As I grew older I felt more and more that I wished to see and talk with her.  Of course I was too young to be married yet, but I was not too young to want to talk with Standing Alone.  I used to go out and stand by the trail where the women passed to get water, hoping that I might speak to her, but often there was no chance to do so.  Sometimes she was with other girls, who laughed and joked about me, and asked whom I was waiting for.  They could not tell who was standing there, for my robe or my sheet covered my whole body, except the hole through which I looked with one eye.  But one day when Standing Alone was going by with some girls, one of them recognized the sheet that I had on, and called out my name, and said that she believed that I was waiting for Standing Alone.  I was surprised that she should know me, and felt badly, but I did not move, and so I think neither she nor the girls with her knew that she had guessed right; and the next time I went I wore a different sheet, and different moccasins and leggings.

One evening I had good luck; all the women had passed, and Standing Alone had not appeared.  I supposed that all had got their water, and was about to go away when she came hurrying along the trail, and passed me and went to the water’s edge.  She filled her vessel and came back, and when she passed me again I took hold of her dress and pulled it, and dropped my sheet from my head.  She stopped and we stood there and talked for a little while.  We were both of us afraid, we did not know of what, and had not much to say, but it was pleasant to be there talking to her, and looking at her face.  Three times she started to go, but each time I said to her, “Do not go; wait a little longer”; and each time she waited.  The fourth time she went away.  After that, I think she knew me whenever I stood by the trail, and sometimes she was late in coming for water, and I had a chance to speak to her alone.

[Illustration:  “DO NOT GO; WAIT A LITTLE LONGER”]

In those days I was happy; and often when the camp was resting, and there was nothing for me to do, I used to go out and sit on the top of a high hill, and think about Standing Alone, and hope that in the time to come I might have her for my wife, and that I might do great things in war, so that she would be proud of me; and might bring back many horses for her, so that she could always ride a good horse, and have a finely ornamented saddle and saddle-cloth.  If I could take horses enough, I should be rich, and then whatever Standing Alone might desire, I could give a horse for it.

A Warrior Ready to Die.

It was not long after this that buffalo were found, and we began to kill them, as we used to do in the old times; and then a great misfortune happened to me.