i64 CANADIAN NIGHTS 



tents, bundled everything into the wagons, and 

 left with, as far as I am concerned, no amiable 

 feelings towards the " cut off " band of Sioux. I 

 am generally rather partial to Indians, but I confess 

 on this occasion I felt fully prepared to endorse 

 the opinion of the gentleman who said that " all 

 Indians were pison." In the first place this same 

 " cut off " band of Sioux had only a short time 

 before massacred between eighty and ninety Paw- 

 nee women and children. They came upon the 

 camp while all the men were out running buffalo, 

 surrounded it, and killed every human being in 

 the place. It may be said that it was " their 

 nature so to do," the Pawnees and the Sioux being 

 hereditary foes, but at any rate I defy anyone to 

 show that they had the slightest right to come 

 rampaging about the bluffs, turning us out of camp, 

 spoiling our hunting, and destroying our chance of 

 getting a sheep. 



Late in the evening after dark we arrived at a 

 little solitary cattle-ranch tended by one man. 

 He was standing at the door when we rode up, 

 looking very uneasy and peering through the 

 darkness, but he brightened up considerably when 

 he saw we were white men. He was very hospi- 

 table. " Walk in, boys," he said, " walk right in 



