ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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If you haven't been reading my imaginative series of short stories like the one below, here's a sample of what you've been missing.

I'm rather proud of these stories, which I shared with my grade school classes while I was a teacher for eighteen years, providing each student with a printed copies of each one, which they kept in three-ring binders.

But you lucky folks are being treated to my newly created "illustrated" version! 8:

Please don't feel obligated to praise my efforts! But if you do, your comments will be greatly appreciated.
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Chapter 16 ~ The Buffalo Hunt



CHAPTER 16 ~ The Buffalo Hunt

"I never realized just how high a horse really was," said Jon Max as he sat atop the tall black stallion, clinging with both hands to a loop of rope which was tide to the animal’s lower jaw. He leaned forward and looked down to watch the horse munch on the lush, green grass along the flat bank of the river near the Cheyenne village.

Laura sat on her own horse a few feet away, stroking the long, silky mane that hung down from the horse's neck. Her horse was pale gray with a black mane and tail.

"I was a little scared the first time we mounted up. But now I'm not scared at all." Laura said, smiling as she watched the beautiful animal graze on the grass.

"The hardest part is staying on," Jon Max said to his friend. "The horse's hair is so smooth that I keep sliding off. I wish we had saddles."

Laura nodded, wiggling her hips a few times to settle Laura firmly atop the horse.

Nearby, Poke-Moh-kav and his two friends, Hahkota (Grasshopper) and E-meho'hotohkeo (He Loves the Stars), were allowing their own horses to rest and graze. For the last three days, the young Cheyenne boys had been teaching their visiting friends how to ride the swift and powerful Cheyenne horses. During the first day of their training, Laura had fallen from the horse three times. But Jon Max had fallen four times! That made Laura feel a little less embarrassed about what had happened.

Now, after three days of diligent practice, the two young time travelers had become remarkably good at horseback riding.

The date was August 16, 1801, more than one year since Jon Max and Laura had first met Poke-Moh-kav at the Dalles, the Chinook trading area along the Columbia River in Washington state.

But for the two time travelers, less than two weeks had past. Using the anywhen device, they had traveled one year forward in time, giving Poke-Moh-kav and his father plenty of time to get back to their village, which was located in an area that would become part of the state of Missouri, many years later.

But after arriving in 1801, the two time-traveling 5th graders had not immediately headed for the village where Gidget and Gazmo told them they would find their young Cheyenne friend. They had decided instead to spend a week living in the forest and hunting for food, like real Cheyenne Indians.

Before leaving the Dalles trading area, they had acquired horsehair blankets and other things they would need to "camp out" in the forest. Even though the two young people had started the week knowing absolutely nothing about how to hunt and fish like Cheyenne Indians, the week had been a wonderful adventure for them both, because Gidget and Gazmo were able to help them in many ways. The amazing mini-computers from the year 2058 had taught the two students how to live off the land and take care of themselves in the deep, green forests of Missouri. The two lifeguard units had done exactly what they were designed to do – guard and protect the two children, and teach them everything they needed to know.

Because of this amazing week-long "crash course" in Indian survival skills, both Laura and Jon Max now felt extremely comfortable in this new and amazing lifestyle. Both of them had been devoted students to their two electronic teachers, eagerly learning everything that Gidget and Gazmo wanted to teach them.

While learning the culture and customs of the Cheyenne Indians, the two 5th graders spent many hours exploring the area, hiking for miles along the clear, pure streams, swimming in the cool lakes, and hunting the abundant game.

Laura and Jon Max had learned to prepare the game they killed so it could be cooked and eaten. They had learned to clean the scales from the fish they caught and then roast them slowly over a low fire. With the help of their lifeguard units they had located many types of berries and nuts, along with plants which had edible roots.

Although most of the week had been extremely enjoyable, one terrifying event had almost cost them their lives. While hiking along the banks of a small stream, they rounded a sharp bend and found themselves facing a mother grizzly bear and her two cubs!





Gidget and Gazmo were just seconds away from rescuing the two young people by causing an emergency time jump that would take them out of danger. But just before the lifeguard units did this, Jon Max ordered them to activate the stealth mode.

To the angry bear, the two 5th graders suddenly seemed to vanish from sight!

While the confused grizzly starred at the place where two Cheyenne Indians had stood a moment before, the two brave youngsters remained motionless and quiet, waiting to see what would happen.

Suddenly one of the two cubs came hobbling towards them, it's black nose twitching as it smelled a fish that Laura had caught an hour earlier and stowed in a pouch that hung from her belt.

