ss the Rockies, he
assured their parents that he would meet them when they came down the
river, and see that every care should be taken of them meantime.

"Let them go, of course," he urged. "You can't really hurt a good,
live boy very much. Besides, it is getting to be so nowadays that
before long a boy won't have any wilderness where he can go. Here's
our railroad making west as fast as it can, and it will be taking all
sort of people into that country before long. Here's a chance for the
boys to have a fine hunt and some camping and canoeing. It will make
them stout and hearty, and give them a good time. What's the use
worrying all the time about these chaps? They'll make it through, all
right. Besides, I am going to send them the two best men in Canada for
their guides.

"I wouldn't say, myself, that these boys could get across alone," he
added, "because it's a hard trip for men in some ways. But in the
care of Alex Mackenzie and Moise Duprat they'll be as safe as they
would be at home in rocking-chairs."

"What Mackenzie is that?" asked Jesse Wilcox's mother of her brother,
Uncle Dick.

"Well, he may be a relative of old Sir Alexander Mackenzie, so far as
I know. The family of that name is a large one in the North, and there
always have been Mackenzies in the fur trade. But speaking of the
name, here's what I want to explain to you, sister. These boys will be
going back over the very trail that good old Sir Alexander took when
he returned from the Pacific Ocean."

"But that was a long time ago--"

"Yes, in 1793, while George Washington still was alive, and not so
very long after the Revolutionary War. You know, Mackenzie was the
first man ever to cross this continent, and this was the way he went,
both in going west and coming east--just where I want these boys to
go. They'll see everything that he saw, go everywhere that he went,
from the crown of the continent on down clear to the Arctics, if you
want to let them go that far.

"I'm telling you, sister," he added, eagerly, "the boys will _learn_
something in that way, something about how this country was
discovered and explored and developed, so far as that is concerned.
That is history on the hoof, if you like, sister. In my belief they're
the three luckiest little beggars in the world if you will only let
them go. I'll promise to bring them back all right."

"Yes, I know about your _promises_!" began Mrs. Wilcox.

"When did I ever fail to keep one?"