kept telling me of Rucker's rascalities, so as to get into my good
graces and confidence, in which he succeeded better than he knew; and
urging me to pay him a few dollars--just a few dollars--"to begin
proceedings to stay waste and sequestration"; but I did not give him
anything because it seemed a first step into something I had not
understood.

4

I began calling on land agents, thinking I might use what little money I
had left to make a first payment on a farm; but the land around Madison
was too high in price for me. Two or three of these real estate agents
were also lawyers; and I caught Rucker and Jackway together, looking
worried and anxious, when I came from the office of one of them who very
kindly informed me that, if he were in my place, he would go across the
Mississippi and settle in Iowa. He had been as far west as Fort Dodge,
and described to me the great prairies, unbroken by the plow, the
railroads which were just ready to cross the Mississippi, the rich soil,
the chance there was to get a home, and to become my own master. I began
to feel an interest in Iowa.

I think these days must have been anxious ones for Rucker, greedy as he
was for my little fortune, ignorant as he was of the depth of the
ignorance of the silent stupid boy with whom he was dealing--and a boy,
too, who had made that one remark about his way of living and traveling
that seemed to show a knowledge of just what he was doing, and had done.
I could see after that, that he thought me much sharper than I was.
Lawyer Jackway haunted the hotel, and was spending more money--Rucker's
money, I know. He had bought a new overcoat, and was drinking a good
deal more than was good for him; but he wormed out of me something about