The fellow answered: 

“You’ve got me!  Know Kit Carson!  I reckon I do.  It is strange that you should ask me that, when Kit was the very last man I laid eyes on as I left our tribe.”

Here the fellow lowered his voice and said, as if exemplifying sympathy.

“Poor Kit was in a very bad way one hour before we parted.  The fact is, you know, he’d bin playin’ the papers (meaning gambling) and had lost everything.  However, I made him happy by giving him my gun and powder-horn.  With them, you know, he will git along anywhere!”

All hands, except Kit Carson, joined in the laugh at the fellow’s impudence.  Kit Carson’s patience was exhausted in listening to the barefaced falsehoods which the man was uttering; so, with some excuse, he left the party.  The fellow was unapprised of the farce which he had been acting; and, shortly after, left the town, believing that he had acquitted himself as became a hero.

By way of episode, and while story-telling keeps its hold on our pen, we may as well relate a short anecdote, which, though it does not form any close connection with this part of the narrative, seems to illustrate the practical jokes which are sometimes played off by the western men upon those who have yet to undergo their novitiate.

A German accidentally wandered out to and located himself in company with others on or near the Greenhorn River, which is one of the tributaries of the Arkansas.  Their business was trading with the Mormons, many of whom at that time traveled to Salt Lake, by what is known as the Arkansas River route.  In so doing, they came near the vicinity of the site selected for trading purposes.  In the commencement, the German was very inexperienced in matters that pertained to trading with these emigrants, and, as a matter of course, in an Indian country, met with many singular adventures.  It so happened that this man was exceedingly afraid of rattlesnakes, and those he was associated with, by way of amusement, delighted in augmenting his fears by telling him wonderful stories of what feats the reptile had been known to perform.  On the first trip which he made to the camp of some Mormons located about nine miles off, his ride took him through a perfect hot-bed of these snakes.  Behind his saddle, on the horse’s back which he rode, he had tied a bag of rice which he had intended to barter.  The German, not being used to riding, was a poor horseman, while unfortunately, his steed was a spirited animal, and at once, on his mounting, started off on a trot.  The string of the bag of rice became loosened by the severe jolting, and its contents came tumbling on the ground in great quantities, but afterwards as the stock on hand decreased, this was lessened.  The German, who had his hands full to keep his seat in the saddle, heard the rattling noise behind him, but dared not look around, for fear of being thrown off from his horse.  He supposed he was chased by a ferocious snake, and, at once,