ook him off my mind and went with my
Indians again. Oh! those days up north at Canasedago, running races and
gambling with the Senecas, or bee-hunting 'in the woods, or fishing in
the lake.' Pharaoh sighed and looked across the water. 'But it's best,'
he went on suddenly, 'after the first frosts. You roll out o' your
blanket and find every leaf left green over night turned red and yellow,
not by trees at a time, but hundreds and hundreds of miles of 'em, like
sunsets splattered upside down. On one of such days--the maples was
flaming scarlet and gold, and the sumach bushes were redder--Cornplanter
and Red Jacket came out in full war-dress, making the very leaves look
silly: feathered war-bonnets, yellow doeskin leggings, fringed and
tasselled, red horse-blankets, and their bridles feathered and shelled
and beaded no bounds. I thought it was war against the British till I
saw their faces weren't painted, and they only carried wrist-whips. Then
I hummed "Yankee Doodle" at 'em. They told me they was going to visit
Big Hand and find out for sure whether he meant to join the French in
fighting the English or make a peace treaty with England. I reckon those
two would ha' gone out on the war-path at a nod from Big Hand, but they
knew well, if there was war 'twixt England and the United States, their
tribe 'ud catch it from both parties same as in all the other wars. They
asked me to come along and hold the ponies. That puzzled me, because
they always put their ponies up at the "Buck" or Epply's when they went
to see General Washington in the city, and horse-holding is a nigger's
job. Besides, I wasn't exactly dressed for it.'

'D'you mean you were dressed like an Indian?'Dan demanded.

Pharaoh looked a little abashed. 'This didn't happen at Lebanon,'
he said, 'but a bit farther north, on the Reservation; and at that
particular moment of time, so far as blanket, hair-band, moccasins, and
sunburn went, there wasn't much odds 'twix' me and a young Seneca buck.
You may laugh'--he smoothed down his long-skirted brown coat--'but I
told you I took to their ways all over. I said nothing, though I was
bursting to let out the war-whoop like the young men had taught me.'

'No, and you don't let out one here, either,' said Puck before Dan could
ask. 'Go on, Brother Square-toes.'

'We went on.' Pharaoh's narrow dark eyes gleamed and danced. 'We went
on--forty, fifty miles a day, for days on end--we three braves. And how
a great tall Ind