"Help yourselves, men!" Had some poor soldier lost his blanket?
"Mine is in my way," said Clark.

"Take it, I'm glad to get rid of it!" His men loved him, and would die rather than fall short of his expectations.
The march before them lay over a magnificent plain, mostly prairie, rich as the delta of the Nile, but extremely difficult to traverse.

The distance, as the route led, was about a hundred and seventy miles.

On account of an open and rainy winter all the basins and flat lands were inundated, often presenting leagues of water ranging in depth from a few inches to three of four feet.

Cold winds blew, sometimes with spits of snow and dashes of sleet, while thin ice formed on the ponds and sluggish streams.