Part 23 (2/2)
”Tut, tut, Merne--ht-hearted ”Coet my eelskin about my hair We may need this red mane of mine further up the river I trust to take it back home with me, after all, now that we seeh that our business today has coave ; so I am ready to turn into ht?”
”Sergeant Ordway reports Shannon still absent It see, and has not yet come back I'll wait up a time, I think, Will, to see if he comes in It is rather a wild business for a boy to lie out all night in such a country, with only the wolves for coht be a better sleeper than I a his bruised leg ”It is beginning to show on you, too, Merne Isn't it enough to be astronomer and doctor and bookkeeper and record-keeper and all that?
No, you think not--you ht by your little fire under the stars and think and think Oh, I have seen you, Merne! I have seen you sitting there when you should have been sleeping Do you call that leadershi+p, Captain Lewis? The men are under you, and if the leader is not fit, the men are not Now, a human body will stand only so much--or a human mind, either, Merne There is a limit to effort and endurance”
His friend turned to hiht, Will,” said he ”I owe duty to s too hard, Merne You cannot carry the whole world on your shoulders Look now, I have not been so blind as not to see that so with you Merne, you are ill, or will be
So!”
His companion made no reply They marched on to their own part of the encampment, and seated the for theinal journals of these two astonishi+ng young men--one of them just thirty years old, the other thirty-four--should rank a the epic literature of the world Battered about, scattered, separated, lost, hawked froes, ”edited” first by this and then by that little man, sometimes to the extent of actual mutilation or alteration of their text--the journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark hold their ineffacable clarity in spite of all Their e souls which they show It was only by studying closely the individual differences of handwriting, style, and spelling, that it could be determined as the work of Lehich that done by Clark
And what a labor! After long days of toil and danger, under unvarying hardshi+ps, in conditions of extre leaders set doith unflagging faithfulness countless thousands of details, all in such fashi+on as showed the keenest and raphers, ineers, hunters, journalists, they brought back in their notebooks a mass of information never equaled by the records of any other party of explorers
We cannot overestimate the sum of labor which all this meant, day after day, month after month; nor should we underestimate the qualities of mind and education demanded of thes which needed to be part of their requisite equipment It was indeed as if the two friends were fitted by the plan of Providence for this great enterprise which they concluded in such sih fashi+on
Neither thought hilory to be accorded them is that they found their ambition and their content in the day's ell done]
Willia
”Tellof? It is not that wo of the tall figure at his side
”I have touched you on the raw once more, haven't I, Merne?” he exclaimed ”I never meant to I only want to see you happy”
”You must not be too uneasy, Will,” returned Meriwether Lewis, at last ”It is only that sos And the nights thehts, Merne, in all your life? Breathed you ever such air as these plains carry in the nighttiet? You don't really deceive ht under the stars? Some face, eh? What, Merne? You mean to tell ave you two h! Come, now, perhaps soh to pipe to you, or to touch the bull-hide tambourine in such fashi+on as to charm you from your sorrows! No, don't be offended--it is only that I want to tell you not to take that old affair too hard And now, it is time for you to turn in”
William Clark himself arose and strolled to his own blanket-roll, spread it out, and lay down beneath the sky to sleep Meriwether Lewis sought to follow his example, and spread open his robe and blankets close to the fire As he leaned back, he felt so under his hand, and looked down
It was his custolass, a pair of dry moccasins and a buckskin tunic These articles were here, as he expected to find the them was a folded and sealed envelope--a letter! He had not placed it here; yet here it was
He caught it up in his hand, looked at it wonderingly, kicked the ends of the eether so that they flamed up, bent forward to read the superscription--and paused in aht, characterful hand which addressed this missive to him:
TO CAPTAIN MERIWETHER LEWIS--ON THE TRAIL IN THE WEST
A feeling somewhat akin to awe fell upon Meriwether Lewis He felt a cold prickling along his spine It was for hier from outside the camp For one brief instant it seeifts of the Gods he would most have coveted--had dropped froe wilderness
His heart had been on the point of breaking, it seemed to him--and it had come to comfort him! It was from her It ran thus: