“They were enemies,” the old man answered slowly, regarding me with his crinkled, quizzical look. “We were boys and maybe we were thinking of our grandmothers. I could tell you a story about the time when a war party of our people felt sorry for some Crow warriors. They had no horses. They were starving and freezing in the deep snow, and they could not fight any more. So our war party did not kill them. It is a true story. But I will tell you about the time when the Crows were sorry for the Arapahoes. It also happened. The Arapahoes tell it themselves. We know their stories and they know ours, for we are friends. While the people are getting ready for the sun dance, I will tell you. “It was many snows ago, before I was born. There is a place we call Hide Butte, because the Lakotas once found there many hides staked out to dry by the Crows, and no people anywhere around. It is in the big bend of Duck River, not far from where the Niobrara heads. A whole band of the Arapahoes had a winter camp there, and one morning when they awoke, all their horses were gone. There was not a hoof left. It was very bad. They knew it was the Crows who did it, so they organized a war party and started out _maka mani_, following the trail of their horses. It was very cold, the snow was dry and deep. Afterwhile a wind began to blow, getting stronger. So they stopped to talk about it, and they said, ‘We shall freeze looking for horses in this snow. Maybe it is better to wait awhile until it is warmer, and then we can go.’ Sharp Nose was the only one who did not say it was better to do that. He said, ‘You can go back, and I will go on. If I find where the horses went, I can come back and tell you. I will do my best.’ When he said this, he thought some would be brave and say, ‘You are not going on alone, for we are going with you’; but nobody said that, and the party turned back towards the village. “So Sharp Nose went on alone. He came to a ridge, and when he looked back to see the others going yonder, there was one lone man coming. He waited, and it was his woman’s younger brother, hardly old enough for war yet. We can call him Little Bear. And Sharp Nose said, ‘Brother-in-law, why are you coming?’ And Little Bear answered, ‘I wanted to come before, but I thought some older men would come and I would go with them; but nobody came, so I am here. I will go wherever you go. I will die wherever you die. That is why I am here.’ And Sharp Nose said, ‘You are a brave young man.’ So they went on in the deep snow, Little Bear behind Sharp Nose, following the trail of the horses. Sometimes it was covered with blowing drifts, but they would find it again. That night they made a shelter of pine bows in a bend of a creek against a high bank that broke the wind, and made a fire; and when they had roasted some _papa_ and eaten, they slept.