272 A PEEACHEK. 



luckily struck the Wichita a few miles below Henrietta, and 

 reached that place about ten in the morning. Here I found 

 everything in confusion : Black Kettle and his warriors had 

 passed through the place, hooting and yelling, two nights 

 before, and had carried off every head of stock of all kinds, 

 and even all the poultry, no one daring to fire at them. When 

 we were there before, we had met a much-got-up individual, 

 who was loud about what he would do if the Indians came 

 there, giving us a great deal of advice about how we should act 

 if attacked, and yet this man was one of the first to advise 

 no shots being fired at these Indians when they did come for 

 fear of provoking them. One of the settlers borrowed my 

 pony to follow the trail a little way, to see if he could pick up 

 any strayed animals, but he could not have gone far as he was 

 back in an hour. 



A preacher had arrived on the day of the Indian raid, and 

 a meeting was held that afternoon. I attended, of course, and 

 listened to his sermon for more than an hour, when, not being 

 able to stand it any longer, I went out, as the man made me 

 laugh by using long words the meaning of which he was quite 

 ignorant of, and putting them in the wrong places. When the 

 service was over he gave me a long lecture for having gone 

 away, and it was a little difficult explaining why I had done so, 

 without hurting his feelings. He told me his pony had been 

 carried off with the rest, and that he was getting up a 

 subscription to buy another, and he hoped I would give 

 liberally. I replied that I meant to give a sum to Judge 

 Johnson for the poorest of the settlers, many of whom were 

 utterly ruined by the loss of their stock, and that I thought 

 that as he had a salary of twelve hundred dollars (240) he 



