Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1895 — THE MARE WAS RETURNED. [ARTICLE]

THE MARE WAS RETURNED.

Many Brave Feathers Takes a Long Ride. “ Kahmeeschetookeehewnp, will you ride a fine horse once ? ” The Cree chief looked at the handsome black mare the chief factor was leading toward him; then he called one of his braves. “ Bring my painted buffalo-robe and my bow and feathered arrows,” he said. He mounted and rode back some way along the trail which stretched over undulating prairie and on far to the south, where the buffalo fattened numberless on the rich grass. He would ‘ ‘ run ” the mare a 3 though he was running buffalo; he would show these white men how Many Brave Feathers hunted I He turned and gave her her head. On he came like the hawk, shooting his arrows at the little poplars in the bluffs along the trail as he rode. A crowd had assembled to see the run; part were his own people, the others the staff of the Company at old Fort Ellice. He was riding very fast. As he neared the stockade he tried to pull the mare in. But she declined to be pulled in; she was just getting nicely going. “Ay-ay-yah f" yelled the spectators, giving the war-whoop as he shot past, and he kept on and circled the fort. Now a bad thought came into his head; he would run away with the mare ! The chief factor’s face did not entirely dissemble the feeling of ebargrin with which he beheld his favorite beast vanish over a slope in the south under the sailing buffalo-skin. Then be went to his quarters. The features of the other on-lookers wore a big general smile as lie disappeared. The genial sun smiled broadly too, in the summer sky; in fact, everything seemed smiling—except the chief factor. “Well if that ain’t a good un!” remarked the clerk to the rest of the staff as they sauntered back. Many Brave Feathers passed the night at Moose Mountain. Moose Mountain is only seventy-five miles from Fort Ellice, but then it was afternoon when be started. Next day be arrived at a camp of bis own tribe and Assiniboins on Broken Shell Creek in the buffalo country. All that fall and winter be staid out on the plains, running buffalo with the stolen, horae, though he never lent her to any one except his sweetheart, who used to ride her when they moved camp. In the spring, when the grass was green, the camp, with its store of robes and cured meat, journeyed toward Fort Ellice. Many Brave Feathers ordered one of his men to catch him three horses out of the band. He came to the fort riding the mare and leading the three other horses, and asked for the chief factor. He bad had the mare seven moons, but she bad been well cared for and was fat. “Ak-ha, ‘Mistakuse,’ you speak true. The mare is very fast,” be said, as he put the lines of the four horses iuto the chief factor’s hand. “Blamed if I wouldn’t like some aboriginal Augustus to borrow my pinto cayuse for six months on the same terms !” exclaimed the clerk. He thought the old man had the best of it after all. Harper’s Weekly.