50 PRAIRIE AND FOREST. 



The following reminiscence will illustrate how even over- 

 caution might prove dangerous to friends. 



For some days I had had a terribly hard time of it. The 

 ground had drunk its full and to spare of snow-water, 

 game was scarce and wild, and the scanty herbage that my 

 horse and mule were able to obtain since we entered the 

 plains was barely sufficient to keep them alive ; still good 

 seventy miles more had to be traversed before I could 

 reach the friendly shelter of the belt of timber that sur- 

 rounded the Forks. If it had been autumn, I dare not have 

 chosen this route, for it is a debatable ground of the Co- 

 manche and Arrapaho, to whom a solitary white man would 

 be so tempting a morsel that he could not fail to be caught, 

 and we will not say what done to ; the very conjecture is 

 disagreeable. The severity of the late weather, therefore, 

 was my safety ; for redskins, no less than white men, dis- 

 like unnecessary exposure. Still, I was convinced some 

 stragglers must have lately visited the neighborhood, for 

 the occasional head of game I saw was so wary that I con- 

 cluded hutiters had lately disturbed them. One thing was 

 very much in my favor I was in the lightest of marching 

 order : no pack of peltries or well-stocked kit had I ; for a 

 few pounds of bullets, a pound of powder, and my buffalo 

 robe were all my beasts had for a load. How independent 

 a fellow feels when all his worldly goods can be summed 

 up in so few words, unless he be in Bond Street or Broad- 

 way ! To keep as much in the nags as possible, in case 

 speed might be required, ever on the lookout for any thing 

 suspicious, with cautious, slow steps, I pursued my route to 

 the eastward. Nothing occurred to increase my watchful- 

 ness ; in truth, I commenced to believe that I had unneces- 

 sarily alarmed myself, when, crossing a small water-course, 

 on the edge of which was a sandy margin, plainly I saw 

 prints indicating that three horses had lately passed. The 



