Page:From the West to the West.djvu/68



VIII

2 BORDER INCIDENT

THE public roads or thoroughfares through which the party floundered when crossing the sparsely settled counties of western Illinois, which had noticeably improved during the day or two of travel from the East toward Quincy; grew almost impassable on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River. Heavy freight-wagons, each bearing an immense load of merchandise, chiefly hides and furs from the Northwest Territory, had stirred the mud in the narrow lane to a seemingly inexhaustible depth; and the long spell of freezing by night, followed daily by the inevitable thaw, caused the many unbridged streams to overflow their banks and inundate the wide wastes of bottom land through which the ox teams were compelled to wander blindly, in continual danger of disaster. But the most disagreeable experiences resulted from the frequent snowstorms, which generally occurred at camping-time, accompanied by chilling winds and intermittent falls of rain or sleet, covering the earth with a glare of ice.

"When I get to heaven, I mean to ask Saint Peter to assign all cooks to high seats,'* said Jean one evening, as, balancing a tray laden with tin cups and saucers, she paused above the heads of the men kneeling at the messboxes, and in apparent innocence upset a steaming cup upon the head of Yank.

"No harm done, I assure you. Miss Rangeah. Don't mention it! "he said, affecting not to feel the burn at the back of his neck, whereat Jean grew repentant.

"Do you s'pose Saint Peter will pay any heed to the request of a slip of a girl like you?" asked Hal.