108 CAMP-FIRES OF A NATURALIST. 



the advice of Little Raven, an Arrapahoe chief, and 

 went to the big cattle ranch of Dickey brothers with 

 Sam Horton, the foreman, who had been detained at 

 the fort during the storm. 



The ranch occupied a stretch of country fifty miles 

 square, and the home rancli was a cluster of eight or 

 ten log houses and stables, where the men congregated 

 during the winter. This was headquarters, and was 

 the base of supplies for the outlying ranches. Half 

 a mile from this ranch was the winter camp of old 

 Coho, a Cheyenne chief of great importance, and this 

 camp was the place of resort and amusement for the 

 thirty or forty men who made the home ranch their 

 abiding-place during the winter. 



The ranch was reached just before supper, and the 

 meal was hardly over when the men began leaving 

 by twos and threes, until the house was deserted by 

 all except Dyche, Horton, and the old French cook, 

 who, in response to Dyche's inquiries for the rea- 

 son of this strange disappearance, said " the squaw 

 bumpers gone to the Injun dance." 



Horton proposed that they should also go to see the 

 fun, and the two were soon at the tepee of old Coho, 

 which they entered without ceremony. Horton pre- 

 sented Dyche to the old chief, who sat on a roll of 

 blankets between his two daughters, Zilpha and Cesso- 

 nia. The chief was attired in buckskin leggings, with 

 a blanket wrapped around his shoulders, while the 

 two young squaws were dressed in pink calico gowns 

 with red striped shawls thrown over their heads. 

 Around the tepee sat other bucks and squaws, dressed 

 much after the fashion of whites, with the exception 



