7 



Along the Missouri. 



From the lake we went east to a farm house and 

 ate our lunch in the shade of surrounding trees. 



The water in this bottom is simply "auful", it is 

 cool and seemingly all right while you drink, but 

 as soon as swallowed you have a taste in your 

 mouth similar to the symptom descriptions in the 

 patent medicine advertisements: everything around 

 the pump turns yellow, the watering trough, the 

 drinking cup and the people. I would be willing 

 to wager that the people of that locality are com- 

 posed of equal parts oi bone, sulphur, iron and qui- 

 nine. ( no blood, to speak of, the -'skeeiers'' nave 

 long since taken that.) . 



Peters insisted on buying some milk, which we 

 found nectar indeed in comparison with the water. 

 * # * # * '*;..-•/# 



Returning towards the river we passed through 

 a large tract giown up in willows and found hun- 

 dred- of young Red-winged Blackbirds of every 

 conceivable size, and the racket they did make! 



When we reached the boat we found the river 

 had risen nearly two feet, and as the annual June 

 rise was now due we decided that our island soon 

 would become Hooded and that the- best tiling we 

 could do was to go home. The water ran very 

 swift on the Nebraska side so we bar^iined with a 



