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 hunters 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 
