John Ermine of the Yellowstone

d none of it penetrated the warm buffalo-robes. The dogs, growing uneasy, walked about and scratched at the door; they had not been disturbed by last night's vigil. Wak

go before they weaken and are unable to carry you. A boy changes his mind very quickly, and he may not think in the sunlight

were taller than he, and all three of them about the same color. It was a fantastic scene; a few goblins, hoarse mystery birds, Indian devils, and what not beside, might have been added to the group and without adding to its strangeness. Weasel had found a most unearthly home; but as he awoke and lay looking about t

d you, Hope! You must not bother the boy," came the hermit's words of command. The dogs understood, and lay he

father; they are as big a

your hand on their heads. The Indians do not do this; but these are white dogs, and they will not bite any one who can put his hand

a hollow buffalo horn, besides having the extra blandishment of sugar in it. As the hermit, occupying an up-turned pack-saddle opposite, regarded the boy, he could see that Weasel had a full forehead-that it was not pinched like an Indian's; he understood the deep, wide-open eyes which were the color of new ice, and the straight, solemn nose appealed to him also. The face was formal even to the statuesque, which is an easy way

s. Crooked-Bear had killed an elk the day before, some considerable distance down the mountain, and taking his dogs with the sledges, they sallied down to get i

s native tongue, also repeating these thoughts as though to re?nforce them. "I must go slow-I must go slow, or the boy will balk. I must lea

n south. Of course not-of course not; a humpback could not be a soldier. He is fit only to swear at. Men would laugh at a crooked-back soldier. She could see nothing but my back. Ah-ah-it is past now. Men and women are not here to see my back; the trees and the clouds, the mountains and my dogs, do not look at my spine. The Indians say my back was bent by my heavy thoughts. The boy there has a straight back, and I hope he may walk among men. I will see that he does; I will give him the happiness which was denied

g on the sleeping lad. "Oh, if I had only had your back!-oh! oh! oh! But if only you had had m

ermit said, "My son, did

ry-bag on his reclining-mat, and a woman

at things of life were coming fast to him. He would almost have given his life to shoot a gun;

,-which is un-Indian,-"here is a gun; it loads in the middle; I give

firearm, regarding it for a long time. When he could finally believe he was not dreaming, when he comprehended that he really did own a gun, he passed into an unutterable pea

nd we will walk the hills together. Whatever we see, be it m

y yesterday I was a herd-boy, now I own a gun. This brought it all to me," the boy said almost to

was not your medicine which brought the gun, but my medicine; the medicine of the white man brought it to you. The medicine of the white man brought the gun to you because the Great Spirit knew you were a white boy. The medicine of the white man is not car

might be so; no Indian boy whom he knew had ever had a gun. This firearm absorbed him, an

gorous with the mountain ozone, and both happy in their respective ways. On reaching a proper place, they adjusted the broad, oval rackets, and skirted along the timber-line, watching the hills below them, from which the wind had blown the snow. It was not difficult to find game in t

sunny southern slope we will find the elk-great bands of them. You shall

the morning sun. The warm winds from the valleys were coming up toward the arctic mountain-tops and away from the elk. "Take off your sn

t. The ca?on-like ravine which they were following narrowed suddenly; the snow lay in deep drifts against its sides, making it necessary for them to go slowly along the ledges of the rim-rock, the boy always first. As they were about to round the point where the coulée tightened, a big yellow form drifted like a wind-blown feather on to them; it suddenly appeared not twenty feet from their faces, and it was a mountain-lion. Both the men and the animal stopped, the men straight

artridge, was slow in working the strange mechanism of the arm, but he was ready by the time the cat, much frustrated by the unresisting snow, had nearly reached him. Again the ca?on ch

llet had struck the monster. The sound of it was what conveyed the meaning, and the harsh bang of the words went home. An Indian would have had

as had taken form before him. He had known old Indian hunters who rode on a lion's skin in the ceremonial days, and he knew what warriors in the tribe wore the grizzly bear-claw necklaces-every one knew those men. Could it be that he would ride on a lion's skin? Could it

ith a series of wolfish yells he slid down the snowy incline toward his fallen foe. The hermit followed, and drawing their knives, they raised the hide while the body was yet warm, taking head and tail and claws. Weasel was delirious with joy; he laughe

gs; but the coffee had less sugar than before. Economy was a watchword with him who trailed his necessities over

ine which had so exalted him. The nouns came first, and he soon began to piece them out with other parts of speech;

er seemed fitted for women only; and the grave old man at last saw the spark which he had lighted bu

furiously. The two dwellers of the cabin seized their rifles, ran out to places which had been selected by them for their stra

cion of the transformation of the lad. The Absaroke, no more than the Dakotahs, understood or loved the white man; they mer

a few led ponies belonging to Crooked-Bear, which they were returning after their wintering w

, re?nforcing it by supposed inspired sources, until the tobacco which he had appropriated for such occasions gave out. It was a cheap and in

ux would be so taxed to oppose the progress that the Absaroke would profit by their preoccupation. His revelations always favored the alliance between the Absaroke and the yellow-eyes. No one can ever know how much this forgotten hermit of the Chew-cara-ash-Nitishic did for his race in the days when the Indians of the northern plains made their last stand before the white men. The Indians from King

up and down the plains, and across the range, admitted that a strong p

again to the camps, to visit his foster-mother, the boys of his childhood, and deeper yet to bear the gun and the lion's skin. The important men of the visiting party