unsurpassed
in richness and fertility, was a safe and sure depository for his
seeds, telling him, in its silent, but unmistakable language, of the
rich harvest in store for him. His stock was the best which heart
could wish; and last, but with him not least, he was within a stone's
throw of splendid hunting grounds, which, to his unerring rifle, as
the reader has already seen, proved as safe an assistant, as would
have been a Wall street bank with a large credit side to his account.

We have here a picture of Kit Carson enjoying the rewards of a home
congenial to his taste and knowledge of life, while around him are
gathered the objects which his manly soul had learned to love and
live for. The painting is one which we find beautiful to the sight
and which is rich in its lessons of life. But these deductions must be
left for the sensitive and honest hearted imagination to draw. It is
not fitting to add them to these pages, however truthful they may be,
until the last sad rites which are measured out to all, shall have
been performed for the brave man of whom we write, and his noble
soul shall have winged its flight to the happier hunting grounds of
eternity.

The duties of farming and hunting were only once interrupted during
the summer which Kit Carson thus enjoyed with his family. The exploit
which called him, on this occasion, from his home, was caused by an
effort to save the lives of two well known traders. To accomplish
this, he assumed the character and duties of a detective police
officer. The circumstances of the case were as follows.

An American, by the name of Fox, had organized a party to accompany as
a guard over the plains, and, while professedly engaged in this duty,
to murder Messrs. Brevoort and Weatherhead, two gentlemen who were
traveling into the United States, as the rascal and party supposed,
with a large sum of money which they expected to expend in the
purchase of goods to be used for trading purposes. Fox played his part
so well that when he offered himself and men as an escort, the offer
was accepted by the intended and unsuspicious victims, as if it had
been a mark of particular favor. Before the route was entered upon,
Fox visited Taos for the purpose of enlisting among his band of
desperadoes, a fellow who resided in that town. He was a person
who bore a very bad character, but for some reason, which has never
transpired, he refused to go; yet, proving true as a wicked confidant,
he wai