"You are full of the white man's _devil-water_" (rum). "You are like
dogs in the Hot Moon when they run mad and snap at their own shadows. We
are only little herds of buffaloes left scattered; the great herds that
once covered the prairies are no more. See!--the white men are like the
locusts when they fly so thick that the whole sky is a snow-storm. You
may kill one--two--ten; yes, as many as the leaves in the forest
yonder, and their brothers will not miss them. Kill one--two--ten, and
ten times ten will come to kill you. Count your fingers all day long and
white men with guns in their hands will come faster than you can count.
"Yes; they fight among themselves--away off. Do you hear the thunder of
their big guns? No; it would take you two moons to run down to where
they are fighting, and all the way your path would be among white
soldiers as thick as tamaracks in the swamps of the Ojibways. Yes; they
fight among themselves, but if you strike at them they will all turn on
you and devour you and your women and little children just as the
locusts in their time fall on the trees and devour all the leaves in one
day. You are fools.
Pages:
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387