We relished our bread
and ham and coffee amazingly. The wolves might be snuffing the odor of
our viands, and coveting our repast; but they remained within their
hiding-places, and kept silent; and we finished our meal in peace.
We rested next on the outskirts of a grove on the banks of the Elkhorn
river. Here I was left to take care of the stuff, to prepare a bed, and
to gather wood for a fire to cook our supper, and to frighten away the
wolves, and keep us warm through the night, I gathered a quantity of dry
and withered grass, and spread it on the ground, and covered it with a
blanket, for a bed. I then looked around for wood. I saw some down in a
dark deep gully, and went to fetch it; when I found myself all alone and
unarmed in front of a hideous wolf-hole. I retreated with all the haste
I could, and was soon on the top of the bank again, panting and
trembling, and endeavoring to increase the distance between myself and
the horrible den as rapidly as I could. I next looked round for wood on
safer ground, and having collected a quantity, I waited with anxiety for
the return of my companions. We slept that night in a half-built and
deserted log cabin, without doors or windows, put up by some adventurous
border-man to secure a claim to a portion of the surrounding land.
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