Meeker and the Old Man

A fourteen-year-old boy heads west to be a mountain man in 1830. Along the way, he makes friends with two mountain men. One an old man, Conan McCallan, the other one a younger Frenchman, Guillaume Paternoster, both of whom took a liking to him. As the group moves west, the 80-plus-year-old man tells the boy of his life.

One of those tall tales told of him saving Daniel Boone’s daughter. While the story was quite wild, it held the ring of truth.