e in all. The journey was not unpleasant,
most of them being persons of education and refinement, with three
agreeable young ladies among them, two of them being daughters of Mr.
Birkbeck, and Miss Andrews, their friend and companion.

All went well and happily during the journey until Mr. Birkbeck, a
widower of fifty-four with grown daughters, made an offer of marriage to
Miss Andrews, aged twenty-five. It was an embarrassing situation. She
was constrained to decline the offer, and as they were traveling in such
close relations, the freedom and enjoyment of the journey were seriously
impaired. Then Mr. Flower, who was a widower also, but in the prime of
life, proposed to the young lady. She accepted him, and they were soon
after married at Vincennes, the rejected Birkbeck officiating as father
of the bride.

But this was not finding the prairies. At length, toward the close of
the second summer, they began to meet with people who had seen prairies,
and finally their own eyes were greeted with the sight. One day, after a
ride of seven hours in extreme heat, bruised and torn by the brushwood,
exhausted and almost in despair, suddenly a beautiful prairie was
disclosed to their view. It was an immense expanse stretching away in
profound repose beneath the light of an afternoon summer sun, surrounded
by forest and adorned with clumps of mighty oaks, "the whole presenting
a magnificence of park scenery complete from the hand of nature." The
writer adds: "For once, the reality came up to the picture of the
imagination."

If the reader supposes that their task was now substantially
accomplished, he is very much mistaken. After a good deal of laborious
search, they chose a site for their settlement in Edwards County,
Illinois, and bought a considerable tract; after which Mr. Flower went
to England to close up the affairs of the two families, and raise the
money to pay for their land and build their houses. They named their
town Albion. It has enjoyed a safe and steady prosperity ever since, and
has been in some respects a model town to that part of Illinois.

The art of founding a town must of course soon cease to be practiced. It
is curious to note how all the institutions of civilized life were
established in their order. First was built a large log-cabin that would
answer as a tavern and blacksmith's shop, the first requisites being to
get the horses shod, and the riders supplied with whiskey. Then came
other log-cabins,