Rocky Mountain Sam — page 197: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

i88 ROCKY MOUNTAIN SAM. ' One glance over the side was sufficient. She uttered a piercing scream, and fainted away. ‘‘Han’s off! Ill attend to this ’ere leetle gal,” said Big Horn, laying thelithe form gently down, and reaching for a canteen of water. ‘‘She’s only a bit skeered, an’ if she kin speak the Mandan lingo, asI reckon she kin from a word or two she screeched out, why I kin talk to her ikea Dutch uncle.” ‘The faint was over in a few minutes, and then before she could rise again, Big Horn began to pour into her earsa flood of explanations in the dialect he had mentioned. ‘To his unspeakable delight she replied to him—shrinkingly, timidly at first, but with growing confidence and anima- tion as she began to comprehend the explanations of which he was most prodigal. This lasted twenty minutes or more, much to the vexation of the other members of the party. ‘‘Can’t she speak English at all?” Sam at last broke in, a little peevishly. Before Big Horn could reply, the Indian maiden said in broken English: ‘‘Me very much little speakie English to white chiefs.” ‘‘What is your name?” asked the professor. — “My name? Name! what is name? Oh! Me called Mewanee.” ‘‘“An’a swate little name it is, if I say it myself,” com- mented McGuire. ‘‘It’s almost as swate as Bridget.” Big Horn, who had witnessed these efforts at conversation on the part of his companions with ill-concealed jealousy, now resumed his interview in the Mandan dialect, which lasted for some moments longer, ‘“Mewanee says,” he at length interpreted, ‘‘that she is of the Mandan-Mandan tribe, and that from her infancy she ae been a captive of the chief from whose lodge we carried er,” GN Ss _ The great hunter of course translated after his own rude manner of speech, but for the convenience of the reader, we improve upon his explanation for this occasion at least. ‘‘Now that ve explained things to her,” he resumed, ‘“‘she says that she’s very glad to get away, inasmuch as her master treated her harshly, and was even about to make her his wife in a few days, although he has already one wife— the squaw with the young one in her arms that we saw (ee) Gomicbooks