"What Great Father is that?" demanded Big White. "It seems there are many Great Fathers in these days! Who are you strangers, who come from so far?"
"You yourself shall judge, Big White. When the geese fly up the river and the grass is green, our great boat here is going back down the river. The Great Father is curious to know his children, the Mandans. If you, Big White, wish to go to see him when the grass is green, you shall sit yonder in that boat and go all the way with some of my men. You shall shake his hand. When you come back, you can tell the story to your own people. Then all the tribes will cease to wage war. Your women once more may take off their moccasins at night when they sleep."
"It is good," said the Mandan. "Ahaie! Come and stay with us until the grass is green, and I will make medicine over what you say. We will open our lodges to you, and will not harm you. Our young women will carry you corn which they have saved for the winter. Our squaws will feed your horses. Go no farther, for the snow and ice are coming fast. Even the buffalo will be thin, and the elk will grow so lean that they will not be good to eat. This is as far as the white men ever come when the grass is green. Beyond this, no man knows the trails."
"When the grass is green," said Lewis, "I shall lead my young men toward the setting sun. We shall make new trails."
Jussaume, McCracken, and all the others held their own council with the leaders of the expedition.
"What are you doing here?" they demanded. "The Missouri has always belonged to the British traders."
The face of Meriwether Lewis flushed with anger.
"We are about the business of our government," he said. "It is our purpose to discover the West beyond here, all of it. It is our own country that we are discovering. We have bought it and paid for it, and will hold it. We carry the news of the great purchase to the natives."
"Purchase? What purchase?" demanded McCracken.
And then the face of Lewis lightened, for he knew that they had outrun all the news of the world!
"The Louisiana Purchase--the purchase of all this Western country from the Mississippi to the Pacific, across the Stony Mountains. We bought it from Napoleon, who had it from Spain. We are the wedge to split the British from the South--the Missouri is our own pathway into our own country. That is our business here!"