In Mitchell valley Parker found two thousand Pawnees, of which he said : "Their lodges were comfortable and easily transportable, and they moved from place to place as occasion dictated. They were constructed of eight or ten poles about eighteen feet long, set circular and the small ends fastened together and the large ends about twenty feet apart. This frame was covered with skins of elk and buffalo. Fire is made in the center with the hole at the top for smoke. The men were tall and well proportioned, the women well formed -- ■ less pendulous than usual, well dressed and cleanly."

On Sunday, July 26, 1835, they remained on the Banks of the Laramie, where the "Indians came in numbers" to meet them, and hear them read and sing. It was hot, very hot, but they held almost constant service from the forenoon until late into the night.

Then the next day, they went on towards the end of the trail, riding in their "tepees on wheels."

Marcus Whitman was the pilot of all to Oregon and about 1844 was at the zenith of his living glory. Whitman's glory will never fade, even though the "praying Indians," cut his living usefulness short in its splendid career. On the journeys to Oregon he preached, he exhorted, he enthused. He officiated at births, weddings and deaths. A wagon would

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

drop out of line, and a fire would be hastily kindled, and at night the wagon would come along and join the caravan, and the cheerful face of the doctor would tell to all the anxious matrons who might expect a similar event before the journey's end. that all was well, and that the mother and child were both doing nicely. He ministered to the failing, and said the last sad rites over the improvised caskets, or the graves of the departed that were left along the Overland.