fair, I came home again on a visit and found father
there sick with fever, and confined to his bed. One day my old enemy rode
up to the house on my pony Prince, which he had stolen from me.

"What is your business here to-day?" asked mother.

"I am looking for the old man," he replied. "I am going to search the
house, and if I find him I am going to kill him. Here, you girls," said
he, addressing my sisters, "get me some dinner, and get it quick, too,
for I am as hungry as a wolf."

"Very well; pray be seated, and we'll get you something to eat," said one
of my sisters, without exhibiting the least sign of fear.

He sat down, and while they were preparing a dinner for him, he took out
a big knife and sharpened it on a whetstone, repeating his threat of
searching the house and killing my father.

I had witnessed the whole proceeding, and heard the threats, and I
determined that the man should never go up stairs where father was lying
in bed, unable to rise. Taking a double-barreled pistol which I had
recently bought, I went to the head of the stairs, cocked the weapon, and
waited for the ruffian to come up, determined, that the moment he set
foot on the steps I would kill him. I was relieved, however, from the
stern necessity, as he did not make his appearance.

The brute was considerably intoxicated when he came to the house, and the
longer he sat still the more his brain became muddled with liquor, and he
actually forgot what he had come there for. After he had eaten his
dinner, he mounted his horse and rode off, and it was a fortunate thing
for him that he did.

Father soon recovered and returned to Grasshopper Falls, while I resumed
my cattle herding.

CHAPTER IV.

YOUTHFUL EXPERIENCES.

In July, 1856, the people living in the vicinity of our home--feeling the
necessity of more extensive educational facilities for their children
than they had yet had--started a subscription school in a little log
cabin on the bank of the creek, which for a while proved quite a success.
My mother being very anxious to have me attend this school, I acceded to
her oft-repeated wishes, and returning home, I became a pupil of the
institution. I made considerable progress in my studies--such as they
were--and was getting along very well in every other respect, until I
became involved in my first love affair.

Like all school-boys, I had a sweetheart with whom I was "dead in
love"--in a juvenile way. Her name was Mary H