But the Sioux and the Pawnees kept on fighting, and the boy stood around
and watched the battle. And at last he said to himself, "I have been
four times and have killed four Sioux, and I am all right, I am not hurt
anywhere; why may I not go again?" So he jumped on the dun horse, and
charged again. But when he got among the Sioux, one Sioux warrior drew
an arrow and shot. The arrow struck the dun horse behind the forelegs
and pierced him through. And the horse fell down dead. But the boy
jumped off, and fought his way through the Sioux, and ran away as fast
as he could to the Pawnees. Now, as soon as the horse was killed, the
Sioux said to each other: "This horse was like a man. He was brave. He
was not like a horse." And they took their knives and hatchets, and
hacked the dun horse and gashed his flesh, and cut him into small
pieces.
The Pawnees and Sioux fought all day long, but toward night the Sioux
broke and fled.
IV
The boy felt very badly that he had lost his horse; and, after the fight
was over, he went out from the village to where it had taken place, to
mourn for his horse. He went to the spot where the horse lay, and
gathered up all the pieces of flesh, which the Sioux had cut off, and
the legs and the hoofs, and put them all together in a pile. Then he
went off to the top of a hill near by, and sat down and drew his robe
over his head, and began to mourn for his horse.
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