frills wherewith a professional racontoor is so prone to overload his
narratives.

"The Black Cloud is a Osage medicine man an' has high repoote about
Greyhoss where he's pitched his teepee an' abides. He's got a squaw,
Sunbright, an' he's plenty jealous of this yere little Sunbright. The
Black Cloud has three squaws, an' Sunbright is the youngest. The
others is Sunbright's sisters, for a Osage weds all the sisters of a
fam'ly at once, the oldest sister goin' to the front at the nuptials to
deal the weddin' game for the entire outfit.

"Now this Sunbright ain't over-enamoured of Black Cloud; he's only a
half-blood Injun for one thing, his father bein' a buffalo-man (negro)
who's j'ined the Osages, an' Sunbright don't take kindly to his nose
which is some flatter than the best rools of Osage beauty demands; an'
likewise thar's kinks in his ha'r. Still, Sunbright sort o' keeps her
aversions to herse'f, an' if it ain't for what follows she most likely
would have travelled to her death-blankets an' been given a seat on a
hill with a house of rocks built 'round her--the same bein' the usual
burial play of a Osage--without Black Cloud ever saveyin' that so far
from interestin' Sunbright, he only makes her tired.

"Over south from Black Cloud's Greyhoss camp an' across the Arkansaw
an' some'ers between the Polecat an' the Cimmaron thar's livin' a young
Creek buck called the Lance. He's straight an' slim an' strong as the
weepon he's named for; an' he like Black Cloud is a medicine sharp of
cel'bration an' stands way up in the papers. The Creeks is never weary
of talkin' about the Lance an' what a marvel as a medicine man he is;
also, by way of insultin' the Osages, they declar's onhesitatin' that
the Lance lays over Black Cloud like four tens, an' offers to bet