n to the fleshpots; and he
was regarded askance, at his meals, as a regular kill-crop, destined to
waste the substance of the party. Nothing but a sense of the obligations
they were under to his nation induced them to bear with such a guest;
but he proceeded, speedily, to relieve them from the weight of these
obligations, by eating a receipt in full.

35.

The uninvited guest--Free and easy manners--Salutary jokes--
A prodigal son--Exit of the glutton--A sudden change in
fortune--Danger of a visit to poor relations--Plucking of a
prosperous man--A vagabond toilet--A substitute for the very
fine horse--Hard travelling--The uninvited guest and the
patriarchal colt--A beggar on horseback--A catastrophe--Exit
of the merry vagabond

As CAPTAIN BONNEVILLE and his men were encamped one evening among the
hills near Snake River, seated before their fire, enjoying a hearty
supper, they were suddenly surprised by the visit of an uninvited guest.
He was a ragged, half-naked Indian hunter, armed with bow and arrows,
and had the carcass of a fine buck thrown across his shoulder. Advancing
with an alert step, and free and easy air, he threw the buck on the
ground, and, without waiting for an invitation, seated himself at their
mess, helped himself without ceremony, and chatted to the right and left
in the liveliest and most unembarrassed manner. No adroit and veteran
dinner hunter of a metropolis could have acquitted himself more
knowingly. The travellers were at first completely taken by surprise,
and could not but admire the facility with which this ragged cosmopolite
made himself at home among them. While they stared he went on, making
the most of the good cheer upon which he had so fortunately alighted;
and was soon elbow deep in "pot luck," and greased from the tip of his
nose to the back of his ears.

As the company recovered from their surprise, they began to feel annoyed
at this intrusion. Their uninvited guest, unlike the generality of his
tribe, was somewhat dirty as well as ragged and they had no relish
for such a messmate. Heaping up, therefore, an abundant portion of the
"provant" upon a piece of bark, which served for a dish, they invited
him to confine himself thereto, instead of foraging in the general mess.

He complied with the most accommodating spirit imaginable; and went on
eating and chatting, and laughing and smearing himself, until his whole
countenance shone with