Red Plume — page 9: what you’re looking at

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

RED PLUMS % ~ CHAPTER I. THE RED LOVERS. If was near sunset, toward the close of the summer of the year 183—, in the valley of the Saskatchie (so called at. that time),.a stream that formed one of the head-waters of the great Missouri.. The sun had not-set to ,the world above the valley, for his last rays were painting with crimson and purple the snow-clad summits of the lofty Wind River Mountains ;. and tinging, with the hues of the violet and opal, the cloudy slopes of the distant Yellowstone range. It was sunset in the valley, however, and the only rays to light up its verdurous slopes - and shady coverts were those of the myriad stars that peeped out from the vault above, to be reflected by the placid surface _ of the rippling stream: The fresh breeze blowing over the broad prairies beyond, and among the rugged ridges and de- files near the valley, was heard among the branches of the tall cottonwoods, but it hardly stirred the more delicate foli- age of the willows and alders, that nestled low down by the sap of the water. On one side of the ‘str eam, the valley was narrow, shut in by bluffs, and cut up by rocky elevations; on the other side, it-was broad, and like a rolling prairie, cowaredl with a heavy growth of luxuriant grass, dotted with gigantic trees, and sloping away gradually tothe level of the plain above. At what appeared to be the broadest part of the plain, partially concealed by a wooded bluff, was:an Indian camp, or migra- tory village, containing some fifty ledges. It was evidently not a war-party, or the lodge-poles would not have been there, nor would women and children haye been. seen moy- ing nbont among the lodges: and on the bank of the stream. It was also: evident that)they did not fear attack, and comichooks.com