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

by George Bird Grinnell

  CHAPTER III.

  GETTING READY.

  When Hugh and Jack went back to the bunk-house, after dinner, the snowhad ceased falling, and the sun was shining brightly. The little birdsthat had been hidden in the brush during the storm had come out, andwere now hopping about on the wet ground, feeding, while some werecheerily singing from the tops of the fence posts. The mellow whistle ofthe meadow lark was heard alike from far down the valley and from thehillsides above them, and the black-birds were gurgling in the aspensbehind the house. Jack stopped before entering the bunk-house and lookedat the mountain, still white with snow, and stretched out his arms anddrew a deep breath, and yelled aloud with pure delight. Hugh turned andlooked back at him through the open door, smiling, as if greatlypleased, and said, "Seems good to get back, don't it? I tell ye there'sno place like the mountains, and the longer ye stay among them thelonger ye want to be there."

  "I guess that's so, Hugh," said Jack; "it seems to me I never was soglad to be anywhere as I am to be here. Somehow I can't say what I feel,but I just seem to be all full in here," and he placed his hand on hisbreast.

  "Yes, I know what you mean, although I can't say it no more than youcan."

  A few moments later the two were kneeling on the floor, unpacking thecontents of a large box which had come to the ranch some time before.Hugh and Mr. Sturgis had thought that it might be a good thing for thetravellers to take with them some articles to trade with the Indians. Ofcourse a few presents would be needed, for, although Hugh, from his oldacquaintance with the tribe, was sure of a hearty welcome, and Jack, asa friend of Hugh and John Monroe, would be gladly received, there wouldbe times when it would be desirable to make to certain men small gifts;but besides this, it had occurred to Mr. Sturgis that perhaps they mightbuy a few horses, and furs enough to load them, and might bring themback on their return journey. Thus, the trip would be one of mingledbusiness and pleasure, and there certainly was no possible objection tomaking a trading journey of the visit.

  The different bundles that were taken out were labeled, and were put inpiles on the floor. There were bolts of red and of blue cloth; and ofgaily figured calicos; two or three bundles of bright handkerchiefs;boxes containing beads, selected with care as being the kind most prizedby the Indians; there was quite a large bundle of cans of dry paint ofdifferent colors; and last, and perhaps most important of all, if onemight estimate its value by the amount of pleasure it would give, alarge bundle of tobacco.

  "Quite a bunch of stuff, ain't it, son?"

  "Yes, indeed," said Jack; "there's more than I thought there was. Howare you going to divide it up?"

  "Well," said Hugh, "these things look like more than they are. A lot ofthese bundles are bulky, and don't weigh much. I guess we'll get it allon two horses, and that will leave one horse for the grub and one forour beds and the mess outfit. Now, I expect the best thing we can do isto go up and see if we can't get Mrs. Carter to give us three or fourseamless sacks, and make up packs of all this stuff, so that we canthrow 'em right on and off the horses. Then we won't have to begathering up a lot of little, small bundles every time we start to packin the morning. Of course gunny sacks would do, but we want to keep allthis stuff as clean as we can, so that when we get to the Indian campand open it, even the outsides of the bundles will look pretty fresh andnew; and besides that we've got to get a couple of mantas for thesepacks, for likely we'll have plenty of rain storms while we're on theroad, and we want to keep these things dry if we can. The best way wecan work it, we'll likely get them wet crossing some creek between hereand the north, for all the creeks will be full now for the next month,and we'll likely have to do some swimming." Hugh went back into the darkstore room and rummaged about for awhile, and then came out, carryingthree or four nearly square pieces of canvas, which he threw on theground.

  "I thought we had some," he said in a satisfied tone, "but they ain'tbeen used for a long time, and I didn't know but the boys had lost 'em."

  "What are they for, Hugh?"

  "Why, you see," said Hugh, "you throw a manta over your pack, after youget the load on, but before you put on your lash rope; the lash holdsthe manta in place, and it keeps everything below it dry.

  "Well now, son, we've got everything except the blankets, and I believeit would be a good idea if you'd saddle up Pawnee and go out and drivein the horses that are in the pasture, and I'll show you what packhorses we've picked out, and then we'll put the saddles on 'em, and makesure that we've got everything."

