LIFE IN THE WOODS. 31 



until dusk, and no river appeared. Just then I noticed 

 an Indian trail, which we supposed led to the river; and 

 after following it a short distance, entered the camp we had 

 left in the morning. My partner, finding that we had no 

 wheaten loaves in our hands, and no bags of meal on our backs, 

 said we were boobies ; the boatmen laughed, the Indians joined 

 the chorus, and we ate some cold racoon, and stumbled into our 

 buffalo robes, and were soon enjoying our sleep. 



" The next day we tried it again, going directly across the bend, 

 suffering neither the flocks of turkeys nor the droves of deer we 

 saw to turn us aside until we had Cape Girardeau in full sight 

 an hour before the setting of the sun. The ice was running 

 swiftly in the river, and we hailed in vain, for no small boat 

 dare put out. An old abandoned log-house stood on our bank, 

 and we took lodgings there for the night ; we made a little fire, 

 ate a little dried bear's meat we had brought, and slept com- 

 fortably. 



" What a different life from the one I am leading now ; and that 

 night I wrote m my journal exactly as I do now ; and I recollect 

 well that I gathered more information that evening respecting 

 the roasting of prairie-hens than I had ever done before or 

 since. Daylight returned fair and frosty, the trees covered with 

 snow and icicles, shining like jewels as the sun rose on them ; 

 and the wild turkeys seemed so dazzled by their brilliancy, that 

 they allowed us to pass under them without flying. 



" After a time we saw a canoe picking its way through the 

 running ice. Through the messenger who came in the boat we 

 obtained, after waiting nearly all day, a barrel of flour, several 

 bags ofTndian meal, and a few loaves of bread. Having rolled 

 the flour to a safe place, slung the meal in a tree, and thrust 

 our gun barrels through the loaves of bread, we started for our 

 camp, and reached it not long after midnight. Four men were 

 sent the next morning with axes to make a sledge, and drag the 

 provisions over the snow to the camp. 



"The river, which had been constantly slowly rising, now 

 began to fall, and prepared new troubles for us ; for as the water 

 fell the ice clung to the shore, and we were forced to keep the 

 boat afloat to unload the cargo. Tliis, with the help of all the 

 Indian men and women, took two days. We then cut large 



