This voyage into the world, with such guides and associates as Billy
Brackett, Glen Elting, and Binney Gibbs, was proving of inestimable
value to this boy. Not only were his ideas of life broadened and his
stock of general information increased by it, but he was rapidly
learning to appreciate the beauty of modest pretensions, and a
self-reliance based upon knowledge and strength, as compared with the
boastfulness and self-conceit of ignorance.
Sometimes the _Venture_ was tied up for the night near other rafts, and
its crew exchanged visits with theirs. The regular river raftsmen were
generally powerful young giants, rough and unlettered, but a
good-natured, happy-go-lucky lot, full of tales of adventure in the
woods or on the river, to which the boys listened with a never-failing
delight. Nor were the raftmates at all behindhand in this interchange
of good stories; for they could tell of life on the Plains or in
California, of Indians, buffalo, mountains, deserts, and gold-mines, to
which their auditors listened with wide-open eyes and gaping mouths.
During the pauses Solon was always ready with some account of the
wonderful performances of his long-ago 'coon dog Bijah.
So wise did our raftmates become concerning 'coons and their habits,
from Solon's teachings, that finally nothing would satisfy them but a
'coon hunt of their own.
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