, generally resulting in trouble on his return. Yet
they made the paper sell, and if Orion had but realized his possession
he might have turned his brother's talent into capital even then."

One evening in 1858, the boy, consumed with wanderlust, asked his mother
for five dollars--to start on his travels. He failed to receive the
money, but he defiantly announced that he would go "anyhow." He had
managed to save a tiny sum, and that night he disappeared and fled to St
Louis. There he worked in the composing-room of the Evening News for a
time, and then started out "to see the world"--New York, where a little
World's Fair was in progress. He was somewhat better off than was
Benjamin Franklin when he entered Philadelphia--for he had two or three
dollars in pocket-change, and a ten-dollar bank-bill concealed in the
lining of his coat. For a time he sweltered in a villainous mechanics'
boarding-house in Duane Street, and worked at starvation wages in the
printing-office of Gray & Green. Being recognized one day by a man from
Hannibal, he fled to Philadelphia where he worked for some months as a
"sub" on the 'Inquirer' and the 'Public Ledger'. Next came a flying
trip to Washington "to see the sights there," and then back he went to
the Mississippi Valley. This journey to the "vague and fabled East"
really opened his eyes to the great possibilities that the world has in
store for the traveller.

Meantime, Orion had gone to Muscatine, Ohio, and acquired a small
interest there; and, after his marriage, he and his wife went to Keokuk
and started a little job printing-office. Here Sam worked with his
brother until the winter of 1856-7, when circumstance once again played
the part of good fairy. As he was walking along the street one snowy
evening, his attention was attracted by a piece of paper which the wind
had blown against the wall. It proved to be a fifty-dollar bill; and
after advertising for the owner for four days, he stealthily moved to
Cincinnati in order "to take that money out of danger." Now comes the
second crucial event in his life!

For long the ambition for river life had remained with him--and now
there seemed some possibility of realizing these ambitions. He first
wanted to be a cabin boy; then his ideal was to be a deck hand, because
of his splendid conspicuousness as he stood on the end of the stage
plank with a coil of rope in his hand. But these were only day-dreams
--he didn't admit, even