time to mend that air leak in the ruff last summer; I war gone too long at the beaver. But thee shall have a new house." And again the faithful Rebecca stuffed a rag in the ceiling with her mop-handle and meekly went on baking hoe-cake before the blazing forelog.
Daniel had long promised a new house, but now, at last, he was really going to build. For this he was studying St. Louis.
A day looking at houses and disposing of his salt and beaver-skins, and back he went, with a boatload of emigrants and a cargo of school-books. Mere trappers came and went,—Boone brought settlers. Pathfinder, judge, statesman, physician to the border, he now carried equipments for the first school up the Missouri.
VII
A MYSTERY
Furs were piled everywhere, the furs that had been wont to go to Europe,—otter, beaver, deer, and bear and buffalo. American ships, that had sped like eagles on every sea, were threatened now by England if they sailed to France, by France if they sailed to England.
"If our ships, our sailors, our goods are to be seized, it is better to keep them at home," said Jefferson.
"War itself would be better than that," pled Gallatin.
The whole world was taking sides in the cataclysm over the sea. Napoleon recognised no neutrals. England recognised none. Denmark tried it, and the British fleet burned Copenhagen. Ominously the conflagration glimmered,—such might be the fate of any American seaport.
"If we must fight let us go with France," said some. "Napoleon will guarantee us the cession of Canada and Nova Scotia."
But Jefferson, carrying all before him, on
