>. 
 
 
 'Ji^- 
 
 
 > '^^^ 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 ■^.^e,^ 
 
 -i>- 
 
 
 i-* 
 
 
 
 <i 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 '<^ 
 
,^ '- 
 
 A-' 
 
 -0' 
 
 
 V <■ »-. 
 
 
 "^., 
 
 ■** 
 
 %c^^ 
 
 <0 
 
 
 ^^S^' 
 
 
 .0 -v^. 
 
Sinopah the Indian Boy 
 

 "I CALL HIM SINOPAh!" 
 
 (p. 15) 
 
SINOPAH 
 
 The Indian Boy 
 
 BY 
 
 Tames Willard Schultz 
 
 •^ 'J 
 
 (ap-i-kun-i) 
 
 with illustrations by 
 E. BOYD SMITH 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
£ 
 
 COPYRIGHT, I913, BY JAMES WILLARD SCHULTZ 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 Published March iqtj 
 
 $A/0 
 
Contents 
 
 I. SiNOPAH GETS HIS NaME I 
 
 II. SiNOPAH AND SiNOPAH 1 7 
 
 III. SiNOPAH AND HIS PLAYFELLOWS ... 33 
 
 IV. Sinopah's Escape from the Buffalo . 43 
 
 V. The Clay Toys 54 
 
 VI. The Story of Scarface 69 
 
 VII. The Buffalo Trap 83 
 
 VIII. Spinning Top 99 
 
 IX. Sinopah's First Bow .< 113 
 
 X. Tracking a Mountain Lion . . . .126 
 
 XI. SiNOPAH joins the Mosquito Society . .141 
 
Illustrations 
 
 «I CALL HIM Sinopah!" (page IS) • • Frontispiece ^ 
 His little body actually flew through the ^ 
 
 AIR ^ 
 
 Then it was that he suddenly turned . . 96 ^^ 
 It was a fine shot • 
 
 Fran drawings by E, Boyd Smith 
 
 124^ 
 
SINOPAH 
 
 The Indian Boy 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 SINOPAH GETS HIS NAME 
 
 THIS is the story of Sinopah, a Black- 
 foot Indian boy; he who afterward 
 became the great chief Pitamakan, 
 or, as we say, the Running Eagle. I knew 
 Pitamakan well; also his white friend and 
 partner in many adventures, Thomas Fox. 
 Both were my friends; they talked to me 
 much about their boyhood days, so you may 
 know that this is a true story. 
 
 It was a great many years ago, in the time 
 of the buffalo, that Sinopah was born, and 
 it was on a warm, sunny day in June that 
 he first saw the light of the sun, to which he 
 was afterward to make many a prayer. The 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 great camp of the Blackfeet was pitched on 
 the Two Medicine River, one of the pretti- 
 est streams in all Montana. Only a few miles 
 to the west of the camp the sharp peaks of 
 the Rocky Mountains rose for thousands of 
 feet into the clear blue air. To the north, and 
 south, and east the great plains stretched 
 away to the very edge of the horizon, and 
 they were now green with the fresh grasses 
 of spring. The mile- wide valley of the Two 
 Medicine lay like a great gash in the plain, 
 and several hundred feet below it. Along the 
 shores of the stream there was a belt of tim- 
 ber : big Cottonwood trees, with bunches of 
 willow, service berry, and rose-brush growing 
 under them. Elsewhere the wide, level bot- 
 toms were splotched with the green of low- 
 land grass and the pale silver-green of sweet 
 sage. Thousands of horses grazed on these 
 bottoms and out on the near plains; the 
 Blackfeet had so many of the animals that 
 they could not count them all in a week's 
 time. There were more than five hundred 
 
 2 
 
Sinopah gets his Name 
 
 lodges, or wigwams, in the camp, and they 
 were strung along the bottom, just outside of 
 the timber belt, for several miles. Each lodge 
 was the home of one or two families, the aver- 
 age being eight persons to the lodge, so there 
 were about four thousand people in this one 
 camp of the three tribes of the Blackfeet 
 Nation. 
 
 Those were wild days in which Sinopah 
 was born. Fort Benton, owned by the Amer- 
 ican Fur Company, was the only white 
 settlement in all Montana. The Blackfeet 
 owned all of the country from the Saskatche- 
 wan River, in Canada, south to the Yellow- 
 stone River, and from the Rocky Mountains 
 eastward for more than three hundred miles. 
 The plains were covered with buffalo and an- 
 telope ; in the mountains and along the rivers 
 were countless numbers of elk, deer, bighorn, 
 moose, black and grizzly bears, wolves, and 
 many smaller animals. So it was that the 
 Blackfeet were very rich. They had always 
 plenty of meat and berries, soft robes and 
 
 3 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 furs, and with their many horses they roamed 
 about on their great plains and hunted, and 
 were happy. 
 
 Usually the birth of a child in the great 
 camp was hardly mentioned. But on this June 
 morning the news spread quickly from one end 
 to the other of it that in the lodge of White 
 Wolf there was a baby boy. There was much 
 talk about it because White Wolf was a great 
 chief, and it was well known that he had long 
 wanted a son. Everybody now said that the 
 gods had been good, and had given him his 
 wish. All that day the medicine men and war- 
 riors kept going to his lodge to say how pleased 
 they were that this had come to him. 
 
 The chief's lodge was a very large one. It 
 was made of twenty cow buffalo skins that 
 had been tanned into soft leather, cut to the 
 right shape, and sewed together with sinew 
 thread. This, the lodge skin, as it was called, 
 was stretched over twenty-four long, tough, 
 and slender pine poles set in the shape of a 
 cone. The lower edge or skirt of the skin did 
 
 4 
 
Sinopah gets his Name 
 
 not touch the ground by a space of something 
 like four inches. But inside there was a lin- 
 ing of leather, weighted to the ground by the 
 couches and sacks of household property, and 
 extending upward for five or six feet. Thus, 
 between this lining and the outer lodge skin 
 there was a space of the thickness of the lodge 
 poles, and this was the draught flue. The cold 
 air rushed up through it and out of the open 
 top of the lodge, carrying with it the smoke 
 from the fire. There were two large wings, or 
 "ears," at the top of the skin, held stretched 
 out by two long poles. These were shifted 
 one way or another to protect the opening 
 from the wind, and so the lodge was always 
 free from smoke. The skin was waterproof; 
 the lining kept the wind out; and so, even in 
 the coldest winter weather, a very small fire 
 in the centre of the lodge made the people 
 very comfortable. At night, when the fire 
 died out, they lay in their warm beds of buf- 
 falo robes and slept just as well as you do in 
 your warm home. 
 
 S 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 It was in the afternoon that Wesley Fox, 
 a great man of the American Fur Company, 
 and uncle of Thomas Fox, came to White 
 Wolf's lodge. A number of warriors coming 
 out of it greeted him pleasantly. He waited 
 until they had passed, then raised the curtain 
 of the little, oblong doorway, and stepped in- 
 side. "Ok-yi'/' (Welcome) said White Wolf, 
 and motioned him to a place on his right, 
 which was the seat for honored guests. The 
 chief's face was all smiles. He rubbed his 
 hands together, then spatted them, and said, 
 in his own language, of course, " White 
 brother mine, this is the happiest day of my 
 life. I have a son. Look, now, what a fine 
 one he is, how big for one born this day as 
 the sun was coming up. We are going to 
 name him right away, and I ask you to stay 
 and take part in the naming feast.'' 
 
 Wesley Fox was already looking at the 
 child, or, rather, at its head, which was all of 
 it that could be seen. It was wrapped around 
 and around, arms and all, in several bandages 
 
 6 
 
Sinopah gets his Name 
 
 of soft cloth, and then laced into a cradle, 
 the back of which was a piece of rough-hewn 
 board. The lacings held the roll of him flat 
 against it : he could not move hand or foot, 
 or his head either, except for an inch or two 
 to the right or left. Altogether, in his odd 
 wrappings and lacings, he looked like a little 
 mummy from the tombs of the Egyptian 
 kings. The cradle was propped up at the foot 
 of his mother's couch, so that he rested in an 
 almost upright position. The mother, half 
 sitting up against a willow slat back-rest, 
 gazed across the length of the couch at the 
 round little face, and there was a world of 
 love shining in her big dark eyes. 
 
 The baby's face, as well as its short, thin 
 hair, was of a red bronze color. It had a 
 funny, tender little mouth, and its eyes were 
 very bright. All at once it began to pucker 
 its mouth and make a queer little cry. 
 
 " There ! there ! mother," the chief said 
 anxiously, " it is crying ; maybe it is sick. 
 Oh, what if it should get real sick and die ? 
 
 7 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 Do something at once for it, woman. If you 
 don't know what to do, I '11 get some wise 
 old women to come in." 
 
 " There is nothing wrong with it. All ba- 
 bies cry a little,'* said the mother. And rais- 
 ing herself, she caught hold of the bottom 
 of the cradle and drew it to her. There was no 
 more crying, and the chief was happy again. 
 
 Presently an old, old medicine man, or sun 
 priest, came in, followed by a number of war- 
 riors and women, all of them relatives of 
 White Wolf or of his wife. They were made 
 welcome, and filling and lighting his great 
 stone pipe the chief passed it to the man near- 
 est him, and then it went clear around the 
 circle, each one of the guests taking a few 
 whiffs of smoke. 
 
 After the smoke several women of the lodge 
 passed around the feast, giving to each guest 
 a wooden dish containing broiled buffalo 
 tongue, dried camas root, and fresh, puckery 
 berries of the red willow. There was much 
 talk and laughter. The women passed the 
 
 8 
 
Sinopah gets his Name 
 
 baby from one to another, kissing it, saying 
 how much it looked like its father, and talk- 
 ing foolish little words to it just as white 
 women do to a baby of their kind. 
 
 The feast was soon over. No one was really 
 hungry and only a very small portion of the 
 food was eaten. The old medicine man, I-kus- 
 kin-i, or Low Horn, by name, had brought 
 his own pipe, and now filled and lighted it 
 and passed it around. He knew why he had 
 been invited to the lodge, but for all that it 
 was White Wolfs duty to tell the reason for 
 the gathering of relatives, and so the chief 
 made a little speech. 
 
 "Relatives and friends,*' he said, "soon 
 after the sun came in sight this morning, he 
 looked down and saw my new-born boy. Be- 
 fore he goes out of sight to his lodge to-night, 
 I think it right that he should know the new- 
 born's name. So it is that I have asked you 
 all to gather here. I call upon our old friend 
 Low Horn to say what the name shall be, 
 and I now make him a small present: Low 
 
 9 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 Horn, in my band of horses grazing out yon- 
 der on the plain is a certain four-year-old 
 black-and-white pinto. I give him to you. 
 A white three-year-old, a roan four-year-old 
 with a split ear, and a gray five-year-old, well 
 broken and a swift buffalo runner, I also give 
 you. Let us hear the name.'' 
 
 "Yes, yes!" every one exclaimed; "let us 
 hear the name, O wise one." 
 
 There followed a long silence. The old 
 medicine man sat bowed over in deep thought. 
 In his hands was a small buckskin sack orna- 
 mented with bands of colored porcupine quill 
 embroidery. Presently he laid the sack on 
 the ground, straightened up, and said : — 
 
 " We all know that the naming of a new- 
 born boy is an important matter. Some names 
 bring good luck, some bring bad luck. I am 
 going to try hard to give this little one a name 
 that will please the gods, and cause them to 
 favor him. 
 
 " Listen ! It was long ago in my young 
 days. One winter day I took my bow and 
 
 lO 
 
Sinopah gets his Name 
 
 arrows and walked up on the plain to hunt 
 buffalo. I saw a large band of them on some 
 far hills and started out that way toward them. 
 The day was cloudy and before I left camp 
 people were saying that more snow was about 
 to fall. After sighting the buffalo I hoped that 
 a storm would come, for in the thick of it 
 the animals would be easily approached. I 
 walked on and on as fast as I could, for the 
 herd was a long way off. When I was out in 
 the middle of the great plain, Cold-Maker 
 suddenly came out of the north. As always, 
 he hid himself in the thick snowfall, which he 
 drove in all directions with fierce cold winds. 
 No one has ever seen the shape of him be- 
 cause of that. The stinging snow beat against 
 my face, then at my back, then swirled around 
 and around me. I could not see the distance 
 of twenty steps in any direction, and knew 
 not which way was the river and camp. I 
 was lost and beginning to freeze. I prayed 
 the gods to have pity ; in some way to show 
 me the way to the river. 
 
 II 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 ** Then out of the awful swirling and drift- 
 ing snow came a little creature with head 
 down and drooping tail. It was a Sinopah. 
 [The "swift'' or "kit" fox of the North- 
 western plains.] 
 
 " It passed close to me, showing no fear, 
 just looking up once at me, its black eyes 
 shining strangely, deep down in its snow- 
 caked hair : ' Oh, little brother,' I cried, ' you 
 are going to the sheltering timber of the river. 
 Do not haste ; guide me thither, else I die.* 
 
 " Sinopah was almost out of sight then, 
 although so near. But when I asked for his 
 help, he stopped and looked back, as if wait- 
 ing for me. I walked toward him as fast as I 
 could, holding my robe close against my face 
 so as to shield it from the stinging snow. 
 Sinopah waited until I was within ten steps 
 of him, then pushed sidling on against the 
 drift until nearly out of sight again, when he 
 stopped as before, as if waiting. And so we 
 went on and on. Sometimes the wind was in 
 my face, sometimes beating against my side 
 
 12 
 
Sinopah gets his Name 
 
 or back, but I knew that that was a trick of 
 Cold-Maker. He wanted to confuse me ; to 
 make me think that I was going now in one 
 direction, and again turning another way. He 
 wanted me to go around and around in a cir- 
 cle until he could kill me with his freezing 
 winds. 
 
 "Through it all I had faith. I believed 
 that the gods had heard my prayers; that 
 Sinopah had been sent by them to save me. 
 Sometimes, when it seemed as if he certainly 
 had turned and was going straight back the 
 way we had come, doubts for a moment filled 
 my mind, but I thrust them out. The cold 
 grew more and more bitter ; the snow rushed 
 and whirled into deeper and deeper drifts. I 
 became weary ; I wanted to lie down and sleep ; 
 and at the last it was all I could do to strug- 
 gle on. I could not have traveled much far- 
 ther when suddenly we began to descend a 
 steep hill, and I knew that we were leav- 
 ing the plain and going down into the river 
 valley. It was so. We soon got to the bottom 
 
 13 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 and went on through the tall sagebrush of 
 the lowlands. And then, seemingly very far 
 off, but really only a few steps distant, the 
 naked branches of cottonwoods appeared in 
 the thick, driving snow, and I could hear the 
 wind crying through them. I hastened then, 
 as fast as I could, and soon stood in the shelter 
 of the timber bordering the river. Right in 
 front of me was a dead, bent old tree that I 
 remembered having seen before; the camp 
 was just a little way up from it. * Little 
 brother,' I cried, 'you have saved me.' 
 
 "But Sinopah was gone. I could not see 
 him anywhere about. I went on and soon 
 came to the camp and to my own lodge. I 
 was saved. Sinopah had led me straight home. 
 There and then I made a vow: ever afterward, 
 when passing the dens of the Sinopahs, if I 
 had meat I dropped a piece of it for them 
 and their young." 
 
 "Ah, hah, hai!" all the guests exclaimed. 
 " How wonderful. Great medicine was Sino- 
 pah." 
 
 14 
 
Sinopah gets his Name 
 
 " Pass me the new-born one," said Low 
 Horn. 
 
 A woman placed the laced little form in 
 his hands and he looked long and kindly down 
 at the round, smooth face. Then, taking sa- 
 cred, dull-red paint from a little buckskin 
 sack, he carefully rubbed it on the baby's 
 forehead, nose, cheeks, and chin. Lastly he 
 held the child face upward toward the sun, 
 and said : " O all-powerful Sun, and you, 
 Nap-i (Old Man), Maker-of-the- World : be- 
 hold, I have painted the new-born one with 
 your own sacred color, and now I name him. 
 I give him a name for his young days. A 
 name to last until he becomes a warrior and 
 makes a name for himself. I call him Sino- 
 pah. 
 
 **Have pity on Sinopah, O you great ones. 
 Make him grow up strong and brave ; fill his 
 heart with love for father and mother, and 
 kind feeling for all our people. Give him long 
 life, O Maker-of-the-World, and you, won- 
 derful Maker-of-the-Days. Have pity on us 
 
 15 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 all, men, women, and children ; give us all long 
 life. I have said." 
 
 " Ai ! Ai ! You gods, have pity on us," all 
 the guests cried, and at that they all arose and 
 went their ways. The boy was named. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 SINOPAH AND SINOPAH 
 
 ALL summer long, and all through 
 the many moons of winter, the little 
 Sinopah remained laced against his 
 cradle-board the greater part of the time. The 
 object in keeping him in such a position was 
 so to shape the bones of his body that he would 
 grow straight. Straight as an arrow, instead of 
 round-shouldered and bent, as so many white 
 children are allowed to take shape by careless 
 or ignorant mothers. The close confinement 
 in the cradle did not hurt him at all ; but 
 sometimes the one position grew irksome and 
 the baby fretted. Then the mother would 
 take him out of the cradle and let him roll 
 naked on her couch until he tired and fell 
 asleep, when back he would be put against 
 the cradle-board. 
 
 When summer came again, Sinopah was 
 17 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 a year old, and from that moon of his first 
 birthday he spent less and less time in the 
 cradle, and more and more time in creeping 
 about on his mother's couch, or near her out 
 on the clean, short grass. Then, along in the 
 autumn, after many attempts, he toddled on 
 uncertain legs from his mother's to his fa- 
 ther's knee as the two sat a few feet apart in 
 the lodge. That was a great day for White 
 Wolf. Straightway he gave a feast and sum- 
 moned all the relatives, that they too might 
 see his young son walk. Uncles and aunts, 
 they all loved the child and were proud of 
 him ; and his old gray-headed grandfather, 
 Mik-sik-um, or Red Crane, was his almost 
 constant companion as soon as he began to 
 creep. 
 
