"I reckon you're traders," surmised a fourth; and to crown the whole, one of them came confidentially to my side and inquired in a low voice, "What's your partner's name?"As each newcomer repeated the same questions, the nuisance became intolerable.Our military visitors were soon disgusted at the concise nature of our replies, and we could overhear them muttering curses against us.While we sat smoking, not in the best imaginable humor, Tete Rouge's tongue was never idle.He never forgot his military character, and during the whole interview he was incessantly busy among his fellow-soldiers.At length we placed him on the ground before us, and told him that he might play the part of spokesman for the whole.Tete Rouge was delighted, and we soon had the satisfaction of seeing him talk and gabble at such a rate that the torrent of questions was in a great measure diverted from us.Alittle while after, to our amazement, we saw a large cannon with four horses come lumbering up behind the crowd; and the driver, who was perched on one of the animals, stretching his neck so as to look over the rest of the men, called out:
"Whar are you from, and what's your business?"The captain of one of the companies was among our visitors, drawn by the same curiosity that had attracted his men.Unless their faces belied them, not a few in the crowd might with great advantage have changed places with their commander.
"Well, men," said he, lazily rising from the ground where he had been lounging, "it's getting late, I reckon we had better be moving.""I shan't start yet anyhow," said one fellow, who was lying half asleep with his head resting on his arm.
"Don't be in a hurry, captain," added the lieutenant.
"Well, have it your own way, we'll wait a while longer," replied the obsequious commander.
At length however our visitors went straggling away as they had come, and we, to our great relief, were left alone again.
No one can deny the intrepid bravery of these men, their intelligence and the bold frankness of their character, free from all that is mean and sordid.Yet for the moment the extreme roughness of their manners half inclines one to forget their heroic qualities.Most of them seem without the least perception of delicacy or propriety, though among them individuals may be found in whose manners there is a plain courtesy, while their features bespeak a gallant spirit equal to any enterprise.
No one was more relieved than Delorier by the departure of the volunteers; for dinner was getting colder every moment.He spread a well-whitened buffalo hide upon the grass, placed in the middle the juicy hump of a fat cow, ranged around it the tin plates and cups, and then acquainted us that all was ready.Tete Rouge, with his usual alacrity on such occasions, was the first to take his seat.In his former capacity of steamboat clerk, he had learned to prefix the honorary MISTER to everybody's name, whether of high or low degree;so Jim Gurney was Mr.Gurney, Henry was Mr.Henry, and even Delorier, for the first time in his life, heard himself addressed as Mr.
Delorier.This did not prevent his conceiving a violent enmity against Tete Rouge, who, in his futile though praiseworthy attempts to make himself useful used always to intermeddle with cooking the dinners.Delorier's disposition knew no medium between smiles and sunshine and a downright tornado of wrath; he said nothing to Tete Rouge, but his wrongs rankled in his breast.Tete Rouge had taken his place at dinner; it was his happiest moment; he sat enveloped in the old buffalo coat, sleeves turned up in preparation for the work, and his short legs crossed on the grass before him; he had a cup of coffee by his side and his knife ready in his hand and while he looked upon the fat hump ribs, his eyes dilated with anticipation.
Delorier sat just opposite to him, and the rest of us by this time had taken our seats.
"How is this, Delorier? You haven't given us bread enough."At this Delorier's placid face flew instantly into a paroxysm of contortions.He grinned with wrath, chattered, gesticulated, and hurled forth a volley of incoherent words in broken English at the astonished Tete Rouge.It was just possible to make out that he was accusing him of having stolen and eaten four large cakes which had been laid by for dinner.Tete Rouge, utterly confounded at this sudden attack, stared at Delorier for a moment in dumb amazement, with mouth and eyes wide open.At last he found speech, and protested that the accusation was false; and that he could not conceive how he had offended Mr.Delorier, or provoked him to use such ungentlemanly expressions.The tempest of words raged with such fury that nothing else could be heard.But Tete Rouge, from his greater command of English, had a manifest advantage over Delorier, who after sputtering and grimacing for a while, found his words quite inadequate to the expression of his wrath.He jumped up and vanished, jerking out between his teeth one furious sacre enfant de grace, a Canadian title of honor, made doubly emphatic by being usually applied together with a cut of the whip to refractory mules and horses.
The next morning we saw an old buffalo escorting his cow with two small calves over the prairie.Close behind came four or five large white wolves, sneaking stealthily through the long meadow-grass, and watching for the moment when one of the children should chance to lag behind his parents.The old bull kept well on his guard, and faced about now and then to keep the prowling ruffians at a distance.
