when you come back this way ag'in ye can pick 'em, Henry."

"Thank you, but I shan't come back just for a quart or two of beans," was
the youth's answer. If the silence was sometimes oppressive during the day
it was doubly so at night. Occasionally some birds would break the
stillness, or they would hear the croaking of frogs in the marshes, or the
bark of a distant fox, but that was all. If any big game was at hand it
took good care to keep its distance.

The party soon reached the river where Dave had had his stirring adventure
on horseback, as already described in "With Washington in the West," and
the youth pointed out to his cousin the spot where he had gone into the
rapids.

"I'll never forget that event," said he, with something like a shudder. "It
was what Barringford would call a close call."

Fortunately there was now a good fording place at hand, so the entire party
crossed without difficulty. On the other shore the trail made a new turn,
and now began the ascent of a long hill, up which the pack-horses moved
with the pace of snails. Those in the saddle had often to dismount and lead
their steeds, and at the end of each mile all stopped for a needed rest.

"Don't know as this 'ere trail is as good as tudder," remarked Sam
Barringford. "But they tell me it knocks three miles out o' the bend, an'
that's something'."

James Morris and the old frontiersman had imagined the weather would remain
fair, but on the morning of the fourth day out a cold rain set in that
chilled all to the bone. The Indians under White Buffalo wished to go into