ng tumbled into the torrent, I do
not believe it. They are not likely to have gone off without our people
knowing something about it. They are either in hiding somewhere near
Roaring Water,--and if so, I shall soon ferret them out,--or else they
have gone away to take squaws from among the Indians, and set up for
themselves."

The lieutenant did not think that the latter proceeding was very
probable; but their absence was mysterious, and we had to confess that
we were no wiser as to their whereabouts than we were at first.

CHAPTER THREE.

MY FAMILY HISTORY--MY FATHER, ONCE A CAPTAIN IN THE BRITISH ARMY, COMES
TO AMERICA AND MARRIES UNCLE JEFF'S SISTER--HE SETTLES ON A FARM IN
OHIO--CLARICE AND I ARE BORN--MY GRANDFATHER'S FARM DESTROYED BY A
FLOOD--THE NEXT YEAR OUR FARM IS BURNT--MY FATHER RESOLVES TO MIGRATE TO
THE WEST--WE SET OFF IN WAGGONS WITH AN EMIGRANT TRAIN--PROSPEROUS
COMMENCEMENT OF JOURNEY--PROVISIONS RUN SHORT--I WITNESS A BUFFALO
HUNT--THE EMIGRANTS SUFFER FROM CHOLERA--MY MOTHER DIES--MANY OF THE
EMIGRANTS TURN BACK--MY FATHER PERSEVERES--FIERCELY ATTACKED BY
INDIANS--WE KEEP THEM AT BAY--AGAIN ATTACKED, WHEN A STRANGER COMES TO
OUR ASSISTANCE--CLARICE GIVES HIM A BOOK--HE PROMISES TO READ IT--WE
CONTINUE OUR JOURNEY, AND REACH FORT KEARNEY--REMAIN THERE FOR SOME
MONTHS--MY FATHER, THOUGH STILL SUFFERING, INSISTS ON SETTING OUT
AGAIN--HE SOON BECOMES WORSE, AND DIES--I AM DIGGING HIS GRAVE, WHEN AN
EMIGRANT TRAIN COMES BY--UNCLE JEFF IS THE LEADER, AND WE ACCOMPANY HIM
TO ROARING WATER.

But the readers of my Journal, if so I may venture to call it, would
like to know how Clarice and I came to be at Uncle Jeff's farm. To do
so, I must give a little bit of my family history, which probably would
not otherwise interest them.

My father, Captain Middlemore, had been an officer in the English army,
but sold out and came to America. Being, I suspect, of a roving
disposition, he had travelled through most of the Eastern States without
finding any spot where he could make up his mind to settle. At length
he bent his steps to Ohio; in the western part of which he had one night
to seek shelter from a storm at the farm of a substantial settler, a Mr
Ralph Crockett (the father of Uncle Jeff). Mr Crockett treated the
English stranger with a hospitality which the farmers of Ohio never
failed to show to their guests. He had several sons, but he spoke of
one who seemed to have a warm place in his hear