"
"Ha! then, I tink perhaps hims could if he wos try," said Henri,
plunging on to his horse with a laugh, and arranging the carcass of
the antelope across the pommel of his saddle.
Thus they hunted and galloped, and trotted and ambled on through wood
and plain all day, until the sun began to descend below the tree-tops
of the bluffs on the west. Then Joe Blunt looked about him for a place
on which to camp, and finally fixed on a spot under the shadow of a
noble birch by the margin of a little stream. The carpet of grass on
its banks was soft like green velvet, and the rippling waters of the
brook were clear as crystal--very different from the muddy Missouri
into which it flowed.
While Dick Varley felled and cut up firewood, Henri unpacked the
horses and turned them loose to graze, and Joe kindled the fire and
prepared venison steaks and hot tea for supper.
In excursions of this kind it is customary to "hobble" the
horses--that is, to tie their fore-legs together, so that they cannot
run either fast or far, but are free enough to amble about with a
clumsy sort of hop in search of food.
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