 On this day the little fellow wore for the 
 first time the suit of war-clothes his mother 
 had been long in making. The clean, white, 
 fringed buckskin shirt blazed with bright 
 embroidery work, of dyed porcupine quills. 
 The breech-clout of red cloth was held in 
 
 i8 
 
Sinopah and Sinopah 
 
 place with a beaded belt. The fringed buck- 
 skin leggings were painted with small diag- 
 onal stripes of yellow and red ochre. The 
 dainty little moccasins were embroidered 
 with a solid mass of fine, glittering beads in 
 the symbol of the sun. Very quaint and brave 
 he looked in all his finery, and his infant mind 
 and eyes were pleased with it all. He crowed 
 and gurgled and laughed, and, with many a 
 fall between, went from one to another of 
 the admiring circle of guests. 
 
 Once he fell and struck his head against his 
 father's tobacco-board. All present there held 
 their breath, anxiously watching to see what 
 he would do. But he did not cry: he sat up 
 quickly, made a wry face, rubbed the bruised 
 spot for a moment, then got up and lurched 
 on to his mother's arms. 
 
 "Oh-ho-hai ! '* every one exclaimed, clap- 
 ping hand to mouth ; " he heeds not pain; he 
 perseveres; he will become a great warrior." 
 
 "I give him a yellow pinto mare and a 
 brown mare," cried an uncle. ** White Wolf, 
 
 19 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 come and get them out of my band to- 
 morrow and put them with your herd." 
 
 Then up spoke one after another of the 
 guests, each making a present of one or more 
 animals. In a few minutes the Httle Sinopah 
 became the owner of thirty -five good, young 
 mares: "Oh-ho-hai!'* the old grandfather 
 quavered, joyfully smiling and rubbing his 
 wrinkled hands together, " think of the colts 
 that will be coming every spring. Before 
 ever Sinopah is able to go to war, he will be 
 rich.'' 
 
 Up to this time Sinopah had been bathed 
 in tepid water in the lodge. His father now 
 took him in hand and upon arising every 
 morning carried him to the river for a quick 
 dip in the cold water. It was cold, the au- 
 tumn frosts having already begun, but, though 
 the little fellow's tender flesh shrank from 
 contact with it and he gasped, never a cry 
 came from his firm-set lips. Day after day 
 the weather grew colder. Winter came and 
 the streams and lakes froze over, but the 
 
 20 
 
Sinopah and Sinopah 
 
 morning bath was continued just the same, 
 holes frequently having to be chopped in the 
 ice in order to get into the water. And no 
 matter how cold it was, Sinopah went naked 
 in his father's arms from the warm bed out 
 on the snapping, groaning river ice, and into 
 the water without a murmur. Afterward, 
 following a rub before the fire, he felt so 
 strong and lively that he couldn't sit still 
 a minute, and while his mother cooked the 
 morning meal. White Wolf sat on watch to 
 keep him from tumbling into the fire. The 
 early morning bath was taken by all the Black- 
 feet, young and old, every day in the year. 
 They believed that it enabled them to hunt 
 on the plains in the very coldest weather, 
 without freezing, and they were right. I 
 have seen them cutting up game with bare 
 hands when the weather was so cold that I 
 did not dare take off my gloves for even a 
 moment; and yet not even their finger tips 
 were nipped by the cruel frost. 
 
 Sinopah had no other food than his mo- 
 
 21 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 ther's milk until his teeth were well grown. 
 After that time he lived almost entirely on 
 the meat of buffalo and other game, with 
 sometimes a few berries and roots, fresh or 
 dried. Fat buffalo meat was very nourishing. 
 The women broiled or boiled it, and when 
 great quantities of it were brought in by the 
 hunters, they cut it into thin sheets and dried 
 it in the sun for future use. Sometimes they 
 pounded the dried meat into particles as fine 
 as meal, and made pemmican of it. This was 
 done by mixing the pounded meat with mar- 
 row grease ; that is, grease taken from the 
 bones of the animals. When mixed, the stuff 
 was put into bags of freshly killed hide, and 
 then the mouths of the bags were sewed up. 
 As the hide became dry it shrank tightly 
 around the pemmican and made a very solid 
 and heavy package. One of these, not larger 
 than a half-bushel measure, weighed more 
 than a hundred pounds. The grease pre- 
 served the meat, and the hide pretty well 
 kept the air from it. The mixture was always 
 
 22 
 
Sinopah and Sinopah 
 
 sweet and good for many months, and was so 
 very rich that a half pound of it was enough 
 for a meal for a big, hungry man. All the 
 Blackfeet women kept a supply of pemmi- 
 can constantly on hand. It was considered a 
 great delicacy, and was most often used for a 
 part of a feast or gathering of the people. 
 
 When Sinopah was three years old, his 
 father brought him one day a fuzzy, gray- 
 haired animal which he had captured out on 
 the plains. It was a "swift'' or "kit" fox 
 not more than a month old. " There, my 
 son, is a pet for you," he said ; " and now we 
 have two Sinopah young ones in this lodge ; 
 one with two legs, and one with four." 
 
 Sinopah was not old enough to understand 
 that, but he reached out for the funny little 
 animal and held it tight to his breast. It did 
 not offer to bite him, and was still too small 
 to have any fear of man. It did fear the dogs 
 at first, but soon became accustomed to them. 
 Sinopah's mother fed it all the meat it could 
 eat every day, and it became very tame and 
 
 23 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 playful. It loved the boy best of all the people 
 in the lodge, and at night always slept beside 
 him, curling up in a little fluffy ball on the 
 pillow. It never made any noise during the 
 daytime, but at night, if alarmed by any- 
 thing, it would rouse up and bark in the 
 oddest kind of a way. The noise it made was 
 very hoarse and rasping and muffled, as if it 
 were trying to bark with its mouth full of 
 food. 
 
 White Wolf owned several hundred horses. 
 They were allowed to graze out on the plains 
 during the daytime, but at sundown they 
 were all driven into camp and the leaders of 
 the herd and the valuable bufl^alo runners and 
 war-horses were picketed close to the lodge, 
 to prevent the enemy stealing them. The 
 Blackfeet were always at war with the Sioux, 
 Crows, Crees, and other tribes, and parties of 
 these warriors were always prowling around. 
 
 One bright moonlight night, after the fire 
 had died out and every one was sound asleep, 
 the little fox gave a couple of hoarse, low 
 
 24 
 
Sinopah and Sinopah 
 
 growls that awakened Sinopah's mother. The 
 moonlight was streaming straight down 
 through the smoke-hole of the lodge, mak- 
 ing everything inside as plain as day, and she 
 could see the little fellow sniffing the air with 
 its slender, black, keen nose, and working its 
 big, long ears nervously as it cocked its head 
 to one side and another, listening intently. 
 ** What hear you, little wise one ? What is it 
 outside, O keen smeller?'* she whispered, 
 reaching over and patting him on the back. 
 
 Her caressing hand gave him courage ; he 
 got up and sneaked out of the lodge, crouch- 
 ing so close to the ground that his belly 
 fairly touched it. The lodge skin was always 
 kept raised a few inches at one side of the 
 doorway so he could go and come whenever 
 he chose to. This time he was gone no more 
 than a minute. Back he came on the run, 
 barking hoarsely, all his fur stiff on end, and 
 climbed onto the couch, snuggling close to 
 his best friend, Sinopah. 
 
 " Wake up ! Wake up,'' the mother whis- 
 25 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 pered, bending over White Wolf and shaking 
 him. " Awake ! the Httle fox has been out- 
 side and has returned terribly scared." 
 
 No sooner were the words spoken than 
 White Wolf was out of bed and making for 
 the doorway of the lodge with gun in hand. 
 Kneeling down he drew the curtain slowly 
 aside and looked out: not ten steps away a 
 man was untieing the rope of his best buffalo 
 horse from the picket-pin. As quickly as pos- 
 sible he poked his gun out, took aim, and 
 fired. Bang it went, and following the report 
 the man gave a piercing scream, leaped high 
 in the air, and fell, never to move again. 
 
 At that the whole camp was awakened. 
 Men rushed out of their lodges and began 
 shooting at a number of the enemy, some 
 running away on foot, others riding off on 
 horses they had already loosed from the pick- 
 ets. Some of the women in the lodges cried 
 wildly in their terror; children yelled; dogs 
 barked and howled. But in White Wolfs 
 lodge not a sound was to be heard. Little 
 
 26 
 
Sinopah and Sinopah 
 
 Sinopah waked up, heard the shooting and 
 yelling and confusion of noise, and began to 
 cry, but his mother quieted him at once: 
 "There! there!'' she said, putting him back 
 in the bed and covering him up; "it is no- 
 thing; only some men come to steal horses 
 and father is driving them away." 
 
 But for all her brave words her heart was 
 full of fear. The enemy was shooting back at 
 the men of the camp; one of their bullets 
 might make her a widow and Sinopah an 
 orphan. She began praying the gods to bring 
 White Wolf safely back. Shivering from 
 fright the little fox stuck his nose under the 
 robe covering of the couch, then wriggled 
 down beside the boy and growled occasion- 
 ally. The mother sat waiting and watching. 
 The old grandfather had been fumbling back 
 of his couch for his bow and quiver case. He 
 found it now and went hobbling out of the 
 lodge on his rheumatic legs, muttering what 
 he would do to the enemy if he could get 
 within bow-shot of them. 
 
 27 
 
Smopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 Soon after the old man went out, the shoot- 
 ing and yelling ceased, and in a few moments 
 the frightened women and children became 
 quiet. Then, away out on the plain, faint at 
 first, but growing louder and louder, was 
 heard the victory song. All knew what that 
 meant : the men of the camp had killed some 
 of the enemy and were returning. At that 
 the people began to pour out of the lodges, 
 each one joyfully shouting the name of hus- 
 band, brother, or son who had been in the 
 fight. 
 
 Sinopah's mother gently lifted him from 
 the couch and hurried out with him in her 
 arms, crying: " White Wolf ! My man White 
 Wolf! He has fought the enemy and returns 
 victorious ; a great chief is my man White 
 Wolf." 
 
 Close in front of the lodge a crowd of 
 women and children was gathering, and she 
 edged her way into it. There in their midst 
 lay a man stretched out on his back, his 
 wide-open, glassy eyes staring straight up at 
 
 28 
 
Sinopah and Sinopah 
 
 the moon ; but the light had gone out of 
 them forever. 
 
 Old Red Crane was bending over the body 
 examining it : ** 'T is a Crow warrior/* he 
 suddenly shouted, " and 't was my son who 
 killed him. Great is White Wolf, the chief." 
 
 "True ! True ! ** everyone cried. "White 
 Wolf is a chief" 
 
 The old man looked around, saw Sino- 
 pah, and took him from his mother's arms : 
 " Look, little one," he said : " See what your 
 father has done. He has killed an enemy. 
 That is a Crow warrior; your father killed 
 him." 
 
 Sinopah, looking down, clapped his hands 
 and laughed. "Crow enemy," he lisped. 
 " Father killed him." 
 
 And then he saw a necklace of big, long 
 grizzly bear claws around the man's neck : 
 " Give me ! Give me ! " he cried, motioning 
 at it impatiently with his little hand. " Sino- 
 pah wants bear finger necklace." 
 
 " Yes, yes. You shall have it," old Red 
 29 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 Crane answered ; and stooping over he cut 
 the string, then retied it and slipped the neck- 
 lace over the boy's head. 
 
 Sinopah shook it and the hard claws rat- 
 tled against one another ; that pleased him 
 and he laughed. 
 
 Again Red Crane called his attention to 
 the dead enemy and quavered : " When Sino- 
 pah grows up he must be brave and kill many 
 Crow men." 
 
 The boy laughed and answered : " Sino- 
 pah kill many Crows.'' 
 
 Meantime the men of the camp, some on 
 horses and some on foot, were coming closer, 
 and still singing the victory song. At last they 
 came into the camp bringing the scalps and 
 weapons of five Crows they had overtaken 
 and killed. True, the Crows had managed to 
 take a few horses and get away with them, 
 but that did not matter ; there were plenty 
 of horses. The whole camp went wild with 
 joy over the killing of the enemy. All the 
 rest of the night there was feasting, singing, 
 
 30 
 
' Sinopah and Sinopah 
 
 and dancing, and over and over the men told 
 how^ they had pursued the enemy and fought 
 them. 
 
 All of this made a deep impression upon 
 Sinopah. In a way his child mind grasped 
 the fact that to kill an enemy was the great- 
 est thing a Blackfoot could do. All through 
 the excitement Red Crane was by his side 
 pointing out how the people praised his fa- 
 ther, and making him repeat after them : 
 "White Wolf! A great chief is White 
 Wolf." 
 
 When daylight came the old man led him 
 out for another look at the dead Crow in 
 front of the lodge, and the boy had no fear 
 of the cold, still form. That was what the 
 old grandfather wanted : to impress upon him 
 the fact that a dead enemy was something to 
 make the heart glad. 
 
 It was later in the day that Sinopah*s 
 mother told how the little fox had been first 
 to discover the enemy and give the alarm. 
 The story soon spread through the camp, 
 
 31 
 
Sinopah) the Indian Boy 
 
 and as owner of the pet, the boy came in 
 for a share of the praise that was given it. 
 
 Among others, the old medicine man Low 
 Horn came to the lodge. After a smoke, he 
 made those present a little speech : ** I can 
 see that this little Sinopah is going to have 
 great luck," he said. *• Surely the gods favor 
 him. It was their will that he should have 
 the pet fox that saved us some lives and our 
 horses last night. My medicine tells me that 
 this boy is to be a great warrior ; that he 
 will live long ; that he will be full of pity 
 for those who mourn, and generous to the 
 aged and the widows and orphans/' 
 
 " That is what we all pray for,'* said the 
 old grandfather. " I hope that the gods will 
 spare me a little while longer. I want to help 
 White Wolf teach the boy. I want to be 
 here to see him returning proud and success- 
 ful from his first war-trail." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 SINOPAH AND HIS PLAYFELLOWS 
 
 IT was not until Sinopah was four years 
 old that his mother ever let him out of 
 her sight. If she missed him for a min- 
 ute, even, she would run about and find him, 
 and keep him close to her side. White Wolf 
 often told her that she should give the little 
 one more freedom, but for answer she would 
 only shake her head and reply: "You are 
 wrong. He is very much too young to be 
 turned loose." 
 
 So White Wolf let her have her way until 
 Sinopah*s fourth summer came, and then he 
 said to her one day: "You have done well 
 with this boy of ours. You have fed him good 
 food and kept him strong and healthy. But 
 it is not right for a boy to be long kept in 
 the lodge ; he must learn early to make a play 
 of the things that he will have to do in ear- 
 
 33 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 nest when he grows up. From this day on 
 he shall go about as he pleases with the child- 
 ren of the camp." 
 
 " What you say to do must be done/' Tsist- 
 saki replied, "and I know that you are right. 
 But you know how it is with us women ; we 
 are always timid. Therefore, for a time, when 
 our son goes out to play, I will go too. At 
 least I will be near enough to see that no 
 harm comes to him.'' 
 
 Tsistsaki, I had forgotten to tell you, was 
 the name of Sinopah's mother. In the Black- 
 foot language it means Little Bird Woman. 
 That is a very pretty name and a very good 
 one. Before her time many noted women of 
 the tribe had borne it, and for that reason 
 she was very glad that it had been given to 
 her. 
 
 In the next lodge there was a little boy 
 seven years old, named Lone Bull, and his 
 younger sister Otaki, Yellow Weasel Woman, 
 with whom the little Sinopah was now allowed 
 to play, and they were very glad to have him 
 
 34 
 
Sinopah and his Playfellows 
 
 with them. There were also many other 
 children in that part of the camp, some of 
 them much older than these, and often there 
 would be twenty or thirty of them together in 
 their different games. Better than all the rest, 
 Sinopah liked Lone Bull and Otaki, perhaps 
 because they lived so close to him, and then 
 their mothers were very close friends. 
 
 The two mothers got together one day 
 and planned what was to be a surprise for the 
 children. Having decided, they set to work 
 and for all of a moon's time they were very 
 busy when the little ones were out playing. 
 And often, when all others were asleep, they 
 worked far into the night by the light of the 
 little lodge fires. Another part of the work 
 was the training of three big dogs for their 
 share in the game ; and right here I must tell 
 you about this breed. 
 
 The Indians never had horses until they 
 obtained them from the Spaniards, who 
 brought some to Mexico soon after the dis- 
 covery of America. Before that time, and 
 
 3S 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 long afterwards until these animals became 
 plentiful in all the Western country, the 
 Indians used dogs as pack-animals. When 
 moving camp they were made to carry heavy 
 bundles of household, or, rather, " lodge- 
 hold '' things, and the hunters always made 
 them lug in big packs of meat. Long before 
 Sinopah was born, the Blackfeet had so many 
 horses that the dogs were no longer used ; but 
 the people loved the animals and had many of 
 them ; some lodges as many as twenty-five or 
 thirty. They were very tall and heavy, long- 
 haired and broad-headed, and much of the 
 color of the wolf, to which they were very 
 closely related. At night when the wolves 
 howled all around the camp, the dogs would 
 answer them ; and then the people would say : 
 " Listen ! They are talking to their brothers 
 out there on the plain." 
 
 The mothers made pack-saddles for the 
 dogs, and got them used to being packed and 
 led by a rawhide strand. Then one day, when 
 the children were playing in the timber back 
 
 36 
 
Sinopah and his Playfellows 
 
 of the lodges, they packed all the things they 
 had made on two of the dogs, and fastened 
 the small ends of fourteen slender pine poles 
 to the saddle of the third dog, and made him 
 drag them. 
 
 So, leading the dogs, they turned into the 
 timber and soon came to where the child- 
 ren were playing. Sinopah was the first to 
 notice them, and what he saw was so sur- 
 prising that at first he could hardly believe 
 his eyes, and stood staring with his little 
 mouth wide open. And well he might ; for 
 except that they were packed dogs instead of 
 packed horses, it was as if the women were 
 moving camp. The first dog carried a small, 
 new, and brightly painted parfleche, or raw- 
 hide pouch shaped like an envelope, on each 
 side of its saddle, and piled on top, and firmly 
 lashed with a stout rawhide rope, were sev- 
 eral small blankets and buffalo robes. The 
 second dog also carried two parfleches and a 
 couple of robes, and tied on top of the pack 
 was a small Hudson's Bay Company copper 
 
 37 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 kettle. Besides dragging the lodge poles, the 
 third dog carried a bundle that looked like a 
 small lodge skin, and that is just what it was. 
 
 Sinopah found his voice: "What is it?" 
 he cried. " Oh, how funny ; my dogs packed 
 just like horses.'' 
 
