noon
`` Teacher says vamoose -- heap bother pappooses , '' said Jack . The Indian grunted and walked away . `` Nothing like understanding the language , '' boasted Jack , as we went back to the wagon . At noon we camped beside a stream , but thirty feet above it . There was a clay bank almost as hard as stone rising perpendicularly from the water 's edge . With a pail and rope we drew up all the water we needed . In the afternoon we got our first sight of the Black Hills , like clouds low on the northern horizon .