p on the ground; a few lodges of people were
camped in some timber among the foothills; buffalo were close, and game was
plenty; the camp was living well. With the others I played about the camp,
spinning tops on the ice, sliding down hill on a bit of parfleche, or on a
sled made of buffalo ribs, and sometimes hunting little birds in the brush.
All this I know about from having heard my mother tell of it; it is not in
my memory. This is what I remember: One day, with one of my friends, I had
gone a little way from the camp, and down the stream. A few days before
there had been a heavy fall of snow, and after that some warm days, so that
the top of the snow had melted. Then had come a hard cold, which had frozen
it, so that on the snow there was a crust over which we could easily run.

As we were playing we went around the point of a hill, and suddenly, close
to us, saw a big bull. He seemed to have come from the other side of the
river, and was plowing his way through the deep snow, which came halfway up
to the top of his hump. When we saw the bull we were a little frightened;
but as we watched him we saw that he could hardly move, and that after he
had made a jump or two he stood still for a long time, puffing and blowing,
before he tried to go further. As we watched him he came to a low place in
the prairie, and here he sank still deeper in the snow, so that part of his
head was hidden, and only his hump showed above it. My friend said to me,
"Let us go up to this bull, and shoot him with our arrows." We began to go
toward him slowly, and he did not see us until we had come quite close to
him, when he turned and tried to run; but the snow was so deep that he
could not go at all; on each side it rose up, and rolled over, away from
him, as the water is pushed away and swells out on either side before a
duck that is swimming. My friend was very brave, and he said to me, "I am
going to shoot that bull, and count a coup on him"; and he ran up close to
the bull, and shot his blunt-headed arrow against him, and then turned off.
The bull tried hard to go faster, but the snow was too deep; and when I saw
that he could not move, I, too, ran up close to him, and shot my arrow at
him, and the arrow bounded off and fell on the snow. Again my friend did
this, and then I did it; and each time the bull was frightened and
struggled to get away: but the last time my friend did it the bull had
reached higher ground, where the snow was not