" I then asked the others if
they were satisfied with that, and they said they were; so I paid
them off by giving them a butcher knife that cost about fifty
cents in St. Louis and one string of beads that would perhaps cost
ten cents. They thought they had been well paid for their trouble,
and I could see that they had not expected so much. This was no
doubt their first experience in hiring out.
The next morning Col. Bent and Mr. Roubidoux said to Jim and I:
"Now boys, we will make you a present," telling us that their
horses were in the corrall, and for us to go and pick out a saddle
horse apiece. They told us that all the horses in the corrall were
theirs, and we might take our choice, and that we could turn our
other horses into the herd for as long as we liked.
I selected a black horse and saddled him, and he seemed to be
quiet and gentle.
There were some trappers at the fort who were going to South Park
to trap the following winter. When I led the horse out to get on
him they asked if it was mine. "Yes," I said. They asked what
price I had set on him, and I said one hundred dollars. They said
they would give me that for him if I would wait for my money until
spring when they returned from South Park. I asked them if they
were going to trap for Col. Bent and Mr. Roubidoux, and they said
they were. We then walked into the store and I asked Col.
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