there, for death went with us. In our train also
were many births, life coming to renew the cycle. At times, too, there
were rejoicings of the newly wed in our train. Our young couples found
society awheel valid as that abiding under permanent roof.

At the head of our column, we bore the flag of our Republic. On our
flanks were skirmishers, like those guarding the flanks of an army. It
_was_ an army--an army of our people. With us marched women. With us
marched home. _That_ was the difference between our cavalcade and that
slower and more selfish one, made up of men alone, which that same year
was faring westward along the upper reaches of the Canadian Plains. That
was why we won. It was because women and plows were with us.

Our great column, made up of more than one hundred wagons, was divided
into platoons of four, each platoon leading for a day, then falling
behind to take the bitter dust of those in advance. At noon we parted
our wagons in platoons, and at night we drew them invariably into a
great barricade, circular in form, the leading wagon marking out the
circle, the others dropping in behind, the tongue of each against the
tail-gate of the wagon ahead, and the last wagon closing up the gap. Our
circle completed, the animals were unyoked and the tongues were chained
fast to the wagons next ahead; so that each night we had a sturdy
barricade, incapable of being stampeded by savages, whom more than once
we fought and defeated. Each night we set out a guard, our men taking
turns, and the night watches in turn rotating, so that each man got his
share of the entire night during the progress of his journey. Each morn
we rose to the notes of a bugle, and each day we marched in order, under
command, under a certain schedule. Loosely connected, independent,
individual, none the less already we were establishing a government. We
took the American Republic with us across the Plains!

This manner of travel offered much monotony, yet it had its little
pleasures. For my own part, my early experience in Western matters
placed me in charge of our band of hunters, whose duty it was to ride at
the flanks of our caravan each day and to kill sufficient buffalo for
meat. This work of the chase gave us more to do than was left for those
who plodded along or rode bent over upon the wagon seats; yet even for
these there was some relaxation. At night we met in little social
circles around the camp-fires. Young folk made love; old f