bout. Few wheeled
vehicles except the ox-carts of emigrants were to be seen anywhere,
and the general aspect of the place was that of feverish activity.
Along the banks of the two streams were camped parties of the latest
comers, many of whom had brought their wives and children with them.
Parties made up of men only seldom came as far west as this. They
pitched their tents nearer the Missouri, where the fight for freedom
raged most hotly. A few companies of men did reach the westernmost
edge of the new settlements, and the Manhattan Company was one of
these.

The three boys from Illinois were absorbed with wonder as they
strolled around the new town, taking in the novel sights, as they
would if they had been in a great city, instead of a mushroom town
that had arisen in a night. During their journey from Libertyville to
Manhattan, the Dixon emigrants had lost sight of John Clark, of
Woburn; he had hurried on ahead after his rough experience with the
election guardians of Libertyville. The boys were wondering if he had
reached Manhattan.

"Hullo! There he is now, with all his family around him," said
Charlie. "He's got here before us, and can tell all about the lay of
the land to the west of us, I dare say."

"I have about made up my mind to squat on Hunter's Creek," said
Clark, when the boys had saluted him. "Pretty good land on Hunter's,
so I am told; no neighbors, and the land has been surveyed off by the
Government surveyors. Hunter's Creek? Well, that's about six miles
above the fort. It makes into the Republican, and, so they tell me,
there's plenty of wood along the creek, and a good lot of oak and
hickory not far off. Timber is what we all want, you know."

As for Bartlett, who had come out from New England with the Clarks, he
was inclined to go to the lower side of the Republican Fork, taking to
the Smoky Hill country. That was the destination of the Jenness party,
who had passed the Dixon boys when they were camped after their upset
in the creek, several days before. This would leave the Clarks--John
and his wife and two children, and his brother Jotham, and Jotham's
boy, Pelatiah--to make a settlement by themselves on Hunter's Creek.

Which way were the Dixon boys going? Charlie, the spokesman of the
party because he was the eldest, did not know. His father and uncle
were out prospecting among the campers now. Sandy was sure that they
would go up the Republican Fork. His father had met one of the
settl