o read about him and all the others. It's likely, Dick,
before another year is past, that you and I will become about the
finest historians of our country to be found anywhere between the
Atlantic and Pacific. Maybe this is the greatest treasure of all
that the wagon has yielded up to us."

Albert was right. A single volume, where no other could be
obtained, was a precious treasure to them, and it made many an
evening pass pleasantly that would otherwise have been dull.
They liked especially to linger over the hardships of the
borderers and of their countrymen in war, because they found so
many parallels to their own case, and the reading always brought
them new courage and energy.

They spent the next month after the completion of the canoe in
making all kinds of traps, including some huge dead falls for
grizzly bear and silver tip.

They intended as soon as the autumn opened to begin their fur
operations on a much larger scale than those of the year before.
Numerous excursions into the surrounding mountains showed
abundant signs of game and no signs of an invader, and they
calculated that if all went well they would have stored safely by
next spring at least twenty thousand dollars' worth of furs.

The summer passed pleasantly for both, being filled with work in
which they took a great interest, and hence a great pleasure.
They found another rock cavity, which they fitted up like the
first in anticipation of an auspicious trapping season.

"They say, 'don't put all your eggs in one basket,'" said
Albert, "and so we won't put all our furs in one cave. The Sioux
may come sometime or other, and even if they should get our three
residences, Castle Howard, the Annex, and the Suburban Villa, and
all that is in them, they are pretty sure to miss our caves and
our furs."

"Of course some Indians must know of this valley," said Dick,
"and most likely it's the Sioux. Perhaps none ever wander in
here now, because they're at war with our people and are using
all their forces on the plains."

Albert thought it likely, and both Dick and he had moments when
they wondered greatly what was occurring in the world without.
But, on the whole, they were not troubled much by the affairs of
the rest of the universe.

Traps, house building, and curing food occupied them throughout
the summer. Once the days were very hot in the valley, which
served as a focus for the rays of the sun, but it was invariably
cool, often cold,