Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/385

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ANXIOUS TO PLEASE YOU.

tihe distincuon. For he was as brave yet magnani- mous, as was the redoubtable General U. S. Grants who at Appamatox treated the surrendered Confederates with every consideration, and allowed the poor half-starved troops to take their horse' and tackle back to their dear old Sunny South and go to raising sweet potatoes and corn for their babies, which act on the part of the great commander will forever endear his memory, notwithstanding he whipped them fair and square.

Before closing this chapter, a little tete-a-tete is desired with you. There is a desire to confide to you the pleasurable sensation experienced while compiling this little visionary episode attributed to 'the young Osage; and if yon, my dear reader, only receive one-half the satisfaction, even that will be gratifying. Again, it was so easy: for there was no data to be sure of, and like the Arabian Nights' story, could be spun out "ad libitum," but what is most wished to confess, is the fear that a point is now reached when the words are being counted so as not to spin the story out that it will surfeit you, and last but upper- most in mind, like Banquo's ghost, is the query, Will you be pleased?

There is an adage to "make haste slowly," but Coronado has forgotten this, or probably it was not in vogue at this time, for he is on nettles to turn his face homeward; so no time is consumed in preparation, for by experience he knows it to be easy to sustain his army even when cut loose from his base of supply, for he can foratre off the inhabitants of the plains (the buffalo).