made through the long stretches of wilderness
were sometimes attended with much personal danger.

But the surrounding tribes, including the Arapahoes, Kiowas, Cheyennes,
Comanches and others, looked upon the great hunter with affectionate
admiration and no guest was more welcome and honored in their lodges
than he.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Carson Visits his Old Home in Missouri--He Goes to St. Louis--Voyage up
the Missouri--Makes the Acquaintance of Lieutenant John C. Fremont--Is
engaged as a Guide for Fremont's First Expedition--The Start
Westward--Various Mishaps--The Emigrants--The False Alarm.

Kit Carson had left his home in Missouri when only a boy and he was now
in the prime of a vigorous young manhood. The years since he turned his
back upon his old home had been busy and eventful ones and now, as
is often the case with those placed as was he, he longed to visit the
scenes of his childhood, and to meet and shake the hands of those of his
old friends who were still among the living.

In the spring of 1842, Carson went eastward with a train of wagons,
carrying goods to the States. When the borders of Missouri were reached,
he bade his companions goodbye and made his way back to his old home.
His experience was touching. His parents were dead, the old building
which would ever linger in his memory, had tumbled down and nearly every
one whom he met was a stranger. The cheeks of the hardy mountaineer were
wet with tears, and with a sigh, he turned his face away forever.

Carson had never seen a large city, and he made his way to St. Louis,
where he spent more than a week in sight seeing. Before the end of that
time, the old yearning for the mountains, prairies and streams of
the West came back to him, and he engaged passage on a steamer up the
Missouri.

On the same boat John C. Fremont was a passenger. He was two years
younger than Carson and had been commissioned Second Lieutenant in the
Corps of Topographical Engineers, in 1838. Four years later he projected
a geographical survey of the entire territory of the United States from
the Missouri River to the Pacific.

Carson was attracted by the fine, manly and intellectual appearance of
Fremont, and, learning he was in search of a skilful mountaineer, he
introduced himself, referring in a modest fashion to his experience in
the west and expressing the belief that he could be of service to the
explorer.

Fremont was an excellent judge of character and was