THE INDIAN GUARD.

During our stay at the village, the crowd of visiters and pilferers increased from day to day. The chief, therefore, stationed one of the warriors at the encampment to keep off idlers and intruders of all descriptions, and above all to have a keen eye to the movements of the dogs and old women. At the same time he took occasion to let us know that though the warrior had been selected by himself, his pay would be expected to come from the hands of the Commissioner. On the following morning the guard made his appearance, and prepared to enter upon his office. He was tall and thin, with a shaved head, and a body highly painted with vermilion. He wore, or rather carried with him, a dirty blanket; which, with a small piece of blue cloth around his hips, and a ragged pair of mocassins, completed his dress, and the whole of his worldly possessions. Like most men in office, he began to hold his head higher than the rest of the world, and to look with a patronising air upon his former cronies. He forthwith commenced the discharge of his duties, with that assiduity which fully verified the trite but true proverb, “a new broom sweeps clean.” He routed the droves of vagabond children. He hunted the old squaws over the prairie, till nothing in the shape of a petticoat dared venture in the neighbourhood. And a perpetual whining and howling of curs, accompanied by the hearty thwacks of a cudgel, informed us that this portion of our visiters had also been treated with all the respect due to so numerous and busy a community.

This lasted for a day; after which, a perfect calm reigned throughout the camp. There was no excitement; for the guard had monopolised it. There was no squabbling, or howling; for the women were driven off, and the dogs knew better than to venture a second time within the reach of a cudgel, whose favours were bestowed with such an unsparing liberality.

The office now became a sinecure. The guard sat for hours upon the head of an empty pork barrel, drumming his heels against its sides, and trolling out some Indian ditty, or occasionally bellowing out a threat at some urchin who ventured to steal a distant look at the forbidden premises. When this became tedious, he stretched himself at full length on the grass, and resumed his old occupation of singing. An hour spent at this exhausted his patience. He then rose up, threw his blanket across one of his shoulders, and swaggered off to the village to hear the news, and to take a chat with the old folks, who treated him with the greatest deference, now that he was in office. After paying one of these visits, he always returned to his post, and regaled us, as well as he was able, with the news of the day. By degrees, his jurisdiction seemed to increase, until at last from the charge of our goods and chattels, it reached to the charge of ourselves; and none of the party could leave the tent without receiving a very inquiring look, as to what might be the nature of the business which called him forth. All these things tended vastly to raise him in the estimation of the village; though I verily believe that, at the bottom, he was one of the most arrant vagabonds breathing; and that the chief, acting upon the principle usually followed by politicians of the present day, had promoted him to office, because it was necessary that something should be done for him, and because there was no other way of doing it.

Great as had been his display of diligence for the first day, it soon disappeared; and at the end of three days, there was little difference in the appearance of the camp, from that which it wore previous to his appointment. According to his notions, he had performed all that was necessary to entitle him to his pay, and any further labour he considered as altogether superfluous. Before a week had elapsed, he was nearly as great an annoyance as any of the idlers, whom it was his business to remove.