AT THE COLUMBIA RIVER.
At last they got across the mountains and down on the Columbia River.
The Indians who had showed them the way went home again.
There were other Indians near the Columbia.
These Indians gave the men salmon and roots.
They ate so much that they were ill.
The captains and all the soldiers were ill.
But they started to make canoes to ride down the Columbia.
They did not get well.
So they bought some dogs.
They cooked the dogs and ate them.
For days they could eat only dog.
The Indians laughed at them for eating dog.
They said, "Dogs are good to watch the camp.
They are not good to eat.
We do not eat them.
What poor men these must be to eat dog!"
Suddenly the captains fired off their guns and a soldier played the
fiddle.
Then the Indians stopped laughing.
They had never heard a gun before.
They had never before heard a fiddle.
They thought the white men must be wonderful people to have guns and
fiddles.
They wished to be friends with such wonderful people.
So they did not make fun of them any more.
full grass stones