neck of the brute he was after. Then, putting a "della walt" on the
pommel of his saddle, he would check his own mount and bring his
captive to a sudden standstill. He caught and brought in five horses
the first day, and must have captured twenty-five within the next few
days, earning a sum of money which was almost a small fortune in that
time.

Meanwhile the Territory had been opened for settlement. Our claim, over
which the Great Salt Lake trail for California passed, had been taken
up, and as soon as father and I, assisted by men he hired, could get
our log cabin up, the family came on from Weston. The cabin was a
primitive affair. There was no floor at first. But gradually we built a
floor and partitions, and made it habitable. I spent all my spare time
picking up the Kickapoo tongue from the Indian children in the
neighborhood, and listening with both ears to the tales of the wide
plains beyond.

The great freighting firm of Russell, Majors & Waddell was then sending
its twenty-five wagon trains out from the Plains to carry supplies to
the soldiers at the frontier forts. Leavenworth was the firm's
headquarters. Russell stayed on the books, and Majors was the operating
man on the Plains. The trains were wonderful to me, each wagon with its
six yoke of oxen, wagon-masters, extra hands, assistants, bull-whackers
and cavayard driver following with herds of extra oxen. I began at
once making the acquaintance of the men, and by the end of 1854 I knew
them all.

Up to this time, while bad blood existed between the Free-soilers and
the pro-slavery men, it had not become a killing game. The pro-slavery
Missourians were in the great majority. They harassed the Free-soilers