a bargain was a bargain.  But the old squaw she jest kept on a-jabberin’ an’ pintin’ at the west.  Pretty soon they had the hull thing down and rolled up an’ that artist a-cussin’ like a cow-puncher.  Well, I mind it was a fine day, but awful hot, an’ before five minutes there come a little dark cloud in the west, then in ten minutes come a-whoopin’ a regular small cyclone, an’ it went through that village and wrecked all the teepees of any size.  That red one would surely have gone only for that smart old squaw.”

[Illustration:  Bull-Calf’s Teepee.]

Under Caleb’s directions the breezy side of the cover was now raised a little, and the shady side much more.  This changed the teepee from a stifling hothouse into a cool, breezy shade.

“An’ when ye want to know which way is the wind, if it’s light, ye wet your finger so, an’ hold it up.  The windy side feels cool at once, and by that ye can set your smoke-flaps.”

“I want to know about war bonnets,” Yan now put in.  “I mean about things to do to wear feathers—­that is, things we can do.”

“Ye kin have races, an’ swimmin’ an bownarrer shootin’.  I should say if you kin send one o’ them arrers two hundred yards that would kill a Buffalo at twenty feet.  I’d think that was pretty good.  Yes, I’d call that way up.”

“What—­a grand coup?”

“Yes, I reckon; an’ if you fell short on’y fifty yards that’d still kill a Deer, an’ we could call that a coup.  If,” continued Caleb, “you kin hit that old gunny-sack buck plunk in the heart at fifty yards first shot I’d call that away up; an’ if you hit it at seventy-five yards in the heart no matter how many tries, I’d call you a shot.  If you kin hit a nine-inch bull’s-eye two out of three at forty yards every time an’ no fluke, you’d hold your own among Injuns though I must say they don’t go in much for shooting at a target.  They shoot at ’most anything they see in the woods.  I’ve seen the little copper-coloured kids shooting away at butterflies.  Then they have matches—­they try who can have most arrers in the air at one time.  To have five in the air at once is considered good.  It means powerful fast work and far shooting.  You got to hold a bunch handy in the left hand fur that.  The most I ever seen one man have up at once was eight.  That was reckoned ‘big medicine,’ an’ any one that can keep up seven is considered swell.”

“Do you know any other things besides bows and arrows that would do?”

“I think that a rubbing-stick fire ought to count,” interrupted Sam.  “I want that in coz Guy can’t do it.  Any one who kin do it at all gets a feather, an’ any one who kin do it in one minute gets a swagger feather, or whatever you call it; that takes care of Yan and me an’ leaves Guy out in the cold.”

“I’ll bet I kin hunt Deer all round you both, I kin.”

“Oh, shut up, Sappy; we’re tired a-hearing about your Deer hunting.  We’re going to abolish that game.”  Then Sam continued, apparently addressing Caleb, “Do you know any Injun games?”