res had to be fought, or wildly run away from treacherous
quicksands sometimes spread most invitingly on either side of the
miserable looking trail, lured the unwary traveller to trust himself on
their smooth and shining surface. But woe to the foolish ones who left
the trail for the quicksands: unless speedily rescued by the united
strength of friends, horses and travellers would soon be swallowed up;
so the warning cry of the guide was ever: "Keep in the trail!"

Thus we journeyed on, sometimes in the sunshine, and sometimes in the
storm. Every morning and evening we had our family prayers. The
Sabbaths were rest days for all--sweet and precious days, when out in
the sunshine on the glorious prairies, we, a little company of
missionaries and teachers--worshipped God: they were as the days of the
Son of Man on earth.

Thirty days on such a trail could not pass without some strange
adventures, and we had our share of them with white men and with
Indians.

A talkative parrot in our party nearly frightened the lives out of some
very inquisitive and superstitious Indians and French half-breeds. They
had stopped their ox-carts one day at the same spot where we, coming in
the opposite direction, were resting for the dinner hour. Hearing about
the wonderful parrot, they crowded around to see her. Polly stood their
inquisitive gazings for awhile, then, apparently somewhat annoyed, with
wings ruffled, sprang forward as far as she could in her large cage, and
shouted out:

"Who are you?"

The effect upon the superstitious half-breeds, and Indians, was about as
though His Satanic Majesty had suddenly appeared among them. They
rushed away, and nothing that we could do would induce any of them to
look at the bird again.

Another adventure, most unique and startling, occurred on this trip ere
we had proceeded many days on the trail.

"You had better keep a sharp eye on those splendid horses of yours, or
you may wake up some fine morning and find them missing."

This was rather startling news and caused a good deal of excitement in
our camp.

The speakers were some scouts from the United States army, who were
making a hurried trip from the head waters of the Missouri where the
troops had gone to quell some Indian disturbance. They were now on
their way to Saint Paul with dispatches for Washington.

Each night of our journey we had, in true western style hobbled our
horses and left them to roam about and feed on t