When the spring comes, and there is enough grass to feed their ponies, many of them slip away from the reservations, where the Government keeps them and feeds them, and go on the war-path.

As the West has become more thickly settled these raids have been less and less frequent, and it is now a long time since the families of settlers have had to flee from their homes for fear of the red men.

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In Miles City, Mont., however, family after family has been arriving within the last few days, seeking refuge there until the country becomes quiet again.

The reason of this is that one of the chiefs, called White Bull, is reported to be on the war-path with some two hundred braves.

Women and children are being sent to all the fortified camps; settlers who are too far from camps to be able to shelter there are building stone forts for themselves, and gathering the women and children from the district within its walls.  All over the section men are arming and going out to fight the Indians.

The cause for this outbreak among the Indians is supposed to be the feud that has existed for a long time between the cowboys and the Indians.

The cowboys are a very wild lot themselves, and are apt to be nearly as dangerous as the Indians when they get excited.

Their lives are somewhat lonely, being spent in riding about the country rounding up stock and doing the work of the ranches.  They are, however, dear lovers of a frolic, and whenever they get into the towns and have no duties to perform, they are apt to do very boisterous and regrettable things.

One of their very bad habits is that they drink more than is good for them.  When they are under the influence of liquor, and no longer masters of themselves, it is their great sport to kill an Indian.

The Indians naturally do not sit quietly by and allow tipsy cowboys to kill their friends without revenging them.  They wait their chance, and kill a cowboy in return for the Indian.  This results in very bitter feeling between the cowboys and the Indians, and warfare of a small kind exists between the two parties, each seeking opportunities to kill the other.

A few weeks ago a sheep-herder was shot while out looking after his sheep.

The sheriff looked into the matter, and found that the young man had been sitting down on the ground smoking when he was shot.  All the signs showed that his enemies had crept up behind him, and killed him without giving him a chance to defend himself.

Traces of Indian ponies were found in the neighborhood, and these convinced the sheriff that the work had been done by the Cheyenne Indians from the neighboring reservation.

The sheriff immediately called a large force of deputies together, and rode to the reservation, demanding that the guilty Indian be given up.

The Indian agent refused to comply with his request.  He said that when the excitement was over he would have the guilty parties arrested, but that he feared a general uprising among the Indians if he took any immediate steps.