“Where did you get him?” said Jules, coming up, with the bridle of his own horse across his arm.
“From the Crows,” said Ben. “They are my friends yit. I’ll never need one on the prairies. I go back to them onc’t in a while and they always make a feast.”
“The horse is a beauty,” said Jules, glancing at him.
“He hasn’t his ekal on the prairies,” replied Ben. “Look fer him whar ye may, ye won’t find a hoss to go as far and do as much and do it as quick as Diamond. I’ll say thet fer him. I’ve got him to thank fer a life saved from the Blackfeet before now. But them days is done. I’m gettin’ to be an old man now. I feel it in my bones.”
“Old!” replied Jules. “I’d like to find your match now in this section.”
“That’s easy enough to do,” said Ben; “not but thet the time hez been when I was as spry a young chap as ye’d find atween the three Buttes and the Massasipp. I tell ye true, I’ve seen the time I could lick any thing on the prairie. I couldn’t do it now. I’m gittin’ too powerful weak, that’s the reason, and good enough reason, too. I c’u’d lift a buffler onc’t; I kain’t do it now. But I’m no chicken to-day.”
“Say,” said Jan, “vat you do mit my pear?”
“Leave him here now,” said Ben. “To-morrow I reckon we’ll come back and take him into camp.”
“Vat you do mit him?” queried Jan.
“Eat him, of course. Never hed any bear-steak, I guess. I calculate you’ll say it’s mighty refreshing fodder, once you git any of it.”