4 LIFE IN THE PAR WEST. 



"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 



" * Well, Mister Harris, I hear you're a great trav'ler.' 



" ' Trav'ler, marm,' says Black Harris, ' this niggur's no 

 trav'ler ; I ar' a trapper, marm, a mountain- man, wagh ! ' 



" ' Well, Mister Harris, trappers are great trav'lers, and 

 you goes over a sight of ground in your perishinations, 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 



are) ; I've ( raised the hair 'f of more than one Apach, and 

 made a Rapaho ' come ' afore now ; I've trapped in heav'n, 

 in airth, and h ; and scalp my old head, inarm, but I've 

 seen a putrefied forest.' 



" < La, Mister Harris, a what ? ' 



"'A putrefied forest, marm, as sure as my rifle's got 

 hind-sights, and she shoots center. I was out on the Black 

 Hills, Bill Sublette knows the time the year it rained fire 

 and everybody knows when that was. If thar wasn't 

 cold doins about that time, this child wouldn't say so. 

 The snow was about fifty foot deep, and the bufler lay 

 dead on the ground like bees after a beein' ; not whar we 

 was tho', for thar was no bufler, and no meat, and me and 

 my band had been livin' on our mocassins (leastwise the 



* 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. 



