hose
settlement their enterprise had started.

Throughout, the boys found Captain Bowen's assistance of the greatest
value. He went to town with them and helped them make their purchases,
which he took into his own home, as a central point of assembling, the
articles bought for the expedition, and helped to pack them in the
handiest and most compact manner; and many a thing of value and use which
he paid for with his own money, found its way at his hands into the
outfit the lads were getting together.

The route of the journey Captain Bowen also aided the boys in planning,
and his knowledge of the country stood them in excellent stead. He
prepared maps for them--home-made affairs it is true, and not absolutely
accurate, but yet worth much to those who planned to cross a thinly
settled country to the wilderness beyond. It was by the way of Braddock's
road that he advised the boys to go, following for the most part the
course Gen. Putnam's party had taken after leaving Hartford in 1788. This
party had made the trip in three months, including a long wait while
boats were built in which to float down the Ohio river.

Captain Bowen figured that Ree and John could make better time and reach
Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) before November first. There they could probably
secure passage down the river without difficulty. In many other ways the
genial old man lent his aid, and the boys never went to him that they did
not find him brimming over with ideas for their benefit.

The news that Ree and John were going to the Ohio wilderness, and
alone--soon spread through the surrounding country. Men who hitherto had
scarcely noticed them, now came up to shake hands and advise the lads as
to this or that, whenever they chanced to meet them. Others shook their
heads gloomily and lost no opportunity to throw cold water on the
project. The young people of the community talked more of Ree Kingdom and
John Jerome going west than of anything else. There were envious ones who
predicted that the boys would return a great deal faster than they went,
or that they would not live to return at all. There were those of better
dispositions, however, who, while recognizing the peril of the proposed
venture, hoped and promised for the chums, all success.

It was with one of the former that John had an encounter which was talked
about for weeks afterward. Jason Hard, the cobbler, a stocky Englishman,
thirty years old perhaps, had been making slighting remarks