"Dr. McLoughlin will not help us on account of that memorial to Congress. There 's no ammunition except in the stockade at Fort Vancouver."
"We are without defence," said the settlers. "We cannot wait for Congress, we must organize."
"But how? "queried the timid. "The French Canadians of Champoeg will oppose. They are not afraid of Injuns. They will stand by the company, and they are more than we in number."
"We must find a basis of common interest, how about wolves? "
Wolves? How they laughed and cried around the mission! With what long howls they struck the midnight hour beside the Falls! What multitudinous reveilles rang along the valley at the first red streak of dawn! How the fine bark of puppies staccatoed the hoarse bass of big gray grenadiers! How they ran down herds of elk and horses and cattle! How they dined on pigs and poultry and calves!
"Yes," was the unanimous response; "let us call a wolf meeting! "
So, on the first Monday of March, 1843, every American that could muster a boat landed at old Champoeg at ten o'clock in the morning. They proceeded at once to the house of Joseph Gervais. Telix, faithful housewife, had scrubbed her floor and swept her hearth and hied her away to plant her onion bed.
The long-haired Canadians, indulging in their favorite vice of smoking, discussed the bears and wolves and panthers with these astute Americans. For fifteen years these Frenchmen had depended each on his own old rusty trade-gun, and the wolves were bad as ever. Every night the good wife heard the squawking in her
