Frontier and pioneer life -- Juvenile fiction; Shawnee Indians -- Juvenile fiction
The Blackfoot silently led the journey for an hour longer. No one
observing the surety of his movements would have thought he had been
over the route but once before. Everything appeared to be as familiar as
if he had spent his life in the mountains. The trail continued to ascend
and soon became harder to travel. Several times it looked to the boys as
if they would be checked and turned back, but their guide always found a
course that permitted the passage of their horses’ feet.
“This is well enough,” finally remarked Victor, “but I don’t see the
need of it. We did a good deal of traveling to-day, and if those Indians
to the rear are friendly what’s the use of hurrying to get away from
them?”
“I don’t think Mul-tal-la means to travel much farther.”
Even as George spoke the Blackfoot halted. He had been pushing on in
order to reach the most favorable spot for camping. It was found near
the base of a mass of black frowning rocks, from beneath which bubbled a
tiny stream of ice-cold water. This formed a deep pool close to the
rocks, and then dripped away in the gloom of the boulders, trees and
undergrowth. The place was sheltered against the arctic winds which
sometimes rage at this altitude, and indeed was so attractive that while
our friends were gathering fuel and preparing for camp, they saw it had
been used more than once for the same purpose by other hunting parties
in the neighborhood.
Hardly had the animals been relieved of saddles, bridles and the pack,
and the fire started, when the three were given a taste of the variable
climate of that section. Although summer had fully come, the wind moaned
and howled through the trees at the summit of the rocks and on their
right and left. Suddenly Victor called out:
“It’s snowing!”
In a twinkling, as it were, the air was filled with blinding flakes,
which eddied and whirled about the three and covered their bodies with
its white mantle. The horses found protection by huddling close to the
pile of stone, though the temperature was not very low.
The flurry passed almost as quickly as it arose. In a few minutes the
air was as clear as before, and the moon shone from an unclouded sky.
The friends gathered about the fire, which was soon burning vigorously.
It was the turn of George Shelton to go on guard for the first part of
the night, changing places with his brother at the usual hour. Since
this duty had to be divided among three persons, the Blackfoot would do
his share in the early half of the following evening, alternating with
George, while Victor would be given rest. This plan was kept up when
Deerfoot was absent, so the division of the work was as equitable as it
could be. When the party included four people the arrangement was
simpler.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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