They had
planned to make their winter camp there, for in the spring, when
the Missouri rose to the flood, they and their company of
frontiersmen were to take their way up that uncharted stream and
over plains and mountains in quest of the Pacific Ocean. They
were refused permission by the Spanish authorities to camp at
Boone's Settlement; so they lay through the winter some forty
miles distant on the Illinois side of the Mississippi, across
from the mouth of the Missouri. Since the records are silent, we
are free to picture as we choose their coming to the settlement
during the winter and again in the spring, for we know that they
came.
We can imagine, for instance, the stir they made in La Charette
on some sparkling day when the frost bit and the crusty snow sent
up a dancing haze of diamond points. We can see the friendly
French habitants staring after the two young leaders and their
men--all mere boys, though they were also husky, seasoned
frontiersmen--with their bronzed faces of English cast, as in
their gayly fringed deerskins they swaggered through the hamlet
to pay their respects to the Syndic. We may think of that
dignitary as smoking his pipe before his fireplace, perhaps; or
making out, in his fantastic spelling, a record of his primitive
court--for instance, that he had on that day given Pierre a dozen
hickory thwacks, "well laid on," for starting a brawl with
Antoine, and had bestowed the same upon Antoine for continuing
the brawl with Pierre.
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