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Show 12 BIOGRAPHY OF MYRON TANNER. down the Platte, as far as the eye could see there was one con tinuous herd of buffaloes. About ten o'clock in the morning we struck camp and began killing these animals, until we had secured The excitement was so great that we did not stop to day until eleven o'clock at night. We ate the meat as one would bread and milk, and I think it was the best meal I ever had nineteen. eat that in my life. C 'From this place on to Winter Quarters we had sufficient journey, though the continuous diet of meat became somewhat unsatisfactory. However, when we reached the Pawnee village, about one hundred miles west of the Missouri, we ex changed some of our meat for corn. We were so hungry for a change of diet that by the time the corn was suitably cooked we had already finished our meal. "It was in the fall of 1847 that we reached Winter Quarters, where we passed the winter. The relaxation from the constant travel in the deserts and the hardships of hunger and sickness was greatly enjoyed in the social pastimes that were indulged in at Winter Quarters." "There I learned to dance," said Myron, "a that was a diversion to me in after years in the struggles pastime of a pioneer life." When the spring of '48 opened, his father's family came on west and he went over to Kanesville, where he helped George A. Smith plow and put in his spring crops. As soon as this work was over, he went down the Missouri river to St. Joseph, where he obtained service among the farmers in order to purchase for himself some needed clothing. From there he went down the river bv boat to St. Louis, where he secured work as a deck hand, and during the summer earned enough money to get an outfit with which to make the journey west again. Late in the fall of 1848, however, he went up into Iowa and spent the winter of '48 and '49 with Stephen Mott, who allowed him his board for his work. He was now in the region of the old home, from which his father's family had been driven in the spring of '46. Early in the spring of '49 he secured service on the river boats in order to obtain a little more means for clothing, meat for the and kept at work until it was time for him to return to Win- |
