Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/368

AN OSAGE BOY HERO 351 awful flames are leaping with fearful rapidity toward tiiem; although he has not succeeded in pulling as much grass as he would Jike, yet he now, desperately in earnest, takes up the little ten-year old boy and lays him in the cleared space and orders the others to lay as close as ijpssible by, his side until all are in a heap with their feet toward;thfe fire, and, they are ly- ing on their faces three thick; and to cap the climax, this young leader, after all are down, takes the rab- bits, qiiail and prairie chicken which they have killed aiid puts them at the feet of the prostrate forms, and their quiver holders are also used to protect them; but now he is compelled to take care of himself, and like a hero he throws his body at right angles across the legs -of the prostrate heap; and just then, with a inighty leap the fire passes the boys. Our young In- dian's hair was on fire and his body singed, but the other boys soon smothered the fire in his hair ^ and rubbed him all over with rabbit fat to oounter- act the burns. ... This episode of saving about oweiity ^ys caused quite a flurry, and he being the only one injured, which showed the pUght the boys were in. Of course to a plainsman this yarn will be laughed at, and if the boys could have started a fire there would have been no fuss. But the party had no matches , those days and it was not as easy to get a light then , as now. A resident of the prairie knows how easy it is to protect one's self when a prairie fire is coming toward you, which is, to set fire to the grass and let the wind take it from you; then the burnt space can be gotten into so as to keep from b.eing burned by the on-coming flames. .