ough them. In some places there
were low rolling hills and in others great towering mountains. The
woods were thick and still. The sunlight made dancing patterns on the
pine needles. Kentucky was as beautiful as John Finley had said.

Everywhere they went the men found lots of game. There were deer and
buffalo. There were fur-bearing animals, such as mink and otter and
beaver. There were many different kinds of birds.

When the men went hunting, they separated into pairs. One winter day
Boone and his brother-in-law were captured by Indians. The Indians did
not harm them, but they took all the white men's deerskins.

"Get out of Kentucky and stay out!" the Indians told them.

Daniel Boone did not scare easily. He and his brother-in-law did not
want to leave Kentucky.

But the other four were afraid. They returned to the settlements. Boone
never saw Finley again. But Boone was soon joined by his brother,
Squire, and a friend named Alexander Neeley. Squire had promised to
harvest the crops back home and then join them in the late autumn with
fresh horses, traps, and gunpowder. Skilled woodsmen that they were,
the brothers somehow found each other in the wilderness.

While they were hunting, the men separated again. They met every two
weeks. One week Boone's brother-in-law did not return to camp. He never
did come back. Five years later a skeleton with a powder horn beside it
was found in a hollow tree. Perhaps he was wounded by an Indian. No one
really knows what happened to him.

Neeley was scared. He decided to go home alone. But Daniel and Squire
stayed on all winter and spring. They hunted and trapped until they had
a lot of skins. Then Squire went home to sell the skins and buy more
gunpowder and traps.

Daniel stayed on in the wilderness. He did not mind being alone. He was
never afraid. With his trusty rifle, Tick-Licker, over his shoulder, he
explored much of Kentucky. He was happy because the wilderness was wide
and he felt free. After a few months, Squire came back. Again the
brothers hunted together.

At last Daniel said to Squire, "I'll go home with you this time. We
have all the skins we can carry."

"When we sell them, we'll have plenty of money to take to our
families," Squire said happily.

It did not happen that way. Indians attacked the brothers when they
were nearly home and took the skins. The Boones were still poor men.

But Daniel was happy. He was glad that he had roamed the wilderness