CHAPTER II
READY FOR THE RIVER
Uncle Dick made his way to the library room, where he found his three young companions on so many other trips of adventure.[1]
“So there you are, eh?” he began. “Rob, I see you’re poring over some old book, as usual. What is it—same Journal of Lewis and Clark?”
“Yes, sir,” said Rob McIntyre looking up, his eyes shining. “It’s great!”
“And here’s John Hardy with his maps!” exclaimed Jesse Wilcox. “Look it! He’s got a notion he can do a map as well as Captain William Clark.”
“He’s something of a born map maker, then!” responded Uncle Dick. “There was one of the born geniuses of the world in map making. What a man he’d have been in our work—running preliminary surveys! He just naturally knew the way across country, and he just naturally knew how to set it down. On hides, with a burnt stick—on the sand with a willow twig—in the ashes with a pipe stem—that’s how his maps grew. The Indians showed him; and he showed us.”
“I’ve often tried to tell,” said Rob, “which was the greater of those two men, Clark or Lewis.”
“You never will,” said his uncle. “They were the two greatest bunkies and buddies of all the world. Clark was the redhead; Lewis the dark and sober man. Clark was the engineer; Lewis the leader of men. Clark had the business man in him; Lewis something more—the vision, the faith of the soul as much as the self-reliance of the body. A great pair.”