274 I RETALIATE. 



Mississippi once more, as they were much frightened by Black 

 Kettle's raid. They told me that he had some two hundred 

 men with him, and that they came close to the cabins, in some 

 cases breaking the glass in the windows with their guns and 

 firing into the houses; and that one man, having put up a 

 small fowl-house, in which all his chickens were shut up at 

 niffht, had had it robbed by one of the Indians, who had taken 



O " * 



the fowls and had tied them to his saddle. I think the number 

 of Indians must have been exaggerated, as Black Kettle, I 

 heard later, had only one hundred warriors with him. In the 

 confusion of a night attack it was easy to see double. 



I went to bed early that night, the preacher not having yet 

 come home ; but about an hour afterwards he arrived, and was 

 much put out at finding me already in bed. He made up 

 the fire, though this did very little good in a place with three 

 big holes in it, and not yet chinked, and then he turned in, 

 merely taking off his coat and boots. He soon found, as I had 

 done the night before, that the blankets were too narrow, as I 

 had taken a liberal allowance and put it well under me ; so he 

 pulled, but could get no more ; he then asked if I thought he 

 could sleep under so little, when I reminded him that I had 

 said much the same thing the night before. He was quiet for 

 a time and then began again, asking me if I thought it right 

 to make a preacher pass the night in such a manner, on which 

 I said that I had always thought that a pastor should help his 

 flock, but had discovered my mistake the night before. He 

 then got up and sat by the fire on a three-legged stool, and 

 there he remained until the morning, when he would not speak 

 to me. 



The mail came in early the next day, bringing some letters 



