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and ground was rent; the Indians howled, "Big Thunder comes! Big Thunder comes!" Every savage that
could run, made for his wigwam; Blundow had seen enough! When he got back, he called a council, and declared that
Big Thunder was the great Medicine from the white man's land, where the paper talks; that pale face and Great Spirit of pale
face,--both, both--fight poor Osage heep; pale face shoot his gun-lock, gun-stock, gun-barrel, at Osage, till he all gone.
The Great Spirit shoot the rocks, the trees, the ground at poor Osage and run Osage,--Big Thunder coming till Osage no more
heap! They callled off the dogs--they had seen enough! The eighteen that was left at the battle, was put
in a pile and covered up, on their way to the happy hunting ground.
We now, with our brave little crowd, remained in fort nearly two months, until all had become still; the boys went
home, and, left us in possession of the field; peace reigned; honey plenty; bear fat; and 'Clinch,' our old bear dog, in fine
order for the chase.
How different is my situation now!--cramped up in a little town--so crowded that I can hardly scratch my own head for
fear of scratching somebody else's head; ringing and striving for the precious dime, for, in the dime, we live, move, and
have our being. Oh! give me the wilderness-- the pure, grassy wilderness--that I found in Missouri! I don't believe
a man's soul will ever get grown in a little cramped town. The merchant may sell his matches, and the doctor may roll
his pills; but I tell you his little soul will become so shattered that it will never get its growth. That's what ails
me. It has been so long since I have seen a thousand elk in the grand prarie of Missouri, marching in a deep column,--the
gang perhaps a mile long--old buck running upa nd down its line of travel keeping all to their place, wtih their horns laid
back, on a balanced condition; and in one of those marches of elk, you must give way--they won't--if you wish to save your
bacon: its been so long since I have seen one of these sights that used to make me feel that I was a man when I was only a
boy; and since I have taken old 'Clinch' or 'Clady,' and the rest of the dogs and gone out into the hazlenut roughs and killed
an old he' steaked his ribs before the fire, greased my head and shoulders with bear's oil, and, with the foot-steps of a
monarch, I would tread
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