odosia, my child," said he. "Let me kiss you, as your
father or your grandfather would--one who holds you tenderly in his
heart. Forgive me that I pass sentence on you both, but you must
part--you must not ask him back. There now, my dear, do not weep, or
you will make me weep. Let me kiss you for him--and let us all go on
about our duties in the world. My dear, good-by! You must go."

CHAPTER X

THE THRESHOLD OF THE WEST

Meriwether Lewis, having put behind him one set of duties, now
addressed himself to another, and did so with care and thoroughness. A
few of his men, a part of his outfitting, he found already assembled
at Harper's Ferry, up the Potomac. Before sunset of the first day the
little band knew they had a leader.

There was not a knife or a tomahawk of the entire equipment which he
himself did not examine--not a rifle which he himself did not
personally test. He went over the boxes and bales which had been
gathered here, and saw to their arrangement in the transport-wagons.
He did all this without bluster or officiousness, but with the quiet
care and thoroughness of the natural leader of men.

In two days they were on their way across the Alleghanies. A few days
more of steady travel sufficed to bring them to Pittsburgh, the head
of navigation on the Ohio River, and at that time the American capital
in the upper valley of the West. At Pittsburgh Captain Lewis was to
build his boats, to complete the details of his equipment, to take on
additional men for his party--now to be officially styled the
Volunteers for the Discovery of the West. He lost no time in urging
forward the necessary work.

The young adventurer found this inland town half maritime in its look.
Its shores were lined with commerce suited to a seaport. Schooners of
considerable tonnage lay at the wharfs, others were building in the
busy shipyards. The destination of these craft obviously was down the
Mississippi, to the sea. Here were vessels bound for the West Indies,
bound for Philadelphia, for New York, for Boston--carrying the
products of this distant and little-known interior.

As he looked at this commerce of the great West, pondered its
limitations, saw its trend with the down-slant of the perpetual
roadway to the sea, there came to the young officer's mind with
greater force certain arguments that had been advanced to him.

He saw that here was the heart of America, realized how natural was
the insistence of all these