Realizing what the little bear cub was smelling, Laura quickly pulled out the fish and stuck it under the cub's nose. The bear felt the invisible fish being pushed against its mouth, and he bit down on it. Laura let go of the fish and took a careful step backwards. Suddenly the fish was no longer invisible, and the little cub ran right between Laura and Jon Max, heading along the bank of the stream with its new-found prize, hoping not to have to share it with its mother and brother. But little brother bear took off after the cub with the fish, and the mother bear charged off after the two of them.





The two 5th graders had courageously stood their ground and let the mother grizzly race between them. In seconds the bears were gone from sight, and the two 5th graders hurried off in the opposite direction, putting as much distance as they could between themselves and the grizzlies.

Later, when they were a safe distance from the bears, Jon Max jokingly said that Laura had earned his adult Indian name a second time. Truly, Sho-karee had proven himself again to be "Braver than the Beast".

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Now, ten days later, they were learning a new Cheyenne skill – horseback riding. The strong muscles they had developed while hiking, hunting, and fishing in the forest allowed them to be strong enough to endure the hours of instruction and practice which Poke-Moh-kav had given them during the last three days. In fact, the Cheyenne boy felt both pride and surprise at the way his visiting friends had learned to ride their horses so quickly.

Poke-Moh-kav had allowed his two friends occasional rest periods during their long riding lessons. During the rest periods, the time traveling 5th graders had given their Cheyenne friends a very simple explanation of how they managed to show up just in time to rescue them from the Crow raiders. They told their friends that they had left the area near the Columbia river a year ago and spent some time exploring during their trip, before they finally arrived at the place where the Crow raiders had threatened the Cheyenne hunters.

Strictly speaking this was true. They could not, of course, explain that Jon Max's anywhen device had made it possible for them to disappear in Washington state — one year ago — and reappear instantly here in Missouri.

Because a year had passed since Poke-Moh-kav last saw them, the Cheyenne boy naturally assumed Jon Max and Laura had made the long journey the same way as he and his father had. Poke-Moh-kav and his father had followed the Columbia river to it's source, high on the west side of the Rocky Mountains, then crossed the Rockies and followed the Missouri River until they reached the region now occupied by their village.

It was Gidget and Gazmo who had located Poke-Moh-kav and his friends and guided them to the place by the stream where the young Cheyenne hunters had been ambushed by the group of Crowe raiders.

The amazing little lifeguard units warned the young time travelers that Poke-Moh-kav was in trouble. Using the invisibility of the lifeguard units' stealth mode, Jon-Max and Laura had crept up on the scene just in time to help Poke-Moh-kav and his two friends defeat the Crow raiders and keep the deer they needed to feed their families.

Laura was sitting atop her tall horse, remembering the amazing things that had happened during the last ten days, when her thoughts were interrupted by Poke-Moh-kav's voice.

"Are you two ready to do some more riding?" Poke-Moh-kav asked his two friends when he decided that the rest period should be over. Laura and Jon Max nodded.

"Good," said Poke-Moh-kav. "Let's find out how much you've learned. You've both become very good at staying on while your horses are at a full gallop. So, let's all race back to the village. My friends and I will give you a head start, then we'll try to catch up with you."

Jon Max and Laura turned there horses towards the village, located a quarter-mile away. The both slapped their mounts on the rump and took off at a fair gallop, clinging to their horses with all their newly acquired strength. As the swift animals raced across the flat grassy meadow that bordered the river, the wind blew in their faces and the ground streaked along beneath the pounding hooves of their two powerful steeds.

The two novice riders felt a heart-pounding excitement like nothing they had ever experienced before. Racing along on these powerful beasts was more thrilling than any roller coaster ride they'd ever been on!

Poke-Moh-kav and his two friends waited until their visiting friends were a hundred feet away, then they dug their heels into the sides of their steeds and let out screams of delight. The well-trained animals responded by plowing up the ground beneath their hooves and bolting after the two 5th graders. The three Cheyenne youths leaned well forward, almost lying on their horses' backs as they sped along.

Jon Max and Laura were concentrating on staying atop their galloping mounts, and they hadn't even bothered to look behind them. Suddenly they both heard a thunderous sound approaching from the rear. Seconds later the three Cheyenne boys cruised passed them, their own horses sprinting much faster than the horses ridden by the two less experienced time travelers.

As they went by, the Cheyenne boys turned to grin at Laura and Jon Max for a moment, then they forcused their full attention to urging their horses to even greater speed, racing each other to the village ahead.