 And then Lone Bull and Otaki began to 
 dance around the dogs : " Oh, Sinopah ! We 
 know what all this is,'' they shouted. "Your 
 mother and ours have given us a little lodge 
 and everything to go in it." 
 
 "Ai! They speak truth, little one," his 
 mother told him ; ** come, we are going to 
 make camp for you. Now, where shall it 
 be?" 
 
 " Let me lead the first dog and be chief," 
 said Lone Bull. *' I will go ahead and choose 
 the place for the camp." 
 
 So the little procession started, each child 
 leading a dog, the mothers following and 
 laughing. They had worked long and hard 
 for all this, and were very happy because the 
 children were so excited and pleased. 
 
 38 
 
Sinopah and his Playfellows 
 
 Lone Bull, very quiet and solemn-faced 
 now, led them under three large Cottonwood 
 trees near the edge of the river. " We will 
 camp here,'* he said. " In this place the camp 
 will be well sheltered from the wind. Out 
 there on the plain is plenty of rich grass for 
 the horses. Here is good water for all. Back 
 of the bluffs there, the plain is covered with 
 buffalo. The hunters will make big killings 
 and the camp will be red with meat. Come, 
 Sinopah, sit you down here with me while 
 the women put up the lodge and get things 
 in shape for the night." 
 
 The mothers laughed to hear him talking 
 so wisely, and giving orders just as if he was 
 a chief. They soon unpacked the dogs, little 
 Otaki helping all she could. That was the 
 way things were done by the Blackfeet. The 
 women did all the work of packing and un- 
 packing the animals, making camp and get- 
 ting firewood and water. But they did not 
 work too hard ; not nearly as hard as most 
 white women who have a family and no serv- 
 
 39 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 ants. The men rested when in camp and 
 were waited on by the women ; but they did 
 their share of work : in good weather and 
 bad they hunted to provide food for their 
 own families, and for all the widows and 
 orphans and the old and crippled people of 
 the great camp. That, and herding horses, 
 fighting the enemy, and making their bows 
 and arrows, their shields and clothing, kept 
 them generally busy. 
 
 When the dogs were unpacked and turned 
 loose, the women tied four lodge poles to- 
 gether about two feet from the tips, — they 
 were fourteen feet long, — and then set them 
 up in the form of a square-based cone, after 
 which all save one of the remaining poles 
 were laid up in a circle, their tips resting in 
 the crotches formed by the tips of the origi- 
 nal four. The upper edge of the lodge skin 
 was then tied to the remaining pole at the 
 proper height, and with it raised at the back 
 of the lodge. It was easy then to bring the 
 side edges of the lodge skin around and fasten 
 
 40 
 
Sinopah and his Playfellows 
 
 them together in the front with wooden 
 skewers. Lastly, the poles were pushed out- 
 ward at the bottom until the skin set tightly 
 over them. 
 
 The women then hung a curtain over the 
 little round hole in front that answered for 
 a doorway. The bedding of robes and blank- 
 ets was carried in and made up in three 
 couches. The parfleches, tightly stuffed with 
 dried meat, dried berries, and pemmican, 
 were taken in and laid open near the door, 
 water was brought in the little kettle, and the 
 work was done. It was a fine little lodge, the 
 skin made of tanned elk hides and almost 
 snow-white. At the base it was about ten 
 feet in diameter, large enough for a dozen 
 or more children to play in. 
 
 Although Lone Bull and Sinopah were 
 playing chiefs, they could not carry it out to 
 the end. Long before everything was fixed, 
 they went inside and got in the way of the 
 busy women, but the mothers did not scold 
 them. A small fire was soon made in the 
 
 41 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 centre of the lodge, and when it had burned 
 down to a bed of red coals some sheets of 
 dried meat were quickly roasted on them. 
 Never were there happier children than those 
 three, sitting there in their own little lodge 
 and eating the first meal in it. They at once 
 began to plan their play for the next day, and 
 at sundown were glad enough to go home 
 with their mothers, leaving the big cotton- 
 wood trees to guard their treasures during 
 the night. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 sinopah's escape from the buffalo 
 
 THAT evening the chiefs of the tribe 
 held a council and decided to move 
 camp from the Marias River, where 
 they then v^ere, out to the Sv^eet-Grass Hills. 
 These are three lone buttes about one hun- 
 dred miles east of the main range of the 
 Rocky Mountains, and right on the line 
 separating Montana and the Canadian pro- 
 vince of Alberta. There were then, however, 
 no monuments to mark the boundary of the 
 two countries. The line had not yet been 
 surveyed. When the Blackfeet were told that 
 the Americans — Long Knives — owned the 
 country to the south of the Hills, and the 
 English — the Red Coats — the land north 
 of them, they only laughed, and said : "That 
 is a mistake. Neither the Red Coats nor the 
 Long Knives own any of this country. Away 
 
 43 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 back in the beginning of things our god whom 
 we call Old Man, made the world, and the 
 animals, and us. When he made this part of 
 the world he saw that it was the best of all, 
 and so he gave it to us. It is our land ; the 
 white people cannot have it." 
 
 When they said that, the Blackfeet did 
 not know how many the white people were 
 and how strong. Since that time their game 
 has all been killed, and their lands have been 
 taken from them by the white race. 
 
 But I must go on with my story. 
 
 Very early the next morning, the camp 
 crier went through the great camp shouting 
 that it was to be moved to the Sweet-Grass 
 Hills. Almost as fast as he went the lodges 
 came down behind him. The men drove in 
 and caught the horses, the women packed 
 them, and in a very short time the long 
 column of riders, loose and packed horses 
 was strung out, heading north across the big 
 plain. There were so many people, so many 
 horses, that the column was all of three miles 
 
 44 
 
Sinopah's Escape from the Buffalo 
 
 long. Most of the men and women were 
 splendidly dressed in buckskin clothes, beaded 
 and painted and fringed ; and then the trap- 
 pings of the horses, the queer pouches, sacks, 
 and parfleches they carried, were also painted 
 in bright colors, so that the whole procession 
 was not unlike a rainbow snake moving out 
 across the brown plain. It was a romantic 
 and barbaric pageant of shifting color. 
 
 On this morning there was something new 
 in the column. Along in the centre of it, 
 behind the horses that carried White Wolfs 
 lodge and packs, and his family, walked the 
 three dogs, one behind another, loaded with 
 the play lodge and the little packs. Most of 
 the children of the tribe had not seen them 
 working the day before, and now they came 
 crowding close on their horses, very much 
 excited, and wishing that they could have 
 such an outfit. Right behind the dogs were 
 Sinopah and Lone Bull and Otaki on their 
 ponies, and they were very much pleased at 
 all this attention. 
 
 45 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 " You must come and visit us when we set 
 up the little lodge/' they kept telling the other 
 children, and all promised that they would 
 do so. 
 
 "But here are many hundred little ones/' 
 Sinopah's mother told him. "They can't all 
 get into the lodge/' 
 
 "Some can come in one time, and some 
 another," he replied; "and it is nice just to 
 stand and look at the outside of it." 
 
 Sinopah was getting wise. 
 
 There had been so much hunting near the 
 river that the game had been driven far out 
 on the plains, and that was the reason the 
 chiefs had decided to move to another camp- 
 ing-ground, where meat could be more 
 quickly and easily killed by the hunters. It 
 was about thirty miles across country to the 
 Hills. For half that distance only a few old 
 buffalo bulls and two or three bands of very 
 wild antelope were seen. But when about 
 ten miles from the middle butte the people 
 could see thousands and thousands of buffalo 
 
 46 
 
Sinopah's Escape from the Buffalo 
 
 and other game close to the north, the east, 
 and the west. Most of the men now rode 
 ahead of the column to hunt. They could be 
 seen chasing different herds of the buffalo on 
 their swift, trained horses, and shooting them 
 with guns and bow and arrows; and where 
 they passed were left many of the big, brown, 
 shaggy-haired animals lying dead on the plain, 
 or standing all humped up on weakening legs, 
 sorely wounded, and soon to tumble down 
 and die. The sight made the hearts of the 
 people glad ; there would be plenty of fresh, 
 fat meat, many rich tongues to roast for the 
 evening meal ; food for many, many days to 
 come. The old men watched the chase with 
 glistening eyes, and became so excited that 
 many of them pounded their safe, slow horses 
 with heels and quirt, forgetting for the mo- 
 ment that they could not be made to go faster 
 than an ambling trot; and so they fell to talk- 
 ing of what big hunts they had made in their 
 young days. 
 
 To the east the hunters who had gone in 
 47 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 that direction rode out of sight behind a low 
 ridge on the plain and chased a herd of sev- 
 eral thousand buffalo. At first the animals 
 ran eastward, but the wind was from the west 
 and as they always ran against it, they soon 
 circled and came thundering over the ridge 
 and straight toward the long column of the 
 moving camp. The hunters saw the danger 
 in that, but could not turn them. The wo- 
 men and then the children began to shriek and 
 cry, the old men to shout and try to drive 
 a part of the column forward, the other part 
 back, so as to save them from being gored 
 and trampled by the frightened and wildly 
 rushing herd. It was a terrible sight, that re- 
 sistless mass of huge and sharp-horned animals 
 coming straight for the centre of the column 
 of traveling people. The leaders of the herd, 
 the swiftest of the cows, had of course by this 
 time smelled the riders, but they were now 
 powerless to stop or to turn back, for the closely 
 packed herd behind was pushing them ; they 
 had to keep going or be trampled to death. 
 
 48 
 
Sinopah's Escape from the Buffalo 
 
 The old men had now succeeded in di- 
 viding the column by a little gap, and were 
 driving the women and children and the 
 pack-animals to the north and to the south, 
 crowding them and widening the gap as fast 
 as possible. The confusion increased. The 
 horses squealed and kicked one another, and 
 some of the frightened pack-animals ran 
 away, scattering their loads along the plain. 
 A few old women, regardless of danger, rode 
 bawling after them in hope of recovering 
 their little keepsakes and treasures.* 
 
 When the column was separated by a clear 
 space of several hundred yards, the buffalo 
 began passing through it, on each edge so 
 close to the people that the wind caused by 
 their rush could be felt, and their black, 
 angrily gleaming eyes could be plainly seen. 
 The noise of their thudding and rattling 
 hoofs and clashing horns was terrific. 
 
 Sinopah and his mother were right at the 
 north edge of the gap. His little pony, al- 
 ways very gentle before this, now began to 
 
 49 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 get frightened and show signs of running 
 away ; and before any one could prevent it, 
 it bolted straight out toward the passing 
 buffalo. 
 
 " Oh, my boy ! My little boy ! Save him ! '* 
 his mother shrieked, and madly whipping her 
 horse, and without thought of the danger, 
 took after him. 
 
 Other women shrieked and called for help. 
 The old men there yelled and followed after 
 the mother, resolved to save her and the boy, 
 and half crazed because of the slowness of 
 their horses. 
 
 Sinopah never once cried out or looked 
 back. The people watching saw his little 
 mouth tightly shut, saw him gripping the 
 saddle with both hands, and they yelled to 
 him to let go ; to fall off. And at the same 
 time they knew that it was useless to shout to 
 him, for even a clap of thunder would have 
 been lost in the roar and clatter of the pass- 
 ing herd. 
 
 It was only a few yards across the clear 
 SO 
 
Sinopah's Escape from the Buffalo 
 
 space to the edge of the stream of buffalo. 
 As the pony ran he seemed to go faster and 
 faster. The people watching lost all hope, 
 and so did the mother and the old men; but 
 without a thought for themselves they only 
 whipped their horses the harder and pressed on. 
 The pony now had only a few more jumps 
 to make in order to reach the buffalo, but, 
 excited as he was, still, from force of habit 
 he was watching out for safe footing. So it 
 was that when almost on the point of hitting 
 a badger hole he suddenly jumped sideways 
 to save himself; jumped as quickly as a cat 
 could have done, at a right angle to his 
 course. Sinopah was not prepared for that, he 
 was only bracing himself for straight-ahead 
 running, and so when the pony jumped side- 
 ways he was jerked loose from all holds. His 
 little body actually flew out of the saddle, 
 went spinning through the air, and down he 
 came to the ground on his feet, then fell, 
 and went rolling over and over on the short, 
 thick grass, and almost into the stream of 
 
 51 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 buffalo. The pony kept on. As he came to 
 the herd the animals shrank and made way 
 for him ; he entered the gap and in an in- 
 stant it closed and he was lost to sight. 
 
 Sinopah's mother reached him almost as 
 soon as he stopped rolling. Jumping from 
 her horse, she snatched him up from the 
 ground and ran back as fast as she could go, 
 thinking no more of the horse nor caring 
 what became of it. One of the old men 
 caught the animal and turned it over to her 
 later. Just as she got back to the people the 
 last of the long herd of buifalo passed, and 
 the thunder of their hoofs soon died away. 
 She set Sinopah down on his feet and looked 
 at him, felt of him, all the men and women 
 and children there crowding around. Sino- 
 pah was not crying, nor laughing : just then 
 his father came up on a big horse all cov- 
 ered with foam, and he cried out to him : 
 " Nina, awt-sim-o-ta no-tas. Nok-o-twe-in- 
 is.*' (Father, my horse ran away. Go get 
 him.) 
 
 52 
 
HIS LITTLE BODY ACTUALLY FLEW THROUGH 1 
 
 1 HE AIR 
 
Sinopah's Escape from the Buffalo 
 
 Every one laughed then, and White Wolf 
 was quickly told what had happened. Very 
 gently he reached down and drew Sinopah 
 up on the saddle in front of him : " I am not 
 surprised that the boy escaped/' he said. " I 
 feel that the gods are good to this son of 
 mine. I am sure that they intend him to live 
 to great age." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE CLAY TOYS 
 
 THE hunters had killed several hun- 
 dred buffalo in the chase, so the 
 chiefs ordered camp to be pitched 
 right there beside a small prairie lake, and 
 for five days the people were busy stretching 
 and curing the buffalo hides, and cutting the 
 tons and tons of meat into thin sheets and 
 drying it. 
 
 That first evening by the lake there was 
 much talk about the narrow escape of Sinopah. 
 A number of instances were recalled where 
 the end had been different. 
 
 "I remember a day away back in my 
 youth, when Chief Three Suns lost his little 
 girl in just such a way," said Red Crane. 
 "Horses are uncertain animals. They don't 
 have much sense at any time. You all know 
 how often they go crazy with excitement. 
 
 54 
 
The Clay Toys 
 
 That was just what happened to Sinopah's 
 pony to-day. The passing of that great stream 
 of buffalo, their swift running, the thunder 
 of their hoofs, all was too much for his little 
 brain. He just couldn't help running too; 
 some strange attraction there was which 
 caused him to go right into the herd and run 
 with it. 
 
 " Well, about this little girl : The hunters 
 had chased and killed many buffalo and the 
 women were at work skinning the animals 
 and cutting up the meat. The little girl sat on 
 her pony watching her mother cut up a big 
 fat cow, when over the hill came a big herd 
 of buffalo that had been feeding at a distance, 
 had seen the other herd running, and now 
 were running to join it. The animals came 
 close in passing, and suddenly the pony went 
 crazy and ran to join them. Too late the 
 mother ran to grasp its trailing rope. The 
 little girl was tied fast in her saddle, so she 
 could not fall out of it if she tried to. In about 
 the distance of a bowshot that pony was right 
 
 55 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 in front of the rushing buffalo, and they, 
 running faster, soon closed in around it. Once 
 in a while we could see the little girl's head 
 above the shaggy backs of the great animals 
 as her pony jumped along with them; and 
 then suddenly, a huge bull stuck its head 
 under the pony and tossed it and the little 
 girl high in the air. Down they came on the 
 backs of other buffalo, and that was the end 
 for them. There was mourning in the camp 
 that night, and for many a moon afterward 
 in the lodge of Three Suns.'* 
 
 Sinopah had not shown much interest in 
 his grandfather's story, and now that it was 
 ended he wriggled out of his mother's arms 
 and going over to his father, said : — 
 
 " But my horse is not dead, father ; it ran 
 away with the buffalo. I want you to find 
 and bring him back to me." 
 
 " That I shall not do," the chief grimly 
 answered. " I forbid any one in this camp to 
 bring it in. 'T is an animal of crazy head and 
 evil heart. Here, now, I give it to the sun, 
 
 5^ 
 
The Clay Toys 
 
 also the saddle that is on its back. Mother, 
 make a new saddle for the boy. In place of 
 the pony, I give him that gentle old black- 
 and-white pinto to ride.'' 
 
 " But I have my own horses ; plenty of 
 them/' Sinopah objected. " Let me ride one 
 of them." 
 
 " Not until you are much older," his fa- 
 ther answered. " They are all wild and too 
 strong -mouthed for your little hands to 
 guide." 
 
 As soon as the meat was dried, the people 
 moved on to the middle butte of the Sweet- 
 Grass Hills, and from there through the gap 
 to Milk River, which runs past the northern 
 slope of the small range. The lodges were 
 set up in the edge of the timber bordering 
 the stream, and the play lodge of the child- 
 ren was placed under some big trees close 
 to the water. The tribe remained here for 
 several moons. With their mothers to watch 
 them, and often Grandfather Red Crane, 
 Sinopah and Lone Bull and Otaki passed the 
 
 57 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 long days playing in and around the little 
 lodge. They had crowds of guests, children 
 coming from all parts of the big camp to 
 join in their sports. 
 
 A favorite game of Blackfeet children, and 
 one as old as the tribe itself, was the making 
 of clay images of the different animals of the 
 country. Not all clay was good for this pur- 
 pose, some of it falling apart, or cracking, 
 as soon as it dried. The best was dark gray 
 in color, very fine-grained, and tough when 
 mixed with a few drops of water to about 
 an ounce of the material. Grandfather Red 
 Crane discovered a foot-thick deposit of this 
 good clay in a riverbank near the play lodge 
 and called the children : " Come over here, 
 all of you," he shouted ; " here is image earth 
 in plenty. Now I want to see which one of 
 you can make the best buffalo.'* 
 
 With Sinopah and his two chums were a 
 dozen other children. At the call of the old 
 man, they all ran to him and with sticks and 
 sharp stones began digging out lumps of the 
 
 58 
 
The Clay Toys 
 
 clay; pieces from the size of a hazelnut up 
 to that of a hen's egg. These were angular 
 in shape and very hard and tough, but that 
 did n't matter. Each child found a good- 
 sized, flat, smooth rock, and on it mashed the 
 clay lumps to fine powder with a smooth 
 hand-stone. The longer the stufFwas pounded, 
 the more flour-like it became, the better it 
 would be for making the images. Some of the 
 children were in such a hurry to start making 
 these that they did n't half pound their clay, 
 and afterwards their work cracked and fell to 
 pieces. 
 
