WE BUY A BULLDOG. 127 



thought he would be j ust the man to suit us if we came across 

 any Indians, and getting him out of jail, we engaged him. 



Shortly before starting, we had bought a half-bred bull- 

 dog, taking a fancy to him in the market ; but after having him 

 a day or two he was stolen, or else strayed away, and we offered 

 a reward of ten dollars for him, and a man brought him back 

 the day we started, declaring, of course, that he had found him 

 one day in his yard. After crossing the Missouri, we drove 

 through a struggling suburb of St. Joe, and were passing a 

 whiskey-saloon, when one of a number of rough men standing 

 in front of it claimed our dog, saying that he had found him a 

 few days before, and that he had been stolen from him that 

 morning. We told him we had paid one reward for him and 

 should pay no more, on which the man advanced to take the 

 dog, his companions seeming to be inclined to back him up, 

 when Douglass got off the box of the waggon, and asked them 

 if they had heard of a disturbance there had been in the market 

 a few days before. They replied that a big butcher had, they 

 had heard, scattered a good many of his companions, on which 

 Douglass told them that he was the man referred to, and that 

 he was ready to do the same thing again if necessary, on which 

 they cooled down again wonderfully, saying that they only 

 wanted what was right, so we drove on. 



We camped again at Troy, which had not grown a bit since 

 my last visit, and reached Lake Sibley without anything 

 happening worth mentioning. Here I inquired for Fox, on 

 which the man to whom I spoke took me a short distance, 

 and pointing to a mound under a tree, told me that Fox lay 

 under it. It seemed that after I left, Fox and Belknap (the 

 man from whom I had bought a waggon) had started together 



