My Travels with Capts. Lewis and Clark, by George Shannon

<p>Oct. 22, 1803</p> <p>Capt. Lewis noticed that I kept a journal. I told him Ma had sent it to me. That I wrote in it faithfully so that she and the others back home might one day read of my adventure.</p> <p>Hearing this, Capt. Lewis got all worked up, the way he does. "That's it, Pup!" he said. "Write your story, a private's story, of the Expedition!" He said I must put down exactly how I see things. He said he would never ask to read my journal. That it would exist for posterity, that was what mattered. He went on and on, and I lost him in parts. He finished by saying, "Write a true and honest story, Pup. Tell how you left your home and your family, how you left America and all that you knew to voyage out into the Great Unknown!"</p> <p>Naturally, I said, "Yes, sir!"</p>