there early that day."

"Which way shall we go?" asked Rob. "If we took the road along the
Northern Pacific west, we could see the Bad Lands, and go through
Medora, Theodore Roosevelt's old town."

The editor shook his head. "Bad, if there's rain," he said. "Besides,
that takes you below the Missouri. I think we'd best go on the east side
the river, north of Bismarck. We could swing out toward the Turtle
Lakes, and then make more west, toward the Fort Berthold Reservation.
From there we could maybe get through till we struck the Great Northern
Railroad; and then we could get west to Buford, on the line, and on the
river again. If we got lost we could find ourselves again some time."

"How long would it take?" inquired Rob.

"If it's two hundred and eighty-eight miles by the river, it would be
maybe two hundred and fifty by trail. We could do it in a day, on a
straightaway good road like one of the motor highways, but we'll have
nothing of the sort. I'll say two days, three, maybe four--we'd know
better when we got there."

"That sounds more adventurish," said Jesse. And what the youngest of
them thought appealed to the others also.

"Very well. All set for the morning after the Fourth," said Uncle Dick.
"And when we go back to Mandan be sure not to eat too much ice cream,
for we're not apt to run across very many doctors on the way. And now
we'd better get ready to camp here to-night. We can make Mandan by noon
to-morrow--it's faster, downstream."

"On the way," said their friend, "I want you to go around to the coulee
below town, where there's three or four tepees of Sioux in camp. What do
they do? Oh, make little things to sell in town--and not above begging a
little. There's one squaw we call Mary, who has been coming here a good
many years. She makes about the finest moccasins we ever get. She made
my wife a pair, out of buckskin white as snow. I don't know where she
got it."

"The Sioux had parfleche soles to all their moccasins," said John,
wisely. "All the buffalo and Plains Indians did. The forest Indians had
soft soles."

"You're right, son," said the editor. "For modern bedroom moccasins, to
sell to white women, Mary makes them all soft, with a shallow ankle
flap. Most of the Indian men wear shoes now, but when she makes a pair
of men's moccasins she always puts on the raw-hide soles. You can see
the hair on the bottoms, sometimes."

"Buffalo hair?" smiled Jesse.

"Well, no. The Indians use beef