  "All right, Hugh, I'll do it;" and he went down to the stable, put thesaddle on Pawnee, rode over into the pasture and gathered what horseswere there, drove them into the corral, and shut the gate. Hugh hadalready carried down two of the pack saddles and blankets, and Jack,leaving Pawnee at the corral, started up to the bunk-house, but met Hughcoming with the other two saddles and their blankets.

  "Now," said Hugh, as they reached the corral, "I'll show you what horsesI've picked out for the trip. We want animals that are fat and strongand pretty tough, and pretty fast, too. I ain't going to take along anyold plug pack horses, because, you see, it might be such a thing as we'dget chased, and have to run, and we don't want to have horses that we'llhave to leave behind, and so lose our grub or our blankets or our goods.Your uncle, he said he was willing we should take two pretty good saddlehorses for two of our pack animals, and I figured we'd take two of themyoung horses that you see Toney bust last year; they ain't well enoughbroke yet to be right good riding horses, but they're tough and strong,and by the time they've carried a pack a week or ten days they'll beplenty gentle.

  "Take your rope now and go in and catch me that paint horse, and we'llput him in the small corral, and then I want that big dun over there,him they call the bucking dun, and then that black with the white hindfoot; and then I reckoned we'd take either that star-faced bay or elsethat gray, I ain't quite made up my mind which. Which do you like thebest?"

  "Well, Hugh, if we were just going off on a trip I'd take the gray,because he looks the stoutest, and the best able to carry a load, but Ishould think the bay could run the fastest, if you're looking forspeed."

  "Well now, you ain't forgot all you learned last year, have you? That'sa pretty good judgment. I expect we'll leave the gray here and take thebay, and we'll make him carry our beds and ammunition, because that'sthe lightest load, and them's the things we'd hate most to lose."

  Jack caught the horses one by one, and was pleased to find that he hadnot forgotten how to throw a rope. He turned them into the small corral,and Hugh let the other horses out into the pasture; then, one by one,the horses were caught, the hackamores put on them, and then blanketsand saddles. At first the cinches were drawn only tight enough to keepthe saddles in place, but after all were saddled, they went over themagain and drew both cinches up tight. To this operation the bucking dunobjected strenuously, and, as the flank cinch was drawn tight, he brokeaway, and bucked vigourously about the small corral. When he had stoppedthey caught him again, and again drew up on the cinch, finally tying it;and then, fastening up the hackamore, turned the horse loose. Thestar-faced bay also bucked, but not so hard nor so long as the dun.

  "Now, I'll tell you what, son," said Hugh, "any of these horses we takealong can be ridden, and they ain't none of 'em got loads so heavy butwhat three of 'em can carry all the stuff there is; so that if anythingshould happen to either of our riding horses we can still have a horseapiece to ride. Maybe it might be a pretty good thing to take along anextra saddle horse or two. I don't know as it would, and I don't know_as_ it would. Of course for awhile we've got to picket all thesehorses, and when you've got to do that, every extra horse makes a lot oftrouble, and makes another rope to lose. We'll have to think about thatand I reckon I'll ask Jo if he knows of any one of these horses that'sgood to stay about camp; easy caught, and yet is pretty fast. You see,pretty nearly all these is new horses, and I don't know much aboutthem."

  By this time the afternoon was well advanced; the sun was still shiningwarml
y, and the snow which had fallen in the morning was melting fast.Hugh and Jack went over to the sunny side of the bunk-house and sat downthere on a log, and Hugh filled his pipe and smoked.

  "There's one thing," he said, "we ought to have, but we ain't got it,and we ain't likely to get it; we ought to have some dried meat to takealong. You see, we won't have no time to hunt, travelling steady, theway we will, and for a while we'll have to live on bacon. Of coursethere'll be a chance to kill an antelope now and then, but until westrike buffalo we can't expect much fresh meat. I'd like it right wellif we had a little bunch of dried meat, but we ain't got it. If youruncle had thought best to send back and get some of that beef Ibutchered yesterday, we could have dried some of that, but he didn'twant to eat another man's beef, and I don't know as I blame him much. Ifhe did that this spring, somebody might kill a beef that belonged to himin the fall, just because he was hungry. Might be such a thing as we'dget a piece of beef over to Powell's; we'll about make his ranchto-morrow night, and then that'll be the last place we'll strike till weget way up north."

