y excited them. It
became necessary for the settlers to go upon their hunting excursions with
much caution.

As the months passed rapidly away, other persons one after another, came
to their fort. They were glad to find a safe retreat there, and were
welcomed as giving additional strength to the little garrison. Game began
to be scarce around their lonely habitation, for the crack of the rifle
was almost incessantly heard there. It thus became necessary to resort
more generally to farming, especially to raising large fields of corn,
whose golden ears could easily be converted into pork and into bread. With
these two articles of food, cornbread and bacon, life could be hilarious
on the frontier. Keenness of appetite supplied the want of all other
delicacies.

When they went to the cornfield to work, they first made a careful
exploration of the region around, to see if there were any lurking savages
near. Then with their guns ever ready to be grasped, and keeping a close
lookout for signs of danger, they ploughed and sowed and gathered in their
harvest.

Thus fifteen years passed away. Civilization made gradual encroachments.
Quite a little cluster of log huts was reared in the vicinity, where the
inmates in case of necessity could flee to the fort for protection.
Christopher, at fifteen years of age, was an unlettered boy, small in
stature, but very fond of the solitude of the forest, and quite renowned
as a marksman. He was amiable in disposition, gentle in his manners, and
in all respects a good boy. He had a strong character. Whatever he
undertook, he quietly and without any boasting performed. With sound
judgment, and endowed with singular strength and elasticity, he was even
then deemed equal to any man in all the requirements of frontier life.

[Illustration]

At a short distance from the fort there was a saddler, and Mr. Carson,
with the advice of friends, decided to apprentice his son, now called Kit,
to learn that trade. The boy remained in this employment for two weary
years. Though faithful to every duty, and gaining the respect and
confidence of his employer, the work was uncongenial to him. He longed for
the freedom of the wilderness; for the sublime scenes of nature, to which
such a life would introduce him; for the exciting chase of the buffalo,
and the lucrative pursuits of the trapper, floating on distant streams in
the birch canoe, and loading his bark with rich furs, which ever commanded
a ready