erici, the girl I had left
behind me in St. Louis. My future seemed now secure, so I decided that
it was high time I married and settled down, if a scout can ever settle
down. So, surrendering my stage job, I returned to Leavenworth and
embarked for St. Louis by boat. After a week's visit at the home of my
fiancee we were quietly married at her home. I made, I suppose, rather
a wild-looking groom. My brown hair hung down over my shoulders, and I
had just started a little mustache and goatee. I was dressed in the
Western fashion, and my appearance was, to say the least, unusual. We
were married at eleven o'clock in the morning, and took the steamer
_Morning Star_ at two in the afternoon for our honeymoon journey home.

As we left our carriages and entered the steamer, my wife's father and
mother and a number of friends accompanying us, I noticed that I was
attracting considerable excited attention. A number of people, men and
women, were on the deck. As we passed I heard them whispering:

"There he is! That's him! I'd know him in the dark!"

It was very plain to me that these observations were not particularly
friendly. The glares cast at me were openly hostile. While we were
disposing our baggage in our stateroom--I had hired the bridal
chamber--I heard some of my wife's friends asking her father if he knew
who I was, and whether I had any credentials. He replied that he had
left the matter of credentials to his daughter.

"Well," said one of the party, "these people on board are excursionists
from Independence, and they say this son-in-law of yours is the most
desperate outlaw, bandit, and house-burner on the frontier!"

The old gentleman was considerably disturbed at this report. He made up
his mind to get a little first-hand information, and he took the most
direct means of getting it.

"Who are you?" he asked, walking over to me. "The people on board don't
give you a very good recommendation."

"Kindly remember," I replied, "that we have had a little war for the
past five years on the border. These people were on one side and I on
the other, and it is natural that they shouldn't think very highly of
me."

My argument was not convincing. "I am going to take my daughter home
again," said my father-in-law, and started toward the stateroom.

I besought him to leave the decision to her, and for the next ten
minutes I pleaded my case with all the eloquence I could command. I was
talking against odds, for my wife