The two 5th graders allowed their own horses to slow a little, and they watched the Cheyenne boys speed towards the village. Soon the racers were so far away that it was difficult to tell who was winning the race, but it seemed that Poke-Moh-kav had a slight lead.

Minutes later, when the Laura and Jon Max rode into the village, a group of teenagers and younger children were crowding around Poke-Moh-kav as he stood next to his horse, slapping him on the back and congratulating him for beating his two Cheyenne friends.

Laura and Jon Max leapt from their horses and joined the happy throng. After a few minutes the crowd began to break up as the children went back to chores they had been doing or games they had been playing when the race caught their attention.

A young girl came up and told Poke-Moh-kav's two friends that they had been ordered by their fathers to begin preparations for the buffalo hunt that would take place in a few hours.

Jon Max and Laura were eager to be included in the hunt, but they weren't sure that Chief Woke-Go-Hoatawa' (White Buffalo) would allow them to do so. Poke-Moh-kav had explained that it all depended on how well they could ride their horses. If the two 5th graders proved that they could keep up with the men and woman involved in the hunt, the chief might allow them go along and watch from a nearby hill.

"Well, what do you think?" Jon Max said to Poke-Moh-kav. "Can we ride well enough, yet?"

Poke-Moh-kav pondered the question for a moment, studying his two friends as they stood next to their mounts. “Perhaps you can,” he said, nodding his head slowly. "We can ask the chief to watch a short demonstration." Then, with a large smile, he added, "Let’s all hope that Nu-konee can stay on long enough to impress him."

Laura broke into a loud laugh at Poke-Moh-kav's joke, but Jon Max didn’t seem quite so amused. The three friends set off in search of the Chief Woke-Go-Hoatawa'.

_________*__________*__________*__________*

The buffalo herd was so large that Laura could see no end to it. The huge shaggy animals stretched across the land as far as the eye could see. The Cheyenne hunting party sat on their horses at the top of a small hill, looking down on the wide, grass-covered plain below. They were carefully hidden from the herd by a row of low bushes that grew amidst the tall, green grass.

The sky was dotted with clouds, and it appeared that an afternoon thunderstorm might be building on the northern horizon. The possibility of getting caught in a rainstorm out here on the plains didn't appeal to Jon Max and Laura, but their Cheyenne friends didn't seem worried about it, so they didn't say anything to Poke-Moh-kav, who sat next to them on his own horse.

Jon Max turned to Poke-Moh-kav and said, "How many buffalo do you think there are in this herd?"

The Cheyenne boy looked puzzled by the question. "Who could count so many, Nu-konee? It would be like counting the stars in the sky."

The remarked puzzled Jon Max for a moment until he realized that the Cheyenne people did not have the same kind of numeric system that he and Laura used in the future. The concept of numbers in the thousands and millions was totally unknown to them.

Jon Max lowered his head and whispered to his lifeguard unit. "Gidget? How many buffalo are in this herd?"

The lifeguard unit answered in that special way which only Jon-Max could hear. "If you mean how many buffalo can be seen from where you are now sitting, there are two-hundred fifty-five thousand, one hundred eighty-nine," said the pleasant female voice of the miniature computer.

Jon Max thought about the answer for a second, then he whispered, "So . . . you mean there are more buffalo in the herd than the ones I can see from here?"

"That's right, Jon Max."

"How many are in the herd altogether? I mean, including the ones too far away to see?"

"Five-hundred seventy-two thousand, six hundred and twelve."

Jon Max's mouth hung open in amazement as he realized that he was only looking at about half the entire herd of buffalo — even though the half he could see was covering the land all the way to the horizon!

Jon Max turned to tell Laura what he had just learned, but before he spoke, his friend leaned close and said, "Gazmo just told me what you asked Gidget. And he told me the answer, too. Wow, that is one heck of a lot of shaggy buffalo, huh?"

Jon Max nodded and went back to gazing in wonder at the spectacle before him. As he did so, he heard the soft sound of a horse approaching slowly from behind as it rustled the tall grass. Jon Max turned to see Hestsesta-Hoest' on horseback, his horse moving quietly so as not to alert the nervous herd. He brought his horse to a halt behind Poke-Moh-kav.

"We are almost ready, my son," Hestsesta-Hoest' said in a low voice. "We must hurry. The approaching storm is making the herd nervous. But we're lucky because the wind from the storm is preventing our scent from reaching the buffalo." Then he placed a kindly hand on his son's shoulder and said. "I would like for you to stay with your friends up here on the hill so that you can answer any questions they have about our hunting ways."

