“Oh! it’ll quiet down after a while,” Dick replied, laughingly. “They cannot keep it up much longer. And by the time you’re ready to turn in, I promise you it’ll all be as silent as a church between meeting-days.”
And somehow Dick turned out to be a good prophet, for an hour later it seemed as though even the yellow curs that went slinking about the village had been warned that the time for making a racket was passed; for they seldom gave tongue, except to bay the moon occasionally; and then some brave was apt to slip out of a lodge, and hurl a stone at the offender.
“Listen!” said Dick, as he and his cousin were getting ready to crawl under their blankets, tired, and ready for sleep.
“I hear what you mean, Dick, and it is a sure enough wolf, too. I’ve listened to too many of them not to know the sound.”
“And it is over in the direction of that place where all the platforms are standing, or tumbling down, you know, Roger,” pursued the other.
“Yes, showing that the wolves, coyotes, and foxes must find a regular treat out there every night, in the bowls meant for the spirits of the dead braves. How silly it all seems, Dick!”
“To us, yes; but it’s all right for these Indians. And, Roger, if some of them went to the towns and cities of the palefaces, don’t you think they’d look on lots of things the white people do, and believe them just as foolish? It depends on which way you’ve been brought up. Father says that what’s food for one man is poison to another.”
“I guess that’s right,” Roger replied; and that finished the talk, for with the far-away, mournful howl of that gray wolf still sounding in their ears at intervals, the two lads fell asleep.
They were up before daylight, and got some breakfast ready, because word had been received from the Mandan chief the night before that the brave, who was to be Captain Lewis’s messenger, would be ready to start at exactly an hour after dawn, while the sun was still peeping above the horizon; and they did not wish to delay his departure if they could help it.
Captain Lewis even arose before there was any necessity for his appearance, just to shake the boys by the hand, and wish them the best of good luck.