ran-fire new business to me. It now became necessary that I
should tell the people something about the Government, and an eternal
sight of other things that I know'd nothing more about than I did about
Latin, and law, and such things as that. I have said before, that in
those days none of us called General Jackson the Government. But I
know'd so little about it that if any one had told me that he was the
Government, I should have believed it; for I had never read even a
newspaper in my life, or anything else on the subject."

Lawrence County bounded Giles County on the west. Just north of
Lawrence came Hickman County. Crockett first directed his steps to
Hickman County, to engage in his "bran-fire" new work of electioneering
for himself as a candidate for the Legislature. What ensued cannot be
more graphically told than in Crockett's own language:

"Here they told me that they wanted to move their town nearer to the
centre of the county, and I must come out in favor of it. There's no
devil if I know'd what this meant, or how the town was to be moved. And
so I kept dark, going on the identical same plan that I now find is
called non-committal.

"About this time there was a great squirrel-hunt, on Duck River, which
was among my people. They were to hunt two days; then to meet and count
the scalps, and have a big barbecue, and what might be called a tip-top
country frolic. The dinners and a general treat was all to be paid for
by the party having taken the fewest scalps. I joined one side, and got
a gun ready for the hunt. I killed a great many squirrels, and when we
counted scalps my party was victorious.

"The company had everything to eat and drink that could be furnished in
a new country; and much fun and good humor prevailed. But before the
regular frolic commenced, I was called on to make a speech as a
candidate, which was a business I was as ignorant of as an outlandish
negro.

"A public document I had never seen. How to begin I couldn't tell. I
made many apologies, and tried to get off, for I know'd I had a man to
run against who could speak prime. And I know'd, too that I wasn't able
to cut and thrust with him. He was there, and knowing my ignorance as
well as I did myself, he urged me to make a speech. The truth is, he
thought my being a candidate was a mere matter of sport, and didn't
think for a moment that he was in any danger from an ignorant back
woods bear-hunter.

"But I found I couldn't get off. So