re pitched
close to the fort; the sun beat scorching upon the logs; no living thing
was stirring except one old squaw, who thrust her round head from the
opening of the nearest lodge, and three or four stout young pups, who
were peeping with looks of eager inquiry from under the covering. In a
moment a door opened, and a little, swarthy black-eyed Frenchman came
out. His dress was rather singular; his black curling hair was parted
in the middle of his head, and fell below his shoulders; he wore a tight
frock of smoked deerskin, very gayly ornamented with figures worked
in dyed porcupine quills. His moccasins and leggings were also gaudily
adorned in the same manner; and the latter had in addition a line of
long fringes, reaching down the seams. The small frame of Richard,
for by this name Henry made him known to us, was in the highest degree
athletic and vigorous. There was no superfluity, and indeed there
seldom is among the active white men of this country, but every limb was
compact and hard; every sinew had its full tone and elasticity, and the
whole man wore an air of mingled hardihood and buoyancy.

Richard committed our horses to a Navahoe slave, a mean looking fellow
taken prisoner on the Mexican frontier; and, relieving us of our rifles
with ready politeness, led the way into the principal apartment of his
establishment. This was a room ten feet square. The walls and floor were
of black mud, and the roof of rough timber; there was a huge fireplace
made of four flat rocks, picked up on the prairie. An Indian bow and
otter-skin quiver, several gaudy articles of Rocky Mountain finery, an
Indian medicine bag, and a pipe and tobacco pouch, garnished the walls,
and rifles rested in a corner. There was no furniture except a sort
of rough settle covered with buffalo robes, upon which lolled a
tall half-breed, with his hair glued in masses upon each temple,
and saturated with vermilion. Two or three more "mountain men" sat
cross-legged on the floor. Their attire was not unlike that of Richard
himself; but the most striking figure of the group was a naked Indian
boy of sixteen, with a handsome face, and light, active proportions, who
sat in an easy posture in the corner near the door. Not one of his limbs
moved the breadth of a hair; his eye was fixed immovably, not on any
person present, but, as it appeared, on the projecting corner of the
fireplace opposite to him.

On these prairies the custom of smoking with friends