front of the
slow-moving trains and sat on the hills laughing at the discomfiture
caused by the playful fires. Notwithstanding, all their efforts did not
check the ceaseless flow and a vague feeling of alarm began to pervade
them.

Talking men came to them and spoke of their Great Father in Washington.
It made them laugh. These talking men gave them enough blankets and
medicine goods to make the travvis poles squeak under the burden. When
these men also told them that they must live like white men, the secret
council lost its dignity entirely and roared long and loud at the quaint
suggestion.

Steadily flowed the stream of wagons over the plains though the Indians
plied them with ax and rifle and fire. Sober-minded old chiefs began to
recall many prophecies of the poor trappers who told how their people
swarmed behind them and would soon come on.

Then began to appear great lines of the Great Father's warriors--all
dressed alike and marching steadily with their wagons drawn along by
half-brothers to the horse. These men built log forts on the Indian
lands and they had come to stay.

The time for action had come. Runners went through the tribes calling
great councils which made a universal peace between the red brothers.
Many and fierce were the fights with these blue soldiers of the Great
Father. The Indians slew them by hundreds at times and were slain
in turn. In a grand assault on some of these which lay behind
medicine-wagons and shot medicine-guns the Indian dead blackened the
grass and the white soldiers gave them bad dreams for many days.

The talking-wives and the fire wagon found their way, and the white
hunters slew the buffalo of the Indians by millions, for their hides.

Every year brought more soldiers who made more log forts from which
they emerged with their wagons, dragging after the trace of the
Chis-chis-chash camp, and disturbing the buffalo and the elk. To be
sure, the soldiers never came up because the squaws could move the
travvis more rapidly than the others could their wagons, but it took
many young men to watch their movements and keep the grass burning
before them. Since the Indians had made the wagon fight, they no longer
tried to charge the soldiers, thinking it easier to avoid them. The
young men were made to run their ponies around the Yellow-Eyes before it
was light enough in the morning for them to shoot, and they always found
the Yellow-Eyes heavy with sleep; but they did not grap