Poke-Moh-kav was silent for a moment as wrestled with this disappoint at not being able to participate in the hunt. Finally he said, "Yes, father,"

Hestsesta-Hoest' turned his horse and moved off quietly towards the group of hunters who were positioned behind another group of bushes at the foot of the low hill, near the edge of the herd.

Poke-Moh-kav and his two visiting friends watched as the hidden hunters moved carefully into position. A group of women were with the mounted men, but the women were on foot. It would be their job to quietly move through the tall grass until they were actually among the buffalo in the herd. Their goal was to get between the main part of the herd and a few stragglers near the edge. Then the women would let the stragglers see them so that a few of the buffalo would move back towards the mounted men, who would then kill the animals with arrows and long lances.

Jon Max turned to Poke-Moh-kav and whispered a question to him. "What would the women do if one of the buffalo suddenly charged at them?"

Poke-Moh-kav never took his eyes off the hunters at the edge of the herd while he answered Jon-Max quietly, his young face looking several years older than usual from the concern he felt for hunters.

"They would run. Very fast. Or they would die."

Jon Max looked a little more pale than usual as he shifted his worried gaze from Poke-Moh-kav to the hunting party. In a voice that could barely be heard, he just said, "Oh.”

Earlier that morning, Poke-Moh-kav had explained that if the women were not able to move the buffalo towards the area where the men on horseback were waiting, the mounted hunters would have to rush the buffalo and slay them as they rode along next to the running beasts. This was both difficult and dangerous.

It was difficult because shooting an arrow into just the right spot to kill the buffalo required expert marksmanship. Animals that were merely wounded would become frightened, run faster, and become lost in the herd.

And it was dangerous because the mounted hunters had to ride along next to their prey while being surrounded by hundreds of galloping buffalo. Any one of these huge and powerful beasts could suddenly attack the rider's horse with its deadly horns. If the horse was gored by the buffalo, it would stumble and fall, and the rider would be crushed beneath the hooves of the stampeding animals.

Laura and Jon Max watched the beginning of the hunt from their place of hiding among the low bushes. As they did so, they both began to feel a growing anxiety for their Cheyenne friends. Even though the sight of the gigantic herd of buffalo was a fascinating scene, the two time travelers couldn't help worrying about what might happen to their friends.

The clouds on the distant horizon beyond the grazing herd had grown even darker and more ominous within the last few minutes. A low rumble of thunder reached the ears of the watching trio of young people, and they saw a growing restlessness in the herd. They could see some of the women crawling slowly through the tall grass, attempting to move to an area between several of the buffalo and the rest of the herd. The women were being careful not to be seen by the shaggy beasts. They knew that the slightest thing could frighten these dangerous animals, in spite of the fact that they each weighed thousands of pounds and were armed with their deadly horns.

Finally the group of women reached the place in the grass that positioned them between a small group of grazing buffalo and the rest of the herd. Slowly they stood up and let themselves be seen by the shaggy beasts. They stood absolutely motionless, hoping to make the animals just nervous enough by their presence to cause the hugh beast to move away from the women — and towards the hidden hunters in the nearby bushes.

A few of the female buffalo began to move slowly towards the bushes, but one huge male began moving towards the women. Perhaps this great beast was acting to protect the female buffalo from this new and unknown menace. If so, the women were in danger. The massive animals might charge at any moment, and it could easily kill several of the women before they reached safety.

As the male buffalo moved closer and closer to the group of women, the courageous ladies held their ground, standing as still as statues. They new that if they suddenly started running towards the bushes, two things would happen — the huge male buffalo would charge at them, and the herd would stampede away from the carefully hidden hunters. And so, the women held completely still, waiting for the moment when the hidden hunters would make their decision about what to do next.

Suddenly three arrows lanced out from the bushes and found their deadly marks in the great beast’s hide! The huge creature let out a bellow of pain and rage. It turned quickly to its left, ready to fight whatever had caused the sudden pain in its side.

At the same instant, the mounted hunters exploded from their hiding places. Four more arrows pierced the shaggy hide of the male buffalo, and it collapsed into the tall grass.





The female buffalo wheeled away from the approaching hunters and galloped away in a blind panic. The horseman dug their heels into their mounts and sprinted after their prey.

Laura, Jon Max, and Poke-Moh-kav spotted their two friends, Hahkota and E-meho'hotohkeo, racing along with the group of hunters as they sprinted after the fleeing female buffalo.





