the Laramie, they found a 

 big village of the Sioux encamped near the station of 

 one of the fur companies. Here the party broke up ; 

 many, finding the alcohol of the traders an impediment 

 to their further progress, remained some time in the 

 vicinity, while La Bonte, Luke, and a trapper named 

 Marcelline, started in a few days to the mountains, to 

 trap on Sweet Water and Medicine Bow. They had 

 leisure, however, to observe all the rascalities connected 

 with the Indian trade, although at this season (August) 

 hardly commenced. However, a band of Indians hav- 

 ing come in with several packs of last year's robes, and 

 being anxious to start speedily on their return, a trader 

 from one of the forts had erected his lodge in the village. 



Here he set to work immediately, to induce the 

 Indians to trade. First, a chief appoints three "soldiers " 



