Boone's Lick

At this point Uncle Seth decided it might be well to try and change the subject.

"Say, Colonel Fetterman, young John Moles-worth here has been telling me what a hand you are to fight Indians."

Maybe Uncle Seth thought a little flattery would improve the man's mood--

but it didn't.

"Mind your own business, sir," Colonel Fetterman said. "I have a matter of military discipline to attend to here--and it's urgent."

Uncle Seth winked at Ma--the colonel didn't see it.

"All right, but I'm anxious to know your opinion of the Sioux as cavalrymen," Uncle Seth said. "There's some out here in the windies who rate them high. I've even heard one military man say that they're the best light cavalry in the world--is that your opinion?"

The comment at least got the colonel's attention.

"Whoever said that was a goddamn fool," Colonel Fetterman said. "A bunch of naked savages on horseback don't amount to a cavalry. I could take eighty men and whip the whole Sioux nation--and I hope I get the chance."

"And I hope you don't!" Ma said. It was plain the rude colonel had raised her temper pretty high.

Colonel Fetterman's face turned nearly purple-- the fact that a woman would speak to him that way left him too a

"Mary ..." Uncle Seth said. I believe he meant to caution her about speaking so sharply to Colonel Fetterman, but his warning came too late.

The fat was in the fire.

"Corporal, arrest this damn woman too, while you're at it," Colonel Fetterman said--he was practically spluttering, he was so angry.

Ned, the big corporal, was still holding the curry comb he had been using to rake burrs out of his horse's tail. I'm not sure he even realized he 101

was supposed to arrest the blacksmith, but he did realize that it would be irregular if he had to arrest Ma. "What for, Colonel?" he asked. "For the use of treasonous language," Colonel

Fetterman said. I guess it was all he could come up with on the spur of the moment.

Ma walked right up to him--for a moment I thought she might slap the colonel, but all she did was stare him down.

"If a rude swaggerer like you was ever given the command of eighty men I have no doubt you'd promptly get them killed," she said.

Then she motioned for the blacksmith to get on with his work and walked away, grabbing Uncle Seth by the arm as she went.

Colonel Fetterman just stood there, black with rage. Ned, the big corporal, didn't move a muscle.

Three days later, when we were slogging up the muddy plain, Colonel Fetterman and his relief troop passed us. There looked to be about eighty men in the command.

"There goes that fellow who wanted to get you arrested for treason,"

Uncle Seth said.

"Yes--I have no doubt he would have had me shot, if it had been his say,"

Ma said.

She had changed her attitude and was letting Uncle Seth drive the mules.

I guess all the soldiers knew Colonel Fetterman was mad at Ma, because the troop passed us at a gallop and not a single soldier waved or looked our way.

3 OUR first night out from Fort Laramie we got a big surprise--just at dusk, as we were building our campfire, we heard horses coming and our two half brothers, Blue Crow and He Sleeps, came racing into camp. He Sleeps had snuck up on a fat goose, on some little skim of a prairie pond, and they brought it to us as a going-away present.

We were all glad to see them, even Ma. The goose was mighty tasty, and the boys spent the evening trying to improve our command of sign language-- or at least, Neva's command. She had already learned it and could make her fingers fly when talking to Blue Crow, the more talkative of our half brothers. G.T., though, had no skill with his hands--Blue Crow laughed until he cried at G.T.'s attempts to use a few simple signs.

He Sleeps was the more solemn of the two--he was in awe of Ma and behaved very politely in her company.

"I don't need to learn sign language, I'm a Baptist anyway," G.T. said, when we got tickled at his crude efforts.

"Maybe so, but where you're going the Baptists have kind of thi

Uncle Seth said.

Despite the chill, we were all glad to be out of the fort. Some of the soldiers were civil, but some weren't. He Sleeps caught a tiny little 102

field mouse and taught us a game involving three cups. The field mouse was under one of them: the point of the game was to guess which cup hid the mouse. He Sleeps moved the cups so fast the confused little mouse didn't have time to run. Neva beat both He Sleeps and Blue Crow, which didn't please them, particularly. When G.T. tried it he got so a

Ma didn't play--she liked watching the two Indian boys.

"That boy's got more than Dick's dimple, he's got his mischief, too," she said, referring to Blue Crow.

He Sleeps and Blue Crow rode with us for most of a fine bright morning--

we were soon in higher country, though the big mountains were still just shadows in the far distance. Then the two boys turned their horses and went racing back toward Fort Laramie. Neva liked both of them--I believe she enjoyed having two new brothers to pester. She signed for a while, trying to get them to come north with us, but they just shook their heads. He Sleeps even made us a little speech--it may have been a warning.

"I believe he's of the same opinion as Red Cloud," Uncle Seth commented.

"The one thing folks agree about is that there's going to be trouble at them new forts."

"There sure is, and I'm going to make some of it myself, once I find Dick," Ma said.

That afternoon we started an antelope and G.T. shot it--it was the biggest thrill of his life, up to that time.

"It was just that critter's bad luck that he ran into a Baptist," Uncle Seth said.

One thing Neva and G.T. and I talked about a lot, when we were off to ourselves, was Pa's other family. We wanted to know the same thing Ma wanted to know: if he had one extra family, what if he had more? Maybe he had two or three. "Or eight," G.T. said.

"Not eight, you oaf!" Neva said. "Nobody could have eight families. There wouldn't be time."

"I wish there was eight and I wish you belonged to another one, not this one," G.T. said. He had about all he could take of Neva.

"I believe I'll start one with Bill Hickok when we get back," Neva said.

She never tired of reminding us that Mr. Hickok had bought her two beefsteaks in one night.

I didn't think Pa had eight families, but I did ponder the whole business, as we made our way north, toward the high mountains. Sometimes I got to feeling real uneasy, at the thought of what Ma might be pla

103

For one thing, since Ma had decided she was ready to let him drive the team, he seldom left Ma's side. The two of them sat there on the wagon seat all day, as we plodded along, leaving the rest of us to look after ourselves--Marcy included. She was weaned now, so Ma didn't have to pay such close attention to her. Marcy could also walk, which meant that she spent most of her time wandering off into trouble. She irritated the mules so much, pulling their tails and stomping around under their bellies, that it was a full-time job for one person, trying to keep her from getting kicked or bitten.