 Sinopah had never before played this game, 
 so Grandfather Red Crane sat beside him and 
 directed the work. It was work, hard work, 
 the pounding of the clay, and the perspiration 
 dripped from his forehead as he kept on until 
 it was very fine. It was done at last, and the 
 old man gathered it in a flat heap in the centre 
 of the flat rock. They were sitting right at 
 the edge of the river, and dipping his fingers 
 into the water he sprinkled the clay two or 
 
 59 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 three times, and then began kneading it, just 
 as a cook does flour for bread. 
 
 " Put your hand into it ; feel of it,'' old 
 Red Crane told Sinopah every few minutes, 
 and the boy kept doing so. 
 
 At first the clay was very sticky, large 
 portions of it hanging to his fingers; and 
 although the stuff had been pounded very 
 fine, it felt coarse and lumpy. 
 
 " Now here is where a big mistake is often 
 made,'' said the old man. " The clay feels as 
 if it needed a lot more water, and if you were 
 working it, you would surely sprinkle on too 
 much. Really the stuff is almost wet enough. 
 Now see : I put on just a few drops more, 
 and now I work it a long time." 
 
 This time the old man kneaded it steadily 
 for as much as five minutes. Then he patted 
 it down into a flat cake and ran the palm of 
 his hand across it several times, making a 
 smooth, dull polish on the surface. Then he 
 pinched off a small portion and worked it 
 with the fingers of both hands. The clay was 
 
 60 
 
The Clay Toys 
 
 now of just the tough softness of putty as 
 the glazier uses it for setting window panes. 
 ** There ! it is just right," said the old man. 
 " Mind that you do not ever make the stuff 
 any softer." 
 
 By this time all the other children had 
 prepared their clay and were busily shaping 
 out images of the buffalo. The older ones 
 were quite skillful modelers and soon had 
 two or three made and standing on the bank 
 in front of them. Watching them, Sinopah 
 began his work, taking a lump of the clay 
 as large as he could hold in one hand and 
 trying to shape it. He pinched and pulled, 
 rounded and flattened the stuff for a long 
 time, but could not get it to look like a buf- 
 falo or any other animal. 
 
 Grandfather Red Crane sat beside him, 
 smoking his long pipe and saying not a word. 
 Very often Sinopah would sigh, stop work, 
 and look beseechingly up, and getting no 
 offer of help, make another trial. And so it 
 went on for a long time. Quite often the 
 
 6i 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 old man muttered some words, but the boy 
 did not hear. He was praying ; praying to 
 the sun : " O great one ! O you maker of 
 the day and ruler of the world ! '' he kept 
 saying ; " give this boy of ours an enduring 
 heart. Give him a brave heart. Give him 
 the will to strive and keep striving for that 
 which he wants." 
 
 And then, laying aside his pipe, he reached 
 over and took the shapeless lump of clay from 
 Sinopah. " You have done your best,'' he 
 said ; " I will now show you how to make 
 an image." 
 
 He made a roll of the clay so that it was 
 much larger around at one end than at the 
 other, and then pressed it somewhat flat. 
 "The buffalo is very tall in front," he said, 
 "and quite low in his hindquarters, so we 
 will fashion his high hump and his big head 
 out of the large end of the clay." 
 
 He worked as he talked, pressing and 
 squeezing and pushing the mass of stuffs with 
 thumbs and fingers, and in a very few min- 
 
 62 
 
The Clay Toys 
 
 utes fashioned a very lifelike body of a buf- 
 falo. Then he found a slender dead branch 
 of willow and broke from it four pieces for 
 the legs, and stuck them into the body in 
 their proper place. This made the model 
 look very queer, standing as it did on pipe- 
 like, wooden legs. But the old man was not 
 done with the work. He next took more clay 
 and covered the legs with it, fashioning the 
 stufFon the sticks, covering them with it com- 
 pletely so that they very closely resembled 
 the legs of the living animal. Much pleased 
 with his success he set the little buffalo down 
 before Sinopah and said : " There is a buffalo 
 for you, my son; now let us see how good a 
 one you can make." 
 
 Sinopah was very proud of the gift. He 
 shouted to the other children to come and 
 look at it, and they crowded around him 
 bringing the animals they had made. Not 
 one of them was so good as that modeled by 
 the old man, and with fresh clay they began 
 at once to try to do better work. The first 
 
 63 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 buffalo that Sinopah made was not a good 
 one, but at least it had the shape of one in a 
 rough way. It was plain enough that he had 
 tried to make a model of that animal. Old 
 Red Crane, smoking his long-stemmed stone 
 bowl pipe, sat close by all the morning and 
 encouraged him; the boy made one model 
 after another, improving each time. By the 
 time the sun was straight above in the sky 
 he had made seven little buffalo images, and 
 the last one was a very fair likeness of the 
 great shaggy beast of the plains. 
 
 It was now the middle of the day and the 
 children were very hungry, but they were so 
 interested in making clay buffalo that they 
 would not go home to eat. Their mothers 
 had thought of their needs, however, and 
 coming very quietly to the play lodge under 
 the trees, they built a small fire in it, and 
 broiled plenty of fresh fat meat over the 
 coals. Then they called the children and old 
 Red Crane, and what a feast they all had. 
 It was very simple fare; just meat, and a 
 
 64 
 
The Clay Toys 
 
 handful of dried service berries for each ; but 
 none of them wanted anything else ; not even 
 salt. Since the very beginning of things the 
 Indians had lived on meat and a few berries, 
 fresh or dried. It was the white man who 
 taught them to have other wants. 
 
 After eating their fill, the children hur- 
 ried back to the river and commenced mod- 
 eling again. Now that they had numbers of 
 clay buffalo, they made other animals ; deer, 
 bears, elk, bighorn, wolves, beavers, horses, 
 antelope, and mountain goats. Along late in 
 the afternoon each child had a really life- 
 like set of these. Grandfather Red Crane, 
 still with them, said several times that it was 
 time for the little ones to go home, but still 
 they lingered, finishing just one more ani- 
 mal. They had eyes for their work only, but 
 the old man was always looking about him, 
 up and down the river, and across at the 
 bluffs on the north side of the valley. Naught 
 moved, or flew, or swam but what he saw 
 it. 
 
 65 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 So it was that he saw the bushes trem- 
 bling and shaking a little way upstream from 
 where he and the children sat, and he 
 knew that this was not caused by the wind. 
 He sat very still and watched. He wondered 
 what it could be that was coming toward 
 them. 
 
 Presently he saw a small, black-eyed face 
 peering through the leafy branches at the 
 edge of the thicket. Then another, and an- 
 other, and he knew one of them, the face of 
 Weasel Tail, a boy who lived at the upper 
 end of the big camp. " Ah-ha ! he is the 
 leader of the boys up there,'' he thought, 
 "and has come to raid my children here." 
 
 But he said nothing, and watched and 
 waited. And then, suddenly, with loud cries, 
 little Weasel Tail sprang out of the brush, 
 leading a dozen other whooping youngsters, 
 and the whole band came skurrying down 
 the shore and fell upon the little group of 
 clay image-makers. 
 
 Then what fierce excitement and strug- 
 66 
 
\ 
 
 The Clay Toys 
 
 gling and wrestling took place for posses- 
 sion of the toys. The little girls, of course, 
 shrieked, and cried, and ran homeward for 
 protection. But the boys of both parties just 
 struggled with one another. Sinopah was 
 tackled by an upper camp boy of about his 
 own age, and over and over they rolled on 
 the gravel almost into the water. Then the 
 boy quickly sprang up, seized all the images 
 he could, and ran away whence he had come, 
 all the others of the band going too and 
 carrying away nearly all the images that had 
 been made. 
 
 Through it all, old Red Crane had sat 
 quietly laughing, and letting the struggle go 
 which way it would. 
 
 Now that it was all over, Sinopah ran over 
 to him and asked: "Grandfather, why did 
 you let those upper camp boys take our ani- 
 mals?'' 
 
 "Because they earned them," the old man 
 replied. "That was the game. It was war. 
 Those boys were your enemies and they con- 
 
 67 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 quered. It is now your turn. You must go 
 and raid them. No, not to-day. You all 
 must send scouts to watch their play, and 
 sometime you will have a good chance to get 
 as good as they took from here.** 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE STORY OF SCARFACE 
 
 THE children of the upper end of the 
 camp kept the clay animals they had 
 captured just two days, and then 
 they in turn were surprised by Sinopah's older 
 comrades and lost them, and a number of 
 their own toys also. In this encounter a boy 
 of each party got very angry and hurt one 
 another in the rough scramble. That even- 
 ing when their fathers came home from hunt- 
 ing there was much talk about the trouble; 
 it was very, very seldom that Blackfeet child- 
 ren quarreled and came to blows, and Red 
 Crane and several other old men were called 
 to decide what had best be done. 
 
 In the morning all the children of the 
 camp were called together and Red Crane 
 gave them a short talk: — 
 
 "My little ones," he said, "every day you 
 69 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 are growing taller and stronger and will soon 
 be strong men. The Blackfeet will soon de- 
 pend upon you to fight the enemy, and they 
 are all around us, and to keep our great plains 
 and the herds of game upon them for our 
 own use: that is one reason why you must 
 never quarrel with one another. If you quarrel 
 when you are children, you will quarrel with 
 one another when you are older ; it is only by 
 being all brothers, as it were, by loving one 
 another and standing by one another, that 
 you can keep the tribe from being conquered 
 by its many enemies. Another reason is that 
 the great Sun himself forbids it. Now, pro- 
 mise, all of you, that there shall be no more 
 of this." 
 
 "We take your words! *' "We will quar- 
 rel no more,'' they shouted in answer, and 
 were soon off to play again. 
 
 That evening, when the family were all 
 sitting around the lodge fire, Sinopah rolled 
 across the couch into his father's arms and 
 asked: "Who is the Sun? How can he tell 
 
 70 
 
The Story of Scarface 
 
 us what to do ? Who is Old Man to whom 
 I hear you praying ? '' 
 
 "I am glad you asked," White Wolf re- 
 plied. " It is time for you to know all about 
 these things and to begin praying with us. 
 Listen, now, and I will try to make you 
 understand. 
 
 "In the beginning was no one but Old 
 Man. He was the same as any of us except 
 that he had yellow hair, blue eyes, and a 
 white skin, and had very powerful medicine 
 which enabled him to do great things. The 
 time came when he thought he would like 
 to have a world, so he made this one. He 
 made it flat, with a straight down-cut edge 
 all around it. But that did n't suit him, so in 
 different parts of it he made a lot of running 
 jumps, and at every jump a mountain arose 
 under him. Then from the mountains he 
 cut gashes in the plains, and wherever he cut, 
 valleys were formed and creeks and rivers ran 
 in the bottom of them. This looked good 
 enough for the world, and so he then made 
 
 71 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 living things on it: people, animals, and all 
 the grasses and things that leaf. 
 
 " But when Old Man made the people he 
 gave them paws instead of hands, so they 
 were quite helpless and at the mercy of the 
 bears and all other animals ; whenever they 
 wanted to, the animals killed and ate the 
 people. 
 
 " Old Man was so busy going here and 
 there inspecting the world, and the things 
 he had made, that it was some time before he 
 saw what was going on. When he did notice 
 it, he sat down on a big rock and scratched 
 his head many times and thought a long time 
 before he knew what to do. He then called 
 all the people to him and slit down their 
 claws, so that they became fingers and thumbs, 
 with which the people could do all kinds of 
 work. He showed them first how to make 
 bows and arrows, stone knives and arrow- 
 points, and then taught them how to shoot 
 and kill and cut up the animals. Lastly, he 
 gave them fire with which to cook the meat 
 
 72 
 
The Story of Scarface 
 
 and keep themselves warm. Since that time 
 we have been more and more the masters of 
 the world. Better than all the other tribes 
 he made, Old Man liked us Blackfeet. He 
 saw that this part of the world was the best 
 part, and so he gave it to us with all its many 
 kinds of game. 
 
 " Away back in those first days the Black- 
 feet had much to learn. It was the fault of a 
 woman that caused sickness and death. The 
 first person to get sick was a little baby. 
 The mother took it to Old Man and asked 
 why it cried ; why it refused to eat ? 
 
 "*It is sick,' he told her, 'and it may die.' 
 
 " * Die? What is that?' the woman asked. 
 
 " * It is what happens to an animal when 
 men shoot it with their arrows,' Old Man re- 
 plied. 'They cease to breathe, the heart stops 
 beating, that is the end of them.' 
 
 " * But my child must not die,' the woman 
 cried. 'You made us; you are powerful; I 
 pray you to keep it from dying.' 
 
 " Old Man stood silent a long time. They 
 73 
 
^Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 were at the edge of a river. At last he said 
 to her : * Woman, it shall be as you say about 
 this. Now here is a stone, and here is a piece 
 of wood. I will throw into the water which 
 one of them you choose. If it floats, then 
 your child and all the people shall live for- 
 ever ; if it sinks, then all of you and those 
 yet to be born must die from one cause and 
 another.' 
 
 " Old man had picked up the rock and the 
 piece of wood while talking, and he now held 
 them out. * Choose the one I shall throw,' 
 he told her. 
 
 "The woman stood staring at the two 
 things a long time, and the longer she looked 
 at them the more frightened she became ; 
 and at last she cried : * Throw the rock ! ' 
 
 " Old Man did as he was told ; the stone 
 struck the water with a big splash and sank ; 
 the baby died in its mother's arms right there. 
 Death had come to the people by a woman's 
 unwise choice. 
 
 " For a long time after that, whenever a 
 74 
 
The Story of Scarface 
 
 person became sick he soon died. The people 
 had not yet learned about different medicines, 
 and other ways for curing sickness. Nor could 
 they get help from Old Man: he had told 
 them all good-bye and gone into the West, 
 his last words being that at some far future 
 time, when they desperately needed him, he 
 would return. Day after day they now cried 
 out for him, and in vain. 
 
 " A number of winters came and went, and 
 all the time the people kept dying in great 
 numbers. At last a young man who had a 
 big scar on his face set out to visit all the 
 animals, hoping that some one of them might 
 tell him how to get rid of the scar. He trav- 
 eled on and on for several moons, visiting in 
 turn the bear, the beaver, the wolf, and all 
 the others of the country. In those days all 
 of them could talk. 
 
 " ' O my brother ! ' he said to the bear, * I 
 have heard that you have great medicine : 
 I beg you to have pity and remove this scar 
 from my face.' 
 
 75 
 
« 
 
 Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 * I am sorry, but I have n't the power to 
 do that/ the bear replied. * Now there is the 
 beaver ; he is the wisest of all us animals ; I 
 advise you to see him about this/ 
 
 " But the beaver could not remove the 
 scar. He advised the young man to call on 
 the badger ; the badger sent him on to the 
 wolf; and so it went until Scarface had seen 
 them all. Then he gave up all hope, and at 
 last, arriving at the shore of a great lake, lay 
 down on the sands to die. 
 
 " Then it was that two swans came swim- 
 ming close to the shore where he lay crying, 
 and asked what was his trouble. Scarface told 
 them, and when he had ended the swans said : 
 * Brother, do not despair : one there is, greater 
 than all you have asked for help. His home 
 is out there on an island ; you must go to 
 him.' 
 
 " Scarface rose up and looked out on the 
 great lake, and could see nothing but the 
 blue water extending to the very rim of 
 the world. * There is no island,' he said 
 
 76 
 
The Story of Scar face 
 
 mournfully, and sat down on the sand. * Oh, 
 why did you put false hope in my heart ? 
 Go, now, and let me die in peace.' 
 
 " * But we told you truth, brother,' the 
 swans replied, * Truly, an island is out there, 
 but so far it cannot be seen from here. We 
 pity you ; we wish to help. Come now and 
 lie down on our backs and we will carry you 
 to the sacred island. Never yet has any man 
 of this world stepped foot on it.' 
 
 " Scarface looked at the swans, at the lake, 
 and then, reaching for his bow and arrows, 
 which he had thrown away when he lay 
 down to die, he went and lay down on the 
 backs of the big birds. * It matters not where 
 I die,' he thought. * It may as well be out on 
 that great blue water as here on this sandy 
 shore.' 
 
 " The swans were big and strong, their 
 backs made a soft couch. While they swam 
 steadily and swiftly westward on the deep 
 waters Scarface slept. When he awoke they 
 were nearing a big island, and presently, 
 
 77 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 having come to shallow water and near the 
 shore, they told him to get ofF. * This is the 
 place/ they said, * and yonder behind that 
 grove of trees lives the great one ' ; and with 
 that they turned, and rising on their power- 
 ful wings flew away in the direction whence 
 they had come. 
 
 " Scarface waded ashore and right on the 
 beach met the most beautiful youth he had 
 ever seen. His clothing was of soft, white, 
 tanned skins embroidered with quill-work 
 of rainbow colors. 
 
 " * You are welcome here,' said the youth. 
 * I will tell you my name : it is Morning 
 Star. My father is the Sun. My mother is 
 the Moon. We live here on this island.* 
 
 " Scarface then told who he was, and why 
 he had come to this far place. Morning Star 
 said that he had come to the right one to 
 help him. 
 
 " * But, brother,' he added, * before going 
 to our lodge I want you to do something 
 for me. Out there on that rocky point live 
 
 78 
 
The Story of Scarface 
 
 a tribe of big, sharp-billed birds. One by 
 one they have killed my brothers, and I am 
 forbidden to fight them. I want you to go 
 and kill them for me.' 
 
 " Scarface did not have to be asked twice. 
 He strung his bow, ran out on the point, and 
 began to shoot the wicked birds. They came 
 at him with loud, harsh cries and tried to 
 stab him with their bills, and one by one 
 they fell around him until all were dead. 
 Then the two young men cut off their scalps 
 and carried them to the Moon. She was a 
 beautiful woman and was dressed in strange 
 and gorgeous garments. When Scarface was 
 made known to her she hugged and kissed 
 him, and then wept. * I cry from think- 
 ing of my dead sons,' she said. * You have 
 avenged their death ; you have killed those 
 wicked birds, so now I take you for my son.* 
 
 " She then took Scarface into her beauti- 
 ful big lodge and gave him choice food. It 
 was now almost night, and soon the Sun 
 came home from his daily task of giving 
 
 79 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 light and heat to the world. When told what 
 Scarface had done, he gave him kind greet- 
 ing. * Young Blackfeet/ he said, * you have 
 done much for us this day : remain with us 
 for a time and I will do something for 
 you.' 
 
