t he's _blacker_ in the
face than when he sat down!"

"Very likely," replied Jacques, wiping his lips. "Now I've done."

"Done? you have left at least a third of your supply."

"True, and I may as well tell you for your comfort that there is one way
of escape open to you. It is a custom among these fellows, that when
any one cannot gulp his share o' the prog, he may get help from any of
his friends who can cram it down their throats; and as there are always
such fellows among these Injins, they seldom have any difficulty."

"A most convenient practice," replied Charley; "I'll adopt it at once."

Charley turned to his next neighbour with the intent to beg of him to
eat his remnant of the feast.

"Bless my heart, Jacques, I've no chance with the fellow on my left
hand; he's stuffed quite full already, and is not quite done with his
own share."

"Never fear," replied his friend, looking at the individual in question,
who was languidly lifting a marrow-bone to his lips; "he'll do it easy.
I knows the gauge o' them chaps, and for all his sleepy look just now
he's game for a lot more."

"Impossible," replied Charley, looking in despair at his unfinished
viands and then at the Indian. A glance round the circle seemed further
to convince him that if he did not eat it himself there were none of the
party likely to do so.

"You'll have to give him a good lump o' tobacco to do it, though; he
won't undertake so much for a trifle, I can tell you." Jacques chuckled
as he said this, and handed his own portion over to another Indian, who
readily undertook to finish it for him.

"He'll burst; I feel certain of that," said Charley, with a deep sigh,
as he surveyed his friend on the left.

At last he took courage to propose the thing to him, and just as the man
finished the last morsel of his own repast, Charley placed his own plate
before him, with a look that seemed to say, "Eat it, my friend, _if you
can_."

The Indian, much to his surprise, immediately commenced to it, and in
less than half an hour the whole was disposed of.

During this scene of gluttony, one of the chiefs entertained the
assembly with a wild and most unmusical chant, to which he beat time on
a sort of tambourine, while the women outside of the enclosure beat a
similar accompaniment.

"I say, master," whispered Jacques, "it seems to my observation that the
fellow you called Redfeather eats less than any Injin I ever saw. He
has got a comrade to