At 12 M. the fort bell rang; clerks and gentlemen all met at the common dinner-table, which was well supplied with potatoes, salmon, wild fowl, and usually with venison and bread. Dinner over, most of the gentlemen passed a compliment in a glass of wine, or brandy, if preferred; all then retired to the social hall, a room in the clerks' quarters, where they indulged in a stiff pipe of tobacco, sometimes filling the room as full as it could hold with smoke. At 1 P.M. the bell rang again, when all went to business. The party had no sooner arrived than the carpenter was ordered to make an extra table, which was located in the governor's office, in the room where we left them on first bringing them into the house. This extra table was presided over by the governor, or the next highest officers of the fort; usually one or two of the head clerks or gentlemen traders were, by special invitation, invited to dine with the ladies, or, rather, at the ladies' table. The governor's wife was not sufficiently accomplished, at first, to take a seat at the ladies' table. I never saw her in the common dining-hall; neither was the mother of the chief clerk's children permitted this honor at first. However, as Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding soon learned the fort regulations, as also the family connection there was in the establishment, they very soon introduced themselves to the two principal mothers they found in the governor's house, one belonging to the governor, and the other to the chief clerk, and made themselves acquainted with the young misses; and, in a short time, in opposition to the wish of the governor and his chief clerk, brought them both to the ladies' table. They also brought the youngest daughter of the governor to the table, and took considerable pains to teach the young misses, and make themselves generally useful; so that, at the end of two weeks, when arrangements had been made for the party to return to Wallawalla to commence their missionary labors, the governor and chief clerk would not allow the ladies to depart, till the gentlemen had gone up and selected their stations and built their houses, so that they could be comfortable for winter. Captain Wyeth and Mr. Townsend were correct in their ideas of the reception of this party. The utmost cordiality was manifested, the kindest attention paid, and such articles as could be made about the establishment, that the party wanted, were supplied. The goods were all to be furnished at _one hundred per cent. on London prices_, drafts to be drawn on the American Board, payable in London at sight. They were cashed by the Board at thirty-seven cents premium on London drafts, costing the mission two dollars and seventy-four cents for every dollar's worth of goods they received; freight and charges from Fort Vancouver to Wallawalla were added. These goods were received and paid for, not as a business transaction with the Hudson's Bay Company, by any means, but as a