inches thick. We sloped the end so the boat would be scow-shaped,
and bought matched flooring for the bottom. We put tar into all
the seams, joints and grooves to keep the water out. Then we
bought half-inch boards and built a cabin at the back end. That
never leaked, either. The boat was sixteen feet long and six feet
wide, and the bulliest craft that ever went anywhere. When we
got to Cairo we sold it for $6, and that helped some."

"Tell us about your eatings. We'll have to cook when we get down
to the Rio Grande. Where did you get your cook stove?"

"We nailed a piece of sheet-iron on the prowboard," laughed Fremont,
"and put the bottom section of an old-fashioned coal stove on that.
The hole where the magazine used to fit in made a place for the
frying pan, and the open doors in front, where the ashpan used
to be, took in the wood we collected along the river. Cook! We
could cook anything there."

"What about the sleepings?" was asked.

"That was easy. We bought an old bedtick and stuffed it with corn
husks, then a pair of back-number bed-springs, which we put on the
floor of the cabin. Sleep! We used to tie up nights and sleep
from nine o'clock until sunrise.

"With the money we had left we bought bacon, eggs, corn-meal, flour,
butter and coffee. There wasn't much of it, because we had little
money left, but we thought we might get fish on the way down. We
never got one. They wouldn't bite. Still, we had all we needed to
eat, and found our checks at Cairo. It took us eight days to float