"To be honest with you, Dick, I've changed my mind somehow. Those were days when we always had plenty to eat; but now the rations have become so scanty that we feel half starved most of the time. Yes, I believe that if I was asked to sit down to a feast of baked dog, I'd accept, and with thanks." "Well, there's nothing like hunger to serve as sauce at a meal," laughed Dick. "And, when I tell them at home how you were cured of some of your nice notions about the kind of food you long for, they will think it quite a joke." "We're in a bad fix as it goes," resumed Roger; "with some of the men half sick from their sufferings on this long trip, little to eat in camp, and a slim prospect of getting anything from now on. Perhaps, after coming so far, none of us will live to see that wonderful ocean." "Oh! yes we shall, never fear," Dick assured him. "But stop and look ahead. What have we run up against now, I wonder. It looks like an Indian family on the move." "You are right, Dick," cried Roger. "They have a horse, and two poles fastened so that the other ends drag on the ground. On that they have hides, and I can see a squaw and a papoose. Suppose we try and see if we can make ourselves understood?" "I mean to," replied the other, quickly. "The warrior may be able to direct us to the river we are seeking, down which we hope to float until we come to the sea itself." They walked nearer the Indians, who by this time had discovered their presence, and were undoubtedly amazed to see people with white skins in that part of the country. "We have never, up to now, come in contact with any Indians dressed as that fellow is," remarked Dick, as he held up his hand with the palm toward the woman, to indicate that their intentions were friendly; for that seems to be a sign universally understood among all the savage peoples of the world. "It may be they belong to the Nez Perces tribe, and the man is a brave, because he wears the bear claws about his neck," (Note 8) suggested Roger; "I heard Captain Clark speaking about them only yesterday, and saying we must soon strike their hunting grounds, for he had learned about them from other tribes." As the two boys joined the Indians they saw that the fat squaw had a small papoose in her arms. Dick instantly discovered that the child was suffering in some way, possibly from cramps in its little stomach. According to the native custom nothing would be done to relieve the pain, that is in the way of medicine. When they reached their village the old medicine man would doubtless be called in to conduct his eccentric dances around the writhing child, to rattle his hollow gourds that contained small stones, and to do everything in his power to frighten off the evil spirit that was believed to be tormenting the papoose.