Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. [Illustration: Map to illustrate the Story of Antoine of Oregon] ANTOINE OF OREGON A STORY OF THE OREGON TRAIL BY JAMES OTIS NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY JAMES OTIS KALER. COPYRIGHT, 1912, IN GREAT BRITAIN. ANTOINE OF OREGON. W. P. I FOREWORD The author of this series of stories for children has endeavored simply to show why and how the descendants of the early colonists fought their way through the wilderness in search of new homes. The several narratives deal with the struggles of those adventurous people who forced their way westward, ever westward, whether in hope of gain or in answer to "the call of the wild," and who, in so doing, wrote their names with their blood across this country of ours from the Ohio to the Columbia. To excite in the hearts of the young people of this land a desire to know more regarding the building up of this great nation, and at the same time to entertain in such a manner as may stimulate to noble deeds, is the real aim of these stories. In them there is nothing of romance, but only a careful, truthful record of the part played by children in the great battles with those forces, human as well as natural, which, for so long a time, held a vast portion of this broad land against the advance of home seekers. With the knowledge of what has been done by our own people in our own land, surely there is no reason why one should resort to fiction in order to depict scenes of heroism, daring, and sublime disregard of suffering in nearly every form. JAMES OTIS. CONTENTS PAGE THE FUR TRADERS 9 WHY I AM NOT A FUR TRADER 11 STRIVING TO PLAN FOR THE FUTURE 13 AN INQUISITIVE STRANGER 15 AN UNEXPECTED PROPOSITION 16 I SET OUT AS A GUIDE 18 JOHN MITCHELL'S OUTFIT 20 MAKING THE BARGAIN 23 WE LEAVE ST. LOUIS 25 THE HARDSHIPS TO BE ENCOUNTERED 26 THE CAMP AT INDEPENDENCE 28 A FRONTIER TOWN 30 THE START FROM INDEPENDENCE 33 CARELESS TRAVELERS 35 OVERRUN BY WILD HORSES 38 SEARCHING FOR THE LIVE STOCK 40 ABANDONING THE MISSING ANIMALS 42