"Well, that's a good story, Hugh. I wish I could have been the boy that drove that team. I'd like to have spent a winter in an Indian camp; and above all, in those old times."
"Yes, son, I expect you'd have liked it right well. There was a heap o' difference between Indians then and now; they were right good people then, they hadn't picked up many white men's ways; so long as you treated 'em well they gave you the very best they had, and all you wanted of it. There wa'nt any beggars then, and the men you made friends with couldn't do enough for you. Of course when I went into old Spotted Wolf's lodge, and used it for a store and a boarding house, I made him some little presents, like two or three yards of red cloth, and three or four strings of beads and a mirror or two to his women. That is all it cost me to stop there all winter, board, lodging and mending all attended to for me."
"Well," said Jack, "I wish I could have seen some of those old days."
"You're going to see a heap this summer, son, that will be new to you, and you'll see a lot of old-time Indians and old-time Indian ways, up where we're going."
By this time darkness had fallen, and the sky was full of stars. The fire had burned down, and the air was growing cool. They spread their beds, and before long were sleeping soundly.
CHAPTER VII. AN INDIAN WAR PARTY.
When Hugh and Jack started next morning the sky was overcast, and a cold wind blew from the north. Before they had travelled far, it began to rain. Soon the rain changed to snow and it grew very cold. They put on their coats and slickers, and for an hour or two travelled through a howling snow-storm. Suddenly the wind ceased, the snow stopped falling, the sun came out, and it grew very warm. The snow which had covered the ground speedily melted, and again they travelled along over a summer prairie.