CHAPTER XIII.
DEPARTURE FROM FORT WINNEBAGO.
Having taken a tender leave of our friends, the morning of the 8th of March saw us mounted and equipped for our journey.

The weather was fine--the streams, already fringed with green, were sparkling in the sun--everything gave promise of an early and genial season.

In vain, when we reached the ferry at the foot of the hill on which the fort stood, did Major Twiggs repeat his endeavors to dissuade us from commencing a journey which he assured me would be perilous beyond what I could anticipate.

I was resolute.
Our party was augmented by an escort of all the young officers, who politely insisted on accompanying us as far as Duck Creek, four miles distant.

Indeed, there were some who would gladly have prosecuted the whole journey with us, and escaped the monotony of their solitary, uneventful life.