 " Scarface did stay there a long time. 
 Every night the Sun taught him sacred 
 songs, and over and over showed him dif- 
 ferent kinds of plants that were cures for 
 different kinds of sicknesses. Also he said 
 that he was the ruler of the whole world 
 and that people must pray to him for what 
 they need. And that they must love one an- 
 other, and not lie or steal. That they must 
 be very kind to the old people, and the widows 
 and orphans. 
 
 " And then, one night, the Sun rubbed a 
 powerful black medicine on the young man's 
 face which removed the scar. Then loading 
 him with many beautiful presents he led him 
 out of the lodge, the Moon and Morning Star 
 following. Before them stretched the Wolf's 
 
 80 
 
The Story of Scarface 
 
 Road/ and the Sun pointed to it. * There is 
 your trail/ he said. * Follow it and you will 
 arrive at the camp of the Blackfeet. Do not 
 forget that you are to teach them all that I 
 have taught you.' 
 
 "At that the Moon and Morning Star 
 wept, and so did Scarface, for he had learned 
 to love them as much as they did him. Tears 
 almost blinded him as he started out on the 
 shining trail that mounted before him far 
 up into the sky. On and on he followed its 
 straight way, and at last came to the lodges 
 of the people. 
 
 "So it was, O Sinopah, that the people 
 got help in time of sickness and trouble. 
 That shining Maker of the Day is our great- 
 est god and you must ever pray to him, and 
 make him presents.'* 
 
 That night the little boy sat by the fire 
 a long time and thought about all he had 
 heard. Then he went to the doorway of the 
 
 ' The Wolf's Road, Mah-kwi Ok-so-kwi, is the con- 
 stellation of stars we commonly call the Milky Way. 
 
 8l 
 
Sinopahi the Indian Boy 
 
 lodge and old Red Crane pointed out the 
 Wolf's Road. He thought that he would try 
 to climb it some day when he grew to be a 
 man. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE BUFFALO TRAP 
 
 THE leaves of the cottonwoods along 
 the stream were falling; high up 
 in the blue sky geese and swans and 
 ducks were honking and trumpeting and 
 whistling and quacking as they winged their 
 way southward toward the land of Us-kus- 
 sai Ne-po-yi : always summer. Milk River 
 was not a good place to winter, because there 
 was nowhere along its upper stretches much 
 fuel ; so the chiefs held a big council one 
 day to decide where the cold season should 
 be passed. After a whole afternoon*s talk it 
 was found that most of them preferred the 
 upper Two Medicine River, and there the 
 camp was moved after a couple of days' 
 travel. The lodges were set up in a very 
 heavily timbered bottom that was sheltered 
 
 83 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 on the north by a high sandstone clifF sev- 
 eral miles long. 
 
 This place the Blackfeet called the Pis- 
 kan, or, as we would say, "The Trap " : for 
 here they were wont to decoy and kill — 
 when everything was right — a whole herd 
 of buffalo at one time. The last time the 
 tribe had been there, Sinopah was so young 
 that he did not know what was being done, 
 but since then he had heard of the wonder- 
 ful way in which the animals were there 
 lured to their death, and he was very anxious 
 to see it all. 
 
 After the camp was well settled, prepara- 
 tions were made for decoying or trapping a 
 herd of buffalo. Only a few men in the 
 whole tribe were able to do this, and so they 
 were believed to have great " medicine " : 
 that is, mysterious power given them by the 
 gods. One of these men was White Wolf, 
 the father of Sinopah. 
 
 White Wolf came into his lodge one even- 
 ing after a visit to the other chiefs, and said 
 
 84 
 
The Buffalo Trap 
 
 to old Red Crane: "There is not much 
 meat left in the lodges: we have decided 
 that it is best to try to make a big killing to- 
 morrow; you are asked to decoy a herd." 
 
 " Hah ! That all depends on many things/' 
 the old man answered. " There must be a 
 herd in the right place out there on the 
 plain ; the wind must not be in the south ; 
 and my medicine has to be right, else I will 
 fail to do the work. I will begin now, how- 
 ever, and try my best to bring meat. Send the 
 camp crier around at once to notify the hunt- 
 ers to sing the coyote song before they sleep." 
 
 Old Four Bears was the camp crier. As 
 soon as a horse could be saddled he mounted 
 it and rode among the lodges from one end 
 of the camp to the other, shouting : " Listen ! 
 Listen, O ye hunters. If all be right. Red 
 Crane will bring meat tumbling down over 
 the cliff to-morrow. Pray then to the gods 
 for success ; sing, all of ye, the lucky hunter's 
 song, the song of the coyote — greatest hun- 
 ter of all ; sing it this night before you sleep." 
 
 85 
 
Sinopahi the Indian Boy 
 
 As he went his way, prayer and song were 
 started in every lodge, and within a short 
 time several thousand men's deep voices were 
 intoning prayers and quavering the strange, 
 staccato tune of the song. Powerful and weird 
 was the sound of it all in the still, frosty 
 night. Outside the lodges the dogs sat up on 
 their haunches and howled ; and from beet- 
 ling cliffs and the far reaches of valley and 
 plain the wolves joined in with long-drawn, 
 melancholy cry. Had you been there, as I 
 was, you too would have been strangely af- 
 fected by it all. It was a very solemn and 
 sacred time : men, women, children, even the 
 very animals, were united in beseeching their 
 gods for food. 
 
 Sinopah sat very quiet and wide-eyed 
 watching his grandfather. The old man first 
 got out his paint-bag and rubbed reddish- 
 brown ochre, color best loved by the gods, 
 on face and hands ; then he sang the coyote 
 song ; and lastly, having filled and lighted a 
 pipe, blew smoke toward the four corners 
 
 86 
 
The Buffalo Trap 
 
 of the earth, toward sky and ground, and 
 prayed. 
 
 ** Hai-yu, all-powerful Sun ! Hai-yu, Old 
 Man ! Hai-yu, thou little under-water crea- 
 ture," he began, " have pity on us and give 
 us food. I pray you to give me power to 
 bring much food to all your children here." 
 
 And so he went on, praying and singing 
 for a long time. Before the old man finished, 
 Sinopah became very sleepy, but kept his eyes 
 wide open and would not lie down : there 
 was something in that prayer he wanted to 
 know about : 
 
 "Grandfather," he cried, when the old 
 man was done, " you prayed also to a little 
 under-water creature. What animal is that 
 — a mink — a muskrat — and is it very 
 powerful ?" 
 
 Red Crane reached over and took the boy 
 in his arms : " Little one, that is the one 
 thing I may not tell you," he replied. " The 
 little animal is my medicine ; my dream ani- 
 mal. Like all other Blackfeet youths, and as 
 
 87 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 you must do some day before you are grown 
 and start out to war, I went away from the 
 camp by myself and fasted many days and 
 nights in order to get a vision ; that is, to 
 get a medicine, a secret helper to guide me 
 safely through the dangers of life. 
 
 " From long fasting my body became 
 weak, and at last it slept soundly. Then it 
 was that I — my shadow — left the body 
 and traveled far, and asked all whom I met 
 for help. It was while I lay by the side of a 
 stream that this certain little creature came 
 up out of the water and sat on the shore near 
 me. * I heard your call for help,' it told me, 
 * and I have come to help you. When you 
 pray to the Sun and Old Man, pray also to 
 me and I will be your friend, your helper, 
 coming often to you when your body sleeps 
 and telling you what to do, and what not 
 to do. But you must never tell any one my 
 name.' 
 
 " So it was, little Sinopah, that I got my 
 medicine, my secret helper. I am old ; I 
 
 88 
 
The Buffalo Trap 
 
 have been through many battles; through 
 dangers of all kinds ; and have suffered no 
 harm. And many, many times this little 
 under-water creature has come to me in my 
 dreams and given me warnings. Truly, it is 
 a powerful secret helper that I have.*' 
 
 " Grandfather, when can I go fast and get 
 my medicine ? '' Sinopah asked when the old 
 man had finished. 
 
 " Oh, not for a long time. Not until you 
 have seen sixteen or eighteen winters,'' he 
 replied. 
 
 And then, tucked under warm, soft buf- 
 falo robes by his mother, the boy almost at 
 once fell asleep. 
 
 The next morning every one was up be- 
 fore sunrise and ready for the trapping of the 
 buffalo. Some young men had slept out on 
 the plains back of the cliffs, and hurrying 
 into camp they reported that a band of five 
 or six hundred of the animals were grazing 
 on the second ridge north of the valley. Old 
 Red Crane said that his dream had been favor- 
 
 89 
 
SInopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 able. He tossed up a feather, found that the 
 wind was from the northwest, and gave orders 
 for the people to go to the rock-piles. In a 
 few minutes several hundred men and women, 
 girls and boys, were climbing a trail out of 
 the valley at the lower end of the cliffs. They 
 went on foot, Sinopah*s father leading him 
 and helping him up over the hardest places. 
 Not until all of the climbers had reached the 
 top of the cliff, and disappeared out on the 
 plain, did old Red Crane start. He rode a 
 small, swift horse that was covered with a 
 buffalo robe, and himself wore a robe of the 
 same kind. He went some distance down 
 the valley and climbed out of it by an easy, 
 sloping trail. 
 
 Meantime Sinopah, with his father and 
 the other people, had come to the top of the 
 cliffs at their eastern end, and then turned 
 westward along the edge of them. After 
 walking a half-mile or more, they came to 
 where they were highest and steepest, there 
 being in that place a straight drop of more 
 
 90 
 
The Buffalo Trap 
 
 than a hundred feet to the boulder-covered 
 slope below. Here on top of the cliff, a little 
 way back from the brink and a hundred 
 yards apart, began two ever-widening rows 
 of rock-piles that extended out on the plain 
 for more than a mile like an enormous letter 
 V. Beyond them was a low ridge, and still 
 farther north another ridge, on which a large 
 herd of buffalo were feeding. 
 
 White Wolf now turned to the people and 
 told them to hurry and conceal themselves 
 behind the piles of rock, and they scattered 
 out along the two lines of the V, one or two 
 and sometimes three people stopping and 
 lying down beside each pile. Sinopah was 
 very impatient : he kept jerking his father's 
 hand and asking questions, but for what 
 seemed to him a long time the chief would 
 not answer. 
 
 At last not one person was to be seen out 
 there on the plain : nothing was in sight but 
 the rows of rock-piles, and far away the black 
 mass of feeding buffalo. Then White Wolf 
 
 91 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 lifted the boy up on his shoulder and began 
 to explain : ** Pretty soon you will see your 
 grandfather riding out toward that first 
 ridge/* he said, "so watch for him." 
 
 Sinopah looked for the old man ; looked 
 so hard that water came to his eyes and he 
 had to wipe it away. When he looked off 
 again, he saw what appeared to be a small, 
 single buffalo climbing the first ridge out 
 toward the buffalo herd. His father told 
 him that the object was his grandfather on 
 horseback. The old man was lying down on 
 the animal, so as to make it appear that it 
 had a high, humped back, and covered as 
 both he and the horse were with buffalo 
 robes, they did, indeed, together look like a 
 small buffalo. 
 
 From the top of the ridge the plain ex- 
 tended out with an even rise to the next 
 ridge, on which the herd was feeding. As 
 soon as the old man reached it, he began to 
 ride in circles, each time nearer and nearer 
 those whose attention he sought to attract. 
 
 92 
 
The Buffalo Trap 
 
 And quite often he tickled the horse be- 
 tween the legs with a stick, making it kick 
 up its heels in a very funny manner. 
 
 "If you were there/' the chief told Sino- 
 pah, '* you would hear your grandfather mak- 
 ing a very queer moaning sound — m-m-m- 
 ah! m-m-m-ah! — just as a buffalo calf does 
 when it is in pain, or is frightened/' 
 
 ** M-m-m-ah ! m-m-m-ah !'' Sinopah re- 
 peated. " I will learn to do that well,'' he 
 said, and when I am grown up I will call the 
 buffalo to the pis-kan." 
 
 " Well, then, watch ! Watch closely : you 
 are going to see a very strange thing pretty 
 soon," his father told him. 
 
 At first the big herd of buffalo feeding on 
 the far ridge paid no attention to the object 
 circling toward them, thinking, no doubt, 
 that it was one of their own kind just wan- 
 dering around. But when it kicked up its 
 heels, first one of the old bulls and then 
 another raised its head and began to stare. 
 Then, when it was close enough for its plain- 
 
 3Z 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 tive m-m-m-ah cries to be heard, the cows be- 
 gan to take notice, thinking that what they 
 saw was a calf in distress. Several of them 
 walked toward it a little way, sniffing the air, 
 but the wind was wrong for them and their 
 noses could get no scent of it. 
 
 " Now ! Now watch closely, little son,*' said 
 father, and the boy stared harder than ever. 
 
 One of the big cows suddenly started and 
 ran forward a few rods, and the whole herd 
 moved, too, and gathered in a close bunch 
 behind her. Thus they stood for a few mo- 
 ments, staring and tossing their heads, and 
 then, led by the big old cow, down the ridge 
 they came with a tremendous rattle and 
 thunder of hoofs, and raising a thick cloud 
 of dust behind them. 
 
 This was what old Red Crane on his little 
 horse had been praying for, and now he turned 
 and rode swiftly toward the wide gap of the 
 V-shaped rock-piles. And swift as he rode, 
 the buffalo were swifter and gained on him 
 steadily. 
 
 94 
 
The Buffalo Trap 
 
 "Oh! Oh! They will catch up with him 
 and trample him to death," Sinopah cried 
 in terror. 
 
 " No, no, he is not in danger," his father 
 answered; "watch closely now." 
 
 In a few minutes Red Crane rode within 
 the V, the buffalo right after him, and soon 
 the whole herd was in it, too. Then, as the 
 tail end of the band passed rock-pile after 
 rock-pile, the people lying behind the heaps 
 sprang up and shouted, and wildly waved 
 their robes. That scared the rear animals, 
 that alone could see and hear the people, 
 and they ran harder than ever, so crowding 
 those in front to run faster and faster. The 
 band was nearing the cliff now, and were 
 almost on top of Red Crane and his little 
 horse. Then it was that he suddenly turned 
 and rode straight east between two of the 
 rock-piles of that side of the great V. Turn- 
 ing to follow him, — the lead cows still 
 thought they were running to the rescue of 
 a calf in trouble, — the herd saw people 
 
 95 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 jump up from behind the rocks, and were 
 now for the first time as badly frightened as 
 were those in the rear. Quick as a flash they , 
 turned from that danger and headed west, 
 only to be confronted with people rising 
 from the rock-piles on that side of the V. 
 Here, now, were people on each side, and 
 people back whence they had come. But 
 none were to be seen to the south, and south- 
 ward they turned, running faster than ever in 
 their great terror. Red Crane was now safe. 
 Sitting on his dripping horse, he watched 
 the animals go, and raised a prayer to the 
 gods and his little secret helper, asking that 
 the buffalo should keep straight on. 
 
 In the mean time White Wolf had run with 
 Sinopah to the edge of the cliff, and several 
 hundred yards east of the place where the 
 two lines of the V came close together, and 
 there the two waited to see the end of it all. 
 
 Here, now, was the most anxious moment 
 and the greatest danger; the leaders of the 
 herd might turn before coming to the cliff, 
 
 96 
 
r-f 
 
 HEN IT WAS THAT HE SUDDENLY TURNED 
 
The Buffalo Trap 
 
 trample the people behind one or the other 
 of the rows of rock-piles, and so circle back 
 to the plain in safety. But no ! They kept 
 straight on; and Sinopah, watching them 
 with staring eyes and open mouth, was never 
 so excited in his life : he felt as if he was go- 
 ing to burst from the dreadful danger of it 
 all ; the terrible thunder of hoofs; the wicked 
 gleams of wild black eyes set in shaggy hair. 
 And now the leaders of the herd saw the 
 edge of the cliff, and tried to stop and turn 
 to one side. But those behind them could 
 not see it and kept pressing forward with 
 tremendous and irresistible force. There 
 could be no stopping. The leaders were 
 swiftly pushed off from the cliff, and follow- 
 ing them went the living stream of the herd, 
 whirling and whirling through the air, fall- 
 ing, falling from that sheer height, and 
 crashing down onto the boulders at the foot 
 of the cliff. Hundreds of the buffalo went 
 over the ledge, and only the last end of the 
 herd, just a few animals, turned at the last 
 
 97 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 moment and escaped through the people to 
 the plain. 
 
 Most of those that went over the cliff were 
 killed outright by the fall, and those only- 
 crippled were soon put out of their misery 
 by the hunters down there. Then began the 
 skinning of the animals and the cutting-up 
 of the meat and carrying it to the lodges in 
 the camp. When night came the work was 
 all done and the people rested and were 
 happy. Pretty soon the moon came up and 
 old Red Crane took Sinopah outside. Over 
 at the foot of the cliff wolves and coyotes and 
 foxes were howling and yelping as they fed on 
 the bones and bits of meat that had been left 
 there. "Listen to our little brothers/' he said. 
 "It is a great feast that we are giving them 
 this night." 
 
 In some such way in the long ago, our own 
 ancestors used to trap their food. That was 
 when they had no weapons but the bow and 
 arrow and flint knife, and meat and wild ber- 
 ries were all they had to eat. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SPINNING TOP 
 
 WINTER was now come, but the 
 people were very comfortable in 
 their lodges in the Two Medi- 
 cine Valley. After all, the winters are very 
 mild on the plains close under the Rocky 
 Mountains in Montana. Sometimes a bliz- 
 zard swoops down from the north, bringing 
 some snow and intense cold, but it seldom 
 lasts long. W^ithin a few days a Chinook 
 wind comes out of the west, a wind that 
 started from the Japan Current of the Pacific 
 Ocean, eight hundred miles away, and this is 
 so warm that it kills the blizzard and melts 
 the snow. Sometimes, even in January, this 
 wind is so very warm that it makes the air 
 feel as if summer had really come. This is the 
 way it usually is on the northern Montana 
 plains in winter. But about once in twenty 
 
 99 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 years the north wind keeps the west wind back 
 for a couple of months or more. Then the 
 snow falls deep, and the thermometer stays 
 away down below zero, and the animals and 
 birds die by the hundred. At such a time I 
 have seen more than a hundred antelope, a 
 whole band, lying frozen to death on the 
 plain. 
 
