cans, I returned to the States. Having run over all the settled
parts, of which I got a tolerable bird's-eye view, I took it into my
head that I should like to see something of real backwoodsman's life.
Soon getting beyond railways, I pushed right through the State of
Missouri till I took up my abode on the very outskirts of civilisation,
in a log-house, with a rough honest settler, Laban Ragget by name. He
had a wife and several daughters and small children, and five tall sons,
Simri, Joab, Othni, Elihu, and Obed, besides two sisters of his wife's
and a brother of his own, Edom Ragget by name. I never met a finer set
of people, both men and women. It was a pleasure to see the lads walk
up to a forest, and a wonder to watch how the tall trees went down like
corn stalks before the blows of their gleaming axes. They had no idea I
was a gentleman by birth. They thought I was the son of a blacksmith,
and they liked me the better for it.

Some months passed away; I had learned to use my axe as well as any of
them, and a fine large clearing had been made, when the newspapers, of
which we occasionally had one, told us all about the wonderful
gold-diggings in California. At last we talked of little else as we sat
round the big fire in the stone chimney during the evenings of winter.
Neighbours dropped in and talked over the matter also. There was no
doubt money was to be made, and quickly too, by men with strong arms and
iron constitutions. We all agreed that if any men were fit for the
work, we were. I was the weakest of the party, do ye see? (Dick stands
five feet ten in his shoes, and is as broad-shouldered as a dray man.)

Just then, an oldish man with only two stout sons and a small family
drove into the forest with a light wagon and a strong team of horses, to
look about him, as he said, for a location. He came to our house, and
Laban and he had a long talk.

"Well, stranger," said Laban, "I guess you couldn't do better than take
my farm, and give me your team and three hundred dollars; I've a mind to
go further westward."

The offer was too good to be refused. The bargain was struck, and in
two days, several other settlers having got rid of their farms, a large
party of us were on our way to cross the Rocky Mountains for California.
The women, children, and stuff were in Laban's two wagons. Other
settlers had their wagons also. The older men rode; I, with the
younger, walked, with our rifles at our back