esting
family, was now nearly knocked up by travelling, and totally inadequate
to the mountain scramble that lay ahead, Captain Bonneville restored
him to the venerable patriarch, with renewed acknowledgments for the
invaluable gift. Somewhat to his surprise, he was immediately supplied
with a fine two years' old colt in his stead, a substitution which he
afterward learnt, according to Indian custom in such cases, he might
have claimed as a matter of right. We do not find that any after claims
were made on account of this colt. This donation may be regarded,
therefore, as a signal punctilio of Indian honor; but it will be found
that the animal soon proved an unlucky acquisition to the party.

While at this village, the Nez Perce guide had held consultations with
some of the inhabitants as to the mountain tract the party were about
to traverse. He now began to wear an anxious aspect, and to indulge in
gloomy forebodings. The snow, he had been told, lay to a great depth
in the passes of the mountains, and difficulties would increase as
he proceeded. He begged Captain Bonneville, therefore, to travel very
slowly, so as to keep the horses in strength and spirit for the
hard times they would have to encounter. The captain surrendered the
regulation of the march entirely to his discretion, and pushed on in the
advance, amusing himself with hunting, so as generally to kill a deer
or two in the course of the day, and arriving, before the rest of the
party, at the spot designated by the guide for the evening's encampment.

In the meantime, the others plodded on at the heels of the guide,
accompanied by that merry vagabond, She-wee-she. The primitive garb worn
by this droll left all his nether man exposed to the biting blasts of
the mountains. Still his wit was never frozen, nor his sunshiny temper
beclouded; and his innumerable antics and practical jokes, while they
quickened the circulation of his own blood, kept his companions in high
good-humor.

So passed the first day after the departure from the patriarch's. The
second day commenced in the same manner; the captain in the advance, the
rest of the party following on slowly. She-wee-she, for the greater part
of the time, trudged on foot over the snow, keeping himself warm by hard
exercise, and all kinds of crazy capers. In the height of his foolery,
the patriarchal colt, which, unbroken to the saddle, was suffered to
follow on at large, happened to come within his reach. In