 This was a good winter; too good, the 
 boys and girls thought, for they wanted the 
 river to freeze over so they could play on 
 the ice. So it was that one night when Sino- 
 pah was going to crawl into his warm buf- 
 falo-robe couch, he made a short prayer to 
 Ai-sto-yim-sta, Cold-Maker. He was the 
 god who lived in the north, and who made 
 raids into the southland, hidden always in 
 the swirling snow of the terrible blizzards 
 he made. 
 
 " Hai-yu, Ai-sto-yim-sta," little Sinopah 
 piped shrilly, "have pity on all of us child- 
 ren. Come quickly ; come this night and 
 make ice for us to play on." 
 
 lOO 
 
Spinning Top 
 
 His mother heard him and cried out to 
 White Wolf : *' Now what do you think this 
 naughty boy is doing ? He prays Cold-Maker 
 to come and make ice for him." 
 
 " Is it so ! '' his father exclaimed. " Sino- 
 pah, come here. I have something to say. 
 Now, listen ! '' he went on, when he had 
 the boy close in his arms. " Cold-Maker is 
 a bad god, and you must never pray to him 
 to come. He is not like the Sun, the great 
 giver of life ; he is the giver of death. Many 
 and many a one of our people he has done 
 to death. You pray him to come and make 
 ice. Well, away out there on the plains are 
 many of our hunters. They are coming 
 slowly toward camp ; very slowly because 
 their horses are carrying heavy loads of meat 
 for the women and children, and hides to be 
 tanned into soft, warm robes. Now, suppose 
 that Cold-Maker does come ; come now, 
 this night ? You will have the ice to play on, 
 yes. But other children will have no fathers: 
 they will be lying dead out on the plain.'* 
 
 lOI 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 "Oh, I did n't think of that/' said Sinopah. 
 " Cold-Maker is a bad god. I will never pray- 
 again to him. But I would like to have some 
 ice." 
 
 "The ice will come soon enough/' said 
 White Wolf. "Now, go you to your robes 
 and sleep." 
 
 It was not long after this that there would 
 be heavy white frost on the trees and the 
 grass in the early morning, and thin ice along 
 the edge of the river in the still places. Little 
 by little this ice thickened and crept out 
 from the shore, so that White Wolf had to 
 break it when he carried Sinopah with him 
 for the daily bath. When the two of them 
 plunged into the cold water they shivered and 
 cried, "Ah-ha-ha-ha-ah!" and shrank from 
 the feel of it; but oh, how good they felt, 
 when back in the warm lodge. And then one 
 morning when they went to the river, they 
 found it frozen clear across, the ice so thick 
 that White Wolf had to get a heavy piece of 
 drift and break a hole in it for a bathing-place. 
 
 1 02 
 
Spinning Top 
 
 "Oh, hurry! hurry!" Sinopah cried. ''I 
 want to get back to the lodge and put on my 
 clothes, and come out here to play." 
 
 But his mother would not let him start 
 out until he had eaten all of the fat meat on 
 a roasted buffalo rib. Then, taking up his top 
 and the whipper for it, away he ran to the 
 river where nearly all the children of the 
 camp were playing on the ice, nearly all of 
 them spinning tops. 
 
 Sinopah had a fine top that his grand- 
 father made for him from the tip of a buf- 
 falo bull horn. It was about three inches 
 long, an inch or more in diameter, flat on the 
 upper end, and dull-pointed. There was no 
 string for it, as the spinning was done with 
 a whip. This was a slender stick about two 
 feet long, to an end of which were tied 
 three or four fine buckskin strings about a 
 foot and a half in length. The top was started 
 spinning on the ice with the thumb and mid- 
 dle finger of the left hand, and then lashed 
 frequently with the whip to keep it spinning. 
 
 103 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 A favorite play was for three or four children 
 to start their tops at the same time, each one 
 trying to make his top spin the longest. 
 
 As usual Lone Bull and the little girl 
 Otaki, Sinopah's best friends, were with him 
 this morning and the three spun their tops 
 together, sometimes one and sometimes an- 
 other of them winning the long-time game. 
 Sinopah won most of the games, though, 
 and he began to think that he could spin 
 tops as well as any one of the great crowd 
 of children there on the ice. When he had 
 won three games, one after another, from 
 Lone Bull and Otaki, he was sure that he 
 was the best player of all, and said so. 
 
 Crow Foot, a boy older by some years, 
 heard the boast and cried out : " You say 
 that you are the best spinner here ? Well, I 
 say that I am the best. Come on, and we 
 will see whose words are true. We will start 
 spinning our tops at the same time, and the 
 one of us who spins his longest shall win the 
 other's top." 
 
 104 
 
Spinning Top 
 
 " Don*t you do it, Sinopah/' said Lone 
 Bull. "He is bigger than you; he has spun 
 tops two or three winters before we com- 
 menced; he will surely win your top." 
 
 " Yes, and such a nice top it is, and his only 
 an old wooden one," said Otaki. " Don't 
 play with him." 
 
 **Oh, I am not afraid; I can win," said 
 Sinopah. 
 
 And in another moment the two boys 
 were spinning their tops in the centre of 
 a big crowd of children. No one spoke or 
 moved ; the only sound to be heard was the 
 swish and slat of the whip-lashes, and the 
 dull buzzing of the tops on the ice. 
 
 After a long time Crow Foot made a mis- 
 strike with his whip and the top wobbled. 
 "He loses," the children cried ; but no, he 
 made another quick snatch at it and it 
 righted up. 
 
 Then Sinopah's top spun into a small, 
 rough place in the ice and began to jump. 
 " Oh, Sinopah ! be careful ; take courage," 
 
 105 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 the crowd shouted at him, and just then he 
 made a hard stroke with the whip that 
 knocked the top over on its side and sent it 
 rolHng into the crowd. Crow Foot snatched 
 up his top, chased the other one and recov- 
 ered it, and danced around holding both up 
 in the air, shouting : " I win the bull-horn 
 top ! I win Sinopah's fine, black horn top." 
 Sinopah cried. Lone Bull and Otaki tried 
 to comfort him, but he cried all the harder 
 and kept saying : " Oh, my top ! It is gone. 
 What will my grandfather say ? He worked 
 so long to make it for me. Oh, I want my 
 grandfather ; maybe he will get it back for 
 
 me." 
 
 Grandfather was right there ; he was never 
 far away from the boy, always watching to 
 see that he came to no harm. 
 
 " Now, what is the trouble ? " he asked ; 
 but Sinopah was crying so hard that he could 
 not answer, and so Lone Bull told him how 
 Crow Foot had won the top. 
 
 " Well, well. That is bad," said the old 
 1 06 
 
Spinning Top 
 
 man, and he led Sinopah away up the river. 
 Lone Bull and Otaki going also. 
 
 " You must n't cry. No matter what hap- 
 pens, you must not cry," Red Crane began. 
 " Women and girls may cry, but boys and 
 
 men never." 
 
 " But, grandfather, my top ! Crow Foot 
 has it ; he won it from me. Will you get it 
 back for me?" Sinopah whimpered. 
 
 " I will not," Red Crane answered. " This 
 is going to be a lesson to you. Remember 
 this — you, too. Lone Bull : those who gamble 
 are always poor. Also, gamblers are not good 
 men : they use up so much time playing 
 games that they seldom hunt, and their wo- 
 men and children have not enough meat to 
 cat. Neither are they of any account in war. 
 If all our men gambled, the enemy would 
 soon kill us all off." 
 
 " But, grandfather, I have no top now," 
 said Sinopah, doing his best not to cry any 
 more, " and see how clear and hard the ice 
 is. I want to spin a top on it." 
 
 107 
 
Sinopahi the Indian Boy 
 
 "Well, if you are very good, and will 
 promise never to gamble again, I will begin 
 making you another top to-morrow," said 
 the old man. " Now, you will all go with 
 me after some red willow. I want the bark 
 of it to mix with my tobacco. There is a 
 fine patch of it growing close to the shore 
 above here." 
 
 Never was there clearer ice than that on 
 the river this morning. It was as clear as a 
 glass window pane. Everything in the water 
 under it could be seen plainly, the rocks, 
 gravel, and sand of the bottom, and the trout 
 lying almost still in the deep places. 
 
 While they stood looking down at a very 
 large trout, suddenly a long, slender, dark 
 brown animal with big, webbed hind feet, 
 came swimming down into the deep hole. 
 The trout saw it and turned and swam like 
 a flash toward the branches of a sunken tree. 
 The animal was a faster swimmer ; it went 
 so fast after the trout that it was just a brown 
 streak in the water, and it caught the fish, 
 
 io8 
 
Spinning Top 
 
 and, holding it crosswise in its mouth, started 
 to swim back upstream. 
 
 "Ha! Am-on-is" (otter), "killer of fish," 
 old Red Crane cried, and stamped on the 
 ice. 
 
 That frightened the otter ; it let go of the 
 bleeding and dying trout and swam away 
 downstream. 
 
 " O-kye-hai ! You children down there," 
 Red Crane shouted, " spread out and stamp 
 on the ice. Scare back an otter swimming 
 toward you." 
 
 There must have been all of a hundred 
 children in the top-spinning crowd. The old 
 man had to shout two or three times to make 
 them understand, and then they all spread 
 out and stamped the ice with their feet, and 
 pounded it with their tops and whips, making 
 altogether a terrible noise. 
 
 Old Red Crane, in the mean time, had 
 gone to the shore and picked up a rock big- 
 ger than his head, and now he stood with it 
 raised high above his head watching for the 
 
 109 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 otter to come back. This it soon did, the 
 children below having scared it, and now it 
 swam close to the shore where the bank went 
 straight down, hoping to find an air-hole, or 
 a beaver-hole into which it could crawl, and 
 then climb up into the beaver's sleeping- 
 place above the water, where there would be 
 plenty of air. 
 
 There was no hole of any kind, except an 
 open place in some rapids quite a long way 
 above, and the otter had to breathe before it 
 could get back to that place. Its lungs were 
 full of air, and it had to let it out and draw 
 it in again, or die. So when it was quite 
 close under Red Crane, it rose to the under 
 surface of the ice and blew out the air against 
 it, a great long wide silvery bubble. But be- 
 fore it could breathe it in again. Red Crane 
 dashed the rock down right over it. Crash ! 
 went the brittle ice, the jar scattering the big 
 bubble into a hundred little bubbles, and 
 frightening the otter away at the same time. 
 There it was without air in its lungs, and no 
 
 I lO 
 
Spinning Top 
 
 way to get any except at the hole at the 
 rapids, so far, far away. That place the poor 
 animal tried to reach. It swam slower and 
 slower, Red Crane and the children follow- 
 ing it. Very soon it had to expand its lungs, 
 and as there was no air, water instead flowed 
 in through its nose and filled them. That 
 was the end. The animal gave a few fee- 
 ble kicks, then sank to the bottom of the 
 river, and lay still. It was dead. Dead from 
 want of that little bubble of air it had lost. 
 Could it have kept that, letting it out against 
 the ice, and then drawing it in again, it could 
 have traveled for miles, or until it came to 
 an open place where it could crawl out of 
 the water. 
 
 Grandfather Red Crane was all excited 
 now. " Who would have thought we would 
 get a medicine animal so easy as that ?'' he 
 said. " It was just lucky that it stopped to 
 make its bubble in front of me. But it is a 
 good sign. Sinopah, we will save the skin for 
 you. When you grow up we will make a 
 
 III 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 bow-and-arrow case of it for you, and I know 
 that it will bring you good luck in war." 
 
 And with that he sent the children to 
 camp after an axe with which he chopped 
 a hole in the ice. Then he fished out the 
 otter with a forked pole. It was a big otter ; 
 all of four feet long from the nose to the tip 
 of its tail. The old man forgot all about the 
 red willow, and dragging the animal, and the 
 children following, he went straight back to 
 camp, where he carefully took off its fine 
 furred hide and stretched it to dry in the 
 right shape. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 SINOPAHS'S FIRST BOW 
 
 IT is time for our son to learn to use the 
 bow/' said White Wolf one evening 
 when all the family was sitting in the 
 light and warmth of the little lodge fire. 
 
 " Ai ! So it is/' old Red Crane exclaimed. 
 ** I will begin work on one for him to- 
 morrow, and it shall not be a wooden bow ; 
 it shall be made of horn." 
 
 "I wouldn't take so much trouble as 
 that/' said White Wolf " A bow of wood 
 will be good enough for him to begin with." 
 "But what does my time amount to?" 
 Red Crane asked. " I am old, old. I tell 
 you it makes me sick when I see the younger 
 men start out to hunt, or leave to make war 
 against the enemy, and I can't go with them. 
 All I can do now is to stay here in the camp. 
 All I can do is to teach our little Sinopah ; 
 
 113 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 teach him to shoot and hunt ; teach him to 
 be good and kind and brave. My time is 
 all for him. So it is that he shall have a fine 
 little bow of horn." 
 
 " Father, don't you worry about these 
 things," said White Wolf. " I can hunt for 
 us all, and I can go to war. All I ask of you 
 is to be happy. It is great work that you 
 are doing for our little Sinopah. We are all 
 glad that you do so much for him." 
 
 The next morning the old man went up 
 in the hills with Sinopah to get some buffalo 
 horns. They soon found the heads of some 
 freshly killed animals, and took the horns 
 from three of them, all big, shiny black 
 horns of three- and four-year-old bulls. 
 Back they went then to the valley and 
 threw the horns into a hot spring, where 
 they were to remain a couple of days and 
 get soft. 
 
 On the third day old Red Crane took the 
 horns out of the spring and found them so 
 soft that they could be split with a knife as 
 
 114 
 
Sinopah's First Bow 
 
 easily as if they were just soft wood. So he 
 took them home to the lodge and began 
 making a bow, Sinopah watching every part 
 of the work, and asking many questions about 
 it, so that he could some day make such 
 bows for himself. 
 
 First, the old man cut the horns into long 
 splints of different size, the larger ones an 
 inch wide, and a quarter of an inch thick. 
 The larger pieces were for the middle of the 
 bow, the smaller ones for the ends, and all 
 were neatly shaved, so as to lap closely one 
 on the other, - — to splice, as such work is 
 called ; all the pieces being stuck together 
 with a very strong waterproof glue made by 
 boiling down the hoofs of the buifalo. When 
 this was done, the old man scraped the bow 
 with sandstone, and then a knife, until from 
 end to end it was as smooth as glass, and of 
 the right shape, heavy and thick in the 
 middle, and from there tapering each way 
 out to the tips. Lastly, to make the bow all 
 the stronger, and springy, he glued strips of 
 
 IIS 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 sinew to its whole outer length, and wrapped 
 it with sinew bands about four inches apart. 
 When finished, the bow was about three 
 feet long. 
 
 The next thing was to string the bow with 
 a fine cord of twisted sinew, and then the 
 arrows were made, the shafts of straight, hard, 
 heavy greasewood, the points of thin iron 
 bought from the traders, and the feathering 
 of quills of wild-goose wings. 
 
 The old man made eleven of these iron- 
 pointed arrows, and then went to work on 
 another shaft with which he took especial 
 pains, working a whole evening in just scrap- 
 ing and polishing it, and soaking it full of 
 grease. Sinopah, watching him, grew restless, 
 and asked why he worked so long on just one 
 arrow shaft. 
 
 " Because this is to be a medicine arrow ; 
 a lucky arrow," Red Crane replied. 
 
 He then took from his own quiver an 
 arrow that had a very small, thin, sharp point 
 of black obsidian, or natural glass. In the 
 
 ii6 
 
Sinopah's First Bow 
 
 Yellowstone country there is a whole moun- 
 tain of such stuff. 
 
 " Now, I am going to take this point off 
 and fasten it on this shaft/' said the old man, 
 " and you are never to use it except when in 
 danger. My father made the point for me, 
 and three different times it has saved my life. 
 By that you can see it is great medicine.'' 
 
 " Oh, grandfather ! Tell me about it," said 
 Sinopah, snuggling up to him and hanging 
 onto his hand so that he could not work. 
 
 "Well, you shall hear," the old man an- 
 swered, lifting the boy into his lap and smooth- 
 ing the hair back from his forehead. "Ai! 
 But the first time was long ago. Why, I was 
 not much older than you are now. My father 
 had made a horn bow and twelve arrows for 
 me. Eleven of the arrows had common white 
 flint points and the twelfth one carried this 
 fine black one. Just as I tell you now, my fa- 
 ther told me then : I was not to use it except 
 when in great danger. 
 
 " One day I went hunting with two boy 
 117 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 friends. It was a very hot day and we walked 
 in the timber close to the river. In my left 
 hand I carried my bow and two arrows; one 
 a common arrow, the other having this medi- 
 cine point. All the rest of the arrows were 
 in a quiver slung at my back. 
 
 " My two friends walked in the middle of 
 the timber and near the river, and I kept at 
 the outer edge of it. After a long time I 
 came to a very thick patch of willows, so 
 very thick that I could not see into it. In 
 there I heard a queer noise ; a snuffling noise, 
 and little faint cries as of something in great 
 pain, just such a noise as a dog makes when 
 it is badly hurt. I thought it was a dog, one 
 of our camp dogs, that had got hurt and had 
 come out there to die. So I pushed into the 
 thicket, and suddenly came face to face with 
 a big wolf. Now, wolves, as you know, never 
 harm any one. They are afraid of man. But 
 this wolf was different. A big fluff of white 
 foam covered its mouth, and by that I knew 
 it was a mad wolf, and very dangerous. When 
 
 ii8 
 
Sinopah's First Bow 
 
 it saw me it raised up and made ready to 
 jump at me, and at the same time I fitted the 
 medicine arrow to my bow. The wolf opened 
 its mouth and made ready to jump at me, 
 and I shot the arrow right down its throat. 
 It did jump, but never touched me. It fell 
 almost at my feet and died, and I got back 
 the arrow. 
 
 " The next time I used the arrow-point 
 was some winters later. I had grown to be 
 a man. I had taken the point off from the 
 little arrow-shaft, and fitted it onto one such 
 as men use. I had been running buffalo one 
 day, and killed four with my common ar- 
 rows. Then I shot a big, fat cow, and at the 
 same time my horse fell and broke its leg. 
 The cow was only wounded, and very mad. 
 She charged me and I jumped to one side 
 and fired a common arrow at her; it only 
 stuck in her shoulder. 
 
