第100章 Irving’s Bonneville - Chapter 35(2)

In this way they journeyed on until they arrived on the banks of the Immahah, andencamped near to the Nez Perce lodges. Here She-wee-she took a sudden notion tovisit his people, and show off the state of worldly prosperity to which he had sosuddenly attained. He accordingly departed in the morning, arrayed in hunter's style,and well appointed with everything benefitting his vocation. The buoyancy of his gait,the elasticity of his step, and the hilarity of his countenance, showed that he anticipated,with chuckling satisfaction, the surprise he was about to give those who had ejectedhim from their society in rags. But what a change was there in his whole appearancewhen he rejoined the party in the evening! He came skulking into camp like a beatencur, with his tail between his legs. All his finery was gone; he was naked as when hewas born, with the exception of a scanty flap that answered the purpose of a fig leaf.

His fellow-travellers at first did not know him, but supposed it to be some vagrant RootDigger sneaking into the camp; but when they recognized in this forlorn object theirprime wag, She-wee-she, whom they had seen depart in the morning in such high gleeand high feather, they could not contain their merriment, but hailed him with loud andrepeated peals of laughter.

She-wee-she was not of a spirit to be easily cast down; he soon joined in the merrimentas heartily as any one, and seemed to consider his reverse of fortune an excellent joke.

Captain Bonneville, however, thought proper to check his good-humor, and demanded,with some degree of sternness, the cause of his altered condition. He replied in themost natural and self-complacent style imaginable, "that he had been among hiscousins, who were very poor; they had been delighted to see him; still more delightedwith his good fortune; they had taken him to their arms; admired his equipments; onehad begged for this; another for that"--in fine, what with the poor devil's inherentheedlessness, and the real generosity of his disposition, his needy cousins hadsucceeded in stripping him of all his clothes and accoutrements, excepting the fig leafwith which he had returned to camp.

Seeing his total want of care and forethought, Captain Bonneville determined to let himsuffer a little, in hopes it might prove a salutary lesson; and, at any rate, to make him nomore presents while in the neighborhood of his needy cousins. He was left, therefore,to shift for himself in his naked condition; which, however, did not seem to give him anyconcern, or to abate one jot of his good-humor. In the course of his lounging about thecamp, however, he got possession of a deer skin; whereupon, cutting a slit in themiddle, he thrust his head through it, so that the two ends hung down before andbehind, something like a South American poncho, or the tabard of a herald. These endshe tied together, under the armpits; and thus arrayed, presented himself once morebefore the captain, with an air of perfect self-satisfaction, as though he thought itimpossible for any fault to be found with his toilet.

A little further journeying brought the travellers to the petty village of Nez Perces,governed by the worthy and affectionate old patriarch who had made CaptainBonneville the costly present of the very fine horse. The old man welcomed them oncemore to his village with his usual cordiality, and his respectable squaw and hopeful son,cherishing grateful recollections of the hatchet and ear-bobs, joined in a chorus offriendly gratulation.

As the much-vaunted steed, once the joy and pride of this interesting family, was nownearly knocked up by travelling, and totally inadequate to the mountain scramble thatlay ahead, Captain Bonneville restored him to the venerable patriarch, with renewedacknowledgments for the invaluable gift. Somewhat to his surprise, he was immediatelysupplied with a fine two years' old colt in his stead, a substitution which he afterwardlearnt, according to Indian custom in such cases, he might have claimed as a matter ofright. We do not find that any after claims were made on account of this colt. Thisdonation may be regarded, therefore, as a signal punctilio of Indian honor; but it will befound that the animal soon proved an unlucky acquisition to the party.