Instead of replying to the information of his scouts, he spoke kindly to his horse, and motioning to a youth to receive the bridle, or rather halter, by which he governed the animal, he took the trapper by the arm, and led him a little apart from the rest of the band.
"Has my brother been a warrior ?" said the wily Teton, in a tone that he intended should be conciliating.
"Do the leaves cover the trees in the season of fruits?
Go.

The Dahcotahs have not seen as many warriors living as I have looked on in their blood! But what signifies idle remembrancing," he added in English, "when limbs grow stiff, and sight is failing!" The chief regarded him a moment with a severe look, as if he would lay bare the falsehood he had heard; but meeting in the calm eye and steady mien of the trapper a confirmation of the truth of what he said, he took the hand of the old man and laid it gently on his head, in token of the respect that was due to the other's years and experience.
"Why then do the Big-knives tell their red brethren to bury the tomahawk," he said, "when their own young men never forget that they are braves, and meet each other so often with bloody hands ?" "My nation is more numerous than the buffaloes on the prairies, or the pigeons in the air.

Their quarrels are frequent; yet their warriors are few.

None go out on the war-path but they who are gifted with the qualities of a brave, and therefore such see many battles." "It is not so--my father is mistaken," returned Mahtoree, indulging in a smile of exulting penetration, at the very instant he corrected the force of his denial, in deference to the years and services of one so aged.

"The Big-knives are very wise, and they are men; all of them would be warriors.