ore them, in waves of grass as
far as the eye could reach, to the horizon.

"I should think so," said Mr Rawlings. "Why, it swarms with it."

"What sort?" asked the other. "Any deer?"

"Every variety you can almost mention. Deer, elk, moose--although these
are to be found more to the northwards--antelope, mountain-sheep--as you
know already--grizzly bears--if you relish such customers--and buffalo
as soon as the sweet summer grasses crop up here, and the pasturage to
the south loses its flavour for them."

"That's a pretty good catalogue," said Ernest, who was a keen sportsman.
"Any birds?"

"The most uncommon slap-up flying game, I guess, in creation," said
Seth, "if yer cares to tackle with sich like; though I prefers runnin'
game, I does."

"Seth is right," said Mr Rawlings; "you will have a varied choice there
likewise: grouse, partridge, prairie-fowl, wild geese, ducks--these two,
however, are more to be met with in the winter months, and will be off
to the Arctic regions soon--all sorts, in fact. And as to fishing, the
salmon and trout--the latter of which you'll find in every stream in the
neighbourhood--beat those of England."

"Well," said Ernest, laughing, "if your report be true, as I see no
reason to doubt, you must have discovered those happy hunting-grounds to
which all good Indians go when they die."

"Don't talk of Injuns," said Seth with a shiver and a shake. "That's
the worst part of the hull thing, I reckon. If it warn't for them, the
place would be a kinder paradise--it would so, sirree; but those Injuns
spile it all."

"What he says is true enough," observed Mr Rawlings. "We are in the
very heart of the Indian country, with Blackfeet, Crows, and Sioux, not
to mention lesser fry, within striking distance; and if there should be
a rising amongst them, as it is threatened this spring or summer, it
would be a bad thing for the people in the sparse and scattered
settlements in Dakota."

"But the United States' army has stations about here, eh?" inquired
Ernest.

"Few and far between," replied Mr Rawlings. "As I told you some little
time since, the nearest one to us is at least a hundred miles away.
Besides that, the detachments quartered here and there are so attenuated
in their numbers that five or six of the so-called companies have to be
concentred together from the different outlying depots in order to
muster any respectable contingent that could take the field against the
Indi