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Show 104 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON. TRAIL. was a Kentuckian, an athletic fellow, with a fine intelligent face, and in his manners and conversation he showed the essential characteristics of a gentleman. Our conversation turned on the pioneers of his gallant native state. The three hours of our watch dragged away at last, and we went to call up the relief. R 's guard succeeded mine. l-Ie was absent; but the Captain, anxious lest the camp should be left defenceless, had volunteered to stand in his place ; so I went to wake him up. There was no occasion for it, for the Captain had been awake since nightfall. A fire was blazing outside of the tent, and by the light which struck through the canvas, I saw him and Jack lying on their backs, with their eyes wide open. The Captain responded instantly to my call ; he jumped up, seized the double-barrelled rifle, and came out of the tent with an air of solemn determination, as if about to devote himself to the safet.y of the party. I went and lay down, not doubting that for the next three hours our slumbers would be auarded with sufficient 0 0 vigilance. CHAPTER VIII. TAKING FRENCH LEAVE. " Parting is such sweet sorrow ! " RoMEo AND JuLIET. ON the eighth of June, at eleven o'clock, we reached the South Fork of the Platte, at the usual fording-place. For league upon league the desert uniformity of the prospect was almost unbroken ; the hills were dotted with little tufts of shrivelled grass, but betwixt these the white sand was glaring in the sun ; and the channel of the river, almost on a level with the plain, was but one great sand- bed, about half a mile wide. It was covered with water, but so scantily that the bottom was scarcely hidden; for, wide as it is, the average depth of the Platte does not at this point exceed a foot and a half. Stopping near its bank, we gathered bois de vache, and made a meal of buffalo-meat. Far off, on the other side, was a green meadow, where we could see the white tents and wagons of an emigrant camp ; and just opposite to us we could discern a group of men and animals at the water's edge. Four or five horsemen soon entered the river, and in ten minutes had waded across and clambered up the loose sand-bank. They were ill- 4* |