Prairie Fires 141 



black charcoal — and the river, all bare and naked, 

 bereft of all the mysterious charm which it used 

 to derive from its disappearing and reappearing 

 like the bright glance of an eye through the 

 shroudings of a mantilla. These fires cause Buffalo 

 Bill to sing a kind of war chant in a queer sotto 

 voce. This war chant of Bill's is a curious affair. 

 You hear begun, with a pale but calm and smiling 

 face, a little ditty which never gets beyond the 

 first line, " On the beach at Long Branch." What 

 happened or did not happen on the beach at 

 Long Branch you are never told ; the light humming 

 goes on, but if you approach close enough you 

 find that the libretto is composed of some of the 

 hardest and tallest swearing that it has ever been 

 your good luck to hear. The effect is mighty odd ; 

 and a stranger hearing this light-hearted humming 

 might imagine that its performer was exactly in 

 the right state of mind to welcome with effusion 

 the proposition that he should make a little loan 

 of a ten dollar bill — but when Mr. Cody is singing 

 his little cusses, look out for squalls ! 



' However, there are no Indians to slay here at 

 present — at least, none that we can see, for that 

 thicket of willows with their tops sticking up like 

 real " cock-a-boddie-hackles," may be full of the 

 devils for aught we know to the contrary. But a 

 crackle through it will soon show, and then to 

 camp. 



' Our hunting ground is not prairie proper, it 



