and sunshine, and interest in everybody and everything, and pours
out her prodigal love upon every creature that will take it, high

or low, Christian or pagan, feathered or furred; and none has
declined it to date, and none ever will, I think. But she has a

temper, and sometimes it catches fire and flames up, and is likely
to burn whatever is near it; but it is soon over, the passion goes

as quickly as it comes. Of course she has an Indian name already;
Indians always rechristen a stranger early. Thunder-Bird attended

to her case. He gave her the Indian equivalent for firebug, or
fire-fly. He said:

"'Times, ver' quiet, ver' soft, like summer night, but when she mad
she blaze."

Isn't it good? Can't you see the flare? She's beautiful, mother,
beautiful as a picture; and there is a touch of you in her face,

and of her father - poor George! and in her unresting activities,
and her fearless ways, and her sunbursts and cloudbursts, she is

always bringing George back to me. These impulsive natures are
dramatic. George was dramatic, so is this Lightning-Bug, so is

Buffalo Bill. When Cathy first arrived - it was in the forenoon -
Buffalo Bill was away, carrying orders to Major Fuller, at Five

Forks, up in the Clayton Hills. At mid-afternoon I was at my desk,
trying to work, and this sprite had been making it impossible for

half an hour. At last I said:
"Oh, you bewitching little scamp, CAN'T you be quiet just a minute

or two, and let your poor old uncle attend to a part of his
duties?"

"I'll try, uncle; I will, indeed," she said.
"Well, then, that's a good child - kiss me. Now, then, sit up in

that chair, and set your eye on that clock. There - that's right.
If you stir - if you so much as wink - for four whole minutes, I'll

bite you!"
It was very sweet and humble and obedient she looked, sitting

there, still as a mouse; I could hardly keep from setting her free
and telling her to make as much racket as she wanted to. During as

much as two minutes there was a most unnatural and heavenly quiet
and repose, then Buffalo Bill came thundering up to the door in all

his scout finery, flung himself out of the saddle, said to his
horse, "Wait for me, Boy," and stepped in, and stopped dead in his

tracks - gazing at the child. She forgot orders, and was on the
floor in a moment, saying:

"Oh, you are so beautiful! Do you like me?"
"No, I don't, I love you!" and he gathered her up with a hug, and

then set her on his shoulder - apparently nine feet from the floor.
She was at home. She played with his long hair, and admired his

big hands and his clothes and his carbine, and asked question after
question, as fast as he could answer, until I excused them both for

half an hour, in order to have a chance to finish my work. Then I
heard Cathy exclaiming over Soldier Boy; and he was worthy of her

raptures, for he is a wonder of a horse, and has a reputation which
is as shining as his own silken hide.

CHAPTER IV - CATHY TO HER AUNT MERCEDES
Oh, it is wonderful here, aunty dear, just paradise! Oh, if you

could only see it! everything so wild and lovely; such grand
plains, stretching such miles and miles and miles, all the most

delicious velvety sand and sage-brush, and rabbits as big as a dog,
and such tall and noble jackassful ears that that is what they name

them by; and such vast mountains, and so rugged and craggy and
lofty, with cloud-shawls wrapped around their shoulders, and

looking so solemn and awful and satisfied; and the charming
Indians, oh, how you would dote on them, aunty dear, and they would

on you, too, and they would let you hold their babies, the way they
do me, and they ARE the fattest, and brownest, and sweetest little

things, and never cry, and wouldn't if they had pins sticking in
them, which they haven't, because they are poor and can't afford

it; and the horses and mules and cattle and dogs - hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds, and not an animal that you can't do what you

please with, except uncle Thomas, but I don't mind him, he's
lovely; and oh, if you could hear the bugles: TOO - TOO - TOO-TOO

- TOO - TOO, and so on - perfectly beautiful! Do you recognize
that one? It's the first toots of the REVEILLE; it goes, dear me,

SO early in the morning! - then I and every other soldier on the
whole place are up and out in a minute, except uncle Thomas, who is

most unaccountably lazy, I don't know why, but I have talked to him
about it, and I reckon it will be better, now. He hasn't any

faults much, and is charming and sweet, like Buffalo Bill, and
Thunder-Bird, and Mammy Dorcas, and Soldier Boy, and Shekels, and

Potter, and Sour-Mash, and - well, they're ALL that, just angels,
as you may say.

The very first day I came, I don't know how long ago it was,
Buffalo Bill took me on Soldier Boy to Thunder-Bird's camp, not the

big one which is out on the plain, which is White Cloud's, he took
me to THAT one next day, but this one is four or five miles up in

the hills and crags, where there is a great shut-in meadow, full of
Indian lodges and dogs and squaws and everything that is

interesting, and a brook of the clearest water running through it,
with white pebbles on the bottom and trees all along the banks cool

and shady and good to wade in, and as the sun goes down it is
dimmish in there, but away up against the sky you see the big peaks

towering up and shining bright and vivid in the sun, and sometimes
an eagle sailing by them, not flapping a wing, the same as if he

was asleep; and young Indians and girls romping and laughing and
carrying on, around the spring and the pool, and not much clothes

on except the girls, and dogs fighting, and the squaws busy at
work, and the bucks busy resting, and the old men sitting in a

bunch smoking, and passing the pipe not to the left but to the
right, which means there's been a row in the camp and they are

settling it if they can, and children playing JUST the same as any
other children, and little boys shooting at a mark with bows, and I

cuffed one of them because he hit a dog with a club that wasn't
doing anything, and he resented it but before long he wished he

hadn't: but this sentence is getting too long and I will start
another. Thunder-Bird put on his Sunday-best war outfit to let me

see him, and he was splendid to look at, with his face painted red
and bright and intense like a fire-coal and a valance of eagle

feathers from the top of his head all down his back, and he had his
tomahawk, too, and his pipe, which has a stem which is longer than

my arm, and I never had such a good time in an Indian camp in my
life, and I learned a lot of words of the language, and next day BB

took me to the camp out on the Plains, four miles, and I had
another good time and got acquainted with some more Indians and

dogs; and the big chief, by the name of White Cloud, gave me a
pretty little bow and arrows and I gave him my red sash-ribbon, and

in four days I could shoot very well with it and beat any white boy
of my size at the post; and I have been to those camps plenty of

times since; and I have learned to ride, too, BB taught me, and
every day he practises me and praises me, and every time I do

better than ever he lets me have a scamper on Soldier Boy, and
THAT'S the last agony of pleasure! for he is the charmingest horse,

and so beautiful and shiny and black, and hasn't another color on
him anywhere, except a white star in his forehead, not just an

imitation star, but a real one, with four points, shaped exactly
like a star that's hand-made, and if you should cover him all up

but his star you would know him anywhere, even in Jerusalem or
Australia, by that. And I got acquainted with a good many of the

Seventh Cavalry, and the dragoons, and officers, and families, and
horses, in the first few days, and some more in the next few and

the next few and the next few, and now I know more soldiers and
horses than you can think, no matter how hard you try. I am