Crow Indians -- Fiction; Indian captivities -- Fiction; Western stories; Yellowstone River Valley -- Fiction
Chick-chick lifted the child in his arms, where the small cause of all
the turmoil struggled and pulled hair until he was forced to hold him
out at arm's length. Mounting, they withdrew toward their friends. The
council tepee fell in the dirt--a dozen squaws tugging at its voluminous
folds. The small hostage was not many yards on his way toward his own
kind before the Indian camp moved off toward the mountains, urging their
horses with whip and lance. This movement was accelerated by a great
discharging of white men's guns, who were supposed to be sacrificing the
little white Crow to some unknown passions; whereas, they were merely
celebrating the advent of the white child unharmed. He was indeed
unharmed as to body, but his feelings had been torn to shreds. He added
his small, shrill protesting yells to the general rejoicing.
Chick-chick, or Chickens, as the miners often called him, had not
entered the expedition because of his love for children, or the color of
this one in particular; so, at the suggestion of the chairman, it was
turned over to a benevolent saloon-keeper, who had nine notches in his
gun, and a woman with whom he abided. "Gold Nugget," as he was promptly
named by the diggers and freighters, was supposed to need a woman, as it
was adjudged that only such a one could induce him to turn off the hot
water and cease his yells.
The cavalcade reached town, to find multitudes of dirt-begrimed men
thronging the streets waiting for what sensation there was left in the
affair. The infant had been overcome by his exertions and was silent.
They sat him on the bar of his godfather's saloon, while the men
shouldered their brawny way through the crowd to have a look at him--the
lost white child in the Indian dress. Many drinks and pistol shots were
offered up in his honor, and he having recovered somewhat, resumed his
vocal protests. These plaints having silenced the crowd, it was
suggested by one man who was able to restrain his enthusiasm, that the
kid ought to be turned over to some woman before he roared his head off.
Acting on this suggestion, the saloon-keeper's female friend was given
charge. Taking him to her little house back of the saloon, the child
found milk and bread and feminine caresses to calm him until he slept.
It was publicly proclaimed by the nine-notch saloon-keeper that the
first man who passed the door of the kid's domicile would be number ten
to his gun. This pronunciamiento insured much needed repose to Gold
Nugget during the night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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