WITH THE BLUECOATS ON THE BORDER. i6l 



I ,; I,! / ,1 -gA^%^/^ ^ 1 



' i' lihlfvUN' nP" /i\V'T:^j^'^ nioht close in on the fair land- 



iJiV-A ^w^^^ "- > l^W> scape before us. Down below 



|KAv\ .;;'^' : t^ W 



'^J^'4\fr^^''*''"^ia.c ' V'^ US, where the creek spreads out 



^^Ki^^T \' • • 



"^ ^Ij^t4-^/ • , \r^ ^''^^'^ '^ wide and deep pool, some 



'^ -^S^^^Jli *' ' ^ vounc^ Indian o-irls are bathinor in its 



' '' cool waters, and their laughing voices 



f?:K-?f.is,-'v-'!-':', -fi^e up melodiously in the still air. 



\-|^ii|fv Some squaws are squatted along the edge 



• filling their earthen water -jars or dipping 



their struggling, squawling little papooses, clothes 



and all, into the stream. 



Following the path along the bluff towards the high ground 

 in our front, stopping for a moment at some graves fenced 

 in with neat white palings, where some poor fellow's are silent- 

 ly "awaiting the last reveille," as we see is inscribed in rude 

 characters on the little head-boards, we climb to the top of 

 the mound, and, turning, look back at the scene below us. At 

 our feet lies the little fort, with its square parade-ground 

 flanked by the " Officers' Row " opposite the barracks of the 

 men, and at either end by the guard-house and quartermaster's 

 stores and offices and the post hospital. We can see the sol- 

 diers gathered about the doors of their quarters, while in the 

 open space between the fort and the Agency buildings, stand- 

 ing white and straggling beyond, and rising above the tepees 

 grouped near by, some young Indians are racing their horses, 

 yelling and whooping like fiends. Still farther beyond, where 

 we can s,ee the shining, curving river, and the creek emptying 

 its waters into it, the village is lying, the smoke from its many 

 II 



