parated, and without
difficulty reached their destination.

David was now anxious to get married immediately. It will be remembered
that he had bought a horse; but he had not paid for it. The only
property he had, except the coarse clothes upon his back, was a rifle.
All the land in that neighborhood was taken up. He did not even own an
axe with which to build him a log cabin. It would be necessary for him
to hire some deserted shanty, and borrow such articles as were
indispensable. Nothing could be done to any advantage without a horse.
To diminish the months which he had promised to work in payment for the
animal, he threw in his rifle.

After a few weeks of toil the horse was his. He mounted his steed,
deeming himself one of the richest men in the far West, and rode to see
his girl and fix upon his wedding-day. He confesses that as he rode
along, considering that he had been twice disappointed, he experienced
no inconsiderable trepidation as to the result of this third
matrimonial enterprise. He reached the cabin, and his worst fears were
realized.

The nervous, voluble, irritable little woman, who with all of a
termagant's energy governed both husband and family, had either become
dissatisfied with young Crockett's poverty, or had formed the plan of
some other more ambitious alliance for her daughter. She fell upon
David in a perfect tornado of vituperation, and ordered him out of the
house. She was "mighty wrathy," writes David, "and looked at me as
savage as a meat-axe."

David was naturally amiable, and in the depressing circumstances had no
heart to return railing for railing. He meekly reminded the infuriate
woman that she had called him "son-in-law" before he had attempted to
call her "mother-in-law," and that he certainly had been guilty of no
conduct which should expose him to such treatment. He soon saw, to his
great satisfaction, that the daughter remained faithful to him, and
that the meek father was as decidedly on his side as his timid nature
would permit him to be. Though David felt much insulted, he restrained
his temper, and, turning from the angry mother, told her daughter that
he would come the next Thursday on horseback, leading another horse for
her; and that then he would take her to a justice of the peace who
lived at the distance of but a few miles from them, where they would be
married. David writes of the mother:

"Her Irish was too high to do anything with her; so I quit trying. All