listen,
Will--the mind of a woman is better for small things than that of a
man. They pick up trifles and hang on to them. I'd as soon trust that
girl for a guide out yonder as any horse-stealing warrior in a hurry
to get into a country and in a hurry to get out of it again. Raiding
parties cling to the river-courses, which they know; but she and her
people must have been far to the west of any place these adventurers
of the Minnetarees ever saw. Sacajawea she calls herself--the 'Bird
Woman.' I swear I look upon that name itself as a good omen! She has
come back like a dove to the ark, this Bird Woman. William Clark, we
shall reach the sea--or, at least, you will do so, Will," he
concluded.

"What do you mean, Merne? Surely, if I do, you will also!"

"I cannot be sure."

The florid face of William Clark showed a frown of displeasure.

"You are not as well as you should be--you work too much. That is not
just to Mr. Jefferson, Merne, nor to our men, nor to me."

"It was for that reason I took you on. Doesn't a man have two lungs,
two arms, two limbs, two eyes? We are those for Mr. Jefferson--even
crippled, the expedition will live. You are as my own other hand. I
exult to see you every morning smiling out of your blankets, hopeful
and hungry!"

Meriwether Lewis turned to his colleague with the sweet smile which
sometimes his friends saw.

"You see, I am a fatalist," he went on. "Ah, you laugh at me! My
people must have been owners of the second sight, I have often told
you. Humor me, Will, bear with me. Don't question me too deep. Your
flag, Will, I know will be planted on the last parapet of life--you
were born to succeed. For myself, I still must remember what my mother
told me--something about the burden which would be too heavy, the
trail which would be long. At times I doubt."

"Confound it, Merne, you have not been yourself since you got that
accursed letter in the night last summer!"

"It was unsettling, I don't deny."

"I pray Heaven you'll never get another!" said William Clark. "From a
married woman, too! Thank God I've no such affair on my mind!"

"It is taboo, Will--that one thing!"

And Clark, growling anathemas on all women, stalked away to find his
axmen.

The snows had come soft and deep, blown on the icy winds. The horses
of the Mandans were housed in the lodges, and lived on cottonwood
instead of grass. When the vast herds of buffalo came down from the
broken hills into the shelter of