Eating, as I had, so much fresh meat without vegetables or bread, and having but little exercise, I did not feel as well as I had done, and found a kind of scurvy breaking out on my right side. I had seen something of the kind on some of the Indians, but nothing so bad as mine. All I could do was to apply buffalo fat to the parts affected. The time came when we had got our robes dressed and meat sufficiently dried to cache, so that we could leave the next morning. My leg was swollen, and I feared if it continued it might get so bad that I could not walk. I prayed at night that the Lord would cause the swelling to go down, and give me sufficient strength that I might be able to walk the next day. The next morning the swelling was gone, and I was able to walk nine miles. Here we killed more buffaloes, and stayed a few days to dry meat, which we did by cutting it about an inch thick, and putting it upon sticks above the fire in the lodges. We next moved on to the upper forks of Running Water River, and very near to the extent of the Poncas' hunting ground. Beyond theirs were lands belonging to the Brules, a tribe of the Sioux. CHAPTER VI. STRENGTH IN TIME OF NEED--AFFLICTED LIKE JOB, WITH BOILS--SCRAPING WITH A POTSHERD PLEASANT--MY PRAYER ROOM--DRESSING BUFFALO ROBES--DINING ON COTTONWOOD BARK--INDIAN SELF-DENIAL. I suffered much pain at times with the sores that covered my right side, from my face all the way down to my ankle; but, strange to say, the swelling on my knee, which would increase after each day's travel, so that I could scarcely walk across the lodge, would go down when we had occasion to travel, so that I could walk from one camping place to the next. Some of my readers may think I imagined this to be the case, but it was no imagination of mine, for this continued for several weeks just as I have stated. After remaining a few days in camp, I was one mass of boils, from the size of a pea to that of a small marble, and so close together that they touched each other. At times I suffered a great deal of pain, and at other times I suffered with itching, which was terrible. This was when the sores were partially healed, and the surface had become hard, and while in this state I often, on a fine day, would go where I could not be seen, get on the sunny side of a hill, strip off my clothes, and, with a flat stick, scrape my sores. I had read of Job scraping his boils with a potsherd, and pitied him, but if he took as much comfort as I did in scraping mine, he had no need of pity; for to me it was a great pleasure to get rid of the itching, and the scraping tended to relieve me in this respect. The boils, however, would only remain healed about a week, when they would begin to swell for a few days, giving much pain, and then break out again, which caused me to feel faint and weak.