I thanked her and told her that as my own supper was nearly ready, I would eat at my own camp. I had taken my Buck-skin coat off and laid it on our pack. One of the women asked me if she could look at it. I told her that she could if she wished to. While they were looking at the coat and exclaiming over its beauty (it was heavily embroidered with beads and porcupine quills, and was an odd looking garment to one not accustomed to seeing the clothing of the frontiers men), a couple of girls came running to me, saying, "Father wants you to come and eat supper with us, Mr. Bridger is eating now." So I took the meat and coffee off the fire and put my coat on and went with them. When I got in speaking distance of Jim, I said, "I thought you told me to cook supper." Jim answered, "I know I did Will, but we didn't have any fried onions, and these folks have, so I thought we would eat here and save our supper." The people all laughed at Jim being so saving, and then the old man asked what we would charge to pilot the train through to California. Jim asked, "How many wagons have you in this outfit?" He answered that he was not sure, but he thought there were about a hundred and thirty-five. "How many men are there in the train?" The old man said, "Oh, dog gone it, I can't tell." Jim said, "Have you got no Captain?" The old man answered, "Why no, we haven't any use for a Captain." Jim then said, "Well, I don't suppose they have any use for a commander over at the Fort then. Suppose the Indians should make an attack on them over there, and there was no Commander there, what do you think the soldiers would do? I will tell you what would happen. The most of the soldiers would be scalped, and it is the same way with a train of emigrants if the Indians attack them and they have no leader or what we call a Captain; they will all be scalped and in a mighty short time too. Now you call the men together and come to our camp, and we will talk this matter over, and then we will see if we can make a bargain with the crowd." In a few minutes it seemed as if all the men and women of the train were standing around our camp. Jim said to them, "I want some man who is a good reader to read this letter to the company." And he held up one of the letters of recommendation given us by the people of the train we had left a few days before. A middle-aged man came forward and said, "I reckon I can read it; I am a school teacher by profession, and I am used to reading all kinds of handwriting." He took the letter, stepped up on a log and in a clear, loud voice read it to the company. After he had finished reading it, the man handed the letter back to Jim with the remark that it was a fine recommendation and gave a character few men could claim.