we'll not start till after school is anyhow almost out for the
spring term. We'll just be about as early as Lewis and Clark up the
Missouri in the spring."

"You'll be going by rail?"

"Certainly not! We'll be going by boat, small boat, little boat, maybe
not all boat."

"A year! Two years!"

Uncle Dick smiled. "Well, no. We've only got this summer to go up the
Missouri and back, so, maybe as Rob did when he enlisted for eighteen,
we'll have to smouch a little!"

"I'll warrant you've talked it all over with those boys already."

Uncle Dick smiled guiltily. "I shouldn't wonder!" he admitted.

"And, naturally, they're keen to go!"

"Naturally. What boy wouldn't be, if he were a real boy and a real
American? Our own old, strange, splendid America! What boy wouldn't?"

"Besides," he added, "I'd like to trace that old trail myself, some day.
I've always been crazy to."

"Yes, crazy! Always poring over old maps. Why do we need study the old
passes over the Rockies, Richard? There's not an earthly bit of use in
it. All we need know is when the train starts, and you can look on the
time card for all the rest. We don't need geography of that sort now.
What we need now is a geography of Europe, so we can see where the
battles were fought, and that sort of thing."

"Yes? Well, that's what I'm getting at. I've just a notion that we're
studying the map of Europe--and Asia--to-day and to-morrow, when we
study the old mountain passes of the Rockies, my dear.

"And," he added, firmly, "my boys shall know them! Because I know that
in that way they'll be studying not only the geography, but the history
of all the world! When they come back, maybe they--maybe you--will know
why so many boys now are asleep in the Argonne hills and woods in
France. Maybe they'll see the old Lewis and Clark trail extending on out
across the Pacific, even."

"You're so funny, Richard!"

"Oh, I reckon so, I reckon so! The old Crusaders were funny people,
too--marching all the way from England and France, just to take
Jerusalem. But look what a walk they had!"

CHAPTER II

READY FOR THE RIVER

Uncle Dick made his way to the library room, where he found his three
young companions on so many other trips of adventure.[1]

[Footnote 1: See Vol. I, _The Young Alaskans_; Vol. II, _The Young
Alaskans on the Trail_; Vol. III, _The Young Alaskans in the Rockies_;
Vol. IV, _The Young Alaskans in the Far North_.]

"So there you are, eh?"