t one of the Indians had
been for some minutes watching him attentively, and the man had uttered
a low guttural laugh as if he were enjoying the youth's misfortune.

"I wonder how he would like it," thought Bart, as he darted an indignant
look at the Indian, who sat upon his swift pony like a group cut in
bronze. "He might just as well have gone after Black Boy, for his pony
looks as if it could go."

Just then the Indian threw himself lightly from his nag and drew near to
Bart, with the horse-hair rein in his hand. Then he made signs to the
young fellow to mount.

"Do you mean that you will lend me the pony to go after my own?" said
Bart eagerly.

The Indian did not understand his words, but evidently realised their
meaning, for he smiled and nodded, and placed the rein in Bart's hand,
when he leaped into the saddle, or rather into the apology for a saddle,
for it was only a piece of bison hide held on by a bandage, while a sort
of knob or peg was in the place of the pommel, a contrivance invented by
the Indians to hold on by when attacking a dangerous enemy, so as to lie
as it were alongside of their horse, and fire or shoot arrows beneath
its neck, their bodies being in this way thoroughly protected by their
horses.

The Indian smiled and drew back when Bart touched the pony with his
heel, the result being that, instead of going off at a gallop, the
little restive beast reared up, pawing at the air with its hoofs, and
nearly falling backwards upon its rider.

The Indian looked on intently as if ready to leap forward and seize the
bridle should Bart be dismounted. But the lad kept his seat, and the
pony went on all fours again, but only to begin kicking furiously, to
dislodge the strange white-faced being upon its back. It was like an
insult to an animal that had been accustomed to carry true-blooded
Indians all its life, dressed in skins ornamented with feathers and
neatly painted up for special occasions, to have a pale-faced,
undersized human animal in strange clothes mounted upon it; and the
proper thing seemed to be to kick him off as soon as it could.

These seemed to be the ideas of the Indian pony as exemplified by its
acts; but the wildest of animals of the horse family cannot always do as
they please, and it was evidently with something like astonishment that
the little steed found Bart, still fixed firmly upon its back instead of
flying over its head or slipping off backwards over the tail.

T