I drank off the refreshing beverage as desired.
“Now, my dear friend,” said Saint Vrain, “you feel a hundred per cent, better! But, tell me, were you in earnest when you spoke of going with us across the plains? We start in a week; I shall be sorry to part with you so soon.”
“But I was in earnest. I am going with you, if you will only show me how I am to set about it.”
“Nothing easier: buy yourself a horse.”
“I have got one.”
“Then a few coarse articles of dress, a rifle, a pair of pistols, a—”
“Stop, stop! I have all these things. That is not what I would be at, but this: You, gentlemen, carry goods to Santa Fé. You double or treble your money on them. Now, I have ten thousand dollars in a bank here. What should hinder me to combine profit with pleasure, and invest it as you do?”
“Nothing; nothing! A good idea,” answered several.
“Well, then, if any of you will have the goodness to go with me, and show me what sort of merchandise I am to lay in for the Santa Fé market, I will pay his wine bill at dinner, and that’s no small commission, I think.”
The prairie men laughed loudly, declaring they would all go a-shopping with me; and, after breakfast, we started in a body, arm-in-arm.