When the evening meal
had been eaten and the people were sitting out-
side their lodges, a tall old man, almost nude,
appeared in the circle, riding a fine horse.
He had blackened his face, his hair was cut
short, and the horse also had been deprived of
his flowing mane and tail. Both were in deep
mourning, after the fashion of the Sioux.
"Ho ho!" exclaimed many warriors as he
passed them, singing in a hoarse, guttural voice.
"Ugh, he sings a war-song!" remarked one.
"Yes, I am told that he will find his son's
bones, or leave his own in the country of the
enemy!"
The rain had fallen incessantly for two days.
The fleeing lovers had reached this lonely
mountain valley of the Big Horn region on the
night that the cold fall rains set in, and Ante-
lope had hurriedly constructed an arbor house or
rude shelter of pine and cedar boughs.
It was enough. There they sat, man and
wife, in their first home of living green! The
cheerful fire was burning in the center, and the
happy smoke went straight up among the tall
pines.
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