home table to the camp fare of bacon and beans. I then despised these
ruder viands, but now I desire to pay my tribute to them by saying that
as a basis for campaigning they are the very best. In hot weather you
eat more beans and less bacon, and when the weather is cold your diet is
easily arranged in the reverse order.

The boats were speedily launched upon the swift current at the bridge
and steered down to a little cove on the left, a few hundred yards
below, where they were hauled out on a beach to give them the finishing
touches of preparation, like attaching canvas covers to the cabins, and
so forth. Nearby, amongst the willows, we established our first camp--a
place of real luxury, for Mr. Field, who had an outfitting house
here, lent us a table and two benches. Andy set up some crotches and a
cross-bar, to hang his kettles on, and with a cast-iron bake oven--one
of the kind like a flat, iron pot, in which, after it is stood upon a
bed of hot coals, the bread is placed, and then the cast-iron cover is
put on, and laden with hot coals--began his experiments in cookery, for
it was a new art to him. In the beginning he was rather too liberal with
his salaratus, but the product gave us the pleasant delusion of having
reached a land of gold nuggets. Andy soon improved, and we learned to
appreciate his rare skill to such an extent that the moment he took his
old hat and with it lifted the coffee-pot off the fire, and then placed
beside it the bread and bacon with the pleasing remark: "Well, now,
go fur it, boys!" we lost not a moment in accepting the invitation. As
bread must be made for every meal, Andy's was no easy berth, for his
work on the river was the same as that of the rest of us. It was only
when we were engaged in a portage near dinner or supper time that he
was permitted to devote his entire attention to the preparation of
our elaborate meals. Bean soup, such as Andy made, is one of the most
delicious things in the world; and Delmonico could not hold a candle to
his coffee. Our three boats bore the names Emma Dean, after Mrs. Powell,
Nellie Powell, after Major Powell's sister, Mrs. Thompson, and Canonita.
The men and their assignment to the boats were these: J. W. Powell,
S. V. Jones, J. K. Hillers; F. S. Dellenbaugh--the Emma Dean; A. H.
Thompson, J. F. Steward, F. M. Bishop, F. C. A. Richardson--the Nellie
Powell; E. O. Beaman, W. C. Powell, A. J. Hattan--the Canonita.

Jones had been a teacher in Illino