th the Arkansas.

"Enough! Taps, Sergeant! To bed, all of you," he concluded; and they
were willing to turn in.

In the morning early they were at the dock, and were greeted by Johnson,
who, sure enough, had the gasoline cans filled and most of the heavy
supplies aboard. By eight-thirty they were chugging away again up the
water front of the city, their Flag flying, so that many thought it was
a government boat of some sort.

Jesse tried to write in his notebook, but did not make much of a
success, owing to the trembling of the boat under the double power.

"He always says 'we set out and proceeded on,'" Jesse explained. "I was
trying to write how the expedition left the mouth of the Kansas River."

"Look out for 'emence numbers of Deer on the banks,' now," sung out
John, who had the _Journal_ on a box top near by. "'They are Skipping in
every derection. The party killed 9 Bucks to-day!'"

"But no buffalo yet," said Rob.

"No, not till we get up around Council Bluffs--then we'll begin to get
among them."

"And by to-morrow afternoon we'll be where they celebrated their first
Fourth of July. It was along in here. They celebrated the day by doing
fifteen miles--closing the day by another 'Descharge from our Bow piece'
and an extra 'Gill of Whiskey.' I don't call that much of a Fourth!"
John seemed disgusted.

"Well, maybe the soldiers didn't, for they had 'Tumers & Felons & the
Musquiters were verry bad,'" he went on. "I don't think their grub list
was right--too much meat and salt stuff. But from now on they certainly
did get plenty of game--all kinds of it, bears, deer, elk, beaver,
venison, buffalo, turkeys, geese, grouse, and fish. You see, Jesse, they
got some of those 'white catfish' like the last one you caught--a
'channel cat,' I suppose we'd call it. And they ate wild fruit along
shore. I think the hunters had better chance than the oarsmen.

"They saw elk sign not far above the Kansas River, but I don't think
they got any elk till August 1st. Above there they got into the
antelope, which they called 'goat,' and described very carefully. They
sent President Jefferson the first antelope ever seen east of the
Alleghanies. Then they got into the bighorn sheep, which also were
altogether new, and the grizzly bear, which they called the 'white
bear.' Oh, they had fun enough from here on north!"

"Yes, and did their work besides, and a lot of it," affirmed Uncle Dick.
"But while we are comparing notes we m