glance upon its noonday splendor.'

"'You are right; but how is this to be done?'

"'Accompany me to Texas. Cut aloof from your degrading habits and
associates here, and, in fighting for the freedom of the Texans, regain
your own.'

"The man seemed much moved. He caught up his gambling instruments,
thrust them into his pocket, with hasty strides traversed the floor two
or three times, and then exclaimed:

"'By heaven, I will try to be a man again. I will live honestly, or die
bravely. I will go with you to Texas.'"

To confirm him in his good resolution, Crockett "asked him to liquor."
At Natchitoches, Crockett encountered another very singular character.
He was a remarkably handsome young man, of poetic imagination, a sweet
singer, and with innumerable scraps of poetry and of song ever at his
tongue's end. Honey-trees, as they were called, were very abundant in
Texas The prairies were almost boundless parterres of the richest
flowers, from which the bees made large quantities of the most
delicious honey. This they deposited in the hollows of trees. Not only
was the honey valuable, but the wax constituted a very important
article of commerce in Mexico, and brought a high price, being used for
the immense candles which they burned in their churches. The
bee-hunter, by practice, acquired much skill in coursing the bees to
their hives.

This man decided to join Crockett and the juggler in their journey over
the vast prairies of Texas. Small, but very strong and tough Mexican
ponies, called mustangs, were very cheap. They were found wild, in
droves of thousands, grazing on the prairies. The three adventurers
mounted their ponies, and set out on their journey due west, a distance
of one hundred and twenty miles, to Nacogdoches. Their route was along
a mere trail, which was called the old Spanish road. It led over vast
prairies, where there was no path, and where the bee-hunter was their
guide, and through forests where their course was marked only by blazed
trees.

The bee-hunter, speaking of the state of society in Texas, said that at
San Felipe he had sat down with a small party at the breakfast-table,
where eleven of the company had fled from the States charged with the
crime of murder. So accustomed were the inhabitants to the appearance
of fugitives from justice, that whenever a stranger came among them,
they took it for granted that he had committed some crime which
rendered it necessary for him to take refug