St. Charles, does not like to pay in advance. This much was said to Mrs. Barada, but has not been well understood by her. You may assure her that all is right.
I hope Major Bridger will find his children in good health at his arrival in St. Charles. He has spent upward of thirty years among the Indians and is one of the truest specimens of a real trapper and Rocky Mountain man. He has been always very kind to us, and as he has much influence among the various tribes of the Far West he may still continue to exercise it in our favor - I hope he will call on your Reverence.
Remember me, etc.
One o f Father De Smet's Relaxations.
St. Louis Spiritual Rolling-mill," April 12, x854.
Reverend Father Horstmann, S. 1., P. C..
Reverend and Dear Father and Friend of the Roll-offs.Your two last short rolls put me into a rolling humor once more, for the particular benefit of all the reverend rollers of St. Xavier College, who rolled out, as you say, a rolling laugh and a rolling shout, at my first endeavor at rolling off an epistle. Our old folks, however, know full well that I was not a bad hand at a log-rolling party in our first days of fervor at St. Stanislaus - indeed we rolled thousands of logs out of sight to make the rolling land look decent all around. How proud Father Rolloff must be of his rolling name - to see it roll in and roll out, roll up and roll down, in a perpetual rolling motion 1
to A new priest, named Roelof, had it seems arrived at St. Xavier's. Father Di Maria and his mare, and her colt that bit off Father Truyens' thumb, and his law-suit with a St. Louis dentist over a set of teeth, were the theme of a good deal of good-humored badinage about this time.