The affect of this sudden attack on the rest of the herd created a sight that Laura would never forget as long as she lived. It was like watching a wave on the ocean, a wave that flowed away from Laura towards the distant horizon. The wave was caused by the sudden panic of more and more buffalo as they turned and began to flee away from the attacking hunters.





A cloud of dust began to rise up as thousands of hooves churned the grass, and thousands of buffalo changed from gently grazing animals into a massive engine of kinetic energy. The sound of their pounding hooves rose like the noise of some terrible earthquake that threatened to shake the Earth apart.

As the wave of panic moved further and further from the place where the hunters had first appeared, the buffalo stampede became a thing that created itself. The buffalo who were further away the point of origin hadn't even seen the hunters, but they were turning to flee simply because they saw the other frightened buffalo running towards them!





And then it happened . . .

As the gigantic herd of frightened buffalo plunged madly towards the distant horizon, a bright bolt of lightning split the dark sky beneath the clouds and stabbed the earth with a flash of terrible brilliance, less than a mile away.





As Laura and Jon Max watched with wide-eyed amazement, the fear-crazed herd of buffalo was divided into two groups by the dazzling bolt of electricity. All the fear-crazed animals on the near side of the lightning bolt split into two groups and made a rapid turn. The flowing herd curved back towards the area where the buffalo hunters were located. The buffalo behind them followed the new dirrection of the stampede.

Thousands of buffalo were suddenly racing right back towards the hunters who had been pursuing them!

Hestsesta-Hoest', Hahkota, E-meho'hotohkeo, and all the other hunters turned their horses and raced back towards the women — who were now running for their lives as the herd approached them. The galloping horses of the hunters were barely keeping ahead of the stampede as they caught up with the running women.

One by one, each of the women were picked up by a rider who raced up behind her, leaned down from his horse, grabbed the woman’s arms, and swung her up onto his horse. The riders and the stampeding herd were rapidly approaching the place where Laura Jon Max, and Poke-Moh-kav were located.

"Follow me!" Poke-Moh-kav shouted above the deafening noise of the stampede as the first of the hunters rode past. "We must get behind that large group of rocks! They are the only thing strong enough to protect us from the buffalo!"

Poke-Moh-kav turned his horse and dug his heels into the animal's sides, sending it lunging forward. Laura and Jon Max did the same, and the three young people clung to their horses as they streaked towards a large formation of rocks that jutted out of the prairie like a stony island in a sea of grass.

The other hunters, riding just ahead of the three young people, were heading for the same formation of rocks. But the rocks were more than five hundred yards away, and the panic-stricken buffalo were almost on the heels of the desperately fleeing hunters.

Poke-Moh-kav was a much better rider than his two visiting friends, and his horse pulled ahead of Laura and Jon Max as they all raced for their lives from the deadly hooves of the massive buffalo stampede.

Hahkota was just a few dozen feet ahead of the two time travelers. The young boy was not carrying a woman on his horses, having left this difficult task to the stronger men. Pok-Moh-kav's fleet stallion began to inch past Hahkota's horse.

Suddenly Hahkota's horse veered unexpectedly to avoid the carcass of an old buffalo that had lain hidden in the tall grass. When his horse lurched sideways, Hahkota was thrown from his mount, and he plunged to the ground. The agile young Cheyenne boy rolled along the ground for an instant, then he was up and running for his life, frantically trying to catch up with his galloping horse. The animal had slowed down slightly when it felt its rider slip from its back, but it was still moving faster than Hahkota could possibly hope to run!

Several of the stampeding buffalo were less than fifty feet behind the two 5th graders.

As Laura and Jon Max rapidly caught up with the running youth, they both knew exactly what had to be done. Leaning to the side the way they had seen the hunters do when they picked up the women, the two time travelers held their free arms low to the ground. As their horses came up next to Hahkota on each side, they hooked their arms beneath his shoulders. Then, straining with every ounce of their strength, screaming at the top of their lungs, they lifted Hahkota into the air. For a moment the young boy's running feet were peddling in the air before he realized that he had been picked up. Wearing a wide-eyed look of total surprise, he turned his head quickly left and right to see who his rescuers were. Then he focused his attention ahead when he suddenly realized that Laura and Jon Max were rapidly coming up behind his own riderless horse!

The stampeding buffalo were getting closer and closer. The thunderous sound of their hooves on hard ground was as terrify as the sight of the animals' sharp horns.

