as to bring the line alongside of the nag's body, and thereby
prevent its getting entangled; but despite his best efforts the horse
got on one side of a tree and he on the other, so he wisely let go his
hold of the line, and waited till more open ground enabled him to catch
it again. Then he hung heavily back, gradually checked the horse's
speed, and finally trotted him up to his master's side.

"'Tis a cliver cur, good sooth," exclaimed Joe Blunt in surprise.

"Ah, Joe! you haven't seen much of Crusoe yet. He's as good as a man
any day. I've done little else but train him for two years gone by, and
he can do most anything but shoot--he can't handle the rifle nohow."

"Ha! then, I tink perhaps hims could if he wos try," said Henri,
plunging on to his horse with a laugh, and arranging the carcase of the
antelope across the pommel of his saddle.

Thus they hunted and galloped, and trotted and ambled on through wood
and plain all day, until the sun began to descend below the tree-tops of
the bluffs on the west--then Joe Blunt looked about him for a place on
which to camp, and finally fixed on a spot under the shadow of a noble
birch by the margin of a little stream. The carpet of grass on its
banks was soft like green velvet, and the rippling waters of the brook
were clear as crystal--very different from the muddy Missouri into which
it flowed.

While Dick Varley felled and cut up firewood, Henri unpacked the horses
and turned them loose to graze, and Joe kindled the fire and prepared
venison steaks and hot tea for supper.

In excursions of this kind it is customary to "hobble" the horses; that
is, to tie their fore-legs together, so that they cannot run either fast
or far, but are free enough to amble about with a clumsy sort of hop in
search of food. This is deemed a sufficient check on their tendency to
roam, although some of the knowing horses sometimes learn to hop so fast
with their hobbles as to give their owners much trouble to recapture
them. But when out in the prairies where Indians are known or supposed
to be in the neighbourhood, the horses are picketed by means of a pin or
stake attached to the ends of their long laryats, as well as hobbled--
for Indians deem it no disgrace to steal or tell lies, though they think
it disgraceful to be found out in doing either. And so expert are these
dark-skinned natives of the western prairies, that they will creep into
the midst of an enemy's camp, cut the lary