THE OUTFIT. 121 



with his " state." I have no doubt if he had not 

 " travelled " his belief would have been that the sun rose 

 and set in Missouri, and that the rest of creation was only 

 favoured with a view of that luminary's back. Laughfy's 

 patriotism took a different turn, he " went " on people, 

 not things, and maintained that Yankees, especially Maine 

 Yankees, were the salt of the earth. They were the 

 discoverers and expounders of all true liberty in religion, 

 politics, and social science the great inventors and 

 ameliorators of the age ; all mankind had their eyes 

 fixed on them in admiration, envy, fear, and astonishment. 

 Laughfy's opinion of the inhabitants of his "section," and 

 Joe's of the natural advantages of his state, were not 

 mutually shared. Indeed, Laughfy's contempt for Missouri 

 was only equalled by Joe's " estimation " of Yankee 

 character ; but neither would willingly have hurt the other's 

 feelings by openly avowing their beliefs, for were they not 

 both true frontiersmen and mountaineers, who, as such, 

 held each other in respect, and were bound to one another 

 in the natural freemasonry of manly straightforwardness 

 and kindred pursuits ? 



"The outfit" consisted of two strong and light waggons 

 thimbleskins built expressly for mountain travel ; two 

 teams, each composed of four fine well-broken mules, 

 fifteen hands high and very heavy ; two extra mules, and 

 two saddle-horses hunters. The waggons had " tilts " - 

 covers of Russian duck stretched over hickory bows and 

 were freighted as follows : Nine fifty-pound sacks of flour, 

 two hundred pounds of bacon, three months' rations of 

 coffee, sugar, and salt ; some cans of lard, a keg of whisky, 



