Jack found Hezekiah's wife a neat pleasant-faced young woman, and the lodge was kept in very good order. Three odd little children, perfect negroes in appearance, were playing about close at hand, and a tiny baby with great rolling eyes and tightly curling hair, was strapped to a board and swinging to one of the lodge poles.
After some conversation, Hezekiah hinted somewhat diffidently, that he would be glad if Jack would eat with them, and Jack was very ready to accept the invitation, which seemed to please both Hezekiah and his wife. Jack passed a good part of the afternoon in the lodge, and when at last he left it, made up his mind that he would try to see something of Hezekiah in the future.
One afternoon, not very long after the Medicine Lodge was over, Jack was sitting in front of the lodge with Hugh, when he heard the distant voice of the camp crier shouting out the news, as he rode about the circle of the lodges. He listened for a while, and as the man drew nearer and the sounds which he uttered grew more distinct, Jack turned to Hugh and asked him what the old man was saying.
"Hold on a minute," said Hugh, "wait till he gets closer, I can't just hear all he says, but it is something about moving the camp, and buffalo. I guess likely they are going to start." Presently, he added, "Yes, this is what he says: 'Listen, listen, everybody pay attention. To-morrow the camp will move. All the lodges must be taken down early. Everybody must pack up soon after sunrise. The camp will move toward the Sweet Grass Hills. You men, get your horses close. You women, pack up your things to-night, the chiefs have ordered to start early. Listen, listen, everybody pay attention.'"
"Well," said Jack, "I am glad they are going. We have been here a long time now, and I'll be glad to get out on the prairie again, and glad to see the Indians chase buffalo. They'll do that, won't they, Hugh, when they get into the buffalo country?"
"Lord, yes," said Hugh, "that's the only way they kill buffalo, except now and then when they find one or two old bulls off by themselves, when they sometimes creep up to one, and kill him that way; but whenever they want to make a big killing, to get meat and lodge skins for everybody, then they chase 'em."
"Well, Hugh," said Jack, "how shall we do when the camp moves? Just pack our animals and travel along with them?"
"Yes," said Hugh, "I guess we may as well pack our animals, and then we'll let the old man's women drive them. They'd be glad to pack them too, but I'm afraid if they did, that first thing we knew, some of them horses would get a sore back, and I don't want that to happen. You see, likely as not, we've got to travel down South with these horses again, and I mean to keep them in good order, so that they'll serve us while going, just as they did when we came up here."
"Why," said Jack, "it doesn't seem to me as if we ought to let the women pack the horses, that's man's work. Ain't it, Hugh?"
"No," said Hugh, "not among Indians. Man's work, in an Indian camp, is to kill meat for food, and skins for clothing, and to go to war, so's to get rich and to make people think well of himself and his family, and to defend the camp. The woman's work is to look out for the lodge, to take care of the children, to make the clothing and to see to the moving of the camp. It ain't so very different, you see, from what it is among white folks. Take it among Indians, a man's business is hunting, and going to war. White men hunt for fun, but Indians don't. Indians hunt, so that they can live, just the same as any man in the States goes to his store in the morning, and sells things all day so as to earn money to support his family."