The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1921-04-07

is all right and that l will take the
potatoes at the price agreed upon,
and know that you are on the level,
too, and am depending upon you for
the potatoes"
OF course, that would have settled
the matter as far as O'Keeffe was
concerned, but it would not get him
the suit of clothes he wanted to take
along.
We'll, you see it is this way" he
replied. my brother and 1 are in
together in this matter, and he might
bring the potatoes over. l could not
guarantee that they would come, if
he brought them and we had no con-
tract, for he might sell to someone
else, perhaps for more money. If
we have this agreement, he will live
up to it,"
He knew that his brother would
deliver the potatoes just as well as
himself and would be just as true to
the verbal agreement as if it were
in writing, but at the same time he
wanted to get the suit of clothes out
of Matt Carroll.
He explained to Riplingar that he
did not want to leave any shadow of
doubt in the buyers mind, and that
settled it. The contract was drawn
up.
A few minutes later O'Keeffe was
back at the Carroll-Steele store and
showed the contract to Carroll. The
latter read it, grinned and told the
chief clerk to give Dave the best
suit in the store" Carroll at that
time was negotiating for potatoes for
half the price for which O'Keeffe was
delivering them to Riplingar.
However, in those days it was no
small matter to deliver 5000 pounds
of potatoes or 5000 pounds of any
thing else from what is now Missoula
to Fort Benton. The Mullan trail
was all that there was to travel over,
houses were few and far between and
the 330-mile trip had to be made by
bull team. Six houses were all that
dotted the road from Missoula to
Fort Benton, four of which were be-
tween the present site of Missoula
and Helena.
The country was open, not a fence
along the way, and is quite a con-
trast to the trip of today, for it took
from 18 to 20 days to get through,
and when 'fUncle Dave" was ready
to start he left with four wagon
loads. Two of the wagons contained
the potatoes, and there was a load of
cabbage and one of onions.
Four yoke of oxen were on each
wagon, eight head in all, SO the four
wagons required 80 head of cattle.
WAS it necessary in those days
- ,o. 0xyo-0 yETOra fhn,n No hnrcnc |
which could be used?'' "Uncle Dave"
asked.
Me friend" replied the old gen
tleman, sit was useless to try to use
horses in those days, the Indians
steal them from you, and the
Blackfeet and Piegan tribes were
dangerous. They were on the war
The trip was made to Fort Ben
ton without incident, but on the
way they heard some shooting and
learned that the Indian party that
they saw in the distance had killed
two Mexican trappers.
The writer was interested in know
what was taken along for feed
for the bull teams, considering that
each wagon had eight head, but Mr.
o'Keeffe assured him that the ami
mails fed on the grass along the way
md kept fat on the trip.
did you wear the new suit of
home from Fort B%enton?"
0'Keeffe was asked, but he replied,
No, indeed. l brought it home in
/ burlap sack. That was a dusty trip
Ind the wagon had to be creased
,ften, and l wanted to keep the suit
or Sunday "best."