in Kaintucky an' in this
northwest kentry clean to Detroit. I got to know Simon Kenton, the Injun
fighter, an' I made some big huntin' an' fightin' trips with him an'
other fellers.

"An' so time run along till this last summer a year ago, I takes it into
my head one day to go east agin; an' when I had my mind made up there was
no stoppin' me. I didn't go to Philadelphia right off, but to New York. I
wanted to see the big piles o' furs that come in thar.

"Now it turned out that one day in New York who should I meet up with but
Joel Downs who was with us--Art an' me--in the army. We was talkin' away
thar, when he asked me did I know what had ever become o' Art Bridges?
An' it turned out that he went on to tell me then all 'bout how Art's
father was dead, an' his mother left alone, workin' hard to manage the
farm, though they was well off, because she wanted Art to have a nice
place when he come home. For she wouldn't believe the stories that was
told around (by Ichabod Nesbit, I've been thinkin') that Art was dead. So
she was waitin' an' waitin' for Art to come an' never knowin' how the
poor boy had been lied to by his 'ornery cousin, an' thinkin' he'd come
some day.

"Waal, ye kin jist guess how I felt when I heard all this! For I saw
through it quicker'n wink that that 'ornery Ichabod was tryin' to make
folks think Art was dead, an' schemin' to get hold of the property that
would be Art's if he ever come home alive. But I never says a word 'bout
this to Joel Downs. Not much! I wasn't goin' to have him goin' back to
Connecticut tellin' folks as how Art was leadin' a wild life an' goin' to
the dogs.

"No, sir; I jist begun huntin' for Art Bridges. I went to Philadelphia
first, an' got some track on him, findin' out as how he had gone off to
Kaintucky--lookin' for me, I guess. I went off to Kaintucky too, jist as
fast as I could. I got some track on him again, as how he had gone back
to Philadelphia, We must 'a passed on the road somewheres. Back to
Philadelphia I went again, an' found out as how Art had gone west to
Duquesne--Fort Pitt, or Pittsburgh they call it now. So I started for
Fort Pitt, an' on the way I met up with you young kittens on your way
into this red devils' own kentry.

"An' I come on into this kentry because I found out at Fort Pitt that Art
had gone on west intendin' to make his way to Detroit, huntin' an'
trappin' an' tradin'. He expected to go on to Detroit next spring an' get
a place with a