ciates, "that seems to give
us a pretty good look in at this whole proposition of the Missouri
River. We have been on the head of the Jefferson Fork; we are going
fishing on the South Fork of the Madison and motor to the head of the
North Fork, inside of Yellowstone Park, if we wanted to; and then we are
going on up to the Gallatin and maybe east on that to its head in the
Bozeman Pass. In that way we would be covering all three of the great
tributaries."

"Yes, and be having some pretty good sport besides," said the young
ranchman. "I will promise you, if you don't like this lake fishing--I
don't much care for it myself--we will make up a party and go over and
camp out on the South Fork of the Madison as soon as your car comes in
from Bozeman. I will take my car over, too, and we'll pick up a young
chap about your age, Mr. Rob, at one of the ranches below. His name is
Chester Ellicott, and he's descended from the Andrew Ellicott of
Pennsylvania, who taught astronomy to Meriwether Lewis.

"Then we can spend a couple of days or so over there on what I think is
the finest fishing river in the world. You will still be right on your
road to Bozeman and the Gallatin, because you will then be only about
six or eight miles from the town of Yellowstone, and near where the
Bozeman road comes in."

"That certainly does sound mighty good to me," said Jesse. "I haven't
caught a fish now for a couple of days, except those we caught at the
lake this afternoon. There were so many of them, it was too easy."

"Well," said their new companion, "you won't find catching grayling on
the South Fork quite so easy as all that. I always liked stream fishing
myself better than lake fishing."

"Do we wade over there, in that stream?" asked Rob. "We haven't got our
waders along, ourselves, not even rubber boots."

"We'll fix you up somehow at the place," responded the other. "My
friends in here have all got waders. You could fish from the banks, but
it is better to have waders, so you can cross once in a while. There are
holes in there ten or fifteen feet deep, and I will show you two or
three hundred grayling and white fish on the bottom of some of those
holes. The water is clear as air, and just about as cold as ice. You
couldn't have come at a better time for fishing, because the
grasshoppers are on now and even the whitefish are feeding on the
surface."

"I wish Billy's man would hurry up with the car," complained Jesse. "He
said to b