itish fighting, and I supposed
they would be there."

His wife again entered her tearful remonstrance. She pointed to her
little children, in their lonely hut far away in the wilderness, remote
from all neighborhood, and entreated the husband and the father not
again to abandon them. Rather unfeelingly he writes, "The entreaties of
my wife were thrown in the way of my going, but all in vain; for I
always had a way of just going ahead at whatever I had a mind to."

Many who have perused this sketch thus far, may inquire, with some
surprise, "What is it which has given this man such fame as is even
national? He certainly does not develop a very attractive character;
and there is but little of the romance of chivalry thrown around his
exploits. The secret is probably to be found in the following
considerations, the truth of which the continuation of this narrative
will be continually unfolding."

Without education, without refinement, without wealth or social
position, or any special claims to personal beauty, he was entirely
self-possessed and at home under all circumstances. He never manifested
the slightest embarrassment. The idea seemed never to have entered his
mind that there could be any person superior to David Crockett, or any
one so humble that Crockett was entitled to look down upon him with
condescension. He was a genuine democrat. All were in his view equal.
And this was not the result of thought, of any political or moral
principle. It was a part of his nature, which belonged to him without
any volition, like his stature or complexion. This is one of the rarest
qualities to be found in any man. We do not here condemn it, or applaud
it. We simply state the fact.

In the army he acquired boundless popularity from his fun-making
qualities. In these days he was always merry. Bursts of laughter
generally greeted Crockett's approach and followed his departure. He
was blessed with a memory which seemed absolutely never to have
forgotten anything. His mind was an inexhaustable store-house of
anecdote. These he had ever at command. Though they were not always,
indeed were seldom, of the most refined nature, they were none the less
adapted to raise shouts of merriment in cabin and camp. What Sydney
Smith was at the banqueting board in the palatial saloon, such was
David Crockett at the campfire and in the log hut. If ever in want of
an illustrative anecdote he found no difficulty in manufacturing one.

His though