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Show 444 THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL. soil. The vines were laden with dark purple grapes, and the slender twigs of the maple, then tasseled with their clusters of small red flowers, now hung out a gorgeous display of leaves stained by the frost with burning crim on. On every side we saw the tokens of maturity and decay where all had before been fresh and beautiful. We entered the forest, and oursci ves and our horses were checkered as we passed along, by the bright spots of sunlight that fell between the opening boughs. On either side the dark, ricb masses of foliage almost excluded the sun, though here and there its rays could find their way down, striking through the broad leaves and lighting them with a pure transparent green. Sq uirrcls barked at us from the trees ; coveys of young partridges ran rustling over the leaves below, and the golden oriole, the blue-jay and the flaming red-bird darted among the shadowy branches. We hailed these sights and sounds of beauty by no means with an unmingled pleasure. Many and powerful as were the attractions which drew us toward the settlements we looked back ' even at that 1noment with an earrer lono·ina toward the wilder- '-' b b ness of prairies and mountains behind us. For myself I had suffered more that summer from illness than ever before in my life, and yet to this hour I cannot recall those savage scenes and savage men without a strong desire again to visit them. At length for the first time during about half a year, we saw the roof of a white man's dwelling between the opening trees. A few moments after we were ridina over the miserable b log-bridge that leads into the centre of Westport. Westport had beheld strange scenes, but a rougher looking troop than ours with our worn equipments and broken-down horses, was never seen even there. We passed the well-remembered THE SETTLEl\iENTS. 445 tavern, Boone's grocery and old Vogle's dram-shop, and encamped on a meadow beyond. Here we were soon visited by a number of people who came to purchase our horses and equipage. This matter disposed of, we hired a wagon and drove on to Kanzas landing. I-Iere we were again received under the hospitable roof of our old friend Colonel Chick, and seated under his porch, we looked down once more on the eddies of the Missouri. Delorier made his appearance in the morning, strangely transformed by the assistance of a hat, a coat and a razor. His little log-house was among the woods not far off. It seemed he had meditated giving a ball on the occasion of his return, and had consulted Henry Chatillon, as to whether it would do to invite his bourgeois. Henry expressed his entire conviction that we would not take it amiss, and the invitation was now proffered accordingly, Delorier adding as a special inducement that Antoine Lajeunesse was to play the fiddle. We told him we would certainly come, but before the evening arrived, a steamboat which came down from Fort Leavenworth, prevented our being present at the expected festivities. Delorier was on the rock at the landing-place, waiting to take leave of us. ' Adieu ! mes bourgeois, adieu ! adieu !' he cried out as the boat put off; 'when you go another time to de Rocky Montagnes I will go with you; yes, I will go!' He accompanied this patronizing assurance by jumping about, swinging his hat, and grinning from ear to ear. As the boat rounded a distant point, the last object that met our eyes was Delorier still lifting his hat and skipping about the rock. We had taken leave of Munroe and Jim Gurney |