EARLY DAY STORIES. 47 



gun and powder horn above my head. The water was 

 swift, cold and almost up to my arms in one place, and 

 the stony bottom being rough and slippery, I came near 

 being taken off my feet, but made the crossing all right, 

 put on my clothing and walked to a hill about a mile away, 

 from the top of which I expected to see buffalo, but none 

 were in sight. Turning back I recrossed the river and 

 climbed the highest of the Red Buttes, from the top of which 

 I thought I could see a good many black specks away to 

 the southeast but if buffalo, which was probable, they were 

 too far away for me to hunt on foot. Nearby, however, to 

 the west, and probably not more than a mile from the hill 

 on which I stood were two buft'alo quietly feeding, and close 

 by right at the foot of the hill was Jolly. I hurried down, 

 met Jolly and told him what I had seen. We went after 

 the two buffalo, being very careful to keep out of sight, and 

 coming up to them so that the wind was in our favor, we 

 easily got up within seventy-five steps of them. Remem- 

 bering my ill success at Wood river, where we saw the first 

 buffalo, we meant to make sure of these. We both agreed 

 to shoot at the buffalo nearest, which was a big fellow 

 standing broad side, and apparently unsuspicious of danger. 

 At the count of three we both fired, one of the bullets break- 

 ing the fore leg above the knee. Our guns were too light 

 for such game, and had not the fore leg been broken, doubt- 

 less he would have carried away the lead from both shots, 

 and we would have lost him. He could scarcely run at all, 

 he was so bulky and heavy, and after following the other 

 a short distance he turned aside, and lay down in a small, 

 steep ravine. As soon as we could reload I started on the 

 run after the wounded buffalo but Jolly called out "Hold 

 on, young man, hold on, something has happened to my 

 gun." But the young man did not hold on — he kept right 

 on after the game, which was soon overtaken. The wound- 

 ed buffalo was lying in the bottom of a dry creek under a 



