the point on the North Side of the Missourie
the Hills or high lands is Several Miles back.... The high lands
come to the river Kansas on the upper Side at about 1/2 a mile, in
full view, & a butifull place for a fort, good landing place.'

"He couldn't spell much, or put in his punctuation marks, but he
certainly had a practical eye. And I reckon the first beginnings of the
city were right then, for the _Journal_ says, 'Completed a strong
redoubt or brestwork from one side to the other, of logs and Bushes Six
feet high.' Yes, I suppose that was the first white building here at the
Gate.

"It's pretty hard to find any new part of the world to-day. Yonder runs
the Kaw, leading to the Santa Fe Trail--and I'll bet there's a thousand
motor cars going west right now, a hundred times as many cars each day
as there used to be wagons in a year!"

He closed his book for the time. "Maybe that's what Uncle Dick wanted us
to get in our heads!" said he.

"Some country!" said Jesse; and both John and Rob agreed.

When their leader returned a little later in the evening, the boys told
him what they had been doing.

"Fine!" he said. "Fine! Well, I've just telegraphed home that we're all
right and that we're off for the Platte to-morrow, early."

"That's another old road to the Rockies," said Rob.

"One of the greatest--the very greatest, when you leave out boat travel.
The Platte Valley led out the men with plows on their wagons, the home
makers who stayed West. You see, our young leaders were only
pathfinders, not home makers."

"And a jolly good job they had!" said Jesse.

"Yes, and jolly well they did the job, son, as you'll see more and
more."

John was running a finger over the crude map which he and Jesse had been
making from day to day. "Hah!" said he. "Here's the big Platte Valley
coming in, but no big city at the mouth."

"Oh yes, there is," corrected Uncle Dick. "Omaha and Council Bluffs you
can call the same as at the mouth of the Platte, for they serve that
valley with a new kind of transportation, that of steam, which did not
have to stick to the watercourse, but took shorter cuts.

"It's odd, but our explorers seem even then to have heard of a road to
Santa Fe. They also say the Kansas River is described as heading 'with
the river Del Noird in the black Mountain or ridge which Divides the
Waters of the Kansas, Del Nord, & Collarado.' No doubt the early French
or the Indians confused the Kaw wi