Jack Among the Indians; Or, A Boy's Summer on the Buffalo Plains

by George Bird Grinnell

CHAPTER XXIV. A MYSTERY OF THE PRAIRIE.

Two or three days after Fox Eye's accident, the camp moved again, back to the little creek near the Sweet Grass Hills, which they had left only a few days before. Here there were but few buffalo, and another move was made, still further south, to a stream running into the Marias River. After two or three short moves down this creek, buffalo were again found plenty, and several successful chases were made. As the indications seemed to be that the buffalo were more plenty east of the Marias, the camp turned in that direction and moved on toward the Missouri River.

By this time, great stores of food had been accumulated by the Indians. In every lodge were piled up parfleches of choice dried meat and back fat and tongues. Many sacks of pemmican had been made, and Jack greatly enjoyed seeing the old women at work, preparing this food. Every evening there was feasting in the camp. Men invited their friends to eat with them. Young people held dances, sometimes some of the societies held their dances. Everybody was good natured, laughing, happy.

Hugh and Jack were often invited to feast by some of Hugh's friends, and always accepted; and usually their hosts, perhaps on the suggestion of Hugh, or perhaps of Pis'kun Monroe, invited Joe to these feasts, as company for Jack. So it was that Joe, who under ordinary circumstances would have been treated only as a boy who had never done anything, and was as yet of no importance, came, through Jack's friendship, to be regarded as a young man of promise, and to stand in the public estimation, very high among the young men of the camp. Joe understood perfectly, why it was that he received this consideration, and sometimes used to talk to Jack about it, and to tell him that if it had not been for Hugh and himself, none of these honours, that he was now receiving, would have come to him.

Hugh, Jack and Joe took part in all the buffalo chases that were made, and on one of these, Jack rode his new horse and carried only his bow and arrows and his knife. On this chase he killed four cows which were afterwards identified by the private mark which his arrows bore, as did those of every other man in the camp. In this chase he let Joe ride Pawnee, and Joe killed six cows, for of course he was much more accustomed to the use of the bow, than was Jack. Often during these days, Jack and Joe rode out together, both bareback, and carrying their bows and several times coming upon single buffalo, they succeeded in killing them and bringing them into the camp. Several times, too, they came upon little herds of buffalo feeding or lying on the prairie, in places where it was possible to creep up very close to them, and Jack, who by this time had killed enough buffalo so that the novelty had worn off, persuaded Joe to creep up near the great beasts, and to lie there and watch them.

This was an amusement in which at first Joe scarcely sympathized. To him a buffalo was only so much food, and yet after they had done this once or twice, and had spent hours watching old cows lying there, chewing their cud while the yellow calves played about them, or at other times, slowly feeding along some little sag between two hills, or again, steadily travelling along with ponderous tread and swinging heads and beards sweeping the ground, Joe became as much interested in the study of the ways of these great beasts as was his white companion. Often mingled with a little group of buffalo would be a herd of antelope, feeding perfectly at home with their huge companions, and perhaps, if these started to walk in any direction, keeping along with them as if a part of the herd. Once a group of buffalo and antelope passed so close to the boys, lying on the hilltop, that Jack distinctly saw the nostrils of the nearest antelope move and twitch as it walked by, while the great bull near which it was, looked to the boy almost like a mountain.

One day, when the camp was near the Missouri River, Jack and Joe had ridden out, Jack carrying his rifle and Joe his bow, over to where the Bad Lands break away above the river. Far below them they could see the stream winding about among the yellow verdureless bluffs, which were gashed in all directions with ravines and canyons, and showed a curious mingling of colours of red and gray and green and brown and yellow. Near where they sat on their horses, a long point of level prairie stretched out toward the stream, and Jack proposed that they leave their horses in the hollow near where they were, and should walk out to the edge of the prairie and look over. He wanted to get as nearly above the stream as he could. He did not realise that several miles of broken Bad Lands lay between the point of prairie and the river.

They walked out to the point and stood there looking down. The strange scene had a fascination for Jack, who had never seen Bad Lands on so great a scale as this. As he sat there looking at the scene and wondering, Joe rose to his feet and walking a few yards southwards, looked over the bluff there, and then turning, called in a low voice to Jack. When he came up and followed Joe's glance, he saw down below them on the bluff, a single buffalo slowly working its way up the steep hillside, evidently coming from the river below. The height of the bluff was great, and the buffalo seemed to find it a hard climb. He would stick his toes into the soil and scramble half a dozen yards and then stop to rest. Then he would ascend a few yards more and again stop.

The boys lay on the edge of the bank and watched the bull slowly clamber toward them, and at length it reached the prairie only a few yards from where they were, and stopping with a grunt, stood there panting. They lay perfectly still and watched it, both feeling a little nervous as to which way the bull might turn. Joe whispered to Jack, "Look out, my friend, do not move, lie perfectly still. If he sees us he may rush upon us and kill us." For several moments they lay there and watched, and at last the buffalo slowly moved away and disappeared over a low hill. Then they sat up, and Jack said to Joe, "Well, I'm mighty glad he's gone, I tell you, he looked to me big and terrible. Of course, I suppose I might have killed him if he had turned toward us, but I was mighty glad when I saw him go the other way. Weren't you, Joe?"

"You bet I was," said Joe. "I was scared. Of course if he had come toward us you might have killed him, but I couldn't have done anything with my arrows; if he had come straight at us I'd have had to jump right over the side of the bluff."