Beyond the wide Missouri lay the prairie - "the biggest clearing on the Almighty's footstool." And every few hundred miles, holding to the rivers and wooded bottoms, were the outposts of the white civilization - the military forts of the U.S. Army. Father, mother and comforter to the settlers, trading points for the trappers and buffalo hunters, rallying points for the scouts. Awaiting the reader of this sentimental journey into the days of "Boots...