The Wintering Place by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Epub3
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

33

WELL SARA DID SWAP 1 OF THE YOUNG GIRL’S DRESSES from the poor Higgins woman’s trunk for 2 fine handfuls of dried leaf tobacco & the greased leather pouch them Crow boys carried it in & I tell you it was worth every stitch of that child’s gown God Keep Her. There was near enough for 2 weeks of smoking in it as we did decide to chop it up more fine than they like it & roll it into cigarettes with pages of the bible from the lady’s trunk. God Forgive Us for doing it but I don’t think that Him Above would begrudge a man a page or 3 of Revelations for to roll an old needle with if He has any mind at all for His living creations to be happy.

“No man did ever pass a time better,” says I to my brother as we set ourselves on the big rock in front of the cave in the winter sun puffing away like steam engines & he did just smile with his eyes closed & face raised up to the sun with smoke draining from his nostrils in slow joyful streams.

I did ask Sara then would there be more tobacco for trading if we could find the Crows’ camp & she told me yes but that them Crow boys would of invited us to their camp if they did want us to visit it & they did not so there did be no point in turning up with no invitation. As well we would have to bring much of whatever we had left of our belongings as gifts for that does be the Indian way of things.

“But we can go to the trader,” says she then. “A white trader. The Crow boys tell me how to find this place. It is two days of walking to where this river meets another one. They will have tobacco. And flour & tins of grub.”

Well this did be a surprise to us & Tom & myself did take a minute to think on it for we knew that we would once again some day have to enter the world of white men but for the moment we might be better off avoiding it altogether because of what was the cause of us deserting from the Army & such.

But of course we did decide that trading what we had left in traps & furs & such might be a far better way of grubbing up than hunting & fishing for it & the lure of tobacco did surely be strong upon us now that we’d a taste of it & so we said let’s mosey up there the 3 of us for to see what we could acquire in the way of supplies.

So some days later after the Indians took their leave & after we feasted upon that elk & Sara did smoke & hang what was left of it to dry in the cave & after locking up the cave

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