Old settler stories . toff into the forest, at night, alone. Hisfather and brothers, however, thought himwell able to take care of himself. So, in themoonlight, he started off in the direction ofOld Town Timber, which lay some milesfrom Crow Creek. He was unable to find anything, thoughevery now and then he heard cracklings in thebushes, and the soft scamper of some wild-wood thing. The hoot owls called down bythe river, and the screech owls near himmade him long, now and then, for his rudebed at home. A screech owl in the thicktimber at night is not a pleasant companion. Finally the boy crept
Old settler stories . toff into the forest, at night, alone. Hisfather and brothers, however, thought himwell able to take care of himself. So, in themoonlight, he started off in the direction ofOld Town Timber, which lay some milesfrom Crow Creek. He was unable to find anything, thoughevery now and then he heard cracklings in thebushes, and the soft scamper of some wild-wood thing. The hoot owls called down bythe river, and the screech owls near himmade him long, now and then, for his rudebed at home. A screech owl in the thicktimber at night is not a pleasant companion. Finally the boy crept into a hollow log andslept the rest of the night. In the morning, as he was rounding a thickclump of timber, he came unawares upon aKickapoo great . dance. The Kickapoos at MATTHEWS FIRST BUCK 23 that time were supposed to be friendly to thewhites, but Matthew felt nothing but terrorat finding himself in their midst. I wont dare slip off right away, hethought as he stood on the edge of the crowd,watching the Indians in Groups of Two Were Dancing. It was a strange sight. On the grassysward eight Indians, in groups of two, weredancing around flat-footed, with tinklingbells on their ankles. The chief, Old Ma-china, to keep time to the dancers, was shak- 24 OLD SETTLER STORIES ing gourds with little pebbles in them. Therewas one other musical instrument. This wasa ten-gallon keg, with a deerskin drawntightly over one end. It was carried on theback of a half-grown papoose and a paintedbrave beat upon it with a stick. Matthew continued to lurk in the circle ofadmiring squaws gathered about the dancers,and though he still thirsted to kill his buck,he could not help being interested in thequeer proceedings. The dancers bodies were all painted black,but over their breasts, in w^hite paint, a pairof hands and arms crossed. Outside the im-mediate circle of dancers stood a lithe youngIndian who held up a stick in the shape of agun. This, the boy afterward learned, wassupposed to
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectfrontierandpioneerli
