So cabins were finally built, in which they hoped to keep fairly comfortable, and by degrees a supply of meat was laid, in for consumption during the winter, if the cold should be prolonged like a Canadian season.
They soon found that the Indians meant to be friendly, and all fear of trouble from this source was laid to rest. As the days and weeks crept on they explored some of the surrounding country, and even tried to make rude maps of it to show when they returned East.
Dick and Roger did their full share in everything that went on. Much of the meat that was dried that winter, in order to provide a supply on the return trip over the mountains and down the Missouri, fell before their guns.
They were also instrumental in helping to tan some of the skins to be used in making necessary clothing for the men. Having been almost two years on the trail, some of the members of the expedition were sadly in need of garments; and this well-tanned buckskin supplied the deficiency admirably, for in those pioneer days every man was his own tailor.
It would hardly be fitting here to try to tell the many things that occupied their attention as the winter months passed; but they were busy most of the time. To the surprise of all the weather never became severe. Snow they saw on the sides of the mountains, but, taken in all, they suffered very little from cold, a fact that astonished them very much.
Finally the spring came, and all eyes were eagerly turned toward the rising sun; for it was known that the time was now near at hand when they must start upon the return trip.
The ties that drew them all, men and boys, to the East were many and strong. Their hearts often swelled with emotion as they thought of those from whom they had been separated so many months.
“Why,” Roger was accustomed to saying, when he and his chum discussed the time of their departure, now close at hand, “I feel sure I will never know my little sister, Mary, when I see her again; she must be such a big girl by now. And as for your brother, Sam, you may find him able to give you a good tussle in a wrestle.”
Thus they often talked of their loved ones, but neither of the boys ever dared express the one dread fear that sometimes tugged at their heartstrings, which was that they might find some face missing in the family circle when they reached home again.
Toward the end of March, everything being favorable, they once more started up the broad Columbia, saying farewell to the place where they had passed such a contented winter. No serious illness had visited them, and all were very anxious to get started.