The two 5th graders were gritting their teeth as they made a savage effort to lift Hahkota up higher and higher until finally his legs were sliding over the back of his own horse. Jon Max and Laura dropped Hahkota atop his galloping mount. The instant Hahkota was back aboard his horse, all three of the young people dug their heels into their horses' sides and sprinted the last dozen yards to the large rocky outcropping.

Turning sharply as they came around the side of the island of rock, the three young people joined the tightly huddled group of hunters who were pressed together in the blessed safety of the shelter which the cluster of rocks provided. Most of the hunters had leapt from their horses and were tightly gripping the reins of the terrified animals, trying to keep the horses from blindly running out into the stampeding buffalo where they would be trampled to death beneath their deadly hooves.

All around them, the buffalo flowed past like a river of death, filling the air with a cloud of dust that made it impossible to see more than a few dozen feet in any direction. The choking dust made it difficult to breathe, and the ground trembled beneath their feet. The sound was so deafening that many of the people held their hands tightly clamped over their ears. Several of the women were crying, and even the bravest of the hunters held an undeniable fear in their eyes as they watched the hairy giants race past them.

For over twenty minutes the frightened group waited and watched as the buffalo herd stormed past their little island of safety. Finally the number of passing buffalo began to dwindle. Hestsesta-Hoest' climbed carefully up onto one of the rocks so that he see in the direction from which the buffalo were coming. By the time he climbed back down the noise had subsided enough for him to be heard as he shouted a quick report to the waiting group of people.

"The dust still makes it hard to see, but I think the last of the buffalo will be passing in a few moments. As soon as it is safe, we'll be able to go out and discover how many of the buffalo were killed in the stampede."

Laura turned to Poke-Moh-kav and said, "Why do we want to know how many were killed?"

Pok-Moh-kav gave his friend the first smile she had seen since the hunt had started. "Remember, Sho-karee, we came here to kill buffalo to get the things we need, such as meat for food, bones for tools, and the hides for our robes and teepees. In a stampede like the one we just saw, several buffalo are killed because they stumble and fall."

Laura was beginning to understand. "Oh, of course! Your tribe can use the buffalo that were killed, just as easily as the ones you would kill yourself during the hunt."

"Right," said Pok-Moh-kav. "The only problem is that the hides of the buffalo killed in the stampede will be damaged, unlike the hides we would have gotten during the hunt.”

Poke-Moh-kav sighed wearily, but then he smiled again and said, "But perhaps we will be lucky."

A few minutes later the group of hunters ventured out from their place of safety to survey the land around them. Laura and Jon Max were amazed at the change in the landscape. The tall green grass of the prairie had been trampled into the dirt by the stampeding buffalo. The air was still not completely clear of the tremendous dust cloud that had been raised by the hooves of the mighty animals. Bushes and small trees that had dotted the prairie before the stampede were now gone, trampled to splitters by thousands of hooves.

Not a buffalo was in sight. Even those that had been grazing on the distant horizon before the lightning bolt had struck had now disappeared from view. The tall, green grass that had covered the prairie for as far as the eye could see had been reduced to a trampled and dusty matt by the mad rush of the massive beast when they thundered across the land.

The carcasses of more than twenty buffalo dotted the battered earth, and the Cheyenne began the grisly task of skinning and butchering the bodies of the dead animals. Even though both Jon Max and Laura could not bring themselves to watch the bloody work, it was a happy time for the Cheyenne, for they knew that now they could count on surviving the harsh Missouri winter with the help of the dried buffalo meat and the warm buffalo robes they would get from this day's work.

_________*__________*__________*__________*

The long day ended with a happy celebration in the Cheyenne village that evening. Huge bonfires were built throughout the village, and large pieces of buffalo meat were roasted on long poles that turned slowly over the fires. It reminded the two time travelers of their first evening with the Ice Age Indians, when they had roasted mammoth meat over large fires, just like the Cheyenne were doing now.

Laura and Jon Max wandered through the village, laughing and joking with the joyful people, listening to the stories they told of great buffalo hunts from the past.

The exciting tale of how the two mysterious and brave visitors had plucked Hahkota from the jaws of death by lifting him up and placing him back on his horse had spread quickly through the village. The two proud time travelers once again found themselves being honored as heroes. They saw in the faces of the people around them a new and heartfelt respect, and the two 5th graders knew it would be hard to leave these noble people when the time came for them to jump to their next time travel adventure.

But they also knew they would never forget the wonderful things they had learned about the Cheyenne way of life. And they knew that what they had learned would make them much wiser than most of the young people their age.

NEXT: CHAPTER 16 ~ Rebuilding America
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)