 " Four times she turned and charged me, 
 and four times I fired an arrow, but none of 
 them did any good. I had but the one arrow 
 
 119 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 left, this one with the medicine point. I made 
 a little prayer, fitted it to the bow, and then 
 shot it when the cow turned to charge me 
 again. Straight into her heart it went and 
 down she fell, and I was saved.'' 
 
 " Yes, that makes two times ; now tell about 
 the last one," said Sinopah, for the old man 
 had stopped talking and was looking with 
 dreamy eyes at the fire. 
 
 "Oh, yes, the last time," Red Crane an- 
 swered, sitting up straight again. " No. I 
 will not tell you about that, because you 
 might have bad dreams about it. All I can 
 say is that I had a fight with a Crow chief 
 and killed him with the medicine arrow." 
 
 Sinopah wanted to know all about the 
 fight, but he had now become very sleepy, 
 and was put on his couch before he had time 
 to ask more questions. 
 
 On the next day old Red Crane made more 
 arrow shafts, these being made sharp at the 
 end, instead of having iron points. They 
 were for shooting at marks, and for a long 
 
 1 20 
 
Sinopah's First Bow 
 
 time the old man made Sinopah practice 
 with them every day. At first he shot them 
 at little sagebrush bushes, or a piece of robe 
 thrown onto a bush ; but after a couple of 
 moons he was taught to shoot at a ball of grass 
 thrown up in the air. He became so skillful 
 that he could pierce it nearly every time. 
 
 Then, one morning after the early bath in 
 a hole cut in the ice, old Red Crane took Sino- 
 pah out to hunt with the real arrows. It was 
 a very cold morning; the trees were covered 
 with thick, white frost, and all up and down 
 the valley they were popping with a noise 
 like rifle-shots, while the ice on the river 
 heaved and cracked with a rumbling like that 
 of far-oflF thunder. 
 
 Not far below the camp they heard prai- 
 rie chickens (sharp-tailed grouse) clucking, 
 and presently saw a number of them sitting 
 in a small cottonwood tree. The birds felt 
 so cold that they sat all crouched on the tree 
 limbs, and paid no attention to the man and 
 boy approaching them. 
 
 121 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 "Well, you are close enough to them 
 now," Red Crane told Sinopah when they 
 had got so near that they could see the shiny 
 black eyes of the chickens. 
 
 Sinopah dropped his robe then and fitted 
 an arrow to his bow, one of the arrows with 
 iron point, and took aim at a bird at the top 
 of the tree. 
 
 ** No, no ! You must not shoot that one,'* 
 Red Crane said, " for it would drop flutter- 
 ing down among the rest and scare them all 
 away. Shoot at the very lowest bird in the 
 tree." 
 
 Sinopah took quick aim and let the arrow 
 fly ; and as the bow-cord twanged the chicken 
 fell down from the limb with the arrow in 
 it, and after a few flutters of its wings lay 
 still on the blood-stained snow. Sinopah never 
 said a word, but his snapping eyes showed 
 how excited and happy he was as he shot 
 another arrow at the next lowest bird in the 
 tree. 
 
 This time he missed, but a third arrow 
 
 122 
 
Sinopah's First Bow 
 
 brought the chicken down, and three more 
 arrows got two more birds. He was about 
 to shoot at a fifth bird when Red Crane 
 seized his arm : "That is enough/' he said. 
 " You have one for your mother, one for 
 your father, one for yourself, and one for 
 me. Remember this : the gods do not love 
 wasters of life. They made the animals and 
 birds for our use, but we may kill no more 
 than we need.'* 
 
 Sinopah never forgot that. Afterwards, 
 during all his life, he was careful never use- 
 lessly to take the life of beast or bird. Most 
 of the white hunters of our country have not 
 done that. They have killed the buffalo and 
 deer, the pigeons and ducks and other birds, 
 just for the fun of seeing them die. Had 
 they shot only just enough for food, there 
 would still be plenty of game from one end 
 to the other of our great land. 
 
 Having picked up the four chickens, and 
 the arrows that had been shot, the old man 
 and the little hunter started back toward 
 
 123 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 home. Had you been in Sinopah's place, 
 without mittens on that cold morning, you 
 would have had your fingers frozen stiff. 
 But he never felt the cold, and his hands 
 were almost as active as on a summer morn- 
 ing. That was because he had to bathe in 
 the frozen river every day. 
 
 On their way through the timber near 
 camp they saw a cotton-tail rabbit sitting in 
 the edge of a rose-brush thicket. ** I would 
 like to have it,'* said Red Crane, "but not 
 unless you can kill it when it is running. 
 Now, fit an arrow to your bow and see what 
 you can do when I throw one of these chickens 
 that way." 
 
 They were only forty or fifty feet from 
 the rabbit. The old man tossed a chicken 
 and the little animal started ofi^ on the jump 
 through the snow, passing right in front of 
 Sinopah. He aimed about a foot ahead of 
 it, and zip ! the arrow struck it fairly just 
 behind the shoulder. It was a fine shot. Sino- 
 pah shouted as he ran to pick it up, and when 
 
 124 
 
IT WAS A FINE SHOT 
 
Sinopah's First Bow 
 
 he returned and held the rabbit up before Red 
 Crane, the old man shouted too and made 
 a little prayer of thanks to the gods. *' Never 
 was there such a fine boy as this one you 
 have given us/' he said. 
 
 And at home he said to White Wolf: 
 "Now, listen! Sinopah is going to be a 
 great chief. I know that he is." 
 
 " I believe you," White Wolf replied. " I 
 am very proud of him." 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 TRACKING A MOUNTAIN LION 
 
 NOW, while old Red Crane was teach- 
 ing Sinopah to hunt and kill game 
 with bow and arrow, Otaki's mother 
 was teaching her to do woman's work. The 
 little lodge had been set up for the children 
 in the shelter of thick willow brush where 
 the wind could not blow, and they now had 
 many happy days in it. Lone Bull, Otaki's 
 brother, was with them, and the two boys 
 hunted, while Otaki gathered small pieces of 
 deadwood for the fire, brought water from 
 the river in a small pot, and did all the other 
 work of the lodge, such as sweeping the hard, 
 smooth earth floor with a broom made of a 
 bunch of willow brush, and straightening out 
 the soft robe couches. 
 
 Some days the boys would hunt a long 
 time and come home to the little lodge with- 
 
 126 
 
Tracking a Mountain Lion 
 
 out anything. Other times they would bring 
 in a couple of prairie chickens, or one or two 
 rabbits. Arriving at the door of the lodge 
 they would cry out : ** Otaki, we have arrived. 
 Come get the meat we have killed.'' 
 
 The little girl would then come out and 
 say : " Kyai-yo ! What a fine killing my hunt- 
 ers have made. Go inside now, and I will 
 soon have meat on the fire." 
 
 Then, while the two boys sat on their 
 couches before the fire and dried their wet 
 moccasins, she took her little knife from the 
 sheath dangling from her belt, and skinned 
 and cleaned the rabbits or birds, then brought 
 them inside and roasted them on the hot, 
 bright-red coals. It is true that the meat did 
 not taste so good as that of the buffalo and 
 deer and elk and antelope that their fathers 
 brought to camp, but they pretended that it 
 was even better because they had killed it. 
 They were very proud of being able to get 
 their own food from the timber along the 
 river. White children would not have liked 
 
 127 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 the chicken and rabbit meat that Otaki 
 cooked, because she did not put any salt on 
 it. The Indians never used salt before the 
 white people taught them to put it in their 
 food, and even to this day many of them do 
 not care for it. 
 
 One day the two boys went away down 
 the river, farther than they had yet gone on 
 their hunts, and found three bullberry bushes 
 still full of fruit. When first ripe, these ber- 
 ries are so sour that no one can eat them; 
 but the freezing weather of winter turns cer- 
 tain of the acids into sugar, and then the ber- 
 ries taste something like currants, only very 
 much better. They have both a tart and a 
 sweet taste, and not only the Indians but 
 birds are very fond of them, the prairie chick- 
 ens especially. 
 
 When the boys found the three bushes, or 
 rather small trees full of the fruit, the first 
 thing they did was to strip off bunches of the 
 ripe, red berries and eat them. They won- 
 dered how it was that the birds and the 
 
 128 
 
Tracking a Mountain Lion 
 
 women of the camp had not long since found 
 and taken them all. 
 
 They soon ate all they could hold, and 
 then said Lone Bull : " We should have all 
 these berries for our lodge ; there is a great 
 quantity of them; enough to last us all 
 winter/* 
 
 "You talk wisely/' Sinopah answered. 
 " But of course gathering berries is not men's 
 work. It is best that we bring Otaki up here 
 to gather them." 
 
 " But she is n*t strong enough for that," 
 Lone Bull objected. "Of course she should 
 come and help, but I think that we ought to 
 get our mothers to do the work." 
 
 "Well, then, you go after them and I will 
 stay here and keep any one who may come 
 along from taking the berries," said Sinopah. 
 " No one shall have them : they are our find." 
 
 At that Lone Bull started off on the run 
 for camp. Sinopah ate a few more berries 
 and then began to get cold from standing 
 still so long. He started to walk around, 
 
 129 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 faster and faster, and farther and farther from 
 the trees, and on a larger circle than ever came 
 to some strange-looking tracks in the snow. 
 They were big, round tracks, but not far 
 apart ; not near so far as he could step. Most 
 of them showed the heel of the feet, so it was 
 easy to see which way the animal had been 
 going. He looked at the tracks a long time. 
 "Now, if Grandfather Red Crane were only 
 here, he could tell me what kind of an ani- 
 mal made these tracks," he said to himself. 
 
 Sinopah made another circle and once 
 more came to the strange-looking tracks. 
 ** I do wish I knew what animal made them," 
 he said. "Well, I will just follow them a 
 little way and perhaps I can learn what it 
 was." 
 
 The trail of the animal was away from 
 the river and toward a sandstone cliff. Sin- 
 opah followed it through the timber. At one 
 place the animal had stood on its hind feet 
 and clawed the trunk of a cottonwood tree, 
 scattering many small pieces of the bark 
 
 130 
 
Tracking a Mountain Lion 
 
 around on the snow. A little farther on, it 
 had stood looking and listening for some- 
 thing, for here the snow was all packed 
 smooth by its big feet. Still farther on, it had 
 sat down in the snow, and had left the im- 
 print of a long tail. By that Sinopah knew 
 that this was not the trail of a bear, for bears' 
 tails are no longer than a boy's hand. 
 
 " It is n't a wolf either," he thought, "for 
 wolves have very bushy tails. The mark of 
 this one in the snow looks as if it has very 
 short hair. Why, it may be that I am follow- 
 ing an otter." 
 
 Thinking that, he hurried forward on the 
 trail and soon came near the sandstone cliff. 
 Here there was not so much timber. The 
 ground sloped sharply up to the foot of the 
 cliff, and on it were scattered a number of 
 large and small rocks. He could see the trail 
 winding around among the rocks, and said to 
 himself again, ** It must be an otter's trail." 
 
 He did not stop to think that the tracks 
 were ten times too large to have been made 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 by an otter. Nor did he know that an otter, 
 when traveling through snow, does not walk : 
 it lays its front feet back against its breast 
 and pushes itself along with its hind feet, 
 making a smooth trough in the snow with 
 two dots in it at intervals, like this : — 
 
 Sinopah now began climbing the slope, 
 and soon came to the very foot of the cliff. 
 Right in front of him the trail ended at the 
 mouth of a narrow low hole in the rock. 
 He walked right up to it and tried to see in, 
 to see the animal, but a few feet back there 
 was nothing but the darkness of night. Then 
 on the floor of the cave he saw some bones; 
 big leg-bones and rib and backbones that 
 looked like those of buffalo and deer, and he 
 suddenly became scared. It was enough to 
 scare any boy, that black cave, the freshly 
 gnawed bones with shreds of red meat still 
 hanging to them. He suddenly gave a little 
 squeal of fright and ran back down the slope 
 
 132 
 
Tracking a Mountain Lion 
 
 and toward the bullberry patch as fast as he 
 could go. 
 
 No one was there to meet him and he ran 
 on and on toward camp, soon meeting his 
 mother and old Red Crane and Lone Bull 
 and Otaki and their mother. As quickly as he 
 could, he told the old man about the trail of 
 the animal and the cave and gnawed bones. 
 
 " Ah ha ! And you saw gnawed bones in 
 the cave ! '' Red Crane exclaimed. " And the 
 tracks leading to the place were big and 
 round ? Well, my young hunter, it was not 
 an otter you were following, it was a lynx ; 
 perhaps even a mountain lion." 
 
 " Kyai-yo ! '* the women cried out. " To 
 think that he followed a sometimes killer of 
 children ! " 
 
 And his mother snatched him up in her 
 arms and said that he should not go any- 
 where alone again for a long time. 
 
 " Huh ! the boys must learn,'' said Red 
 Crane ; " and anyhow no harm has been 
 done. Now, son, you go tell your father to 
 
 ^33 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 come with his guns and the dogs, and be 
 sure to tell no one else ; we want all the ber- 
 ries and the animal in the cave for ourselves.'* 
 
 White Wolf was at home in the lodge. 
 When Sinopah told him what was wanted 
 he snatched up his rifle, called the big dogs, 
 and set out so fast on the trail that the boy- 
 had to run to keep up with him. They soon 
 overtook the others, and in a few minutes all 
 were looking at the trail in the snow, while 
 the dogs sniffed at it and growled, their hair 
 bristling straight up on their backs. 
 
 " It is the trail of a mountain lion," said 
 White Wolf 
 
 "It is," Red Crane echoed, "and a very 
 large one, too." 
 
 White Wolf started to follow the trail and 
 made the dogs keep behind him. After them 
 came old Red Crane, and then the women 
 and children. They all soon arrived at the 
 foot of the slope leading up to the cave, and 
 then White Wolf told them to stand where 
 they were while he went on with the dogs. 
 
 134 
 
Tracking a Mountain Lion 
 
 When quite near the foot of the cliff, he 
 told the dogs to go on, and they rushed ahead 
 on the fresh trail all in a bunch and barking 
 eagerly. But the moment they arrived at the 
 mouth of the cave, and looking in smelled 
 the animal there, all at once they dropped 
 their tails between their legs and backed 
 away with hoarse growls. They were not 
 hunting-dogs like our hounds. All they were 
 good for was to guard camp, and, before the 
 time of the horse, to carry burdens. White 
 Wolf scolded them, but could not make them 
 go into the cave. They just whined and 
 shivered, and looked at him with pleading 
 eyes. 
 
 Seeing that they would not go in, White 
 Wolf at last cocked his rifle and walked 
 slowly to the entrance to the cave, then 
 stooped down and looked in. At first he 
 could see nothing ; but he kept looking and 
 looking, and after a time saw two greenish, 
 shining spots away back in the darkness, that 
 he knew was the light of the animal's eyes. 
 
 ^3S 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 Then he raised his rifle and fired it after a 
 long and careful aim. 
 
 Boom! went the gun, and the powder- 
 smoke for a moment hid the cave from the 
 view of those watching at the foot of the 
 slope. When White Wolf fired his rifle he 
 at once sprang off to the left of the cave, and 
 none too soon. Out of it and through the 
 smoke came a yowling, tawny mountain lion 
 that rolled and twisted around on the snow 
 while blood streamed from a bujlet-hole in 
 its neck. The dogs now turned brave and 
 closed in on it, only to be bitten and clawed 
 by the furious big cat, and knocked off in 
 all directions by its big front paws. Several 
 of them never stopped running until they 
 reached camp. 
 
 Sinopah and the other children, as well as 
 the women and the old man, stood watch- 
 ing all this from the foot of the slope, all of 
 them so excited that they never spoke a 
 word. They saw White Wolf hurriedly re- 
 loading his rifle, and were fearing that, after 
 
 136 
 
Tracking a Mountain Lion 
 
 all, the wounded animal would get up and 
 run before he could shoot it again. But no ; 
 with one last weak kick it suddenly lay still 
 in the snow, and then they all ran up the 
 slope to look at it. Sinopah took hold of the 
 forelegs and tried to lift it, but he could n't; 
 the animal was far bigger and heavier than 
 he. 
 
 "Ha ! It is a she deer-killer,'' said White 
 Wolf; **and by the looks of her there must 
 be some young ones back there in the cave. 
 Here, father, hold my gun while I go in 
 there." 
 
 He was not gone long, and returned with 
 a wee little mountain lion in his arms. It 
 was no larger than a house cat, and its light- 
 colored, fuzzy fur had faint dark spots. It 
 was so young that it did not know enough 
 to be afraid of man, and when White Wolf 
 stroked it and rubbed its head, it purred just 
 as our house cats do, only much louder than 
 they. 
 
 " Oh ! Oh ! Give it to me, father," Sino- 
 
 137 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 pah cried, and soon had it wrapped in a 
 corner of his robe, where it kept right on 
 purring. 
 
 While White Wolf and old Red Crane were 
 skinning the big cat, the women and child- 
 ren went back to the berry patch, where they 
 soon gathered nearly all of the fruit on the 
 trees, and then they went home to their 
 lodges, where they spread the berries on clean 
 rawhides to dry. A part of the fruit was given 
 to Otaki to dry in the little play lodge. 
 
 That evening, as Sinopah sat beside his 
 grandfather with the mountain lion kitten in 
 his arms, he asked why service-berry bushes 
 had so many sharp thorns. 
 
 ** Old Man made them grow there," his 
 grandfather replied. '* Listen. It was this 
 way: Old Man made the world, and all the 
 animals and trees, and everything on it. But 
 if he was a world-maker, he often was very 
 foolish and forgetful. 
 
 " One day Old Man was walking on the 
 edge of a cutbank beside the river, and hap- 
 
 138 
 
Tracking a Mountain Lion 
 
 pening to look down he saw clusters of 
 beautiful red berries in the water. He was 
 very hungry, so off came his clothes and off 
 he dived from the bank to get some of the 
 fruit. But although he swam and dived a long 
 time he could see no more of the berries, so 
 he climbed up the bank and lay down. Look- 
 ing at the water again, there were the ber- 
 ries in it, just where he had seen them before, 
 and off he dived again after them, and could 
 not find them when he got into the water. 
 
