Sunset Ranch: A Story of a Boy's Adventures in the West — page 139: what you’re looking at

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

An Indian Brave. 129 battle and the chase, the gypsy-like fires, the prowl- ing curs, the neighing horses in their corral, the lounging bucks, busy squaws and playing young- sters—all these things Cuthbert saw and compre- hended in one picture that would never leave his mind. Whether his stay with these nomads of the wilderness be long or short, it had come about with- out any design on his part, and he determined that he might just as well learn all he could of their ways, their peculiar customs descended from remote an- cestors, and, in brief, give himself over wholly to the enjoyment of the singular experience, rather than mope about bemoaning his sad fate. If he was to be the adopted son of so great a chief as Standing Elk, there would doubtless come to him certain honors that might in a measure compensate him for the loss of his freedom. So, flinging away dull care, Cuthbert endeavored to enter into the spirit of the novel situation with a vim that was bound to gain the good will of his new, dusky brothers. : He soon discovered Standing Elk’s tepee, as it was of greater dimensions than most of the others— in fact, only the council lodge exceeded it in size. The artistic decorations were doubtless very ele- gant from an Indian point of view, and Cuthbert found them interesting enough, though he believed he could have improved upon the manner of their execution. They portrayed a long and eventful career, in which Standing Elk had done his share of hard fighting—perhaps his recent successful raid might be described by characters only intelligible to the sign-reading red man. In one place Cuthbert discovered some rude at- tempts at describing soldiers on horses, surrounded by Indians, the soldiers being cut down to the last man, comiclooks C©