Page:The Oregon Trail by Parkman.djvu/267

Rh New England, whence he had come, he continued to follow his perilous occupation.

On the last day of our stay in this camp, the trappers were ready for departure. When in the Black Hills they had caught seven beavers, and they now left their skins in charge of Reynal, to be kept until their return. Their strong, gaunt horses were equipped with rusty Spanish bits and rude Mexican saddles, to which wooden stirrups were attached, while a buffalo robe was rolled up behind them, and a bundle of beaver-traps slung at the pommel. These, together with their rifles, knives, powder-horns and bullet-pouches, flint and steel and a tin cup, composed their whole traveling equipment. They shook hands with us and rode away; Saraphin with his grim countenance, was in advance; but Rouleau, clambering gayly into his seat, kicked his horse's sides, flourished his whip in the air, and trotted briskly over the prairie, trolling forth a Canadian song at the top of his lungs. Reynal looked after them with his face of brutal selfishness.

"Well," he said, "if they are killed, I shall have the beaver. They'll fetch me fifty dollars at the fort, anyhow."

This was the last I saw of them.

We had been for five days in the hunting camp, and the meat, which all this time had hung drying in the sun, was now fit for transportation. Buffalo hides also had been procured in sufficient quantities for making the next season's lodges; but it remained to provide the long poles on which they were to be supported. These were only to be had among the tall spruce woods of the Black Hills, and in that direction therefore our next move was to be made. Amid the general abundance which during this time had prevailed in the camp there were no instances of individual privation; for although the hide and the tongue of