CHAPTER II.
A NEW FRIEND.
As the light of morning overspread the stream and prairie, I felt an unspeakable sense of relief. Not a moment of sleep had visited me that night, although Nat’s extreme fear toward midnight gave way to his drowsiness, and he slept long and heavily.
“Come, wake up, Nat!” said I, shaking him as soon as I saw that day was at hand.
“How? what’s the matter?” said he, rubbing his eyes, and gaping confusedly about him.
“Day is at hand, and we must be on our way to Oregon.”
He hastily rose, and we commenced our simple preparations. I ran up the river bank, and swept the prairie to the south of us to satisfy myself that no wandering Indians were in sight. The whole plain was visible, and with a feeling akin to joy, I reported the fact to Nat. He, however, was not satisfied with my survey, as he had more than once before detected objects that had escaped my vision, and he ascended a high roll in the bank, some distance up, and took a long, careful, scrutinizing sweep of the whole horizon. Feeling satisfied that he would be no more rewarded for his pains than I was, I started the fire, and commenced cooking some of our buffalo, I had been engaged in this for a minute or so, when I heard Nat call, in a hoarse, anxious, half-whisper:
“Come here, quick!”
I hurried to his side and eagerly asked him the cause of agitation.
“Why, just look yonder, if that ain’t enough to agitate one, then I don’t know what is.”