Part 3 (2/2)

I was a rich boy when I got to Leavenworth I had nearly a thousand dollars to turn over to my mother as soon as I should draw my pay

After a joyful reunion with the family I hitched up a pair of ponies, and drove her over so that she could witness this pleasing cere, and was deeply concerned, for this seemed to me no occasion for tears I was quick to ask the reason, and her answer made me serious

”You couldn't even write your nan the payroll To think ht that over all the way hoain

In Uncle Aleck Majors' book, ”Seventy Years on the Frontier,” he relates how on every wagon-sheet and wagon-bed, on every tree and barn door, he used to find the nae, uncertain scrawl Those were nature plastered pretty well over the whole of Salt Creek Valley

I went to school for a tian really to take an interest in education But the Pike's Peak gold rush took me with it I could never resist the call of the trail With another boy who knew as little of gold- as I did we hired out with a bull-train for Denver, then called Aurora

We each had fifty dollars e got to the gold country, and with it we bought an elaborate outfit But there was noto be done save by expensive machinery, and we had our labor for our pains At last, both of us strapped, we got work as timber cutters, which lasted only until we found it would take us a week to fell a tree At last we hired out once more as bull-whackers That job we understood, and at it we earned enough money to take us home

We hired a carpenter to build us a boat, loaded it with grub and supplies, and started gayly down the Platte for home But the bad luck of that trip held steadily The boat was overturned in swift and shalloater, and ere stranded, wet and helpless, on the bank, many miles fro the trail we heard the familiar crack of a bull-whip, and when the train came up we found it was the same hich we had enlisted for the outward journey, returning to Denver withsteam-boiler, the first to be taken into Colorado On the way out the outfit had been ju the red reat boiler around so that it had appeared to point at the a cannon Even the 42-centimeter howitzers of today could not compare with it The Indians took one look at it, then departed that part of the country as fast as their ponies could travel

We stuck with the train into Denver and back ho

Soon after my return to Salt Creek Valley I decided on another and, I thought, a better way tomy stay in and about Fort Laramie I had seen much of the Indian traders, and accompanied them on a number of expeditions Their business was to sell to the Indians various things they needed, chiefly guns and ammunition, and to take in return the current Indian coin, which consisted of furs

With the supplies bought by the money I had earned on the trip with Simpson, mother and my sisters were fairly comfortable I felt that I should be able to embark in the fur business on my own account--not as a trader but as a trapper

With ton was older than I, and had trapped before in the Rockies I was sure that with e of the Plains and his of the ways of the fur-bearing animals, we should form an excellent partnershi+p, as in truth we did

We bought a yoke of oxen, a wagon-sheet, wagon, traps of all sorts, and strychnine hich to poison wolves Also we laid in a supply of grub--no luxuries, but coffee, flour, bacon and everything that we actually needed to sustain life

We headed west, and about two hundred miles frons of beaver,animals No Indians had troubled us, and we felt safe in establishi+ng headquarters here and beginning work The first task was to build a dugout in a hillside, which we roofed with brush, long grass, and finally dirt,and cozy A little fireplace in the wall served as both furnace and kitchen Outside we built a corral for the oxen, which co was successful from the start, and ere sure that prosperity was at last in sight

We set our steel traps along the ”runs” used by the aniaan to pile up in our shack Most of the day ere busy at the traps, or skinning and salting the hides, and at night ould sit by our little fire and swap experiences till we fell asleep Always there was the wail of the coyotes and the cries of other ani asno Indians ere not worried

One night, just as ere dozing off, we heard a treun and hurried out He was just in ti bear throw one of our oxen and proceed with the work of butchering hihtly wounded, left the ox and turned his attention to his assailant He was leaping at un in hand, rounded the corner of the shack I took the best aiet in the dark, and the bear, which ithin a few feet ofsure that he was past har us we turned our attention to the poor bull, but he was too far gone to recover, and another bullet put him out of his misery

We were now left without a team, and two hundred miles fro about us, and we detero to the nearest settle steer, while the other stayed in charge of the camp

This plan had to be carried out far sooner than we expected A few days later we espied a herd of elk, which meant plentiful and excellenttoward theet a good shot, I slipped on a stone in the creek bed

”Snap!” went so useless

I had brokenjust above the ankle and my present career as a fur-trapper had ended

I was very ed hily replied that that would hardly do