80 STORIES OF BIRDS AND BEASTS 



Indians themselves were soon to be crowded from 

 their hunting-grounds. This was the beginning of the 

 end, though it took many years yet to drive the mon- 

 arch from his kingdom. 



"Act third came, passed rapidly and with it the 

 Buffalo. Firearms, from musket to pistol, were plen- 

 tiful, and then followed the deadly, long-range rifle. 

 Stupid greed fell upon the Indian and white settler 

 alike. No one listened to the warning cry, ' Take 

 what ye need to eat.' It was not only flesh for food 

 and hides for covering, but hides for sale, and cow 

 hides at that, with no respect of season. The Indian 

 found that much deadly fire-water could be bought for 

 Buffalo skins, and also that the hides of the females 

 and calves were the softest and most valuable. 



" So then the massacre began ; for it was outright 

 murder to kill the females and young. Whites and 

 Indians went out to kill, as an army prepared to ma- 

 noeuvre, surprise, trap, and give no quarter. The Buf- 

 faloes were chased by men on horseback, who shot with 

 pistols, as more easily used with one hand, and were 

 also shot at from ambush with the long-range rifle, so 

 that the poor bewildered things, often seeing no enemy, 

 did not know in what direction to escape, and huddled 

 together helpless victims. Still they held their own 

 and increased until the last scene of all took place ; and 

 it seems to me that it was only yesterday. 



" A railroad stretched its iron arm across the coun- 

 try, it was the Union Pacific. Have you ever seen 

 the ants rush out of a great hill that has been dis- 

 turbed ? Could you count them ? " 



"Oh," said Rap, "I've seen them often, and you 



