manner in which these game birds were received by those of their
feather in the camp; what feasting, what revelling, what boasting,
what bragging, what ranting and roaring, and racing and gambling, and
squabbling and fighting, ensued among these boon companions. Captain
Bonneville, it is true, maintained always a certain degree of law and
order in his camp, and checked each fierce excess; but the trappers, in
their seasons of idleness and relaxation require a degree of license and
indulgence, to repay them for the long privations and almost incredible
hardships of their periods of active service.

In the midst of all this feasting and frolicking, a freak of the tender
passion intervened, and wrought a complete change in the scene. Among
the Indian beauties in the camp of the Eutaws and Shoshonies, the free
trappers discovered two, who had whilom figured as their squaws. These
connections frequently take place for a season, and sometimes continue
for years, if not perpetually; but are apt to be broken when the free
trapper starts off, suddenly, on some distant and rough expedition.

In the present instance, these wild blades were anxious to regain
their belles; nor were the latter loath once more to come under their
protection. The free trapper combines, in the eye of an Indian girl, all
that is dashing and heroic in a warrior of her own race--whose gait, and
garb, and bravery he emulates--with all that is gallant and glorious
in the white man. And then the indulgence with which he treats her, the
finery in which he decks her out, the state in which she moves, the sway
she enjoys over both his purse and person; instead of being the drudge
and slave of an Indian husband, obliged to carry his pack, and build his
lodge, and make his fire, and bear his cross humors and dry blows.
No; there is no comparison in the eyes of an aspiring belle of the
wilderness, between a free trapper and an Indian brave.

With respect to one of the parties the matter was easily arranged. 'The
beauty in question was a pert little Eutaw wench, that had been taken
prisoner, in some war excursion, by a Shoshonie. She was readily
ransomed for a few articles of trifling value; and forthwith figured
about the camp in fine array, "with rings on her fingers, and bells
on her toes," and a tossed-up coquettish air that made her the envy,
admiration, and abhorrence of all the leathern-dressed, hard-working
squaws of her acquaintance.

As to the other be