. We shall have to be off, my lad. No breakfast this morning."

It was as Joses said. The Beaver was of opinion that enemies must be
near at hand, so he sent out scouts to feel for the danger, and no fire
could be lighted lest it should betray their whereabouts to a watchful
foe.

A long period of crouching down in the stream bed ensued, and as Bart
waited he could not help thinking that their hiding-place in the plain
was, as it were, a beginning of a canyon like that by the mountain, and
might, in the course of thousands of years, be cut down by the action of
flowing water till it was as wide and deep.

At last first one and then another scout came in, unable to find a trace
of enemies; and thus encouraged, a fire was once more made and meat
cooked, while the three bison slain that morning were skinned and their
better portions cut away.

The sun was streaming down with all its might as they once more went off
over the plain in search of the herd; and this search was soon rewarded,
the party separating, leaving Bart, and Joses together to ride after a
smaller herd about a mile to their left.

As they rode nearer, to Bart's great surprise, the herd did not take
flight, but huddled together, with a number of bulls facing outwards,
presenting their horns to their enemies, tossing and shaking their
shaggy heads, and pawing up the ground.

"Why don't they rush off, Joses?" asked Bart.

"Got cows and calves inside there, my boy," replied the frontiersman.
"They can't go fast, so the bulls have stopped to take care of them."

"Then it would be a shame to shoot them," cried Bart. "Why, they are
braver than I thought for."

"Not they," laughed Joses. "Not much pluck in a bison, my lad, that I
ever see. Why, you might walk straight up to them if you liked, and
they'd never charge you."

"I shouldn't like to try them," said Bart, laughing.

"Why not, my lad?"

"Why not? Do you suppose I want to be trampled down and tossed?"

"Look here, Master Bart. You'll trust me, won't you?"

"Yes, Joses."

"You know I wouldn't send you into danger, don't you?"

"Of course, Joses."

"Then look here, my lad. I'm going to give you a lesson, if you'll
learn it."

"A lesson in what?" asked Bart.

"In buffler, my lad."

"Very well, go on; I'm listening. I want to learn all I can about
them," replied Bart, as he kept on closely watching the great, fierce,
fiery-eyed bison bulls, as they stamped and snorted and pa