human
We have seen no men like these. They are chiefs, and their medicine is strong!
gpt
Well done, Will Clark! said Meriwether Lewis, when, at length, one cold winter morning, they stood within the walls of the completed fortress.
human
Now we can have our own fireplace and go on with our work in comfort. The collection is growing splendidly!
gpt
Yes, Mr. Jefferson will find that we have been busy, rejoined Clark.
human
The barge will go down well loaded in the spring. They'll have the best of it--downhill, and over country they have crossed.
gpt
True, mused Lewis.
human
We are at a blank wall here. We lack a guide now, that is sure. Two interpreters we have, who may or may not be of use, but no one knows the country. But now--you know our other new interpreter, the sullen chap, Charbonneau--that polygamous scamp with two or three Indian wives?
gpt
Yes, and a surly brute he is!
human
Well, it seems that last summer Charbonneau married still another wife, a girl not over sixteen years of age, I should judge. He bought her--she was a slave, a captive brought down from somewhere up the river by a war-party. She is a pleasant girl, and always smiles. She seems friendly to us--see the moccasins she made for me but now. And I only had to knock her husband down once for beating her!
gpt
Lucky man! grinned William Clark.
human
I have knocked him down half a dozen times, and she has made me no moccasins at all. But what then?
gpt
So far as I can learn, that Indian girl is the only human being here who has ever seen the Stony Mountains. The girl says that she was taken captive years ago somewhere near the summit of the Stony Mountains. Above here a great river comes in, which they call the Yellow Rock River--the 'Ro'jaune,' Jussaume calls it. Very well. Many days' or weeks' journey toward the west, this river comes again within a half-day's march of the Missouri. That is near the summit of the mountains; and this girl's people live there.
human
By the Lord, Merne, you're a genius for getting over new country!
gpt
Wait. I find the child very bright--very clear of mind. And listen, Will--the mind of a woman is better for small things than that of a man. They pick up trifles and hang on to them. I'd as soon trust that girl for a guide out yonder as any horse-stealing warrior in a hurry to get into a country and in a hurry to get out of it again. Raiding parties cling to the river-courses, which they know; but she and her people must have been far to the west of any place these adventurers of the Minnetarees ever saw. Sacajawea she calls herself--the 'Bird Woman.' I swear I look upon that name itself as a good omen! She has come back like a dove to the ark, this Bird Woman. William Clark, we shall reach the sea--or, at least, you will do so, Will,
human
What do you mean, Merne? Surely, if I do, you will also!
gpt
I cannot be sure.
human
You are not as well as you should be--you work too much. That is not just to Mr. Jefferson, Merne, nor to our men, nor to me.
gpt
It was for that reason I took you on. Doesn't a man have two lungs, two arms, two limbs, two eyes? We are those for Mr. Jefferson--even crippled, the expedition will live. You are as my own other hand. I exult to see you every morning smiling out of your blankets, hopeful and hungry!
human
You see, I am a fatalist, he went on.
gpt
Ah, you laugh at me! My people must have been owners of the second sight, I have often told you. Humor me, Will, bear with me. Don't question me too deep. Your flag, Will, I know will be planted on the last parapet of life--you were born to succeed. For myself, I still must remember what my mother told me--something about the burden which would be too heavy, the trail which would be long. At times I doubt.
human
Confound it, Merne, you have not been yourself since you got that accursed letter in the night last summer!
gpt
It was unsettling, I don't deny.
human
I pray Heaven you'll never get another! said William Clark.
gpt
From a married woman, too! Thank God I've no such affair on my mind!
human
It is taboo, Will--that one thing!