The bull was old and lean, and it took two bullets to bring him
down, but his death meant their life and Henry hurried to the camp with
the joyful news. It was clearly recognized that he had saved them, but
no one said anything and Henry was glad of their silence.
When the storm ceased they renewed their journey toward the south with a
plentiful supply of food and not long afterwards the snow began to melt.
Under the influence of a warm wind out of the southwest it disappeared
with marvelous quickness; one day the earth was all white, and the next
it was all brown. The warm wind continued to blow, and then faint
touches of green began to appear in the dead grass; there were delicate
odors, the breath of the great warm south, and they knew that spring was
not far away.
In a week they ran into the buffalo herd, a mighty black mass of moving
millions. The earth rumbled hollowly under the tread of a myriad feet,
and the plain was black with bodies to the horizon and beyond.
They killed as many of the buffalo as they wished and after the fashion
of the more northerly Indians reduced the meat to pemmican.
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