 is failing!«
    The chief regarded him a moment with a severe look as if he would lay bare
the falsehood he had heard, but meeting in the calm eye and steady mien of the
trapper a confirmation of the truth of what he said, he took the hand of the old
man and laid it gently on his head, in token of the respect that was due to the
other's years and experience.
    »Why then do the Big-knives tell their red brethren to bury the tomahawk,«
he said, »when their own young men never forget that they are braves, and meet
each other so often with bloody hands.«
    »My nation is more numerous than the buffaloes on the Prairies or the
pigeons in the air. Their quarrels are frequent, yet their warriors are few.
None go out on the war path, but they who are gifted with the qualities of a
brave, and therefore such see many battles.«
    »It is not so - my Father is mistaken;« returned Mahtoree, indulging in a
smile of exulting penetration, at the very instant he corrected the force of his
denial, in deference to the years and services of one so aged. »The Big-knives
are very wise; and they are men; all of them would be warriors. They would leave
the red skins to dig roots and hoe the corn. But a Dahcotah is not born to live
like a woman; he must strike the Pawnee and the Omawhaw, or he will lose the
name of his Fathers.«
    »The Master of Life looks with an open eye on his children who die in a
battle that is fought for the right; but he is blind, and his ears are shut to
the cries of an Indian who is killed when plundering, or doing evil to his
neighbor.«
    »My father is old,« said Mahtoree looking at his aged companion, with an
expression of irony that sufficiently denoted he was one of those who overstep
the trammels of education, and who are perhaps a little given to abuse the
mental liberty they thus obtain. »He is very old: Has he made a journey to the
far country, and has he been at the trouble to come back to tell the young men
what he has seen?«
    »Teton,« returned the trapper, throwing the breech of his rifle to the earth
with startling vehemence, and regarding his companion with steady severity. »I
have heard that there are men among my people who study their great medecines
until they believe themselves to be Gods, and who laugh at all faith
