CHAPTER II.
THE EDGE OF THE WORLD More than two thousand men, women and children waited on the Missouri for the green fully to tinge the grasses of the prairies farther west.
The waning town of Independence had quadrupled its population in thirty days.

Boats discharged their customary western cargo at the newer landing on the river, not far above that town; but it all was not enough.

Men of upper Missouri and lower Iowa had driven in herds of oxen, horses, mules; but there were not enough of these.

Rumors came that a hundred wagons would take the Platte this year via the Council Bluffs, higher up the Missouri; others would join on from St.Jo and Leavenworth.
March had come, when the wild turkey gobbled and strutted resplendent in the forest lands.

April had passed, and the wild fowl had gone north.
May, and the upland plovers now were nesting all across the prairies.
But daily had more wagons come, and neighbors had waited for neighbors, tardy at the great rendezvous.