“There our people never went hungry and all were happy, but now the dark clouds hang over all my people. The soldiers will drive them away from the Minnesota to the Bad Lands of the West, where the timber and the grass are poor.
“Once more, I will travel on the Great River and then I will join my people far west, and my friends will bury my bones where the hungry wolves can not reach them.”
CHAPTER VII—ON THE GREAT RIVER
The day before their departure south was a very busy one for both men and boys.
When Barker told the boys at breakfast that they would all start down the river in the evening, it was only the strange place and people that kept the boys from shouting and turning somersaults.
“Are you going with us all the way to Vicksburg? And is Tatanka going?” Tim asked, big-eyed with suppressed excitement.
“We are both going,” Barker told them, “if we can get through. We should not have much trouble until we get to Memphis. Below Memphis, the river is full of gunboats and the country full of fighting armies. I don’t know how we shall manage there. We’ll have to see, when we get there.”
The four travelers could now take their horses no farther, and although they disliked to part with the animals there was nothing else to do. Old Joe, the hostler, paid them a fair price for the animals and again pledged his secrecy.
“There’s a good market now for horses,” he told his friends, “and I’ll sell them in a few days. If any inquisitive gent comes around, I’ll send him about his own business.”
After dark the four friends went on board the Red Hawk.