Otoes and Missouri Indians. Then there were presents and
speeches, and they hung some D.S.O. medals on a half dozen of the chiefs
and told them to be good, or the Great Father at Washington would get
them.

"Well, that's all right. But what I want you to notice is the camp at
Council Bluffs. That wasn't where the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa, is,
but on the opposite side of the river, about twenty-five miles above
Omaha--not far from Fort Calhoun. There was no Omaha then. I can
remember my own self when Omaha was young. I used to shoot quail on the
Elkhorn and the Papilion Creek, just above Omaha, and grand sport there
was for quail and grouse and ducks all through that country then.

"But Lewis and Clark had a wide eye. They knew natural points of
advantage, and they must have foreseen what the Platte Valley was going
to mean before long. They say that Council Bluffs was 'a verry proper
place for a Tradeing Establishment and fortification.' Trust them to
know the 'verry proper places'! Only, what I can't understand is the
note that it is 'twenty-five days from this to Santafee.' That's a
puzzler. The natural place of departure for Santa Fe was where Kansas
City is, not Omaha. But, surely, they had heard of it, somehow."

"Well," said Rob, "we're doing pretty well, pretty well. In spite of
delays, we're at the mouth of the Platte, sixteen days out, and they
didn't get there till July 21st. I figure three hundred and sixty-six
miles to Kansas City, and two hundred and sixty-six miles to here, say
six hundred and thirty-two miles for sixteen days--the river chart says
six hundred and thirty-five miles. That keeps us pretty close to our
average we set--over forty miles a day. We've got to boost that, though.

"Are we going to stop at Omaha, sir?" he added, rather anxiously.

"Not on anybody's life!" rejoined Uncle Dick. "Nice place, but we're a
day late. No, sir, we'll skip through without even a salute to the
tribes from our bow piece. We've got to get up among the Sioux. Dorion
has been talking all the time about the Sioux. So good-by for the
present to the Platte tribes, the Pawnees, Missouris, and Otoes."

"Gee! I'd like to shoot something," said Jesse, wistfully. "Just reading
about things, now!"

"Forget it for a while, Jess," smiled his uncle. "Just remember that
we're under the eaves of two great cities, here at Plattsmouth. Take
comfort in the elk and beaver sign you can imagine in the sand, here at
the mou