said I, "and I will hire the negro barber to play the
violin for us. He is a good fiddler, as I heard him playing only a
little while ago." The result was that we soon organized a good string
band and had a splendid dance, keeping it up as long as the Lexington
party did theirs.

The second day out from St. Louis, the boat stopped to wood up, at a
wild-looking landing. Suddenly twenty horsemen were seen galloping up
through the timber, and as they came nearer the boat they fired on the
negro deckhands, against whom they seemed to have a special grudge, and
who were engaged in throwing wood on board. The negroes all quickly
jumped on the boat and pulled in the gang plank, and the captain had only
just time to get the steamer out into the stream before the
bushwhackers--for such they proved to be--appeared on the bank.

"Where is the black abolition jay-hawker?" shouted the leader.

"Show him to us, and we'll shoot him," yelled another.

But as the boat had got well out in the river by this time, they could
not board us, and the captain ordering a full head of steam, pulled out
and left them.

I afterwards ascertained that some of the Missourians, who were with the
excursion party, were bushwhackers themselves, and had telegraphed to
their friends from some previous landing that I was on board, telling
them to come to the landing which we had just left, and take me off. Had
the villains captured me they would have undoubtedly put an end to my
career, and the public would never have had the pleasure of being bored
by this autobiography.

I noticed that my wife felt grieved over the manner in which these
people had treated me. Just married, she was going into a new country,
and seeing how her husband was regarded, how he had been shunned, and
how his life had been threatened, I was afraid she might come to the
conclusion too soon that she had wedded a "hard customer." So when the
boat landed at Kansas City I telegraphed to some of my friends in
Leavenworth that I would arrive there in the evening. My object was to
have my acquaintances give me a reception, so that my wife could see
that I really did have some friends, and was not so bad a man as the
bushwhackers tried to make out.

Just as I expected, when the boat reached Leavenworth, I found a general
round-up of friends at the landing to receive us. There were about sixty
gentlemen and ladies. They had a band of music with them, and we were
given a fine serenade