They have settled, the newer generations of them, some in Oregon, along the mighty Columbia which Dick and Roger were among the first whites to see; others on wheat growing farms in Dakota, or else on cattle ranches in Montana; though there can still be found Armstrongs in St. Louis, proud to trace their ancestry back to those bold pioneers whose early history we have attempted to narrate in these volumes. Jasper Williams often visited his young friends when he came to the growing settlement at the junction of the Missouri with the Mississippi. He lived to dandle the children of Dick and Roger on his knee, and tell them many of the exciting adventures which those two hold lads encountered when crossing the Great Divide with Lewis and Clark. Nothing was ever heard of either Lascelles or Andrew Waller, and the boys never entertained a doubt but that the renegades met their fate in that strange landslide by which they had been precipitated into the Columbia. And, since we have seen the safe return of the wanderers, and watched the happy ending of their great adventure, it is but right that we bring our story of early pioneer days to a close. THE END NOTES NOTE 1 (PAGE 5) When the vast territory then known as Louisiana was purchased from the French Nation for fifteen million dollars, in the nineteenth century, no one knew what its extent was. It took in the country west of the Mississippi, from the Gulf below New Orleans; but what really lay to the far northwest was merely a conjecture. President Jefferson was determined to know just what was included in this Louisiana Purchase, and it was mainly through his individual efforts that an expedition was organized with the purpose of exploring the country as far as the Pacific; for, of course, it was understood that the ocean bounded the land on the west. His private secretary, Meriwether Lewis, was put in command of the party, with a military second, Captain Clark. What wonderful things they accomplished history has recorded. It was in the spring of 1804 that the expedition left St. Louis, and two years and a half expired before they returned to that border post, having successfully carried out their undertaking. NOTE 2 (PAGE 22) In those early pioneer days flint and steel were commonly brought into service when a fire was needed. So expert did the settlers and borderers become in the use of these that they thought little more of accomplishing the end they had in view than a Boy Scout of to-day does with the match. All they asked was a handful of dry tinder, and the ready spark quickly had a blaze going.