Ay, ay, and not one picayune of duty did we pay! Ay, and we opened the Mississippi!" The speaker paused to take from his pouch several leaves of tobacco, and to roll them deftly into a long cigar.

The boy rose to throw more wood upon the fire, then sat again at the trader's feet, and with his chin in his hand stared into the glowing hollows.
"The West!" said Gaudylock, between slow puffs of smoke.

"Kentucky and the Ohio and the Mississippi, and then Louisiana and all that lies beyond, and Mexico and its gold! Ha! the Mississippi open from its source--and the Lord in Heaven knows where that may be--to the last levee! and not a Spaniard to stop a pirogua, and right to trade in every port, and no lingo but plain English, and Mexico like a ripe apple,--just a touch of the bough, and there's the gold in hand! If I were a dreamer, I would dream of the West." "Folk have always dreamed of the West," said the boy.

"Sailors and kings, and men with their fortune to make.

I've read about Cortez and Pizarro,--it would be fine to be like that!" "I thought you wanted to study law." "I do; but I could be a great soldier, too." Gaudylock laughed.