Indian
girls have ways and means of setting their caps at young men, as the
phrase is, as well as more civilised damsels, and the Osage maidens
were not idle on this occasion. Besides, that many really loved the
youths, the honour of the sex was concerned. It was not to be borne
that friendship should triumph over love, and it may therefore be
readily conceived what an artillery of bright eyes was reproachfully
opened upon the three friends. They, however, remained insensible to
all the attractions of female society; they joined not in the dance,
nor told nor listened to the tale of love or war by the evening fire;
but rode together, hunted together, trapped together, and earned the
highest renown as indefatigable and bold huntsmen.
The ambition of the three friends, however, reached to higher flights
than emulating the first hunters of their tribe. They wished to equal
in renown the greatest warriors of the Osage nation; and it was a
knowledge of the fact, that they were about to start on a marauding
expedition, which created so great a sensation in the throng of
maidens.
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