14 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



he carefully covered with the folds of his Navajo blanket, 

 and, striding into the darkness, cautiously reconnoitred the 

 vicinity of the camp. When he returned to the fire he sat 

 himself down as "before, but this time with his rifle across his 

 lap ; and at intervals his keen grey eye glanced piercingly 

 around, particularly towards an old weatherbeaten and 

 grizzled mule, who now, old stager as she was, having filled 

 her belly, stood lazily over her picket-pin, with her head 

 bent down and her long ears flapping over her face, her 

 limbs gathered under her, and her back arched to throw 

 off the rain, tottering from side to side as she rested and 

 slept. 



"Yep, old gal!" cried Killbuck to. the animal, at the 

 same time picking a piece of burnt wood from the fire and 

 throwing it at her, at which the mule gathered itself up 

 and cocked her ears as she recognised her master's voice. 

 "Yep, old gal! and keep your nose open; thar's brown 

 skin about, I'm thinkin', and maybe you'll get roped 

 (lasso'd) by a Rapaho afore mornin'." Again the old 

 trapper settled himself before the fire ; and soon his head 

 began to nod, as drowsiness stole over him. Already he 

 was in the land of dreams ; revelling amongst bands of 

 " fat cow," or hunting along a stream well peopled with 

 beav er ; with no Indian " sign " to disturb him, and the 

 merry rendezvous in close perspective, and his peltry sell- 

 ing briskly at six dollars the plew, and galore of alcohol to 

 ratify the trade. Or, perhaps, threading the back trail of 

 his memory, he passed rapidly through the perilous vicis- 

 situdes of his hard, hard life starving one day, revelling 

 in abundance the next; now beset by whooping savages 

 thirsting for his blood, baying his enemies like the hunted 

 deer, but with the unflinching courage of a man ; now, all 

 care thrown aside, secure and forgetful of the past, a wel- 

 come guest in the hospitable trading fort ; or back, as the 

 trail gets fainter, to his childhood's home in the brown 

 forests of old Kentuck, tended and cared for his only 

 thought to enjoy the homminy and johnny cakes of his 

 thrifty mother. Once more, in warm and well-remembered 

 homespun, he sits on the snake-fence round the old clearing, 



