Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/165

Rh "Come on, boys! We can't fight 'em! Come on, boys! Come on!"

I remember a story Meek told to myself and four others, as we were returning from Oregon City to our homes in the Tualatin Plains. He said that on one occasion he was out hunting by himself, some four hundred miles from Brown's Cove, in the Rocky Mountains, where his company were staying, and that one night his horse escaped, leaving him afoot. He started on foot, with his rifle on his shoulder; but the first day he lost the lock of his gun, so that he could kill no game. The result was, that he walked that long distance, less 15 miles, in eight days, and without anything to eat, except one thistle-root, and that purged him like medicine. He said that toward the end of his trip he would often become blind, fall down, and remain unconscious for some time; then recover, and pursue his painful journey. At last, in this way, he reached a point within 15 miles of Brown's Cove, where one of his comrades happened to find him, and took him into camp.

I replied: "That was a most extraordinary adventure, Joe; and, while I don't pretend to question your veracity in the least, don't you really think you might safely fall a snake or two in the distance!" lie declared it was four hundred miles. "But," said I, "may you not be mistaken in the time?" He insisted he was only eight days in making the trip on foot. "Hut, Joe," I continued, "don't you think you may he mistaken as to the time in this way! When you had those attacks of blindness, fell down, and then came to again. don't you think you might have mistaken it for a new day?" He said he was not mistaken. "Then," said I, "this thing of walking four hundred miles in eight days, with nothing at all to eat, and being physicked into the bargain, is the most extraordinary feat ever performed by man." He said no man could tell how much he could stand until he was forced to try: and that men were so healthy in the Rocky Mountains. and so used to hard times, that they could perform wonders.

Meek was a droll creature, and at times very slovenly in