"Let me say, as I have before said, you shall be blessed in the future as you have been in the past.
"What, with food? Yes; I tell you yes! I promise you all, this day, in the name of the Lord, that you shall see the time while upon this journey, that you shall have more grain than you can load in your wagons, and leave many bushels behind you to waste upon the ground."
This, my readers, was fulfilling prophecy to the very letter. How often I have seen the sayings of our leaders fulfilled in like manner since I started upon this journey!
CHAPTER II.
GOING WITH THE PONCAS—BUFFALO MEAT—CAMPED FOR THE WINTER—COUNCIL WITH THE INDIANS—A WAR DANCE—SELECTED TO GO WITH THE PONCAS ON A WINTER'S HUNT.
Brother James Emmett, one of our party, understood a little of the Sioux language, and one of the Ponca chiefs could converse in this language. Brother Emmett was asked to find out how far the Poncas lived from the camp. The chief told him three sleeps, or, as he understood it, three days' travel for our cattle: but we afterwards learned that the chief meant three days' and nights' travel with horses (one hundred and fifty miles).
The country over which we traveled the first three days was very rough for our wagons.
The name of the chief of the Poncas was Ta-nugar-number, which means, two buffalo bulls. He was thus named because he once killed two bulls, while they were running through the village.
On the fourth day this chief came to us, saying he and the party had killed three buffaloes. Brother Miller ordered the camp to stop near a small stream close by, and send for the dead animals, that we might have buffalo meat for dinner. This was the first time we had had meat for ten weeks.