The boys started off for the team, leaving the old men to sit in the sun and talk about the past. A little later the wagon drew up to the door, and Hugh, after glancing through its contents and tightening one of the ropes that lashed on the load, said, “Well, we may as well be going. Good-by, Bat; we’re likely to get back here about two months hence, and we’ll meet then. I reckon up in the camp we’ll see all the Monroes and old man Choquette, but those are all the old-timers we’re likely to meet. So long,” and he climbed into the wagon.
“Good-by, Baptiste,” said Jack, as he shook hands, and Joe, reaching down from the driver’s seat, pressed the old man’s hand without a word.
“Good-by, my friends, good-by,” said Baptiste. “It has been good to see you. Always your coming brings joy to my heart. I shall look for you to come again.”
Joe gathered up the reins, spoke to the horses, and in a moment they were rattling along the street headed for the road leading up the Teton River.
It was a beautiful day. The air was cool and pleasant, yet the sun shone warm. The prairie and the distant hills were still green, and beautiful flowers dotted the plain. From the top of almost every sage brush came the sweet, mellow whistle of the meadow lark. In the air all about birds were rising from the ground, singing as though their throats would burst, and then after reaching a certain height, slowly floating down again on outspread wings, the song ending just as they reached the ground.
After they had gone a short distance away from the town the country seemed as lonely as the wildest prairie. Far off, here and there, grazed a few cattle or horses. Ahead of them the white, level road wound about among the bushes of the sage. To Jack it was all very delightful. The change from the crowded city was absolute, and as he looked about him and enjoyed his surroundings his heart seemed to swell within his breast, and he felt as though he could hardly speak.
Presently Joe said to Hugh, “Have you plenty of room, White Bull? I got this extra wide seat before I started because I thought we’d all want to sit on one seat, but I don’t know whether it gives you room enough.”
“Oh, yes,” said Hugh, “there’s lots of room for all of us.”
“Yes,” said Jack, “we could pretty nearly put another man here.”
“Now, Joe,” said Hugh a little later, “I want to ask you something about the people. I heard that two years ago, and maybe last year also, they starved, and that many of them died. I heard, too, that even up here the buffalo have all gone.”