1 64 HORSE, FOOT, AND DRAGOONS. 



left to right, describing a semicircle above his head, that it has 

 taken two days to produce this masterpiece, and then extend- 

 ing his three fingers again, blandly and sleepily murmurs 

 "dollar." Inspired by a happy thought, we prevail upon him 

 to stand up for a moment, and seizing our sketch - block, we 

 proceed to make a rough sketch of our brother - artist, filling 

 in the outline with quick washes of color, and tearing off the 

 leaf, we hand the drawing to our sitter. 



Never shall we forget the expression of wonder and admi- 

 ration — we say this with all due humility — that passes over 

 the face of the poor, ignorant savage. His stolid demeanor 

 vanishes at once, he laughs aloud, jumping up and down and 

 holding the paper to his breast with both hands. Suddenly 

 he picks up the painted bit of muslin and presses it into our 

 hands with smiling face and head nodding violently, and then, 

 placing our drawing in his bosom, he folds his blanket about 

 him and stalks out of the room. Proudly we gaze about us ; 

 at last our genius has met with undoubted recognition ; and 

 when at the next season's exhibition the critics mercilessly "go 

 for" our great picture — that we are going to paint — we can 

 calmly look back to this episode in our career, and know that 

 for once at least our powers have been truly appreciated. 

 Candor compels us to admit, however, tliat when our admirer 

 picked up his own work of art and forced it into our willing 

 hands, he did not forget to pick up the silver dollar too — and 

 he kept it. 



One Vv'arm, sunshiny afternoon, two or three days after our 

 arrival at the post, as we lounge in a rocking-chair in the 

 "sitting-room" of the quarters, enjoying a quiet smoke and 

 discussing the news from a pile of journals just arrived by 

 the semi -weekly mail — which has to be brought on horseback 

 or by buck- board nearly a hundred miles over the prairie from 



