The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1878-06-13

it was received with evident satisfaction.
Late in the evening when my cook brought
the delicious little birds, beautifully spit
ted, OH peeled willow twigs, into my tent,
and passed one to Uncle John" in his
turn, he refused. Said he, Boys, don't
eat no quail.
All the rest Of US were completely sur
prised, for -Uucle John" was considerable
Of a gourmand and prided himself upon
able to eat anything, from piece Of jerk
ed buffalo hide to the juiciest young ante
lope steak.
said: Uncle John, these birds are
magnificently brOiled; you are making a
mistake, old man; tomorrow We must
leave here, and as We are going straight
away from the buffalo country, we don't
know when we shall strike fresh meat
again. You had better try one."
Boys" said he, Il don't tech quail;
haint tsched one for more nor twenty
years. One OF the little cusses saved nv
life once, and swOre right thar and then
that would starve fust, and I've kept that
oath, though I've seen the time / could
killed 'em with my quirt. when all had to
chaw on for four days was the soles Of q
greasy old moccasin."
Of course our whole party was eager to
know how the life Of the old trapper had
been saved by little bird, and In q few
moments every man in camp gathered
around the dying embers OF the cocks fire
to listen to Uncle Johns" story. filed
up the old mans pipe with some Of my
best Lone Jack, lighted it, took a pull,
Indian fashion, and passed 1t to him, He
loved good tobacco, and was always more
communicative when seated around the
camp fire, half hidden in a cloud Of smoke.
One Of the men threw a chunk Of dry cot
tOnwoOd on the Goals, and as the flames be-
gan to lick up the shaggy bark, casting a
pleasant simmer on the old guides face,
he took vigorous pull at his pipe and
commenced.
We'll, boys, it's good many years ago
in June, il don't disremember-ls47.
We was a coming in from way up in
Cache lie POudre, and from Yellowstone
Lake, whar we'd been a trapping for two
seasons. We was a working our way
slowly back to Independence, Missouri,
where we was going to get new outfit.
Let's see-there was me, and man by the
name Of Boyd, and Lew Thorp-Lew was
a working for Colonel Boone at the time
and two more men whose names / dis
remember now, and a Niger wench we
had for cook We'd had mighty good
luck, and had big pile Of skins; and the
Indians never troubled us till We got down
on Pawnee Bottom, this side Of Pawnee
Rock. We all Of us had mighty good
ponies, but Thorp had team and wagon,
which he was driving for Colonel Boone.
We had went into camp on Pawnee Bot
tom airly in the afternoon, and told the
boys to look out for Indians,-fOr IknOwed
ef we was to have any trouble with them
it would be somewhere In that vicinity.
But we didn't see darned redskin that
night, nor the sign Of one. The wolves
howled considerable. and cum pretty close
to the fire after the bacon rinds we'd
throwed away after supper. You see the
buffalo was scurse right thar then-it was
the wrong time Oyear. They generally
don't get down onto the Arkansaw till
about September, and when there scurse,
the wolves and coyotes are migty sassy,
and will steal a piece Of bacon rind right
out of the pan, il you don't watch 'em.
So we picketed our ponies little closer be-
fore We turned in, and we all went to sleep
except one, who sort O'kept watch on the
stock. was out O. my blankets mighty
aIily next morning, for l was kind o sus-
picious. / could always tell when Indians
was prowling around, and had a sort OF
present'ment something was going to hap
pen-I didn't like the way the coyotes
kept yelling-sO / rested kind o Uneasy
like, and was out among the ponies by the
first streak q daylight. About the time /
could fairly see things, I discovered three
or four buffalo grazing off on the creek
bottom, about half mile away, and l
started for my rifle, thinking l would ex-
anime her, and after we'd had breakfast
go out and blow one Of the critters in.
Pretty soon seed Thorp and Boyd crawl
out O. their blankets, too, and / called
their attention to the buffalo, which was
still feeding undisturbed. We'd been kind
o. scurse OF fresh meat for a couple OF
weekS-ever since we left the Platte, ex-
cept jack rabbit or cottOntail, and /
knOwed the boys would be wanting to get
a quarter or two OF good fat cow, IL we
could find one in the herd, SO that was the
reason pointed EN- out to 'em. The dew
you see-was mighty heavy, and the
grass i'm the bottom was as wet as IL it had
been raining for month, and l didn't care
to go down whar the buffalo was just then
i knowed we had plenty OF time ard as
soon as the sun was up it would dry right
Off So / got onto one OF the ponies and
led the others down to the spring near
camp to water them while the wench was
a getting breakfast, and some o the rest
o. the outfit was fixing the saddles and
greasing the wagon. Just rs l was COM
ing back-it had growed quite light then
1 seed Boyd and Thorp start out from
camp with their rifles and make for the
buffalo, so picketed the ponies, gets my
rife and starts off too. By the time I'd
reached the edge Of the bottom, Thorp
and Boyd was a crawling up onto young
bull way of to the right. and / Lit out for
a fat COW l seen punched up with the rest
of the herd on the left. The grass was
mighty tall on some parts OF the Arkansas
bottom in them DAYS and got within easy
shooting range without the herd seeing
me- The buffalo was now between me
and Thorp and Boyd, and they was further
from camp 1 could see them over the
top of the grass kind o. edging up TO the
bull. and / kept crawling on my hands
and knees towards the COW, and when /
got about hundred and fifty wards Of her
I pulled up my rife and drawed a bead:
jus: rs I was running my eye along the
bar'l darned little quail few right out
from under my feet and Lit exactly on my
front sight. and Of course cut Oh my aim
we didn't shoot reckless in those days:
every shot had To tell or man was the
laughing stock for month II he missed
his game. So / shook the little critter on
and brought up nv rife again. when darn
my skin II the burned bird didn't lite right
onto the same place; at the same time my
eyes crowd kind o hazy like and minute
l didn't know nothing, when came to the
quail was gone, heerd a couple Of rife
shots. and right in front OF where the bull
had stood and close to Thorp and Boyd.
half dozen Indians jumped up out o. the
tut apj firing inf, sh.s man kiIlaS
Thorp instantly and wounded Boyd. He
and me got 10 campaigning on the Indi-
ans who knowed / was loaded-when We
with the rest Of the outfit drove the ned
devils away. They was Apaches, and the
fellow that shot Thorp was half breed
Niger and Apache. He scalped Thorp
and carried of the rkole upDsr parf of