ether safe in a place
where every man carries a loaded pistol in his pocket. As we passed this
establishment, we saw Vogel's broad German face and knavish-looking eyes
thrust from his door. He said he had something to tell us, and
invited us to take a dram. Neither his liquor nor his message was very
palatable. The captain had returned to give us notice that R., who
assumed the direction of his party, had determined upon another route
from that agreed upon between us; and instead of taking the course of
the traders, to pass northward by Fort Leavenworth, and follow the path
marked out by the dragoons in their expedition of last summer. To adopt
such a plan without consulting us, we looked upon as a very high-handed
proceeding; but suppressing our dissatisfaction as well as we could, we
made up our minds to join them at Fort Leavenworth, where they were to
wait for us.

Accordingly, our preparation being now complete, we attempted one fine
morning to commence our journey. The first step was an unfortunate one.
No sooner were our animals put in harness, than the shaft mule reared
and plunged, burst ropes and straps, and nearly flung the cart into
the Missouri. Finding her wholly uncontrollable, we exchanged her
for another, with which we were furnished by our friend Mr. Boone of
Westport, a grandson of Daniel Boone, the pioneer. This foretaste of
prairie experience was very soon followed by another. Westport was
scarcely out of sight, when we encountered a deep muddy gully, of a
species that afterward became but too familiar to us; and here for the
space of an hour or more the car stuck fast.

CHAPTER II

BREAKING THE ICE

Both Shaw and myself were tolerably inured to the vicissitudes of
traveling. We had experienced them under various forms, and a birch
canoe was as familiar to us as a steamboat. The restlessness, the love
of wilds and hatred of cities, natural perhaps in early years to every
unperverted son of Adam, was not our only motive for undertaking the
present journey. My companion hoped to shake off the effects of a
disorder that had impaired a constitution originally hardy and robust;
and I was anxious to pursue some inquiries relative to the character and
usages of the remote Indian nations, being already familiar with many of
the border tribes.

Emerging from the mud-hole where we last took leave of the reader, we
pursued our way for some time along the narrow track, in the checkered
sunshine and