all your folks were crying the day we left Camp McDermitt. Dear sister, it is not safe to go to them. Of course we know only what the white men told us. Oh, we do hope it is not so. If Natchez is killed by the Bannocks, oh, it will be too bad indeed.”
Oh, when they told me this sad news about my dear brother, my heart was dead within me. A thousand thoughts passed through my mind. I said to myself, “If my brother was killed by the Bannocks and we do go and be killed by them too!” Then I told Captain Bernard the Indian men would not go for love or money. I told the captain I would go, if I had to go alone, and he would give me a good horse. He said,—
“Sarah, you cannot go, can you?”
“Yes, I will go if there is a horse to carry me.”
“Sarah, if you are in earnest, I will send a telegram to General Howard and see what he says about it.”
On the morning of June 13th I got up very early and went down to the camp and had my breakfast, and then I called the Indians, and asked George to accompany me to Malheur Agency or to the whereabouts of the hostile Bannocks.
“Are you playing with me, Sarah, or do you think I would let you go alone? No, no, I will go with you,— John and I will go.”
“Well, we will go as soon as the telegram comes from General Howard. George, we will go, no matter what comes of it. There is nothing that will stop me.”
Just as I got these words out of my mouth, Captain Bernard called me, and I went to him.
The darkest wave hath bright foam ‘neath it,
And twinkle; o’er the cloudiest night
Some solitary star to cheer it.
