o my home. Mother,
who had anxiously searched for me everywhere--being afraid that something
had befallen me at the hands of the Gobels--was delighted to see me,
notwithstanding the difficulty in which I had become involved. I at once
told her that at present I was afraid to remain at home, and had
accordingly made up my mind to absent myself for a few weeks or
months--at least until the excitement should die out. Mr. Willis said to
her that he would take me to Fort Kearney with him, and see that I was
properly cared for, and would bring me back safely in forty days.

Mother at first seriously objected to my going on this trip fearing I
would fall into the hands of Indians. Her fears, however, were soon
overcome, and she concluded to let me go. She fixed me up a big bundle of
clothing and gave me a quilt. Kissing her and my sisters a fond farewell,
I started off on my first trip across the plains, and with a light heart
too, notwithstanding my trouble of a few hours before.

The trip proved a most enjoyable one to me, although no incidents
worthy of note occurred on the way. On my return from Fort Kearney I
was paid off the same as the rest of the employees. The remainder of
the summer and fall I spent in herding cattle and working for Russell,
Majors & Waddell.

I finally ventured home--not without some fear, however, of the Gobel
family--and was delighted to learn that during my absence mother had had
an interview with Mr. Gobel, and having settled the difficulty with him,
the two families had become friends again, and I may state, incidentally,
that they ever after remained so. I have since often met Stephen Gobel,
and we have had many a laugh together over our love affair and the affray
at the school-house. Mary Hyatt, the innocent cause of the whole
difficulty, is now married and living in Chicago. Thus ended my first
love scrape.

In the winter of 1856-57 my father, in company with a man named J.C.
Boles, went to Cleveland, Ohio, and organized a colony of about thirty
families, whom they brought to Kansas and located on the Grasshopper.
Several of these families still reside there.

It was during this winter that father, after his return from Cleveland,
caught a severe cold. This, in connection with the wound he had received
at Rively's--from which he had never entirely recovered--affected him
seriously, and in April, 1857, he died at home from kidney disease.

This sad event left my mother and the family in