might
chance to be a few scattered cabins. They took up a collection for
David, and presented him with three dollars.

The little fellow pressed along, about one hundred and twenty-five
miles, down the valley between the Alleghany and the Blue ridges, until
he reached Montgomery Court House. The region then, nearly three
quarters of a century ago, presented only here and there a spot where
the light of civilization had entered. Occasionally the log cabin of
some poor emigrant was found in the vast expanse. David, too proud to
beg, when he had any money with which to pay, found his purse empty
when he had accomplished this small portion of his journey.

In this emergence, he hired out to work for a man a month for five
dollars, which was at the rate of about one shilling a day. Faithfully
he fulfilled his contract, and then, rather dreading to return home,
entered into an engagement with a hatter, Elijah Griffith, to work in
his shop for four years. Here he worked diligently eighteen months
without receiving any pay. His employer then failed, broke up, and left
the country. Again this poor boy, thus the sport of fortune, found
himself without a penny, with but few clothes, and those much worn.

But it was not his nature to lay anything very deeply to heart. He
laughed at misfortune, and pressed on singing and whistling through all
storms. He had a stout pair of hands, good nature, and adaptation to
any kind of work. There was no danger of his starving; and exposures,
which many would deem hardships, were no hardships for him. Undismayed
he ran here and there, catching at such employment as he could find,
until he had supplied himself with some comfortable clothing, and had a
few dollars of ready money in his purse. Again he set out alone and on
foot for his far-distant home. He had been absent over two years, and
was new fifteen years of age.

He trudged along, day after day, through rain and sunshine, until he
reached a broad stream called New River. It was wintry weather. The
stream was swollen by recent rains, and a gale then blowing was
ploughing the surface into angry waves. Teams forded the stream many
miles above. There was a log hut here, and the owner had a frail canoe
in which he could paddle an occasional traveller across the river. But
nothing would induce him to risk his life in an attempt to cross in
such a storm.

The impetuous boy, in his ignorance of the effect of wind upon waves,
resolved to atte