Such an alarm was given in the afternoon of the 15th.  Four scouts were seen crossing and recrossing each other at full gallop, on the summit of a hill about two miles distant down the river.  The cry was up that the Sioux were coming.  In an instant the village was in an uproar.  Men, women, and children were all brawling and shouting; dogs barking, yelping, and howling.  Some of the warriors ran for the horses to gather and drive them in from the prairie, some for their weapons.  As fast as they could arm and equip they sallied forth; some on horseback, some on foot.  Some hastily arrayed in their war dress, with coronets of fluttering feathers, and their bodies smeared with paint; others naked and only furnished with the weapons they had snatched up.  The women and children gathered on the tops of the lodges and heightened the confusion of the scene by their vociferation.  Old men who could no longer bear arms took similar stations, and harangued the warriors as they passed, exhorting them to valorous deeds.  Some of the veterans took arms themselves, and sallied forth with tottering steps.  In this way, the savage chivalry of the village to the number of five hundred, poured forth, helter-skelter, riding and running, with hideous yells and war-whoops, like so many bedlamites or demoniacs let loose.

After a while the tide of war rolled back, but with far less uproar.  Either it had been a false alarm, or the enemy had retreated on finding themselves discovered, and quiet was restored to the village.  The white hunters continuing to be fearful of ranging this dangerous neighborhood, fresh provisions began to be scarce in the camp.  As a substitute, therefore, for venison and buffalo meat, the travellers had to purchase a number of dogs to be shot and cooked for the supply of the camp.  Fortunately, however chary the Indians might be of their horses, they were liberal of their dogs.  In fact, these animals swarm about an Indian village as they do about a Turkish town.  Not a family but has two or three dozen belonging to it, of all sizes and colors; some of a superior breed are used for hunting; others, to draw the sledge, while others, of a mongrel breed, and idle vagabond nature, are fattened for food.  They are supposed to be descendant from the wolf, and retain something of his savage but cowardly temper, howling rather than barking; showing their teeth and snarling on the slightest provocation, but sneaking away on the least attack.

The excitement of the village continued from day to day.  On the day following the alarm just mentioned, several parties arrived from different directions, and were met and conducted by some of the braves to the council lodge, where they reported the events and success of their expeditions, whether of war or hunting; which news was afterwards promulgated throughout the village, by certain old men who acted as heralds or town criers.  Among the parties which arrived was one that had been among the Snake nation stealing horses, and returned crowned with success.  As they passed in triumph through the village they were cheered by the men, women, and children, collected as usual on the tops of the lodges, and were exhorted by the Nesters of the village to be generous in their dealings with the white men.