the army, and now with his family of three children he found himself
poor. Congress had made a treaty with the Indians by which the vast
territory of the Ohio valley was thrown open to white settlers, and he
resolved to emigrate to where land was cheap, purchase a home and grow
up with the country.

Resolved to emigrate, the father collected his little property and
provided himself with a wagon and four horses, some cows, a rifle, a
shot-gun and an axe. His trusty dog became the companion of his journey.
In his wagon he placed his bedding, his provisions and such cooking
utensils as were indispensable. Everything being ready, his wife and the
three children took their seats, Fernando, the youngest, on his mother's
knee; while the father of the family mounted the box. The horses were
started and the great vehicle began to move. As they passed through the
village which had been to them the scene of many happy hours, they took
a last look at the spots which were hallowed by association--the church
with its lowly spire, an emblem of that humility which befits a
Christian, and the burial-ground, where the weeping willow bent
mournfully over the head-stone which marked the graves of their parents.
The children, who were old enough to remember, never forgot their
playground, nor the white schoolhouse where the rudiments of an
education were instilled into their minds.

Their road was at first, comparatively smooth and their journey
pleasant. Their progress was interrupted by divers little incidents;
while the continual changes in the appearance of the country around
them, and the anticipation of what was to come, prevented those feelings
of despondency, which might otherwise have arisen on leaving a much
loved home. When the roads became bad or hilly, the family quit the
wagon and trudged along on foot, the mother carrying the baby Fernando