LIFE AT THE RENDEZVOUS. 89 



received was really worth about half that sum. The 

 cimaron was greatly admired by the trappers, and all 

 praised my skill in training the animal. The principal 

 bidder at the station a shrewd Yankee purchased it 

 for what he called a hundred dollars' worth of powder 

 and lead. I was glad to get rid of Fondle at any price, 

 for although it was a pretty pet, it cost me a great deal 

 of care to attend to it properly. Still, as the trader led 

 the animal away, I could not help a feeling of regret. 



The trade having been completed, the mountaineers 

 plunged into all the dissipation of the station. Drinking, 

 gambling, and rioting, were almost the only occupations 

 of the day. The property so hardly earned was rapidly 

 spent. Men could be seen in all stages of drunkenness 

 from riotous elevation to beastly intoxication. Joe, who 

 had long been accustomed to regard these scenes as thing* 

 of course, and even necessary to a social existence, en- 

 gaged in them, as freely as the rest. I had an aversion 

 for them. The counsels of my mother were constantly 

 in my mind. On this occasion I was saved from the in- 

 fluence of temptation by a circumstance which effected a 

 complete change in my mode of life. 



There was an English sportsman at the station a gen- 

 tlemen of fortune, named Robert Barrill, with whom I 

 managed to scrape an acquaintance. He was very intel- 

 ligent and agreeable, and a daring and successful sports- 



8* 



