g on behind. Pipestick said that it was considered very
derogatory to the dignity of a warrior. I said that I thought it might
be disagreeable to the inclinations of an idle rascal; but that chiefs
in my country never let their wives do any hard work at all, and that I
could not bear to stalk on ahead with only my rifle at my back, while
the poor creatures were toiling away in that fashion. I suppose
Pipestick translated my remarks correctly, for the chiefs tossed their
heads and afterwards had a very long talk about the matter. I saw that
they began to look on me as a sad republican, and to suspect that I
purposed introducing mutiny into their camp.

At last we reached the spot where I had spent so many weeks of suffering
and anxiety. Scarcely a particle of the remains of the Indians were to
be seen, but a few scattered bones and torn bits of garments. The
things hidden by the Ottoes were untouched, so they dug them up, and I
having added a few words to the paper in my medicine stick, as I called
it, we proceeded on our way. We encamped four or five miles off that
night, and the next day made good very nearly fifteen miles. The tents
were pitched on the lee side of a wood, where there was but little snow,
and the air was comparatively warm. All hands, that is to say the women
and children, were soon employed in gathering sticks for our fires, and
in digging up hickory nuts. It was the chief occupation of the men in
the evening, as they sat round the fire, to crack and chew these nuts:
the taste indeed was pleasant. The camp was not left altogether without
some fortification. The wagon was placed in front, and some logs of
half rotten timber were dragged out, and served to fill up the space
left open in the little nook in which the tents were ensconced.

John Pipestick had a tent of his own, but he came to the old chiefs
tent, where I had been asked to take up my abode, to act as interpreter.
We sat up till a late hour, cracking nuts and telling very long-winded
stories, which, as Pipestick occasionally interpreted them for my
benefit, took up a double portion of time, and were not especially
interesting. I was not sorry, at last, to find myself comfortably
covered up by a pile of buffalo-skins, with the prospect of a sound
sleep till daylight.

How long I had slept I do not know, when I was awoke by the barking of
one of the dogs, then by another and another, till the whole tribe were
in full yelp, in ev