  "Oh, do we go by Powell's?" said Jack; "I'd like to see all of themagain, Charlie, Bess and Mr. and Mrs. Powell; they were nice to us lastsummer."

  "Yes," said Hugh, "they're good people. Good neighbours. You know, don'tyou," he went on, "Powell bought thirty saddle horses from your unclelast fall, after you left; he paid fifty dollars a head for 'em, andsold 'em for sixty-five. He's quite a trader, Powell is."

  As they sat there talking, the sound of a cow bell was heard at firstfaintly, and a long way off, but it kept getting nearer and nearer. Jackasked Hugh, "Who gets the milk cows now, Hugh?"

  "Jo does. He often says he wishes he had you to send out to bring 'emin; but that ain't one of the milk cows coming now."

  "Well, what is it? I thought it was old Browny's bell."

  "No, that's the bell old Browny used to wear, but your elk wears it now,and that's him a-coming."

  Sure enough; a moment afterward an elk stepped out of the brush abovethem on the hillside, and came toward the house; it wore a bell, andbesides this, a great strip of red cloth was tied around its neck.

  "What in the world is that he's got around his neck, Hugh?" said Jack;"it looks as if he had a sore throat and had a strip of red flannel tiedaround it."

  "Well," said Hugh, "he's got the red flannel all right. This spring whenwe turned him out Jo was afraid that somebody would shoot him for a wildelk, so he put the bell on, and that red cloth, and then he toldeverybody he met, when he was riding, about it, and I expect there ain'tno one in quite a scope of country but knows about that elk, and justhow he sounds and looks."

  Meantime the elk had been slowly approaching, and Jack got up and walkedover toward it. It was just shedding out, and great patches of its bodywere smooth and yellow, while other patches were still covered withlong, brownish hair, at the base of which a thick fur or wool could beseen. Hugh called out to Jack, "You want to look out for him, son; he'spretty handy sometimes with them fore feet of his, when he ain't in agood temper; he may strike at you." When Jack heard this he did not govery close to the elk, but contented himself with walking about it,while the animal followed him with its great mild eyes. A moment after,Hugh came up with some salt in his hand and held it out to the elk,which walked quietly up and licked the salt off his hand.

  "I ain't got much use for a tame elk," said Hugh; "they're stupidcritters, and 'most always mean; you never can trust 'em."

  "I think just as you do, Hugh; that they're awful stupid; and I wouldnever again take the trouble to pack a calf into camp."

  Presently the elk put down its head and began to feed away from them,and they went back to their seat in the sun. A little later they wentdown to the corral, unsaddled the pack horses, turned them out into thepasture, and carried the riggings up to the bunk-house. It proved thatMrs. Carter had four seamless sacks that she could let them have, andwith these they made up four side packs of the goods. The two centrepacks they made up with gunny sacks and canvas, so that when theystarted they would only have to lift the packs onto the horses.

  The remainder of the day was devoted to laying out their provisions andtheir mess-kit. Their cooking utensils were put in a wooden box to go onthe load above their beds. Everything was made ready as far as possible,so that in the morning there would be nothing to do except to catch andsaddle the horses, put the loads on them, and start.

  The day had passed swiftly for Jack, and when night came he was prettytired. After supper his uncle talked to him for a little while,impressing on him the necessity of caution, telling him of theresponsibility that would rest on Hugh, who had charge of him for thislong trip, and explaining to him that now he was starting off to act aman's part, and that he must exercise a man's discretion. He said, "Hughfeels very confident that you are old enough, and have had experienceenough, to be trusted. He thinks that you will not be a cause of care oranxiety to him, but that you will understand that you must now usecommon sense and good judgment. I think that his estimate of you is afairly just one, but I want you to try to be thoughtful and never letyour boyish enthusiasm get the better of you. We all want you to have agood time on this trip, but we do not want you to have a good time atthe cost of suffering of any sort to any older person."

  "Well, Uncle Will," said Jack, "I have thought a good deal about that,too, and I know that there may be times when I'll have to use all thesense I have got, but I have made up my mind to follow Hugh's directionsas closely as I can, and to try not to make a fool of myself."

  "That's good," said his uncle; "if you can only keep that in mind allthe time I shall not be anxious about you."