“And, Dick,” chimed in Archie, “if you ever see Black Bill, don’t forget that he stole my relics.”
“I won’t forget it, little ’un. An’ now, good-by. It aint no ways likely that we shall ever see each other ag’in; but I hope that when you git hum, an’ tell your friends of your trip acrost the plains, that you will give one thought to your ole friend Dick Lewis, the trapper. Good-by, youngsters.”
The guide wrung their hands, and then gave way to old Bob, who also seemed to regret that the parting time had come; and when the farewells had all been said, the trappers mounted their horses, rode rapidly down the street and disappeared.
It was not at all probable that the boys would ever forget those rough, but kind-hearted men—for the guides held a prominent place in their affections. Although they were in a busy city, surrounded by friends—for Mr. Winters had a large circle of acquaintances in Sacramento—they were lonesome now that the trappers had gone, and their thoughts often wandered off in search of those two men, now on their lonely journey to the mountains.
At the end of two weeks Mr. Winters had settled up his business, and, one morning, they took the stage for Benicia; thence they went by boat to San Francisco. Here they took passage on board a mail steamer to Panama, thence by rail to Aspinwall, where they found another steamer, that took them safely to Boston. At Portland, which they reached in due time, they remained a week, and then all set out for Lawrence. Frank had written to his mother when to expect them, and they found all the inmates of the cottage on the watch. As the carriage that brought them from the wharf drew up before the gate, Brave announced the fact by a joyful bark, that brought Mrs. Nelson and Julia to the door, where the travelers were warmly received. Besides strong frames, sunburnt faces, and good appetites, the boys brought back from the plains a fund of stories that was not exhausted that evening, nor the next, and even at the end of two weeks they still had something to talk about. The skins of the bears were stuffed and mounted, side by side, in the museum, together with those of several prairie wolves, big-horns, and that of the antelope the boys had killed the morning they were lost on the prairie. Archie never grew tired of relating the particulars of his adventure with the grizzly, and when he told of their being lost, he never forgot to mention how Sleepy Sam had “landed him in the water.”
And now that the young hunters were among their friends again, did they ever “give one thought” to their guide? They often talked of him—his stories were still fresh in their memories, and his many acts of kindness could never be forgotten. Whenever they recounted their adventures, or related the little history of the new objects they had mounted in their museum, they always spoke of him, and many an earnest wish went out from them for the welfare of Dick Lewis, the Trapper. In their subsequent career in the gun-boat service, they often related incidents of his life to their messmates.
THE END.
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