 "And so he kept climbing out on the 
 bank, and diving again after the berries, 
 until he became so weak that the last time 
 he nearly drowned. It was all he could do 
 to get back on the bank, and there, happen- 
 ing to look up, he saw that the little tree over 
 his head was full of berries. At that he tossed 
 a stick at the branches, and saw that when 
 they moved, the branches and the berries in 
 the water also moved. Then all at once he 
 saw that he had nearly died diving after the 
 shadow of the berries, and that made him 
 
 139 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 very angry. As soon as he could he got up 
 and beat the tree with a club, and made 
 thorns grow thickly on its branches : * There ! 
 after this all your kind shall have thorns/ he 
 said, * and those who want your fruit in plenty 
 must beat it off with clubs/ 
 
 " So it is to-day, when our women gather 
 quantities of the berries for winter use, they 
 have to club it from the branches in order to 
 save their hands/' 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 SINOPAH JOINS THE MOSQUITO SOCIETY 
 
 ON a summer day several years after 
 the people wintered on the Two 
 Medicine, old Red Crane and White 
 Wolf sat on the shady side of their lodge 
 smoking a big pipe turn-about, and idly 
 watching a crowd of children playing tag. 
 Swiftest of them all was Sinopah, although 
 some of the other boys were older and taller 
 than he. White Wolf laid down the smoked- 
 out pipe and smiled happily as he softly 
 rubbed his small, firm hands together. In- 
 dians, you know, especially those of the 
 plains, were noted for their small and beau- 
 tifully shaped hands and feet. 
 
 " Well, my son," said Red Crane, " why 
 your smiles — what is it that makes your 
 heart glad ? '' 
 
 " That is it," White Wolf replied, point- 
 141 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 ing at Sinopah, who was far in the lead of 
 the boys and girls who chased him. " I tell 
 you this, father/' he added, " there is in this 
 child of ours the making of a great chief. 
 Some day, if we live, we are going to be 
 very proud of him." 
 
 "Ai! Ai! That is so. You never spoke 
 truer words," old Red Crane agreed. " How 
 good he is, and how fearless ! And how popu- 
 lar also ! Children from all parts of the camp 
 are ever coming to ask him to play with 
 them." 
 
 " That is the great point in the making 
 of a chief," said White Wolf. " No matter 
 how brave a man is, no matter how success- 
 ful in war, if his people do not love him, he 
 can never become a leader." 
 
 " Huh ! As if I did n't know that ! " Red 
 Crane exclaimed. " Why, son, that is what 
 I was always teaching you in your young 
 days ; because of your goodness, of your 
 kindness to the poor, to the widows and 
 orphans, you are chief to-day." 
 
 142 
 
Sinopah joins the Mosquito Society 
 
 White Wolf made a gesture of assent. 
 " Well/' he said, " it is time that we take 
 Sinopah in hand for his training. As a be- 
 ginning, let us have him join the Su-is-ksis- 
 iks at their next meeting/' 
 
 Here, now, I have something to explain 
 that is very interesting, and that is that nearly 
 all Indian tribes of the country had a num- 
 ber of societies, some of them so secret that 
 only a very few of the most prominent men 
 ever learned their mysteries. The tribe that 
 had, and still has, the most fraternities, or 
 secret societies, is the Hopi, or so-called 
 Moqui tribe of northern Arizona. There are 
 several hundred secret orders in this tribe, 
 the greatest of them being the Snake and the 
 Flute societies. It is the Snake order that 
 gives every two years the great snake dance, 
 in which, after many secret rites and prayers 
 in their kiva, or sacred house, the members 
 perform a public dance, during which they 
 carry live and deadly rattlesnakes dangling 
 from their mouths. 
 
 H3 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 All these societies in all the tribes are for 
 a purpose. The Hopi, or " People of Peace/* 
 as they call themselves, live in a desert coun- 
 try, and depend upon their little plantings 
 of corn, beans, and squash for their food. 
 They are not, and never v^ere, hunters and 
 warriors. Now, the most important thing in 
 all the world for the Hopi is rain ; rain to 
 make their gardens yield a plenty of food. 
 So it is that the object of all their secret so- 
 cieties is to bring the rain. All the secret 
 rites in the kivas, all the dances, have that 
 end in view. 
 
 See, now, how different were the Black- 
 feet. They were hunters, and wanderers over 
 a great country extending south from the 
 Saskatchewan to the Yellowstone River, a 
 distance of seven hundred miles, and from 
 the Rocky Mountains eastward for several 
 hundred miles. That was their country, their 
 hunting-ground, and on it swarmed thousands 
 and thousands of buffalo, elk, deer, antelope, 
 and many other kinds of game. Along the 
 
 144 
 
Sinopah joins the Mosquito Society 
 
 borders of this great stretch of country were 
 many tribes always trying to enter it and kill 
 the game, and to save themselves the Black- 
 feet were obliged to make war on them and 
 keep them out of the country. So it was that 
 the fraternities or societies of the Blackfeet 
 were societies of warriors and for the making 
 of warriors. The least of these was the so- 
 ciety of the Su-is-ksis-iks, or Mosquitoes, 
 which White Wolf mentioned. 
 
 The Mosquito Society was composed en- 
 tirely of young boys, but at the head of it were 
 two or three old men who were their teachers, 
 as they may be called. It was the duty of 
 these old men to give talks to the boys on 
 the right way to live, to instruct them in the 
 ways of war, to pray for their long life and 
 success, to teach them certain dances, and 
 above all to make them honor and obey the 
 teachings of the gods, especially the Sun. 
 
 Evening came. Tired and hungry, Sino- 
 pah entered the lodge and sat by his father's 
 side. His mother set before him a long, heavy 
 
 145 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 rib of boiled buffalo meat, a dish of service 
 berries, a bowl of soup, and he ate a big 
 meal. Pausing once between mouthfuls, he 
 said : ** We played tag and none caught me. 
 We went into the river and I was the leader 
 in the race when we swam to the far shore 
 and back.'' 
 
 White Wolf and Red Crane looked at 
 each other and smiled, and the old grand- 
 father said to himself: " Ai! Ai ! The time 
 has come." 
 
 The meal was soon over, and then White 
 Wolf said to the boy : " My son, your days 
 of tag-playing are about over. Your grand- 
 father and I have made up our minds that 
 you are big enough now to become a Su-is- 
 ksis-ik. He will take you to the next meet- 
 ing of the society." 
 
 " Oh, that will be good,'' Sinopah cried. 
 "I am to become a member of a warrior 
 band. How long will it be before I can join 
 a higher one ? I would like to be an Ai-in- 
 i-ki-quan." 
 
 146 
 
Sinopah joins the Mosquito Society 
 
 " Oh, that time is yet some winters ahead/' 
 his father answered. " You have to go to 
 war before joining that order, you know/' 
 
 The Ai-in-i-ki-kwaks, or Seizers, were 
 the police of the great camp. It was their 
 duty to guard it in time of danger and to 
 carry out the orders of the chiefs. For in- 
 stance, at times when there were great herds 
 of buffalo near camp, the chiefs would order 
 that no one should go out by himself to hunt 
 and so scatter the animals and make it hard 
 for all the hunters to get a plenty of meat 
 and hides. Certain days were set when all 
 the men would go together and make a big 
 hunt. If any one broke that rule, the chiefs 
 would order the Seizers to punish him, and 
 punished he was. Sometimes the man was 
 whipped and his weapons smashed; or, worse, 
 he might not only be whipped, but his lodge 
 and property would be torn to pieces and 
 some of his horses killed. 
 
 Besides the Mosquitoes and Seizers, there 
 were a number of other orders, the Buffalo 
 
 147 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 Bulls, They Who Carry the Raven, the Dogs, 
 all parts of the great society of the tribe, which 
 was called I-kun-uh-ka-tse, All Friends. 
 
 On the morning following the talk of 
 White Wolf and Red Crane, preparations 
 were begun for Sinopah's entrance into the 
 Mosquito Society. First of all, Red Crane 
 changed the manner of dressing the boy*s 
 hair. It had been daily combed and plaited 
 into four long braids, two of them falling 
 just behind, and two just in front of the ears. 
 To these was now added a fifth braid, a 
 slender one drooping beside the one just in 
 front of the right ear, and the end of it was 
 wrapped with a narrow strip of otter fur, 
 believed to be the favorite fur of the Sun. 
 This fifth braid was the scalp-lock. Were 
 Sinopah to be killed in battle the enemy 
 would take it as a trophy of the fight. 
 
 Right after the morning meal the boy*s 
 mother had begun to make a pair of mocca- 
 sins for him, and she kept at the work for 
 some days. The tops or uppers of them were 
 
 148 
 
Sinopah joins the Mosquito Society 
 
 solidly embroidered with brightly colored 
 porcupine quills, each small quill tightly 
 fastened in place with many stitches of very 
 fine sinew thread. 
 
 In the mean time, old Red Crane fumbled 
 around in his several pouches and finally 
 found four beautifully tanned, snow-white 
 antelope skins. " These your grandmother 
 tanned the summer before she died,'' he told 
 Sinopah. " I have been saving them for you. 
 They are for your first war-suit. Watch, now, 
 how I cut them, for after this you will have 
 to make your own clothes." 
 
 The old man then spread a skin out flat 
 on his couch and cut it into an oblong square 
 after measuring one of the boy's legs. A few 
 stitches then made of the material a wide- 
 flapped legging. Next, the flaps were fringed 
 by slitting them every quarter of an inch 
 along their length, and then ornamented with 
 tufts of red-dyed horsehair and parts of scalps 
 that the old man had himself taken in battle. 
 The other legging was made in the same way. 
 
 149 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 The other two skins were fashioned into 
 a loose, big-necked, fringe-seamed shirt 
 that reached nearly to the knees. Snow-white 
 weasel skins with black tail tips were hung 
 all around the neck and down the length 
 of the sleeves, along with more red horse- 
 hair and scalp-locks ; and lastly, Red Crane 
 painted several blue and yellow things, that 
 looked like small lizards, on the back and 
 front of the garment. Sinopah asked what 
 animal they represented. 
 
 "That I cannot tell you,'* the old man an- 
 swered. " It is my medicine ; my secret 
 helper that came to me in my fasting dream. 
 Yes, in that fast, when my spirit wandered 
 far, I found this little water animal, and it 
 promised always to help me when I prayed 
 to it. It has helped me. It has saved my life 
 in many a dangerous place, so I put the mark 
 of it on here and will pray to it, to help you 
 until you get a medicine, a secret helper, for 
 yourself.'* 
 
 "And when shall I get it ?** Sinopah asked. 
 150 
 
Sinopah joins the Mosquito Society 
 
 "Let me see; let me see," Red Crane 
 mused. " You are now of age twelve win- 
 ters. Three winters after this will be your 
 time to fast. You will go alone to some 
 sheltered place away from camp. You will 
 lie there without food. You will pray con- 
 tinually to the Sun ; to the Moon ; the Stars ; 
 to all the world animals. Maybe you will 
 lie there four — five — or even seven days, 
 eating nothing, drinking nothing except the 
 water that your mother will take you every 
 day. And you will sleep ; you will dream. 
 In your dream, when your shadow, your spirit 
 goes forth on adventure, then you will find 
 your secret helper. I shall pray that it be, 
 that which you find, very strong medicine." 
 
 " It will be strong medicine ! " Sinopah 
 declared. " Grandfather, I have the feeling 
 in here, right here in my heart, that in that 
 fasting time I shall find a very powerful 
 secret helper." 
 
 The meeting of the Mosquito Society was 
 still some days off, but there was no more 
 
 151 
 
Sinopahy the Indian Boy 
 
 than time for Sinopah to get ready for it. 
 The skin of the otter that Red Crane had 
 captured under the river ice was fashioned 
 into a combined bow-case and arrow-quiver, 
 and ornamented with bands of fine porcu- 
 pine embroidery. A new bow and new ar- 
 rows were made by Red Crane and White 
 Wolf to put into it. The bow was longer 
 and more powerful than any that the boy 
 had yet handled, but he was a big-muscled 
 boy and could easily bend it. The arrows 
 were real war-arrows ; of thin, straight shafts, 
 firm feathering, and small, sharp, barbed 
 points that would pierce far into any living 
 thing and could not be pulled out ; also, a 
 new beaded belt was made, this to hold the 
 knife-sheath and support the breech-clout 
 that covered the loins. 
 
 Then came at last one of the great days 
 in the life of Sinopah. Dressed all in his new 
 war-clothes, with otter-skin bow-case slung 
 on his back, he went with his grandfather 
 to the meeting of the Mosquitoes. It was 
 
 152 
 
Sinopah joins the Mosquito Society 
 
 held in a very large lodge of one of the 
 chiefs. Many boys were there, sitting close 
 together on the couches, but none of them 
 had as fine clothes or were themselves as 
 handsome as was he. But they were all his 
 friends. When he entered they cried out : 
 " Oh, here is Sinopah. Welcome, brother, 
 welcome.'' 
 
 Red Crane went to the back of the lodge 
 and sat with two old men. They talked to- 
 gether for a few minutes, and then one of 
 them, first calling out for silence, made a 
 long prayer. He begged the Sun, and all the 
 gods of the sky, the earth, and the waters, 
 to give them all long life and happiness, and 
 always a plenty of game for food. At the 
 end of the prayer all the boys cried out, 
 " Yes, all you great gods, have pity on us ; 
 have pity on us." 
 
 Next the old men took up their drums 
 and beat them in time to a war-song they 
 sung. The boys all arose then and danced 
 around and around the fireplace, old Red 
 
 ^53 
 
Sinopah, the Indian Boy 
 
 Crane often stopping them to show one of the 
 dancers his mistakes. Then after the dance 
 they rested, and one of the old men gave 
 them a talk on kindness of heart. During 
 another rest, old Red Crane spoke about 
 bravery, saying, among other things, that for 
 the good of the tribe one must be ever ready 
 to give his life. 
 
 And so, in dancing, in listening to talks 
 by the old men, the day passed, and toward 
 sundown, very tired and happy, Sinopah 
 went home to rest. All the evening he was 
 very quiet, and was first of all the family to 
 go to bed. Early the next morning a little 
 girl stuck her head in through the doorway 
 of the lodge and called out : " Oh, Sinopah, 
 get up and come with us. We go to the 
 river to play.** 
 
 The boy raised himself up and looked at 
 her. " No, little sister," he answered ; " I shall 
 go no more to the river to play with you. I 
 am now a Mosquito. I have now to learn 
 how to be a man.*' 
 
Sinopah joins the Mosquito Society 
 
 So it was. In one short day, young as he 
 was, Sinopah passed out of his childhood days 
 into those of his youth, the beginning of the 
 life of one of the greatest of Indian chiefs. 
 On that day he for the first time went with 
 his father to hunt, and returned in the evening 
 with meat of his own killing tied to the 
 saddle. With his new bow and on a swift 
 horse, he had joined in a buffalo run and 
 killed a young bull. 
 
 THE END 
 
CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
 U . S . A 
 
BOOKS of ADVENTURE for BOYS 
 
 TWO BOYS IN A GYROCAR 
 
 By K. Kenneth-Brown. An exciting story of how two boys win 
 a New York to Paris motor race in a car of their own invention. Il- 
 lustrated. $1.20 net. Postpaid ^1.31. 
 
 THE CHAMPION OF THE REGIMENT 
 
 By Everett T. Tomlinson. The thrilling experiences and ad- 
 ventures at the Siege of Yorktown of Noah Dare. Illustrated. $1.50. 
 
 A LINCOLN CONSCRIPT 
 
 By Homer Greene. A stirring story of a Pennsylvania boy dur- 
 ing the Civil War and of the result of the meeting between his father 
 and President Lincoln. Illustrated. $1.50. 
 
 HARDING OF ST. TIMOTHY'S 
 
 By Arthur S. Pier. A clean, wholesome, interesting schoolboy 
 story. Illustrated. $1.50. 
 
 TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST 
 
 By Richard H. Dana, Jr. " More fascinating than many a story 
 of Wholly fictitious adventure." — Springfield Republican. Fully illus- 
 trated. ^1.50 «^/. Postpaid $1.65. 
 
 THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH BOY 
 
 By John Trowbridge. A thoroughly up-to-date story dealing 
 with the escape of a young revolutionist from Russia. With frontis- 
 piece. $1.25. 
 
 WELLS BROTHERS 
 
 By Andy Adams. Exciting experiences in cow-punching and cattle- 
 raising, told for boys. Illustrated. $1.20;/^^. Postpaid $1.31. 
 
 THE YOUNG ICE WHALERS 
 
 By WiNTHROP Packard. The story of two lads who are lost for 
 two years in the Arctic ice pack and have many adventures. Illus- 
 trated. $1.20 net. Postpaid $1.35. 
 
 ROBINSON CRUSOE 
 
 By Daniel Defoe. A beautiful illustrated edition of this classic. 
 $\.^0 7iet. Postpaid $1.68. 
 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
LOST FARM CAMP 
 
 By Harry Herbert Knibbs 
 
 "An exhilarating story of the Maine woods." 
 
 — Cleveland Plain Dealer. 
 
 " A real human story, of flesh and blood people. . . . 
 A story of the open, fresh and wholesome, with a clean 
 sweetness in its fiber like the spring fragrance of bal- 
 sam boughs." — Milwaukee Free Press. 
 
 "It is evident on every page that he knows and loves 
 the country, its people, and, more than all, its woods 
 and their inhabitants. . . . It is a breezy, wholesome 
 novel, full of the feeling of the pine woods." 
 
 — N. Y. Times. 
 
 "A wholesome, out-of-doors spirit pervades the 
 book, which is truly delightful." — Living Age. 
 
 " A clean, true story . . . deserves all the popular- 
 ity it will surely win." — The BellntaUy Minneapolis. 
 
 " Has a fine tang of the forest." — N. Y. World. 
 
 Illustrated by Harold James Cue. 
 
 1 2 mo. $1.25 net. Postage 12 cents 
 
 HOUGHTON 
 
 MIFFLIN 
 COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 AND 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 B^ 
 
 i^.1i 
 

 "^^<^^' 
 
 .5^^#^ ^^\ 
 
 y ^^ ^^^%^^ V^ '^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 <J.^ 
 
 ^-n. 
 
 ■y'^^ 
 
 
 
 * ^^^^ 
 
 Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process \P 
 Neutralizing Agent: Magnesium Oxide " 
 Treatment Date: 
 
 DEC 897 
 BBKKEEPER 
 
 PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGIES, L.P. 
 1 1 1 Tjjomson Park Drive 
 Cranberry Twp.. PA 16066 
 
D0B8S BROS. 
 
 LIBRARY BINDING 
 
 ST. AUGUSTINE 
 

 
 01 1 270 284 2